With the Hadith
Preference and Charity
We greet you all, dear friends, everywhere, in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith," and we begin with the best greeting: Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
It was mentioned in Fath al-Bari, commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani - with modification - in the chapter: No charity except from surplus wealth:
Musa bin Ismail narrated to us, who said: Wohaib narrated to us, who said: Hisham narrated to us, from his father, from Hakim bin Hizam, may God be pleased with him, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: "The upper hand is better than the lower hand, and start with those you support, and the best charity is from surplus wealth, and whoever seeks chastity, God will make him chaste, and whoever seeks wealth, God will enrich him."
Dear listeners:
An important message conveyed by this hadith is based on the preference between the giver and the taker. The giver is not like the taker, for goodness belongs to the one who deals with people and with life and does not accept to withdraw or to ask people. Omar, may God be pleased with him, resisted those people who stayed in the mosque and said, "We rely on God," so he scolded them and said to them: "You are the ones who rely on others, for the sky does not rain gold or silver." Worship is not just seclusion in the mosque; rather, Islam is a religion that calls for worship, honor, work, dignity, and sacrifice, and does not stop at seclusion. Islam has a right upon us in our necks that we must fulfill.
O Muslims:
If the upper hand in giving is better than the lower hand in asking, then what if this hand is in understanding, comprehension, and awareness? The one who understands the matters of his religion and his world and cares about the affairs of Muslims and their conditions and what happens to them is better than the one who accepts silence, the bitter reality, and seclusion. If their hands remain lower, how can they ask God to change their condition and reality without rising, understanding, and working?
O God, hasten for us a righteous caliphate on the Prophetic model, gathering the scattered Muslims, lifting from them what they are in of affliction. O God, illuminate the earth with the light of Your generous face.
O God, Amen, Amen.
Our dear friends, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
Written for the radio by: Abu Maryam