Realizing One’s Own Mistakes

P

eople who are in the habit of filling out their sentences with unnecessary words are usually quite unaware of their own habit. If however, someone else, does the same thing, they notice it immediately.

This is a common human fault. People are usually well-informed about others’ faults. They ferret out shortcomings in other people but pretend to know nothing about what they and their friends do wrong. Yet, it is acknowledgement of one’s own faults rather than skill in noticing those of others which will benefit one in God’s presence. To notice others’ mistakes is to show God that one has been altogether too attentive to worldly matters. On the Day of Judgement, a severe punishment awaits one who has been guilty of their error.

God has given man the power of distinguishing between good and evil. People should use this power to avoid paths leading to hell and keep to the road destined for paradise. If one is following a false path oneself, one’s exhortation of others to the true way shows an obvious misuse of one’s discretion. One is using it to accelerate one’s own journey to hell, for, to preach what one fails to practice is an offence in the eyes of God; it is not an action which will earn one any credit.