Praising

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful This is just a personal opinion, and Allah knows best of this topic.

Praising There are a lot of times when one does a good deed, and he is praised by someone that saw him doing it. This is a very common thing in the society. Some people may praise a person not because they are really impressed, but just to encourage him to continue that act, hopefully achieving constancy in it. Other’s might praise because they are really impressed with that person, and feel compelled to let that feeling known. However, what effect do these praises have on the praised? We cannot expect to have an action without a reaction. It would be just like expecting that touching water would not make it to cause ripples, or rain drops will not cause the particles on the surface of the ground to be displaced. Clearly then, we can see that there is always an effect to an action and likewise we should expect so for praising someone. The effect tends to be harmful if the heart of the person that is praised who is not close to Allah (SWT). More specifically, how sincere he is to Allah (SWT). Take for example a person does a good deed, and while he was doing it someone happened to have seen him in the act. This person felt so compelled to go and praise this guy after what he has seen, so he walks up to him and he praises him. If the praised person did not do it out of sincerity to Allah (SWT), it will probably motivate him to do it next time seeking the praise of people. This fitnah is intensified if it is a person of the opposite gender that praised him/her. So, not only has this thing (praising) caused him to be insincere to Allah (SWT), it has also caused him to commit minor shirk – doing good deeds to show off-. May Allah make us closer to him and more sincere in our worship to Him alone. Let’s take another example of a person who is closer to Allah (SWT) and more sincere to him in worship. If that sort of person were to be praised, Allah willing he will not think of doing the act to gain the acknowledgement of any person, he would probably be hoping that Allah (SWT) is pleased with him or might even think of the praise as an encouragement from Allah (SWT) to continue on that path. Allah (SWT) is the Greatest; He can do whatever He pleases and putting that feeling of being impressed and being compelled to praise that person in another person’s hearth might be one of His ways of encouraging his loyal servants. May Allah make us among this people inshaAllah.

We can further support this, and learn from it two valuable virtues (patience and sincerity) with the story of prophet Nuh (May Allah be pleased with him). Prophet Nuh (May Allah be pleased with him) was preaching to his people for 950 years and his people were not showing any signs of adhering to the message that Allah (SWT) has sent him with . One should try to put himself in that position and assess the situation, just as Imam Anwar-Al-Awlaki said in one of his lectures on the story of Prophet Nuh (May Allah be pleased with him), “Life’s of the Prophets (Peace be Upon the All)”. He (imam Anwar) added, one would expect to see the fruits of his deeds while he is doing it. And it is true, just like when we get good grades from school we expect our parents to be pleased with it. If it were a person who was not sincere to Allah (SWT) and had no patience, he would have given up in the first weeks of the first year. We could all see where this is building up to, a very important attribute that we should all thrive to have no matter what. Sincerity to Allah (SWT), because sincerity would not only guard a person from insincerity, but also minor shirk as talked about above. Praising a person who is insincere will probably give him drive to continue doing good deeds seeking praises. A person who is sincere on the other hand, praised or not, he gets his drive from seeking the reward of Allah (SWT). We can also try to relate this to topic to the Hadith below.

Sahih Bukhari -Book - 48, Hadith - 830 Narrated Abu Bakr RA: A man praised another man in front of the Prophet. The Prophet said to him, "Woe to you, you have cut off your companion's neck, you have cut off your companion's neck," repeating it several times and then added, "Whoever amongst you has to praise his brother should say, 'I think that he is so and so, and Allah knows exactly the truth, and I do not confirm anybody's good conduct before Allah, but I think him so and so,' if he really knows what he says about him." Copied from Islamicity: http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10357&PN=3 Of course praising is something we can’t help but could have a negative effect, and that might have been the reason for this Hadith (above) because we do not know of the intentions of anyone. So we should thrive to praise people in the way the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recommended in the Hadith. May Allah save us from insincerity to Allah(SWT). Please make du’a for me, and for other Muslim brothers and sister after you have read this and May Allah make us love Him and Him us, hopefully increasing us in sincerity in worship towards Him.