Rights of Neighbors - The role of women (II)

[The first part of this article ran here.  Here we present the second and concluding part]

Rights of neighbors – The role of women (II)

 

We should desist from troubling our neighbors in any way.  If our neighbors trouble us, we should be patient as there is success of this world and the hereafter in it.  Usually it is said that one neighbor doesn’t do anything, but the other neighbor troubles him/her and this neighbor does something to answer to it.  If one keeps quiet, then the other will gain courage from this and he/she will trouble this neighbor all the more.  This erroneous notion is dealt with in the Hadith in this manner:

 

Translation: Allah Most High loves whose neighbor gives him (or her) trouble and this person is patient on it and even has the intention of reward as well.  Eventually Allah Most High will be enough for that person in life and in death.  (Kanz Ul ‘Ummaal, Hadith No. 24893)

 

Whatever happens, the neighbor shouldn’t be troubled

 

In the Hadith, the character and attributes of Muslims have been described in various ways.  That a Muslim should never hurt anybody else with his/her limbs, speech, etc. is a sign of faith.  Also, a Muslim chooses for others whatever he/she chooses for himself.  As mentioned in Hadith:

 

Translation: The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  None of you can be a true believer as long as he (or she) chooses the same thing for his brother (or her sister) that chooses for himself (or herself).  (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 13)

 

A neighbor wishes that no other neighbor should be troubled by him/her.  We find out one of the best examples of this in Ihya Ul Uloom of Imam Ghazali (May Allah shower His mercy on him).  Rats infested the house of the famous Arabic litterateur ‘Abdullah Ibn Muqaffa’.  His acquaintances asked him as to why he didn’t keep a cat in his house.  He replied:  Rats will go to the houses of my neighbors on hearing the cat.  I don’t want to trouble others with something that doesn’t agree with me.  (Ihya Ul ‘Uloom, Vol. 2)

 

This incident really shook up the neighbor.  What meticulousness was this!  On the other hand, our case is such that the garbage and refuse of our house is laid in front of the neighbors’ door.  If we clean our house, the whole lane is soaked.  If we have a function in our house, we block the road and trouble our neighbors.  The spouts of our house open into the neighbor’s courtyard.

 

There such care was taken that a cat wasn’t kept for the fear that the rats would enter the neighbor’s houses.

 

 

If need be, the neighbor should be helped financially

 

It is the Islamic responsibility of a Muslim that he/she should be aware of the conditions of the neighbors so that they can help them when the need arises.  Thus, Imam Ghazali (May Allah shower His mercy on him) has related that ‘Abdullah bin Muqaffa’ had a neighbor in the shade of whose wall he would sit daily.  He learnt that that neighbor wanted to sell off his house so as to repay the debt that he had.  ‘Abdullah sent him the required amount as a gift so that he could pay off the debt without selling off the house.  (Ihya Ul ‘Uloom, Vol. 2)

 

Seeking benefit from pious neighbors

 

Along with helping other neighbors in their times of need, it is also our responsibility that we judge our neighbors from the Islamic point of view.  If anyone of them is pious and saintly, then one should serve them and thus gain blessings.  There are some people who have the relics of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) or they receive such bounties from their ancestors.  It is the right of the neighbor to seek as many blessings and benedictions from them as possible.

 

Thus it is mentioned in a Hadith in M’ojam Kabeer Tabarani about the blessed women of the Prophet’s time that Raudha was ordered by her master in her childhood to stand outside the house and to call him whenever the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) passed by.  Thus, when the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) passed by, Hadhrat Raudha (May Allah be well pleased with her) called out to her master and went forward and clutched at the robe of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) smiled at her and placed His blessed hand on her head.

 

A Successor says:  Hadhrat Raudha (May Allah be well pleased with her) used to live in my house.  Her benedictions were so famous and so inclusive that whenever any neighbor would buy anything – be it a slave, clothes, animals, anything, it would be brought to her and she would be requested to place her hand on them.  Whenever she would do so, that article, etc. would also become blessed.  (M’ojam Kabeer Tabarani, Hadith No. 20169)

 

There is a lesson in this for women that if we have the privilege of being a neighbor of a any saintly person, we should serve them and leave no stone unturned in seeking their blessings.

[Concluded]