The Major Sins Series- Oppressive Ruler
By Abu Usamah | 2026-01-15T14:54:06.287679+00:00 | Topic: Repentance
The Major Sins Series - The Oppressive Ruler
Speaker: Abu Usamah
Opening
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Introduction to Chapter 13: The Oppressive Leader
We are now, InshaAllah, on major sin number 13 from the book Kitab al-Kabair of Shaykh al-Islam Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy on him. Today's chapter deals with the fitnah we are living in the dunya today as it relates to terrorism and other matters that have fallen upon this ummah.
This is the chapter on the major crime and major sin of being the imam or a leader of the Muslims, but you are a cheater, you are deceitful (ghash) to your flock (ra'iyah). You're the imam and the responsible person for a Muslim or Muslim nation, one of the responsible people from the leaders or from the imam, and you are cheating the Muslims as it relates to your responsibility. They are your flock and you're responsible for them, but you're cheating them.
This concerns the leader of the Muslims who is oppressive (zalim) or a tyrant (jabbar). He's an oppressive leader.
This chapter is the longest chapter in the book of Kitab al-Kabair. There's not another chapter longer than this chapter by itself. This chapter has other branches connected to it as well, which make it even longer and vaster. That shows that Imam Al-Dhahabi was a sincere advisor (nasih) to the leaders of Islam.
He gave them advice (nasihah) in the correct way. He didn't give nasihah by getting on the minbar and causing the hearts of the Muslims to turn against them and hate them even more. He didn't give them nasihah by trying to undermine their leadership so that he or his group could become people in their place.
But he gave them nasihah by writing books like this in the hopes that other imams from the scholars of the deen would teach the people about the religion and the rights (huquq) of the imam over the people he's in charge of. So this is the longest chapter in Kitab al-Kabair.
O my brothers, I have to say that we must be people who are on the straight path (sirat al-mustaqeem) in all our affairs, in our love and our hate. As we were mentioning, O my brothers, concerning moderation (al-i'tidal), fairness (al-insaf), and justice (al-adl). Being fair, balanced, and just in all our affairs.
This is something that is desired in the deen. We read Surah Al-Fatihah 17 times every single day, and we ask Allah to guide us to the middle course of sirat al-mustaqeem.
So we must be balanced in these issues, like the issue of terrorism and other matters. As it relates to the issue of terrorism, it is an obligation on every sane Muslim and every leader of the Muslims to take the opportunity to denounce terrorism and make it clear that this is not from our deen.
But it would be oppressive to have leaders like we have today who are apologetic about the religion of Islam. They want to apologize and bend the rules about our religion out of fear—that the hypocrites from our community or those who hate our religion, out of fear of making them upset.
So they want to come and change the deen and say that women don't have to wear hijab. By Allah, they don't represent us.
They don't want to give the other side of the story—that even though we denounce terrorism very clearly and concisely without being apologetic, at the same time we say that the disbelievers should recognize that they more than the Muslims are responsible for creating people who do that. So they should take responsibility for what they do as well.
So we have imams who, by Allah, what Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi mentioned today is applicable to them. They are deceitful (ghash) to the flock (ra'iyah). They are cheating us as it relates to giving us instruction and direction.
So we want the balanced side of the story. We don't want it to be too far to the right or too far to the left. So Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi did an excellent job in this chapter and other chapters of warning any man or woman who takes responsibility of the affairs of the Muslims—even just two people from the Muslims, as you're going to see—and the severity and seriousness of that if you're not the person for the job.
Evidence from the Quran
First Ayah: The Oppressors Will Receive Punishment
The first verses he brings are two statements of Allah:
Verily, the blame is only upon those people who oppress the people in the earth. Unjustly they oppress them, and they also do evil in the earth without just cause. Those are the ones who will get a grievous penalty.
Those leaders who are righteous and upright and fair are not the ones this verse is talking about. This verse is talking about those irreligious oppressive leaders who are in the earth and do wrong to people unjustly. They are the ones who will get a grievous penalty.
Second Ayah: The Jews Who Did Not Prevent Evil
Then he brought the verse in which Allah rebuked the Jews from the People of the Book. He said and described them: They used to not prevent each other from doing evil deeds.
They would not prevent each other. Their leaders would not prevent the common folk from doing evil deeds. Instead, they used to join in with them and also help them to do it.
So it's the responsibility of the leader in Islam to facilitate the means and ways to help the Muslims, the individuals, to do that which is right and to stay away from that which is haram. Not to create for them the means and ways to fall into that which is haram.
