40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #2 - God is More Capable Than You
Why do people commit oppression and what do we do when we have oppressed someone? Sh. Omar Suleiman discusses this issue and how to repent and seek forgiveness for injustices we may have committed.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulihi al kareem wa ala anihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. So you guys came back for more. I thought I scared you enough last week to make you not come back. But we continue in the 40 hadith on social justice class that we have. And I just want to remind people that inshallah we have notes being compiled, professional notes being compiled from each class. And if you go to yaqeeninstitute.org and you subscribe to the email list inshallah, then every week they're going to be emailed to you inshallah. And at the end of this it'll be compiled into a manual, into a book. And what I realized is we should have called it 100 hadith on social justice, because I have over 100 I think by the time I get through with this. But we'll still try to categorize at least in 40 chapters inshallah. As I told you all last week, it starts off, the first I'd say 7 classes are about methodology. The last 33 are about specific issues. But it's important to build this methodology so that we can properly contextualize and understand the issues and what's due upon us when we deal with the issues. So the chapter that we'll cover today, if you guys remember last week when we talked about the gravity of injustice, I said that people commit zulm out of a false sense of what? Does anyone remember? I said it, it was one sentence. A false sense of power. A person commits zulm, a person wrongs and oppresses out of a false feeling, a false sense of power. So the narration that I'll share with you is actually a story. It's from Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And there are three narrations, two in Sahih Muslim, one in Sunan Abu Dawud that I'm merging together so that you get the full story.
Okay, so it's three narrations put into one, describing the same incident that Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari says happened to him. Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, and he was one of the noble people of Medina. So he's one of the rich, wealthy companions of the Prophet ﷺ, one of the nobles of Medina. He says, kuntu adribu ghulaman. He starts off this narration, he says that I was once beating a slave. So he's talking about himself. He says kuntu adribu ghulaman. He says, while I was hitting the slave, he says, fasami'tu sultan min khalfi, I heard a voice from behind me. And the voice screamed, i'lam aba mas'ud. No, Abu Mas'ud. And when you say i'lam in the Arabic language, you're not just saying no, you're saying beware. Like be careful, Abu Mas'ud. I'lam aba mas'ud. He said, falam afhamis sulta minal ghadab. He said that I couldn't distinguish who was saying that because of the anger in the voice. You know when you hear someone's angry voice, it's a different type of voice. I couldn't even tell who it was that was saying that to me because of the anger in the tone. I'lam aba mas'ud. He says, falamma dana minni. He says that as the voice came close to me, as the person came close to me, I mean he's engaged in beating a slave right now. Someone can go around and get the kids from the back inshallah. One of the board members or someone inshallah. So he says that while I'm beating the slave, so he's engaged and to the point that he's in this act of rage, he doesn't even recognize the voice behind him. And he says it was an angry voice. So he says as he came close to me, fa'itha huwa rasoolallahi salallahu alayhi wasalam. He said then I noticed that it was the voice of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.
Can you imagine he's in this wild rage beating a slave and someone is screaming at him saying no, no, oh Abu Mas'ud, be careful Abu Mas'ud. And then he comes to find out that it's the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. So what do you think he's overcome by? What do you think he does? He says, fa'alqaytus sawta min yadi. He says that the whip, I dropped the whip from my hand and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam looked at me and he said, i'lam Abu Mas'ud. No, oh Abu Mas'ud. Anna Allaha akdaro alayka minka ala hadha alghulam. Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are to that young man. Allah has more power over you than you have over that man. Fa'qultu huwa hurrun li wajhillah. So I said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, ya Rasoolallah, he's free for the sake of Allah. Immediately he freed him on the spot. Fa'qal. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, amalaw lam taf'al la lafahatka alnaaru aw qal lamassatka alnaaru. He said, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, had you not freed him, then the fire would have engulfed you or the fire would have touched you. The narration says, lafahatka or lamassatka. So the fire would have consumed you had you not freed that man for the sake of Allah. Again, I merged several ahadith here, three ahadith actually. And this narration is narrated throughout the books of hadith. It's authentic through many different narrations. And there are many lessons we can take from this. So I'm going to start off with this incident in particular and then we will focus on the statement of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Allah has more power over you than you have over that young man. Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are of doing that to that young man. Now, there are a few things to take from this hadith. Number one, the ulama say here, the scholars say here that one of the best ways,
the most beautiful and humble ways to give advice is to reflect on your own experience. Like Abu Mas'ud is teaching the ummah a lesson. And he's embarrassing himself in the process. I mean he's saying something very unpleasant about what he did before he had that knowledge, before he came to know. So he's giving this advice as an old man to all the young people. A second thing, in one narration, Abu Mas'ud says at the end of the narration, he says, I never hit a slave after that. Like I never, after that incident, I never hit anyone else after that. So he made tawbah, he repented, he learned his lesson from that incident. He's telling other people what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to him. There's another thing we take from this narration, there are several things. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's voice was so angry that it was unrecognizable. Think about this as a person living in Medina. How different did the voice of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam have to be that a man who hears his khutbas, a man who hears his halaqas, a man who's accompanying the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam all the time could not recognize the voice of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because of the anger of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And some of the scholars say that what the narration really implies is that he himself was in such a fit of anger that he didn't recognize the voice. But the point is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's voice was so angry and he was so angry that he didn't have that recognition. And that happens when you're in that moment. There's the famous hadith of the woman that was in the graveyard and she was saying inappropriate things. She was mourning someone that she lost and she was saying these things that are not appropriate to say. It's okay to mourn but not appropriate to say. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told her to be patient and she said, what do you know of my situation? She didn't recognize that it was the voice of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in those moments. But this is the anger in the voice of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And yes, as Aisha Radhiallahu Anha says, Waman taqama linafsihi qat, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam never got angry for himself. Like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would not yell like that or he would not show that anger because someone said something to him. But if the boundaries of Allah were transgressed, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, yantaqimu lillah, would get angry for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so yes, our Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam got mad. One of the worst portrayals of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to me was to turn the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam into a passive man who was passive in the face of violence, passive in the face of aggression, who allowed oppression to take place, injustice to reign in society, and not say anything. That's not our Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You can't make rahmatan lil'alameen, a mercy to the world, more merciful than Allah has made him. So when you try to take out of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's character, his sense of justice, you're doing injustice to the character of the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Yes, our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam raised his voice. Yes, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's face became red. Yes, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he got angry for Allah, it was an anger that terrified the Sahaba. Not that he would kill people or hit people or spit or curse, but they knew the severity of what they had done. So seeing the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you imagine the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam yelling at you in such a loud voice that you can't even recognize his voice. Another subtlety we take from this hadith, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I'lam Aba Mas'ud, know O Abu Mas'ud. And this is a very interesting point from the Quran. There are many verses in the Quran, I'lamu, know. And many of the scholars of tafsir, the first one I believe in, Imam al-Qursayri rahimahullah ta'ala, he pointed out that every time Allah uses the word I'lamu, know, the next ayah is a call to action.
So it's the natural response of the believer when someone says to you in a severe way, know, like beware, think, understand, that the next ayah you need to do something serious because this is serious knowledge for you to act on. So every ayah in the Quran that uses ilm, the next verse is one of amal. Every ayah of Quran that calls you to think and know, the next verse is one that calls you to action as well. There's another thing. Notice that the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not say to him, why are you hitting him? Because that's irrelevant to the discussion. One of the worst things that we do when we see zulm is we think somehow that the zulm is justified. Right? So, you know, one of the imams was actually sharing this with me. He said that I was sitting with a group of about 20 men, young men, youth. And I asked him, if you heard that a man was hitting his wife, what's the first thing that would come to your mind? What's the first thing you would say? And like half of them said, what did she do to deserve it? Or what did she do to make him hit her? Not necessarily deserve, but what did she do for him to hit her? That's not the response of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The man could have, I mean, for all the Prophets, the man could have done something terrible. This young slave or servant could have done something horrible. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't care because your action is unjustified. Take responsibility for your action. It's not even appropriate to even ask that question or to use that as an excuse. Well, if that's the case, then don't hit him that hard. Right? That's not the way the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam functioned. The Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw that action. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam intervened at that moment. There's another hadith. It's actually in Sahih Muslim. It's about Umair. And Umair was a freed slave. And so he was freed by his master.
He says that my master commanded me to cut some meat into strips. So I was cooking for my master. And he said that as I was doing that, a poor man came to me. So I gave him some of that meat. When my master came home, he hit me for giving away that meat to the poor. And he said, so I went to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to complain to him. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam called for my master. So he summoned him. And look, did the man do something wrong? Technically, it's not your food. Technically, why did you give away? That's not your food. It doesn't belong to you. You didn't pay for it. So technically, if you want to twist it that way, but you could say technically he did something wrong. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to him, why did you hit him? So he said, Ya Rasulullah, he gave away the food without asking me. Like that was my food. And he gave it away. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Al ajru baynakuma, wouldn't the ajr be for both of you then? If he gave away your food, if it was your food, wouldn't you share in the reward then? Like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't allow, he didn't justify his action. You transgressed. You cannot hit. You should not act in that way. So that's another very important lesson we take. A lot of times when people start to arbitrate, well, that is pretty far. No. No zulm justifies a zulm in response. No transgression justifies a transgression in response. Another thing we take from this hadith. When the man heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, again, immediately, he dropped the whip, haybatan li rasulillah, out of shyness to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Like, I can't believe I just ignored the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam yelling at me. And he caught me in this evil deed. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam still told him what? He said, if you wouldn't have done it, you would have gone to hell. Like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't let up and say, you know what? Okay. Jazakallah khair.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, had you not done that, Allah would have consumed you with the fire. Why? I'm going to ask one of you guys to actually answer. What's the wisdom in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying that to him after he let the man go? Sorry. What's the wisdom of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying that? For everyone else? That's one wisdom. So as a lesson to others, because he knows, and subhanAllah, Abu Mas'ud narrates this on his own behalf. Again, he would go on to narrate the story, so it's a lesson for everyone else. What else? Yeah. To teach you to make up for your sins. Absolutely. There's one more that I'm looking for. I don't know if any of you guys will catch it. Yeah. To show Allah can give greater punishment than he can. Yes. But there's something important here. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was telling him that so that he would not return to the sin. So he would not do it to someone else. So he doesn't mistake what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw and think it's just an isolated incident. And that's why Abu Mas'ud says, after that, I never hit another slave again. I never struck anyone again. Right? Because I understood that. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wanted this to be a life-changing lesson. Abu Mas'ud also, in this incident, he didn't just say, like when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam caught him, did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually tell him to free the slave? No. He didn't. He just told him, اعلم يا ابا مسعود, beware, O Abu Mas'ud, think. Think about what you're doing. And when he said, هو حرّ لوجه الله, he is free for the sake of Allah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam never told him to, he could have just said, استغفر الله, I'm sorry, right? But he didn't. Now, by the way, the kafara, the expiation that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, if anyone hits, ضربه, if anyone was to hit their servant or to hit their slave, then they would go free. Like the kafara, the only expiation was to go free. But still, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't even tell him at that point yet to let him go.
But the man recognized it right away that I need to release this man. He understood right away that he had to let this man go free. Many things we can take from that. It's a lesson that in undoing injustice, in undoing injustice, it is not enough to simply seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The essential component of repentance from a zulm that's done to someone else is to undo the injustice to the best of your ability. So if you backbite someone, for example, you harm their reputation, the best way or the greatest form of repentance is not just to say, استغفر الله, not even to seek forgiveness from the person, though that's a component, but to undo the damage you did to their reputation, to speak well of them in the company of those who you spoke ill of them. So to try to undo that damage, that's an essential component of repentance when you actually harm someone. The Prophet ﷺ also told him, لَفَحَتْكَ النَّارِ that the fire would have consumed you. And the Prophet ﷺ did not tell him, for example, that you wouldn't have entered into paradise because the Prophet ﷺ was using the appropriate warning at the time. Like, you need to understand, you would have been burned by the fire. It's actually interesting because the scholars point out, اللَّفْحَ in the Arabic language is for something to hit your face. So when the Prophet ﷺ says the fire would have burned your face, why did he say that to him? Because he was hitting the man in his face. So you would have faced the same punishment, well, even more, because Allah ﷻ would have carried out the exact same treatment on you. The way you treated that man, Allah ﷻ would have treated you. You hit him in the face, Allah ﷻ would have burned your face.
