منتدى قصة الإسلام

Modesty was of equal value to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Modesty, according to him was capital in getting to Paradise . To be modest with everyone was nearness to Allah.

About his teachings on modesty the Prophet said: “Shall I tell you about the inhabitants of Paradise ? They are all modest persons.” “Shall I tell you about the inhabitants of Hell? They are all ignoble, rude and proud ones” (Bukhari, 2671). In essence, they were to choose between hell and paradise when deciding to be modest or not to be modest. This statement aforementioned was not in any way intended to threaten his followers. Rather, and, more importantly, it was softly spoken so that it can keep echoing in their minds about why he is insisting about being modest while on earth. The retribution after death may be very frightful if they choose not to be modest while still living.

To show that the Prophet was not only limiting in his message about modesty to followers of Islam, he made this important statement: “Every religion has a character and the character of Islam is modesty” (Muwatta, 47.2.9). In essence, he was rallying support as well for more following in Islam even though other religions equally have important characters.

The Prophet always preferred to follow the middle course between two extremes. Since modesty and kindness are related to each other in treating others, Prophet Muhammad also laid emphasis on kindness as an important element of the spirit.

The kind of modesty that Prophet Muhammad possessed was exemplary. According to Rahman, (1992), Prophet Muhammad was so modest to the extent that people will literally seek him in a crowd. He preferred to sandwiched himself between the people preferring not to stand out to be noticed by everyone. This sometime created problems to those who would come to a place purposely to seek him out and ask questions or needing help.

There are also several verses in the Qu’ran that teach people how to be modest:

“ And the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility and modesty, and when ignorant address them, they say peace”.(25:63)

“ Seek ( Allah’s) Help with prayer and perseverance: it is indeed hard except to those who bring lowly spirit.” ( 2: 45)

“ Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty…and say to the believing woman that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty” ( 24: 30-31)

The idea of lowering ones gaze is the next attempt at being modest and humble before everybody. If you are not modest before everybody then it will be difficult for you to be modest before Allah.

To be true to oneself means that one has to exercise modesty in judgment, calmness of spirit and deep reflection before any given utterance that would portray one as a modest scholar because the boundaries of knowledge are really unfathomable. Only Allah knows the end of knowledge. We are just agents, students all the time trying to learn about the wonders of the world. And the fact that we hardly come close to the truth about the mystery of this life and the world is indicative of the fact that we have to be modest when displaying any knowledge that we have acquired. We can be challenged by another scholar more eminent than us in our own field.

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Allah has made sure that the people all over the earth know there is something called "Islam." But He has also given us another chance to share the truth about what Islam actually is and what it is not. This may well be our last chance too. Maybe the Last Day is just around the corner and this is a way for us to wake up and do our job before it is too late for us.
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To be continued in shaa' Allah
Thanks again :)