The Role of Women towards the System of Wilayat

Why do you need a System of Wilayat? What are the effects of a Fironic system on a society? What current system are you living your live? Can you secure your end by being indifferent to the system in which you are living? What role women have to play in establishing a system of wilayah in a society? This book addresses these questions in an elegant and easy to understand manner. This book is a translation of the Urdu Seminar "Nizam-e-Wilayat" delivered by: Hujjatul Islam Sayed Jawad Naqvi. It is an eye opener for us that makes us realize our faults and our responsibilities towards the society in which we are living our lives.

Miscellaneous information:

The Role of Women towards the System of Wilayat
 Hujjatul Islam Sayed Jawad Naqvi 
 Published By Bethat Islamic Research Centre (BIRC) Qom, Iran
 Copyright© 2007
 
 It is not permitted to reprint this book for commercial purpose without the permission of BIRC. Reprinting for the purpose of free distribution is permitted provided that there is no modification in the contents in any form.

Translator's Notes

In the name of Allah (s.w.t), the Lord of those who struggle in His way.

The book you are about to read now is an English translation of an Urdu Seminar "Nizam e Wilayat" delivered by a very senior scholarly personality Hujjatul Islam Sayed Jawad Naqvi from Qom, Iran. This seminar was delivered to a group of women in a city in Pakistan, hence the focus of the book in certain areas is very specific to women; also some issues though are specific to Pakistan but also are applicable in a generic form globally.

Hujjatul Islam Sayed Jawad Naqvi is well known in the Urdu speaking Shia School for his inspiring, awakening, deep visionary thought provoking speeches. His objective is to educate the people on the lines of Pure Islam e Mohammedi (S), thereby saving the society from the evils of cultural invasions and conspiracies of enemies of Islam. Sayed Jawad Naqvi's approach is to touch on those fundamental subjects of Islam which form the basis of thoughts of a human being and have also been a victim of misinterpretations, distortions and cultural adulteration. Reformation of these fundamentals becomes the foundation for reforming the actions on the right path leading towards a righteous social movement.

This book in your hand is an example of this approach, where the scholar introduces the need for an Islamic system in a society in the light of intelligence, Holy Quran and the Seerah of Ahlulbavt (as). As a consequence and outcome of this seminar, there was an awakening, resulting into a ladies rally organized by the women for the first time in the city where this seminar was delivered, thereby resulting into an impulsive initiation of a social movement.

In today's situation specifically in our Shia school of thought, there is a big segment which has kept themselves away from the current affairs and political situation of the Muslim Ummah. They consider Islam to be a religion that is confined inside the four walls of a house or a mosque, a religion of individual form of ritual worships with the only form of social involvement being charity and welfare activities. These non-socio-political believers of Islam have given the enemies of Islam grounds to invade our core beliefs and thereby remove the real soul of Islam, which in reality is a big threat to imperialistic powers. This book makes us realize this mistake that we are doing by adopting this approach and our careless attitude, submitting and accepting to live our lives in a non-Islamic system. The consequences and effects of living our lives in a non-Islamic system are very beautifully, elegantly and in a convincing manner presented by the Scholar in this book.

I am not a translator or a literature expert, hence translating this book that too from a lecture was a big challenge for me. I have been listening to the lectures of Sayed Jawad Naqvi since several years, and I always thought that this matter and approach should reach as many people possible and to be specific in English. I decided to take this mission on my own and started to do this work. Hence, I apologize in advance for the grammatical and literal mistakes which would be present in this book. I have tried my best in selecting the right equivalent English words for Urdu words, which is really challenging when the scholar has such a marvelous control over the Urdu language and English by itself lacks the lucidity in presenting certain Urdu words. I have tried my best and I am confident that at no place the meaning and message of any phrase or sentence is lost, though I have rephrased several sentences from lecture mode to reading mode.

I have also tried to maintain consistency in certain specific Urdu to English terminologies. I have also made headings for different sections so as to develop interest and split reading for the readers.

At the end, I am thankful to Allah (s.w.t.) for granting me this Tawfeeq (opportunity) to be of some use. I pray to the Almighty (s.w.t.) to accept this work, and as a reward gift me with more such opportunities to serve the true Islam.

Wassalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatahu.

Guidance and Purpose of Creation

إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ

"Only Allah is your Vali and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay the poor-rate while they bow"(Surah al-Maida, 5:55)

The topic of discussion is System of Wilayat. The ·necessity of recognizing and being aware of this subject arises from the arrangement of the system of guidance which Allah (s.w.t.) has set up during and after the creation of the human being. One part of the system of guidance which is related to the creation of the human being is referred to as Guidance by Innate nature (Hidayat e Fitri).

One portion of guidance lies within the human being and other lies outside him that is acquired through knowledge, recognition, revelation and propagation. All the necessities for survival of the human being are totally covered by the combination of both these types of inward and outward guidance. And the collection of these is known as Religion. Religion is the guidance for the human being. But what is meant by Guidance?

Guidance is to provide the human being with those means, sources, knowledge, information and path through which he can reach his purpose of creation. I would lie to emphasize that every possible means, source of knowledge, direction which leads the human being to his purpose of creation comes under guidance.

One portion of this collection of guidance is Knowledge (ilm) and Recognition (Maarifat). This is because a human being cannot reach his purpose of creation without these. There are no alternatives to Knowledge and Recognition (Maarifat) through which human being could reach his purpose of creation. It is also necessary to specify the purpose of creation.

The purpose of creation is Liqaullah (Meeting with God) and is the same for both men and women. Men and Women are only different in gender, their purpose of life and creation is the same, since the purpose has to do with human innate values and not human being by itself. We generally misinterpret the purpose of creation to be death or destruction of life, or acquiring a place in paradise and bounties of paradise. These bounties are just means of inspiration to reach that real purpose which is meeting with the Almighty (s.w.t.).

The meeting with God is not physical similar to the meeting of different human beings amongst each other. This meeting is different in nature and can be understood with the help of this example. This meeting is like· the meeting of a student and teacher. It is not the physical meeting of a student with his teacher, where he meets and greets his teacher and the teacher also greets him with a reply. But, instead over here the teacher relates to a person with certain merits, qualities and knowledge. The student is the one who has no knowledge in the first meeting with the teacher, but he gradually starts to acquire knowledge from his teacher thus elevating his level of perfection of knowledge in his self.

Then, day by day the distance on the basis of knowledge starts to reduce between the teacher and the student. On the first day, when they met, the distance was too much, because the student had no knowledge at all, but later the student started his journey of acquisition of knowledge. The result was that day by day he was reducing the distance from his teacher. Then finally a day comes when he comes very close to the level of knowledge possessed by his teacher. In fact it also happens that he exceeds the level of knowledge of his teacher. This excelling of qualities by the student over his master is possible only when the relation is between two creations, but not the relation between the creation and the creator.

In the relationship between the creation and the creator, the creation can never excel over the creator, neither can the creation ever reach the same level as that of the creator, but instead he can reach near to the creator. The meaning of this achievement of nearness or proximity can be understood from the fact that whenever we perform any religious act we start with an Intention (Niyyah) of Qurbatan Ilallah (for the nearness of Allah).

This is because the essence of Allah is a collection of perfect attributes and its peak (which in reality is infinity), whereas human being starts from a point where he has no attributes. He gradually starts to develop these attributes one by one in his self. This is what we call as the Journey of Proximity (or nearness) to Allah. And when human being reaches that stage where he acquires all possible attributes then the distance between him and Allah reduces. Now, this imperfect human being has become perfect human being and the distance with Allah for an imperfect human being is much larger compared to the distance of a perfect human being. The reason that the Prophets, Imams and Infallible personalities are much nearer to Allah as compared to other creations is because they are much more perfect in attributes as compared to other creation.

Summarizing this fundamental point, that the essence of Allah is the peak of perfection, and hence nearness with Allah is only achieved when a human being starts to develop these attributes within his own self. The scale of nearness will be on the basis of number of qualities he possesses in his self. This stage of extreme possible nearness is called Liqaullah (meeting with Allah), where a human being becomes a "perfect" human being.

System, A Means of Achieving Perfection

There are two defined ways for achieving perfection, they are Knowledge and Deeds. But apart from this, human being also has one more essential need, and that need is a system. A human being can only acquire knowledge and perform his deeds under the shadow of a system.

