Suhaib Webb – Justice, Dictators, Violent Rebellion and Scholar Sanctioned Quietism
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We praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We send,
peace and blessings upon,
our beloved messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
upon his family and his companions and those
who followed him until the end of time.
Brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum Rahmatullah.
Masha'Allah. It's great to be in the ATL
especially this weekend. A lot going on.
And
it's great to see
a number of old friends and faces
that I've known throughout the years. And of
course it's great to be working, Alhamdulillah,
in hand with helping hand,
to
address
the tremendous
suffering and challenges that face,
our Syrian,
brothers and sisters.
What I would like to talk about briefly,
just for a few minutes is the idea
of justice and how Islam
views justice as one of the most important
means. In fact we say, alaadalin
mushtama
kawudu ilis salah.
We actually say that, you know, justice is
to a community what wudu is to salah.
If we don't have wudu, we can't what?
We can't function. We can't pray. So if
we don't have justice,
then we can't function as a society and
as a community. That's why Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says, Inna Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran that
you've been commanded to be just
and to establish excellence.
And unfortunately,
we see,
in the contemporary Muslim community
people who for some reason or another
are discouraging
us working to establish justice in our personal
lives,
in our communities. And then of course, the
tremendous challenges that we're facing in America
as well as beyond. And at times, actually
using the religion
to placate us and create what one scholar
calls Sunni Quietism.
The idea of Sunnis
seeing it as a religious obligation
to be silent
in the face
of oppression and injustice.
And in fact, using the idea, you
know,
to rebel against the ruler,
is a major sin. So confusing
legitimate efforts to work for justice
and work for the rights of others and
protect the vulnerable,
conflating that with actual sedition.
So I would like just to spend a
few moments on that and perhaps leave you
with some gulab jamun for your brain,
that you can go home and perhaps research
for yourself
and continue this discussion.
So the first is the idea, of course,
of justice is one of the foundational principles
of Quran.
Allah
says
Allah
Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says very beautifully in Surat Anisa
that you have been commanded by God
to establish the trust amongst people and that
you have been commanded. And here, he's talking
to the rulers actually,
that you have been commanded to establish justice
when you rule amongst people.
Also, we know that the prophet
in a hadith from Imam Abu Dawood
reminded us and warned us of Sunni
quietism.
When he mentioned in a great hadith that
there will be a person who's punished in
the grave.
And that person will ask, why are you
punishing me? And the angels will say,
The angels will say to that person that
you witnessed
oppression
and you did not help people.
So we understand that being punished in the
grave
is a sign of something being forbidden.
So that means not engaging in justice and
establishing justice
and looking out for those most vulnerable
is haram.
The second is our history as a community.
We perhaps maybe have forgotten
the early days of our community
as our beloved messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said,
You know, the best generation is my generation
and those who follow them and those who
follow them. And in the name of Sunni
quietism,
we tend to restrict
restrict
following the salaf to simple acts of worship
like salah or zakah or issues of aqeedah.
But very rarely we do do we turn,
for example, to Imam Al Hussein,
for example, for political inspiration.
So we only use the salaf
for
acts of worship,
but we don't take for example their social
programs. So like Imam Zain ul Abideen
alaihis salam. You know, when he died, the
great great grandson of Saidna Ali, when he
died,
the request for zakat in his community in
1 year rose by 12%.
And they asked him why suddenly is there
this kind of massive change in the numbers
of people asking for zakat. And they said
because Al Imam, the sheikh, he used to
provide us with employment.
So here we see one of the salaf
who's not only worried about the theological needs
of the people and the liturgy
of the people, but he's also invested in
social agency.
Why don't we also take that as an
example to be social entrepreneurs, for example?
To be people who see that being a
social entrepreneur
is to be on the way of the
salaf. Instead,
we framed the salaf as a means to
divide and weaken and destroy the Sunni Muslim
community in the name of Sunni quietism.
But if I'm gonna follow the salaf in
salah,
I should follow the salaf in justice.
If I should be concerned, the salaf, what
their belief was on the attributes of God,
then I should also be concerned with their
concern for the attributes of people in society.
Do we believe in some of what they
left us and we neglect the other part
of it?
So if we look at our history, our
spiritual ancestors,
we see people from the time of Sayna
Abu Bakr Radiallahu Anhu
who purchased
people's freedom.
We see from the statement of Sayna Amrul
Khattab
to Sayyidina Umar ibn Asaradhiallahu
anhuama,
are you to stab Birunas? Like, are you
enslaving people
after Allah allowed them to be born free?
And then we go to the time of
Sayyidina Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. And this is
very remarkable, subhanallah. This is our history
as mentioned
in a number of important texts.
That in the time of Sayna Umar bin
Abdul Aziz when he was the governor of
Medina,
the needs of the people became much more
complex. Like Islam spread, new cultures, new languages,
new types of people came into the community.
And with that,
you know, infusion of new people
becomes more problems,
more complexities.
So he decided he said, I'm going to
establish one day of the week
where I sit in the mosque
and listen to the claims of the oppressed.
