al-Amr bil-Maruf wal-Nahy an al-Munkar - Abu Yala
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-ʿUlūm wa-al-Ḥikam
al-Amr bil-Maruf wal-Nahy an al-Munkar (Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil) is a legal treatise by the Hanbali jurist al-Qadi Abu Ya'la Ibn al-Farra (380–458 AH / 990–1066 CE) dedicated to the legal rules and proper conduct surrounding the Islamic duty of enjoining right and forbidding wrong .
Content and Structure
The book is structured into 21 chapters (abwab) . It sets out the legal principles (al-qawa'id al-shar'iyya), moral etiquettes (al-adabiyya), and governing policy (siyasa) necessary for carrying out the communal and individual obligations of enjoining good and forbidding evil . Within the work, Abu Ya'la examines substantive legal questions and jurisprudential differences within the Hanbali school, including whether the obligation to intervene against a wrong is conditioned on having a preponderant expectation (ghalabat al-zann) that the wrongdoing will cease .
Reception and Scholarly Citations
The work is counted among the specialized monographs composed by Hanbali scholars on the topic, alongside similar early works by Abu Bakr al-Khallal, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, and Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi . Ibn Taymiyya highlighted the book as a standalone composition on the subject, noting that Abu Ya'la authored a dedicated volume just as al-Khallal and al-Daraqutni had done . His quotation was later transmitted by Ibn Muflih in al-Adab al-Shar'iyya, and the work is also listed in Umar Rida Kahhala's biographical dictionary Mu'jam al-Mu'allifin .
Manuscripts and Printed Editions
The treatise is preserved in two known manuscript copies:
- A manuscript held at Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya in Damascus (no. 245/1 Hadith, folios 1–31), transcribed in 576 AH .
- A manuscript held at Cairo University .
The work has been published in two modern editions:
- An edition edited by Isma'il al-Ansari based on the Zahiriyya manuscript, printed by Matabi' al-Qasim in Riyadh in 1389 AH / 1969 CE and published by the General Presidency of Scholarly Research, Ifta, Da'wah, and Guidance .
- An edition edited by 'Abd al-Qadir Ahmad 'Ata based on the Cairo University manuscript, published by Dar al-I'tisam in Cairo in 1395 AH / 1975 CE .
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