The Meaning of “They Fear No One in Allah for the Blame of a Blamer” and the Ruling on Advising Rulers from the Minbars

The questioner:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, many young people today understand the meaning of the phrase “they fear no one in Allah for the blame of a blamer” to be confronting rulers and mentioning their mistakes in public in sermons and public lectures. Based on this concept, they believe that those who fear no one in Allah for the blame of a blamer are those who mention the mistakes of rulers on the minbars, in public, and on recorded tapes, and they also limit enjoining good and forbidding evil to that. We ask that these people (may Allah guide them) be directed to the correct path and that the correct concept of this phrase be clarified, as well as the ruling on the actions of those who speak about rulers on the minbars?

The Shaykh:
Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, said: . The scholars said that this verse was revealed regarding Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and his companions (may Allah be pleased with them) when they fought the people of apostasy after the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Likewise, the ruling continues to apply to everyone who speaks the word of truth, strives in the path of Allah, enjoins good and forbids evil, in obedience to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, and does not leave off advising, enjoining good and forbidding evil, and striving in the path of Allah for the sake of people or out of fear of people, for that is the one who is blamed. However, the issue of advising and calling to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, is as Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, said: “Call .” And Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, said to Musa and Harun (peace be upon them) when He sent them to Pharaoh: . He said, Glorified and Exalted is He, regarding our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him): . Advising rulers is to be done through means that ensure it reaches them, without being accompanied by publicizing or inciting the minds of people, the naive, and the weak among people. Advising is to be done in secret between the advisor and the one in authority, either by speaking to him directly, or by writing to him, or by instructing someone who has contact with him to explain these matters to him. This should be done with gentleness and with the required proper conduct. As for advising rulers from the minbars in lectures, this is not advice; this is incitement and sowing discord and enmity between rulers and their people. This leads to great harms. The rulers may become oppressive toward the scholars and the callers to Allah because of these actions. This produces more evil and dangers than the good imagined in it. This is not the way of advice. If you see a note or a violation on an ordinary person, and then you go out in public and say, “So-and-so did such and such, and so-and-so did such and such,” this is considered exposing someone, not advising. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: in this world and the Hereafter. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he wanted to point out something, did not specify particular people by name, but rather said, “What is the matter with a group of people who do such and such?” Because specifying individuals or specifying the doers of the observed actions ruins more than it fixes, and perhaps there is no good in it, but rather there are bad consequences for the individual and the group. And the manner of advising is known.
And those who give advice and carry it out must be at a level of knowledge, intellect, perception, and comparison between harms and benefits, and looking at the consequences. Perhaps forbidding evil is itself an evil; perhaps forbidding evil is the evil, as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: if one forbids evil in a non-Shari'ah manner, then the forbidding itself becomes an evil because of what it generates of harm. Likewise, advice: perhaps we call it exposing, not advising; we call it publicizing, we call it inciting, and we call it

The questioner:
adding to the evil and fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) when it comes from other than the Shari'ah path commanded. The sixth question says: What are the Shari'ah guidelines by which a Muslim maintains his commitment and adherence to the methodology of the Salaf al-Salih (the earliest generations) and avoids deviating from it and being influenced by foreign, deviant methodologies?