وعن عائشة رضي الله عنها قالت: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم: اللهم من ولي من امر امتي شيئا فشق عليهم فاشقق عليه
Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “O Allah, whoever is made responsible for any matter of my Ummah and then causes hardship upon them, then cause hardship upon him.” (This was narrated by Muslim.)
Reference:
See Tuhfat al-Ashraf
The complete hadith in Sahih Muslim is as follows: Abdul Rahman bin Shamasah said that I came to Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) to ask her something. She asked: “Which people are you from?” I said: “I am an Egyptian man.” She said: “How did your companion (leader) behave towards you in this conflict?” He said: “We did not dislike anything about him. If a man’s camel died, he would give him a camel. If a slave died, he would give a slave. And if there was a need for expenses, he would provide the expenses.” She said: “What he did concerning my brother Muhammad bin Abi Bakr does not prevent me from narrating to you the hadith which I heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in my house:”
اللهم من ولي من امر امتي شيئا فشق عليهم فاشقق عليه ومن ولي من امر امتي شيئا فرفق بهم فارفق به
“O Allah! Whoever is made responsible for any matter of my Ummah and then causes hardship upon them, then cause hardship upon him; and whoever is made responsible for any matter of my Ummah and then shows leniency towards them, then show leniency towards him.”
Benefits:
➊ In this hadith, Muslim kings, ministers, officers, judges, military commanders, respected teachers, and anyone holding any kind of responsibility are urged to be gentle with Muslims and are forbidden from imposing hardship on them.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, prayed against those who impose hardship on his Ummah, asking Allah to impose hardship on them, and prayed for those who are gentle, asking Allah to be gentle with them.
Some hardships imposed by rulers on the Muslim Ummah:
The reality is that currently Muslim rulers have imposed countless hardships on their subjects. They do not even give their subjects the opportunity to meet them; people come daily and stand waiting but return disappointed without meeting. Their requests remain buried in files for months or even years. Officers and clerks remain busy in their idle chatter and send back those who come for work by telling them to come tomorrow every day. No matter how much trouble someone is in, the officer is never free from meetings or baths.
Those in power create obstacles in employment rather than facilitating it for their subjects. Whether someone wants to start an industry or a business, there is a licensing requirement. To obtain a license, one has to wander from office to office of countless departments and endure the whims of officers. If they start a business, they face various taxes that are so oppressive and excessive that they either lie to hide their real income or pay bribes to escape. If they do not bribe or tell the truth, they remain defaulters to the government and wanted by the police despite paying all their capital in taxes and closing the business. The government is only interested in taking money and strengthening its power. Robbers, terrorists, murderers, and those who loot honor are given free rein; they may use the most modern weapons. But those who keep weapons for their own protection face licensing restrictions. If they cannot obtain a license, they must be prepared for long imprisonment or execution just for keeping a weapon at home.
If someone is oppressed, their property seized, and they want to seek justice in court, the rulers have prepared so many hardships for them that if they are wise, they will endure their initial oppression with patience and gratitude rather than endure the hardships of the court.
First of all, the court they go to will decide according to the laws of the disbelievers, which are entirely difficult and against nature, instead of Allah’s law, which is entirely easy and merciful. Then, in that court, they cannot present their plea in their own language because the court’s language is English. It is necessary for them to have a lawyer, and someone whose home has already been looted cannot afford a lawyer’s fee.
Then, to get justice from the court, they have to pay money; they have to buy justice. If they cannot pay the court fees, they are not entitled to justice.
After paying court fees, lawyer fees, and other dues, they submit their application and then have to wait for their case to be heard. Sometimes the judge is on summer vacation, sometimes it is a weekly holiday, sometimes the lawyer is not available, sometimes the judge is busy with other cases. After long waits, if the hearing starts, dates begin to be given. If a decision is made, then the same cycle starts anew in the High Court, followed by the Supreme Court stage, each requiring new fees, a new lawyer, and new patience for waiting. Many people pass away in this waiting.
A sigh needs a lifetime to have an effect
Who lives until the end of your tresses?
If an innocent person falls into the hands of the police, they have to go through all these stages to prove their innocence. Or if they have indeed committed a mistake, instead of immediately investigating and punishing them, they rot in jail for years waiting to hear their sentence. The police officers and judges whose negligence or neglect caused this unnecessary suffering are not held accountable.
