Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections Justice for Muslims and NonMuslims
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Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatu
let us start with a verse of the Quran
are all the MILA Jimenez che Bonnie Raji maybe Smilla Rahmanir
Rahim in Allah here more or Bill idly will certainly ye
even when I need a fracture
you will move carry well belly yeah are you though Kamala I look
on the rune Sakalava Levine hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu
was Salam ala Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi edge marine a
Merbau read
these verses that I've just recited Now, verse 90 of the 60s
just the 60s chapter of the Quran is sorta Nahal verse 90. This is
something that you may have heard every Friday. This is what the
Habib says, we say this every week, that in the La Jolla model
we largely were there certainly were either either CORBA away and
Highland fascia evil monkey well belly or EToken, I look into the
karoun We generally end the hotbar with that it's a very prominent
verse of the hotbar. Essentially what it means is that Allah
subhana wa Tada. Allah enjoins justice, Allah enjoins justice
performing duties for only Allah sake. Allah enjoys justice
performing duties for only Allah sake, giving help to kith and kin,
forbidding evil, obscenity and oppression. So Allah subhanho wa
Taala is enjoying justice, performing duties for only Allah
sake,
which is his that's how they've translated Ehsaan here, or doing
things with an in an excellent way, you know, for the right
reason, a certain way essentially doing good, and then giving help
to kith and kin, and then forbidding evil, and obscenity and
oppression.
He admonishes you, so that you may take heed. So as you can see from
this, that there are some of the most important points that are
mentioned here. And maybe that's the reason why it's been
incorporated into the hotbar every week, right that we're reminded of
this. So
again, majority of us who don't understand Arabic will probably
have heard this verse over and over again, every week, and never
figured out why that's always mentioned. You know, what's the
reason for that one being mentioned each week? Why has that
one particularly been chosen?
And what we should do actually, is that we should be a bit more
curious and interested than that, if there's something in our
hotbar, or something in solid that has been recited often and
mentioned often, then, if you don't understand it, we should
actually call and try to find out because clearly, there's a message
in there for us since it's been repeated so many times.
Essentially, why this verse is mentioned. So here this is, in
these reflections series, I'm trying to find these kinds of
verses that speak of some really universal ideas within Islam,
universal principles and precepts in Islam, as you may have noticed
already, rather than individual stories, so in our reflections,
we've not been dealing with, you know, stories of prophets in
detail or anything like that, because mashallah they're
generally covered with discussing some very, very fundamental
precepts of the religion. So here, what this is, is that this verse
of certain novel is actually a comprehensive code of conduct, and
he has a number of different injunctions and directions in
there. Now, the first one obviously, is justice, right? Bill
idol. Idol is justice.
So let's take these one by one. The first one is justice. And
Allah subhanaw taala just says, in the law yet Moreover, libel, Allah
subhanho wa Taala commands and enjoys justice. He says this in an
absolute way, not qualifying it with any particular type of
justice or any particular type of situation, or from a particular
individual. He's just saying you need to have justice, you need to
deal with justice.
Now, the second one then is
talking about the spending then then you've got Hassan, Bill at
deliver Exxon which is doing good. And then Allah subhanaw taala
speaks about assisting, giving the kith and kin, giving basically
your relatives.
When it comes to the kith and kin. There's other places where Allah
subhanaw taala mentions that you should start with your closest
kin, your closest relatives. The hadith mentions that as well, that
you should start from your closest relatives, because they need you
most and they are most entitled to what we can offer them. Reason is
that Allah Subhan
anatella As you've heard in through other verses in the
reflections there, that Allah subhanaw taala has put us into
specific families and tribes and groups. And we're supposed to help
one another Allah subhanaw taala has provided there to be a
a direction between us a, an agreement between us, I mean, your
father, your mother, your relatives, and the closest ones
have more on us than others, I mean, we would be more sinful for
neglecting them than to neglect this a stranger for example.
So, we learned that that you must start from them first. And when it
comes to, so, if we go back to the whole justice idea, Allah subhanaw
taala keeps it open. Right. The last point in here is so in the
law here and we will in a lie and will be likely with so anyway even
a quarterback when I need fracture, you will Wonka and Allah
prohibits from two things Allah prohibits from fascia, which is
obscene any moral evil ideas, right. And Moncure just means
basically anything wrong. Anything that is indecent, pretty much
anything which is indecent, that any reasonable person anywhere in
the world would say that this is wrong. Right, that is Moncure,
something that is looked on and is disfigured it is not recognizable
as something of decency. That's what a Moncure is. I mean, if you
take it in a religious sense, and among God is obviously anything
which is prohibited under Sharia. But anything that is considered to
be indecent throughout decent communities, is probably going to
be considered to be in decent initially, as well, because that
is actually is very natural, right? So anything which is in
decent is going to be in decent in the Sharia as well. Now, when it
comes to if we go back to the first point, which is justice,
right, after we've understood the verse, in a brief sense, we, these
are some of the issues when it comes to justice, when we're
trying to deal with in our, in our lives. Many times many of us were
only focused on justice, when it concerns us, if we're being dealt
with in an unjust way. If we are somehow being oppressed or somehow
being dealt the wrong amount, then it's okay when the justice
concerns us. Or if it if you're getting if we go on a larger level
that if it concerns our family, then we're interested, if it's to
do with our religion, then we're interested, if it's to do with our
tribe, then we're interested, otherwise, we're not interested,
it doesn't matter if there's other injustice that is happening
elsewhere in the world. But that's not what Allah subhanaw taala
says, Allah subhanaw taala, where he fixed, assisting your your
family first, he did not talk about justice as doing that to
your family first and nobody else. Right. So that's why the Justice
command here is much more general that we need to be just in every
sense.