In order to get an idea of what is meant by and the purpose of a system, we can take an example of family. Family is such a gift from Almighty Allah (s.w.t.) to us, whose importance we don't realize, and in fact many of us don't even consider this as a bounty at all. Allah (s.w.t.) has not created human beings like animals. Family is actually an environment, which we cannot witness with our eyes; what we see are the walls and windows with few persons living inside them and we call this as family. Many a times there is a house but no family. This happens when people living below the same roof are upset with each other, not communicating with each other, have no respect or right towards each other, perform no duties towards each other and above all this, have no trust on each other. This kind of place is a house but not a family.

Family is that entity which comes into existence by few individuals and then when a generation takes birth from them, it actually takes birth from the laps of this family, just like the lap of a mother. The lap of the family is much larger than the lap of a mother, because this lap of a family is a system. The example of family as a system is a very basic starting point. Without this system of family a human being cannot get educated and disciplined, he cannot accomplish his journey of perfection, and he cannot reach the state of union with God. A human being irrespective of being a man or woman, literate or illiterate, whether from a village or a big city, cannot acquire knowledge and perfection without the lap of this system of family.

The system of family is limited to the extent of few members who live within it, and then with the support of each other they bring an environment into existence, and in this environment they get organized, disciplined and grow spiritually. The importance of family is like a fruit tree present in a garden which needs certain things in an environment for its growth and survival, and it is this family which fulfils these needs. If the family is good then a tree with flowers and fruits comes into existence, but if the family is not good then poisonous plants and trees come out of it.

This is the first system which has been given to the human being, in which he has to live with his own will. And with his own will and intentions performs his duties by taking benefits from this environment of a family. A family is essential, not just because a human being cannot fulfil his needs for physical growth without a family. In fact, the physical growth of a human being takes place even without a family; somehow even the orphans live and grow. Those orphans who have no one to feed and provide them shelter and clothing, they also somehow manage to grow physically without a family. The physical growth of a human being does not stop without a family.

The main essence of growth for a human being is the growth of attributes of humanity inside him, his spiritual growth and discipline of his soul. The role of family is more for the soul than for the body. Even marital relation between a man and woman, where they need each other, is more for spiritual needs than physical needs. Similarly a child needs his parents for his spiritual growth more than physical growth. On the physical side anyone can feed him, you don't need parents. But his spiritual growth, education and perfection cannot be achieved without parents and the system of a family. Hence a family in reality is a school and not just a feeding centre.

The growth and development of a human being spiritually is also limited inside a family, this is not because family has limitations, it is because the dimensions and abilities of a human soul are so high that a family cannot fulfil all the needs of the soul. I take an example over here of some plants which are planted in flower pots where they grow for some time. After a certain period of time, they cannot grow further inside the pot, now they should be transferred to a garden or a farm. This is because it has to further grow into a strong tree and bear fruits, and this is not possible from within a small flower pot.

Family is essential for the growth of a human being, but its role and significance is limited to the likelihood of a flower pot. This means this human being needs at some stage of his growth, a system larger than this system of family. Without this larger system in place a human being can never achieve perfection. This larger system can be termed as a society or a nation (Ummah). The way there are rules and regulations inside a family, this larger system of society or a nation also needs a set of rules and regulations to build an environment. This is also a lap of education for human beings.

The Islamic System and Other Systems of Society

This is where Religion gets separated from politics. The social system which takes birth from the womb of politics only aims to achieve perfection in those parameters of life which is related to day-to-day physical needs of a human being. Like there is a system in a society which manages the traffic flow of vehicles on street to avoid disturbance on roads. The point to ponder over here is that even non-religious visions, thoughts and schools believe in a social system for human beings, but this is only for the sake of fulfilling the daily physical needs of a human being, to avoid disturbances, fights, tensions and to prohibit human beings from using force to take over the rights of each other.

But the system which Allah (s.w.t.) introduced for human being is not only to discipline his daily life but to ensure that human being gets educated spiritually and acquire perfection with the help of this social system. Hence the system which Allah (s.w.t.) introduced and made human being dependent upon, is a system that is in line with human being’s fundamental and survival needs. It is not that the social system is just aimed to arrange the basic necessities of life, fulfill the desires of human being, prevent disturbances and give protection from dangers. The primary and the main purpose of a social system are to create an environment for the growth and perfection of human being in its spiritual form. This system of society or governance in Islam is known as the system of Imamat and Ummat (Leadership and Nation), or also called as System of Wilayat (Guardianship). This is the system made for the social development of human beings, not just for an individual, but in a collective form moving the society towards perfection.

This is where the difference between the system of Wilayat and the other social systems in its opposition becomes explicitly clear. The difference between all other systems for a society as compared to the system of Wilayat lies in its very basic fundamentals. The intellectuals refer to this fundamental difference as the difference in the core. This means the difference is in the essence and not in attributes. It is incorrect to say that in principle all the systems are the same, but differences are there only in the implementation or attributes. The essence of a religious social system and that of a nonreligious system of social governance are different. The difference is to the extent of difference between human being and non-human being, between man and trees. Similar to this, the system of Wilayat and system of democracy are different; system of Wilayat and system of dictatorship are different.

The exact need of a system to be Wilayat or other man made systems can be realized only after a human being understands the essence or the reality of human being himself. Once a human being is understood in its real sense, then we will realize whether we need System of Wilayat or other systems to govern the society. The Holy Quran too refers to this same point in context with the narration of a story.

The Holy Quran – Source of Guidance

The Holy Quran has a collection of several stories related to different Prophets, communities and societies. As a matter of fact all these stories contain a set of lessons of guidance and knowledge for human beings. Our objective should be to acquire those lessons of guidance through these stories. This objective can be justified with the fact that the Holy Quran itself says that it is a book of guidance:

هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

"and it is a guide for those who guard against evil" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:2)

And at other place it says,

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ

"The month of Ramazan is that in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance"(Surah al-Baqarah, 2:185)

This is how the Holy Quran has introduced itself as a book of specific guidance to the pious and a general guidance to the entire humanity. If the Holy Quran is a book of guidance for humanity, then each and everything inside it, is for guidance only and has no other objective. We have treated the Quran in a very indecent manner to the extent that the Holy Quran will complain about this.

These days there are those infidels who desecrate the Quran by flushing it in washrooms, but more than those, the Quran will complain against us for the maltreatment we have done to this Holy Book. This is because those infidels who desecrated the Quran were ignorant and had no sense about the significance of this book, but we are inheritors of this book. We have wrapped the Quran in a beautiful cloth cover and don't even open to read It. This is the biggest insult to the Quran that its followers don't even open it, they have no concern with it, don't read it and worst is that there are many who don't even know how to read it.

It is present in traditions also that the biggest humiliation for a religious scholar is not that he is stoned, abused and criticized, but the worst of humiliation and difficulties for a scholar is that he is present in a society and no one takes benefits from his knowledge. Hence, the peak of the difficulties for Ameerul Momineen (as) was that he used to invite people to ask him, but they used to ignore him; they did not increase their knowledge through him, and they were not concerned of getting rid of their ignorance through him. They had all sorts of other dealings with him apart from acquisition of knowledge from him, and this was the biggest insult to his personality.

Similarly, the Holy Quran is a book of guidance and it contains guidance in itself. This is not a book of "Istekhara". Since the subject under discussion is not Holy Quran, hence I am just giving some key indicators about this, but be certain about what we consider and think about Quran, it is not that, it is a book of guidance only. It is a not a book of seeking rewards (thawaab) by mere recitation. Allah (s.w.t.) did not descend the Quran for us to accumulate as much rewards as we can. It was not like that Allah (s.w.t.) gave the Quran to Gibrael to give it to the Holy Prophet (S), so that Allah can keep on giving more and more rewards to the people for their recitations. We organize Quran recitation ceremonies for the sake of seeking rewards. An analogy to this is when we want to distribute or invite some people for having food we organize a majalis, or a miracle recitation program to make it a means of distributing food. As if Allah (s.w.t.) wants to distribute rewards and hence he created Quran so that people can read it and earn rewards.

The purpose of associating rewards with the Quran is related to the purpose of creation, whereby Allah (s.w.t.) wants us to acquire guidance, acquire spirituality and be disciplined. Holy Quran is the means to acquire these essential things for our lives and hence there is a reward associated with its recitation, so that if not explicitly for the ·sake of guidance, but at least for the sake of getting rewards we will come near to the Holy Quran.

There are several acts which are done for the purpose of attracting others towards a much higher goal behind those preliminary acts. Reverting to the same example of distribution of food in Majalis, many a times when we are not certain of people's attendance in the majalis, we announce that food will be served after the majalis. This ensures a much larger audience who even if they come for the sake of food, they will still listen to the lecture that would be a means of guidance for them. Allah (s.w.t.) established guidance for human being and along with this said that if you come closer to this guidance I will give you rewards also, so that your involvement with this source of guidance becomes certain.

But our approach towards the Holy Quran is to just open it and read it for the sake of rewards but not with the purpose of getting guidance from it. The Book of Guidance without understanding it is of no use, but a book of rewards whether you understand it or not, you still get rewards. So it is up to us to decide how we want to treat the Quran as, a book of guidance or a book of rewards. If as a book of guidance, then we need to ponder over its verses and these stories to understand it.

Quran has everything inside it related to our life, but we give more importance to Quran only after death. If someone cannot achieve something from the Quran during his life, for sure he will not gain anything from this book after his death also. We have selected few chapters like Yaseen and Rahman which have more rewards; we read it regularly just to earn those rewards.

Bani Israel and the System of Firon

Going back to our subject, the Holy Quran has adopted many different methods of presenting lessons of guidance inside it. Amongst these, one method is through the narration of stories of different personalities, prophets, era and communities. One of the stories which the Holy Quran narrates is about Prophet Moosa (as)'s guidance to his community. Allah (s.w.t.) aroused Prophet Moosa (as) for the guidance of Bani Israel since Bani Israel was living their lives under a system of governance which was useless, dangerous, destructive and corrupt, prohibiting the development of human values and perfection. It was not just that the system was preventing the growth of this human being of flesh to become a human being by essence (i.e. to achieve perfection), but instead it was degrading the human being to a much lowly state, as that of beasts. The Holy Quran referred to this system as the System of Bani Israel. They were living their lives under this Fironic system.

From the very beginning of the Quran in Surah al-Baqarah, the story of Bani Israel begins. They were reminded and told:

يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ

" O children of Israel! Remember My favor which I bestowed on you…" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 40)

And then the Quran continues to say:

وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ

" we excelled you over everyone else in the entire world" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:122)

Then amongst the bounties which the Quran counted, the first one which was reminded to them was:

وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ

"And we delivered you from the people of Firon" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 49)

This means we relieved you from the atrocities and difficulties you were facing in the Fironic system of governance. This is considered by the Quran as the greatest of all the bounties given to Bani Israel.

Bani Israel were living their lives under the Fironic system in Egypt, where they were divided into two major clans. One was called as "Sibti" and other as "Qibti". The Qibtis belonged to the tribe of Firon, whereas the Sibtis were from the progeny of Prophet Yaqoob (as) and Yusuf (as), i.e from the family of Prophets, or in today's terminologies, they were all ''Sayyids". Prophet Yaqoob had twelve children, all brothers of Prophet Yusuf. They went to Egypt and from there their generations started and were being referred as "Sibti".

We need to concentrate and ponder over one important fundamental point over here. These were all from the progeny of well-known Prophets like Ibrahim, Ismael, Ishaac and Yaqoob. Their forefathers were all these renowned Prophets and hence they were the "Sayyids" of that era. The Bani Israel were divided into twelve tribes and each tribe had hundreds of thousands of people, but unfortunately all these Sayyids were living their lives under the Fironic system.

The Quran says that the Fironic System was the worst system on earth for humanity since the existence of the world. There were two major evils in this system, one of which was phrased by the Quran as:

يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ

".. who was taking you towards divine punishment" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 49)

This means the entire community was being dragged towards severe chastisement. At times, the government or the system in which a human being lives his life, that system drags the entire community, nation and country towards final destruction (i.e. punishment). We can call such systems as the Systems of Hell or corrupt systems. Now, we have to take guidance from this narration of the Holy Quran.

Ancestral Association Does Not Guarantee Protection

ln our society today, some people refer to themselves as Muslims, Shias, Sayyids, Jafri, Kazmi, Hashmi and followers of Religion of Islam. We all have this ancestral status just like Bani Israel with all associations going up to great personalities, but we need to see in practical sense the kind of system that is governing our lives. This is highly relevant in the light of the Holy Quran as mentioned before.

To make this point clear, let me take some examples over here. If for instance a well known respected and pious Sayyid is sitting on a horse, which is not tamed and is riding him towards a deep valley, just because he is a Sayyid will this accident be naturally avoided? We should not think that accidents don't happen with Sayyids and Shahs. Accidents do happen with Sayyids and people of higher status also. A person could be from a very good family, decent family but at this time the vehicle in which he is sitting is going down a deep valley. His association with a good family will not protect him from the tragic end he is about to meet in this vehicle. Similarly at times human beings have very good associations, he is a Muslim, maybe a master of the Holy Quran also and a follower of the Infallibles also. All these relations and qualities are good in absolute sense, but the system which he has accepted for living his life could still be taking him towards the valley of hell, similar to the vehicle.

We need to seriously think what direction is our system of governance taking us towards? The system in which we are living our lives - where is it taking us, our family, our children and our entire society? Maybe it is the same as "Yasumunakum Soo al Azaab", which means all are sitting in a vehicle which looks very nice but is taking us towards hell. Hence it is essential for all of us to think and see which system is driving us, in whose laps are we and where is it taking us towards.

The role of a government is not just to organize food for us, establish a traffic system, make schools and universities, and our duties are also not just limited to casting a vote to the government. Religion has a different perception for a system and government. Government is like a train on which we have all boarded and going somewhere. So before boarding this train it is better to assess where is this going to take us, towards salvation or towards destruction. Rather than taking lessons from these stories narrated by the Holy Quran which are for our guidance, we have used these for mere meaningless recitations culture. Read these Ayahs and ponder:

يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ

" O children of Israel! Remember My favor which I bestowed on you…" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:40)

يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ

".. who was taking you towards divine punishment" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 49)

These Ayahs are not for earning rewards; instead they are for opening our eyes. These Ayahs are asking us first and foremost to see how Bani Israel despite of being from the generation of Prophets was living in a system which was taking them towards Hell. And unfortunately we just recite these verses for rewards and don't even think on the message embedded in these.

Dua of Arafah and the System of Wilayat

This was our ignorance towards Quran. Now coming to the Infallible Imams for whom we proclaim the utmost love, how much Recognition (Maarifat) we have about them? Our love for them is non-quantifiable, but our Recognition (Maarifat) about them is very less, in fact it won't be an exaggeration to even say that there is absolutely no Recognition (Maarifat) at all. If we take the same point of discussion about the system of governance, we can further justify our conclusion from the Quranic Ayah under the light of Dua e Arafah.

Dua e Arafah is that supplication which covers many fundamental topics in form of supplication and invocation. Our Holy Imams (as) have made a very solid arrangement for imparting and preserving their teachings for generations to come. They have delivered their teachings in three different forms; some in form of traditions and narrations, some in form of supplications (Duas) and whispered invocations (Munajaat), and the rest in form of Testimonials (Ziarat). Our situation is very dreadful that first of all we don't touch the traditions, we recite supplications sometimes when someone is sick or there are some major calamities, and for Ziarat we have kept specific occasions like Ashura when we take a look at these testimonials (Ziarat).

In fact these are the things which should be a part of our life from morning to evening, but unfortunately these have also turned into just cultural recitations. These supplications are not hymns of Sufis. According to Allama Iqbal, the religion which came to us was different; we have changed that religion into a Religion of Sufi courtyard. In the Sufi courtyard there is nothing but meaningless sessions of hymns, where the Sufis, the malangs sit together in groups and do recitations, and later on these recitations build up momentum and turn into a sort of bodily movement.

