Complete Equality in Judicial Affairs

However, comparatively, in judicial and legal rights, the Holy Prophet(sa) states the following in magnificent words indeed:

“Before you, many a people were destroyed by the fact that when a peasant committed a crime, they would punish him, but when a nobleman would commit a crime, they would leave him. Hence, listen very attentively! I swear by that being in Whose hand is my life that even if my daughter Fāṭimah was to commit theft, I would cut off her hand, as per the Islāmic law.”1

What powerful words are these, and how majestically was Islāmic equality established! Furthermore, this teaching was such that the Caliphs of the Holy Prophet(sa) also strictly adhered to it. Hence, Ḥaḍrat Abū Bakr(ra), the first Caliph (may Allāh be pleased with him), stated in his very first sermon as Caliph:

“O Ye Muslims! The weak among you shall be the most powerful in my eyes until I acquire his due right; And the most powerful of you shall be weak in my eyes until I take back the right which he has usurped of another.”2

Similarly, there is a narration about Ḥaḍrat ‘Umar(ra), the second Caliph (may Allāh be pleased with him), that on one occasion a powerful chieftain of northern-Arabia named Jabalah bin Aiham, who had become Muslim, slapped a poor Muslim in his fury. When Ḥaḍrat ‘Umar(ra) was informed of this occurrence, he summoned Jabalah and said, “Jabalah! I hear that you have struck a poor Muslim. If this is true, by God, retribution shall be taken from you.” Upon this, Jabalah, who perhaps still possessed the arrogant obstinacy of the era of the Jāhilīyyah, turned proud and became an apostate.3