Abu Sirmah Maalik ibn Qais (Radia-Allaah ‘anhu) narrated that Allaah’s Messenger (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said:
“ مَنْ ضَارَّ ضَارَّ اللَّهُ بِهِ وَمَنْ شَاقَّ شَاقَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ”
“Whoever causes harm, Allaah harms him, and whoever causes hardship to others, Allaah will cause hardship to him.”
Comments:
This Hadeeth proves two principles of the Shari’ah:
First principle: Retribution is in accordance with the action; good and bad. This is from the Wisdom of Allaah for which He is praised, just like,
- Whosoever does what Allaah loves, Allaah loves him, and whosoever does something which Allaah hates, Allaah hates him.
- Whosoever makes something easy for a Muslim, Allaah makes his affairs easy for him in this world and the Hereafter.
- Whosoever removes a worldly distress from a believer, Allaah will remove one of the distresses from him on the Day of Judgment.
- Allaah helps His slave so long as the slave helps his brother.
- Similarly, whosoever harms a Muslim will be harmed by Allaah.
- Whosoever plots/ deceives a Muslim, Allaah plots against him.
- Whosoever makes things difficult for a Muslim, Allaah makes things difficult for him.
There are many more examples that fall under this principle.
Second principle: Prohibition of harming and reciprocating harm because “There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm.” And this includes all types of harm.
Harm can be of two kinds.
- Missing any good (benefit) or interest
- Suffering a loss/ harm in any form
It is not permissible to make an undeserving person suffer harm; rather one should be careful that he does not inflict harm on others in any form. Included in this are:
a) Fraud or deceit in one’s dealings or transactions, hiding flaws (deception) in the dealings, cheating, and Najash (i.e., offering a higher price than another brother’s offer in order to allure the seller), meeting a caravan (for a business transaction while they are on their way to another business transaction), urging someone to return what he has already bought from another seller so as to sell him your goods, and similarly, urging someone to sell you something for which a sale has already been agreed upon with another brother. The same applies to rent and all other transactions, including proposing marriage to a woman while a proposal of his brother is pending with the same woman, and so forth. All of these are prohibited harms.
Allaah does not bless any dealing of this kind because whosoever harms a Muslim, Allaah harms him – and whosoever Allaah harms, he is prevented from any good and evil approaches him – this is what his hands have earned.
b) Also included in this is a companion hurting his companion, a neighbor hurting his neighbor, either by words or actions. Indeed, it is not permissible for him to do something on his own property that might harm his neighbor, let alone directly hurt his neighbor!
c) Included in this is harming an opponent or debtor and seeking dealings that harm his opponent.
d) Similarly, there should be no harm when one prepares a will, as Allaah says in Surat An-Nisaa’ (4:12):
مِنْ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصَىٰ بِهَا أَوْ دَيْنٍ غَيْرَ مُضَارٍّ ۚ
“…after the fulfillment of bequests and debts without harm to the heirs.”
– such that one heir is given more than what is legislated for him, or he is given less than his right, or someone other than the rightful heir is given with the intent to cause harm to the heirs.
e) Similarly, it is not allowed to harm one’s wife in any way, like to treat her with harshness to make her ransom herself by giving away part of her Mahr (i.e. bridal money given by the husband at the time of marriage) or to take her back after the first or second divorce with the purpose of harming her, or to incline toward one of two wives (by giving her more of his time and provision) so as to leave the other hanging (i.e., neither divorced nor married).
f) Being unfair and biased towards one person in rulings, attestation, or division in order to bring benefit to one of the two – All of this is included in harming and its doer deserves punishment and harm from Allaah.
g) More severe than this is to cause trouble amongst people, especially those in power; for this might cause the people to sustain a bad consequence, such as their wealth will be taken away, or they’ll be prohibited from their rights. Whosoever does this is an aggressor, and he should expect Allaah’s punishment sooner or later.
h) Also included in this is the Prophet’s (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) prohibition to graze sick camels with healthy ones[]. This is because of the harm it contains (i.e., the spread of infection/ disease) or to put a sick person with a healthy person (as a precaution). Similarly, a person afflicted with leprosy and other diseases is prohibited from mingling with the people.
This and other similar acts are included in the saying of Allaah in Surat Al-Ahzaab (33:58):
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ بِغَيْرِ مَا اكْتَسَبُوا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلُوا بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
“As for those who harm believing men and women unjustifiably, they will definitely bear the guilt of slander and blatant sin.”
- He (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) prohibited scaring a Muslim even if it be for the purpose of fun – and from amongst this is mocking the creation and making fun of them, slandering them, and causing enmity amongst them – all of this is included in causing harm and harshness which necessitates punishment.
- And as the Hadeeth under discussion clearly verbalizes: Whosoever causes hardship to others, Allaah will cause hardship to him, and its understanding proves that whosoever removes a harm and difficulty from a Muslim, Allaah will bring forth good for him and dispel harm and difficulty from him as a reward/ retribution whether it is related to his own self or to others.
- Anyone who deceives a person or plots to harm or harass him, will fall victim to delusion and deceit, since it has been said that anyone who digs a well for another, eventually falls into it himself.
Source:
Bahjat Quloob Al-Abraar wa Qurratu Uyoon Al-Akhiyaar, by Shaikh ‘Abdur-Rahmaan As-Sa’di
Commentary on Hadeeth from Jami’e At-Tirmidhi by Darus-Salaam
