Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
The rights of neighbors include the following:
1- To greet him/her when you meet him/her.
2- To ask about him/her.
3- To visit him/her when they are sick.
4- To console him/her when he/she is afflicted with calamity.
5- To condole him/her when any of his/her relatives passes away.
6- To congratulate him/her on happy occasions.
7- To share him/her his/her joys and pains.
8- To forgive him/her when he/she does wrong to you.
9- To keep away from infringing on his/her privacy.
10- To guide him/her to what he/she is ignorant about.
11- To lower your gaze from his/her female household.
12- Not to bother him/her in any way; for example by putting dirty stuff in front of his/her home.
Answering your question about the rights of neighbors, we would like to state the following:
First of all, you should know that Islam lays much emphasis on keeping good relations with neighbors, as it warns against severing ties of kinship.
Islam teaches Muslims to take themselves as brothers and sisters in faith; the Quran states: “The Believers are but a single Brotherhood.” (Al-Hujurat 49:10)
And the Prophet (peace be upon him) stressed the rights of neighbor in many of his sayings; among them are the following:
a- Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) quoted the Prophet as saying: “Whoever believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should either speak good words or keep silent; whoever believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should treat his neighbor with kindness; and whoever believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should show hospitality to his guest.” (Muslim)
b- Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) quoted the Prophet as saying: “Gabriel impressed upon me kind treatment towards the neighbor so much that I thought he would confer upon him the right of inheritance.”? (Al-Bukhari)
c- Abu Hurairah quoted the Prophet as saying: “He will not enter Paradise, a person whose neighbor is not secure from his ill conduct.?” (Muslim)
Severing ties of neighborhood and showing ill conduct to them is highly condemned in Islam. It is reported that a man came to Ibn Masud (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: “I have a neighbor that hurts me, call me names, and bothers me so much.” Thereupon Ibn Masud said to him: “Go back and observe Allah’s duty in him as he did observe it.”
And once the Prophet was informed about a woman who used to fast the daytime and pray at night, yet she used to show ill conduct to her neighbors. The Prophet remarked: “She will enter the Hell-fire.”
Rights of Neighbors
Among the duties you owe your neighbor are:
1- To greet him/her when you meet him/her.
2- To ask about him/her.
3- To visit him/her when they are sick.
4- To console him/her when he/she is afflicted with calamity.
5- To condole him/her when any of his/her relatives passes away.
6- To congratulate him/her on happy occasions.
7- To share him/her his/her joys and pains.
8- To forgive him/her when he/she does wrong to you.
9- To keep away from infringing on his/her privacy.
10- To guide him/her to what he/she is ignorant about.
11- To lower your gaze from his/her female household.
12- Not to bother him/her in any way; for example by putting dirty stuff in front of his/her home.
Thus, we advise you, dear sister in Islam, to keep good relations with your neighbors and friends. Don’t think it right to live alone; you will meet a time when you feel in a bad need of those who could help you, and at that time the neighbor will be the first to rush for your help.
Don’t incur on you the punishment of severing ties of neighborhood as clear in the hadiths mentioned above.
Bear in mind that neighborliness is also next to godliness. Try to start a new leaf and build good relations and strong contact with your neighbors and friends.
By so doing, Muslims will become stronger and united and thus be able to confront difficulties and calamities.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.