The Prophet’s Mercy with the Weak, the Poor, the Sick, the Needy and the Calamity Stricken The Godsend Messenger (Peace and Blessings of God be upon him) taught people in his school to show mercy and kindness to the weaker element in society- the poor, the sick, the needy and the distressed. It would take very long indeed to review everything mentioned in this regard, so I’ll just give you the gist. Perhaps every poor, needy and weak person would thank the Lord for the state he is in when he reads the first Hadeeth. Which is? The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Please God, let me live and die a poor man; pray you, Lord, bring me back to life on the Day of Resurrection with the weak and the destitute.”1 Now who wouldn’t be happy to be like the Godsend Messenger (pbuh) in this life then be in his company on the Day of Resurrection? This was the starting point of the Prophet’s long journey with the weak and the poor since the beginning of the Islamic Mission. The poor in fact were the first pillar of the Islamic edifice and the pioneering fathers who first believed in Islam and embraced it. No wonder the Prophet (pbuh) kept their company and enraged the elite lords and masters of his tribe who could not understand his preferences. Abdullah bin Massoud reported that “The elders of ‘Quraish passed by the Prophet (pbuh) and found Suhaib, Bilal, ‘Ammar, Khabab and other poor and meek Muslims with him. Get rid of this riff raff, Muhammad, the elders said. Are those the ones you have chosen and accepted of all your people?! Are we supposed to be their followers?! Are they the ones God had blessed and elected of the whole lot of us?! Maybe if you get rid of them we will reach out to you and come to your camp. The ‘Quranic verse was then revealed: ‘Expel not those who pray day and night to their Lord, seeking only His countenance. You are not accountable for them in aught, nor are they accountable for you in aught, that you should turn them away and be one of the oppressors and wrong-doers.’ (Quran, 6:52)”2 Muhammad’s mercy and kindness to the poor and the weak went along these lines. His God so commanded him and Muhammad never forgot His commandments. He preferred the poor and the meek believers to the mighty and the arrogant polytheists of his people, drawing a sharp contrast between the two. “Shall I tell you about the dwellers of Heaven?” he asked then answered: “They are every weak and weakening person whose wishes God would fulfill were he to take an oath to do something. And shall I tell you about the dwellers of Hell? They are all those violent, arrogant and stubborn people.”3 Nor did their friendship weaken but grew stronger over the years. He was always seen in the company of the poor, the slaves, the widows and other weaker elements in society, always talking to them, easing their pain, doing his best to help them meet their needs. His companions often reported that “The Prophet (pbuh) was never arrogant and he never disdained being in the company of widows, slaves or poor people. He did everything in his power to make sure they had what they needed.”4 The Prophet (pbuh) called on all Muslims to show mercy to them and offer them a helping hand. He promised the ones who assist them the highest of all rewards, the prize only the closest to God aspire to obtain. It is reported that he said: “The one who seeks to help the widow and the poor is no different from the one who fights in the cause of God or the one who stays up all night praying and all day fasting.”5 “Shall I tell you about the best of God’s people,” the Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have told his companions on another occasion? “He is the weak and humble person in his shabby and tattered clothes, to whom no one pays any attention. He is the one whose wishes God would fulfill were he to take an oath to do something.”6 As such, being God’s best people, it is only natural that whoever offers them help and shows mercy to them would get the highest of rewards. The prophet (pbuh) was always considerate and gentle in dealing with the weak, even in questions pertaining to acts of worship in which he never usually compromised. Abu Said Al-Khudari reported that “the Prophet (pbuh) led us in the ‘Isha’ (night) prayer well into the night. When he finished he told us: sit your selves down and so we did. He said: The people finished praying long time ago and are already in their beds. You should know that you are at prayer still so long as you wait for the next prayer. You should know, too, that had it not been for the weakness of the weak and the illness of the ill (in another version of the Hadeeth ‘and the need of the needy’), I would have gone on with this prayer for yet another part of the night.”7 It is reported that he (pbuh) said: “Whoever leads the