The last Islamic act of worship is avoiding evil and forbidding others from what is evil.  This act of worship and the preceding one go hand in hand, the first one encourages the positive and good, while the latter discourages from doing the negative and bad.  The two are mentioned in the Holy Quran in one sentence (Surah  3:  Ayah  110):

 كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ

وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ

 YOU ARE THE BEST COMMUNITY EVOLVED TO MANKIND,

YOU ENJOIN WHAT IS GOOD, AND FORBID EVIL. 

    Therefore, doing good and urging others to do good deeds is insufficient in itself.  There is a lot of evil in this world, and Allah (swt) does not want us to be indifferent to it.  If evil is not fought it is likely to grow rapidly and engulf the entire society.  Evil usually finds easy avenues, and man can fall an easy prey to it.  Evil can spread easily and in an imperceptible way, and when it becomes firmly rooted in the society it is difficult to remove.  Evil can destroy individuals and families, and eventually communities and societies.

 

WHY CAN EVIL BE SO?  

    Evil appeals to man's desires, and often it goes through short cuts.  While a person is supposed to be in control of himself or herself, often he or she is not able to do so, especially if others seem to be committing evil acts yet no one talks about them.  This may be especially true when many people promote it, although they know it is bad.  Take pornography as an example.  It may appeal to the innocent mind, and can often lead to deeper involvement in it.  Once pornographic media are freely allowed the subjects dealt with become filthier and more degenerate, and the abuse of sex is intensified more and more.

    When the pornographic material falls into the hands of a person, the victim is the teenager, it will weaken his or her sense of morality and destroy his or her resistance to vulgarity.  It can instill wicked ideas in his mind, and often lead him to commit immoral or transgression acts.  This will destroy his morality and injure other innocent people.

    This is but one example.  Gambling, drinking, cheating, and stealing are other examples.  See how evil can invade without being noticed, how it can stain the mind and play on emotions, and how it can bring many desires of the flesh into prominence!  Evil takes man downhill, and it is very easy to go downhill.

 

TELL ME MORE  

    Just as in the Islamic act of worship discussed before, avoiding evil and forbidding others from doing so starts in the family.  The first to learn about it are to be the children.  Parents should point out to them the many dangers it can lead to.  When any bad deed is discovered, parents are to make the children learn about it and understand why it is wrong.

    Naturally children should avoid lying, and when they lie they must face the fact, and parents should explain that when the child lies he or she will have to continue to lie to cover up his or her first lie.  The same is true of cheating and stealing, and the same also goes for dishonesty and unreliability.  Greed, conceit, hypocrisy, selfishness, and egotism, are some of the bad qualities, and every person has a touch of them.  All these can be controlled to a good extent, and a good Muslim is one who is in command of himself or herself, and the master of himself or herself.

    Many of these bad qualities, if practiced early by the child or allowed by the parents, become part and parcel of the child's psychology throughout his or her life.  This is the very reason there are so many people who fall prey to every kind of misdeed, to so many evil things.  The pursuit of money and the pursuit for personal power are the source for much of this tendency.

    There are numerous Hadiths which point out the weaknesses of man.  It is far better, I am sure you agree, if you avoid getting into an evil act than to try to correct the consequences.  Prevention, therefore, scores quite high in Islam.  Preventing an evil act is much easier and far superior to treating the consequences of the evil act.  When a person does not drink alcohol he will never be an alcoholic.  When a person does not put himself on drugs he does not become a drug addict.  When a person does not cheat on his wife and vice versa, there is practically no chance of getting life-threatening social diseases.  The list can go on and on.  See why Islam has emphasized the importance of prevention.  An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

 

ANY OTHER EXAMPLES?  

    One of the biggest evils Muslims face in this country is the bad writings about Islam, sometimes stemming from ignorance.  Whether called willful prejudice or simple ignorance doesn't matter because the damage in the mind of the reader is deep, especially if the writing against Islam is done in a skillful way.

    Whether in school, on radio or TV, in movies or plays, in books or pamphlets, the writings about Islam are atrocious, often demeaning.  This is called Dhulm (transgression) and the West has done a grave injustice to Islam, the beautiful Islam as we know it.

    What is better than having everyone of us fight back and struggle against this propaganda against Islam?  When children correct the misconceptions about Islam in their schools, and the media are subjected to anti-defamation circles, and every Muslim becomes truly incensed and hyped up about the bad things written about Islam, won't that produce good results!?  Doing so is an act of worship, a productive manner of worship.

    There is still more in this culture that is evil.

 

WHAT ELSE?  

    In this country we and our children are in an environment where evil may appear predominant in all its forms.  The same society, however, offers beautiful opportunities for works of goodness.  In this country, there are more good, sincere, frank, and honest people than many people suspect.  In this society there are decent and good people, but also there are circles of people who can be described as sex-obsessed, money-worshippers, and or power-hungry, among other things.  There are those who are teetotalers and those who are alcoholics.  There are those who are Allah-fearing and those who are thieves, crooks, and murderers.

    Each and every Muslim has a tremendous challenge ahead.  A Muslim is to prevent evil by bringing to the wrongdoer's attention his or her wrong act and by helping him or her prevent it.  This is especially true of us and our children, and those in immediate contact with our circles.  When we fight greed, or when we fight obscenity, vulgarity, corruption, cheating, etc., we at least will have produced a Muslim community here to be looked at with pride.  Our community then will be in the limelight, the good example, the highly admired one.

 

IS FORBIDDING EVIL A FORM OF WORSHIP?  

    When you stop an act of evil, no matter what it is, you will have stopped all the consequences of that bad act.  By so doing you will have benefited many people, thus, you have done an act of worshipping the Almighty.  You will receive so many Ajr (Religious credits) from the Almighty.

    Evil tends to predominate because it is such an easy thing.  The more good people like you prevail, the more good will blossom from them when put together, and the more the benefit.  Allah likes goodness and those who do good, and preventing evil is an act of goodness, and the mercy of Allah (swt) will always be with those who do good deeds.

    This is the totality of a Muslim, to elevate himself in character, to be involved in society through his Jihad, to encourage others to do good as he does, and to discourage others from doing bad things.  The community is indeed fortunate when many of its members do so.