and to offer them advice and guidance in everything that benefits them and brings about their rectitude; to show them compassion by being merciful to their young, their poor, and their helpless; to esteem their elders and treat them with respect; to grieve at their sorrows, feel pain at their afflictions, and rejoice at their joys when Allah renews His favors for them or wards off trials from them.

It also means keeping far from them anything that contradicts this spirit—such as rancor, envy, cheating, deception, and every other matter that harms them.

Among the forms of sincere counsel to Muslims is fulfilling their rights. Some rights are general: returning the greeting of peace, praying for the one who sneezes, visiting the sick, following funerals, and supplicating for both the living and the dead. Other rights are specific, each according to his situation and what suits him—relatives, neighbors, peers, and friends.

6 – Thus, sincere counsel is a comprehensive term: it involves the counselor’s will and action to bring every avenue of good and righteousness to the one advised. It is as though the counselor offers the advised a pure and sound heart, and the benefit returns to both of them.

As for the counselor, he gains reward and merit, and he is pleased and gladdened by the fruits of his advice and the righteous deeds that follow.

As for the one advised, he gains the good of this world and the Hereafter through the direction of caring counselors, the guidance of loving well-wishers, and being shown the paths of goodness, rectitude, and success.

Al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Among us, those who attained (the highest ranks) did not do so through abundant prayer and fasting; rather, they attained them through generosity of soul, purity of heart, and sincere counsel to the ummah.” And Allah knows best.