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The Unsurmountable Obstacle
The greatest obstacle facing these folks is that the beat al-Zahra’ (A.S.), causing her to miscarry, burning her house and entering it using excessive force in addition to extreme cruelty without any reasonable or acceptable justification. Had Ali been the one confronted by those folks, the obstacle would have been removed by accusing him of being the one who assaulted the assailants! The matter becomes more complicated by the praise of Fatima (A.S.) lavished by the Prophet (A.S.) and by the fact that such matters happened immediately after he (A.S.) had passed away and at the house of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) in particular and in a way which cannot be defended or even articulated. What those folks did was a violation of the Islamic Shara`a and the creed on one hand, and a violation of human ethics and loyalty to the Prophet (A.S.), who took them out of the darkness and into the light as they were on the edge of the fire, thus saving them from it, on the other. Then it also collides with noble human feelings and sentiments as well as conscience and all principles, values and even traditions. The person who committed all those serious acts was to be made the Imam of the nation in place of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), to be the custodian of the creed, of ethics, values, people’s property and honour and to provide for them security, dignity and esteem, to raise people to follow virtue, the creed, and ethics... If the same person was committing things which indicate that he was not qualified to do all of the above, for what he did affected him negatively and openly, this means that getting to know such very serious matters becomes a necessity for all those who find that same individual as having an impact on the intellectual reality, in the political and sectarian environment wherein they live. He had a very sensitive role to play in formulating their concepts and impacting their theological reality, on their beliefs, even on the level of their sentiments and feelings. So, the deeds which such a person committed were not personal matters of his own concern alone and did not concern us. What he did was not due to a fleeting fault, or to an uncontrollable desire. Rather, he was expressing his own inner self, his attitude towards the religion’s teachings, exposing his own evaluation of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), of his cruelty, of the reality of his human feelings and sentiments, of his personal ethics and values. The issue is not that he followed ijtihad and erred, so he will receive the rewards of one good deed; had he been right, he would have received twice the rewards[1], as the followers of the school of the caliphs narrate to us, and now we are repeating it without verification. Then, according to the same principle (!), they justify for us the war waged by `a’isha and Mu`awiyah against Ali (A.S.), having become convinced that they would both earn the rewards of one deed by killing tens of thousands of Mu’mins and Muslims...! They even claimed that `Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljim followed Ijtihad and erred in killing Ali (A.S.), so he will receive the rewards of one good deed for having committed his heinous crime[2]. Also, Abul-Ghadiya, the man who killed `Ammar ibn Yasir, followed their Ijtihad and erred, so he will receive the rewards of one good deed for the heinous crime of killing the great sahabi `Ammar[3]...! The issue of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) then, is essential in our intellectual and doctrinal life, and it is connected to a basic principle of this creed; so, nobody should ever underestimate it or think lightly of it. |