Irshad (guidance)

Irshad in the lexicon means guidance and pointing the way: one says he guided him to a thing or to it. The usulis treat irshad as one of the figurative meanings a command may carry, defining it as the teaching of a worldly matter, and give as example the command to call two men as witnesses in surat al-Baqara (282). It is close to nadb (recommendation), since both seek a benefit, but nadb is for a benefit in the hereafter and irshad for a benefit in this world. ¹ The jurists use irshad for pointing to good and to benefits, worldly or otherwise, and also in the usuli sense. ¹ Irshad is synonymous with nasiha (sincere counsel) and with enjoining good and forbidding wrong. Some jurists use the phrase enjoining good and forbidding wrong for matters agreed to be obligatory or forbidden, and irshad for matters in dispute. ¹ The usulis hold that where the benefit of an irshad command is worldly, there is no reward for one who does it purely for that worldly purpose; if he does it in obedience to God, he is rewarded for that obedience by an external cause; and if he intends both obedience and the worldly benefit, his reward is less than that of one who intends obedience alone. ¹ The jurists hold that guiding people to good, pointing them to it and counselling them is obligatory, on the basis of a verse in surat Al 'Imran (104) about a community calling to good, and of the saying that "religion is sincere counsel" recorded by Muslim; it should be done gently and in soft words, since this is closer to acceptance. The duty applies when a benefit is likely and one does not fear for oneself, one's property or another. ¹ The rules of the irshad command are treated by the usulis in the chapter on the command and by the jurists in the chapter on enjoining good and forbidding wrong. ²