Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Wilayat - The Station of the Master

Author:Ayatullah Shaikh Murtada Mutahari

www.alhassanain.org/english

Table of Contents

Publisher's Foreword 3

The Word " Wali " 4

TWO KINDS OF " WILA' " 5

1. NEGATIVE " WILA' " 6

Negative wila 6

Negative "wila' " 7

2. Wila', In A Positive Sence, With A General Meaning 9

Wila', in a Positive tense 9

THE KINDS OF WILA IN ITS POSITIVE SENSE, WITH A SPECIAL MEANING 13

A. The Wila' of Love (mahabbah) or The Wila' of Nearness (qarabah) 14

B. Wila' - Imamate 18

C. Wila' - Za'amah 20

D. Wila'-Tasarruf 23

What Does Nearness To Allah Mean? 28

THE OUTWARD LIFE AND THE LIFE OF MEANING 31

Prophethood and Wilayah: 31

Imam - The Bearer of Wilayah: 32

From Human Servility To Divine Sovereignty 34

Notes 41

Publisher's Foreword

It is a pleasure for us, and all praise to Allah, to undertake the publishing of the English translation of the bookWala'ha wa wilayatha , which was written in Persian by the late, great, Islamic thinkerShaykh Murtada Mutahhari - may Allah bestow His Mercy on him.

We came to know of this translation when the English translator of the book,Yahya Cooper, who was then a student of Islamic Sciences in Qum, presented a copy of the translation which he had made from the Persian text.

He has requested us to undertake the publishing of the book, and, since its publication is in full agreement with the goals we are trying to attain, and the book iscentred around a matter of intellectual importance in Islam, which should not be overlooked, and since the high stature of the writer is universallyrecog -nized , we decided to publish it.

It was intended to publish the book outside Iran, and we had begun to do this; however, obstacles which we do not intend to go into, prevented us from accomplishing this, even though the decision to produce this book had been taken prior to our decision to publish the other two works- of al-`Allamah Mutahhari which have already come out. It is the wish of Allah that this work should be delayed and that it is now that we should publish it with the help of Allah and His guidance.

We pray to Allah to guide our steps and to lead us in the right path, for He is the Best Friend and the Best Helper.

WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ISLAMIC SERVICES

(Board of Writing, Translation and Publication)

9/3/1402

5/1/1982

Tehran - Iran.

The Word"Wali "

Wila ',walayah ,wilayah ,wali ,mawla . The real, original meaning of all of these words comes from the root-word "waliya " (waw -lamya ). This root-word is among those whichap - pear with the greatest frequency in the Qur'an, being used in various forms: it appears in the Qur'an in 124 places in the noun form, and in 112 places in the verb form.

The original meaning of this root-word, according to the famousQur'anic lexiconMufradatu 'l-Qu'ran , is "the being situated of something beside something else, in the sense that there is no separation between them", that is to say that if two things are so contiguous one with the other that there is nothing between Wilayah - The Station of the Master them, the root-word "waliya " is used. As a result of this, the word has come to be used in the sense of nearness and affinity, usually to mean a special or spiritual affinity.

And again, for the same reason, it has been used with the meaning of "intimacy", "friendship", "being in charge", "being in control", and with other meanings of the same variety. In all of these, there exists a kind of personal contact and contiguity.

For this root-word and its derivatives many meanings are mentioned. For example, 27 mean-ings are given for the wordmawla . However, it is obvious that this word was not created with 27meanings, and that in other instances it is used with the sanction of this meaning. Thesubse -quent different meanings, or, to put it more exactly, the numerous instances of usage, should be derived from their syntactical and situational contexts.

The derivatives of this root-word have been used in application to both material, bodily things, and abstract and mental matters, but they were unquestionably used originally in a physical sense, and then, by appropriate com-parison with what is visualized, or by abstraction of the perceived meaning from its material and The Word "Wali " tangible associations, they also came to be used with abstract meanings. For man's attention to the things he perceives - either from the point of view of a single individual during his own life-time, or from the point of view of a human collectivity during the period of its historical life - predates his meditation on intellectual ideas. After sensory signification and meaning, man moves on little by littleto abstractsignifi -cation and meaning, and he then naturally uses the same words which he employed with the objects of nature and thus recruits them into his service. In a similar way, scientists do not invent special words for their particular sciences, but rather they use words which have a current meaning in the ordinary language giving these words a particular meaning and signification which differ from the common meaning and signification.

TheMufradatu 'l-Qur'an says inconnec -tion with the word "walayah /wilayah ", looking at it from the point of view of the instances of its application " ` Wilayah' has the meaning of `assistance', butwalayah has the meaning of `being in charge' and `the person in authority in a certain matter'; it is also said that the meaning of both is the Wilayah - The Station of the Master same, and that it is this `being in charge and having authority' ". Then it mentions instances of the use of these words.

TWO KINDS OF " WILA' "

In the Qur'an, the wordswila '. muwalat , andtawalli are used many times. In this great, heavenly book, certain matters are set out under these headings, and, on the whole, it can be seen from contemplation of this Purified Text that from the vantage point of Islam there are two kinds ofwila '; negative and positive. That is to say that on the one hand Muslims are ordered not to accept one kind ofwila ' and to leave it alone, while, on the other hand, they are shown another kind ofwila ' which they are to cultivate diligently.

"Wila ", affirmative and Islamic, is in turn of two kinds: generalwila ', and specialwila '. This specialwila ' is also of several different kinds. These are: awila ' of love, awila ' of Imamate, awila ' of social leadership, and awila ' of universal disposal. Here briefly, we shall discuss each one of these.

1. NEGATIVE " WILA' "

The Qur'an strongly warns Muslims against accepting fellowship with, and protection from, non-Muslims: not that it takes a bad view of love for other human beings, or supports hatred by Muslims against non-Muslims in all circum- stances, or is against kindness towards them. The Qur'an explicitly says Wilayah - The Station of the Master Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, and that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of jus-tice (60:8).

Islam does not say that acts of friendship and works of good must be done exclusively for Muslims, and that in no way should generosity be extended from you towards others. How could a religion whose Prophet is, according to the Qur'an, "a mercy for the worlds" (21:107) be like that?

The matter is, however, that Muslims must not be inattentive towards their enemy, some of whom secretlyharbour duplicity towards them. The pretension of friendship by the enemy towards Muslims should not deceive them, and it must not cause them to take the enemy for a friend and to trust him. The Muslim must always be aware that he is a member of Islamic society, that he is a part of this whole; and his being part of this whole, a member of one body, necessitates, whether you like it or not, conditions and limits. The non-Muslim is a member of another body.

Negativewila

The relationship of a member of the body of Islam with members of non-Islamic bodies must be of such a kind that, at the very least, it does not compromise his membership of the Islamic body; in other words, it must not damage the unity and independence of that body. Thus, like it or not, the relation of a Muslim with a non-Muslim cannot be equal with, or, even sometimes, closer than the relation of a Muslim with a Muslim.

The friendly and sincere relationship of Muslims with one another must be within the limit that membership of one body and participation in one whole requires.Wila ' of the negative sort in Islam expresses the fact that a Muslim should always realize in an encounter with a non-Muslim that he is encountering a member of an alien body, and the meaning of saying that there must not bewila ' with non- Muslims is that the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims must be within the limit of the relationship between Muslims themselves, which means that a Muslim should not accept membership of a non-Muslim body; or, put in other words, his membership of the Islamic body should not be ignored.

Thus, there is no inconsistency in a Muslim Wilayah - The Station of the Master being benevolent and kind towards a non- Muslim and at the same time not accepting hiswila ' (allegiance with him), that is to say that the Muslim must not count him a member of the body of which he himself is a member, and should behave towards him as an outsider.

