It is necessary, at the beginning, to provide our brothers and sisters with a
brief introduction to the Nahj-ul-Balagha. As you know, the Nahj-ul-Balagha is
a collection of Sermons, Letters and miscellaneous Sayings left as a memorial
from the Master of the Pious, the Commander of the Faithful, All, peace be upon
him. This book is divided into three sections of Sermons, Letters and short
Sayings or' wise Sayings' (hikam), as they are usually called, some of which
have been selected from among the Sermons and Letters.
The Nahj-ul-Balagha dates back to about one thousand years ago when the late
Seyyid Radi compiled these Letters and Sermons at the end of the third and the
outset of the fifth century (400A.H.) the Hejra after. It is, thus, a one
thousand year old book. It is to be noted, however, that before Seyyid Radi
made efforts in compiling All's Sermons and Sayings, they were scattered in the
books of the Traditions' and history. Other scholars had also begun to perform
this task in one way or another, but no one succeeded in accomplishing what
Sayyid Radi did. Therefore, we are indebted to the endeavors and initiatives of
this great scholar who left the Nahj-ul-Balagha for us.
Another point to be noted here is that, in addition to the contents of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, a number of Sermons, Letters and short Sayings of Ali, peace
be upon him, can be found in different books which recent scholars have tried
to compile and introduce as appendices to the Nahj-ul-Balagha. Therefore, in
addition to the N2hjal-Balagha which is, in itself, a rich and invaluable
treasure, here are some other books of All's Sayings which shall later be
introduced to the readers in detail so that they may obtain a general
acquaintance with the bibliography of the Nahj-ul-Balagha and its related
books.
Another point to note about the Nahj-ul-Balagha concerns the invalidity of this
book, a claim made by some people over the years. The motive behind such a
claim can easily be surmised, that is, the subject matter of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha threatened the interests of some groups or classes of people
who therefore found the best device, to be discrediting the book itself. It is
also true of the personality of individuals, and for this same reason those who
considered the personality of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, to be
against their personal or group interests, naturally tried to distort it. In
the same manner, they claimed that the Nahj-ul-Balagha was invalid on the
grounds that they said it was without any authority (sanad).
It is clear that the Nahj-ul-Balagha is in the category of Traditions upon
which we depend for the understanding of Islamic teachings, as well as the
Traditions of the Prophet and the Book (the Holy Qur'an). There is no doubt as
to the authority of the Holy Qur'an, but as to the Traditions, valid
authorities are needed to remove any doubts, i.e., the narrators of a certain
Tradition, including the Imams and the Prophet, should be known and
trustworthy. This has always been the main concern of our great narrators and
jurisprudents in eliciting and understanding the divine ordinances.
Thus, we have the 'science of rijal' which deals with the recognition of
narrators of Traditions and the 'science of diraya' which concerns the recognition
and analysis of Traditions and which determines the correct and the unreliable
Traditions. Thus, this attention to detail that a Tradition must have an
authority and that authority must be valid, is necessary. It is because of this
that today great emphasis is put on expertise in understanding Islamic
sciences. An individual, who is not an expert, accepts the Traditions which
accord with his own intellect, understanding and mental background and rejects
all others. This leads to the weakening of the religion.
When an expert wants to rely on a Tradition, he first tries to acknowledge its
authority and validity through his special expertise. This necessity has been
taken care of by our jurisprudents in their recognition and understanding of
Islamic laws and regulations. Now, some people asserted that the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, as a collection of Traditions which should be based on valid
authorities, was without any authority and, therefore, was invalid and
unreliable.
As a matter of fact, in one way these people were telling the truth for no
chain of narrators are mentioned in the Nahj-ul-Balagha in any of the Sermons
so that they can be attributed to the Commander of the Faithful and the
truthfulness of such narrators could be sought. However, in the books of Traditions
such as Vasa-al-Shi'a, al-Kafi and the like, as well as in the old history
books. such as those of Tabari, ibn Athir and Ya'qubi, no chain of authorities
can be found concerning the contents of the Nahj-ul-Balagha.
Firstly, although the Nahj-ul-Balagha itself does not mention the chain of
authorities and narrators, this can be checked in the Shi'ite and Sunni books
of Traditions where from the Sermons, Letters and Sayings of this book have
been extracted and compiled. Several years ago, one of the Arab writers wrote a
book entitled Madarik Nahj-ul-Balagha wa Masanidu (The Documents and
Authorities of Nahj-ul-Balagha) which may later be introduced to the readers in
an analysis of the books written about the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In this book, the
writer has quoted the authentic authorities of the Sermons, Letters and Sayings
of the Nahj-ul-Balagha from the books of the Traditions. it is therefore,
concluded that the content, of the Nahj-ul-Balagha should not be considered to
be without authority on the mere ground that the book itself does not mention
any authority.
Secondly, although the authorities of Traditions are proper means of reliance
or vice versa, the text of Traditions can also be a means of obtaining
confidence for one who undertakes research, i.e. when you study a text and find
its contents miraculous (as you will, God-Willing, observe when interpreting
Ali's words), when you see that in one sentence the writer has referred to
something beyond the prevailing mentality of his own time, which others have
been able to understand only in the course of centuries, when you are faced
with a saying that predicts future events which cannot be presaged except by
the likes of Amir al-Muminin who are in contact with endless divine knowledge
and, in addition to all these merits, when you observe the highly eloquent
words and expressions of the writer, it becomes quite clear to you that he is
not an ordinary human being and that his saying cannot be but those of an
immaculate Imam.
Based upon this, Seyyid Radi states that certain words and expressions of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha, are matchless in human expression, something which has never
been opposed, in the course of one thousand years, by eloquent writers, Islamic
thinkers and even the adversaries of Islam. These people have always accepted
that some statements of the Nahj-ul-Balagha are superior to human expression
and beyond the ordinary level of the human being's knowledge at that time. The
conclusion is therefore drawn that, despite the absence of the chain of
authorities and narrators in the Nahj-ul-Balagha, this book is undoubtedly that
of the Commander of the Faithful and reliable as such.
Thirdly, as you know and as we mentioned previously, the Nahj-ul-Balagha
consists of the Sermons (i.e. lectures, not the sermons delivered in the Friday
ritual prayers, although the book may have included some of these sermons as
well), Letters and short Sayings of Ali, peace be upon him, which he expressed
and wrote as a teacher, ruler and an Islamologist. Thus, in addition to
reflecting the general lines of Islamic thought, these Sermons and Letters also
cover daily matters, i.e. the current problems and difficulties of Amir al
Muminin's life.
In our own time, that is, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, many similar
aspects can be found between our social situation and that of Amir al-Muminin's
time, although our situation is more similar in many respects (i.e. enemies,
enmities and other problems) to the Medina social situation at the time of the
Prophet's migration. The difference, however, between the social situation of
Ali's rule and that of the Prophet lies in the fact that under the Prophet's
rule, the enemy had a clear and well-known position, that is, not even one
single group of the adversaries of Islam shared an aspect common to the
Prophet. The atheists among the Quraish, the Jews of Medina, the western and
eastern superpowers of the time and the Christians of Najran, each had slogans
of their own. In fact, there was no organized group to cry the same slogan as
that of the Prophet and, at the same time, to stand openly against him in
fight. Accordingly, the Prophet suffered a great deal but never felt the heavy
sorrows that All ibn Abi Talib tolerated during his reign.
There were hypocrites at the time of the Prophet as well but, first of all,
they were not organized; secondly, they did not have a manifest position
against the Prophet and they did not use the same slogans as those of the
Prophet so that the people might doubt as to whether the Prophet was truthful
or his rivals. Thirdly, the hypocrites were more or less known to all the
people. For instance, everyone, including his own son, knew that Abdullah ibn
Ubaid was the head of the hypocrites and even his son suggested to the Prophet
to kill his father or prevent him from entering Medina if the Prophet
permitted.
On the contrary, at the time of the rule of Amir al Muminin, those who fought
him used exactly the same slogans as his. Moreover, they were among the
distinguished personalities of the time, with long, past records. For example,
the group of the Nakithin (the breakers of allegiance or the front in the
'Battle of the Camel' comprising Talha, Zubair and Ayesha) fought the Commander
of the Faithful with his own slogans - slogans in favor of Islam and the truth.
The group of Qasitin, (the front of Mu'awiya, the Damascus front), too,
pretended in such a way that the impartial observers fell in a state of doubt
as to which group was telling the truth. When you study Mu'awiya's letters to
Ali, you find exactly the same words as those of Ali to him. For example, Ali
addresses, „From the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib to Mu'awiya
ibn Abi Sufyan", and Mu'awiya writes, „From the Commander of the Faithful,
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan to All ibn Abi Talib".
Mu'awiya does not introduce himself as 'the commander of the faithless' or 'the
commander of the polytheists' but, exactly like Ali, as the Commander of the
Faithful. Then Ali advises Mu'awiya, for instance, to be pious to fear God and
to refrain from wasting the blood of Muslims, and Mu'awiya uses the same advice
for Ali. Therefore, the problem of Ali is that his enemy is not a manifest
enemy in the eyes of the people, for whatever he offers is also offered by the
enemy and, as a result, he cannot show the real character of the opposing front
to the people. It is true, of course, that Ali had a great deal to say but not
all the words spoken can necessarily be understood by those who hear and this
was Ali's constant sorrow. Perhaps this was the reason why he used to sit
beside a well and speak into it about his grievances. In fact, other than a
group of people who were completely faithful to Ali for a special reason, and
not because they observed his doings and prayers or they heard about Mu'awiya's
evil deeds, others were always in doubt as to which side was telling the truth,
for they witnessed, as an example, that in the Battle of Siffin, both sides
performed the congregational ritual prayer with humility and modesty.
Thus, a hypocritical atmosphere was characteristic of society during the time
of Ali. This does not imply, however, that all the people were hypocrites. Even
the followers of Mu'awiya were a group of honest, tribal Arabs, from the area
around Damascus, who had, from the very outset of their conversion to Islam,
seen and known no governors except Mu'awiya and his family.1 They knew Islam
through the words of these people. They had heard so many good things about
them - that they were scribes of the divinely revealed Book, that since Mu'awiya's
sister was the Prophet's wife and thus called 'Umm al-Mu'minin (mother of the
believers), Mu'awiya was Khal al-Muminin (maternal uncle of the believers)2 -
that they supported Mu'awiya and fought against All with the best of
intentions. So they were not hypocrites. However, unlike the time of the
Prophet, society enjoyed an air of hypocrisy, about which more explanation may,
God-willing, be provided when discussing the words and sayings of the Commander
of the Faithful.
This atmosphere of hypocrisy is also a peculiarity of our own time, although
from the point of view of social conditions, enmities, manner of opposition,
hostile parties and so forth, our time is more comparable to the time of the
Prophet. Today, the so-called followers of 'progressive Islam' in our society
are those groups who oppose each other quite openly. Also, those who claim to
be followers of the 'line of the Imam' sometimes draw swords against one
another. Those who claim to act for the benefit of the Islamic Republic or to follow
the policy of 'neither East nor West' are often so divided among themselves
that nothing but a hostile relationship can be attributed to them. In fact, it
cannot be said that they have differences of opinion, for they are exactly at
the opposite side of one another. Therefore, taking into account that each of
these groups finds some followers for itself, we see that our society resembles
the society at the time of Ali.
The importance of the Nahj-ul-Balagha then lies in two dimensions. First, it
speaks about the fundamental of Islam such as the matters concerning God, the
human being, Islamic views of humanity, prophethood and its position in human
history, the dignity and prophethood of the Prophets and other matters which
are today, a means of understanding Islam and thus necessary for us to study.
Secondly, the Nahj-ul-Balagha refers to the social problems of a hypocritical
society with which we deal today. Accordingly, this book can be a source of
Inspiration for us as regards the social and political problems of life and the
possible solutions to them.
The fourth point about the Nahj-ul-Balagha is that a great number of its
sermons are unfortunately incomplete, i.e. either from the beginning or from
the end of each sermon some statements have been omitted. Even, in some cases,
Seyyid Radi has omitted statements from the middle of a sermon and then
continued the rest of it with the phrase "and from that", which is
what the journalists and reporters do repeatedly today. Now, we know nothing about
the omitted parts and this creates some difficulties in interpreting the
content of the Nahj-ul-Balagha. The reason why Seyyid Radi has made these
omissions is that the Nahj-ul-Balagha (The Peak of Eloquence), as its name
indicates, has been compiled from an artistic point of view, i.e. eloquence of
expression. This does not mean, however, that he has been heedless of the
subject matter and has merely paid attention to the artistic aspects of Ali's
Sayings. Yet', this eloquent man, one of the great Arab poets of his own time,
has dealt with the Nahj-ul-Balagha with a poetic outlook.
He has endeavored to pick out All's most beautiful and eloquent words and
statements just as one tries to choose the best distich of a sonnet. This is
why a type of semantic disconnection is observed among the statements of some
Sermons.
It is to be noted, of course, that both the highly eloquent and non-eloquent
Sayings of Ali carry very magnificent purports, and it is these purports which
make us appreciate the Nahj-ul-Balagha, now, in the fourteenth century (A.11.)
more than a great scholar of the fourth century (Seyyid Radi) did. As a matter
of fact, the human being has naturally faced so many hardships in the course of
centuries that he or she understands Ali's words and message and the call of
Islam from his tongue more easily than those who lived centuries ago.
It is important, as well, to know that when Seyyid Radi was compiling Ali's
words and sayings, there were few people who valued All and his words as much
as you value them today. Thus, Ali's lines of thought were only followed by a
minority.
On the other hand, those people who took care of All's Sayings and tried to
compile them, attached more (or at least equal) importance to the form and
beauty as to the content of his statements and omitted some parts which they
considered less beautiful than others. If you were Seyyid Radi you would
definitely not treat Ali's words in this way. You would instead, try to benefit
more from the contents of Ali's sayings. This is why we believe that today Ali
and his words are more appreciated than in the fourth century, and this is why
history is moving towards All and his message, something that we should
accelerate.
The main subjects of the Nahj-ul-Balagha which we are going to discuss in this
book are as follows:
Fundamental Beliefs
A part of Nahj-ul-Balagha is about monotheism, humanity, the Last Day,
prophethood, Imamat and other fundamental principles of Islam. Of course,
contrary to the manner of the dialecticians in the third and the fourth
centuries, these subjects have been discussed in the Nahj-ul-Balagha with a
kind of mystical and spiritual approach. Thus, the words of All about
monotheism, for instance, are quite different from the words of Nasir al-din
Tusi and other Islamic philosophers and theologians.
Social and Political Matters
These matters consist of both general and specific social affairs including the
administration of or Islamic country, the relation between governors and
subordinates, letters to the rulers of different states (the famous letter to
Malik Ashtar, for instance), the, way of facing the enemy, decisiveness free
from improper hate and revenge, treating both friends and enemies exactly as
they deserve, being not subjected to credulity and naivety and many other
social matters of that time and of the whole history.
