LESSON OF THE DAY 701

Ayah of the Day:
Whoever retaliates to the degree he was injured, then is further unjustly oppressed, God will help him: for God does pardon and forgive. [22: 60]

Hadith of the Day:
Verily another person's belongings are unlawful (to take) except with his heart's content. [Bayhaqi]

Wise Quote of the Day:
Face off your difficulties with patience, and fence in your blessings with thankfulness. [Ali radi Allah anhu]

Guidance of the Day:
To know some of the vast benefits of humbleness encourages us to fight the evil of arrogance. Humbleness is the profession of the prophets and saints, of the truly wise and pious servants of Allah. It is this character praised by Allah that brings one to the highest spiritual level.

To be humble, we have to know ourselves: where we came from, where we are going in this life. We must be aware of the facts and exclude the inventions of our ego and imagination. The ego is not only resistant to accepting religious norms but also defies reason and awareness of facts. It prefers imagination and exaggeration. It loves heights and loves itself. It likes to see itself up above everything and everybody. It is blind and deaf to reality.

To know ourselves, we have to stop doting on ourselves and become objective. We must look at ourselves with neutral eyes, the eyes of the norms of the revealed law. Surely every believer will be able to locate generosity between avarice and wastefulness; honest work between ambition and laziness; courage between brazenness and cowardice; hope between doubt and rigidity. The median is the center of perfect balance. That is what one has to discover in oneself. But because our ego is apt to push us upwards, it is best to consider ourselves as lesser than we have found ourselves to be. That is what humbleness is. The safest way of being is to consider oneself lower than everybody else. That was the way of the generation of Muslims after the Prophet. [The Path of Muhammad]

Food for Thought:
The world belongs to the energetic. Energy and persistence conquer all things. The real difference between men is energy. A strong will, a settled purpose, an invincible determination, can accomplish almost anything; and in this lies the distinction between great men and little men.