In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, what we shall be talking about after the recitation of the verses you heard is this: after comprehending the fact that anyone who claims to be a servant of God, should recognize his own walee who is divinely appointed and should obey the one, directly or indirectly, appointed by God. Briefly speaking, a Muslim should only obey God’s walee in all his day-to-day affairs. I also said that the ones chosen to be his representative on earth were firstly his prophets and after them, the ‘owlia’, that is, the ones known to you as the divine governors or administrators. I also explained that those appointees by God are either directly mentioned by their names or by possessing certain criteria or characteristics described in the Quran.
Our discussion today concerns the person who lives under a non-divine wilayat. We want to answer some questions in this respect: what is the judgment about this person and what the consequence of his behavior? The issue of wilayat is an obvious, practical, undoubted principle of Islam, and other issues we discuss are important but secondary questions about wilayat. In the holy Quran, any wilayat other than the wilayat of Allah are described as taaghoot wilayats. As I have explained in our previous sessions taaghoot is taken from the original Arabic word tughyaan which means ‘rebellion, revolt, insolence, perverseness and stepping out of natural, intrinsic framework of human life’. If we assume that humanity was created to tread upon the road to perfection, then any element or agent that stops this march to progress and perfection is taaghoot. If a person or a ruler encourages or forces people to live their lives in non-divine, corrupt ways, that person is also a taaghoot. Humans are on the earth to do their best in the right ways and go forward, so any factor or person encouraging people to laziness, mere pleasure-seeking, egotism and not caring about his fellow-men is in the position of taaghoot.
Humanity should progress on the path of God to obtain happiness and salvation and those who prevent this process are taaghoots. Thus we notice that taaghoot is not a proper noun. Some people think that taaghoot is the name of a certain idol or icon. We may also think that it is a kind of idol. Sometimes this idol is your own carnal desires or your money and your mere pleasure-seeking. This idol could also be the one you love and worship or a person you follow blindly. This idol is sometimes inanimate, that is, made out of clay, silver or gold and it could be animate as an oppressive ruler. If you search through the Quranic verses, you may observe that, among evil groups such as mala’, mutrafeen, al-ahbaar, and ruhbaan, taaghoot has a higher, more commanding position; but this is outside today’s discussion. To sum up, we may say that anyone who goes out of the wilayat of God, will necessarily fall into the Satan’s tap or taaghoot’s wilayat. Do Satan and taaghoot have anything in common? Yes, they have a lot in common and I now try to clarify this point.
According to the Quran, Satan and taaghoot are the same. Here I better read the relevant, Quranic verse: “Those who believe and fight in the path of God, but disbelievers fight in the way of taaghoot; thus fight against the friends of Satan, be sure that Satan’s craft is weak”. The Quran says that believers fight for God and those rejecting the Faith fight for taaghoot; then immediately the verse tells believers to fight the friends, allies and comrades of Satan. As you see Satan and taaghoot are interchangeably employed. Satan is any external element or incentive that could urge and lead men towards committing evil things, corrupt practices, degeneration and deviation, oppressing others and be unjust. All such factors are satans or satanic.
There are satans among men, among the jinns, among our relatives, men or women, and among socially important persons. There are satans among strangers and we have satans inside ourselves including emotions, desires and ideals. They are all satans and one of them is Satan called Iblees in the Quran who was arrogant enough to reject God’s order to bow down in front of Adam, the pure, chosen one of Allah (Safi-al-Allah). We are used to utter ‘damnation of God upon him’ whenever this Satan or Iblees is mentioned, whereas he is not the only satan and perhaps satanic behavior did not begin with him and perhaps satanic behavior will not end with him! Satans are numberless in our world: we even touch them, see them and accompany them. Whatever leads humans astray, from the path of God, and encourages them to commit sins, to be corrupt and to do what is wrong and unlawful is satan and satanic.
