The Wisdom of the Shaykh

An incident once took place when a student of Knowledge was taking a
walk with his teachers in one of the gardens of their Madrassah.
During this walk, the student decided to address a problem he was
facing and seek its remedy fromhis teacher. He began to tell his
teacher, 'I have a spiritual ailment; I am habitual of talking ill of
others and mentioning matters about them behind their backs.'
The teacher carried on walking for a moment and then asked him, 'do
you have a mobile phone?' The student answered affirmatively and took
out his phone to show his teacher. The phone was one of the latest
models on the market and he had just purchased it recently.
Upon seeing the phone and the student's attachment to it, he asked the
student to throw the phone in a nearby mud patch and trample upon it.
Whilst astonished by the teacher's request, the student questioned,
'howcan I throw this phone on the floor? It has cost me a lot of money
and is worth a lot to me.'
The teacher replied to him with the following words of wisdom, 'So
toois the respect and honourof your brother as sanctified and valuable
as this in the eyes of Allah . How can it be easy for you to trample
upon this honour and respect with such ease?'
The student realised howhe had never understoodnor appreciated the
true value of a Muslim brother;and from that day onwards he never
failed to compare the respect of his brothers to all those items which
were the most valuable to him.
Jazakallah to Maulana Zain for his help in putting together this story.