learned:(23) he must guard himself, defend his faith, oppose his passions
and obey the commandments of his Lord. It is then the duty of the people
to pattern themselves after him." Since these illustrious and holy words
embody all the conditions of learning, a brief commentary on their meaning
is appropriate. Whoever is lacking in these divine qualifications and does
not demonstrate these inescapable requirements in his own life, should not
be referred to as learned and is not worthy to serve as a model for the
believers.
The first of these requirements is to guard one's own self. It is obvious
that this does not refer to protecting oneself from calamities and
material tests, for the Prophets and saints were, each and every one,
subjected to the bitterest afflictions that the world has to offer, and
were targets for all the cruelties and aggressions of mankind. They
sacrificed their lives for the welfare of the people, and with all their
hearts they hastened to the place of their martyrdom; and with their
inward and outward perfections they arrayed humanity in new garments of
excellent qualities, both acquired and inborn. The primary meaning of this
guarding of oneself is to acquire the attributes of spiritual and material
perfection.
The first attribute of perfection is learning and the cultural attainments
of the mind, and this eminent station is achieved when the individual
combines in himself a thorough knowledge of those complex and
transcendental realities pertaining to God, of the fundamental truths of
Qur'anic political and religious law, of the contents of the sacred
Scriptures of other faiths, and of those regulations and procedures which
would contribute to the progress and civilization of this distinguished
country. He should in addition be informed as to the laws and principles,
the customs, conditions and manners, and the material and moral virtues
characterizing the statecraft of other nations, and should be well versed
in all the useful branches of learning of the day, and study the
historical records of bygone governments and peoples. For if a learned
individual has no knowledge of the sacred Scriptures and the entire field
of divine and natural science, of religious jurisprudence and the arts of
government and the varied learning of the time and the great events of
history, he might prove unequal to an emergency, and this is inconsistent
with the necessary qualification of comprehensive knowledge.
If for example a spiritually learned Muslim is conducting a debate with a
Christian and he knows nothing of the glorious melodies of the Gospel, he
will, no matter how much he imparts of the Qur'an and its truths, be
unable to convince the Christian, and his words will fall on deaf ears.
Should, however, the Christian observe that the Muslim is better versed in
the fundamentals of Christianity than the Christian priests themselves,
and understands the purport of the Scriptures even better than they, he
will gladly accept the Muslim's arguments, and he would indeed have no
other recourse.
When the Chief of the Exile(24) came into the presence of that Luminary of
divine wisdom, of salvation and certitude, the Imam Rida--had the Imam,
that mine of knowledge, failed in the course of their interview to base
his arguments on authority appropriate and familiar to the Exilarch, the
latter would never have acknowledged the greatness of His Holiness.
The state is, moreover, based upon two potent forces, the legislative and
the executive. The focal center of the executive power is the government,
while that of the legislative is the learned--and if this latter great
support and pillar should prove defective, how is it conceivable that the
state should stand?
In view of the fact that at the present time such fully developed and
comprehensively learned individuals are hard to come by, and the
government and people are in dire need of order and direction, it is
essential to establish a body of scholars the various groups of whose
membership would each be expert in one of the aforementioned branches of
knowledge. This body should with the greatest energy and vigor deliberate
as to all present and future requirements, and bring about equilibrium and
order.
Up to now the religious law has not been given a decisive role in our
courts, because each of the 'ulama has been handing down decrees as he saw
fit, based on his arbitrary interpretation and personal opinion. For
example, two men will go to law, and one of the 'ulama will find for the
plaintiff and another for the defendant. It may even happen that in one
and the same case two conflicting decisions will be handed down by the
same mujtahid, on the grounds that he was inspired first in one direction
and then in the other. There can be no doubt that this state of affairs
has confused every important issue and must jeopardize the very
foundations of society. For neither the plaintiff nor the defendant ever
loses hope of eventual success, and each in turn will waste his life in
the attempt to secure a later verdict which would reverse the previous
one. Their entire time is thus given over to litigation, with the result
that their life instead of being devoted to beneficial undertakings and
necessary personal affairs, is completely involved with the dispute.
