Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought

What duty do we have to stop others from doing wrong? The question is intelligible in almost any culture, but few 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. Michael Cook's comprehensive and compelling analysis represents the first sustained attempt to chart the history of Islamic reflection on this obligation and to explain its relevance for politics and ideology in the contemporary Islamic world.

"The author's erudition is mindboggling; his precision never wavers; his analyses are consistently trenchant and frequently startling. For specialists this work is a feast; for non-specialists it offers fresh insights into an entire range of central concerns about the religion of Islam and Islamic societies." Professor Everett Rowson, University of Pennsylvania

"Michael Cook's deeply penetrating and exhaustive examination of this sacred duty will undoubtedly set the standard for all future work on the subject. ...Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought is encyclopedic in scope and breath taking in analysis. ...The value of Cook's study is immeasurable for all students of Islam whatever their disciplinary training and perspective." Digest of Middle East Studies

"[Michael Cook's] account of how injustice and immorality have been confronted by Muslim thinkers provides an unusual and fascinating perspective on the social history of Islam. It also furnishes an essential basis for understanding the roots of modern Islamic rigorism. This is one of the most important scholarly works dealing with Islam to have been produced in the western world in the last one hundred years." Dr. Robert Irwin

"This work is one of the most meticulous studies of any aspect of Islamic thought and practice ever to have been produced...One wishes that a greater number of serious academic studies showed this work's combination of amazing erudition, clarity of expression, trenchant observation, and lightness of touch...Introductions to Islamic law and theology are fairly numerous now, but none is as engaging to read as this."
Alan S. Kaye, Journal of Near Eastern Studies