By Michael Cook, 2009
The leading orientalist, Michael Cook was greatly influenced by Imam Abou Hamid Al-Ghazali's book The Revival of Religious Sciences, in which he said that the injunction of good deeds and the admonition against evil deeds represents the true essence of Islam. Encouraged by the Imam's insights, Cook set out to investigate the whole matter as it is encountered in the written theological literature of Islam.
Being a professor at the Near East Studies Department of Princeton University, he made an extensive study of the legacy of writings on these two Islamic maxims and the attitudes adopted by different Islamic groups and sects on both of them. The study has been recently published by the Arab Network of Publishing and Research. It was translated and the translation was revised and introduced by Dr. Redwan Al-Sayed, Dr. Abdedl Rahman Al-Salimy and Dr. Ammar Al-Galasy, respectively.
Cook's book is based on hundreds of printed resources and manuscripts which the author used as references. It provides a profound reading of the core spirit of Islam from the perspective of contemporary religious and moral problems and tackles aspects of culpability on the individual and state level in the current global context.
Cook examined the Sharia texts and prophetic traditions which preach good deeds and admonish against evil deeds, prominent among which is the famous tradition on the three graded ways to eradicate evil. It runs as follows: “Let any of you who see a wrong deed eradicate it with thy hand, if that is possible, if not let it be with thy tongue and if that is not possible too, eradicate it in thy heart".
This Hadith occupied a distinguished status among other religious sayings as it provides a solid basis for successive generations upon which classical theories of preaching and admonition were built. While Quran dictates direct commands in this regard, this prophetic tradition provides a graded methodology in encountering the perpetration of evil deeds, that is by actions, words or thought.
Then Cook proceeds to analyze the Hanbalites position, then that of Mutazlites and Shiites on this topic. He finally alludes to the stance of the First, Second and Third Saudi States on the matter with special reference to the developments in both Sunni and Shiite theology in this connection.
