Explanation of the Hadith: When the People See an Evil and Do Not Denounce It
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, what is the explanation of the hadith which means: If the people see an evil and do not forbid it, Allah will soon encompass them with punishment?
Answer:
Yes, this is correct. The verse refers to Allah’s saying: “And He asked them about the town by the sea whose people transgressed in the Sabbath, and their scholars advised them, but a group of the scholars remained silent. They said: ‘Whom shall We punish?’[Al-A'raf 7:164] When the punishment came, no one was saved except those who denounced it. This indicates that whoever does not denounce an evil, even with his heart, is included in the punishment.
Honorable Shaykh, what is the explanation of the hadith which means: If the people see an evil and do not forbid it, Allah will soon encompass them with punishment?
Answer:
Yes, this is correct. The verse refers to Allah’s saying: “And He asked them about the town by the sea whose people transgressed in the Sabbath, and their scholars advised them, but a group of the scholars remained silent. They said: ‘Whom shall We punish?’
a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish
قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب إحياء الموات — islamhouse.com (57:41)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.