Serving Others Before Ourselves | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed

Serving Others Before Ourselves

I've been listening to other brothers and sisters speak before me. I think one point that comes to my mind — I'll share with you all — is a prophetic concept as far as this issue that we're talking about today, inshallah. May Allah give her ease and comfort and reunite her with her family. Ameen.

The Overlooked Sunnah: Always Thinking of Others

Whenever we speak about the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, we have many things that come to our minds among his sunnahs — things that he did, things that he thought of, things that he said, what he wore, how he lived. All these things we compile as the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

Oftentimes, we overlook one very, very important sunnah of his. When Jibril عليه السلام came to him at the age of 40, one of the Prophet's main sunnahs throughout his life was always thinking of others. You know how we're always thinking of ourselves? The Prophet was the exact opposite ﷺ. He was always thinking of others.

He found comfort by comforting others. He found peace by helping others get peace. This is another level of humanity. Of course, the Prophet ﷺ was the best human being to walk on the face of the earth. And that is what the Prophet ﷺ encouraged people toward.

Allah Helps Those Who Help Others

Okay, you want help from Allah? You want Allah to help you? We all want Allah to help us — in our exams, in our family affairs, in whatever we're doing. The Prophet ﷺ gave us the formula:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 35, Hadith 6518)

Allah will help you so long as you are helping somebody else. So if you want to see the proportionate help of Allah with you, look at your life and see how many people are being helped by you at this moment. Even if we are praying Salah, reading Qur'an, doing dhikr, fasting — the help of Allah is conditional, based on how much we are helping others, according to this hadith.

The Prophet ﷺ says, you want Allah to fulfill your needs? We all have needs. That's why this topic is very important. Because sometimes as a community we say, "Why am I talking about someone that I don't even know? Someone all the way halfway across the world. Brothers and sisters in a different country." But at the end of the day, we all selfishly have needs as well. Allah and the Prophet ﷺ speak to our own needs as well.

Think about it. I have a need. I want my business to grow. I have needs concerning my children, my family, my home. And we all know that needs can be fulfilled only by Allah — we take the means, but at the end of the day, Allah fulfills needs. Now, what are certain things that we can do in our lives that will make Allah decide to fulfill our needs? Whether it's my daughter I'm looking to get married, or my son I'm trying to find a good match for, or it's me trying to get into a certain school — these are all called hajah, needs. Not wants — needs. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2442; Sahih Muslim, Book 32, Hadith 6258)

As long as we are constantly in the process of trying to fulfill someone else's need or needs, Allah will constantly fulfill our needs. Today we are always so self-centered, thinking about how I can fulfill my need — and most of our needs are not being fulfilled. We should start looking into our lives and see, "How many people's needs are being fulfilled through me?"

That's why the Prophet ﷺ said in another hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 35, Hadith 6518)

A person who eases and opens up a difficulty — who is in the process of trying to relieve another Muslim brother or sister of some difficulty in this dunya, the way we are doing today — this is prophetic. We are trying to follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. We want this reward. We want Allah's help for ourselves. We want it for our generations.

A person who starts to make an effort to remove a Muslim brother or sister from a difficulty — Allah promises that He will relieve that person from the difficulties on the Day of Judgment. And the person who makes an effort to make difficulties easy for somebody else — he's going through a difficulty and you help him, you take care of him, you give him some money, you spend some time with him, you smile at him, you call him, you're just trying to relieve his burden — Allah will make things easy for that person in dunya and akhira.

Intercede and Spread the Word

The Prophet ﷺ was very encouraging of this. A person would come to the Prophet ﷺ to ask him for something, and as it comes in hadith, when someone with a need would approach, the Prophet ﷺ would smile and say:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1432; Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 2337)

"Say something good about him. Intercede on his behalf. Help him out. Put a good word in. Sign the petition." This is called shafa'ah. This is prophetic. Why? You will get reward for it. You are not the one who ultimately decides the fate of somebody, but what you have in your control right now is to put a good word in, to spread the word.

The Prophet ﷺ is saying: the person is not asking you for something — the person is asking me — but I want you to get the reward by putting a good word in for that person.

Right now I am saying this to all of us: اشْفَعُوا فَلْتُؤْجَرُوا — you put in a good word and spread it. This is to help someone in need, to remove the difficulty from somebody that we see, who has been in jail for so many years — sentenced in September of 2010 for 86 years. A mother of our community going through so much oppression. We want to highlight this so that those who want to know more about it can learn.

