INTRODUCTION

As you watch television, read the newspaper, or pass by somewhere, you run into many issues which you would rather not hear about or see. People abandoned to hunger, murders, massacres, the oppressed unable to stand up for their rights, discord, curses, insulting and demeaning language, and general unrest, for which the blame can be attributed to conflicts of interests, and tyrannies and so on...

There is no doubt that you, like everyone else, would like to live in a society where people are committed to peace and security, where people hesitate to oppress or harm one another, and always hear good, loving, caring, and honoring words from one another. Such an environment, ensuring a structure of relationships shaped by respect and love, is everyone's dream. As you flip through channels on television, turn the pages of a newspaper, at home or at your workplace, you would love to see happy, joyful, friendly, sincere, honest, respectful people of good nature displaying moral perfection. Surely, you would like to hear nothing but good news.

However, hoping that one day things will spontaneously change for the better would only be wishful thinking. Therefore, those who are sincerely willing to live in a society where peace, security and freedom prevail, should waste no time in taking action and be willing to make certain sacrifices.

Once you carefully evaluate events unfolding around with intelligence, conscience and common sense, you will recognize the existence of people who are whole-heartedly committed to establishing all the values of goodness mentioned above, and who devote all their time, resources and energy to this cause. While these people, wholly devoted to an all-out effort to make righteousness and good prevail, are exposed to unfair treatment from time to time, or intimidated by those parties against goodness, you must never let it discourage you. That is because, by the Will of God, the people who strive for goodness will certainly triumph over those who are wicked. So, you must unite with these "good" people, who are sincere, compassionate, true, just, honest, merciful, tolerant, fair, optimistic, charitable, unpretentious and forgiving, and offer them all your support.

When you look around, as well as the good, you can also identify the evil ones and the type of society they intend to establish. In our day, the "evil ones" have established an apparently powerful alliance, and most likely, through their various methods, have silenced and intimidated many people advocating good morals. Behind all the evil you are not willing to acknowledge around, but which you can nonetheless not avoid, namely tyranny, corruption, disaffection, hatred, mercilessness, injustice, poverty, gossip, everything that upsets, annoys and distresses people, lies this concerted alliance of the evil.

The good and conscientious should never remain indifferent to this ever-present menace. If this evil moves you at all and you hope for a trouble-free world, then you are evidently a person of conscience. Thus, before vice takes hold of you and blunts your conscience, you should ally yourself with the good, and for the rest of your life, devote all your efforts to this cause. Never forget that turning a blind eye to oppression and watching from the sidelines is oppression.

No one should muffle his own voice with the excuse: "will my effort be of any help?", because it is one's inner intentions and sincere efforts which ultimately make the difference. One's efforts to join forces with the good and strive for what is right will be rendered by God a means to abolish all this wickedness and the alliance the evil endeavour to establish. In a verse of the Qur'an, God stresses the necessity for the existence of people who will prevent the harm of evil on earth:

Why were there not, among the generations before you, persons possessed of balanced good sense, prohibiting (men) from mischief in the earth - except a few among them whom We saved (from harm)? Those who did wrong gladly pursued the life of luxury that they were given and were evildoers. (Surah Hud: 116)

This book is a call to those who want goodness to prevail, bidding them to engage in good deeds and ally with the good. However, this call is not made to someone or some people somewhere out there; but directly concerns you. Even if you had until now allied with the evil, this book calls you to repent and to be on the side of the good and live by true moral values until death comes upon you.