Exposing The Shortcoming of Others? - Refrain

Link

Exposing The Shortcoming of Others ?


“And yield not to any mean swearer. Defamer, going out with slander”.
(Al-Qalam:10-11)


There was once a wise man, who, after a very long time met his friend.


While they were both chatting, his friend said, “Do you know so and so (name of a person) whom you always considered as your best friend? Well, he has been speaking ill about you to others”


The wise man neither considered this information useful nor was he impressed by its conveyor.


He just looked at his friend and said,

“You have committed three acts of evil and treachery. Firstly, you have displeased my heart against a brother in faith. Secondly, you have unduly diverted my heart and made it occupied with something unpleasant. And thirdly, you have lowered yourself in my eyes and proved wicked by exposing others”.


In the verses of Sura al-Qalam mentioned above, generally teaches us not to pay attention to a type of mean and lowly people who always engage in defaming and exposing faults of others, even to the extent of slandering – fabricating defects against others.


Imam Ali bin Abi Talib (as) has said,

“The worst of the people are those who do not forgive errors and do not cover up short-comings of others”.


The vice and bad habit of exposing the short-coming and defects of others is caused by jealousy and hostility. It leads to the spread of corruption and enmity among people. It causes ill-feeling and disunity in a society or even at home within one's own family.


And this why the habit of covering defects of others has been praised and encouraged in Islam.


Imam Ali (as) guides us with the following words:


“Keep silent and cover up (short-comings of people) so that you remain secured and safe”

“One who covers up (short-comings) of a Muslim, Allah would reward him by covering him up in this world and in the hereafter”


Quite often the one with big mouth in fault-finding and exposing others, has in his own self such sins and defects as to require much attention in rectifying before his concern for others.


Thus Imam Ali (as) suggests;

“Whoever is inquisitive about the defects of others, should commence this and do first with his own self”.


The Imam (as) warning people against friendship of such people further says:


“Refrain from associating with the fault-finders because their friends too, cannot remain safe from their harm”.


<< Thank you Sister Aminah & Brother Syed for the reminder >>

---

Christian the lion - Full ending

Christian's story. Full ending and original soundtrack to the film "Christian, The Lion at World's End". Directed by Bill Travers,Commentary by Virgina McKenna, founders of the Born Free Foundation.

In 1969 a young Australian, John Rendall and his friend Ace Bourke, bought a small lion cub from Harrods pet department, which was then legal. 'Christian' was kept in the basement of a furniture shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, the heart of the swinging sixties. Loved by all, the affectionate cub ate in a local restaurant, played in a nearby graveyard, but was growing fast...

A chance encounter with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna led to a new life for Christian. He came to live in a huge enclosure and to sleep in a caravan at their Surrey home. Then in 1971 he was flown to Kenya, his ancestral home, and returned to the wild by lion-man George Adamson. Nine months later in 1972, John and Ace returned to Kora in Kenya. This clip is of their reunion at that time.

It was an emotional reunion: "He ran towards us, threw himself onto us, knocked us over and hugged us, with his paws on our shoulders."

John Rendall

See http://www.bornfree.org.uk for more about this story.

Christian the Lion is distributed by Beckmann Visual Publishing

Introduction "How Eco-terrorism Works" : HSW

Seattle's Street of Dreams is now a street of nightmares. The collection of multimillion dollar luxury homes was recently burned to the ground by people claiming to be eco-terrorists. Eco-terror, to paraphrase the FBI, is defined as the use of violence against victims or property by an environmentally oriented group for environmental-political reasons. The FBI considers environmental terrorism to be the number-one domestic terror threat facing the United States [source: Fox News].

Michael Salas/ The Image Bank/Getty Images

Environmental terrorism, or eco-terror, often involves burning down housing developments.

Acts of eco-terrorism, also known as ecotage (a combination of the prefix "eco" and the word "sabotage"), attack people or things that threaten the environment or the wildlife it supports. Eco-terrorists, or "ecoteurs," as they're sometimes known, profess to value all life, so they don't strike to kill, but instead use scare tactics like arson to discourage their enemies.

Suburban developments like the one in Seattle are common targets because of the land they consume and the nearby ecosystems they threaten. The Seattle subdivision, for example, was built near a stream that supports endangered salmon, and some opponents worried the homes would pollute the creek and nearby wetlands. SUVs, construction equipment and genetically engineered crops also are likely targets.

While they're certainly no al-Qaida, extreme activists acting on behalf of animals or the environment have committed hundreds of crimes over the past two decades and inflicted more than $100 million worth of damage in the U.S. alone [source: Fox News]. Other countries have seen their fair share of terrorist acts as well. For example, a slaughterhouse was torched in the Netherlands, farm equipment destroyed in England and a fur store vandalized in Mexico [source: NAIA].

The increasingly violent attacks of eco-terrorists worry many people. Those familiar with the movement suggest that, although groups are not in the practice of killing anyone, it is only a matter of time before they do. Since these radical environmentalists oppose pretty much anything having to do with development or with the alteration of the environment, they have a lot of potential targets from which to choose.

What drives these extreme activists? Why not just join Greenpeace or the Sierra Club? In this article, you'll learn more about the history, philosophy and tactics of the eco-terror movement, and you'll also get an idea of how it's organized.

For more, read on at: HowStuffWorks.com

Link