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

 

1) Honour: Our understanding of honor

 

We see that people spend more and more money to get the honor from the society and it is for this we see in happiest occasions, people spending extravagantly and they even do commit sins to convince the people around so they maintain their status in the society even though they don’t have any quest for those acts. He thinks that without doing all these acts, people won’t respect him. But do we really get izzat (honor) through these means like big houses, expensive cars and spending extravagantly in the weddings? The truth is that the honor comes only by choosing taqwa above all means. If we gather all the means and if we don’t have taqwa in our life, then Allah ?     won’t keep respect for us in the hearts of the people. Let us see around us the people today, how much they possess the worldly things through haram means but we hear people only scolding them behind their backs and may be the security can salute him for the money but he won’t have any respect in his heart. You would have also seen the people of Allah ?    . They won’t have much worldly means but they will have so much of respect in your hearts.

Know the truth

So it is true that when a slave commits sins, he is deprived of respect and honor both from Allah ?     and His creation and everyone wishes for the honor. Some can sleep with empty stomach than losing their honor. They are keen that their honor is not lost in the place of wealth. This is the nature of the man that he wishes to live with honor. This great wish will be fulfilled if the slave removes sins from his life. Allah ?     will then grant him honor and let Allah ?     grant us all, the honor. Sins are like termite attached to the honor for slowly and slowly, he will fall before the eyes of Allah ?     and His makhluq (creation). Honor is a great thing and the tip is very simple to achieve that. So this is the way of gaining izzat. It is said that among the whole of the creation, the most honorable in the court of Allah ?  is the one who is keener in leading the life of restraint. The one who is most obedient to Allah ? is the one who has higher status in His ? court. Just like how the slave worships Allah ?, accordingly he will have the dignity and countenance before Allah ? and just like how one has the dignity and countenance in court of Allah ?, accordingly he will have respect among the right-minded people. So this is how it works. If he disobeyed Allah ?, then he will fall before the eyes of Allah ?. The creation didn’t see him committing sins but he is not hidden from the sight of Allah ? and so if he falls before the eyes of Allah ?, then he will fall before the eyes of His creation ? too. But this ignorant human to maintain honor in the sight of people, he commits the sins. If he falls before the eyes of the Creator, how will he get the honor in the sight of the creation?

The position of honor

Many sins happen in our life thinking, oh what people will think but this is just the deception of the man that by committing sins to please people, he will get their respect. How wrong is his thinking? He will never get the izzat. May be for that particular time, people might say few words but none will give respect. If one fall before the eyes of Allah ?, then He ? will make him fall before the eyes of His ? slaves too. If one falls before the eyes of people, then they will do only the matter of humiliation with him. So izzat is the great wealth. Wise people will sacrifice their wealth to save their honor. They will bear the difficulties but they will save their honor. Such is the wealth of this honor. The first most precious thing in the sight of the man is his life, then his honor and then his wealth. Wealth comes only next to the honor. If one stealing the money is a thief, then how big is the thief who steals the honor? That is why a man living with honor has more wealth than a wealthy man because he has something precious than the wealth. And this izzat will be achieved only through taqwa and if termite is attached to it then it is through sins.

If no one is watching, Allah ? is watching and if one falls before His ? eyes, then he will definitely fall before the eyes of the people. So izzat is the greatest wealth and if Allah ? bestowed someone with izzat, then he should preserve it. How will he preserve it? By having a fence around him against the sins and taqwa is the hedge of his izzat. The one who is humiliated in the sight of people will lead a humiliating life throughout his life amidst them. Leading a life of humiliation, if he eats biryani everyday, what is the use? That is why there is a saying, it is better to get even the dry bread with izzat. If one is hungry but he lives with honor, it is better for him. One is eating dry bread with respect and the other is being fed by people biryani but with humiliation. Who is better? What is the use of eating delicious meal with zillat (humiliation)? The one who falls before the eyes of people, he is normally treated badly by them and he won’t have any enjoyment or happiness. The one who is deprived of izzat is pulled by every single distress and worry. How much he would be worried if he meets humiliation wherever he goes?

