Servants of the Most Merciful
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Episode 3: Responding to the Foolish and Ignorant
Dr. Omar Suleiman dives into the second quality of the servants of the Most Merciful - forbearance.
Graphic Notes
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, Al-hamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, Wa Al-Udwana Ila Al-'Azalimin, Wa Al-'Aqibatu Lil-Muttaqin. Allahumma Salli wa Sallim wa Barek Ala Abdika wa Rasulika wa Muhammadin Salallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, Wa Ala Anihi wa Sahbihi wa Salim Tasliman Katheera. InshaAllah ta'ala I'll give everyone just a couple of seconds or a few seconds to log on. So I've got some good news and bad news for you all while I'm waiting for everyone to log on. The good news is I'm really enjoying getting into the depth of these ayats. The bad news is we probably won't finish them before Dhul Mubarak. So we might have to continue this a little bit after Ramadan insha'Allah ta'ala just to get them done. Or at least do justice, somewhat do justice to this topic. Alright, so yesterday we talked about وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰنَ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنَا And we talked about this idea of people that walk with a great sense of humility and that bring rahmah to the environment around them, that have a calming effect in the environment around them. And we said that this sort of refers to the default of the believer, the way that the believer carries themself. And then the second part of this is وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِدُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا When they are addressed by the ignorant, they say salam, they respond with peace. And so there is absolutely nothing that would take them out of their elements and nothing that would faze them. Now this part of the ayah is a deep part of the ayah as well. Of course everything about this is deep. But the first quality that we spoke about last night was humility, a tawadar.
The second quality which is addressed in وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِدُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا is what the scholars say is actually the hardest quality to attain the hardest good characteristic and that is the quality of hilm which is forbearance. So it's easy to be patient, it's never easy to be patient but it's easier to be patient with things that cannot be attributed to people when harm cannot be attributed to people than it is when there is someone that's being abrasive or there is a person in front of you or someone that you could attribute that to, whether that's online or on-site. It's a lot harder when there is a face to the harm that's being caused to you or to the ignorance that's being spewed your way. So the quality is called hilm, the quality is called forbearance and it is a fruit of humility. Okay, so a person maintains humility and this is a fruit that comes out from the tree of humility. So you can't have this quality without humility is what the scholars mention and because of that it's important for us to go by the order which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to us and so that's something that as we go through these qualities it's important for us to just sort of restate the basis. The basis is Ibadur Rahman, we connect to Ar-Rahman. Once we connect to Ar-Rahman, we emanate that rahmah to everything around us and to every situation and this type of rahmah here which is hilm, which is forbearance is a quality that cannot be had without humility. So what does this mean? That you have to be composed and have a mild presence in order to be forbearing. There's no way that you're going to be able to achieve forbearance if you're not someone that learns the art of composure, right? Someone that's able to hold yourself together and that generally has a mild presence. Now by the way, even the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
sometimes expressed anger and sometimes the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam you know, diverted from his usual and the thing is that when it's not the norm for you to express anger when it's not the norm for you to show your dissatisfaction and your displeasure that means that people will take your anger more seriously whereas when you're hot-tempered, it's just like, oh God, we just don't want to make that person upset again because they're always upset and we don't feel like dealing with them being upset. And so with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was the most humble person, he was the most patient person, the most forbearing person and so when he became angry, it's like the Arabs say, that you fear the anger of the forbearing one because when a person is generally forbearing and they become angry, that could mean that the anger is going to be severe. Now in the case of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, his anger was never out of bounds and that's part of his perfection alayhi salatu wassalam, but it's a balance that we should seek to achieve in our lives. So anyway, let's talk about this quality of forbearance and how do we know that it's the highest trait, the highest characteristic? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, innama al-'ilmu bith ta'allum wa innama al-hilmu bith ta'allum that verily knowledge is through seeking knowledge, meaning if you want to attain knowledge, you study to attain knowledge and forbearance is through practicing forbearance. You practice patience in your day-to-day and that helps you have greater patience when greater tragedies strike. Forbearance is patience with people and so you learn to deal with the minor annoyances on a regular basis and as you learn to deal with those minor annoyances on a regular basis, then you can maintain composure in the face of major annoyances, right? So the scholars say that the reason why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned hilm here, forbearance, the quality of composure and forbearance
is because it is the most difficult quality to attain and so by saying that it is attainable, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying that any good quality is attainable through practice and generally speaking, you'll find that as people practice tazkiyah and as people grow, people are able to gain many good qualities but there are very few people that are able to do away with a bad temper. There are very few people that are able to actually grow from having a generally harsh presence and in fact, one of the problems is that sometimes they bring that into the deen as well and that becomes extremely harmful to others. So anyway, وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِرُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا This is a verse that's also mistranslated many times because the word jahl, though understood as ignorance, is speaking about a different type of ignorance. Jahl is synonymous with ghadab in Arabic poetry, which is anger, a hot temper. And so you'll often find that in old poetry, the word jahl is used not to describe ignorance in regards to a person not having ilm, a person not knowing, but ignorance in regards to a person who acts foolish, so a person who has a hot temper. And this is very common and this is what the context of this ayah is. When Allah Azawajal says جاهلون here, it's in that meaning as opposed to الذين لا يعلمون, those that don't know better, it's people that act with a hot temper and people that are foolish. So it's not talking about uneducated people, it's talking about rude people, okay? Allah Azawajal also says, for example, in surah al-qasas, something very similar, verse 55,
Allah Azawajal says وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا الَّغْوَ أَعْرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَقَالُوا لَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ لَا نَبْتَغِي الْجَاهِلِينَ When they hear any vain talk, they turn away from it. أَعْرَضُوا عَنْهُ, they turn away from it. And they respond and they say لَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ To you belong your deeds and to us belong our deeds. سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ Peace be on to you. We do not desire to act like the ignorant. Some of the scholars, they say that this is referring to an incident where, and I'll probably talk about this in detail maybe sometime after Ramadan because it's a powerful incident. But there's a group of about 20 Christians that had come to Mecca from Habesha, from Ethiopia to meet the Prophet ﷺ. And when the Prophet ﷺ recited the Qur'an to them, they started to cry out of belief and out of being moved from recognition that this was the scripture that was the continuation of the message of Isa ﷺ, the message of Jesus, peace be upon him. And they confirmed it and they said فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّهِدِينَ They asked Allah ﷻ to write them from amongst those who have worn witness. And so because of that, and this is of course the context of some of the ayahs according to many of the scholars in Surah Al-Ma'idah about the Christians that recognized the truth, that heard the message of the Prophet ﷺ like Najashi in Ethiopia, the ruler of Ethiopia. And when they heard the Qur'an being recited, they said this is it. And they were moved and they accepted Islam. And so some of the scholars, they say that this is referring to, the verse in Surah Al-Qasas that it is referring to, when those Christians accepted Islam, Abu Jahl and some of the Quraysh went to them and started to mock them. Okay, and they started to taunt them as they would taunt the people of Mecca.
And that group of 20 Christians from Ethiopia that now had become Muslim, they responded and they said, look, لَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ which is like لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَدِينُ Look, we have our ways, you have your ways. سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ Peace be on to you. We don't want to be amongst the foolish. We're okay. You know, we're just not going to engage this type of behavior. And so this was a way of them to basically say to Abu Jahl and to the ignorant that look, we're just we're not interested. You guys can go ahead and continue to taunt and continue to say what you what you're going to say, but that's not the behavior that we accept for ourselves and we're just going to pass. Okay, so basically not feeding the trolls and the trolls in this case are Abu Jahl and his ilk in Mecca taunting them. So again, some of the scholars of Tafsir will mention this as the context of that. There's of course another ayah where Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala mentions خُذِ الْعَفْرِ to keep to forgiveness وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ and to enjoin kindness وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ and to turn away from the ignorant. This ayah speaks to another incident to turn away from the ignorant keep to forgiveness العفو وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ to enjoin kindness and to turn away from the ignorant. This refers to an incident according to the Mufassirun a man by the name of Uyayna ibn Hussn ibn Hudhayfa. Uyayna ibn Hussn, he stayed with his nephew Al Hurr ibn Qais and this was one of the people that was close to Umar ibn Al Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu because he was one of the Hufadh and the Qurra of Qur'an. And so because of that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu would keep him near he would listen to him and Uyayna came to visit him and he said to his nephew Al Hurr ibn Qais he said you're close to this man Umar, you're close to the Khalifa
