Riyadul Haqq – Preaching Piety Part 1
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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد
المرسلين وخاتم النبيين محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
أما بعد فأعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم
الله الرحمن الرحيم إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يِصَلُّونَ عَلَى
النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا
تَسْلِيمًا اللهم صل على سيدنا محمد النبي المين
وعلى آله وسلم تسليم Continuing with the topic
of نصيحة Insha'Allah today I'll share a
few thoughts about giving unsolicited نصيحة i.e.
advising others without being asked to do so
which falls into the category of advising others
what to do what not to do as
to what's best commanding others to virtue, preaching,
piety to others الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر
enjoining the good and forbidding the evil forbidding
wrongdoing دعوة all of these things fall into
this category of unsolicited نصيحة I've already explained
in detail that نصيحة originally refers
to sincerity, genuineness, wishing well harboring another
person's best interests and welfare and having them
at heart and the word نصيحة as we
know it i.e. giving advice, giving good
counsel this is merely a part of the
overall concept of نصيحة and when we give
advice it should be a distillation and a
pure extraction of wishing well, of genuineness, of
sincerity, of wanting the best for the other
person and as I've explained نصيحة can be
of two kinds either we are approached by
friends, family members others who confide in us
we are consulted for advice our advice, our
نصيحة is actually solicited and I've already discussed
that today I'll speak about نصيحة without being
approached again it's something I've already addressed but
as I said there are certain things about
giving unsolicited advice to others which overlap with
دعوة, giving دعوة and most importantly الأمر بالمعروف
والنهي عن المنكر commanding that which is commendable
preventing that which is disreputable and preaching virtue
and piety to others indeed the Qur'an
tells us that we are a nation that
has been chosen to invite others قُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ
أُمَّةٍ أُخْرَجَتْ بِالنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهُونَ عَنِ
الْمُنكَرِ that you are the best nation that
has been chosen or selected or extracted for
the people تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ you
enjoin the good you forbid the wrong and
there are other verses of the Qur'an
which tell us something similar we learn from
the أحاديث and giving نصيحة preaching virtue and
piety to others telling others what's right what's
wrong encouraging the good discouraging the wrong all
of these concepts are well known to every
Muslim however alongside the Qur'an and the
حديث teaching us all of these things we
are also reminded we are also told of
the timings the circumstances the conditions the prerequisites
the correct manner and method and approach to
be adopted when giving دعوة النصيحة and when
doing تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ The Qur
'an and the حديث and nor the example
of the Prophets of Allah ﷺ the Sahaba
رضي الله عنهم teachers to be absolute
in giving دعوة نصيحة and encouraging the good
and discouraging the wrong The Qur'an we
are not told to be absolute and unqualified
that this obligation or this teaching of giving
دعوة and giving نصيحة to others overrides everything
else all of the considerations No!
We learn from the example of the Messenger
ﷺ himself and his teachings and the example
of the Noble Sahaba رضي الله عنهم that
there are ways there are methods there are
times there are circumstances there are approaches and
all of this has to be taken into
consideration and a lot can be said about
this and insha'Allah I will share
as much as I can the best example
of دعوة of نصيحة of giving
advice of imparting good counsel of inviting others
to good of encouraging the معروف that which
is reputable and good and discouraging and preventing
المنكر that which is disreputable and which is
wrong The best example of all of this
is to be found in the lives of
the Prophets and the Messengers of Allah ﷺ
Primarily the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ but also in
the examples given in the Holy Qur'an
of the former Messengers and Prophets Allah cites
the Prophet Nuh ﷺ Prophet Nuh ﷺ Addressed
his people with the words أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي
وَأَنْصَحُ لَكُمْ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
I convey to you the messages of my
Lord وَأَنْصَحُ لَكُمْ And I am sincere to
you That same concept of sincerity of wishing
well of wanting the best for his nation
and as a result of advising them of
what leads to such goodness and welfare and
their best interest So whichever way you translate
وَأَنْصَحُ لَكُمْ And I am sincere to you
I wish the best for you I wish
well for you I advise you وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ
اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ And I know that
from Allah which you do not know He
