Workbook 92 - An Nafi- The Propitious

What benefits me? What benefit comes through me?

Allah is An-Nāfiʿ - The One who brings benefit. This workbook invites us to examine benefit as more than comfort, preference, or immediate pleasure. We will consider what truly supports spiritual, mental, relational, and social well-being; how we receive benefit; and how our character can become a place of benefit for others.

The image of shade will guide us. A tree does not need to know the whole story of the person resting beneath it before its shade can be useful. In the same way, refinement can include learning to respond to incomplete information with humility rather than unnecessary negative certainty.

This workbook builds on earlier work concerning the tongue. Restraining harmful speech matters. An-Nāfiʿ asks us to go further and examine the thoughts, assumptions, and judgments that are preparing to become speech.

Sometimes giving another person the benefit of the doubt is one of the benefits we give ourselves.