Ep 25 — Wilayat

Session 23: Wilayat. delivered Friday, 19 Mehr 1353 / 24 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Mumtahanah (60:1). O you who have believed, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth, having driven out the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in God, your Lord. If you have gone out for striving in My cause and seeking My pleasure [do not take them as allies], confiding to them affection — while I am most knowing of what you have concealed and what you have declared. And whoever of you does it has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way. The matter we are raising here today is a matter called Wilayat. The matter of Wilayat, in the form in which we raise it and derive it from the Qur'an, is most often given little attention. The word "Wilayat" itself is familiar to a Shia ear. In our supplications, in our requests from God, in our narrations, in our common and widespread thoughts, there is a matter called Wilayat — bound up with complete sanctity and reverence, and with the longing to secure something called Wilayat. As Shia, we always consider ourselves to possess Wilayat; and if a Shia is somewhat scrupulous, precise, and careful, he always asks God, he yearns, that God keep him alive with Wilayat, cause him to die with Wilayat, and make Wilayat understood to him. So a word called "Wilayat" is familiar to the ear. Ultimately, I want to speak about this word and the concept of Wilayat from its roots. We will arrive at the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib (upon him be blessings and peace); but for now I want to speak about the stages that come before that. We will draw Wilayat out of the noble verses of the Qur'an — we will derive it, extract it. And you will see what a modern, advanced, fascinating principle the principle of Wilayat is. You will see how a nation, a community, the followers of one thought and one creed, if they do not possess Wilayat, are aimlessly abandoned and left idle. You will grasp this and you will feel it. This is why someone who does not have Wilayat — his prayer is not prayer, his fasting is not fasting, and his acts of worship are not worship. It is why a society and an Ummah that does not have Wilayat — even if it spends its whole life in prayer and fasting and in giving away all its wealth in charity — is still not worthy of God's forgiveness and grace. And in short, this is what the narrations concerning Wilayat mean — among them this well-known hadith that has come from several of the Imams (peace be upon them), some of whose sentences and words I will repeat here: If a man were to stand in prayer through his nights, and fast through his days, and give all his wealth in charity, and perform Hajj every year of his life, yet did not recognize the Wilayat of the friend (wali) of God so as to take him as his guardian and have all his deeds be by that one's guidance... If someone fasts his whole life, not only the month of Ramadan; if he stays awake all his nights until morning; if he gives away all his wealth in the way of God; yet does not have Wilayat with the friend (wali) of God — pay attention to this expression — does not have Wilayat with the friend of God, or does not possess the Wilayat of the friend of God — such a person, all that he has done is vain, fruitless, and null. The matter of Wilayat is a continuation of the discussion of Prophethood; it is not something separate. It is, in truth, the completion and conclusion of the discussion of Prophethood. We will see that without Wilayat, Prophethood too remains incomplete. So we must briefly repeat the earlier discussions of Prophethood — let me sketch their broad outlines, so that we may enter, little by little, from the margins into the body of the matter of Wilayat. And let me say this too: raising this matter is very difficult, and expounding it is even more difficult. The reason is that so many weak and illogical ideas about Wilayat have become entrenched in the minds of ordinary people. So when you want to say the correct thing about Wilayat — the thing that conforms to the text of the Qur'an and the text of the hadith — one of two problems arises. Either it is confused with those very things already lodged in people's minds, or a feeling of estrangement arises toward what is being called "Wilayat." Each of these happens in a different group, and that is why this discussion is so difficult and troublesome. But I seek aid from the grace of the Most Exalted Lord, and I will try, God willing, to complete this discussion within two or three days. For what does the Prophet of God come? We said that the Prophet comes to bring human beings to perfection; he comes to imbue human beings with the character of God (akhlaq Allah); he comes to complete and bring to fullness the noble traits of character. This is the substance of the narrations: I was sent to bring the noble traits of character to completion. The Prophet comes to build human beings; he comes to give firmness to this substance whose name is "the human being." By what path and by what means does the Prophet work to build the human being? How does he do it? Does he set up a school? Does he set up a philosophical doctrine? Does he set up a monastery and a place of worship? We said: no. To build the human being, the Prophet sets up a human-building factory. He