The Importance of Knowledge and Wisdom for the One Who Enjoins Good and Forbids Evil

The Shaykh : So, enjoining good and forbidding evil requires wisdom, it requires gentleness, it requires ease. Allah the Exalted said to His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): These are your brothers; if you do not reform them, who will reform them? The one who enjoins good and forbids evil must know the Shari'ah, that this is good and this is evil, so that he does not enjoin evil or forbid good. Some of the common people have zeal and love enjoining good and forbidding evil, but sometimes they may enjoin what is not good, based on their perception that it is what? Good, when it is not so. This is a serious error. Likewise, some of the common people have intense zeal and see that a certain thing is evil, so they forbid it, even though it is not evil. There are people who break the recorder from which they hear the words of Allah. Do you understand what I am saying? There are people who break the recorder from which they hear the words of Allah, because their taste sees that it is what? They see that it is forbidden and evil. And they say: This is wrong. First: listening to a recorder is never evil. The recorder is a device in which good is stored and in which evil is stored. If you listen to evil, it is evil; if you listen to good, it is good. But even so, if you listen to a tape containing a song whose listening is forbidden, is it wise to break the recorder or to break the tape? The second is undoubtedly the correct one, unless you have authority, meaning: authority from the government, and you break this recorder as a discretionary punishment, then that is another matter. But as forbidding evil, it is not for you to break this recorder. Breaking it, if you can do so without fitnah, is not forbidden. So, the one who enjoins good and forbids evil must have knowledge of the Shari'ah, so that he does not enjoin evil or forbid good. Likewise, you must know that this doer has committed an evil or left an obligatory duty. For example: you see a man with a woman and you assume she is a stranger to him, so you start forbidding him. This is not correct. This woman might be what? One of his mahrams or his wife. Do not forbid until you know that the one you want to forbid has fallen into evil. So, it is obligatory: if a person comes and sits in the mosque, do you order him to stand and pray the greeting of the mosque, or do you ask: did he pray or not? The second, because he might have prayed in a corner you did not see. But if you witness that he entered the mosque, perhaps we say: tell him to stand and pray. But we also do not say: tell him, because he might have entered the mosque because he left the mosque for a nearby need, performed wudu', and returned; there is no need for him to pray the greeting of the mosque. For this reason, you must know that your companion left the good or fell into evil, so that your enjoining of good and forbidding of evil is directed properly. And it is important that the evil not be removed by replacing it with something more evil. Meaning: if a person falls into evil and you forbid him from it, but you know that by forbidding him, he will turn to something greater, do not forbid, do not forbid, because repelling the greater of two harms by the lesser is obligatory. Take the lesser of the two harms if it is necessary. The evidence for this is that Allah Mighty and Majestic said: Cursing the gods of the polytheists is a required matter, but if cursing them leads to cursing Allah Mighty and Majestic, it becomes a forbidden matter: If you see a group in a gathering on one of the sidewalks smoking, playing backgammon, and other forbidden things, but you know that if you forbid them and stop them from this evil, they will go to a bar for intoxicants, or to gambling, sodomy, and zina, do you forbid them from what they are doing or not? No, why? Because it is lesser. And you cannot transfer them from the lesser to the more severe and worse. There are many examples of this, many examples of this, but the wise person weighs between matters, knows the results, and looks at the consequences. Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a group who go out to the people, striking and being harsh, saying: We enjoin good and forbid evil? So he forbade that, and said: They only corrupt more than they reform. So you must look at the consequences, what they are, so that you are on clear guidance in your enjoining and forbidding.
O Allah, make us among those who enjoin good and forbid evil with knowledge and clear guidance, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, make our intentions sincere, and rectify our deeds, and make us among the callers to the truth and supporters of the truth, O Lord of the worlds.
And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his Companions.
And to the questions, then the distribution of booklets, and an announcement preceding that.

The questioner : The announcement says: An invitation to attend the honorable Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen (may Allah preserve him). The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) circle will hold a ceremony in the Zali'ah Mosque to honor his outstanding students on Monday, the seventeenth of this month, after the Maghrib prayer, if Allah wills, on Monday night, the night of Tuesday.