The False Concept of Limited Responsibility

Occasion: A transcription of a lecture delivered in Coldwater (Michigan) in August 2024Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings upon His servant and messenger, our master Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions. O Allah, we ask You for the good of this night, the good of what is in it, and the good of what comes after it, and we seek refuge in You from the evil of this night, the evil of what is in it, and the evil of what comes after it. O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life, and our hereafter, prepare for us right guidance in our affairs, write us among Your servants who race ahead, and join us to the caravan of those devoted in worship.

Now then, I thank the brothers who made this gathering possible for us with this noble assembly; it is a great honor. The title of our talk is: false concepts, or mistaken ones, held by some people.

The Foundation by Which Right and Wrong Are Measured

I want to open by saying that a person does not go wrong unless the foundation itself has gone astray. As long as I follow something that agrees with what is in my head, I am on the right. So what is the foundation by which our Lord, glory be to Him, the Most High, has set us on our way? He said: ﴿أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ﴾ ("Obey Allah and obey the Messenger")^[1]. This sentence made the source of legislation, the source of the shaping of the mind, and the source of the path we walk come from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, and leaves no entry for the human mind into the basic line drawn for man in life. The mind, rather, exerts its effort over the means of travelling along that line.

An example: I exert effort to get from Coldwater to here by car or by train, but the line that has been drawn is that I get from this point to that point. And Allah, blessed and Most High, said: ﴿وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ﴾ ("I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me")^[2], so the foundation of human existence is worship of the Lord of the worlds in its various forms and colors. On this basis, how do I determine that I have erred in understanding, grasping, or conceiving some matter, or that I have been right in it? That depends on whether my conduct matches the path our Lord has drawn.

Then the speaker said: this is my own reasoning, and you may respond to me however you like.

The First Concept: Limited Responsibility

The first thing in which I imagine there is an error of understanding, and not only among the youth but among everyone, is the matter of limited responsibility.

Take, for example, how I deal with reality as an imam. What is my responsibility? My responsibility is limited: I lead the prayers, I prepare the Friday sermon, I sit with two or three or a hundred people to help them memorize the Qur'an, and then I go home to sleep, and I have no concern with anything after that. This is a responsibility, but a limited one that I myself fixed within this scope.

If I want to widen it, let me look at the Prophet ﷺ, the foremost caller to Allah: he led the army, lined up the people, solved problems, sat with the people, and indeed a slave girl would come and take him by the hand and go about Medina with him to settle her need, peace and blessings be upon him^[3]. One of us may say: I don't work at Toyota, so if a matter at Honda is put before me I say: no, I have no concern with it. The point is that the Lord of Might laid down a general path for us as human beings, so what is the greatest responsibility that lies on a human being?

And this limitation exists in every layer of the society and every group of workers that we live among. Sadly, each of us carries out a number of responsibilities and does not conceive of the overlap among them all, so in each one he sets a certain limit for himself that he does not go beyond.

• The employee: I go to my work from morning to evening, and my responsibility is to sign the paper that comes to my desk. If I find a paper on my colleague's desk that I could finish, I say: no, it's none of my business, go see about it over there at the other place. A very, very limited responsibility, although I could go beyond that and would not be breaking the law.
• The father: What is my responsibility at home? That I am a father. That means I bring these people food, drink, bedding, and clothing, and that's the end of it. If an emergency comes to the household, a psychological, mental, or emotional problem, I do not consider it my concern, and I say: this is not my responsibility.
• The brother: I am a brother to a sister, so my responsibility is to go to her now and then carrying a bag of oranges and potatoes: here you are, I've done my part. If she has a problem she wants solved, that is not my affair.

And so I have thrown off my shoulders everything that ought to be among other responsibilities, and the line is drawn for me exactly.

• The son: And let us look at the young people in particular. What is your role as a son in this house? My role is to go to school and study my lessons, and no one has any claim on me. If my mother asks me for a glass of water, I see that as outside my specialty, especially if my sister is next to me. So the responsibilities of eating, drinking, cooking, and water belong to the girl: get up and do this and that. He is even set over her, commanding her and forbidding her, and she must carry out everyone's requests. And what is required of His Excellency the honorable male? Nothing, except to bring his father such-and-such.

The Vicegerent Is Responsible for Whatever Comes Before Him

The father, the mother, the children, the worker, the imam, the teacher, the engineer, the astronomer, all of these are gathered under one name: ﴿إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً﴾ ("I am placing a vicegerent on the earth"). And the responsibility of the vicegerent is to look into everything that comes before those he is responsible for, and into the difficulties of everyone he is responsible for. So for whom am I responsible? For my home, my children, and the people in the mosque.

