Worship Allah, and the Rights of the Neighbour

Allah (swt) then gives a summary of sorts, in verse 36:

Wa-ʿbudū Allāh: worship Allah. Worship Allah, ascribe no partners to Him, and then deal excellently — show excellent conduct — towards your parents, your relatives, the orphans, the miskīn, that is, the needy, and your neighbours. In Islam, neighbours are very important. Neighbours are of three categories, and the higher the category, the greater one's responsibility towards that neighbour. Generally, in most communities, until the modern metropolis and the modern global world, most people lived among their own family. They lived in their village, or their quarter of the town or city, and everyone lived there. A man found work close by, or had his own fields, or his own business. But in this new globalised world, where everyone is striving — in America, in North America for example, there are very few families that are all together, in the sense that all the siblings are together. One brother is in New York, another in Texas, and the third in San Jose, California; the only time they gather is at Thanksgiving. Al-ḥamdu li-llāh, in England it is not so bad — England is not so large either, so people can gather easily. Families are arguably closer together in the UK than elsewhere. But generally that was how it was.

If a neighbour is merely a neighbour — not related, and not a Muslim — he still has a right, as a neighbour. You live side by side. The first to know that something is amiss in your house will be your neighbour; so there is a practical advantage as well in being good to one another. To have a bad neighbour, one with whom you are on bad terms — subḥān Allāh. It is said that for a Bedouin a bad neighbour in the next tent is no great matter, because in the bādiyah one moves about: they are nomads; they move on. But in ḥaḍar, in a fixed place — for the next thirty, forty, fifty years? You do not wish to sell up; they do not wish to sell up. So there must be a good relationship with them: give them things, ask after them, do not trouble them, and the like.

If the neighbour is also a Muslim, that is two rights — practically speaking as well, for there will be ʿĪd to celebrate together, and other things to share from a religious point of view; so there are more rights there. And the third case is a neighbour who is also a relative — as in many cases a neighbour is, commonly a brother or the like. Now there are three rights: neighbour, Muslim and relative, and so much more is owed. These are all practical considerations. The ḥukm of Islam concerning neighbours has been taken to such a level that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: do not even bring certain things into your house without giving them some. For where there are children — if, for example, you give your children ice cream, and they are outside, and the neighbour's children are playing outside, and you give ice cream to your own children and not to them — that is probably one of the worst persecutions one can inflict. A child without ice cream, watching everyone else eat ice cream — that is simply not to be done. If it must be done, give it to them indoors; see that they eat it in the house, so that the neighbour does not see — so that the neighbour's children do not see.