Fatima Barkatulla – 70 Major Sins #14 – Sin 22 Stealing from War-booty, Sin 23 – Theft, Sin 24 – Highway Robbery
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The speakers discuss the importance of maintaining integrity and honesty in situations where someone steal from the public funds for charity. They stress the need to avoid accusations of fraud and avoid misuse of money. The speakers also touch on the history of theft, including the abuse of the HUD punishment for stolen an apple, the use of punishment methods and hesitation for certain crimes, and the use of deadly weapons and hesitation for certain crimes. They also mention the history of terrorist activity and the potential consequences of theft.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah This is a salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. And welcome to another class of the 17 major sins based on keytab Erica bidorbuy mm at the heavy
last week, we didn't have a session, but inshallah we're going to continue today
with the next major sins, and I'm going to try and go through quite a few of them today, like maybe five
in less detail, because I think these ones don't require as much detail or because of time, you know, because we want to finish in a certain number of sessions. I think we can with certain of the some of the major sense just quickly go through them because
the main thing is for us to appreciate and register in our heads that yes, this is a major sin and that we want to avoid that right. So right so
we're going to go on to major sin number 22, which is a law lol minella neema. stealing from the war booty or the spoils of war. Okay.
Allah Subhana Allah
says in, in the Quran says in the Lord Allah your Hebrew ha you mean those who are treacherous right, those who do things behind people's backs and betray them. Allah does not love them.
And last Canada, Allah also says,
it is not appropriate for a prophet to illegally withhold spoils of war and whoever does so it will be held against them on the Day of Judgment, then every soul will be paid in full for what it has done and none will be wronged. And this was regarding an incident that happened at the time of the prophets, Allah solo.
The Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam stayed with us one day, this is a Buddha speaking. And he mentioned misappropriation and what a terrible thing it was. He said, Do not miss appropriate, I would not like to see any of you coming on the day of rising with a camel groaning on his neck and saying, messenger of Allah helped me. I will say I cannot do anything for you against Allah. I conveyed it to you.
Okay, and then the Hadith goes on. And he mentioned many other things that people might misappropriate or steal from public funds, right from the spoils of war.
So what are the spoils of war?
spoils of war are basically
when,
when the Muslims or when a Muslim army goes into battle, right? Everything that they gain from, for example, after the battle, right from, for example, the weapons of the,
of the opposing army,
the belongings of the opposing army, right, the land that they conquer, for example.
One of that can be put under the spoils of war. And the spoils of war then are, are divided in a certain way. Right.
So usually a fifth of the spoils of war or the war booty as it's also known, is for the profits or loss alone, his family
and certain categories, okay, certain categories of,
of Muslims, right? And that's because it's basically like, state money, right? So that 1/5 is like state money, it's public money, it's money that is going to be used for the building and the continuation of the state. Okay. And the rest of the war booty is usually for the members of the army. Okay, it's awarded to the members of the army, but of course, this has to be divided in a particular way, right? There's a particular way that this is divided and you know, in a fair way.
Now,
if you think about it, money like that, okay. That is like public money or money that is kind of a big pool of money. That is, when I say money, I mean wealth will
It could be belongings provision, it could be all sorts of things, not just money as in, you know,
pounds and Pence is I'm not talking about that I'm talking about whatever wealth
because it's a situation of war, right? At the end of a war.
Because it's public money. Okay? public as in, it's not, it hasn't been divided yet. It hasn't been like assigned to anyone yet. It's very easy for that money to be misappropriated.
And it's very tempting for people to misappropriate that money, because nobody will really notice. Right? Nobody will really know if if that money has been less appropriated.
And that's why some of the scholars they put stealing from the Treasury and stealing from Zakah in the same category, right? Because like the Treasury, in other words, the wealth of the nation, right, the beta model,
that is also like, a type of trust for the whole country, for the whole nation for the people of that land. And
for people to steal from that, you know, it's an it's a massive breach of trust, right? It's a massive breach of trust. And it's something that can be done by certain people, without anyone realizing. Right, so it's a really terrible devious crime, right? The same with Zika, you know, that money is set aside for certain categories of people.
And because it isn't assigned to anyone, yet, is easy for somebody to just come along and try and misappropriate some of that, right.
And so this is why this is a major sin, misappropriating wealth entrusted to you is a major sin. And it kind of points to the fact that really, we need to be careful when it comes to charity money in general, right, or any money that is like
maybe like money that is for an organization, money that is been given by others to you, or to your organization, or to your mascot, etc.
that has been entrusted to you
for some other purpose, right.
And it's a really good idea.
And I'm obviously I'm not talking about spoils of war Hank, I'm talking about now,
in general, you know, when it comes to any kind of funds that you might have access to or control over, or you might be entrusted with, okay, it's a very good idea to keep that separate, to keep it transparent, you know, so for example, a separate bank account, a business bank account, or a charity bank account,
with a separate name, and for other people to have access to it as well. So that there's no misconceptions. You know, there are no misconceptions, and there are no kind of accusations that can come forward. And also, there's no temptation, you know, the temptation is not there.
And it's really, really sad to say it, but
it's actually quite common for there to be stories of, you know, I know that, for example, various mosques that my dad's been involved with,
sometimes they've been individuals in the trustees or somewhere along you know, in the governing kind of body
who went into financial difficulties or something, and then they thought it was okay. For them to just kind of, you know, take money from the mosque, right, from the mosques, funds.
And sometimes they, you know, they will put prosecuted for that. But the very fit the very fact that they thought they could do that, you know, it really kind of is very, it speaks volumes, doesn't it? It shows you that, unfortunately, that sense of Amana that sense of none of this money, I can't touch this, this is not mine. This is you know, this belongs to the believers, this belongs to the community this money is somebody else's right.
That sent him and unfortunately, for some people is not their right. And obviously it's about integrity, isn't it? It's about having a sense of integrity and
and honesty, basic honesty.
But you know, sometimes when people fall on hard times they,
they justify it to themselves in all sorts of ways.
And so for us on a personal level, I would say we have to be very careful to like, I know, sometimes sisters have organizations or they plan events, or they do a bit of fundraising. It's really important again, there to keep things transparent,
to have separate bank accounts for these types of things. Not to allow there to be any,
you know, aspersions cost on yourself, your character, your use of the money,
the access to the money and lets somebody else also have access to the May somebody else it may be assigned somebody as the treasurer, etc, you know,
so we can apply the lessons from this
major sin
on a smaller scale to our everyday projects as well, right, because we're not dealing with spoils of war. But some of us might deal with, you know, funds that are for charity or zakaah funds and things like that, right.
And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam regarded those who stole from the,
from the spoils of war, he regarded them with such disdain, and he wanted to send such a clear message out.
Okay, that he wouldn't pray the jaws of prayer over them, somebody who is known to have stolen from disposable if they then were killed, he would not pray, Jenna's over them, you know, so I mean, if they died, you know, for some reason, etc.
So panela So, and sometimes the Prophet sallallahu Sallam used to do that, for certain categories of people, right?
It's not that they didn't have a janazah other people would pray the janazah. But the Prophet salaallah salaam, being the head of the state being the Yani being the Messenger of Allah, he wanted to send a very clear message. And that's why even today,
you know, sometimes Allah Ma, when certain categories of people
die, and there's a janazah for them, right? For example.
inshallah, we'll mention some examples in the future, because some examples are going to be coming up in future categories. And they will, of course, that person has a janazah, right? The Muslims pray over them, but some of the alumni, some of the leaders of the Muslim community are discouraged from praying janazah for them. Because obviously, having an Imam having a chef, a scholar, pray janazah over you is a is a type of honoring you, right. And the certain categories of people who've done things that the Muslim community needs to be given the message that this such a person is not on it, you know, we also love to forgive them, etc. But we do not honor them by having the allameh
the leaders, you know, the hula is in
the hands of the prophets, right? I'm praying over them.
And I think that really so panela that kind of expresses to you what a great grave sin it is, right?
In this Hadith,
Abdullah bin Omar says there was a man who looked after the family and the belongings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam I think this was in a battle right? And he was called kid I think some of these a kid a kid, I'm not sure kadakia killer.
