INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA

UNGS 2050 ETHICS AND FIQH FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

MUHAMMAD RUSLAN BIN ASHAARI
1217459 || SECTION 04

REPORT ON ENJOINING VIRTUES AND FORBIDDING EVIL
(AL-AMRU BI AL-MARUF WA AL-NAHYU AN AL-MUNKAR)

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] [
On the authority of Abu Said al-Khudri (R.A.) who said: I heard the messenger of Allah (Peace Be
Upon Him) saying:
He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and
if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not
strength enough to do it, even then he should abhor it from his heart, and that is the least of
faith.
Hadith by Muslim

Enjoining virtues or goods and forbidding evils is never be separated from the life of a true
Muslim.

Definition
Al-Amr means to invite to, to encourage, to spread, while al-Maruf means acceptable, virtue or
goodness. Al-Amru bi al-Maruf means inviting people to do goodness and spreading and promoting
virtues, in other word, that is dawah, advice.
Al-Nahy means to discourage, to prevent, and to advice not to do something, while Al-Munkar means
disagreeable, evil or vice. Al-Nahyu an al-Munkar means to discourage or to advice not to do evil or
to prevent from indecency.
In other word, enjoining goods and forbidding evils. But which goods are good? Which evils are evil?
How to do it? Who should do it? What is the significance of doing it?
Whose duty?
The duty of enjoining goods and forbidding evils is the individual and community duties of Muslims. It
is fardh al-kifayah for Muslims to do, based on the verse from the Quran;



And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining
what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful.
Ali Imran (104)
All Muslims, is not escaped from the duty to ask for the goods and preventing the harm.

Ways of Enjoining Goods and Forbidding Evils
There is so many ways to do this, such as by being a model of Islamic moral and values. In the
era of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the good akhlak perform by the prophet always
attracting the non-muslims to become interested in Islam. The Prophet is well-known and being
called as Al-Amin means The Trustworthy even before he become the prophet. There is so many
seerah that told how the musyrikin Mecca embraces Islam after seeing the good akhlak shows by the
Prophet and the Companions.
This can also be done through verbal, by spreading words and advices. Prophet Muhammad
(Peace Be Upon Him) has said; Convey from me even one ayah. As an example, Prophet
Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has forbidding a man who want to do zina by asking him if his
relatives make such indecent acts, is he will feels nothing? Then, the man answer that he dislike if his
relatives doing so and promise not to do such immoral act.
Another way of enjoining goods and forbidding evils is by writing. Nowadays, we can write in
newspaper, magazine, books, novels, cartoons and else. How about we write something that
encourages people to do good things and prevent them for doing harm? That also considered
enjoining goods and forbidding evils.
Another ways is by media. All programmes that promote virtues and goodness, and combat
evil and indecency. In this technology era, media is one of the most popular and important means to
the society. The Muslims will be lost if they cant fully utilise the media as away to promote goods
and forbidding harms.

Against Personal Freedom?
Often when we try to advice someone, they reply with; Mind your own business!. Is enjoining
goods and forbidding evils against the personal freedom of someone?
Islam does allow constructive interference in personal affairs of others. Furthermore, what if the
personal affairs are violating the rights of Allah, society and individuals? It is no longer a personal
freedom when you are violating the rights of others, when you injure others feelings, when you
commit indecency (munkar) openly and when you encourage people to do devil. If you done one of
this, you are not playing with your personal business anymore.

Practising Dakwah
There are so many ways in enjoining goods and forbidding evils. But in order to make the subjects
realise what he is doing, it should be practised in an impressive and convincing manner. Allah has
told in the Quran to invite the subjects in the best way and wisdom, so that the subjects may not feel
offended and lead to a greater evil.
As the one who preach good deeds and forbidding evils, we must avoid words-deeds
inconcistency. It may make the subjects feels like, Who are you to advice us?. Is someone who
committing sins are wise to advice someone else to stop doing the same sins that he or she does? Of
course the one who being adviced will feels irritated and disobey the advices. This is not uncommon
nowadays when a preacher spreads lies that he or she doesnt do it herself. May Allah take care of us
from this acts.

Reality Today My Opinion
As mention in a hadith told by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the ummah of
Muslims when the Judgement Day is near is like the bubble in the ocean, many but weak. A Muslim
scholar said that he sees Islam in the West practising by the non-Muslims, but he sees Muslims but
without Islam. We are too happy telling the childs our great Golden Age of Islam, but we done
nothing to accomplish it today. Muslims today are without Islam.
So there is a need to make the Muslims today stronger. This is why we enjoining the goods and
forbidding the evils. The dakwah today needs to be done in more creative and realistic way. If there
is some research and development in the business and elsewhere, why not we become serious in
accomplishing dakwah and make some research and developing the methods of dakwah so that we
gain the best output in enjoining goods and forbidding evils?
We need real facts and figures of the condition of our ummah today. We need more suitable
methods of enjoining goods and forbidding evils. The days past. What has be done in the ages of the
Prophet may or may not be realistic to be practiced today, but the principle is the same. Let our
principles remains the same in dakwah, but the methods varied. Let bringing back the ummah our
main business!
We must lead some revolution in enjoining goods and forbidding evils.
As a students of IIUM, I feels the needs to focus the dakwah on the students of IIUM that
comes from various states in Malaysia and countries. Our vission is not only so that the students of
IIUM can do good deeds and forbidding evils, but can become a preacher when they returned to
their hometown. This is a responsibility of a student to the ummah, to give back what had been
learned in the classroom to the society. We hope that IIUM students can become rahmatan
lilalamin, the mercy to all mankind.