Ma'ruf

For other uses, see Maruf (disambiguation).

Ma'ruf (Arabic: معروف) is an Islamic term. "The term that best helps us to understand the nature of Qurʾān ethical prescriptions is maʿrūf, a word that appears repeatedly (in slightly varying forms) in the Qurʾān"^[1] and used 38 times in the Quran. The word is most often found in the Qur'anic exhortation: امر بالمعروف و نهى عن المنكر "Amr bil Ma'ruf wa Nahy an al Munkar", often translated as "Enjoin the good and forbid the wrong".

Maʿrūf and munkar are widely discussed because of the duties the Quran imposes on believers through these concepts. Maʿrūf is seen as a key word in moral understanding of the Quran, and traditional commentators oppose the association of maʿrūf with its cognate urf, "custom."^[2]

Although most common translations of the phrase is "good", the words used by Islamic philosophy in determining good and evil discourses are ḥusn and qubh. In its most common usage, maʿrūf is "in accordance with the custom", while munkar, which has no place in the custom, as its opposite,^[3] singular (nukr). In today's religious expression, maʿrūf is sunnah (this concept was not different from custom in the beginning^[4][5]), munkar is meant as bid'a. (a related topic: Istihsan)

However, today, according to the meanings attributed to the term with meaning expansions that are not based on etymological connection, the word can be used as "well-known, universally accepted, ... that which is good, beneficial ...; fairness, equity, equitableness;".^[6]

Pre-modern Islamic literature describes pious Muslims (usually scholars) taking action to forbid wrong by destroying forbidden objects, particularly liquor and musical instruments.^[7] In the contemporary Muslim world, various state or parastatal bodies (often with phrases like the "Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" in their titles) have appeared in Iran, Saudi Arabia,^[8] Nigeria, Sudan, Malaysia, etc., at various times and with various levels of power.^[9]

See also

• Maharoof (Sri Lankan surname)
• Enjoining good and forbidding wrong
• Hisbah
• Ijma

References

1. Reinhart, A. Kevin (July 2017). "What We Know about Maʿrūf". Journal of Islamic Ethics. 1 (1–2): 51–82. doi:10.1163/24685542-12340004.
2. Hazratji, Z (September 2020). "The Application of ʻUrf in Islamic Law with Regard to Hijāb" (PDF). Astrolabe: A CIS Student Research Journal.
3. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6896913.pdf" ^{[bare URL]}
4. Juynboll, G. H. A. (1997). "Sunna". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Brill. pp. 878–879.
5. Hameed, Shahul (24 November 2014). "Why Hadith is Important". OnIslam.net. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
6. Wehr, Hans (January 2016). Searcheable PDF of the Hans Wehr Dictionary:. [A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic; Arabic-English. Librarie du Liban. p. 607. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
7. Cook, Forbidding Wrong, p.31
8. "Cats and dogs banned by Saudi religious police", NBC News, 18 December 2006.
9. Thielmann, Jörn (2017). "Ḥisba (modern times)". In Kate Fleet; Gudrun Krämer; Denis Matringe; John Nawas; Everett Rowson (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30485.