(15/5/16) - Means of attaining Honour: Pardoning, Humility, and to be Independent from the People (19)

بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم

To Allah belongs all types of عزة. He is the dominant and no one else. Whatever He wills will happen. And whatever He doesn't will won't happen. All the forelocks of the creation are in His hand; they can't do anything without His permission.

Therefore, in order to attain العزة, we should seek it from Him and no one else. 

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Another means of attaining honour, from the Sunnah: Through Pardoning and Humbleness 

 عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ مَا نَقَصَتْ صَدَقَةٌ مِنْ مَالٍ وَمَا زَادَ اللَّهُ عَبْدًا بِعَفْوٍ إِلاَّ عِزًّا وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلاَّ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ

The Prophet ﷺ said, "Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another except that Allah increases his honor, and no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah except that Allah raises his status." 

"وَمَا زَادَ اللَّهُ عَبْدًا بِعَفْوٍ إِلاَّ عِزًّا"

When you pardon whoever wronged you while having the ability to take revenge, hoping that Allah will pardon you, Allah will pardon and honour you.

But when you pardon, you have to look into the situation - Will your pardoning lead to reformation or cause more mischief? If it leads to reformation, then pardon the wrongdoer. If you see that your pardoning will lead to more mischief, then refrain from doing so. Because Allah said in [42:40]:

"وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلاَّ رَفَعَهُ اللَّه"

Being elevated is one of the meanings of العزة. And this elevation applies to both this world and the next. 

Humbleness is connected to faith. Humbleness is only attained when a persons faith is strong. This means that if you have weak faith, your humbleness is falsehood.

Many people think that humility is a person who has a position and lowers himself to the people. This isn't the true humble person. Humility is in the heart, and accordingly affects the action of the person.

Who is the real humble person? 

The truly humble person knows the reality of three things:

1) The Reality of his Weakness. He sees himself weak, in need, incapable, just like any other human being. He knows he may go to bed and not wake up in the morning. He admits his weakness, whereas the false humble person sees himself as strong, above the people, and never admits his weakness nor neediness nor incapacity. And this is something in the heart; humility is in the heart before it is made apparent on his limbs.

2) His Shortcomings, Sins, and Defects. He sees his mistakes and his shortcomings. He knows his sins. He admits and tells himself that hadn't it been for Allah's concealment, I would have been exposed. Hadn't it been for Allah's mercy, I would never have got position amongst people.

When Ibn Masoud's students walked behind him out of respect, he said, "If you knew my reality, you would beat me with your shoes"

The truly humble person knows his shortcomings, defects, mistakes, so he doesn't see himself better or above the people. He always says, "Hadn't it been for Allah...I would have never had this"

The false humble person reads the Qur'an, and goes through the stories of Pharoah, Qarun, Quraish, and the like, and says to himself,  "If Allah gave me authority and power, I would never behave like them"

But the real humble person says,  "الحمد لله, hadn't it been Allah's protection from giving me authority, I would have been like them - I don't know how I'd behave, maybe I'd behave worse than them" 

The humble person knows his defects and deficiencies. So we have to distinguish between the true and false humble person. And the truthfulness appears during situations 

3) The Sunnah of Allah regarding worldly matters

He knows that there is no worldly thing which Allah elevates, or brings up, but Allah will bring it down. 

عن أنس رضي الله عنه قال: كانت ناقة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: العضباء لا تسبق، أو لا تكاد تسبق فجاء أعرابي على قعود له، فسبقها، فشق ذلك على المسلمين حتى عرفه، النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال: “حق على الله أن لا يرتفع شئ من الدنيا إلا وضعه” ((رواه البخاري)).

Anas bin Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah had a she-camel called "Al-Adba" which would not allow any camel to surpass her. A bedouin came riding his camel which outstripped it. The Muslims were much grieved at this. Allah's Messenger perceived it and said, "It is Allah's way, that He lowers whatever raises itself in this world" (Bukhari)


A person may have a good position in the community. But he won't remain that way forever. One day Allah will lower him. Today's he's rich, tomorrow he'll become poor. Today he has a good job, tomorrow he'll lose that job. There is no worldly thing which Allah takes up, but Allah will bring it down. 

The humble person knows this fact very well. Today he is up, tomorrow he'll be down. So he doesn't boast to people, nor is he proud or feel that he is above or better than them. He knows it's Allah who gave him the blessing. He admits that whatever he had of position is from Allah, not himself.

Therefore, whoevers concern is to always be on the right path, and to increase in rank - He should humble himself. The people see him up and high, but he doesn't see that he reached that position by his cleverness and diligence. Allah granted him that blessing and can remove it. 

He sees his defects, his weakness, and knows the Sunnah of Allah, that's why he never sees himself better than the people - whereas the false humble person sees himself above and forces himself to lower himself externally.

