This treatise was first published in 1979 by the World Organization for Islamic Services (WOFIS) of Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, in a pocket-size book form when the great author and religious authority was still alive. Its front cover image is reproduced for you here below. After his martyrdom in the next year, it was published again by the Translator in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., in 1981. Two copies of the U.S. edition were deposited at the Library of the U.S. Congress in the American capital, Washington, and this title by al-Sadr may be the only one kept by the said Library.]

O Allah! Just as You covered our sins and shortcomings in this short life, Do cover them also on the Judgement Day, The Day of sighs and regrets, The Day each of us, humans, shall see his deeds before his very eyes…

2

1

Chapter

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF AUTHOR SAYYID

MUHAMMED-BAQIR HAIDARAL-SADR

Late Sayyid MuhammedBaqir al-Sadr was a member of a distinguished Iraqi family with a genealogy that is traced back directly to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammed, hence his title of

“Sayyid.” He was born on March 1, 1935 in the holy city of alKadhimiyya, northwestern Baghdad in the Karkh flank, and was assassinated by Saddam's regime on April 9, 1980 together with his sister, Amina al-Sadr, who is better known by her pen name “Bint al-Huda” (daughter of guidance), a novelist, poetess, writer and social organizer as well as defender of women's rights. His ancestors had lived in the region of Jabal Amil in present-day southern Lebanon. In recent Iraqi history, one of the family numbers, another Muhammed al-Sadr, served as Iraq’s prime minister in 1948.

Al-Sadr's father, Muhammed Sadiq, was a mujtahids, a theologian qualified to make independent juridical decisions, and his grandfather and great-grandfather were among the highest religious authorities ( maraji`; sing. marji`) of their time. His mother was the daughter of late Grand Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammed Rida Āl Ya-Sin, also a prominent marjì.

Muhammed al-Sadr was educated at Najaf’s hawza, theological seminary. In his advanced studies, known as dars al-kharij, he was taught by scholars such as then Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei and Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini.

He became mujtahid in the mid-1970s, and in the early 1990s he published his own collection of fatwas (edicts) in 3

jurisprudence known as the risala amaliyya which he called al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, "the Straight Path", thereby signaling his wish to be recognized as a marji` taqlid, an authority for religious emulation.

Al-Sadr was author of many published books. The most important are his monumental four-volume encyclopedia of Imam al-Mahdi (the 12th Imam of the Shià, who is believed to have gone into occultation in AD 873-74) and his massive work on jurisprudence titled Ma wara al-fiqh, what is beyond jurisprudence, of which more than 10 volumes have been published.

He also wrote a book on Islam, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a volume on the fundamental beliefs of Islam known collectively as ` aqaid, tenets of the faith. At least 20 of his works remain as manuscripts.

He was also known as a very highly spiritual person. He prayed during the night and was assiduous in arranging his time. The fact that he had a considerable following among Iraqi Shiàs, which increased after the assassination of two marjìs, Ayatollahs Burujirdi and Gharawi, in April and June respectively, led to the Iraqi government feeling uneasy about him.

In late 1979, Ayatollah Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr managed to resume the Friday prayer services and sermons in the Grand Kufa Mosque. Kufa is an ancient town outside Najaf where the first Shià Imam, the Prophet's right hand, cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was assassinated by a Khariji (Kharijite) in AD 661. Al-Sadr instructed his representatives to do likewise in other towns throughout Iraq.

During Friday prayer services a few weeks before his martyrdom, he was seen wearing the funeral shrouds which is considered as a simple act of piety, but it apparently was taken by the government of the Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam, as a signal that he was prepared to die defending the faith in the face of the secular and corrupt regime. Actually, he sensed that his death was imminent when he urged thousands of worshippers to continue to observe the Friday congregational prayer services should he die.Returning home by car from his office in 4

Najaf, he, together with two of his sons, namely Mustafa and Mu'ammal, was shot dead at the 1920-Revolution Square. The regime of Saddam Hussein denied vehemently that it had any hand in the assassination, just as it had done after the assassination of two other ayatollahs a year earlier. The burial took place speedily at dawn the following day. It is said that most of those present were government security agents. The custom-ary procession was banned and the public were not allowed to attend the burial.

5

PERSONALITY

If we want to talk about Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr’s personality, we could very easily say that he was, without any doubt, a genius by all standards. He was ahead of his time! If in the worldly sense we call Einstein a genius, or before him it is said that Leonardo Da Vinci was a genius, we could likewise and very easily say with the complete consensus of religious scholars that Martyr al-Sadr was a man who was way ahead of his time.

Martyr al-Sadr lived for only 45 years, which according to the average life span of our scholars ( ulama) is a very short period of time. In 45 years, anyone studying Islam is still considered “young”. But in these 45 short years, Martyr al-Sadr revolutionized the academic and political aspects of his society in a way that very few could do. Very rarely do personalities such as Martyr al-Sadr’s appear in history. Rarely does anyone have such an impact in such a short period of time, at such a young age, and at a time that was one of the worst in the history of Islam in general and of Iraq in particular.

Saddam led one of the most brutal and tyrannical reigns in the history of the world. It was in this time that Martyr al-Sadr raised his voice to protest the crimes which this "Butcher of Baghdad", as Saddam was called by the Iraqis and others, was committing against his own people and against humanity. During such a turbulent and politically charged time period, he established a political process. Establishing a political process requires sacrifice, and the way in which Martyr al-Sadr sacrificed, the way in which he did his work, in an environment where there was no energy for it, no strength for it – he rose up in that environment and tried to lift a nation from zero. He did that all alone with exceptional bravery. In his personality, everything was amazingly impressive, especially in the sense that he was doing all these activities at the level of a Marjì Taqleed. Being at that level and occupying such a position, he sacrificed in a way that, when he was put under house arrest, there was no food at his house at times.

6

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Martyr al-Sadr was born into the Sadr family. This family is Kadhimi by descent, that is, its lineage is traced back to Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (128 – 183 A.H./745 – 799 A.D.), one of the offspring of the Prophet of Islam through his daughter, Fatima, and cousin Ali. He was born, as noted above, in the holy city of al-Kadhimiyya where Imams Muhammed al-Jawad (also titled al-Taqi), who was born in Medina, Hijaz, on Rajab 10, 195 A.H.

and was martyred in Baghdad on Thul-Qìda 29, 220 A.H., corresponding to April 8, 811 – November 24, 835 A.D., and Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, peace with them both, are buried in a mag-nificent Shrine. At the age of 10, he went to the holy city of Najaf to study language, logic and theology. Martyr alSadr suffered the pain of being an orphan, having lost his father at the age of two. In those times, it is uncertain if his father was also martyred. We do not have much information about how he passed away, but regardless, his death in 1937 left Martyr alSadr an orphan under the care of some great scholars of the time from his well known Sadr family.

Haider al-Sadr was the name of the father of Martyr al-Sadr.

He was considered among the most pious people. Martyr alSadr studied under various teachers in Najaf. Among his teachers were Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khoei and Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim. At the age of 25, he himself started teaching at the level of Ijtihad, truly a great achievement if only you know how high this religious degree is and what is required to earn it! Not only was he a mujtahid, he was teaching other scholars to become mujtahids as well and at such a young age. Basically, at the age that most students become capable of attending dars al-kharij, Martyr al-Sadr was teaching it! He wrote Our Philosophy, which we will talk about a little later, at the age of 24 as did Imam Khomeini who wrote his book Forty Ahadith at the age of 24!

