Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Salaam alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala rasulihi alkarim wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salamu ala taseemin kathira. In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful. We ask him to send his peace and blessings upon his messengers and prophets, and those that follow in their path. If we can get the noise level down. I think the door needs to be closed. Alhamdulillah. Alright, so, tonight we are in hadith 20. No we're not, we're in hadith 19. Sorry, I made that mistake. So we get to hadith 19 now. We're almost at the halfway mark of the 40 hadith. Who can tell me what we spoke about last week? Neighbors. Did anyone do anything about it? So what did you do when people came trick-or-treating to your house today? Alright, that's another discussion we'll get into one day. So anyway, last week we spoke about all of the rights, the expansive rights that are assigned to the neighbors, the specifics, the mechanics, both a classical application and a contemporary application. That was one of my favorite halafahs personally because it really gives us a practical roadmap to how to establish the rights of the neighbors in a modern day context. Because often when we read those things, we throw them all out the window and say that was for a different time when neighbors actually spoke to each other.
But now we live in a different time so we can't apply any of those things. So I hope everyone was able to apply or start to apply or start thinking about how to apply the hadith, the sayings about the neighbors. Today we go to a different topic altogether. Tonight we're going to actually talk about the subject of torture. Obviously this falls within the discussion of social justice because within the context of torture, the domain of torture, you have many injustices. You have the injustice of the torture itself. You have the injustice of forced confessions, investigative torture. All of these different things fall in the domain of this broad category of torture. Now the word torture in the Arabic language is ta'deeb. It means punishment but it also means torture. If it's used in a specific way, it also means torture. And the hadith that we're going to discuss, the narration we're going to discuss, the first hadith is the hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam from Abu Huraira radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu where he said, innaAllaha yuAAadhdhibu allatheena yuAAadhdhibuna an-naasa fid-dunya that Allah punishes those who torture people in this world. And it's very interesting here because first of all in one narration or in some narrations, there's actually multiple narrations in this language, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam either says, innaAllaha yuAAadhdhibu allatheena yuAAadhdhibuna fid-dunya Allah punishes those who torture in this world and sometimes Allah punishes those who torture people in this world. So it's either tortures in general or tortures people in this world. Now notice that this is one of those hadith where like the neighbor, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not tell us about any distinction about who the person that's being tortured is or whether that person's a Muslim or not a Muslim
or a captive or an ally or whatever it may be. It's just a period, the prohibition of torture as a whole. And there's a story as well where we learn this hadith and how it was applied. Hisham ibn Hakim, he passed by some people in Homs, in Syria, and he saw that there were some people that were being made to stand out in the sun and they had some oil that was being poured on their heads. And he asked, why are they being tortured? And they said because they weren't paying their taxes. They don't do that now. But if you just think about a punishment because they were not paying the taxes. And he said, I heard the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu alaihi wasallam say, Inna allaha yuAAadhibu allatheena yuAAadhibuuna an-naasa fid-dunya. Allah punishes those who torture people in this world. That verily Allah will torture. Actually it's the same word. So Allah will torture those who torture in this world. Now this is obviously referring to someone who is in a position of authority and it's also referring to someone who is not in a position of authority. Now if we look at this hadith, there are a few different connotations to it. Another hadith, if you guys can make sure the door stays closed. Another hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam comes under the chapter in Al-Bukhari. And I'm just going to give the basic narrations and we'll go into some of the details. It comes under Al-Bukhari in a chapter, Baab la yuAAadhibu biAAadhabillah. No one should be punished with the punishment of God. No one should be punished with the punishment of Allah. Okay? And this comes from a hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam where the Prophet alaihi wasallam said, la tuAAadhibu biAAadhabillah. Do not punish with the punishment of God. Do not punish with the punishment of God.
Or don't torture with the punishment of God. What is the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam talking about here? Fire. So the prohibition in Islam in all forms of punishment, even justified punishment of punishing people with fire. You know, there was a whole, when ISIS burned the Jordanian pilot alive in a cage in such a gruesome way and that was broadcast throughout the world. The first time was that. When the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, do not punish with the punishment of Allah. And completely prohibited punishment with fire, torture with fire. And it was really interesting because he called, you know, it goes back to the very first hadith of this 40 hadith series. Where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has prohibited dhulm for himself. He's prohibited oppression for himself. So do not oppress one another. When a person oppresses, they put themselves in the position of Allah. Who gave you the right to oppress another creation of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la or to torture another creation of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? So the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam could have said, don't punish people with fire. But it's very eloquent when he says, don't punish with the punishment of God. Meaning only Allah reserves the right to punish people with fire. And no one, of course, no one would be punished with fire on the Day of Judgment except one who truly deserves to be punished by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. But who do you think you are to interfere or to put yourself in that place? And you have to keep in mind here that if you study the 7th century, particularly the way the captives of war were dealt with. If you study the Romans and the Persians, burning people at the stake, burning prisoners of war at the stake was a very common thing, burning off limbs, casting out the eyes or plucking the eyes with burning iron. We read about the pharaohs, obviously, Fir'aun, throwing people into a fire.
Ashab al-Ukhdud, the people of the ditch, who are mentioned in the Qur'an, who were thrown into a ditch of fire in Yemen before Islam, but believing in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la just for being monotheists, thrown into the fire and being burned. And obviously now it's sad, but you hear about the Rohingya, they are being punished, that in this genocide that's taking place over there, people are literally having to watch their babies being thrown into fire in front of their eyes, only because they're Muslims. This genocide and ethnic cleansing that's taking place in Burma. So the Prophet ﷺ here is saying that certain things only belong to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and do not punish with the punishment of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. They punish with the punishment of fire. And Ibn al-Qayyim, rahim Allah, has a very powerful quote. He said that this was the punishment that was used against Ibrahim, against Abraham. Fire was the punishment that was used against Ibrahim, not by the followers of Ibrahim. How could anyone who claims to be a follower of Ibrahim, resort to torturing in the way that Ibrahim, was tortured or they attempted to torture him and they threw him into his fire at the order of his father. So there's the first hadith which is that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la punishes people who torture people in this world, no matter who they are. And then there's the second hadith, do not punish or torture with the punishment of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Now there are general hadith that obviously teach us that the way that we deal with each other is how we're going to be dealt with with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So for example, the hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Innama yarhamu Allahu min ibadihi arruhamaa That Allah will show mercy to those who are merciful to each other. And then he says Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the opposite of that.
Man la yarham la yurham Whoever does not show mercy will not have mercy shown to him by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So you'll often find the Prophet, peace be upon him, giving us both sides of this. One positive reinforcement, one negative reinforcement. That if you want Allah's mercy, then you need to show mercy to other people. The way that you treat others is how you'll be treated by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then on the other hand, those who don't show mercy will not be shown mercy by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And the discussion of torture in Islam spans far beyond just talking about human beings, right? In fact, it's interesting. Most of the ahadith about torture have to do with animals. The vast majority of ahadith about torture, and we'll probably get to animals in two or three weeks, hadith 21 or 22, we'll talk about animals. But almost all of them are about animals. So it should be deduced that if you can't treat animals this way, then you certainly can't treat human beings this way. But what's the most famous hadith about torture that you all can think of, that you heard in Sunday school growing up? What about a cat? Cat and woman. Okay, so the very famous hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said that a woman was punished because of a cat that she imprisoned, meaning she caged that cat and didn't allow that cat to find its natural food, nor did she feed the cat or provide water to the cat. So her torturing the cat, the Prophet ﷺ said that she entered into hellfire because of the way that she treated that cat, because she stopped that cat from being able to eat or drink, and that was a form of torture, okay, starving that cat. There's all of the hadith about branding animals, the Prophet ﷺ mentioning those who brand animals and the punishment of those who torture their animals.
The Prophet ﷺ talking about those who torture their camels or riding beasts with too much, overburdening them. And the Prophet ﷺ mentions that they would testify to Allah on the Day of Judgment about the owner that overburdened them. The Prophet ﷺ talking about the one who tortured the birds, the mother whose eggs were taken. So there are numerous hadith about torturing animals, which means that the subject of torture spans far beyond human beings. It goes to animals and it even goes to insects to some extent. So how does this then translate into the way that people are supposed to be treated? First you start with prisoners. Okay, prisoners. And obviously when we think about the world that we live in today, if you think about Guantanamo Bay, if you think about Abu Ghraib, if you think about the secret prisons around the world, if you think about the type of torture that takes place in prisons, the discussions on waterboarding, the type of torture that takes place in many prisons, this is not some caveman's world that we're talking about. We're talking about our world today, that this is still a very common feature of our society. And we, as in our country, have led the way in torture in many different ways, but we've tortured in different parts of the world where we cannot be subject to the laws that we claim to abide by. So torture is not some feature that was carried out by early governments, but it is a feature that we see today of our societies. But if you start with the concept of prisoners, with the subject of prisoners, there's a very famous story about Thumama, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Thumama was the chief of Banu Hanifa.
