Summary: CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE OF JANNAH<br> Ayah # 133-136<br> Surah Al-Imran<br> Lecturer :Nouman Ali Khan<br> <br> Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous<br> Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity, or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men- for Allah loves those who do good<br> <br> And those who, having done something to be ashamed of, or wronged their own souls, earnestly bring Allah to mind, and ask for forgiveness for their sins,- and who can forgive sins except Allah?- and are never obstinate in persisting knowingly in (the wrong) they have done<br> <br> For such the reward is forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens with rivers flowing underneath,- an eternal dwelling: How excellent a recompense for those who work (and strive)<br> <br> Here, Allah SWT describes some characteristics of people of Jannah that can be summarized as follows:<br> <br> • These are the people who spend when it is easy and when it is difficult; spending when it is easy shows some gratitude. People tend to have this attitude when things are good. But when things are bad, people may get fear that if they spend, they are not going to get it back so inshaAllah when things are good we will give.<br> But the people who really have taqwa of Allah, they know that Allah mentions whoever has taqwa of Allah, Allah makes a way out for him and provides him from where he could not even imagine. Allah says whatever good you spend it will be refunded to you and you cannot be wrong. Prophet SAWW also promises that money cannot experience loss because of sadaqa. Reminding that promise, the people who give sadaqa will get the bonus in any form and it can be seen in daily practice. So we have to have such confidence in Allah.<br> So giving for the sake of Allah is actually an opportunity to become more conscious of Allah’s presence.<br> <br> • People who swallow their anger; what does “swallowing” mean? When somebody is chewing with his mouth closed, the second person still notices that there is something in the mouth, but when somebody swallows what has been eaten it won’t be noticed anymore. So there is one thing that “hold” your temper. You are angry but there is no sign of anger on your face, and people perceive as there is nothing wrong with you .And this should be done immediately and continuously.<br> <br> • Those who lovingly forgive people; forgiveness can be of two types. You can forgive people by insulting them like “hey you were mean to me that day but I forgive you”. This is a show of arrogance. You may start with another fight for example “what do you mean, you are forgiving me? It is me who forgive you”.<br> So the true forgiveness happens in private. When you make dua for yourself, make dua for that person lovingly. it is the mercy of ALLAH that Prophet SAWW is lenient towards the sahabah even when some of them make him annoyed<br> “If you are stern they would have run away from you.” (Al-Quran)<br> Allah commands “fa’fu anhum was taghfirlakum” means forgive them and ask Allah to forgive them too.<br> <br> • And Allah loves those who excel in their Deen; In regards to previous points it should be considered that sometimes we say things that we regret. Even if a person is blatantly wrong, how do you know he is still on that? How do you know he did not make tauba? How do you know he did not change his mind? Many scholars we see were once to be very different persons but whatever they used to say or do years back is not being practiced now. A person may be close to Allah and you are bad mouthing him as a result Allah takes away your god deeds and hand over to that person and in this way; you are actually doing favor for that person.<br> Unfortunately, in Muslim community especially in the acts of ibadah,
