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Hadith #18: "He is Not a Believer Whose Neighbor is Not Secure From His Harm"

October 31, 2017Dr. Omar Suleiman

An in-depth look at the modern applications of the hadiths on neighbors.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Okay, all right. Omar? Omar, bye. Getting conflicting messages. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillah. Who can remind me what we spoke about last week? Really bad at this. Righteous anger. All right, great. So, tonight inshallah ta'ala we're going to talk about, we're going to sort of switch the tune. We're going to talk about a subject that usually gets covered in a very, very shallow manner. All right? And that's the subject of the neighbor. When you talk about al-jaaf, the neighbor. Typically when you talk about anything that has to do with the neighbor, you quote a few very flowery, you know, especially if you live in an apartment complex or you, you know, you live in a place where no one talks to their neighbors, which justice. In the discussion of justice. And so tonight we're going to really dissect this subject and then at the end inshallah we'll go over all the modern applications of this hadith. And the hadith that we're starting off with tonight is a hadith of Anas, radiallahu
ta'ala anhu. It's in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, wallahi la yu'min, wallahi la yu'min, wallahi la yu'min. I swear by Allah that he does not believe. I swear by Allah that he does not believe. I swear by Allah that he does not believe. This was a way of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to emphasize what he was about to say, to capture the attention of the companions, to make them curious. Can you imagine he said this three times and they didn't say who. So the sahaba are brought into this discussion by their curiosity and also by the gravity of what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying. They don't believe, they do not truly believe. So they said, man ya rasulallah, who is it, O Messenger of Allah? Who are you talking about? So he said, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, allathee la ya'manu jaruhu bawa'iqah. The one whose neighbor does not feel secure from his harm. The one whose neighbor does not feel secure from his harm. In another hadith from Abu Huraira radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, la yadkhulul jannata man la ya'manu jaruhu bawa'iqah. That he will not enter jannah whose neighbor does not feel safe or secure from his harm. So it's that severe that it could prevent a person from entering into jannah just if your neighbor does not feel safe from your harm. Ibn Hajar rahimahullah ta'ala said, that does not mean that you pose an imminent danger to your neighbor. That means that your neighbor, because of your bad character or your bad attitude, does not feel any sort of salam, any sort of peace from you, any tranquility from you. They expect something from you. Now I've got to put a disclaimer here. If your neighbor fears you because they're an Islamophobe and you're a Muslim, and you go outside and you wave high and they like duck because they think you pulled out a gun or something like that. When you come home with groceries, they think
you're bringing home a bomb. That's not your fault. You are not included in this hadith. This is talking about people who are so rude and bad to their neighbors that their neighbors don't feel secure from them. So it doesn't mean that you're planning to hurt them. It doesn't mean that you actually pose a danger to them. But he or she does not feel safe from you. And when you think about this hadith, number one, I want to broaden your scope immediately for this hadith. Our sheikh, Dr. Hatim al-Hajj, hafidhallah ta'ala, when he spoke about the rights of the neighbor, he said that part of your neighbor's right upon you is that you reduce the noise for their comfort. Part of harming your neighbor is that you don't mow the lawn on time. Part of harming your neighbor is that you do something that would depreciate the value of your home and the home of your neighbor. That's all part of adha. That's all part of harming towards showing harm to your neighbor. You have to really broaden the scope of this hadith. So that's the first thing I want you to do. What does it mean to harm your neighbor or to show injustice to your neighbor? That's number one. The second part of this hadith, okay, when you think about the day of judgment and you think about the people that you're going to face on the day of judgment, all right, you think about an enemy, you think about someone who's oppressed you, you think about maybe a family member, for or against, but you typically don't think about standing in front of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and your neighbor is next to you and Allah is judging between you. You know, that's usually not the thought that's going to come to your mind when you think the day of judgment. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said in an authentic hadith that the first two disputing parties to appear before Allah on the day of judgment will be two neighbors. Can you imagine that? That's profound. The
