Wednesday, August 7, 2019

What It Means - Day 142

"God, ever mighty and majestic is He, says: 'Indeed this is a religion with which I Myself am well-pleased. Nothing befits it but open-handed generosity and nobility of character. So honour it with these two whenever you follow it.'"
Muhammad, Hadith

Here's another saying that I culled out of Ibn Arabi's collection of hadith qudsi, or divine sayings of the Prophet. I have several collections of ahadith, including a massive multi-volume collection, but for some reason I haven't opened this particular volume yet. Expect several more posts in the immediate future as I make up for this odd omission. 

As should be pretty obvious by now, I'm always drawn to passages from the Quran or the ahadith that attempt to get to the quintessence of the faith, cutting away rules and traditions and, well, sometimes just superstition, and getting to the essential core. So, naturally, I would be drawn to this one. The open-handed generosity is fairly easy to define, and we know that charity is such an integral part of the faith that it takes its place as one of the Five Pillars. Nobility is a little more vague, but I've discussed it previously, and will again. I'll be coming back to this question again soon.


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