# What does holding on to bitterness do to a person?

*Rushdie's marriages, and bitterness that consumes the one who carries it*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/12/
- Date: 2022-08-19 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth (56:41–1:00:37)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pHQRNJjBY&t=3401s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/

**Topics:** Anger and forgiveness; Blasphemy, insult and free speech

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** After jokes about Rushdie's marriages, he says bitterness consumes the person who carries it and hurts those around them, and prays for such hearts to be healed.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says bitterness harboured against others destroys the one who carries it and hurts those closest to them, and he prays that God heals such hearts.

**Evidence, his words at 58:20:** “i tell you something about being bitter in life it never ends well” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pHQRNJjBY&t=3500s)

## Longer summary

Returning to Rushdie, Mufti Abu Layth mentions his years undercover under the alias Joseph Anton and makes jokes about his looks, his several marriages, including to a model from India who later left him, and divorce settlements, saying that where looks fail a bank balance makes up for it. He then says bitterness never ends well, quoting a saying he attributes to Nelson Mandela, that harbouring bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die, and an Arabic poet's lines that envy, like fire, consumes itself and begins with the one who harbours it. He prays that God heals the hearts of people who carry such venom, since they hurt those closest to them, their children, spouses, friends and society. He then says he has answered the questions and turns to the satanic verses themselves.

## Sources and names cited

- Salman Rushdie
- Nelson Mandela
- dua

## Transcript (machine tier, 56:41–1:00:37)

[56:10] being analytically critical about something because that has a an objective to it you see when i criticize something when i critique something when i satirize something and i show the points people can see oh yeah that makes sense when i just insult something just call their mama this uh call the wife for this call them this this is just this is just dumb it's petty it's like there's no end game to that except just like a little child i'm just um trying to get hurt you i'm trying to

[56:50] but it's not yeah there's no human compassion about that so yeah let's move on to um let's move on to and this was the thing you know he he always wanted to live in the uk but it became an issue he had to go undercover he had to as he had the alias um joseph

[57:17] i mean just look at that beautiful face right there does that but does that look like a jersey from all people [Laughter] god some say i am beauty i'm beauty yeah beauty is in the eye of the beholder but he is at several marriages for marriage is something beauty is in the eye of the beholder also is the bank balance

[57:52] see if when looks fail bank balance makes up for it so it's not difficult to you know they say well he's had he also one of his recent marriages was a model from from india but she aptly moved on as you can see and went to a status that she felt was clearly more befitting but in the process

[58:20] of bank balance this way divorce settlements so this is what happens you see these things were enough really you know for this person and i tell you something about being bitter in life it never ends well because you know there's a i um i believe it's actually nelson mandela's quote where he said harbouring bitterness against people or someone or it's like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die

[58:57] [Laughter] but it's going to be within you not in them you know this as the arabic poet says that um and in another poem that is it

[59:25] no but he gives the example of that they say it's like fire or that it consumes itself if it has nothing else to consume and the poet said that allah has kind of set a justice in envy and this kind of spitefulness that it begins with the person who harbors it and it kills them as in it's the end of them because they just have this bitterness that eats them up from within seriously honest there's a point here that i want to say that may allah

[1:00:02] grant a shift to people that carry this venom inside them a bitterness may allah heal their hearts seriously let's make dua i mean because there's many people and sometimes they maybe they felt they've been wronged for some reason but um yeah may allah heal these wounding hurt hearts because they just carry that hatred throughout their lives and they hurt so many people along the way sometimes people very close to them their own children their own spouses

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment T0pHQRNJjBY/s/12. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/12/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.