Thursday, February 7, 2013

Justice

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

A Muslim cannot harm another person in his absence or in his presence. Just as it is unlawful to do ghiba (backbiting), it is unlawful to put a person on the spot. Even if that person is wrong, you have no right to put the person on the spot. If you want to correct him, you have to maintain the veil of modesty around him. If you unveil his faults, he will feel shamed and embarrassed and that harms him.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, would never put a person on the spot. If he heard something is going on in the community, he would not stand up and say, you did this, rather he would gather people together and ask them in general terms, e.g. What do you think about people who do such-and-such thing?

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, will make his question so general that the person listening does not realize that it was meant for him, but the person listening would realize that that applies to him and he would go home and make the change. The person who realized his mistakes on his own is more apt to change without anyone reaping away his veil of modesty.

Human being does not want to be told what to do. The nafs want to feel that it figured out what it has done. If you go to a person and said you did this, not only you have unveiled his faults, which contradicts what the nafs like, you also have given an order, and nobody like to be ordered. This is how arguments started and people having bad feelings towards each other, and more talk in the community ensued, creating more fitnah among ourselves.

Remember, there is shaytan who loves to see dissension among people. We should not create such scene that he enjoys.

Sometimes if a person has been harmed and oppressed, the nafs want to get back to the oppressor. That is jahaliyyah (ignorance) that the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, came to wipe out. The justice that the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought is to everybody, the oppressor and the oppressed, the wronged and the wronger. Everybody deserves justice. Justice is not just in the courts, but in all our affairs.

Learn the beautiful Prophetic examples and apply them in our daily lives, with our parents, our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, our peers, and all those around us and all those we interact and deal with.

Take the Prophetic examples to guide us in maintaining justice and decorum, even with someone who has been unjust to us.

The Mother of the believers, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported that some Jews came to the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, "As-Sammu 'Alaikum" (Death be upon you.)." Aisha, angered, said (to them), "(Death) be on you, and may Allah curse you and shower His wrath upon you!" The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Be calm, O Aisha! You should be kind and lenient, and beware of harshness and Fuhsh (i.e. bad words)." She said, "Didn't you hear what they said?" He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Didn't you hear what I said (to them)? I said 'upon you', and my invocation against them will be accepted while theirs against me will be rejected (by Allah)." [Bukhari]

Abdullah reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "A believer is not a defamer nor a curser nor coarse nor obscene." [Bukhari]

May Allah make us of those who seek Divine good pleasure through seeking the light of His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, so that we can bring justice, peace and tranquility and all good into our lives, to our families and our communities, and be of those of guidance and show guidance to others. May Allah grant us tawfiq. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam

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