Fairness & Justice - Shaykh Wasim Kempson

Khutbah: Fairness & Justice

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا وَدَاعِيًا إِلَى اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَسِرَاجًا مُنِيرًا فَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ وَمَنْ سَارَ عَلَى نَهْجِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

Amma ba'd — for indeed the most truthful of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ, and the worst of all matters are the newly invented ones, and every newly invented matter is a bid'ah, and every bid'ah is a going astray, and every going astray is in the Fire.

Indeed all praise and thanks is due to Allah. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah alone, and I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger.

The Migration to Abyssinia: A Lesson in Justice

My dear brothers and sisters, five years after the revelation began — just if you think, maybe two years after there was an opening of giving da'wah — for the first three years the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to do it quietly. And then after that, when Allah commanded the Prophet ﷺ to be open with the da'wah, there was an open aggression, an open oppression and torture to the Muslims.

And here the Prophet ﷺ gave permission for a number of the Muslims to make a hijrah from Makkah to Al-Habashah. And there the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Indeed there is a king there — no one will be oppressed if he goes to that land."

So a number of Muslims went there for safety. And when they reached there, there were some emissaries from the Quraysh. These emissaries did not accept that some Muslims had left Makkah, so they both stood there in front of An-Najashi — as we know, he embraced Islam later on — and these emissaries at the time said that the Muslims were creating strife, they were creating trouble, that they were mischief-makers splitting the tribes. All of this was false, this was all false — fake news.

So An-Najashi spoke to the Muslims: what was their response? What did they have to say with regards to this claim? And this is the first point of being fair — listening to both sides, and not to take the words of the people who were in apparent power at that time in Makkah. But the mustadhafoon, the weak who didn't have a say in their place, would most certainly have a say in his court.

So he listened to what they were going to say. Who stood forward? Ja'far ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu anhu.

The Speech of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib

Now Ja'far has a very famous speech. The speech itself is too long for us to go through here on the minbar, but within it, in the first few words and sentences, he lays out very clearly the huqooq — the rights — that Allah gave to them, and their lives, or what they were living in previously. And he addressed An-Najashi:

(Reported in Musnad Ahmad and Sirah Ibn Hisham — the speech of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib before An-Najashi)

"O King, we were a people of ignorance. We used to worship idols and stones. We were eating the dead flesh — animals not slaughtered in the name of Allah. We were engaging in open wrongdoing and oppression — this is to do with the huqooq al-ibad, the rights of other people. And we would cut the ties of kinship depending on what tribe they were. And we would be wrong and oppressive to the neighbor. And the strong and powerful — the rich and superior in their society — would consume the weak."

So in this very first opening statement of Ja'far radiyallahu anhu he made it very clear that these are the things we had fallen into. Then he continued:

"So Allah sent to us a messenger from amongst ourselves — we knew where he came from, his lineage, we knew his truth and what he stood for, and his trustworthiness and his chastity." And that he ﷺ called us to the worship of the one Almighty Allah, and to leave off the worship of false gods and false deities. And he commanded us to be truthful in our speech and to hand the rights and trusts to others.

This is just the very beginning of this particular speech, and I would encourage you to find this particular hiwar — this conversation — that occurred between Ja'far radiyallahu anhu and An-Najashi, which was only just a few years after the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet ﷺ.

The Clarity of Haq and Batil from the Very Beginning

So from the very first, at the start of al-Islam, al-haq — the truth — was made very clear. Batil — that which was false — and al-zulm — oppression and wrongdoing — were made very clear. The ahkam of halal and haram came much later in greater detail, but from the very beginning the Muslims understood and knew what was right and what was wrong.

And from that time to this day now, all the verses that we read in the Quran, all the ahadith that we review and we read and we study — about being fair, being upright, being steadfast — were always made clear to us. And because the Muslims they stood for fairness and justice and that which was correct, walaw ala anfusihim — even if it was against their own selves — that Allah opened the way and sent blessings upon them.

