If yes, can this be justified?
Let us recap our understanding of “NaseeHah”:
- As meaning “advice,” in the sense of ‘communicating some good message to another.’
And it also has the implication of: “the desire of the giver for all possible good towards the one being advised, as well as the expectation of those receiving it to reciprocate by being true and sincere”. - But, “NaseeHah” in Arabic is not merely “advice” as in English. More significantly, this Arabic term is very much impregnated with the real meaning of “sincerity” – which in another Arabic term is referred to as “ikhlasw”. Sincerity may mean differently to different people. Let us now refer to its meaning from the Islamic perspective.
What is sincerity (ikhlasw); to be sincere?
“NaseeHah” as related to the Arabic term: “Nu-Suu-H”: it has the meanings of “to be sincere; to mean well; to act in good faith; to be loyal, genuine and true.” Interestingly it can be used as a verb meaning “purify/make clarification” of something; example as when applied to an object like honey: ”I purified (NaSaHtu) the honey ....”
Here, the link to the meaning of sincerity of intention (ikhlasw) is amazingly profound. In Islam, “ikhlasw” requires us to purify our intention from other considerations except for Allah’s sake alone as the primary reason. This amazingly is also very consistent, and has direct co-relation to the Islamic concept of “Tauhiid” (Oneness of God). For the term “Tauhiid” is from derivation through: Ahad (Absolute one): wahiid: yuwaa-hidu : tau-hii-dan, which literally means: “one, he made it (to be only) one, you assert it (to be only) one.” Thus the concept of Tauhiid can be summarized as: “every effort to eradicate all forms of “shirk” (association) to God (of any other, in our mind and worldview) – i.e. to purify it, in asserting and attesting to God’s Absolute Oneness; for He, Allah, alone is God, there is no god but He.”
And when we realise that the whole Deen of al-Islam emanates from this single yet profound concept of Tauhiid, the statement of our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. “ad-Dee-nun-NaseeHah” yet again becomes wonderfully consistent and amazingly true, Sub-Haa-naAllah.
Perhaps one could not be faulted if one contends that: “Advice given without sincerity is not actually an advice (in the Islamic sense).” But because sincerity is a matter of the heart and mind, we do not have to seek out what is in others, we should act in good faith and gracefully accept any advice given to us. In fact Islam teaches us to always hold good opinion about what is in others or give them the benefit of doubt. It is to our own sincerity, in our self that we must introspect and scrutinise.
Sincere advice is a righteous deed. But, true and perfect sincerity can only emanate from one who acted selflessly. Yet how can one attain to being selfless when we are always conscious of our own self, of our ego, our existence? It is by submission of the self to God, being aware that the purpose of our action in life is to serve Him, that one can hope to ever attain to acting selflessly - but not in the nihilistic sense – rather to be selfless only because of God. And here, regarding the concept of God, it is very important that we acknowledge the Truth about God, and not admit any partners to Him:
فَمَن كَانَ يَرۡجُواْ لِقَآءَ رَبِّهِۦ فَلۡيَعۡمَلۡ عَمَلاً۬ صَـٰلِحً۬ا وَلَا يُشۡرِكۡ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِۦۤ أَحَدَۢا
“Whosoever yearns to meet his Lord (Sustainer, Cherisher), let him work righteousness, and in matters of worship (and servitude), do not admit any one as partners to your Lord.”
(Qur’an: Surah al-Kahfi: 18: 110 )
“NaseeHah” is one form of helping
How many are helped by others, without them having to ask for it?
Those who think that one should not offer any help or advice unless one is asked, is grossly mistaken. They offer excuses, “we should not be encroaching into other people’s business; don’t want to be a ‘kay-poh’ (busy body)! Out of respect we don’t interfere; aren’t you ashamed to be meddling into peoples’ lives; why bother, etc.” This only exposes to us how much society has imposed culture of selfish individualism, how it has changed into perpetuating the denial of social moral responsibility between us, thinking that this is the correct stand! How foolish and parochial.
