Introduction:

 Mr. Bilal:
 As-Salam Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatoh:

((Let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his neighbor))

[At-Tabarani, on the authority of Abi Ayoob]

 Who is the neighbor by definition? What are his rights? What duties man should fulfill towards his neighbor? How did our righteous ancestors deal with their neighbors? How did this good and exalted treatment lead to a unique social solidarity? Bear with us in this episode of Pearls of Shari'ah, so that you will get all the answers for these questions.

 In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Lord (the One and Only) of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Master, Prophet Muhammad, the Truthful and the Faithful.

 Dear brother, As-Salam Alaikum wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatoh, it is a pleasure to be with you in this blessed meeting in which we host as usual his Eminence Dr. Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi. As-Salam Alaikum Dr. Rateb.

 Dr. Rateb:
 Wa Alaikum As-Salam wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatoh.

 Mr. Bilal:
 Mr. Rateb we started this series by talking about the values and duties inside the house between parents and children, husbands and wives and so forth. Today we will move out of the house, but not so far, to talk about the neighbors and their rights. Allah the Almighty orders us in the Noble Quran to be kind to our neighbors. He says:

﴾Worship Allah and join none with Him in worship, and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, Al-Masakin (the poor), the neighbour who is near of kin, the neighbour who is a stranger, the companion by your side,﴿

[An-Nisa', 36]

 First of all, please define the neighbor who is entitled to the rights of neighbors to our audience.

The status of the neighbor in Islam:

 Dr. Rateb:
 In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Lord (The One and Only) of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Master, Prophet Muhammad, the Truthful and the Faithful.

 According to scholars, the neighbor is the one who lives within the range of 40 houses in all directions of one's house (north, south, east, west, up and down). If you live in a forty-story building, all the people who live in that building are your neighbors. In Japan they have 40 story buildings under the ground, so if you live in such a building all of the people who live there are considered your neighbors. Thus, whoever lives next to you within 40 houses in all directions is your neighbor, and he is entitled to so many rights, because he is close to you, and you may be in need of his help. It was narrated in the Prophetic relic that the Prophet PBUH said:

(("Do you know what the rights of neighbors are?" asked the noble Prophet, peace be upon him." Then he went on saying: "Help him if he asks for your help, give him relief if he seeks your relief, lend him if he needs a loan, show him concern if he is distressed, nurse him when he is ill, attend his funeral when he dies, congratulate him if he meets any good, sympathize with him if any calamity befalls him, do not block his air by raising your building high without his permission, harass him not, give him a share when you buy fruits, and if you do not give him, bring what you buy quietly and let not your children take them out to exauthor the jealousy of his children and let not the delicious smell of your cooking hurt him, unless you give him some of it (what you are cooking)."))

 Prince Abdul Qadir Al–Jaza'iri was one of heroes in North Africa (Algeria), and when he was exiled to Damascus and resided in it, he used to have a very poor neighbor whose dire need of money made him offer his house for sale. However, the price he was offered was very cheap, so he was so angry and he said, "I will never sell the neighborhood of the prince for this trivial amount of money." The prince was informed about that incident, so he called for him and gave him the price of his house. Also, he asked him to keep the house and stay in it, and he said, "I will never sell your neighborhood as well." Those people used to have exalted kind of neighborhood.

 Mr. Bilal:
 Mr. there is what is called "Haqq Ash-Shufa'aa" in Shari'ah (the Islamic law) due to which, you are supposed to first offer your house to your neighbor if you intend to sell it, and then you can offer it to other people. What about the situation nowadays?

 Dr. Rateb:
 Actually, he has the right even to take it at less price.

 Mr. Bilal:

((Ibn Umar reported Allah's Messenger (PBUH) as saying: Gabriel impressed upon me (the kind treatment) towards the neighbour (so much) that I thought as if he would soon confer upon him the (right) of inheritance.))

[Agreed upon, on the authority of Ibn Umar]

Is the right of the neighbor a manifestation of the social solidarity?

The neighbor's right is derived from geographical solidarity:

 Dr. Rateb:
  In fact there are two types of solidarity, one of them is the domestic solidarity amongst the members of the family (between the father and his son, among the siblings, between the brother and his sister and so forth). The other type is the geographical solidarity, which is between neighbors, and both are required from the believer.

 Mr. Bilal:
 What about the woman who hurts her neighbors with her tongue, is she in Hell?

 Dr. Rateb:

((Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: A man asked: 'O Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihe wa-sallam [peace be upon him])! There is a woman who prays, gives charity and fasts a great deal, but she harms her neighbor with her speech (by insulting them).' The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihe wa-sallam) said, "She will go to Hell." The man said, 'O Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihe wa-sallam)! There is (another) women who is well-known for how little she fasts and prays, but she gives charity from the dried yoghurt she makes, and she does not harm her neighbors." He (sallallahu alaihe wa-sallam) said, "She will go to Paradise."))

[Ahmad, on the authority of Abi Hurairah]

 Mr. Bilal:
 Mr. we are still talking about the rights of the neighbor, so let us move to an issue which usually takes place between neighbors.

((Malik related to me from Ibn Shihab from al-Araj from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "No one should prevent his neighbour from fixing a wooden peg in his wall."))

 If it does not hurt him, then why is he not allowed to do that? At present, lots of law suits in the court are filed due to such cases in which the neighbor is never hurt by his neighbor's action, yet he presses charges against him, so how could this happen?

 Dr. Rateb:
 I know a man who lives in a basement, and he thought of using the extra space in the backyard of his house to build a room for his son to live in after getting married, but after finishing the room, his neighbor in the fourth floor pressed charges against him, and the municipality wrecked the room. What harm did that room in the basement did to the neighbor in the fourth floor? Unfortunately, there are so many shameful actions neighbors do to one another, and this is a painful fact. If no harm is done why do you prevent your neighbor from what he wants to do?

 Mr. Bilal:
  It is one of the neighbors' rights to prevent that. Sometimes the neighbor serves his neighbor, and this but proves his true belief in Allah, but what catches the attention is the following Hadith:

((Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer." It was asked, "Who is that, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "One whose neighbor does not feel safe from his evil".))

[Agreed upon, on the authority of Abi Hurairah]

 Bawa'iq means evil doings and errors, so what is the faith whose existence the Prophet PBUH negated in the Muslim's heart as long as his neighbor is not secured due to his evil doings?

Treating neighbors with exalted morals is the key purpose of neighborhood:

 Dr. Rateb:
  What does faith do originally? Originally, faith leads man to lofty morals. What is the thing which made the Prophet PBUH the best of mankind? It is his exalted conducts. Faith is manifested socially as exalted conduct, and faith is all about morals. Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy upon his soul, said, "Faith is good conduct, so whoever has better morals than yours has deeper faith than yours."

 The Prophet PBUH used to have so many exalted characteristics like eloquence, good looking…etc, but when Allah praises him, He praises his exalted character, because he PBUH acquired his good conduct by striving. Accordingly, whoever treats his neighbor with exalted manners will fulfill the foremost purpose of neighborhood.

 As far as I know, when we were little kids we used to exchange food with our neighbors on daily basis, so whoever cooked something gave a dish of it to his neighbor and got a dish of what they cooked, and that good habit established a connection between neighbors. Also, when someone gave his neighbors a hint that there was a guest with him, they used to send him food, so the guest would be astonished at having ten kinds of food on the table and would wonder where all that came from. Sometimes the guest used to come with so many children, so the neighbors would share their neighbor his guests and take some of them.

 There are so many outstanding stories of our ancestors regarding the way they used to treat their neighbors, while nowadays selfishness prevails, and the neighbor does not know his neighbor. Once, I knocked on a door asking for the house of someone, but I was surprised when they told me that they did not know where he lived though he had moved in to live above them for more than 3 years.

 Mr. Bilal:
 What you have just mentioned is recommended by our Prophet PBUH in the following Hadith:

((Abu Dharr (may Allah reward him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: "When you make some soup, make a good amount by adding plenty of liquid, and give some to your neighbors."))

 When you mentioned the rights of the neighbor, I was impressed by the commandment where the Prophet PBUH said, "when you buy fruits, and if you do not give him, bring what you buy quietly and let not your children take them out to exauthor the jealousy of his children." How serious this commandment is! What should we do at schools today to avoid such a thing?

One should avoid breaking the heart of a little child:

 Dr. Rateb:
 It is acceptable at school to send an apple with your son, but it is not acceptable to let him have expensive snacks. Some fathers give their son very high allowance like "500" Liras which is not acceptable, because his son might show his allowance to a poor child whose father can give him only 10 Liras to buy a cheap snack, so seeing that high allowance will break his heart. I hope that rich fathers do not give their children expensive stuff to bring them to school whether currency or snacks, because such things hurt the poor children deeply.

 Mr. Bilal:
 May Allah reward you Dr. Rateb. We will continue our discussion after this brief break.

 We are back to talk about the Islamic values while dealing with neighbors, and we are taking these pearls from the mouth of his Eminence Dr. Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi.

 Dr. Rateb before the break we talked about the following commandment:

((…and do not let your son provokes his son by eating it in front of him))

 Regarding it, you gave us a general rule saying that the rich person should not brag in front of the poor one, and he should not show his richness, lest the heart of the poor person will be broken.

 Let me now mention some As7adeth that have different narrations, but they revolve around one issue:

((Let him who believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his neighbor))

[At-Tabarani, on the authority of Abi Ayoob]

((Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "He who believes in Allah and the Last Day let him not harm his neighbor."))

 Why is believing in Allah and in the Hereafter connected to being benevolent to the neighbor and manifested in abstaining from hurting him?

Believing in Allah and in the Hereafter is related to being benevolent to neighbors:

 Dr. Rateb:
 Faith as a concept is there for everyone to have, but putting it into practice is what matters, for faith entails an outcome and consequences, and it is all about exalted morals. The closest person to you is your neighbor who might see his parents only once a week, because they live in another neighborhood, but he sees you every day.

 There are very lofty manners among neighbors, for sometimes one of them may travel, and in this case all neighbors meet the needs of his family in his absence or even solve problems if they occur, and this but reflects strong faith.

 Mr. Bilal:
  Are neighborhood rights applied to countries? I recall now some countries where they suffer poverty and famines although they live next to rich countries, so are they considered neighboring countries?

The responsibilities of the neighboring countries:

 Dr. Rateb:
 This term is even used in media, for they say "the neighboring countries", which means that the secured countries should look after the unsecured ones and the rich countries should help the poor ones, and this but reflect the level of civilization in the country.

 Mr. Bilal:
 The Prophet PBUH said:

((He does not believe in me, the one who goes to sleep full while his neighbor is hungry and he is aware of him.))

He who does not care about Muslims is not one of them:

 Dr. Rateb:
  If the government of a neighboring country claims, "We are not aware of our neighboring country's condition", we say (as the Prophet PBUH said), "He who does care about Muslims (such as checking on their living conditions) is not one of them." This is enough said to such a claim.

 Mr. Bilal:
 The Muslim should check on his neighbors' conditions.

 As you know Mr. Rateb, relatives are more entitled to Ma'ruf (whatever is good including sincere advise and charity towards them) than strangers, so if someone wants to pay Zakat or Sadaqah, whom should he start with?

Relatives are more entitled to Ma'ruf:

 Dr. Rateb:
  This is an outstanding statement, and I for one have my own opinion about it. "Relatives are more entitled to Ma'ruf ", means that those who are close to you might be close in blood, close in poverty or close in neighborhood. Hence, the close neighbor is more entitled than the far one and the closer poor brother is more entitled than the farther poor one.

 Also, the closer to you in faith is entitled to your Zakat money, so if you give him from your money, he will meet his needs lawfully (he will not spend them on smoking, for example.) Hence, the neighbor whose faith is stronger (than sh3er) is more entitled to your money, because you know that he will spend them lawfully.

