In the name of Allah
most Gracious most Merciful.
Thanks be to Allah Lord
of the worlds. May peace and prayers be upon the best of all messengers.
A universal rule taken from
the Sunna is: soliciting the right and deterring the wrong. This week I will talk
about Advice and its controls. We will look at the hadeeth narrated by Tameem
ben Ose who said the prophet PPBU said: “Religion is advice” we asked: “Advice to
who; oh massenger of Allah?” He said: “To Allah may He be honored and exalted, and to his book
and to the messenger and Muslim Imams and the general Muslim”. This hadeeth is
considered by many scholars to be one of the bases of Islam. One scholar Mhmd
ben Aslum said “this hadeeth is one quarter of the religion”. It is one of the
hadeeths from which we take our enlightenment and understandings.
The narrator of the
hadeeth Tameem ben Ose Addary “Êãíã
Èä ÃæÓ ÇáÏøÇÑí”
was a Christian before he voluntary became a Muslim. The one who led him to
Islam is the one-eyed False Messiah who was meant by Allah to be temptation to
all man kind.
Tameem him self reported
that the prophet said: “Religion is Advice”. Which is that: the entire religion
can be summed up into an advice. Advice is repeated many times in both the
Quran and in the prophets hadeeths. Some times Allah gives an advice to the
general Muslim ommah and sometimes an advice is given specifically to the
Muslim Imams. Some times Allah orders the Muslim rulers to give advice to the
general Muslim population. All Muslims have a right upon the individual like
your self. That is that you will advice them to what you know to be good. The
messenger PPBU said: “A Muslim has six rights upon another Muslim.” One of them he
said “and if he asks you for advice is to advice him/her”. The messenger
PPBU was also
reported saying: “three things a Muslim’s heart will not hold treason and
animosities against: 1) perfecting work purely for Allah, 2) giving advice to Muslim
leaders and 3) must remain a member of the group or society, for his call will
include him as being a member of the group or society”.
If one sticks to those
three; one’s heart will be good. The word advice in Arabic also means purity.
Never be two-faced with anything you do. Even a worship act to Allah, if was
meant to impress or influence some one then it is not pure for Allah. If one
has an ulterior motive to pray, or fast of pretend to be humble to Allah then
his/her heart contains one of those characters.
The second point is
providing advice to the Muslim leaders by writing to them or letting them
know, soliciting right and deterring from wrong. Leaders here refer to a
leader in a family, or a group or a country. Withholding an advice may lead to
lack of action by the leaders and problems not being corrected.
The third is continuing
being with the jamaa or the group or the society. An isolated individual Satan
will find him/her easier to penetrate his/her heart and fill it with animosity
towards the society. When something good comes to them, he wishes it didn’t.
Why? Because he/she no longer considers him self as one of them. If one
considers himself one of the society, then he will like good to befall on to
them in all matters. “His call will include him as a result”
Jareer ben Abdul-Allah
said: “I made my pledge the prophet to do prayers, give charity and advising
all Muslims”. Advising any Muslim one meets in all matters of worldly life or
other matters. The problem is in those who refuse advice especially in
religious matter.
What is advice? One
scholar Khattabi in a book of his: Advice is a statement or sentence with the
intention of good for which it is given.
When given to Allah, it
means advising to consider his oneness, to worship him, do his commandments,
loving who he loves, supporting who supports him, disliking whom he dislikes,
and hating all wrong acts towards Allah anywhere on earth.
Mhmed Nasr Maroozi said
that Advice is classed as either an obligatory (which means one Must give) or
Nafl or voluntary advice. The obligatory advice is to advice in matters
concerning performing commands of Allah or deterring from what Allah forbids.
The voluntary advice is
giving advice for matters of some interest to you. Not necessarily of what
Allah has ordered but within the acceptable boundaries of Allah. But, if self
motivated advice conflicts with a matter that Allah loves then one would give
priority to what Allah loves and the love for Allah to the love for one’s
self.
Advice to angles is to
believe in them. When Allah says: “Allah brought (or sent) down his book . .
”, the word “Sent increaser our belief in in Allah who did the sending.
Belief in angels who were the medium who brought down the book, belief in what
was brought down – the book, the Quran – and belief in the one who was brought
down upon, the messenger.”
Remember that all
obligations upon a Muslim are preconditioned by the ability to do them. If one
is unable to do some act may be due to sickness then they are pardoned for not
doing so. But the obligation of giving advice is never lifted. For Allah says
in surat Towbah: {There is no blame on those who are weak or ill or who find
no resources to spend If they are sincere and true to Allah and his messenger.
No ground can there be against the good-doers. And Allah is oft-Forgiving, Mot
Merciful. Nor is there blame on those who came to you to be provided with
mounts, and when you said “I can find no mount for you” they turned back,
while their eyes overflowing with tears of grief that they could not find
anything to spend for Jihad}
This is a group of poor
Muslims who did not have the mean to go out for a battle, but yet they are
sincere meaning with their advice. For that shows that providing the advice is
not limited to the scholars but everyone is required to provide advice to
Allah and the messenger.
Some times to provide an
honest advice may involve talking bad of someone, which normally is not allowed
in Islam. But providing advice in matters like marriage, one may talk of the
bad characters of someone. For this is an advice to Allah and the messenger.
One woman came to the messenger asking his advice when three men proposed to
her. He told he that one of them is known for wife beating and advised against
him. The other he said is a waster (meaning wasting all he earns), who can keep no money, Mary the third one
with goodness.
