The Alliance of al-Fudul - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Khutbah Opening

With the gift that is in Allah, I counsel you and myself with taqwa of Allah and ihsan, for indeed Allah is with those who have taqwa and those who are doers of good.

My brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah Almighty and sending blessings and salutations upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad ﷺ.

The Nature of Mankind: Dhulm and Ignorance

When Allah spoke about the nature of mankind, He mentions two mannerisms or two characters that we all have. Allah says: indeed, man is unjust and ignorant.

This is the nature of a person — to do dhulm and to be in a state of ignorance. We know we are ignorant because when we are born we have no knowledge. And then as we grow up we learn things. Similarly, we have the ability — or the potential — to do harm and to oppress. So what is it that stops us from oppressing? What is it that ensures that we educate ourselves and remove ignorance from us?

It's two things, my brothers and sisters. The first thing is your intellect. Your intellect should contain you, it should restrain you. This is why the word aql in the Arabic language is that which restrains something. That's where the word iqal comes from — the iqal that people wear on their heads. That circular thing that you might see some of the Arabs wear. Initially it was meant to restrain their camels. So something that is aql, it restrains. So the intellect is called aql because it's supposed to stop you from acting on your emotions, on your whims and your desires.

But that's just one aspect. The other thing that stops us from oppressing is the wahi — it is the revelation from Allah that tells us the do's and the don'ts. That teaches us the harm of oppression and dhulm. Not just that it's harmful in this world — because when I oppress you, tomorrow you will oppress me and then we keep on doing that — but also the harm of it on the Day of Judgment. When the Prophet ﷺ said that our injustice and oppression is the darkness of the Hereafter.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2447; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2578)

And every time you oppress someone — and this comes in many forms — we could be oppressing our children and being unjust to them, or our neighbors, or our co-workers, or our wives. And the biggest dhulm, the biggest injustice, is when we direct worship to other than Allah.

Our religion has put a huge emphasis on adl — justice — and to give people their rights, to give everyone what they are due. And that starts with the rights of Allah, and the rights of the Messenger, and the rights of our parents, and the rights of our spouses, and the rights of our children, and the rights of our neighbors. Ensure you are doing your responsibility, and if you don't, then Allah will ask you about it.

What to Do When We Witness Injustice

But what I want to speak about today, inshallah, is when other people commit injustice — what we are supposed to do when we witness injustice. Our religion isn't only about personal worship. Our religion, Islam, is a religion that has an effect and has meaning in every aspect of life, whether it's the public sphere or privately, both.

And I want to share with you a story that happened during the time of the Prophet ﷺ — in fact, this story happened before he became a prophet, when he was still a young man. And I want you to imagine Mecca, where there was really no law and there was nobody to stop oppression from happening. And people used to oppress each other — the strong would steal and murder and do whatever they want to the weak. And this was the case in Mecca.

We know that the Ka'bah in Mecca was a place people traveled to even before Islam. And it was a place that was sanctified. So you would have a lot of the neighboring tribes and the neighboring countries — they would come to Mecca.

The Story of the Yemeni Man and Al-As ibn Wa'il

There is a particular incident that the Prophet ﷺ referenced and mentioned — and later on when he became a prophet, he was very proud of being present and being part of it. And that was that a Yemeni man from the Zubaid tribe came to Mecca — again, this is early, this is pre-Islam — to come and worship and perform the Hajj. And while he was there, he also wanted to do some trade. So he sold something to one of the noblemen of Quraysh, whose name was Al-As ibn Wa'il.

He sold him something, and Al-As was someone of nobility. He said to him, "Don't worry, I'll pay you after Hajj." He was like, "Okay, I trust you." So after the Hajj was done — and yes, there was a Hajj that they used to do with a lot of errors and a lot of shirk involved, but they used to have their pilgrimage — so after the Hajj was done, he came to him and said, "Okay, I need to be paid now. I want what I'm due." And he said, "Don't worry, I'll give it to you tomorrow," or "I'll give it to you later." And he kept on doing this, and he wouldn't pay him.

Al-As ibn Wa'il was relying on his nobility — who's going to stop me? They didn't know a concept of Akhirah. Nowadays, if someone wants to oppress someone else, we know even if the people don't stop you, Allah is watching you. But Al-As ibn Wa'il didn't care, and he just said, "Go back to Yemen, I'm not going to pay you."

So what did this man do? There was no system in place that he could complain to. He went to individual tribes and elderly senior men in Quraysh and in Mecca — "Please, Al-As is stealing from me. I sold him something and he didn't pay me." And no one would want to interfere. Everyone was like, "I have to choose between a Quraysh nobleman versus a Yemeni stranger — I'll take this nobleman any day." And there is injustice that's happening here.

So what did this man do? He went in front of the Ka'bah, he climbed a hill, and then he recited poetry — today's equivalent of putting something on the media so the people would hear it and memorize it and share it. He recited this powerful poem where he is mentioning how he has been oppressed at the Haram, in the state of Umrah, and how everyone knows and no one is doing anything about it.

The Founding of Hilf al-Fudul

And who was there? The uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib. He was there and he heard this and it moved him — something must be done. Again, brothers and sisters, remember this is before Islam.

And Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib then gathered — he spoke to a man called Abdullah ibn Jud'an, who was from the Banu Taym tribe — the same tribe as Abu Bakr. He was also a man known for his generosity and his nobility. He died before the Ba'thah, before Prophet Muhammad became a messenger. He died before that. But he was someone well respected in Mecca — Abdullah ibn Jud'an.

So they gathered some of the noblemen in his house. He made some food, and they came together. And guess who is in that beautiful gathering where they are discussing how to uphold justice and help this oppressed man? Rasulullah ﷺ — as a young teenager, or in his early or late teens. He was there and he was part of it.

And the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was there with the elders and the other people, and they made a pact. Why is injustice happening in Mecca while we are present? Let's do something about it. If you can't do it individually, let's come together. So they came together and they made a pact that is known as Hilf al-Fudul.

It is also called Hilf al-Mutayyabin — the Pact of the Perfumed Ones. Why? Because they didn't sign anything. What they did was they dipped all of their hands in perfume and then wiped it on the side of the Ka'bah. And this was a sign that they will stand up for anyone that anyone oppresses, abuses, or steals from.

Then they went to Al-As ibn Wa'il and they made him pay. And this is how this Yemeni man got what he was due.

It is also called Hilf al-Fudul — and this is the more common name that people know — because one of the statements of Al-As was, "Why are you entering into amrul fuduli? Why are you entering into something that doesn't concern you?" And this became known as the pact of that which didn't concern them. But in fact it did concern them, because they wanted to uphold justice.

The Prophet's Pride in Hilf al-Fudul

Now the Prophet ﷺ — years later, decades later, after he becomes a messenger — was asked about this, and he made a powerful statement:

(Reported by al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan al-Kubra, and referenced by Ibn Hisham in al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah)

He said: "If I were to have to choose between getting the best of wealth — red camels, which was the best of wealth — or attending that gathering, I would choose that gathering. And even today, if they were to call me — as a messenger — to that pact, I would attend it and be part of it."

And the Prophet ﷺ was very proud of being part of it. Why? Because our faith — our deen — commands us to stand up for the oppressed. And we don't look at who they are, what their religion is. If they are oppressed, we stand up for them. And we don't mind to stand with anyone, as long as what we are standing up for is adl and justice.

This is the beauty of Islam. My brothers and sisters, now remember: everyone in that gathering was a mushrik — they were all idol worshippers. But what they were doing was right. And the Prophet ﷺ said: today, if they were to call me as a messenger, I would have attended that pact and been part of it.

The Lesson: Islam Commands Us to Engage with Justice

My brothers and sisters, we were talking about standing up for justice. Now as Muslims — and this is very important to appreciate and understand — what we do is not only our personal ibadah to Allah: our prayers and our Hajj and our Zakat. We also participate in good causes, although they might not be purely Islamic. We must participate and be part of them. And this is how the Prophet ﷺ is proud of participating in retrieving the wealth of one who was stolen from — the Prophet ﷺ is participating in fighting against corruption.

And similarly, my brothers and sisters, as Muslims we need to stand up for all of these causes. If there is a problem of racism that is affecting people — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — we need to stand up for that. If there is a problem of corruption, we need to stand against it. If there is an issue — even like humanitarian causes — if there is blood being donated to people, we need to be part of that. When we are dealing with abuse, or the community is struggling, or crime — these causes that perhaps are not directly related to our ibadah and our worship, but they are in general, because as Muslims we are people that stand up for all types of good and justice.

And this is what we learn from this. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying: I would have gone back — if I were back there as a Messenger of Allah — I would stand shoulder to shoulder with idol worshippers, because what they were standing up for was haqq. And this is a principle that we must appreciate.

The Principle of Ta'awun — Cooperation for the Good

Sometimes the people that you are standing with — you don't need to agree with them — but you stand with them for the cause. And this is what Ibn al-Qayyim said: that we do ta'awun — we work with anybody that stands up for the hurumatillah, anything that is sanctified, anything that is good. Anybody that does that, we stand with them.

And a lot of times people conflate the two. This is why you will find sometimes there is a cause that we are working towards, and you will find someone say, "Look at that brother — he is working with so-and-so who is not even a Muslim," or "so-and-so who is upon the wrong Islam," or "so-and-so who is upon bid'ah." But they don't think: does me coming alongside a Christian, for example, and then trying to fight against corruption — does that mean all of a sudden I agree with their Christianity? It doesn't.

We as Muslims stand up for what is right, regardless of who we are standing with in that particular moment. And this is very important to understand. We stand up for justice — whether it's against racism, or corruption, or a good humanitarian cause — and as Muslims we need to participate more, we need to involve each other more in these general causes.

And wallahi, if our neighbors who aren't Muslims, and the people that we are living with, would see more of that — they would have more of an appreciation of us, and of Muslims, and of Islam. They would understand that our religion is a religion that does involve itself with all that matters to the public, and we are part of it.

The Limits: The Quran and the Sunnah

Of course, are there limits? There are always limits. What limits us? The Quran and the Sunnah — the halal and the haram, the right and the wrong. Of course we have limits. So if we agree on one cause it doesn't mean we agree on all causes. And if you come together on one issue and we say, "Okay, this issue is good, that's what matters to us, we will help you" — and the moment you see, "Okay, this issue we disagree with," then we step back. This is what Islam is.

And I ask Allah to make us of those that uphold justice wherever they are. I ask Allah to make us of those that stand for the oppressed, and never be among the oppressors.