Hadith 36 Thursday, December 12 2013 Lecture by Sister Eman al Obaid www.alhudasisters.wordpress.com On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Whoever removes a worldly grief from a believer, Allah will remove from him one of the griefs of the Day of Resurrection. And whoever alleviates the need of a needy person, Allah will alleviate his needs in this world and the Hereafter. Whoever shields [or hides the misdeeds of] a Muslim, Allah will shield him in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah will aid His slave so long as he aids his brother. And whoever follows a path to seek knowledge therein, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise. No people gather together in one of the Houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, except that sakeenah (tranquility) descends upon them, and mercy envelops them, and the angels surround them, and Allah mentions them amongst those who are with Him. And whoever is slowed down by his actions, will not be hastened forward by his lineage. Related by Muslim in these words. This hadith is divided into two parts: How we need to help each other The virtues of the study circle What is the connection? Knowing how to treat a fellow Muslim comes through attending the study circle. First part of this hadith is divided into 4 parts: 1. Whoever removes a worldly grief from a believer, Allah will remove from him one of the griefs of the Day of Resurrection. 2. And whoever alleviates the need of a needy person, Allah will alleviate his needs in this world and the Hereafter. 3. Whoever shields [or hides the misdeeds of] a Muslim, Allah will shield him in this world and the Hereafter. 4. And Allah will aid His slave so long as he aids his brother. For the one who is doing, what is the result? You do this and look at what Allah subhana wa ta'ala is doing for you. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is encouraging us to help each other. Do this for your brother and look at what Allah subhana wa ta'ala will do for you. What do you find from these four statements? You will find the same kind of recompense. If you help somebody Allah subhana wa ta'ala will help you. If you are good to somebody Allah subhana wa ta'ala will be good to you. If you are merciful to pg. 1
somebody Allah subhana wa ta'ala will be merciful to you. How you are dealing with somebody, this is how Allah subhana wa ta'ala is dealing with you and this is the reward. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is telling us so beautifully and so gently to be good to each other and Allah subhana wa ta'ala will be good to you. But there is a huge difference between you being good to a slave and how The Master is good to His slave. This really shows how Allah subhana wa ta'ala honored the human being. Look at the Qur an and see how Allah subhana wa ta'ala speaks to us, we are really honored. 1. Whoever removes a worldly grief from a believer, Allah will remove from him one of the griefs of the Day of Resurrection. What is your action and what is Allah subhana wa ta'ala action? ن ف س The first nafasa is from you and the second nafasa is from Allah subhana wa ta'ala but there is a difference between your nafasa and Allah subhana wa ta'alas nafasa. Nafas breath, when you inhale air your lungs expand. Nafas is to expand. The opposite is be tight. ك ر ب ة is some distress, misery, excessive distress. The distress surrounds the person you are always thinking of your distress, the vast earth will be tight for them. Sometimes people have kurba (distress) materialistically or mentally however you don t have the right to ask why someone put themselves in a distress i.e. debt. What is your duty? You have the intention to make them breath to give them hope, to make it easy for them. If it s a money problem maybe you can help. Sometimes you can only help with good words one right word can make someone happy. Muslimeen friends are a big investment. Anything you do for anyone, you will have so much reward even just sitting and smiling. Nabi sallallāahu alayhi wa sallam forbid anyone hitting anyone on the face / head - this destroys the brain cells. Massaging the head creates new brain cells. Don t close the door on anybody, be positive, always give them hope. We need to make it easy for the people, don t make the problem even bigger. Do something even if it is a small thing. What will Allah subhana wa ta'ala do for you? We will see much distress around us in the Hereafter, in the grave, when standing, when being resurrected, being under the sun, distress of the hisab, distress of the mizan, distress of the siratt, distress of the qantara. If you will make someone happy and give them some relief Allah subhana wa ta'ala will relieve you of one of the calamities on the Day of Judgment. We may say one word, we give someone one flower and Allah subhana wa ta'ala will give you so much more. This shows Allah subhana wa ta'ala is dealing with us with ihsan you do a little and see how Allah subhana wa ta'ala will deal with you. The deeds you do have no comparison with the rewards you will receive. The sins will be equivalent to the punishment. You do one hasanat the reward will 10 700 hasanat s. pg. 2
Chapter (54) sūrat l-qamar (The Moon) 54:8 Racing ahead toward the Caller. The disbelievers will say, "This is a difficult Day." This is a very stressful day. For whom will Allah subhana wa ta'ala make it easy? The believers, especially if you help someone. Thursday 19 th December 2013 The next part of this hadith is about ease. 2. And whoever alleviates the need of a needy person, Allah will alleviate his needs in this world and the Hereafter. How to ease the difficulties of somebody? In all the hadith s the first step is from you and then how Allah subhana wa ta'ala is dealing with you. For example with tawakkul - you do a little and Allah subhana wa ta'ala is doing so much more. What is the good you need to do? ي س ر م ع س ر You make ease, but ease for whom? Somebody who has rights on another i.e. someone in debt, they owe somebody something but they can t repay the debt. Nabi sallallāahu alayhi wa sallam is encouraging us to make it easy for someone. For someone in debt you can lend / give them the money to pay off the debt. This is my duty if I have the money and someone comes infront of me, this is a blessing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala you need to make it easy for them. If someone with a debt comes to you this is a niamah for you people are searching for people in debt so that they can help them. If you can t help maybe you know someone who can help. Just showing someone the way of ease is as if you made it easy for them. Chapter (2) sūrat l-baqarah (The Cow) 2:280 And if someone is in hardship, then [let there be] postponement until [a time of] ease. But if you give [from your right as] charity, then it is better for you, if you only knew. pg. 3
Specifically with debt, if a person dies with debt everything pauses until the debt is repaid. You need to write in your will that you have a debt so the people know to pay your debt as soon as possible. Also try to avoid falling into debt. Avoiding falling into debt just to have what others have. Think, do you really need to fall into debt to improve your lifestyle this shows attachment to the dunya and people are busy looking at what the other has. People will take a loan just to have a better car but it is not easy to repay a loan, it takes a long time. In the dunya there is always another option. Don t look at the glitter of the dunya. Wives cause their husbands to fall into debt. Or parents are paying off the debt of getting their children married. There is no rest for the soul in the grave if you die leaving behind an unpaid debt. This is just a money debt but we also have many other types of debts, the rights of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, the rights of the people, he rights of your parents, your husband etc. may Allah subhana wa ta'ala make us to repay all our debts before we meet Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Ameen. This includes the debt of the rights of the people. End of Du a May Allah make us rich from poverty and make us to repay our debts. You can say this du a everyday before you sleep. To make it easy if someone needs to repay you some money but they did not pay you on time you should forgive them. You can make it easy by cancelling the debt, give them more time or tell them to repay whatever they can. This by itself is sadaqa. What will Allah do for you? Allah will alleviate his needs in this world and the Hereafter. For any distress or difficulty in this life, Allah subhana wa ta'ala will make it easy for you in the akhirah. Also Allah subhana wa ta'ala will make it easy for you in the dunya before the akhirah. You relieve the distress of just one person you will see how Allah subhana wa ta'ala will make it easy for you. Humans want the reward. Some people will go to the courts to get their money back. The believer will react differently. The Mumin, the more they believe in Allah subhana wa ta'ala, the more they know about His rewards, the more your behavior will be elevated. Ones behavior can change with the belief. The 2 nd reward is greater because the first one is one distress but the second one is more. You remove a distress and you give something good. These beautiful advices in the hadith of Nabi sallallāahu alayhi wa sallam tell you how pure a Muslim society should be. 3. Whoever shields [or hides the misdeeds of] a Muslim, Allah will shield him in this world and the Hereafter. Satara to cover someone s mistakes. One of the Names of Allah is As Sittir. Sittir is from covering. No matter how many mistakes we make Allah subhana wa ta'ala is covering our mistakes. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is not exposing us until we pg. 4
expose ourselves until we speak of our sins. Allah subhana wa ta'ala will never expose you because Allah subhana wa ta'ala wants you to repent. Allah subhana wa ta'ala does not want to embarrass you. Hadith: Allah subhana wa ta'ala will forgive and pardon everybody except those who expose themselves by sinning during the night and talking of their sins during the day. Allah subhana wa ta'ala loves the covering, Allah subhana wa ta'ala is covering our sins so why do we not cover the sins of others. To cover the sins and mistakes of others Sometimes people make mistakes or do things which are not nice. Sometimes a certain behavior is not nice. Sometimes an action is not nice. Anything someone does by mistake, whether in their character and others are not aware of it, or whether it is a mistake in the religion, human beings are made of sand and they make mistakes. You will not find anyone who does not make any mistakes. Nabi sallallāahu alayhi wa sallam made one mistake which is mentioned in the Qur an. If you see someone make a mistake what are you supposed to do? For example the paparazzi are just waiting to expose people s mistakes, to catch people making mistakes. Sometimes people talk of the faults of others. We are not supposed to expose people s sins. Some types of covering is dispraised. There are three types of sittar Khair A Good Covering (as per this hadith) someone is good but they made a mistake i.e. a slip of the tongue, they lost their temper on one occasion. Evil You shouldn t cover the sin i.e. stealing. Concealing the sin of a criminal causes them to commit more sin. They should only be exposed to an authority, someone in charge Doubt When you are unsure whether to conceal or not. If revealing the sin will create a bigger problem or the sin is not that great it is better to conceal it. A scholar said it is better make a mistake in pardoning someone than to make a mistake by punishing someone wrongly. Allah subhana wa ta'ala s action Allah will not expose your sins in the dunya and screen your sins from everyone on the Day of Judgement. This is a transcript of a lecture given by Sister Eman al Obaid. Anything that is good from these notes is from Allah subhana wa ta ala. Any mistakes & misrepresentations are my own. 82:12 They know whatever you do. pg. 5