The Responsibilities of a Muslim Brother / Sister
Prepared By: Shamsuddin Bolatito.
FOR:INTERNATIONAL MUSLIM YOUTHS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. These responsibilities are obligations to himself or herself, family, and community. It is:
My honest brothers [and sisters], your pledge (bai’ah) requires you to carry out the following duties. Once you have done so, you will be strong and hard as a rock.
1. Recite the Qur’an, at least a juz (1/30 of the Qur’an) daily. You should finish a reading of the whole Qur’an in no more than a month and no less than three days.
2. Improve your Qur’anic recitation by listening to good reciters and taking lessons in recitation. Set aside some time to study the life history of the Prophet (sirah), and the history of Muslims. You should read a lot of books, but a Humatul Islam is a must. Also, you should read a lot of ahadith and memorize at least forty, if possible, from the collection of Imam AI-Nawawi. Last but not least, you should study the basics of Islamic faith (aqidah), Islamic law (fiqh) and its branches.
3. Have a medical check-up regularly and have a doctor check any ailment. You should take care of your strength and refrain from anything that will harm your body.
4. Avoid excessive use of coffee, tea and other caffeinated drinks, and abstain from smoking.
5. Practice cleanliness in every aspect of your life, e.g., house, clothing, food, body, and work place. As a matter of fact, Islam has been built on cleanliness.
6. Speak the truth and never lie even once.
7. Fulfill your promises and commitments and do not resort to lame excuses.
8. Be brave and wise. Bravery requires one to talk frankly about what is true and right, to keep secrets, to admit one’s faults, to be aware of oneself, and to keep oneself from getting angry.
9. Be serious but your seriousness should not stop you from enjoying jokes and laughing.
10. Be modest, careful, and sensitive to good and bad things by expressing your happiness when experiencing good and gratitude when encountering bad. You should ask for a less prominent position, although you deserve or have a higher one.
11. Be fair in judging according to sound evidence. Your anger should not make you ignore the good in others and your blessings should not make you forget the bad in others. You should speak the truth even to yourself and to your closest friends, even though it may be painful to do so.
12. Be active in community service. You should bee happy when you have a chance to help others by visiting a sick person, helping the needy, and offering charity.
13. Exhibit sympathy, generosity, and forgiveness. You should be tolerant, flexible, and gentle. You should be kind to human beings and animals, have good relations with the community, preserve the courtesies of Islam, be gentle when talking with young people, respect elders, give up a seat to those who need it more, respect others privacy, and neither condemn nor insult others.
14. Improve your reading and writing skills; increase your knowledge of the Islamic events by reading to widen your horizons. Read newspapers and magazines. You should have a personal library even if it is a small one. You must increase your knowledge both generally and in your specially if you have one. You must be able to understand the problems concerning Muslims in sufficient depth to develop your own solutions in accordance with our ideology.
15. Work to earn money no matter how rich you are. Give priority to ordinary jobs even though their pay is small, and also give your full attention to this kind of job no matter how high your qualifications are.
16. Do not work in the government, but do not reject an offer of work in the government, even though the pay is poor, and do not quit unless the work is against Islam.
17. If you are given a job, work wholeheartedly, and honestly.
18. Demand and respect the rights of your brother and yourself.
19. Avoid gambling and unlawful sources of income.
20. Do not take interest (riba) in any, dealings and you must avoid the circumstances that may lead to it.
21. Contribute to the material gains encouraged by Islam by promoting private industry, especially Muslim-owned and employee-owned enterprises.
22. Support da’wah by contributing some of your wealth to the Islamic movement / Organization around you. You must pay the minimally established amount of zakat on your assets because this is the right of those who should receive it if you are able to do so.
23. Keep a small amount of your income for emergency use. Never overspend on luxury goods.
24. Strive as far as you can to keep alive the beneficial practices of true Islamic culture and eliminate secular culture in your daily conduct. Some of these practices are to greet everyone with salaam, speak the Arabic language, read the sirah, wear modest clothing, maintain regular hours of work, and rest, observe the rules of eating and drinking, and follow the etiquettes of visiting, in accordance with the sunnah of the Prophet (s).
25. Avoid all newspapers, magazines, clubs, gatherings, and schools that oppose the principles of Islam, unless your reading and activities in such prohibited institutions are designed only to promote the good and oppose the bad.
26. Always remember Allah, the Almighty, and the Day of judgments. You should look for every means to seek the blessing of Allah, the Almighty, with high spirit and self esteem. You should always seek to be closer to Allah through voluntary prayer such as night prayer (qiyam al-layl), and fasting at least three days a month. You should use the supplications of the Prophet, (s).
27. When you clean yourself, always follow the rules and regulations. Always maintain wudu (ablution).
28. When you perform the daily prayers, do so on time, and always fulfill the rules. Pray in congregation and at the mosques as much as possible.
29. Observe the fast of Ramadan and go on the hajj as soon as you have the means.
30. Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr. You should be ready for this right now, even though its time may not have come yet.
31. Regularly renew your repentance, ask for Allah’s forgiveness, and avoid every kind of sin. You should set aside a special time to evaluate yourself before going to bed every night. Always keep track of your time because time means life. Do not misuse your time. Always fear Allah guarding yourself against evil, and keeping away from dubious things so as not to fall into doing the unlawful (haram) things.
32. Avoid lustful thoughts, emotions, and occasions of sin, for example, by restraining your gaze from haram things, urging your emotions to focus on good deeds, and keeping your heart and desires away from all that is forbidden.
33. Do not eat or socialize where alcohol is used and consumed.
34. Do not take immoral people as friends and avoid all places that may lead to sin, such as bars.
35. Avoid all evil forms and places of entertainment, and in general, avoid the environment of arrogant and extravagant luxury.
