Enjoining Right and forbidding wrong

Enjoining Right & Forbidding Wrong - 30
Abdur-Rahman ibn 'Auf - a companion of the Prophet - was heard saying as he made his
Tawaaf around the Ka'aba:
"O Lord, protect me from the shuhh of my own self. O Lord, protect me from
the shuhh of my own self."
When he was asked about this du'a of his, he said:
"If I am protected from the shuhh of my own self, I will be protected from
miserliness, oppression, and breaking of family ties."
Shuhh, which is the greedy desire of the self, causes miserliness by withholding objects of
desire which have been acquired, and causes oppression by the taking of the property of
others, and causes breaking of family ties, and it causes envy - which is to hate others
possessing what one does not have, and wishing for its destruction. Envy itself entails
miserliness and oppression, since envy is miserliness with that which one has been given,
and oppression by wishing for others to lose the good which they have acquired.
This being the case of those desired things which are halal, what about those desired
things which are haram, such as fornication, drinking intoxicants,etc. When some people
acquire or practice such things, two types of hatred of come about: 1) To hate it because
of others having what one has not i.e. out of some form of envy such as occurs in things
which are halal and 2) To hate it for the sake of Allah, and because of the violation it
entails of the rights of Allah over His slaves.
Types Of Sins
For this reason, sins are of three type:
(1) Sins which entail oppression of others, such as taking of people's property, or denying
them their rights, or envy or others (of the greater type), etc.
(2) Sins which entail only oppression of one's self, such as drinking intoxicants, and
fornication when its harm does not affect others.
(3) Sins which entail both of the above, such as an Amir or ruler who takes the peoples
property so that he can use it for fornication or using intoxicants, or other crimes. Another
Translated by Salim Abdallah ibn Morgan