Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

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THE ROLE OF IDEOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTING THE HUMAN BEING

WRITTEN BY AR-RISALAH CENTER

TRANSLATED BY Sayyid J.M. Al-Husaini

www.alhassanain.org/english

Notice:

This versionis published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

The composing errorsare not corrected .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFERENCE OF THE CENTRE 7

INTRODUCTION 9

CHAPTER ONE: THE IDEOLIGICAL CONSTQUCTION 11

The first Topic: liberating Man’s mind: 11

Sin is accidental: 12

Man is an honored creature: 12

The symptoms of liberating: 12

Firstly: It has freed man from political dictatorship 12

Secondly: 14

Thirdly: 15

Fourthly: 16

The second topic: Building Man’s Thought: 17

Liberating the mind: 18

DIRECTING THE ENERGY OF THE MIND: 18

Firstly: pondering on the evidences of Allah (be exalted) in horizons and souls: 19

Secondly: meditating on the laws of history: 20

Thirdly: Thinking about the wisdom of the legislation: 22

Fourthly: directing the mind to consider, to be deliberate in one’s opinion and to be independent in thinking and determination: 23

Fifthly: directing Man to attain science and knowledge: 24

Knowledge and faith: 25

CHAPTER TWO: THE SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL BUILDING 27

Firstly: Agitating the social feeling: 27

The manners of growing the social feeling: 28

A- awakening the feeling of responsibility to- wards others: 28

C-Growing the communal feeling: 29

Secondly, Changing the orders of social relationships: 31

Thirdly: The urgence on cooperation and acquaintance: 33

Fourthly changing the pre-Islamic habits and traditions: 35

CHAPTER THREE: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BUILDING 37

Firstly: tranquility of the soul: 37

THE MANNERS OF THE IDEOLOGY IN CONFRONTING CALAMITIES: 38

A- Displaying the nature of the life in which man lives: 38

B- Misfortunes involve a reward and a recompensation: 39

C- drawing the Moslem’s attention to the great catastrophe: 39

SECONDLY: RELEASING THE SPIRIT FROM FEARS: 40

DEATH IS A GIFT: 40

SUBSISTENCE IS GUARANTEED FOR ITS SEEKER: 42

DISEASE ERADICATES SIN…ENTAILS REWARD: 43

THIRDLY: KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF: 44

The role of the ideology in identifying Man to himself: 45

FOURTHLY: TAKING CONTROL OVER THE SELF: 46

FEAR AND HOPE: 47

CHAPTER FOUR: MORAL BUILDING 49

THE MANNERS OF THE IDEOLOGY IN BUILDING MAN MORALLY: 50

FIRSTLY: THE IDEOLOGY IS DEFINING THE HEREAFTER SEQUENCES OF MORALS: 50

SECONDLY: THE IDEOLOGY’S MANIFESTATING OF THE ADVANTAGES OF GOOD MORALS IN THIS WORLD: 50

THIRDLY: INTRODUCING RECOMMENDATIONS AND ADVICES: 51

FOERTHLY: THE MANNER OF GOOD EXAMPLE: 52

AND THIS WONDERFUL EDUCATIONAL ATTITUDE: 54

AHLILBAIT (A.S.) ARE THE EXAMPLE AFTER THE PROPHET (S.W.A.): 55

SUMMARY 56

1- ON THE INTELLECTUAL LEVEL: 56

2- ON THE SOCIAL LEVEL: 57

3- ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL: 57

4- ON THE MORAL LEVEL: 58

NOTES 59

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE BENEFICIENT THE MERCIFUL

PREFERENCE OF THE CENTRE

Praise is to Allah the Lord of the worlds, the best blessing and the complete salutation are to the loyal chosen “Mustafa” and his pure progeny however; Man’s viewpoint about life, universe and his concepts in different fields, rather even his emotions and senses all of these centre around the axis of the belief which he adopts and which contributes in his ideological, ethical and social constructing, and directing his energies to words development and change.

If positive (unreligious) schools had achieved some success in the materialistic fields ofcivilization it has proved its failure in responding to man’s need for an honorable life free from the chains of indecency and profligacy. So moral corruption, ethical decline familial dissociation and ideological emptiness have been the most outstanding outputs of the materialistic civilization which Man has created on the ideological individual and social level of life.

The creator’s wisdom has required that He guides him to the roots and origins from which he draws his knowledge and the truths of this being so that he could reach through them to the right beliefs which are purified of blemishes and far from deviation due to the fact that Allah has bestowed upon him the pure nature as a cresset which guides him to the light, the light of the right Islamic belief which has enlightened with its brightness what is around it.

When one judges with his mind he finds that the Islamic belief forms complete system for human life with all of its stages and draws the way to all of its sides, harmonizes with human composition, ensures the accomplishment of the spiritual and materialistic needs of the individual in a balanced and precise manners and in a way which secures his dignity and personality.

On the bases of this belief the building of personality is founded, the personality of the individual, the society, and the Islamic state duties are specified, justice and equity are achieved, security and peace are settled, liability and solidarity originate, virtues and noble qualitiesnourish and man is built on all levels.

On the ideological level: the Islamic belief has rescued man from the world of legendry and ignorance to help him enter the world of knowledge and light, stimulating his potential energy to speculate and learn lessons from the evidences and proofs of Allah (be glorified) so it has cast away imitation in believing and connected between knowledge and faith.

On the social level: the Islamic belief has succeeded in elevating social relationships for from the bases of tribal spirit, color and wealth up to moral bases such as piety, virtue and human brotherhood, so Moslims had formed the best nation that humanity has seen after they had been separated and conflicting groups.

