Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 241would not approve of people moving out of an afflictedtown into another, for this serves to enlarge the area ofthe pestilence. He used to say that in times of epidemicif a person stayed on in his own town and refrained fromcarrying infection into unaffected areas and died of theepidemic, he would be regarded as a martyr (Bukhari,Kitabut Tibb).MUTUAL COOPERATIONHe used to teach that one of the best Islamiccharacteristics was that a man should not interfere inmatters with which he was not concerned and thatpeople should not go about criticizing others andinterfering in matters that were not their concern. Thisis a principle which if generally adopted and enforcedwould go a long way towards securing peace andorderliness in the world. A large part of our troubles isdue to the tendency of the majority of people to indulgein undue interference and to hold back their cooperationwhen it may be needed in providing relief forthose in distress.The Holy Prophet sa laid great stress upon mutualcooperation. He had made it a rule that if any personwas called upon to pay a sum of money by way ofpenalty and was unable to put up the whole amount, hisneighbours or his fellow-citizens or his fellow-tribesmenshould make up the amount by raising a subscription.People sometimes came and took up their residencenear the Prophet sa , devoting their time to the service ofIslam in various ways. He always counselled theirrelatives to assume the responsibility of providing fortheir modest requirements. It is reported by Anas ra thatduring the time of the Holy Prophet sa two brothersaccepted Islam and one of them stayed on with the HolyProphet sa while the other continued with his normaloccupation. The latter, later on, complained to the HolyProphet sa that his brother was spending his time in