# When The Strong Devour The Weak | Signs of the Hour Ep. 25

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Signs of the Hour
**Published:** 2026-11-11
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/U0PRFP0fWBU
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/signs-of-the-hour/when-the-strong-devour-the-weak-signs-of-the-hour-ep-25
**Topics:** Afterlife, Faith

## Description
Dr. Omar Suleiman explains how oppression comes to rule a society: it begins in homes and streets where no one challenges it, and it grows until it is enforced from the top. He starts with Abu Bakr (ra) correcting how people read Quran 5:105, and the Prophet’s ﷺ warning about people who see an...

## Chapters
- 0:00 When Oppression Reigns Supreme
- 2:03 Abu Bakr (ra)'s Warning to Oppressors
- 4:53 Losing Protection by Staying Silent
- 6:50 The Knots of Islam Undone
- 8:35 Hadith on Police States & Surveillance
- 10:34 Complicity: Weapons & Big Tech
- 11:55 6 Prophetic Warnings
- 13:28 Justice: Umar (ra) & Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (rh)
- 15:41 Thawban (ra) & the Disease of Wahn
- 17:04 Why the Shameless Rise to Power
- 19:09 How to Stand Against Injustice

## Transcript
**[0:00]** What you start to allow in your family, in your community, in your city, in your society grows and grows and grows until it can no longer be stopped. Oppression goes unchecked amongst people, and then oppression becomes the checking authority. And they're too afraid to say anything about it anymore because they think that it's going to hasten their death or lessen their sustenance.

**[0:21]** And you have to ask yourself, like, how much do I participate knowingly and how much do I hate in my heart even as I don't participate in it? So, you have to remove that fear that you have of overwhelming oppressive systems, otherwise you either become a part of it or you certainly do nothing to stop it.

**[0:44]** So, if you remember, we left off with the idea that the problem is not just shamelessness, the problem is that people no longer correct shame. They no longer stop evil in the streets. And there are two types of evil.

**[1:00]** There's, of course, the shame which is fahisha, which is lewdness and things of that sort. And then there is the type of oppression which is ta'addi, which is to harm someone else, right? Oppression and exploitation. So, when it comes to the personal sins and people committing zina in the streets and people committing all sorts of open forms of wickedness,

**[1:22]** obviously, there's a problem when people no longer feel empowered and emboldened to stop that or to correct it. But instead, they move over to the side of the road. When it comes to oppression of people, that becomes that much more severe.

**[1:38]** And so, this next chapter is when oppression reigns, when it comes to zulm. And the Prophet ﷺ gives us a very specific protocol for how zulm starts to reign supreme. First and foremost, before we talk about oppressors taking over the rule of the Muslim world,

**[1:58]** it starts with Muslims failing to stop oppression in the micro sense before the macro sense. And this is a famous hadith where Abu Bakr r.a. stood up. And he said that, O people, you recite this ayah, but you're not interpreting it properly.

**[2:14]** I hear you reciting this ayah for the wrong reason. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ O you who believe, upon you is the responsibility of yourself. Those who have gone astray will not harm you so long as you have been guided.

**[2:31]** He said, but I heard the Prophet ﷺ say, إِنَّ النَّاسَ إِذَا رَأَوُا الظَّالِمَ فَلَمْ يَأْخُذُوا عَلَىٰ يَدَيْهِ أَوْ شَكَّ أَنْ يَعُمَّهُمُ اللَّهُ بِعِقَابٍ مِّنْهُ That verily when people see an oppressor and they fail to seize that oppressor by his hands,

**[2:51]** Allah will soon encompass them with a collective punishment from Him. So punishment will reign supreme over all of them. Now, in one hadith, the language does not specify dhulm, or one narration of Abu Bakr r.a., the language does not specify oppression, but in this one, which is also authentic,

**[3:08]** it specifies oppression, that when people see oppression and they don't do anything about it in a micro sense, then that grows and grows and grows and grows until that becomes represented through every branch of society. And there's a very interesting hadith that when the Prophet ﷺ was speaking to some of those that migrated to Abyssinia before migrating to Medina.

**[3:31]** And he asked, what is the most remarkable thing that you witnessed in the land of Abyssinia? What did you see in Habesha that you can share? So they said that Ya Rasulullah, there was an old woman. So the woman was a nun from the religious class that was walking in the streets and she had a bucket of water on her head.