Indeed, these two litigants might just as well be dead, for they can serve
their government and community not a particle. If, however, a definite and
final verdict were forthcoming, the duly convicted party would perforce
give up all hope of reopening the case, and would then be relieved on that
score and would go back to looking after his own concerns and those of
others.
Since the primary means for securing the peace and tranquillity of the
people, and the most effective agency for the advancement of high and low
alike, is this all-important matter, it is incumbent on those learned
members of the great consultative assembly who are thoroughly versed in
the Divine law to evolve a single, direct and definite procedure for the
settlement of litigations. This instrument should then be published
throughout the country by order of the king, and its provisions should be
strictly adhered to. This all-important question requires the most urgent
attention.
The second attribute of perfection is justice and impartiality. This means
to have no regard for one's own personal benefits and selfish advantages,
and to carry out the laws of God without the slightest concern for
anything else. It means to see one's self as only one of the servants of
God, the All-Possessing, and except for aspiring to spiritual distinction,
never attempting to be singled out from the others. It means to consider
the welfare of the community as one's own. It means, in brief, to regard
humanity as a single individual, and one's own self as a member of that
corporeal form, and to know of a certainty that if pain or injury afflicts
any member of that body, it must inevitably result in suffering for all
the rest.
The third requirement of perfection is to arise with complete sincerity
and purity of purpose to educate the masses: to exert the utmost effort to
instruct them in the various branches of learning and useful sciences, to
encourage the development of modern progress, to widen the scope of
commerce, industry and the arts, to further such measures as will increase
the people's wealth. For the mass of the population is uninformed as to
these vital agencies which would constitute an immediate remedy for
society's chronic ills.
It is essential that scholars and the spiritually learned should undertake
in all sincerity and purity of intent and for the sake of God alone, to
counsel and exhort the masses and clarify their vision with that collyrium
which is knowledge. For today the people out of the depths of their
superstition, imagine that any individual who believes in God and His
signs, and in the Prophets and Divine Revelations and laws, and is a
devout and God-fearing person, must of necessity remain idle and spend his
days in sloth, so as to be considered in the sight of God as one who has
forsaken the world and its vanities, set his heart on the life to come,
and isolated himself from human beings in order to draw nearer to God.
Since this theme will be developed elsewhere in the present text, We shall
leave it for the moment.
Other attributes of perfection are to fear God, to love God by loving His
servants, to exercise mildness and forbearance and calm, to be sincere,
amenable, clement and compassionate; to have resolution and courage,
trustworthiness and energy, to strive and struggle, to be generous, loyal,
without malice, to have zeal and a sense of honor, to be high-minded and
magnanimous, and to have regard for the rights of others. Whoever is
lacking in these excellent human qualities is defective. If We were to
explain the inner meanings of each one of these attributes, "the poem
would take up seventy maunds(25) of paper."
[PAGES 41-60]
The second of these spiritual standards which apply to the possessor of
knowledge is that he should be the defender of his faith. It is obvious
that these holy words do not refer exclusively to searching out the
implications of the Law, observing the forms of worship, avoiding greater
and lesser sins, practicing the religious ordinances, and by all these
methods, protecting the Faith. They mean rather that the whole population
should be protected in every way; that every effort should be exerted to
adopt a combination of all possible measures to raise up the Word of God,
increase the number of believers, promote the Faith of God and exalt it
and make it victorious over other religions.
If, indeed, the Muslim religious authorities had persevered along these
lines as they ought to have done, by now every nation on earth would have
been gathered into the shelter of the unity of God and the bright fire of
"that He may make it victorious over every other religion"(26) would have
flamed out like the sun in the midmost heart of the world.
Fifteen centuries after Christ, Luther, who was originally one of the
twelve members of a Catholic religious body at the center of the Papal
government and later on initiated the Protestant religious belief, opposed
the Pope on certain points of doctrine such as the prohibition of monastic
marriage, the revering and bowing down before images of the Apostles and
Christian leaders of the past, and various other religious practices and
ceremonies which were accretional to the ordinances of the Gospel.
