The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 4, verse 37 relates:
“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.”
Despite the difficulties of these days, it is very pleasing to see everyone is striving to help one another and for Muslims this is an especially important teaching that we should always be striving to serve mankind. As the Qur’anic verse mentioned relates, that part of the worship of Allah is to show kindness to all mankind, whether it is your parents, relations, or those who are in need, like the orphans and needy. Our community has been working hard all over the world to help serve mankind through a variety of different ways. Locally, our members have been working hand in hand with a local church, cooking food to provide the homeless and those in need with food and help. We are just a small part of this work as they provide all sorts of food and supplies for the homeless which includes clothes, blankets, even dog food for their pets. Our ladies also help in many ways to provide for food banks and baby essentials, and we are constantly encouraging all our members, from young to old, to donate food, clothes, or money to help those in need.
Whenever anyone helps others, then they feel good within themselves, but for a believing Muslim, we should always be striving to please Allah and run after His blessings, and this is our motivation. In fact, for our community, this is one of the conditions of the Bai’at (covenant) when we accept the Promised Messiah. That condition is: –
“That he / she shall keep himself / herself occupied in the service of God’s creatures for His sake only and shall endeavour towards the beneficence of mankind to the best of his / her God-given abilities and powers”
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was always concerned for the poor and needy and tried to help their quality of life. He once advised:
“Charity is incumbent upon every Muslims. He was asked: ‘If a person should have nothing?’ He answered: ‘He should work with his hands to his own benefit and also give alms.’ He was then asked: ‘If he is unable to work’ and he replied: ‘He should help a needy helpless one’ He was then asked: ‘If he cannot do even that?’ and he responded: ‘He should urge others to goodness’ Finally he was asked: ‘If he lacks that also?’ and he said: ‘He should restrain himself from doing evil, that too is charity.’
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, desired that members of his community should always be ready to serve others, he said:
“God desires to found a community of the faithful to manifest His Glory and Power. He will make the Community grow and prosper, to establish the Love of God, righteousness, purity, peace and goodwill among them. This shall be a group of persons devoted to God. He shall strengthen them with His own spirit, and bless them and purify them”
It is always important to keep serving others for Allah’s sake and constantly remembering Allah. The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:
“Faith is goodwill”. We (his companions) asked ‘towards whom?’ He answered “Towards Allah, His Book, His Messenger, leading Muslims and the general public” (Muslim)
There are many ways which we can help serve others for Allah’s sake. This should be our constant goal in life. Our community gets involved in all sorts of activities which promote good health and service to humanity and we encourage the youth to make tremendous sacrifices for the service of mankind and we embark on many events to raise money for different charities which include charity walks, cycle rides and mountain climbing etc. Again, this is something which our faith instils in us.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
‘There are two blessings which many people lose: they are Health and free time for doing good’
He has guided us that we should use our good health to keep doing good deeds and not waste our time, as if we leave doing good deeds to when we get old, then our health could be gone and the opportunity lost.
All these activities not only keep us healthy but also give us an opportunity to meet others and encourage them to also do healthy activities and of course raise money to serve others. Due to our charity work, we founded our own charity which is called Humanity First. This enables us to not only contribute for mankind, but also serve, and many of our community members will help in different countries of the world, to help others. Doctors and other workers give their time and go to poorer countries to work for free in our free clinics and others go to help build hospitals, schools etc or help in disasters etc.
It is our love for Allah that makes us want to be good to everyone and we always keep in mind the saying of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him:
“A person is not a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself”
This saying beautifully sums up the essence of our charity ‘Humanity First’ as this charity serves humanity for the sake of Allah. It does not matter what nationality, religion or colour the person is, if he is in need, then for Allah’s sake, we want to try to help him.
Again, there is another saying of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who said:
`Believers are like one body. If its eye is in trouble, the whole (body), feels pain; and if its head is in trouble, the whole (body) is in trouble. ‘
This again shows the importance of helping the community that we live in.
The Promised Messiah has said:
“It is proper for you to have sympathy for others and to purify yourselves so that thereby you may share to a degree the qualities of the Holy Spirit. Remember that without the Holy Spirit true righteousness cannot be attained. Discard altogether the base animal desires in you and follow the path to the pleasure of Allah, be it the narrowest and most difficult of all. Do not be enamoured of worldly pleasures, because they lead you away from God. That suffering which pleases God is better than that pleasure which displeases Him. That defeat which pleases God is better than the victory which earns His displeasure. Abandon that love which draws you nigh to the wrath of Allah. If you come to Him with a pure heart, He will help you in every way and no enemy will be able to hart you.”
Hazrat Mirza Masoor Ahmad, the fifth successor of the Promised Messiah, recently said:
“It is important to observe all the precautions such as wearing masks and avoiding visiting people’s homes. Help people while taking all precautions and avoid unnecessary risks. Do not put yourself in harm’s way….
There are many people in the world who do not have all the provisions necessary to protect themselves. Some do not have access to medical care or even to food. May Allah have mercy on them and on all of us. We should try to provide help to everyone and do so selflessly and without any ulterior motives. We need to concentrate on prayers and more prayers. May Allah protect everyone.”
This should be our constant goal in life and the motto of our community is ‘Love for All, Hatred for None’.
May Allah enable us to be constantly occupied in the service of humanity for His sake only, Amen’.