fbpixel

Take 30 seconds to give for 30 days.

Hadith #14 – Elitist Privilege

September 12, 2017Dr. Omar Suleiman

Those most likely to get away with various forms of injustice (e.g., shortchanging others, deceiving others) are the elite or privileged in society. Privilege is natural and comes in many forms (race, tribe, gender, wealth, geography) and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. But when you yourself are in a place of privilege, you need to first recognize your privilege and then use it to help those who are disadvantaged.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Asalamualaikum, you guys here? Alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So as I mentioned after the salah, this is the last class we're going to be having before Ramadan. We will likely restart it after Hajj inshallah, just because between Ramadan and Hajj I'll be doing a lot of traveling. However, what I might choose to do, for those of you that are here, I may choose to do some classes during the daytime, cover a certain number of hadith, and then have them recorded and then we'll release them weekly online. So if you're interested in being a part of that, then we'll send out a notice inshallah to let people know the timings that we'll have those classes in the daytime, to sort of make up, have a bunch of them to run while I'm gone inshallah. So I hope you guys have enjoyed the last 14 weeks, alhamdulillah. We're on hadith 14 now. And the topic falls very much in line with the last two weeks. We've hinted at this in the last few weeks, in fact since the beginning of the series, this idea of elitist privilege. So we talked about shortchanging, and who's likely to get away with shortchanging? Someone that's in a position of power, someone that's in a position of privilege. We've spoken about the idea of deception, and getting a better lawyer than your opponent or your foe. Using whatever interests you have to portray something falsely and to get away with it. And who's likely to do that? Usually someone that has more power. But we're going to focus today on this concept of elitist privilege, and how the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam institutionally sought to do away with this concept of privilege. Now privilege, before I go into it, privilege is natural. Privilege could be by virtue of race, by virtue of tribe, could be by virtue of gender,
could be by virtue of finances, could be by virtue of geography. Privilege comes in many forms, and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. Except when you are in that place of privilege, recognize your privilege, and then use your privilege to alleviate those that are not in the same situation as you. That's the spirit of the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But what does it look like in the system? So I mentioned this hadith in passing once already, but I want to focus on some of the nuances of this hadith. This hadith is narrated by Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha. She says, وَأَهَمَّهُمْ شَأْنُ الْمَرَأَةُ أَنَّ قُرَيشًا أَهَمَّهُمْ شَأْنُ الْمَرَأَةُ And Aisha radiallahu anha mentions she was from the tribe of Makhzum. Makhzum is the same tribe of Abu Jahl. To give you guys some context. It's a very powerful tribe in Meccan society. One of the most elite tribes in Meccan society. It was a competing tribe with the tribe of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, which is why Abu Jahl took it to heart that we cannot allow for his claim to prophethood to be heard, because then his tribe will outdo ours. So Makhzum is not just any tribe or an elite tribe. It's a very proud tribe in that society. Wealthy, rich, privileged, and they're not used to being held accountable in any way. So this is the tribe of Abu Jahl. So Aisha says that this woman, who was from the tribe of Makhzum, a powerful woman from the tribe of Makhzum, she got caught stealing. And as we find in some of the narrations, she was a frequent thief. So she didn't just steal one time and get caught, but she was someone that used to always steal. And she finally got caught red-handed.
