The Religion Is Sincere Counsel: The First One Counseled Is the Counselor

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 10 May 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chsBDsLY3Eg)

Opening

Dr. Ahmed greeted the good and blessed faces, asked Allah to accept righteous deeds from us and from them, and to grant us and them sincerity in what is in our hands, and then he began his talk with the ḥadīth of Tamīm al-Dārī (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet ﷺ said: «الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ» ("The religion is sincere counsel"). He said it three times: «الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ، الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ، الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ» ("The religion is sincere counsel, the religion is sincere counsel, the religion is sincere counsel"). We said: To whom, O Messenger of Allah? He ﷺ said: «لِلَّهِ وَلِكِتَابِهِ وَلِرَسُولِهِ وَلِأَئِمَّةِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَعَامَّتِهِمْ» ("To Allah, to His Book, to His Messenger, to the leaders of the Muslims and to their common folk").^[1]

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke the truth. This ḥadīth is one of the pillars of the religion, as we have mentioned before; it is a very great and important statement that deserves that we listen to its meaning, its content and its implications, and that we think about it more deeply than we are used to hearing.

A single sentence poured into the ear and the heart

Look at what the Prophet ﷺ did: he says "The religion is sincere counsel", then repeats it three times, then falls silent until he is asked: to whom? The speech did not come as a continuous flow, nor as ordered sentences as though he were giving an exhortation, delivering a sermon or speaking to people at length; rather, it came as a single sentence. I imagine, and Allah knows best, that when speech comes out this concisely, it is a kind of exhortation in which you say a word or two. Look at yourself when you speak to the person in front of you with a word or two: it means that you see some defect, you want some kind of correction, and you do not have time for more detail; it is just a single sentence poured into the ear and the heart of the one who hears it.

“The religion is sincere counsel”, not “sincere counsel is religion”

Notice that the Prophet ﷺ did not say "sincere counsel is religion". What is the difference between the two expressions? Had he said "sincere counsel is religion", this would have indicated that people counselling one another is a kind of religiosity, and that alone is not enough for the Prophet ﷺ to instil it in people's souls. But he, may my father and mother be his ransom ﷺ, confines the whole religion to sincere counsel, saying: "The religion is sincere counsel".

The meaning has parallels in other narrations, among them what is narrated: «من لا يهتمّ بأمر المسلمين فليس منهم» ("Whoever is not concerned with the affairs of the Muslims is not one of them"), and «ومن لم يُمسِ ويُصبح ناصحًا لله ولرسوله ولكتابه ولإمامه ولعامّة المسلمين فليس منهم» ("And whoever does not spend his evening and morning sincere toward Allah, His Messenger, His Book, his leader and the common folk of the Muslims is not one of them")^[6], and other narrations conveying the same meaning.

What is religion? And how do its details come together in one word

If someone asks you: what is religion? Reflect. A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him: what has your Lord commanded you? He told him that Allah alone is to be worshipped, with no partner, then he listed for him prayer, fasting, zakāh and Ḥajj, until the man said: by Allah, I will not add to that or take away from it. The Prophet's ﷺ answer was: «أَفْلَحَ إِنْ صَدَقَ» ("He has succeeded if he is truthful").^[2] Very well; and when the Prophet ﷺ says: «أَنَا وَكَافِلُ الْيَتِيمِ كَهَاتَيْنِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ» ("I and the one who looks after an orphan will be like these two in Paradise"), is that not part of the religion?^[3] And when he commands us to buy and sell with truthfulness, is that not part of the religion? So we have passed through creed, we have passed through worship, we have passed through morals, and then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gathers all of this practice into a single word.

Imagine the system of devotional commands in Sūrat al-Baqarah alone: how many commands and prohibitions, details and particulars it contains, and how many paths of action for people of different occupations and varied roles: being a parent or a child, or a caller to Allah, or a seller or buyer, or a pilgrim, one who prays or one who fasts, and the limits of all of that. All these details the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gathers in the word "sincere counsel": "The religion is sincere counsel".