first two that will be disputing or that will be judged by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala for their dispute are two neighbors. So when you think about your neighbor, don't think about someone that you might see on the day of judgment like, oh, hey, Randy, I didn't expect to see you here, right, after you go through the whole list of people that you have to judge on the day of judgment. They will be of the first people that you see on the day of judgment and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask you if you fulfilled the rights towards them or not. So it might be a good idea if you don't know your neighbor's name to know your neighbor's name from now. Considering that you're going to see them almost immediately when Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala starts judging in hukook al-ibad, in the rights of the servants. That's the second thing I want to impress upon you, the seriousness of this interaction, of this relationship in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's so serious that the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, there's so many hadith, I almost have to run through them and give a little bit of context to each one to have a coherent understanding and methodology in how we deal with the neighbor. It starts with the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. This is not wasiyah, this is not an order or a command that's given to someone that's being bad to their neighbor. Can you think of a single incident where the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam harmed his neighbor? No. Instead you have all of these incidents of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam showing them absolute ihsan, excellence, overcoming evil with love and mercy and compassion, visiting them when they're sick, giving charity to them. So this is not something that's only to be said to someone who's doing something wrong. What did the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam say? He said in a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, he said, maazala Jibreel yusini bil jar hatta zanantu anahu sayu arrifu. He said, Jibreel kept on coming to me and telling me to take care of your neighbor,
take care of your neighbor, take care of your neighbor, take care of your neighbor, until I thought that Jibreel alaihi wasallam would come to me and say, a portion of your inheritance will go to your neighbor, meaning they are like your family. That's powerful because the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam is not someone that was ever bad to his neighbor. So what would make Jibreel keep on coming to him and giving him wasiyah of his jaaf, giving him this order to go do this for your neighbor, go visit your neighbor, go take some food over to them, go check on them, go give them charity. One of the beautiful narrations from Jabir radiallahu ta'ala anhu, and there is weakness in the narration, but it's supplementary evidence, that the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam found out about the sickness of his neighbor on a routine visit, meaning he did not wait to find out that the neighbor was sick and then let me go visit him for the first time. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam went over there, and this is particularly the case of the young Jewish boy that was passing away, and the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam went to visit him and he sat by his bedrest and as he was comforting him, he told him, you know, oh my son, say la ilaha illallah, say la ilaha illallah, and the young boy looked up at the father, Jewish father, Jewish boy, which by the way shows you, and this is very profound because I'm doing a publication right now on the early Jews of Medina, that it's not like the Jews were pushed away from the masjid. To be a neighbor of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam means you're a neighbor to the masjid. It's not like the Jews were in an area and away from everybody else. The boy looks up at his father and the father says, At'a abu al-qasim, listen to Abu al-qasim. Okay? Subhanallah, how much, you know, first of all by calling him by his kunya, which is Abu al-qasim, there, don't, denotes some sort of familiarity and friendship, right? And also the fact that he says trust him, we know him, he's a good man. Right? So the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam was routine in his visits, in his checking up on his neighbors, in his taking things to
his neighbors, in his making sure that his neighbors were okay. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not have to wait for something dramatic to happen, for him to check up on his neighbors. So he himself, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, is being advised by Jibreel alaihi wasallam, you need to go check up on them. You need to make sure that you're taking care of them. And the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam now extends, he gives us an entire methodology of how we understand the rights of the neighbor upon us. Some of these rights are things we'd never think about. Okay? We would never think about, but it's pretty cool if you find a way to apply them. For example, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in an authentic hadith, Jaar al-daari ahakku bi daari al-jaar aw al-ard. That the neighbor of a home has the greatest right to your property or to your land if you want to sell it. Like that's something you don't even think about. That when I put my house on sale, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, that the first person you should check with is your neighbor and see if he wants to buy it. Why? Because maybe he'd have