Minding Your Own Business

Today, we will start with a short story to begin our topic.

Once upon a time, a servant left his house with a covered plate in his hand. A nosy and curious man had asked the servant what was under the covered plate.

The servant replied with: If the owner had wanted you to know, he would not have covered it.

The Prophet (PBUH), had said that one of the best thing that a Muslim can do, is to mind his own business.

The religion of Islam highly cares about the morals and the behavior of its followers. By improving people’s behaviors, the relationships between individuals will be at its greatest status and conflicts will be diminished.

Those who attempt to get themselves concerned in issues that don’t involve them could result in them overhearing something that they did not want to hear.

In another Hadith, the prophet (PBUH), was asked what the best thing a Muslim can do. The prophet replied by telling him that it is the most important to not harm someone using your tongue or hands; meaning either verbally or physically.

In the Quran, Allah states clearly that there are no good things about most conversations that are shared between people; except topics that relate to charity, correcting behaviors of their peers in society, or attempting to fix relationships between others that they are not on positive terms with.

The Prophet (PBUH), was asked if people would go to hell by just talking badly. The Prophet replied with yes, that would be enough for you to end up in hell. In fact, most of the sins that are committed by humans are just by words that they say.

These days, many people show a lot of courtesy for irrelevant things and ask questions that do not concern them. For example, they may ask when you plan on getting married, when you plan on having kids, when you plan on changing your car, why you chose the certain color of your outfit, etc. These questions do not help in building relationships and friendships with others, but instead could cause issues and clashes between one another.

Once you start minding your own business, you will be less problematic and be in a much more peaceful state of mind. Allah will award you for your actions and for not getting yourself involved in situations that don’t concern you.

The Prophet had said that those who truly believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment will make the effort to say good things or to just remain silent when you don’t have anything nice to say.

However, it is important that today’s subject isn’t misinterpreted. This does not mean that you should go ahead and cut off all ties with your social life. The importance of Isam is to be active with the people in your community. We should be able to advise and support others, but we should refrain from getting involved with their issues, for this will not help you in this lifetime or the next.