Hisbah (Arabic: حسبة‎ ḥisbah) is an Islamic doctrine which means "accountability". Hisbah is an individual or collective duty (depending on the school of law) to intervene and "enjoin good and forbid wrong" in order to maintain the norms of sharia (Islamic law). The doctrine is based on an expression from the Quran (الأمر بالمَعْرُوف والنَهي عن المُنْكَر). Differences in scholarly debates over the duty to “command right and forbid wrong” stemmed from the positions taken by jurists (ʿulamāʾ) on questions regarding who precisely was responsible for carrying out the duty, to whom it was to be directed, and what its performance entailed. Often, these debates were framed according to what Michael Cook calls the “three modes” tradition, a tradition based on a prophetic hadith which identifies th