The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam: The Teachings of Ali ibn Abi Talib (Perennial Philosophy

The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam: The Teachings of Ali Ibn Abi Talib ( Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback) - Common [Introduction by Seyyed Hossein.
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Who seeketh Me findeth Me. Who findeth Me knoweth Me. Who knoweth Me loveth Me. Who loveth Me, him I love. Whom I love, him I slay. Whom I slay, him must I requite. Whom I must requite, Myself am his Requital. The latter emphasizes the being of God in contradistinction to that of other beings His creatures , while the former refers to the uncreated Being of God in His Ipseity wujud mutlaq , who, while uncreated, is paradoxically the Only Existent. Thus, there is no being but God laysa fi al-wujud siwa allah. What is outwardly a journey to annihilation Jana is inwardly a passage to spiritual rebirth baqa.

It is through this moral intel- ligence that one can appreciate both the metaphysical imperatives of necessity and the metaphysical boundaries of freedom. Freedom and necessity are correlatives, whose synthesis lies in a moral intelligence premised on height and depth — in other words, on verticality. Now, it is this intelligence that legitimizes authority Simply put, the appeal to authority is the appeal to an intrinsic moral intelligence — an intel- ligence that recognizes the ontological equilibrium that underlies and harmonizes freedom and necessity, continuity and discontinuity — , whose extrinsic criterion is virtue.

Moral intelligence and the virtue it manifests constitute the very basis of Justice, and express the ontolog- ical criterion for the equilibrium underlying the just governance of all creaturely relationships. Decentered man is therefore detached from the criterion of value and, while no doubt capable of possessing power, is nevertheless lacking in genuine authority.

In an interesting passage, Imam Ali observes: Ali Lakhani It is right that the king should govern himself before governing his subjects. Justice and authority rest upon the foundation of virtue, or conformity to Truth. In another passage, the Imam remarks: From amongst you only he deserves to be caliph who possesses moral strength to maintain peace and to carry on good government based on equity and justice; and who has best under- stood the orders of God for this purpose. Right thinking and right doing are both attributes of right being, again pointing to an ontological, inner re-orientation of the self.

Malik, you must never forget that if you are a ruler over them the people , then the Caliph is the ruler over you, and God is the supreme Lord over the Caliph. Equality, therefore, is intrinsic and not to be sought on the horizontal plane. The Almighty God, by entrusting your affairs to me has given me a right over you. And as I have a right over you, so you have a right over me. This incumbency of duties between us is mutual One-sided obligation is possible only with God. He has rights over His creatures, but they in turn have no rights over Him.

This is His privilege. His Power and Authority over His creatures and His equitable assignment of attributes and qualities to each one of them, and His Justice in allotting just rights to every creature, has placed every one of them under obligation to Him. And this obligation upon human beings takes the form of their implicit obedience to Him performed faithfully and sincerely. Later in the same khutba, speaking of the reciprocal rights and obligations of the ruler and the ruled, he states: This obligation, when discharged, forges a link of affinity and love between the ruler and the governed, it raises the prestige and honour of their religion and enhances the happiness and content- ment of the subject.

But remember that no subject will be happy and contented unless the system of government is sympathetic, humane and congenial. And no ruler can introduce a good form of government unless the subjects are ready to meet their obligations readily, sincerely and faithfully. The bond between the ruler and the ruled is principally rooted. It is the vertical dimension of conformity to our spiritual norms intrinsically, our pri- In the words of the Tyrolian Catholic philosopher, Nicholas of Cusa Thus we find the following summary of this perspective, in the words of Frithjof Schuon: That is to say that God accepts the homage of men only on condition that the inferior man pays homage to the superior man; the rectitude of the vertical relationship requires that of the horizontal relationship.

That is the principle of every human order; whoever says human order, says hierarchy. Again, we return to the correspondence of structure and value.

Order implies hierarchy, which is the compassionate devolution of the Divine Substance This is the essence of all prayer and worship. In this sense, one might say that it is in the nature of humanity to be humane. But is Justice attainable in a world that is apparently so inequitable in its treatment of human beings? For example, how can one ever hope to redress the inequities of some people having greater material comforts and others greater sorrows? From a metaphysical stand- point, ostensible inequities are inherent within the very fact of divine manifestation — in the deployment of the Absolute to the relative and in the expression of Its infinite possibilities — and, in this sense, what we might term the injustice of evil is to be understood as the priva- tive aspect of creation, or what we have earlier termed the trajectory of divine descent.

All apparent inequities are, however, reconciled in the intrinsic freedom of human beings to be reintegrated with their spiritual Origin — at which point all outer or quantitative differences vanish, rendered inwardly or qualitatively insignificant in the face of the spiritual Quality or quintessence that unifies all.

From this per- spective, Justice then is a matter of judging by the inner dimension, not superficially from the outward appearance of things. The spiritual significance of this episode is that Khidr symbolizes the transpersonal Intellect, the sole criterion of justice. Brill, Netherlands, edition first published , chapter IX, no.

