Yasir Qadhi – Importance Of Justice In Islam
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Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest
I bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah I
bear witness that there is none worthy of
worship except Allah I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah There
is none worthy of worship except Allah I
bear witness that there is none worthy of
worship except Allah I
bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah I bear witness that there is none
worthy of worship except Allah Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala equates standing with justice
with the kalima Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
praises the concept of fulfilling justice, of being
fair, of being equitable, of making sure there
is no injustice Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
equates it with the kalima itself And in
fact, oh Muslims, we all know justice is
important But I feel that many of us,
we haven't reflected on the status the Qur
'an gives to justice On the status that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to
the concept of being fair, of being just,
of being equal amongst people regardless of their
background and circumstances Allah mentions that He created
the creation in order to establish justice Look
at the beginning of Surah Ar-Rahman What
does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say?
He talks about creating the creation, teaching Adam
how to speak He talks about the heavens
and the earth And then, وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ أَلَّا
تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ Allah says, and I also
made the scales of justice so that nobody
acts in an unjust manner Allah azza wa
jal mentions that He has sent the prophets
with one of the primary causes to establish
justice on earth I repeat, Allah sent the
prophets, of course for Tawheed, but for what
else?
To establish justice Go read the Qur'an,
Surah Al-Hadeed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, لَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلَنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَنزَلْنَا مَعَهُمُ
الْكِتَابَ وَالْمِيزَانَ لِيَقُومَ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْتِ We have sent
the prophets, we gave them miracles, we gave
them the books, and we also taught them
the Meezan, justice Why?
لِيَقُومَ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْتِ So that all of mankind,
they act in a manner that is just
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala summarizes the
entirety of the religion of Islam The entirety
of the call of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wasallam When he says, فَلِذَٰلِكَ فَدْعُوا Call
the people to this call of Islam وَاسْتَقِمْ
كَمَا أُمِرْتَ And be firm as I have
commanded وَلَا تَتَّبَعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَقُلْ آمَنْتُ بِمَا أَنْزَرَ
اللَّهُ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَأُمِرْتُ لِأَعْدِلَ بَيْنَكُمْ Be firm
to the book of Allah and say to
them, Allah has commanded me to be just
amongst all of you وَأُمِرْتُ لِأَعْدِلَ بَيْنَكُمْ The
command that Allah has given me The obligation
I have is to establish justice amongst all
of you And Allah praises the Prophet Dawud
in the Quran Because Allah says, يَا دَاوُودُ
إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاكَ خَلِيفَةً فِي الْأَرْضِ فَحْكُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ
بِالْقِصْتِ O Dawud, we have appointed you to
be the Khalifa on this earth So what
is the responsibility of the Khalifa?
Why has a Khilafa been established?
What is the goal of establishing the laws
of Allah on earth?
Why?
Make sure you deal with the people with
justice إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِتَاءِ ذِي
الْقُرْبَى This verse we end every khutbah with
The world, every khutbah given in this world
It ends with this verse إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ
بِالْعَدْلِ Allah commands that everybody be just Justice
is one of the primary commandments of why
Allah sent this religion down Why Allah revealed
the books Why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
sent the messengers And all Muslims realize that
justice is so important That there is no
obligation between any two people That trumps the
reality of justice Justice is more important than
any other haq Any other right, any other
obligation Read the Qur'an Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ O
you who believe قُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ بِالْقِصْتِ
Stand up for Allah and be witnesses to
justice And then Allah says وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ
قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟ اِعْدِلُوا۟ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى
And make sure if you hate a person
Make sure that hatred does not cause you
to act unjustly with this person Allah is
saying Even if somebody has done zulm against
you Even if somebody has wronged you You
do not have the right to wrong them
back You cannot go beyond what Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has allowed you And Allah
warns you Make sure your own hatred does
not cause you to act in a manner
that is unjust اِعْدِلُوا۟ Be just هُوَ أَقْرَبُ
لِلتَّقْوَى That is the essence of being muttaqi
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Quran يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ قُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ
بِالْقِصْتِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ O you who believe Stand
up for justice Witnesses to Allah And then
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ
أَنفُسِكُمْ أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ Even if that justice
Be something that you have to testify against
yourself Or even the rights of your own
parents There is no right in Islam That
is bigger than the right of the mother
Than the right of the father There is
no haq There is no maqam Between two
created beings That is higher than the maqam
of the mother and father But there is
a right That is not between two people
And that is even higher Than the right
between son and mother The right between father
and daughter The right between brother and sister
What is that right?