So the people got together and they said, وَمَن يُكَلِّمْ فِيهَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَنِهِ وَسَلَمْ Who's going to go and intercede on her behalf with the Messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam? So when does this hadith take place? It's in the very end of his life, after the conquest of Mecca. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is the sole authority in the area right now, in Mecca and in Medina. So they're saying, who's going to go and intercede on behalf of this woman, to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam? وَمَن يَشْتَرِيُ عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا أُسَامَةُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ حِبُّ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَنِهِ وَسَلَمْ So they said that, well, who's a better person then, except for Usama ibn Zayd, who is the beloved one of the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Usama was the son of Zayd ibn al-Harithah. Zayd ibn al-Harithah was a slave that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam freed. So the Prophet freed Zayd and then adopted him as a son. So Usama is practically his grandson. Usama is very beloved to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. You find frequent narrations of Usama alongside al-Hassan and Husayn, the biological grandchildren of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So they decided amongst themselves, the person that will go and intercede is going to be Usama ibn Zayd. Usama was also a very wise young man, and that's why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam appointed him as the commander of the entire Muslim army at the age of 17 years old. So he was the head commander. So his wisdom is there. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam clearly trusted him. He loved him. So they said, look, if Usama does it for us, then we're going to be fine. So they brought Usama forward and they spoke to Usama radiyallahu ta'ala anhu to do that. So Usama went to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Fakallamahu Usama faqala Rasoolallahi salallahu alayhi wa sallam, atashfa'u fee haddin min hududillah. The Prophet peace be upon him said,
are you trying to intercede for someone in a way that would overcome the prescriptions of Allah? Do you think that your intercession on behalf of someone who is royal will cause me to disobey Allah, to disobey God? So thumma qama faqhtataba. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam stood up and he called the people and he gave a sermon. So he didn't mention the specific case, but he hinted at it. So he said, innama ahlaka allatheena qablakum anahum kanu idha saraka feehimu sharif, tarakuhu wa idha saraka feehimu alda'if, aqamu alayhi alhad. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, those who came before you were destroyed because if a noble person amongst them stole, they let him go. But if a poor person amongst them stole, then they readily punished him. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the nations that came before you were destroyed. Now connect that to some of the first ahadith, the first narrations that we covered. Ahlaknaahum lamma zalamu, God says in the Quran, we punished them when they became oppressors. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, this became the sabab, this became a reason for their halak, for their destruction. That they only used to punish the weak amongst them and they used to leave the royals to go. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I swear by Allah, if Fatima bint Muhammad, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam was to steal, then I would punish her. Several things we can take from this hadith. Rawahul Bukhari, number one in another hadith which is from Urwah, also authentic. This happened after the conquest of Mecca and in the process of the conquest of Mecca. That this woman stole something after the conquest of Mecca or during the conquest of Mecca.
So many thought, the thinking on their side, the hope that they had, was that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would be lenient with them because he didn't want to upset the status quo. Now realize when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam came to Mecca, he made all of these concessions to his former enemies and to the former tribes so that he could bring the hearts together. So Abu Sufyan who spent two decades torturing him and fighting him, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, you know, coming into Mecca, whoever enters into the house of Abu Sufyan is safe. He made Abu Sufyan's house a place of sanctuary and refuge to maintain Abu Sufyan's place in society and to show that he wasn't coming back in the spirit of vengeance. He was coming in a spirit of bringing people together now. Forget about the days of persecution. We're going to be one team now. We're going to work together and I'm not here to punish people for what they did in the past. It's over. So they thought maybe in this context, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would let it go because he wanted to maintain some peace. He didn't want to cause tension in a very fragile situation, particularly with the tribe of Banu Mahzum, which was the main competing tribe. However, the status quo was the problem. This was not just a matter of someone doing something to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and him saying, you know what, I'll let it go because it's just to him. The status quo is the problem. The culture is the problem. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam wants to do away with that. Another thing that I learned in going deep into this hadith, the woman's name that was stole was actually named Fatima. It was interesting. Her name was Fatima bint al-Aswad. Fatima bint al-Aswad al-Makhzumiyya. Which kind of makes it more powerful and profound that at the end of the hadith, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, stole, then I would punish her.
