The Meaning of the Word Mutawwi' and the Ruling on Addressing the Mutawwi' as "O Disobedient One"
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah preserve you, O Shaykh. Some people say that if you are called "O Mutawwi'," you should reply, "O Disobedient One." Is this correct?
The Shaykh:
No. You should explain to him that a mutawwi' means one who obeys Allah of his own free will, submitting himself to Allah in obedience to Him. The common people understand "mutawwi'" to be the one who is above the general public but below the scholar in general; the mutawwi' is below the scholar and above the worker. There is no good between the common person and... Among the people of Najd, they call him the mutawwi', meaning that he submitted himself and was drawn to it, so he followed the truth and sought out the good, and they called him the mutawwi'. The point is that among the common people, there is mockery; for them, it is a title of honor. Repentance, for them, means being above the common people, the satisfaction of the common people,
May Allah preserve you, O Shaykh. Some people say that if you are called "O Mutawwi'," you should reply, "O Disobedient One." Is this correct?
The Shaykh:
No. You should explain to him that a mutawwi' means one who obeys Allah of his own free will, submitting himself to Allah in obedience to Him. The common people understand "mutawwi'" to be the one who is above the general public but below the scholar in general; the mutawwi' is below the scholar and above the worker. There is no good between the common person and... Among the people of Najd, they call him the mutawwi', meaning that he submitted himself and was drawn to it, so he followed the truth and sought out the good, and they called him the mutawwi'. The point is that among the common people, there is mockery; for them, it is a title of honor. Repentance, for them, means being above the common people, the satisfaction of the common people,
Source
شرح كشف الشبهات [ ابن باز ]، بداية من الفصل الثاني عشر : كشف شبهة من زعم أن من أدى بعض واجبات الدين لا يكون كافرًا ولو أتى بما ينافي التوحيد — islamhouse.com (19:48)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.