prefers to succeed ten years later, twenty years later; but what he builds should not be one human being, two, twenty — rather, he should set up a human-building factory that automatically delivers complete human beings, the kind the Prophet desires. So, to build human beings and give firmness to the human substance, the Prophet makes use of a human-building factory. What is the human-building factory, sir? The human-building factory is the Islamic society and order. Here is the crux, the point on which the essential attention and emphasis of the discussion rests. Everyone says the Prophet wants to build human beings; everyone says the Prophet comes for teaching and training, and everyone understands this. What must be understood — and understood with precision — is that the Prophet does not take human beings one by one to some secluded corner to whisper the love of God into their ears. The Prophets do not form a scientific and philosophical school in order to produce a handful of students whom they then send out to guide people across the regions of the world. The Prophet's work is firmer and sturdier than that, more deeply rooted. What does he do? He builds a factory from which nothing comes out but human beings — and that factory is the Islamic society. What is the Islamic society? What sort of element and nature is it? These are other discussions. Still, let me clarify this corner of the matter briefly, though it is not very relevant to our discussion. The Islamic society means a society, a civilization, at the head of which God governs; the laws of that society are God's laws; the divine bounds are carried out in that society; the appointing and dismissing is done by God. Picture the social order as a cone, as a number of sociologists customarily draw it: at the apex of the cone is God, and beneath God, all of humanity and all human beings. The structure is brought into being by the religion of God; the law of peace and war is established by divine ordinances; social relations, the economy, government, rights — all of them are determined by the religion of God, and the religion of God carries them out and stands behind this law. This is the Islamic society. Like where, sir? Like Medina. Just as the Prophet came to Medina and formed a society. Well, they were in Mecca too; they could have scattered to the regions of the lands and worshipped God there as well — but that was not enough. They came to Medina and formed a society, at the head of which God governed. The vicegerent of God who governed there — who, in practice, was he? The Prophet. Who established the ordinances? Who legislated them? Who enacted them? The Prophet. Who carried out the laws? Who compelled the people to carry them out? The Prophet. In such a society, where everything is from God, the congregational prayer and the sermon after it are one and the same as the war-song of the battlefield. In that very mosque where the Prophet of God would stand and lead the congregational prayer, and ascend the pulpit for the people and speak and teach and purify and instruct, the banner of jihad would be brought, and the Prophet would bind it and place it in the hand of Usama ibn Zayd, place it in the hand of so-and-so, [saying] "Go forth!" Set out in the name of God! — Move in the name of God, corner the enemy at such-and-such place, do such-and-such. In that very mosque, the Prophet of God would carry out the prescribed punishments (hadd). In that very mosque, the Prophet's judiciary was convened. In that very mosque, the Prophet's administration of labor and economy was convened. In that very mosque, the zakat was collected and distributed. There was teaching, there was prayer and supplication, there was the war-song of the battlefield, there was wealth and economy — everything, both this world and the hereafter, was unified and gathered into one, under the leadership of the Prophet, in the house of God. This is the Islamic society. The Prophets come to set up such a society. In this society, whoever comes becomes a human being. Even if he does not become a complete human being, he is compelled to move according to the conduct of human beings. Whoever wishes to be good can be good in the Prophet's society; in non-divine societies it is not like this. In non-Islamic and non-divine societies, people want to be good but cannot. You want to be religious, but you cannot. You want not to give or take usury, but you find that it cannot be done. A woman wants not to step outside Islamic chastity, but the environment pressures her. Every factor and motive around a person drives them away from the remembrance of God. Pictures and shows and excessive entertainments and comings and goings and dealings and conversations — all of them drive a person away from God and estrange the remembrance of God from a person's heart. In the Islamic society, the matter is the reverse: its marketplace, its mosque, its seat of government, its friend, its kinsman, the father of the household, the youth of the household — all of them turn a person toward the remembrance of God. They draw him toward God, reconcile him with God, establish a relationship for him with God, make of him a servant of God, and keep him away from servitude to other than God. Rest assured of this: if the Islamic society of the Prophet's time had continued for fifty years — if the same leadership