COMPASSION, PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE ARE REQUIRED IN ENJOINING RIGHT

These things must be done with compassion. The Prophet (sas) said:
"Compassion does not enter into anything without beautifying it, and
is not removed from anything without making it ugly." (Muslim and
others)
And, he (sas) said:
"O, Aisha: Verily Allah is Compassionate, and He loves compassion. He
gives based on compassion that which is not given based on force, and
is not given based on any other cause." (Muslim and others)
At the same time, the practitioner of enjoining right and forbidding
wrong must be forbearing and patient in the faceof adversity and
persecution. Persecution must, of necessity, confront the true
practitioner of enjoining right. If he is not patient, forbearing and
wise in the face of this, he will cause more corruption than reform.
Allah tells us of Luqman saying tohis son:
[And enjoin all that is right, and forbid all that is wrong, and be
patient in the face of that which afflicts you, verily, that is the
most upright of positions.] Qur'an 31/17.
Thus, Allah ordered His prophets, and they are the imam 's of
enjoining right and forbidding wrong, to have patience, just as He
ordered the seal of the Prophets Muhammad (sas). The order to have
patience came along with the order to deliver the message of Islam.
When the Prophet (sas) was first ordered todeliver the message to the
people, Allah sent Sura Al-Mudaththir , which followed after the
revelation of the first five verses of Sura Iqraa' which announced the
beginning of the prophethood. Allah said in Al-Mudaththir :
[O, you covered in a blanket * Stand up and warn * And praise the
greatness of your Lord * And purify your garments * And keep yourself
well away from false gods and other forms of foolishness * And do not
do all of this hoping for gain or payment *And for the sake of your
Lord maintain patience. ] Qur`an 74/1-7.
Allah began these seven ayas, with which He commissioned theProphet
(sas) to deliver the message to His creation, by ordering the Prophet
to warn , and concluded them with the order to have patience . Warning
people of Allah's punishment is of course enjoining them to do right
and forbidding them the doing of wrong, so we see that patience is
obligatory after undertaking the enjoining of right. In this vein,
Allah said:
[And be patient for the decree of your Lord, verily you are in our
Eyes] Qur'an 52/48
[And be patient with that which they say, and remove yourself from
them in a gracious manner.]Qur`an 73/10
[And so be patient, as the firmly-intentioned prophets were patient.]
Qur`an 46/35.
[So be patient for the decree of your Lord, and do not be as the man
in the Whale (i.e. Jonah)] Qur`an 68/48
[And be patient, and your patience is none other than by the leave of
Allah.] Qur'an 16/127.
[And have patience since, verily Allah does neglect the reward of the
good-doers.] Qur'an 11/115.
Thus, three things are absolutely essential: knowledge, compassion,
and patience. Knowledge is required before enjoining right and
forbidding wrong, compassion is required during its practice, and
patience is required after it. This separation is not to negate the
fact that these three qualities need to be present at all times. This
is similar to a statement narrated from the early generations of
scholars and which has been attributed by some to the Prophet. Abu
Ya'la mentioned it in his book entitled Al-Mu'tamad as follows:
"None should enjoin right and forbid wrong except one who is
knowledgeable in that which he enjoins, knowledgeable in that which he
forbids, compassionate in that which he enjoins, compassionate in that
which he forbids, forbearing in that which he enjoins, and forbearing
in thatwhich he forbids."

ACTION IS NOT POSSIBLE EXCEPT WITH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

There can be no righteous deed in the absence of knowledge ( 'ilm )
and understanding of the law ( fiqh ), as 'Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz (the
grandson of 'Umar ibn Al-Khattab, and a righteous Khalifa) used to
say:
"Whoever worships Allah withoutknowledge corrupts more than he benefits."
And, as in the statement of Mu'adh ibn Jabal (a companion ofthe Prophet):
"Knowledge is the imam of action, and action is a corollary toit."
This is obvious: intentions and actions which are not based on
knowledge are ignorance and going astray, and following of hawaa , as
we have said before. This is the difference between the people of
Jahiliya , and the people of Islam. Thus, knowledgeof the Ma'ruf and
the Munkar are absolute necessities as are the ability to distinguish
between them, and knowledge of the condition of those to be ordered
and forbidden is also essential.
For optimum benefit, enjoining and forbidding should be performed on
the Straight Path. The Straight Path is the shortest route, and the
one which leads tothe attainment of the sought-after goal.

WHAT ARE "GOOD WORKS"?

