Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Encounter with God
Al-Muminun (The Believers) - Chapter 23 : Verse 115

"Did you think that We have created you in vain and that you would never be recalled to Us?"

God Almighty is fair towards all men. He has equally blessed all human beings with the gift of life and given them senses and perception and intellectual faculties to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong. God has made promises and sent warnings; He has given some people good health and inflicted others with ailments; He made life a mixture of happiness and suffering; all of this in order to enrich the human experience and make people recognize the reality and value of God. People can choose either to be vigilant and prepare for their encounter with God, and invest for life in the hereafter, or they can choose to reject God and dismiss any accountability to Him. God will judge both with fairness and justice; but when it is too late, excuses will avail no one.

Compiled From:
"A Thematic Commentary on the Quran" - Muhammad al-Ghazali, p. 373

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Suspending Judgement

Some people forgive themselves everything and condemn everyone else. Some condemn everything about themselves and find extenuating circumstances for others. Some do not forgive themselves for anything and forgive nothing. And others forgive everything and (almost) everyone. To love and forgive is to be both demanding and indulgent. This is a matter of balance. An Islamic prophetic tradition says: 'Find seventy excuses for your brother (sister), and if you cannot find any, imagine that there is one excuse you do not know.' [Bayhaqi] This suggestion echoes the Christian maxim 'Love thy neighbour as thyself,' and 'Thou shalt not judge.' It is about loving and suspending one's judgement. This does not mean accepting everything that others do (in which case there would be no love), but it does mean taking the view that their mistakes or sins do not tell us the whole truth about them. In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare suggests that we 'Condemn the fault and not the actor of it' if we wish to ensure that we do not punish the wrong person. All the monotheisms recommend that we make that distinction: human beings can judge acts, but only God is in a position to judge human beings. When human beings turn into judges, they invent not the hereafter on earth but hell.

Compiled From:
"The Quest for Meaning" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 201, 202

Blindspot!

Openness

Openness is vital to integrity. It takes both humility and courage - humility to acknowledge that there are principles out there you may not currently be aware of, and courage to follow them once you discover them. Throughout history, most paradigm shifts in science have been shifts from traditional thinking - shifts that took this kind of humility and courage. A good way to increase integrity, then, is to work on being open.

As you evaluate your own openness, you might ask yourself:

• Do I believe that the way I see the world is totally accurate and complete - or am I honestly willing to listen to and consider new viewpoints and ideas?
• Do I seriously consider differing points of view (from a boss, direct report, team member, spouse, or child), and am I willing to be influenced by them?
• Do I believe there may be principles that I have not yet discovered? Am I determined to live in harmony with them, even if it means developing new thinking patterns and habits?
• Do I value - and am I involved in - continual learning?

To the degree to which you remain open to new ideas, possibilities, and growth, you create a trust dividend; to the degree you do not, you create a trust tax that impacts both your current and future performance.

Compiled From:
"The Speed of Trust" - Stephen M. R. Covey, pp. 71, 72