In Order Not To Wrong ‘Ali ibn Abi-Talib And Then Be Deprived Of His Bestowal

In Order Not To Wrong ‘Ali ibn Abi-Talib And Then Be Deprived Of His Bestowal ^[1]

An investigative glance at the words and speeches of Imam ‘Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, demonstrates that he had to live in estrangement although he was surrounded by his companions and subjects. This is so because the people who surrounded him unfortunately failed to recognize his supreme standing as they inclined towards the worldly pleasures, which were at that time well-decorated and well-embellished in their eyes on account of the expansion of the Islamic State and the opulence of its imports. They therefore ran lavishly behind the worldly desires. Having noticed this phenomenon, Imam ‘Al¢ used to scold his companions, using all possible means for awakening them and stirring up their determinations in order to make them feel their responsibilities towards obeying him and carrying out his orders and instructions. In this regard, he has once said to them:

“O people! I have divulged to you advice which the prophets used to preach before their peoples, and I have conveyed to you what the vicegerents of the prophets conveyed to those coming after them. I tried to train you with my whip but you could not be straightened. I drove you with admonition but you did not acquire proper behavior. May Allah deal with you! Do you want an Imam other than me to take you on the right path, and show you the correct way? Beware, the things in this world which were forward have become things of the past, and those of which were behind are going ahead. The virtuous people of Allah have made up their minds to leave and they have purchased, with a little perishable pleasure of this world, a lot of such reward in the next world that will remain.”[2]

The estrangement of Imam ‘Ali increased when he lost his elite companions who had recognized his actual excellence and his priority to all perfections when a big number of them were martyred during the Battle of ¯iffin. As a result, he, from the minbar (i.e. pulpit) of al-Kufah Mosque, used to mourn for them with the most sorrowful words and describe them with the most excellent words. He thus used to say:

“What loss did our brothers whose blood was shed in ¯iffin suffer by not being alive today? Only that they are not suffering choking on swallowing and not drinking turbid water. By Allah, surely they have met Allah and He has bestowed upon them their rewards and He has lodged them in safe houses after their having suffered fear. Where are my brethren who took the right path and trod in rightness. Where is ‘Amm¡r (ibn Y¡sir)? Where is ibn al-Tayh¡n? Where is Dhu’l-Shah¡datayn (the double-witness)? Where are others like them from among their comrades who had pledged themselves to death and whose severed heads were taken to the wicked enemy?”

Then Imam ‘Ali wiped his hand over his auspicious, honored beard and wept for a long time, then he continued:

“O! My brothers who recited the Qur'¡n and strengthened it, thought over their obligation and fulfilled it, revived the Prophet’s traditions and destroyed innovation. When they were called to Jihad, they responded and trusted in their leader then followed him.” [3]

Very frequently, Imam ‘Ali wished for death to take him and save him from living next to lowly people and to lead him to the vicinity of his honorable and beloved people; namely, the Holy Prophet Mu¦ammad, his relatives, and his elite companions. Confirming this meaning, Imam ‘Al¢ used to say:

“I do long that Allah may cause separation between me and you and give me those who have a better right to be with me than you.” [4]

Thus did Imam ‘Ali hope because he saw himself living in the midst of worthless, despicable people whom are mentioned with nothing but dispraise.

Expressing the manners of these lowly people, Imam ‘Ali has said on another occasion:

“Where are your good people? Where are your virtuous people? Where are your high-spirited men and generous men? Where are those of you who avoid deceit in their business and remain pure in their behavior? Have they not all departed from this ignoble, transitory, and troublesome world? Have you not been left among people who are just like rubbish and so low that lips avoid mention of them and do not move even to condemn their low position? Verily, we are Allah’s and verily unto Him shall we return.” [5]

He used to feel sorry for the people separating from the true guidance, which was represented by him, and nothing from the vast area of the Islamic State remained under his control except the city of al-Kufah. Referring to this fact, he used to say:

“Nothing is left to me but al-Kufah, which I can hold and extend which is in my hand to play with. O al-Kufah, if this is your condition that whirlwinds continue blowing through you, then Allah may destroy you.”^{([6]

He also found it so strange that his people were disobeying him
while he is right while the people of Mu‘¡wiyah, his bitterest
enemy, were dedicating their hearts and souls to obeying their
leader while he was wrong and he was misleading them.

