The Qur'an and hadith lay great emphasis on the duty ofal‑'amr bil ma'ruf wa al‑nahy `an al‑munkar, and it is recognized as one of the most important duties of Muslims in general and the `ulama' in particular.
Unfortunately this duty is discreetly shunned by the dhakir who is averse to disturb the complacence of his audience and to venture to guide them at the cost of his own popularity. The strategy of con nivance, though full of perils in the Hereafter, yields immediate returns. The strategy of reducing (seemingly, elevating) the wajib al‑ita'ah Imams of the Ahl al‑Bayt (A), obedience to whom is obligatory, into holy inimitable metaphysical figure‑heads to be admired and implored in supplications for worldly benefits, may serve to attract applausing crowds but does no service to the religion of God and does no justice to the great teachers of mankind, which the Ahl al‑Bayt (A) in fact were.
In some cases the attitude goes further than mere connivance, where the dhakir tries to soothe and appease bad religious conscience by proving on his own authority that absence of obedience to the commands of the religion of the Ahl al‑Bayt (A) will not hurt the believer as long as he remains their passionate admirer, as if such a thing were possible. When such disastrous attitudes are consciously cultivated among the people, when the mourning assemblies‑which were original ly instituted to propagate the message of al‑Imam al‑Husayn - are held without paying any attention to al‑'amr bil ma`ruf wa al‑nahy`an al‑munkar and to the sublime goals of al‑Imam al‑Husayn and the sacred purposes behind his resistance against the regime of Yazid, it is not strange that those goals should gradually lose their relevance in the Muslim society, and theahkam should become unimportant for the Muslim masses.
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