Whereas, on the second view, the directive is an individual duty: every single person must devote his efforts to this task—calling to goodness, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong.

Calling to goodness embraces everything that secures people’s welfare in both their worldly lives and their afterlife, for goodness pertains to works of this world just as it pertains to works of the Hereafter. The Almighty says, “Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter” (al-Baqara 2:201).

Whatever benefits people in their worldly affairs is good; for this reason Allah refers to wealth as “good,” saying, “Indeed, he is vehement in his love of good” (al-ʿĀdiyāt 100:8).

As for His words, “and they enjoin the maʿrūf (right) and forbid the munkar (wrong)” (Āl ʿImrān 3:104): maʿrūf is everything the sacred law acknowledges and approves, while munkar is everything it rejects and prohibits. Accordingly, commanding what is right means commanding obedience to Allah, and forbidding what is wrong means forbidding disobedience to Him; thus they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong.

Yet enjoining right and forbidding wrong are subject to certain conditions:

Condition 1: The person who commands or forbids must know that the matter in question is indeed right, which he is to command, or wrong, which he is to forbid. If he lacks that knowledge, it is impermissible for him to command or forbid, for Allah says, “Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge; indeed, hearing, sight, and the heart—all of them will be called to account” (al-Isrāʾ 17:36). Declaring something lawful or unlawful cannot be left to emotion, for were it driven by feeling or whim, we would find some people condemning everything unfamiliar— even things that benefit people—saying, “This is wrong!” While others, at the opposite extreme, are lax and assume that everything is right.