A Heartfelt Plea
Outlook and Reformation
Mawlana Muhammad Imran Attari
Chairperson of Dawat-e-Islami’s Central Executive Committee
Throughout our lives, we often find ourselves embracing either a positive or negative outlook. The opinions of intellectuals and the collective experiences demonstrate that maintaining a positive mindset enables a life devoid of stress and anxiety. Conversely, a negative mindset leads to constant concern. The topics of thinking and correcting others will be explored in further detail.
A Positive and Negative Outlook
Positive thinking brings about numerous benefits, while negative thinking can be detrimental. By cultivating a positive mindset, one tends to view others in a favourable light, treating them with kindness and respect. This positive outlook promotes harmonious relationships, as it encourages individuals to avoid arguments and actively seek reconciliation within marriages, families, and other social connections. Thinking badly of others, instigating arguments and fights, creating rifts between family members, and always highlighting the negatives instead of the positives are the results of a negative mindset. A positive mindset will put your heart and mind at ease, your temperament will be good, and you will live your life in happiness. A negative mindset can cause depression, tension, anxiety, an increase in sugar levels, an increase in blood pressure, unrest, discontent, a lack of sleep and more. Islam is a religion of hope and optimism and not pessimism.
Positive and negative approaches to correcting others
When highlighting and correcting someone’s mistake, it is essential to confirm whether that individual was the one who made the mistake. The Quran teaches us to verify information we receive to ensure it is accurate.[1] Then you should ascertain the cause of the mistake. For example, a mistake could be made due to a lack of knowledge, a misunderstanding, anger, passion, malice and jealousy. It becomes easier to correct someone once the cause of the mistake is understood. A commendable way of correcting someone would be to speak with him respectfully, away from other people. The person being corrected must not get the impression that he is being humiliated, rather he should feel you are looking out for him. Those who are permitted to be firm (e.g., teachers, fathers and husbands) should not exceed the boundaries of Islamic law.
Correcting someone in a negative manner involves addressing them with anger, frustration, or hostility, often without a valid reason. This approach to rectifying people is akin to creating a hole in a vessel before attempting to pour something into it. Instead of fostering growth and understanding, negative correction can lead to further conflict, damaged relationships, emotional harm, and put up a barrier which prevents the other person from taking on board your advice. Giving someone a long lecture, exposing his faults to others and not caring about his age and rank are things to avoid when correcting someone.
If the aforementioned points are adopted into our lives and the negatives are abandoned, our homes, neighbourhoods, offices and social gatherings will be places of peace and love. O lovers of the Prophet! Assess your way of thinking with the intention of gaining reward. Adopt a positive mindset and make life easy for yourselves. Make an intention to remove all forms of negativity from your life too. May Allah grant us the ability to act upon this.
اٰمِیْن بِجَاہِ النَّبِیِّ الْاَمِیْن صلَّی اللہ علیہ واٰلہٖ وسلَّم
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