Some Instances Of Loyalty In The Supplication: Ziyarat Al-Warith
Three aspects of loyalty are portrayed in this supplication
1- Salutation: that is “Peace be on you, O heir to Adam, God’s chosen one.”
2- Testimony: that is “I bear witness that you are the pious and devout Imam”
3- Stand: that is “My heart is in submission to your heart and my actions follow yours.
In the following passages we will discuss these three aspects of loyalty which appear in this supplication.
First Aspect: Salutation
This is the first manifestation of loyalty which has three parts:
First: Peace be on you, O heir to Adam, God’s chosen one!
Second: Peace be on you, O son of Muhammad, the chosen one!
Third: Peace be on you, O God’s avenger, the son of God’s avenger!
Among the elements of loyalty are salutation and submission i.e, not disputing and differing with the leadership, both in the mind and in behaviour. By submission we mean practical obedience and compliance. However, this obedience stems from internal harmony and love for the leader and not from coercion. The relationship of the community with its leaders is that of firmly rooted submission that is visible in behaviour.
This relationship is exhibited at the end of the formal prayer in the form of salutation: “Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be on you, O Prophet.” The fruit reaped by the servant when he soars toward God in prayer is obedience and love for the [God-appointed] leaders. Islam has prescribed the word ‘peace’ as the faithfuls’ salutation for one another. This general greeting: ‘Peace be on us and on God’s righteous servants’ is the closing part on which the worshippers finish their prayers.
The importance given to spreading peace arises from the emphasis that is laid on the type of relationship that should exist between Muslims. This relationship is established on the basis of eschewing discord and disagreement among Muslims; removing hatred, malice and ill-will from minds; establishing love and fellow feeling in hearts and cooperation and concord in action.
Second Aspect: Testimony
Testimony is a declaration of trust, faith and loyalty, and such a testimony must be coupled with submission so that they complement one another.
In this supplication, testimony appears in three parts:
1. Testifying to the message and movement of Husayn (as): “I bear witness that you established the prayer, paid the zakat, enjoined what is good and forbade the bad and obeyed God and His messenger (S) till you died”
To establish the prayer is not just to perform it, because the latter is only a personal duty stemming from individual obligation, whereas the former
carries a message in the life of the believers. Establishing the prayer means to firmly establish worship and the relationship with God in people’s lives. It also involves urging the people to keep up prayer for God’s sake by openly declaring this obligation that has been enjoined on them.
“You enjoined the good and forbade the bad”: When Husayn (as) revolted against Yazid he was not after kingship, power or position, rather, he sought to establish good deeds and uproot evil i.e. establish loyalty to God and destroytaghut
.
On the day of Ashura, Husayn (as) addressed the people saying: “Do you not see that truth is not acted upon and falsehood is not being forbidden? Let the believer desire to meet God. [As for me] I consider death to be nothing but a source of bliss and living with oppressors only a vexation.”
At the station of Al-Baydah, Husayn addressed al-Hurr’s companions in these words: “O you people! The Messenger of God (S) has said: Whoever watches an unjust ruler who violates what God declares sacrosanct, breaks His covenant, contradicts the tradition of the Messenger of God (S) and rules the people in a way characterized by sin and transgression, and, does not oppose him by word or deed, God has the right to make him share his doom. Certainly, these people [Yazid and co.] have sworn obedience to Satan, leaving aside obedience to the Merciful; they have engaged in corruption openly and suspended the legal punishments; they have monopolized the treasury and they have permitted what God prohibited and disallowed what He permitted.”
Thus Husayn (as) was not after power and wealth, but he saw that a despot was spreading corruption in the land, wreaking havoc, making permissible what God forbade and transgressing His limits. So he rose up against Yazid in Karbala, with his faithful group which welcomed his call for bidding the good, forbidding the bad, reinstituting what is right, and extirpating what is wrong.
2. Testifying to the fact that the Imam was immaculate both internally and in his behaviour. God has exclusively endowed theAhl al-Bayt
(as) with this purity. The Most High says:"Indeed God desires to repel all impurity from you, O people of the Household, and purify you with a thorough purification."
In addition, testifying that this virtuousness was passed on from father to son and God Most High destined this purity to be preserved within this noble line throughout the eras of ignorance that came to pass in human history Over the different ages God Most High has chosen this blessed line for the office of Imamate in the life of man."Indeed God chose Adam and Noah, and the progeny of Abraham and the progeny of Imran above all nations. Some of them are descendants of others, and God is All-hearing, All-knowing."
Let us look at this section of the supplication of Ziyarat al-Warith: “I bear witness that you were a light in noble loins and pure wombs. The era of ignorance did not soil you by its impurities nor did it clothe you in its garments of darkness.”
I do not want to pass on without pointing to this beautiful expression of purity of this house; the result of the fecundation brought about by noble
loins and purified wombs: loins of men who were above worldly things that people scramble for; and wombs of women who were chaste and free from the scum of civilizations of the ages of ignorance seen by man.
3- Testifying to the position which was taken by Husayn (as) with regard to what the nation was experiencing; the leadership role assigned to him by God in the form of Imamate and guardianship over the Muslims; and the fact that God had commissioned him to guide the community. Coupled with this, was the position of his offspring in leading and guiding the Muslims towards God Almighty.
We also read in it: “I bear witness that you are among the pillars of religion and the pivots of believers. I bear witness that you are the pious, the obedient, the chaste, the guided and the guide. I bear witness that the Imams from your offspring are the epitome of piety, the milestones of guidance, the stronghold and proof over the people of the world.”
Third Aspect: Stand
This is the stage for asserting loyalty, which comes after submission and testimony. Here stand pertains to both faith and action. Faith is eloquently described through these words: “I believe in you and in your return, I have firm faith in the rules of my religion, and my heart is submissive to your hearts”, in the supplication of Ziyarat al-Warith. The practical part of this stand consists in deference and obedience to them: “And my actions follow yours.”
A compelling indication of the sincerity of one’s stand is one’s submission to the Imams with respect to the rules of religion and the final deeds of one’s life. Nothing is as dear as the religious rules by which one worships God Almighty and the last acts in life, for acts done in the beginning or middle parts of one’s lifetime can be compensated for by repentance, soul searching and correction, unlike those done at the closing part. One’s last deeds determine one’s fate.