a use for extending his estate. Obviously, in the time of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the way that homes work, this makes a lot more sense. But still, you know, subhanAllah, how beautiful of a sunnah is that? You went over to your neighbor and said, listen, I'm about to put my house on sale, or I'm going to sell this land. Before I sell to the public, I just want you to have the first right to it. No premium, no nothing. I just feel like I have to. You'd probably creep somebody out if you said, this is my religion. My religion tells me I have to tell you first if you want to buy it or not. SubhanAllah, these are things that are very beautiful. Muhammad Ismail al-Muqaddam, Sheikh Muhammad Ismail, he was talking about a man, presumably in the West. They like to talk about these stories in America, in the Middle East. There was a man in America that did this. I'm like, who are these people in America that keep doing amazing things that we never meet? He said, there was this man that used to collect
the newspapers. Someone kept on throwing, you know how they throw the newspapers. They don't do that that much anymore. But his neighbor was gone for a very long time, and he kept on collecting these newspapers. So when his neighbor came back after a long trip, he literally walked over with these boxes of the newspapers he collected. And the man was like, what is this? He said, well, every time they threw the newspaper, I was collecting them for you. The people didn't think that you were at home. And I was just making sure that your house looked occupied and stuff like that. And the man was so amazed. He said, why are you doing that? He said, well, my religion teaches me to do that. And then, of course, the man takes shahadah. This is always the way that the story ends. Still a beautiful example. Again, these are things that your religion places upon you and expectation. Before you're asked, things that don't even come to people's minds, that you do things for your neighbor that other people do not. There's a sister in New Orleans. So this is one of the amazing people that I can actually talk about. I know her. Subhanallah, she was about 65, I want to say, 65, 66 years old. She was a convert. And she's actually from the part, she's from around the lower Ninth Ward, where the flood had the worst effect on the people in New Orleans. MashaAllah, this sister had so much soul. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless her. Every time she changed her name to Khadija. And she said, Subhanallah, when she was born, her parents actually named her Khadija. Anyway, they gave her like two names, even though they weren't a Muslim family. So she changed her name to Khadija. And every time she'd mow the lawn, full, wear a black abaya and everything, she would always mow her neighbor's lawn too. She'd actually go over there and she'd mow her neighbor's lawn as well, the front yard. And Subhanallah, that was just a... Now you got to tell your neighbor before you do something like that. But that's something that doesn't even come to people's minds. Like, really? You would
do that for me? How many people even mow their own lawn anymore? That's aside from the point. But you would do that for me? Subhanallah, that's something that absolutely blew her neighbor away. So there are things that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam teaches us to do that don't necessarily lack a modern application, but are not of the norm, the cultural norms that we have here or probably anywhere else. Okay, these are things that we don't really think about. Things, you know, in some countries, Subhanallah, till now, like very simple, you know, when I go to visit some of my family members in certain countries, like where they fill the water tank on top of their house when the water comes, they got to fill it up so that they can use it in their apartment or their house. They'll fill up their neighbors as well out of courtesy. Those are some beautiful sunnahs that you can apply in some other places, but especially here where we're all becoming isolated and, you know, insular in these little chambers of ours. We're taking hijrat chambers to a whole other meaning now, where everybody just kind of isolates themselves in their place of residence. These aren't things that you think about. But they're things that we have to apply from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. He also said, salallahu alayhi wasalam, don't belittle things that you could do for your neighbor. So this is a hadith from Abu Huraira radiyallahu ta'ala anhu that the Prophet ﷺ said, يَا نِسَاءَ الْمُسْلِمَاتِ يَا نِسَاءَ الْمُسْلِمَاتِ So he said twice, يَا نِسَاءَ الْمُسْلِمَاتِ The Prophet ﷺ said, do not belittle a gift that you could give to your neighbor, even if it's a sheep's foot. Don't belittle the smallest thing, the smallest gift that you could give to your neighbor. Don't belittle it. So he was particularly admonishing the women ﷺ. Aisha radiyallahu anhu said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ O Messenger of Allah, إِنَّ لِي جَارَيْنَ
