Islam for Non-Muslims
- RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
- ISLAM AS A RELIGION
- ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
Social Duties in Islam
39: SOCIAL DUTIES (HUMANITY) IN ISLAM
Introduction: Human rights and social duties are interlinked in a complementary fashion. You can enjoy rights only because people around you are acting responsibly by respecting your rights and doing necessary duties to you. Undeniably, Islam preserves a healthy package of rights for you. On the other side of coin, this means you have a good measure of duties and “obligations to fulfill” toward others as well (5:1).
(1) Being Harmless: Islam requires you to keep your hands off any types of harms (physical, mental, financial etc.) against others. This protective rule equally applies to the victims’ presence as well as absence. You cannot tell anything offensive nor can you do anything harmful, taking advantage of their absence, for God is watching your actions on their behalf. This is summed up by the Prophet: A true Muslim is the one who does not give any hard time to others by speech or action (Hadith). The Quran warns of severe penalty for those who “oppress people with wrongdoing”, “defy (their) rights and justice”, “undeservedly annoy” others (42:42; 33:58). Now follow some details of prohibitions by means of which Islam seeks to inject civility into human behavior.
(i) No Cruelties: By ruling against “causing bloodshed” and “eviction from homes” (2:84), Islam rejects massacre, rioting, deportation and other forms of cruelties.
(ii) No Defaming: Islam does not like that you belittle others through insult or otherwise. In case of “laughing at others”, the Quran argues, your victim may be “better” than you (49:11). Therefore you should not “defame” nor be “sarcastic to each other nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames” (49:11). In similar spirits, you should keep from “making evil noise (insulting words) publicly”, “broadcasting scandals” or false defamatory rumors about others, or shifting your own “fault or sin” on an “innocent one” (4:148; 24:19; 4:112).
(iii) No Invasion of Privacy: Islam does not like your unwanted interference in others’ affairs. You should not invade others privacy by “spying on each other” or prying into others’ secrets e.g. private life or personal letter etc. (49:12). If someone “disclose a matter to you in confidence”, you should keep that to yourself as sacred trust (66:3). You cannot enter others’ house without “seeking permission” and “saluting” the insiders (24:27). This permission is required even for entering an empty house of others without which you have no alternative to “going back” (24:28). You cannot form evil opinion of or find fault with others based on needless “suspicion” which “in some cases is a sin” (49:12. “Secret counseling” is also objectionable if that involves incitement to any vicious project, causing “grief to the believers” (58:10).
(iv) No Mental Harm (Backbiting or Otherwise): Being a “backbiter” or speaking ill of others in their absence is condemned as nasty as “eating the flesh of dead (absent) brother” (104:1; 49:12). Backbiting means telling anything, right or wrong, in other’s absence that could be offensive to mind if were spoken in the presence. Even if your absent “brother” may never know about your backbiting, but God being the moral guardian of His all servants care about that. However, exemptions may apply to factual criticisms made in absentia with good intentions like reporting child’s bad habit to parents for correction or influencing public opinion against a despotic ruler etc.
Mental harm (short of physical harm) may happen not only from your oral actions in absentia (backbiting, conspiracy etc.), but also from your offensive or active verbal abuses in the presence e.g. yelling, rebuking etc. It also can be passive like when you colorfully describe about your eating of delicious food, to your hungry neighbor who simply becomes down in heart after hearing that.
(v) No Material Harm: Islam voices against fraudulent practices like “giving less than due in weight” while doing business or “willful misappropriation of things entrusted to you” (83:3; 8:27). On the other hand, Islam offers positive advice on how you can remain harmless to others. For example, it commands to “render due rights to the kin” and others (17:26) and warns you from “withholding things that are justly due to men” (26:183).
(2) Being Helpful: It is not enough that you remain harmless, you also need to extend a helping hand to others. “You should do good (to others) as God has been good to you”. (28:77). In Islam, ritualistic prayers are not the only type of religious obligations, social or humanitarian service also weighs heavily. Since helping people does not happen without undergoing any sacrifice, Islam tries to motivate people to cultivate this virtue. Next, viewing money as one of the most effective means for helping people, the Quran emphasized on charity. It therefore makes frequent citations of charity (zakat) paired with prayer like “Be steadfast in prayer; practice regular charity” (2:43).
The Prophet extended the definition of charity by encouraging his followers to plant trees, intending its fruits for feeding the needy people. Islam upheld the priority of benevolence by ruling that virtue does not consist only in rituals like during prayer you “turn (your) faces toward East or West (referring to shifting of Qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca)”, but also in “charitable spending” for the needy, “fulfilling contracts”, being “patient” etc. (2:177). This shows that Islam never gives the matter of humanity any back seat to rituals.
(1) Financial Help: Islam not only tells why charity is important but also suggests how charity can maximize social wellbeing. God metaphorically praises charity as “beautiful loan” to God for which He will not only “erase your sins” but will also “pay back to you” as enormous Blessings in the Afterlife (5:12; 2:272). You are also recommended that you give interest free loan to the needy and give them time “until they find easy to repay” but the best is to “write it off as charity” in case of their steady problem for repayment (2:280). Particular stress is laid on “feeding the poor, the orphan, the captive” (76:8) and other needy people “in a day of hunger” or “the poor lying in dust” (as a sign of poverty) (90:14/16). You are supposed to spend not only to the extent of mandatory ‘zakat’ but also more as optional ‘sadaqa’ depending on the need of the society.
Manner of Giving: Your charity should aim only at “seeking pleasure of God” and not for gaining any earthly benefits or giving troubles to the recipients such as through “reminder of generosity” (2:272; 2:262). Instead “kind words and covering of fault” weigh heavier than “charity followed by injury” (2:263). You are warned from “turning away” any needy person who ask for your help and in case you deny them help, you need to “speak to them a word of easy kindness” (93:10; 17:28).
(ii) Physical Help: Besides economic help, Islam also wants you to offer necessary physical service to others. Examples include helping a blind to walk, giving your seat to an elderly, clearing road off thorns etc. Defusing fight and “making peace” between two believers is a Quranic advice. But “if one of them exceeds limits against the other, then you fight him (even if the oppressor may be your nearest kin) until he falls in line of divine justice” (49:9). This type of physical charity demands your sacrifice in labor and time but the reward is likely to more than match up.
(3) Good Behavior: (i) Courtesy: Aside from material help, your gracious and respectful behavior can also be precious to the recipient. Islam, therefore, advises you to “Behave with care and courtesy. Treat (people) with kindness”, speak “the word of humility” and “appropriate (comfort)” to them (18:19; 2:83; 7:161; 4:9). ). If someone could not do what he promised, then try to maintain a space for his valid excuse. You should “give thanks” to people for their help (39:66). The Prophet showed with personal examples how smiles and pleasant manners can be as good as charity while warning against sinful consequences from offensive behavior. Islam also goes to the extent of advising “good behavior” in return for “bad behavior” (23:96).
(ii) Hospitality: As a part of Islamic culture, you are expected to be hospitable, welcome guests, share food with them, see them off at the gate etc. You also should accept invitation of others regardless of their status in order to make them happy. Exchange of “gifts” (27:35) (out of pure good will but not for vicious purposes like bribery) is a part of Islamic cultures and so are also the practices of embracing and shaking hands.
(iii) Greeting: When you meet others, you are advised to “salute each other- a greeting prescribed by God as blessed (and) pleasant” (24:61). It is a virtue to greet others while returning others’ greetings is considered even more important. When you respond to others’ greeting, it should be “better (using more words of wishes) or at least of equal courtesy” (4:86). Islamic ‘salam’ is not only for the high-ranking people like the elders, the rich etc. but also for the youngsters, the poor etc. Such ‘salam’ literally meaning ‘peace be upon you’ (with prospect of bringing peace) has the merit of being generic in nature, without being limited or time specific like ‘good’ morning or afternoon etc.
(iv) Final Rites to the Dead: Your obligations toward people continue even after their death. For example, you are supposed to do your part in funeral services (digging grave, washing the body, praying for the departed soul etc.), comforting and feeding the bereaved family and try your level best to provide them long term support, if needed, to the helpless orphans and widows left behind.
(4) Obligations toward Specific Groups: Alongside generic coverage cited above, Islam singles out specific groups for special treatment as they deserve on account of their “blood” ties (8:75) or other reasons. God urges you to “do good (by means of charity or otherwise) to” “the parents, relatives, orphans, needy, near or distant neighbors, companions, travelers and servants”, to name a few from these specific groups (28:77; 4:36). Now details about them.
(i) Parents: Parents are the most dignified among your all related people. Compared to all other relatives including even wife or children, they got the highest emphasis with most frequent citations in the Quran, often with paired citation as next to God like: “Show gratitude to Me and to your parents” (31:14). God reminds you that your mom “carried and delivered (you) in pain” and suckled you for about 30 months (46:15). Thus He points out that your parents went through incalculable physical, mental and monetary sacrifices to give birth and raise you up.
Children’s Obligations to Parents: In return, children should pay them back for what they did by all possible means. God strongly commands you to be well-behaved to the parents through multiple verses (31:14; 6:151; 46:15; 17:23). Apart from this generic advice, He also became specific about how you should treat them, as outlined below:
(i) Kind & Honorable Treatment: You must be kind to them and “address them in terms of honor” (17:23). (ii) Avoid Disrespect & Contempt: You must not utter a “word of disrespect” like shouting at them “Fie upon you”! (17:23; 46:17). (iii) Make Dua for Them: God taught you to pray for His Blessings for them: “Oh my Lord! Grant to them similar mercy with which they brought me up in my childhood” (17:24). (iv) Old Age Security: When “one or both parents attain old age in your life”, “do not repel them” (17:24). This ruling mandates you to count them as part of your family, making their old age secured. Islamic wisdom suggests that you will get similar treatment from your children tomorrow as you do to your parents today.
Parental Obligations to Children: Loyalty to parents, however, is not absolute. For example, you will “not obey them” if “they try to make you join in partnership (with God)” or other sinful actions; otherwise children needs to “stay with them with justice” about worldly matters (31:15). In a balancing act, Islam also reminds parents of their obligations to children, whom they should bring up with care and stop being cruel or “killing them on ground of poverty” as God gives livelihood to everyone (6:151).
(ii) Other Relatives: Next in importance come relatives, connected by blood, marriage etc. Islam in particular gives “priority of rights to relations of blood” over other type of people and emphasizes on “closer personal ties” among them (8:75; 33:6). Then it gives ruling on how you should behave with the relatives in general. For example, you cannot “break ties” with them; you will give them “their due rights” and show “justice, helpfulness and generosity” to them (47:22; 17:26; 16:90). Your needy relatives deserve a higher priority from your “spending of substance”, compared to others (2:177).
(iii) Neighbors: You also have duties to your neighbors, both Muslims and non-Muslims, as they both live close to you. After urging you to be “well-behaved” to both “near and distant neighbors”, the Quran tells you not to “refuse neighborly needs” (4:36; 107:7). In practice, this may mean, as the Prophet exemplified, sending cooked food to the neighbors, sparing their properties from harms and so on.
(iv) Orphans: (a) Proper Treatment: The orphans, particularly the minor ones emerging helpless, “weak and oppressed” (4:127) from loss of parents, receive close attention from God. If the orphans miss both parents and resources, He advised you to do “whatever is good for them” such as providing them money and care etc., speaking “words of kindness and justice”, “honoring” them, avoiding “harsh treatment” or “repulsion” and so on (2:220; 4:5; 89:17; 93:9; 107:2).
(b) Reliable Guardianship: If the orphans inherited property from the deceased and they mainly require guardianship, then you provide them with needed services faithfully, keeping in mind that “If God willed, He could put you into (similar) difficulties” (2:220). If they have property, you should trustfully take care of that “only to improve” (without any motive for cheating) “until they attain the age of full strength” (6:152). In this situation, you do whatever is good for them by treating them as your “brothers” (2:220). When they become adult “at the age of marriage” and “you see sound judgment in them”, “release their properties to them” “in front of witnesses” without “substituting (your) worthless things for (their) good ones” (4:6; 4:2).
You are totally forbidden from “devouring their properties (by mixing up) with your own” or “consuming (them) wastefully, in haste against their growing up” (4:2; 4:6; 17:34). In short, as a guardian you cannot even “come close to orphan’s property (for cheating) except to improve it” (17:34). Otherwise, if you “unjustly eat up orphan property”, then that amounts to your “eating up Fire into (your) own bodies” (4:10). As a guardian of orphan, you “cannot claim any remuneration” for these services but if you are poor you may take “what is just and reasonable” (4:6).
(v) Others: You have Islamic duties to other social groups as well. For example, the Prophet said about the patients: “He who inquires into wellbeing of and waits upon ill persons, will gain the Paradise” (Hadith). Turning to the guests, he stated “He who believes in God, should honor his guests” (Hadith). This is an echo from God’s praise of Prophet Ibrahim for his outstanding hospitality to “the honored guests” (51:24). The Prophet also reminded “He who is not respectful to the elders and kind to the youngsters is not my follower” (Hadith).
(vi) Beasts: Muslim obligations to the society extend to the animals as well. Reasonably, they have the right to life as God created them for human benefits. The Quran stands against cruelty to animals by citing historic examples of “hamstringing” a she-camel to death with a “sword” and “slitting the ears of cattle” (54:29; 4:119). Accordingly, you cannot take their life except for good reasons like proper slaughtering for food. Nevertheless, you can kill them when they are dangerous for your life (e.g. tiger, snake, scorpion etc.) or hazardous for your living (ex: mosquito, rat, termite, cockroach, bedbug etc.). However, you cannot be brutal such as by needless beating, injuring, starving or slaughtering with blunt knife, killing by burning or drowning etc. The Prophet warned about such unkind treatments, saying: “Be afraid of God regarding the beasts”.
In the same token, Islam also draws a line between your obligations to humans and animals, based on their differential dignity. This means even if your pets (dog, cat etc.) can be helpful with your protection or emotion etc., you cannot prioritize them over your own children by hugging, kissing etc. or having them rolled in your bedroom luxuries while doing nothing for your starving neighbors. Another limitation to close contact with pets is set by your risk of contracting diseases including deadly rabies.
Conclusion: Obviously, Islam gives a broad outline of your duties to the society. This will integrate the society in dual roles: provider of services to others and recipient of services from them. The ultimate result is harmony, peace and prosperity in the society.