Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil Wisdom
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
salatu salam ala CL Mursaleen. While early he was sabe he he
marine Amma beret, ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala says in the Quran condom
higher OMA, originally Nasi Maru Nabil ma roofie with unknown Anil
mancha the concept of amor, Bill maruf, and nail Wonka to just get
right into the discussion, because we're starting a bit late. I'm
going to bill Morrow for nine Moncure is something that Muslims
speak about that we should do this, sometimes we feel guilty
that we may not be doing it. And sometimes we complain about others
doing it in a very harsh way, or in an excessive way. So today, you
generally don't hear a lot of etiquette for grammar demographer,
19 Moncure, despite the fact that it's such an important concept in
our faith. So when you're enjoying the right, or the responsibility
for enjoying good, and for prohibiting evil, what exactly are
the boundaries for this? And what are the qualifications? And what
are the etiquette of this, that's very important for us to
understand. So first, commanding to evil and forbidding the good,
which is opposite if somebody commands to evil, right, by maybe
starting a new trend, which is wrong, or taking people to the
wrong place, or selling haram, selling drugs, or whatever the
case is, all of that is considered commanding to evil, and forbidding
the wrong, sorry, forbidding the good. So if a person see something
happening, which is good, but they feel guilty that they can't do it.
So they start complaining about the other persons saying, Oh, that
doesn't look nice. So that doesn't look appropriate. You have that
sometimes some people aren't a guilt factor, because they can't
do well. And then they want to stop others from doing so. So for
example, let's just say that there's some food on offer, which
is doubtful. And some people are being careful and they're not
eating it. Sometimes it hurts another person who doesn't want to
be so careful. It's no you guys are being excessive, so commanding
to evil and forbidding good. Right is a characteristic of hypocrites.
That that's so where I'm taking most of the material today from is
from one of the great scholars of the last 100 or so years called
Imam Malawi. And he's covered this in a bit of detail. So I'm going
to take from him and then just going to add to that to basically
make it relevant to our situation.
Allah subhana wa Tada says, the hypocrites are gonna if you're
gonna we're gonna feel caught both men and women resemble one
another.
They enjoin evil and forbid the wrong and forbid the good. So that
is obviously something we don't want to be doing. We want to be
doing the opposite of that.
The opposite of it of this is obviously a horrible model for
nahiN mancha as we mentioned in the beginning, which is, from a
FICKY perspective, it's a communal obligation, somebody in the
community, a few people at least need to be doing it. So where
there's something going wrong, there has to be at least a few to
fulfill the obligation of
trying to correct it, trying to deter people from it, if nobody
does, it will all be sinful.
Right? So the few bald people who do do this, we should actually
sometimes, you know, thank them for this for this reason.
Allah subhanaw taala states that let there be among you a splendid
group
that invites to virtue commands the good and forbids the evil and
those are indeed the successful ones. So that is where we get the
obligation as a communal one from the Quran, while the coming Come
on button. As Allah subhanaw taala says,
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in a hadith says that by
the one in whose hand is my soul, you must certainly command the
good. And you must certainly forbid evil, or else a punishment
from him would soon be sent upon you, after which you would call
upon him, yet your dollars will not be answered afterwards. So not
doing this not fulfilling the obligation actually stops doors
being accepted.
Or the narration state that the punishment for abandoning this
obligation is actually sweeping and general, because it's a
communal obligation. Some people have to do it to absolve all the
rest. If then the punishment comes because nobody does it. It's gonna
affect everybody. That's the danger here. I want to just put
things in perspective. That's why because this is not a subject that
is covered, generally, in a proper way. There's a lot of extreme
understandings of this and shortcoming in this. So that's why
ignore I learned who's a common who's a hadith commentator. He
says that punishment, the punishment of such a thing can
then manifest in various different ways. It could manifest as the
tyranny of your leaders, that a leader will come upon your leaders
will start oppressing people and acting in a tyrannical way. That
is a punishment essentially, we see that around the world.
The Dominion of enemies, enemies will overcome you, they will
ascend and
Other forms of tribulation.
Finally, if not, I learned says in his little fatty hain, which is
his commentary, he says to get annoyed when corrected is itself a
major sin. So if somebody corrects me what I'm doing wrong I know
it's tough. It's harsh, it's bitter. But I must take it I
mustn't get defensive otherwise that is another sin Subhan Allah
ignore Masuda the Allahu Anhu says that verily, amongst the greatest
of sins in the sight of Allah is for a person to be told fear
Allah,
to which he responds, mind your own business.
That's in Swindon NSA.
It's then narrated on the authority of Abu Seidel hood, Radi
Allahu anhu, that the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
said, Whoever among you sees an evil act, let him change. This is
the famous narration I'm sure everybody's heard this right, let
him change with his hands. And if unable to then with his tongue,
and if unable to then in his heart, at least, and that is the
weakest level of faith. Right?
Now, how do you understand this is what does it mean that you got the
weakest level of faith if you can't do it with your hand or with
your tongue?
Different orlimar have explained this in different ways. As, for
example, one interpretation is Mr. Malla, we mentioned, some scholars
maintained that changing with the hand applies to people in
positions of power like leaders, because they've got the force
behind them. So they can physically do that. If you and I
and go and try to do that, and take the case and the matter in
our own hands. And it's the judicial case, for example, we're
gonna get, you know, we're gonna get in big trouble sometimes,
right? Again, if it's in your hand, if it's in your right, like
you're an employer, then obviously, you've got the physical
ability there to fire people, or to change things, and so on and so
forth. So it's people in authority.
And with the tongue, it means that that relates to scholars because
they have the pulpit, people respect them and not listen to
them. So they must at least verbalize it, even if they can't
physically do anything. And number three, at least for the general
laity, who are not in any position of authority, power, supervision
or whatever, then they must at least
feel bad about it in the heart.
And there's an understanding of this also similar. From Imam Abu
Hanifa Rahim Allah.
Another thing that we need to clarify a little the big one of
the really common excuses is that, oh, I don't stop myself. So why,
how can I tell others?
Right? I'm not perfect myself. So how can I tell others? I've got my
own demons. So how can I tell others that's a shaytans
deception, essentially, the only time it's actually wrong for a
blameworthy for us to be telling others not to do something is if
we do it boldly, no guilt, and we telling others, that's probably
hypocrisy. But if we're trying to abstain ourself, and we're not
perfect, actually helps to tell others because that makes us more
particular. I've always noticed that if I've got a weakness and I
speak about it, I actually become a bit stronger, because I feel
like I'm telling others then I need to be careful, I learn more
about it as well, because when you tell somebody, you know, you
research it and so on.
So it is not a condition for the incumbency, that you must fulfill
this obligation that the person Act has to be acting upon it
himself and refraining from what He prohibits, because that's going
to be very difficult. That's why one poet said that if you had to
be perfect before doing even more often the Hillman car after the
promised blossom, nobody would ever be able to do so because
after probably Saracen, there's never been a perfect person.
There's a renowned Maliki scholar.
His name is Imam Qaddafi is a major or solely Islamic legal
theory scholar. Right. He mentioned his book called Al
Farooq, which is a book on a soul that a person's inability to
prevent a wrong does not necessarily entail weak faith.
Just because you can't in a particular case, though, you want
to doesn't mean you have weak faith. He's just trying to explain
the Hadith. So what he's saying is, hence the weakest level of
faith in the Hadith above, refers not to the faith of the heart, but
rather the faith of action. So you're not able to physically do
anything. So you're very weak in terms of physical faith, though in
the heart, your faith may be strong. This is just another way
of looking at it.
Because he says that the term Iman here in this case use to refer to
action. Also, this is the most important part now. That when you
do when you do it, what should you have in mind? What should you be
your intention? And what are you trying to attain by doing so?
Because when sometimes you tell somebody it's almost like you're
getting back at them, you're criticizing them, you're insulting
them. So what is the way to do it in the way
shadier tells us to save the mere prohibition is not sufficient to
fulfill this obligation. Rather, if a person persists they're in.
So if you tell somebody and they carry on, if they persist they're
in then it must be in accompanied with internal hatred and anger
that you must feel angry, like, why are they going against the law
of Allah, you must not think, oh, it's alright. Now.
