Help Your Brother, Be He the Oppressor or the Oppressed
Narrated by Ḥaḍrat Anas, Allāh be pleased with him: Said the Prophet of Allāh (peace and blessings of Allāh be on him):
“Help your brother be he the oppressor or the oppressed.”
The companions said, ‘O Prophet of Allāh, we understand that we should help him when he is the aggrieved party but how should we help him when he is the wrongdoer?’ He said,
“Hold his hand.”
(Bukhārī)
Explanatory Note
This wonderful Ḥadīth is a compendium of the philosophy of brotherhood and the philosophy of ethics. The philosophy of brotherhood postulates that a brother should be helped be he the oppressor or the oppressed; brotherliness is not a value that can be ignored or omitted in any circumstances. One who is our brother is always deserving of help. His being the guilty or the injured party does not affect his right to receive help. As against this, the philosophy of morality postulates that whether we have to deal with a brother or a stranger, it is our duty, in any case, to cleanse this world of all injustice and vice and to establish virtue and justice. If a person happens to be a stranger, it does not mean that we are free to do him wrong and if
intermediary channel in such a manner that they now flowsomeone is our brother, it would not mean that we should therefore abet his injustice and be his accessories. Superficially, the two postulates appear to be out of harmony and in conflict with one another. If a wrongdoing brother is not aided, bonds of brotherhood break down. And if the wrongdoing brother is helped, justice goes by the board. But our Lord (may my life be dedicated to his service) linked together these two parallel channels that do not apparently seem to meet. He linked the two by means of an like a single stream. He observed, in effect, that brotherhood was such a holy relationship that there was no cutting it asunder, under any circumstances, whether a brother is good
or bad, oppressor or oppressed, he remains a brother always and there is no cutting off the brotherly ties. But the God of Islām would not permit injustice and enjoins equity even to enemies. Therefore, the two postulates should be so harmonized that help should be rendered to the brother in
any case but, if the brother is an oppressor the form of help should be changed. If he is the oppressed party, stand by him to fight injustice, but if he is the wrongdoer, then embrace him and hug him hard and hold tight his oppressive hand and say, “Brother I stand by you, in all circumstances but Islām does not permit injustice and therefore, I will not let your hand do wrong.” This is the sacred principle that the Holy Prophet (peace of Allāh be on him and His blessings) has laid down in this Ḥadīth. It is incorrect to put on it the construction as some do that a particular language has been used by the Holy Prophet, in this Ḥadīth only for purposes of emphasis and that its gist postulates that if your brother is the aggrieved party you should help him but, if he be the wrongdoer, then line up against him, is not only wrong but also a travesty of the wise wording of the Ḥadīth. If that were the aim of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allāh be on him), he could very well have enjoined a line-up against injustice, whether its perpetrator was an enemy or a brother. But he did not say so. On the contrary, in this command, he has formulated in the following terms a fine and novel postulate
out of two apparent contradictories:
(1) A brother is deserving of help in any case
(2) Injustice must be resisted in any case
(3) If the brother be the aggrieved party, help him and, if he be the wrongdoer, then change the shape of help, by holding his aggressive hand, so that brotherliness is sustained and injustice is also prevented. This is the compound theory which, fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet of Allāh (peace of Allāh be on him and His blessings) put across to the world, from the desert of Arabia. But, until today, not one of the progressive nations of Europe or America has attained to its ethical height. If they made a pact of brotherhood with any nation, to honor the obligation of brotherliness, they opened wide the gates of unbounded tyranny and if, according to their notions, they turned to prevent some injustice, they tore to bits the covenant of brotherhood.
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