Introduction

فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي 

الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

And it does not beseem the believers that they should go forth all together; why should not then a company from every party from among them go forth that they may apply themselves to obtain understanding in religion, and that they may warn their people when they come back to them that they may be cautious?  (Surah Tauba – 122)

Best person is the one who takes advantage of the opportunities that come in his way. If you ask an unsuccessful person the causes behind his failure, than one major reason that gets revealed is wasting of opportunity irrespective of that opportunity being social or individual. The reason behind lowliness of downtrodden communities and societies is that they have wasted opportunities. If a person fails in the field of education than the cause is that he has wasted the opportunity to educate himself. There are individuals who do not pay any attention to studies throughout the year but on the night before examinations they expect some miracles to happen. These are the people who are unsuccessful because they have wasted the opportunity to learn. If you take the field of business; those who got bankrupt if you ask them, they will say they did not capitalize on the opportunities that came their way. When they had business opportunity they were indulged in spiritual acts and when spiritual opportunities came, they were busy with business. Hence they failed in both.

As regards to the worth and value of these opportunities (Taufeeq) Imam (a.s) says that the best person is the one who seeks opportunities from Allah and takes benefits of opportunities that come on his way. It is our habit that we seek many opportunities from Allah day and night. But there is a Hadith from Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) that;a person who asks for opportunity from Allah and gets it but fails to act upon it has made a mockery of himself.

Taufeeq (opportunity)

Opportunity (Taufeeq) is the availability of those means and conditions that are required to reach a certain purpose. If you say an “Education Opportunity” than it means availability of a good Educational institute present and within it there are good teachers, good educational facilities, good books for education and along with that good health and intellect. If all these things are present and still a person sits and supplicates for Taufeeq; it will not make any sense. Allah (s) grants opportunity to everyone but those who capitalize on the initial opportunities Allah grants further opportunities only to them. At present those who are possessors of big opportunities are not those who got such big opportunities on the very first day; they were granted small opportunities initially and they used it properly, went through the examination successfully and Allah gave them bigger opportunities and eventually leading to greatest of all opportunities. 

The Islamic Revolution of Iran which we consider as a miracle and as such can be considered as a human miracle was an outcome of Taufeeq (opportunities) which Allah gave to this nation and it made of use it and gradually this went to the extent that they got the opportunity to establish the System of Wilayat. Since century’s people desired for the establishment of this system but they only desired; today after centuries the desires of believers and specifically of Imam eZamana (a.t.f.s) got fulfilled by the hands of a nation who was given this Taufeeq from Allah (s.w.t).  Another example of these opportunities which we will discuss later is about the youths of Hezbollah on how they have reached this great position of dignity and honor. They did not have this status by just sitting at home. It was not that they got this Taufeeq on the first day; they first got the Taufeeq to learn and understand religion and when they made use of this then Allah blessed them with greater opportunities.

The Consequence Of Not Utilizing Taufeeq

When man does not utilize the divine opportunity in the first stage itself Allah stops subsequent opportunities because this person does not appreciates and is not worthy of being given opportunities hence Allah says let me give something else; something which just keeps him busy and excited. Allah gives him means of sports and entertainment to keep him busy since he is not worthy of divinity. Thus the general Taufeeq which comes in the month of Ramadan, Shaban, Hajj and other religious occasions are to learn religion and that would become the basis of another big opportunity. If we by the will of Allah appreciate its worth than Allah will bless us with subsequent opportunity in the next step as well. And a day will come when every group of believers in different parts of the world would be able to deliver the same marvelous act in their specific region and thus would also become honored and dignified like the youths of Hezbollah.

Group That Learns Religion

         فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

And it does not beseem the believers that they should go forth all together; why should not then a company from every party from among them go forth that they may apply themselves to obtain understanding in religion, and that they may warn their people when they come back to them that they may be cautious?(Surah Tauba – 122)

This verse of Surah Tauba has been the basis on which the seminary in Qom is established which is center of Islamic education today. We do not realize the significance of Qom but Ahlulbayt (a.s) have expressed that Qom is their Haram (sacred residence).

As regards to this verse; at the time of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) Muslims were few in numbers and hence for any activity everyone would get involved. For constructing Masjid-e-Nabawi all young and old were involved; if it was the season for gathering dates everyone would rush to the palm groves to bring dates. The Holy Quran provided a beautiful formula for the Muslims in this verse. The knowledge which Allah has provided will not remain confined to Medina; it will spread across the world and till theDay of Judgment Islam will remain hence Quran presented a universal formula to organize your activities. It should not be that when something comes up everyone gets up at the same time to do it. Like when some religious issue comes, everyone comes out on the street, but when there is no issue everyone is sitting at home waiting for some issue to come up. Like till the time Islam is not insulted we do not react or do something; we are waiting for Islam to be insulted than we start to act. Is it not our responsibility when such Satanic elements are born who do such brutal defamation of Islam we should be prepared in a way that these Satanic elements do not have the courage to do such things? For this reason Quran has presented a formula that everyone should not get indulged in everything at the same time. There are many things which are required to be done simultaneously; but for this a specific method is required which Quran is presenting to us.

One of the significant things is Recognition of Religion that is to understand our religion which Quran refers to as لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ(deep understanding of religion). There should not be a single person who has not understood religion and hence it is every individual’s responsibility to understand religion. The method for this was that the Prophets were aroused by Allah (s) in this world for teaching religion to people. But the Prophets were sent to certain areas and they would hardly visit other places, and it was not possible also to visit each and every town. Even those places where people with faith were present the Prophets would hardly visit like the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) was based in Medina, though he would travel sometimes. This is a general norm that a person finds a central location and others refer to him. People are busy with their daily chores of life and as indicated before when the time for farming would come, everyone would go for farming. If it was the time for Jihad everyone would go out for fighting.  People would get involved in such activities all together and one important thing they forget is Recognition of religion. Hence Quran says let not everyone go out for Jihad, let some stay back , understand religion and then teach others; similarly some other groups should do other things.

Selfishness In Understanding Religion

Understanding religion does not mean that someone understands religion for his self, practices the laws of religionand does some righteous acts and then takes a ticket to go to Paradise. He then tells Allah that this was my activity, I have done good work and now I have come to take Paradise from you. Such kind of persons will be turned back because Paradise is not for selfish people.  For example if people are travelling by Bus and the Bus goes defective; now there is one rich person inside who takes a private special taxi and reaches the destination. After reaching the destination he says that see how clever I was when the bus failed I took a private taxi and came here. Will such a person be rewarded for his cleverness or will people call him a selfish person that he left all other companions mid-way in the forest and just took care of himself.  People will consider him as a useless person because a responsibleperson is one who has money and all resources but still he does not leaves the trapped person midway. Even people are telling him you can go but he says that till the time my companions also do not reach I will not reach the destination. This is what is meant by recognition of religion;it is not that we memorize certain things that too persuasively, act upon those and in return for that we have to take admission in Paradise.

Responsibility - The Essence In Recognition Of Religion

The journey of religion is like this only whereby everyone has been assigned a responsibility. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) says that everyone amongst you is responsible. Responsible person does not mean an officer but a responsible person is one to whom a task is given, than he is questioned whether you did this or not and if you did this, than what did you do. A responsible person means one who is accountable and questionable. Hence we all are responsible for certain responsibilities that have been placed upon us and we will be asked about these. Who will ask? Not the Angels but instead the essence of Allah (s.w.t) himself will ask us about our responsibilities.

KULLOKUM RAE WA KULLOKUM MASOOL

One of the Misdaq (objective reference) ofRae is a Shepherd in whose custody there are some animals who cannot go here and there. The role of Shepherd is to take care of herd, take them out for grazing etc. The Rae of beasts is the one who is aware about the issues of animals. Allah (s.w.t) has made Human being as Rae (Shepherds) for certain affairs. The Prophets have been made as the Shepherd for human beings and they will also be questioned about the Ummah which was given to them. And similarly within religion everyone is a Rae (responsible) and there is no difference kept that it is only the Scholars who are responsible and non-scholars are not; educated people are responsible and illiterate are not; elderly persons are responsible and youths are not. The word used is “Kullokum” means each and every one; men, women, old, young; which means everyone amongst you is responsible. Allah has made a circle and kept responsibilities inside it for everyone and everyone will be questioned about these responsibilities and you should be prepared to answer this. Did you deliver that responsibility?

The meaning and essence of Recognition of religion is this only that man should understand his responsibilities. At present the religion which is prevailing is giving certifications; it teaches English, Persian, French languages; it teaches you secular sciences and medical science but only thing that is not told is what is your responsibility and what you have to do.  Religion means to study it so that Religion tells me what is my responsibility; I am a Rae(aresponsible person) and some responsibilities have come across my way for which I am accountable in the presence of Allah (s.w.t) and no excuses will be accepted.  If you will reply to Allah (s.w.t) that I knew my responsibility but did not deliveryou will get one stick on your head; but if you reply that I was not even aware about my responsibilities than you will get two sticks on your head; one for not delivering and second for not knowing your responsibilities. Like if you do not come in the lecture on time and you present an excuse that I slept and no one woke me up, you will be forgiven but there such excuses will not work. First you will be punished for not delivering your responsibilities and then you will be punished for not being aware about your responsibilities.

For making us aware about our responsibilities Allah (s.w.t) had made arrangements that we should know, learn but still we remained ignorant. Allah (s.w.t) will say on the day of Qayamatthat we made so many scholars, so many books were written; we got a big Islamic revolution so that you should know and now you are replying us that you were not aware. All these were meant for this purpose that you should learn everything; hence this excuse will not be accepted that we were ignorant.

To understand your responsibility and then delivering it; and imparting the religious sense that you have acquired to others amongst you is the actual purpose behind this verse of the holy Quran. The verse is telling the same that a group of people should first go out to become aware of their responsibilities and then return to their areas to make others aware about the responsibilities. For us the definition of area is also a problem; for us areas mean feudal lords, Syed’s, tribes, communities, etc. This is communism which is not accepted by Allah (s.w.t); community means everyone around you irrespective of what faith, school, and religion they possess it is your duty to make them aware.

وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

It means to return and inform your society. Thus for this work everyone could not go to learning centers. And this is more difficult for this group who gets informed about their responsibilities and they have to now awaken others. Imagine a group of believers are awake in the month of Ramadan for a whole long night; and when the time for Sahar is coming near, they are all dozing. Amongst this one person is Imam eJamaat; who has the responsibility to keep himself awake and also awaken others. How difficult it is for him? There are many things which we consider as very difficult which are not big difficulties (like arranging halal meat in Western countries, people consider this as Jihad-e-Akbar) but the most difficult thing is to remain awakened and awaken others.

If this work gets delivered than you have delivered your responsibility because once you have awakened people they find their way. Awakened people find their ways but those who are sleeping they are ignorant. Awakened communities can see their purpose and leader; they become aware about their responsibilities and develop the sense of delivering responsibilities but those who are sleeping in negligence they are not aware of anything. Today look at the situation across the globe, specifically in the Islamic world and also look around your local issues. If I ask few of you to come here and present your local issues, you will recite painful elegies about the issues and it is true that today the world is going through crisis. There is a crisis running across the Islamic world and to get communities out of this crisis Allah (s.w.t) selects few individuals.

Who Has Given You Taufeeq To Learn Religion?

Today some of you visit religious intellectual gatherings or you are reading this book now or some study Quran in the Holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fasting and fasting makes you feel fatigued and in this state some struggle to learn religion. A thought provoking question is that amongst hundreds and thousands of people in your society few are in pursuit of understanding religion; so who has brought you towards the understanding of religion? If you ask every individual, they got the information from some friend, from someone and then they attended, listened to some lecture or read some book. It is not that you just got inclined towards religion on your known. When someone comes in pursuit of seeking religious knowledge, that too when we are going to talk about Recognition of Religion which makes us responsible than it is definitely that Allah has selected you to come here. But this selection does not mean Allah has selected us for the purpose; it does not mean that we have accomplished our duties. After being selected for a task, the next stage is that you have to go through tests and examinations and only those who pass through the tests they go to the next level.  Some people think that they have been selected for Paradise, Allah has made them for Paradise only just like the Jews used to say but Quran came and challenged their sincerity.

Hence all opportunities are from Allah and we should not give ourselves the credit for this. Allah has desired us to come over here and we are here. Qaroon in the vision of Quran was an undisciplined person. We don’t know how much wealth he had, but as the Quran says that the keys of his wealth storage would be carried by many people. When he was asked from where did you earn all this and will you use it for some good purpose; he replied.

إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِنْدِي

This is the result of all my efforts, I have not robbed anyone.

Qaroon is not that person who has more wealth; Quran considers Qaroon as that person who gets opportunities (Taufeeq) from Allah but he thinks that it is all his efforts and all his earnings. If a Scholar who is highly knowledgeable is questioned from where did you acquire this knowledge? He replies that this is the efforts of my burning of mid-night oil, I travelled by foot long distances to attend classes and I have acquired all this knowledge myself. This scholar is a Qaroon in the vision of Quran. If Allah gives some Taufeeq (opportunity) to someone and he says that this is the outcome of my efforts than he is Qaroon.  Allah (S) tells the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) that we have given you a lot.

أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَىٰ
وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدَىٰ
وَوَجَدَكَ عَائِلًا فَأَغْنَىٰ

O Prophet! We found you helpless and we provided help to you, we found you orphan and we made you the Messenger.  Your parents had passed away from this world and we became your guardian. So now what is your responsibility? One is that you should be generous towards others:

فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقْهَرْ

You also take care of orphans

وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ

These bounties which Allah has given you; you should mention about that to others and say that Allah has given you; instead if you say I have acquired this than this is Qaroon. Imam Khomeini (r.a) in his sermons never ever delivered the statement of Qaroon; he would say this Revolution has been brought by Allah not by me. Imam (r.a) never said that I have awakened the people; he said Allah has awakened the people. There was not a single instance when Imam (r.a)said that all this is an outcome of my efforts; he always said that whatever we have is from Allah (s.w.t). All these opportunities are from Allah (s.w.t) and today if we have the opportunity to learn religion as a responsibility and make it reach to others around us; then we should also remember that one who whom Allah (s.w.t) selects for this role He will question him as well and also put him under tests and tribulations.

We should not waste opportunities and time; as we can see the result of not utilizing the opportunity. After nearly 40 years of Islamic revolution we can see our geographical areas where the call about the thoughts of Islamic Revolution came but no one listened to it. Today Lebanon is awakened but not Iraq. Why so? There are more Shias in Iraq than Lebanon, there is a thousand years old seminary in Iraq,and our big personalities have been from Iraq whereas in Lebanon there was never a center for Shia’s. The Personalities in Lebanon were the ones who have migrated from Iraq and went there.

This is because those things that are not done at the right time and when the right opportunities are present become very difficult to do later on. There is a right time for everything; like for recitation of Quran, understandingQuran the best time is the month of Ramadan.  To get married there is an age; you cannot wait for 60 yrs. of age to get married; the time is gone.  Acquisition of knowledge also has an age, like 30 yrs. after which the desire and capabilities to learn reduces. It is not that he cannot acquire knowledge now, but now he is driving in 1^st gear rather than the 4^th gear which means it becomes tough, he has to put more energy now.  We have got the expertise of wasting time due to which religiously we are standing at the jaws of destruction. 

If we would have awakened ourselves at the onset of Islamic Revolution  and recognized the pure religion as presented by this revolution than after nearly 40 years it would not have been so tough today to start with the basics of Pure Religion.Today we have to teach and argue on subjects like why Imam Khomeini (r.a) is given title of Imam? Why Wilayat and Wilayat e Faqeeh is discussed? Today to talk about the sufferings of Muslims across the world is difficult because we consider this as politics and religion is separate from politics whereas the basis of the religion which Imam (r.a) presented was a socio political religion. Today talking about socio political religion and Wilayat-e Faqeeh creates astonishment, opposition and controversies, whereas the basis of religion is Wilayat and Wilayat-e-Faqeeh is the system dictated to us by our Infallible Imams (a.t.f.s).  Who are astonished? Who are opposing? Not ignorant people but those who are religious and even scholars get astonished that what is being spoken.  We wasted a lot of time in attacking other schools, in sectarianism and have forsaken our pure religion which was manifested by the Islamic Revolution.

This is the instruction from Allah and teachings of the infallibles that we should consider the opportunities as a wealth.  It means if we lose the opportunities than it will never return to us. This is a significant point not to waste opportunities.

Role Of Etiquettes (Adab) In Fruitfulness Of Acts

We have to learn religion and that too the true face of religion and its specialties which is the biggest need of this era and as such has been a need for all era.  This is greatest of all needs of human being which is very less fulfilled and those who fulfill this are also very few. We have to understand this need and spread it further. But to do this there are certain conditions that need to be followed and these conditions are to maintain etiquettes. Like Salaat is the name of connection with Allah but for this there are conditions of purity of body, dress, ablution and some other etiquette. Etiquettes turn an act fruitful and if etiquettes are ignored than all acts becomes fruitless. A farmer can only cultivate the crops when he meets the desired etiquettes of cultivation. If he just places the seed in the earth and goes away he will starve to death. Allah says to grow the crops is my responsibility but I will only grow when you deliver your etiquettes. You have to plough the farm, prepare the ground, cut the wild bushes, give water, fertilizer, plant the seed; all these are the etiquettes which you have to deliver and then Allah will fulfill his promise and give you the crops as a gift from Allah. There are etiquettes of cooking as to how much spices you have to add, what nutrition should be there in it and if the food is cooked as per etiquettes than it gives the benefits.

Placing a child in a school is not knowledge; the child should have book, pen, teacher and lectures; these are the etiquettes which if you fulfill Allah says giving knowledge is my duty. And Allah delivers his duty perfect because there is no one else who can deliver his duties as perfectly as Allah does. It is we who are not delivering the etiquettes of work but still Allah has given us so much; if we would have fulfilled the etiquettes and become disciplined than there will be no shortfall in the bounties of Allah.

Thus other second point in recognizing religion is about Etiquettes (Adab); which means every act has its etiquettes and that act which is performed with its etiquettes gives results else we waste our entire life doing things without any results.  Maulana Room supplicates to Allah (s) that:AzKhudaKhwahamTaufeeq Adab

The only thing I desire from Allah are etiquettes. O Allah! Give me etiquettes in everything. Today this world which is burning is due to indiscipline persons, those who do not possess any etiquette. Bush, Obama, Trump are names of persons without any etiquette. These people do not have any human etiquette inside them and hence have made the world a hell for everyone. This is what we should be asking Allah to teach us through his religion the etiquettes for every act which means the ways of doing things in a beautified manner and if every act has etiquette than if you combine all acts we perform than it means to start a life of etiquettes.

Conventionally in our culture a person with etiquettes is one who wears Suit and tie, speaks English and we consider him as civilized. A civilized person is one who has such etiquettes and weconsider such persons around us as possessor of etiquettes. In a journey which I was doing in a bus where all were Non-Muslims; there was an old lady sitting nearby. She had cold and was sneezing; the moment she would sneeze; she kept a tissue paper on her nose and she would say Sorry to everyone. And since the sneezing was occurring repeatedly, she stood up and went on the last seat and sat so others are not disturbed. She is a non-Muslim but still has the etiquettes and manners inside her. Whereas when we sneeze, after the fluid spills over everyone than we will say Alhamdulillah loudly. 

If we acquire these etiquettes than very soon we will have the pleasure and grace of guidance from Allah because Allah loves those who possess etiquettes.  We do not possess etiquettes now but still Allah has given so much to us; if we acquire etiquettes than how many doors of mercy Allah will open on us.  All these opportunities which Allah sends towards us, like the month of Ramadan, visits to Kaaba and places of pilgrimage are all the Noor from Allah which is pulling us towards him; it is not that we are going towards him instead Allah is pulling us towards him.

Etiquettes And Intentions Change A Person

When Moosa was hungry and saw some light on the mountain, he went in pursuit of getting some food and ended up in an encounter with Allah. Moosa went to get food but came back after meeting with Allah. When he went on the mountain he had his staff with him whose purpose was to herd sheep but when he came down the same staff had become miraculous. Previously when Moosa would insert his hand in his pocket, it would come out empty but now when he puts his hand in his pocket the hand comes out enlightened.  When Moosa was coming down there was no need to ask Moosa did you find food or not because the style of Moosa when coming back was totally changed. And Allah gives this opportunity to everyone.  This light of Allah attracts everyone towards him but it depends with what intention people come towards him.

Someone goes to Hajj, Ziarat with the purpose that let me go and supplicate for getting a USA or European visa from Imam Raza (a.s) or to get promotion. It happens with many that they visit with such desires specifically to holy city of Qom and then they are blessedwith the actual Noor of Allah. This Ziarat becomes an excuse from Allah to make him something else.

Hence all these opportunities should change our entire existence. When Moosa approaches such opportunities, his hands, his staff, his style everything should change. Quran talks about Moosa’s hand being enlightened, so what about Moosa’s tongue, eyes, ears; were they not enlightened? In fact the entire existence of Moosa was enlightened. The Noor has entered the entire existence of Moosa; now when Moosa looks he looks with some other vision. That Moosa who went to the mountain to solve the problem of his wife (being hungry) now the same Moosa is solving the problem of Ummah.  And it was through this enlightened Moosa that Pharaoh was drowned and Taghoot was destroyed. The Enlightened hand (Yad-e-Baiza) shows its effects. Allah has invited everyone to his tryst (Meeqat) but the condition is that man should be prepared and man can only be prepared when he takes care of these etiquettes.

Hajj rituals are for few days but people from our subcontinent go for forty day so that they can do shopping.  The total period of Hajj is four days only but some go much before and some stay after.  The time spent before is in gatheringThawaab and time spent after is for shopping. Allah has invited us for four days and asked us to forget everything like business, home, family and friends and come to me. And in these four days what did Allah made us do? Move around this house of stones; man asks what is this? I was doing so much good work back home and you have asked me to come and take circles around this stone cubicle.  Than he says run between the two mountains. O Allah! What will happen with these circles and running around? Than the reply comes; again put on Ihram and go to a barren deserted land by the name Arafah wherethere is dry hot air and you just sit there for the entire day. And when the sun sets go to another desert by the name Muzdalifah and spend the night over there; which is a much tougher place. And when it is dawn get out of there and go to another valley by the name Mina, where there is a cement pillar on which you should hurl stones and then return from there to sacrifice a sheep. After this shave your head and sit in the same valley of Mina for three days and every day hurl stones on these cement pillars.

If man looks at the outward of these acts, he thinks that I was doing so many good things back home and now I have come here to do all these things which are not making sense to me at all. But he does not realizes that these four days can transform his forty years of life only if man understands the wisdom and philosophy behind these acts as to what I have to do in these four days. If you ponder over these four days there is a discipline in this whereby you have removed your stitched attire and put on a white unstitched cloth; everyone has to say Labbaik. This means you have to end your language and privileges and develop one identity. You all have to do one movement, move around one house, call one essence and all these acts are a test and samples of what you are expected to do in your life. Every act which a person performs in Hajj is symbolic which means there are some real things similar to these acts to be done. If a person goes for Hajj keeping this in mind (that I am asked to perform these symbolic acts so that I have to do real acts similar to this when I return) and then when he returns his life changes to the same as that of Moosa when he returned from Tur.

Allah (s.w.t) says I have not called you for Hajj to waste your time; we have invited you to change you; we have invited you as an ordinary person to transform you into a special being. We have called human being to make him enlightened.  Now, when the Hajj pilgrim returns it is recommended to go and meet him, why?  This is because we have enlightened him, so meet him and get some Noor from him. Now this is different what has he done even after going on Tur; like many of us have made firm intentions on what we have to do in Paradise. All what we have not done in this world we have plans to fulfill those desires in Paradise though all these plans will be foiled and we won’t be allowed to do those things. But the things which a person does not do at home he is asked to do when he visits the Holy Kaaba and that is to take care of etiquettes and discipline in an obligatory manner. 

Hence when these divine opportunities like Hajj, Ziarat and even month of Ramadanvisits us the first thing we have to do is developing etiquettes and amongst this is to be disciplined and organized. Then the next thing is to develop a change in ourselves. There has to be difference when we go on Tur and when we return; it should not be that from these divine opportunities I just received Thawaab and no change has come inside me.

One more opportunity which despite of we getting it do not even think about it which is related to Ziarat in Iran.We should visit Iran for the Ziarat of Imam Reza (a.s) and the holy shrine of Masooma Qom (s.a) and definitely these are highly enlightened places where a person should develop a change in him; just like visiting Karbala, Najaf, Medina and Syria. But there are also some other things in this nation which is nothing but a true ideal of how those who were acquainted with these shrines changed themselves. In every city of Iran there is a graveyard by the name Gulzaar-e-Shohada(The Garden of Martyrs). We never visit this place whereas though this is a graveyard but not of dead instead living beings. This is because the Quran says that never ever call the Martyrs of Islam as dead, they are alive. These graves of martyrs are lamps and lights that are showing us the direction. They are ones who went on Tur and returned as Moosa and now showing us the same path.

We have to visit this graveyard, stand in front of the graves of these martyrs and think why did they die? Everyone dies, life ends, some accident happens or sickness eventually leads to death; and eventually ordinary people land up in graveyard. Death comes after everyone and takes them to graveyard but for these martyrs it was not death that came after them it was they who went after death.  They went on their own feet towards death. They knewthat the place where they are going they will surely die and they intentionally went there to die; but this death was just the death of their body but not of their self. They gained more life after this death to the extent that they became the light for the life of others. These graves of the martyrs are the lights lit by Allah under which we can find the way towards Allah.

Why did these Martyrs of Islamic Revolution fight in the Iran Iraq war? It was no doubt that it was a war between Iran and Iraq; and someone might say they fought for their country.  Imam Khomeini (r.a) said that this war is not an Iran Iraq war and neither is this war for oil; this was a battle between Haqq (Truth) and Baatil (falsehood). Those who were attacking were Muslims, their supporters were Muslim and those attacked were also Muslims. The attack was not on Iran but it was an attack on the Islamic Revolution. This was because this attack was not done at the time of Shah; it was done immediately after the Islamic Revolution. This attack was not done by Iraq alone but by entire Arab world, western world and all the devil forces attacked this Noor which was lit up on this land by Allah. And this Noor was not a traditional religion that was aimed to be destroyed because this traditional religion was present in Iraq as well and those who were attacking were also religious. This religion which was present in entire Muslim world was not attacked but instead that religion was attacked which Imam Khomeini (r.a) termed as Islam-e-Naab-e-Mohammad (s.a.w.s) (Pure Islam of Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.s)) whose signs were also informed by Imam (r.a). That religion which is pure, correct and has no dust of mischiefs and innovations(Biddah) on it. This religion which was concealed since centuries and when it came forward everything possible was done to terminate it. These martyrs who defended this religion was not an ordinary religion; it was a religion whose one of the biggest signs was being a political religion. This religion is that of awakening, sense and has its special traits. And these martyrs fought for this religion and we have to visit their graves to learn as these are the best classrooms where we can learn the true religion.

Hence these opportunities which we get in our lives should enlighten our hearts with the Noor of Allah and the Noor of Allah gets manifested as Noor of Wilayat , which should strengthen in our hearts, and we should acquire the pleasure and proximity of Allah which is our purpose of life and may we get the right path and its signs from these opportunities so that when we come out of these opportunities we should be able nurture our own lives as well as the lives of others and fight those difficulties which are present in our society and community. The best person is the one who is doing something positive in the way of Allah but we should not develop an inferiority complex that where is he and where am I. We all have the capabilities and if Allah desires he can give salvation to entire humanity through an orphan child (Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s)). This should be our intention and this intention should become the center of Allah’s blessings and we come out successfully from this life which is a test.

Imam Sajjad (a.s) prays that O Allah! Whatever work you want to take from me, you take from me only; do not select anyone else for that work. But our efforts are always opposite that whatever Allah wants to take from me we want it to done by others. This is not correct thinking because there are certain things which Allah wants you to deliver, hence pray to Allah that may Allah take this work from me and those activities which Allah has planned to be taken from me, may Allah take from me only and he should not select someone else in my place. But for this we have to prove our eligibility as well and we can start to prove it with such invocations that I am prepared.

Categories Of Religious People

As mentioned earlier in context to the verse 122 of Surah Tauba it is proven that understanding religion is mandatory for everyone. And it is based on the level of understanding we have various groups or categories of religious people present in our society.

There is one category for whom entire religion is few cultural customs which could be customs of joy or sorrow. Like some Iranians think that the festival of Norouz which is celebrated by keeping seven things on the food mat starting with the Persian letter “s” is their complete religion. By celebrating this festival customs they think they have delivered the complete rights of religion. One cultural custom becomes a total and perfect religion for them. This cultural custom could be religious or non-religious; that is made by human being himself which becomes entire religion for this category. This group considers these customs only as religion and this group is present in both Muslims and non-Muslims. Such customs are present in both Hindu and Christian sects and they believe that by delivering these rituals they will achieve their purpose of creation which in religious terminology means union with Allah. Similar concept is present in Muslims as well whereby complete religion is squeezed into few cultural rituals and such groups are present amongst us.

There is a second category that has gone a step beyond cultural rituals which considers worship as total religion. The type of worships that has been shown to him; he is busy in practicing those and he is delivering the rights of these worships. These people do not leave anything when it comes to worships just like the ritualistic people who deliver the complete rights of rituals. Though in both rituals and worships there are people who show off but still there are people who do these with utmost sincerity. For these people religion is very small. Religion is as vast as a galaxy but within the galaxy there is a small planet and now a person considers this small planet as entire galaxy.

Now there are some people who along with worships include some welfare activities as well and think that the function of religion is delivered. They think that they are delivering the right of Allah (Huqooqallah) and also the rights of people (HuqooqulIbaad) and consider themselves on the pinnacle of religion.

The Limits Of Religion

Even if we consider these people as sincere in their intention still the limits of religion are much beyond this. It is not that we lack a scale to measure the limits of religion; just like to measure a country we have the scale of population and other things. For religion the scale is the life of human being.  You look at how far your life is spread and that will be the spread and vastness of religion. That part of human life is of waste which is outside the periphery of religion. Hence religion should extend itself only till the length of human life. If you put a table cloth on the table, the length of the cloth should be of the size of the table but if it goes beyond it, than that is extra length and waste. Thus Allah has made religion also appropriate to human life.

