Establish Prayer And Speak Up For What Is Right

Bismillah

Allah commanded us, through the tongue of Luqman, to establish prayer and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.

يَٰبُنَىَّ أَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَأْمُرْ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَٱنْهَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَٱصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَآ أَصَابَكَ ۖ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ ٱلْأُمُورِ ‎﴿١٧﴾

O my son, establish prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you. Indeed, [all] that is of the matters [requiring] determination. (17) (Surah Luqman 31:17)

Establish prayer and speak up for what is right means you have to have a lot of courage. You are completely okay being weird when everybody else think it is wrong but you know better that it is right and you stand by it. It doesn’t matter who makes fun of you, what friends you lose, what popularity you lose, who gets angry at you, because when you stand in prayer, you learn to fear only Allah. 

When you stand in prayer, you realize the day is coming when people won’t matter and you are going to be alone in front of Allah on Judgment Day. If you maintain that, it makes you courageous to deal with everything else, because everything else become less scary. Then you are going to do what Allah says is right and everything else is wrong and you have no problem saying it. And you are going to gently encourage others. You can’t encourage somebody else to do something right if you are not standing by it yourself. So included in enjoining what is right is telling yourself to stand by what is right. And then you can tell others. 

You are standing by it and you are not keeping your business to yourself. It is one thing that you don’t do bad things and it is another thing you let others do bad things. You can interfere in somebody else's business sometimes. 

Luqman's advice to the son and later become the command from Allah that you must speak up for what is right and stand against what is wrong. 

Abu Sa'eed said:

"I heard the Messenger of Allah [SAW] say: 'Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart- and that is the weakest of Faith.'"

When something is evil, it doesn’t matter who is celebrating it or who is giving it a beautiful name.  If it is evil, it is still evil. If it is something that is hated by Allah, it is something hated by Allah. If something is against the fitrah that human beings were created with, it is against the fitrah. You can’t change morality. 

Morality has changed  What used to be okay or bad 10 years ago have changed. Something that was weird before is now a normal thing. Something that was okay before is now viewed as extreme. There is a society today if a woman wear hijab, it is a crime against the state. What actually a good thing has now turned into evil. And things that were evil before are not as bad, then they become okay, then they become kind of acceptable, then they become mandatory. The bar keeps shifting and by the time another 10 years go by, the world sees what is right is going to change again. The definition of right and wrong is going to change again. And they will say it is personal freedom. 

For a believer our personal freedom is we freely give ourselves in slavery to Allah. That’s what we do. When we do that then we don’t decide anymore what is right and wrong. Our conscience in line with the revelation of Allah, with the teachings of the Prophets, which have been consistent throughout history. Prophets came in different societies, cultures, continents, languages and yet what was right and wrong was exactly the same.