Although at that period the power of the Pope was so great and he was
regarded with such awe that the kings of Europe shook and trembled before
him, and he held control of all Europe's major concerns in the grasp of
his might--nevertheless because Luther's position as regards the freedom of
religious leaders to marry, the abstention from worshiping and making
prostrations before images and representations hung in the churches, and
the abrogation of ceremonials which had been added on to the Gospel, was
demonstrably correct, and because the proper means were adopted for the
promulgation of his views: within these last four hundred and some years
the majority of the population of America, four-fifths of Germany and
England and a large percentage of Austrians, in sum about one hundred and
twenty-five million people drawn from other Christian denominations, have
entered the Protestant Church. The leaders of this religion are still
making every effort to promote it, and today on the East Coast of Africa,
ostensibly to emancipate the Sudanese and various Negro peoples, they have
established schools and colleges and are training and civilizing
completely savage African tribes, while their true and primary purpose is
to convert some of the Muslim Negro tribes to Protestantism. Every
community is toiling for the advancement of its people, and we (i.e.,
Muslims) sleep on!
Although it was not clear what purpose impelled this man or where he was
tending, see how the zealous efforts of Protestant leaders have spread his
doctrines far and wide.
Now if the illustrious people of the one true God, the recipients of His
confirmations, the objects of His Divine assistance, should put forth all
their strength, and with complete dedication, relying upon God and turning
aside from all else but Him, should adopt procedures for spreading the
Faith and should bend all their efforts to this end, it is certain that
His Divine light would envelop the whole earth.
A few, who are unaware of the reality below the surface of events, who
cannot feel the pulse of the world under their fingers, who do not know
what a massive dose of truth must be administered to heal this chronic old
disease of falsehood, believe that the Faith can only be spread by the
sword, and bolster their opinion with the Tradition, "I am a Prophet by
the sword." If, however, they would carefully examine this question, they
would see that in this day and age the sword is not a suitable means for
promulgating the Faith, for it would only fill peoples' hearts with
revulsion and terror. According to the Divine Law of Muhammad, it is not
permissible to compel the People of the Book to acknowledge and accept the
Faith. While it is a sacred obligation devolving on every conscientious
believer in the unity of God to guide mankind to the truth, the Traditions
"I am a Prophet by the sword" and "I am commanded to threaten the lives of
the people until they say, 'There is none other God but God'" referred to
the idolaters of the Days of Ignorance, who in their blindness and
bestiality had sunk below the level of human beings. A faith born of sword
thrusts could hardly be relied upon, and would for any trifling cause
revert to error and unbelief. After the ascension of Muhammad, and His
passing to "the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King,"(27)
the tribes around Medina apostatized from their Faith, turning back to the
idolatry of pagan times.
Remember when the holy breaths of the Spirit of God (Jesus) were shedding
their sweetness over Palestine and Galilee, over the shores of Jordan and
the regions around Jerusalem, and the wondrous melodies of the Gospel were
sounding in the ears of the spiritually illumined, all the peoples of Asia
and Europe, of Africa and America, of Oceania, which comprises the islands
and archipelagoes of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, were fire-worshipers
and pagans, ignorant of the Divine Voice that spoke out on the Day of the
Covenant.(28) Alone the Jews believed in the divinity and oneness of God.
Following the declaration of Jesus, the pure and reviving breath of His
mouth conferred eternal life on the inhabitants of those regions for a
period of three years, and through Divine Revelation the Law of Christ, at
that time the vital remedy for the ailing body of the world, was
established. In the days of Jesus only a few individuals turned their
faces toward God; in fact only the twelve disciples and a few women truly
became believers, and one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot apostatized
from his Faith, leaving eleven. After the ascension of Jesus to the Realm
of Glory, these few souls stood up with their spiritual qualities and with
deeds that were pure and holy, and they arose by the power of God and the
life-giving breaths of the Messiah to save all the peoples of the earth.
