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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What are the etiquettes of giving advice?

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Question:
The questioner says: There is a young man who is said to be upright, but his speech is bad, and his speech is bad. And when you advise him, he says to the advisor: "Fix yourself first, then advise." So, is he upright here?

Answer:
This statement has a possibility of being correct or incorrect. If his saying "fix yourself" means "leave me alone, do not explain anything to me," this is invalid speech. This is invalid speech, meaning it implies that you only have to worry about yourself and not about the people. This is invalid speech. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has made it obligatory upon us to call to Allah, and He has made it obligatory upon us to enjoin good and forbid evil, and He has made it obligatory upon us to give advice, for advice is part of the religion. So, we have a duty toward ourselves and a duty toward our brothers to call them; if they err, we clarify it to them, because we love for them what we love for ourselves. So, if his intention is that you should leave off the call to Allah and leave off enjoining good and forbidding evil, and that you only have to worry about yourself, this is invalid speech. But if his intention is to start with yourself first, then call the people, this is truthful speech. The caller, the one who enjoins good and forbids evil, starts with himself first, then calls his brothers and enjoins and forbids after he has become upright in himself. Otherwise, Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says:
Do you order righteousness of the people and forget yourselves while you recite the Scripture?أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ أَفَلَا
[Al-Baqarah 2:44]
It is necessary that the caller fixes himself first. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما هي آداب النصيحة؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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