to abandon an obligation, or to forbid what is lawful, or to attribute falsehood to Allah or to His creation, they would, in that case, be guilty of enjoining evil and forbidding good—matters that consist of wholesome speech and righteous action. On the contrary, the verse itself implies that whatever the community does not enjoin is not, in reality, recognised as good, and whatever it does not forbid is not, in truth, regarded as evil.

Since it is a community that enjoins every good and forbids every evil, how could it possibly happen that the whole of it would enjoin evil or forbid good? And just as Allah has informed us that it enjoins good and forbids evil, He has also made that a communal obligation upon it in His statement:

“And let there be from among you a group who call to all that is good, who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong; it is they who are successful.” (Qur’an 3:104)

When He reported that enjoining right and forbidding wrong will in fact occur within the community, it was never a condition that the command or prohibition of those who carry it out must reach every legally accountable person on earth—for this is not even a condition for conveying the very message of prophethood itself. How, then, could it be made a condition for what is merely one of its corollaries? Rather, the requirement is only that people have the means to receive it. If, after that, they neglect to seek it out while the one performing the duty has done what is incumbent upon him, the shortcoming lies with them, not with him.

Likewise, enjoining right and forbidding wrong is not individually obligatory upon every single person; it is a communal duty, as the Qur’an indicates. Because jihad is an extension and completion of that duty, it too is a communal obligation. Therefore, if no one undertakes it, every able person bears sin in proportion to his capability, for the obligation rests upon each person according to his capacity.