Now when we come towards human being we see that human being is also very narrow in the vision of many. Like those who have materialistic vision which means those who believe that there is nothing present beyond materialism. On the same lines they consider man also only as matter; that is body and nothing beyond it.  Hence man for them is not bigger than the body. Some said that we are born accidentally and we will die accidentally; thus man of such visions is very small confined between birth and death. Whereas Allah has created man very big which is narrated by a poem of Ameerul Momineen (a.s), whereby he says

Do you think that you are a small particle whereas Allah has created an entire universe inside you?

This means your expanse is like the universe whereas this materialistic thinking has made man very small.  The outcome of these thoughts which confines man in a body whose needs are only eating, drinking and pleasure was development of an ideology for man. In this Ideology man starts with birth and ends at death and within these two he has to strive to acquire the needs of living. And if you can successfully do this then you have done a great service to humanity. Than on top of these materialistic thoughts they have built a big building of western culture and civilization which is the child of these materialistic thoughts. This materialistic philosophy has presented incorrect picture of man and the western culture above this has denied the entire reality of man. This culture has bonded human being within desires only; thus you can see that materialistic culture is only associated with desires.

The industry that has come out as an outcome of this culture has only two things to do; one is to raise the desires of man and other part of the industry is developing things to fulfill these raised desires. Some has the function of raising desires and some are busy in providing means for fulfillment. Though in this culture also there are people present in individual capacity who think good about man, they think about religion and their self; hence we should not make such individuals as the reference for the society. We should keep in consideration the collective situation of society. From here we can assessour present society.

Exporting Cultures

Today if you also want to assess your society just see whether majority are sitting in libraries or somewhere else? This is the scale of assessing societies. Today there is a lot of noise about exporting this western culture across the globe and establishing one unified materialistic culture globally.

Imam Khomeini (r.a) has said that we will also export our revolution because it is the rights of human whereas they have also pledged to export this destructive culture. You can see yourself in your country who has been successful;one who has exported what? materialism inside their community. If we look at our homes, community, society we can see that they are successful in this matter. One reason is that they have done full-fledged work and second was that people also accepted this Ideology of materialism and cooperated with them. The reason for cooperation was because this culture is related to the desires of human being and desires are present inside every human being hence the addressee of these sermons were the desires. Thus the purpose over here was just to hint that in these thoughts man is very small confined to the limits of desires and lust though Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that why do you consider yourself as a small particle you have a complete universe inside you.

Man - In The Vision Of Religion

In the vision of religion man is not a small particle instead he is too vast. He has a body and a vast part is his soul. Man is not body; he is soul and this soul has its demands. We are all soul and body is small part of our existence.  Now if we come to the world of soul then it is not Sadhuism because in the name of spirituality many inappropriate things are spread in our society. It should not happen that we talk about soul and the minds go towards those who are spellboundJinns and spirits which are all illusions. The world of soul means our world which is present around us. If we take a gathering or a seminary whereby many people are sitting in a room. These people sitting in the room are not body instead they are souls and these souls have put on the dress of body just like body has worn the dress of cloth. What we are looking are the clothes with bodiesbelow it but still we do not say that at this time there are piles of clothes sitting in this room; if we say than it will be wrong.

We have to say that humanity is sitting in this room and rest all other things are need of humanity. The man of religion is very vast as compared to the man of matter which is very small. In the materialistic world the society is very big but the man is very small. A thinker has compared the ancient world and modern world. He says in the ancient world big personalities were born in small homes whereas in the modern world homes have become very big but small personalities are staying in them. In the past people had big thoughts but now we see there is no thinking but the materialistic means have gone up. The environment has progressed but man has gone backwards instead of progressing. In the past man would ride on donkey but today he is flying in aircraft; he was the same man with the same human traits then also and now also so what has changed? The means have changed, the means have progressed not man. He is where he was before.

Man has not progressed because the materialistic thoughts have buried the humanity of man below earth and man has turned into an organ of this environment. Religion does not allow man to become part of environment ; it wants to keep man separate ; it does not wants man to get buried in earth instead become owner of the world.

As Allama Iqbal says:

Khaaq se uthti hai Gardon be nazarrakhti hai
Raises from dust and keeps eye on dust only.

Man is created from dust and then after becoming big he still absorbs himself in dust. Hence till we realize the vastness of man we cannot realize how great and vast our religion is.

Demanding Your Existential Reality

Man has some fundamental demands and he should be aware about these demands. Every other day we see protests across the world whereby people are demanding for certain things; but these are not the actual demands of man and even if they are than of preliminary stage. One demand which entire humanity has and which Iqbal addressed in his poem of “Shikwa”(Complaint) and “Jawaab-e-Shikwaa” (Answer to complaint). Iqbal says in this poem that if man gets attentive towards his own existential reality than he does not talks even to Allah in abased manner.

If Allah has ordained certain obligations on man which he has to deliver than man should also say that if these are my responsibilities than I also have some demands from you which should be fulfilled. Faiz in his poem says that O Allah! You have sent man as your representative (Khalifa) on earth than you have forgotten what has happened with your Khalifa .It is a fact that man who has been made as the king by Allah but what is happening with this king in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Pakistan and Palestine today. Our demand should be one only from Allah, that I don’t demand anything else from you except that you teach me your religion.

In Pakistan there was once news about a Karate competition between a Religious Scholar and an ordinary person; after listening to this news I felt as if my head is being hammered. People are demanding such things from a scholar.  Demands are for everyone; the children have demands from parents and parents have demand from children. These demands are two sided.

We have been informed how an Imam should be; this is the demand of people but the leader also has the demand as to how the people should be. The way Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that

Ilâhîkafâbî ‘izzan an akûnalaka ‘abdan, wa kafâbîfakhran an takûnalîRabban, .

“O Allah! You are the Lord whom Ali desired which means Ali’s demand is fulfilled; but O Allah! Now you reply whether your demand is also fulfilled or not?” Is Ali the same servant as you wanted? In the same way the type of Imams and Leaders which we demanded, Allah has fulfilled our demand and has given us such Imams but are the demands of these Imam’s also fulfilled or not? We have got the religion which we desired but have we fulfilled the demands of religion or not?

There are many demands that are suppressed inside us. Just like when a child demands something the father slaps him and this demand remains buried inside him. Such suppressed demands results into the basis of indiscipline in children and turns into spiritual and psychological diseases when they grow young.

Our religious demands should be from religious scholars that we need that religion which Allah has made whereby there should not remain any segment of life which is outside the domain of religion. Our demand from scholars should be to give us a religion that perfectly fits human life. And we have to demand such things; like if you do not demand certain things from Government they will not fulfill your demands. Like if there is no electricity; load shedding is there and if we live with the situation than these problems will never get solved; they only get solved by demands.

Allah wants us to put our demands; Religion does not want us to become pampered children. Such children are one who only cry and do not do anything. In supplications you should put up your demands; these supplications are your demands. We do not demand anything from Allah but still Allah gives us so much but if you start demanding from Allah than see what happens. The community that does not have any demands gets destroyed hence whatever demands are there you should ask and Allah has given these rights to us to demand.

Consequences Of Non-demanding Communities

Certain communities are suffering from different type of situations like that of a noosed camel. When a camel is noosed even a small child can take that camel across the desert; now whatever burden is put on that camel he carries it, he has no rights to protest or complain about excess burden. Human being should not be like a camel; Allah has given this tongue to speak. It used to happen in the days of kings that the King would demand from the people but the people would not demand anything.

There was once a similar subjugated community whom their King saw that they never demand anything. One day the king announced that people should demand from the king and if they do not demand we will punish them. He put up a demand post in the city whereby in the morning everyone passing from the gate of the city where the post was present was asked about his/her demand. If the answer would be no demand there would be one soldier with shoes standing there to beat them hundred times. This went on for days and there were big queues lined up for being beaten by the shoes.  Finally the people said that we have some demand from the king, so please take us to the king. The people went to the king and placed their demand. They said; O King! We are so many people in this town and the soldiers who are beating us with shoes are so less, we request you to please increase the number of soldiers beating with shoes. This looks like a joke but it has deep reality and tragedy inside it.

Today we are doing the same, specifically those communities who have lost their sense of selfhood. These were the demands of Iqbal and Imam (r.a) that we should stop being beaten with shoes but instead destroy those who are beating us. If those who are beating are awake than those who are being beaten would never awaken. Revolution means making the situation upside down. At present those who will beat with shoes are present in many places, whereas people are demanding that they are few and we need more.

It needs courage to put up demands but this is the language and temperament of religion. Imam Hussain (a.s) says that the greatestJihad is to speak truth against tyrants.  The Doyen of Martyrs (a.s) is giving courage to humanity and if man develops courage than he is not afraid of anyone; entire world cannot subjugate him. This is not a desired situation that we also get counted amongst those whose are beaten with shoes.

Our Current Education System

Our education system in our schools teaches us this only that we should not make any noise, not raise your voice and just keep on getting kicked with shoes. Iqbal had this complaint from the education system that they are giving lessons of becoming sparrow to the children of falcon. The children of falcon should be given the lesson of pouncing, attacking, keeping the blood warm, keeping the soul restless and when all falcons turn into sparrows than who will raise demands? Today there is sensitivity when someone talks about changing the syllabus of schools because they do not want the lessons of falcon’s flights to be given in these schools. In these schools the Muslim children will come, children of Shia and followers of Hussain will come. And they know that Hussain is the eagle and the martyrs of Karbala are the falcons. The flight of Hussain and his martyrs is much higher than that of falcon and even though these children remain associated with Karbala but should become as weak as sparrows.

Religion That Fulfills Our Needs

This should be our demand that we need that religion which is our need and was propagated by the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s); for which the Infallible Imams (a.s) and Ahlulbayt (a.s) had suffered calamities; for which the encounter of Karbala came into existence; that religion which Imam e Hujjat (a.t.f.s) will bring and religious people will than rise and say you have brought a new religion.

We need that religion and not the religion present with traders and dictators. If we demand than for us some people will study and understand this true religion to present it to us. If we do not put up demands than those who are presenting religion will present entertainment in the name of religion. They also put a lot of efforts for entertaining people because to make people laugh is not easy. Like if you want to make a documentary film which only presents the facts it is easy to make as compared to making a comedy movie. To make a comedy film first you have to create a scenario out of imaginations; then you need special actor for this because every actor is not comedian. People generally think that those who deliver intellectual speeches have more difficulty but it is not true those who talk about fictitious entertaining talks they are the ones who have to put a lot of efforts. If we people stop watching comedy movies and demand serious real art movies than those who are making comedy movies will also be pursued to produce serious movies.

If we understand what all are our demands than many of our problems will get resolved; today they do not deliver the right religion because we are not demanding that. We need that religion which is based on human life and its expanse is in accordance with human life and should be related to every segment of human life without sparing any single segment of human life.

Imprisonment Of Religion

This is secularism whereby we make a room with the name of mosque, lock religion inside that and in rest of life you are free to live whichever way you want. We want to imprison religion so that it should not interfere with us. The religious centers in many places are in reality prisons of religion where religion does not comes out from mosques to our homes, it does not points our mistakes, where Amr Bil Maroof has been lifted off the ground. Why?  This is because religion has gone and sat inside Mosques and Madrassahs whereas Amr Bil Maroof is done out in the field.  Amr Bil Maroof does not mean unnecessary interference in someone’s life though it is justified interference in people’s life which no one wants to do today. Thus what we need is the recognition of religion which can solve the problems of our life.

Era Of Khomeini-Accomplishment Of Hujjat

One grace and blessing of Allah is that he has given us birth in the era of Imam Khomeini (r.a) and we should be thankful for this bounty of Allah. This sentence has been delivered by the Doyen of Martyrs (a.s) in Dua e Arafah that O Allah! I gratify you for this bounty and grace that you have not given me birth in the government of infidelity instead you gave me birth when Medina was purified from Infidelity and Polytheism, the standard of Tauheed (monotheism) was flying and the Messenger of Allah had established an Islamic state and was the governor of state. And hence we should also be thankful for this bounty to be born in this era.

There is a big difference between those people on whom Hujjat(all proofs that leaves no excuses for denial) has been accomplished and those on whom the Hujjat has not been accomplished. Itmaam-e-Hujjat (accomplishment of arguments) means a purpose which becomes clear with proofs to the extent that there remains no excuse to avoid or deny that purpose. And for those on whom the proof has been accomplished than no one listens to their excuses. If you inform people in advance that the program will start at 5 p.m. sharp in the evening now no excuse will be accepted from anyone who comes late because you were well informed about it. But if someone was not informed and does not comes than for him there is a valid excuse present. This is Itmaam-e-Hujjat whereby all exits for excuses are closed, all proofs have become apparent and there is no way out for any excuse.

If the people of the era before the Islamic Revolution argue with Allah that we were only told this much that religion is only few rituals; Allah might accept their excuse because they were not born or living in the era of Khomeini but the current and the upcoming generations have no excuse left with them. This is because Imam Khomeini (r.a) has presented the actual religion in front of entire world and also clearly expressed the difference between correct and incorrect forms of religion. Now if someone still follows an incorrect religion and takes it with him in the presence of Allah it will not be accepted from him but from past people it will be accepted since they were unaware. Since we are aware and accomplishment of proof has been done on us there remains no scope of acceptance of any excuse.

Intoxicating Religion Versus Active Religion

To demand this religion is our rights. Tafaqqahu of Religion does not imply learning few practical laws of Islam, listen to few sweet ethical talks about Islam and then feel happy that we are doing Tafaqqaho of religion that is learning religion.

There was a time when it was spread by communist that Religion is opium. When communism was its peak today they would spread this a lot everywhere that religion is amongst intoxicating things. To a certain extent they were correct because we have one form of religion which is like a drug which makes people sleep and makes man ignorant of everything around him. Just like a drug addict is always in sleep; he is not concerned where are his children; where is his family and what they are doing. The intoxication of sacred things is much higher and the more the thing is sacred the more it will intoxicate. Hence what the communist were saying was correct to a certain extent but what they saw was not the true face of religion. The true face of religion removes intoxication, awakens people and gives movement to human being.

How the Islamic revolution took place?  It was a movement by a community; which already had an understanding of religion from past but the religion which gave them movement was not that traditional religion. This is why Imam Khomeini (r.a) would say that I have taken my religion from Karbala. There is a difference between the religion of Karbala and other religion. The religion of Karbala produces movement and does not teach comfort to people. There is a dire need for understanding this religion. This is the rights and should be the demand of humanity today; and we have to put this demand ourselves and as well make others demand this. The demands which we are making today are not real demands.

The religion of Mohammad (s.a.w.s) is not an intoxicating religion instead a religion with movement. The type of movement which we see in Hezbollah in Lebanon is the outcome of this religion. There was religion before also in Lebanon but there was no movement in Lebanon. In Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India also this traditional type of religion was present and moment someone decided to wake up he would be given a sleeping pill. There is a need to understand the true religion and today’s generation is in need for understanding this religion and in fact the generation of every era has this need. Since the Hujjat has been accomplished on this generation hence we have to understand this religion and make it reach others because till the time we do not understand this religion we will not be able to make it reach others. This is our purpose and this is the messengership and responsibility of every individual not just of scholars. Though the scholars have scholarly and intellectual responsibility; hence only when everyone realizes their responsibility than only this religion will spread. Thirty four years of revolution has passed away and now we should not be crying that after thirty four years we are not acquainted with the religion. Our lands are empty of the soul of this revolution. Why this religion did not transfer to our lands? If this can reach Lebanon why it can’t reach our lands, though our lands and our people are more prepared than the Lebanese. This is because those who were supposed to export this to us did not deliver their duties and we also are guilty for this because we never demanded.

Themethod Of Demanding

Hence we should continuously demand for this till the time the demands are not fulfilled. A child cries for milk initially in low voice but when he sees that no one is attentive he cries loudly and eventually starts to yell and shout. The mother who was occupied is pursued to take care of him. Our problem is that we do not cry; we should cry and raise our voices for our demands. Imam Khomeini (r.a) asked us to raise our demands but in ethical manner. It should not happen that we catch the collars of a scholar and ask him to speak about Islam-e-Naab. We should make an atmosphere of demands. We should organize a lecture, seminar, program in which the entire environment and atmosphere should be such that the speaker is pursued to speak on that. Just for example you put up certain traditions and slogans on the walls, which are itself our demands.

Man AsbahaWa Lam Yahtam Ba Umoor al Muslameen Fa Laise Be Muslim
One who wakes up in the morning and does not make arrangements for the affairs of the Muslims is not a Muslim

This is my demand from the speakers and by reading this the speaker knows what the people are demanding from him. They want him to speak about the affairs of the Muslims.

Similarly, you write over there the slogan of Imam Hussain (a.s) like;

To speak a sentence of truth in front of a tyrant is the biggest Jihad

This adulterer has placed me on two roads, one is path of dignity and other path of humiliation, and I say never to humiliation (Hai Haat minna zilla).

It is possible that first time they will not be prepared but the speakers will think that next time we will prepare on these lines and speak on the same. We should put all types of demands but do not insult someone. It is just like the child who cries but does not insults her mother. His crying makes the mother understand his needs. Like in a gathering you put posters of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Imam Khomeini (r.a), the Supreme Leader and these pictures itself are your demands. How many times the speaker will ignore this picture eventually he will be tired to speak about the environment.

Difficulty In Understanding Pure Religion

The significance of Tafaqqahui.e. deep understanding of religion has been expressed historically by elderly personalities and even Aql(intelligence) and Fitrat raises the same demands. It is natural demand of Fitrat* (natural disposition) to acquire understanding of religion provided the Fitratis not suppressed by desires. Since desires also have their own demand and Fitrathas its own pure demands but if desires are dominating than Fitratgets subjugated and all the demands of man are only the demands of this desire. For such people Quran says

صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ

Deaf, dumb (and) blind, so they will not turn back
Surah Baqarah- 18

The concern expressed in this verse of the Holy Quran is not confined to the people of the era of revelation of Quran instead the Quran says it is for entire humanity in all era. In every community and tribe there would be such people who will fall down from the level of humanity to a beastly level. The verse does not imply that they will not have physical strength to hear, see and talk. The strengths will be there but what they have to speak they will not speak. He will speak useless things but when the time comes to speak truth he will not speak. He keeps on listening to everything but the thing that needs to be heard they do not listen. He sees everything but what needs to be seen he does not see. It happens that you are sitting and someone comes walking and collides with you. You immediately say that are you blind because though he has eye still he could not see. This person is in reality blind though physically he has eyes. One who is physically blind you cannot say anything to him because he has a natural problem but the one who has eyes and still cannot see is the one who is really blind. The ear is one, but the thing that needs to be listened he does not listen, this is a defect. Similarly the worst person on the land in the words of Allah is شَرَّ الدَّوَابِّ (vilest of animals). These are insects and pests who crawl on ground. Who is the worst crawling animal? We think snake but the Quran says it is that man who is lowly, abased and crawling insect is the one who does not thinks.  To whom Allah has given Aql(Intelligence) but they do not make use of it.

Subjugation Of Intelligence (Aql)

There are some people for whom Quran has said that their Fitrat has been subjugated. This happens when there is dominance of desires which comes in the form of cultural invasion on the youth. The Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamenei (d.a) says that the worst danger which the Muslim Ummah has is from cultural invasion. This prevailing western culture in our societies is of lust and when lust spreads out the first effect is on the Aql (intelligence). It is there in narrations about subjugation of Aqlunder the state of anger. Anger is a faculty inside man which arouses in a particular situation. When a person becomes angry he starts to speak rubbish and uses foul language. When anger disturbs, the first thing that gets captivated is our Aql whereas we think that by our anger we will captivate the opposition. Like when we get angry on our younger brothers and sisters, we think we are dominating them by showing our anger. It happens also that they get dominated but in reality it is the Aql that is getting suppressed.

There is a saying from Ameerul Momineen (a.s) that there are many intellectual skills and talents under captivation of desires. Even if desires are aroused than their first domination is on Aql(intelligence). Like a person whose hunger arouses he thinks he is dominating over food but actually his Aql is coming under dominance. It happens that the human Aql and Fitrat get dominated by desires and many other things. If Aql and Fitrat gets suppressed; for which Quran also says it can be suppressed in Surah Shams

وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

And the soul and Him Who made it perfect,

فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا

Then He inspired it to understand what is right and wrong for it;

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا

He will indeed be successful who purifies it,

وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا

And he will indeed fail who corrupts it.

Allah (s.w.t) has pledged eleven times in this Surah just to demonstrate the significance. If you visit a big personality then whatever he speaks is although significant for you but if he tells something with one pledge then that carries special significance. But if he pledges on eleven things; it means what is being said is something extremely highly significant. What is being said after these eleven pledges? That we have kept two things inside every human being.فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا We have kept the ability of Fisk and Fujoor (transgression and rebellion) and also the ability of Taqwa (guarding against evils, harmful things). This means we have kept the ability of misguidance and also the positive abilities. We have kept these two qualities inside you. Now what you have to do?  Whichever from these two you make, nurture and polish, it will shine. Both cannot arouse and shine simultaneously because they are contradicting each other. The one who arouses the ability of Taqwa is قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا successful and the one who buries the ability of Taqwa has failed.  “Dasisa” in Arabic means conspiracy which implies underground secret planning. Since this is done underground it is called “Dasisa”. This means something buried below ground. The verse says that one who buries this underground has failed.

What is the rubble under which you bury it? The rubble of selfishness, ego, desires, lusts, pleasure etc. This is the rubble which comes over Fitrat. These suppressed Fitrat’s which were speaking before but now cannot even utter a single word. If this Fitrat is given a chance, it will put up its demands. The living Fitrat’s will also speak out and put up its demands. Similarly whenever Aql is present it will put up its demands. The Shariah has declared everything which has bad effects on Aql as prohibited like Alcohol, drugs. Aql gets wasted and it is a precious gem of human being which needs to be protected.

There are many things which are present in narrations by which Aql should be protected. Like excessive laughing, mockery; laughing is good but if all the time a person is in jokes, laughter only then Aql gets wasted. Do not sleep excess and eat excess as it will affect your Aql. Eat only that much which is required; now Islam is not stopping you to fulfill your needs in fact it is emphasizing that you should fulfill all your genuine needs. Like speaking less, if you speak too much and cross limits than it will waste time. Some people keep on speaking so much that they even don’t know and think what they are speaking; one sentence on tree, one on food and what all. Just speak in limits. Hence if the Aql is not suppressed below these habits, than it will have its demand. The first demand of Aql is Religion

Religion - The Demand Of Aql And Fitrat

Ibn Sina was a unique thinker, philosopher and not just a physician. He is a philosopher and amongst very few after Infallibles. We know name sake personalities who have just blown up like a balloon but in reality personalities are those who leave a positive effect on human societies. Ibn Sina on the basis of intellectual logic says “A Philosopher interprets Aql whereas a Prophet interprets Wahy (divine revelation)”.  A philosopher tauntingly says that man always asks for things that he is not having and is asking for small things, but I have never seen him demanding for Aql; this means everyone assumes that we are all intelligent. Like a poet says, that everyone asks for Emaan (Faith) but no one asks for Ishq(passionate love)with Allah. A philosopher has a complaint that people do not ask Aql from Allah, whereas an Arif (gnostic) complains that people do not ask for Ishq. Ibn Sina says that the first demand of Aql after coming into existence from Allah is religion for the guidance and privilege of human being. This is the Demand from Aql and Fitrat. It is not a demand which is natural not by persuasion.

Like in India, Pakistan people in buses and streets sell duplicate medicines. One person who was selling these medicines said to people is there anyone amongst you who has taken medicines from me and not got cured. One person stood up and said yes I have taken and it was not effective. On this the seller did serious bashing of this person and made him sit. Now he again asked is there anyone else, now no one stood up. If you do this treatment with one, others will not get up. This way the voice does not comes out, like the Fatwa’s of Kufrthat are given. You ask any question, a Fatwa (verdict) of Kufr comes up. Let the person talk, let him put up his demands. The moment he speaks, just suppress him. Thus the first thing whichAql asks is Religion. We say that religion is of Fitrat. We think that by this statement it is there in Fitrat to do Salaat and Fasting. Than we ask if religion is in Fitrat than why people are not on their Fitrat. This is not what is meant by this statement that religion is in Fitrat of human beings. It means religion is the demand of Fitrat. Now what it is asking it should be given. Ibn Sina again says that when Aql is asking for Religion and if it gets that but if this Aql returns it back then it is craziness. This is the introduction of a fool (Sufaha) which Quran has also given. We think the fools are the one who cannot dial a number, cannot buy something or sell something. Whom has Quran has termed as fool (Sufaha)? The one who has left the path of Ibrahim is Sufaha. What is the path of Ibrahim? The religion of Fitrat.  Thus one who turns his back on the religion of Ibrahim is a fool in the vision of Quran. Thus Aql is something which you have asked for; you should accept and act on it.

Thus religion is the first demand of Aql; and Aql when it is born does not demand for oxygen, it demands for religion.  Aql demanded from Allah to give Religion and now it is the turn to understand religion so that the purpose can be met. When Aql demanded for religion it was not just for Prophets but for every human being. Now, when religion came it is lying in our homes and till the time it is not understood correctly and then if it is not brought to practice it is of no use. If we are busy in understanding the religion than we will realize how precisely religion has guided usin finest of things. No constitution or law in the world goes to such minute details but religion went to this level.To understand this religion man has to give time, he has to give one part of his life for understanding this religion; irrespective of man, woman, old, young, all have to spend a significant time to understand religion. Now we do the opposite, we do all other things and when we have some spare time we try to understand religion.

Why? Because the Fitrat is suppressed under all the sounds, noise, protest and slogans of desires.In this noisy environment of desires a small voice of Fitrat comes out which can’t be even heard. So what can man do?  Like today we say that western people are coming towards religion. Why and when? This is because they are satiated and tired with desires and now even the desires cease to exist. Like when you are thirsty, you drink to a certain extent and thirst is quenched than water is not required. This happens with many desires and then only for the sake of changing taste he wants to do something else. Like people in West do crazy things which shocks us but the reason they do is that they are tired of other things and other desires. Hence when someone comes towards religion it is out of frustration. We cannot say that people in west are coming swiftly towards religion; they are coming out of frustration with other things. Like people are coming towards Sadhuism(Sages) because they have done so much of mess in life that they are frustrated and now finding other means. You should not use anything in excess that the demand ends. It is not that you should not go for desires and living needs. You have to go there because they are also needs and part of religion; because religion itself is telling that these are things which you have to do. When desires and needs of life are also regulated by religion than a person becomes cent percent Muslim; now we are part time Muslims.

The Cause For Crisis In Muslim World

We have the need to recognize that religion which makes me hundred percent Muslim whereby everything of mine is religious. Like if you ask someone why are you doing Ramadhan? Or why have you gone for Hajj and Ziarat? Someone will say for Thawaab, some as obligation; but in reality we are all doing Tafseer of this verse 122, that is to recognize, understand and study religion. Today we see this undesired situation in religion because religious people do not have the correct imagination and perception of religion. Imam Khomeini (r.a) used to say Religion is lost; which is the most important thing but not present. Like if you lose your Mobile, you will be in trouble and you will face problems but not very adverse. But if you lose your passport while travelling, how many difficulties you will face?

Now you come to the Islamic world and see the crisis stuck countries; and start to list them; Pakistan, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Bosnia and if you ponder you will not find a single place which you can see perfectly peaceful in the Islamic world. There are difficulties and problems everywhere and even in Iran; in fact the difficulties in Iran is on one side as compared to others. This is because on one side there is awareness and other side there is darkness. That person is more worried who himself is awakened and others are sleeping. If everyone is sleeping it is fine but if one is awake, than he will be in deep trouble and his biggest difficulty is not that I am awake his problem is with others who are sleeping.

He is worried as to why others are sleeping. Iqbal and Imam Khomeini (r.a) were not worried as to why they are awakened; they were worried why others are sleeping. Iqbal would pray that O Allah! The desperation, pain, agony which you have given me give it to everyone, He says “Ya Rabb dilemuslimko wo zindatamanna de, jo roohkotadpa de” (O My Lord! Grant living desires to the heart of Muslims which can burn their soul). One person awakens like Imam Khomeini (r.a) and all his concerns were that why others are not awakened. Imam (r.a) says that cause for all problems of Muslims is that they have lost Islam. He says not Jews, Christians, but Muslims do not have Islam.

Islam is not in Islamic centers; not on pulpits, not in Islamic books and he says find this lost Islam. At present big crisis are in the Muslim world like in Iraq, because Islam is lost. We read political analysis on why Iraq was attacked; some say for oil, weapons and infrastructure. We read all the analysis elsewhere but not in Quran.Quran has done analysis for all the crisis and tells the root of all problems. And the root cause is this only when man gets away from the true and pure religion. Pakistan also has this same problem which is massive. It was made in the name of Islam but the only thing that it could not witness is Islam.  Imam (r.a) says that the responsibility of all the problems is that Islam has not reached these places. Let me ascertain this with one concrete statement of Imam Khomeini (r.a).

On the occasion of martyrdom of Martyr Arif Hussain Hussaini he delivered a message to the people of Pakistan. Every statement in this message is well calculated and full of wisdom. If we apply these statements all our problems will be solved. The path on which we are moving is going to Turkistan, not going to Kaaba. In raah ke tu mi ravid in Turkistan mi ravad. This is not going to Kaaba. At present we are going towards Turkistan with the hope that we will do Hajj in Turkistan. One sentence which Imam (r.a) said in this message which was the central and core of the message.

“This reality that in one religion there cannot be two contradictory paths, if would have been told to people by Ulama and religious centers, than this martyr would have been alive amongst us”

He says it is a fact that in one religion you cannot have two right paths. If this was told to the people by the Seminaries, by scholars than this Martyr would have been alive amongst us. You can repeat this sentence for every martyr. The biggest cause behind all the martyrs as per Imam Khomeini (r.a) is to have multiple paths in the same religion. At present this is our problem that we have two conflicting paths in religion and we consider both as the right path. We say one who goes from one path and someone else traverses the other path and still all are Muslim brothers. Imam (r.a) says it is because of this reason all this is happening. They came to understand religion but presented contradictory paths. These are conflicting paths and they presented both as correct.