36. Get to know every member of your immediate Muslim community by introducing yourself to those you do not know. Fulfill the rights of brotherhood as much as you can by showing love and appreciation, by mutual help and giving preference to others and by attending the movement’s gatherings wherever possible.
37. Dissociate yourself from every gathering or organization that opposes your ideological standpoint, especially when the Islamic Organization or Duat ( Islamic preacher) near you asks you to do so.
38. Spread the message of Islam everywhere you go. Keep the leadership informed about all you see that is relevant to its mission, and avoid any actions that might hurt or weaken your leaders and the movement. Always maintain good relations with your direct superior in the leadership. Regard yourself as a soldier in battle ready to go on duty at any time.
39. Make frequent use of the following supplication known as the wird al rabitah (or supplication of commitment). First, read the following verse carefully:
Say: O Allah! Lord of Power (and Rule), You give power to whom You please, and You strip off power from whom You please. You endow with honor whom You please, and You bring low whom You please. In Your hand is all good. Verily, over all things You have power. You cause the night to gain on the day, and You cause the day to gain on the night. You bring the living out of dead, and You bring the dead out of the living, and You give sustenance to whom You please, without measure. [Qur'an 3:26-27]
Then say the following supplication:
O Allah, this is the arrival of Your night and the departure of Your day. Please forgive me.
After that bring to mind the face of your closest brother and try to feel a spiritual relationship between you and him and with others whom you do not know, and make the following supplication:
O Allah, indeed you know that these souls have agreed to love you, to obey you, to cooperate in spreading Your message, and have promised to support and apply your law (shari’ah). O Allah, strengthen our relationship, make our love last, and show us the right way. Fulfill these souls with Your light that never diminishes, expand our souls with the blessings of faith in You, for in You we believe. Enlighten these souls with Your understanding and let us die as martyrs by fighting in Your cause, for indeed You are the best Protector and Helper. O Allah, fulfill these requests, bestow Your blessings and peace on Prophet Muhammad (s), and his family, and his companions.
[ FROM: Imam Hasan AI-Banna Risalat Ta'alim]
The Characteristics of People who live for Islam
Those who live by Islam and for Islam must follow the teachings of Islam, so that its patterns is their lives are distinguishable form the non-Islamic patterns of others. A life committed to Islam is:
1. Action-Oriented
Commitment to practical action is essential because faith is not mere idea by it is rooted in your heart so that its truthfulness can be proved by action. Allah, the Almighty, has said:
Verily man is loss, except such as have faith and do good works. [Qur'an 103:2-3]
Do you enjoin right conduct on people, and forget (to practice it) yourselves, and yet you study the Book? Will you not understand? [Qur'an 3:44]
Grievously odious is it in the sight of Allah that you do not practice what you preach. [Qur'an 61:3]
Al-Ghazali said: “Two men bring disaster to me, a virtuous man with his falsehood and an ignorance man with his adoration. The latter dupes people with his adoration and the former dupes people with his falsehood.” The prophet (s) reminded the believers:
Be a person who practices wisdom and not one who merely talks about it.
2. Problem-Oriented
A committed activist is aware of problems encountered by other Muslims and joins them in seeking solution. The Prophet (s) said:
Move together with the book of Allah wherever it takes (You).
Whoever does not pay special attention to the problems of Muslims, is not one of us.
You are a corner of the corners of Islam, so don’t let it be attacked from your corner.
In the battle of Uhud, Saad Ibn Al-Rabie died with 70 wounds on his body. Just before he died, he said to Zaid ibn Thabit: “Verily, I have smelt the aroma of Paradise. Tell the Ansar that Allah will honor His promises to those who are sincere toward the Prophet (s) and are able to catch his attention.” Then Allah took his soul.
3. Honorable in the Defense of Truth
Pride in one’s faith is one of the characteristics of the Believers. Allah, the Almighty, has said:
But honor belongs to Allah and His Messenger, and to the Believers. [Qur'an 63:8]
So lose not heart, nor fall into despair, for you must gain mastery if you are true in faith. [Qur'an 3:139]
It has been narrated that the Believers who were migrating to Ethiopia to gain freedom of religion met the King of Ethiopia, Al Najashi. One of the priests who was there with Al-Najashi started the discussion with the Believers by commanding: “Bow to the King (AI-Najashi). “Ja’afar ibn Abi Talib, who was the leader of the Believers, answered: “We are a group of people who never bow except to Allah.”
The history of Islam is full of anecdotes that show the early Muslims to be excellent in morals, and superb and courageous in action. These have been recorded by members of the first Islamic generation, for example, AI-Khubaib ibn ‘Udai, Zaid ibn Ad-Dathanah, Rub’ie ibn ‘Amir, Masaab ibn ‘Urnair, Said ibn jubair, and Said ibn Musaiyid. We should be well advised to study their history, scrutinize their life stories and follow in their footsteps.
4. Movement-Oriented
A person who lives for Islam will work with other like-minded people. Believing in Islam means to work in solidarity with others in an activist movement, directed toward teaching the truths of Islam, enjoining right and combatting wrong, establishing the Islamic personality and family, and establishing the Islamic community with Islamic governance. Allah, the almighty, has said:
[Allah to Moses], “We will certainly strengthen your arm through your brother.” [Qur'an 28:35]
Help one another in righteousness and piety, but help not one another in sin and rancor. [Qur'an 5:2]
The Prophet (s) said:
A Muslim working with another Muslim may be compared to a strong building. Everybody is reinforcing each other.
Allah’s help is with the community. Verily, a fox will eat only a sheep who is away from the community.
You must be with the Muslim community and their leader.
Togetherness is a blessing and disunity is destruction.
