Al-Amr bi-l-Maʿrūf wa-n-Nahy ʿan al-Munkar - Ibn Taimiya - (30)

Al-Amr bi-l-Maʿrūf wa-n-Nahy ʿan al-MunkarIbn Taimiya

in vile appetites such as fornication and consuming what is impure. Thus it may wrong those who have never wronged it, and these cravings continue to impress themselves upon the soul even when they are not yet acted out. When it observes its peers oppressing others and indulging those lusts, the urge toward desire—or sheer injustice—within it grows far stronger. It may restrain itself, yet the very sight stirs up in it a hatred for the offender, envy of him, a wish for his punishment, and a longing that all good be stripped from him—sentiments it had not entertained before. To its own mind it can summon both rational and religious proof: the offender has wronged himself and the Muslims, and commanding what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and even jihad in that cause are religious duties.

People in this regard fall into three categories:

A group who rise only for the whims of their own souls. They are satisfied solely by what they are given and angered only by what they are denied. If one of them receives whatever he craves—lawful or unlawful—his anger subsides and he is content. What, a moment earlier, he had deemed an evil to be forbidden, punished, censured, and raged against now appears to him as acceptable. He turns into its very practitioner, partner, aide, and ally, and becomes hostile toward anyone who forbids it or criticizes it. This condition is widespread among the children of Adam; one sees and hears of it in numbers beyond reckoning.

Its cause is that the human being is unjust and ignorant; therefore he does not act with equity—indeed, he may be unjust in both situations. You see people censuring a governor for oppressing his subjects and encroaching upon their rights, yet once he placates those critics with a trifling favor they become his supporters; at best they merely fall silent and cease their censure. In the same way you see them reproaching someone for drinking wine, committing fornication, or listening to musical amusements—until he draws one of them into those very acts, or satisfies him

الشهوات القبيحة كالزنى وأكل الخبائث، فهي قد تظلم من لا يظلمها، وتؤثر هذه الشهوات وإن لم تفعلها، فإذا رأت نظراءها قد ظلموا وتناولوا هذه الشهوات صار داعي هذه الشهوات أو الظلم فيها أعظم بكثير، وقد تصبر، ويهيج ذلك لها من بغض ذلك الغير وحسده وطلب عقابه وزوال الخير عنه ما لم يكن فيها قبل ذلك، ولها حجة عند نفسها من جهة العقل والدين، بكون ذلك الغير قد ظلم نفسه والمسلمين، وأن أمره بالمعروف ونهيه عن المنكر واجب، والجهاد على ذلك من الدين. والناس هنا ثلاثة أقسام: قوم لا يقومون إلا في أهواء نفوسهم، فلا يرضون إلا بما يعطونه، ولا يغضبون إلا لما يحرمونه، فإذا أعطي أحدهم ما يشتهيه من الشهوات الحلال والحرام زال غضبه وحصل رضاه، وصار الأمر الذي كان عنده منكرا - ينهى عنه ويعاقب عليه، ويذم صاحبه ويغضب عليه - مرضيا عنده، وصار فاعلا له وشريكا فيه، ومعاونا عليه، ومعاديا لمن نهى عنه وينكر عليه، وهذا غالب في بني آدم، يرى الإنسان ويسمع من ذلك ما لا يحصيه، وسببه: أن الإنسان ظلوم جهول، فلذلك لا يعدل، بل ربما كان ظالما في الحالين، يرى قوما ينكرون على المتولي ظلمه لرعيته واعتداءه عليهم، فيرضي أولئك المنكرين ببعض الشيء فينقلبون أعوانا له، وأحسن أحوالهم أن يسكتوا عن الإنكار عليه، وكذلك تراهم ينكرون على من يشرب الخمر ويزني ويسمع الملاهي، حتى يدخلوا أحدهم معهم في ذلك، أو يرضوه