let me meet him because I want to ask him something, okay? So Al Hurr he said okay, well let me get permission from Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu he got permission from the Khalifa Al Hurr brings around his uncle Uyayna ibn Hussn Uyayna enters into Umar and he says into the house of Umar ibn Al Khattab radiAllahu anhu and he says, ya ibn Al Khattab you have not given us our share nor have you ruled with justice, okay? Can you imagine how embarrassed Al Hurr ibn Qais was to bring his uncle to visit Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and talk about an awkward moment, right? You know, I brought you to visit the Khalifa Umar ibn Al Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and we know the strength of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and this is what you do to embarrass me, right? And Al Hurr ibn Qais is close to Umar, he loves Umar and he doesn't want to fall out of favor with Umar ibn Al Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu so he brings his uncle not knowing what his uncle Uyayna is going to say and Uyayna accuses Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu of being unjust and not giving our share of course this was a ploy to move Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu to give him some extra to basically shut his mouth except Umar radiAllahu anhu was a man of integrity and he understood the tactic so Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu got up and he was upset, he was angry and so Al Hurr he said to Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu he said, look, this uncle of mine is one of the fools he's one of those ignorant people, those jahileen and he recited to Umar ibn Al Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu khudh al-afwa wa'mur bil ma'ruf wa a'radh an al jahileen look, just show forgiveness and enjoy in good and turn away from the foolish and so when Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu heard that Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu simply just calmed down and he ignored Uyayna altogether and just dismissed him from the home, okay? So not sabab al-nuzud here, not the obviously the reason for revelation as this is after the death of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam but one of the ways that this ayah was applied very famously
in the case of Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu telling him look, don't worry about these people, right? These are people that do not, that are not trying to do anything except for provoke you and instigate something so just turn away from them, ya ameer al-mu'mineen basically they're not worth your time now, there's a lot to dissect here, okay? So these are some of the stories of three ayahs that refer to the same concept of basically responding to al-jahileen which we said are not people that are ignorant in terms of their knowledge we're not talking about the Bedouins that didn't have the best etiquette when they came to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam or didn't, you know, understand things when they ask questions we're talking about people that are foolish, that are instigators that are hot-tempered, that are annoying, that are trying to shake you trying to mess with you, trying to troll you, okay? And three ayahs that all say the same thing which is respond with salam, respond with peace now, salam is supposed to be tahiyyat al-islam it's supposed to be a greeting and tarheeb it's a way that you welcome someone but this salam, the ulema say is salam al-mutaraka wa irad it is salam mutaraka wa irad which means it's the salam of actually ending a conversation, okay? this is not the salam of welcome and let's talk it's the salam of, you know, it's literally peace out it's salam out, we're done, I'm not going to engage this conversation I'm not going to touch this and it's your way of saying that I'm not interested in this, okay? I'm not interested in this type of discourse I'm not interested in this behavior and moving on, okay? Just salam so this is a different type of salam and it's also important, as I said yesterday that these ayahs are not used to excuse the acceptance of zulm, the acceptance of oppression wa idha khatabahumul jahidun this is talking about khitab
this is talking about people that just make rude comments your average ignorant folks people that are abrasive, people that, you know, annoy you people that observe just habitual forms of messing with people and trying to get in your head this is not talking about accepting zulm because we should not accept oppression for ourselves we should not accept oppression for ourselves this is not letting people get in your head or get in your element or shake you out of your element mess with you, whatever it may be so this is what is being spoken about here it's a different context altogether basically, people who try to provoke you do not let them in your heart or mind just be gone, alright? I'm not going to engage this, I'm not going to entertain this because when someone is trying to provoke you if they get your attention and they pull you into their level or down to their level, they get you to their level, they win they just want you there, ok? and there are many different narrations about this from the salaf the salaf have books that have been written about how to deal with trolls ok? so if you want to know how to deal with trolls you can find the books that talk about people like Hassan al-Basti rahimahullah ta'ala who would send fruits to the gatherings that would backbite him because he would say I have nothing to repay you with in this dunya except for these fruits for the ajr that you're giving me in the hereafter for the good deeds that you're giving me in the hereafter so all I could find was some fruits maybe if someone's trolling you send some fruit emojis or something like that I don't know if that would count but the point is that you find books about the salaf and how they responded to people that were abrasive not abusive in a way that actually means