Faas Asayoman,
he created a day for the oppressed. SubhanAllah.
And he would sit in the mosque
and listen to people.
This continued till the time of Abdul Balik
ibn Marwan
al Amawi,
who he said now it's like really complex,
like the community has continued to grow in
Damascus.
So now we need to appoint
in every city
a person. This is our history as a
community.
We need to appoint a person in every
mosque, major mosque in every major city
who can dedicate as
a employee of the governor of the government
to listen
to the voices
of the oppressed
Because they knew the hadith of Sayyidina Nabi.
That the prophet said, You should be mindful
of the prayer of the oppressed.
Because there's no hijab between the dua of
the oppressed
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's nothing to
stop that dua.
This continued to to al Hadi al Abbasi,
and this is perhaps the only thing that
the Abbasis kept from the Amois.
The Abbasis and the Amoese
like each other about as much as the
Rams and the Patriots.
They didn't like each other. And we know
that they they there was a genocide of
the the prophet's family and then they continued
this massacre of themselves.
But one of the things that the Abbasis
kept up to Al Hadi al Thani
is this day for justice.
And Al Hadi,
one of the leaders, one of the Khalifas,
not only does he keep it as a
day, he creates an entire department
under the Islamic State
dedicated
to
the sincere investigation of people who claim to
have been oppressed
by the government.
We go to Andalus in the time of
Al Mansur,
Muhammad ibn U'amer. Mashallah. He's the founder of
what we know now as like postcard Andalus.
Before that Andalus can belled, belled, mugrimin.
It was like known as a bad place.
Al Mansur, one day he was sitting in
his office
as the Khalifa of Andalus, and a man
he came.
And in those days, you know, there were
scribes. People used to sit next to the
leaders and write what they said. So this
man, he came into
his
court.
And,
Mohammed ibn Aamer al Mansoor, he was, like,
surprised. Like, who's this guy? Like, why is
he in our court? And he said, I
have a complaint for Allah.
He said, I have a complaint for Allah.
Halas, man. It's serious.
He said, yeah. He said, you see the
guy next to you?
The scribe, the katib? He said, yeah. He
said,
I I subpoenaed him
at least 4 times because he wronged me.
And because he's in your court,
he's refusing to come.
So he's using his political privilege.
Then Mansur,
he told the kateb,
the writer, the scribe,
Is that true?
He said, Yes. He said, Okay. Go down.
So he stood in front of them. He
said, I'm gonna judge between you because this
is the Haqq of Allah on me to
make sure that people are not oppressed.
This is our tradition.
Not to be quiet
but to be active
in making sure that people, whether in our
home, through our marriages, through our children, through
our friends, through our community,
People have the opportunity to experience justice
because justice
in society is like what
We'll do
to salah.
We say this, right?
So he couldn't judge between them. This is
the remarkable point.
And this is in a complete different text
I'm quoting from.
He could not decide between them. He could
not judicate.
So he said,
Go to the department
of the Alleviation
of Oppression.
In
Spanish
Andalusian
Arab society,
there was a department
established
by a Mansour
to alleviate
Vroom.
That's your history.
And that's why the hadith says,
I made oppression Haram on myself. Allah is
talking,
Fajadhu baynaqumu
Haramu Falaatawalaimu.
So I made it as an as Haram
for you.
Unfortunately,
in recent months years,
we've seen I lived in Egypt. I was
talking myself, brilliant brother here.
Incredible pictures.
That even religious
figures
have now somehow sold
the idea
that we should just accept
evil
regardless of where we are, whether it's in
America. You know, don't get involved. Don't rock
the boat. Don't get trumped
by your fears.
Trumped being the
verb. Or whether it's abroad
or somehow in the name of religion,
you should just take it to the jaw
man.
Khuruj Al Hakam
Haram.
But if you look at verses of the
Quran, it makes it very clear
that the obedience to leaders is based on
their commitment to justice.
Allah says,
Allah said, don't obey those who their hearts
We have made void of our remembrance. We've
made them negligent.
In the Quran. Don't obey a sinner.
And we find
classic scholars
taking very, very
important positions.
So for those students of knowledge, if you
go to jalasa's tasir al akam, ayat al
akam,
volume 1, page 86.
He says very clearly when Allah says,
That my promise is not for the oppressors.
He says,
He said, This verse proves
that the leadership
of a rebellious person, an oppressor,
someone who doesn't obey Allah
in the sense of the Muslim community. And
someone who oppresses people
is false.
And that it is not an obligation upon
the Muslims to obey them.
Imam al Razi
and his famous tafsir,
volume 10,
page 104 page 416.
Sorry, page 84.
He says
that
commenting on this verse,
You know my After he says to Sayyidina
Ibrahim,
I've made you a leader.
What about my children?
The leadership isn't for the oppressor,
the verse says. It's in front of us.
And now we have people in the Muslim
community
telling us
that we should not work honestly and responsibly
of course. I'm not saying go crazy. That's
the other extreme. We have a problem. We're
either dormant or we're
insane. We should be in the middle.
Al Razi, he said something very powerful.
He said
that the obedience And he was talking about
the leaders of his time.
Absolute obedience
to these people he said,
That in fact it is not allowed.
Because the only thing that they command us
to is oppression and evil.
We find of course scholars like Imam Anawy
in his explanation of Sahih Muslim.
He says,
Haram. Imam Anawy, he says, you know, there's
a consensus amongst Ahlus Sunnah that any type
of political engagement is haram. But Imam ibn
Hajar who comes 200 years after Anawi,
he corrects this statement.
And remember this,
You know, to claim consensus usually it's not
strong.
But Imam, ibn Hajar,
he said that if it is possible
to remove
a rebellious
evil leader in a peaceful way, and we
saw what happened in Egypt
in the real revolution.
I was there
when some of the Sufi sheikhs and some
of the Sadafi sheikhs came on the radio
and told us, it's haram. Don't go outside.
Stay home.
So people were like confused.
But that was a peaceful protest, mashallah.
So Imam Ibn Hajar who comes in the
9th century after everybody,
he says, if it is possible to peacefully
and without harm
remove these people,
then it became an obligation.
So the point that I'm trying to make
is that in general, in America, we should
be committed to black lives matter. We should
committed to these immigrant brothers and sisters.
4000 children on the Mexican border.
We should be committed
to the
and this is something that we're really going
to face, especially with AI coming into this
situation. And this environmental catastrophe, environmental resilience
is the Sufism of this era.
You should go home tonight and get rid
of all the plastics in your house as
much as you can.
That is an act of great religious commitment
to buy used clothes.
That is an act of a of a
person who really is in tune
with environmental resilience.
Buying Yeezy's
is to be caught up in the cult
of consumption.
Although sometimes you're not me.
And then secondly, we should not be duped
by this false message
of Sunni, and I'm saying because we're Sunnis,
Sunni quietism
that goes back to the time of the
Amoese
who begin to craft a message
that political engagement
in any shape or form is forbidden.
And then it was fleshed out by the
Abbasis.
Whereas we see now, I just gave you
examples
of early Muslims,
scholars,
nuancing this position.
And that's why Sayyidina Abu Bakr,
Imam
Abu Bakr Sadiq,
He said, Altiyaruni
Maata'atullah
Obey me as long as I obey God.
Warasulah and His messenger. Fainaasayitallaha
warasulah,
and if I disobey Allah and His messenger,
then don't obey me.
And that's why Sayedna Imam Hussain,
when he rose up against Yazid, he said,
I believe that if I don't oppose you,
I will have no excuse in front of
God.
And I know of no greater fitna for
the Ummah
than your leadership. So we see he's compelled
by a sense of justice.
That takes me to the last point.
And that often times we get really charismatic,
our community, historically.
Remember this and this is something we could
talk about in the future.
We've always
been swayed
by charismatic
idiots
and neglected scholarship.
So now we find that people, Oh, I
just can't wait to hear this talk. But
if you say, Your local imam is teaching
twice a week. You should go and really
invest and learn your religion. Man, that's boring,
man.
Whereas SubhanAllah as Imam Ibnuqayim
said, That's more important
than the charismatic
high.
We see in this country through the evangelical
community,
charisma, which is untethered from the gospel of
Christ
has And we'll let my brother talk about
it. Has allowed people to be swayed away
from the beatitudes.
To be swayed away from the Sermon of
the Mount. To be swayed away from prophecy.
Because passion that is untethered
leads people away from prophecy in a way
which is very dangerous
because it feels good.
Like the young boy who commits to like
a jihadist group, he feels that he's doing
something right. Imam Ibn Qayyim said, This is
the worst, most dangerous type of trick of
shaitan because he makes it look good to
you.
But when I tether myself
in religious knowledge,
and I root myself in orthodoxy,
I protect myself from irresponsible
conservatism
and
and and irrational liberalism.
So the last point is, maybe you're listening,
you're like, yo I'm ready to go vote
right now. There's no election tomorrow.
But one thing we can do, and this
is what the United Nations continues to say,
is that the greatest asset we can give
to threatened societies
is sustainability.
Sustainability
and the opportunity
for education.
We've seen our helping hand, Masha'allah,
in the name of establishing justice because justice
is the outcome of a deliberate process of
incremental ideas
and strategies.
Justice just doesn't happen tomorrow.
But by supporting the work, especially and
Syria,
I don't know if people
appreciate
the devastation
that has happened
across the board in Syria.
You have a generation of children,
generations of children now who had no opportunity
to begin their public school education.
So you have the threat of illiteracy.
You have the threat of people not being
given basic rudimentary
skills
to think about life.
So in the face of that, we find
helping hand, and again, the UN study that
says the greatest way to counter terrorism or
jihadist groups
or radical groups like ISIS, heterodoxical
groups,
is development and opportunity.
So brothers and sisters, Masha'Allah,
tonight we're going to be asked to help.
And I hope that you will find your
donation, your commitment
is something which is contributing
to that long process of the establishment
of justice.
May Allah
bless all of you,
and bless this community.