Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil: Levels of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Ayatullah Sistani
Ruling 1869
Enjoining good and forbidding evil is carried out at different levels:
1. Displaying heartfelt aversion; for example, by turning away one’s face from the wrongdoer, or not speaking to him, or not keeping company with him;
2. Verbally advising and guiding;
3. Physically enforcing; for example, by hitting or imprisoning the wrongdoer.
It is necessary for one to start at the first or second level and to choose a method that will be the least troublesome and the most effective. If that method does not yield any result, he must gradually increase the severity and harshness of the methods he uses. If displaying heartfelt aversion and verbally advising and guiding – i.e. the first and second levels – prove ineffective, he must progress to the physical level. However, at this level, the obligatory precaution is that he must get authorisation from a fully qualified jurist (al‑ḥākim al‑sharʿī). Furthermore, it is necessary that he start in a way that causes the least displeasure and trouble, and if that does not yield any result, he must increase the severity and force he uses in his methods; however, it must not reach a point where it causes a bone to break or the body to become wounded.
-Ayatullah Sistani, Practical Laws of Islam, Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil