Serving Others
The emphasis in Islam is on being able to draw pleasure
from being of
You are the best of the people by virtue of being of
service to and
raised for the benefit of mankind; you enjoin good, and
forbid evil
and believe in Allah.
This indicates that a Muslim is not given precedence over
others
arbitrarily. Just to be a Muslim would not automatically
imply that he
or she is better than others. One has to earn this title
by being of
service to others so that the flow of favours is from
that one to the
others.
Defining the meaning of khair,
which means both better and best,
the Holy Prophetsa once said: The upper hand is better than the
lower
hand: the upper hand gives and spends, the lower hand
begs and
receives.
In the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophetsa this
aspect is so highly emphasised that some Companions of
the Holy
Prophetsa
set new and lofty standards in this area
of human excellence.
Not only did they endeavour to be of service to others
but were
hesitant to receive and beg favours from others.
‘Auf Ibn Malik Ashja‘i relates: Seven, eight or nine of us were with
the Holy Prophetsa on one occasion
when he said: Will you not make a
covenant with the Messengersa of Allah? We had
only shortly before
made our covenant. So we said: We have made our covenant
with you,
Messengersa
of Allah. Holy Prophetsa repeated his
question and we
made the same response adding: What covenant shall we now
make
with you? He said: That you will worship Allah and will
not associate
aught with Him, that you will observe the five obligatory
prayers, will
obey Allah, and will not ask anyone for anything.
Thereafter, I have
noticed that if a riding whip fell from the hand of one
of them, he
would
not ask anyone to restore it for him.
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