guest who?

Last weekend, I'd a wonderful person stayed at my place for a few days. We had such a great time alhamdulillah though the weather was truly unpredictable, from light shower with hot sunny intervals to gloomy cloudy days. She was the best guest ever! (She must be proud if she read this ahaks) Easygoing, up for anything and just happy to be hanging out together. Thank you Allah for this lovely ukhuwwah, hope you're doing good now that you don't have to walk (nor run) miles and miles just to catch the bus! ^_^

We saw beautiful landscapes of sea coast, lakes and lush greenery nature; enjoyed rowboat on the lake, window-shopped till drop, played frisbee until tired, stayed up late for comfy pillow-talk, cycled to the bay and the most important bits of all would be captured hundreds of professional-like pictures. Thanks for the memories! I'm a happy bunny =)

I remember that our great Prophet teaches us to be generous and how to entertain guests. He wants a Muslim to show gratitude. The Messenger of Allah further guides us by saying: "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should be hospitable with his or her guests." Hence, we must tend our guest the best as we can.

We deduce from both the Prophet’s verbal declarations and practices that it is a very important moral principle for Muslims to entertain guests and to treat them well. In the Holy Quran Allah has mentioned about Hazrat Ibrahim’s treatment of guests. When guests came he sent a message home to have a meal prepared. He didn’t wait to see if they had come from far, whether they were hungry, or whether they had already eaten. He immediately had food prepared for them. This is how Allah’s chosen ones honour their guests. Our Holy Prophet Muhammad set such high standards of hospitality that cannot be seen anywhere else.

There's even a hadith says:

“A guest comes with his bounties and becomes a means for the sins of the hosts to be forgiven before he leaves.” InsyaAllah. This shows the importance of following the sunnah of the Honorable Messenger (pbuh). May Allah give us the capability to look after our guests to our best capacity so they suffer no hardship. Ameen.