So this is a severe hadith. It's a severe warning. But the main sentence that I want to focus on is, Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are of doing that to him. The man thought, Abu Mas'ud thought he was in charge. He felt a sense of power, and power can be intoxicating. Because when you have power, and power is not necessarily, and this is actually one of the main problems, I want you guys to be able to relate to these ahadith. Power is not necessarily settling on a throne. Power is being able to control a situation with no accountability. Being in a situation, especially when it involves another party in particular, and you are fully in control of that situation, and you don't have checks, you don't have accountability. That's power. So sometimes, as a person grows in their power, they start to feel a sense of invincibility. You know what, I can get away with stuff. So I'll start off with a little bit of burn, a little transgression. Then I realize I'm getting away with it. So then I move on to a greater form of burn. Because I realize I got away with that now. And so you start to actually deceive yourself into thinking you're in control of the situation. And the Messenger ﷺ is reminding us, we have no control over the situation. We are utterly powerless in the sight of Allah SWT. God has full power, we have no power. You are antumul fuqara ilallah. You're all in need of God. Allah doesn't need you. You need Him. You have no power in the situation. So that's why usually when you have a zalim on a state, think about on a governing level. Because unfortunately, usually that's where we take oppression to. When someone gets away with a violation, what do they do? They do more. In an abusive relationship, when someone gets away with abuse, what do they do? They get more abusive.
In a business relationship, when someone gets away with stealing or taking something or doing something, what do they do? They start to take more. This is who we are as people. Unfortunately, we graduate into greater forms of zulm when we've gotten away with smaller forms of zulm. Now the scholars also mention here that zulm has darakat. It has degrees. Darajat refers to higher degrees. Like there are darajat of good deeds. Darakat refers to lower degrees. So just like good deeds have darajat, sins have darakat. So zulm has darakat. There are worse forms of transgression than others. And the scholars mention three. The first one, of the worst types of zulm, the worst types of oppression, is to oppress someone who has a great right over you. Meaning they should be receiving your khair, they should be receiving your good, they should not be receiving your sharr, they should not be receiving your evil. So who's the worst person in the world that you could wrong? Your mother. Because if there's anyone who has an unconditional right over you from human beings, it's literally the person who produced you. Your mother. Right? So it's the worst sin in the sight of Allah SWT after shirk in terms of treating, as far as treatment is concerned. To treat your mother. To the point that Allah SWT associated the parents in obedience. Wa qadha rabbuka alla ta'wudu ila yaa wa bilwalidayni ihsana. That you worship only Allah and that you show ihsan to your parents. Allah put it in the same breath. Why? Because Allah SWT gave you a purpose of existence. And he's the ultimate cause of your existence. But the medium through which you physically exist is your parents. So their right upon you is unconditional.
Unless, again, unless they are obstructing your worship of Allah SWT or it's dangerous to be around them. But generally speaking, the worst type of sin or the worst type of dhulm is dhulm towards someone that you owe. Dhulm towards someone that has a great right over you. Imam Hassan al-Basri RA, he said, you just take this down, someone that did good for you. He said that I'm amazed by a person who eats from his brother's food, who takes from his brother's money, who enjoys his brother's company, but when he's in his absence he responds to that with nothing but a sab wa shatm. He starts to curse him and he starts to backbite him. I mean this person did something for you. When someone gave you khair, gave you something good, and your response is evil, then it makes the evil worse than the sight of Allah SWT. So that's the first thing. The first daraka or the first low point of dhulm is to show dhulm to someone who has a great right upon you. Your mother, your father, and then it goes from there. Number two, someone beloved to Allah SWT. man aada li waliya faqad aadhantoohu bilharb In Qudsi, Allah says, whoever shows enmity to one of my beloved ones, to one of my awliya, faqad aadhantoohu bilharb, I have waged war on him. You are at war with Allah. Can you imagine that? Allah has waged war upon you. The scholars, because the rest of the hadith goes on, wa ma taqarraba ilayya abdi bishayt, ahabbu ilayya mimmaftaratu alayh, and so on. Allah SWT starts mentioning that my servant comes close to me with the obligatory deeds, and then he comes close to me with the nawafil, with the voluntary deeds. One of the scholars of hadith, he said that notice Allah started off with this because even if you do fara'id and you do nawafil, you do obligatory good deeds and voluntary good deeds,
but you harmed one of Allah's awliya, it will negate all of that. Because we already talked about that, personal sins versus sins of oppression. So you could do all the voluntary good deeds in the world, but if you committed zulm towards one of his awliya, towards someone that's beloved to him, and the tricky part of it in Islam is that no one knows who the awliya are. We don't have that class. They are secret, akhliya, hidden amongst Allah's creation. You could be saying things about them or doing things about them, or harming them, and you don't know who these people really are. That person might be someone beloved to Allah. My teacher, Sheikh Hatim al-Hajj, he shared with us last week, and it was such a powerful statement. He shared a statement from Yahya bin Ma'in, rahimahullah ta'ala, that sometimes we curse people and they have settled under the throne of Allah 200 years ago. Meaning what? Like you're cursing someone who passed away, or you're saying something bad about someone who passed away, and that person has already settled under the throne of God, and you're talking ill of them. And Yahya bin Ma'in said sometimes we're talking about, you know, we start debating the past and stuff like that. You're cursing people and they're already settled under the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Like watch out. Think about who you're talking to. When you write something online and you abuse someone, you say something harmful to someone, or write something harmful, that person might appear to be semi-religious. But what about that woman, the zaniyya that gave water to the thirsty dog was a wali of Allah in some capacity, right? You have no idea. That person might be a wali from awliya, the beloved ones to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You don't want Allah waging war on you. So what's the solution? Don't commit dhulm to anybody. You don't know which ones of them, because it's egregious to do it to an animal or to something that's not even human. And again, what we said last week, even if it's a disbeliever that calls upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, harmed.