It should not be that we make Religious schools (Madrassas) and start doing oral recitations of these supplications, we organize Majalis (mourning sessions) and there also we end up doing meaningless recitations, we also organize personal gatherings for such recitations. These supplications are not just for such reward earning meaningless recitations, but in fact these contain a syllabus of actions for our lives. These supplications have been blessed with that level of recognition of Allah (s.w.t.) which only came through revelations to these Infallible personalities. And these personalities then made such an arrangement for us to transfer this recognition in simplified well-documented form of supplications and testimonials.

Dua e Arafah is one of the most valuable, important and highly significant supplications which we recite only once in a year (on the Day of Arafah i.e 9th Zilhajj). In fact many of us don't even know or have heard about this supplication also. This supplication which is present in Mafateeh is coming from the Doyen of Martyrs Imam Hussain (as). This is such a precious gem that there are no words available to express its greatness.

In this supplication after remembering and counting on the bounties of Allah (s.w.t.), Imam Hussain (as) expresses his thankfulness for the bounties which Allah (s.w.t.) has granted him personally. He (as) divided these bounties into three categories. The first category are those bounties which he received before his birth, the second are those which are during the time of his birth and the third are those which were granted to him after his birth.

We would be definitely very keen to know what all those bounties are which were gifted to him in these three phases of his birth, and God willing if you do a study of this supplication you can find them. My intention is not to do a commentary on the entire supplication over here. I just want to take your attention towards one bounty which is related to our subject of discussion. He says, "O Allah I am thankful to you for the arrangement you had made for my birth". What was this arrangement?

He says "One arrangement was that you brought me into this world through the purity of my infallible parents, and the other arrangement was that you delayed my birth till the time the land of my birth was not purified from Infidelity (Shirq o Kufr), until an Islamic government was not formed and your divine system was not ruling the place of birth. When your land, means Medina, was purified from Infidelity and an Islamic system of government was in place, till that time you did not allow Husain's birth to happen on that land.

The Doyen of Martyrs considers the establishment of an Islamic system of governance in Medina as a bounty for his birth and gratifies his Lord for this great gift. We need to realize over here that he is an Infallible, who is free from all impurities. An Infallible is an infallible irrespective of the environment where he is born and he lives. Despite of being an Infallible, he considers his birth on a land of Islamic governance as a great gift from Allah (s.w.t.).

We would be aware about this historical fact that Imam Hussain (as) was born in Medina and his birth took place at that time when the Holy Prophet (S) had established and implemented the Islamic system of governance in Medina. We should raise this question as to why the Holy Prophet (S) and Ali (as) migrated from Mecca. Mecca was a holy city which had Masjidul Haram (the most sacred mosque), it had the Holy Kaaba, but still the Messenger (S) received divine instructions to migrate from Mecca to Medina?

The answer to this is that though Mecca definitely had sacred and holy monuments like the Holy Kaaba, but the system governing that city was the system of infidelity and idol worship. It was the system of Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab.

This proves our point that even if it is a Holy land with sanctities but if it does not possesses a righteous divine governmental system, then this system will move the people living there towards hell. Hence the Holy Prophet (S) got the orders for migration with his followers and family to move towards Medina. He migrated because this system was not worth living and he wanted to change this system. He could not change this system while living in Mecca, hence he went to Medina where it was much easier to establish an Islamic government, which he did and then eventually changed the system in Mecca also. Now, Mecca did not remain an Idol temple, it became a Qiblah of worship for all Muslims.

Hence summarizing this point, the importance of living a life in an Islamic government has been very clearly and explicitly emphasized in the teachings of Quran and Infallibles.

The First Characteristic of a Fironic System

The Holy Quran presented the reality of the Fironic system. We cannot deny that the Firon also had a well-established system of governance which was providing the necessities of life to the people. They were getting food, water, doing business in market, there was a system of mobilization in form of horses, camels and ships; people were getting jobs, they were earning money, and they were getting married and were having children. All these things were happening in the Fironic system, but when the Quran painted the picture of this Fironic system it said:

وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ

"And we delivered you from the system of Firon, which was taking you towards punishment" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 49)

This means, remember that system in which you were living your lives, and remember that we gave you freedom and salvation from that system which was taking you all towards hell. This Holy Quran is our religious book which has discussed this incident for us to seriously think and ponder over the system in which we are living our lives, to check and see where this system is taking us towards.

The Quran is warning us to check and see which train you have boarded or which boat you are sailing in. Maybe this boat is taking you into a hurricane. This system of government which is governing our lives could be taking us towards the fire of hell. At times the people sailing in a boat would be very religious and pious, but the boat is sailing towards a storm. Now all of them will end up into this storm in spite of their piety and worships. Irrespective of whether you are good or bad, if the system itself is moving towards destruction, your end will be the same as that of the system.

Where are these worldly systems moving towards, these systems of Yazidiat and why did Imam Hussain (as) start an uprising to eradicate this system? This was because though the people living under this governance of Yazid were religious, they were offering their prayers, fasting and performing their Hajj rituals, but this system was going towards hell. Their Prayers and Hajj would not save them from this system which was taking them towards destruction.

There was a dire need to demolish this liberal system of Yazidiat, to get freedom from this system and to make people aware about the evil facts of this system. This is why he started his uprising, gave sacrifices of his children, family and companions. He took the women along with him so that he can tell the world that this is not the system to which we will agree to live our lives. This was the first characteristic of the Fironic system whereby it takes the entire nation (Ummah) towards eternal destruction (Hell).

The Second Characteristic of a Fironic System

The second characteristic of the Fironic system as expressed by the Holy Quran is

يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ

“... killing your children and sparing your women" (Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 49)

This means he was assassinating your children and kept alive your women. Why was he keeping alive the women? It was for nudity and vulgarity. If today you want to understand under which system you are living your life, you will find many similarities of the Fironic system in your own existing governance system. The Holy Quran has its own terminologies and has a very modest way of presenting certain facts. Firon used to give more importance to women and less to men; this was because he wanted to strip women. Through women he was corrupting the society with nudity.

Even today this is happening in your system. What was this women's marathon for (in Lahore)? Try to understand your country and just think where this system is heading us towards. If it was Firon's time same things would be happening what is happening today, or in other words if Firon was present today he would be doing the same thing what is happening today in our society. Today they make organizations for women support, media specially works for women support, and statements are issued in favour of women.

They want to strip off the women and make them run naked on the streets in a marathon race. They invited corrupted unchaste women from all over the world and made them run in the marathon race. This country has chaste and modest women who have kept themselves pure. In order to adulterate their chastity this government is creating an environment of corruption. You all have seen this with your own eyes, that from across the world women participated in this race in a semi naked state and the television channels presented this race with an appreciating comment that the country is progressing towards development and the country has become advanced now.

Just see what picture the Quran is painting for this marathon race. That is the picture of the system of Firon, who kept the women of Bani Israel alive for making them immodest, hence spreading corruption and nudity in the society. The Quran said this is the Fironic system which was assassinating your children and stripping your women, and we relieved you from this system, how?

Moosa (as), The Saviour from Fironic System

Allah (s.w.t.) had sent Moosa (as) for the salvation of this Ummah from this Fironic system. It is a very clearly manifested fact that unless and until the nation (Ummah) does not support these guides and leaders like Moosa, salvation is impossible. From Europe these women came to Lahore, ran naked on the street, and our chaste, modest and veiled women watched them. They did this to humiliate and tease our modest women. If these immodest women (coming from West) can very well realize and deliver their duties towards evil, then it is the duty of our modest women also to either go away from this country or if they want to stay then they have to save this country from this corruption.

The duty of our chaste and religious women is not just to participate in Majalis (religious mourning gatherings) for the sake of earning divine rewards or to read the Quran. These acts do not relieve us from our responsibilities. The responsibility and the duties of these chaste women are to support and assist Moosa (as). Which Moosa? One who has come to demolish this corrupt system and replace it with a divine system of governance.

Prophet Moosa (as) also first demanded from women to leave Egypt because this Fironic system is not suitable for us to spend our lives over here. The women showed their willingness and came forward with their men to follow Moosa (as). Firon chased them up to the shore, where he got drowned in this encounter. The Quran presents this also as a bounty for Bani Israel.

Why Should We Be Concerned About Our Governing System?

