Quranic Concepts #2 – What is Naseeha

In a very famous Hadith the Prophet alayhi salatu salam said I do not see how it's translated often as the religion or the deen is sincere advice and Naseeha. Culturally, we take it to mean advice, but really it means something broader than that. sincere advice is one application or one result of what Naseeha is. What does the law say? In the Koran? Yeah, you Alladhina amanu to Elahi Toba, tena, Soha. Right, it has to do with sincerity. And it also has to do with loyalty, right? Because in the Arabic language we say someone is not so if somebody is good willed, intends well, and is loyal, right? Maybe fidelity might be a word that we can use as well, if and that's like, for example,

imagine there's a shopkeeper and somebody comes into their store. And they say, Okay, I want to buy this thing. Okay, this, the shopkeeper knows that that same thing is cheaper next door? What's he going to do? Is he going to take the money and shut up? Or is he going to tell his customer look, you can save a few bucks if you go buy it from my neighbor, right? If he tells the customer, you can save a few bucks if you buy it from my neighbor. That's nice. So that's somebody who is not just sincere, but loyal. He's loyal to your best interests. Right? He's loyal to you. And so he's going to treat you as he treats himself. He's going to look out for you and your best interest that just

as he looks out for himself. So these are all the sorts of meanings that that revolve around this concept of necie Hana so and that clarifies the rest of the Hadith because if we think that Nestle had only means sincere advice, the rest of the Hadith doesn't make any sense. Because they say, Li men, now rasool Allah said,

No, see her for who? And he says Lila, he says first to Allah, you're gonna give advice to Allah? How does it make? Well, we can't accept sincere advice as the as the literal meaning or the intended meaning of Messiah. So the first thing he says, Lila, right, well, he will, he could be he will eurosla he and he goes on to all these sorts of things, you know, his revelation, and his prophets and, and and to the Muslims. Okay, so then what's the broader meaning behind it? Now see how it has to do with loyalty, it has to do with sincerity, it has to do with fidelity, we are loyal to a lost penalty, either, right. We're loyal to Allah's revelation, more than we're loyal to anything else in

this world. More to more than we're loyal to any sort of political entity or political party or political program, or anything we're loyal to a lot has revelation. Yes, we can say that. And we're loyal to his prophets, and his messengers, and we're loyal to each other as one community of faith. What is one of the byproducts of that loyalty is the conventional meaning of advice. Yeah, if you're loyal to somebody, you're not to another human being, you're not going to let them commit a mistake. And you realize that it's a mistake. And there's different degrees of mistakes that sometimes you might have to. But generally speaking, if you're loyal to somebody, and you see that they're going

down a bad road, you're going to say something, you're going to try to find a solution. You're not going to lord over them and say, like, well, this is the right way. And you need to listen to me. And this is just mine to see, I know that it comes from Goodwill, it comes from loyalty, and it comes from wanting to see a good result for somebody else. And so if you are sincere, and if you are loyal and you want a good result for somebody else, for your brother, or your sister Muslim, aren't you going to be sensitive to the way that you give your advice? Aren't you going to want to maximize the likelihood that they're going to take your advice? Are you going to approach a random stranger,

if that person probably isn't going to listen to you? Are you going to approach somebody who's older than you and more experienced than you and kind of have these airs of superiority? No, if you are a sincere person, if you have loyalty. And if you really want some, if you really want what's good for somebody else, you're going to take every single opportunity, you're going to exercise every single technique possible, to make it likely that that person is going to follow your advice. You're not just going to give it cold and say, Well, I gave you my advice. And if you agree with it, then you're guided. And if you disagree with it, then your hearts sealed. That's what some of us do. And

we call it and see her, and it's not NESEA where's the loyalty? Where's the sincerity? Would you like to be treated that way? I guarantee you the answer is no. So where's the where's the goodwill towards others? And there's another extreme okay, it's like so that doesn't mean that we can't ever say anything for fear of it not being accepted. Now, there's sometimes you know, you have to be in between, and it's right on one side. You can't just imagine that you're going to just say it however you're going to say it and if they don't accept it, then that's their problem. Now that's not sensitive enough. That's not indicating loyalty or enough loyalty. On the other hand, you can't just

baby everybody, right or be afraid of how they're

gonna react or that they might not take it, they might not take your advice. But if you've thought, and you've put yourself out that's, that's, I think that would be the rule or how to check yourself, put yourself in their situation. Be like, if I were in this person's situation what I want somebody to say something to me at this point? If the answer is yes, then you exercise all the caution that you can take be, you know, nice and do it in a situation a time and a place that's suitable from a relationship that's suitable, right? And deliver it. And then Hamdulillah, if they take it from you, great. If they don't take it from you, great. It might be true that years down the line, they look

back and like, man, they were right, I really should have listened to them. And they did. So it has to be we have to weigh all these things. But you know, and every community is different. We have some communities that teeter more towards one extreme and then some communities that tear more to the other extreme, but the overall purpose is getting people to be sensitive to these things. It's not just about what you know, it's not just about shooting from the hip, whatever little piece of information that you think you have I read online, I heard somewhere, somebody told me once No, no. Like you need to exercise caution. And the amount of caution that you exercise is going to indicate

the level of your loyalty and sincerity to that other person.