Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Islam in Life | Al-Risala, July 1988
The Prophet of Islam once said: “You bring your litigations before me–mortal human being that I am–and it may so happen that one of you puts his case better than the other, so that I decide the case in his favour, merely on the strength of what I have heard. But if I make a decision which means giving him that which is in truth his brother’s due, then what I have awarded him is a burning brand from the Fire.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 26717)
The lesson to be learnt from this saying of the Prophet is that no matter who is allotted some piece of property on the basis of a judicial decision, the property still in actuality belongs to its rightful owner. Even if God’s Prophet unwittingly makes a decision in favour of someone who is not really in the right, then that individual does not become the rightful owner of the property allotted to him. Indeed, it will turn into a burning brand which will sear his soul in the next world.
In modern times, it happens all too frequently that people wrongfully appropriate others’ property, and under our present corrupt system of justice, there is ample opportunity for them to set the seal of judicial authority upon their illicit designs. A bit of bribery here and a piece of fraudulent evidence there, and they are able to have their way. In every town and village, individuals are to be found who, by means of improper proceedings, have been able to wrest control of some land or building which rightfully belongs to another.
The above-quoted saying of the Prophet contains a stern warning against such behaviour. Clearly, if a decision made in all good faith by the Prophet cannot turn wrong into right, then no amount of bogus registration papers and counterfeit official documents can entitle anyone to lay hands on something which does not belong to him.
Sad to say, that is the way things go in this world. But the man who lays hands on another’s property, and rejoices over his ‘legal’ success, would do well to remember that in the world after death, this self-same property will be his undoing, for he will be trapped inside it and made to burn for his sins.