Living by the Golden Rule
| Khatib : | Sadullah Khan |
| Khutbah No: | 21 |
| Khutbah Date: | 06/21/02 |
How unwarranted suspicion renders innocent Muslims guilty by association
"None of you truly believe unless you love for others what you love for yourself."
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
If we do not live by ethical principles, what do we live by? As human beings we were designed and destined to be social beings.
Universal Behavioral Ethic
The holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is reported to have said that:
"the highest expression of faith is to love for others what you love for yourself and to
dislike for others what you dislike for yourself"
All religious traditions share at their root, this common behavioral ethic; all share in essence the Golden Rule directive ...
- "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you" (Analects 15:23) Confucianism
- "Never do unto others what would pain thyself" (Panchatantra 3: 104) Hinduism
- "Regard all creatures as we regard ourselves" (Mahavira) Jainism
- "Act not on others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" (Udana Varga) Buddhism
- "Treat others as thou wishes to be treated thyself" (Adi Granth) Sikh
- "Respect for all life is the foundation of coexistence" (The great Law of Peace) Native American
- "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself" (Dadistani Dinik 94:5) Zoroastrianism
- " What is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow men. That is the whole of the law" (Talmud, Shabbat 314) Judaism
- "Always treat others as you would like them to treat you" (Matthew 7:12) Christianity
- We are presently witnessing the deliberate dereliction of the government's duty in relation to meeting the Civil Rights of Muslims.
- The Golden Rule for citizens in relation to the government is:
Make sure the government treats others the same as you would want the government to treat you. - There is a need for American citizenry to realize that the violation of the rights of any is tantamount to the violation of the rights of all
- To put it another way; if you don't want the government to trample on your rights, don't let it trample on someone else's rights. Remember, once you consent to the government ignoring the Constitution, you deny yourself the eventual protection of the Constitution.
Do unto others
Though most traditions and ideologies evoke this Golden Rule, many misuse it. Some to the extent, "do unto others before they do unto you", thereby implying harm. Some misconstrue it as primarily a rule of enlightened self interest, "do unto others so that they too will do unto you", implying a rule of exchange. The essence of the Golden Rule is not to merely treat other people well because it is to our advantage but rather due to the universal moral obligation to treat others ethically because it is the proper thing to do; not because of expediency but because of who we are and what we represent.
A person came to the Prophet saying that people who treated him badly were coming to visit him. Should he be nasty to them as they were to him. Our beloved Prophet (pbuh) replied, "Do not be uncouth saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well and if they wrong you, you will wrong them. Rather accustom yourself to be good to people irrespective of whether they are good to you or not." (Tirmidhi)
Relevance of moral principle
The ultimate goal of the Golden Rule is to infuse into human consciousness the vital relevance of moral principles in a manner that motivates us to pursue the best expression of our humanness. We manifest the Golden Rule only if we do all the good we can, by all means we can, in all ways we can, to all creation we can, wherever we can, whenever we can as long as we can.
Was it not our Guide (pbuh) who reminded us that :
"... all creation are part of Allah's family, and the best of creation are those who are good to Allah's universal family?"