people in prayer let him go easy and make it brief, because among the congregation are the sick, the weak and people who have (urgent) things to attend to.”8 “Whoever leads people in prayer,” the Prophet (pbuh) is also reported to have said, “let him be considerate and make it short, because in the congregation there are sick and weak people or people with (pressing) business to attend to. When one prays on his own however he can pray the way he likes.”9 The Prophet (pbuh) told the strong people not to hurt the weak unwittingly. He is reported to have told Omar bin Al-Khattab: “You are a strong man, Omar. Be careful not to hurt the weak.”10 The Prophet himself used to mind that. His companions reported that “The Prophet (pbuh) often slowed his pace in travelling so as to join the people in the back, spur the weak on, support them and pray for them.”11 He even asked the weaker people in particular to join him and be always close to him, and he encouraged others to do the same so as to spread the spirit of mercy and kindness towards them. “Bring the weak closer to me,” he used to say; “for you are blessed with plenty and with victory by virtue of the weaker element amongst you.”12 That is why the Prophet (pbuh) always took part in the social occasions of the weak and the poor, setting himself an example for others to follow. It is reported that “the Prophet (pbuh) used to call on weak and poor Muslims, asking about them, visiting their sick and attending their funerals.”13 Still, the Prophet (pbuh) did not advocate mercy towards the weak only on individual bases. He surely wanted mercy to spread across the whole length of the Islamic world when he said: “Unholy is the land where the weak are not given their rights wholly and unequivocally.”14 How far we are from all this! Who would wholly unequivocally give the weak their rights today?! The courts of law, I suppose. Their doors are open to people asking for their rights. But how could the weaker element in society afford to reach the law courts with all the hefty sums of money they have to pay- mounting legal expenses, lawyers’ fees, all kinds of duties, taxes and tariffs. The weak person would never get back what is rightfully his unless he pays much more than its worth! And where do you think the problem lies, Father Stephano said? Well, surely, in present-day judicial systems. They are designed to serve only the rich and the powerful. And? What’s the way out? Oh if only I could get my voice heard! I’d have called for a return to the school of Muhammad. It is the way out, giving each person his due rights even if he was sitting in the comfort of his own home. Let’s hope someone out there is listening. As for the poor, the Prophet (pbuh) was always concerned about them. So concerned in fact that he allotted a specific place (called Al-Safah) for them in his Mosque. Poor Muslims used to gather and stay in it to draw the attention of other Muslims to their plight with every prayer, five times a day that is, so as to offer them a helping hand and provide for them till they can fend for themselves again. The Prophet (pbuh) always reminded Muslims of the plight of the poor. It is reported that he said: “The best of deeds is that which brings happiness to a believer’s heart, whether you clothe his body, fill his belly or provide for his need.”15 The Prophet (pbuh) conveyed to people God’s severe admonishment on the Day of Judgment regarding their attitude and behaviour towards the poor. It is reported in the sacred (Qudsi) Hadeeth that God Almighty tells human beings on the Day of Judgment: “Son of Adam, I asked you for food but you did not provide for me. The man would say: My Lord, how could I have fed You and You are the Lord of the worlds? Almighty God would say: Did you not know that such and such a servant of Mine asked you for food and you did not feed him? Were you not aware that had you fed him you would have got your reward from Me? Son of Adam, I asked you for a drink of water but you did not oblige Me. The man would say: My Lord, how could I have given a drink of water and You are the Lord of the worlds? The Lord would say: Such and such a servant of Mine asked you for a drink of water and you did not oblige him. Had you given him water that day you would have got your reward from Me.”16 The Prophet (pbuh) was frequently seen labouring to assuage the pain of the poor and try hard as he could to meet their needs and ease the agony of their destitution and hunger. With all the mercy and compassion he showed them, they no longer felt less esteemed by God than their rich compatriots but rather more privileged. The pain and bitterness poverty had engendered and lodged deep in their souls17 were replaced by a sense of contentment and serenity. One of them, Abu Thar Al-Ghufari, reported that he said: “Prophet of God, have the rich got away with all the wages and rewards? They pray like we do, fast like we fast, but they have their surplus wealth with which they hand out charity and alms giving, whereas we have nothing to give! The Prophet (pbuh) said: Aba Thar, shall I teach you some words if you say them you can catch up with whoever was ahead of you and without anyone ever catching up with you except those who do the same as you do? Say ‘God is Great’ thirty-three times at the end of every prayer, followed by ‘Thanks be The Lord’ thirty-three times, and ‘Praise be the Lord’ thirty-three times then round up by ‘God is One, no partner to Him, to Him all earthly possessions and unto Him all thanks and praise, the Omnipotent and all Capable.’ Whoever says this prayer, he’d be absolved of all his sins even if they were numerous as the sea foam.”18 Since all earthly possessions ultimately belong to God, the Muslim poor felt no less privileged than the rich. And like the rich, the Prophet (pbuh) instructed the poor to give charity, which granted them a sense of dignity and self-esteem and was one of the most important aspects of showing mercy to them. The same Abu Thar Al-Ghufari reported that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “With every sunrise, every living soul must give charity to itself. I said: And how can we give charity, Prophet of God, and we have no money? The Prophet said: The many kinds of charity include saying ‘God is Great,’ ‘Praise be the Lord,’ ‘Thanks be the Lord,’ ‘God is One,’ ‘Forgive me Lord;’ they include promoting virtues and prohibiting vices; removing thorns, bones and stones from the roads; leading the blind to where they are going; helping the deaf and dumb and make them understand what was said; guiding the inquirer to the whereabouts of something he needs; rushing to the aid of somebody desperately calling for help; giving a helping hand to the weak. All these are kinds of charity one can hand out to himself.”19 The Prophet gave the poor the ultimate comfort every soul seeks and every believer in God wishes for when he said: “I looked around in Heaven and found that the vast majority of its people are the poor.”20 But don’t you see that the school of Muhammad had thus treated social ills like poverty with afterlife promises without actually changing the material infrastructure of society. In modern times Communism, for instance, called for the redistribution of wealth between rich and poor so as to change the material bases of social life and thus ensure a sense of justice? Hold on. Had you studied the laws of Islamic Charity Tax (zakat) and Alms Giving (sadakah) you wouldn’t have said so. And how would I study them? By studying the Islamic society at the time when the Islamic Shari’a Laws were applied. And what would I find if I did? You’d find that the laws of zakat and sadakah had managed to root out poverty altogether from the Islamic society. Images of beggars and poor people crowding the streets of Islamic cities became a thing of the past. They were totally erased from living memory, simply because no one could see them anymore anywhere. In fact the welfare government officials responsible for distributing zakat money to the poor and the needy could no longer find any one to accept hand outs. Everybody became self-sufficient.21 Do you know why? Because the teachings of the school of Muhammad (pbuh), in keeping with God’s commandments, demanded belief in the pledges of the hereafter first, but along with them they acknowledged the right to enjoy the benefits of the here and now. Exactly as the ‘Quranic verse states: “With the wealth God had bestowed on you, seek the abode of the hereafter but do not forget your share of this life. Be kind to others as God had been kind to you.” (Quran, 28:77) Such moderation, such quest for the middle ground between the prerequisites of this life and the afterlife, has enabled Islam to go on to the present day, to be over one thousand four hundred years old. You’re right, Father Stephano said. It seems to me that the power of Islam lies precisely in this marvelous blend between the prerogatives of this life and the afterlife. You know full well that the Communist way you mentioned has miserably failed. It lasted less than a century then totally collapsed. Do you know why it didn’t last long? Why? Mainly for two reasons- first it abolished the hereafter altogether. It removed the spiritual life completely off of its agenda. And the other? It laboured to apply material justice by confiscating the property and wealth of the rich and rechannel them to the pockets of a group of authoritarian party apparatchiks who called themselves “the State”. The big-brother State invested the money in projects the poor knew nothing about, except perhaps their names, brandished day and night in its propagandist media. Instead of a society composed of rich, middle and poor segments, society has become composed of a minority of rich authoritarians who have everything and the middle and poor people who have nothing. Besides, what did all this class hatred between rich and poor really achieve? Did it eradicate poverty? How different all this indeed is from Islamic moderation and its constant search for the middle ground! How different from the Islamic sense of justice which takes from the rich and gives to the poor in order to bring both closer to each other, to bring them together within a framework of love and co-operation among a people seeking the benefits of both this life and the afterlife! More than this, I added. The well-off Muslim still insists on giving the poor their due share of his wealth, even if the application of the Islamic Charity Tax laws was vitiated by governments that would not collect zakat money. Charity NGOs are formed all over the world to uphold this basic Islamic tenet. They voluntarily collect Charity Tax and alms giving money from the rich who willingly hand it over to the poor. They keep both sides contented and happy, both thankful and obliged to their fair and just Lord. You make me eager to start thinking seriously about doing research on solutions to the problem of poverty in the school of Muhammad. You’d spare yourself the effort and find all the answers you need if you went back to what Muslim thinkers had written on the subject. It is a closed subject, really, way over-researched, I said. Still, maybe if you could do it your way you would introduce it to the western society you live in. Let us go back to the kinds of mercy shown to the weak, I said. A man may not be weak, poor or needy but quite strong and well-off who would suddenly fall ill or suffer a sudden calamity that would weaken him. He would then know what’s it like to feel frail and be overwhelmed by a sense of inner vulnerability. He would then need the comfort and mercy of others to help him pull himself together and cope with his calamity. The Prophet of course was not oblivious to this kind of mercy. He taught people in his school that such a man deserves all the good will and the mercy of others, perhaps much more so than the poor and weak person who is able to cope with the suffering and cruelty entailed. One after another, the Prophet’s Hadeeths outlined the way to show kindness and mercy to the sick and grief-stricken people. It instructed Muslims to visit the sick and comfort the distressed. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “He who calls on a sick person keeps wading in the waters of mercy till he returns (home). If he stays over with the sick person however he is wholly immersed in mercy.”22 “A Muslim has five duties towards his brother Muslim,” the Prophet (pbuh) said: “To say (the Islamic) greetings back (i.e. ‘peace upon you too’), to accept invitations, to attend funerals, to visit the sick, to say ‘God have mercy on you’ (the Islamic equivalent of ‘bless you’) when somebody sneezes and says ‘thank the Lord.’”23 The Prophet (pbuh) used to tell people to “feed the hungry, visit the sick, ransom the captive.”24 Visiting the sick in particular was turned into such an important act of mercy that Almighty God Himself will ask man about it on the Day of Resurrection. It is reported in the Divine Hadeeth that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “On the Day of Judgment Almighty God would say: Son of Adam, I was sick and you did not visit Me. The man would say: My Lord, how could I have visited You and You are the Lord of the worlds? God would say: Didn’t you know that such and such a servant of Mine was ill and you didn’t visit him? Were you not aware that had you visited him you’d have found Me with him?”25 It is a reminder to Muslims that visiting sick people is abundantly rewarded by Almighty God. As usual, the Prophet (pbuh) set himself as an example to follow. He always visited the sick people and prayed God for their recovery. The Hadeeths concerning this aspect of his mercy are countless indeed. Perhaps the most important aspect of showing mercy and kindness to patients is the endeavour to cure them, which is what the Prophet (pbuh) instructed Muslims to do. “God has never created a malady but with its remedy along with it, known to some and unknown to others,” he said. “Except al-sam,” he added. “And what is al-Sam, Prophet of God, they asked? Death, he said.”26 The Prophet (pbuh) often prescribed some medications to patients- like cupping, which tops the list of treatments for many illnesses today; the black cumin (the Blessing Seed) whose benefits have been recently discovered by present day herbalists and physicians; and honey whose good uses are well known. The Prophet (pbuh) even set forth to people a basic medical law within the parameters of which modern medicine still operates- applying the right medicine to the right illness to heal and achieve recovery. “There is a remedy for every malady,” the Prophet (pbuh) said, “and when the right remedy is applied to the right ailment it is cured with the grace of God, the Exalted and Glorious.”27 When you hit the right medicine for the disease, that is, it is bound to be cured with the grace of God Almighty. If the right medication is not found and pain is inevitable, countless Hadeeths by the Prophet (pbuh) seek to sooth and comfort the pained person, whether due to illness or not, promising him rewards from God Almighty to make up for his suffering. The stricken person feels as if a merciful, gentle hand patting him on the shoulder and stroking his head, easing his pains, giving him hope and filling his soul with a sense of security and contentment. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “No calamity ever befalls a Muslim but God expiates some of his sins for it, be it even the prick of a thorn.”28 He also said: “No believer ever suffers anything, from the thorn prick up, but he is compensated for his pain by the reward of a good deed written down in his annuls and a sin of his effaced.”29 Similarly, The Prophet (pbuh) said: “No tiredness, fatigue, disease, sorrow, sadness, hurt or distress ever befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick of a thorn, but God expiates some of his sins for it.”30 Even if death is brought about by some illnesses, it is considered a form of martyrdom for which the deceased Muslim is rewarded. The Prophet said: “The Muslim who dies of the plague is a martyr.”31 With all the goodness and mercy it engenders, the Muslim in fact should be rather pleased if he is stricken with a calamity like sickness or other. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “If God wishes good for somebody, He afflicts him with trials.”32 Indeed the happy man is not he who dies without having suffered any illness in his life, because this deprives him of expiating his sins. Companions of the Prophet reported that a man died at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and one of them said: “Lucky man! He died without having been afflicted by any kind of illness.” “Woe is you!” the Prophet said, “and what if God afflicted him with an illness and abolished all his sins in the process?”33 Perhaps the ones who die without being afflicted with a calamity or an illness in their lives will deplore their bad luck in the hereafter. It is reported that the Prophet said: “On the Day of Judgment, when the afflicted people are rewarded for their suffering, the healthy people in this life wish their own skins were clipped with scissors.”34 But doesn’t illness prevent the patient form worshipping God in the usual way he is used to when healthy? Doesn’t it deprive him of the rewards for his worship? In answer to this specific question, the Prophet (pbuh) said: “If the servant of God falls ill or travels abroad, the Lord writes down in his book of reckonings equal rewards to the good work he used to do when healthy and at home.”35 This is assuming that the illness totally incapacitates him and prevents him from performing the acts of worship altogether. If somehow he could perform them in any other way, they would be accepted from him. The Prophet (pbuh) mercifully taught the patient how to perform his religious duties. It is reported that a patient asked him how to conduct his praying. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Pray to God standing upright if you can, or sitting if you cannot, or even reclining on one side if you cannot do that either.”36 Did Muhammad forge all these kinds of mercy grouped under this heading? Almighty God had forged them rather, through Muhammad (pbuh) and at his hands. All those Hadeeths of the Prophet are merely details itemizing what was broadly outlined in such ‘Quranic verses which state: “It is no righteousness that you turn your faces east and west (in prayer); the righteous is he who believes in God, the Last Day, the Angels, the Scripture and the Prophets; who gives his money, despite his love for it, to his kith and kin, to the orphans, the poor, the wayfarers, the beggars and who uses his money to set slaves free…” (Quran, 2:177) They are also outlined in ‘Quranic verses categorically instructing Muslims to “Feed the wretched poor;” (Quran, Al-Hajj: 28) “Feed the beggar and the suppliant;” (Quran, Al-Hajj: 36) “Oppress not the orphan and repulse not the beggar.” (Quran, 93:9-10) Other ‘Quranic verses say that the true believers should “Feed the needy, the orphan and the captive only for the love of God;” (Quran, 76:8) that they tell the poor “We feed you only for the sake of God. We seek no rewards or thanks from you;” (Quran, 76:9) that the pious are they who acknowledge “in their wealth the due share of the beggar and the outcast” (Quran, 51:19); that the faithful are they “in whose wealth there is an acknowledged right for the beggar and the deprived.” (Quran, 70:24-25) They are outlined in such ‘Quranic verses that describe the unbeliever as he who “denies the Faith… who shuns the orphan and encourages not the feeding of the needy.” (Quran, 107:1-3) They describe the unbeliever being tortured with Hell Fire on the Day of Judgment as he who “used not to believe in God Almighty and who failed to promote the feeding of the needy.” (Quran, 69:33-34) Those same unbelievers are depicted as stating the reason for which they went to Hell: “We used neither to pray nor feed the poor and destitute.” (Quran, 74:44-43) The Verses and Hadeeths that are mentioned above are sufficient to convince anyone who reads them of the validity of a statement written in the book entitled The Arabs, where the Spanish orientalist Juan Lake says: “Muhammad proved that he had shown the greatest mercies and kindness to every weak and every person who needs help. Muhammad was mercy incarnate to the orphans, the poor, the wayfarers, the grief-stricken, the weak, the workers and the people who toiled and laboured.”37 Source: Muhammad Hussam Al-Khateeb, Was Muhammad Merciful?. With a slight modification. —————————— Footnotes: (1) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 308. (2) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 3297. (3) Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadeeth no. 5610. (4) Al-Albani, Sahih wa Dhai’f Al-Jame’ Al-Sagheer, Hadeeth no. 9136. (5) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 5993. (6) Al-Albani, Al-Targheeb wa Al-Tarheeb, Hadeeth no. 2904. (7) Al-Albani, Mishkat Al-Masabeeh, Hadeeth no. 618. (8) Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 716. (9) Al-Albani, Mishkat Al-Masabeeh, Hadeeth no, 1134. (10) Al-Albani, Manasek Al-Hajj wa Al-’Umrah, Hadeeth no. 32. (11) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 2120. (12) Al-Albani, Sahih wa Dhai’f Sunan Al-Nisa’i, electronic copy, Hadeeth no. 3179. (13) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahiha, Hadeeth no. 2112. (14) Al-Albani, Sahih Al-Targheeb wa Al-Tarheeb, Hadeeth no. 1818. (15) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 2090. (16) Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4661. (17) The following lines of Urwa bin Al-Ward aptly capture the contemptuous look with which the pre-Islamic (Jahilite) society viewed poverty, and which Islam changed radically by the mercy the Prophet (pbuh) showed to the poor. Urwa said: To become rich do let me endeavour, for the poor I see is the worst man ever: Most easy to ditch, least likely to reach, though favour he has and honour; Yelled at by the youngster, kept out by the kind, disdained by his paramour. (18) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 100. (19) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 575. (20) Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadeeth no. 3002. (21) See books on Islamic civilization and Islamic economics which deal at length with these issues. (22) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 1929. (23) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 1832. (24) Al-Albani, Mishkat Al-Masabeeh, Hadeeth no. 1523. (25) Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4661. (26) Al-Albani, Al-Silsilah Al-Sahihah, Hadeeth no. 1650 (27) Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4084. In his book The Orientalist: In Search of a Man Caught between East and the West, T. Reiss says: “Muhammad’s proverbial saying- “We do not eat till we’re hungry and when we eat we’re never full”- is the basis on which he founded healthy living. For all their increasing skills and mounting numbers, physicians down the ages have not been able to come up with a better (medical) advice.” Quoted in Muhammad fi Nathar Falasifat Al-Gharb, cit., p. 163. (28) Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadeeth no. 5209; Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4667. (29) Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4664. (30) Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadeeth no. 5210; Sahih Muslim, Hadeeth no. 4670. (31) Al-Albani, Mishkat Al-Masabeeh, Hadeeth no. 1545. (32) Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadeeth no. 5213. (33) Al-Albani, Mishkat Al-Masabeeh, Hadeeth no. 1578. (34) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 1570. (35) Ibid., Hadeeth no. 1544. (36) Al-Albani, Irwa’ Al-Ghaleel, electronic copy, p. 299. (37) Quoted in Muhammad fi Nathar Falasifat Al-Gharb, cit., P. 43.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 08:17:00 +0000