Neighbour Ethics: Delving into Qur’anic Values and the Prophet’s Exemplar
person has will as a consequence result in the betterment of his conducts with his neighbour, not vice versa. Even the Prophet threatened that if
our neighbours do not feel safe living close to us, then it is our faith that needs to be questioned; the Prophet even firmly stated that a person
essentially “has no faith” if his neighbours feel unsafe. In another hadith, the Prophet provided a concrete example of doing
good to the neighbour, as narrated by Imam Muslim: the Prophet SAW had spoken to Abu Dzarr: “O Abu Dzarr, when you are cooking broth of
meat, use a lot of water and share with your neighbour”. Imam Bukhori and Imam Muslim narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet had
spoken: “O Muslim women, don’t ever a neighbour consider trifle to present gifts to hisher neighbours even if it is merely a leg of goat”.
Another example of doing good deed to neighbours is presenting gift, as spoken by the Prophet in the narration of Imam Bukhori: “Mutually
present each other with gifts, then you all will mutually love each other”. From Abu Dzarr, as narrated by Imam Muslim, the Prophet had
stated: “Do not you consider trifle doing even only a little good, although it is merely showing a joyful face when meeting your
brothers”. Several real good deeds to the neighbour advised by the Prophet
such as presenting meat broth, or gifts, and showing joyful face to the neighbour are certainly very relevant to our present conditions. In
regards to presenting a leg of goat or broth of goat meat stated above, obviously in reality it can be adjusted to conform to today’s situation, as
an example, if we knew that our neighbour has high blood pressure, surely presenting goat meat or broth of goat meat would not be
desirable. Nevertheless, the clear ethical message is sharing what we haveeatenjoy with our neighbours. Don’t enjoy food or anything that
we don’t share with our neighbours. Other ethical values spoken by the Prophet concerning neighbour
can be observed from the following hadith. In the narration of Imam
Tirmidzi and Imam Ahmad, the Prophet had spoken: “The best companions next to Allah are those who are best to their companions,
and the best neighbours next to Allah are those who are best to their neighbours”. In a hadith narrated by Ibu Hibban, the Prophet was
reported to have spoken: “There are four things included in happiness: a pious wife, a spacious residence, a pious neighbour, and a comfortable
ride vehicle. And there are four things included in misery: a bad neighbour, a wicked wife not pious, a bad ride, and narrow residence”.
From Imam Ahmad, the Prophet had spoken, “there are three groups of men loved by God; mentioned among them is: Someone who has a
neighbour, he is always hurt harassed by his neighbour, but he is patient from the harassment until they are both separated by death or
parting”. Narrated by Imam Bukhori that Aisyah, ummul mukminin, had spoken: “O Messenger of Allah, I have two neighbours, which do I
prioritize to present a gift?” The Prophet answered: “The one closer to your door”.