The Rights of a Muslim - Ustadh Adil Saleem

The Rights of a Muslim

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whosoever He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for help and mercy. Verily, Allah watches over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will correct your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.

The best speech is the Book of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are its newly invented matters. And every newly invented matter is a creation. And every such creation is a misguidance. And every misguidance is in the Fire.

The Six Rights of a Muslim

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said — on the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him — that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said that the rights of a Muslim upon another Muslim are six.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 39, Hadith 5)

The six rights mentioned in this hadith are:

• If you meet a Muslim, then give Salam to him.
• If somebody invites you, then you accept this invitation.
• If a person asks you for advice, you give him this advice — you advise him.
• If a person sneezes and he praises Allah, then you respond to him praising Allah.
• If a Muslim brother or a Muslim sister falls ill, then you visit him or her.
• And if a person passes away, you attend and follow his funeral.

These are some of the rights that the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, mentioned — that each person has upon another person. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, only mentioned six in this hadith. But the rights a person has upon another person are so many.

As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 72)

That a Muslim is not a true Muslim until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. So really what we know and learn and understand from this hadith is that everything we want for ourselves, every right we wish upon ourselves, is how we should deal with other people, is what we should give other people.

And we see that these rights that people have over us, they are very simple to implement. Giving salaam to somebody is very simple. Visiting an ill person is very simple. Attending someone's janazah prayer — someone's funeral prayer — it's something very simple, something that we can do on a regular basis, on a daily basis, something which doesn't take much of our time. So this is our blueprint of Islam. This is the blueprint. A religion of love and mercy. A religion of compassion. A religion where we look up to the rights of other people. A religion where we know and understand the feelings of others. This is what this deen is.

The First Right: Giving Salaam

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the first part of this hadith, that if you meet a person, then you give salaam to him. Again, something very simple. So what does giving salaam actually mean?

Salaam, as the scholars have mentioned, means that you are telling the person whom you greet that you are safe from me. That as long as you are with me, you are under my protection. No harm will come upon you as long as you are with me. This is what we are saying to that person — that don't expect anything untoward from me. The fact that you have given salaam, you have said that I am a Muslim. And the fact that you are a Muslim means that I am going to protect you. No harm will come from me.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 10; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 64)

That a Muslim is a person whose fellow Muslims are safe from his tongue and his hands. If we look in our day now, we are doing the exact opposite to what the salaam should represent. We give salaam to somebody and we steal from them. We give salaam to somebody and we lie to them. We give salaam to somebody and we defraud them out of some money. When we say salaam, we say to this person that you are protected — you are safe from me.

Again, if we look in our society, the harm, the crime — Muslim upon Muslim crime that is happening — this is something completely opposite to what the Prophet ﷺ said and what Islam wants from us.

Spreading Salaam — A Key to Jannah

Another benefit of giving the salaam, as the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 93)

You will not enter Jannah except if you believe. And you will not achieve this iman until you love one another. You will not enter Jannah until you believe, until you are a mu'min. And you will not become a mu'min until you love one another. Shall I not tell you, shall I not guide you to a thing — that if you were to do this thing, you will enter Jannah? Spread the salaam amongst yourselves. Spread the salaam amongst yourselves.

Allah is saying that you will not enter Jannah until you love one another. And you will not love one another until you give the salaam to one another. أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ — Spread the salaam amongst yourselves.

The Prophet ﷺ also said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 5, Hadith 1334; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2485)

O people! Spread the salaam. And give food to the people. And join the ties of kinship. And pray at night when the people are asleep. You will enter Jannah in peace, in serenity.

Again, if you look at the points mentioned in this hadith — something which I can do, something which you can do, something which is not very hard to implement. Spread the salaam. Join the ties of kinship — if you know two people who are having an argument, or there are issues between a family member or a friend, do your utmost to join the ties between them. And pray at night when the people are asleep. You will enter Jannah in peace.

Salaam Only to Those We Know — A Sign of the Hour

Another point to do with giving the salaam is that we don't give salaam to people whom we don't know — we only give salaam to those people who we know. And unfortunately nowadays we don't even give salaam to people that we know. This is something that is looked down upon in Islam, and something which is from one of the signs of the Hour.

As the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 3848)

That from the signs of the Hour is that a person will give salaam to another person only because he knows him — or he will give salaam only to those people whom he knows. So again, something that we see in our lives on a daily basis. We come to the masjid and we don't even give salaam to those people whom we know. And as for those people whom we don't know — this is a complete no-no, we don't do this. And this is from amongst the signs of the Hour.

How to Return the Salaam

Another thing the Prophet ﷺ and Allah taught us in the Qur'an is how to give the salaam. How do we greet a fellow Muslim? And Allah says in the Qur'an:

That if you were to greet a person — if you were to give salaam to a person — how do you do it? Then respond with something which is better than it. And if you can't do this, then at least respond to them with the same way that they greeted you.

So if someone says to you, السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ, we say back to them something which is better:

The complete and better response. But what does Allah mean in the Qur'an when He says rudduha — just respond to it? That is, you respond the same way that someone has given you the salaam. If someone says السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ, then we say وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامُ. And this is the basic — the minimum that we can do.

The Third Right: Giving Sincere Advice (Nasihah)

The Prophet ﷺ then said in the hadith: وَإِذَا اسْتَنصَحَكَ فَانْصَحْهُ — that if a person asks you for advice, then you give him the advice. You advise him.

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 95)

That this religion is advice. This religion is advice. And again we see from these two words — الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ — the scholars have compared this to the statement of the Prophet ﷺ: الْحَجُّ عَرَفَةُ — that Hajj is Arafah. That merely by doing Arafah, this is the pinnacle of your Hajj. Standing in Arafah is Hajj. And likewise they say that this statement of the Prophet ﷺ, الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ — that giving advice is the pinnacle of this deen.

And the companion said: قُلْنَا لِمَنْ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ — Who is this advice to, O Messenger of Allah? The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 95)

To Allah. And His Book. And His Messenger. And to the rulers of the Muslims. And to the general people.

So giving advice about Allah — knowing who Allah is, knowing His names and His attributes, knowing how to worship Allah, knowing where Allah is, giving Allah's rights that He deserves — this is what this religion is. Knowing the Prophet ﷺ — knowing who he was, knowing his life, following his sunnah, staying away from those things which he warned us to stay away from, staying away from newly invented matters. This is Islam. Giving advice to the common people, advising the people that you are around, ensuring that they are safe, ensuring that there is no jealousy between one another. These are the rights that our religion is based upon.

The Most Beloved People to Allah

And the Prophet ﷺ said with regards to the most beneficial people:

(al-Mu'jam al-Awsat lil-Tabarani, Hadith 6026; also referenced in Ibn Abi al-Dunya)

That the most beloved people to Allah are those people who are the most beneficial to others — those who help others, those who benefit others. And the best actions in the sight of Allah are delight brought to a fellow Muslim, or relieving a distress from him, or relieving him from a debt that he has. And to walk alongside a Muslim who is in need is more beloved to me than for me to do i'tikaf in this masjid — i.e. the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ.

Standing by your Muslim brother in his time of need is more beloved to Allah and more beloved to the Prophet ﷺ than for the Prophet ﷺ to make i'tikaf in his own masjid.

Advice — The Way of the Prophets

And we find that giving advice is something which was a job of the Prophets and Messengers that came before us. All of the Prophets that were sent to mankind would give advice. As Nuh ﷺ said:

He said that I have been sent with a message from your Lord and I am here to advise you. And the Prophets and the Messengers knew that guidance was from Allah. And they were sent to give the message, to convey the message. Guidance is from Allah. And we see that when we advise somebody, our job is just to advise. Our job is to give the message, to give the advice. We know that Allah is the One who guides people.

The Du'a the Prophet ﷺ Made the Most

And we find that one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, when she was asked which is the du'a that the Prophet ﷺ makes the most — she responded and said the du'a that he makes the most ﷺ is:

And if you were to understand the gravity of this statement, we will surely think and ponder and reflect about our state. O Turner of the hearts, make my heart firm upon this Deen. This was a du'a the Prophet ﷺ would make the most — somebody who has been guaranteed Jannah. He was asking Allah for istiqamah, he was asking Him for steadfastness. Because he knew that it is Allah — the One who turns the hearts, the One who guides people.

So if we look at ourselves, living in the society in which we live in, we find that istiqamah — the steadfastness — is something that we should be asking Allah for on a daily basis. On a daily basis.

O Turner of the hearts, make my heart firm upon this Deen, upon this religion.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Key Principles When Giving Advice

There are certain things that we need to bear in mind when we give advice to people.

From one of the main things is that when we give advice, we need to make sure our intentions are there to sincerely please Allah and not to belittle this person. A lot of times we find that we want to be known as this person who is the advisor. We go around and we advise people but for the wrong reasons — maybe to expose this person, maybe to show people this person's shortcomings. And if this is our intention when we advise people, then our actions are according to our intentions. As the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1; Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4692)

That indeed our actions are going to be judged according to what we intended.

The second point that we need to bear in mind when we give advice is to have knowledge about what we are talking about — especially if it is things related to this religion, especially if it is things related to this deen. If we are going to advise people about issues pertaining to Islam, about giving religious verdicts, giving fatawa, then we have to know and understand that what we say, we are talking on behalf of Allah and His Messenger. So when we say something, if we are not 100% sure about it, then we should refrain ourselves. We should refrain from talking about these issues and these matters. Allah says:

And to talk about Allah and this religion when you don't know — مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ — and you don't know these things. So this is again something which we need to bear in mind when giving advice.

Another point when it comes to advising people is maintaining privacy. That when you advise someone, you advise them in private. Some people, when they advise people, they make sure that they expose this person and they put his sins out so everybody could see. Again, this is something which Allah has warned us against. And the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever pursues the shortcomings of a person, or whoever wants to portray the shortcomings of a person, then Allah will portray this person's shortcomings on the Day of Judgment. Allah will go after this person on the Day of Judgment and ensure that this person is exposed.

And the final point about advising people is to advise people with kindness — with rifq and lin. That we are kind to this person. Sometimes when we advise people, we come down on this person like a ton of bricks. We really want to be aggressive towards this person and give him a telling off. But we know this religion is based upon mahabbah — is based upon kindness and love. Allah says in the Qur'an:

That call to this religion with kindness, with a good word, with something which is positive. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in a hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 32, Hadith 6274)

That kindness is something that if it is placed in something, it will bring out the best in that thing. But if kindness is removed from anything, then it will destroy that thing.

We ask Allah to ensure that we implement these small things — these small things which could be a positive, a plus for us on the Day of Judgment. Something which will tip our scales on the Day of Judgment.

Closing Du'as

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. بِحُرْمَةِ الْحَبِيب، بِحُرْمَةِ الْفَاتِحَة.