Be Just to Your Friends and Enemies

 

Shaykh Saalih bin Fawzaan bin ‘Abdullaah al-Fawzaan (may Allaah preserve him) said:

“… Do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just with respect to them even if they are your enemies. Justice is desirable with friends and with enemies. Allaah the most High said: “And when you speak, be just, even if [it concerns] a near relative.” [Al-An’aam: 152]

Therefore, do not allow kinship make you unjustly take side with your relative. Rather, if he is mistaken, correct his mistake. Do not follow him in it. In fact, advise him. “And when you speak, be just, even if [it concerns] a near relative.” [Al-An’aam: 152]. Allaah the most High said: “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allâh, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allâh is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, Allâh is Ever Well­-Acquainted with what you do.” [An-Nisaa: 135]

Hence, what is obligatory upon an individual is to be just to himself, his relative, his friends and his enemy. He should not allow the enmity he has for anyone to make him unjust to him or oppress him. This should be the attitude of a Muslim; and he should not allow the love he has for anyone make him side with him unjustly.

As for the people of Jaahiliyyah, they were partisan to their people even if their people were the oppressors. So, Allaah the Mighty and Majestic commanded us to oppose them and say the truth even if it is against ourselves or against our relatives or against our friends or against our enemies.

The Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) said: “Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one.” They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allaah, it is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?’ He said, “By preventing him from oppressing others.”[1] Helping him is to prevent him from oppression and not to aid him upon oppression.

Source: Sharh Masaa’il al-Jaahiliyyah, p. 249-250 by Shaykh bin Saalih Fawzaan bin Abdullaah al-Fawzaan; translated by Abdus-Samee’ Abdus-Salaam.

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[1] Al-Bukhaaree 2443, 2444, 6952

No One is excused from this Obligation

 

The word al-Ma’roof means devoutness and pious deed. It was named such because an upright nature knows it. Al-Munkar refers to every act of disobedience to Allaah. It was named munkar because hearts or upright nature abhors it. Therefore, the issue of enjoining good and forbidding evil is important in Islaam.

Allaah the Most High said:

كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ

 “You [true believers in Islamic Monotheism, and real followers of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunnah (legal ways, etc.)] are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind; you enjoin Al-Ma’roof (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islaam has ordained) and forbid Al-Munkar (polytheism, disbelief and all that Islaam has forbidden), and you believe in Allaah…” [Soorah Aali-Imraan: 110]

This involves transference of goodness from one person to another. It is not sufficient that you make yourself righteous; rather strive to make others righteous. If you guide someone toward goodness and caution him against evil, you have spent a huge amount of charity upon him. This is because Allaah could make it beneficial to him more than the way wealth would benefit him.

So, the merit and benefit of enjoining good and forbidding evil is great.  It should be in accordance with a person’s ability. So no one should say, ‘I cannot enjoin good and forbid evil for the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) said: “Whoever sees evil amongst you must change it with his hand; but if he cannot, let him change it with his tongue; and if he cannot, then with his heart; and that is the weakest level of faith.” This shows that no one is excused with regard to the issue of enjoining good and forbidding evil. However, this depends on the ability of each individual.

The one who has authority should forbid, change and remove the evil with his hand. But the one who does not have authority should forbid, explain, advise, admonish and guide toward goodness with his tongue. This does not cost him anything. But the one who is incapable of using his tongue should forbid with his heart. There is no one who is incapable of rejecting evil with his heart. One may be incapable of using the tongue and hand; however, there is no one incapable of rejecting evil with the heart.

When you forbid evil with your heart, you should stay away from the people of evil and places of evil and distance yourself from it. Do not sit there and cooperate with them in their evil and then say: ‘I am rejecting the evil with my heart.’ This is not sufficient. Rather, it is a must for you to distance yourself from the evil and people of evil without mingling with them except if you are capable of making rectification. But if you cannot make rectification, stay away and protect yourself.

Source: al-Minhatur-Rabbaaniyyah fee Sharh al-Arba’een an-Nawawiyyah, p. 209-210, by Shaykh Saalih bin Fawzaan, translated by Abdus-Samee’ Abdus-Salaam.

 

Characteristics of those Who Respect Allaah and His Prohibitions

 

Imaam Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) wrote:

Among the signs of respecting the prohibitions is the desire to move away from their most likely locations, the means, what invites to them and staying away from every means that brings one close to them. An instance is a person who runs away from places that have pictures that can bring about temptation out of fear of being tempted by it. It includes abandoning what is not wrong out of fear of falling into what is wrong, staying away from the permissible out of fear of falling into the disliked matters. It also encompasses avoidance of a person who openly perpetrates the prohibitions, makes them appear good, invites to them, considers them lightly and does not bother about what he has done.

This is because mingling with the like of this person calls for Allah’s anger and displeasure as no one will mingle with him except one whose veneration of Allah and His prohibitions have dropped from his heart. Among the signs of respecting the prohibition of Allah is to be angry for Allah’s sake if His prohibition is violated and there should be distress and sadness in  one’s heart if Allah is disobeyed on His earth and one cannot shoulder the task of establishing His laws and orders and incapable of changing that.

Source: Al-Waabil as-Sayyib min al-Kalim at-Tayyib, by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah; transl. by Abdus-Samee Abdus-Salaam.