January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Mercy and compassion - key attributes of Allah
Ibn 'Abbas, (RA) reported that ' Uthman bin 'Affan (RA) asked Allah's messenger (SAW) about 'In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.' and he replied: "It is One of Allah's Most High Names and the space between it and the Greatest Name is as close as the space between the iris of the eye and its cornea."
Indeed, Allah has 99 attributes, with the Compassionate and the Merciful making up that number.
How does compassion and mercy factor into our daily living? First, we must understand the meaning of compassion and mercy.
The dictionary tells us that the noun compassion has two senses: a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering and the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it.
Mercy or mercifulness is the feeling that motivates compassion. What profound meanings - in essence it is saying "we are our brother's keeper"! At least that is what I derive. It seems compassion and mercy are two components necessary for the survival of the human race and I may go further as to say creation.
As the animals and insects show compassion and mercy toward one another. Have you ever seen an army of ants tend to their hurt or dead?
Compassion and mercy brings us together through hard times. Can you not bear witness to this during Hurricane Fabian were compassion and mercy, where fabulously displayed?
The lack of compassion and mercy led most of the world to totally forget and neglect Haiti, but ironically a natural disaster jolted our compassion and mercy into effect when we showed our amazing outreach to assist Haiti through this disaster.
Sometimes when I find myself in the offices of helping agencies, especially the financial and social agencies here in Bermuda, I see a lack of compassion and mercy extended to the clients.
Most times the clients are elderly or sick and the way they are handled by the staff and caseworkers is horrible. They are often subjected to blatant disrespect and humiliation.
My motto is "but for the grace of God, there go I" as it could be them today and me tomorrow. We as people must be compassionate and show mercy to those less fortunate than ourselves. Even if their situation came from their own hands - who are we to judge and therefore rain disrespect and display a lack of compassionate towards them, who may I remind you, are God's creatures as well?
We must be careful to be ever aware of showing compassion and mercy toward one another, just as God displays His compassion and mercy towards us unconditionally.
Maulana Rum, a great Sufi of his time, chided his disciples when they started beating a drunkard when he fell. They felt justified in beating him saying that he was not in his right senses because he was drunk.
However, Maulana Rum scolded them, saying that they were the real drunkards, as their actions showed them to be drunk with power, by beating a helpless person who was drunk with wine not with power and that to be drunk with power and show no mercy was definitely worse than being drunk with wine.
It is impossible to be compassionate if we are too drunk with power. Bermuda, are we guilty of being drunk with power?
I would like to conclude with a quotation from Maulana Rum who represents the real spirit of Islam. He said: "Come, come to me if you are a Jew or Christian or a Muslim or even if you are a sinner as you are all human beings. Allah is compassionate and forgives sinners, if they repent sincerely. Compassion and forgiveness, not power and arrogance, will make us better Muslims."
Bermuda let us show our compassion and mercy towards one another, starting today. Ameen.
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