HAhmed.com

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Prophet said: Allah the Almighty said:

“I am as My servant expects Me to be. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me a hand’s span, I draw near to him an arm’s length; and if he draws near to me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.”

(Hadith Qudsi, Al-Bukhari)

Last Friday Mujeeb spoke at an Interfaith breakfast, and again at jummah khutbah at Stony Brook. In both of his talks, he mentioned the sahih hadith qudsi cited above in which Allah (swt) is as his servant thinks he is, or expects him to be, or as mujeeb translated, in the opinion of his servant.

This is a very profound hadith, for it means that if you really do truly view Allah (swt) as the most merficul and forgiving and accepting of repentance, then as a servant of God, you also must truly be merciful and forgiving and accept other’s repentance. More generally, you must aspire to fulfill the positive divine attributes of God in yourself if that is what you truly believe God to be.

How can we expect God to forgive us for our many shortcomings if we oursleves cant forgive our own brothers and sisters who we consider friends for our own mistakes?

In another Hadith, it is said that:

“Whoever rectifies the situation between himself and Allah , Allah (SWT) will rectify the situation between him and others” (Hadith).

This post is for myself more than anyone else. We should always strive to seek forgiveness and pray that we become more conscious of our actions/shortcomings and how heedless we truly are. I humbly ask all those I have ever wronged or let down to forgive me for my actions and shortcomings.

Inshallah we should all strive to learn from our mistakes to prevent them from happening again. Lets all remain steadfast in asking for forgiveness for everything we have done and be forgiving to one another, for God is in the opinion of his servant, so lets be forgiving and merciful servants to الغفار (The Forgiving) and الرحيم (The Most Merciful).