Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Double Trouble Double Reward 02052023
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AI: Transcript ©
Are about to finish a module of the
book,
and, we're making a lot of progress. We
should finish the book within a year or
so
at this pace. This is the
the chapter with regards to the
virtues of.
So there's a couple of things that
should be said
before
beginning the text of the book
which is that menumission or the freeing of
slaves,
having a chapter regarding it in Tasuluf
and a book on Tasuluf,
on orthodox spirituality
in Islam,
presupposes
the idea that there's slavery in Islam.
And, so we'll talk about slavery. And if
someone wants to pull out a sound bite
that can make things look really bad,
you know, if you're, I guess, that's your
work. Good for you. But,
a couple of things in the beginning. One
is that slavery in Islam
was never like slavery was in this country
where people are enslaved because of the color
of their skin or because of their race.
That's not a concept in Islam at all.
In fact, there's a hadith that we read
inshallah we should get through in in today's
that categorically
negates this idea.
The second thing is this is that, slavery,
although nobody would want to be a slave,
slavery as an institution
is not an immoral institution. And there are
many parallels
in America to what Islam
considered as a slavery that are essentially indispensable
to
to life in this country.
The idea being that
a person,
as a punishment can be placed into
a sort of a hobbled
level of citizenship
where you're not able to,
come and go as you please,
and you're also not able to, you know,
make choices about your life that you normally
would like to. But in general, it doesn't
mean that you're a piece of property,
and it doesn't mean that you don't have
rights, and it doesn't mean that you don't
have dignity or worth as a human being.
It's a, you know, situation you're in. So
for example, if somebody comes to America
and their visa runs out,
they put them in detention center. Somebody commits
a crime.
You know, it's not like their citizenship is
revoked because of it. But there are so
many crimes that will garner a personal life
sentence
and, many of them justifiably so, very reasonably
so. But it's not like that person becomes
a
like, not a human being anymore.
Rather,
because of the choices that they made, the
society has to have deal with them a
certain way. Like, you can't just kill everybody.
The Mongols had a sacred law called the
yasa.
They were actually encouraged by the Muslims to
codify it,
when they conquered the Muslim lands. So they
had some 100 some odd laws, but only
one punishment for everything is death.
Right? So you can't do that. You can't
do that and have a healthy society.
And so this is a way that the
the the sacred law
dealt with war captives, and it's not anything
unique in that sense to
Islam.
But it was, something that that seems to
be more or less standard amongst all human
beings.
And,
you know, it's something that we don't really
deal with very well even in this country.
The idea is that if you're a prisoner,
you don't, like, lose your rights or whatever.
You're still, like, a human being, and you
still have certain rights, under the law. You
lose some of them, not all of them.
But in practice,
even over here, it's oftentimes grossly, grossly executed
to the point where a person actually does
get dehumanized to a great degree.
Executed to the point where a person actually
does get dehumanized to a great degree.
Allah most high says in his book
and Surah Al Balad
that is Allah is talking about
a human being without going too deep into
the tafsir.
And he says he's talking about a human
being. And so he says,
so he was shown 2 different paths that
he he could take.
But he never entered into the
into the the the the the destination. Like,
he was travelling
1 of 2 paths, and he never made
it to the destination.
Means
means to enter into something.
So he never entered into the the the
the place that he wanted to go, the
place that he
needed
to
go.
And how can I explain to you?
What how can I explain to you what
that that destination
is that he should have been striving for?
And so there's a list of things that
Allah mentions
that are those things that would have taken
you to the destination that you wanted to
go.
And the first is,
the
freeing
the prying free or prying loose of the
chains from a neck,
meaning what? It's a
the neck is here the metaphor for the
enslavement of a person to free a slave.
So the chapter regarding the virtues of manumission
of freeing a slave, that freeing a slave
would have gotten a person to the destination,
that they, that they wanted to go.
To feed,
feed the hungry, in their time of difficulty,
somebody who is an orphan that's a relative
of yours or somebody whose dire poverty is
there a lot,
and they have absolutely
nothing.
Then after doing deeds like this, they're from
the people who believe
and, they
encourage one another to
patience and steadfastness, and they encourage one another
toward
mercy. Those are the people who will be
on the right hand side on the day
of judgment. Meaning, they're the people of human
of Barakah and the ones who will enter
into Jannah.
And so, this is a great fadilla of
of, a great virtue of edkaf freeing a
slave that,
Allah would mention mention it in the first
of a list of well known,
of well known good deeds.
And the idea of Talasse is also part
of the spiritual path, which is what is
that it's a very difficult path for somebody
to travel,
better than traveling alone. We travel with one
another, and that we should encourage people, one
another on the on the path, not constantly
discourage people when someone wants to do something
good, when somebody wants to be steadfast, when
a person wants to be upright, when a
person wants to be ethical,
instead of telling them, well, everybody else does
it and, you know, don't waste your time
and you're a fool and you're this. Instead,
encourage them encourage them and help them out
in order to take the path of righteousness.
This is also a part of that path,
as well.
In the, the men of the that are,
that are are red.
Abu Huraira
who, said that the messenger of Allah
said whoever
freeze
the neck of a Muslim or a Muslim
neck,
for every
limb of that person, a limb, of theirs
from the hellfire,
to the point of the manumission
of his,
of the the the the genitalia of the
slave will be
a manumission of the,
genitalia
genitalia of the manumitter.
And so there's a number of things here
as well
that,
that that the commentators bring attention to.
1
is that,
you know, the the the the deed of
manumission is
composed of different parts.
And others that a person has their own
sins that they're afraid of, especially the age
we live in is a proliferation of zenat
to the point where oftentimes non Muslims Muslims
have a hard time believing that there was
actually a society ever, whether it's here or
whether it's amongst the Muslims where people are
not all, constantly just gross,
with their bodies and with another.
And,
you know, it's true it did exist and
it does exist, but it's vanishing in front
of our eyes because people are making bad
choices
with regards to how they conduct themselves, and
with regards to how they how seriously they
take the problems. You
know? But the the mention of
also is a an idea that
in freeing a slave,
you know, slaves were not all the same
price.
A slave had a value based on his
or her physical attributes, based on their skill
set, based on their disposition.
And so
this is also an encouragement to free the,
slave that's of high value of high price,
that recognition that the act is a more
difficult act for somebody to to
to do, that what they give up ostensibly
of material,
in terms of material benefit is more than
what a person would give up in freeing,
like, somebody who's old or somebody who's disabled
or somebody who, has some other, defect.
And on the flip side, somebody who has
some sort of excellency or some quality in
them that's greater than,
another person,
then, the reward according to this hadith should
be more.
There's a discussion
about
the freeing of
a,
of a,
what would you say in English? Eunuch
eunuch
slave. And,
first of all,
although it was a practice in,
in the Muslim world,
unfortunately,
people used to buy and sell eunuch slaves,
slave that was castrated.
One of the reasons for that is because
that way the master could be could trust
the slave with the women of the house
without any
danger of, you know, happening.
But, so they oftentimes fetched a very high
price, especially in, like, noble households.
But the process of castrating a slave to
make a eunuch,
is actually,
is haram. It's haram. There's no you don't
have, like, the right to do that. Just
because someone's a slave, you don't have the
right to, like, physically damage them or mutilate
them in that way.
And,
so
the objection was brought that, does this,
hadith somehow negate the
negate or decrease, like, mitigate the amount of,
reward
that a person would,
receive for manumitting a eunuch slave?
And the,
answer to that question is that,
no,
actually, because the idea the general idea of
the hadith is that the higher the value
of the slave is,
monetarily or because of its composite parts, the
more, reward a person would get for for
that slave.
And so and that's like like being a
eunuch, like castration,
because it actually increases the value of the
slave. It would increase the value of the
manumission. But it's important to point out that
this did exist in the Muslim world. Some
brothers, my father, like, oh, if we had
a caliphate, you know, like, there'd be Coca
Cola coming out of, like, all the water
fountains. We had a caliphate for a very
long time. It wasn't as amazing as people
would hope and as it should have been.
And this type of stuff used to happen.
It's not right.
And, it's it's haram. And oftentimes, what would
happen is unscrupulous non Muslim slavers
because they knew that the price would be
higher and the Muslims, you know, will not
at least endorse doing it themselves. They would
just do it themselves and then sell the
slave afterward. And it's, like, just catastrophic because
one of the reasons that the price of
the eunuch was higher was because children would
die. They did it to them as children,
and they would die.
The mortality rate, I assume, would probably even
be worse if you did it once someone
was an adult.
And so it's just like this horrific thing.
It's not right.
But once that that that happened, if a
person were to possess such a slave to
free them actually would not necessarily be less
because of this hadith, because the value of
the slave would be would be more.
And, Allah Allah
The hadith is narrated by
who said that I asked the messenger, Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which deeds are most
virtuous.
And he said, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, belief
in Allah and struggling in, in Allah's way.
Then he said, which slaves are the most
virtuous?
Meaning to manum it. And he said the
the ones that are most precious to their
families,
meaning the family here,
I guess, doesn't necessarily mean family, but meaning
the the people who who who who the
slave
serves.
And the ones that are,
of the highest value, the highest price.
This is important because anybody who's seen,
you know, anyone who's seen slavery before like,
we've seen it in Mauritania. I guess, theoretically,
like, the government,
banned it or whatever. Practically, it was still
there.
So you see that if a slave is,
like,
80 or whatever,
they're not going to be no one's gonna
buy them in the marketplace. It's the same
thing. We do the same thing with prisoners
in this country. Right?
That they'll give, release to a prisoner, like,
at a certain age when they're, you know,
already sick. They have cancer. They have this.
