What is the Solution?

We have spoken abundantly on reformation in this plea. What makes reformation easy is that it is a passive separation, not an active engagement. This eases the mission of promotion for both the hosts and Shia. Now what is the medium to explain the essence of the Reformation Movement and its operation to the common Shia?

Here I direct the plea to two distinguished classes of the Shia, viz. the educated and the affluent. My plea to the educated class is to print one or two books and issue one or two pleas which do not cover the Reformation Movement in its extensive form. Especially when we notice that the windows are closed around us; how are we able to send our voice and call out from closed windows to all the Shia? Indeed, what the Shia hear from behind these windows is like one who sees an indistinct shape in the darkness. The Reformation will not be able to bear fruit except after the call spreads and the educated class stand up all over the world and it has reached everyone, for the elucidation of reformation.

Here I address those who pledged to the Reformation Movement and answered its call, even though they are few at present, this number will soon grow and it will grow based on definiteness of history. The pan of intellect and logic will outweigh the pan of naïveté, ignorance, trickery, and fibs. History bears testimony to the fact that great affairs were operated by small groups and a few people were given glad tidings of it. In no time, truth will spread to the areas of falsehood like how fire spreads in chaff.

The language with which it is necessary to address the Shia Imamiyyah is the language of intellect and logic which we deduced from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, the biography of the pious predecessors, and the actions of the Imams of the Shia ‘alayhim al Salam. All that the Reformation demands is convincing the Shia to strongly boycott the innovations and fibs imposed on them. This is an easy affair; the active class promoting Reformation explains it to the Shia and shows the direct link between the calamities which afflicted them and these innovations and elucidates on the connection between these and the afflictions which befell the Shia due to it. This means with all clarity that it is upon the Shia to feel with their hearts, minds, senses, and emotions that all the harm and flames that afflicted them over the passage of history was only due to these innovations, hollowness, and crookedness which were inserted into the pure Shia belief, represented in loving the household of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and adhering to the Fiqhi school of Imam al Sadiq.

It is mandatory upon the class promoting the reformation to address the Shia in clear terms and to place dots on the letters announcing: O gathering of Shia! Indeed, those who appointed Divine Imamah and determined it as one of the fundamentals of din, by Allah, they did not intend by this to raise the status of the Imams. Our Imams have a lofty status which towers above the two bright stars of Ursa Minor. Rather, their object was to transmit the qualities and specialties of the Imams and all the capabilities attributed to them to the Jurists and Guardians so that this group may control them till the Day of Qiyamah, claiming for themselves the merits of piety, intelligence, wisdom, and infallibility. They appointed themselves to the station of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and awarded a portion of divine attributes to themselves when they claimed that the one who opposes them opposes Allah, and his killing and extermination is necessary. By Allah, O gathering of Shia, these Jurists and claimants of Fiqh are mere bondsmen like you. Their example is as highlighted in the sublime verse:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَاسْتَمِعُوْا لَهُ إِنَّ الَّذِيْنَ تَدْعُوْنَ مِنْ دُوْنِ اللهِ لَنْ يَخْلُقُوْا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوْا لَهُ وَإِنْ يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَّا يَسْتَنْقِذُوْهُ مِنْهُ ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوْبُ

O people, an example is presented, so listen to it. Indeed, those you invoke besides Allah will never create [as much as] a fly, even if they gathered together for that purpose. And if the fly should steal away from them a [tiny] thing, they could not recover it from him. Weak are the pursuer and pursued.^[1]

The basic compulsion upon the educated class who associate with the Reformation and propagate it is to explain to the naïve group of the Shia Imamiyyah that there is a consequential connection between the suffering of the Shia and the innovations and fibs which have been attached to the pure belief, which the religious leaderships exploited and upon which the castles of the tyrants were built.

The majority of the Shia in our current times live in the large Shia country, yet suffer with the absence of the most basic human rights. The Religious Authority which governs this majority with fire and iron and snatches from them individual and collective freedom has only taken up this position upon the support of the innovations advocating the power [guardianship] of the Jurists. This means that there is a direct link between autocracy and this Authority. Take into accurate consideration that everything that is the consequence of autocratic rule, like backwardness, hunger, poverty, ignorance, and illness are only due to the absence of democracy, in the shade of which the Ummah has the ability to rise, with all its fundamentals and constituents. The Autocratic Religious Authority is the direct reason for these calamities which are the direct consequence of a solitary autocratic rule.

