What Oppression Does to People

This man from Banū Isrāʾīl shows you something. It shows you some of the qualities of people who are humiliated and oppressed. When people and societies live under oppression and humiliation for a long time, they become very weak personalities, and they become very selfish. You find that people living under oppression are very selfish people. If they have been under oppression for a very long time and do nothing to stop it, you will find that the reason is that they are selfish. Everybody is saying: myself, myself. Because if they cared about the community, the oppression would not continue; they would stop it. But these people go on suffering oppression and humiliation because they do not want to work together. They are selfish, and everyone is looking to his own benefit and gain.

So this man is an example — a representation — of people who are humiliated. And these are the kind of people Mūsā had to deal with: people who had lived under the oppression and tyranny of Firʿawn for a very, very long time. When people live under long periods of oppression, they lose their dignity. This man had no dignity. He did not care if he betrayed someone; as long as it would save his life, he would do anything. They lose dignity and honour.

An honourable and dignified person would not do this to someone who had done him a favour. He would be grateful, and he would be willing to die to help Mūsā — willing to sacrifice his life to support Mūsā, rather than betray Mūsā and cause him all of this suffering and pain. And that could happen to the Muslim ummah today, if we do not stop the oppression that our ummah is going through. These are the kind of personalities we are going to reap in the end.