The Methodology of the People of the Sunnah in Forbidding Evil
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His Eminence the Shaykh: Is it permissible for one who wishes to forbid evil to do so from the pulpits, and is this the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community?
As for evil, if it becomes widespread, it must be forbidden from the pulpits, but one should not speak about the specific individuals themselves, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he wanted to forbid a group, would say: “What is the matter with a group that says such and such?”
And if the evil is minor among the people, it should not be forbidden from the pulpits; because forbidding it from the pulpits means spreading it among the people.As the common people say: (And the one who does not know, knows) So if this forbidden act becomes widespread among the people, forbid it from the pulpits so that the people understand, but do not do anything that would cause the people to rise up against the rulers and hate and reject them; because the danger of this is great. It may appear to people, or Satan may show them, that if they do this, it will be pressure on the rulers to straighten out in the religion of Allah, but the matter is not so. This is if the forces are balanced. There may be pressure, as in countries—other than Saudi Arabia—where you find that the rulers reach their positions through elections. In that case, announcing the evil done by the ruler may be pressure on him to straighten out so that he is nominated again. But in a country where the power is with the authority, this matter will not straighten out at all.
It is not wise for a person to incite the subjects against their rulers so that they hate them and do not obey their command, or see that they do not deserve to be rulers. Knowing that if we look at those around us, we find that, praise be to Allah, we are in a good state. Our country, praise be to Allah, proclaims enjoining good and forbidding evil, and even if there is some weakness in it, there is no country other than our country that has a body called the Commission for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice.
Likewise, all the courts are built upon the Shari'ah. What did the author of al-Iqna' say? What did the author of al-Mughni say? What did the author of al-Majmu' by al-Nawawi say? What did so-and-so say? What did so-and-so say? They do not refer to man-made laws, but rather to the Book and the Sunnah and what was derived from them in the books of the scholars. This is a great blessing. And whoever wants perfection in such a time, let him perfect himself first before trying to perfect others. Is the people, for example, perfecting themselves now? No.
The people have much deviation. There is lying and deception in transactions, bad morals, listening to songs, and so on. There are people in the community in this state. So if we are like that, we should not want the rulers to be at the level of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and 'Ali.
And he mentioned: That a man from the Khawarij came once to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and said to him: “O 'Ali, what is the matter that the people have disagreed with you—I think you know what happened to 'Ali regarding the trials and the emergence of the Khawarij against him and so on—while they did not disagree with Abu Bakr and 'Umar?”So he said to him a word that silenced the Khariji. He said to him: [The men of Abu Bakr and 'Umar are me and those like me, and your men are you and those like you] So he was silenced, and this is correct.
In conclusion: That if evil becomes widespread among the people, it must be forbidden, but without causing fitnah, or exposing anyone, or filling the hearts with hatred toward the rulers. But if it is done by one person out of a hundred, for example, or a thousand, then we single out this man, warn him, and frighten him of Allah the Exalted and Majestic; because if you forbid the evil from the pulpits and only a few people are doing it, it means: that you have spread it among the people.
As for evil, if it becomes widespread, it must be forbidden from the pulpits, but one should not speak about the specific individuals themselves, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he wanted to forbid a group, would say: “What is the matter with a group that says such and such?”
And if the evil is minor among the people, it should not be forbidden from the pulpits; because forbidding it from the pulpits means spreading it among the people.As the common people say: (And the one who does not know, knows) So if this forbidden act becomes widespread among the people, forbid it from the pulpits so that the people understand, but do not do anything that would cause the people to rise up against the rulers and hate and reject them; because the danger of this is great. It may appear to people, or Satan may show them, that if they do this, it will be pressure on the rulers to straighten out in the religion of Allah, but the matter is not so. This is if the forces are balanced. There may be pressure, as in countries—other than Saudi Arabia—where you find that the rulers reach their positions through elections. In that case, announcing the evil done by the ruler may be pressure on him to straighten out so that he is nominated again. But in a country where the power is with the authority, this matter will not straighten out at all.
It is not wise for a person to incite the subjects against their rulers so that they hate them and do not obey their command, or see that they do not deserve to be rulers. Knowing that if we look at those around us, we find that, praise be to Allah, we are in a good state. Our country, praise be to Allah, proclaims enjoining good and forbidding evil, and even if there is some weakness in it, there is no country other than our country that has a body called the Commission for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice.
Likewise, all the courts are built upon the Shari'ah. What did the author of al-Iqna' say? What did the author of al-Mughni say? What did the author of al-Majmu' by al-Nawawi say? What did so-and-so say? What did so-and-so say? They do not refer to man-made laws, but rather to the Book and the Sunnah and what was derived from them in the books of the scholars. This is a great blessing. And whoever wants perfection in such a time, let him perfect himself first before trying to perfect others. Is the people, for example, perfecting themselves now? No.
The people have much deviation. There is lying and deception in transactions, bad morals, listening to songs, and so on. There are people in the community in this state. So if we are like that, we should not want the rulers to be at the level of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and 'Ali.
And he mentioned: That a man from the Khawarij came once to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and said to him: “O 'Ali, what is the matter that the people have disagreed with you—I think you know what happened to 'Ali regarding the trials and the emergence of the Khawarij against him and so on—while they did not disagree with Abu Bakr and 'Umar?”So he said to him a word that silenced the Khariji. He said to him: [The men of Abu Bakr and 'Umar are me and those like me, and your men are you and those like you] So he was silenced, and this is correct.
In conclusion: That if evil becomes widespread among the people, it must be forbidden, but without causing fitnah, or exposing anyone, or filling the hearts with hatred toward the rulers. But if it is done by one person out of a hundred, for example, or a thousand, then we single out this man, warn him, and frighten him of Allah the Exalted and Majestic; because if you forbid the evil from the pulpits and only a few people are doing it, it means: that you have spread it among the people.