What truly causes great grief is us seeing communist, heretic assemblies rebelling against tyranny and autocracy and some of them obtaining their freedom, and their lives thus becoming established according to their intention; while fifty million Shia who remember Allah subhanahu wa ta ‘ala night and day live in the shade of dark autocracy, unprecedented in human history. The link of the calamities which afflict the Shia day and night due to the Jurists’ Authority and the innovations upon which they founded their terrifying tyranny is not confined to snatching social, individual, and ideological freedom from the Shia. Rather, it began penetrating into the inner depths of the Shia society, making them victims of both beliefs and politics. If only the Shia Imamiyyah had to ponder for a long time, they would recognise the dimensions of the conspiracy the Jurists devised against them. Here I list some of what was incorporated into Shia belief, which the Shia adhere to without realising the connection between it and the agonies they are suffering.

The first of these issues is the general Shia blindly following the Jurists and Mujtahids. This blind following has courted upon them innumerable and uncountable disasters. In your opinion, what would be superior for the Shia… adhering to the Fiqh of Imam al Sadiq or adhering to the opinion of those who affiliate to him? Here comes the part of the educated class to explain to the Shia that their duty is to adhere to the Fiqh of Imam al Sadiq and not to undertake an Imam or Jurist besides him. In this manner, verdicts will be sourced from their correct, fundamental source.

I now indicate to the second disaster the Shia suffer which overburdened the economical upper part of their backs; without there being in this Allah’s and His Messenger’s approval. It is the Khums (fifth) on the earnings which the Guardian Jurists concocted to partner with the Shia in their earnings. It is mandatory upon the Shia not to submit to this tax for which Allah did not send any proof.

There is a third misfortune with which the Shia suffer which has a direct link to walking behind the Mujtahids and Guardian Jurists. It is practicing on Mut’ah (temporary marriage) which converted Shia honour into a commodity bought and sold in the markets of slavery. This despicable action is not more than permitting illicit sex. Shia daughters are paying the costly price. We praise and thank Allah that this despicable act is not widespread in the Shia world. Rather, it is confined to Iran. I do not know how the Jurists permitted Shia daughters’ honour, yet preserved their own daughters’ honour.

There is another tragedy the Shia suffer with as a consequence of them following these Jurists who remained silent upon the truth. The tragedy is suffered by thousands of Shia on the Day of ‘Ashura’, by hitting their heads with swords and their shoulders with chains. This action, let alone physical suffering, is a disfigurement of the Shia image in the world. At the same time, harming the self which is contrary to human dignity.

I repeat again that one of the most crucial tasks of the promoters of reformation is to prove to the Shia Imamiyyah that there is an organic link and consequential link between what the Shia suffer in Iran on a social, political, and economical level and the innovations which were incorporated. What do you think the condition would be, if it were not for the mental psychology the Shia Guardian Jurists practice on the Shia and the mind games they play on the naïve fraudulently and deceptively, convincing them that the path to salvation is only by submitting to the oppressive actions and ideologies they have appointed as tokens for their authority and that death, hanging, and torture are truly the recompense of one who stands against their ambitious desires or opposes their passions and sovereignty? Will the Shia in Iran, with its millions bear the suffering of misery and misfortune or will it stand up united, thus effectively destroying the oppressors and leaving them like eaten chaff?

What makes an incision in the soul is us reading in international papers a few days back that the people of Australia who are Christians made a hue and cry against the chief minister who humiliated an old citizen with a Nubian word, demanding his resignation and dismissal from office. At the same time, in Iran, there are hundreds of Muslim Shia driven to the slaughterhouse like sheep every day and hour, yet people are motionless.

The message of Reformation is to change the Shia human from a tool, obedient to the tyrants, to an element contesting and rebelling against the tyranny of the Jurists who hold power. This will not be realised except by changing the ideologies of the Shia, which the Reformation ensures. Here I wish to point out another psychological disaster the Shia suffer with which has direct link to the innovations the Jurists incorporated in the religion, i.e., Taqiyyah.

