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**Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim**. Alhamdulillah, Rabbil-‘Alameen. Was-salatu was-salamu ala al-Sharafi al-Anbiya wal-Mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasoolullahi ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in. Tasliman kaseeran, kaseeran.
I am sitting here in Fazlani Nature Nest in Donawra, and these are the backwaters of the Andhra Dam. This is a beautiful health resort built on the bank of this reservoir; it is very beautiful. There is Ayurveda, all kinds of treatments for people who need treatment. It is just a very beautiful place to be in. I can hear red-bottle lapwings; their alarm call. They are at the bank of the lake. On my right, there are some white-throated kingfishers, and you can see the sun coming out and the reflection of the sun in the water. What you might be hearing behind me are guinea birds; there are mallards. All kinds of features of Allah. As we see some kind of duck landing in the water, I am too far away to see what exactly it is, but there are three of them in the water.
I want to remind myself anew of a wonderful piece of advice given by one of the greatest scholars of the subcontinent, Sheikh Sayyed Abu’l-Hassan Ali Nadwi Rahmatullah Ali. Someone wrote it up, and it is a lovely little book about 15-17 pages. It is called *Three Gems*. The first of them I want to share with you today, which seems to be if you think about it, it might even seem a little strange. But reflect on it and think about how wisdom that is. Why is not easy? Wisdom is why it is not easy. He says: “Never be an oppressor; rather, be the oppressed.”
Now, if you think about it, it might sound to be something which is not logical. You might say, “Why should I suffer oppression?” The idea here is not to suffer oppression, and there is no issue with being discouraged from seeking justice. The real issue is the understanding of the Akhira (the Hereafter). Because if you are an oppressor, whether you succeed or not, because you might be an oppressor but the person you are oppressing might be too strong for you to succeed, you still get the result of that sin of oppressing. Because you wanted to oppress, whether you did or not, you will still oppress. You are still counted as an oppressor. This is like the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ where he said that if one Muslim fights another, then both are in Jahannam. He said, “One Muslim fights another, and he kills him.” He said, “Both are in Jahannam.” So the Sahaba said, “Ya Rasulullah, the one who killed has committed murder; he will be in Jahannam. But what about the one who died?” Rasulullah said, “The one who died died because he didn’t have the skill to kill the other one, so he is also in Jahannam because his intention was to fight and kill his brother.” So therefore: never be an oppressor; rather, be the oppressed.
Sayyid Abbas al-Rahm al-Rahim says that when he was a little boy, there was a maid servant who had been engaged to look after him. One day, that lady also had a small child who was about the same age. So he says that one day we both got into some fight, some altercation, and I hit this boy. Here is Alimiyyah Rahmatul Ali; he says, “I hit this little boy,” and he was also in both of them—two little kids fighting. He said, “When my mother heard of that, she called me, she called the maid, and she called that little boy—the maid’s son—and she said, ‘Now you hit Ali.’ You slap Ali like he slapped you.” So Alimiyyah says Rahmatul Ali: “That I, the little boy, was overawed with this. He didn’t want to say anything, he didn’t want to do anything.” So she took his hand and slapped me with it. And she said, “Never hit another person.” This is the benefit of Tarbiyah which we talk about, and this is how Tarbiyah is done where right from the youngest age you raise children who are raised on the principle of justice, who are raised on the principle of not only doing what is right but doing even more than that.
The issue of oppression and being oppressed, as I mentioned, is also an issue of Duniya wa Akhira because if you think about it, even if you succeed—a person who is oppressing—if he succeeds in his oppression and gets what he wants, it is temporary because one day he will lose it when he dies; he will lose it. But what remains, which will go with him, is the sin of that. The sin of that which he earned, and that will go with him when he goes from this world. Whereas the one who was oppressed, what did he lose? He lost something which he would have left anyway. And what did he gain? He gained the deeds of the one who oppressed him.
I remind myself in you of the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ where he asked the Sahaba: “Who are the destitute among you?” So they said, “Ya Rasulullah, the destitute among us are those who have no dirham, no dinar, no money, no property, no wealth.” Rasulullah said, “No.” He said, “The destitute among you are those who will come before Allah on the Day of Judgement with good deeds the size of a mountain—good deeds the size of a mountain.” However, there will be a line of people seeking justice from Allah, and this justice will be for whatever oppression that these people did over those other people: somebody they killed, somebody they slandered, somebody whose honour they destroyed, somebody who they beat, somebody who they abused. Whatever be the nature, people who were wronged. And Rasulullah said, Allah will say, and you will ask those people, and of course Allah knows. Rasulullah said, Allah will say, “Today there is no… these people have no wealth; there is no dirham, no dinar. What do you want me to do?” And the people who are the petitioners, they will say, “Ya Rabbal-‘Alameen, give us good deeds from this person’s account,” and that will be done until a mountain worth of good deeds will be finished. But the line of petitioners will still be there.
And then Allah will say—and of course Allah knows—He will say, “Now what do you want me to do because this person has nothing left?” And they will say, “Ya Rab, give our bad deeds to that person because he has nothing to give us.” And so it will be done. A person who came before Allah with good deeds the size of a mountain will go to Jahannam carrying the evil deeds of somebody else. Ask Allahﷻ to save us from this fate. So therefore, the first of the gems of advice that we have from our Sheikh and our teacher, Sayyid Abu’l-Hasan Ali Nadwi Rahmatullah Ali, is: never be an oppressor; rather, be the oppressed. We ask Allahﷻ to save us from all oppression and to save us from being oppressors, because to be an oppressor is worse than being oppressed. We ask Allahﷻ to save us from this. We ask Allahﷻ, the Rabbul Mashriqayn, Mashriqayn Khayrin, Rabbul Mavribayn, the Rabbul Samawati wal-Ard, the Rabbul Arshi Karim. Help us to live our lives in a way which is pleasing to Him, and to take us in a state when He is pleased with us. Wa Salallahu Ala Nabeel Kareem, wa ala Aalihi wa Sahbihi Ajmain, bi Rahmatika Ya Arhaman Rahimeen. Wa Alhamdulillah, Rabbil-‘Alameen.