This obligation is one of the great religious obligations for Allah has said in the holy Quran, "Believers, among you there must be some people who would call others to righteousness, making them do good and preventing them from committing sins. Such people are those who will have lasting happiness. The holy Prophet said to the people, "What will happen to you when your women will commit indecency and your youths will become wicked ones?" The people hearing the alarmingly news asked him, "Messenger of God, are such things really going to happen?" He replied, "Yes, certainly, it is going to happen." Further he said, "What will happen to you when you will cause others to commit sins and prevent them from doing good? The people asked, "Messenger of God, are such things, in fact, going to happen also? He replied, "Yes", and said, "What will happen will be even worse. There will come a time when you will call what is lawful as unlawful and the unlawful ones as lawful." The following statement is narrated from the Imams (a.s.) about this obligation. As a result of making others do good all the obligation will be fulfilled, religions well protected, earrings lawful, exploitations stopped, the land well developed and justice properly maintained. People will always be righteous as long as they urge others to do good, prevent them from committing sins and cooperate with each other in virtuous deeds. If they do not fulfill such obligation, God's blessings will be removed from among them, they will become each other's enemies and there will be no one in the heavens and earth to help them."

Rule 1. The obligation of urging others to do good and preventing them from committing sins is a public obligation as opposed to the personal obligation. Thus, if some people in a generation fulfill this duty the others will also be considered free from this obligation. If no one in a generation fulfills this obligation, every one will be held responsible for this obligation.

Rule 2 If a deed is preferable to be done, the duty of urging other's to do such deed will also be preferable. The followings are conditions that must exist before one could be held responsible for this duty: (a) One must know, at least in general, what is virtue and what is a sin. (b) There must be a possibility that others will pay attention to one's effort of making them do good and preventing them from committing sins. If one knows that others or an individual will pay no attention to what one will tell them to do, it will be considered the absence of one of the required conditions. (c) The people or an individual must be persisting in his or their disobedience of the Law. If there is evidence that they will not disobey the Law again, this also will be considered as the absence of one of the required conditions. The same rule applies to the case when one only thinks that some people or a certain individual will not disobey the Law again. In case, one knows that some people or a certain individual has disobeyed the Law at a certain time, but he does not know whether they are still persisting in their disobedience or not, still it will be considered as the absence of one of the required conditions. If one knows that certain people or an individual has or has decided to disobey the Law, it becomes necessary for him to fulfill his duty of trying to make them not disobey the Law even though he knows that they have decided to disobey the Law only once. (d) The people or a certain individual must not have some acceptable reason for which they do not believe their deeds as disobedience. If some people or a certain individual considers something lawful or unlawful because of mistake or ignorance, this also will be considered as the absence of one of the required conditions. (e) In fulfilling this obligation no serious harm must be caused to oneself, his dignity, property or other Muslims, otherwise, it will be considered the absence of one of the required conditions. Evidently, it does not matter whether one knows that such harm will be involved or that the possibility of such occurrence would only be based on some dependable evidence. The rule about the harmfulness of the fulfillment of this duty is only applicable when one is not certain about getting a favorable result. On the other hand, if one knows that the result will positively be favorable, he has to observe the rule about that side which is of greater significance. Thus, sometimes it becomes necessary to fulfill this obligation, even though one positively knows that some serious harm will be involved.

Rule 3. As mentioned before, this obligation is not only for a certain class or group of people. If the required conditions would be existing, all the adults of a whole generation will be held responsible for this obligation. Because of the circumstances the fulfillment of this obligation may take place in several degrees: (a) Expressing one's dislike of and disagreement in certain people's disobeying the Law by not talking to them or some other ways which would express one's negative attitude. (b) Taking other measures, such as using different degrees of force to prevent people from committing sins. According to the popular view, in fulfilling this obligation, with a view to the circumstances, one should start with the lesser forceful reaction, then take a greater forceful measure and so on. It is Ehtiyat that one should not react according to the way mentioned in (b) if favorable result can be obtained by reacting as in (a).

Rule 4. If none of the above mentioned ways of reacting in one's fulfilling this duty serve the purpose, there are two views about the use of further force that would cause serious injury or death of the disobeying party; according to the stronger view it is not lawful to react as such. However, if one willingly or by mistake may act as such, he will be held responsible for the damage and his case will be dealt with according to the rules of criminal penalties. The Imam (a.s.) or his representatives may take such measures if necessary, and they will not be held responsible for the damage.

Rule 5. The fulfillment of this obligation has a greater priority in the case of one's relatives. One must take effective measures against his relatives if he would see them ignoring or being careless about the rules of their worship and social obligations or the rules of cleanliness or disobeying such rules.

Rule 6. If one knows that a certain person has disobeyed the Law, not persisting in his disobedience any further, but has not yet repented for his disobedience, it will become one's obligation to make him repent. Repenting for one's sin is obligatory and ignoring it is a major sin. This rule is only applicable when the disobeying person would be well aware of his sin, if he is not aware of the sin, it would be objectionable for one to make him repent, although it is a Mustahab Ehtiyat to do so.