turn away from the causes that breed enmity toward his brother, for the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Do not hate one another.”

Yet I say: hatred has its causes and love has its causes. If you deliberately ignore the causes of hatred, overlook them, and allow them to fade from your mind, that hatred will, by Allah’s permission, disappear. This is precisely what the Prophet—peace be upon him—intended by his words, “Do not hate one another.” It is similar to his advice to the man who said, “Messenger of Allah, give me counsel.” He replied, “Do not become angry.” The man repeated, “Give me counsel,” and he said, “Do not become angry.” Again the man pleaded, “Give me counsel,” and the Prophet said, “Do not become angry,” repeating it several times: “Do not become angry.”

Someone may object, “Anger is a fiery coal that Satan hurls into the heart of the son of Adam, as the hadith mentions; there is no way to extinguish it.” We respond: on the contrary, there is a way. Take the measures that lessen anger until it leaves you altogether.

He also said, “Do not turn your backs on one another.” Does this refer only to physical turning away—such as sitting in a gathering with your back to the people? Yes, that is one form of turning away. Another form is to cut someone off in conversation: your brother is speaking to you and you pointedly look away, or he begins to talk and you rise and leave him. This too is turning away, and it is the physical kind.

There is also a figurative kind of turning away: the divergence of opinion, such that each of us