qabool al-dhulm or darr to accept oppression or harm but again, people that are just rude, unnecessarily rude and there are a few instances that I'll quote here insha'Allah ta'ala and I'll start off with Abu Bakr as-Siddiq rahimahullah ta'ala if you're watching the angels series then there's that incident where Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala stood up and responded when he and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam were dealing with these people of jahal with people who were foolish and people that had foul mouths and Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala did not like that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam you know, witnessed such a thing so he eventually was provoked to a point that he responded in like manner now there's another incident where Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala to show you who Abu Bakr is you know, he was sitting in the masjid and this is during his khilafah and a man walks in and he starts yelling and cursing and using foul language towards him so Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala is the khalifa and this man starts to use this foul language with him and in fact the incidents I'm going to quote are about khilafah why? because these are people in authority so if they wanted to punish and take revenge upon the ignorant people that treated them in such a way they could do so without having to worry about repercussions right, so the fact that a person could be an authority and could still show humility in this way is important to take note of because sometimes we show patience or we don't respond to those that are abrasive or foolish because we're afraid of the repercussions so if you're the khalifa you're not afraid of anybody so Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala is sitting in the masjid and a man comes up to him and he starts to curse, he starts to yell so Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala he just got up and he walked away and the man said to him
ya ibn Abi Quhafa iyaaka a'ni he said, oh son of Abi Quhafa I'm talking to you alright, so I'm not talking to anyone else so don't get up and walk away from me iyaaka a'ni, I'm talking about you Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala said wa'anka u'rud and I'm turning back away from you, okay so he said I'm talking to you and Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala said and I'm ignoring you, you know very intentionally the man said to him that laa asadbanaka sabban yadkhulu ma'aka alqabar that I will curse you in a way, a masabba, I will curse you in a way that will follow you to your grave meaning I'm going to humiliate you, I'm going to embarrass you and I'm going to say things to you and about you that people will know you know horrible things, they'll say horrible things about you even after you die, okay so he's threatening him, he's saying you know you wait laa asadbanaka I will curse you in a way that it will follow you to your grave, Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala anhu responded and he said listen innama yadkhulu ma'aka laa ma'i he said if you do that the curses and the foul language and the things that you say will enter you with your grave, they will enter with you into your grave meaning the sins of that they're not going to enter with me into my grave, I'm okay say whatever you want to say, you're going to curse, curse, you're going to use foul language, use foul language, so the man says to him after that he said if you say one word to me, one more word to me laa inqulta li kalima la tasma'anna minni ashra inqulta li kalima if you say to me one more word then you will hear ten words back from me meaning I dare you to open your mouth again, right so the man is just trying any way to get into Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala anhu's head, Abu Bakr rahimahullah
ta'ala anhu said wa inqulta li ashran lan tasma'a minni kalimatan wahida and he said and if you say ten more words to me, ten more statements to me you're not going to hear a single one back from me, I'm not going to engage, subhanAllah, so Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala anhu basically walks out of the masjid and this man is fuming that he wasn't able to get in his head, that the more he instigated, the more he provoked, the more Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala anhu told him look I'm not interested, salam, peace, you do your thing, you go ahead and say what you have to say, it's not going to shake me, subhanAllah it's a beautiful incident because who would punish Abu Bakr rahimahullah ta'ala anhu if he were to respond to this man in like manner, there's another incident of Umar bin Abdul Aziz rahimahullah ta'ala again khalifa, a khalifa known for justice, a khalifa known for nobility, a khalifa who was very loved by the people and Umar bin Abdul Aziz rahimahullah is walking into the masjid and he's going to give the khutbah and he trips over a man and you know as he's just getting to the manbar, the pulpit and the man says to him are you crazy, are you a majnoon, are you crazy, so he speaks to him really roughly and he starts to verbally abuse him, Umar bin Abdul Aziz keeps on walking to the, or Umar bin Abdul Aziz turns around first and he says no, la, and that's it, no I'm not crazy, I'm not a majnoon and he simply walks to the manbar to give his khutbah, as Umar bin Abdul Aziz is getting to the khutbah he sees that some people are getting up and they're about to trash this man, they're about to beat him up and throw him out of the masjid for the way that he talked to Umar bin Abdul Aziz rahimahullah ta'ala and Umar bin Abdul Aziz rahimahullah ta'ala comes running back to them and he says what are you doing, they said ya ameer al mu'mineen, didn't you hear what he said to you, he said yes and Umar bin Abdul Aziz said didn't you hear what I responded, they said yes, he said he asked me a question, I answered his question, he
