What are the neighbor’s rights?

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate. May His blessings and peace be on His Beloved Prophet, the best of creation, and his family, companions, and followers

The most important matter relating to neighbors’ rights is:

Keeping away one’s harm from them, and
Being patient with their harm.

This is because of the rigorously authenticated hadith of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) in which he stated,

“None of you [truly] believes until their neighbor is free from their scathing.”

What is meant by scathes (bawa’iq) here is wrong and harm.

Higher than merely keeping away one’s harm is doing good to one’s neighbor in all ways encouraged and emphasized by the Shariah, such as assisting them in their needs, giving them gifts, spending one’s charity on them [if they are needy], inviting them for food, being of sincere counsel to them in matters of religion, visiting them when they are sick, sharing in their occasions of joy, and consoling them in their sorrows.

I would encourage you to read the Ihya’ [f: of Imam Ghazali, in the book on the rights of brotherhood, translated by Ustadh Muhtar Holland], and other such works of Sacred Law, for they have sufficient details.

[f: Also, read the chapters on the rights of neighbors in Imam Nawawi’s Riyad al-Salihin, such as from Ustadha Ayesha Bewley’s translation; these have been explained in the Clear Paths to the Gardens of the Righteous series of ‘Daily Guidance’ lessons on www.SunniPath.com ]

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

Amjad Rasheed 

(Translated by Faraz Rabbani)

السؤال : ما حق الجار ؟  الجواب : أهم ما ينبغي ملاحظته في حق الجار على جاره هو كفُّ الأذى عنه واحتمال الأذى منه ففي الحديث الصحيح :” لا يؤمن أحدُكم حتى يأمن جارُه بوائقه “. أي : شروره وأذاه ، وأعلى رتبة من مجرد كفِّ الأذى أن يصطنع معه المعروف من كل ما حث عليه الشرع ورغب فيه من إعانته في حوائجه والهدية له والصدقة عليه ودعوته للطعام ونصحه في الدين وعيادته عند المرض ومشاركـته الأفراح وتسليته في الأتراح ، وعليك بقراءة “الإحياء” ونحوه من الكتب ففيها كلامٌ شافٍ عن ذلك .