**[3:53]** So clearly she's carrying this back to her village or she's fetching this for her family or wherever it may be. And then a young man came behind her and he put his hand right between her shoulders and he shoved her. And so she fell on her knees and the container shattered, dropping all of the water.

**[4:11]** And when she stood up, she looked back at him and she said, you will know by Allah that when Allah ﷻ gathers the first and the last of us and the hands and the feet speak of what they earned, then my matter and your matter will be clear before Him tomorrow.

**[4:28]** And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, Sadaqat, Sadaqat, Sadaqat.  Kayfa yuqaddisu Allah ummatan la yu'khadu li da'ifihim min shadeedihim. How can Allah purify an ummah when they do not take the right of the weak over the strong?

**[4:52]** And so basically that means that a community drowns in its own dhulm. What you start to allow in your family, in your community, in your city, in your society, grows and grows and grows until it can no longer be stopped.

**[5:07]** And there's an authentic hadith where the Prophet ﷺ, he said, Iza ra'ayta ummati tahabu an taqula lil dhalim ya dhalim faqad tuwuddi'a minhum. It's an authentic hadith in Muslim and Ahmad. The Prophet ﷺ said,

**[5:23]** If you see my ummah is too afraid to say to an oppressor, You are an oppressor, then know that they have been bid farewell to. Who bid farewell to them? Meaning Allah ﷻ evicted them from His protection.

**[5:39]** And it's interesting because the idea of tuhab, that they're too afraid to say to an oppressor, that you are an oppressor, it's the exact same language that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned about people that now see wickedness in society and they're too afraid to say anything about it anymore

**[5:55]** because they think that it's going to hasten their death or lessen their sustenance. So the same thing, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, When it reaches that point, when you can't even say to an oppressor, You are an oppressor, then at that point bid farewell to them. They've lost the protection of Allah ﷻ.

**[6:11]** So it takes us back to one manifestation of the most prominent signs of the minor signs of the Day of Judgment, إِذَا ضُيِّعَتِ الْأَمَانَةُ فَانْتَظِرِ السَّاعَةَ When trust is lost, then await the hour.

**[6:26]** And the Prophet ﷺ said that it's lost by being given to غير أهله, to those that are not befitting of it. And so people that don't belong in power, assume that power and they rule by oppression

**[6:41]** and they are no longer challenged in that oppression whatsoever. In fact, the behavior of oppression is something that takes over society as a whole. In another narration from Abu Umamah, that the Prophet ﷺ said,

**[6:56]** that the knots of Islam will be undone one by one. عُرْوَةً عُرْوَةً One knot by one knot. And he said that whenever one knot is undone, then people will cling on to the one after until that one is undone and that one is undone.

**[7:14]** He said ﷺ فَأَوَّلُهُنَّ The first of them is الحُكْم, is authority, is rule. وَآخِرُهُنَّ الصَّلَاةُ And the last of them is prayer. So the first knot to be undone from Islam is leadership.

**[7:32]** And the last knot to be undone is salah. If you think about it this way, when we spoke about this idea of private life versus public life, that private sin is always expected,

**[7:49]** but once private sin is allowed by the public, then it becomes public corruption. Likewise, when you sever rule from revelation, when you sever righteousness from public authority, then there is nothing to check private corruption in an authoritative sense

**[8:08]** when taqwa is lost, when piety is lost. And that's why Hadith about the idea of trust being lost, he said that some people would be governed by taqwa, by piety, and if they weren't governed by piety, then they would fear authority.

**[8:25]** So they would fear being deceitful because there was at least righteous authority to check them. So if there isn't revelation to check them, then perhaps righteous authority can check them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ continues, and this was a Hadith that I cited last time, صِنْفَانِ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّارِ لَمْ أَرَهُمَا That two groups of people from the people of the fire that I have not seen.

**[8:45]** The first one, he said قَوْمٌ مَعَهُمْ سِيَاطٌ كَأَذْنَابِ الْبَقَرِ People that have whips like the tails of cows. يَضْرِبُونَ بِهَا النَّاسَ They strike the people. Now I want to emphasize this one, inshallah, and talk about it for a bit.