The Most Beloved Person to Allah

That's why the Prophet ﷺ was asked:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, al-Tabarani; also referenced in al-Maqasid al-Hasanah)

"O Messenger of Allah, who is the most beloved person to Allah?" Is it the one who prays the most salah, does the most dhikr, performs the most umrah and hajj? The Prophet ﷺ said: "The most beloved individual in the eyes of Allah is the one who is the most beneficial, the most comforting to others" — because there is nothing in this world that Allah loves more than His مخلوق, the creation of Allah. Those who are always benefiting others and comforting others are the ones most beloved to Allah.

The Zakat of Position and Status

That's why one of the poets in Arabic used to say:

He says: "I was obligated to pay zakat on what my hand owns. So if you have money, you pay zakat on it." And he says: "The zakat on my position" — right now we are in a position that we can speak about this, we have these means, we are doing this live, we have thousands of people watching. Whatever we can do, we have some sort of status that Allah has given us — some freedoms. And we should all say الحمد لله; the fact that we can hear, that we can see, that we can speak about these things — many people in the world cannot even do that.

So he says: money is a ni'mah — the zakat of that is to give money. And this position that I am in, there is a zakat on that as well. The zakat of that is to use it to help others and intercede on behalf of others. Because Allah is not giving me this so I can just comfort myself.

He says: "When you have the power, then strive — if you are in control of something, then do whatever is in your control to make something happen for somebody else. And if it is not in your control" — you see, this is in courtrooms and in DC, these places — "then strive with all your might to do whatever is possible to benefit somebody." At the end of the day, this is the mandate of the Shari'ah.

Iqbal's Reminder: Brotherhood Over Division

I'll conclude with a few lines from Allama Iqbal. He used to say:

It's like: yes, we are all from different backgrounds — "I'm Sayyid," "I'm Mirza," "I'm from Afghanistan." He's using these as examples. But most likely, all of us watching are from different backgrounds. The sister who reached out to me to have this live stream is not even from the same country — we're from different parts of the world.

Iqbal is saying: at the end of the day, we start gravitating toward our own problems, our own families, our own communities, people who speak the same language. He says: "Look, we're saying — you're all this and that — let me know: are you a Muslim?"

Then he says a few things — looking at the contrast between us and the glory days of the Sahaba and the Salaf-us-Saleheen, the pious predecessors, where the world would be afraid to even touch a Muslim sister or brother, afraid to harm them, because they knew that if you try to harm this person, you are waging war against the entire community. How did that happen at that time? He says: because you all are just caught up in finding ways to hate each other — آپس میں رَضَ بَناکَر — while they were caught up trying to find more reasons to love each other.

He says: you not only make mistakes, but you also magnify and look for other people's mistakes. You make mistakes, you do tawbah — but not only do you make mistakes, you are looking to expose other people's sins. While the Sahaba and the pious predecessors — when they would see someone doing something wrong, they would hide their mistakes. And they were kareem — they would highlight the smallest goodness in others. "You're such a good person, MashaAllah, look at how you do this." They were very generous in complimenting each other.

Then he says: they fought for honor, they fought for self-respect — and you have lost self-respect. You all do not enjoy or respect the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood. And they were ready to give their lives up to maintain the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood.

Closing: Be a Light for Others

At the end of the day, brothers and sisters, every act of kindness — no matter how small — has the power to change someone's world. By choosing to help and comfort others, we end up becoming a light in their darkness, a source of help in their struggles. So let's commit to being people who lift others up, who listen with empathy, who show compassion in action. Because in the end, the greatest impact we can leave behind is not what we achieve for ourselves, but the lives we touch and the hearts we heal. Let's create a ripple effect of kindness and help that transforms one person to the next.

In this case, we need to do that for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. We need to do it for her — that Allah helps her, removes her from her pain, and reunites her with her family. And we make du'a for all those people — that sister who called me, all these people who have been doing this work for so many years without losing hope, trying hard, all these people behind the scenes.

Wallahi, may Allah bless you all. Do your work on behalf of the entire Muslim Ummah. Don't lose hope. I'm speaking to the volunteers, those who are making the effort — you all are our pride as a Muslim community. May Allah bless you. Keep doing what you're doing. Don't lose hope. Our du'as are with you, our tears are with you if we have any. We are so proud that you are there supporting our sister. And inshallah, we will reunite with her in this world, and we will definitely be reunited with the Prophets as well, inshallah.