Chapter 3: Surat Aal-'Imran (The House 'Imran), verse 104-109
Translation:
Let there become of you a community that shall call for righteousness, enjoin justice, and forbid evil. Such men will surely triumph. Do not follow the example of those who become divided and opposed to one another after veritable proofs had been given them. Grievous punishment awaits them on the day when some faces will be bright with joy and others blackened. The black-faced sinners will be asked: 'Did you recant after embracing the true Faith? Taste then Our scourge, for you were unbelievers!' As for those whose faces will bright, they shall abide for ever in God's mercy. Such are God's revelations; We recite them to you in all truth. God desires no injustice to mankind. His is all that the heavens and the earth contain. To God shall all things return. (104-109)
Commentary:
“Let
there arise out of you a band of people that shall call for righteousness,
enjoin justice, and forbid evil.” This command tells us of two things at a
time, one pertains to the common man and the other to the intellectuals educated
class. The educated among the ummah should have the spirit that they do not
tolerate evil and injustice in the ummah, they should be extremely sensitive in
this matter of enjoining goodness and forbidding evil in the community. Their
keen awareness of reformation will not allow them to remain unconcerned with the
states of the people and they would encourage people to follow the path of
goodness and shun the path of evil.
However
for such effort to succeed, the public must have the sense of submission, they
must be willing to listen to their elders. They must show respect to them,
follow them as they are bid and stop where they are told to stop thus
surrendering themselves to their religious reformers. A Muslim community’s
success depends thus upon both the attitudes of the religious elders and of the
public. It is in the atmosphere of listening and obeying that the society can be
reformed, ensuring success both in the world as well as the next (that is, a
group of elders motivated by true religious spirit should never shirk of their
responsibility towards their community to enjoin them goodness and forbid evil).
The
benefit of this spirit in the intellectuals is that all their attention remains focused
on the goodness, that is, on the basics of religion. They have thus no time for
hair splitting in relative aspects of religion. Those who became the heralders
of God’s greatness and arise as warners and harbingers of glad tidings have
not time to spend their expertise in insignificant, relative matters. In this
way the task of inviting people to good conduct and forbidding evil engages them
in the reformation of real problems. Engaging in verbal exercises over supposed
problems seems to them meaningless and futile just as a farmer finds the game of
chess a futile exercise, a waste of time. In showing this willingness to
obedience to the well-intentioned religious elders the people are saved from
division and schism. Submitting to an authority unites all of them. Unity and
agreement becomes a common attribute of believers and unity and agreement is
without doubt the greatest of all powers in this world.