Uphold Justice

Uphold Justice - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Praise and Testimony

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ خَالِقِ الْوُجُوْدِ مِنَ الْعَدَمِ، وَجَاعِلِ النُّوْرِ مِنَ الظَّلَامِ، وَمُخْرِجِ الصَّبْرِ مِنَ الْأَلَمِ، وَمُلْقِي التَّوْبَةِ عَلَى النَّدَمِ، فَنَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى الْمَصَائِبِ كَمَا نَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى النِّعَمِ، وَنُصَلِّي عَلَى رَسُوْلِهِ الْأَكْرَمِ، ذِي الشَّرَفِ الْأَشَمِّ، وَالنُّوْرِ الْأَتَمِّ، وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُحْكَمِ، وَكَمَالِ النَّبِيِّيْنَ وَالْخَاتَمِ، سَيِّدِي وَوَلَدِ آدَمَ، الَّذِيْ بَشَّرَ بِهِ عِيْسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ، وَدَعَا لِبِعْثَتِهِ إِبْرَاهِيْمُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ، حِيْنَ كَانَ يَرْفَعُ قَوَاعِدَ بَيْتِ اللهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ، فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَعَلَى أَتْبَاعِهِ خَيْرِ الْأُمَمِ، الَّذِيْنَ بَارَكَ اللهُ بِهِمْ كَافَّةَ النَّاسِ الْعَرَبِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْعَجَمِ، فَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يَتَّخِذْ وَلَدًا، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ شَرِيْكٌ فِي الْمُلْكِ، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ وَلِيٌّ مِنَ الذُّلِّ، وَكَبِّرْهُ تَكْبِيْرًا، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ أَنْزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ، وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِيْنُهُ، وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ، وَنَعُوْذُ بِهِ مِنْ شُرُوْرِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ، وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُ اللهِ وَرَسُوْلُهُ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللهُ تَعَالَى بِالْهُدَى وَدِيْنِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّيْنِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ شَهِيْدًا، فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيْمًا كَثِيْرًا كَثِيْرًا، ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيْثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ، وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَإِنَّ شَرَّ الْأُمُوْرِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

اَللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمُقْسِطِيْنَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِيْنَ

اَللَّهُمَّ أَثْبِتْنَا عِنْدَ الْمَوْتِ بِلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ

Introduction to Justice in Islam

Today's khutbah is about two ayat that belong one in surah an-Nisa and the other in surah al-Ma'idah. These are very similar ayat and they both have to do with the same subject. They have to do with the subject of justice and how Allah calls the Muslim community, the believing community, to stand up for justice. This is particularly relevant. I thought that we should remind ourselves and the humanity around us, our brothers and sisters in humanity around us, that this guidance that Allah gave, this final guidance, isn't just relevant for one community. It is something that is of benefit to all of mankind and that they shall benefit from it as well and it's good for them. Allah wants that which will bring ease to us and comfort to us and will provide protection for society, not just individuals.

The Value of Human Life and Fair Retribution

To give you as an introduction, Allah for instance talks about the value of human life and He says:

"And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous."

Even I would argue a perfection of the biblical narrative of an eye for an eye. Allah says in fair retribution (قِصَاص - qisas) in taking fair retribution there is life. Now let me help you understand what that is first. (قِصَاص - qisas) is one of three things. If somebody is murdered, if somebody has been unjustly killed, then the family of the victim - this is important now - not the court and not the police and not a government but the family of

the victim, after the authorities have identified the culprit, the murderer, and after the case has been made and the investigation is done, what should happen with this criminal, the murderer, the decision of what should happen with the murderer is not given to the judge, it's not given to the constitution, it's not given to the courts, it's not given to the lawyers.

Three Options for Justice

There are no deals made - well if this one gives us some other information we'll go easy on his sentencing or if this one, it's his first offense or this one, it's not so bad or this one's a high profile figure or whatever else. You don't look at other considerations. When it comes to the victim of murder, then their family, after the courts have done their due process and diligence, after justice has been established (which is what the khutbah is going to be about today), but let's assume that justice is done and a fair trial is done and now the murderer is known, what should happen?