To basically say, look, if my Fatima stole, I would punish her the same way I would punish your Fatima. So this isn't about what tribe or who's now in charge or who now has privilege, but this is about the fact that that privilege is no longer going to exist in the society. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is showing them that, look, this isn't because Banu Hashim is in charge now or that I'm in charge now that my tribe will be held to different standards, and they will essentially replace Banu Makhzum as the superior tribe in Mecca. And this isn't out of vengeance because of all that your tribe did to me. Abu Jahl was the one who suggested and applied the boycott on the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and his family. Muslim and not Muslim, he applied it on them all, tortured them for years, and punished them. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying, I'm not doing this as an excuse to punish your tribe now. To put you in a difficult situation the way that you put my tribe in a difficult situation before. If my own family member, and I am the ruler now of this area, if my own family member, my daughter, was to do the same thing, she would be held to the same standard. Why? Because we cannot be destroyed like the nations that came before that gave passes to the elite and only punished the poor and the vulnerable. So there are a few other things we take from this. What was her crime of theft? In her narrations and the scholars who explained this hadith, they said that this woman, there's a hadith from Umm Salama, she was really, really good at theft and she used to steal a whole lot. Some of them more obvious and blatant, but she used to borrow things from people and then she would deny that she ever borrowed them. So that was the first way that she used to steal from people. So she would borrow things and then when people would come back and they would ask her for it,
she would deny that she ever had it. Also in this situation though, what was sariqa? What is this theft that she committed here? The theft that she committed here is that she stole from the caravans that had come from Medina, including the caravan of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, including the house of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So she stole from a lot of people and she was robbing the caravans that were coming from Medina now in this new conquest of Mecca. Now this woman, eventually by the way, Aisha says she repented, she was sincere, and she got married, she went on and she actually did well. But here she has to be punished, right? I mean she's a frequent theft and she's constantly stealing. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is also not mentioning his own personal loss in here. So Fatima bint al-Aswad gets caught. They tell Usama, you go talk to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and intercede because he loves you a lot and he's not going to punish you, or I'm sorry, he's not going to refuse your request. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, those that came before you used to do this. Who are those that came before us, referring to here? Bani Israel, the children of Israel. Now this is actually something well documented that towards the end, the children of Israel, Bani Israel, indeed was guilty of this. And in fact we find that Jesus, peace be upon Him, one of His complaints against the Pharisees, which were the scholars and the rabbis, is that they would only punish the weak, but they would excuse the elite. Excusing the elite meant overlooking their flaws, but then to sort of make themselves feel better about applying the law, they would apply the law to the harshest extent on those who had no privilege.
The most vulnerable of society would get the punishment to the harshest extent. And that was a means of saying that, see, we are applying the law of God. So we're going to punish these people. Look how we're punishing them. So all the stonings used to take place, not even with establishing the evidences. All the whippings, all the lashings, all that stuff used to take place only with the poor of society. Only with those who had no one to protect them. And if we punish them, we would not suffer any consequences for that. So they would go full on these poor people, and they would constantly excuse the elite. In fact, in the Bible, in Matthew 23, 23, Jesus is to have said, and Allah knows best if it's actually his words, but he said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You practice your religion very well, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. So you're applying the technical aspects of the law, and you're inflicting harsh punishments on the poor. But you're neglecting the weightier matters of faith, justice and mercy and faith. What that means is that Isa, peace be upon him, did not come to do away with the letter of the law, but he came to bring back the spirit of the law. And that's something that as Muslims we also believe in and we uphold. That Isa was rectifying the misuse of the law, and the Prophet is saying that this is what they used to do. They used to punish the poor, they used to excuse the elite. Now here in this situation, the Prophet, peace be upon him, I mean, picking Usama ibn Zayd, his grandson, his beloved one, Hibbu Rasulillah, and Zayd was also called Hibbu Rasulillah,
the beloved one of the Prophet, peace be upon him, to go and intercede. They thought to themselves, no way he's going to refuse him. One of the wisdoms that the scholars mention as well, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, responded by mentioning someone who is even more beloved to him than Usama, which is Fatima al-Zahra, his own daughter. Like, look, if you thought that by putting Usama ibn Zayd up to doing this, you were going to soften me up, if there was anyone who is beloved to me that I would excuse, it would be my daughter, Fatima. The Prophet, peace be upon him, loved Fatima, his daughter, so much. He treated her like a queen. She walked into the room, the Prophet, peace be upon him, would stand up, he would kiss her on the forehead, he'd hold her hand, and he'd sit her where he was sitting, peace be upon him. He used to honor Fatima, peace be upon him. And you imagine, he's saying this while Fatima is listening. Just so you know, Fatima, even you are not exempt. The law should apply to everybody. The law will not be applied only to some, and not to others. And I will not exempt anyone. And this was not because the ruling class was replaced, but because the ruling class would now be subject to new standards. You guys understand? This was not because the Banu Makhzum and the ruling class was replaced, but because the ruling class would now be subject to new standards. Now if you think about this, and you think about what Islam brought to the society, you know that Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, when he was the Khalifa, which is within three years of the Prophet's death, the Muslims suffered from famine. And people were stealing because they were hungry. They weren't stealing out of greed. They weren't stealing because they wanted to beautify their homes.