His name was this name right? The man died. And Allah's Messenger said he is in the hellfire. The people then went to look at him and found in his place. A cloak he had stolen from the war booty. Right. So even a cloak. to us. That seems like a little thing. Right? But anything that is stolen.
Sorry, excuse me. But anything that is stolen from the public funds from funds that are for the believers that are for the Muslim community that are you know, at the end of a war for example,
that is considered such a grave sin even a cloak being stolen from them is not something trivial, right.
None other Hadeeth above
hoorah are the other animal. He speaks about.
going out with the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to haber. And he says when we conquered it, we did not take any gold or silver we took goods, food and clothing. Then we went to the word the ydl, Cora, the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had with him a slave
and who had been given to him, right. And he says that the slave got up
to remove his saddle. And because the war maybe the battle hadn't fully ended, you know, a random arrow came and it just struck him and
and the slave was killed.
And he said, we said congratulations to him on martyrdom Yanni that he's Shaheed messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said no, by the one in his hand, my soul is my soul.
Okay, sorry, that should say no, by the one in whose hand is my soul, the cloak which he took from the spoils of war
before it before it was divided up, will turn into fire, burning him. Okay, so,
you know, the end of a battle, the spoils of war would all be gathered, usually right in one place,
and then divided. So this slave had stolen a cloak from disposable before they had been divided. And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, you know, he will be burned, it will turn into a burning fire for him. The people were alarmed. And a man brought a strap or two and said, I got this at Faber, the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi. Salam said, a strap or to a fire. So basically, when they heard you know that the slave, the prophet SAW someone saying that, no, he's not sure he's, he stole from the sponsor, one, it's going to be fire burning him now.
When they heard that they got scared, and other people, like this guy who stole some straps from the spoils of war, suddenly their conscience was piqued. Right? And they said, Well, I just took this, you know, and the prophet SAW, Selim said even that, about even that he said, if it's not something trivial, right? It's like, straps of fire that you've taken.
Right? And so kind of like, you know, sometimes then, when you when you hit read that you you think of people who kind of have very dubious senses of integrity, right? Like, sometimes people think, a small lie, a little bit of stealing a little bit of hard arm a little bit of, you know, is something trivial, right? It's not trivial. No, as a believer, we've got to be all or nothing.
As in, we should be 100% you know, tell the truth. Don't steal, don't do dodgy things. You know, it's not, it's not like,
it's not like you can do a little bit, you know.
And we need to get into that psychology, I think, you know, of not trivializing
a little bit of bad things, right? Like, I remember, this is not related to a major sin at all right. But I remember a cyst I knew once and she said, you know, even after she was an adult, like, she was Bolivar, she said, her mom used to give her and her sister days off from wearing hijab. Okay.
Okay, so she said, You know, my mom, she used to say, you know, you can you don't have to wage up on the weekend or something, I don't know, something like that. Right. And I just thought to myself, Subhanallah like, even though they were adults?
Like what right? Do you have to say to your adult children that they don't have to follow Allah's laws for one day or two days?
He really speaks of a certain mentality, doesn't it? Like, you know, okay, yeah, we have these principles, but a little bit, it's all right. Little bit of breaking the rules is okay. Right. So Pamela, so, I think it's a kind of a character trait that you have to really watch out for, and not allow it to creep in to your own personality and character, you know?
Got to be hard on yourself.
Simple
when it comes to certain funds, when it comes to certain things that you've set aside for certain other things,
they become untouchable, right? Somebody entrusted something to you, it's untouchable. Here, you don't get to talk, you don't get to use that. Unless you ask their permission, right? You don't get to do that you keep certain boundaries in place.
Okay, and the next major sin
is ascetical theft in general. So, obviously, the scene that we just covered is a type of theft, right. But it's theft from like public funds, funds, which you could say are
kind of haven't been assigned to anyone yet. Right.
I think that's one of the main distinctions between them.
By the way, another thing I should mention is, you know, it really the last category is also for leaders, you think about leaders of countries, right? Unfortunately, I don't know if you remember when
certain leader of Egypt was deposed?