Allah says Stand up for justice Even if
it be against yourselves Or against your mothers
and fathers And close relatives There is no
concession given When it comes to justice Treat
everybody the way that they should be treated
Even if it is against the interest of
your mother and father But if they have
done something unjust Then you must stand with
justice Even against your mother and father What
greater example is there Of the reality of
justice in this dunya And we learn this
from the Qur'an From the seerah From
the lives of the sahaba So many instances
we can go on and on We all
know in the seerah So many instances that
demonstrate The Prophet ﷺ Taught us to treat
people The way they deserve to be treated
Even if it be against family and friends
In the famous story Of one of the
noble ladies of Quraysh She had done a
crime And the hudud or the punishment Was
going to be implemented against her So they
tried to get a person Whom the Prophet
ﷺ loved And that is Usama ibn Zaid
They tried to say to him Go and
make shafa'ah That you know this is
a noble lady This is a very high
lady She has power She has wealth Maybe
just for her Let's not apply the punishment
against her And so when the Prophet ﷺ
heard this He became so enraged His face
was red He called the sahaba to the
masjid He called a special meeting To teach
them the reality When you apply only to
the poor When you apply justice Only to
the unprivileged This is not justice Justice is
to everybody He called all of the sahaba
And he said to them I swear by
Allah If my own daughter And he mentioned
her by name To drive the point home
Fatima binti Muhammad If she were to have
stolen Like this lady has stolen I would
have applied the law Against her as well
What greater call is there Of the importance
of justice In the seerah we learn That
the Prophet ﷺ He sent one of the
famous sahaba Abdullah ibn Rawaha He sent him
to take Half of the taxes For the
yahood of Khaibar That was the treaty they
had done With the Prophet ﷺ Half of
the produce would come So when Abdullah ibn
Rawaha Came to the yahood of Khaibar They
gave him a sumptuous meal They treated him
like a royal And then they handed him
A bag of gold And they kind of
winked And they hinted that If you can
make a concession You just don't give half
and what not Abdullah ibn Rawaha That famous
sahabi Who became a shaheed after this Abdullah
ibn Rawaha Stood up in anger And he
said You dare to bribe me To act
in an unjust manner Listen to me Oh
yahood of Yathrib He said this Wallahi There
is no one more beloved To me on
earth Than the Prophet ﷺ And there is
no one more despised Especially after what you
have done Than your own people And yet
still I will treat you with utmost justice
Not one penny That you would not have
taken I would have taken away from you
Because this is what Allah Has commanded us
to do And when they saw Abdullah ibn
Rawaha's Commitment to justice They said to themselves
This is why They have been given victory
This is why They have given They have
gotten Where they have gotten Because they are
standing For justice And this is the reality
Of all of the great sahaba Of the
khulafa ir rashidun Why do you think Allah
Blessed them And the later people Were not
as blessed Why do you think Their generations
Did more conquest Because even though Militarily They
didn't have What the later generations had They
didn't have the training They didn't have the
weapons They didn't have anything That later generations
had And yet still The defeats of the
Roman Empire The defeats of the Persian Empire
The expansion of Islam It happened under their
watch Why?
Because of their justice So many anecdotes That
are authentically Narrated in our books Once Umar
ibn al-Khattab R.A A large piece
of cloth Had come from the Romans And
it was a very fancy cloth The Arabs
couldn't produce At that time So he divided
it equally Amongst all of the people And
he got to share as well But that
share wasn't enough To make an entire garment
Next week Umar ibn al-Khattab Is giving
the khutbah And lo and behold From that
cloth That unique cloth He has the entire
garment Of a thawb One of the people
stood up And he said O Umar R
.A Fear Allah You have acted unjustly He
said What have I done?
They said Look That garment you distributed It
was not enough To make a cloak It
was not enough To make an entire kamees
It was just to make a shirt You
have a thawb How did you get more
Than the rest of us?
And Umar ibn al-Khattab said Where is
my son Abdullah?