Imagine if such were to be true – that we should not offer any help unless we are asked, many of us would not have survived. Babies, children, victims of accident and oppression, those unaware of dangers and harm, those who are acting unjustly, destructive to themselves, etc. all would be dead by now! And in these cases mentioned, such help even include physical intervention, applying something which may even be painful and disliked but necessary. As compared to these kind of help, offering “advice “is merely conveying words for their consideration, surely this could not be morally wrong, in fact it must be regarded as civic duty. Our Prophet s.a.w. has provided a guideline when he said:
“When any of you see a wrong occurring amongst you, let him remove (or change) it with his hands, if he is unable (to do it with his hands), let him remove it with his tongue; and if (even that) he cannot do, then with his heart – but this is sign of a weak Faith.”
(Hadith from Abu Sa’id al-Khudry r.a. as reported by Imam Muslim)
In this hadith, the Prophet s.a.w. acknowledges that certain people may have certain authority towards proactively eradicating evil and wrong doings, even with right to use force. According to what is just ('adl), everyone is advised to strive in accordance with their given right and to fearlessly carry out their responsibility. Failure to discharge that duty, when one is capable, would be regarded as treachery. Although only certain people may have the authority in "using their hands" in effecting change towards removal of evil and wrong doing, yet all of us are aware that generally everyone has a public right to “use our tongue, at least to advise”, if not to comment, object, reprimand and criticise, – what people today tout as freedom of expression. And even in times when that freedom is curtailed, still we are to oppose it in our hearts and minds. For without even doing this, which in fact tantamounts to condoning (knowingly or even if it is by merely being indifferent, with couldn't careless attitude), i.e. we are guilty of complicity in that evil and wrong doing, then our Prophet s.a.w. would not regard us to have any Faith (iiman).-Na-'udzu billaah!
As regards social and civic duty, there is beautiful Parable given by the Prophet s.a.w. in which he likens us all as living/travelling in a ship. Each allocated their berth and compartment, some above deck some below deck. To survive, they need to assist one another. Now if those below deck wish to act foolishly in boring a hole to the walls, perhaps to get the water, thinking it is to their berth and their wall which therefore has no consequence to those sitting in the upper deck. Now in such instance, intervention is necessary and mutual consultation and cooperation of everyone in preventing this is vital in order for all on board the ship to survive. (Paraphrased from hadith narrated by Nu’man ibn Basir r.a. as reported by Bukhary & Tirmidhi)
Let us then look at the state of our iiman, islam & ihsan ..... and consider our action or inaction .... care or indifference ....passive or active, etc. and strive to be better Muslims.
May Allah grant us the Taufiq and Hidaaya
WaAllaahu a'lam
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3 comments:
Dear Ustaz,
Recently,there's this new 'wave' of emails that are circulating amongst the Muslim community to 'sabotage' the Denmark products because of the things that they do to damage the image of Islam and our Prophet saw.The composer of that email urged every Muslim to spread to every Muslim families and friends, and if this is not done, he/she shall bear the consequences of being questioned by the Prophet, as to why was he not defended?
Should we circulate such emails?
To have love for our Prophet s.a.w. more than anything else in the world is indeed a sign of strong faith (iiman) which Allah s.w.t. may grant a Muslim. And that affection would cause us to feel hurt and sadness for whatever may hurt and cause sadness to him whom we love, as much as we would also feel happy and like to do things which would make him happy and please. But the measure of acting out our love must conform to what Allah and His messenger approve of and condone, and should not be allowed to be dictated by our own nafs (ego). Perhaps what people intend to do, it is more of ostentatious rather than out of true love for the prophet. Amongst the companions r.a., there were some who were driven to take stern action whenever the Prophet s.a.w. was ill-treated by ill-mannered Makkans – BUT they always would first asked the Prophet s.a.w. whether they do can such and such to someone because they just could not bear to see such a thing being done to him. And we know how tolerant and forebearing the akhlaq of our Prophet s.a.w. and would not agree to their suggestions, especially if these people were the ignorants. Allah s.w.t. describes His true servants as those: “when the ignorant address them, they say "Peace!" (Q:25:63). Though the companions were unhappy, the standard of our Prophet’s akhlaq is most exalted. and especially the Prophet s.a.w. was told: “Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate! And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint none but persons of the greatest good fortune.” (Q:41:34-35) Alas, today people cannot see this exalted and noble akhlaq from Muslims. Laa-hawla walaa quwwata il-la billaah!
The recent protest by Muslims, although may come from that love which we may have for the Prophet s.a.w., the 'NaseeHah' would be that we should be mindful of how we react. Evil forces from jinn and mankind, would like to incite hatred in us, and time and again seek to make us expose a bad side of our nature which has nothing to do with Islam. And they would use it to further attack Islam. So, yes we feel sad and also hurt, but ask ourselves, “would the Prophet s.a.w. approve of our reaction?” Wouldn’t this be playing to the tune of those who purposely WANT to incite us into acting foolishly? And not what the Prophet s.a.w. would want it of us. And Allah reminds us: “And if (at any time) an incitement to discord is made to thee by the Evil One, seek refuge in Allah. He is the One Who hears and knows all things.” (Q:41:36)
In my understanding of the Seerah, actions like “boycott and repaying hate with hate” was never the teaching of the Prophet. It was actually the Quraysh that applied such act (of boycott),upon the Muslim and Bani Hashim. They were the target of it rather than the perpetrator. O how they suffered! Do you think the prophet would agree to this act? Can it be just ('adl), to cause untold sufferings upon the many who aren’t to be blame for the action of some ignorant people. And today such dastard acts are being applied by world powers upon weaker countries to bully them into following their dictates. Millions of innocent citizens are made to suffer. If you say: “but we need to protest!” and my reply is, use 'An-NaseeHah' and follow what Allah s.w.t. says: “Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better.”
Actually to think of it, this action of non-Muslim to show hatred and enmity towards Islam, is to be expected. But we Muslims must not! We are not like them. Our prophet would want to show them (although they may now be against Islam)the Truth,the beauty of Islam, the opportunity for them to receive the Guidance too. That is why my call to Muslim to carry out Da’wah, which Muslims are not actually doing. (what Muslims do is ‘Islah’ towards fellow Muslims only).AND this task (Da'wah) requires knowledge, NAY, in fact Allah says to use Wisdom. Sabotaging goods from Denmark and boycotting the Danes is (to me) not Hikmah. And going by the Seerah,it (general boycott/embargo in peace time)is not conforming to Sunnah of our Prophet s.a.w. but the wicked practice of the Quraysh which they had used against the Prophet s.a.w. It is evil to punish the majority because of an act actually done only by individuals, which the rest never condone. And remember, this evil method is being carried out upon innocent Palestinians civilians almost daily, and we cannot condone this. Now to call Muslims to do alike with the same justification - would this not be using double-standards. To say, "we have to defend the Prophets’ honour", then we must begin by "NOT doing something that would dishonour him and Islam." And why react against the movie when in fact there are many other things being committed and omitted, especially by Muslims themselves which would sadden,grief and anger the Prophet s.a.w. and yet Muslims just could not care less about. And if you are unaware of what I mean, it goes to show how insensitive and neglectful we have become. Where is the love, where are the defenders? Rob-banaa zolam-na amfusana, wa-inlam-tagh-fir lanaa wa-tarHamna lanakuu-nan-na minal Hosirin.
Masya allah. Thank you Ustaz, for that wonderful reply.
Instead of taking a silent defensive stand by not forwarding the email, i deleted it and told my friends/colleague not to forward it anymore because of the reason that we should not follow what the non muslims are doing(it makes us just like them), and the reply was;'Ok.' That's it.
Insya allah, hopefully they will ponder about the consequences.
Allahu akbar!!!
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