The best proof of having trust in the Imams (as) and being sincerely loyal to them is for one to receive from them the rules of religion and take inspiration from them for what one does at the end of one’s life. That unrestricted submission as described above is of the highest type because it is untainted by the least resistance or misgiving in the heart, that is the submission of the heart to the heart: “and my heart is in submission to your hearts.” This is when the hearts get into contact and mutual understanding.
Similarly, one’s stand as regards to action is described thus: “And my actions follow your actions.” This represents complete obedience and submission to the commands of God.
Therefore, the stand means complete faith, unrestricted submission and absolute trust, followed by total commitment and obedience with regard to action. In a special ziyarah of Imam Husayn (as) on the day of Arafat, the following section occurs: “I am at peace with the one who is at peace with you, at war with the one who is at war with you, hostile to the one who is hostile to you and friend to the one who is friend to you. [In this way shall I remain] till the day of Resurrection.”
In the specialZiyarat al-Arba’in
prayer we read:
“I bear witness that I believe in you and your return, I have firm faith in the rules of my religion and will have till the final call of death, my heart is submissive to your hearts, my actions follow your actions and my support for you is ready till the time God grants permission [for action]. So I am fully on your side and not on the side of your enemy. God’s blessings be on you, both your souls and bodies, on the present and the absent ones among you”.
This is a declaration of total readiness for support, after which comes this beautiful rendition of loyalty: “With you! With you! with your enemy, never!” By repeating togetherness: ‘With you, with you’, the covenant of loyalty is emphasized just as it is through affirming and negating i.e. expressing loyalty to the Imams and repudiating their enemies: ‘With your enemy, never!’
Similarly, the supplication on the first of Rajab conveys this expression of loyalty to the one who stood up in Karbala on the day of Ashura’ inviting mankind to God, to strive against the forces that were rebellious towards Him and break their arrogance and direct them to serve God alone. It reads: “At your service, O inviter towards God! If my body did not respond to you when you sought help [on the day of Ashura] or my tongue when you called for support, surely my heart responds to you”.
The best response indeed is that of the heart. We have missed the chance to respond to the call of the caller to God in Karbala physically, but our hearts, which God has filled with loyalty to Him and His friends (the Imams) (as), will ever comply with the Imam (as). We shall always respond to his call to fight the oppressors and break their power and strength; to bring the people over to the service of God, establish His law and uphold the divine limits in human life; and free mankind from the axis of the rebellious (taghut
) and direct them towards loyalty to Almighty God.
Repudiation: The Other Face Of Loyalty
After this, comes repudiation, which is the other face of loyalty, for there can be no loyalty without repudiation: they are two faces of the same issue, two parts of a single reality, and any stand is made up of these two.
One’s promise of loyalty is fulfilled through his repudiation because a declaration of loyalty alone does not cost one much. Most of the troubles that one may suffer come as a result of repudiation. It is only too easy for one to live with all in a friendly and peaceful environment by respecting the feelings and sensibilities of everybody. One can play a double game and guard against collusion with all. One can smile at everybody in order to gain their acceptance. Such a person can live in peace and comfort, earn the love and sympathy of all and live free from problems and inconveniences.
However, he cannot be part of the circle of those loyal to God, His messengers, His friends and the believers; he cannot join this obedient family which pledges its loyalty to God, His messenger (S) and His friends; he cannot have a stand; he cannot love, hate or resent sincerely; and in his political and social relationships, he cannot go beyond mere formality. Without loyalty there can be no sincerity in relations or stand, and no sincerity is possible without repudiation. But repudiation entails many
demands on one’s social relations with family and society, and on one’s comfort, well-being and stability.
The price of being loyal is to be able to repudiate, and the price for repudiation is to accept difficulties, inconveniences and troubles. These are equations God has established by virtue of His inexorable norms that govern human life. Abu Ja’far al-Baqir (as) is reported to have said: “There are ten things which help enter paradise when one meets God:
1- To bear witness that there is no deity except God
2- To bear witness that Muhammad (S) is the Messenger of God
3- To affirm whatever comes from God
4- To establish the prayer
5- To pay the alms (zakat)
6- To fast in the month of Ramadan
7- To perform the pilgrimage to the House
8- To be loyal to God’s friends
9- To repudiate God’s enemies
10- To avoid all intoxicants.”
The Prophet (S) wrote to the bishop of Najran, “I summon you to worship God and to shun the worship of His servants; I invite you to loyalty to God instead of His servants. If you reject this then you must pay the tribute and if you reject this, then know that I am declaring war on you”
Therefore, the boundary between Islam and unbelief is the declaration of loyalty and repudiation.
The Messenger of God (S) said: “Surely the strongest bond of faith is to love or hate for the sake of God, to be loyal to God’s friends and to be hostile to His enemies.”
Imam al-Rida (as) said: “It has been reported that God communicated to a devout among the Children of Israel whose heart was entertaining a thought, saying: As for your devotion to Me you are taking pride in Me and as for your asceticism, it is a deferment of comfort. Now have you befriended my friend and shown enmity to my enemy?”
It is related that someone came to the Commander of the Faithful and said: ‘O Commander of the Faithful! I love you and also love so-and-so’, and he mentioned one of his enemies. He answered: “Now you are one-eyed: either become blind or have complete sight.”
A one-eyed man’s sight is weak for he can only see with one eye. One’s loyalty is similar to this when he does not repudiate the enemy or cannot dare to do it because he wants to be accepted by everybody. Such people do not remain one-eyed with half-sight for ever; either God guides them so that they have full sight or they lose that half sight and become blind, thereby completely losing their loyalty. It was said to Imam al-Sadiq (as) that “so-and-so person is loyal to you but finds it difficult to repudiate your enemy” to which he replied “Never! He lies who claims to love us but does not repudiate our enemy!”
The questioner in this narration set his question precisely: there was no doubt that the person about whom the question was put was loyal but he was unable to repudiate, and this inability rendered his loyalty weak and shaky. He did not have enough courage to declare his stand and establish or sever
relationships in an open and decisive manner. Therefore, the Imam (as) replied that true loyalty can in no way be separated from repudiation as its consequence, and whoever is weak in repudiation must be weak in loyalty as well.
