Certainly, there are examples before you of God’s wrath, punishment, days of tribulations and happenings. Therefore do not disregard His warnings due to ignorance of it or taking light His Wrath, or feeling immune from His punishment, for God the Glorified did not curse people of the past except because they had abandoned enjoining good and forbidding wrong. In fact, Allah cursed the foolish for committing sins and the clement because they gave up forbidding wrong.1
The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.), prior to Imām Ali (a.s.), had also warned people of this danger in the following words:
یا أیُّها النّاسُ! إنَّ اللهَ یَقولُ لَکُم: مُروا بِالمَعروفِ وانهَوا عَنِ المُنکَرِ، قَبلَ أن تَدعوا فلا اُجیبَ لَکُم، وتَسألوني فَلا اُعطِیَکُم، وتَستَنصِروني فلا أنصُرَکُم.O People! Verily God says to you: Command people to do good and forbid them from wrong, or else you will pray, but I do not answer your prayer and you ask Me but I do not grant you and you seek My assistance but I do not assist you.2
The danger of abandoning the enjoining to do good and forbidding the wrong in regard to the continuance of the Islamic revolution is so serious that Imām Ali (a.s.) warned people about it until the last moments of his life, saying in the last sentence of his testament:
لا تَترُکوا الأَمرَ بِالمَعروفِ والنَّهيَ عَن المُنکَرِ، فَیُوَلّی عَلَیکُم شِرارُکُم، ثُمَّ تَدعونَ فَلا یُستَجابُ لَکُم.Do not abandon the enjoining of good and forbidding the wrong, or else the villains would dominate over you, then when you pray, you will not be answered.3
After drawing attention to the dangers that await the future of the nation because of abandoning the enjoining good and forbidding
1.. Ibid.
2.. Mizān al-Hikma, vol. ۸, p. ۳۷۰۸, h. ۱۲۷۲۷
3.. See, The Encyclopedia of Amir al-Mu'minin, vol. ۷, p. ۲۵۵, h. ۲۹۶۱