During Hajj, we saw a scene; where at one place two Haji’s were doing Salaat, one facing East and other West. If we see here what is being spread in the name of religion and Islam are conflicting paths. If you go to Mashad from Qom, there are two roads that leave Qom, one goes to Taftan and one goes to Mashad. Is it possible that you take any of the two opposite paths and you will reach Mashad?

Now the need is we have to present the true religion that is Islam-e-Naab. Today we do not have a problem because this true path has been recognized. And we just need to go forward and understand it. If one group does not moves forward to understand this pure religion and present, teach to others till then our problems will not get resolved. Even if you look at revolutionaries and remove their skin of revolution, you will see there is no Maarifat inside. This is the real work that we have to present this Pure Islam if not globally than at least to the extent of our reach. Thus it is a duty of one group to leave their homes, leave their comfort zones to come out and study religion , and then come back to do Inzaar (warn others about dangers).

Basheer And Nazeer

Quran has used the term of Basheer and Nazeer as attributes of Prophet. For us Basheer means giving good news about streams of milk, Houries by which we get excited but not guided. Similarly when we talk about Nazeer as someone who scares us with graves, hell fire, burning; with this you get afraid but not guided. Basheer means one who develops hopes in people; and the reason why Prophets are called Basheer is because they develop hopes in despaired communities, who are distressed due to crisis. There are communities that reach the edge of despair and say now nothing can happen. The role of Prophets is not to allow communities reach this stage of despair and keep hopes always alive in them. This is why they are called Basheer. 

Nazeer means warner. It is evident that every path has some dangers. To make communities aware about the dangers and making the dangers evident to people is the function of Nazeer. In Arabic Nazeer is the person who is in the army monitoring post, who keeps on monitoring the dangers coming from far off. The Quran says

فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

Some people should go, learn religion than come back and warn the people about what dangers are surrounding the people, what are internal threats and external dangers. Anyone who is self-aware and makes even some people aware about the dangers is doing the work of Prophets. Today the situation in the Muslim world is very tense. If you see Hezbollah also it is surrounded by enemies from all over. They are less but not despaired. If there are millions also but despaired, they are not even equal to few. But if there are few with hopes and not despaired they are equivalent to million.  Imam Khomeini (r.a) did the same thing, he came and gave hopes to despaired communities that you can get salvation, changes can come but for that change there is a process with which you have to go through. Changes do not come with amulets (Taaveez), Istikhara and only supplications. There is a path of salvation present, though it is tough but present. And the second point about Nazeer is about the dangers of the path. Imam (r.a) pointed precisely each and every danger of the path.

Sabeelallah - The Path Of Allah

One terminology which Quran uses is the Sabeelallah. We translate this as Path of Allah but physically there is no such path. Sabeel of Allah, is the path of salvation, which is the path of privilege in this world and salvation in hereafter. These two things make it Sabeelallah. In every era there has been a Misdaq (objective reference) of Sabeelallah. There are certain things which cannot be perceived by senses, so how do we see this? Is it something out of imagination? For things that are non-perceivable we start to give explanations that doing this thing is Sabeel of Allah like doing welfare is Sabeel of Allah, studying and teaching, doing good things are Sabeel of Allah. There are many things, where person gets stuck and cannot express. Like if we ask what goodness is; a person cannot express properly; we just end up giving some examples of goodness.  Quran says that goodness is not that you face east or west that is you sleep on left or right is goodness. This verse means what you have imagined as goodness that is to sit while facing Qiblah is not goodness.Laisal Birr; the Quran has removed this conjecture from us.

What is the Sabeel of Allah? The path that takes us towards Allah, which path? Show me on the map, where is Sabeel of Allah? Which path goes to Mashad? You cannot say any path that goes anywhereis path towards Mashad. Show me with eyes where is the Path of Allah so we can walk on it. Not like that sweet drink of dreams which cannot be drunk nor can be served. Now the Sabeel of Allah which we have we can only give lectures on it but cannot tread on it. This is because Sabeel is a path which has borders, signs and is well established. The Sabeel of Allah has a Misdaq (objective reference) in every era and in this era the practical example or objective reference (Misdaq) of Sabeel of Allah is the Path of Imam Khomeini (r.a). This path is the Sabeel of Allah; rest all are going left and right. In this there is salvation and this is a very clear path. As said the cause behind crisis is lack of awareness of the right path. Though we have sincerity and desire but we are still treading on the wrong path. Like at times we lose the address but we do not realize and continue to walk on the wrong path with sincerity. So even with sincerity if you are walking on the wrong path still you are going away from the right path. The issue is not about sincerity; everyone is sincere; those who have not understood the true revolutionary path they are also sincere but on the wrong path and will not reach the destination (like Mother Teresa). It happens that at times even sincere and pure persons show incorrect address to someone because of ignorance and unintentionally. It happens with us many times that some good person; a Maulana shows me the address which turns out to be incorrect.  It was because he did not knew the address. Hence at times those showing the wrong path are sincere and they are showing the wrong path with good intention but they themselves do not know the path. Thus there is no doubt about the sincerity and goodness of persons but our argument is on the path.  If we start to discuss about the personality then also we will not get the right path. We have to find the right path.

At present the right path is the path of Imam Khomeini (r.a). You can see that Hezbollah though they were less but still they adopted the right path of Imam Khomeini (r.a) and achieved success. You go and ask them what is the path which you have taken? These days our people speak from pulpit that Hezbollah was an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). They made public schools, hospitals and eventually they became Hezbollah. If this is the case than we should have hopes with all NGO’s that they will become Hezbollah very soon. Like for the Prophet the Mushriq were saying that he is poet. To call Hezbollah as NGO is like calling Prophet as Poet. It is all clear on how they came into existence and how they become Hezbollah. Their leader says that we treaded one path due to which we came here and that is following Wilayat-e-Faqeeh. And this is the path of Karbala. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that we have taken this path from Karbala. Quran also says that one who dies on Sabeel of Allah is Martyr. We can see everyday people are dying whereby some are running away but still dying. Some are killed by enemies who are also given the degree of martyrs by honor. But there are real martyrs who in their life find the Sabeel of Allah then travel on that path and on this path they die. They are martyrs.

وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا
And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead (3:169)

Coming on the right path is difficult but taking a bullet on your chest is easy. You can see gangsters that how prepared they are for dying. But their death is not on Path of Allah. Finding Sabeel of Allah is Tafaqqahu (deep understanding)of Religion. In the past it was difficult to find the Path of Allah but in this era it is very easy to find the Sabeel of Allah.  To identify this path and to make others recognize this Path is Inzaar. This is a Quranic formula which is a very important point by which we can solve our practical problems.

Religious Organizations (Tanzeem) €� A Deviated Path

At present the formulas which the religious people have adopted are western models. We have introduced the method of NGO’s for spreading religion whereby we create parties, groups, organizations, federations and through that we want to spread religion. At present this structure of organizations (Tanzeem) has penetrated so deep inside that it has become 6^th Usool-e-Deen. And it looks like the first question which will be asked in grave will be “Ma Tanzeemoka”, were you a part of any organization, trust, federation, and if the answer is yes than only we will go to Heaven.  We have so much faith on this organizational structure.

The path which Quran has established for us is the path of Imamat and Ummat which was presented by the Prophet and the Imams. This will be expressed in this book as we proceed and this is what is understanding of religion. It is not that we should become part of the existing systems that are based on Western models. And this is the reason we do not see any results, in fact deterioration. And we should not be surprised that why we do not get results, because you will not get results from these Western models. The model of Imamat Ummat which the Quran says also is that; it is not possible that a big majority will come out on the street, it has never happened and will not happen. The right path is of Imamat and Ummat and there is no quantity established for Ummat. Ummat could be one person or ten person. If some people become Ummah and they establish their relationship with the leader, than this is the path of salvation. We are not challenging the sincerity of someone, they have all put efforts but still they are standing in the same place. You can check in your own countries; best efforts are put, and the big capital has been put by sincere people but still we are standing the same like the Ox in the farm, spinning water tube. We have walked so much but still at the end of the day when we opened the eyes we see we are there only, not moved forward. The means by which we want to move forward are not the means of moving forward. For Ummat, there is not a fix quantum. The elements of Ummah which are present if present in any one person also, he becomes an Ummah. And this is also presented by Quran, the Quran says Ibrahim is Ummat. In context of the same verse of Quran Imam (r.a) mentioned about one more person that is Shaheed Beheshti. This personality is also non recognized and much oppressed personality. For Beheshti Imam (ra) said, Beheshti yek Ummat boodh (Beheshti was an Ummah).

Thus it is possible that one or two persons can become Ummah. Imams need Ummah and without Ummah Imamat cannot be done. The system of Imamat cannot be established. And this is what has been mentioned by the Infallible Imams and you do not need millions. Even if few come along and become an Ummah, Imamat can deliver its duties. Like in Karbala, there were very few, only 72. And even when such small numbers gathered their Imamat was done and they played a role in history. They can change the course of history. They can destroy the most powerful system of their era. If they adopt any other face other than Ummah than Imamat cannot be done for them. Imamat and Ummat cannot be separated. All the difficulties of Imams are with the Ummah. What were the difficulties of Ameerul Momineen (a.s)? Why he remain deprived of his rights for 25 years? We blame other people, his opponents for this. The question is when they were usurping his rights where was the Ummah? Where were those who were supposed to defend him? The issue is not that they have taken it, the issue is when they were taking it, where was the Ummah? When Ali (a.s) is not having Ummah with him, the rights of Ali is usurped. At this time we sit and say that America is responsible for all our internal and external problems. But who gives this much courage to America to do these atrocities? This is because there is no Ummah. If they see one person also as Ummah, than their courage ends. They see Muslims across the world but not an Ummah, so who are they? They are the herds (of sheep) and no one cares for the herd, irrespective of how many they are. The more it is the better, it can be slaughtered, eaten and enjoyed, the way they are doing it. Thus Ummah has no quantity dependencies; the real point is how you become an Ummah. Thus the divine system is Imamat and Ummah and the essential element is Ummah which is associated with us. Imamat, Leadership, guide is associated with Imam and becoming Ummah is related to us. If Ummah is even less success comes and it has happened. If Hezbollah was an organization than they would not have been successful because there are much bigger organizations than Hezbollah present in the world but they did not get success. This we will discuss as to what this Ummah is and how many are there in an Ummah. You can than testify and affirm that majority is not Ummah and it is the minority that becomes Ummah. The path which gave the revolution success and through which Hezbollah got victory and the path for which the Imams had desired was that Ummah should be present, even if less, the Ummah should be present. The dominance is that of Ummah, of Haqq (righteousness) but the condition is that it becomes Ummah. This point will be taken in more details later hence it is recommended to not derive any conclusion from here.

Pure Religion - Islam-e-Naab

Religion is the basic need of human being but not that man takes something and gives it the name of religion. Allah has given intellect (Aql) to man to test, verify and see if the thing which he has is real or duplicate. If we go to markets today to buy things, we verify whether it is genuine or not. It is a fact that the interference which has happened in religion, and adulteration that has happened in religion has not happened in other things. This makes the task of recognizer of religion also very difficult. These scholars who spend their entire life in understanding religion is because of this main reason that they have to separate pure and impure. If someone has taken this effort and taken the pain to separate the pure religion and presented to us then this a great gift. This is one big bounty if someone received the pure religion and we are those fortunate people that this work has been done in our era.

A great Faqeeh did this work and presented the actual, true and Naab (pure) religion to us. Naab means something so pure that there is no adulteration in it. Thus we do not need just religion we need pure religion, the religion of privileged, one that gives salvation. Effects are only of pure things and not of adulterated things. In many countries like Pakistan and India medicines are also adulterated. In Pakistan the health minister became sick and he could not be cured in Pakistan and he went abroad. When they diagnosed they found that the diagnosis was correct and medicine prescribed was also correct, so how it did not cure. Later they found that the medicines were adulterated. If someone gets Naab religion than it is a big bounty of Allah. The way Allah has given us pure Quran, pure Ahlulbayt as a bounty similarly we have the duty to find the pure religion and act upon it. And in this era the objective reference (Misdaq) of this pure religion is the path of Imam Khomeini (r.a) and the teachings of Imam Khomeini (r.a). This religion has certain specialties and all human needs from minor to major are present in this. The only need is to understand this and need for someone who can transfer this.

System Of Imamat And Ummat

In this pure religion, the system which Allah has introduced to us and the biggest thing is to present this system which is the system of Imam of Ummat. The system which is implemented in Iran today is the Misdaq of this system of Imamat e Ummat. We cannot say that religion has come for human beings but it lacks political system, education system. This would be controversial to the essence of religion. Before Imam (r.a) the elders took all the pains on Ahkam (practical laws) but Imam (r.a) came and said religion is not just having Ahkam, it has systems also. Ahkam comes after System. If system is not there and only Ahkam are there, than man starts to fit these Ahkam on other systems. We stay in various countries and in every country there are various laws and we try to harmonize our Islamic laws in accordance with the systems of that country. Though system is present in the teachings of Imam (a.s), whereby there is a famous tradition, which is presented as a proof also for Islamic Government. There was a companion of Imam Sadiq (a.s) by the name of Umar ibn Hanzala. This person came in the presence of Imam (a.s), he was a Shia and came to Imam Sadiq (a.s). There was no Islamic governance at that time. Imamat was an abandoned system at that time and was not implemented. People were so distanced from Imamat that they would learn Ahkam from Imam and but not even talk about the governance of Imamat. They would not even think that this person who is teaching us Fiqh laws has not been sent by Allah as a Madrassa teacher but as an Imam (Leader). His status is that of Imam and Allah has sent him as an Imam and we have to become Ummah. They just expected to attend lectures and learnt many things from him. It is also said that many senior scholars, Fuqaha of Ahle Sunnah were students of Imam Sadiq (a.s). Majority learnt these Ahkam only from Imam, whether Sunni or Shia. Very few were such that who considered Imam as Leader.

Umar Ibn Hanzala asked Imam that if there arises a dispute between two Shias of ours, and the problem is not getting solved and need arises to go to court and the court is of the governance of enemies and not Shias. So can they go to this court to resolve the dispute? This tradition is so authentic that it is present in almost all Shia renowned books. Imam (a.s) replied that it is not permitted, that these two can take their problems to a Sultan e Jaur (arrogant, cruel King) and demand their rights. It is not permitted to take the rights from the Judge and even if the judge gives the right judgment it is not permitted. Hence not to even go there and even if someone goes and gets his rights, those rights which he received will be void (Soht), forbidden, impure for him. Like if there are property, land disputes which are very common, and they take the case to any court, and if we assume the one who got the rights was the deserving one then also if we ponder Imam (a.s) says that the rights which he has taken from the help of tyrant government is forbidden. Now immediately our mind goes and thinks, where we should go. We are not in Islamic government, so how we resolve the issue. There Imam presented the solution also that you have to come towards the system of Imamat.

He said you go to that person in your society, who is intelligent, wise, well versed with religious laws, pious, pure and whatever decision he takes ;he is the Hakim (governor) appointed by me on you and Allah has given me this authority over him. One who denies has rejected me and one who rejects me has rejected Allah. All Scholars accept this narration and the name itself is Maqbulah (Accepted one) of Umar ibn Hanzala. Imam is presenting the solution, and problems will be there, where you will have to go to the court. So before the problems come, prepare a religious court for yourself. Your duty is not to take religious laws and then try to harmonize religious laws with a non-religious system. Religion prevents us from this forbidden life, this is forbidden life that we take laws from religion and then try to fit in non-Islamic systems. This is the core of politics but people would be astonished when Imam Khomeini (r.a) would say Religion is all politics. Imam (r.a) would reply that in which issue there is no politics. This is a judiciary issue which Imam turned into a political issue and in other word if you see Imam is arousing his follower to boycott these courts. You boycott these governments and not that just boycotting is enough instead make any alternate arrangement. Your duty is to come towards the system of Islamic governance. In Iran also prior to the Islamic revolution, the people as well as scholars would take their judiciary matters to the tyrant’s courts and then on the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Sadiq (a.s) they would recite this tradition. What is Imam (a.s) demanding from this tradition? Imam was telling that if you are part of this corrupt system than you are in agreement with it. You have to practically boycott these systems and make arrangements for alternative divine system and movement towards that. Our movement should be towards the actual system of Allah.  This is why Imam Khomeini (r.a) would say that Islamic government and Wilayat e Faqeeh is amongst those matters which are undeniable and not possible to reject it.

A very famous Jurist had a Fiqh (jurisprudence) book written in forty two volumes;who was famous as Sahibe Jawahir. Every Mujtahid has to go through this course of Sahibe Jawahir to become Mujtahid. In this book he says that every Faqeeh (Jurist) who has gone through Fiqh and has not reached the stage of Wilayat e Faqeeh has not even tasted Fiqh. This is being said by the biggest Faqeeh of Shia and whose books are read by all Faqeeh to become Faqeeh in Shia. He says without Wilayat e Faqeeh you cannot become Faqeeh. Thus we have to reach the systems and the systems than prepare the ground for implementation of laws. Today all the judiciary laws are suspended by both the Marajae and followers because there is no ground where these would be implemented. If you take education, upbringing and other laws related to these are suspended because systems are not there. To act on laws we need the system, how can we practice laws without a system.

Amongst these comprehensive systems present, one system is Imamat of Ummah, whose one representation is of Wilayat e Faqeeh. I won’t say if you wish you can study that from other books, in fact I am saying you have to study this subject of Wilayat e Faqeeh. There are many questions raised on this subject to which answers were not given and hence these questions became doubts and people think this system of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh is self-carved. Hence in Recognition of Religion it is essential to understand the systems and that too in a proper manner. In a Madrassa, a student came there and asked from where to start studying. The teacher told him to go and sit in the higher standard. The teacher in the higher standard class asked him what standard you are in, He replied it is my first day; the teacher said why you have sat in this class. You should go in the first class.

Thus the recognition of religion starts from the systems. First prerequisite is to understand the Roots of Religion, that is the platform and once you have understood the platform than you should come towards systems (Nizam). When we have understood all the systems than for every system there are various laws present. In Madrassah, a significant time is spent in teaching Ahkam (laws); like the students are taught the laws of judiciary but the question is where will these students go back and practice it? If they were taught first about the system, that you have to establish the system and then within those systems you have to implement these laws, than this seminary student would have recognized his responsibility. Now he has taken such a degree which cannot be used anywhere. Where will he go with this degree now? Just before the British occupation of India; Persian was the official language. When the English came, they changed the language to English. Like many people know and study English and specifically in India Pakistan people consider English as knowledge and even say that I have done Masters in English, but they forget that every Englishman is master in this language. This is not knowledge but skill and we are all busy in this. At that time Persian was like English today, and British came and all Persian was ended, so though degrees were present in Persian but was of no use. This proverb came from there only, Learn Persian and Sell oil. This was because Persian was of no use in India and all those who knew Persian became unemployed. This is the situation today with Religion whereby we take degrees in certain segment of religion but of no use. What is to be done? There are no grounds for it, hence leave that and start reciting Majlis, Listen to Zakirs and start to do entertainment. Thus majority of scholars become artist and professionals, because the degrees which they have taken are of no uses, because they can be used only if there is a system.

By learning Ahkam the scholars also knows that this is of no use to me without the system. There is something missing and skipped from between, while studying as well as practicing, that is system. We have not recognized the systems and this is why the practical role of scholars is not there in society. Then they will make political parties and try to adjust with the corrupt political systems. Imam (a.s) came and said first you need a system (Nizam) and then all laws will get implemented in it. Thus Imamat is not a belief, it is a system and we have to do the analysis of each and everything that we have learnt. Whatever we have learnt after maturity we should do a precise analysis of what I have learnt is really religion or mischievous distortions. Like some home-made treatments we do, and then start to interpret things. Like these days if doctors do not understand a disease they say it is Allergy. In every segment there are mischiefs, in Politics and the Indian subcontinent is quite fertile in this. Like the mischiefs spread by Jantri, this day is good, this day is evil. Like I say one book came from sky as Quran and another descended from India that is Jantri. People are evil and not days. Time is time, day is day, and on that day if an evil person does an evil act, that day becomes evil. But a purified person wherever he is purifies everything.

These mischiefs are present everywhere. We have learnt religion from old ladies, and we should pray for them, that they taught us religion but only to the extent which they knew. The old ladies had less opportunities to learn religion and in fact not at all. They were sitting inside their homes and making their own religion, and teaching to their children about witches, ghosts, jinn’s, all these are their teachings. Thus we have to take a deep analysis of all these teachings which we have learnt from these sources and also from pulpit. What is right we keep it and whatever was not correct we have to leave it. Thus we have to start to learn religion from the ABC again. When we come to learn religion than we come in the right order of learning as:

1. Roots of Religion (Usool-e-Deen)
2. Systems of religion (Nizam-e-Deen)
3. Practical laws of religion (Ahkam-e-Deen)

Practically also it is like this only, the roots (Usool) forms the platform, than systems prepares the grounds where laws are practiced. Like today we have extracted all those laws that do not need a system, so what we have left is Salaat, Fasting.

Becoming An Ummah - Prerequisite For System Of Imamat And Ummat

The system of Imamat will only be implemented when Ummah comes out in field. Even when Imam (a.t.f.s) returns Imamat will not get implemented miraculously. It is not correct what we think that overnight everything will change. If this is the way we had to govern the society than Quran says there was no need to send prophets and divine books. There was no need to give so much pains to Prophet and not necessary to give intellect (Aql) and sense (Sha’oor) to man. Like Angels are all straight, no crookedness. How? It is by persuasion (Jabr)? Even if the Angels want to they cannot deviate. Allah desired to make something greater than Angel, to whom even Angels will submit and prostrate.

Farishte se bahtar hai Insaanbanna, magarismelagtimahnatzyada
It is better to become human than an angel, but it takes more efforts to do so

To become Angel is very easy, you sit inside a home or a cave, cut off the phones and no one comes to you, you will become an Angel. Angel are made in caves but not humans. Humans are made in society that is why it takes more efforts. For becoming human being he has to make his own self as well as that of others. Man with guidance becomes man and hence man is privileged. Like one person gets millions of dollars in inheritance and another person who was very poor but with his efforts made millions, so who is privileged? Thus to become man you have to put a lot of efforts and without these efforts you cannot reach that position of humanity. To establish Imamat we need to become an Ummah.

To become an Ummah what we have to do? Who is an Ummah? One individual, or two, areas, locality and entire society can all become Ummah. Ummah means to establish something (Qayam), like Aqamtus Salaat, means to establish Salaat. There are certain human beings who are also established like Salaat but there are others as well who are stagnant.

Quran uses two terminologies for these; one Mujahideen and one Qaedoon. The Mujahidoon are the ones who are established (Qaayam) which means alert, standing in state of movement (Harqat) whereas Qaedoon are those who are sitting, sleeping, stagnant without any movement. So for Ummah we can say any person who is in state of movement and rising in the way of Allah is an Ummah. An Ummah whether individual or society only comes up with movement. Those who are stagnant are flocks of sheep as referred by Ameerul Momineen (a.s). Imam wanted an Ummah and he got flocks of sheep. Imam Ali (a.s) complaint to Allah as to how Allah has examined him. This flock troubled Ameerul Momineen (a.s) so much that he invoked Allah to either take them away from me or take me away from them.

Imams are not related or do not want to be associated with those who are not an Ummah. Many relations are paired by itself; like sister goes with brother always, husband with wife, (we don’t say husband and mother in law); father and son, mother and daughter. All these relations have association. Like wife suits with husband and husband fits with wife. If wife is not with husband and vice versa than there is a problem. This is the type of paired relationship between Imamat and Ummah as well. Imam was there but where is Ummah just like now if you see we believe people are there but where is Imam. But if you ask Imam, they say we are Imams but waiting for Ummah since 1200 yrs. This is because the relationship that goes with Imam is Ummah. The biggest oppression for our Imams is that they are Imams without an Ummah.  The highest degree problem which aggrieves and makes the Imam painful is that he is not having an Ummah. This is why Imam Khomeini (r.a) would say that the people at the advent of Islam were Muttaqee and with Imams (respecting them) but these Baseeji’s are greater than them, because these Baseeji’s are Ummah; whereas those companions of Imams would see the Imam but were not ready to become or play the role of an Ummah.

It is also essential to remember that in the process of becoming Ummah you should not become something else. Like we say today Shia community, we were supposed to become an Ummah and in the process we became something else, we turned into community, party, organizations, and federations. To become an Ummah, the main element of an Ummah is movement (Harqat) and Quran has compared the Ummah with the Qaedoon; those who are stagnant. Like we say in Salaat that I get up with the strength of Allah and sit with the strength of Allah. Like Quran compares between two groups; one group of Mujahideen and other of Qaedoon, those who do nothing. This is why Quran says,

فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنْفُسِهِمْ عَلَى الْقَاعِدِينَ دَرَجَةً

Allah says that we have given a lot of grace to Mujahideen over Qaedoon. Quran says that if these Qaedoon even make Masjidul Haraam (sacred mosque in Holy Kaaba) and do big Welfare activities still they will never be equal to Mujahideen. It is possible that Mujahid had no money to make anything but his status is much higher than Qaedoon. In our gatherings if the host of the mosque comes we will give him respect but not to a Mujahid. In Allah’s presence it would be opposite. Some people were doing these at the advent of Islam. They were maintaining Masjidul Haram (Holy Kaaba) and would point to other personalities as to what they did. Allah replied to them and said:

أَجَعَلْتُمْ سِقَايَةَ الْحَاجِّ وَعِمَارَةَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ كَمَنْ آمَنَ بِاللّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَجَاهَدَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ لاَ يَسْتَوُونَ عِندَ اللّهِ وَاللّهُ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
What! do you make (one who undertakes) the giving of drink to the pilgrims and the guarding of the Sacred Mosque like him who believes in Allah and the latter day and strives hard in Allah's way? They are not equal with Allah; and Allah does not guide the unjust people (9:19)

In the next verse it is clearly said

الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَهَاجَرُوا وَجَاهَدُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنْفُسِهِمْ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَائِزُونَ 

Those who believed and fled (their homes), and strove hard in Allah's way with their property and their souls, are much higher in rank with Allah; and those are they who are the achievers (of their objects).

Those who are not in the state of movement irrespective of whatever they do they are not virtuous because they cannot bring a change. Why Allah has praised the Mujahid so much? This is because Mujahid is that person who single handedly with his movement brings a change in the society and leads a society towards reformation. Ahle Qa’ood (those who believe in stagnancy, stillness) do not bring any change, they are happy with the prevailing conditions and they just donate some money to improvise the situation. But a Mujahid says that this existing situation has to change. But how? For this Allah has made the system of Imamat and Ummah.

Ummah comes into existence with a movement and with certain conditions. Any person who does movement in the way of Allah even if alone, he becomes an Ummah.

The Quran commands also

وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ 
 And from among you there should be an Ummah who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful. (3:104)

Nowhere Quran says Waltaqumminkum Ummah that you should become an Ummah and not Party, Tanzeem, Organization, Federations.

How To Become An Ummah?

First of all Quran makes it clear that it is not optional but obligatory to become an Ummah irrespective of whether you are alone or many but you have to become.

Imam Khomeini (r.a) would recite this verse very often

قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَعِظُكُمْ بِوَاحِدَةٍ ۖ أَنْ تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ مَثْنَىٰ وَفُرَادَىٰ
Say: I exhort you only to one thing, that rise up for Allah's sake in twos and singly

I, your lord wants to do one good counseling; not many talks, just one that is rise in the way of Allah even if alone or two or three but rise for the sake of Allah. This is the point of beginning. If the religion has spread than it has spread through this only. Like in Mecca one orphan heard this counseling of Allah and started an uprising (Qayam). Quran said to the prophet.

أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَىٰ
Did we not find you orphan?

Prophet Ibrahim all alone did the uprising in the way of Allah and today we see the religion of Ibrahim, path of Ibrahim is blossoming. Moosa did the uprising alone, and brought the change. Moosa heard it and in short time Pharaoh is drowned. This is the beginning.

At times people ask what is our responsibility, how to do it, and what method?  This confusion is because we do not find the solutions from Quran. Every person is in the thoughts of making a trust, organization (Tanzeem), party, federation and become its president forever. The Quran is teaching an easy method, that you rise and if you rise alone two others will rise with you and then four more and then this will then turn into a global movement. This movement in Arabic language is known as Intifada, which means rising. Intifada does not means throwing stones, breaking glasses. Intifada means rising in the way of Allah. To start an uprising (Qayam) you need minimum one person. Is there not a single person we can find?

Like all of you people listening and reading, are you not counted as one person in your society? Allah wanted only one that this one should start uprising. We indulge into majority, we have a democratic mindset where elections are going on in mosques, parties, federations. If even one person is there who understands the purpose and starts the uprising. This is not the condition that if someone else does than only I will do, this is not the condition of becoming an Ummah. The one who says that if someone else does than I will do it; this means that you do not have courage to become an Ummah. You can then only become a community with feuds, looters and usurpers who can deceive others.

To start an uprising (Qayam) in the way of Allah you need only one person. The ground is fertile and we don’t need to put a lot of efforts. These things were difficult to speak, talk, make people understand and do it prior to the Islamic Revolution hence no one was doing it and understanding it. But today the ground is ready. We cannot say that if we start an uprising there might not be anyone to listen to me. You just take the message of truth and present to people; do this experiment and see how many will be ready to listen to you. There are people who have experienced and it has happened. It also happens at times that the one who is awakened moves ahead of the one who was awakening. Like someone was sleeping and you woke him up, he got ready and now he is walking faster than the one who awakened him. He is clever, smart and fit. Thus Ummah means to rise, establish and coming into a state movement.

