A Golden Rule

Here Hazrat Shaykh (رحمة الله عليه) explains a golden rule that he and his distinguished elders considered to be of the utmost importance.

There is one principal fact which our elders considered of paramount importance viz., that the rights of others which are due by you should be duly delivered and if there are any of your rights due upon others, they should not be demanded. My father [Maulana Yahya (رحمة الله عليه)] was a great protagonist of this and acted accordingly. He never used to consider what others were doing. He always used to worry about, "What should I do? What is my duty?"

The same principal will be found many times in the Malfoozaat of my late uncle Maulana Ilyas (رحمة الله عليه) as well as in the lectures of Maulana Yusuf (رحمة الله عليه). It is in fact derived from the hadith:

ليس الواصل بالمكافي ولاكن الواصل الذي إذا قطعت وصل

"The builder of good relations is not he who acts reciprocally (Acting in a friendly manner to those that befriend him), but is in fact the one who befriends those who cut themselves off from him" (Mishkat, Bukhary)

Aap Beti, Page 125