“Won’t you tell me about the wonders you saw in the land of Abyssinia?”
This was the question the Prophet ﷺ asked a group of Companions who had returned to Madina from the land of Abyssinia.
One of them responded with a remarkable story:
بَلَى يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ بَيْنَا نَحْنُ جُلُوسٌ مَرَّتْ بِنَا عَجُوزٌ مِنْ عَجَائِزِ رَهَابِينِهِمْ تَحْمِلُ عَلَى رَأْسِهَا قُلَّةً مِنْ مَاءٍ فَمَرَّتْ بِفَتًى مِنْهُمْ فَجَعَلَ إِحْدَى يَدَيْهِ بَيْنَ كَتِفَيْهَا ثُمَّ دَفَعَهَا فَخَرَّتْ عَلَى رُكْبَتَيْهَا فَانْكَسَرَتْ قُلَّتُهَا
Yes indeed, O Messenger of Allah. While we were sitting one day, an old nun belonging to the religious class passed by, carrying an earthenware vessel containing water over her head. A young man crept up from behind, placing one of his hands between her shoulder blades. He then shoved her, causing her to fall to her knees, which also caused the vessel to shatter.”
فَلَمَّا ارْتَفَعَتْ الْتَفَتَتْ إِلَيْهِ فَقَالَتْ سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُ يَا غُدَرُ إِذَا وَضَعَ اللَّهُ الْكُرْسِيَّ وَجَمَعَ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَالْآخِرِينَ وَتَكَلَّمَتْ الْأَيْدِي وَالْأَرْجُلُ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُ كَيْفَ أَمْرِي وَأَمْرُكَ عِنْدَهُ غَدًا
When she stood up she turned towards him and said: ‘O treacherous one, you shall come to learn! On that Day when Allah sets the Footstool, gathers the first and last of creation, and the hands and feet speak about what they earned, you will know then how the matter between you and me will be settled.”
The Prophet ﷺ remarked,
صَدَقَتْ صَدَقَتْ كَيْفَ يُقَدِّسُ اللَّهُ أُمَّةً لَا يُؤْخَذُ لِضَعِيفِهِمْ مِنْ شَدِيدِهِمْ
She spoke the truth! She spoke the truth! How can Allah sanctify a nation that does not take the side of the weak against the strong?” [1]
Allah’s justice spares no wrongdoer
Irrespective of how distant the land, how hidden the act, or how small the crime may appear, Allah’s justice spares no wrongdoer. This is true for injustices that play out on the global stage, in a local street, or even those upon an animal; justice is inescapable.
A man living in Gaza recounts three stories from the words of three separate people:
The man who deliberately killed a dog
I was attending a funeral to comfort a grieving family. I sat beside them, offering condolences and praying for their deceased. Then the elderly father of the deceased came and sat next to me. He took my hand and said: ‘My son, this is the consequence of a wrong I committed thirty years ago. To this day, I am still living through its punishment and its pain.
I was young back then, full of strength and pride. I had a car, and I used to drive around recklessly, showing off. One day, I saw a mother dog with her pups crossing the road. I thought to myself: let me run one of them over to see how loud she’ll bark and cry. And I did it. I hit one of the puppies. Its blood and body parts scattered across the road while the mother howled in agony. I stood there laughing.
Since that day, my life has been one hardship after another. The most recent? Just last night, my 18-year-old son, the apple of my eye. He had just graduated high school and was about to start university. I saw in him my own youth and all my hopes.
I pulled over and asked him to cross the road to get some papers for me. Out of love and concern, I got out myself to check the road. There were no cars. I said to him: ‘Go ahead.’ And suddenly, a speeding car came out of nowhere and struck him right in front of me. His blood splattered on my clothes. I stood there, crying and screaming. At that moment, by Allah, I remembered that mother dog… and what I had done to her all those years ago.’”
Allah avenges the oppressed, even if it’s an animal, and even if it takes decades.
The one who ripped out the eyes of animals
A neighbour of mine in childhood used to go hunting in the desert with a friend. His friend had a cruel habit: he would catch jerboas, rip out their eyes, and then release them just for laughs.
