Accountability for the advice we give.

 Here's a thought about the advice we give to others.

Imagine it's judgement day and a person is questioned by Allah about their deeds and the times they strayed off the path, This person responds by firstly accepting the error of their ways but then goes on to explain how their actions were influenced by other people. They say that they foolishly followed people who they thought were better informed. Who came across as knowing what they were talking about.

Then this person points at you. Portioning to you part of the blame for leading them astray with the advice you gave. How do you respond to that?

Are you going to just accept it without question and take on the punishment on their behalf? Surely not. You are going to argue your case. You are going to tell them that they were in full control of all their choices. They didn't have to listen to anything you said. You had no power over them.

Just take a step back and analyse that response.
Manyatimes we people arguing their point at length only to be seen to be correct so others would accept them as the better informed. We see the oft repeated advice threads. We the entire influencer industry geared towards getting others to follow their lead.

Yet when these people are caught out and the error of their ways is made apparent to them, they are quick to wash their hands of their followers. Remarkably, this response is not to dissimilar to the response from iblis himself. He will announce to the people that followed him that he had not power over them, and they followed him willingly and then he will abandon them.

Lets be careful about the attitudes, thoughts and concepts we defend promote and propagate. The last thing we need is someone being led astray by it and become to hold us to account on judgment day.