When is it permissible to forbid evil publicly?
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The questioner : When is it permissible to forbid evils publicly?
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : When is it permissible to forbid evil publicly?
The Shaykh : Publicly?
The questioner : When is it permissible?
The Shaykh : Forbidding evil is obligatory, and when an evil is committed openly, it must be forbidden openly. That is, if we see a person committing a sin in front of us, we forbid it to him. However, wisdom must be employed. It may not be in the public interest to forbid it to him openly, if doing so would cause this man to become averse and not accept it, or if this man is one of the officials, in which case he would not accept it if forbidden openly, or perhaps there are other reasons.
In any case, the important point is: whatever evil is committed openly, it is obligatory to forbid it openly. However, a greater public interest may arise from not forbidding it openly, and it is obligatory to follow the public interest.
As for forbidding the doer of evil in his absence, this is not permissible, because in reality it is backbiting about him. For example, a man you know committed unlawful sexual intercourse, may Allah protect us from that, and he is not present so you forbid it to him in his absence. Your forbidding it to him means you are backbiting him, and backbiting is one of the major sins. It is not permissible for a person to backbite his brother, let alone if his backbiting leads to great harm, such as backbiting scholars or backbiting rulers. In that lies a great harm, because backbiting scholars diminishes their status and the status of the Shari'ah of Allah that they conveyed, and backbiting rulers diminishes their status and their awe in the hearts of people, so security is lost and the community is disrupted.
Therefore, it is an error what people circulate of these papers that come from abroad disparaging the rulers, and perhaps they are also lies. This is backbiting and cooperation in sin and aggression, and the one who distributes them is sinful, committing a major sin. Moreover, this is not like backbiting one person from the community; this leads to hearts harboring hatred and resentment toward the rulers, which necessitates the disunity of the Muslim community in the future and causes many evils.
Therefore, we advise our brothers—advice for the sake of Allah, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and the common people—not to circulate such papers, but rather to burn them and not spread them among people. And whoever wants to give advice, it is obligatory that he reach the one being advised through a specific, designated channel that achieves the objective. Yes.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : When is it permissible to forbid evil publicly?
The Shaykh : Publicly?
The questioner : When is it permissible?
The Shaykh : Forbidding evil is obligatory, and when an evil is committed openly, it must be forbidden openly. That is, if we see a person committing a sin in front of us, we forbid it to him. However, wisdom must be employed. It may not be in the public interest to forbid it to him openly, if doing so would cause this man to become averse and not accept it, or if this man is one of the officials, in which case he would not accept it if forbidden openly, or perhaps there are other reasons.
In any case, the important point is: whatever evil is committed openly, it is obligatory to forbid it openly. However, a greater public interest may arise from not forbidding it openly, and it is obligatory to follow the public interest.
As for forbidding the doer of evil in his absence, this is not permissible, because in reality it is backbiting about him. For example, a man you know committed unlawful sexual intercourse, may Allah protect us from that, and he is not present so you forbid it to him in his absence. Your forbidding it to him means you are backbiting him, and backbiting is one of the major sins. It is not permissible for a person to backbite his brother, let alone if his backbiting leads to great harm, such as backbiting scholars or backbiting rulers. In that lies a great harm, because backbiting scholars diminishes their status and the status of the Shari'ah of Allah that they conveyed, and backbiting rulers diminishes their status and their awe in the hearts of people, so security is lost and the community is disrupted.
Therefore, it is an error what people circulate of these papers that come from abroad disparaging the rulers, and perhaps they are also lies. This is backbiting and cooperation in sin and aggression, and the one who distributes them is sinful, committing a major sin. Moreover, this is not like backbiting one person from the community; this leads to hearts harboring hatred and resentment toward the rulers, which necessitates the disunity of the Muslim community in the future and causes many evils.
Therefore, we advise our brothers—advice for the sake of Allah, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and the common people—not to circulate such papers, but rather to burn them and not spread them among people. And whoever wants to give advice, it is obligatory that he reach the one being advised through a specific, designated channel that achieves the objective. Yes.