“Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness. And do not assist each other in acts of sinfulness and transgression. And be aware of Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment”
ALLAH has created the people in a manner that they remain associated and connected to one another so that, by the way, they strive to fulfill each other’s needs and requirements. On the authority of Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who said,” Whoever relieves a believer’s distress of the distressful aspects of this world, Allah will rescue him from a difficulty of the difficulties of the Hereafter. Whoever alleviates [the situation of] one in dire straits who cannot repay his debt, Allah will alleviate his lot in both this world and in the Hereafter. Whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal [his faults] in this life and the Hereafter. Allah is helping the servant as long as the servant is helping his brother. Whoever follows a path in order to seek knowledge thereby, Allah will make easy doe him, due to it, a path to Paradise. No people gather together in a house of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, except that tranquility descended upon them, mercy covers them, the angels surround them and Allah makes mention of them to those in His presence. Whoever is slowed by his deeds will not be hastened forward by his lineage.” (Muslim), “Allah is helping the servant as long as the servant is helping his brother.” We can see from this statement of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that Allah rewards His servants in a manner similar to the deeds that they perform. If we are helping our brother or sister, Allah will help us in return. Allah promises to be our helper if we help one another, and who could be a better helper than Allah? If Allah is helping us, would we need for anything? This also shows us what the ideal Islamic society should look like. It is a society in which its members help each other and support each other and encourage each other to do what is best. Allah, all praises and glory be to Him, commands us: “Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness. And do not assist each other in acts of sinfulness and transgression. And be aware of Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment” . Despite all the emphasis, it is the whisperings (of the Shaitaan) and attachment to the world, which prevent man from helping out the others. There are almost 7 billion people that reside within this world, yet the irony is that we often feel incredibly alone and distant from other human beings. We have been conditioned to believe that all we need is Allah and nothing else. Yet, Allah gave us families, He gave us friends and He gave us colleagues. There is a deeper wisdom within these relationships. Each one is teaching us something about ourselves and our place in the world and their purpose within our lives. Every one of us will at some point in our lives experience some type of hardship or pain that hurts us. It is therefore, important to explore the importance of helping others from an Islamic context. Helping each other is a way to overcome grief that we may experience, and it can empower us in our worship to Allah. One of the greatest human beings to walk the earth and who was also the best example of compassion and kindness in human form, was the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He (PBUH) said: “Whoever relieves a believer’s distress of the distressful aspects of this world, Allah will rescue him from a difficulty of the difficulties of the Hereafter. Whoever alleviates [the situation of] one in dire straits who cannot repay his debt, Allah will alleviate his lot in both this world and in the Hereafter. Whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal [his faults] in this life and the Hereafter. (Muslim) It is one of the principles of our faith to help our fellow human beings. We have compiled a list of acts that you can do to help others. Some are obvious and others are often overlooked, but of great importance too. In the Quran, Allah (swt) says: “Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness. And do not assist each other in acts of sinfulness and transgression. And be aware of Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment” (Quran 5:2). Many Hadiths (sayings) said by the Prophet of Mercy (PBUH) assure the importance of cooperation, helping others and offering them a hand. The generous Prophet considers faith be incomplete until one loves for his brother what he loves for himself!! He considers who sleeps and knows his neighbor is starving, his faith is incomplete, and also who is visited by a guest, and fails to honor, his faith is incomplete. Allah’s Apostle says, “None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” [Sahih Al Bani 7384], and also says, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim who does not oppress him nor hand him over, and who is after the need of his brother, Allah will be after his need, and who relieves a Muslim from the plight of distress, Allah relieves him from one of the plights of distress of The Day of Resurrection, and who enshrouds a Muslim, Allah will cover him on The Day of Judgment” [Sahih Al Bani 7988], From this wonderful saying, you realize the magnitude of the Prophet’s concern of helping others and love of goodness to them up to considering any work you do to relieve a Muslim from the plight of distress in this world, enshroud his blemish or provide him a need….Allah will give you multiples of what you have done in this world. The Great Prophet said, “Anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should not harm his neighbor, and anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should entertain his guest generously and anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should talk what is good or keep quiet.” [From Bukhari & Muslim] Being generous to the guest is Sunnah (tradition) loved by Allah and His Apostle and He rewards big wages on it. Islam not only ordered helping others, but it asked to stop and shun hurting them. Now, after we have learned how Islam took care of this social side and preserved the safety of the society, cohesion and spread of love, friendliness, sympathetic and compassion among believers, we would like to ask: Is there a scientific miracle or medical and psychological benefits for this deed?! “O Aisha, Allah is gentle and He loves gentleness. He rewards for gentleness what is not granted for harshness and He does not reward anything else like it.” (Muslim). It is important to remember that in our daily lives, we will encounter many people and we are not always aware of what storm they may be going through, The simple act of being kind can sometimes be life-changing to someone. One of the ways this can be done is through exchanging positive conversation or even simply smiling at someone. It is imperative that we seek forgiveness as a means of purification and a greater chance of our deeds being accepted. It is important that we remember that we must help ourselves first whilst helping others. When we repent, we are cleansed. Repentance acts like a polish for the heart, the same way we polish our cars, we know when we do this, we make it shinier than when it is was left untouched. Often times, people struggle and we are left wondering what the person is going through. If you just ask, it will help you to help them sooner and give the person clarity when they speak about their issue aloud. There is a wonderful story from the life of Abu Bakr (RA) who would visit a blind elderly woman and take care of her chores and household duties. She was unware of who he was and he kept his deeds private, as it was only discovered and relayed by another companion when he witnessed this. Experts in psychology confirm that helping others lead to ease stress, where getting involved in assisting others stimulates excretion of Endorphin, a hormone which helps in feeling psychological comfort and excitement. Allan Lex, former manager of “Health Promotion Institute” in USA, affirmed that helping others assists in easing the intensity of stress, where helping others lessens one’s thinking of his personal worries and problems and by doing so, he feels psychological comfort.
Visiting the sick for the sake of Allah is a beloved act of worship to Him. We often forget the vulnerable and distressed whilst in the pursuit of our daily endeavours. Take some time out and visit an unwell family member, or a neighbour or someone whom you know may be sick and does not have any one visiting them. Hope this article will inspire readers to reflect on our footprints in the world and how much we are doing for others for the sake of Allah. When we serve the creation, we are serving Allah.
The researcher pointed out the necessity of availability of three basic terms for helping others to enjoy the positive benefits of offering a hand, assistance should be systematic, offering personal contact between the helper and who asked for help and the latter who asked for help should be from outside the circle of acquaintances, family and friends. The researcher asserted that man is not compelled to help foreigners, and he has total freedom to make the help decision or not. That freedom is considered very important to attain the required psychological results from helping others; on the other hand, one may be compelled to help friends and relatives. Depression, a disease of the era, affects millions yearly in the world outside the Islamic zone. The disease leads to commit suicide; nevertheless, Islam is very keen of the believer and asks him to love goodness and helping others, because Allah Almighty knows that this deed cures depression and raises the immune system in human… See with me the greatness of this religion … Does it not deserve to be followed! Previous scientific studies showed the importance of tolerance, forgiving others and not to take offense… All those lead to improving the efficiency of the immune system in human and therefore protecting him from different diseases. We can say that any good deed we do may help in improving the mood, raising the immune system level and giving the body an extra dose of immune against diseases and especially stress. When Islam cared for good deeds, it has introduced this legalization for the benefits of human, society, and for attaining rewards in life and the Hereafter. Therefore, we encounter many verses urging the believer to cooperate and offer services to others for free and without a reward. See, how this researcher after a number of tests discovered that the best kind of helping is when you do not ask for money or thanks as a return for your help, here we realize the importance of Almighty’s saying, “And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive, (Saying),”We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.” [Man: 8, 9] O Allah make all our deeds pure, for the sake of Your gratification, fear of Your punishment, and love to the Seal of Prophets (PBUH)… When you make du’a for someone in private, Allah sends an angel to you whom replies “Ameen and same to you”. If you help someone, Allah helps you. Supplicating for someone is a beautiful way to aide your fellow believer. “Protect yourself from hell-fire even by giving a piece of date as charity.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim). One of the ways to help someone and protect yourself from calamity is through the noble act of giving to charity, by means of zakat or sadaqah. The Prophet (PBUH) also said, “We (Muslims) are the last (to come) but will be the foremost on the Day of Resurrection.” The narrators of this Hadith said: Allah said (to man), ‘Spend (in charity), for then I will compensate you (generously).’” (Bukhari) Spread the salaam, it increases love between believers and reminds us that we are all in need of Allah’s peace and blessings in our lives. Do this with people whom you know and whom you do not know, as long as it is gender appropriate, there is a great virtue in this. “You will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not tell you about something which, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread salaam amongst yourselves.” (Muslim) A random act of kindness that can make a huge difference to someone’s life. It is important to take care of our environment, and one of the ways to show our gratitude to Allah is to participate in keeping clean the world we are blessed to reside in. By picking up a can or a piece of plastic from the ground, you could potentially protect someone from causing injury to themselves during adverse weather conditions. Islam advocates that the rights of animals are honoured. We know the example of the prostitute who nourished the thirst of a dog and as a result, was given paradise as a reward. We must never belittle the deeds we do, in the sight of Allah they could be significant. Visiting the sick for the sake of Allah is a beloved act of worship to Him. We often forget the vulnerable and distressed whilst in the pursuit of our daily endeavours. Take some time out and visit an unwell family member, or a neighbour or someone whom you know may be sick and does not have any one visiting them. Hope this article will inspire readers to reflect on our footprints in the world and how much we are doing for others for the sake of Allah. When we serve the creation, we are serving Allah. May Allah allow us all to be forthcoming in helping others and being leaders in kindness, compassion and empathy, Ameen!
(The authors write regularly on “Islamic topics “exclusively for “Kashmir Horizon”.The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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