was the prophet of Allah and he knew
what he was saying He knew things that
his people were not aware of because he
was a carrier of revelation All of this
was communicated to him from Allah and he
was conveying the words and the messages of
Allah as he said in the beginning of
the verse But one thing which I will
return to here is his words وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ
اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ And I know that
which you do not know Allah gives the
example of Prophet Hud عليه السلام who was
sent to the people of Al وَإِلَىٰ عَادٍ
أَخَاهُمْ هُدًى And to the people of Al
we sent one of them, Hud And one
of the things which he said to his
people is similarly أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي وَأَنَ لَكُمْ
نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ I convey to you the messages
of my Lord وَأَنَ لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ And
I am a trustworthy, sincere well-wisher for
you Again, ناصح I seek the best for
you I wish well for you I am
sincere towards you And whereas in the other
verse, Nuh عليه السلام said I know that
from Allah which you do not know Here,
Hud عليه السلام said And I am a
trustworthy well-wisher for you You can trust
me And these words were true for all
of the Prophets of Allah Not just the
Prophet Nuh عليه السلام All the Prophets, Hud
عليه السلام All of them wished the best,
wanted the best All of them were sincere,
compassionate, concerned, considerate All of them knew that
from Allah which their respective nations and peoples
did not know And all of them were
trustworthy in their message They were trustworthy in
their claim of being sincere and of being
true well-wishers The same with the Prophet
Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم As Allah describes
him in the Noble Qur'an الذين يتبعون
الرسول النبي الأمي الذي يجدونه مكتوبا عندهم في
التوراة والإنجيل يأمرهم بالمعروف ويمهاهم عن المنكر ويحل
لهم الطيبات ويحرم عليهم الخبائث ويضع عنهم إسرهم
والأغلال التي كانت عليهم Those who follow the
unlettered messenger and prophet whom they
find mentioned in the Torah and in the
Injil What does he do?
يأمرهم بالمعروف وينهاهم عن المنكر He instructs them
to good and he prevents them from wrong
ويحل لهم الطيبات and he makes lawful for
them the pure and good things ويحرم عليهم
الخبائث and he makes unlawful for them the
impure things ويضع عنهم إسرهم and he removes
from them their burden والأغلال التي كانت عليهم
and the shackles and fetters that bound them
So in this one verse alone Allah tells
us a lot about the دعوة and the
نصيحة and the أمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر
of the prophet ﷺ His call, his invitation,
his advice, his good counsel His making things
lawful and unlawful Instructing good and forbidding wrong
But later in the verse Allah tells us
ويضع عنهم إسرهم and he removes from them
their burden and he unfetters them and shackles
them He unchains them That's again something we
need to consider That the da'wah of
the prophet ﷺ His commanding good and forbidding
wrong His making things lawful, unlawful His encouragement
and discouragement His persuasion and his dissuasion His
da'wah, his call, his invitation, his good
counsel and advice All of these things led
to people's freedom, liberation To their ease, to
their comfort, to their well-being To the
removal of their burdens, of their shackles Of
their fetters, of their chains This is something
which again I will return to So these
are just some of the examples of the
da'wah Of the messengers of Allah ﷺ
In another verse about the prophet ﷺ Allah
ﷻ says وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ Earlier
Allah quotes the hypocrites وَمِنْهُمُ الَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ النَّبِيَّ
وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ أُذُنُ قُلْ أُذُنُ خَيْرٍ لَّكُمْ يُؤْمِنُ
بِاللَّهِ وَيُؤْمِنُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ
Allah says And there are of those i
.e. the hypocrites Who hurt the prophet And
they say of him هو أُذن, he is
soft of ear i.e. he is credulous
He is naive He believes everything So they
would come to him Plead their excuses Lie
to him Prophet ﷺ would hema them Wouldn't
press the issue with them And he would
leave them And they would think that we
have got away And they would then go
away Commenting on how In their words and
in their view How simple, how credulous How
naive and how believing and trusting he was
That he would accept anything that was said
to him So Allah clarifies that قُلْ
أُذْنُ خَيْرٍ لَّكُمْ That the prophet ﷺ is
tolerant And accepting And forgiving and overlooking And
he is trusting Not because he is naive
or unaware Or any of the other negative
and lowly things that you may think of
him Rather he does this Out of the
goodness of his soul and character He does
this Because he seeks the best for all
of you قُلْ أُذْنُ خَيْرٍ لَّكُمْ He wants
the best for you And this is why
Allah continues in the verse يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ He
believes in Allah وَيُؤْمِنُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ And he trusts
the believers وَرَحْمَةٌ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ And he
is a mercy for those amongst you who
have believed This was the Again this was
part of his da'wah and nasiha He
always wanted the best This was his nusr
His sincerity and his genuineness And in a
similar vein Allah mentions لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ
أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِمَا عَنِدْتُمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ
رَؤُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ Verily a messenger has come to
you from yourselves That which weighs down Sorry
that which you suffer Weighs down heavily on
him It is difficult and burdensome for him
Your suffering is difficult and burdensome for him
Your suffering weighs down heavily on him حَرِيصٌ
عَلَيْكُمْ He is desirous of your welfare and
your good That same nusr بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَؤُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ
He is most compassionate and most merciful with
the believers All of these sentiments of sincerity
Of genuineness, of compassion, of mercy Of wanting
the best Of wishing well Of being desirous
Of the ummah's welfare Their betterment and well
-being All of these things played a part
In the da'wah and in the nasiha
Of the Prophet ﷺ Furthermore, Allah says in
surat al-Ahzab النَّبِيُّ أَوْلَىٰ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنَنفُسِهِمْ وَأَزْوَاجُهُ
أُمَّهَا دُرْمُ The Prophet is closer and dearer
And more deserving Of the believers To the
believers Than their own souls, than themselves And
his wives are their mothers The Prophet ﷺ
was in a way Like a father to
the whole ummah And truly he was closer
And he is closer and he is More
deserving to the believers Than their own souls
Again, this is something which played A major
part In the advice and in the nasiha
And in the da'wah Of Rasulullah ﷺ
And his instructions to good And prohibitions from
wrong So the best example of da'wah
Of nasiha Of enjoining the good, forbidding the
wrong Is that of the Prophet ﷺ And
there is something in all of these Points
mentioned in the verses of the Holy Qur
'an That we can learn When it comes
to giving da'wah and nasiha ourselves So
let's look at them First and foremost Even
before ensuring that we are sincere In giving
da'wah We need to ask ourselves whether
we are qualified Are we qualified to give
nasiha?
To give da'wah?
Are we in that position?
To tell others what's right, what's wrong?
To tell others what to do, what not
to do?
The Prophet ﷺ Their sincerity was unquestionable Their
concern and compassion For their respective peoples Was
unparalleled, unrivaled In all of these words about
the Prophet ﷺ We need to ask ourselves
Can we follow in their footsteps?
So the Prophet Nuh ﷺ said وَأَنصَحُ لَكُمْ
أَعْلَمُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ I advise
you, I seek the best for you I
wish well for you And I know that
from Allah which you do not know We
need to ask ourselves Am I qualified?
Do I have that knowledge?
Do I have that understanding?
Do I have that level of sincerity?
That true passion and concern?
We may think we do But it's very
easy to fall into that trap Of believing
And actually being deceived by shaytan And our
ego, our lower self, our nafs That we
are genuine We are sincere in our motives
We do wish the best for the other
person And that's why we are telling them
What to do, what not to do We
are advising them In fact, psychologists In psychology,
in psychiatry Sometimes the word advice Is often
put between apostrophes In the sense and in
the context that That person is advising you
What do they mean when they say That
person is advising you?
A lot of the time Verbal abuse and
emotional abuse Is committed on the pretext of
advice And the purpose isn't advice The goal
is not to make the other person better
Rather is to rubbish them and put them
down To make them feel bad So
a person is told about their flaws Their
weaknesses, their defects They are reminded of their
problems But the goal isn't to advise them
Sincerely, genuinely, with compassion With concern, with love
Having their welfare and their best interests at
heart No, rather this is a session of
bashing To verbally and emotionally bash them and
abuse them Under the pretext of giving advice
So the word is Advice is often placed
between apostrophes That the other person is advising
you They are not advising you They are
beating you up verbally and emotionally They are
abusing you They are putting you down And
this is part of their twisted game Their
abuse And they will sprinkle words of sugarcoating
Such as, I'm only telling you for your
own good I'm only advising you I'm only
looking out for you I'm only telling you
what's best for you So before we give
nasīḥah to others We have to ask ourselves
a number of questions And one of them
is this Am I genuinely concerned for the
other person?
Am I qualified?
And to be qualified you have to have
that nasīḥah To give nasīḥah To be qualified
to give nasīḥah You have to have nasīḥah
in you And what is that nasīḥah?
To give nasīḥah, i.e. advice You have
to have nasīḥah, i.e. genuineness, sincerity True
compassion, true concern The other person's welfare and
best interests At heart and true well-wishing
for the other To give nasīḥah, advice You
have to have the wider concept of nasīḥah
i.e. all of these meanings and more
in yourself So we may think we are
genuinely compassionate and concerned And we have the
other person's best interests and welfare at heart
But it's very easy for the nafs, for
shayṭān For our lower self, our ego to
see this And this is why abusers, verbal
and emotional and mental abusers This is how
they convince themselves and others Because the ego,
that's a game it plays It makes a
person think, I'm telling them for their own
good And so it's very easy to believe
that I am doing something good When the
achieved effect is a total opposite How easy
is it for a person to be misled?
Look at the family of the Prophet Ya
'qub alayhi s-salām The Prophet Ya'qub
alayhi s-salām was a Prophet of Allah
The father of another Prophet, Yusuf alayhi s
-salām The son of another Prophet, Ishaq alayhi
s-salām The grandson of another Prophet, Ibrahim
alayhi s-salām And this was a noble
lineage The sahabah r.a asked the Prophet
ﷺ من أكرم الناس who is the most
noble, the most dignified of all people So
the Prophet ﷺ said الكريم بن الكريم بن
الكريم بن الكريم The noblest of all people
is the noble son of the noble son
of the noble son of the noble i
.e. the Prophet Yusuf, son of the Prophet
Ya'qub Son of the Prophet Ishaq, son
of the Prophet Ibrahim alayhi s-salām What
a noble lineage, what a noble household And
we would, we immediately assume that a pious
person's household will have an atmosphere and a
climate of piety So what could be said
of the household of a Prophet of Allah
alayhi s-salām?
Imagine the climate and the environment and the
atmosphere within the home of the Prophet Ya
'qub alayhi s-salām whose own son was
destined to be a great Prophet of Allah,
Yusuf alayhi s-salām whose own father was
a Prophet of Allah, Ishaq alayhi s-salām
whose own grandfather was a great Prophet of
Allah, Ibrahim alayhi s-salām Imagine the atmosphere
and the climate within the household of such
a noble family And yet the blood brothers
of Yusuf alayhi s-salām, the sons of
Ya'qub alayhi s-salām the grandchildren and
the great-grandchildren of the Prophets of Allah
They were children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
the Prophets of Allah Even they believed or
they said and claimed that they had the
best interests and the welfare of Yusuf their
brother at heart They wished well for him,
they were sincere towards him They were genuinely
concerned and compassionate about him And thus Allah
quotes them They said to their father Ya
'qub alayhi s-salām مَا لَكَ لَا تَأْمَنَّا
عَلَىٰ يُصِفُ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَنَاصِحُونَ O father what
is it with you that you do not
trust us with Yusuf وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَنَاصِحُونَ And
indeed we are his well-wishers We truly
wish the best for him And they said
it emphatically وَإِنَّا And surely لَهُ لَا مُتَّأْكِيد
Verily most assuredly Verily we are most assuredly
ناصحون His well-wishers They said that emphatically
to their father Eventually at one some stage
Their father did let them Let Yusuf alayhi
s-salām go with them And what did
they do?
They were envious They plotted and schemed against
him They wanted to be rid of him
for good So imagine if it was so
easy For the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren
Of the prophets of Allah alayhi s-salām
For the brothers of a prophet of Allah
To believe wrongly or to claim wrongly That
they were well-wishers And sincere in their
concern and compassion For their own brother Then
imagine how easy it is for us To
slip into this delusion And this false thinking
And this false belief Of being genuinely naasih
Sincere, well-wishing, genuine And true to others
We have to check our sincerity Our genuineness,
our naasih Our concern, our compassion repeatedly Do
I have that level of compassion and concern
Described about the prophet ﷺ?
عزيز عليهم وعليهم حريص عليكم بالمؤمنين رؤوف الرحيم
That your suffering weighs heavily on him He
is desirous of your welfare And he is
most compassionate And most merciful with the believers
Do we have even a fraction of that?
Can we be trusted in our naasihah In
our nuṣḥ Our genuineness and our sincerity And
concern for others As the prophet ﷺ said
Echoing the sentiments of all of the prophets
of Allah وَأَنَا لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ That I
convey to you the messages of my Lord
And I am a trustworthy I am a
trusted well-wisher for you Do we have
that in us?
So this is one of the first things
we need to consider Am I qualified?
And part of that qualification is That you
need to be genuinely concerned about the other
person Genuinely Not what your nafs and your
ego Misleads you into believing And Of course
it goes without saying That in all of
this I address myself first Am I qualified?
And part of that qualification is That I
have to truly love this person And genuinely
want the best for him Just as we
learnt from those ḥadīth That when someone sees
a dream As Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal relates
From the companion Abu Razin رضي الله عنه
That the Prophet ﷺ said That when a
person sees a dream Because that dream is
subject to interpretation It's open to interpretation One
shouldn't relate that dream Which is a thing
of confidence And a matter of trust One
shouldn't relate that dream To anyone except حبيب
لبين A beloved Or a very intelligent person
And In another narration of the same ḥadīth
What's the wording?
إِلَّا عَلَى وَادٍ أَوْذِي رَأْي That he should
not relate it To anyone except One who
loves him واد أَوْذِي رَأْي Or a person
of sound opinion And in the same ḥadīth
Related by Imam Tirmidhi رحمه الله From Abu
Hurayrah رضي الله عنه The Prophet ﷺ said
He should not relate this dream Except to
عالم أو ناصح Except to one who is
A scholar Or ناصح A genuine well-wisher
Just as the Prophet ﷺ Nuh ﷺ said
وَعَلَمُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ I know
that from Allah which ye do not know
And as Shua'i As Zuhud ﷺ said
وَأَنَا لَكُم نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ Same word ناصح And
I am a trusted well-wisher for you
So can we trust ourselves To be genuine
well-wishers For the other person?
Do we have that level of love For
that person?
To be able to advise them Tell them
what to do What not to do Sincerely
So this is something we need to Check
and review in ourselves Before giving nasiha Before
giving advice And before giving da'wah Before
telling others what to do What not to
do What's wrong and good What's right and
what's not It's very easy to slip into
that False belief In the Qur'an time
and time again Allah corrects such Deception and
delusion Speaking of the hypocrites Allah says وَإِذَا
قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا
نَحْنُ مُسْلِحُونَ أَلَىٰ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِنْ لَا
يَشْعُرُونَ And when it is said to them
Do not spread mischief In the land They
say إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْلِحُونَ We are but reformers
We are only doers of good So they
claim to do good They claim to make
things better They claim to be reformers And
yet Allah testifies Immediately thereafter أَلَىٰ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ
الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِنْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ Lo!
Indeed they Verily they are the corrupters They
are the spreaders of strife Discord and corruption
وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ And they don't even realize
Speaking of the hypocrites again In the context
of Masjid Dhira Allah سبحانه وتعالى said That
they have erected a masjid Which Allah Himself
calls a masjid of harm Or
a masjid erected With the view to harm
Allah سبحانه وتعالى says وَلَيَحْلِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَضْنَا إِلَّا
الْحُسْنَةُ وَاللَّهُ يَشَهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَابِهُونَ And they will
most assuredly swear an oath That إِنْ أَرَضْنَا
إِلَّا الْحُسْنَةُ By Allah we only sought to
do good We only intended to do good
By Allah we did not intend anything except
good And Allah immediately says thereafter وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ
إِنَّهُمْ لَكَابِهُونَ Allah testifies that indeed they are
lies Surely lies So time and time again
The Qur'an tells us of those Not
just the hypocrites but others too Who wrongly
claimed that they were doing good They were
well-wishers They wanted the best for others
They were only trying to do good But
the effect was the end result was the
total opposite Carnage, mayhem, corruption, destruction, strife,
discord So we need to ask ourselves Before
opening our mouths to give nasihat to anyone
To give dawah, to give advice To preach
piety and virtue to others To point out
the right and the wrong To enjoin the
good and prevent the wrong Before doing any
of this We really need to question ourselves
And ask, am I qualified?
Do I have that level of sincerity?
Do I have that level of compassion and
concern?
As the Prophet ﷺ said لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ
حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لِأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ Imam Bukhari
and others relate this from Anas bin Amalik
رضي الله عنه That one of you does
not believe Until he desires, until he loves
for his brother That which he loves for
himself That's the level of desiring the best
for the other person As much as one
desires good for oneself So we should question
our own level of sincerity And genuineness and
concern and compassion For the other Do we
truly wish the best for them?
One thing Secondly, are we qualified in terms
of knowledge?
Do we have that knowledge, that wisdom, that
understanding?