told me, he asked me if I was crazy and I told him I'm not crazy, so just leave him alone, subhanallah, so these are people in authority that are demonstrating what it means wa a'aril anil jahileen, to just to step away, to step away, to maintain composure in the face of foolishness, okay, numerous incidents, you know one of my favorite ones, Imam Abu Hanif rahimahullah ta'ala was teaching and you know as they were going through the opinions Imam Abu Hanif rahimahullah ta'ala he said akhta al hasan, he said al hasan al basri radiallahu ta'ala anhu sayyid al tabi'een, he made a mistake, akhta al hasan, al hasan made a mistake and this was just in the capacity of looking through opinions, judging opinions and as he said that a man stood up in the masjid and he told him ya ibn zania which means you son of an adulteress, right, I mean that's the worst thing that you could say to a person, he says you are saying akhta al hasan, you're saying that al hasan made a mistake and the man stormed out of the masjid, Imam Abu Hanif rahimahullah he just continued and he looked completely unfazed, he said na'am akhta al hasan, he said al hasan made a mistake and Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu was right on this issue, he was right on this masalah and he continued to teach, okay, the beauty of that, of course by the way Ibn Mas'ud is al sahabi radiallahu anhu al hasan al basri is the greatest of the tabi'een, had the man shown patience he would have heard the completion of Abu Hanif's sentence but instead he chose to use that language and simply bolted out of the masjid and Imam Abu Hanif rahimahullah ta'ala maintained his composure and he simply moved on. This is not just with verbal words, okay, if someone writes something to you or someone writes something about you or someone says something about you behind your back or whatever
it is, right, the point of this, ibadur rahman is that you don't descend to their level, why because you are too focused on ar-rahman to be worried about the provocation of shaytan, okay, shaytan is trying to provoke me through this person and I'm trying to gain the love of ar-rahman and so a person again while walking on the earth lightly, treading the earth lightly, allatheena yamshoona alal arbi hauna wa idha khatabahum aljahiduna ta'alu salama, when they are addressed by the foolish they simply say salam, they just move on. You have to connect those two things together. Now there are a few things that can come out as a result of this, as a consequence of this insha'Allah ta'ala and I want to speak to that insha'Allah ta'ala and then we'll conclude for the night, number one the Prophet ﷺ said that strength is not in the ability to overcome someone else but strength instead, the greatest strength is the one who yamliku nafsahu aindil khadhab, who is able to control themselves when their anger takes over and so the greatest strength is composure, there is no greater strength than the strength of composure, being able to maintain your composure and the Prophet ﷺ is the greatest example of that. Anas ibn Malik radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu says, you know, just witnessed so many things the Prophet ﷺ went through, the way he was treated alayhi salatu wa salam and Anas ibn Malik radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was completely blown away by the character of the Prophet ﷺ, he remembered the Prophet ﷺ simply walking one day and a Bedouin man comes to him again, someone who's ignorant and who's harsh and he started to pull the cloak of the Prophet ﷺ and he said, a'tunee min ma'ataaka Allah, give me from what Allah gave to you and he said the way he pulled it, he left marks on the neck of the Prophet ﷺ and Anas radiyaAllahu
ta'ala anhu was shocked and he said the Prophet ﷺ simply took it off and gave it to him, it did not faze him and so the greatest strength is composure, when you're able to maintain composure, composure in the face of just people that are foolish and not worth your time and that's actually the point here, this is not talking about vul, major oppression and seeking recourse in the face of oppression, this is talking about people that seek to provoke, that instigate, that seek to shake you and seek to get you out of your element and that is something that the Shaytan wants to happen because if he can get you out of your element then he can get you to do things that you typically would not do and if those things that you do in those moments of being out of your element take you away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then his goal is to sort of keep you in that place, so to get you to drop down, to stoop and then to get you to stay at a lower level, one that's not befitting to you, especially should you seek to be from Ibadur Rahman, should you seek to be from those who are counted from the servants of the most merciful. And I'll end with a couple of thoughts, someone mentioned after last night, they said look you know personalities are different, what about Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, could you say Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu yamshoona al-ardihauna, used to tread the earth lightly, well yes, because Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, what caused people to be afraid of Umar or what made people nervous about Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was not if they said something to him, but if they did something that was disobedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So what made people nervous about Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was sin, in the same way that what made people nervous or shy in the presence of Uthman radiyaAllahu anhu was his good, what made people nervous around Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu was their own sins,
