Only judge the signs of others\' words and behaviors, and do not praise excessively（Abdullah Cheng )
Dear brothers and sisters,
One of the mercy and blessings that Allah has given us which we don’t always notice, is that He made it possible for us to conceal and hide our evil thoughts and intentions within ourselves. On top of that, we are not accountable for those evil thoughts as long as we do not act upon them. The Prophet (SAW) said:
“Whoever thinks of doing a good deed then does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed. If he thinks of doing a good deed and then does it, Allah will write it down and double them with 10 to 700 times and even many more folds. If he thinks of doing a bad deed then he does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed, and if he thinks of doing it then he does it, Allah will write it down as one bad deed.” [Sahih Bukhari 6491]
If the negative thoughts in our minds were known publicly to everyone, then all of our dignity and honor would have been lost. Therefore, it is a mercy from Allah that these thoughts can be kept within ourselves privately. However, this also means that we can only judge people based on their actions, but not their hearts or intentions, because Allah is the only One who knows the hearts of people.
This is a reminder for myself and every single Muslim, because often times we tend to forget that people are fallible and commit sins and mistakes, especially when it comes to famous figures like celebrities, scholars, Imams, influencers, people with great recognition and reputation, high popularity, widely respected by others, and so on.
When meeting these types of people in real life or even just talking about these people, one very common mistake that we might easily fall into is to over-praise them to the extent that the words of praise do not align with reality, giving them a level of respect and dignity that they do not actually deserve. This often happens when one of us tries to seek the pleasure from that respected person so that he or she can gain approval or recognition from that same person, especially if that respected person has a certain level of influence in public. This may also happen out of inferiority complex, from looking down upon our own selves and undermining our sense of self-worth, so that by over-praising others, we can compensate and cover our shortcomings from being exposed to others.
Out of all human beings in history, the one person who deserves the highest level of praise is our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), but even with him, there is a limit to that. Our Prophet (SAW) himself said: “Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary, for I am only a servant. So call me the servant of Allah and the Messenger of Allah.” [Sahih Bukhari 3445]
We all know that as a result of over-exaggerating the status of Isa (AS), he is eventually regarded by the Christians as God possessing divinity, while in reality, those divine qualities do not befit him but only to Allah (SWT). Even with the Ahl al-Bayt, the families of the Prophet, including Ali, Hassan, Hussain (may Allah be pleased with them), even though they are extremely pious and righteous people, if we do not set a limit to the praise we give to them, then a similar problem with Prophet Isa (AS) will occur.
One of the dangers of exaggerating our praise to others is that we begin to build unrealistic expectations by having the wrong understanding of what a person is capable of, and end up blindly following them. When we have these wrong assumptions and expectations towards these people, if someday, unfortunately, they slip up and commit sins that we would never expect them to commit, we will either be extremely disappointed and depressed, or we might even end up defending them by putting the blame to others, just because we cannot accept the fact that the person we admire has a deficiency that we did not expect.
We, as human beings, are only able to make judgement based on what we can perceive from the outer actions of others, and as for the inner intentions, only Allah knows best. Allah also reminds us in the Qur’an:
فَلَا تُزَكُّوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۖ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰٓ
Do not falsely elevate yourselves. Allah knows best who is truly righteous. [53:32]
We can only see signs of righteousness and piety from others, but never the full picture. One of the beautiful names of Allah is ‘Al-Sittir’, which means ‘The Concealer’, the concealer of our secrets and faults. If Allah had not concealed our faults and mistakes, then we would not have the honor to see anyone, nor would we even think about praising anyone.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, it is extremely important as Muslims to be able to acknowledge our self-worth and our own values as well as identify the status of others based on what we can perceive from their actions. True respect is achieved only when we put people in the right position they deserve. True respect is to put people in their place, not by giving them titles and praise that do not befit them.
If today we are the ones being praised in an exaggerated manner, then we should try to be the first ones to stop that to protect ourselves from feeling proud and arrogant as well as to prevent the person from saying things that he or she doesn’t know about.
We ask Allah to conceal and hide our faults in this world and the Hereafter, we ask Allah to remove every single seed of arrogance in our hearts, and we ask Allah to honor us on the Day of Judgement.
