Reflection On The Prophet’s Hadith:
“How will the Almighty God be kind to a community which does not give the poor in their midst their rights except only when they are forced to do so.”
The Hadith of prophet Muhammad is like a deep sea which has many vintage benefits and lessons that every man , irrespective of his calling, native and faith , can benefit from!
There is hardly a topic under the sun, which is not discussed in the prophetic sayings. This may have informed the prophet to have said:i was given the Quran and something resembling it(Hadith)!
The ‘something resembling it’ is his Hadith which is technically encompasses his sayings, deeds and what he had tacitly approved of his companions’ actions.
This body of speech of his has been vouchsafed by God Himself when he Has acknowledged the Prophet’s sense of truth and rectitude and confirmed his divine capacity to desist from uttering gibberish and anything falsehood.
Allah confirms this in Qur’an 53 vs 3:4 as follows:
” And he ( Muhammad) says nothing out of his desire. Except the revelation which is revealed ( to him)!
As there is nothing left in the glorious Qur’an undiscussed, the Hadith of prophet Muhammad (salla-llahu alehi wasalam), has come to explain the verses of the Qur’an further, for easy understanding, digestion and implementation by human beings.
The explanation and interpreting roles of prophet Muhammad( salla-llahu alehi wasalam), is well represented in the
verse 16 of chapter 44 of the Qur’an as follows:
” With clear arguments and scriptures, we have revealed to you( oh Muhammad) the reminder that you may make clear to men what has been revealed to them, and that haply they may reflect”
The prophet ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam), is therefore a divine agent who is saddled with the responsibilities of making the divine texts ( the glorious Qur’an) clear through his words, deeds and the actions of his companions who had withnesed the revealing of revelation to him.
Reading the above Hadith, i.e “How will the Almighty God be kind to a community which does not give the poor in their midst their rights except only when they are forced to do so” , will reveal to a discerning mind one of the reasons why this nation has remained besotted, beleaguered and directional ness!
Here,those at the helms of affairs as well as others who are managing one business or the other and some who are wealthy enough to hire cooks or maids,have not been kind to the common men beneath them!
They maltreat, shout, hit, maim or even hold the salaries and emoluments of the poor people at their beck and call!
The mannerless approach of most sons and daughters of the Ogas, bosses or Madams cannot be also imagined. Maids are ordered around anyhow!
But, a critical study of the golden saying of the prophet above will make those who reflect to have a rethink on their dealings with those beneath them!It is inferred from the above Hadith that a people, tribe, society and nation may be dealt with negatively, if it does not care and shows kindness to the people at lowest rung of the lather in this life!
It seems also that the blessing of God is much more with those that are humane, kinder, beneficent and benevolent to the helpless and halpless people of the earth than with those that are unkind, callous and bestially with the poor!
The salient point of this prophetic utterance is that for any nation , tribe or society to progress and enjoy the security of mind and property, its leaders must have the love of the commoners in minds.
They must deal with the affairs of the hoi polloi with care and compassion as they are at the bottom pit of the society where life seems always hard to them.
For this reason, those that the good Lord Has blessed with wealth, means and knowledge and the government ,which is the agent if the state for the good of the masses, must in return deploy them to the advantage of the commoners.
If the government and the blessed of the earth will strive to better the conditions of the dregs of the society, the good Lord will continue to help direct the affairs of the blessed into where they will be blessed the more and their nation will be positively engaged and piloted the more.
This has been the warning of the prophet of Islam to the mankind in this Hadith and others ,so that they will live a life of piety and godliness.
In an encounter of the prophet ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam) with his beloved successor Abubakir Al-Sidiq and the commoners who were living in the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, known as Ahlu- Suffa, whom the famous transmitter of the Prophet’s ahadith and pious of men, Abu- Hurraira was the leader; it is said that the prophet had met these commoners in a state of worry while their eyes were somehow downcast and he had asked Abubakir Al-Sidiq who he had equally met sitting with them :’ perhaps you had made them angrier?’
Abubakir Al-Sidiq who was a kind-hearted personality and friend of the commoners replied the prophet that he had not and that he had met them in that condition and he had been trying to investigate the cause of the Ahlu-Suffa’s anguish but all to no avail.
The (prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam), in returned told Abubakir Al-Sidiq that, ” do not make them angry not for they may have been blessing you because of them”
Perhaps, the developed and advanced nations of the world had read and studied the ahadith of the prophet above and had been internalizing in the running of affairs of their countries.
For they are epitomes of how to take good care of their men and women in the lower hierarchies of life. Their exploits are everywhere to see for who care to see it.
They have packages in every department of life to assuage the dire conditions of the commoners.
They built food banks to make the distribution of food and nourishment even in their society.
They give out incentives educational wise so as to aid the education of the poor and their children widespread while they give free health services to them for their well being and sanity .
To say the obvious they have exemplified greatly, even more than others in implementing the messages in Qur’an 76 : 7-12 below :
” They fulfil vows and fear a day the evil of which shall be spreading far and wide;
” And they give food out of love of Allah to the poor and the orphan and the captive;
” We only feed you for Allah’s sake ; we desire from you neither reward nor thanks;
” Surely we fear from our Lord a Stern , distressful day;
” Therefore Allah guards them from the evil of the day and cause them to meet with ease and happiness;
” And reward them because they were patient , with garden and Silk”
It then follows that we should be kind with one another at this critical time in our life.Virtually every one of us living now , is in need of good words, food,water and cash for our nourishment!
To me, this is the best time which best illustrates the axiom “nobody is an island”! Whatever one possesses these days needs to be shared with other.
If it is water, now most states and the local governments under them are in need of drinkable water more than in the past with the rising in the population in this part of the globe.
The October-March hot season we are experiencing now notwithstanding, governance in most of our local governments is zero while the governments which are saddled with the responsibilities of reticulating new pipes and repairing the rusting post-independence ones, for easy distribution of water to the nook and cranny of the cities and villages are nowhere to be found!
Now, every citizen of this country and dwellers of its space are local governments unto themselves in the absence of governments who have the primary duties of providing this basic amenity of life.
They provide water and the rest of the basic amenities of a well-sustained life such as food, shelter, education and even road.
Where they are not fully buoyant to give full service, like road-building, they minimally do the work and provide hand-outs so as to cushion the effects inherent in deplorable road network.
It is then presupposed that, if one is capable of drenching boreholes or hand-wells so as to ease the backbreaking activities involved in fetching water every day in the neighborhood, this is the time to do so! It is needed to note here, the righteous and yeoman jobs the Saudi-Kuwait non-governmental Islamic foundations are doing in many parts of the country local government areas.
These welfare foundations, have been in the forefront of easing people, not only the Muslim, of the burdens associated with non-availability of drinkable water.
They have been drenching boreholes and hand-wells in our local government areas for more than thirty years!
They seem to have understood better, the goodness and rewards underpinning the golden speeches of prophet Muhammad ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam), that ” Allah is the benefactor of the benevolent beings” and ” the best of alms-giving is the provision of water” .
And true to the ahadith of the prophet above, Allah Has been benefiting them with more wealth and security of life for drenching boreholes and hand-wells for the people of this part of the country.
Besides, it is to be registered here that, the ones that are bearing the brunts of non-availability of water the most are the poor in our midst.
Since most of the wealthy in the highbrow areas of these local governments are capable of making water available for their own uses ,either by drenching boreholes as early as they are building their houses or by employing the services of water-providing companies in the neighborhoods.
This is the reason your efforts at providing this lifeline product to your neighborhood, whenever you are capable of doing so, is most welcome while your rewards here and in the hereafter, are assured!
If it is food, hunger has stricken the world already due to the COVID_19 pandemic , wars around the world and misplacement of priorities of most governments of countries of the world which pride and prize politics and politicking far and above good governance and masses’ welfare .
Therefore ,this is the best time the well-to-do in every society should give food to their poor neighbors. It is very very germane to the security of life and property of the society, so that the poor, out of wants and poverty, will resort not to thievery, armrobbery , brigandage and kidnapping.
And if the wealthy of the worlds will do this, the lots of the people who are represented in the Quranic verses above will also be their lots; security of life, peace of mind and abundant wealth will spread across our worlds.