The family of the victim is called, their loved ones are called, and then they're asked: you have three options. You can ask for this person's life, just like they took a life of your loved one, you can ask them to receive the death penalty - that's one option. Another option is that you can actually what you would call in modern parlance, sue them. You should pay a fidya or a diya for them, in other words, what's called blood money in sharia terms. The one they killed was a source of livelihood in the family, they were a source of goodness.

The third is the family also has the right to forgive. They can actually forgive too. And all three of these fall largely under the idea of qisas, the idea of retribution being handed to the right people, the people who actually deserve that justice be served.

Problems with Current Justice Systems

How many times has a murder been committed, doesn't matter who committed the murder, and the judgment has been passed, but even after the judgment has been passed this person is released after 5 years or 10 years or 20 years and the family members are now giving interviews on television saying we don't feel like justice was served, we don't feel like he paid for his crimes, we feel like we were shortchanged. Justice is actually truly not about a constitution, it's about the victims, it's about victims receiving their right, it's about victims at least getting to feel that they had a say in the wrong that was done to them.

So we are living now in a worldwide system where in the vast majority of cases not only is going to court a major major difficulty and hurdle and really something draining almost death, a cancer to a family that they have to drag themselves to court day after day after day losing even more livelihood that they were making to begin with, not to mention on top of that paying hundreds of dollars an hour to a lawyer in hopes of getting justice which in and of itself is an injustice.

The First Ayah: Justice Against Personal Bias

So you have mechanisms in place now that keep people that are actually in the most need of justice the least likely to receive any justice. And ironically we call it the justice system where the people who can pay for the most expensive lawyers are the most likely to win and the people who can't even afford going to court are going to be left behind in the dust. They're just going to give crying interviews on TV and people are going to forget about them and they're only on TV because it's sensational news not because anybody cares.

That's what it's become and we've become accustomed to this, this entire notion, and we've become on top of that, society has become so individualistic that I mean other than passing news and passing sound bites on the news, we don't really care until it's something that hits us or our family and then we're offended and shocked and nobody else cares even though we ourselves were in the same exact sentiment before. Justice doesn't affect one faith community, it doesn't affect Christians or Jews or Muslims or Hindus or atheists or whoever. Justice affects everybody in society, it has ripple effects on everyone in society.

But I didn't explain to you what hayat means. I'll come back to that after I share these two ayat with you. In these two ayat Allah is calling the Muslim community:

"O you who believe, stand upright in justice as witnesses before Allah even if it be against yourselves or your parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not personal inclination, lest you not be just."

Standing for Justice Even Against Loved Ones

Believe in community, stand upright and it doesn't just - qawwam doesn't mean to stand upright, it also means to maintain and continue to maintain. Fa'al is something that requires you to come back and come back with new resolve and new resolve and new resolve. In other words, you cannot possibly say we have justice, we don't have to revisit it. It's something you have to keep revisiting over and over again. Do more than due diligence, go out of your way to go out of your way to ensure that justice is being executed.

And in order to understand (قَامُوا - qamoo) you have to understand where the preposition (عَلَى - ala) goes, which is later on in the ayah. So you have (قَوَّامِينَ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ - qawwamina ala anfusikum) that's actually the phrase, but if you read it just in flow you won't catch that. Now let me tell you why I shared that with you. Allah is saying be extra vigilant over yourselves, watch out over yourselves, be like cautious about yourselves. And Allah is not just talking to

judges and police officers or people of the law. He's talking to all people. Watch over yourselves carefully and exhaustively over and over again.

And then He says (بِالْقِسْطِ - bil qist), that's the next phrase. (قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ - qawwamina bil qist) with justice that is open, that is transparent. And actually (قِسْط - qist) means personally and publicly. (عَدْل - adl) is only public - that's a later word in the ayah. (قِسْط - qist) actually means justice that is executed in your private affairs and justice that is executed in the public affairs.

