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people are expected to be patient and moral despite the hardship and to
lead a life that will earn Allah’s good pleasure. The approach that should
be adopted toward those in want and trouble is to help without giving

offence, to protect their rights and to watch over these people in the best
way.
In true religions based on Allah’s revelation, doing good, coopera-
tion and solidarity are central to inter-human relations. Our Lord says:
… Help each other to goodness and heedfulness. Do not help each
other to wrongdoing and enmity. Have fear of Allah. Allah is severe
in retribution. (Surat al-Ma’ida: 2)
As revealed in the above verse, Muslims are obliged to make gen-
uine efforts in the cause of the good. They ponder Allah’s verse,
“Whatever good you do, Allah knows it.” (Surat an-Nisa’: 127), and
never forget that whatever they do, they will get its reward in the
Presence of our Lord Allah. In the verse below, Allah reveals that soli-

darity must be within the framework of goodness and fear of Allah and
the Qur’an also reveals what goodness is:
It is not devoutness to turn your faces to the East or to the West.
Rather, those with true devoutness are those who believe in Allah
and the Last Day, the Angels, the Book and the Prophets, and who,
despite their love for it, give away their wealth to their relatives and
to orphans and the very poor, and to travellers and beggars and to set
slaves free, and who perform prayer and give the alms; those who
honor their contracts when they make them, and are steadfast in
poverty and illness and in battle. Those are the people who are true.
They are the people who guard against evil. (Surat al-Baqara: 177)

As our Lord reveals in the Surat al-Baqara, goodness is a morality
that encompasses all aspects of a Muslim’s life as well as being an ongo-
ing state of worship. Muslims are people who help the needy and or-

Islam And Far Eastern Religions