Martyr al-Sadr was also, in some sense, lucky to have some great students. In a very short period of time, he raised some great scholars under his tutelage. He raised scholars who 7

became world renowned for their intellectual and political achievements. Martyr Sayyid Muhammed-Baqir al-Hakim was among Martyr al-Sadr’s students. Sayyid Kadhim Haeiri, who is considered among the top scholars of Iraq, was also among his students. Another of his students was Sayyid Kamal al-Haideri, who is now considered to be among the great teachers of the hawza.

Sayyid Kamal al-Haideri once said that a panel of university teachers came to Grand Ayatollah al-Khoei and told him that the education system at the hawza was not strong. Ayatollah al-Khoei asked them if their university has a better, more effective system. They said that, "We graduated PhDs from our university." Sayyid al-Khoei asked how many they were.

They said that even if it had been a single Ph.D. graduate, it would have been enough for their university. In response, Sayyid alKhoei said, "I will introduce you to one of my students. You may invite all your Ph.D. graduates to ask him about any field that they feel they have expertise in." Without any hesitation, Sayyid al-Khoei summoned young al-Sadr to his presence. Sayyid al-Khoei challenged them to a debate, claiming that they would not find anyone more knowledgeable in any field than al-Sadr. "Ask him about mathematics, geography, philosophy, history…, any field in which you possess expertise,"

al-Khoei said. He added, "If you think you have mastery over social sciences, such as economics, politics, psychology, or any other field, bring them on the table. You will realize the true command and mastery which al-Sadr has over all these fields!"

8

THE STUDY CIRCLES

So let us now begin to talk of Martyr al-Sadr’s intellectual works. Martyr al-Sadr’s method of working on a topic was that he would never use a pattern or foundation built by someone else; everything has to be original with his own stamp on it. If you study any of his works, you will realize that he has never worked on a foundation built by others before him.

Let us look at his works in the principles of jurisprudence ( Ilm al-Usul). This is one of the most fundamental subjects taught to the students of the seminary ( hawza) in which they learn how to derive laws. He wrote a book in this field called Halaqaat al-Usool. The reason why he wrote this book was that the syllabus for Ìlm al-Usul, the science of these principles, was quite academic and scholarly. It was like assigning Louis Pasteur’s book to an undergraduate student of chemistry. Instead, Martyr al-Sadr really simplified this field. Even nowadays, this book is used in the seminaries of Najaf, Iraq, and Qum, Iran.

9

OUR ECONOMY AND OUR PHILOSOPHY

Martyr al-Sadr’s academic achievements came at a time when the hawza was weak in the eyes of the world. Communism was at its peak in Iraq. In his book Iqtisaduna (Our Economy, i.e. Islamic economics), Martyr al-Sadr refers to Communist and socialist philosophers, comparing their ideologies, pointing out their points of strength and weakness, all in an academic and scholarly way. Some books were such they were available in Russian and Arabic only. There was not even a copy of those books in English. From this, you can imagine at what level the Communists and socialists worked on the Arab society's mind. There was no fundamental book of Communism and socialism, no matter how profound and deep, without being translated into Arabic.

Another evidence of their efforts on the Arab community was that they set up Baath parties in many Arab countries, even though they were not always very organized. Each Baath party worked separately in its respective area. There were branches of the Baath party in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. The word Baath means: to rise, to stand up to perform an action.

Obviously, this Baath was for Satan, not for God. The Baath parties were academic in their efforts. They used to present socialism in a great depth, and the people who learned socialism in Iraq learned it extensively and in a great depth.

Since the most fundamental and deep books of Communism were translated into Arabic and were in circulation among the general masses, the public would criticize Islam through the lenses of those books. At the time, there were no outstanding scholars in the hawza who could respond to those criticisms and remove the confusion in the young minds.

Martyr al-Sadr began his mission here. At the age of 24, he wrote Falsafatuna ( Our Philosophy). While studying Falsafatuna, we used to say that this book did not deal with Islamic philosophy at all. It dealt with everything but Islamic philosophy. He chose Our Philosophy as the title for his book, but in 10

reality it was a criticism of the Eastern and Western philosophies. For example, what Communists say in their philosophy, he criticized it. What the Western Capitalists say, he criticized it. What their philosophy tells us, he criticized it. And even in philosophy, he basically touched on one area. There is one field that has a very important position in philosophy that he presented in a special way; here it is: The topic of philosophy is what we call Ilm al-Màrifa (epi-stemology or the theory of knowledge). This topic is something that you might say the first topic in philosophy. It is a debate on the question: "How do we know what we see is a reality?"

For example, if I look at something and say that its color is black, how can I prove that this thing is, in reality, black? An average observer will say, "Well, that is obvious. You can ‘see’

that it is black." But the discussion is not whether we can see if a thing is black or not. The discussion is on how we prove that what we are seeing is correctly identified.

This is where we get into the topic of ` Ilm al-Màrifa, the debate on how to prove what we know and what we have learned to be valid. That is, is this knowledge correct or incorrect?

There are many thoughts and arguments on this which philosophers have written about and debated. Their main focus was to prove that the human mind is not capable of understanding reality. Even if people understand something, it is subjective knowledge which cannot be proven in an objective way. That is what they wanted. Why? If you prove that God exists and they cannot refute your argument, they will say, "You believe in God because you are a Muslim, and that is why you make such argument." In response, they will say that God does not exist.

And you cannot refute that because all knowledge is subjective. Such a skeptic view becomes possible once they are able to devalue the possibility of verifying objective knowledge.

Martyr al-Sadr, Martyr Mutahhari, and ` allama Hussain Tabatabai and their likes are all philosophers known as Realists. Their job was to prove that what a human mind knows is reality. There is an in-depth discussion on this in Our Philosophy. The works of scholars of socialism and Communism, 11

even those of Chinese socialists like Mao Zedong, are included, studied and ultimately proven wrong in Our Philosophy.

Now, let us consider his other book, Our Economy. In it, he talks about Islamic economics. If you were to go anywhere in the world and ask anyone, Shià, Sunni, Muslim, or nonMuslim, about the best book on Islamic economics – it has now been more than a third of a century since the martyrdom of this great man, but without any doubt or hesitation, those who answer your question will say that there is no book like Our Economy.

When the curriculum of the Islamic economics department of the Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan, was being designed, an Egyptian scholar suggested using Our Economy as its basis. When Saudi scholars immediately rejected the suggestion of using a book written by a Shià scholar, the Egyptian man challenged them to suggest another book for the curriculum on its same level. There was no other book that could be presented as an alternative. This proves the fact that when Martyr al-Sadr wrote Our Economy, there was not even a single book on the topic of Islamic economics with comparable caliber!

Our Economy is a wonderful book. Martyr al-Sadr first tried to dismantle socialist economics. In doing so, he had to discuss socialist philosophy, more specifically the aspect known as Dialectic Materialism. Socialism had constructed five stages of the human history: When humans first appeared, they had a certain type of economic system, then it changed into agriculture, then capitalism, and now is the time for socialism, while the next stage will be that of communism. They argued saying that this was inevitable. The main point here was Dialectic Materialism.

