Provoking Public Opinion Against the One who has Made the Mistake

this method is only to be used in very limited circumstances, when a great deal of thought has been given to the matter, to avoid any negative escalation of the situation. there follows an example of how the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) used this method. abu hurayrah said:

“a man came to the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) and complained to him about his neighbour. the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said, ‘go and put up with him.’ the man came back two or three times, then the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) said, ‘go and put your belongings out in the street.’ so he went and put his belongings out in the street. people started to ask him what was going on, so he told them, and the people started to curse (the neighbour), saying, ‘may allaah do such-and-such to him.’ then the neighbour came to him and said, ‘put your stuff back, you will not see anything else from me that you dislike.’” (reported by abu dawood, kitaab al-adab, baab fi haqq al-jiwaar, no. 5153; saheeh abi dawood, 4292).

this method has an opposite counterpart which is used in other circumstances to protect people from the public’s harm, as will be explained below: