The Distinct Commands Of Doing Good And Preventing Evil

Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil: A Collective Obligation

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah, and enough. And peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen.

Allah, the Exalted, said in the seal of His revelation — after we seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan — in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam. Respected elders, young students. Allah, the Exalted, has created the system of life and death as a test for all of us.

He has created life and death to see and test who amongst us are best in our actions. And just like Allah, the Exalted, has commanded us to do good and has commanded us to abstain from evil, likewise He has ordered us that we must instruct others to do good and that we must prevent others from evil. These are separate commands from Allah, the Exalted.

Four Distinct Commands

One is الأمر بالمعروف — to do good deeds. And النهي عن المنكر — to abstain from sins. Likewise, there is a command of الدعوة إلى الخير — that we must invite others toward good deeds. And النهي عن المنكر — we must prevent others from sins. They are both commandments of Allah, the Exalted. They are both individual, separate commands of Allah, the Exalted.

When we say they are separate, the reason we need to emphasize that is because many times in our approach we consider one to be the condition for the other to apply.

Let us take a step back. Again, I'll repeat that: there is a command of العمل الصالح — to do good — from Allah, the Exalted. We need to do good deeds. There is also a command from Allah of الدعوة إلى الخير — to invite towards good deeds. There is a command from Allah, the Exalted, of اجتناب المعاصي — to avoid sins. There is another command from Allah, the Exalted, of النهي عن المنكر — to prevent others and stop others from sin. And they are all separate commands. One is not contingent on the other.

The Analogy of Salah and Fasting

An example of that would be: there is a command of Allah to perform salah, and there is a command of Allah to fast in Ramadan. The reason this example will be beneficial is because of what we will see in the comparison.

So there is a command to pray. What is the level of the command of praying? It is fard ayn, five times a day. And there is a command to fast.

أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ is a command of Allah. And fasting is also prescribed — it's fard. Both are individual fard. So what are we obligated to do? We are obligated to pray every day. We are also obligated to fast in Ramadan. We cannot just pray and not fast. We cannot fast and not pray. We have to do both.

Not only do we have to do both, but if a person is doing one and not the other — if a person, for example in this case, it would make sense that we see unfortunately that despite the fact salah is fard five times a day — or perhaps because it is fard five times a day — there are many people who are negligent, because it is a recurring obligation. Fasting, on the other hand, is once in a year, a few days you can count. Plus there is a cultural phenomenon; it is a societal ibadah where people get together and enjoy the suhoor, enjoy the iftar.

So sadly, the reality is we are aware of many people that may be fasting in the month of Ramadan who are not performing salah. There are many people who do neither. There are many people who do both. But there is definitely one segment of the population of the Muslim Ummah that fasts in the month of Ramadan, maybe religiously, but they are not praying — not praying, maybe one or two prayers a day they miss, or perhaps some of them not praying at all.

So if a person in the month of Ramadan is fasting, he is doing one of the commands but he is not praying — he is missing out the other. So we will tell him, mashallah, Allah gave you tawfiq to fast. Why are you fasting? Because it's the command of Allah. Likewise there is another command — which one? Praying. We should perform salah as well. This is what every person would approach the situation with.

It would be difficult to believe or imagine that somebody would approach this individual and say, "How dare you fast? What gave you the right to fast? You don't perform salah, so how can you fast? You need to start performing salah first — now you qualify for fasting." Would anyone say that? I don't think so. Why? Because hey, they are both commands of Allah. The person is doing one — make du'a, encourage him to do the other one. One is not the precondition for the other. Both are commands from Allah.

The Same Logic Applies to Da'wah

You see, exactly the same relationship exists between doing good deeds and inviting towards good deeds, and between abstaining from sins and preventing others from sin. One is not contingent on the other.

And which is the one that we consider amongst ourselves to be contingent on the other? We say, for example, if someone is inviting towards a good deed — maybe, for example, he is inviting towards punctuality in salah — sometimes we approach that person. We want to refute that person, we want to rebuke that person, and we will say: "How dare you speak about this? How many salahs are you negligent about yourself? You don't have the right to invite towards salah because your own salah is weak. Take care of your own salah first."

Likewise, if somebody is involved in a sin, we consider him disqualified to prevent from that sin. That is not the case. Preventing from the sin is a command. Abstaining from the sin is another command. One is not contingent on the other.

So if a person, for example, is addicted to smoking, he can still talk about the harm of smoking. He could say, "This is a bad thing. I am stuck with this. I advise you, my friend, I advise you, my son, I advise you, my student, not to fall into this sin." And if he with sincerity makes tawbah to Allah, seeks forgiveness from Allah, and continues to speak against the sin and the harms of that sin — insha'Allah al-Aziz — this will actually strengthen his own resolve and give him that moral courage to avoid that sin himself.

So there are, for example, in the past, many ulema and sulaha, righteous people, upon whom perhaps zakat was not fard. Why is zakat not fard upon them? Because zakat is not fard upon income — zakat is fard upon savings. So they did not have savings that reached a nisab. Why do they not have savings? One of two reasons: the income, whatever is coming, they are spending it, and the income is sufficient for their needs, so they never gave zakat their whole life. The second reason is, there is a lot of income, but what are they doing? They are so generous — they keep on spending. In fact, they end up taking loans. Like different Sahaba and people in the past, they spent everything they had, and then people would come and ask them, so they would take loans — not for their wedding, or for expansion of the house, or buying a big house — but what were they taking loans for? To feed other people.

And this started from whom? Rasulullah ﷺ himself. On many occasions he took loans — even from the Yahud — to give sadaqah to other people. La ilaha illallah. Rasulullah ﷺ, Rahmatullil alameen. His own shield, he gave it as collateral — he mortgaged it. "O Yahudi, take my shield" — to borrow money. Not for Fatima and Hasanain, but for some random Bedouin, Arabi.

So there may be many people in the past who never gave zakat in their lives. But because they never gave zakat, now in the month of Ramadan comes, he cannot speak about zakat? Because somebody will say, "Hey, you never gave zakat, how dare you speak about zakat." Astaghfirullah al-azeem. That is not the case.

So we have to remember — khuda na khasta — are we promoting: go ahead and preach, don't worry about practice? Go ahead and prevent from vice and sin, and don't worry about abstaining yourself? That is the opposite extreme. How can we say something so nonsensical?

Rather we are saying that we have to do both. And if we are weak in our own good deeds, let that not dissuade us, let that not stop us from inviting towards good. And if we have any weaknesses — that we are falling prey to our nafs and Shaytan and the environment, and we are engaged in some sins, minor or major — let that not stop us from being an active voice of preventing that evil, on the speaker's side. And on the listener's side, if someone is inviting towards good, let us not start cross-examining his life to see whether he is doing that good or not, otherwise he doesn't deserve to speak. And on the other hand, if someone is preventing from evil, let's not start putting him under the microscope — are you involved in this evil at any level? Otherwise, be quiet.

The Misunderstood Ayah from Surah As-Saf

With respect to this misconception, it comes either from the nafs or Shaytan. At the same time, there is also one ayah that is potentially misunderstood and taken out of context. That is the ayah from Surah As-Saf, where Allah says:

"O those who believe, why do you say that which you do not do?" That's a question which already gives us an idea — it's negative. Then on top of that, the next ayah: "This is a major sin in the eyes of Allah, that you say that which you don't do." So when you look at the translation, we say, "Oh wow! This means that I can't invite towards that which I don't do — that's what Allah is saying." Actually, that's not what He is saying.

This ayah is not talking about inviting towards khair. It is about when you claim and boast that you have done this and this act when you have not done it. It's about giving news, it's about informing people — "Oh, I did so many hajj," or "I gave so much sadaqah," or "I did so many i'tikaf," or "I did this tahajjud." So you are — لِمَ تَقُولُونَ — why are you saying that you did such actions, مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ — which you have not? This is a major sin in the eyes of Allah — that you claim to do such things, you make false claims: "I did this, I did this, I do so many good deeds," when you are not doing that. This is the actual meaning of this ayah.

