{يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَى أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ}
[المائدة: 8]
{O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.}
[(5):8]
In this part of the series, we will be discussing the part of this verse, where Allah has commanded us to be “witnesses in justice”. We must ask ourselves about the meaning of this particular command. After this, we must figure out how it is carried out. Last, but not least, we must evaluate ourselves and our actions to see if we are actually carrying out the command of Allah, or are we dropping the ball.
In this part of the verse, Allah commands us to be {Witnesses in justice}. What exactly is being referred to here? When we look into the statement of the different Scholars, we see that most of the statements are pointing to the same general meaning. The statement that we see is very clear and to the point, is that of Imaam al Qurtubi when he says that it is referring “to bear witness in truth, without leaning in favoritism to those close to you (or relatives), or being unjust to your enemies”. Now, ask yourself after understanding what was mentioned – Are we upholding Allah’s command, or have we dropped the ball?
How many times do we find ourselves in a position where we have to bare witness to something and we do the opposite of what we know is right? We find ourselves leaning either toward the individual we are baring witness for, or away from them depending on their relationship with us. This is a very common situation, that very few of us can say that we do not find ourselves in from time to time, some more than others. We need to remember this short command of Allah, and try our best to carry it out.
As we just stated, we lean toward hiding the truth depending on other individuals. If we love them, like a family member or friend, we bear witness to something that we know is not true and call it loyalty. This is while knowing that the real loyalty belongs to Allah and following His commands. So even with being faced with the situation of having to wrong the person standing up and asking us to be truthful, we turn away from this for what we define as loyalty. Does this sound correct to you? We leave off establishing that which Allah has commanded us to do, to be loyal to someone from Allah’s creation, even when we know they are wrong. We need to reevaluate our loyalties and values. Instead of working had to establish what one of our loved ones does not deserve, let’s try to work harder to establish the truth that Allah put us here to establish.
On the other side of the table, is the one that because of his dislike, hatred or enmity for the person they are bearing witness about, completely hide the truth. They do this out of vengeance, and completely ignore what Allah has commanded us with in the verse that we are discussing today, along with many other verses. We sit back and watch people be oppressed, then have the nerve to sit back and bear witness to something that we know is incorrect and oppressive, for the sole fact that we are mad at someone. Sometimes we even do it because our feelings are hurt, or because we feel like someone did something to us and now is our chance to wrong them back. Therefore, instead of doing the right thing, we bear false witness for the sole purpose of harming someone else.
We must ask ourselves – where are both of these situations, in terms of what we have been commanded to do by Allah? When we see that our loyalty, dedication to bringing about good or harm, our obedience and dedication are for Allah’s creation rather than for Him, we need to rethink our situation. Now that we see the reality of this situation, we need to watch ourselves and see who from among us is serious about establishing Allah’s command, and who is content with displeasing Him in order to please the creation.
Remember that we have been commanded by the Lord of all that exists to be {Witnesses in Justice}. Where are those that will stand up and work hard in following this command? May Allah put it in all of our hearts to be from among these people. Allahuma ameen.
To Be Continued…
