MAJLIS UGAMA ISLAM SINGAPURA

FRIDAY KHUTBAH ON
28 JUNE 2002M / 17 RABIUL AKHIR 1423H
Helping one another as part of living in a society

Dear blessed Friday congregation,

Let us fill our hearts with Taqwa to Allah, by doing all that He
commands and leaving all that He forbids. Let us fill our
hearts with true taqwa. Taqwa that will lead us towards
helping others and helping out in social or charitable works;
all of which can only lead us even closer to Allah swt.

A person who likes to volunteer his help in social or

charitable works will always be favoured by others as when
a person shows taqwa to Allah, he will certainly gain Allah’s
pleasure. And a person who is able to attain both, that is, to
be well-liked by fellow human beings and to be one with

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whom Allah is pleased, truly, he has attained complete
happiness.

Islam strongly encourages each of its followers to be sincere

towards his family, his neighbours and towards those with
whom he has a working relationship. Islam also requires that
we render help where it is needed and that we always strive
towards doing things which will be of benefit to the society
that we live in.

By making this our way of life, the feelings of love and care
that we have for each other will blossom and we will be more
spirited to help each other and so increase our acts of
helping towards goodness and taqwa.

Let us conscientiously practise the act of helping each other

with full sincerity and solely for the sake of Allah just so to
seek His pleasure (redha). Allah swt says in the Quran:

Which means: “..And help one another in furthering virtue

and God-consciousness, and do not help one another in
furthering evil and enmity..” (Al-Maidah: 2)

Dear respected brothers in Islam,

Human beings in this world cannot live in isolation or exist

independently of others. It is the decree of Allah that human
beings need to support and complement one another in
order to successfully live in this world. So let us not adopt
this feeling and attitude of looking only after our self-interest
and in order to seek personal benefit. When man is infected

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with feeling free of the need of others (self-sufficiency) and
only desires personal benefit, he is no longer concerned with
looking after the common interest. Such a man will be
trapped in his own narrow world of isolation where he no
longer sees others except only himself.

Verily, Islam places great importance on establishing

ukhuwwah and teaches man that life in this world is not
about serving only one’s own interest. Let us try to put
ourselves in the shoes of our own brothers in Islam who are
in hardship and sufferings. This will urge us to help in
removing their sufferings so much so that our hearts will not
be at peace until the sufferings have been removed. On the
other hand, when we have succeeded in removing our
brothers’ sufferings, our hearts will attain peace and serenity
as we see them back in good health and security.

Rasulullah s.a.w. says:

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“A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not
oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor.
Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his
needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a
discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the
Day of Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah
will screen him on the Day of Resurrection. " (Shahih
Bukhari)

This hadith clearly states that all Muslims are regarded as

brothers of each other. The bonds of brotherhood require
that one should not oppress another and that he should not
leave his brother in a state of destruction. That is why if, say,
we find someone in hunger, it is obligatory upon us to help
him and relieve him of his hunger.
My dear respected brothers in Islam,

Remember that we are all creations of Allah swt. Each one

of us certainly needs help, either from fellow human beings
or from our Creator. It is only Allah who does not need help
from anyone. Look around us. The existence of the rich and
the poor, the distinguished and the low-ranked, the intelligent
and the ignorant; all these differences are blessings from
Allah swt to make us a people who will need each other and
so will help each other, thus creating a caring and helpful
community. Differences in our abilities are not something for
us to compete upon. Neither is it to create feelings of pride in
some and feelings of inferiority and even envy in others.
Rather, these differences is Islam's way of promoting mutual
cooperation among its followers and to promote the act of
give-and-take so that each one will feel needed, respected
and loved.

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Allah says in surah Al-Isra, ayah 37:

“And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance.

Verily, you can neither rend nor penetrate the earth, nor
can you attain a stature like the mountains in height.”

No matter how great a person may be, surely he needs the

favour of others. And no matter how lowly a person may be,
surely he has done some good to others. In short, each and
every one of us is of value to others and no one deserves to
be stripped off his self-respect. So let us not be an ummah
that allows abuse and disunity to arise among us. Allah says
in the Quran:

“O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it

may be that the latter are better than the former; nor let
(some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter

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are better than the former, nor defame one another, nor
insult one another by nicknames. How bad is it, to insult
one’s brother after having Faith. And whosoever does not
repent, then such are indeed Zalimun.” (Al-Hujurat: 11)

My dear blessed Friday congregation,

Among the signs that brotherhood ties exist among Muslims;

between the able and the less able, is when there is
pleasure derived in giving benefit to fellow brothers in need.
Also, when we feel happy for our fellow brothers upon
seeing them receive Allah’s bounties, as though we
ourselves are receiving them.

When such feelings are planted in our hearts, the attitude of

looking only after our own self-interests will no longer arise.
We will be more concerned with our fellow brothers such that
when we see others suffer, we too will feel the pinch. And we
will always be ready to extend our help to those in need,
either through providing material or physical assistance or
even through offering words of kindness.

As Rasul s.a.w. says:

“Whosoever likes to provide ease to someone who is in

difficulty, Allah, in return, will provide him with ease in this
world and the hereafter”.

My blessed brothers in Islam,

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Know that every good deed that we do in this world has
been promised its just rewards in the hereafter. This includes
when we help to remove the sufferings of others and also
when we strive to foster good relations with fellow human
beings. When we do this, certainly, our deeds will not go to
waste and surely, we have not lived our lives in vain.

Verily, in living our lives in this world, we should be

concerned with two kinds of relationships. That is, our
relationship as servants of Allah as well as our relationship
with fellow human beings. Let us protect our ukhuwwah
through acts of helping one another in virtue as this would
contribute towards the building of a strong and united
community.