Justice in Private and Public Life

What does that mean? I have a dispute in my family. Maybe I'm the one being unjust. My anger is letting me - it's taken so much control over me that I'm not even being fair in what judgment I'm passing. Maybe I'm ignoring someone or yelling at someone or blaming someone or dismissing someone because I can't let go of my anger. This can happen at the hands of men and it can happen at the hands of women and we have to watch ourselves. Not only does our family deserve our love, our support, but more than any of those things, one of the root, you know, pillars of our relationships in our families, in our friends, in our professional lives is justice. Are you even being fair? Or is your judgment of fairness dictated by your emotions? This is (بِالْقِسْطِ - bil qist).

Then he says (شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ - shuhadaa lillah). Secondarily, first of all you should stand upright for justice. Secondarily, the idea is that you should do so being witness before Allah. In other words, whatever decision you make, whatever punishment you decide to give or not give, are you able to stand in front of Allah with full confidence and say I did the right thing? Ya Allah, I know I said those things, ya Allah I know I did those things, but I know I was right. I'm so confident I was right that I can even stand witness in front of you and say I testify before you that I did the right thing. Do you have that much confidence in your decision making that you can stand in front of Allah without flinching and say I did the right thing? This is (شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ - shuhadaa lillah).

Justice Even Against Parents and Relatives

And he says Allah says do this even if it means standing up against yourselves. Maintain yourselves and stand even against yourselves, stand even against yourselves. And he says not just against yourselves, even if you have to stand up for justice against both your parents. In Islam we learn so much about the rights of our parents, but when it comes to justice Allah says if you're going to stand and your parents are being unjust towards someone, your parents are having a dispute, your father got into a business argument and he's the one who's wrong and you know he's the one who's wrong, you're going to stand against your dad and he cannot say what happened to you, what kind of Muslim child are you, you're supposed to be respectful to your father, you're supposed to give the rights to him. No, he can't say any of that stuff and even if he does it won't matter because your loyalty, even though you have to have ihsan

to your father, you have to have excellence to your father, your loyalty is to justice because Allah made you witness. You have to stand by justice.

There are injustices happening in your family and you say I'm not going to say anything because family first bro. No, family is not first, justice is first, fairness is first, even if it's against both parents, even if they're the ones doing wrong. How many families are ruined because of husbands and wives. Either the wife cares more about her parents even if they're being unfair and is willing to forego the rights of her husband, or the husband cares more about his parents and is willing to do injustice to his wife and they don't stand up to their parents and say you're being unfair, this is unjust, this is taking the right of my spouse, not willing to do it. That's an injustice. You better have to be able to stand in front of Allah and explain. And by the way that doesn't mean that you don't do injustice against your parents either, but Allah highlights that there's a kind of bond we have that can make us overlook other responsibilities.

Justice Regardless of Wealth or Poverty

So and the closest of relatives. Now all of this by the way is what in summary? What is all of this? It's injustice because you love someone. You love yourself, you love your parents, you love close relatives and out of your love for them you're willing to be unfair. And (أَقْرَبِيْن - aqrabin) in the Quranic narrative is actually even others than relatives so close affiliates, people close affiliates.

This horrific, horrific, horrendous murder has taken place of an innocent civilian in public at the hands of certain police officers. That is not to incriminate the entire institution of law enforcement. That is not even to incriminate the entire institution, that department, that precinct by itself. There are good people who serve the community, who put their lives on the line to serve the public good. These are good people. There are bad among them, clearly very bad among them, and they should be brought to justice.

But this is a time where you know what happens even within that department, even within that group of people, they might say we need to stick together right now, you know, we're brothers in arms first, we are a brotherhood first, our precinct is family, police is family first. No, justice is first. These are the kinds of times where people like to stick together and unite with each other regardless of what is right and what is wrong. And the same thing can happen on the other side. We're gonna unite against the police no matter what, even if you're being unfair, even if you yourself are breaking the law because you go to those who are closest to you and you bond with them even in times of conflict and justice itself goes out the window. A gang mentality is created, a mob mentality is created, you know, an anger is created that overlooks any sense of reason.