Here the Quran has talked about a very fine and precise point which we find very astonishing and strange. Our customary, traditional and habituated intellect does not allow us to think precisely. The Quran has presented an example of this that this can happen, one person can become an Ummah. But the Quranic policy is that this work of reformation, awakening, movement, change will be brought by a minority only and not by majority. We are afraid of being in minority and think our being in minority is a deficiency and an incorrect path. This is a mischievous thinking that we should be going where majority is going, Quran says majority are like flock of sheep, blindly following others. Quran says for majority, Aksarahum La Yaasheroon, La Yaaqeloon, La Yalamaoon. Majority does not have sense, Aql, do not understand and it is never possible that an awakening or uprising happens in a vast manner in majority. This is because majority is always blindly following to walk behind others. If a minority gets awakened and gets into movement then majority will walk behind them. The Islamic Revolution was brought by a minority whom the majority follows. Previously the majority was walking behind a corrupt minority and when the revolutionary minority came they started to follow them. And we thought everyone is revolutionary which is not true. Only a minority was actually revolutionary and majority were following them. Even in wrong things a minority does evil and majority follows them.

Now you decide for yourself whether you want to be amongst minority or majority? Nahjul Balagha says that majority are Hamajun Ra’aa which means flock of sheep. The flock has a specialty that wherever there is a whistle they follow, wherever one animal is walking they follow. Thus an awakened minority can make the majority to follow them. Wherever there is no awakening, the problem is not with majority, the problem is with minority. Where absolutely nothing is happening this means even one person is not awakened there. And it is not that this one is not present; they are present but they should understand their role. The prophets were not looking for a force but a minority which they did not get. Imam Hujjat (a.t.f.s) is not waiting for a majority but a minority. As per some elders the minority equivalent to that in Karbala. The uprising of Doyen of Martyrs (a.s) was not with majority and this much minority is fine to change the course of majority.

Dominance Of Minority Over Majority - Taloot And Jaloot In Quran

Quran also presents this principle that the dominance is of minority over majority. There is an incident in this context in Surah Baqarah which starts in verse 246 and ends in verse 251. These collection of verses need to be understood. These verses are not for Istikhara; people try to find marriage problems from verses of Jihad. They pick a verse (Ayah) and say that the Istikhara is negative because the verse related to hell or punishment has come. This verse is not for that purpose instead it is saying not to do this thing else you will go to Hell. There is an act mentioned in the verse and not that this verse is meant for a particular act which you are planning to do Istikhara for.

Prophet Moosa came and created an awakening in Bani Israel and after many difficulties took this community out from a disgraceful life. Bani Israel was a very stubborn and ignorant community and biggest difficulty for them was to follow someone. The system of Pharaoh had left a big impact on the temperament of Bani Israel. In our subcontinent we have various similar problems; first of all we don’t have anyone to awaken but more than the problems which are there in front of our generations are those which we have inherited in our lives from the British system that governed us for centuries. Our forefathers have spent their lives under the British governance system and the effect of the British culture will prevail in this community for generations till the time a Moosa comes. The Indian subcontinent community will not able to see the face of privilege (Sa’adat) till the time the effects of that dominating British system from past prevails. The system of Taghoot leaves deep impact on generations. Like in Pakistan the cause for all problems are put in the neck of illiterate people like terrorism is done by illiterates, inflation, power cuts etc. they say that majority is illiterate hence nothing is happening in the country. If you see in reality the cause for all these problems are educated people. Either those who have studied in secular schools or those in religious madrassahs have destroyed this country by their mistakes. Is there any uneducated bureaucratic or Army General or anyone in Parliament who is illiterate? This educated group has spoiled everything. Their mentality and temperament is that of slaves, they do not even think of freedom. The temperament of slavery is coming down generation after generation to which Allama Iqbal pointed out that religion of slaves is also of slavery, their Prayers are also of slavery, and everything of theirs is that of slavery. To this extent we have become feudal that we term the children of Imams also as Prince (Shahzada) and Princess (Shahzadi) and we consider this is as the highest status we are giving them. Prince is the son of King, this means in our vision King is the biggest status. Whereas the Quran says faith (Emaan) as the biggest status.  In that era the people would not call them as prince or princess, they would call Yabn Rasoolallah (progeny of Messenger of Allah) and this was the biggest honor they would give to the Imams. This is because emperorship is heavy on our minds, first of kings, emperors and then their similitude in British rule. Now this slavery has entered our genes and cannot come out easily.

Bani Israel had the same issue by doing slavery of Pharaoh for decades and now they could not understand what the Prophet is telling them. This is one reason as well that the Islamic Revolution is effective in Lebanon but not in Iraq, Pakistan, India; why? One was that there was no one to spread the message of revolution, and other was this obstacle of slavery in British Empire. Today the staunchest believing person desires his son to become privileged by sending him to Europe for education. A religious scholar also desires to get one Ashura of Majlis in Europe; maybe he thinks that Allah will accept that and not the ones he is reciting locally in his country. This slavery temperament is in everyone whereby those things which were a disgrace for us we consider those to be prestigious. There is an organization known as Commonwealth countries which are those countries that were under British rule. The true name of this organization is the organization of British slaves. It is a disgrace to become a member of this group but all these countries consider it as prestigious. We don’t know how far in generations these will effects go and it can be only stopped with the birth of Moosa. Iqbal tried to do this but could not happen. Hence Bani Israel was the same type of community.

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الْمَلَإِ مِنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مُوسَىٰ إِذْ قَالُوا لِنَبِيٍّ لَهُمُ ابْعَثْ لَنَا مَلِكًا نُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ أَلَّا تُقَاتِلُوا ۖ قَالُوا وَمَا لَنَا أَلَّا نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِنْ دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَائِنَا ۖ فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْا إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ 

Have you not considered the chiefs of the children of Israel after Musa, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Raise up for us a king, (that) we may fight in the way of Allah. He said: May it not be that you would not fight if fighting is ordained for you? They said: And what reason have we that we should not fight in the way of Allah, and we have indeed been compelled to abandon our homes and our children. But when fighting was ordained for them, they turned back, except a few of them, and Allah knows the unjust (2:246)

After Moosa Bani Israel developed crisis in their society just like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq today. The Quran says that the Ma’laa that is the elite class stood up. The Ma’laa are those elite people in the society who make trusts, organizations (Tanzeem), want to take lead in everything and do not allow youths to work. When they were not able to resolve the crisis of their community than they came to the Prophet and asked him to appoint a commander for them. The Prophet was astonished that you are asking a leader for your community; you are the people who do not move from your place and you are asking to start an uprising and want a leader? Like there are elders in every society who always say you should not talk about any protests etc. just sit and do Dua; and one day if they come and say we want to do a protest, than it is shocking. The Prophet was telling them you never wanted to fight, so why you need an army commander? They said yes but now the situation has turned worst, and we want to fight in the way of Allah نُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ

قَالَ هَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ

The prophet said I have tested you before as well; now you are saying you want to fight and want a leader but when the leader will be given to you, you will turn back and say you do not want to fight.

They again expressed the situation that it is crisis and we are charged, passionate and want to do everything. Than they emphasized and said what justification we have to not fight in the way of Allah when we have been expelled from our homes with our children.

قَالُوا وَمَا لَنَا أَلَّا نُقَاتِلَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَقَدْ أُخْرِجْنَا مِنْ دِيَارِنَا وَأَبْنَائِنَا

After listening to these arguments Allah appointed a leader from amongst them,

فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ تَوَلَّوْا إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْهُمْ

Now the Quran says when fighting was prescribed to them, they turned back except a few. We have taken this verse over here to analyze from Quran how many people are required for an uprising. To win a big encounter how many people are required, these verses are presenting this formula.

When the commander was appointed and introduced, majority turned back and very few remained. This always happens that majority does not accept it. When Imam e Zamana (a.t.f.s) will come than also majority will not accept, because majority wants the Imam to follow them and they should not follow him. Allah has not sent the Imam to do work for the Ummah but has sent the Imam to take work from Ummah.That Ummah who is sleeping will find it very difficult to get along with Imam because Imam will take away their sleep, he will make them restless, take away their comfort. Imam always puts us in difficulty whereas we are waiting for Imam to come for making our lives comfortable. Bani Israel would tell this to Moosa as well that you do not allow us to rest, sometimes you want us to protest against Pharaoh and then against Saamri. They literally said this that first Pharaoh was not allowing us to rest and now you are not allowing us to rest.

وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا ۚ

And their prophet said to them: Surely Allah has raised Taloot to be an authority over you.

Taloot was a young man, worshipper of Allah, courageous, having deep insight and was an Ummah. This was the personality of Taloot. The majority went out from here, they wanted someone from amongst the elite to become the leader. Taloot is a poor person, he has not given any donations, he has not served food even once and you have made him our leader.

وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِنَ الْمَالِ

we have a greater right to leadership than he, and he has not been granted an abundance of wealth?

The fault they found in Taloot was that he is not having wealth. The leader should have money so that at least he can serve food, tea when people visit him. You have made a leader for us who has no money.

Allah replied that for leadership money is not the criteria instead the criteria for leadership as per Quran are:

ۚ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَزَادَهُ بَسْطَةً فِي الْعِلْمِ وَالْجِسْمِ

He said: Surely Allah has chosen him in preference to you, and He has increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique

This is the Quranic condition of leadership for everywhere and not just for Bani Israel. Quran has come for everyone. The Quran has triggered this discussion so that the Muslims can know that cowardly person cannot be leader and one who is not knowledgeable cannot be the leader also.

Than their prophet showed them one sign, which we will leave it.

فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُمْ بِنَهَرٍ فَمَنْ شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَمَنْ لَمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي إِلَّا مَنِ اغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةً بِيَدِهِ ۚ فَشَرِبُوا مِنْهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْهُمْ

So when Taloot departed with the forces, he said: Surely Allah will try you with a river; whoever then drinks from it, he is not of me, and whoever does not taste of it, he is surely of me, except he who takes a scoop with his hand as much of it as fills the hand;

Now Taloot made an army and left for battle. They were all tired and there was a sweet water stream on the way. Taloot said no one should drink water from this stream. They said what kind of leader is this, he is not allowing us to even drink free water; so what will happen later. This stream is of Allah not his own and we are also thirsty, so we cannot walk with this leader. We desired for someone else and he is something else. We desired that he will make us the secretary of Public treasury (Bayt-ul-Maal) whereas he is not even allowing us to use free things. Taloot said that those who drink water from the river they are not from our army and should leave us. And one who does not drinks is from us but if someone is dying with thirst, he can drink one scoop. This is how divine leaders need to be followed.

When the permission of drinking was given for a scoop, some went to drink and drank in full. Since the condition was that those who drink are not from us, so now again at this river one more group left. Than they crossed the river as the Quran says. فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُthe path of anyone who steps out in the way of Allah comes across this river. This river is of public treasury, commercialism, earning from religion which comes in the way of everyone. Those who come on the way of Allah such rivers come in their way to keep them occupied and to test if they overcome it and come towards Allah or not. On the path of Allah you will see river coming in the way of thirsty, food in the way of hungry and shade in the way of tired people. These are the examinations for people. They have to become an Ummah and not get into these comforts. Ummah cannot get created in an air conditioned room. Though you can use these as they are not forbidden but do not use it for the sake of Allah.

Now, Taloot took one minority and went across the river and saw the army of Jaloot on the other side. Now majority amongst these minority became disturbed and accused Taloot that you have deceived us. We thought that this would be a small army but Jaloot is a superpower, can you not see his army, the muscles of his people, look at their missiles, fighter aircrafts. Look at their power and you have made us stand in front of this super power and we are handful. We do not have the courage to fight Jaloot and his army

هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ قَالُوا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ

We have no power against Taloot and his forces

But in this small minority there were few who had faith in the union (Liqa) with Allah, on Martyrdom and they said

قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلَاقُو اللَّهِ

Those who were sure that they would meet their Lord said:

These people who were certain about their union with Allah, who believed in the prestigious death of Martyrdom raised this slogan which is necessary for every human being till the day of judgement, for everyone who comes out in the way of Allah even in minority. They said

كَمْ مِنْ فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ

How many a small number has overcome large numbers by the will of Allah

They said Allah’s law is not that majority overcomes minority, in fact the law of Allah is that few overcome the majority. But only that minority who fulfils those conditions and do not desire to drink sweet water from the streams on the way, those who do not like to sit on the river banks to enjoy cool breeze, those who despite of means of comfort available step out in the way of Allah empty handed.

وَاللَّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
And Allah is with the patient;

Those who have patience which means perseverance (Istiqamat), who keep on struggling, resisting and bear every calamity. One condition in this minority should be that they possess patience which means those who resist by bearing pain. This is not the patience (Sabr) which we have distortedly understood which means remain quiet and do not do anything. Patience means the path which you have adopted, now bear all the difficulties on this path and keep on moving.

وَلَمَّا بَرَزُوا لِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ قَالُوا رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًا وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ{250}

And when they went out against Jaloot and his forces they said: Our Lord, pour down upon us patience, and make our steps firm and assist us against the unbelieving people

This minority which got divided so many times, were left with very few. This was the little minority who overcome a big superpower. And see what their prayer in this verse was. They were not asking Allah to destroy these enemies, break their swords and seal their hearts. These were not their invocation. See what they are asking:  Grant us patience, make our feet’s firm and help us against the infidels.

So now you see what was the secret behind success of Hezbollah? Was there anything other than this? One small minority of Hezbollah dominated over the Jaloot of this era, and the Jaloot of this era is much more powerful than that Jaloot. Today we say that Sayed Nasrallah is not a Mujtahid, there are other senior clerics present. Like these Ma’laa (elite class) of Bani Israel say today for the Supreme Leader, that how come he is the leader, there are others present who are senior to him. He is not having a proper book of Islamic laws as well; he does not grants permission of collecting Khums. Just see who the youngest person in this minority group was. Quran presents a beautiful message over here.

فَهَزَمُوهُمْ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَقَتَلَ دَاوُودُ جَالُوتَ

And Dawood slew Jaloot

It is worthy to pay attention here that Jaloot was not killed by the hands of Taloot, he was killed by a young child in the army of Taloot. Taloot was a youth and this child was much younger than him and he came forward and slew Jaloot. And then Allah granted a big kingdom to Dawood

وَآتَاهُ اللَّهُ الْمُلْكَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَعَلَّمَهُ مِمَّا يَشَاءُ

And were it not for Allah's repelling some men with others

The foundation of a big government was laid by this child. And then Prophet Suleiman inherited the great empire from Dawood. The most esteemed Islamic empire was established by Suleiman which were from the efforts of Dawood. A big majority started and gradually broke apart, but finally they achieved success with a very little minority. We start some work with a big group and then when divisions happen we get scared and get demotivated. Taloot’s courage did not come down even when majority left him; he did not act with pragmatism and clearly said those who drink water from the river they are not with me.  When they drank he acted upon that you are not with me, get out from here. We would have been there, we would have told Taloot that you need people, you need big army because Jaloot is superpower. If they are drinking some water, let them drink but do not create division, let them be with you as you will need them to confront Jaloot. He refused and said that those who want to come on this path will have to come with these conditions and people started to reduce. When the final encounter happened, there were few left with him and this child was with him who did this big achievement. The slogan which this minority raised was

كَمْ مِنْ فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ

When a small child does the pledge that I can do this, he does it in a young age. In many such places ordinary people have done this. Taloot was accused that you do not have wealth. Allah intentionally made an unemployed person as the commander, else if he would have been rich he might have taken the people to the farms and factory to work. Hence Allah did not make a commercial person as a leader, he made that person as the leader who had faith on Allah’s provisioning (Rizq). The Quran has narrated this incident to guide us about the principle of movement. Thus always a minority requires those who can submit to the path of Allah with courage, perseverance, fearlessly and not backing off. They are the ones who can fight internal and external problems, and who do not come under any pressure. It is not that we just see the hundred years old incident in Quran, we can look today also. These youths of Islamic Revolution who sacrificed their lives for the Islamic Revolution, also could have gone to universities in Europe, they could also have preferred to adopt a comfortable life and also in outward they were very beautiful and smart looking.  We have seen them in their lives, they were so beautiful and still they got themselves used in the way of Allah. It is the efforts of these youths which has made this lamp of guidance burning across the world in the name of the system of Wilayat e Faqeeh. They were youths like us but they have pledged that they have to do this.

In the encounter of Haqq (righteousness) and Baatil (falsehood) success comes to the follower of Haqq (righteous, truthful) provided they have certain qualities inside them. The general norm today is that success is only where there is majority but the Quranic criteria is different from this. In Nahjul Balagha; Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says and expresses that there are certain signs and paths of victory. In which to be in majority is not the condition. This terminology of Mujahideen and Qaedoon, should be expressed in more simple way so that it becomes clear. Since the word Mujahid is used more for physical battles only, the picture that comes in our mind is that of sword and guns. This is one type of objective reference (Misdaq) of Jihad, but Jihad does not mean every time a war; in fact Quran for war uses the word (slaughter) Qital. Jihad means struggle, activity. In the Quranic terminology Mujahid means active people. Against Mujahid the term used is Qa’ood, those who are sitting and not doing anything. Either they are watching as spectators or running their business. The question that comes up is that in which field they are non-active? They are active in their business, factory and at home. Non-active person does not mean he does not do anything, the Quran says he is non active for Ummah, religion though he might be active for his own self. This active group fights in battle, spreads religion, defends religion, guides majority, does Amr Bil Maroof (summon good values) and Nahi Anal Munkar (forbid evils) and propagates religion. Since Amr Bil Maroof and Nahi Anal Munkar is an activity (movement) hence the one who performs this is Mujahid. Activity means to do something in that field which has been ordained for human being. The person who is doing routine work is doing some acts but an active person is present in every field where he should be. In Quranic terminology Mujahid are those who are active and Ahle Qa’ood are those who are not doing anything for religion and Ummah. The religion and Ummah is dependent on Active people, and non-active people becomes a burden for people and they develop a sleeping environment in the society.

Like when you go to Ziarat and Hajj some persons are not active at all, they need someone to wake them up and make them sit in bus. The active person is the one who has an inspiration inside his self which makes him do the work; it is not he is active because of pressure. If you see at home mother is very active. No one wakes her up, she does everything on her own and entire house is moving on her own. The children sleep, eat, and not do anything and mother does everything. If a woman becomes active in a house, the entire house moves. If all are active than it is Nooran Ala Noor. The house becomes active and progresses with a weak person, that is woman and even man gets his needs fulfilled. If man gets active than he has more strength and power but for household work man does not have inspiration.

Allah has not appreciated non active persons anywhere, he has only appreciated active persons.

فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنْفُسِهِمْ عَلَى الْقَاعِدِينَ دَرَجَةً

Number Of Active Persons In A Society

Always majority would not be active. To become active there has to be an internal motivation, inspiration which arouses person. What is that? It is not knowledge, though its gives direction and strengthens but does not arouses. You can see many educated and knowledgeable persons who are not active. We say also that he knows everything but does not do anything. This is because he needs something else inside him to develop movement. We can say that there is a car with wheels but does not move, just wheels are not enough something else is also required for the car to develop movement. The tyres are not developing movement but they move. That thing which arouses something is pain (dard).  What is pain, do we have the right introduction? Something else has to come with knowledge than it becomes pain. Pain is that feeling which troubles man, hence not every feeling is Pain. There is a feeling of happiness as well but we cannot call it pain. Pain is that feeling and understanding which troubles man. For this a living conscience and heart is required. Like if you see the heel of the feet, it pains less because it is hard and not living. If you pierce something in it, the pain is not realized very quickly. Why the heel does not pains quickly, because it is hard, but if you see the palm, it is soft and immediately pains. If the heart is hard it does not develops pain inside it. The Quran says Qasawat that is hardness of heart. How does heart becomes hard? The Quran answers that through many things; like desires, lust and love of world. The more you keep on adding these things the heart will become more and more hard. This will cease the development of feelings in heart and even if feeling get developed it will not give or turn into pain. Today we listen to the news of atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan but we do not have any feeling or the feeling does not pains us because the heart has become very hard. There are many things which man has to prevent himself from than only knowledge, religion develops pain inside him. The heart which has become hard like the heel hence oppression, downtrodden people, poor, destitute do not develop pain inside it. Instead he becomes lost in his world and does not feel the pain. When bounties have drowned them and intoxicated them than nothing makes them painful.

Thus to become Mujahid we have to become active and then only we become Allah’s favourite. Allah’s says those who are only concerned about their own are non-active beings. Active ones are those who rise and this inspiration only comes in the hearts which are soft. And heart is soft when man takes precaution from certain things like lust, desires, love of world. The world in which we are living and the environment that is made, the culture which is prevailing over us is making our hearts hard. If you watch TV, sit on internet, go to market, all these make our hearts hard and it forgets about the pains. In this involvement, we need to be clever and wise, because there is also one more element related to Pain that those who cannot sense (Behisi) and see what problems others are going through cannot develop pain. Then for lavish and affluent people Quran says they can never develop pain inside them. When there is no pain than nothing can rise and inspire them. They are scholars from Islamic seminaries, universities, and they understand everything but are not rising. This is because they do not have Pain.

Root Cause For Being Non-active And Lazy

One thing that makes us lazy and not painful is comfort and luxury. We should not develop the habit of being comfortable as it makes the heart lazy. Iqbal says that for the sake of comfort if you get the camel litter also and with Laila inside, then also do not accept it. You go after that Laila who is in the deserts and not inside the Litter. Do not accept comfortable things. If you see the life of Ameerul Momineen (a.s), with everything available he never made the arrangements for comfortable things. Why a person cannot wake up for worships at night or finds it difficult in getting up in morning? This is because of too much eating at night and comfortable sleep. And these comforts also keep us in some excitement. Like if you see our rooms; Air conditioning is there and it becomes the basis of comfort and if this was not there, you will not get proper sleep. Comfort makes a person drowned.

Thus Mujahid persons ignore the comfort intentionally so that they remain active. I am narrating an incident at the time of Afghan war with Russia. One Afghani commander would visit us in our Madrassah in Islamabad. We would make all the arrangements for his comfort but he would sleep on ground, he would not take a blanket, and he would take a brick as pillow. We were thinking that he was not sleeping on the bed maybe because it is not clean or something similar. We asked him and he replied that this is not the reason and he said even if for one night I sleep on this bed, I will lose my preparedness. He says if I sleep comfortably my body will give up. We have to live in mountains, deserts, in one state in cold and winter. We have developed our body with difficulties and now these comforts will take these away from us.

We always try to go towards comfort and these comfortable things take away our preparedness. In one of our journeys to the border area during the Iran Iraq war in 1984 when there were some youths who were taken to the border on a study tour to see what is going on there. It was extremely hot and the water that was kept in the bus was used up within 15 minutes and this water was meant for the entire day. To inform them that they should have patience, the guide in the bus told that you are sitting inside the bus and you got cold water, but if you see on the side of the road, there are trenches and bunkers and inside them there are youths sitting there. And these youths get one litre water in the iron bottle for 24 hrs. Thus the preparedness of the Mujahideen in the way of Allah does not comes with food, as mentioned by Maulana Rumi that the secret of Ali’s strength was not in kitchen. This was mentioned by Allama Iqbal also that:

Jahan me NaaneShaaeer par hai madaar e Quwate Haidari
The axis for strength of Haidar comes from barley bread

The dry barley bread has given the strength to Ali’s shoulders. It is not the comfort that gave strength to Ali. Thus a Mujahid, an active person has to prepare for his entire life. Everything that makes him lazy and takes away his activity and brings him under the umbrella of Qaedoon (inactively sitting) should be disliked by him. Though he has earned the comfort by himself. The money which he has earned should not be used to buy comfort in fact it should become a means of more activity for him. It is not like a flock of sheep that follows another sheep. This is not humanity that something from outside awakens him, it is something from inside that inspires and arouses him. If we someone for making us activegives us wealth, or with the force of stick, or by showing us rewards we will not be counted amongst crusaders. We will be Mujahideen only when we are inspired from inside, and this inspiration comes from pain.

You should develop the pain in your heart and when this pain gets developed a person feels it when there is oppression anywhere in the world. It is known for Shaheed Hussaini that whenever he would hear about oppression on any Muslim across the globe, he would become so upset that he would leave eating food. The greatness of these people is not that they were sitting in meetings and became famous. This is something we have to keep in front of us in our routine lives. We have to develop preparedness inside us and for this we have to refrain from comforts, even though these comforts are earned by me. You can provide the comfort to your family and children but you yourself refrain from the comfort. Now how many such Mujahideen are required to change and reform the society and situation, to control the evils and give dominance to righteousness (Haqq)?

One Mujahid Can Change The Destiny Of Society

We need minimum one active person and at times one active person is enough to change the destiny of a society. The Qaedoon (sitting ones) have their own method. They first make committees and then responsibilities are enforced on each other. Then they argue for a week why this responsibility has come on my shoulder, and try to find a way to get rid of this. They make excuse that this week I have this work, travelling, house problem, child is sick, exams are coming are all excuses to run away from responsibility. This is the sign of Qaedoon (inactively sitting persons) and if any responsibility is imposed on them then they will sit and make a committee of those who are the laziest ones, absolutely with no movement. Than say that we have made the committee and they were supposed to do this but they did not come. These are the acts of non-active persons but not active persons. Active persons pray to Allah, that if there is pain give it to us, if there is responsibility give to us, they are sacrificing one’s (those who do Isaar). Wherever there is comfort they will offer to others and wherever there is hardship he will be there. He will take hardship and sacrifice comfort.

One active person can change the situation of the country. The difference between Imam Khomeini (r.a) and others was this only not education, which was same as others. Imam had pain inside him, and this pain made him Mujahid and this one Mujahid awakened the world. Like if you call people for lecture many will come, but if there is no one to call people, than this is the sign of despair. In one area people arranged for a program and big numbers turned there. It happens at time due to certain significant religious occasion or event many people attend a program but in reality no arrangements were made for inviting people to the program. Than when successful programs are done people come to receive appreciations. They came to me to ask how the program was. I replied that it was unsuccessful but they said see the attendance. I said there has been no efforts behind the attendance and people just became because of the sanctity of the event.  There was no activity behind the program. Successful program is the one where efforts are high even if attendance is very low. Is Prophet Noah successful or not? He was successful but not on the basis of results. If you see the results he could not even get enough quantum of people to board a small ark, he had to get to animals inside it. Even after this Noah is successful. Why? This is because behind these few persons in the ark, Noah had the efforts of 950 years. I told them if you realize in this program there was a big majority but there were no efforts behind bringing them here and they just came for various other reasons, which could be food etc. To gather people is not difficult. You can see Saamri makes a calf and full society is after him and not even 10 are after Moosa. You bring any superstar people will come but this is not the criteria for success. The certificates which we will get from Allah will be for activity and not for results.

وَأَنْ لَيْسَ لِلْإِنْسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَىٰ
What is ordained for Man is his efforts. (53:39)

What would be present in the scroll of deeds? It would be your activities and not the results? Imam Khomeini’s (r.a) character presents this and he derived this from the teachings of Imams (a.s) and says as well that you should not be result oriented but efforts oriented. You should become heedless about results, whether they come out or not. If the results come it is Noor over Noor. We will be questioned for efforts. Some people get despaired that we spend so much money and nothing comes out. Some people get frustrated that after doing little they are expecting big results and loose temper. They get short tempered because they are expecting quick and big results. We should be annoyed when we have not done something, or today I have not done anything. Efforts are your activity and even if we are in minority.

We mentioned before the incident of Taloot, that a small minority overcomes the majority. This is a Quranic principle presented in these verses. Today we say that in Pakistan there are millions of Shia’s and the forces that are made to succumb Shia’s were only with two hundred persons when they were made. All the terrorist groups against Shias accounted to 200. Now you see, if Shias are 20 Million and they are 200, these 20 million succumbed to 200. What created this situation? It was their activity. These 200 were active and they dominated over 20 million. If you see in Lebanon, few thousand forces of Lebanon dominated the big army of Israel. Who gave them dominance? Their activity, movement. They were more prepared and active as compared to the enemies.

This is a Quranic formula which is mentioned in Battle of Badr as well where Muslims were very few against Infidels but they won the battle. This was because they were prepared to put in their efforts. This preparedness needs to be developed it does not comes by default. Even if we are in millions and do not do anything rather than just discussing things in drawing room. Like in Mohurrum how many people come out in processions, what difference it makes on the people? In Hajj you see millions of rich people come there but what difference it makes on the affairs of Muslims? Why? This is because this a congregation of non-active persons. But if one Hajj of 100 persons like Hezbollah is done, than the same year the destiny of Muslim world will change.  If active persons come and sit in Seminaries (Hauza e Ilmia); like from India, than one Seminary is enough to change the destiny of Muslims of India, provided active persons come and sit in Seminaries. The teacher and students both should be active. If there is activity than only the Madrassah can give result. You see the Madrassahs of Taliban, these students took over entire Afghanistan. But look at our students, they can’t even capture the Mosque and pulpit which is their rights. Can one theological student go and say I want to recite Majlis from pulpit but see the enemies, the Taliban captured everything. The results come out of activity and not just of desires. There is no doubt our desires are very pure but these pure desires do not give results. How many such active persons we need? Only few.

If you analyse the life of Infallible Imams, their desires were only these few persons. They needed few active persons whom they could not get. This is why Aba Abdallah (a.s) says that the companions I got were not with anyone else. This is why we see that such a big historic encounter was done by them.  We talk about the thirsty ones by distributing water, we remember the hungry ones by cooking food but we forget that they were prepared to bear this thirst and hunger, but they did not cry and plead for such things. Even by discussing about them we should get the preparedness inside us, but what we see is that our inclinations towards more and more food, etc. is increasing day by day in Azadari. They were prepared and when active persons are born, than there is no concern about how many.

Silence Is An Oppression And Crime

In sermon number 201 in Nahjul Balagha, Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says:

أَيُّهَا النَّاس،ُ لاَ تَسْتَوْحِشُوا فِي طَرِيقِ الْهُدَىُ لِقِلَّةِ أَهْلِه،ِ فَإِنَّ
النَّاسَ قَدِ اجْتَمَعُوا عَلَى مَائِدَة شِبَعُهَا قَصِير،ٌ وَجُوعُهَا طَوِيل.ٌ

O people! Do not be desolate at the small number of those who follow the right path,
because people throng only round the table (of this world) where the duration of satiety is
short and its hunger is prolonged. (means leave the majority because the followers of truth are always less and majority are always after short term worldly gains)

أَيُّهَا النَّاس،ُ إِنَّمَا يَجْمَعُ النَّاسَ الرِّضِى وَالسُّخْط،ُ وَإِنَّمَا عَقَرَ نَاقَةَ
ثَمُودَ رَجُلٌ وَاحِدٌ فَعَمَّهُمُ اللهُ تَعَالَى بالْعَذَابِ لَمَّا عَمُّوهُ بالرِّضَى،
فَقَالَ سُبْحَانَه:ُ )فَعَقَرُوهَا فَأَصْبَحُوا نَادِمِين،(َ فَمَا كَانَ إِلاَّ أَنْ
خَارَتْ أَرْضُهُمْ بِالْخَسْفَةِ خُوَارَالسِّكَّةِ الْـمُحْمَاةِ فِي الاْرْضِ
الْخَوَّارَة.ِ أَيُّهَا النَّاس،ُ مَنْ سَلَكَ الطّرِيقَ الْوَاضِحَ وَرَدَ الْمَاء،َ وَمَنْ

O people, certainly, what gathers people together (in categories) is (their) agreement (to
good or bad) and (their) disagreement, for only one individual killed the camel of Thamud
but Allah held all of them in punishment because all of them consented to it. Thus, Allah,
the Glorified. has said:
Then they hamstrung her, and turned (themselves) regretful.(26:157).
Then their land declined by sinking (into the earth) as the spike of a plough pierces
unploughed weak land. O people, he who treads the clear path (of guidance) reaches the
spring of water, and whoever abandons it strays into waterless desert.

He says a community is made up by رِّضِى وَالسُّخْط،ُ (pleased) which means silence. Those things on which you remain silent it means you are pleased and in agreement with it. People are silent on many things, like oppression where people are silent. As per Imam Ali’s (as) logic all those who are silent on oppression are pleased and in agreement with it. If you are not pleased than express your disagreement by your acts. As per a poet that even if your body and limbs are captive but at least open your tongue. There should be some pleadings, sighs, raising of voice at least some means to express that you are not pleased. If you do not speak for any reason, pragmatism than as per Nahjul Balagha you will be counted amongst oppressors.

He says: “To be pleased on one thing unites people”إِنَّمَا يَجْمَعُ النَّاسَ الرِّضِى وَالسُّخْط،ُ

We have seen recently and every day severe oppression takes place but all those scholars, ordinary people remain silent not saying something and hence they are with oppressors. How it is possible that one person does oppression and rest all are also counted with him? Today these billions of Muslims who are silent will be made to stand with the oppressors. In Karbala all those who remained silent will be counted with oppressors. The same meaning was expressed by Lady Zainab (s.a) as well in her sermon.  Ameerul Momineen (a.s) gave the justification and answer to this point as well with the incident of Thamud.

Thamud was a community which Quran also mentions. Allah aroused a Prophet by the name of Saleh in that community. And Allah gave him a miracle in the form of a she camel. The community of Thamud was not happy with this she camel and one accursed person went forward and hamstrung the she camel. After this incident Allah punished the entire community. The hamstrung was done by one person but everyone was punished under what divine wisdom? The wisdom was the all were pleased and in agreement with this act of oppression. They have not signed or made agreement that we are pleased, but their silence was a proof that they were pleased. No one went and told or protested that not to do this. If the feet of one she camel is hamstrung then Quran declares this as oppression, so if the grandson of prophet is killed along with his family than is this not oppression? Today Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and other Muslim lands are cut to pieces but the entire world has become silent spectators, so will these spectators be not counted with the hamstrung? The importance of this Ummah of Prophet (s.a.w.s) is not even equivalent to the she camel of Saleh? Thus silence is a crime.

Active persons do not see that if some elder is silent I should also remain silent. Let him be silent. If you see an infant crying, the infant does not sees that if mother and father are not crying so I should also not cry. When the child feels the pain of hunger he cries. You should not get yourself counted with oppressors for the sake of obedience of elders. Sometime people say scholars are not speaking, let them not speak. You do not declare your acceptance and agreement with oppressors with your silence. Wherever you have to speak, you should speak.

Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says: the she camel was hamstrung by one person and Allah punished the entire community of Thamud because they were in agreement to this act. Then in the end he presents another fundamental point for societies when he says;

O People! Only those who walk on clear enlightened path reach the water and those who do not walk on clear paths become wandered.

Wandering And Confused Communities

Today we have both the examples present. Wandering communities mean confused people who always say what should be done now, we cannot do anything, why should we do, what is the need to do something. Today everyone in these oppressed lands like Iraq, Pakistan and other nations where Muslim states are present are confused but not a single member of Hezbollah is confused. This is because they have selected the clear path but these people in these places could not find the path. The clear path of Hezbollah is not welfare activities, it is the path which the leader of Hezbollah himself has said that it is following Wilayat-e-Faqeeh.  Imamat was the clear path after the Messenger and Ummah would not have wandered if they would have followed Imamat and by not following it till date they are confused.

Like if you see in Pakistan there is nothing other than confusion. Is there confusion present in Shia or not?  How will this be confusion be removed? Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that if someone walks on clear path he reaches the result else wandering around is the only outcome. If people put doubts on clear path by saying that this path of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh is of Iran, what it has to do with us? Why we should we tread on this? These are satanic whispers.

Mamtoora €� The Whispering Satan

At the time of Imam Haadi (a.s) there was a group present to whom He (a.s) gave the name of Mamtoora. Mamtoora is a bitch (female dog) wet in rain water that makes the entire environment dirty by shaking her body (a dog that gets wet in rain, when it moves under a shade or shelter it shakes itself and water splashes all over which is Najis (impure) that makes everything where it falls impure). All this confusion is due to Mamtoora which are very common in India, Pakistan and have spread their confusion all over. The Quran also wants to remain protected from this.

الَّذِي يُوَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ

This is human Khannas who whispers in people, creates doubt and takes them away from religion. Some people do not know but unintentionally do the work of Khannas.

Mamtoora was that group who did not believe in Wiilayat of Imam Raza (a.s), Imam Taqi (a.s) and Imam Naqi (a.s). They would spread confusion and whispers everywhere. Any gathering they would go, they would say Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) is in occultation and Imam Raza (a.s) is not his successor. Wilayat has not reached him. This was such an impure work that Imam (a.s) gave this group the title of Mamtoora. There is a need to enlighten the clear path, else you deprive your community.

Doubts And Suspicions On Wali-e-Faqeeh

It is astonishing that in India, there is not much relationship with Wilayat-e-Faqeeh but there is strong bonding and following of local political parties like Congress and BJP. This is wandering. The Shias of Pakistan do not follow a Faqeeh but follow Peers, smugglers, orators. This means a Faqeeh (a religious Jurist) is worst then a corrupt oppressive Minister in India? A Faqeeh is worse than tyrant army Generals of Pakistan, corrupt political leaders? Some Shias said that General Parvez Musharraf is Ameer-e-Mukhtar of this era. These are people who have veils on their Aql. Today the Mamtoora’ s are more impure than of that era who give permissions to the people to vote any tyrant though the clear path of Wilayat is in front of them.  Those Mamtoora were saying that you should not accept Imam Raza, Imam Jawad and Imam Haadi as your Wali but they were not saying that as a replacement you should consider Bani Umayyah or Bani Abbas as your Wali. They would say that do not accept these living Imams as your Wali but consider Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) as Wali as he is in Ghaibat (occultation). But today’s Mamtoora say that you should not consider the system of Wilayat , that Wali e Faqeeh as your Wali but accept the tyrants as your Wali; that too those tyrants who are worse than Bani Umayyah and Bani Abbas. These are Mamtoora.

There are certain groups on which these facts are not clear and there is no one to present them also clearly. Even in the revolutionary circle there are many who can express the virtues of Wali-e-Faqeeh but there are not many who can open this subject, define it precisely and express its principles. We have so many scholars that too coming from Qom Seminary; that Seminary which runs under the supervision of Wali e Faqeeh and those scholars who are coming from this seminary cannot speak two sentences on Wali e Faqeeh. This is the tragedy and pain.  If there are doubts present in the people’s minds than these doubts are justified because on one hand the Mamtoora’ s have done the propaganda to take people away from this system and on the other hand there is no one to clarify those doubts. When people raise these questions as what is the use of that Wali e Faqeeh who is sitting in Iran for me when I am sitting in India and Pakistan. These questions come up in the minds of people and there should be an answer to this. Like another question that if Wali e Faqeeh is in one country than can the followers of other country be his followers? This is a correct question and it should be answered. Can there be two Wali e Faqeeh? Like when Bush attacked Iraq there were some people who God forbid were thinking that Malik-e-Ashtar has come.  There is a city in Pakistan where Shia’s used (a.s) Alaihis Salaam with the name of Bush; i.e. Bush (a.s).

Today there is no one to go and explain the facts; those whose responsibilities was to do this; those who have eaten from the Public treasury (Bayt-ul-Maal) of religion it was the prime duty to go and explain religion to people. After 34 yrs. people do not know what Wilayat e Faqeeh is; this is a tragedy. There are certain doubts which needs to be clarified that if there are two Wali e Faqeeh than what will happen. If there is a Wali e Faqeeh in Iran; then also the Council of Assembly experts in Iran is not having our representative. These answer need proper clarifications. And if we give proper logical answers these doubts will be clarified because people have pure hearts and they have been confused with these thoughts. Even if they do not accept but we should at least present so that there is accomplishment of Hujjat.

Concealing Of Truth (Haqq) By Scholars

The religion of Islam is the true religion and its propagation (Tableegh) has been ordered by Allah on every men, women and individual as obligatory. It is there in narration that when Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) will come, he will have encounters with various groups, and one group with whom he will have encounter is the one who does not have proper understanding of religion and hence are not propagating as well. Those who created deviations and corruption in religion have been always present. The Quran is witness and presents Jews as that community who distorted and corrupted their religion. It is not something easy to corrupt a religion; for this you need scholars of religion and the Jewish scholars have done this. Similarly Christianity has not been distorted by the Christian masses, in fact it has been corrupted by their priests and pope. Even if you see the Islamic world the corruption has taken place by this scholarly group only, whereby some false scholars enter religion to whom Quran terms as traders or lovers of the world. وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا بِآيَاتِي ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا .  This means those who sell the religion of Allah and in the name of religion they take lowly compensation or in other words we can say that their profession is to earn from religion. They become the basis of destruction of religion and develop distortions within religion and whatever people listen from them people only consider that as religion. Thus Quran has condemned them and asked them why you mix righteousness (Haqq) with falsehood (Baatil)وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ

The second point here is that they hide righteousness (Haqq), وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ. Allah has descended righteousness (Haqq) so that it can reach those deserving. This is the reason that Allah cursed the scholars of Jews and Christians for their concealing of truth (Haqq) and one of the practical interpretations of this concealment was the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). The Quran says that they were familiar with the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s) to the extent of their familiarization of their own children.

الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ ۖ وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِنْهُمْ لَيَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

Those whom We have given the Book recognize him as they recognize their sons, and a party of them most surely conceal the truth while they know (it). (2:146)

It is possible that a person can do mistake in recognizing someone else but not in recognition of his own children. By just looking at the style, face and listening to the voice he can say that he is my son. Now with such precise recognition available with them at the time when Prophet (s.a.w.s) was aroused the scholars of Jews did not inform the people that this is the divine Messenger whom we have been waiting for since centuries. This is why Quran cursed them. 

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالْهُدَىٰ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا بَيَّنَّاهُ لِلنَّاسِ فِي الْكِتَابِ ۙ أُولَٰئِكَ يَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّاعِنُونَ 

Surely those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance that We revealed after We made it clear in the Book for men, these it is whom Allah shall curse, and those who curse shall curse them (too) (2:159)

That which has been descended with clear signs of Allah when it is concealed from people they are accursed and it is a crime that they did not inform the people about the leader who has been sent by Allah for the salvation of the Ummah.

The Doyen of Martyrs (a.s) said in his sermon of Mina that the secret which I am going to reveal to you now do not tell to everyone but only to those who are worthy of it and whatever I am saying just pay attention to it and do not accept it blindly. In the first part of the sermon he expressed the virtues of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) and then he presented the current situation of the Muslim world (the father of Yazid was the ruler at the time and Yazid had not yet come into power). He expressed as to what is happening in such a big Islamic state, what is the centre doing and what is happening within the government. Than he narrated the verse of Quran which criticizes the scholars of Jews

لَوْلَا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالْأَحْبَارُ عَنْ قَوْلِهِمُ الْإِثْمَ وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ ۚ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ

Why do not the learned men and the jurists of law prohibit them from their speaking of what is sinful and their eating of what is unlawfully acquired? Certainly evil is that which they work. (Maidah-63)

لُعِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ عَلَىٰ لِسَانِ دَاوُودَ وَعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوْا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ

Those who disbelieved from among the children of Israel were cursed by the tongue of Dawood and Isa, son of Marium; this was because they disobeyed and used to exceed the limit. (Maidah -78)

كَانُوا لَا يَتَنَاهَوْنَ عَنْ مُنْكَرٍ فَعَلُوهُ ۚ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ

They used not to forbid each other the hateful things (which) they did; certainly evil was that which they did. (Maidah – 79)

تَرَىٰ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ يَتَوَلَّوْنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ۚ لَبِئْسَ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لَهُمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ أَنْ سَخِطَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ

وَفِي الْعَذَابِ هُمْ خَالِدُونَ

You see many of them making friends with those who disbelieve. Surely evil is that which their selves send before for them (as their storage in the hereafter), and Allah’s wrath is on them, and in the chastisement shall they abide. (Maidah – 80)

Imam Hussain (a.s) expresses that Allah in these verses is not cursing the Jews for their being Jews but instead for certain things which they were not doing. One was that they were not doing Amr bil Maroof; people were indulged in evils in front of their eyes but they were not prohibiting them from these evils. Truth (Haqq) was evident in front of them but they would not reveal it. They were associated with the Kings in courts, governments and were getting money from them; hence they were afraid that if we express the truth our income would end. Than he addressed the scholars of his time and said that your respect in your society is due to your knowledge and this respect is to such extent that if someone states that I live in the street of this scholar than people even respect that person. This means a scholar was respected to this extent that due to him his neighbour were also respected. Then he said that in front of your eyes the limits of religion are transgressed; truth (Haqq) is concealed, religion is distorted and you do not even care a little about it. He (a.s) said that if one of your forefather’s customs is touched you bring the heavens down. Anyone who has these traits present inside him irrespective of whether they are scholars of Jew or scholars of Islam this curse is on them. These curses of Allah are like water which reaches where it has to reach.

Non Recognition Of Islamic Leadership €� An Outcome Of Concealment Of Truth

The deviation that happens due to concealment of truth (Haqq) does not gets compensated for centuries which we have seen in the Islamic world that after the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) , the leader which was appointed by Allah was concealed and till date we are suffering from this. We are wandering till date for the leader. It was not that people did not recognize the leader appointed by Allah. Everyone recognized the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s); can we say that there was someone in Ghadeer who did not knew Imam Ali (a.s)? Amidst that gathering immediately after the declaration of successorship a person wrote a poem in praise of Ali (a.s) and got commendations from the Prophet (s.a.w.s). The Prophet (s.a.w.s) told him to recite that for everyone. But two months later when the time came to bear witness to this appointment and when Lady Fatema Zahra (s.a) called everyone in Medina and to say what they said in Ghadeer; this poet did not recite the same poem again and did not declare the Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) and this same person did not do allegiance of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) even when he was given Khilafat by the people after 25 years. There were many such persons who did not accept Ameerul Momineen (a.s) as the first Imam nor as the 4^th Caliph but instead went and did allegiance on the shoes of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. These are the tragic lessons of history which are repeated in all era’s.

Quran says about one category of people that you should leave them on their own because it will be of no use to make them understand.

سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

It being alike to them whether you warn them, or do not warn them, will not believe.

خَتَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ

Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing

The Quran is telling the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s) that you should not waste your time on this category of people; there is another category who is better than them; you go and invite them and they will accept your invitation.

Imam Hussain (a.s) than in this sermon of Mina says that Allah cursed the scholars of Jews because of their deeds and then expressed the situation of that era and questioned them about their behaviour. Those who are not aware do not fall in this category yet but they need to be made aware about the circumstances.

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran everyone knows about the truth (Haqq) but still they do not mention it and Quran says they are accursed because they have not expressed the most significant precept of religion. They (Jewish scholars) were aware about the Prophet (s.a.w.s); he was mentioned in their divine book, his miracles were mentioned and it is said some Jewish scholars were such that by just looking at the face of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) they could recognize that he is the Prophet of Allah but were not ready to accept him. This is such a big oppression which has destroyed an entire Ummah. The Jews and Christians are still the same today and could not find the right path. After accepting the Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) it is necessary to follow that.

Why Wilayat-e-Faqeeh Has Not Been Accepted Or Not Spoken Out By Elderly Personalities Of Past?

These days some people quote that Wilayat-e-Faqeeh was not accepted by many elderly personalities and they have not said anything in the past about this vision and they say if this was such a significant matter than why these elders have not mentioned about it. If you compare the same with the Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) than there were many elderly personalities present in Ghadeer amongst them one was Abdullah ibn Masood. When Lady Zahra (s.a) asked him to come and just narrate what was declared in Ghadeer; he first remained silent and when she (s.a) went to his home, knocked the door he said I do not remember, my memory has gone weak. Lady Zahra (s.a) said if you are lying may you develop leprosy and second day white spots came on his body. Till day the Sunni brothers present this argument in context to the leadership of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) that if the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) had declared this than how were the companions unaware about this. Every elderly person had some justifications and reasoning with him for remaining silent and throughout they never allowed the Imams (a.s) to reach their status of implementing leadership over the Ummah. Bani Umayyah and Bani Abbas had put rigorous efforts to ensure that Ahlulbayt (a.s) should not be accepted as the Leaders of the people; the maximum status they should reach is to be considered as respected and sacred progeny of Prophet (s.a.w.s). Whenever they saw people’s inclination increasing towards the Imam, it became a threat for their own leadership than they immediately martyred the Imam. The Infallible (a.s) says that there is none amongst us who has not been martyred either by sword or by poison. Some ignorant say that Imams were not concerned with politics and they were only busy in their worships. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that if Imam’s were not concerned with politics and management of the state affairs than why were they martyred? No one comes and kills unconcerned persons.

When the British occupied Iraq in the very beginning, one British officer heard the voice of Adhan coming from outside while he was residing in the palace of Baghdad. He asked what this voice is and he got the reply that this is Adhan. The person answering started to give the details of Adhan, the officer asked him to explain briefly if this call for prayers is a threat for our government or not? The reply was that there is no threat with this call for prayer, so he said it is fine than keep giving as many Adhan’s you want. As per Iqbal

Rah Gayee rasme Adhan roohebilalinarahi
The custom of Adhan still prevails but the spirit of Bilal is missing

You can keep on giving spiritless Adhan’s everywhere it will not make any difference. According to Iqbal there is a difference between Adhan (call for prayer) of a Mujahid, Leader and that of a Mullah. The Adhan of a leader shakes the enemies. If the courts of kings had no threat from Imams, than there was no need to spoil their names by killing a silent person. There are certain historical facts which are not told to us and this is also part of concealment (Qitman) that correct religion is not presented to us which takes us towards the righteous leader. Why the elders did not present Wilayat e Faqeeh has the same answer that this is not something knew, it has been happening since the very beginning.  The Messengership of Prophet (s.a.w.s) was not presented by the elderly personalities of Jews and Christians; the Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) was not presented by the companions and not just by ordinary persons but by big personalities. Their not expressing this has become a Hujjat (accomplishment of Proof) for majority of Muslims. Every distortion, superstitious customs, mischiefs were promoted but Islamic leadership was not introduced. It was not that they were not aware, they were well versed because they had the permission of taking Khums given by Imam Raza (a.s) but still were not talking about the rights of Imamat. Imam Raza (a.s) called them Mamtoora (a bitch) for this reason only that despite of knowing everything they were concealing the truth and spreading negative propaganda.

The leader of this group which Imam (a.s) referred to as Mamtoora was a big personality who denied the Imamat of Imam Raza (a.s) and this personality was appointed as a representative by Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) for an area for collection of Khums. His name was Ali Ibn Hamza Butaini. Since Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) spent a significant time in prison he had appointed representatives (Vakil) for collection of Khums and when Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) was martyred and Imam Raza (a.s) became the Imam he sent letters to all these representative to come and meet him with all the Khums collected. Ali ibn Hamza Butaini did not come and when he was pursued to come his reply was that I do not accept you as Imam though he was aware that Imam Raza (a.s) was the Imam and in fact Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) had informed him. But still he denied and created a sect by the name “Waqfia” in opposition to Imam Raza (a.s). He declared the Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) is not martyred instead he has gone in occultation (Ghaibat) and he has kept contact with me.  I am his proof on people and this sect continued till Imam e Zaman (a.t.f.s). He refused the Imamat of Imam Raza (a.s) just because if he accepts than all the collected money in his hand will be gone and it is possible that Imam Raza (a.s) might not even continue his representation. These are the people who sell the religion for the sake of this world.

Is this not a valid argument to those who pose this question that if Wilayat e Faqeeh is the correct system than why other personalities have not accepted this system? If this argument can be accepted that because elderly personalities did not accept it the system of Wilayat e Faqeeh is not correct, than the arguments which Sunni’s present about the Wilayat of Ali (a.s) is the same, that why the companions did not accept. Then we have to accept that argument as well. If someone denies or does not accepts the Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) it does not remove Ali (a.s) from the status of Wilayat. Then there were many priests of Jews and Christians who did not accept the messengership of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). With this argument all the Imams (a.s) will become questionable because they also did not have acceptance and they were also not accepted by majority. If because some personalities are not accepting Wilayat e Faqeeh, and if this becomes our argument than the same logic goes upwards to Imamat of Infallibles (a.s) and also to the Messenger (s.a.w.s). The elderly personalities were present at that time as well who did not accept Imamat due to whom today majority do not accept the Infallible Imams (a.s). There was a time when there was only one person present with Ameerul Momineen (a.s) and rest all were silent. The silence of this majority itself was a big proof on the righteousness of Ali and with that we know where truth is.

What Is The Use Of Iranian Wilayat-e-Faqeeh System On Non-Iranians?

A question raised is that at present the system of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh is implemented in Iran so what will be the use of this system for people outside Iran. This question is the result of improper understanding of the system of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh and neither has been taught properly. Even within Iran the exegesis of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh is not done to the extent it is required to be done and this is the not the duty of the leader (i.e. Wali-e-Faqeeh) himself to explain this to the people; his duty is to do the leadership and protect Islam. This duty is on the scholars and religious institutions. If these institutions and scholars would have done the correct exegesis of religion that there cannot be two contradictory paths in religion this confusion would not have developed. There is no one to clean the impurity which is being spread by the Mamtoora (bitches) today.

Now, In Iran there is an Iranian government and there is a visionary, ideological system just like there are shrines of Lady Masooma (s.a) in Qom and shrine of Imam Raza (a.s) in Mashad. So can you say that what have these shrines which are present in Iran have to do with people outside Iran? What is your argument on which you accept Imam Raza (a.s) as your Imam? This is because certain things do not belong to lands or geographies instead they are related to followers. Quran also informs this that within the Jews and Christians there was a dispute whether Ibrahim was Jew or Christian? Quran scolded them that Christianity and Judaism came later whereas Ibrahim came before them.

The Iranian President is for Iran and not for the Islamic world and whatever laws are made by the Iranian President and Parliament is for Iran only and even the Presidential elections that are done are for Iran only but Imam Raza (a.s) despite of being present on this land is global. Since last hundred years the religious people residing in India, Pakistan, Africa, Europe, America and across the world are doing Taqleed of Marja-e-Taqleed from either Iraq or Iran. There are some Pakistani Marajae also present but still majority are doing Taqleed of non Pakistani Marajae; so how is this working that people living in Pakistan doing Taqleed of an Iraqi or Iranian Marja instead of Pakistani Marja-e-Taqleed? For those who do Taqleed, they do not create confusion in Taqleed but create the same confusion in Leadership that is Wilayat-e-Faqeeh. You can do the Taqleed of an Iranian Marja but not accept the leadership of an Iranian Wali-e-Faqeeh. This is a resolved issue that if Marjaiyat of Iraq or Iran can be accepted and it has no geographic conditions than Islamic leadership cannot be also bounded by geography. And this does not stops here; when Imam e Hujjat (a.t.f.s) will come he won’t be Indian or Pakistani but followers from India and Pakistan will have to accept him. The fundamental principles of Islam are not affiliated for any specific land like Prophethood, Imamat are not specific to any geography. We have accepted the man made geographical boundaries created amongst us. The boundaries of Muslims is Ideology and not geography, and when Imam (a.t.f.s) will reappear there won’t be any geographical boundaries. You will have to accept Him (a.t.f.s) wherever he is present as a Leader. Geography cannot divide us.

This is not just specific to us it is with every community like the Jews who are present across the world and they have even illegitimately occupied Palestine and established Israel over there. Their leader stays in Europe but today all Jews across the globe consider themselves associated with him. The Ismaeli’s are across the world and their leader stays in France so has geography become an obstacle for them?

If man thinks little he can himself find the answer, now how this leadership is associated with us is the continuance of the same aspect which we explain now in more details.

What Is Difference Between The Wilayat Of Infallible Imam And Wilayat Of A Faqeeh?

There are four types of Wilayat.

There are four general categorization of Wilayat (Guardianship).

1. General Wilayat (i.e. friendship)
2. Gnostic Wilayat (i.e. proximity with Allah)
3. Theological Wilayat (i.e. the position of the Prophets, which is also known as Ideological Wilayat or positional)
4. Political Wilayat (i.e. governance)

You should ask those who create doubts about Wilayat as to what is meant by Wilayat? Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that some people discuss about Islam but they don’t know if Islam is written with “Seen” or with “Suad”. Majority of the people have just heard the name of Wilayat but in reality they don’t even know the spelling of Wilayat. The Sunnis say the announcement that was done on Ghadeer was this Generic Wilayat i.e. of friendship which is also present in Quran whereby it is said Awliya Allah, which means friends of Allah.

Gnostic Wilayat has stages and the doors of this Wilayat is open to all human beings but its esteemed positions are specific and in this context even Lady Zahra (s.a) is the Wali of Allah.

Theological Wilayat (which is appointment at a position) implies that Allah (s.w.t) has selected certain personalities for the position of Imamat (i.e. Leadership) and has granted a position and status to them. This Wilayat is specific to these personalities and is granted by Allah hence irrespective of the efforts which man can put he can never reach this position of Theological Wilayat. Man can reach the status of Gnostic Wilayat (Irfan) but cannot reach the status of Theological Wilayat (the reason why it is termed as Theological Wilayat is because discussion about Theological science is done in this).

The Political Wilayat (Guardianship in Governance) means running the affairs of society which we also call as Wilayat e Tashree (Wilayat by laws); which means Allah has given the rights of governance to some by his permission. This Wilayat is similar to the Wilayat which the parents have over children; it does not mean friendship because children are also under the authority of the parents. When Allah says; Allah is your Wali, the word Wali is used for both friend and governor. When Allah says I am your Wali means the system of Allah is Wilayat and rest all are the systems of Samri’s calf (The Samri’s calf is everything that is made against Divine systems) and it is mentioned in Quran that one who does not live as per the system of Allah; he is out from the religion of Allah. One who does not makes their system in accordance with the system of Allah he is outside the religion of Allah. The way Imam (a.s) says that you should not refer to these tyrannical governments who have made systems other than the system of Wilayat. They are Taghoots who have made separate systems whereas all the systems that Allah has made for humanity is the system of Wilayat. Thus your home should run under the system of Wilayat but we have left Wilayat there as well. The Parents instead of Wilayat become dictators; if our parents would have practiced Wilayat inside our homes today we would not have been strangers to Wilayat-e-Faqeeh. They demonstrated dictatorship to us and we also got habituated to this dictatorship and then when we came out; this same home system got implemented to the highest possible level. Thus when a nation runs it has to run under the system of Wilayat; Allah has given this rights of governance but not to everyone. Just like mother is not having the rights of Wilayat it is only to the father, though the respect for mother is much more than father. Similarly even elder brother is not having Wilayat. He has Wilayat in the sense of friendship. The Wilayat is only for father, and if father is not there than grandfather is the Wali. Allah has selected precisely the Wali’s. If mother complains that I have given birth to the children, kept in my womb for nine months, and I have taken care of the child, but Allah knows who has to be made the Wali.

The Governance is a fundamental need which cannot be denied even by an insane person and so is Islamic Governance. The way Allah gave the position of Wilayat to Imams (a.s). Imam Moosa Kazim (a.s) had many children but the rights of Wilayat was granted to only Imam Raza (a.s). There were many children of Imam Ali (a.s) but Wilayat was passed over to Imam Hassan (a.s). Similarly Wilayat in the sense of Governance is not for everyone. There is a question that every Faqeeh is a Wali, he is having comprehensiveness in Sharia and hence is eligible and qualified for being a Wali but still he is not the Wali because there is a difference between being qualified and being selected. You are qualified for many things but not selected for everything. The one who is selected is the Wali and not the one who is elected. That is a different question which can be discussed later on how the selection takes place.

Now people say that Wilayat is Takwini and Tashree and Imams are Wali by Takween so how can Faqeeh be the Wali. This person does not even know what the meaning of Takwin is. You ask him what the meaning of Takwin is, he does not know about it. This is a fact and not an insult to someone. Allah has prohibited us from talking about those matters where we do not have knowledge; even to the extent in Monotheism Allah says if you do not have knowledge about Monotheism do not argue instead keep quiet. Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that if ignorant would have remained silent half of the world’s problems would have been solved.

When we say Wilayat-e-Faqeeh; it is in the sense of governance and for this there is a system in place. When we say Infallible is Wali than they are Wali in all four aspects; in regards to friendship as well they are Wali. They are Generic Wali means they are friends to all creations. They have Gnostic Wilayat as well means the proximity which they have with Allah is not possessed by anyone else. They have theological Wilayat as well because Allah has selected them for the position of Imamat (Leadership) and there is no comparison to them. And they have Wilayat of Governance, which means they are governor of the society also. Hence till the time the Infallible is present they are the Wali. But when Infallibles are not there than what?  When the Prophet passed away, Ali was the Wali and it went on to Imam e Hujjat (a.t.f.s) but during his occultation who is the Wali? The theological Wilayat is with Imam E Hujjat (a.t.f.s), there is no successorship in that. Similarly Gnostic Wilayat is for everyone though its certain high stages are only for the Imams (a.s).  The Generic Wilayat that is friendship between believers is there or not in the period of occultation?

وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَيُطِيعُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ سَيَرْحَمُهُمُ اللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ {71}

[Surah Tauba-9:71] And (as for) the believing men and the believing women, they are guardians of each other; they enjoin good and forbid evil and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, and obey Allah and His Messenger; (as for) these, Allah will show mercy to them; surely Allah is Mighty, Wise.

Similarly the Wilayat in Governance is there always both in the period of occultation and presence both. For this land and that land, for all eras. When the Infallibles are present than they are suitable for this position but when they are not there, than qualified Fuqaha (Jurists). It will be mentioned later which Fuqaha are qualified. There would be many who would qualify for this position of Governance but practically he will be the Wali who gets selected, and for that also there is a process. We need to first understand this system and then explain to others. People are pure, good, their Fitrat and hearts are pure but others have created doubts and suspicion for them. Thus what we intend from Wilayat e Faqeeh is the Wilayat in Governance. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that the announcement of Wilayat that was done in Ghadeer was not the Generic Wilayat which our Sunni brothers say. They say that it was the announcement of Generic Wilayat (i.e. Friendship). Shia majority say that it was the announcement of Theological and Gnostic Wilayat. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that it was the declaration of Political Wilayat because Gnostic Wilayat has been expressed before in the Quran and theological Wilayat has also been expressed in the Quran. This is because the Wilayat that was required immediately after the Prophet (s.a.w.s) was Political Wilayat and conflicts are here only. The Sunni’s also do not accept this type of Political Wilayat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) whereas if you see the Sufi’s, they all take their spiritual lineage, pole of Guidance to Ali (a.s).  All these Sufis’ consider their ascetic teacher as Ali (a.s). this means they accept the Gnostic Wilayat and it is possible and seen also some of them even accept the Theological Wilayat of Imams (like Barelvi Sunni) but what they deny is the Political Wilayat. They say it is up to people whomsoever they want people can select as the leader, governor of state. The Shia belief is that the Political Wilayat is also from Allah which means Allah will establish who will be the political leader of the state.

Division In Religion

One big portion of religion is forsaken which was historically present but even till date also people have not been courageous to come forward to understand the complete religion. Some people have contended with it, though contention (Qan’aat) is good to have in many things but not in religion. Our concept and desire about learning religion is limited to the bare minimum. For languages it is fine to learn certain foreign languages only to the extent which can solve my basic purpose. There should not be contentment in religion and perfect traits. The policy is that in perfect traits try to reach the maximum possible limit.

Man should be courageous to what extent? Not to the extent of just killing cockroaches, you should be courages to the greatest extent possible. In the field of knowledge we should go as far as possible. In religion the Quran has condemned Bani Israel that you believe in certain things and do not believe in some. Some elders have written that the biggest calamity on religion was dividing it into pieces. A butcher chops the sheep into small pieces so that everyone gets something but in religion this should not be done that some get Jurisprudence (Fiqh), some ethic (Akhlaq) and some get supererogatory acts (Mustahabat). The complete religion is the need for every person. This was the mistake which Bani Israel were doing. They were doing pieces of religion and then would pick those parts which they liked and leave rest. This kind of religiousness is heavily condemned that do not divide religion into pieces.

The same tragedy happened with Islam also whereby separation was done between Religion and Worldly life, Religion and Politics, Fiqh (Jurisprudence) and Aqaid (beliefs), Akhlaq was separated, Irfan and worldly living were separated. Everyone took some part and then became contended that I have got everything. This is an illusion that this much is enough for me and it will give me privilege and salvation. In religion if you have not taken everything and only taken little than you have not taken anything. By taking a piece of religion we think that a person can go to paradise (Jannah); for this you have to take everything. Religion is not like a sheep meat in fact it is like a child. If you need a child, than you do not say I don’t need a complete child, I just need the hand of the child. Is it enough? If you say I just need the hand or leg of child, if I take full child than I have to feed milk. Such kind of child no one will take because such kind of child is dead. This is the same for religion also; it becomes dead if you take part of it.

The life, spirit of religion is due to the connection between its various parts. If religion is interconnected than it will be alive else that part which you have taken will also die and Religion will also die. Religion is a system and in a system everything has to be present. Like some people like face of the child, if Allah just gives you the ears or nose of the child, will you accept it?  What will you do with the cheeks or ears, they will not survive? Similarly you like worship in religion, it is beautiful which is like the cheeks of religion, but the beauty of the religion is when everything else is present on the face. If you just take the cheeks it will not be beautiful at all and they will get dried up without being present on face. Similarly religion will also get dried up, human and entire society will also get dried up. This calamity of division in religion came several years before. The religion which Prophets gave to us was not like this, they presented the religion as an entire system. The Quran also says that الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُلَكُمْدِينَكُمْ , we have given complete religion and you should preserve it in the same complete form.

The first half task of dividing religion was accomplished by rulers and other half was done by the scholars delegated by the rulers. This is because rulers can cut persons in prisons by sword but they could not cut the religion by themselves so they kept the courtyard (Darbari) scholars to cut the religion. Like even when they had to behead a person in prison, the king would not do it himself, he had a butcher who would do this; similarly they had kept butchers of religion as well to cut the religion. This was started by Bani Umayyah and then by Bani Abbas and it kept on going. Today we can see in many countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, they bring Scholars and Intellectuals on the Television, who come and chop the religion in front of people and people are not concerned. This is a great calamity which descended from centuries.

Imam Khomeini (r.a) gathered these pieces, presented this complete religion and said you have to accept it. As an outcome of this division in religion a major portion of religion was forsaken. Like those in worships abandoned rest all things in religion, the followers of Sufism abandoned rest, the followers of ethics ignored everything else. Thus the major portions of the religion is forsaken, not even taught and is abandoned. The Quran also says that the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) will make one complaint on the Day of Judgment that my Ummah has forsaken the Quran. Despite of so many Qari’s, memorizers of Quran the prophet will say

وَقَالَ الرَّسُولُ يَا رَبِّ إِنَّ قَوْمِي اتَّخَذُوا هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ مَهْجُورًا
And the Messenger cried out: O my Lord! surely my people have treated this Quran as a forsaken thing.

Abandoning means not taking the Quran in its complete form. In Quran the verses related to Fiqh (Jurisprudence) are around five hundred, this means remaining six thousand verses are abandoned. The Tauzee ul Masael (book of Practical laws) is made out of five hundred verses whereas the rest of the verses make other parts of religion like recognition of universe, beliefs, self-recognition, existential recognition, systems of religion, Jihad, war, treatise are all there in these verses. We just by taking few verses of prayers and fasting are happy that we have taken the full religion. Our efforts should be to find out those parts of religion that are forsaken, which has been abandoned by the entire Ummah in congregation (means all together). This is the religion which we have to understand and make people understand.

فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ

This group who has the duty of making people understand the religion should pay attention that it should not happen that they also spread the same portion of religion which has been going on since generations, and they also forsake the other parts of complete religion than over generations the religion will be lost. And then when the Imam of religion comes and presents the religion, people will be astonished that what is this new religion he has brought. Like today when the Islamic Government was established and the governance system of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh was presented, everyone including intellectuals were surprised that this is something new that has come up. This was because this part of religion was abandoned. We have to bring to life these abandoned parts of religion. We have to understand this and make people understand this. Now it is difficult to do this, because people will object and raise questions that what is this new religion which you are presenting. If you repeat the same thing which is going on since years, people will find it easy. But if you present that abandoned part of the religion than people get astonished and the one preaching this also has to put a lot of efforts. Those things that are known to everyone is easy to teach again, but those things that are abandoned are very difficult to accept.

Like people always ask to give the name of books that we should study. This is where there is a problem as well because the books related to abandoned religion are also few, almost none. The religion that we have forgotten, its sources, references, schools and libraries are also less. If you want to learn the forsaken part of religion than the challenge is which scholar you should invite? That part of religion which is very common there are many scholars available, you can learn from anyone. If you ask them to talk about this abandoned religion he cannot speak because he also abandoned it.

Awakening

The actual responsibility of this group who pledges to teach religion to others is to teach this forsaken part of religion. If man prepares himself for this great task, this will be revival of Ummah. Quran says,

وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا
One who gives life to one person, he has awakened entire humanity

Negligence, Ignorance are death and to get someone out of ignorance and negligence is giving life to him. This is salvation when you awaken people. To load sleeping people in trucks, buses and moving them here and there is not revival. To bring dead lands to life is revival. Awakening of one person will awaken entire Ummah and in terms of rewards also you will not get the reward of awakening one person but that of awakening entire humanity. This is what Quran says that he has awakened the entire humanity. This is correct practically also, because one who lit one lamp in darkness has enlightened the entire land. If you revive one person, he will revive one other person, than it goes on and you will see very soon living persons on the land. The Quran says that those inside the graves are living and those who are walking on the earth are corpses. To bring these corpses to life and put soul inside them is the most important task and for this you have to first awaken yourself. If you are used to waking up late and if you ask someone else who wakes up even later than you, how is it possible that he will wake you up early. The one who himself needs drums to wake up, you ask him to wake me up for Fajr prayer, will he wake you up? How can he wake you up; the one who is himself sleeping? Hence it is a must to first awaken from the sleep of negligence, carelessness and there is pleasure in living an awakened life. You should be awakened and enemies should be made to sleep. At present it is opposite that enemies are awakened and we are sleeping. We should make the enemies become so tired of us that they should go to sleep and if our eyes are sleepy than the enemies will not get tired. (Today you can see America became tired of Islamic Republic of Iran, hence they demanded to do negotiations). Even if you are an army of millions with ammunition but if you are sleeping, so will the enemies be afraid of this army? Why is Israel not afraid of Arab states? There are less than six million Jews but they are not afraid of 1 billion Muslims but the same six Million are afraid of six thousand Hezbollah because these six thousand are awakened.

In our culture we are too afraid of corpses. We do not even visit graveyards because we are afraid that some dead person will catch me there. Man should be afraid of living beings and not dead persons. Even if there are ten thousand dead bodies in graveyard they cannot do anything but two living persons can cut my pocket and even our neck. Our cultural Marajae (that is grandmothers and grandfathers) have taught us that we should be afraid of dead persons and visiting graveyards. The religion on the contrary teaches us to visit graveyards if not daily at least once in a week. Hence no one is afraid of sleeping communities. The biggest Jihad in this era is to be awakened and awaken others, and this awakening is Ideological awakening, religious awakening, visionary awakening, and social awakening.

The Prophets were delegated by Allah and given high status, and Allah prepared the prophets to the best level possible. This preparation is a proof that the task which they have been delegated for is a very tough one. You do not need much preparation to walk in field but to go on mountain you need a lot of preparedness. Those who do mountaineering and go on Ketu, Everest you see how many things they carry with them to go few meters above ground but to walk in open lands, you don’t need such preparation. If you put all these mountaineering tools on your back and then you say I am going to a park people will laugh that you don’t need all this to go to park. See the assets which Allah has given to Prophets; the book, their character, attributes, awareness, awakening which have been all given to Prophets makes man realize that all these have been given to capture the peak of some mountain and not to visit a park.

To make man reach paradise is very easy but to awaken the people who desire to go to paradise is very difficult. The Quran interprets that why all these tools were given to Prophets so that they can get people out of negligence. You should understand this religion which makes people aware and takes them out of negligence.

Huzoor-e-Dar Sahna (Being Always Present)

There is one principle, policy amongst various principles which a religiously active person has to mandatory learn , which Imam (r.a) emphasized a lot and the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamenei (d.a) has also emphasized a lot, which is a very simple sentence but carries a deep meaning. The Leader of Islamic Revolution in Persian says “Huzoor-e-dar Sahna”, which means “Always be present in field”.  We remember many phrases from various languages, those poisonous languages we have learnt by paying money but we are not even familiar with those languages which carry a lot of assets for us, in which the divine teachings and books are there we do not learn. A servant of Allah should learn those languages which is the language of Allah. They say, that the language of my friend is Turkish but I don’t know Turkish. We know the language of the entire world but not the language of our friend.  These languages are the language of our Ideology; that is in these two languages; Arabic and Persian is where our entire Ideology is present. The poorest language is English which does not carry even the meanings of certain words like Fitrat and Gairat. 

Language is the interpretation of culture, if certain values are not part of a culture than how can you get those words in that language. Language comes with a culture; today we are happy that our children are learning these languages but when their tail grows (they become young) then see the reply they give when you start to quote references from Islamic culture. Mother says to daughter that Lady Fatema (s.a) was living this type of life, the daughter replies but Margaret, Helen lives this type of life. Her models are different and they are coming from the culture she has been exposed to through the language medium she is studying. We destroy our children by paying money ourselves, it is fine to know the language to the extent of language. English language is not having any ideology and even if present it is Satanic Ideology. So if we have learnt this language, we have to transfer our Islamic culture in this language. If you learn Arabic and Persian than it will bring with itself its culture also.

Thus “Huzoore-dar-Sahne” is a Persian phrase. It means to be present in that field where you are expected to be present. Even if you are alone you have to be present in the field. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that even if the entire world leaves me; my followers, men, women, and family still this Khomeini all alone will keep on striving. He did not say that this is conditional, that if others come than only I will be present in the field. It is possible and happens that when others are not there, when companions are not there, weakness comes up in a movement. He says irrespective of what happens I will not leave the field. Today why others have occupied certain fields, this is because the fields in which those who were supposed to be present have left the field. Today Scholars left the field of doing Tableegh, so entertainers have taken over this field. The front which you leave becomes that of enemies.

Empty fronts which were made by you and on your own but since you left those fronts, enemies occupied it. Today you can see in India, Pakistan the scholars are not seen on pulpits, there is scarcity of scholars on the pulpit. Hence what you see our ignorant, entertainers on the pulpit who created a havoc in religion. Today we have got our attention towards these people that they are misguiding, doing this, that etc. but we don’t see that the pulpit which was the front of Islam was of which Mujahid? If the Mujahid would have been present on this front, than professional, trader and entertainer would not have come on this front. If you are given a gun and asked to provide security outside some building which is under attack by enemies and you leave your post going out to drink juice, eat pizza than immediately enemy will come. You should never leave your field even if you are alone.

In the battle of Ohud there is an incident which is told to us as a joke by the orators;it is never narrated to us as a lesson. You should get control over yourself and do not allow yourself to become a captive of self (Nafs), lust and desires. If you become a captive of desires than it will take you wherever it wants to take you. In the battle of Ohud, the Muslims fought with great wisdom under the commandership of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). Those who have visited the place have seen, that the place of battle is a small mountain on which the Prophet (s.a) had posted a group for protecting it from enemies who might come from the backside of this mountain. After the battle started, the Muslims defeated the enemies and they ran away. When they ran away they left all their assets like horses, swords etc. in the field. The group that was standing on this hill saw that the battle is over, they left this front on the hill and ran down to gather the war booties leaving the front empty. The enemy saw that the Muslims have left the front and it is empty. Khalid bin Waleed gathered a group of soldiers from the defeated army and came around through this front and attacked the Muslims. The Muslims lost the battle which they had already won. Then when they were attacked the Muslims ran in the mountains and the Prophet was already wounded.

We mock on those who left the front but we do not assess whether we are also given some front. For every individual a front has been made and he has to be present there, if he leaves it enemies will come there. Today all the fronts where we see enemies present is because we have ran away from there; either in pursuit of booties, or personalities or many other things. We left the fronts and today enemies or their workers are sitting and we can see today such people are there on pulpits. It is essential for those who are religiously active that they should never leave their fronts, because if you leave it, the enemies will immediately occupy it.

I give an example of Azadari; today those people who have the control of Azadari are they capable of managing Azadari. This sacred work, a reviving activity by which we can change the map of world we have given them to drug addicts. This is because we have left it. This thinking was common in Najaf and is present in Qom also to some extent that a scholar who studies a lot and becomes an expert, he should not come on the pulpit. He should sit inside his home and people should just come and kiss his hand. He should not be concerned about the affairs of people and society. Did the Prophets ever behave like this that they sat inside their homes? Who was more educated and qualified than the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) but whether he was sick, healthy or in any state he was out in field approaching people. Who could be more qualified than Ameerul Momineen (a.s) and become a scholar greater than Him. This Ali (a.s) who is the manifestation of the attributes of Allah (s.w.t) can be seen delivering sermons sometimes in battlefield, in mosques, in market and wherever possible. This is because Allah has delegated this front to Him which you do not have to leave and He did not leave this till the end and in fact gave his life. Here we have these thoughts that most educated scholars do not come on the pulpit, and those who are not successful in education they come out in a professional way to do Azadari. This pure and sacred activity became impure by professionals in some places. Today we know the state of pulpit and gradually the praying arc (Mehrab) is also going in the same direction, where retired bankers, army officers are made as Imam e Jamaat in mosques. Today to teach religion intellectuals, university professors are coming, this is because the scholars have left the front. 

Those fronts that are of youths, if they do not sit there, enemies will come there. Hence it is an obligatory duty of a youth to be present in that field where he is required to be present even though he is alone. It is really a sin to leave the front empty. We will be questioned that if there were impure beings and enemies in certain fields than where were you? This is amongst the questions in the grave. There will not be jokes in grave, there will be serious questions and it will be about our activities. What have you done? Even if one person understands this fundamental that I have to be in my field than the minimum benefit would have been that enemies would not occupy those fronts.

Revolution, Reformation and changes do not come overnight, that you pray or do Istikhara for revolution at night and wake up in the morning to see a revolution. To bring a revolution you have to awaken each and every individual, you have to put a lot of efforts. The method of awakening is not that you gather a big gathering and blow the trumpet of Israfeel and the entire Ummah awakens. The way we imagine about reappearance (of Imam (a.t.f.s) that one sound will come and everyone will be awakened. The Holy Prophet (s.a) also did not blew the trumpet of Israfeel, the more important trumpet is that of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) which you have to blow inside every person. You have to give time to every person and how many Ummah’s you have to awaken? You have to awaken the entire Islamic world and that also within the Islamic world the most difficult group to awaken are the followers of Ahlulbayt (a.s). They are in the most comfortable sleep and relaxed. This is because they think that Ahlulbayt (a.s) are there, Imam e Zamana (a.t.f.s) is there, so we should sleep. They do not realize that if we are sleeping than our sanctities will be destroyed, our religion will be perished and everything of ours will be destroyed.

Just take a case that you have to awaken every person in your locality. So now divide your time so that you can approach every person. Than you will not get time to even sleep. Like one oppression done on Hezbollah is that we consider them as an NGO, a welfare organization and by doing welfare activities they reached here. Hezbollah is the child of Islamic revolution, and this revolution has gone down their spirits. Today you can see the youths of Hezbollah are mostly in their thirties and they were all brought up in the laps of Islamic Revolution. To become a revolutionary you do not need money; not the way Bani Israel thought about Taloot. What you need is a lively soul and heart. History also shows that the Muztadhafeen, oppressed and empty handed persons have supported the religion. The big elites, Muttarafeen (affluent) people have never supported the Prophets. Even if they have come near the religion they have corrupted the religion. The religion has been propagated by those who had nothing to eat also. Imam Khomeini (r.a) gave the name as the Revolution of Muztadhafeen, means the downtrodden. This revolution was brought by downtrodden, it will reach them only. Downtrodden are those who are made weak by rulers, economy and everything. Now also the same will happen, this is the class that will protect the revolution. The Quran states this about Prophet Noah

فَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ مَا نَرَاكَ إِلَّا بَشَرًا مِثْلَنَا وَمَا نَرَاكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ وَمَا نَرَىٰ لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ فَضْلٍ بَلْ نَظُنُّكُمْ كَاذِبِينَ 

But the chiefs of those who disbelieved from among his people said: We do not consider you but a mortal like ourselves, and we do not see any have followed you but those who are the meanest of us at first thought and we do not see in you any excellence over us; nay, we deem you liars (11:27)

The elites said to Noah that we would like to come to you, listen to your speeches but the people sitting around you are downtrodden, riff raff , the Quranic term used is Ardhaloon. They have no family background, they have no factories, farms and are not feuds. Such people come and sit around you. We don’t fit to be there; that one factory owner and labour sit together. If you get away from them we will come to you. The Quran replied that we will never separate the believers for the sake of misguided ones. If you transform this in simple language, the Prophet told them that we do not care for even one thousand elites for the sake of single worker. Is it possible that we consider you as compared to believers? What is Qaroon against these believers?

Self Confidence

One more thing is self-confidence. Iqbal gave this message to the Muslims of Indian subcontinent that they lack self-confidence. They think that everything the English have to do and we are just supposed to sit and clap our hands. We can also win the fields provided we have self-confidence. We should learn from others like Hezbollah which is the crown of Muslims, the prestige of Muslim Ummah; so what is our role just to put pictures of Hezbollah, show their clips, send messages of Hezbollah? Has Allah created Hezbollah to fight in the way of Allah and we have been created to just raise slogans for them? Hezbollah has been made a pure, sacred party by Allah and has been made as an ideal for Muslims. Hence our duty is to learn something from them. This can happen only with self-confidence; if Hezbollah did not had self-confidence they would never encounter with Israel. The Arabs do not get into such encounters because they lack self-confidence. The philosophy of selfhood presented by Iqbal is this that the Muslims of Indian subcontinent; the day they develop self-confidence, the day he gets this feeling that i can also do something, that day revolution will come in the Indian subcontinent. We can do a lot, these Muztadhafeen can do a lot.

The Surah Feel was not revealed for Qari’s and memorizes. It was not revealed to test you in how many seconds you can recite this, whether you can recite in one breath or not. Allah did not reveal a puzzle. He revealed Surah Feel and presented a principle in it. That principle is that in every era the weak can dominate the strongest. In this Surah the weakest creation dominated the strongest creation when the weakest developed self-confidence. And from where does self-confidence develops inside man? It develops from confidence and reliance on Allah. The believing men has all his trust and reliance on Allah, not on anyone else. This is the core of our faith and we have to strengthen our faith and Wilayat with Allah to this extent that you can feel Allah is with you. Allah says that;Allah is with you.

Do you feel this that Allah is with us, if we can feel this than you are Awliya Allah? If not than we say we are less, we are minority; how can you be less when Allah who is having power over everything is with you.  When a person develops self-confidence? Only when he believes that Allah is with me, in front of me. When this develops he is not afraid from anyone, he is not reluctant about anything. We should not become NGO’s because NGO’s full trust are on donations, funds, rations but a believer’s full trust is on Allah. Imam Khomeini (r.a) would always say that everything should be for Allah. Imam (r.a) never said that this work has been done by me, this revolution has been brought by me. He always said Allah did this.  And the work of Allah should be left to Allah, this much confidence on Allah. When you leave your bag with a friend you trust him. You should say, O Allah! On your order I have come to the field but my every act is in your hands. Than you will see that something whose protector is Allah, no one can damage it. We have to strengthen this dimension. This is the difference between an Islamic activist and a social activist. A social activist does everything for pleasing people but an Islamic activist does everything for pleasing Allah. He serves the masses but pleases Allah. A social activist’s entire concern is whether people are pleased or not. To become a centre of attraction for people is never there in Islamic activist; there is no scope for this, he should be only concerned for the pleasure of Allah. If man develops this trait; than these people never die, even if they are killed they are ever living.

Imamat - Forsaken Part Of Religion

From where do we get this religion? Imamat is the forsaken part of religion, which people have intentionally forsaken it; they were busy, lack of time, did not consider the need, opportunity was not there and hence we forsake leadership. Allama Iqbal says that:

Kaumo ke liyeMaut hai markaz se judai
It is death for communities to separate from the centre

We have to ascertain from whom we have to learn. There could be a nice, bearded scholar standing but he does not know the address of a place you want to go; even if he is very pious but he might not know the address where you want to reach. Even if he is saying I don’t know still we are stubborn that we want to know the address from you only because you are a pious scholar. Someone questioned that the wolf that ate Prophet Yusuf in childhood was of which breed. The reply was that the wolf had not eaten Yusuf, he was thrown in well by the brothers. The person asked than tell me that the wolf who did not eat Yusuf was of which breed. Do not ask such questions. A scholar, a Sayed whom you are asking about an address in Isfahan does not know it, but you insist that I have to know from you only. Do you know about your city and home more or do I know more about it? This is the spell which we have to break. Like I have not been to India so do I know about India more or about Indians or people from India know more? If someone wants to know about India he will look for Indians. Intellect also says that you should ask one who knows. We have ascertained that we have to ask about Imamat also from the leader of prayers. Iqbal says

Kaumkyacheez hai, Kaumoki Imamat kya
Isekyasamjhegabhala do rakatka Imam

What is community and what is community’s leadership
how can he understand, one who is the leader of two units of prayer

How can one who is only leading prayers understand the leadership of a community but we have pledged that we should ask from him only. Who is Khomeini? What is his revolution? We have pledged to ask the enemy of Khomeini. Ask him who understands and knows. Ask many things from Iqbal because he very well understands. He has expressed certain secrets, facts opening it completely. The way he has expressed Tauheed and Imamat. He has very well explained the secret and source of Muslim’s strength, from where he can get dignity. Iqbal says it is death for communities if they separate from centre (leadership). If there is a centre with community, and community is associated with the leadership, than selfhood turns into obedience.

One question that we stay in various countries with geographical distribution. So why do we need a Wali e Faqeeh? Every scholar is Faqeeh and every Faqeeh is Wali is what we believe in.

Let us go to a step above believers; if 124,000 prophets would be present on the land in various parts; and everyone will be a prophet in his own area and directly taking revelations from Allah. What will be their way for working?  And there will be our Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) in these 124,000. Here all Prophets will be under the obedience of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). Like at the time of Prophet Ibrahim there were other Prophets as well like Prophet Lot, similarly at the time of Prophet Isa also there were other Prophets. When the angels came for Prophet Lut, they first came to Prophet Ibrahim and said we will destroy the people of Lut. They did not go to Lut directly they came to the centre first. This is common that if centre is not there everything, religion, society will get destroyed. You don’t need proofs on this, it is absolutely common sense which even a child understands that without centre things would not work. This entire universe is working from a centre; like if you see the solar system it is working around the sun. Are other planets less important? This is because for the survival of the system, you need a centre. If there was no central point, than planets will collide with each other and get destroyed. Imam Raza (a.s) says that the status of an Imam is like that of sun, means it is central point like that of Sun and also in regards to light. Wherever there is system there will be centralization. Today why we are colliding with each other it is because of lack of centralization.

Prophet Lut is also Prophet and Ibrahim is also a Prophet, but Lut is under Prophet Ibrahim. Yahya is also prophet and Isa is also prophet but Yahya is under the Wilayat of Prophet Isa. Thus this has happened in history. I repeat the question again if 124,000 prophets would have been present today than whose leadership and Wilayat they would be? The undisputable answer is Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). Thus if 124,000 scholars gather and then should each one of them has to be the leader? Even if infallible Prophets are present than also everyone is not the leader, Leader is only one. When in such high category Allah has not given permission, then also centralization has to be one only. Like five Infallibles have been present in one era, like Prophet Mohammed, Ali, Fatema, Hassan, Hussain. Though they were all qualified as Wali but still Wali was the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s). From where have you brought this out that every Faqeeh is the Wali? Today we do not have centralization that is why we are getting scattered. Shia is fighting against Shia, Sunni is fighting against Sunni because those who do not have Leadership there every constable becomes the Police commissioner. Religion and Aql does not permits this.

Why Do We Need Leadership When We Are Living In A Different Country?

Fine than accept the leader or ruler of that nation as your leader, because there is no way out without Wali. You cannot run away from Wilayat, you have to select the Wali. If Allah is not Wali than Taghoot is Wali. Those who deny Wilayat-e-Faqeeh they have accepted the Wilayat of Nawaz Sharif and Wilayat of Modi. It is clear that there is no way out other than leadership; either accept the Wali appointed by Allah or by Satan.

اللّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ يُخْرِجُهُم مِّنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّوُرِ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ أَوْلِيَآؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ

Allah is the Wali of believers and those who do not accept Allah as the Wali than for them Taghoot is the Wali. You have accepted someone as your Wali. If you are not willing to accept the Faqeeh who meets all the comprehensive conditions of Wilayat than you will have to accept someone else as the Wali who does not meets the criteria. When I have to accept someone as the Wali than why not the worthy one, the one whom Allah has appointed. After the Prophet they did not accept the Wilayat of Ali but did they not accept Wilayat of someone else? They did not accept the Wilayat of the worthy one, but they accepted the Wilayat of the unworthy one. Whichever part of the world you are living you need to be connected and associated with the centre. This is because you are believer, your relationship with others is that of Faith. The nation of a believer is his faith and that which separates believer from others is Faith. It is incorrect to call us Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Arab and not just incorrect but this is Shirk and Kufr. We have made these idols and submitted to them. We have made idols of nationalities by our own hands and accepted their Wilayat but one whom Allah has given the Wilayat is not accepted by us. Wilayat of land is accepted but not Allah’s Wilayat. You live in any part of the world but you need to accept the centre. What will happen when Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) will come? I will give the same excuse that I am living in Australia and now I cannot follow your laws and orders because the systems and laws in Australia are different and contradictory to what you are saying. If someone says this it will be craziness considered against Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) and same applies for the representative of Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) as well

Difference Between Leadership (Rahbariyat) And Marjaiyat

In the ancient days there were no doctors in villages, so people would go to traditional Hakims etc. Like it also happens now that in some small remote villages where there is no doctor , there is only compounder present, so you can go to the compounder and take medicine better than dying without any medicine. There are categories and degrees of a qualification. When the Prophet is present, who will be the Leader? The Prophet (s.a.w.s); because Allah has provided the solution for all possible conditions. The first and best condition is that a Prophet is present amongst people, and when Prophet is present then non Prophet cannot be Imam. Like when Prophet was present Imam Ali was not the Imam. When Prophet is not present, the next category is Infallible Imam (a.t.f.s), and when Infallible Imam is present than the leadership of non-infallible cannot be accepted. Now, when Infallible is not present and is occultation, who will be the leader? The comprehensive socio political Faqeeh will be the leader. If this type of Faqeeh is also not present, than a Faqeeh-e-Adil, and if Faqeeh-e-Adil is also not present, than a believer who is just (Adil) and if a Just believer is also not present than an ordinary believer. This leadership has to be there and cannot be ignored. Even an ordinary believer can do the leadership under such conditions like for example there is an orphan child and there is no prophet, Infallible Imam, Faqeeh leader, a jurist , a just believer is also not present than is there an obligation on someone or not for taking care of this child? It will be on that ordinary believer. Now if we inform the ordinary believer that you can become the care taker of an orphan and he agrees it but ignores the fact that he can only do this when a Just believer (Momin-e-Adil) is not present.  A Just believer also has the rights to be the caretaker when a Just Faqeeh is not there, and he can also do it when Rahbar (leader) is not there, and Leader can also be the caretaker when the Infallible is not there, and Infallible can be the caretaker when the Prophet is not there.  These are the categories and when one superior category is present than the turn for a lower category does not comes up. If you look at the social systems, they are working the same way. If the Head of Department is there, than ownership is his, but when he is not there it keeps on going down in level and reaches the level of clerk. So if this clerk who had some authority when no senior was present also starts to exercise the same authority when the senior is present, what will you say to him? There is no alternative to the Leader when he is present. It is not that when the leader is present and you have something else as well as the alternative and go after someone else.