So if it involves a stranger, somebody we don't know from
another religion or whatever, then we just don't care a lot of the
time, many of the times our justice and we've seen this
through the fatwas that we receive, you know, through the
questions that we have, when people are asking for their
rights, and where there's an injustice that has taken place,
it's always about
myself, it's always about the person, you know, there's no, you
know, you hardly ever get a question that, look, I've had this
issue with somebody else. I'm worried that I may be oppressing
them, so can you please let me know that I'm not oppressing them?
Right. It's generally that they've done this to me, and they're
oppressing me. And you know, I want to just make sure that that's
the case, or that I want to get my rights, I want to prove the point.
So this is the kind of imbalance here and that's how Allah subhanaw
taala. Once Allah subhanaw taala wants good justice to prevail in
this world, because that then contributes to a much better
world. A lot of the time, I mean, we're not interested in justice,
if we don't get any kind of material benefit from it.
Sometimes we don't want to do justice, because we fear
criticism, right? So that's why we will avoid justice. This is a
major problem in many, many organizations, many kind of ruling
parties and so on, right?
We don't want to do justice sometimes, or we don't want to
speak justly, because it's going to ruin our reputation. It's going
to put us on the wrong side of people is not with the right
group, we may lose out on some incentives, some material gains.
These are all different reasons why we may not want to do just
that. It's just again, these reflections are there for us to
reflect and to think, where am I in this, you know, we can't change
the whole world but we can definitely try to change ourselves
especially when Allah subhanaw taala is telling us this. That's
why it's very, you could say that it's very difficult to do justice
purely for the sake of doing justice purely as a command of
God. Right? It's okay, as I said, to do it for oneself, and we're
gonna get benefit from it, but not when it's just purely for the sake
of justice.
So, sometimes, you know, we may understand some truths, but it's
difficult for us to act on
that truth because there's just so many factors or there's a certain
factor that is going to prevent us from doing that. And the only
person that's going to do proper justice is other people who Allah
subhanaw taala strengthened, with a strong sense of justice and a
boldness and an ability to see it through regardless of what
happens, even if it goes against their own. That's the person who's
going to be able to do just justice. As I said, we may not be
able to change the whole world, but we can definitely do make a
better effort at it, right through these verses. Now, the reason why
we must do this is because the whole of the Creation generally
justice is to do with creation, but it could also go to, you know,
to do with animals or the environment, natural resources and
so on. Right is because everything belongs to Allah subhanaw taala
and the whole of creation or the bondsman of Allah, the family of
Allah, you could say Allah is looking after them, it Allah is
responsible for them. And Allah wants us to look after one another
purely for that sake. So that's why you can understand
that we are all members of the same family. So that's why if
there's any injustice somewhere else, it's going to affect us us
as well because we're members of that same family of humanity.
That's why you have to understand that now look at this that Allah
subhanaw taala is very strong on Tawheed and monotheism, the
Quranic message is filled with monotheism, right sort of a floss,
or with a biller him in a shape on the rajim Bismillah AR Rahman AR
Rahim Khan, who Allah Who Had Allah Who Samad let me any
dwelling you lead with me Aquila, who Khufu and I had is essentially
considered to be 1/3 of the Quran. And certainly philos is
monotheism. It's still here. That's what it's there for. That
that's what it's, it is highlighting, despite that fact,
that 1/3 of the Quran you can say is devoted to the doctrine of
monotheism. Right? And Allah subhanaw taala is so sensitive to
where that monotheism may be contravened or violated. And Allah
subhanho wa Taala doesn't like Schick right for sure.
Despite that, Allah subhanaw taala is saying that you must be just to
everybody. It doesn't matter if they're polytheist or whatever, it
everybody. In this particular command, Justice needs to prevail
everywhere.