They have this. Oh, look. We're gonna give
you release on on on
compassionate grounds.
And, where's the compassion? You know? Like, they
actually have better health care in the prison
than they would have outside. You know?
And so, it's just like like let them
out and let them go somewhere and die.
And so at that point, like, if you
were to, like, really if you free a
slave, like, what are you doing? You're just
basically saying go go away and die somewhere
else.
Whereas if you still
free a slave that has is, you know,
possessed of some capacity, they can make a
life for themselves still.
This is one of the reasons, you know,
that
the freeing of slave
it didn't mean that the slave leaves. It's
like a lifelong,
bond that people used to have with their
Mawali.
Alright? The word
mola, it means the the the the owner
that released the slave, and it also means
the the the slave that was released by
the owner. This is one of the just
as a kind of a side note. Right?
We have some,
mostly Desi people who have this objection, oh,
you can't say to a scholar.
Right? And the word has a number of
meanings.
One of them is master.
Right?
It's
also a proper way of addressing Allah that
you are master.
So, give us victory or give us aid
against the,
the unbelieving folk.
However, the word has many meanings. One of
the meanings of it is the master who
freed the slave. It also means the the
the slave that was freed by the master.
It can be used either way.
So, you know, this is kind of a
kind of a Baqwas objection of people who
don't know Arabic, who just wanna look for
something to point out in order to be
cool, which is sadly a condition of many
human beings, especially the Desi ones. I don't
know. Maybe not especially maybe just all human
beings, but the Desi ones do it in
in especially annoying ways to me,
that are that are precious. God bless their
heart to me.
So
that's that's that's what that is. But, you
know, in the old days, when someone freed
a slave, it's like a lifelong,
connection that you have. Part of it is
why? Because, like, you don't know anybody. You
don't have a tribe, so you become part
of the tribe of the the the master
who freed you. You don't have contacts. No
one's gonna give you a job. No one's
gonna, like, you just you you have nothing
to do. You know? Like, no one's gonna
marry you. So, okay, it doesn't mean that
the master is necessarily,
in in normal life gonna say, okay. Now
you can marry my daughter or my niece
or whatever.
But at least in that circle, they'll find
somebody for you.
Whereas if you don't have anybody, like, to
survive on your own, to survive alone is
impossible.
Nowadays, there's this fantasy and this illusion that,
like, you can survive on your own. Like,
I don't need anyone. Like, I'm gonna throw
up the deuces and just get, like, a
studio apartment in the city, and that's it.
But you need other people. You just shifted
to another master who's even more cruel and
and,
unloving
but is, like, good at at, you know,
giving you,
metered doses of Kool Aid in your IV.
You know? So that's that's what that is.
So
is the chapter
Ihsan, of behaving beautifully with,
with the with the slave. Mamluk, the word
here, Mamluk means what? Someone who's owned.
Right? People talk about the Mamluk Dynasties, Mamluk
Islam, Mamluk
everyone is Mamluk.
And,
the fact that we have in Islam, like,
slave dynasties in different places, it's a sign
that
that, you know, things were a bit different.
What we use the word slavery for in
America and what what slavery was in the
Sharia. They were very, like, qualitatively different things.
Allah said, worship Allah and do not associate
with him anything.
And
that you should
show goodness and kindness and beauty to your
parents and to,
your relatives and to your I'm sorry. And
to,
orphans
and to,
the destitute
and to your,
you know,
neighbor your your
relatives who live near to you
and to your,
neighbor who, lives next to you and to
whoever is in your proximity, not. You
have no, like, familiar relation with them. And
the the not. You have no, like, familiar
relation with them,
and the the person who's, like, next to
you, whoever you're sitting with. Right? So don't
be a jerk. You know, this is a
thing, As Americans,
we do.
Many of us one of the things we
do as Americans is try to pretend we're
not Americans. You know? But, you know, just
because you're brownie, Ebriani doesn't mean you're special.
You know, all of us, we're human beings.
We take from people around us. People who
grew up their whole life hearing from their
immigrant parents, that's what Americans do. That's what
Americans do. And, you know,
I feel like that's not as unique of
an experience as people, wanna hope it is.
So, yeah, the people who are immediately around
you, one of the things we do as
Americans is that we wanna, like,
push our rights. Like, you can't tell me
what to do, and, like, so I'm gonna
do this just because I have the right
to
do it. That's not a good thing
to annoy another person just because you have
the right to annoy them and you don't
want them to, like, tell you what to
do. Yeah. Sure. If it's gonna, like, harm
you or it's gonna cause
you some undue,
you know, difficulty or someone expects you to
somehow be deferent to them,
in a way that's, you know, is malevolent.
I guess,
in that in that case, a person should,
like, stand up for themself. But just to
be a jerk for no reason just because
you can and you don't
wanna take that away. I think one of
the really interesting
experiences we had with that has to do
with, like, masks, face masks
for, like,
COVID.
