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SOCIAL activism by citizens is often looked upon as a modern-day phenomenon. What is not commonly known is that the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) started his social activism in his youth, much before his declaration of prophethood.
The deeds of the Prophet, even before that time, were in accordance with his noble character and the teachings which he later received. One of the major aims of his career was social reform. Even before Islam, the rite of Haj was observed at the Kaaba, and war was forbidden in that sacred month.
Once when this ban was violated and a visiting tribe’s members were looted and their local protector killed, a war broke out.
The war ended according to an agreement known as the Hilf-al-Fudul. According to M. Akhtar Muslim, in Quran aur Insani Huquq (‘The Quran and human rights’), around the year 586 CE, another trader visiting Makkah was deprived of his goods without being paid. He cried out for help. With regard to this, Dr M. Hamidullah writes in Muhammad Rasulullah (‘Muhammad the Prophet of Allah’) that Al-Zubair, the head of the Prophet’s family, convened a meeting. In this meeting, in which the Prophet took part as a young man, it was decided to bring a group into action under the revived Hilf-al-Fudul.
According to some scholars ‘fadal’ also means ‘right’, the plural of which is ‘fudul’. Therefore, one of the meanings of this could be, ‘the agreement for the protection of rights’. The group’s activists pledged to come to the help of anyone who had been wronged in Makkah, without discrimination, to favour the weak and downtrodden against their powerful persecutors. The tribes of Taim, Zuhra, Muttalib and Hashim took the oath for this agreement.
The important objectives and clauses of the Hilf-al-Fudul were as follows: lawlessness would be done away with; security of the travellers and newcomers would be ensured; victims of cruelty would be helped regardless of whether they were residents of Makkah or visitors; and the powerful persecutors would be stopped from being unjust to the weak. Dr M. Hamidullah in Rasul-i-Akram ki Siyasi Zindagi (‘The political life of the Prophet’) describes the oath as: “We swear by God that we will together become one (strong) hand. This hand will remain by the side of the weak and will continue to be raised against the strong and the unjust until the persecutor returns to the persecuted his right. This will remain so until the sea keeps the seashells wet and the hills of Hira and Thabir remain in their place. There will be equity in our society.”
The last sentence can mean that even the most humble of citizens would be able to challenge and demand redress from the most powerful. Only a handful of tribes participated in the Hilf-al-Fudul, yet it was a revolutionary agreement, the fundamental principle being non-alliance. Previously, all help had been given on the basis of tribes and the pacts made with them.
In this pact, it had been agreed that anyone and everyone who had been wronged, could ask for help. They went so far as to say that even those strangers and travellers who belonged neither to Makkah nor to any of its tribes would be eligible for help.
Previously, travellers were an open target for persecution. Not only were they robbed, but often their wives and daughters were taken away from them forcibly.
Another reason for its being a revolutionary agreement was that the Hilf-al-Fudul was not based on social class. Anyone who had been wronged, whether he was a free person or a slave, rich or poor, was eligible for help. Through this agreement, to a large extent Makkah became safe for the weak, the persecuted and strangers. The activists, acting with great speed, saw to it that the person who had been wronged was given back all that had been taken away from him forcibly.
Very soon, powerful thugs, including Abu Jahal, started to fear reprisal from the activists. The Makkans can be truly proud of the fact that at the time when the whole world was steeped in darkness and injustice, these conscientious activists were able to provide free protection and justice to the weak and the helpless through their humanistic ideals. In trying to create some kind of law and order in Makkah, the activists of the Hilf-al-Fudul were really helping to formulate some laws based on the concept of modern-day human rights. Dr M. Hamidullah says that the law of Islam in its early phase was the customary law of Makkah until such time as parts of it were specifically amended or abrogated. The principles of the Hilf-al-Fudul can safely be said to be a part of the law of Islam.
