Religion

The Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his household) has stated that if all the trees of all the gardens were to be turned into pens and all the seas into ink and the jinn were accounting and human beings writing, they would not be able to count the virtues of Ali (peace be on him).

In the book al-Kashkul (al-Bahrani) it has been narrated that a large number of people had surrounded Imam Ali (peace be on him). A man entered the mosque and at an opportune time he asked: O Ali! I have a question. Is knowledge better or wealth?

Imam Ali (peace be on him) replied: knowledge is better because knowledge is the inheritance of the prophets while wealth is the inheritance of Qarun, the Pharaoh, Haman, and Shaddad (and the likes of them).

The man who had received the reply remained silent. At this time, another man entered the mosque and while still standing, he immediately asked: O Abal Hasan! I have a question. May I ask it? In reply, the Imam said: Ask! The man, who was standing at the back of the crowd asked, is knowledge better or wealth?

Imam Ali (peace be on him) replied: knowledge is better because knowledge will protect you while you are forced to protect wealth. The second person who had become satisfied from the reply sat where he was standing. In the meantime, a third person entered. He too repeated this same question.

In response, the Imam replied: knowledge is better because a knowledgeable person has many friends while a wealthy person has many enemies.

The Imam had not yet finished speaking when a fourth person entered the mosque. While he was sitting down besides his friends, he put his walking stick forward and asked: O Ali! Is knowledge better or wealth?

Imam Ali (peace be on him) replied to him: knowledge is better because if wealth is given away it becomes less; however, if you give away knowledge and teach it to others, it increases.

It was the fifth person’s turn. He had entered the mosque a short while before and had been waiting beside the pillar of the mosque. When the Imam finished speaking, he repeated the same question.

In reply, the Imam said: knowledge is better because people consider a wealthy person to be stingy; however, they remember a knowledgeable person and scholar with greatness.

When the sixth person entered, all heads turned back. People looked at him with surprise. One person among the crowd said: certainly he too wants to know if knowledge is better or wealth! Those who had heard his voice smirked. The man sat beside his friends at the back of the crowd and started speaking in a loud voice: O Ali! Is knowledge better or wealth?

The Imam looked at the crowd and said: knowledge is better because it is possible for a thief to steal wealth; however, there is no fear of knowledge being stolen.

The man was silent. A commotion started within the crowd. What is happening today?! Why is everyone asking the same question? The people’s surprised looks were glued sometimes on Imam Ali (peace be on him) and sometimes on the newcomers. At this time, the seventh person who had entered the mosque shortly before the Imam finished speaking and was sitting among the crowd, asked: O Abal Hasan! Is knowledge better or wealth?

The Imam replied: knowledge is better because wealth becomes old over time; however, knowledge will not rot as time goes by.

At the same time, an eighth person entered and asked the question his friends had. In reply, the Imam said: knowledge is better because wealth will only stay with a person till his death; however, knowledge accompanies a person in this world and also after his death.

Silence reigned over the crowd; no one was speaking. They were all amazed at the Imam’s replies when a ninth person also entered the mosque and amidst the astonishment and bewilderment of the people asked: O Ali! Is knowledge better or wealth?

The Imam said: knowledge is better because wealth makes a person hardhearted; however, knowledge causes a person’s heart to be illuminated.

The people’s astonished and wandering gazes were fixed on the door as though they were waiting for a tenth person. At that time, a man who was holding the hands of a child entered the mosque. He sat at the back of the crowd and placed a handful of dates on the child’s lap and fixed his gaze to the front. The people, who didn’t think anyone else would ask anything else, turned back their heads. Then the man asked: O Abal Hasan! Is knowledge better or wealth?

The astonished gazes of the crowd turned back. They came back to their senses upon hearing the voice of Ali (peace be on him). (He said) knowledge is better because the wealthy are arrogant to the extent that they sometimes claim to be gods; however, the knowledgeable are always humble and modest.

Shouts of tumult, joy, and admiration had filled the gathering. The questioners quietly and silently rose from the crowd. When they had left the mosque, they heard the voice of the Imam who said: if all the people of the world had asked this same question from me, I would have given each a different reply.

al-Kashkul (al-Bahrani), vol. 1, p. 27

translator: Rashed

Amir al-mu’minin Ali – upon whom be peace – was the son of Abu Talib, the Shaykh of the Banu Hashim. Abu Talib was the uncle and guardian of the Holy Prophet and the person who had brought the Prophet to his house and raised him like his own son. After the Prophet was chosen for his prophetic mission, Abu Talib continued to support him and repelled from him the evil that came from the infidels among the Arabs and especially the Quraysh.