In al-A’mash’s narration, Imam Sadiq (as) is reported to have said: “To love God’s friends (the Imams) is obligatory, loyalty to them is obligatory and to repudiate their enemies is also obligatory. To repudiate the perfidious, (al-Nakithun), the unjust (al-qasitun) and the renegades (al-mariqun) is obligatory. To repudiate the idols (al-ansab) and the divination arrows (al-azlam), who are leaders in deviation and injustice is obligatory. [It is obligatory to repudiate] all these people, the first of them and the last.”
From Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Askari (as), from his forefathers (as): one day the Messenger of God (S) said to a companion of his: “O servant of God! Love for God’s sake and hate for His sake, give your loyalty for His sake and be hostile for His sake, for you will not earn His friendship except that way. No one will taste faith, even though he might have performed abundant prayers and fasts, except that way. Nowadays, most of the people’s fraternity is based on the world: they love or hate one another for its sake. This will not avail them anything in the sight of God.”
The man said to him: “How do I know that my loyalty and hostility are for the sake of God, the Mighty and Sublime? And who is God’s friend to whom I must be loyal, and who is His enemy against whom I must be hostile?”
Then the Messenger of God,(S) pointed to Ali (as) and said: ‘Do you see him?’ ‘Yes’, the man replied. Then he said: “The friend of this man is a friend to God so befriend him, and his enemy is God’s enemy, so be hostile to him. Be a partisan to this man even if he killed your father and your son, and show enmity to his enemy even if he was your father and your son.”
A more emphatic version of this issue has been related in the famous hadith of al-Ghadir where the Messenger of God (S) said: ‘For whomsoever I am master and authority (mawla) Ali is master and authority. O God! Befriend his friends and be enemy to his enemies and help his helpers and forsake those who forsake him.”
The hadith of al-Ghadir is one of the most explicit narrations which describe the deep connotations of loyalty (wilayah) and bring out its positive dimensions i.e. being loyal and its negative dimension i.e. repudiating its antithesis. Al-Allamah al-Amini opens his impressive work Al-Ghadir with a hadith from the Messenger of God (S) which pertains to this topic and we will like to close our discussion on loyalty and repudiation with it.
The Messenger of God (S) said: “Whoever is pleased to live the way I live, die the way I die and dwell in the garden of Eden which is made known by my Lord, let him be loyal to Ali after me and also be loyal to his friends and let him believe in the Imams after me, for they are my family. They have been created out of my stuff and endowed with understanding and knowledge. Woe unto those of my nation who belie their merit, who violate my kinship with respect to them. May God not extend my intercession to such violators.”
After this long discussion on repudiation we shall return to our talk on Ziyarat al-Warith to study the repudiations and curses that appear in it.
The Groups That Are Cursed In Ziyarat Al-Warith
In this supplication three groups of people have been cursed and repudiated:
“May God curse the people who killed you. May God curse the people who oppressed you. May God curse the people who hear about this and are pleased with it.”
The first group consists of those who were directly responsible for killing Husayn (as): “May God curse a people who saddled and bridled [their animals],and prepared and traveled in order to kill you, O my master, O Abu Abdullah!”
The second group comprises all those who oppressed Husayn (as) and acted unjustly toward him, who facilitated the tragedy, supported and paid allegiance to his enemy and openly opposed him. This group includes all those who made preparations to fight Husayn (as) or facilitated it, abandoned him, supported his adversaries, contributed in their equipment, assisted the tyrant in fighting him, and all the followers of these people.
Different wordings of repudiation and curse on this group are found in both general and special prayers on visiting (ziyarat) Imam Husayn’s tomb in Karbala (as). In the specificZiyarat-e-Ashura
we read: “May God curse the people who killed you. May God curse those who prepared the ground for them by facilitating the means for fighting you; I turn to God and to you and repudiate them and their adherents and followers.”
In the generalZiyarat-e-Ashura
also we have: “I turn to God and His messenger (S) in repudiation of those who laid down the foundations for injustice and oppression against you and the people of the Household, built their unjust system on it and continued on the path of their injustice and oppression against you and your adherents. I denounce them, taking recourse to God and to you.”
In the second specialZiyarat-e-Ashura
which is narrated in Al-Mazar al-Qadim, we read: “May God curse the people who laid down the foundations of injustice against you, prepared the ground for oppressing, molesting and harming you, and perpetrated the same in your houses and among your adherents. I turn to God the Mighty and Sublime and to you, and repudiate them and their adherents and followers.”
This group was large, for it included all those who contributed in fighting Husayn (as) or facilitated the war against him, prepared for it, pledged allegiance to the tyrant for fighting him, mobilized and assisted in any other way in the campaign along with their adherents and followers.
The third group consisted of those that heard about the tragedy and approved of it. The issue of this group demands pondering. Who are those people who heard about this incident and approved of it? For sure, they were not those who participated in the battle or in oppressing the victims directly, otherwise they would have been classified among the first two groups, then there would have been no need for mentioning a third.
Therefore, this group definitely included those who heard Husayn’s (as) call for help but did not help him, choosing their well-being instead of
supporting the Lord of the Martyrs (as) in the battle of Al-Taff. They are those who abandoned him on the day of Ashura. Certainly, this group approved of what happened on the day of Ashura, because had they not been pleased with it, this betrayal of the grandson of the Messenger of God (as) would not have been possible.
Their failure to join Husayn (as) and support him, and their preference for this world over the next concealed their approval of Yazid’s actions, otherwise, such glaring negligence and opting for personal peace invariably leads to an approval of injustice. In other texts this group is described as having betrayed Abu Abdillah Husayn (as) and preferred their well-being to supporting him. In the second generalziyarah
we read:
“May God’s curse be on the people who killed you, the people who opposed you, the people who denied your leadership, the people who supported your enemies, and the people who witnessed this but did not martyr themselves [in your defence].” The relevant part of thisziyarah
is ‘and the people who witnessed this but did not martyr themselves.”
In the seventh generalziyarah
, this passage appears: “I bear witness that your killers are in the fire. It is part of my duty to God to profess the repudiation of those who killed you, those who fought you, those who rallied support against you, those who mobilized people against you and those who heard your voice but did not help you.” The relevant part is ‘and those who heard your voice but did not help you.’
The following passage appears in theziyarah
of the Night of Qadr (destiny) and the nights before the two festivals [of the 1st of Shawwal and the l0th of Dhu al-Hijjah]: “I bear witness that those who opposed and fought you, those who abandoned you and those who killed you are cursed on the tongue of the Unlettered Prophet (S).”
