| Surah Aal Imran, 104-105
"And there has to be a group of people from among you who call towards the good, and bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair. And it is these who are successful. [104] And do not be like those who became divided and fell into disputes after the clear signs had come to them. And for them there is grave punishment."[105] (3:104-105)
Commentary
In the previous verses (102 -103), Muslims were given two principles which guarantee their collective well-being. If everyone practiced Taqwa, and made Islam his linkage with Allah, the result will be that individual life will be corrected and the collective strength of Muslims will come in its wake.
In the present verses (104 - 105) yet another dimension of the proposed system has been added. It has been said here that Muslims are not to rest at the correction of what they think and do individually; but they should, alongwith that, be affectionately concerned with the good of other brothers and sisters in faith. By doing so, the whole community shall have the benefit of keeping its stance correct at all times, and at the same time, this will guarantee closer mutual cooperation and unity.
Collective well-being of Muslims depends on two things
These are:
1. Self-correction through Taqwa and a firm hold on the 'cord of Allah' through the Qur'an and the Faith.
2. The correction of others through call (da'wah) and positive propagation.
The second article of guidance appears in the opening verse which says: 'and there has to be a group of people from among you ...' So, the gist of the previous and the present verses is that one must correct his or her deeds and morals in the light of what Allah Almighty has sent as the Law, and with it, one must be concerned that other Muslim brothers and sisters do the same. The subject appears in Surah al-'Asr:
Except those who believe and do good deeds and invite each other to truth and invite each other to patience. (103:2,3)
In order that Muslims have a firm bond of unity, they must relate to Allah, and in order that this bond stays firm through the ages, it is necessary that Muslims consider it their obligation to enjoin what is good in accordance with the dictates of the Qur'an and the Sunnah on their brothers and sisters in faith, and to stop them from what is not good. The purpose is that 'the cord of Allah' should not slip out of one's hands. This was succinctly illustrated by my well-known teacher, Shaykh al-Islam, Maulana Shabbir Ahmad 'Uthmani Rahmatullahi 'Alayh: Allah have mercy upon him who said:
"There is no way this 'cord of Allah' can break. That one loses his hand-hold on it is, of course, possible."
It is to offset this danger that the Holy Qur'an asks Muslims to go on educating other brothers and sisters in faith exhorting them to good deeds and holding them back from the bad ones. This will become a collective effort to stay with Allah and His commands and collective will be their gains in this mortal world and in the Hereafter. There are other proofs in the Holy Qur'an which show that the responsibility of mutual self-correction has been placed on the shoulders of each Muslim.
Cited above, you have seen the statement made in Surah al-'Asr. Elsewhere, in this very Surah 'Al-Imran, it is said:
You are the best Ummah raised for mankind. You bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair. (3:110)
As is clear, here too, the obligation - 'to bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair' - has been assigned to the whole community. That they discharge this responsibility is the reason that they are placed higher over other communities. Similarly, there are a large number of sayings of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him in this connection. As narrated in Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him has said:
By Him in whose hands is my life, you must bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair lest Allah inflicts upon you a severe punishment; you shall then pray to Him (for mercy) but your prayer shall not be answered.
In another hadith, the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him said:
Whoever from among you sees that an evil is being committed then, he should change it with his hands. And if he is unable to do that, then, with his spoken word. And if he is unable to do even that, then, with his heart (i.e., abhor it taking it to be evil) and this is the weakest degree of faith.
All these citations leave no doubt about the fact that the duty of bidding the Fair and forbidding the Unfair falls on every individual of the community. The liability will, however, be proportionate to everyone's ability, which is true in the case of all other Islamic injunctions. You may have noticed in the hadith just quoted above that the obligation varies with ability.
Now, each function requires a different ability. First of all, the ability to bid the Fair depends on a correct knowledge of the Fair and the Unfair as such. One who cannot distinguish between the two or does not have a full knowledge of his undertaking would not be the right person to go out to others to bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair. Obviously, this would create disorder instead of discipline. It is quite possible that such a person may, because of his lack of knowledge, forbid something Fair or bid something Unfair. So, one who does not know the Fair and the Unfair is obligated to find it out, get to learn the Ma'ruf and Munkar as determined by the Shari'ah of Islam and then he can go ahead and make these known to others as part of his community service. Let this be clear that until such time that one has acquired the pre-requisites of this mission, it is not permissible for him to stand up for this service. These days there are places where many ignorant enthusiasts would stand and deliver a sermon without knowing the Qur'an or the Hadith, or worse still, sections of common people would use hearsay to pick up arguments with others as to how something should or should not be done. This method is not proper to correct the Muslim society. Indeed it will result in more disputes and bring destruction to it.
Similarly, it is also included in 'to bid the Fair' that there be no formidable danger or unbearable harm likely to affect the person involved. Therefore, it was said in the hadith quoted above that one should stop sin with his hands, that is, by this strength. If he is unable to do so, let him do it with his tongue. If he is unable to do so with his tongue, he should at the least consider it bad in his heart. It is obvious that 'not being able to stop it with his tongue' does not just mean, that this person's tongue cannot move. It simply means that he strongly apprehends that, should he open his mouth and speak the truth, his life will be taken or he will be subjected to some other serious injury or loss. In such a case, this person will not be taken as 'able' and he will not be called a sinner for the abandonment of bidding the Fair and forbidding the Unfair. It would be an entirely different matter, if he elects to stake his life and property in the way of Allah, bear all losses and still goes ahead and bids the Fair and forbids the Unfair, which is something many blessed Companions and their Successors have been reported to have done. This is determination at its highest, and a feat of great merit which raised their status in this world and in the Hereafter. But, what they did was not obligatory on them.
The nature of this obligation requires that one bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair in what is necessary; this would be obligatory. If done in what is commendable; the act too would remain commendable. For instance, the five salats are obligatory, therefore, giving good counsel to the non-performer of salah will become necessary on everyone. The nawafil (optional prayers) are classed as commendable or desirable, therefore, giving good counsel on these will be commendable. Here, etiquette would require that while advising someone to do a commendable act, soft language and attitude must be adopted in all cases. Similarly, while inviting to an obligatory act, one should start with softness. However, he may resort to firmness in attitude if one rejects the soft call outright. It is common sight these days that people tend to object in case of what is commendable or indifferent rather strongly, but remain silent when people abandon what is obligatory.
In addition to this, this obligation will become operative for everybody when one actually sees something forbidden being done before his eyes. For instance, there is a person who is seeing that a Muslim is drinking wine, or stealing or raping, he will then be obligated with the duty to stop it to the best of his ability. If all this is not happening before his eyes, he is not liable to discharge this duty. Rather, this is the duty of the Islamic government to inquire into the crime, investigate and punish the criminal.
The words of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him , (Whoever from among you sees that an evil is being committed) point out to this principle.
Then comes another level of this function - that there be a dedicated group among Muslims devoted exclusively to the mission of calling people to the Faith and giving them right guidance towards it. Its single mandate and activity should be that it keeps calling people to the Qur'an and the Sunnah through word and deed. When it sees people less inclined towards what is good, or sees them indulging in evils, it should not fall short of pointing out what is good and preventing people from taking to the evil, of course, according to its ability. It should be realized that this great mission can be carried out fully and effectively only when the performers have a complete knowledge of questions involved, as well as, when they are conversant with methods that go to make the call effective in the light of Sunnah. It is for this reason that a particular group of Muslims has been charged with this responsibility as they are likely to take care of all ramifications of this effort.
So, in the present verse:
it has been said: "And there has to be a group of people from among you who call towards the good and bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair.
The first part of the verse, translated as (And there has to be a group of people from among you) gives a hint that the presence of this group is necessary. In case, a government does not shoulder this responsibility, it will become obligatory on Muslims that they should establish and operate such a group, because the vital role of the Ummah depends on the existence of such a group. What are the major features of this group? The Qur'anic answer is: (who call towards the good). It means that this call of theirs shall be their primary objective. What does 'khayr' or 'good' mean? The Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him has himself explained it by saying: that is, 'khayr' means following the Qur'an and my Sunnah. (Ibn Kathir)
Seen in a restricted sense, 'to bid the Fair and to forbid the 'Unfair' could have been taken to mean that doing so shall be needed only on jnecial occasions when the evil or 'the Unfair' (munkarat) are seen being committed. But, the expression (who call towards the good) in the beginning makes it clear that the function of this group ' voll be to call towards the good, even when evil practices are not seen, or time may not have come to perform something obligatory.
