Neighbor Rights

Bismillah Alhamdulillah you're watching way of the Muslim defining the Muslim character. I'm your host, Yusuf Estes. And for the next few minutes, I want to talk to us on this subject of building the better character of the Muslim. And I want to also refer to something that's called Love and Islam. And when we talk about love, what we're talking about, is the love that Allah has for somebody. Very frequently, we hear people say things like, you know, I love God, they believe there's only one God, they want to say that, you know, I love God. God loves me. And that's sufficient. But we've been talking in our programs about something more than belief and love. We've

been talking about doing deeds, actions for the sake of a law. So let's talk about the real love in Islam. One of the things that we learned from the Quran, it says clearly, say to the people, oh, Mohammed,

if you truly love a law, then follow me, then and only then we'll have all of you, and he'll forgive your sins.

Based on that, let's look now at what Muhammad left as a following. What did he teach us we have something called Hadith. These are narrations from Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, preserved, by the way from 1400 years. And let's listen to what he said about this subject of love in Islam. He says that, whenever Allah loves somebody,

he orders the angel Gabriel, to love that person.

And Gabriel loves him.

Then Gabriel, makes an announcement amongst all the residents of the heaven. And he says a lot of love so and so. Therefore, you have to love him also. So all the residents of heaven, love this person. And that person is granted the pleasure of the people of the earth.

This is narrated on the authority of a close companion of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi. Salam, and his name is Abu huraira. He's telling us that the Prophet peace be upon him said, When Allah loves a person, he calls Gabriel saying, Allah loves so and so. Oh, Gabriel loves him. Gabriel loves him. And then Gabriel makes an announcement amongst the residents of heaven. Allah love so and so therefore, you should love him also. So all the residents of heaven love him. And he's granted the pleasure of the people on the earth. Now, what is this love that we're talking about?

Because I want that for me. I'm sure you want it for you, too. We've been talking about. I love a law. But how am I going to get the love back? And we just mentioned the verse in the Quran. If you really want a lot of love you, then what do you need to do? You have to follow Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam? And how can you do that if you don't know what his teachings were, you can't follow what you don't know. So that's why a lot of preserve these teachings. And hopefully we're doing a good job in translation interpretation so that we can best understand them in the English language.

Here's a subject that is related to the love and hatred in Islam. Now, I know a lot of people will say, Well, wait a minute, what kind of religion has hate in it? We only have love our religion is all about love. God is love. Well, I got news for you in Islam. Allah has one of his names. One of his Beautiful Names is love. Allah dude, the loving the epitome of all loving is Allah soupon without a God Almighty. So yes, we have that. But what about hate? And if you said, Well, we love everything. Is there anything you don't love? You said, Oh, I love everything. Well, I got a question for you then. Do you love it when people do acts of violence? Usually No, no, I don't love

that. You hate it. Oh, yeah.

What do you hate it when people do bad deeds when they lie, cheat? Steal murder. Do you hate that? Yes, I hate it. Okay, that's the kind of hate we also have as Muslims. So we love for the sake of Allah. All those things which are good, but by the way, we hate for the sake of Allah, all those things which are evil or bad. So

on the authority of aniseed Malik, may Allah be pleased with him. He said the Prophet peace be upon him told us none will have the sweetness of faith, sweetness of the deen of Islam until he loves somebody and he loves him only for the sake of law, and until it becomes dearer to him to be thrown in the fire rather than to revert back to disbelief after law has guided him and brought him out.

It and until Allah and His Messenger become dear to him than anything else. Think about that the Prophet peace be upon him is saying that nobody is going to really taste the sweetness of the deen of Islam. Until these three things, he has to love a person for what, for the sake of a law, that's his main interest in the person, I love him for the sake of a law. And until it becomes dearer to him to be thrown in the fire rather than to revert back to disbelief

after Allah has guided him into Islam, and

until Allah and the messenger, which means Muhammad, peace, be upon him, become dear to him than anything else. And by the way, that includes yourself, to love a lot more than you love yourself to love, this teaching of character development that we're talking about more than you love yourself. So that's when a person really taste the sweetness of his lamb. And trust me, was a person who wasn't Muslim. And now Allah guided me to Islam, and I love to be a Muslim, I love to try to work on myself to become a better person. And there's plenty of room for improvement in me. And I know that anybody who knows me can tell you, there's always room for improvement and use it, and I'm working

on it. But at least I know what to work on. And I know how to go about it. You know how, by following the teachings that we have in Islam, the Quran is clear about the character of a Muslim, and the teachings of Muhammad are clear about the character of a Muslim. And it's to improve yourself as much as you can. But Allah is not expecting perfection out of you or me, he made angels for that. But what he expects from us is do our best was what he gave us to work with.