Years later, I bumped into that neighbour again. He had a blind child with him. He told me he had three children all born blind. When he remarried, his second wife gave birth to a baby girl, born with no eyes at all. He was in tears as he told me: ‘I’m convinced it all goes back to what we did to those jerboas more than forty years ago.’”
Allah avenges the oppressed, even if it’s an animal, and even if it takes decades.
The man who skinned alive a lizard
Back when we lived in the desert, we had a neighbour with a large family, many children and livestock. One day, he caught a ḍabb (spiny-tailed lizard), skinned it alive, and then let it crawl away while he laughed at it. My uncle was so disturbed, he immediately decided to move us far away from that man.
That very afternoon, in the middle of summer, a dark cloud gathered directly above our neighbour’s house. It poured down rain, just over his home. A few days later, my uncle sent his eldest son to check on them. By Allah, he found no trace; no family, no animals, no house. All that remained was a giant crater in the ground, like a dried-up well.”
The lesson, again, is clear: Allah avenges the oppressed, even if he is a non-Muslim, even if the perpetrator is a Muslim, and even if the victim is an animal.
So, if this is the justice granted to animals — dogs, jerboas, and lizards — what about those who wrong the believing allies of Allah? What awaits a people who have flattened entire communities, taken pride in the murder of children, those who defile al-Aqsa Mosque with impunity, chant racist slogans in the open, and hurl insults at the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
What awaits a nation where the overwhelming majority of its people openly endorse the genocidal claim that “there are no innocents in Gaza”, as reported by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem? [2]
What awaits those who target starving children collecting aid, having turned their death into sport, as mentioned by Professor Nick Maynard, a British surgeon in Gaza? He says medical workers are seeing “clear patterns of injury”, where the IDF soldiers are deliberately shooting Gazan children in different body parts depending on the day of the week. [3]
In the words of Maynard,
It’s almost as if a game is being played, that they’re deciding to shoot the head today, the neck tomorrow, the testicles the day after.” [3]
Every form of death imaginable
By now, we have seen every conceivable form of killing:
- by rape
- by bombs
- by hunger
- by torture
- by snipers
- by gassing
- by freezing
- by drowning
- by executions
- by tank shelling
- by drone strikes
- by poisoning water
- by collapsed buildings
- by incineration in tents
- by prevention of medicine
- by suffocation beneath rubble
- by poisoning parcels of flour with drugs
- by so-called “aid” crate drops that crush children
- by haemorrhaging as paramedics are blocked at gunpoint
- by setting dogs on disabled people that maul them to death
- by luring people from their homes by haunting them with fake sounds of crying babies, only to gun them down upon stepping outside.
There isn’t anything that our generation hasn’t seen.
But death by starvation?
Perhaps the most cold-blooded of all is death by starvation.
The slow, systematic extermination of an entire population. Food convoys denied — by army and by volunteers, some of whom are Israeli mothers, carrying their own children — preventing food trucks from entering Gaza.
Bread lines bombed. Infants wasting away, dying, because of the systematic prevention of powdered milk entering Gaza.
I’m struck by how often the Qur’ān cites the mere failure to encourage feeding the poor as a reason for entering Hell.
In Surat al-Ḥāqqah:
وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ
And he did not encourage the feeding of the poor.” [4]
In Surat al-Māʻūn:
وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ
And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.” [5]
In Surat al-Fajr:
وَلَا تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ
And you do not urge one another to feed the poor.” [6]
Pay attention! Hell was promised to them all for merely failing “to encourage the feeding of the poor”. So what about those who systematically murder starving people as they reach out for aid, aid points that were deliberately engineered to gather and continue killing them?
Therefore, considering what we know about the justice of Allah, and in view of the unspeakable barbarity that has been unleashed upon Gaza, it becomes clear that the defining theme of the stage we are now entering, and Allah knows best, is captured in His words:
فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ أَنجَيْنَا الَّذِينَ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ السُّوءِ وَأَخَذْنَا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا بِعَذَابٍ بَئِيسٍ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْسُقُونَ
So when they forgot what they had been reminded of, We saved those who used to forbid evil, and seized the wrongdoers with a harsh punishment for their rebelliousness.” [7]
Messages as we go through this phase
The next stage upon us is a phase of divine punishment and saving, unfolding side by side. So, understandably, you will ask:
What must I do to be saved in the phase we’re entering?”