Ali Lakhani The Almighty God apportioned livelihood and sustenance to each and every creature. Some are assigned more and some less. There- fore there are some who are well-to-do while others are poor. But this kind of distribution is based upon equity. The fact is that He has tested people in these ways. Some were tried through opulence, while others through poverty He wants to find out whether wealth makes people grateful to God and persuades them to show their gratitude through their words and deeds; and poverty brings out patience and endurance in man, and whether he remembers to be thankful to Him even in straitened circumstances.

Always mixed along with great riches and wealth are dangers of poverty and starva- tion. Lurking in the folds of peace and prosperity are monsters of calamities unknown and misfortunes unseen; and usually sorrows and sufferings are found mingled with joys and comforts; in short, no happiness and blessing in this world is unmixed. One must remember this and must not give way either to vanity and arrogance or to despair and despondency. As is the condition with wealth, comfort and happiness, so it is with age. He has fixed different periods of lives for different people.

Some are given longer spans while others are assigned shorter dura- tions; some will always go ahead and others will follow. But life will always end in death. As human beings, we are free to respond to the outer or to conform to the inner. In other words, freedom can be understood, not in terms of the pursuit of personal gratification, but in terms of the opportunity it confers for spiritual growth. In one pas- sage, he states: Nobody can pass beyond the bounds of His Authority. And that they will not be put to the test?

This appears as Sermon 90 in Nahjul-Balagha, Reza supra. For every one of you, Islam has fixed an ideal. Strive to achieve it. For all of you, there is a way-mark; try to be guided by it. Islam has its aim for each of you to aspire and to attain it. God has imposed certain duties and obligations upon you; discharge those duties and comply with those commands.

Here again we find a correspondence between knowing and being: It is this wisdom, then, which defines the metaphysical boundaries of freedom. As we see, freedom, in this sense, is not unbounded — rather, it is an ideal or archetype to be attained. You have a sign. Take guidance from your sign. Islam has an objective. Proceed towards its objective Revelation is a deployment and intellect a concentration; the descent is in accord with the ascent.

In other words, freedom is circumscribed by Truth or the obligation of veracity, which, when embodied, is piety or virtue. Any transgression of this boundary is therefore folly. Justice, as we have seen, is a matter of order and equilibrium. It is therefore a matter of properly observing limits, and not transgressing tendencies of presumptiveness presumptiveness here being charac- terized by a failure to observe spiritually optimal boundaries.

Thus, human beings are called upon to master their desires the easily-enticed human will and to control their minds the hubristic and over-reaching human intellect , as in this passage: Fear God like a man who has mastered his emotions and desires and who has acquired complete control over his mind; fear God like a man who has developed his knowledge and wisdom and who has achieved command over his passions.

Thus in one of the khutbas. He ceases to be free in the sense of independent of the Divine Will to the extent that he ceases to be separated ontologically from God. That extremes of right and left will lead you astray, moderation is the best course for you to adopt.. The apparent emphasis of one polarity over the other may, however, be a legitimate corrective.

In practical terms, this demands that each of us exercise a quality of moderation in order to be true to our kardial nature. This appears as a part of Sermon 16 in Nahjul- Balagha, Reza supra. Implications for Modernity A key question confronting humanity regarding Justice can be stated in these terms: In Islamic terms, this might be understood in terms of an attempt to separate din religion or the spiritual realm and dunya politics or the temporal realm.

There can be no law and no order but that of God; but they the Seceders infer that none should be king or ruler over mankind but God. How is it possible? Necessarily there ought to be some form of government of man over man. There ought to be human agency as a ruler, and this may be either transpire to be a pious and benevolent ruler or an ungodly government. A benevolent and godly government is necessary so that, under its kind rule, Muslims and non-Muslims alike may prosper City of Islam, trans.

This appears as Sermon 40 in Nahjul-Balagha, Reza supra. Based on this view, there is no dimension of a theophany — no matter how we choose, from a human perspective, to compartmentalize, atomize or marginalize it — that can elude the sacred embrace of the Divine. All things are rooted in the spiritual dimension and must be referred back to their spiritual foundation.

A corollary of this The distinction between metaphysics and theology is that between the din al- fitr and the din al-islam. Muqatta 'at of Mansur al-Hallaj: Do not therefore ask a man to adopt a particular religion rather than another , for this would separate him from the fundamental principle; it is this principle itself which must come to seek him; in it are all the heights and all the meanings elucidated; then he will understand them. It no longer has any solid foundation in the transcendent reality which, by its very nature, gives all things under the sun their proper weight, no more and no less.

Ali Lakhani view is that there can be no opposition in metaphysics between din and dunya. By contrast, the modernist worldview, though it often includes a constitutional reference to God, is secular, based increas- ingly upon the privatization of religion. In part, this secularism is paradoxically often attributed to the desire to uphold the freedom of religion within a pluralistic society and thereby to avoid a theocracy based upon one particular theology.

But religious views cannot be absented from the public sphere, however one might attempt to com- partmentalize society into realms of the sacred and the secular. This is the foundation of hierarchy and moral authority, an acceptance of a divinely ordained world in which freedoms are bounded by moral imperatives and rights by spiri- tual standards.

