Enjoining the Good & Forbidding the Evil - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Enjoining the Good & Forbidding the Evil

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.

The Warning from the Example of Bani Israel

It is reported by Imam Abu Dawood and Imam Tirmidhi that Rasulullah ﷺ said: The very first defect and the problem that occurred amongst Bani Israel was that a person would see someone committing a sin or committing an evil — he would approach him, and he would advise him to stop committing that sin and he would say, "This is haram, this is something that is prohibited in the Deen of Allah, so you must refrain and abstain from it."

(Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith 4336; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3048)

The next day he would meet the person again and see him committing the sin once more, yet he would say nothing to him. Rather he would say, "I have fulfilled my obligation and my responsibility — I advised him yesterday and today he is doing the same, so it means that I do not need to say anything to him." And then what happened? Rasulullah ﷺ said that this feeling or this attitude did not stop him from eating along with him, drinking with him, being a friend with him, and sitting with him. Because he accepted that evil.

And then what happened as a result of this? Rasulullah ﷺ said: When the whole community became like that — everyone saying, "I have fulfilled my responsibility and my obligation because the sinner, the one who is committing an evil, I have advised him once and it is sufficient, that's it." Or some even say, "What's the point? The Imam did the Khutbah, this is the Imam's duty. So we as ordinary Muslims, we do not have any obligation or any responsibility to go out and try to stop the evil."

The Prophet ﷺ said: When this attitude became common amongst Bani Israel, Allah changed the hearts of those who initially used to stop from evil, and their hearts became like the hearts of the sinners. And then eventually Allah cursed them all. And then the Prophet ﷺ recited the ayah of the Quran:

Those who disbelieved amongst Bani Israel were cursed by the tongue of Sayyiduna Dawood and Isa ibn Maryam. Why were they cursed? Because they used to disobey Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and they used to transgress and cross the boundaries. What was their disobedience? They would not stop one another from doing evil acts.

This is a warning: if we turn blind eyes from evil, when we see the evil and sins taking place on our streets and we turn blind eyes and every one of us ends up saying "it is not my responsibility," then what happened — Allah will curse all of them.

The Obligation to Enjoin Good and Forbid Evil

The Prophet ﷺ warned against neglecting this duty again in another hadith in which he ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2169)

"By the One in Whose hands is my soul — you people must enjoin the good and you must forbid the evil, or otherwise very soon Allah will punish you all. And what would be the punishment of Allah? The punishment of Allah in this dunya would be that you will all be making du'a to Allah and Allah will not answer your du'a."

Every one of us feels that the Muslim Ummah is under oppression throughout the world. We see this and we see the evils in our streets everywhere around us, yet we turn blind eyes, and every one of us says, "It is not my responsibility."

Rasulullah ﷺ has said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 49)

"Whoever amongst you sees an evil, he must try to change it by his hand. If he has no authority or power to change the evil or to stop the evil by his hands, then at least by using his tongue. If not by tongue, then at least by his heart he must have the feeling against the evil within his heart. And if you do not have that feeling against the evil within your heart, then the Prophet ﷺ said: That feeling is the lowest and weakest level of Iman." And in another hadith: "After that there is no Iman in your heart even to the size of a mustard seed."

The Misuse of the Quranic Verse on Self-Preservation

That is why Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, once delivered a khutbah and said: "O people, I see you and I hear you reciting this ayah all the time" — the ayah in Surah al-Ma'idah in which Allah says:

"O you who believe, take care of yourselves — those who have gone astray cannot harm you as long as you stay on the right path." It is a true ayah, this is the ayah of the Quran. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "You people always recite this ayah and take it as an excuse against not carrying out your duty and your responsibility of stopping the evil. But rather, I have heard the Messenger of Allah saying: 'Verily, when people see an oppressor and they do not catch hold of his hand — verily, when people see an evil and they do not try to change it — then very soon Allah will punish them all.'"

So what do we learn from this narration of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him? The ayah of the Quran relates to amr bil ma'ruf — doing good ultimately benefits oneself. Whereas the hadith refers to stopping the munkar — that you have to carry out that part of the duty as well. That as you are praying your five daily prayers and fasting during the month of Ramadan, you also have to try your best to stop the evil.

Islamophobia: An Evil That Must Be Confronted

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there are so many evils that we see around us, and one of those evils is the evil that has affected the Muslim community within the UK particularly, and around the world as well. This evil is something that has been normalised by the media and by the politicians — and this is none other than Islamophobia. That evil has become very common and it directly affects Muslims, and particularly practising Muslims — a man with a beard and a woman with hijab and niqab. So many incidents we all have heard, day in day out on a regular basis, throughout the country and even throughout the world.

We as Muslims have our responsibility and our obligation to raise our voice against this evil in order to stop it. And we should not be saying — especially those who practise the Deen, those who are blessed by Allah with the guidance, who establish their five daily prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan and practise the Deen of Allah — we cannot say, "I am praying my five daily prayers, so it is okay." This is a wrong understanding.

Part of this obligation is enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. The first part — enjoining the good — is mainly to better oneself. But stopping and forbidding the evil — the ultimate benefit of this is to protect the whole community. So if you are practising the Deen of Allah, yes, you are doing good and you are protecting your Iman. But what about the other part of this obligation — forbidding the evil and stopping the evil? You have to fulfil that responsibility as well.

How to Combat Islamophobia

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there are a number of ways by which we can stop Islamophobia or contribute towards eliminating it.

One of them is: if any Muslim, brother or sister, male or female, experiences Islamophobia by a non-Muslim, then you must not stay quiet or silent. You must report it to the authorities and you must have that courage — thinking and believing that if it is you today who have been attacked, whether physically or verbally, if you have been discriminated against because of your Deen, because of your religion, then you have to report it. This is your obligation. Do not think that it will just be okay. Rather, as a Muslim you must have the courage to report it.

And secondly, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, the fact of the matter is there is, to some extent, a fault from our side as well — and we have to rectify our own errors and our own mistakes. To a certain extent, something that has contributed to Islamophobia is our own attitude and our own behaviour, and we have to sort this problem out. Everywhere — when it comes to our work, when it comes to our community — wherever we are, we must always pay attention to our behaviour and our attitude. And we should not give non-Muslims or disbelievers any excuse that Islam is a religion that teaches evil acts or bad behaviour.

Islam is the religion of peace, and Islam teaches nothing other than akhlaq and good mannerism. That is why Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 8952; al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra)

"The sole purpose of my being sent as a Messenger and the Prophet of Allah is so that I can teach the best type of akhlaq." And this is what Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us. If a Muslim is attacked by a non-Muslim out of Islamophobia, then you must also ask yourself to what extent your own behaviour and attitude has contributed to that.