So some people would, like, take them off
to piss other people
off. You know? Some people put them on
to piss other people off. Like, one thing
is, like, where you put it on and
then the person is upset about it, but
you need to wear it. I get that.
Right? But, like, you're walking around outside or
you're, like, you know, like, in car alone
or something like that just to, like, somehow
make a statement to, like, annoy people. I
don't I don't I don't see the benefit
of that, of either way. So now they
make an announcement in the airplane. They're like,
you know, masks are not required, but you
can't you can wear one if you want
to. And whatever your choice is, we ask
that you respect your you know? Like, they
have to make these, like, kinda nanny type,
announcements where,
you know,
was asked about about, like, the summary of
the salaf. This is actually one of the
points he mentioned
mentioned from the favel of, of of the
salic is that he should
be somebody who, when he sits in a
group of people, he tries to, like, just
if there's no harm in it and if
there's no, like, you know,
violation of the sharia, what just go with
the flow. Why do you have to be,
you know, stick out like a sore thumb?
Which is something that I I don't I
feel like I I have to admit I've
not been good at for a large amount
of my life. It's taken a long time
for me just to realize that this is
this is actually part of the, and, now
we have to practice a little bit more.
But,
don't be like me. You know? Learn learn
from my
he learned from my shortcomings.
So,
we read this hadith from
from the, from the, from the,
Tabi'in,
And he was wearing a
is the clothing that the the upper garment
and the lower garment match. They're cut from
the same cloth.
It has the leaves for Shah Rukh comes
in there. See that?
Why do you say stuff for Allah?
Say Right?
But the upper garment and the lower garment
is is the same. It's cut from the
same cloth. The Rasulullah
right? Today is it's narrated that he
Alright? That the it's the the the narration
in the Shamal Sharif
that that the Rasul
also. Although, he wasn't Shawwar.
He didn't used to wear he never wore
tailored pants, but he wore a Izad. He
wore a waist strap and the lower garment.
But the idea is that the the is
is a not because it's on the bottom,
but because it's the the upper garment and
the lower garment are the same.
They're cut
from the same cloth. And so, he said
that I saw I saw Abu Abu Zar,
wearing,
and his the slave boy who was serving
him
was also wearing,
the exact same clothes.
They were clothed the same, which I assume
didn't used to happen,
you know, in Alabama and Mississippi back in
the day.
So he said that I asked him about
that, like, what's the deal with that? And
he said that, he mentioned to me that
once he,
cussed out and got into
a got into a angry
exchange with
a man,
during the
era of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
And,
he,
he said that he
basically bad mouthed him because of his mother.
Basically, he cussed out his mother.
And the whole idea was that he basically
spoke bad about him because he was black
in color and because he was a slave.
And,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, when he this
came to his attention, he straightened him out.
He said that, you're a man. There's still
Jahiliya in you. There's still ignorance in you.
He said that they're your brothers
and, but at the same time, they're they're
your servants.
Allah put them underneath your hand,
meaning under your control. And so if one
of your brothers is under your control,
then
let a man feed him what he eats,
and, let a man,
let let a man
clothe him with the clothes that he wears,
and don't,
burden them with work,
that
overwhelms them.
And if you burden them, then help them
in, the discharge of the the burden that
you give them.
And so there's a number of beautiful
here. Right? The sunnah is the what, where
the slave wears the same thing the master
eat wears, and the slave eats from the
same food that the,
master
eats.
And,
that the work that you give us, should
not be excessive, but you facilitate the work
getting done. This is one of the things
that 100%
bothers me, like, to
a maximal extent.
I use
the words I used because there's a book
of the hadith of the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam in front of me. Otherwise,
I might have some more choice and colorful
vocabulary
used in describing how much it bothers me,
which is for whatever reason in the Muslim
world, in particular,
in bureaucratic settings,
but
in general, in
scenarios where there's some sort of hierarchical relationship,
whether it be at a government office, whether
it be a school,
whether it be
the relationship between, like, a mother-in-law and a
daughter-in-law, whatever,
there's this idea that not only is the
hierarchy going to be exercised, but I'm gonna
speak in the worst way possible, and I'm
gonna actually make your job harder for you
for no freaking
reason whatsoever.
And this is something that the Rasul
called Abu Ghra'ul Ghrafa'i one of the
most pious and one of the most loving
and one of the most intense in his
iman from amongst the companions
at Jahil and told him in that in
that
nasihah, in that scolding.
I mean, imagine this isn't this is like
years later. This is years later that this
is happening after Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam
passes away.
That he sees this thing and look how,
like, much
remembered the scolding that stood years later. This,
like, young boy is, like, wearing the is,
like, between 7 14 years old. He's wearing
the same clothes that, like, Abu Dhar is
wearing in his advanced age.
That he kept the wasi
he Mahful, you know, to that level of,
of
specificity that they're literally wearing the same clothes.
