In the Name Of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, the issue we raise for our discussion today is the question of wilayat, and the way I understand it, on the basis of the holy Quran, has not usually been explained by others. Of course the words walee & wilayat are quite familiar with the Shi’ites. We say and hear it when praying to God, we find it in our narrations, it is repeated among the public and its remembrance is always associated with reverence and holiness. And as Shi’a followers of Islam, we never separate ourselves from wilayat, in fact we do not live without wilayat. Many people think of wilayat as starting from Imam Ali (AS). But my discussion goes back to the roots of wilayat and its roots in the holy Quran. If I could explain this properly, God willing, you’ll find out what an interesting, progressive principle it is and that a community or nation devoid of wilayat will be in a pitiable, confused, spiritual state. I am sure you all shall comprehend it.
When I complete this discussion you will also know why it is said that a man devoid of belief in wilayat is not a true worshipper of God and his daily prayers, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca are not of much value and will not be worthy of receiving God’s forgiveness. There are many Narrations in this respect and one oft-repeated is this: ‘if a man does pray into late nights, fasts all days (not only in the month of Ramadan) and gives up all his wealth and property in the path of God but lacks belief in wilayat, that is not be familiar with the walee of God, all his deeds have been in vain.’
This brief description of wilayat is to show its importance, but now let me begin to enter into our main discussion. Again, most briefly, wilayat is the continuation of prophethood, it is inseparable from prophethood and, in fact, it does complete the issue of prophethood. If there is no wilayat, prophethood will remain incomplete. I should also add that this issue is a difficult one and explaining it is even more difficult. But I implore God Almighty to help me do my best and try to complete and finish this discussion in a few sessions.
In order that you could follow the discussion, I’ll have to shortly review what we have said so far about monotheism and prophethood. What do God’s prophets come for? They come to help humanity towards spiritual perfection, and to familiarize people with moral laws sanctioned by God. We have a tradition (Hadeeth) from our holy Prophet: “I was raised to enhance and complete noble, moral, characters”; in one word, the prophet are there to reshape mankind. How do they go about this? Do they set up educational classes? Do they establish a philosophical club? And do they build up temples and shrines? We have already answered these questions in the negative. But, figuratively speaking, they create a new human-making factory. The prophets of God struggle for decades to create their desired human beings; they are not satisfied by converting a few people, their aim is the whole mankind, they want that their message will gradually and automatically reshape the world community.
Now, which is this new human- making factory, so to speak? Their factory means the creation of an Islamic system and community. All people say that prophets come to create moral men worthy of the name human and they all believe that God’s prophets educate people to travel on the path of God. This is true but there is a problem here which is of most fundamental importance. Do the prophets of God approach people as individuals converting them to their creed one by one? Do they set up a philosophical club to train some devoted students? No, the prophets of God and our holy Prophet performed something much firmer, stronger and more universal. In the case of our Prophet, he established an Islamic community to forward his godly objective continually.
What is the nature of this Islamic community? This question does not concern us in our present discussion. So I only say a few words about it. An Islamic community is a society or civilization governed by God Almighty, the injunction and laws of God are carried out in this community and all appointments are made according to the will of God. Sociologists usually draw a cone to demonstrate different hierarchies. If we follow their example, we may say that in an Islamic community, God is on the top of the cone and humanity and the religion of God are drawn below it. And all social, political legal and economic relations are decided upon in the framework of God’s religion and God-given laws. A shining example of such a society is Medina at the time of the holy Prophet; he acted as God’s deputy in executing laws, in providing regulations for all affairs and guiding people to the right path.
In such an Islamic society everything is God’s. Congregational prayers and sermons, even march-pasts and battle-cries are carried out in the Name of God. The Prophet delivered his sermons in a mosque; he saw to people’s problems and dispatched warriors to defend Islam in the same mosque. All temporal and spiritual issues were guided by the Prophet in that House of God. Anyone who joined this community was absolutely impressed and tried to be a good Muslim, if not a perfect one.
