ENJOINING' GOOD AND FORBIDDING EVIL

Enjoining good and prohibiting evil is the basic subject of religions . It is such a necessity for which all the Prophet were sent to the world. Had it been closed, Prophethood would have been meaningless, religions lost, idleness reigned, ignorance spread, disturbance prevailed, dangers and calamities appeared and mankind destroyed. It will be discussed in four section-(1) merits of enjoying good and prohibiting evil (2) its rules and conditions , (3) narration of prevalent corrupt practices in society, (4) and dissuasion about enjoining good and prohibiting evil to the rulers, administrators and those who are invested with powers.

SECTION 1

MERITS OF ENJOINING GOOD AND PROHIBITING EVIL

It appears from the Quranic verses and sayings of the Holy Pro het and of the sages and saints that enjoining good and prohitbiting evil is compulsory.

QURAN; God says : There shall be a party from you who will call towards good and prohibit evil and they shall be successful- 3:105 Q. This is Farze Kefayah and not Faraz Ain. In other words, if some people do it, other Muslims will be absolved from its sin, but if none does it, all will be sinners. God says: All the people of the Book are not equal. A party of them recite standing in prayer all night, make prostration and have faith in God and the next world and view with one another in good deeds. They are included within the religious people. God says The believing men and believing women are friends to one another. They enjoin good on one another and prohibit evil and establish prayer. They have lien praised by God as they adopt these measures. Those who do not do these are out of the category of believers. God says : Those who are unbelievers among the children of Israil are cursed by the tongues of David and Jesus Christ. son of Mary. This is because they committed sins and transgressed. They did not prohibit them to divert from evil deeds. Evil is what they did " In this verse, God says that They are fit for curse as they gave up prohibiting the evil doings.

٢:١٨٠God says : 'You are the best of nations created for mankind. You enjoin good and prohibit evils.' In this verse God Says that the Muslims are the best nation only for this that' they enjoin good and prohibit evils . God says : When they were reminded, they forgot. I gave salvation to those who prohibited evils." God says in this verse clearly that they got salvation, because they used to prohibit evils and this verse also proves the compulsory character of this matter. God says:

If I establish them in the world, they establish prayer, pay Zakat, enjoin good and prohibit evils God praised the companions in the above verse. God says : Help one another in righteousness and God-fear and don't help in sin and transgression. This is an open order of God to enjoin good and forbid evil. God says : 0 believers, keep firm on justice, bearing witness for God even though it is against yourselves, parents and near relatives. This verse speaks of enjoining good to parents and relatives . God says : There is no good in most of their secret talks , except those of the man who enjoins on giving charity doing good deeds or doing good to the people. I will give ample reward to one who does it for pleasure of God . God says : If two parties of the believers fight with each other, make peace between them. This peace means to prohibit them to make rebellion and bring them back to allegiane. If it cannot be done, God ordered to kill those who do not submit. He said Fight with one who rebels till he returns to the commands of God.

Sayings of the Holy Prophet. The Prophet said ; if some people commit sins and if there are other persons fit to prohibit them and still they do not do it, they do not do any religious act. Soon punishment from God will fall on all of them . The companion Sa'labah asked the Prophet about the explanation of this verse-If you have found guidance, the misguided cannot do you any harm. He said, in reply : 0 Abu Sa'labah, enjoin good and prohibit evil. When you will find the people following greed and passions, love the world and give opinion according to every wise man, be busy then with yourself and give up the affairs of the public, because disasters and calamities will come behind your back like full dark night. He who remains firm like you, will get the rewards of fifty of you. He was asked : 0 Messenger of God, will he get rewards of fifty of them? He said: No, the rewards of fifty of you because you are getting help for good deeds, while they will not get any helper therefor.

٢:١٨١Hazrat Ibn Masud was asked the explanation of the above Hadis and he said : This is not that age. At the present age, enjoining good and forbidding evil are accepted, but soon there will come an age when you will enjoin good but the people, will give you trouble for that. If you say anything, it will not be accepted from you. When you get guidance, the misguided people cannot misguided you . The Prophet said : 0 mankind, God said : Before you make invocation enjoin good and prohibit evil, or else your invocation will not be accepted. The Prophet said : In comparison with Jihad in the way of God, the good deeds are nothing but like a puff of breath in a deep sea All good deep and Jihad in the way of God are nothing but a puff of breath in the deep sea in comparison with enjoining good and prohibiting evil.

