opinion, then work on that character trait within
yourself and try to eliminate the bad and keep the
balance in your character.
you.’ If you did not like what you heard, and then
just look in yourself. ‘Do I ever do that with my
child? So observe people and then check yourself.
The third thing is that you should try to take help
from your enemies. Sometimes enemies are more
honest than friends because their eyes are on your
faults. This is good because they will tell you your
faults , and this will give you the opportunity to
eliminate them.
Remember that this world is temporary, so
whatever bad is happening to you it is temporary.
Always repel the bad with good because eventually
that good is going to be stored in your deeds, it is
your investment and that is going to help you on
the Day of Judgment.
There was once a shaykh (a spiritual guide), and he
was delivering a talk. Sometimes when the scholars
are giving talks people become jealous of them. So
somebody just stood up during his lecture and
said, “Oh, you show off ’. The shaykh replied that’
Alhamdulillah at least one person out of the
whole crowd recognized me.’ So this was
the character of these people that they
will take the critical analysis of their
enemies and then they will work
on that trait. Scholars also say that
you should observe people as well. If
you are walking down the road and
you see a woman talking
to her child. ‘Keep
quiet, otherwise
I will slap
The last thing that the scholars say that we all
have to do is that we have to take a shaykh in our
lives as well. These mashaikh (spiritual masters)
are specialized in the spiritual diseases. They are
cardiologists of the heart. When you get heartache,
where do you go? To a heart specialist, right?
So when we know that we have these
evil traits in our heart, we need to go
to a cardiologist. This cardiologist
is a shaykh who will help you
in treating the diseases of
the heart.
The mashaikh
have different
ways. It is
mentioned about a
shaykh that when he was
still a student, his shaykh knew
that he was from a rich family.
He was also a handsome man, who
loved to wear clean and nice clothes. It
is good to wear clean clothes but again the
balance was not there. The shaykh recognized
that the balance is not there, meaning that he
is too much into it. It has to be controlled. So
the shaykh told him that when you come
to my dhikr (remembrance) gathering,
I have to ask for khidmah (service).
The shaykh asked him to put
the shoes of the people in an
organized manner in rows.
The student used his feet