Stand firm for justice, even against your own selves
Mirza Yawar Baig – Ramadan Reminder #24
AI: Summary ©
The generation gap in modern day life is due to the lack of commonality between human and animal experiences, and the concept of "medicals" is important in shaping people's lives and society. The speaker discusses the importance of shaping people's lives and society by acknowledging and adopting one's ideas, while also reminding people to stand for justice and not follow rules. They also mention a recent incident in India where police caught a woman who threatened to leave, and emphasize the need for people to stand out for justice and not follow the rules.
AI: Transcript ©
Killer Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu
wa Sallim
Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, even the fear of
my brother's sisters, I remind myself in you that as time progresses,
as we as individuals, and the Muslim oma itself, as a group of people,
as we progress in life,
it seems as if the challenges of life only increase,
they do not decrease.
There was a time when I was growing up,
where if my grandfather said to my father,
do what I have done in my life,
meaning content,
the exact things
do as I have done in my life, and you will be successful. If my grandfather said that to my father,
that statement would be correct.
But then, again, a time
in my own life,
I started experiencing the generation gap. And I'm sure my parents experienced that as well.
Now, what is the generation gap, this gap is not understanding, you know, modern day slang of the time.
The generation gap is simply a lack of,
or the loss of ability
to continue to make sense, in a world that is very different from the world that I lived in, or grew up in.
The reason for that
is because most people remain when in terms of their experience, they remain grounded, I'm trying to avoid the word stuck
in the content of what they said, or did or heard or felt the content of what
they said or did.
And they are unable to translate that into conceptual learnings, which become content independent. And because they become content independent, they also become space and time independent.
So realize, had this amazing ability to do this.
And he was highly successful in being able to do that.
And that is reason why, if you look at the nuts and bolts, the material content of his world, and compare that to our nuts and bolts and material content of our worlds, you're not just looking at two different
times you are looking practically at two different planets, completely two different worlds.
Except for the fact that he was human and his people around him are human, and we are also human, there is almost no
commonality between them and us between their time and our time.
Now, you might be surprised to hear this from me because I am the one who pushes the line to say that there is an uncanny resemblance between the time of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam and our time.
And I'll tell you why. Both these statements which are apparently paradoxical are true.
There is a word of difference in terms of the content of what was happening there.
And there is an uncanny resemblance, when we take that content and we convert that into principles
into conceptual principles of what was happening, conceptually what was happening.
The same things are happening today here.
Whereas the actual content is
very different.
Take for example,
interest based banking.
Conceptually, it is exactly the same thing that we are doing today. Content wise, obviously they didn't have
Computers, they didn't have the internet. They didn't have wire transfers for banks. But did they have the equivalent of a power of attorney? Yes. Did they have the equivalent of a
LLC? Yes. Did they have an equal amount of deferred payment? Yes. Did they have the equivalent of a promissory note? Yes.
Now, did they have the equivalent of venture capital financing? Yes.
Exactly how it was done in terms of nuts and bolts.
Now, this is important. And I want to, I want to, I want to sort of pause on that, because
conceptual understanding and conceptual thinking solves problems.
When our concepts are clear, then we can transfer those concepts and those concepts will continue to make sense across the ages, across geographies, and they will continue to make make sense to people who may have nothing in common with you, racially, or religion wise, or any other way, except that they are also human. And they're also living in a world where they are facing such situations.
But if you cannot conceptualize your life experience, then it's an ending, like, it doesn't really make sense to anybody. You may have lived an interesting life, it might be an interesting story for someone to read, when they have some free time, but other than that, it's not something that will make sense to them or it's not something that they can make use of in their own lives. And that's why this conceptualizing is a very, very important thing.
And also how Fela
talks about this conceptualizing. And he talks about the basic fundamental principle of society, which
underlies everything else in society in terms of
its conceptual importance. And that is the importance of justice.
In certain Nyssa Allah subhanaw taala jealous lol Oh, he says, Yeah, you will have a shirt on the regime. This will arraign Yeah, you will. levena Mano como como la mina bill, this issue has
the E word Oh Allah coochie coo. I will Wiley Rainey one up rabina e. one E and O for fear for love o v Hema for the viewer all however, and you were in the low outro radio for inala Hakuna Matata Luna hubiera. Allah said, which means all you who believe, stand out firmly for justice as witnesses to Allah subhanho wa Taala alone, even though that may be against yourself,
or your parents, or your kin, meaning your relatives be he or she rich or poor.
Lots of animal data is a better protector of both than you. So do not follow the lust of your heart less, you may avoid justice. And if you destroyed your witness, or refuse to give it Verily Allah is Ever well acquainted with what you do. Here is a beautiful example
of the concept of underlying or goodness and that concept is justice.