Sincere counsel is greater than religion in itself

This may seem somewhat strange, but it is not strange in reality; to me it means that religiosity is the vessel that holds the religion. For someone who is not religious, what value does religion have for him? You acknowledge that the religion contains prayer, zakāh, fasting and Ḥajj, and you say: this is your religion, this is what you call religion. But for me to be religious means that I transfer this religion into a vessel, so it comes to be in my heart, my mind, my inner being and my feelings, and I become the first of those who pray, the first to give wealth, the first to fast, the first to adopt good morals, the first to buy and sell lawfully; I become the first to act.

That is why the text came: ﴿أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَهُ الدِّينَ﴾ ("I have been commanded to worship Allah, making religion sincerely His"), ﴿وَأُمِرْتُ لِأَنْ أَكُونَ أَوَّلَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ﴾ ("and I have been commanded to be the first of the Muslims").^[4] And why "first"? The first of those who carry it out. Some say this is a description of the Prophet ﷺ alone; no, rather it is an educational lesson for the Ummah to be the first of those who give charity, the first of those who fast, the first to carry out every divine command that comes to it through the Qur'an or through the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The meaning of nuṣḥ

And what is the meaning of the word nuṣḥ? Nuṣḥ means purity and refinement: to get to the reality of a thing and purify it of all its impurities. This is the first meaning. The second meaning is that nuṣḥ means mending and repairing; it is said "naṣaḥa al-thawb", that is, he sewed the garment and mended what was wrong with it. It has also been said that it means wishing good for the one counselled.^[8] But speaking about this would take us long, so let us leave it and look at the address: to whom is it, and what is expected when the Prophet ﷺ says "The religion is sincere counsel"? We have always looked at this ḥadīth from one angle, and today we want to present it in another way, in detail.

Where does sincere counsel begin?

The Prophet ﷺ said: to Allah, to His Book, to His Messenger, to the leaders of the Muslims and to their common folk. So where do we begin? If we look at the relationship between me and the Lord of the worlds in the matter of sincere counsel, then for most people sincere counsel to Allah means pure devotion to Him, blessed and exalted, and you have heard this before.

But come, let us reflect: when I counsel my brother and say to him: fear Allah in your home and your children, look to your work, and take care of the trust Allah has placed with you, I am giving something of what I have to the other party. I have a point of view and a vision, I see some kind of defect, I try to refine and correct, and I give that to the other party. So am I empty or full, that I might give my companion the due of sincere counsel? A thing only comes from one who is convinced of it and filled with it, so the first one addressed by sincere counsel is the one who gives it. This is a clear point: one who lacks a thing cannot give it.

Hence, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tells me "The religion is sincere counsel" and confines the whole matter of religion to my being one who counsels sincerely, I understand that "the religion is sincere counsel to Allah" is when my address is to myself concerning my Lord's rights over me. As for what is meant by sincere counsel among the generality of Muslim scholars, and how I counsel sincerely toward Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, that is another discussion; and Allah is far exalted above any likening, for the intent is not that you say to your Lord: pay attention to this and that. It is rather as though I go to great lengths in counselling myself: that I rise for Fajr even when circumstances are hard on me, and that I counsel myself to fast for the sake of the Lord of Might, glorified is He; so I am not sincere to myself in my following of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ unless I do that.

Likewise sincere counsel to His Messenger ﷺ: it is not right for me to stand before him and say: O Messenger of Allah, these words are not for me. Even if it was valid in worldly matters and livelihoods that his Companions in his time would stand before him, upon him be blessings and peace, address him and discuss with him, this is not right for me. So what do I add to the Prophet ﷺ? Nothing, except that I take care to preserve his Sunnah in my life and the lives of those around me. If I take care of it, then the first one counselled is me, may my father and mother be his ransom, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

And likewise the Book of the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He: what do we add to it? Is the relationship between me and the Book one of giving or of taking? We always take from it, even as I explain to you now, and as you make your son understand the meaning of a verse and alert him to it, you are taking, not giving. There is no one on the face of the earth who gives the Qur'an anything; rather, the Qur'an is the source of the greatest and most complete giving to the whole Ummah, with its individuals, its communities, its conditions and the changes of its times. In this way I understood that the Prophet ﷺ is counselling me myself, directly, when he says to me: "The religion is sincere counsel", and then I begin to understand my relationship with the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted is He.