On the ethical level: the Islamic belief has succeeded in promoting the subjective motive which relies on the basis of believing the creator’s observation of all Man’s movements and stillness and what follows that from reward and punishment, this matter resulted in moderating the instincts and growing the tree of virtues and making them as a common ingredient of all Islamic laws.

The Islamic belief has also contributed in building the society economically, politically and educationally, so it represents the strong factor in the history of the Islamic civilization.

Thus, in order to raise the Moslim human being from the state of spiritual weakness, from the slipping into the holes of materialism and its temptations he should be reminded of the fruits of that belief, stabilizing his perscuation of its strength and suitability for all ages, using contemporary language, and inform that matches with the necessities of the modern age and mental analysis.

Our book clarifies to you these truths plainly, following intellectual research and analysis, using an interesting easy style and a straight scientificsurvey which lead ideas far from the holes of deviation and fantastic imagination, and direct them towards pure truths and brilliant evidences.

So , we thank Allah for what he has granted and praised Him for the success he bestowed and it is on Him we depend.

Al-Risaalah Centre.

INTRODUCTION

The most important thing for the human being in life is that he knows his beginning and end, the aim of his presence, from where he has come, to which place he goes finally and whyhas he been created ?

These questions which man always puts forward to himself need definite answers in order that Man takes a position towards life in their lights which specifies his behavior, and builds a right satisfactory order to his society.

Positive belief has failed in giving the answer to man’s inquiries about his beginning and end, and the aim of his presence, one time by claiming that Man has been created by chance, another time by claiming that he has been created as a result of development of material…and other interpretations like these which don’t have any result nor value so as to know the truth.

Furthermore, they failed in drawing the outlines of the socialorder which can reform Man and make him happy.

While deviated religious belief have answered these questions with distorted and dull answers when they admitted initially the existence of the Creator but they likened Him to his creatures as they also failed to specify the most convenient order for humanity, the Islamic belief has answered all that with the most sincerity and depth when it has announced that man has a wise powerful Creator, who is not known by senses and not compared with people, and that Man has been created for a sublime purpose which is worshipping Allah to reach through this worship to the loftiest degrees of perfection and eternity.

This belief also generates noble emotions and sentiments, which Islam adopts spreading and growing them up, in order to build the perfect human being in the intellectual social and behavioral dimentions, to construct the ideological personality which owns a purposeful intellectuality, straight behavior and a vocational direction on the contrary of the outsider character whose attention concentrates on itself, interests and wishes; therefore suffers from mental emptiness, psychological tension and lack of aimfullness in life.

We must refer that the Islamic belief is not like the beliefs of philosophers- as an intellectual theory- situated in the corners of the mind- rather it is a power which moves through the heart and is reflected positively on the spirit and senses, so he (who adopts it) rushes into the fields of strife and work, so it had been an active and motive power which changed the direction of history, altered the features of civilization, brought about excellent social and intellectual conversions in man’s life and, achieved witnessed military victories. Hence, we found that the oppressed armless minority in Meccacould- thereby depending on their belief- withstand for thirteen years in confronting a tyranny like flood.

It is thisbelief which could draft for the Prophet (s.w.a.) an army of ten thousand men while he left Mecca hidingly and chased by its infidels. Those who had made war against him for along timecouldn’t withstand against the creeping power of faith, so they surrendered to him, came to him submissively or they paid him the tribute humbly.

Moslems have owned the most powerful implements of victory, it is the belief which makes miracles, which made Hamza- the master of martyrs- leads the first cavalry squadron of thirty Moslems to confront three hundred cavalry fighters from Qureish on the shore of the Red Sea, the Moslem squadron have not come out for a mere parade rather they have been serious in confrontation and engagement with an enemy whose power is ten times its force.

Ithadn’t happened through the history of the battles of Islam in which Islam achieved magnificent and successive victories that Moslems’ material power was equal to that power of the enemy.

Rather Moslems’ power had been- as for the number and equipments- no more than a fifth of the enemy’s victory hadn’t been achieved except through their dependence on the great moralreinforcement which the Islamic belief grants for the Moslem fighter without ignoring the role of the continual divine support and some other material factors and conditions.

Thus we find that belief is the basic power in all of the battles of Islam and the central factor in achieving victory in all fields.

In order to motivate the Moslem individual and to put him on the way of civilizational development he should be reminded of the civilizational achievements which the Islamic belief has granted to Moslems who preceded him; it is true that Moslem has not lost his belief completely but his belief has lost its activity in his heart and lost its social radiance in his behavior because of the factors of the invasion to which he had been subjected and because of the factors of moral decay and retardation which blew away his society as a direct result of his drawing for from the values and instructions of Heaven.

What we must emphasize here in this framework are the following:

Firstly: we must familiarize the Moslem with his right- belief by taking its knowledge from its pure sources.

Secondly: we must stabilize his certainty of its rightness and competency for the modern age and show the points of its superiority to other beliefs.

Thirdly: we must strive to renew the role of the belief in building Moslem individual in order that it is manifested in his intellect as a deep faith, in his behavior as good deeds and virtuous morals as it was interacting in the spirits of Moslems previously bringing about donations and struggle.

For thisaim we have issued this research which deals with the role of belief in the intellectual, social and psychological construction of Man and its reflections on the moral of Moslems and their behavior. We also shed light on the greatrole which the school of “Ahlilbait” (A.S.) had played in preservating belief and contronting the attempts of superficializing knowledge to which the Moslem had been subject throughout successive political eras.

We must mention that we have followed the “traditional procedure” and have depended-basically- on traditional sources.

From Allah we ask support and success.