Depth Of Character

Good character has levels to it. So a person cannot have attributes of good character and then say they have the best of characters because there is another person with better character than them. Each person has their own level of good character and that is why everyday we try to gain more and better our characters. The depth of a person's character varies from person to person. We have taken good character as a mere please and thank you, holding the door open for someone, pulling out a chair for someone, and so on. Indeed these are all acts of good character, no doubt. But these acts are just the mere surface of good character. The tip of the ice berg. What are your intentions when helping a person? Does this boy hold the door for this girl and pull her seat out just so that she may love him and he may sleep with her or does he do it out of sincerity from his heart and he doesn't think of her as a good time but as a human? A person may say please and thank you but when they arrive to their homes they are not good to their children or they are not good to their wife or to their parents. Good character is how to deal with problems in your life and not be over saddened by them, how to treat others and how to treat yourself. Everyone speaks of rights and so one must understand their body has a right over them, their family has a right over them, their wife has a right over them, their husband has a right over them, and the only way to give out these rights with justice is by having good character. 

The Prophet(Peace be upon him) always stressed good character, from eating to speaking and from speaking to treating your wives and from treating your wives to treating children and from treating children to treating the old and even when going into war with the enemy. Every aspect of life is dealt with good character and it runs deep from the intentions of a person to the actions of a person. Both go hand in hand and if the intention is wrong and the action is right then the person has a disease in the heart for that would mean there was no sincerity.  An example of this is when we think of captives of war we think of torture and pain but in Islam when battles were fought and captives were taken they were treated as guests and not tortured. They would be given food, they would stay at the homes of the Companions, they would be taken care of and treated with dignity and respect. Many times the captives would accept Islam by seeing that this is what it means to have a captive from battle. 

This is one of the sayings of what The Prophet(Peace be upon him) said about good character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKDapd8Gj3U
  And to end this "chapter" of these blogs if you will then I would like for you all who visit this page to watch this short video which speaks of tranquility in the heart, fear, and anger in the heart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LHyj7RUK7A&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLB9DAD6B9EDAEE7BC