had remained at work, or if, after the Prophet, Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) had sat in the Prophet's place with the very leadership that the Prophet had appointed — after fifty years, all those hypocrites would have been transformed into true believers. If they had allowed the Prophetic government and the Alid government to continue, one after the other, that human-building society would, of necessity, have made all the adulterated people pure of adulteration. It would have made all the hypocritical hearts believing, and made all those whose spirits were not acquainted with faith likewise acquainted with God and with faith. This is the natural character of the matter pertaining to the Islamic society. The Prophets come to set up such a thing. When this is set up, like a human-building factory, people become Muslims — not one by one, not ten by ten, not a hundred by a hundred, but group by group, host by host: both outwardly Muslim, in the outward conduct of Islamic matters, and inwardly Muslim and believing, truly and inwardly. So the Prophet comes for such a work. I said we want to discuss Wilayat from its roots. At the very beginning, when the Prophet brings the Islamic thought; at the very beginning, when the Prophet's call commences — can the Prophet, single-handedly, administer a society? Does a society not need an organization? Does it not need a group of people to administer this organization? Does it not need a soldiery to defend this society and put the enemies of this society in their place? Are people who would assist the Prophet and spread the call of the Prophet not necessary? Yes, they are. Every task must be done through ordinary means, and the Prophets too, in most of their activities, made use of ordinary means. When the Prophet comes to form the intended society — which is that very human-building factory — he needs a bonded, unified group. They must possess firm faith, drawn from the depths of the hearts of those who believe in and are committed to this doctrine; they must move with steadfast steps, dynamic and seeking that goal. The Prophet needs such a group at the beginning of the work. Therefore the Prophet begins to gather and form this group, with the verses of the Qur'an and with goodly exhortations — Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good admonition — with the penetrating power of the Prophetic word, he brings into being, around himself at the beginning of the work, the hearts of certain Muslims. These constitute a community. So the Prophet, at the beginning of the work, when he raises his call, brings into being a community, brings into being a rank, creates a front against the front of unbelief. This front is composed of whom? Of steadfast Muslims, of believers committed and penetrating of heart — of those of whom [it is said] no blame of any blamer turns them back: no censure of any blamer turns them away from the path of God. These are the Muslims of the first step. I am speaking briefly and in compressed form, for minds willing to grasp. It does not need much explanation; and if I were to explain a great deal, we would stray from the thread of the discourse and lose the main point. So let me state the main matter. The Prophet brings a group and a front into being. In the midst of what society are they living? In the midst of the society of ignorance (jahiliyya). The Muslims of early Islam, for example, are living in the midst of the ignorant society of Mecca. This is a thin current, come into being under the name of Islam and the Muslims. If it is to survive in the midst of that conflict-ridden, troublesome ignorant society — if this community, this rank, this front is not to be annihilated, digested, dissolved — then this group of Muslims must be welded to one another like tempered steel. They must be so bound to one another that no factor can pull them apart. In the words of today's people and today's cultures, a very intense and hard party discipline must be established among these Muslim individuals. They must be stuck together more and more, welded and knotted together more and more, and kept further and further from the other fronts, the other currents, the opposing motives — because they are in the minority. A community in the minority may see its thought overshadowed by the thought of the majority. Its deeds, its dignity, its character may be lost amid the dignities and characters and deeds of the rest of the people, who at times oppose them; it may be annihilated, digested, perish. So they are bound to one another more and more, and separated from the other fronts more and more — so that they are not digested, not annihilated, so that they can remain a single group, so that in the future the Islamic society may be built and administered and carried on by the hands of these steadfast ones, so that they may be helpers of the Prophet, and so that they can endure. Like what? Like a group of mountaineers passing along a difficult, treacherous mountain path. Ten people in the midst of the snows, staves in hand, must traverse this narrow, danger-filled path — these twists and turns, this mountain pass, this defile — to reach the summit. They are told: stick together, tie your belts to one another, do not move separately and one by one — for if you are left alone, there is the danger of slipping. So they are firmly