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© Dar Al-Nafaes
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Deposit No. : 2008/11/3996
ISBN Hard Cover : 978-9957-477-65-3

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7
A WINDOW INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR 9
THOSE WALKING THE PATH 13
WHY SEARCH FOR THE INGREDIENTS OF THE ISLAMIC
PERSONALITY? 19

ATTRIBUTES OF THE ISLAMIC PERSONALITY 21

First: A Heavenly Nature ( ibghah) 21

Second: Clear Vision 39
Third: Pride 45
Fourth: Holding Fast to the Truth 49
Fifth: Confrontation 53
Sixth: Consistency With the Truth 57
Seventh: Contentment and Tranquility 63
Eighth: Realizing the Objective of Life 73
Ninth: Repenting to the Truth 75

A FINAL WORD 81
SYMBOLS’ DIRECTORY 82
GLOSSARY 83
TRANSLITERATION CHART 86
ACCENT CHART 88
INTRODUCTION

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, and seek

His Assistance, Forgiveness and Guidance. We seek refuge
with Allah from the evil of our souls and bad deeds.
Whomever Allah guides will not be misguided by anyone.
And whomever He misguides will not be guided by anyone.
I openly testify that nothing deserves worship but Allah, and
that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
This book, my noble brother, is a transcript of a lecture I had
delivered in a distant city. I delivered in front of a group of
Muslim students of knowledge who had traveled long
distances to seek knowledge previously acquired by our
predecessors. Our need for such knowledge is treasured, yet
we are spending no effort in seeking it.
Distant lands did not prevent those youth from holding
steadfast to their religion. They came to listen to a beneficial
speech and to mutually advise each other to hold on to the
truth and practice patience.
This book is a humble effort that can be added to many other
efforts to resist the campaign against the individual Muslim,
the Muslim family, and the Muslim society. In fact, the real
target of those campaigns is to destroy Islam and eliminate it
from its roots.
We are certain that victory will only be attained by the
righteous and patient. The darkness of falsehood will not
last; instead, the radiance of Islam will shine again. I am
certain that the lions of Islam will knock down the fortresses
of disbelief. They will do so with inexorable will and souls
overflowing with belief. Their intention in this life is for the
welfare of the human race.
I have written these words for those who appear before me
in the near horizon. They motivate me and heighten my
hopes. By the Will of Allah, these words will be a torch of
guidance toward the Straight Path. How can they not be, for
these words have been decorated with verses of the Holy
Book and sayings of the Prophet.
O’ Allah! Inspire us with that which is beneficial to us, and
protect us from the evil of our souls.

Dr. ‘Umar Sulaym n al-Ashqar

 A WINDOW INTO HUMAN
BEHAVIOR

If we were to examine human behavior during different

times and places, we will find that humans live life styles
that are immensely different. Some of those life styles are
like navigating through a storm.
We will discover that humanity has gone through dark times,
as if it was traveling through the darkness of night. It seemed
to never reach the shores of safety no matter how much it
traveled. Humanity set goals and sought objectives that
changed as soon as humans approached the achievement of
them. Just as if you approach the mirage, and as quickly as it
appeared, it disappears.
When we analyze the different paths of life and in spite of
the strong winds, we will find only one Straight Path.
Whenever this path becomes in need of maintenance, a
group of men stand up to clean it and make its borders clear
once more.
Those walking this Straight Path were sometimes countless
and other times few. But there has always been someone
walking upon it.
We find this Straight Path to be one of enlightenment for the
entire universe. The hearts and faces of those walking on this
path are illuminated. Journeying around with torches in their
hands, they call others to join them on the Straight Path of
enlightenment for the hearts and souls.
Don’t think that I am narrating a poet’s dream or the fantasy
of someone secluded from life. We do not have a physical
window through which we can view the past and present
human behavior. But we surely have a book that was
delivered from the One Who is All-Knowing and Who is
Well-Acquainted with all matters. He is Most Truthful
because He is the Creator of the heavens and earth, and the
Founder of the human being. He was the First with nothing
preceding Him in existence. He is the Creator of time and
space, the Knower of all that occurs.
If one reads this book with an open heart and a
contemplating mind, he will glance into the world of humans
witnessing the amount of deviation that they have lived
through. They lived through stages of darkness because they
became misguided from worshipping their true god. Instead,
they worshiped inanimate objects, trees, animals, and other
humans.
The reader will discover there are several paths that will lead
humanity to destruction. All such philosophies, beliefs, and
ancient schools of thought are inconsistent with that which
Allah revealed. Those pathways may have some differences
between them, but they all convene as sources of falsehood
that lead people astray.
In the midst of this falsehood, the Qur’an lays out for us the
one long Straight Path, which has continued to be as such
throughout the ages. Adam, the father of humans, walked
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

