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Do Not Aid an Oppressor | Khutbah
The Prophet ﷺ warned us against aiding an oppressor in any fashion. In this khutbah, we cover some of the categories of complicity that we may sometimes fail to consider and the ways in which we can consistently support our brothers and sisters in Palestine, East Turkestan, and around the world.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, I thought about what a khutba to a convention about Palestine looks like and I realized that there are multiple routes that we can take when discussing the issue of Palestine and the issue of any cause that involves oppression. And I'm going to make the assumption that anyone here already understands the sanctity of this cause. Anyone here already understands and is willing to take time out and to organize for this cause either because it is one that you have personally experienced in some capacity or one that you have a deeply held belief in that you would otherwise not be connected to except for your humanity or your deen or something else that urged you to come to this convention on Palestine and to be a part of this cause. And so I'm going to forego that based on those assumptions and challenge us a little bit. And when I say challenge us a little bit, I want us to think about this cause in the capacity not just of what we can do for Palestine, what we can do for this cause and for the cause of oppressed peoples, but what we must make sure we don't do that would compromise the cause. You know when you talk about taskiyatun nafs, when you talk about spiritual purification in your journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it's more about what you don't do than it is about what you do do. What I mean by that is that on the day of judgment, it is sins that will corrupt a person and that will ultimately doom a person, not their lack of nawafid, their lack of voluntary deeds. Meaning on the day of judgment, you would have more to fear from your sins versus not having prayed more qiyamul layl or not having given extra in terms of your charity.
Because the baseline is that your nafs is to be purified, taskiyatun, to be purged of the things that could possibly take it away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Otherwise, in its nature, it is on its way back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when we talk about adh-dhulm, when we talk about the idea of oppression, and that's what I do want to talk about today, and wrongdoing, we usually approach it from whoever amongst you, min ra'a minkum munkar, whoever amongst you sees an evil, then let him change it with his hand, fa liyughayrihu biyadih. And then if he cannot change it with his hand, then with his tongue, and if he cannot change it with his tongue, then he should hate it in his heart. And that is adhnal iman, that's the lowest of faith, that's the weakest situation. I want to approach it from another direction, which is this idea of knowingly or unknowingly being from those who aid an oppressor, or aid in the oppression of those that they claim to champion. Allah azawajal says, wa ta'awanu alal birri wal taqwa, wa la ta'awanu alal ifmi wal udwan. Cooperate with one another in birr, in righteousness, and in goodness, and do not cooperate in sin and transgression. And so you are either in one of those two boats, there is no one that is neutral or in between. You either work with the people in good, or you work with the people in sin. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says, wa la tarkanu ila allatheena dhalamu, do not incline towards those who oppress. fatamasakumu annar, or else you may be touched by the fire. wa ma lakum min doonillahi min awliyaa, thumma la tunsaroon. And you will not find beside Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a protector, and you will not be given victory. And Allah azawajal mentions this idea of inclining, leaning towards those. Being somewhat ambiguous about your support of the oppressed, but being soft when it comes to the oppressor. Leaning and inclining towards those who commit dhulm. And specifically subhanallah, for those who are in a place of privilege.
Those who are in a place where they've escaped the immediate consequences of that dhulm. Qala Allah azawajal ala lisani Musa alayhi salam, qala rabbi bima an'amta alayya falan akun dhaheeran lilmujrimeen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that, Musa alayhi salam says that, Oh Allah, as you have favored me, falan akun dhaheeran lilmujrimeen. I'm not going to be a supporter. I don't want to find myself being an assistant to those criminals and to those oppressors. Just because I've gotten out of the immediate wrath of Fir'oon. Do not let me become an assistant. Or do not let me be one who in some way assists the work of Fir'oon, the work of the oppressor. And there's an interesting hadith. Usually not one that you hear when you hear about the capacity of rulers. Because usually the hadiths that are put out there in regards to those who rule are ones that entail obedience. And ones that entail following them. But there's this hadith from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam which is also authentic. From Ka'b ibn Ujrah radiallahu ta'ala anhu. And he describes the scene. He says Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam came out to us. And we were sitting, a large group of us. Arabs and non-Arabs. Meaning this was a community that had expanded beyond just being a Meccan phenomenon. The deen of Allah was already showing that this was a universal deen. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam came out to us and said, Isma'u. Listen to me. Hal sam'i'tum. Do you hear me? Satakoonu ba'di umara. There will be after me leaders. Man dakhala alayhim fasaddaqahum bikathibihim. Whoever enters upon them and affirms their lies. Whoever enters into their presence and affirms their lies. Wa a'anahum ala dhulmihim. And supports them in their oppression. Falaysa minni walastu minhu. He is not from me and I am not from him. And he will not drink from my hulb. He will not drink from my fountain. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be amongst those that are from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And that drink from his hulb.
