Don’t Repel People

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Make things easy for the people, and do not make it difficult for them, and make them calm (with glad tidings) and do not repel them (i.e. make them hate good deeds and run away from Islam).” [Sahih Bukhari]

Al-Azraq bin Qais narrated that they were in the city of Al-Ahwaaz on the bank of a river which had dried up. Abu Barza Al-Aslami (radi Allahu anhu) came riding a horse and started offering Salat while he let his horse loose. The horse ran away, so Abu Barza interrupted his Salat and went after it till he caught it and brought it back. Then he offered his Salat again.

There was a man among them who was of the Khawarij (deviant sect who called themselves Muslims) who said: “Look at this old man! He left his Salat because of a horse.” On that Abu Barza came to them and said: “Since the time I left Allah’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), nobody has admonished me; my house is very far from this place, and if I had carried on offering Salat and left my horse, I could not have reached my house till night.” Then Abu Barza (radi Allahu anhu) mentioned that he had been in the company of the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) and that he had seen his leniency. [Sahih Bukhari]

A modern day analogy might be of a robbery attempt being made on a person’s car while they pray. If they were not to break their prayer the thief would make off with the car. To make things easy for the people does not mean to alter Allah’s Laws (Shariah) to suit people. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) loves us more than we love each other, so we cannot bring any good to people by altering what Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) wants from them. What the Khawariji man was doing, on the other hand, was to criticize a Halal action and make the good deed of Salat unnecessarily difficult.