Supplication Of The Oppressed

Imam Dhahabi narrated a story in his book on ‘major sins’:

وعن وهب بن منبه قال: بنى جبار من الجبابرة قصراً وشيده فجاءت عجوز فقيرة فبنت إلى جانبه كوخاً تأوي إليه فركب الجبار يوماً وطاف حول القصر فرأى الكوخ فقال لمن هذا فقيل لامرأة فقيرة تأوي إليه فأمر به فهدم فجاءت العجوز فرأته مهدوماً فقالت: من هدمه فقيل: الملك رآه فهدمه فرفعت العجوز رأسها إلى السماء وقالت: يا رب إذا لم أكن أنا حاضرة فأين كنت أنت قال: فأمر الله جبريل أن يقلب القصر على من فيه فقلبه.

A tyrant king had built a palace for himself.
Later, a poor old woman came and made a small hut of twigs beside the palace to reside therein.
One day, while the king was wandering round the palace, he saw the hut.
Angrily, he asked his servants, “Whose hut is this?”
Once he was informed that it was owned by a poor woman, he gave a command to remove it.
As the poor woman came and saw her hut in ruins, she questioned with sorrow, “Who has demolished my hut?”
She was answered, “It was the king”.
At this moment she directed her face forward the sky and invoked Allah, saying,
“O Lord! I was absent (when my hut was destroyed) but You are never absent!”
At the time of her Du’a’ Allah revealed to Gabriel to turn the palace upside down.

[“Al-Kabaair”, p. 112].