Who are our Neighbours?

Qalam:4 it is stated that “And thou standest on an exalted standard of character”. Compared to al-Qur’an, the degree of authenticity and authority of the Prophet Muhammad SAW Hadith is considered inferior; meaning that it has been scholarly found that not all Sunnah associated to the Messenger of Allah truly originated from him. To the lay Muslim community in general, the word Sunnah is equal to that of hadith – which means saying, act, and agreementdecision of the Messenger of Allah. In the discussion of ulumul hadith there are various degrees of authenticity and authority of hadith, there are hadith mutawatir and hadith ahad; subsequently, hadith ahad itself is still divided into many classes and categories based on its connectivity to the Prophet, degree of quality of the rawi narrators of hadith and matan the content of hadith Ilyas, 1996. This short passage will not test the degree of authenticity and authority of hadith referred here, and it will not engage in lengthy discussion on the degree of value of the hadith referred. This passage only elaborates on hadith that are in connection with neighbour ethics values written in what the Indonesian Muslim community deems as canonical scriptures of hadith. Among the seven scriptures of hadith compilation considered canonical is the hadith scripture written by Imam Bukhori and Imam Muslim, which particularly is considered by most Sunni Muslims to be positioned in the highest class of hadith scriptures in terms of testing the quality of its narrators. The search on hadith related to neighbour ethics shows strong evidence that Islamic teaching deeply emphasizes the importance of Muslims to do good to neighbours. The assertions of al-Qur’an on neighbour as stated above are strengthened by concrete examples from the saying and actions of the Prophet Muhammad SAW in neighbourliness. Some of these concrete instances of the Prophet’s behaviour towards his neighbour should be considered based on its ethical and spiritual values instead of its concrete actions in the case that there have been changes in their social context. Hence, it is the relevance of the moral ethical values that must remain to be upheld and explored. In the following, there are a number of quotes from the hadith of the Prophet regarding neighbour ethics. The Messenger of God SAW as narrated by Abu Hurairah and agreed by Imam Bukhori and Imam Muslim has spoken, which means: “Whoever has faith in Allah and the Final Day so he shall say only good things or keep silence. And whoever has faith in Allah and the Final Day so he shall revere his neighbour. And whoever has faith in Allah and the Final Day so he shall revere his guest”. In another narration written by Imam Bukhori, the Prophet had spoken: “Whoever has faith in Allah SWT and the Final Day so he shall praise his neighbour”. Agreed by Imam Bukhori and Imam Muslim muttafaq ‘alaih, it is narrated that the Prophet SAW had spoken: “In the name of Allah, he has no faith; In the name of Allah, he has no faith; In the name of Allah, he has no faith The Prophet was asked: Who, o Messenger of Allah? The Prophet answered: He whose neighbour does not feel safe because of his conducts”. From Imam Bukhori, Aisyah RA, the wife of the Prophet, ummul mukminin, narrated that the Prophet had spoken: “Gabriel the angel has always reminded me to be good to neighbours to the point that I consider they will receive my inheritance”. From Imam Muslim, narrated by Abu Hurairah that the Prophet had spoken: “No entry to Heaven for the person whose neighbour does not feel safe from hisher trouble”. The hadith above obviously show the importance of revering and doing good to neighbours. The Prophet created a symmetrical relationship between the quality of someone’s faith to Allah, faith to the Final Day, and the reward of Heaven with the feeling of safety and security of the neighbours. Aside from its connection to the dimension of faithspirituality, neighbourliness is also important in its social dimension, such as the feeling of safety. The better quality of faith a 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