So don't harm the awliya of Allah. Be careful, because it might be someone righteous that's at the receiving end of your abuse, and you have no idea that they're righteous. So that's number two. Number three, and this is the worst, this is the absolute worst from the darakat, from the degrees of dhulm. And that is to harm someone who has no protector except Allah. man laa naasira lahoo illa Allah A person who has no protector. man laa naasira lahoo illa Allah A person who has no protector except Allah. So the orphans, the weak, the slaves, all of these things. Basically people that are already disadvantaged. They're not protected in society. And you take advantage of their vulnerability, and you add to their vulnerability. man laa naasira lahoo illa Allah Why? Because it's not a fair fight already. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala already put you in a more advantaged situation, and you chose to use your advantage to further put that disadvantaged person in disadvantage, and advance yourself? Like it wasn't enough that you were already okay, and that that person wasn't. You had to make it even worse, and compound their vulnerability? How do you expect rahma from Allah? How do you expect mercy from Allah? If this is how you're acting. So when you harm someone who's at your mercy, hence the hadith about the slave. This man beating on his slave mercilessly. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam saying, Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are of doing that to him. And there's some powerful lessons we can learn from this. You guys know the hadith of Anas radiallahu ta'ala Anhu. Anas ibn Malik was taken to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to be a khadim, to be a servant. He was given to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam by his mother to serve him. And Anas radiallahu alayhi wa sallam says, I served the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam for 10 years.
Some narrations say 9, but most of them say 10. So 9 or 10 years. I served the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam for a decade. He said, wallahi, he never once hit me. He never once raised his voice on me. He never once told me, why didn't you do this, or why did you do that? And he said, there was just this one time where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sat me on an errand, and I got busy on the way and I started playing with some other kids, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam came and he sat down and he smiled at me. And he basically gave me the look, like, why didn't you do? Didn't you have something to do? Wasn't there an errand that you were supposed to do? That was the most in 10 years, in a decade with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And it should be noted here. He says he never even said, oof, to me. Like, he never. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam did not admonish me one bit. And he was sent as a servant. He was a khadim to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He technically wasn't a kid to him. Now what's interesting here is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, Anas says, kana Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam ahsan al nasi khuluqa The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam had the best character. After the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam passed away, Anas used to see him in his dream every single night. He loved, he adored the Messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he lived, radhiallahu anhu, as one of the last sahabah to pass away. And he adored the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Just the way the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam treated him. Now here's the thing. Did the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam ever admonish his own children? Yes. So some of the scholars actually mention the fear of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, of wronging Anas in particular, because he's a khadim. He was sent as a khadim. So he's extremely vulnerable. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam shows him even more ihsan. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam never hit his children. But you can find some ahadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam admonishing his children very lightly. You don't see it with Anas salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's a khadim to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so that's why Ibn Abbas salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, for example, that the companions were more afraid of wronging the orphans than their own children. They came from a society, aklu mal al yatim, where people would consume the wealth of the orphan and harm the orphan and take advantage of the orphan.