Removing Harm: A Wider Meaning Than We Think

And the Prophet ﷺ draws our attention to a matter of utmost simplicity: «الَّذِي يُمِيطُ الْأَذَى عَنِ الطَّرِيقِ لَهُ بِهِ صَدَقَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ» ("Whoever removes harm from the road has a good charity for it")^[4]. I look at this hadith, so famous on people's tongues, and I think: what lies behind the wording? Removing harm from the road is charity. Do you know what this means? It means that I see the harm, that my brain translated this sight into the opposite direction, into repairing this harm, and that I have a sense of responsibility that drove me to head toward this harm, pick it up from the road, and put it aside. That's all. It is as though the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is widening for me the circle of my understanding of the responsibilities entrusted to me.

Likewise he ﷺ says: «مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا…» ("Whoever of you sees an evil…")^[5]. We took the text and confined it to a particular sector or segment of understanding and busied ourselves with it: this is an unjust ruler. But we did not understand that the "evil" may be something out of its place, like a shoe not where it belongs, and we set it right. Imagine taking the prophetic text to this simple measure!

And when our Lord, glory be to Him, said: ﴿يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ﴾ ("they enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong"), He meant every right thing in the world of life, not only the right that the Qur'anic texts and the divine commands and prohibitions state. And He wanted to let me know that the "right" (maʿrūf) is what people recognize as sound, what agrees with reason and does not conflict with the legislation. That is the maʿrūf, and the "wrong" (munkar), naturally, is whatever contradicts all of that.

The Vicegerent Is Responsible for the Whole Universe

So we are before the term "vicegerent," a term that makes you feel you are responsible for the whole universe. Imagine that the son of Adam is responsible for the universe! He realizes fully that the rubbish he throws in the street, the garbage, with respect to you, or the "trash" that was in your hand and you tossed it, a snake may come and pass over it and be hurt or wounded, so you will have caused harm to a part of the creatures I am responsible for, and so he refrains from this act because he wants to protect humanity and the human entity. And you found a dry plant and watered it, and thereby gave life not to the plant alone but to the surrounding environment, because it will afterward produce the oxygen that people breathe, and it breathes the carbon dioxide, and the cycle goes on in this way.

So limited responsibility in our minds is among the matters we ought to examine. You are responsible for the universe and what is in it, and nothing in this life lies outside the frame of your responsibilities as a Muslim. You are responsible for the cause of reform in the world. That is why we saw the Lord of Might focus for us on the cause of reform, as He said: ﴿وَلْتَكُن مِّنكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ﴾ ("Let there be among you a community calling to what is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong").

When we spoke about this verse we said that we measure it against His words: ﴿فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِن كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِّنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِّيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ﴾ ("Why should not a group from every section of them go forth to gain understanding in religion?"), and so we considered the "community" here as limited to the group. But the word "community" (umma) has other uses in the Noble Qur'an, as in His words: ﴿كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ﴾ ("You are the best community").^[6] So His words ﴿وَلْتَكُن مِّنكُمْ أُمَّةٌ﴾ ("Let there be among you a community") contain a charge to the community to produce a community that enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong. And what is asked of us is to produce an entire community that enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong in the fields of politics, in the fields of economics, in the fields of society, in the fields of international relations, in the fields of accounting, in everything, in everything.

And I want us to hold this point in our minds so that we can discuss it together, God willing, in a little while.

The Comprehensive Person, Not the One Withdrawn into Himself

Limited responsibility makes me confine myself to myself and turn into a person withdrawn into himself, who has a stake in nothing else. And I ask you, young people: how many students do you have at school who are excellent in their studies, outstanding, who lead social work, who are very good at playing football or mathematics, and who engage with the political issue abroad and at home? This is "the one who does it all," and he is the one I need. The one who does it all is the one who can appear in every righteous form, do every righteous deed, and fill every beneficial role; nothing slips from him that he does not do well, and no task escapes him that he abandons or declines to perform, but he is in every place where need calls for him. So you see him as a brother at the fullest level, you see him as a son to a mother whom he honors, as a son to a father whom he helps, as a father to children whom he protects, as a husband to a wife whom he keeps chaste, shelters, and safeguards in her being, psychologically, mentally, and physically, and you see him as a leader in his community, as a social reformer, and you see him in every field.

