Rule Forty-Five: The Exalted One’s Exhortation, in His Book, to Righteousness and the Mending of Affairs

This rule is among the most important, for almost the entire Qur’an falls under it. In numerous verses Allah commands ṣalāḥ (uprightness) and iṣlāḥ (setting matters right), and in many others He praises the righteous and those who work for reconciliation.

Ṣalāḥ means that every matter stands upright and balanced, moving along the path Allah has laid down so that it reaches the commendable ends He intended. Hence Allah has enjoined righteous deeds and commended the righteous, because good works rectify hearts and faith, and they set right religion, worldly life, and the Hereafter. Their opposite is the corruption of all these. Likewise, in many passages He extols those who repair what people have ruined, those who reconcile between people, and those who settle disputes, and He states in general terms that “reconciliation is best.”

To rectify corrupt affairs is to strive to remove the evils and harms—public or private—that such affairs contain.

Among the most important kinds of iṣlāḥ is to work for the betterment of the Muslims, in both their religion and their worldly life. Shuʿayb, peace be upon him, said: “I only desire reform as far as I am able” ⦗Hud 88⦘. Anyone who strives for a religious or worldly good is a muṣliḥ (reformer); Allah will guide, direct, and support him. Whoever strives for the opposite is a corrupter, and Allah does not set right the work of the corrupters.

Another of the emphatic exhortations of Allah is to pursue reconciliation between disputants, as He commanded with regard to blood, property, and the rights of spouses. Such reconciliation must be achieved with justice, and every means that leads to harmony between the quarrelling parties should be taken, for the fruits of peace are blessing, goodness, and rectitude—even to the point that Allah ordered the Muslims, if the belligerent disbelievers incline to—