Perfecting One's Character

Perfecting One's Character

 

Perfecting One's Character
"The Magnificent Journey"  by Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah

The Prophet used to make a number of supplications related to good character.

"O Allah, guide me to good character, none guides to good character but You..." [Muslim]

"O Allah, I seek refuge in you from bad character, deeds and desires." [at-Tirmidhee]

"O Allah, You perfectly created me, so perfect my character." [Ahmad]

"O Allah, I seek refuge in you from disability and laziness; from cowardice and avarice; from decrepitude and harshness; from negligence and impoverishment, from lowness and humiliation. And I seek refuge in You from poverty and disbelief; from sinfulness, disunity and hypocrisy; from notability and riyaa' (show off)..." [Ahmad, Maalik, Bazaar, Haithami and ibn `Abd al-Barr authenticated it.]

The following beneficial excerpt is from "The Magnificent Journey" by ibn ul Qayyim [published by QSS]. It explains three conditions needed to acquire good manners.

Three Conditions to Acquire Excellent Manners

This is one example of the excellent manners with which Allah (ta`aala) has equipped his Messenger . He described him as,

"Verily, You [Muhammad] are on an exalted standard on character." [68:4]

`Aa'ishah (raa), described him as, "His character was just [a reflection of] the Qur'aan." [Muslim, Aboo Daawood, Ahmad]

Such excellent character cannot be attained without three conditions:

1. The foundation must be good. If one has a rough and dry nature, it will be hard for him to submit to this [excellence of character] through knowledge, will, or practice. On the other hand, a mild and smooth nature will be ready and willing to receive the plowing and the seeds [to prepare it for character excellence].

2. The soul must be strong and capable of conquering calls of laziness, transgression, and desire. Those matters contradict perfection, and souls which cannot defeat them will always be defeated and conquered.

3. [One must possess] a discerning knowledge of the truth of matters, enabling one to put them in the rightful position, and to distinguish between flash and cancer - between glass and jewels.

If these three qualities are present in a man, and Allah's facilitation helps him, then he will be among those whom the best (husnaa) has been decreed and for whom Allah's care has been secured.

Now days we as Muslims have to spread the voice to learn quran online and so we could gain the true knowledge and the quran teaching that is give to us by our beloved prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and do quran reading. Do we as Muslim ask our self that why we are at the peak of destruction? The answer will be simple that we have left our roots the holy quran we should guide promote Islam from in our homes first and let learn our kids quran  and encourage them in doing quran memorization this should be our first goal for it we can do different stuff like let then participate in different online quran recitation competition to let them read quran from different online quran reciters and along with it we elders should learn quran also and improve our knowledge of quran and Islam and learn holy quran tafseer because to understand and learn quran Arabic and for this now a days there are many online quran tutor available who teach tajweed quran and its translation and tafseer so let us join our hands to be the voice of Islam and let improve the image of it as well and full fill our duty