Aslam

(5) Once a man was found enjoining good and forbidding evil without permission of the Caliph Mamun. When the man was brought before the Caliph he said : O Commander of the faithful, we help you in your task : God said : The believing men and women are friends to one another . They enjoin good etc. The Prophet also said : A believer in relation to another is like a building one portion of which strengthens the other. Hearing this, the Caliph became pleased with him and said : You are a fit person to undertaken this task.

(6) One who gives advice should have strength and power.
He who is unable to undertake this task should entertain hatred for sinful acts. Inability here means to fear injury and harm from the person to whom advice is given. God says : Don't meet destruction by your own hands. There are three kinds of sin — (1)

Vol-II The Book of Woirdly Usages 189

majrr sin for which there are prescribed punishments in the Quran and to prevent them is compulsory ; (2) such sins which are done continuously, such as wine drinking, wearing silk dresses, using cups of gold and silver and to prevent them is compulsory : (3) and such sins which are expected to be committed in future. There are four conditions for prevention of these evils. The first condition is that it must be an evil action in the eye of Shariat and it must be unlawful. The second condition is that it is to be prevented in the course of it commission. If a man has finished drinking wine, it is not applicable in the case except by way of advice. (3) The third condition is that it must be known to the man preventing it as a sinful act without enquiry. If a man commits a sin after closing the door of his house, to enquire about it secretly is not lawful. Once Hazrat Omar secretly entered a house and found a man committing a sinful act. The man said on being asked : If I have committed one sin. You have committed three sins. Being asked about them, has said : God says: Don't spy into the secrets of another but you have done it. Don't enter the houses by their backs — you have come after overriding the wall.
God says : Don't enter a house except with permission of the owner and without salutation — you have neither taken permission , nor saluted its inmates. After this, Hazrat Omar let him off after imposing on him the condition of repentance. (4)
The fourth condition is that the evil must be known to be evil without efforts. If otherwise, there is no forbidding of evil. These relate of the minor details of different sects. One sect gives opinion that a particular act like eating lizard is an evil, while according to another sect. It is not an evil.

THIRD MODE THE MAN WHO SHOULD BE - PREVENTED FROM SIN