On the other hands, in the non-Islamic or non-divine societies, many people try to remain as virtuous persons according to their human nature but they fail because of prevailing conditions and social pressures. Say they do not want to give or receive bribes but it is not possible; they do not want their wives and daughters to do anything shameful, but social circumstances, fashions and luxuries do not allow them. There are numerous factors such as pictures, films, cinemas, inordinate clubs and harmful get-togethers that constantly take people away and away from God; their prevailing, social and psychological pressures do not often let you remember God. But in a true Islamic society everything helps you to remember your Creator: its bazaars, mosques, the government offices and your friends, your parents and your kith and kin help you remember God Almighty, and take you away from being the servants of the powerful and the wealthy.
If the leadership of the holy Prophet would continue, say, for some 50 years or if the leadership had passed to Ali-bin-Abi Taalib (AS), the closest to the holy Prophet among Muslim believers, one could surely claim that even all the hypocrites of the time would have turned into true believers and all people who did not know what Faith was, could have turned into the kind of believers who only served God and Islam; because this is the real substance and nature of a true Islamic society and divine prophets are raised to establish such a society when people, not in groups of hundreds and thousands, but humanity as a whole, will convert to the true religion of God and certainly among them you would find the truthfully faithful as well as superficial believers.
I explained those issues about the prophet’s missions because I intend to talk about ‘wilayat’ in a new way, that is, I mean to discuss the roots of wilayat, not in a simplistic manner as some people think. Now let me ask this question: is the prophet able to administer such a society single- handedly? Of course not. Doesn’t such a society need an administration and organized units to carry out its commitments? Doesn’t it need soldiers to defend it against its enemies? Doesn’t the prophet need some helpers and comrades to help him further his message? Yes, the answer to all those questions is in the affirmative and our holy Prophet carried out all these obligations through ordinary, worldly means, not by some extra-ordinary events. So the prophet does succeed in bringing together such a small, but united, unified, steadfast and patient group in the first place. He does this by reciting the Quranic verses to them: “You shall invite to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and with kindly exhortation…”. God tells His prophet to exploit God’s words and revelations and find ways into the hearts and souls of people around him in this way. Thus the Prophets manage to gather a group around them, of the most faithful, the most firm and the most unshakable, of the kind described in the Hadeeth: ‘those who will never be shaken by the blamers’; that is, those who never tremble at the accusations and allegations of disbelievers and will steadfastly continue walking on the path of God. These are the first and foremost Muslims.
Thus prophets create a new front to further their cause. In what sort of societies do they live? In the case of our holy Prophet, he first formed a small but devoted group of Muslims in the backward, ignorant environment of Mecca; the members of this group had to be iron-willed and most firm in their faith in order to survive in the face of many problems, hardships and animosities. They had to be inseparable from one another or, as it is said these days, they strictly followed an unshakable, organizational discipline. Because people are a small, oppressed minority, they could be easily influenced by the thoughts and traditions of the majority and its prominent figures. So the Prophet, in order to keep them as his devoted, selfless companions, kept them closely linked together and kept them away from the influence of the majority; these faithful companions are the ones on whose shoulders, the new structure of the future Islamic society would be built. As an example, some mountaineers, say, a group of ten, who intend to reach the top of a tough, snowy mountain, are advised to stick together by very firm ropes, because as separate individual they may slip on icy surfaces and fall to their deaths. They are also advised not to carry heavy bags with them. Now do we have a name for this unbreakable, firm rope in the Quran and Islamic tradition? Yes, we do have a name for this; it is called wilayat.
In our discussion we have not yet touched upon Imam Ali’s wilayat; this will be discussed later. We are now talking about the principle, the concept and the roots of wilayat. So far I have told you that wilayat requires a firm coherence and comradeship among a group of people who are after a common goal, a single destination and a united, ideological front and consistent cohesion. Why do they have to respect such peculiarities? The answer is to survive and not be affected by the prevailing circumstances. This is called wilayat in the holy Quran. Thus the Prophet instilled all these characteristics in his followers, and established a unique brotherhood among them so that later they could bring about the Islamic umma and form an Islamic society.
These early believers and followers of the holy Prophet were advised not to mix with the opponent of monotheism, not to join the Jewish groups, not to associate with the Christian camp and not to be friends with the polytheists; all these measures were necessary for the true believers to stay clear of any ideological pollution by the enemies of Islam and Prophethood. And let me here emphasize that even after the establishment of the Islamic society and a great umma, the need for wilayat is still necessary and here we’ll have to expand and broaden our discussion to see why wilayat is needed. At this juncture, we may also pay particular attention to the sort of wilayat believed and expressed by the Shi’a branch of Islam. We have already noticed that wilayat at the time of the holy Prophet, when Muslims were surrounded by an ignorant, backward and pagan society, was absolutely required for the later success of the Prophet’s divine mission.
We may also add that the small, Shi’a communities during the later rule of some perverted, anti-Shi’a administrations could not have survived if it were not for their deep, unshakable faith in wilayat. How did the Shi’a communities survive against all odds in the oppressive khalifs, their tortures, murders, imprisonments and the devastating, anti-Shi’a propaganda by the servants of these regimes? It was only through their deep and profound belief in wilayat from which they never separated for a minute.
You have heard of certain streams in the oceans that flow inside other tumultuous, strong currents, waves and adverse conditions but, it is said that this pure, sweet, small stream goes on its way without mingling with other strong currents or being affected by other salty, muddy and bitter currents. Now let us extend this example to the world of Islam under the rule of the Khalifs of Bani Umayya and Bani Abbas when schools of thought, ideological currents and political thinking of various hues and colours were fighting one another. When you look at this state of affairs for centuries, you will notice that Shi’ism continues its own small, spotless stream despite all odds and you are really surprised at its pure, congruous and resistant continuity. Which was the factor that kept it in its pure state? Nothing but belief in the rightfulness of wilayat, the wilayat that brings people together in a most coherent and brotherly way. Wilayat has the same meaning of wilayat at the time of our holy Prophet. But this is only one dimension of wilayat; there are other dimensions to the question of wilayat which I’ll talk about later.
The holy Quran speaks of the faithful as one another’s Owlia, that is, guardians, comrades and affectionate friends and brothers. In the words of many early Islamic jurisprudents, Shi’a equals faithful, and true believer. Immediately after converting to Islam, the most important issue is faith. What does this kind of interpretation mean? It means the faith is what the logic of Shi’ism proves. Our pure Imams (AS) kept the Shi’a faith alive by bringing true Muslims together as brothers and guardians of one another the way the holy Prophet kept them united, unshakable and steadfast, otherwise Shi’ism could have withered and died as numerous other Islamic sects did. As I said this was one dimension of wilayat. But there is another dimension to it, which is perhaps more important, and that is ‘the wilayat of the walee-al-Allah’; what does this wilayat of the walee of God mean? What is the wilayat of Imam Ali (AS) or Imam Saadeq? Why should we today believe in the wilayat of the Imams? Does this mean that we only ought to love the Imams? How wrong are they who think so! Wilayat is not at all restricted to loving and respecting the progeny of the holy Prophet. Are there any Muslims who don’t respect and love them? Even those who fought against them in early stages of Islam did have respect and love for them, but they were unfortunate to be the servants of oppressive rulers, yet they opposed them and fought them for worldly attachments, positions and wealth. It is reported that Mansour, the Abbasid Khalif wept when he heard the news of Imam Saadeq’s death; but who had ordered the poisoning of the Imam? It was he who had ordered it! Maybe he respected and loved the Imam!
A similar case is Ma’moun, the Abbasid Khalif. Some claim that he was really a Shi’ite! He knew that Imam Reza (AS) was the rightful Imam, but did this suffice? If it is a question of knowing in your heart that the Imams should have been the true, lawful leaders of the Islamic umma, then Haroun, Ma’moun, Mansour, Muawia and even Yazeed, the murderer of Imam Husain (AS) were also true Shi’ites! No, they acted differently and killed or poisoned the Imams because they did not sanction their unjust, oppressive and un-Islamic administrations. Many of those who fought Imam Ali (AS) did have respect and kind regards for his sublime virtues, but for temporal gains and cheap, worldly rewards, they joined the camps who fought him. So the kind of wilayat we are explaining is not about loving or not loving the Prophet’s holy progeny. We must think about wilayat to find out what kind of wilayat we believe in. some people would like to fool themselves by expressing their love and reverence for the Imams (AS) and not paying any attention to those commitments that their belief in wilayat requires.
On the occasion of Al-Ghadeer, people usually recite this prayer: ‘Praise be to God who made us resorters to the wilayat of Ali-bin-Abi Taalib (AS)’. I often advise my friends to say: ‘O God, pray make us the resorters to…’, that is, beseeching God to help us become true believers in wilayat. Anyway, I think we have talked about one dimension of wilayat sufficiently. And I think that the Sura Mumtahina in the Quran could also be called the Sura Al-wilayat and now I shall recite, translate and explain the verses 1 to 4 from this Sura. It begins: “In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful; O You believers! Do not take for guardians the enemies of Mine and foes of yours;…”. The translation of ‘owliah’ in the papers handed to you is good; it says ‘companions, comrades’ because some people translate the word as ‘friends’; this is an incomplete meaning because the verse talks about the ‘enemies of God and believers’, and it is obvious that you should not be friends with such enemies! The verse tells us something more than this: you should never allow them to become your guardians, you should never let them infiltrate your ranks, but you should consider them as your opponents and foes which in fact they are.
Next we read: “…you show them friendship but they are the ones who rejected the Truth that was revealed to you; and drove out the Messenger and yourselves because you did believe in God, your Lord…’. They are the people who drove you and your Prophet from their houses ad their city only because you did believe in God the One, God Almighty and your Lord, they are your real enemies, and you should never let them help you. “…if you come out to struggle in My cause seeking to please Me, do you then extend secret affection to them as friendly, fellow-combatants?!…”. The verses tell us that if you go out to fight on the path of God and if your objective is to please your Lord, then you should not take God’s enemies as your helpers.
This Sura is of utmost importance; it does not say that you should not cooperate or be friends with all disbelievers, that you should have no relationships and that you should cut all ties with them. The other verses in the same Sura clearly tell us what groups of disbelievers are your stubborn enemies; I’ll talk about this tomorrow, if God will. But now let us continue reading the first 4 verses of this Sura. “…do you then extend secret affection to them as friendly companions?! And I do know well what you conceal and that you reveal; and whosoever of you may do this, will surely stray from the right way.” God says that if you maintain open or secret contact or companionship with those who oppose the Truth revealed to you and show enmity to you and the Messenger, you should realize that I know about it all, and that anyone among you who does this is surely astray from the right path. And then God does introduce such opponents.
But before I read the following verse, let me tell you something about the occasion of the decent of this verse. According to most Quranic commentators, this verse was revealed after a person by the name of Haatib-bin-Abi-Balta’a did something wrong. According to reports, this man was a Muslim of weak faith. The Prophet was about to march against the pagans of the Quraish clan. Haatib thought that the Prophet and his companion may win or lose the battle, and in either case his relatives who were among the Quraish may be hurt or killed. Well, he is a soldier in the Muslim troops of the Prophet. Thus he tried to be clever and probably thought: I am a Muslim soldier of the Prophet, I participate in his jihad against the disbelievers and surely I’ll be rewarded for this. So I better write a letter to them and warn them about the coming battle, for if Muslims face defeat, the disbelievers will still be my friends. This is a cautious measure; I fight for the Prophet and still keep my friendship. In short, he meant to have his cake and eat it!! Anyway, he wrote a letter to his kith and kin in the Quraish clan, gave it to a woman he trusted; she hid the letter under her clothes and set off to Mecca. But God informed His prophet about this by revelation whereupon the holy Prophet dispatched Ali (AS) and a few other companions to ride fast and stop the woman on her way. Well, they found the woman and seized the letter from her. The Prophet then questioned Haatib about his misdeed and he, in his defence, said: O You, Messenger of God, I have many relatives and close friends there, I feared for their lives, I wrote this letter to soften their hearts towards me as I am a soldier of the Islamic camp! Well, the commentators say that this verse is about this kind of dubious thinking. It does explain that they are your ideological enemies, they are people who aim at destroying you and your religion and that they will never be kind to you.
The next verse in this Sura makes the point absolutely clear: “if they gain the upper hand over you, you’ll find that they are foemen…”. This is like saying: You foolish Haatib, don’t be mistaken in thinking that they will reciprocate your affection if they win the battle; they will treat you most ruthlessly. The verse goes on: “…they shall unleash their hands and tongues to do you evil wrongs, and they will keenly crave that you may disbelieve…”. This means that if they defeat you, they won’t allow you to be believers even only in your hearts, no, you’ll have to become pagans and infidels just like them.
In the next verse, there is a decisive warning about the question of Haatib’s relatives and about all Haatibs that may appear later: are you going to compromise with the enemies of God because you like your kith and kin? Are you ready to disobey God’s order because some disbelievers are related to you? How could such relations help you when facing God’s retribution? Here again the Quran warns such people: “Neither your kinsmen, nor your children would be to you of any benefit upon the Day of Resurrection; betwixt you He brings separation, for Allah sees your every action”.
Here, let’s quote verses 34-37 of Sura `Abasa in this respect: “The Day when man forsakes his brethren, his mother and his father, his wife and his own children, for every one of them upon that Day, shall have enough for his preoccupation!” Your nearest and dearest shall be of no benefit to you, you are separated from one another and each person has to answer for his deeds as an individual. Yes, on that Day you are not to face even your brother, wife and children. The very son and daughter of yours whom you love so much and do everything for them, will refuse to stay next to you, people don’t want to face one another, because each individual is deeply sunk in his own thoughts about what he did or did not when he was alive on earth. Those who provide everything for their own children or their dear ones at the expense of committing sins and doing unlawful things, if they did truly understand the Quran, they would surely change their behavior and their ways of life, because God does witness whatever you do.
Now let’s go back to the rest of the verses in the Sura Mumtahina which are written down in the papers handed to you “Indeed you have a fine example in Abraham and his companions when they said unto their own people: Lo! Clear of you are we and what you pray to, instead of God; we do reject you, and enmity and hatred shall for eons between us run, until you do believe in God alone…”. These verses are the same as what God Almighty tells the faithful; God says: learn from what Abraham and his followers did, it’s a great lesson, you do the same. What did they do? They clearly and fearlessly told their own perverted clan that ‘we hate your false goods and goddesses, we reject you completely and, as long as you do not believe in God the one, enmity and hatred between us shall ceaselessly continue’.
The Quranic verse almost repeats the fact of Abraham and his companions being an excellent example: “Surely in them you have a good example of the people who have their hopes only in God and in the Final Day; as for the ones who turn away, God is in need of nothing; He is the Ever-Praised.” Well, those who do not believe and go astray, will not be harming God, for God is absolutely Needless; they will only harm themselves in both worlds. Thus Abraham and his followers did say to disbelievers ‘we abhor you and your gods’.
Our own 4th Imam, Imam Sajjaad (AS) also spoke in the same manner with the deviated people of his time. There is a hadeeth (narration) in the book “Bihaar-al-Anwar” about Yahya-bin-umma-Tuwail, a devoted disciple of Imam Sajjaad (AS), addressing the people in the Medina Mosque. These people, among whom the Imams Hassan and Husain (AS) had lived for years, did not help these Imams when needed. In fact they did not have any liking or attachment to the ruling Bani-Umayya Khalifs. So why didn’t they help the rightful Imams? Because they were chicken-hearted cowards who, fearing the suppression and persecution of the deviated rulers, left the progeny of the holy Prophet alone in Karbala; they were not disbelievers, they only feared for their lives.
Anyway, Yahya addresses these people quoting the content of some verses of the Quran we already mentioned: ‘We are clear of you, we disown you, and enmity and hatred shall run between us forever.’ This is exactly what Abraham said to those people. As you see, the wilayat that Yahya believes in is the same wilayat as at the time of Abraham. This means that if a Shi’a person does not follow his Imam and joins the camp of the enemies through fear or greed, he is no more a Shi’ite, he is no longer on the path of God. Yahya-bin-Umm-Tuwail, after the demise of Imam Sajjaad, succeeded in strengthening and fortifying the Shi’ite organizations. He was later arrested by the faithless, blood-thirsty governor, Hajjaaj-bin Yousof; he ordered his henchmen to cut off his hands, his legs and finally his tongue and he died as a true, selfless, Shi’ite martyr who never submitted to the oppressive, un-Islamic rulers.