And so Allah says this is the lack of justice out of love and affinity and closeness to a group of people and he says then you need to stand by justice even if the person committing a crime is rich or poor or even if the victim is rich or poor. This could be two things. The criminal could be rich or poor and it could be that the victim is rich or poor.

Wealth-Based Discrimination in Justice

Now what does that mean? It may be that in a justice system or the police responds much quicker in a wealthy neighborhood and it takes them an hour to get to a 911 call in a poor neighborhood because this one is richer, there's a quicker response, there's a quicker response to justice, and this one is poorer, there's a slower response to justice. Somebody's case is being handled by the court and expedited because they happen to be a high profile figure in the community and somebody's case is sitting there backlogged under piles of paper because they're nobody, because they live off of minimum wage.

So there are people, victims that are victims of injustice that are receiving preferential treatment. You can't do this because this isn't fair. You can't shortchange people. It's the same law, it's the same constitution. We're all equal before the law and how we should be treated. That's one side of this coin.

The other side of this coin is how the law is sometimes or people that are supposed to represent the law are willing to take it easy on the wealthy and are willing to go the extra mile of harshness against the poor. In certain neighborhoods if somebody with an expensive car is speeding and they get pulled over sir, this is your first warning, take it easy, have a good day. Yeah, I just got a little late to the party. It's okay, sir, I understand, go ahead. And then in just a mile away in a poor neighborhood, depending on the color of the skin and depending on the make of the car, somebody gets pulled over for speeding and they might even be thrown to the ground and arrested and spend a couple of nights in jail, not to mention hear all kinds of foul language that should not be uttered by people that uphold the law and law enforcement. They're supposed to be public servants, not supposed to be public tyrants.

This is double standards that Allah says you cannot tolerate in any society. You can't have a different set of justice or laws of justice or application of justice for the wealthy and a separate one for the poor, whether they're on the victim side of things or on the criminal side of things.

Then Allah takes priority over both of them. You can't even take it easy on people because you feel, you know, it's their first offense, it's okay. No, no, if it's the law, it's the law. If it's justice, it's justice.

Fighting Personal Bias in Justice

And so Allah says:

Don't follow empty whim keeping you from doing justice publicly. In other words, there is an element and every time someone has to pass a judgment, you know, every police officer every time he's about to make an arrest or she's about to make an arrest, every judge when they're about to pass a verdict, every jury, every lawyer and you and your families, every time you're going to make a decision, there's going to

be an element of your own personal bias that you have to fight because it will keep you from being fair. You are biased.

You know, in this ayah you're biased towards someone. The other is, you might be biased against someone, and that's the other ayah. One ayah keeps you from being unfair because of your unrestricted love. The other ayah is going to give you and me guidance about how to make sure we're fair and keeping in check our unrestricted hate because there's hate too. It's not just love. You want to go easier on your own and there are some people who want to go extra hard against another race, against another religion.

The Second Ayah: Fighting Hatred-Based Bias

Muslims for example in this community today are on the receiving end of it. You might get the extra special treatment at the airport, you know, even if you're a grandma wearing hijab, it's okay, you might get special screening or have to sit there for 45 minutes or whatever else, that might happen to you. And it's not because you look suspicious because the person who's looking at you has this hate in them, this spite in them. You know I've known about and this has happened in this country, there are people that just absolutely hate Muslims and they don't make it, like, it's not a secret. There are people that have come and told me they've gone to immigration offices - immigration offices, the office, this branch of our government that is supposed to welcome the outside world in. That's what this nation is founded upon is immigration, by the way. This is entirely a nation of immigrants. That's what it's founded upon. And you have immigration officers sitting back because the person in front of them is a color of skin they don't like or a name like Muhammad and their feet are up on the window while they're talking to them just to let them know where they stand. This, this is hatred, this is clearly injustice.

This can be done in subtle ways too. It could be the attitude the person's giving you at the post office or at the DMV or something. It could be, it's subtle. It's not just in the law, it's not just with the police, it's not just with the judge, it's in subtle matters too. You might be on the receiving end of it but you may be on the giving end of it too. You may treat people unfairly out of your hatred for them. That might happen with you and that might happen within, again, your family. It might even happen within the context of a masjid, of a community.

