Hadith 13. Loving your brother

On the authority of Abi Hamza Anas bin Malik, the servant of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) from the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who said: “None of you [truly] believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”

Reported in Bukhari and Muslim

Brief Commentary:

• Many scholars say this hadith is equivalent to 1/3 or ¼ of the religion
• This hadith explains and lays the foundations on how we should act with the believers
• The negation mentioned here is not a negation of existence (of Iman), but a negation of completeness (of Iman).
• We know it is not a negation of existence (of Iman) because the prophet (peace be upon him) said “for his brother”, so he must be a Muslim as they are still brothers
• A person’s Iman is like a garment, sometimes he wears it, sometimes he takes it off
• Loving for your brother what you love for yourself is a condition to enter Jannah
• If you have Iman, then you must love Iman for others, even those who are sinners
• This love can only be attained if we remove any envy or hatred from our hearts
• Envy is dangerous, it is like saying, “Oh Allah, I disagree with your decree for giving that person good”
• Some of the rights of brotherhood include:
  • Seeing to their needs, which are of three levels:
  • Lowest: Seeing to their needs when they ask, and doing so in a welcoming way and with a smile on your face
  • Middle: Seeing to their needs without them needing to ask
  • Highest: Putting forward their needs over yours
  • Fulfilling their rights pertaining to your tongue by staying quiet, which include:
  • Not mentioning their faults in presence or absence (except to privately politely advice them)
  • Not arguing with them or mock them
  • Not asking about what they dislike to speak about
  • Not asking them “where are you going?” for maybe they don’t want you to know
  • Never telling their secrets. A heart of a believer is a grave for secrets
  • Not informing them of others’ mockery of them
  • Fulfilling their rights pertaining to your tongue by speaking, which include:
  • Calling them in their best names
  • Calling them and addressing them with good in their presence and absence
  • Informing them of your love for them
  • Making du’aa for them
  • Informing them of others’ praise of them and being happy about it
  • Thanking them for what they do
  • Defending them in their presence and absence
  • Fulfilling their rights pertaining to wealth which include:
  • Being easy on a person when asking for money back after you borrowed them money
  • Wish that your brothers share the wealth you have
  • Give preference to others even if you are in dire need
  • Being loyal and sincere to them. Loyalty means to be constant in your love for them when they are alive, and to their loved and close ones when they pass away
  • Have good thoughts and never think ill of them
  • Humble yourself in front of them
  • Being easy-going and not asking them for things that may cause even a small difficulty for them.

Benefits and Action points to take from this hadith:

• If you feel jealousy or hatred towards your brother, then make du’aa that Allah increases them in good as this will help in removing this jealousy/hatred
• You should love for everyone to be a believer and not wish that when you have knowledge or something good that others don’t have it
• Ibn Rajab said, “a person should look down on oneself (without losing hope) because it only increases in improving oneself, and wishing for the believers to be better than oneself”
• Fulfil the rights of brotherhood as mentioned in the commentary
• Apply this hadith to everyone, not just practicing Muslims, and not be different to others at home
• The reason why you have a brother should be to love him for the sake of Allah, to be blessed by his du’aa, to enjoy yourself while with him, to help you in worshipping Allah, and to seek closeness to Allah by fulfilling his rights!