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Standing Up for Justice | Sh. Ibrahim Hindy
How much emphasis does the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ place on justice? How is justice defined in Islam? What should the pursuit of justice look like in our daily, personal lives? Sh. Ibrahim Hindy explores these important questions.
This session was part of the “In the Way of Faith” Yaqeen conference held in Toronto, Canada in 2022.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. First of all, jazakumullahu khair for being here and you know I, just sitting here, have had an amazing time today, listening to all the amazing speakers and now there's all this pressure on me so, they raised the bar, mashaAllah. Let me start with a story. A Bedouin man once came to our Prophet ﷺ and this man had loaned something of value to our Prophet. Our Prophet ﷺ, he would take loans from people to pay the poor or deal with certain matters for the Muslims and then try to pay them back at a different date. So this Bedouin man comes to our Prophet and he says, I loaned something to you and I need it back. And the Prophet ﷺ said to him, la ajidus sa'a. I don't have any commodity to give back to you. I don't have anything of value to pay back. And the man said, I want what I gave you. And the Prophet again said to him, I don't have anything to give you. And the man kept insisting, I want what I gave you back. Until he started to be quite harsh in the way he was speaking to our Prophet ﷺ. He said, uharij alayk illa qadaytani. He said, I will essentially embarrass you unless you pay me back. And here the companions of the Prophet ﷺ who are sitting here watching this happen, they feel their intense love for our Prophet ﷺ. They can't bear to see someone treat him like this, to speak to him like this. So they said to him, woy hak, woe unto you.
Atadri man tukalim, don't you know who you're speaking to? This is not the average man, this is the Prophet ﷺ. And here, the man said, inni utalibu haqqi. I'm only asking for my rights back. And the Prophet ﷺ got upset as well. But the Prophet did not get upset like the companions were upset. In fact, he got upset at the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. And he said to them, hal la maa sahibil haqqi kuntum? He said, why are you not on the side of the one whose rights have not been restored? The Prophet was upset with the companions for not being on the side of the man who's arguing with him. Because that man's rights had been taken away and not yet been restored. Why are you not on his side? It's as if the Prophet ﷺ is saying to them, did you learn nothing from me? Are you still gonna support whoever it is you love the most? Are you gonna go back to the ways of tribalism? You support your tribe no matter what? Rather than supporting the one whose rights need to be fulfilled. Then the Prophet ﷺ sent a message to a female companion, Qawla bint Qais. And he asked her if she could loan him something to pay back the man. So she loaned some dates to the Prophet ﷺ and he paid back the Bedouin man. Then the Prophet ﷺ looked to his companions and he said to them words that are incredibly powerful and important. إنه لا قدسة أمة لا يأخذ الضعيف فيها حقه غير متعدى He said, no nation has ever been purified
or sanctified when the weak amongst them cannot take the rights from the strong without any hesitancy. This is the marker of a pure nation when the weak are able to take the rights from the strong, not fearing anything. These are the lessons of Rasulullah ﷺ. The teachings that he embedded into the hearts of his companions. These companions were transformed from Bedouins who were herding flocks of sheep in the desert and within a single generation established one of the greatest civilizations around the world. That was not by accident. That was because of the lessons the Prophet ﷺ taught them. And often feels like the world around us gets a bit darker every day. We hear of the tragedies and the oppressions that befall our brothers and sisters around the world. Be them in Palestine or Kashmir or Myanmar or our brothers and sisters in East Turkestan. Innocents that are attacked, provoked, dispossessed. We hear of our Muslim scholars around the world thrown behind bars for no crime they've ever committed. And we see it at our own doorstep, in our own country. We know the stories of those killed by law enforcement for no reason at all. It was not long ago when I and others in our community were standing up for our brother, uncle Ijaz Chowdhury, who was killed inside of his home by police within seconds of them arriving into the house. It was not long ago when our brother, Suleiman Faqiri, suffering from mental health issues was beaten to death in a prison in our country. That he suffered hundreds of blows at the hands of guards. And we know the cause of his death. And law enforcement has refused
