Masha’Allah a nice post. I’d also like to ponder upon this further by seeing another prospective as well. I completely understand this hadith and what it refers to (i.e. individuals who are not forgiving, hard at heart and so on) yet one must not confuse this with being firm in his/her religion.

I do feel one must be balanced in life i.e. one must forgive all the time but also one needs to stand up when needed as well. Hazrat Omar (R.A.) would be a good example. Masha’ALLAH he’s among the best generation, yet he was very strict and by the book and his life would teach us that we need to be firm too.

Life’s experiences has taught me that if one is too forgiving, people tend to take them for granted and may continue to make those same mistakes again and again without remorse/apologies. Thus one needs to forgive but also to take a firm (and fair) step to ensure it may not be repeated…Subhan’ Allah I guess that is why Islam teaches us to be balanced :)

Another thing that comes to mind; The ‘alone’ in the Hadith in my opinion does refer to someone who’s alone in terms of being mean/cruel and may not necessarily refer to one who prefers to be alone for valid reasons…
I found this topic really interesting because I always heard and read that being a ‘group’/unity in Islam is important and was surprised to hear about Abu Darr (R.A.) preference of isolation, but then reading on him and knowing his reasons…..plus personal experiences again, one begins to understand.

Was Salaamu Alaikum

the last hadeith is a good one! (btw…did you get a chance to answer my last question i posted?)

abdul