The Most Important Lesson

Salam brothers and sisters. There is a topic, I have been itching to talk about. There was once a man who would go to the bar every night, and come out with a lot of alcohol. He was known to be a pious person, so people said all the bad things about him that they knew of. When this man died, it was revealed to the public that he would buy the alcohol, and go back home and pour it down the drain so that no one else would drink it. I really find it interesting how all of us, yes all of us, each have our sides that isn’t known to the public. This is the side we keep to ourselves. My purpose of writing this is to emphasize the fact that each of us has our own struggles respectively, yet we tend to come to judgements quickly without realizing what said person could be struggling with. As Muslim youth, it is very important we learn to acknowledge people’s struggles in order to foster kindness within our ummah. Simply asking how a brother or sister is doing could perhaps relieve them, you honestly never know what a person could be going through. As human beings and as a Muslim, it is integral we have empathy. Empathy in essence is the unique ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Being able to understand how a brother or sister could be feeling in that very moment is dire for us as Muslims. As Muhammad (SAW) once said, “The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.” [Bukhari]. This in essence proves that we should share compassion with each other, to understand someone’s pain, and to maybe aid said person in any shape or form. Drawing things to a close, it Is very important to treat others with kindness. Doing so will only strengthen the already existing bonds we have between each other. We all have our struggles, our sides, our problems that we don’t share. So, it is very important we treat others with kindness because we may never know what they are going through.