welded to one another. And besides welding them together, they are told: do not take much baggage, do not look this way and that, keep your attention only on your own path and your mind on your own work. Their waists and hands are bound firmly to one another, so that if one of them falls, if two fall, the rest can hold him up. The intense interconnection of the mountaineers shows the state of interconnection and welded-togetherness of the Muslims at the beginning of the work. Does this intense interconnection have a name or not? This bondedness of the Muslims of the front at the beginning of the religion — welded to one another, knotted to one another, inseparable from one another, completely cut off from the other fronts, ever more hand-in-hand and clasping one another — does it have a name in the Qur'an and hadith or not? Yes; this name is Wilayat — Wilayat. There is still a long way to go before we reach the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) and the [hadith] And the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib is my fortress. We will reach that only after an hour or two more, once we have covered the points still ahead of us. So what does Wilayat mean in its first Qur'anic sense? It means the interconnection and intense bonding of a group of human beings who share a single thought and seek a single goal — who are stepping forward on one path, striving toward one objective, who have accepted one thought and one creed. The individuals of this front must bind themselves ever more tightly to one another, and must hold themselves apart from the other fronts, the other poles, the other sections. Why? So that they do not perish, do not get digested. This is what the Qur'an calls Wilayat. With this bondedness and welded-togetherness the Prophet brings the first Muslim community into being. He connects them to one another, makes them brothers, turns them into a single body, and through them forms the Islamic Ummah and brings the Islamic society into being. And he prevents them from bonding with the enemies, the opponents, the other fronts — which, God willing, you will see in the verses tomorrow. Between them and those other fronts he creates separation; he restrains them from joining the front of the Jews, the front of the Christians, the front of the polytheists, and strives ever harder to make their ranks compact and welded together. Why? Because without this state — without Wilayat, without being one hundred percent interconnected — discord will arise among them, and they will be incapable of bearing the burden of the trust upon their shoulders. They will not be able to carry it to its destination. Of course, later, once the Islamic society has grown into a great Ummah, Wilayat is still needed. How it is needed within an Ummah, and why, I will expand upon later. But at this very point, let us turn our attention to the Wilayat of which the Shia speak. We said that a small group, in the midst of a dark and ignorant world, must be bound to one another in order to survive. If they are not welded together, their remaining and the continuation of their life is not possible. We gave the example of the Muslim community at the beginning of Islam — in the midst of the ignorant society of Mecca, or in the early period after they had come to Medina. Is there another example as well? Yes. When? The small group of Shi'ism, during the anti-Shia and anti-Islamic caliphates in history. Do you imagine that the Shia could easily remain? That propaganda weapons on one side, suffocation and strangulation on another, prisons and tortures and killings on another, could possibly have allowed a group to survive? An intellectual group like the Shia, which so contended with the powers of its own time and so troubled them — how did it come to remain? It remained on account of Wilayat. Among the Shia of the era of the nominal caliphates, the Imams (peace be upon them) had created a strange interconnection and shared-frontedness, so that in the light of this Wilayat the Shi'i current could remain protected amid the various other currents. Imagine a vast river, fed by water from several directions. The waters move with swift currents. The surface is uneven; whirlpools form; the waters tumble over one another; opposing currents of every kind sink into one another in this bed, neutralize one another, strike against one another's heads — and still this water moves forward. Amid these currents, in the midst of these turbid, muddy waters, a current of sweet, clean, pure water keeps on its way; through this riverbed of flood and torrent, this remarkable channel moves forward. This thin current — it happens, in some seas and rivers: two colors of water, two kinds of water moving side by side, owing to natural factors. In the midst of this remarkable channel where swift currents are moving, one thin current of water goes forward amid the rest, and it stays sound and goes on. The astonishing thing is this: it never mixes in, its color is never ruined, it never takes on the taste of the other salty and bitter waters. It continues, preserving the same sweet taste, the same clear color, the same purity, and it moves forward. Liken the world of Islam in the time of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs to this very river, in which intellectual, political, and practical currents of every kind ran and drove against one another. Look from beginning to end and you see the current of Shi'ism. You see that it is a thin stream of water. Amid this remarkable tempest it looks insignificant and small, but it has held itself together, has never become turbid, its taste has never been ruined, it has never lost its purity, has never taken on the color and taste and smell of the other waters; it has remained and gone on. What has held it together? What has been able to keep this Shi'i current alive? It is that wali who counsels Wilayat among the people and among his own followers, who binds them to one another, makes them affectionate toward one another, and promotes Wilayat — and this too carries the very same sense as the Wilayat of the Prophet's time. The Shi'i Wilayat, that Wilayat upon which so much emphasis has been placed — this is one of its dimensions; it has others too, which I will also state. What I have said is not yet the whole matter; this is one dimension and one side of it. Wilayat means interconnection. The Qur'an considers the believers to be the allies (awliya') of one another. Those who possess true faith are shared-fronted and bonded to one another — and they call this "Shia." In the narrations, the Shia is referred to as "believer" (mu'min). Look in the words of the earliest jurists, and in many of the narrations: in some Islamic offices they set out certain conditions — among them "Islam," and after Islam, "faith (iman)." What, then, does faith mean? What is meant by "faith" is possessing the particular mode of thought of the Shia — that is, seeing Islam from the perspective from which the Shia sees it, and establishing it by the logic with which the Shia establishes it. That is the meaning of "faith." We see that in the time of the Imams (peace be upon them) they made the Shia cohesive, interconnected, brotherly, and bonded to one another in this way, so that they could preserve the Shi'i current in history. Otherwise the Shia would have perished a thousand times over; a thousand times over its ideas would have been digested — just as some other sects became this way, lost their color, and were annihilated. In any case, this is one of the dimensions of Wilayat. Tomorrow, God willing, I will present another of its dimensions — one that is perhaps even more important, and since it must certainly be expounded after this one, I will mention it now: the Wilayat of the friend of God (wali Allah). The Wilayat of the Shia with one another has become clear; but what does the Wilayat of the friend of God mean? What does the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib mean? What does the Wilayat of Imam al-Sadiq mean? This [matter] that you and I must today have the Wilayat of the Imams — what does it mean? A number of people imagine that the Wilayat of the Imams means only that we love the Imams; and how greatly they err — how greatly they err! It is not merely loving. Otherwise, is there anyone to be found in the world of Islam who does not love the Imams, the infallible ones of the Prophet's household? So does everyone have Wilayat? Is there anyone who is an enemy of these [Imams]? Were even those who fought against them in early Islam all their enemies? Many of them loved these [Imams], but they were prepared to fight against them for the sake of the world. Many of them knew what stations and ranks these [Imams] possessed. When they brought the news of the passing of Imam al-Sadiq to Mansur, Mansur began to weep. Was he pretending? In front of whom? Did he want to pretend in front of his own servants? In front of Rabi the chamberlain, did he want to pretend? It was not pretense; his heart truly ached, he truly grieved that Imam al-Sadiq should die. But who killed him? He himself! He himself had given the order that Imam al-Sadiq be poisoned; yet when the news arrived that the deed was done, Mansur's heart was shaken. So did Mansur too have Wilayat?! Of this same kind is the error of those who say that Ma'mun the Abbasid was a Shia. What does "Shia" mean? Does "Shia" mean someone who knows that the truth is with Imam al-Rida? Only this? If so, then Ma'mun the Abbasid, and likewise Harun al-Rashid, Mansur, Mu'awiya, Yazid, were more Shi'i than everyone. Did the rivals of the Commander of the Faithful at the Saqifa not know that the truth was with Ali? They all knew — so were they Shia? Did those who clashed with the Commander of the Faithful not have love for him? Yes, often they had love — so were they Shia? So did they have Wilayat? No, sir, Wilayat is other than these things. Wilayat is higher than these. If we have understood what the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib and the Wilayat of the Imams is, then we have the right to turn back upon ourselves and see whether we have Wilayat or not. Then, if we see that we do not, we should ask God for it and strive to attain the Wilayat of the Imams. A number of people are pleased to fool themselves. Merely because they love the Imams, they imagine they truly possess the Wilayat of the Imams; merely because they believe in the Imams, they imagine that is what Wilayat means. It is not. Wilayat is higher than this — I will explain tomorrow what Wilayat with the rightly-guiding Imams (peace be upon them) means, and how it is that we can consider the Imams (peace be upon them) our wali and possess their