Abdullah said Here I am ya abati He
said stand up And explain to them Abdullah
said Oh so and so I gifted willingly
I gifted my father My share of the
cloth That is why He is able to
make an entire thawb And so the man
said In that case You have acted justly
I swear to you O Muslims I swear
to you Umar ibn al-Khattab R.A
Imagine this One piece of cloth And the
sahaba said You're acting unjustly They're monitoring Look
at I'm sorry to say Look at our
rulers of today One cloth Billions of dollars
in their pockets Looting the entire country For
their families and what not And this is
People are not They're not able to even
speak Like that sahaba spoke One cloth And
the sahaba put him in check Where did
you get that from?
You're supposed to have justice Amongst all of
us And he agreed And he explained And
he said This was a willing gift That
my son gave I didn't force him It
was not something I acquired That is not
my right I am the same as all
of you This is why Umar ibn al
-Khattab's reign was blessed And then we don't
have that now Even though our armies are
bigger Our weapons are mightier But there is
no Umar ibn al-Khattab Establishing justice We
can go on and on Ali ibn al
-Khattab It is a well-known incident In
our books of history That somebody broke into
his house Stole his armor He had a
very nice armor He would go to war
with And he was very hurt at this
He loved the armor One day he's walking
in the market And he recognizes his armor
He sees it is being sold By one
of the Jews of Kufa He becomes angry
He goes This is my armor How did
you get it?
And the man said No no this is
mine I bought it He says I'm going
to sue you I'm going to take you
to the judge And Ali was the khalifa
And the judge was appointed by Ali Shuraih
was his name Shuraih al-Qadi And so
Ali r.a took him to the judge
Shuraih Shuraih is a tabi'i Shuraih is
a He's not a companion But he's a
scholar Ali r.a You know who he
is And Ali r.a said to Shuraih
Oh Shuraih This is my armor You know
it as well This is my armor It's
recognizable And this man had it It is
stolen He stole it And Shuraih said Do
you have two witnesses?
Ali said Are you asking me for witnesses?
This is my armor I am Ali The
son-in-law of the prophet I am
Ali r.a You don't trust me He
said I believe you But I have to
judge with justice I believe you But I
cannot judge based upon my belief I know
you're telling me the truth But unless you
produce two witnesses That somebody stole And you
know this person stole I cannot give the
court ruling against you And Ali r.a
could not produce any evidence In terms of
the two witnesses And so he said to
the merchant He goes This is yours Even
though I know Ali is telling the truth
But it is yours Because I have to
judge with justice When the merchant saw this
He said By Allah It is stolen But
I could never imagine That a khalifa of
the Muslims Will actually be ruled against And
a merchant of another background Will be ruled
in favor This cannot happen Except with a
religion that is from Allah And right there
in the court he said I bear witness
that there is no god but Allah And
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger
of Allah This is what you call justice
Justice Treating people the way that they deserve
to be treated From the seerah as well
What is hilfal fudul What happened in hilfal
fudul The prophet s.a.w Along with
the other sahaba Along with the other nobles
of Mecca Agreed to establish justice On the
people of Mecca O Muslims Realize that justice
is manifested At every single level It is
manifested amongst our family Amongst our children We
treat them equally It is manifested in the
corporations How we treat our employees It is
manifested amongst our family and friends It is
manifested in a societal level At every single
level Strive to establish justice And know as
Ibn Taymiyyah s.a.w remarked That justice
is so beloved to Allah And he says
look at history to prove his point Justice
is so beloved to Allah That Allah blesses
a kingdom Allah blesses a nation That is
kafir But applies justice And Allah s.w
.t Despises a kingdom Or a country that
is Muslim But does not have justice He
says look at history A country or a
kingdom That is fair and just Allah will
bless it in this dunya In this dunya
The akhirah is another thing In this dunya
That country, that kingdom will be blessed And
the country that is Muslim The kingdom that
is Muslim But does not establish justice Where
the rich get away with crimes Where the
nobility can do things And the peasants are
charged That kingdom, that country he said It
will never flourish in the eyes of Allah
s.w.t All Muslims realize that Allah
s.w.t Commands for justice And loves
justice And loves the people of justice Of
the verses in the Quran That Allah mentions
Those whom he loves One category And there
is only 14 categories One of them Inna
Allaha yuhibbu almuqasateen Wallahu yuhibbu almuqasateen Allah s
.w.t Loves the people of justice And
in the hadith Seven are the people Who
will be sheltered on that day When there
is no shelter Other than the shelter of
Allah And one of them Is the ruler
who establishes justice All Muslims Examine your own
life See if you're treating anybody With injustice
See if there's anybody That has any grudge
against you That is a legitimate grudge The
famous scholar Sufiana Thawri remarked If I were
to commit 70 major sins Between me and
Allah It is more easier For my conscience
to deal with Than one minor sin That
involves injustice Between me and another person Because
I can ask Allah s.w.t forgiveness
And I will expect Allah s.w.t
forgiveness But how about Between me and another