Martyr al-Sadr wrote exhaustive comments on each and every aspect of this philosophy. He commented on both Dialectic Materialism and Determinism. He would always start by explaining what the people opposing him were saying. First, he would describe socialism from the point of view of its 12

proponents. If they are talking about Dialectic Materialism, he will talk about what it really means and its true interpretation, so much so that a student of Martyr al-Sadr told me once that the socialists of Iraq took material from Martyr al-Sadr’s de-scription of socialist thought and printed a separate book on it.

They would give that book to other socialists to learn socialism from, since it was best explained there!

Martyr al-Sadr would build up socialism so strongly. When he begins countering those arguments, he shreds them into bits and pieces. That is the beauty of this book. Another interesting point about Martyr al-Sadr’s Our Economy is that in the beginning, he said that there are two ways to attain true knowledge of Islamic economics. We will have to adopt one of the two paths. We can come up with the theory, and when God grants us the opportunity, we will put it into practice – at that time, the Islamic republic had not been established. So he said, let us come up with the theory (` ilm), and when Allāh permits, we will implement it.

The other way is to wait and see if perhaps God would grant us a government. Then we would implement these principles one by one according to Islam. If we do so, in about 50-60

years we will have had a complete system. Allāh granted his second wish: a government was established (through the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran) where slowly, one by one, these economic principles are being implemented. Some people criticize asking, "Why has the Islamic economic system not been established, even 30 years later?" The answer is this: A system like these does not come about and mature in 25 - 30

years. Capitalism struggled for 200 years before it took the form of a system. We will have to give this system time and offer many sacrifices in its way in order to even partially establish the true Islamic economic system.

Another book which Martyr al-Sadr wrote on Islamic economics is called Al-Bank al- la Rabbawi Fil Islam (interestfree Islamic Banking). The story of that book is as follows: The government of Kuwait realized that the money people were getting from profits made from the oil industry was being invested for 13

interest. Being Muslims, the investors wanted to find a way to avoid paying or earning interest. In order to address this issue, they organized a conference of Muslim scholars to which Martyr al-Sadr was invited, as were many Saudi scholars. The Saudi scholars did their best to stop Martyr al-Sadr from attending. As a result, the invitation given to Martyr al-Sadr was revoked. Martyr al-Sadr was disappointed, but he wrote a book and sent it to the organizers of the conference. The prejudiced and close-minded Saudis managed to stop Martyr al-Sadr from coming, but they could not stop the book from reaching the conference. When the book was reviewed during the conference, there was no book that came even closely to its caliber.

The whole conference had to acknowledge that the author should have been present during the conference.

Such was his personality! He made up his mind to work on a new concept, so he wrote a book about it with an entirely new approach. Now just imagine: This man was in Najaf without having any access to banks. He had no access to any interna-tional bank. He, therefore, should not have had any insight in the world's banking system, yet he wrote a book on banking, taking up a unique and complex topic, and now the world is baffled at his genius.

14

INTERPRETATING THE QUR'AN

Martyr al-Sadr did some work on the exegesis (Tafsir), interpretation, of the Holy Qur'an, as well. Before starting his actual Tafsir research, he divided the topic into two types: He called one as Tafsir by sequence, in which you work on Tafsir one verse after another sequentially. The other kind of Tafsir is by topic, i.e. or topical or thematic. According to this method, you compile a Tafsir by analyzing how the Qur’an as a whole deals with this topic or that. He preferred Topical Tafsir.

The topic he chose was such that very few scholars have looked into it. What was the topic? He said he wanted to know which Divine laws govern communities and societies and rule them. He, therefore, wrote a Tafsir book on this topic. For-tunately, this book has been translated into Urdu, Farsi, English and other languages.

Even more interesting is the fact that his Tawdhihul Masail

????? ??????? (the book explaining legal Islamic rulings) was also written in a unique way. He did not start it from the point that it is obligatory on every adult Muslim to perform taqleed, emulation in religious matters. Instead, he chose to begin that book from the fundamentals, basics, principles, tenets of belief (` aqa’id). “Why should we live our lives according to the way Allāh wants us?” This is how he approached the topic, devoting almost 80 pages of the Arabic edition to answer this question.

15

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF FADAK

Martyr al-Sadr had a very deep respect for Ahlul Bayt (peace be with them), the immediate family of the Prophet of Islam.

He used to spend hours thinking and pondering at the shrine of Imam Ali (peace be with him). According to a source, due to unfavorable conditions of the time, Martyr al-Sadr did not go to visit Imam Ali’s shrine for a few days. It was then that the Imam appeared in a vision to a highly respected scholar of alNajaf al-Ashraf to ask him to inquire why al-Sadr had not been going to the Imam’s Shrine to deliver his lectures. The meaning and symbolism of this vision show the great source of Martyr al-Sadr’s very high intellectual caliber.

Expressing his deep respect for Lady Fatima al-Zahraa (peace be with her), he wrote his book titled Fadak fi Tareekh (Fadak in History) which examines the issues and the circumstances in which Lady Fatima stood up and spoke the truth to the men of authority of her time. Martyr al-Sadr wrote the book in his characteristically cogent and accessible style. I think he felt being indebted to this great Lady, so he wanted to serve her. He felt that elaborating and defending her cause could be the best way to do so, knowing that some distinguished scholars of his time would be attracted to his book, and maybe his book on this issue would open the closed files of Fatima’s case to the eyes of those scholars.

16

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Martyr al-Sadr was one of those scholars who did not limit themselves to the field of knowledge exclusively. He considered himself responsible for the lives of his fellow citizens and humans at large. He, therefore, took upon himself to shoulder the responsibilities of his society. He had to face the system of tyrant Saddam.

Sayyid Kamal al-Haidari said that he went to meet Martyr alSadr when the latter was under house arrest. He would give only a few people the permission to meet him. Martyr al-Sadr told Kamal al-Haideri that he was ready to offer his ultimate sacrifice, but it would bear no fruit in this land (at the time).

Iraq would not rise up. Everyone knew that Martyr al-Sadr had the intention to sacrifice himself for the cause. Sayyid Kamal said that Martyr al-Sadr summed up his intentions to him in one strange sentence: “Every nation requires a Hussain [a reference to the sacrifice of Imam al-Hussain at Kerbala]1 for the revolution to come.” Every nation has to shed its pure blood just as al-Hussain had done. It would have to offer sacrifices.

He agreed to be the Hussain of his era. He knew that his coun-trymen would not rise immediately, but their children would do so thereafter. His blood would then bear fruit, and so it happened!

1 If the reader is interested in knowing the whole story of the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussain son of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, peace with them and with all members of Ahlul Bayt, I suggest he refers to my book titled Kerbala and Beyond: An Epic of Immortal Heroism which Author house has published and is available to view and order Online either from its Publisher: www.authorhouse.com

or

from

its

marketer:

www.amazon.com. It is a voluminous work and may be the best in print. – Tr.

Martyr al-Sadr knew that his blood would not be spilled in vain. He would offer himself as a sacrifice and slowly but surely, the youth will wake up and rise. Those youth will grow 17

old. During the years from 1987-89, eight years after his martyrdom, Iraqi youths were starting to wake up from their slumber of apathy. At that time, the youths' consciousness and sense of self-respect was only starting to wake up. People who worked with Martyr al-Sadr realized then what a great loss they had suffered by losing him.

