Oppression
Allah SWT created this religion for humanity to reform two dimensions; first one the relation of the
individual with Allah SWT in order to become true slaves of him SWT, and the second one is the
relation between humans themselves which it should be based on goodness and justice, which
means the human society to be reassured and no one to be oppressed.
Islam is a revolution of values before anything else, it is a revolution against oppression and
tyranny, slavery and singling out, it Is a revolution for justice, equality and social security, Islam Is
a revolution of the vulnerable in the face of tyrants and disadvantaged in the face of affluent and
slaves in the face of their masters.
This is is a fact that been noticed and felt over time, while the humanity was turns to Islam in resolving all their
issues of their lives.
And Allah SWT speaks of this in the Glorious Quran in ayat 56 of Sura Al-Kahf which is translated as saying:
And those cities – We destroyed them when they wronged, and We
made for their destruction an appointed time.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we analyse this is telling us that even the harshest of oppressors is in place for a
short allotted time and that ultimately the return for all is back to their Lord.
Islam, then, is the scream of the oppressed in the face of the oppressor, and the revolution of the
oppressed to restore their human rights, and it is on each one who holds the banner of Islam to be
aware of this meaning and live its behaviour and disseminate its culture if he wants this religion to
be the nucleus to attract the hearts and minds toward him.
After 1400 years we still can see people worshiping idols that are not made of stones like what it
was on that time, but we see that they worship idols which created by human which consists of
authoritarian regimes prevailing in our days, which is going in the opposite direction to their
people, and that created the social and cultural decay and a non systematic political chaos,
So practically, what does this mean for us? Well, the fact is that injustice will exist in this world as that is the
nature of the test of this life.
It is how we deal with that injustice that determines our outcome from this test. Therfore, to conclude are 3
things we can all do to keep ourselves right in the face of oppression.
Firstly, supplicate to your Lord. Everything in your life is an opportunity to pray to your Lord, to talk to your
Lord and to plead to your Lord. As Muslims we have been blessed with a minimum of 5 alotted times to
communicate with Allah SWT and so lets use that to ask for justice and strength through our injustices.
Secondly, perform extra acts of Worship. Surely, if there is a time when we are needing Allah SWT’s help then
we ought to do what is asked of us? Allah SWT has made it clear in the teachings of the Prophet SAWS and
through the Glorious Quran, what is expected of us so let’s carry out those actions. Things like extra prayers
such as Tahajjud, acts of Charity and dedication to the Quran are all things that will be rewarded insh’Allah
and may be the in this life as well as the next.
And finally, the act of Charity as mentioned earlier. If one is feeling injustice then what better way than to
eliminate that act for someone else. For example, the food box at the back is for people who are hungry in our
local neighbourhood and in these times. That is an injustice and we can work towards eliminating someone
elses then maybe that is the act that will help our injustices from being removed.
Dear brothers and sisters, Opression will always exist in a world that was designed as a test for the believer.
Whether it is done by famous tyrants of yesteryear or the powers of today that hide in the shadows, we need
to be aware of such actions on our soul and work towards counteracting that through acts of worship as
mentioned earlier.
May Allah SWT enable us to identify the oppressors and the oppressed. May Allah SWT enable us to
counteract oppression with acts of worship and may Allah SWT reward us for our acts of worship.