‘Am I among them, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ Another man stood up and asked, ‘Am I among them?’ He replied, ‘ʿUkkāsha has preceded you in this.’”

For this reason, the consensus of this nation constitutes authoritative proof: Allah Most High has declared that they enjoin everything right and forbid everything wrong. Were they to agree on permitting something forbidden, dispensing with an obligation, forbidding something lawful, or making a false statement about Allah Most High or His creation, they would be enjoining wrong and forbidding right in matters of good speech and righteous deeds. Indeed, the verse implies that whatever the nation does not enjoin is not right, and whatever it does not forbid is not wrong. Since it enjoins everything right and forbids everything wrong, how could the entire nation enjoin something wrong or forbid something right?

Just as Allah Most High has declared that this nation enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong, He has also made this a collective obligation upon it, saying:

“Let there be among you a group who call to good, enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong. It is they who will be successful.”

His declaration that this nation enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong does not require that the injunctions and prohibitions issued by its members reach every morally accountable person in the world. This is not even a requirement for conveying the divine message, so how could it be required for something that follows from it? Rather, the requirement is that those who are accountable should have access to it. Then, if they are negligent and fail to seek it out, even though the person undertaking this task has fulfilled his duty,