A Tribute to the Sadr Martyrs

This book contains biographies and some writing samples of three scholars: Martyr Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr, Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his virtuous sister Martyr Amina al-Sadr (Bint al-Huda), whom the world lost to the brutal tyranny of Saddam Hussein, as a humble tribute to these three great scholars and their undeniable contribution to the intellectual world along with their heroism, bravery, piety, and hard work.

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Introduction

O Allah! Just as You covered our sins and shortcomings in this short life,
Do cover them also on the Judgment Day, The Day of sighs and regrets,
The Day each of us, humans, shall see his deeds before his very eyes...

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

This book contains biographies and some writing samples of three scholars whom the world lost to the brutal tyranny of the "Butcher of Baghdad", Saddam Hussein, who assassinated them all despite their undeniable contribution to the intellectual world, to authorship and scholarship from which Saddam and his hoodlums, as well as those who brought Saddam to power in the first place, foreign and domestic, were and still are quite distant.

The lion's share in this book is the lot of martyr Muhammad-Baqir Haidar al-Sadr whom I started translating when I came across his works through my Atlanta, Georgia, roommate, Hassan Jabbar Abbas, may Allah reward him. Hassan was one of al-Sadr's students, and for this reason he was tortured so harshly that he had to flee the country, his hair turning gray and his body full of bruises.

In 1974, I started the publication and distribution of a bimonthly newsletter, Islamic Affairs, and al-Sadr's works, their richness, depth and vast knowledge provided me with first class material for my newsletter which continued publication until 1989. I am honored to be the very first person ever to translate the works of martyr Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr and to write his biography which was published by Iraqis in London shortly after his martyrdom.

My translation of A General Outlook at Rituals, the first book I translated for this great scholar, was published in 1979 when the author was still alive. I followed it with my translation of Contemporary Man and the Social Problem which was published in 1980, the year of his martyrdom.

In 1979, I moved from Georgia to Maryland where the harshness of my living conditions, living in a rooming apartment and sharing the kitchen and bathroom with other tenants, could not prevent me from translating two more of al Sadr's works: The General Bases for Banking in the Muslim Society and What Do You Know About Islamic Economics? Both were published in Maryland, the second by an Indian friend of mine whereas the other by myself.

Unfortunately, when I moved from Maryland to Virginia in 1982, I lost the copies of my translation of The General Bases of banking in the Muslim Society perhaps due to friends who borrowed and never returned them. In that year, I did not have a personal computer of my own, so the text was not stored in a file.

I have been fortunate recently, now I am back home in Iraq, to become acquainted with a bright and active Iraqi lady who wrote about the sister of this great man, i.e. Amina daughter of Haidar al Sadr who is better known by her penname "Bint al-Huda," daughter of guidance. This lady acquaintance wrote an essay about Bint al Huda which I translated and incorporated into the text of this book, and it may be the first detailed essay about Bint al-Huda published in English.

As for the third Sadr martyr discussed in this book, he is his late eminence Muhammad son of Muhammad-Sadiq al-Sadr who was assassinated in 1999 by the Baath Party that ruled Iraq for more than a third of a century. He predicted his own assassination, so he used to deliver his fiery and fearless sermons wearing his white burial shrouds, thus sending a message to the brutal and oppressive government that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of the faith which the said government fought with all its might and means.

When he was martyred, a number of Iraqis in Virginia organized themselves and obtained a permit to demonstrate against Saddam's government. We used to gather on Saturdays in front of the White House to air our grievances and decry the American government's blind support for the "Butcher of Baghdad" while knowing what kind of beast he was. A loudspeaker was given to me to speak about the atrocities and injustices meted to the people of Iraq at the hands of Saddam and his clique.

Even some secret service officers near the White House had the chance to listen to our viewpoint which contrasted that of the U.S. government at the time and that of the biased news media in the U.S. in particular and in the West in general. I regret to admit that I could not find English translations for some of the works of martyr Muhammad Muhammad-Sadiq al Sadr, so I listed his Arabic books.

This book, as its title suggests, is a humble tribute to these three great scholars, social and political leaders who deserve much, much more than this humble effort. I apologize for my shortcomings and plead to all those who know and admire these three saints to forgive me for them, and I urge them to translate works of these heroes so people may benefit from their knowledge. Their works at present lie like buried treasures waiting for people to find and disseminate them.

A Brief Biography of Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr

Late Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr was a member of a distinguished Iraqi family with a genealogy that is traced back directly to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (p.b.u.h), hence his title of "Sayyid." He was born on March 1, 1935 in the holy city of al-Kadhimiyya, north western Baghdad in the Karkh flank, and was assassinated by Saddam's regime on April 9, 1980 together with his sister, Amina al-Sadr, who is better known by her pen name "Bint al-Huda" (daughter of guidance), a novelist, poetess, writer and social organizer as well as defender of women's rights.

His ancestors had lived in the region of Jabal Amil in present-day southern Lebanon. In recent Iraqi history, one of the family members, another Muhammad al-Sadr, served as Iraq's prime minister in 1948. Al-Sadr's father, Muhammad Sadiq, was a mujtahid, a theologian qualified to make independent juridical decisions, and his grandfather and great-grandfather were among the highest religious authorities (maraji; sing. marji) of their time. His mother was the daughter of late Grand Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Rida Al Ya-Sin, also a prominent marji.

Muhammad al-Sadr was educated at Najaf’s hawza, theological seminary. In his advanced studies, known as dars al-kharij, he was taught by scholars such as then Grand Ayatollah Abul Qasim al-Khoei and Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini.

He became mujtahid in the mid-1970s, and in the early 1990s he published his own collection of fatwas (edicts) in jurisprudence known as the risala amaliyya which he called al Sirat al-Mustaqim, "the Straight Path", thereby signaling his wish to be recognized as a marji' taqlid , an authority for religious emulation.

Al-Sadr was author of many published books. The most important are his monumental four-volume encyclopedia of Imam al-Mahdi a.s (the 12th Imam of the Shi'a, who is believed to have gone into occultation in AD 873-74) and his massive work on jurisprudence titled Ma wara al-fiqh, what is beyond jurisprudence, of which more than 10 volumes have been published.

He also wrote a book on Islam, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a volume on the fundamental beliefs of Islam known collectively as Aqaid, tenets of the faith. At least 20 of his works remain as manuscripts.

He was also known as a very highly spiritual person. He prayed during the night and was assiduous in arranging his time. The fact that he had a considerable following among Iraqi Shias, which increased after the assassination of two marjis, Ayatollahs Burujirdi and Gharawi, in April and June respectively, led to the Iraqi government feeling uneasy about him.

In late 1979, Ayatollah Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr managed to resume the Friday prayer services and sermons in the Grand Kufa Mosque. Kufa is an ancient town outside Najaf where the first Shia’s Imam, the Prophet's right hand, cousin and son-in law, Ali ibn Abi Talib as, was assassinated by a Khariji (Kharijite) in AD 661. Al-Sadr instructed his representatives to do likewise in other towns throughout Iraq.

During Friday prayer services a few weeks before his martyrdom, he was seen wearing the funeral shrouds which is considered as a simple act of piety, but it apparently was taken by the government of the Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam, as a signal that he was prepared to die defending the faith in the face of the secular and corrupt regime.

Actually, he sensed that his death was imminent when he urged thousands of worshippers to continue to observe the Friday congregational prayer services should he die. Returning home by car from his office in Najaf, he, together with two of his sons, namely Mustafa and Mu'ammal, was shot dead at the 1920-Revolution Square.

The regime of Saddam Hussein denied vehemently that it had any hand in the assassination, just as it had done after the assassination of two other ayatollahs year earlier. The burial took place speedily at dawn the following day. It is said that most of those present were government security agents. The customary procession was banned and the public were not allowed to attend the burial.

Personality

If we want to talk about Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr's personality, we could very easily say that he was, without any doubt, a genius by all standards. He was ahead of his time! If in the worldly sense we call Einstein a genius, or before him it is said that Leonardo Da Vinci was a genius, we could likewise and very easily say with the complete consensus of religious scholars that Martyr al-Sadr was a man who was way ahead of his time.

Martyr al-Sadr lived for only 45 years, which according to the average life span of our scholars (ulama) is a very short period of time. In 45 years, anyone studying Islam is still considered "young". But in these 45 short years, Martyr al-Sadr revolutionized the academic and political aspects of his society in a way that very few could do. Very rarely do personalities such as Martyr al-Sadr appear in history.

Rarely does anyone have such an impact in such a short period of time, at such a young age, and at a time that was one of the worst in the history of Islam in general and of Iraq in particular. Saddam led one of the most brutal and tyrannical reigns in the history of the world. It was in this time that Martyr al-Sadr raised his voice to protest the crimes which this "Butcher of Baghdad", as Saddam was called by the Iraqis and others, was committing against his own people and against humanity.

During such a turbulent and politically charged time period, he established a political process. Establishing a political process requires sacrifice, and the way in which Martyr al-Sadr sacrificed, the way in which he did his work, in an environment where there was no energy for it, no strength for it, he rose up in that environment and tried to lift a nation from zero.

He did that all alone with exceptional bravery. In his personality, everything was amazingly impressive, especially in the sense that he was doing all these activities at the level of a Marji' Taqleed. Being at that level and occupying such a position, he sacrificed in a way that, when he was put under house arrest, there was no food at his house at times.

Early Life and Education

Martyr al-Sadr was born into the Sadr family. This family is Kadhimi by descent, that is, its lineage is traced back to Imam Mousa al-Kadhim as (128 - 183 A.H./745 - 799 A.D.), one of the offspring of the Prophet of Islam through his daughter, Fatima (as), and cousin Ali (as). He was born, as noted above, in the holy city of al-Kadhimiyya where Imam Muhammad al-Jawad (also titled al-Taqi), who was born in Medina, Hijaz, on Rajab 10, 195A.H. and was martyred in Baghdad on Thul-Qi'da 29, 220 A.H., corresponding to April 8, 811 - November 24, 835 A.D. And Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, peace with them both, are buried in a magnificent Shrine.

At the age of 10, he went to the holy city of Najaf to study language, logic and theology. Martyr al Sadr suffered the pain of being an orphan, having lost his father at the age of two. In those times, it is uncertain if his father was also martyred. We do not have much information about how he passed away, but regardless, his death in 1937 left Martyr al Sadr an orphan under the care of some great scholars of the time from his well-known Sadr family.

Haider al-Sadr was the name of the father of Martyr al-Sadr. He was considered among the most pious people. Martyr al Sadr studied under various teachers in Najaf. Among his teachers were Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khoei and Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim. At the age of 25, he himself started teaching at the level of Ijtihad, truly a great achievement if only you know how high this religious degree is and what is required to earn it.

Not only was he a mujtahid, he was teaching other scholars to become mujtahids as well and at such a young age. Basically, at the age that most students become capable of attending dars al-kharij, Martyr al-Sadr was teaching it. He wrote Our Philosophy, which we will talk about a little later, at the age of 24 as did Imam Khomeini who wrote his book Forty Ahadith at the age of 24.

Martyr al-Sadr was also, in some sense, lucky to have some great students. In a very short period of time, he raised some great scholars under his tutelage. He raised scholars who became world renowned for their intellectual and political achievements. Martyr Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Hakim was among Martyr al-Sadr's students.

Sayyid Kadhim Haeiri, who is considered among the top scholars of Iraq, was also among his students. Another of his students was Sayyid Kamal al-Haideri, who is now considered to be among the great teachers of the hawza. Sayyid Kamal al-Haideri once said that a panel of university teachers came to Grand Ayatollah al-Khoei and told him that the education system at the hawza was not strong.

Ayatollah al Khoei asked them if their university has a better, more effective system. They said that, "We graduated PhDs from our university." Sayyid al-Khoei asked,” how many they were?” They said that even if it had been a single Ph.D. graduate, it would have been enough for their university. In response, Sayyid al Khoei said, "I will introduce you to one of my students. You may invite all your Ph.D. graduates to ask him about any field that they feel they have expertise in." Without any hesitation, Sayyid al-Khoei summoned young al-Sadr to his presence.

Sayyid al-Khoei challenged them to a debate, claiming that they would not find anyone more knowledgeable in any field than al-Sadr. "Ask him about mathematics, geography, philosophy, history, any field in which you possess expertise," al-Khoei said. He added, "If you think you have mastery over social sciences, such as economics, politics, psychology, or any other field, bring them on the table. You will realize the true command and mastery which al-Sadr has over all these fields!"

The Study Circles

So let us now begin to talk of Martyr al-Sadr's intellectual works. Martyr al-Sadr's method of working on a topic was that he would never use a pattern or foundation built by someone else; everything has to be original with his own stamp on it. If you study any of his works, you will realize that he has never worked on a foundation built by others before him.

Let us look at his works in the principles of jurisprudence (Ilm al-Usul). This is one of the most fundamental subjects taught to the students of the seminary (hawza) in which they learn how to derive laws. He wrote a book in this field called Halaqaat al-Usool.

The reason why he wrote this book was that the syllabus for 'Ilm al-Usul, the science of these principles, was quite academic and scholarly. It was like assigning Louis Pasteur's book to an undergraduate student of chemistry. Instead, Martyr al-Sadr really simplified this field. Even nowadays, this book is used in the seminaries of Najaf, Iraq, and Qum, Iran.

Our Economy and Our Philosophy

Martyr al-Sadr's academic achievements came at a time when the hawza was weak in the eyes of the world. Communism was at its peak in Iraq. In his book Iqtisaduna (Our Economy, i.e. Islamic economics). Martyr al-Sadr refers to Communist and socialist philosophers, comparing their ideologies, pointing out their points of strength and weakness, all in an academic and scholarly way.

Some books were such they were available in Russian and Arabic only. There was not even a copy of those books in English. From this, you can imagine at what level the Communists and socialists worked on the Arab society's mind. There was no fundamental book of Communism and socialism, no matter how profound and deep, without being translated into Arabic.

Another evidence of their efforts on the Arab community was that they set up Baath parties in many Arab countries, even though they were not always very organized. Each Baath party worked separately in its respective area. There were branches of the Baath party in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

The word Baath means: to rise, to stand up to perform an action. Obviously, this Baath was for Satan, not for God. The Baath parties were academic in their efforts. They used to present socialism in a great depth, and the people who learned socialism in Iraq learned it extensively and in a great depth. Since the most fundamental and deep books of Communism were translated into Arabic and were in circulation among the general masses, the public would criticize Islam through the lenses of those books.

At the time, there were no outstanding scholars in the hawza who could respond to those criticisms and remove the confusion in the young minds. Martyr al-Sadr began his mission here. At the age of 24, he wrote Falsafatuna (Our Philosophy). While studying Falsafatuna, we used to say that this book did not deal with Islamic philosophy at all. It dealt with everything but Islamic philosophy.

He chose Our Philosophy as the title for his book, but in reality it was a criticism of the Eastern and Western philosophies. For example, what Communists say in their philosophy, he criticized it. What the Western Capitalists say, he criticized it. What their philosophy tells us, he criticized it. And even in philosophy, he basically touched on one area.

There is one field that has a very important position in philosophy that he presented in a special way; here it is: The topic of philosophy is what we call Ilm al Ma 'rifa (epistemology or the theory of knowledge). This topic is something that you might say the first topic in philosophy. It is a debate on the question: "How do we know what we see is a reality?"

For example, if I look at something and say that its color is black, how can I prove that this thing is, in reality, black? An average observer will say, "Well, that is obvious. You can 'see' that it is black." But the discussion is not whether we can see if a thing is black or not. The discussion is on how we prove that what we are seeing is correctly identified.

This is where we get into the topic of 'Ilm al-Ma 'rifa, the debate on how to prove what we know and what we have learned to be valid. That is, is this knowledge correct or incorrect? There are many thoughts and arguments on this which philosophers have written about and debated. Their main focus was to prove that the human mind is not capable of understanding reality.

Even if people understand something, it is subjective knowledge which cannot be proven in an objective way. That is what they wanted. Why? If you prove that God exists and they cannot refute your argument, they will say, "You believe in God because you are a Muslim, and that is why you make such argument." In response, they will say that God does not exist. And you cannot refute that because all knowledge is subjective. Such a skeptic view becomes possible once they are able to devalue the possibility of verifying objective knowledge.

Martyr al-Sadr, Martyr Mutahhari, and Allama Hussain Tabatabai and their likes are all philosophers known as realists. Their job was to prove that what a human mind knows is reality. There is an in-depth discussion on this in Our Philosophy. The works of scholars of socialism and Communism, even those of Chinese socialists like Mao Zedong, are included, studied and ultimately proven wrong in Our Philosophy.

Now, let us consider his other book, Our Economy. In it, he talks about Islamic economics. If you were to go anywhere in the world and ask anyone, Shi'a, Sunni, Muslim, or non- Muslim, about the best book on Islamic economics, it has now been more than a third of a century since the martyrdom of this great man, but without any doubt or hesitation, those who answer your question will say that there is no book like Our Economy.

When the curriculum of the Islamic economics department of the Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan, was being designed, an Egyptian scholar suggested using Our Economy as its basis. When Saudi scholars immediately rejected the suggestion of using a book written by a Shi'a scholar, the Egyptian man challenged them to suggest another book for the curriculum on its same level.

There was no other book that could be presented as an alternative. This proves the fact that when Martyr al-Sadr wrote Our Economy, there was not even a single book on the topic of Islamic economics with comparable caliber. Our Economy is a wonderful book. Martyr al-Sadr first tried to dismantle socialist economics.

In doing so, he had to discuss socialist philosophy, more specifically the aspect known as Dialectic Materialism. Socialism had constructed five stages of the human history: When humans first appeared, they had a certain type of economic system, then it changed into agriculture, then capitalism, and now is the time for socialism, while the next stage will be that of communism. They argued saying that this was inevitable. The main point here was Dialectic Materialism.

Martyr al-Sadr wrote exhaustive comments on each and every aspect of this philosophy. He commented on both Dialectic Materialism and Determinism. He would always start by explaining what the people opposing him were saying.

First, he would describe socialism from the point of view of its proponents. If they are talking about Dialectic Materialism, he will talk about what it really means and its true interpretation, so much so that a student of Martyr al-Sadr told me once that the socialists of Iraq took material from Martyr al-Sadr's description of socialist thought and printed a separate book on it. They would give that book to other socialists to learn socialism from, since it was best explained there!

Martyr al-Sadr would build up socialism so strongly. When he begins countering those arguments, he shreds them into bits and pieces. That is the beauty of this book. Another interesting point about Martyr al-Sadr's Our Economy is that in the beginning, he said that there are two ways to attain true knowledge of Islamic economics. We will have to adopt one of the two paths.

We can come up with the theory, and when God grants us the opportunity, we will put it into practice - at that time, the Islamic republic had not been established. So he said, let us come up with the theory (‘ilm), and when Allah permits, we will implement it. The other way is to wait and see if perhaps God would grant us a government. Then we would implement these principles one by one according to Islam.

If we do so, in about 50-60 years we will have had a complete system. Allah granted his second wish: a government was established (through the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran) where slowly, one by one, these economic principles are being implemented. Some people criticize asking, "Why has the Islamic economic system not been established, even 30 years later?" The answer is this: A system like these does not come about and mature in 25 - 30 years.

Capitalism struggled for 200 years before it took the form of a system. We will have to give this system time and offer many sacrifices in its way in order to even partially establish the true Islamic economic system.

Another book which Martyr al-Sadr wrote on Islamic economics is called Al-Bank al- la Rabbawi Fil Islam (interest free Islamic Banking). The story of that book is as follows: The government of Kuwait realized that the money people were getting from profits made from the oil industry was being invested for interest. Being Muslims, the investors wanted to find a way to avoid paying or earning interest.

In order to address this issue, they organized a conference of Muslim scholars to which Martyr al-Sadr was invited, as were many Saudi scholars. The Saudi scholars did their best to stop Martyr al-Sadr from attending. As a result, the invitation given to Martyr al-Sadr was revoked. Martyr al-Sadr was disappointed, but he wrote a book and sent it to the organizers of the conference.

The prejudiced and close-minded Saudis managed to stop Martyr al-Sadr from coming, but they could not stop the book from reaching the conference. When the book was reviewed during the conference, there was no book that came even closely to its caliber. The whole conference had to acknowledge that the author should have been present during the conference.

Such was his personality! He made up his mind to work on a new concept, so he wrote a book about it with an entirely new approach. Now just imagine: This man was in Najaf without having any access to banks. He had no access to any international bank. He, therefore, should not have had any insight in the world's banking system, yet he wrote a book on banking, taking up a unique and complex topic, and now the world is baffled at his genius.

Interpreting the Qur'an

Martyr al-Sadr did some work on the exegesis (Tafsir), interpretation, of the Holy Qur'an, as well. Before starting his actual Tafsir research, he divided the topic into two types: He called one as Tafsir by sequence, in which you work on Tafsir one verse after another sequentially. The other kind of Tafsir is by topic, i.e. or topical or thematic. According to this method, you compile a Tafsir by analyzing how the Qur'an as a whole deals with this topic or that.

He preferred Topical Tafsir. The topic he chose was such that very few scholars have looked into it. What was the topic? He said he wanted to know which Divine laws govern communities and societies and rule them. He, therefore, wrote a Tafsir book on this topic. Fortunately, this book has been translated into Urdu, Parsi, English and other languages.

Even more interesting is the fact that his Tawdhihul Masail توضیح المسائل (the book explaining legal Islamic rulings) was also written in a unique way. He did not start it from the point that it is obligatory on every adult Muslim to perform taqleed, emulation in religious matters. Instead, he chose to begin that book from the fundamentals, basics, principles, tenets of belief (‘aqa’id). "Why should we live our lives according to the way Allah wants us?" This is how he approached the topic, devoting almost 80 pages of the Arabic edition to answer this question.

Historiography of Fadak

Martyr al-Sadr had a very deep respect for Ahlul Bayt (peace be with them), the immediate family of the Prophet of Islam. He used to spend hours thinking and pondering at the shrine of Imam Ali (peace be with him). According to a source, due to unfavorable conditions of the time, Martyr al-Sadr did not go to visit Imam Ali's shrine for a few days. It was then that the Imam appeared in a vision to a highly respected scholar of al Najaf al-Ashraf to ask him to inquire why al-Sadr had not been going to the Imam's Shrine to deliver his lectures.

The meaning and symbolism of this vision show the great source of Martyr al-Sadr's very high intellectual caliber. Expressing his deep respect for Lady Fatima al-Zahra (peace be with her), he wrote his book titled Fadak fi Tareekh (Fadak in History) which examines the issues and the circumstances in which Lady Fatima stood up and spoke the truth to the men of authority of her time.

Martyr al-Sadr wrote the book in his characteristically cogent and accessible style. I think he felt being indebted to this great Lady, so he wanted to serve her. He felt that elaborating and defending her cause could be the best way to do so, knowing that some distinguished scholars of his time would be attracted to his book, and maybe his book on this issue would open the closed files of Fatima's case to the eyes of those scholars.

Social and Political Activism

Martyr al-Sadr was one of those scholars who did not limit themselves to the field of knowledge exclusively. He considered himself responsible for the lives of his fellow citizens and humans at large. He, therefore, took upon himself to shoulder the responsibilities of his society. He had to face the system of tyrant Saddam.

Sayyid Kamal al-Haideri said that he went to meet Martyr al Sadr when the latter was under house arrest. He would give only a few people the permission to meet him. Martyr al-Sadr told Kamal al-Haideri that he was ready to offer his ultimate sacrifice, but it would bear no fruit in this land (at the time). Iraq would not rise up.

Everyone knew that Martyr al-Sadr had the intention to sacrifice himself for the cause. Sayyid Kamal said that Martyr al-Sadr summed up his intentions to him in one strange sentence: "Every nation requires a Hussain [a reference to the sacrifice of Imam al-Hussain at Kerbala]1 for the revolution to come." Every nation has to shed its pure blood just as al-Hussain had done. It would have to offer sacrifices. He agreed to be the Hussain of his era.

He knew that his countrymen would not rise immediately, but their children would do so thereafter. His blood would then bear fruit, and so it happened. Martyr al-Sadr knew that his blood would not be spilled in vain. He would offer himself as a sacrifice and slowly but surely, the youth will wake up and rise. Those youth will grow old.

During the years from 1987-89, eight years after his martyrdom, Iraqi youths were starting to wake up from their slumber of apathy. At that time, the youth’s consciousness and sense of self-respect was only starting to wake up. People who worked with Martyr al-Sadr realized then what a great loss they had suffered by losing him.

Martyr al-Sadr was a man of action. The Islamic Da 'wa Party (Hizb ud-Da'wa al-Islamiyya), the group with which he was associated, had been established before him. It was created in 1957 by some very notable and pious people. Martyr al-Sadr started giving his full support to it, trying his best to make it intellectually strong. This took place around the year 1968 when he actually joined its ranks.

While working for the Islamic Da'wa Party, he used to publish a magazine called Al-Risalat al-Islamiyya (the Message of Islam). In a very short time, that magazine was banned. The articles that he wrote for that magazine were compiled and published as a book called Risalatuna (Our Message).

This book discusses social work or activism, that is, how we are supposed to continue our societal efforts, how we should work in our societies, what methods we should use, what was done in various societies when Shi'ism went there, how those efforts were continued etc. It is a very good book for one who wants to look at some of the fundamental principles of how to do work for the society. He analyzed the basic aspects of Shi'ism and laid out certain goals for the communities to work on.

Khilafat al-Umma (ruling the nation)

Martyr al-Sadr held a view in political matters which was called Khilafat al-Ummah. Western thinkers are always trying to show how two philosophers have opposing views, so they made up a false contradiction that they claimed existed between Khilafat al-Ummah and the concept of Wilayat al Faqih. Anyhow, these allegations are rubbish and unworthy of our discussion here.

What Martyr al-Sadr meant by Khilafat al-Ummah was that Allah has made the human beings as His vicegerent on earth. He said that mankind should live up to that oath and status once their leadership comes into the hands of one who knows the deen, religion. In other words, if humans want to strive towards upholding such a position, status, as the vicegerent of Allah, the leadership of the society must be in the hands of a pious individual, a scholar of law, a faqih, jurist.

This concept of leadership of the Islamic nation is derived from the fact that Allah is the ultimate leader of everything (al-Khilafa al Illahiya). To become the khalifa, (vicegerent) of Allah, you must be steadfast on the Path of Allah. When Martyr al-Sadr brought this idea to the forefront, he saw that Imam Khomeini was the ideal personality whose views were quite similar to those of his own.

It was, therefore, as if he had endorsed Imam Khomeini and his revolutionary approach. When Imam Khomeini was in Iraq, very few scholars were courageous enough to come and sit next to him. They knew that if they sat next to him, neither Saddam nor the Shah of Iran would let them live. But Martyr al-Sadr had the courage to still do it.

Wherever Imam Khomeini was present, Martyr al-Sadr would not be far behind, and only he had the courage to do so from among so many scholars then and there. Not only that, he would acknowledge and give his entire support to Imam Khomeini. He used to say: Zoobbu fi Khomeini, Kama zabba huwa fil Islam, that is, "Fuse yourselves in Khomeini, just as Khomeini fuses himself into Islam."

He stood at the frontlines to sacrifice and to invite the whole of Iraq to follow Imam Khomeini's example. The reason for that was, perhaps, the fact that Iraq was the country that had the potential to be most influenced by Imam Khomeini's views. Perhaps that is why the enemies started their war in Iraq.

Anyhow, the work that Martyr al-Sadr began did not stop after him. The Islamic Da'wa Party continued its political work. They say that the followers of Imam al-Hussain after his martyrdom did not have the desire to live. In a similar manner, the followers of Martyr al-Sadr felt that the spirit of their lives was no more there. People truly loved this great personality. They understood the meaning of his name and were ready to give their lives for him.

In 1970, the Islamic Da'wa Party became stronger under the leadership of Martyr al-Sadr. In 1972, the government banned his magazine. In 1973-74, the Baathi government cracked down on the party and executed 75 of its top leaders. In 1977, the Party was banned, as well as the Arba’een commemorative procession (of the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussain) which it used to organize every year. In 1980, it became clear that the government was going to try to assassinate Martyr al-Sadr.

On many occasions, he was taken to prison and then released. He was continuously being tortured. There was not a moment in which he was not going through severe torture, mentally, physically, and psychologically. Usually, when Martyr al-Sadr was in jail, his sister Amina, who is better known by her pen name "Bint al-Huda", the daughter of guidance, would mobilize people and continue the work in his absence.

Martyrdom

In February of 1980, Martyr al-Sadr was taken to prison for the last time. It was decided that he should be killed along with Bint al-Huda. There were things that happened to the women in the prisons that nobody can even describe because it would be too shameful and embarrassing. Not one or two cases, tens of thousands of cases were there. By God, the true nature of Saddam's atrocities has not been revealed to the world yet even after the passage of all these years as well as the nature of those who brought him to power and who supported him with all their might and means.

Bint al-Huda was taken with Martyr al-Sadr to such a prison. Saddam issued orders to have both of them killed. Someone very close to Saddam asked him to kill Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr but spare Bint al-Huda. Saddam said, "Should I blunder which Yazid [son of Mu' awiya son of Abu Sufyan, who killed Imam al-Hussain; refer to a footnote above] did? Shall I kill the brother and let his sister live?"

We say to him and his likes, no matter where they may be, "Yes, you have still made the same mistake, O Saddam, which Yazid had made! He thought that once Imam Hussain was dead, everything would be over and his power would be more firm. Do you, folks, really think that you have won? This is history. Martyr al-Sadr did not misunderstand history. He knew that his blood would bear fruit. When Saddam was hanged, there was only one chant that was heard reminding him of what he had done to Martyr al-Sadr and his virtuous sister. Minutes before being tortured then killed…

Why would not his blood produce effects? Pious, God conscious, a high marji ', scholar, a man of knowledge and piety, such was imam al-Sadr. He had all of that and more. Why would his blood not produce results?! Blood has to show its effects; it always does. Wait and see, the effects of his blood are still revealing themselves. This is only the beginning of the journey. This is only the beginning of the victory. There is still much more to come.

Those who refused to support Martyr al-Sadr have been debased in this world and are still being disgraced. And those who were among his supporters have been honored and are still remembered highly. Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Hakim was among his supporters. He was one of Martyr al-Sadr's close students; therefore, he won the highest honor of martyrdom.

"One who will support us will receive martyrdom; one who will not support us will never win honor," the Chief of Martyrs, Imam al-Hussain son of Ali ibn Abu Talib said to the people of Medina. Martyr al-Sadr's message was the same.

How was Martyr al-Sadr martyred? Most probably, after inhumane torture, he was killed by hammering nails through his skull, a torture method preferred by Saddam and his hoodlums. His and his sister's bodies were then set aflame. After that, their bodies were released to his family. In the same darkness of the night, they were all buried.

Legacy of Martyr al-Sadr

The Iraqi nation has its own way and direction. It is moving towards a specific destination. It will continue moving towards that direction unabated despite the schemes and plots as well as huge funding of some of its vicious Arab neighbors. Behind the apparent troubles, inflictions and problems of the Iraqi nation, there is a hidden movement. There is a very positive force behind the scenes.

I think we should understand the situation in two layers - one layer that is apparent and the other that is hidden. On the surface - the first layer - people may appear to be humiliated. But those who are part of the hidden layer would become the people of horror and dignity. We have somehow to reach that hidden layer and learn. We must learn the price of honor and glory.

Iraq teaches us many lessons, but in its own unique way. The person looking at the apparent state of affairs will not attain any useful lessons. But one who derives lessons from the hidden layer will learn many a great lesson. That layer has courage, martyrdom, the power of selflessness, sacrifice, and by the power of Allah, their names are high and honored; such is the name of Martyr Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr.

- 1. If the reader is interested in knowing the whole story of the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussain son of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, peace with them and with all members of Ahlul Bayt, I suggest he refers to my book titled Kerbala and Beyond: An Epic of Immortal Heroism which Authorhouse has published and is available to view and order Online either from its Publisher: www.authorhouse.com [10] or from its marketer: www .amazon .com. It is a voluminous work and may be the best in print. - Tr.

A General Outlook at Islamic Rituals

[NOTICE: This treatise was first published in 1979 by the World Organization for Islamic Services (WOFIS) of Tehran, Iran, in booklet form when the great author and religious authority was still alive. After his martyrdom, it was published again by the Translator in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., in 1981. Two copies of the U.S. edition were deposited at the Library of the U.S. Congress in the American capital, Washington, and this title by al-Sadr may be the only one kept by the said Library.]

Introduction

Rituals enjoy an important role in Islam. Their injunctions represent an important part of jurisprudence and a worshipping conduct which formulates a noticeable phenomenon in the daily life of the pious. The system of rituals in Islamic jurisprudence represents one of its fixed facets which cannot be affected by the general trend of life or the circumstances of civil progress in man's life except by a small portion, contrarily to other judicial aspects which are flexible and dynamic.

The method of application and utilization of these judicial aspects is affected by the circumstances pertaining to civil progress in man's life, such as the system of making deals and agreements. In the sphere of worship, the man of the age of electricity and space prays, fasts, and performs the pilgrimage just as his ancestor from the age of the stone mill used to pray, fast and perform the pilgrimage.

It is true, however, that in the civil aspect of getting prepared to perform a rite, this person may differ from that: for this travels to his place of pilgrimage in a plane, while that used to travel with a camel caravan. And when this covers his body while saying his prayers or during other occasions with clothes manufactured by machines, that covered his body with clothes he hand-sewed.

But the general formula of worship, as well as its method and legislation, is the same. The necessity of its application has never suffered any change, nor has its legislating value been affected or shaken by the continuous growth of man's control over nature and his own means of living.

This means that Islamic Shari'a (Jurisprudence) has not prescribed prayer, fast, pilgrimage and other Islamic rituals temporarily, or as a juridical formula limited to conditions such Shari'a lived in its early epochs of history. Rather, it has enjoined these rituals on man while he uses atomic energy to mobilize the engine just as it has enjoined them on man while ploughing his field with a hand plough.

Thus do we conclude that the system of rituals deals with the permanent needs in the life of man, for whom they are created, the needs which remain the same in spite of the continuous progress in man's way of living. This is so because the application of a fixed prescription requires a fixed need. Hence, this question comes up:

Is there really a fixed need in the life of man, ever since jurisprudence started its cultivating role, remaining as such until today, so that we may interpret, in the light of its stability, the stability of the formulae whereby jurisprudence has treated and met this same need, so that in the end we may be able to explain the stability of worship in its positive role in man's life?

It may seem, at first glance, that to suggest such a fixed need of this sort is not acceptable, that it does not coincide with the reality of man's life when we compare today's man with the man of the future. We certainly find man getting continuously further in the method, nature of problems, and factors of progress of his own life, from the circumstances of the tribal society, his pagan problems, worries, limited aspirations and the method of treating and organizing these needs in which the concluding jurisprudence appeared.

Therefore, how can rituals, in their own particular juristic system, perform a real role in this field which is contemporary to man's life-span, in spite of the vast progress in means and methods of living?

If rituals such as prayers, ablution, ceremonial bathing (ghusul), and fast had been useful during some stage in the life of the Bedouin man, taking part in cultivating his behaviour; his practical commitment to clean his body and keep it from excessive eating and drinking, these same goals, by the same token, are achieved by modern man through the very nature of his civilized life and the norms of social living.

So, it would seem that these rituals are no longer a necessary need as they used to be once upon a time, nor have they retained a role in building man's civilization or solving his complex problems. But this theory is wrong. The social progress in means and tools, for example, in the plough changing in man's hand to a steam or electric machine, imposes a change in man's relationship to nature and to whatever material forms it takes.

Take agriculture, for example, which represents a relationship between the land and the farmer: It develops materially in form and context according to the norm of development described above.

As regarding worship, it is not a relationship between man and nature, so that it would be affected by such sort of development or progress. Rather, it is a relationship between man and his Lord. This relationship has a spiritual role which rules man's relationship with his brother man. In both cases, however, we find that humanity historically lives with a certain number of fixed needs faced equally by the man of the age of oil (animal oil used for lighting) as well as that of the age of electricity.

The system of rituals in Islam is the fixed solution for the fixed needs of this sort, and for problems whose nature is not sequential; instead, they are problems which face man during his individual, social and cultural build-up. Such a solution, called "rituals," is still alive in its objectives until today, becoming an essential condition for man to overcome his problems and succeed in practicing his civilized vocations.

In order to clearly get to know all of this, we have to point out some fixed lines of needs and problems in man's life, and the role rituals play in meeting such needs and overcoming such problems.

These lines are as follows:

1) the need to be linked to the Absolute One

2) the need for subjectivity in purpose and self-denial

3) the need for inner sense of responsibility to guarantee implementation

The system of rituals is a way to organize the practical aspect of the relationship between man and his Lord; therefore, it cannot separate his evaluation from that of this very relationship and of its role in man's life. From here, both of these questions are inter-related:

First: What value is achieved through the relationship between man and his Lord in his civilized march? Is it a fixed value treating a fixed need in this march, or is it a sequential one linked to temporal needs or limited problems, losing its significance at the end of the stage limiting such needs and problems?

Second: What role do rituals play as regarding that relationship, and what is the extent of its significance as a practical dedication to the relationship between man and God?
What follows is a summary of the necessary explanation concerning both questions.

The Link between The Absolute One is a Two-Fold Problem

The observer, who scrutinizes the different acts of the stage-story of man in history, may find out that the problems are different and the worries diversified in their given daily formulas. But if we go beyond these formulas, delving into the depth and essence of the problem, we will find one main essential and fixed problem with two edges or contrasting poles from which mankind suffers during his civilized advancement throughout history.

Looking from one angle, the problem is loss and nonentity, which is the negative side of the problem. And from another angle, the problem is extreme in entity and affiliation. This is expressed by connecting the relative facts to which man belongs to an Absolute One, thus expressing the positive side of the same problem.

The Concluding Jurisprudence (of Islam) has given the name "atheism" to the first problem, which it expresses very obviously, and the name "idolatry" and Shirk (believing in one or many partners with God) as also an obvious expression of it. The continuous Islamic struggle against atheism and Shirk is, in its civilized reality, a struggle against both sides of the problem in their historical dimensions. Both angles of the problem meet into one essential point: deterring man's advancing movement from a continuously good imaginative creativity.

The problem of loss means to man that he is a being in continuous loss, not belonging to (affiliated with) an Absolute One, on Whom he can lean in his long and hard march, deriving help from His Absolutism and Encompassment, sustenance, and a clear vision of the goal and affiliation, through that Absolute One, his own movement to the universe, to the whole existence, to eternity and perpetuity, defining his own relationship to Him and his position in the inclusive cosmic framework.

The movement at loss without the aid of an Absolute One is but a random movement like that of a feather in the wind: The phenomena around it affect it while it is unable to affect them. There is no accomplishment or productivity in the great march of man along history without a connection to and promulgation with an Absolute One in an objective march.

This same connection, on the other hand, directs the other side of the problem that of extreme entity, by changing the "relative" to an "absolute," a problem which faces man continuously. Man weaves his loyalty to a case so that such loyalty freezes gradually and gets stripped of its relative circumstances within which he was accurate, and the human mind will derive out of it an "absolute" without an end, without a limit to responding to its demands.

In religious terminology, such an "absolute" eventually changes to a "god" worshipped instead of a need that requires fulfilment. When the "relative" changes to an "absolute," to a "god" of this sort, it becomes a factor in encircling man's movement, freezing its capacities to develop and create, and paralyzing man from performing his naturally open role in the march:

لَا تَجْعَلْ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا آخَرَ فَتَقْعُدَ مَذْمُومًا مَخْذُولًا

Do not worship another "god" beside God else you should be forsaken (Qur'an, 17:22).

This is a true fact applicable to all "gods" mankind made along history, albeit if they were made during the idolatry stage of worship or its succeeding stages. From the stage of tribe to that of science, we find a series of "gods" which mankind treated as "absolutes" and which deterred mankind, who worshipped them, from making any true progress.

Indeed, from the tribe to which man submitted his alliance, considering it as an actual need dictated by his particular living circumstances, he went then to the extreme, changing it to an "absolute," without being able to see anything except through it. Hence, they [these gods] became an obstacle in his way for advancement.

It was to science that modern man deservedly granted alliance, as it paved for him the way to control nature. But he sometimes exaggerated such an alliance, turning it into an absolute alliance with which he was infatuated, an "absolute" one to worship, offering it the rituals of obeisance and loyalty, rejecting for its own sake all ideals and facts which can never be measured by meters or seen by microscopes.

Accordingly, every limited and relative thing, if man wove out of it, at a certain stage, an absolute to which he thus relates himself, becomes at a stage of intellectual maturity a shackle on the mind that made it because of its being limited and relative.

Hence, man's march has to have an Absolute One. And He has to be a real Absolute One capable of absorbing the human march, directing it to the right path no matter how much advancement it achieves or how far it extends on its lengthy line, wiping out all "gods" that encircle the march and deter it.

Thus can the problem be solved in both of its poles? Such a remedy is shown by what Divine Jurisprudence has presented man on earth: The Belief in God as the Absolute One to Whom limited man can tie his own march without this Absolute One causing man any contradiction along his long path.

Belief in God, then, treats the negative aspect of the problem, refusing loss, atheism and non-entity, for it places man in a position of responsibility: to whose movement and management the whole cosmos is related. Man becomes the vice-regent of God on earth. Vice-regency implies responsibility, and a reward which man receives according to his conduct, between God and resurrection, infinitude and eternity, as man moves within such a sphere of responsible and purposeful movement.

Belief in God also treats the positive aspects of the problem that of the extreme in entity, forcing restrictions on man and curbing his swift march, according to this manner:

First: This aspect of the problem is created by changing what is limited and relative into an "absolute" through intellectual exertion and by stripping the relative of its circumstances and limitations. As for the Absolute One provided by the belief in God, this has never been the fabrication of a phase of the human intellect, so that it may become, during the new phase of intellectual maturity, limited to the mind that made it.

Nor has it ever been the offspring of a limited need of an individual or a group, so that its becoming absolute may place it as a weapon in the hand of the individual or group in order to guarantee its illegal interests. For God, the Praised One, the Sublime, is an Absolute One without limits, one Whose fixed Attributes absorb all the supreme ideals of man, His vice-regent on earth, of comprehension and knowledge, ability and strength, justice and wealth.

This means that the path leading to Him is without a limit; hence, moving towards Him requires the continuity and relative movement and a relative acceleration of the limited (man) towards the Absolute One (God) without a stop.

يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنْسَانُ إِنَّكَ كَادِحٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَدْحًا فَمُلَاقِيهِ

O thou man! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord— painfully toiling, but thou shalt meet Him ... (Qur'an, 84:6)

He grants this movement His own supreme ideals derived from comprehension, knowledge, ability and justice, as well as other qualities of that Absolute One towards Whom the march is directed. The march towards the Absolute One is all knowledge, all potential, all justice and all wealth. In other words, the human march is a continuously successive struggle against all sorts of ignorance, incapacitation, oppression and poverty.

As long as these are the very goals of the march related to this Absolute One, they are, then, not merely a dedication to God but also a continuous struggle for the sake of man, for his dignity, for achieving such supreme ideals for him:

وَمَنْ جَاهَدَ فَإِنَّمَا يُجَاهِدُ لِنَفْسِهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَغَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ

And if any [folks] strive (with might and means), they do so for (the good of) their own souls: for God is free of all needs from all creation (Qur'an. 29:6)

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ لِلنَّاسِ بِالْحَقِّ ۖ فَمَنِ اهْتَدَىٰ فَلِنَفْسِهِ ۖ وَمَنْ ضَلَّ فَإِنَّمَا يَضِلُّ عَلَيْهَا ۖ وَمَا أَنْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِوَكِيلٍ

He, then, that receives guidance benefits his own soul: but he that strays injures his own soul. Nor art thou set over them to dispose of their affairs (Qur'an, 39:41)

On the contrary, whimsical absolutes and false gods cannot absorb the march with all its aspirations, for these manufactured absolutes are the children of an incapable man's brain, or the need of the poor man, or the oppression of the oppressor; therefore they all are linked to ignorance, incapacity and oppression. They can never bless man's continuous struggle against them.

Second: Being linked to God Almighty as the Absolute One Who absorbs all of the aspirations of the human march means, at the same time, rejecting all of those whimsical absolutes which used to create an excessive entity. It also means waging a continuous war and an endless struggle against all sorts of idolatry and artificial worship. Thus, man will be emancipated from the mirage of these false absolutes which stood as an obstacle in his path towards God, falsifying his goal and encircling his march:

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيعَةٍ يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآنُ مَاءً حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا وَوَجَدَ اللَّهَ عِنْدَهُ فَوَفَّاهُ حِسَابَهُ

As fort the unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts which one parched with thirst mistakes for water, until, when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing: but he finds God (ever) with him (Qur'an, 24:39)

يَا صَاحِبَيِ السِّجْنِ أَأَرْبَابٌ مُتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّار ُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ إِلَّا أَسْمَاءً سَمَّيْتُمُوهَا أَنْتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُمْ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ ۚ إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ ۚ أَمَرَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ۔

Are many lords (gods) differing among themselves better, or the One God, Supreme and Irresistible? If not Him, you worship nothing but names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which God has sent down no authority (Qur'an, 12: 39-40).

ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ مَا يَمْلِكُونَ مِنْ قِطْمِيرٍ.

Such is God your Lord: to Him belongs all Dominion. And those whom you invoke besides Him have not the least power (Qur'an, 35:13).

If we consider the main slogan God put forth in this respect: "There is no god but Allah," we will find out that it links the human march to the True Absolute One with the rejection of every artificial absolute. The history of the march, in its living reality, came across the ages to emphasize the organic link between this rejection and that strong and aware tie to God Almighty.

For as far as he goes away from the True God, man sinks into the quagmire of different gods and lords. Both rejection and the positive link to "There is no god but Allah" are but two faces for one fact: the fact which is indispensable to the human march along its lengthy path. It is but the Truth which is worthy of saving the march from loss, helping it exploiting all its creative energies, emancipating it from each and every false and obstructing absolute.

Rituals are Practical Expressions

Just as man was born carrying within him all potentials for the experience on life's stage, plus all seeds of its success, such as awareness, activity and conditioning, so was he born tied by nature to the Absolute One. This is so because his relationship with the Absolute One is one of the requirements of his own success whereby he overcomes the problems facing his civilized march, as we have already seen, and there is no experience more sustaining and inclusive, more meaningful, than this of Faith in man's life.

It has been a phenomenon attached to man since time immemorial. During all stages of history, such a social and continuous attachment proves, through experience, that escaping towards the Absolute One, aspiring towards Him from beyond scopes lived by man, is a genuine inclination of man no matter how diversified the shapes of such inclination are, how different its methods and degrees of awareness.

But Faith, as an instinct, is not enough to guarantee bringing to reality an attachment, connection, to the Absolute One in its correct form, for that is linked to the Truth through the method of satisfying such an instinct. The correct behaviour in satisfying it in a manner parallel to all other instincts and inclinations, being in harmony with it, is the only guarantee of the ultimate benefit of man.

Also, the behaviour according to or against an instinct is the one that fosters the instinct, deepens, eliminates or suffocates it. So do the seeds of mercy and compassion die within man's self, through the continuous and practical sympathizing with the miserable, the wronged, and the poor.

From this point, faith in God, the deep feeling of aspiring towards the unknown and the attachment to the Absolute One have all to have some direction which determines the manner of satisfying such feeling and the way to deepen it, fixing it in a way compatible with all other genuine feelings of man.

Without a direction, such feeling may have a setback and may be afflicted with various sorts of deviation, just like what happened to the strayed religious sentiment during most epochs of history. Without a deepened conduct, such feeling may become minimized, and the attachment to the Absolute One ceases to be an active reality in man's life, one capable of exploiting good energies.

The religion which laid the slogan of "There is not god but Allah," promulgating with it both rejection and affirmation, is the director. Rituals are factors which perform the role of deepening such feeling, for they are but a practical expression and a manifestation of the religious instinct; through it this instinct grows and gets deepened in man's life.

We also notice that in accurate rituals, being a practical expression of the link to the Absolute One, both affirmation and rejection promulgate. They are, thus, a continuous confirmation from man to his link with God Almighty and the rejection of any other "absolute" of those false ones. When one starts his prayers by declaring that "God is Great" (Allahu Akbar), he confirms this rejection.

And when he declares that God's Prophet is also His Servant-Slave and Messenger, he confirms this rejection. And when he abstains from enjoying the pleasures of life, abstaining from enjoying even the necessities of life for the sake of God (when he, for e.g., fasts), defying the temptations and their effects, he, too, confirms this rejection.

These rituals have succeeded in the practical sphere of bringing up generations of believers, at the hands of the Prophet (ص) and his succeeding pious leaders, those whose prayers embodied within their own selves the rejection of all evil powers and their subjugation, enslavement, and the "absolutes" of Kisra [Khosroe] and Caesar got minimized before their march as did all "absolutes" of man's whims.

In this light do we come to know that worship is a fixed necessity in man's life and civilized march, for there can be no march without an "absolute" to whom it is linked, deriving from him its ideals. And there is no "absolute" that can absorb the march along its lengthy path except the True Absolute One (God), the Glorified One.

Besides Him, artificial "absolutes" definitely form, in one way or another, an absolute which curbs the march's growth. Attachment to the True Absolute One, then, is a fixed need. And there can be no attachment to the True Absolute One without a practical expression of this attachment, confirming it and continuously fixing it. Such a practical expression is none but worship. Therefore, worship is a fixed need.

Subjectivity of Purpose and Self-Denial

In each stage of the human civilization, and in each period of man's life, people face numerous interests whose achievement requires a quantitative action to some degree. No matter how diversified the qualities of these interests are, or the manner of bringing them to life from one age to another is, they can still be divided into two types of interests:

One: interests the materialistic gains and outcomes of which go to the individual himself, on whose work and endeavour depends the achievement of that interest;

Two: interests the gain of which goes to those other than the direct worker or group to which he belongs. In this second type are included all sorts of labour which aim at an even bigger goal than the existence of the worker himself, for every big goal cannot be usually achieved except through the collective efforts and endeavours of a long period of time.

The first sort of interests guarantees the inner motive of the individual: its availability and effort to secure it, for as long as the worker is the one who reaps the fruits of the interest and directly enjoys it, it is natural to find in him the effort to secure it and to endeavour for its sake.

As for the second kind of interests, here the motive to secure these interests is not sufficient, for the interests here are not only the active worker's: Often his share of labour and hardship is greater than that of his share of the huge interest. From here, man needs an upbringing of subjectivity of purpose and self-denial in motive, i.e., that he must work for the sake of others, the group.

In other words, he has to work for a purpose greater than his own existence and personal materialistic interest. Such an upbringing is necessary for the man of the electricity and atom age as it equally is for the man who used to fight with the sword and travel on camel-back. They both confront the worries of construction and of the great aims and situations which demand self-denial and working for the sake of others, sowing the seeds the fruits of which may not be seen by the person who sowed them.

It is necessary, then, to raise every individual to perform a portion of this labour and effort not merely for his own self and personal materialistic interests, so that he will be capable of contributing with self-denial, of aiming at a purely "objective" goal.

Rituals perform a large role in this upbringing. These, as we have already seen, are acts of man performed for the sake of achieving the pleasure of Almighty God. Therefore, they are invalid if the worshipper performs them just for his own personal benefit. They are improper if the purpose behind them is personal glory, public applause, or a dedication for one's own ego, within his circle and environment. In fact, they even become unlawful acts deserving the punishment of the worshipper himself!

All this is for the sake of the worshipper who tries, through his worship, to achieve an objective, a purpose, with all what this implies of truthfulness, sincerity; he must totally dedicate his worship to the Almighty God alone. God's Path is purely one of serving all humanity. Each act performed for the sake of God is but an act for the sake of God's servants, for God is totally sufficient, independent of His servants.

Since the True Absolute God is above any limit, specification, not related to any group or biased to any particular direction, His Path, then, practically equates that of all mankind's. To work for God, and for God alone, is to work for people, for the good of all people, all mankind. It is a psychological and spiritual training that never ceases to function.

Whenever the juristic path of God is mentioned, it can be taken to mean exactly all mankind's path. Islam has made God's Path one of the avenues to spend Zakat, meaning thereby: to spend for all humanity's good and benefit. It also urged to fight for the Cause of God in defence of all the weak among humans, calling it Jihad, i.e., "fighting for the Path of God;"

الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ الطَّاغُوتِ فَقَاتِلُوا أَوْلِيَاءَ الشَّيْطَانِ ۖ إِنَّ كَيْدَ الشَّيْطَانِ كَانَ ضَعِيفًا۔

Those who believe (in God) fight in the cause of God, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight against the friends of Satan: Feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan. (Qur'an, 4:76).

Besides, if we come to know that worship demands different types of endeavour, as it sometimes imposes on man only some physical exertion, as in prayer, and sometimes psychological, as in fasting, and other times financial, as in Zakat, and in yet a fourth one an exertion on the level of self-sacrifice or braving danger, as in Jihad.

If we come to know all of this, we will be able to figure the depth and capacity of the spiritual and psychological training practiced by man through different rituals for the objective purpose, for giving and contributing, for working for a higher goal in all different fields of human endeavour.

On this basis can you find the vast difference between a person who grew up on making endeavours to please God, brought up to labour without waiting for a compensation on the working grounds, and one who grew up always measuring a work according to the extent which he can achieve for his own personal benefit, basing it on the gain he gets from it, not comprehending—out of this measuring and estimating—except the language of figures and market prices.

A person like this latter one can be none other than a merchant in his own social practices, regardless of their field or type. Consider upbringing on the objective purpose. Islam has always tied the value of a work to its own motives, separating them from its outcomes. The value of an act in Islam is not in the results and gains it brings forth to the worker or to all people; rather, it is the motives behind it, their purity, objectivity and self-denial.

For example, the person who reaches the discovery of a medicine for a dangerous disease, thus save the lives of millions of patients. God does not evaluate his discovery according to the size of its results and the number of those patients it saves from death; rather He estimates it according to the feelings and desires which formulate within the discoverer the motive to make an effort to make that discovery.

If he did not make his effort except to get a privilege that enables him to sell it and gain millions of dollars, this deed of his is not considered by God to be equal except to any other purely commercial deed. The egoistic logic of self-centered motives, just as they push him to discover a medicine for a chronic disease, may as well push him in the same degree to discover means of destruction if he finds a market that buys them.

A deed is considered to be commendable and virtuous if the motives behind it go beyond the ego: if it is for the sake of God and the servants of God. According to the degrees of self-denial and the participation of God's servant in its making, a deed is elevated and highly evaluated.

The Inner Sense of Responsibility

If we observe humanity in any of its historical periods, we will find it following a particular system of life, a specific manner in distributing rights and responsibilities among people, and that is done according to the amount it acquires of securities for its members to cling to this system and to its implementation, thus it will be closer to stability and the achievement of the general goals expected from that system.

This fact is equally true concerning the future, as well as the past, for it is an established fact of man's civilized march along its lengthy trip. Among the securities is that which is objective, such as penalties enforced by the group to punish the individual who transgresses beyond his limits. And among them is that which is inner, i.e., man's inner sense of responsibility towards his social obligations, towards whatever obligations the group demands of him, determining, spontaneously, his own rights.

In order to be an actual fact in man's life, the inner sense of responsibility needs the belief in an "overseer", "supervisor," from whose knowledge not an atom's weight on earth, beneath it, above it or in the sky escapes, and to a practical application through which such sense grows and according to which the feeling of such an inclusive supervision lays roots.

This "overseer" from whose knowledge not even an atom's weight escapes is created in man's life as a result of his link with the True Absolute One, the all-Knowing, the Omnipotent, the One Whose knowledge encompasses everything. This link with His self-saves man the need for such supervision, thus enabling the creation of an inner sense of responsibility.

The practical application, through which this inner sense of responsibility grows, materializes through practicing rituals: Worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and by this we mean that checking it externally is impossible. Any external measures to enforce it can never be successful, for it stands through the self's own purpose and the spiritual attachment to work for God; this is a matter which cannot be included in the calculation of a subjective supervision from the outside, nor can any legal measure guarantee that either.

Rather, the only capable supervision in this respect is the one resulting from the attachment to the Absolute One, the Unseen, the One from Whose knowledge nothing escapes. The only possible assurance on this level is the inner sense of responsibility. This means that the person who practices worship is performing a duty which differs from any other social obligation or project such as when he borrows and pays back, or when he contracts and adheres to the terms.

When he borrows money from others and he returns it to the creditor, he performs a duty which lies within the range of social supervision's monitoring; hence, his estimation of the predicament of social reaction dictates to him the decision to do so.

The ritual duty towards the Unknown is one whose inner implication none knows except God, the Praised, the Omnipotent, for it is the result of the inner sense of responsibility. Through religious practices, such an inner feeling grows, and man gets used to behaving according to it.

Through the medium of such feeling can we find the good citizen? It is not sufficient for good citizenship that a person is anxious to perform other’s legal rights only because of his apprehension of the social reaction towards him should he be reluctant to do so. Rather, good citizenship is achieved by the man who does not relax his own inner sense of responsibility.

In Islam, we notice that it is often recommended to perform optional rituals privately, rather than publicly. There are even rituals which are secretive by nature such as fasting, for it is an inner curb which cannot be checked externally. There are rituals for which a secretive environment is chosen, avoiding the public stage, such as the nightly Nafl optional prayers the performance of some of which requires after midnight timing [such as salat al-layl, night prayers].

All this is for the sake of deepening the aspect of worshipping the Unseen, linking it more and more to the inner sense of responsibility. Thus, this feeling gets deepened through the practice of rituals, and man gets used to behaving on its basis, forming a strong guarantee for the good individual's performance of his duties and obligations.

A General Look at Rituals

If we cast a general look at the rituals we have observed in this book, comparing them with each other, we can then derive some general impressions about these rituals. Here are some of these general impressions/outlooks.

The Unseen in Explaining Rituals

We came to know previously the important role worship plays in man's life and that it expresses a fixed need along his civilized march.

From another aspect: If we scrutinize and analyse the particulars, the details, in the light of advanced science, we will then be acquainted with the pieces of wisdom and secrets which Islamic jurisprudence expresses in this regard and which modern science has been able to discover.

This wonderful agreement between the outcomes of modern science and many particulars of Islamic jurisprudence, and whatever rules and regulations it decides, expresses an amazing support for the position of this jurisprudence, deeply emphasizing its being God-inspired.

In spite of all of this, however, we quite often face unseen points in worship, i.e., a group of details whose secrets cannot be comprehended by the person practicing worship, nor can he interpret them materialistically; for why must sunset prayer rite be three prostrations while the noon-time prayer is more than that? And why should each rak'a include bowing down once instead of twice, two prostrations instead of one? Other questions of this sort can also be put forth.

We call such an aspect of worship, which cannot be interpreted, "unseen." We find this aspect, in one manner or another, in most rituals brought forth by the Islamic jurisprudence. From here, we can consider obscurity in the meaning we have already mentioned as a general phenomenon in rituals and one of their common characteristics.

This obscurity is linked to the rituals and to their imposed role jointly, for the role of these rituals, as we have already come to know, is to emphasize the attachment, the link, the connection, to the Absolute One and to deepen it practically. The bigger the element of submission and yielding in a worship is, the stronger its effect in deepening the link between the worshipper and his Lord.

If the deed practiced by the worshipper is understood in all its dimensions, if it becomes clear in its wisdom and benefit in all details, the element of submission and yielding gets minimized, and it will be dominated by motives of profit and benefit seeking, no more a worship of God as much as it is a deed of seeking a benefit practiced by the worshipper so that he might derive advantage out of it, profiting by its results.

Just as the spirit of obedience and attachment in the soldier grows, getting deepened through military training, by giving him orders and requiring him to perform them with obedience and without discussion, so does the feeling of the worshipping person grow, getting deepened in its attachment to his Lord through requiring him to practice these rituals in their unseen aspects with submission and surrendering.

Submitting and surrendering require the assumption of the existence of an unseen aspect and the attempt not to question this unseen aspect of worship. Demanding it’s interpretation and limitation of interest means stripping worship of its reality, as a practical expression of submission and obedience, and measuring it by measurements of benefit and profit like any other ordinary deed.

We notice that this obscurity is almost ineffective in rituals representing a great general, public, benefit, one that conflicts with the personal interest of the worshipper, as is the case with Jihad which serves a great public purpose which collides with the desire of the individual performing it to preserve his own life and blood, and also in the case of Zakat which represents a great interest contrasting the strong desire of the person paying it to keep his wealth and money for himself.

The issue of Jihad is very well understood by the person performing it, and the issue of Zakat is generally understood by the person who pays it. Neither Jihad nor Zakat thus loses any element of submission and obedience (to God), for the difficulty of sacrificing life and possession is what makes man's acceptance of a worship, for which he sacrifices both life and possession, is indeed a great deal of submission and obedience.

Add to this the fact that Jihad and Zakat as well as similar rituals are not meant to be merely aspects of upbringing just for the individual, but they also are for the achievement of social benefits which they secure. Accordingly, we observe that obscurity is highlighted more and more in rituals dominated by the educating aspect of the individual, such as prayer and fasting.

Thus do we derive the conclusion that the unseen in worship is strongly linked to its educating role in attaching the individual to his Lord, deepening his relationship with this Lord. When we observe the different Islamic rituals, we find in them an element of inclusion of all different aspects of life.

Rituals have never been limited to specific norms, nor have they been restricted to only needs which embody the manner of glorifying God, the Praised, The High, like bowing, prostrating, praying and invoking; rather, they have been extended to include all aspects of human activity. Jihad, for example, is a rite. It is a social activity.

Zakat is a rite. It, too, is a social activity, a financial one. Fasting is a rite. It is a nutritional system. Both ablution and Ghusul (ceremonial bathing) are norms of worship. They are two ways of cleansing the body. This inclusion of worship expresses a general trend of Islamic upbringing aiming at linking man, in all his deeds and activities, to the Almighty God, converting each useful deed into an act of worship, no matter in what field or type.

In order to find a fixed basis for this trend, fixed rituals were distributed to the different fields of human activity, preparing man to train himself on pouring the spirit of worship over all his good activities, and the spirit of the mosque over all places of his actions: in the field, factory, shop or office, as long as his deed is a good one, for the sake of God, the Glorified, the Sublime.

In this respect, Islamic jurisprudence differs from two other religious trends: One is a trend to separate worship from life, and the other is a trend to limit life to a narrow frame of worship as do monks and mystics.

As for the first trend, it separates worship from life, leaving worship to be conducted at places made especially for it. It requires man to be present in these places in order to pay God His dues and worship Him, so much so that when he gets out of them to different aspects of life, he bids worship farewell, giving himself up to the affairs of his life until he goes back again to those holy places. From here came Islamic jurisprudence to distribute the rituals on the different aspects of life, urging the practice of rituals in every good deed.

It explains to man that the difference between the mosque, which is God's house, and man's home is not in the quality of building or label; rather, the mosque has deserved to be God's house because it is the yard whereupon man practices a deed that goes beyond his ego and from which he aims at a bigger goal than that dictated by the logic of limited materialistic gains, and that this yard ought to extend to include all life's stages.

Each yard, whereupon man does a deed that goes beyond his self, his ego, aiming thereby to achieve the pleasure of God and to please all people, does, indeed, carry the mosque's spirit. As for the second trend, which restricts life in a narrow frame of worship, it tries to confine man to the mosque instead of extending the meaning of the mosque to include all yards which witness a good deed of man.

This trend believes that man lives an inner conflict between his soul and body, and that he cannot accomplish one of these two, the duality of worship and the different activities of life, for they paralyze worship itself, obstructing its constructive upbringing role in developing man's motives and in achieving the objective, enabling him to go beyond his ego and narrow personal interests in various scopes of his deeds.

God, the Glorified and Praised One, never insisted on being worshipped for the sake of His own Person, since He is independent of His worshippers, so that He would be satisfied with a worship of this sort, nor did He ever put Himself as the goal and objective of the human march, so that man may bow his head down to Him within the scope of his worship, and that is it!

Rather, He meant such worship to build the good person who is capable of going beyond his ego, participating in a bigger role in the march. The exemplary achievement of this goal cannot be reached except when the spirit of worship gradually extends to other activities of life, for its extension—as we have already seen—means an extension of objectivity of purpose and the inner feeling of responsible behaviour, the ability to go beyond the self, to be in harmony with man within this inclusive cosmic frame, with eternity, immortality that both encompass him.

This is to be done unless it is at the cost of the other [the interest of the worshipper himself]. Therefore, in order for him to spiritually grow and to be elevated, he has to deprive his body from the good things, to shrink his presence on life's stage to continuously combat his desires and aspirations in different aspects of life, until he finally achieves victory over all of them through long abstention and deprivation as well as the practice of certain rituals.

Islamic jurisprudence rejects this trend, too, because it wants rituals for the sake of life. Life cannot be confiscated for the sake of rituals. At the same time, it tries hard to ensure that a good man pours the spirit of worship over all of his norms of behaviour and activity. This must not be taken to imply that he has to stop his different activities in life and confine himself to the altar's walls; rather, it means that he converts all his activities into rituals.

The mosque is only a base from which a good man sets to conduct his daily behaviour, but it is not limited to that behaviour alone. The Holy Prophet (ص) has said once to Abu Zarr al-Ghifari:

"If you are able to eat and drink for the sake of none save God, then do so!"

Thus, worship serves life. Its upbringing and religious success is determined by its extension, in meaning and in spirit, to all aspects of life.

Worship and the Senses

Man's perception is not merely through his senses, nor is it merely an intellectual and non-material reasoning. It is a mixture of reasoning plus material and non-material feeling.

When worship is required to perform its function in a way with which man interacts perfectly, one which is in harmony with his character, worship becomes comprised of one's mind and senses; worship, then, must contain a sensitive aspect and a non-material intellect, so that it will be compatible with the worshipper's personality, and the worshipper, while performing his worship, thus comes to live his attachment to the Absolute One through all his existence.

From here, the intention, as well as the psychological contention of worship, always represents its intellectual and non-material aspect, for it links the worshipper to the True Absolute One, the Praised, The High. There are other aspects of worship which represent its material aspect:

• The qibla towards the direction of which each worshipper must face while praying;

• The Haram [Ka'ba in Mecca], which is visited by both those who perform the pilgrimage and the Umrah, around which they both perform tawaf;

• The Safa and Marwah, between which he runs; Jamratul Aqabah, at which he casts stones;

• The Mosque, which is a place specifically made for worship, one in which the worshipper practices his worship.

All these are things related to the senses and tied to worship: There is no prayer without a qibla, nor tawaf without a Haram, and so on, for the sake of satisfying the part related to the senses in the worshipper and giving it its right and share of worship.

This is the midway direction in organizing worship and coining it according to man's instincts as well as particular intellectual and sensual composition.

Two other directions face him: One of them goes to the extreme in bringing man to his senses, if the expression is accurate at all, treating him as if he had been a non-material intellect, opposing all sensual expressions of his within worship's sphere. As long as the True Absolute One, the Praised One, has no limited place or time, nor can He be represented by a statute; then worshipping Him has to stand on such a premise, and in the manner which enables the comparative thinking of man to address the Absolute One Truth.

Such a trend of thinking is not approved by Islamic jurisprudence, for in spite of its concern about the intellectual aspects brought forth by the hadith that says:

"An hour's contemplation is better than a year's adoration,"

it also believes that pious worship, no matter how deep, cannot totally fill man's self or occupy his leisure, nor can it attach him to the Absolute One Truth in all his existence, for man has never been purely a mere intellect.

From this realistic and objective starting point, rituals in Islam have been based on both intellectual and sensuous premises. The person who performs his prayers practices through his intention an intellectual adoration, denying his Lord any limits or measurements, or anything like that.

For when he starts his prayer with "Allaho Akbar!" (God is Great), while taking at the same time the holy Ka'ba as his divine slogan towards which he directs his feelings and movements, he lives worship by intellect and feeling, logic and emotion, non-materialistically as well as intellectually.

The other trend goes to the extreme when it comes to the part relevant to the senses, changing the slogan to an identity and the hint to reality, causing the worship of the symbol to substitute what the symbol really stands for, and the direction towards it instead of the reality to which it points; thus, the worshipper sinks, in one way or another, into shirk and paganism.

Such a trend totally annihilates the spirit of worship, and it stops its function as a tool linking man and his civilized march to the True Absolute One, converting it into a tool for linking him to false absolutes, to symbols which changed—through false intellectual stripping of the matter—to an absolute. Thus, false worship becomes a veil between man and his Lord, instead of a link between both of them.

Islam has rejected such a trend because Islam indicted paganism in all its forms, smashing its idols and putting an end to all false gods, refusing to take any limited object as a symbol for the Truly Absolute One, God, the Glorified, or as a personification of Him.

Yet it deeply distinguished between the meaning of the idol which it crushed and that of the Qibla it brought forth the meaning of which conveys nothing more than a particular geographic spot which happens to have been divinely favoured through linking it to prayers for the sake of satisfying the worshipper's aspect relevant to the senses.

Paganism is really nothing but a deviated attempt to satisfy such an aspect, and Islamic jurisprudence has been able to correct it, providing a straight path in harmonizing between the worship of God, as being dealing with the Absolute One Who has neither limit nor personification, and the need of man who is composed of feeling and intellect to worship God by both of his feeling and intellect.

Conclusion: The Social Aspect of Worship

Essentially, worship represents the relationship between man and his Lord. It provides this relationship with elements of survival and stability. This has been formulated in the Islamic jurisprudence in a way which often made it an instrument for the relationship between man and his brother man, and this is what we call the social aspect of worship.

Some rituals, by nature, force segregation and the establishment of social relations among those who practice that ritual. For example, Jihad requires those worshippers fighting for God to establish among themselves such relations as would naturally happen among the corps of a fighting army.

There are other rituals which do not necessarily impose congregating, but in spite of this, they are linked, in one way or another, to congregation in order to bring forth a mixture between man's relation with his Lord and his own relationship with his brethren men.

Among prayers' rituals is the congregation, in which the individual's prayer becomes a group's worship, strengthening the ties among the group, deepening the spiritual links among them through their unity in practicing rituals.

The tenet of pilgrimage has definite timings and places, and each participant in it has to practice it within those timings and places; hence, such participation evolves as a great social activity.

Contemporary Man and the Social Problem

The first edition of this text was published by the World Organization for Islamic Services (W.O.F.I.S.) of Tehran, Iran, in 1401/1980, the same year in which the author was martyred, and its second edition was also published by W.O.F.I.S. in 1406/1986. The actual version has been proofread by the translator, Yasin T. al-Jibouri, in 2011.

Publisher's Foreword

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

We express our gratitude to Allah, the most Glorified, the One Who can grant us success in publishing this book, Contemporary Man and the Social Problem ( الإنسان المعاصر و المشكلة الاجتماعية ) which was written by the great scholar, martyr and Islamic thinker, Sayyid Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr and translated by Mr. Yasin T. al-Jibouri. This is his third book after: The Revealer, the Messenger and the Message" (المرسل و الرسول و الرسالة) and A General Outlook at Rites (نظرة عامة في العبادات), the publication and distribution of which has been undertaken by our Organization, W.O.F.I.S.

In the Preface to the translation of The Revealer, The Messenger and The Message, we wrote a biography of the eminent author; and in the foreword to this book, Contemporary Man and the Social Problem, the author himself discusses its subject matter. Therefore, there is no need to repeat what we have written before about the author or what the author himself has written (in his foreword) about this book. It is from Allah, the Almighty that we seek help, and we rely on Him for accomplishment, success and support; surely He is the Lord and the best to help.

Board of Writing, Translation and Publication
World Organization For Islamic Services
Tehran, Iran

Muharram 1, 1400 A. H./November 26, 1979 A. D.

Author's Foreword

Three years ago, we attempted a humble undertaking: studying the deepest bases on which each of Marxism and Islam stands, and the book Our Philosophy فلسفتنا interpreted our attempt. That was a starting point for a successive strain of thought trying to study Islam from base to top.

So was Our Philosophy, then, published to be succeeded, after about two years, by Our Economy اقتصادنا; and the two intellectual brothers (meaning books) are still waiting for other brothers to join, so that the whole intellectual series, which we aspire to present to Muslims, may be completed.

From the very beginning, we noticed that in spite of the unmatchable welcome with which the series was met, so much so that the copies of Our Philosophy were sold out within only few weeks, there is a considerable paradox between the high Muslim intellect and the general intellectual atmosphere in which we nowadays live. It is even very difficult, for many, to live upto this high standard of Muslim intellect without exerting a great deal of hard effort. It was inevitable, then, to initiate successive series of books through which the reader ascends higher steps of Muslim intellectualism that may enable him to appreciate its supreme standard.

Thus emerged the idea of "The Islamic School": an attempt to use a scholastic procedure in introducing the Muslim intellect through successive series parallel to the main series; (i.e., Our Philosophy and Our Economy), sharing its burden of carrying the Muslim intellectual message and agreeing with it in mutual and main purpose, although it differs in degree and level.

As we were contemplating on issuing "The Islamic School", we defined the characteristics of the Muslim intellect composing the general outlook and intellectual taste of the presumed School.

These characteristics may be summed up thus:

1. The direct aim behind establishing "The Islamic School" is to supply conviction, more than innovation; therefore, it derives its intellectual topics from Our Philosophy, Our Economy and their intellectual brothers, displaying them all within a specific scholastic framework, without confining itself to ideas presented for the first time.

2. "The Islamic School" does not always restrict itself to proving the form of any particular idea. Such form here is less clearly highlighted than in Our Philosophy and her sisters—all this is done according to the degree of simplification expected from scholastic series.

3. "The Islamic School" deals with a broader intellectual horizon than that of Our Philosophy and her sisters. It does not only deal with the major aspects of the general Islamic intellect. It deals with the different philosophical, historical or Qur'anic topics which affect the growth of the Islamic awareness, the building and completion of the Muslim character, from both intellectual and spiritual standpoints.

Allah Almighty has decreed that the idea of "The Islamic School" should meet another idea derived from the Introduction to Our Philosophy, and that both ideas get intermingled with each other and see the light in the form of this book.

The other idea came out of the dear readers' persistence that we must reprint Our Philosophy, and to attempt broadening and simplifying the topics in Our Philosophy before we reprint the whole book for the second time, a matter that requires a leisure which I do not have at the present time.

Accordingly, the dear readers' wish started to make a direction towards the Introduction to Our Philosophy itself because reprinting such Introduction would not take as much effort as reprinting the entire book. The influx of requests left no room to suspect the necessity of responding to them.

There did both ideas meet: Why should the Introduction to Our Philosophy not be the first series of "The Islamic School"? And so it was.

But we were not satisfied with printing the Introduction only; we also introduced some significant adjustments, giving some of its concepts a broader explanation, such as the concept of the egotistic instinct. We added to it two important chapters: One is "Contemporary man and his capacity to solve the social problem", which is the first chapter of this book and which deals with the human capacity to establish the social system that guarantees happiness and perfection.

The other chapter is "Islam's standpoint regarding freedom and security". It is the last chapter of this book. In it we attempted a comparative study between the standpoint of each of Islam and capitalism towards freedom, and that of Islam and Marxism towards security.

Thus did the Introduction multiply, taking a new name: Contemporary Man and the Social Problem, as the first series of "The Islamic School"; verily, only Allah grants success.

Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr
Al-Najaf al-Ashraf,
Iraq

Contemporary Man and his Capability to Solve the Social Problem

The Actual Human Problem

The world problem that occupies people's minds now, affecting the heart of their present existence, is the social problem which can be summarized by giving the most frank answer to this question:

What is the system that suits humanity, the one through which humanity achieves a happy social life?

Naturally, this problem occupies a prominent and serious position. In its complexity and diversity of suggested solutions, it poses as a source of danger to humanity itself, for system is included in the calculation of the human life, affecting the core of its social entity. This problem is deeply rooted in the distant epochs of the history of human existence.

Mankind faced it ever since it had sprung up in its social life. The human social entity stemmed from several individuals linked to each other through common bonds and ties. These bonds, naturally, need general directions and organization. Indeed, it is on the extent of the harmony between this system and the existing human reality and its interest that both social stability and happiness depend.

This social problem has pushed humanity, in its intellectual and political arenas, to wage a long battle and engage in a struggle full of different sorts of combat, and by different codes of the human mind, aiming at erecting and engineering the social structure, trying to sketch its plans and lay down its pillars. It was a tiring struggle, crowded with miseries and iniquities, full of laughter and sorrow, one in which happiness was espoused to misery.

All this occurred because of all the different colours of abnormality and deviation that characterized those social systems. Except for glimpses that shone during moments of the history of this planet, the social existence of man would have lived in continuous misery and dived into tumultuous waves.

We do not want to display, now, the rounds of the human struggle in the social field, for we do not want, by making such type of research here, to narrate the history of agonizing humanity, showing the different spheres through which it revolved since time immemorial.

Instead, we want to partake in humanity's present living circumstances and in the rounds it reached, so that we may know the destination that a round is expected to reach, and the natural shore towards which a ship should make its way and dock, so that it may reach peace and goodness, coming back to a stable life of justice and happiness after a long struggle and tiring endeavour, after journeying for so long in different places and directions.

In fact, contemporary man's awareness of today's social problem is stronger than at any past epoch of ancient history. Today, he is more conscious of his relationship to the problem and to its complexity, for modern man has come to realize the fact that the problem is of his own making, and that the social order is not imposed on him from above, the way natural phenomena operate, for these phenomena govern man's relationship to nature.

Man now stands in contrast with ancient man who often used to look at the social order as though it were an order of nature, facing it without choice or power. While he could not develop the law of earth gravitation, by the same token, he could not change his social relations. Naturally, when man starts to believe that those relations are but one aspect of behaviour while man himself chooses without losing his own will within their sphere, the social problem then starts to reflect in him, in man that lives it intellectually, a revolutionary bitterness, instead of the bitterness of yielding

Modern man, on the other hand, started to be contemporary to a tremendous change in man's control over nature, a change that has never been preceded. This growing control, terrifying and gigantic, increases the complexity of the social problem and doubles its dangers, for it opens to mankind new and great avenues of utilization; and it doubles the significance of the social order on which depends the distribution of each individual's share of those tremendous outcomes that nature today bestows on man with generosity.

Man, after all, inherited from his predecessors, along ages, a broader experience, more inclusive and deep, that resulted from the social experiences which ancient man had had, and in their light he studies the social problem.

Humanity and its Treatment of the Problem

Having acquainted ourselves with the essential question humanity faced ever since it practiced its conscious social existence, artistically attempting to answer it along its remote history, we want now to cast a look at what humanity, now and in all other ages, possesses of capacities and essential conditions required for giving an accurate answer to the essential afore-mentioned question, i.e., "What is the system which suits humanity best, the one through which it can achieve happiness in its social life?"

Can humanity provide the answer? And what is the required amount—in its intellectual and spiritual composition—of conditions necessary to succeed in providing the answer? What sort of absurdities’ can guarantee humanity ultimate success in the test and terseness in providing the answer to the question, in the way it chooses to solve the social problem, in reaching the best system that guarantees humanity's happiness, uplifting it to the highest levels?

In a clearer expression: How can contemporary man perceive, say, that democratic capitalism, dictatorship, social proletarianism, etc., is the best system? If humanity perceived this or that, what are the absurdities which guarantee that it is right and correct in its perception?

Even if it secured all of that, will it suffice to perceive the best system, knowing it fully well, to put it to practice in order to solve the social problem on its basis? Or will the implementation of the system depend on other elements which may not be available, in spite of the "knowledge" of its practicality and merit?

The points which we have raised now are related to a large extent to the common concept of society and cosmos; therefore, the method to deal with them differs among scholars, each according to his respective common concepts; so let us start with Marxism.

The windmill (Marxism argues), for example, inspires man to feel that the feudal system is the best system for him. The steam mill that succeeded it teaches man that capitalism is worthier of implementation. Today's electrical and atomic means of production give the society new intellectual concept, believing that the social system is the fittest Marxism sees man as being spiritually and intellectually conditioned to the method of production and the type of producing powers.

Being independent of these powers, he cannot think in social terms, nor can he know the best system. The producing powers, according to Marxism, dictate to him such knowledge, allowing him to answer the essential question which we laid out in our introduction above, and he, in turn, will recur their echo carefully and faithfully.

Humanity's capacity to conceive the best system, then, is exactly its own capacity to interpret the social outcome of all producing powers, returning their echo. As for the old conventional conception, it is now wrong, since a more modern social conception has been invented

What assures the Soviet man that his viewpoint is accurate is the belief that such view represents the new aspect of the social awareness, expressing a new stage of history; so, it has to be correct, unlike old viewpoints

It is true, though, that some social views may seem to be new—in spite of their falsehood—such as the Nazi view in the first half of this century, as it seemed as if it were expressing a new development in history But how fast are such veiled views uncovered, proving through experience that they are nothing but an echo to the old views, an interpretation of worn-out historical stages, not new views per se.

Thus does Marxism assert: the "modernity" of the social view, i.e., its birth as the outcome of newly-formulated historical circumstances, is the guarantor of its accuracy as long as history is in escalating advancement

There is something else, and that is: Today, for example, humanity's perception of the social system, as being the fittest, is insufficient, according to Marxism, to put it to practice unless and until the class that benefits from it more than others (this, according to this example, is the proletariat) is violent, a class struggle will take place against the class that benefits from keeping the old system.

This mad struggle interacts with the concept of the fittest system; hence, such struggle will get fiercer as long as that concept grows and becomes clearer and, in its turn, it deepens the concept, helping it grow as it gets more strong and prevalent This Marxist viewpoint is based on the materialistic historical ideals which are criticized in our broad study of economic Marxism1

What we add here is that history itself proves that the social ideals concerning identifying the type of systems that are the fittest are not created by the producing powers; rather, man has his own originality and creativity in this sphere, independently of the means of production.

Otherwise, how can Marxism explain to us the ideas of nationalization, socialism and state ownership during distant and separate periods of history? If the belief in the idea of nationalization—as the fittest system, according to the Soviet man nowadays—is the result of the sort of today's producing powers, what is the meaning of the appearance of the same idea in remote times when these producing powers were non-existent?

Did not Plato believe in communism, imagining his ideal city on a communist model? Was his conception the outcome of modern means of production which the Greeks never possessed? What can I say? But the social ideas two thousand years ago reached a stage of maturity and depth in the minds of some great political thinkers to a degree which paved for them the way of their implementation just as does the Soviet man nowadays, with only few adjustments.

This is Woo-Di, the greatest of China's emperors from the Han dynasty, believed, out of knowledge and experience, in the social system as being the fittest. He put it to practice during the period from 140 - 87 B.C., making all natural resources the property of the nation and nationalizing the industries of salt extraction, iron mining and wine-making. He wanted to put an end to the authority of commissioners and commercial competitors.

He established a special system for transportation and exchange under the auspices of the state, trying thereby to control trade in order to be able to avoid sudden price fluctuations. The state workers themselves used to undertake carrying and delivering goods to the respective owners throughout the country, and the government itself used to stock whatever items were left of the nation's need, selling them when their prices rose above the necessary limit and buying them back when their prices fell.

He set to establish great common institutions to create jobs for the millions of those who could not be absorbed by the private industries. Also, in the beginning of the Christian era, Wang Mang ascended the throne and became enthusiastic about the idea of emancipating slaves and putting an end to both slavery and feudalism, just like what the Europeans believed in doing at the beginning of the capitalist era.

He abolished slavery, took the lands from the feudal class, nationalized arable lands and distributed them among the peasants, forbade buying or selling lands in order to avoid repossession. And he nationalized mines and some other major industries, too. So, could Woo-Di or Wang Mang have derived their social inspiration and political policies from steam power, electricity or the atom, the energies which Marxism considers to be the bases of social thinking?

So do we derive this conclusion: Perceiving this system or that—as being the fittest—is not the making of this producing power or that? Also, the advancing movement of history—the one through which Marxism proves that the "modernity" of thinking guarantees its accuracy—is nothing but another myth of history, for certainly reactionary and melting trends of civilization are numerous indeed.

As for non-Marxist thinkers, these decide that man's ability to conceive the fittest system grows with him from the many social experiences through which he lives. Therefore, when social man puts to practice a specific social system, embodying it within his own living experience, he can notice from his experience of that system the faults and weak points that hide within the system, for these will be eventually discovered, enabling man to conceive a more terse and informed social system.

Thus, man will be enabled to conceive the fittest system, putting his answer to the essential question in the light of his experience and knowledge. The more complete and numerous the experiments or systems he tries are, the more knowledge and terseness he achieves, becoming more capable of defining the fittest system and determining its dimensions.

Our main question: "What is the fittest social system?" is but another way of asking: "What is the best method of home-heating?" This question faced man ever since he felt cold for the first time inside his cave or hideout; so, he engaged himself in thinking of an answer to it, until he was led, through his observations and numerous experiences, to a way to make a fire. Then he persistently struggled to find a better answer to the question across his prolonged experiences, until he finally discovered electricity for heating.

So was the case with thousands of other problems which he faced throughout his life. He found the way to solve those problems through experience, and his perception increased in exactness as his experiments increased in number. Among such problems are: the problem of getting the best medicine for tuberculosis, the easiest method for oil drilling, the fastest means for transportation and travel, or the best method for wool-weaving, etc.

Just as man has been able to solve all of these problems, providing answers for all of those questions through experience, so can man answer the question of "What is the fittest social system?" from his social experiences that disclose both advantages and disadvantages of the particular system scrutinized, pointing out the reactions to it on the social level

The Difference between a Natural Experiment and a Social Experience

This is accurate to a certain degree: The social experience allows man to provide the answer to this question: "What is the fittest (social) system?" just as natural experiments enabled him to answer several other questions which encompassed his life ever since it had begun.

But we have to differentiate—if we want to study this issue deeper—between the social experiences that formulate man's perception of the fittest system and the natural experiments from which man acquires his knowledge of nature's secrets and laws and the methods to benefit from them, to find out, for example, the best medicine, the fastest means of travel, the best method for weaving, the easiest method for oil-drilling, or even the best way to divide the atom.

For the social experiences—social man's trials of different social systems—do not really reach, in their intellectual output, the same degree like that of natural experiments, i.e., man's experiments of the natural phenomena, for these indeed differ from the first in many points. Such a difference leads to man's varying ability to benefit from both natural and social experiments.

So, while man is capable of comprehending the secrets of natural phenomena, ascending to the peak of perfection as time passes by, due to his natural and scientific experiments, well, he really cannot help taking a slow pace in his attempt to comprehend the fittest social system, without ever being able to achieve absolute perfection in his social thinking, no matter how diversified and numerous his social experiences may be.

It is mandatory on us, in order to know all of this, to study these significant differences between the nature of a social experience and a natural one, so that we may be able to reach the fact we have already decided, that is, the natural experiment may be able to grant mankind, across ages a complete image of nature to be used to utilize the natural phenomena and laws. As for the social experience, this cannot guarantee mankind to discover such a complete ideology concerning the social issue.

The most significant of these differences may be summarized thus:

First: The natural experiment can be initiated and practiced by one individual, comprehending it through noticing and observing, directly studying all what may be disclosed of its facts and shortcomings and coming to a specific idea hinging on that experiment.

As for the social experience, it is but the embodiment of an already practiced and implemented system. The experience of the feudal or capitalist system, for example, means the society's implementation of this system during a period of its history; hence, such an experience cannot be done or absorbed by just one person.

Rather, the entire community implements the social experience, consuming a life-span of the community's age far wider than does this individual or that. When one wants to benefit from a certain social experience, he cannot be contemporary to all of its events, just like being contemporary to an actual natural experiment while implementing it; rather, he can be contemporary to one side of its events, necessarily depending on his assumption, derivation and (knowledge of) history while scrutinizing all the aspects and consequences of the experience.

Second: The thinking crystallized by a natural experiment is much more subjective and accurate than that derived by man from a social experience.

This is a most essentially significant point which forbids the social experience from reaching the level of a natural and scientific point; therefore, it has to be thoroughly clarified.

In the natural experiment, the interest of the person performing it is tied to his discovery of the truth, the complete honest truth, without covering anything up, and he most often does not have the least interest in falsifying the truth or discomposing its features, an action which will eventually be found out through experiment.

If he, for example, wants to examine the effects of a certain chemical on tuberculosis germs, while putting it in those germs' environment, he will not then be concerned except about knowing its degree of effect, albeit if it is high or low, and he will not benefit in treating tuberculosis from falsifying the truth, over-estimating or under-estimating such an effect. Accordingly, the trend of the mind of the person that experiments the method will naturally be directed towards subjectivity and accuracy.

As for the social experience, the interest of the person performing such an experiment does not always stop at his finding out the truth, discovering the fittest social system for all mankind; but it may even be to his own personal advantage to conceal the truth from the eyes of the beholders

The person whose interest hinges on the capitalist system and on monopoly or on the banking interest system, for example, will find out that his benefit lies in the truth which emphasizes that the system of capitalism, monopoly and bank interest is the most suitable one, so that the profits such system brings him will continue.

He, therefore, is not being naturally subjective, as long as his personal impulse urges him to discover the truth in the colour which agrees with his own personal interests. So is the case with the other person whose personal interest conflicts with interest rates or monopoly; nothing concerns him more than truth convicting the interest and monopoly systems.

When such a person seeks the answer to the social question of "What is the most suitable (social) system?” out of his own social research, he always is pushed by an internal power that favours a specific viewpoint. In other words, by no means is he a neutral person per se. And so do we come to know that man's thinking of the social problem cannot usually guarantee subjectivity and selflessness to the degree that ensures the accuracy of man's thinking while treating a natural experiment or dealing with a cosmic question.

Third: Suppose someone has been able to free himself intellectually from his self-impulses, reasoning with subjectivity, finding out the fact that this system or that is the most suitable for all humanity, well, who can guarantee this person's concern about all humanity's interest if such interest does not agree with his own? Who is going to guarantee this person's effort to put the most suitable social system for humanity to practice if it does conflict with this person's own interest?

Is it sufficient reason, for example, for the capitalists who believe that Socialism is a more fitting social system (than Capitalism) to go ahead and implement it even though it does conflict with their own interests?

Is it sufficient that the belief of contemporary man (the man of Western civilization)—in the light of the experiences which he has lived—indecency and permissiveness, is his belief in what all these relationships include of moral dangers, decay and disintegration, on man's tomorrow and future, causes him to rush to develop such relationships in the method which guarantees humanity's future, protecting it from sexual and instinctive disintegration, as long as he does not feel any contemporary danger to the present in which he lives, and as long as such relationships do, indeed, provide him with a plenitude of pleasure and fun?

We, then, in the light of all of this, do feel in need not only for finding out the most suitable system for all humanity, but also in need for an impulse that makes us concerned about the interest of mankind as a whole, trying to bring such system to reality, even when it conflicts with that portion (of society) we represent out of the whole.

Fourth: The system that social man establishes, the one in the practicality and efficiency of which he believes, cannot be qualified to bring this man up, i.e., uplift him in the human sphere to wider horizons because the system which social man makes always reflects its maker's present circumstance, his spiritual and psychological status.

So, if the society enjoys a low degree of strength and solidarity of self-will, it indeed has never been capable of growing this will up—by establishing a firm social system which nurtures self-will and firms solidarity. For so long as it does not possess a solid will, it then is incapable of discovering such a system and of implementing it; rather, it establishes the system that reflects its disintegration and melting self-will.

Otherwise, can we expect a society which does not possess its self-will to oppose the temptation of wine drinking, for example, without enjoying a will uplifting it above such a cheap desire like this? Can we expect such a society to execute a firm system that bans similar cheap desires, nurturing man's self-will, restoring to him his freedom, emancipating him from the slavery of desire and temptation? Of course not!

We do not expect firmness from a disintegrating society, even when such a society realizes the danger of disintegration and of its consequences. Nor do we expect the society which is enslaved by the desire of wine drinking to free itself from such desires on its own free will, no matter how aware of wine's effects such a society may be.

For awareness is deepened and focussed by the society if it continues disintegrating itself and satisfying its desires; and the more it continues to do so, the more it becomes incapable of treating the situation and uplifting its humanity to higher degrees. This is the reason that caused man-made civilizations to be incapable of establishing a system which makes man oppose his slavery to his own desires, uplifting him to a higher human level.

Even the United States, which best expresses the greatest of man-made civilizations, has failed to enforce the law that forbids drinking, for it is self-contradictory to expect a society, which gave up itself to its own desires and to their enslavement, to institute laws that uplift it from the pitfall in which it has willingly chosen to throw itself.

But we do find the Islamic system—which is brought by Divine Revelation (contrarily to man-made systems)—capable of nurturing humanity, in the system's own way, uplifting it to high pinnacles, banning wines and other evil desires, creating in man a conscious and firm self-will.

***

What remains for us—after having explained a portion of the essential differences between the social experience performed by the entire society and the natural experiment performed by the individual himself—is to raise the last question in treating the problem under discussion (the problem of the extent of mankind's capacity in the field of social organization and in selecting the most suitable social system), and the question is: "What is the scientific value of organizing the group's life, laying the grounds for social living and of the social system on scientific bases derived from natural experiments which are as exact as the experiments performed in the spheres of physics and chemistry, getting rid of all the weak points we studied while dealing with the nature of the social experience?"

In other words: Is it possible—while organizing social life and getting acquainted with the most suitable social system—to leave aside humanity's history, by passing the experiences human societies performed across ages, those experiences towards which we have nothing to do but glance from a distance, hiding behind curtains of time that separate us from them, can we lay aside all this by building our social life in the light of scientific experiments which we ourselves live and practice on this individual or that, so that we may get to know the most suitable social system?

Some optimists may tend to answer this question in the affirmative, considering what the Western man enjoys today of tremendous potentials; for is it not that the social system is the one that guarantees satisfying man's needs in the best possible way? Is it not that man's needs are realistic matter of fact things that can be scientifically measured and tested like all other natural phenomena? Is it not that the methods of satisfying these needs mean limited measures scientific logic is capable of measuring and subjecting to tests, studying their effects to satisfy the needs and the results which they bring about? So; why can the social system not be laid on bases of such experiments?

Why can we not find out, through experiment on one person or many persons, the sum of natural, physiological and psychological effects which play a role in activating individuals’ intellectual gifts, broadening their intelligence, so that if we want to organize our social life in a way that guarantees broadening the mental and intellectual gifts, we make sure that all such effects will be present in a multitude in the system for all individuals?

Some amateurs may imagine more than this, reasoning thus: "This is not only possible, it also is what modern Europe actually did in its Western civilization after discarding religion, ethics and all intellectual and social axioms, directing itself in building its life towards science, hence, jumping in its modern historical procedure, opening the gates of heavens and possessing the treasures of earth.”

But before we answer the question we have raised above (i.e., our inquiry about the extent of the possibility of laying the grounds of social life on a scientific experimental basis), we have to discuss this latest image of Western civilization and this superficial trend of believing that the social system, which represents the essential facet of this civilization under discussion, is the product of its scientific element.

The fact is this: The social system in which Europe believed, the social principles it called for and in which it believed, did not really result from an experimental scientific study; rather, it was more theoretical than experimental, more of philosophical principles than experimented scientific ideas, the result of a mental understanding and the belief in limited intellectual principles more than a result of a derivative reasoning or an experimental research in man's needs, his psychological, physiological and natural characteristics.

One who studies modern European Renaissance—so-called by the European history—with understanding, he will certainly be able to comprehend that the general trend of the Renaissance in the spheres of the substance did indeed differ from its general trend in both social and organizational spheres. In the sphere of substance it was scientific, for its ideas about the world of substance were indeed based on observation and experiment. Its ideas about the composition of water and air, about the law of gravitation or atom-dividing, were all scientific ideas derived from observation and experiment.

As in the social field, the modern Western mind was based on theoretical, rather than scientific, ideas. For example, it calls for human rights declared in its social revolution, and it is quite obvious that the idea of right is not scientific, for man's right of freedom, for example, is not a substance capable of measurement and experiment, so, it is out of the reach of scientific research; rather, need itself is the substantial phenomenon which can be scientifically studied.

If we observe the principle of equality among all members of the society—this principle is regarded theoretically as one of the basic requirements of modern social life—we will find out that this principle was not derived scientifically from closer observation, for people are not equal in the scientific criteria except in their general human quality. After that, they all differ in their natural, physiological, psychological and intellectual qualities. The principle of (social) equity expresses an ethical value which is mental, rather than experimental, conclusion.

So, do we clearly distinguish between the stamp of the social system in modern Western civilization and the scientific one? And so do we realize that the scientific trend of thinking in which modern Europe excelled did not include the field of social principle in the spheres of politics, economy and sociology.

By this we declare only the truth, and we do not want to blame Western civilization for its negligence of the value of scientific knowledge, in the field of social organization, or for not building such system on the bases of natural scientific experiments, for indeed such scientific experiments can never be suitable as bases for social organization.

It is true, though, that man's needs can be subjected to experiment on many occasions, and also the methods of satisfying these needs. But the basic problem in social organization is not to satisfy the needs of this individual or that; rather, it is to create a fair equilibrium among the needs of all individuals, and to define their interrelations within the framework which allows them to satisfy these needs.

Obviously, the scientific experiment on this individual and that does not allow discovering such a framework, the nature of such relationships and the method of finding out such equilibrium. Instead, all this can be found out during the whole society's implementation of a (particular) social system, for all the points of weakness and strength in the system will eventually be discovered.

Accordingly, what must be followed in order to find the needed fair equilibrium, which guarantees the happiness of all, will also be discovered. Add to this the fact that the same needs, or their consequences, cannot be discovered in one scientific experiment.

Take this example: The person who gets used to committing adultery, as a happy person, you may not be able to discover what he really lacks or what grieves him, but you will possibly find out that the society that lived, as did this same person, a large span of its lifetime allowing itself to follow its sexual desires, you may find it after a period of its social experience falling down, its spiritual entity cracked, its moral courage, free-will and intellectual spark all gone.

So, not all the results which have to be known, while establishing the most suitable social system, can be discovered in a scientific experiment which we perform inside natural and physiological laboratories, or even inside psychological laboratories on this person or that. Rather, their discovery depends on long-term social experiences.

After this, using a natural scientific experiment in the field of social organization is sure to be motivated by the same personal inclination which threatens our use of social experiences. For as long as the individual has his own personal interests—that may or may not agree with the fact decided by the experience—, the possibility will always be there that this individual's mind is self-motivated, losing the subjectivity which characterizes scientific ideas, in all other areas as well.

***

Now, having come to know man's capacity to solve the social problem and answer its essential question, we exhibit the social doctrines which occupy humanity's mind nowadays, among which an intellectual or political combat is going on, according to the extent of their social existence in man's life. These doctrines are four:

1. The Democratic System

2. The Social System

3. The Communist System

4. The Islamic System

The first three of these doctrines represent three human viewpoints that attempt to answer the essential question: "What is the most suitable (social) system?" They are answers which mankind put for this question, according to his potentials and limited capacity the extent of which we have explained a short while ago.

As for the Islamic System, it offers itself on the social level as a religion based on Divine Revelation and Endowment, not an experimental ideology stemming out of mankind's capacity and potentials.

The world today is sharing two of these four systems: the democratic capitalist system is the basis of government in a large portion of the globe, while the socialist system is prevalent in another large portion. Each of these systems possesses a great political structure, protecting it in its struggle with the other, arming it in its gigantic battle waged by its heroes for leading the world and uniting the social system in it.

As for the communist and Islamic systems, their actual existence is purely intellectual. The Islamic system, however, went through one of the most glorious and successful experiences of all social systems, then tempests blew on it when the field was—or was almost—empty of principled leaders.

Hence, the experience remained at the mercy of people in whose hearts Islam had not yet matured, nor were their souls filled by its spirit and essence. Consequently; these souls were incapable of resisting and withstanding. So; the Islamic structure crumbled, and the Islamic system lingered as an idea in the mind of the Muslim nation, a creed in Muslim’s heart, and hope which its striving sons try to bring to reality.

As for the communist system, it still is an experience which has not been fully tried; yet, the leadership of the social camp is directing its mind nowadays towards preparing a social environment for it, having failed to put it into practice when it took the reins of government in its hands and declared the implementation of the social system, practising it as a step towards "true communism".

So, what is our position as Muslims vis-à-vis these systems? And what is our case for which we have to dedicate our lives and towards whose shore we have to lead our ship?

- 1. Refer to Iqtisaduna (Our Economy), pp. 3-196.

Capitalist Democracy

So let us start with the capitalist democratic system, the system which cast a sort of injustice in the economic life, a dictatorship in the political, a stagnation in the intellectual life of the church and whatever is related to it, preparing the reins of government and influence to a new ruling group which substituted its predecessors yet played their very social role only in a new manner.

Capitalist democracy has been based on a limitless belief in the individual, and that his personal interests by themselves guarantee, naturally, the society's interest in different fields, and that the idea of government is but for the protection of individuals and their personal interests; therefore, the government must not go beyond this objective in its activities and actual scopes.

Capitalist democracy may be summarized by declaring the four norms of freedom: political, economic, intellectual and individual. Political freedom allows every individual's speech to be heard and opinion to be respected in determining the nation's general well-being, planning, construction and appointing the authorities for its protection.

For the nation's general system and ruling organ are a matter directly linked to the life of each of its individuals, affectively touching one’s happiness or misery; so, it is natural, then, that each individual has the right to participate in and build both system and organ.

Had the social issue been as we said before, a matter of life or death, happiness or misery of the natives on whom general laws and regulations are enforced, it equally is natural not to let an individual or group, whatever the circumstances may be, take its responsibility as long as there is no individual whose purity of purpose and wisdom of mind rise above inclinations and mistakes.

Therefore, there has to be a complete equity in the political rights of all citizens, for they all are equal in bearing the results of the social issue and obeying the demands of constituting and executing authorities. On this basis stand the right of voting and the principle of general election which guarantee that the ruling organ, in all its authorities and offices, represents the majority of citizens.

Economic freedom hinges on belief in free economy on which the open door policy has been erected, determining to open all doors and prepare all fields before the citizen in the economic field. So, everyone has the right to ownership for the sake of both consumption and production. Such productive ownership, which renders the mass capital without a limit or restriction, is equally allowed for everyone. Each individual, then, possesses an absolute freedom to produce, in any norm or method, accumulate, increase and multiply wealth in the light of his own personal interests and benefits.

According to the allegation of some defenders of this "economic freedom", the laws of political economy, which naturally are based on general principles, can guarantee the society's happiness and keep an economic equilibrium in it, and that the personal interest, which is the strong motive and real goal of the individual in his work and activity, is the best to guarantee the general social interest, and that the competition which takes place in the free market is solely sufficient to create the spirit of justice and equity in different accords and contracts.

The natural laws of economy, for example, interfere in keeping the natural level of price in a manner which can almost be mechanical, for if the price rises above its fair natural limits, demand will decrease, according to the natural law which rules that "The rise of a price causes a decrease in demand", and the decrease in demand causes in turn the lowering of the price, according to another natural law, and it does not leave price until it lowers it to its previous level, thereby removing exceptions.

The personal interest always imposes on the individual to think of the way to increase and improve production, while decreasing its expense and cost. This (according to the same theory) brings forth the society's interest at the same time when it is regarded as a private issue which also concerns the individual.

Competition naturally demands restricting prices of goods and paying worker’s and labourer’s fair wages without injustice or inequity, for each seller or producer fears raising his prices or the lowering of the wages of his labourers because of the competition of other sellers and producers.

Intellectual freedom means that people must live free in their doctrines and beliefs according to their reasoning or whatever their liking and inclination inspire to them without obstacles from the authority. The government must not rob any individual of this freedom, nor must it forbid him from practising his right in it, the proclamation of his ideals and beliefs, and the defence of his viewpoints and reasoning.

Personal freedom expresses: the emancipation of man in his behaviour from different kinds of pressures and restrictions. Therefore, he possesses his will and (the freedom to) improve it according to his personal desires, regardless of whatever happens as a result of applying such control over his personal conduct of consequences and results, unless they clash with the control of others over their own conduct.

The deadline at which the personal freedom of any individual stops is: others’ freedom. As long as the individual does not harm this latter freedom, there is no problem in conditioning his life in the manner which he/she likes, following different customs, traditions, rituals and rites one finds to be palatable, for this is a private matter which is linked to his/her existence, whether present or future.

As long as he possesses such existence, he is capable of faring with it however he pleases. Religious freedom, according to the norm of capitalism it advocates, is but an expression of the individual freedom in its doctrinal aspect and of the personal freedom in the practical aspect which is related to doctrines and conduct.

From this exposition we can reach this summary: The wide intellectual line of such a system, as we hinted to it, is: Society's interests are linked to those of the individual: The individual is the basis on which the social system must be erected. A good government is the apparatus which is utilized for the service and benefit of the individual and the strong instrument to keep and protect his interests.

Such is the capitalist democracy in its basic principles for the sake of which several revolutions broke out and many peoples and nations strove to achieve under the leadership of leaders who, when describing such new system and counting its merits, describe paradise in its blessing and happiness and what it contains of aspiration, bliss, dignity and fortune, and on which several amendments were made, but such amendments never touched its heart's essence; rather, it stayed maintaining the most significant of its principles and bases.

Materialistic Trend in Capitalism

It is obvious that this social system is a purely materialistic one which mankind has followed separately from both his beginning and end, limited to the utilitarian aspect of his materialistic life, placing his assumptions thereupon. But this system, while being saturated with a domineering materialistic outlook, has never been based on a materialistic philosophy of life or a detailed study thereof. Life within the social atmosphere of this system has been separated from every relationship outside the materialistic and utilitarian limits, but there has been no complete philosophical comprehension prepared for the establishment of this system for the purpose of such separating operation1.

I do not mean that the world did not contain schools for philosophical materialism and its adherents; rather, it contained popularity of the materialistic inclination as the result of the experimental mentality which was widespread since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and by the spirit of doubt and intellectual upheaval brought forth by the intellectual revolution which befell a group of notions used to be considered among the most clear and accurate facts2 and by the spirit of rebellion and anger against the alleged "religion" which was freezing the minds and intellects, flattering tyranny and iniquity, supporting the social corruption in every battle it waged against the weak and the oppressed.3

These three factors helped promote materialism in the minds of many a Western mentality. All of this is true, but the materialistic system has never been based on a philosophical comprehension of life, and this is its contradiction and incapacity, for the social aspect of life is linked to the reality of life: It is not crystallized in a correct form except when it is based on a central basis which explains life, its reality and limitations.

The materialistic system lacks such a basis, for it implies deception and cheating, speed and little consideration when the realistic aspect of life is frozen and the social issue is studied separately from it, although the continuation of the intellectual balance of a system is its restriction of attitude, from the beginning, to the reality of life which attitude provides society with the social ingredient: the mutual relationships among people and one’s method in understanding it and discovering its secrets and values.

Had mankind in this planet been the making of a managing and overwhelming Power that knows his secrets and obscurities, appearances and peculiarities, organizing and directing him, then he would have naturally surrendered, in his direction and life-conditioning, to such Creating Power, for that is wiser than him regarding his own affairs as being more knowledgeable about his reality, more righteous in faring and more moderate than he is.

Also, had this limited life been the beginning of a perpetual one that will stem out of it, taking its hue there from, with its balances depending on the extent of the first one's moderation and righteousness., then it would have been natural to organize the present life, since it is the beginning of an immortal one based on both materialistic and non-materialistic principles.

Therefore, the issue of believing in God and in life to have sprung from Him is not a purely idealistic matter detached from life so it would be separated from life's spheres, for which special codes and laws would have to be legislated, while by passing that matter and separating it. Rather, it is a matter linked to the mind, the heart and life altogether.

The proof for its closer link to life than democratic capitalism itself is that its idea is based on the belief that there has been neither individual nor a group of individuals whose infallibility of objective, intellectual inclination and discretion are of the degree which allows entrusting the social issue to it and to depend on it for the establishment of a righteous life of the nation.

This very basis has neither position nor meaning except when built on a purely materialistic philosophy which does not recognize the establishment of a system except by a limited human mind. The capitalist system is materialistic in all the sense the world implies; it either implies materialism, without daring to declare its link to it and dependence on it or it may be ignorant of the extent of the natural link between the realistic matter of life and its social aspect. Therefore, it lacks the philosophy on which every social system has to lean. It simply is materialistic even though it has never been based on a materialistic philosophy with clear outlines.

Position of Ethics in Capitalism

The result of such materialism with whose spirit the system has been overwhelmed is that ethics have been left out of all calculations, without winning any existence in that system, or say their concepts and ideals have been altered, and the personal benefit has been declared as a super-most priority and all types of freedom are means towards achieving this priority.

Resulting from that are all calamities and catastrophes, troubles and tribulations about which the modern world has complained (and will keep complaining).