That drink from the hand of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. A drink that would do away with our thirst for all of eternity. On the other hand the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that whoever on the other hand opposes them. Does not affirm their lies. Then he is from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Fa huwa minni wa ana minhu. He is from me and I am from him. Wasayaridu alayhi al hulb. And he will be amongst those that drink from my hand. This is an interesting hadith and it's one that you could easily read over and simply say Alhamdulillah I don't enter upon tyrants. Alhamdulillah I don't directly support tyrants. Alhamdulillah I don't do this, I don't do that. At the same time, this idea of what it means to be from those who support tyranny is one that we have to dissect a little bit and be very self-critical. There's a story from Imam Ahmed rahimahullah ta'ala that's narrated authentically. But Imam al-Marwadi rahimahullah ta'ala, he said that the prison guard of Imam Ahmed rahimahullah ta'ala, Sajjan, entered upon him one day. Fa qala ya aba abdullah, al hadithu allathi ru'ya fi dhalama wa a'wanihim, sahih? He said to Imam Ahmed rahimahullah ta'ala, is the narration about those who oppress and their supporters authentic? Imam Ahmed rahimahullah said, yes it is. So the guard responded, fa qala fa'ana min a'wana dhalama? He said, in that case, am I from those who support the oppressors? Listen to what he said. He said, a'wana dhalama man ya'khudu sha'arak, wa yaghsilu thawbak, wa yuslihu ta'amak, wa yabi'u wa yashtari mink. He said, no, those that support oppressors is the one who cuts your hair, the one who prepares your food, the one who washes your clothes, the one who buys and sells from you.
Meaning that's the one who would be considered from the supporters of the oppressors. Fa amma ant, fa min anfusihim. As for you, you are from the people of dhulm themselves. You yourself are an oppressor. There's another narration about Imam Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah ta'ala. Ja'ahu khayyat, that a tailor came to him. And he said to Imam Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah ta'ala, inni akheetu thiyab al-sultan, that I tailor the garments of the tyrants. He said, afa tarani min awan ad-dhalamah? Do you see me, O Imam, to be considered amongst those that aid the oppressors? So he responded, he says, bal anta min ad-dhalamati anfusihim. He said, rather you are an oppressor yourself. Imagine the tailor of the tyrant. The one who tailors the clothes of the tyrants. You are actually from the people of dhulm. He said, awan ad-dhalamah, man yabi'u mink al-ibrah wal-khuyut. He said, the supporters of the dhalameen, the supporters of the oppressors, are the ones that purchase and trade in you with your threads and your needles. As for you, you yourself are amongst the oppressors. Now subhanAllah, you could read that and you could say, wow. You could read that and you could come away with a reverence of the tradition. But I don't want you to stop there. I don't want you to stop at admiration of the Imams. I want you to ask yourself, where do I fall in this discussion? Where do we and our families fall in this discussion considering the present circumstances? This idea of being so careful to not be amongst the oppressors. SubhanAllah, I was explaining to a group of people why these ayat about aklu amwal al-yateem, consuming the wealth of an orphan. That sounds odd and almost outdated when you read it in the Quran for some people that don't understand these concepts. What do you mean consuming the wealth of an orphan? Because an orphan in the society of the Prophet ﷺ was the most exploited individual.
They would not be given the rights of inheritance nor the compassion of parenting. But at the same time, they'd be put out there to work and then there was nothing to protect what they would earn. Nothing to protect their food and their earnings and their drink. And when Allah Azawajal revealed all of these ayat about not consuming the wealth of an orphan, subhanAllah, what did the sahaba say? They say, you know, we would pick up food from our own children's plates. You know, if you're walking into your house and your kids are eating and you pick up something to eat from your child. But as for the food of the yateem, the food of the orphan, we wouldn't even dare put our finger in the food of a yateem after those ayat came down. That was their level of taqwa and piety. And in our deen, we look at ourselves like that. We look at ourselves with that scrutiny to say, look, I don't want to participate in anything that could be of that violation. When it comes to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and our private deeds, the haram and the mutashabihat, the doubtful matters, the gray areas, I don't want to be in the gray area with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I want to be in the clear. Likewise, when it comes to dhulm, with an addition. You know, when you think about haram money, you think about haram money, there's haram money that is earned through haram ways. Selling haram products. Money that a person earns through riba, interest and usury. That type of haram. You sell haram in your store, you earn in a haram way, that type of haram. That type of haram money is haram for you, but it's halal for other than you, according to most of the scholars. Meaning what someone else eats from your food and drink, that's not their fault. You earned it in a haram way, they received it in a halal way. However, subhanallah, money that is earned by transgression, by ghasb, by theft and aggression. If you know that the person in front of you partakes in that, that money is haram for you as well. You can't touch their stuff. If you know that that person is an actual thief, if that person is an aggressor.
