Moulana Mehmood ul Hasan RA was the first student of Darul Uloom Deoband. After graduation he spent his entire life teaching there and was eventually appointed to the eminent post of Sheikh ul Hadith. When he was working as Sheikh ul Hadith the administration of Darul Uloom felt that his salary was too low relative to his status, his contributions and his knowledge, and also that he had no other source of income and his needs were increasing. So the administration increased his salary and a notice was issued to that effect.
The person who took this notice to Moulana must have thought that he would be happy to hear it. To his surprise Moulana got distressed after hearing this and wrote a letter to the Darul Uloom admin which said; "I have come to know that the Darul Uloom is increasing my salary. This is a source of worry to me as because of my increasing age and other commitments my hours of teaching have been reduced. What should have happened is that the administration should have considered reducing my salary rather than increasing it. I am requesting that this salary increase please be reversed and consideration should be given to reducing my salary in accordance with my reduced hours."
In this day something like this is unthinkable but Moulana genuinely believed that the increase in salary would be unjustified considering his reduced teaching hours. Because there used to be many people in those days who were very conscientious about their duty hours because they believed that as they were being paid for that time it was not permissible to use that time for any other activity.
In the Madrassah established by Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi in Thana Bhawan if any teacher got a personal visitor during teaching hours they noted the duration of their visit in their diary. At the end of a month they summed up all those times and requested admin to deduct that much pay from their salary.
Today we have all sorts of associations and unions for getting Rights for different groups of people. Everyone wants to ensure that they get as many benefits as possible in the name of their rights. But most people don't realise that rights are always complementary to Responsibilities. One person's rights are almost always someone else's responsibilities, for example an employee's rights are the employer's responsibilities, a child's rights are the parent's responsibilities, a citizen's rights are the government's responsibilities. But no association or union has ever been formed to ensure that its members discharge their responsibilities fully towards another group of people.
Islamic teachings are different in the sense that rather than focusing on rights they focus on responsibilities and make people focus on whether they are fulfilling their responsibilities to others fully. It is a whole belief system. If I believe that there is a God and that there is going to be a Day of Judgment (Aakhira) when I will have to answer for all my responsibilities and to atone for those I didn't fulfil, then it automatically leads to the thought that even if I hide my failure to fulfil my responsibilities in this world, or simply don't care whether I have carried them out or not, still there is going to be a day when I will have to answer for my unfulfilled responsibilities. Once this thought becomes sufficiently strong then a person's whole focus changes from whether he has received all his rights to whether he has discharged all his responsibilities. That is when people become careful that what they receive in compensation for their responsibilities does not overweigh the responsibilities they have carried out as that excess income would be hara'am (impermissible) for them. This is the thought that makes people ask for reduction in salary or deduction for time spent in personal activities.
If this thought process become prevalent in society then everyone would automatically start getting their rights and we will see far less abuse of rights. One person's rights are some other person's responsibilities, when the first person discharges their responsibilities fully then the rights of those related to him will be secured automatically. If a husband fulfils his obligations to his wife then the wife would get all her rights, if the wife fulfils her obligations the husband would get his rights, if a boss fulfils his obligations his subordinates would get their rights, and if the subordinates carry out their responsibilities the boss would have his rights fulfilled.
But as stated above this balance of rights and responsibilities depends on a firm belief in Allah SWT and the Day of Judgment. If I can usurp someone's rights to my own advantage and believe I can get away with it, what is there to stop me from doing it? But if I believe that there is a higher being who is watching me and knows everything that I am doing, even when no one else in the world knows about it, and that one day I will have to answer to that higher being for everything I have done then it is likely that I will behave quite differently.
Based on a write-up of the same title by Mufti Taqi Usmani RA.
The person who took this notice to Moulana must have thought that he would be happy to hear it. To his surprise Moulana got distressed after hearing this and wrote a letter to the Darul Uloom admin which said; "I have come to know that the Darul Uloom is increasing my salary. This is a source of worry to me as because of my increasing age and other commitments my hours of teaching have been reduced. What should have happened is that the administration should have considered reducing my salary rather than increasing it. I am requesting that this salary increase please be reversed and consideration should be given to reducing my salary in accordance with my reduced hours."
In this day something like this is unthinkable but Moulana genuinely believed that the increase in salary would be unjustified considering his reduced teaching hours. Because there used to be many people in those days who were very conscientious about their duty hours because they believed that as they were being paid for that time it was not permissible to use that time for any other activity.
In the Madrassah established by Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi in Thana Bhawan if any teacher got a personal visitor during teaching hours they noted the duration of their visit in their diary. At the end of a month they summed up all those times and requested admin to deduct that much pay from their salary.
Today we have all sorts of associations and unions for getting Rights for different groups of people. Everyone wants to ensure that they get as many benefits as possible in the name of their rights. But most people don't realise that rights are always complementary to Responsibilities. One person's rights are almost always someone else's responsibilities, for example an employee's rights are the employer's responsibilities, a child's rights are the parent's responsibilities, a citizen's rights are the government's responsibilities. But no association or union has ever been formed to ensure that its members discharge their responsibilities fully towards another group of people.
Islamic teachings are different in the sense that rather than focusing on rights they focus on responsibilities and make people focus on whether they are fulfilling their responsibilities to others fully. It is a whole belief system. If I believe that there is a God and that there is going to be a Day of Judgment (Aakhira) when I will have to answer for all my responsibilities and to atone for those I didn't fulfil, then it automatically leads to the thought that even if I hide my failure to fulfil my responsibilities in this world, or simply don't care whether I have carried them out or not, still there is going to be a day when I will have to answer for my unfulfilled responsibilities. Once this thought becomes sufficiently strong then a person's whole focus changes from whether he has received all his rights to whether he has discharged all his responsibilities. That is when people become careful that what they receive in compensation for their responsibilities does not overweigh the responsibilities they have carried out as that excess income would be hara'am (impermissible) for them. This is the thought that makes people ask for reduction in salary or deduction for time spent in personal activities.
If this thought process become prevalent in society then everyone would automatically start getting their rights and we will see far less abuse of rights. One person's rights are some other person's responsibilities, when the first person discharges their responsibilities fully then the rights of those related to him will be secured automatically. If a husband fulfils his obligations to his wife then the wife would get all her rights, if the wife fulfils her obligations the husband would get his rights, if a boss fulfils his obligations his subordinates would get their rights, and if the subordinates carry out their responsibilities the boss would have his rights fulfilled.
But as stated above this balance of rights and responsibilities depends on a firm belief in Allah SWT and the Day of Judgment. If I can usurp someone's rights to my own advantage and believe I can get away with it, what is there to stop me from doing it? But if I believe that there is a higher being who is watching me and knows everything that I am doing, even when no one else in the world knows about it, and that one day I will have to answer to that higher being for everything I have done then it is likely that I will behave quite differently.
Based on a write-up of the same title by Mufti Taqi Usmani RA.
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