Now, mentioning that I want to mention another thing to you, is the way we treat people is very much a part of our character. We've said that in so many of our programs, but listen to this, that the Prophet peace be upon him tells us that when you abuse a Muslim, and abusing a Muslim,

is when somebody says he's for soup, for sure, his meaning is evil, they were, you know, disobedient to a law and killing this person is. So whenever you abuse a Muslim, this is bad. It's very, very bad, and it is an evil in itself. And whenever you kill a Muslim, this is an act of disbelief, an act of God.

That's also mentioned that this same time that if a person accuses, and this is another teaching moment peace be upon whoever accuses a Muslim,

of being passive,

or being a Kaffir, of being a disobedient person, or being a disbeliever, then it will revert back on that person. In case the other one is innocent. I want to repeat that again, the prophet SAW Islam taught us, whoever says about a person that he is possibly disobedient, or that he is a Kaffir, a disbeliever. But the person is innocent of that, then this same will come right back on him and he will become exactly that he himself will become the disobedient, and he would become the disbeliever. So it's very important for us to do what, and we've mentioned it so many times, guard that tongue, it's not necessary to keep talking about people all the time. Because in this what's

going to happen, eventually, you're going to say something about that person in a bad way. And that's a form of abuse. So this is all adding up to one thing, that I need to be really careful in how I treat other people and abusing them through saying things about them, or accusing them of anything, or in the way that I treat them. All of this is going to be something against me if I'm not careful about it.

We've been talking about the love. We've been talking about the hating for the sake of a law. And one of the things that we should be very careful about is how we treat our neighbors as well. You know, Islam has taught us and imagine this 1400 years ago, how to treat your neighbors. Think about this. Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him,

taught us that you have responsibility for your neighbors 40 neighbors 40 houses in any direction 40 houses in any direction. That means 40 to the right 40 to the left 40 in front of you and 40 behind you. You have to be responsible for your neighbors and listen to this one. The Prophet peace be upon him Taurus. He's not even a believer. He can go to bed at night with his stomach full and yet his neighbor's stomach is empty.

Now what a beautiful teaching this is a magnet

that a person should be careful not to fill his stomach up and go to sleep at night, while his neighbor's stomach is empty.

So for us, as so called believers, today, I'm going to ask myself, am I taking care of my neighbors?

Am I really doing that I'm gonna share with you something. My wife loves to bake cookies, she makes so many cookies. They call her Mrs. Cookie, but she can make so many cookies. And sometimes she likes to go next door and share cookies with the neighbors beside us on both side right and left and behind this one time she had like a yard sale, you know what that is when you put some things out in front of your house, and people stop and buy things. And she had so many of these cookies that she started offering to the people. And some men said, I want to buy all these cookies. And she said, Why? He said, because I love your cookies. They're so delicious. I want to give them to everybody in

the neighborhood. So she said, okay, and he took all the cookies, a box full of cookies that she had made. Peanut Butter Cookies, raisin cookies, oatmeal cookies, all the different kinds you can imagine. I'm getting hungry talking about this. And so as he took that, please give it to him. And he took them and gave them to all of his friends in the neighborhood. And he told them where he got them from this lady, the lady he called Mrs. Cookie. So they have a block party in our neighborhood once a year. And all the people from all over the area gathered together in this one little circle at area. And we all have barbecue together and food together drinks together. But you know, I hardly

get to know my neighbors because I'm traveling all the time. And sharing the message of Islam. Course my wife and children know everybody. So I was surprised when I attended this block party. And then people came up to my wife and they knew her. They said Oh, it's Mrs. Cooking. And I'm going Huh, and another and another and so many people kept coming to her and talking to her about her cookies. So how do you know all your neighbors here? And she talked about this thing about giving these cookies out to all the people. So this is an amazing thing. Because this is what Islam teaches us to do. Because we're Muslims, by the way, living in the West, and people could look at us and

say, hey, these are Muslims stay away from them. But no, they have this good high opinion of us. And the people would come and shake my hand and say, Are you Mr. Cook?

Maybe I am.

I want to take a break. And then I want to come back and talk about this the treatment of our neighbors and other people and how it applies to developing the Muslim character in the way of the Muslim. Stay tuned.

Bismillah Alhamdulillah Welcome back, you're watching way of the Muslim defining the Muslim character. We've been talking about the treatment of people. We talked about the treatment of the mother, we talked about relatives, specifically, we will come into the subject of the neighbors, the treatment of the neighbor. We were talking about my wife's cookies, too, but

they're delicious. I wanted to now continue talking about the neighbors and the rights that they have on me as Muslim. This is another headache for teaching of Muhammad peace be upon him. And he said, and this is, by the way, on the authority of Ayesha, she says, I went to the Prophet peace be upon him. And I said, yo Rasulullah or messenger of Allah, I have two neighbors. To whom should I give the gift, she had some gifts that she wanted to give. She said Should I give it to which neighbor he said the one whose gate is closest to you. So now this teaches us another very valuable lesson in Islam, just as the family unit is the closest to you. And then it kind of works its way

out. So is the way with the neighbors, those that are closest to and works its way out. You can't favor one neighbor who's far away and prefer them over a neighbor who's closest to you. Because this doesn't give the proper balance in Islam. A Muslim does this again, we say for the sake of a lot, not for showing off. Not because we want people to love us. But because we want a lot of lovers. This is our subject talking about how to get a lot to love us. And it works really nice when you think about it like this. Let me give you an example of something and see if this makes any sense to you. Have you ever seen a little boy walking down the street and he's going down the street mayor of

path whatever, and he sees a pool of water and a rock. What's the little boy going to do? He's going to pick up the rock and he's going to throw it in the water. That's normal. We all have done this, pick up a rock, throw it in the water. Next time you think about it, taking this rock, throw it in the water watch something happen where the rock hits, it makes the biggest splash but then there's another splash after that and a smaller and a smaller

A smaller, and it begins to make what we call ripples. And those ripples or rings get wider and wider and wider until they reach the very edge of the water or the pond.

Now, this is the same idea of our character, our character focuses on the same thing. And where we are, is where we have the biggest impact, meaning that in the family life, our mother and our father are the closest, so they need to get the biggest treatment. That's why the mother and the father are number one, after a long messenger. Then after that, of course, it's going to be your own family, such as your wife, your husband, your children, your brothers, your sisters. And by the way, let's include yourself, you have rights in Islam, your body has rights on you, all of this starts with the biggest splash right there, you and then it goes out. And then it goes to your uncles, and your

cousins, and your nieces and your nephew. And then and so and so for your relatives. Likewise, for your neighbors, your closest people to your house physically, are the ones that have the first rights on the gifts, and the charity, and the things that you want to distribute in your neighborhood. And all of this is a part of developing character of a Muslim.

We have to remember our neighbors do have rights. We've mentioned this in some of our other programs. But certainly it's worth mentioning how we treat our neighbors. What about a stranger, the strangers have any rights in Islam. As a matter of fact, they have big rights. If a person comes to you, as a Muslim, and this person coming is not a Muslim, and he needs anything Did you know it's your responsibility and obligation as a Muslim, to try to facilitate their need as much as you can. for persons hungry, you feed them, for person needs clothing, you have to try to help them, if they need a place to stay again, you have to shelter the people who have are homeless have nowhere to go.

This coming at a time 1400 years ago, compared to today, when in some of the Western countries, the homeless live under a bridge with nowhere to go, or live out of a shopping cart in a park somewhere with no place to sleep at the park bench. So Islam is already provided that is beautiful treatment for even a stranger. But listen to this. What about a stranger who comes into your place and he doesn't know your rules or your customs? And he does something according to what he knows. And it's not in your custom? And then what should you do? I want to give you the best example I ever heard in my life. I couldn't imagine when I heard this. I said you know what? I want to share that with

everybody and out there watching our programs. Because when you hear this, you I hope that you will understand and take advantage of this teaching of Islam. Listen, this is narrated on the authority of Annecy, Malik, who was very close to the prophet and serve him for a long time. He said that a better one. a better one. By the way. In Arabic. This means somebody who lives out in the desert. They have a culture all their own. They have their own way. Everything that bedwin does is known that it this is their structure, you know, he says a Bedouin desert dweller came into the mosque. And while he was in the holy place, you know where we go and pray and put our heads on the ground.

He said this man began to urinate. He began to pee right there in the mosque. And the people ran to beat him. Because you know, what is this man doing this amazing, horrible, but the Prophet peace be upon him. He stopped them and he said, Don't interrupt him. Let him finish complete. Then the prophet SAW Islam ordered somebody to bring some water and pour the water on the place where the man had done this thing. Now, can you imagine that? What kind of teaching is this that it has so much? What so much compassion, concern and fair treatment, even for a stranger?