Because Islam regards all human beings regardless of their faith,
their country, their origin, race,
color, as members of Allah's family, he sustains every one of
them you have to remember that even those who blaspheme against
Allah, who deny God, Allah subhanaw taala. He sustains
everyone, right? Allah's favorite servant is not necessarily the one
who just worships Him through salah, etc. But who also
loves Allah. Allah subhanaw taala loves the one who does good to his
family members. So that's an important part of our Islam is to
do well for other human beings. Now,
it could have been so easy for Allah subhanaw taala in the Quran
to have said that it's just Muslims who are members of one
family. Right? Could have been perfectly understandable because
they're the ones who are fulfilling what Allah subhanaw
taala once, right, the only Muslims are member of the same
family. But know Allah subhanho wa Taala keeps this general and
designates all human beings, right, without any distinction of
faith. That's why you see some of the Hadith about it as well. They
just general, right, they're just general. They're not just about
Muslims.
The other thing is that Allah subhanaw taala hasn't just
designated certain individuals to dispense the justice, of course,
judges have to dispense justice and, you know, rulers have to
dispense justice and so on. But this is actually an obligation
that is incumbent on anybody that we everybody that we must be just
in every one of our situations. Right? It doesn't matter whether
it may be a Christian doing justice, or a Muslim, dispensing
the justice, if there's a Christian who's doing adjust, if
there's an atheist who is dispensing some kind of justice,
then we must support that justice for the sake of that just justice.
Of course, if there's any other
issues involved, that that's a different issue. Allah commands
that justice and good be done. That's what we understand from
this. And as I said, it's not just to be done by Muslims, but it's to
be done by everything because Allah subhanaw taala is the
sustainer or is Alhamdulillah we say this often Alhamdulillah Bill
and I mean, all praises to Allah Who the ROB that the sustainer of
all the world's meaning everything included in that world's not
Alhamdulillah Bill Muslimeen Alhamdulillah he wrote bill,
meaning that's not what Allah subhanaw taala said. People will
Iman Masha, Allah has their value, right, a very special value in
Allah subhanaw taala site their beloved to Allah. But the whole of
humanity is whom Allah subhanho wa Taala looks after he created them,
and He is the cherish of everyone. And Allah subhanaw taala has made
all of the general amenities like the sun and the moon, the solar
system, the trees, the mountains, and the rivers, the animals, and
everything that is on the earth, available to everybody. That is to
everyone, right to believers and non believers, and his justice
needs to be equally beneficial to everyone. Right?
Now, you have to remember without justice, remember this without
justice, you cannot have balance in this world, because balance is
important of this world, for the world to sustain itself. Balance
is important, and that is to justice. They say that
civilizations can survive, sometimes even without faith, but
with Justice longer than, you know, longer than, you know, those
that don't have justice, don't have a balance, and have to have
faith. So there could be some faithful people who profess to
believe in God, believe in Allah, but don't, you know, dispense
justice, they will not last as long as those who have justice,
justice provides stability. Why is it that so many of us enjoy so
many people they enjoy coming to a certain, you know, Western
countries? Because I guess there is a sense of greater sense of
justice than many other countries, right? That's one of the reasons
and justice is so innately a human desire and a human need a human
essential that That's why Allah subhanaw taala has really, really
spoken about this in this way. This explains the you can tell
that this is basically a note of universalism, right? This is a
message of universalism, in the Quran in this Quranic assertion,
right? That justice is good, and it should be done in an absolute
sense.
Allah subhana wa Tada in another place. Allah subhanaw taala
instructs Muslims, right, that
for example, I mean, the verse is I'll just read the verse to you
yeah, yeah, Halloween.
Cool. Wamena de la he Shuhada a bill test. While I actually met
Nick Commissioner earn Coleman. Hola, hola, Danny rue de Loup, who
Acropolis Taqwa what? The Kula in Allah Javi. Rami Mata Emanuel, are
believers. Stand firm for Allah and bear true testimony. Be
truthful in your testimony, do not let the hatred of a people lead
you to injustice just because you hate somebody, for whatever reason
valid or invalid. It can't lead you to injustice be just, and that
is closer to righteousness, and be mindful of Allah, surely Allah is
all aware of what you do. So now I think that really underscores what
it's what it's to be. And the other thing that we have to
remember is that Justice needs to be freely available to everyone,
no matter which faith which country, which ethnicity, or
people are justice needs to be available to everybody. Right? And
that is the kind of Allah subhanaw taala. So
justice needs to become the hallmark of every Muslim, wherever
we are at our in our individual capacities, in our individual
circumstances, whether that be to do with our neighbor, in terms of
some maybe boundary disputes, in terms of
you know, who threw what, or who has to clean water, who has to fix
what, and all of these ideas, who owns what I mean Subhanallah
today, brothers and sisters are arguing, parents and children are
arguing over inheritance in terms of property, who owns what I mean,
it's just absolute oppression, no, just justice whatsoever. We ask
Allah subhanaw taala to grant us justice make us a just nation,
contribute to a just world and fulfill the command of the Quran
this universal command of the Quran for justice.
Just like Allah here and as salaam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh May Allah bless you all, may Allah subhanho wa Taala
bless our our Ramadan's and our iman and our life and our grant us
prosperity please keep us in your doors make a dua for us right now
Sena ya go rahmatullah wa barakato. The point of a lecture
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salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.