40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #8 - The Right to Water, Food, and Shelter
Sh. Omar Suleiman describes a hadith that emphasizes the importance of the tangible, physical rights every human being is entitled to: the rights to water, food, and shelter.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. in dealing with issues of boredom and rectification of issues of injustice. And what I'm really excited about now is actually getting into issue by issue because a lot of times we see these issues pop up and we don't recognize that there is an entire sunnah that addresses these issues and then there is an entire rich history of contribution by great Muslims and also a paradigm that's offered through our jurisprudence, through our fiqh which is based on the sunnah to deal with these issues. So the first hadith that we're going to start off with, it's a really interesting hadith and it does deal with some current events that we're seeing in the news and that deal with issues of justice. And it's a hadith that's narrated by Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, laysa li ibn Adam haqqun fee siwa hadhihi al-khisal The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that there are no rights that the son of Adam is more entitled to than these four rights. So he says there are no rights that the son of Adam is more entitled to than these four rights. And he says sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, baytun yaskunuh. The first thing is a shelter, a home that he can dwell in. Then he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa thawbun yuwaari a'uratah. And a garment that would cover his nakedness. Then he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa jilful khubzi wal maa. And a loaf of bread, a piece of bread, and water. So he said four things, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that the son of Adam is entitled to. A home to live in, a garment to cover his awrah. Now the awrah, as we know, are the things that are mandatory for a person to cover. So essentially the hijab for men and women. The things that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made mandatory to cover for the men and for the women.
For the men, that being between the navel and the knees. For the women, being that other than the hands and the face. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, a piece of bread and water. And I want to first address, well I'm going to give you guys a clue as to something that's really fascinating about this hadith. Who is the narrator of the hadith? Did anyone catch the narrator of the hadith? Uthman ibn Affan radiallahu anhu. And there's a story that's famous about Uthman and water, right? Which we'll talk about inshallah ta'ala in this halaqa. But sometimes you don't notice the narrator of the hadith as you're going through it. But first and foremost the language that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam uses in this hadith is really interesting. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions something along these lines in the Quran. Along the lines of entitlement to certain things. Rights that are actually assigned to you by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that are actually tangible, physical rights. And Allah azawajal mentions, والذين في أموالهم حق معلوم للسائر والمحروم Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions people of sadaqah, people of charity. And he says, and in their wealth there's an acknowledged right, حق معلوم, an acknowledged right. للسائري والمحروم For the needy and the destitute. The sa'il is the one who asks. The mahroom is the one who's forbidden from asking for some reasons. Either it's self-imposed that that person has a form of iffah, a form of shyness. Or that person is forbidden by law or by culture or society. But the point is that people understand that with the wealth that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to them, beyond money, their property, anything that they have, there is an assigned right, حق معلوم. Both for the one that will ask you and it's upon the person who has to actually search for people in need. So that people do not have to ask for those rights to be fulfilled. They don't even have to ask for those needs.