In the same way, there is no inconsistency betweenwila ' in the negative sense and the fundamental of humanitarianism and com passion for mankind. The essential condition of humanitarianism is that man should be con-cerned with the fate, well-being and truehappi -ness of all men. It is for this very reason that every Muslim is concerned that all human beings should become Muslims and be led to the right path. However, as long as this blessing is not obtained, those others who have been blessed must not be sacrificed for those who have not been blessed, and permit boundaries to collapse and every kind of action and reaction to take place.

Imagine that a certain group of men are afflicted with a certain illness. Humanitarianism requires that we come to their rescue, and as long as rescue is not forthcoming to them, it requires that we be benevolent towards them. However, humanitarianism does not demand

Negative "wila ' "

that we impose no restrictions between these people whose illness, it so happens, is contagious, and individuals who are healthy or have been cured. Thus it is that Islam, on the one hand, counts generosity and kindness towards non- Muslims as permissible, but, on the other hand, does not permit that a Muslim should accept the protection (wila ') of a non-Muslim. Islam is the religion of humanitarianism; Islam even loves the one who associates others with Allah (mushrik ), not from the point of view that he is amushrik , but from the point of view that he is a created being, one of God's creatures, and Islam is concerned for the reason that he has fallen into the way of ruin and confusion, and the way of liberation and bliss has been made narrow. For if it did not love him, Islam would be indifferent to his shirk and misery.

In Islam there is love and hatred, but a love and hatred which is reasonable and logical, not sentimental, for no good reason, and without any standard of comparison. A friendship or enmity which arises solely from the feelings has no logic; it is sentimental, blind and deaf, and it dominates the human heart, it tugs in any direction it wishes. But rational love and hatred Wilayah - The Station of the Master arise from a kind of understanding, and in fact result from affection for the fate of otherpeo -ple , and this is an instance of genuine affection. Here is an example: A father and a mother have two sorts of affection towards their child; one is reasonable and logical, the othersenti mental. Reasonable affection sometimes causes the parents in all seriousness to subject their own child to suffering, and they consider all the reasons for causing him pain.

Let us say they put their child in the hands of a surgeon. The parents, in such a case, fall to weeping, they feel greatly afflicted and tears pour from their eyes; but they want the doctor to start the operation as soon as possible. They ask him to remove the troublesome part. The weeping is the result of sentimental emotions, but their demand is the result of reasonable emotion. If those parents had taken heed of their present grief, and if their sentimental emotions had taken precedence over their rationalemo tions and they had not allowed one of their child's limbs to be cut, they would in fact have been consenting to his death.

But with the logic of the intellect and the verdict of the affections about the fate of their child, they put aside their feelings and submit Negative "wila ' " the child to pain and torment.

Every rational man may occasionally, in order to cure his own pain, put himself in the hands of a surgeon who may, for example, remove his finger. In his heart, he does not want to suffer the pain of having his finger cut off, and, of course, he will be extraordinarily un- happy to lose it. However, he will endure this pain in a rational way, and, following the verdict of his mind, will submit to the loss of the part; clearly it is logic and hisintellect which lead him forward and bring the request to his tongue, otherwise his feelings would have caused him to reverse his verdict.

In the case of a corrupt, unreformed so-ciety in which unbelief and ignorance rule, Islam, on the one hand, gives the command to jihad so that the corruption may be uprooted; Kill them, so that calamity is no longer (2:193).

On the other hand, it ordersvigilence and avoidance, so that people do not reveal what is in their hearts to them (the unbelievers), so that Wilayah - The Station of the Master the community and mankind remains healthy; and this is not in the least incompatible with humanitarianism.

The nature of man is a thief; appropriating and seizing things are human characteristics, and how many times has unawareness of the thoughts and deliberations of others been en- scribed on men's tombstones. The Qur'an exhorts us O believers, take notMy enemy and your enemy for friends (wali ), offering them love, though they have disbelievedi n the truth that has come to you (60:1). If they find you, they will be your enemies, and will stretch forth towards you their hands and their tongues with evil, and they ardently desire that you may disbelieve (60:2).

