Al-amr bil-maruf wal-nahy an al-munkar (commanding right and forbidding wrong)

Ma'ruf is what the Law counts good, and munkar is what it counts bad; commanding the first and forbidding the second is the duty. ¹ In the usage of the jurists, hisba is commanding right and forbidding wrong, one of the Islamic offices, which falls outside the duties of rulers and judges. ²

The imams agree on its legitimacy; al-Nawawi and Ibn Hazm report the consensus that it is obligatory, citing the verse on a community that calls to good and commands right and forbids wrong, and the hadith "whoever of you sees a wrong, let him change it with his hand...". ²

• The first view: a communal obligation, the view of most Sunni scholars. ²
• The second view: an individual obligation in certain cases, such as a wrong known only to oneself where one can remove it, a wife or child's wrong, and the officer of hisba. ²
• The third: recommended, the view of al-Hasan al-Basri and Ibn Shubruma. ²
• The fourth: distinctions. What is obligatory to do or to leave is commanded as obligatory, what is recommended as recommended; another view takes the aim of forbidding to be to remove the wrong or reduce it. ³

The pillars are the commander, what is commanded and forbidden, the act of commanding, and the one commanded, as al-Ghazali listed them. ³

• The commander: sanity, belief, and justice, which is disputed; most scholars do not require freedom from every sin. ³⁴
• The matter: the command must be to what the Law counts good and the prohibition to what it forbids; the wrong must be present, visible without spying, and agreed to be wrong. ⁴
• The one commanded: he must be in a state that makes the act a wrong for him; sanity and discernment are not required. ⁴

The main degrees are three, following the hadith of Abu Sa'id: by the hand, then by the tongue, then by the heart, "and that is the weakest of faith". ⁴⁵ The highest is the hand, and where it leads to carrying weapons the matter is referred to the ruler. ⁴⁵ The duty of heart-disapproval is never lifted; one who fears for himself must avoid the wrongdoer. ⁵

Most jurists hold that a pure act of worship, such as the call to prayer or the hajj, may not be hired for; the Hanafis and Hanbalis forbid paying for commanding right. The Shafi'is, Malikis and later Hanafis permit it, citing the hadith that "the most worthy of what you take a fee for is the Book of God". ⁵⁶ An officer appointed to hisba may be given his living from the treasury, as a judge is, while a volunteer is not paid. ⁶

The Sheikh relays a saying that urges doing good and showing kindness both to those who deserve it and to those who do not: whoever does good to the deserving has put it in the right place, and whoever does good to the undeserving is himself a person of kindness ⁷. The Sheikh closes with a prayer that God make those present among the people of kindness ⁷.