Spiteful Sa’eed

Ask our children:

1. Should a Muslim hold grudges and be spiteful?
2. If someone makes a mistake and is sorry, what should we do?
3. Is it fine to leave our things in places where they can hurt people?

Now tell them the story:

Once, there two brothers named Sa’eed and Rasheed. At times, they would be friends, help one another and play together nicely, but at other times, they would make one another upset and fight.

This was one problem – but even worse was that after they fought, they would hold a grudge against each other and be spiteful to each other. For a long time, they would not want to forgive each other, forget the fight and be friends again. Rather, they would keep bad feelings for each other in their hearts.

If Sa’eed asked Rasheed to help him with something, and Rasheed refused, then Sa’eed would hold a grudge. The next time Rasheed asked him for help, he would make sure that he also refused, to get back at Rasheed.

One morning, Sa’eed’s alarm rang, waking him up for fajr salaah. Sa’eed sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and read the dua for waking up. Then still feeling sleepy, and with his eyes only half open, he stepped out of his room, going to the bathroom. However, as he stepped out of his room, he tripped over a toy that Rasheed had left in the middle of the passage, outside his room door.

As Sa’eed tripped, he became angry. Now he was completely awake! He began to think to himself, “That Rasheed again! Always leaving his things around for me to trip on! I’ll show him what it feels like! I’ll make him trip, and then we’ll see how he likes it when he falls down!”

With this spiteful thought in mind, Sa’eed took the toy and left it outside Rasheed’s door, and then went to the toilet. A few minutes later, Sa’eed grinned in delight as he heard Rasheed tripping over the toy. As Rasheed began to yell and complain, Sa’eed said to him, “Good! It serves you right! I put the toy there to get you back, because you left it outside my door!”

Rasheed was burning with anger. He had made a mistake by leaving the toy outside Sa’eed’s door – he knew that. But he didn’t leave it there on purpose to trip him. He would have even apologized to Sa’eed for his mistake, but now that Sa’eed had tripped him on purpose, he was going to show him. He was going to make him regret it!

Sa’eed and Rasheed then went together with their father for the fajr salaah, but though they were brothers, and sat together in the car, they would not look at each other or speak to each other. Their hearts were filled with spite, so instead of being friends, they were treating each other like enemies. They were not prepared to overlook what had happened and forgive each other.

After coming home from the fajr salaah, Rasheed waited patiently for Sa’eed to go into the kitchen to start making his breakfast. Then, while Sa’eed was busy in the kitchen, Rasheed unzipped Sa’eed’s school bag, took out his maths book and hid it. Then, he took their mother’s recipe book and put it into the bag, in place of the maths book. Rasheed thought to himself, “Good! When he gets to school, he won’t have his maths book! He will find the recipe book, and he will get into trouble with the maths teacher! It will serve him right for making me trip!”

Later that day, when the brothers returned home from school, Sa’eed was furious with Rasheed! He realized that Rasheed had taken his maths book out of his school bag, and he had gotten into trouble with the maths teacher. As soon as they reached home, Sa’eed shouted at Rasheed, “You got me into big trouble! I hate you! I will never be your friend ever again!”

When Rasheed saw how furious Sa’eed was, he felt bad and regretted what he had done. After all, Sa’eed was his own brother. He put his head down and said, “Sa’eed, I am sorry! I apologize! I should not have taken your maths book out of your bag! Please forgive me!”

But Sa’eed was so angry that he could not forgive his own brother. He held a grudge in his heart and was filled with spite. He said to him, “You think you can just say sorry and that’s it? No, no, no! First, I will make you suffer and show you, then you will REALLY be sorry!”

At this point, their father happened to be walking in the door and overheard these words of hatred and spite coming out of Sa’eed’s mouth. He was so alarmed by what he had heard that let go of the front door by mistake, causing it to slam shut as a gust of wind blew!

He sat his two sons down and said, “Boys! What is going on here?” Guiltily, Rasheed explained what had happened.

After hearing the whole story, their father said to them, “Boys! I am most disappointed in you! Do you not know that it is the sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) that a Muslim should not have any hatred or ill-feelings for another Muslim in his heart? When this is how our hearts should be regarding normal Muslims, then imagine how much more important it is to have a clean heart for your own brother! How can you have a grudge and keep hatred for your own brother in your heart and behave in such a spiteful way?”

Then, he said, “The second thing, Rasheed, is that you must be careful about where you keep your things. You have a bad habit of leaving your things in the middle of the floor, causing people to trip on them and fall. When this keeps on happening, then it is not good enough to just keep saying that you are sorry. You must start making an effort to ensure that you put your things in their places so that people are not hurt in any way.”

“The third thing, is that when someone is genuinely sorry and asks for forgiveness, then we must have the heart to forgive them. If we do not want to forgive them, and want to hold onto our anger and hold a grudge, then this is a sign of pride. The Quraish of Makkah Mukarramah caused so much of pain to Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam). They spoke to him badly, tried to humiliate him, hurt him and hurt his family also, but after many years, when they came to accept Islam, then Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) forgave them. He did not hold a grudge or take any revenge.”

After hearing their father’s wise words, the brothers realized that their bad behaviour had been quite ridiculous and hurtful. They apologized to each other and promised to be brothers and friends once more, helping each other instead of fighting.

At that moment, their mother called out from the kitchen, “Has anyone seen my recipe book? I can’t seem to find it anywhere! I simply can’t imagine where it has gone to!” Now that they were brothers and friends once more, and all was forgiven and forgotten, Sa’eed and Rasheed smiled together and said, “Sorry mummy! We have it here with us and will return it right now!”

Lessons:

1. A Muslim should not hold a grudge against another person and be spiteful. Rather, we should have clean hearts, free from hatred and ill-feelings for people.
2. If someone makes a mistake, is sorry and apologizes, then we should forgive them. We should not insist on staying upset and hold onto a grudge.
3. We must not leave our things in places where people can trip on them on get hurt. We must put our things in their places, in such a way that nobody will get hurt.