The Quran says we destroyed Firon and relieved you from that corrupt system which was a bounty for you. I will later talk about the effects which these corrupt systems leave on the societies. Even though you get relieved from these corrupt systems, but whatever time you spend in these corrupt systems it leaves a highly significant damaging effect on our character. We are not concerned about such things. We always say what have we to do with this governance system, our duties are to earn our living, take care of our children, go to Hussainiah for Azadari, do some mandatory worship, why should we be worried or concerned whether this system is good or bad? Yes, for sure we might not be concerned about their evil systems on us, but they are concerned about us. Take my words for granted that with those whom we are not concerned, they are for sure concerned about us. Today, we are not concerned about America, but America is very much concerned about us.

The Supreme Leader Ayatullah Khamenei (d.a) says that these westerners suggest us to separate ourselves (means religious clerics) from politics. They say what have these religious scholars to do with state politics. He says that their suggestion and point is as such invalid, but just for a moment let us accept and agree to what they say. Let us separate ourselves from politics, fine we will not interfere in politics. But then you also promise and assure us that you will also have no concern with Religion. You also get separated from Religion. You want us clerics to separate from politics and sit in Religious Schools (Madrassas), but you don't want to stop your interference with religion. If separation has to be done, then we both should separate. If the clerics have to be separated from politics then you politicians should also separate from religion and stop interfering in religious affairs.

Women and Current Affairs

Today we Muslims and specifically you women should be aware about the current affairs of the Muslim world. It should not be that you are so busy with kitchen and other household chores that you are not aware about what is happening around you, in your city, in your country and not aware about the system in which you are living.

At times we say that the intellectual level of our women is very low, and hence the scholars should only deliver very simple and preliminary talks. This perception is an insult to women. These women are also human beings and they have a role to play in the humanity of this world, they also have to deliver a character and they also have to live with the current era. They also need to feel and sense their social and religious responsibilities along with household duties. These women who went to Karbala and delivered the message of Karbala afterwards also had homes with kitchen. They could have also made excuses and done kitchen work, cleaning the house and other things throughout their lives, but they decided to go shoulder to shoulder with the men in Karbala.

Religion has not prohibited women at any place. In fact, women have a very specific role which can be only delivered by them. This is a reality that many leaders and martyrs of Karbala were the outcome of efforts of women behind them. If the wife of Zohair Ibn Qain would not have been present with him in his journey, things would have been different for him. He was a supporter of the third caliph and was not a supporter of the mission of Aba Abdillah (as). It was his wife who reformed him and changed his opinions. After this reformation he got listed in the names of martyrs of Karbala and that too amongst the leaders. This is the great courage of this woman who made her life partner reach such a high divine status and all this was because she realized and felt her responsibilities.

Do not sit unconcerned. You should be aware about the world you are living in and the happenings around you. Do not think or say that you have nothing to do with this governmental system and you want to live a normal life. You might not be having any concerns with this system, but this system definitely has serious concerns about you. If we say that we have nothing to do with the heat of summer or the cold of winter, then also the heat and the cold have concerns with you, they will impact you and hence you have to adopt preventive measures. If some virus or a disease spreads and someone informs you about this, will you say that you have no concerns about this? You have nothing to do with this virus but the virus has certainly something to do with you. This virus is a danger to your body; hence if you do not fight this virus you will become its captive.

We don't have rights to live in all types of systems. Can you drink any kind of water? Can you drink water from a stagnant pond? If someone says this is my personal life and I can drink any water I want, then he is wrong. Intellectually and also religiously you don't have rights to drink impure and filthy water; you should drink pure and clean water.

If Shariah can impose laws regarding water even to the extent of purity of water used for washing clothes, then how is it possible that the same Islam is not concerned about the purity of the social system governing us? It is so concerned about the washing of our clothes but not about our lives, our humanity, our spirituality, our children and our generations? Though the intelligence and Shariah both prohibits from drinking dirty water, but there are people who are still drinking it.

Dictatorship under the Veil of Democracy

We don't have the rights to live in any type of system, neither by Shariah nor by our intelligence and specifically living under the Fironic system. These governmental systems which have raised the slogans of democracy are all representative of Satan (devil).

As Allama Iqbal narrates in one of his poems, that Satan called for an annual conference, where all his representatives came. Satan analyzed the work over the past year and drafted a plan for the coming year to misguide people. Iqbal says, when Satan inquired about the situation in the world from his representatives, they replied to him that our devilish plans are failing in many places due to certain reasons. One of the representatives of Satan came forward and said that one of the biggest dangers to Satan is from democratic system of governance which is spreading across the globe and democracy is a very good system. Satan said there is nothing to be afraid about this, because this democracy is the same dictatorship.

This is the same Fironic system, the same arrogant system of the past and I have just changed its outlook. First it was imperialism, dictatorship, feudalism and now also it is the same but I have changed its dress to democracy.

The Effects of Fironic System

We think that the democratic system in which we are living is the best system, but in reality it is the same dictatorship which is hidden inside this democracy. Let me explain this also from the Holy Quran. Allah (s) commanded Prophet Moosa (as) in the Quran to go to Bani Israel and give them relief from the Fironic system, because the Ummah has become senseless, adulterated with this system and their beliefs were corrupted. This is the point to be concentrated, where we will see now that what kind of devastating affects a Fironic system can leave on the religious ideologies of a nation.

They witnessed several miracles of Prophet Moosa (as). He had the miracle with his staff and his enlightened hand was a miracle. There were many such miracles given to Prophet Moosa (as) out of which twelve are listed in the Holy Quran. The greatest miracle of Moosa was his wooden staff, through which he split the river, defeated the magicians, destroyed Firon and gave salvation to Bani Israel. All these miracles were witnessed by Bani Israel by their own eyes, but just see later what happened.

After all these miracles and finally passing through the river they moved from Egypt to Palestine and the area of Jordan. When they reached in this belt of the land of Jordan, they saw a community busy in idol worship of hand-made gods. Now, emphasizing on this fact that Bani Israel had seen the miracles of Moosa, had heard the preaching of Moosa and have seen the end of Firon through the hands of Moosa, they demanded from Moosa something which stunned him. As mentioned in the verse of the Holy Quran, they demanded from Moosa:

قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ

"O Moosa, make for us a God as they have (their) Gods" (Surah al-A’araaf,7:138)

This shows how low they had gone in their thinking and ideologies. This proves that the lessons of Monotheism (Tauheed) which Moosa was delivering to them were not understood by them. But the question is why? The reason was that the long period, in fact several generations, which they spent in the Fironic system, had weakened their level of thinking to such an extent that even now they could not discriminate between Idol worship and Monotheism. Hence they demanded from Moosa to make a similar idol for them. They made it a practice now to demand for an Idol god whenever they saw anyone worshipping a God other than the God of Moosa.

Then Moosa took them towards the land of Qinan. After reaching there, Moosa told them that Allah (s.w.t.) has asked me to camp for thirty days on Mountain Tur so as to get the Torah. These thirty days then increased by ten more and became forty days for which Moosa was away from his community. He made Haroon as his vicegerent and representative before leaving. There is one point to ponder over here, that Moosa only went away from his community for one month and ten days period, but still he did not leave the community on their own, he made Haroon as his representative and leader of the community. So how is it possible that the HujjatAllah (a.t.f.s) is in occultation for 1300 years and he has left no representative in the Ummah?

When Moosa returned back after forty days, he saw a shocking scene. This scene was that the community had left Haroon isolated and was following Saamri. The question here is how Saamri was successful in taking the community away from Haroon. This is where we can again see the character of women.

Saamri and His Idol Calf

Women can play a role on both, the positive as well as negative side. They can help in turning down the system of Firon and also in strengthening the evil mission of Saamri.

Saamri approached the women and requested them to bring all their wealth and specifically their ornaments, so that he can make a God for them to worship. He told them that the God he will make, will fulfill all their worldly wishes and desires; if they talk to him the God will reply, you can touch and feel the God, and above all this you can even kiss the God. Now, this kissing part is very important even for us; unless we kiss the holy and sanctimonious things we don't feel we have delivered our duties. Saamri played a cunning game; he presented all those things Moosa could not present. The God of Moosa was not touchable, people could not kiss that God, and they could not see or listen to the God introduced by Moosa. Hence Saamri used this to inspire the women to gather their ornaments which they had brought from Egypt along with them. The Quranic Ayah says that these women gave all their jewellery, even from their arms and shoulders to Saamri. Saamri now lighted up an oven, melted these ornaments and made a Calf out of this gold and silver. This was an idol imitation of the shape of a calf made out of gold and silver.

Saamri was an intelligent person and an engineer. He was spiritual and a religious personality. He was aware about the technology otherwise he would not have been successful in making a calf by melting ornaments. He just did not make a metallic calf, he inserted inside it such an effect that the calf was mooing also. Later, when Moosa asked him how he succeeded in making this idol calf speak, he replied that he had seen the remains of a messenger. Remains of a messenger, means either he took something from Gabriel or he took the sand from below the feet of Moosa and used it in the calf to make it speak. This proves that his intellectual level was so high that either he knew the effects of the sand below the feet of Moosa or he took something from Gabriel and made the calf active. The entire community with this technique of Saamri got deceived, left Haroon and started to follow Saamri.

Moosa and Haroon

Now, when Moosa returned, he was furious on this situation. He immediately dropped the Torah from his hand and questioned Haroon about this situation. Haroon replied that he tried his best to preach them the truth, stopped them and tried to convince them about this falsehood but they were not ready to listen to him. The Holy Quran presents the harshness with which Moosa dealt with Haroon. He caught hold of Haroon by his beard and hairs on the forehead and then dragged him in anger. Moosa's concern with Haroon was that he being a Prophet had made Haroon his representative, given him the leadership of the Ummah and hence his responsibility was to protect the religion of Ummah, and it should not have happened that because of his (Haroon's) laziness and negligence this community went behind Saamri. This always happens, like here, when Moosa went into an occultation of forty days, Saamri came out of the community. So be prepared to accept this fact that when an Infallible goes into occultation for 1300 years, how many Saamris would be coming out of the community in every generation and era.

This is a proven fact that whenever due to divine legislations and purposes, the proof of Allah (Hujjat Allah) goes into occultation for some period, then that community and the religion of theirs faces a big threat from Saamris. We should not become so simple and innocent that whoever comes with a calf which speaks and does something, we start to worship it and become its slaves. First see who has brought this idol to us, then see who is the representative of the Hujjat of Allah whom he has left amongst us during this occultation.

This point needs to be emphasized again that when Moosa left for forty days of occultation and he left his successor amongst the people, and then when he returned he did not question the Ummah immediately for their evil actions; he first enquired from Haroon whether this state of Ummah was an outcome of his laziness or not. Moosa was concerned whether Haroon became irresponsible and sat silent inside his home, or in today's terminology sat quietly in his Madrassa (religious school) or got busy in his daily chores and left the Ummah to play in the hands of Saamri, and let Saamri take the community in whichever direction he wanted.

The lesson derived from this narration of the Quran is very clear that, when the Proof of Allah (s.w.t.) reappears he will first question his representatives. He will for sure question them: "I have left this Ummah to you, and was it not that you got involved in your personal, family affair, or you got too busy in your lectures and gatherings, and as a result you left the Ummah to become a captive of Saamri". When Haroon had a sincere logical answer to Moosa's question, only then Moosa left Haroon and questioned Saamri and then the Ummah.

The Primary Responsibility of Women during Occultation

The purpose of discussing this incident was relevant to the role of Ummah and specifically women, since this idol calf was created with the cooperation of women. The women should concentrate on this point that during the period of occultation the duties of women is not to assist, support and cooperate with Saamris. Their responsibility is to support Haroon and not Saamri. We need to be careful of the Saamri of our age, since Saamri's talent is to use us only to make idols which stand against the true God of Moosa, the way Saamri used the women to make the calf.

Today also many such calves are made with the help of the Ummah. But, today's idol calves are very modem. These are idols of visions, thoughts, fundamentals and concepts, resulting into several schools of thoughts coming out from the same section of religion. All these are idols of Saamri, and our duty is to find out first who is the Haroon of our age, and which God and school he is asking us to follow.

One of the most dangerous effects which the Fironic system leaves on the Ummah is that the Ummah becomes very weak in their beliefs, ideology and true knowledge. The consequence of this weakness is that they can't distinguish between an idol and the true eternal God. This is the reason why Imam Hussain (as) expresses gratification to Allah for first establishing an Islamic governance system in the society where he was born later.

This was to ask us about which type of system of governance we prefer to live our lives. Hussainiyat does not means performance of actions as per our own desires in the name of Hussain (as), but instead Hussainiyat is a collection of those actions which Imam Hussain (as) accomplished. These are the actions which we need to perform and preserve.

The Fundamental Problem of the Ummah that Helps Saamris

On the grounds of ideology and thinking, an Ummah becomes weak by living in a Fironic system. Saamri then takes advantage of these weaknesses of the Urnmah. From this simplicity of the Ummah, Saamri takes advantage, changes their direction and puts them behind an idol calf or somewhere else.

Today also it is the same situation; it is the same Fironic system. In our country (Pakistan), from the time it came into existence it has a Fironic system. But within this Fironic system many times in the shape of Saamri’s calf we have seen idols of democracy, idols of dictatorship, idols of military power and all these at times turned the complete system into Military Fironic system.

And we always think and say, what have we to do with this system. Whether the president is a leftist or a rightist, a man or a woman, this or that, let anyone come in power what have we to do with this. Let anyone become the President we are not concerned, provided he does not stop us from doing Azadari, provided he does not stop us from mourning. Let anyone rule and govern us we don't care, we only care that the government should not stop our Majalis and Azadari. But the reality is not like this, you might not be concerned with them, but they are definitely concerned about you. And their concern with us is that they will make us intellectually so weak that we won't be able to differentiate between Saamri and Haroon. The Haroon of our era will be calling us towards him and we will be busy in supporting Saamris. Read the Quran and see, this is exactly what Bani Israel has done in the past that too the religious women of theirs cooperated with Saamri to make the idol calf. Today also it is the same, in the name of women freedom and women rights, marathon races are organized. They are making idols for the sake of women and using these idols to deviate people away from religion.

Wilayat, The True System of Governance

Imamat (Leadership) is not just a belief or an opinion or an intellectual concept or a phrase or slogan or just a perception of mind. Imam Raza (as) says:

"Al Imamato Nizamul Ummah"
"Imamat is the divine system of governance for the Ummah".

This means that we have to live our lives under this system of Imamat and Wilayat. Wilayat is that system which can take the Ummah towards salvation; it can take the Ummah towards divine ascension and can become the source of magnificence for the Humanity. Wilayat is that system which can protect and preserve the dignity of Human beings. It is the only system which can defend and protect our religion and save us from utmost humiliation.

But, today we are prepared to live our lives under any system of governance. In this country, the system changes every four years. Sometimes we see the idol calf of Democracy, sometimes dictatorship and we are ready to accept any such system which comes to rule over us. The only system we are not willing to accept or at least take steps towards it, is Imamat. Anyone who casts his vote to the idol calf of democracy resembles the women of Bani Israel who gave their ornaments to Saamri to make the idol calf. The idol calves of Saamri are only made with the cooperation of Ummah.

This country can be saved with the implementation of True Islam, i.e. the system of Wilayat and Imamat. To do this, first we have to present this system of Wilayat to the people. Today there are many such Saamris present who never speak against dictatorship, Yazidiat and Fironic systems, but when it comes to Wilayat they open their mouths immediately. They will always speak only against the government which has the system of Wilayat in it. Whenever you notice such persons, who open their mouths against this system of Wilayat (i.e Islamic Republic of Iran), then take for granted that these are the Saamris of your time and identify them from here itself.

If you want to know about Imamat, then don't go and ask those who don't even know if Imamat in Arabic is written with 'Alif' or 'Ain'. Our religion in this subcontinent has gone into an astonishing state, where educated class sits and listens to religion from illiterates sitting on the pulpits. Sensible people are listening to religious talks from non-sensible persons. We have professional speakers both men and women, those who only know oration skills, they have destroyed our religion. These professional orators come and indulge us into few dubious things, take their fees and go home, whereas we are fighting amongst each other about these dubious issues.

What is Imamat or Wilayat?

