Duty of Believers in Society According to Surah At-Tawbah
This is according to Hani Chitchian, a member of the Quran and Etrat School of the University of Tehran, speaking in the 22nd session in a series on Surah At-Tawbah. Following are excerpts from his remarks in the session:
There is a movement outside the Islamic society that seeks to establish the rule of others, not that of God. One of the main concepts of Surah At-Tawbah is that the existential philosophy of the Islamic government is the sovereignty of God, and disbelievers try to fight against this movement.
There are also groups within Islamic society that harm the cohesion of the society. They can be put into three categories. One group is basically hypocrites. The other group consists of those who could not prioritize the interests of Islamic society over their own, and because of this, they have moved away from the cause of Islamic society. The last group includes those who do not have deep faith.
The balk of people in Islamic society love their society but sometimes, their behavior sets the stage for division. If believers modify their behavior, these harmful groups will either not arise or if they do arise, they will not be able to harm Islamic society.
God has made orders to these groups. The first order is that believers should not love anything more than Jihad. The next one is that they should strongly avoid shirk (associating others with God). Shirk should not be normalized and this fight does not necessarily mean holding a sword. Another one is that people should just take God as their Lord, not anything or anyone else.
“Believers, fight the unbelievers who are near you. Let them find firmness in you. Know that Allah is with those who are cautious.” (Surah At-Tawbah, verse 123)
First of all, everyone is responsible for his immediate circle i.e. themselves, their family, and their neighborhood. Every believer has the duty to start the struggle from their surroundings. Secondly, people should be serious in this field. Seriousness does not mean holding a sword. Rather it means that if one is doing for instance cultural work, he should do it seriously because the enemy is serious in its deeds and threats. Sometimes we are not serious about fighting against shirk because we are not aware of our surroundings.
This confrontation will happen when everyone takes charge of their surroundings. One of the strategies in the military realm is that every soldier is tasked with defending an area, for example, 100 square meters. Accordingly, everyone should be serious at least in covering his immediate circle.