There's another hadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam where he mentions, and this is a hadith that's narrated by Abu Huraira radiallahu ta'ala anhu and Ibn Abbas. And it has various forms. But the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says, المسلمون شركاء في ثلاث That the believers, the Muslims are all co-owners of three things. In the hadith of Ibn Majah, الناس The people as a whole are co-owners of three things. And the scholars of hadith, what they say is that when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would do تخصص of the مسلمون when he would specify the Muslims, it was either because it was specific to the Muslims or he was addressing the community in Medina. So it also applies to people as a whole that live in that society, but there's an emphasis here. So he said the Muslims are co-owners of three things. So he said في الماء والكلاء والنار وثمنه حرام He said, salallahu alayhi wasalam, water and then he mentioned الكلاء. الكلاء is pasture or herbage. Basically it's grass or anything that grows from the land. Some of the natural herbs that grow from the land. So think of it this way. In some countries, people pick نعنى. They pick mint to put in their teas and stuff like that. So these are things that are available to everyone, accessible property that's available to everyone. And then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned النار. He mentioned fire. So water, and he mentioned land, particularly that which grows from the land, natural herbs that grow from the land. Then he mentioned, salallahu alayhi wasalam, fire. And Allah knows best, but many of the scholars, what they mention here with fire, they mean the things that are used to make fire. So firewood or stones or whatever it is that would be collected to make fire. So what is this referring to? This does not mean that you could walk into a grocery store that's owned by Muslims
and say that I demand that case of water. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said they should never be withheld from a Muslim. Because what that person is selling in a store is not water, but he's selling the water that he has accumulated, that he's put into this package, into this bottle, and that's what's being sold. So there are expenses that are incurred along the way. But what this is referring to from a juristic perspective, and it's important, the way the Fuqaha refer to this, they mention open streams or unclaimed land, community property, things that belong to everyone. So there was common land, common property that would be used by everyone on the road. So basically what this means is that people cannot just go to a land and claim it for themselves and then forbid people from it. Or people cannot occupy a stream or occupy a river and say that this is mine, that there has to be a process in place, and that it should not be used in a way that would forbid others or a way that would be harmful to the community around that. Now what did the scholars dispute? They basically disputed what about when there is something that actually belongs to you, that is actually a property, that's a personal property that's owned by a people. So some of the scholars, they mentioned that these are not included, and some of them said they're included, but the owner has first rights. This is where it gets interesting. The owner has first rights. So let's say that I own a garden, and there's water that comes from that garden, or there are trees that grow certain things. The owner has first right, but he should still make it available to the people. Now that's a very interesting argument, because I think a lot of scholars have argued that the owner has first right, but he should still make it available to the people.
And then there's a very interesting argument that Allah SWT mentions. Allah SWT mentions, إِنَّا بَلَوْنَاهُمْ كَمَا بَلَوْنَا أَصْحَابَ الْجَنَّةِ Allah SWT mentions the people of a garden, the selfish, entitled children of a generous land owner who used to make his garden available to the people, where they would come and they would pick fruit, and they would pick things and they would harvest from that garden. Allah gave him a lot, and so he used to provide to the people around him. And those people, the children basically decided, you know what, let's go pick everything before the time that they traditionally come. So let's go get it during the night time, let's go pick everything and leave nothing there, so that when the people come in the morning, they would find that everything's been taken. What did Allah SWT do as a result? Allah destroyed their garden. There is also a very interesting hadith. Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, an Ansari man came to the Prophet SAW, and the Ansari man complained to the Prophet SAW that Az-Zubayr owned a stream that would naturally flow into his, he was his neighbor, that would naturally flow into his property as well, but Az-Zubayr radiAllahu anhu blocked it off. So basically Az-Zubayr radiAllahu anhu owns plot A, he owns plot B, as they occupied those properties, Az-Zubayr radiAllahu anhu put a wall there so that the water would stay in his property. So the Ansari man came to the Prophet SAW to complain about Az-Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and he said, you know, let the water flow. Az-Zubayr radiAllahu anhu said, it's my water, it's my garden, it's my water, so why should I let it flow? And then the Prophet SAW said, irrigate your land, Az-Zubayr,
so let it do what you have to from that water, then let it flow. So take what you need from that water, but then let it flow to your neighbor. Well guess what, the Ansari man wasn't satisfied. So he said to the Prophet SAW, you only did that because Az-Zubayr is your cousin. So the Prophet SAW told Az-Zubayr, put the wall and let the water flow back to the other side of your garden. Because of the way that the man responded, even to that, meaning there was a sense of greed in him, that he was trying to take more than his share. So the scholars took from that that definitely the person who owns a land that has that water has the greatest right to it. But at the same time, they should not restrict it to themselves. They should try to let that water flow. They should try to let other people take from their garden. They should try to allow the community around them to benefit. And Sa'id ibn Jubair RA said, Allah curses a man who has a wealthy plot of land with water and fruits and tamarats, and then he closes it off while the people around him starve and go thirsty. And if you think about the way that poverty is right now, here in Dallas, there are such clear economic demarcations. There's South Dallas and North Dallas, and the urban planning has made it so that you've got rich people living in one area, you've got very poor people living in one area, and there's almost no mixing. I know we have some people watching from Houston. If you go to Houston, it's all random. There's no urban planning whatsoever, no zoning. So you've got a basketball stadium, then you've got a prison downtown for some reason, and then you've got a really nice house, then you've got a not so nice house, and you've got it all mixed up. I'm not saying that's the solution, but what Sa'id ibn Jubair RA mentions in the commentary of this hadith is significant. That a person sets up, and Allah blesses them with some resources, and then they cut the people off around them.