By contrast, the modernist worldview is quantitative, materially evolutionary and secular, which celebrates freedom and equality without anchoring these in the objective and transcendent criteria of spiritual reality Genuine freedom vertically transcends horizontal limitations through detach- ment, while genuine equality is the intrinsic adequacy of the soul to compassion. The egoic individualism of the modernist cannot but degrade the soul, in contrast to the compassionate detachment of the faithful seeker that is ennobling.

No doubt, the domains of the secular and the sacred may be opposed from a certain theological viewpoint, but, as we have seen, there exist metaphysical principles — rooted in the very structure of reality — that transcend even theology. This points to a crucial dis- tinction between metaphysics and theology, and the primacy of the former over the latter. It is on the basis of this distinction, that the poet Jami could state: Be aware that justice and equity, not unbelief nor religion, Are needed for the maintenance of the kingdom. Justice without religion, for the next world, Is better than the tyranny of a religious Shah.

This criticism of mediocrity and by implication of the centrifugal influence of societies that are governed primarily or purely on the basis of consensus rather than Principle, is also a criticism of a certain kind of democracy. Thus, Muhammad Iqbal wrote: The passage, translated by Rehatsek, reads: Ali Lakhani It is, therefore, essential that the criterion for Justice be rooted in a sound metaphysical view of reality that admits of the transcendent and operates out of a sense of the sacred.

We have argued earlier that the Divine Quintessence — which is the Origin of the sacred — cor- responds to Compassion or Mercy, the life-blood of creation and the dialectic of the Nafas Rahmani. It is this Quality, whose spirit consti- tutes our innermost being or fitra that is the true criterion of Justice. It is of this transcendent quality that Shakespeare writes: And here we come to two errors that are central to modern con- ceptions of Justice: In the first case, the error is prone to manifest in the form of relativism — for instance, in the post-modernist tendency to subjectivism and permissive liber- alism within society.

Thus an inevitable consequence is, not an accrued perspicuity in the imaginative life of man, but on the contrary an ever growing opacity. Ultimately, as Imam Ali teaches, Justice is based on Truth, and Truth is a matter of recognizing spiritual realities and conforming to them.

The criterion of judgment, both in the sense of self-regulation and of human governance, lies within our own selves our fitra and not in any constructed worldview whether utopian, consensual, rational, or pragmatic derived from outward things. Though the voice of this message may be dimmed in the ambience of modernity, its relevance remains vital for the salvation of human beings and human societies in all times. The truth of this message is universal, and we cite one example of its articulation, in a beautiful passage by Robert Browning, from the poem Paracelsus: There is an inmost center in us all, Where truth abides in fullness; and around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, This perfect, clear perception — which is Truth.

A baffling and perverted carnal mesh Binds it, and makes all error: Ali Lakhani conditions of Justice. For Justice is an attribute of Truth. Your cure is within you, but you do not know, Your illness is from you, but you do not see.

The citation from Qunawi is translated by William C. Chittick and quoted in his book, Sufism: Istanbul, Topkapi Saray Museum. The serpent is an emblem of the egoic self. The aim here is to show that, according to this worldview, the orientation towards justice, conceived as the most fundamental of the virtues, is immeasurably deepened insofar as it is consciously linked to the spiritual precepts of the Islamic faith; and that it is correspondingly weaker insofar as it is separated from those precepts.

The spirit underlying moral rules and ethical injunctions is strengthened by a commitment to transcendent principles, even though — or precisely because — these principles surpass the realm of action within which those rules and precepts operate. Contemplation and action are seen in this perspective as complementary, not contradictory; this complementarity goes to the very heart of the Islamic message of tawhid, of integral oneness, and it is embodied with dazzling evidence in the life of the Imam, as it is in the life of the Prophet.

This harmony between the two principles — contemplation and action, being and doing, theory and practice, ideal and reality — also pervades the remarkable document that is the central focus of this essay. As regards the epistle itself, it is found as number 52 in most editions of the Nahj al-balagha. Dar al-Huda, , pp.

Full text of "Sacred foundations of Justice in Islam - The teachings of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib"

Despite being addressed in the first instance to the ruler or governor of the polity, much of the advice pertains in fact to universally applicable ethical principles and is therefore as relevant to those ruled as to those who rule. It is possible, therefore, to read this document also as a commentary on that revelation, a commentary which in turn encourages the reader to delve more deeply into the meanings enshrined in the revealed texts.

Institute of Islamic Culture, In addition to discussing the Medina Constitution and the letter of the Imam to Malik — a full translation of which is also given — this book is a welcome addition to the scanty works in western scholarship that address the relevance of the intellectual legacy of the Imam to contemporary political and ethical discourse in Islam.

It cannot do without an interpreter la budda lahu min tarjuman. Institute of Culture and Islamic Thought, Sh. Ansariyan Publications, p. Maktab al-Tlam al-Islami, , vol. Reason, on the other hand, better translates the Latin ratio and the Greek dianoia. Losing sight of this distinction entails the reductive view of knowledge that has increasingly characterised western epistemology since the end of the Middle Ages. Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred New York: He is reported by Tabari as remarking: Abi Talib had two right hands.

One of them was cut at Sifhn, 9 and the other today. By God were he a mountain, he would be the solitary one [soaring above the others], and were he a rock, he would have been impenetrably solid. No horse could ascend it [such a mountain], no bird could fly up to it. State University of New York, , for a good account of traditional Islamic epistemology, in which knowledge is indissolubly wedded to the sacred. All translations of the Arabic text will be by the present writer, unless otherwise stated, and will be from this, the first critical edi- tion of the work hereafter referred to as Nahj.

In this translation the statement of the Imam is given as no. Abi Bakr al-Harawi d. The Clarendon Press, , p. For the influence of Platonic and neo-Platonic conceptions of justice on the elaboration of ethical discourse in Islam, see M. Fakhry, Ethical Theories of Islam Leiden: Within this discourse, justice is not so much seen as one among several virtues, but as the perfection of the other virtues, especially the three principal Platonic virtues of temperance, courage and wisdom.

These must characterise, respectively, the concupiscent, the irascible and the rational dimensions of the soul. Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, , ed. One response to this is as follows: Applied to state and society, one of the most obvious conse- quences of this conception of justice is the necessity for piety and rectitude on the part of the rulers.

As the Imam says in another of his sermons: So if the subjects render to the 17 This is the beginning of Sermon no.

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In Peak, it is Sermon no. But the translation offered above brings out the strongly expressed theological principle of the Imam, namely, that the divine attributes are absolutely one with the divine essence, not superadded to it, as so many appendages. In the famous first sermon of the Nahj akbalagha, God is described as: The focus in the first part is on a particular dimension of justice, one which is political on the surface, ethical in its outward expression, but spiritual in depth: In the third part of the paper, the crucial role played by devotion and worship — formal and supra-formal — is discussed; it is proposed that contemplation of the divine reality is the fountain from which integral virtue flows spontaneously and ceaselessly.

Fazal Haqq , Qom: For now, though, this point should be made emphatically: Whether one is operating in an avowedly Islamic or an overtly secular environment, whether the rule be autocratic or democratic, whether political institutions be strong or weak: For these principles do not presuppose any particular form of government, they address the universal theme of moral responsibility, but doing so in terms of that which transcends the level of morality, offering us insights derived from a direct vision of the ultimate spiritual realities.

Being beyond politics, narrowly conceived, the principles are for that very reason capable of penetrating deeply and refashioning, from above, the moral substance of political consciousness. Human Virtue and Divine Reality A note of sombre realism resounds at the very outset of the letter. For the essential relationship that determines the spiritual substance of the soul, and a fortiori, its moral comportment, is the relationship between the human soul and divine grace.

Ajmal, in Islamic Spirituality, S. Routledge and Kegan Paul, , pp. That is the right religion al-din al-qayyim , hut most men know not.

The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam: The Teachings of 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib

From this integral human nature, in complete harmony with the divine nature, all the essential virtues flow spontaneously and unhindered. By the Time, truly man is in a state of loss, except those who believe and perform virtuous deeds, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to patience. As the words in one of the most famous supplications attributed to the Imam put it: Not only must the individual be effaced before God in order to be truly virtuous, but also he must participate in and embody the very qualities he wishes God to manifest towards him; and his effort to do so is empowered in the measure that he grasps these same divine qualities — through intuition and contemplation, rather than simply rationally and theoretically.

The relationship between intelligence and humility is to be underlined here: He says, though, I do not exonerate myself, this being explained by what comes next: Truly the soul incites to evil, unless my Lord has mercy. Muhammadi Trust, , verses 4, 6, and 7 emphasis added. From this point of view, every virtue must be considered the reflection on the human plane of a divine quality. However, going back to the words of Joseph XII: Thus, the human effort to avoid sin does not contradict the necessity of grace for the attainment of virtue, but rather expresses a grace already bestowed, already present within the conscientious soul: The manner in which this grace is brought into the soul as a deter- minitive element of moral and spiritual life will be made clearer later on in the letter; but, for now, the negative side of the question needs further elaboration.

For the ever-present temptation, on the part of the ruler, to abuse his power and to perpetrate injustice and tyranny needs to be given more than a passing reference. It might be argued that the question of how to refrain from injustice is much more dif- ficult and subtle a problem than its positive counterpart — how to act away from him evil and lewdness. O thou soul at peace, Return unto thy Lord, being content with Him and He with thee.

Enter among my slaves. The positive rules of political governance are laid down by the Imam in a direct and straightforward manner ; 29 but what is not so straightforward is the actual ability, on the part of any holder of political office, to maintain fidelity to these rules when confronted with the temptations offered by power. One might frame laws for punishing corruption, in other words, but what cannot be legislated is the will or the capacity to remain incorruptible in the face of the blan- dishments offered by political authority.

