The Book of Faith-06b

The reciter: And Zuhayr ibn Harb narrated to me, Yahya ibn Sa'id narrated to us, from Husayn al-Mu'allim, from Qatadah, from Anas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said:

The Shaykh : Which of the two is more general? Each of them is more general than the other in a certain respect. "His neighbor" includes the believer and the non-believer, while "his brother" includes the neighbor and the non-neighbor. The apparent meaning, and Allah knows best, is that "his brother" is intended, and "his neighbor" is based on the majority, which is that in the lands of Islam, the majority of neighbors are Muslims. On this basis, his saying: is more general. This hadith is a scale by which a person measures his dealings with people, meaning that you do not deal with people except with what you love for them to do to you. If we followed this, we would be in a good state. But many Muslims today love for themselves what they do not wish for their brothers; rather, they deal with their brothers in ways they hate to be dealt with. This is not justice. It came in the hadith: So deal with people in this manner, and you will find much good, comfort, and affection in the hearts of people. And if you want to deal with your brother, look to see if you love for him to deal with you in the same way or not? If so, deal with him; otherwise, do not.