Forbidding Evil: Between a Collective Obligation and an Individual Obligation
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Your Eminence the Shaykh! The capabilities of the Committees for Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Evil are far less than what is possible. A visible evil is present; is the collective obligation (fard kifayah) still the ruling in this matter, or is it an individual obligation (fard 'ayn)?
Answer:
The Committee has its duty, and the rest of the Muslims have their duty. The Committee is what preserves the obligation now, because it cannot carry out every duty. The state has promised, and may Allah keep it safe, to care for it, encourage it, and increase its numbers. We ask Allah to help the state in that, to guide the Committee to what is obligatory upon it, and to help it in all good. But in any case, the existence of the Committee, even if it is widespread in every place, is not sufficient if a person sees an evil that he can denounce with his tongue. As for denouncing with his hand, he refers it to one who is able to denounce with his hand; he reports it to one who is able to denounce with his hand, unless it is in his household, or he is able to do it because he is from the Committee, or because he is an amir (authority) with jurisdiction, or the like. So fear Allah as much as you are able. Denouncing evil is sometimes a collective obligation and sometimes an individual obligation. It is a collective obligation when someone is required to take its place; for example, if in your village or tribe there is a group where some of them denounce the evil, that is sufficient for you. In fact, if they have carried out the duty, it becomes a recommended practice (sunnah) for you because you have been relieved of the burden. But if there is no one else in the tribe or village, it is obligatory upon you specifically; it is an individual obligation for you to carry out the denunciation of the evil, because there is no one else. You are the responsible one, you are the scholar responsible in the village or the tribe, you are the responsible one and you are the one who knows the rulings of Allah. So the obligation upon you is an individual obligation to denounce the evil and enjoin what is right. Yes.
Your Eminence the Shaykh! The capabilities of the Committees for Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Evil are far less than what is possible. A visible evil is present; is the collective obligation (fard kifayah) still the ruling in this matter, or is it an individual obligation (fard 'ayn)?
Answer:
The Committee has its duty, and the rest of the Muslims have their duty. The Committee is what preserves the obligation now, because it cannot carry out every duty. The state has promised, and may Allah keep it safe, to care for it, encourage it, and increase its numbers. We ask Allah to help the state in that, to guide the Committee to what is obligatory upon it, and to help it in all good. But in any case, the existence of the Committee, even if it is widespread in every place, is not sufficient if a person sees an evil that he can denounce with his tongue. As for denouncing with his hand, he refers it to one who is able to denounce with his hand; he reports it to one who is able to denounce with his hand, unless it is in his household, or he is able to do it because he is from the Committee, or because he is an amir (authority) with jurisdiction, or the like. So fear Allah as much as you are able. Denouncing evil is sometimes a collective obligation and sometimes an individual obligation. It is a collective obligation when someone is required to take its place; for example, if in your village or tribe there is a group where some of them denounce the evil, that is sufficient for you. In fact, if they have carried out the duty, it becomes a recommended practice (sunnah) for you because you have been relieved of the burden. But if there is no one else in the tribe or village, it is obligatory upon you specifically; it is an individual obligation for you to carry out the denunciation of the evil, because there is no one else. You are the responsible one, you are the scholar responsible in the village or the tribe, you are the responsible one and you are the one who knows the rulings of Allah. So the obligation upon you is an individual obligation to denounce the evil and enjoin what is right. Yes.
Source
فتاوى الحج 1410 هـ - 5 — archive.org (1:14:20)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.