Advocates of democratic capitalism may defend its attitude towards the individual and his personal interests by saying that the personal interest by itself brings forth the social interest, and the results achieved by ethics in their spiritual values are also achieved in the democratic capitalist society, not through "ethics" but through the special "motives" and their service: When man performs a social service, he, too, achieves a personal benefit, being part of the society for which he labours.

When he save someone's endangered life, he also earns a benefit for himself, for that person's life will serve the social body a portion of which service will be his own. Therefore, the personal motive and the utilitarian sense suffice to guarantee and ensure the social interests since they, when analysed, amount to personal interests and individual benefits.

Such an apology is closer to vast imagination than to reasoning. Imagine if the practical criterion in the life of every individual in the nation had been the achievement of his personal benefits and interests, to the widest possible range, and had the state been providing for the individual his freedom, sanctifying him without reservation or limitation, then what would the position of social work have been in the dictionary of such an individual?

How can the link between the social interest and the individual one be sufficient to direct the individual towards the occupations called forth by ethical codes, knowing that many such occupations do not bring him any benefit?

If it happens that they do contain some benefit to him, since he is a member of the community, it often happens, too, that such minute benefit (which cannot be conceived except analytically) would be counteracted by transient benefits or individual interests which find in freedom a guarantee to their achievement, so much so that the individual would trample over all systems of ethics and spiritual conscience.

Tragedies of the Capitalist System

If we wish to discern the consequent series of social tragedies resulting from this system which does not stand on a studied philosophical base, this research's scope will only be too narrow for that; therefore, we would like to just allude to them thus: The first of such series is the minority ruling the majority, controlling its interests and essential affairs. Political freedom has meant that the establishment of systems and codes as well as their execution is the right of the majority.

Let us suppose that the group which represents the majority of the nation holds the reins of government and legislation while having the democratic capitalist mentality, which is a mentality purely materialistic in its trend, inclinations and objectives, what will be the fate of the other groups?

Or, say, what can the minority expect in the shade of laws legislated for the benefit of the majority to protect its interests? Will it be strange, then, if the majority legislates laws in the light of its own interests, neglecting the minority's interests, following an unjust trend to achieve its desires that may harm other’s interests? Who will maintain this minority's existing entity and defend it against injustice, as long as the personal benefit is the concern of every individual, and as long as the majority does not know, in its social concept, any values for the spiritual and intellectual principles?

Naturally, sovereignty will stay under the system as it did before, and the symptoms of monopoly and trespassing on the rights and interests of others will linger in the social atmosphere of this system as it did in the old social systems. The only difference is that degrading the human dignity used to be done by the individual to his nation; now in this system it comes from the majorities against the minorities, the first composing a huge number of humans.

This is not the whole story. The tragedy would then be simple, but the stage is set for more laughs than tears. The case worsens and becomes more severe when the economic issue results from this system later on; therefore, the economic freedom is decided in the fashion which we have described above, sanctioning all the ways and means of getting rich; no matter how outrageous or odd in method or manner, guaranteeing what it had advertised when the world was busy in a big industrial revolution and science was giving birth to the machine which overturned the face of industry and wiped out manual industries and the like.

The coast was then clear for an outrageous wealth for the nation's minority. Opportunities enabled the latter to benefit from the modem means of production, provided by limitless capitalist liberties with sufficient absurdities for their utilization and use to the furthermost limit, annihilating thereby many groups of the nation whose industries were wiped out by the machine that shook their livelihoods without finding a way to withstand the torrent, since the promoters of the modern industries were armed with "economic freedom" and all other "sacred" liberties.

Thus does the field remain vacant except of that elite group of the promoters of industry and production, while the middle class is being reduced to the generally low level, and this crushed majority falling at the mercy of that elite group that does not think or calculate except according to the "democratic capitalist" mode.

Naturally, then, it would not extend its kind and assisting aid to them in order to get them out of the pit and give them a share of its tremendous profits. Why should it, since its "ethical" criterion is benefit and pleasure, as long as the State guarantees absolute freedom in whatever it does, so long as the democratic capitalist system is too narrow for the intellectual philosophy of life with all its related concepts?

The matter, therefore, has to be studied in the manner inspired by this system, which is: These important men take advantage of the majority's need for them and their living standards to oblige those who are capable of working in their occupations and factories for a limited time and for wages enough only to sustain them.

This is the "logic" of pure utilitarianism which they would naturally adopt, dividing the nation consequently to a group in the peak of wealth and a majority in a bottomless pit: Here, the nation's political right is crystallized in a new form.

As for equality with regard to the citizens' political rights, even though it is not wiped out of the system's record, it has survived this turmoil only as a shadow and pure ideology: When the economic freedom records the results which we exposed above, it will come to the conclusion of the deep division which we have explicated, taking control of the situation and holding the reins, conquering the political freedom before it.

Because of its economic status in the society and capacity of using all means of propaganda, and because of its capacity of buying supporters and helpers, the capitalist group controls the reins of government in the nation, seizing power in order to use it for its own interests and to guard its objectives, and both legislative and social systems will be controlled by capital, after it has already been supposed by the democratic concepts to be the right of all the nation.

Thus does democratic capitalism become in the end an authority monopolized by the minority, a means through which several individuals protect their own existence at the expense of others, according to the utilitarian mentality inspired by the democratic capitalist "culture". Here we reach the worst series enacted by this system.

Those people in whose hands the democratic capitalist system has placed all sorts of influence, providing them with every kind of power and potential, will direct their attention, inspired by this system's mentality, towards the horizons and feel inspired by their interests and objectives that they are in need of even new areas of influence for two reasons:

First: The abundance of production depends on the extent of abundance and availability of essential materials; therefore, whosoever's share of such materials is larger, his producing capacities will be stronger and more plentiful. These materials are spread in God's vast lands. It is necessary to obtain them, then the lands which contain them have to be seized [by force if need be] for absorption and utilization.

Second: The strength of the producing speed and power, motivated by the anxiety for plenty of profit on one hand, and the low standard of living of many nations, due to the materialistic greed of the capitalist group and its competition with the public through its utilitarian means, on the other, make the public unable to purchase products and consume them. All of this makes the big producers in dire need of new markets to sell their surplus products. Finding such markets means thinking of seizing [colonizing] new lands.

Thus is the matter studied in a purely materialistic mentality. Naturally, such mentality, the system of which has never been based on spiritual or ethical principles and the social system of which admits nothing but filling this limited life with different sorts of pleasures and desires, finds in these two reasons a justification and a "logical" appetizer to transgress on peaceful countries, trespass on their dignity, control their provisions and potential natural resources, utilizing their wealth for marketing its surplus products.

All of this is a "reasonable" and "permissible" matter, according to the "ideals" of individual interests on whose bases both capitalist system and "free economy" stand; from here is the giant of materialism sets free to invade and wage wars, scuffling and tying, colonizing and exploiting in order to satisfy the mania of wills and whims.

Look into the tragedies humanity has suffered because of such system which is materialistic in spirit, form, manner and aim, even though it has never been based on a certain philosophy in agreement with that spirit and form, in harmony with such manners and objectives, as we have pointed out above.

Judge for yourself the share of happiness and stability of a society based on the principles of this system and ideals, one which lacks self-denial and mutual trust, true compassion and love, and all the good spiritual trends, so much so that the individual lives in it feeling that he is responsible only for his own self, that he is in danger because of each and every interest of others that may clash with his own, as if he is living in a continuous struggle and race, unarmed except by his own powers, aiming thereby at none other than his own personal interest.

- 1. This experiment has won a great significance in the scientific field, having achieved an unexpected success in finding out many facts and unveiling surprising secrets which have enabled mankind to utilize those secrets and facts for a practical living. The success it has achieved has won it sanctity in the minds of common people, making these people depart from the abstract ideals and all facts which cannot be realized through the senses and experiments, so much so that the experimental sense has become, according to the doctrine of many experimentalists, the only basis for knowledge and science.
We have explained in Falsafatuna (Our Philosophy) the fact that the experiment itself relies on the mental intellect, and that the main basis for all knowledge and science is the mind which realizes facts the senses cannot feel as it does concrete facts.

- 2. Among the prevalent beliefs which used to enjoy a high degree of clarity and simplicity, although based neither on an intellectually logical basis nor a philosophical proof, was the belief that earth was the centre of the world. When such beliefs crumbled down in the shade of accurate experiments, the common notion was shaken, and a wave of doubt overtook many intellects, causing thereby the resurrection of Greek sophistry influenced by the doubting spirit just as it was influenced during the Greek period by the spirit of doubt which had resulted from the contradictions of philosophical creeds and the intensity of arguments among them.

- 3. The Church played a significant role in utilizing religion in a scandalizing manner, making its name nothing but a tool for the achievement of its own aims and objectives, strangulating scientific and social liberties, establishing the Inquisition Courts and granting them wide prerogatives to fare with people's fate, so much so that all of that resulted in people being fed-up with religion altogether and feeling disgusted with it: Crimes were being committed in its name, although in its pure reality and accurate essence it is not less than those grumbling critics in denouncing crimes and in the desire to uproot motives behinds these crimes. I have explained these notions and undertaken a detailed scientific study thereof in my book Iqtisaduna.

Socialism and Communism

In socialism, there are many creeds the most famous of which is the socialist creed, which is based on the Marxist theory, and argumentative materialism, which are a certain philosophy of life and a materialistic comprehension of it according to the dialectical method. Dialectical materialists have applied this dialectical materialism to history, sociology and economy. So, it has become a philosophical creed in world affairs, a method to study history and sociology, a creed in economy and a plan in politics.

In other words, it formulates all of mankind into a particular structure as regarding his way of thinking, his attitude towards life and his practical method therein. There is no doubt that the materialistic philosophy and the dialectical method have never been innovations or creations of the Marxist creed. The materialistic trend has lived within the philosophical field for thousands of years, once in the open and once hidden behind sophistication and absolute denial.

Also, the dialectical method of reasoning is deeply rooted in the lines of human thinking. Its lines were perfected at the hands of Hegel, the well known idealistic philosopher. Karl Marx only adopted such "reasoning" and philosophy. He tried to apply it in all fields of life; so, he made two researches: One of them is his purely materialistic, in a dialectical method, interpretation of history. The other is his claim therein that he found out the contradictions within the capital and surplus value which the capitalist steals in his creed from the labourer1.

On these "achievements" has he erected his belief in the necessity of abolishing the communist and socialist societies which he considered to be a step for mankind to completely apply communism. The social field in this philosophy is one of battling contradictions, and every social situation which prevails on such field is but a purely materialistic phenomenon which harmonizes with the other phenomena and materialistic climes and is affected by them.

But he at the same time carries his own self-contradiction in the essence, and a battle of contradictions will then be waged within its context until all contradictions assemble to cause a change in that situation and prepare for another one. Thus does the battle linger until all mankind form one single class, and the interests of every individual will be represented in the interests of that unified class.

At that moment will harmony prevail and peace become a reality, and all bad effects of the democratic capitalist system will be completely removed, for they resulted only from the existence of many classes within one society, and such multitude resulted from dividing the society into a producer and a labourer. Therefore, such a division has to be stopped by abolishing (private) ownership. Here, communism differs from socialism in the main economic outlines, for the communist economy hinges on:

First: Abolishing private ownership and its complete eradication from the society, giving wealth to the public and placing it in the hands of the State since the latter is the legal representative of the society in managing and utilizing it for the common welfare. The communist belief in the necessity of this absolute nationalization is due to the natural reaction of the consequences of private ownership in the democratic capitalist system.

This nationalization has thus been justified: It is meant to abolish the capitalist class and unite the society into one class in order to put an end to that struggle and to forbid the individual from utilizing different means and methods to accumulate his wealth in order to satisfy his greed, motivated by his own selfish interest.

Second: Distribution of products according to individuals’ consumption need. It can be summed up thus: From everyone according to his capacity, and for everyone according to his need. This is so because every individual has natural needs without which he cannot live. So, he gives the society his entire endeavour so that the society may provide him with his living necessities and take care of his livelihood.

Third: An economic procedure planned by the State, in which it combines the society's need with production in its volume, diversity and limitation, so that the society will not be inflicted with the same line in the communist economy, that is, the abolishment of private ownership, has been substituted with a moderate solution: nationalization of heavy industries, foreign and domestic trades, putting all of them under government monopoly; in other words, abolishing large mass capital by freeing the simple industries and trades, leaving them to the individuals.

The wide line of the communist economy collided with the reality of the human nature, to which we referred above, for the individuals started neglecting the performance of their duties and of being active in their jobs, running away from their social obligations; the system is supposed to guarantee their livelihood and the fulfilment of their needs.

Also, it is supposed not to exert any further effort; therefore, why should the individual exert himself and sweat as long as the result is already in his calculation, the result of both states of laziness and activity? Why should he rush to provide happiness for others, trading the convenience of others for his own sweat, tears, life and energy, since he does not believe in any principle in life except that of a purely materialistic nature?

Therefore, the advocates of such a creed were forced to freeze absolute nationalization. They were also forced to adjust the other line in the communist economy by allowing wages to vary in order to push the labourers to be active and perfect in their jobs, making the excuse that these variations are only temporary, and that they will disappear once the capitalist mentality is crushed and man is created anew.

For the latter purpose, they continuously create changes in their economic methods and socialist modes in order to follow the failure of an old method by trying a new one. They have not yet succeeded in getting rid of all basic cornerstones of the capitalist economy. For example, the interest loans have not been totally abolished, although they are, in fact, the basis of social corruption in the capitalist economy.

All of this, however, does not mean that those advocates have had shortcomings, or that they have not been serious in their creed or unfaithful to their doctrine; rather, it means that they have clashed with reality while trying to put them to practice, finding their path full of obstacles and contradictions put forth by the human nature before the revolutionary method of the "social reform" which they have been promising. Reality, then, forced them to go back on their word in the hope that a miracle would sooner or later take place.

As regarding the political aspect, communism, in its long run, aims in the end at erasing the "state" from the society when the miracle takes place and the "social mentality" prevails on all humans, so much so that all people will be thinking of nothing but of the materialistic social welfare. Before then, as long as the miracle has not taken place yet and people are not unified into one "class", when the society is still divided to capitalist and proletariat forces, it is necessary that the government should be purely proletariat; so, it is a democratic rule within the circle of labour and also a dictatorship regarding the masses.

They have reasoned thus: Proletariat dictatorship of government is necessary in all stages passed by mankind, using the individual mentality for the protection of the interests of the working class, strangulating capitalism and forbidding it from coming to the field again.

In fact, this creed, represented by Marxist socialism then by Marxist communism, is distinguished from the democratic capitalist system in its reliance on a particular materialistic philosophy which adopts a particular concept of life to which all idealistic principles and values are not ascribed and which is analyzed in a certain sort of analysis which does not leave room for a creator above the natural limits, nor to an anticipated compensation beyond the borders of this limited materialistic life. This contrasts democratic capitalism, for although it is a materialistic system; it has never been based on a precise philosophical foundation.

The accurate linkage between the realistic understanding of life and the social issue as accepted by materialistic communism versus democratic capitalism has neither believed in this theory, nor has it tried to explain it. Hence, the communist creed is worthy of a philosophical study and of a test through tackling the philosophy on which it has hinged and from which it has been derived.

Judging any system is dependent on the extent of the success of its philosophical concept in portraying and comprehending life. It is easy to comprehend, when we cast the first glance at the simplified or "accomplished" communist system, that its general nature is the fusion of the individual into the society, making him a tool for the achievement of the general criteria which it enforces.

It completely contradicts the free capitalist system which puts the society at the service of the individual for the achievement of the latter's interests. It seems that it has been predestined for the individual and social personalities, according to the precepts of both systems, to clash and to duel with each other. The individual personality has become victorious in one of them, the one based on the individual and his own personal benefits, inflicting the society thereby with economic catastrophes which have shaken its existence and mutilated life in all its sectors.

The social personality has won in the other, which has come to correct the mistakes of the previous one, assisting the society and reducing the individual personality to dissolution and annihilation, inflicting the individuals with severe dilemmas which ruined their freedom, personal existence and natural rights of selecting and rationalizing.

Communism Criticized

Actually, although the communist system has treated several inflictions of free capitalism by abolishing private ownership, such a treatment has had some natural consequences which have made such a treatment very costly and the method to put it to use very exerting and cannot be used except when all other ways and methods fail.

On the other hand, it is an incomplete treatment which does not guarantee the eradication of social corruption, for it has not really been successful in its diagnosis of the ailment and the discovery of the point from which evil has set out to subjugate the world to the capitalist system, keeping that point maintaining its position in the social life of the communist creed.

Therefore, mankind has not won a definite solution to his greatest problem, nor has he obtained the medicine to medicate his ailments and uproot his sickening symptoms. As regarding the consequences of this treatment, they are, indeed, great: They can put an end to the freedom of individuals for the sake of substituting communist ownership for private ownership.

The case is so because this tremendous social change contradicts the general human nature upto, at least, the present time, as its promoters admit, since materialistic man still thinks subjectively, calculating his interests through his own limited individualistic eyes.

Establishing a new structure for the society in which the individuals dissolve completely, a structure which totally puts an end to personal motives, requires a strong power to hold the society's reins with iron hands, suppressing any resisting voice, strangulating any opposition, monopolizing all means of news media and the press, enforcing a belt around the nation nobody can by any means go beyond, and becoming habituated to charging and doubting, so that the rein of authority may not suddenly slip out of its hands.

This is natural in every system desired to be imposed on the nation before the mentality of such a system ripens in it and its spirit prevails. Yes, if materialistic man starts reasoning socially, realizing his interests in a social mentality, with his own personal feelings, desires and inclinations melting through his own self, then a system in which individuals "melt" can be established, leaving in the arena none but as huge “social” giant.

But the achievement of this in the materialistic man, who does not believe except in a limited life without knowing any meaning for it except materialistic pleasures, needs a miracle to create paradise on earth and to bring it down from heaven. The communists promise us such a paradise, waiting for that day when the factory changes the human nature, creating him anew with idealistic thoughts and deeds even if he does not believe the weight of an atom in ideal values or ethical principles. If such a miracle happens, then we will have a talk with them.

As for the time being, the position of the social structure which they desire calls for the confinement of individuals within the limits of this structure's idea and its guarantee for protection by the group that believes in it and using caution concerning it by suppressing the human nature and the psychological emotions, forbidding them by all possible means from setting themselves free.

Even when he wins a total assurance and a social guarantee of his livelihood and needs, for the social wealth provides him with all of these during the time of need, the individual who lives in the shade of a system like this will be better off if he can get such an assurance without losing the pleasure of breathing the fresh air of cultivated freedom rather than being forced to melt his personality in fire and drown himself in the tumultuous social sea.

How can he have a desire for freedom, in any field, when he is deprived of freedom in livelihood, while sustaining his life is totally tied to a particular "committee", although economic and sustaining freedom is the basis of all other norms of freedom? The advocates answer this question by still asking: "What can man do with freedom and enjoyment of his right to criticize and publicize his opinions while moaning under a horrible social burden? What benefit can his discussion and opposition bring him when he needs accurate nutrition and guaranteed life more than opposition or the fuss freedom brings him?"

Those who ask such questions look only at capitalist democracy as if it is the only social issue which competes with their own in the field; therefore, they underestimate the value of the individual dignity and its rights, for they see it as a menace to the general social torrent. But humanity has the right not to sacrifice any of its principles or privileges as long as it does not have to.

It has but to choose either a dignity, which is an ideal privilege of humanity or a need which is its materialistic privilege, only if it lacks the system which can combine both aspects and succeed in solving both problems.

The man whose energy is being squeezed by others, without finding a good and comfortable life or a fair salary and an assurance during the time of need, is indeed one deprived of enjoying life, separated from a stable and quiet life. Also, a man threatened every moment, questioned about every movement, liable to be arrested without a trial and be imprisoned, banished or even killed for any reason, is indeed one who lives in fear and terror; horror forbids him from enjoying the pleasures of this life.

The third man, the one whose life is comfortable, feeling assured of preserving his dignity and safety, is indeed humanity's sweet dream. So, how can such a dream become a reality? When will it become an existing actuality? We have said above that the communist solution to the social problem is incomplete, in addition to its consequences to which we have also referred.

For he, although human emotions and feelings breathe within him, is evoked by the general social pressure which caused some thinkers to resort to the new solution, but they did not put their hands on the causes of corruption so that they could eradicate it; rather, they eradicated something else; therefore, they were not successful in their medication.

The concept of private ownership is not the one responsible for the sins of absolute capitalism which shook the world and its felicity, so much so that it is not the one that forces millions of labourers to be idle for the sake of the investment of a new machine which put an end to their industry, as it happened at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, nor is it the one that forces the capitalist to destroy large quantities of his products in order to maintain their price and in preference of extravagance to satisfy the need of the poor thereby.

Nor is it the one that invites him to make his wealth a gaining capital multiplied through usury, absorbing the civilians' endeavour without production or toil. Nor is it the one that pushes him to buy all consumption goods from the market in order to monopolize them and raise their prices. Nor is it the one that forces him to open new markets, even when the freedom and rights of nations will be violated by them and their prestige and freedom weakened.

All of these terrifying calamities have not resulted from private ownership; rather, they are the breed of the materialistic individual interest which has been made the criterion of life in the capitalist system and the absolute reason for all acts and dealings. When a society is based on such an individual criterion which is self-advocate, nothing can be expected from it except what has already befallen.

It is from the nature of this criterion that all curses and calamities befall the entire human race, not from the principle of private ownership. If the criterion is changed, and a new cultivated objective for life is put forth, one that harmonizes with the human nature, only then will the real remedy of the greatest human problem become a reality.

- 1. I have explained these theories and undertaken a detailed scientific study of them in my book Iqtisaduna.

Islam and the Social Problem

The Accurate Analysis of the Problem

In order to reach the first circle in analyzing the social problem, we have to question that materialistic individualistic interest established by the capitalist system as a criterion, a pretext, a goal and an objective and ask: "What is the idea which made such a criterion seem to be correct according to the democratic capitalist mentality which inspired it?" This very idea is the real basis of the social tribulation and the failure of democratic capitalism in bringing about man's happiness and safeguarding his dignity.

If we can abolish such an idea, we will put a definite end to all conspiracies against social welfare and intrigues against the society's rights and accurate freedom and be successful in utilizing the private ownership for humanity's good, upliftment and advancement in the industrial spheres and production fields.

So, what is this idea?

This idea is summarized according to the limited materialistic interpretation of life on which the west has erected the colossal monument of capitalism. If every member of the society believes that his only field in this great universe is his personal materialistic life, believing also in his freedom in using and utilizing this life, and that he can gain nothing from this life except the pleasure made available to him through materialism, adding these materialistic creeds to his egoism, which is essentially inherent within him..., then he will choose the path of materialists and execute all of their methods, unless a mighty power deprives him of his freedom and stops him.

Egoism is the instinct more general or ancient than any other we have come to know. All other instincts are its own branches and divisions, including the instinct of survival. Man's love for his own self, which means his love for pleasure and happiness for his own person, and his hatred of pain and suffering, is the motive which pushes him to make a living and provide himself with his nutritious and materialistic needs.

Therefore, he may put an end to his own life by committing suicide if he finds out that the pain of dying is easier than tolerating the pains of which his life is full. The natural reality, that is, that which hides behind every human life, directing it with its fingers, is egoism which we call "loving pleasure and hating pain".

Man cannot be required to willingly tolerate the bitterness of pain without enjoying some pleasure simply in order that others may get their own pleasure and felicity except when he is robbed of his humanity and is given a new nature which neither loves pleasure nor hates pain. Even the marvellous norms of self-denial, which we see in mankind and about which we hear throughout history, are, in fact, subject to the same principal motivating power: egoism.

Man may be influenced by his son or friend, and he may sacrifice himself for the sake of some ideals and principles, but he would never perform such heroism unless he derives a particular pleasure from it and a benefit which exceeds the loss he suffers by preferring his son's or friend's benefit to that of his own, or by sacrificing himself for the sake of a principle in which he believes.

Thus can we interpret the general behaviour of man, in the spheres of egoism and sacrifice is alike. Man has an inherent readiness to enjoy different things: materialistic, like enjoying eating, drinking, sexual pleasures, etc., or non-materialistic, like behavioural and emotional pleasures, that is, enjoying ethical principles and a spiritual companion, or a particular faith, when man finds such principles or that companion or this faith to be part of his own entity.

This readiness which prepares man to enjoy such different sorts of pleasures differs in degrees among individuals and varies in effectiveness according to the variations in man's circumstances, natural elements and the upbringing which influences him. When we find out that such readiness matures naturally in man, such as his readiness to enjoy sex, for example, we find out that the other kinds of readiness may not appear during one's lifetime, and that they remain waiting for the natural elements to help them mature and blossom.

Behind all such readiness is the egoistic instinct which outlines man's behaviour according to the degree of maturity of such readiness; it pushes a person to prefer one kind of food to another when he is hungry, and it pushes some other person to even give his own food to others. This is so because the first person's readiness to enjoy the ethical and emotional principles which pushes him to self-denial is hidden: The auxiliary elements of upbringing have neither centralized nor matured such readiness.

The other person has won such sort of upbringing; therefore, he enjoys ethical and emotional principles, sacrificing his own self for their achievement. When we want to make a change in someone's behaviour, we have to change his concept of pleasure and benefit, including the suggested behaviour in the general framework of the egoistic instinct.

If the egoistic instinct occupies such a position in man's world, and the "self" means nothing but a limited materialistic energy, and pleasure is nothing but whatever fun and felicity materialism brings, it would be natural for man then to feel that his sphere of gaining is limited, his scope is short, and his objective in it is to get an amount of materialistic pleasure.

The way to get that is, of course, confined to life's vein: wealth, which opens the door to man to achieve all of his purposes and desires. This is the natural sequence of materialistic reasoning which leads to a complete capitalist mentality. Can you see if the problem can be totally solved if we refuse the principle of private ownership, while maintaining such materialistic concepts of life as those thinkers have tried?

Can society be saved from the tragedy of such principles by only abolishing private ownership so that it would gain a guarantee for its happiness and stability? The only guarantee for man's happiness and stability depends to a large extent on ensuring that those charged with responsibility will not deviate from their scopes and reform plans in the field of action and execution. Such responsible persons are supposed to embrace the same purely materialistic concepts of life on which capitalism stands.

The only difference is that they have shaped such concepts in new philosophical structures. Reason would suppose that the personal interest quite often stands in the face of the common interest, and that the individual has to choose between both a loss and a pain which he endures for the sake of others, or a gain and pleasure which he enjoys at their own expense.

So, what guarantees the nation and its rights, the doctrine and its objectives, will have during such critical moments through which the rulers go? The individual interest is not represented in private ownership only, so that we would rule out our supposition to abolish the principle of private ownership; rather, it is represented in many different manners and forms.

A proof for that is the treason of many past rulers discovered today by the advocates of communism who have revealed how those rulers deviated from the same principles which they had professed to adopt.

The wealth controlled by the capitalist group, under the shade of absolute economic and individual liberties, dealing with it according to its materialistic mentality, is given, when the state nationalizes all sorts of wealth and abolishes private ownership, to the state apparatus itself which is composed of a group controlled by the same materialistic concepts of life which oblige them to give priority to their own individualistic interests, according to the egoistic instinct, refusing that man should give up his pleasure and interest without a compensation.

As long as the materialistic interest is the dominating power, according to the materialistic concepts of life, new fields for struggle and competition will be reserved, and the society will be exposed to different dangers and exploitation. Danger to humanity is all hidden within such materialistic concepts and whatever goals and deeds stem from them.

Unifying capitalist norms of wealth, the small or the big, into one huge wealth to be taken care of by the state, without any new development of the human intellect, does not curb such a danger; rather, it turns the entire nation into labourers working for one company, tying their life and prestige to the promoters and owners of that company.

Yes, this “company” differs from the capitalist company: The owners of the capitalist company are the ones who own its profits, spending them according to their own inclinations, while the owners of the other company do not possess any of that, as the system assumes. But the fields of individualistic interest are still open, and the materialistic concept of life, the one that makes such an interest a goal and a justification, still remains

How to Solve the Problem

The world has two ways to avoid the danger and establish the pillars of a stable society: One is this: Mankind has to be changed, or a new nature be created within him that would make him sacrifice his personal interests and limited materialistic achievements for the sake of the society and its interests, in spite of his own belief that there are no principles except those materialistic ones, and no gains except those of this limited life.

This could be accomplished if egoism were uprooted from his nature's essence and substituted with love for the group; therefore, man will be born not loving his own self except as being part of the society, feeling no pleasure for his own happiness and benefits except as they represent part of the general happiness and common interest. The "instinct" of loving the group will then guarantee its running after its own interests and the achievement of its own objectives in a mechanical manner and mode.

The other, the one the advocates of communism dream of bringing into man's future, promising the world that they would create it anew, a creation which would make it move mechanically to serve the group and its interests, is this: So that such a great feat is accomplished, we have to trust the world leadership to them, just as the patient is entrusted to the surgeon for surgery in order to chop off his bad parts and adjust the crooked ones. Nobody knows how long such a surgical operation, which puts man at the mercy of the surgeon, will last.

Man's submission to that is but the greatest proof of the extent of injustice which he has suffered in the democratic capitalist system which has deceived him with the alleged "freedoms", robbing him finally of even his own dignity, sucking his blood in order to present him as an easy drink to the pampered group represented by the rulers.

The idea of such an opinion which advocates treating the problem by "modernizing" man and creating him anew, hinges on the Marxist interpretation of egoism. Marxism believes that self-love (egoism) is neither a natural inclination nor an instinctive phenomenon within man's entity but a result of the social condition which is based on private ownership, for the social status of private ownership is what formulates the spiritual and innate composition of man, creating in the individual his own love for his personal interests and individual benefits.

If a revolution occurs in the bases on which the social structure stands, and general ownership and socialism substitute private ownership, then the revolution will be reflected in all corners of the society and in the inner context of man; so much so that his personal feelings will change to common feelings, and his love for his own interests and individualistic benefits will change to loving the common interest and benefit, according to the equilibrium law between the status of Islamic ownership and the totality of the overall phenomenon according to which they condition themselves.

In fact, this Marxist interpretation of egoism judges the relationship between the self's reality (the egoistic instinct) and the social circumstances in an upside-down manner. Otherwise, how can we believe that the personal motive is the outcome of private ownership and all the class contradictions resulting from it?

If man did not have, before hand, the personal motive, he would not have caused such contradictions, nor could he have thought of private ownership and personal monopoly. Why should man monopolize the system's achievements, placing it in such a way that protects his own interests at the expense of others, if he does not feel the personal motive within the depths of his own self?

The fact is that the social appearances of egoism in the economic and political field are but the result of the personal motive, of the egoistic instinct. This motive is deeper than it is in man's entity; therefore, it cannot vanish, nor can its roots be pulled out by simply removing such effects, for an operation like this is not more than substituting effects for others different than the first in shape or appearance yet similar to them in essence and reality.

Add to this, if we interpret the personal motive (the egoistic instinct) subjectively, as a reflection of the phenomenon of individualism within the social system, such as the phenomenon of private ownership, as Marxism has done, would this not mean that the personal motive will lose its subjective and causing factor from the social system by abolishing private ownership because, although it is a phenomenon of an individualistic nature, it still is not unique in kind, as there is, for example, the phenomenon of private management which is kept even by the socialist system?

Although it abolishes private ownership of the means of production, the socialist system does not abolish the private management by the ruling apparatus which practices proletariat dictatorship and monopolizes the supervision over all means of production and their management. It is not logical to manage the means of production at the moment of their nationalization by a social common management of all the individuals of the society.

The socialist system, then, maintains distinguished individualistic phenomena, and it is natural that such phenomena maintain the personal motive, continuously reflecting it in the inner context of man, just as the phenomenon of private ownership used to do.

Thus do we come to know the value of the first way to solve the problem: the communist way which regards abolishing the legislation of private ownership, wiping it out of the law, as the only guarantee to solve the problem and "modernize" man. As regarding the other way, which is stated above, it is the one followed by Islam because of its belief that the only solution to the problem is to develop man's materialistic concept of life.

It has not started with abolishing the concept of private ownership; rather, it assaulted the materialistic concept of life and put for life a new concept, basing on it a system in which the individual is not treated as a machine in the social apparatus, nor is the society a group ready to serve the individual.

Rather, it has given each his rights, and has guaranteed the individual his dignity, spiritual and materialistic. Islam has placed its hand on the real cause of sickness in the democratic social system, and whatever systems branch from it, wiping them out in a manner which harmonizes with the human nature.

The basic hinging point to what the human life has suffered different sorts of miseries and calamities is the materialistic outlook of life which may be summed up thus: the supposition that only man's life on earth is worthy of all consideration. It establishes the individualistic interest as the criterion to each action and activity.

According to Islam, democratic capitalism is a system doomed to collapse and will certainly fail not because of the allegations of the advocates of communist economy, the self-contradictions of capitalism and the elements of destruction carried inherently by private ownership, for Islam differs in its logical approach, political economy and social philosophy from the concepts of such allegations and their argumentative manner, as I have clarified in my works Falsafatuna (Our Philosophy) and Iqtisaduna (Our Economy), and it guarantees the position of private ownership within a social framework, one free of such alleged contradictions.

The reason for the failure and aggravating situation, with which democratic capitalism is afflicted, according to Islam, is rendered to the purely materialistic concepts of democratic capitalism which cannot make people happy in a system that learns its essence from it, deriving its general outlines from its essence and direction.

There has to be, thereupon, some other source, other than the materialistic ideas about the universe, from which the social system quenches its thirst, and there has to be an accurate political awareness stemming out of true concepts of life, adopting the greatest of man's issues, attempting to achieve it on the basis of such concepts and studying the world affairs from that angle.

When such political awareness matures in the world, wiping away any other political awareness, the world will then be able to enter a new life shining with light, full of happiness. This deep political awareness is the true message of Islam in the world, and such a delivering message is, indeed, the eternal message of Islam which has derived its social system, which differs from all the systems we have so far explicated, from a new intellectual base for life and the universe.

Through such an intellectual base, Islam has defined the proper outlook of man at his life. It has made him believe that his life stems from the principle of absolute perfection that it is but a preparation for a world free of toil and suffering, hence providing him with a new ethical criterion in his steps and stages. This criterion is: the pleasure of Allah Almighty. Not everything the individual interest imposes is permissible, yet everything causing an individual loss is prohibited and undesirable.

Rather, the goal which Islam has drawn for mankind in his life is Divine Pleasure, and the ethical criterion through which all deeds are weighed is the amount one is able to obtain of such a sacred goal. The straight man is that who achieves such a goal. The complete Islamic character is the one which has made all of its various paces along the guidance of such goal and the light of such criterion and within its general framework.

This change in the ethical concepts, criteria and objectives does not mean changing the human nature and creating it anew, as the communist idea meant. Egoism, that is, man's love for his own self and for the achievement of his personal desires, is natural in mankind, and we do not know of any research in any experimental field which is clearer than that of humanity in its long history which proves the "self" of egoism.

If egoism had not been natural and inherent within man, early man would not have rushed, before forming his social entity, to achieve his needs and defend himself against the dangers and try in his primitive ways through which he protected his life and maintained his existence to get what he desired and in the end enter the social life and assimilate in relations with others for the purpose of achieving such needs and avoiding such dangers.

Since egoism occupies such a position in the human nature, any definite solution to the great human problem must be based on belief in such a reality. If it is based on the idea of developing or overcoming it, then it will be an idealistic solution which does not have a place in the reality of the practical life man has been leading.

The Religious Message

Here, religion performs its great message the burdens of which no one else can bear, nor its constructive goals and wise objectives can be achieved, except on its bases and principles. It combines the ethical criteria put by man with the egoistic instinct centred within his nature. In other words, religion unites the instinctive criteria of working and living; that is, egoism, and the criterion which ought to be the basis for working and living, in order to guarantee (for mankind) happiness, prosperity and justice.

The instinctive criterion demands that man must give preference to his own personal interests over those of the society and the factors which maintain its unity; and the criterion which must preside and prevail is that in the estimation of which all interests equate, and according to the concepts of which all individual and social principles strike a balance.

How is it possible, then, to coordinate both criteria and unite both balances so that the human nature might return in the individual to be a factor of goodness and happiness for everyone, after it had been for a long time a factor that caused tragedies which developed selfishness, as it pleases?

The coordination and unification occur in a manner guaranteed by religion for the strayed humanity, and this has two styles: The first style is to concentrate on the realistic interpretation of life, propagating its comprehension in its accurate hue, as introductory prelude to an everlasting life in which man achieves an amount of happiness which depends on his endeavour during this limited life in the hope to achieve the Pleasure of Allah.

The ethical criterion, that is, achieving Allah's Pleasure, while winning its great social objectives, simultaneously ensures the achievement of the individual interest. Religion, therefore, leads man to participate in the construction of a happy society and the maintenance of its just issues which, all in all, achieve the Pleasure of Allah Almighty, for that is included in the estimation of his personal gain, so long as every deed and activity in this field will be quite handsomely rewarded.

The society's issue is also the individual's, according to the precepts and concepts of religion regarding life and its comprehension. Such a style of coordination cannot be achieved under the shade of a materialistic comprehension of life, for the materialistic comprehension of life makes man naturally looking at none but his present scope and limited lifespan, contrarily to the realistic interpretation of life presented by Islam.

The latter expands man's scope, imposing on him a deeper outlook at his own interests and benefits, turning a quick loss into a real gain within such a deep sight, and the quick gain is turned in the end into a real loss:

مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَسَاء فَعَلَيْهَا

Whoever does a good deed, it is for his own self, and whoever does wrong, it is against his own self. (Qur'an, 41:46).

وَمَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَأُولَئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ يُرْزَقُونَ فِيهَا بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

And whoever, male or female, does a good deed, while truly believing, shall certainly enter Paradise in which he will be sustained without a limit. (Qur'an, 40:40).

يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصْدُرُ النَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِّيُرَوْا أَعْمَالَهُمْ، فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ، وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

On that Day (of Judgement) shall people be presented in numerous numbers in order to be shown their deeds; whoever does good even the weight of an atom shall receive its reward, and whoever does wrong even the weight of an atom shall receive its punishment. (Qur'an, 99:6-8).

ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ لاَ يُصِيبُهُمْ ظَمَأٌ وَلاَ نَصَبٌ وَلاَ مَخْمَصَةٌ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلاَ يَطَؤُونَ مَوْطِئًا يَغِيظُ الْكُفَّارَ وَلاَ يَنَالُونَ مِنْ عَدُوٍّ نَّيْلاً إِلاَّ كُتِبَ لَهُم بِهِ عَمَلٌ صَالِحٌ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ، وَلاَ يُنفِقُونَ نَفَقَةً صَغِيرَةً وَلاَ كَبِيرَةً وَلاَ يَقْطَعُونَ وَادِيًا إِلاَّ كُتِبَ لَهُمْ لِيَجْزِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ.

[This is so] because thirst does not afflict them nor fatigue nor hunger in God’s way, nor do they tread a path which enrages the infidels, nor do they receive from the enemy (any injury) but on account of its being reckoned to their credit as a deed of righteousness. Indeed God does not allow the reward of those who do good to go in vain. Nor do they spend anything (in the way of God), be it small or big, nor do they cut across a valley, except that it is recorded to their credit so that God may reward them with better than what they were doing. (Qur’an, 9:120 – 121).

These are but some magnificent portraits our religion presents as an example for the first style, the one it follows for the purpose of coordinating both criteria and the unification of both balances, joining the personal motives with the ways of goodness in life and developing the individual’s interest in a manner that would make him believe that his personal interests and the general matter of fact interest, as outlined by Islam, are inter-related.1

As regarding the other method followed by religion to incorporate the personal motive with the society’s principles or interests, it is to guarantee to nourish man spiritually and help the growth of humane feelings and ethical inclinations within him. Within the human nature, as we have pointed out before, there are energies and capabilities of different inclinations.

Some of them are materialistic the appetites of which open naturally, such as the appetite for food, drink and sex, while others are intellectual inclinations which blossom and grow through cultivation and care. Therefore, it is natural for man, if left for him, to be controlled by the materialistic inclinations, for these blossoms naturally, while the intellectual inclinations and their innate readiness remain veiled within the soul.

Religion, believing in an infallible leadership supported by God, entrusts the task of cultivating humanity and nurturing the intellectual inclinations therein to this leadership and its branches, creating thereby a group of righteous emotions and feelings, and man starts loving the ethical principles and ideals which religion brings him up to respect and to die for, and it removes from his path all obstacles composed of his own interests and benefits.

This does not mean that egoism is obliterated from the human nature. Rather, it means that the action geared towards the achievement of such principles and ideals is a complete execution of the will of egoism, for the principles, because of religious upbringing, become loved by man as means of deriving a "special" pleasure from them.

These, then, are the two ways from which results the joining of the ethical issue to the personal matter. One of them may be summarized thus: providing a realistic interpretation of an everlasting life not for the purpose of man turning away from this life, nor is it for his submission to injustice and acceptance of iniquity. Not at all; it is for the sake of checking man through the accurate ethical criterion provided by that interpretation with sufficient assurance.

The other way may be summarized thus: The ethical education resulting in various feelings and emotions within man which guarantee the implementation of the ethical criterion according to the inspiration of the soul. The spiritual comprehension and ethical education of the soul, according to the Message of Islam, are the coordinating factors in treating the deeper cause behind the human tragedy.

Let us describe the comprehension of life as a prelude for a perpetual one, according to the spiritual comprehension of life, and let us describe the emotions and feelings, nurtured by the ethical education, as "the ethical feelings of life". The spiritual comprehension of life and the ethical feeling thereof are the two bases on which the new ethical criterion put by Islam for humanity stands, and this (criterion) is: achieving the pleasure of Allah.

This Pleasure, the one put forth by Islam as a general criterion for life, is the one which leads the boat towards the shores of righteousness, goodness and justice. The basic characteristic in the Islamic system is represented through its erection on a spiritual comprehension of life and an ethical feeling thereof, and the wide line in this system is: the regard for both individual and society, and ensuring the equilibrium between the individual and the social life: The individual is not the central base in the legislation and government, nor is the big social being the only thing the State looks at or for whose sake it legislates.

Every social system which does not stem out of this comprehension and feeling is either a system which follows the individual in his egoistic inclination, thus exposing the social life to the most severe consequences and dire perils, or it is a system which suppresses the individual's instincts and paralyzes in him his own nature for the sake of "protecting" the society and its interests, hence an everlasting bitter struggle starts between the system and its legislations, and the individuals and their inclinations.

Nay! The social existence of the system will always be exposed to failure at the hands of its own promoters, as long as they, too, have their own personal inclinations and instincts, and so long as these instincts find, through suppressing the other "individualistic" instincts and taking charge of strict leadership, a wide scope and a field unmatchable for setting out and utilization.

Both spiritual comprehension of life and the ethical feeling thereof do not only result in a complete system of life in which there is high regard for each component of the society, each individual will be granted his liberty which has been cultivated by that comprehension and feeling and which the State restricts when there is any deviation from it. I say: Every doctrine which does not produce for mankind this sort of system can never be other than cooling the air off and alleviating woes rather than providing a remedy and a definite eradication of social desires and vices.

The intact social structure is erected on none other than a spiritual comprehension of life and an ethical feeling thereof, one from which both a system is set forth to fill life with the spirit of this feeling and the essence of that comprehension. This is Islam in the most precise and wonderful expression: a spiritual and ethical doctrine from which springs a perfect system for mankind which portrays the clearly marked scope, determining his goal to be even higher than that scope, acquainting him with his achievements there from.

As for its abolishment of the spiritual comprehension of life, stripping man of his ethical feeling thereof, considering the ethical concepts as pure whims created by the materialistic interests, and that only the economic factor is the criterion for all values and ethics, hoping from all of this to achieve man's happiness and social stability, this, indeed, is but a hope, a desire, which can never be achieved until mankind is turned into a mechanical apparatus organized by few mechanical engineers.

Basing man on the basis of that spiritual comprehension of life and the ethical feeling thereof is not a hard or impossible task, for religions during man's history have performed their great message in this respect, and all what the world today contains of spiritual values, ethical awareness, virtuous feelings and emotions do not have an explanation more clear and logical in their pillars and bases other than the great endeavours undertaken by religions to cultivate humanity and its natural motives and whatever required for living and working.

Islam has carried the torch of bursting light after mankind had reached a certain degree of awareness. It preached the spiritual and ethical base on the widest scales and furthermost scopes, raising thereupon the banner of humanity. It established an intellectual State which ruled the world for a quarter of a century, aiming at the unity of all mankind into one intellectual base which portrays the mode and manner of life.

The Islamic State, therefore, has two functions: One is to lift mankind through the intellectual base, stamping his inclination and feelings with its stamp. The other is watching him externally and bringing him back to the base if he practically deviates from it. Therefore, the political awareness of Islam is not only an awareness of the structural aspect of the social life, but it also is a profound political awareness which stems from an entirely complete outlook towards life, the cosmos, sociology, politics, economics and ethics.

This inclusive outlook is the complete Islamic awareness. Any other sort of political awareness can either be a superficial political awareness which does not look at the world except from a particular angle without basing its concepts except on one particular hinging point. Or it may be a political awareness which studies the world from the purely materialistic angle which provides mankind with feuds and sufferings of all various shapes and hues.

- 1. Refer to Iqtisaduna, p.307.

Islam’s Position towards Freedom and Social Assurance

Freedom According to Capitalism and Islam

We have come to know, from the above contents, that freedom is the central point in the capitalist thinking, and the concept of "insurance" (rather, assurance) is the basic revolving point in the socialist and communist systems. For this purpose we will be studying, comparatively, the position of Islam and capitalism from freedom, comparing thereafter between the "insurance" according to Islam and according to the Marxist creed. When we say "freedom", we mean thereby its general meaning; that is, rejection of others' domination, for this concept is the one which we can find in both civilizations, even when its frame and intellectual base vary in both1.

When we start comparing freedom according to Islam with freedom according to the democratic capitalist system, basic differences appear to us between the freedom which has been lived by the capitalist society and advocated by capitalism, and the freedom whose banner Islam has borne and adopted by the society which Islam has created, providing its own experience on history's stage.

Each of these norms of freedom bears the stamp of civilization to which it belongs and with whose concepts of the cosmos and life it agrees, expressing the intellectual and psychological state which civilization created in history.

Freedom, in the capitalist civilization, has started as a bitterly overwhelming doubt, and this doubt changed, in its revolutionary expansion, into a doctrinal belief in freedom. Contrarily to this is freedom in the Islamic civilization, for here it is but an expression of a firm central conviction (i.e., belief in God) from which freedom derives its revolution.

According to the firmness of this conviction and the depth of its implication in man's life do the revolutionary powers in that freedom multiply. Capitalist freedom has a positive connotation. It considers man to possess his own self, faring with it as he pleases, without surrendering in that to any external authority.

For this purpose, all social institutions, which affect man's life, derive their legal right to control every individual from the individuals themselves. Freedom, according to Islam, maintains the revolutionary aspect of freedom: man’s emancipation from the slavery of idol's control, all idols from whose yoke humanity has been suffering throughout history. But it erects this great task of liberation on the basis of a submission purely for Allah, and for Allah alone.

Therefore, man's submission to God in Islam (instead of possessing his own self, according to capitalism) is the tool through which man breaks all other norms of submission or slavery, for this sort of submission, in its sublime meaning, makes him feel that he, together with all other sorts of power with which he coexists, stands on the same grounds before one Lord.

Therefore, no power on earth has the right to fare with his destiny as it pleases or to control his existence and life. Freedom, according to the precepts of capitalist civilization, is a natural right for man, and he may give his right up whenever he pleases. But it is not so according to Islam. Freedom according to Islam is essentially tied to submission to Allah. Islam does not permit man to yield, to be enslaved or to give up his freedom:

Do not be a slave of others, since Allah created you free.2

Man, according to Islam, is to account for the use of his freedom, and freedom is not a state of irresponsibility. This is the difference between both norms of freedom in their general characteristics. Now we are going to explain this concept with more details:

Freedom According to the Capitalist Civilization

Freedom was initiated in the capitalist civilization under the shades of an overwhelmingly bitter doubt which dominated the mainstreams of the entire European thought as a result of the intellectual revolutions which succeeded each other at the dawn of modern Europe, shaking all the Western intellectual pillars.

The idols of European thinking started falling down one after the other due to the revolutionary discoveries in the world of science which cast their light at the western man with new concepts of the world and life, and with theories completely in contradiction to the accepted precepts of the past, those which formed the cornerstone of his intellectual entity, intellectual and religious life.

Western man started, across those successive intellectual revolutions, to look at the cosmos through new eyes, and at the intellectual heritage humanity had left him since the dawn of history with looks of doubt and suspicion. He started to feel that the world of Copernicus, who proved that the earth is but a planet of the sun, differs a great deal from the conventional world which Ptolemy spoke of, and that nature, which started revealing its secrets to Galileo and his peers among the scientists, is a new thing compared to the portrait inherited down from the saints and former thinkers like Saint Thomas Acquinas, Dante and others.

Thus does he suddenly, and with a trembling hand, throw his former precepts, trying to be relieved of the frame in which he lived thousands of years? In its escalating revolutionary torrent, doubt did not stop there. Rather, it wiped out all values and precepts common to humanity and on which it depended to check behaviour and regulate relationships.

So long as the new cosmos contradicts the old concepts of the world, and as long as man keeps looking at his reality and environment from a scientific angle, rather than from mythology, then there has to be a reassessment of the religious concept and likewise of all goals and principles man has lived before his new outlook of himself and his world crystallizes.

On this basis has the religion of Western man faced the dilemma of "modern" doubt, and it does not really hinge except on an emotional basis which soon started drying up because of the church's tyranny and might. It was natural, then, that all of these ethical bases melted at the conclusion of this defeat.

So were the principles and ideals which check man's behaviour and tolerate his extremism, for ethics have always been linked to religion throughout humanity's existence. When they lose their religious source which provides them with true values and links them to the world of the unknown and of the rewards, they become an empty ruin and an unjustifiable tax. History always highlights this fact.

Greek advocates of sophistry disbelieved in deism because of their dependence on a "sophisticated" doubt, so they rejected the ethical restrictions, rebelling against them, and Western man repeated the story anew when "modern" doubt engulfed his religious creed. He revolted against all sorts of disciplinary manners and ethical codes. Such manners and ethics seemed to him to be linked to an ancient phase of man's history.

Western man set out as he willed to behave as he liked, filling his lungs with the fresh air in which "modern" doubt occupied the position of principles and standards, when they used to restrict the internal inclination of man and his behaviour. Here were the ideas of the intellectual freedom and the personal liberty born: The idea of intellectual freedom has come as a result of a revolutionary doubt and a mental disturbance which blew up all intellectual precepts.

So much so that there remain no more sublime facts the denial of which is not permissible, as long as doubt extends itself to all spheres. And the idea of personal liberty comes as an expression of the negative results reached by "modern" doubt in its intellectual combat against faith and ethics, for it is natural that the man who conquers his own faith and ethics is to believe in his own personal liberty and reject any authority to check his behaviour and control his will.

According to such a sequence, modern man reaches doubt, intellectual freedom and finally "personal liberty". Here comes the role of economic freedom to form a new series of this "civilized" sequence: Having believed in his personal liberty, modern man starts placing his goals and criteria on this basis.

Having practically disbelieved in the religious outlook of life and the cosmos, and their respective relationship to the Creator and to whatever reward or punishment man awaits, life starts to him to seem as a chance to win the largest possible portion of pleasure and materialistic enjoyment which cannot be achieved except through wealth. Therefore, wealth returns as the magic key and the goal towards which modern man labours, the man who enjoys complete freedom in his behaviour.

It becomes necessary to establish the basis of economic freedom and open all fields before this free being to work for the achievement of this new goal: wealth, which Western civilization puts up as a new idol for mankind and every sacrifice mankind offers in this respect, is now an honest deed and an accepted scapegoat.

The economic motive becomes dominating as long as the march of modern civilization becomes more distant from the spiritual and intellectual principles which he has refused in the beginning of the march. The mania for wealth increases to dominate the situation, and the precepts of goodness, virtue and religion disappear, so much so that Marxism, during one of the Western civilization's dilemmas, imagines that the economic motive is the impetus which directs the human history in all ages.

It is not possible that the idea of economic freedom can be separate from another idea which is: the idea of political freedom, for the essential condition for practising a free activity on the economic stage is the removal of the political obstacles and the conquest of the difficulties put forth by the ruling authority through the possession and nationalization of the governing apparatus, so that the individual may rest assured that there is no power which can separate him from his achievements and desired goals.

Thus were the general outlooks or basic series, of which Western man composed his civilization, completed. He worked sincerely to establish his life on their basis and adopt a world call of them. In this light can we clearly see this "civilization" in its characteristics to which we have pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, for it is a civilized phenomenon which started as a bitter and disturbing doubt and ended as a doctrinal belief in freedom.

It is an expression of the belief of Western man in his control over himself and his possession of his will after he had refused to submit to any authority. Freedom, according to capitalist democracy, does not only mean the denial of others' control; rather, it means much more than this: It means man's control over himself and the practical separation between himself and his own Creator and destiny.

As for Islam, its position from freedom essentially differs from that of Western civilization, for it takes care of freedom in its negative implication or, rather, in its revolutionary output which liberates mankind from others’ control, breaking the chains and shackles which handcuffs him. It considers the achievement of this negative implication of freedom as one of the greatest goals of the Divine Message Itself:

وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالأَغْلالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ

And He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are on them ... (Qur'an, 7: 157).

But it does not link this concept to its positive implication according to the concepts of Western civilization, for it does not consider man's right to be liberated from other's control and standing by their side on par as a result of man's control over himself and his right to determine his behaviour and conduct in life; that is, what we would label "the positive implication of freedom according to the concepts of Western civilization".

Rather, it links freedom and liberation from all idols and artificial shackles to sincere submission to Allah. Man, after all, is a servant of Allah Who does not recognize any submission except to Him, or he yields to any idolatrous relationship of any colour or shape. Instead, he stands on equal footing in his own sincere submission to Allah with the rest of cosmic creation. The essential basis of freedom in Islam, therefore, is unity and belief in sincere submission to Allah before Whose hands all idolatrous powers are crushed, the powers which trampled on man's dignity throughout history.

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاء بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلاَّ نَعْبُدَ إِلاَّ اللَّهَ وَلاَ نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلاَ يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ

Say: "O People of the Book (Christians and Jews)! Come to common terms between us and you: that we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we install none, from among ourselves, as lords and patrons other than Allah." (Qur'an, 3:64).

