Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

Ijtanibū kathīran min al-ẓann
—this
isn’t just advice to Muslims, it’s advice to all of humanity.
This is why in the next 
āyah
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) does not say: 
yā ayyuha
alladhīna āmanū
—O you who believe; He says: 
yā ayyuha al-nās
—O 
people
,
We made you nations and tribes, We made you into different kinds of
ethnicities, different languages, different cultures—
li-taʿārafū
—so you can get
to know one another, not so you make fun of each other, not so you make
assumptions about each other. That wasn’t the point in making you different
ethnicities. You didn’t realize why I made you like this. Why are we different?
You didn’t get the point. That address is to all of humanity; but before He
addressed all of humanity He said: 
yā ayyuha alladhīna āmanū ijtanibū kathīran
min al-ẓann
. Why did He say that? What are some of the 
ḥikam
in that?
I conclude with this: before addressing all of humanity, He addressed the
believers because the Muslims were supposed to be the example of: how you

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don’t stereotype; how you don’t make fun of other people; how you don’t make
assumptions; how you have clean communication; how you give the benefit of
the doubt; how you don’t pass judgement until you have absolute clarity. Until
you have clarity, you don’t say anything. You reserve your judgement.
Somebody asks your opinion, ‘What do you think about this imam?’ ‘What
do you think about this person?’ You say, ‘Well, I don’t know enough to say, but
I think he’s pretty bad’. No, no, no! ‘I don’t know enough to say.’ Full stop! It’s
done! I’ve got nothing else to say. I’m going to assume he’s a good person, I’m
almost sure he’s a good person. If anything, 
jid li-akhīka ʿudhran
: find excuses
for your brother.
If you don’t know enough just say, ‘Look, I don’t know, I’ve only heard
things’ which obviously is 
qīl wa-qāl
—when you hear something bad and you
spread it, this is against the teachings of the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-
sallam
). So when you say, ‘You know what I heard...’ and you continue your
sentence, you just violated something the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-
sallam
) said. When you start saying, ‘You know what I’ve heard….’ ‘No never
mind, I didn’t hear anything. It was somebody else.’ Change the subject. Don’t
finish the sentence, because that’s part of spreading 
ẓann
. And then the heard,
the heard, and the heard goes so far that people just start making all kinds of
assumptions, then start making decisions based on those assumptions— 
subḥān
Allāh
.
We have to become people that see clarity. Until something is 
absolutely
clear
, we don’t take a step forward, we never take a step forward. This is in
family life, this is in work life, this is in community life, this is even in terms of
the news sometimes we hear things in the news that are outrageous and we
assume that it’s true. An entire machine built on the idea of selling fear, how can
we trust it? There has to be more thorough investigative journalism before we
make assumptions about an entire people or events. We have to develop a
scepticism when: 
in jā’akum fāsiq bi-naba’ fa-tabayyanū
(
al-Ḥujurāt
49: 6)—
when a corrupt source comes to you with news then clarify it. Don’t just listen to
it 
fa-tabayyanū
, and in another 
qirā’ah
(variant reading), 
fa-tathabbatū
. Until
you are absolutely firm about what it actually is, do not pass judgement. Do not
make assumptions.
May Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) help us live according to these principles that can
make our lives, the lives of our families and the life of our community and the
ummah so much better than it is today. May Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) help us to
become those who don’t look for flaws in what other people are saying but

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rather develop sincerity towards others, a love towards others. And may Allah
(
ʿazza wa-jall
) use the message of this 
dīn
not to spread differences among us
but to unite us as a people and bring our hearts closer together.

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CHAPTER 5
Leadership
O
ften times, it’s easy to talk about how great the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi
wa-sallam
) was, and what an incredible example he was, but it’s very difficult to
put a mirror to ourselves and discover how far we are from the example he left.
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) did not make him an incredible example just for us to
praise the example; He made him that example so we can live up, as best we can,
to that example. In this particular 
āyah
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) highlights a quality
of leadership. The 
Rasūl
of Allah (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) played many
roles: the role of a father, a husband, a friend, a neighbour, he played many roles
but in this particular 
āyah
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) highlights his role as a leader.
And before I go into it, I want us, myself included, to remember that when we
learn something about the Messenger of Allah (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
)
we have to think: how does that affect me as a leader? Many of you sitting
reading this are going to be saying, ‘Well, I’m not a leader, so this doesn’t apply
to me’. As a matter of fact, for every member of this ummah [Allah says]:
You are now the best nation brought forth for mankind…
(Āl ʿImrān 3: 110)
In some capacity we have all been given a position of leadership. All of us.
Some of our leadership roles are more obvious than others, every man that has a

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wife, has children; is the leader of their household. You’re leading your
household, and so when you learn something about the leadership of 
Rasūl Allāh
(
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
), and I learn something about it, I have to apply it
to my family. Some of you are managers at the office so you have to apply this
to your employees because you’re leaders over them. Some of you are teachers
and you’re leaders of your classroom so you have to apply it to that. Some of
you are in leadership positions in organizations or at 
masājid
or schools, in any
of those capacities, you are responsible over people. Whether it’s part time or
full time, whether it’s a little bit or a lot, it doesn’t matter but in pretty much
every institution that human beings belong to, there’s a hierarchy and there’s
leadership. And in many of those cases you happen to be in a position of
leadership. It may not be absolute leadership, it may be limited, but still it is
there. Bear in mind that recognition, that it’s really not just talking about 
Rasūl
Allāh
(
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) but through his legacy, it’s talking to all of
us and 
bi-idhni-Llāh taʿālā
, we can benefit from these beautiful 
āyāt
and this one