person How will that happen 70 major sins
Between me and Allah It is easier for
my conscience to deal with Than one injustice
Against another person So beware of any injustice
Beware of transgressing rights Establish justice in your
private lives In your social lives In your
extended family and friends And Allah s.w
.t will love you for this May Allah
s.w.t bless me and you With
return to the Qur'an And He make
us of those Whose verses they understand And
applies halal and haram Throughout our lifespan Ask
Allah s.w.t forgiveness You as well
ask Him For He is the Ghafoor and
the Rahman Injustice
can take place at all levels It can
take place in the secrecy of your house
It can take place in inheritance It can
take place And nobody knows except Allah s
.w.t And all injustices are evil Our
Prophet s.a.w. said Beware of injustice
For it will transform into grief and darkness
On the day of judgment اتقوا الظلم فإنه
ظلمات يوم القيامة Beware of dhulm Because it
will come into dhulmat On the day of
judgment And our Prophet s.a.w. said
Do you know who is the bankrupt person
They said Ya Rasulallah The bankrupt is the
one who doesn't have enough money To pay
off his debts He goes no that is
your bankrupt in this dunya For me the
bankrupt person Is the one who will come
on the day of judgment With good deeds
that are going to the mountains حسناتك الجبال
Good deeds you can see them all the
way to the mountains But he has backbited
one person Stolen the money of another person
Hit another person Taken the rights of another
person And every single one of them Will
ask for their reward So all of his
deeds will be given away Until nothing will
be left And he will remain bankrupt That
is the bankrupt person On the day of
judgment Between him and Allah عبادات Between him
and Allah صلاة Between him and Allah قرآن
Between him and Allah He thinks he is
pious Between him and the creation of Allah
Nothing but injustices And oh Muslims Of the
greatest of injustices Are that which takes place
in public When everybody can see When an
entire group of people Are treated unjustly When
the rights that are due to any human
being Are stripped away from a person Because
of their background Because of their skin color
Because of their race Justice does not care
about religion Our shariah commands us to be
just With the Muslim and kafir It doesn't
matter With the enemy and the ally It
doesn't matter It commands us to be just
Even against the mother and father It doesn't
matter So then what do we say When
we look at the reality Of what is
happening in Gaza Where the greatest injustice of
this generation An entire group of people 75
years 3 to 4 generations Of being dispossessed
Of being misplaced Of being thrown out of
their lands Of being deprived of every single
right That any decent human being should have
And the world watches And does not do
anything And now we see for the last
year And we are now commemorating We should
not say commemorating even Because it is a
somber And a sad And a tragic reality
A year has gone by And the biggest
genocide Of our lifetimes More children have been
killed In the last 12 months Than have
been killed In the last decade on earth
More children have been killed in Gaza In
the last year Than the entire world In
the last decade What greater injustice is there
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala In particular
when it comes to children Allah says on
that day What is the day of judgment
When the baby will be asked By what
crime was this baby killed وَإِذَا الْمَؤُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ
بِأَيِّ ذَمْبٍ قُتِلَتْ Of the greatest injustices Is
the killing of people The bombing of people
Why is Firaun cursed in the Quran Why
is Firaun considered to be The worst human
being Whoever lived in the history of mankind
This is what the Quran says وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
أَدْخِلُ آلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ أَشَدَّ الْعَذَابِ The worst punishment
of any human being Of all of human
history Will be given to Firaun Why?
Because his injustice Was against an entire people
He displaced He tortured He murdered He killed
babies This is why Allah called Firaun The
worst criminal in all of mankind It is
ironic It is tragic That the people Whom
Firaun did this against Their children Their descendants
Are adopting the tactics of Firaun They have
learnt from the very person Who did what
they did against him And they are now
enacting The exact policies of Firaun Against innocent
people But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
watching And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Never
allows injustice to flourish Our Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam said Allah might allow the unjust person
Some leeway Allah might allow him some time
But Allah will always Eventually take him And
when Allah takes him Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala The process is a metaphor Allah grabs
him by the fist And does not let
go The Qabd of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala Will not let that person go O
Muslims There is no doubt That the injustices
we are seeing Allah will demonstrate His reality
Justice always prevails On this earth There is
no doubt That Allah will bless The people
who are suffering Allah will bless those Who
are fighting against injustice Human history teaches us
this Who are the greatest rulers Even amongst
the non-Muslims Even amongst those Who don't
believe in God Who do they look up
to In this country The greatest president Was
Abraham Lincoln Why?
