Nowadays in some places on the earth there are cruelties done to the oppressed people, for example the people of Palestine or Lebanon or Bahrain or Libya or Yemen etc. some of these nations are not Shia, the question is why we should help them? Does Islam have any order in this regard?

When we refer to the holy Quran we see that in some verses Allah talked about the cruelty and oppression.

In chapter Nisa verse 75 we read:

وَمَا لَکُمْ لاَ تُقَاتِلُونَ فِی سَبِیلِ اللّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِینَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاء وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِینَ یَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَذِهِ الْقَرْیَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنکَ وَلِیًّا وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنکَ نَصِیرًا

“So why is it, that you do not fight in the way of Allah, and for the abased among men, women, and children who say: ‘our lord, bring us out from this village whose people are oppressors, and give to us a guardian from you, and give to us a helper from you.”

When we refer to the words of the commander of the faithful Imam Ali peace be upon him in different places, we see the emphasis of the Imam on helping the oppressed against the oppressor.

In the last moments of his life, he had some advices to his children, and among them he said:

کُونا لِلظّالِمِ خَصماً وَ لِلْمَظْلُومِ عَوناً

“Be the enemy for the oppressor and be the supporter for the oppressed.”

Another place is which the Imam is describing the reason of accepting to be the governor, he said:

“I was not the seeker of the government on you, and the thing that forces me to accept it is the covenant that Allah has taken from the Olama(scholars) of every nation, not to be silent before the gluttony of the oppressors and the hunger of the oppressed ones.”

You know that Imam Ali really was a person of justice and this is something that is accepted even by his enemies.

You know those who are oppressors and consider themselves upper than others, always are against the justice, so you see that the ones who were against the prophets of Allah and divine religions were the oppressors, because they were seeing their interests exposed to danger.

So as one of the Shia scholars by the name of Ali the son of Jad, said:

The most important thing that caused the Arab to refuse from accepting the government and caliphate of Imam Ali was the financial matters, because the Imam never preferred an Arab on non-Arab and a weighty Sharif (prominent figure) on a simple individual. And did not pay attention to the chief of the tribes more than others and did not made anyone attracted by the means of wealth, and this was exactly opposite of what Moaviyah(the name of one of the tyrant rulers) was doing.

It is narrated from the holy Prophet of Islam that he said:

“The one who hears the sound of an oppressed who calls out for asking help from Muslims, and he/she does not help that oppressed, he/she is not Muslim.”

Imam Ali peace be upon him narrated from the Prophet of Islam that the Prophet said many times:

“The nation that does not take the right of the weak from the strong clearly, it never gets pure and reaches to welfare.”

In is interesting that the holy Prophet of Islam when he was young, he was a member of groups that they made a covenant to help the oppressed, like what happened in a covenant known as “Half-Alfozul”.

And the holy Prophet said after being chosen as a prophet: I do not break my covenant even though the most precious bounties are given to me as the exchange.

The importance of helping the oppressed can be understood even through the intellect, you know that oppression is something that the human hates it by his/her innate nature and helping the oppressed is like that, and for this very reason you see that when the oppressor governments want to attack oppressed countries, they bring some excuses, for example they say that we want to help the weak people, or we do it as the support for human rights, etc.

Helping the oppressed and supporting them is something that is emphasized by the great Islamic scholars too. For example the stresses that Imam Khomeini had on helping the oppressed nations like Palestine are obvious for everyone.

Helping the poor apart from being an act which is compatible with the emotional characteristics of humankind, is a cause which enhances the brotherhood and is a way for the cooperation among people and social commitment among humankind, so any oppression to anyone, resembles oppression to others.

And as the last point, we all know that the worldly government of the twelfth Imam; Imam Mahdi peace be upon him, as it has been stated in the Narrations, is a means in which the world will be full of justice after it is filled full of cruelty.

So we ask Allah to hasten the reappearance of the twelfth Imam and help us to help the oppressed and struggle with the oppressors as a way in which we make the world prepared for that holistic just government.

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Sources:

Hawzah.net

Makarem.ir