In other words, an integral approach to justice leads to an identification with what is right, with al-Haqq as such, and not merely doing that which is right. There is a shift of consciousness from doing to being, or from action to contemplation, without this in any way implying that action is weakened or undermined. One does what is right insofar as one is real: Overcoming Subtle Polytheism shirk The Imam issues this stem warning: It seems that the Imam is 29 These rules, or rather counsels, are however punctuated by penetrating insights into human nature.

It is these insights, together with the transcendent openings alluded to in the letter, that make this document so much more than just a treatise on governance. One can take for example the cardinal vice of pride takabbur which the Imam repeatedly warns against: In other words, enmity with the transcendent reality is the invisible substance that pervades any pride or any act of arrogance or oppression by a ruler towards those beneath him. To whom belongeth the Dominion this day? To God, the One, the All-Conquering? And take up humility as the fortified watchtower between you and your enemy.

For virtue itself is converted to vice as soon as it is accompanied by pride: The hadith is found in slightly differing versions in the Masnad of Ibn Flanbal, vol. As the Imam says: Satan is disgraced because he disobeyed God; but he disobeyed God on account of pride. Being proud is in reality already a form of humiliation, for self-aggrandisement is tantamount to self-destruction.

Returning to the pride of those in power, the Imam expresses succinctly the train of thought that is set in motion within the mind of a ruler who is stepping on the slippery slope towards oppression: When power goes to the head, faith departs from the heart; and conversely, for faith to be properly manifested in the world, it must flow from a heart suffused with humility. Arrogant pride is therefore an intense form of self-delusion, stemming from an intellectual defect; it manifests as a vice, but its cause goes deeper than the level of morality, for it involves not just an over-estimation of oneself, but also, and more fundamentally, an under-estimation of the Absolute.

In this light, the overt egotism of the tyrant can be seen as an intensification of the congenital egocentricity that accompanies every person who has not realized the truth of the sole reality of God, and the ultimately illusory nature of all else. The sage alone assimilates fully the truth expressed by such verses as: Of those We have created are people who guide with truth and dispense justice therewith.

But those who reject Our signs, We will lead them on by degrees [to punishment] from whence they know not. Let not their wealth nor their children please thee: God desireth only to punish them thereby in the world, that their souls shall pass away while they are disbelievers.

Whatever people may think, the actual tyrant is really the most abject slave, a parasite of the vilest scoundrels. Never able to satisfy his desires, he is always in need, and, to an eye that sees a soul in its entirety, he will seem the poorest of the poor. His condition is like that of the country he governs, haunted throughout life by terrors and convulsed with anguish Conversely, the happy man is the virtuous man: The voice of conscience — the very essence and sum total of secular ethics — can here be grasped in its plenary context, rather than simply as the somewhat hypertrophied foundation of individual morality to which it has been reduced in secular ethical discourse.

This fuller context is the supra-individual or metaphysical source of individual conscience, the divine infusion of spiritual discernment within the soul; this infusion or inspiration serves as the basis of ethical discrimination; the divine quality of justice is thus translated, at the level of the morally responsible soul, into the voice of inner conscience: And the soul and That which perfected it, inspiring it with [conscious- ness of] its wickedness and its righteousness. Spiritual consciousness is thus to be seen as the source of moral conscience.

And when thy Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify against their souls [saying], Am I not your Lord? Yes, verily, we testify. Truly, of this we were unaware. From this perspective, that which renders the human soul fully human is, precisely, the element of transcendence that goes infinitely beyond the soul, and yet mysteriously furnishes its own deepest being.

In this light, the notions of tyranny and oppression take on a much more nuanced meaning, these vices being brought much closer to the lived reality of all souls, rather than being simply restricted to those possessing — and abusing — political power: Abi Bakr governor of Egypt, 47 the Imam makes a strong connection 45 This is what the Prophet referred to as al-jihad al-akbar, the greater war.

See Madelung, The Succession, p. The greater the power available, the greater is the obligation to control and restrain oneself: Again one observes the ordering of priorities by an essentially spiritual principle: This is another expression of the principle of putting each thing in its proper place. Truly man is rebellious, in that he deemeth himself independent. This principle emerges clearly from the following words of the Imam: And let the most beloved of affairs to you be those most centred upon Right 49 the most comprehensive in justice, the most inclusive of popular approval, for the disapproval of the common folk undermines the approval of the elite The Imam tells him to think of his family, and not to cut himself from the good things al-tayyibat that God has permitted.

But this does not imply a levelling of all classes, it should be noted: This is a psychologically effective way of ensuring that the inevitable inequalities in society will not generate envy among the have-nots, while eschewing the unrealistic aim of establishing, totalitarian-fashion, a quasi-absolute equality between all classes. The capacity to act with compassion in no way conflicts with the demands of justice; rather, it is an intrinsic aspect of justice, conceived ontologically. Indeed, later in the letter, the Imam instructs Malik to inflict corporal punishment upon any executive officer found guilty of misappropriation of public funds.