Martyr al-Sadr was a man of action. The Islamic Dàwa Party (Hizb ud-Dàwa al-Islamiyya), the group with which he was associated, had been established before him. It was created in 1957 by some very notable and pious people. Martyr al-Sadr started giving his full support to it, trying his best to make it intellectually strong. This took place around the year 1968

when he actually joined its ranks.

While working for the Islamic Dàwa Party, he used to publish a magazine called Al-Risalat al-Islamiyya (the Message of Islam). In a very short time, that magazine was banned. The articles that he wrote for that magazine were compiled and published as a book called Risalatuna (Our Message).

This book discusses social work or activism, that is, how we are supposed to continue our societal efforts, how we should work in our societies, what methods we should use, what was done in various societies when Shiìsm went there, how those efforts were continued…, etc. It is a very good book for one who wants to look at some of the fundamental principles of how to do work for the society. He analyzed the basic aspects of Shiìsm and laid out certain goals for the communities to work on.

18

KHILAFAT AL-UMMA (RULING THE NATION) Martyr al-Sadr held a view in political matters which was called Khilafat al-Ummah. Western thinkers are always trying to show how two philosophers have opposing views, so they made up a false contradiction that they claimed existed between Khilafat al-Ummah and the concept of Wilayat al-Faqih. Anyhow, these allegations are rubbish and unworthy of our discussion here.

What Martyr al-Sadr meant by Khilafat al-Ummah was that Allāh has made the human beings as His vicegerent on earth.

He said that mankind should live up to that oath and status once their leadership comes into the hands of one who knows the deen, religion. In other words, if humans want to strive towards upholding such a position, status, as the vicegerent of Allāh, the leadersship of the society must be in the hands of a pious individual, a scholar of law, a faqih, jurist. This concept of leadership of the Islamic nation is derived from the fact that Allāh is the ultimate leader of everything ( al-Khilafa al-Il-lahiya). To become the khalifa, (vicegerent) of Allāh, you must be steadfast on the Path of Allāh.

When Martyr al-Sadr brought this idea to the forefront, he saw that Imam Khomeini was the ideal personality whose views were quite similar to those of his own. It was, therefore, as if he had endorsed Imam Khomeini and his revolutionary approach. When Imam Khomeini was in Iraq, very few scholars were courageous enough to come and sit next to him. They knew that if they sat next to him, neither Saddam nor the Shah of Iran would let them live. But Martyr al-Sadr had the courage to still do it. Wherever Imam Khomeini was present, Martyr alSadr would not be far behind, and only he had the courage to do so from among so many scholars then and there. Not only that, he would acknowledge and give his entire support to Imam Khomeini. He used to say: Zoobbu fi Khomeini, kama zabba huwa fil Islam, that is, "Fuse yourselves in Khomeini, just as Khomeini fuses himself into Islam."

19

He stood at the frontlines to sacrifice and to invite the whole of Iraq to follow Imam Khomeini’s example. The reason for that was, perhaps, the fact that Iraq was the country that had the potential to be most influenced by Imam Khomeini’s views. Perhaps that is why the enemies started their war in Iraq.

Anyhow, the work that Martyr al-Sadr began did not stop after him. The Islamic Dàwa Party continued its political work.

They say that the followers of Imam al-Hussain after his martyrdom did not have the desire to live. In a similar manner, the followers of Martyr al-Sadr felt that the spirit of their lives was no more there.

People truly loved this great personality. They understood the meaning of his name and were ready to give their lives for him. In 1970, the Islamic Dàwa Party became stronger under the leadership of Martyr al-Sadr. In 1972, the government banned his magazine. In 1973-74, the Baathi government cracked down on the party and executed 75 of its top leaders.

In 1977, the Party was banned, as well as the Arbaèen commemorative procession (of the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussain) which it used to organize every year. In 1980, it became clear that the government was going to try to assassinate Martyr alSadr. On many occasions, he was taken to prison and then released. He was continuously being tortured. There was not a moment in which he was not going through severe torture –

mentally, physically, and psychologically. Usually, when Martyr al-Sadr was in jail, his sister Amina, who is better known by her penname "Bint al-Huda", the daughter of guidance, would mobilize people and continue the work in his absence.

20

MARTYRDOM

In February of 1980, Martyr al-Sadr was taken to prison for the last time. It was decided that he should be killed along with Bint al-Huda. There were things that happened to the women in the prisons that nobody can even describe because it would be too shameful and embarrassing. Not one or two cases, tens of thousands of cases were there. By God, the true nature of Saddam’s atrocities has not been revealed to the world yet even after the passage of all these years as well as the nature of those who brought him to power and who supported him with all their might and means.

Bint al-Huda was taken with Martyr al-Sadr to such a prison.

Saddam issued orders to have both of them killed. Someone very

close

to

Saddam

asked

him

to

kill

Ayatollah

MuhammedBaqir al-Sadr but spare Bint al-Huda. Saddam said,

“Should I kill the brother and let his sister live?! Should I make the same blunder which Yazid [son of Muàwiya son of Abu Sufyan, who killed Imam al-Hussain; refer to a footnote above]

did?!”

We say to him and his likes, no matter where they may be,

“Yes, you have still made the same mistake, O Saddam, which Yazid had made! He thought that once Imam Hussain was dead, everything would be over and his power would be more firm. Do you, folks, really think that you have won? This is history. Martyr al-Sadr did not misunderstand history. He knew that his blood would bear fruit. When Saddam was hanged, there was only one chant that was heard reminding him of what he had done to Martyr al-Sadr and his virtuous sister.

Why would not his blood produce effects?! Pious, Godcon-scious, a high marjì, scholar, a man of knowledge and piety…, such was imam al-Sadr. He had all of that and more. Why would his blood not produce results?! Blood has to show its effects; it always does. Wait and see, the effects of his blood are still revealing themselves. This is only the beginning of the 21

journey. This is only the beginning of the victory. There is still much more to come.

Those who refused to support Martyr al-Sadr have been debased in this world and are still being disgraced. And those who were among his supporters have been honored and are still remembered highly. Sayyid Muhammed-Baqir al-Hakim was among his supporters. He was one of Martyr al-Sadr’s close students; therefore, he won the highest honor of martyrdom. “One who will support us will receive martyrdom; one who will not support us will never win honor,” the Chief of Martyrs, Imam al-Hussain son of Ali ibn Abu Talib said to the people of Medina. Martyr al-Sadr’s message was the same.

How was Martyr al-Sadr martyred? Most probably, after in-humane torture, he was killed by hammering nails through his skull, a torture method preferred by Saddam and his hoodlums.

His and his sister’s bodies were then set aflame. After that, their bodies were released to his family. In the same darkness of the night, they were all buried…

22

LEGACY OF MARTYR AL-SADR

The Iraqi nation has its own way and direction. It is moving towards a specific destination. It will continue moving towards that direction unabated despite the schemes and plots as well as huge funding of some of its vicious Arab neighbors. Behind the apparent troubles, inflictions and problems of the Iraqi nation, there is a hidden movement. There is a very positive force behind the scenes.

I think we should understand the situation in two layers –

one layer that is apparent and the other that is hidden. On the surface – the first layer – people may appear to be humiliated.

