By Shaykh Rashid Khan
31 October 2025

﷽ 

Faith isn’t only about prayer or fasting. It’s about how we carry ourselves, how we honour those around us, and how we take seriously the rights that Allah has placed upon us. These rights don’t exist in isolation. They form a circle, starting with the self, then extending outward to family, kinship, the wider Muslim community, and beyond.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

The Muslim is the brother of a Muslim.

And that simple statement sits at the heart of it all.

This idea of honouring rights and managing expectations isn’t just theory. The Prophet ﷺ demonstrated it beautifully in one of the final battles of his life, Hunayn. It was a difficult encounter. Despite having numbers on their side, the Muslims were briefly pushed back before Allah granted them victory. After the battle, the Prophet ﷺ began distributing the spoils of war. And notably, he gave large portions to those who had only recently entered Islam.

This caused some unease among the Ansar – the companions from Madinah who had been with him ﷺ from the very beginning. They began to wonder: why are these newcomers receiving more than us? Have we been forgotten?

When the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he didn’t ignore their concerns. He gathered them, and with care and empathy, reminded them of what they had shared together:

Weren’t you lost, and Allah guided you through me? Weren’t you poor, and Allah enriched you through me?

And they responded with, yes, they were.

Then he ﷺ said something that silenced all their complaints:

Are you not pleased that others return with sheep and cattle, while you return with the Messenger of Allah?

This moment teaches us that fractures in the heart are part of life. But healing them starts with recognising what matters most. And that begins in the innermost circle: the self. Allah says in the Qur’an: 

This verse doesn’t begin with commanding others. It starts with the self. Not out of selfishness, but because Islamic reform starts internally. Allah asks, 

It’s a warning against religious hypocrisy, the kind that corrects others without first correcting the self.

When a person genuinely works on their own heart, one of the signs of that is concern for others. Part of saving yourself from Allah’s wrath is to advise, support, and guide those around you. Looking after yourself includes staying away from sin, but it also includes things like ensuring your basic needs are met, seeking knowledge, being emotionally and spiritually well. These are rights your soul has over you.

Then comes the next circle: our families. We live in a time where the concept of family is often downplayed. But Islam centres it. From the beginning of revelation to the end of the Prophet’s ﷺ life, the family was never secondary.

When the Allah says not to say “uff” to your parents (Qur’an 17:23), He isn’t just talking about a particular word. It refers to any expression of frustration towards one’s parents. And that’s just the minimum. Harming, neglecting, or abandoning one’s parents falls on a whole other level of prohibition.

But rights go both ways. Parents also have responsibilities towards their children. Teaching them how to pray, how to read the Qur'an, how to worship, how to love Allah. This is a duty. And if that spirit isn't present in us as adults, we can't expect it to suddenly appear in our children.

From family, the circle expands to kinship: siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts. The Prophet ﷺ said:

The one who cuts off ties of kinship will not enter Paradise.

That sense of communal care, of asking about each other and checking in, is not just a cultural idea, it’s part of our deen.

Then comes the wider Ummah. The Prophet ﷺ said: “A Muslim is the mirror of his brother.” What does a mirror do? It reflects what is there, without exaggeration or judgement. And when it sees a flaw, it shows it clearly, so that it can be fixed. In another hadith, he ﷺ said,

The believer to another believer is like a hand washing the other.

This is how we build brotherhood: by removing hatred, jealousy, and bad assumptions. These feelings may arise, that’s natural. But Islam asks us not to let them settle in the heart. We push back. We make du‘a. We seek closeness, not distance.

And in this process, advice becomes part of the religion. The Prophet ﷺ said: “The most hated phrase to Allah is when a man says to his brother, ‘Fear Allah’, and he replies, ‘Mind your own business.’” Because in truth, Allah has made it our business.

All of these circles – self, family, kinship, the Ummah – lead us to one greater purpose: obeying Allah and being brothers in that obedience. As the Prophet ﷺ said:

Be servants of Allah, and be brothers.

And when we do that – when we purify our hearts, honour the rights of others, and support one another – then Allah brings unity. And through unity, He brings victory. Allah says: 

Even the smallest acts, like letting go of envy or giving sincere advice, are part of something far bigger: the establishment of Allah’s deen on earth.

So we begin small. We begin with ourselves. And if Allah wills, that circle widens.

O Allah, make us from those who uphold the rights You have given us – from our own souls to our parents, families, and the wider Ummah. O Allah, remove from our hearts envy, hatred, and selfishness. Replace it with sincerity, brotherhood, and mercy. Do not let us be among those who forget or neglect the oppressed.

Ameen.

---

Help us complete our Phase 3 expansion for the new prayer halls!