Carrying out the punishments prescribed by Allah on whoever transgresses the bounds of the shari'a is a part of prohibiting wrong. It is obligatory upon those in authority (Uluu-ul-amr) i.e. the scholars from each group or nation, and their amirs, and their elders, to stand over the general population enjoining good and prohibiting wrong, thus ordering them with all that which Allah and His Prophet have enjoined. For example, the rulings of Islamic Law (Shari'a) e.g. the five prayers in their proper time periods, obligatory alms, obligatory fasting, and pilgrimage to Makka. Also, belief in Allah, His angels, His revealed books, His prophets, and the Judgement Day, belief in the pre-destination of all things the good and the bad, and the concept of ihsaan (the highest level of iman or faith) which means to worship Allah as if you see Him for, verily, even if you do not see Him, He always sees you. Moreover, the good (ma'ruf) includes everything both internal and external which has been enjoined by Allah and His Prophet. These include: absolute sincerity to Allah (ikhlaas), dependance on Allah (tawakkal), that Allah and His Prophet be more beloved to the believer than anyone else, hope for Allah's mercy and fear of His punishment, patience with the decree of Allah and complete surrender to His order, truthfulness of speech, fulfilling of obligations, returning trusts to their owners, good behavior toward parents, maintaining of family ties, cooperation in all acts of righteousness and good, benevolence and generosity toward one's neighbors, orphans, poor people, stranded travellers, companions, spouses, and servants, justice and fairness in speech and actions, calling people to good character, and acts of forbearance such as establishing relations with those who cut you off, giving those who deny you, and forgiving those who oppress you. Enjoining people to be close together and cooperative, and forbidding them differing and dividing themselves is also a part of enjoining what is right.
As for the bad (munkar) which Allah and His prophet have forbidden, its ultimate and worst form is the association of partners with Allah. Associationism means to pray to someone or something else along with Allah. This partner could be the sun, the moon, stars or planets, an angel, one of the prophets, a righteous man or saint, one of the jinn, images or graves of any of these, or anything else which is called to other than Allah the Exalted. Associationism is also to seek aid or succor from any of the above, or to prostrate to them. All of this and anything like it is the associationism (shirk) forbidden by Allah on the tongues of all of His prophets.
Everything which Allah has forbidden is also part of the munkar such as unjustified killing, taking people's property by unlawful means, taking of property by force or intimidation, interest, or gambling, all types of sales or contracts which the Prophet has prohibited, breaking of family ties, cruelty to parents, cheating in weights and measures, and any form of transgression on the rights of others. Also in this category are all innovated acts of "worship" which Allah and His prophet have not ordained or sanctioned.
Friendliness and sympathy are the correct way in enjoining right and forbidding wrong. For this reason, it has been said: "Let your enjoining of good be good, and let not your forbidding of bad be bad."
Enjoining right and forbidding wrong being one of the greatest obligations or commendable acts in Islam, it is essential that the benefit therein outweigh its negative consequences. This is the general spirit of the messages of the prophets and the revealed books, and Allah does not like chaos and corruption. All that which Allah has enjoined is beneficial, and the epitome of benefit. Allah has praised "salah" (the opposite of corruption) and the "musliheen" (reformers, or those who bring about salah). And He has praised those who believe and do good works (saalihaat), while condemning corruption (fasaad) and those who cause it in many places in the Qur'an. Thus whenever the adverse effects (mafsada) of any act of enjoining or forbidding are greater than its benefit (maslaha), it is no longer part of what Allah has enjoined upon us, even if it be a case of neglecting obligations or committing the forbidden. This is because it is upon the believer to fear Allah in relation to His slaves, and their guidance is not his responsibility. This is part of the meaning of the verse in which Allah says:
[O, you who believe, your selves are your responsibility, those who go astray will not harm you when you stick to guidance.]
"Sticking to guidance" is only accomplished by fulfilling and carrying out all obligations. Thus, when a Muslim does what is obligatory upon him by way of enjoining right and forbidding wrong, just as he fulfilled all other obligations, the going astray of those who go astray will not do him any harm.
Enjoining right and forbidding wrong is done sometimes with the heart, sometimes with the tongue, and sometimes with the hand (i.e. physical force). As for practicing it with the heart, it is obligatory upon everyone in every time and situation, since its practice brings no hardship. whoever fails to do even that is not even a believer as in the full version of the previously cited hadith:
"Whoever of you sees wrong being committed, let him rectify it with his hand, if he is unable, then with his tongue, and if he us unable, then with his heart, and this is the weakest of faith -- or in another version: beyond this there is not a single mustard seed's weight of faith (iman).
Ibn Masood was once asked:
"Who are the living dead?"
to which he replied:
"He who does not acknowledge the right as such, and does not reject the wrong."
He is referring to the person described in the following agreed-upon hadith who consistently failed to reject wrong when tested. The Prophet said:
"Tests are shown to the hearts like a straw mat, straw by straw. Whichever heart accepts them, and absorbs them, gets a black spot placed on it, and whichever heart rejects them, gets a white, clear spot on it. This goes on until the hearts are of two types: a heart which is white, smooth, and clear like a polished stone which will not be harmed by further trials or tests for as long as the heavens and the earth last, and another dark and blemished; it is like a hook turned over the wrong way on which nothing can be hung - it neither acknowledges what is right nor rejects what is wrong, except for that which happens to coincide with its lusts and inclinations with which this heart has become fully absorbed."
Two groups of people fall into error in this area:
One group leaves what is obligatory upon them in the area of enjoining right and forbidding wrong, clinging to an incorrect interpretation of the aya quoted previously:
[O, you who believe, your selves are your responsibility, those who go astray will not harm you when you stick to guidance.]
Abu Bakr once explained this error in a khutba saying:
"O people, verily you read this aya, and you apply it where it does not belong, for I heard the Prophet (sas) say: Verily when the people see the wrong-doer, and do not seize his hand, Allah is about to inflict them with a general punishment."
The second group desires to enjoin and forbid the people with their tongues and their hands absolutely and in all situations without sufficient knowledge of the shari'a, nor forbearance, nor patience, nor regard for that which is beneficial and that which has more harm than benefit and that which is possible and that which is not possible. This is as in the hadith narrated by Abu Tha'laba Al-Khushaniy:
"... rather enjoin on one another what is right and forbid what is wrong until you see obedience to greed and following of lusts and preoccupation with this world and the absolute fascination of each one with his own opinion, and when you see a situation over which you have no power, what is upon you then is your private affairs. For verily, the Days of Patience are coming; patience in those days is like squeezing a hot coal in your hand. The reward of one who fulfills all of his obligations in those days is equal to the reward of fifty such people today."
This group, then, enjoins and forbids believing that they are in obedience to Allah ta'ala when in reality they are transgressors of His boundaries. In this way, many of the deviant and misguided groups considered themselves to be enjoiners of right and forbidders of wrong such as the khawaarij, and the mu'tazilah, and the raafidha (Shi'a), and others of those who erred in understanding that which Allah gave them in terms of enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and fighting jihad, and other issues. The corruption caused by this kind of enjoining and forbidding is much greater than any good which may result.
For this reason, the Prophet ordered us to be patient when there is injustice on the part of the ruler of the Muslims, and forbad us to fight them, as long as they maintain the prayer, and he said:
"Give them what is due to them, and ask Allah what is due to you." (Muslim and others)
Thus, one of the basic principles of Ahl As-Sunnah Wa Al-Jamaa: loyalty to the larger group of the Muslim Ummah, not rebelling against its rulers, and keeping away from battles when chaos and fitna arises.
As for the deviant groups such as the mu'tazilah, they view fighting the Imams of the Muslims as one of the principles of their religion. The Mu'tazilah make the basis of their religion five principles: "Tauhid" - which in their terminology means the negation of all of Allah's names and characteristics, Divine Justice - which means the denying of the decree of Allah in all things, the station between the two stations - i.e. their erroneous theory that anyone who sins is no longer a believer and not quite a kafir, he is stuck somewhere in between, the carrying out of threats - taking literally the threats of punishment which Allah attaches to various sins in the Qur'an, and enjoining right and forbidding wrong - part of their theory here is warfare against the imams of the Muslims.
All of what we are saying comes under the general principle which says that when benefit and harm are mixed up together, and one must choose between doing good with some bad side effects, or leaving that good to avoid its bad side effects, it is obligatory to choose the course having the greater overall or net benefit. This is because enjoining and forbidding though they entail the attainment of some benefit, and the prevention of some harm, its opposite must also be considered. If, in carrying out this enjoining or forbidding, there is benefit lost greater than the benefit gained, or harm is brought about greater than the harm which was avoided, then this is not part of that which Allah has ordered us to do, rather it is haram, because of the fact that its net harm is greater than its net benefit.
The only criterion for measuring the above-mentioned harm and benefit is with the scales of the Shari'a. Whenever one is capable of following a text directly, it is not permitted for him to turn elsewhere. If he cannot find a text for the exact problem confronting him, he can exert his reason to understand the ruling by way of analogy. The legal texts are seldom without someone capable of knowing their implications, and how they point the way to the rulings of the shari'a.
Thus, if an individual or group constantly joins something right with something else wrong, and will not do one without the other, and will either do both of them together, or neither of them, it is not then allowed to enjoin on them the right nor to forbid them the wrong. First, the issue must be analyzed: If the good involved is greater, then they must be enjoined to do it, even if that necessitates the evil which is of lesser degree, and they are not to be forbidden the evil involved which would mean the loss of the good which is greater than it. In fact such a forbiddance in such a situation would be part of blocking the path of Allah (saddun 'an sabeeli 'llah) and would be striving for the eradication of obedience to Allah and to His Prophet (sas) and toward the elimination of the doing of good.