Now, content wise, where does it apply?
The way in which it is applied content wise may differ from culture to culture, from time to time, from history to history, from geography, geography.
Justice as it is applied in a marketplace will be different from justice as it is applied in an organization will be different from justice as it is applied in a marital relationship will be different from justice as it is applied in a parent child relationship will be different from justice as it is applied if you are a ruler of a country.
But what do you as a ruler of a country have to do apply justice
Deal justly with people, the principle of justice remains the same. The way it is applied, will change according to the time and place and according to the context. So when you take something and convert it into a conceptual,
conceptual principle, and then it becomes content and context independent, and it is applicable across contexts, and abroad and across various other
differences, in many ways. So, here is this principle of justice where a lot of America is saying
he's addressing specifically the Muslims, and Allah saying, stand firmly with justice, as witnesses to Allah.
Now, think about this.
What is this, in my view, the one single reason why people behave unjustly is because they believe they can get away with it.
Right? There is almost nobody who will while driving down the road, there is almost nobody I can say there is nobody who will jump or red light, if you see is a police car parked at the intersection.
Many times policemen do this, they parked the car, they leave the flashers on, and they've gone somewhere.
It's only when you come right up to the car and you stopped or your your or your car when you realize that there was nobody in the car
not to follow the rules because the police car is there.
Why is it that in places like Dubai, for example, people follow the laws very, very carefully. Because Dubai probably has the largest number of cameras on the on the roads. So it is almost certain that if you break the law, while driving, it's almost certain that you will be caught.
Like because some camera would have captured what you did. And then you depending on what you did, you will either get
very expensive photograph, you know that you need to pay for in your mail, or you might get a knock on the door.
So people follow the law. So there are a single reason why
most people have there have been people who follow the law because their hearts are good. But for the vast majority of people, they follow the law, because they are afraid of getting caught. If there was a possibility for them to do injustice without getting God then they would have done it.
A lot smarter is pointing out to this and saying that you might escape traffic camera in someplace. You might escape a police one somewhere, but you cannot escape the one who whose shine and who's not. And whose power is nohrian Majesty is that he is early movies that is sudo he knows what is in your heart was Samuel Brasil he here and he sees real time 24 seven.
Right?
So Allah is saying, stand out firmly for justice as witnesses to Allah, because Allah is witness to what you're doing. And there is no time and no place and no circumstance and no situation in which you could have been doing something which Allah subhanaw taala didn't see. Or Allah, Allah it escaped Allah subhanho wa Taala the attention that doesn't question does not arise, because there is no such time and place.
Then Allah subhanaw taala is pointing to another reason why we are unjust. First reason we are unjust is because we think we can get away with it. So let's say you cannot get away with it, because I'm watching a
second reason why we are unjust is because
the action, the unjust action was done by me. And I don't want to be caught with that.
Right? So I am the one who did it. And I don't want to face that. I know what we got with that. So I will pretend that I did not do that or I will, you know try to escape. Or that action was done by somebody who was close to me dear to me. My father, my mother, maybe my wife or husband, maybe my children, maybe close friends of my people who I love very much and they did something wrong and
I don't want to say that to them.
Let me ask you, especially the,
you know, South Asians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, to some extent the Arabs.
In my country in India,
a large chunk of Bollywood film industry is based on mother in law, daughter law conflict,
which is either of them, one of them being unjust to the other.
And the man is caught in the middle of this between his wife and his mother.
So either reside with his mother against his wife, and he may he may be therefore, being unjust to the wife, or he may be siding with a wife against the mother, in which case, he's being unjust to the mother, or is being pulled apart by the two of them.
Why Why is that happening? Because this one is clear to me that what is clear to me, so the principles of justice, I am sacrificing, because of somebody who is dear to me,
just now in America, and we heard this, you have this
absolutely fantastic, you know, incident that I heard of a in one of the states that not only in the state and so on, in one of the states, the governor of the state in this union, social distancing and lockdown situation, the governor of the state made his announcement in Utah, people stay away from all places of gathering, shutting down all bars, and, and all restaurants and so on, except for food takeaway, and all of this, and then he give directions to the police to say, Now go and patrol, and anywhere you catch, no exceptions. They must face the music, they will they will be punished, they'll be fined, as the case might be.
Guess who the police caught?
The wife of the governor in a bar. She was hanging out with some friends.
So what do you think happened?
What do you think will happen in your country? The governor of the state,
which is equalent in India, that would be equal to the Chief Minister of the states.
