1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

20 Questions

If a person harms me and my family through her behaviour and yet prays five times a day is she to be considered a good Muslim?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Real Muslim is the person who believes in Islam and behaves in peaceful way with people (المسلم من سلم المسلمون من لسانه ويده))

Every Muslim is required to practice Islamic teachings in his life especially when dealing with people. Those Muslims who do not practice fairness and justice with others are blames in Quran ( O, Those who believed, why do you say what you do not practice?  (Sura Al-Saff, Verse 2).

As being nice to people is one of the best deeds in Islam, being bad and harming people is very bad and it can lead tp punishment in this life and hereafter. When harming an animal is forbidden in Islam (e.g. The Hadeeth about a Muslim woman who will be in hellfire because she tortured a cat), so what about harming a human being?

No one from us can judge who is good Muslim and who is not as Allah (SWT) knows what all creatures did and ae doing and will be doing in the future and He judges who is good and who is not. But Allah (SWT) said clearly (The most honorable of you with Allah is the most practicing Taqwa (piousness). Sura Al-Hujuraat, verse 13.

Those who pray and fast and worship Allah (SWT) but misbehave and harm others will loose their worship reward to their victims, and might be forced to take the sins of their victims.

The Hadeeth says ( Best of people are those who benefit people) and another Hadeeth says (Worst of people are those who harm people).

This shows that the spirit of Islam is to be good to others.

Wassalam.
If a person harms me and my family through her behaviour and yet prays five times a day is she to be considered a good Muslim?
Amina Inloes

There is really no such thing as a "good Muslim" and a "bad Muslim", these are labels we have invented. A person is a Muslim if they profess the shahadatayn. However, a Muslim will be judged in the next life like anyone else and a person who has harmful behaviour or bad ethics will be held responsible for that.

There are a number of hadith saying not to look at someone's outward signs of religiosity (such as praying or fasting) to judge their character but rather to look at how they act with other people. This is because acts of worship can become habitual, be feigned, done with a dead heart, done out of custom or to please one's family or community, etc.

However, acts of worship are there for a reason, and can elevate a person; whereas leaving them aside can make them more vulnerable to wrongdoing. Perhaps, inshallah, her prayers will help her become a better person. 
How can one control one's behaviour that is always harsh in the house and creates tussle in home in front of the children?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

1. Controlling our bad behaviour needs reasonable will power based on the facts of the harm and damage of such behaviour, and the benefits of good behaviour.

2. We need to see how harsh behaviour makes the person unliked even by his own family members, while good behaviour makes the person liked by almost all people who know him.

3. It is good to recite Quranic Du'a for making our chest pleasant and not narrow. ( RABBI ESHRAH LI SADRI WA YASSIR LI AMRI) رب اشرح لي صدري ويسر لي أمري

4. It is mentioned in books of Akhlaq that when a person becomes angry, he should look at a mirror to see himself while being angry. He will see how ugly he looks when he is angry and this can cool him down and make him avoid being angry.

5. It is also mentioned in many Hadeeths to deal with people in the same way which you want them to deal with you. Bad behaviour from you with others can never be accepted by you if it comes from others to you.

6. Repeating Estighfaar and Salawaat and LA HAWLA WALA QOWWATA ILLA BILLAH is very useful to make our Akhlaq better if we recite it with understanding specially during the night and more specifically during Sojood.

7. It is also good to remember the Hadeeth: Deal with people in a way that if you are away from them, they will long to meet you, or if you die, they will weep on you.

8. The Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) said: Best of you are the best to their family, and I am the best to my family.

Wassalam.
What is the appropriate Islamic reaction for a man when someone insults him and his wife by casting doubt on her chastity?
Abbas Di Palma

as salam alaikum

different situations call for different answers and reactions. However in general terms the aim should be make truth prevails, defend his and his family's honor and dignity, and to fulfill the duty of "amr bil-ma'ruf wa nahy 'anil-munkar".

With prayers for your success.