Islam is not a religion in which only the relationship between God and
man is important, rather it is a religion which also gives great
importance to relationships between human beings themselves. In
Islam, you cannot please God by fulfilling His rights and ignoring
those of other human beings.
The importance of respecting the rights of other human beings has been
very clearly presented in the Qur'an by combining salat with zakat. In
almost 80 verses, Allah has talked about "establishing the prayers and
paying the zakat." Salat is the symbol of Allah's rights upon man and
zakat is the symbol of man's rights upon each other. One without the
other is an incomplete implementation of Islam, it will not guarantee
the salvation of man in the hereafter.
When we talk about the rights of other people, we mostly emphasize
over their material and physical rights. Respecting others' rights is
mostly taken by us to mean that we should refrain from physically
harming others or from violating their property rights. It is rarely
understood that not only should we restrain ourselves from physically
harming other or violating their material rights, rather we should
also restrain our minds from distrusting others without any reasonable
cause. Islam teaches us to always think positively about others.
When a person starts thinking positively about others, he will
automatically be saved from the immoral consequences of distrusting
other. By these consequences, I mean `spying into characters of other
people' and `back- biting'. Positive thinking should be our attitude
towards all human beings, but more so towards Muslims. After all,
Muslims are considered by Allah as brothers and sisters of each other.
And as brothers, they should trust and be positive about one another.
The Qur'an says:
Verily the believers are nothing but brothers (to each other) ...0 you
who believe! Avoid most of the suspicious (thoughts about other
Muslims); for surely suspicion in some cases is a sin. And do not spy
(on each other). Nor should some of you backbite others. Does any one
of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely you abhor it.
So fear (the punishment of) Allah. Surely Allah is Most-Forgiving and
Merciful. (49:10-12)
Suspicion leads to spying and spying in turn leads to backbiting.
Avoidance of suspicion helps in refraining from spying on others and
thus backbiting. Not only will such a person be saved from immoral
consequences of distrusting others, rather he will have more time for
self-criticism which is the first step of spiritual purification.
There is an interesting conversation recorded by `Allamah at-Tabrasi
between Imam Zaynu '1-`Abidin (as) and Muhammad bin Muslim az-Zuhri.
It seems that az-Zuhri was not getting along well with people. He came
to the Imam and complained about his circumstances. In the latter part
of their conversation, the Imam gave a very useful advice which
deserves to be remembered by each and every Muslim. The Imam said,
"And if the Satan, may the curse of Allah be upon him, makes you think
that you have a superiority over any one of the followers of the
qiblah, then think about that person: If he is elder than you, then
say `He has been ahead of me in faith and good deeds, therefore he is
better than me.' If he is younger than you, then say, `I have been
ahead of him in disobedience and sins, therefore he is better than
me.' And if he is of your age, then say, `I am certain about my own
sins but in doubt about his sins, so why should I prefer doubt over
certainty.' [72] Read this hadith again and think about it. See if you
can follow this advice which, indeed, deserves to be written in golden
letters!
To show the importance of this moral principal, the shari'ah has
counted ghaybatu 'l-Muslim (the disappearance of a Muslim) as one of
the mutahhirat. You should consider as tahir the body or clothe of a
person who became najis in your presence just because he disappeared
from your sight long enough for him to purify himself or his dress.
Just imagine how positive the shari'ah wants you to be! This is not a
cage of thinking positive because you know nothing negative about the
person, rather it is a case where you know for sure that the person or
his dress had become najis; still you are expected to think positively
about that person.