Then all the idolatrous nations as well as the Jews rose up in their might
to kill the Divine fire that had been lit in the lamp of Jerusalem. "Fain
would they put out God's light with their mouths: but God hath willed to
perfect His light, albeit the infidels abhor it."(29) Under the fiercest
tortures, they did every one of these holy souls to death; with butchers'
cleavers, they chopped the pure and undefiled bodies of some of them to
pieces and burned them in furnaces, and they stretched some of the
followers on the rack and then buried them alive. In spite of this
agonizing requital, the Christians continued to teach the Cause of God,
and they never drew a sword from its scabbard or even so much as grazed a
cheek. Then in the end the Faith of Christ encompassed the whole earth, so
that in Europe and America no traces of other religions were left, and
today in Asia and Africa and Oceania, large masses of people are living
within the sanctuary of the Four Gospels.
It has now by the above irrefutable proofs been fully established that the
Faith of God must be propagated through human perfections, through
qualities that are excellent and pleasing, and spiritual behavior. If a
soul of his own accord advances toward God he will be accepted at the
Threshold of Oneness, for such a one is free of personal considerations,
of greed and selfish interests, and he has taken refuge within the
sheltering protection of his Lord. He will become known among men as
trustworthy and truthful, temperate and scrupulous, high-minded and loyal,
incorruptible and God-fearing. In this way the primary purpose in
revealing the Divine Law--which is to bring about happiness in the after
life and civilization and the refinement of character in this--will be
realized. As for the sword, it will only produce a man who is outwardly a
believer, and inwardly a traitor and apostate.
We shall here relate a story that will serve as an example to all. The
Arabian chronicles tell how, at a time prior to the advent of Muhammad,
Nu'man son of Mun_dh_ir the Lakhmite --an Arab king in the Days of
Ignorance, whose seat of government was the city of Hirih--had one day
returned so often to his wine-cup that his mind clouded over and his
reason deserted him. In this drunken and insensible condition he gave
orders that his two boon companions, his close and much-loved friends,
_Kh_alid son of Mudallil and 'Amr son of Mas'ud-Kaldih, should be put to
death. When he wakened after his carousal, he inquired for the two friends
and was given the grievous news. He was sick at heart, and because of his
intense love and longing for them, he built two splendid monuments over
their two graves and he named these the Smeared-With-Blood.
Then he set apart two days out of the year, in memory of the two
companions, and he called one of them the Day of Evil and one the Day of
Grace. Every year on these two appointed days he would issue forth with
pomp and circumstance and sit between the monuments. If, on the Day of
Evil, his eye fell on any soul, that person would be put to death; but on
the Day of Grace, whoever passed would be overwhelmed with gifts and
benefits. Such was his rule, sealed with a mighty oath and always rigidly
observed.
One day the king mounted his horse, that was called Mahmud, and rode out
into the plains to hunt. Suddenly in the distance he caught sight of a
wild donkey. Nu'man urged on his horse to overtake it, and galloped away
at such speed that he was cut off from his retinue. As night approached,
the king was hopelessly lost. Then he made out a tent, far off in the
desert, and he turned his horse and headed toward it. When he reached the
entrance of the tent he asked, "Will you receive a guest?" The owner (who
was Hanzala, son of Abi-_Gh_afray-i-Ta'i) replied, "Yea." He came forward
and helped Nu'man to dismount. Then he went to his wife and told her,
"There are clear signs of greatness in the bearing of this person. Do your
best to show him hospitality, and make ready a feast." His wife said, "We
have a ewe. Sacrifice it. And I have saved a little flour against such a
day." Hanzala first milked the ewe and carried a bowl of milk to Nu'man,
and then he slaughtered her and prepared a meal; and what with his
friendliness and loving-kindness, Nu'man spent that night in peace and
comfort. When dawn came, Nu'man made ready to leave, and he said to
Hanzala: "You have shown me the utmost generosity, receiving and feasting
me. I am Nu'man, son of Mun_dh_ir, and I shall eagerly await your arrival
at my court."