Now, with all of the ayat and the ahadith about taking care of the orphan, Ibn Abbas salallahu alayhi wa sallam said literally, they would be too afraid to eat from their food. Like if they took in orphan children, they'd be too afraid to mix their food or to take anything from their wealth. Like they went to the extreme in protecting the orphans now. Why? Because this person, la nasira lahu illallah, he has no protector except Allah. He's at my mercy. I could do so much to him or to her, but I don't. And that's the point. Allah could do so much to me, but I don't want him to. I want him to show me an exceeding level of mercy. So the sahaba had more fear when they did that. Likewise, when you think about when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, fear Allah with your spouses. Fear Allah with your spouses. And you know, when a man wrongs his wife or a woman wrongs her husband, but let's say that the other person is at complete, you know, they have like horrible circumstances. So a man is abusing his wife, but she needs him for papers or she needs him for immigration purposes or she's completely dependent. So if something happens, we see these situations, something happens, you know, she's afraid of what would come outside of that marriage. So a man takes advantage of that. That happens all the time. Takes advantage of the situation and continues to abuse and abuse and abuse and traps and imprisons. That person is engaging in the filthiest type of bull, the filthiest type of oppression. Because this person is at your mercy and you know it, so you take advantage of that. Right? And that's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hates the most. And Allah says in Surah An-Nisa, for example, after, you know, after in a situation where marriage has even come to its end and there's a situation of nushuz, of rebellion on the part of the wife, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَإِنْ أَطْعْنَكُمْ فَلَا تَبْغُوا عَلَيْهِنَّ سَبِيلًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيًّا كَبِيرًا
If they return to you, do not pursue further aggression or further means against them. Allah is higher, more exalted, forever exalted and forever great and almighty. Like reminding you, hey, just because you can, don't. Don't. Just because you feel like you have that opportunity to carry out that oppression without accountability, don't. So we see that as well finally with the situation with Abu Dharr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Now you know, you remember Abu Dharr radiyaAllahu anhu got into trouble because he said, he called Bilal radiyaAllahu anhu, يَبْنَ السَّوْدَىٰ, O son of a black woman. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told him, أَعَيَرْتُهُ بِأُمِّي Did you curse him or did you insult him with his mother? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, You're a man with jahiliya inside of you, with ignorance inside of you. And Abu Dharr was so afraid of that that he went and put his face on the ground and told Bilal to step on his face. May Allah be pleased with them both. He was so terrified by the warning of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Listen to this hadith, Ma'rur radiyaAllahu anhu says, I saw Abu Dharr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu wearing a nice, like a fancy burd, like a garment. And I saw his servant wearing the exact same burd. So I said to Abu Dharr, Ya Abu Dharr, why don't you take his, like why are you wearing the same thing as him? Like it looked odd, it looked awkward. You're both wearing the exact same clothes. You have a nice suit and he has a nice suit. Like what's going on here? So Abu Dharr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu said, There was once a quarrel between me and another man whose mother was not an Arab and I called her bad name. So he didn't say the name of Bilal in this narration. But once I got into it with one of the companions and his mother was not an Arab, so I said something bad. The man complained to me about, complained about me to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Did you abuse so and so? And I said, Yes. He said, Did you call his mother bad names?
I said, Yes. He said, You still have the traits of ignorance inside of you. So I said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Do I still have jahiliya inside of me even in my old age? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Yes. And then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that the servants are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. He's not talking about Bilal. Bilal was freed, but he's undoing the jahiliya from Abu Dharr's head. Right. And inside of him, he said, Those servants are your brothers who Allah put under your command. They are your brothers, ikhwanukum, they're your brothers. And Allah simply put them under your care. So he said, So the one under whose hand Allah has put his brother should feed him of what he eats and give him to dress with, with what he dresses himself and should not ask him to do a thing beyond his capacity. And if he asks him to do something that's burdensome, then he should assist him in that task. And this is a hadith in Bukhari. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying, Look, they're your brothers and Allah put them under your care. Allah put them in your protection. That's all. They're a trust that Allah put in your care. Think about that. Right. So Abu Dharr took it to the extent, again, he did not wear anything except that his servant wore the same thing, eat anything except his servant ate the exact same thing. So it's to show you once again, someone is under your protection, someone's under your care, or someone's in a place where they're vulnerable and you are in power, then you should fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even more. Your fear of Allah should, that doesn't mean wrong your children and then treat the orphans well. Right. Or beat people up that are not, you know, like, that are equal to you. No, it means that you should be especially afraid of committing zulm, of wronging someone who has no protector except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Someone who's already in a state of vulnerability. So I'm going to give you guys a famous story, but I want you to focus on some of the nuances of it. And I realize like Umar al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu will come up in every single halaqah.
