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388chapter sixscribe] wrong—with God rests the end (and decision) of (all) affairs.( Al-\ajj 22:41)These verses attach even more things to the task ‘to prescribe whatis right and to proscribe what is wrong’:a) to believe in God (as above);b) to observe prayers;c) to practise charity;d) to obey God and His Messenger in what they have ordered andprohibited;e) to observe the limits set by God.We notice that the tasks to observe prayers and to practise charityeither precede the task ‘to prescribe what is right and to proscribewhat is wrong’ (22:41) or follow it (9:71). Again, we understand thatthe conjunction wa- (and) is meant to connect different things andthat it does not imply a hierarchy (of importance). And yet, some ofthe tasks mentioned are practised purely on a personal level (beliefin God, prayer, obedience to God and His Messenger), while othersare practised both on a personal and a collective level (to prescribewhat is right, to proscribe what is wrong, to practise charity, toobserve the limits of God). If they are practised on a collective level,they need to be organised, properly administered, and controlled.But neither on a personal nor on a collective level is it allowed toapply pressure, force, or compulsion.How the fuqah§" and #ulam§" Have Misconstrued the Qur"anic PhraseIn order to strengthen their grip on people’s private and public lives,it became necessary for our h§m§n§t scholars to arrive at a legalpretext that concealed their true intention, which was to gain fullcontrol of what the common people felt and thought. Some scholarsused the pretext of calling themselves the guardians of religion; othersclaimed that they were the legitimate heirs of the prophets, a thirdgroup claimed to be the friends of God (auliy§t All§h), while a fourthmaliciously used their misreading of the Book to secure them a specialposition within the umma of the Muslim-Believers. As for the thirdgroup, just listen to the preposterous claims of a scholar such asal-NawawÊ and his quite inventive way to use the Prophet (ß) for hispurposes. In his book al-Tiby§n fÊ §d§b Èamalat al-qur"§n, he says,#al-Bukh§rÊ narrated from Abå Hurayra in his ‘aÈÊÈ that theMessenger of Allah (ß) said: