The Fifth Judge resumed, "The effect of justice upon society is illustrated in the story about 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, radhiyallahu 'anhu. It is reported to have been said that once Caesar sent a messenger to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab to monitor his activities and situation.When his envoy entered Al-Madinah, he started searching for 'Umar and asked, 'Where is your King?' They replied, 'We do not have any king but an honored Amir. He went outside of Al-Madinah.' So, he went looking for him and discovered him sleeping on the sand using his stick as a pillow. This was a small staff, which he always carried with him, and he used it to stop others when they were doing evil. When he saw him sleeping like that, he sensed humility in his heart and said to himself, 'This is the man whom all the kings are worried about, yet look at his condition. 'O 'Umar, you have been just so you can sleep. While our king is a tyrant, so there he stays up the whole night in fear.'
When justice is absent, people become disgruntled and may act to obtain their due rights, sometimes resorting to violence.Our beloved (ﷺ) said,مَنْ أَعَانَ عَلَى خُصُومَةٍ بِظُلْمٍ أَوْ يُعِينُ عَلَى ظُلْمٍ لَمْ يَزَلْ فِي سَخَطِ اللَّهِ حَتَّى يَنْزِعَ“Whoever supports a disputant in wrongdoing, or helps in wrongdoing, he will be subject to the wrath of Allah until He removes himself.” [Sunan Ibn Mājah; Sahih according to Al-Albani]As mentioned before, Allah prohibits that we be influenced by any form of desires, in such a way that we deviate from Truth and Justice. If it happens, then, Justice, like beauty, is only in the eye of the beholder. Some see an innocent victim. Others, will see, evil incarnate, getting exactly what's deserved.Take notice on this sketch,Two Cats having stolen some cheese, could not agree about dividing the prize. In order, therefore, to settle the dispute, they consented to refer the matter to a Monkey. The proposed arbitrator, very readily accepted the office, and, producing a balance, put a part into each scale. “Let me see,” said he, “Ay–this lump outweighs the other,” and immediately bit off a considerable piece in order to reduce it, he observed, to an equilibrium. The opposite scale was now become the heaviest, which afforded our conscientious judge, an additional reason for a second mouthful. “Hold, hold,” said the two Cats, who began to be alarmed for the event, “give us our respective shares and we are satisfied.”“If you are satisfied,” returned the Monkey, “justice is not," a cause of this intricate nature is by no means so soon determined. Upon which he continued to nibble first one piece then another, till the poor Cats, seeing their cheese gradually diminishing, entreated him to give himself no further trouble, but to deliver to them what remained.” “Not so fast, I beseech ye, friends,” replied the Monkey; “we owe justice to ourselves as well as to you. What remains is due to me in right of my office.” Upon which he crammed the whole into his mouth, and with great gravity dismissed the court.And observe this another sketch,As two Men were walking by the sea-side at low water, they saw an Oyster, and they both stooped at the same time to pick it up. One pushed the other away, and a dispute ensued.A third Traveller coming along at the time, they determined to refer the matter to him, which of the two had the better right to the Oyster. While they were each telling his story, the Arbitrator gravely took out his knife, opened the shell, and loosened the Oyster. When they had finished, and were listening for his decision, he just as gravely swallowed the Oyster, and offered them each a Shell. “The Court,” said he, “awards you each a Shell. The Oyster, will cover the costs.”The Fifth Judge concluded, 'Wherever ill people are in power, innocence and integrity are sure to be persecuted; the more vicious the community is, the better countenance they have for their own villanous measures: to practise honesty, in bad times, is being liable to suspicion enough; but if any one should dare to prescribe it, it is ten to one, but he would be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors: for, to stand up for justice in a degenerate and corrupt state, is tacitly to upbraid the government; and seldom fails of pulling down vengeance upon the head of him that offers to stir in its defence. Where cruelty and malice are in combination with power, nothing is so easy as for them to find a pretence to tyrannize over innocence, and exercise all manner of injustice.'"It's time to leave, the Moon had to travel again. Before moving on to carry out her duty, she cautioned, "O Owl! I have passed on the Five Judges' saying. All of them, are noble values passed down by your Predecessors. Do not regard them as in vaint, do not change them, or even throw them away. If anyone tries to do it, defend them as hard as you can. Those who expect them changed or make them replaceable, accuse others of treason, but in fact, it is they who commit treason. The unjust will not listen to the good reasoning, because they can always find, an excuse for their injustice. And Allah knows best."Gently, the Moon left from the scenery, wading through the ocean of space, to other hemisphere, followed by words,In navibus factis de chartaque atramento[On ships made of ink and paper]Ego iterum navigabo ad illa tempora[I will sail back to those times]
Citations & References:Hic ego sedeo et somnio de futuris[Here I sit and dream of the future]Nonne scribent de me etiam[Will they write about me as well?]Ego etiam cupio recreari[I also wish to be recreated]Et amari diu post mortem meam *)[And to be loved, long after my death]
- Dr. Aisha Utz, Psychology from the Islamic Perspective, IIPH
- Sayyid Qutb, In the Shade of the Qur'an, Vol. III, The Islamic Foundation
- J.B. Rundell, Aesop's Fables, Cassell, Petter and Galpin