Morality
The training and purification of the human being's soul are among other
subjects discussed in the Nahj-ul-Balagha, which we shall, God-willing, talk
about in the coming pages.
Peace and the mercy of God be upon you.
Lesson one
Prophethood (nubuwwah)
Prophethood is among the subjects which have been dealt with in the
Nahj-ul-Balagha and a discussion about which can help us understand one of the
basic principles of Islam. In fact, it is not only a subject which can be
followed throughout the Nahj-ul-Balagha but one of the most important and
fundamental principles of Islamic ideology. I have repeatedly mentioned in
various discussions that in order to analyze and understand the numerous
matters of Islamic thought and ideology, the principle of prophethood is an
axis around which these matters can be discussed as well. As -to the principle
of monotheism, we believe that its social and revolutionary dimensions can only
be clarified when we discuss it within the vast spectrum of the matters
concerning prophethood.
Accordingly, our method in this chapter is to point out and analyze the
different dimensions of prophethood and to support our discussion with an
explanation of Ali's ibn Abi Talib's sayings wherever necessary. In this
manner, two aims will be fulfilled, i.e. some important sections of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha will be translated and interpreted, and an issues among the
basic Islamic principles will be made apparent.
It is to be mentioned at the beginning that in the discussion about
prophethood, revelation and its relevant matters will not be discussed. Rather,
prophethood will be viewed as a historical reality and an unquestionable event.
Undoubtedly, prophethood has existed as a phenomenon in the history of mankind.
There is no difference of opinion in this regard between us and those who
disbelieve in lt. However, the difference lies in the interpretation of this
event and the message it conveys. In fact, no one denies such personalities as
Moses, Jesus and other Prophets whether or not the history of their lives be
more or less known or vague. History reports that all of them have existed.
Therefore, prophethood will be considered as a historical event in our
discussion and the following questions will be answered in the analysis which
follows:
1. What was the social background (social, temporal and historical situation)
when this event occurred?
2. Where did this event originate? Did it appear among the kings, the
oppressed, the scholars and thinkers... which class of people?
3. What position did it enjoy? Was it to the benefit of a special class of
people? Was it directed towards material advantages? 'Was it directed towards
mystical and spiritual aspects of life? What was its social and intellectual
direction?
4. What was the pros and cons when the Prophet first offered his message? Who
were those who opposed it and to which class of the society did they belong?
What were their motives and means of opposition? Who were in favor of it and to
which class did they belong? What were their motives and how did they assist
the Prophet?
5. What was the aim behind the message of prophethood? Was prophethood aimed at
material welfare? Was it aimed at class distinction? Was it aimed at enhancing
the level of people's knowledge and understanding? Was it aimed at opposing or
accounting for the powers of the time?
6. Did the Prophet call the people? Was it 'monotheism' with its social,
political, economic and revolutionary dimensions?
Answering these questions, with regard to Islamic texts and records, will shed
light on different aspects of this social reality and will acquaint us with a
vast scope of Islamic thought. Of course the Nahj-ul-Balagha will be the axis
of our discussion, although different verses of the Holy Qur'an as well as
mental reasoning may be of great help both in answering the questions and in
interpreting All's words.
The first question which is relevant is "What grounds were available for
the manifestations of prophethood?» What was the social, economic and
historical setting for the appearance of the Prophets? And among which class of
people have they appeared? The Nahj-ul-Balagha has answered these questions on
several occasions. In the first sermon, speaking about monotheism, the creation
of heavens and the earth, the angels and other matters, the appearance of the
Prophets and the background to prophethood in general are discussed as well.
We read the preceding sentence so that the connection to this matter is made
clear.
From his progeny (Adam) God chose prophets and took their pledge for His
revelation and for carrying His message as their trust. In the course of time,
many people perverted God's trust with them and ignored His position and took
partners along with Him. Satan turned them away from knowing Him and kept them
aloof from His worship. Then sent His messengers and series of His prophets
towards them to let them fulfill the pledges of His creation, to recall to them
his bounties....3 The last part of this quotation reveals some peculiarities of
the community in the 'Age of Ignorance', in which Prophets were sent by God to
people. These peculiarities are hereunder explained.
It says that 'in course of time many people perverted God's' trust. The Holy
Qur'an speaks about 'ahd on several occasions, examples of which are given
below,
„Thy Lord has decreed you shall not serve any but Him ... " (17:23) „Made
I not covenant with you, children of Adam, that you should not serve Satan -
surely he is a manifest foe to you ... ?" (36:60) „... and God made them
testify concerning themselves, 'Am I not your Lord?
'they said,' Yes, we testify ... " (7:172)
These verses imply that God's covenant ('ahd) is to abstain from servitude to
Satan, that man's servitude should be exclusively for God and that human beings
have primordially admitted that they are servants of God and should serve Him
alone.
This is the meaning of 'ahd (trust and covenant)to which the Commander of the
Faithful refers in the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In fact, he says that most of the people
broke their allegiance with God and disobeyed His commands by worshipping
idols, taking partners (holders of power and possessions) along with Him,
imposing themselves on other people as worship-deserving idols and perverting
the divine decree through ignoring or exclusive obedience to God.
It was under these conditions, the Commander of the Faithful asserts, that God
brought about prophethood and appointed His Prophets. This is also emphasized
in other statements of the first Sermon after describing the appearance of the
Prophet of Islam and not the appearance of the prophets at large, although the
social conditions and mental atmosphere in which all the Prophets, including
Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others, have appeared have been the same, and thus
what is said about the Prophet of Islam fits other Prophets as well.
„The statements run as under the people of the earth at this time were divided
in different Parties, their aims were separate and their ways were diverse.
They either likened God with His creation or twisted His Names or turned to
other than Him. ..,"4
It says that the Prophet was appointed to prophethood at a time when people
were divided in groups with different ways of thinking, i.e.. a universal
mentality did not govern the is minds of all people, which indicates the lack
of an acceptable culture at that time, separation among people and, finally,
ignorance. It continues with the statement that 'their aims were separate'.
This has two implications. The simple one is that in different parts of the
community or in different corners of the world people enjoyed desires and
manners of their own. The members of each community or class of people favored
something which the members of other classes and communities despised. In fact,
the society at large lacked a common aim and aspiration, which shows the
decline of that society.
The second implication is that there was not more than a few poles of power
throughout the world at that time, and they were Sassanian Kings, Roman
Emperors, Ethiopian Sultans and other despots, dictators and idols who stood at
the peak of their communities, ruling over the people with tyranny and
according to their own aims, desires and self-centeredness. The existence of
insufficiencies and oppression in the Iranian community, the existence of
impenetrable classes among the people, the boundless mastery of Brahmans,
aristocrats and soldiers over the lower classes and the existence of moral,
cultural, economic and class tyrannies, the pressure of which tortured the
people, were all a manifestation of the sensuality and selfishness of the idols
(kings) who possessed the leadership of the Iranian community. Thus, the whims
and desires of a minority dominated all the affairs of a majority of mankind.
„They likened God with His creation". It implies that those people who,
according to their nature and spiritual feelings, believed in the existence of
a diety and a creator, found it in the form of creatures and small, imperfect
beings. Some of them worshipped cows as their gods. Others worshipped stone or
wooden idols. In fact, all the people were in some way or another worshippers
of God as their nature demanded but they were devoid of a perfect knowledge
concerning God. This was the most manifest perversion.
"They twisted His Names or turned to other than Him». This was a kind of
mental deviation prevailing among the believers of God. They were actually so
involved in the Name of God that they could not take step beyond it. In ancient
times, for example, those who had a vague view of God in their minds, being
unable to know God perfectly, turned to His Names Allah, Mannan or Ilah and
worshipped them. They were ignorant of the reality of God.
Another example can be observed in the extremist ideologies of today. Advocates
of these ideologies claim to believe in God but if they are asked what God is,
they cannot explain the true concept and meaning of this word. Rather, they
take the 'whole existence', the rules governing nature and the cause and
effect, conventions current in nature and history to be a god. They lack the
ability to know the real meaning of God, i.e. to know Him as an independent
'Necessary Being' who is undoubtedly the Creator of this universe rather than
being Himself the universe. They cannot perceive this reasonable, philosophical
concept. Thus, they are confused about the Name and the real Being of God.
Naturally, wisdom, love, knowledge, spiritual attractions and moral Attributes,
all of which originate from monotheism and a knowledge of God, do not develop
in them and, therefore, prayers, incantations and the wise prayers of Imam
Sajjad, peace be upon him, for example, become meaningless to them.
Accordingly, what such people worship is 'God' as a word without being
concerned with its meaning and concept. This is a sign of the decline and
deviation of religious as well as a characteristic of the people who lived at
the time when Prophets appeared.
In the second Sermon, the Commander of the faithful has more detailed
statements concerning the social background to the appearance of the prophets.
They run as follows „At that time people had fallen in to vices whereby the
rope of religion had been broken, the pillars of belief had been shaken,
principles had been sacrileged, systems had become topsy turvy, openings were
narrow, passages were dark, guidance was unknown and darkness prevailed. God
was being disobeyed. Satan was given support and Belief had been forsaken. As a
result, the pillars of religion fell down, its traces could not be discerned,
its passages had been destroyed and its streets had fallen into decay. People
obeyed Satan and tread his paths. They sought water from his watering places.
Through them Satan's emblems and his standard was raised in vices which
trampled the people under their hoofs, and treaded upon them with their feet.
The vices stood on their toes (in full stature) and the people immersed in them
were strayed, perplexen, ignorant and seduced as though in a good house with
bad neighbors. Instead of sleep they had wakefulness and for antimony they had
tears in the eyes. They were in a land where the learned were in bridles
(keeping their mouths shut) while the ignorant were honored."5
This is a very beautiful and artistic picture (in the form of an ordinary
lecture from the pulpit) of the social conditions in the age of ignorance, in
which the Commander of the Faithful portrays the adversities, deficiencies and
disorders casting shadows over the people's life- the people who were mentally
bewildered and perplexen and who did not know the aim and purpose of life.
We can easily and clearly understand the meaning of these words of his, because
they provide us with an exact portrait of the situation of our own time, when
the Iranian nation was severely oppressed and fell victim to the tyrannies
brought upon it by the Pahlavi executioners and American mercenaries. In fact,
what in this Sermon and other Sermons has been expressed about the background
to the appearance of the Prophets (which the writer used to interpret
consciously in connection with the situations of strangulation at the Pahlavi
time conforms exactly to the conditions under which we lived during the Pahlavi
rule).
In those days, especially in the last three years of the Pahlavi reign, the
people were so mentally deceived and misled that they got on the buses and
trucks in many cities, applauded, played the flute and shouted, „Long live the
Shah". Meanwhile, the awakened conscience of a group of people was
severely wounded; yet, this was not the common conscience of our community, for
even those who refrained from participating in such shows, whether they were
government employees, clergymen of other classes of people, accepted the ways
and procedures of the ruling regime by their indifferent and apathetic behavior
towards the prevailing situation. The people were actually bewildered and dead.
No one was aware of the aim behind his daily labor.
They worked day and night but they were ignorant of the aim, aspiration and the
future for the achievement of which human beings endeavor. The similitude of
them was the like similitude of the 'mill donkey' who constantly moves in a
circular direction and never reaches an end. They were endowed with the best
dwellings and lands, having all the God-given bounties and with the territory
of human conscience, faculties and beauties which have been hidden but now have
bloomed in our revolutionary boys and girls, fathers and mothers. In fact, such
a blessed background existed in people but the 'neighbors were bad' in the
words of the Commander of the Faithful, i.e. the rulers and holders of power
were incompetent and dishonest.
On the whole, under such conditions which he recounts in the above-quoted
statements, and we experienced in our own time, the Prophets were appointed to
prophethood. We shall, God-willing, give more details about the background to
prophethood, as pointed out in the Commander of the Faithful's words, which are
very important so far as the philosophy of history is concerned, and which is
misunderstood by some deviated individuals who draw wrong, material conclusions
on the basis of their incorrect analysis in this regard.
Questions and Answers
Q. What is the difference between prophethood (nubuwwah) and appointment to
prophethood (ba'tha)?
A. Appointment to prophethood is the sudden resurrection and awakening of an
individual or a community of people who have plunged into the sleep of
negligence, ignorance and bewilderment. Prophethood is the principal factor of
the appointment, i.e. after the necessary competence and readiness is found in
someone to connect with god and the Divine revelation then he is appointed as a
prophet. Thus, the appointment is the consequence of prophethood.
Q. Is Ali's view a universal one, applicable to all communities such as the
corrupt western ones? Are these communities subject to destruction without
anyone saving them?
A. Yes, it is applicable to all communities at all times. But it should be
added that at a time when the chain of prophethood ends in the Last Prophet and
no one is appointed to prophethood any longer, it is the religious scholars as
heirs of the Prophets who will lead the people and save human communities from
destruction.
Q. Are, the signs which Hadrat Ali provides us for the appearance of the
Prophets the same as the signs which we have received concerning the appearance
of Hadrat Mahdi?
A. Concerning Hadrat Mahdi, mention should be made of the fact that before his
reappearance the world will achieve a relative perfection. In fact, the
universal government of Mahdi would be a perfectly just government. Half of
this justice should be provided by you and the coming generations before his
reappearance. Today, due to the establishment of the Islamic government of
Iran, which conveys a remarkable percentage of the message of Islam in this
strategic region of the world, we have approached nearer to the reappearance of
Hadrat Mahdi.
Q. It is true that all these signs are existent in our Revolution and in the
whole world. Is the reappearance of Hadrat Mahdi possible in this period?
A. Yes, it is possible. But another thing which is quite possible is the
decline of the superpowers of the world and the appearance of new movements and
resurrection which we have pointed out repeatedly. This is because the world
has entered a new period with the advent of our Revolution, a period in which
the deprived of the world and the weak nations will no more remain indifferent
to the tyrannies of the great powers, will stand against them and will finally
demolish them as a small animal can destroy a huge elephant by mounting its
back and biting its ears.
Lesson Two
BACKGROUND TO PROPHETHOOD
In the previous lesson, the background to the appointment of the Prophets was
discussed with regard to a few statements of the Nahj-ul-Balagha. This lesson
is aimed at completing what was mentioned before by analyzing in detail the
peculiarities of two periods which are of concern in our discussion, i.e. the
pre-Islamic period or the 'Age of Ignorance' (the period before the
appointment) and the Islamic period (the period after the appointment).
The Age of Ignorance
According to Ali's words, in the Age of Ignorance, the people suffered from two
kinds of inadequacies: material and spiritual.
Material Inadequacy
In this period, the level of social welfare and security was very low. This is
explicitly expressed both in the Nahj-ul-Balagha (in different sermons) and the
Holy Qur'an. The Qur'an refers to the Age of Ignorance saying (106:4)
Spiritual Inadequacy
Spiritual inadequacy is the very ignorance and bewilderment of the people,
i.e., they are devoid of a clear way of living and an aspiration for life. It
is, in fact, a great suffering for man and society not to seek a sublime aim in
life but only to try to provide for the daily requirements and necessities.
