and seized the wrongdoers with severe punishment.
It is established in a hadith that Abu Bakr al-Siddīq—may Allah be pleased with him—addressed the people from the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and said: “O people, you recite this verse but apply it incorrectly: ‘O you who believe, you are accountable for yourselves. Those who go astray cannot harm you if you are rightly guided (1)’ [The Table Spread: 105]. I heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—say: ‘When people see wrongdoing but do not change it, Allah may soon engulf them all in punishment (2) from Him.’” (3)
Another hadith states: “When a sin remains hidden (4), it harms only the one who commits it; but when it becomes public and is not condemned, it harms everyone.” (5)
The foremost purpose (6) of the category of governance we have discussed concerning Allah’s prescribed limits and rights is to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Enjoining what is right includes such things as:
(1) A marginal note in (ي) reads: “Thus, His saying, exalted is He, ‘when you are rightly guided,’ indicates the intended point: right guidance cannot be complete without commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong.”
(2) (ظ، ب، ل): “with punishment.”
(3) Reported by Ahmad (1), Abū Dāwūd (4338), al-Tirmidhī (3057, 2168), al-Nasā’ī in *al-Kubrā* (11092), Ibn Mājah (4005), Ibn Hibbān in *al-Ihsān* (304), and others. Al-Tirmidhī said: “It is a sound and authentic hadith.” It was also authenticated by Ibn Hibbān and the author.
(4) (ز): “I concealed.”
(5) Reported by al-Tabarānī in *al-Awsat* (4767), from Abū Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—as a *marfū* hadith attributed to the Prophet. Al-Haythamī said in *Majma al-Zawā’id* (7/528): “Its chain contains Marwān ibn Sālim al-Ghifārī, who is rejected as a narrator.” It was also reported by al-Bayhaqī in *al-Shuab* (7196), Abū Nuaym in *al-Hilyah* (5/222), and others as a statement of Bilāl ibn Sad.
(6) The base manuscript reads: “and his intended point.”