His Eminence Sheikh Saud Al-Shuraim ?may Allah protect him? delivered this Friday Khutbah titled “The Difference between Advising and Reviling”. He spoke about one of the most important values that Muslims should try hard to embrace in their social interaction, especially among Islamic Theology students, Muslim scholars, and people at large. This value is namely advising, and particularly the difference between advising, reviling and defaming.

Praise be to Allah, the Unique in Majesty with perfect Beauty; praise be to Him by way of glorification and exaltation. He is exclusively in control of all affairs in the Universe, in the minute details as well as in the overall design, and in measurement as well as in disposal. He is Supreme in Might and Glory alike. He revealed the Holy Qur’?n unto His Servant, Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) and sent him as Warner to al-??lameen (the Worlds).
 
I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, alone with no associate, and I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah’s Servant and Messenger who is sent by Allah to the thaqalain (the two major species: mankind and Jinn), as Bringer of glad tidings and Warner, as Caller to the Path of Allah, with His Will and Permission, and a radiant lamp. May Allah’s bounteous Sal?t (Graces, Honours, Mercy) and peace be upon him, his pious and immaculate family, his wives ?Mothers of the believers? his Companions, his t?bi??n (the contemporaries of the Companions of the Prophet [may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him] after his death), and all those who follow them in righteousness till the Day of Judgement.
    
Now then, O Servants of Allah!

The best advice ever offered to all of us is taqw? (fear of disobeying Allah). I mean taqw? vis-à-vis Allah (may He be extolled) in all states of affairs: in private and in public, in discontentment and in satisfaction, in sound health and in sickness: "And whosoever obeys Allâh and His Messenger Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, fears Allâh, and keeps his duty (to Him), such are the successful ones." [Al-Noor: 52]

O Servants of Allah!

Purity inside-out is a trait hardly achievable by so many people. Such are precious things; they are rare to come by and their prices keep rising. Thus, whoever wishes to look for such a precious metal in an era where egotism prevails and meanness controls individuals will at first sight notice the presence of many people but he will see none save those endowed with Allah’s blessing; and these are very few indeed.
 
Outer appearance should normally be a faithful reflection of the inner self, because appearances are worthless if they merely serve as screens hiding disgraceful intentions. This resembles the state of water whose surface may look crystal clear but whose taste is muddy. Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) said, “Allah certainly looks neither at your bodies nor at your outer appearance; He rather looks at your hearts and deeds.” [Narrated by Imam Muslim]

In time of parsimony when most people become selfishly opinionated, our Ummah is in dire need of friendly concord whereby people express reciprocal apologies and deliberately ignore slight inadvertencies, caused either by ijtih?d , that is approved by sharia and supported by valid evidence, or by error provided that it is based on permissible ijtih?d, where utmost capacity has been made. Therefore, we should not lose sight of the ajr (reward) which Allah (the Great and Almighty) grants to the mistaken mujtahid  for his sincere effort in making ijtih?d, though erroneous, and forgives him for his involuntary error.
 
Truth is as clear as daybreak no matter how thick the blurring curtains of falsehood might be and no matter how facts are overturned to conceal it, whereas falsehood is stammering, no matter how many ornamented expressions and resonant arguments have been made at its disposal: "Verily, they had plotted sedition before, and had upset matters for you, -until the truth (victory) came and the Decree of Allâh (His Religion, Islâm) became manifest though they hated it." [Al-Tawbah: 48]. Thus, whoever mistakenly believes that he is able to conceal truth is actually like someone who tries in vain to hide sunrays with a sieve.

O servants of Allah! Once this is known, every Muslim should foster good intentions vis-à-vis his Lord and vis-à-vis people in general. He should behave in good faith and patiently tolerate people's flaws rather than mistrust them, for whoever commits a fault while giving people the benefit of doubt will certainly have committed a much less serious sin than someone who commits a fault due to constantly mistrusting people.

Accordingly, any sincere person should by now be able to perform self-evaluation as regards the optimal way of dealing with people’s faults in accordance with religious guidelines. Such self-assessment is meant to help the Muslim individual firmly curb his own whims lest he should fall in the quagmire of fault-finding behaviour which violates others’ privacy. His main guide in all that is religious knowledge and fairness.
 
Nonetheless, a distinction still has to be made between fault-finding and fault-mending. While the former represents a form of reviling, defaming, and avenging oneself, the latter consists in offering people advice on Truth and calling them up to embrace it. Difference is then so big between reviling and advising as it is between personal desire and aspiration to divine satisfaction: "Whatever is with you, will be exhausted, and whatever with Allâh (of good deeds) will remain…" [Al-Na?l: 96]

In addition, it is learnt from witnessed experience that revilers who defame others for their faults will eventually be overtaken by their very defamation and will end up falling in the traps they set for the reviled. This is because reviling is an equitable disease which catches the revilers in the same way it does with the reviled, and punishment is indeed from the same kind.
   
In the hadith narrated by Al-Tirmithi, Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) said, “Whoever reviles his Muslim brother for a sin the latter has committed will not die until he commits the same sin.” Because there is conspicuous malicious joy in reviling others that takes the Muslim away from noble, high standing matters into despicable trivialities, Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) is reported to have said in another hadith narrated by Al-Tirmithi and considered by some Muslim scholars to be good: “Do not show malicious joy in your brother’s affliction, for Allah may have mercy on him and send an affliction on you.”
 
Undoubtedly, every individual who claims to have minimal common sense ?be he a TV viewer, a radio listener or a social networks user ? would clearly recognise the dire need for the rules of discussion and conversation, preserving people’s rights and privacy, abstaining from fault-finding, malicious joy (over other peoples’ afflictions) and obscene language.

Such channels and sites might have great advantages in promoting good and knowingly calling people to the Truth. The reward of kind words addressed to a thousand ears and read by a thousand eyes is greater than that of words directed to a fewer audience. By the same token, vicious words yield a greater sin and a heavier burden if the number of their readers and listeners is big. That is because the tongue is the mirror of the heart and the pen is the mirror of the tongue.

Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) indeed spoke the truth when he said, “There is nothing else that throws people in Hellfire with their faces down ?or with their noses down) except the harvest of their tongues.” [Narrated by Al-Tirmithi]. Thus, no rational mature person would doubt the fact that one’s tongue and pen mirror one’s true nature and inner self. Just as humans can have truthful, honest, and poised tongues, they can equally have lying, intrusive, and garrulous tongues. This is why Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) said, “Human organs will find fault with the tongue and say to it: ‘Fear Allah and spare us torment; for if you mend your ways, we will mend ours; and if you deviate, so will we.” [Narrated by Abu Ya?l? via a good chain of reporters]   

Servants of Allah!

It has been proved by factual evidence that fault-finding is the result of wrong information or ill intention. If it results from the former, it reflects a deficient perception but if it results from the latter, it reflects a corrupt heart, which is more serious and yields a greater sin. Certainly, ill intention is irreparable by the tongue, but good intention can repair slips of the tongue.
(The Sheikh cites a line of poetry):

Many a faultfinder finding flaws with correct speech
While his blight is poor understanding.
 
O People!

Life is shorter than any of us may wish for, and one would do oneself much injustice by taking out a big portion of one’s time to track down others in ways that would do more harm than good; ‘cripple the game short of killing it’, scale up one’s sins and bring down one’s merits. One would then start ‘looking back too often while walking’. He who does so will make it there only late; he who goes after the game will be distracted into negligence; and he who gazes at others’ flaws will not be able to see his own; hence his sin will be twofold.

After all, people will be people and none of them is infallible or angel-like. They certainly eat food in order to stay alive and walk around in markets, running their errands.  Sometimes, they are right; sometimes they are wrong, but often enough, they are more right than wrong. Why do some people then seem to prefer to pick on open wounds, just like flies, or to live on others’ blood, just like mosquitoes? A mosquito may cause the lion’s eyeball to bleed.

Why would some of us seek affability solely in backbiting, calumniation, tattling, innuendoes, accusing others of having bad faith and pretending to know what lies in their hearts?

Why would some people choose to live in bankruptcy, rather than in opulence, with their tongues and hearts? Such people are thus portrayed through the following line of poetry:

Were a tattletale’s home in Yamamah  and mine at the farther
End of Hadhramaut , still he would find his way to me.

Addressing his Companions, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s Salât and Peace be upon him) said: "Do you know who the bankrupt is?" They said: ‘The bankrupt among us is he who has neither money nor property.’ He said, "The real bankrupt of my Ummah would be he who would come on the Day of Resurrection with Salat, Saum (fasting) and Sadaqah (charity), but he will find himself bankrupt on that day as he will have exhausted the good deeds because he reviled others, brought calumny against others, unlawfully devoured the wealth of others, shed the blood of others and beat others; so his good deeds would be credited to the account of those (who suffered at his hand). If his good deeds fall short to clear the account, their sins would be entered in his account and he would (eventually) be thrown in the (Hell) Fire." [Narrated by Imam Muslim]

O Allah! How numerous the bankrupt are! How wretched they are in this life and how big their retribution will be in the Hereafter! Allah Almighty says: "Show forgiveness, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the foolish (i.e. don't punish them). (199). And if an evil whisper comes to you from Shaitan (Satan) then seek refuge with Allah. Verily, He is All-Hearer, All-Knower." [Al- A’r?f: 199-200]

May Allah bless you and me by the Glorious Qur'?n and make its verses and wise sayings beneficial to you and me! This is what I have said. If it is correct, it is so thanks to Allah, but if it is wrong, it is my own fault and Satan’s. I ask Allah to forgive my sins, yours, and those of all the Muslims, so ask Him for forgiveness, for He is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful!