“Don’t judge me” – something they picked up from Tupac Shakur in the 90s perhaps; reintroduced by Chris Brown and now we hear this phrase a lot in today’s society, being used vaguely. Aren’t they judging ‘you’ for judging ‘them’? What does it even mean to “judge” another person?
In our tradition, judging another person would apply mostly to judging them for what’s in their heart and their relationship with Allāh based on their outward actions. And no one knows what’s in the Heart, except Allāh, and we are to have good opinion of others and think best of them by making excuses for them.
However, some people seem to use it a little more liberally, implying total moral relativism, where they expect others to basically not have any kind of negative opinion on the matter.
Now this doesn’t mean we go around judging people based on their outward, apparent actions, without making excuses for them or having good opinion of them and seeing their acts in light of extenuating circumstance. But to use it to ward off premature judgement when laws are being violated out in the open, I guess you should prepare yourself to be judged by others. If as a society we did not judge people (based on that which is apparent), we would tear ourselves apart as everyone fulfilled whatever selfish impulse occurred to them as they were not worried about what others may think.