You must continue to feel bad. It's not that you just say once
I've told them, and now I'm completely fine in my heart.
That's dangerous. Because then it becomes the psychological harm of
that is then that the next time you will not even if you had the
opportunity, you won't tell him because you think you've just done
it once my obligation is done. But the point is that you must hate
the sin. So that needs to continue to happen.
And if it requires and is going to be effective, and there are
conditions for this, you may even have to shun the wrongdoer to
maybe get them to realize that doesn't work all the time. But in
the cases where it does work, where they love you, or where they
want to be with you, and you're going to show your disapproval.
There are three conditions, though for enjoying the goods. This is
what a lot of people miss the few that do do it. Sometimes, this is
the problem. The three conditions for enjoying the good number one
intention is to be correct. Why are you doing it? The desire
should be that the word of Allah, the Shetty of Allah, the good
ethics, reign supreme and triumphant, that should be the
focus, not to put somebody else down, but that good prevail in the
world. Now, in addition to that part of number one, in addition to
that, the motivation should be to correct others.
The motivation should be to correct others, and it should be
out of sincere care for one's brethren. But you want them to be
good. You want them not to be punished, you want them not to be
unethical, you don't want them to do bad things. The Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us that the basis of the entire
religion is genuine concern and care and goodwill for others, a
dino Naziha that must prevail here.
And then he also said,
None of you is truly a believer until he loves for his brother
what he loves for himself.
So you must love the good for yourself, and must do this for
others, because you want them to have good as well.
That's number one. Number two, when you're going to tell somebody
you must know, you must have the knowledge of the proofs of why
it's wrong.
And not the proofs of why it's wrong. But the details of what
exactly is wrong and why it's wrong.
Which is to know the evidence of what is being enjoined or
forbidden. And why is that a lot of the time, what happens is that
some people may have an assumption that something is wrong or right.
And they see somebody and it's a cultural understanding. Or it's a
extreme understanding.
Or it's just one opinion. And they go and they harshly criticize
somebody else.
And that's completely wrong. Because they're not wrong in what
they're doing. They're just wrong according to what you understand.
But they're not wrong. According to their older man, there's a
complete valid reason for why they're doing it.
A lot of people get this confusion run. And number three, when you do
correct something, you're going to have to listen to it, sometimes
you're going to have to the repercussions. So
the third condition is that you must remain steadfast in the face
of the difficulties that you're going to encounter encounter when
you enjoy enjoying the right. Number three, what is the traits
of the person who does who should be doing this? What should you
inculcate in yourself?
Number one, gentleness
the point of correcting the wrong muscle that you mustn't be that
you must always just go on harshly go and correct everybody. Where
did you learn that from? Just because somebody did it doesn't
mean you have to do it that way. Everything the best thing is
starting with gentleness. And the prophets of the Lord ism said that
whoever is deprived of gentleness has been deprived of all goodness.
So the person who's doing this if we're doing this in sha Allah,
gentleness in the way we're doing it, for example,
the way the Sunnah is to exhort in a manner that is general and
discreet.
so as to protect the feelings of the other person. The point is not
to hurt their feelings, the point is to correct them. Now if the
feeling does get hurt and is unavoidable, that's different, but
the purpose should not be that just go in there harsh hurt their
feelings. So they stop a lot of the time actually, if you hurt
their feelings, they won't stop because people have ego.
Right? And they take it personal them. So how you have to think a
lot like how can I do this? fulfill this obligation? get my
message across
US get them to accept it.
Can you see, you'd have to be very tactful, very wise. And you have
to keep your gaze on Allah, that he gives you sincerity so the
person can understand that sincerity. And this is where we
make a big mistake. This is the problem. That's why even when the
Prophet Musa alayhis, Salam and Harun Ali salaam,
right, who are among the greatest of the servants of Allah subhanho
wa taala, when they were ordered to go and condemn Pharaoh, and
talk to him,
who was the worst of the tyrants, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Kula
Allah Who Cole and Lena,
right speak to him gently. So maybe he may take heed of fear,
because there's an ego problem. If you talk gently, they might say,
Oh, you're coming as a well wisher for me. You're right, you know,
you're right. But if you come harsh, then people just naturally
become defensive.
Number two, you must have clemency.
Which means that you must have a lot of stubborn patience, you
can't make changes overnight. You can't just go in and just make a
change,
you're going to need a lot of forbearance, a lot of clemency.
And it may take a while. But that's our obligation.
And do not feel constricted or annoyed.
In case you get, not the right response you're looking for
initially, remember, sometimes people change over time, they
can't change straightaway.
And number three, you must have religious understanding,
which is complete an insight, a complete insight regarding the
intricacies of the evidence less, less one gets it wrong.
Which is basically what I said earlier anyway. Finally, if you're
a person with a bit of knowledge, you've taken a few classes or
you're an island, or you've studied a bit or you stay in the
company of good people and you know more than others when you go
out in public Jamaat or whatever the case is, you have a reason why
you know a bit more than others.
What generally happens in that case is you've attended a few
classes, few groups, whatever, you got friends who are on a ma, you
start feeling that you know more, because you do know a bit more
maybe by now, right? You will physically know a bit more. Now
when you know more one of the risks in knowledge, right, which
you have to deal with, is that it makes you feel
it makes you feel arrogance, knowledge rises always. So when
you first get knowledge, the environment in our body, right in
our hearts may not be conducive for that knowledge. Sometimes you
have to get it but it may not be conducive in the sense that it may
lead us to get a bit
ostentatious,
arrogant. That's why you need humility to be able to contain
that knowledge and use it correctly, then that becomes
wisdom. So this is a big pitfall. So that's why he's saying that
it's a major catastrophe that one must be that one must be careful
to avoid that for a person of knowledge, when enjoying
something, they start to perceive their own dignity due to that
knowledge, then it becomes personal.
Then you have no Baraka in that.
And then you think the other person is lowly due to his
ignorance due to he doesn't know how much you know, in this case,
because you've sat with a few Allah MA and everything.
If this is one's motivation,
then this evil is itself much more wretched than the evil he is
forbidding. Subhanallah
you've done something much worse because you've done it for the
sake of the deen or coating it or cloaking it in the cover of the
dean.
Now the person who's doing it he knows he's doing wrong he deep
down he knows he's doing wrong. You're trying to forbid that which
is known to be wrong. And what you're doing is basically you
think it's correct, but it's actually wrong because you're
doing it for the wrong reason. Can you see now why a lot of women
have other name longer doesn't work? Because I think it's the
intention problem is the etiquette problem. Our dean has etiquette
down to everything because our whole Dean is the dean of Adam,
which includes in things like Jihad and Ahmed remodel Fernando
uncle and everything else which may be outwardly seem violent.
There's an etiquette.
Truly no one is safe from the ploys of the devil, so even when
you're trying to good deed shaitan will let you do it first. But if
you start doing it, hilltop tried to spoil it. And we must be
conscious of that fact.
Only the one who's the one who's protected is only the one who
Allah subhanaw taala allows them to see their faults and their
vulnerabilities and whose insight Allah subhanaw taala opens up
through the light of true guidance, then they will be very,
very careful.
So basically the upshot of all of this, the summary of all of this,
then is that anyone who takes up this obligation, right, they must
know the different views about the issue.
Right such that his in
Joining good and forbidding evil, take place only with evils that
pretty much everybody agree is an evil.
Moreover, he must not cross the legal limit of speech and action.
For For indeed, many people who take up the communal duty of
enjoying good and forbidding evil, themselves, then fall into error
by being excessive in their condemnation. If five words
suffice, then it should be five verses not 20.
This is where, you know, you're going to think this is too
difficult. It's an obligation, but it's too difficult. Look at all of
these barriers, you put all these limits and adab you're putting on
I mean, we're gonna get it wrong.
Well, the thing is that, as long as you got sincerity, and you're
doing your best, and you're trying to keep this in mind, we do it, we
may make mistakes, because you can't always get it wrong, right?
We make many mistakes, but the only way to learn is on the job.
There is no other way you can learn. You will say things, okay,
that worked. You say something else that didn't work, I mustn't
do this.
I've made mistakes. Like sometimes I felt so strong.
I felt I saw something happening, which was so blatantly wrong. And
you can't go and stop everything you see so much. That's wrong, you
can't stop everything. But sometimes you just move that I
feel guilty if I don't say something. But in the heat of the
moment I did in the wrong way. I went and told him off, there was a
couple. It was a couple, it was a young man and a young woman
sitting in a cafe in, in, in the lap with a hijab, on
and by a college, and I just just went in, and I told him this is
wrong. And the reaction was obviously very negative. Right?
Had I gone and sat down, and then struck up a conversation, right?
And then said, Look, you know, what you're doing is actually
useless, right? So harmful, and so on and so forth. You know, that
may have been a better but then sometimes you moved, I hope Allah
forgive, and I hope they got something out of it. So you can
make mistakes, but that's how you're going to learn, right?
If you're sincere, insha Allah, Allah will forgive, as long as you
don't keep making the same mistake. And I am not going to do
that again. And again, because I've realized it doesn't work that
way.
You know, times change. So something which I may have worked
20 years ago is not going to work now. Because people think in a
different way. Right? We live in a time of Mind your own business is
the postmodern world, psychologically, the postmodern
world tells you that there's no one truth. Just because you think
lots of people think something is a truth, I'm not obliged to think
that way.
Literally, this is the post one world, you can have your truth,
and I can have my truth, as long as we don't harm each other.
That's the condition of postmodern world. Right? Truth, there is no
ultimate virtue, youth, you can think whatever your virtue is, and
I have the right to think what my virtue is, but I can't impose my
virtue on you. And definitely not be aggressive about it. In that
it's so difficult to do, I'm gonna modify nine Moncure. Because even
so many Muslims are then speaking in this kind of modern, postmodern
kind of idea.
Right? And then you have to tell them, that's not an Islamic idea.
Right for us, whatever Allah says, is ultimate, of course, there's a
way to implement that. Now, you know, even if there's the there's
a thing here that some people say that because there's a difference
of opinion among some scholars, or one some scholars may say
something is wrong, but there's other scholars say no, there's
some discretion in there. It's okay. So now, you can't forbid
that. This is generally what's mentioned. And you may have heard
something similar coming from him. I'm gonna heloise. But I want to
clarify that just because you can't condemn something which
other Allama may have said, is okay, under certain circumstances,
it doesn't mean that you can't give advice. You can give advice,
because clearly, among the two positions, one may be the superior
position, though there's a leeway for the other position. Number
three, number two on the same case, a lot of people use this.
And there's a lot of opinions out there.
Right about this single issues. The majority will say it's wrong.
But then there's one
isolated opinion, that is not a very well known one. Somebody said
it at some time. And people use that to say, Oh, this is a must a
little enough. This is the issue of difference. So you can't
condemn, because there's some random guy who said something.
Now, just because some random person has said something doesn't
make the issue, a different upon issue, because deferred upon issue
are only those which are deferred upon by reliable scholars who are
recognized. Otherwise, you're going to find opinions about
everything.
Bear in opinions about everything. So keep that in mind. But having
said that, even if there is a different opinion about something
that doesn't, that doesn't mean that you can't give advice. You
can give advice you can't condemn, you can't, it's not going to be
here any longer. But you can give advice at this is the superior
position. So for example, let's just say that somebody has the
opinion that video is fine, and others, that it's not fine. And
that's a valid difference of opinion, big scholars on both
sides, you can still go and say, Look, you know, and that's why my
personal belief is that way, it's not necessarily you shouldn't do
it, you should do it for the sake of data. But you shouldn't do it
all the time. And just keep posing for selfies and things like that.
Right? Because I think that just becomes a very egotistical thing.
Right? Because you go to different programs, you see different
people, even in hygiene, say, can I come and take a selfie? Like,
why? What are you going to do with that selfie? What's the point of
it? The reason is, they're going to brag I was with this so and so
but like, what are you going to get out of that? That's purely
egotistic desire, there has to be a message that you're sending when
you do something, there has to be a purpose of what you're doing. So
now if they're if this is a masala tequila, this is a different
opinion between many scholars, right, good scholars on both
sides. So I personally believe that you use it for the for a
justified purpose. But otherwise, don't waste time with it. Right?
