The Duties of Brotherhood in Islam

Imam al-Ghazali, Muhtar Holland

• Publisher: The Islamic Foundation
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780860375111
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

Imam al-Ghazali explores the meaning and significance of fraternity in Islam in this brilliant essay from his seminal work, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, which covers material assistance, personal aid, holding one's tongue, speaking out, forgiveness, loyalty, sincerity, and informality.

Table of Contents:
Foreward
Translator's Foreword
Introduction: the Time and Place of al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali: On the Duties of Brotherhood
The First Duty: Material Assistance
The Second Duty: Personal Aid
The Third Duty: Holding One's Tongue
The Fourth Duty: Speaking Out
The Fifth Duty: Forgiveness
The Sixth Duty: Prayer
The Seventh Duty: Loyalty and Sincerity
The Eighth Duty: Informality
Postscript
Translator's Notes

Imam al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE) of Tus in Iran was one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islamic thought. He made outstanding contributions in logic, philosophy, jurisprudence, legal theory, and mysticism.

AL-GHAZALI
On the Duties of Brotherhood

KNOW that the contract of brotherhood is a bond between two persons, like the contract of marriage between two spouses. For just as marriage gives rise to certain duties which must be fulfilled when it is entered into,⁹ so does the contract of brotherhood confer upon your brother a certain right touching your property, your person, your tongue and your heart – by way of forgiveness, prayer, sincerity, loyalty, relief and considerateness.

In all, this comprises eight duties:

1

The first duty is the material one.
God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!) said:

– Two brothers are likened to a pair of hands, one of which washes the other.

He chose the simile of the two hands, rather than the hand and the foot, because the pair are of mutual assistance towards a single aim. So it is with two brothers; their brotherhood is only complete when they are comrades in a single enterprise. In a sense the two are like one person. This entails a common participation in good fortune and bad, a partnership in the future as in the present moment, an abandonment of possessiveness and selfishness. In thus sharing one’s property with one’s brother there are three degrees.

The lowest degree is where you place your brother on the same footing as your slave or your servant, attending to his need from your surplus. Some need befalls him when you have more than you require to satisfy your own, so you give spontaneously, not obliging him to ask. To oblige him to ask is the ultimate shortcoming in brotherly duty.

At the second degree you place your brother on the same footing as yourself. You are content to have him as partner in your property and to treat him like yourself, to the point of letting him share it equally. Al-Hasan said there was once a man who would split his waist-band between himself and his brother.

At the third degree, the highest of all, you prefer your brother to yourself and set his need before your own. This is the degree of the s.iddīq,¹⁰ and the final stage for those united in spiritual love.

Self-sacrifice is one of the fruits of this degree. Tradition tells how a Sufi fraternity were slanderously misrepresented to one of the Caliphs, who ordered their execution. Now one of their number was Abu’l-Husayn al-Nuri, who ran forward to the executioner so that he might be the first to be put to death. Asked why, he replied:

– I wished that my brothers rather than I should have that moment to live.

This, to cut a long story short, was the cause all of their lives being saved.

If you do not find yourself at any of these stages in relation to your brother, then you must realise that the contract of brotherhood is not yet concluded in the Inner. All that lies between you is a formal connexion, lacking real force in reason or religion.

Maymun ibn Mahran said:

– One who is content not to put his brother first might as well be brother to the People of the Tombs!

As for the lowest degree, this is also unacceptable to truly religious people. Tradition tells that ‘Utba al-Ghulam came to the house of a man whose brother he had become, saying:

– I need four thousand of your money.

The other said:

– Take two thousand.

‘Utba declined the offer, saying:

– You have preferred this world to God. Are you not ashamed to claim brotherhood in God when you can say such a thing?

You ought to avoid worldly dealings with one at the lowest stage of brotherhood. Abu Hazim said:

– If you have a spiritual brother do not deal with him in your worldly affairs.

By this he meant ‘if he is at this stage’.

As for the highest degree, this corresponds to the description of the true believers given by God (Exalted is He!) when He said:

– They agree their affairs by mutual consultation, and spend freely of what We have bestowed upon them. (Qur’ān 42.38)

That is, they are co-owners of worldly goods without distinctions of status. There were those who would shun the fellowship of a man who used the expression ‘my shoe’, thereby attributing it to himself.

Fath al-Mawsili once came to a brother’s house while he was away. Telling his brother’s wife to bring out his chest, he opened it and took from it what he needed. When the slave-girl later informed her master he exclaimed:

– If what you say is true, you are a free woman for the sake of God!

So delighted was he at his brother’s deed.

Once a man approached Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him!) and said:

– I wish to take you as my brother in God.

– Do you know what brotherhood entails?

– No.

– That you have no greater right to your pounds or your pence than I have.

– I have not yet reached that stage.

– Then begone from me!

‘Ali son of al-Husayn (may God be pleased with both!) said to a man:

– Does one of you put his hand in the pocket or purse of his brother and take what he needs without permission?

– No.

– Then you are not brothers!

Some people called upon al-Hasan (may God be pleased with him!) and asked:

– Abu Sa’id, have you done your (s.alāt) prayer?¹¹

– Yes.

– Because the market folk have not yet prayed.

– And who takes his religion from the market folk?

I hear that one of them would refuse his brother a penny. Al-Hasan said this as if it amazed him.