But those who are part of the hidden layer would become the people of honor and dignity. We have somehow to reach that hidden layer and learn. We must learn the price of honor and glory. Iraq teaches us many lessons, but in its own unique way.

The person looking at the apparent state of affairs will not attain any useful lessons. But one who derives lessons from the hidden layer will learn many a great lesson. That layer has courage, martyrdom, the power of selflessness, sacrifice, and by the power of Allāh, their names are high and honored; such is the name of Martyr Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr.

23

2

Chapter

FOREWORD

Rites are considered among the matters of worship whose depths cannot be fathomed by humans, nor their philosophy be completely comprehended nor the purpose behind their legislation understood… ! Rather, the believer must perform them as means of submitting and seeking nearness to Allah, to Whom belong Might and Majesty.

Man has achieved tremendous scientific advancement. This has caused the new generation to be inquisitive about the logic and aims from such parrot worship.

The renowned Muslim scholar as-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir asSadr has answered this question in this invaluable booklet A General Look at Rites. We have already given a brief introduction of the author in the foreword of his other book namely The Revealer, the Messenger and the Message in its English translation.

We praise the Almighty Allah Who bestowed on us the success of translating and publishing this book. We pray to Him to help us continuously in accomplishing our aims in the service of His cause. He is the Supreme Master, the Supreme Helper.

World Organization For Islamic Services (WOFIS) (Board of Writing, Translation and Publication) 2/4/1399 A.H./1/3/1979

Tehran, IRAN.

24

3

Chapter

A GENERAL OUTLOOK AT RITUALS

Worship Is A Permanent Human Need

Rituals enjoy an important role in Islam. Their injunctions represent an important part of jurisprudence and a worshipping conduct which formulates a noticeable phenomenon in the daily life of the pious.

The system of rituals in Islamic jurisprudence represents one of its fixed facets which cannot be affected by the general trend of life or the circumstances of civil progress in man's life except by a small portion, contrarily to other judicial aspects which are flexible and dynamic. The method of application and utilization of these judicial aspects is affected by the circumstances pertaining to civil progress in man's life, such as the system of making deals and agreements.

In the sphere of worship, the man of the age of electricity and space prays, fasts, and performs the pilgrimage just as his ancestor from the age of the stone mill used to pray, fast and perform the pilgrimage.

It is true, however, that in the civil aspect of getting prepared to perform a rite, this person may differ from that: for this travels to his place of pilgrimage in a plane, while that used to travel with a camel caravan. And when this covers his body—while saying his prayers or during other occasions—with clothes manufactured by machines, that covered his body with clothes he hand-sewed. But the general formula of worship, as well as its method and legislation, is the same. The necessity of its application has never suffered any change, nor has its 25

legislating value been affected or shaken by the continuous growth of man's control over nature and his own means of living.

This means that Islamic Shari'a (Jurisprudence) has not prescribed prayer, fast, pilgrimage and other Islamic rituals tem-porarily, or as a juridical formula limited to conditions such Shari'a lived in its early epochs of history. Rather, it has enjoined these rituals on man while he uses atomic energy to mobilize the engine just as it has enjoined them on man while ploughing his field with a hand plough.

Thus do we conclude that the system of rituals deals with the permanent needs in the life of man, for whom they are created, the needs which remain the same in spite of the continuous progress in man's way of living. This is so because the application of a fixed prescription requires a fixed need. Hence, this question comes up:

Is there really a fixed need in the life of man, ever since jurisprudence started its cultivating role, remaining as such until today, so that we may interpret—in the light of its stability—the stability of the formulae whereby jurisprudence has treated and met this same need, so that in the end we may be able to explain the stability of worship in its positive role in man's life?

It may seem, at first glance, that to suggest such a fixed need of this sort is not acceptable, that it does not coincide with the reality of man's life when we compare today's man with the man of the future. We certainly find man getting continuously further—in the method, nature of problems, and factors of progress of his own life—from the circumstances of the tribal society, his pagan problems, worries, limited aspirations and the method of treating and organizing these needs in which the concluding jurisprudence appeared. Therefore, how can rituals—in their own particular juristic system—perform a real role in this field which is contemporary to man's life-span, in spite of the vast progress in means and methods of living? If rituals such as prayers, ablution, ceremonial bathing (ghusul), 26

and fast had been useful during some stage in the life of the Bedouin man—taking part in cultivating his behaviour; his practical commitment to clean his body and keep it from excessive eating and drinking—these same goals, by the same token, are achieved by modern man through the very nature of his civilized life and the norms of social living. So, it would seem that these rituals are no longer a necessary need as they used to be once upon a time, nor have they retained a role in building man's civilization or solving his complex problems!

But this theory is wrong. The social progress in means and tools, for example, in the plough changing in man's hand to a steam or electric machine, imposes a change in man's relationship to nature and to whatever material forms it takes. Take agriculture, for example, which represents a relationship between the land and the farmer: It develops materially in form and context according to the norm of development described above.

As regarding worship, it is not a relationship between man and nature, so that it would be affected by such sort of development or progress. Rather, it is a relationship between man and his Lord. This relationship has a spiritual role which rules man's relationship with his brother man. In both cases, however, we find that humanity historically lives with a certain number of fixed needs faced equally by the man of the age of oil (animal oil used for lighting) as well as that of the age of electricity. The system of rituals in Islam is the fixed solution for the fixed needs of this sort, and for problems whose nature is not sequential; instead, they are problems which face man during his individual, social and cultural build-up. Such a solution, called "rituals," is still alive in its objectives until today, becoming an essential condition for man to overcome his problems and succeed in practicing his civilized vocations.

In order to clearly get to know all of this, we have to point out some fixed lines of needs and problems in man's life, and the role rituals play in meeting such needs and overcoming such problems.

27

These lines are as follows: 1) the need to be linked to the Absolute One 2) the need for subjectivity in purpose and self-denial 3) the need for inner sense of responsibility to guarantee implementation

28

THE NEED TO BE LINKED TO THE ABSOLUTE

The system of rituals is a way to organize the practical aspect of the relationship between man and his Lord; therefore, it cannot separate his evaluation from that of this very relationship and of its role in man's life. From here, both of these questions are inter-related:

First: What value is achieved through the relationship between man and his Lord in his civilized march? Is it a fixed value treating a fixed need in this march, or is it a sequential one linked to temporal needs or limited problems, losing its significance at the end of the stage limiting such needs and problems?

Second: What role do rituals play as regarding that relationship, and what is the extent of its significance as a practical dedication to the relationship between man and God?

What follows is a summary of the necessary explanation concerning both questions:

29

THE LINK BETWEEN THE ABSOLUTE ONE IS A TWO FOLD PROBLEM

The observer, who scrutinizes the different acts of the stagestory of man in history, may find out that the problems are different and the worries diversified in their given daily formulas. But if we go beyond these formulas, delving into the depth and essence of the problem, we will find one main essential and fixed problem with two edges or contrasting poles from which mankind suffers during his civilized advancement throughout history. Looking from one angle, the problem is loss and nonentity, which is the negative side of the problem.

And from another angle, the problem is extreme in entity and affiliation. This is expressed by connecting the relative facts to which man belongs to an Absolute One, thus expressing the positive side of the same problem. The Concluding Jurisprudence (of Islam) has given the name "atheism" to the first problem, which it expresses very obviously, and the name "idolatry"

and Shirk (believing in one or many partners with God) as also an obvious expression of it. The continuous Islamic struggle against atheism and Shirk is, in its civilized reality, a struggle against both sides of the problem in their historical dimensions.