For example, he writes to Ziyad b. See Wensinck et al, Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane, Leiden: Abi Talib, made such a request. He told his brother that, by making such a request, he was urging him to enter into a much more intense fire. The Imam orders his cousin: If you do not, and God gives me authority over you, I excuse myself before God in regard to you [and your wrong-doing], and I shall indeed strike you with my sword — with which whomever I have struck enters the fire.

By God, even if Hasan and Husayn had done the like of what you have done, they would not have been granted any leniency by me O ye who 60 Nahj, p. Some historians and commentators doubt whether the cousin in question is indeed Ibn al- Abbas. Be not like a ravenous beast of prey above them, seeking to devour them. For they are of two types: Mistakes slip from them, defects emerge from them, deliberately or accidentally. So bestow upon them your forgiveness and your pardon, just as you would have God bestow upon you His forgiveness and pardon; for you are above them, and the one who appointed you as governor is above you, and God is above him who appointed you Thus, each person who finds himself in a position of relative superiority over others must constantly remember his own inferiority vis-a-vis the Absolute, and this awareness both leads to compassion on his part towards those beneath him, and attracts to himself the compassion of God above him.

The Imam came across an old, blind beggar, and inquired about him. He was told that the beggar was a Christian. He told those around him: Give him maintenance from the public funds bayt al-mat. Social justice and religious equality flow forth, in this perspective, from compassion conceived not as a sentiment only, but as an intrinsic dimension of the Real.

In the famous sermon, al-Shiqshiqiyya, he says that he accepted power as an unavoidable duty: I would truly have flung its rope [that of the caliphate] back upon its withers This is expressed as follows in one of the sermons of the Imam, after he had been praised by one of his supporters: It comes when he is instructing Malik on the kinds of advisers he should have close to him. The converse of this follows logically: These qualities must be understood not only as transcendent, being absolutely one with the divine Essence, and thus utterly beyond the purview of the human soul; they are also to be grasped as models, exemplars, patterns or perfections for the soul to emulate, in the measure of its possibilities.

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In other words, one must be generous, for God is al-Karim ; kind, for He is al-Latif, and so on. But one must also be lowly, humble and effaced, even if there is no divine quality that can be posited as the exemplar of this virtue. All such virtues as lowliness, humility and effacement are modes of expressing the absolute dependence of man upon God, or as manifesting the incommensurability between the relative and the Absolute.

Thus, as between the human and the divine, there is both positive and inverse analogy: See Mizan al-hikma, AH vol. The equilibrium between these two dimensions of human existence is another aspect of spiritual justice, of putting things in their right place; and it also attunes the quality of moral action to the harmony of pure being. State and Society The Imam proceeds with a description of the different classes of people within state and society: The instructions that are given in this part of the letter can be regarded as the expressing the cutting-edge of justice in actual practice, within the exigencies of social and political life.

Is one who knoweth that what is revealed to thee from thy Lord is the Truth like one who is blind? There follows a passage in which the interdependence of each class or element of society is succinctly described. It begins with the underpinning of the state by the soldiers, and ends with the governor himself as the hub around which the different elements revolve.

But this horizontal centre is nothing without the vertical axis that connects it, and thereby the whole of the society, with the Real. This crucial point will be reinforced later in the letter, when the needs of the poor are addressed. As regards the instructions pertaining to the different elements of state and society, it suffices for our purposes here to draw attention to a few salient points. What is to be noted is the importance placed on kindness, gentleness and forbearance — qualities not usually associated with fighting men. One observes a spiritually refined attitude towards 75 Nahj, p.

Plato defines the problem attendant upon the formation of forces for the protection and defence of the city as follows: Turning to the next category, the judges, the Imam refers to the following as key virtues that must be present in those who are to dispense legal justice: As regards administrators, Malik is told to test their honesty before employing them, being careful not to allow any partiality or favouritism to intervene in his choice.

He is to continue to check and investigate their actions. As noted earlier, stringent punishments are to be administered if there is evidence of any abuse of privilege, and appropriation of public funds. In relation to those tilling the soil, and from whom the land tax is collected, the Imam dispenses this wise maxim: See Chapter IX, pp. The lesson is clear: Forgetfulness of what truly endures leads to differing degrees of greed, understood here as desire for a false material richness to take the place of a true spiritual plenitude; and this, in turn, engenders exploitation and oppression.

The advice given as regards the appointment of scribes likewise is sealed with a spiritual message. Malik is told that he must avoid the temptation to appoint only those persons who have shown their best 79 Nahj, p. On the whole they are peaceable, and should be left in peace to their trades, but their vices must be checked: Then he adds the following crucial words: Paradoxically, it is only when this world is seen through to the next, that a fully just attitude towards this world emerges.

Those, on the other hand, whose talab, or aspiration, does not go beyond this world will be more likely to fall prey to the easy option of neglecting the destitute — for, in the horizontal scales of political evaluation, the costs to the ruler in pursuing a policy of charity towards the poverty-stricken may outweigh the benefits to him. This is where an ethical policy tied to a this-worldly appraisal, to pragmatic politics or to personal interest, reveals certain inherent flaws: Such an attitude, which goes far beyond the conventional notions of charity or generosity, will not be susceptible to any contrary suggestion stemming from pragmatism or individualism, and still less from indifference or wilfulness.

