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Introduction
Consider a boy who is the victim bullying as he
goes through his middle school career. He is
mocked by his classmates who will stop at
nothing to break his spirit and confidence. This
boy trudges through long years of education
until one day, he is promoted from his
mediocre classes and is allowed to join the
ranks of the best students. He transforms from
who he was before, while at the same time,
those that had vexed him slowly lose their
direction in life. Now he walked and sat with
the best and brightest and life had only
positives to give him. He would graduate, he
would forget, he would raise in his career and
become much accomplished. Then, a day comes
when a certain individual knocks on his door.
It is his former bully. Why was he here? Money.
He needed money to save his life. His friends
had abandoned him and those that he trusted
had betrayed him. The strong had now become
weak. What should this boy do then? Even
gazing at this man's face sends his heart into
convulsions. In this situation, this boy can
express one of two things, Justice or Mercy.
Justice, in that this bully will get what he
deserves. Mercy, in that he will help him and
forget about the past. This thought experiment
is an example of the power of Mercy and it is
this quality by which God chooses to describe
his greatest Prophet, Muhammad(pbuh). Such
was the mercy that he expressed to his bullies
on the day of the conquest of Mecca. "I shall
forgive you as Yusuf did his brothers" he said.
Mercy often seems distant to us and we
question it's practicality. But the Muslim lets
mercy soak his actions. In this issue of the
Youth Voice, we will discuss the mercy of the
Prophet and also touch on the mercy of Allah.
Mercy, as Allah has said, exceeds His wrath and
it is this attribute by which Allah chose to
introduce his noble self to us in the first surah
of the Quran as 'Ar Rahman, Ar Rahim'.
The Hadith Of
Mercy
a brief explanation by
Br. Muaz Rahman
"Narrated by Abdullah bin Umar, the
prophet (sws) said: “Allah the most merciful
shows mercy upon the merciful people. So have
mercy upon those on the earth, so that the one in
the heaven has mercy on you.” (Abu Dawud)"
In the first portion of this hadith, we see that Allah is referred to as the
most merciful one, and that he shows his mercy upon the merciful
people. One of the issues that we are plagued with as a society is that we
do not truly understand the greatness of Allah. We are not completely
able to truly grasp the qualities of Allah to their fullest extent. When we
call to Allah as the most merciful one, do we really understand what that
means? What that entails? Let us take a short look at an example. Say
there is a young child and someone takes away his toy, but this young boy
decides to forgive this other person and let it go. We will say this young
boy is merciful. Now let’s take a middle-class working man. If we see this
man give a couple grand to a homeless person, we will probably say this
man is merciful to others. Finally let’s take a king. If a king gives
hundreds of thousands of dollars to another person, we will probably say
this king is merciful. The point here is that there are different levels of
what “mercy” is to different statuses of people. The same mercy for a child
is not the same for a king, and vice versa. Now let us consider the mercy
of the one who is the controller and the creator of everything that exists
and ever existed, the all-powerful, the all-knowing, the one who has the
treasures of the heavens and the earths on his fingertips. What kind of
mercy do you think he has? What kind of mercy do you think is
associated with such a powerful being – that is Allah? It is mercy that
cannot be grasped. And that in and of itself is the greatness of Allah.
After describing how Allah, the most-merciful, has mercy on the merciful
people, the second portion of the hadith defines who these “merciful
people” are. As the hadith details, the merciful person is the one who has
mercy “upon those on the earth.” This specific wording suggests that we
should have mercy to all people, not just our fellow-believers. We should
have mercy upon all human beings, regardless of faith, creed, ethnicity,
or origin. We are all slaves of Allah and it is our responsibility to show
mercy to all. But the wording does not stop there; it also suggests that we
should have mercy to all living beings on the earth, not just human
beings. This includes trees, plants, creatures, animals, etc. And if one can
show mercy to other creation, Allah, who is the most-merciful and the
highest of high, will show his mercy on you – a mercy that transcends
any kind of mercy that we can ever fathom in our imagination. And in
essence, this is what Islam is - a religion full of mercy.
A MUNA Youth Publication