Thumama was the chief of Banu Hanifa, and he was one of the greatest enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. And he actively used to target and harm Muslims, and he was captured in Medina. And when he was captured in Medina, they brought him to the masjid, and he was tied to a pillar in the masjid. And in his mind, he's going to be mutilated piece by piece because Thumama... Now, Banu Hanifa was famous for torture. This is actually some of the backdrop. Banu Hanifa, that's where the first false prophet in Islam came from, Musaylimah al-Kadhab, and he literally picked people limb by limb that disbelieved in him, that refused to call him a prophet. Banu Hanifa was a rough tribe, and he's the chief of that tribe. So he's tied to the pillar of the masjid, and the Prophet ﷺ comes up to him, and he tells him, what do you have to say for yourself, O Thumama? He said, Ya Muhammad, I'm a man who if you take care of, I will take care of you. And if you don't, then things are going to happen. So he said, in taqtul, taqtul dha'adaman, if you kill, then other people will end up being killed. wa an tun'im, tun'im ala shakir, and if you show benevolence, you'll be showing benevolence to a man who will be grateful, meaning, I'll take care of you if you let me go. The Prophet ﷺ left him alone. So he stayed there tied up in the masjid for a day. The next day, the Prophet ﷺ came to him and he asked him the same thing, what do you have to say for yourself? He said, the same thing. He said, listen, if you kill me, other people will be killed. If you show me benevolence and generosity, then you will do so to a grateful man. The Prophet ﷺ left him alone a second day. He came to him a third day. He said to him, what do you have to say for yourself? He said the exact same thing. The Prophet ﷺ said, atliqu Thumama. He said, you know what, just let him go. Now the companions were shocked. Why would he say let him go after all he's done to us? Why did he say let him go?
Thumama went outside. He did wudu, he performed ablution, and he came back to the Prophet ﷺ and he became a Muslim. He accepted Islam. And this was a really interesting, I mean, this is a long story. It's a powerful story because Thumama, knowing the man that he was, he was on his way to Mecca on a trade route. And he's a diplomat, right? He's someone who's well respected in Mecca. He's a powerful man. And he told the Prophet ﷺ, I want to do umrah. How do I do the pilgrimage? How do I do umrah? And the Prophet ﷺ taught him how to do umrah. And he went and he did umrah by himself. He was the first man to actually do umrah, to do the pilgrimage in Mecca, while the Muslims were actually boycotted. And then he placed Mecca under economic boycott because of the way they were treating the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims. So this is a very powerful man. The other thing that the scholars point out from here is obviously that the Prophet ﷺ refused to treat him the way that he was treating other people. He did not allow for the practices of Banu Hanifa to become the practices of the Prophet ﷺ. How does this play out in jurisprudence? Generally speaking, the Prophet ﷺ, when he faced an opponent in war or in battle, then he dealt with them by the norms that they would deal with other people. Meaning if the Prophet ﷺ fought in battle against the people that did not take captives, he didn't take captives. If he fought against the people that did take captives, he took captives, but he treated them in ways that they were not accustomed to. But here with Thumama, Thumama was someone that comes from a tribe of torture. The Prophet ﷺ refused to torture him. And of course, Thumama, witnessing the beautiful character of the Muslims, witnessing their brotherhood, witnessing their sisterhood, witnessing the kind treatment that they gave to him despite everything he'd done,
his heart then inclined towards Islam. I'm not suggesting we tie anyone to this pillar. We've only got one pillar here, right? Don't tie anyone to this pillar, alright? But just in general, it was a testimony to the good character of those Muslims that were around the Prophet ﷺ. And this goes to the ayah in the Qur'an where Allah ﷻ says, وَيُطْعِمُونَ الطَّعَامَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ مِسْكِينًا وَيَتِيمًا وَأَسِيرًا And they give food in spite of their love for that food or out of their love for Allah ﷻ. They give food despite their love for that food they're giving away and out of their love for Allah ﷻ, out of their love for their Creator, to the poor person, to the orphan, and to the captive. And they say, إِنَّمَا نُطْعِمُكُمْ لِوَجْهِ اللَّـهِ لَا نُرِيدُ مِنكُمْ جِزَاءً وَلَا شُكُورًا We feed you seeking only Allah's pleasure. We wish from you no reward, nor do we expect to be thanked for this. Now, this is typically understood, this ayah is typically understood to how you would spend upon other prisoners. Because what used to happen in Mecca in the days of ignorance is that when people had slaves and prisoners, what they would do is they would let them out for an hour a day to go beg for food. They wouldn't even feed them. So an hour or two a day, they would let their slaves out. They would let their prisoners out to go beg other people for food. So, you know, the scholars understood from this ayah that you should feed those people, you know, even though if you don't have the means to free them from their captivity, you should feed them. All right? You should at least dignify them as much as you can. Feed them and give them drinks so that they don't have to go around begging for food and drink. But Ibn Abbas, صلى الله عليه وسلم, who obviously is the cousin of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the authority of the Qur'an, he said that in those days
