Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Al-Mufaddal bin Omar’s Commandment for the Community of Shiism

1- I command you to fear God exclusively without associating with him anything. I command you to declare that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is His servant and messenger. Fear God and utter only the good wording. Seek the satisfaction of God and fear of His wrath. Keep up the traditions of God, do not exceed His limits, watch Him in all of your affairs, and satisfy yourselves with His act, whether they are for you good or evil.

2- Cling to enjoining good and forbidding evil.

3- Do them who did you favors as many favors as possible, pardon them who mistreated you, and do to people what you want them to do to you.

4- Associate with people as much as possible. You should not let any point be taken against you. Stick on religious knowledge, show piety against the forbidden (matters), and respect the friendship of him whoever befriends you whether he was pious or sinful.

5- Commit yourselves to excessive piety, for it is the source of the religion. Offer the (obligatory) prayers in their proper times and fulfill the obligatory rituals as exactly as possible.

6- Do no show any negligence in performing the rites that God has made incumbent upon you and the matters that bring God’s satisfaction. I have heard Abu Abdillah (Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq, peace be upon him) saying: “Learn the religious affairs and do not be like the Bedouins.[498] God will not regard (by a look) those who lack any acquaintance with the religious affairs on the Day of Resurrection.

7- Be moderate whether you are rich or poor. Take some of the worldly affairs as means to the life to come. I have heard Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) saying: “Take some of this (the world) as means to that (the life to come), and do not be burdens on people.” Behave courteously with everybody and do favors to everyone.

8- Beware of aggression, for I have heard Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) saying: “Aggression is the quickest in punishment.”

9- Carry out the prayers and the fasting, as well as the other obligatory rituals, that God has made incumbent upon you, and defray the obligatory zakat to their proper people. Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) said: “O Mufaddal, tell your acquaintances to defray the zakat to its proper people and I will guarantee for them.[499] ”

10- Adhere to the loyalty to (the leadership of) Mohammed’s family (peace be upon them). Reconcile the quarreling parties and do not backbite each other.

11- Exchange visits, cherish each other, and do favors to each other. Meet each other and exchange conversations. Do not hide (malice or other affairs) from one another. Beware of disagreement. Beware of abandoning each other, for I have heard Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) saying: “By God I swear, I disavow and curse one of the two Shiites who leave one another out of disagreement. In most cases, I curse both of them.” Muattib[500] said: “May God make me your sacrifice. You may curse the wrong party, why is then the wronged party cursed, too?” The Imam (peace be upon him) answered: “The wronged party is cursed because he does not call the other party to reconciliation.” The Imam then added: “I heard my father saying: If two of our adherents - Shias- disagree and one of them transcends the other, the wronged party should come to the other and confess that he was wrong, so that their disagreement will come to an end. God the Blessed the Exalted is surely fair judge; He will surely judge for the good of the right party.”

12- Do not debase or leave the poor adherents of Mohammed’s family (peace be upon them). Treat them kindly and give them from the right of God that He has made incumbent in your properties. Do them favors. Do not take the family of Mohammed (peace be upon them) as means by which you collect earnings. I heard Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) saying: “People have taken three different courses in following us. Some people have followed us and expected our Relief for the purpose that they may obtain worldly pleasures. They have declared their adherence to us and repeated our words, but they have omitted abiding by our deeds. God will take them to Hell in hoards. Some people declared their adherence to us, listened to our words, and showed no negligence in carrying out our orders. All that has been purposed for gaining the (worldly) donations of people. God will fill in their bellies with fire and will impose upon them starvation and thirst. Some people have declared their adherence to us, retained our wording, carried out our instructions, and have not dissented from our deeds. Those are from us and we are from them.”

13- Do not leave regarding the family of Mohammed (peace be upon them) out of your riches. The rich ones should pay in proportion to their wealth and the poor in proportion to their poverty. He who wants God to solve his most complicated problems should regard the family of Mohammed (peace be upon them) and their adherents - Shias- by means of his most needed property.

14- Do not be angry with the right that is said to you and do not detest the people of right when they say it in your faces. The true believers are not angry with the right that is said in their faces.