And one of the things he told them
in that scolding was was what? If you
make them do work, facilitate the work for
them.
The first meaning of
that comes to mind is actually participate in
the work with them.
This is for a slave.
This is not for your employees. This is
not for your children. This is not for
your students.
This is not for people who come to
like for some public service as a public
servant.
This is for, actually, like a like a
master and slave relationship.
Do the work with them
until it's done.
At the bare minimum,
the
is what?
Is facilitate it. Make it easy for it
to get done. What do we do? We
throw up barriers and hoops in order to
make the work extra hard. In order to,
like instead of facilitating it, like, in order
to just, like, make it, like, complete *
and, like, make it more difficult as a
show of our force or our power or
our authority.
It's completely satanic quality. It's not a good
thing.
And Allah forgive us any of us if
we've ever done it in the past. You
know, like,
you see that, like, you know, like, you're
at a restaurant.
You know, if you can just take something
and put it up at the counter or
whatever, you can take the cart and put
it back, whatever. So they get paid for
this. Now you're not generating jobs and work
for them by doing this.
They get paid based on the revenue that
the
the business makes.
You're not generating value or revenue by leaving
your cart like a jerk, like on the
wrong side. Okay, you're like, it's cold outside,
and you don't wanna go, and you, you
know, you had surgery last week and this
okay. Leave the cart then.
But sometimes it's easy. All you have to
do is, like, push the the cart, like,
and you're parked right next to it. All
you have to do is push it around
the corner. Right?
The point is, Anna, it can take many
forms,
and then you can get to the zero
point where you neither help them nor do
you, make it difficult.
I'm not following a sunnah, but, like, you
know, it's just sunnah. It's not farther. Right?
Then going out of your way to, like,
make it annoying
just because. This is a completely horrible trait.
I hate people like this.
I feel like this is my sadaqa because,
you know, being a Mullana Saab doesn't pay
as much as it used to, you know,
back in Nizam al Mulk's days. So, like,
you know, this is the sadaqa I give
that when I see people behaving like this,
I just think, like, how is it I
can, like, humiliate this person just so they
can taste it? And I know they're not
gonna understand because people like that usually don't
think through things. They're this is a very,
like, animalistic mentality that, like, you know, dominance
and pecking order, like, gorillas trying to beat
each other up to figure out who's the
alpha or whatever.
You know, that this is you know, they're
probably not gonna understand. How can you give
so please don't do that part? But just
the part that's useful is what? The sunnah
is just to, like, make it
easy make it easy for people. If that's
what it is for a slave, then, like,
you know, non
slavery related
situations. You know? No involved.
None of that stuff. Then just, you know,
you should try to make it easy for
people. And it doesn't mean you have to
do everything for everyone all the time. But
if it's easy, you know, like, doing one,
like, thing, like pushing a cart or, like,
picking up
dishes and put putting them on the counter
or,
you know, rinsing off a plate at home,
you know, when you know, you know, it's
somebody else's turn to do the dishes,
or whatever.
Those things when they pile up and repetitively,
a person has to do it 10, 20,
15, a 100 times in a day,
you know, it makes a difference that we
would just make life a little bit easier
for one another, and that's that's a good
thing.
This is a hadith also that the Rasool
of Allah is on the the the the
point here.
That the,
and this is a thing in the. Right?
Right?
It's in in in
And this is a very regular thing. Like,
is it or
the
the the
the
the the the putting of the dama on
the
the second letter,
is
one of the,
peculiarities of
the.
The, they they they prefer putting on it,
but this is one of those things you
regularly see through through different.
But he said he said that if, your
servant,
one of you, your servant, should come to
you here servant means slave.
Should come to you with with the food
with their food.
Then if you don't sit them down to
eat with you meaning what? What's the actual
sunnah? The best the highest form of the
sunnah to sit them down to eat with
you.
If you don't sit them down to eat
with you, then at least give them a
one or 2 bites to eat.
And this is a shock of of the
Rahwi, not that the Rasulullah
said
but the Rahi has shak which work, was
used, and both of them mean essentially the
same thing, which is to give them a
bite or 2. Give them some part
of the food, to eat as well.
Meaning what the sunnah is that they should
not only eat the same food as you,
they should actually sit with you and eat.
Why? Because
that he is the,
the the person who is
trusted with his
with his work.
He's the person who's, like, helping you out.
So it's in your favor. It's in your
it's in your favor and it's in your
interest
to be good to him. Right? Because he's
doing something for you, which is the same
thing. Right? It's the same thing with all
of these hierarchical relationships. That somebody who's you
know, it's in your interest to see them
succeed. Like, why would you push them down,
for no reason? They're actually there to serve
you. And this has to do with,
the theory behind slavery, which is what?
Look. When you have war captives,
one nation conquers another nation. What used to
happen in the old days, so many so
many different times, so many different places. They
used to have a general massacre. The Mongols
used to do that.
Basically, you have one chance to surrender. If
you don't surrender right away, then that's it.