Wilayat. Then we will understand how many of the claims to Wilayat are made unknowingly and contrary to reality. In the days of the Eid of Ghadir, people customarily recite: Praise be to God, who has made us among those who cling to the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib (upon him be peace). I most often say it differently: do not say "Praise be to God, who has made us..." — I fear it may be a lie. Say instead: "O God, make us among those who cling to the Wilayat of Ali ibn Abi Talib (upon him be peace)." O God, place us among those who hold fast to Wilayat. Let us see whether we are or not. Then we will arrive at this matter. That too is another of the dimensions of Wilayat. What I have said today is summarized in these words. The Wilayat of the Muslim Ummah, and the Wilayat of that front which strives in the way of God and for God, consists in this: among the individuals of this front there should come into being more and more connection and interconnection. Their hearts should be knotted together and drawn close more and more, and they should separate, more and more, from the opposing poles, from those who think against them and act against them. This is the meaning of Wilayat. I think the Surat al-Mumtahanah could, in this sense, be named the Sura of "Wilayat." The verses of the Surat al-Mumtahanah make this meaning well clear. Now let me interpret for you these very verses that I recited. In the name of God, the Most Merciful. O you who have believed — do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies — O you who have brought faith: do not take My enemy and your own enemy as allies (awliya'), as guardians. Here the [usual Persian] translation is not rendered badly: "You should not take the unbelievers, who are the enemy of Me and of you, as your supporters." It is not bad; this expression accords with the meaning in our minds. Some translate it as: "Do not take My enemy and your enemy as your friend." That is not a complete meaning — it is not merely a matter of friendship and affection; it is higher than these. "Do not take them as your wali" means: do not consider them your shared front; do not place yourselves in their ranks; do not, in your heart, suppose yourselves and them to be in a single rank. The one who is the enemy of God and your enemy — do not count him as beside you; see him instead as facing you, as an enemy and opponent against you. Extending to them affection — Do not consider them your shared-front and shared-rank, that you should send them a message of friendship. While they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth — You know that these have disbelieved in the truth and reality the Lord has sent down to you. Having driven out the Messenger and yourselves — They drive the Messenger and you out of your city and homeland. Because you believe in God, your Lord — Because you bring faith in your Lord, in God, who is your Lord. Do not take My enemy and your own enemy as your shared-front, helper, and supporter. If you have gone out for striving in My cause and seeking My pleasure — If you have gone forth in the path of jihad, striving to attain My pleasure — if you truly speak the truth, if you truly strive in My path, you have no right to make the one who is My enemy and your enemy your shared-front, helper, and bonded ally. This Sura is a fascinating and important one. On another page of these same verses, God makes clear which unbelievers He means. He does not say: do not lay down a plan of friendship with all unbelievers; He does not say: cut off, absolutely, your relations with the unbelievers — no. Afterward He says with which group of the unbelievers. He divides the groups of unbelievers, and I may interpret that verse for you tomorrow. Confiding to them affection — In secret and concealment, you deliver your love and affection to them. While I am most knowing of what you have concealed and what you have declared. And whoever of you does it — whoever of you does this thing, lays down a plan of friendship and support with the enemies of God, and considers himself and shows himself to be their shared-front, whoever does this thing — has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way. He has lost the middle path. He has strayed from it. After that, so the Muslims may also be convinced intellectually as to why they must sever relations with the unbelievers, He identifies these [unbelievers]. And it is worth recalling that the occasion of revelation of these verses concerns Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a. Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a was a Muslim of slightly weak faith. When the noble Prophet wanted to go to war with the unbelievers of Quraysh, this man was one of the Prophet's soldiers, yet he thought it possible that the Prophet might be defeated in this war and his relatives, who were among the unbelievers, might come to harm. Here he wanted to make use of cleverness; he resorted to the trick of a shrewd, cunning man (rindi). [He thought:] "Now that we are beside the Prophet, in the company of the Prophet — and we are even performing jihad, and even gaining the reward of those who strive in the way of God — let us, as a precaution, also write a letter to the unbelievers; let us here also declare our friendship and loyalty toward them. What harm is there? If we face them on