The Role of a “Beautiful Character”

In my last Friday sermon, I chose to speak about the impact of a good character and how it is invaluable in the shaping of a decent family life and a humane society.

I would like to summarise some of the main points here as a contribution to the general welfare of human society.

The core twin foundations of a truly believing Muslim's personality are described in the Quran as the declaration of their belief in the main principles of Islamic faith, and the basing all of their actions and deeds on the righteousness, virtues and moral framework resulting from their beliefs.

Belief and actions go hand in hand in shaping a truly successful Muslim personality in any society or cultural background. When a person’s personality is infused with these core values, and he practices them in all his deeds and actions, his character will shine through.

So what are regarded as righteous deeds and what are the virtues of human character needed to form the framework of a noble disposition?

Islam calls them ‘husn ul khuluq’ or ‘beauty of characters’. The hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Mercy of Allah be upon him, which emphasises on ‘Husn un khuluq’ can be regarded as an amplification of what the Quran spoke of in terms of the two core foundations of a truly believing Muslim personality; faith and actions .

Islam is no idle faith. It is full of meaningful actions and practical solutions to human problems. Based on this principle, the two core foundations have been laid down for developing a truly fruitful human life.

Faith and belief introduce purifying elements to human thoughts and work in complete conjunction and harmony with human actions and practices. Any contradiction would lead to the notion of hypocrisy and dichotomy of character.

In a narrative of a hadith, we are told that a Bedouin came to the prophet and asked him the question: ‘which of the deeds is best? The Prophet then replied to him saying: ‘the beauty of the character’. The person seemed to be bewildered at the reply, came to the prophet from his right direction and asked the same question. The reply was the same. After a while the person, again came from his left side and repeated his question which prompted the same reply by the Prophet. However, seemingly seeking some more clarification, the person returned to the Prophet from his rear asking him the same question at which point the Prophet turned to him and said: What is wrong with you that you do not understand it? It is the ‘husn ul khuluq’; which means that ‘you should not get angry if you could’.

What an amazing guidance from the Prophet to people! The beauty of character is explained as being in control of one’s anger.

Control your anger and you would control your peace of your mind and the environment. Many people may not see any correlation between anger and beauty of one’s character. One only needs to see the consequence of an angry character and its outcome.

Further, the Prophet said to a person when defining righteousness: ‘righteousness is the beauty of character and wrongdoing is that which may make you hesitant in your chest and which you would dislike people to know of’.

What a wonderful definition of righteousness. Mention the word ‘righteous’ or the righteousness’ to some people and you would soon find they are put off. They regard it as some sort of religious jargon; irrelevant and disconnected from their own everyday lives.

However, the Prophet seems to be defining it more widely to cover all of people’s intentional good dispositions as to be righteous ones; giving the word more acceptance in people’s lives.

The Prophet connected the high rank of Imaan and Faith with the most beautiful character of a person, emphasising the obvious connection between the two. However, this connection also works in reverse; if one goes down, it takes the other with it.

Encouraging the believers even further he said: ‘nothing would weigh heavier for a believer in the Balance on the Day of Judgement than his beautiful character’.

When the prophet was asked the question: ‘what would mostly enable people to enter the Paradise? He replied saying: ‘the consciousness of God and their beautiful characters’.

All people, regardless of their culture, national identity and religious values, desire a society with a firm moral framework and high human values. No one would like to live in a society which is morally corrupt, where crime is rampant and people are rude and weak in character, and where society takes no pride in charitable work, caring and kindness and repeatedly fails to display the best of human behaviour.

Islam shows us how to forge a better human society by building the characters of all of us in this world, so that we may benefit in the next. Many Muslim societies seem to be plunging into the abyss of evil and the resultant immoral and corrupt mindset is destroying many people. We should not relinquish our pride as we can only prosper within a truly Islamic framework of faith and beauty of character. That is what we all should strive for.