If you want to ask about Imamat, ask Allama Iqbal. According to him, he says:

"Tune Poochi hai Imamat ki Haqeeqat mujhse,
Haq tujhe meri tarah saahibe Asraar kare"

(You have asked me the reality of Imamat,
May truth make you a companion of its secrets like me)

This means if you are serious about understanding the system of Wilayat, then first you need to become a companion of its secrets. Unless you associate yourself with the inner side of Imamat, you will not be able to understand the system of Wilayat. You won't be able to differentiate between the Calf and true God, between Moosa and Saamri unless you become the companion of the secrets of Imamat. Then Iqbal continues to say…

"Hai wohi tere zamane ka imame bar haqq,
Jo Tujhe Haaziro Maujood se bezaar kare.
Maut ke Aine me dikhakar rukhe dost,
Zindagi tere liye aur bhi dushwar kare"

(He is the Imam of your age truly,
One who makes you aware of the present and the current,
He shows you the face of your beloved in the mirror of death,
Thus making your lives more difficult and miserable)

Now, look deep inside these phrases and ask yourself as to why do we believe in Imams. We believe for the sake of improvements in our lives, to fulfill our worldly desires through them? Allama Iqbal says that he is the Imam of your time, one who makes your life more miserable and difficult. Then he further continues to say,

"Fitna e Millate Baiza hai Imamat uski,
Jo Musalmaan ko Salateen ka Parastar kare"

(The Imamat of that person is a discord (Fitna),
The one who pursues people to worship the Imperialists)

This means that person whose leadership makes the nation submit to dictatorship, Imperialism, Kingship, democracy and ruler ship, is a discord for the Ummah. Until and unless we teach the world about Imamat and start to present Wilayat, the world will never come on their own towards this system of Wilayat. You women should take lessons and see how many women contributed to the success of Moosa. Try to become like the mother of Moosa, sister of Moosa and the wife of Moosa, then only Moosa gets the strength to topple down the system of Firon and implement the system of Wilayat amongst the people.

The Role of Women towards the System of Wilayat

Again remember the same point I said earlier, the effects of living a long life under the Fironic system are long lasting. These effects are weakness in beliefs, ethics, intelligence, sensibility and way of living. As a consequence the Ummah troubled Moosa a lot afterwards. They had become narrow minded and could not understand what Moosa was trying to preach them; these were all the effects of acceptance of a Fironic system for living your lives.

The Holy Quran also addresses one more form of oppression which Firon did on his nation, and that was "Istakhaffal Kaum” - he had made the nation very lowly. The nation had become very lowly, ready to accept all sort of humiliation, cheap actions and very downtrodden in the form of their thinking. Today you see the system of Firon, it has done the same thing to us. Those women whose duties are to present Wilayat to the world are indulged into stories of Woodcutter (a fabricated story narrated in the Holy month of Rajab, during the sessions of "Qunda Nazr", food ceremony in the name of Imam Sadiq (as)).

This is the problem which a Fironic system creates for us in the society.

Our women are expected to become defenders of Wilayat like Lady Zainab (s.a), who should come out to the world and talk about Wilayat, Imamat, invoke the people to not accept living under this system of Yazidiat and invite them towards the system of Imamat. But, when religion is also controlled and dominated by the Fironic system, then this religion changes into a religion of dry oral recitations and invocations, where people spend their lives in moving the beads of Tasbeeh. Under this Fironic system, when they practice religion, they end up creating their own forms of religion and start to worship those things day and night.

If we get involved in such things, then who will come forward to explain and teach them what Imamat and Wilayat is all about? Who will prepare the necessary prerequisites for the reappearance of our Imam (a.t.f.s)? The world should be first prepared to accept the system of Wilayat then only the· reappearance will happen. This is because, when He (a.t.f.s) comes, he won't implement democracy or dictatorship, he will implement the system of Wilayat. But how can he implement Wilayat unless the people are willing to accept this system of Wilayat? If we are busy with the stories of Woodcutter then when can you expect Him (a.t.f.s) to come and implement Wilayat?

I would like to wind up this subject here. We had less time to discuss this subject in more detail, hence the objective was only to make you aware of the significance of this subject. By the will of God, I am hopeful that you will study this subject in more detail and through your efforts you will reach to some form of completion on this subject. If you are interested to learn more, then I can guide you towards a series of lectures which I have delivered on the system of Wilayat, titled as "Imamat O Ummat", they are available in audio video format.

Questions and Answers

Question n. 1

Q 1. How should we start the process of implementing the system of Wilayat in our society?

Answer: First of all we need to understand ourselves. At times it happens we stand against a system, but we don't have any recognition of the system which is going to replace it. I will explain this situation in form of a joke.

Once there was a Muslim and an Infidel. They were both arguing about religion. The Muslim somehow managed to force the Infidel that his belief is wrong and he should change it. The Infidel agreed and asked the Muslim to teach him the Kalema (the testimonial for belief) so that he can convert to Islam. The Muslim felt ashamed and cursed himself and said "I wish I knew the Kalema myself, at least I would have succeeded in converting one Infidel to Islam".

We should not end up in such a situation that we start to rise against dictatorship and democracy, and quote that these systems are not religious and are the Idols of Saamri, but when someone questions us about its replacement, we feel aggrieved that we don't know about the system of Imamat. First, you try to understand yourself about this system. The method is like this you have done by organizing a seminar. Imarnat should be a part of our syllabus and we have to spend some time daily to understand the system of Imamat.

Decide on this fact first that Imamat is not just a belief, but instead it is the name of a system of governance which needs to be implemented in the society. During the era of the infallible Imams (as) they were isolated, some of them were made captives, exiled and martyred. What was the reason behind these atrocities? The reason was that Ummah, the followers of these Imams (as) could not understand this system, and hence the Imams were in a state of destitution. If in that era the Ummah would have understood Imamat then today the entire world would have been governed by the system of Imamat.

Hence first you try to understand this system, then start to propagate and spread it amongst the people. We should be looking forward to excuses, occasions and reasons to do propagation of truth. It is obligatory on every one of us to do propagation and specifically women of our society. Unfortunately our society has made such an environment that there are very limited opportunities for the women to do propagation. I am talking about religious women, not about those others who are even ready for Marathon. The religious women should not be sitting idle, waiting for someone to come and relieve them from the clutches of evils.

It is your duty to rise and make people understand the system of Wilayat. It should not be that any Majalis or story recitation program is organized and you participate considering this as your duty. You need to realize and understand your duties very well. We have to understand and make others understand this system of Wilayat. You never knew anything about the academic education when you were born, but slowly you started and became educated. There were many things which you did not know, but later you learnt it. Similarly if you don't know religion, then start to learn. Then only after this the women can deliver the most prestigious character and role.

Question n. 2

Q 2. How can a human being become a companion of secrets of Imamat so that she can understand the system of Imamat?

Answer: I have said earlier that this can be done with Recognition (Maarifat). By just sitting in one place you can't become a companion of secrets of Imamat. She can become aware about the secrets only when she comes near to the religion, studies the outward and inward essence of religion, and then only she can explore the hidden secrets. You have to spend a reasonable part of your life in this and give time to religion.

You all love your Imam, but this love only makes you lovers but not a recognizer of the secrets of Imamat. It is recognition (Maarifat), which makes you aware about the secrets of Imamat. Only when love gets along with recognition, you can understand the hidden secrets of Imamat. Unfortunately we have love for religion, but our recognition is very less.

Question n. 3

Q 3. Is it not the duty of our Ulema to address such subjects and develop a strong link of this subject with us, and if they are not doing this then who has to do this?

Answer: It is definitely the Ulema who have to start the link of this subject amongst the people. There is a saying in Persian "If something gets spoiled, put salt on it and it will be fine. But woe on that day when salt gets spoiled". If the Ummah (nation) gets corrupted then the Ulema should correct and reform it, but if the Ulema themselves get corrupted then who will reform them?

Question n. 4

Q 4. How can we identify the Fironic system in our normal lives?

Answer: The effects of the Fironic system are quite evident not just in our country but at a global level. The entire world is today governed by this system. You see that in the entire world there is only one nation which is not willing to accept this Fironic system and hence they (enemies of Islam) have surrounded this country from all sides. Every day they threaten this country. Unfortunately the entire globe is under the shadow of the Fironic system and our country is on the frontline in promoting this Fironic system.

If you are still not convinced, then analyze the effects of this system. In the earlier days that lady newscaster on the TV channel used to put a scarf around her neck. This slowly started to slip down, then the marathon race, vulgarity, nudity and moral corruption. All these effects are coming on your lives and they are increasing every day. What more do you expect to know and identify, when the President of the country comes up and supports nude women running on the street. He said that those who don't like to see such things, they should close their eyes or switch off their TV sets. This is not Islam. We have forgotten that this country is a Muslim nation, a nation of respected and chaste people. Our negligence, carelessness and our silence is helping in promoting this Fironic system.

Question n. 5

Q 5. You said that this country has a system of Firon, hence we should leave this country. But my question is that the basics of formation of this country was very solid, the leader who made this nation had made it on Islamic principles, then why is this like this?

Answer: I did not say that you should leave the country. This country was created in the name of Islam, but it was never handed over to Islam and Islam was never implemented in this country. In fact, today they are talking and discussing that the biggest danger and threat which this nation has is from Islam. Hence they want to achieve freedom from Islam in this country. I am not saying that you should leave the country and go. What I am saying is that the foundations on which this country was created were correct and we need to return it back to those foundation principles. We should not sit careless and unconcerned.

We should come forward and introduce the system of religion to the people, make this religion presentable so as to attract people towards religion. It is not that we leave and go, wherever we go the situation would be worse than this, hence we need to stay over here and return ourselves, this land and this community towards religion. If Imam Hussain (as) wanted to save his life he could have gone anywhere else, but then who would have destroyed Yazidiat? To demolish Yazidiat you have to stay there. Many mistakes have been done in this country. The question you have asked needs a lot of elaboration and could be a one day specific seminar. When this country had guides like Allama Iqbal, then why did such a thing happen? This needs a detailed discussion.

Question n. 6

Q 6. Why do some people not accept Wilayat al-Faqeeh?

Answer: There are many reasons behind this. Some people due to ignorance, some due to created doubts, some due to some other reasons and some have been misguided by the enemies. In other words some people are misguided by some sold out agents who are planted amongst us to block this path. These agents are planted from behind and sent on our pulpits to change the direction of this community and the main objective is to deviate this community from the divine system of life.

I present a real case over here as an example for you to understand what all has been done to deviate people from Wilayat al-Faqeeh. You would have seen the news also yesterday that, to change the system of governance in Syria, America has allocated a budget of 5M$. In order to change the government in Iran they have allocated 21M$ every year. Whom do they give this? They give to such agents who should come and speak against the system of Wilayat, write something and keep on doing something against the system of Wilayat.

They have formed a council in America by the name of UMAA under the guidance of Paul Wolfowitz. Paul Wolfowitz was the think tank of America's attack on Iraq. He designed this attack and planned it. Under his leadership they have formed this committee comprising of Scholars (Ulema), Religious Speakers and Pulpit holders. The purpose of this council is to work towards purging of the thoughts of Imam Khomeini (r.a) from the Shia school of thought.

They said that certain things within the Shia School has come from outside and these should be eradicated. Paul Wolfowitz, who is now the Wor1d Bank Chief came on the Television with well-known faces of Shia community sitting with him. He said that thoughts of Imam Khomeini (r.a) should be removed from the Shia community. They have allotted millions of dollars for this task. Hence it is not that if anyone is sitting on the pulpit and speaking against Wilayat, then it is just a mischief of his own thoughts and mind. If you trace the links of such person it will go much far behind, some Embassy or NGO would be behind him. Hence we need to be alert and be smart.

Question n. 7

Q 7. You said if we cast our vote then it is like helping Saamri. In our country there is no party of government which is correct, then whom should we give our votes to?

Answer: Our duty is not just to cast votes, our duty is to prepare a ground for the right system. As I said before that first identify those fundamental principles on which this country was created and try to return the nation towards those principles. Our responsibility is not just to cast our votes, but it is to implement the system of Wilayat. If you think that there is some person, though he is in this corrupt system, but still is serving religion, then you can cast your vote to him. Those who are sitting right now do not deserve our votes.

Question n. 8

Q 8. Is it not necessary that the importance of the character of women should be told to men also, since a woman in our religion cannot do anything without permission from their husbands?

Answer: What you have said is absolutely correct. This is similar to the upbringing of children where it is necessary that the parents are made aware. Even if we take someone's children, bring them up and then later return to them, it won't be effective. It is necessary that the parents are with their children. Hence it is necessary for the women that their guardians, may it be their husband or father, should be made aware of their character. It is a manifested fact that unless they are made aware of the duties of women, the women won't be able to deliver their duties properly.

Our culture is very amazing. In reality we are not living religious lives, we are living cultural and traditional lives. We marry so that the wife should serve parents. This is how our culture has been made. If the daughter-in-law ends up saying that her in-laws should take care of themselves, then also the husband will force her to serve them. It is obligatory on the son to serve his parents, not the daughter-in-law. As a matter of ethics she should serve her husband's parents, she should consider them as her parents only, respect them and fulfill their legitimate needs. But there is a difference between a servant and daughter-in-law, so don't try to marry and bring a servant to your house. It is our culture that when we look for a girl for marriage, our criteria is to see if she will serve my parents or not. She is your wife, the daughter-in-law of your parents and she also has some rights. Now this series goes on, the same daughter-in-law gets old and now becomes the mother-in-law, and then she takes her revenge on her daughter-in-law.

This is what our culture has done; they have taken away the women from their real duties and have involved them into such things. It is the duty of the women to take care of their children and take care of their education, character, and upbringing of the new generation. In fact the education section should be with the women because they can perform this task very well. But we have given them a broom, dirty kitchenware and food to cook. Now it has happened so, that even women also like these jobs more than anything else.

They are not prepared to come out and lead the education program for children. They have become expert in household chores. It is also necessary to do house work. It should not be that because I have said, you leave house work. What is important to understand is that you should divide the responsibilities of the house between yourself and your husband. It should not happen that we use the household responsibilities as an excuse to neglect the social responsibilities, this won't be accepted.

Question n. 9

Q 9. How can someone revolutionize her own home before even thinking about revolutionizing a government so that the difference between Halal and Haram can become manifested?

Answer: What you have said is correct, a government is a bigger system and a house is a smaller system. If a human being can't reform a small system he can't reform a larger system. And even before this is your own self. Those who cannot implement Islam on their own selves, how can they implement Islam in a society? In this context I will tell you an incident when General Zia ul Haqq came to meet Imam Khomeini (r.a).

In those days of Iran-Iraq war, a Muslim Committee was formed to try stopping the war. General Zia had a big desire to become a leader of the Islamic world, hence he went to Imam (r.a). He was introduced to Imam (r.a) as one who is struggling to implement an Islamic system in his country (Pakistan). Imam (r.a) looked at his face and said that the person who cannot implement Islam on his face, how can he be expected to implement Islam in his country? We are also similar; first we should implement Islam on our existence, in our house and then slowly move towards implementing it in a society. Hence, if we leave our home and start to do propagation outside and expect changes in society, then under such situation no changes will come.

Question n. 10

Q 10. Where is the current system in this country taking the people towards?

Answer: I already said this before and it is very clearly manifested in the words of the Holy Quran (يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ) (7:141). It is taking the society towards hell. This existing system is based on secularism, enlightened modern thoughts, liberal Islam where women are allowed to go out on the streets the way they want and intentionally moral corruption is spread. If you take men, by just making the Spring Season (Basant) as an excuse they are indulging in singing, dancing, alcoholism and lavishness.

All these acts are introduced one after another intentionally to corrupt the social environment and to desecrate the values. You should have no doubt about this that those who are governing this system have very clear intentions to take this nation away from religion and establish an aversion to Islamic values in the society.

Topic Tags:

- Wilayah [8]

- Women in Islam [9]

Author(s):

- Syed Jawad Naqvi [3]

Publisher(s):

- Bethat Islamic Research Centre (BIRC) Qom - Iran [4]

Category:

- General [5]

- Women [6]

- Politics & Current Affairs [7]

Source URL: https://www.al-islam.org/role-women-towards-system-wilayat-syed-jawad-naqvi

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