Enjoining good and forbidding wrong

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Enjoining good and forbidding wrong (Arabic: ٱلْأَمْرُ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَٱلنَّهْيُ عَنِ ٱلْمُنْكَرِ, romanized: al-amru bi-l-maʿrūfi wa-n-nahyu ʿani-l-munkari) are two important duties imposed by God in Islam as revealed in the Quran and Hadith.[1][2]

"The term that best helps us to understand the nature of Qurʾān ethical prescriptions is ma'ruf,[3] as it appears 38 times in slightly varying forms in the Qurʾān, and they are important because of the duties imposed on believers through these words also. Traditional commentators oppose the association of maʿrūf with its cognate urf, "custom."[4]

Although most common translations of the phrase is "good and evil", the words used by Islamic philosophy in determining good and evil discourses are ḥusn and qubh. In its most common usage, maʿrūf is "in accordance with the custom", while munkar, which has no place in the custom, as its opposite,[5] singular (nukr). In today's religious expression, maʿrūf sunnah (this concept was not different from custom in the beginning[6][7]), munkar is meant as bid’a. (a related topic: Istihsan)

Some jurists classified human behavior (Ahkam) and linked the definition of good and evil to this classification.[8] In theory, what Allah sees as good is good, and what Allah sees as bad is bad. However, this classification reflected their interpretation and understandings on sharia.[Note 1]

This expression is the base of the classical Islamic institution of ḥisba, the individual or collective duty (depending on the Islamic school of law) to intervene and enforce Islamic law. It forms a central part of the Islamic doctrine for Muslims. The injunctions also constitute two of the ten Ancillaries of the Faith of Twelver Shi'ism.[13][14][15][16]

Pre-modern Islamic literature describes pious Muslims (usually scholars) taking action to forbid wrong by destroying forbidden objects, particularly liquor and those who had the view that certain types of musical instruments are haram.[17] In the contemporary Muslim world, various state or parastatal bodies (often with phrases like the "Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" in their titles) have appeared in Iran, Saudi Arabia,[18] Nigeria, Sudan, Malaysia, etc., at various times and with various levels of power,[19] to combat sinful activities and compel virtuous ones. However, Saudi authorities have recently made it clear that men and women can co-exist in public areas in Islam. They paved the way by organizing concert and sports events open for the public.[20]

  1. ^ Rahim, MBE, Husein A; Sheriff, Ali Mohamedjaffer (1993). Guidance From Qur'an. Mombasa: Khoja Shia Ithna-asheri Supreme Council. pp. 102–104.
  2. ^ Sultan, Sohaib (2004). The Koran For Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc. pp. 238–240, 246–247. ISBN 9780764555817.
  3. ^ Reinhart, A. Kevin (July 2017). "What We Know about Maʿrūf". Journal of Islamic Ethics. 1 (1–2): 51–82. doi:10.1163/24685542-12340004.
  4. ^ Hazratji, Z (September 2020). "The Application of ʻUrf in Islamic Law with Regard to Hijāb" (PDF). Astrolabe: A CIS Student Research Journal.
  5. ^ https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6896913.pdf” [bare URL]
  6. ^ Juynboll, G. H. A. (1997). "Sunna". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Brill. pp. 878–879.
  7. ^ Hameed, Shahul (24 November 2014). "Why Hadith is Important". OnIslam.net. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  8. ^ Islam has classified the values vis-a-vis the ahkams into two categories: an action or thing is considered to be bad (qabih) if it falls within the categories of makruh or haram. Those actions and things falling within the remaining three categories of mubah, mustahabb and halal are said to be good {hasan).https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/10064
  9. ^ "Allah the almighty creates seventy angels from every drop of bath water of a man who takes a bath after mut'a, and these angels pray for forgiveness for him until the day of judgment and curse those who deny mut'a until the day of judgment."Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni Furūʿ al-Kāfī v:5, p.452
  10. ^ Al-Bukhari, 3979
  11. ^ O people, I had permitted you to contract temporary marriage with women, but Allah has forbidden it (now) until the Day of Resurrection. So he who has any (woman with this type of marriage contract) he should let her off, and do not take back anything you have given to them (as dower).https://sunnah.com/muslim:1406d
  12. ^ "The Legitimacy of Mut'a". 27 September 2012.
  13. ^ Momen (1987), p.180
  14. ^ Momem (1987), p.178
  15. ^ "Pillars of Islam". Britannica. 23 June 2023.
  16. ^ Momem (1987), p.176
  17. ^ Cook, Forbidding Wrong, p.31
  18. ^ "Cats and dogs banned by Saudi religious police", NBC News, 18 December 2006.
  19. ^ Thielmann, Jörn (2017). "Ḥisba (modern times)". In Kate Fleet; Gudrun Krämer; Denis Matringe; John Nawas; Everett Rowson (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30485.
  20. ^ https://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/travel-and-tourism/2017/04/08/Saudi-Arabia-plans-on-building-its-largest-cultural-sports-and-recreation-city.html [bare URL]


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