Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
The Techniques of Resisting Social Sins
Introduction: There is no question about religious importance of sin resistance for the Muslims as God urges “Strive in His cause as you ought to strive (with sincerity and discipline)” (22:78). The questions, however, may arise about the use of right methods and techniques in order to be fruitful in these efforts. We now turn to the details.
Triple Methods: On the questions of methods, we get answers in the Prophet’s quote "The Muslims, coming across any sin or injustice in the society, will try their utmost to resist (i) by hand (physical force), (ii) by mouth (verbal protest) or (iii) by mind (hating) in the least".
Selection of Method: These three organ-based methods are therefore considered authorized ranges of options to deal with a sin. Exactly which method should be employed first will virtually depend on factors like the nature of sin or the reality of circumstances etc. The timing of crime is also a factor in this regard. For example, a present sin (e.g. ongoing cruelty to an orphan) may deserve immediate action probably in the form of physical resistance (if possible) before it is too late. By contrast, a future sin may possibly be prevented with an oral warning and the past sin which already had happened without any chance for reversal may be hated with mind.
Mental Dislike as Last Option: In general, however, the last method of mental contempt is the least preferred among the three. Because mental dislike (i) does not involve any sacrifice and (ii) it does not virtually help resisting a sin. It represents the weakest form of faith but still it ranks with faith for doing better than being totally passive or cooperative with sin. If you do not participate in any of the above three (not even hating), your faith becomes questionable. Now follow some details about the above 3 methods.
(1) Oral Resistance: Ideally the First Choice: When any sin or injustice prevails in the society, you should first try with oral protest. This may cover a wide range of options including inspiration, persuasion, request, suggestion, advice, condemnation, warning, threat etc. according to the need of circumstances. God rebuked the companions of the Prophet “Why did you not say (anything) when you heard it?” referring to false scandals spread against an immaculate wife of the Prophet (24:16). Note the point that if the oral method works, then you do not need to resort to physical method first, quite at greater risk. God chose the oral method first for Moses to invite over-powerful Pharaoh, “Speak to him mildly, perchance he may take warning or fear (God)” (20:44). The Prophet at least in one occasion was able to keep a man from his sexual indulgence by explaining him about its consequences in a logical way. Be reminded, your roles against injustice is only for the pleasure of God even if that may displease anyone or everyone.
Prospect of Oral Method: Oral protest has prospect of success in cases when (i) the sinner is your dependent family member, relative, friend or otherwise known and willing to listen to you or (ii) you have the power to influence people through your personality, character, charisma, logical argument etc. If, in such cases, you jump over the oral efforts to make the first attempt with physical force (such as beating your son for his fault without giving verbal warning first), then the risk is real for displeasing God by violating human rights. Be reminded that your sole objective is cleaning the society from evils and not punishing people needlessly. The Quran highlights the importance of applying “wisdom” or techniques in preaching (16:125); these techniques are also equally usable and useful in controlling bad actions.
(2) Manual Resistance: When all attempts of oral resistance become exhausted or they perform poorly, it is only then rational use of physical force becomes a necessity. The Quran models this sequential order (oral before manual) by an example. “If two parties among the believers fall into quarrel, first try to make peace between them (oral method); but if one of them (may he be your nearest kin) transgresses against the other beyond limit, then you (all) fight against the transgressor (manual method)” (49:9).
Some Examples: Examples of physical variety of resistance include mobilizing public opinion against open adultery or prostitution, moving in the court against abuses of an orphan or gross negligence in family maintenance, launching peaceful protest against any act of disgrace to the Prophet or the Quran, muckraking journalism to expose corruption or criticize sinful provisions or actions and so on. The Quran stated “evil noise should not be made in public speech except where injustice has been done” (4:148). In spirit, this amounts to an approval for public protest to be made against injustice without violating moral codes like false propaganda. However, applying physical force usually is open to the risk of violent reaction from the sinners. So this method should be applied more carefully and judiciously. Now we talk more about this.
(i) Personal Level (Lone Resister): This method works best in a family situation where its members do respect the parents/guardians and elders due to their bread earning roles or ties of kinship. You can translate this advantage into a success for prevention of sins. You may have similar advantage if you are a leader and you can cultivate a zone of influence based on hereditary status (e.g. tribal or clan head), social or religious status (e.g. priest or informal judge), economic position (e.g. lender or charitable person) and so on. If you use such influence against any wrongdoing by your people, they are most likely to follow your advice. Whatever is the result, your sin prohibitive role will bring you dividend in cases of either success or failure. If you succeed, you will get double credits: one for your own good deed and the other is the good deed (sin abandonment) of your target person. If you are a failure, you will still get credit for taking a stand against social sins instead of tolerating sins.
(ii) Collective Level (Team Response): If the sinner is powerful and stubborn, you can face violent reaction to your sin prevention effort. This often may appear challenging but regardless of that, you may prevail if you organize a united front. So there is no good reason for you to be scared to a passive role, by choosing for yourself trouble-free time allowing others to sin and thereby creating your own sin. In case of physical method potent with troubles, you may have the backing of God as He emboldened Moses against Pharaoh “Do not panic for I am with you” (20:46). At the same time, He also warned that the leader of the sinners will “go before his people on the Judgment Day and lead them into Fire” (11:98). You should therefore fearlessly mobilize support in favor of relentless efforts against sinful practices in the society.
Recognition of the Reality: Your anti-sin effort, however, does not rule out the importance of taking wise and tactical steps with due recognition of the reality on the ground. You will be quite right in assessing (but not over-assessing) the strength of the sinners or possible dangers from them. This will be a delicate balancing act. Take a lesson from the Prophet’s life particularly concerning his undercover exodus to Medina, endorsing apparently unfavorable Hudaybiyyah Treaty with the enemy and framing the Charter of Median among his various rules of engagement with the non-Muslims. You should therefore make a realistic assessment of the challenges from the sinners and accordingly design your right response.
Wise Adaptation to the Reality: You should not disregard the law of land. Even within the framework of unfavorable national laws, you also can do something against sins. For example, in many countries, local institutions like village courts are allowed to work on local matters and you can take advantage of that. You may seek support for your anti-sin campaign from the right-minded local public representatives. Likewise, you may choose non-violent, civil disobedience method in case of fighting against foreign occupation of your country, the way Mahatma Gandhi did against the British as an example.
(3) Mental Dislike (& Other Passive Methods): When the sinner is too powerful and too dangerous (ex: tyrant ruler) for resistance at the individual or social level, then you must hate the sin as the last resort. Such mental hatred should go hand in hand with the following three passive methods as proposed below:
(i) Dua & Dawah: You can make dua for the guidance of the powerful oppressor hoping for a chance for his return from his brutal path. In positive case, if he does accept your dawah for guidance leading up to practicing of salat, then salat may play a potential role (29:45) to keep him from oppressive actions.
(ii) Non-cooperation: Another passive tool against injustice is keeping your hands off any sort of cooperation with the sins. You cannot “sit in the company of the wrong-doers” or be “an aid to the sinners” (6:68; 28:17). For example, during Ramadan do not entertain food to an adult guest who skips fasting without any good reason. Likewise, do not discourage your beloved son from his intended fasting or for yourselves try not to eat publicly if you have to break fasting. Your non-cooperation role may also extend to “turning away from” those who talks about sinful matters “unless they turn to a different theme” (6:68). In the extreme case of injustice, this also may mean your migration from them, following the footsteps of the Prophet.
(iii) Mobilizing Public Opinion: As another passive method, you may try to combine mental hatred with publicity campaign for mobilizing public opinion against a sin like alcoholism. A sinner being a member of the society cannot go on disregarding such public opinion indefinitely. Adultery, for example, cannot prevail in a society where it is hated so much so that the sinner may face a situation like social boycotting. Similarly, in a society where majority of people look down upon illegal earning as disgraceful, very few will dream of building fortunes on the foundation of illegal income. Likewise, undesirable practices like the misapplication of divorce, female deprivation from property inheritance etc. cannot operate freely against the tide of social condemnation. Thus adverse public opinion is often a very workable weapon against social crimes or injustice. Conditions for Successful Resistance Efforts: For combating sins, there are many conditions including the following 4 "Right" things:
(1) Right Sin: An act must be identified as a clear sin before going after it. For example, optional rituals vary widely across the Four Schools of Thought (madhab) led by the Imams (e.g. utterance of ‘ameen’ loudly or quietly end of Sura Fatiha in salat) and these are not worthy of fighting over. Likewise, you cannot rebuke a young worshipper for wearing a short pant covering navel to knee which is quite lawful. In fact, you have no reason to quarrel over petty or optional matters which can do more harm than help by introducing chaos in the society Instead, you can better spend your energy for resisting major sins. A sin is a good candidate for resistance only when it is major and open or externally visible.
(2) Right Sinner: You should identify a right sinner for resistance purpose. For example, the Muslims are worthy of resisting consumption of alcohol or pork which is ‘haram’ for their fellow Muslims but the non-Muslims may be off-limit to such resistance. Likewise, ordinarily logical persuasion is a preferred method to stop your parents from sinning as you should not subject them to harsh method for risking another great sin.
(3) Right Method: Like preaching, resistance method also needs to be qualitative, “Repel evil with what is best” (23:96). For example, you should combat an open sin openly to showcase the consequences of sin and a secret sin secretly (through private counseling) to prevent any negative impacts from its revelation. You should be fair among people while combating a sin. For example, you cannot be soft with son of a powerful warlord and hard on daughter of a poor peasant while handing out penalty for their participation in adultery for which both were equally culprits. In another example, when a man drinks secretly, you must not force into his private place to stop his drinking. Similarly, you should not commit excesses by destroying a girls’ school disregarding Islamic mandate for female education. Make sure that you do not deliver a new sin while trying to bury an old one.
(4) Right Purpose: You should oppose sins only for pleasing God and not for feeding your anger or revengeful mind.
Conclusion: It is clear from the above that your sin resistance efforts should be wisely planned and carefully executed for gaining desirable outcome.