5. Would you like to meet him outside the institution? (cont.)

You find out that they are planning to travel to a country where most often people become involved in major sins. You decide to advise him, but how should you do so? You could decide to tackle them all and advise them with a word or two and leave. However, you might not get very successful results. How about if you were to untie the bundle, and deal with it strand-by-strand? Could you do this? When they have dispersed, sit with the one you think is the most reasonable of them all and say, “O so-and-so, it has reached me that you will be travelling. You seem to be the most intelligent of them all. You know very well that the traveller to this country is not protected from calamities and mishaps. One may even return sick and diseased. How about if you earn their rewards and suggest that they travel to a different country? There they can enjoy the lakes, beaches and amusements without getting involved in any sin.” No doubt, if he hears this from you in a nice manner, his zeal would be reduced by half. You can then go to the second person and say the same to him, and then the third, etc, without any of them realising what you have already said to his friends. Thereafter, you will find that when they meet up again,one of them would suggest that they should go to a different country, and he would find another one who would support his suggestion. This way you would have put an end to an evil in an appropriate manner. Take another example. If you discover one day that your children are getting together in a room to watch a morally depraved video, or a Bluetooth clip of inappropriate pictures, and so on, then perhaps the best solution might be to advise them individually, so that their egos do not compel them to commit sins. Is there an example for this from the Prophet’s life? Indeed, there is. When the discord between the Prophet  and the Quraysh became severe, the Quraysh got together and boycotted the Prophet along with all his relatives from Banu Hashim. A declaration was written that none should buy from, sell to, or marry into Banu Hashim. The Prophet  along with his Companions was confined to a barren valley. The calamity became so severe upon the Companions that they were feeding on the trees. In fact, as one of them once went to urinate, he heard a sound beneath him. He looked to discover a piece of camel-skin. He took it with him, Untie the bundle washed it and roasted it in fire.He then divided it into small portions, mixed it with water and ate it bit by bit over three days! When Banu Hashim and the Muslims had endured months of hardship, the Prophet  said to his uncle Abu Talib, who was also confined to the valley with them,“Dear uncle,Allah has sent the wood worm to destroy the Quraysh’s document. It has left in that the name of Allah wherever it occurs in the document, and it has erased all the oppression, boycott and slanders that existed therein.” Meaning, the insect had eaten the Quraysh’s declaration document and nothing was left of it except the phrase, “In your Name, O Allah.” Upon hearing this, Abu Talib became surprised and said, “Has your Lord informed you of this?” “Yes”, the Prophet  replied. He said, “By Allah, before anyone comes to you, I will inform the Quraysh of this.” He then left to see the Quraysh and said to them, “O Quraysh! My nephew has informed me of such and such. Bring your declaration document! If what he said truly happened then you should end the boycott and abandon the declaration. If he has lied then I would leave my nephew to you and you can do what you wish with him!” The people said, “We are content with this,” and agreed to abide by the suggestion. They then looked at the declaration to find it exactly how the Messenger of Allah  had described it. But they only increased in evil. Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib therefore remained in the valley, until they were about to perish. Untie the bundle Amongst the disbelievers of Quraysh there were some kind men. One of them was Hisham bin ‘Amr. He was a noble man amongst his people. He used to load food on his camel and come to Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib in the valley at night. When he approached the entrance of the valley, he would untie the halter of his camel and strike it on the side until it entered the valley. As days went by, Hisham realised that he was unable to provide them with food every night any longer, especially when there were so many of them. He therefore decided to try to reverse the oppressive declaration. But how could he, when the Quraysh had unanimously agreed to it? He decided to adopt the ‘untie the bundle’ method.