Leaving them to be ignorant. Allowing them to be on shirk and kufr and innovation, and not to fight against it and repel it.
Hadith: Everyone is a Shepherd
Then he brought a number of ahadith. Many ahadith. Most of which are authentic.
Like the statement of Rasulullah:
"All of you are shepherds, and all of you are responsible for your flock." (Sahih al-Bukhari 893, Sahih Muslim 1829)
All of you are in positions of responsibility. There are people who are under you, who you are responsible for: your wife, your children, your sisters, the students you teach. If you are teaching in school, in the secular school, all of you are shepherds and all of you are responsible for your flock.
The first person he mentioned to give details:
وَالْإِمَامُ رَاعٍ وَهُوَ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ
"And the leader of the Muslims is a shepherd, and he will be held accountable and responsible for his flock."
Hadith: Oppression is Darkness
He said that the Prophet said:
"Oppression will be a reason and cause of darkness on the Day of Resurrection." (Sahih al-Bukhari 2447, Sahih Muslim 2578)
So the leader who is oppressive (zalim), who is oppressing the people, the more people he oppresses and the more oppression he falls into, the more severe his darkness is going to be.
Imam Al-Dhahabi then brought a number of proofs from the authentic Sunnah that speak specifically to being responsible for the Muslims.
The Prophet told us:
"Any person who is a shepherd, any person who is entrusted with a flock, and then he cheats his flock, he will be in the Hellfire." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7150, Sahih Muslim 142)
As we mentioned, O my brothers, the shepherd, the one who is a shepherd, can be the person who is deceased—the dead Muslim who didn't teach his wife and his children behind him how to behave when he dies. If he cheated them by not teaching them that they shouldn't wail and carry on in a way that's not permissible, then he gets a grievous punishment.
The one who is a teacher and allows his students to remain ignorant, the etiquettes of the masjid, the etiquettes of the lesson, the imam in the salah. We have in our masjid an imam who knows how to read the Quran, alhamdulillah. An imam who when we hear him read the Quran, even if you don't know Arabic, you know that the man can read the Quran and his recitation is beautiful. But before starting the prayer, he wants to make sure that everyone is lined up correctly.
There are people from our community who complain to the administration and say: Why does he take such a long time to start the prayer? We have things to do. That's because that's what Rasulullah used to do. And the imam who gets up here and just says Allahu Akbar and the lines are not straight, he is deceitful (ghash) to his flock.
He is being a person who is not giving the rights to the ones who are under his authority. That's the religion of Islam.
The shepherd is the husband, the wife, even the supervisor at your job. When the man is working for the Muslim, before his sweat dries, the Muslim man has to give him his money, and give him his money in full. Don't steal his money.
All of those individuals, if they cheat the people under their authority, Rasulullah said the recompense for that, the reward for that, is the Hellfire.
Hadith: Paradise Forbidden for the Deceitful Leader
Imam Al-Bukhari brought the hadith that Imam Al-Dhahabi brought, and that is that he says:
"There is no servant whom Allah makes responsible over the affairs of the Muslims, and then that individual does not take care of the job of giving them advice, except that Allah will make Paradise haram for him." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7150, Sahih Muslim 142)
So we have, as I mentioned, leaders over us who do not represent us. They don't represent us because they have no vision.
They don't represent us because in times like this, in the fitnah, you see their true worth. They're the ones who say: If the Muslim woman fears or she thinks that someone is going to give her verbal abuse, then she doesn't have to wear the hijab. That is an imam who is deceitful (ghash) to the flock.
Because there's that innocent girl who believes him because of his position, and she takes off the hijab with sincerity (ikhlas).
Today I was on my way to the masjid today, and one of my neighbors who I never saw in my life before stopped me and said: Do you know any peer that you can send me to? I said: I don't know any peer except that they don't have knowledge, and I would never send you to a peer that I know.
Why do you ask? He said: Because you see that man over there? And there were five men. Four of them were consoling one of the other ones. His wife left, and we don't know where she is, and she left the children.
We need to go to a peer so that he can read for us something so they can bring the wife back. Had I said to him: I'm a peer, had I said to him, yes, the peer is in this door, that door-out of sincerity, that's the way he's been trained about his religion -he would have gone to that individual. Then the peer would have read for him some potion and told him: Drink it, and the man would have believed that.
That's the condition of the Muslims today. And no one can deny it from amongst us. The Muslims have sincerity (ikhlas) as it relates to people who are in positions of leadership.
But the imam, all he wants to do is make more money. All he wants to do is take advantage of the people. So we say: Anyone that Allah has put him in responsibility of the Muslims, he has to be careful.
If he's going to be on the minbar, he has to be careful. Don't say Rasulullah said or did what he didn't say or do. Don't add to the religion what is not from this religion.
As you're going to see, what Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought.
Hadith: The Leader Responsible for Ten People
The Prophet said:
"Any individual who Allah puts him over ten people's affairs from the Muslims—he's responsible for ten people—then he'll come on the Day of Resurrection and his hands will be tied to his neck. His justice will either free him or his oppression will destroy him."
That's the person who has been put in responsibility of ten people.
Advice to Abu Dharr
The Prophet said to Abu Dharr Al-Ghaffari. Abu Dharr was an individual, O my brothers, who people today would describe as being anti-social. He wasn't an individual who would sit and laugh and play around.
Question: Joining Non-Muslim Armed Forces
Now the question, O my brothers, for those who are always coming to ask: What is the ruling of Islam on my son joining the non-Muslim army? The American non-Muslim army. What is the ruling of my Muslim son joining the police force?
Rasulullah here is talking about the imams, the leaders of the Muslims who are corrupt and oppressive. Whoever helps them and believes in them, then he will make a dua that individual will not drink from his water.
Now if it's from the non-Muslim army, it's from the non-Muslim police force, then it makes more sense that it's a worse crime and the punishment is worse. So it's not permissible.
It's not permissible to help them in their oppression. It's not permissible. So that's a job that if a man is working in that job, he should get out of that job as soon as possible.
Do I say that he should go AWOL and then get in trouble? No, I don't say that. But he should look for another job, just like the man who works in a bank should look for another job.
Should he just stop his job? If he has the ability to do that without making more fitnah on himself, then yes. But I'm not going to say that's what he has to do.
So the ruling of working for the disbelievers in the armed forces where they are oppressing people is in this hadith.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, O my brothers, we have our leaders who want to integrate. And what we want to integrate in, it is without any conditions. We're here, so let's become like the people.
No, Islam doesn't allow you to become like the people. We have our own set of morals, our own set of rules. No one can come to change that.
Islam is a religion that has flexibility. It allows us to coexist. You can live on Mars and practice Islam.
You can live under the Atlantic Ocean and practice Islam. You can go out of the stratosphere in that space shuttle and practice this religion with the five pillars of Islam. But you cannot bend the rules in Islam because you're living under the Atlantic Ocean.
You can't bend the rules. You still have to wear hijab under the Atlantic Ocean. The person says: But there are the fish, the fish can't see me.
But that's what Allah legislated. And no matter what people come to try to make it okay, it's not okay. And that's kufr.
So our morals are different, O my brothers, and we cannot allow those people who have put themselves up as our leaders, and they're not qualified or competent, to be the ones who are going to give us direction. They're using other than the Quran and the Sunnah for our directions. It's not permissible.
Hadith: Collective Punishment for Not Preventing Evil
He says:
"There is not a group of people who, evil deeds are being done among them, and they are more powerful and more numerous than those who are doing the evil. But the good ones from amongst them do not stop them and change what they're doing, except that Allah will cause all of them to be punished."
Our mother Umm Salamah asked Rasulullah when he told the companions about some of the signs of the Hour and how the Muslims were going to be destroyed, a group of Muslims by the Ya'juj and Ma'juj.
She asked: Ya Rasulullah, will we be destroyed and with us there will be righteous people? There are going to be righteous people with the Muslims.
He said: نَعَمْ إِذَا كَثُرَ الْخَبَثُ - Yes, all of you will be destroyed if the evil becomes rampant. (Sahih al-Bukhari 3346, Sahih Muslim 2880)
Because the responsibility of the religious ones from amongst you is to make dua, to leave the people, to leave the evil. The responsibility of the scholars, the religious ones from amongst you is to stop the people and to grab them by their hands. Not to remain silent, but to say something, to give the advice in the way that it should be given.
So if there's a lot of evil, then yes, it's not just the ones who are doing the evil who are going to suffer.
"And fear the fitnah, the punishment, that it doesn't just hit the people who are responsible for doing the evil."
You people should be aware and fear that fitnah. I'm going to skip the next hadith. It's not an authentic hadith and it's pretty long. We're going to skip it because of the time.
Hadith: Those Who Will Not Receive Intercession
Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the next hadith that has some discussion in it, but because of the many chains of narration, it is authentic.
He said:
"Two groups will not receive my intercession (shafa'ah) on the Day of Resurrection: an oppressive, deceitful leader, and one who is extreme (ghali) in the religion."
The people are going to die and they're going to be in need of the great intercession (shafa'at al-kubra). Rasulullah's ability to have intercession for us. The people will be in the Hellfire.
Hadith: Honoring the Elder and the One Who Memorized the Quran
Rasulullah will come, and no other prophet or messenger will be able to do it. He'll be the only one who will get the people out of the Hellfire. But there are two groups who will not receive his intercession on the Day of Resurrection.
The first one is the imam who is extremely oppressive and he's a cheat. He steals the money. And again, O my brothers, we have to be balanced.
The dawah of the Quran and the Sunnah, according to the way the companions understood the Quran and the Sunnah, is a dawah of moderation (al-i'tidal) and being in the middle. We've given some people the concept and idea that our dawah is a dawah in which we are in love with the oppressive rulers and we are only against the Muslims who are doing evil, even if it's the ones who are against the rulers in what is not acceptable.
No, we can't make it appear like the rulers in Islam are angels and they're not doing any wrong. There's a distinction and difference between getting on the minbar and talking bad about a particular ruler. It's not permissible.
It's not permissible whether it's from the minbar or whether it's from this place for a person to sit and say: King so-and-so did that and he did that and he did... Whether you're in his country or you're not in his country, it's not permissible. But to make it appear as if those leaders are angels, that's also not fair and that's not just.
People took our dawah and said: This is the dawah that the disbelievers support, this dawah. This is the dawah in which these people are getting paid by those leaders. No, we have to be fair and just. This is the longest chapter in the book.
Why? It's the longest chapter in the book even though it's not the most severe of the issues, because the rectification (islah) and the righteousness (salah) of the rulers is going to have an impact upon the whole ummah. It's going to have an impact on the way we do business in the marketplace. It's going to have an impact on the economics of the dunya.
The rectification and the deen and the taqwa of the rulers is going to impact the whole dunya. In contrast, the evil of the rulers, the evil of the Muslim leaders is also going to have an impact. So there's a distinction.
Getting on the minbar is one thing, cursing them is one thing, making takfir of them is another thing, but recognizing that everyone is falling short of the mark—there's nothing in our religion that says something is wrong with that.
So two people from his ummah won't get his intercession. Number one: the leader who is oppressive and he's a cheat.
Number two: the one who is extreme (ghali) in the deen. The one who has extremism (ghulu) in the religion. He goes overboard in his extremism.
He has extremism in a particular shaykh. He has extremism in a particular concept. He loves jihad so much that everything is jihad.
He doesn't know anything about jihad. He doesn't know the real reason why jihad was legislated. He doesn't know about the rules and regulations of jihad, but he's an extremist and he goes overboard.
So everything is about killing other people, justly or unjustly. That's extremism. Extremism in the deen.
"Beware and be careful of being extreme in your religion. For verily, those people who came before you, they were destroyed because of extremities in their religion." (Sunan al-Nasa'i 3057, Sunan Ibn Majah 3029)
They didn't want to get married to women. They wanted to pray all day. They started raising up men to the position of Allah. Stay away from the extremism in the deen.
Hadith: Honoring the Elder and the One Who Memorized the Quran
"If you want to know how you can respect Allah and glorify Allah, from respecting and glorifying Allah is honoring the elder of the religion, and he has white in his beard and his head, and you honor him. When you honor him, you honor Allah, you respect Allah. And also, if you want to respect and honor Allah, then do so with the one who memorized the Quran." (Sunan Abi Dawud 4843)
But he described the one who memorized the Quran, the one who deserves our respect. He said : غَيْرِ الْغَالِي فِيهِ The one who doesn't go overboard in the Quran.
What does it mean to go overboard in the Quran? To read it and to apply the verses of the Quran in ways that Allah didn't want them to be applied.
"Whoever oppresses you, then oppress them back similar to what they oppressed you with."
People have taken that verse of the Quran. They oppressed our brothers in Iraq, they oppressed our brothers in Palestine, they oppressed our brothers in Afghanistan, they oppressed our brothers all across the globe. They continue to oppress our brothers right now in Gujarat in India. They oppress our brothers in Kashmir, all over the world. They oppress our brothers.
So the Muslim comes and says: Allah said in the Quran: Whatever they oppress you with, oppress them back similar to what they oppressed you with, so blow them up in the subway. That's extremism. That's an extreme understanding of the Quran.