their prisoners were mushrikeen. They were people that fought them on the day of Badr. So they weren't Muslims. They were people that came and fought them on the day of Badr. And the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم commanded them to be kind to their prisoners. So he said that the companions used to put their prisoners before themselves with their food so that if food came to their home, they'd feed their captives first and then they would feed themselves and their families. So subhanAllah, this was actually, you know, the way that they were told to treat their own prisoners and their own captives from the battle of Badr. Mujahid رحمه الله, he said that they would give food to these prisoners even though, or these captives, even though they themselves desired it and they loved that food for themselves. So the prohibition on torture went far beyond just not beating and not hitting and not carrying out any form of physical torture, but it also meant sleep deprivation or depriving them from food or drink or depriving them from clothes or depriving them from their dignity. It was far more encompassing than what you would typically think of when you talk about laws that should outlaw torture. We also find the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم where he was pacing after the battle of Badr. Now obviously again, the battle of Badr is a situation where you have people that try to massacre the small community of Muslims and this is the first time the Muslims are taking captives. And of course the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم freed anyone that could teach ten people how to read and he prohibited torture and all these types of things. But it was also very emotional for the Muslims because a lot of the people that came in the battle of Badr were their parents, were their uncles, were their family members, their siblings that came to kill them. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم included. Khadija's brother was amongst those who were fighting on the day of Badr. His uncles were amongst those who were fighting on the day of Badr.
So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was pacing after the battle of Badr and he was crying. So the companions came to him and they said, why are you crying? He said, سمعت أنين العباس في وثاقي. He said, I could hear Al-Abbas, my uncle, I could hear his moaning or his groaning because of the chains. Meaning they were tied in a way that it caused him discomfort and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was hurt because he knew that his uncle was hurting. But now when the companions saw that, they said to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, you know, well we'll go loosen up the chains. He said, but if you do that for him, you have to do it for everybody. So it wouldn't be fair if you just did that for him because he's my uncle. You have to loosen them up from all of the captives. Don't just loosen them up from my uncle, Al-Abbas صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was pleased with them loosening the chains as the narration says. So that's the way that they were supposed to treat them to make sure that they took into consideration those factors that would be considered torturous. We also find that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم referred to forced confessions, forced confessions. And he said صلى الله عليه وسلم, أعذر الله لأمتي الخطأ ونسيانا مستكره عليك. That Allah has pardoned people for what they do out of mistake, الخطأ, what you do out of mistake, or what you do out of forgetfulness, or what you do under duress, Allah has forgiven you for that. How does this relate to torture? If you're being tortured, you don't have to insist upon things that will get you tortured, further tortured. So the Prohibition or the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم relaxing the rules that would allow for a person to continue to be tortured. The most famous example
of that are the first martyrs of Islam, the family of Yasir, Yasir, Sumayya, and Ammar. And when Abu Jahl was torturing them, obviously he tortured amongst them Ammar ibn Yasir, and while Ammar was being tortured, they were being forced to curse Allah, they were being forced to curse the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, they were being forced to say things, to worship the idols or to say words of worship to the idols. Now Yasir and Sumayya did not do that, they were killed for that. Ammar, their son, he cursed the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and he felt really bad about that. He felt guilty for cursing the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم while he was being tortured. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told him, did you do it with your tongue or with your heart? He said, it was just with my tongue. He said, فإن عادوا فعد, if they torture you again, then curse me again. Don't put yourself in a situation where you continue to be tortured. So this relaxing of the, I don't even know how to put it, but this exception that was given to people while they were under duress so that they did not have to say things that would continue to earn them torture, really meant something to the early Muslims that often suffered persecution. That they were not held guilty, or they were not sinful when they said things that they had to say in order to escape torture. Now here's where the discussion becomes interesting. Investigative torture. Investigative torture. This is a hadith, and I thought about starting with this hadith, but I figured I'd just start with the basics on torture and then get to this hadith. This hadith, it takes place during the time of Nu'man ibn al-Bashir. Nu'man ibn al-Bashir was one of the young companions of the Prophet ﷺ. The narration is in Abu Dawud, it's an authentic narration, that some
