Worship God alone and do not associate with Him any partners. Do good to your parents, to near of kin, to orphans, and to the needy, and to the neighbour who is of kin and to the neighbour who is a stranger, and to the companion by your side, and to the wayfarer, and to those whom your right hands possess. Allah does not love the arrogant and the boastful.
(The Qur’an 4:36)
The ayah gives a clear commandment to worship God alone and a clear prohibition against associating partners with Him. This is followed by an order to extend kind treatment to certain groups of one’s immediate family and of the human family at large. Then there is emphasis on doing good go to orphans, the needy and neighbours. Neighbours may be one’s kin or strangers.
The expression al-sahib bi al-janb (the companion by your side) embraces those with whom one has friendly relations as well as those with whom one’s relationship is transient: for instance, either the person who walks beside one on the way to the market or who sits beside one while buying things from the same shop or one’s fellow traveller.
Even this temporary relationship imposes certain claims on every decent person – that he should treat him, as far as possible, in a kind and gracious manner and avoid causing him any inconvenience.
Thenayahdenounces conceit and arrogance, miserliness, suppression of God’s favours, boastfulness and showing off. All these are attributed to one basic cause, namely, lack of faith in God and the Day of Judgement.