بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Allah mentioned this name more than 90 times in the Qur'an, to indicate its importance.
To Allah belongs all types of عزة, and He grants it to whomever He wills amongst His slaves. If we believe in this, then when we seek honour and glory, We should seek it only from Him and no one else.
Allah mentioned that there are people who seek العزة from other than Allah - the hypocrites, the idol worshippers who take their idols as a means of attaining glory and honour, and people who seek honour through worldly riches. People think they're honoured if they have this amount of money in their bank account, etc. And these are all considered blameworthy types of seeking the عزة.
What's the right way of seeking honour?
Allah said in [35:10]:
If you want to be honoured with Allah, you have to be obedient to Allah. The more faith and belief you have, the more Allah will honour you. If your faith is weak, the level of your honour will be the same.
So, Whoever seeks honour from Allah and is truthful in his request by showing humility and submission to Allah (by obeying Allah without hesitance or disobedience), Allah will honour him.
And whoever seeks honour from other than Allah, Allah will leave him to the matter he sought the عزة from. If he's seeking the عزة from his job, Allah will leave him to that job. If he is seeking the عزة from the disbelievers, Allah will leave him to the disbelievers.
Whoever seeks honour in this Dunya and hereafter, let him obey العزيز.
And whoever takes العزيز as His support, Allah will strengthen and honour him.
So whenever you feel weak and you have no power against your enemies, the Shaytan, your evil self, then you don't have except العزيز to strengthen and support you.
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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."
Whoever pardons and forgives the person who wronged him, offended, or transgressed against him in one way or another, while he has the ability to take revenge, Allah will honour him.
Sometimes, if someone offends us, we forgive them due to our weakness. This isn't what we're talking about. It's when you have the ability to punish the person, but you forgive them for the sake of Allah.
Whoever does this will become great in the hearts of the people in this life, and will have great reward with Allah in the hereafter.
And whoever humbles himself for the sake of Allah, seeking nearness to Allah, Allah will exalt him in ranks and elevate his status with the people.
العفوا - Pardoning
How do you know if you truly pardoned someone?
Someone transgresses against you in any way through tongue or action, and you pardon him completely, without reproaching him. You don't say, "....Even though you did such and such and such, I forgive you"
You completely overlook what he did of wrong, nor remind him of it. When you remind someone of the wrong they did, it means you haven't pardoned them.
You show mercy to them although they offended you. And you do good to them, and even hate evil for them. This indicates that you've really pardoned them.
And this is not done except by the person who really has good conduct, because this isn't something easy. This is done by the person who has a commerce with Allah, so he forgives the people, hoping that Allah pardons him.
Your reward will be with Allah.
Allah says in [42:40]:
Allah didn't specify any reward. This indicates that the reward is so abundant and great, no one knows it's greatness except Allah, the Owner of the reward.
The human self doesn't like to pardon. Therefore, if you pardon, you've done something contrary to what you like to do, this is why the reward is great with Allah.
Your self will say, "Why did you pardon him? You've lost your dignity when you pardoned him? He's going to do it again, etc'
Allah will reward you for your pardoning, and you won't just get that - Allah will honour you and elevate you with Him.
Don't think that it's something easy to do. There are many internal and external obstacles:
a) Our selves are naturally inclined towards taking rights whenever wronged.
b) The human self loves retribution, revenge, and rejoices at the misfortune which happens to others. We think, "They deserved it..."
If you are told to not defend yourself neither with words or actions, show patience, and forgive the person, this is very hard for yourself. That's why Allah said, "فأجره على الله"
External obstacles:
a) The people around you. They'll tell you to teach that person a lesson and encourage you not to forgive.
Seek the help of Allah. Allah will then make it easy for you, and taste the sweetness of the action you did. العفوا is a test for you, and the transgression that happened is also a test for you - to test you on how you'd deal with such people.
What is the description of the person who pardons?
العفوا is only practiced by the person whose heart is filled with اليقين (certainty) in three matters:
1) He has certainty that the creation are trials for each other - as Allah said in [25:20]:
The poor are a test for the rich, the rich are a test for the poor, the wife for the husband, the husband for the wife, the student for the teacher, the teacher for the student. This is the reality.
The person who pardons know this fact very well.
2) He has certainty that whatever afflicted him from the creation is a means of purification for him.
Allah didn't decree for that person to wrong me, except that I have a sickness in my heart which Allah wants to reveal to me in order to cure it,
Maybe I have self conceit in my heart, maybe I have pride, etc. so Allah brings that person to see what you'll think of yourself, will you think "...How dare he do this to me, I'm his teacher..etc?"
These thoughts indicate you have a sickness in your heart.
The transgression is a message from Allah through people to me. So now I have to sit and ask myself what happened. What is in my heart of sicknesses that made this happen?
Or it may be that you're attached to a worldly matter. Allah will send someone to come and take it away from you. Why? Allah wants to show you you're excessive attachment to the matter, to show you that you preferred it over Allah. So He made someone take it away from you - in order for your heart to be attached to Allah and no one else.
3) He has certainty that whoever deals with others with pardoning, Allah will deal with him in the same way. الجزاء من جنس العمل.
The recompense is of the same nature as the deed.
If you pardon people, Allah will pardon you. You do good to the people, Allah will do good to you. You forgive the people, Allah will forgive you.
What does Allah pardoning you mean? If Allah pardons you, He'll wipe away all your sins. And if your sins are wiped away, He'll enter you into Paradise.
Back to [42:40]:
Allah connected pardoning with الاصلح. This means that you have to look into your pardoning. Will it reform the situation or make it worse?
E.g. Someone completely damaged your car. You're angry. First you have to look at this person. If he's a person who is reckless, careless, and does this with everyone, you don't pardon this person - because he'll do it again to others. You'll make the matter worse if you do.
But if the person is good, and he didn't intend to, then pity and be merciful with him - and your reward is with Allah.
So be careful. You need to analyze the situation.
We also need to check if we have the right to pardon the person. There are times when we claim that the other person wronged us, but we're actually the ones that began the transgression.
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