The term
أمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر
“Commanding/encouraging the good and prohibiting / stopping from evil”.
from a powerful piece of Quranic wisdom that captures within it an entire world view. In this post I’ll just bring attention to one of the rhetorical aspects of this divine treasure having to do with its sequence. In a later post I’ll try to bring attention to the Arabic wording for both good and evil in this phrase.
As a parent, I’m protective of my child. So I run around making sure the baby doesn’t put something in his mouth or poke their own eye. I worry my toddler will get too close to the stairs or near the edge of a table. That my ten year old won’t be careful crossing the street. You get the idea. I’m constantly thinking: No! Don’t! Stop!
It’s easy to have a list of things NOT to do. Much more work to come up with things to do. Let’s now apply this to tendencies beyond children and parenting.
So much emphasis on deconstructing what is wrong with Muslims, what is wrong with the world, what we must not do leaves us constantly thinking about the negative. We’re so busy deconstructing “evil” and criticizing false narratives that the conversation about what it is that we as Muslim civilization and adults are constructing or working towards seems to disappear from individual and collective conscience.
I’ll give an example from the world of business. If you’re only putting out administrative fires and solving internal problems in the company you’re not ever getting the time and energy to think about how to grow or what new horizons to conquer. Obviously both are important but how do you prioritize?
Well the Quran clearly prioritizes strong values , ma’roof’ or “good” first. Let’s define and articulate what it is that one should aspire towards. And on its path yes we will have to discuss the “evil” obstacles we must face. But in this framing, the fight against evil is because evil is simply getting in the way of good that is our primary focus.
I hope to become, raise my future generation and be surrounded by a support group characterized by commanding the good and forbidding the evil in its purest divine sense. I pray for the same for you all.
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