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wa-l-takun minkum ʾummatun yadʿūna ʾilā l-khayri wa-yaʾmurūna bi-l-maʿrūfi wa-yanhawna ʿani l-munkari wa-ʾulāʾika humu l-mufliḥūna
There has to be a nation among you summoning to the good, bidding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong. It is they who are the felicitous.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah 'Ali-Imran, Verse 104
104. "And there should be a party among you who invite (others) to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these are they that shall be prosperous."
The secret of the location of the verse concerning with the subject of 'enjoining right and forbidding wrong' between two verses that instruct to union and singleness; may be in the fact that in a dispersed social system either there is not an authority to invite people to do good, or these invitations are not effective and helpful. The act of enjoining right and forbidding wrong may be performed in two ways: 1) It may be done as a public, common duty in which everybody must undertake it as much as the one is capable to fulfil it.
2) The duty that a uniformed group undertake and follow it powerfully. Like a driver who does not observe the traffic rules in the street. So, both other drivers protest him by lights and horns and the traffic police enters the scene to face seriously with the offender.
There are many traditions and narrations upon the subject of 'enjoining right and forbidding wrong' in Islamic literature. Here, we suffice to only this one in which Imam Ali (as) says:
Explanations
1. In an Islamic society, it is necessary to be a group of inspectors and controllers, confirmed by the Islamic System, to superintend and control the situations, attitudes, and movements.
2. In the society, the invitation to benevolence is prior to enjoining the right.
3. To improve a society and to prevent corruption and corruptive people, without the existence of authority and a definite responsible manager, is impossible.
4. Those who compassionately sympathize with the development and improvement of the society are the true prosperous ones:
5. Invitation to benevolence, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong should ceaselessly be performed in the society, not in the form of seasonal and temporary movements.
6. Prosperity is not found only in personal delivery, but the prosperity and delivery of others are also from its conditions.
7. The invitor to benevolence and right would be Islamicist, anthropologist, and one who knows the methods. It is for this reason that it is said that some of the members of community have special duty, not all of them.
8. Enjoining the right is prior to forbidding the wrong, because if the way of what is right be open, there will be little possibility for committing wrong.
Footnotes