Enjoining good and forbidding wrong

Enjoining good and forbidding wrong^[1]^[2] (Arabic: ٱلْأَمْرُ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَٱلنَّهْيُ عَنِ ٱلْمُنْكَرِ, romanized: al-amru bi-l-maʿrūfi wa-n-nahyu ʿani-l-munkari) are two important duties imposed by Allah in Islam, as revealed in the Quran and Hadith.^[1]

In the Quran, Ma'ruf is mentioned in 39 verses and Munkar is mentioned in 16 verses in various contexts, literally "Emr bil maruf, nehy an munkar" is mentioned 9 times. Ma'ruf and munkar are widely discussed because of the duties the Quran imposes on believers through these concepts. Ma'ruf is seen as a key word in moral understanding of the Quran, and traditional commentators oppose^[3] the association of ma'ruf with its cognate urf,^[4] meaning custom.

Although most common translations of the phrase is "good and evil", the words used by Islamic philosophy in determining good and evil discourses are "Husn" and "qubh". In its most common usage, Ma'ruf is "in accordance with the custom", while munkar, which has no place in the custom, as its opposite,^[5] singular (nükr). In today's religious expression, ma'ruf sunnah (this concept was not different from custom in the beginning^[6]^[7]), munkar is meant as bid'a. (a related topic: Istihsan)

This expression is the base of the classical Islamic institution of hisbah – the individual or collective duty (depending on the Islamic school of law) to intervene and enforce Islamic law. It forms a central part of the Islamic doctrine for Muslims. The injunctions also constitute two of the ten Ancillaries or Obligatory Acts of Twelver Shia Islam.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Some jurists classified human behavior according to their understanding of sharia^{[Note 1]} and made this ahkam understanding part of the "duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil".^[16] Thus, the definition of good and evil based on Islamic religious interpretations and understandings (fiqh and ahkam) meant, in theory that, what Allah sees as good is good, and what Allah sees as bad is bad. In modern times Islamic faith groups have formed task groups ranging from civil organizations (foundations, associations, political parties, etc.) that aim to achieve a social structure suitable for implementing this understanding and the full implementation of sharia in society, to terrorist organizations that consider it permissible to use force and violence against their opponents to achieve their goals.

Pre-modern Islamic literature describes pious Muslims (usually scholars) taking action to forbid wrong by destroying forbidden objects, particularly liquor and those who had the view that certain types of musical instruments are haram.^[17] In the contemporary Muslim world, various state or parastatal bodies (often with phrases like the "Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" in their titles) have appeared in Iran, Saudi Arabia,^[18] Nigeria, Sudan, Malaysia, etc., at various times and with various levels of power,^[19] to combat sinful activities and compel virtuous ones. However, Saudi authorities have recently made it clear that men and women can co-exist in public areas in Islam. They paved the way by organizing concert and sports events open for the public.^[20]

^ ^a ^b Rahim, MBE, Husein A; Sheriff, Ali Mohamedjaffer (1993). Guidance From Qur'an. Mombasa: Khoja Shia Ithna-asheri Supreme Council. pp. 102–104.
^ Sultan, Sohaib (2004). The Koran For Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc. pp. 238–240, 246–247. ISBN 9780764555817.
^ The term that best helps us to understand the nature of Qurʾān ethical prescriptions is maʿrūf, a word that appears repeatedly (in slightly varying forms) in the Qurʾān,.. / To link maʿruf to ʿurf, I think, falls too close to Levy’s condescending assertion that maʿrūf in the Qurʾān is an embrace of Jāhilī tribal values in which the familiar is good, the unfamiliar bad. https://brill.com/view/journals/jie/1/1-2/article-p51_4.xml
^ The word ʿurf and its derivative maʿrūf are used synonymously in the Qur’an… https://www.hbku.edu.qa/sites/default/files/theapplicationofurfinislamiclaw.pdf
^ https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6896913.pdf” ^{[bare URL]}
^ Juynboll, G. H. A. (1997). "Sunna". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Brill. pp. 878–879.
^ Hameed, Shahul (24 November 2014). "Why Hadith is Important". OnIslam.net. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
^ Momen (1987), p.180
^ Momem (1987), p.178
^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (23 June 2023). "Pillars of Islam". Britannica. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
^ Momem (1987), p.176
^ "Allah the almighty creates seventy angels from every drop of bath water of a man who takes a bath after mut'a, and these angels pray for forgiveness for him until the day of judgment and curse those who deny mut'a until the day of judgment."Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni Furūʿ al-Kāfī v:5, p.452
^ Al-Bukhari, 3979
^ O people, I had permitted you to contract temporary marriage with women, but Allah has forbidden it (now) until the Day of Resurrection. So he who has any (woman with this type of marriage contract) he should let her off, and do not take back anything you have given to them (as dower).https://sunnah.com/muslim:1406d
^ https://www.al-islam.org/muta-temporary-marriage-islamic-law-sachiko-murata/legitimacy-muta ^{[bare URL]}
^ Islam has classified the values vis-a-vis the ahkams into two categories: an action or thing is considered to be bad (qabih) if it falls within the categories of makruh or haram. Those actions and things falling within the remaining three categories of mubah, mustahabb and halal are said to be good {hasan).https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/10064
^ Cook, Forbidding Wrong, p.31
^ "Cats and dogs banned by Saudi religious police", NBC News, 18 December 2006.
^ Thielmann, Jörn (2017). "Ḥisba (modern times)". In Kate Fleet; Gudrun Krämer; Denis Matringe; John Nawas; Everett Rowson (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30485.
^ https://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/travel-and-tourism/2017/04/08/Saudi-Arabia-plans-on-building-its-largest-cultural-sports-and-recreation-city.html ^{[bare URL]}

