In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, what we touched upon so far was a brief description and explanation of a community or an individual who embraces wilayat and the perspective of a society in which wilayat reigns. What I said in previous days in this respect was the result of deliberation in some Quranic verses, the traditions and narrations reached us by our Imams; we then concluded that wilayat has several dimensions or manifestations.
Well, one dimension was that the Muslim community should not be dependent on external elements and not have lasting coherence with non-Muslims. Certainly by this we do not mean that the Islamic society should be isolated from the rest the world and not have any social, political or economic relations with other non-Islamic nations and communities. No, this is not the case. What we mean is that the Muslim society or the Islamic umma should not be dependent on them, to follow them and be dissolved in their culture, or in their political and economic systems; it must stand on its own feet.
The next dimension was exactly the opposite of the first dimension, that is, utmost solidarity, coherence and vigorous, intimate relations among all Islamic elements. This aspect of wilayat in a Muslim society requires that all individuals in the umma solidly follow one goal and coherently move in the same direction. We do have narrations from our holy Prophet and other sources saying: “The believers, in their mutual, social, compassionate relations, should function as one body”. They all should as one hand against their opponents and enemies. In a verse from Sura Al-Maa’ida which I read out yesterday, you noticed the same advice: “…most humble towards believers, forcefully stern against the disbelievers…”. The same theme has been more clearly expressed in another verse: “Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and his followers should be solid of heart against the disbelievers but most compassionate amongst one another…”. When they face adverse fronts, you see them in solid ranks of absolute impregnability but within the umma all individuals are supposed to direct one another towards benevolence, truthfulness and doing good; they should all recommend one another in the direction of truth, resistance against corruption and evil behaviour and absolute togetherness in reaching their Islamic goals as in the example of the mountaineers, I cited yesterday, who were tied together by a long rope which does not allow one to slip and fall down. In an Islamic society all people are supposed to help each other morally and intellectually. If you come across a person who may be weaker than you in religious, moral or intellectual comprehension, you are duty-bound to help him as much as you could because the members of an Islamic community should he attached to one another as an intimate, large family. This is another manifestation of wilayat.
Now a third dimension of wilayat that in fact guarantees the two dimensions already discussed is the need for a central, Islamic authority or administration based on certain, important conditions. As I said, because the Islamic society should be a unified, coherent body, internally and externally, it would not be possible for scattered authorities or differing administrations to function and carry out its unified goals. Therefore it is necessary for the Islamic society to have an administrative center or authority because if there is a plurality of authorities in different, geographical parts of the Islamic umma, it would not be in a position to defend itself against the hostile, adverse parties or fronts. A simple example be how our body parts function: if the right hand takes its orders from a certain nerve center and the left hand from a different nerve center, your hands would obviously not be able to function in unison, say, in seizing and holding something.
The Islamic society, as I said, has to form a united front against some world elements that operate against it; they cannot achieve this if some parts act immediately, others react at another time and a third part hesitates to act; it will certainly not be able to defend itself. Briefly speaking, if we do support those two dimensions of wilayat already mentioned, we have to have a powerful command centre to inspire and administer the whole umma.
This central authority supposed who is to administer the affairs of the umma, to appoint competent officials for various functions and to prevent any harmful disputes or conflicts among various Islamic parts, should necessarily be appointed by God Almighty; this person should possess certain qualifications: most informed, most virtuous, the best representative of all constructive, spiritual elements found in Islam and a true manifestation of all Quranic teachings Well, what shall we call such a person? We call him walee because, according to what I described about the two most important dimensions of wilayat, it is necessary for the Islamic society to have a walee of proper qualifications to guide the umma.
The next question raised now is if people like you and I may be included among believers in wilayat? Perhaps we are, but does our society as a whole follow wilayat. You may ask: does it make a difference? Yes, it does, because, as in a human body, if a member or two are healthy, it does not necessarily mean that the whole body is healthy.
Now we must find out what characteristics a believer in wilayat possesses and if we notice that you and I, if God will, do have faith in wilayat, then we should see what the characteristics of a community of wilayat-believing people should be like. Are there no problems facing the believers in wilayat living in a wilayatless society? Does this mean that the belief in wilayat, in them does not accompany any responsibilities? Is their life an agreeable life in this wilayatless society? Doesn’t this belief in wilayat in a wilayatless society harm an individual’s firm belief in wilayat? These are issues that Muslims men or women, especially the youth, should ponder about. When a believer in wilayat lives in a wilayatless society and does not feel that he has any responsibility about others, wouldn’t his own beliefs be harmed and become useless? These are questions that you yourselves should think about because my limited time does not allow me to discuss all such issues in detail.
Now we must first try to see what kind of person is the one who believes in wilayat? How should he behave as a person believing in wilayat? Secondly we should think of people who have gathered together as a group or community. How should they behave to become believers in wilayat? And under what social conditions would they become deprived of wilayat as expressed in Islam? The third question I raised for you is this: could a person who believes in wilayat think that because he believes in wilayat, he does not have any other obligations or responsibilities to help bring about a society that does believe in wilayat? As I mentioned earlier you ought to deeply think about these issues and refer to Islamic, Quranic teachings and authentic sources to gain a better understanding about them.
The fourth question is this: if a believer in wilayat lives in a wilayatless society but does not feel that he has any obligation to help the society to become believers in wilayat, does not such an attitude harm his own belief in wilayat? Well, the fact that this person does not try to urge and convince others to also believe in the important principle of Islamic wilayat, may weaken and destroy his own belief; or perhaps he could preserve his belief in wilayat in his heart despite his lack of action in this respect.
I now try to briefly talk about these questions and after that you could compare the two attitudes of people towards wilayat: a firm believer in the progressive, sublime and Quranic principle of wilayat who does his best to spread it further in the Islamic community and another lazy, fearful, comfort-seeking person who is after his own personal interest, yet he still think that he is a believer in wilayat! Some people think that wilayat only means weeping and shedding tears at certain ceremonies held to remember the Imams (AS) or only uttering the phrase ‘peace be on them’ after their names are mentioned or keep the love of Prophet’s household in their hearts. Certainly it is important to honour the members of the Household, certainly it is necessary to weep when hearing what injustices they went through and certainly it is great to learn lessons from their sufferings and their martyrdoms. Yes all these deeds are important and most valuable but they do not make you a firm believer in wilayat for wilayat is far above and beyond such acts. The person who weeps loudly when hearing about the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) and the uniqe tragedy of Karbala, does something good, but he would be awfully wrong if he thinks that only shedding tears makes him a true follower of wilayat.
These are very delicate points and you must pay particular attention to what I am saying because there are certain ignorant, or evil-minded, persons who suggest that we do not agree with shedding tears at what Imam Husain went through. This is absolute nonsense; we completely agree with those who weep and shed floods of tears when hearing about this Imam. Weeping for Imam Husain (AS), if you learn lessons from him, could even liberate nations.
At this juncture I should mention the Tawwaabeen (those who did not help Imam Husain (AS) at karbala but later repented); they sat at the grave of Imam, wept and mourned for a couple of days and decided to fight the army of Yazeed to the last drops of their blood. I should also add that everyone in the Islamic world, Shi’a or Sunni, mentions the name of Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Husain with great veneration and admiration. All our Imams did their best for Islam and suffered tortures and executions or were martyred in the path of God. That’s why I said that there is no Muslim who does not know these virtuous members of the Household or does not mourn for what they went through to uphold and advance Islamic teachings. I am certain that if you travel to a place where people have never heard about Islam and if you could tell them the true accounts about these Imams and what they did for their belief in God, the Prophet and Islam, they would surely revere them.
Thus if you ever think that you do believe in wilayat because each time the name of, say, Imam Ali, is mentioned, you do utter ‘peace be upon him’, you are absolutely mistaken. No, this is not the kind of belief in wilayat that may take you to God’s paradise. Certainly a part of wilayat is to mourn for Imam Husain, the lord of martyrs. I stress this point because there are some ignorant people- I hope they are ignorant not evil-minded- who ridicule the mourning ceremonies and try to oppose the people who do believe in wilayat; this is a simple trick, they limit the important principle of wilayat or imamat to such secondary matters, they intend to do away with this important, Islamic principle.
‘A man, who has true belief in wilayat, does have a daily-increasing, intellectual and practical dependence on his walee.’ You must find the walee, the God’s walee and try to distinguish the true walee of the Islamic umma. After you find him, then you do your best to suit and link all your thoughts, your deeds, your spiritual tendencies and your way of life to him only, follow him sincerely, act according to his recommendations and carry out jihad by recognizing the friends and the enemies of the walee. A believer in wilayat should ceaselessly think and act as I explained.
Now which of you is ready to raise his hand and truthfully say: yes, I am a true believer in wilayat? And among you who could confess and say: no, I have not been a wilayatful person?! If we claim that we have the love of Ali (AS) in our hearts and shed some tears when his martyrdom is mentioned but our thoughts and deeds are contrary to Ali’s teachings, and we call this wilayat, we must know that we are only joking; we have only created a myth or superstitious inclination about Ali (AS) to be ignorantly happy that we really follow him! This is a real injustice towards Ali (AS) and his descendants, because wilayat is for Islam and if we don’t understand it, we are committing a big anti-Islam error.
The fact that Imam Saadiq (AS) tells us that the believers in wilayat are those who do practice it and adds: those whose thoughts and deeds are against us, are in fact our enemies because the Imam (AS) described wilayat in a way very different from wilayat as understood by those ignorant elements who go on living under the name of Imam Saadiq’s wilayat. Then why shouldn’t you and I not deeply understand wilayat as the Imam did? Why do we wish to keep ourselves in the hell of the worldly life while aspiring for God’s Paradise? Why do we wish that, when we are taking our last breaths of life before dying, the moments when our long-wished desires are to be realized, there should be no good news of entering Paradise? It would be a great pity if a believer’s life is not closely linked to his walee?
Now let’s pay attention to wilayat in the society or community. Wilayat in a society depends on the walee being recognizably ascertained; all should know that such-and-such a person is the walee. Secondly the person of walee should be the source of inspiration and happiness for all groups, forces and their social activities. All orders and laws should be given by him and he should supervise the satisfactory execution of these laws and regulations. The person of walee should be the engine of all power and energy in that society and all people ought to watch him and follow him in the right direction. Such a society would be a wilayatful society, that is, a society enjoying God’s wilayat.
Imam Ali (AS), the Commander of the Faithful, was not in the position of the Islamic walee for some 25 years after the demise of the holy Prophet. Therefore the Islamic community lacked wilayat for some 25 years. Certainly during these long years, people such as Salmaan or Abu-Dzar did follow wilayat as individuals but the Islamic umma was wilayatless for some 25 years. After this long time, Imam Ali (AS) was chosen as the Khalif and so, during the reign of Imam Ali (AS), the umma did have a walee and possessed wilayat because Ali (AS), with his characteristics and spiritual values that were elevated under the guidance of the holy Prophet was the umma’s commander, inspirer and law-maker. So we see that when imamat and wilayat rule an Islamic society, when enjoining good and forbidding evil as managed by the Imam, when he is administering the society and when declaration of war or establishing peace come from the Imam’s words, then such a society is indeed a wilayatful society.
Now if you feel you are a believer in wilayat, you should thank God, and if you don’t feel so, you ought to seek for it. It is a blessing of God to believe in wilayat and you should thank God for this divine bounty because, as I will further explain, there is no greater blessing than belief in wilayat. So let us strengthen the belief in wilayat in our own minds and souls. Try to follow Ali (AS), try to create a link between Ali (AS), who is the walee of God, and ourselves. Of course such efforts are hard, it needs a jihadi effort and it involves many deprivations. After Ali (AS) all our pure Imams did their best to revive wilayat, to enliven the Islamic society and they carried out this mission in their proper ways.
