1)Truth, Disbelief and Renewal of Faith.2) Hating Someone+Forgiveness ..

In the name of Allah, the Most-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

"May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon You"

Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam 'ala Rasulillah

As-Salaam Alaykum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakaatuh

1)Truth, Disbelief and Renewal of Faith

From time to time, the levels of our faith do tend to dwindle. This weakness of faith manifests itself in degraded quality of acts of our worship, negligence in remembering Allah, feeling indifferent to His commands and, in general, us having a doubtful heart. Experiencing any of these symptoms or others akin to them is an indication of a weakness of faith that in turn may be depriving us of peace, tranquility, and closeness to our creator and sustainer.

This weakness or weariness of faith (Eeman), whether due to a weak understanding of truth, or the strength of external negative forces, is to be expected. Consider what the Prophet (SAWS) said in this context:

“Faith wears out in your heart as clothes wear out, so ask Allah to renew the faith in your hearts.” (narrated by al-Haakim in his Mustadrak and al-Tabaraani in his Mu’jam with a Saheeh isnaad).

Here are a few steps that we can take immediately to renew our faiths.

Seek Allah’s Help

As the prophet mentioned in the aforementioned hadith, we should first and foremost ask Allah to renew and reinforce the faith in our hearts. We should make this call part of our regular Duas. In doing so, we should also be mindful of why we believe in the message of truth in the first place. We believe because we can relate the message of truth revealed in the Quran to the realities of this universe and what we find within ourselves and our hearts. We believe because as humans, a deeper intellectual and spiritual introspection has caused our hearts to resonate with the message of truth. We believe because after having pondered over the messages of the Quran, we comprehend them and have internalized them in our psyche. But more importantly, we believe in the truth of the Quran and Islam because of Allah’s unchallengeable, unequivocal and logical assertion as the creator, sustainer, and sole power of this universe. Thus, being convinced of His deity and majesty and the nobility of His Messenger and Prophet, we have consciously chosen to believe and live that message of truth.

Reinforce truth with knowledge

Next, let’s get clear about the meaning of truth as Islam has defined it. The clearer the message of truth in our hearts, the stronger our faith will be. Part of the renewal is therefore to actively engage in understanding the message of truth in our hearts and minds through studying the Quran, studying the traditions of the Prophet (SAW) as documented in the books of hadith and poring over the knowledge of known scholars who have helped elaborate on that message. The process of renewing our faith thus requires an active and personal effort to reach out to learn the various truths defined in Islam. The more we strive for it, the more we will increase our levels of awareness and faith.

Remember, the longer you keep your heart locked up from learning more, the less you will be able to reason and comprehend the message of truth, and the more you will rely on blind faith alone to live the message of truth.

As Allah says in the Quran,

“Will they not then ponder over the Qur’an, or is it that they have their locks on (their) hearts (which bar them from reason).” [47:24]

Beware of symptoms of rejection

Finally, be wary of what in your heart could be blurring your view of the message of truth. Imaam ibn Katheer, in his famous Tafseer ibn Katheer, mentions the reasons that prevent people from believing the message of truth. If any of those reasons are seeping into your psyche and have started to blur your vision and impacting your faith as a result, you need to actively step in and cleanse yourself of those symptoms. The reasons that ibn Katheer had mentioned included:

* Kufrul-’Inaad (Disbelief out of stubbornness)

* Kufrul-Inkaar (Disbelief out of denial)

* Kufrul-Kibr (Disbelief out of arrogance and pride)

* Kufrul-Juhood (Disbelief out of rejection)

* Kufrul-Nifaaq (Disbelief out of hypocrisy)

* Kufrul-Istihaal (Disbelief out of trying to make HARAM (illegal) into HALAL (legal)

* Kufrul-Kurh (Disbelief out of detesting any of Allah’s commands)

* Kufrul-Istihzaha (Disbelief due to mockery and derision)

* Kufrul-I’raadh (Disbelief due to avoidance)

* Kufrul-Istibdaal (Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allah’s Laws)

In Summary

Living the message of truth, therefore, requires us to abandon stubbornness (an attitude when we know deep in our hearts that we are wrong), denial (blindly ignoring facts), arrogance (thinking that accepting truth will demean us), hypocrisy (pretending to be someone while concealing the truth), mockery and derision (we mock truth and the righteous to go along with others) and avoidance (for one reason or another we try to avoid the message of truth). Once we eliminate these negatives that may have stained our hearts and open our minds to the message of truth, we will be on our way to renew our faith. In that process, we will also sense Allah in our lives and we will feel the sweetness of faith.

