STRIVING TO REMAIN
FIRM ON GUIDANCE
Allah the Almighty says:
And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the true guidance.
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This holy verse shows that repentance, faith, and good deeds are not enough for the forgiveness of Allah and do not require the His contentment, except with the true guidance.
It has been mentioned that Imam as-Sadiq (a.s.) said:
Surely Allah does not forgive, except one who repents, believes, does good, and is guided to our guardianship, we the Ahlul Bayt.
By this, it is understood that guidance and being guided are two synonymous lines that each completes the other, but guidance is a divine favor that Allah endows His creatures with. Surely, His guidance has included all His servants with no exception. Allah says:
And the soul and Him Who made it perfect. Then, He inspired it to understand what is right and what is wrong.
2
Surely, We have shown him the way: he may be thankful or unthankful. 3
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1 Qur'an, 20:82.
2 Qur'an, 91:7-8.
3 Qur'an, 76:3.
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As for being guided, it is a personal effort that man exerts according to the general guidance to arrive, after searching and trying relying on his mental faculties, at distinguishing the truth from the untruth, and then to choose willingly the path of the truth after having been away from it. What explains this meaning is this saving of Allah:
... therefore, give good news to My servants, who listen to the word, and then follow the best of it; those are they whom Allah has guided, and those it is who are the men of understanding. 1
The meaning of the verse is that a reasonable servant opens his ears for argumentation and listens to all sayings and theories. He distinguishes the good from the bad, and then chooses to follow the truth and avoid the untruth. Such a servant returns to the original divine guidance willingly, and so he deserves the praising of Allah to him that he is from the men of understanding.
The clearest example on the explanation of "guidance" and "being guided" is what has happened and is happening to the nation of Muhammad (a.s.) whom Allah guided by the Prophet (a.s.) and took them out of darkness into light, and guided them to walk in His right path. He left them in the shiny destination after He had perfected to them their religion, completed His favor to them, and chosen for them Islam as a religion.
2
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1 Qur'an, 39:17-18.
2 The love to the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) has been considered as the recompense for the fulfilling of the Mission by the messenger of Allah (a.s.). Allah says, (Say: I do not ask of you any reward for it but love for my near relatives). Qur'an, 42:23. This love is the gate and the way to the contentment of Allah the Almighty, and without this love the house may only be entered from the back (wrong side). Allah says, (...and it is not righteousness that you enter the houses at their backs). Qur'an, 2:189.
Imam Ali (a.s.) is the gate of the Prophet's city of knowledge. The Prophet (a.s.) often said, "I am the town of knowledge and Ali is its gate". "Ali is with the truth and the Qur'an. He has divorced this worldly life thrice ..."
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However, the nation separated, disagreed, and divided, after the departure of the Prophet (a.s.), into different groups, sects, and creeds after it had been the best nation raised up for mankind.
The first reason behind this separation and disagreement belonged to the first companions who carried the banner of the Mission to deliver it to the next generations coming after them. They disagreed and separated after the departure of their prophet (a.s.). They fought and killed each other. They considered each other as unbelievers and were free from each other.
The next generations followed them in that and made the problem more complicated. They widened the circle of disagreement with new thoughts and strange theories they attached to the religion of Allah. Therefore, sects and creeds came
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Imam Ali (a.s.) did never compete for authority, nor did he strive for power, wealth, pleasures, desires, or lusts, but his great soul struggled to build the religion and firm its pillars. He said, "By Allah, if the Arabs and foreigners gathered together against me, I would not run away." His strike against Amr ibn Abd Wudd that equaled the worship of men and the jinn, his plucking out of the gate of Khavbar...etc. were just a drop in the sea of his achievements. Allah the Almighty had supported His messenger (a.s.) by Ali (a.s.). (Refer to Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 11 p. 173). The same is mentioned in Thakha'ir al-Uqba and Kanzol Ummal). We see him weep for a Jewish woman who had resorted to Islam when been wronged by some man. He said, "I was informed that a man from you broke into (the house of) a Muslim woman and another covenanted one whom he plundered her necklaces, jewels, and adornments and she could not defend herself except by sighing and seeking Allah's mercy." (Refer to Nahjol Balagha, by Subhi as-Salih, p. 69.) He often said, "It is my soul that I tame with piety." He said, "Ah, for the lack of provision (good deeds and means for the afterlife), farness of the journey, and the loneliness of the way!" (Nahjol Balagha, by Subhi as-Salih, p. 480).
