10-Being mean and miserly,i.e. not wanting to part with wealth.
Wasting your wealth ,being stingy, spending money on committing sins and spreading sins, these are major signs of weakness of faith. If you look at the countries like Somalia, Muslim brothers and Sisters are dying from famine. But the rich Islamic countries are heedless gathering wealth and using it miserly to gather more wealth. Wealth is given to us by Allah (swa) and Allah (swa) can take the wealth instantly. For once ponder into the story of the Qaroon. He gathered so much wealth that the keys of his treasure were difficult to lift by body of able men. He became so proud and arrogant that he told that the wealth he attained is from his intelligence not because Allah (swa) gave it to him. On top of this he used his wealth to defame Moosa (as). So Allah (swa) sunk him to the Earth with all his wealth. So fear Allah (swa) and spend the wealth Allah (swa) had given us in His way.
11- Ordering others to do good deeds when not practicing them ourselves.
It is very common to see that we order or advice others to do good deeds but that person doesn't practice it. I have seen fathers and mothers who smoke but they themselves don't want their children to do it. But the funny thing is they smoke in front of their kids. Likewise some parents they don't perform the prayers but they want their children to do it. This is not the way we should advice or order people to do good deeds.
There is a story of a child who ate sugar too much. So his father was very concerned about the whole thing and he wanted to take him to a pious person to advice his child. So the Father and Son went to see this pious person and they told him why they come to see him. So that pious person thought for few minutes and told the Father to come back within a certain time period. So they went away and came back within that time. When they came in the pious person simply said to the child to stop eating sugar. The Father was bit dazzled by the simple advice. So the father asked the pious person why they had to wait this long to hear that simple advice. The pious person said “how can I ask your son to stop eating sugar while I am doing the same thing, so I took the time period I told you to wait to stop eating sugar too". This is the right way to advice someone! First we should be upright!
12- Feeling pleased when things are not progressing for others.
Muslims are like a single body. If a part of the body is injured or in pain the whole body feels it. The Muslims when they see their brothers and sisters suffering they feel the same suffering as their brothers and sisters are suffering. Some people are pleased to see other Muslim not progressing or suffering. Islam is the religion which brought us together as brothers and sisters. We were a one Nation without borders. But Nationalism had divided us making us rivals. Racism and Nationalism are thorns in our path way to form a one Nation. Now what we see is two Muslim countries side by side fighting each other and they are pleased to see each other not progressing or suffering. The west had deluded us in their propaganda to divide us and to attain the natural wealth of Muslim countries. But our leaders deluded in the wealth of this world had brought war ,civil unrest ,bloodshed , hunger and death into their people and their nation.
13- Being concerned with whether something is haram or halal only; and not avoiding makrooh (not recommended) things.
Most us we know what are haraam and halaal in Islam and we tend to obey these rules very strictly. But things makrooh in our religion is taken very lightly. First let’s look at what makrooh is in Islam , makrooh means disliked, hated or detested. It is used in reference to actions and deeds that are refered negatively in Quran and sunnah. If you do anything which is makrooh you won't get any bad deed for that, but if you avoid makrooh you will get good deeds for that. So it is something disliked by Allah (swa) and his Messenger (saw). So if the basic foundation of Islam is to love Allah (swa) and His Messenger we are to pay more attention to makrooh.
14- Making fun of people who do simple good deeds, like cleaning the mosque.
Making fun of people who do small deeds is from the signs of weak faith. The weight of the deed depends on the sincerity of that person who performs the deed, not in the size of the deed. People might perform big deeds like building mosques, schools and hospitals, but if the sincerity of that person is not good then the weight of that deed in the Kingdom of Allah (swa) will be zero. But in the kingdom of Allah (swa) the deed of cleaning the mosque could be more rewarding than actually building a mosque. The reality is we don't know the level of sincerity of any person who does small or big deeds. So we should be careful when we make fun of people who does small good deeds.
In the preparation for the battle of Tabuk our Messenger Muhammad (saw) ordered the Muslims to give all they can to prepare for the battle. At that time Madina was hit by a harsh drought. But the companions gave all they can in the way of Allah (swa). Some companions gave their whole wealth. One of the companions worked really hard to gather few dates which covered both of his hands. But when he saw the other companions giving so much he was reluctant to give what he got. Our Messenger (saw) came to know about this and call this companion and got hold of his few dates and called out loud that this few dates are more than all the wealth you all gave in the way of Allah (swa) and then sprinkled these dates on top of all the food which was gathered.
15- Not feeling concerned about the situation of Muslims.
