Greeting the one who is in sin is like holding smoke
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible to greet a person you meet who is in sin, such as if you find him with smoke in his hand? Do you greet him or not?
Answer:
If you want to advise him, greet him. If you want to advise him, greet him. But if you do not want to advise him, and leaving off the greeting serves as a notification to him, a notification to him of Allah, this is a measure. If he comes back, he returns. If leaving off the greeting brings him back, leave off the greeting. And if you want to advise him, make the greeting the first entry point for the advice. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible to greet a person you meet who is in sin, such as if you find him with smoke in his hand? Do you greet him or not?
Answer:
If you want to advise him, greet him. If you want to advise him, greet him. But if you do not want to advise him, and leaving off the greeting serves as a notification to him, a notification to him of Allah, this is a measure. If he comes back, he returns. If leaving off the greeting brings him back, leave off the greeting. And if you want to advise him, make the greeting the first entry point for the advice. Yes.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب قول الله - تعالى - : { حَتَّى إِذَا فُزِّعَ عَنْ قُلُوبِهِمْ قَالُوا مَاذَا قَالَ رَبُّكُمْ قَالُوا الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْكَبِيرُ } — islamhouse.com (1:09:30)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.