قَالَ أَتَعْبُدُونَ مَا تَنْحِتُونَ، وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ

He said: "Do you worship that which you have (yourselves) carved?! But Allah has created you and your handiwork." (Qur'an, 37:95-96).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ عِبَادٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ

Verily those whom you call on besides Allah are servants like unto you . (Qur'an, 7:194).

أَأَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ

Are many lords differing among themselves better, or the one Allah, Supreme and Irresistible? (Qur'an, 12:39).

Thus does Islam base the liberation from all kinds of slavery on the principle of admitting an absolute submission to Allah, making the relationship between man and his Lord the firmly rooted basis for his liberation in dealing with all people and with all natural things in the cosmos? Islam and Western civilization, although both practicing the operation of man's liberation, differ in the intellectual basis on which this liberation stands.

Islam bases it on the belief in man alone and in his control over himself which has doubted all principles and facts that are lying behind the materialistic dimensions of man's existence. For this purpose has the idea of freedom in Islam been rendered to a believing doctrine which believes in the Unity of God, and to a firm conviction in His control over the cosmos.

The deeper this belief goes into the Muslim's heart, and the more centralized his unifying outlook to Allah is, the more elevated his soul will be and the deeper his feeling of dignity and liberty, and the more stiff his will to stand in the face of tyranny, corruption and enslavement by others:

وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَهُمُ الْبَغْيُ هُمْ يَنتَصِرُونَ

And those who, when an oppressive wrong is inflicted on them, (are not cowed but) help and defend themselves. (Qur'an, 42:39).

Contrarily to this is the idea of freedom according to Western civilization: This is the product of doubt, unbelief and the result of disturbance and rebellion, not of conviction or stability, as we have already come to know. We can classify the democratic capitalist norms of freedom, for the purpose of comparing them with Islam, into two kinds:

1. One of them is freedom in the personal sphere of man, which is what democracy labels "Personal Freedom".

2. The other is freedom in the social sphere. This includes the intellectual, political and economic norms of freedom.

Personal freedom treats man's conduct as an individual, albeit if he lives independently or as part of the society. As for the three other norms of freedom, these treat man as an individual living among the group, permitting him to voice his ideas to others as he likes and granting him the right to choose the kind of ruling authority which he prefers, opening before him the way to all different kinds of economic activity according to his capacity and inclination.

Freedom in the Personal Sphere

Modern Western civilization has tried hard to get the largest possible share of freedom for each individual in his/her personal conduct, the share which does not harm other people's freedom. It is not important, after making this freedom available for all individuals, how they would use it, the outcomes resulting there from, the psychological and intellectual reactions thereof, as long as each individual is free in his/her behaviour and conduct, capable of executing his/her own will in all personal spheres.

The drunkard, for example, is allowed to drink as much liquor as he wants and sacrifice the last particle of his consciousness and awareness as long as he does not bother others or become a menace to their lives in one way or another. Mankind has become intoxicated with the tones of this "freedom" and slept therein for sometime, feeling for the first time that he has broken all the chains and that this giant, who has been suppressed within his depths for thousands of years, has set out for the first time and has been permitted to do whatever he willed in the light, without fear or worry.

But this sweet dream did not last long. Man started waking up slowly to gradually realize that he is disturbed, that this freedom has chained him with huge chains, destroying his hopes for a free humane setting out. He found himself being pushed in a carriage running on a planned path without being able to change or improve its course.

All his consolation and solace, while looking at his destiny on his planned path, is that there is someone who has said that this carriage is the carriage of freedom, in spite of these cuffs and chains in his hands. But when did freedom change into a chain? And how did setting out lead to those cuffs which pull the carriage along its planned destiny, and in the end man woke up to witness such bitter reality?

This, indeed, is what Islam had predicted fourteen centuries ago when it did not contend itself with providing such superficial meaning for freedom for humanity which has been inflicted with all these contradictions in the modern living experience of Western man. Rather, it went further and brought forth a much deeper concept of freedom.

It declared a revolution not only against the chains and shackles as they appear, but, rather, against their psychological and intellectual roots. Thus has it guaranteed man the highest and purest norms of freedom people have ever tasted across the passage of history? If freedom, according to Western civilization, starts from "liberation" to end in norms of slavery and chains, as we shall explain, then vast freedom, according to Islam, is quite the opposite, for this starts from pure submission to Allah Almighty to end with liberation from all norms of humiliating slavery.

Islam starts its operation to liberate man from the inner content of man himself, for it sees that granting man freedom is not by saying to him: "This is the path. We have cleared it for you; so, walk along it in peace." Rather, man becomes truly free when he can control his path and maintain for his humanity the right to determine his path and portray its characteristics and directions.

This depends, above all, on man's liberation from the slavery of the desires which occupy his mind so that the desire may turn into a tool which attracts man to what he likes, not a pushing power to exhaust man's will without being able to practice towards it any potential or ability, for if it has been so, man would have lost his freedom in the first place.

It does not change the reality when his hands are free as long as his mind and all his human concepts, which distinguish him from the animal kingdom, are chained and frozen. We all know that the essential thing which distinguishes man's freedom from that of the animals is generally the fact that, although they both act according to their respective will, animals’ will is always subservient to their desires and instinctive inclinations.

As for man, he is equipped with the capacity to control his desires, using his mental logic in their respect. The secret of his freedom, as a human being, then, is confined within this capacity. If we freeze it within him, being satisfied with granting him the superficial freedom in his practical behaviour, providing him with all capabilities and temptations to respond favourably to his desires, as the "modern" Western civilization has already done, then we would gradually destroy his human freedom in exchange for the desires of the animal which is confined within his depths, making him a tool to satisfy those desires, so much so that when he looks at himself, during his passage, he will find himself the indicted one, rather than the indicting, one whose affairs and will are overcome.

Contrariwise: If we start with that capacity in which the secret of human freedom is confined, giving it growth and nourishment, remaking man as a human being, not as a beast, making him aware of the fact that his message in life is much more sublime than that abhorred beastly destiny driven to him by those desires, and that his high principle for the purpose of whose achievement he is created, is much, much more elevated than these trivial objectives and cheap gains which he gets through his materialistic pleasures.

I say: If we do all this until man is liberated from the slavery of his own desires, emancipating himself from their captivating influence, possessing his own will, the free man will then be created who can say "Yes" or "No" without his mouth being suppressed or hand chained by this temporary desire or that cheap thrill. This is exactly what the Qur'an has said when it put for the Muslim individual his particular spiritual stamp, developing his criteria and principles, pulling him out of earth and its limited goals to vaster horizons and more sublime objectives:

زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاء وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَاللَّهُ عِندَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ. قُلْ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُم بِخَيْرٍ مِّن ذَلِكُمْ لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزْوَاجٌ مُّطَهَّرَةٌ وَرِضْوَانٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ .

Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: women and sons; heaped-up hoards of gold and silver; horses branded (for blood and excellence); and (wealth of) cattle and well-tilled land. Such are the possessions of this world's life; but in nearness to Allah is the best of the goals (to return to). Say: "Shall I give you glad tidings of things far better than those?" For the righteous there are gardens in nearness to their Lord, with rivers flowing beneath; therein is their eternal home; with companions pure (and holy) and the good pleasure of Allah, for Allah is well aware of (all) His servants. (Qur'an, 3:14-15).

This is but the war of liberation in its internal context of man, and it ultimately is the first basis and the head start to liberate mankind according to Islam. Without it, all norms of freedom would become falsehood and deception, and in the end captivity and chains. We see, in the light of this Qur'anic guidance, that the method the Qur'an uses to deliver mankind from the yoke of desires and the slavery of pleasures is the general method which Islam always uses to cultivate humanity in all fields: the method of Tawhid (Unity of God).

Islam, when it liberates man from worldly slavery and its vanishing pleasures, connects him with heavens and its gardens the similitude of which is the Pleasure of Allah, for Tawhid in Islam is the aid for man's inner liberation from all norms of slavery, and it is the aid for the human liberation in all fields.

Suffices us here to mention one example which we have left behind in a previous chapter, in order to know the glorious results of this liberation and the extent of the difference between the true freedom of the Qur'anic man and those artificial norms of freedom advocated by the modern nations of the Western civilization.

The nation the Qur'an liberated, when it called it in one word to renounce wine, has been able to say "No" to wine and erase it from its dictionary after it used to be part of its entity and an article of its necessities. It was in possession of its own will, free in facing its desires and animal impulses. In short, it enjoyed a true freedom which allowed it to control its conduct.

As for the nation which modern civilization has created, granting it its individual freedom according to its particular method, in spite of this artificial mask of freedom, it really does not possess any of its own will, nor can it control its own existence, for it has never liberated its inner content.

Rather, it yielded to its pleasures and desires under the cover of individual freedom until it lost its freedom while satisfying such desires and pleasures. The strongest propaganda campaign against liquor conducted by the government of the United States has not been able to liberate the American nation from the slavery to liquor, in spite of the huge materialistic and spiritual potentials the ruling authority and various social institutes used for this purpose.

This fearful failure is but the result of Western man losing his real freedom, for he cannot say "No", whenever convinced, as does the man of the Qur'an. Instead, he says the word which his desire forces him to articulate. For this reason, he has not been able to free himself from liquor's entanglement, for he has not, under the shade of the Western civilization, won a real emancipation within his spiritual and intellectual content.3

This internal emancipation, or inner-building of man's entity, is, according to Islam, the cornerstone in the establishment of a free and happy society. As long as man does not possess his will, is unable to control his inner situation or maintain his cultivated humanity in determining his conduct, he can never truly free himself socially in order to resist temptation, nor can he wage the battle of an external liberation with merits and bravery:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُواْ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ

Verily, never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls). (Qur'an, 13:11).

وَإِذَا أَرَدْنَا أَن نُّهْلِكَ قَرْيَةً أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُواْ فِيهَا فَحَقَّ عَلَيْهَا الْقَوْلُ فَدَمَّرْنَاهَا تَدْمِيرًا

If We will to perish a village, We would order the rich in it who would make corruption therein; then it would be opportune for Our call, and we would totally ruin it . (Qur'an, 17: 16).

Freedom in the Social Sphere

While waging the war of humanity's inner liberation, Islam likewise wages another war to liberate man socially. It ruins, in the internal content of man, the idols of desire which rob him of his human freedom. It smashes, in the field of exchanged relationships among individuals, the social idols as well. It emancipates humanity from its slavery. It puts an end to man worshipping man:

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاء بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلاَّ نَعْبُدَ إِلاَّ اللَّهَ وَلاَ نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلاَ يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ

Say: "O People of the Book (Christians and Jews)! Come to common terms between us and you: that we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we install none, from among ourselves, as lords and patrons other than Allah." (Qur'an, 3:64).

Man's submission to Allah makes all people stand on equal footing before the Hands of the worshipped Creator; there is no nation that has the right to colonize and enslave another nation, nor is there a group of the society allowed to rob another group or violate its freedom, nor is there one human being who has the right to pose himself as an idol to be worshipped by others.

Once more do we find out that the second Qur'anic battlefield for the purpose of liberation uses the same method it used in the first, that is, the battle to liberate man internally from the control of his desires, and it is used in all other Islamic epics, which is: Tawhid. As long as man acknowledges submission to Allah alone, he would naturally reject any idol or fake worship of any person or being.

He would lift his head up high with dignity, and he will not feel the humiliation of slavery and submissiveness to any power on earth or to any idol. The phenomenon of idol-worship in man's life has been initiated for two reasons: One of them is his slavery to his own desire which makes him surrender his freedom to the human idol which can satisfy and guarantee the fulfilment of that desire.

The other is his ignorance of the points of weakness and incapacity that lie behind those idolatrous masks professing deism. Islam has emancipated man from slavery to desire, as we have come to know above, and from the fakery of those deceitful idolatrous masks:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ عِبَادٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ

Those whom you call as gods other than Allah are but His servants like your own selves . (Qur'an, 7:194).

It naturally follows that he conquers idol-worship and wipes out from the Muslim minds idolatry in all its various shapes and colours. In the light of the bases on which the liberation of man from the slaveries of desire in the personal field stands, and his emancipation from idol-worship in the social, albeit if the idol is a nation, a group, or an individual, can we know the individual's sphere of practical conduct in Islam.

Islam is different from the modern Western civilizations which do not restrict this practical freedom of the individual but those of others. Islam takes care, first of all, as we have already come to know, of emancipating the individual from the slavery of desires and idols, allowing him to behave as he pleases as long as he does not go beyond Allah's limits. The Qur'an says:

هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُم مَّا فِي الأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا

It is He Who has created for you all things that are on earth ... (Qur'an, 2:29).

وَسَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا مِّنْهُ

And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth. (Qur'an, 45:13).

Hence, Islam puts the cosmos in its entirety at the disposal of man of his freedom, but it restricts freedom to the limits which make it congenial with his internal liberation from the slavery of desire and his external liberation from the slavery of idols. As regarding practical freedom in adoring the desire and clinging to earth and all what this implies, renouncing human freedom in its true meaning.

As regarding practical freedom in remaining silent about injustice and relinquishing right, worshipping idols and getting closer to them, pursuing their own interests and giving up the real great and true message of man in this life, all of this is not permitted in Islam: It is nothing but the destruction of the deepest meanings of freedom in man. Instead, Islam understands it to be part of a perfect intellectual and spiritual program on the basis of which humanity must stand.

***

When we highlight this liberating and revolutionary aspect of Islam in the social sphere, we do not imply thereby that it agrees with the democratic social norms of freedom in their particular Western framework. While differing from the Western civilization in its concept of personal liberty, as we have come to know a short while ago, Islam also differs from it in its concept of the political, economic and intellectual freedom.

The Western concept of political freedom expresses the basic idea of the Western civilization which claims that man possesses himself, and nobody has the right to give him directions. Political freedom has been a result of practicing such basic idea in the political field, for as long as the structure, colour and laws of the social life directly affect all members of the society, then everybody has to participate in the operation of social construction as he pleases, and no individual may force another to do what he does not like or subject him by force to a system which he does not accept.

Political freedom starts conflicting with the basic idea as soon as it faces the reality of life, for it is quite natural that the society contains numerous different opinion, and adopting some people's opinion means depriving others of their right to have their own will and control their own destiny. Here has the idea to adopt the majority's opinion come as collaboration between the basic idea and political freedom.

But it is an incomplete collaboration because the minority enjoys its rights of freedom and self-will similarly to the majority, and the majority's opinion deprives it of using its right; therefore, the principle of the majority is not more than a system through which one group plays havoc with another group's rights, with only a numerical difference.

We do not deny that the majority principle maybe one accepted by all people; therefore, the minority tries hard to execute the viewpoint of the majority as being the one with more followers, even though it spontaneously believes in another viewpoint and tries to attract the majority to it.

But this is an assumption the validity of which cannot be ascertained in all societies. There are many minorities that do not accept any viewpoint other than their own even if such a viewpoint opposes that of the majority.

From this we can come to this summary: The basic idea of the Western civilization, as soon as it functions in the political field, starts contradicting itself and facing the reality, turning to a norm of despotism and individualism in government shown in the best way by the majority ruling the minority.

Islam does not believe in this "basic idea" of the Western civilization, for it is based on man worshipping Allah, and that Allah alone is man's Master and Sustainer, the only One Who has the right to arrange his life-style:

أَأَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ؟ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِهِ إِلاَّ أَسْمَاء سَمَّيْتُمُوهَا أَنتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُم مَّا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَانٍ إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلاَّ لِلَّهِ أَمَرَ أَلاَّ تَعْبُدُواْ إِلاَّ إِيَّاهُ

Are many lords differing among themselves better or the One God, Supreme and Irresistible? The Command is for none but Allah. He has commanded that you should worship none but Him... (Qur'an, 12:39-40).

And it blames those individuals who yield to others, granting them the right of Imamate in life and Divine upbringing:

اتَّخَذُواْ أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَانَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ

They take their priests and anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah . (Qur'an, 9:31).

Therefore, neither the individual nor all the individuals combined have the right to monopolize authority other than Allah, directing the social life and establishing curricula and constitutions, etc. Among the outcomes of such "equality" in this life we come to know that man's political liberation is based on the belief in the equality of all society members to bear the burdens of the Divine Trust and their cooperation in enacting Almighty Allah's commandments: "Everyone of you is in charge and is responsible for those of whom he is in charge." Political equality in Islam differs in shape from its Western counterpart: It is equality in bearing responsibility, not in ruling.

Among the results of this equality is man's emancipation in the political field from the control of others and the eradication of all norms of political exploitation, individualistic and class government.

For this reason do we find the Glorious Qur'an renouncing Pharaoh's rule as well as the society whom he ruled, for he symbolized the control of the individual over the government and the domination of one class over all others:

إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلا فِي الأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ

Truly Pharaoh elevated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them... (Qur'an, 28:4).

Any political structure which allows an individual or class to exploit and subjugate other individuals or classes is not accepted by Islam, for it opposes the equality among the society members in bearing responsibility in their absolute submission to Allah Almighty.

As for the economic freedom, it is, in its capitalist concept, only a freedom in appearance which may be summarized thus: allowing every individual to behave as he pleases in the economic field without the interference or pressure of the ruling apparatus. Having permitted the individual to behave as he pleases, capitalism is not further concerned about securing anything he wants.

In other words, it is not concerned with allowing him to want anything. For this purpose do not we find out that economic freedom, in its materialistic concept, does not bear any meaning to those who were not allowed by opportunities to live, nor were the circumstances of competition and economic racing prepared for them.

Thus does freedom become merely a mirage without being able to grant these people of its meaning except according to the amount of freedom it grants the individuals who are incapable of, say, swimming when we say to them: "You are free to swim as you please, wherever you like."

If we really want to let them swim freely as they choose, giving them a chance to enjoy this sport as those who can swim enjoy it, we would have secured their safety during that and asked the expert swimmers to protect them, watch over them and not abandon them while swimming else they should get drowned; hence, we would have really promoted true freedom and the ability to swim for all in reality, even though we may have restricted a little bit the activity of the expert swimmers for the sake of protecting the life of others.

This is exactly what Islam has done in the economic field: It called for both economic freedom and assurance, incorporating them into a unified structure, for all are free in the economic field, but within certain limits. The individual is not free when the security of other individuals and the maintenance of the general welfare demand that he gives up some of his freedom. Thus have the ideas of freedom and security been coordinated in Islam.4

As for intellectual freedom, this, according to Western civilization, is permitting any individual to think, declare and propagate his ideas as he pleases, as long as he does not harm the concept of freedom and the bases on which it hinges. For this reason, democratic societies try hard to oppose fascist ideas, limiting their freedom or annihilating them altogether, for such ideas fight the very same basic idea and intellectual premise on which the concept of freedom and the democratic bases stand.

Islam differs from democratic capitalism in this situation as a result of its being different from it in the nature of the intellectual base it adopts which is Tawhid and linking the cosmos to One Lord. It allows the human mind to set out and declare itself as long as it does not revolt against its intellectual base which is the true basis of the availability of freedom for mankind according to Islam, granting him his free and glorious character which does not dissolve before temptations, nor does it kneel down before idols.

Both Western civilization and Islam allow intellectual freedom as long as there is no danger resulting from it against the essential base and freedom itself. Among the fruits of the intellectual freedom in Islam is the war it wages against imitation and stagnant thinking, against mental submission to myths or to ideas of others without consciousness or scrutinizing. Islam aims thereby at creating an analytical mind or an experimental one in man.

It is not enough to establish the free mind in man by just saying to him: "You may think as you please", as has the Western civilization done, for this expansion of freedom will be at the expense of freedom itself, and it quite often leads to hues of intellectual slavery symbolized in imitation, fanaticism and the glorification of superstitions.

Rather, in order to create the free mind, according to Islam, man has to nurture the analytical or experimental mind which does not accept an idea without scrutinizing, nor does it believe in a doctrine unless it is proved, so that this conscious mind may ensure the intellectual freedom and protect man from misusing it because of imitation, fanaticism or scruples. In fact, this is but the share of the Islamic struggle for the internal liberation of man.

Just as it emancipated man's will from the slavery of temptation, as we have already come to know, so has it liberated the human consciousness from the slavery of imitation, fanaticism and superstition. In both this and that has man become free indeed in his mind and will.

وَالَّذِينَ اجْتَنَبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ أَن يَعْبُدُوهَا وَأَنَابُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ لَهُمُ الْبُشْرَى فَبَشِّرْ عِبَادِ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُ أُوْلَئِكَ الَّذِينَ هَدَاهُمُ اللَّهُ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمْ أُوْلُوا الأَلْبَابِ

So announce the god tidings to My servants, those who listen to the word, and follow the best (meaning) of it. Those are they whom Allah has guided; those are men of reason. (Qur'an, 39:17-18).

وَأَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

And We have sent down unto thee (also) the Message; that you may explain clearly to men what is sent for them, and that they may give thought . (Qur'an, 16:44).

تِلْكَ أَمَانِيُّهُمْ؛ قُلْ: هَاتُواْ بُرْهَانَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

These are their (vain) desires. Say: "Produce your proof if you are truthful." (Qur'an, 2:111).

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُواْ بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلاَ يَهْتَدُونَ

When it is said to them: "Follow what Allah has revealed," they say: "Nay! We shall follow the ways of our fathers." What?! Even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance?! (Qur'an, 2.170).

Insurance in Islam vs. Marxism

Insurance in Islam differs from socialist insurance which is based on the Marxist principles in many respects due to the difference between the two systems of insurance in the foundations, frameworks and objectives.

We cannot attempt here except to display some aspects of such differences, having been satisfied with our detailed study of them in our book Iqtisaduna (Our Economy).

1) Social Security in Islam

It is one of the human rights enforced by Allah Almighty. As such, it does not differ according to circumstances or social levels. As for insurance according to Marxism, it is the right of the machine, rather than of man. When the producing machine reaches a particular point, social security becomes an essential condition for its growth and increase of production. Unless the producing powers reach this point, the idea of insurance does not make any sense. For this reason, Marxism considers insurance to belong to particular societies during a limited period of their history.

2) Islamic Concept of Practising Social Security

It is the result of fraternal sympathy which prevails in the Islamic society. Islamic brotherhood is the frame which does the role of insurance therein. The hadith says:

"The Muslim is the brother of every Muslim; he neither does him injustice, nor does he abstain from his rescue. He does not deprive him. Therefore, Muslims have to persevere, visit each other, cooperate with each other and console those who are in need."

As for Marxism, it regards social security as nothing but the result of a huge and bitter struggle which must be sparked and widened, so that when the class struggle starts, and one class victoriously wipes out the other, only then shall social security prevail. Insurance according to Marxism is but an expression of a tight unity and overwhelming fraternity; it hinges but on a polar contradiction and a destructive struggle.

3) Insurance, as a Human Right According to Islam

It does not concern one group rather than another. It covers even those who are incapable of participating in the general production at all. They are, however, insured in the shade of the Islamic society, and the State has to make available for them all means of livelihood. As for Marxist insurance, it derives its existence from the class struggle between the working class and the capitalist class the result of which is a victory for the working class (proletariat) and its cooperation with and participation in that wealth.

For this purpose, there is no Marxist explanation for the insurance of the life of those disabled who live far away from the class struggle because of their affiliation with the working class rather than with the capitalist class, since they have no right to take any gain from the struggle and its booties.

4) Insurance According to Marxism

It is the responsibility of the State alone. In Islam, it is the responsibility of both individuals and State; therefore, Islam has set two principles: one of them is the principle of general cooperation, and the other is the principle of social security. The principle of cooperation means that each Muslim individual is responsible for ensuring the livelihood of others according to his capacity.

Muslims should practice this principle even during the cases when they lose the State which practices the legislative injunctions. The hadith states that:

"Any believer who denies another believer the use of something which he needs, while he or someone else is able to let him do so, then Allah will resurrect him on the Day of Judgement with a black face, blue eyes, his hands tied up to his neck. It will be said: 'This is a traitor who betrayed Allah and His Messenger'; then he will be thrown into Hell-fire."

The principle of social security determines the responsibility of the State in this respect. It has to ensure a level of honourable prosperity for all citizens from the State and general sources of income, and also from its treasury.5 For the clarification of this principle, the hadith says:

"The ruler receives wealth and distributes it, according to the Commandments of Allah, to eight shares: to the poor, the destitute, the tax-collectors, those who do not mind helping Muslims, the slaves, those incapable of paying their debts, in the Way of Allah and to the wayfarers who are unable to buy their journey back home.”

Eight shares he distributes among them, each according to his need, without stringency or fear. Whatever remains will be turned back to the ruler. Whatever lacks, and people do not have enough, the State has to finance their need from its own budget according to their need, so that they will all have enough."

- 1. For this reason, the word "freedom", when used in its general sense in genuine Islamic texts, cannot be charged of being influenced by the precepts of the Western civilization. The Commander of the Faithful 'Ali, peace be with him, is quoted as saying, "Do not be a slave to others since Allah has created you free." Imam Ja'far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq, peace be with him, has said "There are five virtues, one who is without them does not really have much of any interest. The first is faithfulness; the second is good management; the third is shyness (modesty); the fourth is good manners; and the fifth, which combines all of these virtues together, is freedom."

- 2. Nahj al-balaghah by Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, sermon 195, and Bihar al-Anwar, v. 77, p.214.

- 3. See my article “Freedom in the Qur'an” published in the series titled “Ikhtarna Laka” (Dar az-Zahra', Beirut, 1395/ 1975, pp. 43 - 54).

- 4. For the purpose of elaboration, notice our study of capitalist democracy in Iqtisaduna, pp. 247 -269.

- 5. For detailed information, see Iqtisaduna (the chapter on “Economical Problems as Islam sees them and their solutions”), p.328 and following pages.

What Do You Know About Islamic Economics?

(The first edition of this text/book was published in the month of Ramadan of 1410 A.H./April 1990 AD by the Imamia Center, Inc. of Lanham, Marylan1d, U.S.A.)

The first edition of this booklet was published in the month of Ramadan of 1410 A.H./April 1990 AD by the Imamia Center, Inc., of Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A. The author, who was born in al-Kadhimiyya, Baghdad, Iraq, on March 1, 1935 and was tortured to death by tyrant Saddam Hussein on April 9, 1980, has written a number of books the most famous of which are: Iqtisaduna (Our Islamic Economics) and Falsafatuna (Our Islamic Philosophy).

The Translator has translated four titles written by al-Sadr. In addition to this one, he also translated A General Outlook at Rites, which was published in 1979, Contemporary Man and the Social Problem, which was published in 1980, both titles having been published by the World Organization for Islamic Services (W.O.F.I.S.) of Tehran, Iran, and The General Bases of Banking in the Muslim Society which was published in Maryland, U.S.A., in 1981.

Preface

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

People have increasingly been, for quite some time, demanding to get the series of “The Islamic School” out, and the dear readers have been insisting that I must issue a new series for them.

I have been reluctant to respond to such requests due to my desire to focus my efforts on finishing the second volume of Iqtisaduna (“Our Islamic Economics”). The publication of this latter book has been the reason behind the increasing demand that I should issue a brief series explaining and simplifying the book’s researches so that they may become accessible and comprehensible by a larger number of readers.

On this basis, I have written this series, taking special pains to make it simple, avoiding the level of precision and depth which I retained while researching “Our Economics.” On numerous occasions, I have preferred to explain an idea rather than describing its precise form, since the latter is already available in our detailed books.

While introducing this series to its readers, I shall first try to summarize its ideas for them and provide them with a table of contents which ought to help them comprehend it and follow its chapters.

This series includes raising one question and the attempt to answer it. The question is: “Does an economic doctrine exist in Islam?”

In this series, we shall gradually answer this question in the affirmative. After we raise the question, we will be busy explaining it and everything relevant to it. After that, we shall study the answer in the light of our comprehension of Islam, supporting it with proofs and discussing any objections to it.

Explaining the Question

What we mean by discussing the economic doctrine is finding a method to regulate the economic life according to the principle of equity. When we inquire about the economic doctrine in Islam, we express our desire to know whether or not Islam has brought a way to regulate the economic life as capitalism, for example, has brought forth the principle of “economic freedom,” using it as its own general outline in regulating the economic life.

Our Need for Raising the Question

Our need to put forth such a question springs from numerous reasons among the most significant of which is probably Islam’s rejection of capitalism and Marxism, the two systems that rule the world nowadays. Islam’s negation of both of these systems obligates the Muslim individual to expect Islam to bring a substitute for them to regulate the economic life, since the Muslim society cannot do without a method for such organization, no matter what form it may have.

Misunderstanding the Question

Having laid the question down, clarified it and explained its significance, we explicate the error some people make while trying to understand this question without making a distinction between the “economic doctrine” and the “science of economics” in Islam. What we really mean here is the economic doctrine, not the science of economics.

How to Distinguish Between the Doctrine and Science

In order to avoid misunderstanding this question, we shall elaborately explain the difference between the economic doctrine and the science of economics. In fact, the difference between them is significant.

The economic doctrine, as we have come to know, takes upon itself to discover a method for the regulating of the economic life according to the principle of equity. As for the science of economics, it does not provide a method for such regulating; rather, it derives its approach from the followed paths of societies, studying their outcomes and consequences, just as the naturalist studies the results and effects of, say, heat generating.

Example for the Difference between Doctrine and Science

We shall use many examples to explain the difference between the economic doctrine and the science of economics. The capitalist creed, for example, regulates the economic life upon the basis of the principle of economic freedom; therefore, it regulates the market upon the basis of the sellers’ freedom to determine the price of their goods.

The science of economics does not attempt to bring forth another method for regulating the market; instead, its role is to study the market’s condition in the shade of the capitalist method, researching the fluctuation, fixing, rising or falling of prices in the free market as regulated by the capitalist method.

The doctrine, therefore, finds a method for regulating economics, according to its concept of equity, while the science of economics studies the results of such a method when it is imposed on the society.

Emphasizing that Islamic Economics Comprise a Doctrine

After putting forth several examples explaining the differences between doctrine and science, we shall emphasize the fact that by the economic doctrine, whose existence in Islam we have been questioning and answering in the affirmative, we do not mean here the science of economics. As a religion, Islam does not have to discuss the sciences of economics, astronomy, mathematics, etc. We mean by it, rather, the economic doctrine itself.

Our research and inquiry are about whether Islam provides a method for regulating the economic life, not whether Islam undertakes upon itself to conduct a scientific study of the available means and methods of economics contemporary to its advent and of their results. Such is the task of scientists of economics, the economists.

The series arrives, after that, at an explanation of the viewpoint regarding the answer, deriving the accurate concept from the Islamic legislative system (Shari’a) which absorbs and incorporates different fields of knowledge. We prove this even by the very nature of Shari’a and its sources. After that, we shall dispel some doubts cast about the belief in the existence of the Islamic economics, and we shall answer these, too.

In particular, I would like to refer to the allegation which says that Islam has brought ethical principles, and that it did not bring an economic system to regulate life; so, it is allegedly a mere preacher, not a system maker. We will explain how this charge capitalized on the ethical aspect of Islam and used it to overshadow the characteristics of its social organization despite the fact that Shari’a has indeed tackled both fields.

It has, as a religion, applied the ethical aspect in order to ethically nurture the individual Islamically, and it has practiced the social organization as a system chosen by God for all the human family. This briefly sums up this discussion and its subject-matters. The details of these researches and subject-matters follow.

Is There an Economic System in Islam?

Probably the most persistent question which occupies many minds, one which is repeated on every tongue and is recurrent with every problem through which the nation passes as long as it exists, is the question regarding the economic doctrine in Islam; so, is there any economics theory in Islam?

Can we find a solution for this polar contradiction between capitalism and Marxism, which is dominating the world nowadays, through a new substitute derived from Islam and extracted from its method of legislation and organization? What is the extent of the potential of this new Islamic substitute in providing a good standard of living, in carrying out its message to the nation which is suffering nowadays from a severe doctrinal dilemma within the tumultuous torrent of such intense conflict with capitalism and Marxism?

Contemplating on this new substitute, or wondering about its reality and Islamic context, is not an intellectual luxury a Muslim relishes; rather, it is an expression of the disappointment of the Muslim individual with both contesting wrestlers and a manifestation of his own reaction to their failure throughout the various experiences he has lived, the failure of the combating wrestlers, capitalism and Marxism, in filling the Muslim nation's doctrinal and ideological vacuum.

Contemplating on the Islamic substitute, or inquiring about it, in addition to the indication of the disappointment of the Muslim individual with the contesting wrestlers, reveal a new trend towards Islam, and all in all they reflect an Islamic consciousness which has begun crystallizing and taking various intellectual levels in the minds of many people, each according to the extent of his readiness and degree of response to Islam.

The seeds of an Islamic consciousness manifest their existence in the minds of a large number of people on the level of raising questions about Islam, in the minds of others on the level of an emotional inclination towards it, and in yet other minds on the level of believing in it and in its rightly-guided leadership, in all spheres; it is their very belief in life itself.

Islamic consciousness, which is stirring now in the minds of the Muslim nation on various levels, is the one that once laid the question, and inspired the answer in favor of Islam. On other occasions, it was embodied as a giant conscious belief planted in the right soil of the nation’s minds, the soil that represents Islam among Muslims.

On the other hand, the Islamic faith itself forces Muslims to lay this question down to the faith or to its ulema (theologians) who represent it, asking them to provide the better substitute for contesting opponents, capitalism and Marxism. Islam declares very clearly in the Holy Qur’an, in the legislative texts of the Shari’a, and through all other vehicles of media at its disposal, that it opposes both capitalism and Marxism.

Naturally, it is responsible for defining a positive situation, besides that negative one, to lead us to another path with whose viewpoint and general structure it agrees. The negative attitude, when separated from a constructive response which outlines its objectives and defines its pathway, means the retreat from life’s battlegrounds and the final social disintegration, not merely subscribing to a new ideology.

Since it does not approve to be included within the frameworks of capitalism, socialism and Marxism, Islam, then, has to provide an alternative, or at least lead us to one. It becomes only natural for Muslims, who have come to know Islam’s negative attitude towards capitalism and Marxism and its disapproval of them, to inquire about the extent of Islam’s might and ability to provide this alternative, and the extent of success which we may attain if we are to be satisfied with Islam itself, inspired thereby to derive an economic system.

Our answer to all of this is: Islam is capable of providing us with a positive stance rich in legislative characteristics, general outlines and detailed canons from which a complete economic system can be formulated, one which differs from all other economic doctrines in its Islamic framework, divine link and harmony with humanity, all humanity, in its spiritual and materialistic spheres and dimensions of both time and place.

This is exactly what we shall witness in the forthcoming researches.

What Sort of Islamic Economic System is it?

What do we mean by saying that there is an economic system in Islam? What is the nature of the Islamic economic system about which we inquired at the beginning of this study, emphatically asserting its existence and our belief therein?

This is exactly what we have to start explaining before anything else because when we claim that there is an economic system in Islam, we cannot seek to confirm such a claim unless it is defined and made comprehensible, and unless we explain to the reader the meaning which we render to this “Islamic economic system.”

We mean here the economic doctrine, not the science of economics. The Islamic doctrine is but an attempt to seek a method which is compatible with a certain concept of equity in order to regulate the economic life accordingly.

By using the term “Islamic economic system,” we do not necessarily refer to any particular scientific research in economics. This sort of definition of the Islamic economic system enables us to face the challenge of differentiating between the “economic doctrine” and the “science of economics.”

As long as the Islamic economic system is an economic doctrine, not a science of economics, we must know with more clarity the meaning of the economic doctrine as well as that of the science of economics: What are their differentiating characteristics? If this is not made clear enough by illustrations, the identity of the Islamic economic system will remain shrouded with ambiguity.

When we, for example, describe someone as being an engineer, not a physician, we have to know the concept of “an engineer”. What is his function? What is his education? What sort of job does he do? What is the difference (in function) between him and, say, a physician?

Only when we know the answers to all these questions can we for sure be able to ascertain the truth of the description of that individual and of his truly being an engineer, rather than a physician, etc.

Also, when it is said that the Islamic economic system is an economic doctrine, not a science of economics, we must understand the general concept of the economic doctrine as a whole and the function of the economic creeds, the nature of their formation and the differences between the economic doctrine and the science of economics, so that we may be able to know, in the light of all of this, the identity of the Islamic economic system and the fact of its being an economics creed rather than a science of economics.

In my judgment, the clarification of the identity of the Islamic economic system must be based on a complete differentiation between the economic doctrine and the science of economics, and on the realization of the fact that the Islamic economic system is a doctrine, a creed, not a science.

Such a clarification will help us a great deal in putting forth the claim that there is an economic system in Islam, and it undermines the premises upon which those who deny the existence of an economic system in Islam stand, exposing their confusion in this regard. Upon this basis we shall attempt to conduct a general study of the economic doctrine and the science of economics, and the differences between them both.

Economic Doctrine and the Science of Economics

Each one of us faces two sorts of questions in his everyday life and realizes the difference between them: For example, when we want to ask a father about the conduct of his son, we may ask him, “How should your son behave?” Or we may ask him, “How does your son actually behave?”

When we put forth the first question to the father, asking him how his son ought to behave in life, he will naturally derive his answer from the principles, ideals and objectives he holds as sacred and puts to practice. He may say, “My son ought to be brave, courageous, ambitious,” or he may say, “He ought to be a true believer in his Lord, self-confident, ready to sacrifice his all for the sake of attaining righteousness and a sound belief.”

But when we ask the same father the second question, in which we inquire about his son’s actual behavior in life, he will not refer to his own principles and ideals in order to provide his answer; rather, he will answer it in the light of his own observations of his son’s conduct. He may say, “He is behaving loosely, trading in his faith and is a coward when faced by life’s problems.”

The father derives his answer to the first question from the principles and ideals in which he himself believes, while he derives his answer to the second question from his own observations and evaluation of his son’s conduct in life’s arena.

We can use this example to explain the difference between the economic doctrine and the science of economics. In the economic life, we are encountered by two distinct questions, like the ones the father encountered when asked about his son’s conduct; therefore, we may once ask: “How should the events go on in the economy’s life?” while we may ask: “How events are actually going on in the economy’s life?”

The economic doctrine deals with the first question; it answers it, deriving the answer from the principles and ideals in which it believes and from its concepts of justice, just as the father derived his answer to the first question from his own principles and ideals.

The science of economics, on the other hand, deals with the second question: It answers it as inspired by observation and experience. Just as the father answers the second question, basing his answer on his own observations of his son’s conduct and on his experience with it, so does the science of economics fare: It explains the events of the economic life in the light of observation and experience.

Thus do we come to know that the science of economics discovers what actually occurs in the economic life of social and natural phenomena, discussing their causes and interrelations. The economic doctrine evaluates the economic life and outlines how it ought to be according to its own concepts of equity and the equitable method for regulating it.

Science discovers, while doctrine evaluates. Science talks about what is already in existence and the reasons for its existence; a doctrine discusses what ought to and ought not to be. Let us start with the illustrations which distinguish between the function of science and the role of the doctrine in discovering and evaluating:

The First Example

Let us take the example of the link between the market price and the degree of demand: We are all aware, from our everyday life observation, of the fact that when a commodity is more in demand and the public’s desire to purchase it is increasing, its price will rise. If we author a book in, say, mathematics, and it is sold for ¼ dinar, and if the ministry of education decides to use it as a school textbook, and if the students demand for it increases, its market price will accordingly increase.

So is the case with all other goods: Their prices are linked to the degree of market demand; when demand increases, price, too, will increase. This link between price and demand is included in the calculation of both science and doctrine; but each treats it from its own particular angle. The science of economics studies it as a phenomenon which takes shape and is found in the free market, the market that is free of enforcement of pricing restrictions on goods by a higher authority such as the government.

It explains how this phenomenon takes shape as a result of the market’s freedom, and it finds out the extent of the link between the price and the degree of demand. It explains whether the link between the price and the degree of demand is the same for all goods, or whether only some prices are affected when they are more in demand than others.

All of this is studied by science for the purpose of discovering all facts related to the phenomenon of the link between price and demand, and it explains what happens in the free market as the outcome of its own freedom, explaining all of that scientifically on the basis of methods of scientific research and regular observation.

In all of this, science does not add anything to the reality of the matter; rather, its main objective is the forming of a precise idea about what actually takes place, what phenomena result in the free market, and what relations exist among such links, the coining of laws which express such links, reflecting the exterior reality in the best possible and precise exactness.

As regarding the economic doctrine, it neither studies the free market in order to discover the outcomes of such a freedom and its effects on prices, and how the price is linked to the degree of the free market’s demand, nor does it take upon itself to wonder why the price of a commodity in the free market increases when it is more in demand.

The doctrine does not do anything like that. It is not supposed to. It does not have the right to do so either because the discovery of the causes and effects, the shaping of realities into general laws which reflect and copy it, is the privilege of the science in whatever it possesses of means of observation, experiment and deduction.

This doctrine deals with the freedom of the market in order to evaluate such freedom and the results to which it leads and whatever happens to be the outcome of linking the price to the degree of demand which invades the market.

What we mean by the evaluation of freedom and of its outcomes is to judge it according to the doctrine’s own concept of equity, as each economic doctrine has its own general concepts of equity, hinging its evaluation of any line of the economic life on the degree of capability such line embodies of equity according, of course, to the doctrine’s concepts thereof.

The freedom of the market, for example, when researched in the light of the doctrine, will not be dealt with as a de facto phenomenon which has its outcomes and scientific laws; rather, as an economic system which requires the testing of its own degree of equity.

The questions “What are the outcomes of the free market? How is the price linked therein to the demand? Why should each be linked to the other at all?” are all answered by the science of economics.

The questions “How should the market be? Does its freedom guarantee a fair distribution of goods and the fulfillment of needs in the manner enforced by social equity?” are all answered by the economic doctrine.

Accordingly, it is wrong to expect any economic doctrine to explain to us the extent of link between price and demand in the free market, and the laws of availability and demand economists discuss while studying the nature of the free market.

Second Example

According to David Ricardo (1772 – 1823), if laborer’s wages were free from any interference of a higher authority, such as a government officially controlling them, they would remain slightly above the level that would only sustain the laborers. If they increase above such a level, it would only be temporarily; soon they will go back to their sustaining level.

In his explanation of this theory, Ricardo says that if laborer’s wages increase above the minimum sustaining level, it would only be temporarily; soon they will go back to their sustaining level. In his explanation of this theory, Ricardo says that if laborer’s wages increase above the minimum sustaining level, they will lead to the laborers’ increase in number due to the improvement in their living conditions, marriage and reproduction.

As long as the laborer’s job is a commodity in the free market, where wages and prices are not restricted, it, too, will be subject to the same rule of availability and demand. If laborers increase in number, and the availability of jobs in the market is plentiful, their wages will decrease accordingly.

So, whenever prices increase above the level of subsistence, there will be factors which would once more force their decrease and return to their destined limit. When they decrease below such a limit, laborer’s misery results; disease and death will prevail on them till their number decreases. When their number decreases, their wages will increase and go back to the level of subsistence because when there is a shortage and scarcity of a commodity, its price will rise in the free market. This is what Ricardo terms “the iron law of wages.”

In such a “law”, Ricardo discusses what actually takes place if there is a free labor market, discovering the stable level of wages within such a market, and the social and natural factors which interfere to fix and maintain such a level whenever the wage is liable to increase or decrease exceptionally.

In fact, in his discussion of such a law, Ricardo answers the questions “What actually happens?” not “What should happen?” Because of this, his research enters the precincts of the science of economics; as it aims at the discovery of what events actually take place and what laws govern such events.

The economic doctrine, on the other hand, when dealing with laborer’s wages, does not aim at the discovery of what actually takes place in the free market. Rather, it finds out a method to regulate it, one which agrees with its own concept of equity. It discusses the basis on which wages ought to be regulated, researching the possibility of whether or not the principle of economic freedom fits to be the basis to regulate wages according to its own concept of equity.

Thereupon, we do not consider the function of the economic doctrine to be anything other than the definition of how the market ought to be regulated, according to its own concept of equity: Should it be regulated according to the principle of economic freedom, or on some other basis?

The science of economics studies the already-regulated market, basing its study on the principle of economic freedom, for example, in order to be acquainted with what events take place at the regulated market according to the same principle, how prices of commodities therein are fixed, how the laborer’s wages are restricted, and how they increase or decrease. In other words, science discovers; doctrines evaluate and judge.

Third Example

Let us take the third example of production, and let us define the angle from which the science of economics studies production according to the economic doctrine, so that we may be able to differentiate between both angles.

The science of economics studies the general methods of production which help the growth of production such as the distribution of labor, specialization, etc., comparing, for example, two projects which produce, say, wrist watches; each project contains ten laborers. Every laborer in each project is required to produce one watch. In the other project, labor is distributed; each laborer is entrusted to carry out one single step of the operation required to make the watch.

He repeats this sort of operation continuously, without participating in any other operation the watch has to go through during the manufacturing process. The scientific research in economics studies both of these projects, their relevant different methods, and the effects of each on production and on the laborer himself.

The science of economics also studies everything related to the economic production of natural laws, such as the law of the reason behind crop underproduction in agriculture which says that the percentage of increase in agricultural output of the land is less than that of its expense.1 The science of economics studies all of this because it shows the discovery of facts on the economic level, as they take place, defining the factors which naturally affect production positively or negatively.

As regarding the doctrine, it deals with the following issues:

• Should production remain free, or should it be subjected to a central planning by the State?

• Should the increase in production be regarded as an essential objective, or should it be seen as a means towards a higher end?

• If the increase in production is considered as means towards a higher end, what are the limits and frameworks enforced by the nature of that "higher end" on such means? Should the production policy be the basis for the regulation of distribution, or is it the other way around?

In other words, which one of them ought to be regulated for the sake of the other? Shall we regulate the distribution of wealth in the manner which would make production plentiful and help its growth, so that the production’s interest would be the basis for distribution?

If the national interest requires the legislation of interest on commercial bonds in order to attract capital to the fields of production, should certain measures be undertaken in this regard and the distribution regulated according to the recognition of the capital’s rightful share of the interest, or should we regulate the distribution of wealth according to the requirements of an equitable distribution, limiting production by methods and means which would agree with the requirements of an equitable distribution?

All of this is included within the limits of the economic doctrine, not the science of economics, because it is linked to the regulation of production and to how its general policy should be structured.

Conclusion Derived From Previous Examples

From the previous examples, we can draw distinct lines between the science and the doctrine: the line of discovery and acquaintance with the secrets of the economic life and its various phenomena, and the line of evaluation and the discovery of ways to regulate the economic life according to certain concepts of equity.

Upon such basis can we distinguish between the scientific ideas and the doctrinal ones. The scientific idea revolves round the discovery of the reality, as it is, in an attempt to get acquainted with its causes, results, and links. It is like a scientific magnifying glass for the economic life. Just as one puts glasses on his eyes (for a better vision), he aims at seeing the reality, without adding to it or changing anything in it, so is the case of the scientific mode of thinking which assumes the role of laws and links. The general stamp of the scientific idea is “discovery”.

As regarding the doctrinal idea, this is not a mirror that reflects the reality. Rather, it is a particular evaluation of the situation in the light of the general concept of the reality. The doctrine says: “This is what should actually take place.”

Science of Economics and Doctrine: History and Ethics

The difference which we have scrutinized between the science of economics and the economic doctrine, that is, between researching what already is and what ought to be, is similar to that between the science of history and the ethical researches. In its general policy, the science of history agrees with the science of economics.

In the process of evaluation and assessment, the policy of ethical researches is similar to the economic doctrine. People generally agree on making a distinction between the science of history and the ethical researches. They know that historians tell them, for example, the reasons which led to the downfall of the Roman Empire at the hands of the Germanic people, and the reasons which caused the crusades to erupt against

Palestine and the failure of all of those crusades, the circumstances which contributed to the assassination of Julius Caesar while enjoying the zenith of his victory and glory, or those that led to the murder of and revolution against Othman ibn Affan, etc.

History studies all of these events, discovering their causes and interrelations to each other, the results they brought forth and the developments in various fields. As a science, it confines itself to scientifically discovering such causes, interrelations and results; it does not evaluate events ethically.

Within its scientific scope, history does not judge Caesar’s or Othman’s assassination to be ethically “right” or to be deviated from lofty moral ethics of conduct. Nor is it its job to evaluate the crusades or the invasion of Rome by the Germanics as being “just” or “unjust”.

The evaluation of all of these events is linked to ethical researches. In the light of the ethical criteria of deeds can we judge, from the ethical viewpoint, that this deed is just or unjust, or that a certain norm of behavior is straight or crooked, deviated, or whatever.

Just as the science of history describes a conduct or an event as it took place, the ethical researcher comes later on with his general criteria to evaluate; so does the scientist of economics describe the events of the economic life, and the promoter of the economic doctrine comes later on to evaluate such events, defining the method on whose bases the economic life has to be regulated, all in accordance to the general concepts of justice and equality each one of these upholds.

Economics is Similar to any other Science

What we have said, while discussing the function of the science of economics—indicating that it is confined to discovery alone, rather than to evaluation and assessment—is not restricted only to the science of economics. The basic function of all sciences is discovery.

There is no difference between the economists and physicists, nuclear scientists, astronomers, psychologists, etc. except that the first perform their function in man’s economic field while the others perform this one: the discovering of facts, the latter’s interrelations and the laws governing their various fields of external physical nature, or of the human nature.

The scientist researches natural physics, for e.g., studying various speeds of light, sound and other such matters, discovering their precise equations. The scientist deals with the atom, that is to say, the nuclear scientist studies the atom’s structure, the number of its electrons and neutrons, and the laws governing its movement.

The astronomer studies the large planets in the cosmos and the laws that regulate their orbiting. The psychologist studies mental vision, its psychological implications and the elements which affect it. From his own particular angle, the economist discovers the laws of economic phenomena, whether or not they are natural, such as the phenomenon of crop underproduction, or social, such as the phenomenon of the rise or fall of prices in the free market according to the degree of demand. All of these, scientifically speaking, are discoveries, not evaluations.

Difference is in Function, not Label

In the light of what has passed, you have come to know the fact that the difference between the science of economics and the economic doctrine stems from their difference in function. The function of the science of economics is to discover the economic phenomena and their interrelations, while the function of the economic doctrine is to find a way to regulate the economic life as it should be according to its own concepts of equity.

Upon such a basis, we realize the error of the attempts that aim at subjectively differentiating between the science of economics and the economic doctrine by simply saying that the science of economics deals with production and its laws and the elements which help its growth, while the economic doctrine deals with distribution, its regulations and the interrelations which rise among the society’s individuals on its basis.

Such attempts are wrong because we have already seen from the previous examples—which we provided in order to differentiate between the science and the doctrine—that the economic doctrine deals with both production and distribution (refer to the third example above), whereas the science of economics deals with both distribution and production (refer to the first and second examples above).

The “iron law of wages,” as the second example explained, is a scientific law in spite of its relevance to distribution and the regulation of production. Based on economic freedom, or the basis of a central state supervision, it is considered as one of the issues of the doctrine in spite of its being a research in production.

It is wrong, therefore, to judge a research that deals with production as being “scientific,” while labeling it as “doctrinal” if it deals with distribution. The distinguishing mark between the scientific research and the doctrinal one is the relationship such a research has with either the world of reality or with that of justice and equity.

If the research deals with the economic life as it is in the world of reality, then it is “scientific,” but if it searches for justice and for means to affect such justice, then it is “doctrinal.” In other words, the link between the concept and the “injustice” is the general mark of the doctrine which differentiates it from the scientific researches contained in the science of economics.

Doctrine may be a Framework for Science

We have so far come to know that just as the science of economics deals with production, discovering the crop underproduction law, for e.g., it also deals with distribution, discovering a law such as that of the “iron law of wages.”

In spite of all of this, however, there is often a difference between the scientific research that deals with production and that which deals with distribution. Let us take the law of the crop underproduction and the iron law of wages as examples: The first law represents the scientific research in production; the second represents the scientific research in distribution.

If we study the crops underproduction law, we will find it to include one fact about agricultural production applicable to land in every human society, regardless of its economic doctrine. Land in the capitalist society, according to that law, decreases in producing crops in the same manner it does in the Socialist or Islamic society. This means that the crops underproduction law is not confined to the situation of one particular doctrine; rather, it expresses an absolute scientific fact.

As regarding the iron law of wages, which we explained in the second example, it discovers, as we have already seen, the fixed level of laborer’s wages in a society that enjoys economic freedom. It concludes by stating that in a society wherein freedom dominates, laborer’s wages always remain on the level of subsistence. If they rise or fall, for any reason whatsoever, they always go naturally back to that same level.

This law is scientific in nature, context and objectivity because it tries to discover the reality and to get acquainted with the movement and direction of wages as it takes place in the society. At the same time, it decides that such a fact is true only in the capitalist society in which economic freedom prevails, and it is not applicable to the society which is economy-geared (to a certain direction), one wherein the government enforces restrictions on wages.

Capitalistic freedom is a precondition for the applicability of this scientific iron law of wages; that is to say, it is its general frame within the range of which the iron law of wages is also applicable. This means that the law’s context is scientific, and its general framework (which precludes its application) is doctrinal.

Most likely, the inability to distinguish between the context and the frame, or between the scientific law and its conditions, led to the claim that all distribution laws are doctrinal, and that science does not have to research distribution. Preconditioning a certain doctrinal frame for the scientific laws of distribution made those who put forth such a claim imagine that those laws are doctrinal in nature.

Derived Conclusions

From the above, we reach these conclusions:

First: The science of economics and the economic doctrine differ in their basic function: The function of science is the discovery (and analysis) of the economic life and its phenomena as they exist in the world of reality, while the function of the doctrine is to find a way to regulate the economic life as it ought to be, according to its general concepts of equity. Science, therefore, tries to embody reality, while doctrine tries to embody equity.

Second: The science of economics deals with both production and distribution, while the economic doctrine deals with both production and distribution, and there is no basis for distinguishing between them (between the science and the doctrine) on the basis of the subject matter by making production the concern of science while assigning distribution as the concern of the doctrine, because science and doctrine differ only in the task and method of research, not in the subject-matter.

Third: The laws of the science of economics, regarding production, express fixed facts applicable to various societies regardless of the economic doctrine they follow. As regarding the laws of the science of economics in distribution, these are conditioned to a certain doctrinal frame; that is, the economist preconditions the existence of a society which practices a certain kind of doctrine like capitalism and of economic freedom, then he tries to discover the laws and economic life of such a society.

Doctrine does not Apply Scientific Methods

From the previous analyses of both doctrine and science, we have come to know that the doctrine's function is to express the demands of justice, while science assumes the responsibility of discovering the economic events, as they occur, their causes and interrelations.