Unfortunately, this state of living was characteristic of the 'time of
strangulation' (Pahlavi reign), when life was without any aspiration and the
best and most active individuals, in the eyes of people, were those who made
their utmost effort to enjoy a life of welfare or those who did not have any
involvement at all but spent their time in lewdness and buffoonery.
Generally speaking, the middle class, i.e., traders, workers, housewives,
university students and others were all endeavoring to provide for the ordinary
requirements of their lives. The similitude of them was the similitude of the
car which refuels from one gasoline station to another gasoline being a means
for it to constantly go from station to station.
In fact, the people worked in order to gain their daily bread which enabled them,
in turn, to work again. They actually spent their lives in eating bread and
gaining bread. This state of living cannot be perfectly felt by the idealist
youth of today who have specific aims and aspirations in mind, who work for the
establishment of the true Islamic government and who seek the fall of the
superpowers. It is the existence of these aspirations in the society of today
which reveals the spiritual inadequacy (lack of aims and aspirations) of the
society during the Pahlavi rule.
Society during the 'Age of Ignorance', i.e. before the appointment and
revolution of the Prophet, was likewise an aimless and deviated society. The
people were bewildered. They turned round themselves just like the 'mill
donkey' that permanently turns round the millstone, perhaps traversing ten or
fifteen kilometers a day, but never moving more than a short distance away from
the mill. They were ignorant but more ignorant than them were those who
followed destructive aims and aspirations which, if realized, would destroy
themselves as well as the whole community.
In this regard the Holy Qur'an says, „Hast thou not seen those who exchanged
the bounty of God with unthankfulness, and caused their people to dwell in the
abode of ruin?-Gehenna, wherein they are roasted,- an evil establishment!"
(14:28-29)
In fact, all the holders of power and authoritative rulers of the world, all
the great capitalists who commit any crime to establish their vast economic
networks and all those who have brought about great corruption upon the earth
in the course of history can be categorized among the spiritually deviated
people with destructive aims and aspirations.
To say the least, it was in such a deviated society and among such a misled
people that the Prophets were appointed to prophethood. The most outstanding
characteristic of such a society is the alienation of man which causes the
development of material aspirations in a group of people who follow the aim of
making material, monopolies and increasing the rate of material products which,
in turn, results in the poverty of other people.
The Commander of the Faithful says, „I never saw an ample blessing (wealth)
unless beside it I saw a trampled right." Poverty gives rise to class
distinctions which bring about deeper gaps among the different classes of
people and causes other problems such as the unjust division of social
authority under which rich classes gain more power than others, although money
is not always efficacious in gaining power, but sometimes social power, too, is
effective in making use of money and creating material monopolies.
Thus, both social and economic factors are influential in the appearance of
tyranny, exploitation, ignorance and deceit in a society where perversive and
destructive aims have replaced noble aims and aspirations.
This is where Islamic analysis and material analysis come face to face, for
according to materialists, mental possessions, beliefs and whatever comprises
one's soul, mind and thought originate from one's 'class position' which
includes the social, economic and even the cultural dimensions of life, whereas
the Islamic viewpoint is that the origin of all pressures and adversities
existing in a society results from the dominance of ignorance and alienation in
that society. Islam says that it is alienation which brings about class
distinctions and which divides society into two classes, i.e. the oppressed and
the oppressors.
Spiritual alienation is, therefore, an outstanding characteristic of the Age of
Ignorance and the Prophets appear, in effect, to lead the people to the
straight path and to remove their spiritual depravities. This is what the
Commander of the Faithful emphasizes in the second Sermon of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha which was previously mentioned and which is hereunder reviewed
and explained in detail.
He says, „I also stand witness that Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be
upon him and his descendants, is His slave and His Prophet. sent him with the
illustrious religion, effective emblem, written Book, effulgent light,
sparkling gleam and decisive injunction in order to dispel doubts (shubuhat)
present clear proofs ... „
Shubuha is the plural form of 'shubha' and means doubts and differences of
opinion which exist in the human mind and thought as regards truth and
falsehood. These doubts and differences appear, as far as the people's beliefs
are concerned, when the society at large goes astray. In fact, society comes to
believe that it lacks reality and to disbelieve the most manifest realities.
For instance, during the rule of the previous regime, the people had come to
believe in and accept 'monarchy' which was an untrue phenomenon, and had
completely forgotten a clear and undeniable reality named, 'Imamat'.
Thus, the Prophet was sent by God to remove mental doubts and errors and to
"present clear proofs," as the Commander of the Faithful says i.e. to
save people from the perplexity of philosophical reasoning by offering them
clear proofs. This does not mean, however, that such reasonings are basically
useless and philosophy must be abandoned. Some people today, find fault with
Islamic philosophy, the classic philosophy of Islam on the false basis that it
is mixed with Greek philosophy. They insinuate that Islamic philosophy is mixed
with Aristotelian philosophy. They do not realize that Islamic scholars and
philosophers, centuries ago, cleansed Islamic philosophy of Greek philosophy.
Moreover, they are unaware of the fact that a philosophy with a heavenly
world-view cannot be mixed with a philosophy having a material world-view,
although they may share some common aspects.
Thus, philosophy should not be abandoned, although philosophical reasoning is
not very effective in awakening and provoking people at a time when a
revolution is to be conceived. At such a time, only the clearest proofs and
reasonings can make the people aware of the prevailing
situations, the wrong ways upon which they step and the right path they should
choose.
This has been the manner of all Prophets of God. They called people to the
belief in the One God. They called them to their nature and to their natural
beliefs, without exposing them to ordinary, spiritual reasonings
In the case of the Islamic Revolution of Iran the reasonings of the
intellectuals for fighting the West never contented the least number of people
because the intellectuals themselves were not satisfied with their own
reasonings due to the fact that they never made their appearance in the battle
arena, whereas the words and lectures of the Imam Khomeini, which contained
clear realities concerning the dependence of the tyrannical regime of Pahlavi
on the superpowers and the prevention of the society from practicing their
religion (Islam), doctrinal beliefs and worship, could be perfectly understood
by the people, and finally resulted in that great movement in our society. It
can be concluded, therefore, that the Prophets presented clear proofs and
reasonings which not only elicited but also which the middle class of people
could understand and then follow naturally.
The Commander of the Faithful continues to enumerate the tasks of the Prophet
saying, administer warning through signs and to warn of punishments.» In fact,
he means that the Prophet came to acquaint the people with the signs of
chastisement and with the punishments which happened to the past nations in the
course of history, and to tell them that they would also be afflicted with the
same punishments if they followed the manners of those nations.
Then he portrays the situations during the Age of Ignorance (before the
appointment of the Prophet) and points out the troubles and calamities which
endangered the minds, hearts and the spirituality of the people, which blocked
the ways of guidance to them and which led them astray - the troubles which did
not have anything to do with the material life and apparent welfare of the
people.
He says „... At that time, people had fallen in to vices, whereby the rope of
religion had been broken, the pillars of belief had been shaken, principles had
been sacrileged, systems had become topsy turvy, openings were narrow, passages
were dark, guidance was unknown and darkness prevailed. God was being
disobeyed. Satan was given support and belief had been forsaken. As a result,
pillars of religion fell down, its traces could not be discerned, its passages
had been destroyed and its streets had fallen into decay."
The general message of these words is that the society in which the Prophets
were appointed to prophethood was devoid of guidance and the Prophets' mission
was to lead the people to the straight path so that they could forsake the
state of indifference prevailing among them and seek good aims and aspirations.
As was mentioned before, should a motive more sublime and nobler than eating,
drinking and providing for the ordinary requirements of life become dominant in
the people's efforts and endeavors and should destructive aims and aspirations
forsake society, then social, political and economic conditions will prosper,
class distinctions will vanish and the idols of wealth and power will be
smashed.
This was experienced during early Islam, at the time of all the Prophets and
even in our own revolutionary society (if the opponents let us finish this
experience). This is why we believe that our Islamic Revolution has rendered
useless all the social, political and revolutionary formulas which support the
idea that movements and revolutions originate from material motives, class
distinctions and class quarrels in societies which have apparently political
systems of their own and which are not subject to colonial rule (like Iran
during the Pahlavi regime). What happened in Iran was exactly the experience of
the Prophets, i.e. the people who lived in a mentally-perverted society were
awakened by factors of guidance and hurried towards their natural promise to
worship naught but God, to appreciate God's plentiful blessings and to believe
in their own social power.
Guided in such a way, these people who had for many years been subjected to the
oppression and coercion of the so-called masters and kings, suddenly arose,
revolted by the millions and brought about the Islamic Revolution. Today, to
continue the Revolution and to guarantee its survival, it is necessary to keep
the people's mental guidance intact in order to deepen their belief in God and
Islam and to make them more aware of their human dignity and responsibility.
The Commander of the Faithful continues his Sermon with the following
statements, providing more details about the mental and spiritual atmosphere of
the Age of Ignorance (before the appearance of the Prophet). He says „ ...
People obeyed Satan and tread his paths. They sought water from his watering
places. Through them, Satan's emblems flew and his standard was raised in vices
which trampled the people under their hoofs, and treaded upon them with their feet.
The vices stood on their toes (in full stature) and the people immersed in them
were strayed, perplexen, ignorant and seduced as though in a good house with
bad neighbors. Instead of sleep they had wakefulness and for antimony they had
tears in the eyes ... ".
In fact, he believes that the origin of all adversities, oppressions,
corruptions, sufferings, disorders and crimes existing in society during the
Age of Ignorance, resulted from obedience to the satans of the time who, with
reliance on their social authority, i.e. wealth, power and deceit, wasted God's
noble blessings and devastated the plentiful, vital resources of the time with
unthankfulness and the transient lives of the people or exploited them for
their own benefit, regardless of what happened to the real owners of those
valuable resources. It was on the basis of such obedience that the people went
only the ways which the masters and dominant groups showed them, the ways which
ended in no desired destination, which brought them nothing but increasing
poverty, ignorance and captivity and which provided the dominant groups of
society, i.e. the creators of evil, corruption and decadence, with their
personal interests.
In the Islamic world-view, the human being is considered a thoughtful,
innovative and independent creature. From these three characteristics, the
power of thinking of the human being is more important than others, for it
provides one with awareness which enables one to move and make progress.
Thus, the most significant and fundamental factor for the movement of history
and society are the knowledge and awareness which stimulate human beings to
action. It is awareness which induces humanity to move and act. In the course
of history spontaneous actions and movements have never resulted in a
Revolution.
Maxim Gorki in his book, Mother, endeavors to prove that it was the labor
movements which gave rise to the October Revolution in Russia, whereas a
careful study of his book indicates that these blind movements could obtain no
results. In fact, without the existence of awareness and guidance, the
spontaneous movements brought about in the history of revolutions could never
end in the desired aims.
Thus, class conflicts and wars which materialists emphasize as the origin of
all movements and revolutions have not been effective at all.. Rather, the most
significant factor for the movement of history and society have been
understanding, guidance and stimulating awareness. Without these, all actions
and endeavors have usually ended in undesired effects which can be observed in
a great number of the revolutions throughout the world.
Now, since awareness is the main source of inspiration in societies in which
ignorance is dominant, the antihuman elements (holders of corrupt authority),
in order to retain their tyrannical system, have always tried to stifle any
liberating thought by exposing people's minds to stupefaction and poisonous
instructions and to destroy the origins of consciousness.
As a result, in such societies, the people follow only the desires of these
satans, learn only what they teach and, like sheep, go only towards the water
to which they are led by these treacherous shepherds („they sought water from
his watering places").
It is quite painful that, in the light of the sacrifices and endeavors of the
oppressed people, those who stand against the oppressors and criminals are
usually defeated and killed, while the chiefs of the atheists are rarely
killed. For instance, Mu'awiya, the manifest example of blasphemy, never
accepted Ali's call to challenge him in person because, as a Satan, his emblems
flew through the deprived people who have always been employed in the course of
history as a ladder which the arrogant have climbed to approach their
self-centeredness, dominance and power.
The life of the deprived has always been blended with fear, anxiety, confusion,
poverty, hunger, ignorance, disgrace and lack of awareness. This has been an
out standing characteristic of the ages of ignorance. But according to the
principles of our religion and Islamic ideology and according to the Holy
Qur'an which says, „We have honored the children of Adam ... >", human
beings are honorable. In fact, the belief in the Oneness of God is followed in
Islamic thought by the dignity and worth of human beings.
Generally speaking, those societies in which human beings are honored because
of believing in God and having will-power, and not on the basis of their social
positions, move towards perfection and prosperity; while those societies which
grant no worth to human beings and their thoughts do not tread the path of
improvement and goodness and are usually administered through dictatorship.
Today, other than the Iranian community upon which Islam has shed its light,
all human communities throughout the world are ruled either by black
strangulation (such as the socialist communities in which the Proletariat
dictatorship is dominant and the so-called supporters of the labor classes,
i.e. their leaders, have never felt the hardship and poverty of the laborers)
or by despotism prevalent in such despotic countries as Egypt, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and so forth.
There are, however, other communities (Western ones) which are ruled by the
stupefaction of the people, i.e. keeping the people amused with passions,
sexual matters, alcoholic drinks and other means of corruption and adversity.
It is only the Islamic community which establishes equal rights for all the
people, whether they be workers, physicians or peasants. But that very Islamic
community will keep aloof from Islam, should decision-making, judgment and
awareness be confined to a special class of people (whoever they might be) and
others be compelled to follow them blindly.
On the whole, what the Commander of the Faithful says is that in societies
which are dominated by ignorance and alienation, although humility and
worthlessness cast shadows over all human aims and aspirations and hunger,
horror, disease, captivity, corruption and bewilderment threaten the society,
the people are surprisingly tolerant and in agreement with the oppressors. This
is what he calls sedition and calamity (fetna), something which brings a person
to the state of consternation and deception, which causes damage to one's heart
and mind and which destroys one's life completely. It is, in fact, under these
circumstances that the Prophets appear.
They do not appear merely to remove poverty, to establish social welfare, to
eliminate ignorance and to teach the people how to read and write. But each of
these is a part of a great whole which comprises the aims of the Prophets. The
Prophets' aim is to eradicate human deviation, alienation and bewilderment and
to give one spiritual elevation. The realization of this aim will, however, be
followed by material welfare, social security, eradication of ignorance and
class distinctions and so forth.
Questions and Answers
Q. You said that alienation gives rise to class distinctions. Now what are the
causes of alienation?
A. The cause of alienation is the lack of the use of the power of thinking, for
this faculty can be effective only if it is trained, educated and used
properly. It is just like a very powerful projector which can offer its
sparkling nature only if it is clean and not covered by dust and mist. The
power of thinking may lose its usefulness under the influence of various
factors, the most important of which being whims and passions. Of course, other
spiritual factors as well as the holders of worldly power are also effective in
this respect, but material and economic factors alone should not be regarded as
a basis for lack of thinking and alienation. Thinking is the faculty by which
the human being analyzes different matters and comes to a general conclusion.
It is, therefore, independent and can provide people with reasons concerning
their doings.
Q. In one of his sermons, Ali says, „I shall bring out the truth from
falsehood.» How do you interpret the leftists' justification of the 'dialectic
conflict' on the basis of this statement?
A. 'Dialectic conflict' cannot be justified by this statement. By this statement
he implies that he can analyze a collection of saying in which right and wrong
have been mixed, distinguish the right from the wrong and introduce it to the
people. This is the art of all the thinkers who know the truth.
Q. What is a classless, monotheistic society? Are monotheism and class not two
contradictory notions?
A. A classless society is one in which there is no legal distinction among
different groups of people and all the individuals are provided with equal
rights and opportunities. In such a society, every individual makes efforts in
accordance with one's physical and mental faculties and whatever one earns
belongs to one's self. No one has the right to ask another for a part of what
one has earned. Of course, if an individual kept a long distance from others,
that person would be advised to assist them. Islam holds equal possibilities
and opportunities for all individuals. Every one has the right to educate one's
self, to enhance one's knowledge, to take one's desired job, to work in the
best possible manner and so forth. At the same time, lazy people are not
permitted in Islam to have a share in what hardworking people acquire. In Islam
the people are free to work and endeavor for themselves, contrary to socialist
communities in which all productive jobs and services are a monopoly of the
governments and thus being wrongly called classless.
As to the 'monotheistic society', it should be stated that it is a society in
which all the people stand at the same level so far as legal, judicial and
social laws and regulations are concerned. In a monotheistic society, there is
no difference between the ruler and a layman before the law. A Jew and a Muslim
are equally treated (the judge calls Ali and the Jew to his presence and
addresses both of them in the same manner).
A monotheistic society is an Islamic society and a classless one is also
Islamic but only within the limits which were explained above. We do not
believe in the classless society which Marxists define. We do not believe in
what they call class, classlessness and class war. These are all Marxist
concepts which the group of so-called Mujahidin (the anti-Islamic group of
hypocrites) have mixed with Islamic notions to deceive people. To say the
least, society should either be called 'monotheistic', which is in conformity
with Islamic culture, or classless (as defined by the Mujahidin) which reminds
one of Marxist ideology.
Q. Are all human beings equipped with equal talents and faculties?
A. No, not all human beings enjoy the same talents and faculties and not all of
them are equal in understanding different matters and performing various tasks.
In fact, every individual has a talent for certain types of work and no one is
found to be devoid of certain gifts and talents.
Lesson Three
TO WHICH CLASS OF SOCIETYDO THE PROPHETS BELONG?
In this chapter we are going to discuss the social origins of the Prophets
themselves, i.e., to find out the social class to which the Prophets belonged.
We are going to see whether they belonged to the rich people, aristocrats and
holders of worldly power or to the poor, the needy and the deprived. It is, in
fact, very import-ant to know the social and economic classes from which the
Prophets have arisen in the course of history, founded monotheistic movements and
revolutions and provided the masses with divine words and messages.
The Holy Qur'an, the Traditions and the Nahj-ul-Balagha are rich sources which
can help us in the analysis of this matter, but here the emphasis is only on
the words of the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In the long and famous sermon of al-Qasi'ah
(the Sermon of Disparagement) there are statements which deserve careful
reflection and which offer information concerning the matter being discussed.
The statements run as follows: „Certainly , if God were to allow anyone to
indulge in pride, He would have allowed it to His selected prophets and
vicegerents. But God, the Sublime, disliked vanity for them and liked
humbleness for them. Therefore, they laid their cheeks on the ground, smeared
their faces with dust, bent themselves down for the believers and remained
humiliated people (they were from the oppressed people). God tested them with
hunger, afflicted them with difficulties, tested them with fear, and upset them
with troubles."6
Here, the Commander of the Faithful speaks about pride and vanity and
emphasizes that since God disliked these two qualities, He misrepresented them
in the eyes of His Prophets and righteous beings. Therefore, the Prophets hated
self-deceit and superiority complexes, but liked humbleness and humility. Thus,
they bent themselves down for the believers, lived among the lowest classes of
the people, rubbed their faces with the dust (in prostration) before God and
refrained from indulging in haughtiness. They did, in effect, what the Holy
Qur'an orders to be done to the parents. It says: „... and lower to them (one's
parents) the wing of humbleness out of mercy ... " (17:24)
The Prophets., according to the Commander of the Faithful were from the
oppressed masses of the people. They knew the, pains and agonies of the needy.
They felt, for instance, what hunger was, because God had tried them with
hunger. The Holy Qur'an quotes Moses, peace be upon him, to have said, „Oh God!
I need what you shall send me." According to narrations, Moses, peace be
upon him, was hungry and implored God in this manner to send him bread so that
he could satiate his hunger. Thus, the Prophets felt the pains of hungry
people. They had tasted the sufferings of life. They knew well the troubles of
hard physical labor in cold and hot weathers. They understood the meaning of
hardship.
Timidity and the state of being fearful are characteristics of the oppressed.
They are usually fearful of the future, poverty and the dominance of a powerful
hand over their destinies. They are always worried and in a state of mental
disturbance, concerning the existing situations and the coming conditions. They
expect at any moment to be put under pressure by a Powerful oppressor.
Likewise, the Prophets suffered from such fears and anxieties and, to say the
least, were so surrounded by hardships and difficulties as to become pure in
the same way as gold derives its purity under the pressure of very hot
temperature. In fact, the Prophets were not pampered individuals to suddenly
come Out of their Palaces and call the people to make a revolution.
There was a close link between them and the common people. They had, like all
members of the society been subjected to ignorance, tasted the pains and
sufferings of life and then became worthy to be called 'Prophets'.
The Definition of the Deprived (mustad'af)
A society dominated by ignorance is always made up of two groups of people. One
group consists of those who make Plans, administer society and have total
authority over all affairs. The other group consists of the subjects and
subordinates who have nothing to do with different affairs of society. They
work hard (and thus they are not good-for-nothings as they are usually called,
compared for example, to the amount of work Pharaoh performed with the slaves
in building the Pyramids), but they have no right to apply their will,
personality and points of view in the administration of the affairs of their
society.
The first group is a minority consisting of the powerful families and dynasties
with various degrees of authority over society. They are called 'the arrogant'
(mustakbirin). The second group are the common people and the masses who are
regarded as the weak and who are devoid of authority whatsoever. They are
called 'the deprived' (mustad'afin). Our own country, during the corrupt regime
of Pahlavi, was administered by a limited number of individuals, with the Shah
at the head of them. It is true that an institution named the 'National
Consultative Assembly' existed but all the decisions were made by the Shah and
his American advisers and dictated to the members of the Assembly, who had no
will of their own.
At the lower levels, decisions were made by the big money makers who acted in
collusion with governmental personages, by governor generals and so forth. In
fact, the total authority was centralized in the hands of one person, the Shah.
If all the ministers, Assembly members, director
generals and the like agreed on something, but the Shah opposed; it was his
will and decision which prevailed. The rest of the people, i.e. the masses, had
no authority (even over their own destinies) to interfere with the affairs
pertaining to foreign relations (with Russia and America, for instance),
internal industries, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. let alone matters
concerning religion and morality. They had no right to meddle with the total
course of affairs of their society due to the absolute lack of democracy,
voting and elections in the country.
This state of affairs is nowadays an obvious characteristic of all socialist
countries but in a more respectable form, i.e. one party (the Communist Party)
possesses the total power and authority in administering the affairs of these
countries. In fact, all the affairs of these countries are determined by the
high governmental cadres, supreme councils and the general secretary himself.
Other people have no right to express their viewpoints, and their will and
decisions are not taken for granted. Thus, mental development is repressed in
such countries, and perhaps this is why the youth usually engage in Sports and
physical training and blossom out as the first rate athletes in international
competition such as the Olympics as we observed in the recent Olympic games
held in Russia.
In western societies, too, the situation is more or less the same (mostly in
the so-called civilized countries of America and Europe where 'freedom' and
'democracy' have widespread literal application). Nowadays, there are
unfortunately some people who try to transform freedom and democracy to western
conceptions of freedom and democracy, without knowing that the West itself is
bereft of real freedom; (in America, West Germany and the likes, people imagine
that they elect their representatives freely whereas the reality is that it is specific
currents which lead them to one side or another to cast their votes in favor of
one party or another. Recent elections in America and the conflicts between the
Democratic and Republican parties are the best evidence, verifying this
reality).
Generally speaking, in all countries of the world, people are divided into two
classes: the deprived and the arrogant. The deprived masses are themselves two
groups: the needy and the non-needy. In fact, a poor and wretched peasant who
performs fifteen hours of physical labor a day under the difficulties of rain,
snow and hot weather and one who lives an ordinary life, being a shopkeeper, or
employee, etc., without suffering so much, are both in the category of the
deprived, because both of them are considered to be worthless and
good-for-nothing and are devoid of the right to participate in the
administration of their society.
According to the Commander of the Faithful in the quoted Sermon, the Prophets
belonged to the deprived classes and, like them, have been deprived of the
authority to carry out a responsibility in their society. A historical review
of the life-accounts of Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and
his descendants, and other Prophets will clarify this matter further.
Moses, peace be upon him, was born to a deprived family among the children of
Israel who lived under severe pressures. But after birth he was brought in a
completely arrogant house and became a favorite with the Pharaoh's family
although he had not been born of the Pharaoh's wife.
He was brought up under the best living possibilities, the most delicious food
and different kinds of luxuries (as a perfect aristocrat). Then, when Pharaoh
noticed that he was nourishing an enemy within his house, Moses decided to
escape. In fact, Moses had begun his invitation and calling people to God, had
started his revolutionary propagations within the royal palace and had
succeeded in converting the Pharaoh's wife to submission to God when Pharaoh
experienced a feeling of danger and decided to prosecute him. Moses escaped to
Egypt.
To say the least, Moses became a Prophet and invited the people to make a
revolution when he was within the royal house and at the peak of arrogance
(this biographical account of Moses is narrated in the Qur'an, and no use was
made here of the Traditions).
Our Prophet, Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his
descendants was born in a tribal house of high rank. He was the grandson of and
a favorite with 'Abd al-Muttalib, the chief of Mecca (although he was, unlike
Pharaoh, a pious, chief and a believer in God). When his father, Abdullah, who
was one of the dearest children of 'Abd al-Muttalib, died in youth, the latter
brought up Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his
descendants, until he became four years of age (although Moses was the favorite
with a great emperor and Muhammad with a tribal chief, both of them enjoyed the
favor of highly respectful families). Then 'Abd al-Muttalib passed away and
Muhammad came under the guardianship of his uncle Abu Talib who did not enjoy
the same respect as his father, 'Abd al-Muttalib, but who was himself a
distinguished personality, not belonging to the masses.
Abu Talib acted as a good guardian for a period of time and then he was
afflicted with poverty. Thus, Muhammad lost the (financial) support of his
uncle at this time. But before long he married Khadija, a rich woman. He first
acted as a functionary to Khadija but later on, (fifteen years before his
appointment to prophethood) he married her, thus becoming a relatively rich man
in Medina.
The very financial state remained with him until he became a Prophet at the age
of forty (this is why it is said that Islam advanced through Khadija's wealth
and Ali's sword).
Accordingly, the Prophet of Islam was born to an aristocratic family and lived
a comfortable and affluent life until he was appointed to prophethood by God.
After the appointment, however, due to the high expenses of propagation and
calling people to monotheism and due to the lack of opportunity for conducting
business, he became poor.
Other prophets, too, were more or less wealthy. It is in the Traditions
(although there is no clear, historical accounts available) that Job, for
example, possessed lands, gardens and trees which were destroyed when God
wanted to test his belief. David, too, had a rural origin. He was a commoner.
Yet he became a commander and a ruler. Solomon was born in the house of this
commander (David). In fact, this chosen Prophet of God (although there is no
difference between him and Moses as far as his purity, piety, revolutionary
spirit and prophethood are concerned) was the son of a ruler. Abraham was born
in the house of an idol-carver, and the history of nations and religions
reveals that idol-carvers were not only not among the low, deprived classes but
were also considered to be saintly and respectable.
We come to the conclusion, therefore, that a considerable number (not all of
them) of the Prophets have been brought up among affluent and powerful
families. Thus, we have two points here to be considered along with each other:
First, in the Commander of the Faithful saying that Prophets have belonged to
the deprived and humble masses of the people. Second, the Prophets (some of
them), as we see above, have been born among the socially, comfortable families
of high ranks.
Are these two realities incompatible? No It is not the main point here to see
whether they are compatible or not, The main point is to nullify the
(communists') imaginary legend that all the revolutionary agents have
originated from the proletarian, bare-footed and needy classes. What is
essential is that a revolutionary person (be he a leader of the revolution or a
commoner) should be dressed with revolutionary morals and Attributes.
Materialists and the interpreters of Marxism, in fact, hold a wrong belief that
only those individuals can enjoy revolutionary morals and Attributes who
themselves belong to the poor, bare-footed or proletarian classes, for man is
always and everywhere a human being and thus corrigible. He can, like the
Prophets about whom Ali says, „They were from the deprived people," equip
himself with correct, revolutionary habits and with the attributes of the
deprived.
It is true that aristocratic training and education entail no result but an
aristocrat human being, yet it is untrue to believe that such an education (in
a person who is brought up in an aristocratic atmosphere) is unchangeable and
indestructible. In fact, should divine guidance (either in the form of
thinking, meditation and the awakening of conscience of the individuals
themselves or through training and purification of the soul by the teachers of
morality, i.e. the Prophets) enlighten the sick bodies of those who are under
the influence of aristocratic habits and training, they would come out of their
spiritual depression and become dressed with revolutionary dispositions.
SUMMARY
Two points are perceived when the social origin of the Prophets is put to
discussion: First those who are appointed to prophethood are dressed with the
Attributes of the deprived, revolutionary morals and combative spirit against
the existing class systems of the arrogant, i.e. at the time of the appointment
(and even before it) they have an anti-arrogant position in support of the deprived.
Second, having these Attributes does not necessarily imply that all the
Prophets belong to the deprived classes. They can either belong to these
classes or not but, as was mentioned before, even at the time of appointment to
prophethood and at the beginning of their revolution they may belong to the
arrogant strata, having a comfortable life. There is no need for them to have
suffered from forced labor and hard work before the appointment. Of course,
they should have felt pain and distress but this does not necessarily mean that
they should curtail the bonds of relationship with their social class and their
(comfortable) life.
Spiritually-exalted Beings Have Understanding as Well as the Feeling of
Sympathy.
Subsequent to the discussion concerning the arrogant and the deprived, it
should be added here that such a class division does not exist in monotheistic
societies. It is, in fact, the exclusive characteristic of' societies suffering
from ignorance and alienation. We have of course, rulers, ruling classes,
caliphs, holders of religious authority and governments in monotheistic
societies but none of them are arrogant enough to manage the affairs of these
societies on the basis of personal beliefs. Also, there are commoners in such
societies, consisting of workers, businessmen, peasants, bricklayers,
government employees and so forth, but none of them arrogant either. Each class
has, in fact, some authority over its own social affairs in proportion to the
total number of its members.