When I see things like this in Islam, I know this is the way this is the dean, the Dean of Harper's they call it an Arabic, it's the way of truth. Because when you stop and think about it, could you make up a better way yourself and the kind treatment, there's a responsibility not just as a nice suggestion. It comes as commandments in Islam, that you worship none but a law and make no partners with him in worship. And then the next command follow Mohammed several lives on peace be upon him and learn from him this characteristics that we're talking about, and immediately after that the way you treat your parents and other relatives and your neighbors and

The distant neighbors even 40 houses away, and then what and then the stranger, even those who are outside of your customs, still, you have a responsibility to give this treat.

And when you do, that's when Allah will do what he's gonna love you. And when Allah loves you, that's what he orders, the angel Gabriel, to love you to remember what we said earlier. And then the Prophet peace be upon him describe what happens next, the angel makes such an announcement to all the dwellers in the heaven, a lot of love, so and so. So you guys love him. And so all the dwellers of the heaven, love this person for the sake of law, and eventually, even the people themselves. Try this, this is a good experiment for you. Start putting into practice the teachings of Islam, to the very best of your ability, as much as you can do, and see what happens. But do it for a law, don't

do it to show off your throne. Be kind, be generous, be just be fair, and give the treatment to the people that there do. And let us show you how effective this teaching is. This is how we build the character of the Muslim.

I'm impressed very much with the opportunity to be in a program like this and talk about these things. Although I have to admit, I'm one of those people who needs to also work on my character. And it's something that's ongoing, don't think you're going to perfect this, don't consider yourself that I have to become an angel without sins because Islam didn't ask me to do that. Know, what Islam is teaching me to do, though, is to know how to try my best. And then when I make sense, as we talked about many of our programs, how to repent for it.

Now I want to come to another subject about abusing people. And we've mentioned this in some other programs. But it's worth mentioning again, because we've talked now about the good treatment. What about abuse. So a man from the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him said, there were two men, they began abusing each other,

calling names and so on really abusing each other. And it happened in front of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And then one of them he got really, really angry. His anger got so intense, and boiled up inside of him, so much so that you can see it in his face started to change because of this anger. And the Prophet peace be upon him told the one sitting with him. He says I know a word. If this man would say it, it would cause him to relax.

So one of the companions went to this man and he told him what the prophet had said.

He said, say seek refuge with the law from shaitaan. Meaning say, Oh, do Billahi min ash shaytani r g regime. I seek revenue, the law from the curse devil.

But the man that was so angry just looked at me said, Do you find something wrong with me? Are you saying I'm crazy? Get out of here.

So obviously, he didn't say dairy. But try this next time that you get angry because the Prophet peace be upon taught us another amazing thing. He talked about anger. Somebody came to me one time he said advise me. He said like Doug, Doug. Don't get angry. He said, and some more advice, like dub dub. Don't get angry. He said and more. And he kept saying a lot of them, a lot of them. So they choose us Don't get angry. things come up every day.

When we're making programs like this, you think it just goes like this so easy. No, there's a lot of work. There's people behind the cameras, there's people, directors, and so on doing all kinds of work and things keep happening.

It may happen while we're doing this program now. But we have to be patient, you know, and the opposite of patient is anger. So don't be angry, but rather have patience. We could devote a whole program just to the subject of patience versus anger. I want to develop this characteristic in myself to get away from this anger. So another thing the prophet SAW someone told us Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He taught us about anger. He said, if you're angry and you're standing up, sit down. Try it next time you get angry, just sit down.

And if you're angry, go make Lulu. Now some of you if you're not Muslim, you don't know what is the Buddha. What's he talking about? We'll do is the Arabic word for ablution which means to wash. The Muslims wash their face, they wash their arms, and over their head, their feet. And you know what if you do this with cold water, what would happen? Believe it or not, this is 1400 years ago.

Talking about how to overcome anger by just making this will do or ablution. And today we find out from the people in the medical field that when you are upset or hot and distressed or having a heat stroke or any of these things, put cold water right here. And right here, you can put it on your ankles, you can put it on your head and cool down and on the back of your neck. And all of these things will cool you down. So all of this was taught 1400 years ago, can you imagine? And all of this is about how to develop ourselves as better Muslims in the way of the Muslim. You've been watching where the Muslim we hope you'll watch for more of our programs until the next time, peace

be upon you. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.