In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious, who says in the Qur’an, “And invite (men) to (believe in) your Rubb (i.e., in the Oneness of Allah).” (28:87)
In another place, Allah says, “Invite (mankind, O Muhammad (SAW)) to the way of your Rubb (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Revelation, the Qur’an and fair preaching).” (16:125)
Also, Allah says, “Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety).” (5:2)
And Allah says, “Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islam).” (3:104)
We see in these verses commandments for us to call one another to the submission of One God and to help one another in living according to the way that He has prescribed. The reward for doing so is as the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “Whoever guides someone to virtue will be rewarded equivalent to him who practices that good action.” (Muslim)
Similarly, Abu Hurairah (RA) reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “If anyone calls others to follow right guidance, his reward will be equivalent to those who follow him (in righteousness) without their reward being diminished in any respect, and if anyone invites others to follow error, the sin, will be equivalent to that of the people who follow him (in sinfulness) without their sins being diminished in any respect.” (Muslim)
‘Invitation’ or ‘Call’ here stand to mean that we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by means of our speech or actions.
How we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by our speech is easy to understand; it could be by explaining the merits of a particular action, persuading about the goodness of a particular action, stating the joys that some action brings, and so on.
How we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by our actions is a little bit trickier to understand and best explained by example. Suppose you have children and are always telling them that they should pray, but you yourself do not pray, then your action, or lack of it, will speak volumes in their decision as to whether to pray or not. On the other hand, if from a young age your children see you praying and gaining much satisfaction from your prayer then there is a very good chance that they will also adopt the prayer in their lives. Similarly, a celebrity-type figure that others look up to can convince thousands to start or stop smoking, to give to a certain charitable cause, to dress a certain way, to speak a certain way, or to generally act a certain way by simply being seen doing that act, and that is the essence of modern day advertising.
We come to know from the previous Hadith that one who becomes a medium for either virtue or sin is given a reward or punishment accordingly by Allah.
On the day of the Battle of Khaibar when the Messenger of Allah (SAW) conferred upon Ali (RA) the banner, Ali (RA) said: “O Messenger of Allah, shall I fight against them until they are like us?” Thereupon he (the Prophet (SAW)) said, “Advance cautiously until you reach their open places; thereafter, invite them to Islam and inform them what is obligatory for them from the Rights of Allah, for, by Allah, if Allah guides even one person through you that is better for you than possessing a whole lot of red camels.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
We see here the huge reward for assisting towards righteousness and piety, and it is just as Allah, the Exalted, swore in the Qur’an, “By Al-‘Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss. Except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth, and recommend one another to patience.” (103:1-3)
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