They weren't stealing to gather gold. They were stealing because they got hungry, and so they were desperate. And Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, lifted the penalty for punishing theft. So there was no cutting the hand, there was no sariqa, there was no hadd, there was no punishment for stealing. Why? Because Umar recognized that the circumstances are different now. It doesn't make it right to steal. It doesn't mean that stealing is okay now. It means that people are in different circumstances, and Umar recognized that. So think about this. Umar lifted, and Umar belongs to the elites, Umar lifted the punishment for theft. For the sake of who? The poor or the rich? The poor, because when the famine hits, the rich are fine. They still have their storage, they can still make way. He lifted it because of the weak. But the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, would not lift it for one of the most powerful women in society. What does that tell you about the shift in society now and how they understand things? I'll tell you guys this, subhanAllah, I mean, Hurricane Katrina hit. I was in New Orleans at the time. People, many people, were literally trying to steal to eat. Okay? Aid was not reaching them, and people in some of these poor neighborhoods that were abandoned, and that were tucked away, and there was no cameras, no media, no nothing, many of them were stealing to eat. Were there looters? Yes, there were people that were looting. But the vast majority of people were just trying to get by. They were getting into supermarkets and grocery stores and just trying to eat whatever they could get their hands on, because that was the desperation of the situation. Think about this. This is a contemporary example, subhanAllah. Contemporary example. There were bodies that were riddled with police bullets, 20, 30 bullets in one body, after everything the smoke had cleared.
Because you could say the entire population was looting, so all these people that were killed and unaccounted for, and will never have their cases in court, can all be demonized by the crime of looting. And Omar, radhiAllahu ta'ala a'nhu, says this doesn't apply when people are hungry. You cannot punish people for theft when they're hungry. This is also a principle that many of the scholars of Islamic law, as they wrote the theory, maqasd al-shari'ah, the objectives of the law, this is something that they recognized very early on, that if you are not providing the people the means by which they can be happy, the means by which they can survive and succeed, then you cannot punish them when they resort to impermissible means in order to attain that success and that happiness. Fath al-dhra'i' precedes sadd al-dhra'i' as one of the scholars, Imam al-Juwayni, wrote, that opening the ways of good is far more important than preventing the ways of bad. You have to open up means and avenues for people to be able to succeed, and people to be able to eat, and people to be able to drink, and people to be able to live well. So for example, you cannot punish adultery if you're making marriage so hard. Let me rephrase that. It's not about cannot, it's about you have to consider whether you are opening the ways, the wasa'il, of marriage, or you're making it too difficult for people to find their halal outlets, instead of just focusing on condemning adultery. Because there's a lot of variance here. So it's not a matter of can and cannot, it's a matter of you have to consider what people are being provided with, when you consider what they're being punished for. So Umar understood that you have to take into consideration the circumstances of the people,
and he considered the weakest of his society, the most vulnerable, and those that would be in the most difficult circumstances. What makes us admire and love the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, so much is that he applied these standards to himself. So this is another hadith, that after the battle of Badr, the Muslims found Suhail ibn Amr. Suhail was a chief of Quraysh, one of the adversaries of Islam, and he was amongst the prisoners of war in Badr. And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, of course he freed the prisoners of war in Badr. And Suhail would go on to institute all sorts of hardships on the Muslims, and then he would be the chief negotiator on behalf of Quraysh in the Treaty of Hudaibiyah. And then finally, later on, accept Islam and become one of the beautiful spokespeople of Islam. So the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, never gave up hope in him. But Suhail is in the battle of Badr, and Suhail, when he was an adversary to Islam, he was sly, he was an eloquent adversary, and he was someone that used to really, really be able to harm the Muslims, especially with their allies. So they found him amongst the prisoners of war. Umar, radiyaAllahu ta'ala, was like, alright, here we go. I'm going to have fun with this one. Umar, radiyaAllahu ta'ala, said, Ya Rasulullah, let me pull his teeth out. Let me get him, because what he has done to us is more than what other people have done to us. And you know what the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, responded? It's beautiful. He said, I will not mutilate him, lest Allah mutilate me, even if I'm a Prophet. I will not mutilate him, lest Allah mutilate me, even though I'm a Prophet.