That that is a means of invoking Allah's wrath upon the resources that you have. But particularly here, note the water. The stress of the Prophet SAWS was on the water. So listen to this. The scholars mention that in some of the books of major sins, they mention contaminating a water supply. Think about Flint, Michigan. The hurma, the tahrim, of actually contaminating a water supply, or withholding water from people. Think about Gaza. Confiscating water from a people that it belonged to, and harming, jeopardizing their water stream. And you think about Standing Rock. And you think about the pipeline that's being built there. A people that have this plantation that's benefiting entire communities. It's their land, and then it's being jeopardized for corporate interests. And that's something that Muslims should actually be leading with, because the Prophet SAWS emphasized the right to water. And the right to water is so severe, or it's such a stressed right in Islam, that when you read the books of tafsir, if you read the tafsir of, innama s-sadaqat lil-fukaraa wal-masakin that zakah, the first means of spending zakah, is upon the poor and the destitute, then the ulama will mention water, food, clothing, shelter. So they'll always stress this idea of water. So much so that the scholars derive from some of the hadith of the Prophet SAWS, you'll find them to say that if a person came to your house, and they asked you for a glass of water, you can't deny them. Like if they came in and they asked for something else, you might be able to deny them. But it's considered haram, it would be considered forbidden to say no if they asked for water.
So the right to water is something that's stressed so much in our deen, and has such contemporary relevance. Imagine if Muslims were leading that call of providing clean water to people. How many people around the world die because they don't have access to clean water? How many of those diseases are born out of that? When the Prophet SAWS mentions that as this inalienable right, this first right that everyone should have access to clean water, it makes you think about our current situation. Now living in our times, or living in our space, you don't even think about that, right? Because access to clean water is a given. But subhanAllah, that's not the case in many places in the world, including Flint, Michigan apparently, and what's being jeopardized now with the pipeline and Standing Rock. To go through a few other instances that the Messenger SAWS mentions, he mentions a hadith of Jabir ibn Abdillah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, man hafara bi'rama, whoever constructs a well of water, lam yashrab minhu ins wala jinn, wala ta'ira wala ba'ir, that no human being, no jinn, no bird, and no wild beast will drink from it illa ajarahu Allahum biha yawm al qiyamah, except that Allah SWT will give him a reward for that on the Day of Judgment. Then he said, wa man bana lillahi masjida kamifhasi qatat aw asghar, and whoever builds for Allah a masjid, even if it's the size of a bird's nest or smaller, banallahu lahu baytan fil jannah, then Allah SWT would build for him a home in Paradise. And the scholars mention here that the Prophet SAWS is mentioning the physical needs in one place, and he's mentioning the spiritual needs in the other. So providing for the physical needs of people is to construct a well. And Allah SWT would even reward him for what?