goods of the people of Kila were stolen. So this was the people of Kila, and some of their goods were stolen. They accused some of the weavers, there was a group of weavers, those that used to sew and weave, of theft. So they thought that these were the people that stole their goods. So they went to Nu'man ibn al-Bashir, and they told him about this. So he confined them for a few days, and he asked them about it, and their belongings were searched, and then he let them go. But their belongings were searched not intrusively. It was a very basic search, it wasn't like a TSA search. He asked them if they did steal, and when they said they didn't steal, they just did a basic look at their things, and then they let them go. So the people that accused these men of stealing, they went to him, and they were upset. They said to him, you set them free without doing any type of beating or investigation. You didn't beat them, nor did you investigate them, meaning you should have beat them up a little bit, roughed them up, and then seen if they actually stole, which was the custom of those people. You hit them a little bit, choke them a little bit, try to get them to confess to it, then maybe they would have. And listen to what he said. He said to them, he said, what do you want? They said, we want you to beat them, we want you to rough them up. He said, okay, well, he said, here's the deal. If I do that, and then your goods are found with them, then it's justified. He said, but if I do that, and your goods are not found with them, then I'm going to have to do to you exactly what I did to them. So as much as I hit them, or I rough them up, I'm going to have to do the same thing to you. And actually, the language used, I will have to take from your backs what I took from their backs, meaning they wanted them to be flogged. So he said, you want me to flog them? If they turn out to not have it even after all that, I'm going
to have to flog all of you for coming with that. So they were upset with that. They said that, is this your decision? Is that really your judgment? And he said, he said, he said, he said, that's not my judgment. He said, that's the judgment of Allah and the judgment of the messenger of Allah. And, you know, this is a powerful narration because it really highlights Islam's prohibition on what would come to be known as investigative torture. How did this play out in the books of fiqh, in the books of jurisprudence? The earlier scholars completely prohibited, completely prohibited any form of investigative torture, no matter who the person was, no matter what their history was. There was no way that you could, that you could do this in trying to get something from them. Later scholars, later scholars, getting into the 11th and 12th and 13th century, like Imam bin Taymiyyah, Rahim Allah, Imam al-Mawardi, they started to discuss this and they started to give some exceptions, not to investigative torture, but to, you know, to using physical force. And they said that you could do this with someone who has a history. So some of the later scholars, this is interesting, some of the later scholars, they said if a person has a history, then they could be, then physical force could be used with them in the process of investigating them. The interesting thing about this is that these scholars that said that they did it in response to the European criminal procedure. So this was analogous to half-proof, okay, because this was the European judicial process and now Muslim scholars were having to respond to this and they were relaxing some of the prohibition because this was becoming the
norm of the world. Whereas you find that the earlier scholars took a definitive prohibition, tahrim, on investigative torture or investigative punishment. What does this show us? What it shows us is that the scholars understood that they had to deal with changing circumstances and the definitions of torture and the definitions of what was allowable and what was not. And that Islam set boundaries, but there was some room for discussion within the gray areas. So when you look at today, the United Nations, the UN for example, they define torture as an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind. Now as we said, this is a definition by the way that fits Islam. Islam actually broadens it beyond human beings, right? This goes beyond people, even though you wouldn't necessarily interrogate an animal, but some people do, all right? So the torturing or punishing animals is included within the same prohibition. And that's why the 1984 Convention Against Torture, 37 of 44 Muslim countries signed it. So scholars generally did not find any objection to things of that sort. So there is room for discussion within these things, but then you have the Islamic constants that prohibits what would come under what is definitively ta'zib, what is definitively torture, and of course again the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, inna Allah yu'adhibu allatheena yu'adhibuna an-nas fid-dunya. Allah will punish those who torture people in this world. And the Prophet ﷺ
mentioned to us that the first proceedings on the Day of Judgment would be between the animals, right? So you would even have an animal that did not have horns, that was attacked by an animal with horns and Allah would do justice between them. So what then of a human being that had more power over another human being and abused that power, or a human being that did so over an animal? May Allah protect us from ever being in that situation and may Allah never allow us to oppress or wrong in any capacity whatsoever. Allahumma ameen. Any questions?
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