Would anyone in his right mind sit in here, take that verse and say that the Muslim woman who was raped by a non-Muslim, now he has the right to go and rape that non-Muslim man's mother or sister? Would anyone say that? Extremism in the religion of Islam is not permissible. So moderation (al-i'tidal), being balanced in all our affairs.
Hadith: The Most Severely Punished on the Day of Resurrection
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi went on to say that the Messenger of Allah said:
"Verily, the one who will get the worst and most grievous punishment on the Day of Resurrection will be the oppressive imam." (Sahih Muslim 1830)
وَلْتَأْمُرُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَلْتَنْهَوُنَّ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ أَوْ لَيُوشِكَنَّ اللَّهُ أَن يَبْعَثَ عَلَيْكُمْ عِقَابًا مِنْهُ ثُمَّ تَدْعُونَهُ فَلَا يُسْتَجَابُ لَكُمْ
"Enjoin what is correct upon yourselves. Command the good and forbid the evil. Before the time comes when you people will make dua to Allah and Allah will not answer your dua because you don't do these things. And you will seek the forgiveness of Allah for your evil and your crimes and your mistakes, but Allah will not forgive you because you didn't order with the good and prevent the evil."
"Verily, the monks and the priests from the Jews and the Christians left alone ordering each other with the good and preventing each other from the evil to the point that they were cursed by their prophets before them. And the fitnah and the trials befell all of them."
Then he brought the hadith that's well known, and this is from the fiqh of Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi:
"Whoever invents something and introduces something in our religion that's not from it, it will be rejected." (Sahih al-Bukhari 2697, Sahih Muslim 1718)
And then the other hadith that has to be understood with this:
"The curse of Allah, the curse of the angels, and the curse of all the people upon that individual. And Allah won't accept from him any of his deeds, whether they are from the obligatory acts or the voluntary acts." (Sahih al-Bukhari 1870, Sahih Muslim 1370)
O my brothers, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought these two hadith, O my brothers, as it relates to the imam. Because usually if the imam is doing his job, like Umar and other than Umar, when they were the leaders of the Muslims, they used to repel the people of innovation.
They would not give the people of innovation an opportunity to allow their innovations to spread. There was a young man, as you all know the story, his name is Sabir. He used to go after those verses of the Quran, those verses of the Quran that were hard to understand, especially for the common folk.
He would go to the regular people and ask the regular people about these issues. What does this mean? What does that mean? Thus causing the people to become confused in the religion. Umar summoned the man to his court.
When they brought him, he tied him up and whipped the man. He whipped him seriously until the man came back to his senses. As for the forgiveness of Umar.
After that, Umar didn't just forgive the man. He expelled him and said: You have to get out of Medina for one year. And no one should do business with you, no one should marry you, no one should talk to you for one year.
And then that's when we're going to see whether or not you really made tawbah. Imam Umar used to be like that with the people of innovation, the leader. So he brings these two hadith of Rasulullah.
Because if the imam is doing his job, you won't have the people who are corrupting the religion and the ideas and concepts of the people. You won't have them be given the free rein to teach the people what is not from the deen. The imam would take the responsibility to put the right person there for the job.
So innovation in the religion is usually supported by the leader. Innovation in the religion is usually supported by the leader.
He brought a number of hadith about having mercy upon those who are in the earth.
Like the statement:
"Whoever doesn't have mercy upon the people, mercy will not be shown upon him." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7376, Sahih Muslim 2319)
He brought a number of those hadith that are basically saying the same thing. If you don't have mercy on those who are in the earth, the One who is in the heavens, over the seven heavens, over His throne, in a way that befits His majesty, He will not have mercy upon that individual.
Hadith: The Leader Who Does Not Advise
"There is not an individual who takes responsibility of the affairs of the Muslims and then gives them sincere advice and takes care of them, except that he will not enter Paradise when they enter Paradise." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7150, Sahih Muslim 142)
He'll go into Paradise, InshaAllah, if he dies with La ilaha illa Allah and didn't make what is haram into halal, he'll go into the Jannah, but he won't go into Jannah along with the Muslims, according to this particular hadith.