Meaning what? Even I, if I torture him, and if I mutilate him, Allah will do the same to me, even if I'm the Nabi, even if I'm the Prophet. So he's teaching Umar a lesson that I'm not even going to afford myself that. So you cannot afford yourself that as well. This is before any international conventions or charters on torture, on how you treat enemy combatants, or any of the Geneva Convention, all of that stuff comes later on. Over a thousand years later, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, says, I'm not going to torture him. He prohibited torturing any of the prisoners of war, even Suhail ibn Umar, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, who became Muslim later on and who died a Muslim. We also find an incident where Umar, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, one of his children, whose name was Abdurrahman, Abdurrahman, the son of Umar, and Umar had three Abdurrahmans. He had Abdurrahman al-Kabir, Abdurrahman al-Sagheer, Abdurrahman al-Wasat. He had the big Abdurrahman, the middle Abdurrahman, and the little one, literally, because he heard the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, say, Ahabbu al-Asma'i illallah, Abdullah wa Abdurrahman, or Abdurrahman wa Abdullah. That the most beloved of names to Allah are Abdurrahman, the servant of the most merciful, and Abdullah, the servant of Allah. So he named Abdullah ibn Umar, and then he had three Abdurrahmans. So this Abdurrahman was caught drunk. He was in Egypt at the time, Umar was in Medina, and Abdurrahman ibn Umar was drunk, and there are some things that he may have done while he was drunk. The point is, he was heavily intoxicated, he was caught in that state, and Amr ibn al-As, who was the governor of Egypt, Amr ibn al-As, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, he wanted to spare Abdurrahman any punishment, because he saw him as the son of the Khalifa. It's embarrassing, we can't punish him.
So he symbolically punished him in the privacy of his own home. So instead of lashing him, he just kind of tapped him a little bit, and admonished him, but he didn't do it in public, and he tried to maintain Abdurrahman's sanctity. And this came back to Umar, and Amr, who was the governor of Egypt, thought this would be a favor to Umar, like, you know, I took care of your son. Alright, don't worry, I didn't humiliate him, he was being a little foolish, and he got drunk and did some stuff, but I took care of him. Umar said, what do you mean you took care of him? Send him to Medina. Bring him to Medina. And he publicly flogged him, because he wanted people to see that my son's not going to be treated differently from anybody else's kid. And of course, Umar also made Amr, if you guys remember, when Amr's son hit the Christian man in Egypt with the whip and told him that I am the son of nobles, Umar brought Amr and his son over to Medina and gave the Christian man a whip and told him to put it, you know, hit his son back and put it on top of Amr's head. Don't hit him, just put it on top of his head. Because it was in his name that you were degraded. So let him know as well, just put it on top of his head and let him know as well, that it is in his name that that degradation took place. There is no privilege, not for the royal family, not for the family of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, not for the Prophet himself. Okay? If you remember, in the Battle of Badr, where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, I mentioned this in the very beginning, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam poked one of the youth with his stick, because he was laughing too hard and he was trying to get him in line. And he told him, Ya Rasulallah, O Messenger of Allah, you hurt me. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, poke me back, istansir, take your revenge.
He said, you know, innama alayka qamees, you have a shirt on you and I didn't have a shirt on me when you poked me, you poked my bare skin. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam pulled up his shirt and he said, poke me. So then he just hugged the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he kissed the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he said, Ya Rasulallah, that's all I wanted to do, O Messenger of Allah. But it was the point, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, no, look, the man asked for his right, I'm not going to say, I'm the Messenger of God, you need to forgive me and let it go. No, there's no privilege to the elites. Some other lessons we take from this, because I want you to see how this transferred into society. The very first sermon, the very first khutbah of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radiallahu anhu, so the first khalifa, the first successor to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Abu Bakr stood up and in his first khutbah he said, ayyuhannas, O people, al-dha'ifu fikum qawiyun indi hatta ukhid lahu haqqahu insha'Allah. The weak one amongst you will be considered amongst the elite in my eyes until I get his right back. So he is qawiyun indi, meaning I will consider him to be amongst the elites, the most vulnerable of you, until I'm able to get his right back insha'Allah. And he said, walqawiyu fikum dha'ifun indi hatta akhudah minhu l-haqqa insha'Allah. And the strong one, the elite ones amongst you, are weak in my eyes until I'm able to take the rights back from them, God willing, insha'Allah. This is an inauguration speech, this is a declaration that we're keeping these standards away. We will not be treated different from the la'if. And if you think about it again, where that comes in the realm of punishment, you think about how some people are treated differently in our society for much smaller crimes, whereas other people are treated with much more lenience
despite having major, major, major crimes. So if you guys ever get a chance to watch, there's a documentary called 13th, you guys should watch it about mass incarceration in this country. And one of the things they talk about is in Nixon's war on drugs, the distinction between crack and cocaine. Crack is what poor people smoke. Cocaine is what rich people snort. So the emphasis on crack was to specifically target the poor and target minorities because that's what would be there. So the war on drugs really was not about drugs. And a lot of people would think it's about drugs, it's about drugs. And we all hate drugs, right? Well, why are some drugs made illegal and some sentences, such a disproportionate amount of sentences or terms given to certain people and then other people, left to go free, or left with very lenient punishment? So if you think about that, if the law is not being applied fairly, then the law itself becomes flawed. And this was the subject of Dr. Tariq Ramadan a few years ago. He wrote something that got a lot of people antsy, where he called for a moratorium on hudud, a moratorium on the criminal punishments in Muslim countries. Why did he call for that? Because we're negating Quran and Sunnah? He said no, because of the way they're being misapplied. Meaning what? If you think about the Muslim countries now, alright? And let's be very straight. If you're talking about the land of the two harams, if you talk about Saudi Arabia, if that poor worker, foreigner, gets caught stealing, he will be punished. But if someone elite gets caught, will he be punished to the same extent of the law? So the misapplication in every single Muslim, this isn't about Saudi Arabia, I know some people like to pick on Saudi Arabia, but it's about every Muslim country, it's about who you know. You can get away with anything if you know the right person.
And if you don't know the right people, and God forbid you're a foreigner, you're an immigrant in that country, the way you will be punished, the way the hadd will be readily put on you without the right evidence being established, is craziness. Craziness. If you're driving your car in some of those Muslim countries, and you're not from there, and you get rammed by someone who's from that country, it'll be on you. You will be punished. So the misappropriation of criminal law, applying it unfairly, Dr. Tariq was saying, if that's going to be the case, it's better to suspend it altogether. You're going to apply it so unjustly that it shouldn't even be there. Because the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said that was the problem with the people that came before you. Isa, peace be upon him, was condemning the Pharisees who were applying the law, but they were only applying it on some individuals. The goal of the law is to bring more equity. So if the law is being used to further the gap, then the law is not serving its purpose. So if you think about that, it's very important. Chomsky, I'm not going to say Radhi Allahu Anhu, but he has a powerful quote, he says, for the powerful, crimes are those that others commit. For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit. It's an analogy that you've got to work very hard with. You've got to figure out why the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, would say this. This hadith is narrated by Abdullah bin Mas'ud, Radhi Allahu Anhu, where the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, says,
Wa mathalu allathee yu'eenu qawmahu ala ghayri alhaq, kamathari ba'ir, ruddiya fee bi'r, fahuwa yanzi'u minhaa bi dhanabih. The hadith literally, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, says, the example of a person who supports his people when they are wrong, meaning who enables their oppression, is like a dead camel that falls into a well, and then is pulled out by its tail. Anybody want to try to figure that out? Alright, what's the sharh of this hadith? What's the explanation of this hadith? The one who supported the elite in their wrongdoing, just because of their position, is the dead camel that plunges into the well. Who will pull them out and hold them accountable? Allah. They will be brought back in front of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. You imagine the sight, right, or the analogy. It's a very powerful parable. You will be called back and you will be held accountable for what you have done. But the problem is, what the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is mentioning, the corpse of that dead camel poisons the entire well. The entire well is poisoned by that man's sin, by that man's taking the side of someone in a place of privilege, or taking the side of his brother and his tribe, or whatever it may be. So everyone has to endure the sight, the stench, even if they remove the carcass,
even if they remove it from the drinking water, they cannot benefit from that water anymore. Now I'm going to extend this a little further, and this is not the hadith, I'm just saying, but if you think about it, what the law means, in fact the word for shari'ah is referring to water, to guidance, right? So the law itself even becomes poisoned in a way, but that's not what the hadith is saying. But I'm saying if you extend it, subhanAllah, you just think about how powerful of an analogy it is. So everyone has to suffer. Everyone has to be touched by the filth of it, because of that person that enabled someone to take advantage of their privilege. So if you're in one of those countries where you can just use your, we call it wasta, anyone who lived in the Gulf countries knows exactly, wasta is your connection. You can use wasta to get away with anything. You know someone here so you can get past all of these things. When you take part in that, you are guilty. Do not be complicit by enabling a system of oppression. When you use your wasta, which means you're going to hurt somebody else, your connection, you're going to hurt somebody else, then there's a problem and you should not be a part of it. Hopefully inshaAllah ta'ala for us, those of us that are living in this society, and in most places in the world, the law is not unfortunately applied equally. We should always fight for equity, that the law applies equally to everybody, and that's part of our cause, and that's what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was mentioning here. So fighting for reform so that the law does not target disproportionately any group of people, and that privilege does not poison our well. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us, and may Allah enable us to be amongst those that outbury elitist privilege in our society and around the world.
InshaAllah, as I said to you all, this is the last class before Ramadan. Those of you that would like to partake, we might, I'm not promising, we might do some classes during the daytime between Ramadan and Hajj inshaAllah, and air them weekly online. So if you'd like to be a part of that, Ali, what do we do? Do you have something to take an email address or something? Anybody want to take email addresses for those that would want to? You know what, we'll just send a message out for the masjid about that. That'll make it easier. We already have all your email addresses inshaAllah. If you want to subscribe to Yafin's email list as well as Valley Ranch Masjid's email list, we'll find a way to get it to you inshaAllah to let you know when those classes are taking place. I might also put it online. Questions? Salaam. Well I mentioned Abu Bakr and I mentioned Umar. So Umar with his own son, Abu Bakr r.a, mentioning that. Examples throughout Islamic history. They are there. I'm just drawing a blank right now. I'd have to think about it. I mean they are there though. Can you think of one? Maybe there's something on your mind? You'll think about it. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so are masalih, ensuring the benefits of people, more important than than eliminating the ways to haram or not?