The Muslims throughout the world are being persecuted and their land stolen from them. We being Muslims where ever we are we should always care about what’s happening to our Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world. Our Messenger (saw) had said that" Muslim ummah is like one body, if one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts". So if you are not concerned about the Muslim ummah you need to evaluate you faith and emaan. The companions of our Messenger Muhammad (saw) were willing to sacrifice everything they had for their Muslim brothers and sisters. One of the best example is when the companions of Muhammad (saw) from Mecca migrated to Madinah ,the Muslims of the Madinah were willing to pay their wealth and even one of the companion who had more than one wife were willing to divorce his wife so that the Meccan Muslim could marry her. This is the unity we should have! But the reality is in our neighboring countries Muslims are persecuted, killed, raped and thrown out of their land but we don't feel a thing. You might sleep comfortably in your houses and enjoy with your family now but remember that there will be a day that you will stand in front of Allah (swa) and you have to be answerable to the fact that you gave a deaf ear to the cry of your Muslim brothers and sisters.
16- Not feeling the responsibility to do something to promote Islam.
Our numbers are high but when it comes to promoting Islam unfortunately there are a handful of us. Everywhere in the world our religion is defamed and the enemies of Islam are tirelessly working to propagate against Islam. The media being the most efficient tool to promote Islam, there are so few Islamic TV and Radio Channels. It’s not that we are lacking in technology or in money. It is because the owners of these Channels are corrupted by the delusions of this world. What they don't realize is that they are using the media to corrupt and propagate against Islam instead of promoting Islam. Throughout the world the media in Islamic countries are filled with illegal and corrupted programs and shows. But think about if these resources are used to promote Islam how our communities will be benefited.
If we look into the individual efforts put on to promote Islam, there are so many Muslims who practice Islam but when it comes to promoting Islam we are so way back compared to the efforts that we should put on. There are so many talented Muslims out there! But the talents put into actions to promote Islam are few!
17- Liking to argue just for the sake of arguing without any proof.
It is very often that we hear people arguing about the principles of Islam and its law without having proper knowledge and arguing for sake of arguing without any proof. It is not only Muslims but even non-Muslims are talking about the laws of Islam without any knowledge. The sad thing is that Muslims throughout the world are falling victim to these traps. Especially if the arguments are from Muslims it is more corrupting. There are scholars, presidents and politicians who knowingly propagate or argue against the concept of Islam without having proper knowledge. Most of the time the arguments are propagated against the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (saw). Some scholars and people had propagated against the concepts of jihad, face veil, beard, music and other Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (saw). These scholars are propagating not because they don't know these aspects of the Islam; they are doing this knowingly just for sake of status, money and power or just for sake of arguing. But what they don't realize is that they are propagating against Allah (swa). If you think you can win by propagating against Allah (swa), you are paving your own destruction from your own hands. The world had witnessed stronger civilization than us who propagated against Allah (swa) vanish in seconds. They were taken by surprise by the wrath of Allah (swa).
18- Becoming engrossed and very involved with dunya, with worldly things, i.e. feeling bad only when losing something in terms of material wealth.
We Human beings when we are inside our mother’s womb we don't know that a place like this earth exists. The child inside the womb is separated by a curtain which divides his world (the womb) from this worldly life. Just like this we don't really realize that this worldly life is a curtain which separate us from the life in the grave . One day we will leave this worldly life and travel to the next step of our journey.
Our journey of life is divided into four stages. These four stages are life inside our mother’s womb, this worldly life, the life in grave and the life after the resurrection day which is eternal. For many of us this world seems to be everything. But every human being in the face of the earth knows that one day death will meet him. But what makes him forget that death is constantly chasing him? The answer is this world! We are so engrossed in this worldly life we remember our death so little. Everyone is busy gathering money, wealth, power and status. They are so busy that they don't see the men and women dying around them every day. These people will only feel sad when their wealth or status is lost. But they don't realize that while gathering the richness in this world by committing sins he is destroying his wealth in the hereafter, he don't realize that by achieving his status in this world by bribing he is losing his status in the hereafter ,he don't realize that by fornicating all the women in this world he is losing the maidens of hereafter and because he forgot about the almighty Allah (swa) who gave him everything in this world he will be forgotten in the hereafter.
19- Becoming engrossed and obsessive about ourselves.
Our obsessiveness about ourselves had plunged us into a stage that cannot be revived. In Quran Allah (swa) say" That day a man shall flee from his brother. And from his mother and father. And from his wife and children." (80/34-36). In these verses of Quran Allah (swa) is saying that on the day of resurrection we will flee from our mother, father, brothers, wives and children in fear that they might ask us to give some good deeds that we attained by doing good deeds. But even in this worldly life our actions are like this! We are overly obsessive with ourselves that we had forgotten our parents who took care of us when we were helpless; we are so stingy that we don't care if our brothers and sisters die due to hunger and our wives and children are sitting hungry at the house but we are gambling with the monthly salary.
When we look at our Islamic communities the reality is that we don't care about our neighbors, relatives or friends. Our beautiful Islamic principles are disappearing. Our Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his companions always took helping others as the first priority even if they had to leave their needs on the sideline. This is the beautiful example given to us by the Prophet (saw). But what we see is that we don't have time to think about these Muslim brothers and sisters because we are too obsessive with ourselves and our life.
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