I remember that once a governor said to me...

I remember that once a governor said to me, “Are you the Messenger of Allah that Allah has sent with a new religion to reform people?” I said, “Certainly not.” He said, “Then be satisfied with yourself and family and keep us away from your evil. It is we who are responsible for the safety and peace of people. If we leave the matter for every nosy one to enjoin and forbid, there shall be anarchy.”[^1] I knew my worth and stopped at the boundaries!

I was afraid, and my soul incited me to venture forth at one time and to retire at another. I remained so for some years until a tradition of the Messenger of Allah (S) attracted my attention.

In this tradition, the Prophet (S) said: Whosoever of you sees an evil let him change (reform) it with his hand, and if he cannot do so - let him do it with his tongue, and if he cannot do so then let him do with his heart, and this is the weakest of faith .[^2] The Prophet (S) said: No prophet that Allah has sent for his nation before me, except that he had from his community disciples and companions who followed his Sunna and obeyed his commands.

Then after them their came successors who say what they did not do what they were not to do. Whoever resists them with his hand is faithful, whoever resists them with his tongue is faithful, and whoever resists them with his heart is faithful, and anything else than that is not from faith inasmuch as a grain of mustard .[^3] I praised Allah the Almighty that He has not imposed on us that which we have no capacity to bear.

Thus, the Prophet’s traditions explained the Book of Allah, and because Allah knows all things in the past, present, and future, so He knew that a time would come to people where a Muslim would be unable to reject the evil. Therefore, He made it easy for Muslims and imposed on them only what they could bear.

Therefore, the saying of the Prophet (S), “ Whoever of you sees an evil let him change (reform) it with his hand, and if he cannot do so, let him do with his tongue… ” is a proof on the changing of the Muslim society from a state of powerfulness into the state of weakness. Besides that, it is a proof that the legal obligation changes from a state into another.

So the duty of one, who is powerful, is to reform the evil by power which is represented by the “hand” in the tradition, and the one, who is powerless, has to reform the evil through speech and breaches which are represented by the “tongue”.