Here the Qur'an considers the secret of vigilance towards, and avoidance of, the out-sider ; it is that the latter wishes others to enter into his faith and religion. What a great danger there is, then, for his companion in his show of friendship and his camaraderie. It is here that the Qur'an affirms the original source of the danger. When these people befriend, it is not merely friendship and acquaintance, for they expend great effort to reach their goal and try hard in all ways. All that we have discussed affirms that the relationship between a Muslim and a non-Muslim must be a prudent one, that a Muslim must not remain inattentive to danger, that he must not forget that he is a member of a society oftawhid , and that the non-Muslim is a member of another body and another social group. But none of these things necessitates that the Muslim should com-pletely cut off relations with the non-Muslim, that he should not foster any social, economic or even sometimes political relations. Of course, all this is conditional on their totally coinciding withth e interest of the Islamic society.

2.Wila ', In A PositiveSence , With A General Meaning

Islam wishes Muslims to live as a single, independent form, to always have order, inter- communication and sociality, every individual aware of himself as being a member of one body which is Islamic society itself, so that this Islamic society becomes strong and powerful, in the way that the Qur'an wants the society of Muslims to be superior to other societies. And be not infirm, and be not grieving, and you shall have the upper hand if you are believers (3 : 139).

Wila ', in a Positive tense

Faith is the supreme support, but what does faith do? Faith is the support, the force and the pillar of the character, the maintainer of the independence and the motor of the movement of Islamic society. Elsewhere the Qur'an says:

And do not quarrel together, for then you will be weak in heart and your power will depart (8:46). Quarrelling and disputation destroy the being and character of Islamic society. Faith is the foundation of the friendship, love and fraternitywila ' of the believers. The Qur'an says And the believers, the men and the women, are friends (wali ) one to the other; they bid to good and forbid evil (9:71) . Believers are close to each other, and the cause of their being close to each other is that they are the protectors, friends and helpers of each other; they are concerned with eachothers future; in fact, they cultivate concern in their own future in which they form one unity, and therefore they "bid to good " and dissuade each other from evil and wickedness.

These two activities - bidding to good and forbidding evil - result from the friendship of faith, and so together these two are situated immediately after the explanation of thewila ' of faith. A feeling for the future of individuals springs from affection for them in themselves. A father who has affection for his children naturally feels concern for their future. But perhaps he has no feelings towards otherpeo -ple's children in themselves. Therefore, he will have no affection towards them in themselves until he has also a concern for their future, and their doing good awakens in him a positive feeling, and their doing bad a negative feeling. Bidding to good is a consequence of this positive feeling, and forbidding evil is aconse -quence of the negative feeling, and, until love and friendship exist, these feelings do not bring joy to a man's heart.

If a man is without affection forindivid -uals , he is indifferent when faced with their actions andbehaviour , but when he is concerned, his loves and friendships will not leave him in peace. Thus, in thenoble( verse) bidding to good and forbidding evil are connected in a particular way to the question ofwila '.

aayah And the believers, the men and women, arewali one to the other, they bid to good and forbid evil (9:71). Afterwards, under the subject of the fruits of bidding to good and forbidding evil, two subjects are mentioned: They perform prayer, and payzakat (9: 71).

Prayer is an example of the relationship of the created with the Creator. Andzakat is an example of the benefit of relations between Muslims themselves, who support each other as a result of being compassionate and merciful within Islam. And afterwards, it branches out from this Wilayah - The Station of the Master These, Allah will show mercy to them. . (9:71) ; . and these it is who shall besuccesful (ibid., 88).

It is then that various Divine mercies and joys come down on this society, and thus they become a people who deserve to be called free. Later we shall give some explanations of this ayah, showing that it, and some other (verses) which mentionwila ' in its ordinary affirmative sense, are not only witnesses to love and friendship, but that they affirm a kind of obligation and responsibility for Muslims, as far as the virtue of the relationship of Muslims with each other is concerned. The Prophet - may Allah bless and grant him and his family peace - said in a famous and establishedhadith :

Believers, in loving one another and being merciful towards each other, are like the bodywho , when a part of it complains, the other parts rally to it by fever and sleeplessness. The noble Qur'an says, regarding theProph -et and those who follow him and have received Islamic education Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and those with him are firm of heart against the unbelievers, compassionate among themselves (48:29). Inthisallusion is made towila ' in the negative sense andwila ' in the positive sense. Just as we said earlier that thedydt of the Qur'an draw our attention towards the fact that the enemies of Islam, in every age, try to substitute negativewila ' for positivewila ', and vice versa; or in other words, they direct all their efforts to the end that relations between Muslims and non-Muslims should be cordial, and that relations between Muslims themselves, for various reasons, through all the disputes of the sects, should be hostile.aayah , In our own time, a great number of actions have been carried out by outsiders, enormous budgets deployed, and regretfully they have introduced elements who have no other work than to trans- formwila ' in the negative Islamic sense into awila ' in an affirmative sense, and affirmative Islamicwila ' into a negativewila '. This is the greatest blow which these wicked people have dealt against the Prophet.

Today, if we should weep over one disaster from among those assailing Islam, and if we should shed tears over one tragedy from among those befalling Islam, it is this disaster and this tragedy.Amiru'l-mu'minin , `Ali (a.s .)* said: How strange it is! By Allah, it mortifies the heart and draws forth grief that these people * (a.s .) : is the abbreviation of the Arabic phrase `alay -hi/-ha/-himu 's-salam (peace be upon him/ her/them).

agreed about their falsehood and you disagree about your truth. (Nahju 'l-balaghah ) O Allah, protect and guard Islam and the Muslims from the evil of these evil-doers through the truth of Muhammad and his Pure Household! O Allah, we complain toYou over the loss of our Prophet - Your blessings on him and his family - and on the absence of ourwali , the abundance of our enemy and the paucity of our number, over the strain of afflictions on us and time's turning against us. So, bless Muhammad and his family, and help us in this by a victory which You will hasten, and a help which You will strengthen, and anauth -ority of truth which You will manifest, and a compassion You will envelop us in, and a well-being You will clothe us in.

Wila ' in its positive, special sense is thewila ' ofAhlu 'l-bayt , the Household of the Prophet. There can be no room for debate over the fact that the noble Prophet has called and directed the Muslims to a kind ofwila ' in con-nection with his pure, sinless family; that is to say that even scholars from the Sunni sect make no controversy over this.Theof the pure relatives:

Say: "I do not ask of you any reward for it but love of my near relatives" (42: 23),Wila , in a Positive Sense sets down the matter ofwila ' in its special mean-ing . And it is also present in the famous and un- contestedhadith ofGhadiri , where it is said: For whomsoever I am hismawla , `Ali is hismawla . This itself is mention of a kind ofwila ' which will be explained later. A noble ayah says: Only Allah is yourWali , and His Messenger and those who believe, who keep up prayer and payzakat while they bow in prayer (5:55).

The different schools are of one opinion, that this was revealed concerning `Ali (a.s .) . at-Tabari cites manyahadith in this connection2 , andaz-Zamakhshari , who was one of the greatest scholars of the Sunni school, said in a definitive manner "This ayah was revealed concerning `Ali, Wilayah - The Station of the Master and the reason for the plural being used (i.e., those), although that about which it was re-vealed was not more than one person, is that it is exhorting people to behave like this; and it explains that believers should acquire character and qualities like this, and should be eager and fervent in this way in doing good and ingener -osity and in helping the poor, and that even in prayer they should not procrastinate."' (i.e., although they may be in prayer when the mat-ter ofzakat arises, they should not delay, and should perform their obligation during the time of prayer.) AlsoFakhru'd -Dinar-Razi , who, likeaz -Zamakhshari , is one of the great men of the Sunni school and of the whole community, said: "This ayah was revealed concerning `Ali, and scholars are all in agreement that the pay-ment ofzakat in the time ofruku ` (the position of bowing down in prayer) did not take place except in the case of 'Ali."'