A man came to Ibrahim ibn Adham (may God be pleased with him!) as the latter was leaving for Jerusalem, and said:

– I wish to be your travelling-companion.

– On condition that I have more right to your goods than you yourself.

– No.

– I admire your sincerity!

Now this Ibrahim ibn Adham (may God be pleased with him!) would never differ with a man who accompanied him on a journey, and he would only choose for a companion someone who was in harmony with him. His fellow on one occasion was a sandal-thong merchant. At a certain staging-post someone presented Ibrahim with a bowl of broth. He opened his companion’s bag, took a bundle of thongs, set them in the bowl and returned it to the giver of the present. When his companion came along he asked:

– Where are the thongs?

– That broth I ate, what did it cost?

– You must have given him two or three thongs.

– Be generous and generosity will be shown you!

He once gave a donkey belonging to his com- panion, without his permission, to a man he saw walking. When his companion came along he said nothing and did not disapprove.

‘Umar’s son (may God be pleased with them both!) said that one of the companions of God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!) was given a sheep’s head. He said:

– My brother so-and-so needs it more than I do,

and sent it to him. That person sent it on to another. Thus it was passed from one to another till it came round again to the first, after being through seven hands.

Tradition tells that Masruq owed a heavy debt. His brother Khaythama was also in debt, so Masruq went and paid off Khaythama’s debt without his knowledge, and Khaythama went and paid off Masruq’s debt without his knowledge.

When God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!) witnessed the brotherhood between ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf and Sa’d ibn al-Rabi’, the latter offered to put the former first both materially and spiritually.’Abd al-Rahman said:

– God bless you in both respects,

thus preferring his brother in the same way as his brother preferred him. It was as if he accepted then returned the compliment. This is equalising, whereas the first gesture was preferment. Preferment is worthier than equalising.

Abu Sulayman al-Darani used to say:

– If I owned the whole world to put in the mouth of a brother of mine I would still deem it too little for him.

He also said:

– I feed a morsel to a brother of mine and find the taste of it in my own throat.

Spending on brothers is even worthier than giving alms to the poor, for ‘Ali (may God be pleased with him!) said:

– Twenty dirhams I give to my brother in God are dearer to me than one hundred I give in alms to the needy.

He also said:

– To make a meal and gather my brothers in God around it is dearer to me than to free a slave.

In putting others first, all follow the example of God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!). He once entered a thicket with one of his companions and gathered two toothpicks, one of them crooked and the other straight. The straight one he gave to his companion, who said:

– O Messenger of God, you are more entitled to the straight one than I!

But he replied:

– When a comrade accompanies a comrade, if only for one hour of the day, he will be asked to account for his companionship, whether he fulfilled his duty to God therein or whether he neglected it.

He indicated by his own example that putting the companion first is to fulfil one’s duty to God in fellowship.

On another occasion God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!) went out to a well to wash at it. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman took a robe and stood screening God’s Messenger while he washed. Then Hudhayfa sat down to wash himself, and God’s Messenger (God bless him and give him Peace!) took his turn to stand screening Hudhayfa from view with the robe. But he objected saying:

– My father be your ransom, and my mother too! O Messenger of God, do not do it!

Yet he (God bless him and give him Peace!) insisted on holding the robe as a screen while Hudhayfa washed, and he said:

– Each time two people are in company together, the dearer to God is he who is kinder to his companion.

Tradition tells that Malik ibn Dinar and Muhammad ibn Wasi’ went together to the house of al-Hasan while he was out. Muhammad ibn Wasi’ took out a basket of food from under al-Hasan’s bed and began to eat. Malik said to him:

– Clap your hands to fetch the master of the house.

But Muhammad paid no attention to his words and went on eating, for Malik was more for politeness and manners than he. Then al-Hasan arrived and said:

– My dear Malik, we were not used to being so shy one of another till you and your fellows appeare’d.

With this he indicated that to make oneself at home in one’s brothers’ homes is part of true brotherhood. And indeed, God (Exalted is He!) said:

– Or of your friend, or to which you have the keys. (Qur’ān 24.61)¹²

For although one brother would give the keys of his house to another, permitting him to act as he saw fit, a brother felt that piety required him to refrain from eating, until God (Exalted is He!) revealed this Verse and allowed them to help themselves to the food of

2

The second duty is to render personal aid in the satisfaction of needs, attending to them without waiting to be asked, and giving them priority over private needs.

Here too there are different degrees, as in the case of material support.

The lowest degree consists in attending to the need when asked and when in plenty, though with joy and cheerfulness, showing pleasure and gratitude.

Someone said:

– If you ask your brother to satisfy a need, and he does not do so, then remind him, for he may have forgotten. If he still does not do it, pronounce ‘Allāhu akbar!’ over him and recite this Verse: ‘As for the dead, God will raise them up.’ (Qur’ān 6.36)¹³

Ibn Shubruma once satisfied a great need for one of his brothers, who later brought him a present.

– What is this? asked Ibn Shubruma.

– For the favour you did me.

– Keep it and may God preserve you! If you ask your brother for something you need and he does not exert himself to satisfy your need, then wash for prayers, pronounce four takbīr¹⁴ over him and count him among the dead.

Ja’far ibn Muhammad said:

– I make haste to satisfy the...