Mariam had moved into an old residential building in Mumbai three years ago. Old wooden floors, narrow stairs, neighbours who knew one another’s business before breakfast. Next door lived Mrs. Fernandes, a retired teacher with quick eyes and quicker complaints. Most people in the building avoided her. The first week, Mrs. Fernandes scolded Mariam for slamming the door. “You don’t live in a factory,” she snapped. Mariam answered back in a sharp tone: “And you don’t live in a monastery.”
After that, they grew cold toward each other. Mariam would mutter when Mrs. Fernandes shouted about children playing or the smell of food passing through the corridor. When children ran past Mrs. Fernandes’s window and she shouted at them, Mariam rolled her eyes. She told herself she had better things to do than to put up with such an annoying woman.
Then came another situation. One of her neighbours who lived downstairs, needed a dinner set and came asking her: “If you could let me borrow your dinner set for just one evening…. A relative is visiting us with his family.”
Mariam never imagined someone could ask for such a thing. What if they broke it? she thought.
“Sorry, I don’t really have a spare dinner set,” she refused in a rude manner.
Her younger sister, Samira, had overheard the conversation. After the neighbour left gloomily, she turned to Mariam.
“Why did you lie to her? We have a dinner set we could let her borrow. And it’s not like anyone’s coming over.”
“Sure, and the next day she’ll return it cracked and say, ‘I’m so sorry, the children got careless.’ You know how that goes.” Mariam muttered.
“Don’t you know the verse of the Qur’an in which Allah has warned the people who withhold small acts of kindness in Surah Al-Maun?” Samira said in a low tone trying not to hurt her sister but making her understand was necessary.
But to Mariam, the words hit harder than she expected. That night she began realising thinking deeply what she was becoming.
Even though Mariam was a religious person, prayed five times a day and read the Qur’an regularly, she didn’t know she was missing out on such a blessing; the love of neighbours.
Next day, Mariam cooked a spicy curry that filled the corridor with its aroma. Samira, her younger sister, said: “Should we send some to Mrs. Fernandes?”
“She’d probably file a complaint if I knocked,” she replied in a low tone. The conversation last night definitely had an impact on her.
“I know you don’t really like her but could we at least try. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “He is not a believer whose neighbour goes hungry while he is full.” Samira said.
“She’d turn it down anyway, why bother taking the risk?” she muttered.
That evening, an ambulance blocked the lane. Neighbours gathered in front of the building. Mrs. Fernandes had collapsed and couldn’t get out of bed. The doctor said she’d been ill for days. At that moment, Mariam felt struck by guilt. For the first time she knew how thin the line had been between annoyance and responsibility.
She remembered the Hadith: “By Allah, she is not a believer whose neighbour is not safe from her harm.” (Sahih Al Bukhari: 6016)
Her guilt kept increasing more and more.
“Jibrael kept advising me to be good to neighbours until I thought he would make them my heirs.” (Sunan Ibn Majah: 3674) The hadiths sat heavy in her mind.
Out of desperation, she opened the Qur’an with trembling hands. It read: “Worship Allah alone and associate none with Him. And be kind to parents, relatives, orphans, the poor, near and distant neighbours, close friends, needy travellers, and those bonds-people in your possession. Surely Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful.” (4:36)
Tears ran down her face. She whispered, “O Allah, You are The Most Forgiving, please forgive me, I know that I have been wrong for a long time, please forgive me.”
That was a moment of realisation. A realisation that she had been ignoring her responsibilities even to her nearest neighbours.
She read the next ayah: “Those who are stingy, promote stinginess among people, and withhold Allah’s bounties. We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.” A cold shiver went down her spine as she read the ayah.
In an overwhelmed state she stood up and performed two rakats. She then prayed for her forgiveness and her neighbour’s health in a desperate voice while crying. “O Allah! grant me forgiveness, You are the Most Forgiving One. O Allah, you are Ash-Shafi, The Healer, please grant her a speedy recovery.”
She still felt restless;so she opened the Qur’an again. It read “Say, O Prophet, that Allah says, “O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (39:53). It felt like a burden has been removed from her mind.
Next morning, she walked to the hospital with a basket full of fruits. When she entered the ward, the old woman blinked at her in surprise. The same woman who had once snapped about a slammed door now smiled weakly. Mariam sat and put down the basket. “I’m sorry,” she said, honestly. “I could’ve done better.”
Mrs. Fernandes was still surprised. The old woman, who used to live alone and had built an invisible wall around her with years of bitterness couldn’t quite understand what the young girl was doing there.
When Mariam started cutting the fruits, she couldn’t help it and asked, “Not even my son came to visit me. Why did you come even though I bothered you a lot in the past?”
Mariam smiled heavily, “I had forgotten that my religion teaches me to think about others before I think about myself. It teaches me to be patient and forgiving and treat them with kindness and generosity. It tells me to be mindful of their feelings. In the watchful eyes of Allah, it’s better to be the one disappointed, rather than the one who disappoints.”
“I thought religion was just about rules… about rituals,” she whispered.
Mariam shook her head gently. “Rules are important. But what’s the use of prayers if they don’t make us kind to the people around us? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ showed kindness even to those who hurt him. How can I claim to follow him, and not even check on my neighbour?”
From then on, Mariam changed. She still lost her temper sometimes, she was human, but she learned to be patient. She learned that faith was not only in praying five times a day and reciting the Qur’an, but in the small acts that keep a community breathing. Modern life pushed people behind closed doors, but the Prophet ﷺ taught a different act of love: to open them.
How many of us let our kids play and shout late at night, after 9 p.m., without thinking about our neighbours who might want some quiet? And it’s not just kids – how many of us have friends over, play loud music, and laugh loudly past midnight?
You always have to protect the rights of others, over yours. Strive to do what Rasulullahﷺwould do: he always gave. When you fulfil the rights of others, you will certainly get what’s yours. Even if the others don’t give you your rights, know that Allah is All-Seeing and the All-Hearing. He will reward multiple times on the day justice will prevail and everybody will get the reward and punishment for what they did in this world.
“On that Day, people will depart separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds.So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it,and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.” Surah Az-Zalzalah (99:6-8)
Islam teaches us a way of life filled with beautiful manners and refined character. So how long will we settle for being just “good enough”? Isn’t it time we aim to be among the best in faith? The one who lives it fully, not just claim it?