The consequence of losing one’s honor

Normally we see people get more worried when they see people don’t respect them. Many get spiritually sick just because of this. None asks for him be it the brother, wife or anyone and no one respects him. He is like a dead man living. If he thinks for a while why has he become like that, he will know that as he has fallen before Allah ?, no one among His ? creation is ready to give him any respect. How many are worried that none is giving them respect be it inside the house or outside the house. Just think of their condition. So one has to think if he really respected Allah ? that His creation will respect him today. If I respected the commands of Allah ?, Allah ? would have made this dunya to respect me. As I didn’t respect the commands of Allah ?, I was punished for that style of life. Sometimes a friend to keep up the friendship with his friend makes Allah ? angry. As these two friends didn’t care to respect Allah ?, Allah ? empties their hearts from having respect for each other. We see that how the friends turned into enemies when once they used to eat together and today they hate to even look at each other because in many times of their life, they used to commit sins on the basis of friendship. This is a 100% guaranteed thing that if a friend stops his friend from committing the sins for the sake of Allah ?, then Allah ? is saying that their friendship will be beneficial not just in this world but in the hereafter too. As they took care of Allah’s ? command in their friendship here, Allah ? too takes care of them in both the worlds. So izzat is in our hands but not from the money or family or profession but from the deeds coming out of us. If those deeds are good, then we will have izzat or else if we gather the means of the whole world, we won’t have any izzat. Do remember this.

Honor comes with piety

Today people are more hunger of honor than the wealth but people don’t tread the right path shown by Allah ? and His Messenger ? to get that izzat. That is why even if they try thousands of times, they get humiliated and none asks for them. So take care of your affairs when you are alone with Allah ? and in public if you want izzat. Even if none is watching, Allah ? is watching. The Quran says that the best among you are those who are best in piety and this is Quran where we have no place for the lies but only the truth. It is a guaranteed thing that one who gets izzat in the sight of Allah ? will definitely get izzat among His ? creation be he very rich or he has nothing even to eat. Granting izzat is one of the greatest blessings to be bestowed on the slaves. When one gets respect and honor from people, this is not something small and that is why when this blessing is mentioned in the Quran, the names of Prophets ? are mentioned along with that. Allah ? blessed them so much that even today we name our children with names of Prophets ? and the sahabahs.

Do you think we will name our children with those for whom we don’t have any respect? Do we name our children with the name of Qarun or Abu Jahl when Qarun had so much of wealth and treasure? When Qarun was alive, he used to have a long queue of people to serve him but none had respect in their hearts. And when we see Hazrat Bilal ?, neither did he have anything to eat nor he was a child of a well known family but taqwa exalted him so much that today even after hundreds of years have passed away, people mention his name with respect and honor and name their children with his name. Thousands and thousands of children were named Bilal by muslims. We keep the name of only those for whom we have respect. From where did he get this respect? The respect comes from the treasure of Allah ?. Allah ? puts the respect of His slaves in the people’s heart and none can stop the respect coming from the treasures of Allah ?.

Sins affect our intelligence

One of the worst effects of sins is that the intellect is affected by it. Intellect is such an essential thing that Quran calls the people of intelligence with a special attention in so many places. If I am employed by my master in his house and I do such acts that angers him and I know that if I do those acts, I will be thrown out of the house but I still insist in doing those acts, will I be called an intelligent? So this is the house of Allah ? and He ? is watching us and He ? can even throw me out but still if I persist in doing acts of disobedience, then is there anything more ignorant than this? When everyone does acts of ignorance, then they say that they are all intelligent. When something spreads like plague, then people don’t think that as a disease. So this ignorance too has spread like plague, so people don’t realize and understand.

Do not overlook any sin be it a minor or a major

Let Allah ? remove every single major and minor sin from our lives. A sin is minor when compared to the major sin but in terms of disobedience of Allah ?, every sin is a major sin. When parents used to be respected in our society, there is nothing called a minor ill-manner towards one’s father or a major because they don’t see the ill-manner itself but they see with whom do they misbehave. Similarly a sin can be minor when compared to a major sin but when it comes to Allah ?, every sin is a major one. So let us keep pleading to Allah ? to make our lives pure from sins and there is a great blessing in such a life for in every aspect of that life, Allah ? has kept goodness in it.

The sins to which we should pay special attention

Don’t take any sin lightly and in today’s time, the common sin is to do with the eyes and the tongue. Have control over these. Save these eyes from sins and see for yourself how much you will have coolness and peace in your heart. If you let the eyes gaze free, then the fire of desire will keep burning all the time. The fire of distress will keep burning. If you protect your eyes, then you will get the peace. It is like looking at the sweet and if you don’t get it, then your mouth will water. So people who let lose their gaze will have unnecessary distress in their hearts all the time. If one saves himself from the eyes and the tongue, then inshaaAllah he will be saved from 99% of the sins and he will soon be saved from the remaining 1% of the sins too. Let Allah ? give us all Taufeeq to save ourselves from sins and forgive us. Let Allah ? send His blessings upon Prophet ?, his family and his companions ?. Amin. All praise and thanks only to Allah ?.

 

Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif

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