Abraham and the Prophet ﷺ: The Model of the Comprehensive Person

That is why Allah sets for us the example when He teaches us that the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to follow a man. So who is this man whom the Prophet was commanded to follow? ﴿اتَّبِعْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا﴾ ("Follow the creed of Abraham, upright"). So Abraham is the only one whom the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to follow^[7]. What are the traits of Abraham, or his most prominent traits? ﴿إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ كَانَ أُمَّةً قَانِتًا لِّلَّهِ حَنِيفًا وَلَمْ يَكُ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ﴾ ("Indeed Abraham was a community in himself, devoutly obedient to Allah, upright, and he was not among the polytheists"), ﴿شَاكِرًا لِّأَنْعُمِهِ﴾ ("grateful for His favors").

The point is that the Prophet ﷺ was the model set forth for the righteous husband; he sets the example for that and speaks and urges, saying: «خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِهِ» ("The best of you are the best to their families")^[8]. And he was the tender, compassionate father, the kind husband, the dutiful son, the merciful and capable leader, the skilled soldier. Imagine that the Companions, when something befell them in Medina, if they heard a frightening sound, rushed toward it, and found the Prophet ﷺ coming back, having gone out before all of them and looked into and verified the matter, and he is returning saying: «لَنْ تُرَاعُوا، لَنْ تُرَاعُوا» ("Do not be alarmed, do not be alarmed")^[9]; go back, that's it, the matter is no problem. This is the example he ﷺ presented to us, and I don't want to say more, for you know that the examples are many.

What We Take Away from This Camp

So if we kept this concept alone in our souls, and left this entire camp with it, in addition to what the people of virtue, may Allah preserve them all, will kindly offer, and we ask Allah for blessing and well-being for you: if we left with this concept, which is the matter of limited responsibility, and that you are a person of greater responsibility, then when you enter the mosque...

I imagine, for example, entering the mosque, praying, finishing, and leaving. My dear friend, you honored us. Who will spend on the mosque? Who will pay the price of the water you used? This is the confinement of responsibility to my praying, and I did not recognize in myself the comprehensiveness of responsibility, and that I am responsible for the costs of the place. If I entered and found some dirt and a paper thrown down, and picked it up with my hand, I would have saved the mosque from calling the janitor (the cleaning worker) to take a wage. I did something simple. And here we are before this gathering, so what do you want me to do? If each of us felt the motto: How can I help you? How can I do such-and-such? How can I be there? the condition of the Ummah would turn into a better and finer state.

And I do not want to prolong the talk on this, for the subject is very large and extensive.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not specify where the verse is; the phrase occurs in several places in the Qur'an, among them Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (59), Muḥammad (33), and al-Taghābun (12). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not state the locations of the verses cited in this article, which are, in order of occurrence: al-Dhāriyāt 56; al-Baqarah 30; Āl ʿImrān 104; al-Tawbah 122; Āl ʿImrān 110; al-Naḥl 123; al-Naḥl 120; al-Naḥl 121. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker pointed to what is reported in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that one of the slave girls of Medina would take the Prophet ﷺ by the hand and go off with him wherever she wished. The presentation is by meaning, as the speaker gave it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The wording in the body is as the speaker pronounced it. The meaning is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) on the charities due for each joint: «وَتُمِيطُ الْأَذَى عَنِ الطَّرِيقِ صَدَقَةٌ» ("and removing harm from the road is a charity"). ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not go beyond «من رأى منكم منكرًا», and the complete ḥadīth in Muslim, from the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him), is: «مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ…» ("Whoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand…"). Widening the meaning of "evil" to include whatever is out of its place is the speaker's own understanding, and has been transmitted as he said it. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The wording of the transcription here is garbled («فاعتبرنا الأمة هنا محدودة في قضية الطائفة لا استعمال لفظ الأمة كما هو في استعمالاتها الأخرى…»); so the body was limited to what becomes clear from it. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: This is what the speaker said according to the transcription. The transcription moved here from "Allah sets for us the example with the Prophet…" to talk about Abraham, peace be upon him, in a garbled transition, so the body was worded cautiously. And in the Qur'an there is also His statement after mentioning a number of prophets: ﴿فَبِهُدَاهُمُ اقْتَدِهْ﴾ [al-Anʿām: 90] ("so follow their guidance"), so perhaps he meant to single out Abraham with the command to "follow the creed." ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The wording is as the speaker pronounced it. The complete ḥadīth in al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah, from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), is: «خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِهِ، وَأَنَا خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِي» ("The best of you are the best to their families, and I am the best of you to my family"). ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The story is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), in which the Prophet ﷺ got ahead of them on a horse.