Ways

You know,

even though our Deen goes on when we are on our own,

most of our lives we spend in the company of other people,

so we have to find the best way to live our Deen together.

We have to find a way to show Good Manners to each other.

Muslims use an Arabic word for the Good Manners that are part of their Way of Life.

It is 'Adab'.

But, of course, as we live our lives

we meet all sorts of different people,

so we find that there are different ways to behave

that are right for one person and not

for another,

things that you can do in one place that you can't do in another.

So it's not always easy for us to know what we mean by Good Manners

and the reasons why we think they are good.

Now, people in different places show good manners in different ways.

They dress differently,

they speak to each other differently,

they act in different ways,

and each group of people uses their own Good Manners

to show each other that they share an understanding of good and bad ways to behave.

So those ideas of good and bad are given an agreed Way to show Good Manners

that can be recognised.

But that only works for those who agree to it.

People from somewhere else may have quite different ways of showing good manners.

Manners can change when we move away from those who are usually around us.

And of those people around us

there are some who are closer to us than others,

different groups of people

with whom we will act in different ways.

We can still be living our Deen while we are showing a variety of different Adabs.

So when choosing a way to behave,

we choose according to the person we are behaving with.

And to make those choices we have to understand

the good and the bad that these ways of life are meant to show.

What's so special about Mums and Dads?

How are we all siblings?

How should we treat other people we meet?