Live to Serve Humanity Part 5

The Benchmark by Which to Live your Life

When you buy your own car for the first time, you are happy. But when you buy your son a car for the first time, then that’s not a smile on your face, it’s a smile on your heart. When you see that you have brought a smile to somebody else’s face, that elation, that happiness and that joy is indescribable. It’s a fact of Allāh, it’s the system of Allāh. If you live to serve others, if you live to serve Humanity, then you will enjoy a happy, joyful, wholesome, and prosperous life. Otherwise, when it’s all about yourself, then how much can you achieve, how much can you earn? How much can you eat? A beautiful Hadith from Darul Qutni in which the Prophet (ﷺ) says:

اَلْمُؤْمِنُ يَأْلَفْ وَ يُؤْلَفْ 

A Believer, he loves and he is loved

But people will only love you if you care for them and have concern for them. That is why people who are community-orientated and live to serve others are loved by everyone. You may think everyone loves a wealthy person.  But everyone does not love him, they just pretend to love him. The also just pretend to love an influential person. Why?

مَخَافَةَ شَرِّهِ 

If they do not pretend to love him, they may suffer the consequences.  Because they have their own selfish motives. They need to pretend to be close to this person because they may need him. But people genuinely love a man who is there to serve others. The duas that come from their lips are embedded in their hearts and those duas go straight up to the Arsh or the Throne of Allāh. The Prophet (ﷺ) advised that this be a benchmark by which you live your life.

اَلْمُؤْمِنُ يَأْلَفْ 

A Believer loves and when he loves, he cares about others.

 وَ يُؤْلَفْ

And as a result, others love him.

وَ لَا خَيْرَ فِي مَن لَا يَأْلَفْ وَلَا يُؤْلَفْ 

The Nabi of Allāh (ﷺ) said, “If you don’t love others and others don’t love you; there is no goodness in you.” And then, this golden phrase:

وَ خَيْرُ النَّاسِ أَنْفَعُهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ

The best of people are those who are of the most benefit to people.

Be the best as per the definition of Muhammadur Rasoolullah (ﷺ)

The best of people are those who are of most benefit to the community, to the Ummah and to humanity.

There is an incident regarding Ebrahim bin Adhama, a pious predecessor who had a great deal of wisdom. One day he met his good friend Shaqiq Balkhi who was a Zaahid as they say. He had totally left the Dunya. He used to only occupy himself with Ibaadah. He never used to earn a living; he did not even have a family. Ebrahim bin Adham asked Shaqiq Balkhi that, for you to live this kind of a life, the life of an ascetic, something must have taken place. There must have been an incident in your life which propelled you in this direction. He responded, “One day, I saw a bird that was crippled and blind. Double-handicapped: crippled and blind. And I looked at that bird, and I thought, this bird is going to die because how is it going to get food? It cannot fly, it cannot see.” He said, “And as this thought still lingered in my mind, I saw another healthy bird with a worm in its beak that came and put it into the beak of the bird that was crippled and blind. And at that time a thought occurred to me and I said, ‘O Allāh if You are taking care of the sustenance of a bird and I am a human, Ashraful Makhlooqāt, and then I am a Muslim and then I am from the Ummah of Muhammadur Rasoolullah ﷺ , why wouldn’t You take care of my sustenance? I am going to dedicate myself totally to Ibaadah and worship.” This is a noble act, but now we look at Ebrahim bin Adham’s understanding of the situation. He told Shaqiq Balkhi, “My friend, you looked at the cripple, blind bird and you took a good lesson. But why didn’t you look at the healthy bird and take a greater lesson and dedicate your life to assisting those people who needed your help? That would have been a better lesson.”

خَيْرُ النَّاسِ أَنْفَعُهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ

The best of people is the one who lives to serve Humanity. May Allāh make us all from amongst them.

{Extracted and adapted from Volume One of the book In Pursuit of Purpose by Ml Sulaimaan Ravat}