With this attitude firmly in place, the next quality mentioned by the Imam, that of patience, flows naturally. For, in the light of a concrete and not merely notional presentiment of the absolute values in question, patience can be indefinitely extended, no longer dependent on personal will alone, but sustained by the empowering grace that flows from heartfelt faith.

This conviction is grounded in the certitude that not only is such charity something good, right and proper, but that this goodness, rectitude and propriety are in harmony with the true and inalienable substance of ultimate reality. These aspects of spiritual reality are veiled from worldly rulers by their covert prejudices, at best, and their overt vices, at worst.


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Goodness, in other words, does not just lead to a heavenly reward: Is the reward of goodness aught but goodness? It is only their outward being that is subject to outward things; their inner realities remain in imperturbable serenity. We have given you [the paradisal fountain of] al- Kawthar: Worshipping God as a consequence of the certainty of the beatitude to come — and which has thus, in one respect, already come — is well expressed by the following saying of the Imam: And there is a group who worship God out of fear, and this is the worship of the slaves.

And there is a group who worship God out of gratitude, and this is the worship of the free. For justice is at one with God not simply because that which God commands is just: The most pious will be far removed from it [the punishment of Hell], he who gives of his wealth to purify himself; and nobody possesses, in the sight of such a person, any favour that might be bestowed on him as reward [for his generosity] — [His action is performed] only seeking only the Countenance of his transcendent Lord, and he will be content.

At the end of each day, just when they were about to break their fast, someone more in need than they asked for food. They feed, out of love for God, the needy, the orphan and the prisoner, saying: We feed you only for the sake of God; we desire from you nei- ther reward nor thanks. Again, one observes the difference between a secular ethic of justice and a spiritual conception of justice: Now while this may 86 One is touching here upon that oft-debated theological question: To hold an intention with sincerity essentially implies striving diligently and ceaselessly in pursuit of its realization.

The just person knows that the intention is already, in an invisible but spiritually palpable way, its own fulfilment; and he knows, with a sense of sober realism, that the outward realization of all intentions depend upon circumstances beyond his control, and, ultimately, on the grace of God. So, far from implying any lack of resolve on the part of one motivated by a sacred conception of justice, the efforts of such a person will, on the contrary, be as ceaseless and unyielding as the reward in which one fervently believes is eternal and unfailing; such efforts will also be sustained by the consciousness of the subtle continuity between just intentions and the divine quality of justice, and thereby the divine nature itself.

An inalienable sense of the sacred, then, sustains the just man in his pursuit of justice. The secular ideal, on the other hand, is all too likely to disintegrate under pressure, because of its quasi-absolute dependence upon two relativities: One need not advance the dogmatic claim that all secular conceptions of justice are bound to fail in practice, only that, in comparison with a sacred conception of justice, it will lack those immeasurable and inexhaustible spiritual resources that are nourished by sincere faith. Put into the present context, one might formulate this truth as follows: When justice is conceived in a secular framework, personal idealism hangs by the thread of social contingency; in a sacred conception of justice, by contrast, divine grace supports the incorruptible ideal of justice, which is thus held 97 Reza Shah-Kazemi high above the frailties and vicissitudes to which the human soul and human society are both subject.

The Virtue of Worship We now come to what is arguably the lynchpin of the entire epistle, the most important means by which the sacred substance of all the virtues is assimilated by the ruler, namely, prayer. We saw at the beginning of the letter how the Imam began with a counsel to observe the obligatory prayers. As the Imam says elsewhere: The import is clear: Then one can envisage an overflow, as it were, from the fountain of formal and supererogatory prayer, into the outward domain of action.

This subtle truth is beautifully expressed in the famous hadith qudsi, often referred to as the hadith of taqarrub: My slave never ceases to draw near to Me through supererogatory acts until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing by which he hears, his sight by which he sees, his hand by which he grasps, and his foot by which he walks. This prayer might be said to sum up the relationship between faith and objectivity, two key foundations of sacred justice. There have always been slaves of God They diffused illumination through the awakened light in their hearing and their seeing and their hearts, calling unto the remembrance of the days of God.

There is much evidence to indicate that the Imam does imply, by the word dhikr, a methodical practice of invoking the or a divine name, as well as a principle of permanent awareness of God embracing all modes of worship, meditation and reflection. And invoke thy Lord within yourself, in humility and awe, and beneath thy breath, in the morning and in the night. Invoke God with much invocation. The invocation as a practice is clearly alluded to in the verse which says: In connection with the healing power of the invocation, the following image of the Prophet is to be noted: With his medicines he seeks out the domains of heedlessness ghafla and the homelands of perplexity.