this path as did all righteous humans, including Prophets,

Messengers, the truthful, the righteous and martyrs.
The Qur’an narrates to us of their journeys on this path:

And verily, this is my Straight Path, so follow it, and

follow not [other] paths, for they will separate you
away from His Path. This He has ordained for you
that you may become righteous. (Qur’an 6: 153)
Those individuals always requested Allah to keep them
steadfast on this Pathway:

Guide us to the Straight Way, The Way of those on

whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not [the way]
of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who
went astray. (Qur’an 1: 6, 7)

During their journeys, they continuously sought their Lord’s

Enlightenment:

… Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light

and a plain Book. (Qur’an 5: 15)
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

And thus We have sent to you [O’ Muhammad ( )]

an Inspiration, and a Mercy of Our Command. You
knew not what is the Book, nor what is faith. But We
have made it a light wherewith We guide whosoever
of Our slaves We will… (Qur’ an : 52)
In addition, they have invited others to this Straight Path and
guiding light:

Invite mankind, to the Way of your Lord with

wisdom and fair preaching... (Qur’ an 16: 125)
Allah guides whomever He wills, and those left unguided
shall remain astray in the darkness.
 THOSE WALKING THE PATH

Those who walked the Straight Path while being enlightened

with the heavenly truth represent the goodness among
humanity. They have fulfilled the objective of their creation:

And I [Allah ( )] created not the jinn and humans

except they should worship Me. (Qur’ an 51: 56)
They worship Allah in the manner He wants to be
worshipped. Therefore, they were the ones who were chosen
to be righteous.
As for those who became lost in the paths of life and were
doomed in its valleys, they are more heedless than animals:

…They are like cattle, nay even more astray...

(Qur’ an 7: 179)
This occurred because they rejected the call of the truthful
guides and were too arrogant to submit to the truth. They
overestimated their own intellectual abilities.
The ones who are walking the Proper Path are the true
Muslims. Islam is Allah’ s true Religion which He sent with
all of His Prophets. All of those who can be truly described
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

as righteous followed Islam, for Allah did not reveal a

religion other than Islam:

Truly, the religion with Allah is Islam...

(Qur’ an 3: 19)
All Prophets were Muslim. They declared this fact openly.
They also counseled their children and followers to adopt
Islam as their religion.
For example, while building the Ka’ ba, Ibr h m (Abraham)
and Ism ’ l (Ishmael) were supplicating:

Our Lord! Make of us Muslims bowing to you; and

of our progeny a people Muslim, bowing to you...
(Qur’ an 2: 128)
Both Ibr h m and Ya‘q b (Jacob) admonished their children:

… O’ my sons! Allah hath chosen the faith for you;

then die not except in the state of Islam.
(Qur’ an 2: 132)
Y suf (Joseph), the son of Ya‘q b, never forgot the advice
of his ancestors and prayed that he would die as a Muslim:
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

