What is the ruling on one who argues with the members of the Committee for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice when they remind a man about prayer, saying, “What is it to you and the people? A person is trusted with his religion?”
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The questioner : O Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, what is your opinion of the one who argues with the members of the Committee for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice while they are reminding people about prayer?
The Shaykh : What does he do?
The questioner : He argues with the members of the Committee for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice while they are reminding people about prayer.
The Shaykh : Yes
The questioner : He says, for example: “It is not your concern regarding the people; a person is trusted with his religion?”
The Shaykh : It is true that a person is trusted with his religion, but if he wants to neglect his religion, do we agree with him? If we see people who have opened the doors of their shops while people are praying, we must forbid them from this. And if we see someone committing a wrong, we must forbid him.
But if a person says to us: “I have fasted Ramadan,” we do not say: “You must fast in front of us,” because a person is trusted with his religion. Or if he says: “I have paid the zakah,” he is trusted with his religion; we do not say: “I must pay it while we are watching!” As for a man whom we see committing a wrong or leaving an obligatory duty, we must enjoin good and forbid evil, is that not so, O Adam? Yes.
The Shaykh : What does he do?
The questioner : He argues with the members of the Committee for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice while they are reminding people about prayer.
The Shaykh : Yes
The questioner : He says, for example: “It is not your concern regarding the people; a person is trusted with his religion?”
The Shaykh : It is true that a person is trusted with his religion, but if he wants to neglect his religion, do we agree with him? If we see people who have opened the doors of their shops while people are praying, we must forbid them from this. And if we see someone committing a wrong, we must forbid him.
But if a person says to us: “I have fasted Ramadan,” we do not say: “You must fast in front of us,” because a person is trusted with his religion. Or if he says: “I have paid the zakah,” he is trusted with his religion; we do not say: “I must pay it while we are watching!” As for a man whom we see committing a wrong or leaving an obligatory duty, we must enjoin good and forbid evil, is that not so, O Adam? Yes.