“Indeed, Allah loves the excellent people (Al-Muhsineen).”
Allah subhana wa ta’ala mentions this statement 5 times in the Qur’an.
Al-Muhsineen comes from the root word of ihsan. What is ihsan? Ihsan is excellence. It is the opposite of evil and everything that is bad. Let me give you an example. Allah subhana wa ta’ala says in the Qur’an:
“They are those who spend in times of ease and in hardship, suppress their anger, and forgive others. And Allah loves Al-Muhsineen.” [Ali Imran 3 : 134]
Allah says that giving charity is ihsan, suppressing our anger is ihsan, and forgiving others is ihsan. Today I want to focus on ihsan specifically in regards to forgiving others.
Forgiving people is tough. Forgiving people is very difficult. But the reward for forgiving others is incredible. Consider the following hadith:
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that there was a man who hardly did anything good in his life. Hardly! But he was wealthy, so he used to give loans to people. He hired someone to collect his money when it’s due to be repaid. He advised his assistant: If you met any debtor struggling to pay back the money, then take only what the debtor can pay easily, and leave what is difficult, perhaps because of this Allah will forgive us.
After some time, the wealthy man passed away. When he died, Allah subhana wa ta’ala asked: “Did you ever do any good deed (in your life)?”
The man said: No, except one thing (and he mentioned the story above when he was alive).
And how did Allah respond? Allah said to him:
“I have forgiven you.”
Remember that this was about a man who hardly did any good deed in his life! But because he had ihsan towards his debtors, Allah chose to forgive all of his sins. Subhana Allah.
I know it’s tough! But look at the reward. Brothers and sisters, Allah’s Forgiveness cannot be measured with dollars and cents. Forgive people, not so much for them, but forgive people so that Allah can forgive us.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “Forgive others and Allah will forgive you.” [Musnad Aḥmad 7001]
May Allah subhana wa ta’ala makes us all Al-Muhsineen. Ameen.
