Surah Ali 'Imran, Ayah 108

The Command to Establish the Invitation to Allah

Allah said,

وَلْتَكُن مِّنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ

(Let there arise out of you a group of people)

that calls to righteousness, enjoins all that is good and forbids evil in the manner Allah commanded,

وَأُوْلَـئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ

(And it is they who are the successful.)

Ad-Dahhak said, "They are a special group of the Companions and a special group of those after them, that is those who perform Jihad and the scholars."

The objective of this Ayah is that there should be a segment of this Muslim Ummah fulfilling this task, even though it is also an obligation on every member of this Ummah, each according to his ability. Muslim recorded that Abu Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

2. The sentence ففی رحمۃ اللہ (they rest in Allah's mercy) is immediately qualified by هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ (they are there forever). This means that the mercy in which the believers shall rest will not be temporary; it would be forever and eternal. This blessing will never be taken away or reduced in their case. In contrast to this are those whose faces shall turn dark; for them, it has not be expressly mentioned if they shall be in that state forever.

Sinning man earns his own punishment:

The verse فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُ‌ونَ (106) (now taste the punishment because you have been sinning) indicates that the punishment on that Day is not from Allah but that it is as consequence of what man has earned while living his mortal life, for the truth is that the blessings of paradise and the hardships of hell are simply a changed form of our very deeds. So, later on in verse 108, it was said: وَمَا اللَّـهُ يُرِ‌يدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعَالَمِينَ (and Allah wants no injustice for { anyone in the worlds} which means that Allah has no intention of being unjust to His creation. Whatever reward or punishment is there, is nothing but justice and very much the perfect expression of the divine wisdom and mercy.

This command pertains, on the one hand, to the common man and on the other to the intellectuals and the educated class. The educated should be strenuous in their efforts to enjoin goodness and forbid wrong in the community. Their keen awareness of the need for reform should ensure their continuing concern with the state of the people: they must encourage everyone to follow the path of goodness and shun the path of evil. However, for such an effort to succeed, the public must be submissive; they must be willing to listen to their elders. They must show respect for them, follow them as they are bid and stop where they are told to stop, thus surrendering themselves to their religious reformers. A Muslim community’s success thus depends respectively upon the attitudes of the religious elders and of the public. It is in an atmosphere of listening and obeying that society can be reformed, ensuring success both in this world as well as in the next. In short, elders motivated by the true religious spirit, should never shirk their responsibility towards their community of enjoining goodness upon them and forbidding evil.