Bringing joy to Muslims

The Sheikh tells the hadith of the man who had wronged himself, went down a well and drank, then found a dog panting and licking the moist earth from thirst; he went down again, filled his shoe with water, held it in his mouth as he climbed and gave the dog to drink, and God forgave him; he mentions 'guard against the Fire, even with half a date'. ^{1 2 3} He sets it against the hadith of the woman who entered the Fire over a cat she confined, and asks: what then of one who withholds good from whole nations and peoples? ¹

He holds that bringing joy to Muslims is a duty in these days, and that whoever wants God to relieve his hardship should relieve people, giving the example of a director who announces a pay rise for Ramadan and is blessed by his staff, reminding him that he gives from God's wealth; he calls for defending a Muslim's honour when someone attacks it. ^{3 4}

He warns against 'the behaviour of flies', which settle only on wounds, and the manners of the beetle that suffocates in a heap of roses and revives in a dunghill, likening to them people who love gatherings of gossip and are bored by gatherings of remembrance. ^{4 5}