The Prayer of the Oppressed

To judge a matter without doubt is to claim omniscience. God alone can judge a matter without the possibility of error. Our willingness to forgo our own judgment for a higher judgment allows the space for grace to enter the world. In allowing grace, we are inviting God back into our world, and it is no coincidence that the word in Arabic for “prayer” and the word for “invitation” are one and the same

This is the true essence of forgiveness: in forgiving others, we are implicitly recognizing that they are reflections of ourselves. Forgiveness does not imply that we forgo restitution and justice; rather, by looking at our own wrongs, we begin to be less judgmental of others and more able to see ourselves in them

them ill. In recognizing that the oppressor also needs help, we can see him as a trial from God, and not as an independent agent acting independently of God’s providential will. Cursing or hating or wishing ill upon the oppressor is the antithesis of the prophetic guidance, which calls for mercy

and judge ourselves before we quickly judge those over us, only then will we be able to transform our condition

King’s third step—“self-purification”—is rarely discussed, let alone implemented. But it is introspection that enables us to peer within and identify in ourselves the qualities we abhor in others, thereby putting us on the path to purification. If we have unjust rulers, we must ask ourselves whether we are getting the rulers that we deserve: Are we behaving unjustly with our families, our spouses, and our children? Are we displaying the same arbitrary rules in our offices, work places, and homes that we find so abhorrent in our streets and institutions and government? If so, then before we can expect a change in the world, we must first expect one in ourselves. The Qur’an states, “God does not remove a blessing that has been bestowed upon a people until they themselves are ungrateful for it” (8:53

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,”

Oppression occurs when we desire that which is not ours. As such, we must first break the cycle within our own hearts: “Surely, God does not change a people until they change what is in themselves” (13:11

at the true heart of every religion lies silence, penetrated by illumination: Buddha, the Enlightened One, under the Lote tree; Moses , the prophet, in the Sinai; Jesus , the Messiah, in the desert; and the Prophet Muḥammad in the cave of Ḥirā’

But noise is a hallmark of the modern world.

what he did when one of his men, Khālid b. al-Walīd