In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong—the very commanding and forbidding for which Allah sent down His Books and dispatched His messengers—are integral to the religion.

Allah’s message is of two kinds: information and injunction.

1. The informative aspect speaks of Himself and of His creation: doctrines such as monotheism and narrative passages that contain promise and threat.
2. The prescriptive aspect consists of commands, prohibitions, and permissions.

Thus His statement,

“Say: He is Allah, the One” (112:1),

is equal to one third of the Qur’an because the Qur’an is composed of narrative, monotheism, and injunctions—this verse embodies one of those three.

Likewise, when the Almighty describes our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,

“He enjoins upon them what is right, forbids them what is wrong, makes lawful for them what is wholesome, and declares unlawful for them what is foul” (7:157),

He is highlighting the perfection of his mission: through him Allah commanded every form of good, prohibited every kind of evil, permitted all that is wholesome, and forbade all that is impure.

For this reason the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “I was sent only to perfect noble character.”

And in the agreed-upon hadith he said: “My likeness and the likeness of the prophets is that of a man who built a house, completing and adorning it except for the place of one brick. People would walk around it and marvel at its beauty, saying, ‘If only that brick were set in place!’ So I am