ARABIC TEXT (CRITICAL - PRESERVE EXACTLY)
وَمَنِ احْتَجَبَ دُونَ حَاجَةِ النَّاسِ وَفَقْرِهِمْ وَخَلَتِهِمِ احْتَجَبَ اللهُ دُونَ حَاجَتِهِ وَفَقْرِهِ وَخَلْتِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
"And then that individual puts a barrier (hijab) between him and the Muslim who was in need. He's responsible, but the one who was in need cannot contact him. Or he puts a barrier between himself and the one who is a poor person and needs financial assistance, but he can't get it because there's a barrier between him and the leader. Allah will put a barrier between him, Allah, and between that particular leader or imam on the Day of Resurrection."
Hadith: The Just Leader
الْإِمَامُ الْعَادِلُ
"The fair and just imam." (Sahih al-Bukhari 660, Sahih Muslim 1031)
Allah will give him shade on the Day of Resurrection.
From the benefits now is encouraging the one who's responsible for the Muslims, and he's telling us about the rewards now for being a person who takes care of your job.
The first hadith and verse we were dealing with the warning. Being a person who's doing a bad job. Now he brings some of the proofs to show the reward of doing a good job.
The fair and just imam will be from the seven people who will get the shade of Allah, shade under His throne, on the Day of Resurrection. For his justice and his fairness.
From those seven people, the very first person that Rasulullah mentioned was the imam who is just.
Then the young man who spent his time in the worship of Allah. The one who's 25, 17, 20, 25, 30, 35. He's a young man, he's one of the seven people. He's the second one, because normally he's not going to be religious, or he's going to find time to waste because of his youth. So the first one is the imam, because when he's just, the good is going to spread in the dunya. The second one is the young man who's connected to worship.
The third one is the man whose heart is connected to the masjid. He comes to one salah and leaves, and he can't wait for the next salah to come back. He stays between Maghrib and Isha.
He knows: Whoever makes the Isha in congregation in the masjid, it is as if he prayed half of the night prayer. Whoever prays Isha and Fajr in the masjid, it is as if he spent the whole night in prayer because he prayed those two prayers in congregation in Islam. So he's the third one.
The fourth one: the two men who love each other, and they only love each other for Allah. They only love each other for Allah. Those two men.
Number five: the man who has the fitnah of women. The woman who was beautiful, the woman who's a fitnah. He may be making zina with her right now, but he wants to get out of it. He's on the way to making zina with her, but he says: I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not going to continue on this road because I fear Allah.
Number six is the one who, when he was by himself, his eyes shed tears from the fear of Allah.
The seventh individual will be protected in the shade of Allah from the sun and the heat: the individual who gave sadaqah. But he gave sadaqah, O my brothers, with sincerity (ikhlas). He gave sadaqah to the degree that his left hand didn't know what his right hand gave.
Not like what we have today. The one who gives the most sadaqah, he calls the shots in our masajid. The family who's well known for giving the sadaqah, and they read their name over the radio in Ramadan, they're the ones who call the shots because their family gave the sadaqah.
Hadith: The Just on Pulpits of Light
From the rewards of being a just and fair imam is that the Prophet told us:
Verily, those people who are fair and just in the way they judge—they're fair and just in the way they judge, they judge with justice—as it relates to their families and as it relates to those who they've been put in charge over, they will be on pulpits made out of light (nur) on the Day of Resurrection.
In another narration of this hadith, the hadith said that they will be on the right side of Ar-Rahman, and both of Allah's hands are right hands. (وَكِلْتَا يَدَيْهِ يَمِينٌ - Wakilta yadayhi yameen) – They'll be on the right side of Allah, and both of His hands are right hands. (Sahih Muslim 1827)
So that's from the reward of being a fair and just imam.
From the narrations of this particular hadith, Rasulullah says that the prophets have permissible envy (ghiqsa) or jealousy (hasad). The prophets of Allah will be jealous, will be envious of the people who will get this reward on the Day of Resurrection, and the prophets, that will be their reward as well. Showing the significance and high level of that particular form of worship.
Hadith: The Best and Worst Leaders
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the second part of the famous hadith:
خِيَارُ أَئِمَّتِكُمُ الَّذِينَ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُصَلُّونَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَيُصَلُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَشِرَارُ أَئِمَّتِكُمُ الَّذِينَ تُبْغِضُونَهُمْ وَيُبْغِضُونَكُمْ وَتَلْعَنُونَهُمْ وَيَلْعَنُونَكُمْ قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَفَلَا تُنَابِذُهُمْ قَالَ لَا مَا أَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ
"The best imams, leaders are those who you love them and they love you. And you make dua for them, and they make dua for you. And the worst imams are those who you hate them and they hate you. You curse them and they curse you. You make dua against them and they make dua against you."
