[Maisarah]

"The Believer is a Mirror for the Believer."
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani


There is a hadith, "Al Mu'min miraatul mu'min", paraphrased as "The believer is a mirror to the believer." I have heard different interpretations. Can you provide an explanation?

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Walaikum assalam,

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is reported to have said, “The believer is the mirror of the believer.” [Abu Dawud, and others]

Imam Abd al-Ra’uf al-Munawi (Allah have mercy on him) explained this in his

“This means that he discovers faults within himself [through him] that he otherwise would not have found. An individual does not look at a mirror except to see oneself and one’s face; however hard one tries, one does not see the reality of the mirror itself, because it is veiled by the image of oneself…

Amiri said that it means that you should be like a mirror to your brother, in which you show him his good traits, and assist him in thanking Allah, while preventing him from haughtiness. Similarly, you show him his bad traits, with gentleness in private and do not reveal these in public.” [Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, 6.251]

Others have explained this to mean that those of true faith and proximity to Allah reflect the light of Allah in the mirror of their very being.

And Allah alone gives success.

Walaikum assalam,
Faraz Rabbani.

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=7&ID=1674&CATE=17

[Alive...]

oo yeah heard it before...gotta work on th mirror part.... not sucha gud reflection ....woops

[The Rooz]

Aa

That's fascinating and brilliant!

I can't seem to make the same connection made by Amiri, but the first one is a good one.

I like this hadith (thanks Maisarah), and as far as my personal thoughts on it go, it tells me that coming to know our 'true selves' necessarily depends on the existence of others, and likewise, occurs only through our relations with others.

Though, I suppose in a literal sense a mirror always reflects a distorted image of oursleves. (My right hand is not on the left side of the mirror, it's on the right, though I think now you can get mirrors that are a 'true' reflection, but that's besides the point! We're trying to avoid literal interpretations here, I don't think the hadith is concerned at all with mirrors lol)

But I think the mirror-type metaphor is great.. a mirror is no more than a reflective surface, a site of reflection, but nonetheless, like it or not, it invokes (a) reflection; so in my mind, it's not so much the surface, but the reflection, and what it's reflective of, that really counts.. so it's a really clever metaphor I reckon .

I hope I made sense to some people, and they see that connection, cause it barely makes sense to me.

wasalam

This post has been edited by The Rooz: Sep 27 2006, 03:03 PM

[Russol]

Hmmm, As I read that I thought of something else (I'm not sure if it is a Hadith though). I'll paraphrase it : 'Your treatment of others should reflect how you want to be treated'. I guess this one isn't so much about discovering your own faults through others as the above Hadith has been interpreted as doing so.