The leaders of the Muslims and their common folk: does sincere counsel include non-Muslims?

As for general mutual counsel, it is his saying ﷺ: "to the leaders of the Muslims and to their common folk". Having kept you long today, we pause at "the leaders of the Muslims", as the text has it: does the expression include leaders who are not Muslims? That is, does sincere counsel include them or not? We mostly understand "the leaders of the Muslims" as being Muslims, and so all our talk and criticism is directed to one side, while no one comes near the other side.

But if we widen the circle of understanding a little, we realize that whoever is a leader and guardian over a Muslim, that Muslim must counsel him sincerely, and the meaning comes back either to my sincerity, truthfulness and loyalty to him, or to my telling him what he ought to be told. The first meaning is acceptable; so must I be loyal to a non-Muslim? I tell you: no, definitively; loyalty is not to persons but to principles. So what is the link that binds me to a non-Muslim if he is my superior in my company? Reflect: if your superior at work is not a Muslim, and you see him making a mistake that will ruin him or ruin your work, is it not your duty as a Muslim to save a human being from a mistake that could ruin him, so that you have done him a favour and he comes to know the conduct of the morals that run in your blood? Is it not my duty to counsel people in general? That is why he said: "and to their common folk".

And pay attention: your neighbour who is not a Muslim, you must counsel him sincerely, and you must rescue him from his mistake; otherwise we would not have been commanded to call to Allah. For the daʿwah that is obligatory upon us is the first sincere counsel to be offered, and the Muslim must offer it: it is the call to the religion of Allah, blessed and exalted, with its means and methods: how I should be, what I should embody, what I aim at, and what follows from my existence as a Muslim in this life.

Withdrawing from society

Withdrawing from society on the pretext that it is not Islamic is a very great mistake that we have fallen into for decades.

Not counselling people is something that should never be; in fact we do it, but we call it by another name: we call it enjoining good and forbidding evil. And what is the matter of enjoining good? It began from this small detail, which is sincere counsel.

A question about the scholars and the role of the scholar

One of those present asked: if many people see the scholars of the Ummah as silent about the conditions of the Ummah, and they may fear that sincere counsel opens another door, has the scholar then fallen short in his role, when the Prophet ﷺ told the Ummah that the religion is sincere counsel?

The doctor replied that judging scholars is a matter that is neither simple nor easy, and I deliberately drew attention to one detail: that you do not know what people carry inside them. Allah, blessed and exalted, said: ﴿كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ﴾ ("Every soul, for what it has earned")^[5], and the matter is settled.

He said that we have mixed up two matters: judging the scholars, and the situation of someone who wants to speak.

He told of a skilled, accomplished young man whom he once asked to deliver the Friday sermon; the young man swore by Allah that he could not go up on the minbar, because his whole family back in his homeland would be lost, and he said: after that I would not know any trace of them or where they are. The doctor said that more than fifteen years have passed since then, that he does not know where the young man is now, and that he gave neither his name nor his nationality, but only wanted to give an example. He said that this young man is not one of the common people; he is with him in everything behind the scenes: in services, logistics and everything, but he cannot bear to appear even for five minutes, because after that day he would not be able to speak to his family. So how do you get past a problem like this?

The doctor says: I am not criticizing what you say; I am with you definitively, in exactly the same trench. But what I want is that we make room in our minds to understand people and their circumstances. Leave whoever falls short; the Resurrection will gather us; we will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection before Allah, blessed and exalted. Imagine that my Lord, glorified is He, brings so-and-so and says to him: what did you do? And he says: I did such-and-such; and He brings another and says to him: what did you do? And he says: I did not do anything. So if you sit and speak and do what you can, your Lord knows your excuse and excuses you, or He knows that you have no excuse and punishes you. So let the Resurrection judge between people.

