The Effective Methods of Social Supervision in Nahj-Al-Bilaghah

The importance of social supervision for the prevention of individual and group deviance in the Islamic society is visible when referring to the recommendations in the religious prescriptions and the variety of its methods including the divine, individual, organizational, and communal supervision. The communal supervision arising from the responsibility in the individuals has been embodied in the form of two religious obligations of “the prevention of vice and promotion of virtue”. Despite the significance of the debate, however, it seems that the reduction of the obligations to the traditional methods has made it affectless especially among the youths. The present research seeks to suggest novel and effective methods based on Nahj-al-Bilaghah.
Having investigated the Nahjul Bilaghah, it becomes clear that other than the direct prevention and promotion methods, Imam Ali (PBUH) has also invited to the virtues and prevented from vices indirectly. In his words, the indirect methods have been adopted based on time, setting, and the audience, from persuasion to reprimand to prayer, curse, exclamation, questioning, preaching, etc.
This research uses descriptive-analytical method for the analysis of data to examine the various methods of social supervision in Nahj-al-Bilaghah