By: Saad bin Abdulrahman Al‑Husayn
A. The principle of enjoining good and forbidding evil has accompanied the Saudi state of renewal and monotheism from the very first day of its establishment in the 12th century AH (1158 AH), by God’s grace and favor. This is no surprise, for this religious duty is an inseparable component and a firm safeguard of a state that governs by the law of God—beginning with matters of creed: prohibiting supplication to anyone other than God, forbidding seeking aid from others besides Him, and rejecting vows made to shrines, tombs, mausoleums, or to those whose names such places bear, whether prophets or righteous individuals, truly or falsely. Then come the acts of worship—prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and almsgiving—as prescribed by God and His Messenger, followed by transactions, in this precise religious order according to their importance.
B. Since the Abbasid era (except during the reign of Al‑Mutawakkil, may God have mercy on him)—that is, for nearly a thousand years until God renewed His religion through the Saudi state—no state arose to uphold monotheism, the Sunnah, and the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil except this blessed state.
C. The Saudi state of renewal—alone for a thousand years—continues to uphold this duty. There are no shrines or tomb‑worship, no Sufi lodges, no public sale of alcohol, no trade, entertainment, or restaurants operating during prayer times, no sorcery or fortune‑telling, no granting of citizenship to non‑Muslims, no construction over graves, and no lowering of the national flag upon anyone’s death.
D. Enjoining good and forbidding evil was originally carried out voluntarily (iḥtisāb), until God granted kingship to the renewer, King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud—may God have mercy on him and on the House of Saud. He established an independent institution dedicated to this great religious duty, just as other religious and worldly institutions were established.
E. Among the most prominent figures in this field—voluntarily during the reign of King Abdulaziz, and institutionally during the reign of King Saud—was the eminent scholar Sheikh Omar bin Hassan Al‑Sheikh, may God have mercy on them all. He was a man of imposing presence. It is narrated that one of today’s senior leaders said: “My father, King Abdulaziz—may God have mercy on him—used to frighten us by mentioning Sheikh Omar bin Hassan.”
God had granted him vast knowledge, physical strength, social standing, noble character, and eloquence. He devoted most of his time to enjoining good and forbidding evil, traversing Riyadh east to west and north to south until two o’clock after midnight, before being appointed General President of the Committees for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil in the Central Region. It is said he slept no more than two hours a day.
After his appointment, he combined administrative work by day with nightly patrols—‘assas—voluntarily inspecting the city and its people, following the example of some of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.
I came to know him—may God have mercy on him—after graduating from the College of Sharia in Makkah and moving to Riyadh. I was young, with little knowledge or experience, yet he treated me as an equal. He had a strong friendship with my father, who served under his authority as head of the Committee in Shaqra. I pray for him every night, along with my father’s friends and the scholars of my era, including the great scholar Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim—may God have mercy on him—whose mosque served as an institute for students of religious knowledge before formal institutes and colleges existed. Among them also was the great scholar Abdullah bin Hassan Al‑Sheikh, whom King Abdulaziz entrusted with all religious affairs in Makkah, Madinah, and their surroundings—he was truly worthy of such responsibility.
F. Despite his awe‑inspiring presence, knowledge, and authority, Sheikh Omar bin Hassan Al‑Sheikh was gentle in speech and action, and even fond of humor at times. His longtime aide, Muhammad bin Ammar (who later became head of the Committee in Shaqra), told me that he once attended a gathering of Sheikh Omar and several senior members of the Al‑Sheikh family. They discussed the successful cooperation between the Al‑Saud and Al‑Sheikh families—the former entrusted with the sword, the latter with the Book—since the covenant between the two Muhammads in the mid‑12th century AH. The loudest and most talkative among them was the least knowledgeable. Sheikh Omar turned to his cheerful aide and asked for his opinion. He replied: “The Sheikh speaks the truth. I testify that the Al‑Saud have preserved the sword by God’s grace, and may God grant the successors of the Al‑Sheikh family success in preserving the Book as their predecessors did.”
G. Although Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab—may God have mercy on him—relinquished administrative religious authority to his student, Imam Abdulaziz bin Muhammad bin Saud, in 1187 AH (nineteen years before his death), Imam Abdulaziz was careful not to decide any matter without consulting him (as recorded in Ibn Ghannam’s history, edited by Dr. Nasr Al‑Din Al‑Asad, p. 89, 2nd edition). Today, most religious institutions are entrusted by the rulers—may God reward them—to members of the Al‑Sheikh family whom they deem worthy, may God grant them success in supporting His religion and the Sunnah of His Prophet.
The General Presidency for the Committees for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil is now headed by His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Abdul‑Latif bin Abdulaziz Al‑Sheikh, at a time when it was most in need of someone with his firmness, resolve, administrative skill, and methodology—someone capable of purifying it from partisan and ideological infiltrators who occupied it for years, causing more harm than good, prioritizing the secondary over the essential in religion, and placing party interests above the public good.
The strong, trustworthy Salafi president has been keen to restore the institution to the Salafi path upon which the blessed state and its blessed call were founded from the very first day of each of its three historical phases—focusing on the first command God sent His messengers with: to single out God alone in supplication and worship, and to forbid associating partners with Him, followed by the acts of worship, and then by lawful transactions—in this divinely ordained order, not the reverse. Praise be to God.