Between judging and mutual counsel

I do not declare myself or anyone else free of fault, and I ask forgiveness of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, for our shortcomings toward our religion, our daʿwah and our Ummah. But there is a difference between two people: one who stops at judging others, and that is a rigid mentality; and another who feels that there is something the other party ought to do. That is why the matter of mutual counsel comes in: had we begun with judgment, there would have been no reason for mutual counsel; and had we begun with mutual counsel, seeking excuses would have remained until the last breath.

On the subject of counsel, their saying is narrated: seek seventy excuses for your brother, and if you do not find an excuse for him after the seventy, then say: perhaps he has an excuse that I do not know^[7]. To whom does this statement apply? We apply it only to someone who owed me a sum of money and was late in repaying it, so I seek an excuse for him; but I do not know how to raise it to anything above that or below it.

Glory be to the One who will bring out people's hidden secrets on the Day of Resurrection! He will show you excuses for people you thought were among the people of Hellfire, and He will show you people whose place is at the bottom of Hell, whom you used to regard as leaders of this world and the Hereafter.

Conclusion

The problem we face, my brother, is that we judge without waiting for our Lord. Allah has commanded us to call to Him, commanded us to counsel one another, and commanded us to give; it is as though Allah, blessed and exalted, is telling me through His Messenger ﷺ: make of yourself a fortress in which people take refuge and which brings its good out to them; otherwise we are poised arrows that destroy people before reaching them with sincere counsel and good exhortation. And Allah the Exalted knows best.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Tamīm al-Dārī (may Allah be pleased with him), and the repetition of "The religion is sincere counsel" three times comes in the narration of Abū Dāwūd in the wording: «إِنَّ الدِّينَ النَّصِيحَةُ، إِنَّ الدِّينَ النَّصِيحَةُ، إِنَّ الدِّينَ النَّصِيحَةُ» ("Indeed the religion is sincere counsel, indeed the religion is sincere counsel, indeed the religion is sincere counsel"). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker refers to the ḥadīth of the Bedouin who asked the Prophet ﷺ about Islam, and he related the story by its meaning; his saying ﷺ «أَفْلَحَ إِنْ صَدَقَ» ("He has succeeded if he is truthful") is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh (may Allah be pleased with him). ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from Sahl ibn Saʿd (may Allah be pleased with him) in the wording «أَنَا وَكَافِلُ الْيَتِيمِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ هَكَذَا» ("I and the one who looks after an orphan will be in Paradise like this"), and he pointed with his index and middle fingers; and in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): «كَافِلُ الْيَتِيمِ لَهُ أَوْ لِغَيْرِهِ أَنَا وَهُوَ كَهَاتَيْنِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ» ("The one who looks after an orphan, whether his own or another's: he and I will be like these two in Paradise"). ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Zumar, verses 11–12. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Muddaththir, verse 38; the speaker pronounced only part of the verse, which is completed by «رَهِينَةٌ». ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The speaker cited the two narrations without attribution. Ibn Rajab mentioned them in «Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam» as narrated by al-Ṭabarānī from Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (may Allah be pleased with him), and al-Albānī graded them weak in «al-Silsilah al-Ḍaʿīfah» (312); so they are not attributed to the Prophet ﷺ as authentic, but are mentioned only as supporting the meaning, and what is relied upon is the ḥadīth of Tamīm al-Dārī. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The speaker cited it with the phrase "as is narrated"; we did not find it as a prophetic ḥadīth in the six books or in the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Mālik, so it is given in the text as a transmitted saying, not as a prophetic text. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: Ibn Rajab, in «Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam», quotes al-Khaṭṭābī as saying: «النصيحة كلمة يعبَّر بها عن جملة هي إرادة الخير للمنصوح له» ("Sincere counsel is a word that expresses a whole, namely wishing good for the one counselled"), and: «وأصل النصح في اللغة الخلوص، يقال: نصحتُ العسل إذا خلّصته من الشمع» ("The root of nuṣḥ in the language is purity; one says: I purified (naṣaḥtu) the honey when I cleared it of the wax").