The ugliest face throughout human history reveals a life without justice for humankind. Today it is also seen in many parts of the world. All the misfortunes you see, in various societies, are due to oppression and injustice. The facade may not reveal this; but, the underlying reality depicts this. If you see, in one corner of the world, children dying from hunger, the facade may only reveal that there is drought due to lack of rainfall, but the reality is something different. The underlying reality is injustice. If justice had prevailed since previous generations in that community, and if justice was established in the human life environment, humans could, in the shadow of justice, create their own environment in such a way that it would be suitable for living; hence, their children would not be miserable and life wouldn’t be so difficult and unbearable. Injustice leads to the many diseases and hardships that humanity is forced to endure.
The first goal of all the prophets, along with remembrance [of Allah] is to establish justice. These are their two main goals. Of course, one is more important: remembrance. It is the root and the main principle. By negligence, nothing will be achieved and justice will not come about. So, you see, those systems and those people who claim they provide social justice, could not give true justice to the people within their societies. It is true that they offered them other things! They gave them science: human space flights or Intercontinental ballistic missiles. But, they could not establish social justice! Social justice will be achieved in the shadow of mankind's purification, of the selves and of the spirits, in the light of remembrance of God. These two are the prophets' goals and he could fulfill them, even if in a limited circle.
He created a society, in which remembrance of God, awareness, and the highest level of social justice prevailed.
The second goal, that the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) has been pursuing from the first moment (after believing in God), was to create a healthy and suitable environment for human livelihoods and human life. That is, a world in which the weak is not oppressed and ravaged by the powerful: a world in which there is no absolute failure for the weak, neither is there the law of war. This is what the Quran, hadith, and religious terminology call "Qest wa Adl": justice. Justice is the biggest hope of mankind. The greatest human ideal, ever since the beginning of human history (that is, when humans gained the ability to reason and think, and established some degree of order in their lives), to this day, is hope for the establishment of justice. Now, some people talk of peace. Of course, peace is a great thing; however, peace is good when it is fair. Many choose to achieve justice through war: they fight for justice. Therefore, justice is seen to be more valuable and more important than peace; and it truly is.
December 20, 1995
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