. Li (cont.)

, - "By the One in whose hand is my soul, you must order good and forbid evil or Allah will soon send upon you a punishment from Himself and then you will supplicate to Him and He will not respond to you."3 One can see from the above that there are many factors that should drive a believer to ordering good and eradicating evil. These include: hoping for reward from Allah, fearing punishment from Allah for not doing it, love for Allah and love for obedience to Him, hating something for the sake of Allah 1 Recorded by Ahmad. Zuhair al-Shaaweesh and Shuaib al-Arnaoot give the strong impression that the hadith is hasan. See their notes to al-Husain al-Baghawi, Sharh al-Sunnah (Beirut: al­ Maktab al-Islaami, 1983), vol. 14, pp. 346-347. 2 Recorded by ibn Maajah, Ahmad and ibn Hibbaan. According to al-Hilaali (Eeqaadh, p. 457), it is sahih. 3 Recorded by Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi. According to al-Albaani, it is hasan. See al-Albaani, sahih al-Jaami, vol. 2, p. 1 1 89. Commentary on the 40 Hadith of al-Nawawi when His laws are violated, and having mercy and compassion for one's fellow Muslims by trying to take them away from acts that may lead them to Hell. If these points are kept in mind, it becomes very easy, Allah willing, to bear the hardships that often times are involved with ordering good and eradicating evil. 1 Ordering Good and Eradicating Evil is One of the Most Important Aspects of the Brotherhood of Islam The ordering of good and eradicating of evil is not to be done for a person to demonstrate that he is better than others or more knowledgeable of Islam. Instead, it is done out of one's love for Allah and out of one's love (also for the sake of Allah) for his fellow believers. A believer should love for his brother what he loves for himself and no believer would love that he falls into acts that are displeasing to Allah. A believer should feel sad and hurt for his brothers when he sees them ignoring their obligations or falling into sins. He feels sad that Allah's COJllllands are being ignored and he feels sad that his brethren might be leading themselves to the Hell-fire. This feeling should drive him to act or speak to them on their behalf, to help them as one helps a child who is doing something dangerous although the child has no idea of what is gomg on. Allah describes the believers in the following words, ,, ,J ., (._ ,,.. J ., ., 0j:J -?-'32 s_,!" '-f*¼! :Qji r,a;¼! ୔j:J\j 0м\j :&I উ;-ঊJƊ aJ.b=.)JT ର);}ij aPT ୃ;o_ঋJƊ p1 ;j- "The believers, men and women, are helpers and supporters of one another. They order what is good and forbid what is evil. They also establish the prayer, pay the zakah and obey Allah and His messenger. These are the ones to whom Allah will show mercy to. Verily, Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise" (al-Tauba 7 1 ). In other words, a believer is a protector and close friend to his fellow believers. He will not be happy to see them hurting themselves. He will realize that it is his responsibility to do what he can to keep them from the wrong acts that they are doing. They are actually hurting themselves by those acts. However, they may also be harming the remainder of the society. It is not fair that individuals be allowed to do such acts that are hurting the other members of the brotherhood. Therefore, this feeling of brotherhood for the sake of Allah is one of the driving forces behind ordering good and eradicating evil. 1 Cf., ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 2, p. 255. Hadith #34: "Whoever of You Sees an Evil. . . " When Muslims stop ordering good and eradicating evil when they have the ability to do so, it is a sign that they have lost the true brotherhood oflslam. This is a sign that they do not care if their brother goes to Paradise or Hell. This is a sign that they do not care if one brother or sister does things to harm the other brothers and sisters in the community. All of this points to the importance of ordering good and eradicating evil and its direct relation to faith. If one has true faith, he will order good and forbid evil to the best of his ability. If such ordering good and eradicating evil is beyond his means, then, at the very least, he will hate the evil that is going on around him. He will hate to see what his brothers and sisters in Islam are doing and he would wish that there is something that he could do about it. This is, as this hadith points out, the least manifestation of faith. If even this is absent from the person, it means he has lost every ounce of true faith.