Now let’s go back to our topic of discussion: any kind of wilayat, other than that of God, is satanic or taaghoot-inspired. The person who does not live in the shade of God’s wilayat, should know that he or she is living under the sovereignty of satan and taaghoot and following their commands. You may ask: what is really wrong with living under the wilayat of taaghoot? What sort of corruption and evil does that bring about? The Quran has a few answers to such questions.
The first answer is that once you submit to the wilayat of satan, then it will dominate your whole existence, your fruitful, constructive energies and your mind and soul; satan will have you in his grips totally and shall not allow you to employ your human power and your intellectual initiative in the right direction; he will drag you along with him to where he wants. It is obvious that satans or taaghoots shall not lead you to light, to spirituality, to welfare and salvation; such things are not the goals of satans, for them their own exigencies are their priorities and so you will be as tools and means for their evil purposes.
If you pay attention to what I say and describe, you’ll find out how our comments apply to historical facts from the beginning until the present. If you accept the wilayat of satans, you will be totally in their claws and they drag you along the paths they desire, because they don’t give a damn about your good, your interest and your spiritual progress! If you are a victim, if you go astray and if you are sacrificed, satans do not care a jot!
Let’s now read and explain the relevant, Quranic verses. Though I’m used to deliberating over the verses of the Quran, I sometimes feel bad because I think I have not deliberated enough on them to comprehend the depth of the Quranic teachings. The Quran says: “He that opposes the Apostle, after the Guidance was made most clear to him, and follows other than the faithful’s way, We will let him steer on his chosen way, and let him land in Hell.” The person who has received Guidance through the holy Prophet but later steps out of the teachings of prophethood and starts opposing and fighting the Prophet and chooses the ways of disbelievers, then, here’s the crux the matter: ‘We let him follow his chosen way’, that is, God allows him to follow his chosen evil wilayat; it was his own fault, so let it remain. This is the tradition of Creation, it is the law of Creation. All this was for this world; how about the next world? ‘We will let him land in Hell’, the Quran says. When we take a glimpse at historical events, we’ll clearly see that it has always been so.
These issues are of high importance; they are important, social issues. But from such points of view, we have not studied the Quran sufficiently and have rarely observed them in the history of Islam. It would be most fruitful if some researches interested in the Quran would deliberate such social, historical questions and then try to compare them with facts of history. It is not my method or habit to only talk about history. But today I feel I should talk a few minutes about some important events in the history of Islam.
Well, one significant example to learn from, is the city of Kufa. You all have some memories about this important city and its people. You do remember that Imam Ali (AS), chose Kufa, from among the towns and cities in the vast world of Islam, as the capital of his Khalifate. This was a positive point in favour of Kufa. Again you do remember that the people of Kufa did participate in the battles Ali (AS) had to face. The Jamal Battle was won by their assistance, so was the Battle of Nahrawaan; and in the Battle of Seffeen, the tribes, living in Kufa and its surrounding areas, were the principal elements to bring this battle to an end. And then you do remember that Imam Ali (AS) blamed the same people for not answering his call to defend Islam. And again it were the most eminent personalities of this city who went to see Imam Hassan (AS) and declared that the whole city would be under his command. They were the same people who wrote dozens of letters to Imam Husain (AS) begging him to come to Kufa and be their imam because, they said: ‘we do not have an imam, a leader and a just ruler and we are under the domination of a rebellious ruler who knows nothing about God and His Messenger; the writers of these letters included such great, truthful personalities as Suleiman-bin-Sird, Habeeb-bin-Mazaahir, Muslim-bin-Usajah and many others. Yet it was the same people who fought Husain-bin-Ali (AS) in an unbalanced, unfair battle against him and created the disaster and the mass-murdering the descendants of the holy Prophet in Karbala. And again, as I mentioned before, many people of this city later repented for not having helped Husain (AS) and were called tawwaabeen (repenters) after the disastrous events in Karbala; they rose against the oppressive ruler of the time and were, in an unequal battle, killed to the last man.