For example, it is known that in the period between sunrise and Zawal (noon) no salah is prescribed by the Shari'ah. But this group shall continue even in this period, to exhort people to perform salah when it is due. Or, take fasting which may not be due at a particular time, the month of Ramadan being far away, but that group will not shelve its duty and become complacent. Instead, it will keep reminding people about the month of Ramadan in advance, stressing on them that fasting will be obligatory at that time. In short, calling people to good will be the intrinsic duty of this group for all times to come.
Then, this 'call towards good' has two sub-levels:
1. Calling non-Muslims towards 'khayr', that is, Islam. This involves all Muslims. It means that every Muslim, in general, and this group, in particular, is responsible for giving the call of Islam, both by words and acts, to all peoples of the world. Therefore in a verse which enjoins jihad on Muslims, the true Muslims have been defined and praised in the following words:
that is, 'true Muslims are those who when We endow them with authority in a land the first thing they do is to establish a system of obedience to Allah on His earth, of which salah is an outward expression, and raise their financial system on principles governed by zakah, and they make the bidding of the Fair and the forbidding of the Unfair their very purpose of life.' (22:41)
Only if, the Muslim community of today were to take to extending their call towards good to other peoples as their objective, all ills that have crept into our social frame through the blind following of non-Muslim nations shall cease to exist. When a community resolves to unite for this great objective and becomes sure that it has to forge ahead among the nations of the world and that the responsibility of teaching and training them falls on its shoulders, will find that all its disunities have disappeared and there remains nothing but that wonderful goal in sight. The secret of the successes achieved by the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him and his noble Companions (R.A), lies hidden behind this effort. It appears in a hadith that the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him recited this verse (And there has to be a group of people from among you) and then said: This special group is the group of the noble Companions (Ibn Jarir). This is because each individual from among these blessed souls considered himself personally charged with the responsibility of calling people to good.
2. The second sub-level of this noble function is to call Muslims themselves towards the good. This means that tabligh or the act of conveying the message of Allah should be done by all Muslims generally, and by the special group particularly, among Muslims, fulfilling the duty of da'wah imposed by the Qur'an.
Again this call takes two forms as given below:
a). The first form will be that of a general and open call to good through which all Muslims will be educated into necessary injunctions and morals which have to be followed in Islam.
b). The second call would be particular and selective through which the objective will be to produce experts in the Muslim community, experts in the sciences of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Another verse of the Holy Qur'an leads in this direction:
So, why should it not be that a group from every section of them goes forth, so that they may acquire perfect understanding of the Faith, and so that they may warn their people. when they return to them, that they may be cautious. (9:122)
Further on, this responsibility-bearing group has been identified as carrying the additional distinction of that is, 'they bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair'.
The word, 'ma'ruf literally means 'recognized' but as a Qur'anic term it includes all good enjoined by Islam, and promoted by all prophets during their respective ages. Since what is good is known and recognized, it has been referred to as ma'ruf.
Similarly, the word, 'munkar' literally means 'non-recognized" or 'alien", but as a Qur'anic term it includes all evils and disorders about which it is well-known and recognized that the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him declared them to be impermissible.
Keeping this in view, another point is worth consideration. The Holy Qur'an could have used the word 'wajib)' (what is obligating) instead of 'ma'ruf', and the word 'ma'asf' (sins) instead of 'munkar', but it did not do so. The selection of the words 'ma'ruf' and 'munkar' may be indicative of the principle that the subject of bidding the Fair and forbidding the Unfair must be an act which is recognized by the entire Muslim Ummah as 'fair' or 'unfair' without any difference of interpretation. As for the rules deduced through ijtihad, which have always been open for the different interpretations offered by the capable Muslim jurists, they should not be made an issue during the process of : 'bidding the fair and forbidding the unfair.'
[It means that if a recognized school of Islamic jurisprudence, such as Hanafi school adopting a particular interpretation of Islamic law, has held an act as 'fair', the holders of an opposite view like Sh'afi'ites should not blame or reproach the former for their action, and vice versa, (editor)]
It is a pity that such a wise Qur'anic principle is being generally neglected in the Muslim community, and the Muslims are made to fight each other on the secondary issues which can admit different interpretations. People tend to consider such efforts as some feat of piety while the evils which are held by the entire ummah unanimously as sins and are being committed in the community receive much less attention and often go unchecked.
