, yet they have already fallen into a temptation greater than the one they claim to have fled. Their duty is to fulfill their obligation to enjoin good and forbid evil, to avoid what is forbidden, and to seek Allah’s help in both.

Even supposing that fulfilling the obligation and avoiding what is forbidden are inseparable, and that they abandoned this only because their souls would consent only to doing both together or abandoning both together—as is the case with many who love leadership, wealth, or wayward desires, who cannot fulfill their obligations of enjoining good, forbidding evil, undertaking jihad, exercising authority, and the like without also committing something forbidden—they must weigh which of the two considerations carries greater weight.

If carrying out what is commanded brings a greater reward than avoiding that forbidden act, a person must not abandon it for fear that it may be accompanied by something whose harmful consequences are of lesser weight. If avoiding what is forbidden brings a greater reward, he must not forfeit that in the hope of earning the lesser reward of fulfilling an obligation. This depends on the combination of good and bad deeds that accrue to him from the two. Such is the matter; a detailed explanation would be lengthy.