It is obvious from this text that the three accursed groups are: the group which fought Husayn (as), the group which helped and supported the first, the group which forsook Husayn (as) and neither answered his call nor helped him. Indeed the battle of Al-Taff was a real one that had ideological, political and cultural dimensions and as such, it required real stances in terms of loyalty and repudiation, both before and now. It does not accept a position of reluctance and indifference today just as it rejected that in the past; it deems such an attitude to be no better than the hostile stand.
What Conflicts Of Civilization Do To Man
Ideological conflicts group people into two, one affirming a given direction and the other negating it. This dichotomy and divergence later continues for ages, and the more deep-seated in people’s conscience such a question is, the wider and more pronounced the resultant ideological effects become.
The battle of Al-Taff is among the foremost of such conflicts by virtue of a number of factors;
1- The political and ideological confrontation of civilization that took place on that battlefield.
2- The unmistakable cultural and ethical dissimilarity between the two camps. The status of Husayn, the son of the Messenger of God’s daughter (as) and Lord of the youths of paradise is known to all Muslims, just as
Yazid ibn Muawiya, the son of the liver-eating woman [Yazid’s grandmother chewed the liver of Hamza, her arch-enemy, when he fell in the battle of Uhud] and a descendant of the tree which is cursed in the Qur’an is known to all. No one from that date till today has ever doubted the true nature of the two contending parties and no one doubts who among them was calling towards God and who was inviting towards hell.
3- The painful tragedy which befell the grandson of God’s Messenger (S) and his family and companions in Karbala on the day of Ashura.
These and other factors make the question of Al-Taff a distinct historical event which has inevitable significance. It classifies the people into two distinct groups; a conformist group which is a member, supporter and loyal to Imam Husayn, and another one which is hostile and in opposition. No one is allowed to stand on the fence watching the battle without its dust affecting him. So there has to be a clear stand and an act of loyalty and an act of repudiation. No one conversant with the circumstances of this battle will confuse truth with falsehood.
The First Day of Separation
We said before that this conflict classified men, with respect to loyalty and repudiation, into two distinct groups, right from the year 61 A.H till today, and this distinction will continue for a long time to come.
The Holy Qur’an calls this conflict separation, and that is what separates the people into distinct groups with respect to loyalty and repudiation. The first day of separation in Islamic history is the day of Badr. The Most High says:"On the Day of separation, the day when the two armies met…"
It is thus designated because it was the first day in which the Muslims met the polytheists in a decisive military encounter which grouped the people into two distinct parties based on the question of loyalty and repudiation. It was the first armed confrontation between monotheism and polytheism in the history of Islam, on the result of which depended the destiny of mankind and the direction to be taken by human civilization. It is true that the people who fought on the side of the Messenger of God at Badr were three hundred or a little more and the Quraysh army which fought him were a thousand or a little more but that confrontation had more profound and far reaching consequences than what appears from the history of the valley of Badr in the second year after Hegira. Behind the Quraysh polytheists who fought in Badr stood an extensive front of the polytheists of the Arabian Peninsula and even beyond.
The intensity of events in the wake of that encounter is proof of this fact. With his small group, the Messenger of God (S) faced that large front of polytheism and God Almighty gave him victory over it. Had God not made that group victorious on the day of Badr, He would not have been worshipped and no one on earth would have mentioned His name.Therefore, the day of Badr has separated mankind into two distinct groups based on their loyalties: one group of three hundred and thirteen fighters and another consisting of the wide front of polytheism with all its vast powers. Surely, it was the first day of separation in Islam’s history.
A simplistic look at the battle field of Badr in the second Hegira year will only see these two fighting forces, but on scrutiny will find two entities, two
civilizations, two ideologies locked in a fierce struggle for existence. The contest was not over a few articles of trade carried by Quraysh merchants as the historical reports apparently suggest. These two camps represent vast frontlines of people throughout history; they are not limited, they extend to endless periods. The day of Badr is not only the day of separation which grouped the people in the year 2 A.H. on the basis of loyalty and repudiation, but it will remain as the day of separation for all periods of Islamic history.
The Second Day of Separation
The Second Day of Separation
Just as the day of Badr is the first day of separation in the history of Islam, the day of Ashura is the second. In this unequal but decisive battle Husayn (as) and a small band consisting of his family and companions stood on one side of the line. On the other was Ibn Ziyad at the head of a large army and behind him was Yazid with his vast power, great wealth, army and capabilities. A
lso in their support were all those loyal to Yazid, all those who were benefiting from him, all those who deviated because of him, all those who fought on his side, including those who stood on the fence in the political field and preferred their well-being and watched from a distance while the conflict went on, and, all the followers of those people.
Therefore, for the day of Ashura the quality of separation was quite obvious: it had grouped the people into two distinguishable groups based on loyalty, repudiation, ethics, thought, inclination and ideology. That day still remains a means of separation in the history of Islam. It divides the people on the basis of loyalty and repudiation to the present day and forever.
The Third Day of Separation
After mentioning two days of separation in Islamic history, that is Badr and Ashura, we must not close this discussion without mentioning the third day of separation, an extension of Badr and Ashura. This is the day of the victory of the contemporary Islamic Revolution which happened in 1399 A.H. It was one of God’s days in history, in which the Pahlavi regime fell and the great Islamic Revolution became victorious under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may God sanctify his soul).
This day does not only mean the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iranian history but the end of one stage in Islamic history and the beginning of a new epoch. The historical value of the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the establishment of the Islamic Republic lies in two things;
1: The end of a period of apathy, weakness and despair; ready acceptance of western or eastern tutelage; backwardness in intellectual, scientific, political, military and economic matters; subservience to arrogant powers of the world and defeatism in the face of surging western civilization.
2: The beginning of a new movement in the direction of Islam and the establishment of God’s religion on earth; removing the shackles and fetters off hands and feet; and breaking the yoke that had been imposed by western and eastern imperialism in the political, economic, military and scientific arenas. This new beginning paved the way for a return to God and to Islam;
induced mankind to the service of God; empowered God’s law in human life; and restored Islamic norms, values, morals and limits in the practical life of people. In a nutshell, it began a new epoch in history.