**[9:00]** In another narration he said يُوشِكُ إِنْ طَالَتْ بِكَ مُدَّةً If you live long enough, what you will see. أَنْ تَرَى قَوْمًا فِي أَيْدِيهِمْ مِثْلُ أَذْنَابِ الْبَقَرِ You'll see people with whips like the tails of cows. يَغْدُونَ فِي غَضَبِ اللَّهِ وَيَرُوحُونَ فِي سَخَطِ اللَّهِ

**[9:18]** They go out under the anger of Allah and they come back under the curse of Allah. So why is this important for us? Obviously seeing the abundance of security now and police and not just an oppressor on a throne

**[9:35]** but an entire hierarchy and infrastructure, securitization that's built under that oppressor. Because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said, فَإِيَّاكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ مِنْ بِطَانَتِهِمْ

**[9:50]** Beware of being involved in any of their circles. Stay out of their ranks. Stay out of their circles. And SubhanAllah, the ulama mentioned that أَذْنَابِ الْبَقَرِ here, whips, the tails of cows, was something that was uncommon to the Arabs.

**[10:06]** And the Prophet ﷺ is actually giving us an analogy as well that there will be uncommon ways of enforcement amongst people, of hurting the people. Right? So you don't have to just think about whips, right? You can think about all sorts of other forms.

**[10:21]** Of securitization, of batons, of cameras, of torture cells or whatever it may be. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, do not be involved in any of their circles. It's like Imam Ahmad saying that the one who tailors the clothes of the tyrant

**[10:40]** is a tyrant himself, right? The idea here is that if you're participating in tyranny in any way whatsoever, then you are complicit, right? Especially when it's done knowingly. And you have to ask yourself, like, how much do I participate knowingly and how much do

**[10:56]** I hate in my heart even as I don't participate in it? You have to ask about your jobs, right? I know this rattled a lot of people when I said it last Ramadan about defense contractors, like the amount of Muslims that work for companies that actually manufacture weapons, right?

**[11:13]** Like it might not seem as disgusting as being in a grocery store and selling alcohol and pork but it's pretty bad, right? Or if you're building the infrastructure of genocide, Muslims have to ask themselves questions if they work in tech companies.

**[11:30]** Now it's a tricky question because am I making changes? Am I in the department that directly contributes to the building of that infrastructure? Am I, you know, in a position where I'm high enough to where I can actually bring down the darar, bring down the harm in some way?

**[11:46]** Where do I fall in that chain? Because the Prophet ﷺ is telling us, do not be anywhere near them. Don't be anywhere in their near circles. And he said ﷺ in the hadith of Abis al-Ghifari radiyallahu anhu, I warned my ummah of six

**[12:05]** things. Qala imarat al-sibyan, so number one was the rule of reckless youth. Number two, kathrata ash-shurati, the abundance of police forces. And then he mentioned ﷺ wa qati'atu ar-rahim and the severing of ties, wa bay'a al-hukm

**[12:25]** and the selling of rulings which refers to bribery. And then he said ﷺ that treating human bloodshed as something that's trivial. And then he said ﷺ, wa nashwan yattakhidhoon al-qur'ana mazameera yuqaddimoona al-rajula

**[12:43]** biyughanniyahum wa in kana aqallahum fiqhan. Very interesting. He said, a generation that treats the Qur'an like musical flutes and they push forward people to entertain them with the Qur'an even if that person is the least knowledgeable amongst them.

**[13:01]** So that's the six things the Prophet ﷺ warned about in that narration. And Ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, kayfa antum idha kathurat shuratukum? How will you be when your police become abundant and your leaders become tyrants and your amanat,

**[13:25]** your trusts are betrayed? Okay, so let me pause with that set of hadith for a moment inshaAllah ta'ala as well. There is a direct connection that the scholars make between the abundance of zulm, the abundance

**[13:40]** of oppression and the abundance of police officers or security to try to maintain that oppressive rule. So basically when power loses the amanat of trying to protect the interests of the Muslims,

**[13:57]** then what happens? Protection is actually now humiliation. It's actually trying to subdue people from rising up against all of the zulm that's taking place. So when there's too much oppression at the top, then there needs to be a securitization that allows for that oppression to continue and people to be too afraid to challenge that

**[14:17]** oppression. And the proof of that is the very famous story of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu where Hurmuzan, a ruler from Persia, comes into Medina and he asks, where is your king's palace? Like what palace are you talking about?