… Take my soul [at death] as a Muslim, and unite me

with the righteous. (Qur’ an 12: 101)
Throughout the generations, those who sought the path of
enlightenment were true Muslims who never relied on their
own physical or mental strength. Instead, the light of
guidance shined over their hearts and minds. They were able
to see with the light of guidance just as they were able to see
with the light of the sun.
Those true Muslims walked their path while Allah was
shining His Light on them and engulfing them with His
Care.
Those who have opposed them, refused to be enlightened
with the heavenly light, but opted to utilize dim lights that
did not enable them to lighten up areas of pitch darkness.
They are just like a person who holds a miniature torch in
the midst of a dark stormy night. True Muslims, on the other
hand, hold within their hands the sun itself.
Clear Characteristics
True Muslims are a very distinct type of people. They
possess attributes that set them apart from everyone else. In
other words, their personalities have distinct characteristics
which were seen in early Muslims, Prophets and
Messengers, and their followers. We also see these
characteristics in true followers of modern day Islam.
The Balanced Personality
The Islamic personality is the only balanced personality. It is
balanced in its attributes, demeanor, hopes and judgments.
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

It is the only personality that is not distorted. It is consistent

with its natural form, leading the person to live the life
which Allah wants. Non-Muslims, on the other hand, lead a
life of ambiguous thinking, not knowing the Correct Path.

The Distorted Islamic Personality

Those who have adopted Islam in name only and those who
consider the Qur’ an a book for mere recitation do not
represent the proper Islamic personality. This is because a
proper Islamic personality is one which represents the true
teachings of Islam.
As for those who affiliate themselves with Islam but seek to
rectify hearts and minds by utilizing worldly methods, they
only represent a distorted Islamic personality. This is true
regardless of their titles and claimed status.
Some of those who claim to be Sufis and philosophers have
contributed to distorting the Islamic personality. We observe
people who claim to be Muslim, but in reality they have
nothing but a thin layer of Islam which quickly dissolves
during times of calamities.

The Islamic Personality Through the Ages

Throughout the centuries, the Islamic personality has been
subjected to many attempts to destroy and eliminate it.
When such efforts failed to reach these goals, they resorted
to distorting the Islamic personality. The enemies of Islam
lead these campaigns by introducing foreign philosophies
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

and traditions that aided in throwing doubts into the hearts of

Muslims.
The enemies of Islam were hoping to stop Islam from being
the only contributor to shaping the Muslim personality; as
Allah wanted it to be. The genuine Islamic ‘aq dah (creed)
became polluted with the science of Kal m and philosophy,
in addition to those who claimed to receive knowledge
through unveilings of their hearts and unauthenticated
revelations.
This confused Muslims, and resulted in a proliferation of
those who claimed to possess the truth. Many Islamic groups
were generated which in turn produced feuding to the point
of accusing one another of apostasy and heresy.

The Islamic Personality of Today

The Islamic personality of today is a representation of the
immense culture we inherited from our forefathers. This
culture was affected by several elements, some of which
only wanted ill-will for Islam and Muslims.
The struggles of today are directed at controlling the human
intellect, including matters of faith. “Super Powers” have a
great fondness to this type of control. For this control, they
have mobilized huge sums of money and their media and
writers. Had the same amounts of money been spent on
eliminating poverty, illness, or illiteracy, the entire humanity
would have benefited. Unfortunately, it is part of human
nature to be keen on spreading one’ s system of thinking and
 Attributes of Islamic Personality

to convince others of adopting it. Allah ( ) has said the

truth:

… Thus We have made alluring to each people their

own doings… (Qur’ an 6: 108)

Building the Islamic Personality All Over Again

Since the personalities of most contemporary Muslims do
not represent the true Islamic personality, it has become
important to go back and reestablish the true Islamic
personality with its clear attributes that are similar to that of
Prophets, Messengers, the honorable Companions and noble
religious figures.
In doing so, we must resort to the same resources which our
predecessors utilized. These resources were the Qur’ an and
the Sunnah. Although these two resources were sufficient,
what truly helped our predecessors was the presence of the
Prophet ( ) among them. He ( ) embodied the perfect
Islamic personality and his Companions represented the
ideal Islamic generation. The presence of such practical
examples made it easy to develop a society in which the
pleasant fragrance of Islam was always in the atmosphere
Attributes of Islamic Personality