Look at Yourself Before Judging Others…
Salam, 
Their are two things which go hand in hand, one is to internalize criticism and the other is judging yourself before judging others. Let’s accept it, No one is perfect, we aren’t angels.
We gotta constantly discipline our soul and most importantly be aware of our actions, because the Angels are writing down, and it don’t stop till your soul leaves your body. Look at yourself in the mirror, ask yourself What kind of a person am I? Evaluate your performance as a believer.
The question for today is do we put ourselves above other people when we approach them. You already know the devil is working hard to kick that pride in us, but that’s a disease of the heart and we gotta work on that Inshallah.
The Prophet saw said: “No one with the slightest particle of arrogance in his heart will enter paradise.”
A man remarked, “But a man likes his clothes to be nice and his sandals good.” The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “Verily, Allah is beautiful and loves beauty. Arrogance is refusing to acknowledge what is right and considering others beneath one.” (Mishkat al-Masabih)
What a beautiful Hadith, to put things into perspective, basically by judging others you energize that pride and start thinking your all pious. Chill Yo that’s Haraam Yo. See the interesting thing about living life as a Muslim is that to reaffirm your faith you gotta ask yourself, Am I living by the Sunnah? Do I follow the commands of Allah swt? If not then how can you expect a return in the hereafter. It’s all relative and we gotta stick to the principles. Remember Heaven or Hell can mean a blink of an eye.
Sayyiduna Ali (Allah be pleased with him) said: ” The world and the hereafter are like the east and west, and the traveler is between them. To the extent that he draws close to one, he distances himself from the other” (Ibid., 647.) So basically make up your mind. Either you go wild right now and suffer in the hereafter or you chill out, attain taqwa and chill in paradise.
Nowadays we have this wildfire spreading in peoples minds that they are quick to judge other people. Not only that, but they also like to spread rumors and if one wants to change they continue to backbite or bring up incidents from the past. As a result this destroys motivation for the individual who wants to change.
Of course it shouldn’t, we should all recognize that we are accountable to Allah (swt) alone and from him we come and to him we shall return. If a believer is making an effort to strive for good and you keep knocking him off the straight path. Then just accept that your the devils advocate.
The reason why I bought this up is because I feel that we might at times be driven with the mentality to point out other’s mistakes and elevate ourselves above others. The bottom line is we don’t know who Allah (swt) loves more. So stamp this Hadith in your heart.
Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace and salutations be upon him) said, “ Should you become eager to mention another’s faults, recall your own. “ (Ar-Rafi)
At the end of it all, we gotta understand when someone tells us something for our own benefit, its to help us. It’s that simple, don’t assume that he or she is trying to put you down, If you do that I promise you will never change. This is something we are all working on to some degree everyday, the better we get the more impact we will see in our life.
May Allah (swt) help us take constructive criticism and give us understanding of the deen and dunya! Ameen…don’t get it twisted