June 28, 2007 Da'wah/Naseeha Halaqah

given by: Hajira Ali

- "istiqaamah" = calling Muslims to Islaam
- when you're counseling others, don't hide anything, be honest and the rest is up to Allah swt
- don't love people more with your words than your heart (don't exaggerate)
- be good to people and don't backbite -->this is how you can be a good counsel to others, how it'll build trust between people
- the absence of good counsel is indicative of envy; so if you don't advise someone in a matter that needs to be addressed, it probably means you're envious of her/him
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Envy consumes good deeds like fire burns up dry wood (hadith)
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- as sincere Muslims, we should dislike all praise, both for dunya and deen; liking praise can sometimes mean that you think you earned whatever it was that they people praise you for = pride develops

- when someone praises you, you should make the du'a : 'O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what this person has said about me and make me better than that.' (It was narrated that Sayidna Ali would make this dua)

- don't say explicitly what you can say implicitly; this is the more gentle approach, just like how the Prophet (S) was in everything

- hadith: the Prophet (S) said, "He who cannot keep a trust has no faith."

- there are 3 things that are beneath the throne of Allah
1)benefaction
2)kinship ties
3)trust

- be wary of argumentation and wrangling
- when a person starts to argue, shaytan is with him/her

- Story of man who was cursing Abu Bakr (RA) and he stayed quiet until the man said something that really got under his skin, so he replied with a simple refutation; at this point the Prophet(S) left; Abu Bakr (RA) became scared that he did something wrong and asked the Prophet (S) what he did wrong; he (S) replied that the moment he opened his mouth, shaytan came and the Prophet (S) left to get away from shaytan

- it is sufficient evil that at Muslim despises his brother
- humility is the characteristic of the believers
- pride is to deny the truth (and there was another part to this statement that i didn't get)

- signs of a true believer:
>like obscurity (meaning not being famous)
>love the poor
>take advice from any rank; just because a person is poor, it doesn't mean their knowledge is questionable
- these are signs of humility
- we should excuse those who are amiss and give each his right

*anything good that's written is from Allah, and may HE swt forgive me for any mistakes I may have made*