On the other hand, if the evil involved is greater, it must be forbidden, even though that means the loss of some good which is of lesser degree. In such a case, the enjoining of this good which brings with it an evil of greater degree is in fact enjoining evil, and striving in the path of disobedience to Allah and His Prophet (sas).
If the good and the evil which cannot be separated are of equal degree, both of them should neither be enjoined nor forbidden. Thus, in the case of some good and some evil which cannot be separated, sometimes what is demanded is enjoining the good, and sometimes forbidding the wrong, and sometimes neither this nor that. This is not a general rule, and applies only to specific situations of the type mentioned.
As for the general case, right must be enjoined absolutely, and evil forbidden absolutely. For the specific individual or group, its good must be enjoined, and its evil forbidden, its praiseworthy aspects praised, and its blameworthy aspects criticized in such a way that the enjoining of right does not include the loss of a good greater than itself nor the bringing about of an evil of greater degree, and the forbidding of evil does not involve the bringing about of a greater evil or the loss of a good of greater degree.
When the issue is unclear, the believer must strive to understand it until the truth becomes clear to him. He cannot undertake acts of obedience except with knowledge and correct intention. If he fails to do it, he is in disobedience to Allah. Neglecting what is obligatory is disobedience just as doing what has been forbidden in the area of enjoining right is also disobedience. This is a very wide and dangerous area, and there is no power and no strength except with the aid of Allah!
An example of this issue from the Sunnah is the Prophet (sas) leaving Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salool and others like him among the leaders of hypocrisy and corruption because of their many helpers and people loyal to them. The removing of their evil through punishment would have brought on the removal of other good of greater degree because of the anger of his tribe and the arousal of their tribalistic hostility against the Prophet and the Muslims. Also, this would have resulted in the repulsion of the people when they heard that the Prophet of Allah kills his companions. Thus when he spread among the people that which he spread in the slander against A'isha (May Allah be pleased with her) and then denied it, and when Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh spoke to him harshly as he deserved, and pointed out his hypocrisy, and then Sa'ad ibn Ubadah - though he was a believer and companion and righteous man - invoked his protection that Abdullah ibn Ubayy be left alone, the tribe of each of these two men gave their loyalty to the position of their tribesman until chaos and bloodshed nearly resulted.
This principle is that the love of a believer for what is good, and his hatred for what is evil, and his desire for the accomplishment of the good and his desire for the avoidance and prevention of evil should be in harmony with what Allah loves and hates. Allah loves all that He has enjoined upon us in His shari'a, and dislikes all that He has forbidden us in His shari'a. Furthermore, the action of the believer in that which he loves (the good), and his avoidance and opposition to that which he hates (the evil), must be to the extent of his ability and his strength, for verily, Allah does not demand from any of us more than what is within our ability. Allah says:
[Fear Allah (have taqwa of Allah) as much as you are able] Qur'an 64/16.
What is upon the believer in terms of his actions must not be confused with his obligations in terms of the actions of the heart. It is obligatory upon the believer for his hatred of evil and his love of good, and his desire to do good and his desire to oppose and avoid evil to be perfect, complete, and without doubt or hesitation. Any lack in this area is none other than a lack in faith (imaan). This is in contrast with the actions of his body which is only within the bounds of his ability.
When the will of the heart, its likes and dislikes are complete and perfect (i.e. in harmony with the love and hate of Allah ta'ala) and then the believer does of that all that is within his ability, he will be given the reward of one who carried out the orders of Allah perfectly. Some of the people have loves and hates which are not in harmony with the love of Allah and His Prophet and the hates of Allah and His Prophet, and this is a type of hawaa (the inclinations, lusts, or tendencies of the self). If he follows them, then he is a follower of hawaa. Allah said:
[And who is more astray than the one who follows his hawaa without any guidance from Allah?] Qur'an 28/50
The origin of hawaa is that which the self loves, and that which the self hates is a corollary of it.
The meaning of hawaa is the loving and the loathing which is in the self. It is not in and of itself blameworthy, since it is not under the control of the person, rather what is blameworthy is the following if these likes, desires and dislikes. Allah said to Dawood:
[O Dawood, we have made you a successor on the Earth, so rule between the people with the truth, and do not follow hawaa lest it lead you astray from the path of Allah.] Qur'an 38/26
And Allah said in another aya:
[And who is more astray than the one who follows his hawaa without guidance from Allah?] Qur'an 28/50
The Prophet (sas) tells us in the hadith:
"Three things which save: fear of Allah in public and private, moderation in poverty and in wealth, and speaking the truth when angry and when contented. And three things which lead to destruction: obedience to greed, following of hawaa, and a person's being pleased with himself."
The love and the hate of which we are speaking brings about certain "tastes" and feelings and desires in the presence of the loved or hated thing. Whoever follows these desires and feelings without an order from Allah and His Prophet, is the one described as the follower of his hawaa. In fact, this may even reach the level of shirk wherein he takes as his god his own hawaa! (See Qur`an 43/25)