Thorns and roses | Product of God

Bismillah.

If you want to look 10 years younger, be not a fault finder because everyone is a bearer of their own profit and loss, so no need to bother : )

Alhamdulillah it's good to be back in KL and to wind down with a good book - Devotional Stories compiled by Dr. Habib Siddiqui. The above is my takeaway from a chapter on stories of Shaykh Sa'di. The shaykh was rebuked for his fault finding:

"There was a certain young preacher who was learned and intelligent, a man of sanctity and a true worshipper. He was forcible in eloquence and correct in grammar, but his articulation was so faulty that he could not properly repeat the letters of the alphabet. I said to a holy man. "The youth has not got his front teeth!" "Speak not thus," he replied. "You have discerned his fault, but your eyes are closed to his many virtues."

"Thorns and roses grow together, why regard you only the thorns? He who is of bad nature sees nothing in the peacock but its ugly feet." Expose not the fault of others, for thereby are you forgetful of your own failings?" 

"Whether I be good or evil, keep you silent, for I am the bearer of my own profit and loss, and Allah is better acquainted with my character than you. I seek no reward from you for my virtues so that I may not be afflicted by you by reason of my sins."

"For every good act Allah will bestow not one but ten rewards. If you see one virtue in a man, do you pass over the ten faults that he has? Are not all things created, black and white, handsome and deformed, the product of God? Not every eye and eyebrow that you see is good: eat the kernel and the nut. And throw the husk away."

So don't bother.

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Publisher credit: AS Noordeen    

p/s MJB: mucho gracias for the book : )