**[14:32]** Where's your king? You mean Amir al-Mu'minin? Yeah. Let's go find him. And he's sleeping under a tree, taking a nap out in the open. Amir al-Mu'minin, the most powerful man in the world. He doesn't have this huge entourage around him and he's extremely comfortable walking

**[14:51]** amongst his ummah. You didn't need all of that posse to protect you because of the justice that you have put forth in society, right? His grandson, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz radiAllahu ta'ala, one of his governors wrote him a letter

**[15:09]** saying that the walls are falling between us and the Romans and I need reinforcements. And he said, fa-hassin madinataka bil-adli, wa-naqqi turuqaha min al-dhulmi, fa-innahu hisnuha was-salam. He said to him, fortify your city with justice, cleanse your streets of oppression, and that's

**[15:30]** the true fortress of a city, right? Fa-innahu hisnuha. That's its hisn. That's its true fortress. And he said, was-salam. And peace be unto you, right? So that idea that the reason why you find ruling classes needing to get more creative

**[15:47]** and more intimidating with their forces and securitization built infrastructures of oppression is so that they can cover themselves, right? So that they have the ability to do what they want and of course the lesson for the believers is not to be complicit and also not to be intimidated, right?

**[16:05]** Not to back down and say it's just too much. It's the internal equivalent of inna al-nasa qad jama'u lakum fakhshawhum. They're too much. They're too strong. We can't do anything about it, right? Because then dhulm continues, oppression continues to be embedded in society and everyone just

**[16:20]** throws their hands up and says we can't do anything about it. Then comes the hadith of Thawban radiAllahu ta'ala anhu which I won't go into detail with because pretty much everyone's heard of this hadith where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, the nations that gather against you call upon one another and they feast upon you like

**[16:40]** diners at a table. And they said, Ya Rasulullah, is it because we are few? And he said, bal antum kathir, rather you are a lot but you become like the foam of the sea and Allah removes the fear of you, the awe of you from the hearts of your enemy

**[16:56]** and he casts in your hearts al-wahn. The love of this world and the hatred of death. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam also said that of the signs of the Day of Judgment, tahlikal wu'ul wa tadhharat tahut, tahlikal wu'ul wa tadhharat tahut.

**[17:18]** These are two words that are very hard to translate. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that the wu'ul will perish and the tahut will rise. The wu'ul are people who are noble and honorable people.

**[17:35]** And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is speaking here in the capacity of authority,  That noble people are removed from authority, the tahut are people who are beneath society specifically because of their moral insignificance.

**[17:55]** And the interesting thing here is that basically lowliness of character becomes a pathway to rising in leadership, because people start to like that type of behavior. So it's different when you're talking about influencers getting popular for their shame and their wickedness, and people that actually find that the more vulgar they are, the more

**[18:14]** shameless they are, the more lowly they are, that they actually find that to be a path to leadership because people actually like that behavior. So this is what the interpretation of that hadith was, that basically honor is something that's lowered and honorable people are looked upon as being too weak and too meek.

**[18:33]** But shameless and vulgar people, they find that they rise through the ranks because people appreciate that behavior and they validate that behavior. And he said ﷺ, that the hour will not be established until the earth is filled with

**[18:52]** oppression and aggression and injustice. Another hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said something very interesting that has an analogy to it. He said, people become like grasshoppers, the strong amongst them devour the weak until the hour is established.

**[19:09]** So the point is here, to sort of summarize this chapter so that we can move on inshallah, because I think the point is already very obvious, that oppression goes unchecked amongst people and then oppression becomes the checking authority.

**[19:25]** And as a believer in those times, the Prophet ﷺ is being very clear, never become complicit in it, never stop challenging it, and make sure that you are not manifesting it in your own home, in your own streets, in your own society.

**[19:41]** So you go to some places in the Muslim world, subhanAllah, the authority is as corrupt as it is, and everyone's cheating each other. And the excuse is, well that's just the only way that you could get by here, so you have to cheat everybody. The only way to live is to cheat and to deceive because we have a deceitful system.

**[20:01]** Then who's ever going to change that, right? And there has to be a certain type of boldness that is inspired by tawakkul, by trust in Allah ﷻ to change the system, and there has to be a certain type of tawakkul, trust in Allah ﷻ that your personal rizq, that your personal sustenance is not going to go

**[20:21]** away by you being an honorable person. So you have to remove that fear that you have of overwhelming oppressive systems, otherwise you either become a part of it, or you certainly do nothing to stop it.

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