Part of Concepts of Ahl as-Sunnah (series completed)
· Lesson 1198 of 1251
Summary of Sunni concepts | Concept (1197) | Improper prioritization
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
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The flaw in prioritizing.
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Our era is distinguished by the abundance of its problems and complexities.
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And the multitude of inputs affecting our thought.
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To the point that a person does not know where to begin.
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Or what to prioritize when matters overlap.
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This is where many of us fall into the error of misordering these priorities.
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We prioritize the urgent over the important.
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And the important over the most important.
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We prioritize that which has a lesser benefit.
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Over that which has a greater benefit.
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And that which has a greater harm.
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Over that which has a lesser harm.
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The scholars have established great principles.
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In the fiqh of balancing, priorities, and consequences.
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Through which the correct order of matters is achieved.
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This applies when interests conflict with one another.
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One must prioritize a realized interest over a speculative one.
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And when they are equal in their likelihood of occurrence.
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One must prioritize the greater interest over the lesser.
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The same applies when harms conflict with one another.
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One must prioritize avoiding a realized harm over a speculative one.
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And when they are equal in their certainty.
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One must prioritize committing the lesser harm to avoid the greater harm.
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Regarding this, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, says:
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It is not permissible to repel a small corruption with a greater corruption.
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Nor to repel the lighter of two evils by incurring the greater of the two.
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For the Shari'ah came to secure and perfect interests.
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And to nullify and minimize harms as much as possible.
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Its requirement is to prefer the better of two good things if they cannot both be combined.
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And to repel the worse of two evils if they cannot both be avoided.
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Someone might ask: what is the relationship between the fiqh of balancing and priorities and the flaw in thinking?
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Are these not practical, applied matters rather than intellectual ones?
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The answer is that the origin of every action and intent is thought and reflection.
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If priorities are ordered in one's thought.
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Such that one begins with the most important over the important, and the realized over the speculative.
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Then this reflects upon one's actions in reality, both positively and negatively.
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To complete the benefit, we offer some examples of the flaw in prioritizing.
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First: prioritizing communal jihad (jihad kifa'i) over obedience to parents.
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What then of those who prioritize serving their companions over serving their parents?
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Second: prioritizing the performance of a litany of dhikr or a supererogatory prayer.
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Over relieving a distressed person, visiting the sick, honoring a guest, or fulfilling the rights of a spouse.
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Third: prioritizing an act of obedience whose time does not expire over one whose time does expire.
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Like someone who prioritizes the prescribed dhikr after the obligatory prayer over the funeral prayer.
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Or someone who gives a lecture or teaches knowledge on the eve of 'Arafah.
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And prioritizes it over supplication and beseeching Allah during that evening.
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Or prioritizes a scholarly lesson over responding to the caller to prayer; examples of this are many.
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Fourth: being preoccupied with supererogatory acts during a time of individual jihad (jihad 'ayni) and prioritizing them over the jihad itself.
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Fifth: being preoccupied with certain Islamic groups.
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That commit some religious violations, focusing on them and showing enmity toward them.
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And prioritizing this over confronting the disbelievers and hypocrites who wish to strip people of their religion.
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And erase their Islamic identity, while neglecting to struggle against them, whether through speech or force.
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Sixth: being preoccupied with calling others to the truth while neglecting to call one's own family and children.
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Or prioritizing distant people over one's own relatives.
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What then of those who are preoccupied away from them for the sake of worldly gain?
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Seventh: focusing on the actions of the limbs while neglecting the actions of the heart, both the obligatory and the prohibited.
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Eighth: being preoccupied with the faults of others while neglecting the faults of one's own self.
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Ninth: prioritizing the worldly interests of children—such as food, drink, health, and studies.
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Over their religious interests, and failing to care for them.
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Tenth: prioritizing the world and its adornments over the affairs of religion and the Hereafter.