If a person is negligent in some of the obligatory matters or commits some of the wrongs

The questioner : ... ... does not act upon it, or that he ... .

The Shaykh : No, this is an error. Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said, as Imam al-Qurtubi mentioned in his tafsir, *Al-Jami' li Ahkam al-Qur'an*: "Satan would like to hear from one of you a word like this: 'Of us, only the perfect one,' so that he does not enjoin good except for what he himself does?" In other words, I think Malik's word is clear. However, the worst of that is that the Muslim has two obligations: an obligatory scholarly duty and an obligatory practical duty. The scholarly obligation is to learn and to teach, to clarify things for the people and not to conceal the knowledge from them. The second obligation is to act upon his knowledge. It is known to everyone, of course, like the verse: and so on. It is known that the scholar who does not act upon his knowledge is censured, and there are many hadiths regarding this. But these hadiths and these verses are an exhortation to urge this scholar to act upon the matter, and the intention is not to prevent him from conveying the knowledge to the people. Because if we imagine three people, all of them from among the people of knowledge: a scholar who acts upon his knowledge and calls people to his knowledge, a scholar who does not act upon his knowledge but calls people to his knowledge, and a scholar who neither acts nor calls; is this better or the middle one? Without doubt, the middle one is better, but better than the middle one is the first one who enjoins and conveys. So if the matter revolves between leaving the action and leaving the knowledge and its explanation; no, one sin is lighter and less evil than combining the two sins. Have I clarified the answer for you?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.