conclusive proof. His community does not agree upon misguidance, and whenever they dispute over something, they refer their dispute to Allah and His Messenger. Every member of the community must undertake whatever calling he is able to carry out if no one else undertakes it. Whatever others fulfil ceases to be his obligation, and whatever lies beyond his ability is not required of him. But whatever no one else undertakes, and he is capable of doing, he must undertake.

For this reason, one person may be obliged to undertake something that another is not. The work of calling is apportioned among the community, sometimes on this basis and sometimes on other grounds. One person may call to an obligatory belief, another to an obligatory outward deed, and another to an obligatory inward deed. Thus, calling varies both in what is obligatory and in what actually takes place.

This makes clear that calling to Allah is obligatory upon every Muslim, but it is a collective obligation. A particular individual is required to undertake only what he is capable of doing when no one else fulfils it. The same applies to enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, conveying what the Messenger brought, striving in Allah’s cause, and teaching faith and the Quran.

This also makes clear that calling itself constitutes enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. For the one who calls seeks, requests, and calls for that to which he invites people, and this is precisely what it means to enjoin it. Enjoining means seeking the performance of the deed enjoined, requesting it, and calling to it. Thus, calling