Complete Equality in Judicial Affairs — Seal of the Prophets Vol. 3
Introduction
In this discourse from The Life & Character of the Seal of the Prophets (Volume 3), Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (ra) details the historical events and scholarly insights surrounding Complete Equality in Judicial Affairs.
Book Series: The Life & Character of the Seal of the Prophets (Volume 3)
Author: Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (ra)
Section: II – Brief Note on Islamic Equality
Pages: Book pp. 40–41 (PDF pp. 58–59)
Navigation: Book Table of Contents | « Previous: [Directions of Granting Due Regard to Ranks in Everyday Relations] | Next: [Complete Equality in the Division of National Offices] »
Historical Account
However, comparatively, in judicial and legal rights, the Holy Prophetsa states the following in magnificent words indeed:
اِنَّمَا ھَلَكَ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ اَنَّھُمْ كَانُوْا یُقِیْمُوْنَ الْحَدَّ عَلَی الْوَضِیْعِ وَیَتْرُكُوْنَ الشَّرِیْفَ ۔
وَالَّذِیْ نَفْسِیْ بِیَدِهٖ لَوْ فَاطِمَةُ فَعَلَتْ ذٰلِكَ لَقَطَعْتُ یَدَھَا
“Before you, many a people were destroyed by the fact that when a peasant committed a crime, they would punish him, but when a nobleman would commit a crime, they would leave him. Hence, listen very attentively! I swear by that being in Whose hand is my life that even if my daughter Fāṭimah was to commit theft, I would cut off her hand, as per the Islāmic law.”
[Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Ḥudūd, Bābu Iqāmatil-Ḥudūdi ‘Alash-Sharīfi Wal-Waḍī‘, Ḥadīth No. 6787]
What powerful words are these, and how majestically was Islāmic equality established! Furthermore, this teaching was such that the Caliphs of the Holy Prophetsa also strictly adhered to it. Hence, Ḥaḍrat Abū Bakrra, the first Caliph (may Allāh be pleased with him), stated in his very first sermon as Caliph:
ٌاَلضَّ عِيفُ فِيكُمْ قَوِيٌّ عِنْدِي حَتَّى �ُأرِيحَ عَلَيْهِ حَقَّهُ �إنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ ، وَالْقَوِيُّ فِيكُمْ ضَ عِيف
ُعِنْدِي حَتَّى �آخُذَ الْحَقَّ مِنْه
“O Ye Muslims! The weak among you shall be the most powerful in my eyes until I acquire his due right; And the most powerful of you shall be weak in my eyes until I take back the right which he has usurped of another.”
([As-Sīratun-Nabawiyyah, By Abū Muḥammad ‘Abdul-Mālik bin Hishām, pp. 900-901, Amru Saqīfati Banī Sā’idah, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (2001)])
Similarly, there is a narration about Ḥaḍrat ‘Umarra, the second Caliph (may Allāh be pleased with him), that on one occasion a powerful chieftain of northern-Arabia named Jabalah bin Aiham, who had become Muslim, slapped a poor Muslim in his fury. When Ḥaḍrat ‘Umarra was informed of this occurrence, he summoned Jabalah and said, “Jabalah! I hear that you have struck a poor Muslim. If this is true, by God, retribution shall be taken from you.” Upon this, Jabalah, who perhaps still possessed the arrogant obstinacy of the era of the Jāhilīyyah, turned proud and became an apostate.
[Futūhul-Buldān, By Abul-Ḥasan Aḥmad bin Yaḥyā bin Jābir Al-Baghdādī Ash-Shahīru Bil- Balādhuriyyi, p. 87, Yaumul-Yarmūk, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon (2000)]
Book Series: The Life & Character of the Seal of the Prophets (Volume 3)
Section: II – Brief Note on Islamic Equality | Navigation: « Previous: [Directions of Granting Due Regard to Ranks in Everyday Relations] | Next: [Complete Equality in the Division of National Offices] »