Man is very forgetful and makes a lot of mistakes. His own self (nafs) tells him to do evil and then Satan tempts him to commit sins. Because of the diseases in the heart and soul people indulge in a number of evil acts such as disbelieving in Allah, shedding blood, committing adultery, drinking alcohol, oppressing people and usurping their wealth, disobeying parents, preventing people from following the way of Allah and much more.
When one witnesses evil, he should strive to change it with good, as Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said, “Whoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then (let him change it) with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart and that is the weakest of faith.” (Muslim) The hadīth clearly specifies the three levels of acts which could be adopted to forbid people from evil acts. In order to change the evil with good, Islam not only commands people to change it, but it also gives a methodology to do it. The hadīth helps us to understand the three levels which could be adopted to forbid people from evil.
LEVELS OF FORBIDDING EVIL
Following are the various levels through which one should strive to change the evil with good:
- Hand (Power and Authority)
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) advised us that if we see an evil, we must change it with our hands. Here ‘change it’ means to remove evil and replace it with something good, and it is a collective obligation for Muslims to act, to stop evil and replace it with good. If they do not strive to stop an evil, even though it is within their capacity to do so, they are failing to meet this obligation and are therefore sinful. The means of ‘removing it’ however depends on one’s ability to do so.
Everyone will not be able to stop the evil with their hands, as they do not have the power and authority to do so. Different people will have power and authority at different levels, such as; father will be the head of the family, principal of an educational institute, CEO of a company, police of an area, leader of a society or the head of a state. So, they should exercise their power and authority, in their respective spheres of influence to change things.
The reason why using one’s hands (power and authority) to remove evil should be the first approach, is because it is the most effective means and has the most lasting effect. We should be sure that when we act in this way, we are doing so purely for the sake of Allah, and not in retaliation or with the intention of harming or ridiculing someone else.
- Tongue (Communication)
When the person is not able to overcome the evil with his hand (power and authority), he should use his tongue, which is his ability to communicate through speaking and writing and create awareness among the people, so that people can abstain from the evil. A person might be an intellectual, a good speaker, a good writer, a good presenter, etc; he should use his capabilities to stop the evil and to promote virtue.
Various methodologies could be adopted to overcome the evil, through one’s tongue. People can come forward in the form of a group or organisation, they can put pressure on the people who have the power, and they can create awareness about the various evils in the society and their harmful effects and much more.
- Heart (Sense of Realisation)
When a person is not able to change the evil with his hand (power and authority), or with his tongue (communication), he should resort to the last option which is that, he should have a feeling that whatever is happening around him is evil. It means that you hate the evil in the heart, and if you had the ability to change it with your hand or tongue, you would have done so. If one even considers the evil to be an evil, it proves that his conscience is alive, or else it would be considered dead.
For example, a person should at least feel that the interest based economy is something which is very bad and cruel to the society, a person should feel that the sale and consumption of alcohol is very problematic to the society, he should at least do this, when he lacks power and authority to get it stopped.
The hadīth links faith with eradicating evil. If one has the desire to eradicate evil, it means that he has a degree of faith. And if one does not care about evil, it means that his faith is weak or does not have faith at all. The most important part to be considered here is that, this is considered the lowest degree of faith, when one only feels about the evil in the heart. From this we also learn that one should not be at the lowest level of faith, but should try to come up, and this can happen when he strives to overcome evil with his hand or tongue.
There are generally three kinds of people in this world. The first category of people comprises those who have power and authority, the second are those who have the knowledge and understanding of current issues and evils but they do not have power, the third category are those, who neither have power, nor have knowledge and understanding of current issues. The hadīth gives a point of action or response to all the three categories of people. It basically tells the people to use their capabilities and resources to change the evil with good.
The hadīth does not talk about forbidding evil but talks about changing it, as the word used in the hadīth is ‘ghaiyyir’, which means change, thus one should not only go up to the extent of stopping the evil, but should also take steps to replace the evil with what is good. Forbidding the evil is a more general concept that includes preventative measures to keep an evil from occurring. In the case of forbidding evil, one starts with speech and kindness, but in the case of changing evil, one starts with one’s hand (power and authority) and tongue (communication).
The basic task given to the Muslims is to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil as Allah says in the Qur’ān , “You are the best nation produced (as an example) for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient.” (Qur’ān 3:110) Thus, it is a responsibility on every individual to play a role when there is evil in the society.
[Syed Kazim is working as Assistant Professor at Acharya Bangalore B School, Bengaluru. He can be contacted at [email protected]]