What To Do When Praised

My dear brothers and sisters

Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaathuhu! 

So I was at a conference last year and a brother came up to me after the talk. You know, I've just poured my heart out, poured my soul out and he comes up to me and says, 'Bro! That talk was retarded.' And at that point I couldn't understand what is this brother trying to say. Is he trying to praise me? Is he trying to criticize me? You know, what is he trying to do? And it was such an emotional state, I just ignored the brother and I walked on. Now, eventually, you know I met the brother again and I asked him, you know, 'What did you mean by, 'Your talk was retarded?'' Like to me retarded means something really bad. But he was like, 'Ya - It was a form of praise for you.'

And I recalled something at that time which I said to myself which was something I had read and a beautiful book by Imam al Bukhari called 'Al Adab al Mufrad.' You gotta pick this book up, check it out! And there's a chapter in the book called, 'What a person should say when he is praised.' And there's a beautiful dua that the companions (radayAllahu anhum), when they were praised they would say...

اللهمَ اجْعَلْنِى خَيْرًا مِمَّا يَظُنُّونَ وَاغْفِرْ لِى مَا لَا يَعْلَمُونَ وَلَا تُؤَاخِذْنِى بِمَا يَقُولُون 

That, 'Oh Allah! Do not hold me accountable for what they say about me. Make better than they think of me and forgive me for that which they do not know of me.'

Now when you think about Islam, SubahaanAllah! And what a complete religion it is! This is one of the manifestations of that perfection and that completion. That Islam even teaches you what to say when an individual praises you, that you want to direct all praise towards Allah (subahaanahu wa ta'ala). So you say, 'Oh Allah! Do not hold me accountable for what they say about me. And make me better than what they think of me and forgive me for what they do not know about me.' And the ending is very very important. That is, especially when it comes to sin, SubahaanAllah! 

People do not see our sins regularly. The predecessors used to say that if we could carry our sins and our sins gave a fragrance of -- no one would ever sit around us. And thus, it is the miracle of Allah (subahaanahu wa ta'ala) that our sins do not give off a stench and we don't carry our sins in front of us. But rather Allah (subahaanahu wa ta'ala) hides our sins and we pray that Allah (subahaanahu wa ta'ala) hides our sins in this world and the hereafter. So next time you are praised, you know what to do.

Learn the dua.

Take care - All the best!

Wassalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaathuhu

By Sheikh Navaid Aziz