Islam is just. Islam is just. So if the people are starving, they cannot be punished for taking part in means or trying to seek their food or their rizq in ways that are not ideal. So the deen comes with, the religion comes with bushra, it comes with glad tidings and then it comes with warning. Just as if you think about it, people cannot be held accountable to a message that they don't know. Opening the ways takes precedence to restricting the ways. But every issue is different. Because sometimes, sometimes our state of being and its nature is good, but then the ways that lead to the bad, the ways that lead to harm, are what take us away from that. So it's not like we have to further ourselves in some other way, but we'll lead to that. That's why the scholars of maqasid, for example, the scholars of Islamic theory, they differentiated between necessity, the level of need, as it applies to an individual and as it applies to the community. Meaning, a darura for a community, for an individual, the higher need for an individual is different from necessity. A dire need for the community. Many of the scholars, they said that a haja, which is a need that is less than a dire need. It's a need that if you don't have it, or if it's not fulfilled, you'll be placed in hardship. You'll be placed in a level of mashakka, in a level of hardship. The scholars said that that level of haja, if it is present amongst a population, then it's elevated to the status of darura, the status of a dire need. Because if everyone, if more people are suffering because of this, then it needs to be treated not in accordance with the individual, but in accordance with how it affects society as a whole. Because the goal is to promote virtue in society.
So they work hand in hand. Fath al-dhara'i, and sabd al-dhara'i, opening the ways of good, and preventing and restricting the ways of evil, they should work hand in hand. Meaning on the individual? Al-masalih. Yeah. Great question. Ethical consumerism is something that we'll get to as a whole. So how we talk about that from a shari'i perspective. But what is considered stealing? And how do we classify stealing? So the rule that we said last week is that you cannot purchase something, in fact. You cannot accept money that is stolen from somebody. But you can accept money that was acquired in a haram way that was not to the direct detriment of someone else. How do the scholars differentiate between riba, interest, and money that is stolen? Interest is something that penetrates the system as a whole. So overhaul and rectification is not just
through this individual, but it would require an entire system to be overhauled and reformed. Stealing is something that is different. It involves the direct detriment of another person. Sometimes in a riba'i transaction, interest transaction, there is mutual riba. There's mutual interest and mutual agreement to deal in this type of transaction. So even though the system might be corrupt, it's different from someone stealing from someone else. Because it's not mutual when someone steals from you in any way. Now, if a person wants to, try their best. So I'll give you an example. I don't know if this still exists. If this still is the case. I'm not sure. Maybe someone could let me know. But I remember, have you guys heard of caribou coffee? Caribou coffee is Muslim owned. And they would not deal in interest at all, at least some time ago. I don't know if that's still the case. So if a person wanted to spend their money at caribou, as opposed to Starbucks or whatever else there is, as a means of supporting that type of business and supporting that type of dealing, that's good. That's positive. So that can fall in the realm of a person doing this as a form of coming close to a lost penalty. But you can't make it a restriction on everybody else. Because if the restriction is there that you cannot deal with someone that deals with riba, deals in interest in their own life, then we would not be able to function or live. And do you have to know that the product is stolen? Like if you're buying a cell phone and it's got some other family's picture on it or something like that, there are some things that are pretty obvious. I mean, some markets where it's commonplace that certain things are stolen and they go up on Craigslist and you've got to hurry up and sell them and documentation is not proper. A person should really avoid that. But you'll be sinful if you know that it's stolen
and you still purchased it and you still did business with that or accepted that money.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
Khutbahs

Allah

215 items
Present
1 items

Assalamu Alaikum, I'm Aqsa. I can help you find and explore content published by Yaqeen Institute. I can also assist in responding to questions based on our papers, videos and related resources on a variety of Islamic topics. I am not qualified to respond to fiqh related questions.

How can I help you today?


Please note that AQSA is only a support tool to navigate Yaqeen's content. The responses provided may not always be entirely accurate. Always consult with qualified scholars or professionals for definitive guidance.