{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 the next part of this verse, we want to talk about something that concerns all of us. This is the issue of allowing hatred and anger to prevent us from being just. Allah says about this {… and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just…}, as we have read. Sheikh Muhammad Saabooni said in his summarization of Tafsir Ibn Katheer, about this “meaning do not let your anger or hatred for a people carry you to leaving off being just to them. Rather you all need to practice being just to everyone, whether they are a friend or an enemy”.
Now what we need to do is to compare this command from the Lord of the Worlds, to that which we find in our every day lives. We must begin to really check to make sure that we are doing the best that we can when it comes to doing our due diligence in being good Muslims. When the commands of Allah reach us and we realize that we have been falling short, our response should be {We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination.} [(2):185]. Therefore, what we need to do is to try to implement this command now that we realize it exists, as well as that which it requires from us.
We must try hard not to be from those people that, because we are upset with a person or group of people, that we are unjust. Not giving them their due rights should not even be an option anymore. Rather we need to understand that the fact that we are not happy with them, that this does not negate the fact that Allah has in this very verse commanded us to be just, a few times. There needs to be a distinction made by each one of us, about whether or not our feelings and desires are more beloved to us in terms of carrying them out, or that which Allah has written upon us.
This is seen in all aspects of our lives. Whether we are talking about getting in and out of cabs and realizing that the driver is trying to over charge us, so we think about short changing him to show who we are. This also is seen when we go into work and one of our co-workers regularly irritates us and causes problems for us, and one day we find that someone is trying to lie on them to get them in trouble, while we know the truth. In both of these situations, we need to do our bests to fear Allah in terms of how we decide to act. We must stand up for that which is correct, even if we do not like the outcome, as we feel as though we will be giving aide to someone that is trying to be, or is regularly very troublesome to us. This is because of the fact that we know what Allah has commanded us to carry out, regardless of how we feel about the person or the situation.
The fact that we were created and put on this earth for one purpose and one purpose alone, which is the worship of Allah and to be obedient to Him, should cause us to submit to His commands. We must realize that as human beings we will want to get revenge, cause harm to those that we feel are harming us, not make things easy on those that we feel make them hard upon us, but this does not make these things right. Overcoming our whims, desires and overwhelming need for revenge in order to submit to the Lord of the Worlds should no longer be an option.
We know that Allah has promised a mighty reward for those that have decided to submit to that which He has commanded and put it over everything else. Look at what Allah says in Surah an Nisaa;
{These are the limits [set by] Allah, and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger will be admitted by Him to gardens [in Paradise] under which rivers flow, abiding eternally therein; and that is the great attainment.}
[(4):13]
May Allah write us all among those people that do all that is necessary to receive this reward… Allahuma ameen.
To Be Continued…
