Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil: Between Speech and Example

Question:
Do you think that enjoining good and forbidding evil is sufficient to eliminate evil? I mean that the extensive speech we hear in sermons and other settings in the mosques is not sufficient unless there is a righteous role model and practical application by the scholars and those working in the fields of da'wah (calling others to Islam), so that people may know the truth. What is your Eminence's comment?

Answer:
There are many ways to remove evil, but calling to Allah, enjoining good, and forbidding evil are among them. Perhaps Allah will guide by this whom He wills. Among these is good conduct: the one who enjoins and forbids should adopt noble character and distance himself from what Allah has forbidden. The head of the household should conduct himself according to the Shari'ah manners and be a good example. The husband should be a good example, and the father should be a good example for his other brothers, and so on. The members of the committee, and so on, the one who enjoins and forbids, they seek out good, follow the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), hasten to good deeds, and compete in good deeds. All of this is among the greatest causes for the success of enjoining good, in the sense that it is.
And so, the deterrent of authority is obtained from the rulers if the one who enjoins and forbids is unable to do so. The rulers support him by striking the corrupters and punishing them with imprisonment, striking, banishment, and other forms of discretionary punishment. Allah holds back by authority what He does not hold back by the Qur'an, as 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said.
Therefore, these matters must cooperate and support one another, and one does not suffice in place of the other. Each one is a part of the obligation, a part of the causes of reform, and a part of the causes of good, but it is not sufficient on its own. Rather, cooperation is necessary in this great matter, from the specialists and the general public. Good conduct is necessary from the one who enjoins and forbids, the head of the household, and the rulers. The deterrent is necessary: the fixed punishments are established for those who commit evil, and discretionary punishments are established for those who commit evil, according to what the ruler sees and what the courts see in deterrent discretionary punishment if the sin is below the threshold of a fixed punishment. In any case, cooperation is necessary among the judges, the scholars, the rulers, and all those who enjoin and forbid in this matter from every angle and every path that helps to conceal vice and to manifest the truth.