The monthly al-Huda magazine published an article by Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi on the ways to success, under the title (Morals as a Method for Crafting Personal Success).
The magazine was originally the weekly al-Huda newspaper, which is published in holy Karbala; it has been transformed into a monthly magazine, in a developmental step by the editorial management of the al-Huda Foundation for Culture and Media.
.
Morals as a Method for Crafting Personal Success
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
On the subject of morals, we face a striking paradox in our contemporary reality. In Muslim society, levels of interest in the subject of virtuous morals have declined, especially among young people; yet at the same time, levels of interest in the subject of behavior in general have increased. That is, you see young men and young women turning to refining their personalities and developing their talents in good conduct and the ways of dealing with people, how to communicate with others, techniques for attracting the other and influencing the opposite parties, and other such topics that fall within the sphere of human behavior as it relates to a person's social life with his fellow human being; and at the same time there is no interest in the subject of morals as a path leading to that goal.
Through that eagerness, young people seek only to acquire skills that qualify them to be distinguished individuals in their companionship with people. However, the goal sought from all that eagerness has been confined to material goals that do not go beyond the sphere of this world, and indeed, in most cases, do not go beyond the interest of the individual himself. The goals are reaching success in working life; indeed, any academic goals that are mentioned are meant for attaining a practical job position that brings in money, nothing more.
We notice this youthful orientation at the personal level in the turnout at training institutes and paid qualification courses that are spreading under many names. The paradox that arises is that these institutes and courses aim only at shaping the personality in its behavior on the basis of the experiences and ideas of Western individuals with a tendency toward utilitarian, materialist thinking, whereas the Muslim possesses treasures of insights and knowledge that guarantee him the shaping of his personality in the best form, qualifying him for good companionship with people and for engaging in the best manner with the various segments of society, something that brings him worldly benefit and an effect on his successes and achievements, as well as effects in the world of the Hereafter.
Shaping the Integrated Personality
Even if we acknowledge that there is some benefit in those training materials, they never rise to the moral method the Muslim has in his religion. If we were to look into Islamic thought, we would see that it offers us the best values and knowledge aimed at shaping human behavior at the level of individual conduct and at the level of the individual's integration into society and coexistence with it. The subject of virtuous morals is what draws good behavior in its best forms; indeed, it has distinctive features that are lacking in the theses that do not draw their knowledge from religion, and those features are sufficient to shape a personality integrated in all its dimensions in its behavior. It has been reported from Imam Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn al-Husayn (a): (Whoever has been given character and gentleness has been given goodness, ease, and a good condition in his world and his Hereafter; and whoever has been deprived of character and gentleness, that becomes a path to every evil and affliction, except for one whom Allah protects). The effects of virtuous morals are thus clear and wide-ranging in a person's life, in both its worldly aspect and its otherworldly aspect.
We will explain some of those aspects and dimensions through the narrations of the Prophet (s) and the narrations of his Household (a). For example:
1/ Gain the Affection of Others
The Messenger of Allah (s) said, (Good character makes affection grow). And it is reported from Imam ʿAli (a) that he said: (Hold to good character, for it earns you affection).
Virtuous morals have a clear and direct effect in gaining the affection and love of others. This inclination that good morals bring about is a planting in the heart, and it has an effect on the reality of a person's relationship with others. And because the bond of hearts is the strongest of all, morals are the best means of achieving that bond, which carries the elements of stability and the elements of spreading.
Therefore, however many academic, material or aesthetic skills and abilities a person acquires, he will not benefit from them fully, because he is a social being whom Allah the Exalted created to live with people, coexist with them, exchange all good interests, cooperate with them in good works, and build with them his civilization and his society. The Messenger of Allah (s) said: (Three things: whoever does not have a single one of them in him, nothing of his knowledge is of any account: Godwariness that restrains him from acts of disobedience to Allah, forbearance by which he refrains from evil, and character by which he lives among people).