Towards the conclusion of the verse, the commendable end of the group described therein has been enshrined in the following words:
And it is these who are successful.
It simply means that, in reality, success is achieved by such people alone.
Primarily, this description applies to the great group of the Companions of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him. They were the ones who rose with the great objective of calling towards the good and of curbing what is bad and in a very brief period.of time conquered the entire world of their time. There were power centres of Byzantine and Persia which could not stop them and they went ahead teaching lessons in morality and purity and ushering around the light of righteousness and Godliness wherever they went.
Having established that Muslims have a distinct mission to convey and preach the God-oriented message of good, the text moves on to warn Muslims with the words:
And do not be like those who became divided and fell into disputes after clear signs had come to them. (105)
It means that Muslims should not be like Jews and Christians who, even after clear injunctions of Allah Almighty had reached them, became divided in the implementation of the basic code of faith simply because they preferred to follow the dictates of their desires. Thus, thrown in violent mutual disputations, vocal and physical, they brought Divine punishment upon themselves. This verse is, in fact, a complement of (verse 103) where Muslims were asked to. seek unity and strength by attaching themselves to Allah's commands, individually and collectively, which helps make an entire community act like one body, one person, one entity. Then comes the perpetual mission of da'wah, the act of calling people to good, the process of bidding the Fair and forbidding the Unfair. These nurture and strengthen that unity. After that, by saying (and be not divided) in verse 103 and (And do not be like those who became divided) in the present verse, Muslims have been asked to learn a lesson from past communities which were destroyed by mutual dissensions with the good counsel that they should do their best to stay safe against this disease.
The type of divisiveness censured in this verse is a division that shows up because of arrogant and egotistic self-assertiveness, be it in the fundamentals of religion or in its subsidiaries. The statement 'After clear signs had come to them' is an obvious indicator towards this explanation. The truth is that all fundamentals of religion are clear. Even some subsidiaries are so clear that they allow no margin of disagreement, unless of course, there be a selfish motive behind it.
However, there are subsidiary issues not so definite and clear. They may have no clear support from the texts of the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, (rather they are deduced by the scholars on the basis of analogy) or the text on which they are based is open to different interpretations. The resulting difference of opinion in the understanding of these subsidiaries is not included in the sense of this verse.
The well-known authentic hadith narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim from the blessed Companion 'Amr ibn al 'As Radhi-Allahu Anh: Allah be pleased with him, is more than enough to permit it. In this hadith the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him has said that one who does Ijtihad (conducting a competent inquiry within the framework provided by the Shari'ah to resolve a religious issue) and comes up with a ruling which is correct, he gets a twofold reward; and if he makes a mistake in his Ijtihad, he gets one reward.
This tells us that an Ijtihad made by a competent scholar even if it turns out to be erroneous, is still worthy enough for a reward provided utmost effort has been made. How can this be regarded as blameworthy? So, the difference of opinion resulting from Ijtihad undertaken by the blessed Companions and the great Imams has absolutely no connection with the present verse. According to Sayyidna Qasim ibn Muhammad and 'Umar ibn 'Abdul-'Aziz (R.A), the difference of opinion among the noble Companions is a source of mercy and ease for people (as in Ruh al-Ma'ani from al-Baihaqi and al-Mudkhal).
Ruling on difference of opinion
Let us have a clear understanding of a serious matter of principle which arises out of this discussion. When we talk about differences in Ijtihad, we mean an Ijtihad which is permissible under the Shari'ah of Islam. (There is no such thing as an Ijtihad outside the ramifications of the Shari'ah). In a Shari'ah-based Ijtihad, one or the other Imam may elect a view to stand by according to his line of thought, but the fact shall remain that, in the sight of Allah, only one of these views is true while other views are not so true. But again, the decision as to which is true and which is not rests with Allah Almighty, who will bestow, on the Day of Resurrection, a twofold reward on the Imam and 'Alim who arrives at the correct ruling through his Ijtihad. Also rewarded on this Day, will be the one whose Ijtihad was not correct. In short, nobody except Allah has the right to sit on judgement in the difference of interpretation and say that this is true and that is false. However, to the best of one's understanding and insight whichever side one thinks is closest to the Qur'an and the Sunnah he may say that, as far as he thinks, his choice is eorrect, although the possibility of its being incorrect cannot be ruled out and that which is the opinion on the other side, different from his chosen option is regarded as incorrect, with the possibility of that it may be correct in the sight of Allah. This is something all leading Imams of Fiqh, the masters of Muslim jurisprudence, agree upon.
