One Is Judged by One’s Dominant Characteristics.

To be successful means for you to have good qualities which outnumber and overshadow your bad qualities. When this becomes a reality in your life, you will find that people will shower compliments upon you, even for qualities that you do not possess. People will not accept criticism of you either, even if what is said about you is true-a mountain is not increased in worthiness by an extra rock nor is it diminished by one less rock.

Although here and there I have read criticism of Qays ibn’Aasim, the generous one of the Arabs and of Qutaybah ibn Muslim, the famous leader, I have found that criticism and censure of such people is neither prevalent in books nor accepted by the masses. The reason for this is that their bad qualities were lost and drowned in their ocean of goodness. On the contrary, I have read some good things about Al-Hajjaj, Abu Muslim al-Khurasani, and Al-‘Ubaydi. But nobody remembers such praise nor would anybody believe that any good qualities were present in the likes of such men. This is because these qualities are lost in the mass of their evil and wicked deeds. How perfect and how just Allah is in managing the affairs of His creation!

[SOURCE: Laa Tahzaan – Don’t Be Sad]