Both angles of the problem meet into one essential point: deterring man's advancing movement from a continuously good imaginative creativity. The problem of loss means to man that he is a being in continuous loss, not belonging to (affiliated with) an Absolute One, on Whom he can lean in his long and hard march, deriving help from His Absolutism and Encompassment, sustenance, and a clear vision of the goal and affiliation, through that Absolute One, his own movement to the universe, to the whole existence, to eternity and perpetuity, defining his own relationship to Him and his position in the inclusive cosmic framework. The movement at loss without the aid of an Absolute One is but a random movement like that of a feather in the wind: The phenomena around it affect it while it is unable to affect them. There is no accomplishment or pro-ductivity in the great march of man along history without a 30

connection to and promulgation with an Absolute One in an objective march.

This same connection, on the other hand, directs the other side of the problem, that of extreme entity, by changing the

"relative" to an "absolute," a problem which faces man continuously. Man weaves his loyalty to a case so that such loyalty freezes gradually and gets stripped of its relative circumstances within which he was accurate, and the human mind will derive out of it an "absolute" without an end, without a limit to responding to its demands. In religious terminology, such an "absolute" eventually changes to a "god" worshipped instead of a need that requires fulfillment. When the "relative"

changes to an "absolute," to a "god" of this sort, it becomes a factor in encircling man's movement, freezing its capacities to develop and create, paralyzing man from performing his naturally open role in the march:

Do not worship another "god" beside God else you should be forsaken (Qur'an, 17:22).

This is a true fact applicable to all "gods" mankind made along history, albeit if they were made during the idolatry stage of worship or its succeeding stages. From the stage of tribe to that of science, we find a series of "gods" which mankind treated as "absolutes" and which deterred mankind, who worshipped them, from making any true progress.

Indeed, from the tribe to which man submitted his alliance, considering it as an actual need dictated by his particular living circumstances, he went then to the extreme, changing it to an "absolute," without being able to see anything except through it. Hence, they [these gods] became an obstacle in his way for advancement.

It was to science that modern man deservedly granted alliance, as it paved for him the way to control nature. But he sometimes exaggerated such an alliance, turning it into an absolute alliance with which he was infatuated, an "absolute" one to worship, offering it the rituals of obeisance and loyalty, 31

rejecting for its own sake all ideals and facts which can never be measured by meters or seen by microscopes.

Accordingly, every limited and relative thing, if man wove out of it, at a certain stage, an absolute to which he thus relates himself, becomes at a stage of intellectual maturity a shackle on the mind that made it because of its being limited and relative.

Hence, man's march has to have an Absolute One.

And He has to be a real Absolute One capable of absorbing the human march, directing it to the right path no matter how much advancement it achieves or how far it extends on its lengthy line, wiping out all "gods" that encircle the march and deter it.

Thus can the problem be solved in both of its poles.

32

BELIEF IN GOD IS THE REMEDY

Such a remedy is shown by what Divine Jurisprudence has presented man on earth: The Belief in God as the Absolute One to Whom limited man can tie his own march without this Absolute One causing man any contradiction along his long path.

Belief in God, then, treats the negative aspect of the problem, refusing loss, atheism and non-entity, for it places man in a position of responsibility: to whose movement and manage-ment the whole cosmos is related. Man becomes the vice-regent of God on earth. Vice-regency implies responsibility, and a reward which man receives according to his conduct, between God and resurrection, infinitude and eternity, as man moves within such a sphere of responsible and purposeful movement.

Belief in God also treats the positive aspects of the problem—

that of the extreme in entity, forcing restrictions on man and curbing his swift march—according to this manner: First: This aspect of the problem is created by changing what is limited and relative into an "absolute" through intellectual exertion and by stripping the relative of its circumstances and limitations. As for the Absolute One provided by the belief in God, this has never been the fabrication of a phase of the human intellect, so that it may become, during the new phase of intellectual maturity, limited to the mind that made it. Nor has it ever been the offspring of a limited need of an individual or a group, so that its becoming absolute may place it as a weapon in the hand of the individual or group in order to guarantee its illegal interests. For God, the Praised One, the Sublime, is an Absolute One without limits, one Whose fixed Attributes absorb all the supreme ideals of man, His vice-regent on earth, of comprehension and knowledge, ability and strength, justice and wealth. This means that the path leading to Him is without a limit; hence, moving towards Him requires the continuity and relative movement and a relative acceleration of the limited (man) towards the Absolute One (God) without a stop.

33

O thou man! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord— painfully toiling, but thou shalt meet Him … (Qur'an, 84:6)

He grants this movement His own supreme ideals derived from comprehension, knowledge, ability and justice, as well as other qualities of that Absolute One towards Whom the march is directed. The march towards the Absolute One is all knowledge, all potential, all justice and all wealth. In other words, the human march is a continuously successive struggle against all sorts of ignorance, incapacitation, oppression and poverty.

As long as these are the very goals of the march related to this Absolute One, they are, then, not merely a dedication to God but also a continuous struggle for the sake of man, for his dignity, for achieving such supreme ideals for him: And if any [folks] strive (with might and means), they do so for (the good of) their own souls: for God is free of all needs from all creation (Qur'an. 29:6)

He, then, that receives guidance benefits his own soul: but he that strays injures his own soul. Nor art thou set over them to dispose of their affairs (Qur'an, 39:41) On the contrary, whimsical absolutes and false gods cannot absorb the march with all its aspirations, for these manufactured absolutes are the children of an incapable man's brain, or the need of the poor man, or the oppression of the oppressor; therefore they all are linked to ignorance, incapacity and oppression. They can never bless man's continuous struggle against them.

Second: Being linked to God Almighty as the Absolute One Who absorbs all of the aspirations of the human march means, at the same time, rejecting all of those whimsical absolutes which used to create an excessive entity. It also means waging a continuous war and an endless struggle against all sorts of idolatry and artificial worship. Thus, man will be emancipated 34

from the mirage of these false absolutes which stood as an obstacle in his path towards God, falsifying his goal and encircling his march:

As fort the unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts which one parched with thirst mistakes for water, until, when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing: but he finds God (ever) with him (Qur'an, 24:38).

Are many lords (gods) differing among themselves better, or the One God, Supreme and Irresistible? If not Him, you worship nothing but names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which God has sent down no authority (Qur'an, 12: 39-40).

Such is God your Lord: to Him belongs all Dominion. And those whom you invoke besides Him have not the least power (Qur'an, 35:13).

If we consider the main slogan God put forth in this respect:

"There is no god but Allah," we will find out that it links the human march to the True Absolute One with the rejection of every artificial absolute. The history of the march, in its living reality, came across the ages to emphasize the organic link between this rejection and that strong and aware tie to God Almighty. For as far as he goes away from the True God, man sinks into the quagmire of different gods and lords. Both rejection and the positive link to "There is no god but Allah" are but two faces for one fact: the fact which is indispensable to the human march along its lengthy path. It is but the Truth which is worthy of saving the march from loss, helping it exploit all its creative energies, emancipating it from each and every false and obstructing absolute.

35

RITUALS ARE PRACTICAL EXPRESSIONS

Just as man was born carrying within him all potentials for the experience on life's stage, plus all seeds of its success, such as awareness, activity and conditioning, so was he born tied by nature to the Absolute One. This is so because his relationship with the Absolute One is one of the requirements of his own success whereby he overcomes the problems facing his civilized march, as we have already seen, and there is no experience more sustaining and inclusive, more meaningful, than this of Faith in man's life. It has been a phenomenon attached to man since time immemorial. During all stages of history, such a social and continuous attachment proves— through experience—that escaping towards the Absolute One, aspiring towards Him from beyond scopes lived by man, is a genuine inclination of man no matter how diversified the shapes of such inclination are, how different its methods and degrees of awareness.

But Faith, as an instinct, is not enough to guarantee bringing to reality an attachment, connection, to the Absolute One in its correct form, for that is linked to the Truth through the method of satisfying such an instinct. The correct behaviour in satisfying

it

in

a

manner

parallel

to

all

other

instincts

and inclinations, being in harmony with it, is the only guarantee of the ultimate benefit of man. Also, the behaviour according to or against an instinct is the one that fosters the instinct, deepens, eliminates or suffocates it. So do the seeds of mercy and compassion die within man's self through the continuous and practical sympathizing with the miserable, the wronged, and the poor.

From this point, Faith in God, the deep feeling of aspiring towards the unknown and the attachment to the Absolute One have all to have some direction which determines the manner of satisfying such feeling and the way to deepen it, fixing it in a way compatible with all other genuine feelings of man.

36

Without a direction, such feeling may have a setback and may be afflicted with various sorts of deviation, just like what happened to the strayed religious sentiment during most epochs of history.

Without a deepened conduct, such feeling may become minimized, and the attachment to the Absolute One ceases to be an active reality in man's life, one capable of exploiting good energies.

The religion which laid the slogan of "There is not god but Allah," promulgating with it both rejection and affirmation, is the director.

Rituals are factors which perform the role of deepening such feeling, for they are but a practical expression and a manifesta-tion of the religious instinct; through it this instinct grows and gets deepened in man's life.

We also notice that in accurate rituals—being a practical expression of the link to the Absolute One—both affirmation and rejection promulgate. They are, thus, a continuous confirma-tion from man to his link with God Almighty and the rejection of any other "absolute" of those false ones. When one starts his prayers by declaring that "God is Great" (Allahu Akbar), he confirms this rejection. And when he declares that God's Prophet is also His Servant-Slave and Messenger, he confirms this rejection. And when he abstains from enjoying the pleasures of life, abstaining from enjoying even the necessities of life for the sake of God (when he, for e.g., fasts), defying the temptations and their effects, he, too, confirms this rejection.

These rituals have succeeded in the practical sphere of bringing up generations of believers, at the hands of the Prophet ( ) ? and his succeeding pious leaders, those whose prayers embodied within their own selves the rejection of all evil powers

and

their

subjugation,

enslavement,

and

the

"absolutes" of Kisra [Khosroe] and Caesar got minimized before their march as did all "absolutes" of man's whims.

37

In this light do we come to know that worship is a fixed necessity in man's life and civilized march, for there can be no march without an "absolute" to whom it is linked, deriving from him its ideals. And there is no "absolute" that can absorb the march along its lengthy path except the True Absolute One (God), the Glorified One. Besides Him, artificial "absolutes"

definitely form, in one way or another, an absolute which curbs the march's growth. Attachment to the True Absolute One, then, is a fixed need. And there can be no attachment to the True Absolute One without a practical expression of this attachment, confirming it and continuously fixing it. Such a practical expression is none but worship. Therefore, worship is a fixed need.

38

SUBJECTIVITY OF PURPOSE AND SELF-DENIAL

In each stage of the human civilization, and in each period of man's life, people face numerous interests whose achievement requires a quantitative action to some degree. No matter how diversified the qualities of these interests are, or the manner of bringing them to life from one age to another is, they can still be divided into two types of interests:

One: interests the materialistic gains and outcomes of which go to the individual himself, on whose work and endeavour depends the achievement of that interest;

Two: interests the gain of which goes to those other than the direct worker or group to which he belongs. In this second type are included all sorts of labour which aim at an even bigger goal than the existence of the worker himself, for every big goal cannot be usually achieved except through the collective efforts and endeavours of a long period of time.

The first sort of interests guarantees the inner motive of the individual: its availability and effort to secure it, for as long as the worker is the one who reaps the fruits of the interest and directly enjoys it, it is natural to find in him the effort to secure it and to endeavour for its sake.

As for the second kind of interests, here the motive to secure these interests is not sufficient, for the interests here are not only the active worker's: Often his share of labour and hardship is greater than that of his share of the huge interest. From here, man needs an upbringing of subjectivity of purpose and self-denial in motive, i.e., that he must work for the sake of others, the group. In other words, he has to work for a purpose greater than his own existence and personal materialistic interest. Such an upbringing is necessary for the man of the electricity and atom age as it equally is for the man who used to fight with the sword and travel on camel-back. They both confront the worries of construction and of the great aims and situations which demand self-denial and working for the sake 39

of others, sowing the seeds the fruits of which may not be seen by the person who sowed them. It is necessary, then, to raise every individual to perform a portion of this labour and effort not merely for his own self and personal materialistic interests, so that he will be capable of contributing with self-denial, of aiming at a purely "objective" goal.

Rituals perform a large role in this upbringing. These, as we have already seen, are acts of man performed for the sake of achieving the pleasure of Almighty God. Therefore, they are in-valid if the worshipper performs them just for his own personal benefit. They are improper if the purpose behind them is personal glory, public applause, or a dedication for one's own ego, within his circle and environment. In fact, they even become unlawful acts deserving the punishment of the worshipper himself! All this is for the sake of the worshipper who tries, through his worship, to achieve an objective, a purpose, with all what this implies of truthfulness, sincerity; he must totally dedicate his worship to the Almighty God alone.

God's Path is purely one of serving all humanity. Each act performed for the sake of God is but an act for the sake of God's servants, for God is totally sufficient, independent of His servants. Since the True Absolute God is above any limit, specification, not related to any group or biased to any particular direction, His Path, then, practically equates that of ALL

mankind's. To work for God, and for God alone, is to work for people, for the good of all people, all mankind. It is a psychological and spiritual training that never ceases to function.

Whenever the juristic path of God is mentioned, it can be taken to mean exactly all mankind's path. Islam has made God's Path one of the avenues to spend Zakat, meaning thereby: to spend for all humanity's good and benefit. It also urged to fight for the Cause of God in defence of all the weak among humans, calling it Jihad, i.e., "fighting for the Path of God;"

Those who believe (in God) fight in the cause of God, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight 40

against the friends of Satan: Feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan. (Qur'an, 4:76).

Besides, if we come to know that worship demands different types of endeavour, as it sometimes imposes on man only some physical exertion, as in prayer, and sometimes psychological, as in fasting, and other times financial, as in Zakat, and in yet a fourth one an exertion on the level of self-sacrifice or braving danger, as in Jihad. If we come to know all of this, we will be able to figure the depth and capacity of the spiritual and psychological training practiced by man through different rituals for the objective purpose, for giving and contributing, for working for a higher goal in all different fields of human endeavour.

