What Does The Islamic Brotherhood Require?

Editor

اَلْمُسْلِمُ أخُو الْمُسْلِمِ لاَ يَظْلِمُهُ وَلاَ يُسْلِمُهُ مَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أخِيهِ كَانَ اللَّهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ بِهَا كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرَبِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ

A Muslim is a brother to other Muslims. He does not oppress them or turn them over to the enemy. Whoever meets a need of his Muslim brother, Allah will meet his need. Whoever relieves a Muslim from difficulty, Allah will relieve one of his difficulties on Doomsday. Whoever covers up a Muslim's fault, Allah will cover his fault on Doomsday.

Buhari, Mezalim, 3; Muslim, Birr, 58.

A Muslim is a person who accepts Allah's invitation to peace, safety and well-being and enters His protection. Islam means surrendering to the One who makes everything safe and entrusting oneself to the One closer to man than his jugular vein (Qaf 50:16). Melting his will in the will of Allah, a Muslim becomes remote from injustice, oppression, selfishness, prying and arrogance to the degree he draws close to Him. He will grow close to the Prophet to the degree he embraces his recommendations. With the awareness that he cannot travel the road to Truth alone and that isolation is defective, he is together with the people in a unity that God approves of. This hadith presents the basis of a relationship between one Muslim and another.

Muslims declaring each other to be friends was emphasized both in the Quran (Hujurat 49:10) and in hadiths. Stemming from being members of the same religion and without making slave-master, rich-poor, black-white, male-female distinctions, this brotherhood creates a social bond that necessitates seeing ethnic and cultural differences as factors that give color to society rather than as a pretext for discrimination. This bond is so comprehensive that it includes non-Muslims and allies. In this respect, believers are responsible for fulfilling all the responsibilities of brotherly living. They are responsible for preventing injustice in the world, contributing to the establishment of basic human rights and freedoms and, in the country, enabling Muslim brothers to fairly resolve their disagreements and taking a stand beside those who are in the right against those persisting in injustice (Kur'an Yolu, vol. 5, p. 93).

Being a brother in religion requires solidarity not scrapping, sharing not deceit, altruism not indifference. It reminds you of your roots wherever you are. You are pulled towards your roots vein-by-vein. You do not stray or get lost. The feeling of brotherhood saves you from chaos; you will not break away and leave. It ties you to life and you will make new beginnings in the workshop of your heart. Feeling you belong to a group, you will not follow the ebb and flow of passing desire. For this reason, while the Quran and Sunnah construct Muslim identity, they give a distinct importance to brotherhood. When the understanding of brotherhood is justly applied to life, the young and old - all people - will find their place in society; thus, without feeling the need for approval from others, they will not cling to attachments that are not approved.

One of the main channels feeding society is the principle of living brotherly. The statement, "A Muslim does not oppress another Muslim or surrender him to the enemy," is an expression that prohibits treachery and hitting from behind and giving precedence to personal interests over the interests of society. It also shows an effort to erase every kind of physical-spiritual oppression and injustice first from the minds and then from life. At the same time it is a declaration that no initiative that can dynamite social peace will be approved. It is an announcement that there is no room in the mind of a Muslim for such a warped idea. It is a criterion that acts as a guide to believers in carrying the motto, "Want for your brother in religion what you want for yourself" (Buhari, Iman 7).

In this hadith we see that being brotherly gains a perspective based on responsibility that embraces all dimensions of life and relationships. A model of society where people are informed about one another and sensitive to one another is presented. When looked at from this angle, it is possible to think that while we are struggling to escape from difficulties, they present us with meaning in life in an unnoticeable way. Difficulties - both material and spiritual - are actually a period of assimilation for the one living them and the one witnessing them. Difficulty is a period for the one living it to patiently resist and for the one witnessing it to extend a hand to the one in need. In other words, it is a period for our human capabilities to emerge.

One of the hard stages of this race of humanity is being tolerant and forgiving without dwelling on the shame and faults we see in another person's past. Just as exposing mistakes and faults does not contribute to the correction of the situation, it becomes a vehicle for a person's honor to be damaged and for the person to become insensitive. Mistakes made privately begin to be made publicly. Just as this situation does not turn the person away from his mistakes, it can prepare a foundation for the spread of them. Being a brother means being responsible for others. In order for relations to advance to a higher level, an all-out effort must be shown. Anyway, covering up a mistake does not necessitate being insensitive to it. The attitude to be taken when seeing a mistake or fault being made is obvious: One should try and prevent it by making the person aware of what he is doing. The delicate balance here should be adjusted in the direction of protecting the personal rights related to what the person lived in the past. The duty befalling a Muslim is to use the impulse for curiosity and learning on the road to knowledge which will advance himself and mankind one step further. Prying, which has been forbidden in the Quran, is an atrophied state of the natural desire to investigate.