I do not believe that there is anything existent more detested in the sight of Allah and His Messenger that this ideology given this name. Taqiyyah means disparity between word and action which itself is sufficient to pulverise all noble fundamentals according to mankind. Undoubtedly, the physical, spiritual, and psychological suffering which is the direct consequence of Taqiyyah is clearly manifest. It is regrettable that the Jurists attribute Taqiyyah to a grand Imam of ours, i.e., Imam al Sadiq. Unquestionably, our grand Imam is innocent from what they attribute to him and he is more sublime and loftier than to command something which directly counters the basic fundamentals of the Ahlul Bayt of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, represented in the rebellion of Imam Hussain, and likewise contradicts the fundamentals of the pious predecessors, viz. the Companions of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

There is another psychological or physical misfortune with which the Shia suffer, from the innovations incorporated into their belief system. It is the fanatism we see deeply-rooted in the minds of many Shia, and even many of the other Islamic sects but in a form lesser in manifestation and effect. Seeking need from others besides Allah and associating partners to Him in His sovereignty and other excessive affairs which the Shia commit at the graves of the Imams and pious has a direct link to the misfortunes we are suffering in this world.

A person might ask me: What is the connection between seeking need from others besides Allah and associating partners with Him in His dominion on one hand and the financial, social, marital, health, and psychological sufferings a person bears in his life on the other?

I declare with all clarity and precision: When we properly examine the needs people seek at the gravesides of the Imams and pious directly from them, we clearly observe that majority of these needs have a direct connection to the worldly life, and a few are solely connected to the Afterlife. What suffering can be greater than a person seeking his needs from people who are unable to answer him? What distress is greater than us supplicating and seeking our needs in places where it could not possibly be? The most likely location of our prayers being answered is fervently pleading to Allah subhanahu wa ta ‘ala as per His command and emphatic directive in the Qur’an revealed upon His Messenger:

أُدْعُوْنِيْ أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ

Call upon Me; I will respond to you.^[2]

He did not command: Call unto those besides me, be he a Prophet or Imam, so I might respond to you or he might respond to you.

Here I wish to indicate to another calamity which the Shia began suffering in the large Shia country. Its involvement, either willingly and eagerly or forcibly and compulsorily, in building lofty palaces over the grave of the Guardian Jurist and taking that grave as a place for circumambulation and seeking needs and requests.

Do you think that a country with hundreds of thousands of its residents who spread out carpet on the earth and wrap the sky, would it be superior for this populace to dedicate these millions to building an imposing shrine which Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam forbade^[3] or spending them on projects of cultural development and economical upliftment, through which the Shia may rise from their financial struggle?

More calamitous than this is that this imposing shrine and golden dome is built on decaying bones, the possessor of which was the reason behind the misfortune and misery of the Shia. Likewise, we see the naïve social mind moving towards decline when they fail to have a sincere leader and a genuine slogan and they commend suicidal actions instead of moral actions. Truly, the duty upon the shoulders of the educated class calling towards Reformation is a heavy burden. Harken, it is the Awakening.

Finally, the object of the Reformation is for the Shia to rebel against blind adoption which the Religious Leadership has accustomed them to. The Reformation means that the Shia should believe with determination that running the affairs of din is not an occupation or profession, and the one who practices din as a trade or takes it as a job or profession behind which he survives, is exploiting din in the most despicable manner. A man of din who claims understanding is not a communal, political, or economic leader. He is just like the rest of the Muslim individuals whom people consult in the affairs of din. The Shia are not obliged to practice on the view of any specific individual among them. Rather, the Shia have the choice to choose the opinion of whomever they wish, whether the consulted is alive or dead. Likewise, a religious man does not have a special attire because in the time of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and the pious predecessors, those involved exclusively in the affairs of din did not have an attire to distinguish them. Likewise, the teacher of din at that time did not take remuneration for teaching din and jurisprudence. Rather, he would do other work to secure his livelihood.

We all know that the Khalifah Abu Bakr, the day he was selected as the Khalifah of the Muslims, he went to his shop in the marketplace of Madinah to trade, from which he obtained his sustenance. Only when people gathered by him pleading with him to leave his job and sit in the Masjid of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam to handle the affairs of Muslims, did he tell them a sentence which history will not forget, “On what will the family of Abu Quhafah survive?”

