At this time of year, everyone is thinking about meeting up with their friends and relatives, it is a time to express our love and kindness to all. For Muslims this is an important teaching which should be acted upon throughout the year.
The Holy Qur’an relates in Chapter 4, verse 37:-
And worship Allah and associate naught with Him, and show kindness to parents, and to kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and to the neighbour who is a kinsman and the neighbour who is a stranger, and the companion by your side, and the wayfarer, and those whom your right hands possess. Surely, Allah loves not the arrogant and the boastful.
In this beautiful verse of the Holy Qur’an, believers are told that first they should worship Allah, the One God, and then show kindness to those around them, beginning with those closest to us and then those who are not so close. This verse helps us to find true inner peace.
Everything centres around the worship of Allah, once we have developed a strong love for the One God, then naturally, we will follow His guidance and seek His pleasure. Allah has told us that we should show respect, kindness and love to those who are close to us, by doing that then we will also show respect, kindness and love to everyone that we meet.
The first people mentioned in this verse are our parents. They are the ones who raised us and developed us to who we are today. It is a debt that you will never be able to repay, especially to your mother since she was the one who looked after you when you were too weak to look after yourself. No matter what you did, she would always forgive you and help and support you.
This is why Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
May his nose be rubbed in dust, may his nose be rubbed in dust, may his nose be rubbed in dust - anyone who found his parents, one or both, approaching old age and did not enter Paradise through serving them
Again, he has related:
Paradise lies under the feet of your mother
That through serving and showing love to your mother, you can attain paradise.
The next people mentioned in the verse are the kindred. The first again must be the nearest, your own family. They are the ones who see you every day and they should also be shown get love, respect and kindness.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
The best among you are those who are good to their families and I am the best of those who are good to their families
Again, he has related:
The most perfect of believers in respect of their faith are those whose behaviour is most excellent and the best of you are those who behave best towards their wives
A happy home is the one where there is love and respect. Every marriage is a partnership, and for it to be successful, both partners need to work hard at the marriage. That means a lot of ‘give and take’, overlooking one another’s faults and supporting each other.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
Let no Muslim man entertain any feelings of hate against a Muslim woman. Should he dislike one quality in her, he would find another which is pleasing
It is very sound advice; we should always try to look for the best in people. It is very easy to criticise and pick holes in people, but what does it achieve? By looking for good in people, then we can also do some self-examination and make sure that we also have that good in ourselves.
The main quality has to be piety, if we are constantly trying to win Allah’s pleasure, then we are always ready to help others and avoid disagreements. This is why the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
The world is but a provision and none of the provisions of the world is better than a pious wife
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, has said:
You should not think that women are something to be taken as very low and of no importance whatsoever. It is not so. Our perfect Guide, the Holy Prophet, has said “the best among you is he who is best in dealings with his wife”. He who does not treat his wife nicely, cannot be called righteous person. One can do good to others only if one does good to the wife. He who quarrels with his wife and scolds her for every petty thing and beats her up, can certainly do no good to others.
We all want the best for our children, but again the best thing that we can do for them is to develop Taqwa – Righteousness in them.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
Respect your children and give them good moral training
If we give them a good moral training then, Insha’Allah, (God willing) even when they are not with us they will always be well behaved.
Again, the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
He who has no compassion for our little ones, does not respect the elders, does not enjoin what is good and does not forbid evil, is not of us
This is a time of peace and goodwill, of showing love and kindness, and that is what we should keep striving to do throughout our lives.