(021) The Word Of A Believer

Adnaan Menk
November 17, 2024

(read time : 3 minutes)

Today At A Glance

Keep your promise and uphold your obligations
Taking On Money From The People
The Death of Khadija R.A

Keep your promise and uphold your obligations

Allah says:

“… those who stick to their promises when they promise…”

[Al-Baqarah 2:177]

In this verse Allah praises those who are truly righteous and mentions that from their qualities is they keep promises.

People give their word and promise different things for different reasons. From giving your word to appear at a meeting to promising to keep somebody’s secret they entrusted you with, or something bigger, such as taking an oath by Allah to claim possession of property etc. Always remember that a muslim is one who is truthful and upholds their promises and contractual obligations.

Using the name of Allah with the intention to lie, cheat, deceive and usurp the rights of others is a major sin and it’s feared that a person will be punished in this world and the next.

Summary

Be truthful, for verily it leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Jannah.

Ponder Over The Verse

'‘Those who believe in the unseen, establish their salah and spend from what Allah has given them” (2:3)

Reflection

Allah praises those who perform salah and give charity. These two acts of worship represent 2 major categories. Salah represents the connection between the slave and Allah and Charity represents the good relationship a person is required to have with the creation.

A person striving for Jannah should always make sure he fulfils the rights of Allah through all the different acts of worship required of him, as well as the rights of the people.

Taking On Money From The People

The Messenger ﷺ said:

"Whoever takes the wealth of people with the intention of paying back, Allah will pay it back for him and whoever takes the wealth of people with the intention of destroying it, Allah will destroy him” [Bukhari]

This hadith contains many benefits

From this hadith we learn that before a person borrows from others, they should have the intention of paying back. If they are sincere, Allah will pay it back for them. The scholars mention that this means, Allah will make it easy for them to pay back in this world. In case they pass away before being able to pay back Allah will pay it back for them on the day of judgement.
There is a difference between sincerely wanting to pay back and having a wishful thought. The one who is sincere in the heart follows it up with sincere action, taking by the means to ensure that others rights are fulfilled to the best of their ability.
As for the one who takes the wealth of others with the intention of destroying it and not wanting to pay back, Allah will destroy him. This could be by destroying the wealth in this world or punishment in the hereafter or a combination of both.

Summary

Be honest and have a good intention when borrowing or going into business with the wealth of the people

Practise Upon A Sunnah

The Messenger ﷺ said

“If it wasn’t for me burdening my ummah, I would have ordered them to use the siwaak at every salah.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

This hadith puts emphasis on having a clean mouth especially at the time of prayer. The sunnah is to use a siwaak, however if a person does not have one and had to cleanse their mouth with any other means, it’s hoped that they will attain a reward

The Death of Khadija R.A

Khadija R.A was the beloved wife of The Messenger ﷺ. She was his first wife and the first woman to accept Islam. She was the mother of all his children except for Ibrahim. Together they had 6 children.

Some historians mention that they were married for roughly 25 years. She helped him, supported him and stood by him throughout her life. She was given glad tidings of paradise.

In the tenth year after revelation, a short while after Abu Talib, the uncle of the Messenger ﷺ passed away, Khadija R.A passed away.

This was a great loss especially at a time where the persecution of the muslims increased and the Messenger ﷺ lost two of the most beloved people to him. Some of the historians named this “the year of sadness”

Lesson

Sometimes things seem to only get worse. Hang in there and put your trust in Allah. As we’ll see, even though this was a year of great loss for the Messenger ﷺ , new doors opened for him

My Thought

As you approach the end of 2024, look back on the year. What were your highlights and lowlights.

Try to look at the things you achieved as well as what you could have done better, then try to diagnose the reasons for both.

Personally, as I look at my own life I realise that a lot of my stumbling blocks boil down to two reasons.

1) A lack of execution/The pursuit of perfection

As important as it is to try to put out high quality work and do things to the highest standard, sometimes this perfection stops us from doing anything at all. Starting something new will be messy but you end up learning whilst you working on the actual project. I hope to execute on a lot more things going forward even if they don’t work out.

- A lack of control/discipline

This came about after looking into some of my habits. Everything you do has an opportunity cost. i.e when you’re doing something, like reading this newsletter, you’re unable to do something else. It’s the cost of pursuing this opportunity. In order to gain something (e.g the information in this newsletter) you lose something else (e.g the time spent reading it)

If you want to achieve at the highest level you need to be disciplined and in control of many factors especially your time. This means that everything has a start time as well as a stop time.

If you know that you’ve allocated 30 minutes a day for reading. The first part of discipline is to actually read. The second part of discipline is to stop at 30 minutes. if you go over your time, this is now at the expense of something else which is also important.

This requires discipline as ell as control

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See You Next Week إن شاء الله

Wassalamualaykum

Adnaan

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