You have Imam ‘Ali obtaining his sustenance from his hard work in an orchard he toiled in on the outskirts of Kufah. You have Imam al Baqir, father of Imam al Sadiq, being met by a man on the road while returning from his farm in which he laboured, with perspiration dripping from his forehead. The man blames him with an unrefined sentence which infuriates the Imam and he shouts, “Indeed, I bear this burden so that I am not in need of disreputable people like you.” The Shia ought to look at a religious man in his genuine and natural volume; all the status and honour he is awarded ought to be sourced from the glorious verse:

إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ

Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous.^[4]

A Shia Jurist is like the rest of the Muslim Jurists. He does not have more than a single voice. When any of them claims guardianship over the Muslims and believes that the Muslims are duty-bound to carry out his commands and desist from his prohibitions in all worldly and religious affairs, by this, he intends to exploit the individual and human. In fact, he intends to enslave man and mankind. Here, it rests on the shoulders of the Shia to fight him with the sword and pen. This, when the Shia wish to live a free, respectable life filled with virtues and goodness. If they intend to live as is in distress and misfortune, they should answer the imposters of Imamah while bearing the burden of following these imposters in this world.

I here focus my plea to two parties of the Shia: the promoters of Reformation and the affluent who believe in Reformation.

As for the promoters of Reformation, it is compulsory upon them to restrict dispute between the Shia and Ahlus Sunnah to a fiqhi dispute. As long as our Book is one, our Nabi is one, our Qiblah is one and the fundamental beliefs and pillars of Islam unite us, the disagreement between us and the other Islamic sects are fiqhi disagreements only. There is no difference between a Sunni and Shia except that the Shia follows the Fiqh of Imam al Sadiq while the Sunni follows the Fiqh of his Imam. Besides such discourse, the object [of those promoting other disputes and disagreements] is to provoke an encounter between the Shia and the overwhelming majority of Muslims so that the leadership and sovereignty, those commanding and prohibiting, stand guarantee for the separators who build unmatched, grand dissimilarities upon disunity.

It is binding upon the promoters to explain to the Shia Imamiyyah that the object of the Reformation is for the meeting between a Shia and Sunni to be like the meeting of a Hanafi with a Maliki, and a Hanafi with a Shafi’i and Hanbali. When the Shia will reach this station of agreement and brotherhood, then a Shia Jurists will not dare to label the Shia’s war against Muslim brethren a war of Islam against disbelief. After that day, it will never occur that thousands of Shia unsheathe swords in the face of thousands of their Shia or non-Shia brethren.

It is essential for the educated, promoting class of the Shia to disprove the methods and procedures through the medium of which the Jurists secured the collar around the necks of the Shia and to refute the narrations they falsely and misleadingly attribute to our Imams, narrations on disunity and Taqiyyah, giving a dark image of the era of the guiders and rightly-guided pious predecessors and Companions of Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and the demolition of everything that is linked to that magnificent era in any way.

It is essential for the educated, promoting class of the Shia to set up conferences to which they invite the Shia thinkers and learned to carefully study the close organic bond between the suffering of the Shia on a material, political, social, and ideological level and the innovations which were incorporated into the Shia belief system. They ought to take up the task of sifting through the books of reports and ahadith, all which contain condemnation of the pious predecessors, i.e., the Sahabah, disunity of the Muslims, and aspects contradicting sound human intellect [and removing these aspects] before publishing these books and disseminating them in Islamic and Shia countries to replace the books bringing about disunity.

It is compulsory on the educated class of advocates from the Shia Imamiyyah to make the remembrance of Imam Hussain a remembrance of bravery, virtue, sublime character, religiousness, and unity in ranks just as Imam Hussain articulated and for which he was martyred. These gatherings should not be gatherings of disunity, dissension, and actions that disfigure the image of the Shia and oppose sound perception and intellect.

As for the affluent, cultured class who desire Reformation and believe in it and who have all the amenities making them worthy of assuming this great responsibility in their lives; this to guarantee their fortune and the fortune of their children and upcoming generations, as well as the children of their nation and all the Muslims. I wish to address them with this plea:

O gathering of Shia! I intend with this plea, you the affluent Shia, and none besides you. You are the class that possess wealth with which Allah blessed you out of His grace. The Reformation Movement is in need of your tremendous and effective participation for its projects. The Reformation Movement is only for your sake, and you are the first to benefit from it. Hence, you are the worthiest to spend towards its success. By Allah, I feel embarrassed when I beseech a generous Muslim brother—who has no connection to the Reformation Movement except the amount a Muslim is concerned for the distress of his fellow Muslim brother—to handle the publication of a book or take on the responsibility of one of the projects of the Reformation Movement. There are many affluent individuals among the Shia and there are some who own [treasures]:

إِنَّ مَفَاتِحَهُ لَتَنُوْءُ بِالْعُصْبَةِ أَولِي الْقُوَّةِ

whose keys would burden a band of strong men.^[5]

Among you are the bank owners; among you are those reckoned as the most affluent in the East and West; among you is one who is able to prepare an army for promotion all by himself; among you are those able to spend on sifting through hundreds of Shia books and publication and distribution of these, without the batting of an eyelid. Notwithstanding all this, I have not heard a voice from any of you. When any correspondence reaches me from you, it contains a few lines of encouragement and the supplication for success.

Truly regrettable is that the affluent of the Shia Imamiyyah have not supported, worked hand in hand, and assisted the Reformation Movement. I am thus forced to stretch my hand out to brothers who, as I mentioned, have no relation to the ordeals of the Shia or their causes, except the amount a Muslim is concerned for the distress of his fellow Muslim brother.

Therefore, I focus this plea to the affluent, wealthy, rich class of Shia Imamiyyah and seek from them to stand with me at the frontline of the Reformation Movement and spend on its projects, because the Reformation is for them and for their benefit, to save their reputation and to save them from the yoke of servitude which the Guardian Jurists, Scholars, and Mujtahids placed around their necks. They are thus most worthy of joining its procession and supporting its essentials.

I present in this plea the layout I wish to execute with the support of the honourable brothers. This plan demands plenty wealth. I request from the wealthy Shia and men of action, especially those selected elite who would follow our grandfather, the grand Imam Sayed Abu al Hassan rahimahu Llah, and are still alive in the corners of the spacious, wide earth to support this plan and to join according to their ability and capacity. Whoever wishes may adopt one of the projects and manage it alone. Whoever is not capable of this, may participate in accordance to his capacity. This does not mean that what I want and request the affluent Shia to manage is confined and detached from what I seek from the educated class of promoters who were included in the first section of the plea.

NEXT⇒ Reformation Steps

[1] Surah al Hajj: 73.

[2] Surah Ghafir: 60.

[3] It appears in the second section of volume one of Wasa’il al Shia, pg. 869, of Imam, Researcher, and Muhaddith Hurr al ‘Amili:

عن محمد بن يعقوب عن علي بن إبراهيم عن أبيه عن النوفلي عن السكوني عن أبي عبد الله عليه السلام قال قال أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام لا تدع صورة إلا محوتها ولا قبرا إلا سويته

Muhammad ibn Yaqub reports — from ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim — from his father — from al Nawfali — from al Sakuni — from Abu ‘Abdullah ‘alayh al Salam who reports that Amir al Mu’minin ‘alayh al Salam instructed, “Eliminate every image and level every grave.”

عن محمد بن الحسين بإسناده عن علي بن الحسين عن محمد بن يحيى عن محمد بن الحسين بن أبي الخطاب عن علي بن أسباط عن علي بن جعفر قال سألت أبا الحسن موسى عليه السلام عن البناء على القبر والجلوس عليه هل يصلح قال لا يصلح البناء عليه

Muhammad ibn al Hussain reports with his chain — from ‘Ali ibn al Hussain — from Muhammad ibn Yahya — from Muhammad ibn al Hussain ibn Abi al Khattab — from ‘Ali ibn Asbat — from ‘Ali ibn Jafar who says: I asked Abu al Hassan Musa ‘alayh al Salam whether building over a grave and sitting upon it were correct. He replied, “Building upon it is incorrect.”

عن محمد بن أحمد بن يحيى بن يعقوب بن يزيد عن زياد بن مروان الفندي عن يونس بن ظبيان عن أبي عبد الله عليه السلام قال نهى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يصلي على قبر أو يقعد عليه أو يبني عليه

Muhammad ibn Ahmed ibn Yahya ibn Yaqub ibn Yazid reports — from Ziyad ibn Marwan al Fandi — from Yunus ibn Zabyan — from Abu ‘Abdullah ‘alayh al Salam, “Rasulullah salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam prohibited performing salah upon a grave, sitting upon it, or building upon it.”

[4] Surah al Hujurat: 13.

[5] Surah al Qasas: 76.

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents