“Then there is the right of your master who favors you (by...

“Then there is the right of your master who favors you (by freeing you from slavery), then the right of the slave whose favors reach you (by the fact that your free him), then the right of him who does a kindly act toward you, then the right of the mu’azzin who calls you to the ritual prayer, then the right of the Imam who leads the prayer, then the right of your sitting companion, then the right of your neighbor, then the right of your companion, then the right of your partner, then the right of your property, then the right of him who has a debt he must pay back to you, then the right of him to whom you owe a debt, then the right of your associate, then the right of your adversary who has a claim against you, then the right of your adversary against whom you have a claim, then the right of him who asks you for advice, then the right of him who asks your counsel, then the right of him who counsels you, then the right of him who is older than you, then the right of him who is younger than you, then the right of him who asks from you, then the right of him from whom you ask, then the right of him who does something evil to you through word or deed, or him who makes you happy through word or deed, intentionally or unintentionally, then the right of the people of your creed, then the right of the people under your protection, than all the rights in the measure of the causes of the states and the occurrence of events.

“Therefore happy is he whom Allah aids in the rights which He has made incumbent upon him and whom He gives success therein and points in the proper direction!” These brilliant paragraphs of the Imam’s words contain a brief display of the original rights which he, peace be on him, legislated for the Muslims. Let us now listen to Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin, peace be on him, to tell us in detail about these wonderful rights: The Rights of Allah against oneself 1.

Rights of Allah “The greatest right of Allah against you is that you worship Him without associating anything with Him.

When you do that with sincerity (ikhlas), He has made it biding upon Himself to give you sufficiency in the affair of this world and the next, and to preserve for you what you love of them.” The greatest right of Allah against His servants is that they should worship Him sincerely and should not associate anyone in worshipping Him, for this will purify their hearts from deviation and free their intellects from enslavement and dependence on other than Him.