15- I was accompanying Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him) when he asked me: “O Mufaddal, how many are your companions?” “They are few,” answered I. When I arrived in Al-Kufa, the Shiites received me with showers of insults, backbiting, and revilement at my honor. Moreover, some of them jumped in my face, others waylaid me for beating me, and others accused me falsely of every ill matter. This event was reported to Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him). Next year, the first thing about which Imam As-Sadiq (peace be upon him) asked me was this event. “I do not care for them,” I answered. “Yes,” said the Imam (peace be upon him), “They are only harming themselves. How do they become angry? Woe to them. You said that your companions are few. No, by God. They are not our adherents - Shias-. They would not have been angry at your answer if they had been true Shias. God has mentioned other characters for our Shias. The adherents - Shias- of Ja’far are only those who stop uttering ill wording, work for the sake of their Creator, hope for their Master, and fear God so properly. Woe to them! Has anyone of them become like a bending bow because of the very much offering of prayers? Has anyone of them become like a lost man because of intense fear (of God)? Has anyone of them become like a blind man because of excessive apprehension of God? Has anyone of them become like an excessively languished man because of the very much fasting? Has anyone of them become like a mute man because of long silence? Has anyone of them passed all nights with worship and passed all days with fasting? Has anyone of them deprived himself of the worldly pleasures out of fear of God and desire for us; the Prophet’s family? How can they be our Shias? They are disputing our enemies about us so excessively that they cause them antagonize us more and more. They are barking like dogs and greedy like crows. I would have ordered you to keep yourself indoors and close your door in their faces unless I had had the apprehensions that they might hurt you. Anyhow, accept their apologies if they come to you. God has made them the claim against themselves and made them the claim against others.

16- Do not be deceived by this world with all its bliss, pleasures, delight, and possessions. It is not yours and will not persist for you. In fact, it will not persist even for its people.

All praise is due to Allah the Lord of the worlds.

All peace and blessings be upon our master Mohammed and his immaculate family.

Islamic Terms

[501]

1- Ansar: The supporters. The people of Medina who received, welcomed, and protected the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and the Muhajirs.

2- Ashura: The tenth of Muharram, celebrated as a day of mourning (the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Al-Hussein, peace be upon him.)

3- Asr Prayer : The afternoon prayer.

4- Azan: Announcement. The Muslim call to ritual prayer.

5- Caliph: The chief civil and religious ruler of the Muslim community.

6- Dhimmi: Non-Muslims subject who enjoys the protection of the Islamic state.

7- Dhu’l-Hijja: The twelfth month of the year in the Islamic calendar during which the season of the hajj, as well as the Eid ul-Adha, occurs.

8- Dhuhr Prayer: The obligatory four-rak’a prayer of noon.

9- Eblis: The Devil.

10- Eid ul-Adha: Feast of sacrifice. A festival marking the culmination of the annual pilgrimage (Hajj ) to Mecca.

11- Eid ul-Fitr: Feast of breaking fast. A festival marking the end of Ramadan.

12- Esha’ Prayer: The obligatory four-rak’a prayer of evening.

13- Fajr Prayer: The obligatory two-rak’a prayer of dawn.

14- Farsakh: A unit of length, usually reckoned as equal to between 3 and 312 miles (5 to 512 km).

15- Fatihah: The short first sura of the Koran, used by Muslims as an essential element of the ritual prayer.

16- Ghayba: The stage of invisibility of Imam Al-Mahdi (peace be upon him).

17- Hadith: The body of traditions concerning the sayings, doings, and confirmations of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).

18- Hajj: The pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque at Mecca undertaken in the twelfth month of the Muslim year and constituting one of the religious duties of Islam.

19- Halal: The allowable according to the Islamic Sharia.

20- Haram: The forbidden according to the Islamic Sharia.

21- Ihram: 1. The sacred state into which a Muslim must enter before performing the hajj, during which sexual intercourse, shaving, cutting one's nails, and several other actions are forbidden.2 The costume worn by a Muslim in this state, consisting of two lengths of seamless usu. white fabric, one worn about the hips, the other over the shoulders or sometimes only over the left shoulder.

22- Imam: 1. One of the twelve immaculate Imams namely Ali bin Abi Talib, Al-Hasan bin Ali, Al-Hussein bin Ali, Ali bin Al-Hussein (As-Sajjad), Mohammed bin Ali (Al-Baqir), Ja’far bin Mohammed (As-Sadiq), Musa bin Ja’far (Al-Kadhim), Ali bin Musa (Ar-Reza), Mohammed bin Ali (Al-Jawad), Ali bin Mohammed (Al-Hadi), Al-Hasan bin Ali (Al-Askari), and Mohammed bin Al-Hasan (Al-Mahdi) peace be upon them all. 2. A leader generally or of a collective prayer.

23- Inshallah: If God wills it;Deo volente .

24- Iqama: The prefatory statements of the ritual prayers.

25- Jahilism: The pre-Islamic period. It stands for definite ill deeds that Islam censured.

26- Jihad: Religious warfare or a war for the propagation or defense of Islam.

27- Kaaba: The square-shaped building in the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca, in the direction of which Muslims must face in doing the obligatory prayer.

28- Khums: The obligatory payment of one-fifth of the wealth made once under Islamic laws.

29- Kiblah: The direction of the place to which Muslims must turn for prayer, now the Kaaba at Mecca.

30- Koreish: The tribe that inhabited Mecca in the time of The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and to which he belonged.

31- Maghrib Prayer: The obligatory three-rak’a prayer of sunset.

32- Mahdi: For Shias, the twelfth Imam Mohammed bin Al-Hasan Al-Mahdi (peace be upon him); the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world.

33- Mihrab: A niche in a mosque directing to the kiblah.

34- Miqat: The definite points at which the hajjis should dress the uniform of the hajj as a sign of the beginning of the ritual hajj.

35- Mosque: A place of worship.

36- Muhajirs: The emigrants. The early Muslims of Mecca who had to flee their homeland to Medina.

37- Mujahid: The performer of jihad.

38- Muhrim: An individual in ihram.

39- Munkar and Nakeer: The two angels whose mission is interrogating the dead in their graves.

40- Nafila : The recommendable prayers.

41- Qira’a: The ritual reciting (obligatorily Sura of Fatihah and any other - recommendably short- Sura) during prayers.

42- Qunut: The supplication of the prayer.

43- Quran (Koran): The Divine Book that was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him and his family).

44- Rak’a: The unit of a prayer.

45- Ramadan: The ninth month of the year in the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims observe strict fasting between dawn and sunset.

46- Ruku’: The obligatory genuflection in the prayers.

47- Salaam : A greeting, meaning 'Peace', used by Muslims.

48- Shahada: The Muslim profession of faith,La ilaha illa (A)llah, Muhammadun rasul Allah (There is no God but Allah, [and] Muhammad is the messenger of Allah).

49- Shaitan: The Shaitan.

50- Sharia: The Islamic code of religious law, based on the teachings of the Koran and the traditional sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).

51- Sujoud: The obligatory prostration of the prayers.

52- Sura: Any of the sections of the Koran.

53- Tahajjud: The night rituals of worship.

54- Takbir: Saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ - Allah is the greatest-.

55- Taqiyah : (pious dissimulation). The belief of the concealment of the true beliefs in situations where harm or death will definitely be encountered if the true beliefs are declared.

56- Tarawih Prayer: The - not obligatory- one thousand rak’a prayer that is distributed on nights of Ramadan.

57- Tasbih: The saying of ‘subhaanallah’ - extolment of God.

58- Tashahhud: The last obligatory part of the prayer, in which the performers declare Allah’s only godhead and Mohammed’s prophethood.

59- Taslim: The last obligatory pillar of a prayer referring to salutation.

60- Umma: The Islamic nation.

61- Umrah: A lesser pilgrimage to Mecca made independently of or at the same time as the hajj, and consisting of a number of devotional rituals performed within the city.

62- Watr Prayer: The one-rak’a prayer that is performed after midnight, unobligingly.

63- Zakat ul-Fitr: The obligatory payment made on the night just before the Eid ul-Fitr under certain laws on everybody.

64- Zakat: The obligatory payment made annually under Islamic law on certain kinds of property and used for charitable and religious objects.

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