Struggling in the path of wilayat does not mean sitting comfortably at home and swearing at Zaid and Amr; no such oral statements help your wilayat but they may take you further away from true belief in wilayat. The true way to revive and strengthen wilayat is to recognize our Islamic walee of the time as ordained by God Almighty. As I said yesterday, some walees are divinely mentioned by name such as Ali, Hassan-bin-Ali, Husain-bin Ali and all other Imams (peace of God be upon them all). At other times walees are not mentioned by name. One of these Imams so tells us in a reported narration: “the one among the jurisprudents who has absolute control over his carnal desires, who safeguards his religion and is most obedient to the injunctions of his own walee”, could be recognized as your walee. Thus, both kinds of walees are in fact chosen by God because divine injunctions have been observed in their choosing. As an example, such considerations have been observed by those people who have followed the wilayat of Grand-Ayatollah Borujerdi. Of course you all could do your own research about this, but our present discussion is not about the ways and methods of finding the proper walee; we are discussing the very principle of wilayat.
Now you may ask: what happens in a society that enjoys wilayat? The short answer is: a dead society comes to life. You may imagine a corpse that has a brain but it doesn’t function, it has eyes but cannot see, it has a mouth but cannot eat and it has blood that does not circulate through the body. Now imagine that this dead body is somehow returned to life. Now his brain, his nerves, his blood and all other parts perform their functions and he is able to be active socially, to make new friendships, fight his opponents and spiritually advance towards perfection.
Well, have the example I cited in mind to understand the importance of wilayat in Islamic communities, that is, instead of the dead body, think of a morbid, wilayatless society. There are talents in this society but they often go astray or are ruined; people have talents and intelligence but such gifts are employed in the cause of corruption, wars, human slaughter, human exploitation, injustice and oppression, people in this society do have the sense of hearing but they don’t listen to truth and their brains do not order them to do what’s right and truthful. This is a small picture of a wilayatless society.
As you already know, the wilayatless, Islamic community after the demise of the holy Prophet trod on a path that led to the weak khalifate of Uthman eventually to the oppressive, godless rule of Muawia. Why was the Islamic society so misled? Because it lacked wilayat exactly as expressed by Fatima-al-Zahra (AS) when addressing the wives and daughters of the Prophet’s Companions and the early migrants which you have all read about. The holy Prophet had also predicted the coming of such days when an Islamic society devoid of divine wilayat could go astray. The words uttered by Fatima (AS) are still echoing in our ears. But an Islamic society enjoying divine wilayat will help the growth and perfection of all God-given talents to humans, it will strengthen all human values; it tries to distribute wealth in order to do away with class privileges and establish true justice.
And finally let me translate and explain the verse 41 of Sura Al-Hajj which was recited at the beginning of this session: “The people who, if We establish them through the land, will keep up prayers…”. Praying and prayers are symbols for remembering God and walking on the path of God and all their words and deeds are directed by what God has taught them. We read on the verse “…and pay Zakaat…”. My understanding of the term Zakaat goes beyond the common interpretation of certain stated alms or charities; my take of this term is nearer to something like a suggestion towards distribution of wealth, but I am not quite certain about this and I’m studying the matter more deeply. Yet what is certain about Zakaat is that it is a step towards some sort of ‘adjustment of wealth’ in an Islamic society and we have certain Narrations that point to this aspect of Zakaat.
Any way the verse goes on: ‘…those who advocate whatever is right and righteous and forbid what is evil…’. we sometimes think that this Quranic phrase only means that I just advise you not to do a certain thing that’s bad but do something else which is good. But no, this is just one of the manifestations of this Quranic injunction. Imam Ali (AS) was asked why he had to fight Muawia and he said: to enjoin good and to forbid evil. The historical report about this is long and I do not read it here. Imam Husain (AS) moves out from Medina and he is asked: where are you going to, sir? And he replies: To enjoin good and to forbid evil. Thus you see how vast and great is the dimension of ‘enjoining good and forbidding evil or wrong’. And finally, if you have wilayat in the Islamic community, all Islamic obligations: praying to God, giving of alms (Zakaat), enjoining good and forbidding evil are all brought to life again; the dead body will be alive again .