Because he is al-Farooq, he's a man who distinguishes between truth and falsehood, a man of justice. In the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu, Egypt was ruled by Amr ibn al-As radiyallahu anhu. So under the khilafah of Umar, Amr ibn al-As was the governor of Egypt. And Egypt was famous for its horse racing. So Egypt at that time, they used to be known in the Muslim world for the place where horse racing would take place. So they would hold all their competitions and all that type of stuff. So the son of the governor, the son of the amir, who was the amir? Amr ibn al-As. His son named Muhammad. Muhammad, the son of Amr ibn al-As, was known to be a horseman. So he used to race and he used to beat everybody. So they'd bring all the horsemen and he'd take them out. And so this time he raced with a cop, you know, a Coptic, so this was a Christian slave that lived in Egypt. Okay? A Christian slave that lived in Egypt. So talk about disadvantage, right? He's not Muslim. He's a slave in that society. I mean, this is a really, really harsh situation for him to be in. And they're racing and everyone expects the son of Amr ibn al-As to win, Muhammad, the son of Amr ibn al-As, to win because he always wins. This man gets on the horse and he beats him. And it was humiliating to Muhammad, the son of Amr ibn al-As. So he gets off of his horse and he takes his whip and he says, Atasbiquni, are you going to beat me? Wa ana ibn al-akramin al-mu'minin al-muhtadin? I am the son of the noble ones, the guided ones, the believing ones. And he pops him right on his head with a whip. So he not only hit him, but he also boasted. You know who I am? You know who my dad is? You know where I come from? Now this man was hurt by that. He was embarrassed. This took place in front of everybody.
It wasn't just the physical harm here. It was just a hit. But it took place in front of everyone. It was humiliating. So he asked some of the people, he said, What do you think I should do? They said, Well, you should raise the issue to Amr ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Amr would not let that go. Even they know that even though you're Christian and even though he's the son of Amr's beloved companion and all that, he would not let that go. So he makes a trip all the way to Medina just to complain to Amr ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu about this man. So Amr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu sees him. He tells Amr what happened. Amr radiyaAllahu anhu writes a letter to Amr ibn al-As and to Amr's son. And he dispatches a messenger. Now this isn't like he sent a text message. Like I'm going to text Amr al-As right now. We need to talk. Like he actually sends a letter to Egypt from Medina. And the letter says, When you get this letter, I don't care what you're doing. Leave your post and come to me. Like this is putting the ummah in vulnerability now, like over this man. Right? Leave your post and come to me and bring your son with you too. I want both of you here. So Anas ibn Malik radiyaAllahu anhu, he says that Amr radiyaAllahu anhu provided accommodations for this Christian man. Literally gave him a place to stay, took care of him, fed him until, I mean we're talking about months, until Amr and his son come, takes care of him. And Anas says that we were sitting with Amr radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu and Amr ibn al-As rode in and Amr was a big man. So Amr radiyaAllahu anhu when he saw him, he immediately looked behind him to see if his son was with him. That's how big Amr was. So he saw his son and Amr did not, ya'ni ma kalamahu, he didn't even speak to him. Amr said, ayna al-misli? Where's the Egyptian man?
Like let's settle this now. We can't wait, there's no time for courtesies or congratulations on taking Egypt and how's it going over there and let me check up on the ummah. Where's the Egyptian guy? Where's the Christian man that complained? Amr radiyaAllahu anhu brings him. Amr radiyaAllahu anhu says, doonaka durra, says behind you is my stick. Amr had a stick, he said behind you is my stick. He says, fadrib biha ibn al-akramin, said go ahead and hit the son of the nobles. Using the same language, ibn al-akramin, the son of the nobles. He said go ahead and hit him like he hit you. So the people all assembled to watch this. The same thing, right? You humiliated that man in public, now you're being humiliated in front of everybody in Medina. And the exact same way, go ahead and hit him. I don't care who you are or who you wronged. Like you thought at that moment that you could get away with that. Who's going to hold you accountable, right? You're the son of the governor, I mean who's going to hold you accountable? So he said, go ahead, fadrib biha ibn al-akramin. Hit the... Hit the son of the nobles. So he did it. He actually picked up the stick and he popped Muhammad ibn Amr al-As on the head. And then Umar radiallahu anhu says, ij'alha ala salati amr. Now put it on the bald head of Amr. That's what he said, he said put the stick on the bald head of Amr. What did Amr al-As do? He didn't hit him, he didn't have anything to do with it. So the man says, ya amir al-mu'minin, he says that I hit the one who hit me, like this is... why should I hit him? I already hit the guy who hit me. And listen to what Umar says, Umar says, ma darabaka hatha illa bi sultani hatha. This person did not hit you except by the power or the sultan, the royalty of that person. He didn't say hit him, he said just put the stick on his head. Literally put it on his head.
