Ramadan Day 6: Verses from the Quran
Mon Oct 10, 2005 at 06:17:12 PM PDT
Each day during
Ramadan, I am presenting a verse from the Quran with a few thoughts or comments. An introduction to this series is
here. Inshallah (God willing), I hope that this may be of benefit to any who are interested in learning a bit more about Islam and Muslim belief.
Quran 5:8:
O you, those who have faith, stand up for Allah, witnesses for justice, and do not be swerved by hatred of a folk so that you do not do justice. Be just, that is nearest to God-fearingness. And be in awe of Allah. Surely Allah is aware of what you do
Another verse is very similar in wording,
4:135:
O you, those who have faith, stand up firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not your caprices, lest you swerve, and if you distort or decline to do justice, surely Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do
Standing up for justice is sometimes more difficult than we realize and these verses point to why: we are often swayed by emotions. This may be hatred of some people, so that we don't want to do right by them even though we should. Or it may be love of some other people, so that we don't speak to them about wrong they're doing, even though we should.
This extends beyond individual people to the community or nation we belong to. We shouldn't defend wrongdoing just because it was done by our country or someone in our group (for instance, a co-religionist). When we see someone doing wrong, the truer love is to speak up and help them to set it right, not to let them continue doing wrong. To put it another way, dissent is patriotic! It shows our love for our country, that we want it to do right.
A hadith (report about the Prophet Muhammad) expresses this same idea:
The Messenger of Allah said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Messenger of Allah! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others."
