Mercy Begins with Us | Hidden Treasures Episode 24 | Mufti Aasim Rashid

Mercy Begins with Us

Allah has brought people into our lives. These people are connected and attached to us in different ways. The most important of those people are those who are directly related to us.

Our parents, children, siblings, relatives, families and extended families, spouses — these are people that Allah has brought into our lives. And throughout our lives, we have various experiences. Many of those experiences are beautiful.

We share wonderful times and enjoyable memories, and sometimes the experiences are not pleasant. Someone has said something or done something to another individual which has left hurt feelings, a broken heart, and emotional injuries. And one of the things that we have to do — because Ramadan is a season to help us become better holistically from all perspectives of our lives — is that one of those perspectives has to be relationships, where we renew our commitment to improve our relationships with those people who are in our lives, and secondly undertake the challenge to mend those relationships that may have become damaged or broken or weakened just through our mutual experiences.

Whose Fault Is It?

This is not a discussion about whose fault it is. It could be that I am at fault, it could be that the other party is at fault. Whatever the case may be, if we have wronged someone, if we have hurt someone, then our duty is to make amends, to fix whatever we have done wrong. If it's a right or a due that we owe someone, we have to pay that right and that due here in this dunya, otherwise it's going to be very, very difficult to do that in the akhira.

And if someone owes us a right, we have to ask ourselves: can we find it within ourselves to pardon the person? Maybe give them time, have a conversation with them about how the issue can be resolved. And if we do find it within ourselves to completely pardon and forgive the other person — which is a very difficult thing to do, but it's the difficulty that makes it so rewarding from Allah — a person who gives up their rights, forgoes dues that are owed to them, lets things go for the sake of Allah, Allah compensates them from His own treasures which have no bounds and no limits.

Progress Over Perfection

If we can find a way to do that, then this is the greatest, greatest achievement. And if we can't quite get there, then let's at least resolve the issue to the point where the animosities and the enmities and the severing of relations comes to an end. There has to be some kind of a process of getting closer together — even if it's not a complete amendment, even if it's not a complete change of course, even if it's not a perfect relationship — there must be some progress made through this blessed month of Ramadan, when the hearts are softened, when Allah's mercy is showering upon us. There has to be some growth and some progress.

Humility and Elevation

So if we find ourselves in that position where there is someone in our life that we need to make amends with — somebody that we should be closer to but we're not quite there, someone that we find ourselves alienated from or they have become isolated from us — let us all resolve, for the sake of Allah, to take steps to rebuilding that relationship.

And إن شاء الله, the one who does this, who humbles themself only for the sake of Allah and for the sake of upholding the importance of the relationship that Allah has put them in, this person can never fail. A person who humbles themself for the sake of Allah, Allah undertakes to elevate that person. And once Allah starts elevating a person, there is no power — forget about people — there is no power in the world that can possibly lower that person.

May Allah give me and all of you the ability to start moving in this direction before this short term of life is over.