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Acting fairly
Believers will not be unaffected by any unfairness they wit-
ness, hear or receive indirect information about. The teachings of
the Qur'an according to which they live direct them to oppose any
kind of cruelty, to defend the rights of those who have been
wronged and to intervene on their behalf. In Surat an-Nisa', Allah
describes the believers' superior understanding of justice:
You who believe! Be upholders of justice, bearing witness
for Allah alone, even against yourselves or your parents and
relatives. Whether they are rich or poor, Allah is well able to
look after them. Do not follow your own desires and devi-
ate from the truth. If you twist or turn away, Allah is aware
of what you do. (Surat an-Nisa': 135)
Believers will mobilise all their forces to prevent injustice.
Even if most people act in the opposite way, their carelessness
and lack of conscience do no make believers lax. They know that
they will be questioned in the afterlife about what efforts they
made on behalf of justice and what they did to prevent injustice.
They will not try to escape their responsibility as very many peo-
ple do in the world by claiming they did not see, hear or notice
anything. They remember that if they act carelessly, not only
they are the losers but all the people who are wronged by injus-
tice, and that, if they act conscientiously, not only are they are the
winners in the afterlife, but all of the oppressed and wronged
people will also benefit. For this reason they will never be disin-
terested observers of injustice. If there is any injustice at all, they
will never ignore it by minding their own business and pretend-
ing they haven't seen anything.
Even if the teachings of the Qur'an are in opposition to the
24 Hours in the Life of a Muslim
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