Continuation of the explanation of the hadith of Mu'adh, and his saying: (And if you do a bad deed, do a good deed alongside it, the secret with the secret, and the public with the public)

The Shaykh : .
This hadith is also an explanation of another hadith of Mu'adh, in which the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: . This details that following up, saying: If you make a mistake, if you disobey your Lord publicly, you must follow that up with repentance and a good deed publicly. As for if you are afflicted with doing it secretly, do not expose yourself and do not announce your sin, but rather repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which is undoubtedly a good deed, and also do good deeds secretly. That is further from you having committed showing off in performing this deed. As for if you do a bad deed publicly, here the publicizing of the repentance from it involves humbling the self and subduing it; and therefore you find that many people, when they make a mistake publicly, a person comes and advises them that they made a mistake and that they should announce their mistake to the people, and few do that. From this we know that enjoining good and forbidding evil does not have a specific, defined system as it appears to some people who are dominated by politics in their calling, in their opinion. They think that the preacher, for example, if he makes a mistake on the pulpit and recites a fabricated hadith with no basis, then one person stands up. And this, unfortunately, does not exist in this country, whereas in Egypt it happens a lot. The reason is that the Egyptian country has, meaning, a more scholarly spirit than this country. We know of many incidents that occur; some of the attendees objecting to the preacher about a hadith or an opinion in which he erred. The preachers here remain between sincere people and insincere people, and so on.
The point is that if an error occurs publicly, it must be refuted publicly, and if it occurs secretly, it must be refuted secretly. Because in the first case, as it pleases some people, as we said earlier, to take this preacher aside after his sermon and after his prayer and say to him in a gentle language that you, may Allah bless you, your sermon was so sweet and so beneficial, and so on; a new lecture so that the Muslim can offer a brief piece of advice to his Muslim brother. But the hadith such-and-such came in your sermon, and this is a fabricated hadith. This is what some propose. This... this approach may be beneficial in terms of preserving the heart of the one being advised; because, unfortunately, the souls of most Muslims have become Pharaonic and arrogant, not accepting advice except as Allah wills. This approach could have been adopted under two conditions, one of which is absolutely impossible to achieve, and the other may be possible. The first: that he gathers all the people he made a mistake to in his sermon, in a second sermon, or in a second gathering, and says: I included in the previous sermon the hadith such-and-such, and this hadith has been shown to be fabricated. It is not possible to gather all these people if there were, for example, a thousand people in the mosque, or fewer or more; so in the second sermon, meaning the second Friday, it is not reasonable that all of them would gather in person. Some may not attend and others may attend, and so on. This is not guaranteed. So if this person is told secretly and he announces it—and this is very rare—then this announcement will miss those who did not attend the second sermon.
Therefore, the error must be refuted according to its reality; if it was public, it is refuted publicly, and if it was secret, it is refuted secretly. Because there is no benefit here in announcing it except exposing the one who erred. Here the Messenger (peace be upon him) admonishes each of us that if he makes a mistake in front of people, he should announce this mistake in front of people that he made a mistake, .
This is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Eid Abbasi: There are some previous questions, including the following question.