Institutionalized Oppression

The religion of Islam, when you ask Muslims and non-Muslims alike, a lot of people, they have the incorrect idea, the incorrect belief that Islam is primarily a religion of ritual and worship.

You ask the average Muslim, you say, what do you think of when you think of Islam? They say all we think of lots of acts of worship. We think of lots of these acts. Other the other religions that pray once or twice a year, not only do we have to pray every day, but in fact we have to pray five times a day. Not only do we have to pray five times a day, we have to wake up really early in the morning. And the last prayer ends very late at night.

There is this idea that people have that Islam is a religion of ritual and worship, and if you ask other Muslims to say yes, in addition to the Wajib prayers, you're going to have mustahab prayers. In addition to the mustahab prayers, you're going to have the Hajj pilgrimage, acts like fasting, there are du'aas that people have to recite...

There is this idea that Islam is a religion which really doesn't relate to the society. It only relates to sitting in your room, doing acts of worship from the morning till the nighttime. The reality, though, is when we really look at the religion of Islam, when we really examine the religion of Islam, what we find is a religion where ritualistic acts of worship are important, yes, but this is actually the least amount of importance when you look at the whole religion, you look at the Qur'an verses, you look at the ahadith, what we are seeing comprehensively is a religion which definitely focuses on acts of worship. But the majority of the focus is going to be on other things as well.

One of the great scholars, we look at what he says, one of the great scholars and maraja', this is what he said in regards to the Qur'an and ahadith. He had looked through the verses of the Qur'an, he had looked through the ahadith, what did he find? He found something very interesting. He says the following. He says: The ratio of Qur'anic verses concerned with the affairs of society to those concerned with worship is greater than 100 to one. Let me retranslate that. What he is saying is that when you look at a Qur'anic verse which is about salaat, there are more than one hundred verses which relate to other things which relate to the society that you live in.

Some people might say, OK, maybe in the ahadith there is going to be more things about praying and fasting. This same scholar, he says of approximately 50 sections of the books of ahadith, the traditions containing all of the rules of Islam not more than three or four sections relate to matters of ritual worship and the duties that man has towards his creator.

So when you look at the Qur'anic verses, when you look at the body of ahadith, what do you see? You see that for every one verse or hadith, there are hundreds or more verses or traditions which relate to the society, legal issues, economic issues, political issues, everything where men are being told how they need to act in relation with other people in their society.

This is a reality of Islam and many people, many Muslims, unfortunately, they don't know that this is contrary to the ideas that they have in their heads.

Moving on to the second concept, when it comes to the events of Karbala, keep all of this in mind, OK? When it comes to the events of Karbala, the first thing that you think of when you think of Imam Husayn, alayhi assalam, when you think of Karbala and Muharram, is the idea of fighting against oppression and the issue of the oppressed people of this world, right?

Ask any Shi'a anywhere around the world, what is the first thought that comes to your mind when you think of Imam Husayn? They will say fighting against oppression, working against oppression, struggling against oppression, even non-Muslims, when you go to a non-Muslim and you ask them, what is your view about Imam Husayn? Anyone who studied abou Imam Husayn, you say, oh, he fought against oppression, I know that name.

I have a question now. I'm going to ask you this key question and then we will move on. If this is the most important thing when we think of Imam Husayn, right, this fight against oppression for 10 nights out of every year, the masjids, the homes, even if you go to a Shi'a country, the streets, the lamps, which are in the streets, everything gets covered in black.

The people attend the Majalis, they cry profusely for these 10 nights. When people are driving to the Masjid and driving back, they listen to lamiyah, they read books about Imam Husayn. They talk about Imam Husayn. All of these things are happening within the Shi'a world.

If this is the case and we recognize that the primary concept related to Imam Husayn was his fight against the oppressors, then why is it that when we look at communities like our own, why is there a disconnect from these acts of 'ibadah where we are crying and we're remembering Imam Husayn, and implementing the concept from Karbala into our society?

This is the most important question that we can take away from these ten nights. We cry, we weep, we mourn, we remember, we beat our chests. Why is it that when it comes to the next step of actually implementing of actually doing what Imam Husayn did, which was to fight against oppression in any way possible, why is there a lag? Why is there a disconnect?

There a huge disconnect, the people attend, they cry, they weep. Why is it that we Shi'as are not at the forefront of wherever there is oppression taking place against people in our society?