Imam ‘Ali thus said,

“Your leader obeys Allah but you disobeyed him while the leader
of the people of Syria (Sh¡m) disobeys Allah but they obey him.
By Allah, I wish Mu‘awiyah exchanges with me like Dinars with
Dirhams, so that he takes from me ten of you and gives me one
from them. I am certainly on clear guidance from my Lord (Allah)
and on the path of my Prophet and I am on the right path, which
I adhere to regularly.” [7]

As a result of such effeteness, Imam ‘Ali predicted that his
people’s state would fade away while Mu‘awiyah’s would succeed.
He thus said,

“By Allah (I swear), I have begun thinking about these people
that they would shortly snatch away the whole country through
their unity on their wrong and your disunity from your own
right, and separation, your disobedience of your Imam in matters
of right and their obedience to their leader in matters of
wrong, their fulfillment of the trust in favor of their master
and your betrayal, and their good work in their cities and your
mischief.” [8]

He has further said in this regard,

“By Allah in Whose power my life lies I swear, these people (Mu‘¡wiyah
and his men) will overcome you not because they have a better
right than you, but because of their hastening towards the wrong
with their leader and your slowness about my right to be
followed. People are afraid of the oppression of their rulers
while I fear the oppression of my subjects.” [9]

The reason for such deep sorrow of Imam ‘Al¢ was the fact that
he knew the facts and consequences of all affairs and he had
full acquaintance with the destiny of each party. In this
respect, he used to say,

“Even if the screen between the seen and the unseen worlds are
unveiled before me, it will increase me no more certitude.”

In spite of all that, how can such hard hearts and such
intellects that are overcome by lusts see through the eye of
truth?

In this regard, Imam ‘Ali says,

“If you know what I know of the unknown that is kept wrapped up
from you, certainly you would have gone out into the open
weeping over your deeds and beating yourselves in grief and you
would have abandoned your properties without any guard for it or
any substitute over it. Everyone would then have cared for his
own self without paying attention to anyone else. But you have
forgotten what was recalled to you and felt safe from what you
had been warned. Consequently, your ideas went astray and your
affairs were dispersed.” [10]

So, Imam ‘Ali’s sorrow and regret was an extension to the regret
mentioned in this verse of the Holy Qur'an:

“Alas for the servants! There comes not to them a messenger but
they mock at him. (36/30)”

These few words of the Imam have been quoted here so that we can
experience his feelings of estrangement about which he used to
refer to his blessed chest and say,

“Look, here is a heap of knowledge. I wish I could get someone
to bear it.” [11]

Unfortunately, his companions misplaced this knowledge, could
not recognize the actual standing of their leader, and could not
get any benefit from him. They therefore wronged themselves and
him when they prevented him from conveying to them the heaps of
knowledge he had kept in his chest. He thus used to say,

“People are afraid of the oppression of their rulers while I
fear the oppression of my subjects.” [12]

Today, we, the partisans of Imam ‘Ali, are required not to wrong
him like what his companions had done and not to deprive
ourselves of his bestowals like what they had done. It is true
that Imam ‘Ali is not present with us currently in his physical
body, but he is actually present among us through his words,
sermons, speeches, behavior, lifestyle, knowledge, struggle,
honesty, altruism, and devotion wholeheartedly to pleasing God,
as well as his other limitless perfections.

This is an invitation to all of us to benefit from all these
characteristics through imagining that Imam ‘Ali is talking to
us directly and embodying these virtues and perfections that are
reported to us through traditions as if he is living among us.
Of course, such imagination requires us to be fully wakeful and
to revolt against our bitter fact of our lives to which we have
reached because of our abandonment of Nahj al-Bal¡ghah
(i.e. Imam ‘Ali’s sermons and aphorisms) as well as the other
sources that recorded his virtues and remarkable deeds. The only
way to put such revolution into action is to make a number of
practical steps as much as possible and even gradually. These
steps can be summed up in the following points:

1. Muslim orators, propagandists, and preachers are required to
pay much attention to the texts of Nahj al-Bal¡ghah
through starting their educational sessions by mentioning such
texts, focusing on explaining them, deriving lessons from them,
and shedding light on the facts, knowledge, and information
deduced from them. Actually, this course was widely practiced by
the past generations of Muslim preachers. For instance, my
grandfather had said to my father, Sheikh Mu¦ammad ‘Ali al-Ya‘qubi,
“I do not exaggerate if I tell you that your maternal
grandfather, Sheikh Mahdi memorized about three quarters of the
texts of Nahj al-Bal¡ghah.”

2. Each one of us is required to commit himself to studying
carefully Nahj al-Bal¡ghah as well as the other reference
books that comprise the words of Imam ‘Ali, such as al-ªmudi’s
Ghurar al-°ikam and al-°arrani’s Tu¦af al-‘Uqul,
whenever there is opportunity to do so without showing any
shortcoming or negligence. We are also required to recollect the
glorious topics of such words and sermons so that we will be
able to revivify our hearts, illuminate our insights, and set
aright our lifestyles. In this respect, Imam ‘Ali is reported to
have said,

“Verily, you cannot do all that; therefore, help me through
abstention from evils, struggle against the wrong, decency, and
investigation of the right.”

3. Men of letters and well-educated people should be encouraged
to infer the aspects of glory that Imam ‘Ali deposited in his
words and the other aspects that can be deduced from his
conducts and to classify the topics to which Imam ‘Ali referred
in Nahj al-Bal¡ghah according to their subject matters.
As a matter of fact, this book comprises treatments of many
issues in the fields of Muslim doctrines, society, ethics,
philosophy, human affairs, and economy. Imam ‘Ali preceded all
others in other fields like policy, governmental administration,
guardianship of the public affairs, judicature, issuance of
verdicts, and many other fields that if researchers and experts
devote their efforts to studying them, they will most certainly
bestow upon humankind with fabulous achievements although such
efforts can be obviously seen in many books the most eminent of
which is the thesis entitled ‘al-Im¡m ‘Ali wa-°uquq
al-Ins¡n (Imam ‘Ali and Human Rights)’ about which the
writer was honored with Doctorate of Political Sciences and this
thesis has been published by us as an honor to the researcher.
This is in fact a little effort if compared to the great virtues
gained by those who write about the great personality of Imam
‘Ali. Let us not forget other great writing works like the book
entitled ‘al-R¡‘i wa’l-Ra‘iyyah (The Leader
and the Subjects)’, an explanatory comment on Imam ‘Ali’s famous
epistle to M¡lik al-Ashtar when appointed as the governor of
Egypt, and the book entitled ‘‘Ali ibn Abi-Talib ¯awt al-‘Ad¡lah
al-Ins¡niyyah (‘Ali: the Voice of Human Justice)’ as well as
many others.

4. It is highly recommended to establish a library specialized
in exhibiting the works, books, studies, and theses written
about the heritage of Imam ‘Al¢ and to furnish it with the most
modern means of the technology of exchange communications and
information.

5. It is also recommended to establish a space channel
specialized in showing Imam ‘Ali’s virtues, spreading his
knowledge, and displaying his reported heritage and the stages
of his blessed life. Such a space channel may hold symposiums
and talk shows, answering all the questions about this great
personality and touching on all related issues.

6. Serious efforts must be exerted at one of the internationally
well-known universities for appointing a university chair about
Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi-Ibn Abi Talib to embrace researchers and
students, grant high university degrees, and receive groups of
exchange students from various portions of the world to
specialize in this field.

By suggesting these practical steps, I do not intend to compose
fervent words and fill in blank sheets; rather, I only intend to
arouse the interests of all of us most seriously, honestly, and
determinedly so that we can experience a worldwide renaissance
to save us from our negligence in our duty towards Imam ‘Ali,
which will make us different from those who wronged him and
deprived themselves of his blessed bestowals. This issue is
similar to the issue of abandoning and alienating the Holy
Qur'an by Muslims who caused this holy book to complain against
them and deprived themselves of its blessings, but when they
realized the enormity of what they had done to their divinely
revealed scripture, they returned to it and established
universities and congregations to recite, study, get benefit
from it, and specialize in its various fields of knowledge.

Actually, the celebrations and commemorative ceremonies that are
held on the occasion of Imam ‘Ali’s birthday are not enough to
express the actual responsive and required amount of celebration
although they may express a certain social level of awareness.
To stop at such levels of celebrating is in reality not enough
unless it is associated by practicing some of the aforementioned
steps. However, the least amount in this respect is that we may
browse the book of Nahj al-Bal¡ghah and learn some
lessons that God may confer upon us. I myself followed this
course and could extract the texts to which I have referred in
the beginning of this essay.

Following this primary step, we all are required to put into
practice the second abovementioned step, because any one who
hears you claiming belonging to the partisans (i.e. Shi‘ah) of
Imam ‘Ali expects to see in your personality an amount of his
morals, conducts, and sublimity.

In this connection, one of my friends who is an engineer living
in Germany related to me that his family and he, once, visited
another Iraqi person, named ‘Ali, who had married a German lady
so as to be given the German nationality according to the German
law and expected to see the German lady lacking the desired
qualifications of true wives since she was married by this man
for the aforementioned purpose. However, the visiting man and
his family found the opposite; the woman was highly
well-mannered. When she was asked about the reason for accepting
this foreign man as a husband, she answered that she only
intended to get to know Islam through him.

Thus do the others think of the Muslims in general and the
partisans of Imam ‘Ali in particular. Accordingly, each one of
us is now bound to an additional responsibility to behave as
exactly as the others expect us to do so that we will win the
good idea of our Prophet and Imam about us and to gain good
reputation in the sight of the others.

Indeed, to create such a global renaissance of spreading the
virtues, heritage, knowledge, and wisdoms of Imam ‘Ali all over
the world will guarantee human reformation, lead humankind to
the right course, and help the peoples find
solutions for all their hardly solved complexities and problems
because of which they followed crooked ways, felt despaired of
life, and adopted suicide as a final solution. By the permission
of God, new happy horizons will be opened before humanity.}

[1] Excerpted from (1) a discourse delivered by His Eminence Ayatollah Sheikh Mu¦ammad al-Ya‘qubi during his meeting the delegation of the Modern Village (al-qarya al-‘a¥riyya) of al-N¡¥iriyyah Governorate in Rajab 8, 1429 AH corresponding to July 12, 2008, (2) a discourse delivered by His Eminence during his meeting with a group of officials in organizations of civil society (OCS) in al-N¡¥iriyyah Governorate in Rajab 15, 1429 AH, and (3) other guests who visited and congratulated His Eminence on the occasion of Imam ‘Ali’s birthday.