So what does Allah say:

"O you who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah as just witnesses; and let not the enmity and hatred of others make you avoid justice. Be just: that is nearer to taqwa."

Allah says believers, stand upright over and over again, maintain over and over again for the sake of Allah. He put Allah here first because when it comes to hatred, the only force, the only power that can possibly pull that back from you is Allah. And when Allah is out of the picture, when God is out of the picture, then hatred spreads. It just spreads. It's like this divine intervention from Allah that can keep your biases in check.

This time be witnesses for justice.

Don't compel, don't force your hatred for another group of people, don't let it dare force you to keep you from being fair.

Be fair, be fair openly. And actually (اعدلوا - i'dilu) suggests be fair openly, publicly. In other words, when you are dealing with people out of hatred sometimes we do things behind the scenes. We incriminate them or hold, you know, evidence against them and things like that behind the scenes. Allah is saying keep transparency. Transparency is absolutely necessary.

The Consequences of Withheld Justice

Why did I feel compelled to give this khutbah to you today? Because we're living in a time where we're seeing the consequences of justice being withheld. When one life matters more than another. When the taking of one life creates a rampage in a community and justifiably so, and when it does so it only creates more chaos.

So I take you back to where I began. Allah says:

Allah says in fair retribution, if you can actually do justice on the one hand letting go of your biased love towards, and on the other hand letting go of your biased hatreds towards another, if you can let go of those two and actually as a society, as a community, as cities, implement justice, if you can do so and as the nation if you can do so, then what happens? Life happens.

There's life in this for you. Because when you don't do this it only perpetuates the cycle of death. More hatred, more violence, more crime, more tension. Look at the kind of spiteful rhetoric that is now invading the web. That is invading social media as a result of the fire that's been lit because qisas isn't there, because that retribution isn't there.

Universal Principles of Justice

People can demonize it as sharia law all they want. These are universal principles of justice. These are things that any family, the victim of, you know, a crime, that the families, the family of any victim would want this. This is what they would want. If you didn't say the name Islam and just describe to them, would you consider this to be fair? They would say yeah, I wish I had that. Universally they would say. You bring Islam into the equation and their bias against Islam says no of course not. But otherwise this is the deen al-fitra.

Personal Application and Self-Reflection

I compel all of you personally to understand something. The worst case scenario is the taking of a life in these ayat. The worst case scenario is the taking of a life. But there are injustices that are much less than that that you and I are guilty of every day. And we have to really truly check ourselves. Because at every one of those occasions you and I have to ask ourselves, are you and I willing to stand in front of Allah and say we did the right thing? We were fair. We didn't let our love get in the way of justice. And we didn't let our hate get in the way of justice.

There are fathers in the audience, some of them have an extra love for one son, an extra hate for another son, and they've kept that love and hate from giving justice to their children. They've done that and they have to stand in front of Allah and answer for that. You know that's not justice, that that's not an injustice that one son deserved over the other.

There are people in this audience that have forgiven and have really not forgiven even though they said they've forgiven. Either you let go or you don't, be fair, be fair in your dealings.

There are people in this audience that and around the world that have done wrong in business, that haven't paid back a loan, that have said hurtful unjustified things, that have made accusations, you know, and they don't want to take it back and they don't want to be held accountable and they don't want to be embarrassed to admit that they did something wrong. Our own pride gets in the way of admitting that we've done something wrong. If your pride is more valuable to you and it's more dearer to you than the idea of having to stand in front of Allah and explain yourself, then hold on to it. And if not, then stand by justice.

Concluding Prayer

May Allah make us a people who can truly stand by justice and be a model of it. We pray that every society in the world, Muslim and non, is able to come closer and closer and closer to the idea of justice so that we all may be protected and life may be preserved. May Allah bring peace and tranquility into the hearts of those that have been victimized and give them an opportunity to seek that justice and the

healthiest in the most just, you know, in the most civilized of ways. May Allah preserve the peace in our society and societies around the world. Barakallahu feekum.