Even though many of the participants of the agreement remained non-Muslim, the Prophet kept acting on it after his declaration of Islam. He is reported to have said later: “Even if red camels were given to me in exchange for the Hilf-al-Fudul, I would not accept them.” This agreement can also be looked upon as the beginning of the attempt to codify laws and enforce a policing system with the objective of establishing peace and equity through practical social activism.
The pact also gives Muslims a precedent for the moral responsibility of all citizens to protect the weak and to speak for them, to critique the rulers and the powerful and the concept of establishing citizens’ groups that advocate and lobby for social rights.
The writer is a scholar of the Quran and writes on its relevance to contemporary issues.
nilofar.ahmed58@gmail.com
Informative and wonderful article!
Be honest.Work Hard.Be compassionate.Respect others.Be disiplined.Achieve knowledge.Stand up for justice.This is how you can be an activist.Lip service is not helpful.
Excellent Article. This encourages me to read more about the life of the Prophet[PBUH]. After reading about the life of RasulAllah, and then following the principles of his life, We can truely understand the spirit of Islam.
Articles like this are in total disagreement with what we see in Practice. Logic and reason is absent. Intolerance is the practiced norm.
Major reform is needed. But the tentacles of threat of blasphemy is helping to keep the drama of the cheats enacted in the "emperor's new clothes" story perpetually alive!
Ms. Nilofar Ahmed, to my knowledge there are no native kafirs now left in Mecca and Medina and these places of out of bounds for non-muslims. What happened to them? Did they all vanish into the thin air despite the protection provided to them by the followers of Most Merciful Creator?
The world being in total darkness before Islam seems to be a very powerful idea but even after Islam the "perfect religion" why is there so much discrimination against women in the Islamic world?
Answer is simple. People who discriminate do not follow Islamic values. Being a Muslim does not mean that he or she knows all about Islam. Most of the Muslims live in third world and in under privileged circumstances. Its the lack of education, quality of life, and freedom that makes them do what you are referring to. Mind you its the same three factors that make people commit crimes against women in non Muslim societies. That has nothing to with religious, national, or cultural values. I am not going to preach you about what do women have in Islam, or how much discrimination does Islam allow. If you are interested read Sura Al Nisa in the Quran.
In my view, the writer has shared a historic prespective of Islamic way of social justice and equity in a very lucid manner. Undoubtedly, Islam has pioneered the modern ways of social justice, viz. Public Interest Litigation (PIL). PIL, is an instance of soliciting the redressal of grevience of downtrodden in to days World, through the Court of Law.
When we say that one month is sacred over the other or that certain righteous things are to be done in a particular month, we lose track of what god wanted to actually teach us. The underlying principle or knowledge that you need to gain from the concept of this "one sacred month" is that if a person were to follow the "right ways" for a month, then people get used to those "right ways" and follow them in every day life and that in turn would mean, round-the-year.
Nilofer Ahmed, as well as, the ideas followed by her are completely errelevant to contemporary issues. By juggelary of words, one can't prove himself/herself or his/her ideas to be relevant.
Nice article. We need to study life of Holy Prophet on scientific, psychological and social level
I m proud of your command over Islamic studies. kindly in next episode focus on suicide attacks even strictly forbidden in Islamic teachings. Muslim kills other Muslim these days our country is facing this unlawful practice.unfortunately now teen angers r used for this cruel purpose. (Wali khan Mandokhail QUETTA)
Khan Saab- A very controversial question! But as a non-muslim I've always wondered. Why is it that the "idealogues"(such as the so-called clerics) never don the suicide belts themselves? Why are they always worn and used by young, impoverished youth??
Curious Fellow, even I have been wondering about the same. If the Clerics believed in all those rewards awaiting in the Paradise, they would have been the first to blow themselves up "in the cause of Allah". Can any Islamic Scholar enlighten us?
An informative piece. May Allah bless you. Just had one question: How did the Hilf-al-Fudul give the weak the protection, as in how did they carry out this activity?
I only ask this, so that if we are working with a social activist organisation, how can we implement their strategy so we become successful.
SubhanAllah