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the second half. I don't know why he didn't bring the first half, especially since he was dealing with hadith that are talking about the virtues of being a good imam.
The first half of the hadith: خِيَارُ أَئِمَّتِكُمُ الَّذِينَ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُصَلُّونَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَيُصَلُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ – The best imams, leaders are those who you love them and they love you. And you make dua for them and they make dua for you. (Sahih Muslim 1855)
This hadith, O my brothers, has been rejected even though it's in Sahih Muslim by some of the people who want to make takfir of the leaders today. In the chain of narration, there is a man by the name of Muslim ibn al-Qarada, and they said he was unknown (majhul al-hal), he's not known.
But Al-Imam Muslim brought this hadith and put it in the middle of his book, in the foundation of his book, which shows it's authentic. Al-Imam Muslim is saying the man is okay. Al-Imam Al-Bazzar, the author of the Musnad, said that this Muslim is well known.
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi in his book Al-Kashf said the man is trustworthy (thiqa). But these brothers we have today, because there's some discussion about this narrator, they reject the hadith. Why? Because they have another understanding of the hadith.
The hadith said: And the worst imams are the ones who you make dua against them and they make dua against you. So they say: This is a proof that we can make dua against the leaders on the minbar or other than that. We can make dua against any particular leader.
We say that's not from the religion of Islam. You can't make dua against people, specific people like that. You have to generalize, and you can't make dua against specific people.
So the hadith is in Sahih Muslim and it is authentic. But the other extreme of these people, the other extreme is wherever you go, it doesn't make a difference what country it is, whoever does it. And that is the practice that the imam does in which he makes dua for the imam all the time, the way that they're doing it.
This is not something that the companions used to do. No matter where it is done. Our religion is what Rasulullah and what the companions did.
So you go to certain places, and every Friday they give us a dua for the leader by his name, and his brothers and his family every week. That's not from the Sunnah. Like it who likes it, hate it who hates it.
That's not what the companions were upon, and that's not what Rasulullah was upon. So we're going to stop there, O my brothers, even though there are a lot of other hadith to go in this particular chapter. But I want to translate the last part of the chapter, this particular hadith.
The worst imams are those people who they make dua against you, you make dua against them. They hate you and you hate them. You curse them, they curse you.
The companions say: Ya Rasulullah, shall we not fight them? Shall we not break the bay'ah, the pledge of allegiance that we gave to them? Shall we not deal with them?
He said: لَا مَا أَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ - No, as long as they establish the salah.
Which shows, O my brothers, the importance of the pillar of salah in Islam. And it also shows the impermissibility of making rebellion (khuruj) against the leader in Islam.
If you gave the man the bay'ah, or the man has been put in charge of the country, even though you didn't give him the bay'ah, he's in charge of the country, he's responsible for the country. By Allah, it's our responsibility to hear and obey in that which is from the deen, and we don't listen in those things that are not from the deen if we're ordered to do what is wrong. We give them their rights, and when they don't give us our rights, we ask Allah for our rights.
If they take our money and they strike our backs, the religion of Islam said to be patient with them. Why? Because if you're not patient with them and you make rebellion against them and you fight against them, and the leader of the Muslims is taken away, then the fitnah of his absence is going to be greater than the fitnah that you think you didn't like when he was there.
So one night without a leader, as the imams used to say, Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak and other than him, one night without the leader in Islam—one thousand years with an oppressive leader is better than that one night without one leader at all. One thousand years, and we're under the yoke of an oppressive leader who's taking the money, striking our backs, putting us in prison. He's doing all the crimes.
One thousand years under his leadership is better than one night without a leader at all. Because when there's a leader, there's going to be some respect for the system. He's going to establish some of the punishments (hudud), the people's lives and properties for the most part are going to be protected.
But when there's no leader, Iraq is the laboratory during our time in which we saw the wisdom of what Rasulullah was talking about. You ask any Iraqi: What do you prefer? Saddam or what's going on right now? They're going to say ten times what Saddam was upon. We prefer that than what's going on right now.
Ten times, ten portions of what he used to be. Why? Because there's no safety right now. There's no safety.
There's not a leader, a recognized leader. So we're going to stop here, InshaAllah. There are quite a few more hadith, all of which are authentic.
But we don't have time for dealing with all of them. We ask Allah to bring back to the Muslims our guidance (rushd) and the balance of our religion. He makes us those people who are balanced in our religion.
He gives us the strength to be people who stand up for justice for His religion. We ask Him to protect, InshaAllah, the deen of Islam and the Muslims who are under this religion. That He makes correct for us ourselves and all the leaders in Islam.
He protects us from the plan of those who plan. Verily, Allah is the Best of Planners.
Question and Answer
Question: If you don't cheat and you know the right, and you kill the right person, but if you know the right person, you did ijtihad and made a mistake. Does that consider to be cheating?
Answer: That's an excellent question, O my brothers.
As it relates to the leader who does ijtihad he does everything within his power and his ability to arrive at and deduce a ruling, a particular ruling of Islam, and then as a result of doing his ijtihad he makes a mistake—can we say that that particular leader is cheating? No, he's not cheating. Nor is that scholar cheating.
We like that question because that question is a question that is in defense of the scholars of Islam. It's also a question that protects us from being extreme. Because those people who don't like what a particular scholar says, for example, they'll pronounce takfir upon him because he said: Yes, it's permissible to do this or to do that.
To use the disbelievers. It's permissible to use the disbelievers out of compulsion, we can use that.
So that person says: He's a non-Muslim because he's taken the disbelievers as a helper. So the Prophet told us:
إِذَا حَكَمَ الْحَاكِمُ فَاجْتَهَدَ فَأَصَابَ فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ وَإِنْ أَخْطَأَ فَلَهُ أَجْرٌ وَاحِدٌ
"If the judge makes an effort, they make ijtihad, and they get it right, they get two rewards. And if they get it wrong, they get one reward." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7352, Sahih Muslim 1716)
And it can even be about riba. Abdullah ibn Abbas said that riba al-nasee was permissible, and it's not haram. And it's haram. It's haram.
But he said that that type of riba is permissible. We don't have time to go into what it is. But it's a type of riba. He said this is not riba. But it is riba. But he gets one reward.
It can be something that the scholar made ijtihad in, and it cost people their lives. Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, when those two groups clashed and people lost their lives, like Ammar ibn Yasir and other than him, they will get rewarded for that war that took place.
Why? Because they were those who made ijtihad (mujtahidun). So if the scholar or the leader makes ijtihad to the best of their ability and they get it wrong, we don't say that that's cheating. Unless he wasn't qualified.
To say that the lady can take her hijab off because she thinks there's going to be a problem, that's cheating. And that's not ijtihad. To say that the woman, if she feared that there will be verbal abuse, then that's not ijtihad.
That's cheating. No one in his right mind will say something like that, except the person who is out of his right mind, or he wants to integrate at all costs.
Question: Imam Ibn Taymiyyah and the Tatars, although they are Muslims, but the point was that the Tatars, they were ruling according to Yaseer, which is the book of Genghis Khan. And they were not ruling according to Quran and Sunnah,
that's why Imam Ibn Taymiyyah, he made takfir upon them, he made jihad against them. So are these current rulers, not all, I mean some, are they worse than the Tatars?
Answer: No, I don't think there is any ruler from the Muslims on the face of the earth who is worse than the Tatars. Anyone who knows the history of the Tatars and the murder of the Tatars, and he is fair and he is just, he is not going to make that comparison. Worse than comparing apples with oranges.
It's worse. As it relates to the Muslim rulers and those who are ruling over the Muslims today, the issue of takfir, it is a hole, it's a deep hole, and it's a dangerous hole that has thorns in it, and fire, and burning oil. So everyone should avoid delving into the affair, because Allah didn't make you responsible to be the one who figures this out.
Listen to what the scholars of Islam have to say, people of knowledge, as it relates to pronouncing takfir on that leader or that leader, and that's it, you'll be okay. I don't understand what is the problem with some people that we feel there is a responsibility that makes me uneasy, and I'm not taking care of my responsibility, that I'm not giving a ruling for each and every ruler over the Muslims today, in the Muslim world today.
If we die not knowing who's a disbeliever from amongst them, by Allah, it's not going to hurt you, InshaAllah.
If you die, there are some things that are obligatory upon you that are taking more precedence over you knowing who are the Muslims from them and who are not the Muslims. And we're not giving our time and consideration to knowing about those things and taking care of those things as it relates to our personal lives and our flock, those people we're responsible for.
Then we become preoccupied with so-and-so from the leaders. And Allah is not going to ask you about him. No one is going to ask him about you, you're going to die, there's no connection between you and him.
So in my opinion, the Tatars are not remotely similar to what the people are doing today. We don't pronounce takfir over people unless we have scholars who preceded us to that issue.
وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