Banquets.

Hafiz, an old Persian poet said: "If you realized that the world is God's banquet and you realize that you were just one of the guests how would you view everyone else?"

Because everyone here on earth is here by invitation from God. It doesn't matter who they are; the Jew, the Hindu, Buddhists, the Christian, the atheist...everybody has been invited here. And their life is a full life. You know, we see people at points in time and we assume that this is all there is to their lives. We see a rich and successful man and we assume that he's always been like this. We see a broken person addicted to drugs and we think that is all there is to his story.  Because most exchanges between humans are utilitarian, an exchange of needs. We use people and we honour things. If you look at how people treat things in their house for example they don't want to break the vase so they never knock the vase on purpose. But there are people who just push other people out of the way.
So we honour things and we use people. Shouldn't it be vice versa?
Afterall, if each time you are about to act out of annoyance or think condescendingly about someone, think of this banquet. You have been invited by Allah swt to come here...the other people with you have also been invited by Allah.
In any invitation from family/friends/in laws/boss we act with utmost courtesy when we are in someone else's home and we show gratitude and tolerance because we are guests, maybe if we remembered that we are guests on this earth we'd remember to honour those around us more and act with a little more courtesy.

Shiek Hamza Yusuf was speaking about this in a lecture I was watching yesterday and all day I had this image in my mind of me strolling through a huge banquet passing by the most diverse group of people. Some talking, some fighting, some dancing, some praying, some negotiating, some stealing, some kissing, some working, playing etc etc and each and every single one of them are guests in the same banquet. Even if they seem way too rich and glamorous or if they seem ignorant and impoverished. We are all in this place together and since I know that Allah is watching me (afterall, He is the one who invited us and graciously provided for us in so many ways) I feel much more self aware and more calm every time I have this image in my mind.