For every field there is an expert and it is common sense that you should refer to an expert if you are not aware about something. We say that we have engineer present so why do we need a Leader. Engineer is required to make building, he is not the replacement of the Leader. You say we have very good doctors why we need Leader; doctors are meant to cure sickness. If someone says there are sportsman, they cannot be replacement of leader. Have you ever said that why we need a President in the country, when there are doctors, engineers, professors and sportsman present in the country? But Mamtoora has done this, it has put this in our minds. Like a Professor’s duty is to teach whereas a President has to manage the affairs of the country, he has to defend the nation. A Professor cannot sit in the place of president. Religion is not difficult, it is from Fitrat, just ask your Fitrat. We are replacing the President with a professor. A leader has to protect the religion, he has to gather the Ummah in one place, he has to defend the religion whereas a Marajae has to only deduce the laws and give a verdict. After giving the verdict the duty of Marajae is over; so even if you leave the Taqleed of the Marajae, it makes no difference to the Marajae, and you can do of someone else. It is not even Wajib on the Marajae Taqleed, and there are so many mujtahids present in Qom who are qualified to be Marajae but have not declared their Marjaiyat or have asked people to follow them. It is also not Wajib on the Mujtahid to tell the people to come and follow me. But a leader cannot do this, and he cannot say that it is not Wajib on me to give orders (Hukm). Like many Marajae do not give any verdict in some controversial issues but if you refer to the Leader he cannot say I don’t want to say anything. Like if there are some terrorism issues going on in one province of the country; so if you ask the professor of a university about his opinion, he might say I do not want to comment on this. Now if you ask the president he cannot say I am not concerned. The Professor can remain unconcerned but not the President.

Hence Marjaiyat is an intellectual position, where it is optional for him to issue verdict, and those who consider him as his followers will act upon it. But it is even not Wajib on him to issue the verdict over here. Even you can study and reach that level of Ijtihad after which Taqleed will become prohibited for you. There are many senior clerics in Qom who are much higher in knowledge as compared to several Marajae but they have not declared their Marjaiyat and not issuing any verdicts. And even if they issue a verdict it is neither Wajib on them to enforce it or implement it. Like can you enforce Islamic punishments of whipping someone? Your task is only to inform by giving verdict but the responsibility of Leader does not ends by just issuing the order, he has to implement these laws. Like can any jurist today intervene in any jurisprudence matters; can he behead someone as a punishment; he cannot do it, but the Leader can do it.

Marjaiyat is an intellectual position and when Wilayat is not implemented than many responsibilities come on the shoulder of Marajae, and he has to do many things but when Leadership is present, than at that time you can still follow the Marajae in individual affairs, but in social and global affairs you have to follow the Leader. And it is obligatory (Wajib) on the Marja e Taqleed to follow the Leader; the way Ameerul Momineen (a.s) is Imam but he has to follow the Prophet (s.a.w.s). Imam Hassan and Hussain are young and also Imams but they have to follow Imam Ali (a.s) because he is the leader. Imam Zainul Abideen (a.s) was the Imam but he had to follow Imam Hussain (a.s) as he was the leader. If someone would come to Imam Zainul Abideen (a.s) to ask for a religious ruling on individual Fiqh matter would he not have replied? He would have replied, and when he replies means he was acting like a Marajae (one who is referred to), but if someone comes and asks what should be the strategy of Qayam (uprising) against Yazid, he would refer to Imam Hussain (a.s) as he was the leader (and even though He (a.s) was aware what is to be done). Thus if the system of Wilayat is implemented than even the Marajae had to follow him. Like almost all the Marajae of Qom, they understand the religious issues, as well the political affairs but are still under the obedience of the Leader (Wali-e-Faqeeh). They do not challenge the Leader that we also know that we will not listen to you. It also does not mean that they have left their thinking and opinion. They are not doing Taqleed of Rahbar but they are following the Rahbar. It is not permitted and forbidden to do Taqleed of someone else by a Marja e Taqleed, but he has to follow the Supreme Leader. There is no chaos in religion that the people are left on their own state the way our Sunni brothers say that after passing away of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) the Ummah was left on their own. If Ummah is left on their own and you can see what they do with each other. There should be a centre so that the entire system is established else everyone will make their own system.

Two Wali-e-Faqeeh At The Same Time

I have replied this before as well, that if there are two Infallible Imams (a.s) than what will happen? Will they establish two independent states? If they do this, than one of them is not the Imam. First of all Infallible Imam (a.s) will not do this, but if they want to then also they have no rights. What they will do is to establish one as a centre and establish the individual rights and supreme rights. All this is possible and will happen but what is assured and unchangeable that centralization will be there and there will be one centre. Two parallel systems cannot be established, one has to be the centre and other has to follow.

The answers to all these questions are present and let people ask these questions. Do not say Death to the deniers of Wilayat-e-Faqeeh if someone raises an objection. If he is a Mamtoora than curse him but if someone is raising a question because of ignorance and here it is a challenge for you that the system you are following you should be able to convince him. You need to understand yourself the system thoroughly and then only you will be able to teach him. It is necessary to learn, understand and take benefits from opportunities. After the Islamic Revolution it has become very easy for us to understand. Though there are not many but still it is not a situation of drought which was before. If you have the thirst than you will get someone to quench the thirst.

Are Infallible Imams And Wali E Faqeeh Same?

This is one question very often raised that Wali e Faqeeh is not Infallible. Now, this is an accepted fact that since 1200 years we do not have an Infallible Imam (a.s) amongst us. So what should these generations do? Think logically that we have to follow an Infallible on daily basis and we do not have the Infallible amongst us and we also don’t know when he will reappear. Do not get tricked by those who establish the time of reappearance. Imam curses those who establish the time for reappearance. So we don’t know when he is going to come. So what does our intellect says over here?

Second point is that only in the matter of Islamic Leadership we are concerned about Infallibility but in all other matters we are not bothered. Is our life not running in all other matters without Infallible? When the Infallible is not there, we are accepting Khums because this is the function of Infallible. Why don’t you say that the non-Infallible cannot distribute the Khums money appropriately so we need an Infallible only to give Khums? Why are you taking Khums? The Bani Israel was told by Quran that you do one evil thing; that when we send a Prophet to you; you take certain things which you like from him and reject certain things. So it is the same here; since you like to take Khums you do not talk about any issue of Infallibility over here and just accept Khums.  When you remove Khums and give to non-Infallible you do not get the thoughts in your mind that he is non-infallible and the Khums might get misused, so why am I giving it to him? This is the path shown by Infallible only.

Now, take Malik-e-Ashtar; he is a fallible person which is proven. Ameerul Momineen (a.s) appointed him as his Wali for Egypt. So was the obedience of Malik-e-Ashtar obligatory on the people of Egypt or not? He was not infallible so there was a possibility that he could commit mistake also. If in a geography during the presence of an Infallible Imam, if a fallible personality is appointed as the representative and his obedience becomes obligatory than does it not become obligatory when the Infallible appoints a representative for a particular era?  Here you consider it a problem to obey him? So one who disobeys Malik-e-Ashtar disobeys Ali (a.s). These are the words of Ameerul Momineen (a.s); “The one who denies them, denies us and one who denies us denies Allah”

The Imams are saying that we are appointing the Fuqaha as Wali over you during the period of occultation. Those who raise these objections are they more religious than the Infallibles? Are they more infallible than the Infallible Imams? First of all they are doing everything without an Infallible; there in no segment in which there is any denial. Doctors, Engineer, President, Prime Minister, Managers, Wife, son in law and everything and every system is working with non-Infallibles but when it comes to leadership you object that he is not Infallible. If this is the case than leave your entire life for Infallible. You are giving, taking Khums, eating it and doing it whatsoever you want with that but when it comes to leadership you have objection. It is the infallible who has appointed the Faqeeh during their life time but not every Faqeeh, there are certain conditions that needs to be met by the Faqeeh. He has to be someone like Malik-e-Ashtar, not any ordinary person. Similarly during the period of occultation the representative should be similar and not that anyone who could issue a Fatwa becomes the representative of Infallible Imam (a.s). There are these conditions which are also specified by the Infallibles

Man QanaMinal Fuqaha, Saenan le nafsehi, haafizan le deenehi, mutian le amreMaulaho, mukhalefan le hawa’o, falilawame al yoqayedu

And then it is present in other narrations as well, that these conditions which we are specifying, also says that all Fuqaha are not like this. You have to recognize which Faqeeh meets all these conditions and then he will be your Wali from us.

Like in India Pakistan some say that our Marja e Taqleed is Ayatullah Sistani and he is our Rahbar. Apart from going by the arguments presented; a simple answer to this is that does Agha Sistani consider himself as the Leader. He has never claimed that he is a leader and the followers are announcing that he is the leader and Wali-e-Faqeeh. At least the one whom you are considering as the leader, let him also consider that he is your leader. The status of Agha Sistani is respected and very clear in this matter. He is amongst the followers of the Wali-e-Faqeeh (leader) and not in competition against the leader. This is incorrect which the Mamtoora (bitches) have done because there is nowhere Agha Sistani has even gone against any rulings or order of the leader (Ayatullah Khamenei). And there are many issues which when referred to him, he replies that these issues are the related with Wali-e-Faqeeh. You can yourself visit him, when you go on Ziarat and ask him whether he accepts Ayatullah Khamenei as Wali-e-Faqeeh, he will give the answer is yes. There are many issues which are related to leadership which when asked to him he says these are not related to me.

One Who Meets The Criteria Of Wali E Faqeeh In India , Pakistan

There is no one in this subcontinent who meets all these conditions and qualifies to be a Faqeeh. There is no one who even qualifies to be a Marajae, even though if someone claims that he is a Marajae. There are many claimants in our subcontinent, in fact every person in this part of the world claims that he is a Mujtahid.

System Of Wali E Faqeeh In India And Pakistan

The system of Wali-e-Faqeeh that is prevailing at present in Iran cannot be implemented as it is in Pakistan because majority in Pakistan are Sunni’s and they will not accept it. For that a new structure will have to be produced to accommodate all sects, but this does not mean we will be cut off from Wali e Faqeeh; the centralization for us will still remain with Wali-e-Faqeeh only. If we are trying to establish an Islamic system in such countries, than this does not mean that this will be a disconnected system. The Leader himself will guide us on how to establish this system. At present the leader is guiding us that we should have unity with Sunni’s.  This is the following and obedience of Leader. When the leader is asking us to be united with Sunni’s than we are not following Sunni’s we are being obedient to the Wali-e-Faqeeh; he is the supreme authority for us.  The similar model is there in Hezbollah; Hezbollah cannot make a Wali-e-Faqeeh and impose on the Christians there. The Leader has devised a system for Hezbollah and given them to implement this in Lebanon. Similarly the leader will decide the system for Pakistan and other nations. Like in Iran there are certain provinces where there is a Sunni majority and that is also under Wali-e-Faqeeh.

Recognition Of Banes And Calamities (Aafat)

We need to pay attention to various dimensions of recognition of religion. Amongst these there is one very important point and aspect to understand for those who are crusaders (Mujahideen) i.e. those who are active in the way of Allah. That chapter is banes (Aafat) and calamities of Religion. Those things that destroy the religiousness of a person. The Infallibles have said that when Allah created something, He also created its calamity (Aafat). The way the crops catch calamities which destroys it, similarly for other things also there are calamities. Calamities are those things which either destroys the object or makes its presence ineffective.

For human as well Allah created him and created calamities for him as well. If you see the world of nature you will see the same thing as in the artificial world. In tradition also it is mentioned with continuity that; Allah created sand and made something else as its calamity, air was created and there is something as its calamity, like for water fire is the calamity and for fire something else is the calamity. We can see around us, that Iron which is so strong and people use the word iron to represent hardness but this iron also has calamity. We can see Iron getting rusted and this rust perishes Iron. Hence it is there in tradition that Allah has made a calamity for everything. For man as well; the body has some calamity as well as the soul. For body we are still attentive towards the diseases but for soul we hardly pay attention and when it comes to human traits and values they are totally ignored. The calamities for each of these traits are mentioned one by one; like Generosity has a bane, Munificence has a calamity, Knowledge has its bane, Courage has a calamity; everything has a calamity.

And anything that is dear to you, there should be familiarization of its banes (Aafat) and then you have to protect yourself from it. In construction iron is used but prior to using Iron it is painted and this paint is not for decoration instead for protecting it from its banes. We see plants are sprayed with pesticides, because if we do not spray on crops, plants and farms than there will be nothing left for human being to eat. When iron, trees, plants are victims of banes we take precaution to protect them from calamities but our self is more important than any of these things, hence we should be utmost cautious to protect ourselves from the calamities. We are at present victims of banes and calamities. From various dimensions we are under attack of calamities. Some banes are eating our virtues like termites; certain things are taking away our ability to think; certain things are calamities effecting our modesty and chastity. Shamelessness and indecency which is not considered something evil today is a calamity which has attacked chastity and modesty. Hence it is necessary for us to recognize these calamities and keep ourselves aloof of these.

In Quran when Allah (s.w.t) says that we have kept impurities (Rijs) away from Ahlulbayt (a.s), we think that they were kept purified from dust.  When the orators express the purity they express it in a similar way. Dust is not a calamity which destroys a person; like if there is dust on the face, does it destroys the person? Calamity is that thing which destroys and annihilates the object which is under its attack. Like we have heard that the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) has titled Ameerul Momineen (a.s) as Abu Turab (father of earth). Our orators say this was because one day Ameerul Momineen (a.s) was sleeping and there was dust all over his body. That area is a desert which is full of dust and sand and everyone would sit on the ground. By looking at this scene of Ali, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) gave the title of Abu Turab? Rijs means no calamities or banes can come near them. This is the reason that Ahlulbayt (a.s) are pure and glorified.

At times calamities come on mind and intellect; and a calamity struck intellect can never understand Quran.

لَا يَمَسُّهُ إِلَّا الْمُطَهَّرُونَ
“No one can touch except purified (56:79)

This means those who are struck by banes (Aafat) cannot touch the Quran. The corrupted minds cannot acquire pure knowledge. There are calamities of heart as well; like these desires, lustful orientations are calamities of heart which destroy the heart and do not leave the heart capable for remembrance of Allah. It is there in the sayings of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) that full stomach and intelligence do not go together (this means when the stomach is full intellect ceases to work). We think that all these sayings of infallibles (a.s) are only for blessings which need to be only kept in books. All these are principles of building our life. The Infallibles were not sent by Allah (s.w.t) to get fatigued, tired, beaten up and killed by people instead they were sent for guidance of people. If a person does not pay attention to these sayings than this is a mockery of Infallibles (a.s), because they have taken so much pain for our guidance and we do not pay any heed to their sayings. This is oppression and tyranny against them and it is possible that the Imams might forgive their killers but not forgive those who have forsaken their teachings. We think that they have more enmity with their killers but we forget that Infallibles (a.s) do not have the spirit of vengeance inside them. This is a detailed topic of calamities and there are many traditions in it and specifically since our subject is recognition of religion we will discuss about the calamites related to understanding of religion.

Calamities In Understanding Of Religion

Today we can see those who have understood religion also are victims of problems. Some even after understanding religion are becoming a threat to religion. What is the reason that they are dangerous to religion? It is just like this fast food and junk food which is available today which is not just beneficial to health but in fact they are calamities to health. Similarly there are calamity struck visions, beliefs, thoughts, expressions, speeches which as they get propagated more and more they become a plague for society. And Satan is a big motivator to spread such calamity struck thoughts. It is essential to understand this topic, which is calamity of religiousness. Some calamity strike the body, intellect, soul but some strike only the religiousness of the religious person and this disease not just spoils his religiousness but also infects the religion. Like today we can see there are more than one billion Muslims but they are sick Muslims; they possess weak and back broken religiousness which has no strength, no movement. There are some big bulky people who cannot move, it means they have some problem. Today such a big number of Muslims in the world are humiliated in front of Israel, and small nation like Denmark insults Muslims despite of the fact that the Muslims have everything, the wealth and technology. The problem is this sickness; the leaders, rulers are sick; the religious preachers are sick, the religious persons are sick and no one is afraid of sick people because sick beings cannot do any harm to them. Hence we have to pay attention to these specifically those who are Mujahideen in the way of Allah; that is the active people. This word Mujahideen should not take our minds to Lebanon only.

1. Laziness and Seriousness

We say Jidd-o-Jahad, it means to do something with absolute seriousness and determination. Most of the time we are not serious. Some people do not become serious about their work and they lack this temperament inside them. You should become serious. Seriousness means to first give importance to something and then to pay attention to the extent and worth of its importance hence giving time to it. Like when good speakers, preachers come to educate, they give their precious time to the people. The leave their seminary classes and come to teach the people but the people are not serious. The same applies to the preachers also that when so many people are coming to attend a program or a lecture the preacher should take this seriously and not waste the time of people. If the speaker just comes to entertain the people than this is the worst maltreatment done with someone; whereby the time of so many persons is wasted. When the Prophets would come for guidance, there would be a group who would not take their teachings seriously; and they would make mockery of the Prophet. And such things are noticed in society, specifically in the religious field who is serious and who is not. What we need is “Jidd” and “Jahad”; Jidd means seriousness and Jahad means one who exerts efforts; that is active person. A lazy, useless person who is not doing anything in the way of Allah are Qa’edeen. These Qa’edeen became a big problem for the Infallibles, and the entire army of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) became like this. He would wake them up; when Imam is Mujahid and Ummat is Qa’eed (stagnant), they do not harmonize. If today our Imam (a.t.f.s) comes up than the situation would be more worst that it was at that time of Ameerul Momineen (a.s). Ameerul Momineen (a.s) would say that I wake you up in morning, evening, night and always you have some excuses of hot weather, cold weather but the issue is that you do not want to rise at all; which means you do not want to do anything. And those who themselves do not want to do anything but also have to accept someone who is the most active person as their Imam then they have done oppression on their own selves. This is where the Quran says that man is ignorant and does oppression on his self.

Those who are sitting lazily should consider only such a person as their leader who is also stagnant and silent. But those who have considered Syed-us-Shohada and Ameerul Momineen (a.s) as their Imam will have to do something actively. They have to put efforts that too with seriousness. And the biggest seriousness required is to take religion seriously. Quran talks about one category who had taken religion for Lahb and Lahw; and the Prophet (s.a.w.s) was instructed to leave them. Those who have turned their religion as something purposeless and waste of time should be left aside because they do not have any seriousness inside them. When they are not serious than how can you expect them to put any efforts? Thus the term Mujahid that the Quran uses is for active and serious persons. And as said before we need minority to change the majority and their destiny. That minority who are serious and put efforts. Even if there are two active persons they can change the course of 200,000 majority. If there are ten active persons in a city than this is a big asset for the city.  If we think that in big cities like Mumbai and Karachi everyone would become active and come in the way of Allah, than this would never happen; it never happened at the time of Prophets and neither will it happen during the time of reappearance. In such big cities, ten Mujahid are enough. If you take for instance to create insecurity and instability in a city, ten persons are enough. Than to establish security in such a city also ten are enough. To spread misguidance in a city like Karachi if ten are enough than ten are enough for guidance as well.

These Active persons should be aware about the calamities of religiousness. The moment they step inside the field they will become victim of these calamities and it has happened. Like today we can see that there are many who are carrying the standard of activity in their hands; many organization, personalities, groups and everyone has put efforts from their side but eventually ended up in difficulties themselves as well for others. The reason was that they came into the field of activity but were not attentive towards its calamities. They became surrounded by calamities all over.

In the incident of Taloot why did Taloot said not to drink water from the river; because to drink water from the river is a calamity for a Mujahid. The river (though it was a river) but is a Kinaya (allegory) which would mean Baitul Maal, Funds. Man says that for doing religious work I need funds, and when funds start to come, it comes out of religion and lands in his home and his desires. On the first day he does religious work with the funds; the second day along with religious work does welfare work, than on the third day along with welfare work starts to support his family with justifications that this is also religion; the fourth day he uses the funds for fulfilling his own desires. Thus this first scoop of water from the river takes a person very long. Thus Taloot said one who drinks from this is not from us.

2. Attentiveness towards Calamities (Aafat)

These are the calamities, and divine leaders protect us from such calamities. If you read Nahjul Balagha, Ameerul Momineen (a.s) warns us about these calamities specifically about the world. He has condemned the world the most. The Messenger (s.a.w.s) says that “Love of world is the head (roots) of all evils”. From here the slippage starts and big personalities slips from here. These divine personalities and Holy Quran has warned us about these calamities and we should not even pass near these calamities. I have said this before as well that do not try to test or experiment yourself in calamities. Do not show courage here, you will hundred percent fail; a scholar, student and everyone will fail over here. This is because the Infallible Imams (a.s) have asked us not to get near, means for sure we will fail. Like a very pious person gets closer to women for educating them, for their religious upbringing then this upbringing (Tarbiyah) results into his own destruction. Do not test yourself on women, even without intentions you will end up in the fault lines. Woman are not calamities, the Quran says

زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ

The love of desires, of women and sons and hoarded treasures of gold and silver and well bred horses and cattle and tilth, is made to seem fair to men; this is the provision of the life of this world; and Allah is He with Whom is the good goal (of life). (3:14)

The verse says it is not women but love of desires of women is evil. Where there is woman, there is lust. If someone says that woman is there but lust is not there, he is lying. Agha Mohsin Qaraati narrates an incident; in past people would make their personal announcement from mosques. If someone’s chicken, donkey gets lost they will ask Maulana to make the announcement. One Maulana was going, a person stopped him and said Maulana my donkey is lost so please make the announcement in the Majalis. The Maulana was giving lecture and talking about desires, lusts. He in between questioned the people, who is there who says I do not like beautiful woman? A so called pious old man got up and said I don’t like. The he questioned again, is there anyone who does not like tasty food? Again the same old person stood up and said I don’t like any tasty food at all. He was asked to sit. All these are natural desires, than again Maulana asked is there anyone who does not likes fragrance; again the same old person got up to show his piety, that I do not like fragrance also. Now Maulana decided that the time for announcement has come; and he stopped the lecture and said that the one who has lost his donkey has been found, he is sitting here.  These things are harmonious with the nature of man; this is not Taqwa that I do not like this. Say I like these but not to go after them. I like wealth but I will not go after it.

One elderly person was cautious about the upbringing of his young child. He had the TV running in his home and they had trained their two years old child that whenever any such indecent picture comes on the TV he would turn his face. They were thinking that this two years child had become so pious. They told me that our child is at this level of Taqwa. I asked them that when the child was just born, and his only diet was milk; so at that time if you would have given him chocolate would he have eaten that or turned his face from the chocolate? This is not his age for eating chocolate but drinking milk; in this age not eating chocolate is not a sign of Taqwa. Let him reach that age than see if he turns his face from the woman coming on the TV or not. Than you will see that he will not even change his look, he will stare than. This is natural feeling in man and this is where the calamities take birth. We have to pay attention that I have instincts present inside me which can change my inclinations, and hence we have to be attentive to stop. The unseen forces do not stop, man should have internal power to stop from these.

Thus the moment we enter the field, an army of calamity will enter the field simultaneously. You would have seen in areas of greenery and also areas where there is garbage; there are mosquitoes and when you are walking a complete army of mosquitoes is whirling you’re your head. The army of calamities is more dangerous than this army of mosquitoes, surrounding the Mujahid from all around. He is not attentive; this active person desires to subjugate and defeat America but the calamities are telling him that turn will not come at all, because we will subjugate you here only. He has kept eyes on enemies and calamities are eyeing on him. Since he is heedless of calamities and hence he has no defensive system inside him and hence gets defeated. You would have seen that such persons do not walk for long, in few days or months they are knocked out of their activities. The calamities destroys him. And when a religiously active person gets defamed, than along with him religion, this path and everything associated also gets defamed. And specifically the revolutionary who steps inside the religion, it becomes a big responsibility on him that he has to take care of the sacredness of the religion also.

Imam Sadiq (a.s) says: “O our followers! Become prestige for us and not means of defamation”. When a person enters a field, the prestige or disgrace of the field is in his hands and both are possibilities. One of the success factors of Imam Khomeini (r.a) was this, that the first day when he stepped in this field he was very well attentive that there are many calamities on this path. And he developed the defensive system from the time of his student age. The calamities surrounded him a lot but none could bring him down. Imam (r.a) did not get trapped in the issue of Muqallideen (followers of Marajae), because this is also a calamity. It is there in a tradition that be careful about the crookedness and deviation of a scholar. This is because if a scholar falls, than the entire world falls. The traditions states “The corruption of an Alim (scholar) corrupts the Aalam (entire world)”. Hence beware about his corruption, because everyone will fall down.

When Imam (r.a) was asked where he will slip down. He said, when he likes that people should praise him, raise slogans for him, appreciate him than this is the disgrace for the scholar and he has slipped. If he gets entrapped into disciples and Muqallideen, than this is a calamity. A religious scholar, Faqeeh should not be running after Muqallideen; it is the duty of Muqallideen to find Marajae and not that Marajae goes in pursuits of Muqallideen. When big personalities become victim of calamities than small ones like us should be more careful. When elders catch cold in home, the young ones are given extra precaution. We should take lessons from big personalities that if they can fall, than where do we stand?

3. Summoning and not being spectator

One more point that Allah has not created us as spectators; everyone has to do something, it is not that some play their role and other watch it as a game going on. Like in the event of Karbala, the spectators are those who just sit and comment as to how Umar Saad played and how others played. This is what is meant by spectator. That you are telling one played well and other did not. These characters are playing a role and rest all are watching and praising someone and criticizing someone. This is the sign of being spectator that we just pass comments on others. A believer cannot become a believer till the time he is a spectator, he has to come out in the field and play the active role. He has to realize his responsibility in the field and the fundamental responsibility is to be awakened and awaken others. Awakened persons can do anything later. We have a problem in every segment that they are not awakened. Why do people get trapped in Saamri’s traps?  Prophet Moosa went for thirty days in occultation and Allah extended it for forty days. He returned after forty days from occultation and the entire Ummah was after Saamri. Saamri made a calf from the money of the people whereby the women contributed the most. He was an intellectual, a scientist who made a calf from their ornaments which was also making sound. Today if these people who when they see a mark on the walls consider it to be miracle, what they would have done at the time of Samri? Entire Ummah went after Saamri and Moosa had come happily with the manifesto of Allah, the Torah. But when he saw the situation of his community, he became too annoyed to this extent that he threw the Torah. If we would have been there, we would have started a protest against Moosa. Now in front of Moosa, there was the calf, the community, Saamri but first Moosa attacked his brother Haroon. He did not came and chatted with Haroon as to what happened brother. The Quran says Moosa caught hold of Haroon with his beard, forehead and threw him down. In other word, he is asking that this deviation in the Ummah was it because of your laziness? Was it not that you sat as a representative of mine, expecting the people to come and Saamri took the people way? One thing that can be proved over here is that people can go towards Saamri when preachers do not deliver their duties and when there is no one to summon towards Islam. Since Haroon has delivered his role, he had justification and Moosa left him, than he went towards Ummah, than to calf and then at last to Saamri.

Saamri gets opportunities when Daee (those who summon) to religion are not present, those who invite towards Haqq are not there.

وَمَا كَانَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لِيَنْفِرُوا كَافَّةً ۚ فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ 

And it does not beseem the believers that they should go forth all together; why should not then a company from every party from among them go forth that they may apply themselves to obtain understanding in religion, and that they may warn their people when they come back to them that they may be cautious?

There should be one group that should invite the people towards the religion so that people do not get entrapped by Saamri. Today in our subcontinent the Ummah is with Saamri’s, and one reason for this is that those who had to play the role of Haroon were absent. They are sitting and not doing anything that this is not their job and someone else’s. These excuses will not be accepted.

If you know and understand something than you are counted as scholar to the extent of your understanding hence come out and deliver this role. If there is no Daawat, awakening, the Ummah will go in the hands of Saamri, and the group of spectators, unconcerned people will be equal to the oppressors. This is the universal law of religion, in Quran also and you recite in Ziarat also about cursing the triangle; which is made up of oppressors, killers and silent spectators. It is not enough that if we are silent we are not oppressors, these rights are not given to us to be silent else we will be accounted with oppressors.

Thus invite people towards religion; and this invitation (Daawat) is not that everyone should be on the stage and do a lecture. This invitation of Islam, awakening is a team work. Preparing the ground is also part of Dawate Islami.  Preparing the minds of people; those who do not have means to learn religion giving them opportunity are all part of Dawate Islami. Like if a person brings a tribe to the Holy Prophet (s) or takes Him (s) to the tribe to spread the religion, than this person who has become the means is Dae-ilalallah. Thus it is not that Daawat means someone who is speaking. All those who have prepared ground, made any arrangement for inviting people towards Islam, provided the opportunity, took any step for awakening, to spread the message are Dae-ilal-illah. If this team is absent than Ummah will get in the hands of Saamri.

In fact in our subcontinent Ummah is in the hands of Saamri and we have to get this Ummah out from the hands of Saamri. How? With Istikhara (of beads, flipping Quran pages), Taaveez (amulets)? We can keep on invoking Allah but only with Dua this issue will not get solved. We need to put efforts. Moosa only had one staff and no other means but he had firm faith and with the help of this one staff Moosa got salvation to the Ummah from Pharaoh. Then again they went in the hands of Saamri and Moosa got them again out from the hands of Saamri. Thus it is possible to give salvation to Ummah from Pharaoh and Saamri. This is our duty and we will be sinners if we do not do this. This will be the question asked to us.  KullokumRaaewaKullokumMasool.  You all have responsibilities in your circle is what this Hadith is telling us but what is our reply to this? We will reply that in Mohurrum a Zakir (orator) would come and we would listen like others.

Thus the work will be distributed, some does something, some something else. Like if you see sports team everyone has a specific role; even the ground on which they are playing is made by someone else. Similar is the ground of activity. Some people prepare the ground then some come and deliver the activity. You cannot do anything in unprepared ground and it is very tough to prepare the ground.

In this process there are certain difficulties that come and these difficulties eventually turn into calamities. Today if we do not see people active in religion it is because of these calamities. In the vision of Quran, the difficulties which the Religious active persons face are listed amongst which the foremost one is following ancestral religion.

4. Religion of forefathers

When the Prophet came and talked about the religion of Allah, the first difficulty they faced and that which wanted to break this movement of Prophet was the reply that how can we leave the religion of our forefathers.

بَلْ قَالُوا إِنَّا وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَىٰ أُمَّةٍ وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ مُهْتَدُونَ

Nay! they say: We found our fathers on a course, and surely we are guided by their footsteps.(43:22)

They were saying that we do not have any concerns in accepting your words but our Aaba (means elders, not only father; like Prophet Ibrahim’s father was not his biological father, but elders) i.e. elders have shown us a path and we are fine with that.

You will get a similar answer if you go and present the pure and revolutionary Islam to people and in today’s terminology if you present the Political Islam (not that Islam which is used as a tool for politics, its means that Islam which has political thoughts and ideological system present in it as compared to Sufi type Islam of Zikr and Fikr). Political Islam is that Islam which first makes our world and then hereafter. Since Allah has given this world to us and religion to us in this world hence religion should first make our world.

When you express this religion which makes our life in this world privileged; they will reply that we have not heard this before, our elders never told us this. We have seen our elders in some other direction and you are talking something else. This is the first reaction.

So should we be afraid of this and leave our work? Were the Prophets scared of this and left the path?  The Religion of Allah does not stops by listening to the excuses of Religion of forefathers. Your duty is to keep on continuing your efforts and a time will come they will accept it. Those who were telling the prophet (s.a.w.s) that we have seen our elders doing idol worship and you should also accept it but a time came when they not just accepted the religion of Allah but broke the idols with their own hands. They who were giving the references of elders, submitted to the Prophet just because the Prophets did not give up and continued their efforts. These are the obstacles which we have to overcome, we have to show perseverance (Istiqamah) to them and we should not become despaired if they quote reference of their forefathers. These obstacles eventually turn into calamities. When we see such objections coming up, we get scared that how do I object my grandfather who is presenting this traditional religion. If this grandson stops talking about the religion of forefathers and does not objects within ethical limits, means he has given up and change will not come. Like if they quote references that so and so elderly personalities did not accept Wilayat-e-Faqeeh, so should we give up? Was the Imamat of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) denied by small personalities? This is the difficulty of Sunnis that the Wilayat of Ali (a.s) appointed by Allah is not accepted by them. This is because this was denied by such big names that a Sunni cannot even imagine that these big personalities were thinking incorrectly against what Allah expressed. When we say Ghadeer is presented in your books, they say it is Wilayat of friendship.  When there is something as truth you have to present. You cannot leave Divine religion against religion of forefathers.

5. Criticism and Condemnation

The second obstacle which we have to leave on this path is criticism by others. They say that one who has adopted the path of love now only Allah can save him because in this path few very tough stations come. They break the back, courage of man and take away all the abilities of man. This is the path of love and when you visit the lovers land like Karbala and land of martyrs of Islamic revolution you can witness these facts. When you go to such lands, we should go in purified state by first seeking forgiveness. Amongst these tough stations one is criticism and condemnation.

Some people come and say that leave all this, come do welfare activities, serve the humanity. There is a difference between the path of Karbala and path of welfare. There is a difference between path of Lady Zainab (s.a) and path of Mother Teresa. Was Mother Teresa chained? Was there anyone who wanted to put her inside prison? Everyone is appreciating her. Is there anyone having enmity with Abdul Sattar Edhi. Some paths are that of appreciations, applauding where everyone will praise you, your name will be taken everywhere that this person is very active. You are getting prizes and medals. But some paths are such that not just you don’t get appreciations but you get criticism by both our own people and others as well. They question where are you going? What are you doing?  In this path few very tough stations come, they are all upward paths and not smooth at all.

In Surah Maida, Allah gave courage to Prophets, and presented the criticism done for Prophets. The Prophets were termed as poet. Poet was an accusation because poet here means who lives and speaks out of mere imaginations.  They do not have realities in their talk. To talk in poetic language means to talk about imaginations and illusions. You just cook things in imagination; that we will start our activities, one day 1000 people will come and next day another 1000 will come. The reality is that 1000 days or work will produce 1 person.

The second accusation was that Prophets are crazy and magicians. The Quran says that it is due to Allah’s grace that you are not crazy (Majnoon). And to some Prophet they would even use the word “Sufaha” (means insane). For Prophet Hud they were saying, that we consider you as an insane person.  It is evident that when everyone is going to office, this person is going for Hidayat (guidance), when others are busy in business he is inviting them to Allah then he sounds as a fool. When everyone is going away from religion, when everyone is earning from religion and he is spending from religion they consider him as a fool. One person was talking about his two sons and said one is very clever and other is fool. One who is clever is the one, who sells 1 dollar product in 10 dollars, but the other son who is fool sells 1 dollar product in 2 dollars that too if someone needy comes he gives it free, hence he is a fool. Quran says who is fool do you know? One who leaves the path of Ibrahim is a fool. Hud is being termed as a fool by world whereas those who are deviated from the path are being termed as fools by Allah. So who is a fool; one termed by Allah or by people.  The parents come and say that why have you sent your child to Islamic Seminary (Hauza)? What will he earn later, you are a fool.

This is a tough thing in the path of Allah that is to bear criticism; people are not ready to bear criticism. We have left religion for the sake of people, and these criticisms are effective. Allah says to prophet “O Prophet! Do not be aggrieved by the critics”.  It is natural when the entire society is on one side and you are on other side, than the first bullets that hit are those from tongues. One who can bear these bullets of tongue can bear the bullets of guns as well. It is tough to bear the wounds from tongue and we should have this much perseverance. Our work is not to reply to these critics; we have to continue our activity despite of these criticisms. It is not that we leave our work and just go after them. Like if you are sent for some emergency work and on the way there is a dog that starts to bark at you. What will you do? Will you leave the urgent work and go after dog? Allah has made dogs for this purpose to test people’s sense and Aql.  A dog comes in the way to test if this person is clever or a fool. If he runs after the dog leaving his work, means he is a big fool. The barking dog barking is telling us that you go and do you work, I am made to bark only.  The non-serious people leave everything and first entangle with the dog. This path is that of Karbala which is not the path of praises and appraisals. The revolutionary religion is that of Karbala of Imam Hussain (a.s).  Like Iqbal says my religion and my constitution is that of Shabbir and it is a tough religion. Here we also say that do not come on this path if you cannot bear the hardness and difficulties of this path. This is what Iqbal says

TegoseenanoKhanjaroShamsheer amArzust.
Ba Man Maya ke man Maslak e Shabbir ham aarzust

I desire spears, swords and daggers
Beware of coming with me, my path is that of Shabbir

The Path of religion is that of spears, swords, martyrdom and captivity so think before coming. If you are not prepared for this than go somewhere else. On this path you get tough punishment. The path of Shabbir (Imam Hussain (a.s)) is not digested by the world so easily. The courage is in this that people should adopt the religion of Shabbir and not any other path. Though we are born and die by taking name of Imam Hussain (a.s) but not even for a single day tread the path of Hussain. It is very tough to walk on this path. It is not that one person goes to prison in the path of Hussain and its over. Once he goes to prison, everyone leaves him that we are not going to support you. This path is where only I have come in prison now, but eventually I will get my entire family on this path. This is the path like this but critics are many; the nearest friends, relatives start to criticize. What we should do, Quran says in Surah Maida how you should get on with this path. In Surah Maida verse 54

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَنْ يَرْتَدَّ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

O you who believe! whoever from among you turns back from his religion, then Allah will bring a people, He shall love them and they shall love Him, lowly before the believers, mighty against the unbelievers, they shall strive hard in Allah's way and shall not fear the censure of any censurer; this is Allah's Face, He gives it to whom He pleases, and Allah is Ample-giving, Knowing. (5:54)

This is a very dangerous verse and we should be cautious. The verse is addressing the believers explicitly. It says if you believers leave the path of Allah, and want to go somewhere else, in some filth, than please go, Allah does not need you, his religion is not dependent on you. But instead Allah will very soon bring a community whom Allah loves a lot, and they will also love Allah a lot. You are a trader and you cannot afford this deal with religion. This religion cannot be run by traders, Allah says let the traders sit at home and Allah will bring lovers in your place.  Who would be they? What will be their attributes?

They will be very soft against believers. Their passions will not be against believers. They will be very tough against infidels and not even little soft on infidels. They will be Yujahidoona, means they will be continuously, nonstop, without being fatigued put efforts in the way of Allah. Some people say that reduce your lectures timing we get tired. Those who get tired by just listening to lectures, they will get more tired when it comes to practicing religion. And their speciality, would be that when they are criticized in the way of Allah they will not be afraid. Sometimes they will be termed as agents, Wahhabis misguided but they will not care and not step back. All these are accusations; one who gets afraid of these accusations and starts to reply to these, will not be able to do anything in the way of Allah. You should continue your work. Then Allah says, that this is the grace of Allah on them, and Allah gives this Taufeeq and ability to his desired ones.

Then after this verse in next verse Quran talks about Wilayat. That Wilayat is this path of criticisms and condemnation.

إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ {55}

Only Allah is your Vali and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay the poor-rate while they bow.

The verse of Wilayat coming immediately is an indication that Wilayat has such tough stations, so those who desire to come please come forward. A Persian poet made an elegy that “Anyone who desires for Karbala, Bismillah”. Come, the path of Karbala is open, but the path is of swords, spears, captivity, hardships are all path of Karbala. To seek children from Karbala is easy but to give children in the way of Karbala is tough. The path of Karbala is to sacrifice your youth age for Shabbir.

One question raised over here is that should we just allow those who criticize to do so, or take some actions against them. You have to guide everyone and hence those who are critics of right path you have to guide them, do Amr Bil Maroof on them but if they do not listen than you still continue your work. By presenting the arguments you have shown the truth and people will realize who is correct and these criticisms are baseless.

6. Mockery (Tamaskur)

This is one tougher path that comes in it where a person makes a mockery of himself. In the beginning of the Surah Baqarah, it talks about some hypocrites who would come and sit in the gathering of prophet, but when they go and sit with their satanic friends and get questioned why you sit there, they would say we go there to make mockery of them. They would make mockery of Prophets also. On the path of Karbala, they were making mockery and passing taunts.

7. Elites (Mala)

Mala, the chieftains, elites are the another obstacles that comes in the path of Allah. These elites are ones under whom groups work. They trouble a lot. The elites were the first one to come in confrontation of Prophets. The Quran talks about the elites of Bani Israel, the elites of Pharaoh, elites of Noah. For Noah they brought up an accusation that these أَرَاذِلُنَا small, poor, downtrodden people are with you.

فَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ مَا نَرَاكَ إِلَّا بَشَرًا مِثْلَنَا وَمَا نَرَاكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ وَمَا نَرَىٰ لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ فَضْلٍ بَلْ نَظُنُّكُمْ كَاذِبِينَ {27}

But the chiefs of those who disbelieved from among his people said: We do not consider you but a mortal like ourselves, and we do not see any have followed you but those who are the meanest of us at first thought and we do not see in you any excellence over us; nay, we deem you liars

People of our calibre are not with you, if you distance from them we are ready to come and sit with you. The reply Noah gave was that I cannot separate myself from believers for you. In simple words, the Prophets replied to the feud that one poor believer who has nothing to eat as well, but we consider him more worthy than thousand feuds. If you have money, than money is not equivalent to faith. In Nahjul Balagha also Ameerul Momineen (a.s) used the word Kubra that is the elite class, the elderly class.  Al Hazar, Al Hazar min Kubraekumwa min Saadatekum.  Be afraid of your chieftains and elders who will take you away. These elites (Mala) are there today as well in different faces. The Mala of trusts, groups, organizations (Tanzeem), regions who do not allow anyone else to work and do not provide any opportunity to work.

8. Hardships and Calamities (Masaeb)

This path is full of hardships and calamities, but the rewards for these hardships are great. The lovers (Ushaaq) are ones who find pleasure in these hardships and not in sweets and delicacies. There is a story of Laila and Majnu. These stories are vessels which carry messages inside them. An intellectual does not looks at the vessel instead looks at what is inside. When you go to someone’s house, you look at tea not the cup; the women generally look at cup not the tea. Maulana Room says that stories are containers or vessels in which messages are there.

One day a person imitated as Majnu and went to the town of Layla and sent a message to Layla through her slave that Majnu has come and is very hungry so send some sweets for him. Layla was astonished that no greetings and good wills, but still she sent a bowl of sweets to Majnu. Majnu ate that and returned the bowl. Next day again, he asked the slave to get the sweets, again Layla sent it. This went on for few days and Layla was astonished that what has happened to Majnu, he does not wishes me, greets me and just asks for sweets only. So this day she told her slave that when you give this bowl of sweets to Majnu ask him after eating the sweets, your beloved Layla wants to fill the bowl with his blood and return it. Majnu on hearing this told the slave to go and tell Layla that the Majnu who can give blood is different, I am the Majnu of sweets only. We have become lovers of Karbala of sweets. We are the Majnu of sweets, Haleem, biryani of Karbala. And at times they are tested and found that they are duplicate. When blood is demanded from them, they do not give, than we come to know they are duplicates.

This is the path of hardships but the results of these hardships is very good. It is not that after hardships there are Houries but this is the path on which hardships give more pleasure than Houries. To enjoy and get pleasure in hardships is different. We might be finding it difficult to even think that how can man get pleasure in hardships? Lover is the one who enjoys and gets pleasure in hardships. Did Sayyadus Shohada (a.s) not get pleasure in Karbala? When Ibn Zaid sprinkled salt on the pains of Zainab (s.a) and asked her; See what happened with you, how did you find Allah? She replied: I swear by Allah, I found Allah the most beautiful, and I have not seen the grandeur of Allah as beautiful before. What name will you give to this character? This is divine love (Ishq)

Maulana Room narrates one more story. Layla started to distribute sweets to everyone standing in a queue. Everyone was standing in the queue to receive it in their bowls and Majnu was also in the same queue with his bowl. When the turn of Majnu came, Layla took the bowl and threw it on the stone and broke it. Everyone laughed that see this Majnu, he always did Layla, Layla and now see how much Layla respects him. People are laughing and mocking at him, but Majnu is enjoying this and taking pleasure from this incident. He smiles and says, that you crazy people, just think that you also had bowls in your hands, why did she not break yours?  Why were your bowls not broken? She breaks the bowl of one who has some relationship with her. Allah also breaks the bowl of his lovers. Allah is the Layla of believers and this Layla also breaks the bowl of his lovers. And one whose bowl is broken should not be worried, instead should gratify and do prostration of gratification. The doyen of martyrs did the final prostration of gratification. This was not the prostration of regret and complaint. Hussain (a.s) was expressing by his prostration that there were many religious people but Allah broke the bowl of only Hussain. To get the bowls broken is also a big thing. Why someone else’s was not broken? Were there less bowls. This is the path of love. You need to gradually prepare your minds and hearts and come in the valley of love. Come out of trading, you have tried all other paths of Thawaab, returns, Jannat and spent a good portion of your life, now come once on the path of Hussain ibn Ali, the path of love.  Come forward so much on this path that your bowl is broken, and if gets broken than you know that you are on this path. And this bowl does not breaks easily; you have to do Layla, Layla a lot, your pains and grief should be so high for Layla that when Layla gets the certainty that these are mine only and even if I break the bowl they will not go anywhere else. This means it is accepted and this is why Allah had such grandeur in Karbala. The religion of Karbala, lover of Karbala and Allah of Karbala, Tauheed of Karbala are all paths of hardships

1. Lack of Means

One fact is that this is the path of hardships and above that another difficulty is that we have to do this journey without any means, which means barefoot. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says, this is the path of barefooted people (Pa baraihna). This is the specific terminology of Imam (r.a). Barefooted people is an analogy for those who have nothing to eat, nothing to wear, downtrodden and these are the ones who come on the path of Allah. Those big shots, living luxurious life, brought up in comfort have never come on this path. What was in the hands of the people of Karbala? These battles are won empty handed only. The battle of means is not the battle of religion. Imam Khomeini (r.a) says that the battle of religion is the battle of blood over sword. Blood dominates over sword that is through perseverance. One valley of hardship in this is that without any means you have to do this journey. You have to walk barefooted till the end without any shoes, this means without any means.

10. Limited results

One more difficulty on this path is that with very high efforts limited results come out. The reason behind this is that this path is of recognition of responsibility (Wazifa Shanasi) and not of reaping results (Nateejaparasti). The path of Shabbir is not the path of reaping results it is a religion of recognizing and delivering your responsibilities. Allah has not put this duty on us to get the results, the obligation on us to just keep on delivering our responsibilities and Allah brings the results out.

وَأَنْ لَيْسَ لِلْإِنْسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَىٰ
What is ordained for Man is his efforts. (53:39)

A Punjabi poet says very nicely

Maali da kampaanidena, bharbharmashqapaawe
Maalik da kam phal phullaana, laaweyanalaawe

Gardener’s duty is to water, he pours water abundantly
Allah’s duty is to bring fruits or flowers, brings or not is his matter

This is important to understand that in this garden of existence and religion what is our role? We are gardeners and not owners of the garden. The job of gardener is just to water the garden as much possible, whether fruits will come or not it is up to the owner. A successful gardener is not the one who bring fruits, he is the one who has given enough water.  Prophet Noah is the most successful gardener because he has done the maximum watering though the results did not come out. This should not despair us if the results are not coming out.

11. Massive opposition

One more difficulty in this path is that you are not alone in this path, you have an army of misguidance in opposition to you. This is the hardest phase of this path. On one side Hussain is alone and other side is big army. There is minority and in opposition is a misguided majority. And this minority has to overcome this majority and get on the other side.

50. Identification of correct methods (Rawish)

It is essential to identity the correct methods of doing things. It is not that just for the sake of reaching the purpose we can adopt any method and make use of any method. This is a big difficulty on this path. It is like your hands are tied and you are now asked to fight the enemy whose hands are open. Man’s desire would be I wish my hands should also be open, Muwaiya was a clever and deceiving person and his hands were open but Ali’s hands were tied up. In one letter Ali (a.s) says that if I did not had the fear that is Taqwa of Allah, I would have shown you who is bigger politician; you or me. But my hands are tied up, i cannot do anything whereas you can do everything you want. I can’t do accusations, false allegations, I cannot oppress, cannot lie but you can do. Those who will come in your opposition, their hands are open, their tongues are open. They can do anything but you don’t have the permission to do anything you like to do. Is this difficult or not? This is why it is said in the beginning only, as Iqbal said “Beware before coming with me, this is the path of Shabbir”. So decide in the beginning only if you want to come on the path of Shabbir. Else go on the path of welfare, path of Mother Teresa you will get appreciations as well, do not walk behind Lady Zainab (s.a). The path of Zainab is to go with tied up hands in an encounter with those whose hands are open. This is the path of Zahra and Zainab to fight against open handed Yazidiat and powerful people. You cannot do everything you like to do; you cannot kill innocent people, you cannot lie, you cannot violate laws, you cannot make use of impure money, you cannot include loafers and ill-mannered persons in your gathering just to increase your head counts.  These are all tied hands, you cannot do all this. This work is to be done with pure money.

1000. Laziness

This is more of a calamity (Aafat) than a difficulty. Ali (a.s) had this one big complaint that he had active enemies and lazy friends. Ali was not afraid of active enemies but of lazy friends. He never complained to Allah that you have given me active, dangerous, clever enemies instead he complained about lazy friends; laziness cannot harmonize with Hussainiat (the path of Hussain (a.s)). There is a sign of Laziness, whom can we call as lazy? The one who is not doing any activity? In fact laziness starts with intentions, the big lazy ones are those who do not even intend to do anything, than the smaller lazy beings are those who intend to do but than do not carry out any activity. One sign of Laziness is to do adjustments with existing conditions.The Lazy persons say that whatever is the situation let us compromise and adjust with the situation.

Maulana room did a good interpretation of Ameerul Momineen (a.s) anger on this issue.

Zin Hamrahanesustanasirdilamgirift
My heart is straitened with sorrow with these lazy companions.

Ali told his companions that you have filled puss in my heart due to your laziness. You have defamed me out of your laziness in front of Quraish. Now what do I need?

SheereKhuda o Rustom e Dastaan am Aarzust
I need the lion of Allah, I need Rustom the courageous

What do I do with these lazy people? The ones whose entire journey of life is from bedroom to dining table and bedroom. Do I establish truth and righteousness (Haqq) with them? I need the Lion of Allah. I need Rustom who was courageous, valiant.

One of the signs of laziness is this only that let the situation be as it is, do not fiddle it, being silent on existing situation is laziness. If we have to become Mujahid on the path of Allah we have to eliminate laziness from us; it is one of the biggest obstacle in this path.

14. Fear

Another big difficult that comes on this path is Fear; people get afraid on this path. In welfare activities people get medals after medals, and no space is there in trunks, but on this path you get so many slaps that there remains no space on cheeks. This path cannot be traversed with fear. In this path of Shabbir if you are afraid than do not even step on this path. Fear destroys a person and it is more dangerous than drugs. If person takes drugs his body drains out but fear sucks out everything from human being. You see today 1 billion scared Muslims turned into a flock of sheep. If there is no fear then Quran says one person is like twenty.

• Pleasure and liking of people (AwaamPasandgi)

On more calamity on this path is that when he walks and does certain things; some things are liked by masses and some are disliked. This is one big calamity where the person becomes oriented towards the like and dislike of masses. In between he starts to do such things which gives me praises, attracts more people. Orientation towards what people like is a bane (Aafat) of this path. Many people started with the standards and slogan of revolutionary activities but later ended up printing Jantri (astrological booklets), Islamic calendars, Supplication books because masses like these things. In this path a person automatically deviates towards liking of people and this is a bane of this path. We should keep ourselves in control. You have to provide services to people but for the pleasure of Allah.

One question which some youths ask in this context is about parents that many times parents block the way of providing such services to religion, so for the sake of disobedience of parents we have to leave the work. This is not true because there is universal Islamic principle that obedience of parents is only after obedience of Allah. If obedience of parents results into disobedience of Allah, than that is not permitted. Like if parents ask you not do to Salaat, what will you do? Will you obey them? You will have to do Salaat and after Salaat pray for them that Allah should give them guidance. There is incorrect understanding of religion in the entire society and parents are part of that; all this is because the true religion has not been presented to people. Else if this was done than parents would be like Luqman, who asked his son to go out and do Amr Bil Maroof and Nahi Anal Munkar and also told him that when you face hardships due to this, do not come to me crying, you need to bear those hardships. But these parents want us to sit in their laps, watch TV and satellite channels. They are ignorant of so many things, ignorant of religion and their responsibilities than what is the problem if they remain ignorant of the religious activities of their son. It will not make any difference to them. Do not tell them about your religious activities and devise acts of wisdom so that they are not aware about your religious activities. 

16. Self-Carved obligations and duties

One more bane (Aafat) of this path is to carve obligation and duties by yourself. This means to think such and such things out of my wishes are my religious obligations and duties. Like my religious obligation is to reach this place at night. Who has given you this duty? Any Awliya Allah, leader, who has told you this?

Like at this time, when there is need of awareness and awakening in people, someone comes and presents these thoughts and duties that we need to get employment for people, we have to make public schools. We have to make English schools; these are self-carved duties.

We have to note a point that welfare activities only brings improvement but not reformation and change. Like if you serve food to poor, they still remain poor only.  You have to do those things that bring change. Betterment is that the poor was getting one bread now he gets two; change is that he becomes independent.

17. Reduction of Inspiration and Pain

That thing which arouses a person on this path and motivates him to do things is the inner inspiration (Angeeza) which is also driven by Pain. And it happens that when a person becomes active this pain gradually reduces. We have to make a routine for everyday to have some spiritual activity which increases our pains and also along with pain awareness should be there because day to day affairs takes away the pain and a painless person is worst thana beast.

18. Pragmatism (Maslehat Pasandi)

Pragmatism is also a calamity on this path, When people say that at present situation is not good, so let us wait for some time, let us be patient than we will do something when situation changes, wisdom says we should stop our work. Let us walk on the same path on which others are walking. Let us walk like sheep for some time following others, than when situation changes we will again walk like Lion. When will sheep turn into Lion? To act with pragmatism is not permitted but we have to adopt religious foresightedness. There is a difference between pragmatism (Maslehat Pasandi) and foresightedness (Maslehat Andeshi).  Pragmatism means not do to something because it is not suitable for myself and my personal interests. Foresightedness means that this work if I do now, it will give long term results. To leave something for personal gains or avoidance of personal distress is Pragmatism.

19. Claims (Iddaee)

Our duty is to do Daawat (Invitation and summoning) and not to do Idda’a that is challenging and claiming. We have to do Daawat but along with Daawat one more child gets born that is Idda’a. Idda’a means to claim that I am something big; without me nothing can happen. And slowly the air goes inside and this active religious person turns into a leader.  Daa’ee (inviter to religion) becomes Mudda’ee (claimant); means one who has big claims about himself). I am big scholar, I can do this and I can do that.

A claimant when he comes across a small stone on his way and wants to move it; but when he could not move it he says that now I have gone up in age when I was young I would throw these here and there so easily. Then he looked around to see if someone is not listening to me and said quietly the fact is when I was young I was like this only.

This is a calamity hence do not become like this. We have seen some people who raise few slogans and then immediately they establish hotline contact with Sayed Nasrallah. Martyr Dr Chamran for whom Imam Khomeini (r.a) says “If we all have to die than why not die as Chamran”. There was a time in Pakistan when everyone raising revolutionary slogan was considering himself as Chamran. Our duty is Daawat (invitation to Islam), to become Daee (inviter) and not Muddaee (Claimant). I think correctly, I recognize this now I have become so and so. There were some who were told to analyse the books of Shaheed Muttahhari, after reading two books they became as if Muttahhari should benefit from them. This is a big loss on this path when people become false claimants. People of this path get wasted and maximum resources got wasted in this aspect when people from Daee became Muddaee.  When workers become leaders and Mujahid becomes commander and think they are also something. Muddaee (claimant) cannot do anything; it is the Daee who do. To the Prophet also Allah says that O Prophet, we did not arouse you (Maboos) as Muddaee but as a Daaee (inviter). Messengership is the name of Daawat.

20. Demotivating elements

There are many demotivating elements in the society, who will come as friends to you. They will not criticize your work but they will come and say that you are going too fast; the people are not prepared for receiving these thoughts hence you should slow down. The answer to this is that fast work only comes up when there is some work going on. You cannot say that a car that is stationary is moving too fast. First let it move than assess how fast it is moving. The problem is that people have not witnessed what religious activity means hence when they see even little they say this is happening too fast. Since there is nothing done, even when you speak about religion they say it is fast. And you have to be fast because Quran says

سَابِقُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ
Go with speed towards forgiveness

فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ
Overtake others in path of Allah.

Like some youths complain that when we put the posters of Imam Khomeini (r.a) people object that it is too early to put these things, you should slow down. They are finding it difficult because you are putting the posters thirty eight years after the revolution, if you would have done this three decades before, this would have become normal. So you start now and this reluctance will be over. When the next generation comes they will not face this problem, and you are preparing these grounds for them. If our previous generation would have opened the paths for us, it would have been easier for us to move forward. If we do not prepare the grounds for the next generation it will be more difficult for them because you can see the situation of enemies today, they are straitening the ground more and more every day. If we do not do anything today; if they do not allow us to put poster today, then the next generation won’t be allowed to take even his name. Today if not Imam Khomeini (r.a) they at least say Ayatullah Khomeini (r.a); but tomorrow they will not even take the name.

This happened in Iran, when Imam was in Najaf, it was a crime to take the name of Imam Khomeini and people would be put behind bars. Imam Khomeini (r.a) was famous by the name of Haji Agha Ashtiani and by this name his information was coming inside. When it was a crime to take name of Imam Khomeini (r.a) people took his name, put his posters and today you can see the results.

Self-Development

All these points mentioned are for self-development and apart from these as well, you need to have programs for your self-development. It should not happen that you arrange for the program and go outside the hall to make phone calls, send messages and chat on mobile. Without self-reformation you cannot reform the society, but as said before both should go together.

There are many things related to this chapter of difficulties and banes, but this was just a signal to bring the attention towards this point, that is about the difficulties and banes. These things should be written on the heart which should not be forgotten, should be practiced in day to day life.

As said before, that one minority who are recognizers of religion gets born they dominate the majority or in the terminology of Quran,

كَمْ مِنْ فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ
How many such small groups have dominated major big groups.

They reach the stage of domination only by practising these principles. If this group develops these virtues and stays away from these banes, calamities than they can dominate the majority. As said before you need to expand the circle of activities, prepare a program on what all you need to do. You should make teams but not organizations (Tanzeem). As said before develop self confidence in yourself; you have the ability to do this. These people who run TV channel networks spreading misguidance, how much efforts they are putting to spread misguidance. These people are not even qualified, but they are doing such a big activity of running a network. So why can’t we do things with self confidence and trust on Allah.

You have to invite people of your thinking, and become an Ummah and not community. If you have conviction and reliance on Allah and start today to change the destiny of people, than after fifteen years their destiny will change. These changes do not come with emotional talks, but with hard efforts, you have to lay the seed.