Injustice and the Ideology of Cruelty (9)

Prevention and Curbing Cruelty

Islam commands its followers to always strive to curb whatever type of cruelty that takes place and this is the responsibility of the believers, as to allow it to happen without prevention, is the weakest in belief (iman) of Allah SWT’s servant, Allah has given the title `Khaira Ummah’ (the best of peoples) to those who believe because they have the traits to prevent and curb all kinds of wrong doing, and the Islamic religion also encourages us to offer help to our brothers, whether he is a perpetrator or a victim, as related from Ubaidillah bin Abu Bakar bin Anas and Humaid Thawil that he heard Anas bin Malik r.a. said, the Prophet SAW said:

عن عبيد الله بن أبى بكر بن أنس و حميد الطويل سمع أنس بن مالك رضى الله عنه يقول قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم : "انصر أخاك ظالما أو مظلوما"

 

 

Which means:` From Ubaidillah bin Abu Bakar bin Anas and Humaid Thawil that he heard Anas r.a. said:` Rasullullah SAW said:`Give assistance to your brother, whether he does cruel deeds or he is a person victimised’

In another `hadith’ related from Mu’tawir from Humaid from Anas r.a., he said, the Prophet SAW had said:

عن معتمر عن حميد عن أنس رضى الله عنه قال ,قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم: " انصر أخاك ظالما أو مظلوما" قالوا يا رسول الله هذا ننصره مظلوما فكيف ننصره ظالما, قال : "تأخذ فوق يديه"

Which means: `From Mu’tawir from Humaid from Anas r.a., he said: `Rasulullah SAW said: Give help to your brother, whether he is the person carrying out the cruel deeds or he is the one victimized, his comrades ask together, : `When he is amongst people who are victimized, we help him, but how do we help a person who does the cruel deeds?’ The Prophet then said : `We lift both his hands’.

The above `hadith’ gives us guidance as to how we always strive to help not just our brothers who are victims but also those who carry out cruel acts, that it is mandatory (wajib) for us to prevent him from continuing to do cruel acts, by preventing him by using our strength, (to the best of our ability), or with our speech or by reporting the act to the authority that can stop the cruel acts they do.