Praising People – 1

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Allah’s (The Exalted) name I begin with, The Most Affectionate, The Most Merciful

All Praise is due to allah (The Exalted, countless Salawaat, and Salaams upon His most perfect and highest of Creation, the Messenger of Allah(The Exalted) (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)

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Hadeeth: Zayd ibn Aslam reported that his father heard “Umar state,. “Praise is slaughter.” The Transmitter added. “He meant when it is accepted.”

Book: Al-Adab Al Mufrad, Writer : Imam Bukhari, Hadeeth No: 336, Chapter: Praising People, Topic :153 What has come about praising people.

Explanation:

1. As the Transmitter added about the hadeeth is what he ment is, when the person being praised has accepted it then at that time it became the cause of his death, because that same praise became the slaughter for the person being praised.

2. In Hadeeth 333, 334 & 335 it is mentioned as praising someone is like cutting their head of, or as if you have destroyed or broken that man’s back, or as if you have wounded him. The Lesson is do not praise everyone (like me and some other ordinary people, who does every work for the sake of praise.)

3. Chapter 154 is on when “Someone who praises his companion when he feels safe about him”, in this Topic it has been clarified that you can praise someone if you feel safe that his praise will nor produce pride or vanity. Kindly do not stop praising Al-Anbiya, Ahl-ul-Bait, Siddiqeen, Shuhada, Saleheen (Aulia Allah), because we have been ordered to do so, moreover we can feel safe about them (if not about them then about whom you will feel safe).

4. hadeeth 337. Abu hurayra reported that prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “The best of men is Abu bakr. The best of men is Umar, The best of men is Abu Ubayda. The best of men is Usayd Ibn Hudayr. The best of men is Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas. The best of men is Mu’adh ibn ‘Amr ibn al’Jmuh. the best of men is Mu’adh ibn jabal” then he said, “The worst of men is so-and-so, The worst of men is so-and-so,” until he had named seven men.

5. The above hadeeth confirms the ruling that if Sahabi is praised its different, because they will not be affected by the praise & that it will not produce pride or vanity in them.

6. Take Away: Praising everyone is wrong (exception if you are sure that it wont go into their head & wont produce pride or vanity in them.

7. Considering our-self worse/non praise worthy is what needed (talking about what we made of our-self & not talking about what Allah s.w.t has created which was excellent), and this is the subject of our Group & is one of the method for Tazkiya-e-Nafs.

8. Bringing in the Prophet, Ahl-e-Bayt, Sahaba in this category(people who are affected by the praise) is zulm.

9. (Instead of praising, ordinary men like me) Best alternate is to pray for others, that way you will achieve 3 goals, first to pray you need to praise Allah s.w.t (All praise belongs to him alone), secondly you wont harm the person you love by praising or braking his back & thirdly you saved yourself too.

10.Hadeeth # 335: Ibrahim at-Taymi reported that his father said, “We were sitting with ‘Umar and one man praised
another man to his face.” He said, “You have wounded the man. May Allah wound you.” – In this Hadeeth Hazrat Umar clearly used the words of Curse (Intention is to teach him to really curse him) That as you wounded the Ordinary men by praising him may Allah wound you too. As hazrat Umar is of Aggressive personality (only when something goes against Islamic Methods, we can recall he himself use to praise Hazrat Abu Bakr As-Siddiq rz and Hazrat  Bilal-e-Habashi rz – and called both of them as Master etc.)

11. It can be clearly seen as per Point # 153 (Hadeeth 333, 334, 335 & 336) that praising them (Ordinary men like me is like harming me in the following ways) is like cutting their head, braking the back, injuring them.

12. (Back to Our Goal of our Group Formation) The Simple reason is that the Nafs (Nafs-e-Ammara – in which category most of us are – it is sure that at least I am in this category) wants to be praised & it gets worse with every praise it receives in order to save me/them/others from powering strengthning their Nafs-e-Ammara we should avoid praising them, If you like what they did or said why dont you pray that “O Allah save them from Nafs-e-Ammara, hell, Takabbur, Riya etc). As far as the people in the Category of Nafs-e-Mutmainna there is no problem for them, as they will never listen/believe you when you praise them.

13. Humiliating our own Nafs is what needed, and not praising ordinary people. Remember in Hadeeth # 337, Lastly do not mix up the Concept for ordinary people with pious) Recall the Prophet (PHUB) himself praised his companion (above point # 4 – Hadeeth # 334).

*** Inshahallah To be continued ***