to lay a single charge in his death. These injustices happen around us. We know the surviving toll of colonialism on the indigenous people of this land. These stories of injustice surround us. And when we hear these stories, sometimes it feels draining. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. And more importantly, it makes the world feel dark around us. Which is very interesting. Because in Arabic, the word that the Prophet ﷺ uses for injustice is dhulm. Which is connected to the word dhulmah, which is darkness. And our Prophet tied these two concepts together. اتقوا الظلم فإن ظلمات يوم القيامة Fear oppression because indeed, oppression will be many forms of darkness on the day of judgment. This is a reminder that injustice fills this world and the next with despair and grief and evil. And on the other hand, our religion teaches us that the entire world, the universe in fact, functions, planets don't crash into each other, the stars do not collapse into themselves. The world churns and the sun shines and the moon lights because of justice. The Prophet ﷺ said, بالعدل قامت السماوات والأرض Through adl, through justice, the heavens and the earth have been established. Because it's very interesting when you think about the heavens and the earth, there's an inherent balance. And the Islamic word for justice, adl, really means balance. It comes from the word, the adl. The adl was two sacks tied together on the backs of a camel or a donkey. The merchant would put his commodities in these two bags. If you put too much on one side, the bag is gonna fall off as you're walking with the donkey. You have to make them even,
you have to balance them out as you filled them. That's what justice is, it's a balance. And when we lose this balance, when we lose justice in our societies, we see the world falling apart. Even the planet itself falls apart. For Muslims, this concept of justice, it's not a hashtag. It's not a social statement. It is the life of the believer, our function as believers. قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ Allah says, say that, I have commanded, my Lord has commanded me with justice. اِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ Indeed, Allah commands justice. Allah orders it. He does not recommend it. He does not offer it as an option. He orders us to act with justice. And our Prophet ﷺ said, اِنَّ النَّاسَ إِذَا رَأُوا الظَّالِمَ فَلَمْ يَنكِرُوا عَلَيْهِ أَوْ شَكُ اللَّهَ أَن يُعْمِيهِمْ بِعَقَابٍ مِنْ عِنْدِهِ That if people see oppression, they see the oppressor and they do not oppose him, then perhaps all of them will be punished. All of them will be covered in the punishment of God. Our faith is that when we see evil, we must oppose it in action, in speech, or at the very least oppose it and dislike it in our hearts. But too often, we see justice as a premise for accusations to be leveled at others. We see its function as the ability to point fingers at others. We see its premise as the ability to vilify and slander those we don't want. We see justice as a vibe and a social status rather than being a sincere tenant that we practice within our lives. If we truly really believe in justice, then we have to be just in every aspect of our lives, just in our marriages,
just in how we treat our spouses, in the time we give them, in the life we spend around them. We have to be just with our children to gift them equally, to spend time and energy around them equally. We know the hadith, the Prophet ﷺ is sitting with a man and his young son, a child walks in. The man kisses the son and puts him to sit on his lap. Then the man's daughter enters and he neither kisses her nor sits her on his lap. And the Prophet ﷺ seeing this, he tells the man, أَلَا سَوَيْتَ بَيْنَهُمْ Why are you not being equal with them? Even when it came to the hugs and the kisses and of putting the child on his lap, the Prophet was preaching justice and fairness in our lives. We have to be fair with our parents, giving them time and companionship. We have to be fair and just in our money, to earn it ethically, to give it in zakah, to donate what we are capable of doing so. We have to be just in our words. What we say has to be measured, has to be balanced. What we say has to be fair without oppressing others with our sharp words. The Prophet ﷺ would not leave his house without making a dua. اللهم إني أعوذ بك أن أذل أو أذل أو أظلم أو أذنم أو أجهل أو أن يجهل عليه Beautiful dua. Whenever he would leave his house, he would make this dua everyday. Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from that I am humiliated or led astray or that I am unjust or that I am treated unjustly or that I am ignorant or that I am treated with ignorance. Every time he would leave his house, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he would teach his companions to make this dua. A beautiful dua. Oh Allah, don't allow me to be oppressed but also don't allow me to be the oppressor. Don't allow me to act in ignorance and don't allow others to treat me with ignorance. And this is beautiful
because every time we leave our homes, the possibilities that we could be the people perpetrating injustice. We can't think of injustice as pointing fingers at other people. It's looking at our lives as well. How are we acting? This is the justice of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It wasn't just something he preached and yelled. It was something that permeated every aspect of his life Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We see him before the battle of Badr. A small rag tag army not even expecting a battle. Standing in front of an army more than twice their size. And the Prophet is telling the companions to line up. Stand up in line. We're about to go into battle. And he's holding a stick. He's trying to line them up. And he sees one of the companions is out of line. And so he says, استو يا سواد And he hits him with the stick. Not to hurt him but to remind him to get back in line. And Suwaad turns to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said, قَالَ أَوْجَعْتَنِي يَا رَسُولُ الله He said, you hurt me, O Messenger of Allah. You hit me with your stick and you hurt me. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this situation, he is a general going to war. If a private speaks to a general, if a private says, you hurt me with a stick, he would yell in his face, what's wrong with you? You're about to go into battle. If a private, a soldier speaks up to the general, he'd say, how dare you speak against my authority. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't do any of this. Instead, he throws the stick towards Suwaad and he says, take your rights from me. Take retribution from me. I hit you, go ahead, hit me. Suwaad picks up the stick and he says, O Messenger of Allah, my stomach is exposed. I'm not wearing anything here when you hit me, but you're wearing something. So it's not fair if I hit you like this. So the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam lifted up his shirt
so that he would hit the nakedness of his body. And Suwaad comes in front of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with the stick. Then he drops it and he kisses the stomach of our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet asks him, why did you do this? He said, we're about to go into battle. And I wanted that if I die, the last that I embrace is you, O Messenger of Allah. Look at how much they love the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But they loved him because of the justice the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam practiced in every aspect of his life Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Before he died, a few days before he died, he stood in front of the people and he said, O people, وَمَنْ كُنتُ شَتَمْتُ لَهُ عِرْضَهُ فَهَٰذَا عِرْضِي فَلْيَأْخُذْ مِنْ He said, whosoever's honor I have besmirched, here is my honor, take retribution. Whoever's wealth I have taken, this is my wealth, let them take it. Whoever's back I have struck, this is my back, let them strike. And do not let any of you come on the day of judgment and say that I have taken any of your rights when I'm asking you to take it back. This is Rasulullah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is what justice meant in his life Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We have to emulate that within our lives. Finally, and I can't even see the time so I don't know if I'm over, but I'll end on this point which I think is important. Our religion enjoins us to act in justice and to establish justice. But an important question we have to ask ourselves is who and what defines justice? Too much of human history is one group seeking justice against another
only to replace one system of injustice with another system of injustice. One harm removed is replaced with another harm implemented. Justice in the eyes of the Muslim is what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala defines for us as justice. Allah is Al-Adn, He is the most just. That doesn't only mean that Allah does not oppress and does not act, treat anybody with injustice. It means that, but it also means that we derive our sense of justice from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. The concept of justice, the reason we have a feeling in our hearts that we get upset when we see things out of balance is because of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala putting that in our hearts to begin with. So justice is not determined by the latest theories from Western academics. Justice is not determined by the leanings of the political elite. Justice is not determined by the left or the right, by men or by women. Justice is determined by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when we say that it is our job to establish justice, it means looking to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah Azza wa Jal says, لَقَدْ أَرْسَنَّا رُسُلَنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَنزَلْنَا مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْمِيزَانِ لِيَقُومَ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْطِ Allah says, we sent the messengers with clear evidences, and we sent with them the scripture, for what reason? لِيَقِيمُ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْطِ That people may establish justice. Because we have no way of knowing what is just, and what is balanced, and what is fair without the revelation that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala sent to us through our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And that's one of the reasons why the work we're doing at Yaqeen is so important. Because it's about allowing people to understand their faith, to connect to the teachings of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
to have a framework of beliefs and values connected to our religious tradition, and not to the zaygast, not to the moments, and to the beliefs, and the political leanings of those who surround us, or rather the teachings of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. May Allah Azza wa Jalla keep us firm upon that. Jazakumullah khair, Assalamualaikum.
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