and Umar radiyaAllahu anhu did not tolerate the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, you know a child could tell Umar ittaqillah, fear Allah, and Umar radiyaAllahu anhu would start crying, anyone could make Umar radiyaAllahu anhu cry, this huge man, right, that was, when you say treading the earth lightly, by all means physically speaking Umar radiyaAllahu anhu shook the ground when he walked because of his physical stature, but if you said to Umar radiyaAllahu anhu ittaqillah, fear Allah, then he would melt, okay, and say what did I do, why, and he would pay attention, and he was easy to be held accountable in that sense, so what made people nervous about Umar radiyaAllahu anhu was that the shaitan would not be on the same path as Umar, so again, that's different, and that's not what's being spoken about here in the capacity of ibadah ar-Rahman, okay, in the capacity of the servants of the most merciful, it's a different type of, it's a different type of walking lightly on the earth, and not having a heavy presence, okay, so what made people nervous about Umar radiyaAllahu anhu was their own sins, just as what made people nervous about Uthman radiyaAllahu anhu was just the elevated standard of his nobility, of his akhlaq, of his character, to where people just wanted to honor him, and wanted to treat him in a certain way, and the last thing I'll say here is, well, wait a minute, you know, doesn't this mean that you're likely going to be taken advantage of at times, that people are going to get away with saying certain things to you, and doing certain things, and you know, you're going to feel humiliated, subhanAllah, I mean, the reality of the situation is yes, there are going to be times where you're going to feel like you have to hold yourself, okay, and you know, it's going to appear unjust, and as I said, this is not to tolerate vuln, not to tolerate oppression, but the point of this is that a person will
be elevated in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that a person will endure, okay, some of the things that just come with the territory. There are times, however, there are times where it's important to stand up to a bully, in particular, because that bully, if he gets away with bullying you, then he'll continue to bully others. That happens, and that is, you know, that's a judgment call, and something to be thought about. You know, if this bad behavior is tolerated here, is there a system, a pattern behind it? So for example, if you're thinking about Muslims as a minority, these are not people that are foul towards them, you know, like an Islamophobe in public, they're not foul towards them because that's just a bad quality that they have with everyone, but they particularly treat Muslims with a certain disdain, or they're racist, and they particularly treat black people or Latinos in a certain way, or they treat other religious groups, you know, with a certain disdain, Sikhs or Jews or whatever it is, right? That's different, okay? Because that's targeting a group of people. Al-jahilun here are just people that are just, you know, that are just rude with everybody. They're the opposite of ibadur rahman, that bring calmness and that remove the tension from an environment. They are people that inherently bring just discomfort and try to instigate and are just always foul and rude. So sometimes, sometimes, not for the sake of yourself, and that's where the hard part of this is. If you're responding from an ifsani place, from a place of yourself, because of your ego, then you've lost it, right? You've lost out on the reward. But if you're responding from a place of protecting your brothers and sisters, that's noble, okay? So just as Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu,
some of the incidents of Umar might be mistaken as being in contradiction with alladhina yamshoona alal-ardi hauna, those that tread the earth lightly. Likewise, sometimes humility, you know, or fighting back, right, or checking someone in public even, could be mistaken as contradicting wa idhaa hatabahum aljahiduna qaaloo salamah. You never become one of them. You never become as foul as them. You never resort to their level. But if you act not from a place of nafs, but from a place of protecting someone else, because you could see how this could get worse, that's different, okay? So by all means, it's important to make these distinctions, and the Qur'an speaks to the default, and there are exceptions to all of these things, right? There are exceptions to these things. So do not misinterpret these qualities that are noble and that speak to default circumstances, and then misapply them in a way that could cause harm. So we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us from ibad ar-Rahman, we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us from those that walk the earth lightly, that are always connected to the rahmah of ar-Rahman, the mercy of the most merciful, and that emanate that to everything around us, and we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to forgive us when we depart from those ideals, and we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to never allow us to stoop to the level of those that play the role of shayateen al-ins in our lives, of devils amongst mankind that seek to instigate and that seek to provoke. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala allow us to always act in accordance with his sight and not the sight of others. Allahumma ameen, jazakum Allah khayran, I'll see you all tomorrow night inshaAllah, assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
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