Just to be safe, because if it is wrong, and that's the real
opinion, according to Allah, we think it's okay because this is a
means of Dawa. But according to those who say it's wrong, and if
that is a stronger opinion, then at least we want to avoid it as
much as possible. So you can see there's some other of the about
that. That clarifies for us some of the guidelines of this, it was
just a brief exposition, but hopefully, it's will give us a
working framework, Inshallah, to help us to fulfill this obligation
to some level, we may not be brave enough, and we should not leave
it, outsource it to the few harsh people who do this all the time,
without any discrimination. We all need to do this because otherwise
our whole ummah will go down. Right, the degeneration will be
total, right? If none of us do it, we need to obviously start with
our own families and circles of friends, you know, before we move
on to others, but at some level, we need to, you know, whatever
that case may be, whatever, however we need to do it, we must
make it easy inshallah. Just one final thing. According to many
jurists and theologians, such as the mamba jewelry, Qaddafi, TAFTA,
Zanni, Amedee, call the Han Husker Fie, ignore Abilene. Now, these
are all either also lease or juris saying that another condition of
where it becomes obligatory to do our model for nine Moncure is that
benefit should be expected are likely to be expected. So if
you're just going to say something, and you know, they're
not going to listen, or they're going to get worse, then it's
actually wrong to go and do it. Because you're then contributing
to evil. So you must at least feel a sense that there will be a
benefit, or most likely there's a benefit, or there definitely is
going to be a benefits.
So that basically means that one should feel reasonably sure that
the other party will take heed and listen. Otherwise, if one does not
think they will listen, then trying to enjoy the good or
forbidding the evil, it doesn't become an obligation, then you
need to do something else, then here, it's going to be
counterproductive, because there's some people that just so vile that
if you tell them something, they'll just do it more to bother
you, because they've literally lost the Eman to a degree
sometimes.
If benefit is unlikely, then it is still permissible to do animal
models are no longer right.
But possibly disliked in that case, because you may be bringing
on more evil. And if one is certain that there would be no
benefit, then it could even be impermissible to do it in that
case, as it might entail frivolousness and useless speech
that may worsen the situation.
Related to this one must be reasonably sure that one's advice
will not worsen the situation, such as leading to more sin, or
unlawful speech, or just the big debate or a big argument. Right?
Or the other party's absolute outright disdain for the religion.
That's that's what it's going to cause.
Otherwise, it would be obligatory to remain silent in this case, so
as to choose the lesser of two harms. That's why you would just
stay silent in that case. Now remember, every situation is like
that. This is kind of like the default position everybody's
adopted. Let me know I can't bother, it's going to cause it.
It's going to unsettle the situation. It's going to ruffle
the feathers. Right? That's why we never do it because we think we
shouldn't do it. Right. In in some summary, one was considered the
likely benefit of one's exhortation. And if the benefit is
unlikely, then silence might prove more beneficial for a certain
amount of time. You find another time. The Prophet sallallahu
sallam said Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say
Good or remain silent. Right? So the extreme people, they need to
just tone it down or remain silent for a moment. If one does not
enjoin the good or forbidden evil, then one must try to change the
subject so as to end the unlawful activity or speech. So if you're
sitting with people and they talking about something bad and
you just can't because you know, they won't then tactfully change
the direction of the talk. So use another means even if you can't
forbid it. So these are strategies, right? If this is not
possible, then one must just get up and leave.
But sometimes we're so cowardly that we can't even leave because
we think we're going to upset them even though they're upsetting
Allah. Right? So we ask Allah subhanaw taala to help us in this
regard. So that we can inshallah contribute to the health of our
Ummah, in sha Allah. And the benefit of all of this is that at
least the general calamities will be lessened general calamities of
having tyrannical leaders,
the withholding of resources of rain of baraka and blessing. All
of these things would come up because of that. May Allah allow
us to do things in the right way. May Allah subhanaw taala allow us
to do what the wisest thing in a situation. I can read that one I
know hamdulillahi rabbil Alameen