Praise be to Allaah the Lord of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and companions. As Muslims we are commanded to follow the Quranic advice and that of from the sunnah/ahadeeth (traditions) of the prophet. Thus a person can also derive lessons from the Quran and the sunnah for each and everyday life activities. In this article I have tried to lay out some few extractions of pieces of advice of Luqman the wise. The following pieces of advice of Luqman are from Quran chapter 31 verses 13-19 and from the ahadeeth provided in tafseer-Jalalyn and a book of Ibn Katheer entittled “The stories of the Quran”. The commentary of the verses is from tafseer ibn katheer.
1. Join not in worship others with Allah. Verily, joining others with Allah is a great zumlu (wrong)
2. Perform the Salah. ‘Which means offer the prayer properly at the appointed times.’
3. Enjoin the good, and forbid the evil
4. Bear with patience whatever befalls you. Verily, these are some of the important commandments. Meaning being patient when people cause harm or annoyance is one of the most important commandments’
5. Turn not your face away from men with pride. ‘Do not turn your face away from people when you speak to them or they speak to you, looking down on them in an arrogant fashion’
6. Do not walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.
7. Lower your voice. Meaning, do not exaggerate in your speaking and do not raise your voice unnecessarily
8. Take yourself taqwa (fear of Allah) as your tijaara (transition or business)
9. Be frequent in going to janaza (funeral) and do not be in haste to go to wedding because funeral reminds you of your death and the hereafter while wedding makes you love the dunya (the world)
10. When you hear rooster crowing while you are asleep in the morning make sure you wake up
11. Do not delay to make tawuba (repentance) for death comes upon you suddenly
12. Do not try to be appreciated by a man who is jaahir (ignorant) for when you are doing something wrong he will not correct you
13. Fear Allah. Do not show your fear of Allah so that they (people) will honor you and respect you while inside your heart you are evil and corrupt
14. Do not regret being silent because if speech is silver then silence is gold
15. Go and sit with the scholars and listen to the speech of the wise ones because Allah gives life to the dead heart with hikma the way He gives life to the dead earth life with rain from the sky
16. A person who is a liar his beauty of his face will go away
17. And anyone who lives badly with people his life is filled with misery or sorrow so you should always live well with people
18. To remove a mountain from one place to another place is easier than to teach a stupid person
19. Whenever you want to send someone as a messenger to a place don’t send a stupid person. If you can’t find a wise person as a Messenger then be yourself a Messenger
20. Do not marry the slave girl of another person other than you(rs) because your son would be unhappy. Scholars understood this differently, so because of space am just going to give one sided opinion of the meaning of this advice. ‘A long time ago owners of slaves could cohabit with their slave girl(s) or women. So some scholars understood that if a son was born from that slave woman after she gets married, he (the son) could meet some problems like being showered with derogatory comments from the owner of the slave hence resulting in sadness of the son. The lesson here is that in Islam it’s prohibited to marry a woman who sleeps around (this also applies to a man)’
21. Choose the company (of friends) carefully. Whenever you enter in a meeting give salaam and listen attentively to what they are discussing if they are talking about Allah then you sit but if they are talking about the dunya do not sit because if you are a scholar you can benefit them and if you are not a scholar then they can benefit you. And always sit with those discussing Islam .Whenever the angels of mercy descend with the mercy of Allah then you will share in that mercy
22. Do not feed your food except pious people
23. Seek advice from only scholars/experts
24. This world is the vast ocean many people have drowned in world before you, so let your ship that you sail in this ocean be taqwa llah(fear of Allah) and let the load be eemaan (faith in Allah) and let the sail of your ship be tawakkul ala llah (reliance in Allah).
25. Poverty is most bitter thing than all the Bitterness of this life. So it’s important to make dua (supplication) to Allah to protect us from poverty
26. Hikma (knowledge/wisdom) makes the scholars sit with the kings (leaders) so do not seek knowledge to show off on the scholars nor to dispute with the layman
27. Do not acquire knowledge unless your intention is to practice the knowledge
28. If you want to take someone unto yourself as a friend and it happens that before you take him as your friend you upset him, then inspect him carefully and if he gets upset for valid reason (e.g. because you committed sins) hang on to that friend but if he gets upset to you for invalid reason stay as far as you can from that person
29. Lowering your gaze
30. Watching your tongue
31. Eating what is lawful, keeping your chastity
32. Undertaking your promises
33. Fulfilling your commitments
34. being hospitable to guests
35. Respecting your neighbors and
36. Discarding what does not concern you.
These are some of the pieces of advice that Luqman the wise advised his son and those who came to ask him some questions. Luqman was not only wise but also honored by being mentioned in the Quran because of the wisdom given by Allah. It is therefore of utmost importance that we Muslims should try as much as possible to emulate these guidelines of this wise man.
May Allah help us polish up our behavior.