The Prophet said: God will ask a servant : Who prevented you to prohibited a person form doing evil when you saw it being done ? If God would have taught him to reply he would have replied thus: 0 Lord, I entertained hope of Thee and feared men.

The Prophet said: Be careful of sitting on the pathway. The companions asked : We have got on alternative but to sit on the pathway and we hold discussion there. He said : If you are compelled to do it, fulfill the rights of the pathway.' They asked: What are the rights of the pathways ? He said : To shut up eye-sight, to have patience at harms, to respond to salutation, to enjoing good and to forbid evil The Prophet said : Except enjoining good and forbidding evil and making Zikr of God, every word of man does harm to him and not benefit. Then the Prophet said : God wil not surely punish the pious men for the sins of the people so long as they prevent them from wrong doing. The Prophet said : When your women will become disobediently, your young men will commit great sins and you will give up Jihad, what will then be your condition ? The companions asked :0 Messenger of God, will it happen? He said Yes, by One in whose hand there is my life, a more serious thing will happen. They asked : What is that thing ? He said : When you will take the the good does as evil and evil deeds as good, what will be your condition ? The companion asked: Will it happen ? He said : Yes. By One in whose hand there is my life, a more serious thing will happen. The companions asked: What is that thing? He said: When you will be ordered to do evil things and prohibited from doing good deeds, what will be your ٢:١٨٢condition then ? They said : Will at happen ? He said : Yes, By One in whose hand there is my life, a worse matter than that will happen. God will say : I take oath by Myself that I will create such disasters and calamities for them in which those who are patient will be puzzled or perplexed.

The Prophet said: Don't wait near a man at the time when he is unjustly killed, because God's curse falls upon that man also who, being present there, does not prevent it. The Prophet said If a man be present at a place where there is danger, he shall not speak there but truth, because he will not die before his fixe time and he will neither be deprived of his fixed provision. From this Hadis , it appears that it is not lawful to enter a place of oppression and sin and be present where sins are being committed if he is notable to prevent it. The Prophet said: 'Curse descends upon that person who remains present there'. To be present at a place where a sin is being committed is unlawful in case he is unable to prevent it. For this reason, a party of earlier sages used to take to loneliness, so that evil deeds did not fall to their eyes in markets festivals and assemblies as they understood that they were unable to remove it.

The Prophet said: 'When a man is present at the time of commission of a sin and he hates it, he remains as it were absent from it. When a man remains absent at the time of commission of a sin but he loves it, he remains as it were present there. His presence there is accidental and not out of volition as it is prohibited. The Prophet said : The Almighty God did not send any Prophet who had no disciples. He lived among them till God wished that he should live among them to instruct them to follow His injunction and the Book. Afterwards He took his life. After him, his disciples used to act according to God's Book and His command and the ways of the Prophet. When they died. there came after them a party of men who used to deliver sermon upon pulpits but they themselves did bad deeds. When you will see it, then it will become the duty of every believer to fight with his hand . If he is unable todo it, he wil fight with his tongue . Without this, his Islam does not remain.

Hazrat Ibn Abbas said: The Prophet was once asked : 0 Messenger of God, will any place be destroyed if there are pious men therein ? He said: Yes. He was asked: What is its reason? He said : They will neglect their duties and they will remind silent ٢:١٨٣though they will see them committing sins. For that, they will be destroyed. The Prophet siiid : The Almighty God ordered an angel : Throw this place upside down upon its inhabitants. A man said : 0 Lord, there is a certain servant of Three in this place. He did not commit a single sin for a moment. He said : Throw this place on that man and those people, as he did not turn his face to them even for a moment.

The Prophet said: God sent punishments on the inhabitants of a place which numbered eighteen thousands. Their worship was like the worship of the Prophets. The companions asked : 0 Messenger of God, wy has it occurred ? He said : They did not express anger for the sake of God did not enjoin (hem good and prohibit them evil Moses once asked qod : '0 Lord, who is dearest to Thee ? He said : That servant who humbly comes towards My will as a vulture rushes towards its object, that servant who remains ready to help My pious servants in such a way just as a suckling child keeps attached to its mother's breast and that servant who gets angry when an unlawful thing corners to him in such a way just as a leopard does not care when angry whether the people are many or few. It appears that the merits of enjoining good or forbidding evil are great in the face of such great dangers.

Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq asked: 0 Messenger of God, is there any Jihad except Jihad with the unbelievers ? The Prophet said : Yes. 0 Abu Bakr, the Mujahids in the way of God are. better than the martys. They are given provision and they are alive. They roam about in the world and God praises them before the angels. Paradise has been adorned for them. Hazrat Abu Bakr asked : 0 Messenger of God, who are they ? He said They enjoin good and forbid evil, love one another for the sake of God and give up hatred for one another for the sake of God. Then he said : By One in whose hand there is my life, one of them will live in such palace which is placed above all other palaces and above all the palaces of the martyrs. That palace will have three lac doers. Each door is most valuable and made of emeralds and jewels of green colour and every door will have light. In that palace, he will have three lac Hurs who will look with askance eye : Whenever any Hur who will look at a person he will say : Do you remember such and such a day when you enjoined good and forbade evil ?

٢:١٨٤Hazrat Abu Obaidah said: I asked : 0 Prophet of God, who is the most honourable near God among the martyrs ? He said : The martyr who stands before a tyrant ruler and enjoins him to do good and prohibit evil and for which he is killed. If the tyrant ruler does not kill him, pen will be shut up for him til he lives. The Prophet said : The greatest martyr among my follows will be that person who, standing before a tyrant ruler, enjoins him to do good and prohibits evils as a result of which the ruler kills him. His place will be between Hamaza and Ja'far. Hazrat Omar said I heard the Prophet say : Those persons of the present age are bad who do not do justice and who do not enjoined good and prohibit evil.

WISE SAYINGS

Hazrat Abu Darda said You shall enjoin good and prohibit evil, or else God will place over you such a tyrant ruler who will not show honour to your elders and show kindness to your juniors. The religious men among you will pray against them but God will not accept their prayer. They will seek help against them but they will not be helped. They will seek forgiveness but they will not be forgiven. God revealed to the Prophet Usha-b-Nun : I will destroy from your followers forty thousand religious men and sixty thousand sinners . He said : 0 Lord, I have understood the reason of the destruction of the sinners, but what is the fault of the religious men ? He said : They were not dissatisfied with them when I remained satisfied and they used to take their meals with the sinners. Hazrat Ali said . The Jihad which begins before you are the Jihad which beings before you are the Jihads of your hands and then the Jihad of your tongue and then'the Jihad of your heart. When your heart does not enjoin good and prohibit evil, it becomes enveloped with darkness and its upper portion goes towards its lower portion.

SECTION 2

DUTIES OF ENJOINING GOOD AND PROHIBITING EVIL

There are four head of this matter-(1) one who prevents sins, (2) one who commit sins, (3) the sin which is prevented, (4) and the mode of prevention of sin, Each head has got rules and condition.

٢:١٨٥(1) One who prevents sins. One who prohibits evils must have some qualifications. He must be wise and must have strength and ability to do the sama. An insaneman, an unbeliever and disqualified man go out of this rule and are unfit to prohibit evils. The ordinary people also are unfit for it unless they get orders from the rulers. A slaves, a woman and a transgressor are unfit to perform their function. (a) So one must be mature of age and wise. (b) He must be a believer. He who disbelieves the basis of religion is not fit for this purpose (c) He must have sense of justice. God says : Do you enjoin men to do good and forget it for yourselves ? God says : It is a most reprehensible thing to God that you say what you do not do. The Prophet said : While passing by a party of men in the night of ascention to heaven. I saw that their lips were cut by the scissors of fire. I asked : Who are you ? They said : We used to enjoin good, but we ourselves used not to do it. We used to prohibit evils, but we ourselves used to do them. God revealed to Jesus Christ. Give advice first to yourself. When you follow that advice, give advice to others said that it is lawful of a great sinner to enjoin good and forbid evil.

FIVE STAGES

There are five stages of enjoining good and forbidding evil, (1) The first stage is giving simple advice, (2) the second stage is to give sermon with sweet words. (3) the third stage is to abuse and mere out harsh treatment, (4) the fourth stage is to apply force and prevent one from doing a sinful, act, such as to throw wine from its pot,to snatch away dress of silk and stolen articles and to return them to rightful owner and (5) the fifth stage is to assault, beat and threaten one from doing a sinful act Except in the fifth stage man is not required to obtain permission of the authorities to do such works in the four stages.

