Article: Ten Oppressors
Assalamu Alaikum.
It’s interesting. We never think of ourselves as being oppressors, do we?
Even if we were oppressors, we wouldn’t think of ourselves as being this way. It’s what I call the “martyr complex”. Most people have an inordinately high opinion of themselves.
I remember hearing of a study done where 90% of the people said that they were the best drivers that they knew and another study where 90% said that they were the most social people that they knew!
The above studies show that most people consider themselves to be very good.
And that’s one of the big problems that we have today. Because we secretly see ourselves as being one of the “good guys”, too often we fail to see the truth of who we are.
Yes, not all of us are good guys. Sorry, but that’s the truth.
And perhaps the real good guys are the ones who fear they are actually the bad guys?
Confused? Read the following hadeeth and you’ll understand:
[*I’ve only copied the first part of this hadeeth here.]
Umm Muawiyah’s Simple Translation of the above hadeeth:
– Bad Guys think that they are good
Interesting, isn’t it?
And to further add to my depression, my friend sent me the following highly-depressing article (Point No. 10 reminded me of what many of us are like in Ramadan) .
Please read it and ponder over it:
Tanbeeh al-Ghafileen
Sufyan ath-Thauri, may Allah have mercy on him, said that ten people are regarded as oppressors:
- The person who prays for himself, but forgets his parents and other believers.
- The person who does not recite at least a hundred verses of the Qur’an daily.
- The person who leaves the Masjid without performing at least two raka’ahs of salah.
- The person who passes a graveyard without greeting the deceased or praying for them.
- The person who enters a city on a Friday and leaves without performing the Friday prayer.
- That man or woman in whose vicinity a learned person comes and none acquires any religious knowledge from him.
- Those two people who love each other for the pleasure of Allah but are unaware of each others names.
- That person who is invited by another but does not accept his invitation (when acceptance does not contradict the Shari`ah).
- That youngster that has no commitments yet does not acquire any religious knowledge or manners.
- That person who has eaten to his fill while his neighbour goes hungry.
