at work. And it started a bit of a debate at work, with very divided views, which really surprised me. So I thought I would bring the same question here.
Who do YOU believe to be the better person. The person who is very bad but does all prayers or the other person who is kind hearted, giving, generous, believes in Allah jee but does not pray…
Re: I asked a question....
Once the Prophet (saw) was told about a man who prayed salah (namaz) regularly but also did bad deeds. The meaning of what the prophet said as reply is that *if his prayers are sincere, inshaAllah it would help him in overcoming bad deeds, sooner or later.
*On the other hand, a person who doesn't prays is egoistic (according to a hadith) because he is not humbly (practically) responding to the call of the GREATEST and the MIGHTIEST of ALL, his CREATOR. (Just like your boss would feel that you don't respect him if you don't respond to his call.) His case is just like that of a child who is very nice/polite/well mannered with everyone except that he is disobedient towards his own parents. (no one would like him because his parents deserve obedience due to their favors towards him).
Both qualities are important in their own way, one can't compare the two. Allah knows Best!
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Great answer! Thank you!
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The term "better" person should be defined ...
"Better" - as in "better to another person" would be that person who is "kind and merciful" regardless of his condition with his Creator.
"Better" - as in who is more pious - well that condition is only for Allah (SWT) to decide. It is because we are not sure how capable people are, what their opportunities were, how well they understand their faith, how much desire they have to please God and so on.
A person who prays may be arrogant about the fact that he prays, in which case his prayers will not avail him, a prayer less person may be walking around astray blissfully happy in his deeds, but doesn't realise that he is not doing anything in the way of acknowledging his Creator - The One Who Deserves All Praise.
The Qur'an warns us against both extremes ... so in my understanding they are strictly as bad as one another. The one prays neglecting his humanity means that he has not let his prayer soften his heart, which indicates a deficiency in his prayer. The one who does not pray is rejecting the instruction of Allah (SWT). They are both forms of minor shirk.
In Surah Fatihah we pray - Guide us to the Straight Path, not the one taken by those who earn Your (Allah) Wrath nor by those who have gone astray ... the two people could very easliy be from these groups.
The middle path - or the straight path is taken by those people who not only pray but their beautiful manner and softness of conduct is seen in them as well.
Apart from that each individual will be judged by the Best Judge and He will be able to make that decision.
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Let Us Not Fool Ourselves.
The quran is first and foremost about a good human society and not individualism at all. Individuals only matter when they have a good human society and they are part of it.
This is is the case because if you do not have a proper islamic society then you cannot practice islam at all. You need your own place and your own constitution installed therein to be able to do as you ought to do. You cannot live in somebody else’s house and follow your own rules.
This is why when there is no islamic society then that is the only ultimately duty of muslims to bring about one by understanding islam properly through the quran and inviting others to it by spreading its manifesto and constitution ie the quran and once you have people gathered around the quran for purpose of establishing islam=peace you go ahead and do it.
After you have your own place and after you have installed the quran as its constitution then your ultimately duty is to maintain it. This is proper context in which islam makes sense and it does not make sense in any other way.
Let me explain it a bit more. Today almost all the world is living by anti islamic constitutions, what is the result? The world is anti islam ie it is a matter of islam=peace against kufar=war. Do any of us see ourselves or others living in peace? No. Ask yourselves why is that? It is because we all have adopted to master slave way of life and so masters are not happy with slaves and slaves are not happy with masters but question is why? It is because masters want more and more work from slaves while cutting down their expense and slaves want more and more of their masters while cutting down their work. masters are undercutting masters and slaves are undercutting slaves and each under cutting other and so it goes for all of us ie each person is cutting throat of any other.
In this kind of set up and house rules can you live by islam=peacefully? No. You cannot have peace when you set out to make war.
Now look at words azaan and salaat. azaan means inviting people to salaat but what does word salaat mean? forming a community support network ie coming together at least five times daily to ensure that all are ok and thanking Allah for that and if anyone is not doing well then helping him do well so that society remains strong. Azaan is not about making aimless noise for disturbing people from their sleep telling them it is time for banging our heads on the floor and blowing each other up while doing that.
Zakaat too is not just an aimless holy deed one does by spending negligible amount but just as salaat is set up of muslim society on basis of the quran in terms of managing people zakaat is all about managing land and resources ie means of production and distribution according to precepts of the quran. Good human society is all about how we manage people and resources to make this world a blissful garden for ourselves and be rewarded for it by Allah who set us this task which is very clear when we say Allah grant us good life in this world and in hereafter.
So please understand islamic ARKAAN for their purposes and do not make ritualism the purpose themselves. Ritualism is set for us to keep us reminding on daily basis what we muslims are supposed to be standing for ie our goal is to create peace in the world and this goal is set for us by our creator. You cannot create peace without bringing people together under some terms and conditions as told in the quran that help bring peace. There is no going to be peace so long as we compete with each other negatively ie by under cutting each other ie you cut me down and I cut you down. This is kufar ie living by rule of other than Allah. This universe is house of Allah in which we are not allowed to live by rule of any other than Allah. Shirk is not just banging our heads at each others feet or graves but also accepting rule of any other than Allah. Ask yourselves why so many ignorant people run to peers and mullahs and graves, not for showing respect for a dead good person but mostly because people have worldly problems and looking for help. This is why islkam is not about namaaz roza but creating a good human society where no one suffers for lack of human needs. Find out what is meaning of word SAWM. It is not about staying hungry and thirsty but about abstaining from inflicting harm and destruction on others. Roza is supposed to remind us about that ie that we must starve ourselves as a society of inflicting harm on each other ie stop under cutting each other and using and abusing each other. Why not find out what is trading about in islam? It is not about doing business for profit but trading goods and services for benefiting each other by ensuring all have what they need and that society as a whole is progressing and is prosperous.
The quran tells us what virtue is, see 2/177 and 3/92 etc. We have been grossly misdirected originally by kings and their mullahs and today by ruling elite and their mullahs. If we continued following this concept of islam soon we will strangle ourselves out of existence. So please do put your thinking cap on and study the quran for yourselves and try to contextualise the quranic text so that you better understand islam for its purpose. If we take out purpose of islam then there is no islam.
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/religion-and-scripture/522010-have-we-understood-the-quran-properly.html
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Peace Mughal1
Please keep your replies short and succint so they are read, understood and hence purposeful.
And stop connecting everything to Mullas ... Sheesh
Re: I asked a question....
at work. And it started a bit of a debate at work, with very divided views, which really surprised me. So I thought I would bring the same question here.
Who do YOU believe to be the better person. The person who is very bad but does all prayers or the other person who is kind hearted, giving, generous, believes in Allah jee but does not pray...
Who are we to think who is better & who is not. Allah knows everything better than us.
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From worldly stand point, better is the one who is good to other people. We are not Allah Miyan (Naoozobillah), so we care less who much he is good in his prayers. That is between him and his creator.
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Peace dear psyah, please rest assured I have great respect for people in general but for some people in particular who are responsible for bringing knowledge to us in general but for muslims in particular eg copiers of quran and hadith etc, hufaaz, quraa and of course ulema of the quran and hadith and quranic based hadith fiqh. Unfortunately these people are few and far between compared with human population.
You will agree that we are all born ignorant but mostly capable of learning. Not all of us who are capable of learning end up with phds. This can be seen from surveys carried out every now and again. At least a 3rd of world population is illiterate even today in 21st century and number of people having phds is not that great eg see following link.
http://ezinearticles.com/?World-Shortage-of-PhDs&id=780443
Also not all people who are well educated are muslims. In reality muslims are least educated population. Now you can see yourself how many ulema we can have in our population.
However we have plenty of people who claim to be ulema but how well they know about islam and real word realities becomes obvious when you hear them speak or if you question them about islam and real world realities to solve human problems. We see them pushing forth whatever they were taught as children and they have not developed critical thinking and never thought about serious issues that matter for living for people as muslims. So no wonder muslims are at the bottom of the pile worldwide. It is because we give people titles a mile long who do not deserve it because they have not done anything great even for themselves never mind the rest of ummah. Not only that they claim falsely to be knowledgeable people but as you may have seen on the news how many people got in to pakistani parliament with forged qualification certificates.
So we must break this culture of giving people titles that they do not deserve. We should not call anyone alim unless one proves to be knowledgeable person. Now if people can come up with loads of certificates from educational institutions then what makes us sure that people who claim to be ulema have their certification genuinely issued to them from genuine institutions? Even if a person has a certificate it does not mean that person really has what it takes to be an aalime deen. So proof of the pudding is in the eating and if one does not show one is educated through one’s teachings and practice then his/her certificate is not worth the paper it is written on. More over there are so many disputes between institutions belonging to different people ie one country does not accept qualifications from another country and one sect does not accept qualifications of the others. Even more important point is that no prophet called any other prophet by so many titles. Not only that in the stories of the quran, each prophet was called by name and original genuine titles eg nabi or rasool or teacher.
It is very dangerous for us to fall in to personality cult behaviour, we rather respect people based upon merit. Even though we must respect people as human beings but if a person or a group of people proves to be enemies of humanity and islam in particular then it is in our own interest that we let them expose themselves. When I use word mulla, it is only for those who derailed us from proper islamic path and as the result of their stupidity we have been suffering ourselves as an ummah and left the rest of the world to dogs.
These mullahs caused divisions in the ummah on purpose. However, I also understand that many people have followed those mullas ignorantly but if they too after knowing the truth about them insist on following them then they too do not deserve our respect because otherwise we lose our islam. Other than that we are all in the same boat so we must do all we can to come together through proper understanding of the quran for the purpose of islam.
As for my writings, I am putting forward my understanding of bigger picture of islam in light of what is already accepted. Unless people here can see where I am coming from the discussions would be just tit for tat making no sense because it is like reading a map with all key information missing from it. So my idea is to know the over all skeleton of islam and then fill in the small details sensibly so that we can see where each and everything goes and how it all supposed to come together and work. If we do not understand islam properly and do not make others understand about it properly then islam will never gain support and we will never be able to establish it in our world for which Allah revealed it.
Therefore we are better spending our time more usefully than wasting so much time on unimportant issues the while world is burning itself out. We were given the job to put out fires of hatred between people. That is why the quran repeats words like NAARI JAHANUM. It is fire of hatred between people due to negative competition. I am of the view that we should listen to knowledgeable people and see if we can come up with solutions of world problem after all that is what islam is all about ie people are like animals and if they are not educated to be human beings then world would remain like a jungle full of animals. Only teaching from their Lord can help them become humans beings so that they could remove fire of hatred between themselves and thereby bring about a new world order that ensures peace and harmony, progress and prosperity. Allah is gracious and merciful for mankind that is why he gave them guidance to follow and be happy.
The quran is guidance for us to learn to live a better life in this world. It is a program or road map for us to follow to be peaceful and prosperous. This book was not send that we become mulla worshippers and grave worshippers ie slaves of each other. Ulema are to be respected only if they behave as such and deal with masses with respect. Respect is a two way thing. If a person claims to be alime deen and uses or abuses others then he only deserve kicks where it hurts. Even the prophet were bound by books of Allah not just masses. No prophet was sent to be master of any other human being as his slave 3/64,79, 9/31 etc. Calling prophet master was not in sense that we are his slaves but his students ie the prophet was our teacher. The prophets of Allah come to serve humanity they do not come to rule it. They teach us how to use constitution and law of Allah to exists as a good human society. Because they do so much for humanity they have a special place in our hearts and minds.
Likewise we hate satanic people not because we hate humanity but because they work against humanity by trying to harm it and destroy it. that is how they lose respect in the eyes of God and people.
My apologies for long posts but it just so happens that one explanation leads to another and so posts become longer and longer.
regards and all the best.
