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Peace be upon you, teacher.
In light of the recent discussion about enjoining good and forbidding wrong, it was concluded that someone who does not practise what they preach should not enjoin good. Yet enjoining good is obligatory.
It is said that even someone who sins must not neglect their religious duties. For example, even if a person is sinful, they must still pray, because prayer is obligatory—and, God willing, prayer will be their salvation.
◼ Is enjoining good by someone who does not practise it, and therefore “should not” enjoin it, different from the case of someone who sins but “must” pray?
◼ And must the person who enjoins good necessarily be the most morally perfect? Or may they enjoin good in matters that they themselves practise fully?
If Someone Who Sins Is Unqualified to Enjoin Good, Why Is Prayer Still Obligatory for Them?
The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)
Enjoining good is different from the obligation to pray: a person who sins must still pray, even if they do not practise what they preach. Although enjoining good is obligatory, the one who calls others to it must also address themselves and be resolved to practise it. Otherwise, their conduct is blameworthy. The finest form of enjoining good comes from someone who practises it.
Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)
Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural CenterThe most beautiful and effective way to enjoin what is right is to practise it oneself. If someone does not reject what is right but does not practise it either, then, when calling others to it, they should address themselves as well and resolve to act upon it.
If someone enjoins others to do what is right and forbids what is wrong, while neither practising what they preach nor intending to do so, they are blameworthy and condemned in the sight of God Almighty.
البقره : 44 أ تأمرون الناس بالبر و تنسون أنفسکم و أنتم تتلون الکتاب أ فلا تعقلون
Do you enjoin people to do what is right while forgetting yourselves, even as you recite the Book? Will you not reason?
و أمر بالمعروف تکن من أهله
نهج البلاغه (للصبحی صالح)، ص: 392
Enjoin what is right, and you will become one of its people.
Someone who has not sunk into sinfulness, whose corruption has not become notorious among family, friends, neighbours and the wider community, and who has not become universally despised, is not barred from enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. They can include themselves among those addressed by their own injunctions and prohibitions. When they are certain that enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong will have the opposite effect, their duty in this regard is clear.
The spirit of someone who practises what is right will lend their words greater influence.