In fact, Hakeem ul-Ummat Ashraf Ali Thanwi, instead of considering it impermissible to speak about what a person is not doing himself, said: "I search for those qualities I don't have, those sifat that I need to work on, whatever issues I am facing in my own suluk ila Allah, and I make that the topic of my wa'az." So if I find myself falling as a victim to my ego and feeling the effects of pride and arrogance, I will speak about the harms of pride. And kibr is that which was the cause of the expulsion of Iblis from Jannah. Kibr is the first sin that ever took place.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 265)

"The person who has an iota of arrogance will not be able to enter Jannah." And if I find that I'm falling prey to anger, that I'm having so much anger, I'll speak about the harms of anger, and so on.

So it's the other way around. We need to actively speak about those sins that we may be involved in, as it will give us the ability to abstain from them. And that is why when we address, we never use the second person — we always use the first person plural. We need to become punctual in our salah. We need to increase our taqwa and fear of Allah. We need to make istighfar and seek forgiveness for our sins. We need to prepare for the akhirah. It's never "you." It's never "you need to pray" and "you need to straighten your life" and "you need to do this and you need to do that." That's not how we speak. That's not the etiquette of da'wah.

That's how we also learn it from the Quranic style:

This is from Surah Ya-Sin, from the story of the man who came from the far end of the city. وَمَا لِيَ لَا أَعْبُدُ الَّذِي فَطَرَنِي — "What's wrong with me? Why would I not worship that Allah who created me?" He is already worshipping Allah, but he asks the question about himself. He didn't say وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تَعْبُدُونَ — "What's wrong with you? Why don't you worship Allah?" He said, وَمَا لِيَ لَا أَعْبُدُ.

The Ayah from Surah Al-Baqarah

So let us be clear on this concept — that we need to do good deeds and invite towards good, and we need to abstain from sin and prevent from the same. Another ayah in this regard is from Surah Al-Baqarah. When Allah is speaking to the scholars of the Jews, the rabbis, and He says:

"Do you invite people towards good deeds, and you forget about your own selves — while you have knowledge of the Book?" So over here, what is Allah saying? He is saying: look, you're inviting towards good, but you've got to start doing the same. You're preventing people from evil — start abstaining as well. So you're doing one of the two — do the other. He is not saying, "Since you're not doing good, you don't have the right to speak. And since you're doing evil, you don't have the right to prevent." He is not saying that here either.

May Allah give us the tawfiq and the correct understanding, and to understand that this is an obligation upon all of us — الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر — at whatever level we are at.

The Hadith of Changing Evil

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 186)

"Whoever amongst you sees a sin being committed, let him change it with his hand." But غَيَّرَ يُغَيِّرُ تَغْيِير means to change the direction. Taghyir is change. Let him change it — meaning if there is a person walking to the casino, walking to the bar, فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ — let him change his direction with his hand. You grab the hand and you say, "Let's go to the house of Allah." That's فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ.

فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ — if he's not able to do so. Why is he not able to do so? Either he doesn't have jurisdiction, doesn't have a right, doesn't have authority. Or there is a خَوْفُ فِتْنَةٍ, or he is pretty much confirmed that this person is not going to listen to him and the situation will actually end up worse. فَبِلِسَانِهِ — let him try to change the direction with his tongue. فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ — if he's not able to do that as well — فَبِقَلْبِهِ.

There are several interpretations of فَبِقَلْبِهِ. The most common and popular one is that it means let him regard it as evil in his heart — let him feel the pain of that sin in his heart. Because his hands are tied and his tongue is tied, so at least in his heart he should feel: "This is such a sin, the command of Allah is being broken" — he feels that pain. "The Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ has been abandoned" — he feels that pain. Or from his heart he makes du'a: "O Allah, eradicate this evil from the surface of the earth."

Then Rasulullah ﷺ said a very important conclusion to this hadith:

وَذَلِكَ أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ — "This is the weakest level of iman." This is a wake up call. Speak out against it, try to change it with your hand, if you can with your tongue, and if you can with your heart. And أَضْعَفُ is a superlative form — the weak, weaker, weakest. This is the weakest. أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ. When you say something is the weakest level, it means beneath that there is no other level — because it's the weakest. So beneath that, there is a doubt about whether there is iman or not anymore.

