SHAFAQNA- Who is Responsible?
Religious scholars! It is they who do not perform their responsibilities in respect to the people. They should give awareness, consciousness and direction to the people. They do not.
All our geniuses and great talents occupy themselves with philosophy, theology, Sufism, jurisprudence, conjugation and syntax. Through all the years of research, thought and their own scholarly anguish, they write nothing other than ‘practical treatises’ on such subjects as purity for the prescribed prayer, types of ritual impurities, rules of menstruation, and doubts which arise in prescribed prayer.
They leave aside writing treatises on how to speak with people, treatises on how to communicate the religious truths and the philosophy of the pillars of the religion, treatises on how to communicate consciousness and awareness to people, treatises on the understanding of the traditions of the Prophet and the personalities of the Companions, treatises on the revolutionary purpose behind Karbala, treatises on the family of the Prophet (PBUH), and treatises on the faith of the people.
All of these treatises are written, but all of them are written without responsibility, without the role of a commander. They pass their responsibilities on to the ordinary speakers in the mosques, not to the religious leaders whose directions for the practice of the faith are followed (Mujtahids).
This is why the task of introducing the Prophet’s (PBUH) family, the task of understanding religion and the task of studying the truths of Islam fall prone to the ‘failures of the old schools of religion’. It is for this reason that a group of young people, in order to study Islamic sciences and to carry jurisprudence forward, enter the schools. If talented, through great efforts, they become jurisprudents or Mujtahids or Faqihs [theologians].
This group is imprisoned as teachers and removed from the community. Those who do not succeed in studying properly, because they do not have the ability, talent or spiritual strength but rather have warm, often artistic, voices, are obliged to propagate and advertise the truths of the religion. The third group, who have neither this nor that, neither the science nor at least a voice, take the third way. They become dumb and speechless. They take themselves to the ‘sacred door’ and move ahead of both mujtahids and speakers in the mosques.
In the midst of this, be just! What will the fate of the people be? What is the fate of their religion? It is not necessary to think very hard. No. Just look.
We know a dream appeared to Joan of Arc, a sensitive and imaginative girl, commanding her to fight in order to have her king returned. For centuries, her dream has given a vision of freedom, of sacrifice and of revolutionary courage to enlightened, aware and progressive French people. Compare Joan to Zaynab (SA), the sister of Imam Hussain (AS), who carried a heavier mandate. Zaynab’s (SA) mandate was to continue the movement of Karbala. She opposed murders, terror and hysterics. She continued the movement at a time when all the heroes of the revolution were dead, when the heroism and wisdom of the commanders of Islam at the time of the Prophet (PBUH) were gone. But she has been turned into only a ‘sister who mourns’.
I hear reproachful cries towards the scholars who are responsible for these beliefs, ideas and thoughts of the people. I do not know whether these cries come from the throats of people or from the depths of their consciences.
With what are you busy? From where do you speak? Throughout all of these years, where is one book for people telling them what is in the Koran? In place of praise, eulogy, prayer, poetry, song, lamentation and the love of Rumi, why have you sealed your lips among people? An English speaking person cannot easily understand what the Prophet has said, but can he read all of the works of La Martine, the French lover. What do you say?
All the songs of the ancient Greek woman, Bilitis, of dubious morals, can be read, but the words of the Prophet, one saying of the Prophet, cannot be read. You speak so much about the generosity and miracles of the Prophet’s family but where are the books about them? You recount their miracles on their birthdays and days of their deaths. You have festivals and mourning ceremonies. Where are the treatises for Muslims, enamored of the Prophet (PBUH), which say who he was and who Fatimah (SA) was, which say how their children lived and how they thought, which say what they did and what they said?
Our people, who spend their lives in love with the Companions and who cry over the difficulties they faced, who serve them for months and years, who glorify their name, spend money and give sincerity and patience to them, deserve to know the real lives of each one of them. The* lives, thoughts, words, silences, freedoms, imprisonments, and martyrdoms should give awareness, chastity and humanness to people.
If an ordinary person mourns for Hussain (AS) and on the anniversary of his death [Ashura] strikes his head with his dagger and bears the pain even with pleasure and still knows Hussain (AS) only in an oblique way and misunderstands Karbala, who is responsible? If a woman cries with her whole being, if the recollection of the name of Fatimah (SA) and Zaynab (SA) burns her to her bones and if she would, with complete love, give her life for them, and yet, if she does not thoroughly know Fatimah (SA) and Zaynab (SA), who is responsible?
Neither this man nor this woman knows one line of their heroine’s words. None of them have read one line about their lives. They can only recall Fatimah (SA) standing beside her father when someone threw dust on him. They only knew Zaynab (SA) from the moment when she left the tents to go to gather the bodies of the martyrs. They only knew her from the morning of the day of Ashura up until noon; from then on they lost her. Their awareness of Zaynab ends the day when her great mandate, the legacy of Hussain (AS), just began. Their knowledge about Zaynab ends here. Then, who is responsible?
And, thus, educated and open minded boys and girls judge the situation and say, ‘What is the use of this religion? What can such a religion do? What knots do all this excitement, lamentation and cries for Hussain (AS), Fatimah (SA) and Zaynab (SA) untie for our backwards, imprisoned people who need awareness and commitment to negate oppression and to seek freedom. ‘What pain does this religion of remorse, these ancient wounds, historic lamentations and curses create for our deprived, illiterate women who want their freedom and clear vision.
Does one reach the heart of the problem by doing away with love and hatred? People are busy with feelings which passed centuries ago in foreign lands. They relate to lives passed among strangers. They do not know persecution. They have not sensed the chains of oppression around their necks, nor the pain when falling upon their human shadow. They have never burst in anger nor boiled under the remembrance of the chains which a caliphate one day hung around the neck of a sick person.
They have not thrown up their hands and struck their daggers upon their heads until they leave their senses. They have not seen them when their consciousness returns, when their heart grows quiet, when their sins become pure, when all responsibility falls from their shoulders, when they cheat the scales of divine justice and when they tamper with their deeds for the after life.
As a result, when they have performed enough dirty deeds to compare with stars in the sky, with foam of the sea and with the sands of the desert, when with a small amount of surgery performed by striking their daggers upon their heads, they imagine that they have completely changed their situation and become as innocent as the moment they were born from their mother’s womb. They fed that then even God owes them something.
If people believe that the advantage of following Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will result in a chemical reaction which accords with the Koran, “God will change their evil deeds into good deeds” [25:71]; if people believe that the soul of this treason which they commit in this world will change its essence in the other world and will take the form of good deeds, then who is responsible?
If this belief in Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which has for centuries had the strength of a movement desiring justice, seeking freedom and fighting oppression and despotic institutions; if this movement can free awakened and aware people and give them liberty, justice, chastity and independence; if it can change them both socially and individually; and if the movement can bring about an intellectual, revolutionary leadership fighting class distinctions and giving life and consciousness to a society and if they have not shown this to the people, then who is responsible?
If the value, influence and effect of remembering the family of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is transferred from this world to another world and if its effect is only measured after death, then who is responsible? If the promises and covenants of our ancestors to this family have had no effect upon their thoughts, their time, their society; and if their sons and daughters (seeing this ineffectiveness) remain cut off from these promises and links with this religion and this family, then, who is responsible?
Source: Shariati.com
Part of a Series: Fatemeh is Fatemeh by Dr Ali Shariati