The Believer's Defining Quality: Enjoining Good And Forbidding Evil

The Quality That Defines the Believer

Allah in the Qur'an describes the believers with various qualities — those that believe in Allah, praise Allah, prostrate to Allah, those that have taqwa, etc. One of the key qualities Allah describes a believer and differentiates a believer from a munafiq is the quality of enjoining good and forbidding evil. In Surah Tawbah, Allah describes the munafiqoon:

That instead of enjoining good and forbidding evil, they are actually enjoining evil and forbidding good. And a few ayat afterwards, Allah describes the believers:

That the believers are companions and guardians for each other, and they enjoin good and forbid evil. So Allah differentiates between the munafiqoon — what they do is they do the opposite of a believer. They don't enjoin good and forbid evil; rather they are enjoining evil and forbidding good.

The Fate of Those Who Killed the Prophets and the Righteous

Allah in Surah Aal-e-Imran describes how Bani Israel dealt with the previous prophets:

Under this ayah, the Mufassirun mentioned how Bani Israel had killed over 70,000 prophets that were sent — multiple prophets, one after another in their tribe. And in addition to killing them, they killed those people — الَّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ — those believers that enjoined good and forbade evil, also in that tribe amongst Bani Israel.

This enjoining good and forbidding evil was a quality of the Anbiya. This is what they were sent for. Because if a person doesn't enjoin good or forbid evil — and more so the latter, forbidding evil — what happens is when something becomes dominant in society, when something becomes prevalent in society, people will lose the importance of that.

If something is considered to be a sin in the initial stages, and when it becomes dominant and rampant and spreads throughout society, people will become desensitized to it, and they'll lose that feeling — when they commit that sin, they'll lose that regret which they initially had in the heart. Why? Because they look at someone else; someone else is doing it also. So I'm not the only one involved in that.

And then as time goes — may Allah forbid — but certain places and certain generations, they change to such an extent that they lose the original fitrah. Certain actions, certain qualities are part of our natural fitrah, that we know they are wrong. Or they're part of a fitrah that considers them to be part of our deen, to be good and considered as right. But when there is no action of forbidding evil, if that doesn't take place, then what happens is: evil starts, it becomes rampant and widespread, no one stops it, eventually people will become desensitized to it, and they won't even deem it to be an actual evil. They won't deem it to be considered amongst those actions which are vice and sinful.

Surah Al-'Asr: The Four Qualities of the Believers

This is why Allah again describes the believers:

Every single human being is at a loss — except those believers, those that have iman, they do righteous actions, and what do they do? They enjoin others to have sabr, and also they advise them with the truth — the truth regarding one's aqeedah — and patience relates to one's actions. Patience is required both in doing good deeds and abstaining from sins. But they are advising each other, be it as far as one's actions or one's own belief in aqeedah.

The Elevated Station of Those Who Forbid Evil

In Surah Aal-e-Imran, the Mufassirun mentioned that those people who enjoin good and forbid evil — and more so forbidding evil — they were killed also, just as the prophets were killed. So this gives the Mufassirun a sense of the maqam of a person who is actually forbidding evil. Because anyone can enjoin good, and if everyone is always giving talks on targheeb and encouraging others to do good, you're not an enemy of anyone else. You have a common base with everyone else — he's just telling us to do good, he's not stopping us from any action.

But once you stand up against others and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, it is considered to be evil — then they will become your enemy. Because that's what the prophets did. And if you find in the Qur'an, Allah did not just mention amr bil ma'ruf. Wherever amr bil ma'ruf is mentioned, and the command has been given to enjoin good, the opposite is there also — to forbid evil. And more so, forbidding evil has precedence.

Because if a person doesn't abstain from sins and is doing all types of good deeds, eventually the person is going to be punished first. Simply a person changing their life without doing tawbah and repenting from past sins is not sufficient enough. A person actually has to repent from past sins, especially if they are major sins. Because good deeds will not erase major sins. A person has to do tawbah and repent from the major sins, and then a person's good deeds will wipe away and face the minor sins. But it is necessary to always forbid the evil which is occurring in society.