Towards the end he makes someconten -tion about the interpretation of the wordwali , and later on we will discuss the meaning of this ayah. `Aliibn Hammad al-`Adwi al-Basri al-Bagh -dadi , known asIbn Hammad , one of theShi'ah Wila ', in a Positive sense poets of the fourth century of the hegira (10th/ 11th century A.D.) points to the present mean-ing in the following poem God brought thewila ' of Ali and Hiswila ', Because Ali, in the time ofruku , gavezakat . The Lord of the Throne gave him the name of `the soul of Muhammad'On the day of cursing. And this is an in- disputable fact.5 &6 As we said before, a kind ofwila ' has been prescribed in Islam that is positive and has an ordinary meaning, and the noble ayah; And the believers, the men and the women, arewali one to the other (9:71) .

Wilayah - The Station of the Master is a witness to this kind ofwila '. Now we wish to say that the noble ayah; Only Allah is yourWali . . (5:55). states the matter in such a way that it does not carry universality. In no way is it possible that this ayah was designed as a statement ofwila ' with its ordinary, positive meaning, because the Qur'an here is not aiming to state auni -versal law; it does not seek to set down the desirability or the necessity of payingzakat at the time ofruku `, and lay it down as a duty, something recommended legally in the Islamic sense as a kind of law of the shad `ah . Rather, it is a reference to an action that took place when someone did something in the external world, and now the Qur'an established that action to indicate the person, and in an indirect way affirms its decree which is this verywila ' in its special meaning.

This way of saying something, when a par-ticular event pertaining to a specific individual is expressed using a plural, is not uncommon in the Qur'an. For example:

They say: "If we return to Medina the mightier ones of it will surely drive out the more abasedtherefrom " (63 : 8). Here also, the Qur'an is referring to a story which actually took place, and itsay yaquluna (they say) although the speaker was not more than one person - `Abdullahibn Ubayy ibn Salul . The giving ofzakat duringruku ` was not something commonplace among the Muslims, as a result of which we might say that the Qur'an praises them all and affirmswilayah - in whatever sense we say it - for everyone. This very matter is a living witness that the reference of the ayah is individual and specific, in other words that there was someone who, while inruku ` and while in worship, was still not inattentive to the slaves of Allah and thus did something, and now the Qur'an tells us: "He, also, like Allah and His Prophet, is yourwali . " Therefore, a particular person is being discussed, and he, like Allah and the Messenger, is also thewali of the believers, and the believers must accept hiswila '.

However, what is the purpose of thiswila '? Is it only a specific love and devotion which people should have towards that respected person, or is it higher than that? It is this matter that we shall be discussing before long. For the time being, let it suffice to say that contrary to the fancy of some of the scholars of the Sunni school, the sense of this ayah iswila ' with a special meaning, notwila ' in its ordinary sense.

THE KINDS OF WILA IN ITS POSITIVE SENSE, WITH A SPECIAL MEANING

So far, as has been noted, the matter of thewila ' of `Ali (a. s.) and the rest of the House- hold of the Prophet is in general, not open to doubt. Ultimately, the controversy lies in what is the intended meaning ofwila ' in this ayah, and in the rest of thedydt and in theahadith (traditions) of the Prophet which were gathered together with it. In order that the meaning should be clear, we consider it necessary todis - cuss the special uses of the wordswila ' andwilayah in the Qur'an and thesunnah which have reference to the Household (of theProph - et). These two words are normally used in four different ways.