 I would like to repeat this point in brief; those who are close to you are the ones related to you in blood, the ones who have stronger faith and the ones who live next to you.

 Mr. Bilal:
 Mr. sometimes we do not know the real condition of your poor neighbor, so should we pay him a visit to check on him and to know his conditions?

One should visit his neighbor and check on him:

 Dr. Rateb:
 The Muslim is expected to pay his neighbor a visit, and he should check on his condition to see if he is poor, he is in need of help or he has a health problem which needs a doctor. Therefore, the first step is to visit and check on his neighbor, and after that one can give his neighbor from his money after establishing a kind of intimacy between them.

 This is the only way of maintaining the kin ties in its vast meaning, for every Muslim around you is considered a kin, since he is related to you in religion. Thus, you should check on him to know his condition, his needs or his children's needs, such as helping them in mathematics lessons. Therefore, checking comes first, helping the neighbor comes second and being benevolent to him comes finally.

 Mr. Bilal:
 Should the Muslim lead his neighbor to Allah? Sometimes your neighbor is non-religious, and you know that, so after you pay him a visit and help him, should you lead him to Allah?

One of your neighbors' rights upon you is to make them acquainted with their Lord:

 Dr. Rateb:
  I have my own point of view about this matter: I believe that when you fill his heart with your benevolence, his mind will be wide open to your discussions. Hence, before you advise someone, you should show him your benevolence, and only then his mind will be ready to listen to your words. Benevolence is the best method of treatment, because man is a slave to it.

((O David, remind my servants of my favors, for souls are molded to love those who favor them and hate those who wrong them))

 Mr. Bilal:
 As you see it, some of the neighbor's rights upon you are to visit him, to show him your benevolence after checking on him and to lead him to Allah.

 Dr. Rateb:
 If you are knowledgeable (religiously speaking), and you like to meet with your neighbor once a week, try to prepare a topic for discussion, but do not do that while taking the role of a scholar or someone who is superior to them regarding Islamic knowledge. You can, for example, convey to them the interpretation of an Ayah or of a Hadith, which may impress them deeply. The main point is to discuss religious matters without giving sh3er the feeling that you are lecturing them, and this can take place amongst neighbors, relatives or job colleagues.

 Mr. Bilal:
 You can meet with your neighbors once a week, for instance, to get them acquainted with their Lord in order to obey Him.

 Dr. Rateb:
 Guiding people indirectly in a regular assembly is very influential. I read about that in the internet, for in this case the audience will not feel that they are being lectured, or that they are inferior. Thus, you can read a specific topic for them, and then you all agree that everyone of you prepares a topic that he reads or collects information about for discussion once a week. If you do that, you will have a beneficial meeting every week.

((Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Those people who leave a gathering in which they have not remembered Allah, will conclude it as if it has foul odour similar to that of a rotten carcass of a donkey. And it will be a cause of grief to them."))

[Abu Dawud]

 When they remember Allah, mercy, happiness and tranquility will be sent down upon this assembly.

 Mr. Bilal:
  There is one last issue that I would like to discuss, and it is very important and sensitive among neighbors. It is protecting the neighbor's honor, and Muslims are warned about Zina (fornication), but the Prophet PBUH stressed the importance of protecting the neighbor's honor and refraining from doing harm to her (such as assaulting her sexually).

The believer should protect the honor of his neighbor:

 Dr. Rateb:
 The neighbor in general is entitled to exceptional kinds of rights, so if he is on travel, his neighbor should look after his family like taking the role of the neighbor concerning giving taxes, electricity bills or the like of matters.

Conclusion:

 Mr. Bilal:
 May Allah reward you Dr. Rateb.

 Dear audience, all I have got left at the end of this blessed meeting is to thank you for bearing with us and enjoying the beneficial and interesting discussion of Dr. Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi about the rights of the neighbor, and I invoke Allah the Almighty to meet you always in your best conditions. Until we meet again, I will leave you under the Care of Allah Who does not waste a trust, and As-Salam Alaikum wa Rahmato Allah wa Barakatoh.