From this perspective, justice is both cause and consequence of worship: After discussing the question of justice at great length, Plato comes, in chapter 23 of The Republic, to address the crux of the matter: Truly thy Lord knoweth that thou standst in prayer for almost two-thirds of the night, and half of it, and a third of it — as doth a group from those with thee. I need not tell you that, without that knowledge, to know everything else, however well, would be of no value to us This leads him to make an analogy between the Good and the sun: He proceeds with the famous allegory of the cave and then describes the educational programme that would turn the attention of his prospective rulers the guardians from the world of shadows to the world of real objects; a programme comprising mathematics, arithmetic, geometry, solid geometry, astronomy, harmonics and dialectic.

They must lift up the eye of the soul to gaze on that which sheds light on all things; and when they have seen the Good itself, take it as a pattern for the right ordering of the state and of the individual, themselves included. At an important point in the Republic Glaucon presses Socrates on the definition of the Sovereign Good: Is it knowledge, or pleasure, or something else? To this the Imam replied: How didst thou see Him? It is not something that can be put into words like other branches of learning; only after long partnership in a common life devoted to this very thing does truth flash upon the soul, like a flame kindled by a leaping spark, and once it is born there, it nourishes itself thereafter.

If the Real — indefinable in its essence — is the foundation of all good, the means of assimilating the Real, at all London, , pp. Penguin, , p. This statement contradicts the judgement of Plato made by Peter Kingsley in an important recent book. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, , p. See on this subject Sara Rappe, Reading Neoplatonism: Cambridge University Press, If it be objected that this perspective is hopelessly utopian, the harsh exigencies of politics and the sublime ideals of spirituality being poles apart, we would respond: For Islamic concepts to be grasped aright they must, on pain of abstraction, be assimilated not simply by the mind but by the heart.

Thus one must conclude that justice, together with all the other virtues, can only be brought to fruition in a soul — and a society — permeated and penetrated by spirituality. In other words, the remembrance of God — in its most profound sense — is the inalienable spiritual sub- stance of all human virtue. He was the cousin, and later, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, marrying his daughter Fatima.

OUP , p. His entire rule was thus taken up in battling against a panoply of powerful vested interests. CUP , pp. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. Khwaja Abdullah Ansari of Herat d. Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics Leiden: Brill , p. Late Classical Persianate Sufism: Oneworld , pp.

Kitabkhana-yi Barani A. Ill Leonard Lewisohn scope of the present essay.

3 editions of this work

His role as founder of the later Sufi Orders and as exemplar of Sufi practices are commented on briefly, as well as Sufi doctrines of spiritual poverty and renunciation based on his dicta and exempla. His contribution to the development of Sufi ethics from a comparative Christian- Islamic perspective is presented, and his place in the Islamic chivalric tradition is discussed in considerable detail. LAAM Publications , p. Nasr [Sufi Essays Albany: SUNY Press , 2 nd ed. Curzon Press ], p.

Abi Talib represents the breaths of inspiration of all the prophets anfas-i payghambar-ast ; Ali puer Abi Talib spiritus prophetorum tenet. He has sayings the like of which no one prior to him ever uttered and after him the like of which no one has expressed. Junayd said, thought of Persian theosophers who can be classified as specifically Shi'ite thinkers, such as Haydar Amuli d.

Arberry, The Doctrine of the Sufis Cambridge: Intisharat-i Asatir A. Attar goes on to quote Junayd: Reprinted Leningrad , p. If your wife and children are friends of God, well, God will take care of His friends, while if they are enemies of God, why worry yourself about the enemies of God? Bunyad-i farhang-i Iran A. I am grateful to Dr. Guftari dar bab-i intisab-i silasil-i Sufiyya bih Hadrat-i Ali unpublished lecture text, delivered at the conference on Imam Ali [Shiraz A.

Intisharat-i Zuwwar , p. He delineates eight types of religious people, each of which dress in a dif- ferent manner to express their spiritual condition. For this reason, they abandon frivolities and excesses and content themselves with the bare necessities. Examples from the life of Ah are cited by several eminent Sufis, for instance, in defence of the doctrine of audition to music or Santa".

Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications The Prophet compliments each of them in turn, causing them to leap with joy. Since leaping the Arabic word is hajala is part of dancing raqs , then all of dancing must be considered allowable the author argues. Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali d. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam: Through the wisdom of his teachings, their profound metaphysical insights and practical guidance, and the exemplary life that he led, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib is regarded as a paragon of wisdom, piety and virtue and is not only a great Muslim but a great religious leader whose universal message of truth is relevant for all time.

The son in law of the prophet Mohammed, Through the wisdom of his teachings, their profound metaphysical insights and practical guidance, and the exemplary life that he led, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib is regarded as a paragon of wisdom, piety and virtue and is not only a great Muslim but a great religious leader whose universal message of truth is relevant for all time.

The son in law of the prophet Mohammed, he is revered by both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, for whom he is the first Imam and the Prophet's spiritual successor. He was assassinated in The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam is an anthology of essays on the teachings of the first Shia Imam the fourth Caliph of Sunni Islam and one of the forefathers of Sufism dealing with the metaphysical foundations of human governance. Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

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