The great man of letters George Jerdaq loved him too much and wrote on him the best of his works. One of the popes composed poetry on him. Ibn Abil Hadeed loved and wrote on him. So did Muhammad Abdu, Subhi asSalih, and the author of this book. Peace be on Ameerul Mo'minin, the highest example for mujahidin!
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out and different groups disputed and fought each other. Muslims became confused in darkness that they did not know where to go and where the truth was, for every group claimed they kept to the Qur'an and the Sunna, every creed claimed the following of the Prophet's line, and every party was pleased with what it had.
If we leave aside our emotions, give up blind imitation, turn our backs to fanaticism, look at things with the eye of insight, and ask: where is the position of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) among all these sects and creeds? This is especially when we face the Prophet's traditions that order the nation to refer to the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) in all religious and worldly affairs to assure guidance and protection from deviation. These traditions are true and reliable to all sects of Muslims. One of these traditions is the tradition of Thaqalayn where the Prophet (a.s.) said:
I have left among you the Two Weighty Things; the Book of Allah and my progeny, my family. If you keep to them, you shall never go astray after me at all. I recommend you to obey Allah through obeying my family.
He repeated this three times.
One, who studies the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and their position to the nation today, does not find but respect and reverence to them among all Muslims, but the will of the messenger of Allah (a.s.) was not limited to respect and reverence to the Ahlul Bavt (a.s.). He ordered the nation to obey, follow, and imitate them in everything. He said:
Do not precede them lest you perish, do not lag behind them lest you perish, and do not teach them, because they are more knowledgeable than you.
If it is so, we do not find, today, except one group that does according to the will of the messenger of Allah (a.s.) and keeps to the line of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) since the time of Imam Ali (a.s.) until today. This group was called "Shi'atu (followers of) Ali" at the time of Imam Ali (a.s.), and later on, every one who followed
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Imam Ali (a.s.) and the infallible imams of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.), was called Shia (or Shiite).
If we look at the history and leaf what historians have recorded, we find that the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) were wronged, kept away from the stage of the public life, and were fought by the rulers and governments that ruled over Muslims during the first three centuries of Islam.
In fact, those rulers were successful in separating the nation from its real leadership, and keeping it away from the true path. However, they could not succeed in taking out the love and reverence from the hearts of Muslims towards the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.). In spite of the abusing and cursing announced from above the minbars and the forcing of Muslims by all kinds of force, those rulers failed to extract the love of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) from the hearts of the faithful.
Due to that, we justify the contradiction we find today in most of Muslims that they love the Ahlul Bavt (a.s.) and acknowledge their superiority in virtues and knowledge, but nevertheless, they imitate other than them and refer in their rulings and legislations to imams who neither saw nor lived at the time of the messenger of Allah (a.s.), but they were born after the Great Sedition that distorted the religion, did away with the righteous, and left the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and their followers discarded and isolated.
The infallible Imams of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) remained unknown by most of Muslims whom if you ask about "the Ahlul Bayt", they shall say that they are the wives of the Prophet (a.s.).
It is naturally that when the Prophet (a.s.) ordered his nation to refer to his progeny, he did not mean his wives, but the twelve imams about whom he said:
The caliphs after me are twelve ones; all of them are from Quraysh.
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And it is well known for all scholars and researchers that the Infallible Imams (a.s.) tried their best and on every possible occasion to introduce themselves to people so that people might come back to them, but:
People are slaves to this worldly life, and religion is just a pretense on their tongues. They claim it as long as they are at ease, and when they are tried with affliction, the faithful become very few.
Therefore, Imam as-Sadiq (a.s.) said, when reciting this verse:
And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, and then continues to follow the right path: 1
And then follows the right path of our guardianship, we the Ahlul Bayt.
It may be understood from this holy verse too that it is not enough for the Muslims, who truly believe in Allah and His messenger, repent of their sins, do good deeds, and give up bad deeds, to deserve the forgiveness of Allah the Almighty, except when they are guided to the infallible imams who are the successors of the messenger of Allah (a.s.), for they (the imams) alone are the ones who teach Muslims the real meanings of the Qur'an and the Sunna. Thus, Muslims' faith, deeds, and repentance would be according to what Allah had imposed on them with no misinterpretation or distortion.