One of the mercy and blessings that Allah has given us which we don’t always notice, is that He made it possible for us to conceal and hide our evil thoughts and intentions within ourselves. On top of that, we are not accountable for those evil thoughts as long as we do not act upon them. The Prophet (SAW) said:
“Whoever thinks of doing a good deed then does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed. If he thinks of doing a good deed and then does it, Allah will write it down and double them with 10 to 700 times and even many more folds. If he thinks of doing a bad deed then he does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed, and if he thinks of doing it then he does it, Allah will write it down as one bad deed.” [Sahih Bukhari 6491]
If the negative thoughts in our minds were known publicly to everyone, then all of our dignity and honor would have been lost. Therefore, it is a mercy from Allah that these thoughts can be kept within ourselves privately. However, this also means that we can only judge people based on their actions, but not their hearts or intentions, because Allah is the only One who knows the hearts of people.
This is a reminder for myself and every single Muslim, because often times we tend to forget that people are fallible and commit sins and mistakes, especially when it comes to famous figures like celebrities, scholars, Imams, influencers, people with great recognition and reputation, high popularity, widely respected by others, and so on.
When meeting these types of people in real life or even just talking about these people, one very common mistake that we might easily fall into is to over-praise them to the extent that the words of praise do not align with reality, giving them a level of respect and dignity that they do not actually deserve. This often happens when one of us tries to seek the pleasure from that respected person so that he or she can gain approval or recognition from that same person, especially if that respected person has a certain level of influence in public. This may also happen out of inferiority complex, from looking down upon our own selves and undermining our sense of self-worth, so that by over-praising others, we can compensate and cover our shortcomings from being exposed to others.
Out of all human beings in history, the one person who deserves the highest level of praise is our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), but even with him, there is a limit to that. Our Prophet (SAW) himself said: “Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary, for I am only a servant. So call me the servant of Allah and the Messenger of Allah.” [Sahih Bukhari 3445]
We all know that as a result of over-exaggerating the status of Isa (AS), he is eventually regarded by the Christians as God possessing divinity, while in reality, those divine qualities do not befit him but only to Allah (SWT). Even with the Ahl al-Bayt, the families of the Prophet, including Ali, Hassan, Hussain (may Allah be pleased with them), even though they are extremely pious and righteous people, if we do not set a limit to the praise we give to them, then a similar problem with Prophet Isa (AS) will occur.
One of the dangers of exaggerating our praise to others is that we begin to build unrealistic expectations by having the wrong understanding of what a person is capable of, and end up blindly following them. When we have these wrong assumptions and expectations towards these people, if someday, unfortunately, they slip up and commit sins that we would never expect them to commit, we will either be extremely disappointed and depressed, or we might even end up defending them by putting the blame to others, just because we cannot accept the fact that the person we admire has a deficiency that we did not expect.
We, as human beings, are only able to make judgement based on what we can perceive from the outer actions of others, and as for the inner intentions, only Allah knows best. Allah also reminds us in the Qur’an:
فَلَا تُزَكُّوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۖ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰٓ
Do not falsely elevate yourselves. Allah knows best who is truly righteous. [53:32]
We can only see signs of righteousness and piety from others, but never the full picture. One of the beautiful names of Allah is ‘Al-Sittir’, which means ‘The Concealer’, the concealer of our secrets and faults. If Allah had not concealed our faults and mistakes, then we would not have the honor to see anyone, nor would we even think about praising anyone.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, it is extremely important as Muslims to be able to acknowledge our self-worth and our own values as well as identify the status of others based on what we can perceive from their actions. True respect is achieved only when we put people in the right position they deserve. True respect is to put people in their place, not by giving them titles and praise that do not befit them.
If today we are the ones being praised in an exaggerated manner, then we should try to be the first ones to stop that to protect ourselves from feeling proud and arrogant as well as to prevent the person from saying things that he or she doesn’t know about.
We ask Allah to conceal and hide our faults in this world and the Hereafter, we ask Allah to remove every single seed of arrogance in our hearts, and we ask Allah to honor us on the Day of Judgement.