Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 248
248 perhaps be included among the prescribed heirs. Abu Dharr relates that the Holy Prophet said to him: "Abu Dharr, while broth is being cooked for your family, add a little more water to it so that your neighbour might also share in it. " This does not mean that the neighbour should not be invited to share in other things but, as the Arabs were mostly a migratory people and their favourite dish was broth, the Holy Prophet referred to this dish as a typical one and taught that one should not think so much of the taste of the food as of the obligation to share it with one’s neighbour. Abu Hurayrah relates: "On one occasion the Holy Prophet exclaimed: 'I call God to witness that he is not a believer! I call God to witness that he is not a believer! I call God to witness that he is not a believer!' The Companions inquired: 'Who is not a believer, O Messenger of Allah?' and he replied: ‘He whose neighbour is not secure against injury and ill-treatment at his hands. ' On one occasion when he was addressing women, he said: 'If anybody finds only the foot of a goat to cook, that person should share it with his or her neighbour. ' He asked people not to object to their neighbours driving pegs into their walls or putting them to any other use which occasioned no injury. " Abu Hurayrah relates: "The Prophet said: ‘He who believes in God and in the Day of Judgement should occasion no inconvenience to his neighbour: he who believes in God and in the Day of Judgement should occasion no inconvenience to his guest, and he who believes in God and in the Day of Judgement should utter only words of virtue or should keep quiet'. " 311 Treatment of Relatives Most people suffer from the failing that when they marry and set up house for themselves, they begin to neglect their parents. The Holy Prophet, therefore, laid great stress upon the meritoriousness of serving one’s parents and treating them with kindness and consideration. Abu Hurayrah relates: "A man came to the Holy Prophet and asked to be told who was most deserving of kind treatment at his hands. The Prophet replied: 'Your mother'. The man asked 'And next to her?' The Prophet repeated, 'Again thy mother'. The man asked a third time, 'And after my mother?' and the Prophet again replied, 'Still thy mother', and when the man asked him a fourth time, he said: 'After her thy father and after him thy nearest relatives and after them thy more remote relatives'. " The Prophet’s own parents and grand parents had died while he was still a child. The parents of some of his wives were, however, alive and he always treated them with great consideration and deference. On the occasion of the surrender of Mecca when the Holy Prophet entered the town as a victorious general, Abu Bakr brought his father to meet him. He said to Abu Bakr: "Why did you trouble your father to come to me? I would gladly have gone to him myself. " 312 One of his sayings was: "Unlucky is the man whose parents live to old age and he fails to earn Paradise even then", meaning that the service of one’s parents particularly when they reach old age attracts the grace and favour of God and, therefore, a person to whom is afforded the opportunity of serving his aged parents and who avails