We seek a guiding word for the callers to Allah, especially after a group has appeared in some countries calling itself the Group of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil?

The questioner : The second question: We ask you, may Allah reward you, for advice to the youth, particularly regarding some methodologies of calling to Allah the Exalted. The youth possess great strength and wish to expend that strength in the path of pleasing Allah the Exalted. However, they may not know the paths that lead them to the pleasure of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. A group has appeared in our country that named itself the Group of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil. The work of this group is to go, for example, to a tavern and forbid its owner; if he does not stop, they break everything. We seek a word regarding the organization of collective work. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He misleads, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, my advice to our Muslim brothers, the youth in all parts of the Islamic lands, is two things. The first is that they should turn to understanding the religion of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, in light of the Book and the Sunnah, and that they should not hasten matters before their time. It has been said: "Whoever hastens a matter before its time is tested with its deprivation." We see today that these enthusiastic youth barely learn a little knowledge, and then they see themselves as having become the people of decision and binding, of enjoining and forbidding. As a result of the smallness of their knowledge, they do not properly perform some of the collective obligations, which are not individual obligations, such as enjoining good and forbidding evil. It is known in the Shari'ah that enjoining good and forbidding evil must also be done in a good manner, not in an evil manner. It is not part of enjoining good and forbidding evil that a major harm, greater than the benefit or the harm they seek to eliminate, results from it. If such a major harm results from enjoining good or forbidding evil, the scholars say that it is not permissible to proceed with such enjoining or forbidding. If they enjoin good, their enjoining must be in a good manner; if they forbid evil, their forbidding must also be in a good manner. The good manner is, without doubt, that which conforms to the Book and the Sunnah. It is established among the scholars that if a matter revolves between two harms, one greater than the other, the lesser is committed in order to avert the greater. Evidence for this is the story of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordering Aisha to pray in the Hajar when she saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) enter the interior of the Ka'bah and pray two rak'ahs in it. She, may Allah be pleased with her, wanted to follow her Prophet and enter the interior of the Ka'bah of her Lord. He said to her: . The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not change the construction of the Ka'bah as the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance had left it, which was shorter than the construction upon which Ibrahim (peace be upon him) had established its foundations. Nevertheless, the Messenger (peace be upon him) refrained from rebuilding the Ka'bah for fear that a fitnah would arise in some people, turning them away from much of their religion. If that is the case, and it is obligatory by the Shari'ah to enjoin good and forbid evil in a good manner, I see that it is obligatory for those who perform this duty—the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil—especially in some countries, or rather, there is no harm in saying in all Islamic countries that do not allow Muslim individuals to perform this hisbah and this duty, that they should limit their enjoining of good to what does not result in harm, whether that harm affects those who enjoin good and forbid evil or affects others who are enthusiastic for them or against them. Therefore, this picture I heard earlier, which is in your country, and I do not believe your country has become, in modern expression today, a democracy in the sense that it allows every individual to act according to what he sees as his freedom, and others also allow them to do what they wish. This is, without doubt, something that Arab states have not reached, nor have Western states, because this picture involves direct aggression against the sites and the violators of the sanctities of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. Therefore, we advise these youth to limit themselves, as long as the matter, unfortunately, does not allow the one who enjoins good and forbids evil to change the evil by the first rank, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) made the first of the three ranks in his well-known authentic saying: . There is no doubt that changing evil by hand has great and very beneficial effects in the Islamic society. But, unfortunately, our society today is not an Islamic society as long as the states do not rule by Islam in the violations and disputes that occur among Muslim individuals. We know by actual experience in the present age that such advancement or such boldness in changing evil by hand and breaking forbidden things in these countries in which we live today, which do not rule by the Shari'ah of Allah, results in the opposite of what the people of reform, the people of enjoining good and forbidding evil, desire. The result is that this enthusiasm will have its flame extinguished due to the state's opposition to these enthusiastic youth, such that they are forced in the end to remain in their place and not enjoin good, even if only with a good word. Therefore, I advise these youth in all Islamic countries to enjoin good in a manner that does not result in a major harm. This is what I have in answer to this question.