For a wild beast that would drink from it, or a bird that would drink from it. And Allah SWT entered that woman, the zaniyya, the adulteress, into Jannah for providing what to the dog? Water in a shoe. Right? That even the wild beast, if it drinks from that water, Allah SWT would surely reward them for that on the Day of Judgment. Waban bana lillahi masjida, and whoever builds for Allah a masjid as small as a bird's nest, or even smaller than that, Allah SWT will build for him a place in Paradise. And so that's the first hadith. Then you have the story of Bi'ruma. Bi'ruma, when the Muslims, when the muhajirun moved to Medina, there was this one well that was owned by a non-Muslim, and he sees that people are desperately in need of this water, so basically what he decided to do was, he decided to raise the price of that water to a point that people would not be able to afford it. And it's one of the first priorities of the Prophet SAWS. Rasulullah SAWS asks for a price on that well. The owner says, 40,000 dirhams. 40,000 dirhams, which is a ridiculous price for a well. And so the Prophet SAWS announces to the community, because they're having a hard time being able to afford water, he announces to the community, who will purchase this well, and in return I guarantee him Jannah. So Uthman RA rose to the occasion, he said, I will do it, Ya Rasulullah. And it's significant because Uthman was a muhajir. He migrated from Mecca. He's not one of the Ansar. He's not one of the people in Medina doing the hosting. He couldn't resist what the Prophet SAWS mentioned of a guarantee of Jannah. And he's the narrator of the first hadith that we mentioned. So Uthman RA said, I'll do it, Ya Rasulullah. He goes to the owner of the well, and the man tells him,
there's no way I'm selling this. It's a gold mine. Why would I sell this? I'm making money off of all you people. Why would I ever sell this? So Uthman RA says, okay, fine, sell me half. So he sells him half the well, and what that means is Uthman RA will have it, he can sell from it one day, and the man will sell from it the other day. So they will have alternate days to the well. Because it doesn't make sense to cut the well in half. Alternate days on the well. So what does Uthman RA do? He agrees. He buys half of it for 20,000 dirhams. He says, I'll give you 20,000, and we own it for a day. So basically what would happen is, on Uthman's day, he invited everyone in Medina to come take water for free. So Uthman RA just made it a waqf, he made it an endowment for the Muslims. He said, everyone come and take your water for free. So when that man's day would come, no one would purchase water from him. So he went back to Uthman and he said, okay, I'll sell you the other half for 20,000. Uthman RA said, no, 10. Because he understood that the man didn't need, that he couldn't demand that high price anymore. So he ended up getting it for 30,000 dirhams, and he made it a waqf for the community. And it's amazing because that waqf still exists. The well is still there. It has irrigated literally acres and acres and acres of palm trees and dates. It has provided from that waqf electricity for many people in Medina. It has, from the bank account, there's still a bank account, just from the waqf, what's generated from that endowment, it's over $500 million, okay, till today. So Uthman RA is still getting the reward from something he did 1,400 years ago, which was to purchase a simple well to provide water for the people.
There were other wells in Medina, but that was a particular well, and the Prophet SAW guaranteed him Jannah for it, and subhanAllah, it's not the only time that he was guaranteed Jannah, and he is the narrator of the hadith. So let's look at some of the specifics of this hadith. So I mentioned the first thing, there were four rights that the Prophet SAW mentioned. The first one was what? Housing. Okay, baitun. Yaskuna, a house that a person would live in. There are many hadith of the Prophet SAW doing just that. So we find a hadith, and it's just a teaser for a Friday khutbah, just so you can come to Jum'ah, because otherwise I know you weren't gonna come to Jum'ah. But this Friday khutbah will actually be about this hadith. I couldn't resist, there's a beautiful story behind it. The end of the hadith is that the Prophet SAW provides a home, he actually builds a home in the masjid for this poor woman. So we also find that the Prophet SAW did this for an entire group of people, who was that? What were they called? Ashabus Sufah, the people of Sufah. These were poor sahaba that could not yet afford to have a home. They lived in the back of the masjid. And the Prophet SAW used to spend on them, he used to always call them to share in his food with him, alayhi salatu was salam. Very beautiful story of Abu Huraira radiallahu ta'ala anhu, where he mentions that he went out and he was so hungry one day that he asked Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala anhu a question about the Quran, knowing the answer, but he was hoping Abu Bakr would notice his hunger and invite him for food. So he asked him a question, Abu Bakr answered the question and went on. He said, then Umar came by, and I asked him the question, I knew the answer, but I was just hoping he'd recognize how hungry I was. So I asked him the question, he answered, he didn't recognize, and he moved on. He said, then the Prophet SAW passed by,
and he said, the Prophet SAW looked at me, he didn't even have to ask the Prophet SAW a question, Rasulullah SAW knew the pain of hunger. As Ibn Hajar says, no one experienced hunger like the Prophet SAW, so he looked at his face and he knew this was the face of a hungry man. So he told Abu Huraira, qum ya abuhir, stand up, oh, Abu Hur, father of the, Huraira's a small cat, Hur is a grown cat. And when the Prophet SAW used to joke like that, it was to diffuse the situation and to make a person feel like there's no, don't worry, you're not in trouble. So if he would have said it in a way that admonished him, then Abu Huraira might have been worried that the Prophet SAW was mad at him for asking Abu Bakr and Umar questions just because he wanted to be fed. But he said, qum ya abuhir, stand up, oh, Abu Hur, and he told him, qal ashab as-suffah, call the people, call your companions, and he went to receive from his home, SAW, a pitcher of laban, of milk. And Abu Huraira sat next to him and the Prophet SAW passed it around to each and every single person. Abu Huraira said, I was afraid by the time it got to me, there would be nothing left in it. But when it got to me, the Prophet SAW told me, go ahead and drink, so I drank, and he said, I was surprised it was still full, and the Prophet SAW said, keep drinking, so I kept on drinking, and he said, keep drinking until I couldn't drink anymore. And that was a miracle of the Prophet SAW that the small pitcher of milk was filled in a way that it could fill all of these people that were around. So the Prophet SAW used to care for ashab as-suffah. He used to look out for them. Anytime a gift came to him or some food came to him, he'd call out to them and he would go and he would sit with them and he would eat with them. So imagine the beautiful scene, if you walk into the Masjid of the Prophet SAW, that these were some of the most righteous and noble companions, and the Messenger SAW would go and he would sit with them and he would eat with them as well alayhi salatu wasalam, and any gift that came to him, he would share it with them.
So the entire concept of as-suffah, okay, having this residence in the Masjid. Also, when the Messenger SAW first migrated to Medina, what did he order the Ansar to do? Mu'akha, brotherhood. He made the tie of brotherhood between the people of Medina and the people of Mecca. Was that brotherhood just like from now on, say as-salamu alaykum, call on him, check on him, let him know how things, you know, that brotherhood was, they're gonna move into your house. Imagine all of these Ansar had to take in people to live in their homes. Think about that. They're new converts. They don't really know much of the dinya and they're being asked to make this huge sacrifice of bringing complete strangers into their homes and giving them the same food that they eat for themselves, the same clothing that they clothe themselves with, and even partaking with them in their work, in their amal. So providing for them avenues of their amal. Many of the scholars mention here, we talk about homelessness or we talk about housing. Okay, Allah SWT uses the term in the Quran, wabna al-sabeel, the child of the street, or the son of, it's literally translated as the son of the street. A person who has nothing but the street. And some of the scholars of tafsir, they commented on that usage by Allah SWT. He says, wabna al-sabeel, the son of the street, that being without a home is almost as disastrous, if not more disastrous, than being without parents, than being an orphan. Homelessness is essentially a feeling like being an orphan. So the importance of reaching out to people and providing for people that do not have homes, to feed them, to care for them, to do what you can for them. If you can't provide them residence, then at least to ease their burden as much as you can.
