Islam for Muslims

• THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
• 1 Meaning & Importance of Faith (Iman)
• 2 Some Signs of Ideal Faith
• 3 God As The Unique and Supreme being
• 4 God as the All-Powerful
• 5 God’s Power in Shaping Destiny
• 6 God as the Creator
• 7 God as the Merciful
• 8 God as the Protector
• 9 God as the all-knowing
• 10 God as the Guide
• 11 God as the Judge
• 12 The Prophets in the Quran
• 13 Mohammad (pbuh) as the Final Prophet
• 14 Divine Books, Angels & Jinns
• 15 Various Stages of Life after Death
• GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
• 16 Importance & Types of Good Deeds: Importance & Types of Good Deeds
• 17 Some Ideal Signs of Good Deeds
• 18 God at the Center of Religious Universe
• 19 Sources of Islamic Laws (Sharia)
• 20 Purification & Preparation for Prayer
• 21 The Essentials of Prayer (Salat)
• 22 The Essentials of Charity (Zakat, Fitr and Qurbani)
• 23 The Essentials of Fasting (Siam)
• 24 The Essentials of Pilgrimage (Hajj)
• 25 The Essentials of Knowledge (Ilm)
• 26 The Essentials of Inheritance (Faraiz)
• 27 The Essentials of Halal Income
• 28 The Essentials of Halal Food
• 29 The Essentials of Modest Dress & Behavior
• 30 The Essentials of Marriage & Divorce
• 31 The Essentials of Death & Funeral
• 32 Optional but Valuable Deeds
• 33 Avoiding Personal Sins: Why & How?
• 34 Fighting Satan (Devil) to Avoid Sins
• 35 Five Major Sin Packages
• GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
• 36 The Importance of Preaching & Good Advice
• 37 The Techniques of Preaching & Good Advice
• 38 The Roles of Family & Parents
• 39 The Roles of Schools & Students
• 40 The Roles of Mosques & Muslims
• 41 The Roles of Print and Social Media
• 42 The Importance of Resisting Social Sins
• 43 The Techniques of Resisting Social Sins
• 44 Observing Islam in a Non-Muslim Environment
• 45 Islamic Governance: Legality, Potentials & Problems
• 46 Criminal Justice System for the Muslims
• 47 The Ideal Qualities of a Muslim: Piety & Proficiency
• 48 The Unity among the Muslims: Why & How?
• 49 The key to progress and prosperity of muslims
• 50 Final Appeal to the Muslims

42: THE IMPORTANCE OF RESISTING SOCIAL SINS

Introduction: For the Muslims, the promotion of good deeds (through preaching and good advice) is a noble virtue and so is the effort for erasing sinful actions from the society.  These dual responsibilities are mirrored in God’s proposal:  "Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong” (3:104). In fact, both of these are like the two sides of a coin, playing inseparable roles towards the common purpose of planting Islamic ideals in the society. Accordingly, if you help the cause of God by opposing the wrong and injustice, He will “guide” you to His “path”, “aid you and plant your feet (faith) firmly, forgive your sins and admit you to Gardens (of Paradise)” (29:69; 47:7; 61:12). In emotional terms, God is said to have “purchased the labor and resources of the believers” (engaged in efforts for His cause) in exchange for their reward of “Garden (of Paradise)” (9:111).

The mission of uprooting evil practices from the society through your level best efforts is a collective obligation known as ‘fard kefaya’.  If some people can successfully get this job done, then that will clear the obligation for the entire society.  By default, the society as a whole will face penal consequences for that.

Necessity for Resistance: If vices are allowed to coexist with virtues, then much of the impacts of virtuous deeds will be offset and virtues may lose much ground to vices.  It is for this reason that the prophets of God mainly assigned with spreading His messages came in collision course with the “enemy among the sinners” who “mocked” every prophet sent by God (25:31; 43:7). For example, Noah and Abraham fought the idolaters and Moses rose against the oppression of Pharaoh and so on.

Obviously, when any injustice or sinful action goes on in the society, then a counter-force will be necessary to replace that with truth and justice.  Particularly the religious leaders have substantial obligation in this regard and their failure therein was rated as “evil indeed were their works” (5:63). If God would “not check one set of people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief" (2:251). So there is need for combating injustice until “there is no more tumult or oppression” (8:39). “If God willed, He Himself could certainly inflict punishment” on the wrong-doers by means of natural calamities (47:4). However, prior to that He wants to test the loyalty of people by way of “forbidding one another from the sins they committed” (5:79).