Al-hamdulil-Lah, when you look around the world, Karbala is actually one of the things that gives blood, that gives life to the Shi'as. This is why we exist today. There's no question about that. But the question is, why are we not doing more, more than what is taking place?

This is one of the key questions that we have to think about, we really have to deeply reflect not only tonight, but insha'Allah, every night for the following year.

The reality of this, my brothers and sisters, is that the way that we understand our religion affects the way that we mourn and the way that we implement the message of Imam Husayn in the society that we live in, if we see our religion as a religion of just a that where to the point of your door, that is where you are a Muslim and to the point where you step outside of your door, that is when you become a non-Muslim, then this will continue, the lessons of Karbala will be unimplementable.

If we look at our religion as a religion, not just of the house, not just of the self, but if we look at it as a religion which relates to the entire society, then we will be successful in implementing the lessons that we've learned from Karbala.

A lot of people, the belief system that they have, they think I don't care about what's going on in the society. These people aren't even Muslims, I don't care about them. They share different values than me. It's very corrupt, I'm going to protect my own within the house.

If your society is corrupt, if every aspect of your society is corrupt, do you really think you're going to be able to pray in the proper way that Islam wants us to pray? Do you really think you're going to be able to fast the way that Allah really wants you to fast? You really think that you're going to be able to transmit your Islam to the future generations?

If every aspect of your society is corrupt, it's going to seep into your home, it's going to affect every atom in your being. We have this idea that we can keep the corruption out of our masjids of our homes and it's not going to affect us. The reality of what Imam Husayn fought against oppression, the reality of why we have to fight against oppression, it's the same thing. If we say there is all this oppression of the society, all these people are being oppressed has nothing to do with me. It hasn't reached me yet. The reality is that one day that oppression is going to seep into your home and it is going to affect you directly.

Look at the Muslims. That's exactly what happened to us. For how many years have we been here? We look at African-Americans, we look at Latinos. All of these different groups that are being oppressed, we said has nothing to do with me. I'm OK. What happens? The same oppression that is affecting them has now seeped into our homes and our lives. This is the reality of the world that we live in. Either we implement our morality, we implement our belief systems as much as possible into the society or the society is going to implement its moral system and its lack of morality into our soul and our essence. This is one of the biggest lessons that we can take away from Karbala. Sallu 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad, wa ajjal farajahum].

Insha'Allah tonight, I wanted to begin speaking a little bit more about this concept of oppression, and unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do it justice. I really want to because it's such a comprehensive subject. There are so many branches. There are so many issues that need to be discussed. I'm not going to be able to discuss it in a 20 or 30 minute lecture. So I'm going to get as deep as time permits, insha'Allah.

When we look at the root of oppression, when we want to understand the roots of oppression, what do we find? The roots of oppression or found, are described in a verse of the Holy Qur'an. What does the verse say? The verse says Bismil-Lah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, wa man adhlamu mimman dhukkira bi ayati rabbih, fa 'arada 'anha wa nasiya ma qaddamat yada' (18:57) What does this verse mean? This verse means: who is a greater oppressor, who is a greater wrongdoer than he who is reminded of the signs of Allah, but he disregards them, he puts them aside and he forgets the things which his hands are sending forwards.

What is the verse telling us? It's saying that the most oppressive person is the one who understands that Allah exists, understands that Allah is looking at him. But in spite of this, he puts Allah aside and he's doing sin after sin. There's this idea that the actions that we do, we are sending them forward into the hereafter. On the Day of Judgment, we're going to see the good and the evil that we've done. It's going to be there in front of us.

The reality is that when you look at the root of every oppression in this world, every time you see oppression, what do you see? You will see a lack of faith in Allah. The more the faith, the less the oppression, the more the oppression, the less the faith. This is the reality. Why?

Because imagine that you don't believe in Allah. You don't believe that he is looking at you. You don't believe that on the Day of Judgment he is going to judge you and punish you. Why in the world would you not commit every act of oppression that you can. Kill people, steal from them, take whatever they have? Why wouldn't you do that? No one is watching. You have 80 years to make the best of it.

Every single tyrant, every single oppressor in the history of mankind look at them. The less that their belief was, the more that their oppression was. This is one of the realities. Insha'Allah we ask Allah that will strengthen our faith so that this doesn't become us.

The reality of oppression, again, when we take a step back and we look with another view of oppression, we realize that oppression relates to two types of rights that the people have. The first right, which the people have in which you can oppress against is Haqq Allah, the second is Haqq An-Nas. What is Haqq Allah? Haqq Allah is the right, which Allah has upon you. He has created you so he has certain rights. He says you should not perform these sins, He says you should not act in this way. But the reality is Allah is not really, He is not affected by the things that you do. What He is saying is that I'm trying to save you from yourself. This is why it's called Haqq Allah. I have a right over you, so I'm going to save you from sinning against yourself. Doesn't damage Allah if we sin, it doesn't affect Allah if we sin.

The reality, though, is when we look at the Haqq Allah, it then connects to the Haqq An-Nas, how? How does Haqq Allah relates to Haqq An-Nas? There's a hadith from Imam Ali, alayhi assalam, where he says, how is it possible for the ones who oppress themselves to be just in regards to the rights of others? Amazing concept. If you are willing to sin against yourself, you don't care about your own soul, is it possible that you actually care about the rights of others?

People are created in a way where we love ourselves more than anyone else. If you're willing to damage yourself, you really think that you're going to be just in regards to the rights of others? It's impossible. This is where the root of it begins.

The second type and this is the most dangerous type is Haqq An-Nas: is the rights which the people have, meaning lying to people, meaning cheating the people, taking their wealth, whatever harms the people, which is related to their rights. This is called Haqq An-Nas.

One of the problems with Haqq An-Nas, is that if you sin against yourself, that is between you and the law you say: Ya, Allah, forgive me, I made a mistake. If you make a mistake against people, you oppress people. What's going to happen? On the Day of Judgment, that person is going to come, is going to say, I want my right back. How forgiving are people in your own experiences? How forgiving are people?

For those of you who have wives, you say something, twenty years later, your wife remembers that she still hasn't forgiven. Insha'Allah everyone here has forgiving wives. But the reality is that people are not forgiving. If Allah is forgiving, the people are not forgiving. One of the things we really have to be careful for is we always have to be careful not to oppress other people.

On the Day of Judgment, Allah is going to settle all the scores, anything that we take from others on that day, He is going to give it back. If we have nothing to give in terms of our good deeds, He is going to take their sins and place them upon our backs. Sometimes you get these ignorant people, they say, well, what about non-Muslims? Can I oppress non-Muslims? Can I lie and cheat against non-Muslims?

We have some people who are ignorant like this. There is a hadith. It's unbelievable. You look at these ahadith so many times as Muslims, we think, oh, Islam came for us. There is this idea of arrogance. You feel better than others. What do you really think Allah is going to create all of humanity and then allow one group to oppress the others, going to give them permission to oppress others? Impossible.

There is a hadith from Rasul Allah where he says: fear, fear the prayers of an oppressed individual, even if they are non-Muslims, for there is nothing that blocks the prayers of an oppressed person. Doesn't matter what religion you are, it doesn't matter what your belief system is, if you oppress somebody, whether they are Muslim, non-Muslim, whatever they do du'a against you, Allah is going to accept their du'a. Sometimes we do things that block the du'a from going up, here in this hadith is saying that when someone is oppressed, irregardless of religion, that veil is lifted, that blockage is lifted, that du'a goes straight to Allah.

We have to recognize the roots of oppression. Where does oppression come from? Sallu 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad, wa ajjal farajahum]. Moving beyond all of this, many times we've heard these things in lectures, right? You listen to Islamic lectures, you hear things that don't oppress other people. Right. We have this idea of tyranny. We have this idea of oppression where it's maybe one person hurting another, or we have this idea of a tyrant king, for example, killing one person or killing a group of people. This is the traditional idea of oppression that is in our minds.

But the reality of the situation is that the world has changed from three hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, two hundred years ago when you had oppression, maybe it was this model: you had a small village, most of the people lived in villages. You had a small village, the people lived there that might have been one wealthy individual. And that wealthy individual would, for example, purchase law enforcement for the sake, for the sake of his own oppression, or he would oppress others in various ways. He would exert his power and influence. That was the scope of the oppression that would take place in the past.

