Hadith Of The Week – Volume 03 Issue 40
Listening Wisely: An Islamic Guide to Better Character
Occasion of reflecting on this hadith: Passing of Mulla Ahmad Naraqi, the author of Mi’raj al-Sa’adah, one of the well-known works on Islamic ethics
Introduction
Islam places great importance on good character and moral development. In this edition of Hadith of the Week, we reflect on a valuable saying of Imam Ali (peace be upon him). The hadith teaches us that our ears, like our eyes and hearts, need guidance:
امام علی ابن ابی طالب (ع): عَوِّدْ أُذُنَكَ حُسْنَ الاسْتِمَاعِ، وَلَا تُصْغِ إِلَى مَا لَا يَزِيدُ فِي صَلَاحِكَ اسْتِمَاعُهُ؛ فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ يُصْدِئُ الْقُلُوبَ، وَيُوجِبُ الْمَذَامَّ. (غرر الحكم: 6234)
“Train your ear to listen well, and do not listen attentively to that which does not increase your goodness or improve your character by listening to it; for that rusts the hearts and brings blame.”
Educational messages of this hadith for teenagers and youth
- Choose What You Feed Your Mind
Just as your body is affected by the food you eat, your mind and heart are affected by what you listen to. Not every opinion, joke, rumour or online comment deserves your attention.
Practical Challenge: For one week, notice the content you listen to every day and remove one type of content that regularly makes you angry, negative, disrespectful or distracted.
- Be Careful with Gossip
Listening to gossip may feel entertaining, but repeatedly hearing negative stories about other people can damage our attitude towards them.
Practical Challenge: If a conversation turns into gossip this week, do not add to it; change the subject or leave the conversation.
- Be a Good Listener
Try to listen more and speak less.
Practical Challenge: In one conversation each day, let the other person finish speaking before you respond.
- From the Heart to the Ear
If you notice confused or troubling beliefs in your heart, stop and think about what you have been listening to.
Practical Challenge: When you notice a troubling thought or belief, ask yourself: “What have I been listening to that may be influencing me?”
- Know What You Should Not Listen To
Think about what you listen to that you should not and consider how it affects you.
Practical Challenge: Make a list of three things you should listen to less and avoid one of them for a week.
- Know What You Need to Listen To
Think about what beneficial things you should listen to but currently do not.
Practical Challenge: Choose one beneficial source—a good person, lesson or talk—and listen to it regularly for one week.
- Think Beyond Today
When choosing what to listen to, think about its long-term effects, not only how it makes you feel today.
Practical Challenge: Before following a new channel, podcast or type of content, ask: “How might this affect me after one year?”
- Follow the Guidance of Your Faith
When advice about what to listen to is confusing or contradictory, use the guidance of Islam as your reference.
Practical Challenge: When you are unsure about a type of content, discuss it with a trusted and knowledgeable religious person before making it a habit.
- Choose Good Friends
Choose friends who speak in good, respectful and God-pleasing ways.
Practical Challenge: This week, spend more time with friends whose words encourage you to become a better person.
Educational messages of this hadith for parents
- Listen to Understand
When children speak, listening carefully can show them that their thoughts and feelings matter.
Practical Challenge: Spend ten minutes each day with your child in a conversation where your only goal is to listen, without correcting or giving advice unless they ask for it.
- Teach Children to Choose Their Voices
Children need help learning that not everything they hear online or from others is useful or true.
Practical Challenge: Once a week, discuss one piece of online content your child has seen and ask together: “Is this helpful, harmful or simply a waste of our attention?”
- Model Good Listening
Children learn how to listen and what to listen by watching their parents listen to others.
Practical Challenge: During one family conversation each day, make a conscious effort not to interrupt anyone until they have finished speaking.
- Limit Phones and Social Media
Limit phone and social media use because they can reduce active family listening and expose family members to harmful or misleading content.
Practical Challenge: Have one phone-free family meal or conversation every day.
- Teach Children How to Choose
Give your children clear principles for deciding what they should and should not listen to.
Practical Challenge: Create three simple family rules for choosing beneficial content and discuss them with your children.
- Teach Wise Friend Selection
Teach your children how to choose good friends because many of the things they hear come from their friends.
Practical Challenge: Ask your child: “How do your friends make you feel and behave after you spend time with them?”
- Choose Positive Company
Avoid unnecessary social and family settings where people regularly speak in harmful, hopeless or disrespectful ways.
Practical Challenge: Over the next month, choose one family gathering or social setting to reduce and replace it with a more positive one.
- Promote Wholesome Listening at Home
Be mindful of what you listen to on the way to and from places, as well as what you play and listen to at home. A heart, mind and soul accustomed to hearing the Qur’an, supplications and words that draw us closer to God will naturally turn away from harmful words and sounds.
Practical Challenge: Play one wholesome and God-pleasing piece of content for 10 minutes each day in your home.
Educational messages of this hadith for imams and teachers
- Make Every Word Count
People benefit more when teaching focuses on clear and useful messages rather than unnecessary information.
Practical Challenge: Before a lesson, class or sermon, identify one main message that you want people to remember and remove anything that does not support it.
- Teach People How to Listen
Listening is not simply staying silent; it means paying attention, understanding and reflecting.
Practical Challenge: At the beginning of one lesson or sermon, give the audience one simple question to think about while they listen.
- Create Space for Questions
Good teaching involves listening to people’s questions and concerns, not only speaking to them.
Practical Challenge: Set aside a few minutes after one lesson each week for questions, and listen fully before giving an answer.
- Turn Listening into Action
The purpose of beneficial listening is not simply to collect information but to improve one’s behaviour and character.
Practical Challenge: End one lesson each week with one small action that listeners can practise during the following week and begin the next lesson by asking how it went.
- Teach Long-Term Thinking
Teach people to think about the long-term effects of what they listen to, not only its immediate results.
Practical Challenge: In your next lesson or sermon, give one example of something that feels enjoyable today but may have harmful effects over time.
- Explain How Listening Shapes the Heart
Explain how what people repeatedly hear can influence their hearts and behaviour, using simple real-life examples.
Practical Challenge: Ask your audience to identify one thing they regularly hear that improves their character and one thing that harms it.
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