| O people take lesson from
the counsel God gave to His friends when He rebuked the Rabbis by
saying: "Why do not the Rabbis and the doctors of Law (scholars) forbid
them from their (habit of) uttering sinful words and eating things
forbidden? Evil indeed are their works." (5:63) And God says: "Curses
were pronounced on those among the Children of Israel who rejected
Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary: because they
disobeyed and persisted in excesses. Nor did they (usually) forbid one
another the iniquities which they committed: evil indeed were the deeds
which they did." (5:78-79)
God reproached them because they saw with their own eyes the
oppressors committing vile and corrupt acts, but did not stop them, out
of love for the favors they received from them as well as fear of
persecution and injury. However, God says: "Fear not men, but fear Me."
(5:44) And He says: "The believing men and women are friends and
protectors to each other; they enjoin the good and forbid the evil; they
perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and obey God and His messenger.
Upon them God shall have mercy; God is Almighty, All-wise." (9:71)
God mentions the duty of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil
(al-Amr bi al-Ma'ruf wa al-Nahy an al-Munkar) before all other duties,
because He knows that if it is performed and is established in the
society all other duties, the easy and the difficult, will also become
established. The reason for this is that al-Amr bi al-Ma'ruf wa al-Nahy
an al-Munkar means summoning people to Islam, as well as resistance
against injustice, opposing and struggling against oppressors, and
endeavoring to ensure that public wealth and income derived from war are
distributed in accordance with the just laws of Islam, and that taxes
are collected, levied and expended in due and proper form.
O scholars, who are celebrated and enjoy good repute on account of
your learning! You have achieved a good name in society because of your
good will. It is on account of God that men venerate you and stand in
awe of you, so that even powerful fear you and the weak honor you, and
those who are not subject to you and over whom you hold no authority
grant you favors they deny themselves. When the people do not receive
their due, they seek your intercession, and you walk in the street with
the majesty of kings and princes.
Have you not earned all this respect and prestige because of the
people's hopes that you will implement God's laws, even though in most
instances you have failed to do so?
You have taken lightly your duties as leaders. You have neglected the
rights of the oppressed and the lowly, but have assiduously pursued what
you regard as your personal rights. You have not spent your money or
risked your life for the sake of the One Who gave you life, nor have you
fought against any group or tribe for the sake of God. Nevertheless, you
desire - and regard it as your due - that He should grant you paradise,
the company of the prophet, and security from chastisement in the
hereafter. You have such expectations of God, I fear that the full
weight of His wrath descend upon you, for although it is by His might
and glory that you have achieved high rank, you show no respect to those
who truly know God, while you yourselves enjoy respect among God's
creatures on His account.
(I am also afraid for you for another reason :) you see the covenant
enacted with God being violated and trampled under foot, yet you show no
anxiety, when it comes to the covenants enacted with your fathers, you
become greatly disturbed and anxious if they are only violated in part,
but the pledges you have given to the most noble Messenger are a matter
of complete indifference to you.
The blind, the dumb, and chronically ill everywhere lack protection
in towns and no mercy is shown them. But you neither behave in
accordance with your function and rank, nor you support or pay any
regard to those who do. You purchase your safety from the oppressive
ruling powers with flattery cajolery, and compromise.
All these activities have been forbidden to you by God, and He has,
more over, commanded you to forbid each other to engage in them, but you
pay no attention.
The calamity that has befallen you is greater than what has befallen
others, for true rank and degree of 'Ulama' has been taken away from
you. The administration of the country and the issuing of decrees and
ordinances should actually be trusted to religious scholars who are
guardians of God's ordinances concerning what is permitted and what is
forbidden. But your position has been usurped from you, for no other
reason than that you have abandoned the truth (al-Haqq), and have
disagreed about the nature of the Sunnah, despite the existence of clear
proofs.
Had you the forbearance to endure adversities and hardships for the
sake of God, then all proposed regulations (God's affairs) would be
brought to you for your approval and for you to issue; authority would
lie in your hands. But you allowed the oppressors to take away your
functions and God's affairs (i.e. government) to fall into their hands,
so that they administer them by resorting to ambiguities and make
arbitrariness and the satisfaction of lust their consistent practice.
What enabled them to gain control of government was your fleeing in
panic from (inevitable) death and your love of life, which shall in all
certainty depart from you. As a consequence of that mentality, you have
delivered the powerless masses into the clutches of the oppressors.
While some cringe like slaves under the yoke of oppressors, and others
have been reduced to destitution in regard to their livelihood, the
rulers run the affairs of the government in accordance with their whims,
earning ignominy and disgrace for themselves with their licentiousness,
following evil counselors, and showing impudence toward God. One of
their appointed spokesmen mounts the pulpit (Minbar) in each city. The
country is defenseless before them, and their hands grab freely whatever
they want of it. The people are their slaves and are powerless to defend
themselves. One of the governors is a dictator by nature, malevolent and
rancorous; another represses to recognize either God or the Day of
Resurrection! It is not strange - how can one think it strange, that
society is in the clutches of a cunning oppressor whose tax collectors
are oppressors and whose governors feel no compassion or mercy towards
the believers under rule.
It is God who will judge concerning what is dispute among us and
deliver a decisive verdict concerning all that occurs among us.
O God! You know that everything we did was not prompted by rivalry
for political power, nor for a search for wealth and abundance; rather
it was done to demonstrate to men the shining principles and values of
Your religion, to reform the affairs of Your land, to protect and secure
the indisputable rights of Your oppressed servants, and to act in
accordance with the duties. You have established the norms, laws, and
ordinances which You have decreed.
So (O scholars of religion!) You are to help us reach this goal, win
back our rights from those powers who have considered it acceptable to
wrong you and who have attempted to put out the light kindled by your
Prophet. God suffices us, upon Him do we rely, to Him do we return, and
to Him shall we return. |