So she said, I have two neighbors, so to whom shall I send my gifts? The Prophet ﷺ said, إِلَىٰ أَقْرَبِهِمَا مِنكِ To the one that's closer to you, to the one whose gate is closer to you. So the closer the neighbor's house is to you, the more right they have upon you. That's a hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari. Something small that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in a hadith of Abu Dharr radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He said, the Prophet ﷺ awsani, he commanded me, he said, إِذَا تَبَخْتَ مَرَقَةً If you make broth, he said, make sure that you add water to it so that you can increase its quantity. And he said, keep in mind the family members of your neighbors. آلِ بَيْتِ جَارَك Not just your neighbors, their whole families. Try to keep in mind their entire families. So if you're going to make some broth, you're going to cook some soup or whatever it is, increase the water, but make sure that you keep enough to take to your families and give it to them out of courtesy and kindness. Sometimes, courtesy to your neighbor is tolerating their annoyances. And that's a big one. Now this is one where the apartment and the condos or whatever it is, the townhouses, this is one where you can really relate to. The noise. The noise levels. If you share a wall. Because in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, you tended to share a wall with another neighbor. And this is a hadith from Abu Huraira radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He said that the Prophet ﷺ said at Sahih al-Bukhari that no one of you should prevent his neighbor from fixing a wooden peg in his wall. You know, like if you're sharing a wall and someone's got to do something on the wall and they've got to hammer it in or something like that, it'll annoy you. They'll make noise as they're trying
to fix their own wall or do their own thing. So Abu Huraira, when he said this hadith, it says in al-Bukhari, he noticed that no one liked it. You know, it was a very uncomfortable hadith for people because it's annoying, right? If someone's making noise and stuff like that, it's really annoying. So are we supposed to let this go? So Abu Huraira radiyallahu ta'ala anhu said, why do I find that you don't like this hadith? Why am I finding you not responding? And he said, wallahi, I will continue to narrate this hadith. I know you don't like the hadith, but I'm going to keep on saying it until people get it. You have to learn to tolerate the noise level of your neighbor. There's another hadith that also from Abu Dharr radiyallahu ta'ala anhu that the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Allah loves three people and Allah hates three people. Of those that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves, the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said, a man who has a bad neighbor who annoys him and disturbs him, but he bears it with patience and forbearance until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ends the matter either during his lifetime or with the death of one of them. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves a person that will maintain, that will basically tolerate the annoyances of their neighbor until they die or until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala settles the matter for them, that a person would be able to actually tolerate those things. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam also said in a hadith, and this is a very simple one, he said, laysal mu'minu alladhi yashba'u wa jaruhu ja'i. He said, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, the believer is not the one who sleeps full while his neighbor is hungry, while his neighbor sleeps hungry. Notice by the way, none of these hadith mention Muslim or non-Muslim. Not a single hadith of a jar, of the neighbors. If you just go to any hadith database and search the word jar, search neighbor,
you will not find a single one that distinguishes between a Muslim or someone of another religion as your neighbor. Not one. Not one. We even find the hadith of Jibreel, that kana Jibreel yu'uslini bil jar, that Jibreel used to admonish me and command me to treat the neighbor well, hatta lanantu anahu sayuwarithu, so I thought that he would grant him inheritance. That hadith is actually narrated in the context of Abdullah bin Amr bin As, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. When he was skinning his sheep, he finished his sheep, and he told his son, abda bil jar al yahudi, start with the Jewish neighbor. And he was like taken aback by that. So what do you mean start by the Jewish neighbor? And he said to him, Jibreel alaihi salam used to come to the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and used to admonish him to take care of his neighbor until he thought that he would assign inheritance. Meaning even the companions internalized this concept, that the treatment of the neighbor has nothing to do with the circumstances of their neighbor. And that kind of, you know, gives you some context. If you're talking about the first person when you show up on the Day of Judgment, you see one of the first people will be your neighbor. It gives some context to the grievousness of sin or harm that you commit towards your neighbor. It helps you understand why it's so severe. So the hadith, very famous hadith, where the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, mentioned or the companions came to the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and they said to the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, about this woman. Taqoom al-layl. She prays at night. Tassaddaq. She gives extra in charity. She fasts during the day. Wataf'al. And she does all sorts of extra good deeds. This is not just a woman that does the basic ibadat, that does the basic acts of worship.