To the masses, your stance will define who you are
Being saved in the upcoming phase is in reforming ourselves, once and for all, and then standing boldly and courageously against injustice and corruption. Too much has unfolded for anyone to assume that life will return to how it once was.
The world has shifted, and you must catch up with its new reality. Part of that awakening is to urgently invest in your Īmān, to widen your Islamic knowledge, and to renew your commitment to worship and a life of purpose. Strive to spare yourself from the inevitable crushing question that awaits on the Day of Judgment:
What did you do when Gaza bled before your eyes?”
Take a stance, one of piety, truth, and courage, while you still can.
The time for sweet talk and pleasantries has passed, so allow me to speak with honesty. We live in an age where titles are now hollow, and the world no longer listens to names and vague statements, but to stances. Above all, the One above expects it from you more than from others.
The world celebrates Muhammad Ali not merely for his boxing prowess, because in pure metrics, others were better. Deontay Wilder had a higher knockout ratio. George Foreman hit harder. Lennox Lewis had a superior physique. Rocky Marciano and Floyd Mayweather had cleaner records.
What immortalised Ali’s name was his stances: refusal to bow to the Vietnam War, to apartheid South Africa, to racial injustice in America. Yes, he was a fighter, he was also a flame that lit movements. Muhammad Ali did something bigger than sport, so Allah made his name bigger than life. May Allah forgive him and accept him.
To the footballer
Whilst I respect the grind, the fitness, the hours on the pitch, the footwork, the precision, the goals…
If you’ve stayed silent, fearing the Premier League, the sponsors, the backlash, then I’m compelled to remind you of what your reality actually is: just another grown adult chasing a stitched leather ball for a living, while being convinced by a profit-driven and entertainment-obsessed system, that it all means something deeper. It doesn’t, not if you can’t take a stance when it matters.
To the basketball player
Muslim or not, I admire the craft. The tight handles, the ankle-breaking crossovers, the jump shot. I love this game. I grew up glued to it, even argued with my parents over it…
But if you’ve stayed silent, out of fear of the commissioner, the endorsements, the fallout, then let’s cut through the noise and remind you that you’re just a fully grown adult bouncing a rubber ball up and down a hardwood floor, praised by a world that worships distraction.
If that praise keeps you quiet when truth calls, then that’s all you are.
To the “influencer”
I understand the effort in garnering an online following and the consistency required…
But if you stayed silent when Gaza, as an example, burned, too afraid to upset the brands and sponsorships, too busy protecting your online persona — particularly if it’s built on something Islamic — then understand this: Islam was just a bridge for your worldly “success”, because when truth needed a voice, you chose reach over righteousness. You were just another content machine, a hollow, selfish, and forgettable content machine.
To the student and scholar of Islamic knowledge
I honour the path you’ve chosen, and am familiar with who a true scholar is in the sight of Allah, as described by the Prophet ﷺ…
But if you remained silent, vague at best, if your voice bore no trace of the early Makkan Qur’ān’s fearless stand against injustice, hiding behind excuses like “I don’t want travel restrictions”, “I only teach the basics”, or “I stay out of politics”, then realise what you are: a careerist, wearing the clothes of the Prophet’s heirs.
Do not be heartbroken when the ordinary Muslim tears into you. He’s not the one who betrayed the trust. You did.
To everyone of you that can effect change
The same measure applies to politicians in expensive suits, to celebrities and actors on their red carpets, to businessmen in corner offices and high-rise towers, to food bloggers, body builders, and the rest.
Neutrality, today, is complicity, and I remind you as I did earlier: our upcoming phase is one of two features — punishment or safety.
To the perpetrators and enablers of genocide
Whether Zionist or otherwise, Muslim or not, Arab or non-Arab: there is nothing left that a mortal like me can say to you. What remains is what you shall soon see.
