Respect and reverence
Respect is reverence, awe, and kindness in treatment
The benefits of respecting others
- Mitigating hostility and hatred: Respect plays a pivotal role in averting animosity and disdain between individuals
- Promoting Justice: Respect contributes to the pursuit of justice, ensuring that each individual is rightfully assigned their appropriate place
- Harmony of Perspectives: It facilitates the convergence of viewpoints and the prevention of disagreements.
- Strengthening the bonds of love: Respect enhances social relationships and strengthens the ties of love among people
- Compliance with religious teachings: Respect represents compliance with the teachings of the Sharia
- Attracting the love of Allah and people: It contributes to drawing the love of Allah and people into the hearts
- Strengthening relationships and cultivating trust: Respect leads to the strengthening of social bonds and the cultivation of trust among members of the community
- Preserving sanctities: Respect is considered a means to safeguard honor and avoid transgressions through words or deed
Types of Respect:
Respect for the Prophet
- O you who have believed, do not put [yourselves] before Allah and His Messenger but fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing.
- O you who have believed, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet or be loud to him in speech like the loudness of some of you to others, lest your deeds become worthless while you perceive not
- Indeed, those who lower their voices before the Messenger of Allah – they are the ones whose hearts Allah has tested for righteousness. For them is forgiveness and great reward. (3)
- Indeed, those who call you, [O Muhammad], from behind the chambers – most of them do not use reason.
Respect for Parents:
And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], “uff,” and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.
Respecting the scholars and those who propagate Islam
Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi, narrated from Abu Hanifa and Al-Shafi’i, that they said: “If the scholars are not the allies (awliya) of Allah, then Allah has no ally.”
Respect for Those in Charge:
- O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.
- Ziyad b. Kusaib al-‘Adawi said: I was with Abu Bakra under Ibn ‘Amir’s pulpit when he was preaching and wearing thin garments. Abu Bilal said, “Look at our governor wearing the garments of profligates,” whereupon Abu Bakra told him to be quiet, for he had heard God’s Messenger say, “He who despises God’s ruler in the earth will be despised by God.
- Part of the reverence of God is honoring a gray-haired Muslim
- Yahya ibn Sa’id Whoever disrespects an elderly person will not die until Allah sends someone to disrespect his old age when he becomes old.
- A elderly man came wanting to see the Prophet, , and the people were slow to make way for him. The Prophet, , said: ‘He is not one of us who does not show respect to our elders and is not merciful to our young ones.'”
- Ibn Abbas reported: Uyaynah ibn Hisn entered upon the Messenger of Allah, , while Abu Bakr and Umar, , were with him, and they were all sitting on the ground. The Prophet, , ordered a cushion for Uyaynah, and when he sat on it, he said, ‘When a generous man from an honorable people comes to you, show him honor.'”
Respect for Those Entering the Majlis (gathering):
O you who have believed, when you are told, “Space yourselves” in assemblies, then make space; Allah will make space for you
Sayings of the Scholars
- Imam Al-Ghazali said: “The noble believer always brings forth the virtues of his brother in his own self, so that respect, affection, and esteem may emanate from his heart. As for the vile hypocrite, he always focuses on the flaws and defects.
- Ibn al-Mubarak said: “It is a right upon the wise not to belittle three: the scholars, the rulers, and the brothers. For whoever belittles the scholars, his Hereafter is lost; whoever belittles the ruler, his worldly affairs are lost, and whoever belittles the brothers, his honor is lost.”
- Regarding Husayn al-Warraaq, he said: “I asked Abu Uthman about companionship, and he said:
• Companionship with the Messenger, , is through following his Sunnah and adhering to apparent knowledge.
• Companionship with the friends of Allah is through respect and reverence.
• Companionship with family and children is through good character.
• Companionship with brothers is through constant cheerfulness and humility, as long as it is not sinful.
• Companionship with the ignorant is through supplication for them, showing mercy to them, and realizing the blessings of Allah upon you by being saved from what has afflicted them.”