Birds for the Mind

This thread was inspired by the 'unintentional racism' thread.
The person in that thread stated he hated people of a certain ethnicity. The reason for this was that all those he had met had a bad attitude and he had also been mugged twice by the same race.

Scenario 1:

A Chinese man owns a shop where he is continually robbed at gunpoint by black youths. He then builds up a hate for black people based on these encounters.
He knows that not all black people are bad but whenever a black person enters his shop he gets scared.

This is simply how we are made. How can this hate ever be classed as a sin? He has no more control over it than he has for the eye colour he was born with.

If this is not a sin, can any unconscious action be a sin?

Scenario 2:

A religious Muslim man is always praying and doing tasbih/rosary beads in praise of Allah. However, he does them so often that they are now an unconscious action. He can get up, make a cup of tea, tidy up, all while carrying his tasbih (you often see this kind of thing in the mosque).

If we agree no sin can be counted for Scenario 1 then how can any reward be counted for this man?

I don't know whether empty dhikr carries any reward. However, I remember reading the words of a shaykh, upon advising people who complain about not being able to have concentration on Allah, and it was advised not to abandon the practice. This is because it is due to Allah giving us the tawfiq (success) that we are able to do any act of worship and it may be that Allah would decide to reward us with the ability to have concentration purely for our consistency, if nothing else.

Dagless said:

This thread was inspired by the 'unintentional racism' thread.
The person in that thread stated he hated people of a certain ethnicity. The reason for this was that all those he had met had a bad attitude and he had also been mugged twice by the same race.

Scenario 1:

A Chinese man owns a shop where he is continually robbed at gunpoint by black youths. He then builds up a hate for black people based on these encounters.
He knows that not all black people are bad but whenever a black person enters his shop he gets scared.

This is simply how we are made. How can this hate ever be classed as a sin? He has no more control over it than he has for the eye colour he was born with.

If this is not a sin, can any unconscious action be a sin?

Click to expand...

This man is scared and even angry. I wouldn't call it "hate." Emotions in themselves are not a sin. How we respond to those emotions can be the sin.

PouringRain said:

This man is scared and even angry. I wouldn't call it "hate." Emotions in themselves are not a sin. How we respond to those emotions can be the sin.

Click to expand...

Very true.

Similarly, glancing at the opposite sex once is not a sin because it is natural. The consistnt gazing is the sin.

Initial apprehension of a certain race due to past exerience is natural and not a sin. But unfair projection of it so much so that it get to a level of hatred is wrong.