Helping others is a fundamental aspect of Islam, since the teaching itself promotes peace. Apparently, helping others is the main principle that all Muslim should have obedience to. The obedience is not only achieved through prayers, yet Muslim also need to maintain their relationship with other people, that they need to take a good care of treating others. Therefore, now we are going to find out at least 15 importance of helping others in Islam.
- Allah Will Help Us
If we are helping others, Allah promises to help us in return. Imagine that, who would be a better helper to us than Allah? What else do we need after that? The promise of Allah had been told by our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the hadith below:
“Whoever relieves a believer’s distress of the distressful aspects of this world, Allah will rescue him from a difficulty of the difficulties of the Hereafter. Whoever alleviates [the situation of] one in dire straits who cannot repay his debt, Allah will alleviate his lot in both this world and in the Hereafter. Whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal [his faults] in this life and the Hereafter.
Allah is helping the servant as long as the servant is helping his brother. Whoever follows a path in order to seek knowledge thereby, Allah will make easy doe him, due to it, a path to Paradise. No people gather together in a house of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, except that tranquility descended upon them, mercy covers them, the angels surround them and Allah makes mention of them to those in His presence. Whoever is slowed by his deeds will not be hastened forward by his lineage.” (Muslim)
2. Allah Will Reward Us His Jannah
What follows the hadith above tells us that whoever believer that helps each other, they will eventually be rewarded an easy way, due to it, a path to Paradise. As it’s mentioned in the line below:
“Whoever relieves a believer’s distress of the distressful aspects of this world, Allah will rescue him from a difficulty of the difficulties of the Hereafter. Whoever alleviates [the situation of] one in dire straits who cannot repay his debt, Allah will alleviate his lot in both this world and in the Hereafter. Whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal [his faults] in this life and the Hereafter.
Allah is helping the servant as long as the servant is helping his brother.Whoever follows a path in order to seek knowledge thereby, Allah will make easy doe him, due to it, a path to Paradise. No people gather together in a house of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, except that tranquility descended upon them, mercy covers them, the angels surround them and Allah makes mention of them to those in His presence. Whoever is slowed by his deeds will not be hastened forward by his lineage.” (Muslim)
3. Let’s Avoid Allah’s Punishment
“Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness. And do not assist each other in acts of sinfulness and transgression. And be aware of Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment” (al-Maaidah:2)
The act of helping each other in a piety and righteousness is the thing that helps you to avoid Allah punishment. We, as human being, may commit some unconscious sins. To avoid Allah’s punishment and gain his forgiveness, we need to commit the act of helping each other as many time as we could. Therefore, it is very necessary for us to understand the importance of helping others. (See also: Benefits of Kindness in Islam)
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4. Having a Good Brotherhood, Having The mercy of Allah
وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَيُطِيعُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ سَيَرْحَمُهُمُ اللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
“The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give charity and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah will have mercy upon them, for Allah is Almighty and Wise.” (Qur’an 9:71)
Brotherhood actually is a faith-based community in a religion. It consists of between men an women as brothers and sisters. Living among a brotherhood is that kind of life with full of interactions and allows us to seek or give help to others. One kind of help needed is by giving charity.
c. Certainly, after doing all of then, Allah will have mercy upon us for Allah is Almighty and Wise.
5. Helping Other Muslim As We’re One
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said that all Muslim in this world is gathered into the whole one. When one of them finds any difficulties, the others might get the impact too. Because of the mechanism of ‘the-whole-one’, Muslims need to realize the importance of helping other Muslim, otherwise the life would be wasted. The embodiment once told by Our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the hadith below:
مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ مَثَلُ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى مِنْهُ عُضْوٌ تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ الْجَسَدِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى
“The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” (al-Bukhārī)
6. It’s Better to Have a Little Time Wasted
Helping other obligates you to have a little time wasted due to the productivity you achieve. In the modern era like this, we can keep helping other Muslims through the act of volunteering like raising money for the orphans and needy children or helping at the local mosque. Our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is the one who has little time to waste, otherwise it was spent doing works for Allah SWT. We need to follow what He had done so far as the act of doing good deeds.
7. What’s Better Than Competing in the Good?
Helping each other as possible as we could will be such an encouragement to ourselves in doing better things each day. Our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had utilized himself and given a tremendous effect to His followers to give their excellence deeds by helping each other. It’s once told in the hadith below:
“And those who give whatever they (have to) give while their hearts are trembling” referred to people who committed sins, he replied: “No. They are those who fast, pray, and give charity whilst fearing that (these deeds) may not be accepted (by Allah). They are those who compete with one another in good deeds” (Bukhari)
8. We Aren’t Satans Brother, Are We?
“Give to the near of kin his due, and also to the needy and the wayfarers. Do not squander your wealth wastefully; for those who squander wastefully are Satan’s brothers, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord.” (Qur’an 17:26 – 27)
The ayah above told us that if we squander our wealth wastefully, we will become Satan’s brothers. Additionally, to prevent squandering our wealth wastefully, we need to spend it wisely by helping each other throughout charity to the needy and wayfarers. We aren’t Satans brother, aren’t we?
see also: importance of blood donating in Islam
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9. Helping Others As Allah Will Reward Us Goodness
Helping others is the act of kindness. However, the act of kindness is also the main highlight in Islam as the religion of peace. Allah already told us that by spreading kindness to others, we will be rewarded with goodness in return as it is told in the hadith below:
يَا عَائِشَةُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَفِيقٌ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقَ وَيُعْطِي عَلَى الرِّفْقِ مَا لَا يُعْطِي عَلَى الْعُنْفِ وَمَا لَا يُعْطِي عَلَى مَا سِوَاهُ
“O Aisha, Allah is gentle and He loves gentleness, and He rewards for gentleness what is not granted for harshness, and He does not reward anything else like it.” (Muslim)
10. Avoiding Ourselves to Be Greedy
Allah doesn’t like someone who is so greedy, that he or she is not willing to help each other. Remember, our wealth is the blessing from Allah, that we need to be grateful for. To depict our gratefulness, we need to help others instead of being greedy by keeping the wealth for our own pleasure. Indeed, Allah doesn’t like the greedy ones, it’s told in the ayah below:
“Behold, you are those who are called upon to spend in Allah’s Way, but some of you are niggardly. Whoever is niggardly is in fact niggardly to himself. For Allah is All-Sufficient, whereas it is you who are in need of Him. If you turn away, He will replace you by a people other than you, and they will not be like you.” (Qur’an 47:38)
Besides of 10 importance of helping others I’ve pinpointed above, there are also the rest we need to know why helping others is important. There are mentioned below:
Others
- Helping others can cure our stress
- Helping others reflects our gratitude to Allah
- Helping others forbids us into the Hellfire
- Helping others helps us through our last day
- Helping others can erase our sins
Finally, there are 15 importance of helping others that we tend to forget sometimes. Now, it is the time for us to have our own self-realization and start doing a good deed like helping others in needs. May peace be always upon us!