Hadith 35 : Evil Acts That Spoil Brotherhood
By Imam Nawawi
In the name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful;
All the praise and Thanks is due to Allāh, the Lord of
al-‘ālameen. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allāh, and
that Muhammad, Sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam, is His Messenger
Abu Hurayrah, (radiyallahu’anhu), reported that the
Messenger of Allah, (Sallallahu `alayhi wasallam), said:
"Do not be envious of one
another; do not artificially inflate prices against one another; do not hate
one another; do not shun one another; and do not undercut one another in
business transactions; and be as fellow-brothers and servants of Allah.
A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim.
He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him. Piety is
here - and he pointed to his chest three times. It is evil enough for a Muslim
to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. All things of a Muslim are inviolable
for another Muslim: his blood, his property and his honour."
[Recorded by Muslim]
Background
The Unity of the Ummah is one of the greatest objectives of
Islam.
There are many verses in the Qur'an that urge Muslims to unite. Allah Almighty says:
“And hold fast, all
of you together, to the Rope of Allah (which is Islam) and be not divided among
yourselves.” [Surah al-'Imran,3:103]
This is a very well-known verse to Muslims.
Allah Almighty says:
“The believing men
and women are 'awliya' (loyal)
to one another.” [
There are many other verses in the Qur'an that urge joining unity,
as well as verses that forbid disunity. We can see this in
the same Surah al-'Imran, Ayah 103, in which Allah says:
“….and be not
divided among yourselves.”
So in the same verse the Muslims are
asked to be united and prevented from disunity. The Qur'an contains many such
verses, for example: Surah Al-'Imran Ayah 105-107; Surah Al-Hujurat Ayah 10;
Surah Al-An'am Ayah 153 and 159; and in Surah Al-Rum Ayah 31-32. All of these
verses and many others in the Qur'an forbid the division or split of the Muslim community.
Moreover, we have many hadiths that command the Muslims
to be united. In one hadith, the
Messenger of Allah, (sallallahu
'alayhi wasallam), said: "Verily Allah likes three things for you and disapproves
three things for you: He is pleased with you but you worship Him and
disassociate anything with him; that you hold fast to the Rope of Allah and not
to be scattered (disunited); and He disapproves for you irrelevant talk,
persistent questioning, and wasting of wealth." [This is recorded by Muslim]
We find that Islam commands the Muslims
to practice things that will bring unity - there are conditions and actions
where the Muslims need to perform to accomplish this. At the same time, we also
find that there are many actions that Islam forbids because these actions may
lead to the disunity of the Muslim ummah.
This Hadith No. 35 falls in the latter category.
Lessons
The first action that the hadith forbids is Envy (Al-Hasad).
Muslim scholars like Imam Ghazali (rahimahullāh)
and others define envy as disliking seeing a person receiving a bounty and
wishing that he or she (the recipient) would lose it.
Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) gives a
different and broader definition. He states in his definition that it is part
of human nature that a person dislikes anyone to be better than him in virtues.
He says that people differ in their attitudes and he lists five categories of
envy that people have:
1. There are some people who will make the
effort through action or speech to abolish the bounty received by someone whom
they envy.
2. There are others who will then try to
get that bounty transferred to them. So they firstly try to take it away from
the person they envy and then they try to get it for themselves. For instance,
if a certain person is offered a certain position or authority, the envious one
will try to do something by hand or by words to take away that position or
authority from that person. Then he will try to get that status or position
transferred to himself.
3. There are some people who do not make
any effort by action or speech to harm the one whom they envy. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
says this category of people can be of two types:
3.1. The one who does his best to eliminate
the feeling of envy within himself but he cannot overcome it. In spite of this,
he keeps fighting and struggling against it. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
says this type of person is excused from punishment.
3.2. The one who thinks about envy and
practices it again and again. He does not make any effort to fight it even
though he does not do any harm by action or speech. But he actually enjoys and
practices envy - he wishes that the bounty of the envied one will be lost.
Consequently, this person is subject to punishment.
4. There are those who, whenever they envy
someone, do not harm him or her. They do not even wish the loss of the bounty
from the envied one. Instead, they make the effort to attain a similar bounty
or virtue for themselves. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) says: "If this bounty is wordly virtues or
worldly bounties, there is no benefit in that." For example, if you see someone who has a Mercedes, and you try
to attain a similar car for yourself, then there is no benefit in that. But if
it is a righteous virtue, then it is good.
