Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī: On Remaining Silent Towards Falsehood

FROM THE PROMINENT CHARACTERISTICS of Ahl al-Sunnah is that they enjoin the good and prohibit the evil, whether that is sin, innovation and misguidance, and in this lies honour and progression for the ummah.

Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī said:^[1]

Commanding the good and prohibiting the evil is a mighty foundation from the foundations of Islām. Islām is not established except by it and the ummah will not attain this great benefit and progress over other nations except when they perform it.

If they fall short, they deserve Allāh’s wrath, rather His curse, just as Banī Isrāʾīl was cursed. So when Banī Isrāʾīl deserved curses because they did not command the good, then we are more deserving — and refuge is with Allāḥ — because our religion is greater than their religion.

So when we fall short in this religion and leave the people of desires and falsehood to play with it, and if we go along with them, remain silent about them and call it “wisdom”, then we deserve the wrath of Allāh (تبارك وتعالى), we seek refuge in Allāh from His wrath, and we ask Allāh — if this type (who say we should be silent) exists — to guide them and make them aware of the path of truth, and make them aware of the great fault of theirs which they have fallen into, so they leave it and enter the circle of the callers to Allāh in truth. [Those who] command the good and prohibit the evil, who proclaim it openly: “Then proclaim openly what you are commanded and turn away from the polytheists” (15:94-), likewise (you), proclaim what you have been commanded and turn away from the misguided innovators.

Notes

This is the way of the Companions and the Righteous Salaf, and without it, we would not have the pure, original sound creed and methodology to hold on to in all spheres of religion. ʿUmar (رضي الله عنه) took a position against Sabīgh and the people followed, Ibn ʿUmar (رضي الله عنه) took a clear position against the Qadariyyah of ʿIrāq and the people followed, and the Companions took positions against various types of innovations, whether in worship or creed or methodology, and this was inherited by the Successors who did the same, and then the Imāms of the Salaf. When the truth became apparent all the other scholars accepted it and spoke with it as and when necessary to aid in distinguishing truth from falsehood.

Every time an innovator, deviant or misguided one appeared with a statement, or a way, they refuted it with evidences and proclaimed it. As for silence in the face of error and falsehood when it becomes clear and the circumstance requires speech and clarity—in order to protect the people of the Sunnah, and maintain the separation between truth and falsehood—this was not from their way.

In the contemporary era there have appeared various calls trying to undermine what Ahl al-Sunnah establish regarding this mighty principle, particularly in refutation of the political groups and factions (aḥzāb), and they erect principles to undermine the critiques based on knowledge and evidence. From them:

We correct but do not disparage (نصحح ولا نجرح)
We correct but do not destroy (نصحح ولا نهدم)
If you judge, you will be judged (إذا حكمت حوكمت)
An agreement of scholars is required before disparaging someone
It is not binding upon me (لا يلزمني), it does not satisfy me (لا يقنعني)
And what is similar.

These principles have come from the likes of ʿAdnān ʿArʿūr, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Maʾribī, ʿAlī al-Ḥalabī and similar things occurred from Ibrahīm al-Ruḥaylī. The aim of all of this is to undermine justified criticisms and refutations in order to shield and protect those being crticised, and to turn people away from accepting the evidence-based criticisms.

Scholars such as Shaykh Rabīʿ expended great efforts to expose these incursions against the pristine methodology upon which the purity of Islām and the Sharīʿah depends.

Arabic text:

Footnotes

1. From the cassette: Al-Mawqif al-Ṣaḥīḥ Min Ahl al-Bidʿah