The Virtue of Obedience and Honor
In The Name Of Allah Most Compassionate Ever Merciful
Abundance of Mercy and blessing be upon the Noble Messenger Muhammad (s.a.w)
Oh Allah, I ask of You a beneficial knowledge
I ask of You good provision and
I ask of You deeds that will be acceptable by You
Allahuma Inii Asialuka Ilman Nafiian, wa Rizqan Tayyiban, Waamalan Mutaqabalan. Amin
In this age where everyone have access to information, yet beneficial knowledge is scare while intelligent discussion on issues is rare! Emotion and razzmatazz is the order of the day.
Looking for virtue, obedience or honor among the Elite or their children is like looking for a virgin in the maternity ward.
Yet, to build a healthy society, virtues and obedience are key factors and honor is the derivative for those that knows. For a fact, Leadership need to be obeyed, however, Leaders need virtues to be honored. Charity begins from home, yet someone says there is no more homes, what is out there are Houses and Mansions not home.
From home virtues are acquired, from home obedience is taught, and in a home honor is attained. It is important that those that still has a home should do whatever is possible to retain and maintain it. Those that are yet to build a home should work hard at it.
You may not know the value of what you have until you have lost it.
However, the IbaduRahman (Servant of the Most Merciful) does not take offense when his person is insulted. He is rather patient with what comes his / her way knowing fully that Allah will compensate all and no one will be short-changed.
Love for the sake of Allah!!!
A Muslim should love for the sake of Allah, meaning that:
Anyone that claims he loves you will not encourage you to do evil
Neither will he do evil to you nor offer you what is prohibited
Anyone that will have you disobeying Allah
Does not love you.
Losing your honor should not be part of proof of love as a Muslim!
In Islam, obedience is solely and only to Allah. However, others that were honored by Allah are to be obeyed in as much as what you are commanded does not lead to the disobedience to Him (s.w.t). As a matter of must, A believer is commanded to Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those that are rightly guided among you.
The Parent, the Teacher, The Leader are to be honored. This is not minding whether they are Muslim or not. However Obedience is solely to Allah and His Messenger. For one, your Creator(s.w.t) knows you and what is good for you. If you obey Him(s.w.t) you are the end beneficiary, and, if you disobey, you are on your own when the consequence of your acts occur, you blame no one but yourself. Next in line of obedience are the Messengers of Allah, the last of which is Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w), they have no personal desires, neither are they selfish, Messengers acts solely on the direction of Allah, the owner of their Souls.
A Little Story on Virtue, Obedience and Honor:
l-Kisai was a Lecture, he is the Tutor of Ameen and Mamun, the two are the children of the first Family of the time named Harun Rasheed.
On this particular day, the Lecture pay a visit to the first Family; and in Muslim Homes, it is bad manners to wore your shoes into the living room. You off your shoes and place it at the appropriate shoe rack meant for that purpose.
On this day under review, the teacher had finished discoursing with the first family and ready to go to his abode.
His students, the two young Men, rushed to get the shoes of their Lecturer for him. After much argument, the teacher directs the Twins to bring a leg each of the shoes to him.
The young men went through all these due to the reverence they had for their teacher and wanting to show him how much he is revered.
When their father, the King, Harun Rasheed heard of the drama that took place in his domain, he decided to have a chart with the Teacher of his Children.
The chart goes like these:
To the Lecturer: from Harun Rasheed –
Harun Rasheed: who is the most honorable of people?
Mr Lecturer: I do not know anyone more honorable than you, the Leader of the Believers.
The King beg to disagree and he said:
No, most honorable among people is he for whom two people fight or struggle to present him with his shoes, and to please the two that were fighting, he instruct them to each give him one leg apiece.
The Lecturer: he began to justify what he had done to their Father, the King, but Harun Rasheed stopped the Lecturer from further talk by telling him thus:
Harun Rasheed: If you had prevented your students from giving you your shoes, I would have unquestionably blamed you. That certainly will be that you did not give to them quality training. In this instance, humility is the ingredient for quality education.
Certainly, what they have done by rushing to give you your shoes, did not compromise their honor. On the contrary, the King said, rather their Status, inner merit and worth have increased.
The King then conclude thus: One can never be dishonored if he displays humility before three!
A leader: Any Leader
A teacher: Any Teacher
A Parent: Any parent
Dear reader, remember that honoring someone is one thing, obeying the person is another.
It is however possible to honor and obey at the same time if the subject is God fearing.
You that crave honor, the questions you need to answer is: are you a Leader worthy of honor? How many Leaders is now getting genuine advice from those around them? The sycophants are hungry, and a hungry sycophantic person has no principle, gbam!
The Teacher deserves honor and obedience because it is given as taken that the teacher will not teach nonsense? Are you honoring your teacher for your own future blessings?
Remember that if your teacher is not pleased with you, even with your chains of Degrees, you will still not be honored.
The Parents deserve honor if not for anything, for being the source of your life. However, as a parent, is your conduct worthy of emulation by your child? You the Child, how much humility do you show to your parents? Not minding that your father has no wealth and your mother has rough hands. It cost you nothing to honor your parents, rather you gain so much more when your parents blesses you with prayers. However, a child that is fed and nurtured with wealth that is stollen from the Common Wealth of the Nation will certainly not honor those kind or type of parents. Any wonder you see children that are a source of high blood pressure to their parents! Children that handles cars that worth Millions of money like toys! Uh!
The Limit of obedience: when the Commander / Leader is not to be obeyed:
In Volume 9, Book 91, Number 363 of Bukhari:Narrated Ali:
The Prophet s.a.w, sent an army; he (s.a.w) appointed a man as their commander. The Prophpet instruct the believers to obey their Commander. On getting to the Camp, the Commander made a fire and then said (to the Soldiers), ‘Enter it.’ Some of them intended to enter it while some others said, ‘We have run away from it (i.e., embraced Islam to save ourselves from the ‘fire’).’ On their return from the expedition,they mentioned the incident to the Prophet(s.a.w), and the Messenger(s.a.w) said this about people who had intended to enter the fire.
”If you had entered it, you would have remained In it till the Day of Resurrection.”
Then he said to others,
‘No obedience for evil deeds, obedience is required only in what is good .’
The essence of life is to know that Islam is offered to you to safeguard you from hellfire, it is important to honor those that deserve to be honored, however, obedience is solely to the Creator of the heavens and the Earth and His Messenger. Remember, there is no obedience for evil deeds, obedience is only required in what is good.
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