Tanbih al-Ghafilin an Aamal al-Jahilin wa Tahdhir al-Salikin min Afal al-Jahilin
- Author died
- 814 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah
Tanbih al-Ghafilin 'an A'mal al-Jahilin wa-Tahdhir al-Salikin min Af'al al-Jahilin (Admonishing the Unmindful Concerning the Deeds of the Ignorant and Warning Seekers Against the Actions of the Ignorant) is a legal and ethical treatise on enjoining good and forbidding evil by the Shafi'i scholar and warrior Ibn al-Nahhas (d. 814 AH / 1411 CE) .
Background and Title
Ibn al-Nahhas stated in his introduction that he composed the work after observing that the religious obligation of enjoining good and forbidding evil had fallen into widespread neglect, the markers of the prophetic Sunnah had faded, and the denunciation of wrongdoing had come to be regarded by the common public as meddlesome and offensive . He completed the manuscript in late Dhu al-Hijjah 811 AH .
In the author's introduction and in the bibliographical compilation Kashf al-Zunun by Hajji Khalifa, the title appears with the variant ending min Af'al al-Halikin (...from the Actions of the Perishing) .
Structure and Contents
The book is structured into seven thematic chapters (abwab), all addressing the parameters and application of commanding right and forbidding wrong :
- Chapter One: The virtue of enjoining good and forbidding evil, its classification as a collective communal obligation (fard kifayah), and the requisite conditions for the person undertaking censure (al-munkir) and the censured act (al-munkar) .
- Chapter Two: The manner and graduated levels of denouncing reprehensible acts .
- Chapter Three: Severe warnings against abandoning the duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong, alongside the specific circumstances under which the obligation lapses and only recommendation remains .
- Chapter Four: The sin incurred by someone who commands good without practicing it or forbids evil while committing it .
- Chapter Five: An exposition of major sins (kaba'ir) and minor sins (sagha'ir) .
- Chapter Six: Matters and practices explicitly prohibited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ .
- Chapter Seven: A survey of prevalent reprehensible practices (munkarat) and newly invented innovations (bida') .
Transmission and Abridgments
The text was abridged by the Shafi'i scholar Muhammad ibn Barakat ibn Ahmad al-Harfushi . In modern print, it has been edited and annotated by 'Imad al-Din 'Abbas Sa'id under the supervision of al-Maktab al-Salafi li-Tahqiq al-Turath .
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