THE DIFFICULTY OF THESE REQUIREMENTS

Make no mistake about it, these requirements of enjoining right and forbidding wrong introduce a high degree of difficulty into the situation for many people. Thus some imagine that the obligation has fallen from his shoulders because of some lack in its prerequisites, and so he neglects it. This may harm him more than he would have been harmed by ordering and forbidding in spite of his lacks or deficiencies in one or more of these requirements, or it may harm him less. Failing to carry out the obligation of enjoining right is disobedience to Allah, and committing what Allah has forbidden therein is also disobedience. One who flees from one act of disobedience to another is like one who seeks refuge from the frying pan by jumping into the fire, or like one who flees from one false religion to another, where the second one may be more evil than the first, or it may be less evil, and they may be equally evil. This is the same in the case of the one who neglects his obligations in enjoining right and forbidding wrong and the one who practices enjoining right, but transgresses and disobeys Allah therein. The sin of the first one may be greater than the second, or of the second one may be greater than the first, or they may be equally great.