Also they were most instrumental in many uprisings against the rule of Bani-Umayya and Bani-Abbas, and God knows how many Kufans sacrificed their lives and recorded many shining pages of courage and selflessness in the history of Islam; and certainly we do witness their laziness, spiritual weakness and ideological deviation at other times. So we could rightly ask the question: why did they behave so differently? Were the people of Kufa of two contradictory spiritual mind-sets? Were they the same people who Zainab-al-Kubra, imam Husain’s sister addresses as: ‘O You, people of Kufa, people of deceit and injustice’? The issue of Kufa is, in my opinion, a big question worthy of further research, socially and psychologically. Kufa in Islamic history could be a most interesting subject to study and it would be most desirable if some specialists, sociologists and psychologists could carry out a collective research on this odd city and its strange-behaving people! On many occasions the people of Kufa behaved as the best Muslims in the Islamic world and at other times they acted as the worst, faithless people.
Well, I may add that there are two aspects to be studied about the people in Kufa. For more than 4 years they were guided and governed by Ali (AS), the most virtuous ruler after the holy Prophet. Could the people in this city not have learned anything from the character, the behavior and the sermons of such a personality? They certainly did. Though Ali’s rule was not successful in vast areas outside Kufa, it certainly succeeded in raising the spiritual and moral criteria among the Kufans. That’s why Kufa has since been a cradle of raising, training and educating personalities who possessed the highest, Shi’ite values. Having said this, I should add that it does not mean that the whole people of Kufa possessed such values. To explain this further, you should know that in all human societies there are certain groups who represent the best values of the society and they are usually most vocal, active and revolutionary, say, a thousand or a few thousand people in a society undertake some heroic tasks and achieve their goals but the whole society becomes famous in certain respects because of the activities and achievements of those groups. And by ‘these groups’ I don’t mean a certain sociological class or division, but some informed, active and principled minority.
But we may also observe that the majority of people or the mass of the people are just like masses, say, in Tehran, Isfahan or Mashhad, so we cannot say that the majority of the people in Karbala were better or worse than the masses in other places. The only difference is that Kufa, for its enlightened, active minority and a breeding place for revolutionary Muslims, threatened the ruling clique, and so the rulers always appointed their most ruthless, evil and immoral servants as governors of Kufa; these governing butchers used to suppress, imprison, torture and murder people and by spreading poisonous publicity tried to keep them in poverty and ignorance and servitude.
Why did they behave so? The answer to this question was the existence of that informed, struggling minority; the oppressive ruler tried to deprive them of the support of the masses. They did all they could to keep the residents of Kufa in a constant state of ‘fear for their lives’. Such conditions were not witnessed in other towns and cities. All I am saying is that the people in Kufa were not evil by nature, but that they had to live under special, threating circumstances. That’s why I said that if some specialists would carry out a comprehensive research about the conditions of people in Kufa, they would probably come up with clearer explanations about the changing behavior of the residents in this city.
Let me also tell you about an instance of such oppressive measures against the people in Kufa. The Umawi Khalif, Abdul-Malik sent Hajjaaj-bin-Yousof, the most ruthless, blood-thirsty man in his army to Kufa. He was accompanied by some 50 or 60 swordsmen and, according to some historical accounts, he arrived in the city at midnight wearing a mask on his face so that people could not recognize him immediately. Then, at dawn, he joined the people who had come to Kufa Mosque to do their prayers supposedly led by a prayers imam. He then climbed the pulpit, sat there and did not say a word. The people saw a strange-looking person sitting on the pulpit. People whispered among themselves asking ‘who could he be?’ And so the attention of all people in that grand masque of Kufa was attracted towards him. Now the objection to the behavior of Kufan people is this: ‘you are all Muslims, you see the awful-looking stranger sitting on your mosque’s pulpit, why doesn’t any of you dare ask him, who the hell are you’? There are thousands of people present at the mosque but none dares ask this question. This shows their really weakened psychology.
Now Hajjaaj, watching the people mesmerized by his presence, says loudly: ‘It seems that the people of Kufa do not recognize me? So I have to tell you who I am’. Then he recited a praiseful line of poetry about himself and continued: ‘now I take off my turban and this cloth covering my face’. Some people whispered: ‘He looks like Hajjaaj and this echoed through the mosque. Hajjaaj, Hajjaaj! They were now really frightened; they thought: the blood-thirsty Hajjaaj has come here and sat on the pulpit, what’s his intention? The frightened people never thought: well, he is one man and some 50 henchmen, but we are thousands and we could easily overcome them; no, they are too frightened.
Hajjaaj, who sees how weak and frightened these people are, addresses further: ‘O People of Kufa, I see heads on your bodies which are very ripe to be cut off! I believe it is necessary that some of you be beheaded’! The people were now more frightened. Well, Hajjaaj had not gone there equipped with tanks and armoured vehicles! He and his men could not kill the whole people of Kufa. Suppose they could, whom did he want to govern, you cannot rule houses, walls and mosques. Now Hajjaaj rose on the pulpit, called out one of his slaves and ordered him: come here and read out the Khalif’s letter for these people, then I’ll know which heads to cut off! The slave began to read the letter that came from Abdul-Malik-Marwan, the Khalif, the Commander of the Faithful! It said: in the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. O You people of Kufa ‘Salaamun Alaikum’. Here Hajjaaj ordered his slave to stop reading and shouted ‘silence, you, people of Kufa, you are most impolite and stupid, the Commander of the Faithful greats you and you don’t respond to his kind words.
Then he addressed his slave again and ordered him to read the letter from the beginning again: the Khalif, Abdul-Malik- Marwan says to the people of Kufa ‘Salaamun Alaikum’. Now all the people in that large mosque cried out in one voice: ‘salaam to the Commander of the Faithful’. There was a happy smile on the face of Hajjaaj and said to himself: I am through with the people of Kufa, they are finished! And it was so in fact.
Well, the reason I talked about Kufa, like a story-teller, was that I noticed you could be a little tired on these last days of Ramadan after listening to some difficult topics and discussions and did need a change!
Now we return to the verses written in your papers, I translate them and give some explanations: “He that opposes the Messenger after the Guidance has been made most clear to him and follows other than the faithful’s way, We will let him steer on his road…”. Well, as in the case of the Kufan people, once you welcome the kind of Hajjaaj and greet back the salaam of his Commander of the Faithful, who was in reality the Commander of the unfaithful, then God is not going to get rid of Hajjaaj miraculously, He lets you live with Hajjaaj . As long as you submit to people like him, they will dominate your lives, your hearts and your souls until you change and do something to save yourselves; this is the tradition of history and it is the tradition of Creation.
In fact learning from history is like a previous life for us, so I recommend that you familiarize yourselves more and more with historical events and deeply muse over your research in history. It’s interesting to tell you that Hajjaaj was killed by the same authorities for whom be carried out his evil deeds; he was murdered in a most horrendous manner. And here I may quote the tradition which says: ‘whoever helps an oppressive, unjust authority, God lets him suffer under the same oppressor’. All such historic events offer us valuable, warning lessons; I mention such points and leave their relation with the Quranic verses to your own comprehension and intelligence.
Now let’s read the verses 98 to 100 of the Sura Al-Nahl: “And so upon reciting Al-Quran, do seek refuge with God from the Dammed the Rejected One.” Brothers and sisters, this means that after reading the Quran, understanding it and probably learning it by heart, now try to keep it. What does keeping it mean? It means that by taking refuge with God and remembering the Quran, you could always protect yourselves from the temptations and suggestions of Satan. Could you resist these satanic temptations? Yes, you could. The answer is there in the same verse: “…no power could he wield against true believers whose trust is merely in their Lord.” You see, this evil, powerful Satan and other satanic forces could not deceive the faithful who only trust in God; no, he has no power over those who are really walking on the path of God.
