Conflicting Situations. Fault finding is all to easy and even a fool can do this.
With the name of Allah most Beneficient ever Merciful
Whenever a prophet (peace be upon them) was sent to a nation, their leaders would resort to fault finding and hair splitting in order to belittle the prophet because they could not stand up intellectually against him.
As an example, Hazrath Moosa (AS) had quite a lengthy discourse with Pharaoh and Pharaoh had no answers for him so “he said, have you come to us to turn us out of our country on the basis of your sorcery?” Al Quran 20:57.
He could not give answers to Hazrath Moosa (AS) and because he could not he should have accepted defeat and followed what was right. He did not want to lose his leadership position and so he resorted to accusing Hazrath Moosa (AS) unjustly – making up stories.
Hazrath Moosa (AS) was genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the people while Pharaoh was concerned about his position as leader.
When Hazrath Nuh (AS) preached to his people and when they had no answers for him, “the unbelieving chiefs of his people said, ‘We surely see you in folly and in fact we deem you one of the liars.‘ Al Quran 7:66
They could not substantiate their beliefs and instead they accused him of folly and lying.
“And We have explained in various ways in this Quran every kind of excellent thing for the good of the people; but of all things, human being is the most contentious (quarrelsome).” Al Quran 18:54
Human nature is such that we are quarrelsome and this stems from our carnal desire which boils down to the devil.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is reported to have said: “Verily, the devil runs the running of blood in a man.” Al Hadis 3:33:1:8.
One purpose of life is to purify ourselves and when we have the urge to criticise the way in which someone else practises their religion then we must try to restrain ourselves and when we do this, we would weaken this devil within us and put him to shame.
In this way we improve on our characters and we become better people which leads to us growing our spirituality.
Apart from disputes causing spiritual harm to our beings it finally ends as splits and divisions in our community. Causing rifts and division is what the devil loves the most.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is reported to have said: “Verily the devil places his throne over water. Then he sends his followers to spread dissension among men. The meanest of them in his eyes is the one who can cause dissension. One of them returns and says: “I have done such and such.” “You have done nothing.” (he replies). Then another of them comes and says: “I have not left him till I caused separation between him and his wife.” Then the devil takes him near himself and says to him: “How good you are.” Al Hadis 3:33:1:11.
The silly thing about our disputes is that it is mostly over a few minor differences when compared to how much there is common between us. We all believe in the same kalima, we read the same Quran, we all pray in the same direction – our hajj and fasting is the same, yet we are at loggerheads over a few small differences. We make mountains out of mole hills.
Once, two men were quarrelling over a verse of the Holy Quran. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came to them and his face displayed signs of anger. He said: “Verily those who were destroyed before you were destroyed owing to their differences about the book.” Al Hadis 1:4:40:388.
“And if (at any time) an incitement to discord is made to thee by the devil, seek refuge in Allah. He is the one that hears and knows all things.” Al Quran 41:36.
From these Quranic verses and Hadith it is plain to see that Islam discourages fault finding and quarrelling.
Fault finding stems from our leadership. In the preceding Quranic verses concerning Hazrath Moosa (AS) and Hazrath Noah (AS), it was the leadership that found fault with them.
They are the ones that have the most to lose because they think that they will lose their positions of leadership if someone else begins to preach.
They feel that they would lose the limelight. Their concern is not about the truth but it is about “who will rule the roost,” or who will be the most honored.
In his notes on religious controversy in Al Hadith, Al Haj Moulana Fazlul Karim writes: “True pious men tasting spiritual foods do not at all enter into religious duels. It is only the so called learned man who has not drunk deep of the fountain of knowledge who enters into such quarrels.” Al Hadith 1:4:40.
The fault finding, quarrelling and religious disputes that the learned cause is the worst of all evils. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ has said: “The worst of evils is the evil of the learned and surely the best of good is the good of the learned.” Al Hadis 1:4:2:103w.
So if we have religious knowledge or if we think that we are pious then we need to be extra careful because we are the ones that will be most prone to find faults or start of religious controversy.
Hazrath Moosa (AS) once encountered a shepherd who was talking to Allah Subhanatallah and telling Him that he wanted to comb His (God’s) hair, take out the lice from His head, press His feet etc. Hazrath Moosa (AS) scolded the man and told him that he was committing blasphemy because God is not like us and does not need such service.
The poor man repented, realized his error, stopped his talk and walked away truly distressed and mortified by his actions. “A revelation came to Moses from God: “You have parted a servant from Me. Did you come (as a prophet) to unite, or did you come to severe.” Mathnawi book 2 verse 1750.
When Hazrath Moosa (AS) scolded the person then he stopped communicating with Allah Subhanatallah altogether and in this way he was separated from his creator. This story is so beautifully written in the Mathnawi and it is something really worth reading. There are important lessons to be learned from this.
Hazrath Moosa (AS) had no ulterior motives. He genuinely thought that the shepherd was doing something wrong and he reprimanded him. So to find faults, even when it is obvious that the person is doing wrong, is also wrong.
We all know of the adage: “When you point a finger at someone else then there are three pointing back at you.” We are human and we are prone to error.
“Oh, many an iniquity (fault) that you see in others is your own nature (reflected) in them, O reader. You do not see clearly the evil in yourself, else you would hate yourself with (all) your soul.” Mathnawi 1:1322.
Instead of wasting our time in pointing out others faults and quarrelling (which in itself is wrong) we should rather spend our time and resources to find the faults within ourselves and repair them, for this is what would matter at the end of our lives and this is what Islam stresses: We have to purify our souls.
Not only must we control our actions but we also need to control our thoughts. We must not even think badly of others and what they do because we are not the Judge.
Perhaps the person has good intentions and perhaps the way he practises his religion is better than the way we do. Maybe his acts are acceptable and ours are not.
We need to dump fault finding. It belittles people, it psychologically mars them, it creates doubts in people’s minds, it makes them feel inferior, it discourages them. In short it is negative and it is not the way that Islam teaches
If we want to teach people then we need to do it positively by setting good examples and teaching without picking faults.
As for fault finders, we should not listen to them at all because they would only poison and pollute our minds. These people will occupy our minds with trivial issues and we end up neglecting so many more important issues. Fault finding is a sign of arrogance and we should avoid the arrogant.
If we do anything then we need to do it with a clean intention and if our conscience is clear then there is absolutely nothing wrong in whatever we are doing.
If I want to follow a “tazia” with the intention of remembering Hazrath Imaam Hussein (AS) and all the sacrifices he made to preserve the high moral standard of Islam, so that we today, could benefit then there is absolutely nothing wrong in it.
If I am praying all my prayers and I dress up piously so that people will think me pious then this is absolutely wrong and there are many hadith to prove this. It all boils down to our intention and no one knows what the person’s intention is so we must stop criticising.
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi 2014.
Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi was founded by Dr Hakim Hazrath Khwaja Sayed Shareef Ahmed Ali Shah RA (lovingly known as Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saab RA)
Author: Mahomed Hassan Gaffoor WhatsApp: +27 84 910 1486
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