Only when people engage in zulm — oppression, wrongdoing, preventing people from their rights and so on — then you find that society closes upon itself. Yes, there are poor and yes, there are rich, but in the sight of Allah everyone should be treated the same. But when society forgets that, they forget morality, they lose the understanding of what is fair and just, and then you find that society is constantly, constantly trying to get through the situation. And it leads from one oppression to the next, trying to solve one problem by creating another.

Now all of this, of course, you are aware of and you know. But how important it is for us to remind ourselves about these matters — about what is haq, what is right, and that which is zulm, that which is oppression, in all of its forms — whether it is an oppression that is caused against Allah by worshipping other than Allah, or oppressing other people, or oppressing one's own self.

The Story of Musa and the Oppressive System of Fir'aun

Now if we want to relegate the occurrence or the existence of oppression over the past two weeks, then we are of course mistaken — because oppression and injustice has been occurring for many years, many centuries, in different places. But there are times when, for whatever reason, by whatever means, it comes to the forefront and we are reminded about what it is to be a Muslim — to stand up for that which is right. And maybe there is a turning, a change of the wind — there is more of an awareness of what we should be standing up for as Muslims, and even non-Muslims, what they should be standing up for in terms of what they determine to be haq — to be right — and to work against oppression in all of its forms.

Allah mentions many stories in the Quran, and none more important than the story of Musa alayhi salam. His story is mentioned in great detail — no prophet is mentioned more frequently than Musa in the Quran. From the birth of Musa until his journey when he grew up, got married, had children and so on — there is great detail and great lessons to be taken from this story.

But as Allah tells us, that with every nabi, with every prophet and messenger, there was an adu — there was an enemy — whether the enemy was in the form of jinn-shaytan or human-shaytan. Fir'aun was the big shaytan at the time of Musa alayhi salam. And he claimed:

"I am your greatest lord." He saw himself at the very peak of arrogance. And any qawm or any people who see themselves as a chosen individual or chosen people over others — as a default position — for example would they say: "Nahnu sha'abullahil mukhtar" — "We are the chosen people of Allah" — by default, regardless of what you do, there are no consequences to your actions. They live with complete impunity. This is pure misguidance, and no doubt that they will fall into the oppression of others. And it is something we see on a daily basis.

So us as Muslims trying to deal with the situation — how to improve the situation — how do we do that? We don't want to be just emotional people reacting to what we see when it is chosen that we will be shown this on our social media and so on. But we want to be proactive from the very start in rooting out evil and rooting out injustice and oppression, because that is what it means — or part of what it means — to be a Muslim: to remove dhulm in all its forms.

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

As the Prophet ﷺ told us: "Oppression will be a darkness for those on the Day of Judgment."

Unity and Collaboration in Removing Oppression

So recognising your place and how to fix the situation — your place in any society — is very important. Not everybody's role is the same. Because no doubt, if there are muslihoon — those who want to fix the situation, reconcilers — we don't want, in the end, those people who want to bring about solutions for them to end up arguing. Which many a time does happen: "Why haven't you done this?" and "Why haven't you done that?" — when both of your objectives are the same, which is to bring about justice and fairness to everybody. But because people don't have a clear objective or a clear line that they want to go to, they end up arguing amongst themselves — "Why didn't you do this?" and "Why didn't you do that?" — because there is no collaboration between those who want to achieve a common goal.

So each person's responsibility in trying to remove oppression and injustice will differ. Our starting point is the same: worshipping Allah alone, referring to the Quran, referring to the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ in all of these affairs — these are our principles, which are non-negotiables. That is the starting point for all of us. So here we will start, and then there is a collaboration and understanding — where we can, as individuals and as communities — how we can then bring this to others, to take the people out of the darkness of misguidance, the darkness of oppression, and into the light of Islam, into the light of fairness and justice.

To refer back to the people of knowledge — ask the people of knowledge if you don't know what to do. These are all fundamentals and principles and guidelines for us to know in the direction that we are going in, so that the solutions they remain sustainable and that they remain on the correct path.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Praise belongs to Allah, and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon his final messenger Muhammad ﷺ.