This day is a true extension of the day of Ashura, just as the latter was a real continuation of the day of Badr. The main elements that constituted the civilizational values of the great and comprehensive Islamic government which was actualized on that day are also the values of the glorious Islamic Revolution that succeeded against world imperialism:
1- This revolution is a revolution based on principles in the true meaning of the term. It is a new type of activism and revolutionary work in contemporary history and in the contemporary political milieu that is unfamiliar with this kind of movement. It is the revolution of monotheism against polytheism in the sense we explained in the present chapter: monotheism and polytheism with regard to loyalty.
This uprising aims at severing the Muslim’s relationship withtaghut
dressed in the garb of eastern and western imperialism and their stooges in this region, and also severing the relationship with other focal points of loyalty (nationalism, patriotism, tribalism, factionalism, etc) that are paraded as substitutes to monotheism. This revolution aims at binding Muslim loyalty to God Almighty, His Messenger (S) and His friends, and also unifying all loyalty for God alone, and boycotting and confronting all other centres of attraction that are working to extract allegiance from the people.
It is not a revolt against backwardness in science and technology, nor a revolt against poverty and economic backwardness, nor a revolt against colonialism and exploitation, nor an uprising to free oil wells from the grip of oil barons, nor a class struggle, nor yet a revolt of the oppressed against the oppressors like the Negro revolt in Islamic history, although the Islamic revolution mirrored all these issues and succeeded in achieving all the results that such revolts aim at.
The Islamic revolution is essentially a different thing. It is a revolution of loyalty to God against all spurious alternative centers of loyalty, a revolt of monotheism in the face of polytheism, a revolt of Islam against ungodliness (jahiliyyah
).
When this revolution achieves its aims on this earth it will wipe out scientific, technological and cultural backwardness; remove poverty and economic backwardness; uproot exploitation and colonialism; stop colonial oil companies from exploiting oil wells and the abuse of Muslim wealth and resources; end oppression and arrogance and the domination and oppression by one class of another.
This revolution will achieve these aims and in fact other goals that are more extensive and loftier, under condition that it maintains its real essence and remains a revolt of monotheism against polytheism, without getting derailed towards its secondary objectives.
The first and distinguishing feature of this revolution is its divine nature. It is this quality that links it to Badr, Siffin and Ashura, to the movement of the prophets (as) and to the path of the righteous friends of God. Should this
revolution be divested of this feature and become satisfied with secondary aims and mottos it will lose the support God Most High bestows on it.
This revolution is fundamentally different from all modern revolutions such as the French revolution, the October revolution and the revolutions that took place in Africa and Asia since the Second World War. All of these revolutions were at best rebellions of one class against another or an uprising for freedom from foreign domination or from despots. No revolution of contemporary times can be regarded as an exception with regard to these principles.
On the other hand, the Islamic revolution is that of monotheism which sprung up from a starting point that is essentially different from those of all other revolutions. It starts in the direction of freeing mankind from human pivots of loyalty of whatever type, except those linked to loyalty to God, inducing man to the service of God, empowering His law in human life and strengthening loyalty to Him in all aspects of man’s life.
2- This revolution is the outcome of the cumulative effect of the great efforts of all those who work for God, past and present, and the vanguard of Islamic activity, those who understood the backwardness of the Muslim nation, accepted responsibility, and faced the difficulties they met along the difficult path. They work for the pleasure of God in different regions of the Islamic world and at various levels of knowledge and culture.
All these people together, whether they are our contemporaries or of earlier periods, share the role of putting up the foundations of this revolution, making this divine movement a reality and stirring this strong human wave that shook the very pillars of tyranny. The theological student who invited his fellow students towards God, His Messenger (S) and the establishment of God’s law; the speaker who addressed the people in the mosques and other gatherings to propagate Islamic guidance and awareness; the scholar; the writer, the poet, and man of letters; teachers, workers, doctors,… both men and women; all those who conveyed the Islamic vision; all those who laid a stone to make the foundation of this revolution, wherever they may be; … all these people played a role in this blessed revolution and have a claim on it and God’s reward for it.
This prodigious revolution which shook the ground from under the feet of the tyrants and threatened their existence and interests is not the outcome of a short span of time or the efforts of a limited number of Islamic workers and activists; it is the fruit of generations of Islamic activity. If this revolution suffers serious damage from whatever cause, the loss the Muslim nation will suffer will be very great indeed; the effect of such damage will not be limited to the Iranian pole or their Islamic leaders.
On a different plane, the revolution carries with it all the pain, deprivation, tyranny, suffering and difficulties endured by the Muslims during the period of weakness, apathy and defeatism in their history. All those who endured oppression for God’s sake, who were beaten in dungeons; all the tears, the blood, the cries of pain; all orphanhood, bereavement and widowhood; and all those who migrated for the sake of God also contributed to this revolution.
This revolution symbolises all that pain and suffering in concrete form. However, if the second factor i.e., pain and suffering had been all that the revolution stood for, it would have seen mob action, destruction and emotion become the overriding feature of the uprising. But the presence of the first factor i.e., the ideology and its power and effectiveness in actualizing this blessed revolution was the main factor that directed the revolution and made sure it maintained its course free from deviations.
The purposeful efforts rendered during that period by God-oriented activists fell within the pure Islamic line, that is, the line of the jurisconsult which was personified by Imam Khomeini, and which later came to be known as the Imam’s line. Certainly there were groups that deviated to the right or to the left but they did not represent the main current of the Islamic movement. This current was moving in the direction of the pure Islamic line. The jurists, the scholars and the well-guided Islamic authorities played an important role in steering this current, organizing and maintaining the course it took.
Unlike what the enemies of Islam try to show or what some simple-minded Muslims get deceived into believing, the Islamic revolution is not a regional affair or just an Iranian Islamic revolution; it is an Islamic revolution for which God Most High decreed that Iran should be its launching pad. Any effort to give it a national colour and remove it from the feelings of all Muslims is surely an act of treason against Islam and the Muslims if it comes from the enemies of this nation who stay in wait for evil to befall it.
When such actions come from Muslims then they must be due to naivety and ignorance led astray by some act of treason. The purpose of this treason is to isolate the revolution from Muslim feelings and Muslim public opinion in order to cordon it off and subsequently destroy it. It is our duty as Muslims to confront these conspiracies with awareness in an atmosphere of Islamic responsibility.
