Reconciling a Qurʾanic verse with a ḥadith

Question: How can we reconcile Allah’s statement: “O you who believe! Take care of your own selves; those who have gone astray will not harm you so long as you are rightly guided” (Qurʾan 5:105) with the Prophet’s words: “Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he is unable, then with his tongue; and if he is unable, then with his heart—and that is the weakest level of faith”?

Answer: Allah, Exalted is He, says, “O you who believe! Take care of your own selves; those who have gone astray will not harm you so long as you are rightly guided” (5:105). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says, “Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand ….” The questioner seeks an explanation that combines the verse and the ḥadith. We say: There is no contradiction between them.

Allah, Majestic and Sublime, commands us to set ourselves upon the path of truth, to hold fast to it, and not to be swayed by the actions or deviations of others. We are not to follow the crowd—doing wrong when they do wrong and right when they do right. Rather, we must remain forever upon the way of excellence. At the same time we uphold the duty of enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, each according to his ability, as stated in the Prophet’s ḥadith: “Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he is unable, then with his tongue; and if he is unable, then with his heart—and that is the weakest level of faith.” The noble verse alludes to this as well: “those who have gone astray will not harm you so long as you are rightly guided” (5:105). Part of being rightly guided is to enjoin right and forbid wrong to the extent of our capability—after first rectifying ourselves, taking the reins of our own souls toward goodness, and being the first to act upon what is good and to avoid what is evil.

And the Truthful One of this nation, its best person after its Prophet, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq—may Allah