Since misinterpretation took place in the Holy Qur'an and distortion in the Prophetic Sunna, and since every sect relied on a proof misinterpreted from the Qur'an and argued on untrue traditions considered true by them, so disagreement, confusion, and many doubts came out.
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1 Qur'an, 20:82.
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Therefore, if a Muslim wants to know the truth, be protected from going astray, delivered on the Day of Resurrection, and to win the Paradise and the contentment of Allah, he has not but to ride on the Ship of Deliverance and turn to the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.), because they are the security for this ummah where Allah will not accept (the deeds of) a servant except through their way, and no one shall enter (the Paradise) except from their gate. This is actually what the Prophet (a.s.) ordered the ummah to do due to the command of Allah the Almighty.
If we review the disagreement of the companions after the Prophet (a.s.), we shall find that they disagreed for the sake of caliphate and authority over the ummah, and every disagreement that came out after that was because of the caliphate. If unqualified people assume the rule and high posts, they certainly shall lead the nation to deviation because of their ignorance, selfishness, and personal desires.
Today, as the Islamic caliphate has gone to the unknown and there is nothing that may make it come back, then would Muslims return to their reasons to observe the commands of their prophet, follow the Book of their Lord, and follow the progeny of their prophet in order to restore fraternity, concord, and peace in order to make the ummah reunite and recover from its disagreement and separation? This is a cry from a pitiful, compassionate brother!
We have known from the previous discussion that guidance is a great blessing, which Allah has bestowed on His servants, and known too that being guided to the guardianship of the Ahlul 4 Bavt (a.s.) and following them is a greater blessing that deserves the forgiveness of Allah the Almighty for His sinful servants.' Then, how would jihad (strive) be for remaining fixed in this path?
Jihad in Islam is in two kinds; the jihad against enemy, which is called "the minor jihad", and the jihad against one's self (desires, fancies, and lusts) which is called "the major jihad".
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What concerns us in this subject is "the major jihad" which concerns the soul to treat it against perverse doctrinal diseases. One time, man is in jihad against himself and another time in jihad against others. The jihad against oneself is accomplished by doing good deeds, being righteous, accompanying good people, offering worships, and being truthful in dealing with people according to what the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) have determined by narrating from their grandfather (a.s.) who has received it from Allah the Almighty.
As for the jihad against others, it is accomplished by the enjoining of good, forbidding from the wrong, and inviting for the way of Allah through wisdom and good exhortation. Such kind of jihad can be accomplished through speaking one time and through the pen another time. This kind of jihad is better and greater near Allah than the jihad by the sword. The messenger of Allah (a.s.) said:
The ink of scholars is better near Allah than the blood of martyrs.
What scholars write to show and support the truth and explain different affairs for people to be guided to the right path of Allah through irrefutable arguments and convincing proofs is better near Allah than the blood of martyrs, although the blood of martyrs is holy and highly sanctified in Islam. On the other side, we find that some people struggle to impose the religion by force and coercion, where Allah says:
There is no compulsion in religion; truly, the right way has become clearly distinct from error. 1
Therefore, scholars and thinkers must try their best to spread the true Islam,
2 to introduce the imams of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and
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1 Qur'an, 2:256.
2 From the situations that the ulama and jurisprudents face is the trial they are tried with, and here, the advantages of Major Jihad, the struggling against one's self , and suppressing it shall appear clearly!
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their sciences, and spend from their monies and times. How many circles of disbelief, atheism, and corruption there are that are financed with milliards of dollars, whereas wealthy Muslims do not spend in the way of Allah except very scanty amounts!
We see that unbelievers come to Somalia under the pretense of saving its people from famine, whereas their brothers in religion are inadvertent to them.
We have seen the activities of the Christian Missionaries in the west and east of Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, and other
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Sheikh Murtadha al-Ansari was a religious authority and one of the ulama who had been educated in the school of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.). One night, one of his students saw in his sleep Iblis holding in his hands threads, ropes, and iron chains. When he asked him about that, Iblis replied, "These are traps by which I attract people to me. Last night, I tried all these tools against Sheikh al-Ansari, but I failed, and in the end, the thick iron chain was broken." When this student woke up, he hastened to the house of his teacher Sheikh al-Ansari and told him what he saw. After much insistence, the Sheikh said, "Last night, my wife was in parturition. My self enticed me to take from the monies of khums and zakat with me to hire a midwife, but I often and often resisted my self, and so on, until my wife gave birth to her child by herself. Then, I praised Allah too much."
