About criticism

My brother believes that I don't "wilt under criticism." I don’t know... but, if his observation is correct, I’m thankful for adulthood, and how I’m now more about understanding situations than reacting.

The more I get older, the more I realise that truth is irrelevant to people who only want to hear what makes them comfortable. They cannot tolerate the feeling of you saying anything that contradicts their self-justifying narratives. They’d rather keep apart from your views, even if it means unfriending you.

As far as I'm concerned, what to do about criticism should largely if not entirely depend on the source. People who care will always give constructive advice, and theirs may be hard to swallow but it’s coming from a good place; so it’s best that one listens.

When you get attacked by the same people who loved you for telling it like it is, but not this time that you described a certain situation honestly, remember: 'everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.'

If you’re sincerely promoting decency, yourself trying to be good, in the way you know best, yet always spoken evil of, like you’re no good, remember: bad people love company, so they naturally wouldn’t like it when you aren't like them.

If you’re a genuinely kind person, doing the good you do fī sabīli llāh, yet regularly accused of having ulterior motives, remember: self-seeking people judge everyone by their own inclinations. And because they seek nothing but the self, in their eyes, every charitable act is selfish propaganda.