How to become influential – 2

https://youtu.be/BTC30ZY_XpM Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.And peace and blessings be upon the honorable prophets and messengers.Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.And upon his family and companions.And many, many blessings.Brothers and sisters, this is the second installment of the Qatira,the Fajr Reminder about the importance of or rather how to become influential in life.And I said the first one was help people.Look for opportunities to help people.Find those opportunities and believe it.They're all around you.They're your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends, your relatives.Just be helpful.Just help people.And you will.Find that you will become one of the most influential people that can exist.And I gave you one of the stories also from the Sira of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,which points to this.Now, we come to the second one, which is hide people's faults.Cover up people's faults.This is one of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Jalla Jalaluhu's beautiful namesand attributes.As well as Sattarul Uyub.He is the one who covers the faults, who covers the Uyub,who covers the shortcomings, the failings, the mistakes of people.And if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does it, you can bet this is the thing to do.And if we do it, then we become people that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will love.Cover people's faults.As we know, Islam,strongly,not just prohibits, but condemnsfinding fault with people,spying on people.Allah said,In Surah Al-Hujurat,Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentioned, He said,Do not spy on people.In same Surah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,Do not curse, do not use foul language.Do not use bad words for people.And He said, how terrible it is that you use,bad language for somebody who is a Momin,for somebody who is a believer in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,Do not backbite people.Do not say, speak ill about people.And to the extent Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, to reinforce this point,He said,Speaking ill of your brothers and sisters is like eating the flesh of your dead brother.And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,Fakariz Tumma,And you find this example distasteful.Unless this is something which is worse than that, to do that,to speak ill of somebody.Now, what I want to make is that,May Allah have mercy on us.Speaking ill of people seems to be now a,literally a mainstay, right?A pillar of our social life.In many cases, or most cases.All we do is we talk about people.There's a saying in English,and I may be misquoting it a bit,but you can see the meaning of it,which says that the worst people talk about other people.People who are better than that,they talk about events and so on,which are happening in the world.And he says the best people,are the people,who talk about the higher things,talk about principles and ethics and values and morals,and things like that.So, talking about people is absolutely the worst possible thing to do.The only place where talking,and not talking about,but informing somebody about the negative aspects,or potentially or possibly negative aspects of another person,is one where you are a,a potential witness in a crime or something like that,and you have to bear witness,you have to give evidence,so this is permitted.And the other one is where somebody you know,a friend or somebody asks you about,or you know that person is entering into a relationship,whether it's a relationship of marriage,or whether it's a relationship of a business relationship,with a person about whom you have evidence of a negative nature.So you have this person who is going to,is about to do business with someone who is dishonest,who is,you know,something is wrong with,and I'm not talking about just rumors or something you heard.You have actual evidence that this person is dishonest,this person is likely to take the other one for a ride or something.In that case,you are permitted,to inform the other person about that,to that extent,that don't,don't give them their entire life history to that extent.Many times this happens,and it happens to me also,where people come and say,do you know what so and so said?So I,my standard response is,I don't know what so and so said,and I don't want to know what so and so said.Don't tell me,I'm not interested.Because the,what is the,uh,the,what is the,the,the,the benefit of that?There's zero benefit.And the harm of that is plenty because then I will be party to the riba.Because the riba,backbiting,consists of the one who's doing it and the one who is helping the other one by listening to him.So it's not only the one who's doing it,but it's also somebody who is,you know,aiding and abetting by being the one who's doing it.Being there and lending a year.And,uh,the,the,Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and the Prophet said,both are equal.Both