On the other side, we see those who gave a fatwa on the killing of Imam alHusayn ibn Ali (a.s.) by saying, "Al-Husayn was killed by the sword of his grandfather (the Prophet Muhammad), because he rebelled against the imam of his time". This was the statement of Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi alAndalusi in his book al-Awasim, p. 232, verified by Muhyiddeen alKhateeb!
When Harun ar-Rasheed became the caliph, he was very fond of one of his father's bondmaids. He tried to sleep with her, but she said to him, "I am not fit for you, because your father has slept with me." However, he was very fond of her. He sent for his famous judge Abu Yousuf who was called as "the jurisprudent of the earth and its judge". The judge replied to the caliph, saving, "Violate the inviolability of your father and satisfy your lust, and make it (the responsibility of sin) in my neck." Refer to Tarikh al-Khulafa by as-Sayooti, p. 291.
Like ar-Rasheed, Abu Yousuf, and these stories there were many many rulers, royal court preachers, drinking companions, officials...etc.
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Muslim countries. They offer to people there little foods and drugs that affect their hearts and they convert Christians after having been Muslims. Nonetheless, wealthy Muslims, whom Allah has endowed from His bounty and made as His deputies in the earth to serve His people, are indifferent to everything. These wealthy people may go to the hajj twenty times and spend much monies every year, whereas in their neighboring there are many hungry, destitute sufferers who find no one to offer them a bite of food to satisfy their empty stomachs, or a piece of cloth to cover their naked bodies.
Did the messenger of Allah (a.s.) not say, "The nearest of you to Allah is the most useful of you to His servants"?
Would Allah accept this doing (every-year-hajj), which He has imposed on people one time (as obligation) throughout their lives? The messenger of Allah (a.s.) performed the hajj one time in all his life that he might want to makes us feel that the wealthy people of this ummah may exaggerate in worships and ignore dealing (social communication and association) which is the basis of the Sharia. Therefore, the Prophet (a.s.) often said:
Certainly, the religion is (human) dealing.
So, how about one, who performs the hajj many times while he is in debt to people, or that some of his relatives are poor whom he does not help or feel pity for?
If we add to that the wasting and prodigality of smoking among Muslims, then the punishment shall be severe near Allah on the Day of Punishment. If we look with a general view at what is spent on smoking by Muslims, we shall be surprised by the statistics. For example, the number of Muslims in the world today is more than one milliard that if only one fifth of them smoke, then there shall be two hundred million smokers who spend two hundred million dollars a day, six milliard dollars a month, and seventy-two milliard dollars a year. Yes, Muslims spend seventy-two milliard dollars a year at least to buy fatal diseases!
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0 Muslims, fear Allah as to your selves and properties! If these monies of only ten years are collected, they shall be 720 milliard dollars, which shall suffice all poor Muslims in every spot of the earth:
And you deemed it trifle, while with Allah it is great.
In the. end, I would like to attract the attention of my Shia brothers, who follow the school of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.), towards the following points:
1. They have to argue with their Sunni brothers in the best manner and to avoid abusing and revilement, which cause alienation. Imam Ali (a.s.) said:
Do not be abusers or cursers, but you say: 'they did so and so', and this is more effective in argument.
2. They have to avoid in their worships and dealings all the heresies that were not available at the time of the Prophet (a.s.) or the time of the infallible imams (a.s.), such as beating oneself with injurious tools until bleeding in Asura, that make others keep away from embracing the creed of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.). Imam as-Sadiq (a.s.) said:
Be propagandists for us by your deeds not your sayings! Be a source of praise to us and not a source of dispraise against us!
3. They have to pay much attention in their lectures and discussions to scientific matters that have proofs and evidences in the reliable books of the Sunni themselves. They have to avoid weak traditions that provoke disputes and disagree with reason.
4. They have to try their best to be good, pious, and righteous as their infallible imams (a.s.) were. They have not to rely on the belief that Imam Ali (a.s.) would intercede for his followers and adherents. Imam Ali (a.s.) himself said:
Faith is not obtained by wishing or adorning, but faith is that which is fixed in the heart and proved by sayings and doings.
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5. They have to take lessons from the lives of the infallible imams (a.s.) who have left incomparable treasures of knowledge and morals. For example, Nahjol Balagha alone is a curative drug for all diseases. It is the time for shaking off ignorance and underdevelopment, and taking the nation to the high meanings of civilization and development. So, if the imam of the Shia was the gate of the city of knowledge, then his followers must be the first in all sciences.