The Lesson of the People of Saturday

So we have so many sins happening around us. This was the ayah quoted in the beginning:

There are a couple of ayat about Ashabus Sabt — the People of Saturday — from the time of the Yahud. There are people who recognize fishing on that Saturday in that context to be a sin. لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ — "Why are you wasting your time advising these people? Allah is going to destroy them." So they were not doing haram themselves — they were not fishing on Saturday. One group is doing the haram, fishing on Saturday; the other group is telling them, "Don't fish." And then there is the third group — the dangerous one — they're not doing haram. Allah said don't fish on Saturday, all the fish are coming to the surface, and they're not touching them — but the rest of the week when they want to fish, all the fish go down deep. It's a very difficult situation. But they didn't break the command. However, they also didn't stop the evil.

And they tell the other group: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ — "Why are you wasting your time advising these people?" اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ — "Allah is going to destroy them. What does this tell you?" When they say Allah is going to destroy them, it means they recognize it to be a sin. They say, "These people who are fishing are doing the wrong thing." But remember, they put the traps — they put the traps so the fish get in there on Saturday, then on Sunday they take them out. They say, "Hey, we're not fishing on Saturday." That was the trick they were trying to play.

You're playing with Allah?

You're fooling Allah? You think you're fooling Allah? You're fooling yourself. So they said, "Allah is going to destroy them, these are transgressors. Just relax, mind your own business, don't have to speak out, just relax, be cool."

So when the adhab came, the adhab was not a normal adhab — what happened? Everyone I'm sure knows that —

They were turned into monkeys. Who was saved?

Those who were speaking out against the evil — they were the only group that was saved. Those who were not doing the crime but chose to remain silent were included in the punishment. Because Allah says: We only saved الَّذِينَ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ السُّوءِ — those who prevented the sin, those who spoke out against it.

So may Allah allow us to understand — this is our responsibility. At whatever level we are at, بِيَدِهِ، بِلِسَانِهِ، بِقَلْبِهِ. May Allah protect us and include us among the mu'minoon. Even if it's أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ — we don't want أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ, we want أَقْوَى الْإِيمَانِ, insha'Allah al-Aziz. But nothing below أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ — for sure.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, and prayers and salutations upon the last of the Prophets. Allah, the Exalted, said in His noble revelation, after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

Allah speaks the truth. And Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 186)

And he ﷺ also said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Book 37, Hadith 4345)

"When a sin is being committed on earth, whoever witnesses it and dislikes it is like one who was absent from it. And whoever was absent from it but was pleased with it is like one who witnessed it." Allah and His Messenger ﷺ have spoken the truth, and we are among those who bear witness to that and are grateful for it. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

I say this and seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for all of you and for all the Muslims — so seek His forgiveness, for He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

Announcements

We have a few important announcements.

We have a janazah salah today — after the second Jumu'ah today, after the sunnah prayers. It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing away of Ibrahim Akhoun, the beloved son of Shoaib Akhoun and Hawa Munni. Insha'Allah the janazah will take place in the gymnasium after the sunnah, followed by the burial at Elgin Cemetery, Love City Cemetery in Elgin, Illinois. We make du'a for the marhum — may Allah grant maghfirah and sabr to the grieving family members.

Please pass the donation boxes. Please donate generously from left to right. Sadaqah draws the mercy of Allah and wards off calamities.

Please note that the Saturday team Fajr program will continue tomorrow after Fajr at 5:30 a.m. The series continues on Tuesdays after Maghrib. Several programs and registration are open: Tafheem weekend program for adults — Saturday and Sunday classes. Sunday school for boys and girls ages 6 to 16. Please visit the website for more details.

Du'a request: Brother Sayyid Ihtisham Hussain has passed away in Karachi. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon. His sister Nusrat Fatima is in very critical condition in the ICU. Please make du'a for her.