of them are the same.Uh,and,uh,therefore that's something that we want to keep far away from.Uh,if you indulge in backbiting,if you say negative things about somebody,number one,it's like eating the flesh of your dead brother.Number two,he,that person's evil deeds will be transferred to your book of accounts and your good deeds.And,and,and,and good deeds will get transferred to that person's book of accounts.So imagine,um,you would do,I mean,you would backbite only somebody you dislike,right?I mean,nobody will,if you like somebody,you're not going to say anything negative about them.But if you're going to say,uh,negative things about someone,it means you dislike them.But that is the person to whom you are donating your good deeds.Now,why would you do that?That itself is one of thebig reasons,big reasons,uh,not to backbite because you might say,well,you know,if I like Imam Bukhari,uh,Rahul Talal,I believe once he said,uh,if I had to backbite,then I would do that about my mother because then I know that my good deeds are going to my mother,right?So obviously he's saying that as an example,not that he had to backbite about his mother or he did it or there was something to say.But the point is,the point to remember is that,uh,such an evil,evil thing,absolutely,incredibly evil thing,which,um,which you must not do.So hide people's faults.Uh,even if somebody asks you,tell them,no,I don't know.Even if you know,say,I don't know because it is this,uh,to,to tell a lie in this case is,uh,permissible because you are doing it for this good reason,uh,to save yourself from backbiting and to save the other person's reputation.So it is,and you are saying that I don't know,you're not,you're not denying or,uh,uh,or,uh,refuting or,uh,supporting anything.You're saying I don't know.So it's,do that.Stay far away from this.Hide people's faults.Um,don't,don't go looking for people's faults.That's why,Lata Jaisal Su is such good advice.Uh,Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said,do not spy because there is always,you know,once you start spying,then there is always this,uh,um,tendency and temptation,uh,to take it a step further.And so now since I know this,then,uh,you know,let me,let me talk about it.So don't get into that.Okay.This is the best way is not to know.There's no need to know.Uh,it doesn't mean that you are an ignorant person.No,there is no need to know what all kinds of,uh,personal details about other people's lives.It's a,it's not part of your life to,uh,you know,spend time investigating other people's lives.So,uh,this is something very important to keep in mind,hide people's faults.And if you do that,Allah will hide your faults.And this is the hadith of the Prophet .He said,if you hide people's faults in this life,Allah will hide your faults on the day of judgment.There's this,I want to end this with this very beautiful hadith,which I always keep repeating with the niyyah.I ask Allah ,that Ya Allah,you,uh,enabled me to know this hadith.You enabled me to remember this hadith.You enabled me to remember this hadith.You enabled me to remember it.You enabled me to,uh,repeat it so many times.Uh,so please make it come true,uh,for me and for all those who are,who have heard this hadith from me.And that is the hadith where Rasul said to people that a man will be produced before Allah .And as we know,anytime in these kinds of narratives and statements,when it says a man,it doesn't,it's not a gender statement.It's a man or a woman.Uh,we,we,uh,will be produced before Allah .And this person will be standing in front of his Rabb.And Allah will ask this person,uh,he would tell him actually,uh,on such and such a day,you did this,you said this.And the person will say,yes,Ya Rabb,I did.Because what's he going to do?He can't,he can't deny his Rabb.He cannot deny,uh,you know,what is,what Allah is saying because he knows that when he was doing this thing,whatever it was,Allah was watching.Um,he did it despite that.Even though he knew Allah was watching,it didn't deter him from doing something which was wrong.It should have deterred him,but he didn't.Yes,he,he continued.Um,and see the mercy of Allah.Allah ,you are disobeying Allah directly,um,in his presence,in sight and sound of Allah .He is seeing and hearing.And yet Allah does not take any,any precipitate action immediately,even though he has the power to do that.Right?For example,if you look at something which Allah has prohibited,you don't go blind.If you do,if you raise your hand to do something which Allah has prohibited,uh,you don't get paradise.Right?If you listen to something which Allah has prohibited,uh,you don't go deaf.None of this happens.Allah allows you,uh,to continue.And he does not,uh,immediately call you to account and call us to account.So this is something that we should,you know,thank Allah for.See,Arab,if you had,you had the power,you could have called us to account right then and there.And if you had done that,what would we have done?Nothing.What would you have done?What could I do?What could you do?Absolutely nothing.