Living in God's Glory

world of God. i thought many people were with me, but i found no one there for me.” alas! Man does not know what he should know the most. THE FATE OF THE GREATS Believers live in the greatness of God, considering all human beings as mere servants of God. Therefore, they do not react adversely to criticism as the criticism of one human being by another does not diminish anything from the greatness of God. as Caliph umar ibn Khattab delivered a speech in Madinah, an individual amongst the congregation rose and administered him this warning: “By God, umar, if we detect any crookedness in you, we will put you straight with our swords.” (Al-Tarikh al-Kabir by al-Bukhari, hadith no. 1819) audacious and insolent though these words appear, umar did not object to them; neither did anyone in the congregation challenge the man’s right to address umar in this way. on the contrary, criticism was a regular occurrence amongst the Companions. as a result, an atmosphere of healthy criticism, where people had every right to speak their minds, endured for two generations after the Prophet. There was no restriction on what people said, as long as they carefully looked into a matter before pronouncing