5. There are some people who, whenever
they feel envy, do their best to stop it and they will do a favour or something
good for the person whom they envied. In addition, they will also make du'a for that person until they
love him - because envy is usually associated with hatred. They will wish that
the envied ones are better than them - they do not bother themselves if others
have things which are better than what they have. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
says these people are the best category of true believers since
everyone is subject to indulge or be trapped by envy or being envious of
others.
Why is Envy (Hasad) forbidden?
It can cause - by the permission of
Allah - harm to others whom are envied. Consequently, they are considered as
evil acts in Islam. They can cause - even by just wishing - the harming of a
person. It is the virtue of Shaitan. And it is also the virtue of Jews to envy
other people. This is mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 109 and in Surah Al-Nisa',
Ayah 54.
The Prophet, (sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), warned
Muslims against envy when he said: “Creeping upon you is the diseases of
those people before you: envy and hatred. And hatred is the thing that shapes.
I do not say it shapes the hair but it shapes the religion. By the One in whose
Hand is my soul, you will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will
not believe until you love one another. Certainly, let me inform you of that
which may establish such things: spread the greetings and peace among
yourselves.” [Recorded by Imam Ahmad and Al-Tirmidzi]
Since this is a harmful act, Muslims are
asked to recite certain Qur'anic verses such as Surah Al-Falaq, Surah
An-Nas, and Surah Al-Ikhlas to protect from envious people.
According to the Muslim scholars, it would be preferable to recite them after
the five prayers along with Ayatul-Kursi.
Al-Tanajush is translated literary as “do not artificially
inflate the prices against one another”. Najash that is mentioned in this hadith can be interpreted, according to Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh),
in two ways:
1. It can be interpreted as bai'
al-najash - the trading where a person offers a
high price for a certain item not for the sake of buying it but for the sake of
raising the price of the item so that in the end it is sold for more than its
actual price or worth. This is usually done, even in the Muslim world today, by a
previous agreement by the salesman and another person or relative who pretends
that he wants to buy. This is done in the stock market or auctions where there
is a person who keeps bidding higher prices for an item. He is doing a favour for
the person who wants to sell. This is considered as bai' al-najash. The majority of Muslim jurists (fuqaha) say it is valid. However, they say that if the buyer finds
that he has been manipulated in a way where the price exceeded drastically over
the actual price, then he has the choice of returning the item.
2. The second interpretation of najash is a broader one, more than merely limiting it to trading. Ibn
Rajab (rahimahullāh) says here it means
any kind of deceiving actions that will lead to harming others. He adds that
all dealings that are conducted in a deceiving way are included here. He quotes
Surah Fatir, Ayah 43: "That the evil plot encompasses only him who makes
it."
Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) says that
this hadith is a
warning to Muslims not to hate one another, especially if it is because of
self-interest. Why? It is because Muslims are brothers in Islam. They should
love each other and should not hate one another. Consequently, al-nameemah, backbiting and slander are forbidden because they will lead to hatred among the Muslim
community. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) says that when the Muslims started dividing into different sects
because of conflicting views regarding certain religious matters; this led to
disputes and hatred among the community, and thus disunity.
We should not turn our backs on one
another. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) says this means any form of disassociation. He says that the
Prophet, (Sallallahu 'alayhi
wasallam), said the Muslim is not allowed to disassociate himself from the
others for more than three days. This is, as Ibn
Rajab (rahimahullāh) points out, in
worldly matters. Whereas in the religious matters, disassociation Islam allows
it as one of the punishments - e.g. we are to disassociate with those who
commit sins in order to teach them a lesson. But scholars say that if the
person who commits the sin is not likely to come back to the right path, then
it is meaningless to disassociate with him. As one of the scholars pointed out,
if the objectives of Islam are not fulfilled then disassociation is
meaningless.
We should not undercut one another in business transactions. For example, if someone is trying to
buy something from a salesman, in the middle of their negotiations another
salesman appears and interferes and tries to get that customer to buy his
product or service instead. This kind of transaction is forbidden because the
customer has yet to make his final decision - it will lead to the disunity of
the Muslim community.
The Prophet, (Sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), asks us
to be brothers to
one another. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
says this is like justifying the actions that are mentioned by the
Prophet, (Sallallahu 'alayhi
wasallam), because these evil acts will lead to spoiling the brotherhood
of the Muslims. If Muslims avoid these evil acts, then this will lead them to
be brothers. Moreover, Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh) says this statement implies that Muslims have to make the effort to
do whatever that will lead to achieving this brotherhood. This means fulfilling
all the obligations towards Muslims, for example like returning the greetings,
visiting the sick, helping the needy, accepting invitations, sending presents,
shaking hands, and smiling.
Then the Prophet, (sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), says the Muslim is the brother of another
Muslim. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
explains about this statement: "It is now
obligatory for each brother that he tries to benefit his Muslim brother and to
refrain from harming them." He adds that the
major harm is oppression and injustice. If a Muslim is in need of your support
and you fail to support or help him, this is unjust. There are many places in
the Muslim world where the Muslims are in great need of help. They are being
oppressed and nobody supports them. Accordingly, if we are not doing anything
to help them, we are failing our Muslim brothers. We need to be united to solve
the problems that we are facing today. Our main concern should be the unity of the ummah.
A contemporary scholar, Abdul Rahman
Al-S'adi, says that one of the greatest forms of jihad is to make an effort to unite the Muslims. He states that
cooperation among Muslims is an obligation.
We should not lie to our Muslim brothers. We should also refrain ourselves from belittling or making fun of other Muslims. We should not make signals or gestures that threaten the
face value of our Muslim brothers. We should take care not to be cynical to others and not to undermine other Muslims. We should not used derogatory terms against one another.
The Prophet, (sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam),
says taqwa is in the heart. Ibn Rajab (rahimahullāh)
comments on this statement saying it is evidence that the most
noble among people are the ones who are righteous even if they are not lucky in
the sight of other people. If they are righteous, they are the most noble in
the sight of Allah.
It can be said that all that has been
mentioned in this hadith has
to do with the heart: loving Muslims, and not to envy them. When we have taqwa in our hearts, we will not
do the forbidden acts mentioned - our hearts will be purified and filled with
love.
Conclusion
"All things of a Muslim are inviolable for another Muslim: his
blood, his property, and his honour." This important last
statement, which was mentioned by the Prophet, (sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam),
in his Farewell Sermon (Hajjat ul-Wadā'), concludes or summarizes what this
hadith is about. This hadith clearly states that harming
others either by saying or doing is considered an evil act.
Allāh
Subhānahu wata‘ala says: “And those who annoy believing men and women
undeservedly, they bear on themselves the crime of slander and plain sin.” [Surah Al-Ahzab,33:58]
‘Abdullah bin Mas‘ud (radiyallāhu‘anhu)
reported: The Prophet (Sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam) used to supplicate: “Allāhumma inni
as ‘alukal-Huda, Wat-Tuqa, Wal-‘Afafa, Wal-Ghina (O Allāh! I beseech
You for Guidance, Piety, Chastity and Contentment).” [Muslim].
This du’a contains four words, the meanings and implications of which constitute its essence. These words are guidance, piety (fear of Allah), chastity and sufficiency. Guidance here means guidance at every turn of life and steadfastness on the path of truth. Fear of Allah is the greatest means of piety and strongest defense against sins. Chastity is the state of being free from what is unlawful. Self-sufficiency is the antonym of poverty and here it means the self-contentment. What it implies is that one should not care for what people possess. This Du’a is very comprehensive and valuable.
Allāh Subhānahu wata‘ala made the believers as brothers so that they have mercy upon one another; so that they love one another; so that they help one another and support one another. This is how Muslims should be.
This du’a contains four words, the meanings and implications of which constitute its essence. These words are guidance, piety (fear of Allah), chastity and sufficiency. Guidance here means guidance at every turn of life and steadfastness on the path of truth. Fear of Allah is the greatest means of piety and strongest defense against sins. Chastity is the state of being free from what is unlawful. Self-sufficiency is the antonym of poverty and here it means the self-contentment. What it implies is that one should not care for what people possess. This Du’a is very comprehensive and valuable.
Allāh Subhānahu wata‘ala made the believers as brothers so that they have mercy upon one another; so that they love one another; so that they help one another and support one another. This is how Muslims should be.
And Allāh Almighty Knows best.
[Excerpted
from Commentary “Hadith 35 : "Evil Acts That Spoil Brotherhood", 40
Hadiths of Imam Nawawi” By Dr.
Jamal Ahmed BadiVia IC Truth]