For example, under the present situations of Iran (although Iran is not a 100%
or even 50% Islamic society at the present time), every individual has some
authority and the right to vote as a member of a society with thirty-six
million individuals. It is on this basis that the great movements and even the
political affairs of our country are nowadays managed and led by the people
themselves, although it may be considered wrong so far as the prevailing
patterns of politics on the international level are concerned. The truth is that
if the people were not inclined towards certain actions and policies,
connections and disconnections, the government (itself consisting of Muslims
belonging to the low classes of people) would not dare take such positions as
it does today and perform such courageous actions. This is indicative of an
Islamic country (although Iran is still not a perfect Islamic country).
When Islam shall, God-willing, shed its light on our society in all its
dimensions, the role of every individual in the administration of the whole
country will be to the extent that he or she (although being the lowest in
social position) can act and promise on behalf of the Islamic community. Today,
if a given government or a certain action be condemned in the sermons of the
Friday ritual prayer in front of a multitude of people, or if a treaty between
our country and a given government be orally made (or violated) in such
sermons, neither our own government nor the addressee will take care of it.
But in a perfect Islamic community, there is no irresponsible individual. In
such a community, in which Islamic culture and education are perfectly
dominant, every individual (being a businessman, a housewife and so forth) can
conclude a treaty or announce an agreement for the cessation of hostilities or
a special occasion and the Islamic government is obliged to take it into
account, although that individual not be a minister, an army commander or a
diplomat. In fact, every individual can decide for the whole community on
specific occasions, and his or her decision is accepted by all.
This is not, however, practicable under the present culture and habits of our
society. But as the society gets closer to Islam and its teachings, this is
more likely to be accomplished. It should be added, of course, that when we say
something is not for the time being practicable, it does not mean that Islam as
a whole cannot be materialized. It can, but only when the world has a complete
readiness for its acceptance.
Questions and Answers
Q. You said that Khadija's wealth and Ali's sword made the progress of Islam
possible. Does this not lead to a deviating concept that wealth and material
things have been the only factors for the spread of Islam?
A. We do not believe that wealth alone played a role in this regard, but the
truth is that wealth, too, had certain roles and this is undeniable. It was, is
fact, necessary for the satiation of the newly-converted people's hunger as
well as for providing the expenses of those who were sent here and there by the
Prophet. This does not negate the influence of the spirituality and dynamism of
Islamic thought and ideology, since the very dynamism is in need of material
things when acting and making progress in the same way as it needs physical
labor and activity.
Q. You defined the deprived in its social and political aspects. Is it not
necessary to explain the economic and cultural aspects of it as well?
A. The economic activities of the deprived (as previously defined) are also
under the influence of the powerful, i.e. economic activities are usually
centralized where power is centralized (under the previous regime of Iran, for
example, no productive and economic activity took place except through the
direct or indirect interference of the government). Therefore, economic aspects
are dependent on political aspects. It may, however, be argued that political
power originates from economic power. This is possible but it lacks
universality. Sometimes political power is the cause for the absorption of
money and sometimes money gives rise to political power. They are
inter-connected, but in a society wherein political power is centralized in a
certain group, economics cannot grow and progress independently. The cultural
aspects (culture in its prevailing, not in its revolutionary sense) of society,
too, are affected by the opinion of those who possess political and economic
power. Thus, when political oppression dominates society, the existing cultural
and political aspects of the deprived are also influenced by lt.
Q. Is the following tradition, narrated from the Imams concerning deprivation,
authentic? „The deprived are those who endeavored in the way of God but could
not achieve their aim in establishing the divine system. The highest of them
are the Prophets and saints, next to them are the believers who make efforts in
the way of God."
A. It may be authentic for all the Prophets and their true followers belong to
the category of the deprived. It provides us with the definition of the
deprived not with the concept of deprivation.
Lesson Three
TO WHICH CLASS OF SOCIETYDO THE PROPHETS BELONG?
In this chapter we are going to discuss the social origins of the Prophets
themselves, i.e., to find out the social class to which the Prophets belonged.
We are going to see whether they belonged to the rich people, aristocrats and
holders of worldly power or to the poor, the needy and the deprived. It is, in
fact, very import-ant to know the social and economic classes from which the
Prophets have arisen in the course of history, founded monotheistic movements
and revolutions and provided the masses with divine words and messages.
The Holy Qur'an, the Traditions and the Nahj-ul-Balagha are rich sources which
can help us in the analysis of this matter, but here the emphasis is only on
the words of the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In the long and famous sermon of al-Qasi'ah
(the Sermon of Disparagement) there are statements which deserve careful
reflection and which offer information concerning the matter being discussed.
The statements run as follows: „Certainly , if God were to allow anyone to
indulge in pride, He would have allowed it to His selected prophets and
vicegerents. But God, the Sublime, disliked vanity for them and liked
humbleness for them. Therefore, they laid their cheeks on the ground, smeared
their faces with dust, bent themselves down for the believers and remained
humiliated people (they were from the oppressed people). God tested them with
hunger, afflicted them with difficulties, tested them with fear, and upset them
with troubles."6
Here, the Commander of the Faithful speaks about pride and vanity and
emphasizes that since God disliked these two qualities, He misrepresented them
in the eyes of His Prophets and righteous beings. Therefore, the Prophets hated
self-deceit and superiority complexes, but liked humbleness and humility. Thus,
they bent themselves down for the believers, lived among the lowest classes of
the people, rubbed their faces with the dust (in prostration) before God and
refrained from indulging in haughtiness. They did, in effect, what the Holy
Qur'an orders to be done to the parents. It says: „... and lower to them (one's
parents) the wing of humbleness out of mercy ... " (17:24)
The Prophets., according to the Commander of the Faithful were from the
oppressed masses of the people. They knew the, pains and agonies of the needy.
They felt, for instance, what hunger was, because God had tried them with
hunger. The Holy Qur'an quotes Moses, peace be upon him, to have said, „Oh God!
I need what you shall send me." According to narrations, Moses, peace be
upon him, was hungry and implored God in this manner to send him bread so that
he could satiate his hunger. Thus, the Prophets felt the pains of hungry
people. They had tasted the sufferings of life. They knew well the troubles of
hard physical labor in cold and hot weathers. They understood the meaning of
hardship.
Timidity and the state of being fearful are characteristics of the oppressed.
They are usually fearful of the future, poverty and the dominance of a powerful
hand over their destinies. They are always worried and in a state of mental
disturbance, concerning the existing situations and the coming conditions. They
expect at any moment to be put under pressure by a Powerful oppressor.
Likewise, the Prophets suffered from such fears and anxieties and, to say the
least, were so surrounded by hardships and difficulties as to become pure in
the same way as gold derives its purity under the pressure of very hot
temperature. In fact, the Prophets were not pampered individuals to suddenly
come Out of their Palaces and call the people to make a revolution.
There was a close link between them and the common people. They had, like all
members of the society been subjected to ignorance, tasted the pains and
sufferings of life and then became worthy to be called 'Prophets'.
The Definition of the Deprived (mustad'af)
A society dominated by ignorance is always made up of two groups of people. One
group consists of those who make Plans, administer society and have total
authority over all affairs. The other group consists of the subjects and
subordinates who have nothing to do with different affairs of society. They
work hard (and thus they are not good-for-nothings as they are usually called,
compared for example, to the amount of work Pharaoh performed with the slaves
in building the Pyramids), but they have no right to apply their will,
personality and points of view in the administration of the affairs of their
society.
The first group is a minority consisting of the powerful families and dynasties
with various degrees of authority over society. They are called 'the arrogant'
(mustakbirin). The second group are the common people and the masses who are
regarded as the weak and who are devoid of authority whatsoever. They are
called 'the deprived' (mustad'afin). Our own country, during the corrupt regime
of Pahlavi, was administered by a limited number of individuals, with the Shah
at the head of them. It is true that an institution named the 'National
Consultative Assembly' existed but all the decisions were made by the Shah and
his American advisers and dictated to the members of the Assembly, who had no
will of their own.
At the lower levels, decisions were made by the big money makers who acted in
collusion with governmental personages, by governor generals and so forth. In
fact, the total authority was centralized in the hands of one person, the Shah.
If all the ministers, Assembly members, director
generals and the like agreed on something, but the Shah opposed; it was his
will and decision which prevailed. The rest of the people, i.e. the masses, had
no authority (even over their own destinies) to interfere with the affairs
pertaining to foreign relations (with Russia and America, for instance),
internal industries, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. let alone matters
concerning religion and morality. They had no right to meddle with the total
course of affairs of their society due to the absolute lack of democracy,
voting and elections in the country.
This state of affairs is nowadays an obvious characteristic of all socialist
countries but in a more respectable form, i.e. one party (the Communist Party)
possesses the total power and authority in administering the affairs of these
countries. In fact, all the affairs of these countries are determined by the
high governmental cadres, supreme councils and the general secretary himself.
Other people have no right to express their viewpoints, and their will and
decisions are not taken for granted. Thus, mental development is repressed in
such countries, and perhaps this is why the youth usually engage in Sports and
physical training and blossom out as the first rate athletes in international
competition such as the Olympics as we observed in the recent Olympic games
held in Russia.
In western societies, too, the situation is more or less the same (mostly in
the so-called civilized countries of America and Europe where 'freedom' and
'democracy' have widespread literal application). Nowadays, there are
unfortunately some people who try to transform freedom and democracy to western
conceptions of freedom and democracy, without knowing that the West itself is
bereft of real freedom; (in America, West Germany and the likes, people imagine
that they elect their representatives freely whereas the reality is that it is
specific currents which lead them to one side or another to cast their votes in
favor of one party or another. Recent elections in America and the conflicts
between the Democratic and Republican parties are the best evidence, verifying
this reality).
Generally speaking, in all countries of the world, people are divided into two
classes: the deprived and the arrogant. The deprived masses are themselves two
groups: the needy and the non-needy. In fact, a poor and wretched peasant who
performs fifteen hours of physical labor a day under the difficulties of rain,
snow and hot weather and one who lives an ordinary life, being a shopkeeper, or
employee, etc., without suffering so much, are both in the category of the
deprived, because both of them are considered to be worthless and
good-for-nothing and are devoid of the right to participate in the
administration of their society.
According to the Commander of the Faithful in the quoted Sermon, the Prophets
belonged to the deprived classes and, like them, have been deprived of the
authority to carry out a responsibility in their society. A historical review
of the life-accounts of Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and
his descendants, and other Prophets will clarify this matter further.
Moses, peace be upon him, was born to a deprived family among the children of
Israel who lived under severe pressures. But after birth he was brought in a
completely arrogant house and became a favorite with the Pharaoh's family
although he had not been born of the Pharaoh's wife.
He was brought up under the best living possibilities, the most delicious food
and different kinds of luxuries (as a perfect aristocrat). Then, when Pharaoh
noticed that he was nourishing an enemy within his house, Moses decided to escape.
In fact, Moses had begun his invitation and calling people to God, had started
his revolutionary propagations within the royal palace and had succeeded in
converting the Pharaoh's wife to submission to God when Pharaoh experienced a
feeling of danger and decided to prosecute him. Moses escaped to Egypt.
To say the least, Moses became a Prophet and invited the people to make a
revolution when he was within the royal house and at the peak of arrogance
(this biographical account of Moses is narrated in the Qur'an, and no use was
made here of the Traditions).
Our Prophet, Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his
descendants was born in a tribal house of high rank. He was the grandson of and
a favorite with 'Abd al-Muttalib, the chief of Mecca (although he was, unlike
Pharaoh, a pious, chief and a believer in God). When his father, Abdullah, who
was one of the dearest children of 'Abd al-Muttalib, died in youth, the latter
brought up Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his descendants,
until he became four years of age (although Moses was the favorite with a great
emperor and Muhammad with a tribal chief, both of them enjoyed the favor of
highly respectful families). Then 'Abd al-Muttalib passed away and Muhammad
came under the guardianship of his uncle Abu Talib who did not enjoy the same
respect as his father, 'Abd al-Muttalib, but who was himself a distinguished
personality, not belonging to the masses.
Abu Talib acted as a good guardian for a period of time and then he was afflicted
with poverty. Thus, Muhammad lost the (financial) support of his uncle at this
time. But before long he married Khadija, a rich woman. He first acted as a
functionary to Khadija but later on, (fifteen years before his appointment to
prophethood) he married her, thus becoming a relatively rich man in Medina.
The very financial state remained with him until he became a Prophet at the age
of forty (this is why it is said that Islam advanced through Khadija's wealth
and Ali's sword).
Accordingly, the Prophet of Islam was born to an aristocratic family and lived
a comfortable and affluent life until he was appointed to prophethood by God.
After the appointment, however, due to the high expenses of propagation and
calling people to monotheism and due to the lack of opportunity for conducting
business, he became poor.
Other prophets, too, were more or less wealthy. It is in the Traditions
(although there is no clear, historical accounts available) that Job, for
example, possessed lands, gardens and trees which were destroyed when God
wanted to test his belief. David, too, had a rural origin. He was a commoner.
Yet he became a commander and a ruler. Solomon was born in the house of this
commander (David). In fact, this chosen Prophet of God (although there is no
difference between him and Moses as far as his purity, piety, revolutionary
spirit and prophethood are concerned) was the son of a ruler. Abraham was born
in the house of an idol-carver, and the history of nations and religions
reveals that idol-carvers were not only not among the low, deprived classes but
were also considered to be saintly and respectable.
We come to the conclusion, therefore, that a considerable number (not all of
them) of the Prophets have been brought up among affluent and powerful families.
Thus, we have two points here to be considered along with each other: First, in
the Commander of the Faithful saying that Prophets have belonged to the
deprived and humble masses of the people. Second, the Prophets (some of them),
as we see above, have been born among the socially, comfortable families of
high ranks.
Are these two realities incompatible? No It is not the main point here to see
whether they are compatible or not, The main point is to nullify the
(communists') imaginary legend that all the revolutionary agents have
originated from the proletarian, bare-footed and needy classes. What is
essential is that a revolutionary person (be he a leader of the revolution or a
commoner) should be dressed with revolutionary morals and Attributes.
Materialists and the interpreters of Marxism, in fact, hold a wrong belief that
only those individuals can enjoy revolutionary morals and Attributes who
themselves belong to the poor, bare-footed or proletarian classes, for man is
always and everywhere a human being and thus corrigible. He can, like the
Prophets about whom Ali says, „They were from the deprived people," equip
himself with correct, revolutionary habits and with the attributes of the
deprived.
It is true that aristocratic training and education entail no result but an
aristocrat human being, yet it is untrue to believe that such an education (in
a person who is brought up in an aristocratic atmosphere) is unchangeable and
indestructible. In fact, should divine guidance (either in the form of thinking,
meditation and the awakening of conscience of the individuals themselves or
through training and purification of the soul by the teachers of morality, i.e.
the Prophets) enlighten the sick bodies of those who are under the influence of
aristocratic habits and training, they would come out of their spiritual
depression and become dressed with revolutionary dispositions.
