The dangers of exposing your fellow Muslim

[Ismail Dalbani]

Bismillah Ar-RaHman Ar-RaHeem wa alHamdu lillahi Rabil ^alameen wa aSalatu wassalamu ^ala sayyidina MuHammadin ashrafil mursaleen wa Habeebi rabil ^alameen.

Prepare for Judgment Day. Accumulate your deeds of obedience to Allah in this life to take with you for the everlasting life of the hereafter. Commit yourself to the obedience of your Lord and avoid what He forbade. Ask Allah to make your hearts among the hearts that fear Allah, make your eyes among the eyes that weep in humility to the Creator, and make you among the ones that are always satisfied with the sustenance Allah provides them with. Ask Allah, dear brothers, to protect you from committing the sins as they might lead to a miserable ending. Many people blasphemed before their death and died as blasphemers due to their continuous engagement in sin - may Allah protect us from such an ending.   

One such example is of a man who was seen gripping the curtain of the Ka^bah whilst repeating the supplication: O Allah protect me from sedition till the end of my life and let me die as a Muslim.

When a scholar named Shayban Al-Ra^iy, a true Sufi, heard him, he asked him why he was continuously repeating such a supplication. The man replied: I had two brothers. The first one has spent 40 years of his life calling the people for prayer voluntarily, then on death bed asked those around him to bring him the Quran. They did, thinking he wanted to seek its blessings before death. Instead (may Allah protect us from such blasphemy) he held it in his hands and said: Bare witness O people that I have turned away from everything inside this book and died as a blasphemer.

The second brother voluntarily called the people to prayer for thirty years and on his death bed he too did exactly what my first brother did.

Shayban asked him: "What deeds did they use to do in their life?"

The man said: "They used to seek out the (faults) sins of other Muslims to expose them without an Islamic valid reason."

Indeed, the pure rules of our religion urge us to conceal the faults/sins of others.

O brothers and sister, if you notice that another Muslim has committed a fault or a sin, then secretly advise him against it and do not let the devil, instead, lure you into gossiping about him behind his back. If you know of a fault, a sin or a weakness about your brother in Islam; advise him but do not scandalize him. Treat others the way you'd like to be treated. You do not wish people to scandalize your faults and shortfalls- who amongst us doesn't have any fault.

May Allah protect us and keep us steadfast. And Allah knows best