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**If his,"very bad" but prays I would not say his the better person.
Good manners and good character are an integral part of Islam.
Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told us:
"Shall I not inform you of a better act than fasting, alms and prayers?Making peace between one another: Enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots."(Sahih Muslim)
“The best of the Muslims is he from whose hand and tongue the Muslims are safe.” (Muslim)
“The best of people are those with the most excellent character.” (Tabarani, Sahih)
“The best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind.” (Daraqutni, Hasan)
“The best of you is he from whom good is anticipated and safety from his evil is assured; the worst of you is he from whom nothing good is expected and one is not safe from his evil.” (Tirmidhi, Sahih)
“The best of people are those who are best in fulfilling (rights).” (Ibn Majah, Sahih)
“The best thing mankind has been given is excellent character.” (Hakim, Sahih)
“The most beloved of people according to Allah is he who brings most benefit, and the most beloved of deeds according to Allah the Mighty, the Magnificent, is that you bring happiness to a fellow Muslim, or relieve him of distress, or pay off his debt or stave away hunger from him. It is more beloved to me that I walk with my brother Muslim in his time of need than I stay secluded in the mosque for a month. Whoever holds back his anger, Allah will cover his faults and whoever suppresses his fury while being able to execute it, Allah will fill his heart with satisfaction on the Day of Standing. Whoever walks with his brother Muslim in need until he establishes that for him, Allah will establish his feet firmly on the day when all feet shall slip. Indeed, bad character ruins deeds just as vinegar ruins honey.” (Tabarani, Hasan)
“The most beloved deed according to Allah is to have faith in Allah, then to maintain the ties of kinship, and then to command to good and forbid the wrong. The most abhorrent of deeds according to Allah is to associate partners with Him, then to cut the ties of kinship.” (Abu Ya’la, Hasan)
Once Prophet (saws) was asked by the Sahabah “Do you know who a bankrupt person is?” They said “the bankrupt among us is the person who does not have any wealth. He (saws) said, “The bankrupt of my Ummah, the bankrupt person is someone who comes on the day of judgement with many rewards, prayer, fasting, Zakat, but he had accused this person falsely, he abused another, cursed a third, taken the money of somebody else, spilt the blood of someone else, so he ends up giving them from his good deeds and if he runs out of good deeds and he didn’t pay them back, then they start giving him some of their sins and he ends up going to hell fire.” - Sahih Muslim**
So after reading the above Hadith, I would personally say someone who is well mannered and good towards Allah creatures. The way we treat others is important. Allah will only forgive Haqooq al-ibad if the person in question forgives. Haqooq- al-ibad includes treating people well, not lying cheating etc. So if by bad you mean someone who is not just towards Allah's creation then the person who is well mannered is better. Allah knows best.
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Haqooq Al Ibaad is also Haqooq ullah in a certain way (ultimately, generally speaking), otherwise there is no use of fulfilling it. In other words, Fulfilling Haqooq Al Ibaad would bear fruit in this life also for kuffar, but it would only bear fruit in the life hereafter for those Muslims who did it purely due to love and fear of Allah (swt). (Hence it makes it kind of Haqooq ullah in a certain way)
There are many people out there fulfilling Haqooq Al Ibad for other reasons (self satisfaction, medical benefits of feeling good/ positive about oneself, show off, to gain respect in society...etc.) all that is not acceptable in front of Allah (swt) unless it is done only for the love and fear of Allah (swt). There is a hadith that Allah (swt) only accepts the deeds that are done only for HIM. So, if a person is willing to fulfill Haqooq Al Ibad for the love & fear of Allah (swt), then why can't he pray 5 times a day for the same love & fear of Allah (swt) ?!
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Without doubt our actions will be judged upon our intentions and of course the first of the actions for which we will be accountable for on judgement day is our prayers, praying is extremely important. But the thing with Huqooql Al Ibaad is Allah won't forgive the person until the person in question forgives. Everything else is between us and Allah.