Ways to overcome hypocritical characteristics

7-2-2012 | IslamWeb

Question:

How can I get rid of my hypocritical characteristics?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

The effective way to get rid of a hypocritical characteristic is to give it up determinedly, to sincerely turn to Allaah The Almighty in repentance, and to try to develop the attributes of sincere Muslims. May Allaah The Almighty protect all Muslims from having the characteristics of the hypocrites.

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam , said that there were four characteristics which, all together, made a person a hypocrite in the full sense of the word. He also added that anyone who had any of them had a hypocritical characteristic until he gave it up. The Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi was sallam, said that these characteristics were telling lies, breaking promises, being aggressive and unfair in disputes, and breaching covenants. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

In this Hadeeth, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, prescribed the cure for such characteristics, He said to simply give them up. If a person has all four characteristics simultaneously he would be considered a hypocrite in the full sense of the word.

Such characteristics can make hypocrisy replace faith in the heart of a Muslim. If a person has only one of those characteristics, he would have a streak of hypocrisy that may, if he did not give it up, wipe out his faith. Upon repentance and when giving up such characteristics, one retrieves the attributes of a Muslim and would be cured from hypocrisy. In this way his faith would be restored.

Allaah Knows best.