Then, these mountains of hardship are not only imposed on the accused but the real hardship is prepared for their family members. If Islam were practiced, a quick decision would be made, and the punishment would be applied or a penalty imposed, and the person would be sent home. Now, for every crime, whether theft or something else, the punishment is imprisonment or fines, which in reality is less for the criminal but more for their heirs. Parents are old and cannot work, children are not capable of earning, the wife needs her husband to be with her, but the breadwinner is in jail waiting for or serving his sentence. He cannot serve his mother, fulfill his wife’s rights, or raise his children. If Allah’s religion were followed, it would be extremely easy for everyone; the crime would be punished and the person sent home. But in imitation of the disbelievers, these punishments have been declared barbaric, which are only for the criminal and prevent sin. Instead, punishments have been implemented that do not harm the criminal; by staying in jail, their desire for crime increases, and they become trained and habitual criminals. Due to separation from parents, wife, children, and a righteous society, and the humiliating treatment in jail, they become irritable, savage, and bloodthirsty. The real punishment is borne by their parents, wife, children, and siblings.
Blessings of leniency towards the Muslim Ummah:
If the rulers of the Islamic Ummah created ease for their subjects, did not build walls between themselves and them, rectified the oppression upon them, protected them from thieves and robbers, trained them in weaponry and permitted or even commanded them to keep arms, standing against thieves, robbers, and disbelievers, facilitated business, waged jihad to protect them from the invasion of disbelievers, abolished all kinds of taxes and based the economy on zakat, tribute, and spoils, abolished the system of justice of the disbelievers which is entirely oppression, and implemented the system of justice of Islam which is entirely mercy, then Allah would also provide countless eases for them, the treasures of the earth and sky would be opened for them, and instead of leaving criminals to rot in prisons, if they implemented Allah’s limits upon them, then on each limit there would be such abundance and expansiveness of sustenance from Allah that it would not be comparable even to continuous rain of mercy lasting forty days.
وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْقُرَىٰ آمَنُوا وَاتَّقَوْا لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَاتٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَلَـٰكِن كَذَّبُوا فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
“If the people of the towns had believed and feared Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth; but they denied [the messengers], so We seized them for what they were earning.”
The burden of hardship on Muslim subjects:
When the rulers of Muslim countries imposed excessive hardships on their subjects contrary to Allah’s command (a brief detail of which has already been mentioned above), Allah Almighty, according to the curse of His Messenger ﷺ, imposed countless hardships upon them. Some of these are:
(a) Due to their misdeeds and oppression, they constantly live in fear of losing power, and to maintain their rule, due to lack of trust in their own people, they rely on Jews, Christians, and other disbelievers and remain dependent on their help. As a result, they are compelled to fulfill every legitimate and illegitimate demand of theirs.
(b) The more they prolong people’s cases and keep them imprisoned, and the more they tighten the noose according to their own whims and impose numerous charges making their lives miserable, the more bloodshed, robbery, and terrorism increase, and the incompetence and helplessness of the rulers become evident.
(c) The more they increase the burden of taxes and ransoms on the Muslim Ummah and become entangled in the bloody claws of usury, the more indebted they become to disbelievers worldwide, to the extent that they have to take loans with interest from Jewish banks even to pay salaries. Indeed, they are so severely caught in Allah’s grip that to pay the interest on borrowed money, they take further loans with interest, and instead of earthly blessings and ease, they become targets of calamities upon themselves.
If only these rulers treated the Ummah with ease and leniency, then Allah Almighty would also provide ease for them and treat them with leniency.
The Amir mentioned in the Hadith and the treatment of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) towards her brother:
In this Hadith, the Amir about whom Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked Abdul Rahman bin Shumasa was Muawiyah bin Hudayj (may Allah be pleased with him), a companion whose leadership saw many battles fought against the disbelievers in the western lands during the caliphate of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him). In these battles, he treated his companions very well.
Aisha’s brother, Muhammad bin Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), was the governor of Egypt on behalf of Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) sent an army with Amr bin As (may Allah be pleased with him) to seize Egypt from him. He sent Muawiyah bin Hudayj to fight Muhammad bin Abi Bakr. Muhammad bin Abi Bakr confronted them, but his companions abandoned him and scattered. Muhammad hid alone in a ruin but was eventually captured and killed by Muawiyah bin Hudayj. For details, see:
Aisha’s (may Allah be pleased with her) justice and zeal for conveying Hadith:
From this Hadith, the great piety and justice of Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) is evident, as she did not conceal the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) statement praising the killer of her brother upon hearing his good qualities. Rather, along with expressing her heartfelt feelings, she conveyed the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) statement to the Ummah. Furthermore, this clearly shows the strong enthusiasm and dedication of Umm al-Mu’minin (may Allah be pleased with her) in transmitting the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to the Ummah.
