The prophet Muhammad (saw) said:
The one who cares for a widow and a poor person is like a person performing jihad in the way of Allah, or like one who fasts all the day and stands (in prayer) all the night. (Bukhari)The above hadith tells us that among the most vulnerable people in the society with respect to the necessites of life such as food, shelter, clothing, water, and medical care are the widow, the poor, and the orphans. That is way a person who makes it a prime concern to care for their continuous daily needs merits the same great rewards as a person who fasts all day and prays all night or a person who performs jihad fi sabilillaha.
In another hadith, the prophet (saw) said:
The one who sponsors an orphan, whether it is a relative of his or not, he and i will be like these two in paradise-and the pointed with his forefinger and middle finger together (Muslim)
Thus, it is a meritorious moral virtue to care for widows, orphans and the poor, so meritorious that it deserves the mercy of Allah, and entry into paradise, That because it involves sacrificing time, money, and other luxuries for the sake of the weak in society. Today, many people find it very hard to make such sacrifices, and therefore, they neglect or careless about such vurnerable and needy people.
Further more it is a great sacrifice for a person to take care of an orphan as if they were his or her own son or daughter and to provide all the facilities that make life worth living, including tender parental love and care, while knowing that the child is not his or her own. The intention of such a person should be to please Allah (swt) and make the orphan feel well taken care of, just as the father and mother would have done if they were alive.
Thus, the person caring for the orphan helps remove the feeling of loss felt by the orphan. It is reported that the Prophet(saw) said:
Do you that your heart should become soft and that you should be successful in what you seek after? Be merciful to the orphan, stroke his or her head(gently with feelings of love and compassion) and feed him with your food. Your heart will become soft, and you will be successful in what you do (Tabrani)
The widows and the poor are also in the same category as orphans since they too are among the most vulnerable people in society. Hence, those who take orphans, widows, or the poor to live with them, but end up oppressing and mistreating them, are accountable to Allah(swt) on the Day of judgment for not taking their duties seriously and forgetting that they will be held accountable for it. Allah said:
No, but you do not honour the orphans (you neither treat them well nor give them their exact right of inheritance) And you do not urge one another to feed the poor. And you devour the inheritance with greed. And you love wealth with excessive love. (Al-Fajr:17-20)
Taking care of the needs of the weak and vulnerable in society is a moral virtue that merits our success in this world and the hereafther. In facth we are given victory in all that we do from the prayers and supplications of the weak in society.
This means whenever the weak and vulnerable are neglected and forgotten then Allah (swt) also neglects the needs of those who are considered better off, and thus we lose in all our endeavours. However, when the basic needs of the velnurable are looked into and they are happy and supplicate to Allah, then we are victorious as it was mentioned in two narrations of hadith:
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