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Allamah Nawawi [ra] is commencing a discussion of the rights of the servants
(of Allah) in the light of these verses and the traditions of the Holy Prophet I
have already mentioned repeatedly that “the Rights of the servants are a very
important branch of religion. Its importance lies in the fact that “the Rights
of Allah” may be pardoned by repentance. If God forbid - some negligence ever
occurs in the matter of Allah’s rights, it is very easy to remedy this
negligence by means of repentance and seeking Allah’s pardon with a feelings of
remorse and regret. The negligence can thus be remedied. As for the rights of
the servants, if they are violated, they are not pardoned by repentance and
feelings of remorse and regret and by seeking pardon, unless the usurped rights
are restored to the right-holders or the latter willingly forgoe their rights in
his favour. Therefore the matter of rights of people is a matter of serious
consideration. |
Negligence in the matter of the Rights
Serious indeed is the subject of the rights of the servants of Allah, yet equally serious is the negligence of people towards this subject in our society. There are only a few aspects of worship that we have taken as Deen (Faith), e.g. Prayer, Fasting, Hajj, Zakat, Remembrance, Recitation of the Holy Qur’an, the recital of some sacred names or words. We regard these items as Deen but we have excluded from Deen the Rights of the servants; similarly we have also excluded from Deen the rights concerning social living. One who is negligent in the discharge of these rights does not feel that he is committing any serious offence.