We also have to be careful regarding religious blessings. Sometimes, Allah may grant a person knowledge or memorization of the Qur'an. If the person doesn't thank Allah, admit it is from Allah,  doesn't act upon it, and use it to benefit others - Allah will lower him, and he'll lose that blessing. 

But whose ever Allah gave a religious blessing and uses it to benefit the people, Allah will increase it.

E.g. Allah gave you faith. You won't lose your faith, unless you do something that makes you deserve your faith to go down.

The humble person doesn't look at his acts of worship as a favour to Allah, He looks at it as a mere favour and guidance from Allah. 

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Another means of attaining Honour from the Sunnah: To despair from what is in the hands of the people and be independent of them.

عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ سَعْدٍ قَالَ جَاءَ جِبْرِيلُ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَالَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ عِشْ مَا شِئْتَ فَإِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَاعْمَلْ مَا شِئْتَ فَإِنَّكَ مَجْزِيٌّ بِهِ وَأَحْبِبْ مَنْ شِئْتَ فَإِنَّكَ مُفَارِقُهُ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ شَرَفَ الْمُؤْمِنِ قِيَامُ اللَّيْلِ وَعِزَّهُ اسْتِغْنَاؤُهُ عَنِ النَّاس

Narrated by Sahl Ibn Sa'd, Jibreel came to the a Prophet ﷺ, "O Muhammed ﷺ live as you will, for you must certainly die. Do whatever you will, for you'll be recompensed for it. Love whomever you will, for you surely will leave him. The eminence of the believer is in establishing the night with prayer, and his honour is in being self-sufficient and independent of the people" [al-Muʻjam al-Awsaṭ 4410; graded Hasan by Al-Albani] 

Whoever establishes the night with prayer, will be honoured.

And one of the greatest means of attaining honour in this life and the hereafter is to feel self-sufficient from what's in the hands of people; to not look at what the people have and covet after it.

When you ask people for something worldly, and increase in asking people for things, you have humiliated yourself and decreased your honour. You'll be a slave to the people - because you only see the favours of the people on you. 

And this is what the Prophet ﷺ warned us against. He brought up the companions on self-richness and self-sufficiency. 

عَوْفُ بْنُ مَالِكٍ قَالَ كُنَّا عِنْدَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ سَبْعَةً أَوْ ثَمَانِيَةً أَوْ تِسْعَةً فَقَالَ أَلَا تُبَايِعُونَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَكُنَّا حَدِيثَ عَهْدٍ بِبَيْعَةٍ قُلْنَا قَدْ بَايَعْنَاكَ حَتَّى قَالَهَا ثَلَاثًا فَبَسَطْنَا أَيْدِيَنَا فَبَايَعْنَاهُ فَقَالَ قَائِلٌ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّا قَدْ بَايَعْنَاكَ فَعَلَامَ نُبَايِعُكَ قَالَ أَنْ تَعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَلَا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا وَتُصَلُّوا الصَّلَوَاتِ الْخَمْسَ وَتَسْمَعُوا وَتُطِيعُوا وَأَسَرَّ كَلِمَةً خَفِيَّةً قَالَ وَلَا تَسْأَلُوا النَّاسَ شَيْئًا قَالَ فَلَقَدْ كَانَ بَعْضُ أُولَئِكَ النَّفَرِ يَسْقُطُ سَوْطُهُ فَمَا يَسْأَلُ أَحَدًا أَنْ يُنَاوِلَهُ إِيَّاهُ

Awf ibn Malik reported: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while there were seven, or eight, or nine of us and he said, “Will you not give your pledge of allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?"

We had recently given our pledge, so we said, “We have given you our pledge of allegiance,” but he said it again three times, so we offered our hands and pledged allegiance to him again. 

Someone said, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we have already given you our pledge, so what are we pledging to now?” 

The Prophet ﷺ said, “That you worship Allah and do not associate any partners with Him, that you pray for five prayers, that you listen and obey,” and then he said something very softly, “And that you do not ask people for anything.”

Indeed, some of those people obeyed this to the extent that if his whip were to fall from his mount, he would not ask anyone to hand it to him." [Muslim] 

If they were on their camel, and dropped their whip, they wouldn't ask the person standing on the ground next to them to pick it up. They'd make the camel sit down, get off it, pick it up, and then ride the camel again and continue their journey. 

Based on this Hadith, The Scholars said that whenever you need anything and can do it yourself, you should refrain from asking anybody to do it for you.

However, whenever you need something, and you are unable to do it yourself: 

a) If you can live without it and it's not a big deal, don't ask anyone.

b) If it's something important and you need it, there's no harm in ask someone to help you. 

And they said it's better for the student of knowledge and the داعية to work and have a means of earning, so that they are independent from people, and feel sufficient from them.