To feed them or to give them some of your zakah, to try to alleviate some of their stress and to take care of them. The Prophet SAW then mentioned, after housing, he mentioned clothing. So we already covered water, by the way, because I thought that was the most relevant to our time, so I wanted to cover that. Housing, then there is clothing. The importance of clothing. Anas ibn Malik, radiAllahu anhu, mentioned about the Messenger SAW, he said that no one ever asked the Prophet SAW for a garment, even if he was wearing it, except that he took it off and gave it to that person. To the point that Anas, radiAllahu anhu, mentions that one time I was walking with the Prophet SAW and he was wearing a gift. It was a gift from Yemen, a cloak from Yemen, and the man, there was a man that saw him, a poor man, and he grabbed it and he started to pull at it and he started to choke the Prophet SAW with it and he said, a'tunee mimma a'taak Allah, give me from what Allah gave you. He said, I was shocked that the man had the audacity to do that to the Prophet SAW. What did he do, though? He took it off, SAW, literally, he had no shirt on, he gave it to him, and then he told Anas, take him to Baytul Mal, take him to the treasury and give him some charity as well. He also mentioned the time that the Prophet SAW noticed a tribe that was passing by, this was a non-Muslim tribe, and they were wearing some skins, just something to cover them, some animal skins to cover them, but they barely had anything. And the Prophet SAW looked at them and he became very angry and upset. Not at them, because of the way they were dressed, but at the people for not hastening to provide for them. So he commanded the community to go and start, you know, giving your clothes and clothing them and providing for them. It upset the Prophet SAW to see them in that state. We also see this in the fiqh of captives, how the Messenger SAW dealt with captives,
prisoners of war, that they would be clothed from the same clothing that you clothe yourselves. What did the scholars mention about this? They said that clothing, clothing, when people are outside in society, is the greatest signifier of social status. Right? You know, if you're seeing someone out there and you know nothing about them, their clothing is an indication, usually of their social status. Which is why in Hajj, what do we do? Ihram. You know, everyone is put into a clothing that does not distinguish them, because clothing is a sign of social status. All right? And it's very obvious. And the Prophet SAW didn't forbid people from dressing nice. He said, no, if Allah SWT has blessed you, Allah SWT likes to see his ni'mah on you, his blessing on you, just not without the boasting and the showing off. However, what did the Prophet SAW also order? That if you had a captive, the Prophet SAW said, they have to wear the same clothes that you wear. So if you're gonna be able to wear it, then everyone in your household, and even the captives, would have to wear those clothes as well. Hence the Hadith of Abu Dhar, radiAllahu anhu, if you remember a few weeks ago, we mentioned that he was walking with a slave and he was wearing the exact same clothes as Abu Dhar, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So he commands this breaking of clothing, distinguishing clothing. And we also see this when the Prophet, when Allah SWT mentions the reward for freeing slaves, the very next part of an ayah where Allah SWT mentions freeing slaves is feeding and clothing the needy. And the scholars mentioned this connection. They said that for those that could not actually free a slave, they would be encouraged to clothe and feed the needy. So it comes in that order. So that if,
the idea is that through Allah SWT, you find that you are tasked with making that person's life easier. So if you can't completely free them, then the next thing is to feed and to clothe them. Obviously when we break an oath as well, I know that you've probably been taught that you have to fast three days and you can fast three days, but that's if you cannot feed or clothe 10 poor people. Also in kafara, or in the fidya, right? Or in zakat al-fitr, all of these different forms of charity that specify the importance of food and clothing. Okay, food and clothing. So the Messenger of Allah SWT mentions these four things as being required of a person. And I'll give you guys this last story, and it's actually a historical example, subhanAllah for all of us. How many of you have heard of Zubaydah, the wife of Harun Rashid? Very interesting woman, subhanAllah. Zubaydah bin Ja'far, the wife of Harun Rashid. Harun Rashid is one of the early khulafa in Islam, and he was a righteous man. He was someone that used to take counsel from the scholars, he was someone that used to have a lot of love for Imam Malik rahimahullah ta'ala, and he was someone that spent a lot of money in the advancement of the ummah in different ways. His wife started something profound. She was known as being the most charitable woman that that generation had ever seen before, this woman Zubaydah. And she started all of these traditions of hospitality. When anyone would come to Medina, when anyone would come to Mecca, when anyone would go to Iraq, she was known to be the woman that would take care of the people.
And one of the things that she accomplished, which you can still find the traces of today in history, was she built this path all the way from Baghdad to Mecca. She built this huge path. And this road between Baghdad and Mecca was over 1,200 kilometers. So she develops an entire 1,200 kilometers of land, this path, particularly because many people, when they used to do Hajj and they used to do Umrah, they used to find it extremely difficult coming from that direction, going to Mecca, to keep up. They would get sick, they would fall ill, some of them would die on the way. It's a long journey, it's a difficult journey. And everyone coming from that region of Khorasan or what's now Kurdistan would all come from that road from Baghdad to Mecca. So she decides to embark on this project to develop that 1,200 kilometers to have this one singular road. And what does she engineer? She puts on that road, number one, she paves the entire way, okay, so that people can travel that road from Baghdad to Mecca. She set up on the way 40 stations, 40 stations. Throughout these 40 stations, you had shelters for the pilgrims and you had shelters for those that were traveling. You had shelters for the animals, stables where you could place your animals. And then she built wells. Every 10 to 15 kilometers, there's a well to stop at and get water for yourself or for the animals that you're traveling with. She set up pools, all right, so a person could cool themselves off in some places. So it wasn't just wells. She put guest houses, she put over 50 masajid on this way. Okay, she set up security posts and then she put minarets, all right,
minarets throughout this entire way and they would light fires in these minarets to keep that entire path lit, all right. This project in our modern day would have cost over several billion dollars. This was probably one of the most expensive projects in history and when you're discussing social welfare, probably the most expensive project that we know of in that timeframe, okay. And it lasted for over, it was called the Road of Zubaydah. It lasted for over 1,000 years. So it was in full service for over 1,000 years, all right. It was only in the last 300 years that it's not in service as a route anymore but even till now, you can actually identify the path. Okay, and actually, if you're in Hajj or you're in Umrah, if you have a really good guide, I'm not claiming to be that good guide, I do take a Hajj group but it's hard to note it, you can actually still see that path. Some of you may remember in Mina, when you're in Mina Musdarifah, there seems to be a path that's through the mountains. That's historically part of the Road of Zubaydah, okay. So Subhanallah, the reason why I mention this, obviously, is just to understand that this is part of our tradition, right. It's deeply part of our tradition. And I mentioned this particular Hadith that's coming up, or this last Hadith that, you know, just, so what do I do? Number one, obviously, advocating for the rights of people to clean water, advocating for people's water supply not to be contaminated but to remain clean. That's something that we should take up here locally and everyone in their own localities, that they should actually be a part of that, ensuring clean water, especially to poorer communities, providing water, constructing wells in different parts of the world. There are numerous organizations that construct wells in parts of the world where those wells literally could save lives.
And the Hadith that I'll mention is a Hadith of Sa'd, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he asked the Prophet, salAllahu alaihi wasalam, he said that my mother passed away, what is the best sadaqa I can give on her behalf? What's the best charity I can give on her behalf? The Prophet, salAllahu alaihi wasalam, replied, al ma'a, water. So the best charity you can give on her behalf is water. So Sa'd, radiAllahu anhu, went and he dug a water well and he said as he dug the water well, this is for Umm Sa'd, this is for my mother, this is for the mother of Sa'd. So an action item, very simple action item for you tonight to do, inshaAllah ta'ala. Go to one of these organizations and build, construct a well, inshaAllah ta'ala. If you wanna do it in the name of someone that's beloved to you and that's deceased, then do so, especially for your parents in the spirit of the hadith of Sa'd, radiAllahu anhu. And obviously, hopefully this offers us some sort of paradigm when we're discussing the issues at hand, the current issues surrounding water and access to water as is concerned in our current political discourse. Wallahu ta'ala a'lam. Questions? Yeah. So you're getting the people in some of the dialogues, so I can finish up. Yes.
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