To elaborate: to those who feel secure after having perverted the course of justice today, or who conspire so heinously in their private meetings, I bring my words to an end, and let the Qur’ān speak for itself, as it lays bare the future that awaits you.
The King says,
وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَـٰفِلًا عَمَّا يَعْمَلُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ لِيَوْمٍۢ تَشْخَصُ فِيهِ ٱلْأَبْصَـٰرُ
Do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when [their] eyes will stare in horror
مُهْطِعِينَ مُقْنِعِى رُءُوسِهِمْ لَا يَرْتَدُّ إِلَيْهِمْ طَرْفُهُمْ ۖ وَأَفْـِٔدَتُهُمْ هَوَآءٌۭ
rushing forth, heads raised, never blinking, with their hearts void.
وَأَنذِرِ ٱلنَّاسَ يَوْمَ يَأْتِيهِمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ فَيَقُولُ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ رَبَّنَآ أَخِّرْنَآ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍۢ قَرِيبٍۢ نُّجِبْ دَعْوَتَكَ وَنَتَّبِعِ ٱلرُّسُلَ ۗ أَوَلَمْ تَكُونُوٓا۟ أَقْسَمْتُم مِّن قَبْلُ مَا لَكُم مِّن زَوَالٍۢ
And warn the people of the Day when the punishment will come upon them, and those who did wrong will cry, ‘Our Lord! Delay us for a little while. We will respond to Your call and follow the messengers!” [It will be said,] ‘Did you not swear before that your power would have no end?’
وَسَكَنتُمْ فِى مَسَـٰكِنِ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمْ كَيْفَ فَعَلْنَا بِهِمْ وَضَرَبْنَا لَكُمُ ٱلْأَمْثَالَ
And you passed by the ruins of those who had wronged themselves, and it was made clear to you how We dealt with them, and We gave you [many] examples.
وَقَدْ مَكَرُوا۟ مَكْرَهُمْ وَعِندَ ٱللَّهِ مَكْرُهُمْ وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ ٱلْجِبَالُ
They made their plots, yet their plans are known to Allah, even if their plan had been sufficient to do away with the mountains.
فَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِفَ وَعْدِهِۦ رُسُلَهُۥٓ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌۭ ذُو ٱنتِقَامٍۢ
So do not think [O Prophet] that Allah will fail His promise to His messengers. Allah is indeed Almighty, capable of punishment.
يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ ٱلْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتُ ۖ وَبَرَزُوا۟ لِلَّهِ ٱلْوَٰحِدِ ٱلْقَهَّارِ
[Watch for] the Day [when] the Earth will be changed into a different Earth and the Heavens as well, and all will emerge before Allah — the One, the Supreme.
وَتَرَى ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ يَوْمَئِذٍۢ مُّقَرَّنِينَ فِى ٱلْأَصْفَادِ
On that Day you will see the criminals bound together in chains,
سَرَابِيلُهُم مِّن قَطِرَانٍۢ وَتَغْشَىٰ وُجُوهَهُمُ ٱلنَّارُ
with garments of tar, and their faces covered with flames.
لِيَجْزِىَ ٱللَّهُ كُلَّ نَفْسٍۢ مَّا كَسَبَتْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَرِيعُ ٱلْحِسَابِ
So that Allah repays everyone what they have committed. Surely, Allah is swift in reckoning.
هَـٰذَا بَلَـٰغٌۭ لِّلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنذَرُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَلِيَعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَـٰهٌۭ وَٰحِدٌۭ وَلِيَذَّكَّرَ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ
This [Qur’ān] is a [sufficient] message for humanity so that they may take it as a warning and know that there is only One God, and so that people of reason may take heed.” [8]
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] Ibn Mājah, al-Sunan, on the authority of Jabir Ibn ‘Abdillah
[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/israel-gaza-war-children-british-doctor-video-b2792054.html
[4] al-Qur’ān, 69:34
[5] al-Qur’ān, 107:3
[6] al-Qur’ān, 89:18
[7] al-Qur’ān, 7:165
[8] al-Qur’ān, 14:42-52