Ibn Abbas and the Warning to the Tabi'un

There is a statement of Ibn Abbas radhiallahu anhuma, that he mentioned to the tabi'un when addressing them. He said: "You are all doing such actions which are more minute in your eyes — tiny in your eyes — than a hair. While we, as sahaba in our time, those actions which you are doing, we used to consider those actions from amongst those that would destroy oneself. We would consider them amongst the sins."

This was addressing the tabi'un. And the tabi'un are considered — خَيْرُ الْقُرُونِ ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ — they are also considered amongst the best generations after the sahaba. And if you look at what actions they were involved in, they didn't have all the technology and the different sins of our society. But Ibn Abbas radhiallahu anhuma was addressing them, addressing the students of forbidding evil, that there is evil spreading amongst you all — even at that time in accordance to that standard — and you have to forbid each other from committing these different vices and different sins.

There Is No Prerequisite to Forbid Evil

The Mufassirun and ulema have mentioned that when it comes to forbidding evil, there is no shart — no prerequisite. Meaning, you do not have to be righteous yourself in order to prohibit that evil. Some might say: "Well, I am involved in that sin, how can I prohibit that evil?" That is not a condition — that you must abstain from the sin in order to prohibit it. Yes, it is looked down upon and it is a reprehensible action that a person is prohibiting evil while he himself is involved in it. And there is wa'id and a threat about the person being punished for being involved in that sin while he is prohibiting others also. But it is not a prohibition to stop prohibiting evil if you yourself are involved in it.

When Allah mentions in different places in the Qur'an:

"O you who believe, why are you saying things which you yourself don't do?" — This is not a prohibition. This ayah is reprimanding those that are prohibiting evil or enjoining good yet they themselves are not practicing it. This is not prohibiting them from forbidding evil even if they are involved in that sin.

Allah mentions in Surah Baqarah, addressing the Yahud — and you can take it as a general address to everyone also — that you are enjoining good and telling others to do good, but you yourself are not involved in it. And you are telling people to abstain from evil, but you yourself are involved in that evil. This is not a prohibition to stop oneself from prohibiting evil even though one is involved in the sin. This is just reprimanding the person: as you speak, you should also practice upon yourself.

And Shu'ayb alayhi salam addressing his people in Surah Hud:

"When I am prohibiting you from evil, I am not trying to oppose you. I only desire reform to the best of my ability." He is advising as a brother from their own nation. So these three ayahs — Ibrahim al-Nakha'i rahimahullah was mentioned that he would actually dislike talking because of these three ayahs, because they say: it goes back to you first, whether you yourself are implementing what you are talking about. But they do not prohibit one from prohibiting evil, even if they themselves are involved in that sin.

We ourselves have to make sure we are not involved in that sin, but at the same time we are telling others not to commit that sin. It is a reminder for our own self. That is why Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi rahimahullah is mentioned to have said that whenever he would think about what to talk about in a khutbah, he would look at his own self and look at his own nafs. And he would see: what quality do I need to improve on? What bad quality do I have? So when he is addressing that quality, it is as if he is giving targheeb to his own self. And then there is a level of haya and modesty which comes in — that I am telling other people to do good, or I am prohibiting others from evil, yet I myself am involved in that evil.

The Danger of Desensitization to Sin

But if we stop prohibiting evil in our society and we just overlook it, then these sins will become desensitized to us. And the feeling of becoming desensitized to a sin — that you don't feel regret — that itself is one type of punishment that comes. A person having regret after committing a sin, even though they might have that regret, you are supposed to be grateful to Allah. Because you are not boldly and audaciously committing that sin, but you actually have regret, and that nadama will eventually lead one to committing tawbah. That itself is a blessing.

But if a person doesn't even have that nadama, then there is something wrong with us. And if you don't have that natural feeling that what I committed was wrong, or the natural feeling of disgust at that sin, then at least intellectually and logically you should understand that what that sin is, is wrong.

The Three Levels of Changing Evil

And the Prophet ﷺ highlighted the different levels when a person in different categories sees an evil occurring:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 84)

These are three levels a person has, and each person will vary depending upon their own authority and the status that Allah has given them.