So, the rule becomes clear that no side taken in a difference of interpretations is 'munkar' or 'unfair' and open to objection. Thus it will not be subjected to reproach under the authority of (Bid the Fair and forbid the Unfair). More so, when it is not unfair, raising an objection against what does not fall under the 'Unfair' would itself be regarded as unfair. This must be avoided. This is a rule most educated people do not fully comprehend these days or simply neglect it. They do not desist from abusing and verbally attacking others who think otherwise with all sorts of derogatory remarks and fretting. Inevitably, this leads to internecine confrontation and rampant disunity among Muslims, a phenomenon visible all over the Muslim world.
It has been already said that a difference of interpretation, if it corresponds to the principles of Ijtihad, does not go against the injunction (and be not divided) and, therefore, it is not blameworthy. But, the way this difference is being handled these days, when quarrelsome debates around the tertiary subjects are being nursed as if they were the very basis of Muslim faith. Unfortunately this is what results in mutual confrontation and abuse. It can be said without any shade of doubt that this behaviour is certainly an open violation of the same Qur'anic injunction (and be not divided). It is, most certainly, objectionable and totally contrary to the way of our learned elders, the blessed Companions and their Successors. There is no precedent for this type of behaviour among the early scholars (the Companions and their disciples) who were the best of our community. That anyone was ever blamed on the basis of difference of opinion in matters of interpretation in this manner is something unheard of.
For instance, Imam Shafi'i and other Imams, may Allah have mercy on them all, rule that in a sal ah offered in a congregation behind an imam, all those offering their prayer behind him must recite the Surah al-Fatihah as an obligation. Given this ruling anyone who does not fulfil this obligation will not have offered his salah at all. Parallel to this is the view of Imam Abu Hanifah, may Allah have His mercy on him, according to whom it is not permissible for one who prays behind an imam to recite his own Surah al-Fatihah, therefore, the Hanafiyah do not recite it while offering prayers in a congregation behind an imam. But, nowhere during the entire history of Muslim community there is any report saying that the followers of the Shafi'i school considered Hanafiyah as the deserters of the obligation of salah or that their prayers are not complete. They have never been blamed or criticised in the manner one would criticise and attack the evil acts forbidden by the Shari'ah.
Imam ibn 'Abd al-Barr rahimahullah has, mentioned the attitude of the early scholars and the revered elders in the following words:
Those who are entitled to give fatwa, have always been issuing fatwas. One of them would rule (concerning injunctions not covered under the texts) that something is lawful while the other will rule it to be unlawful. But, the latter takes the former doomed to perdition, nor does the former think that the later is doomed to perdition. (Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm, p. 80)
An important note of caution
All this discussion about Ijtihad relates to the one carried out under the standard rules governing it. The very first condition is that Ijtihad can be resorted to in questions and issues about which there is no categorical decision available in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Or, it may be that such decision is not clear and susceptible to more than one interpretation. Or, it is possible that a combination of some verses of the Qur'an and some narrations of the hadith may be apparently contradictory. In situations such as this, only those who possess the necessary pre-requisites to carry out Ijtihad will be entitled to do so. Ijtihad is no easy matter. It requires the most perfect expertise (in the real and full sense of the term) of all disciplines related to the Qur'an and the Hadith, a comprehensive and perfect knowledge of the Arabic language, and a comprehensive knowledge of the sayings of the blessed Companions and their Successors. Therefore, anyone who dabbles in questions which have been settled by authoritative texts and comes up with opinions contrary to those of leading authorities, then this difference of opinion will not fall under the category of Ijtihad as envisaged by the Shari'ah.
This will also be true about the person who does not fulfil the conditions of Ijtihad. What he says does not affect the question at all. This tendency has unfortunately become fairly visible in Muslim societies. Those who consider themselves educated (in modern sciences) have started to express their personal opinions relating to matters that have been settled in the Qur'an and Sunnah. This is ignorance at its ugliest. These are issues where even Imams and mujtahids would not dare speak. How can the exercise of so called Ijtihad be acceptable from a person who does not even possess the knowledge of Islamic sciences let alone the highest level of learning required for Ijtihad. (Ma'ariful Qur'an)
» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 24th December 2011
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