To show him that this is unacceptable. Umar was not just concerned with getting that man's particular right back. It's to send a message. This system that you've set up to where your son felt like he could do that, you need to be humiliated as well. So Amr ibn al-As, the great companion of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasalam, the ruler of Egypt, and this Christian man, this Christian slave is putting the stick on his head, in front of everybody in Medina. Now if you're that man, what are you thinking? Like when I get back to Egypt, what's going to happen? Right? There's a chance that they might summon me. So Amr ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, he said to the Coptic, he said, go back home in peace. And he assigned to him a bodyguard. And he said if anybody ever does anything to you again, write me a letter. Umar didn't do anything else. He said, write me a letter and I'll take care of it. Then look at what Umar said. He looked at Amr and he says, ayya Amru, ayya Amru, he said, oh Amr, he says, matasta'abattumun nasa waqad waladatum ummahatum ahraara. Since when do you enslave people when their mothers gave birth to them free? Since when do you enslave people and their mothers gave birth to them in freedom? Right? He's so upset. Why? Because it's not just the dhulm. It's the fact that he felt like he was unaccountable. And he's living out what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah can do that to you. Finally, just a few points that the scholars point out that Allah subhana wa ta'ala with the zalim, with the one who's an oppressor, the proud oppressor, the arrogant oppressor, Allah subhana wa ta'ala would humiliate them when they try to humiliate others. So we see, for example, Fir'aun. Fir'aun, every one of his mazalim, every one of his transgressions came back to him.
When Musa alayhi salam came to him, he mocked Musa alayhi salam and he called him disfigured. He said, look at his disfigurements. Look at his lisp. Look at him. He doesn't even know how to talk properly. He mocked Musa alayhi salam and he told Musa alayhi salam that I'm going to make an example out of you. So he mocked him and he said, I'm going to make an example out of you. Allah subhana wa ta'ala responded that you would live mocked, that Allah would make an example out of him, that Allah would make an example out of him to be mocked. And he would be from the maqbuheen, he would be from the disfigured and the hereafter. He would burn people alive. The punishment of what Fir'aun used to do to the people, he used to burn them alive. And Allah subhana wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran that Fir'aun is being burned as we speak. An-naru yu'radhoon alayha bukratan wa ashiyah. Every morning and every night Fir'aun is being burned. And on the day of judgment, Allah subhana wa ta'ala would tell them to enter into the real fire, into the full effect of hellfire. Just as he used to burn people, it came back to him. Allah subhana wa ta'ala said when he came from Yemen, he said that I'm going to tear the Kaaba stone by stone with an army of elephants. Allah subhana wa ta'ala did what? He sent an army of birds to take out his army stone by stone. It all came back to them. And Allah mentions to us now, Allah mentions for example that whoever exposes his brother, whoever exposes his brother, now we know man satara muslima satarahullahi yawm al qiyamah. Allah covers up the faults of his brother, Allah will cover up his faults on the day of judgment. Whoever exposes his brother, fadahahu, Allah subhana wa ta'ala will expose him. Hatta fee bayti, even if Allah exposes him in his home, even if Allah humiliates him, even if he's hiding in his home, Allah will humiliate that person for humiliating someone else. So when a person thinks they have power and they take advantage of the vulnerable, Allah subhana wa ta'ala shows them what true vulnerability looks like.
On the other hand, when we see the most vulnerable in society and they can do nothing for us and we still take it upon ourselves to ensure their well-being and to put them in a place of advantage, Allah subhana wa ta'ala would not allow us to feel vulnerable on the day of judgment. And that's the ultimate reward. So we have no, there's nothing that we get from this world, benefit from this world, from taking care of these people. No one can check me in this situation, right? I don't have anyone holding me accountable, but Allah subhana wa ta'ala would take care of me. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to protect us from wronging anyone else. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to not let us be deceived by our own nafus, by our own selves, to think that we have any sense of power in this world. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to use any advantage that he gave to us for good, for khayf. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to place us in the service of those who are wronged and not to make us amongst those who wronged them. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala that if there is any wrongdoing we have done in this world, that he shows it to us that we may repent for it and that he does not hold us accountable on the day of judgment for those that were not apparent to us. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khayran. InshaAllah ta'ala I'll see you all next week, but I'll take questions from those of you that are here.
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