we can learn this from looking at how the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) dealt with the mistake made by the bedouin who urinated in the mosque, as was reported by anas ibn maalik, who said:

“whilst we were in the mosque with the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him), a bedouin came and stood urinating in the mosque. the companions of the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said, ‘stop it! stop it!’ but the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said, ‘do not interrupt him; leave him alone.’ so they left him until he had finished urinating, then the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) called him and said to him, ‘in these mosques it is not right to do anything like urinating or defecating; they are only for remembering allaah, praying and reading qur`aan,’ or words to that effect. then he commanded a man who was there to bring a bucket of water and throw it over the (urine), and he did so.” (saheeh muslim, no. 285).

the principle which the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) followed in dealing with this mistake was to treat the man gently, not to be harsh with him. al-bukhaari reported from abu hurayrah (may allaah be pleased with him):

“a bedouin urinated in the mosque, and the people got up to sort him out. the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said to them, ‘leave him alone, and throw a bucket of water over it. you have been sent to make things easy for people, not to make things hard.’ ” (fath, 6128).

the sahaabah, may allaah be pleased with them, were very keen to denounce the bad thing they had seen and to keep their mosque clean and pure, as is indicated in the various reports of this hadeeth, which describe them as shouting at him, getting up to sort him out, rebuking him and hastening to deal with him, or telling him to “stop it!” (jaami’ al-usool, 7/83-87). but the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) was thinking of the likely consequences of the two options – stopping him or leaving him alone. if they tried to stop him, forcing a man to suppress his urination could do him harm, and if he was unable to stop but moved away because he was afraid of them, the impurity would be spread over a wider area of the mosque and on the man’s body and clothing. the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) had the farsightedness to see that leaving the man alone until he had finished urinating was the lesser of two evils, especially since the man had already started doing it, and it was a problem that they would be able to do something about by cleaning it afterwards. so he told his companions to leave him alone and not to interrupt him. he told them to leave him alone because this was in the better interests of all and would ward off a worse evil by putting up with the lesser evil.

it was also reported that the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) asked the man the reason for his action. al-tabaraani reported in al-kabeer that ibn ‘abbaas (may allaah be pleased with him) said:

“a bedouin came to the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) and pledged allegiance to him in the mosque. then he went away and started to urinate. the people wanted to stop him, but the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said, ‘do not stop a man when he is urinating.’ then he asked him, ‘are you not a muslim?’ he said, ‘of course.’ he said, ‘what made you urinate in our mosque?’ he said, ‘by the one who sent you with the truth, i thought it was just like any other place so i urinated in it.’ the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) called for a bucket of water and poured it over the urine.” (reported by al-tabaraani in al-kabeer, no. 11552, vol. 11, p.220. al-haythami said in al-majma’: its men are the men of saheeh, 2/10).

this wise manner of dealing with the problem had a far-reaching effect on the bedouin, as is clear from his reaction. ibn maajah reported that abu hurayrah said:

“a bedouin entered the mosque where the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) was sitting, and said, ‘o allaah, forgive me and muhammad, and do not forgive anyone else.’ the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) smiled and said, ‘you are narrowing something vast.’ then (the bedouin) went away to the furthest part of the mosque, opened his legs, and began to urinate. after he had learnt better, the bedouin said, ‘he got up, may my mother and my father be sacrificed for him, he did not rebuke me or insult me. he just said, “we do not urinate in this mosque; it was only built for the remembrance of allaah and for prayer.” then he called for a bucket of water and poured it over the urine.’ ” (sunan ibn maajah, ‘abd al-baaqi edn., 529; saheeh ibn maajah, 428).

ibn hajar (may allaah have mercy on him) mentioned in his commentary a number of things we learn from the hadeeth about the bedouin, among which are the following:

•          we should be gentle when dealing with one who is ignorant and teach him what he needs to know without rebuking him, so long as he is not acting out of stubbornness, especially if he is one who needs to be won over.

•          the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) was kind and dealt nicely with him.

•          the idea of taking precautions against impurity (najaasah) was well-established in the minds of the sahaabah, which is why they hastened to denounce it in the presence of the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) without first asking his permission. the idea of enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil was also well-established in their minds.

•          we should also hasten to remove anything objectionable when there is nothing to stop us from doing so, because when the man had finished urinating, the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) issued instructions that the place should be cleaned with water.