the battlefield, of course we will not help them. But for now, what objection is there to my writing a letter and — as he imagined — duping the unbelievers and laying down a plan of friendship with them as well? What harm is there? Let us have both God — in the common saying of children — and the dates." A master and a village headman were quarreling; one asked, "Which of them speaks the truth?" He replied, "Both the master speaks the truth and the village headman!" Let us have both sides. He took up a letter and wrote to the chiefs of Quraysh, and signed his name at the bottom of it. He also introduced himself well, so that they would know that this man was friendly toward them. He gave the letter to a woman, and this woman placed it among her hair, or amid her clothing, and set off toward Mecca. The dear and noble Prophet, by the revelation of God, became aware of the affair. He sent the Commander of the Faithful, and one or two others; along the way they found that woman, threatened her, and took the letter from her. Afterward, when [Hatib] came, the Prophet said: "Why did you do this thing, man? Why do you reveal military and war secrets to the enemy?" He said: "O Messenger of God, I have friends there, I have relatives; I fear they may come to trouble. I wanted to write this letter so that perhaps their hearts might soften a little toward me." The verse, in reply, says: do not be mistaken; their hearts will not soften toward you. Those who are against you intellectually, those to whom your religion, your faith, is a detriment, and who have set their resolve upon the destruction of your religion and faith — these will never be kind and friendly toward you. The next verse states this matter: If they gain dominance over you — if they get the upper hand over you — they will be enemies to you. They will be your enemies. O foolish Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a! Do not imagine that if you render them some help now, tomorrow they will keep it in return — no, by God. If you help them, they will gain greater mastery over you. If you help them, they will open further the hand of oppression and tyranny upon you. They will be enemies to you, and will extend against you their hands and their tongues with evil — they open their hands and their tongues against you with evil. They open their hands; they place you under greater pressure. They open their tongues against you with evil; they degrade you, they strip you of dignity and honor, they do not recognize you as a worthy human being. Now you are helping them — do not imagine that this help will be of any use to you. And they wish that you would disbelieve — tomorrow, if they gain mastery over you, they will not even let you keep this little bit of heartfelt belief; they would love for you to turn unbeliever. Do not imagine that they would leave you free and at ease to remain Muslim and act upon your Islamic duties. Then comes a verse — a decisive sentence — concerning the kinfolk and relatives of Mr. Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a, and the kinfolk and relatives of all the Hatib ibn Abi Balta'as of history. For the sake of your children, for the sake of your kin and relatives, for the sake of your dear sons, for the sake of the comfort of your loved ones — are you prepared to make peace with the enemy of God? To draw the friendship of God's weak servants, and to draw the profit of yourselves and your loved ones, are you prepared to disregard the command of God, to befriend the enemy of God? Just how useful are these kin and offspring to a person? This youth — for the sake of whose job, for the sake of whose scholarship, for the sake of whose livelihood you are prepared to make peace with the unbelievers of Quraysh in the midst of the unbelievers of Quraysh — how useful will he be to you, you poor wretch? How much will he save you from the chastisement of God? O you foolish one! Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a goes and conspires with the unbelievers, with the enemies of the Prophet, so that his relatives, his kin, his offspring there should come to no harm! Just how useful are these kin and offspring to a person, that for their sake he should draw down upon himself the chastisement of the Lord and the divine wrath? Never will your relatives or your children benefit you — your kin and relatives and your children will not profit you — on the Day of Resurrection He will judge between you. On the Day of Resurrection He casts separation between you and them. Or let us read and interpret it this way: "Never will your relatives or your children benefit you" — on the Day of Resurrection your kin and offspring will not profit you — "He will judge between you" — God separates between you, On the Day a man will flee from his brother, and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children. On that Day of Resurrection, a person flees from his own brother, flees from his own father and mother, from his kind wife and his children and the light of his own dear eyes. This very child, whose grief so consumes you today — know that on the Day of Resurrection you will flee from him and he from you, and both of you from every other creature. Everyone flees from everyone else; they have no time, no chance to reach one another, to ask after one another's state. For every man, that Day, will be a matter