Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 01-05-2018
As South Africa celebrates workers day on 1 May, questions have been raised about the assumption on whether some Muslims treat their employees, especially domestic workers in a just manner with compassion and dignity.
Rendering the Jumu’ah lecture at the Nurul Islam Masjid in Lenasia on Friday, Radio Islam’s Ml Sulaimaan Ravat revealed explosive details about the treatment of workers by employers.
The examples shared by Ml Ravat were eye opening and shocking, exposing the actions of some Muslim employers, both at the workplace and at home, which leaves much to be desired.
In his lecture Ml Ravat emphasized that Allah has a divinely ordained system of making some people more affluent then others, so that there can be a system of interdependence.
“So the employer, employee relationship is one designed by Allah, not a master/slave relationship… Allah has decided who will be employer and who will be the employee.”
However Ml Ravat explains that while employees are helpers, they are treated more like slaves rather than workers by some Muslims.
“There is a Hadith in Bukhari and Muslim where Rasulullah (SAW) says: ‘your employees, which will include your domestics, which will include what we call, it’s a derogatory term, the garden boy, these are your brothers in humanity which Allah has placed in your care.’”
Being brutally honest in the hard hitting and eye opening lecture, Ml Ravat reiterated that there is a desperate need for some Muslim employers to treat their employees better.
“They are on their knees cleaning the toilets in our home and our wrongful behavior is passed onto the next generation. Sometimes your hair stands on end, when you see how small children in a home talk to the domestics who are old enough to be their grandparents. Where did they learn that from? Do we think we will only account in front of Allah for Salaah, Zakaah, Hajj and Saum? We will have to account for in front of Allah in terms of how we treated these human beings, even if they are not Muslims.”
Ml Ravat emphasized that while many Muslims are charitable, the wage paid to their employees are embarrassing.
“What I find really ironic is, sometimes we will give big cheques in charity, massive cheques in charity, but we cannot pay our employees at the business and at the home an adequate wage. Allah is watching.”
Ml Ravat also highlighted that while some Muslims go every year for Umrah and take their entire families with them, they do not consider their employees desire of performing the pilgrimage.
“Every year I take my children, grandchildren, we go for Umrah, we burn holes in the tawaf and mataf, but there is a man working for 30 years in my company, in my shop, in my business, and he hasn’t yet been able to save enough to perform his faradh hajj. Where is the compassion? Where is the dignity?”
Ml Ravat also exposed the shocking racist behavior of some Muslims.
“There are many womenfolk in our homes, elderly’s, our mothers and grandmothers, who are very pious, they burn holes in the musallah, and they read more Qur’an than even the ulama and the hufadh. They are more punctual with their salaah than all of the men. But they have racist tendencies and they ill-treat the domestics because they are of different skin colour.”
Ml Ravat asked the congregation whether Muslims are more tolerant when it comes to people of the same race as opposed to people of a different race.
“So we say that the black people we employ in nature and in general are dishonest. So what about people in our own community? How many Indian Muslims are fraudsters? How many Indian Muslims are gambling? How many Indian Muslims are cheating on their spouses? Then we are very tolerant.”
Ml Ravat says the employer/employee relationship must be based on justice, compassion and dignity and leave employees with a positive impression of Islam.
“Enough with the excuses! Enough with the justifications! As Muslims we just need to get on with it and do what is right. We need to understand what is our responsibility as employers and do what it right.”
Ml Ravat also asked whether the domestics, helpers and employees love their employer.
“Do they love us really? They may show superficial respect because we sign the pay cheque. Has our attitude, our behavior and our character been such that they love us?
Ml Ravat reiterated that people should not make judgments of others but rather focus on the positives.
“So go home with this message to yourself and take this message to our womenfolk. Don’t judge others. Where there are faults, let’s rectify it while we are still alive. Enough of the excuses, enough of the justifications. As Muslims, we are accountable to Allah and we will have to stand before Allah on the day of Qiaamah and we will have to account for how we treated our workers.”
Concluding, Ml Ravat says treating employees as Islam ordained or leaving a good impression of Islam on employees is not a favour upon anyone, but rather a person’s obligations to Allah.
Listen to the lecture by Ml Sulaimaan Ravat:
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