Free the Slaves

In fact, this story is mentioned: that Imam Mālik did it — and in some other narrations it says that it's al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. They said that they came to him, and they told him: there are too many slaves; can you please encourage the people to free them? So — whether it was Imam Mālik or al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī — he listened to that advice. The first jumuʿah came; he didn't speak about freeing slaves. The second jumuʿah came; he didn't speak about it. The third jumuʿah came; he didn't speak about it. And then, a while later — a few weeks after they told him about this — he made a khuṭbah. And he told the people in that khuṭbah simply, in a very simple way: free the slaves.

They said: immediately after the khuṭbah, people were freeing all of the slaves they had — even though he said it in a very simple way. But the people took that advice, and they acted upon it, and everybody was freeing the slaves.

They came to him, and they told him: first of all, why did it take you so long to remind the people? Because look at the result of it. Why didn't you do this before? Why didn't you tell the people to do this a long time ago? Look at the response that the people showed. He said: because I did not want to tell the people to do something I'm not doing. And since I didn't have any slaves myself, I collected money until I had enough money to buy a slave. And then I bought a slave, and I freed him. And then I stood on the minbar. So when I spoke to the people, the people took my advice, because it's coming from the heart, and it's sincere. So the people acted upon it.

So we need to enjoin others to do what we are doing ourselves.