More than most of us give. Every Muslim’s blood, property and honour are sacred to every other Muslim (Muslim 2564, sahih (Muslim)). You owe them safety from your tongue, a greeting, a defence of their name, and dua behind their backs, which an angel answers: “And for you the same” (Muslim 2732, sahih (Muslim)).
Sacred: blood, property and honour
Abu Hurayrah narrates a hadith that reads like a list of what the ummah owes itself:
لاَ تَحَاسَدُوا وَلاَ تَنَاجَشُوا وَلاَ تَبَاغَضُوا وَلاَ تَدَابَرُوا وَلاَ يَبِعْ بَعْضُكُمْ عَلَى بَيْعِ بَعْضٍ وَكُونُوا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ إِخْوَانًا. الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ لاَ يَظْلِمُهُ وَلاَ يَخْذُلُهُ وَلاَ يَحْقِرُهُ. التَّقْوَى هَا هُنَا. وَيُشِيرُ إِلَى صَدْرِهِ ثَلاَثَ مَرَّاتٍ بِحَسْبِ امْرِئٍ مِنَ الشَّرِّ أَنْ يَحْقِرَ أَخَاهُ الْمُسْلِمَ كُلُّ الْمُسْلِمِ عَلَى الْمُسْلِمِ حَرَامٌ دَمُهُ وَمَالُهُ وَعِرْضُهُ
Do not envy one another, do not bid prices up against one another, do not hate one another, do not turn your backs on one another, and do not undercut one another’s sales. Be, servants of Allah, brothers. The Muslim is the brother of the Muslim: he does not wrong him, abandon him or look down on him. Taqwa is here,” and he pointed to his chest three times. “It is evil enough for a man to look down on his Muslim brother. All of the Muslim is sacred to the Muslim: his blood, his property and his honour.
He said it again in his Farewell Hajj (10 AH, 632 CE), to the pilgrims at Mina on the Day of Sacrifice. He asked them which day it was, which land and which month, and they answered that each was sacred.
فَإِنَّ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُمْ وَأَعْرَاضَكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرَامٌ، كَحُرْمَةِ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا، فِي بَلَدِكُمْ هَذَا فِي شَهْرِكُمْ هَذَا. فَأَعَادَهَا مِرَارًا، ثُمَّ رَفَعَ رَأْسَهُ فَقَالَ اللَّهُمَّ هَلْ بَلَّغْتُ اللَّهُمَّ هَلْ بَلَّغْتُ. قَالَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ ـ رضى الله عنهما ـ فَوَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ إِنَّهَا لَوَصِيَّتُهُ إِلَى أُمَّتِهِ ـ فَلْيُبْلِغِ الشَّاهِدُ الْغَائِبَ
Your blood, your property and your honour are sacred to you, as sacred as this day of yours, in this land of yours, in this month of yours.” He said it again and again, then raised his head and said, “O Allah, have I conveyed it? O Allah, have I conveyed it?” Ibn ’Abbas said: By the One in whose hand my soul is, it was his parting advice to his ummah: “Let the one who is present convey it to the one who is absent.
We are the absent. Honour here means a person’s good name, which can be harmed from the other side of the world.
Safe from your tongue and your hand
الْمُسْلِمُ مَنْ سَلِمَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ مِنْ لِسَانِهِ وَيَدِهِ، وَالْمُهَاجِرُ مَنْ هَجَرَ مَا نَهَى اللَّهُ عَنْهُ
The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe, and the emigrant is the one who leaves what Allah has forbidden.
The tongue comes first in the hadith, and today it reaches further than it ever has. A post mocking Muslims in another country, a joke about another people’s accent, a rumour about a scholar: each lands on someone you will never meet, and each is a right of theirs.
The reverse is promised a reward:
مَنْ رَدَّ عَنْ عِرْضِ أَخِيهِ رَدَّ اللَّهُ عَنْ وَجْهِهِ النَّارَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
Whoever defends his brother’s honour, Allah will turn the Fire away from his face on the Day of Resurrection.
Abu al-Darda’ narrates it. Al-Tirmidhi graded it hasan.
A greeting for people you do not know
’Abd Allah ibn ’Amr narrates that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ which part of Islam is best. He answered:
تُطْعِمُ الطَّعَامَ، وَتَقْرَأُ السَّلاَمَ عَلَى مَنْ عَرَفْتَ وَمَنْ لَمْ تَعْرِفْ
Feed people, and give the greeting of salam to those you know and those you do not know.
Salam is how love between strangers begins, as Abu Hurayrah narrates:
لاَ تَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلاَ تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى تَحَابُّوا. أَوَلاَ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى شَىْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ أَفْشُوا السَّلاَمَ بَيْنَكُمْ
You will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not point you to something that, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread salam among you.
The rights that need a meeting
In one narration the Prophet ﷺ counted six rights of a Muslim over a Muslim: greet him when you meet him, accept his invitation, give him sincere advice when he asks for it, answer his sneeze when he praises Allah, visit him when he is ill, and follow his funeral when he dies (Muslim 2162, sahih (Muslim)). Another narration counts five (Bukhari 1240, sahih (al-Bukhari)).
Most of these need you to be in the same street. That is why the masjid near you is where most of the ummah’s rights are paid: the ummah is lived there, not only imagined.
Help him, wronged or wrongdoer
Anas ibn Malik narrates:
انْصُرْ أَخَاكَ ظَالِمًا أَوْ مَظْلُومًا. قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ هَذَا نَنْصُرُهُ مَظْلُومًا، فَكَيْفَ نَنْصُرُهُ ظَالِمًا قَالَ تَأْخُذُ فَوْقَ يَدَيْهِ
Help your brother, whether he is the wrongdoer or the wronged.” They said, “Messenger of Allah, we help him when he is wronged. How do we help him when he is the wrongdoer?” He said, “You hold back his hands.
Brotherhood is not taking his side whatever he does. When a Muslim does wrong, the help he is owed is to be stopped.
Dua behind their backs
The one right that reaches every Muslim on earth is dua, and it costs nothing.
مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ مُسْلِمٍ يَدْعُو لأَخِيهِ بِظَهْرِ الْغَيْبِ إِلاَّ قَالَ الْمَلَكُ وَلَكَ بِمِثْلٍ
No Muslim servant makes dua for his brother behind his back but the angel says: And for you the same.
The Qur’an gives the words of the believers who came after the first Muslims:
وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُوا مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ
And [there is a share for] those who came after them, saying, "Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith and put not in our hearts [any] resentment toward those who have believed. Our Lord, indeed You are Kind and Merciful.
The Prophet ﷺ also prayed for a Muslim far away. When the Negus, the king of Abyssinia, died, he told the Companions: “A righteous man has died today, so stand and pray over your brother Ashamah” (Bukhari 3877, sahih (al-Bukhari); our translation). The story is on our page on Abyssinia.
This week
Choose one Muslim people far from you that you know little about, and make dua for them after each obligatory prayer this week. At the masjid, give salam to one person you do not know. And when someone runs down a Muslim who is not there to answer, in a group chat or under a post, say something good about them instead.
Read next: How can one ummah disagree without dividing?
Qur’an and hadith on this page
- Qur’an 59:10
- Bukhari 10, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 12, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 1240, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 1739, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 2444, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 3877, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Muslim 39, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 40, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 54, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 2564, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 2732, sahih (Muslim)
- Tirmidhi 1931, sahih (al-Albani); hasan (Zubair Ali Zai)