What did they find? They found that he and his son and his family members had billions of dollars, right? billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. And you think to yourself, so panela, like, you know, anyone who's been to Egypt?
It's not exactly, you know, a country that has really been well looked after, let's put it like that. Right. Literally, the streets are falling apart, the the the country's falling apart, right, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of services, provision for the people, you know, even poverty, all of that, right.
And yet, you have leaders who've been in power for 30 years,
with billions of dollars in their bank accounts and their private bank accounts abroad.
I mean, that is misappropriation of funds,
the funds that have been given to you maybe foreign aid, or I don't know what funds right, or taxes or whatever it is, that have been given to you, entrusted to you, for you to rebuild your country to feed it to the people of your country, you're actually willing to siphon off into bank accounts. And you do that shamelessly, while your own people starve. And while your own people suffer.
You know, it's it's actually unbelievable, that that even happens. But Subhanallah, you know, that's the situation where we're living in, in our times, where even sometimes leaders of countries, they will not have the interest, the feeling towards their people, you know, they'll have it in their hearts.
And they're willing to enrich themselves with public funds.
Okay, so what about stealing in general, we know that the punishment for stealing is a severe punishment is like a very famous thing, right? But everyone kind of knows non Muslims as well. But,
you know, the punishment for stealing in the Sharia is
the amputation of a hand right panela. So, like, that's a big deal. Right, that shows you the severity of the crime. Now, obviously, that is often caricature, you know, in the popular media, so I don't know if you remember when we were kids, we watched Aladdin, the cartoon and I didn't write
from what I remember in one of the early scenes.
Or one of the scenes, there was this little boy hungry little boy who stole an apple right? He just took an apple from a
I think that's what happened or somebody gave him an apple from a from somebody store. And then the shopkeeper comes and like said, Oh, he's a thief. And then these big Saracens come, you know, like three big policeman strokes. Saracens come and they like, right, they start threatening the guy, the little kid. Yeah, they're gonna chop his hand off, right? Something like that. From what I remember, there was a scene like that in Aladdin, and so panela like for us as Muslims that obviously like anyone who looks at that is gonna think oh, that's just so extreme. Right? That seems like such an extreme punishment right for
but obviously, it's wrong on so many levels, right?
It's wrong on so many levels is inaccurate. It's an inaccurate representation of
have, we had punishment for stealing. Because there are certain rules, there are certain rules that have to be followed. There's a certain due process, right? For that HUD punishment and any of the HUD punishments to be
enacted.
And unfortunately, in popular media, they tried to caricature it and make it seem like a very frivolous thing, you know, like jungle justice.
If you find somebody stealing an apple, you can just, you know, stuff alone, as if you can just, you know, take the law into your own hands and do anything for Panama. Of course, the Sharia is not like that, you know,
first of all, this is a had punishment in an Islamic system, right. And Islamic legal system, it's not something that you just, you know, that is applied everywhere, it's some thing in a place where it becomes known to the public that this is the law, right? And that stealing is a crime that could be punishable with this punishment.
Also, there are certain rules, right? The stolen thing must be something of value. And it must, its value must be over a certain amount.
So you could never write be basically punished with the HUD punishment for stealing an apple. That's just not possible, right? Because an apple is not something over that value, right? Plus, a person is not punished with the HUD punishment, for stealing out of hunger. Right. And other and certain other, you know, dire situations. So
you know, it's not, it's not just like a very blanket kind of punishment, right.
And also, the thing that was stolen, the valuable thing that was stolen must have been stolen from a safe and kind of enclosed space, right a place that was, for example, it was locked away in a cupboard or kept hidden away somewhere, kept in a safe place somewhere.
Also, obviously, there must be witnesses, or the person must have confessed.
Okay.
And the person who was stolen from must be somebody who's asking for a bag, and then that person is not giving it right.
So those are just some of the things to bear in mind, you know, and it's a well known thing that, you know, I think, the time of Amara, rather than when there was a famine, there were times when he suspended this punishment, right?