occupying him. Everyone, on that Day, has some affair, some preoccupation, some trouble — a trouble that is enough to occupy him entirely. On the Day of Resurrection a person is so caught up in himself that he does not get to the troubles of others, not even his own child. A thorn pricks the hand of your child — are you prepared to sacrifice your this-world and your hereafter for him? Poor wretch! On the Day of Resurrection you will flee from him. If we understand the logic of the Qur'an in this regard — if those who would turn their backs on the felicity of this world and the hereafter for the sake of their children's comfort and ease, who would turn toward misfortunes and wretchedness and dark days for them — if they understood this logic of the Qur'an, perhaps they would be shaken. This child of yours, this daughter, this son, this dear one who draws you toward Hell — you who will not let the slightest harm come to yourself, yet for his sake endure the greatest harms — how much is he with you? How much is he for you? How much benefit does he give you? Where, on the Day of Resurrection, is he ready to take upon his own shoulders any of your heavy burdens — where? Never will your relatives or your children benefit you. On the Day of Resurrection He will judge between you. And God, of what you do, is Seeing. There has already been for you an excellent pattern in Abraham and those with him. These verses are the climax of the passage I recited. He says to the believers: Believers, in the conduct of Abraham and those who followed him there is a goodly example for you. See what Abraham and his companions did, and do that very thing yourselves. What did they do? They turned, plainly and frankly, to the misguided people of their own time — the servants and worshippers of the Taghut and the false deities of the age — and said: We are quit of you and your lords; we have disbelieved in you; we have turned away from you; between us and you, for all of time, are hatred and enmity, hostility and wrath and rancor. There is only one road to reconciliation: "until you believe in God alone" — come, enter the logic of our thought, become believers. He says it frankly: Believers, act as Abraham did. There has already been for you an excellent pattern in Abraham and those who were with him — his companions. When they said to their people. Indeed, we are disassociated from you, and from whatever you worship other than God. We have disbelieved in you, and there has appeared between us and you enmity and hatred forever. Until you believe in God alone. The Qur'an says: "There has already been for you" believers "in Abraham and those with him an excellent pattern" — for you believers, in Abraham and his companions there is a goodly example — for anyone who hopes in God and the Last Day. And whoever turns away — then indeed, God is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy — Whoever turns his back on this command and shuns it, God the Exalted remains Free of need, praised and well-pleasing, and upon the skirt of His majesty no dust may settle. If you make peace with His enemies, the skirt of your own humanity and honor will be stained, and God suffers no loss. Keep this saying of Abraham in mind. Abraham and his companions said to the unbelievers and deviants of their own time: Indeed, we are disassociated from you. Imam al-Sajjad and his companions spoke this way with the deviant people of their time. In the Bihar al-Anwar there is a hadith that tells of Yahya ibn Umm Tawil, the disciple of the Fourth Imam, who used to come to the mosque of Medina and stand facing the people. These were the very people among whom Imam al-Husayn and Imam al-Hasan had lived for twenty years — people who were neither Umayyad nor tied to the Banu Umayya. So what were they? They were cowards who, in the matter of Ashura and Karbala, out of fear of the suffocation the Banu Umayya had brought about, had left the family of Muhammad standing alone; yet they were people of [some] belief. Yahya ibn Umm Tawil would stand before these very people and repeat this very Qur'anic word: He would say: We have disbelieved in you, and there has appeared between us and you enmity and hatred. This is the very saying that Abraham would say to the unbelievers of his own time and to the polytheists and deviants and misguided ones of his own age. See that Wilayat is the very same Wilayat. Abraham too possesses Wilayat; the Shia of Imam al-Sajjad too, in their own time, possess Wilayat. They must have one another and stand apart from the enemies. If a Shia of the Shia of Imam al-Sajjad, in the time of Imam al-Sajjad, went after the enemy's front out of fear or greed, he stands outside the Wilayat of Imam al-Sajjad and is not connected to his front. So the close student of Imam al-Sajjad says to them: We have disbelieved in you, and there has appeared between us and you enmity and hatred; and Yahya ibn Umm Tawil was among the choicest companions of Imam al-Sajjad. This choice Muslim met his end thus: Hajjaj ibn Yusuf seized him, cut off his right hand, cut off his left hand, cut off his right foot, cut off his left foot; yet still he spoke on with his tongue, so they cut out his tongue too, until he departed this world. And all this after he had set the Shia in order and made firm the essential pillars of the edifice of Shi'ism after Imam al-Sajjad.