But the reality is that when we look at the world of today, we recognize that oppression has changed from this model to a model that is systematic and institutionalized. The problem with this model of oppression is that it has become so institutionalized, meaning that it permeates through all of these different institutions that the people cannot even recognize it is oppression that is taking place.

You look at the things that are happening against black people, against poor people, against Latino Americans. It's reached the point where people don't even recognize that it's oppression taking place. I remember a couple of years ago there was a study that had been done that when people wanted to take loans from a bank, there are these criteria that they put into the computer. So they'll ask, how much money do you make every year? They'll ask, you have a criminal history or not? They will ask, what is your history of credit? The credit that you've had all these questions are they plug these things into a computer so it should be equal, whether you're black or white or Mexican, you shouldn't make a difference.

They did a study where they found that equal factors would be plugged in, but depending upon the race of the person, the interest rate would fluctuate significantly.

You see, it's gone so deep that it goes beyond the computer system. It seeped into the very hearts of the people. This is the status of oppression that we have in this world. The problem that we have in this world is that we don't recognize the things that are taking place has gone way beyond that points.

When we look at the time of Imam Husayn, alayhi assalam, the main issue that he was facing also, it wasn't a corrupt leader. The problem was that a corrupt system had been put in place from the time of Saqifa, that had caused more and more deviations and the deviations had increased as time had gone on to the point where people didn't even recognize that it was oppression and deviation that was in their society.

You look at the world of Imam Husayn and you see economic disparity. You see religious deviations in the traditional sense. You see people, innocent people being killed. You see racism that had been instituted. All of these things had reached the point where the people didn't even see it as anything wrong. They just saw it as day to day affairs. This is just how our world is. Don't worry about it. Go on with your day to day life.

One of the things my brothers and sisters let me bring it back and I know that my time is ending. Let me bring it back into today's world. We as Muslims, it's true there is a limit to how much you can work and struggle against oppression when it has reached this type of stage. One of the things that we have to realize is that as Muslims, as followers of Imam Husayn, we have a duty, the very least duty, the very most basic duty as much as humanly possible, we are not allowed to participate in the systems of oppression that are taking place in our society.

I'm going to give you a few examples so that you will bring it home. Many of you will be going to universities very soon; after that many of you will enter the workforce. These things are critical if we want to be Husayni. The first thing is that we live in Southern California, right? What is Southern California a hub of? It's a hub of defense contractors. What is the defense contractor? It's a weapons maker. They like to give you these fancy nice names as a defense contractor. It's a weapons manufacturer. People make bombs and guns, things which are used upon innocent people all throughout the world.

Many Muslims, they graduate from this university system. They finish with this university system. What do they do? They want a job. The first job which is available ends up being one of these defense contractors. You tell them, brother, why are you working at this weapons manufacturer and say, well, you know, I'm not actually dropping the bombs, I'm just making a button, for example, there's a button system. I work on the button system. There is a microchip, I work on the microchip. I'm not actually hurting anybody.

The reality is that Allah will raise the helper's of the oppressed along with the oppressors themselves. There is a beautiful hadith. I mean, these ahadith, they just make you go crazy. There's a hadith that on the Day of Judgment, a caller is going to call out. What is he going to say? He's going to say, where are the oppressors and their helpers? Who are their helpers? Where are those who helped them fill their ink pots? Where are those who helped them tie a knot on their sacks? In past times when people wanted to write, a khalif wanted to write something, what did he do? They didn't have pens like we do today, they had a feather or a piece of wood, they would dip it in ink pots in order to write their orders for oppressing people. The person who fills that ink pot with ink, Allah is saying that I am going to raise him up alongside the oppressor who did the actual oppression; the one who tried to sack for the oppressor a lot is going to raise him up alongside the oppressor.

This is immense because we are claiming to be Husayni, if we are working at these types of jobs where people are being hurt all around the world, how in the world can we claim to be one of the followers of Imam Husayn? What did Imam Husayn do? He fought against systems just like this, systems of oppression.

The reality, though, it goes deeper than this, it doesn't just need to be a defense contractor. It doesn't just have to be weapons. How many times have you gone into the inner city? You go to a grocery store, you go to a liquor store. These small supermarkets, you go and you find that who's working in the back? There is a Muslim brother is working in the back. What is he doing? He's selling alcohol.

You look at other people, people who work in the movie industry, they do graphic design. They make television shows, they make movies. They work on magazines. What is being transmitted through these things, concepts, ideas? What are these concepts? You look at many of these movies, many of these magazines, the type of concepts they are being transmitted is the fact that a woman has no value unless she is physically beautiful, unless she is shameless and she exposes her body in public.

What is happening here? These ideas are being transmitted into the minds of people. Oppression is taking place in the minds of the people where a woman feels worthless, valueless, unless she acts like the people in these magazines or movies, unless she looks like the people in these magazines and movies.

We have to recognize how deep this oppression is going. We have to recognize the effect of every single action that we do from the time that we wake up to the time that we go to sleep. The reality is that Allah has created women with honor. Literally the next generation depends upon the state of mind, the spirituality of women. Literally, our future depends upon the state of the mind of women.

If somebody is busy creating concepts like this that are oppressing people, can you truly, truly be calling himself a follower of Imam Husayn, alayhi assalam?

It becomes very difficult my brothers and sisters, there is this hadith that living at the end of time is like holding a hot burning coal in the palm of your hand. Things are becoming much more difficult for those who really want to live a pure life.

You can look at yet other Muslims, and this is my last example, I know my time is running out. You look at other Muslims, they work in the banking system. They say, brother, I'm not the one who gives the loans, I just, for example, write the contract. These banks are interest based, right? When we look at interest, we realize what is interest, you take a free human being, you saddle him with an interest based loan. What ends up happening?

That individual becomes enslaved to that loan for the rest of their life. You look at the average person in America, they're five hundred thousand dollars in debt, a million dollars in debt. They are so deeply in debt that they are literally slaves. They don't have chains on their hands. It's not like old times, but it's a new type of slavery where the system of interest, the system of usury is enslaving our people.

There is a tradition from the Holy Prophet, from Rasul Allah, what does he say for those people who say, I only do the graphic design, I only fix the website, I only do this? Rasul Allah says: God has cursed the one who takes interest, the one who gives interest, the one who writes down the contract for the interest and the one who witnesses to perform that contract. Allah has cursed, la'an. How many Muslims do we have who are working in the banking industry, they are helping in some way?

Look, the reality is my brothers and sisters is that when our Imam comes, what is he coming for? What is the purpose of Imam Mahdi coming here? His purpose is to fight against every system of oppression that has been established.

Imagine that the Muslims, the people who call themselves the Shi'as, their entire life has been based upon establishing the types of oppression which Imam Mahdi is coming to destroy.

Imagine that their wealth is based upon all of these haram things that Imam Mahdi is coming to destroy.

If the Imam comes in a situation like that and you have established your whole life based on these batil institutions, which side do you think you're going to be on?

Are you going to be on the side of Imam Mahdi, or are you going to be on the other side?

Remember, you've just spent the entirety of your life establishing a life for yourself, for your family. When Imam Husayn, he came to the Kufans, what did he say to them? He said that your stomachs have been filled with haram. What does that really mean? It means that they had based their whole life on haram to the point that now they couldn't afford it to help Imam Husayn. They couldn't afford not to fight against Imam Husayn.

This is the reality of what we're facing. This is the reality of what we're trying to do. When we say we're trying to purify ourselves, we are trying to purify ourselves spiritually. This is the basis and the foundations of that purity.

I don't want to take a more of your time. I know I've gone over my time. I just want it to end with one tradition from the Prophet, and it's a very sobering tradition. I just wanted to, wanted you all to think about this and leave you with this insha'Allah. The Holy Prophet, he said that whoever helps the oppressors in their oppression, will appear on the Day of Judgment with the following words stamped on their forehead. What is going to be stamped upon their forehead for these people who helped the oppressors in their oppression? It's going to be stamped upon their forehead: Hopeless of the mercy of Allah. This is one of the realities that we're living in, this is one of the realities that we face.

Insha'Allah we ask Allah that He will help us so that we don't become one of the oppressors that we hate so much. We ask Allah that He helps us, insha'Allah, and He protects our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hands, our feet, our hearts, our minds from any form of oppression. We ask Allah that he gives us the honor of struggling against the oppressors and insha'Allah, being victorious with the victory of Imam Al-Mahdi, alayhi assalam.

And we finally ask Allah that He helps all of those who are being oppressed all around the world and eases their suffering and their pain. Sallu 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad]