In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, our dear brothers and sisters remember that, as I explained previously, if we recognized monotheism as a belief that necessitates certain deeds and obligations, it inevitably involves some firm commitments on our part. I further said that we ought to understand what these obligations and commitments are. Certainly these commitments are not limited to our individual lives; in fact the greater emphasis is on our social life, our social order and the kind of community we live in. this means that when monotheism enters a society, the very first thing it does is to form and structure that society in accordance with monotheistic concepts. Then after this most important transformation takes place, we could talk about the commitment of every individual, monotheistic believer.
Anyway, we should try to know and comprehend these commitments which I earlier talked about as ‘the Resolution of Monotheism’. This means that monotheism gives us a resolution comprising of a series of agreements or contracts the clauses of which we should fulfill. We ought to recognize these obligations to be able to live, if God will, as monotheists. The very first of these commitments, as I mentioned earlier, is worshipping God and absolute obedience to Him only. The second commitment required of a monotheist, could be discussed, as we have jotted down in papers distributed among you, which goes under the topic ‘Monotheism and the Rejection of Social classes’; here talks about a monotheistic community, a monotheistic world and a monotheist individual.
What do we mean by ‘rejection of social classes’? Well, a monotheistic society is, in a more familiar term, ‘a classless society’. This means that in such a society or community all people must enjoy the same rights and the same privileges; they all live under one legal, lawful roof and they are all travelling on a straight path and benefiting from the same opportunities.
To understand this point better, if we take an historical look at human societies, we’ll clearly find out that throughout history, people have suffered greatly from class differences, not only in backward, tribal communities or places far away from centres of civilization but, as a matter of fact, these class differences and class distinctions were tougher and more unbearable in these so-called civilized countries and centres of civilization; in these societies class differences are witnessed in their ugliest and most horrendous forms. Well, what do these class differences really mean? Briefly it means that people living in a certain community are not equal human beings; many are condemned to work and suffer, serve some other groups and be content with their suffering and deprivations while the privileged groups enjoy the fruits of their labour, enjoy all opportunities and amenities in life and are never be blamed for it.
Probably the best example to illustrate our claim is India. As you know India is supposed to be the cradle of so-called Aerian civilization where the very first civil societies appeared. It is reported that the Aerian race migrated from the North and then a body of them went to India and another group came to Iran; it’s further said that those who went to India became civilized much earlier than the group who arrived in Iran.
Anyway, as we said, one of the great centres of civilization is India in which class differences are at the highest levels. There were four distinct social classes which I briefly talk about but there are many books and sources about this which you may study to find out how awfully different are these unfair classifications from what monotheism in Islam offers. In India people fell into four categories: the first and most highly privileged were the Brahmans or the religious, spiritual leaders; the second category was that of the princes and the military. There were some minor classes between these two classes in the history of India. Earlier the military and the princes had the upper hand but in later stages the Brahmans dominated them through their higher scientific knowledge and spiritual leaderships. The princes usually had nothing to do but to increase their wealth, acquire more lands and extend the scope of their princedoms.
The third class consisted of artisans and farmers who performed the greatest tasks to create wealth and to produce agricultural commodities. The rest of the people, all common people, fell into the fourth category; they presumably consisted of small shop-keepers, labourers, farm workers, doers of small odd jobs, and those who had skills to do some hand; works.
We may also speak of a fifth category of people who were called ‘untouchables’; it was said that they did not belong to the Aerian race and therefore they were ‘unclean’! What I said is taken from the history of India; the pitiable status of the untouchables continued for centuries until the late leader of India, Gandhi, abrogated the prevailing system. The previous prime-minister of India, Nehru, and his daughter Indira, who is the Indian prime-minister at present, both belonged to the class of Brahmans; Nehru, however, did not want to be called Brahman or ‘pandit’ because he was a secular person. Anyway, what I meant to tell you was that these class differences were not only current in ancient times; they do exist today in many places after some 14 centuries since the appearance of the sunshine of Quranic monotheism.
Well, we should pay attention to the question of class or caste differences. According to a European scholar, there were dozens of sub-categories to those four main classes; the members of these classes and sub-classes had no right to talk with one another to sit next to one another, to walk with one another or be friends with one another. You may ask ‘why were people separated from one another in such ruthless ways? Why is the Brahman a different human being that the one who cultivates the land? What does that military person possess, that a shop-keeper lacks? If the upper classes even faced such questions, their reply would be ‘oh, just shut up!’ For they believed that they were so created from the beginning; Brahma, the creator, created Brahmans from his head, the princes and the military chiefs from his hands, the farmers and artisans from his arms and the common people from his legs! And the untouchables were not created by him, so they do not originate from a pure source. How could then the people created from Brahma’s legs be equal to those created from his head?! This was their logic!
Is there a chance that, in such class-ridden societies, class differences may be removed or abolished? Who should do away with these class differences? Surely it would not be the privileged classes, who enjoy unjust interests, wealth and power, to come forward and say ‘we found out that this system was unjust and so we renounce our natural rights!’ This would be a fanciful desire. No, it should be the deprived, the oppressed and the down-trodden who should protest against the unjust system and try to change it by any means. Yet, in such societies, they won’t protest and won’t do anything to change their conditions. Why do I say this? The reason is that, in such societies, the members of the lower classes do believe that what exists is the natural state of affairs, that they have been created as they are and that their nature so dictates. As it is instilled in their minds that their nature, constitution and temperament have been so created from the beginning, it would be impossible for them to think otherwise, to hope for change and to aspire after rights and privileges that do not fit their nature; they say to themselves ‘that’s our fate, we can’t do anything about it, it has always been like this!’ Thus, as we have learned from history, there existed this horrible injustice in many societies and in many countries and there was no remedy for it.
Certainly many well- intentioned reformers have been witnessed who stepped forward to change things. There is a delicate point here and I want you to pay special attention to it. These reformers firstly tried to influence the minds and thoughts of the public in order to alter or radically change their ideology and culture; this view-point has its roots in the special philosophy of religious. By this I mean they tried to tell people that the prevailing philosophy or ideology is absolutely wrong and that it means total injustice and oppression. This is what we correctly learn from history and, in my opinion, it would be erroneous to claim that the social state of affairs and the social systems change first and then certain ideas and philosophies appeared in accordance with the changed circumstances. No, the reverse of this is true and our history in the East, in Iran, in China, in India and in Egypt demonstrate that certain thinkers or reformers were the first in trying to alter the dominant philosophies concerning class differences and to prepare the ground for changing those evil social systems; history shows that change came about the way I described. In the countries in the East that I mentioned, all of them centres of civilization, the dominant philosophies were based on dividing people into classes by claiming that they have been created differently and that they originate from different creational sources. And therefore they cannot possibly enjoy the same social rights.
Then we witness that the sun of Islam began to shine. Islam declared: there are no gods, gods are non-existent, there is only one God, the Almighty God who has created everything, everything in the worlds is under His reign and He has equally created all human beings. Thus all people come from one source, one origin, one nature and one material substance. There are numerous verses regarding this in the Quran as: “O People, worship your Lord, the One who brought you into being as well as those before you…”. Now I’ll try to give some explanation about the verses written down in the papers you have in your hands.
Studying these Quranic verses, we clearly see that Islam says: Humanity has one root or origin, humans come into the world with the same potentials and capabilities, they are all worthy of flying into infinite space of perfection, they all enjoy this gift or talent to travel to loftier spiritual and moral stations. Here you should know that a small number of men such as divine prophets or imams are not included in my statement regarding all people. When I say that men could fly to loftier stages of spiritual perfection, I do not mean that they could even become prophets; no, God has bestowed upon them certain special qualities not found in ordinary people. But this could be the topic of another investigative lecture which I hope to talk about on another occasion; certainly the prophets and imams have the same physical roots as other ordinary men and as Imam Ali (AS) says, in a book of poetry attributed to him, all people are the same in this respect as ‘their father is Adam and their mother is Eve’. This is an Islamic lesson that people learned thanks to monotheism; to people it was proved that in the essence of communities there are no class differences. The kind of society envisaged and recommended by Islam is not divided by groups and by classes; no group or class should enjoy rights and privileges that others are deprived of. In an Islamic society it is not claimed that some people have their roots in the earth and others are created, say, by light; no, all humans are made of matter. Therefore, monotheism that declares means there is only one God who administers all universes and guides all the people, totally rejects class differences.
And today the class differences are not like what they used to be in India. In the present capitalist system, they never say that the capitalists and workers stem from two different sources of creation. No, these days nobody claims that the owner of a big company or a famous capitalist belongs to a different race but they have legislated certain laws and regulations that in practice bring about class differences; there are numerous privileges and advantages for the wealthy, powerful minority who badly exploit the majority of the people who could hardly manage their livelihood.
I should add that class differences in our world today is far more mischievous, evil, mean and vile than anything in the past. In the old system of class differences, the down –trodden people were openly told that they were of a different origin, but now the capitalist and wealthy classes declare ‘we are all brothers and sisters, we’re all equal and in fact we support you and have your interests in mind!’ But in practice all class differences remain. Even in legal affairs, we see that millionaires, by hiring the most expensive defence-attorneys, may avoid prosecution in the courts of law but the majority of people have no such facilities; in fact they are kept in ignorance about their rights through deceiving publicity media mostly owned by the privileged class.
Islam, however, rejects and condemns all these unfair differences. As I mentioned earlier, when your research through the Quran, you come across many, many instances in this regard; I only selected a few of them and wrote them down in the copies I gave you and I just try to translate and explain the content of these Quranic verses: very briefly the Quran says: the Creator, the Administrator and the One to be served and worshipped is God Almighty: He is the only Creator. One may ask: what difference does it make if, say, there are two gods?! Well, I do not intend to raise a theological discussion but I tell you in single terms that the very first defect or social harm in the two-god philosophy is that it divides humanity into two separate, distinct classes, and that would be the very first step to create class differences. But when we say ‘there is one God’ it means all people are equal and equally created by one Creator. Now there is another question. When God created humans, did He love some groups or communities more than others? Let’s see the Quranic response “And both the Jews and Christians make the claim: we are God’s sons and His beloved ones!” It rejects this claim absolutely. The Quran also reminds them of crimes they committed against God: “…Ask them ‘if that’s the case, then why did you murder God’s messengers?” If you are God’s sons and privileged to be so close to Him, why did you murder His prophets? Your claim is ridiculous and in vain. In another verse the Quran warns them again: “ Say: O You of the Jewish faith, if you suppose that of all men, God’s friends are you alone, and you do speak the truth, then gladly wish for death. But never will they for it long…”. Yes, if you are so dear to God, then leave this worthless, worldly life to sooner join your kith and kin! Jews and longing for death, never! So far we have explained that God is the Creator of all and all people have been created by Him and they all have a material origin. I must put a special emphasis on this term ‘material’, for humans in respect of their physical forms originate from one source and no one, as a created being, has any privilege over others in matters of human rights. We are not saying that all people have the same sort of bodies or forms. No, some people are thin, some are fat, some are more handsome or more beautiful in our eyes, one may have been born to parents who were talented, educated persons, and some born in a little-educated family.
Yes, there are such differences but none of them could be a source legal privileges or social rights. As an example, a strong, muscular man cannot enjoy more social rights because of his physical build. In Islam, schools are for all students equally, so is education and healthcare. Islam is dedicated to providing jobs for all and good livelihood for all. In an Islamic society one should not be in need of some source of influence, wealth and fame to be able to study, to be educated, to find jobs and to reach higher positions. Islam opens the way for millions of people to race towards their material and spiritual goals. This state of affairs, as stipulated by Islam is in obvious contradiction with non-monotheistic societies where the path is paved with gold for some minorities but the majorities face numerous obstacles and difficulties on their paths.
An Islamic society should be established as I described. Look at some historical facts: the Ethiopian Balaal is the first person who reaches the high position of saying ‘azaan’ (call to prayers), a Negro, who according to the standards of that Age of Ignorance, belonged to the lowest strata of the society. Salmaan the Persian, again according to the prevailing standards of the time, a non-Arab migrant, a stranger who probably didn’t speak good Arabic; he later becomes the governor of an Islamic province; there are many more examples to prove our point.
Thus we notice that in the creation of humanity nobody is legally entitled to have more rights than others; all privileges, higher positions and advantages depend on the individual’s efforts to elevate himself and reach the higher positions possible. Of course some positions, such as the missions of God’s prophets who were divinely chosen to guide humanity, are excepted from our general discussion. But what we emphasize on is that all the worlds belong to Almighty God and all humans are poorly in need of His administration; we must all bow to His kingdom and in this regard we, as created men, are equal in His Sight.
As we know even a person like Imam Sajjaad (AS) the great grandson of the holy Prophet, a grandson of Ali (AS) and Fatima Zahraa (AS) and the son of Imam Husain (AS) also weeps, moans and sheds tears when praying to God to seek His help and guidance, and this shows that all Muslims, not related to family of the holy Prophet, should likewise be obedient to God and shed tears when praying to Him and seeking His help and guidance. And as far as working to provide one’s livelihood is concerned, we again know that Imam Saadiq (AS) laboured like other labourers to gain his livelihood and Imam Ali (AS) even as the Khalif worked hard, he tilled the land, planted trees, and helped with irrigation and the like.
This is the logic of the Quran: If you want to earn money, you should work for it, if you seek knowledge, you must study hard and if you want to be in higher positions you must not spare any effort to reach it. Here again I refer to some among numerous verses in this respect. Let’s read this verse and hope we are not included in it: “Do they not meditate on the Quran, or have they locks upon their hearts and minds…”. Yes, we ought to meditate on the Quran with open hearts. Now allow me to read some verses regarding the first points in our discussion today; they are verses 84 to 91 the Sura Mo’minoon: “Ask them: ‘whose is the earth and every being that there is there in, if you have known?” God tells His Prophet to ask the polytheists who had broken up the earth and the sky as the sphere of influence for their separate gods. “They’ll reply: God’s, say why then do you not ponder?” Why do you reply: God’s? Because those polytheists of Mecca did recognize Allah (God) but they believed that their other gods or idols were intercessors for them in the other world!
Than we read: “And say ‘who’s the Lord of the heavens seven and the Lord of the Glorious Throne?” I will explain the meanings of the ‘seven heavens’ and ‘the Glorious Throne’ at some other time, at present we are dealing with the question of monotheism, so let’s continue reading the rest of the verses. To this second question also “They will say ‘Allah’s’. Say why aren’t you then God-fearing men?” this means: why aren’t you then correcting your ways and your behavior and why aren’t you obeying his orders? We read on: “Ask them: ‘Who is it in whose Power, is the sovereignty of all things? Who gives protection to all beings? And none against Him could ever be protected?” Let’s ponder over this verse; humans who think they possess certain powers, they may, on the surface, be dominators in some areas. You own your house, you could take out a brick and put it somewhere else, you may change the position of this bar of iron and other similar powers. But who is He who governs over all the atoms of things you presumably move? Who is it in Whose hands lie the growth of all plants and trees, the development of animals, the humans and all their special movements and their inner transformations? Surely, they are all in the Hand of God and under His reign. Yes, He protects everything, He is the refuge for all, but against His will, none is allowed to protect anybody or support or intercede for anyone. So tell them: “Say, why are you so spell-bound…”. God does emphasize on this ‘deception’ on being ‘spell-bound’, why don’t you open your eyes. The Quran is certain if people open their eyes and meditate, they’ll see the truth.
It is most interesting that the Quran stresses the state of ‘deception’ and ‘being spell-bound’. This is a most delicate point. The Quran is certain that if people open their eyes and see things clearly, its purpose will be attained. We are saying the same thing today that if the whole world opens their eyes, our Quran will reign the world. But the various prevailing forms of ignorance and prejudices and foolish prides together with some evil, influential elements are the main obstacles to reach this divine goal. The Quran goes on “…We have the Truth unto them brought, but they are truth-deniers”. This means that we have cleared everything for them and left the truth at their disposal, but the mental and traditional situation they are in, make them come up with excuses and fabricate lies against God: “Never has God a son begotten, neither is there with Him another god…”. God Almighty is not like an ordinary man to have wives, sons and daughters; he is the one true God, not to be compared at all with what He has created.
Let us pay particular attention to the verse that follows because the most convincing logic is here: “…in that case every god would take away whatever that he had created (to establish a different kingdom!), and some of them would have tried to lord it over one another! So glory be unto God the One, above their attributions.” The Quran is truthfully saying that if there were different gods, each of them would take its creations in a different direction; this is practically what we said earlier about class differences, that is, the absence of unity in creation, the creation of the worlds and humanity in separate forms. Those who believe in a god of light and a god of darkness, human gods superior to other men and upper and lower classes are indeed in the category of anti-monotheism; their creational ideology leaves humanity in broken, differing pieces but, according to monotheism, the whole creation is one solid, linked and related creation. The humans, the plants, the animals, the mountains, the earth and all animate and inanimate beings are joined together and they all come from one ultimate source: Almighty God’s. Thus God is above such ignorant attributions.
Well, today we recited those verses from the Quran and offered you some explanations about them. The next verses we would like to recite are taken from verses 21-22 of the Sura Cow. They begin with: “O You mankind! Worship your Lord, the One Who brought you into being, as well as those before you, so you can become upright, god-fearing…”. The Quran is not addressing the white people or the black people, it does not address certain groups among humanity, neither is it addressing some upper or lower classes, no, the Quran addresses the whole human race. The Quran says that this servitude to God makes you virtuous and god-fearing and, as I mentioned earlier, this kind of virtue makes you immune from committing sins and in a god-fearing society there would be an abundance of virtuous people; it would be the opposite of the present time which suffers from a scarcity of virtues.
Well, the Quran then says: “He is the One who made the earth a cushion for you and made the sky your canopy, and rain He sent down from the heavens to bring forth fruits for your provisions; therefore you should not set up idols to rival God, now that you have the ken.” As you see God addresses all men, all humanity: the provisions from the earth and the sky are not for a special group or class, they are for all, the Quran further advises not to set up idols and rivals in place of God the One because if you do this, you have already divided humanity into different, adverse classes.
Let us now cite the oft-heard verse 13 of the Sura Hujuraat: “O Humankind, We have created you from a single man and a single woman, and made you into tribes/nations, for your own mutual recognitions, yet, in the Sight of God, the noblest of you, is he who fears Him most, and God is All-Knowing, the Awarest.” Again the Quran addresses the whole mankind and says that you are all born from a man and a woman; the same thing has been mentioned in some poems attributed to Imam Ali (AS): “people have the same roots, their father is Adam and their mother is Eve.” All people are equally created and their human differences are there so that they recognize one another but the Quranic statement: “the noblest and dearest of you, in the Sight of God, are the ones who fear God most” is the ultimate and decisive injunction of Islam in rejection of class differences. This means no matter whether you belong to this and that family or group, the only criterion in God’s sight is your virtuosity. But being among the virtuous, god-fearing people does not mean that you may enjoy more social rights or receive more money. Of course there are certain positions in an Islamic community that require the holder to be more virtuous and god-fearing, but even these are not to possess more social rights than others.
Finally I must recite to you the verse 70 of Sura Israa which says: “surely We honoured Adam’s children and blessed them with conveyance on land and sea, and gave them good and pure things for sustenance, and raised them by a special excellence over the greater part of Our creation.” Yes, God says that we honoured humanity, enabled them to journey on land and sea; this also means that humans could travel to distant places and socialize with other men; We provided them with everything good for their livelihood. And who did We let excel over other creatures? The human race, not a special group or class. Now, one of our dear reciters will chant the relevant Quranic verses. O God, for Muhammad’s (PBUH) sake, let the Quran be our intercessor in this and the next world. O God, for your Prophet’s sake, grant us benevolence and blessing through the Quran.