6. The Shia have to unite and avoid all kinds of political partisanship and regional blocs, and strive to unite the religious authorities and obey them, and after that strive to unite all Muslims.
If the Shia follow these instructions, which I have taken from the Holy Qur'an, the Prophetic Sunna, and the school of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.), security and peace shall prevail everywhere. If we change the bad beliefs, ignorance, and deviations inside our inners, Allah will change our poverty and meanness into richness and glory, and make Imam al-Mahdi (a.s.) reappear to us to fill the earth with justice and fairness after it has been filled with injustice and oppression.
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THE SHIA ARE THE FOLLOWERS
OF THE SUNNA, BUT ...
We have known from the previous discussions that the Twelver Shia are the true followers of the Prophetic Sunna. This is a clear fact free from any doubt for whoever studies the teachings of Islam in all its beliefs, rulings, and historical stages.
However, their enemies from "the Sunni", whose origin and goals we have known in the previous studies, defame the Shia, criticize their beliefs and deeds, evoke suspicions against them, doubt their religion, and sometimes fabricate false stories to defame and cause them troubles, and make others detest and despise them.
One of these fabrications is the claim that (the Shia believe that) Gabriel has betrayed the Trust and delivered the Mission to Muhammad instead of Ali. The second one is the unreal story of Abdullah ibn Saba' the Jewish as the founder of Shiism. A third one is that the Shia have a special Qur'an called "Musshaf Fatima" other than the Qur'an available among all Muslims, or that the Shia prepare a horse every night at the door of the vault in Samarra' (in Iraq) waiting for al-Mandi to ride that horse. They also claim that the Shia worship the graves and consider the imams as gods, and they prostrate for stones. The worse of it is their claim that the Shia permit adultery and that they (more than one) sleep with the same woman in the same night. They fabricate many other lies against the Shia with no any bit of reality or evidence.
Anyhow, there are some objections that the Sunni put forth in our present time and make them as obstacles in the way of scientific researching, and then block the way to arrive at the
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sought truth. Such people, when showing such spurious arguments, which we shall discuss later on, have never read them in books or heard them from traditionists, but they swear that they have seen them with their own eves and attended them themselves. Therefore, this matter is too dangerous and serious and it may have a negative effect on the scholars and researchers who seek the pure truth.
As we have accustomed readers to the seeking of the truth and being neutral with no any fanaticism to any creed or sect, following the Prophetic tradition that says, "Say the truth even if it is against yourself", and because that Allah the Almighty does not feel shy of the truth, so we must have a clear situation in this concern to say to the good doers of the Shia that they have done well and to the wrong doers of them that they have done wrong and sinned. We do not fear, in that, the blaming of any blamers, for we just seek the contentment of Allah the Almighty.
We must distinguish the fundamentals of Islam and that which is really in the Sharia from traditionals, habits, and personal conclusions. And as we have been frank and daring in criticizing some companions of the Prophet (a.s.) for the violations they had committed, we also have to criticize some Shia and not to keep silent before their violations. However, there is an important difference here. What the companions changed and invented became parts of the religion, which changed the rulings of Allah and His messenger, but what some of the Shia changed or invented did not change any divine rulings, nor did any one of them say it was obligatory; nevertheless, we must criticize it.
I shall discuss the most important points raised about these new invented things (heresies) through which some others criticize and try to falsify Shiism and ascribe to it different kinds of defects. Dear reader, you yourself may suffer them and not find a satisfying answer by which You face an opponent or convince yourself.
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These new things, in fact, are heresies fabricated against Shiism and Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) who always refused and refuted every heresy whatever it was and whatever adorned and called "a good heresy". They, peace be on them, often and always declared that they_ did not say or do except according to the sayings and doings of their grandfather the messenger of Allah (a.s.). Thus, every thing that came out after the infallible imams (a.s.) are heresies that harm and not benefit, alienate and not attract, complicate and not make it easy, where the learned youth find in them a defect in Shiism and may find it very difficult to justify or refute them.
We mention here, for example, some of those heresies, which the Sunni criticize the Shia for: the exaggeration in the rituals of consolation in Asura where some people beat themselves with chains, daggers, and knives until they bleed, the disorder in offering the prayer and the indifference to other praying people, smoking in mosques and places of prayer, neglecting the Friday Prayer, and some other things that we shall mention later on which prevent many people from getting to the truth.