According to well-known traditional accounts Ali was born ten years before the commencement of the prophetic mission of the Prophet. When six years old, as a result of famine in and around Mecca, he was requested by the Prophet to leave his father’s house and come to the house of his cousin, the Prophet. There he was placed directly under the guardianship and custody of the Holy Prophet.

A few years later, when the Prophet was endowed with the Divine gift of prophecy and for the first time received the Divine revelation in the cave of Hira’, as he left the cave to return to town and his own house he met Ali on the way. He told him what had happened and Ali accepted the new faith.

Again in a gathering when the Holy Prophet had brought his relatives together and invited them to accept his religion, he said the first person to accept his call would be his vicegerent and inheritor and deputy. The only person to rise from his place and accept the faith was Ali and the Prophet accepted his declaration of faith.

Therefore Ali was the first man in Islam to accept the faith and is the first among the followers of the Prophet to have never worshipped other than the One God.

Ali was always in the company of the Prophet until the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Medina. On the night of the migration to Medina (hijrah) when the infidels had surrounded the house of the Prophet and were determined to invade the house at the end of the night and cut him to pieces while he was in bed, Ali slept in place of the Prophet while the Prophet left the house and set out for Medina.

 After the departure of the Prophet, according to his wish Ali gave back to the people the trusts and charges that they had left with the Prophet… .

In Medina also Ali was constantly in the company of the Prophet in private and in public. The Prophet gave Fatimah, his beloved daughter from Khadijah, to Ali as his wife and when the Prophet was creating bonds of brotherhood among his companions he selected Ali as his brother… .

He never disobeyed the Prophet, so that the Prophet said, “Ali is never separated from the Truth nor the Truth from Ali.”… .

During his caliphate of nearly four years and nine months, Ali followed the way of the Prophet and gave his caliphate the form of a spiritual movement and renewal and began many different types of reforms… .

According to the testimony of friend and foe alike, Ali had no shortcomings from the point of view of human perfection. And in the Islamic virtues he was a perfect example of the upbringing and training given by the Prophet.

The discussions that have taken place concerning his personality and the books written on this subject by Shi’ites, Sunnis and members of other religions, as well as the simply curious outside any distinct religious bodies, are hardly equaled in the case of any other personality in history.

In science and knowledge Ali was the most learned of the companions of the Prophet, and of Muslims in general. In his learned discourses he was the first in Islam to open the door for logical demonstration and proof and to discuss the “divine sciences” or metaphysics (ma’arif-i ilahiyah).

He spoke concerning the esoteric aspect of the Quran and devised Arabic grammar in order to preserve the Quran’s form of expression. He was the most eloquent Arab in speech.

The courage of Ali was proverbial… . Never did a warrior or soldier engage Ali in battle and come out of it alive. Yet, with full chivalry he would never slay a weak enemy nor pursue those who fled. He would not engage in surprise attacks or in turning streams of water upon the enemy.

It has been definitively established historically that in the Battle of Khaybar in the attack against the fort he reached the ring of the door and with sudden motion tore off the door and cast it away.

Also on the day when Mecca was conquered the Prophet ordered the idols to be broken. The idol “Hubal” was the largest idol in Mecca, a giant stone statue placed on the top of the Ka’bah. Following the command of the Prophet, Ali placed his feet on the Prophet’s shoulders, climbed to the top of the Ka’bah, pulled “Hubal” from its place and cast it down. Ali was also without equal in religious asceticism and the worship of God… .

There are many stories told of Ali’s kindness to the lowly, compassion for the needy and the poor, and generosity and munificence toward those in misery and poverty. Ali spent all that he earned to help the poor and needy, and himself lived in the strictest and simplest manner.

Ali loved agriculture and spent much of his time digging wells, planting trees and cultivating fields. But all the fields he cultivated or wells that he built he gave in endowment (waqf) to the poor. His endowments, known as the “alms of Ali,” had the noteworthy income of twenty-four thousand gold dinars toward the end of his life.

SHI’ITE ISLAM, Allamah Sayyed Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, Translated and Edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Imam Musa ibn Ja’far al-Kazim, the son of the sixth Shiite Imam, Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, and a distinguished woman, Hamidah, was born in Abuwa, a small city on the outskirts of Medina in 128 A.H. (745 AD). Imam al-Rida (a) and Fatima Masuma are among his children whose pious mother was named Najma.