All subsequent revolutions that will take place in Islamic lands taking direction from this will be regarded as different stages of a single all- encompassing revolution. They are not other revolutions in place of this one, and not even extensions of it; they are but different stages of one comprehensive revolution, the first of which has been destined by God to happen in Iran at the hands of this brave and sacrificing Muslim people.
It is like an earthquake which starts from a point and then extends along the fault line to wide areas, as a result of some hidden geological reactions deep down in the earth. This revolution is similar to this. In the depths of the Muslim nation, strong and wide ranging interactions have taken place under the influence of action (the first factor) and reaction (the second factor), away from the eyes of world imperialism.
When the imperialists were taking pride in their great victories over the Muslim world and were power drunk on that account, those interactions were set in motion in the depths of the Muslim nation till they reached their peak. Then came the earthquake that shook the ground beneath the feet of the rulers in the White House, the Kremlin and Elysée palace, and those tyrants did not regain their sobriety until after the tremor. The starting point
was Iran but the fault line is a long unbreakable chain starting from Tehran to Baghdad, to Quds to Kabul and Central Asia.
Indeed what happened in Iran was a phenomenon much greater than our limited political imagination; it was an actualization of what God, the Glorious and Sublime promised his oppressed righteous servants in this verse:"And we desired to show favour to those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and to make them the heirs, and to establish them in the land…"
Before anything else we have to understand the true dimensions of this revolution and then spread this awareness among the Muslims in order to foil the plots that are being hatched by the enemies of Islam who aim at making the contemporary Islamic revolution a regional affair. They intend to limit it to Iran and Persian nationalism and subsequently isolate it from Muslim public opinion and sympathy.
When one follows the speeches of Imam Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, (may God sanctify his soul), one will notice a deep understanding of these conspiracies and wise efforts to thwart them. Because of the comprehensive nature of this revolution the idea of exporting it started with its birth and from the words of the leader himself. He who is acquainted with the nature and roots of this revolution knows very well that it does not admit of national or geographical boundaries nor does it stop at the boundaries to seek permission from the gatekeepers so that they may grant it passage.
This revolution is a current that does not seek permission, nor pause, nor recognize boundaries, nor wait, nor hesitate!
Awareness of these realities is necessary to protect and support the revolution instead of limiting its horizon to a national affair. We are presenting these facts to Islamic thinkers and workers so that they may assume their responsibilities before God Most High with respect to this revolution.
3- This revolution is one of the days of separation in Islamic history and it has grouped the people, with regard to their opinion, into two groups: supporters and adversaries.
Since the first days of the emergence of this revolution faithful hearts and conscientious souls began to flock around it and they spent the hours that preceded its birth in great anxiety. History held its breath, as it were, to follow up this great birth which meant the revival of the divine civilization, the return of Islamic leadership on earth and the rule of God in man’s life after going through a barren period in which apathy, weakness and psychological defeat were ripe, when the Muslim world experienced degrading assimilation into the ungodly systems of eastern and western arrogant powers, with the result that global unbelief controlled our nation, land and resources.
As opposed to this, the unjust and arrogant people who had sold their souls to the devil sensed danger. They had detected in it a rebirth as large as history itself. What was going on in Tehran was not like other incidents that happen here and there, it was, in fact, the end of one stage of history and the beginning of another. They felt a hazardous development taking them
unawares so they immediately declared their hostility to the revolution and did not hide their fear of it from the very beginning.
This revolution has been received differently by the two groups. One greeted it with sympathy and love, and prayed for God’s support and waited for its victory with self-abandon. The other group received it with malice and apprehension. They could not hide their fear even at the inception of this blessed government after the victory of the revolution. This division on the question of loyalty or support, repudiation or opposition is a feature of the days of separation in history which the revolution will face through its different phases.
4- It is quite natural for the birth of this power to be a declaration of long-lasting contest between Islam and anti-Islam (jahiliyah) because this revolution will seek to overthrow the forts of jahiliyah and arrogance throughout the world to free the hands of the oppressed from their shackles and throw off their yokes; and break the awe of the great powers from the minds of Muslims. Therefore it is impossible for world arrogance to keep silent in the face of this divine wave without stirring trouble and difficulty for this revolutionary call, without seeking to isolate it and obstruct its way.
He who comprehends God’s norms in history will be able to understand clearly the inevitability of conflict between these two forces: the growing Islamic force and the force of global unbelief. This conflict will prove to be the hardest, the longest and the most permanent because, as we have said, it is a struggle for existence and such a struggle is always long drawn, severe and permanent. It is not a contest for a piece of land or for mineral resources such as oil, iron or copper that can admit mutual understanding.
This revolution started in a region which was completely under the influence of the great powers and it is now working to break the blockade from the whole Muslim world. It is only natural for the forces of imperialism to confront this revolution in its infant state through all forms of pressure and conspiracy, both internally and externally, in order to muzzle and isolate it till it wears out.
The Iran-Iraq war was part of this awful imperialist plot and a part of the conflict we talked about. The Iraqi regime was not the antagonist in this war; it was only a channel for the will of the great powers. The real antagonists in the conflict were the imperialists who divide the oppressed peoples of the world among themselves and control them.
The Islamic revolution must face this long and severe confrontation as this is part of God’s norms that cannot be altered. The revolution cannot carry out great achievements or prepare its people to perform great feats and face difficult challenges if they do not exercise enduring confrontation.
5- The outcome of this struggle will be in favour of the God-fearing and this is the last thing we may doubt. A believing nation does not defend itself rather it defends God’s religion, His law and the limits He has set. It does not face its own enemies but God’s, and it does not fight with its own power and strength but with the power and strength of God.
When a nation fulfils these conditions, puts its trust in God, presents itself to Him, lessens its attachment to the world, fortifies itself against inordinate desires and then rises up for the sake of God individually or in
groups; surely God Most High will grant it victory, sooner or later. This is God’s promise and He does not break his word. Let us listen to some verses from the book of God:
"Certainly Our decree has gone before in favour of Our servants, the apostles, that they will indeed receive [God’s] help, and indeed Our hosts will be the victors. "
"… and it was a must for us to help the faithful. "
"Indeed we shall help Our apostles and those who have faith in the life of the world…"
“The confederates of God are indeed the victorious”
“… and God suffices as guardian, and God suffices as helper.”
