Monday, July 7, 2008

"None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." {Bukhari & Muslim}

This hadith has been running through my mind for the past month and a half. And even more so this past week. I feel like we aren't nice enough to each other. We don't really treat one another in a way the Prophet Muhammad {peace and blessings be upon him} used to. We're not perfect and perfection isn't accomplished by making big, drastic changes. If you make sudden changes, chances are you'll suddenly revert back to old habits. Baby steps, people. We can make ourselves closer to perfection by slowly making little changes. So I thought I'd start writing on little things we could do to make ourselves better as human beings; hopefully that'll rub off onto each other and make the world a better place {yes, I do have high hopes}. And I started off with this one particularly because I feel that this ties in with most, if not everything, related to good character.

I got the idea to write about this first because my friend did something that totally shocked me. Last week I told her I liked her phone charm {I don't know where they sell these but they're really cute}. She simply removed it from her phone and hooked it on my phone. "There..it's yours." My jaw dropped. Do people really do that? I never knew people like that existed.

Another example: I was at my cousins house and she is an Ah-maaazing cook, mashaAllah. So my aunt asked her the recipe to some chicken and then she jokingly added, "..or are you one of those people who hides the recipes or gives the wrong one out?" My cousin just mentioned the above quote and pretty much said she lives by it.

The above hadith means a LOT of different things. It can mean materialistic things or can refer to the way we treat each other. Or little things like trading recipes, or telling people where you got those hawt shoes from. I try to live by this..especially in terms of how we treat one another. I'm not a saint and do have my moments of selfishness, but thanks to this being stuck in my head I'm getting better. The hard part is that there are a LOT of people out there who want to do the opposite. They want to tear you down and don't really care wether they hurt you or not. And that's where you need the strength to continue doing unto other as you would want done to you or however that goes. That's the hard part.

There are a lot of people in this world and most of them just don't care. A lot of them {myself included} have probably wronged other people. Maybe if we started treating each other a little better things would slowly start to change. Maybe if we started treating each other the way we would want to be treated there would be more niceness around us. Maybe. And maybe not. But at least you'll have the satisfaction of being the better person.

11 comments:

Farnnay said...

I totally agree with you!.

Great first post falling up!

provoking invoking said...

simple and excellent reminder..

a similar thing happened to me recently; i complimented a ring that my mom's friend was wearing, and she just took it off her finger and wouldn't let me refuse it. it's kind of expensive too! subhanAllah.. I hope that I, and all of us, can learn to love each other the way ummati's should.

Mrs. Cullen said...

greatt post i love it

Anonymous said...

Thank you SO much for the post! This has been a MUCH needed reminder for me. It's definitely something I need to work on, Insha'Allah.

*sigh*

<3

Artistic Logic said...

=)

i love ppl with high hopes

Sana said...

Well thank YOU all for enjoying it. I haven't blogged/written in years so I am a bit rusty. It'll come back to me with time.

Provoking Invoking: Wow..I really wish to be one of those people. WHo are so selfless, especially with materialistic things.

Artistic Logic: It's the people with high hopes that make the world go round, that get things done, that bring about change.Well high hopes + action.

Artistic Logic said...

you're absolutely right

supreem said...

amazing.

Nargis said...

Personally I think of this kind of hadith when I'm giving someone a gift. You go to the store to buy someone something - that you would never wear or buy for yourself. Then you wonder why you've never seen your friend wear the purple and puke-green shirt you gave her. lol

If I buy someone something, I try to get something they would like and if I don't know them well enough, I get something I would like if it were given to me.

Almost Close said...

MashaAllah that was an amazing post and a great reminder to me and for everyone else to be selfless. It's so easy to get caught up in material things and so easy to forget that none of these things are coming with us in the Afterlife, but charity will be accounted for (InshaAllah!) :)

fuelMybrain said...

I LOVE this post... I'm going to "rant" about it in the near future and link to you.