During discussions with our family members, at times the topic about someone else is brought up. Someone among our friends or relatives who apparently ruined their lives by making serious mistakes. It can be a divorce, misbehaving children, huge economical loss, or anything else that had deeply effected their life in anyway.
What we tend to forget at times when we criticize others, that such mistakes could have been made in our family as well. If we are not suffering from any such loss in life, it is not because of our own qualities but only due to prayers of our elders and blessings of Allah. We haven’t ourselves lived our past life so perfectly, to not deserve those sufferings.
The reason why I felt the need of this topic is that we at times while criticizing others we forget that we ourselves are not angels, and we should learn from their mistakes. Instead of being emotional and aggressive in criticism we must humbly thank Allah (s.w.t) for all the blessings and also pray that may Allah (s.w.t) also bless the lives of the people who have suffered in the past. Amen!
p.s. I strongly feel that people who have suffered a lot in the past are more dear to Allah (s.w.t) than people like me, because Allah chose them for harsh tests very early in their life, just as He tested his Prophet and saints (waliullahs) throughout their lives. A lot of sufferings bring along with them a lot of blessings.
May Allah (s.w.t) protect us from harsh tests in life and bless us with strength and wisdom to avoid mistakes that leads to disasters in a family.
After passage of time I have seen people with exactly the same faults in their own lives for which they used to criticize others in the past.
A person in my village used to do parody of his aunt who used to speak so fast that it was difficult for people to understand her. I swear when I met the same person after sometime I was shocked to see him speaking in the same manner, and getting irritated when people used to laugh at his very fast speech.
Less educated more educated, less sensible more sensible, less athletic more athletic, less beautiful more beautiful, less capabilities more capabilities, ......etc. The moment we start thinking of ourselves better then others, it raises our chances of becoming inferior to them in reality...One should be self confident but without thinking of anyone else to be inferior to oneself.
Every good aspect that we have in our life is from Allah (s.w.t) and every bad aspect in our life is either better for our future or is a punishment for us to correct our ways, again only for our own better future so that the punishment in our life hereafter is decreased, where only justice would prevail.
I remember a hadith that on the day of judgment people who were handicapped or less privileged in any way in this life would be rewarded so much that others would start wishing if they were also made handicapped in this world.
humility and being humble is part of our religion (in my view) .. I always thought that the more I look towards my own family members -- the more I found contradictions in what they did and what they told us to believe in.
I agree with STP that we should really thank Allah (SWT) for the blessing that HE gave us and ask HIM to keep us on the right path.
These are hard times that we are living in. May Allah help us all and bless us all with HIS rehmat...
Allah (s.w.t) has told us a very easy formula in the Quran to improve everything we want in life whether it is health, wisdom, and all the other capabilities in life.
Allah says, you thank me more and I would give you more. So if I want to improve my concentration and memory, I should thank Allah (s.w.t) for the memory He has presently blessed me with.
If I want to improve my health, I should do what is in my control (good diet, good workout in the gym, positive thinking...etc.) but also I should thank Allah (s.w.t) which would play the major role in improvement in my health.
Same goes for all the other blessings in life like good life partner, well mannered children...etc.
May Allah (s.w.t) bless us with the strength and wisdom to thank Allah (s.w.t) as much as we can whenever we are free (traveling, waiting for our turn in the hospital and banks, lying on bed,..etc.)
I opened a thread about "the Last Lecture" today...WHAT a world of wisdom is contained in this lecture!
The whole point of his lecture is that you can go thru life being an "Eeyore" (a very sad-all-the-time character) or you can be a "Tigger" (a very-happy-all-the-time character). Its completely up to you. BUT when you are an "eeyore" you waste your time being sad or angry etc. Life is too short (as he well knew as he was dying of terminal cancer as he gave his last lecture). So he decided not to waste a moment, he did his utmost to remain happy and dedicated to honesty and decicated to his wife and children for the time he had left. WHAT an amazing man....
If the planet had more like him, it would be a much better place.
Mamaof3: I have seen that lecture and I recently found out that he passed away (i think it was 2 or 3 days ago). The lecture really gives us a chance to re-evaluate ourselves and see where we stand today. Time isn't always there for us so it is better to correct our goals everyday.