Cite error: There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Note}} template (see the help page).

[GFQ-1] Rahim, MBE, Husein A; Sheriff, Ali Mohamedjaffer (1993). Guidance From Qur'an. Mombasa: Khoja Shia Ithna-asheri Supreme Council. pp. 102–104.

[TKFD-2] Sultan, Sohaib (2004). The Koran For Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc. pp. 238–240, 246–247. ISBN 9780764555817.

[3] The term that best helps us to understand the nature of Qurʾān ethical prescriptions is maʿrūf, a word that appears repeatedly (in slightly varying forms) in the Qurʾān,.. / To link maʿruf to ʿurf, I think, falls too close to Levy’s condescending assertion that maʿrūf in the Qurʾān is an embrace of Jāhilī tribal values in which the familiar is good, the unfamiliar bad. https://brill.com/view/journals/jie/1/1-2/article-p51_4.xml

[4] The word ʿurf and its derivative maʿrūf are used synonymously in the Qur’an… https://www.hbku.edu.qa/sites/default/files/theapplicationofurfinislamiclaw.pdf

[5] ttps://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6896913.pdf” ^{[bare URL]}

[Juynboll-6] Juynboll, G. H. A. (1997). "Sunna". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Brill. pp. 878–879.

[Hameed-7] Hameed, Shahul (24 November 2014). "Why Hadith is Important". OnIslam.net. Retrieved 2 September 2015.

[Momen_1987,_p.180-8] Momen (1987), p.180

[9] Momem (1987), p.178

[Britannica-10] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (23 June 2023). "Pillars of Islam". Britannica. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)

[11] Momem (1987), p.176

[12] "Allah the almighty creates seventy angels from every drop of bath water of a man who takes a bath after mut'a, and these angels pray for forgiveness for him until the day of judgment and curse those who deny mut'a until the day of judgment."Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni Furūʿ al-Kāfī v:5, p.452

[13] Al-Bukhari, 3979

[14] O people, I had permitted you to contract temporary marriage with women, but Allah has forbidden it (now) until the Day of Resurrection. So he who has any (woman with this type of marriage contract) he should let her off, and do not take back anything you have given to them (as dower).https://sunnah.com/muslim:1406d

[15] ttps://www.al-islam.org/muta-temporary-marriage-islamic-law-sachiko-murata/legitimacy-muta ^{[bare URL]}

[17] Islam has classified the values vis-a-vis the ahkams into two categories: an action or thing is considered to be bad (qabih) if it falls within the categories of makruh or haram. Those actions and things falling within the remaining three categories of mubah, mustahabb and halal are said to be good {hasan).https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/10064

[Cook-31-18] Cook, Forbidding Wrong, p.31

[nbc-cats-19] "Cats and dogs banned by Saudi religious police", NBC News, 18 December 2006.

[EI3-20] Thielmann, Jörn (2017). "Ḥisba (modern times)". In Kate Fleet; Gudrun Krämer; Denis Matringe; John Nawas; Everett Rowson (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30485.

[21] ttps://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/travel-and-tourism/2017/04/08/Saudi-Arabia-plans-on-building-its-largest-cultural-sports-and-recreation-city.html ^{[bare URL]}

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