SUMMARY
Two points are perceived when the social origin of the Prophets is put to
discussion: First those who are appointed to prophethood are dressed with the
Attributes of the deprived, revolutionary morals and combative spirit against
the existing class systems of the arrogant, i.e. at the time of the appointment
(and even before it) they have an anti-arrogant position in support of the
deprived.
Second, having these Attributes does not necessarily imply that all the
Prophets belong to the deprived classes. They can either belong to these
classes or not but, as was mentioned before, even at the time of appointment to
prophethood and at the beginning of their revolution they may belong to the
arrogant strata, having a comfortable life. There is no need for them to have
suffered from forced labor and hard work before the appointment. Of course,
they should have felt pain and distress but this does not necessarily mean that
they should curtail the bonds of relationship with their social class and their
(comfortable) life.
Spiritually-exalted Beings Have Understanding as Well as the Feeling of
Sympathy.
Subsequent to the discussion concerning the arrogant and the deprived, it
should be added here that such a class division does not exist in monotheistic
societies. It is, in fact, the exclusive characteristic of' societies suffering
from ignorance and alienation. We have of course, rulers, ruling classes,
caliphs, holders of religious authority and governments in monotheistic
societies but none of them are arrogant enough to manage the affairs of these
societies on the basis of personal beliefs. Also, there are commoners in such
societies, consisting of workers, businessmen, peasants, bricklayers,
government employees and so forth, but none of them arrogant either. Each class
has, in fact, some authority over its own social affairs in proportion to the
total number of its members.
For example, under the present situations of Iran (although Iran is not a 100%
or even 50% Islamic society at the present time), every individual has some
authority and the right to vote as a member of a society with thirty-six
million individuals. It is on this basis that the great movements and even the
political affairs of our country are nowadays managed and led by the people
themselves, although it may be considered wrong so far as the prevailing
patterns of politics on the international level are concerned. The truth is
that if the people were not inclined towards certain actions and policies,
connections and disconnections, the government (itself consisting of Muslims
belonging to the low classes of people) would not dare take such positions as
it does today and perform such courageous actions. This is indicative of an
Islamic country (although Iran is still not a perfect Islamic country).
When Islam shall, God-willing, shed its light on our society in all its
dimensions, the role of every individual in the administration of the whole
country will be to the extent that he or she (although being the lowest in
social position) can act and promise on behalf of the Islamic community. Today,
if a given government or a certain action be condemned in the sermons of the Friday
ritual prayer in front of a multitude of people, or if a treaty between our
country and a given government be orally made (or violated) in such sermons,
neither our own government nor the addressee will take care of it.
But in a perfect Islamic community, there is no irresponsible individual. In
such a community, in which Islamic culture and education are perfectly
dominant, every individual (being a businessman, a housewife and so forth) can
conclude a treaty or announce an agreement for the cessation of hostilities or
a special occasion and the Islamic government is obliged to take it into
account, although that individual not be a minister, an army commander or a
diplomat. In fact, every individual can decide for the whole community on
specific occasions, and his or her decision is accepted by all.
This is not, however, practicable under the present culture and habits of our
society. But as the society gets closer to Islam and its teachings, this is
more likely to be accomplished. It should be added, of course, that when we say
something is not for the time being practicable, it does not mean that Islam as
a whole cannot be materialized. It can, but only when the world has a complete
readiness for its acceptance.
Questions and Answers
Q. You said that Khadija's wealth and Ali's sword made the progress of Islam
possible. Does this not lead to a deviating concept that wealth and material
things have been the only factors for the spread of Islam?
A. We do not believe that wealth alone played a role in this regard, but the
truth is that wealth, too, had certain roles and this is undeniable. It was, is
fact, necessary for the satiation of the newly-converted people's hunger as
well as for providing the expenses of those who were sent here and there by the
Prophet. This does not negate the influence of the spirituality and dynamism of
Islamic thought and ideology, since the very dynamism is in need of material
things when acting and making progress in the same way as it needs physical
labor and activity.
Q. You defined the deprived in its social and political aspects. Is it not
necessary to explain the economic and cultural aspects of it as well?
A. The economic activities of the deprived (as previously defined) are also
under the influence of the powerful, i.e. economic activities are usually
centralized where power is centralized (under the previous regime of Iran, for
example, no productive and economic activity took place except through the
direct or indirect interference of the government). Therefore, economic aspects
are dependent on political aspects. It may, however, be argued that political
power originates from economic power. This is possible but it lacks
universality. Sometimes political power is the cause for the absorption of
money and sometimes money gives rise to political power. They are
inter-connected, but in a society wherein political power is centralized in a
certain group, economics cannot grow and progress independently. The cultural
aspects (culture in its prevailing, not in its revolutionary sense) of society,
too, are affected by the opinion of those who possess political and economic
power. Thus, when political oppression dominates society, the existing cultural
and political aspects of the deprived are also influenced by lt.
Q. Is the following tradition, narrated from the Imams concerning deprivation,
authentic? „The deprived are those who endeavored in the way of God but could
not achieve their aim in establishing the divine system. The highest of them
are the Prophets and saints, next to them are the believers who make efforts in
the way of God."
A. It may be authentic for all the Prophets and their true followers belong to
the category of the deprived. It provides us with the definition of the
deprived not with the concept of deprivation.
Lesson Four
How are Prophets chosen?
What are the Prophets' responsibilities towards God? What is the social,
cultural and intellectual background in which the Prophets appear? To answer
these questions, we analyze the following statements of the first Sermon of the
Nahj-ul-Balagha. „From his progeny (Adam), God chose (istafa) Prophets and took
their pledge for His revelation and for carrying His message as their
trust."
Istafa (to choose the best) is a very important and fundamental issue. In
Arabic, not all selections are indicated by this word. Only when a pure element
is recognized and chosen from amongst a collection of elements is the 'istafa'
used. It is actually employed when the pure and the impure are separated in a
collection of things and the pure portion is extracted.
As far as physical and spiritual aspects of humanity are concerned, the
Prophets have been ordinary human beings but, at the same time, they have
possessed the competence needed for gaining high ranks and positions.
Accordingly, they have been selected, distinguished individuals, born of
parents none of whom have been involved in polytheism and human Corruption Thus
'istqfa' in its general sense implies that a trained and educated Generation
deliver a more trained Generation to society.
As an example, the Prophet of Islam was born in a pure and holy family, from a
father and mother who were, in turn, distinguished from the point of
spirituality and morals (and not on the basis of race, blood, wealth and
aristocratic privileges). In fact, 'Abdullah was superior to all fathers and
Amina was superior to all mothers. These two spiritually trained beings married
and provided society with a child nobler to all children, a better
spiritually-trained being.
So much is certain that the Prophets who appeared before Moses; peace be upon
him, enjoyed lesser spirituality than those who came after him and after Jesus
Christ, peace be upon him, for every Prophet has been the product of the
training and education brought by the Prophets before him, i.e. the prevailing
divine and spiritual training provided by past Prophets have been quite
influential for the growth of the coming ones. Thus, the Commander of the
Faithful uses the word 'istafa' to indicate that God has appointed those beings
to prophethood who have had this spiritual training.
„... and took their ledge for His revelation and for carrying his message as
their trust." Here the Commander of the Faithful mentions the Prophets'
commitments and says that they are committed in two respects: First they have a
commitment towards the divine revelation, meaning that they are obliged to say
merely what they receive as revelation and not to intermix their personal views
with the divine message. Second, they are obliged to deliver the message they have
received and not to bury it with themselves.
„in the course of time many people perverted God's trust with them and ignored
his position and took partners along with Him. Satan turned them away from
knowing him and kept them aloof from his worship." In five short
sentences, the Commander of the Faithful provides us with a precise account of
the mental, practical, social and cultural background of the people at the time
of the Prophets' appearance.
In the first sentence he uses the Phrase 'aktharu khalqihi' (the majority of
His creatures) to indicate that not all the people, but a great many of them,
had perverted God's prescription and commands because absolute darkness or
ignorance has never had dominance over a society, that is, in no age and era
People have been left without heavenly guides, teachers and messengers who have
themselves had some faithful followers. In tact he refers to a society and a
time in which people ignored God's orders, changed the general principles
delivered through the chain of prophethood and deviated the course and program
of life determined by the Prophets through the application of prejudices,
perversions and Personal grudges.
He continues with the phrase 'facahiluhaqqah' (thus they ignored His Position),
meaning that people forgot about God's power and providence in administering
the affairs of society (the same situation is dominant today among the
westerners who do not feel the absence of God in their lives, because they have
remained far away from their true nature. They have forgotten the existence of
God although they apparently believe in God and hear His name repeatedly. They
actually do not know God's Position and status in society).
What is God's trust and covenant (ahd)? Almighty God has provided human beings
with a general pattern of life and a specific course within which people should
move. This course or pattern is the very reality to which all the Prophets have
invited people throughout history, i.e. monotheism, respect for humanity and
moral , natural and legal quality of human beings. This is the divine program,
a command and covenant.
Satans try to pervert this course and command and to induce people to obey and
worship God's creatures instead of God. God calls people to honor the human
being and satans invite them to humiliate and belittle him. Thus, the
perversion of the divine covenant is to deviate from the mentioned course and
pattern, to ignore God's position and to transform society into a satanic one
in which partners are taken along with God.
Taking partners along with God is not merely confined to worshipping an object.
But when God's position remains unknown and the people do not know that
creation and Legislation belong to God (i.e. in the same way as the laws of
creation - laws relating to the movement of heavens and the earth, day and
night, man, birth and death - are in possession of God alone, Legislation or
administration of the society and life, too, is under His authority. This is
the meaning of God's position in human life). They accept certain lines of
thought as their guide, certain human beings as their rulers and certain false
customs and traditions as their manners of living. They thereby replace God
with ignorance, unawareness and satans (which only in our limited minds are
regarded as rivals to God for, in reality, God has no rival). For example,
Egyptians were actually taking a Pharaoh like Anwar Sadat as a partner along
with God when they left their destinies in his hands.
The Commander of the faithful continues with the statement, „Satan turned them
away from knowing Him.." to emphasize that when God's position remains
unknown in a society, satans try to fill up the human mind, which is bereft of
the knowledge of God in some way or other. Sometimes one lacks something and he
knows that he lacks it, but more painful is the case when one lacks something
and he knows it is not due to the fact that the empty place of what he lacks
has been filled with something else of his thirst has been quenched with muddy
water. (This is the greater oppression the victims of human beings, i.e.
suppression of man's God seeking sense or imposition of unawareness on man).
Later on we shall see that Prophets have the responsibility to remove this
oppression and compensate for it.
It is to be noted here that Satan (shaitan), referred to in Ali's sermon,
should not be mistaken for Iblis, the creature who, according to the text of
the Qur'an, refused to bow down to Adam and then implored God to keep him alive
till the Day of Judgment but God promised only to keep him alive, . This
creature should not in any way be assimilated with other creatures. We should
grow accustomed to accepting the exact concepts of the Qur'anic statements, and
not merely what our prejudices warrant.
Satan has a different meaning. Generally speaking according to the Qur'an, it
is applied to those forces which, create corruption, wickedness and deviation.
On this ground, we have in the Qur'an" satans among men and jinns», i.e.
satans among humankind who put on clothes, walk and do the like, and satans of
the kind of jinns. These satans who sometimes dwell within the human being and
are called selfishness, carnal desire, avarice, Aggression, negligence and so
forth. Sometimes they dwell outside the human being and are titled king,
ruffian refractory, corrupt religious leader, aphrodisiac scene, etc.
Now, should we not develop satans within ourselves, outside satans cannot
influence us. For the very reason we cannot put the blame of our own deviations
on social conditions or on those who have led us to negligence. It is in the
Qur'an that the arrogant and the deprived will quarrel on the Day of Judgment.
The deprived accuse the arrogant of having misled them but the arrogant deny it
and argue that they themselves should not have listened to them. Both of them
tell the truth and at the same time, both are condemned.
"... and kept them aloof from His worship." By this statement the
Commander of the Faithful means that when human beings do not know God, it is
quite natural for them not to worship Him and not to serve Him (servitude is
submissive action before God).
Summary
* God has chosen the best of His servants (istafa) as His Prophets.
* He has bound the Prophets to two responsibilities: To tell people only what
they received as revelation and to hide not any part of revealed matters.
* At the time of the Prophets' appearance, the people had taken partners along
with God due to lack of knowledge concerning Gods position, and thus satans had
led them away from God - seeking course towards the negligence of God.
Lesson Five
The Continuity of Prophethood
Continuity is one of the main points in the discussion of prophethood. In the
first Sermon of the Nahj-ul-Balagha, the Commander of the Faithful aims at
picturing the line of prophethood as a consistent and continuous line in the
course of history extending to the time of the Prophet of Islam. In fact, never
in the course of history has there been a time or place devoid of a Prophet or
signs of a Prophet in the past, i.e. either a Prophet has lived among people
appointed by God to provide them with good tidings or to make them fear (God's
wrath) or there has been something left behind by a Prophet, which the people
obeyed as they obeyed the Prophet himself.
Thus, believing in the fact that the earth has never been devoid of a 'proof'
(of God) does not necessarily mean that in a given nation or community, a
Prophet has always lived who has been immediately taken, over by another
Prophet at the time of death. It rather implies that after a prophet's death and
before the advent of the next prophet there was something (a book or a faithful
disciple) which the people followed and obeyed as the successor of the dead
Prophet.
In the Arabian Peninsula, for example, it took a very long time before the
Prophet of Islam appeared. There was a long transition between the
disappearance of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him and the appearance of
Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his descendants. In Sermon
No. 88 of the Nahj-ul-Balagha, the Commander of the Faithful points out this
matter saying, „God sent the Prophet when the mission of other Prophets had
ended and people had fallen into".
Now we pursue our discussion concerning the continuity of prophethood with
regard to his words in the Nahj-ul-Balagha. In Sermon no. 1 he says, God never
allowed His creation to remain without a Prophet (nabi) deputed by Him, or a
book sent down from Him or a binding argument (proof) or a standing plea.
The difference between nabi and rasul is that a nabi merely receives the
message from God but a rasul in addition to receiving the message, has the
mission to propagate it and deliver it to the people. This is, of course, not
totally acceptable because the aim of receiving a message is nothing but
propagating and the deliverance of it to others. However, we might suppose that
a nabi takes the message but it is not the time to deliver it, just as the
Prophet of Islam received the message (revelation) on the 'Night of Power' „We
have indeed revealed this Message in the Night of Power." but it took
twenty-three years before he could fulfill the duty of conveying it to the
people.
In the Sura Ta Ha, verse 114, the Holy Qur'an addresses the prophet, saying:
"... Be not in haste with the Qur'an before its revelation to thee is
completed .. » Accordingly, nabi mursal (the deputed prophet),as the Commander
of the Faithful puts it, is referred to as a Prophet who actually conveys his
message to the people.
What is the meaning of 'Kitabun munzal (a book sent down)? Does this sending
down refers to a place? The fact is that to send down a book actually means to
transform the book into letters and words (language) which humanity
understands, i.e. to adapt the high heavenly concepts and realities to the
level of one's thoughts and understanding.
In fact, God, the exalted, inspired the Prophet with the highly complicated
facts and learnings in the form of the most simple words and expressions which
could be understood by all and which later came to be called the Qur'an, just
as a teacher simplifies difficult matters and gives them to his students. This
comparison may, however, be wrong, for in any case there is a logical and
ordinary connection between a teachers' mind and heart and those of his
students, whereas there is a great gap between an ordinary man's heart and the
divine lofty teachings. The Commander of the Faithful asserts that in the
absence of Prophets and heavenly books, there was either a 'binding argument'
(an unfading proof by which people could convince the enemies) or a 'standing
plea' (a clear and permanent way) on which people could depend.
On the whole, every nation in the course of history has enjoyed one of the
following: First a Prophet (like Moses, Jesus, Abraham, etc.). According to a
Tradition there has been 124,000 Prophets, the first of them being Adam and the
last one being Muhammad, peace and the mercy of God be upon him and his
descendants.
Second, a heavenly Book, left behind by a Prophet. In this very Sermon (Sermon
No. 1) he speaks of the Last Prophet, saying, „... The Prophet left among you
the same (the Book) which other Prophets lefts among their peoples..." By
'Book' he means a collection of written teachings and commandments which all
the Prophets possessed. Some of these books were, however, descended to the Prophets
themselves (these are not more than a few) but others were those left behind by
previous Prophets, either distorted or misunderstood, which the Prophets after
them undertook to correct or interpret.
As an example, after Moses, the Torah was misunderstood by some, even mingled
with polytheistic ideas, and thus such Prophets as Salomon, David, etc., who
succeeded Moses, tried to provide the people with the true meanings and
concepts of this Book.
This is also true with the Qur'an. That is to say that there is a considerable
difference between our understanding of the Qur'anic teachings and that of the
past generations (taking into account the fact that the text of the Qur'an and
its concepts and realities have remained untouched). In the past, these teachings
were considerably misunderstood because distorted matters and wrong ways of
thinking obsessed the people's minds and prevented them from the correct
understanding of the Qur'an. But today, the Qur'an is correctly understood and
it is likely that in the future some Qur'anic realities be unveiled that we do
not perceive today (According to some traditions, when eventually Imam-Mahdi
reappears, he will introduce a new religion-the true Islam. Today, some Sunni
and non-Sunni jurists have announced that the religion which people follow in
Iran is not Islam. They tell the truth because this is not that Islam in which
they believe-that distorted Islam which contains idolatry, polytheistic and
anti-Islamic ' values. Our Islam is different from that Islam whose mosque is
inaugurated by the President of America and whose Qur'an is printed by the Shah
of Iran. There is a great and changing distance between these two forms of
Islam).
The Books of the Prophets were, however, sufficient as long as they remained untouched,
their concepts were rightly expounded and they were correctly interpreted. In
the case of Moses, for example, his Book remained perfect and undistorted after
he died, during the time when the Children of Israel were in a state of
bewilderment and sought to reach Jerusalem, and guaranteed the victory of
Israelites as well as the establishment of the Mosaic community. (This
community, which was powerful and enjoyed a government, came into being after
Moses' death. In fact, Moses made preparations for the revolution and provoked
the people but he did not live long enough to witness the establishment of his
ideal community, and it was the people who accomplished this task). The Torah
was actually preserved and kept aloof from distortion by the successors of
Moses (Yusha ibn Nun and Kalib ibn Yuhanna) who succeeded in pursuing that
heavenly, Islamic and monotheistic dynamism, i.e. the genuine Torah.
Third, a fixed and undeniable proof. This can be seen in the period after Jesus
Christ ascended to the heavens (he was not killed), during which time
Christians were subjected to manifold oppression; namely, the oppression of the
Roman Empire whose foundations were based on polytheism, which severely
persecuted the followers of this progressed monotheistic religion; and the
oppression of non-Christian Israelites (the Jews) who did not believe in the
Message of Jesus Christ. As a result, Orthodox Christian Israelites lived for
many years in concealment and in a state of strangulation without the
opportunity to gather together or convey the prophetic legacy to one another
freely. The famous disciples of Jesus Christ had to tolerate a great deal of
distress in traveling between the cities and lands in order to propagate Jesus'
Message.
To say the least, the prevailing state of oppression kept the true Bible of
Jesus Christ far away different versions of this heavenly Book; namely, the
four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, none of them containing the exact
words, sayings and signs of Jesus Christ. Thus, the original Book (the Bible)
was not among the people, yet the existence of the Torah's commandments, which
Jesus Christ had announced to be valid and practicable if modified, the
existence of the mentioned calamities and the existence of Jesus' guidelines were
all an undeniable proof preventing people from refuting the prophecy of Jesus
Christ and provoking them to transfer Christian teachings to the coming
generations who could, in turn, move and act on the basis of such teachings.
Fourth, a clear and manifest way, i.e. the means and decrees which are not
found in the Book but the people possess. It is in a Tradition related from
Imam Hassan al'Asgari, peace be upon him, in which he has explained the
qualities and Attributes of Islamic jurisprudents. Someone asked the Imam why
the learned men of the Christians and the Jews (priests and monks) are
reproached in the Qur'an whereas the learned men of Islam are praised. What is
the difference between the two? The Imam gave a detailed answer, the epitome of
which is that the learned men of Islam, too, are not unconditionally praised.
They are praised provided they possess the Attributes that Islam has
determined. But should they contrarily follow the same perversions and
disgraces adhered to by priests and monks, they will also be blameworthy.
Priests and monks were actually dependent on the powerful and supported them.
Although the realities had reversely been manifest in the people's eyes, they
did not take action to provide the people with a true portrait of their religion.
But the people could discern, on the basis of a series of natural (primordial)
principles, the perverseness of the way to which they had been led. Basically,
at any age there is a set of accepted natural principles among the people,
resulting from the continuous instructions of the Prophets in the course of
centuries, which enables them to distinguish the truth from falsehood (for
example, when a religious scholar or a man of God compromises with the enemies
of God, it can be said without reasoning that he is in the wrong. It is quite
obvious and natural that he goes the wrong way, for one cannot obey God and His
enemies simultaneously).
People can, in effect, distinguish the right way from the wrong by a reference
to their hearts and according to their intrinsic beliefs which are the very
'standing pleas' and manifest ways.
These four elements (this clear way) always existed in man's life before the
advent of Prophet of Islam. It sometimes happened, however, that two Prophets
were living at the same time in different corners of the world or two heavenly
Books were followed by two different nations. But the important point was that
heavenly guidance made its appearance in all places and at all times (even
among the wild, primitive people). Yet, more important of the number of those
who denied them never caused the Prophets to neglect fulfilling their
obligations.
In Sermon No. 1 of the Nahj-ul-Balagha the Commander of the Faithful says,
„These Messengers were such that they did of not feel little because of the
smallness of their number or of largeness of the number of their
falsifiers."
In fact, none of the Prophets fell victim to disappointment but rather all of
them succeeded in achieving their aims although the number of them was small
(124,000 in proportion to the world population from the very beginning till
now) and the number of their falsifiers was large. Falsifiers were the ones who
spread out falsely the point that the Prophets' way, message and prophethood
were wrong. They were great in number and in some cases they even killed some
of the Prophets. yet the Prophets never fell short in pursuing their general
and ultimate aim, i.e. prosperous community, and never became hopeless in
accomplishing their mission.
They not only struggled for the spiritual elevation of the people of their own
time but they also tried to attain the total prosperity and historical
evolution of human beings as a whole. And they were successful in this respect.
Even those Prophets who were killed had the opportunity beforehand to convey
their message and introduce their heavenly lines of thought which although were
kept hidden for some time, were finally unveiled and practiced again.
Muddarres, as a follower of the Prophets, had a message to convey at the time
of the strangulation of Reza Shah's reign. He believed in the policy of,
„Negative Equilibrium" or in his own terms "adami", meaning that
we shall neither pay tribute to the West nor to the East. He said, „Religion
should not be separated from politics." For the deliverance of such a
social and political message, he was arrested, exiled and finally poisoned and
choked by stuffing his own turban in his mouth (his grave is now besides a
small farm in Kashmar).
He departed and was buried in the remote deserts, but gradually one of his
beliefs, „Negative Equilibrium" (before the announcement of this policy by
Muddarres, Russian and British governments were equally privileged in Iran. For
example, in 1919, Vuthuq ad-Dulih granted the western part of Iran to Britain under
a treaty. Russians objected to it, and he granted the north to them.«Positive
Equilibrium») was revived eighteen or twenty years later, at the time of Dr.
Mussadiq.
Muddarres, Seyyid Jamal (of Asadabad) and others, all being messengers of truth
and justice and compassionate lecturers of their own time, were so devoted and
courageous that they expressed their views and left behind their lines of
thought. But it could be much better if they themselves could have the
opportunity to materialize their messages in a better manner and could witness
the overthrow of the Pharaoh and the freedom of the people after they had been
exposed to so much trouble and distress. However, their names, actions and
messages are recorded in history despite their untimely death. They did not
neglect their aims and duties and history will not neglect them either.
Questions and Answers
Q. Will Jesus Christ appear after the reappearance of Imam Mahdi?
A. Yes, the Traditions attest this.
Q. We know that the Torah and the Bible have been subjected to distortion. Why
has the Qur'an been an exception?
A. It has been proved with sound reasonings that not even a "," (and)
has been deleted from or added to the Qur'an. During the time of the third
Caliph (Uthman) someone recited the following verse of the Qur'an but
intentionally omitted the «,» before „alladhin" which changed the meaning
of the verse to a great extent, implying that only those priests and monks who
bury gold and silver are condemned, whereas the verse refers to two groups of
people - priests and monks who devour the substance of men in falsehood and the
people(they may be by priests and monks or not)who pile gold and silver. The
verse reads as follow, "0 ye who believe! There are indeed many among
priests and anchorites, who in falsehood devour the substance of men and hinder
(them) from the way of God. And there are those who bury gold and silver and
spend it not in the way of God.- announce unto them a most grievous penalty ...
» (9: 34)
At this event, 'Abdullah ibon Mas'ud, who was present there, put his sword on
his shoulder and said angrily, „If you do not recite the verse with the
"," you deleted, I will secede from Islam." They were this
sensitive. They themselves had heard the Prophet reciting the verses of the
Qur'an and had recorded them in their hearts and writings and, thus, they
preserved them at the expense of their life. In this way, the Qur'an, which
came down to the Prophet was preserved in the original form by the retentives
and recitors who permanently recited the Qur'an and kept it from additions and
deletions.
Q. What is the difference between „bayyeneh" and „hujjat"?
A. Bayyeneh is a clear and manifest proof which merely convinces a person but
hujjat is a proof or reasoning by which a person disputes with his enemies.
Lesson Six
The End of Prophethood
„... Among them was either a predecessor who would name the one to follow or
the follower who had been introduced by the predecessor." (Sermon 1,
Nahj-ul-Balagha)
In the previous lesson, we mentioned that human beings have never suffered from
the absence of the Prophets or revealed Books. Here in the above statement, the
Commander of the Faithful points out that all the Prophets have had the same
direction, although their followers stand against each other today (Jews against
Christians and Christians against Muslims ... ) He actually means that there
have been no dispute or quarrel among the Prophets, all of them traversing the
same path, conveying the same message and knowing each other quite well.
Everyone of them introduced the Prophet after him and talked honorably about
the one before him. For example, Moses informed his followers that Jesus Christ
would be his successor and Jesus Christ mentioned, in turn, the name of Moses.
Thus, the disputes and wars running among the followers of the Prophets are
quite illogical, originating from egotism and selfishness.
We see, therefore, that this situation (the successive coming of the Prophets,
heavenly Books and the Prophets' followers such as the Imams) continued along
with history and humanity's evolution till God appointed Muhammad peace and the
mercy of God be upon him and upon his, descendants as the last Prophet.
In this regard, the Commander of the Faithful continues with the following
words: «In this way, ages passed by and time rolled on, fathers passed away
while sons took their places till God deputed Muhammad (peace and the mercy of
God be upon him and his descendants) as His Prophet, in fulfillment of His
promise and in completion of His Prophethood.»
What has God promised which should definitely be fulfilled? The answer can be
traced in the Qur'an where it gives good tidings, in the words of Jesus Christ,
of the advent of Muhammad, saying: „And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary,
said.- 0 children of Israel, I am the apostle of God(sent) to you, confirming
the Law (which came) before me, and giving glad tidings of an Apostle to come
after me, whose name shall be Ahmad. ...It is He who has sent His Apostle with
Guidance and the Religion of Truth, that he may proclaim it over all religion
... » (61: 69)
Thus, God's promise is the victory of Mohammed's religion (or prophethood) over
all of humanity's intellectual courses and social experiences. This does not
mean, however, that during the Prophet's lifetime this aim should have been
achieved (as it was not achieved in practice due to the Prophet's departure),
nor does it mean that the Prophet of Islam should, in the long run, overcome
all religions, nations and schools of thought (although this has been realized
many times in history and the Islamic government has approached a worldwide
extent)
The proclamation of truth actually has a more delicate significance. In fact,
the thought and mentality of human beings and their creativeness, initiative
and innovation increasingly provide them with new ways and manners.
Ideologies come into being, grow up and become widespread in this way, and
thinkers and philosophers (such as Plato Socrates and ... ) make their plans
for humanity's social life or the basis of these new ways and manners.
Now, the path (school) of the Prophets will gain absolute victory over all the
ways designed by human beings at a time when the whole content of the
prophethood is given to the people. The path of Moses was certainly the path of
God but no one claims that it was the most perfect path ever disclosed for
humanity. It was quite appropriate for the time of Moses but it lacked that
much capacity to encompass various necessities of human life at all ages and
times. It is likely that such man-made schools of thought shall appear in the
course of the coming centuries as to be more perfect than the school (religion)
of Moses.
Thus, Moses' religion was not the one to overcome all other schools and
religions because the line of prophecy had not come to an end and the cup of
prophethood had not overflowed. Moses filled a part of this cup and Jesus
filled another part but they could not go forward because human beings did not
have the capacity to absorb more. The people were, in effect, mentally weak.
Otherwise, God would have bestowed on them the whole message of prophethood
through His first appointed Prophet.
But when the people got the essential readiness, God deputed His Last Messenger
to provide them with all (the knowledge and awareness) that could be contained
in the human mind and to complete the culture of prophethood, fulfilling the
divine promise and overcoming all religions and man-made schools of thought.7
The completion of prophethood speaks of the end of the line through which
humanity connects itself directly with God, i.e. revelation. When this line
comes to an end by the appearance of the Last Prophet there is no further need
of revelation, Gabriel and so forth, because human beings themselves are
thereafter capable of understanding new ways and manners of life and extracting
them from what has been offered to them in a complete form by the Last
Messenger of God, who stands at the end of the chain of prophethood.
Now, going back once again to the Nahj-ul-Balagha, we see that all the Prophets
preceding the last, such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and so forth, had a
commitment to believe in him, as they anticipated his coming: The Last Prophet
stood in effect at the peak of prophethood and other Prophets who were below
him in rank had to await him, believe in him (i.e. believe in his prophethood
and message) and love him.
The Commander of the Faithful says, „.. God deputed Muhammad (peace and the
mercy of God be upon him and his descendants) as His Prophet, in fulfillment of
His promise and in completion of His Prophethood. His pledge had been taken
from the Prophets, his traits of character were well reputed and his birth was
honorable."
There is, however, a subtler significance in these statements and that is that
the Prophet's commitment was neither a written or an oral one. They had,
rather, a natural and primordial commitment to heighten the thought and
understanding of human beings and to make them ready for the advent of the Last
Messenger. This commitment is similar to the commitment of the teachers of
lower grades towards the teachers of higher grades, although they may not know
one another. In fact, the former are responsible to train the students' minds
in such a proper way that the latter can make the more advanced matters and
more extended concepts easily understood.
The Commander of the Faithful continues that the Prophet's «traits of
character», i.e. his physical, familial, spiritual and behavioural signs and
characteristics were known to one and all and thus a few number of people such
as Salman of Fars could unprecedentedly, and without being exposed to his later
teachings and programs, know him an come to a perfect belief in his religion.
As to the birth of the Prophet, the Commander of the Faithful uses the
adjective „honorable" to indicate that there was not weakness regarding
this matter, i.e. the Prophet's father and moth (were both chaste and pious.
Also, his birth was honorable in respect to circumstances of time and place.
Questions and Answers
Q. Can people, other than the Prophets establish connection with God through
revelation? If so, can we conclude that after the end of prophethood too, God
inspires His pure beings with some mysteries?
A. The answer to this question lies in the different between revelation and
inspiration. Revelation is the descension of specific concepts together with
their specia wordings to a Prophet. The Holy Qur'an is, in the eyes of the
Muslims, a revelation sent down to the Prophet of Islam through Gabriel. It is
completely different from what ordinary human beings receive in their hearts or
understand in an unusual manner.
Theirs are inspirations that pure, faithful and sincere creatures of God
occasionally receive. Thus, revelation is far beyond inspiration and there is
no matter if some people are inspired with some secrets in the period after the
end o prophethood.
Q. If all the Prophets have had the same line and direction why have their
followers, who have to practice their, commandments, not followed the same way?
A. The reason is that the followers of the Prophets were gradually deceived,
that is, as time passed, malicious an( ignorant hands were put to work,
beguiling the followers and distorting the teachings of the Prophets.
Q. What is, vilayat-i-faqih (the guardianship of religious jurisprudents)? Is
it among the „Essentials of Religion" or among the „Secondary
Principles" of Religion?
A. „Vilayat" means the guardianship of the community and faqih» is a
jurisprudent or theologian. Thus, „vilayat-i-faqih" is the guardianship of
the Islamic community by the religious theologians or jurisprudents in the
period when the immaculate Imam is absent. It is one of the „Secondary
Principles of Religion", a ruling system, and those who do not believe in
it and deny it are disbelievers in Islam.
Q. What are common to monotheistic religions and what are their differences?
A. The doctrinal principles which they offer are common to all monotheistic
religions (i.e. heavenly religions, for we do not have non-monotheistic
heavenly religions), and the differences among them lie perhaps in the special
decrees and commandments, each of them provides for that specific era in which
it is founded.
Q. What is ijtihad?
A. Its literal meaning is «to try or endeavor» but in its technical sense it
refers to a theologian's effort in understanding Islamic rules and regulations
and deriving them from the Book (the Holy Qur'an), Traditions, etc. through the
special skill he has acquired in his long course of discipleship under great
Islamic experts and authorities. A person who has the ability to perform this
job is called a «Mujtahid.».
Q. Why did the Prophet of Islam appear among the Arabs and not among the
Persians, for example? Is it true that had he not appeared among the Arabs, the
Arabian civilization would have been forgotten?
A. There is no definite reason concerning this matter but perhaps it can be
argued that since Arabs were the most untrained and uneducated as well as the
most quarrelsome nation of that time, and since they could more easily be
affected and influenced than others, they possessed a proper background for the
acceptance of the Prophet's invitation to Islam. Their lack of education and
training was not, however, an obstacle to their acceptance of the invitation
but, rather, caused more trouble and distress for the Prophet in attracting
their attention. Perhaps if this religion appeared among other nations, it
would be more difficult to convince them. Arabs, though fastened to the chain
of superstitions, possessed certain privileges such as bravery, devotion, tolerance
(against hardship) and freedom (not being under the rule of satanic powers)
which made them the most deserving nation to be exposed to this heavenly
religion of Islam.
As to the Arabian civilization it should be said that the Arabs, having a civilization,
a culture and a history of their own, would not have been forgotten, had the
Prophet not appeared among them, in the same way as the Turks, Tajiks,
Spaniards and so forth have remained up to this day.
Lesson Seven
The Believer' Status Before, After and at the Time of the Prophets' Appearance
In another sermon of the Nahj-ul-Balagha known as „al-Khutbah al-Qasi'ah"
(The Sermon of Disparagement),the Commander of the Faithful lays down and
explains some of the matters which were quoted in previous from Sermon No. 1,
concerning the status of the people during the Age of Ignorance, conditions of
the time of the appearance of the Prophets and the situation of the people
after the appointment of the Prophets to prophethood.
He portrays, in effect, the conditions and circumstances which had naturally
cast shadows over the people's lives in the Age of Ignorance as well as the
victorious status the people gained after the appearance of the Prophets under
the light of their efforts, struggles and endeavors. A study of some of the
statements of this Sermon (al qasrah) which adds to our mind concerning what we
learned about the background to prophethood, the Prophets' responsibilities,
etc., in previous lessons, would bring us to a sound conclusion for this book.
In a part of this Sermon we read: «Think about the condition of people from
among the believers who passed before you. What distress and trials they
underwent:»8 It means that we should look deep into the circumstances of the
believers who lived before us, not treating them in a perfunctory manner
because we cannot learn much from the formal appearance of the past events.
Only when one traces the causes of these events and contemplates them deeply
will one perceive that the believers of the past have been under severe
pressure' and that they have been subjected to such hardships as hunger,
torture, imprisonment and so forth and greater hardships than those we suffer
today, i.e. facing political problems and happenings and recognizing the true
character of different groups and fronts and the stance they take.
The Commander of the Faithful continues with the following statements, „were
they the most over-burdened among all the people and in the most straightened
circumstances in the whole world?" The true believers have always been the
most overburdened, the most pain-suffering and the poorest creatures of God
before the advent of the Prophets and the realization of Islamic revolutions
(all the revolutions led by the Prophets have been Islamic in the sense that
they have all been primarily aimed at submission to God). Why? First, because
the believers have to provide for their own sustainance.
In fact, the true believers, those who have touched the spirit of the belief in
God, never compromise with oppressive powers. They usually refuse to enter
their service and to help them should they not be able to fight them."
Thus, under tyrannical governments, the believers are constantly face to face
with hardships and inconveniences as far as their economic affairs are concerned.
This can be traced in Islamic traditions.
On the contrary, disbelievers compromise with the oppressors very easily, enter
the service and thus enjoy a comfortable life. Second, in addition to providing
for their own living, the believers are usually obliged to shoulder the burden
of the oppressors' impositions concerning their luxurious life. As an example,
we all know that the overthrown regime (of Pahlavi) faced exorbitant expenses
which had to be paid by those who did not compromise with it. Those who
compromised with that regime were not subjected to such burdens and
impositions. They themselves took advantage of the prevailing situations as
well.
Third, the believers have to tolerate the political impositions of the
oppressive ruling powers with whom they fight. Such powers do not let them
express their beliefs and have their own free thoughts and opinions. They force
the believers to accept their own oppressive thoughts. Thus, the prevailing
strangulation in a society is a great burden on the shoulder of the believers
who refuse to adhere to the thoughts and opinions imposed by the oppressive
ruling powers. They are, in effect, the most combative people, always fighting
the oppressors in order to eradicate calamities and corruptions.
It is narrated that the believer is always in a state of struggling in some way
or other. Under unlawful and corruptive governments, he involves himself in
organized hidden and underground battles and lives in a precautionary,
dissimulative manner, and under lawful, legitimate governments, he deals with
political, ideological and military involvements or fights the enemy to
safeguard the way of God. Thus, the believer is always in a fighting state
which is very troublesome. Fighting does not necessarily mean receiving wounds
and bearing distress.
It includes, in addition to these, fears and failures, worries and anxieties.
The true fighter is thus the one who does not surrender to these and who only
fights for the sake of God and duty, not for the sake of victory. Accordingly,
fighting is more troublesome and difficult than all the trials of life. Finally
the Commander of the Faithful says, that are the poorest and the most
straightened people because they have to live in a state of strangulation,
poverty, force and precautionary silence. He continues to explain the
believers' status in the following statements: „The Pharaohs took them as
slaves.
They inflicted the worst punishments and bitter sufferings on them. They
continuously remained in this state of (spiritual) ruinous disgrace and severe
subjugation. They found no method for escape and no way for protection."
The first statement implies that the believers were forcefully made to obey
Pharaohs (holders of tyrannical power) or deities other than the One God,
although they were servants of God by nature. Sometimes, of course, such
deities or objects of worship believe in God themselves and, therefore
submission to them is submission to God.
But when they induce people to the worship of their own selves, submission to
them is submission to non-gods. It has been narrated that „he who listens to a
speaker, becomes his servant. If the speaker speaks of God, that person will be
the servant of God and if he speaks of Satan that person will be the servant of
Satan.» And Satan is sometimes the very human 'self' and 'concupiscence' to
whose obedience the Pharaohs forced the believers in God, who knew no way of
defending their human dignity and getting rid of such servitude. Such was the
status of the believers in God and followers of the Prophets who dealt with
satanic ruling powers before the victory.
The Three-Act Play of people's Status
The status of the people before, during and after the Prophets' appointment can
be likened to a three-act play, the first act of which shows hardship and
distress, the second speaks of resistance and perseverance and the third
pictures, victory and freedom. In fact, the believers will never gain victory
without resisting hardships and struggling for their aim. The Commander of the
Faithful continues, „Till when God, the Glorified, noticed that they were
enduring troubles in His love and bearing distress and of fear for Him, He
provided escape from the distress of trials. So, He changed their disgrace into
honor and fear into safety."
In these statements, the Imam shows that the direction of the believers'
struggles is towards God and they tolerate hardships and undesirable problems
such as hunger, torture, imprisonment, cudgel-punishments and so forth upon His
way and for the sake of His love so that God, seeing their patience and
perseverance, would reveal to them the ways of escape from nuisances and
calamities, maintain their convenience and tranquillity, change their disgrace
into honor and fear into security and finally their defeat into victory. It
should be added here that honor (i.e. not submitting to contempt) and safety
(i.e. not fearing any enemy) are the most important things the oppressed people
are concerned about.
Under the rule of satans (tyrannical powers) the people are not immune
concerning their lives, properties, morality and so forth, whereas under the
rule of God and the oppressed people such worries and anxieties do not exist at
all. The Commander of the Faithful continues his discussion with these
statements, „Consequently, they became ruling authorities and conspicuous
leaders, and God's favors over them reached limits to which their own wishes
had not reached," meaning that the whole community of believers, after
God, bestowed victory upon them, became leaders (Imams, guides and patterns)
and objects of imitation for other oppressed people and nations who followed
their ways and manners and made movements.
This is clearly observable in the world of today in which a nation of believers
(i.e. Iranians), after having struggled for a long time and gaining victory
over a tyrannical regime, has now become the leader of the whole world of the
oppressed, and achievement which had never been imagined by Iranians. They
thought, in fact, about victory but they never imagined to become leaders and
guiding patterns for all of the oppressed people of the world such as those of
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Persian Gulf countries, Africa and America, who have
been greatly influenced and motivated by Iranians' achievements. And this is
nothing but God's favor as he says.
Conclusion
(Two General Points in the Sermon)
First, in this Sermon (No. 191) the emphasis is mostly on the spiritual aspects
of the people's calamities and adversities.. In fact, such factors as
strangulation, lack of security, the burden of mental impositions and the
burden of providing for the satanic wishes of illegitimate governments, all of
which cause humanity to suffer spiritually and invoke one to campaign, are more
emphasized than such material misfortunes (or trials) as hunger for which the
people rarely campaign.
To say the least, human beings' honor and dignity are the dearest things to
them, which stimulate them to seriously struggle and campaign. Hunger and the
like can be removed in other ways. These are the points of emphasis in this
Sermon. Secondly, the Imam emphasizes here that in a community of believers,
when the arrogant government is overthrown, it is the oppressed who take it
over another arrogant group.
As an example, after the revolution of Moses and destruction of Pharaoh, it was
the believers themselves and the masses who became rulers and established a
true government. Also, during the lifetime of the Last Prophet, as well as
during the reign of the rightly guided Caliphs, the people themselves were masters
of their own affairs and played significant roles in resolving the rnatters
which came about. They loved the Prophet and accepted what he said but not
blindly and under propagandic pressures.
They freely accepted his decisions and they themselves made minor decisions.
Unfortunately, as time has passed, people's participation in and contribution
to the ruling affairs of the Islamic communities have gradually decreased and
these communities have turned out to be, like the communities predominated by
ignorance, consisting of two classes of people - the arrogant and the deprived;
whereas a true Islamic community consists only of one class of people and they
are the believers.
FOOTNOTES
1)When Damascus was conquered by 'Umar, the second Caliph, he appointed Yazid
bin Abu Sufyan the governor of that region and when Yazid died, his brother
Mu'awiya took over. Thus, the people of the region came to know only Mu'awiya
and his family from the very beginning when they embraced Islam.
2) This title is still found in many books of our Sunni brethren.
3) Ash-Sharif Ar-Radi, the of Ali (Tehran: World Organization for Islamic
Services, 1979), part one, page 19.
4) Ibid. p. 20.
5) Ibid. p. 30.
6) Ibid. part two, page 406. parenthesis is the translator's.
7) For a better understanding of this matter, refer to Martyr Murtada
Mutahhari's The End of Prophecy
8) Nahj-ul-Balagha of Ali, part two, page 410.
9) In the terminology of the Qur'an and in Islamic usage „trial" (bala)
comes to mean a bitter a and severe incident. Through these incidents, the
human heroes have always been tried in the course of history and one cannot
claim to be a perfect human being unless one exposes.
10) Akhavan-i-Thalith, one of the forerunners of modern Persian poetry, wrote a
poem entitled „Wolves and Dogs" in which he pictures the status of
rebellious believers with all hardships and calamities they suffer and their
battle against oppressors as well as the status of the peace-seeking
disbelievers and hypocrites who compromise with tyrants and do not refuse to he
subjected to rneanness. Akhvan likens the believers to wolves which keep
distance with the affluent and expose themselves to great sufferings for a loaf
of bread, and compares the disbelievers with dogs which always serve
faithfully, collar on the neck, in order to receive what is left over the
master's table.