Because this adds on to the right of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you earn in halal, that you also do not transgress human beings. Now what does this have to do with us? Talking about Palestine. We're talking about Palestine. We're talking about a cause and a people that have been suffocated by governments around the world. Economically, the participation, unfortunately, knowingly and unknowingly, and their oppression. The United States government being the greatest cover for the Israeli aggression, the greatest funder of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. Someone says our tax dollars are bad. I don't want my tax dollars to go towards oppression. Well, that doesn't mean don't pay taxes. That means fight until your taxes are not used that way anymore. Insist and fight back. I don't want to participate in that way. I don't want to have a hand in the oppression of my brothers and sisters. When you talk about the BDS movement and you talk about the idea of boycotting an oppressor and what that spiritually means to a person. You know, people debate effectiveness and this and this and that. Talk about what it spiritually means to ground our families in this idea that I will not purchase the products of an oppressor. Knowingly, I will be principled enough in my family to say, you know what? We're going to forego this. Teach your families that to be inconvenienced for your beliefs and principles is noble and rewardable. And everything counts. Even the small things. That's where you reflect on Safiyan al-Thawri and Imam Ahmad and things of that sort. It all counts. Not enough to just forward an unverified WhatsApp message. Think about it. Put it in your own house. Put yourself to the test. Business owners, you know, who are your wholesalers? Who are you consuming from?
And you say, I'm not going to patronize the hotels or the Hummus of the oppressor or their dates or their deodorant. And I'm going to teach my kids that, you know, we're going to be a little bit inconvenienced because we're not going to participate in these things. And we'll insist on the larger transactions that oppressors should not be given blank checks. And I certainly don't want to have a penny to do with it. Work for that. Teach your family that. Yes, it's inconvenient. Yes, sometimes it's going to get really difficult. Because those that, unfortunately, consume the rights and the dignity of your brothers and sisters around the world also tend to come packaged in some of the most prominent companies that we have over here. We all have to insist on that. It's not just about that tailor and what the tailor was effectively impacting in terms of the tyranny in his society. I don't want any part of that. So it's not just because it's effective or not effective. It's because it's our ethical duty, first and foremost. And then you talk about how to make it more effective. But you act on your ethics. And you put yourself to the test. And the last thing, dear brothers and sisters, and I want to cover these last three points, in the capacity of what? Just because you are mazloom in one way does not mean you are not zalim in another. Just because you yourself are wronged in one way does not mean that you are not zalim. You are not an oppressor in another way. How does it stop us from becoming ourselves oppressors? There are people that will cry and shout and scream about the oppressors on TV. But they're ignoring the one in the mirror. You oppress your family and you talk about oppression. You cheat your brother and sister and you talk about the illegal consumption and these Muslim rulers that are using Muslim resources to oppress other Muslims. What about yourself? Hold yourself to that standard first and foremost. You can't complain about another oppressor and be an oppressor at home. That's the first one you need to deal with.
And then collectively as a people, holding ourselves to different standards, making sure that we are never in any way going to compromise the support of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by being guilty of some sort of oppression ourselves. And so three things in this regard that the ulama mentioned. Number one, do not let your enemies be the bar by which you set your ethics. You maintain your moral code. You maintain the way of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. The bar of what is an ethical code is the bar of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. It's the bar of taqwa and ihsan being at the top of it. God consciousness and piety and excellence being at the top of it. We don't let anyone else cause us to become dirty like them because of the way that they're wronging us. The victory of Salahuddin al-Ayubi rahimahullah ta'ala was not just removing the tyrants from the holy land, but keeping his ways holy and free from tyranny when he had the upper hand. And we celebrate that. وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُ Don't let your hatred of a people cause you to swear from justice. Why? Because that's when you really have to hold yourself to a standard of justice. When you don't like the person or you don't like a people and you still scrutinize yourself and hold yourself to justice. And so our enemies can never become our teachers. We have a moral code. We have a standard. And that standard is the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and what he has taught us. Number two, and I know that this one may not come off the best way to some, but it's something we have to hold ourselves to. Do not support the oppressors of your brothers and sisters or the oppressor of your brothers and sisters because he's supposedly an ally to you against your oppressor. We call out those who champion human rights but ignore the Palestinian cause all the time. And there are many. The greatest hypocrisy that you'll find in human rights discourse is usually on the opposite end of this. Let's acknowledge this and get that out of the way and I'm not suggesting anything else.
You'll find people champion every cause in the world legitimate and illegitimate but be a complete hypocrite on Palestine. Athletes, academics, influencers. We see it all the time. So let's look inwards inshallah ta'ala. We're not those people who have all sorts of courage for other causes but nothing but cowardice when it comes to Palestine. We can't be guilty of the same thing. And so I'll say it. No dignified person should find themselves rejecting the Israeli bombs over Gaza but whitewashing the chemical warfare of Bashar al-Assad against his own people in Ghouta. And vice versa. You can't be opposed to illegal Israeli settlements but four Chinese internment camps for the Uyghurs. And vice versa. You can't be opposed to Israeli military propaganda but perpetuate American police propaganda. And vice versa. We have to be consistent. You either are with a zalim or a mazloom. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Be with the servant of Allah that is mazloom, not the one that is zalim. Be with the servant of Allah that is mazloom, not the one that is zalim. Be with the one that's oppressed, not the one that's oppressing. Consistently hold ourselves to a standard. That's how we purify ourselves as well. And being an oppressed people does not give you the selectivity in which oppressors you can support or oppose. It just makes your steadfastness in the face of oppression that much more rewardable. And this is the most important one. Do not wrong yourselves with sins. Do not wrong yourselves with sins. SubhanAllah, look back at Salman al-Farisi رضي الله تعالى عنه and Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas رضي الله تعالى عنه as they are at the Tigris River in this battle with the most arrogant empire of their day, the Persian Empire. And they're looking at the river. And Sa'ad and Salman رضي الله تعالى عنهما are sitting on one horse. And they have an entire army behind them. And there's a river in front of them.
And they have this conversation with one another. Sa'ad رضي الله تعالى عنه says حَسْبُنَ اللَّهَ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ وَاللَّهِ لَيَنْصُرَنَّ اللَّهَ وَلِيَّةٌ وَلَيُغْهِرَنَّ اللَّهَ دِينَهُ وَلَيَهْزِمَنَّ اللَّهَ عَدُوَّةٌ إِنَّمْ يَكُنْ فِي الْجَيْسِ بَغْيٌّ أَوْ ذُنُوبٌ تَغْرِبُ الْحَسَنَاتُ Beautiful words. He said Allah is sufficient for us and He's the greatest protector. I swear that Allah سبحانه وتعالى will give victory to His loving servants. That He will make victorious His deen. And that He will defeat His enemies so long as there is no transgression or sin within our army that would void our good deeds. You see they weren't looking at the size of the army on the other side or their oppressors or the palaces or the dynamics of the river and they weren't doing the math before they were doing the taqwa. They were thinking first and foremost about what do I have in myself as a people and as individuals. You can't ask Allah for His Nasr while partaking in His Isyan. Ask Allah for His victory while actively disobeying Him. We've got to put ourselves to the test. And that is something by the way that is a life long project. That does not stop until we reach our graves. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن تَنْصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنْصُرُوا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن تَنْصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنْصُرُوا وَيُثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَكُمْ O you who believe, if you support Allah, He will support you and He will make your feet firm. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala count us amongst His supporters and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep our hearts pure. May Allah keep our cause pure. May Allah keep our feet firm. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those who are just in their families, with themselves, with their communities. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us a people that establish justice across the board. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from any form of dhulm, dhulmat yawm al-qiyamah.
Transgression is darkness on the Day of Judgment. May Allah give us light and protect us from that darkness on the Day of Judgment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to our brothers and sisters in Palestine and to the oppressed all over the world. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala count us amongst their supporters. Allahumma ameen. I say this so that Allah may forgive me and you and the Muslims. So ask forgiveness. He is the Forgiving, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and companions. Allahumma forgive the believers and the Muslims, the living and the dead. You are the All-Hearing, the Near, the Responder to prayers. Allahumma forgive us and have mercy on us and forgive us and do not punish us. Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will be among the losers. Allahumma You are the Forgiving, the Merciful. You love forgiveness, so forgive us. Allahumma forgive our parents. Our Lord, have mercy on them as You raised us when we were young. Our Lord, grant us from our wives and offspring the pleasure of our eyes. And make us for the righteous a leader. Allahumma help our oppressed brothers in the east and the west. Allahumma destroy the oppressors among the oppressors and bring out our brothers from among them in peace. Our Lord, grant us from our wives and offspring the pleasure of our eyes. Our Lord, do not punish us for our sins. Our Lord, forgive us and have mercy on us and forgive us and do not punish us. Our Lord, grant us from our wives and offsprings the pleasure of our eyes.
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