Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. But do we? Part 1 of 2
Manners isn’t all please, thank you and do you mind, it comprises of many other actions and ways of dealing with people and things around us.
When speaking of good morals and manners The Sixth Imam (as) says that his father has brought him up with three,
1. Whoever keeps bad friends will not be safe.
2. Whoever doesn’t restrict their words will have regret.
3. Whoever enters bad places will be accused.
(Al-Bihar vol.78 page.261)
Three things that his father built his manners with, the first being his friends, and not to befriend bad people, why? Because having good morals is having good people around you, they affect you so much, if you associate with people with foul mouths, you too will have a foul mouth eventually. You and your friend become one, a friend is someone who has many things in common with you. So look for those that make you into a better person.
Then he speaks about restricting the tongue, if you have no limits on what you say you will hurt others and a person that says everything on their tongue will regret because people will be hurt from his words, and thus tongue control is a part of a good moral system.
Finally he speaks of avoiding bad places, this is not only in reference to forbidden places such as Pubs and Clubs, this is also with regard to any place that has a bad feel to it. This even includes houses of bad people, houses of criminals, I remember a young man who told me a story about how his house was searched by Police because he used to visit another man’s house who was a drug dealer. He said that his parents were woken up in the morning and the house was being pulled apart and the neighbours were watching and it was an embarrassing situation, all this for going into the wrong places.
The beauty of having good manners is that everyone likes you, even those that may be your enemies, they want your harm because of achieving worldly gain, but they still admire your character. A person with good manners is liked in all societies, most importantly he is liked by God, those that are liked by God achieve eternity in paradise.
We ask God to help us achieve the highest standard of morals and to forgive those who have harmed us and to guide them to the righteous path and place his mercy in their hearts to forgive us, surely he answers all prayers.
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds and may He bless Muhammad and his Progeny.
source : abna