There's no nothing else. Just they would beat
them, kill them. That's it. Drain them of
blood. It's nothing personal.
Why would they do it? It's nothing personal.
It's because
when you leave people alive to plot against
you after you beat them,
you know, you don't know what's gonna happen
tomorrow. You won today. Tomorrow may not be
so lucky. Right? So you gotta, you know,
take care of business.
And so this is what used to happen.
So you have, like, these different options that
when when somebody when somebody is war captive
or when people are war captives,
you can either kill them right on the
spot, which seems to be,
I guess,
according to many great world conquerors and people
who are credited with building civilization,
seems to be the preferred option oftentimes.
You can take them prisoner. The problem with
taking them prisoner is you still have to
feed them. You have to take care of
them. Then when you take them prisoner, you
can either enslave them or you can, you
know, ransom them, but not everybody has ransom
that that that they can pay.
In fact, they used to you know, like,
in the middle ages, what they would do,
like, the the the people who
had worth and value, they would ransom them.
But like most people, you have to
basically enslave them or kill them. Or you
could let them go, free, and they may
actually, like, just turn around and try to
kill you again tomorrow or maybe later in
the day,
depending on how how things are going.
The idea of slavery is what? It's a
a way to do
a couple of things. 1, you spare the
person from dying,
and but you also spare yourself from them
turning around to kill you. Islam had a
particular interest. Why? Because usually people used to
go to war with each other for economic
reasons that they're fighting over money. The companions
weren't doing that
because they didn't take people's stuff. Like, if
the the the booty that was there, the
Hanima and the battle, they would take. But,
like, if they conquered a place, they didn't
or
sorry. If they a place submitted to them,
the sacred law doesn't allow you to touch
any of people's stuff.
They still own everything that they own.
And so,
it's not that. That's not and, generally, it
doesn't seem that many of them made all
that much wealth,
from their conquests.
And it's like that in many Muslim states,
right down to
one of the reasons that they wanted to
standardize
the the the code for citizenship in the
Ottoman Empire is because under the laws of,
like, non Muslim, like, Armenian
merchants and stuff like that, they became massively
rich, And their their their wealth was, like,
indemnified against taxation to the point where it
was causing resentment in amongst people. So they're
like, oh, let's get rid of the sharia
system and, like, just tax them under some
uniform code, so that we can get out
their money
by people who are not,
interested in the,
in the sovereignty of the Sharia within the
state.
The idea is this is that you
have to do something with them. If you
free leave them free, there's a very good
chance that this could be the
the recipe for your own disaster tomorrow.
The companions weren't fighting them because of race.
They weren't fighting them because of money. They
weren't fighting them because of some sort of,
like, score that they wanted to settle for
jahiliyah. The whole point of the jihad of
the companions
was
was to what? Was to bring the nizam
of Islam and the Adlah of Islam to
people, the message of Islam to people.
And so what better way to do this
except for or what better way to do
this except for to have them live with
you? Because people are gonna be, like, right
off the bat like, we were talking about
before dark. Right? People are gonna be like,
well, I'm a Muslim. That's why Islam is
best. Another person who I'm a Christian, that's
why Christianity is best. Someone else is, like,
you know, whatever. Like, I'm a weak and
that's why, like, you know, I have a
pentagram in my, you know, in my basement
or whatever on the floor, and we, like,
light candles. I don't know.
But,
everyone's gonna think that what they do is
best, and it's all equal. Like, at the
most the aqla most people can get to
without is what, that they're all the same.
And I choose mine, you choose yours. So,
like, I won't bother you. You don't don't
bother me. But if we fight, then it's
a fight between equals. Islam is not like
that. But everyone will make the claim that
they're better than the other person when pushed.
There needs to be some way that this
ifbath of this claim can be made.
And through the institution of
through the institution of,
of of, you know, keeping war captives, imagine
that the person eats what you eat.
They,
drink what you drink. They wear what you
wear. They sit with you. They stand with
you. And in general, to make a Hassan
toward them
is by the explicit commandment of the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, a good
thing.
Will that change their mind about you? Yeah.
Quite possible. Not only will it change their
mind about you, it's quite possible they'll accept
Islam. Even if they don't accept Islam,
you're no longer like a foreigner. Like, you
now become the same.
This is one of the reasons that that
that
the
level of, like, racial animosity we have in
America,
I don't think it was known to,
people in the Muslim world.
Because it's not that there weren't people who
were subjugated
or people who were enslaved or whatever,
but because the the the nature of the
institution was such that people had to mix
with one another to this degree like, for
example, in America,
you know, people say about Thomas Jefferson that
he sired, like, children with his slaves and
things like that. They're not Jeffersons in that
sense. Right? They don't really have a share
in inheritance or whatever. Whereas in the, in
the sacred sharia, the children of a slave
woman are, like, full heirs of the masters.
