Cook Michael. Commanding Wright and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought

Cambridge University Press, 2004. — 721 p.What kind of duty do we have to try to stop other people doing wrong? The question is intelligible in just about any culture, but few of them seek to answer it in a rigorous fashion. The most striking exception is found in the Islamic tradition, where ‘commanding right and forbidding wrong’ is a central moral tenet already mentioned in the Koran. As a historian of Islam whose research has ranged widely over space and time, Michael Cook is well placed to interpret this complex yet fascinating subject. His book, which represents the first sustained attempt to map the history of Islamic reflection on this obligation, covers the origins of Muslim thinking about ‘forbidding wrong’, the relevant doctrinal developments over the centuries in all the major Islamic sects and schools, and its significance in Sunni and Shiite thought today. In this way, the book contributes to the understanding of contemporary Islamic politics and ideology and raises fundamental questions for the comparative study of ethics.
MICHAEL COOK is Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University. His publications include Population Pressure in Rural Anatolia, 1450–1600 (1972), Early Muslim Dogma (1981) and most recently The Koran: A Very Short Introduction (2000).