Holy Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, according to the command God and the dictates of the Prophet, appointed his son to Imamate and leadership, and introduced him to the people as such. Holy Imam Musa al-Kazim was a very wise and chaste man. His knowledge and wisdom was divine and heavenly, and his worship and piety were so much that he was named Al Abd Us-Salih, which means God’s righteous creature, or servant.

He was extremely patient and forebearing, and endured many hardships in order to guide the people, and forgave their wrongs and errors. If a person, due to his ignorance, annoyed Imam by his unpleasant behavior he would suppress his anger and, with love and kindness, would guide that person. For this reason he was called Kazim, for “Kazim” means a person who suppresses his anger and doesn’t quarrel or speak harshly.

There are many reports about Imam al-Kazim’s (a) generosity in Shiite and Sunni sources. Al-Shaykh al-Mufid believed that the Imam (a) was the most generous man of his time who secretly took provisions and food to the poor in Medina overnight. Ibn ‘Inaba said about Musa ibn Ja’far’s (a) generosity: he left home overnight with bags of dirhams and gave them to every person in need whom he met. His bags of dirhams were well-known among the people at the time. It is also said that Musa ibn Ja’far (a) was also generous to those who bothered him, and whenever he learned that someone was seeking to bother him, he sent gifts to him. Al-Shaykh al-Mufid has also considered Imam al-Kazim (a) as persistent on silat al-rahim (family ties).

It was widely known that Imam Musa Ibn Ja’far had been given powers of healing. Once he was passing by a house and heard little children weeping. He enquired as to why they were crying. He was told that they were orphans and their mother had just died and now they had no one to look after them. He went inside the house, made two prostrations and prayed to God for her life. Moments later the woman stood up well and in good health.

Imam al-Kazim’s (a) life coincided with the peak of the Abbasid caliphate. He practiced taqiyya (precautionary dissimulation) with regard to the government. However, in his debates and dialogues with Abbasid caliphs and others, he tried to question the legitimacy of the Abbasid caliphate.

Some debates and dialogues between Musa ibn Ja’far (a) and some Jewish and Christian scholars have been reported in sources of history and hadiths. His dialogues with the scholars of other religions have been collected in Musnad al-Imam al-Kazim, some of which have been transmitted by People of Consensus. He also expanded the Wikala network (the network of deputyship), appointing people as his representatives or deputies in different areas. His life also coincided with some divisions within Shiism as well. At the beginning of his imamate, Isma’iliyya, Fatahiyya, and Nawusiyya were formed, and after his martyrdom, the Waqifiyya came to existence.

The seventh Imam was contemporary with the Abbasid caliphs, Mansur, Hadi, Mahdi and Harun. He lived in very difficult times, in hiding. During his imamate, Imam al-Kazim (a) was repeatedly summoned and imprisoned by Abbasid caliphs, until Harun went on the hajj and in Medina had the Imam arrested while praying in the Mosque of the Prophet. He was chained and imprisoned, then taken from Medina to Basra and from Basra to Baghdad where for years he was transferred from one prison to another. Finally he was martyred in Baghdad in the Sindi ibn Shahak prison through poisoning, in 183 A.H. (799 AD).

Prominent Sunni figures honored the Seventh Shiite Imam as a religious scholar and visited his grave along with the Shi’as. Imam al-Kazim’s (a) resting place and the mausoleum of his grandson, Imam al-Jawad (a), are located near Baghdad and is known as the Shrine of Kazimayn. It is visited by Muslims, and in particular, the Shi’as.

The Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his progeny) would spend hours thinking and studying about the skies, mountains, and deserts of Makkah which were whispering the infinity of the creator in a thousand tongues. He was tormented by the stone and wood deities of his people and searched deeply into the skies to find a solution for this. In one of these times of worship when he was forty years old, Gabriel appeared to him and revealed to him the first few verses of the chapter of al-Alaq of the Quran.

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.

اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ ﴿١﴾

Read in the Name of your Lord who created;

خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ ﴿٢﴾

Created man from a clinging mass.

اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ ﴿٣﴾

Read, and your Lord is the most generous,

الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ ﴿٤﴾

Who taught by the pen,

عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ ﴿٥﴾

Taught man what he did not know. ( Qarai )

 

By analyzing the verses and narrations, one can indicate 10 purposes for the appointment of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his progeny) to prophethood. These are as follows:

1. Completion of argument

In verse 165 of the chapter al-Nisa we read:

رُّسُلًا مُّبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّـهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّـهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا

Apostles, as bearers of good news and warners, so that mankind may not have any argument against Allah, after the [sending of the] apostles; and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise [4: 165]

2. Resolving Disputes

Verse 213 of al-Baqarah states:

كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّـهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ وَأَنزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ ۚ…

Mankind were a single community; then Allah sent the prophets as bearers of good news and warners, and He sent down with them the Book with the truth, that it may judge between the people concerning that about which they differed… [2: 213]

3. Establishing Justice

As it is stated in verse 25 of al-Hadid:

لَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلَنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَنزَلْنَا مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْمِيزَانَ لِيَقُومَ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْطِ ۖ…

Certainly We sent Our apostles with manifest proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice… [57: 25]

4. Freedom and Liberty from Futile Things and Superstitions

This can be seen in verse 157 of al-Aʿraaf:

الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ… وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالْأَغْلَالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ…

—those who follow the Apostle, the untaught prophet, … and relieves them of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them… [7: 157]

5. Guidance, Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil and Freedom from Darkness and Pulling People towards Light

As we read in verse one and five of chapter Ibrahim, 16 of al-Maʾida and 175 of al-Aʿraaf. For example, in verse one of surah Ibrahim it has been stated:

الر ۚ كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ…

Alif, Lam, Ra. [This is] a Book We have sent down to you that you may bring mankind out from darkness into light… [14: 1]

6. and 7. Teaching the Book and Wisdom and Purification.

In verse two of the chapter al-Jumuʿah, it has been stated:

هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ…

It is He who sent to the unlettered [people] an apostle from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and wisdom… [62: 2]

8. Freeing People from the Dominion of Arrogant Powers and Idol Worship

For example in verse 36 of al-Nahl:

وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَّسُولًا أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّـهَ وَاجْتَنِبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ ۖ…

Certainly We raised an apostle in every nation [to preach:] ‘Worship Allah, and shun fake deities.’… [16: 36] ( Qarai )

9. Strengthening and Elevating Correct and Lofty Thought

Imam al-Kazim (peace be on him) has narrated that God has not appointed prophets and messengers for His servants except so that they may think from Him… and perfect their reason and elevate themselves in this world and the Hereafter.

10. Perfecting and Elevating Moral Values

The Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his progeny) has stated: Verily, I have been appointed to perfect the noble morals.

The French scholar, Emile Dermenghem, writes in his book The Life of Muhammad: The Prophets are just as necessary for the world as the beneficial and wondrous forces of nature, such as the sun, rainfall, winter storms, which shake and cleave open dry and infertile land, covering them with freshness and verdure. The grandeur and legitimacy of such events can be deduced from their results: inward capacities that have received strength and confidence, hearts that have been given tranquility, wills that have been strengthened, tumults that have been quietened, moral diseases that have been cured, and finally, the supplications that have mounted up to heaven.

It can be deduced from the Quran that one of the missions of the Prophets is ending differences among human beings and purifying them. The Quran says: Human beings were one community. God sent Messengers to give glad tidings to the good and a warning to the bad. He sent the Book in truth so they might judge justly in their disputes.” (2:213) “He it is Who sent a great Messenger among the unlettered Arabs, one from among them, who might recite to them the verses of God’s revelation, purify them from the filth of ignorance and evil characteristics, and teach them the Law contained in His Book, whereas previously they had been in the abyss of ignorance and misguidance.” (62:2) “O Lord, make our offspring worthy of Your raising Messengers from among them who will recite Your verses to human beings, who will teach them the knowledge of the Book and wisdom, and cleanse and purify their souls from all ignorance and ugliness.” (2:128)

The Prophets came in order to convey to human beings Divine knowledge, free of all forms of illusion and error. They came to proclaim to the human being a series of truths which a person would never have attained unaided, such as matters lying beyond the natural realm like death, the intermediate realm, and resurrection.

In Divine schools of thought, the mode of thought that underlies both belief and action, the knowledge of the material and spiritual dimensions of human existence, lies within the bounds of the human being’s capacity to perceive. For the human being approaches true happiness, and his growth and ascent become possible, only when his constant and fundamental needs are recognized, preserved and satisfied in a balanced fashion.

One of the most fundamental missions of the Prophets, is, then, to bring the excesses of that which causes the human being trouble and torment in his rebellious spirit, under control and reduce them to order, so as to pacify its rebellious tendencies. Thus we see that in the school of the Prophets, pleasures are not negated nor is their value and essentiality denied.

The supreme ideal of the Prophets, who are the source of virtue and the gushing springs of human ethics, is to cure and nurture the human spirit in such a way that it reaches a higher truth and ascends toward ethical values. Through the realistic and perceptive training the human being receives from the Prophets, he advances on a path that leads to infinity and he distances himself from alienation. It is natural that those who establish such a program of action should have been chosen at the threshold of heavenly power, the power of One Who is aware of all the mysteries of the human being’s creation and the needs of his soul.

The selection that takes place with respect to the Prophets is based on the ascertainment of an individual’s being as a complete model of the powers and faculties of the human being. In order to ascend existentially, to cure their souls and to attain the heavenly rank of fruition, human beings must enter the sphere of the teachings of the Prophets; it is only then that their humanity can be fully realized.

The valuable element that the human being represents in this world has not been abandoned or left to its own devices, nor has God wished to entrust the destiny of the human being to capricious oppressors who sinking their poisonous claws into the spirit and mind of the human being begin their exploitation of humanity by exploiting its mind. For then mankind would be held back from true advancement and be impelled in the direction of false and valueless aims.

Since intellectual and creedal criteria have always played a determining role and constitute an extremely effective factor in the shaping of life, the Prophets have always commenced their mission in precisely this area. Because the intellectual criteria of society are generally tainted by the ignorance of Divine guidance, they have abolished those criteria and presented new, positive and fruitful criteria to replace them.

The Prophets are, then, the true revolutionaries of history. Shining forth in the darkness, they have come forth to struggle against the sources of corrupt belief and misguidance, and to guide the most sacred and beautiful manifestation of the human spirit to its true and proper course. They rescue the human being from shameful forms of worship that are not worthy of his lofty station, and hold him back from all forms of erroneous thought and deviance that arise in his search for God and inflict harm on him. They conduct him from the confines of ignorance to the region of light and perception, because all the paths of true happiness and salvation lead to the assertion of God’s oneness.

At the same time, the Prophets guarantee the freedom of the human being in accepting belief; he is free to exercise his will by accepting either unbelief or belief. The Quran says: “O Prophet, say: the religion of truth is that which has come unto you from your Lord. So let whoever wishes believe, and whoever wishes, be an unbeliever.” (18:29) The Quran explicitly rejects the imposition of belief by saying: “There is no coercion or compulsion in the acceptance of religion.” (2:256)

If we examine deeply the content of the teachings to the Prophets, which determine the method to be followed by all true movements of reform and liberation, we will see that their sole aim was guiding human beings to felicity.

Because God looks upon His servants with favor, He chooses as Prophets the most perfect of human beings, who first enter the arena of human thought and belief, creating there a vast outpouring of energy, and then enter the sphere of action and ethics, in order to draw human beings’s attention away from the natural realm to that which lies beyond nature. Thereby they liberate the human being from the scandalous and demeaning multiplicity of gods and from infatuation with the world and material phenomena. They cleanse their minds and their hearts and attach them to a source of hope and mercy that bestows tranquility on their souls.

Once the human being recognizes the origin of his creation and believes in the unseen forces of the world that lies beyond the natural realm, he learns a program of advancement toward perfection from the guides on the path to truth, the chosen ones of the Divine threshold. For it is they who demonstrate to human society its origin and the goal of perfection toward which it must strive. The human being, then, begins his efforts to reach God, for it is this that is the lofty goal of all being, and he addresses his Lord as follows: “We have heard Your command and obey it, O Lord; we seek your forgiveness and know that our movement is toward You.” (2:285)

The Commander of the Faithful, Ali, upon whom be peace, says: “God sent the Prophets to remove the veils covering the human being’s innate nature and to bring forth the treasures of thought hidden within him.”[2] He also says in the first Sermon of the Nahj al-Balaghah:

“God Almighty raised Prophets from among the sons of Adam and took from them a covenant that they would propagate His message. This was after most human beings had perverted the Divine covenant, becoming ignorant of God, the supreme truth, and assigning likenesses to Him, and after Satan had turned them away from the course of innate nature and disposition, preventing them from worshipping God.

“It was then that the Creator sent them a succession of Prophets, to remind them of the bounties that they had forgotten and to demand of them that they fulfill their primordial covenant with God, and to make manifest the hidden treasures and resplendent signs that the hand of Divine power and destiny had placed within them. “

Seal of the Prophets and His Message, islamicblessings