What is the meaning of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “If one of you must praise his brother, let him say: I think he is such and such, and Allah is his accountant”?

The Shaykh : Praise is a source that may be intended to mean the doer, meaning you are the one praising, or it may be intended to mean the recipient, meaning you are the one being praised. So we are dealing with praise, which has two meanings.

The questioner : We encounter praise sometimes like this and sometimes like that.

The Shaykh : Did you see how you understood me?

The questioner : We may praise, and we may be praised.

The questioner : Sometimes you praise, for example, as if you were the Shaykh of the Arabs and the Shaykh of Islam. We want to know the ruling on the reality of the matter if we do not praise, or if we want to praise a person and believe this quality is in him. Then, if someone approaches us with praise, there are two aspects: if this quality is present in us, what should our response be? And if it is not present in us, how do we respond to it?

The Shaykh : There is a hadith known to everyone that answers one part of this question, which is his saying (peace be upon him): . This part of the hadith gives us an Islamic ruling: it is not permissible for us, when we praise a person with what appears to us from him, to be certain about it; rather, we should qualify it with suspicion. I believe so-and-so is a righteous man, as far as I know, and Allah is his accountant, and I do not testify to anyone’s righteousness before Allah. This concerns the one who praises. As for the one who is praised, the matter varies from person to person. Knowing that this variation has its effect in Islamic societies raised with Islamic upbringing, meaning in the early societies, is that if praise affects the one being praised and opens for him the door to arrogance, vanity, and looking down on others, then it is forbidden. And by this, he (peace be upon him) indicated in his saying: . As is our custom in understanding the hadiths of our Prophet, we do not separate one hadith from others that relate to the same subject; rather, we gather them all and take the conclusion from the whole, not from a single part. The example is now before us. If we looked at this hadith alone, we would say that praise is slaughter absolutely. But we find that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) praised dozens of people, and we are certain that these praised ones were not slaughtered by this praise, because they were raised with pure Islamic upbringing. So praise does not affect them, but rather the opposite of what happens with others who, when praised, become arrogant on earth. These people are increased in praise and become humble between themselves and their Lord, at least, and they do not be deceived by themselves. Therefore, we detailed this regarding the one who is praised, and that means the conclusion is that praise may be, and mostly in our time, slaughter, but it is not necessary that it be so for every individual Muslim. It may not be slaughter for some, and it may be slaughter for the majority. And since Islamic rules always observe what is the norm, the rules are established observing this norm. This does not mean that there are no exceptions. What we should follow, without doubt or hesitation, is to avoid praise absolutely. And if we praise, we take the means that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) legislated for us from his Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He. We say: as far as we think, as far as we estimate, and Allah is his accountant, so we do not testify to anyone’s righteousness before Allah. Here, some hadith scholars, like al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak, narrate a hadith that fits this detail perfectly. But according to the rules of hadith, these rules do not allow us to narrate it as a proof for what we are discussing. Rather, we mention it for two reasons: first, for reference and citation, not as a proof; and second, to remind that it is a hadith whose chain is not authentic, because it contains Abdullah ibn Lahi’ah the Egyptian, the judge, the just, famous for his justice in judging, but he was struck by a calamity that weakened his memory, and consequently he mixes up his hadiths. The details there are not what we are discussing now. The important thing is that this hadith is narrated by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak with his chain from Ibn Lahi’ah, with his chain to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: . “Raba” means it grew and increased. The truth is that the hadith is beautiful for whom? For the believer. But where is this believer today, so that we can be certain that praise does not slaughter him, but rather raises and grows his faith? This is difficult; we do not deny it, but it is difficult to find in this dark mass that includes the crowds. And so we should understand the subject of praise: one thing concerns the one who praises, and one thing concerns the one who is praised. So if the one who praises praises based on belief, he says, “May Allah will it,” and “I do not testify to anyone’s righteousness before Allah,” and there is no harm on him for that. But if he praises out of hypocrisy, idleness, and flattery, then this does not need explanation. The one who is praised may be affected and harmed, and this is the norm. Or it may not harm him; rather, he may be affected in his conscience and his inner self: how are these people deceived by him, deluded about him, while he knows what is between him and his Lord, that he is shortcoming? But these people are deceived by him. He may be disturbed, and he may cry, because he led people to believe in his righteousness, while he knows that what is between him and Allah is ruin and calamity. This is what comes to my mind regarding this question.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, in the same subject, as far as I know, in the hadith: ?

The Shaykh : Good news.

The questioner : Immediate good news for the believer. Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh : There is no harm, but this question does not contradict our subject. It is related to another hadith, which is:

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : The praise of people for him.

The questioner : The immediate good news for the believer is the praise of people for him.

The questioner : My master, another question.

The Shaykh : In another hadith related to your hadith, not ours, which is: how do I know if I am doing good or doing evil? He answered: ask your neighbors. If they praise you well, then you are doing good; otherwise, you are doing evil. This is not related to praise in the face. It is related to directing a person to do good in his dealings with people, so that they praise him well and do not praise him badly. So the praise we were discussing is something else. Yes, please, Doctor.