The obligation to enjoin good and forbid evil on every mukallaf is greater with respect to his family and relatives.
Therefore, if with regard to his family and relatives he feels that they are inattentive to, and unconcerned about, religious obligations such as performing prayers (ṣalāh), keeping fasts (ṣawm), paying the one-fifth tax (khums), and suchlike, or if he sees that they are careless and fearless with regard to committing unlawful acts such as backbiting and lying, then he must prevent improper actions being performed by them and invite them to do good deeds with a greater sense of importance while observing the three levels of enjoining good and forbidding evil.
However, with regard to one’s mother and father, the obligatory precaution is that he must guide them by adopting a soft and gentle approach, and he must never be harsh with them. [1] Āl ʿImrān (Chapter 3), verse 104. [2] M. Ḥ. al-Nūrī, Mustadrak al‑Wasāʾil wa Mustanbaṭ al‑Masāʾil, Qum: Muʾassisah Āl al-Bayt ʿAlayhim al-Salām, 1987, vol. 12, p. 181. [3] M. Al-Raḍī (compiler), Nahj al‑Balāghah, Qum: Hijrat, 1993, Letter 47 (Ṣubḥī al-Ṣāliḥ arrangement).
[4] This is an obligation that every duty-bound person must perform irrespective of whether others have also performed it or not. [5] M. al-Kulaynī, al‑Kāfī, Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyyah, 1986, vol. 5, p. 59. [6] A mukallaf is someone who is legally obliged to fulfil religious duties. CHAPTER EIGHT » Alms Tax (Zakat) DISTRIBUTION OF KHUMS العربية فارسی اردو English Azərbaycan Türkçe Français