“… and your Lord suffices as helper and guide.”
“O, you who have faith! If you help God, He will help you and make your feet firm”
When war becomes protracted and severe God will not leave us at the mercy of our enemies, He does not go back on His word and abandon His faithful servants. Blessed is He and greatly exalted above that!
“This is what God and his apostle had promised us.”
If the struggle is prolonged it is so that God may put his servants’ hearts to test in order to separate the steadfast among them from the weak-hearted; so that he may give the believers a firm footing on the battlefield; so that the believers may find it easy to detach themselves from the love of this world in order to face the struggle; so that they may gain more certainty with God in the middle of the struggle, for one is bestowed with certainty at the time of tribulation more than at times of peace and comfort; so that believers might learn through experience how to confront mighty challenges and difficulties on God’s path and thereby increase their fortitude, strength and bravery; so that loyalty and repudiation may be firmer in the hearts of believers, for loyalty is through sacrifice and service, and repudiation [of the adversary] is more vigorous during confrontation and war.
This struggle and its attending difficulties are not exclusive to this revolution or this religion, they are a divine norm which God applies in the lives of His righteous servants whom he selects for His mercy, those whom God Most High will allow to live in paradise together with His truthful servants.
“Do you suppose that you will be let off while God has not yet ascertained those of you who wage jihad and those who do not take, besides God and His Apostle and the faithful, anyone as [their] confidant? God is well aware of what you do.”
“Do you suppose that you shall enter paradise though there has not yet come to you the like of [what befell] those who went before you? Stress and distress befell them…”
We like to pick the fruits of victory by the shortest route with the least means, without our religion expecting anything from us. We want to simply extend our hands and attain victory, leadership and vicegerency [imamah and khilafah] over the world.
However, the wise God knows that victory that comes without difficulties cannot qualify man to be the leader and vicegerent of God on
earth. Therefore, God wants us to face confrontation by treading the difficult path and gain strength and actualize the dominion of God’s religion in our lives.
“… and you were eager that it should be the one that was unarmed [lit. ‘one that was free of thorns’]. But God desires to confirm the truth with His words and to root out the faithless, so that he may confirm the truth and bring falsehood to naught, though the guilty should be averse.”
Let us pay attention to the following clear verses of God’s Book in Surah Al Imran, which explain, in eloquent style, the norms of God with regard to struggle, distress, trial, help and conquest.
“Do not weaken or grieve: you shall have the upper hand, should you be faithful. If a wound afflicts you, a like wound has already afflicted those people; and We make such vicissitudes rotate among mankind to ascertain those who have faith that We may take witnesses from among you, and God does not like the wrongdoers. Also, He wishes to purge those who have faith and wipe out the faithless. Do you suppose that you can enter paradise while God has not yet ascertained those of you who have waged jihad and not ascertained the steadfast?”
In these blessed verses from the chapter Al Imran there are clear answers to all the questions that may arise in the believers’ minds about this terrible confrontation between Islam and unbelief. The Muslims thought that after God had granted them victory at Badr success would always be on the side of the faithful group; as long as they believed in God and His apostle and struggled along His path they would never fail to achieve victory, whatever the circumstances.
When God made them test the bitterness of defeat at Uhud, where they suffered a reverse when the archers disobeyed the command of God’s Messenger (S) and left their positions to gather the spoils, the believers’ hearts quivered and their confidence in victory was shaken. They began to have misgivings as to whether the outcome of the affair would be in their favour.
Weakness overwhelmed them and they were seized by grief for the leading personalities who were martyred in the battle, and for the select group of believers who fulfilled their promise to God and were sincere to Him in deeds andjihad
.
Then God Most High returned to their hearts the confidence for victory and reassured them that the outcome would be in favour of the believers however much the injuries, pains, drawbacks and difficulties along the tough road might be. God removed from their minds all feebleness and grief, and convinced their hearts of victory. "Do not weaken or grieve: you shall have the upper hand, should you be faithful.”
Then God Most High reminded the people that the wounds they sustained during the war were also sustained by their enemies; they were not exclusive to them. The wounds, the hardships, the troubles and the losses are demands of war to be extracted from both parties, and no battle takes place without pain and wounds.
The divine norm is such that vicissitudes rotate among mankind, one day in favour of the believers and bitter for the infidels, and another in favour of
the infidels and bitter for the faithful. Thus will victory be rotated among them but the ultimate outcome will always be in favour of the faithful. This alternation does not change God's decree that the outcome is to be in favour of the God-wary. Vicissitudes are rotated in this way and the faithful are made to test hardship and ease; victory at one time and the bitterness of defeat at another, in order to sort out the believers from the hypocrites.
Had the mission always been associated with victory and spoils, and coupled with ease and comfort, hypocritical elements would have flocked around it, people who are only good at sitting on the fence and being absent during battle, only to return when the spoils are distributed and press for choice portions of it."So when there is panic, you see them observing you, their eyes rolling, like someone fainting at death.”
If the course of this mission were to be free of adversities and drawbacks hypocrites and the weak-hearted would flock around and taken up sensitive positions. If this were to happen, the mission's leadership role in men's life would be suspended and it would lose its power of bringing about change.
The mission would leave the tough path that confrontstaghut
and take the comfortable course awash with pleasures and worldly wares. It would then lose its capacity for change and action similar to what happened at the time of the Umayyads and Abbasids.
Therefore this journey needs, from time to time, a strong uprising that can push aside the hypocrites and the weak-hearted and sort out the people with strong faith who keep their word with God and are sincere to Him in their works. The course taken by this mission is unlike what the people are accustomed to with respect to other systems and governments which seek a life of comfort and ease that is free from all shortcomings.
Nothing harms this mission like a calm, comfortable and pompous life. In such a situation, this call will have lost its most important feature, since God Most High has made the period of distress and adversity a means of making the mission's environment clear of such feeble minded people who usually opt for a calm, comfortable life. When the journey suffers adversities, hardships and reverses the field is left solely for the believers. The journey then belongs to the sincere group only and the faithful are distinguished from others "so that God may ascertain those who have faith.”
This is not the only benefit of vicissitudes and the rotation of victory and defeat, hardship and ease on the believers. Another benefit is that God may take witnesses, exemplars and leaders on earth. It is through these hardships, drawbacks, war-inflicted wounds and the pains of confrontation that witnesses are produced in this nation,"Thus we have made you a middle nation that you may be witnesses to the people…”
, as well as leaders and models of perseverance, patience and faith.