Allahu Akbar As the Prophet ﷺ says in
the hadith of Tirmidhi Related from Abu Hurairah
رضي الله عنه That, do not relate the
dream except to an alim or an asih
Do not relate to your dream which is
subject to and open to interpretation Except to
a scholar or a true well-wisher And
in the hadith of Abu Razin Except to
one who loves i.e. loves you And
who is of sound opinion Or a habib,
someone that you love and trust Or a
labib, someone who is wise and intelligent These
are the qualities that are required in giving
nasiha In giving da'wah Otherwise it could
result, it could be very counterproductive And possibly
sinful This doesn't mean that no one should
give da'wah, no one should give nasiha
That's not the message here The message is
yes, we have been told to give da
'wah We have been told to give nasiha
But at the same time We have been
told how and when and where And to
whom and by whom Everything has its time,
its place, its context Just as in that
famous hadith of Abu Thalibah al-Khushni رضي
الله عنه Someone approached him It's a hadith
related by Ibn Majah in his sunan By
Abu Dawud and others That someone approached by
Ibn Majah in his sunan And also by
others That someone approached him and said, what
do we do with this verse?
Where Allah says يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ
أَنفُسَكُمْ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا احْتَدَيْتُمْ That
O believers, be concerned with yourselves لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ
مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا احْتَدَيْتُمْ As long as you
have found guidance Then those who have lost
the way Those who are wayward cannot harm
you So of course this verse immediately throws
up a question Well, how does this verse
fit With the other commandments and instructions of
giving da'wah, giving nasihah And most importantly
of enjoying the good and forbidding the wrong
Here the verse says, concern yourselves with yourselves
لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا احْتَدَيْتُمْ As long
as you have found guidance Then those who
are wayward cannot harm you So someone approached
the noble companion Abu Thalib al-Khushni رضي
الله عنه With this question So he said,
you've asked the right person Because I questioned
the Prophet of Allah about this But the
Prophet ﷺ's words to me were بَلْ اِتَّمِرُوا
بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهُوا عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا رَأَيْتَ شُحًّا
مُطَاعًا وَهَوًا مُتَّبَعًا وَدُنْيَا مُؤْثَرًا وَعِجَابًا كُلَّذِي رَأْيٍ
بِرَأْيِهِ فَعَلَيْكَ بِخَاصَّةِ أَمْرِ نَفْسِكَ Prophet
ﷺ said, no, nay Of course instruct the
good and forbid the wrong Until you see
certain things And what are those things?
Prophet ﷺ mentioned four things شُحًا مُطَاعًا Greed
which is obeyed وَهَوًا مُتَّبَعًا And desire which
is followed وَدُنْيَا مُؤْثَرًا And the world which
is given preference And number four وَعِجَابَ كُلَّذِي
رَأْيٍ بِرَأْيِهِ And the self-conceit of an
opinionated person And the
conceit of an opinionated person with his opinion
So such beautiful words So Abu Thalibah al
-Khushni رضي الله عنه Being a companion of
the Messenger of Allah He sought clarification about
this verse And others approached him with the
same query And he conveyed to them the
clarification of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ So
what this hadith shows is indeed this That
yes we should give da'wah We should
give nasiha We are to point out the
wrong and the right Encourage the good and
discourage the wrong But as I said at
the beginning This isn't unqualified This isn't absolute
It has its time Its condition Its context
Its circumstance Its people Its audience Its subjects
It has its limits And apart from these
four things that the Prophet ﷺ said There
are other considerations which I have been mentioning
Our level of concern and compassion and love
And of the other person Of the recipient
of our nasiha and da'wah Our qualification
So in this hadith the Prophet ﷺ speaks
of the target audience That is the target
audience qualified to receive your الأمر بالمعروف النهي
عن المنكر Is it qualified?
If it's not qualified If it's not worthy
Then don't And similarly On the flip side
What I've been mentioning is That is the
person giving the nasiha Is the person enjoining
the good and forbidding the wrong Qualified or
not?
And if they are not qualified If they
don't fulfil those conditions and these requirements Should
they be giving nasiha?
So what are those four things that the
Prophet ﷺ said?
Insha'Allah I will elaborate on this on
another occasion But quickly If of course the
Prophet ﷺ said بَلْإِقْتَمِرُوا بِالْمَعْرُوفِ Nay, of course
Instruct the good, preach virtue and piety And
forbid the wrong Until you see شُحَن مُطَاعًا
Greed which is followed If someone lavishly and
doggedly follows Their greed and their avarice Are
your words of encouragement and discouragement Of piety
and virtue Really going to have any effect
on them?
Especially when this greed And this avarice which
is Doggedly obeyed and followed and pursued The
person is just pursuing greed When this is
coupled with the other traits And what are
they?
وَهَوَ مُطَّبَعًا And desire which is followed So
not only is a person greedy And filled
with avarice Which he pursues The person is
also a slave to their temptations And to
their lower self And their lowly desires Which
they follow, which they obey وَذُنْيَا مُعْثَرًا And
when you see the third trait which is
The world which is given preference وَذُنْيَا مُعْثَرًا
The world which is given preference What this
means is People give preference To this immediate
life of the world As opposed to the
everlasting life of the hereafter They aren't concerned
about the hereafter All that matters to them
is the here and now And they give
the dunya They give the worldly life and
its considerations Preference over everything else And number
four وَإِعْجَابَ كُلِّ ذِي رَأْيٍ بِرَأْيٍ And the
conceits Of an opinionated person with their opinion
That not only is a person corrupt of
character Following their lowly desires Giving the worldly
consideration Preference over everything else And pursuing greed
and avarice Along with these traits of corruption
in character Mentally too the person is unrelenting
Is impervious to good advice and good counsel
Because mentally they are full of themselves They
are arrogant Self-conceited Obsessed with their own
opinion They are conceited with their opinion They
are opinionated There is no space left in
their mind There is no inclination or willingness
in their character or heart But in them
because of the other three aforementioned traits Though
even mentally they are closed because they are
opinionated All that matters to them is what
they think I am right And that's it
My way or the highway That's it So
how do you encourage such a person Or
discourage them from what's wrong They want to
enforce their opinion on others Because they are
so conceited with their own opinion They are
so opinionated So there are so many considerations
Going back to what I was saying earlier
We need to ensure that we are qualified
Not only is the target audience qualified To
receive our message of nasihah Of da'wah
And of enjoining the good and forbidding the
wrong But we also need to ensure that
we are qualified We have that level of
compassion and sincerity Of course we can never
achieve that of the That level of the
Prophet ﷺ But some way there at least
To ensure that we are sincere We are
concerned and compassionate And most important we are
qualified We have that knowledge And if we
have that knowledge The truth is we wouldn't
be imposing our own opinion on others So
giving nasihah Is not permission To just force
our own opinion And push ahead with our
thoughts Scholars
have mentioned That just from saying Allahu Akbar
Takbeerat al-tahrim Just from the pronouncement of
consecration In salah Allahu Akbar Where a person
raises a hand Says Allahu Akbar And fasten
their hands Or not even fasten Because Forgive
me Where a person raises their hands And
says Allahu Akbar From that point onwards To
salam Where a person says As-salamu alaykum
wa rahmatullah To end their salah Just from
that one point of takbeer Allahu Akbar To
as-salamu alaykum Ulema have mentioned that there
are over 200 Issues in which the ulema
have differed Over 200 Just from saying Allahu
Akbar To as-salamu alaykum And that's why
I hesitate I pause, I have to correct
myself That when a person says Allahu Akbar
And then fastens their hands In fact that
in itself is a point of difference Should
you fasten your hands?
Yes or no?
They are both opinions It's famously known Even
amongst the Sunni ulema Even amongst the ulema
of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah That
many ulema of the Maliki school of fiqh
Or of the opinion That you don't fasten
your hands at all But you do irsa
Which is You leave your arms hanging by
the side You don't fasten them at all
And once you fasten them Where?
Below the navel, above the navel They are
both opinions Imam Tirmidhi mentions both Below the
navel, above the navel And then he actually
adds That وَالأَمْرُ وَاسِعٌ عِنْدَهُمْ That this affair,
this matter Of where you should place your
hands in salah Is واسع Broad Amongst them
According to them It doesn't matter Of course
All of the ulema have stipulated What's better
And again that's just another difference of opinion
When you raise your hands and say Allahu
Akbar Till where?
Shoulders Till the earlobes Higher, lower Again there
are differences of opinion Amongst the ulema And
these differences are derived From the scriptures From
the texts And their differing interpretations And from
the different practices In the wide area Of
early Islam Where Muslims first learnt these issues
From their elders and their teachers Beginning from
the noble companions رضي الله عنهم So if
from the beginning of salah Till the end
of salah From Allahu Akbar to Assalamu Alaikum
The ulema have identified Countless Hundreds and hundreds
of different opinions And that's just in one
issue Of salah How is it possible?
How is it conceivable?
To impose one opinion on everyone That is
not enjoying the good And forbidding the wrong
Far from it When
we give da'wah When we enjoy the
good When we forbid the wrong There are
all of these considerations Am I sincere?
Am I qualified?
Do I have that level of compassion?
Do I have that nasiha in me to
give nasiha?
A person came to Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي
الله عنه And said to him I want
to do الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر Listen
to this story I want to do الأمر
بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر I want to instruct
the good And I want to forbid the
wrong So this man came to who?
Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه So Abdullah
ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه said There are
three verses of the Qur'an Have you
mastered them?
أحكمت Have you secured yourself?
Regarding these three verses The first one Allah
سبحانه وتعالى says In the Holy Qur'an
أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسِ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَطْلُونَ
الْكِتَابِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ What do you instruct people
to virtue?
And you forget yourselves Even though you recite
the book What?
Do you have no sense?
أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسِ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ What do you
instruct people?
To do good And you forget yourselves So
Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه said to
him Have you made yourself secure in this
verse?
Have you mastered this verse?
Have you made yourself firm in this?
The man said no So then Abdullah ibn
Abbas رضي الله عنه said Then there's another
verse of the Qur'an يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ كَبُرَ مَقْتًا
عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَن تَقُولُوا مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ O
believers!
Why do you say that which you do
not do?
It is a thing of great anger with
Allah that you say that which you do
not do So Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه
said to him Have you made yourself secure
and firm in this verse?
Have you mastered this verse?
He said no Then Ibn Abbas رضي الله
عنه said to him And what of another
verse of the Qur'an Where Allah cites
Shu'ayb عليه السلام another messenger of Allah
When he preached to his people and then
added the word وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُخَالِفَكُمْ إِلَى
مَا أَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلَّا الْإِصْلَاحَ مَا
اسْتَطَعْتُ وَمَا تَوْفِيقِ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ
أُنِيبُ Preaching to his people, Shu'ayb عليه
السلام said to them And I do not
wish to oppose you In that which I
forbid you from إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلَّا الْإِصْلَاحَ مَا
اسْتَطَعْتُ I only seek to make good as
much as I can وَمَا تَوْفِيقِ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ
And my guidance and my enablement is only
by Allah Upon Him do I rely and
unto Him do I turn So Ibn Abbas
رضي الله عنه said Have you made yourself
firm and secure in this verse?
Have you mastered this?
These are just three verses of the Qur
'an and they actually are referred to by
many ulema إبراهيم النخعي أتابعي One of the
students of the Companions رضي الله عنهم He
would say that I hesitate to tell people
what to do, what not to do because
of these three verses of the whole Qur
'an Number one, do you instruct people to
good?
Do you command people to virtue?
Do you preach piety to the people and
forget yourselves?
Number two, oh believers Why do you say
that which you do not do?
It is a thing of great anger with
Allah that you say that which you do
not do And number three, the words of
Sha'ib عليه السلام The messenger of Allah
That I do not wish to or I
do not intend to oppose you in what
I forbid you myself from I only wish,
I only intend to make something good and
right to the best of my ability But
even my ability and my guidance and my
enablement is only coming from Allah It is
on him that I rely, it is unto
him that I attend Allahu Akbar Even da
'wah, nasiha and the enjoyment of good and
the forbidding of wrong with such humility on
the part of a messenger of Allah عليه
السلام These are three verses which we should
remind ourselves of before we speak As that
famous scholar sat down with his students and
remained silent for a very very long time
And then finally he spoke And he spoke
with a couplet Words of poetry And
the whole audience burst into tears What did
he say?
An ungodly person Commanding people to godliness A
doctor Prescribing medication for the people While the
doctor himself is ill and sick Humility These
were scholars, saints, companions And yet these verses
of the Holy Qur'an were almost in
their minds Before they parted their lips to
give nasiha Advice, good counsel, to give da
'wah To do al-amr bil ma'ruf
and nahi al-munkar These are just some
of the considerations There are others too Which
inshallah I will speak on subsequently What are
some of the other considerations?
I'll expand on the point of do I
have the knowledge?
Do I have that understanding?
What are the right times?
The right circumstances?
Does every issue need to be addressed that
we think should be addressed?
Even though we may believe it to be
right And indeed it may be haq We
need to take into consideration Timing, circumstances, audiences,
context There's a lot more to say And
inshallah I will expand on this In a
subsequent talk May Allah enable us to gain
The correct understanding of the words of Allah
And the words of his noble messenger May
Allah make us wise and intelligent And sincere
even in our preaching Our nasiha, our sharing
advice And peace be upon his servant and
messenger Our prophet Muhammad And upon his family
and companions Glory be to Allah and praise
be to Him I bear witness that there
is no god but Allah I seek forgiveness
from Allah and repent to Him