Because,
obviously, people are in dire necessity, when they're in a state of famine when they're desperate. If they steal, they're not stealing. They're not in a normal situation. You know, they're not in their normal situation where, you know, they've got all their needs met, but then,
you know, the transgressing the rules, right. They're transgressing somebody else's. Right.
They're doing out of hunger. They're doing it out of desperation. Right. So you can see that, you know, I just wanted to make it clear to everybody that, you know, it's not like a black and white thing that and it's not a blanket rule, right. At the same time.
I think what this kind of shows you is the seriousness of the crime, you know, the seriousness of transgressing somebody else's right, and something that belongs to somebody else.
And you know, there's a famous lady from a noble lady from masam clan, which is like the same clan as kind of been bullied right?
Fatima, Pinta last word, and she had stolen something. And she was not giving it back. And I believe that this has happened a number of times, even right.
Now, obviously, it was something of value, it was something and it was just something that she kept doing.
And so the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam, she was brought to the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and he ruled that the hard punishment had to be carried out. Okay.
And people became really upset because she was a normal woman. She was from
an upper class family, right. And so they sent different people to the province.
And they said, you know, we can't we can't You can't allow this to go ahead. You know, she's from such and such family she's from you know, it's just not the done thing, etc etc right? They even sent Osama bin Zayed who is
Yanni the beloved he was like the grants some of the profits and celebrate some of it's a because they've you know they was the Prophet sallallahu Sallam former adopted son.
So Osama was like his grandson You know, that's the way the prophet SAW Selim treated him. And Simon was very beloved to the Prophet. So they sent him to appeal to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And what did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam say, he said, all people, the nations before you went astray and were destroyed, because if a noble person commit committed theft, they used to spare him. But if a weak person among them committed theft, they used to inflict the prescribed punishment upon him, by him in whose hand is my life, even if faulty my bins Muhammad, meaning his own daughter, even if Fatima committed theft, I would have her hand cut off. Japan,
Allah Subhana Allah, you know, you're not going to find a world leader who
believes that even his own family should be kept, should be held to that standard. You know,
just think about even like, in our times, you know, with the royal family,
the Queen son, he's been involved in all sorts of weird things right in in in America. And yet What's happened?
It's just hidden away in the palace somewhere. Right? And
will he be extradited? No, we don't think so. Because Why not? Because he's from the nobility, right? He's the Queen son, the queen is gonna do whatever she can to stop, stop it from happening. She'll invite Trump over and have a wonderful banquet and basically butter him up and make sure that you know that Americans won't
ask for him to be brought over, right.
be extradited.
So you see, this stuff goes on all the time, right that the wealthy, or the upper classes or people in certain positions, they
get away with not being brought to justice.
But the same crime if, if an ordinary person were to do it, or if an ordinary person were to get caught doing it?
They would be you know, very severely punished. Right. So panel that so so in this video, I think we learn both of those things, right? One that
that the hurdled the punishments, the prescribed punishments that Allah subhanaw taala set. So remember, we said in the past that there are certain different types of punishments there's
a government can give, right? There's that Azir, which is basically
it's a discretionary punishment that a Muslim government can decide on so for example, there's certain crimes that the Sharia hasn't talked about, right? Well, it hasn't given a prescribed punishment about
but the government wants to make that a crime. Okay, because for whatever reason, right, the public good, or it causes disorder, or whatever it is, right. So they can assign a certain punishment to that crime, right.
Sometimes it's just a reprimand for example, or it could be imprisonment, that is possible as well, right and an Islamic
legal system.
But when it comes to the huddled, okay,
these are considered to be the, the, the kind of the set punishments that for certain crimes, and it's not very many, just very few select crimes. Allah subhanaw taala actually prescribed a punishment for them in the Quran. And so they become like, something that we that must be fulfilled or upheld.
Because Allah commanded us to uphold them. But obviously, due process needs to take place where there needs to be a
legal process. If there's any doubt
If there's if it's just circumstantial evidence, it's not proper evidence. And again, if there's any doubt, then usually there's these types of
kind of cases are thrown out, right?