Time passed, and famine fell on the land of Tayy. Hanzala was in dire need
and for this reason he sought out the king. By a strange coincidence he
arrived on the Day of Evil. Nu'man was greatly troubled in spirit. He
began to reproach his friend, saying, "Why did you come to your friend on
this day of all days? For this is the Day of Evil, that is, the Day of
Wrath and the Day of Distress. This day, should my eyes alight on Qabus,
my only son, he should not escape with his life. Now ask me whatever favor
you will."
Hanzala said: "I knew nothing of your Day of Evil. As for the gifts of
this life, they are meant for the living, and since I at this hour must
drink of death, what can all the world's storehouses avail me now?"
Nu'man said, "There is no help for this."
Hanzala told him: "Respite me, then, that I may go back to my wife and
make my testament. Next year I shall return, on the Day of Evil."
Nu'man then asked for a guarantor, so that, if Hanzala should break his
word, this guarantor would be put to death instead. Hanzala, helpless and
bewildered, looked about him. Then his gaze fell on one of Nu'man's
retinue, _Sh_arik, son of 'Amr, son of Qays of _Sh_ayban, and to him he
recited these lines: "O my partner, O son of 'Amr! Is there any escape
from death? O brother of every afflicted one! O brother of him who is
brotherless! O brother of Nu'man, in thee today is a surety for the
_Sh_ay_kh_. Where is _Sh_ayban the noble--may the All-Merciful favor him!"
But _Sh_arik only answered, "O my brother, a man cannot gamble with his
life." At this the victim could not tell where to turn. Then a man named
Qarad, son of Adja the Kalbite stood up and offered himself as a surety,
agreeing that, should he fail on the next Day of Wrath to deliver up the
victim, the king might do with him, Qarad, as he wished. Nu'man then
bestowed five hundred camels on Hanzala, and sent him home.
In the following year on the Day of Evil, as soon as the true dawn broke
in the sky, Nu'man as was his custom set out with pomp and pageantry and
made for the two mausoleums called the Smeared-With-Blood. He brought
Qarad along, to wreak his kingly wrath upon him. The pillars of the state
then loosed their tongues and begged for mercy, imploring the king to
respite Qarad until sundown, for they hoped that Hanzala might yet return;
but the king's purpose was to spare the life of Hanzala, and to requite
his hospitality by putting Qarad to death in his place. As the sun began
to set, they stripped off the garments of Qarad, and made ready to sever
his head. At that moment a rider appeared in the distance, galloping at
top speed. Nu'man said to the swordsman, "Why delayest thou?" The
ministers said, "Perchance it is Hanzala who comes." And when the rider
drew near, they saw it was none other.
Nu'man was sorely displeased. He said, "Thou fool! Thou didst slip away
once from the clutching fingers of death; must thou provoke him now a
second time?"
And Hanzala answered, "Sweet in my mouth and pleasant on my tongue is the
poison of death, at the thought of redeeming my pledge."
Nu'man asked, "What could be the reason for this trustworthiness, this
regard for thine obligation and this concern for thine oath?" And Hanzala
answered, "It is my faith in the one God and in the Books that have come
down from heaven." Nu'man asked, "What Faith dost thou profess?" And
Hanzala said, "It was the holy breaths of Jesus that brought me to life. I
follow the straight pathway of Christ, the Spirit of God." Nu'man said,
"Let me inhale these sweet aromas of the Spirit."
So it was that Hanzala drew out the white hand of guidance from the bosom
of the love of God,(30) and illumined the sight and the insight of the
beholders with the Gospel light. After he had in bell-like accents recited
some of the divine verses out of the Evangel, Nu'man and all his ministers
sickened of their idols and their idol-worship and were confirmed in the
Faith of God. And they said, "Alas, a thousand times alas, that up to now
we were careless of this infinite mercy and veiled away therefrom, and
were bereft of this rain from the clouds of the grace of God." Then
straightway the king tore down the two monuments called the
Smeared-With-Blood, and he repented of his tyranny and established justice
in the land.