No doubt, we all hate criticism – the constructive and its opposite, the destructive ones! Though, there is no doubt also, in the fact that as human beings we love to high heaven, the praise and panegyrized voice of our praisers.
But most times, it is embedded in too much praise and exaltation, every thing evil which pulses the praised and the panegyrized into avoidable and unavoidable errors, for it may wear for the praised the garments of overconfidence, deceitfulness and vaingloriousness which may result in their destruction!
On the contrary, there lies in genuine exhortation, admonition and criticism, all what is good and fair, especially when it emanates from pious, knowledgeable and fair-minded soul which courts with his criticism, his rewards from God but not from human being!
For when the critic on a matter is so wired to the material rewards he could slice from the one he is criticizing or from the public he is courting, objectivity and fairness can be easily sacrificed for what he is craving either from the one he is criticizing or from the love of the public he is desiring! And by doing this, the essence of good constructive criticism is lost!
Constructive criticism, to say the obvious, has been one of the instruments of keeping a watch on a society so that it will not derail. It is one of the elements that God does debar or remove from the leadership of a clan , a society and a nation, according to prophet Muhammad ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam) when He desires the downfall of those clan, society and nation!
And when a criticism is from an honest and sincere mind like that, who still possesses the requisites information and know-how on the object or what he criticizes, people will benefit heavily from it while they will be able to correct their mistakes without much ado.
Although sometimes, destructive criticisms are wrapped in the peels of constructive ones and by that ,the critics will express their judgement on an issue without having a first class information and knowledge on the issue, constructive criticisms should not be disregarded either they come from a friend or a fiend! They must be taken as part of the peaks of the offices the people of authority are to enjoy alongside their heavy salaries, state-of-the-art cars and houses which their offices have attracted to them!
Some criticisms are destructive no doubt. One can also identify these kinds of complaints or observations when matters that can be discussed with those that are concerned with them in private are harshly and quickly brought to the public domain for the consumption of those that do not need to be privy to it in that material time.
At other times, issues that need to be consulted or deliberate on, in the private havens of those that are concerned with them before making them public, when those in charge do not show signs of correcting them and which are dangerous to the lives of the nationals, are released apace!
At this juncture, those in the public services or offices should be cautious before they react negatively on criticisms which are hurled at them for most times, the public may not see avenues at meeting them privately to register their complaints or criticisms. This is the reason, they need not be negative to criticisms people are sending on their ways right and left.
Yet, when those at the helms of affairs create avenues for the public to air their complaints or criticisms and the public do so, the people of authority many a time, ignore the genuinely made criticisms of the public. Sometimes, they do not look at the messages but scornfully eye the one that issued the messages in the first place!
Here too , we will tell the people in authority and others who are in the habits of disregarding the positive criticisms of others to desist from that stances, instead it is incumbent on them to accept criticisms and act on them in as much as those criticisms are knowledge -based, genuine and publicly good!
A well-taken knowledge -based, genuine and publicly good criticism when used stands to offer the men and women of authority personal and societal benefits while it will make them to cross the bridge of good and land in that of the best while it deepens their works as veritable public czars.
There is no point in scoffing at people’s criticisms which have been genuinely made. Doing so, is blocking one’s ears from hearing the truth and treating others with contempt . And doing that, is going the way of the people of Madyan, the very people prophet Shu’aib ( Alehi Salam) was sent to by God, and to which God eventually set a blast upon for treating the constructive criticism of Shu’aib with contempt!
Prophet’s Shu’aib Criticism And The People Of Madyan
According to Yusuf Ali in his commentary of the glorious Qur’an, Midianites were Arab race, though, as neighbours of the Canaanites, they probably intermixed with them.
The story of Prophet’s Shu’aib Criticism of the people of Madyan on their sleazy commercial dealings with others are discussed in Qu’ran 11:84-95. The Midianites were a commercial people, and their besetting sin was commercial selfishness and fraudulent dealings in weight and measures. Their prophet, Shu’aib ( Alehi Salam) told them that, that was the surest way to cut short their prosperity, both in the material and the spiritual sense.
He admonished them genuinely as follows:
” And O my people! Give just measure and weight , nor withhold from the people the things that are their due: commit not evil in the land with intent to do mischief. That which is left for you by Allah is best for you, if you believed ! But I am not set over you to keep watch!” _Qur’an 11:86
Instead of looking with reasoned eyes with what Shu’aib had criticized them on , they grew sarcastic against him. In effect they say: ” You are a fine man! You teach us that we must be kind and forbearing with other people’s faults, and now, you get at what you call our sins! You think you are the only right minded man!”
It is the way of selfish and material minded people to scoff at spiritual things like prayer and worship and to hug their own property rights as if there were not other rights even greater than those of property, whenever their evils and bad characters are called out and criticized.
Despite that, Shu’aib’s answers was gentle and persuasive to them. First, he would ask them not to fly into a passion but satisfy themselves that he had a mission from Allah, and was working in the discharge of his mission and that he was not merely finding fault with them.
Secondly, though he was a poor man , he asked them to note that he was happy and comfortable with the sustenance; material and spiritual, Allah Has given to him . Thirdly, if he forbade them anything he wished to apply the same standards to himself. Fourthly, all the advice which he is giving them is for their own good, which he desires to advance to the utmost of his powers.
Fifthly, he is humble for himself; he would not set himself up to be their teacher or guide, or expect to be obeyed ; the success of any of his efforts on their behalf must come from Allah’s grace; will they not therefore turn to Allah , so that Allah’s grace can heal them of their sins?
When the people of Madyan would not still adhere to Shu’aib’s complaints about their deceitfulness, he finally appeals to them as man to man. He said: “Because I differ from you, do not think I do not love you or feel for you. So do not allow that your thinking drive you into obstinacy and sin. I see things that you do not see. My vision takes in the fate of previous generations such as people of Noah, Hud , Salih and Lut who had sinned and perished on account of their sins. Turn therefore to Allah in repentance.
Still, for all the good words and nicety in their deliverance by Shu’aib to his people, they did not see reasons and wisdoms in what he was saying! Instead, they threatened him thus:
” They said : O Shu’aib! Much of what you said we do not understand! In fact , among us we see that you have no strength! We’re it not for your family, we should certainly have stoned you! For you have among us no great position!” _ Qu’ran 11:91
Shu’aib as a prophet of God who had been endowed with patience, had also been mild in his reaction to his people’s harsh words above according to the next verse , Qu’ran 11:92 as follows:
” He said : O my people! Is then my family of more consideration with you than Allah ( your Creator)? For you cast Him away behind your backs with contempt. But verily , my Lord encompasses all you do!”
Finally, when the people of Madyan would not accede to the superior and good criticisms, Shu’aib told them :
” And O my people do whatever you can: I will do my part: Soon you will know who it is on whom descends the chastisement of ignominy and who is a liar! And watch! For i too am watching with you! Qu’ran 11:93
Eventually, the people of Madyan were seized with a mighty blast from God for their recalcitrance while Shu’aib and those who took to his criticism and changed their ways were saved from it.
We will say to the critics too at this juncture, that they should behave as prophet Shu’aib ( Alehi Salam) had done above with the people of Madyan. Patience, good words, kindheartedness in reasoning with the criticized must be the watchwords of the critics.
Their exhortations must at the same time be done with the sole aim of righting the wrongs and evils in the society without staging them as means to popularity, stardom and material things of this life.