Lesson 4 of 6 · Repair, the only skill in this course
Kindness, in the text
Four reports on gentleness, and one verse worth putting beside them.
A kind word and forgiveness are better than a charitable deed followed by hurtful words, which is the difference between a repair attempt and an accusation in a soft voice. Gentleness does not enter a thing without adorning it, nor leave it without spoiling it. It is what Allah gives for and does not give for its opposite, and the person deprived of it is deprived of good.
And the last one is the nearest thing here to a plain instruction not to make a moment harder than it needed to be. Gladden people and do not scare them. Make things easy and do not make them difficult.
Qur’an and Sunnah
The verse put beside the four reports on gentleness, and it draws the difference between a repair attempt and an accusation in a soft voice.
۞قَوۡلࣱ مَّعۡرُوفࣱ وَمَغۡفِرَةٌ خَيۡرࣱ مِّن صَدَقَةࣲ يَتۡبَعُهَآ أَذࣰ ىۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَنِيٌّ حَلِيمࣱ
A kind word and forgiveness is better than a charitable deed followed by hurtful [words]: God is self-sufficient, forbearing
Qur’an 2:263
The first of the four on gentleness. It does not enter a thing without adorning it, nor leave it without spoiling it.
A'isha, the wife of Allah's Apostle (ﷺ), reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying:Kindness is not to be found in anything but that it adds to its beauty and it is not withdrawn from anything but it makes it defective
Sahih Muslim 2594graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
He who is deprived of tenderness is deprived of good. The third of the four on gentleness, and the plainest about what its absence costs.
Jarir reported from Allah's Messenger (ﷺ):He who is deprived of tenderly feelings is in fact deprived of good
Sahih Muslim 2592graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Allah is kind and loves kindness, and gives for kindness what He does not give for harshness. The second of the four, and it says gentleness is what Allah gives for rather than merely permits.
A'isha, the wife of Allah's Apostle (ﷺ), reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:'A'isha, verily Allah is kind and He loves kindness and confers upon kindness which he does not confer upon severity and does not confer upon anything else besides it (kindness)
Sahih Muslim 2593graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
The nearest thing here to a plain instruction not to make a moment harder than it needed to be.
Abu Musa reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying:Gladden people and do not scare them; make things easy and do not make them difficult
Sunan Abi Dawud 4835graded sound, albanithe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.