The point is this is this is that
the prophet here first in the hadith of
Abu Zar. He said that they are your
brothers who Allah put in your service.
So a person who treats his brother like
garbage is basically treating himself like garbage. You
humiliate your brother. It means that you're because
you're from the same, it means that you're
worthy of humiliation. And here, the idea is,
like, they're there to, like, help you. So,
like, why would you put you put them
down? Like, you should, like, support them.
And
we have maybe 3 or 4 more.
The chapter now regarding the
to the slave themselves,
regarding the virtue of the the enslaved one
who
renders the right of Allah and renders the
right of their
masters. So a couple of things. If someone
is a Muslim,
no matter if they get defeated in war
or whatever, a Muslim doesn't have a right
to enslave them.
This is a big,
contention between Sahinun and the the Al Khalibah.
And he actually,
basically, had his own, like, band of, like,
rough, tough Bedouin Moreeds who
would basically
free wrongfully enslaved Muslim
captives who are, like, political
adversaries of the of the Daulah.
You cannot enslave another Muslim in that sense,
even if they fight against the government or
are defeated or whatever.
So how does a Muslim how does a
slave become a Muslim?
Either they're a Muslim who traveled to the
land of Kufr and were was enslaved over
there somehow by hook or crook. These things
happen. The seer of Islam gives no guarantee
of a person's rights under the Sharia if
they choose to move in the Darul Kufur.
So even if it's
by trick or by Hila, if somebody is
enslaved, like cheated and enslaved in the lands
of the Kufar,
the Muslims are not obliged to free you
in that sense.
Rather, if they they bring you as a
slave to the market and then sell you
back into Dhar You're coming to as a
as a slave.
So this is one way. But more commonly,
what would end up happening is that, a
person,
who was
enslaved
would be enslaved as a non Muslim, and
then they would accept Islam.
And that could happen by them being enslaved
by a Muslim, or they could be, an
a non Muslim slave of a non Muslim
master, but hears about Islam and accepts it,
which was, like, probably the most common amongst
the first of the companions
that that were, that accepted Islam in slavery.
Like,
like, And so, this is the wasi that
that the that the Rasool
gave to the slaves
of how your conduct should be.
So
I said, now
be pleased with them both, so that the
messenger
said that the slave,
if he's sincere to his master
and serves him serves Allah in a beautiful
way, makes Ihsan in his worship of Allah
not serves worships Allah in a beautiful way,
then he receives the reward double.
Someone says, well, how is this
how is this,
relevant to us? Because there's no slaves in
the room, inshallah, keep your necks free of,
of of servitude.
I mean, and mine as well. I mean,
the point is is what? It's hard being
a slave.
So in general, many of the material rights
over the slave,
over a normal Muslim,
or criminal,
liabilities, they're put put put in half for
the slave,
first of all. 2nd of all,
the idea is that as a free person,
it's so difficult to discharge your duties anyway
if you're in slavery already.
Then there's a recognition in the Sharia that
to be a Muslim is even harder. And
so it's reflect it reflects this concept that
the harder it is for you to do
stuff, the more reward
you get for it. It's relevant to us.
Why? Because we're, like, you know,
we're minorities or we're whatever. You know, like,
things are hard sometimes. You know, like, you
know, the your exam is on the 27th
day of Ramadan. You're in the masjid the
night before, and you're like, oh, why does
it have to be so hard to be
a Muslim and there's nothing halal at the
cafeteria to eat, and, you know, and then
said machine slaughter is definitely haram. And so,
you know, you can't do that anymore either.
And why does it have to be so
hard? Why is it so difficult? Thing is
the more difficult
it is, the more you put into it,
the more you receive your ajr. Why? Even
the slave, it was difficult for them. They
received double the reward for the same act.
He narrates that the messenger of Allah
said that
for the slave who was owned,
but he
is Muslim. Like, he he does well.
He he he serves, and he whatever he
does, it's
It makes things better rather than trying to
make things worse or or or slide by
without doing anything.
That that Muslim,
both in a worldly sense and the moral
sense as well, that that slave that's that's
righteous, he receives double the reward. Then Abu
Hurair
who he swears an oath, he said that
I heard the
he's saying what is that the reward that
I heard from the messenger of Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam about what the reward of a
slave is who makes good.
That it is so high that I swear
an oath by Allah in whose hand is
the soul
of Abu Huraira.
If it wasn't for
the obligation of Jihad in the path of
Allah
and the obligation of Hajj and the reward
of Hajj and the obligation of taking care
of my mother and the reward of taking
care of my mother. He said, I would
have thought it nice to die as a
slave.
Why? Because
the sabr the reward for the sabr that
the Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Salam
described, the patience of a person in difficulty
is so high.
So some of these things that we think
about, like, why me? Why me? Like, walk
around, you know, as if you're cursed and
things like that. One day,
maybe a person will see this that this
is actually a blessing from Allah,
and not a curse.