In the final analysis, enjoining right and forbidding wrong is one of
the most obligatory of actions and one of the best and most
praiseworthy acts. Allah said:
[And He will test you, which of you are best in actions.] Qur'an 67/2.
Al-Fadheel ibn Ayaadh (A great Makkan scholar of the second century)
said about the "good actions" mentioned in this aya:
"(i.e.) The most sincere, and the most correct. Verily any action if
it is done in complete sincerity, but is not correct, it is rejected,
and if it is completely correct, butis not done with total sincerity,
itis rejected. Only that which is done with complete sincerity to
Allah and correctness according to Allah's law is acceptable. The
sincere action is that which is purely for the sake of Allah, and the
correct action that which is inthe tradition ( Sunnah ).
It is a requirement of righteous deeds that they be done solely for
the Face of Allah ta'ala, for Allah does not accept any actions except
for those with which His Face alone was sought. This is as in the
sahih hadith narrated by Abu Huraira that the Prophet said:
"Allah ta'ala says: I am the partner least in need of any partner.
Whenever someone doesan act, partly for me and partly for an imagined
partner, I am completely free of that action, and it is wholly for the
partner which was associated with me."
This is the essence of Tauhid which is the basis of Islam. It is the
deen of Allah with which He sent all of the Prophets. For its sake, He
created the creation, andit is His right over all of His slaves: that
they worship Him alone , andnot associate with Him anything.
The righteous deeds which Allah and His Prophet have enjoined are
simply obedience . Every act ofobedience is a righteous deed, and it
is the work dictated by the shari'a and the Sunnah. They are
everything which has been enjoined upon us either as obligations or as
commendable acts. This then is righteous deeds( Al-'amal As-saalih ),
and it is what is good ( hassan ), and it is righteousness ( Al-Birr
), and it is all that is good ( Al-khair ). Its opposite is
disobedience ( Ma'siya ), and corrupt action ( Al-'amal Al-faasid ),
bad deeds ( As-Sayyi'aat ), rebellion ( Al-fujuur ), oppression (
Adh-dhulm ), and transgression ( Al-baghyu ).
Every action must contain two thing: intention, and movement (action).
Thus, the Prophet said:
"The most truthful names are Harith (i.e. he who tills the earth) and
Hammaam (one who ever sets objectives and seeks their fulfillment)."
Everyone is a tiller and a seeker ofobjectives he has actions, and he
has intentions. However, the onlypraiseworthy intention which Allah
accepts and rewards, is the intentions of doing an action solely for
the sake of Allah.
The praiseworthy deed is the righteous deed, and it is the the deed
with which we have been ordered. For this reason, Umar ibn Al-Khattab
used to say in his du'a :
"O, Allah make all of my deeds righteous, and make all of them purely
for your Face, and do not make therein any share at all for anyone
else."
This being the case for all righteous deeds, it is also the case for
enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and it is necessary for it to be
so (i.e. the act of ordering or forbidding must be good and
praiseworthy which as we have seen means that it is correct and solely
for thesake of Allah, is obedience to Allah, and is done for no
ulterior motive.) This is in reference to the one who enjoins and
forbids others.

WHAT A PERSON LOVES AND HATES MUST BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORDER OF ALLAH AND HIS PROPHET (SAS)

The obligation upon every slave of Allah, then, is to look very
closely into his or her likes and dislikes, and the intensity of his
love for that which he loves and his hate for that which he hates: is
it in harmony with the order ofAllah and His Prophet (sas)? This, then
is the guidance of Allah which He sent down upon His Prophet such that
he was ordered to have these loves and hates. In this way, a slave of
Allahwill avoid putting himself ahead of Allah and His Prophet (sas),
because Allah said:
O you who believe, do not put forth (anything) in front of Allah and
His Prophet] Qur'an 49/1. i.e. Do not decide your position in any
action or issue without first knowing the position of Allah and His
Prophet therein.
Anyone who loves or hates before Allah and His Prophet haveordered him
to do so, has entered the area of putting something forth in front of
Allah and His Prophet (sas). Simple loves and hates are hawaa, but the
hawaa which is forbidden to the Muslim is the following of these
inclinations without guidance from Allah. This is why Allah said to
His Prophet:
[And do not follow your hawaa such that it leads you astray fromthe
path of Allah. For those who go astray from the path of Allah there
awaits a terrible punishment.] Qur'an 38/26.
Here Allah informs us that the following of one's hawaa will leadone
astray from the path of Allah.The path of Allah is the guidance and
the program with which He sent His Prophet (sas), and it is the path
to Allah.

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And Allah Knows the Best!

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Published by :->
M NajimudeeN Bsc- INDIA

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