Last but not least!

Many are those who can speak well and invite people to Allah and at the same time educate them about morals. However, teaching manners cannot be carried out through giving lectures, attending training courses or reading textbooks. A skilled teacher can assign his students to read a textbook on good manners.

But, this is not the best way possible to inculcate morals in the minds and hearts of others. Morals are not pieces of information to be learnt by heart and then recalled whenever need necessitates. Instead, morals are conduct, practice and application.

Among the greatest things we need today is to provide role models of good manners for others to emulate. One might be touched by an eloquent lecturer on manners such as loyalty, truthfulness, benevolence and say, “That’s very nice!” However, as they say, “Actions speak louder than words.” One cannot really impress the hearts of his audience unless he practices what he preaches or as some say, “To walk the talk!” Shu`aib (peace be upon him), said in the Ever-Glorious Qur’an, {And I do not intend to differ from you in that which I have forbidden you.} (Hud 11: 88)

In the same vein, the late Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali cites in his book, Manners of the Muslim (P. 6), the following dialogue. Once a Muslim scholar was asked, ‘Have you ever read Aristotle’s Morals of the Soul?’ He answered, ‘No. But I have ‘read’ Muhammad ibn `Abdullah’s morals of the soul!’

Yes, some people might have read Aristotle’s and other philosophers’ as well. However, Muslims have read -and many of them have already lived and witnessed- the noble morals of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) for quite a long time.

In so doing, they found all that which has been imagined by the past philosophers -and even much more- represented in and personified by the character of the Prophet.