Analysing without demonising

I don't have a problem with people criticizing a policy, but I don't like the demonization of a ruler. And this is this is where I think a lot of people make a mistake, and you have to you really have to be very, very conscientious about not falling into that trap. Because if someone if a ruler or a government is implementing something that you think is wrong, you jump to they're a bad person. And this isn't fair. And and it's also it's not you're not applying your own Islamic understanding of how shaitan works on people.

That okay. First of all first of all, just talk about the policy first. Just talk about the policy and criticize the policy. I don't have a problem with people criticizing policies as long as it's actually a policy and not just propaganda. It's an actual thing that's that the government is doing.

Then it's your responsibility to try to understand first okay. How can I say this? First, if you find a policy that you think that the government is doing or that the government is doing that you think they shouldn't do, now the first thing that you should do is try to justify that policy. Why do you think that policy exists? And don't say because they're a bad person.

This is so lazy, and and just wrong. You have to try to understand what is the strategic purpose of that policy. How does that policy make sense? You've you yourself, for yourself, make that argument. It's like they call steel manning.

You yourself, if you if you don't like it, so now you should try to create the arguments in favor of it so that you can try to understand their side, and then maybe you will reassess even your own position. If you if you just have a knee jerk reaction to a policy that you because you think it's bad, then you will you you will fail to really understand the policy, and you're you're it's just a knee jerk reaction. Reaction, like I said. This isn't analysis at all. You should analyze it as if you advocate that policy.

Mhmm. That's number two. First of all, only policies. Number two, analyze the policy as if you're an advocate of the policy that you wanna criticize. And number three, this is where the Islamic thinking comes in.

Understand how what is the moral justification for that policy in the minds or the hearts of the people who are making the policy. Because you should understand that Shaitan makes the evil seem good to people, and that's how he makes them do it. Mhmm. That's how he convinces them to do it. It's very, very seldom that someone is doing something because they just love evil.

That someone is just I mean, even even the worst crimes in history are done with a moral justification on the part of the one committing it. That's not the same as you now justifying it. But you should understand what the justification is so that you can understand what Shaytan has been whispering in their ear about that policy. So that then if you're if you're a genuine sincere person who wants to make any kind of a change, then you should try to understand why people do what they do so that you can respond to that and you can answer that and you can convince them otherwise. You know?

Don't think that that, like, if you're and this is exactly why it's well, one of the reasons why it's so wrong to just demonize a ruler or demonize a leader or demonize a politician even on the basis of a policy that you think is bad. If you're gonna just think that they're doing that policy because they're bad, you're very stupid. This is very naive and unfair because you wouldn't you wouldn't let someone do that with you if they if you're doing something that other people don't like or you're doing something that people think is bad, and then they just said, well, he's doing that because he's an evil person. Would you accept that to be said about you? You're doing whatever you're doing for some kind of a reason, and it makes sense to you.

It makes sense maybe practically, it makes sense to you. It makes sense to you in a realistic way, and it makes sense to you on some level in a moral way. You have you have justified whatever your actions are. You have justified them to yourself, or Shaykhan has helped helped you to justify them. So if you want anyone to change ever, you have to understand what their justifications are.

That's not the same as saying that their justifications are valid, but they they they have justifications for what they're doing. And it's not because I'm the devil. You know? So just kind of an advice. I was just thinking about that that that, you know because, you know, I don't as I said, I don't have any problem with people criticizing a policy, but they hardly ever do that.

Yeah. They hardly ever do that. The only time that they will even bring up a policy, first of all, especially if we're talking with the outer rulers, the only time that they'll bring up a policy is, first of all, if it's not even true. It's just the thing that they're making up Mhmm. To accuse them of.

And the only reason that they're saying it is to try to prove that it's an that that that the ruler is evil Yeah. Rather than just having a problem with this this or that policy and explaining why you have a problem with that policy. But as I say, before you even get to the point of explaining why you have a problem with that policy, try to make an argument in favor of that policy and try to understand as a brother in Islam why they might be doing what they're doing. That's if you're if you're a sincere person. And if you if you're not, then you're the one who's acting like a a shaitan, to be honest.