The first level: if they see wrong, what are they supposed to do? Stop it with their hand. Generally, the shurrah and the commentators of this hadith say that this is referring to the sultans, the leaders, the kings — because they have the ability to forcefully change something.

The second level: if the person is not able to stop that action with their hands, then they should verbally stop that action. And this is the job of the ulema on the mimbar — giving lectures, talking, and addressing the public.

The third level: if a person is not even able to do that, then with their heart. Now, what does it mean with their heart? It doesn't mean that you simply hold the belief that what the other person is committing is a sin — that is not sufficient enough. Rather, you see someone doing wrong. You don't have the ability to correct that person, you don't have the ability to tell them to stop. So what do you do? You have that belief that: "Ya Allah, if I have the opportunity, next time I see this, I am going to change it." Not simply holding the belief that it is wrong and leaving it at that. You have to have the intention that: I am not able to change this right now, but in the future, if I see it happening and occurring again, I will make my utmost effort to change it.

And each one of us has the ability to even act upon the first stage — changing with the hands. Because if we are fathers within our household, we are able to implement that. If we are in our workforce, if we are the boss or if we have our own business, we are able to implement that. Each one with our own limbs — you are the sultan of your own limbs, you control your limbs. You are able to stop your limbs from committing sins. So in accordance to each person's status and position Allah has given, we have the ability to stop these sins from being committed and prohibit evil with our own hands. Or at least with our own tongue.

The Defining Quality of This Ummah

But this is a quality of the believers which is lost. Allah says:

What is one of the qualities — this khasiyyat of this ummah — is that they prohibit evil. They enjoin good and prohibit evil. It is the quality of this ummah. The reason why Allah made this a quality of this ummah is because it will keep the ummah intact.

And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a stern warning — that if you don't do this:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2169)

You will most definitely — with emphasis — enjoin good and prohibit evil. Otherwise, Allah will send a punishment from His own side upon you all, and then what will you do? You will make du'a to Allah, and your du'a will not be accepted. Because the punishment then becomes universal — it becomes general. It is not just for a specific group, but even those that didn't speak up will also face a punishment. For them, they might die as a shaheed, but the punishment will be for everyone, because it is everyone's responsibility to do this.

Why Our Fitrah Is Changing

This will keep society intact. You may look at our generation versus the previous generation. Why are certain things changing? Why are certain people believing that things which were previously deemed sins are now considered the norm? Or why are we no longer naturally disgusted by them? It is because we stopped prohibiting evil.

There was a time when dating was simple — meaning it never had fornication involved in it, and if it did, everyone was disgusted by that. Then, as time changed, people did not prohibit this evil from occurring. So it was natural that when someone was dating, this would occur, and it became the norm. A person was not disgusted by it. There was a time when people were disgusted by this sin. Beyond that, we are dealing with even worse in this generation. Why? One of the reasons goes back to because we are not prohibiting evil.

It is the duty of the believers to prohibit evil, otherwise our fitrah will change. And the worst is when one's fitrah changes — we don't even recognize a sin to be a sin anymore. That itself is a punishment.

So may Allah give us the ability to always prohibit evil, and to recognize sin as sin.

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In the ever-evolving landscape of modern society, the lines between right and wrong are constantly being redrawn. As Muslims, it is essential for us to navigate these moral shifts with knowledge and understanding based on divine revelation. In this year's retreat, we will explore various topics such as gender roles, sexual morality, recreational drug use, marriage, social media, and entertainment. Through insightful discussions, we will delve into the complexities of these issues and discover how we can uphold our Islamic values while living in a changing world.

This is very important and we highly recommend everyone to come themselves and bring their families also. There will be multiple scholars from across the country and across the globe. Amongst them: Ustadh Khalid Baig, Sheikh Munir Baig, Sheikh Dr. Mateen Khan, and other scholars, insha'Allah. A person can greatly benefit from this weekend. And as mentioned in the khutbah, we don't see wrong to be wrong because we have left forbidding evil — so this retreat will teach us what our Islamic role is, what we consider to be wrong, and what our duty is as Muslims.