Islam and Human Rights — Page 51
Social Values 51 was that one should be willing at all times to share with one’s neighbour; even if one has only broth for a meal, it is easy to add an extra cup of water and share the broth with one’s neighbour. 17 In the same way, the needy and the wayfarer must be looked after (4:37). The insistence upon kindness and help to the wayfarer is striking. Only a person who had not bad occasion to travel in foreign lands, where even the language is unfamiliar, can properly appreciate this direc tion. The traveller need not be poor and wanting in means. The mere fact that he is in a strange land, among strange people, and, perhaps, unable to express his needs in their language, should make him an object of kindly and helpful attention. On some occasions it may be a great relief merely to be furnished with directions concerning the road, the situation of a hostelry, or a needed address. All this is part of “kindness to the wayfarer,” which is repeatedly enjoined in the Quran. Those burdened with debt and those held in captivity because they are unable to pay their ransom or to purchase their freedom are proper objects of “spending in the cause of Allah” (9:60). Orphans have been made the objects of paticular care. 17 Muslim II, Sec. :Virtue etc. , Ch. :Benevolence towards Neigh bours.