It's not about jungle justice. It's about a due process, establishing the evidence. If there is evidence is established, there is no doubt there are no mitigating circumstances, blah, blah, blah, etc, then
these photo punishments would be carried out. I just want to make that really clear. But also the hubby highlights not only that the that this the crime of stealing is a severe crime. Right, it causes disorder a causes people's rights to be
infringed upon. And it breaks the rules of property, right, like things belonging to people, somebody has worked hard to earn something, and it can just be taken away like that, but somebody else, right has no regard for their right.
It shows you the severity of the crime, but it also this, Habib also highlights the fact that
a crime that a poor person commits,
or a rich person commits is equal, you know,
when it comes when other things are equal. So it the fact that they're poor, doesn't shouldn't mean that they are the ones who are punished and the rich are not.
And that's something that the prophets on him is highlighting in this Hadeeth.
Okay, major sin number 2430.
highway robbery. Okay. And, really, I'm just going to literally just tell you a little bit about highway robbery. Again, this is another type of stealing, I guess. But this is more like
there's a kind of violence to this one, right? So
panela, it's basically some scholars even put terrorism under this category, right? terrorism, because
so this is like, for example, people in the olden days, right, they would be traveling, okay. And they have loads of goods,
or they could even be traveling by sea.
And
then there would be bandits. Or people who would take advantage of the fact that people were traveling, they were tired. You know, obviously, they're away from home, they don't have the ability to have backup and support. And they will literally do raids and just steal stuff from them, right? So they're terrorizing them. They're stealing from them.
And it could even be like piracy, right? On the seas.
Pirates just coming taking over.
And, um, you know, stealing and then running away.
And this type of robbery was given even worse punishment, you know? So Pamela, like,
the punishment for this type of highway robbery was that
Allah in the Quran says the reprisal against those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and go about the earth corrupting it, because that's what it was considered, you know, you're, you're like causing corruption on the earth.
Terror
is that they should be killed or crucified, or have their opposite hands and feet cut off, or be banished from the land. That will be their degradation in this world. And in the next world, they will have a terrible punishment. This is Surah five iron number 33.
And in the tafsir of desire, and why he says, waging war against Allah and His Messenger means disobeying them, anyone who disobeys you, fights you
corrupting the earth, and he says then corrupting the earth means killing, theft and usurping wealth.
To take up weapons against the believers is to wage war against Allah and His messenger.
Okay, so
there
There are a number of punishments that could be meted out for this.
For this crime, a Shafi also said each of them receives a HUD punishment according to his actions. If someone is to be put to death and crucified, he is put to death before he is crucified because it is disliked to torture him.
I'm not familiar with crucifixion, you know, personally, but I guess the idea is, and yeah, so, Pamela imaam Shafi he talks about crucifixion and
so after the person is executed,
they would basically hang them up somewhere. So that people would see that this is a huge crime, you know, to terrorize people to
to raid them. And this is obviously violent robbery, right? This is violent robbery. So this is about using weapons to threaten them to, to then steal from them, etc, etc, right.
Which is why it's considered such a severe
crime.
The main thing for us to realize is that you know, some of the scholars they put terrorism under this category as well. The idea that you
scare people, right?
To the point that you they feel threatened
you threaten their lives.
You kill them. I mean, obviously, that's, that's a crime anyway, right?
In sha Allah next time we're going to have, we're going to talk about deliberate false ODEs, injustice of all kinds, what kinds of things are common in the broad category of injustice, tax collecting? tax collecting, apparently, is a major symbol we'll talk about like what that exactly means
consuming and receiving unlawful property.
And also got
us committing suicide, taking one's own life, and consistently lying.
These are all major sins that are to come.
And even,
you know,
eavesdropping Did you know that eavesdropping and listening into other people's private conversations reading people's private letters and messages that also comes under a major sensor panel.
So forgive me sisters for cutting the lessons short and
not being able to complete my sentences.
Yep, you can buy the translation of the 17 major sins book. From that document. You just look it up on Amazon. Just Google it. It's called the major sins or taqwa
and Sharla I will see you next time. does not come along Karen. So panagia level ma b handig. eyeshadow Allah ilaha IL and stuff you'll go to blue lake. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.