ماكنةُ الظلم.. مَن الذي يصنعُ الطغاة؟ – ومضات في تطوير الذات

The Machine of Injustice: Who Creates Tyrants?

Behind every oppressive tyrant are silent armies, unseen by the people, yet they are the ones who grant him power and brutality. A historical truth encapsulates the scene in a single sentence: A man came to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and asked him, “The sultan orders me to do things that are unlawful. Am I then one of the oppressors’ helpers?” 

The Imam’s answer was not conventional; it was a slap in the face to stagnant consciousness. He told him, “The oppressors’ helpers are those who sew clothes for them or cook their food. As for you… you are one of the oppressors themselves!” 
This profound wisdom puts its finger on the root of the problem in every era. The oppressor, in reality, is a weak and insignificant individual, possessing neither a thousand hands nor a thousand eyes. Rather, it is his “human tools” that grant him that illusory power. The partner in the “industry of oppression” is not only the one who pulls the trigger, but also everyone who paved the way, justified the act, or provided the service that helps perpetuate corruption.

The equation is simple yet terrifying: the oppressor is the head, and the henchmen are the body; and the head cannot exist without a body to support it. And the companies in the “bitter harvest” on Judgment Day make no distinction between the one who commands and the one who is commanded; for everyone who laid a brick in the edifice of injustice is a full partner in every tear shed and every right lost.

Curbing oppression and corruption begins with a small act of resistance; with refusing to be a mere cog in the machine of injustice. Honor and dignity demand that consciences not be sold under the pretext of “following orders,” for judgment before God is individual, and the excuse of “helpers” will avail nothing when neither wealth nor children will be of any use. 
He who sows for the oppressor reaps only chaff.

Dr. Abdul Karim Bakkar