Well, who are the people whom Satan could subjugate and deceive? The next verse answers this question: “But he only has power over people who take him as their patron, and those who, like the pagans, join some partners unto Him.” Briefly, Satan has dominance over those who submit to his wilayat and those who assign partners to God, that is, the polytheists. Now we better comprehend the essence of the previous verse that said whoever opposes the Prophet, after receiving Guidance, We let him go astray on the path he has chosen. So those who separate themselves from the Prophet and give up their faith in prophethood, shall fall into the bosom of Satan, an evil way that will land them in Hell.
And now we read the verses 115 to 120 of Sura Al-Nisaa, explain them and wrap up our discussion today: “The only sin that God does not forgive is the worship of other gods besides Him…”? to understand this point clearly, we must go back to the discussions we already had on monotheism or the unity of God. In one word, those who assign partners to God, have gone out of God’s wilayat and so they will not benefit from God’s forgiveness. One meaning of God’s forgiveness or ‘maghfirat’ is the redemption of your spiritual scars and cleansing the soul from the dust of disobedience to God. When one repents and returns to the wilayat of God, he could become worthy of God’s forgiveness. The verse continues: “…but He forgives, whomever He prefer, his lesser sins…”. Lesser sins than polytheism would be forgiven by God Almighty, if He so wills. But you must know that God’s will should not be taken for granted. The ‘maghfirat’ of God comes when you make up for what wrong you did and return to the way of God sincerely and truthfully, but if one is still attached to some partners for God, then according to this verse of the Quran: “…they have surely strayed too far!”
Let’s explain this phrase ‘straying too far’ a little more. When you are traveling towards a certain destination, sometimes you are lost, but you are only about one kilometer off the road, but you may be lost, say, in a desert and be some ten kilometers away from the main road. In the latter case, it is not easy to go back and find the road. You must really try hard and exert all your energy to find the right road and you need some expert guides to direct you to the right way. Yet if you are dozen of kilometers off the right road, you will be in real trouble. The verse goes on describing polytheists and the behaviour of the Satan: “Nothing do they invoke, instead of God the One, but some false goddesses and, in fact, they only call upon a rebellions Satan whom God has laid His curse upon, for he had said: ‘surely I will attempt to hold the reins of great proportion of your created humans; I will mislead them and most surely attempt them with all sorts of vein and false desires…”.
As you see, Satan has openly said to God that he will do his best to deceive humanity and to lead them astray. This is true because it is like an agreement between God and Satan that the two camps, the camp of God and camp of Satan, are distinctly separate never to compromise. The Satan and all other satans and satanic elements will behave the same, that is, they all will do their best to dull men’s wisdom and vision and bring them under their own, satanic wilayat. Satan says: “…surely I tempt them with all vain and false desires…”. So I would like you to specially pay attention to the original Arabic of this promise of Satan: la-umanniyannahum, I will tie them down by far-fetched, false desires and vain ideals! What is this satanic scheme about? Let’s imagine some ordinary wishes by the people in general: the desire to live in comfort, ease and luxury for some years, the desire to get out of this small, old house and to live in a big, aristocratic house, the desire to become the director- general of certain department to receive a huge, monthly salary, and many other wishes and desires that would stop you from doing anything in the path of God.
Anyway, in the same verse, we are told something about certain, ignorant traditions among the people of pre-Islamic civilization as slitting the ears of some animals to safeguard their health, their provisions and their happiness! This Quranic verse is a symbol of all stupid, superstitious and ignorant beliefs before the shining advent of Islam. Satan then says: “…and I order them to disrupt and alter God’s Creation!” The wish of Satan is quite clear: he wants to change the divine qualities of human-beings; I will take them out of your wilayat, bring them under my dominance and lead them to paths that are opposite of what they were created for! These are all what Satan pledges in front of God. Satan is bound to lead everyone astray, his pledge is enmity with God and against all His laws and injunctions meant for the happiness and salvation of humanity. It is for this reason that God Almighty says: “…whoever chooses Satan for his protection instead of God, ruins himself beyond redemption. He makes them promises, and he does shape many a painted, empty hope in their minds, but Satan’s promises are nothing but pure deceptions.” I think that the translation of these verses which you find in the papers handed to you, are absolutely clear and need not any more explanation.
