Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

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Allah’s words—exalted is He, far above all imperfection—

“Take care of yourselves. Those who go astray will not harm you if you are rightly guided”

do not entail abandoning the enjoining of right and forbidding of wrong: they neither prohibit these duties nor permit their neglect. As related in the well-known hadith in the Sunan collections, Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, addressed the people from the pulpit of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saying:

“O people, you recite this verse but apply it incorrectly. I heard Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: ‘When people see wrongdoing and do not change it, Allah may soon encompass them all with a punishment from Him.’”

Likewise, in the hadith of Abū Tha‘labah al-Khushanī, the Prophet’s explanation of this verse is reported as follows:

“When you see greed holding sway, desires being followed, and everyone admiring his own opinion, then attend to your own affairs.”

This is explained by the hadith of Abū Sa‘īd in Sahīh Muslim:

“Whoever among you sees a wrong, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot, then with his tongue. If he cannot, then with his heart—and that is the weakest level of faith.”

Thus, when evildoers become so powerful that they no longer listen to