Let’s remember the saying of the Prophet as reported by Anas (May Allah be pleased with him):

“Allah says: ‘When a slave of Mine draws near to Me a span, I draw near to him a cubit; and if he draws near to Me a cubit, I draw near to him a fathom. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.” [Al-Bukhari].

Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif,

2) Hating Someone+Forgiveness +Sinner+ Good Mannerisms![Quran/Hadiths

'Be quick in the forgiveness from your Lord, and pardon (all) men - for
Allah loves those who do good.'

[Surah Ali Imran; 3:133-134]

Al-Fudhail bin said:-

"Associate with those who have good behavior, for
they will only call you to goodness, and accompanying them provides
comfort. As for ill-mannered persons, they only call to evil.

Therefore do not associate with them, so that you save yourself from their ill conduct.

I prefer associating with a sinner who has good mannerism, to
associating with a worshipper whose mannerism with people is unbecoming.

Verily, the former type ~the sinner who had good conduct in public uses
caution with people, who like him because he is easy going, while the
latter, who has bad mannerism, is despised and disliked to people."

If you hate a person, you hate something in her that is part of yourself.

What isn't apart of ourselves doesn't disturb us.Do you hate someone?

Do you really hate someone you haven't spoken to [ him or her ] for a while?

You've been blaming [him or her? ]

You're not the only one; the Muslim Ummah today is diseased with this to
the extent that almost every Muslim knows another Muslim who [he or she hates.
The Ummah is like a building with the Muslims as it's bricks,
Brotherhood & Sisterhood the cement.

It Doesn't work without forgiveness

Alright then [ he or she ] wronged you. Deceived you. Backbite you.

lied to you!!

But !!!
even in these extreme situations the Qur'an and the Hadith teach us that
we have to forgive others ! [especially those who hurt us the most]

if we wish to earn Allah's forgiveness on the day of Judgment.

We have all committed many sins~ made many mistakes~

& [undoubtedly] wronged others~ we have deceived others~

we have done 'gheeba'[ backbite others & perhaps lied to others.

So what makes us focus onto another's errors while we remain
unconscious of our own?

Not to forgive is to live in arrogance~ and
ignorance of our own shortcomings~

Forgiveness is linked with piety and God-consciousness .

Do we not know that Allah forgives those who forgive others?

Allah[ Jalla Jalaluh ] says in the Qur'an:-

And we know that Allah Himself is Ar-Rahmaan the Most Compassionate ]
and Ar-Raheem [the Most Merciful]

and that His Mercy is infinite~

and that no matter the Sin (except Shirk)

Allah is always willing to answer the person's call for forgiveness.

In fact Allah loves the tear drop that falls from the eye of one who sincerely
seeks the forgiveness of his Lord.

And Allah loves us to have hearts that are ready to forgive.

The Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) once asked his companions:-

'Do you know what will cause you to have high walled palaces in Paradise
(as a symbol of great reward) and will cause you to be raised by Allah?'

When they replied in the negative, he said,

'To be forgiving and to control yourself in the face of provocation,

to give justice to the person who was unfair and unjust to you,

to give to someone even
though he did not give to you when you were in need.

and to keep connection with
someone who may not have reciprocated your concern.'

Similarly the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said that:-

'the best of people are those who are slow to get angry and quick to
forgive. On the other hand the worst of people are those, he said who get angry quickly but are slow to forgive'.

The characteristic that makes a person most likely to forgive is the
purity of his or her heart.

Apologies must be accepted.

The Prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said that:-

'Whoever apologises to his brother and that apology is not accepted,then the
person who refuses to accept the apology bears the sin of one who takes

the property of another unjustly.'

If we look at the example and the character of the Prophet (Sallallahu'alayhi wa sallam) we can see that he was always forgiving and never showed
enmity to anyone except those who waged war against him.

There was an old lady who used to throw rubbish in his way every day, on
one occasion she did not throw rubbish in the street, so he decided to go
and see what was the matter.

She was ill in bed, to her amazement, the Messenger of Allah

(Sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) came to see her and find out about her.

She then accepted Islam .

This is the example of the man whom we claim to follow.

Some might say that to forgive is a sign of weakness and humiliation,
and for them it is better to be strong and preserve their honor.

But honor in the eyes of Allah lies in forgiveness.

'But indeed if any shows patience and forgives that would truly be an
exercise of courageous will and resolution in the conduct of affairs.'

[Surah Ash Shura 42:43]

If we are to be really strong then we have to be strong against Shaytaan
and forgive our Brothers & Sisters, and in this way maybe Allah will decide,
Insha Allah, to forgive ourselves for our many mistakes....honour in the eyes of Allah lies in Forgiveness.

Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif

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1)Truth, Disbelief and Renewal of Faith.2) Hating Someone+Forgiveness ..