You might say, Well, you know, my state, my Chief Ministers not married. Or you might say my chief minister's wife doesn't go to the bar, forget about that. Forget the bar. If your chief minister's wife is found in a place
where there is some kind of a gathering. What do you think will happen to
my country? I know this evening, his wife will have our own personal police security.
And she will be in that gathering with her own security guards.
Is this justice?
Or is justice What happened here? Which is they came they reported to the governor said your wife was
found in his bar. He said, What is your instruction? They said our instruction is no exception. He said exactly.
You have your you have your instructions, no exceptions, apply the law, whatever the law is, apply the law if she's to be arrested, and remanded to judicial custody, and if she is to be fine. Go ahead. And the fact that she's my wife makes no difference.
This is the meaning of justice, even stand for justice, even if it is against those who are closest to you. Now,
who is closest of the closest yourself? What does it mean? It means admit that you were wrong. It doesn't matter how long you were wrong, it doesn't matter how much of agony on the face you will get, but believe me, my experience in life, if you are wrong, and if you immediately without justifying it without you know trying to escape and so on the moment it is pointed out you that you are on, if you immediately accept that, not only is there no egg on the face, but you will be respected for that.
Not only will it not embarrass you, not only is it not something which is negative, it is something which is hugely positive. People will appreciate the fact that you were just in this particular case. Whereas instead of admitting that you are at fault, if you keep on justifying it it will keep on trying to make excuses and so on and so forth. You lose respect in the eyes of
Allah, Allah is teaching us a method whereby not only will we stand for justice and therefore 100 lie inshallah, when we meet Allah subhanho wa Taala this will not be a source of embarrassment for us, but we will actually gain
gain credibility and gain and people will respect us more because
They say that this person admits
when he is at heart.
So it's very, very important for us to
keep this mind keep to keep this in mind. So Allah is saying stand for just stand firmly for justice
as witnesses to Allah subhanho wa Taala, even though it's against yourself and against your parents, against your relatives, relatives, siblings, children, close, you know, close relatives.
And then Allah subhanaw taala now
matches another very important thing, which is
different strokes for different folks. And what is the general rule applied? different rules for the rich for rich people and different rules for poor people?
Unless one other thing, no,
justice means the same law applies across the board, to everybody, rich or poor. And Allah says Allah is a better protector for both than you meaning that don't worry about the fact that if you if you call out somebody who is wealthy, that there may be a blowback on you, unless there's no don't worry about Allah is your protector,
rich or poor?
Stand up for justice, even if it's against yourself, stand out for justice, even if it's against the people who are closest to you. So one reason we are unjust is because the person is from my is close to me.
Like, you know, relative as possible. Or another reason we start up, or we're afraid to start off with justice is because somebody is wealthy and powerful.
All three reasons Alice martella, covered union law said you stand for justice. And he said, Make a law your witness is vital as a witness, because there is no one who is stronger than Allah, there is no one who was more powerful than those who had, and to Allah subhanaw taala is our return belong to Allah and to him his origin.
And then unless one other said, and do not follow the rest of your heart, meaning that there may be some other reason why you are being unjust, because you like something because you want something to happen, because you are hankering after power and authority. So you think that if I succumb to some pressure here, then I will be elected as president or I'll be elected as you know, head of this organization or that organization. Or you might feel that now I am the I have been elected as the head of this organization. So then I must necessarily, you know, succumb to things and make compromises in order to retain my seat, unless rather than saying, No, don't do that. Don't do any
of that.
Let's do the avoid justice, meaning lest you might become unjust.
And then Allah subhanaw taala says very clearly that if you distort your witness, or you refuse to give it, meaning, that if somebody comes to you, in the case involving justice, and you do not support that person, even though you know what is right, you are a witness, but you refuse to give witness, you refuse to bear witness. You say, No, no, don't put my name on it. Why not? Because you are there you are the witness. Now I know what I was referencing, remember, that Allah is well aware of what used to do, you can probably you probably think you can escape the people. And maybe you can, but you cannot escape. Allah Subhana.
Allah knows what you did. Allah was witness to it. You did it while he was watching and see and listening.
And now you say no, no, I don't want to talk about that. No problem. If you don't want to talk about it, remember you did it. Last one that I was witnessing now the safety for you lies in speaking the truth and standing for justice, no matter who else is involved.
And sisters, I want you to really seriously think about this, because this is something which is so critically important, that if we lose track of this, then the whole edifice of society for
society must be based and can be based on this one single principle which is the principle of justice
as well as valid data to put this into our hearts, and to make us people who are just and fair, and who avoid all forms of injustice no matter what, and who fear only and only the anger of Allah subhanaw taala and nothing else. May Allah purify our hearts And may Allah fill them with his Crusher and nothing else.