Who is deprived from goodness?

Kindness in the dictionary means :the quality of being generous, helpful, and caring about other people, or an act showing this quality.

 Now in Arabic the word used for kindness is rifq which literally means to be tender hearted towards others. The Prophet SAW is saying that whoever lacks this quality lacks goodness. 

If we think about this thoroughly being tender-hearted makes us compassionate and we are able to accept people for who they are. We are able to give excuses and reasons for someone’s erratic behavior. We are able to recognize the trauma, life experiences and challenges of other people. We are able to show mercy and consideration. When we lack basic kindness we jump to conclusions about others immediately which leads us to hurting their feelings and creates grudges and problems. I always mention the domino affect in many of the Ahadith explanations  I teach. The Prophet SAW advises us to adopt and refrain from certain traits. Each of those traits are like the first domino in the chain. The traits he encourages us to adopt lead to more good and creates peace in our homes. The traits he tells us to refrain from actually lead to more trouble if they are adopted .

A question that arises with this Hadith is “what if someone is being terrible with me?”. Well one thing is for sure- being terrible with them is not going to fix anything. A person who chooses to treat others wrong expects a reaction from his/her victims. Sadness and anger are usually the reactions they expect. Modern day mental health experts usually advise to “ not give the narcissist what he or she wants” – Subhanallah ! Islam teaches us the same. Kindness is the best revenge for a mean person too. He or she is not getting what they want and that is exactly what they deserve. Usually when someone is unkind to us no matter how we respond it does not take our pain away. It is best to ignore, be kind and leave matter on Allah. He is there to take care of us and will make sure we are at peace Inshallah.

 Let’s practice being kind this Ramadan. Let’s be the first to say Salam to someone who usually ignores, let’s be the first to invite the person over who ignores inviting us on purpose, let’s text the people who never reply to us. Lets reflect the true spirit of Islam and spread a good disease that is contagious- The disease of kindness.