My dear brothers and sisters, when looking at any situation, referring back to the Quran is imperative and important. All situations — all forms of disbelief, all forms of arrogance that existed — have been mentioned and explained to us in the Quran. There are no new situations for us to deal with. Yes, there may be smaller details in that we are living in unprecedented times and whatnot, but the fundamentals will always be the same in how to deal with misguidance, how to call people back to the path of Allah.

And the story of Musa alayhi salam is so important in understanding an oppressive system or leader — in the form of Fir'aun — or then you may have his a'wan, his supporters and his finances. So you have Haman as a minister for Fir'aun, and those — if you want to implement that in modern-day times — and then a religious authority or an ideology that they will support, as the magicians would support Fir'aun. So as Muslims we are able to dissect and understand all situations that we are going through.

The finances of a particular ideology — so as Muslims you can determine how you want to help a particular people, whether those people are in Palestine, whether they're in Kashmir, whether they're in Burma, in Yemen, Syria — and if I don't mention a country it's not because it's not important, because the list is so long — but wherever the Muslims are weak and oppressed, we do what we can to help those.

And it is important for us to find your role, which may be different from another's. And another person shouldn't be looked down upon because they're doing a different job from you. So a person is within their capacity making du'a to Allah to alleviate — and that person believes that the power of du'a is the best thing that they can do. And then there are others who are gathering sadaqat, gathering charities and support for weak people in different places — that is what they're involved in. But it's not for those people who are making du'a and those who are making charity to argue: "Why are you not doing this?" and "Why are you not doing that?" — you then become weak.

"Do not differ" — as Allah tells us — "don't differ, because you will become weak and any strength that you had will disappear." But be united and come together on a common foundation, a common cause. This is an ummah which is ummatun wahida — it is one nation — wherever we are, Muslims, brothers and sisters, wherever you are.

Drawing the Red Line: The Sanctified Places

But there are certain times — certain times — when you have as a Muslim to take a stand against oppression and injustice, to draw a red line, if you want to say that. And the muqaddasat — those sanctified places — which Allah told us about: Makkah and Madinah, Al-Quds — these are places which are mentioned in the Quran by name, these are places of worship for us. A line must be drawn in refuting the oppression and injustice, but we must do it according to the teachings of what was given to us by Allah and the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ — not this chaotic approach, but to do it unified, conversing with one another, helping one another, and asking Allah's help.

So I was having a conversation and I said — as many have said — there is a red line with any of these three masajid. Absolutely, a red line. Then it was replied: "But then what about all the other masajid? Aren't all the other masajid..." As found in the authentic Sunnah, indeed the most beloved places to Allah are the masajid. But certain masajid have a daraja over others. The first bayt — the first place built upon on this earth — is Masjid al-Haram, then after that Masjid al-Aqsa. So each of these masajid have a fadila — a virtue — over others.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1189; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1397)

"You do not undertake any journey except to these three masajid" — as the Prophet ﷺ told us. So when I said — and others have said — this was a red line, to then say: "Well what about Masjid al-Umawi in Damascus when that was blasted and torn apart?" — and the lives of Muslims in those places — the lives of Muslims supersede the sanctity of these places, we know that. But if you don't want to draw the red line here, over these three masajid, then are you waiting to draw the line until the oppression comes to your own home as an individual? And then you will complain — only then you will complain: "Oh, now we have to make a stand!" — when it affects you as an individual, when it affects your family, and that's when you want to make a stand.

Preventing injustice and oppression starts way before that.

Du'a

So we ask Allah to join us upon that which is right, upon the Kitab and Sunnah. And we ask Allah to alleviate the difficulties that are facing all the Muslims around the world. We ask Allah to allow us to remain patient, to remain wise, and to do that which is necessary, that which is pleasing to Allah.

"Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter and protect us from the punishment of the Fire."

Wa quumu ila salatikum yurhamakum Allah — And stand for your prayer, may Allah have mercy upon you.