a lesser good. Enjoining that good, which necessarily entails a greater evil, would amount to enjoining wrong and striving to disobey Allah and His Messenger.

If the inseparable good and evil are equal in weight, neither should be enjoined nor forbidden. Thus, when right and wrong are inseparable, sometimes enjoining is appropriate, sometimes forbidding is appropriate, and sometimes neither is appropriate. This applies to specific, actual cases.

At the level of general principles, however, right is enjoined without qualification and wrong is forbidden without qualification. In the case of a single individual or group, their good is to be enjoined and their evil forbidden; what is praiseworthy in them is to be praised, and what is blameworthy censured. This must be done in such a way that enjoining a good does not entail the loss of a greater good or bring about a greater evil, and forbidding an evil does not bring about something more evil or entail the loss of a good that outweighs it.