In our relationships with others and in our behavior, we often appoint ourselves as judges and executioners over the opinions, actions, and conduct of those around us, even though the foundation in faith is freedom, as the Almighty says: “For you is your religion, and for me is my religion,” and in another place: “No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.” Yet we forget—or pretend to forget—those noble verses, and we begin to impose our opinions on those around us, believing that only we understand, comprehend, realize, and do what is right, and that any other opinion or action is wrong.

And not only that, we give ourselves the right to denounce that in others and attack them, and we may even reach the stage of insults and putting people on trial under the banner of religion, right and wrong, lawful and unlawful—without realizing that such behavior is the very pretext of extremists in permitting bloodshed. At their core, they are like us: judges who ruled this person as disbelief and that person as faith. And know, my friend, that when you issue your judgments on those around you, you will be asked only about your own actions, as the Almighty says: “O you who have believed, upon you is yourselves. Those who have gone astray will not harm you when you have been guided. To Allah is your return all together…”

So I advise you and myself to refrain from appointing ourselves as judges over those around us, and I remind you of the saying of Imam Al-Shafi‘i: “My opinion is correct though it may be wrong, and the opinion of others is wrong though it may be correct”… because you are not in my place, you did not go through the same circumstances, and you do not have the same convictions to judge that this is right and that is wrong. And who said in the first place that you are right and I am wrong? Is it not possible that all of us are right, but in different ways?

Let us always make the saying, “Differences of opinion do not spoil affection,” our banner… but unfortunately, we do not possess a culture of disagreement. We must realize that each of us has his own convictions, and that our differences are a mercy. Let each person keep his own opinion, whether right or wrong. We are not judges or executioners; we are human beings—we get things right and we make mistakes, and we are not immune from error… Be upright, may God have mercy on you.

Written by Dr. Hamada Al-Antabli.