This difference in the basic function necessarily requires their difference in the methods of research. This means that the science of economics, as such, discovers what occurs in the world and in the society of everything related to the economic life, using the scientific methods of observation and experiment, monitoring the events the economic life is full of in order to derive, in their light, their interrelations and general laws.

Whenever there is a case to doubt, and the extent of its truth and reflections of reality are not known, the economist is capable of referring to the scientific criteria and to his own well-organized observations of successive events in order to discover the extent of the truth of such case and of its being a true reflection of the reality.

Both economist and naturalist are on the same footing in this aspect: When the naturalist desires to find out the degree at which water boils, he can scientifically measure the water’s temperature as a natural phenomenon, observing the temperature when boiling starts.

When the economist desires to discover the sequence of famous crises which inflict the human society from time to time, he has to refer to the events of the economic life as they happened successively in order to determine the historical dividing line between one crisis and another. If he finds such a line to be the same in all crises, he will be able to define the cycle of such crises and in the end look for their causes as well as the factors that affect them.

Contrariwise, the economic doctrine cannot measure the subjects it deals with scientifically because it studies such subjects from the angle of equity and justice, trying to find a regulation method according to the demands of justice and equity.

Obviously, justice is different from the water temperature and boiling degree, and it is different from the economic crises and cycles, because the latter are not cosmic or social phenomena which can be observed subjectively or measured scientifically through the well-known means of experiment in the world.

In the economic doctrine, it is not sufficient to look at facts and observe events scientifically in order to know what equity is in organization, as is the case with the economist who studies economic crises in order to know their cycle and code.

Let us take the issue of equity in distribution as an example:

There are some people who say that equity in distribution is achieved in the shade of a system that guarantees equality among all members of the society during austerity as well as during prosperity, and there are others who consider equality of freedom among the members of the society, instead of equality in sustaining them, to be the just basis for distribution, even if individuals practice their free right to variations in sustenance and the increase of the wealth of some over that of others, as long as they all enjoy the same freedom granted equally to each and every one of them.

There are also others who see that the equity of distribution is achieved through guaranteeing a general level of sustenance to all people, while granting them freedom outside the limits of such level, as does Islam.

Can equity of distribution be achieved? Is it equality in subsistence and wealth that matters, or is it the granting of everybody the freedom to practice various norms of economic activity, while limiting each person’s share of subsistence according to the way he practices such freedom? Or is it according to a third method that lies between this and that?

If we want to know the answers to these questions, and to know the approach and concept of equity in as far as these means are concerned, we cannot use science to reach our objective simply because equity is not an external natural phenomenon like temperature or boiling which we can measure by applying our vision or touch or the rest of our physical senses, nor is it a social phenomenon such as economic crises in the capitalist society in order to be evaluated, observed and tested.

Science can surely assess individuals in order to determine the extent of their similarity or dissimilarity in physical or psychological features in order to decide whether it is fair to equate all of them in subsistence or not. Justice and truth are not subjective qualities that can be measured by science or by the senses in the way all bodily or natural phenomena are measured, felt, viewed, etc.

Take the example of the capitalist who believes that people are equal in their right to enjoy freedom even if their shares of subsistence vary, and the socialist who believes that all people are equal in their right to be sustained, and ask both of them this question: “Is there a thermometer for justice like the one for measuring temperature so that I may be able to know the degree of justice in a society where people’s shares of freedom are equal even when their shares of wages and subsistence vary?

Are the ‘rights’ enjoyed by the members of society a natural phenomenon which can be felt as we can feel their own colors, heights, intelligence, voice, etc., in order to study such rights through the use of scientific methods based on the senses or the experiment?”

The answer, of course, to these questions is a plain “No.” Equity has no thermometer because it is not a phenomenon that can be realized through the senses or through observation; nor is the right of people to achieve it one of their own characteristics such as height or intelligence so that we may apply science to determine such right.

The conclusion we draw from this is that as long as it studies the issues from the angle of equity and truth, the doctrine can derive the method it prefers to use in regulating the economic life from its own concepts of equity, from the principles and ideals in which it believes, or from its general attitude towards life.

The Islamic Economic System We Advocate

I believe that the previous research suffices to help us form an outlined concept of what the economic doctrine is all about and its relevance to the science of economics, the function of each, as well as the methods of research each applies. For this reason, we can now explain the nature of our concept of the Islamic economic system, what we mean when we emphasize the existence of economics in Islam, or when we refer to the Islamic economic system.

Islamic economics, as we have come to know at the onset of this research, comprise an economic doctrine, not a science of economics. When we say, “Islam produced an economic doctrine,” we do not claim that Islam invented the science of economics. Islam did not come in order to discover the events of the economic life, its interrelations and causes; this is not its responsibility.

Nor is it responsible for uncovering for people natural laws, the cosmic phenomena, their interrelations and causations, etc. Just as religion does not necessarily have to contain astronomy and natural sciences, by the same token, it does not have to contain the science of economics.

Islam incorporates a system for regulating the economic life rather than for discovering one, and a system to provide the structure within which it has to be regulated, all in accordance with its own concepts of justice and equity. The Islamic economic system represents the Islamic viewpoint of equity and its method for regulating the economic life.

It does not unveil scientific discoveries regarding the links and interrelations of the economic life as they actually take place. This is the meaning of saying that the Islamic economic system is a doctrine, not a science.

In other words, if Islam had come in order to narrate to us about the economic life in Hijaz (where Islam had set roots), and the reasons which cause the Hijazi society, for e.g., to increase the interest rate the lenders receive, then such a narrative would be scientific, one which deals with the science of economics.

But, instead of this, Islam has come to evaluate and consequently prohibit such an interest, regulating the relationship between capital and the project’s owner upon the basis of contracting instead of usury and interest; hence, Islam adopts the doctrinal position, not the scientific one.

When we clearly get to know the nature of Islamic economics to be an economic doctrine, not a science of economics, we can easily remove the largest obstacle in the way of believing in the existence of economics in Islam.

What are the Greatest Obstacles?

The greatest obstacle on which many people rely in rejecting the concept of the Islamic economic system stemmed from the latter’s inability to distinguish between the science of economics and the economic doctrine.

Whenever those who have not had the opportunity to differentiate between the science and the doctrine hear someone saying that there are economics in Islam, they soon retort: “How can there be economics in Islam when we cannot find researches by Muslim economists on par with Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and others?

Islam did not tell us anything about the law of crop underproduction, or the laws of availability and demand, nor has it brought forth a law similar to that of the iron law of wages, nor has it produced a theory regarding the analysis and scientific study of the value as was done by the scientists of economics.

How can we be required to believe in the existence of ‘Islamic economics’ when we all know that the researches in the science of economics were born and brought up to perfection during the last four centuries at the hands of the early pioneers of economics such as Adam Smith and those traders and naturalists who preceded him?” Those who deny the existence of Islamic economics say all of this, assuming that we claim that Islam conducts scientific researches in economics.

Having come to know the difference between the science of economics and the economic doctrine, and that the Islamic economic system is a doctrine, not a science, there remains no need for the above stated denial to exist because the existence of the economic doctrine in Islam does not mean that Islam discusses for people the laws of availability and demand.

Rather, it simply means that Islam has called for a distinct regulation of the economic life; defining the bases and pillars upon which such life has to stand. The belief in the existence of Islamic economics in this light seems plausible rather than odd.

We will not start in this series (of “The Islamic School”) the study of the details of Islamic economics. When we study such details in the forthcoming series, Insha-Allah, we will provide you with the concrete proofs, from the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah, for the existence of the doctrine in Islam. There is no proof for the existence of a thing better than bringing it before the senses, and this we intend to do in the forthcoming series, Insha-Allah.

Now, before we provide the proofs for the existence of the Islamic economic doctrine, and be acquainted with the places in the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah where it can be derived, we want to provide the proof for its existence from the nature of the Islamic Shari’a [legislative system] and our prior comprehension thereof.

Inclusion and Absorption of Shari’a

The inclusion of Shari’a and absorption of all fields of life is one of its own fixed characteristics, not only through following its tenets in such fields, but also in emphasizing this fact in its general sources of derivation, too. We can find, in many such sources, texts which clearly emphasize the absorption of such Shari’a of and extension to all fields lived by man, and also of its being rich with its solutions for all problems in his path in various fields.

Observe these texts:

1. Abu Busayr, through the authority of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (ع), narrated saying that the Imam talked once about the inclusion and absorption of Shari’a, and the knowledge of the Family of the Prophet (ص) of all of that, saying,

“It has the details of everything permissible and prohibited, and everything which people need to know, even the fine to be paid for the extremely tiny cut on one’s cheek.”
Then he clasped his hands and said,
“Do you permit me, O Abu Muhammad?”
Abu Busayr answered,
“May my life be sacrificed defending yours! I am yours to do whatever you please.”
The Imam (ع) stretched his hand to the latter’s cheek, slightly pinched it then said,
“Even your [facial] cut this!”

3. In Nahjul-Balagha, the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abu Talib (ع), describing the Messenger of Allah (ص) and the Holy Qur’an, said:

“He (the Almighty) sent him (Muhammad) after a long period of time which had lapsed since a messenger was sent, and when the nations were sleeping sound, slighting even that who had a grievance. He came to testify (in his own personal conduct) to the truth which he brought forth, the light of guidance, the Qur’an! Ask it to speak; but it will not speak to you (since you do not belong to Ahl al-Bayt); but I can tell you about it: It contains news of the future, tales of the days of yore, the remedy for your ailments and the final judgment in your disputes.”

All of these texts clearly emphasize the inclusion of the Shari’a of all aspects of life. If the Shari’a contains the solution for even the most trivial problem, such as the amount of monetary compensation to be paid by one who slightly pinches or scratches the facial tissue of another’s cheek, then it becomes necessary, according to the logic of such texts, that the Shari’a also contains the solutions for the economic problems, and a method to regulate the economic life; otherwise, how can it be called “inclusive” if it were to neglect one of the most significant and spacious aspects of life, one of its most important and complicated facets?

Can you imagine that the Shari’a, which determines the amount of compensation you should receive when someone very slightly scratches your skin, does not define your share of the produced wealth, nor does it regulate the contract between you and your employer, or with the capitalists, in various jobs which require an employee or a capitalist?

Is it conceivable that the Shari’a defines your right when you are very slightly cut while it does not do so when you bring life back to a barren land or extract a mineral or dig a well or take care of a forest?

Thus do we come to know that anyone who believes in the Shari’a and in its sources and texts is capable of deriving from such texts the solutions such Shari’a provides for the economic problems, it’s regulating of the economic field and, in the end, the existence of an Islamic economic system extracted from the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah.

In the light of these texts, the reader can come to know the error committed by some people who claim that the Shari’a regulates the conduct of the individual, not the society, and that the economic doctrine is a “social system”; therefore, it is beyond the limit of the Shari'a which confines itself to regulating the conduct of only the individual.

The texts quoted above prove that such a claim is erroneous. These texts disclose the extension of the Shari'a to all fields of life, and that it regulates the life of both society and individual. In fact, the claim that the Shari'a regulates the individual's conduct and not the society's is self-contradictory besides colliding with those texts because if both the individual's conduct and the regulating of this conduct are studied separately from those of the society, a grievous mistake will then be committed.

The social system, which regulates the society's general aspects, be they economic or political, is embodied in the individual's own conduct; it is impossible to regulate the individual's conduct without regulating the society in which he lives.

Take a look at the capitalist system: As a social system, it regulates the economic life upon the basis of taking free economy as its principle. Such a principle is embodied within the conduct of the capitalist towards the laborer, and his way of making a work contract with him, in the conduct of the usurer with his customers whom the first lends the latter money on interest basis and in the way he conducts the interest contract with them, etc.

Every social system, therefore, is linked to and directly affects the individual's conduct. If the Shari'a regulates the individual's behavior, it, thereupon, has its own method in regulating his conduct when borrowing some money, or hiring a laborer, or working for someone else, and all of this is by necessity linked to the social system. Any separation between the conduct of the individual and that of the society in organization is certainly self-contradictory.

As long as we admit the fact that the Shari'a regulates the individual's conduct, and that it has a say in every act of man, as long as we admit all of this, we then have to carry such an admission to its conclusion and come to believe in the existence of a social system within the Shari'a.

I do not know what those who disbelieve in the existence of the Islamic economic system, or of the solutions to the economic problems in the Muslim society, say about the period of such an application during the dawn of Islam. Did not Muslims at the dawn of Islam live as a society that led an economic life and applied Islam in all its social activities? Was not the leadership of the Islamic society in the hands of the Prophet (ص) and according to the tenets of Islam?

Did not that leadership possess defined solutions in dealing with its problems of production and distribution and various other economic problems? What if we claim that these solutions express Islam's way in regulating the economic life and, then, an economic doctrine in Islam?

If we conceive the Islamic society during the government of the Prophet (ص), we cannot conceive it as lacking an economic system, because there is no society in the world without its economic system which regulates its economic life and the distribution of wealth among its members. We cannot conceive the economic system during the period of the Prophet (ص) to be separated from Islam and from the Prophet of Islam (ص) who was the bearer of the Message and was entrusted with putting it to practice.

The economic system, then, had to have been derived from his sayings, actions, or edicts; that is, it was derived from the texts of his sayings, actions, or methods in regulating the social work, since he was the Head of the State, or from his recognition and approval of a custom, or whatever. All of this stamps the economic system with its own Islamic stamp.

Doctrines Need Molding

When we discuss the existence of an Islamic economic system, or an Islamic economic doctrine, we do not mean that we will find (directly in these texts) the same basic theories of the Islamic economic doctrine, in their general formulas. Rather, the texts and sources of legislation provide us with a large number of legislations which regulate the economic life and the relationship between man and his brother man in the fields of production, distribution and handling, such as Islamic codes regarding farming, mining, leasing, contracting, usury, zakat, khums, taxes and State treasury.

This collection of canons and legislations, when organized and comparatively studied, will lead us to their own sources and to the general theories which we indicate here. It is from such theories that we can derive an economic doctrine in Islam. It is not necessary, for example, that we should find within the texts and sources of Shari'a a common formula for the definition of a principle which agrees with or is similar to the principle of economic freedom in the capitalist system.

But we can find within such texts and sources a number of legislations from which we can derive Islam's stance towards the principle of economic freedom and through which we can find the substitute for such a principle from the Islamic viewpoint.

Islam's prohibits capitalist usurious investment and land possession without utilization or farming as well as granting a man of authority a prerogative to regulate the pricing of goods [as he pleases]. All these are examples testifying to our argument. They form our view regarding Islam's stance towards the economic freedom, and they reflect the general Islamic principle.

Ethics of Islamic Economics

Someone may say, "The economics you claim to exist in Islam do not comprise an economic doctrine but an ethical code the religion (of Islam) provides as guidelines which Islam exhorts people to follow. Just as Islam enjoined the prohibition of deception and backbiting, etc., it also enjoined helping the poor.

It prohibits injustice, admonishes the rich to console the needy, forbids the strong from confiscating the rights of the weak, and warns the first against earning their wealth through illegal means. It also imposes a mandatory rite, among others, called zakat. It imposes it besides prayers, pilgrimage and the fast in order to make a variety in the means of worship, and to emphasize the necessity of helping the poor and being generous to them.

"All of this has been done by Islam in accordance with a general ethical procedure, and these injunctions, pieces of advice and directives are no more than ethics which aim at the growth of the good energies within the Muslim individual's own self, and to tie him closer to his Lord as well as brother man. They do not imply an economic doctrine or the level of a generally inclusive organization of the whole society.

"In other words, the above stated injunctions, which have an individualistic ethical nature, aim at the individual's reform and the growth of goodness within him. They do not have a social organizational nature. The difference between the preacher who ascends the pulpit in order to admonish people to be kind and compassionate, to warn them against injustice, wrongdoing and trespassing on the rights of other, and like the social reformer who plans the sort of relations which have to exist among people, defining rights and obligations."

Our answer to all of these arguments is as follows:

The facts about Islam and its economics do not agree at all with such an interpretation which reduces the level of Islamic economics to that of mere providing counsels and ethical codes. It is true that the ethical trend is obvious in all Islamic tenets. And it is true that Islam contains a huge multitude of injunctions covering all spheres of life, the human conduct, and the economic sphere in particular.

It is also true to say that Islam has gathered the most fascinating means to ethically nurture the Muslim individual, help the growth of his good energies and bring out of him perfection personified. But this does not at all mean that Islam confines its teachings to ethically nurture the individual while setting social organization aside.

Nor does it mean that Islam preaches only to the individual rather than being, in addition to this, a doctrine and an organization for the society in its various aspects of life, including its economic life. Islam has not forbidden injustice, admonished people to be just, warned them against transgressing against the rights of others, without defining the concepts of injustice and iniquity, from its own viewpoint, or without outlining the rights not to be trespassed.

Islam has not left the concept of justice, injustice and righteousness clouded with obscurity, nor has it left their interpretation for others, as do ethical preachers. Rather, it has brought a defined image of justice and general rules of coexistence of people in the fields of wealth production, distribution and handling, considering any deviation from such rules and the justice it defines as sheer injustice and flagrant transgression on the rights of others.

This is the difference between the position of the preacher and that of the advocate of the economic doctrine. The preacher preaches about justice and warns against injustice, but he does not lay down the criteria for justice and injustice; rather, he leaves such criteria to the commonly followed customs, those that are recognized by both preacher and the congregation to which he preaches alike.

As regarding the economic doctrine, this attempts to put down such criteria and mold them into a well-planned economic system that regulates various economic fields. Had Islam come simply in order to say to people, "Quit injustice? Practice equity! Do not be transgressors!"—leaving to them to define the meaning of "injustice," to draw the portrait which embodies justice and to agree on the rights required by equity according to their own circumstances, education and the ideals in which they believe and the interests and needs they realize.

Had Islam left all of this for people to determine, confining itself to enjoining justice and attracting people towards it, forbidding injustice and warning them against it through both methods of attracting and warning, then it would have, indeed, remained a preacher and nothing else. When Islam required the Muslims to quit injustice and practice equity, it at the same time provided them with its own definition of justice and injustice.

It has taken upon itself to differentiate between the fair method in distribution, handling and production, and the foul one. It has indicated, for e.g., that forceful possession of land without tilling it is injustice, that maintaining it on the basis of utilizing it is "permissible," that the accumulation of wealth by acquiring a portion of the produced wealth in the name of "interest" is injustice, that its own achievement of profit is right, and many such relations and norms of behavior in which Islam has distinguished between injustice and justice.

As regarding Islam urging the rich to help their poor brethren and neighbors, it is true, but Islam did not confine itself to merely urging and ethically admonishing the rich; rather, it has imposed on the State the obligation to guarantee the securing of the rights of the needy, and to provide them with an honorable living standard in a way that falls into the backbone of the Islamic system which regulates the relationship between the ruler and the ruled.

According to the hadith narrated through the authority of Imam Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim, peace be with him, the Imam mentioned, while defining the ruler's responsibility in faring with zakat, that ,

He has to take this money in order to divide it in the way which God has ordained to eight shares to the poor and the needy, to distribute it among them till they become self-sufficient for an entire year without fearing any hardship or stringency.

If any amount of it is left, it will have to be returned to his treasury, and if it is not sufficient for the public, the ruler will then have to provide them from the treasury according to their needs and until they become self-sufficient.

It is clear, from this text, that the concept of security and the necessity to provide everybody with a dignified standard of living is not a preaching idea; rather, it is one of the ruler's own responsibilities in Islam; therefore, it falls into the social backbone and it expresses an aspect of the Islamic structure relevant to the economic life.

There is a big difference between the famous text of hadith which says,
"One does not believe in God and in the Latter Day if he spends his night satisfied while his neighbor is hungry,"
And the text that says,
"The ruler has to spend on them, each according to his need, until they all have enough."

The first text has a preaching nature, while the second is organizational, reflecting, therefore, one aspect of the Islamic system. The latter cannot be seen except as part of a general social system in Islam.

Zakat is one of the most significant of all rites. Its use as a tool to implement social security in the Islamic society, as we have seen in the previous text, is alone sufficient to distinguish it from all other rites of an "individualistic" nature. This proves that it is not merely an individual form of worship, an ethical exercise for the rich to be kind to the poor; rather, it is on the level of social organization of people's way of life.

Add to this the fact that the very legislative structure of zakat expresses a general doctrinal aspect in Islam. The texts which deal with zakat indicate that the latter is given to the needy in order to improve their general standard of living. This proves that zakat is part of a general Islamic plan aimed at finding harmony and a generally unified standard of living for members of the Muslim society. It is obvious that planning for such harmony is not preaching but is an organizational ideology on the level of an economic doctrine.

Conclusion: What do Islamic Economics Lack?

I do not know why those who deny the existence of Islamic economics are so generous in granting the label "economic doctrine" to capitalism and socialism while being so stingy in granting the same to Islamic economics, preferring to term the latter as "a collection of ethical codes." We have the right to ask them, "What has made both capitalism and socialism worthy of being called economic doctrines which Islamic economics do not have?"

We can observe the fact that Islam has dealt with the same subjects as capitalism has, and on the same level, assigning to them injunctions derived from its own viewpoint which differs from that of capitalism. There is no justification at all, therefore, to say that capitalism is a doctrine while Islam is preaching, that is, an ethical code.

Let us provide you now with two examples which testify that Islam has provided its views on the same level the other economic doctrines have:

The first example is related to ownership which is the focal point of difference among all economic doctrines. Capitalism considers private ownership as the rule, and general ownership as the exception.

This means that every sort of wealth, and every natural resource, allows private ownership unless there is a specific need that necessitates its nationalization which brings it out of private ownership.

Marxism considers common ownership as the basis and the rule, and no private ownership is allowed for any sort of natural resource or means of production unless there is a particular necessity which enforces the opposite; it is only then that private ownership becomes permissible, within the limits of the necessity, and as long as such necessity exists.

Islam, on the other hand, is different from both doctrines in its treatment of this subject. It calls for the principle of "combined ownership," that is, diversified ownership, considering both common and private ownerships to be on one and the same footing, each having its own scope.

Does not this Islamic attitude express an Islamic viewpoint on the doctrinal level of the capitalist and socialist positions? When the principle of private ownership makes a cornerstone of the capitalist doctrine and the principle of common ownership a cornerstone in the socialist Marxist doctrine, why can't the principle of combined ownership (the one that has both public and private sectors) be the cornerstone in the Islamic economic system?

Another example is related to the income earned from the ownership of the sources of production. Capitalism permits such earning in all its ways. Whoever owns a source of production has the right to rent it and earn an income from its rent without doing any labor at all.

Marxist socialism prohibits all sorts of income earned from the ownership of the sources of production because such earning, according to its philosophy, does not require any labor. The wages which, say, the owner of a mill receives from those who use his mill, and the wages the capitalist receives in the name of interest from those who borrow his money, are not allowed in Marxist socialism, while they are permitted in capitalism.

Islam treats the same subject-matter from a third viewpoint. It distinguishes between the earning methods based on the ownership of the sources of production and other methods as well. It prohibits interest while allowing the mill's wages. Capitalism permits both interest and the mill's wages in agreement with the principle of economic freedom or free enterprise.

Marxist socialism does not permit the capitalist to earn interest on loans, or the mill's owner to receive the wages, because labor is the only justification for legal earning: When the capitalist lends his money, and when the mill's owner lends his mill, neither of them does any labor at all.

Islam does not permit the capitalist to earn interest, but it admits the mill's owner to collect rents, according to the capitalist theory of distribution which we will explain in the coming issue [of these series], Insha-Allah. These are three various situations, each varies according to its own viewpoint regarding distribution.

When someone describes the capitalist or Marxist stance as "doctrinal", why can't he say the same about the Islamic stance, even though the latter expresses the viewpoint of a third economic doctrine which differs from both of the other two?

- 1. Such as the case of one who invests one hundred dinars on his land just to get, say, a yield of twenty bushels of grain. If he doubles his investment and spends two hundred dinars, instead of one hundred, he will not gain twice the yield but less than that. If he spends three hundred dinars, he will not gain three times the yield but a smaller percentage than the one he gets if he spends two hundred dinars. Thus, the percentage of the increase in the yield that results from doubling the amount spent will continue to decrease till it disappears, resulting in a total loss of expense. The reason for this is the fact that the land, which is the primary factor determining the production, is still the same. Doubling the amount spent is not sufficient [by itself] to double the production as long as the principal factor determining production, that is, the land, remains to be the same.

Martyr Amina Haidar Al Sadr “Bint Al-Huda”

The issue of the Muslim woman and her role in life and society, and what the limits of this role are, has been one of the hot issues over which goals and slogans of political currents have been fighting. These currents have used their media frontal as means to submit the "ideas of liberation", that is, from their own viewpoint, and the need to activate woman's role in all fields of life, originate from foreign-made convictions that woman was robbed by Islam and Islamic teachings of many of her personal liberties and creativity. 1

Exchanged arguments and charges between the secular and atheist currents on the one hand, and the Islamic current on the other, formed part of a doctrinal culture during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th Century2, prompting Islamist writers, including theologians, to write books to rebut these charges which were directed at the woman's relationship with the Islamic creed which raised her status and social value.

In such political atmospheres, male pens confronted the Islamic propagation work in all its types and means, and Iraq, as was the case with other Islamic area countries, was seldom lucky to have feminist pens that would write and innovate in this regard. The matter becomes understandable if we discern the early beginnings for the appearance of feminist press which rose and flourished on the Egyptian field first at the tum of the 20th Century with direct support from the British occupation and under its auspices3.

From the year 1892, when Lebanese Hind Nouvelle published the Fatat (young lady) magazine as the first Arab woman-owned magazine in Egypt, and the year 1913 when there were no less than fifteen feminist magazines. Numerical superiority in this new press field was the lot of non-Muslim women. This phenomenon was the most that attracted attention with regard to the beginnings of feminist writing at the time4.

Of course, the subjects of those publications were as far from the teachings of Islam as they could be. The same situation existed with regard to the first feminist publications in Iraq which tried to follow in the footsteps of their Arab peers: We could not trace feminist pens and books about the social values and Islamic virtues, notwithstanding the fact that the press world reflected an honest image of a society that started leaning towards disintegration and the abandonment of its Islamic constants in the pretext of fighting backwardness and in order to set out towards modernization and contemporization.

In the 1930s of the 20th Century, radio warbled as an effective weapon for disseminating those ideas with the popular song of "O one wearing the cloak! Do take off your cloak!" so the veil battle and taking it off would shift from the pages of newspapers to people's ears and minds, and literature adopted the path towards existentialism and the existentialists. The educated elite, writers and poets started composing their poetry and literature and writing articles that contained neither modesty nor pristine values.

Here is their stark role model, Poet Hussain Mardan (1927 - 1972), publishing his first collection of poems in 1949 under the label "Naked Poems", dedicating them to himself. Among its contents is this text:

I suckled lewdness from my mother's breast,
And I was reared in the darkness of vice,
So I learned everything, but I
Remain ignorant of the meaning of virtue!'5

In the tumult of those years, which were rife with ideas and counter ideas, the pioneer of the feminist Islamic media in Iraq was born in the most fragrant and deeply rooted house, and I do not think that she knew that she would one day become a media pioneer. Actually, most references, books and researches which wrote about her sailed with her in fields of Islamic pioneering, in jihad and in martyrdom, in pioneering the Islamic, social, intellectual and educational feminist endeavor, but they did not do justice to her distinctive leadership of the feminist Islamic media. This woman is the martyred Amina al-Sadr, Bint al-Huda.

Our media pioneer belongs to a huge and unparalleled family legacy: It is the chain of the Sadr family which is regarded as one of the staunchest scholarly families that produced many renowned men whose fame covered the horizons and whose reputation spread in the Arab and Islamic world6. Her honorable lineage goes back to Prophet Muhammad (saw). This family is famous for its numerous scholars of theology who proved their genius in the fields of religion, jurisprudence, jihad and politics7.

From an honorable descent to an honorable and holy birthplace [al Kazimiyya city], the martyred 'ilwiyya lady, Amina Haidar al-Sadr, incorporated the purity of both fountains. She was born on Muharram 19, 1356 A.H./April 1 [according to the Gregorian calendar, the equivalent of the l9th of March according to the Julian calendar] of 19378 in the shade of the minarets of al-Kazimiyya and both its golden minarets. She was given the name "Amina" [Aamina] in honor of the mother of the Holy Prophet, Muhammad9.

Sayyid Haidar al-Sadr, her father, was one of the senior scholars of Islam in Iraq, and he died when his only daughter was two years old10.As for her mother, she belongs to a prestigious family of knowledge and scholarship, one well known in religious circles, and she is sister of the religious authority Ayatollah Shaikh Muhammad Ridha Al Yasin. Her eldest brother, Sayyid Ismaeel al-Sadr, took her in his guardianship, looked after her and raised her since she was a child.

As for her brother, the senior religious authority, martyr Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, he was the twin of her soul11 , and he is the one who drew the path of Islamic salvation for her and its broad outlines when she was a little girl then as a grown-up youth. His role has been the greatest in building her distinctive personality, coining her thoughts and encouraging her to delve into the world of writing, authorship and woman work in all its educational, social and movement dimensions12.

As is the case with historical biographies of great men, a researcher will be in awe of this creative human monument who was not founded by a school or a university. Martyr Bint al-Huda studied at home the sciences of grammar, logic, jurisprudence and the principles of the faith side by side the conventional sciences taught at public schools.

Thus, she combined modem study and the study of Islamic types of knowledge13 , all under the ample care of her mother, brother and maternal uncles. She, thus, did not receive any education or culturing from anyone other than both her brothers till she grew up, matured and became the one to open learning and education circles for the daughters of the faithful.

Lady Bint al-Huda testified to her brothers' care, especially that of her martyred brother, Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, who did not stop for one day looking after her, teaching and nurturing her up to the last day of her life.

She says the following in his praise: "I am glad for the special circumstances that were available for me and enabled me to aspire to build a generation of believing educators who can serve Islam in the best possible way. Thanks to Allah Almighty and to the closeness of my brother from whom I get the guidance regarding how to work, the sound and suitable visions on the one hand, and the in-depth culture and sound understanding of Islam, on the other. I referred to him regarding anything which I found to be difficult, and I got from him the best that can be attained, especially in juristic and ideological matters, and this is a great blessing for which I must thank Allah."14

Martyr Amina al-Sadr was a preserving container for all genius, brilliance and effort which her brother exerted to attain and nurture. This is the source of amazement of anyone who knew her and who sensed her leadership, starting from those who founded her preliminary formulating, including writer Dr. Bint al-Shaati who met her in al-Najaf and asked her, "From which college did you graduate?" With a promising smile, the martyr answered, "I am the graduate of our house's school." Dr. Bint al-Shaati was shocked at this stunning surprise which she did not expect to hear, finding herself standing before an Islamic thinker who never went to school15.

Despite the significant role which her martyred brother, Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, played in building and polishing her personality, coining her ideas and encouraging her to write, author and shoulder media and feminist work, one cannot overlook the reality of her brilliant character and distinctive features with which she was known since her childhood such as: fiery intelligence, quick memorizing and the ability to convince and attract16.

Any woman who saw her and listed to her speech and logic would admire her and become one of her fans. She is the sister of the struggling martyr, Sayyid al-Sadr, but she at the same time is Bint al-Huda, the personality that is full of distinction, ambition and fusion into Islam's nectar and beauty. Had she not been so, she would not have benefitted from martyr al-Sadr at all. How many sisters have religious authorities and great men had by whom history passed, yet they did not reach the leadership and sacrifice which martyr Bint al Huda reached17.

Her passion for books started early, so the martyred Bint al-Huda became an avid reader of religious books and modem works which broadened her knowledge of many matters. This opened before her distant scopes in the forefront of which is studying the society and diagnosing the ills of the Muslim woman in Iraq and the Islamic world, how incoming ideologies and Western culture invaded the circles of the Muslim society, trying to influence the way women in particular thought.

Narrating her memories of childhood, she says, "When I was little, our financial condition was very poor, yet I had a daily allowance of ten fils. I used to save this modest amount of money every day then go to the market to buy a book about Islam. I had a friend who used to do the same, i.e. saving her daily allowance, but she would buy another book. We, therefore, would read each other's book once either of us is through reading hers.18"

Thus martyr Amina daughter of Sayyid Haidar al-Sadr was, who is better known by her pen name "Bint al-Huda," daughter of guidance, able to give herself a high level of education in the Islamic Culture and expand the scope of her education through exerting more effort, research and self-education. This act is not unusual for a girl who grew up in a religious house and conservative environments, first in Kazimiyya, her birthplace, then in Najaf.

She opened her eyes to find her brother and role model, Martyr Muhammad-Baqir 19 son of Sayyid Haidar al-Sadr, pursuing the same approach20. He used to keep himself informed of the Islamic books published in the 1940s as well as of a number of newspapers and magazines, but he did not have sufficient funds to buy new unused books.

He, therefore, used to go to public libraries. With his sister Amina, he used to collect whatever little money they would acquire to buy a used book. After they both had read it, absorbing its contents, they would sell it in order to buy another book, and so on.

On one occasion, he entered a public library in Najaf and asked for a book about philosophy, one comprehended only by those who are deeply acquainted with philosophy. Those present wondered about him. One of them asked him a tough question in philosophy, promising that he would give him the book he wanted free of charge if he could answer it correctly. It was then that al-Sadr provided a detailed answer that stunned the audience, leaving them baffled and at a loss.21

An elementary outcome resulted from this approach since the early days of works written by martyr Bint al-Huda. It pointed to her early readiness to delve into the field of book writing, authorship and the media as a whole. Here she is at eleven excelling in a small cultural magazine the topics of which are versatile and rich in context. She duplicated by hand as many of its articles as she could which she distributed to her relatives and neighbors22.

This early genius made martyr Bint al-Huda feel comfortable with her outpouring pen to write and write, for this became her only form of entertainment. Rather, she was able to employ her pen in translating whatever she liked of Islamic thoughts, writing and producing an Islamic intellectual output that took control of her full attention. She, therefore, started translating a book by Martyr Mutahhari about the issue or philosophy of hijab because she realized its benefit and urgent necessity on the woman's field in Iraq.23

Martyr Bint al-Huda's delving into the world of writing and the media was not to satisfy a personal desire for recognition or fame, or to be occupied by writing for the sake of writing. Rather, she found the media field in need of an Islamic female pen that would address a huge amount of opposing and contending writings which were pushing woman in the direction of aversion towards her values and to be distant from the teachings of her religion.

She, therefore, followed this blessed path. So we find her writings bearing a new spirit and a clear mentality combined with lucidity and ease in tackling the problems of her contemporary life. Her writings targeted woman's suffering from the aspects of culture, education and society. She attempted to treat the society's religious and political problems.

From here, we can describe Bint al-Huda as a media pioneer in the field of objective writing that aims at educating the Muslim woman where nobody ever preceded her in so doing in this field. In her writings, she dealt with everything that would guarantee the Muslim woman's dignity and fortify her from deviation and loss in a transforming society which did not grant woman her anticipated role.24

After the July 14, 1958 revolution, atmospheres in Iraq became widespread, sentiments with which the society was never familiar, especially on the level of values and the social fabric. The Muslim woman was in the front row of the victims of that serious transformation. Bint al-Huda, for this reason, undertook on her shoulders the responsibility to confront the wave of westernization and social disintegration through articles which she wrote for the Adhwa' (Lights) magazine25 round which she was keen about rallying until it ceased publication in late 1960s26.

Also, she contributed articles for the Al-Iman magazine of Najaf which was published by Shaikh Mousa al-Ya'qoobi27. Her writings were responsible for providing the women's base with advanced Islamic ideologies, giving a clear vision of the Muslim woman's role in an Islamic society that is the most exemplary28 in addition to her objective articles about woman's affairs, her suffering from backwardness, injustice, ignorance and persecution.

The Adhwa' magazine used to publish her narrative writings, so she became truly the pride of the Islamist writers29. Journalistic writing was to Bint al-Huda one of the methods of religious propagation and social change which the Islamic movement in general and the religious Marji'iyya 30 in particular, to which the martyred lady belonged, anticipated.

As soon as she knew that the first issue of the Adhwa magazine was coming out, she took the initiative to write a high quality article in which she urged young Muslim girls to uphold the teachings of the Islamic faith and not be dragged behind the immoralities of the Western civilization31.

Let us take a look at this statement of hers: "How badly we nowadays need, as our beloved Message is subjected to various trials and tribulations, to raise the torch of the Islamic call and to invest in the sciences which we learn in order to get to know the path of propagation through wisdom and beautiful exhortation, to always and forever remember that our Prophet of Mercy had admonished us to seek knowledge, making it an obligation on every Muslim male and female.

The purpose has always been so that the Muslim woman would attain her share of inviting to Islam's principles and eternal system, and so that she would be able to withstand the attacks of interest seekers and repel the skeptics' propaganda. She must not leave herself exposed to the winds to tum her yellow or red, eastern or western, but so she may tread the blessed Straight Path. We must uphold Islam as a religion, a principle and a system, to understand it so we may see in it everything which we anticipate: progress, advancement and prosperity. So, do not be a parasite on intrusive principles and imported ideologies ."32

Employing an attractive literary style and honest statements, she kept attracting the souls of the readers to her line. Bint al-Huda starts by explaining what Islam expects of woman, what it wants her to be, adding, "It wants woman to learn so she may come to know the essence of Islam according to its magnificent reality, not to become familiar with the moral looseness of Western women and the close mindedness of the Eastern ones.

Islam wants her to be a torch of Divine light, while the corrupt society tries to tum her into a puff of fire. Islam wants her to be a fragrant flower, whereas the carnal concept wants her to become like a yellow withered leaf with the wind playing havoc with it. The Almighty created her to be the captain of the ship, but the false civilization has made her for quite some time a toy. He created her to be the school for the generations, but the forces of evil exert themselves to turn her into a dumb machine ."33

The pen of Bint al-Huda never stopped addressing the Muslim girl, sharpening her mind through all means of addressing the challenges and resisting the temptations of the time. We see her writing in another article in the said magazine, Adhwa' (lights), about another issue saying, "Be an emulated role model, and do not be an emulating puppet. Be a followed leader rather than a follower; resist temptations, hold your grounds as you face everything; I know that the obstacles in front of you are numerous, that your path is not without thorns and pitfalls, but it is a shame to retreat, to go back, for death is better than riding shame, and shame is better than the Fire (of Hell)." 34

As she chooses her words, one can quite clearly observe her spirituality and attachment to the tragedy of Imam al-Hussain a.s and to the poetry and prose composed in its regard as well as speech metaphors. This is also related to her massive effort to disseminate the cultural, intellectual and religious awareness through the Hussaini majalis where she used to deliver her lectures.35

Martyr Bint al-Huda finds no qualms about submitting her Islamic thoughts and religious commitments boldly and courageously during a period of time that witnessed the decline of the veil and the growing phenomenon of adornments in the Iraqi society.

Here she pinpoints the wound, so she writes the following to describe such a trend saying, "How many are those who have disgracefully walked behind the foreign horn, and in their unawareness and conceit took off their veil and started going backwards, trying to find an excuse for the nightmare of misconceptions which the brutal imperialist dictated to us after desiring to colonize us in everything, even in the most precious and pure of what we have: woman"36

Bint al-Huda demonstrated a great deal of interest in the issue of woman's hijab, expressing such an interest by confronting this phenomenon and responding to the opposing ideologies through her writings, articles, poems and stories, or by raising the issue by submitting direct discussions and dialogues in her meetings with women in their homes and at the majalis. She guided many women and restored self-confidence to many from among those who followed such a Message-bearing line.

Here she writes time and over again, in one issue of the said magazine after another, saying, "Do not let these conjectures discourage you, nor should you lose resolve as you face such ominous tunes. Rather, they must increase your determination, strength and power, so you may prove to them the soundness of your way and the error of their zigzag route to the right and to the left, and so you may explain to them that they are the ones who reverted in their conduct to what is even beyond the ages of jahiliyya (pre-Islamic days of ignorance) where there were no rules, laws, ethics or principles." 37

She resumes answering all pretexts invoked by those who advocated woman's flaunting as a pretext for woman winning her rights for civilization and progress. Rather, she rebuts their imported ideas that are distant from harmonizing with the reality of the Muslim woman to the extent of revulsion, emphasizing that the Muslim woman can attain science and knowledge that she can compete with men in scientific, educational and ideological pursuits provided she does not relinquish her Islamic values.38

Often, Bint al-Huda would repeat her appeals in several articles, identifying our real enemies thus: "Is it possible for a nation - any nation - to advance and become civilized through foreign civilizations that do not have any relevance to it so it would thus become advanced?! A nation never advances a single step, nor does it prosper for one moment; rather, foreign ideologies and propaganda are the ones that have advanced and prospered at our own cost; we are their real enemies."39

The writings and articles of this leading media pioneer, Bint al Huda, did not exclude in their analysis, monitoring and addressing any foreign or domestic entity, nor did they flatter anyone when she addressed the orthodox Islamists and those steeped in strictness, saying: "Why did you impose on women restrictions and limits which descend neither from Allah nor from the Qur'an? Pressure generates a blast, and strictness invites attempts against all matters, even against the Shari'a, which is a must." 40

Martyr Bint al-Huda herself was not far from the inflexibility of the orthodox and their close-mindedness. A strict blockade was enforced on her due to her articles, stories and poems not being published in her real name despite all the sophistication, creativity and excellence in which she wrote her topics. The Adhwa' magazine refused to publish her writings only because she is a woman.

It published her articles using her first initials "A.H." (Amina Haidar). This prompted 'allama Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, a member of the magazine's Editorial Committee at the time, to comfort her with a poem in which he explained his regret at the magazine's reluctance to publish her articles in her real name, 1lwiyya41 Bint al-Huda memorized that poem because she was impressed by it."42

Bint al-Huda wrote in the Adhwa' Islamic magazine, then a leading Islamic magazine, which was issued by a group of scholars in al Najaf al-Ashraf. It was regarded as a distinguished media outlet on the pages of which nothing was written but the products of expert pens of those who specialized in the fields of writing, religious and juristic authorship. Her writings for woman were in a transparent and new language to which women in the past woman were not accustomed.

Such writings on women were undertaken by clergymen and Islamic writers, and they contained a great deal of affectation and oddity, for a man is not like a woman in his knowledge of woman's conditions, concerns and thoughts. Thus, the writings of Bint al-Huda formed a touch of affection and kindness that harped on woman's concerns and conditions, whether she is a Muslim or a non-Muslim woman, bridging gaps between female elements in the society and the religious authority.

It should be right for us to say that Bint al-Huda the leader had started reforming the Islamic address directed at woman, and that what she offered truly formed unprecedented pioneering in the Islamic media where a distance is maintained between strictness and extremism43. Those objective articles and writings which Al-Adhwa' magazine published were later compiled in a book titled Kalima wa Da 'wa (a word and a call).

It was welcomed by women who were interested in teaching and educating the next generations on sound and creative principles having deep knowledge of the problems and issues facing the Muslim woman in the Islamic society44.

The bulk of what was intended by martyr Bint al-Huda in her press writings was to sound the siren about the dangers that threaten the personality of Muslim women, such as her saying, "This is a result of her poor understanding of Islam and the distance that keeps her away from its spirit and precepts on the one hand, and a result of the nurturing of poisonous imperialist education which invaded our lands on the other.

Such education publicized for their concepts which oppose Islam and which, in reality, do not aim at anything other than ending woman's originality, feminine spirit and dignity. They are tunes which we heard and which we will continue hearing as long as the foreign microbe runs in the veins of our poor society, as long as we continue upholding our right principle, promoting its straightforward path." 45

The depth of the analysis and its clarity for the reality of the Muslim woman, which is obvious in the articles Bint al-Huda wrote, is nothing out of the ordinary for the first student in the Islamic School of Martyred Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr.

One of the followers of this School, which distinguished itself for integration, originality, depth, vitality and renewal, absorbed its lessons, so she was apt to set out from it to build the integrated Islamic personality which is capable of facing the ideological and political challenges and which can present Islam as a divine message, as the only path of salvation in every time and clime.46

It is worth noting that our media pioneer was not entirely dedicated to her pen, articles and press concerns. Rather, she was distracted by concerns and obligations in every direction: the religious, promotional and social inclination for change, teaching Islamic concepts, sustaining the link between the religious authority and its men, scholars and women's class in the society.

All these magnanimous concerns, which martyr Bint al-Huda shouldered in one period of her amputated lifespan, had their toll to a great extent on her dedication to media innovation. Had the conditions been favorable for her as a writer, we would have found her to be a media monument and a pioneering Islamic media school which could have produced generations and generations of Islamic writers without the least doubt.

The personality of martyred Bint al-Huda included in its folds many literary talents, including poetry and the writing of Islamic stories having a purpose, an objective, a goal. Here, she is also its pioneer and the first to shoulder this serious Islamic mission: She tried through her story to unveil her thoughts and principles in which she believed and for which she labored in order to disseminate them through the story structure to the broadest possible segment of her homeland's women.

Thus did she leave behind for the Islamic library an aware legacy and a pioneering Islamic understanding in the role of the story in bringing about change47. Among what was published for her have been these titles: Virtue Wins; Two Women and one Man; the Lost Aunt; I wish I Knew; the Seeker of the Truth, a Struggle from the Reality of Life; Memories on the Hills of Mecca; a Word and a Call; Heroism of the Muslim Woman; Woman and the Talk of Islamic Concepts; Women with the Prophet; A Meeting at the Hospital (which was the last the martyred lady had written)48.

A series of writings has been published of her writings bearing the name "Bint al-Huda". She answers the question of why so herself when she says the following under the title "Who are you?": "A sister Muslim wrote me asking: 'Why, in the Name of Allah, did you not state your real name so we may know who you are?' So, here, Sister is my answer, perhaps from it you will come to know who I am: First of all, I am personally your sincere sister who never tires of keeping track of your steps out of love and affection for you.

I am also a volunteer who has chosen the cause of Islam, carrying its bright torch as much as I can and bear and according to my abilities in the struggle. I also want to make myself an example, a role model, for carrying out experiments in Islam's culture which some ignorant folks may regard as being a failure. I want to prove by myself what the Islamic history tells us about our mothers and sisters in the dawn of Islam who raised, through their education, the greatest of men while upholding Islam and its teachings."

After the writer, Bint al Huda, describes various images of Muslim women in the condition in which her female readers can be, and in order to place herself with them in every image and at every age stage, she addresses her saying, "Imagine any of these images which you find to be the closest to your thinking and choose one of them, or choose another, and be like I am." This is so because her initials do not offer her much, whether her name is real or borrowed. What concerns her is to reach her readers' souls, to get her readers to reach her transparent human soul, so she bids that inquirer farewell saying, "Remember me in my spiritual personality so I may be proud of it, and rest assured that my name has nothing to do with what I write or with what you read."49

The participation of conscience is the most obvious writing attribute of Bint al-Huda. In her stories, she shares the worries of the Muslim woman, the suffering and grief of her helpless people. Thus, she played a major role in the Islamic story which is regarded as the most distinctive characteristic of her writings, a pioneer in her feminine aspect, due to a creative talent, a broad education, a solid style and full knowledge of the issues of her Islamic society and of its problems, in her employment of the committed word with all strictness and strength of the deviated ideologies and intrusive social practices. She succeeded thus in coining the objective Islamic thought in beautiful literary clichés, and her works in the short story testify to it50.

The relationship of martyr Bint al-Huda with the pen and with writing was essential: Through it, an exchange is made of the conditions of life and survival; therefore, we do not see her deserting it even in the darkest circumstances of her jihad, struggle. For example, during the period of her imprisonment, she directed herself towards writing and authorship, putting together a book which she called Days of the Ordeal. She composed lines of poetry, poems, and started explaining the Holy Qur'an in a simple way to the believing girls. She reached about half the Baqara Chapter (Ch. 2, the longest chapter of the Holy Qur'an)51.

The relationship between martyr Bint al-Huda on the one hand and the pen and writing on the other was an obligation, a religious propagation duty, a commitment of principles to Allah, the most Exalted One, the most Great, and to Islam. Her delving into this field was, hence, with strength and persistence. Some people, men and women, who had preceded her in walking along this path since the inception of this century had promising starts, but soon they had setbacks, or they stumbled, or they were attracted to the glamorous Western civilization.

This is why the short story field, actually the Islamic novel as well, remained without knights until it was forcefully invaded by Lady Bint al-Huda with determination and resolve, following the path of the Holy Quran and its unique artistic and narrative style52. Martyr Bint al-Huda found in the field of writing the Islamic story a wider room for disseminating and spreading the principles of the creed.

Actually, she found in it a media podium with a great role unparalleled in bringing awareness to the Muslim girls and in making them closer to their faith and Islamic message . Her stories were a paved path for many believing sisters to get to know and admire her due to what she had written and before they met her in person, as was the case with "Umm Abrar" al-Haidari53.

The priority of the goal was clear for martyred Bint al-Huda in any field in which she worked and to which she resorted in order to realize her Islamic conviction. The priority in the field of the Islamic story was not to demonstrate her artistic prowess but Islam's brilliant way in attracting a Muslim individual to its green pastures; therefore, the thoughts and words of her stories were synchronized, so much so that we find no separation between the personality of the writer and what she wrote.

From here came her denouncement of writing that existed in the other flank: "Some of our men of letters have unfortunately turned themselves into translators and publishers, nothing more or less. Their ideas are strange to them, distant from their reality and society. They incline towards the call; they respond to the tune; they become intoxicated by the sip. They, therefore, sing the glory of the foes as they remain unaware, inadvertent, lauding the poisonous ideologies while comprehending nothing of them.

They became immersed in the foreign culture which the imperialist introduced into our homeland a long time ago, and it is the one that caused our young generation to swerve right and left, making sure to make their literary productions in all forms and trends on par. As a result of this misunderstanding of the intrusive culture, a hostile imperialist concept is directed at us, we daughters of Islam, in particular, and it has widely spread out.54"

Perhaps the recourse of martyr Bint al-Huda to the fiction method was not to satisfy a hobby or establish a road towards professionalism; rather, it was for a noble and clear goal which she kept in mind since her first collection of stories: addressing the younger generation in a simple narrative style in order to convey the Islamic teachings to it. She pointed out in the introduction to her story titled "A Conflict from the Reality of Life" to this effect saying, "The embodiment of concepts of the Islamic point of view of life is the genre of these short stories55".

In the introduction to "Virtue Triumphs," she reemphasizes the same meaning saying, "You will find in each story the positive attitude imposed by the Islamic point of view of life, and the wide gap between the cleanness of this attitude, its purity and loftiness, and the lowliness and degradation represented by the other perspectives of life.56"

Bint al-Huda kept the society in which her Muslim sisters lived in mind with all its struggles, realities and facts to deduct from it her stories without resorting to cheap excitement or to delving into the world of taboo as was done by most female pens that wrote in that era and beyond it as they imitated the West and its writers and men of letters in the different types of cross-pollination of ideas between the erotic thoughts (sex, money and religion) in order to attract the reader, the publishing houses and the media.

The artistic doctrine embraced by the writings of Bint al-Huda was loftier and above that, for the life formulated by her narrative works is the finest that transcends the teachings of divine religions and the clean souls with a yearning for goodness 57. Her pristine Islamic culture led her to recognize the value of man's conduct, to an understanding of its divine nature on earth, to a belief in the act of righteousness done by a man or a woman.

Thus, her support for the elements of goodness and justice in the innermost of this being, who is perceived as being weak, is a factor in demonstrating that she is strong and powerful when it comes to stories that place her on the path of the Unity of Allah, not on that of atheism.

Perhaps the writings of Bint al-Huda are not more famous than those of Nawal el-Saadawi, Ghada Samman or Ahlam Mosteghanemi, but if you put these writings in the balance, how many women and girls who are in the prime of their youth and who have fallen to temptation, becoming lost and swerving from the right path when they read those writings which are immersed in pornography and in prohibition? How many others who found the right guidance when they became familiar with the writings of Bint al-Huda, so she became their guide towards virtue and the following of the true religion?

These stories played a significant role in solving many family problems faced by the Muslim woman in the Muslim world. Bint al Huda treated with extreme precision and a gentle manner the issue of marriage, for example, and the outcome of the attitude of Muslims nowadays, where the perfect spouse is perceived to be the one who has a huge fortune or a prestigious degree, as well as the image of the ideal wife: She is the one who possess superior albeit false beauty. She depicts her as sitting hours and hours in beauty salons in order to conceal her true face. So, titles emerged such as: Islamic [propagation] work, the suffering of working women, the ridiculing, distorting, beautifying, the applying of cosmetics and the wearing of the veil. All these were labels for problems which martyr Bint al-Huda addressed in her stories in a convincing contemporary style58.

The martyr presented her constructive ideas through her stories in an easy way, in a language close to the soul; there are neither far fetched nor complicated words. She expressed big ideas with easy words expressive of many basic Islamic concepts. Thus, she turned the dry material into an easy one through the venue of stories, poems and ideas. She resorted to the style of details in narrating events in order to make their persona closer to the reality experienced by Muslim women.

The martyr always looked forward to the concerns, problems and ambitions of girls who live through the mentality of their age, understanding the flurry of ideas of the girls of the younger generation. She, therefore, would address them and hear their calls. Her intellectual activity helped others achieve salvation and sense the path of redemption. It also helped others succeed in life through the word, the honest advice; after all, does not religion mean offering advice?'59

After all of this, martyr Bint al-Huda did not find for herself humility as a story writer. We find her pointing out to this in the introduction to Virtue Triumphs when she says, "I am not a story teller or a writer of story; actually, I have not tried before now to write a story. What I did was nothing more than a constructive attempt to open and pave the road in order to walk in the direction of reviving a silent media apparatus that copes with our march while we are at the beginning of the road."60

Despite the publication of those stories and the enthusiasm of the girls for acquiring and reading them, for more than a house of publications collected them in short story volumes, we find that martyr Bint al-Huda had been subjected to injustice in her struggle as well as intellectually . She did not enjoy her real opportunity for her books to spread widely, and she did not shed light on her pioneering of the Islamic media and of the Islamic story that parallel their clout and true impact.

Such was the condition with regard to Bint al-Huda, the poetess: Although she was not a professional poetess, nor did she write much, signs of her poetic ability surfaced early on the day she was congratulating her family on the occasion of the birth of Maram, daughter of her brother, Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, on Rabi' II 27, 1371 A.H./January 25, 1952 A.D. when she recited these rhymed words:

O Maram, O captivator of the souls,
O star that shines in the morning!
O Maram! You captivate every heart,
A star shining as sunset does start.

Al-Sadr liked these words, so he kept calling his daughter most of the time "captivator of the hearts."61

Martyr Bint al-Huda did not compose poetry as a hobby. Rather, she found a sweeping cultural shortage in this field, that is, Muslim women did not delve into the field of writing objective poetry which lifts the poet to the highest degrees of mercy and the Pleasure of the Almighty. For this reason, she undertook on her shoulder to write poetic pieces through which she expressed what she had in mind: the suffering of the Muslim woman, her low level of religious education, so she had her in mind as she wrote these lines of poetry:

Glad tidings to you, O Messenger of Allah! Look at how the light
Of righteousness has shone in us bright!
O Messenger of Allah! We are young ladies who have refused to see
The Qur 'an deserted on the shelves for many a year.
You obligated woman to learn
To leave the world of ignorance behind
The world that crushed the mind,
So she would know the true religion and does understand
The essence of Islam, of the faith, its precious meaning for man.62

In response to the designation of the nation’s girls who adhere to the Islamic line as "reactionaries," she composed a directive poem in which she said,

My shyness from the most High is not bent,
Nor has it shackles to my hand sent.
No, nor has this veil blocked me
From my goal, from what I want to be.

She expresses herself in the best way when she portrays how truly Muslim women can be by saying the following in another poem:

With the hands of modesty
Do I safeguard my chastity?
Through my abstention do I rise
Above my peers and be wise,
With an idea that it does ignite
With a critical talent that is bright
Have I perfected my every manner:
My shyness towards the most High for ever
Does not stop me from covering,
Wrapping myself and my body veiling.63

The field of writing, story, poetry and journalistic articles was her outlet to broader fields which had previously occupied her mind and took the largest share of her thinking and activity. 'Jlwiyya Bint al Huda played a significant role in strengthening the relationship and the bond between the religious authority and women.

She was a link in the transfer of the concerns and aspirations of women as well as their demands to the religious authority. Sayyid al-Sadr in turn, monitored, enriched and supported these women in order to perpetuate their movement in the society. Thus, Bint al-Ruda shouldered the role of clarifying the Islamic legislative issues to women, urging them with regard to the necessity of arm themselves with awareness and learning, to ask about matters relevant to their religion and life.64

So, Bint al-Huda got down to the reality on the ground in order to make it a laboratory for practice, and it produced amazing results. She was able to set up the foundation for a generation of women who uphold the Divine Message, contrarily to an overwhelming westernization movement65. And her means were: the Hussaini gatherings (majalis) and the Zahqr Schools.

As for her role in the Zahqr Schools, she was commissioned by the Islamic Charity Fund Society66 with the task of overseeing the schools in Kazimiyya in 1967, in addition to overseeing another school for girls in Najaf. Bint al-Huda found in this sacred mission a step towards expanding her general Islamic activity. She took part in the establishment of private schools that follow the official curriculum, but she would add to them two or more classes, such as lessons in the Islamic faith, in a professionally focused and solid way.67

Martyr Bint al-Huda continued her weekly movement between Najaf and Kazimiyya, continuously moving and diligently working, prompted by one noble goal: her great faith in Islam. The goal behind setting up the Zahqr Schools was not to meet society's need for schools; rather, there were imperative necessities that required their establishment which included: facing the materialistic culture that advocated corruption, deviation and moral decadence, and to endeavor to disseminate the sound Islamic culture and awareness to which woman must aspire. Those schools were the best means that suited that era and met its requirements.68

The leading martyr, Bint al-Huda, did not confine her effort to only supervision and education; rather, she took to spending the rest of her time to meet with the teaching cadres in order to deliver educational lectures after the end of the official school hours69.

The cadre members were mostly graduates of teachers' houses and institutes. She would, moreover, meet in the afternoon with university students in order to talk to them about the responsibility of a Muslim woman, delivering lectures and lessons to them on the Islamic types of knowledge.70

Thus was she able to extend bridges to college girls in order to be able to disseminate among them the veil phenomenon in the corridors of Iraqi universities, after they had been devoid of them completely, if we do not say that those universities served as an important means to removing the veil. Daughters of so many families even scholarly and religious ones used to remove their veils as soon as they entered their university campuses.71

These schools scored a significant success rate in ministry exams among government schools, so much so that they became famous for their scholastic and educational reputation, and more people sought them to the extent that the classes could not accommodate all students. Four schools were listed under the name of the name of the Zahqr Private Schools, three of which were in Baghdad and Kazimiyya and the fourth was located in al-Najaf al-Ashraf near the sacred Shrine [of Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali a.s] in the Mishraq neighborhood .

All of them were under the supervision of Bint al-Huda. These schools were torches of light and guidance, factories for Islamic pride and dignity and the object of hope for the believers, the deprived and the poor, a source of trust and credibility among the masses.72

This case could not continue after the arrival to power of the Iraqi Baath Party which clashed with the trend of Islamic awareness led by martyr Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, brother of Bint al-Huda. The said Party took the initiative to close all Islamic institutions, including the Zahra Schools. These Schools were at the forefront of targeted Islamic projects for no reason other than their being Islamic.73

In 1972, a law was issued for the nationalization of education, and its primary target was the elimination of the barricades of chastity and light and the castles of the veil in Iraq. Although this ill-famed law covered all private schools, according to its articles, the authority soon revalidated the private Schools of the Christians and Armenians as well as other private schools with the authority's financial and media support, but there was no support for the Zahqr Schools; instead, they were buried alive.74

Martyr Bint al-Huda resigned from her work after knowing that she would not be able to carry out her missionary role, explaining her position by saying, "The goal behind my stay in the school was only to earn the pleasure of Allah. When this goal was no longer there at the school after being nationalized, what is the benefit of my presence there?" 75

Thus, the effort and attention of martyr Bint al-Huda focused on the widest field of Muslim women's work, the Hussaini majalis where she had her own distinctive viewpoint of what those majalis should be. This notion was due to her serious missionary role, to the stance adopted by her martyred brother, Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr. Al-Sadr endeavored to develop the Hussaini majalis through developing the Hussaini pulpit by establishing an oratory institute, adopting speakers and deploying them everywhere in the Muslim community.76

So, he was the scholar who encouraged preachers the most, looked after their conditions and provided them with guidance. He did so due to his belief in the significance of the Hussaini pulpit in the Iraqi reality, so much so that he used to send some of them to areas far from cities, and he used to find out that the preachers' impact in those areas was greater than that of the proselyte or cleric who ascends the pulpit and delivers a sermon.77

Martyr al-Sadr used to see in the preacher the tongue that expressed the rightly guided Marji'iyya; actually, he is the trusted middleman between the Marji'iyya and the nation. Shaikh Ahmed al-Waeli says the following about Sayyid al-Sadr’s interest in the Hussaini platform, "One of the concerns that occupied his mind was the issue of the Hussaini pulpit. He used to call on me to bear a portion of the pulpit's responsibility even if it could be done through a simple work that would later develop," and he had an ambitious plan in this regard.78

In the beginning, martyr Bint al-Huda used to attend the usual women's majalis and participate in them despite their violation of some Islamic principles. She was convinced in this regard that those majalis preserve the Islamic and social legacy, so they must be perpetuated and cultivated from any trivial features or impurities in order to show Islam's shiny reality.

She had her own special style which she described thus, "We should start with people from where they want in a way which is not inconsistent with seeking the pleasure of Allah so that we can get them to reach where we want them to be."79 The Hussaini majlis has a lofty value, an importance in the woman's society, in her being attracted to it, so it keeps her quite distant from being busy with other matters that are quite distant from Islam and the principles of Ahl al-Bayt as.

She advocated that our women must get down to the field of reality in order to become aware of the suffering because of misconceptions, and this can be done at the women's Hussaini majalis, in terms of clothes, the latest fashions, the scarcity of the cultural, spiritual, religious and ethical education, whereas the role of the propagator, the mulla, starts in explaining the philosophy of commemorating al-Hussain's martyrdom .80

Martyr Bint al-Huda started building the infrastructure and the fundamental work for women’s public awareness work in Iraq, where the Iraqi field is dominated by two trends, the trend of degradation and watering down which the West advocates, and a traditional conventional Islamic trend that demands women to sit at home, preventing them from speaking with men. In the middle of these two rejected trends, she moved to put up a third trend.81

She, therefore demanded Muslim women to rise up and assume their responsibility, to carry out their role of changing the society. She set out prompted by the theory of martyr al-Sadr in which he differed from other religious authorities. This was achieved by the martyred Bint al-Huda through giving women a major rather than a marginal role. So, when she started to move to establish different Hussaini majalis, the beginning was in the Al Mubaraka Hussainiyya in Karrada.

Both trends were fighting her, and there was so much talk and rumors launched to fight her, in addition to the authority fighting her, too. Police rescue cars used to park at homes where martyr Bint al-Huda used to deliver her lectures, yet this could not prevent the attendance of more than 300 women at the house of the Zalzalah family to listen to her.82

These sophisticated majalis formed the first nucleus of massive Islamic work in Iraq among women's circles. The Al Mubaraka Hussainiyya in Karrada was the first Hussainiyya that opened its doors to women83.

Martyr Bint al-Huda was the leader, educator and supervisor of this work, and she had initiatives which were not common in Iraq at the time. It was common for the woman to only be "mullaya" (female mulla) who would recite commemorative eulogies of Imam al-Hussain a.s. The one who founded this trend, i.e. the religious awareness through delivering lectures, lessons and direct dialogues, was martyr Bint al-Huda, so this was truly a quantum leap in the massive Islamic work.84

In majalis such as these of her own, martyr Bint al-Huda confronted extraneous practices, including women going a majlis looking as if they were going to a wedding party or a fashion show. She explained that al-Hussain a.s did not need the tears of such women; also Islam cannot be promoted through such practices that are from its essence and values as far as can be.85

Through those sessions was the martyr able to sow the seeds of an aware feminist work that was conscientious, disseminating it in the society. Thus, she shouldered her role in inviting people to the way of Allah, to struggle in His cause, and to sacrifice for the sake of the creed. It was also through raising the girls of her generation to be courageous, heroic and daring, principles which she perfectly embodied both in the way she lived and in the way she was martyred.

In the beginning, the audience was quite limited, then its circle widened, and the number of attendees kept increasingly, raising the concerns of the oppressive authority, so the latter scaled the sessions down by broadcasting falsehoods and canards in order to instill fear in the people's hearts.86

For these reasons, the martyr's sessions proliferated in 1968, and then the meetings became fixed monthly sessions at the Zalzalah family house in 1972. Through those sessions, the martyr succeeded in attracting all age groups. There were mothers attending as well as girls; martyr Bint al-Huda was selecting for every situation what it suited, responding quickly and intuitively with weighted words.

She was never surprised by any question or inquiry directed at her by the audience which included various segments of the feminist society. Her dialogue was characterized by calm and by being fair to everyone in the majlis, acting like a caring mother who did not want to discriminate among her daughters. It was through such sincerity of intention that she created a rising generation of women who upheld their creed.

Many university girls were attracted to her majlis, and they responded to her Islamic instructions in disciplining themselves and in raising others. Each of them had a role in saving her sisters from deviation which distances her from straightforward Islam. As time went by, the few aware believing women turned into a large number, spreading in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriyya and many other Iraqi cities. The veil phenomenon be came something witnessed rather than hidden, and the martyr was following up with the girls in weekly and monthly sessions, with oral and written directives through her stories, poems and objective articles.87

The tragic end to this noble humanitarian edifice put an early end and a great loss to the Islamic nation. On Saturday, the twentieth of Jumada I 1400 A.H., which coincided with April 5, 1980,Baathist security forces raided the residence of the religious authority, martyr al-Sadr, her brother and mentor, in order to whisk him away [from al-Kazimiyya] to [downtown] Baghdad just to come back the next day to arrest his fellow jihadist sister, Bint al-Huda.

They both were tortured, and they both eventually embraced martyrdom together, just as they had thus lived together. Thus, she was emulating the steps of the heroine of Kerbala, Zainab al-Kubra, in her brave stance side by side her brother, Imam al-Hussein, peace with them both, in the face of Umayyad oppression88.

The leading role played by martyr Bint al-Huda in Islamic media manifested itself through the following:

1. She presented a role model for women as a proselyte and writer who upheld the Islamic creed and its teachings during a period that was fraught with pens influenced by the ideas of the West and their ideological, cultural and media models which are distant from the reality of the Iraqi society.

2. Martyr Bint al-Huda worked to present a bright image of Islam in terms of its ability to meet the aspirations of Muslim women and to develop realistic solutions to the various problems of everyday life.

3. Martyr Bint al-Huda, the pioneering proselyte, worked to create a feminist generation aware of its religious culture and defending its Divinely-revealed message; therefore, her impact did not terminate after her martyrdom.

4. She encouraged many believing women to tread this path; actually, she encouraged many of them to write in what looked like a prophecy about the works they would be writing in the future, which they did.

5. She colored her media productions in various creative skills: She wrote newspaper articles and prosaic thoughts as well as poems. As regarding the story field, she was truly the pioneer of the Islamic story writing in Iraq.

6. She had a clear vision and a long term strategic plan. The media innovation was not merely a flurry of creativity, nor was it to satisfy a selfish need; rather, she was a woman who espoused great ideas, who worked towards achieving them and bringing them out to existence up to the end line of martyrdom.

7. Her educational, ideological and media creativity was part of her character. To her, work was a sacred act of worship, as is the case with the daily obligatory prayers. To her, multi-faceted Islamic work, including its media aspect, was a sacred duty rather than something marginal or secondary.

8. Her creative work in life was part of her commitment to her Marji'iyya. She actually fused herself into this Marji'iyya (that of Sayyid Muhsin al Hakim89), and this matter was one of the most obvious of her distinctive characteristics and easily visible personal merits.

9. She brought forth a third trend of change in her society which distinguished itself from both trends of atheism and enticement (on the one hand) and the conventional Islamic trend which is stonewalled in its attitude towards the Muslim woman and her role in the society (on the other). She was truly a pioneer in this enlightening revolutionary trend which has carried her name and mark.

Martyr Bint al-Huda was the liaison between the religious authority (Marji'iyya) and its masses. She was committed to the creed, and she persevered to highlight Islam's shiny image up to the last day of her life when she was martyred, and what a loss it was, and what a most heinous crime committed by those cowards who executed her.

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

Surely we belong to Allah, and to Him shall we all return.(2:156)

- 1. 1 Dr. Bayan Ubayd al-Urayyid was born in al-Najaf al-Ashraf in 1959. She earned her B.A. from Baghdad University in 1981, her M.A. i n 2006 and her Ph.D. in 2012, specializing in international relations and contemporary Islamic media. She has worked in the press field since 1979 as an investigative writer, particularly in issues related to women, culture, education and politics. Among her works is a book on the Omani American relations (Dar al-Jawahiri, Baghdad, 2013). This essay was originally written in Arabic and I translated it. If you wish to comment, criticize or compliment this essay, you can reach its writer on one of these emails: obaean@yahoo.com [11] or zainab_alhaidary@ymail.com [12]. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman: Concerns and Challenges, Dar Al Hadi for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, first edition, 1428 A.H./2007 A.D., Beirut, p. 10.

- 2. Nizar Haidar Atiyyah, aim (above mentioned), p. 254

- 3. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, p. 15

- 4. Names surfaced for female editors such as Mary Ajami (Entrepreneur of Bride Magazine), Julia Tu'hmah, a Damascene (New Woman), Iskandara (Alexandra) Avrino (Anis Al-Jillees), in addition to the rest of names: Rose el-Yousuf, May Ziyada, Olivia 'Areeda and others. For more, see: Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 16.

- 5. Alm, p. 24.

- 6. Salah al-Kharsan, Imam Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, p. 16.

- 7. The list includes Sayyid Hassan al-Sadr, one of the great scholars of al Kazimiyya. He had an opinion on the jihad movement which was almost distinguished him among the rest of Imami scholars. He died in Baghdad - Karkh on Thursday, June 12, 1935. He is maternal uncle of Sayyid Haidar, father of Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, as well as Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr who took over for several cycles serving as Speaker of the Senate [during Iraq's monarchy], and he used to perform the functions of head of the Prosecution Authority for the king and his crown prince during their absence outside Iraq. He formed the cabinet of ministers on January 29, 1948.
This was the first time in the history of the Iraqi ministries that a religious scholar assumed the presidency of the government. He also was the one who protected the royal family after the events of May of 1941. This is the origin of a popular Iraqi martial song saying "The Sayyid's house is secure". Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr died on April 3, 1956. See: Salah al-Kharsan, Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, p. 34.

- 8. Some references make the mistake of placing the Hijri date of her birth in 1356. For more information, refer to Muhammad al-Hassoun - Umm Ali Mashkur , "A'lam al-Nisaa al-Mu'minat", The Information Media of Believing Women, Dar al-Usra for Printing and Publishing , Iran, second edition: 1431, p. 89 ; Rasheed al-Qassam, Shaheedat al- 'Aqeeda wal Mabda', Batalat al- 'Asr (martyr of faith and principle , Bint al-Huda, champion of the era), Al-Nibras - Laith for Publication, first edition, 1424 A.H./2007 A.D., p. 12.

- 9. Ahmed al-'Amili, aim, Volume One, p. 81

- 10. Rasheed al-Qassam, aim, p. 12. Some sources indicate that she was orphaned when she was one year old, and in a testimony by her mother, the latter states that her daughter was a suckling infant when her father passed away. See: Ahmed al-'Amili, p. 106].

- 11. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, p. 255. (Bint al-Huda had jihadi positions with her brother, martyr Sayyid al-Sadr, with whom she was strongly connected, so much so that she said, "My life is from my brother's life, and it will end with his life's end, if Allah so wills." See: Ahmed al 'Amili, aim, Vol. 1, p. 81].

- 12. Fatima al- Iraqi, Diary of a Female Prisoner (Red Pages from a Forgotten History), Vol. One, Documentary Center for Female Martyrs of the Islamic Movement in Iraq, House of Jurisprudence, Fadel Press, first edition, Holy Qum, 2003, p. 51.

- 13. Muhammad al-Hassoun, aim, p. 90. (Some notifications have stated that her mother sent her, when they were in Kazimiyya, when she was six, to the mulla (a woman who teaches girls of her age the Holy Qur'an). On the first day when Amina (Bint al-Huda) entered the house of that mulla, she noticed the oven lit and the fire flames were rising, making a noise that scared her. She, therefore, returned to her mother obtrusive of learning in any house other than that of her parents, and so it was.) See: Ahmed al 'Amili, aim, p. 106.

- 14. Muhammad al-Hassoun, aim, p. 76.

- 15. Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 66.

- 16. Muhammad al-Hassoun, aim, p. 90. (One of the believing sisters living in London who was one of those who attended lectures by martyr Bint al Huda in Karrada says, "I used to wear jeans and a tight shirt. I never thought for one day that there was someone who could convince me of wearing the hijab and of changing my lifestyle. But after listening to lectures by martyr Bint al-Huda in Karrada, I was convinced about wearing hijab and truly committing myself to Islam." See: Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 74.

- 17. Alm, p. 70

- 18. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 256.

- 19. Some people erroneously think that the first name of martyr al-Sadr is "Muhammad" and that that of his father is "Baqir". This is wrong. His name is compound, i.e. a combination of both "Muhammad" and "Baqir". There are numerous compound names in Arabic: Abd-Allah or Abdullah, Muhammad-Ali, Muhammad-Hussain, Muhammad-Mahdi, Muhammad Sadiq..., Abdul-Khaliq, Abdul-Zahra, Abdul-Rida ..., etc. The name of al Sadr's father is Haidar. - Tr.

- 20. Islamic Da'wa Party, Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, one of the publications of the media center, Dar al-'Uloom Press, Baghdad, Iraq, aim, 1426 A.H./2005 A.D., p. 29.

- 21. Hassan al-Saeed, Martyr Imam Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr: the symbol and the issue, aim, p. 24.

- 22. Ahmed al-'Amili, Vol. 1, aim, p. 106.

- 23. Alm, p. 108.

- 24. Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, aim, p. 29.

- 25. I found the graph on this page for the first issue of the Adhwa' magazine on the site of His Eminence Sayyid Muhammad-Hussain Kashifal-Ghitaa logo of whose Library is shown on the next page. - Tr.

- 26. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 256.

- 27. Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, aim, p. 29.

- 28. Haidar Nazar Atiyyah, aim, p. 253.

- 29. Rasheed al-Qassam, aim, p. 15.

- 30. The term "marji'iyya" refers to the highest religious authority in the Shi'a School of Muslim Law.

- 31. The articles of Martyr Bint al-Huda appeared under borrowed signatures such as Bint al-Huda from which she derived her reputation, and she was known by "Umm al-Walaa (mother of loyalty), as well as by the initials "AH" (Amina Haidar) and "AHA" (Amina Haidar Al-Yasin).

- 32. Al-Adhwii ' (Lights) Magazine, No. 1, first year, Thul-Hijja 1379 A.H./ June 10, 1960, p. 20.

- 33. Alm, p. 21.

- 34. Al-Adhwa' Magazine, No. 7, second year, 1388 A.H./1961, p. 20.

- 35. We will discuss this aspect in detail in this research later.

- 36. Alm

- 37. Al-Adhwa' Magazine, No. 7, first year, 1380 A.H./1960 A.D.

- 38. Ibid. , fifth edition, second year, Rajab 1381 AH/1961 , p. 242.

- 39. Al-Adhwii' Magazine, No. 7, the first year of 0.1380 A.H./1960.

- 40. Alm, No. 8, second year, Shawwal 1381 A.H./1961 A.D., p.. 367.

- 41. 'Ilwiyya" is title of a woman who descends from the progeny of Imam Ali r. For male descendants, more than one title is used, but the most common is "Sayyid". - Tr.

- 42. Rasheed al-Qassam, aim, p. 27. (This ossified position went on until her first literary publications; therefore, the first edition of her book ("Virtue Triumphs") came out bearing the initials (AH) as referring to its author due to the impact of the that fossilized trend. Some people who were not familiar with the truth thought that it was written by Sheikh Muhammad Amin Zayn ad-Deen]. See: Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 52

- 43. Nizar Haidar Atiyyah, a/mm p. 256.

- 44. Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 52.

- 45. Al-Adhwii ' Magazine, No. 7, first year, 1380 A.H./1960 A.D.

- 46. Hassan al-Saeed, Martyr Imam Sadr, aim, p. 32.

- 47. Muhammad al-Haidari, Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr: Living Closely to Him, Salmi Press, first edition, Baghdad, 1424 A.H./2003 A.D., p. 81.

- 48. Al-Amini, aim, pp. 97, 108, 264, 313. (She has other manuscripts which the Baath authority confiscated when it stormed the house of Martyr al Sadr.] See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 53.

- 49. Complete story collection (A Book and an Invitation) - Book III, pp. 131- 134.

- 50. Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 26.

- 51. Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 60

- 52. Ibid., p. 67.

- 53. Umm Abrar al-Haidari is Lady Ilham Baqir, wife of sayyid Muhammad al-Haidari. She emigrated from Iraq to Syria in 1980 in an informal manner over her Islamic activity, then she settled in Iran in 1982. With the consent and support of martyr Bint al-Huda, she exercised authorship, writing the following: The Zainab of the Era, Who Leads Me?, Who Guides Me?, Who Helps Me?, Who Answers Me?, Who Saves Me?, How do I Attain Happiness ?, and Edicts that Concern You. She practiced Islamic propagation work in Syria and London and oversaw the magazine Mir'aat al-Shaban (mirror of the youths), Association of Martyr Salwa al Bahrani, and the Foundation of Martyr Bint al-Huda.
She has more than 150 videotaped lessons and 300 audio lessons mostly in education, women's education and Islamic awareness. Regarding the beginnings of her relationship with martyred Bint al-Huda, she says, "I wrote a letter to martyr in which I said, 'I read your books and am very impressed by your thoughts. In order the benefit may include us, I suggest that you come to the Hussainiyya of Al Mubaraka to give lectures because it is a public place and receives all women." For more information, see: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 69 and beyond.

- 54. Al-Adhwa' Magazine, No. 9, first year, Rabi' II 1380/0ctober 1960.

- 55. Muhammad al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 96.

- 56. Ibid.

- 57. Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 68.

- 58. Muhammad al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 97.

- 59. Rasheed al-Qassam , p. 31.

- 60. Muhammad al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 96. (Professor Muhammad al-Qaddusi used to say: What a legend this woman some of whose I have read?! We in Egypt have Bint al-Shati, and you have in Iraq Bint al-Huda. We have in Egypt female story writers, poetesses and struggling women of letters. But when I imagine the resilience of this woman and her standing alongside her brother , as well as her detonating an overwhelming uprising in Iraq, I imagine myself going back to the atmospheres of Kerbala, al-Hussain and Zainab, to Yazid's army, the neighing of horses and the desert sands. ..] See: Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 29.

- 61. Ahmed al-'Amili , a/m, p. 321

- 62. To see more of her poetry, refer to: Muhammad al-Hassoun, MIA, p.. 99 and beyond.

- 63. Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, pp. 55-56.

- 64. Islamic Da'wa Party, a/m, p. 33

- 65. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 256.

- 66. This society was formed in 1958 in Baghdad under the presidency of Sayyid 'allama Murtaza al-Askari. Soon it branched out to Basra, Diwaniyya, Hilla and al-Kazimiyya. It distinguished itself for its many charitable activities. In the field of education, it supervised the faculties of the College of Usool ad-Deen (principles of the faith) in Baghdad and the Schools of Imam al-Jawad for Boys in both their primary and secondary stages, as well as the Zahfjr Schools for Girls Zahra in both their primary and secondary stages. For more information, see Risa/at al-Islam (Message of Islam) magazine, Nos. 5-6, first year, September month of Ramadan 1386 A.H./December 1966 (Julian), p.. 194.

- 67. Ahmed al-'Amili, Vol. 2, a/m, p. 97.

- 68. It is noteworthy that an inspector wanted once to enter one of the girls' classrooms, so Bint al-Huda said to him, "You should not enter the classroom, and it should suffice you to simply take the information you need from the administration. I hope that an inspectress will visit our school." The inspector agreed to her request and wrote a report to the Ministry of Education in which he said, "These schools are veil fortresses."

- 69. Muhammad al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 94.

- 70. See: Ahmed al-'Amili, Vol. 2, a/m, p. 97

- 71. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 257.

- 72. Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 54.

- 73. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 257.

- 74. Ahmed al-'Amili, Vol. 2, p. 99.

- 75. Muhammad al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 95.

- 76. Muhammad al-Haidari, a/m, p. 56

- 77. Martyr al-Sadr was in his childhood attached to the platform/pulpit (minbar) of Sheikh Kazem Noah in al-Kazimiyya due to what was known of his beautiful voice and dramatic fervor. He was regarded as one of the aware preachers in the Hussaini pulpit. Actually, Sayyid al-Sadr himself used to ascend the Hussaini pulpit on Ashura in al-Kazimiyya when he was young in age. See: Sadiq Jafar al-Rawaziq, a/m, p. 282.

- 78. Ibid. , p. 285 . One of the basics of this project is to integrate the speakers into the scholarly hawza and find a formula that provides for them a guarantee for their future, in addition to establishing a central institution to unify their curricula and trends.

- 79. Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 55.

- 80. Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 36

- 81. Fatima al-Iraqi, aim, p. 73.

- 82. The researcher attended the assembly of Lady and former MP Mona Zalzalah in her home in Karrada in the summer of 2003. The female audience was recalling the historical moments of the majalis of martyr Bint al-Huda and setting aside time in the lectures to read some of her articles and valuable instructive writings. Open discussions would then start of views expressed by the attendants

- 83. We can imagine the difficulty of the matter from the following incident: Lady Ilham Baqir says that she wrote Sayyid Murtaza al-'Askari saying that she was of the opinion that it was necessary to set aside a fixed place for women to attend congregational prayer services in the Hussainiyya which, at the same time, could be used as a forum to air their concerns, to work and propagate (the cause). She gave the Jetter to his daughter who was used to attend the commemorative gatherings. "After some time," she goes on, "Sayyid al-Askari sent me a letter of reply also through his daughter in which he stated the following: 'My daughter, this has been my dream for quite some time. I hoped to open a place for women but, my daughter, I am afraid I will then find no men praying behind him.' This statement goes back to 1967." See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 69.

- 84. IIbid.' p. 70.

- 85. Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 36.

- 86. Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 65.

- 87. Ibid., p. 77.

- 88. Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, aim, p. 258 ; Muhammad Reza al Nu' mani, Martyr al-Sadr: Years of the Ordeal, aim, p. 313 et seq.

- 89. Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhsin al-Tabatabai al-Hakim (1889-1970) was the sole marji' taqlid (emulation authority) in 1961 after the death of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hussain Borujerdi . His son, Abdul-Aziz al Hakim, who was born in 1953, was the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), the largest political party in Iraq, up to his death due to lung cancer in 2009.

Sayyid Muhammad Muhammad-Sadiq Al-Sadr

There is a story behind the writing of this text which the author narrates in his Introduction to this book.

Who is Sayyid Muhammad Muhammad-Sadiq al-Sadr?

He is Sayyid Muhammad son of Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq, son of Sayyid Muhammad Mehdi, son of Sayyid Isma'il, son of Sayyid Sadr ad-Din Muhammad, son of Sayyid Salih, son of Sayyid Muhammad, son of Sayyid Ibrahim Sharaf ad-Din; his genealogy reaches Imam Musa al-Kazim (as), one of the offspring of lmam Ali ibn Abu Talib (as) and Fatima al-Zahra (as), daughter of the Messenger of Allah (P).

His father, Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq al-Sadr, is the cousin of Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr who was executed together with his sister Bint al-Huda by Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti. Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr was born in 1943 in Najaf al-Ashraf and started his studies at the hawza in 1954. In 1960, he joined the College of Fiqh (Islamic Juristic system) from which he graduated in 1964.

During that period, he married the daughter of his uncle Sayyid Muhammad Ja'fer al-Sadr by whom he was blessed with four sons: Mustafa, Mu'ammal, Murtada and Muqtada. He was tutored by the best scholars the most prominent among whom were: Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim, Sayyid Abul-Qasim al Khoei, and Sayyid Martyr Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.

He was awarded the Certificate of Ijtihad by the Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in 1977 when he was 37 years old. In the same year, he taught the stage of Al-Kharij at the hawza but, due to the political circumstances of the time, he could not continue to teach and was able in 1990 to do so.

He is the author of more than 26 books dealing with various topics relevant to Fiqh, creed, norms of conduct and Usool. The most significant of his works are: his encyclopedic work dealing with Imam al-Mehdi (as) (titled Tarikh ma Ba ’d al-Zuhoor, "Post Reappearance History"), those discussing human rights from an Islamic viewpoint, his own scientific dissertation titled Minhaj al Salihin, in the philosophy of manners, his shedding light on the revolution of Imam Husain (as), in addition to a complete course study dealing with the science known as 'Ilm al-Usool.

After the demise of Ayatullah Sayyid Abul-Qasim al-Khoei in 1992, he became the recognized religious Authority-Referee and started in 1997 leading the Friday prayers which were attended by huge crowds of people estimated at tens of thousands. This figure includes those who prayed behind him or behind his representatives in Baghdad or throughout southern Iraq. He also set up court’s ruling according to the Islamic Shari'a (legislative system) in all Iraqi towns so that people might refer to the sacred canons rather than to the Government's courts.

The Events that Led to His Assassination

Once he had started leading the Friday prayer sermons, he started resurrecting a number of concepts of Islamic awareness, urging the public to defy the Government and its authority. In fact, he himself started providing advice to the Government presented in the form of a challenge. Moreover, he always issued fatawa (edicts) mandating that it was prohibitive for a Faqih to follow taqiyya (safeguard) if doing so stemmed from his own personal fear rather than out of concern for Islam.

In his sermons, he always used to invite the Army to be aligned with the people, something which the Government interpreted as urging the Army to sympathize with the people, and not to obey the Government or to be confrontational towards the people. He also used to call upon the Government to grant the people freedom, wondering why it had to oppose the establishment of the Islamic ceremonies such as the holding of Friday prayer services, the visiting of the grave of lmam al-Husain (as), etc., stating that anyone who opposed them was an Imperialist and an enemy of Islam.

This was a clear reference to the Iraqi Government and to its enmity towards Islam and open compliance with the Imperialists; such was the gist of his sermon No. 35 which he delivered near the end of the month of Sha'ban of the past Hijri year (November 1998). He used to encourage people not to be afraid of the Government and to march en masse to visit the shrine of Imam al-Husain (as).

He brought an example from history when he recalled how al-Mutawakkil used to cut off the hand of anyone who visited the shrine of Imam al-Husain (as), so a man once went there to visit Imam al-Hussain’s shrine after both of his hands had already been cut off in his previous visits.

The Iraqi Government always asked him to laud it in his sermons. He not only refrained from doing so but also banned all his representatives from lauding the Government in their sermons. He also refused to criticize the Arab governments that did not support the Iraqi Government's policies during the latest incidents.

The relationship between him and the said Government, therefore, started to rapidly strain at the end of the month of Rajab of the past year (October 1998) when he ordered the people to visit the shrine of lmam al-Hussain (as) during the middle of the month of Sha'ban (November 1998). The Government tried to discourage him from doing so.

First, the governor of Najaf and the director of the security apparatus in Najaf contacted him in order to discourage him, but he refused to succumb to their pressure. This forced Saddam to send a delegation to meet him before the start of the said visit. Members of the delegation asked him to issue a statement saying that the circumstances did not permit such a march, but the Sayyid refused. He moreover issued a communiqué stating that "The Government bans such a visit, but the public have to undertake it."

On Shawwal 5, 1419 A.H. (February 3, 1999 A.D.), the Government tried to prohibit him from leading the Friday prayers at Kufa's Grand Mosque in the pretext of an ongoing construction work on site. Muhammad Hamzah al-Zubaidi, member of the national leadership (of the Baath Party now ruling Iraq with an iron fist), and also the head of the army forces assigned for the central region of the country and who was in charge of a military force and backed by security men, tried to stop the Sayyid from holding the Friday sermon, but the throngs of people who numbered more than a hundred thousand were able to penetrate the siege laid around Kufa's Grand Mosque.

The Government failed to stop the Sayyid from ascending the pulpit to deliver a sermon wherein he encouraged the public to maintain such enthusiasm in upholding the Friday sermon. Muhammad al-Zubaidi was forced to retreat and was greatly disappointed, he and all the army corps and security men with him. The Iraqi Government was not satisfied with harassing him but went on to harass his representatives as well.

It even appointed five Imams for the mosques to conduct the Friday prayers in various regions. Those "Imams" were pro-Government. In his sermon delivered at the end of the month of Rajah (November 1998), the Sayyid announced the names of those five individuals, so the people stopped praying behind them, kicking some of them out of the mosques and replacing them with some of the representatives of the Sayyid.

This situation led sometimes to clashes between the worshipers and the security men, and a number of worshipers on various occasions were martyred. The same took place during the past month of Ramadan (January 1999) at the mosque of "The People's City" in Baghdad when the Government appointed one of its own Imams. 'Allama Shaikh Ali al-Ka'bi then declared that prayers were not valid for anyone who prayed behind an "Imam" appointed by the Government. People were enraged, and clashes took place leading to the martyrdom of a number of individuals.

Many were wounded. The Sayyid, therefore, issued a verdict ordering that prayers should not be performed behind an "Imam" appointed by Saddam to lead the prayers. Security agents demanded that Sayyid al-Sadr's representatives praise Saddam in their sermons, but these representatives have always refused to do so in obedience to the orders of al-Sadr himself. This led to several confrontations between them and such security agents in various regions of the country.

For example, Shaikh Aws al-Khafaji was arrested in front of the Nasiriyya Cooperative in the middle of the month of Ramadan (January 1999). The worshipers kept waiting for him till they came to know of his arrest. It is then that Nasiriyya's Judge, who had been appointed by Sayyid al-Sadr, and whose name is 'allama (a scholarly title equivalent to Ph.D.) Shaikh As'ad al Nasiri publicly denounced the arrest of Shaikh al-Khafaji, and the people echoed his denunciations loudly and prayed behind him the noon prayers.

Then thousands of them, men and women, marched to Nasiriyya's Security Directorate, which is located at a distance of about 6 kilometers, shouting the whole time anti-Government slogans. They were routed by the security agents who first fired live ammunition in the air in order to scare and disperse them, but people showed no signs of fear at all but of defiance. As a matter of fact, they were now more enthused and insisted on reaching the building of the said Directorate no matter what.

It was then that they became the target of the Doshga missiles, yet they refused to disperse. Women shouted: "Shoot us in the chest, you oppressors!" Having finished their afternoon prayers, which they performed in front of the Directorate's building, they were approached by the security agents who arrested Shaikh al-Nasiri and succeeded in dispersing the crowd only after firing tear gas canisters at them. Then the security agents arrested all those who were manning al-Sadr's office in Nasiriyya including Sayyid Aqeel al-Mousawi and 'allama Ahmed Shamkhi, in addition to a number of those who performed the prayers there and then. Prayer services at the Nasiriyya Mosque came to a complete halt.

In the city of Kut, security authorities prohibited 'allama Sayyid Kazim al-'Aani from leading the Friday prayer services because he refused to pray for the Government. People then courageously faced the security authorities with their shouts and denunciations. They also shouted slogans against the security agents themselves and insisted on performing the prayer rites which were, indeed, performed despite the nose of Saddam's feared security apparatus .

In Baghdad, an attempt was made to prohibit Shaikh Mu'ayyad al Khazraji from leading the prayer service because he refused to laud and pray for the ruling autocratic authority. In Ur, a Baghdad suburb, when the authority tried to prohibit the holding of Friday prayer service, closing the gate of the mosque there, the worshipers were engaged in a fist fight with the security agents who surrounded the mosque with their armored vehicles. Nine worshipers were martyred there.

In Amara, Shaikh Sayyid Hasan al-Muhammadawi and allama Judge Shaikh Nadem al-Sa'idi were arrested, but the violent reaction of their respective tribes forced the despotic authority to release them. When allama Sayyid Ali al-Shawki was prohibited from leading the prayer service at the Husainiyya in Al-Sha'ab Town in the month of Sha'ban (December 1998), people kept performing their prayers in the street for several weeks.

The authority kept blocking all alleys leading to the mosque trying to stop the worshipers from reaching the service site by dispersing its agents throughout the streets and the alleys leading to the mosque and even cutting the electric power. But the people brought their own portable electric generators as well as voice amplifiers. At the beginning of the month of Shawwal (February 1999), the ruling authority conducted a new wave of arrests.

Following the arrest of Aws al-Khafaji and of Shaikh As'ad al Nasiri, Shaikh al-Zubaidi was arrested, too, in front of the Nahrawan Mosque, and Shaikh Tahsin al-'Abudi was arrested in front of the Abu Ghraib Cooperative. Sayyid al-Sadr, therefore, announced in his Sermon No. 44, which he delivered in Shawwal (February 1999), that if the ruling authority did not release those arrested, he would issue an order to the Imams who led the Friday prayer services to speak up and to be mobilized against the Government.

The Government sent an envoy to the Sayyid to ask him to reconsider his threat, but he refused and remained adamant. Saddam Hussein contacted him in person and reiterated the same request, but al-Sadr again refused. Al-Sadr, therefore, was placed under house arrest and was forbidden from leading the Friday prayer service on Thul-Qi'da 3, 1419 A.H. (February 19, 1999).

But he defied the order of staying at home and went out to visit the shrine of lmam Ali (as) escorted by his sons, Mustafa and Mu'ammal, and also by his son-in-law. They were intercepted by an Oldsmobile car and were shot by machine guns used by the army. Both his sons and son-in-law threw themselves on him to protect him, hence they were instantly killed. He, too, was shot and seriously wounded. He was transported to a hospital as he kept bleeding. The hospital was vacated from all doctors and the Sayyid was left there to bleed to death, may the Almighty be pleased with him.

Then the Government buried him secretly in the presence of a very few members of his family at the dawn of February 20, 1999 without giving him any traditional Islamic burial service. Then the Iraqi Radio announced the news that the Sayyid had died in the eve of Thursday, not of Friday (as was the case), in order to give the impression that he was not buried in a hurry.

Why al-Sadr was thus assassinated? Saddam Hussein's Government's Habitual Lies

The Iraqi Government accused "foreign hands" to be responsible for the assassination of this martyr in a desperate attempt to contain the reaction of the angry crowds for its having committed such a heinous crime.

All what we have mentioned clearly and without a hint of doubt underscores the fact that the killer is none other than Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti himself, and that none else benefits from such a crime besides him, nor is there anyone who has the guts to kill him other than Saddam Hussein who has killed even the husbands of his own daughters not because they threatened him but simply because they held different views.

So, what would you say about someone who did, indeed, threaten him, someone who publicly stated from the pulpit during the Friday congregational prayer service that he (Saddam) was an enemy of Islam and of Muslims and a lackey of the imperialists?

Did the Martyred Sayyid Expect to be killed?

The martyred Sayyid did not at all rule out the possibility that Saddam Hussein would assassinate him. All indications clearly point out to the fact that he was fully aware of becoming a victim of Saddam Hussein’s bloody regime especially in the light of the fact that he met his authority with defiance and courage.

The martyred Sayyid used to wear the burial shrouds whenever he led a Friday congregational prayer service, and he used to utter statements such as, "If Sayyid al-Sadr (meaning himself) dies, you should continue upholding the Friday prayers." He believed that it was prohibited for a scholar to resort to taqiyya (extreme precaution) if he feared only for his own life but it would be alright if he feared for the Islamic creed.

He, therefore, never knew fear whenever he delivered a sermon, and he utilized the Friday pulpit to acquaint people with Islam and to fight oppression. But when the Government prohibited him from leading the prayers, he realized that the ruling authority wanted to pull that card away, too. He urged people to continue to uphold this obligatory Islamic rite even if the price for confronting the Government would be high, training the public to do so by his own wearing the burial shrouds whenever he led the Friday prayer services.

And so it happened; the ruling authority assassinated him, thus unveiling its true face and animosity towards Islam and Muslims, especially those who promote the creed, belying its claim that it was the guardian of the religion or the protector of the people. His martyrdom became a reason for igniting Islamic sentiments among the public and served to acquaint the people with what Islam really is and with the meaning of martyrdom.

The escalation did not leave the oppressive ruling authority any option except to select one of two alternatives: either to let him have his way, and in this case the people's awareness would increase and so will their knowledge of Islam, and it is only natural, given the implications of such awareness, that the people will be more and more angry with the Government and the confrontation and defiance will intensify.

Facing such a reality, the oppressive ruling authority would only be more isolated from the public, more so than at the present time and people would sooner or later rebel against it when the circumstances are conducive. The other alternative was to silence him by putting an end to the Friday prayer services which he was leading and whereby he was able to get his message across to the largest possible segment of the society.

It is for this reason that the Government opted to achieve this goal. The Sayyid himself had to face two very difficult options: either to safeguard his life by relinquishing his attempts to get his message across to the people, especially after he was placed under house arrest, or to defy the authority and thus risk his life and would, through his Jihad and martyrdom, become a supreme example and a true Islamic role model for all those who face oppression, even if it cost him his life.

The Timing of the Assassination

The Iraqi Government chose both internal and external timing for this assassination. Externally, two major events were out there: the confrontation [which never materialized, as expected] between the Serbs and NATO forces because of the Kosovo problem, in addition to the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan.

During such period, Iraq was not in the forefront. Rather, Iraq was then enjoying a great deal of support from Arab and Muslim countries because of the American and British bombers constantly violating its air space and strafing its north and south [in the false pretext of "protecting" the Kurds and the Shi'ites, a very well publicized lie].

As for the internal situation, the Sayyid did not bind himself by the Government's order to stay at home. The ruling authority, therefore, opted to assassinate him during the furthest time distance from one Friday prayer service to another in order to minimize the possibility of any popular confrontation with the Government. His assassination, hence, took place in the eve of a Friday at about 7:30 pm on Thul-Qi'da 3, 1419 A.H./February 19, 1999 A.D.

The ruling authority prepared all means necessary to quell any uprising in its infancy: it dug up trenches around and inside the city of Najaf. Even Qusayy, Saddam's son, was present with the forces called "Saddam's Suicide Defenders" on the same day when the Sayyid was assassinated. All communications with the city of Najaf was cut off, be they telephones or highways. Security agents had already been stationed in all the regions where the ruling authority expected some movement or an uprising.

Despite all of these measures, large scale confrontations did, indeed, take place, and scores of people were martyred in Baghdad and in cities in southern Iraq. But the brutal methods employed by the Iraqi Government in confronting dissenters, its killing unarmed people, may on the surface enable such Government to put things under control, but the fire remains under the ashes, and the souls remain animated with the fire of zeal, waiting for the opportunity to explode, to rise up, and to bring about the anticipated change.

Surely every night brings after it a morning; every sunset is succeeded by sunrise. Falsehood will sooner or later be defeated. Oppression rules for a while, but the ultimate triumph is for what is right, and only what is right.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

All Praise is due to the Lord of the World.

Conclusion

The unforgettable date was September 3, 2003; it was then that I returned home to Iraq after 32 long years in exile, one year of which was split between teaching in Saudi Arabia and spending some time in Beirut, Lebanon, waiting to board a plane to the U.S. for my higher studies. I had to rent a taxi-cab from Amman, Jordan to Baghdad, Iraq, a long trip which I shall never forget.

I did not feel embarrassed at all when I burst in tears at the first sight of Iraqi land, albeit it was a desert land. Desert land is precious, too; everything is precious when it comes to one's homeland. My eyes took a good while to completely empty their tears. Luckily, I was the only passenger. Yet the first thought that crossed my mind was to visit the Shrine in my home town, al-Kadhimiyya, where I spent most of my life in Iraq, although I was not born there.

This scene of tears repeated itself the moment I saw the glitter of the four golden minarets and two huge golden domes of the Shrine of two Imams al Kadhimiyya city in northwestern Baghdad is blessed to house. I fell on the threshold and kissed it, turned to the first gate slab and kissed it, then turned to the left and did likewise while my tears did not stop because they had by then replenished their supply as if they knew that I would soon need them.

My older brother, Sarni, accompanied me; without him as my tour guide, I would not have known where to go, for Baghdad changed during all those years, so much so that months after my return, I still did not know at times whether I was in the north or south, east or west.

People in the West, where I spent 31 of those years, cannot easily understand such sentiments, but that is their problem; most of them are not sentimental; tears find themselves reluctant to trickle down their cheeks except rarely.

For any Muslim who follows the faith of the Prophet's immediate family, known as Ahl al-Bayt ' People of the Household of the Prophet (s.a.w), the sight of any shrine housing the remains of a direct descendant of the Prophet (s.a.w) causes tears to flow and flow. It is genuine love mixed with sorrow and grief for the suffering those saints had to undergo at the hands of those who were jealous of them, of their status, of their immaculate characters, of people's attachment to them.

Such love manifested itself in the conduct of the three saints discussed in this book; it is this love that turns martyrdom into a most anticipated dream, the ultimate desire, and the most precious wish. Some saints are granted such a wish, as is the case with these two men and one woman, while others are given a respite.

The Almighty fares with His servants as He pleases; He has a plan and a term for each and every one of them, there is no doubt about it. He pulled me out of Iraq in 1971 and enabled me to reach the United States the next year because He had a plan for me, the undeserving servant of His that I am, and this is a blessing for which I can never ever thank Him enough. Had this not taken place, I would not have produced the literature which thousands of people worldwide have read, enjoyed and learned from and many more will hopefully do the same.

The list of books and other publications which He has enabled me to write, edit or translate keeps getting crowded with more and more works; it is a privilege and a blessing which He has bestowed on me. Look me up through Google and see for yourself.

I was warned by many Muslims in Atlanta, Georgia, where I lived from 1972 to 1979, about translating works of martyr Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, but I did not heed the warnings. Then I was warned again when I started translating Al-Muraja 'at: A Shi 'i-Sunni Dialogue which was written by Sharafud-Din Sadr ad-Din al Mousawi, and again I did not heed them. Who warned me? Those who love this vanishing world did.

If your heart inclines towards Ahl al-Bayt, there will be no room in it for loving this vanishing world, this fleeting life. Such is the case with the hearts of these three saints; they were not discouraged from doing what they thought was the right thing by the tyranny, might and means of the "Butcher of Baghdad" and those who supported him in the West, in the U.S. in particular, and in the Arab world where stooges and misfits still rule the masses, where there are still the likes of Saddam and his clique holding the reins of power with support from the same people who brought Saddam to power, kept him in power and ultimately created a Frankenstein of him.

Will these folks, particularly the anti-Shi' a rulers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf area, learn that faith cannot be fought with force? Will they realize that many thrones were burnt by the blood of martyrs? I seriously doubt it. Their minds are too close to even consider this thought. Nobody likes to think about nightmares. . Wassalamo Alaikom.

Silent Supplication to Allah

By a repentant sinner seeking His forgiveness, Author Unknown

لك الحمد يا ذا الجود و المجد والعلا

تباركت تعطي من تشاء و تمنع

All praise belongs to You, O Possessor of bounty, glory and loftiness!

Glory to You, You grant whomsoever You will, and You withhold.

إلهي وخلاقي وحرزي و موئلي

إليك لدى الإعسار و اليسر أفزع

O Allah! My Creator, fortress and refuge!

To You do I resort, in hardship and in ease, for relief.

إلهي لئن جلت وجمَّت خطيئتي

فعفوك عن ذنبي أجل وأوسع

O Allah! Even if my sins have become grave and numerous,

Your forgiveness is far greater and without a limit.

إلهي ترى حالي وفقري و فاقتي

وأنت مناجاتي الخفية تسمع

O Allah! If I had given my soul all that it desired,

Here I am reveling in the land of regret.

إلهي لئن أعطيت نفسي سؤلها

فها أنا في أرض الندامة أرتع

O Allah! You see my condition, poverty and destitution,

And You hear my softly whispered supplication.

إلهِيْ فلا تَقْطَعْ رَجَائِي وَلاَ تُزِغ

فؤادي فَلِي في سَيْبِ جُوْدِكَ مَطْمَعُ

O Allah! Do not sever my hopes, do not distract my heart (From loving You),

for I anticipate Your boundless generosity.

إلهي لئن خيَّبتَني او طردتني

فمن ذا الذي أرجو ومن ليَ يشفعُ

O Allah! If You disappoint me or chase me away,

To whom shall I plead? Who can intercede for me?

إلهي أجرني من عذابك إنني

أسيرٌ ذليلٌ خائفٌ لك أخضع

O Allah! Protect me from Your torment, indeed I am

A captive, abased, fearful and subservient to You.

إلهي فآنسني بتلقينِ حجَّتي

اذا كان لي في القبر مثوَى ومَضْجعُ

O Allah! Be kind to me by inspiring me to articulate my excuse

When the grave becomes my abode and resting place.

إلهي لئن عذبتني ألف حجة

فحبل رجائي منك لا يتقطّع

O Allah! Even if You punish me for a thousand years,

My hopes on You, nonetheless, will never be severed.

إلهي أذقني طعم عفوك يوم لا

بنون ولا مال هنالك ينفع

O Allah! Let me savor Your forgiveness on the Day,

When neither progeny, nor wealth will be of any avail.

إلهي إذا لم ترْعَني كنتُ ضائعاً

وان كنتَ ترعاني فلستُ أُضَيَّعُ

O Allah! If You do not look after me, I will be lost!

But if You do look after me, I am never lost.

إلهي اذا لم تَعْفُو عن غير محسن

فمن لمسيءٍ بالهوى يتمتَّعُ

O Allah! If You do forgive only the doers of goodness,

Who is there for the disobedient one indulgent in his desires?

إلهي لئن فرَّطت في طلب التقي فها

أنا إثر العفو أقفو و أتبع

O Allah! Even though I have been negligent in pursuing piety,

Here I am now tracing and following the path of forgiveness.

إلهي لئن أخطأت جهلا فطالما

رجوتك حتى قيل ها هو يجزع

O Allah! If I have sinned in ignorance, I have also often been

Solicitous until others wondered why I am in such anxiety.

إلهي ذنوبي جزَتِ الطَوْدَ واعْتَلَتْ

وَصَفْحُكَ عَنْ ذَنِبي أَجَلُّ وأَرْفَعُ

O Allah! My sins have become like mountains or even higher,

Yet Your ability to pardon is greater and still higher.

إلهي ينجي ذكر طولك لوعتي

وذكر الخطايا العين مني تدمع

O Allah! Remembering Your might alleviates my sorrow,

While remembering my sins cause my eyes to shed their tears.

الھی اقلنی عثرتی و امح حوبتی

فانی مقرّ خائف متصرع

O Allah! Amend my slips and efface my every sin,

For here I am confessing, terrified and beseeching.

إلهي أَنِلْنِي مِنْكَ روحا وَرَحْمَة ً

فَلَسْتُ سوى أَبْوَابِ فَضْلِكَ أَقْرَعُ

O Allah! Grant me peace from You and tranquility,

For I knock at only the gate of Your mercy.

إلهي لئن أقصيتني أو طردتني

فما حيلتي يا رب أم كيف أصنع

O Allah! If You distance me from Yourself or debase me,

What recourse will I have, Lord? What should I then do?

إلهي حليف الحب بالليل ساهر

ينادي ويدعو والمغفل يهجع

O Allah! Those allied in Your love remain awake nightly and remember,

You, entreating and praying (to You), while the unmindful ones slumber.

الھی و ھزا اخلق مابین نائم

و منتبة فى لیلة ىتضرع

O Allah! Here are creatures: Most of them are sleeping,

But the mindful ones spend the night to You supplicating.

وكلهم يرجو نوالك راجيا

لرحمتك العظمى وفي الخلد يطمع

All of them hope for Your favors, Your infinite mercy anticipate

Covet Your blessings in the Gardens that never terminate.

إلهي يمنيني رجائي سلامة

وقبح خطيئاتي عليَّ يشيّع

O Allah! My hopes have allowed me to anticipate safety,

While the ugliness of my sins bespeak my sins horribly.

إلهي فإن تعف فعفوك منقذي

وإلا فبالذنب المدمر أصرع

O Allah! If You forgive me, Your pardon will save me,

Otherwise, my devastating sins will destroy me.

إلهي بحقِّ الهاشميّ محمدِ

وحرمة اطھار ھم لك خضع

O Allah! For the sake of Muhammad the Hashemite do

Forgive me, by the sanctity of the Progeny humbling itself to You.

إلهي بحقِّ المصطفی وابن عمّة

و حرمة ابرار ھم لك خشع

O Allah! For the sake of the Chosen One and of his cousin,

For the sanctity of those who truly submit to You and never sin.

