They went ahead with the scheme. Among them were some who held the Sabbath in reverence and tried to forbid that wrongdoing; others kept silent; and others carried it out. Allah therefore punished them and said, “Be apes—despised!” (al-Aʿrāf 166). So they were—Allah’s refuge is sought—turned into monkeys: human beings from the children of Adam transformed into humiliated, contemptible apes.

The point here is that a group of them neither felt any indignation nor fulfilled the duty Allah had laid upon them to forbid evil, and thus they too fell under the curse. Hence His words: “Those among the Children of Israel who disbelieved were cursed by the tongue of David and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and habitually transgressed” (al-Māʾidah 78). David lived many generations after Moses, and so did Jesus, son of Mary; yet in both periods Allah related the same attitude—that they would not stop one another from the wrongs they were committing—and He confirmed that verdict. Consequently, anyone who fails to forbid evil is counted among the accursed—may Allah protect us. This demonstrates that forbidding wrong is obligatory and that neglecting it is a cause for curse and expulsion from Allah’s mercy.

The Exalted also said, “Say, ‘The truth is from your Lord; so whoever wills—let him believe, and whoever wills—let him disbelieve’ ” (al-Kahf 29); and He said, “Proclaim openly what you have been commanded” (al-Ḥijr 94); and He said, “We saved those who forbade evil, and We seized the wrongdoers with a grievous punishment for their defiantly disobeying” (al-Aʿrāf 165). Verses on this subject are numerous and well known.