The Rights of Allah vs. The Rights of the Creation

The Rights of Allah vs. The Rights of the Creation

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ was told about a lady who prayed every night, and fasted regularly, and was very generous, but she harmed her neighbors by her speech. He ﷺ replied, "There is no good in her; she is of the people of Hell." He was then asked about a lady who only prays the obligatory prayers, and gives crumbs of goat cheese as charity, but doesn't irritate her neighbors. He ﷺ replied, "She is of the people of Jannah". [Reported by al-Bukhārī in his Adab al-Mufrad]. 

From this hadith, we learn:

- harming others with one's tongue, by backbiting, and slander, and sarcastic remarks, and ridicule, is a sin that effectively nullifies almost all good deeds, the obligatory and the nafl. The fact that such a lady would end up in Jahannam *despite* all of her other good deeds is enough of a warning to be careful with respect to the rights of others. 

- being mediocre in one's worship but taking care to not transgress on the rights of other people is good enough to make it to Jannah. An average Muslim who prays and fasts minimal amounts, and avoids the major sins while not harming others has done well.

- the rights of the neighbor are extremely important in our faith, as we expect our neighbors to take care of us and protect and help us. If they betray that trust, society will suffer!

- a common misunderstanding is that *any* harm to the creation is a larger sin than *any* laziness of rituals. The issue is more complicated than that, and in this tradition the lady that ends up in Jannah was doing the bare minimum necessary to be a faithful Muslim. We can't compare the abandonment of the prayer with hurting people with one's tongue: the two are separate categories of sins. And while the abandonment of the prayer is indeed a larger sin than, say, backbiting, it is far easier for that to be forgiven if one repents, because it deals with the rights of Allah exclusively, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. On the other hand, harming others involves the rights of Allah and the rights of others, hence forgiveness is more difficult even though the gravity of the sin might be lighter than the sin of missing the rituals - so note this point since many people confuse the two aspects of gravity of sin vs. forgiveness of sin. 

- Of course, the best person is the one who fulfills the rights of Allah with perfection, and also fulfills the rights of the creation with perfection, so strive to be in that category! 

And success is sought from Allah alone!