Abandoning the Better (Tark al-Awla): Difference between revisions

'''Abandoning the better''' or '''tark al-awlā''' (Arabic: {{ia|تَرْک الأوْلی}}) is to do something good and abandon what is better to do. Shiite scholars do not take “abandoning the better” as a [[sin]], and thus, they hold that [[prophets]] and [[Imams (a)]] might sometimes abandon the better. They maintain that in cases in which prophets and Imams (a) practiced [[istighfar]], they did so because they had abandoned the better. In some verses of the [[Qur'an]], some mistakes are attributed to some prophets. [[Exegetes]] of the Qur'an hold that since prophets are [[infallible]], such mistakes are not sins from the standpoint of [[fiqh]] (or jurisprudence), rather they are “tark al-awla”, that is, they just abandoned what is the better action to do.

“Tark al-awla” takes place when one has two options: one is good and the other is better, but they do what is good and abandon what is better. The term was not used in the Qur'an and [[hadith]]s; rather it was used by Muslim scholars.  

According to ''[[Tafsir Namuna]]'', a sin is an action that counts as wrong for everyone, but “tark al-awla” is not wrong and is even favorable, but it is not good for some people to do because of their positions. For example, if a worker donates one day of his or her salary for the construction of a hospital, he has done a good thing, but if a wealthy person donates the same amount of money for the construction of a hospital, he will be berated, because he is expected to pay more, even though he has done something good in itself. Such an action is called “tark al-awla”.

The Shi'as believe that prophets and Imams (a) are [[infallible]], so they never commit [[Major Sins|major]] or [[Minor Sins|minor]] sins; but they might sometimes commit tark al-awla, that is, they may abandon the better. The evidence for this is that the Qur'an refers to mistakes or slippages by prophets or their [[istighfar]] (asking God for forgiveness). For instance, according to [[Sura al-Baqara]], the Satan misguided the prophet [[Adam (a)]] and then Adam practiced istighfar. Moreover, [[the Prophet Muhammad (s)]] and the [[Imams (a)]] have asked God for forgiveness in supplications transmitted from them. For example, there is a [[hadith]] according to which the Prophet (s) practiced istighfar one hundred times during a day and a night.

According to Shiite scholars, since there are rational arguments for the [[infallibility]] of prophets and the Imams (a), we cannot impute sins to them. Thus, the above cases should be construed as “tark al-awla” or abandoning the better. They explain istighfars by prophets and the Imams (a) in terms of different categories and degrees of sins. For example, one category of sins is the judicial sin which is referred to in [[fiqh]] as [[haram]]. Another category is failure to continuously think of God, which is not a judicial sin. Prophets and the Imams (a) never committed judicial sins because of their infallibility, but they could fail to continuously think of God because of their relationships with other people and the demands of their daily lives, and this led them to practice istighfar.

The Qur'an has attributed actions to prophets in terms such as “'usyan” (disobedience or sin) and “zulm” (injustice or oppression) and their requests for God’s forgiveness. Exegetes of the Qur'an have interpreted these cases as “tark al-awla”. Below are some Quranic verses in this regard plus the interpretations of Quranic exegetes about them:

… (Sura al-Qisas, verse 16)

In this verse, the prophet [[Moses (a)]] asks for God’s forgiveness because of killing a person, and according to the Qur'an, God forgives him. According to ''[[Tafsir namuna]]'', the person who was killed by Moses (a) was a cruel companion of the [[Pharaoh]] and so he was rightly killed. According to this book, the man was bullying a person from the [[Israelites]], and Moses (a) punched him in the face in order to defend the oppressed person, without the intention of killing. Thus, what he did was not a sin, but he had abandoned the better (“tark al-awla”), because it was careless in those circumstances and led him into unnecessary troubles.

… (Sura al-Anbiya’, verse 87)

This verse refers to the story of the prophet [[Yunus (a)]] (or Jonah). He abandoned his people because of their disobedience and then regretted what he did. He took his action to be an oppression of the people and then [[tawba|repented]] to God. According to [[Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba’i]], Yunus’s action was not an oppression or a sin, indeed, and God punished him only in order to teach him not to do things that are slightly similar to oppression and sins. According to ''[[Tafsir namuna]]'', Yunus’s action was an instance of “tark al-awla”.

… (Sura Taha, verse 121)

According to ''[[Majma' al-bayan]]'' in its exegesis of this verse, “'usyan” literally means any disobedience of God. Thus, it not only includes the abandoning of one’s obligations, but also the abandoning of [[mustahab]] (or recommended) actions. Thus, [[Adam]]’s disobedience does not mean that he committed a sin. According to ''Tafsir namuna'', commands and prohibitions are sometimes “irshadi” or instructive; one case in point is when a physician tells a patient to take some medicine. In such a case, if the patient does not obey the physician’s command, they only harm themselves. God’s prohibition of eating the [[Forbidden Tree]] does not mean that its eating was a sin, because God had not regulated obligations yet. Instead, it meant that eating the fruit would lead to Adam’s [[Fall|exit]] from the [[Heaven of Adam (a)|heaven]] to the Earth where he would suffer pains.