The Ruling on Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Your Eminence, may Allah preserve you, you stated that enjoining good and forbidding evil is a collective obligation, while others hold that it is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman to the extent of the knowledge and ability Allah has granted them. How do we reconcile these two views?
Answer:
There is no disagreement among scholars that it is a collective obligation, but it is obligatory upon the Muslim if no one else performs this duty, in which case it becomes an individual obligation for him. For example, if you are in a neighborhood or a community and you see an evil: you see a man raising a cup of intoxicants to drink, and someone gets ahead of you and forbids it, so the owner of the cup pours out his intoxicants and complies, saying, "May Allah reward you with good." Is there still a place for your forbidding? No, its place is gone; the evil has ceased. Or, you are walking with a companion and you see a man standing after the call to prayer, and he gets ahead of you and says, "My brother, fear Allah, the prayer, the prayer," so he walks and goes to the mosque. What remains of your forbidding? Was the objective achieved or not?
So, whoever says that it is an individual obligation means that it is an individual obligation when there is no one to forbid it. As for when someone forbids it and the danger is removed, it is a collective obligation, meaning: if those who suffice perform it, it drops from the rest. If they do not perform it, it becomes obligatory upon you: you are three who passed by an evil, and the two you consider better or stronger than you did not forbid it; it becomes obligatory upon you. If one of them forbids it, it does not become obligatory upon the rest if the danger is removed and the objective is achieved. But if the danger remains, the second, third, fourth, and fifth forbid it until the danger is removed.
So, whoever says that it is an obligation upon every Muslim means: it is an obligation upon every Muslim when there is no one who has performed this duty. That is what he intends, so there is no contradiction.
Your Eminence, may Allah preserve you, you stated that enjoining good and forbidding evil is a collective obligation, while others hold that it is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman to the extent of the knowledge and ability Allah has granted them. How do we reconcile these two views?
Answer:
There is no disagreement among scholars that it is a collective obligation, but it is obligatory upon the Muslim if no one else performs this duty, in which case it becomes an individual obligation for him. For example, if you are in a neighborhood or a community and you see an evil: you see a man raising a cup of intoxicants to drink, and someone gets ahead of you and forbids it, so the owner of the cup pours out his intoxicants and complies, saying, "May Allah reward you with good." Is there still a place for your forbidding? No, its place is gone; the evil has ceased. Or, you are walking with a companion and you see a man standing after the call to prayer, and he gets ahead of you and says, "My brother, fear Allah, the prayer, the prayer," so he walks and goes to the mosque. What remains of your forbidding? Was the objective achieved or not?
So, whoever says that it is an individual obligation means that it is an individual obligation when there is no one to forbid it. As for when someone forbids it and the danger is removed, it is a collective obligation, meaning: if those who suffice perform it, it drops from the rest. If they do not perform it, it becomes obligatory upon you: you are three who passed by an evil, and the two you consider better or stronger than you did not forbid it; it becomes obligatory upon you. If one of them forbids it, it does not become obligatory upon the rest if the danger is removed and the objective is achieved. But if the danger remains, the second, third, fourth, and fifth forbid it until the danger is removed.
So, whoever says that it is an obligation upon every Muslim means: it is an obligation upon every Muslim when there is no one who has performed this duty. That is what he intends, so there is no contradiction.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.