When a person’s heart is alive and his face is adorned with bashfulness, he is prompted to adhere to dignity. He reveres other people, and they revere him in return, and he becomes characterized by dignity.

The more a person venerates and glorifies his Lord, the more people revere him. Whoever glorifies and venerates Allah, The Exalted, He will instill the love and reverence for him in the hearts of people.

On the other hand, the one who takes the Rights of Allah lightly, and the reverence for his Lord weakens in his heart, thus emboldening him to commit sins and transgress against His Limits and neglect His Commands and Obligations, Allah, The Exalted, will not cast reverence for him or awe of him into people’s hearts. Even if some people revere him to avoid his evil, it is a false reverence that is founded on hatred rather than love or admiration.

Quran For Kids

 On the other hand, the one who takes the Rights of Allah lightly, and the reverence for his Lord weakens in his heart, thus emboldening him to commit sins and transgress against His Limits and neglect His Commands and Obligations, Allah, The Exalted, will not cast reverence for him or awe of him into people’s hearts. Even if some people revere him to avoid his evil, it is a false reverence that is founded on hatred rather than love or admiration.

Finally, let us ponder over these beautiful verses composed by an Arab poet (translation of meaning): “Speak the truth, refrain from vain and idle talk, and do not use vulgar language or promote suspicions. Be dignified; speak less, and think more. When you speak, do not give prolonged speeches; do not hasten to answer a question without deliberation, and do not answer a question that was not directed to you.”

We ask Allah, The Exalted, to adorn us with faith and bless us with dignity.

Quran For Kids

 

Grab a pen and paper and try to write down the names of all your friends, and then classify them into categories. You will discover that some of them are not really friends but rather casual companions.

One of them may be your fellow commuter whom you meet every day on the bus or tram. He greets you, so you greet him, and he asks you a question, so you answer him. He requests that you close the window, and if you do, he thanks you, or he steps on your foot and, if he realizes it, he apologizes. A word leads to a smile, and a smile leads to a chat, and as the days pass, you find yourselves exchanging greetings and talking to each other as if you were close friends, although you may not even know his  name nor have any clue about what he really is!

Quran For Kids

 Another one on your list is the work colleague. You may be an employee, and his office is opposite to yours, and you see him all day long. You may be a worker, and his machine is right next to yours. Or he may be working with you in the same store, or his store is next to yours in the marketplace. You spend more time with him than with your own family, and you meet with him more often than you meet with your friends and loved ones! You may share moments of seriousness, humor, contentment, and anger with him, while the two of you have totally different appearances, minds, and backgrounds.

You may also find on the list a traveling companion whom you meet on a train and share the desire to ward off boredom. You exchange greetings and small talk, or make some observations on what you see and hear during the journey. Within a few hours, you share food and you fall asleep in the same space. The barriers between you start to fall and you see and know about one another what only your household members or close relatives would see or know about you, although you are totally unrelated and you have no brotherly affection for each other.

Quran For Kids

 There is also the coffee house companion, the sports companion, and many other different categories of companions. Your relationship with some of them might last for long until you start calling them ‘friends’, but they are not friends. You neither picked them willingly to be your friends nor chose their companionship, but life put them in your way and burdened you with them. If you do not conduct an inventory of them the way a merchant conducts an inventory of his merchandise then you vet them and only keep the good ones and cast away the bad ones, you would not know down which abyss such friendships lead you. A companion drags his companions down the path he is treading, and they tend to follow his example.

You may accompany a person down a path or a journey or know him from work and interact with him friendly as courteously as a well-mannered person should interact with others while being unaware of his life. He would become associated with you, and he becomes known as your “friend,” and his evils would affect you accordingly. You may be harmed by such association, and he may become a source of disgrace to you. He may also influence you in a way you are unaware of. Every word you hear can be likened to a seed thrown into a fertile land; it may be a good seed that generates goodness within you, or an evil one that gives rise to evil within you. Many righteous people were corrupted because they kept the company of a wicked person who changed their state drastically and made life misery for them. Conversely, many wicked people were rectified and became righteous because they kept the company of the righteous. A person may be safe from his sinful urges on his own and distract himself from them with knowledge or art, or practicing spiritual or physical exercise, but a wicked companion may come along, out of the blue, to trigger such sinful urges within him and cause him to taste their bitterness.

Quran For Kids

 Great was the wisdom of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) which Allah The Almighty granted him. ‘Ali  may  Allah  be  pleased  with  him said, The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) sent me to Yemen as a judge so I asked him, ‘Will you send me as a judge and I am still young and do not know about judging?’ The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) replied: ‘Allah will guide your heart and fix your tongue (on the truth). When two parties come to you, you must not say your judgment unless you listen to each one of them as this would make the issue clearer to you.’ ‘Ali said, ‘Since then I became a good judge or was never in doubt regarding any judgment.’” [Abu Daawood and Ahmad] [Ahmad Shaakir: Saheeh]

The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) disapproved of those who are hasty with their invocations and considered haste one of the reasons that render an invocation unaccepted. The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said: “The supplication of any of you is answered unless he is hasty with it and says, ‘I invoked my Lord, but He did not answer my invocation.’” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Deliberation is part of the personality of a confident person, as a deliberate person is usually more likely to evaluate his status and position. He is characteristically self-confident, decisive and not hesitant, as he does not accept failure. He is aware of what he intends to do and scrutinizes it well by studying (its implications) and consulting others until he decides to do it, while relying on Allah The Almighty. If he makes a mistake, he quickly repents without blaming himself or despairing of the mercy of Allah The Almighty. The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said: “Good morals, deliberation and moderation are one part of the twenty-four parts of Prophethood.” [At-Tirmithi: Hasan]

Quran For Kids

  Praise be to Allah, The Exalted. May peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) his family, Companions, and whoever follows his example.

It is becoming of a Muslim to adhere to all that adorns him of noble traits and shun all that disgraces and discredits him.

One of the noble traits that are befitting of a Muslim is Waqaar (dignity). We can (fairly) say that dignity is a moral attribute generated by the adherence to a number of noble morals, such as forbearance, serenity, composure gentleness, and steadfastness. This is why it was defined as: “Deliberateness towards the realization of wants.”

Al-Jaahith defined it as follows: “Refraining from idle talk, futility, unnecessary gesturing and movement, keeping anger in check, listening attentively before asking questions, deliberateness in giving answers, guarding against haste, and promptness with regard to all matters.”

The pure Islamic Sharee‘ah was keen on adorning the believers with dignity. With regard to establishing one of the key obligations in Islam, the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) urged the Muslims to adhere to dignity. He  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said: “If you hear the Iqaamah (second call to prayer), walk to the prayer with tranquility and dignity, and do not hasten your pace (to join the congregational prayer). Perform of the prayer what you catch up with (i.e. with the Imaam) and complete what you missed.”

Quran For Kids