Virtuous morals have intrinsic qualities: they bring their benefits even if the person does not directly intend that trait. The effects of virtuous character are spontaneous; as soon as a person is characterized by them and practices them, they return benefit to him, and he finds their effects on himself and on others. The Messenger of Allah (s) said: (Three things necessitate love: good character, good gentleness, and humility).
2/ Complete Your Faith
Islam is a set of beliefs and a set of acts of worship and behaviors whose source is Allah Almighty, His Messenger (s) and his Household (a). When a person does not adhere to a part of this system, he is deficient in faith. One cannot adhere to the beliefs of Islam and yet not adhere to performing the acts of worship; likewise, when some abandon the Islamic moral method, they have fragmented the religion, taking part of it and leaving the other part. The perfection of faith lies in taking up all aspects of the religion; that is why the Messenger of Allah (s) said: (The most perfect of the believers in faith is the best of them in character).
The degree of a person's faith is thus linked to the goodness of his morals. This means that morals affect a person's faith; this is, on the one hand, an encouragement to adhere to morals, and it is also an affirmation of the consistent relationship between faith and morals. Indeed, morals are also a fundamental part of faith, for Imam ʿAli (a) said: (The head of faith is good character and adorning oneself with truthfulness). The head is among the most important parts of a human being, and when the narration expresses that the position of morals in relation to faith is the position of the head, this means that morals express a person's faith and speak for it, and are a constitutive part of it, without which faith fades away and has no meaning.
The Messenger of Allah (s) said, expressing the effect of morals on a person's worship: (Indeed, the servant attains, by his good character, the great degrees of the Hereafter and the noblest stations, and it multiplies worship). That is, it makes it multiplied in reward and effect.
3/ Multiply Your Success
The paths to success in this world are many, whether the success is in accomplishing achievements, in livelihood flowing to a person and the improvement of his standard of living, or in economic excellence. Many behavioral scientists have acknowledged that a person's behavior and the way he deals with others play a part in achieving success. In China they have a proverb: (Whoever does not know the smile does not open a shop), a metaphor for the role of dealing well with people in the success of enterprises. And because successes are fundamentally a social interaction between human beings and require harmony, attraction, understanding and cooperation, virtuous morals are indispensable for achieving success in its best forms and by its quickest paths. The Messenger of Allah (s) said: (Good character and refraining from harm increase livelihood). And Imam ʿAli (a) said: (Whoever's character is bad, his livelihood becomes narrow).
4/ Be an Adornment to Your Religion
Among the effective benefits of the virtuous morals with which a Muslim is characterized is that the person turns into a caller to the religion; for among the responsibilities of the Muslim is to be a mission-bearing caller who calls to goodness and virtue by calling to the religion. The Exalted has said, addressing the believers in the Muhammadan Message: “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice and dispute with them in a manner that is best. Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided.” (Qurʾan 16:125)
That calling needs morals in order to be a factor of attraction for non-believers. If virtues are embodied in a person's behavior and actions, this means he has announced to others: my religion, to which I belong, carries these virtues. The Messenger of Allah (s) said: (Allah has chosen this religion purely for Himself, and nothing befits your religion except generosity and good character; so adorn your religion with them both).
The Messenger (s) considers morals an adornment of religion. And as Imam ʿAli (a) said: (Good manners are ever-renewed robes); this ornament is the adornment of a person's religion, so he becomes a caller to the religion through his conduct, even if his tongue does not utter a single word. The Commander of the Faithful (a) said: (You will never encompass people with your wealth, so encompass them with a cheerful face and a good meeting; for I heard the Messenger of Allah (s) say: You will never encompass people with your wealth, so encompass them with your character). A cheerful face and meeting people well are practical moral elements and instances that have an effect in attracting others and in communicating well with them.
We have found in history many incidents and stories that show how individuals entered Islam as a result of seeing the morals of the other party and their manner of dealing, whether in commercial dealings, in reactions to the harm done by others, in behavior toward the weak, or otherwise.
5/ Attain a Lofty Rank in the Hereafter
In the other aspect of a person's life, namely the life after death, which is the more important life and the longer-lasting: indeed, what a person does in his life is only for the goals of the Hereafter, so that he may attain a lofty rank with Allah the Exalted in Paradise. The Exalted has said: “while the Hereafter is better and more lasting” (Qurʾan 87:17). And our noble Messenger (s) said: (This world is the bridge to the Hereafter), and (This world is an hour, so make it obedience), and (This world is the farm of the Hereafter); all of that so that the Muslim gives priority in his deeds in this world, so that they become a bridge carrying him to the best ranks in the Hereafter.
Virtuous morals push in this direction. Along with their effects on a person's life, their standing on the side of his interest and their support for his successes, they are also one of the factors of felicity in the Hereafter. The Messenger of Allah (s) said: (The most beloved of you to me and the closest of you to me in seating on the Day of Resurrection is the best of you in character). So the better a person's morals and his good companionship with people, the greater his closeness to the Messenger of Allah (s) on the Day of Resurrection. We know and believe that the highest rank on the Day of Resurrection and in Paradise belongs to our noble Messenger, and this means that morals are among the most important factors of elevation and ascent in the Hereafter.
How We Rise and Succeed through Morals
We must know that morals are a set of values and qualities with which a person adorns himself in his speech, his action and his companionship with people, such that they become spontaneous dispositions that draw his performance and define the features of his personality in his dealings with people, with himself and with the situations he faces, whether positive situations or negative situations. From here it becomes clear to us how morals are one of the factors in shaping the personality, and an important motive among the motives of success and accomplishment.
When a person adorns himself with those qualities and practices them as daily behavior, he can achieve the building of his personality and develop it in the best way. Those moral qualities, which are classified in the science of ethics as virtuous attributes and noble traits of character, fundamentally spring from the values of religion, express the reality of a person's faith, and are consistent with his worship and his creed. Therefore it is the duty of the Muslim to turn to shaping his personality through them, and not to replace them with what is inferior to them. The importance of morals has reached such a degree that the Messenger of Allah (s) said: (I was sent only to perfect the noble traits of character); that is, morals are the spirit of the divine heavenly messages, and our Prophet (s) came to perfect them because he is the Seal of the Prophets. Therefore our wager should be on them, and our orientation should flow in their direction.
We began with the paradox of young people turning toward taking behavior from non-Muslims and refraining from taking it from the Islamic system of morals, and we conclude with another paradox: the blame for that refraining does not fall on young people alone, for those who are concerned also bear a share of the responsibility. We find, by observation, that attention is often focused on aspects of religion such as the science of jurisprudence (fiqh), which is indispensable; but some, at the level of teaching or at the level of practice, pay attention to the minutest legal questions so as not to fall into something prohibited, and the matter may reach the point of obsessive doubt (waswās); yet, in contrast, they pay no noticeable attention to the subject of morals, and may be characterized by bad morals, harshness and coarseness in dealings. We have said that it is a deficiency in faith for a person to fragment his behavior. This is a paradox that needs remedying, and its remedy comes about through understanding religion and that it is an integrated system: jurisprudence supports morals, and morals support creed, and in this chain each one confirms the other.
We can benefit from modern methods in presenting morals as civilized behavior that contributes to building the personality and to achieving various successes, and benefit from stylistic materials, new tools, and appealing methods of oration for this science, which inherently carries appeal within it. For Allah says: “Know that the Apostle of Allah is among you. Should he comply with you in many matters, you would surely suffer. But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it appealing in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you faithlessness, transgression and disobedience. It is such who are the right-minded” (Qurʾan 49:7).
Faith in its entirety contains the quality of attractiveness, and Allah has made it appealing in the hearts of the believers in addition to its intrinsic adornment. Hence virtuous morals should be presented in a preferred style, so that receptivity to them increases, and so that the Muslim adorns himself with them in his life and makes them the title of his successes.