إلهيَ فانْشُرْني على دِيْنِ أَحْمَدٍ

تقياً نقياً فانتاً لك أخشعُ

O Allah! Resurrect me as a follower of the religion of Ahmad,

As a repentant to You is devout, obedient and a humble servant.

ولا تحرمني ياإلهي وسيّدي

شفاعَتَكَ الكُبْرَى فذاك المُشَفِّعُ

And do not deprive me, O Allah, O my Master,

Of his great intercession, for he is the true intercessor.

وصلِّ عليه ما دعاك موحّدٌ

وناجاك أخيار ببابك رُكّعُ

And do, Lord, bless him whenever a monotheist calls on You,

And whenever the righteous bow at Your gate, beseeching You.

Selected Sayings of the Prophet of Islam

Reading the following statements made by the Prophet of Islam s.a.w on various subject matters will provide one with an insight into the tenets of this faith, its morals and ethics, individual and social norms and systems. It is a bird's eye view at what religion stands for.

احفظ ود ابیك، لا تقطعہ فیطفیء اللہ نورك

Safeguard your father's affection; do not sever it lest Allah should put your noor (celestial light) out.

بروا اباءکم تبرکم ، وعفوا تعف نساوکم

Be kind to your parents, your offspring will be kind to you; be chaste, so your women may be chaste (too)

.

ثلاث دعوات مستجابات لاشك فيهن : دعوة المظلوم ودعوة المسافر ودعوة الوالد على ولدة

Three supplications are honored, there is no doubt therein: the supplication of a wronged person, the supplication of a traveler and the supplication of a father against his son.

دُعَاءُ الوَالِدِ لِوَلَدِه كَدُعَاءِ النَّبِيِّ لِأُمَّتِه.

A father's supplication for his son is like a prophet's supplication for his nation.

طَاعَةُ اللَّهِ طَاعَةُ الوالِدِ، وَمَعْصِيَةُ اللَّهِ مَعْصِيَةُ الوالِدِ

Obedience of Allah lies in obeying the father; disobedience of Allah is disobeying the father.

اذ الله عبدا ابتلاه ليسمع تضرعه

If Allah loves one of His servants, He tests him so He may hear him pleading.

ان الله يبتلى عبده المومن بالسقم حتى يكفر عنه كل ذنب

Allah afflicts His believing servant with illness till He wipes out all his sins.

لَوْ نَظَرْتُمْ إلَى الأجَلِ وَمَسِيْرِهُ لأبْغَضْتُمُ الأمَلَ وَسُرُورَهُ

If only you see destiny and its march, you will hate hope and its vanity.

البركته فى اكابرنا: فمن لم يرحم صغيرنا ويجل كبيرنا فليس منا

The blessing lies in our elderly; one who is not merciful to our young, nor does he hold our elderly in high esteem, is not one of us.

ليس منا من لم يوقر الكبير و ير حم الصغير ويامر بالمعروف وينه عن المنكر

None of us is one who does not hold the elderly with high esteem, who is not merciful to the young, who does not enjoin the doing of what is right and does not forbid the doing of what is wrong.

وقرو ا من تعلمون منه العلم, و و قروا من تعلمونه العلم

Hold in high esteem the one from whom you acquire knowledge, and (likewise) hold in high esteem one whom you teach knowledge.

بئس العبد المحتكر: ان ارخص الله الاسعار حزن, وان اغلاها الله فرح

Miserable is a monopolizing servant (of Allah): When Allah lets prices go down, he is grieved, and when He permits them to rise, he is elated.

التاجر ينتظر الرزق, والمحتكر ينتظر اللعنة

A trader awaits sustenance, whereas one who monopolizes awaits the curse.

من احتكر على المسلمين طعامهم ضربه الله بالجذام

One who hoards the Muslims' food will be hit by Allah with leprosy.

انك ان تترك ورثك اغنياء خير من ان تتركهم عالة

If you leave behind you rich heirs, it is better than leaving them a burden on others.

اذا اثنى عليك جيرانك انك محسن, فانت محسن

If your neighbors compliment you as a man of benevolence, you are a benevolent man.

اذا حكمتم فاعدلو, واذا قلتم فاحسنو, فان الله محسن يحب المحسنين

When you judge, be just; when you speak, say what is good, for Allah is good and He loves those who are good.

الإحْسَانُ أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ فَاِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ تَرَاهُ فَاِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ

Goodness is that you worship Allah as though you see Him; for if you do not see Him, He sees you.

ان الله تعلى محسن, فاحسنو

Allah Almighty is benevolent; so, you should be benevolent.

اذا ريت من اخيك ثلاث خصال فارجه: الحياء والامانة و الصدق, و اذا لم ترها فلا ترجه

If you see three traits in your (Muslim) brother, rest your hope on him; they are: modesty, trustworthiness and honesty; and if you do not see them, do not rest your hope on him.

افضل الاعمال ان تدخل على اخيك المؤمن السرور او ان تقضى عنه دينا

The best of deeds is to bring happiness to your believing brother or pay a debt on his behalf.

أَللَّهُ في عَوْنِ الْعَبْدِ مَا كانَ الْعَبْدُ في عَوْنِ أَخِيْهِ

Allah helps His servant so long as the servant helps his brother.

أُنْصُرْ أَخَاكَ ظَالِمَاً أَوْ مَظْلومَاً؛ اِنْ يَكُ ظَالِمَاً فَارْدُدْهُ عَنْ ظُلْمِهِ؛ وَاِنْ يَكُ مَظْلُومَاً فَانْصُرْهُ

Support your brother when he is a wrongdoer or when he is wronged: If he is a wrongdoer, keep him away from wrongdoing, and if he is wronged, do support him.

تَبَسُّمُكَ في وَجْهِ أَخِيْكَ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ، وَأَمْرُكَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَنَهْيُكَ عَنِ المُنْكَرِ صَدَقَةٌ، وَاِرْشَادُكَ الرَّجُلَ في أَرْضِ الضَّلالِ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ، وَاِمَاطَتُكَ الحَجَرَ وَالشَّوْكَ وَالعَظْمَ عَنِ الطَّرِيْقِ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ

.

Your smile in the face of your brother is (equivalent to) charity; your enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is charity; your providing guidance to someone in the land of misguidance is charity, and your removal of rocks, thorns or bones from the way is counted as an act of charity for you.

ثلاث من كن فيه فان الله تعلى يغفر له ماسوى ذالك: من مات لا يشك فى الله شينا ولم يكن ساحرا يتبع السحر ولم يحقد على اخيه

If one has three traits, Allah Almighty forgives him everything else: One who dies without associating anything with Allah, nor was he a magician following the path of magicians, nor did he bear any grudge against his brother.

خير اخوانكم من اهدى اليكم عيوبكم

The best of your brothers is the one who guides you to your

faults.

عون العبد اخاه يوما خير من اعتكافه شهر

ا

A servant (of Allah) who helps his brother for one day is better than his worship in solitude for a month.

قِتَالُ المُسْلِمِ كُفْرٌ وَسِبَابُهُ فُسُوْقٌ، وَلا تَحِلُّ لِمُسْلِمٍ أنْ يَهْجُرَ أخَاهُ فَوْقَ ثَلاثَةِ أيَّام

Fighting a Muslim is apostasy; taunting him is debauchery; a Muslim is not allowed to stay away from his brother for more than three days.

ما يحل لمؤمن ان يشتد الى اخيه بنظرة توذيه

It is not lawful for a believer to look at his brother in a way that harms him (hurts his feelings).

اِذا تَقَارَبَ الزَّمَانُ أَنقَى الْمَوْتُ خِيَارَ أمَّتِي كَمَا يَنْتَقِي أَحَدُكُمْ خِيَارَ الرُّطَبِ مِنَ الطَّبَق

When time approaches its end, death will select the good ones from among my nation just like when one of you selects fresh ripe dates from a platter.

سَتَكُونُ فَتِنٌ يُصْبِحُ الرَّجُلُ فيها مُؤْمِنَاً، وَيُمْسِي كافِرَاً، إلاّ مَنْ أحْيَاهُ اللَّهُ بِالعِلْم

.

There will be sedition in which a man receives daylight as a believer, then he receives the evening as an unbeliever save one whom Allah grants life through knowledge.

سَيَأْتِي عَلى أُمَّتِي زَمَانٌ يَكْثُرُ فِيْهِ الفُقَرَاءُ، وَيَقِلُّ الفُقَهَاءُ وَيُقْبَضُ العِلْمُ، وَيَكْثُرُ الهَرْجُ، ثُمَّ يَأْتِي مِنْ بَعْدِ ذلِكَ زَمَانٌ يَقْرَأُ القُرْآنَ رِجَالٌ مِنْ أُمَّتِي لا يُجَاوِزُ تَرَاقِيَهُمْ، ثُمَّ يَأْتِي مِنْ بَعْدِ ذلِكَ زَمَانٌ يُجَادِلُ المُشْرِكُ بِاللَّهِ المُؤْمِنَ في مِثْلِ مَا يَقُوْلُ

.

Time will come to my nation when the poor are many, when the faqihs (jurists, those who know their creed very well) are few, when knowledge is held back and there will be plenty of fuss. Time will come after that when men from among my nation shall recite the Qur'an, but it will hardly go beyond their throats. Then time will come after that when a polytheist argues about Allah with a believer similarly to the way the latter argues.

لياتين على الناس زمان لا يبالى المرء بما اخز المال امن حلال ام من حرام

Time will come to people when one does not care whether the money he gets is from a permissible or prohibitive source.

غَشِيَتْكُمْ سَكْرَتَانِ: سَكْرَةُ حُبِّ العَيْشِ وَحُبِّ الجَهْلِ فَعِنْدَ ذلِكَ لا تَأْمُرُونَ بِالمَعْرُوفِ وَلا تَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ المُنْكَر

Two stupors have overwhelmed you: love for life and love for ignorance. It is then that you will not enjoin the doing of what is right, nor will you forbid the doing of what is wrong.

يأتى على الناس زمان القابض منهم على دينه كالقابض على الجمر

Time will come to people when one who holds on to his religion is like one who holds burning timbers.

ان من اشراط ان الساعة ان يرفع العلم و يظهر الجهل و يفشو الزنا و يشرب الخمر ويذهب الرجال ويبقى النساء حتى يكون الخميس امراة قيم واحد

One of the conditions of the Hour is that knowledge is removed, ignorance prevails, committing adultery is rampant, wine is drunk, men will be gone and women will remain, so much so that for every fifty women there will be one man to look after them.

اِسْتَحْيُوا مِنَ اللَّهِ حَقَّ الْحَيَاءِ؛ مَنِ اسْتَحْيَى مِنَ اللَّهِ حَقَّ الْحَيَاءِ فَلْيَحْفَظِ الرَّأْسَ وَمَا وَعَى وَلْيَحْفَظِ الْبَطْنَ وَمَا حَوَى؛ وَلْيَذْكُرِ الْمَوْتَ وَالْبَلاءَ، وَمَنْ أَرَادَ الآخِرَةَ تَرَكَ زينَةَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيا؛ فَمَنْ فَعَلَ ذلِكَ فَقَدِ اسْتَحْيا مِنَ اللَّهِ حَقَّ الْحَياءِ

.

Be bashful with regard to Allah as you should; one who is truthfully bashful with regard to Allah is one who safeguards the head and that of which it is aware, who safeguards the stomach and what it contains, and who remembers death and affliction. One who seeks the Hereafter abandons the embellishment of the short life; so, if one does all of that, he truly is bashful with regard to Allah.

ان اشد الناس ندامة يوم القيامة رجل باع أخرته بدنيا غيره

The most regretful of all people on the Judgment Day is one who sold his Hereafter for the sake of someone else's life.

أَلا أُنْبِئُكَ بِشَرِّ النَّاسِ؟ مَنْ أَكَلَ وَحْدَهُ؛ وَمَنَعَ رِفْدَهُ؛ وَسَافَرَ وَحْدَهُ؛ وَضَرَبَ عَبْدَهُ، أَلا أُنْبِئُكَ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ هذا؟ مَنْ يُخْشَى شَرُّهُ وَلا يُرْجَى خَيْرُهُ، أُنْبِئُكَ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ هذا؟ مَنْ بَاعَ آخِرَتَهُ بِدُنْيا غَيْرِهِ، ألا أُنْبِئُكَ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ هذا؟ مَنْ أَكَلَ الدُّنْيا بِالدِّيْن

Shall I inform you of the worst of all people? He is one who eats alone, who does not give others, and who beats his slave (servant). Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him? He is one whose evil is dreaded, and nobody anticipates any goodness from him. Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him? He is one who has sold his Hereafter for someone else's life. Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him? He is one who has consumed life in this world through the medium of religion.

أشَدُّ النَّاسِ عَذَابَاً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عَالِمٌ لَمْ يَنْفَعهُ عِلمُهُ

One who receives the most torment on the Judgment Day is a man of knowledge who was not enabled by Allah to benefit from his knowledge (on account of not applying his knowledge).

ان الله تعلى يبغض كل عالم بالدنيا جاهل بالاخره

Allah, the most Blessed, the most Exalted One, holds in contempt anyone who knows about this life but does not know about the Hereafter.

خير الدنيا والاخرة مع العلم, وشرالدنيا والاخره مع الجهل

The best of this life and of the one to come lies with knowledge, whereas the evil of this life and of the life to come lies with ignorance.

خَيْرُكُمْ أزْهَدُكُمْ في الدُّنْيَا، وَأرْغَبُكُمْ في الآخِرَةِ

The best of you is one who is the most ascetic in this life, the most desirous of the Hereafter.

يْسَ بِخَيْرِكُمْ مَنْ تَرَكَ دُنْيَاهُ لآخِرَتِهِ وَلا آخِرَتِهِ لِلدُّنْيَا، حَتَّى يُصِيْبَ مِنْهُمَا جَمِيْعَاً، فَإِنَّ الدُّنْيَا بَلاغٌ إلَى الآخِرَةِ وَلا تَكُونُوْا كَلاّ عَلى النَّاسِلَ

.

The best of you is one who does not leave his Hereafter for the sake of his life, nor his life for the sake of his Hereafter, nor is

he a burden on people.

ث

َلاثَةٌ مَنْ كُنَّ فِيْهِ يَسْتَكْمِلُ اِيْمانَهُ: رَجُلٌ لا يَخافُ في اللَّهِ لَوْمَةَ لائِمٍ؛ وَلا يُرائِي بِشَيْ‏ءٍ مِنْ عَمَلِهِ؛ وَاِذا عُرِضَ عَلَيْهِ أمْرانِ أَحَدُهُما لِلدُّنْيا وَالْآخَرُ لِلآخِرَةِ؛ اِخْتارَ أَمْرَ الْآخِرَةِ عَلَى الدُّنْيا

One who has in him three traits has a perfect conviction: A man who does not fear, when it comes to Allah, anyone's blame, who does not make a show of any of his good deeds; and when two matters are offered to him one of which is for the sake of this life while the other is for the sake of the Hereafter, he prefers the matter of the Hereafter over that of this life.

من احب دنيا اضر باخرة, ومن احب اخرة اضر بدنيه, فاثرواما بيقى على ما يفنى

One who loves his life harms his Hereafter, and one who loves

his Hereafter harms his life; therefore, you should prefer what lasts (forever, i.e. the Hereafter) over what comes to an end.

تفر غوا من هموم الدنيا ما استطعتم, فانه من كانت الدنيا اكبر همه افشى الله ضيعته وجل فقره بين عينيه وجل فقره بين عينيهو ومن كانت الاخرة اكبر همه جمع الله تعالى امره وجعل غناه فى قلبه

Empty your minds of the worries of this life as much as you can, for if one's utmost concern is this life, his loss will be disseminated by Allah, and He will let him see his poverty with his own eyes. And if one regards the Hereafter as his greatest concern, Allah will gather his affairs for him and will render him rich of heart.

خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ لَمْ يَتْرُكْ آخِرَتَهُ لِدُنْيَاهُ، وَلا دُنْيَاهُ لآخِرَتِهِ، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ كَلاّ عَلَى النَّاسِ

The best of you is not one who abandons his life for the sake of his Hereafter nor his Hereafter for the sake of his life until he enjoys his share of both of them, for this life is a passage to the Hereafter, and do not be a burden on people .

اخلص دينك يكفك القليل من العمل

Be sincere in practicing your religion, few good deeds will then suffice you.

اخلصو اعمالكم الله, فان الله يقبل الا ما خلص له

Dedicate your good deeds sincerely for the sake of Allah, for Allah accepts only what is purely dedicated to Him.

افضلكم ايمان أحْسَنُهُمْ خُلْقَا

The best of you in conviction is the best of you in conduct.

انكم لن تسعوا الناس باموالكم ولكن سعو هم باخلاقكم

You shall never please all people with your wealth; so, do please them with your good manners.

حُسْنُ الخُلْقِ يُذِيْبُ الخَطايا كَمَا تُذِيْبُ الشَّمْسُ الجَلِيْدَ

Good manners melt sins just as the sun melts ice.

افضل المومن اسلاما من سلم المسلمون من لسانة ويدة وافضل المومنين ايمانا احسنهم خلقا

The best of the faithful in his acceptance of Islam is one from

whose tongue and hand (mischief) people are safe, and the best of the believers in belief is the best among them in conduct.

ان الناس لم يعطو اشينا خيرا من خلق حسن

People have never been granted anything better than good manners.

ان من اكمل المؤمنين ايمنا احسنهم خلقا والطفهم باهلة

A believer who is the most perfect in his belief is the one who is the best in conduct and is the nicest to his family.

ثلاثة من مكارم الاخلاق عند اللہ ان تفعو عمن ظلمك و تعطى من حرمك وتصل من قطعك

Three things are regarded by Allah among traits of good manners: You forgive the one who wrongs you, you give the one who deprives you and you maintain your ties with the one who severs them from you.

خير ما اعطى الرجل المؤمن خلق حسن و شر ما اعطى الرجل خلق سوء فى صورة حسنة

The best a believing man is granted is a good conduct, and the worst a man is given is an evil heart in a good form.

مكارم الاخلاق من اعمالالجَنَّةَ

Good manners are among the deeds that win Paradise.

من لا ادب لة لا عقل لة

One who is without good manners is without reason.

المض سوط اللہ فى الارض يودب بة عبادة

Sickness is Allah's whip on earth with which He disciplines His servants

.

أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، اِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ وَاحِدٌ وَاِنَّ أَبَاكُمْ وَاحِدٌ، كُلُّكُمْ لِآدَمَ وَآدَمُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ، اِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ لا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلى عَجَمِيٍّ اِلاّ بِالتَّقْوَى

O people! Your God is One, and your father is one: You all belong to Adam, and Adam was created of dust; the best of you in the eyes of Allah is the most pious among you; no Arab is better than a non-Arab except according to the criterion of piety.

لما صور الله تعالى آدم فى الجنة تركه ماشاء الله ان يتركه, فجعل ابليس يطيف به ينظر اليه, فلما راه اجوف عرف انه خلق لا يتمالك

When Allah Almighty shaped Adam in Paradise, He left him for as long as He willed, so lblis (Eblis) kept hovering around him, examining him; when he noticed that he was hallow, he knew that he was a weak being.

التاب من الذھب کمن لا ذنب له,و المستغفر من الذنب وهو مقيم عليه كالمسهزىء بربه,ومن اذى مسلما كان عليه من مثل منابت النخل

One who repents his sin is like one who never sinned; one who seeks forgiveness for his sin and yet continues to commit it is like one who ridicules his God; and whoever harms a Muslim shall bear sins similarly (in depth) to the roots of date trees.

ساعات الاذى فى الدنيا یذھن ساعت الاذی فی الاخرہ

Harm hours of this life wipe out harm hours in the Hereafter.

كل موذ فى النار

Every harmful individual shall be lodged in the Fire.

لَيْسَ شَيْ‏ءٌ مِنَ الجَسَدِ إلاّ وَهُوَ يَشْكُو ذَرَبَ اللِّسَانِ

There is no part in the body that does not complain about one's sharp tongue.

مَنْ آذَى مُسْلِمَاً فَقَدْ آذانِي؛ وَمَنْ آذانِي فَقَدْ آذَى اللَّهَ

One who harms a Muslim harms me, and whoever harms me harms Allah.

ما يصيب المؤمن من وصب ولا سقم و لا حزن الا كفر الله به من خطاياه

Any hardship, affliction, illness, harm or grief afflicts a believer is used by Allah to wipe out his sins.

ماخاب من استخار, ولاندم من استشار, ولا امن بالقران من استحل محارمه

No disappointment shall be the lot of one who seeks Allah's guidance, nor does one regret if he seeks advice, nor does one believe in the Qur'an if he deems as permissible what it decrees to be prohibitive.

استعيذوا بالله من الفقر والعيلة ومن ان تظلموا او تظلمو

Seek refuge with Allah against poverty, against being a burden on others, against wronging others or being wronged by others.

استعيذوا بالله من شرار النساء, وكونوا من خيار هن فى حذر

Seek refuge with Allah against evil women, and be alert with regard to the good ones from among them.

استعيذوا بالله من جهد البلاء ودرك الشفاء وسوء القضاءوشماتة الاعداء

Seek refuge with Allah against the exertion of affliction, against unavoidable suffering, against destiny which is bad for you and against enemies' gloating.

من استعاذكم بالله فاْعيذوه, ومن سالكم بالله فاعطوه, ومن دعاكم فاْجيبوه, ومن اتى اليكم معروفا فكافئوه فان لم تجدوه فاْعو اله حتى تعلموا انكم قد كافاتموه

If one seeks refuge with you in the Name of Allah, you should grant him refuge; if one asks you in the Name of Allah to give him (something), do give him; if one calls on you, you should respond to him, and if one does you a favor, you must reward him, but if you find no way to reward him, you should supplicate for him until you come to know that you have, indeed, rewarded him.

الشهود الخفية و الرياء شرك

A covert desire and pretension are akin to polytheism.

ان الشيتان قال: وعزتك يا رب لا ابرح اغوى عبادك ما دات ارواحهم فى اجسادهم, فقال رب: وعزتى وجلالى لا ازال اغفرلهم ما استغفرونى

Satan said, "By Your Exaltation, 0 Lord, (do I swear that) I shall never stop enticing Your servants so long as their souls remain in their bodies." The Lord, whereupon, said, "By My Exaltation and Greatness, I shall never cease forgiving them so long as they plead for My forgiveness."

الاستغفار ممحاة للذنوب

Seeking Allah's forgiveness obliterates sins.

ان العبد اذا اخطا خطينة نكت فى قلبه تكتة سوداء, فان هو تزع و استغفر و تاب صقل قلبه, وان عاد زيد فيها د حتى تعلو على قلبه وهو الران الذى ذکر اللہ تعالی : "کلا بل ران علی قلوبهم ما كانوا يكسبون"

When a servant of Allah commits a sin, a black spot takes its place in his heart. Ifhe reverts, regrets and repents; his heart will be cleansed of it. If he commits it again, its size will be greater, so much so that it covers his heart, which is the spot of stain mentioned by Allah Almighty in this verse: "By no means! But the stain of the (ill) that they do is on their hearts!" (Qur'an, 83:14).

لاكبيرة من استغفار, ولا صغيرة مع اصرار

No sin is too big so long as one seeks forgiveness, nor is there a sin that is too small if one insists on committing it.

من اكثر من الاستغفار جعل الله له من كل هم فرجا, ومن كل ضيق مخرجا, و رزقه من حيث لا يحتسب

If one seeks forgiveness much, Allah will find an ease for each

of his worries, a way out of each hardship and will provide him with sustenance from where he does not expect.

لكل دواء ودواء الذنوب الاستغفار

There is a medicine for every illness, and the medicine for sins is seeking forgiveness for them.

ان من السرف ان تاْكل كل ما اشتهيت

It is extravagance if you eat everything you desire.

كلو و اشربو وتصدقو و البسوا فى غير اسراف ولا مخيلة

Eat, drink, pay charity and clothe yourselves without extravagance or making a show.

من قدر رزقه الله ,ومن بذر حرمه الله

One who economizes is sustained by Allah, and one who squanders is deprived by Allah.

من اقتصد اغناه الله, ومن بذر افقره الله, ومن تواضع لله رفعه الله, ومن تجبر قصمه الله

One who economizes is enriched by Allah; one who squanders is impoverished by Allah; one who is humble is raised in status by Allah, and the back of one who is haughty is split by Allah.

طالب العلم طالب الرحمة: طالب علم ركن الاسلام, ويعطى اجره مع النبيين

One who seeks knowledge (actually) seeks mercy; a seeker of knowledge is the column of Islam, and he shall be rewarded with the Prophets.

ثلاثة لا يستخف بحقهم الامنافق: ذو الشيبة فى الاسلام و ذو العلم و امام مقسط

Three which nobody but a hypocrite takes lightly are: One who grows gray hair in Islam, a man of knowledge and a just imam.

من شاب شيبة فى الاسلام كانت له نورا يوم القيامة

If one grows gray hair in Islam; it will be noor (celestial light) for him on the Judgment Day.

ان الاسلام بدا غريبا وسيعود غريبا كما بدا, فطوبى للغرباء

Islam started like a stranger and shall return like a stranger; therefore, congratulations to the strangers!

اَفْضَلُ الْصَّدَقَةِ اِصْلاحُ ذاتِ الْبَيْن

The best kind of charity is mending broken ties.

اصاح الناس اصلحهم للناس

The reformed of all people is one who is the best in mending their broken ties.

اصلح بين الناس ولو تعنى الكذب

Mend people's broken ties even if you intentionally tell a lie.

اطمعو طعامكم الاتقياء, و اولوا معروفكم المؤمنين

Serve your food to the pious, and do your favors to the men of belief.

بئس الطعام طعام العرس: يطعمه الاغنياء ويمنعه المساكين

Miserable is the food served in a wedding: The rich eat it, while the destitute are deprived of it.

من اطعم مسلما جانعا اطعمه الله من ثمار الجنة

If one feeds a hungry Muslim, Allah feeds him of the fruits of Paradise

.

ثَلاثٌ مُهْلِكاتٌ، وَثَلاثٌ مُنْجِيَاتٌ: فَالمُهْلِكاتٌ شُحٌّ مُطَاعٌ؛ وَهَوَىً مُتَّبَعٌ؛ وَاِعْجَابُ المَرْءِ بِنَفْسِهِ. وَالثَّلاثُ المُنْجِيَاتُ خَشْيَةُ اللَّهِ في السِّرِّ وَالعَلانِيَةِ؛ وَالقَصْدُ في الغِنَى وَالفَقْرِ؛ وَالعَدْلُ في الغَضَبِ وَالرِّضَا

Three things cause one's peril and three others save him: Perilous things are: an obeyed miserliness, a followed inclination and one feeling conceited. The three that saves are: fear of Allah in secrecy and in the open, moderation in spending even when one is rich, and fairness during the time of anger and of pleasure.

رحماء امتى اوساطها

Those from among my nation who deserve Allah's mercy are those who are moderate.

من لم يقبل العذر من متنصل, صادقا كان او كاذبا, لم ينل شفاعتى

If one does not accept the excuse of an apologetic person, be he truthful or lying, he shall never earn my intercession (on the Judgment Day).

شَرُّ النَّاسِ مَنْ أكَلَ وَحْدَهُ وَمَنَعَ رِفْدَهُ وَجَلَدَ عَبْدَهُ، وَشَرٌّ مِنْهُ مَنْ لا يُقِيْلُ عَثْرَةً وَلا يَقْبَلُ مَعْذِرَةً، وَشَرٌّ مِنْهُ مَنْ لا يُرْجى خَيْرُهُ وَلا يُؤْمَنُ شَرُّه

.

The worst of people is one who eats alone, who does not give others and who whips his slave (harms his servant). More evil than him is one who neither mends a stumble nor accepts an excuse. Still worse than him is one neither for whose goodness nobody hopes nor from whose evil is anyone secure.

من اراد ان تستجاب دعته و ان تكشف كربته فلفيرج عن معسر

If one wishes his supplication be honored and affliction removed must find an ease for someone who is in hardship.

من نفس عن مسلم كربة من كرب الدنيا نفس الله عنه كربة من كرب يوم القيامة, و من يسر على معسر يسر الله عليه فى الدنيا والاخرة, ومن ستر على مسلم ستر الله عليه فى الدنيا و الاخرة

If one finds an ease for a Muslim from one of life's hardships, Allah will find an ease for one of the hardships of the Judgment Day for him. If one finds ease for one who is suffering from a hardship, Allah will find ease for him in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. And if one covers a Muslim's fault, Allah will cover his faults in the life of this world and in the Hereafter.

من قاد اعمى اربعين خطوة غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه

One who leads a blind man the way for forty steps will have all his past sins forgiven.

اياكم و الغلو فى الدين, فانما هلك من قبلكم بالغلو فى الدين

Beware of being extremist in your religion; people before you perished because of religious extremism.

أَفْضَلُ الْعَمَلِ النِّيَّةُ الصَّادِقَةُ

The best of good deeds is the sincere intention.

اذا ارادا الله باْهل بيت خيرا فقههم فى الدين, و وقر صغير هم كبير هم, و رزقهم الرفق فى معيشتهم , و القصد فى نفقاتهم, وبصرهم عيوبهم فيتوبو منها, واذا اردا بهم غير ذلك, تركهم هملا

If Allah desires goodness for a family, He enables them to be faqihs in their creed, their youths honor their elderly, He blesses them with moderation in their sustenance, economizing in their expenses and enables them to see their faults, so they would repent; but if He desires for them otherwise, He ignores them.

الاقتصاد نصف العيش, وحسن الخلق نصف الدين

Economizing is half the sustenance, while good manners form half the creed.

خير الامور اوسطها

The best of matters are the most moderate.

افشوا السلام و اطعمو الطعام و صلو الارحام وصلو باليل و الناس نيام تدخلو الجنة سلام

Disseminate your greeting of peace, feed others, maintain your ties with your kinsfolk, and perform your prayers during the night while people are asleep so you may enter Paradise in peace.

افضل الفضائل ان تصل من قطعكو تعطى من حرمك و تصفح عمن ظلمك

The best of virtues is that you maintain your ties with those who sever them, give those who deprive you and forgive those who wrong you.

خمس يعجل الله لصاحبها العقوبة: البغى و الغدر و عقوق الو الدين وقطيعة الرحمو معروف لايشكر

There are five things the doer of which receives a hasty punishment: oppression, treachery, disobedience of parents, severing the ties with relatives and not expressing thanks for favors.

خِيَارُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِاَهْلِهِ

The best of you are those who are the best to their families.

الاكل مع الخادم من التواضع

Eating with the servant is a sign of humbleness.

لا تُمِيْتُوا القُلُوبَ بِكَثْرَةِ الطَّعامِ وَالشَّرابِ؛ فَاِنَّ القَلْبَ يَمُوتُ كَالزَّرْعِ اِذا كَثُرَ عَلَيْهِ المَاء

Do not cause the death of the hearts by consuming too much food and drinks, for the heart dies similarly to plants given too much water.

من تعود كثرة الطعام و الشراب قسا قلبه

One who gets used too much food and drinks becomes hard

hearted.

من كل طعمه صح بدنه, و من كثرطعمه سقم بدنه و قسا قلبه

The body of one who eats less will be healthy, whereas one who eats too much exposes his body to sickness and his heart to hardiness.

كَبُرَ مَقْتَاً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الأكْلُ مِنْ غَيْرِ جُوْعٍ، وَالنَّوْمُ مِنْ غَيْرِ سَهَرٍ، وَالضِّحْكُ مِنْ غَيْرِ عَجَبٍ

Allah very much holds in contempt those who eat without

being hungry, those who sleep without feeling drowsy and those who laugh without there is anything out of the ordinary.

أَعْظَمُ النَّاسِ حَقَّاً عَلَى الْمَرْأَةِ زَوْجُهَا؛ وَأَعْظَمُ النَّاسِ حَقَّاً عَلَى الرَّجُلِ أُمُّهُ

The one who has the greatest right on a woman is her husband, and of all people, the one who has the greatest right on a man is

his mother.

ان الله تعالى يوصيكم بالنساء خيرا, فانهن امهتكم و بناتكم و خالاتكم

Allah Almighty commends you to be good to women, for they are your mothers, daughters and maternal aunts.

الجَنَّةُ تَحْتَ أقْدامِ الأُمَّهَاتِ

Paradise lies at the mothers' feet.

ان الله تعالى يزيد فى عمر الرجل ببره والديكه

Allah Almighty prolongs a man's lifespan on account of being kind to his parents.

رِضَا الرَّبِّ في رِضَا الوالِدَيْنِ وَسُخْطُهُ في سُخْطِهِما

The Pleasure of the Lord lies in pleasing the parents and His wrath lies in their displeasure.

ما مِنْ أحَدٍ أفْضَلَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ اِمَامٍ؛ إنْ قَالَ صَدَقَ؛ وَإنْ حَكَمَ عَدَل

Nobody is better in the sight of Allah than an imam who is truthful when he speaks and just when he issues a verdict.

لَتُمْلَأَنَّ الأرْضُ ظُلْمَاً وَعُدْوَانَاً ثُمَّ لَيَخْرُجَنَّ رَجُلٌ مِنْ أهْلِ بَيْتِي حَتَّى يَمْلَأُهَا قِسْطَاً وَعَدْلاً كَمَا مُلِئَتْ ظُلْمَاً وَعُدْوَانَاً

You shall fill the earth with injustice and aggression, then a man from among my Household (al-Mahdi, May Allah hasten his reappearance) shall come out until he fills it with justice and equity as it was filled with injustice and iniquity.

اد الامانته الى من انتمنك, ولا تخن من خانك

Return the trust to the one who trusted you, and do not betray even one who betrays you.

أَرْبَعٌ اِذا كُنَّ فِيكَ فَلا عَلَيْكَ مَا فَاتَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيا؛ صِدْقُ الْحَدِيثِ؛ وَحِفْظُ الاَمَانَةِ؛ وَحُسْنُ الْخُلْقِ؛ وَعِفَّةُ مَطْعَمٍ

If you have in you four things, never mind what you missed of life: saying the truth, safeguarding the trust, good manners and the goodness of what you eat.

اِضْمَنُوا لي سِتَّاً مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَضْمَنْ لَكُمُ الْجَنَّةَ؛ أُصْدُقُوا اِذا حَدَّثْتُمْ؛ وَأَوْفُوا اِذا وَعَدْتُمْ؛ وَأَدُّوا اِذا ائْتُمِنْتُمْ؛ وَاحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَكُمْ؛ وَغُضُّوا أَبْصَارَكُمْ؛ وَكُفُّوا أَيْدِيَكُمْ

If you guarantee six things to be found in you, I shall guarantee Paradise for you: Say the truth when you speak, fulfill your promise, return the trust, safeguard your modesty, lower your gaze and do not harm others.

لا ايمان لمن لا امانة له, ولا دين لمن لا عهد له

There is no conviction in one who is not trustworthy, nor is there faith in one who never safeguards his pledge.

ثلاث ليس لاحد النلس فيه رخصة: بر الوالدين مسلما كان او كافرا,والوفاء بالعهد لمسلم اْو لكافر, والامانة الى مسلم كان او كافر

There are three things for which there is no license for anyone: kindness to the parents, be they believers or unbelievers, fulfillment of a promise to a believer or a non-believer, fulfillment of a pledge for a believer or a non-believer, and giving the trust back to a man, be he a believer or a non believer.

ثلاث منكن فيه فهو منافق و ان صام و صلى وحج و اعتمر وقال "انى مسلم": من اذا حدث کذب, و اذا وعد اخلف, و اذا ائتمن خان

If one has three things in him, he is a hypocrite no matter if he fasts, prays, performs the pilgrimage and the 'umra and says, "I am a Muslim;" they are: When he talks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he does not honor it, and when he is entrusted, he betrays the trust.

الجهاد اربعة, الامر بالمعروف و النهى عن المنكر و الصدق فى مواطن البصر و شنان الفاسق

Jihad (struggle) means four things: enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, being truthful in stances of perseverance and staying away from debauchees.

مروا بالمعروف و ان لم تفعلوه و انهوا عن المنكر وان لم تجتنبوه كله

Enjoin the doing of what is right even if you yourselves do not do it, and prohibit the doing of what is wrong even if you do not avoid all of it.

لتاْمرن بالمعروف و ان لم تفعلو و انهوا عن المنكر و ان لم تجتنبوه كله

You should enjoin the doing of what is right and the forbidding of what is wrong; otherwise, Allah will grant power to your evil ones against you, so your men of righteousness will supplicate, but their supplication will not be answered.

من لم تنهه صلواته عن الفحشاء و المنكر لم يزدر بها من الله الا بعدا

If one's prayers do not prohibit him from committing sins and abominations, it only further distances him from Allah.

من راى منكم منكره فليغيره بيده, فان لم يستطع فلبلسانه, فان لم يستطع فبقلبه, وذلك اضعف الايمان

If one of you sees wrongdoing, he has to change it with his hands; but if he cannot, he must change it with his tongue; but if he cannot, he must do so in his heart, which is a sign of the weakest faith.

ان الله تعالى حيى كريم يستحى اذا رفع الرجل اليه يديه ان يردهما صفراء خائبين

Allah Almighty is shy, generous; He is too shy when someone raises his hands to Him with a plea to send them back empty handed.

خلق الله عز و جل الجن ثلاثة اصناف: صنف حيات و عقارب و خشاش الارض, و صنف كالريح فى الهواء, و صنف عليهم الحساب و العقاب, و خلق الله الانس ثلاثة اصناف: صنف كالبهائم, و صنف اجساد بنى آدم و ارواحهم ارواح الشياطين, و صنف فى ظل الله يوم لا ظل الا ظله

Allah, the most Exalted One and the most Great, created three types of jinns: one type are snakes, scorpions and earth ruffage; and a type like wind in the air; and a type that will be judged and punished. And Allah created three types of mankind: one is like cattle, one with bodies similar to those of human beings but with souls like those of demons, and a type that will be shaded by Allah's shade when there shall be no shade but His.

ما ملا آدمى وعاء شرا من بطن

No descendant of Adam has filled any container worse than a stomach.

كَمَا تَكُوْنُوْا يُوَلَّى عَلَيْكُمْ

As you are, so shall you be ruled.

اذا اعطى الله احدكم خيرا, فليبده بنفسه و اهل بيته

If Allah grants one of you something good, let him start with himself and his family.

افضل الدنانير دينار ينفقه الرجل على عباله

The best dinar is one which a man spends on his dependents.

شَرُّ النَّاسِ المُضَيِّقُ عَلى أهْلِهِ

The worst of people is one who straitens [does not spend enough] on his family.

ليس الجهاد ان يضرب الرجل بسيفه فى سبيل الله تعالى, انما الجهاد من عال والديه و ولده, فهو فى جهاد, و من عال نفسه يكفها عن الناس فهو جهاد

Jihad (struggle) does not mean a man striking with the sword in the way of Allah Almighty; rather, jihad is spending on the parents and children, such is the performing of jihad. And if one sustains himself and does not depend on people (to sustain him), he is one who per forrns jihad.

ليس منا من وسع الله عليه ثم قتر على عياله

None of us is one who is granted abundance by Allah yet he is stingy when spending on his dependents.

ما أطْعَمْتَ زَوْجَتَكَ فَهُوَ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ، وَما أطْعَمْتَ وَلَدَكَ فَهُوَ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ، وَما أطْعَمْتَ خَادِمَكَ فَهُوَ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ. ما أطْعَمْتَ نَفْسَكَ فَهُوَ لَكَ صَدَقَةٌ

Whatever you feed your wife is counted as charity for you; whatever you feed your children is counted as charity for you; whatever you feed your servant is counted as charity for you, and whatever you feed yourself is counted as charity for you.

نفقة الرجل على اهله صدقة

A man's expenditure on his family is charity.

أَخْشَى مَا خَشَيْتُ عَلى أُمَّتِي كِبَرُ الْبَطْنِ؛ وَمُداوَمَةُ النَّوْمِ؛ وَالْكَسَلُ؛ وَضَعْفُ الْيَقِينِ

The most that worries me about my nation is a large belly, too much sleep, laziness and a weakness of conviction.

أشْرَفُ الاِيْمَانِ أَنْ يَأْمَنَكَ النَّاسُ؛ وَأَشْرَفُ الاِسْلامِ أَنْ يَسْلَمَ النَّاسُ مِنْ لِسَانِكَ وَيَدِكَ

The best type of conviction is that people feel secure in your regard, and the best type of Islam is that people are safe from your tongue and hand.

ابى الله ان يقبل عمل صاحب بدعة حتى يدع بدعته

Allah refuses to accept the good deeds of one who has invented an innovation (bid 'a) unless he abandons it.

من وقر صاحب بدعة فقد اعان على هدم الاسلام

One who respects an individual who invented a bid 'a assists in the demolition of Islam.

من الصدقة ان تسلم على الناس و انت طلق الوجه

It is charity when you greet people with a smile on your face.

ليس الاعمى من يعمى بصره, انما الاعمى من تعمى بصيرته

A blind man is not one who loses his eyesight; rather, one is blind when his foresight is blind.

حُرِّمَ عَلى عَيْنَيْنِ أنْ تَنالَهُمَا النَّارُ: عَيْنٌ بَكَتْ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ؛ وَعَيْنٌ باتَتْ تَحْرُسُ الإسْلامَ وَأهْلَهُ مِنَ الكُفْر

Two types of eyes are prohibited from being harmed by the Fire: an eye that wept out of fear of Allah, and an eye that kept vigil guarding Islam and its followers against apostasy.

سَبعةٌ يُظِلُّهُمُ اللَّهُ في ظِلِّهِ يَوْمَ لا ظِلَّ إلاّ ظِلُّهُ: اِمَامٌ عَادِلٌ وَشَابٌّ نَشَأَ في عِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ، وَرَجُلٌ قَلْبُهُ مُعَلَّقٌ بِالمَسْجِدِ، اِذا خَرَجَ مِنْهُ حَتَّى يَعُودَ إلَيْهِ، وَرَجُلانِ تَحَابَّا في اللَّهِ فَاجْتَمَعَا عَلى ذلِكَ وَافْتَرَقَا عَلَيْهِ، وَرَجُلٌ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ خَالِيَاً فَفاضَتْ عَيْنَاهُ، وَرَجُلٌ دَعَتْهُ امْرَأةٌ ذاتُ مَنْصَبٍ وَجَمَالٍ فَقَالَ: اِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ العَالَمِيْنَ، وَرَجُلٌ تَصَدَّقَ بِصَدَقَةٍ فَأَخْفَاهَا حَتَّى لا تَعْلَمَ شِمَالُهُ مَا تُنْفِقُ يَمِيْنُه

Seven types of people will be under the shade of Allah's Throne on the Day when there will be no shade but His: a man whose heart was attached to mosques, a man who was seduced by a woman having a high status but he said, "I fear Allah," two men who loved each other for the sake of Allah, a man who kept his eyes away from whatever Allah forbids, an eye that remained on guard in the way of Allah, and an eye that wept out of fear of Allah.

طوبى لمن ملك لسانه و بكى على خطيئتة

Congratulations to whoever controls his tongue and weeps over his sin.

اربع من اعطيهن فقد اعطى خير الدنيا والاخرة: لسان ذاكر و قلب شاكر و بدن على البلاء صابر و زوجة لا تبغية خونا فى نفسها ولا فى ماله

There are four things, if one is granted them, he is granted the best of this life and of the Hereafter: a tongue that always mentions the Name of Allah, a heart that is grateful, a body that is patient when affliction falls and a wife who does not wish to betray him with regard to her own self or to his own wealth.

حضوا اموالكم بالزكاة, و داووا مرضاكم بالصدقة, واعدا للبلاء الدعاء

Fortify your wealth with zakat, medicate on your sick with charity, and prepare supplication for affliction.

الدعاء يرد البلاء

Supplication averts affliction.

قال الله تعلى: من لم يرض بقضائى ولم يصبر على بلائى فيلتمس ربا سواي

Allah Almighty has said, "If one does not accept My judgment,

nor is he patient with regard to My affliction, must seek a god other than Myself."

خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِنِسَائِهِ وَلِبَنَاتِهِ

The best of you is the one who is best for his women and

daughters.

لَيْسَ أحَدٌ مِنْ أُمَّتِي يَعُولُ ثَلاثَ بَنَاتٍ أوْ ثَلاثَ أخَوَاتٍ فَيُحْسِنُ اِلَيْهِنَّ إلاّ كُنَّ لَهُ سِتْرَاً مِنَ النَّار

.

If one from among my nation raises three girls or three sisters, remaining good to them, they will act as a barrier for him against the Fire.

ان اللہ تعلى يحب اغاثة اللهفان

Allah Almighty loves it when a man suffering of anxiety is provided relief.

خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ القُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَه

The best of you is one who leamd the Qur'an then teaches it.

العِلْمُ حَيَاةُ الإسْلامِ وَعِمَادُ الإيمَانِ، وَمَنْ عَلِمَ عِلْمَاً أتَمَّ اللَّهُ لَهُ أجْرَهُ، وَمَنْ تَعَلَّمَ فَعَمِلَ عَلَّمَهُ اللَّهُ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ

Knowledge is the life of Islam and the pillar of conviction; when one learns some type of knowledge, Allah will pay him his rewards in full; and if one learns and acts upon his knowledge, Allah will teach him what he never knew before.

اكرم الناس اتقاهم

The best of people is the most pious among them.

ان اكثر ما يدخل الناس الجنة تقوى اللہ وحسن الخلق

What causes people the most to enter Paradise is fear of Allah and good manners.

انهاكم عن ثلاث خصال : الحسد والحرص و الكبر

I prohibit you from three characteristics: envy, miserliness and haughtiness.

لَيْسَ مِنْ أخْلاقِ المُؤْمِنِ التَّمَلُّقُ وَلا الحَسَدُ، إلاّ في طَلَبِ العِلْم

A believer's manners include neither flattery nor envy except when it comes to seeking knowledge.

من احب قوما حشرة اللہ فى زمرتهم

When one loves a certain people, Allah gathers him in their company.

الحَجُّ جِهَادُ كُلِّ ضَعِيْفٍ؛ وَجِهَادُ المَرْأَةِ حُسْنُ التَّبَعُّلِ

Pilgrimage is the jihad (struggle) of every weak person, and woman's jihad is being a good wife.

طاب علم افضل عند اللہ من الصلاة و الصيام و الحج و الجهاد فى سبيل اللہ عز وجل

Seeking knowledge is preferred by Allah over prayers, fast, pilgrimage and jihad (struggle) in the way of Allah, the most Exalted One, The most Great.

من قضى لاخية المسلم حاجة كان لة من الاجر كمن حج واعتمر

When one fulfills a need for a Muslim brother, he will receive rewards equivalent to one who has performed both the pilgrimage and the 'umra.

ان احسن الحسن الخلق الحسن

The best of what is good is good manners.

ان اللہ استخاص هذا الدين لنفسة ,و لا يصلح لدينكم الا السخاء وحسن الخلق ,الافزينوا دينكم بهما

Allah has chosen this religion for Himself; what is good for your religion is generosity and good manners; so, do decorate your religion with them.

أَكْمَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِيْنَ اِيْمَانَاً أَحْسَنُهُمْ خُلْقَاً؛ وَخِيَارُكُمْ خِيَارُكُمْ لِنِسَائِهِمْ

The most perfect among the faithful is one whose manners are the best, and your best men are those who are the best in treating their women.

أَوَّلُ مَا يُوزَنُ في المِيْزَانِ الخُلْقُ الحَسَنُ

The first to be weighed in the scales is the good conduct.

حَقُّ الجَارِ إنْ مَرِضَ عُدْتَهُ، وَإنْ مَاتَ شَيَّعْتَهُ، وَاِنْ اسْتَقْرَضَكَ أقْرَضْتَهُ، وَإنْ أصَابَهُ خَيْرٌ هَنَّأْتَهُ، وَإنْ أصَابَتْهُ مُصِيْبَةٌ عَزَّيْتَهُ، وَلا تَرْفَعُ بِنَاءَكَ فَوْقَ بِنَائِهِ فَتَسُدَّ عَلَيْهِ الرِّيْحَ

.

It is the right of the neighbor is that if he falls sick, you should go to visit him; if he dies, you should walk behind his coffin; if he asks you to give him a loan, you should loan him; if he gains something good, you congratulate him; if he is afflicted by a calamity, you should console him; do not raise your building above his and thus block the wind from reaching him.

حَقُّ الوَلَدِ عَلَى الوالِدِ أنْ يُعَلِّمَهُ الكِتابَةَ وَالسَّباحَةَ وَالرِّمايَةَ، وَأنْ لا يَرْزُقَهُ إلاّ طَيِّبَاً، وَأنْ يُزَوِّجَهُ اِذا بَلَغ

It is the right of the son on his father to teach him writing, swimming and targeting, that he gives him sustenance of only what is good, and that he marries him off when he comes of age.

حَقُّ الزَّوْجِ عَلَى الزَّوْجَةِ أنْ لا تَصُوْمَ يَوْمَاً واحِدَاً إلاّ بِاِذْنِهِ؛ إلاّ الفَرِيْضَةَ فَإِنْ فَعَلَتْ أثِمَتْ وَلَمْ يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنْها؛ وَأنْ لا تُعطِىَ مَنْ بَيْتِهِ شَيْئَاً اِلاّ بِاِذْنِهِ؛ فَإِنْ فَعَلَتْ كانَ لَهُ الأجْرُ؛ وَكانَ عَلَيْها الوِزْرُ؛ وَأنْ لا تَخْرُجَ مِنْ بَيْتِهِ اِلاّ بِاِذْنِهِ؛ فَإِنْ فَعَلَتْ لَعَنَها اللَّهُ وَمَلائِكَةُ الغَضَبِ حَتَّى تَتُوبَ أوْ تُراجِعَ؛ وَإنْ كانَ ظالِمَا

It is the right of the husband on the wife that she must not fast for a single day without his permission except with regard to what is obligatory; otherwise, she would be committing a sin and her fast will not be accepted. She must not give away anything from his house except with his permission; otherwise, the rewards will be due to him while the burden will be on her. She must not leave his house except with his permission; otherwise, Allah and His angels of wrath will curse her unless she repents or seeks his forgiveness even if he may be unfair.

حَقُ المَرْأَةِ عَلَى الزَّوْجِ أنْ يُطْعِمَها اِذا طَعِمَ؛ وَيَكْسُوها اِذا اكْتَسَى؛ وَلا يَضْرِبَ الوَجْهَ؛ وَلا يُقَبِّحَ؛ وَلا يَهْجُرَ إلاّ في البَيْتِ

It is the right of the wife that her husband feeds when he partakes of food, clothes her when he clothes himself, that he must never slap her on the face nor call her ugly nor desert her except while staying at the same house.

خِدْمَتُكَ زَوْجَتَكَ صَدَقَة

.

Your serving your wife is charity.

اِجْتَنِبُوا الْخَمْرَ؛ فَاِنَّها مِفْتَاحُ كُلِّ شَرٍّ

Stay away from wine for it is the key to every evil.

اِجْتَنِبُو كل مسكر

Avoid all intoxicants.

انهاكم عن قليل ما اسكر كثيرة

I forbid you from partaking of a little of anything much of which intoxicates.

اياكم والخمر, فان خطيئتها تفرغ الحطايا كما ان شجرتها تفرع الشجر

Beware of wine, for its sin branches out to other sins; also, its tree multiplies into other trees (through seeds).

حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ الخَمْرَ؛ وَكُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرامٌ

Allah has prohibited wine, and anything that intoxicates is prohibitive.

حُرِّمَتِ التِّجَارَةُ في الخَمْرِ

Trading in wine is prohibited.

الخَمْرُ

أُمُّ

الخَبَائِثِ،

فَمَنْ

شَرِبَهَا

لَمْ

تُقْبَلْ

صَلاتُهُ

أرْبَعِيْنَ

يَوْمَاً،

فَإِنْ

مَاتَ

وَهِيَ

في

بَطْنِهِ

مَاتَ

مِيْتَةً

جَاهِلِيَّة

Wine is the mother of abominations; the prayers of one who drinks it will not be accepted for forty days; so, if he dies while there is still in his stomach some of it, he dies the death of the days of jahiliyya (pre-Islamic period) .

.

أَرْبَعٌ حَقٌّ عَلَى اللَّهِ تَعَالى أَنْ لا يُدْخِلَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ؛ وَلا يُذيقَهُمْ نَعيمَها: مُدْمِنُ خَمْرٍ؛ وَآكِلُ الرِّبا؛ وَآكِلُ مَالِ الْيَتِيْمِ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ؛ وَالْعَاقُّ لِوَالِدَيْه

Four types of people will never be permitted by Allah to enter Paradise, nor will He permit them to taste of its felicity, tipplers, usurers, seizers of orphan's properties, and those cursed by their parents.

اِذا زَنَا الْعَبْدُ خَرَجَ مِنْهُ الاِيْمَانُ فَكانَ عَلى رَأْسِهِ كَالظِلَّةِ؛ فَاِذا أَقْلَعَ رَجَعَ اِلَيْهِ

When a servant of Allah commits adultery, conviction (iman) comes out of him, staying above his head like a shade; if he quits doing it, it returns to him.

اربعة بيغضهم اللہ تعلى , البياع الحلاف والفقير المختال و الشيخ الزانى والامام الجائز

Four types of people are held by Allah in contempt: a seller who always swears (so people would believe him and buy his merchandise), a poor person who tries to show off, an aged man who commits adultery, and an unjust imam.

اِشْتَدَّ غَضَبُ اللَّهِ عَلَى امْرَأَةٍ أَدْخَلَتْ عَلى قَوْمٍ وَلَدَاً؛ لَيْسَ مِنْهُمْ؛ يَطَّلِعُ عَلى عَوْرَاتِهِمْ وَيُشْرِكُهُمْ في أَمْوَالِهِمْ

Allah's wrath intensified against a woman who introduced into a people a son who did not belong to them, one who looks at their faults while sharing their wealth.

ان الزناة ياتون تشتعل وجوههم نارا

Adulterers will come (on Judgment Day) with their faces burning.

ان السموت السبع والارضين السبع والجبال ليلعن الشيخ الزانى

The seven heavens, the seven earths and the mountains all curse the aged adulterer.

.

زِنَا العَيْنَيْنِ النَّظَر

Eyes' adultery is looking (at what is prohibited).

زِنَا اللِّسَانِ الكَلامُ

The tongue's adultery is speech.

الزِّنَا يُورِثُ الفَقْرُ

Adultery brings about poverty.

كُلُّ عَيْنٍ زَانِيَةٌ، وَالمَرْأةُ اِذا اسْتَعْطَرَتْ فَمَرَّتْ بِالمجْلِسِ فَهِىَ زَانِيَة

Every eye is an adulteress; if a woman wears perfume then passes by a place where men are sitting, she commits adultery.

المُقِيمُ عَلى الزِّنَا كَعَابِدِ وَثَنٍ

One who insists on committing adultery is akin to an idol worshipper.

ان اخوف ما اخاف على امتى عمل قوم لوط

The greatest fear I have about my nation is what the folks of Lot used to do (i.e. homosexuality).

امراة ولود احب اللہ تعالى من امراة حسناء لا تلد , انا مكاثر بكم الامم يوم القيامة

A woman who gives birth is more loved by Allah Almighty

than a good looking woman who does not give birth; I shall brag about your numbers to other nations on the Judgment Day.

.

ان الرجل اذا نظرة الى امراتة ونظرت

الية,

نظر اللہ تعالى اليهما

نظر

الرحمة

If a man looks at his woman (affectionately) and she looks at him (likewise), Allah Almighty will look at both of them with a

look of mercy.

تُنْكَحُ المَرْأَةُ لِاَرْبَعٍ: لِمَالِهَا، وَلِحَسَبِهَا؛ وَلِجَمَالِهَا؛ وَلِدِيْنِهَا؛ فَاظْفَرْ بِذاتِ الدِّيْنِ تَرِبَتْ يَدَاكَ

A woman is married for her faith, wealth and beauty; so, I commend the woman with the faith to you, may your hands be rubbed with dust!

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مِنْ بَنِي آدَمَ سَيِّدٌ؛ فَالرَّجُلُ سَيِّدُ أهْلِهِ، وَالمَرْأَةُ سَيِّدَةُ بَيْتِهَ

Every individual from among the offspring of Adam is a master: The man is the master of his family, and the woman is the mistress of her home.

انِ اللہ تعالى يبغض الطلاق

Allah Almighty hates divorce.

تَزَوَّجُوْا وَلا تُطَلِّقُوْا؛ فَاِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُحِبُّ الذَّوَّاقِيْنَ وَلَا الذَّوَّاقَاتِ

Get married and do not divorce, for Allah does not like those men who run after their taste or the women who do the same.

تَزَوَّجُوْا وَلا تُطَلِّقُوْا فان الطلاق يتهر منة عرش

Get married and do not divorce, for divorce causes the 'Arsh (of the Almighty) to shake.

ما من حلال ابغض اللہ من الطلاق أَيُّمَا امْرَأَةٍ خَرَجَتْ مِنْ بَيْتِهَا بِغَيْرِ اِذْنِ زَوْجِهَا كانَتْ في سَخَطِ اللَّهِ تَعَالى حَتَّى تَرْجِعَ اِلى بَيْتِهَا أَوْ يَرْضَى عَنْهَا زَوْجُهَ

There is nothing permissible which Allah hates more than divorce. Ifa woman asks her husband for divorce without harm afflicting her, she will be banned from sniffing the aroma of Paradise (much less entering it).

Useful Glossary

This Glossary is phonetic, that is, it is arranged according to how an Arabic word or term is pronounced. It is included in this book for the benefit of Muslims living in non-Arab and non-Muslim countries.

Abadi: ابدیEternal without end

Abath: عبث mirth, sporting

Abrama: ابرم firmly asserted, endorsed, signed

Ada/a: عدالة justice

'Adil: عادل fair, just

'Adl: عدل the concept of the justice of God

'Adwa: عدوی infection, contamination

'Afeef: عفیف chaste, modest

Aghlalا‏غلال plural of ghill, shackle

Ahadith: احادیث Hadith, a statement (usually by or attributed either to the Prophet or to one of the members of his Progeny or companions)

Ahilla: اھلة plural of hilal, crescent

Ahl al-Bafia اھل البصائر :people of vision, of insight

Akhlaq: اخلاق ethics, morals, manners; akhlaqiyyat: moral ethics, moralities

'Alim: عالم scholar, scientist, theologian, a highly knowledgeable person

A' mal: اعمال highly recommended acts of adoration

Al-Arkan al-Arbaba 'a: الارکان الاربعةThe four elements or roots: fire, air, water and earth of which all bodies in the world, mineral, plant, or animal are composed

A‘raf: اعرافcustoms, traditions; also: areas where humans are grouped for judgment on the Judgment Day; a chapter of the Holy Qur'an (Ch. 7)

'Arsh: عرشliterally: throne, symbol of the Almighty's Authority

'Asabiyya: عصبیة a term made current by the Muslim philosopher and sociologist, lbn Khaldun (732 - 808 A.H./1332 - 1406 A.D.), for the sense of common horror and loyalty which binds together the members of a family, clan, or tribe, forming a bond of solidarity

As, har: اسحار plural of Sahar, the time immediately preceding daybreak

Ashraf اشراف highly respected notables; sing.: shareef

Aslah: اصلح"Most fitting or best," a thesis of Muslim theodicy that God does what is best for mankind

'Athan: اذان the call for prayers; mu'aththin is one who performs 'athan.

Awdaj Arba 'a: الاوداج الاربعة jugular veins

Ayat: آیت verse (from a sacred scripture); plura: ayat

Azal: ازل Eternal without beginning as opposed to abad, eternal without end. See also abad.

'Azl: عزل isolation, separation, quarantine

Badiha: بدیھة self-evident data or premises, i.e. propositions the truth of which are open to direct inspection and requires no appeal to other evidence

Bahraja: بھرجةflashiness

Barzakh: برزخ the place and time wherein the souls of the dead live till the Day of Judgment; refer to the Holy Qur'an, 23: 100; it is "the intervening space", but technically the term denotes the "world of Ideas" which is considered intermediary between the material or phenomenal world and the world of pure spirits as well as of God. This concept is close to that of the Purgatory in the Catholic faith.

Basar: بصرsight, the power placed in the two hollow nerves which meet in the brain; thence, they separate and go to the two eyeballs. By this power are perceived rays of light, colors, shapes, sizes, motions, the beautiful and the ugly and all other things.

Basmala: بسملة the uttering of: "Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim" (In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, And the most Merciful)

Batar: بطرindolence

Batil: باطل falsehood, false, wrong, un-Islamic

Hay'a: ھیئة form, shape, state or status; also: board or comm1ss10n

Beed بیض plural of abyaq, white

Birr: بر: kindness, benevolence; barr: a kind person

Bitana: بطانةcortege

Boursa: بورصة bourse, stocks exchange

Burhan: برھان: a term used in philosophy in various slightly different senses: (1) mode of argumentation; (2) the argument itself; and (3) the manifest evidence or proof of a convincing argument. In this last sense, the term is also used in the Qur'an, 4:174; 12:24.

Buhtan: بھتان: calumny

Dahala: ضحالة shallowness

Dahr: دھرtime, age, eternity, the eternal duration in which eternity in the past past (azal, q.v.) is in a constant union with eternity in the future (abad, q.v.). Dahr is the innermost essence or part of time (zaman), encompassing it all. Compared with time and measured by it, dahr is found to have a permanence corresponding exactly to the permanence of time with reference to what is contained in it.

Da 'im: دائم perpetual, eternal; al-Da'im: the Perpetual One, God Almighty

Dalalah: دلالة the manner in which a vocable (signifies the meaning of a thing it designates

Dalil: دلیل evidence, proof, indication, pointer

Daran: درنuncleanness

Dawiijin: دواجن domesticated animals and fowl

Dimni: ضمنی implicit, implied

Dinar: دینارa traditionally Islamic (now Arab) gold currency varying in weight

Dirham: ورھم an Islamic silver currency weighing approx. 3.12 grams

Diwan: دیوان office, meeting place; Diwan shi 'r: a collection of poems

Diyya: دیة blood money, monetary compensation for manslaughter or intentional murder

Du 'a': .دعاء supplication, invocation

Du ' at: دعاة plural of dii 'iya, caller, advocate, proselyte

Durra: درة jewel; also: staff, baton, heavy stick

Ibtihaj: ابتھاج to have the bliss and beatitude of the experience of the Divine

Id: عید an Islamic feast, a joyous celebration, a merry occasion

Fai'izeen: فائزین (or Fai’izitn) winners

Fajir: فاجر an openly sinning and unrepentant person; noun:
Fujur

Fajr: فجرdaybreak

Falak: .فلك (pl. ajlak) the celestial sphere surrounding the world and revolving around the earth as its center. According to the cosmogony current with the Muslim philosophers, there are nine such spheres that surround each other like the peels of an onion so that the concave side of the shell of the surrounding sphere touches the convex surface of the one surrounded by it. All these spheres being transparent, one can see through them from the lowest to the highest. The nine spheres in the descending order of their remoteness from the earth are: ( 1) the sphere of the prim um mobile (al-falak al-aqa or falak al-ajlak); (2) the sphere of the fixed stars (al- kawakib al-thabita ); (3) the sphere of Saturn (Zuhal); (4) the sphere of Jupiter (Mushtari); (6) the sphere of Mars (Mirrikh); (6) the sphere of the Sun (Shams); (7) the sphere of Venus (Zuhra); (8) the sphere of Mercury (' Utarid); and (9) the sphere of the Moon ( Qamar). Falak al-ajlak is the first celestial sphere or the primum mobile; it is also called al-falak al-aqa, "the remotest sphere". Al-falak al-awwal, "the first heavens", is the outermost celestial sphere in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e. the sphere of the fixed stars (al-kawakib al-thabita). Falak al-tadwir is a smaller sphere that revolves round the circumference of a larger sphere, i.e. one making an epicycle.

Faqih: فقىة jurist, one who is knowledgeable m Islamic jurisprudence

Farasikh: فراسخ plural of farsakh, parasang (a loan Persian word), a measure of length (distance). According to Lisan al- 'Arab lexicon of lbn Manour, it may be three to six miles. "It is called so," the author of Lisan al 'Arab goes on, "because one who walks one farsakh will have to sit to rest," suggesting that the original meaning of the word is: to halt, to come to a stand still, to rest.

Farq: فرق "difference" or "separation"; technically the difference or separation between the corporeal and the incorporeal, i.e. between body and soul, or between the physical world and the world of pure intelligence (al-mufariqat); must be distinguished from fa l

Fal: فال differentia; i.e. one of the five predicables (al alfaz-al-khamsa). In logic, fa l signifies the attribute or attributes by which a thing is essentially distinguished from other things. Fal must be distinguished from farq which also signifies the difference between things, whereas the former denotes the essential differentia between the bodily or corporeal things, the latter refers to complete separation between the corporeal and the incorporeal, i.e. between body and soul, or between the physical world and the world of intelligence; hence the express al- 'uqul al-mufariqah for separated intelligences

Fatawa: فتاوی plural offatwa, a religious edict or decision

Fattiik: فتاك devastating, lethal

Fayafi: فیافی plains

Fidya: فدية. Ransom

Fi'/: فعل action"; in logic, sometimes it is also termed yaf'al
(to act). It is one of the ten Aristotelian categories (al-maqulat al- 'ashr) as opposed to infi 'al or yanfa 'il which is the category of passion. "Action" in this particular sense means affecting a thing that receives an effect, e.g. heating something, while "passion" would be being heated, or cutting something while "passion" would be being cut.

Fiqh: فقةthe science of Islamic jurisprudence

Firdaws: فردوس Paradise

Fitam: فطام weaning

Fitna: فتنة sedition, trial, upheaval

Fitra: فطرة the amount (in cash or in kind) paid to the needy at the end of the month of Ramadan

Fitrah: فطرىnature; see the Qur'anic verse فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا Fitrat Allah al-lati fatara an-nasa 'alyaha (... the nature of Allah on which He created humanity ...) (30:30).

Fitri: فطری innate, instinctive

Fuqa ': فقاع (literally: bubble) beer

Fusooq: فسوق debauchery, perversity

Ghafla: غفلة unawareness, heedlessness, indifference, lack of self-guard

Ghatta: غتpoured over, submerged into

Ghayy: غیstraying, misguidance

Ghazwa: غزوة a military campaign, an invasion

Gheeba: غیبة backbiting, speaking behind someone's back

Ghibta: غبطةexultation, elation

Ghuluw: غلو extremism, fanaticism, immoderation

Ghush: غش cheating, deception

Ghusul: غسلceremonial bath

Hadana: حضانة nursing period

Hadd: حد. A term, i.e. word or combination of words, which by itself can be used as a subject (mawdu ') or a predicate (mahmul) of a logical proposition ( qadiyah); also the definition of a term

Hadeed: حضیض pitfall, abyss

Hadith: حدیث (sing.) tradition, a statement made by Prophet Muhammad; plural: ahadith

Hadi: ھدی sacrificial animals offered at Mecca's holy precincts

Hads: حدس the capacity of the mind to draw immediate inferences from data presented to it or to see through a kind of mental illumination the necessary connection between premises and conclusions

Hafiz: حافز one who has learned the entire text of the Holy Qur'an by heart; plural: uffe;

Hafiz: حافظ incentive, motive

Hajiz: حاجز barrier, separator

Hajj: حجIslamic pilgrimage to Mecca during the prescribed period

Hala ': ھلع panic, intense fear, fright

Halal: حلالIslamically permissible, admissible, allowed

Haram: حرم. Sanctuary, sacred precincts; al-I:Iaram: the Ka'ba in Mecca

Haram: حرام. Islamically prohibitive, inadmissible, forbidden

Hatk: هتك disrespect, violation of one's privacy or sanctity

Hayba: هيبة veneration, awe, dignity

Haywaniyya: حیوانیة bestiality; aywan: animal

Hazm: حٍزم resolve

Hazza: ھزة shakeup, earthquake, turbulence

Hijab: حجاب veil, curtain

Hilal: ھلال crescent, singular of ahilla lf ishma: modesty, decency

Hiss Mushtarik: حس مشترك the commonsense (sensus communis) located in the first ventricle of the front brain; it combines all forms of the sensible objects that are received through the five external senses (al-awas al-khamsah). It may be said that it is a faculty in which all sense perceptions are so coalesced that they assume a single form. This is how; when we see the yellow color of honey, we can internally tell that it is sweet, good smelling and a fluid.

Hiwar: حوار dialogue, chat

Hizb: حزب. Literally, it means: party (plural: ahzab); also the 60th part of the Holy Qur'an

Hujja: حجة proof, argument, authority

Hujjat al-Islam: حجة الاسلام"The convincing proof of Islam", the honorific title given to a highly recognized Muslim authority. For example, Imam "Abu H. amid" Muh.ammed al-T.iisi al- Naisaburi al-Shafi'i al-Ash'ari al- Ghazali (450 - 505 A.H./1058 - 1111A.D.) is one of the greatest and most original thinkers not only in the history of Muslim philosophy but in the history of human thought.

This title fits him because of his defense of the teachings of Islam through a remarkable criticism of the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers in his celebrated work: Tahafut al-Falasifah which some translators render into English as "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" and which I, also a translator, translate as "philosophers rushing (recklessly) to conclusions." The word bears many meanings, including: flocking, crowding, thronging, rushing upon, springing upon to collapse, falling down, breaking down, disintegrating, pouncing, collapsing, decompos ing and contradicting (themselves). No dictionary in my possess provides "incoherence" as a meaning for tahafut.

Hukm: حکم a propos1t1on, logical, juristic or legal judgment expressed in the form of a sentence. It is an assertion or a statement of the relation of agreement or disagreement between two terms one of which is called the predicate (mahmul) and the other the subject (mawdu’) of that predicate synonymous with qadiyya.

Huri: حوری heavenly wife with large lovely eyes married to the male residents of Paradise

Hurmah: حرمة sanctity

Ibra: عبرة moral lesson

Ibda ': ابداع creation from absolute nothingness; to be distinguished from the cognate terms khalq, takwin and idath, all of which presuppose the temporal priority of cause to effect.

Ibtila 'i: ابتلائىfate-related

Idrak: ادراك perception or apprehension, realization. This term is used to denote any kind of cognitive experience of a particular object, whether it is due to external sense organs (i.e. idrak al- iss) or on account of internal senses, such as the formative faculty (al-quwwa al mutaawwira or khayal), estimative faculty (al-quwwa al-mutawahhima ), imagination (al-quwwa al mutakhayyila) or rational faculty (al-quwwa al 'aqliyya). Sometimes cognition, through the external senses, is distinguished from that through the internal senses by calling the former masusat and the latter wujdaniyyat.

'Idda: عدة waiting period, grieving period

Iffa: عفة decency, purity

Ijham: افھام (also tajheem) explaining something so one may understand it

Ifa.am: افحام refutation, rebuttal

Iftar: .افطار the time or meal to break the fast

Ightiriib: اغتراب becoming ghareeb, stranger; estrangement

Ihbiit احباط despair, despondency

Ihram: احراق pilgrimage garb, white unwoven cotton shroud worn by pilgrims

Ihtijaj: احتجاج giving a logical argument or proof; it has three major modes or kinds: syllogistic argument (qiyas), inductive argument (istiqra ') and argument by analogy (tamthil).

Ihtiyal: اجتیال trickery

'Ijiira: اجارہ leasing

Ijlal: اجلالrespect, veneration

Ijtihiid: اجتھاد the degree one reaches in order to be qualified as a mujtahid, one who is capable of deriving religious decisions on his own

Ijtiya: احتیاج sweeping, incursion

Ikbar: اکبار veneration, respect

Ikhwan al-$afa: اخوان الصفا "Brethren of Purity", a free scholarly association of scientists and philosophers, was established in Basra in about 373 A.H./983 A.D. with a branch in Baghdad. They authored fifty-one treatises know as Rasa'il Iknwan al-Safab رسائل اخوان الصفا (Treatises of the Brethren of Purity) which form an Arabic Encyclopedia of science, philosophy and religion, probably the first of its kind in the literature world.

Iktisab: اکتساب Acquisition.

Ilhad: الحاد apostasy, disbelief

Ilja': الجاء coercion, constraint

'Illiyeen: علیین lucky ones who occupy the highest pinnacle of Paradise; see Holy Qur'an, 83:18.

Imam: امام leader of an umma, a group of people (small or big); he may be the one who leads others in congregational prayers, a supreme religious authority, or one of the Twelve Infallible Imams

Iman: ایمان faith, conviction

Imtihan: امتھان humiliating;

.Al imtian: امتحان testing, examining

Inbahara: انبھر dazzled, impressed

Inghimas: انغماس immersal, immersing, dipping into

Inqida ': انقضاء lapsing, passing away. Tajaddud WA inqida ': renewal and lapse

Insihar: انصھار fusion

Iqama: اقامة the pronouncement of certain statements in preparation for the performing of the prayers, usually following the athan; also: residency

Isha': عشاء nighttime, evening

Ishtibah: اشتباءperplexity felt in deciding between the truth and falsehood of a statement

Isma; عصمة protection (against sinning), infallibility

Isnad: اسناد the method whereby one hadith is traced and in the end attributed to a muhaddith , traditionist, one who transmitted it the first time

Isr: اصر chain

Isra': اسراء night journey; usually a reference to the Prophet's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem

Istighatha: استغاثة seeking ghawth, relief

Istihalah: استحالة qualitative change in a body from one state or condition to another, e.g. water becoming hot being cold

Istidlal: استدلال reasoning in general but more specifically the mode of reasoning in which we proceed from the given facts or effects to the inference of their causes

Istinbat استنباط derivation, deduction, drawing a conclusion Istinja ': 1 the use of water for ceremonial purification

lttihad: اتحادUnion by relation, say of two or more pairs of things when the terms or parts of each pair have the same relation or ratio as the terms or parts of the other pair, e.g. the relation individually of two brothers to their father, or the relation of ration 2 : 4 to the ration 3 : 6; the relation between such pairs is technically called munasabah.

Itikaf اعتکاف the act of remaining most of the time at a mosque for prayers and supplications

Ittisal: اتصال a term used in logic to denote the connection between the antecedent and the consequent in a conditional or hypothetical proposition. It also means: continuous.

1zza: عزہ dignity, glory

Jahiliyya: جاھلیة pre-Islamic period of ignorance

Jabir: جابر oppressor, unfair

Ja'l: جعل causation; in the science of logic, it means "creation".

Jami 'a: جامعة inclusive, universal, university; it also means: handcuffs

Janaba: جنابة uncleanness caused by seminal discharge

Jannat: جنت heaven, Paradise, garden; pl.: jannat

Jara: جاری followed suit, went along with, supported

Jaza ': جزع. - Anxiety

Ji'ala: جعالة (trade or business) royalty

Jihad: جہاد a struggle, an effort exerted, or a war waged in defense of Islam

Jirm: جرم (pl. ajram); "body"; a term used specifically for a heavenly body ifalak) as opposed to Jism: which denotes a "body" in the world of four elements.

Jirri: جری catfish (scale-free fish)

Jism: جسم a body composed of the four elements (al- 'anair al arb 'ah) in various proportions; a body thus is a composite and divisible. According to philosophers, a body is composed essentially of a prime matter (hayula) and a form (sura) both of which in them are imperceptible and indivisible. A distinction must be made between the two cognate terms, jism andjism: The former refers to the earthly bodies and the latter to the heavenly ones.

Jizya: جزیة protection tax paid to Muslims by non-Muslims residing in areas under Islamic control whereby the Muslims protect their lives and property and exempt them from the military service

Jumood: جمود stagnation

Juzaf جزاف: arbitrary

Kaffara: کفارہ atonement for a sin

Kafir: کافر infidel, apostate, atheist, one who does not believe in the existence of the Creator; noun: kufr

Kaid: قیدscheme, scheming, mischief

Kalima: کلمة. Synonymous to "shahiida," it is a Muslim's declaration of faith (that is, to testify that there is no god except Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), and it is always pronounced in Arabic

Kantar: قنطار qintar in Arabic, a varying weight of 100 ratls (rotls); a rat! in Syria is roughly 3.202 kg., whereas in England it is 449.28 grams, and in Lebanon it is 2.566 kg.

Kariima: کرامة dignity, self-respect, prestige

Khabeethخبیث: lowly

Khali 'a: خلیعةrelated or connected to nudity; khala 'a: nudity

Khandaq: خندقMoat

Khasm: خصم opponent, enemy, contender, adversary in a discussion, i.e. each one of the two controversialists who speaks either for or against an issue

Khasoosiyya: خصوصیة particularity, privacy

Khawalifخوالف: surrogates, a term used by logicians for demonstrative or personal pronouns

Khayba: خیبة disappointment

Khayri خیری: charitable

Khiraj: خراج annual Islamic land tax

Khiyiina: خیانة treachery, betrayal

Khums: خمسone-fifth of one's savings (now paid only by Shi' a Muslims although there is a Qur'anic text referring to it, so it is supposed to be paid by all Muslims) set aside from annual income

Khurafa: خرافة superstition

Khuthlanخزلان: betrayal

Kuhl: کحل kohl

Kunya: کنیة the use of "Abu" (father of) or "Umm” (mother of) often as a prefix for one's name

Kursiکرسی literally: chair, symbol of the Almighty's Seat of Judgment and Authority; see Holy Qur'an, 2:255 which is called "ayat al-Kursi"

Khushoo ': خشوع full concentration on an act of worship, reverence, total submission

Khutba: خطبة lecture, sermon; a speech delivered on a specific occasion

Khuwa’: خواہemptiness

Kufr: کفر apostasy, infidelity, disbelief

Labbayk: لبیك exclamation conveying the meaning of "At your service!" or "Here I am!"

Lafz: .لفظ Vocable, pronouncement

Lajaja: لجاجا argumentation, persistence (in a negative way)

Laqtaلقطة: find, something found whose owner is unknown; laqeet foundling; also: snapshot

Lazim: لازم concomitant

Luwati: الواطی homosexual; also: mithli (same gender)

Ma' ad: معاد the Return: a reference to the returning of the souls to their new bodies after the period of barzakh and their ultimate returning to their Maker for judgment; generally, it is used to refer to death and the life hereafter.

Madada: مضاضة bitterness

Madlul: مدلول literally, it means "referent" and "meaning", "sense". It also means "proved", "inferred".

Mahr: مھر dowry paid by the groom to the bride (or vice versa as is the case in some cultures)

Majalis: مجالس meetings or gatherings held to commemorate certain religious occasions, mostly applied to those held during the month of Muharram or to recite the Fatiha for a deceased person; singular of majlis, a place where people sit together

Maknoon: مکنونtreasured, very highly appreciated

Makr: مکر cunning; makir: a cunning person

Maksab: مکسب gain, profit, benefit

Manzil: منزل station, house, home

Maqam: مقام station, position, status

Marji' taqlld: مرجع تقلیدthe highest theological authority-referee who has followers who refer to him regarding juristic issues

Mash 'ar: مشعرa place where certain rites are to be conducted, a sacred area or place or precinct

Ma 'siya: معصیة disobedience (of the Almighty’s Commandments), transgression. The Preipatetics (those who walk around), the name given to the followers of Aristotle (Aristatalis) for he is reported to have lectured to his pupils while walking in the Garden of Lyceum near Athens; hence, the term is also called Peripateticism (mashsha 'iyat). Aristotle's influence on Muslim philosophy was immense: Major Muslim philosophers, such as al-Farabi (d. 339 A.H./950 A.D.), lbn Sina (Avicenna) (d. 428 A.H./1037 A.D.), lbn Rushd (d. 595 A.H./1198 A.D.), and others were primarily known as Peripatetics.

Maslak: مسلكRoad

Ma 'soom: معصوم infallible divinely protected from sinning

Mawla: مولیdepending on its usage, it may mean either "master" or "slave," or it may mean one who is most fit for a specific position of honor and prestige. Derived from the adjective awla (one who is best qualified), it means: the person who is best suited to be the religious and temporal leader of all Muslims.

Mihna:مھنة profession; mina ol.Jcf"dilemma, problem

Mira ': مراء pretension

Mi 'raj: معراج (the Prophet's ascension from Jerusalem to the heavens)

Mithaliyya: مثالیة principles, values, idealism; adj. exemplary

Mithqal: مثقال weight equivalent to 24 karats or 4.68 grams

Mu 'ashara: معاشرہA companionship, socialization

Mu'aththin: موءذن caller to prayers (usually at a mosque)

Mu' awad; معوض compensated

Mubtathal: مبتذل mean, lowly, indecent

Mughalatah: (pl. mughalatat) مغالطة: a logical "fallacy", i.e. a piece of reasoning which appears to establish a conclusion without really doing so. The term applies equally to the legitimate deduction of a conclusion from false premises and to the illegitimate deduction of a conclusion from any premise.

Mudfa 'afat: مضاعفتrepercussions, consequences

Mudfaf مضاف: relational, added to

Muqaraba: مضاربة (trade) speculation

Mu 'eel: معیلsupporter, guardian

Mufaraqat: مفارقات separated beings or things, i.e. purely spiritual beings separated from all that is bodily. The term more specifically is used to denote the souls and intelligences of the celestial spheres.

Mufassir: مفسر a theologian who is well-versed m the exegesis of the Holy Qur'an

Muhaddith: محدّث a narrator of hadith, one who quotes statements of Prophet Muhammad

Mujahid: مجاھدone who practices jihad (see jihad above)

Mujanasa: مجانسة relation of similarity between two or more objects or individuals belonging to the same genus (jins), e.g. the relation between man and horse subsumed under the genus "animal".

Mujtahid: مجتھد one who acquires the degree of ijtihad and thus becomes capable of deriving religious decisions on his own

Mukallaf مکلف: responsible (accountable) adult

Mukashafah: مکاشفة a mode of intuitive or mystical apprehension which leads to the disclosures of divine things. According to al-Ghazali, mukashafa is a light which appears in the heart after it has been purified of all that is dross and blamable. Through this light many matters are revealed of which one had until then only heard names or had merely vague and general ideas. As a result, the meanings of spiritual verities become clear and one begins to have a true apprehension of the nature of the Divine Being, His attributes, His acts, etc., as well as understanding the real meanings of terms such as angels, the devil, prophecy, prophet, revelation, etc.

Mulh.id: ملحھد disbeliever, unbeliever, atheist; noun: ilh.ad

Mumathala: مماثلة “resemblance" or "similitude"; technically the relationship among objects or individuals belonging to the same species, e.g. the relationship between Zaid, Bakr, 'Umar, etc., subsumed under the species "man".

Mu'min: مومن believer, one who has imiin, conviction, true belief

Munafiqun: مناففقون hypocrites

Munajat: مناجاة whispering or silently supplicating to the Almighty seeking His foregiveness

Mun 'akis:منعکس the converse or opposite, i.e. the proposition inferred from a given proposition by transposing its subject and predicate but without changing its quality; for example: the proposition: "No circles are triangles" is the mun 'akis of the proposition "No triangles are circles" or "Some Arabs are Jews" is the mun 'akis of "Some Jews are Arabs". The negative particular proposition (al-salibat al-juz'iyah , q.v.), however, has no mun 'akis form of it.

Munarif. منحرف deviated, abnormal, immoral

Munasabaمناسبة: The relation of "proportionateness" between two or more pairs of things when the terms or parts of each pair have the same relation or ratio as those of the other pair, e.g. the relation individually of two brothers to their father or the relation of ratio 2:4 to ratio 3:6.

Muqaddam: مقدمantecedent, i.e. the clause of a conjunctive which is conditional or hypothetical (al-qaqiyyat alshartiyya al-muttaila) which precedes the consequent (tali) as its condition or cause, e.g. the clause "If it rains," in the statement: "If it rains, the ground shall be wet".

Musadara: مصادرہ an initial proposition or principle which is postulated to be true whether one believes it to be so or not like the postulates of Euclidean geometry.

Musafi مصافح fornicator, committing sifa, fornication

Mushabahah: مشابھة "resemblance" or "similarity"; technically the relation between objects possessing the same quality, say, of color, touch, taste, or smell

Muahara: مصاھرة o intermarriage, entering into a marriage relationship

Mushakis: مشاکس obnoxious person

Musnad: مسند a compilation of traditions (ahadith) which are consecutively and chronologically traced to their transmitters

Mutawatir: متواترA consecutively reported, traced by a perfect chronological chain of ascertained narrators of adith

Musawara: مساورةkeeping company with

Mushakalah: مشاكلة the relation of similarity between objects having a common property (proprium), e.g. the relation between triangles of different kinds in respect of their common property that the sum of two of their sides in each case is greater than the third.

Mushtari: مشترى planet Jupiter or its sphere; also: buyer

Mutabaqa: مطابقةcomplete accord; correspondence

Mutahallil: متحلل licentious

Mutamahhid: متمحض immersed into, dedicated to, being exclusive

Mutawatirat: متواترات transmitted data or premises, i.e. the propositions to which the continuous testimony of other people causes our assent.

Muwazana: مواضنة "equivalence" or "equilibrium", balance or balancing; technically, the relation of equivalence or similitude between wholes having similar composition of parts, e.g. the relation between the skeletal systems of two mammalians or vertebrates.

Muzri: مزرىdemeaning, humiliating, insulting

Nafaqa: نفقة alimony

Nafl: نفل optional, non-compulsory, supererogatory, highly recom-mended act of worship; plural: nawafil

Nafs al-ammara:نفس الامارة "The commanding soul", i.e. the soul which is wont to enjoin evil, an expression used in the Holy Qur'an (12:53) for the lowest stage in the spiritual growth of man, the stage when the low desires and animal passions rule the mind of man, so he succumbs to his carnal desires like a brute.

Nafs al-insaniyah: النفس الانسانىةThe human mind or soul. It possesses all the faculties and powers of the vegetable mind (al-nafs alnabatiyya) as well as those of the animal mind (al-nafs al-hayawaniyya), but in addition it has the rational faculty (al-quwwat al- 'aqliyya) peculiar to itself which has two forms: one theoretical or speculative (naari) which enables man to have abstract thinking, and the other is practical (amali) on which morality depends.

Al-nafs al-hayawaniyya: the animal soul or mind possesses all powers or faculties of the vegetable mind (al-nafs alnabatiyya), viz. the nutritive power (al quwwat al-ghadhiyah), the power of growth (al-quwwat al-niimiya) and the power of reproduction (al-quwwat al-muwallida). In addition, it possesses two powers or faculties peculiar to itself: motive faculty (al-quwwa al muharrika) and the cognitive faculty (al-quwwa al mudrika) each one of which has many kinds of sub classes.

Al-nafs al-falakiyya: The celestial or heavenly soul: The view that celestial spheres, i.e. stars and planets, have souls and intelligences was subscribed to by almost all Muslim philosophers, for it had the overwhelming authority of Aristotle behind it. Al-nafs al-kulliyya: The universal soul is inclusive of all individual souls, and it corresponds to the Psyche of Plotinus (Fulutin or al-Shaikh al-Yunani). al-nafs al lawwiima, "the self-accusing soul": an expression in the Holy Qur'an (75:2) for the second stage in the spiritual and moral growth of man at which the slightest departure from the path of rectitude at once brings the pricks of conscience.

Naw: نحو mode

Najasa: نجاسة uncleanness, impurity; adjective: najis

Nameema: نميمة calumny, same as buhtiin

Nasb: نصب roguery; also: hostility towards the Prophet's family; such a hostile person is called ntiibi (sing.), nawtiib (pl.)

Naseeha: نصيحة advice

Nathr: نزر one's pledge to do something very good to show appreciation for the Almighty's favorable response to his supplication and the attainment of his worldly wish

Nawtimis: نواميسI title of the Arabic translation by Hunain ibn Isaq (d. 264 A.H./877 A.D.) of Plato's Dialogue the Laws considered to be the earliest extant classic of European jurisprudence

Nazila: نازلة (sing.) disaster; plural: nawtizil

Niqma: نقمة wrath

Noor: نور divine or celestial light

Nubuwwah: نبوة the conveying of the prophetic message, the belief in prophets and their messages

Nushooz: نشوز status of wife's refusal to carry out her marital responsibilities, refusal to cohabit with her husband, disrespecting him, etc.; such woman is termed as ntishiz.

Qadiyya: قضية asserted statement or proposition, a judgment expressed in some particular language indicating the affirmation or denial of a certain relation between two terms, one of which is called subject (mawd u ') and the other is the predicate.

Qa 'ida: قاعدة principle, base, basis, norm

Qalb: قلب inversion, i.e. an immediate inference in which from a given proposition we derive another proposition, having for its subject the contradictory of the given subject; more often qalb is used for the proposition so derived; literally, it means: heart.

Qaniteen: قانتين (او قانتون) those who are constantly supplicating

Qanit: قانتone who is hopeless, despondent, in despair

Qarana: قرن conjoined, associated

Qarina: قرينة "connection"; technically the connection between the two premises of a syllogism (qiyas) wherein they are united by a middle term

Qada ': قضاء compensatory, making up for a missed rite; also: judiciary

Qibla: قبلة direction towards the Ka'ba, Mecca

Qimar: قمار gambling, betting

Qiyam: قیام standing, praying all night long

Qiyas: قياس Arabic term given to Aristotle's third book on logic, Analytica Priora ; Qiyas Syllogism, i.e. a form of mediate inference in which a conclusion (natija) necessarily results from the two given propositions when taken together, one of which is the major premise (al-muqaddima al-kubra) and the other is the minor premise ( al-muqaddima al-sughra), because of a connection ( qarina) between the two premises wherein they are united through a common, i.e. middle term ( al add alawat); analogy

Qudsi: قدسی divine, related to the Almighty

Qunoot: قنوت.a supplication during prayers

Qunoot: قنوط despondency, despair

Rahns رھن: (or rihan) pawn; marhoon: pawned

Rafidi: رافضی (sing.) rejectionist, a misnomer used by some extremist or misinformed Sunnis to label Shi'a Muslims on account of the latter's rejection of the so-called "election" of the first three successors to the Prophet of Islam; (pl.): rawafid, or rafid,a ; Islam prohibits name calling of any kind. To those name callers, the author of this book would like to quote these verses of poetry which the great Shafi' i imam composed about Rafidf,i:

O rider! Stop at the rocky plains of Mina
And shout at those in the Kheef,
The ones who sit and those who stand
At the sahar time when the pilgrims
Come to Mina like the overflowing Euphrates:
"If loving Muhammad’s Progeny makes one Rafidi
"Let both humans and jinns testify:
"That indeed Rafidi I am”

Rajia: راجحة preferred; raji: preferable, commendable

Raj 'iyya: رجعية backwardness

Rashaqa: رشاقة physical fitness, slimness, the opposite of obesity

Ratheela: رذيلةvice, abomination

Ra 'uf u.; راؤف compassionate, affectionate, kind

Rawaqiyah: رواقية Stoicism, so named by the Muslim philosophers because the founder of the school of Stoicism, Zeno (Zainun , as distinguished from Zainun al-Akbar) used to teach in a rawaq, i.e. in Stoa Poecile or a Painted Porch, a pavilion, at Athens. According to the Stoics, virtue alone is good while there are no degrees of moral goodness: It is all or nothing. One ought to have a full control of one's passions and desires by becoming completely indifferent to pain and pleasure; thus alone could one attain the life of virtue.

The Stoics expand the area of moral responsibility from the confines of a city-state to include all human beings. Everyone is a citizen of one and the same state, i.e. the State of Humanity. All men are of one blood, of one family; therefore, each should treat all others as "scared beings". In their view of the universe, they included a kind of pantheism. The Muslim philosophers welcomed their humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism and keenly studied their theory of knowledge and logic.

Rawiyya: رويةconsideration

Raziyya: رزيةaffliction, calamity, shame

Rek' at: .ركعة prostration (during prayer or a ritual)

Ribh Fahish: ربح فحش exorbitant profiteering

Risala: رسالة message, letter, issue

Ruh al-jaariya: الروح الجارية The travelling spirit or soul which is supposed to leave the body during sleep and give rise to dreams; opposed to (al-riih al-muhkam). Al-riih al hayawaniyya: The animal soul, is common to the rational and non-rational animals. It is supposed to be located in the heart from where the animal spirits spread into the arteries and capillaries. thus in all parts of the body; also called (al-ruh al-ghariziyya). See also al-nafs al-hayawaniyya.

Al-ruh al-{abi 'iyya: "the natural soul" is common to animals and plants. In animals, it is supposed to be located in the liver from where it spreads into all veins of the body. Al-riih al-ghariziyya: is the animal spirit emanating from the heart and spreading in all parts of the body. See also al-riih alhayawaniyya and al-nafs al-hayawaniyya. Al-riih al-muhkam is the resident soul which, unlike the travelling soul (al-ruh al jariya), is supposed never to leave the body. Al-riih al nabatiyya: the vegetable soul: see al-ruh al-tabi 'iyya and al-nafs al-nabatiyya. Al-ruh al-nafsaniyya is the sensual soul.

Ruks’ha: رخصة license, permission

Rukoo’: رکوع kneeling

Sabeel: سبیل path, way, avenue

Sadaqa: صدقة charity offered voluntarily; pl.: sadaqat

Sadeed: صديد pus collected from bleeding wounds to be served to the sinners in hell when they ask for water to quench their thirst.

Sadr al-Muta'allihin: صدر المتاهلين "The foremost amongst the gnostics", an honorific title given by followers of Mulla Sadra, the celebrated Sadr al-Din Mul).ammed ibn Ibrahim al-Shirazi (980- 1050 A.H./1572 - 1640 A.D.), a distinguished Iranian scholar, philosopher and theologian who wrote in all these fields books that are regarded as unique and of the highest levels.

Sahaba: صحابة companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad; sing. sahabi

Safeeh: سفية silly, impertinent; also: one who does not enjoy full rational capabilities

Sahifa: صحيفةtablet, scroll, parchment, a written document

Sajada: سجدة loftiness

Sakra: سكرة stupor

Samaha: سماحة overlooking faults and mistakes, tolerance; also: eminence

Saif: سیف sword

Sajda: سجدہ prostration

Salat: صلوة Islamic prayers, optional or mandatory; plural: salawat

Salatul- 'Id: صلوة عيد late morning prayers comprised of two rek 'at (prostarations) performed in the day that follows 'Id al-Fitr (the feat of fast-breaking) signaling the end of the fast of the month of Ramadan

Salwa: صلوى solace; also: quails

Sanad: سند bond (also: support); sanadat al-khazeena: treasury bonds

Saqeefa (or Saqifa): ثقیفہ shed, an enclosure shaded from sunrays with a roof, a meeting place; the most famous such place is Saqeefat Bani Sa'ida, a place located few yards from the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, where a power play was staged in order to place Abu Bakr as a successor to the Prophet of Islam. Many books have been written about this Saqeefa.

Saraf سرف: extravagance; also israf

Saraya: سرایا military campaigns personally ordered by Prophet Muhammad; singular: siiriya

Sareera: سریرہ inner thoughts

Sarmad: سرمد Absolute eternity, i.e. eternity without a beginning (azal) and without an end (abad); sometimes considered time as absolutely fixed and unchanging. Sarmad is distinguished from dahr by maintaining that while dahr encompasses zaman, time, sarmad encompasses dahr, eternity. Sarmad is used with reference to the relation between the two eternals (for e.g., between the essence of God and His attributes), dahr is with reference to the relation between the eternal and the changing (for e.g., between God and the world); and zaman with reference to the relation between the two changing series (for e.g., between the movement of the heavenly spheres and the phenomenal changes on earth).

Shafaq Falaki: شفق فلکی cosmic twilight

Shahada: شھادةmartyrdom; testimony

Shahr: شھر month

Sha 'iba: شائبة tint

Shaikh: شیخalso shaykh or sheikh, an honoring title with many meanings; literally, it means an old man; in Islamic theology and philosophy, however, it is used to denote a mentor, professor, or scholar of a high caliber

Shakl: شکل "figure" of a syllogism (qiyas), i.e. the form of a syllogism as determined by the position of the middle term (al-hadd al-awat) in the major and minor premises.

Shamit: شامتspiteful

Sharz,a: شریعةIslam's legislative system

Sharis: شرسfierce, beastly

Shiqaq: شقاقdiscord, disharmony

Shirk: شرك. Polytheism, the belief in the existence of partners with God

Shubha: شبهاة (singular) doubt, susp1c10n, misconception; plural: shubuhiit

Shura: شورہ (the principle of mutual consultation, Islam's form of democracy

Siddeeq: صدیق: one who testifies to the truthfulness of a prophet

Sihah: صحاحliterally: authentic, correct, accurate books; generally used to refer to the collection, group of collections, or books of verified and authenticated ahiidith of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w

Sirat صراط path, highway; same as Sabeel

Siyam: صیام' Islam's norm of fast

Suhoor: سحور (saari in some Muslim countries) time or meal taken before daybreak in preparation to fast during the day

Sultan: سلطان uruler who rules in the name of Islam, a Muslim monarch

Sunan: سنان plural of Sunnah: a highly commended act of worship or way whereby a Muslim seeks nearness to Allah

Surah: .سورہ (also surah) a chapter of the Holy Qur'an

Ta 'annut: تعنت stubbornness, inflexibility

Ta 'arrub: تعربassimilation in non-Muslim societies, a Muslim behaving like non-Muslims

Taba 'iyya: تبعية following others

Tabass ur: تبصر looking into, discerning, examining

Tabathul: تبذل lewdness; also ابتذالibtithal

Tabi' een :) تابعین (اوتابعونplural of tabi ', one who accompanied for a period of time, learned from and followed sahaabi, a companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad s.a.w

Tabligh: تبلیغ missionary work, dissemination of an ideology or a philosophy, notifying; balagh: notification, conveying a message

Tafajju ': تفجع grieving

Tafakkuk: تفككfragmentation, disintegration

Tafreet: تفريط excessiveness; negligence

Tafszr:تفسیر sing.: exegesis or explanation of Qur'anic verses; pl.: tafasir

Tafivid: تفويضSeale translates it as "delegating" but sees it as being equivalent to 'free will', which is usually used as the opposite of jabr; authorizing, sending someone to represent the sender

Taneet تحنيط: embalming; preserving the dead body with special oils (not to be confused with the non-Muslim way of drying the body of blood, a practice which Islam prohibits)

Fawwaqa: فوض literally means entrusted, gave full power of representation, authorization, delegation, etc. Imam Ali uses the term as saying: "man's freedom is between jabr and tafivi4" as we read in Kanz al- 'Ummal, 1: 313.

Tahajjud: تهجد night devotions; a mutahajjid is one who keeps religious vigilance, spending the nights in prayer

Taallul: تحللlicentiousness, immorality

Tahiira: طهارةpurification, the act of removing najiisa, uncleanness or impurity, physical or spiritual

Tahreef تحريف: distorting, distortion, textual adulteration

Tajalli: تجلیbecoming clear, obvious, manifest

Tajassus: تجسس spying, espionage; jasoos: spy

Tajrid: .تجرید. Catharsis, separation (from imperfections)

Takbeer: تكبيرthe act of glorifying Allah by declaring in an audible voice: "Allahu Akbar!" Allah is Great!

Takhannuth: تخانثmen acting as women (including being homosexual)

Takwin: تكوين Creation of natural beings liable to corruption ifasad) and decay; an act of creation through the intermediary of matter, time and motion, one which pre supposes causal priority; see also ibda

Talaqa: طلاقة ease

Ta 'lil: تعليل Taken generally, the term means causation; more specifically, it denotes the mode of inference or reasoning in which we proceed from the cause or the universal and deduce the effect or the particular from it.

Tamalluk: تملكownership; also: tamleek, granting ownership to

Tamees: تمحيص testing, examining, critiquing

Tanabuz: تنابز exchanging bad names, name calling

Tanaquq: تناقض being contradictory, or self-contradictor, or relating to a contradictory opposition between two propositions having the same subject and predicate but differing in both quality and quantity

Tana ul: تنصل disclaiming

Taqabul: تقابلopposition between two concepts or states which cannot be asserted of a thing or an individual at the same time and in the same regard. This is of four kinds: (1) contradiction (taqabul fil salb wal ijab) (2) contrariety (taqabul al-diddain) (3) correlation (taqabul tadayyuf) and (4) the relation between privation and possession (taqabul baina 'adm wal milka), all considered by Aristotle as different forms on contrariety.

Tanqeeb: تنقيبlooking for or into, researching; drilling

Tamyee: تميعwatering down

Taqazzuz: تقززrevulsion

Taqiyya: تقیة one's way of exerting precaution in order to save his creed or life when either is in jeopardy, a Muslim's way of trying to survive in the presence of sure perils

Taqleed: تقلید the concept of following a mujtahid or an authority recognized as being al-islam, the most knowledgeable, in Islamic matters

Taqwa: تقوی fear of the Almighty, piety

Taraf: ترف affluence, indolence

Tarafu: ترافع litigation; taraffu ': rising above

Tari': طارىءcasual, incidental, an emergency

Tarwiya: تروية The Day of Tarwiya is the 8th of Thulhijja when the pilgrims fill their water bags and prepare to go to Mina.

Tasdeed: تسديدterseness, sagacity; paying back

Tashahhud: تشھدthe testimony regarding Allah being the Lord and Muhammad being His Servant and Messenger; it is the uttering of "Ashhadu an la ilaha ilia-Allah, wa anna Muhammadan 'abdoho wa rasooloh"

Tashreed: تشريد displacing, displacement

Tashtheeb: تشذيبclipping, pruning, cultivating

Tashweeh: تشوية misrepresenting

Tashattut: تشتت dispersal, diaspora

Tashreeq: تشريقthe cutting and sun-drying of sacrificed meat

Tareeh: تصريحofficial permit, license

Tasweef توسيف: procrastination

Tashnee: تشنيع defaming, defamation

Tathkiya: تزكيةIslamic way of slaughtering animals for food

Tawaf: طواف circling around a certain sacred site

Tawatur: تواتر consecutive reporting, the tracing of one particular hadith to its respective chronological chain of narrators

Tawhid: توحید jithe concept of the absolute Unity of God, the belief that God is One and indivisible, One-and Only One-God, the antithesis of the Catholic concept of the Trinity

Tawwabeen: توابین the penitent ones, those who repented their reluctance to go to the rescue of Imam al-Hussain when he was confronted with Yazid's numerous armies. Those tawwabeen (or tawwaboon) enlisted under the military command of al-Mukhtar ibn Abi 'Ubaid al-Thaqafi (1 -
67 A.H./622 - 686 A.D.) and pursued those who massacred Imam al-H.ussain ibn Ali ibn Abu T.alib and eliminated all of them.

Tazafur: تظافر support

Tazajur: تزاجر being rude to each other, provoking each other

Tazkiya: تزكيةendorsement

Thakireen: ذاکرین those who often mention the Name of the Almighty and Glorify Him

Thayyib: ثیب a deflowered woman, a widow or a divorcee

Thimmi: ذمی non-Muslim enjoying Muslims' full protection

Thireed: ثرید pieces of bread cut and dipped in stew

Turath: تراث legacy, heritage

Ufuq افق horizon; plural: afaq

Ulema’: علماء plural of 'alim, scholar-theologian

Umma: امةnation, group of people

Umra: عمرہ the pilgrimage to Mecca during any time other than the prescribed (first ten) days of the month of Thul l:Iijja

Uqooq: عقوق parental disobedience

Urfi: fa عرفی conventional

Usool: اصول the basics of jurisprudence; uooli: fundamentalist

Ura: عری'plural of 'urwa: pillar, circle, ring, tie, link

Wazifa: وظيفة function, job

Wad 'i: وضعى secular

Wahm: .وهم whim, apprehension of the meanings of the sensible objects, a kind of cognitive experience which is also available to animals, one on the basis of which they are enabled to draw inferences for their physical well-being and safety

Wahsha: .وحشة loneliness

Wajib: واجب compulsory, obligatory, binding, required

Waleeja: .وليجة trusteeship

Wali: والیperson to whom wilayat is obligatory; a wali, however, is a governor appointed by a Muslim ruler of a higher authority (such as a caliph, ultan, etc.)

Waliyy: .ولی guardian, trustee; also: follower

Waqar: .وقار dignity, esteem

Waqee 'a: وقيعة deliberate entrapment

Waqf وقف trust, property dedicated to serve any specific good cause, endowment

Wadee' a: وديعة; trust

Wakeel: وکیل agent, representative, custodian

Wara ‘ورع asceticism, renunciation of luxuries, piety

Washa: وحشة solitude, hermitage, feeling of loneliness

Wai: وصى successor to a prophet

Wilaya: ولاىة; a binding supreme authority that combines both temporal and religious powers

Wisal: وصال fasting the last day of every lunar calendar month

Wudu ': وضوء ablution

Wujudوجود: existence, concretion, actuality. Wujiid, existence, is the madar (source) of the Arabic verb wajada (literally 'has/have found'), so it is mawjiid, an 'individual existent', or the property of an individual existent. Wujiid differs from both 'essence' and 'being'. The prime example of maujiid is an individual substance. Only the Necessary Existent is said to have wujiid as its essence. Other examples of entities having wujiid are accidents of an individual substance which has been realized, such as the color pink in one's skin, In any instance of wujiid other than the Necessary Existent, the essence of the wujiid , i.e. 'what it is', differs from its existence, i.e. from the fact 'that it is'.

Yabhur: یبھر dazzles

Yansaeeb: یانصیب lottery

Yaqiniyyat: یمینیاتcertain or self evident data or premises, i.e. propositions the truth of which is open to direct inspection and requires no appeal to other evidences, such as the statement that "two contradictories cannot be predicated of the same object at the same time" or that "a part is less than the whole of which it is a part".

Ya’s: یاس: despair, hopelessness

Yusheen: یشین tarnishes one's image

Yata ‘ajfaf: یتعفف rises above

Yata 'aqlam: یتاقلم acclimates, conditions himself according to the surroundings

Yujarzi: یجاری goes along with, copes with

Yujazzi: یجازی; rewards, compensates

Zaifزیف or zayf fallacy

Zajr: زجر rebuking, reprimanding

Zakat: ذکاة literally, it means "purification;" it is a compulsory 2% tax on one of three categories of wealth: 1) metal coins (gold, silver, etc.), 2) grain crops (barley, wheat, grain, rice, etc.), and 3) animals rose for food consumption. Zakat is somehow a complicated issue. For details, readers are advised to consult books of jiqh , jurisprudence. Among its types are: zakat al-mal (taxable wealth accumulated during one full year), and zakat al-fitr (a tax to be paid by the head of a household at the end of the fast of the month of Ramac;lan).

Zaman: زمان time. It is dependent on movement and yet is different from it. Whereas movement shows diversity in direction, time proceeds always and only in one direction. Time is known only in relation of before and after, such as a movement in a straight line and at a uniform rate. It, thus, can be expressed only in a series of continuous quantities ( al-kamm al-muttai[). Bodies are in time, not in essence. But because they are in movement, and movement is in time, time belongs to the category of the created beings, but it is nowhere except in itself. As far as this world of ours is concerned, it is measured and made known by the movements of the heavenly bodies. See also dahr and sarmad.

Zandaqa: زندقة atheism; zindeeq: atheist

Zawj al-Zawj: زرج الزوج "Pair of pair": a number, say 64, which is continuously divisible by two till the dividend is one.

Zihar: ظھار the making of a similitude between the back of one's wife with that of his mother; i.e. saying that his wife's back looks similarly to his mother's, a tradition that used to exist in pre-Islamic Arabia. Refer to verse 4 of Surat al-Al).zab (Chapter 33) of the Holy Qur'an.

Zina: زینة ornament, adornment, embellishment, decoration

Zual: زحل The planet Saturn or its sphere ( falak ); see also al kawakib al-sayyara.

Zuhra: ذھرة planet Venus or its sphere falak

And surely Allah knows best.

Topic Tags:

- Scholars [5]

- Biography [6]

Compiler(s):

- Yasin T. Al-Jibouri [4]

Person Tags:

- Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr [7]

- Amina Bint al-Huda [8]

- Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr [9]

Source URL: https://www.al-islam.org/tribute-sadr-martyrs

Links
[1] https://www.al-islam.org/printpdf/book/export/html/67061
[2] https://www.al-islam.org/printepub/book/export/html/67061
[3] https://www.al-islam.org/printmobi/book/export/html/67061
[4] https://www.al-islam.org/person/yasin-t-al-jibouri
[5] https://www.al-islam.org/tags/scholars
[6] https://www.al-islam.org/tags/biography
[7] https://www.al-islam.org/person/ayatullah-sayyid-muhammad-baqir-sadr
[8] https://www.al-islam.org/person/amina-bint-al-huda
[9] https://www.al-islam.org/person/sayyid-muhammad-al-sadr
[10] http://www.authorhouse.com
[11] mailto:obaean@yahoo.com
[12] mailto:zainab_alhaidary@ymail.com