The Ruling on Sitting with the People of Evil
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The Shaykh : Please, please.
The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. As for what follows, a questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, we live in a country with our family and relatives, and in their gatherings there is a lot of backbiting and smoking, and among those present are people who abandon the prayer. Should I sit with them, even though some of our brothers are ordered by their families to attend those gatherings? I have not sat with them, so I am unable to call them to the truth. Sometimes we have a dinner, and I am forced to sit with them. What should I do? May Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is an important question that many people face, because people, praise be to Allah, due to the Islamic awakening and alertness, have become divided in their homes: one man to whom Allah has granted guidance and commitment, and another man who is heedless and remains in his ignorance. So disagreement arises. We say: if sitting with them leads to reconciling hearts and reforming them, provided you do not practice the forbidden in their presence, then there is no harm in it; indeed, it may be obligatory for you.
However, you do not remain with them while they are practicing the forbidden except in the case of rebuke, only to the extent of necessity. If they persist, then leave. As for if there is no hope of calling them to the truth, calling them, calling them, but no one responds, then it is not permissible for you to sit with them in this evil, nor to attend their gatherings, nor to be present at all. This is based on the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:[An-Nisa 4:140] This means that if you sit with them, you are like them.
But I say to the questioner: strive to advise him. By writing, by speaking to him, by giving him beneficial messages, by giving him beneficial tapes. How many a person people had given up on being reformed, yet Allah reformed him, not in the distant past and not in recent times.
The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. As for what follows, a questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, we live in a country with our family and relatives, and in their gatherings there is a lot of backbiting and smoking, and among those present are people who abandon the prayer. Should I sit with them, even though some of our brothers are ordered by their families to attend those gatherings? I have not sat with them, so I am unable to call them to the truth. Sometimes we have a dinner, and I am forced to sit with them. What should I do? May Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is an important question that many people face, because people, praise be to Allah, due to the Islamic awakening and alertness, have become divided in their homes: one man to whom Allah has granted guidance and commitment, and another man who is heedless and remains in his ignorance. So disagreement arises. We say: if sitting with them leads to reconciling hearts and reforming them, provided you do not practice the forbidden in their presence, then there is no harm in it; indeed, it may be obligatory for you.
However, you do not remain with them while they are practicing the forbidden except in the case of rebuke, only to the extent of necessity. If they persist, then leave. As for if there is no hope of calling them to the truth, calling them, calling them, but no one responds, then it is not permissible for you to sit with them in this evil, nor to attend their gatherings, nor to be present at all. This is based on the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:
And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them.
وَقَدْ نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ أَنْ إِذَا سَمِعْتُمْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ يُكْفَرُ بِهَا وَيُسْتَهْزَأُ بِهَا فَلَا تَقْعُدُوا مَعَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا مِّثْلُهُمْBut I say to the questioner: strive to advise him. By writing, by speaking to him, by giving him beneficial messages, by giving him beneficial tapes. How many a person people had given up on being reformed, yet Allah reformed him, not in the distant past and not in recent times.
Source
اللقاءات الرمضانية لعام 1413هـ - 2 — binothaimeen.net (37:39)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.