Imam Al-Sajjad (AS)
Reprinted with
permission from IRNA (12/6/97). The following article has been slightly
edited for the Shi'a Homepage
"Agreement in error is far worse than division for the sake of truth."
By Ali Amin-Nia
The Imam after
Hossein b. Ali (AS) was his son Ali b. Hossein Zayn al-Abidin (AS). He
was also known as Imam Sajjad. He was born in Medina in the year 38 A.H.
(659). He lived with his grandfather, the Commander of the Faithful Imam
Ali (AS), for two years, with his uncle, Imam Hassan (AS), for twelve
years, and with his father, for twenty-three years. After his father, he
lived a further year as an Imam.
His Imamate was
confirmed in several ways. He was the most meritorious of the creatures
of God, after his father in traditional knowledge and practices. He was
more appropriate for authority by virtue of his father and more entitled
to his position after him through his merit and lineage.
His grandfather
designated him during the lifetime of his father. The testamentary
bequests were made by his father and they were deposited with Umm Salama
for him. He received them when his father was martyred. Although any
revelations of the official atrocities against his father inevitably
provoke a sense of disgust denouncing the horrifying and shocking
policies of the ruling elite as repugnant to the conscience of man, I do
not think that the fact of cruelty as such is any more tolerable at any
time. The circumstances of his father's martyrdom still vivid in the
minds of the people were crucially important for his activities in the
spreading of Islamic principles and expressing his views of the
incident.
Indeed, atrocity is
a weapon of the weak or imbalanced authority. This is a factual
observation: it does not exonerate those who use savagery as a weapon
from any moral blame that may be put on them by their victims or by
anyone else. Nor does it imply that the victims are morally inferior to
the one who is perpetrating the barbarity. This is particularly more so
when involving the noble members of the Household of the Prophet. All
acts of enormity irrespective of its year are open to severe criticism
on moral grounds if on nothing else.
The extreme
wickedness of the perpetrator can take to many forms and shapes.The
atrocious ruling elite are as an agent often miles away from where the
atrocity is taking place. The perpetrator of the evil instruction is
more often than not physically close to his victim. Often enough, the
victims of atrocity are the God-fearing members of the community.
The one who commits
a wrongdoing and he who is being wronged are irreconcilable and unlikely
partners. It seems that there will never be any agreement about the
morality or immorality of actions when involving the ruling elite and
the subjects. However, agreement in error is far worse than division for
the sake of truth. The atrocious ruling elite justifies its use of
anomalies and eradicating of its opponents by its conviction of the
absolute righteousness of its cause.
The innocent godly
people justify their opposition and overt and covert activities to
entice people in their enjoining good and forbidding the evil.Those who
dispute the righteousness of the ruling body or dismiss the relevance of
the opposition will disagree without the subjective judgments of those
whose actions they disapprove. Nevertheless, a cruel and atrocious power
structure may indeed be awesomely tyrannical and oppressive and an
opposition may be absolutely justified, yet people would still rather
remain as passive observers. Such is the eccentricity of human nature!
Of course, the
ruling body has a right to defend itself -- implicit in the absolute
necessity of the power structure. A properly constituted system of
government, atrocious or not, nevertheless is threatened with
extinction. The idiosyncrasy of man often cannot tolerate any set of
standard for a long period of time. In the confusion of such
misunderstandings nothing can be helpful unless derived from the divine
constitution that is implicit in man.
Having objectives,
for instance, is grand. Achieving these objectives has nonetheless its
limits. There are many things in life for which man does not have to do
anything or use ruthless methods but wait. These will come to man tried
or not. Here, it is only fair to add that man can easily lose his
remarkable tradition of seeking help from godly people or the Almighty
God in his private hours. Ruthlessness never pays in the end. Is it not
fairer to blame the shortcomings of man on man himself and his whims?
It could be argued
that if the godly people were to insist on people's right to an honest
life, the people themselves would have, perhaps, revolted against these
very same sincere people. These are the peculiar In many ways, the time
of Imam Ali b. Hossein known as Imam Sajjad in 659 was a classic case of
post-insurgency and the response of the ruling elite was conducted on
classical counter-insurgency lines. Suppressive measures of one kind or
another were adopted and designed to deprive the Imam of the popular
support for his cause.
Against the
advantage of this polity, there were serious disadvantages. For one
thing, the vivid memories of the incident of Karbala and the people's
ill-treatment of Imam Hossein and the fact that the people did let him
down at the most crucial moment of his effort to uphold Islamic
principles meant that the full glare of publicity was permanently
trained upon these events. Any departure from the recommendations of
Imam Sajjad and his standard of studying Islam and performing prayers
was immediately criticized by the public at large.
Moreover, for the
first time in a situation of this kind involving the Household of the
Prophet, public support instead of the shame they carried for their
disappointing behaviors concerning Imam Hossein, played a major role in
the determination of public opinion, however tacit. We all know that
even in those days public opinion was never impartial, and that it could
have been easily marred. It can always be conditioned to favor the
atrocities of the ruling elite and place the godly people at a
disadvantage. A further disadvantage was of Imam's experience of the
people.
The excessive and
unrestricted control of the unjust rulers of the situation was
undoubtedly a grave handicap to the efforts of Imam Sajjad in spreading
the Islamic codes of conduct, as any such restriction always is in a
situation of this kind. Moreover, the undoubted need for a humane social
behavior served to reduce the momentum of the official ferocious drive,
giving some form of advantage to the Household of the Prophet.
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