Justice Can Feed a Famine

The famine that struck Egypt was not limited to that area. It also had effects on the surrounding lands, including al-Shām. This drought affected not only Egypt but spilled over into Palestine and Syria and those parts of the world. So the place where Yaʿqūb (peace be upon him) lived was suffering from the drought.

Now all the people around Egypt had nothing to eat, because they had no one like Yūsuf to manage their affairs. Everyone was running out of wealth, money and food — except Egypt. Egypt had enough to feed its own people and to feed its neighbours, because of the wonderful management of Yūsuf. So now the brothers of Yūsuf were going to the very centre of the drought and the famine — Egypt — to ask for food. Even though that was the centre of the drought and the famine, that was where everyone went to ask for food. Why? Because it was under a just and great manager, and that was Yūsuf (peace be upon him).

So sometimes it is not a matter of how much wealth the earth holds. Allah (swt) will place blessing even in dry earth if there is ʿadl, if there is justice. Ibn Taymiyyah said that justice is what the heavens and the earth are established upon; whenever it is missing, everything becomes corrupt. The earth beneath you could be full of wealth; oil could be pumping out of the ground; harvests could be filling your storehouses — and nevertheless you would have poverty in the streets. Why? Because justice is missing. And you could have a land that is completely dry, in drought, with nothing growing, like Egypt — and nevertheless everyone goes to Egypt to get their ration. So it is not a matter of how much your earth is producing; it is a matter of justice, al-ʿadl.

In the time of Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal — Imam Aḥmad said: we were opening up some of the storehouses of Banū Umayyah. Banū Umayyah were the ruling family of the Muslim world for some decades. Imam Aḥmad said: we were opening some of their storehouses, and we found a sack, and in the sack we found a mustard seed. Now, a mustard seed is very, very small; it is a tiny seed. But this mustard seed was the size of a date stone — this big — and it had been put in this small sack. Written on it was: this used to grow in the time of justice, the time of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. This kind of seed, the mustard seed, used to grow like this in the time of justice, in the time of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. So Allah blesses even the land because of the justice of the ruler.