SOME EXAMPLES OF GIVING ADVICE TO THE RULERS

(a) Once Caliph Merwan-b-Hakam was delivering sermon before I'd prayer. A man said to him Sermon is generally held after I'd prayer. Merwan said to him : Leave this word. He said The. Prophet said : If anyone of you sees a bad thing, let him prevent it by his hand. If he.cannot do it, let him prohibit him by this tongue. If cannot do it also let him cherish hatred for it in his ٢:١٨٦mind. This is the weakest faith. The rulers are also included in this advice. (b) Once Caliph Mehdhi came to Mecca and stayed there for many days. At the time of Tawaf of the Ka'ba it was cleared of the public. One Abdullah-b-Mazruq jumped up and said to the Caliph : Look at what you are doing. Who ha. given you more right regarding the Ka'ba than that of one who comes from a distant place. God says : The man who stays therein and the man who comes from a distant place are all. equal who has given you power to drive out the people ? The Caliph recognized him as one of his officers and brought him to Bagdad after arrest and confined him in a stable. His men tied him with a horse for killing him. God subdued the horse to him. Baffled at this, they locked him in a room with the key in Caliph's hand. Three days after this, he was found to the amazement of all eating vegetables in a garden. He was taken to the Caliph and asked : Who has taken you out of this room ? The Caliph raised aloud his cry and asked him Don't you fear that I can kill you ? He was laughing and said : I would have feared you if you would have been the owner of life an death. Afterwards he remained in jail upto the death of Mehdi. when he was released afterwafds, he went to Mecca and sacrificed one'hundred camels to fulfil the vow of his release.

(3) The following story has been narrated by Habban-bAbdullah. While travelling in a certain place with one Solaiman, Caliph Harun Rashid said : You have got -a beautiful singing female slave. Tell her to sing before me. When she came the Caliph told him to bring musical instrument. When he was taking it to the Caliph, he met a hermit on the way. The hermit took the instrument and broke it into pieces. The man complained about it to the Caliph who called the hermit out of anger. When the hermit entered the Caliph's darbar with a bag of small pebbles, the Caliph asked him why he had broken the musical instrument. The hermit said : I heard your father and his predecessors to recite this verse on the pulpit: God orders you to do justice, to show kindness, to give charity to the near relatives and prohibits you from evils and rebellion, I saw evil and broke the musical instrument to pieces. The Caliph remained silent and allowed the hermit to go. When the hermit went away out of the Caliph's darbar, the latter gave a purse of money to a man and said : Follow this hermit. If you hear him say : I have told the Caliph such and such, don't give it to him. If you find him silent, ٢:١٨٧give it to him. When the hermit went out, he went to the place of date-stones and remained silent. The man gave the purse to him.,-, The hermit said to the man : Tell the Commander of the faithful to return the money wherefrom he took it. Then he began to pick up date-stones and recite the following poems:

'I see the worldly addicted engrossed in anxieties, Along with the increase of their wealth, sorrows increase The world gives to the honourable troubles and disgrace, It gives him who submits to it an honourable place, Give up what is useless to you and unnecessary, And take to what is to you absolutely necessary.

(4) The sage Sufiyan Saori said : Caliph Mehdi once went on a pilgrimage in 166 Hijri. I found him at Jamrah Aqabah to throw stones and then the people were pushed back on all sides by sticks. I waited there for sometime and said to the Caliph : Oman having beautiful face, I heard the narrator say this Hadis : I saw the Messenger of God on the Day of sacrifice to throw stones here in which there was no beating no driving out of the people, no assault by sticks and in which it was not said : Go back all around " . Put you are driving the people from left, right and front. The Caliph asked : Who is the man He was told that he was Sufiyan Saori The. Caliph said : 0 Sufiyan, had there been Caliph Mansur, you would not have dared to say this . He said : If you has seen the disasters that fell on Caliph Mansure, the condition wherein you are now would have been less.

(5) Once a man was found enjoining good and forbidding evil without permission of the Caliph Mamun. When the man was brought before the Caliph he said : 0 Commander of the faithful, we help you in your task : God said : The believing men and women are friends to one another. They enjoin good etc. The Prophet also said : A believer in relation to another is like a building one portion of which strengthens the other. Hearing this, the Caliph became pleased with him and said : You are a fit person to undertaken this task.

(6) One who gives advice should have strength and power. He who is unable to undertake this task should entertain hatred for sinful acts. Inability here means to fear injury and harm from the person to whom advice is given. God says : Don't meet destruction by your own hands. There are three kinds of sin-(1) ٢:١٨٨tnajrr sin for which there are prescribed punishments in the Quran and to prevent them is compulsory ; (2) such sins which are done continuously, such as wine drinking, wearing silk dresses, using cups of gold and silver and to prevent them is compulsory : (3) and such sins which are expected to be committed in future. There are four conditions for prevention of these evils. The first condition is that it must be an evil action in the eye of Shariat and it must be unlawful. The second condition is that it is to be prevented in the course of it commission. If a man has finished drinking wine, it is not applicable in the case except by way of advice. (3) The third condition is that it must be known to the man preventing it as a sinful act without enquiry. If a man commits a sin after closing the door of his house, to enquire about it secretly is not lawful. Once Hazrat Omar secretly entered a house and found a man committing a sinful act. The man said on being asked : If I have committed one sin. You have committed three sins. Being asked about them, has said: God says: Don't spy into the secrets of another but you have done it. Don't enter the houses by their backs-you have come after overriding the wall. God says : Don't enter a house except with permission of the owner and without salutation-you have neither taken permission, nor saluted its inmates. After this, Hazrat Omar let him off after imposing on him the condition of repentance. (4) The fourth condition is that the evil must be known to be evil without efforts. If otherwise, there is no forbidding of evil. These relate of the minor details of different sects. One sect gives opinion that a particular act like eating lizard is an evil, while according to another sect. It is not an evil.

THIRD MODE THE MAN WHO SHOULD BE PREVENTED FROM SIN

The sin which should be prevented must be such as is fit to be prevented according to Shariat. If a man is seen drinking wine, he should be prevented from drinking it and it is compulsory. So is the case of a mad man if seen to commit adultery with a woman. If a man is seen damaging the crops of another, he should be prevented from doing it for two reason, first to fulfill the duty towards God and secondly towards the man wronged. The law of a lost thing found is that if it is susceptible of damage, one is not bound to take it. k+

٢:١٨٩FOURTH MATTER MODES OF PREVENTION OF SIN

Know, 0 dear readers, that there are different modes of prevention of sins in different stages. The first stage is to know the condition of the sinner, the second stage is to inform him of the harm of sin, the third stage is to prevent him from doing the sinful act the fourth stage is to advise him, and give him admonition the fifth stage is to rebuke him and use harsh words, the sixth stages is to apply force, the seventh stage is to give him threat of beating, the eight stage is to actually beat him the ninth stage is to use weapons against him and the tenth stage is to fight against him with followers and soldiers.

(1) The First stage. To spy into the secrets of a sinner is prohibited. So one should not enquire what is occurring in a house. But if anyone informs you that a certain man in drinking or wine doing some unlawful act, it then becomes you duty to prevent it so the first thing is to enquire about the condition of the sinner.

(2) The second stage is to inform the sinner that he is committing or going to commit a sin. Many men do sinful acts out of ignorance. If warning is given, they may themselves desist from the sinful acts. For instance an illiterate man observes his prayer but does not bow and prostrate well or prays with unclean cloth. Had he known them, he would not have prayed thus.. Man is not born learned. Learning shall have to be acquired.

(3) The third stage is to prohibit a sinner by sermon, admonition and showing fear of God. If a man commits sir after knowing it to be a sin, he should be given sermon and shown fear of God's punishment. He should be informed of the traditions of the Prophet which deal with punishment of the crime. The Muslims are like one soul and so the destructive faults should be removed from the soul. One who gives advice should take precaution whether he himself is free from that vice. He should then remember what God said to Jesus Christ. 0 son of Mary, first take advicq to yourself. If you obey it, then give advice to the people or elf you will become ashamed of Me. Once a man asked the sage Daud Tai about the condition of a person who enjoins good and forbids evil to a ruler or a man in power. He said : I fear whipping by him. The man said : If the person can ٢:١٩٠bear it? He said: I fear death . The man said: If he can bear it? He said : I fear for him self-praise begotten by praise of the people.

(4) The Fourth stage is a abuse and using harsh words. If there is good result in the use of soft words with the wrong doer, harsh words should not he resorted to. When it fails, then use harsh words and abuse him . This is like the words of Prophet Abraham : Woe to you and what you worship except God. Use such words to him: 0 fool, don't you fear God. 0 sinner, 0 ignorant man. This wise man is he who has been described by the Prophet in the following words : The wise man is he who humbles himself and acts for what is after death and the fool is he who follows low desires and hopes for forgivesness of God. There are two rules in this stage. (1). Don't abuse except When necessary and use harsh words when necessary. If appreciable result is not seen by the measure, express anger by turning away from him.