Unique models in faith that adorn human history are not made in a calm and cozy life; they are made in the thick of difficulties, in the midst of action, amidst blood and tears. This journey also needs these singular models of faith and perseverance selected by God during trying and difficult circumstances,"…that He may take witnesses from among you."
Thirdly, these vicissitudes help in the making of this nation and the appraisal of its personalities. These wounds, pain and difficulties purge the
believers, cleanse them and purify their hearts from doubt and selfish desires, and free them of their weaknesses. Many a believer’s internal points of weakness remain hidden from him, but during tribulation they appear so that he can correct them, for many a weakness of the mind cannot be corrected during peace time; only hardship and difficulties can put them right.
Just as hardships and difficulties sort out believers from hypocrites, they also clear the believer’s soul from weaknesses and doubts; they purge the faithful. As for the infidels, tribulations and hardship efface and ruin them completely; therefore, they cannot struggle against difficulties and adversities. "So that God may purge those who have faith and that He may wipe out the faithless.”
As such it is not correct to think that whoever proclaims the two testimonies [i.e. to the oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad (S)], becomes a Muslim and will enter paradise, for among the people are hypocrites whose testimonies do not descend from their lips into their hearts. Believers are at different levels of faith; they do not occupy the same position in terms of belief and good works. There are believers who prefer wellbeing to striving and fighting in the way of God.
Then there are striving (mujahidun) believers. Then there are striving believers who are patient. It will be a mistake to think that everyone will have the same rank in paradise, for each will have his own rank and position as seen by God. These ranks and position are determined only during trying circumstances, when the believer is distinguished from the hypocrite, the striving believer from the ordinary one and the patient, striving believer from the impatient one.
6- This blessed revolution marks the beginning of a major turning point in man's history and civilization; it is a matter of great consequence with regard to the life and future of mankind. Whoever examines the narrations that are related from the Messenger of God, (S) and his family, will not doubt the fact that this revolution, given its salient features and its leadership, will prepare the ground for the greatest revolution in human history and the appearance of Imam al-Mahdi of the family of Muhammad (S), may God hasten his appearance.
Surely the promised day which God and His Apostle have promised us; the establishment of the great Islamic power, the empowering of the oppressed over the land and Imam al-Mahdi's great revolution is close at hand, God willing. The present revolution paves the way for the coming one and prepares the Muslim community for the reappearance and rising of one who undertakes the office of the Imamate (al-Qa‘im) from the family of Muhammad (as). The following is an assortment from those narrations:
From Abdullah ibn Mas'ud who said: "We came to see God's Messenger and found him delighted, his face showing his happiness. Whatever we asked of him he told us and whenever we were silent he initiated a topic. Then some Hashimite youths among whom were Hasan and Husayn (as) passed by. When he saw them he looked at them persistently and his eyes welled up, so we said to him: O Messenger of God! We see in your face signs of pain. Then he said:
"We are a household for whom God chose the hereafter instead of the world. After me my family will be expelled and dispersed in the land till the time black standards rise from the east. [The standard bearers] will ask for their right but they will be denied it, then they will ask for it again but they will be denied it again, then they will ask for it again, fight [for it] and be victorious. He who meets this situation from among you or among your descendants, let him come to the Imam (leader) from my family even if he has to crawl on ice, for those [standards] are standards of guidance which they will hand over to a man from my family whose name will be the same as mine and his title [Abul Qasim] the same as mine. He will fill the earth with equity and justice, as it will be filled with inequity and oppression.”
In Bihar al-Anwar Allamah al-Majlisi narrates that Imam al-Baqir (as) said: "It is as if I am together with some people who have come from the east. They will request for their right but they will be denied it, then they will request for it again. When they realize that, they will brandish their swords and [consequently] they will be granted their request but they will not accept it till they rise up. They will not hand over their [standards] except to your companion (i.e. al-Mahdi (as). Those who are killed among them will be martyrs. Indeed if I were to witness that time I would keep myself at the disposal of the leader of this affair."
It is reported in Al-Bihar that Abu al-Hasan al-Rida (as) has said: "A man from the people of Qum will invite the people to the truth and a group of people [who are tough] like pieces of iron will rally around him. Storms will not cause them to slip, they will be undaunted by war and never get tired of it, they will depend on God and the outcome will be in favour of the God-wary.”
It is also related in Al-Bihar, from Ali ibn Maymun al-Sa’igh, from Imam al-Sadiq (as) who said: "A time will come when the city of Qum and its people shall be a proof against mankind. That will be at the time of occultation of the one from us who will rise (al-Qa'im) till the time of [his] appearance. Had it not been for that, the earth would swallow up its inhabitants.”
Through other chains of transmission, it is reported that Imam al-Sadiq (as) said about Kufa: "Kufa shall become empty of the faithful and knowledge shall diminish in it and recoil as a snake recoils. Knowledge shall [then] appear in a town known as Qum which will become a source of learning and culture [and it will spread] until there remains no one abased concerning the religion [i.e. on account of their ignorance of it], not even women who are secluded in their quarters. This will happen when the appearance of our Qa'im draws near and God will make Qum and its people serve as the proof.
Otherwise, the earth will swallow up its people and no proof will have remained on earth. So knowledge will flow from it [Qum] to other lands in the east and west and God's proof against mankind will then be complete, till there remains no one on earth to whom religion and knowledge has not reached. After that the Qa'im will appear and become the cause of God's punishment and anger on the servants, for God does not punish the servants till after they deny his proof."
Commenting on the saying of God the Exalted:"…And if you turn away He will replace you with another people and they will not be like you." (Qur'an Ch: 47, Vs: 38)
, Al-Zamakhshari the author of Tafsir al-Kashshaf said: The Messenger of God was asked about those people while Salman was sitting by his side. He patted him on the thigh and said: 'This one and his people. I swear by the One in whose hand is my soul, if faith were to be suspended at the Pleiades some men from the Persians will attain it.”
These assorted narrations indicate that this blessed revolution will God willing last till the appearance of Imam al-Mahdi of the family of Muhammad (as), and prepare the world for him, may God hasten his appearance.
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Author: Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Al-Asifi
