Zulm includes wronging others and yourself
“Go back and study the rights that are upon you and the rights that are upon the people that you have to interact with every single day.”
Zulm is a broad violation of Allah's limits that can wrong Allah, other people, or oneself, so Muslims must guard their hearts, honor others' rights, speak against injustice wisely, and return to Allah.
The khutbah in 5 steps
- Defines zulm as displacing truth and violating Allah's boundaries.
- Explains three forms: shirk against Allah, oppression against others, and self-wrongdoing.
- Shows how Shaytan exploits imbalance and how accountability includes everyday relationships.
- Connects gossip, mockery, unfair treatment, and silence about injustice to zulm.
- Offers safeguards: renew intentions, study others' rights, control the tongue, recite protective supplications, and seek forgiveness.
In the khateeb's words
“These are small actions, but they darken the heart slowly and slowly, but surely they darken the heart.”
“the person that might come with the mountains and mountains of good deeds, and that mountain will start to crumble when he's when he finds out that all these people that he's oppressed are taking from those deeds.”
“Go back and study the rights that are upon you and the rights that are upon the people that you have to interact with every single day.”
For the dinner table
Zulm means putting something where it does not belong and crossing the limits Allah set. The khateeb explained that it can be directed toward Allah through shirk, toward other people through humiliation and injustice, or toward ourselves through sin and neglected duties. He reminded us that oppression can appear in families, workplaces, gossip, mockery, and silence when we have the power to speak up. To guard against it, we should renew our intentions, learn the rights of those around us, control our tongues, speak with wisdom, and seek Allah's protection and forgiveness. At home, we can make justice, humility, and mercy visible in the way we treat one another.
- Where might we accidentally hurt someone’s rights in everyday family life?
- What does speaking up wisely look like when we see unfairness?
- How can we use our words to protect rather than harm people?
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