We Ought To Love Our Brothers

                                                                Written in Turkish by M. Yaşar KANDEMİR

Translated into English by Yakup ARICIOĞLU

Love is the essence of the universe. Sprouts of love budded out in all beings’ hearts when our Merciful Lord (swt) sent down a small piece of His immeasurable love to earth. Thenceforth, even the tiny birds exerted every effort to feed and protect their babies.

According to the Lord of the Worlds, mankind is the most precious living among all creation, and the most precious among mankind is Mumins. For this reason, our Almighty Lord (swt) wants all Mumins to love one another for His sake. Our beloved Prophet (sas) states that loving the beloved one for Allah's sake perfects the Mumins.[1]

Thanks Allah He gathered us in our beautiful religion's rose garden full of peace and happiness. He indicated that we are each other's brothers.[2] He (swt) helped us rejoice at many of the beauties of our religion. For example, we all are relieved as soon as we hear the sound of adhan or when we stand shoulder to shoulder in the mosque with our religious brothers and appear before our Lord. 

We look at our brothers warmly and with the contentment of sharing the same feelings when we see them in iftar rush in the days of Ramadan. We become happy when we realize the lights that blink at us through some unfamiliar windows and think of our religious brothers who wake up with the excitement of worship and intention of fasting for the next day.

Not only our Exalted Lord, who makes us have such beautiful feelings, reminds us that who says, “I am Muslim" is our brother but also advices us to get their back and be the help for them in cases they need. More importantly, He (swt) wants us to love one another heartily and to utter that. He pledges to shade the ones who love each other only for His sake under His shadow on the day of judgement, when there will be no shade except His shadow.[3]

“MAY ALLAH FORGIVE YOU"

Our supreme Lord (swt), who brought us together in the warm atmosphere of Islam, does not only want us to love each other but also orders to avoid breaking each other's hearts. It is because love necessitates to be sympathetic, compassionate and kind towards the beloved one. The lover avoids hurting and saddening his beloved one. Hence, Allah Teala treated His dearly beloved, the lord of the universe, so.

The occasion below is such a good example for us:

It was a scorching summer season. Our Prophet (sas) proclaimed that they were to go on the Expedition of Tabuk, so that everyone could make preparations accordingly. But the hypocrites did not want to get into trouble. Each of them made an excuse and wanted our Prophet's (sas) permission. Our Prophet (sas) gave the permission they wanted thereon. However, Allah Teala did not find the allowance Rasuli Akram gave them appropriate and therefore wanted to warn His beloved messenger. But He could not consent to his (sas) sorrow. For this reason, He warned him gently, started to His words by saying, “May Allah forgive you" and uttered His warning, “Why did you give them permission to remain behind? You should not have until it was evident to you who were truthful and you knew who were the liars.” [4]

Qadi Iyad narrates the statement of Abu al-Lays al-Samarqandi over this verse in the well-known book (Ash-Shifa) of himself:

 “If Allah Teala had directly started to His opening sentence with “Why did you give them permission?” instead of “May Allah forgive you.”, then Rasulullah's heart might have torn into pieces by the awe of this word. However, due to the mercy He has for His Rasul, Allah (swt) started to His word by stating that He forgave him in order that he could relieve. And then He continued, “Why did you give them permission to remain behind? You should not have until it was evident to you who were truthful and you knew who were the liars.”[5]

It means that the lover does not his beloved one to distress, does not use a language that disquiets him/her and utters his words by softening them even when he gets angry with him/her. We, too, are supposed to behave so, use this divine wording whilst reproaching our Mumin brothers/sisters, beloved ones and avoid upsetting them.

WHOM AND HOW SHOULD WE LOVE?

Above all, we should select the people well whom we are going to love as a friend of ours. We should love the ones who avoid standing up to Allah (swt), are religious and muttaqi (one who has taqva). Rasulullah (sas) lets us know that Allah loves the ones who spend their own money for their brothers when they are in need, love, visit and protect each other for the consent of Allah (swt) [6]. We should give interest to our beloved ones accordingly.

We should wish all good things for our brothers what we wish for ourselves. [7] And we should never wish something for our brothers what we do not for ourselves.

We should share what we think and plan with our brothers whom we love, thereby both making them happy and taking their opinion on it.

As we have learned from our Prophet (sas) that good dreams are not from Shaytaan but from Allah (swt), we should tell only our beloved ones about them. Because the dreams generally come true according to how they are interpreted. For this reason, we should tell the ones who love us and is expected to interpret our dreams favourably, not the ones who do not know what they are talking about. And we should never mention about our bad dreams to anyone.

There are beautiful attitudes that get love better. The lovers should not avoid having such attitudes towards each other which bring them closer. According to what Umar (ra) states, a person should do those three acts when he comes across one of his brothers;

He should first make salaam to him

and give him a spot when he comes in a majlis,

and call him with the name of him that he loves most.

People suppose today that they make witty remarks by calling others by the nicknames they do not like as if for driving them out of their mind. One who meets with such an unkind and mean wording gets offended with the inconsiderate friend of himself in spite of all his efforts to seem unconcerned and not to care about it all.

One of the ways of showing solidarity for the lovers is to pray for each other and to request to be kept in each other's prayers. Once, Umar (ra) was going to go to Umrah. He wanted permission to come into Rasulullah's presence. After our Prophet (sas) gave him the permission, He (sas) said, “My beloved brother, do not forget us in your prayers.”[8]

If a prophet asks for the prayer of his religious brother, then we should ask for the prayer of our brothers, whom we love for the consent of Allah and hope to be loved by, and pray for them as well.

Our brothers, whom we love for the consent of Allah (swt), are so precious for us. They turn our grief into joy, beautify our lives and are source of happiness of us. We ought to know the value of them and strongly avoid hurting them.

Click on the link to read the Turkish translation of the article:  https://www.siyerinebi.com/tr/yasarkandemir/kardeslerimizisevmeliyiz

       

BIBLIOGRAPHY

       [1] Buhârî, Îmân 9, 14; Müslim, Îmân 67       

       [2] Hucurât 49/10        

       [3] Müslim, Birr 37

       [4] Tevbe 9/43

       [5] nşr. Abduh Ali Kûşek, Beyrut 1420/2000, s. 70

       [6] Ahmed b. Hanbel, Müsned, V, 239

       [7] Buhârî, Îmân 7; Müslim, Îmân 71   

       [8] Ebû Dâvûd, Vitr 23; Tirmizî, Daavât 109

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