Because he stood up For the rights of
The African American slaves And he fought his
own country To establish justice on earth He
divided his country He went to war With
his own people And at the time Even
his own people Called him a traitor Called
him a divider Called him a disunification And
now look He is considered to be The
greatest of all presidents Look at our recent
history Which leaders are there That are considered
to be The greatest leaders Amongst all of
mankind Martin Luther King Jr Once again in
his lifetime He was considered to be a
traitor He was considered to be an agitator
And yet Now he is considered a hero
Why?
Because he stood up for justice Nelson Mandela
Perhaps the most respected And admired leader In
our generation In the last 50 years Why
is he revered?
Because he stood up for justice Every one
of these people In their lifetimes Was called
a terrorist Every one of them Was considered
to be an evil person The media The
politicians The people Thought that these are all
agitators Do not ever doubt the truth And
the promise of Allah Allah's promise is always
true Injustice will never flourish Tyranny will never
be rewarded Allah will judge in the hereafter
But even in this world Allah's truth holds
firm And the people who were treated unjustly
Will be given dignity Even on this earth
And those who perpetrated injustice The tyrants The
regime changers The apartheid fascists Those who killed
innocent people It doesn't matter Their Izza right
now It doesn't matter Their purchasing of politicians
And their control of the media right now
All of this is temporary Allah's sunnah will
be established And these very people Will be
shamed They will be humiliated No one will
respect them Even in this dunya Much less
the akhira When they will meet their faith
So the question is not for the future
The question And with this I conclude When
we understand justice And the importance of justice
And why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Praise
justice The question then What are we doing
To establish that justice Not just in our
lives But amongst the palestinian people After one
year has gone by The battle Allah will
win it There is no question But what
have we done To be a part of
the battle What have we done To be
on the side of truth On the side
of justice Because in the end That is
why Allah revealed this religion That is why
Allah sent the prophets That is why the
books have come down Let us stand with
justice Let us never get tired I know
a year has gone And some people Astaghfirullah
Shaytan is coming and saying One year has
gone by They feel a sense of fatigue
But understand It's not just about Gaza It's
not just about Palestine It's not just about
Ardha Muqaddas Even though these are all important
It is also about the reality Of standing
for justice And standing against injustice And that
is linked to La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah
And that will never change Until the day
of judgment May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Bless all of us to stand up For
the truth and justice Allah
Akbar Allah Akbar I bear witness that There
is no god but Allah I bear witness
that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah Come
to prayer Come to success Prayer has been
done Allah is the greatest There is no
god but Allah La ilaha illallah Still straighten
your rows Leave no gaps in the line
Allah is the greatest All
praise is due to Allah Lord of the
worlds The Merciful, the Compassionate Master of the
Day of Judgment It is You we worship
And You we ask for help Guide us
to the straight path The path of those
You have blessed Not of those who have
incurred Your wrath Nor of those who have
gone astray Ameen
Ameen
Fruits and date palms And the grain with
the dust and the wind So which of
your Lord's blessings do you deny?
Allah is the greatest Allah listens to
those who praise Him Allah
is the
greatest All
praise is due to Allah Lord of the
worlds The Merciful, the Compassionate Master of the
Day of Judgment It is You we worship
And You we ask for help Guide us
to the straight path The path of those
You have blessed Not of those who have
incurred Your wrath Nor of those who have
gone astray Ameen And
the fig, and the olive, and the mountain
of Sinai And this secure city Indeed, We
have created man in the best of stature
Then We brought him back to the lowest
of the low Except for those who believe
and do righteous deeds So they will have
an unwavering reward So what still denies you
of religion?
Is not Allah the most just of judges?
Allah is the greatest Allah
listens to those who praise Him Allah
is
the greatest As-salamu
alaykum wa rahmatullah As
-salamu alaykum
wa
rahmatullah