Divine Anger for Inaction: If, on the other hand, the social evils cannot be stopped due to incomplete participation of the society, then that becomes a liability for the society as a whole. In that case, if the evil or injustice remains in place only because the society is not operating at full force, that becomes a punishable social sin. Then God questions: Why did the people of “balanced personality and good senses not prohibit (people) from mischief in the earth except few (good people) among them whom I saved from harm?" (obviously for their roles against sins) (11:116). Particularly God blamed the religious scholars (who despite knowing their obligation) did not do anything or enough to stop people from “uttering sinful words and eating banned food” among other sins (5:63). 

Doing & Bearing Sins both Blameworthy: Obviously, such divine penalty would not spare even the so-called pious who care about doing good personally but remain careless about others’ sinful actions.  You are therefore warned of "punishment which would affect not only the wrong doers in particular” (8: 25) but also those who remain tolerant of such wrongdoings.  This is comparable to the example of sinking of a double deck ship after the lower deck passengers made hole into its bottom hull. In this case, there will be no sparing of life for the upper deck passengers who were not directly involved in making the hole but avoided their responsibility of preventing lower deck passengers from doing so. By contrast, God “rescued those who forbade evil” from above penalty (7:165).

    In fact, there is hardly any difference between doing a sin and bearing with it as both are blameworthy in the eye of God.  Accordingly, many people focusing on only good deeds while ignoring sin resistance roles are likely to attract divine punishment. Such punishment for defaulting social obligation of sin resistance usually takes on collective nature, spreading pains throughout the society.  “Troubles appear on land and sea” because of what men earn as sin (30:41). Examples of such “calamities” affecting everyone without discrimination include “party strife (e.g. war, riot) giving you a taste of mutual vengeance” (6:65), earthquakes, locusts, drought, famine, epidemics etc. Adding to this list, the Prophet warned of God’s imposition of a tyrant ruler on a people who sin widely without any interpersonal check. Obviously, such communal punishments for collective sins are more problematic than personal punishment (ex: accidental injury) for individual sins (like drunk driving). In the former case, almost everyone suffers and there are very few people left out there with ability to help one another.

Historical Background: Examples from the Prophet’s Life: The Prophet took into account the above divine policy while implementing sin resistance programs on the ground.  Depending on the severity of crimes, he used physical force (ex: holy wars) wherever necessary. Otherwise he used oral tactics of persuasion, warning, condemnation among others.  Using a range of such methods to uproot unjust and sinful actions is popularly known as 'jihad'. This is often misunderstood in the sense of only violent physical force with apparent linkage to the Prophet’s holy war tradition, wrongly instilling fear about Islam.

Various Options for Resistance: However, if you look at the Arabic meaning of ‘jihad’, that is, making 'efforts' for a noble cause, you can realize that such effort does not necessarily mean use of physical force as you can choose from a range of options against evils. The Prophet resorted to physical force in the form of holy war in response to extreme form of injustice he suffered from his native Meccans for only exercising his natural rights to practice religion.  Even after his forced migration from Mecca to Medina, there was no slowing down of their hostile attacks.  To combat such “oppression” in favor of “justice”, God not only recommended but also mandated the conditional use of physical force or “fights” against the evil forces, along with promised reward (4:74).

Tradition of Divine Support for Sin Resistance: In response to the vicious plan of the Arabian infidels to put out the light of Islam, God told the Prophet to “go forth” and strive with his “goods and persons in the cause of God” (9:41). He then moved to restore the balance of power in favor of lightly armed Muslim forces by taking steps like invisible “Angels making a terrific onslaught” on enemies (3:125), “throwing (a handful of dust)” for confusing the enemies (8:17), “sending hurricane” to weaken the enemies (33:9), casting terror into (enemy) hearts” (33:26); causing hallucination to the enemies who “saw with their own eyes twice the number” of Muslim forces (3:13) and so on. Thus “God helped (them) at the Badr” enabling only 313 Muslims to defeat 1000 strong Arab infidels (3:123). God also motivated the Muslims to “sell their present life for the Hereafter”, promising “reward of great (value)” means Paradise (4:74). He then makes an emotional statement “Do not say of those who are slain in God’s cause as ‘they are dead’, No, they are alive, though you do not perceive (it)” (2:154).

    It follows from the above that the tradition of 'holy wars' was an example of extreme form of physical force usable against injustice while a range of softer options also remain in place for use.  Be reminded that the holy war is not the only example of physical ‘jihad’. Physical roles against injustice may also mean, for example, fighting in the court against oppression of an orphan, writing articles critical of social injustice etc. Obviously, the necessity for such anti-crime efforts never goes away as social crimes and sins always do exist in one form or the other.

Conclusion: It is therefore a high value obligation from God that you try your level best to resist any on-going sins and injustice. That is how you can contribute your fair share in replacing vices with virtues and thereby gain divine blessings.