On Wednesday, January 15, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies held a roundtable discussion to examine "the nature of ‘Promotion of Virtue’ and its mechanism in the Islamic Jurisprudence" in which university lecturers, religious clerics, students, civil society and media participated.

The program speakers were Sayed Mohammad Mahdi Afzali, university lecturer, and Tariq Nabi, religious expert, with moderation by Zahra Morad.

Mr. Afzali’s remarks revolved around three issues: factors affecting development of human moral behavior and Islamic guidelines on building healthy social environment; the nature of ‘Promotion of Virtue’, its methods and the hierarchy of its implementation; and the risks of personal action on prevention of vice in a complex society.

In the first part of his speech, Mr. Afzali spoke of various factors affecting human development and listed the "social environment" as one of them. According to him, Islam has introduced strategies for the health of the community, given that the environment plays a role in one's spiritual growth or decline, including "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice", "jihad" and "emigration".

Second, Mr. Afzali spoke about the work of Michael Cook, American Orientalist, on the subject of ‘Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’, its methods, hierarchies, domain, conditions, and challenges to its implementation. According to him, ‘Promotion of Virtue’ is the basis for implementing other religious principles and values. Mr. Afzali said that raising awareness of individuals is one of the most effective ways of implementing this principle, given that its domain is to advice to any kind of good in various intellectual, cultural, political, social, and behavioral areas, and to forbid all forms of vice in all these areas.

According to Mr. Afzali, ‘Promotion of Virtue’ is an example of today’s culture of criticism that is emphasized by contemporary scholars. He emphasized on the Islam’s opposition to violating one’s personal and private life, emphasizing that the domain of ‘Promotion of Virtue’ is only public sphere.

Mr. Afzali also discussed three major Islamic schools of thought, such as, modernist, civilizational, and theistic, that have different ways of understanding and implementing religious principles. According to him, the theistic approach supports the application of this principle regardless of its anthropology and sociology. The modernist approach which emphasizes on individualism considers this principle as an example of intrusion into one’s personal and private life. The last school, accepts this principle given that its implementation is conditioned on considering anthropology and sociology of the society, on the one hand, and practicing this principle through social institutions, on the other. He said that disregarding these issues in studying the principle of ‘promotion of virtue’ undermines the image of religion and reduces this principle into an act of eliminating different thinking.

The second speaker on the program, Mr. Tariq Nabi, spoke about the jurisprudential definition of the Institution of ‘promotion of virtue’ in Islamic Thoughts; the History of the Institution with Different approaches from the era the Prophet of Islam to the formation of modern governments; and whether there is a place for this institution.

In answering the question, he said that with the formation of modern governments, two general approaches would emerge if we wanted to place the institution of ‘Promotion of Virtue’ in the framework of modern governments; 1) Interference with the functions of the modern state administration within the framework of laws, ministries and government departments, and so for the purpose of implementing this principles, the Ministries of Interior, Finance and Hajj, and the other major authorities such as the judiciary were created; 2) Legally Establishing the institution of ‘Promotion of Virtue’ in the public sphere will result in a duplicity of functions within the relevant institutions in the government.

At the end, Mr. Nabi said that implementation of the principle of ‘Promotion of Virtue’, given that it is an ethical principle, is related to people’s personal relationship and the relationship between an individual and his worships.

The program included questions from participants to which speakers responded.