Suleiman Omar - 40 on Justice

40 on Justice: The Prophetic Voice on Social Reform

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Copyright Omar Suleiman 2021

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The right of Omar Suleiman to be identified as the author and translator of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

CIP data for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-84774-144-8 casebound

ISBN: 978-1-84774-143-1 paperback

ISBN: 978-1-84774-145-5 ebook

Editor: Zenab Shahid

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Printed by: Elma Basim, Turkey

CONTENTS

I SLAM AS A religion is exemplified more than any other virtue by the quality of ramah, a word that is difficult to translate into English. The customary translation of mercy suggests hierarchy, but this is not necessarily the case in the Arabic original. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines mercy as: Compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within ones power to punish or harm. Scholars of Arabic have suggested that while this may be an appropriate way to understand how God relates to human beings, it is not suitable for characterising how humans relate to each other. In the latter case, they point out that a more appropriate way of understanding ramah is that it means tenderness (riqqah) towards others. The Turkish scholar, Recep Sentrk, prefers to translate ramah as love, a word that seems to do justice to its meaning and whose semantic range in English renders it appropriate for both human beings and their Creator Who describes His relationship with the believers in the Quran as being of mutual loveHe loves them and they love Him (al-Midah 5: 54).

In a millennium old tradition, the ulama frequently begin their teaching of a new cohort of students with the Hadith of ramah that, as part of this tradition, is the first Hadith a student narrates from his teacher. The Hadith reads in Arabic:

In light of the fact that ramah may be rendered as love, this Hadith can be translated as follows:

The people who exemplify love are loved by the All-Loving One (al-Ramn).

Love those on the earth, may the One in the heavens love you.

Justice as Love

But what does love have to do with justice? Love and mercy are often seen as the opposite of justice. We can either seek justice, or show mercy. But what if the two are in fact inseparable? The African-American philosopher Cornel West, offers us a different way of looking at the relationship between justice and love. In a pithy but powerful phrase, he declares: Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private. The message rings true from an Islamic perspective, and our pursuit of justice as Muslims must be spurred by our love for our fellow human beings and our desire for their good. As the Prophet said, None of you truly believes until they love for their brother [and sister] what they love for themselves. We all desire to be treated with justice and fairness, and so we should try to make this a reality for our fellow human beings, whoever they are.

We live in an age in which, perhaps more than any time in the past, we can witness with our own eyes the injustices perpetrated by the powerful against the weak on a global scale. The Quran describes us as a community (ummah) that stands up for justice, even if it is against our own selves and our families (al-Nis 4: 135). While ramah is the defining quality of our religion, the love and mercy it exemplifies cannot truly manifest without a concerted effort on our part to uphold justice. Ultimate justice is not to be had until the next life, but confronting injustice (ulm) in this world is repeatedly enjoined in the Quran. The concept of ulm is frequently coupled in the Quran with the worst of sins in Allahs eyes, namely worshipping anything aside from Allah (shirk). The Quran describes all sins as forgivable except shirk (al-Nis 4: 48). Elsewhere in the Quran, we are told that the Muslim ummah is one that is concerned with commanding right and forbidding wrong (l Imrn 3:104). As the Prophet explains, this is required at every level of our behaviour, even at a psychological level. He informs us: Whoever sees a wrong, let them set it aright with their hands. If they are unable to, then let them set it aright with their tongues (by speaking out against it). If they are unable to do even this, then let them set it aright with their hearts (by recognizing that it is wrong), and that is the lowest level of faith.

The scholars have recognised that each and every Muslim has the responsibility to correct the wrongs of their own behaviour, but also of those around them and their societies. However, this is not to be demonstrated by an unreflective and self-righteous anger or disdain towards those who perpetrate these wrongs. Rather, as the Prophet himself exemplified over the many years of his Prophetic mission, the righting of wrongs, and the rectifying of injustice in the world requires a great deal of patience, wisdom, and indeed love and compassion. As the Prophet once counselled our Mother, ishah, Gentleness is never found in something except that it beautifies it, and it is never removed from something except that it renders it shameful. Yet, when upholding justice required it, the Prophet could demonstrate fortitude in pursuing justice even in just war. The Prophet was the best example of the just human being and his actions are our guide to how we can confront injustice.

An age of injustice

We live in a time that is characterised by extremes of injustice on an epic scale. For the last several decades, we have witnessed major imperial wars and proxy wars by global powers with imperial ambitions. These in turn have given rise to great horrors in parts of the world in the form of rapacious regimes that are willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people in the quest to stay in power alongside an international order whose most powerful states either simply act as observers or actively support such bloodshed. Elsewhere, in the supposed name of fighting terrorism, emerging powers like China have recreated the worst horrors of the last century in the form of concentration camps for potentially millions of Uighur Muslims. Concentration camp like conditions are found in the effective Indian annexation and sealing off of Kashmir, and the decades old settler colonial project represented by the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. All of these myriad injustices have given rise to a massive refugee crisis that has witnessed thousands of human beings drown in the Mediterranean and the Bay of Bengal while the civilized world doesnt simply look on, but its leaders often vilify those desperately trying to escape devastation and tragedy. Closer to home, in the West, and for many centuries rather than decades, the twin crimes of racism and colonialism have legitimated the dehumanisation of black and brown bodies in the Transatlantic slave trade and the colonial subjugation of more than eighty per cent of the globe by Western powers.