This is a woman that does all the extra nawafil, all the extra voluntary deeds. But tu'thidhiraanaha. She has an abusive tongue to her neighbors. That's it. She's got all of this going for her, but she has an abusive tongue to her neighbors. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, la khayra feehaa hiya finnaaha. There is no goodness in that woman. She's in hell. She is devoid of khayr. She has no goodness inside of her. She is in hellfire. Subhanallah, the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, judged her akhlaq, judged her entire character, and her hereafter will be of complete loss because of just having an abusive tongue with her neighbors. And in the hadith of Ibn Hibban, radhiallahu anhu, they said, well, there's another woman does her basics. Basics. Right? She barely prays her five prayers. She does what she's supposed to do. And then, you know, after that, basically the only thing is that she's good to her neighbors. She's kind to her neighbors. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said that she's in Jannah. She's in paradise. So, like, the severity of this hadith can be understood now. And, you know, Al-Hafidh Ibn Abdul-Barr, rahimallah, the great Maliki scholar, he commented on this hadith. He compared this hadith to another hadith that we often find in the same context. The hadith of al-Muflis, the hadith of the bankrupt person, where the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, Atadroona man al-Muflis? Do you know who the bankrupt person is? So they said, Ya Rasulullah, it's the one who has no money. He said, no. It's the person who shows up on the Day of Judgment with their prayer, with their fasting, with their salah, with everything. They show up on the Day of Judgment and they've got an entire body of good deeds, but at the same time, sabbahada, wadharabahada, washatanahada, wakhtabahada,
hit that person, had an abusive tongue to that person, backbited that person, actually physically hit that person. So all of these things was just abusive towards all of these people. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, that that person, their good deeds, all the good deeds they brought, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allows the people that they hurt to line up and one by one they start to take all of their good deeds until that person is left with no good deeds, no hasanat. And there are still people lined up to take from their good deeds. So the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, that that person would say, I have nothing left. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala would cause those people to start taking their sins and putting it on that person. So they're being buried in their sin. The very famous hadith of the bankrupt person. So he commented on this. He said that this is talking about, this is talking about how a person acts with people in general. But the hadith of the neighbor, like if you do this stuff with your neighbor, you're taking it to a whole other level of sinfulness. And that's why, he said, it's compounded. That's why, for example, it's an inconvenient, it's not the best narration or one that you hear about the most frequent. But it kind of matches with the Ten Commandments too. Ibn Mas'ud, radiallahu anhu, was asked, what is the worst of the major sins? And he said, to commit adultery with your neighbor's spouse. He didn't just say adultery. Adultery with your neighbor's spouse. Adultery in and of itself is horrible. But adultery with your neighbor's spouse represents a grievous sin and also the greatest betrayal of amanah, the greatest betrayal of trust. If you should have felt safe from your harm, you completely did away with that safety and the enormity of that sin, the gravity of that sin, because it led to the hurting of that person,
is looked at in a much different way. So it's compounded in its enormity in the way that you treat that person. So the last hadith I'll share here, and then we'll go to modern applications of these hadiths. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned the three worst types of people. So he mentioned the people that Allah loves the most. Three people that Allah loves the most. One of them was a neighbor who tolerates their neighbor's sin, or tolerates their neighbor's abuses, their noise levels, and all that kind of stuff like that. And they're very generous and gracious. It doesn't stop them from showing courtesy. They don't call the police on their neighbors. They don't yell at their neighbors. I remember when I was a kid, and I used to play basketball late at night all the time. And police used to always show up. And I used to be like, you know, those are the neighbors that we learned about in Sunday school. The person who tolerates their neighbors, those are the people that Allah loves the most. Now here, in this hadith, the three worst types of people, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned, a bad neighbor, who if he sees something good, he conceals it. If he sees something bad from his neighbor, he doesn't. So this is like shining light on the evil of your neighbor rather than the goodness of your neighbor. Now let's talk modern applications. One thing, so I'll go through the hadith really quickly, inshallah, so you guys can, if you feel like I missed something, you let me know. So we mentioned the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that he does not believe, he does not believe, he does not believe the one whose neighbor does not feel secure from his harm. We mentioned the hadith that the first two disputing parties on the Day of Judgment are two neighbors. The first two people Allah will judge between on the Day of Judgment are two neighbors. We mentioned the hadith where the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that Jibreel, the angel Gabriel, used to come to me and admonish me and tell me to treat your neighbor well until I thought that he would assign inheritance. Meaning
that this is not just something you say to someone who's being a bad neighbor. This is just in general the amount of hukooq, of rights that your neighbor has upon you. You're going to put your house on sale, what do you do? You ask your neighbor first if they want it. So this is a hadith where the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned that if you're going to sell your property, the first person who has the right to it is your neighbor before anybody else. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, saying to Muslim women in particular, do not show disdain or belittle a gift that you can give to your neighbor even if it's a sheep's foot. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, telling Aisha, radiallahu anha, if you have two neighbors, the first person that has the right upon you is who? I'm just summarizing everything. Then I'm going to get to modern application now. The closest person to you. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said if you're preparing broth or soup or whatever it is, you're making broth, what should you do? Add water, increase its quantity, take care of your neighbor's family. Good. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that if your neighbor is fixing something in their wall and you share a wall with them, don't stop them. Even if it's late at night, even if it's bothering you, let them do it. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned a man is not a believer if he fills his stomach while his neighbor sleeps hungry. All of these different things. Let's talk about application. One application, we'll start off with the bad neighbor. There's this idea that it's easy for them to talk about this because there's a bunch of sahaba being neighbors. What's the big deal? A bunch of sahaba that are being neighbors to each other, they're all good, they don't have the type of neighbors that we have or that we're used to. I have this neighbor that parties all the time, that every time I see I just take my kids and cover their eyes and say astaghfirullah and don't look at them. Every time they come home they've got a bottle in their hands and it's not a water bottle
and they're playing loud music at night. Guess what? Abu Hanifa had a neighbor like you. Can you imagine that? Imam Abu Hanifa shared a wall with this young man that every single night used to get drunk and used to sing and make loud noise and he would do this throughout the night. Young man used to literally drown himself in debt and come home and get drunk. Just imagine the brown paper bag. That's when you know it's really bad. Drinking out of a brown paper bag. Drinking out of a brown paper bag. And he's screaming out adha'oonee, adha'oonee, wa'ayyu fatan adha'oo. He said they forgot about me, they forgot about me. What a young man they've forgotten. He's mourning and whining and talking about how the man forgot me and everyone left me behind. Troubled young guy. Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, lets it go. Can you imagine if Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, called out and said, guys, I've got this neighbor that's really horrible. I'm not saying you have to do anything, but this is the most beloved imam of his time, right? He lets it go. One night, Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, goes to sleep and he doesn't hear the guy's voice. So, either he's sober or he's not home. So, he goes to check on him. Finds that he's not home. He goes and he starts asking about his neighbor. Alright? So, he finds out that he was arrested because he basically got buried in debt. He owed so many people money that he was arrested. Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, said, well, where is he being held? He went there. How much money does he owe? And it was 27,000 dinars. Huge amount of money. Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, was also a wealthy man, by the way. He paid off the man's debt.
Paid off his debt. Young man comes out. Just think of the scene. SubhanAllah, he comes out prison, if you will. He was being held. He comes out and he sees Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah. He's like, wait, you paid off my debt? And he told him, yeah. And he was like, but why? Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah, put his hand on his shoulder and says, oh, ya fatha, did we forget about you, oh young man? He used to call out every night, they forgot about me. He said, have we forgotten about you? Can you claim we've forgotten about you? And he actually told him, he said, I missed hearing you at night. I missed your loud noise at night. Lightened up the mood, cleaned him up, took him home, and subhanAllah, that young man became one of Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah's best students. Used to pray in the first line of Salatul Fajr every single day. Completely cleaned up. So don't think to yourself, they didn't have the types of neighbors we have. That's a fallacy. Second thing is that you want to be so good to your neighbors that they would cry over your departure. Like if you put the house on sale they'd come and be like, no, why? What are you doing? Abdullah Mubarak, rahim Allah ta'ala, he had a Jewish neighbor and Abdullah Mubarak was very beloved by his people. One of the greatest of the early scholars. A student of Imam Abu Hanifa, rahim Allah. Great scholar. And his students kept on asking his Jewish neighbor to sell them his house. I want to live next to our teacher. And the Jewish neighbor put a premium on it. He doubled the price. And they said, why? He said, well, part of it is the value of the house. The other part is having a neighbor as good as Abdullah Mubarak. A guy that takes care of me the way he does and shows that much gratefulness and that type of character, you've got to pay extra to have that type of neighbor.
Subhanallah, if you think about it and you think this is all craziness, like, well, that's not applicable today. And I start with myself by the way. And I know my wife is probably watching the live stream and going like, alright, we're in trouble. So we start with ourselves. We start with ourselves. What are some practical resolutions? Well, let's start off with masjid parking. We do eidha to our neighbors. We harm our neighbors when we park in their lots. I'm doing this for the board, alright? You park in the neighbor's parking lot, you hurt the neighbors. That's a tangible form of eidha. A tangible form of abuse. The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is telling you the first person you show up against on the Day of Judgment is your neighbors. What good do you get out of coming to salah if in the process of coming to the prayer you're hurting the neighbors of the masjid? Making people hate the house of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That's where you have to start off. So what about our parking? Do I hurt my neighbor? A lot of Muslims, mashaAllah, like to have big parties. We party a lot. Especially certain cultures. And I'm not going to say any names of any cultures. But like, the people that have like seven weddings instead of one. And like, they've got a party at, like, you've got all these parties going on. You're constantly hurting your neighbors with all the cars. And we're not the best at parking. That's eidha towards your neighbors. Another one is being the first to greet. A very practical application. Don't wait for your neighbor to greet you. You greet your neighbor first. Don't let it be a chance encounter. You move into a new place. Don't let it be a chance encounter that you happen to come across your neighbor and like, hey, how's it going? Introduce yourself. And always be the first one. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us always to be the first one to greet your neighbor. That's the second one. Visiting them when they're sick. Checking up on
them. How's your health? SubhanAllah, I saw this beautifully applied by my father, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless him. Really hit it off with the neighbors. And subhanAllah, I remember a lady's husband passed away and then her son and just constantly visiting them, checking up on them and stuff like that. And I remember seeing that night and I was amazed by that. She didn't used to call the police on us when we played basketball late at night. There was a benefit that we got from the way that he treated them. Visiting them when they're sick. Checking up on them. How's your health? Actually knowing what they're going through. Is everything okay? How have you been? How are your kids? I noticed that you're walking, you got a limp. Are you doing alright? Checking up on their health. Showing concern for their health. Overlooking their annoyances. Tough one. If you've got an annoying neighbor, if you've got a bad neighbor. But actually overlooking the adha. You bring it up so kindly or you make them embarrassed to harm you or abuse you but you overlook their annoyances. Asking about them regularly. As we said the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to do. Offering to lend them things. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he actually mentioned or he showed us this quality. We find this very frequently in the hadith. This has changed now. I remember my parents sending me over to get sugar or get salt or get something from the neighbors. That stuff is like out of the window these days. Now you've got Amazon Prime now or whatever it is just that shows up at your doorstep. But offering to lend things. You need a ladder. You need some help. You need my lawn mower. Whatever it is. But try to think of something that you can lend them. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us to lend things to our neighbors. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned in a hadith and I didn't mention all the hadith about neighbor by the way. He mentioned in a hadith a person unloading the burden the matah of their neighbors when they show up off of their animals. So helping them with their
groceries. See your neighbor struggling with their groceries or carrying their groceries. Go offer to help them out with their groceries. It's a direct application of that hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Baking a little bit extra food. Dessert. When you make food. I made some food. I made biryani today. Don't kill them with the biryani. Please don't kill them with the biryani. Don't spice it up too much unless you know that they like that. But I made some extra food. Here's some extra rice. Here's some stuff. I thought I'd just bring it over to you. Bake some extra dessert. You make it a habit that I made some extra food. Here's some extra food for you and your family. You know, and they can tell it's fresh. It's not just your leftover cookies from Eid. It's actual extra food. Like I baked some food. It's fresh. I thought you might enjoy it. Making extra food and taking it over to them. And mow your lawn on time. That's actually one. Don't lower the property value. Take care of your own house as a means of taking care of your neighbor. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala allow us to fulfill the rights of our neighbors upon us, of our families upon us, of everyone around us upon us. Of course, more than anything else, the right of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala upon us. Allahumma ameen. Questions? Yeah.
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