Who
narrates a Hadith of similar meaning,
that the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said that the slave, that
makes good or makes beautiful
the, worship of his lord
and who renders over to his master the
rights that are upon him,
in terms of their rights and in terms
of their obedience and in terms of being
sincere to them. That slave will receive double,
reward for his good deeds.
This is another hadith,
in which there's even more specificity given
that, said Musa
Al Ashari
Ashari who said that there are 3,
groups of people who will receive double reward.
1 is a man who
was from the Ahlul Kitab, from the people
of the book, and they believed in there,
the the nabi that was that that they
knew of, And then afterward, they believed in
saying Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that their
Islam,
they'll receive the reward of continuing with their
old religion, and they'll receive the reward of
practicing Islam on top of it separately.
And the second is the,
the the slave who's owned
that renders the right of Allah
and the right of his masters.
And a man and this is
a particular
a particular,
act of Ihsan
to a slave, that a man
who owns a
slave girl
or a slave woman.
And the idea is what? Again, if they're
like war captives or somebody who's
completely
unfamiliar with Islam and with its adab and
culture, civilization, language, any of
things. That he
acquires a woman as
a as a captive, or he requires a
woman who is a captive as a slave,
and he teaches her how to comport as
a Muslim.
And he teaches her the knowledge that a
Muslim needs to know, that he teaches her
how to pray. He teaches her how to
make the, how to fast, how to do
all of these things, etcetera, the juzamah, things
like that, like, teaches her the basics of
being human being. What is it that he
took somebody
who had no dean and no status in
society
and then raised her to the the the
the position of knowledge and position of dean
and position of, of
comportment in society that she has a rank.
And then thereafter, he frees her and marries
her.
That man will also receive the reward double.
Why?
He didn't have to free her and he
didn't have to marry her, but what did
he do? He took somebody who was, like,
in a low status
and took her by the hand and raised
her up.
This is what the the the dean is
about, is to take somebody who's down
and take them by the hand and raise
them up and be happy that they're equal
with you rather than try to keep pushing
people down, pushing people down, pushing people down,
which, sadly, a lot of people think is
a sign of of success or of status.
And there's one, last hadith in this module
of the of the book left
And I think that,
because of
some of the discussions, it will
become clear why it's
connected to,
the Hadith that came from before, although I
don't think it would immediately be clear to
most people. So
this is a chapter regarding the virtue of
worshiping Allah and Haraj. Haraj is what? When
like everything goes crazy and when there's fitna,
it's basically when blood is spilled and just
society breaks down.
Again, what's then the the connection? The connection
is what? Is that imagine the Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Salam described the reward of the slave
in slavery and the difficulty of slavery that
they worship Allah Ta'ala as being doubled.
So according to that same,
according to that same standard in canon,
the reward of
worshiping Allah in other types of difficulty other
than slavery also should be great.
In a time of chaos.
It's like making Hijra to me. The idea
being that the reward of Hijra was something
very great,
and it was something that, that was described
as very great. And the companions on whom
they
saw some sort of deficiency
in Hijra, the or in the Islam of
a man who didn't make Hijra even though
he was able to,
and it was something by which a person
completed their
iman that, to be patient and steadfast in
the worship of Allah in the time of
difficulty.
He
likened it to to making hijrah to him.
May Allah
write us from the.
Obviously, there's no blood being spilled in the
streets.
But, things are getting weird, and it will
get to that point as well. There's nothing
that goes up except for it it comes
down. A lot of us bear us forever
seeing it, but it happens. We know it
has to happen everywhere. It has to happen.
So a person should be steadfast and keep
that in mind. And rather than thinking
about why is it so hard for me,
just realize and remember that Allah outputs every
test that a person has that they're put
through
for them.
This is actually one of the lines from
the that Allah doesn't
make people responsible for more than they can
bear nor does he give him give them
more, than, he made them responsible for.
So just do your best.
This is what perfect looks like. Perfect.
People think, well, I'm you know, I can't
be perfect. But perfect is that deficiency that
you're able to do. And even then, a
person falls short of that perfect as well.
But don't they say, don't let that perfect
be the enemy of the good. The meaning
of that is what? Is that there's a
perfect that's not even possible mathematically.
To look at that and then be dejected.
Shaitan says to you, oh, look. You're a
loser. You're not actually practicing, Dean, because you're
not nobody could do it. Nobody can do
that. I mean, it's not even possible to
do that. That perfect, you're not even gonna
be asked about. There's a perfect below that,
which is itself deficient
that you might be asked about one day,
and nobody will even get to that.
But to look at the other perfect that
you you never could get to in the
1st place, it's just that, like,
a, sort of, like, self
flagellation.
And out of all of the
types of things that a person does to
themselves,
that are haram, flagellating is
not one of
no. Just don't go there. None of them
are good. Anyhow,
Allah give all all of us to worship
him in in times of
of of of hardship and ease. And may
he accept from us the best of what
we do and
ignore the rest.