The Joy of Making Others Happy: A Pleasure That Asks for No Reward | Written on the Heart (1)

The Joy of Making Others Happy: A Pleasure That Asks for No Reward | Written on the Heart (1) What is the most beautiful feeling you have ever known? Perhaps the day you saw joy born in someone else's eyes. In the first episode of "Written on the Heart: what brings humanity together", we find this feeling in a Chinese sage nine centuries before Islam, in Medina on the day Talhah rose to congratulate Ka'b ibn Malik, in the Prophet's question to a little boy about his bird, and in a German doctor who spent twenty-five years among the prisoners of Moscow. Different nations, faiths and lands… and one feeling. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Opening 00:30 Written in Us 01:22 What Islam Added 01:59 I Will Never Forget It for Talhah 03:03 O Abu Umayr 03:27 The Doctor of Moscow 04:31 A Joy That Asks for No Reward 05:00 What We Learn Tell us in the comments, yes or no: 1. Did Talhah rise to congratulate Ka'b ibn Malik on the day his repentance was accepted? 2. Did the Prophet tease little Abu Umayr about his bird? 3. Was Dr Haass the physician to the prisons of Moscow? 📚 Sources • "Every child is born upon the fitra": Sahih al-Bukhari 1358, Sahih Muslim 2658. • "The most beloved of people to God…": al-Tabarani, al-Mu'jam al-Awsat 6026; its chain is weak, graded hasan by al-Albani through its routes (al-Silsilah al-Sahihah 906), so we present it as "reported". • "Your smile in the face of your brother is a charity": Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1956 (hasan gharib). "Do not belittle any good deed": Sahih Muslim 2626. • Ka'b ibn Malik and Talhah: Sahih al-Bukhari 4418, Sahih Muslim 2769. "O Abu Umayr, what happened to al-Nughayr?": Sahih al-Bukhari 6129, Sahih Muslim 2150. • Mencius and the child at the well: Mencius 2A:6, trans. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 2 (1861); the meaning is paraphrased. • Dr Friedrich Joseph Haass (1780–1853): A. F. Koni, Doktor Friedrich Haass (Leipzig 1899); the Dr Haass Society (haass-gesellschaft.de); Russia Beyond, "How a German doctor moved to Russia and became a saint". • The literary quotation is from "Afrah al-Ruh", the reflection on the joy of making others happy (Dar Ammar edition). • The Qur'an: 30:30. • Archival photographs: Library of Congress — Moscow c. 1890 (photochrom), exiles near Tomsk 1885, a shackled prisoner c. 1891, the Prophet's Mosque 1916 (no known restrictions on publication). 🔎 A note on honesty • The lightening of the convicts' shackles: our sources agree on it but differ on the amount, so we say "much lighter" without a figure. • The photographs of Russian prisoners and exiles are from the nineteenth century, for illustration; they are not Dr Haass's own prisoners. • Drawn scenes are artistic illustration. We do not depict the Prophet or his companions. 🎙️ Narration: an AI voice cloned from the presenter's own voice, with his permission; the Qur'anic verse is in the presenter's real voice. We came together to know one another and to talk, not to fight. #WrittenOnTheHeart #Fitra #Kindness #TheKnowledgeSeeker