On this basis can you find the vast difference between a person who grew up on making endeavours to please God, brought up to labour without waiting for a compensation on the working grounds, and one who grew up always measuring a work according to the extent which he can achieve for his own personal benefit, basing it on the gain he gets from it, not comprehending—out of this measuring and estimating—except the language of figures and market prices. A person like this latter one can be none other than a merchant in his own social practices, regardless of their field or type.

Consider upbringing on the objective purpose. Islam has always tied the value of a work to its own motives, separating them from its outcomes. The value of an act in Islam is not in the results and gains it brings forth to the worker or to all people; rather, it is the motives behind it, their purity, objectivity and self-denial. For example, the person who reaches the discovery of a medicine for a dangerous disease, thus saving the lives of millions of patients. God does not evaluate his discovery according to the size of its results and the number of those patients it saves from death; rather He estimates it according to the feelings and desires which formulate within the discoverer the motive to make an effort to make that discovery.

If he did not make his effort except to get a privilege that enables him to sell it and gain millions of dollars, this deed of his 41

is not considered by God to be equal except to any other purely commercial deed: The egoistic logic of self-centered motives, just as they push him to discover a medicine for a chronic disease, may as well push him in the same degree to discover means of destruction if he finds a market that buys them. A deed is considered to be commendable and virtuous if the motives behind it go beyond the ego: if it is for the sake of God and the servants of God. According to the degrees of self-denial and the participation of God's servant in its making, a deed is elevated and highly evaluated.

42

THE INNER SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

If we observe humanity in any of its historical periods, we will find it following a particular system of life, a specific manner in distributing rights and responsibilities among people, and that is done according to the amount it acquires of securities for its members to cling to this system and to its implementation, thus it will be closer to stability and the achievement of the general goals expected from that system.

This fact is equally true concerning the future, as well as the past, for it is an established fact of man's civilized march along its lengthy trip.

Among the securities is that which is objective, such as pen-alties enforced by the group to punish the individual who transgresses beyond his limits. And among them is that which is inner, i.e., man's inner sense of responsibility towards his social obligations, towards whatever obligations the group demands of him, determining, spontaneously, his own rights.

In order to be an actual fact in man's life, the inner sense of responsibility needs the belief in an "overseer", "supervisor,"

from whose knowledge not an atom's weight on earth, beneath it, above it or in the sky escapes, and to a practical application through which such sense grows and according to which the feeling of such an inclusive supervision lays roots.

This "overseer" from whose knowledge not even an atom's weight escapes is created in man's life as a result of his link with the True Absolute One, the all-Knowing, the Omnipotent, the One Whose knowledge encompasses everything. This link with His self saves man the need for such supervision, thus enabling the creation of an inner sense of responsibility.

The practical application, through which this inner sense of responsibility grows, materializes through practicing rituals: Worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and by this we mean that checking it externally is impossible. Any external 43

measures to enforce it can never be successful, for it stands through the self's own purpose and the spiritual attachment to work for God; this is a matter which cannot be included in the calculation of a subjective supervision from the outside, nor can any legal measure guarantee that either. Rather, the only capable supervision in this respect is the one resulting from the attachment to the Absolute One, the Unseen, the One from Whose knowledge nothing escapes. The only possible assur-ance on this level is the inner sense of responsibility. This means that the person who practices worship is performing a duty which differs from any other social obligation or project such as when he borrows and pays back, or when he con-tracts and adheres to the terms. When he borrows money from others and he returns it to the creditor, he performs a duty which lies within the range of social supervision's monitoring; hence, his estimation of the predicament of social reaction dictates to him the decision to do so.

The ritual duty towards the Unknown is one whose inner implication none knows except God, the Praised, the Omnipotent, for it is the result of the inner sense of responsibility. Through religious practices, such an inner feeling grows, and man gets used to behaving according to it. Through the medium of such feeling can we find the good citizen. It is not sufficient for good citizenship that a person is anxious to perform others' legal rights only because of his apprehension of the social reaction towards him should he be reluctant to do so. Rather, good citizenship is achieved by the man who does not relax his own inner sense of responsibility.

In Islam, we notice that it is often recommended to perform optional rituals privately, rather than publicly. There are even rituals which are secretive by nature such as fasting, for it is an inner curb which cannot be checked externally. There are rituals for which a secretive environment is chosen, avoiding the public stage, such as the nightly Nafl optional prayers the performance of some of which requires after midnight timing

[such as salat al-layl, night prayers]. All this is for the sake of deepening the aspect of worshipping the Unseen, linking it more and more to the inner sense of responsibility. Thus, this 44

feeling gets deepened through the practice of rituals, and man gets used to behaving on its basis, forming a strong guarantee for the good individual's performance of his duties and obligations.

45

CASTING A GENERAL LOOKS AT RITUALS

If we cast a general look at the rituals we have observed in this book, compari ng them with each other, we can then derive some general impressions about these rituals. Here are some of these general impressions/outlooks.

46

THE UNSEEN IN EXPLAINING RITUALS

We came to know previously the important role worship plays in man's life and that it expresses a fixed need along his civilized march.

From another aspect: If we scrutinize and analyze the particulars, the details, in the light of advanced science, we will then be acquainted with the pieces of wisdom and secrets which Islamic jurisprudence expresses in this regard and which modern science has been able to discover.

This wonderful agreement between the outcomes of modern science and many particulars of Islamic jurisprudence, and whatever rules and regulations it decides, expresses an amazing support for the position of this jurisprudence, deeply emphasizing its being God-inspired.

In spite of all of this, however, we quite often face unseen points in worship, i.e., a group of details whose secrets cannot be comprehended by the person practicing worship, nor can he interpret them materialistically; for why must sunset prayer rite be three prostrations while the noon-time prayer is more than that? And why should each rek'a include bowing down once instead of twice, two prostrations instead of one? Other questions of this sort can also be put forth.

We call such an aspect of worship, which cannot be interpreted, "unseen." We find this aspect, in one manner or another, in most rituals brought forth by the Islamic jurisprudence.

From here, we can consider obscurity in the meaning we have already mentioned as a general phenomenon in rituals and one of their common characteristics.

This obscurity is linked to the rituals and to their imposed role jointly, for the role of these rituals, as we have already come to know, is to emphasize the attachment, the link, the connection, to the Absolute One and to deepen it practically.

The bigger the element of submission and yielding in a worship 47

is, the stronger its effect in deepening the link between the worshipper and his Lord. If the deed practiced by the worshipper is understood in all its dimensions, if it becomes clear in its wisdom and benefit in all details, the element of submission and yielding gets minimized, and it will be dominated by motives of profit and benefit seeking, no more a worship of God as much as it is a deed of seeking a benefit practiced by the worshipper so that he might derive advantage out of it, profiting by its results.

Just as the spirit of obedience and attachment in the soldier grows, getting deepened through military training, by giving him orders and requiring him to perform them with obedience and without discussion, so does the feeling of the worshipping person grow, getting deepened in its attachment to his Lord through requiring him to practice these rituals in their unseen aspects with submission and surrendering. Submitting and surrendering require the assumption of the existence of an unseen aspect and the attempt not to question this unseen aspect of worship. Demanding its interpretation and limitation of interest means stripping worship of its reality—as a practical expression of submission and obedience—and measuring it by measurements of benefit and profit like any other ordinary deed.

We notice that this obscurity is almost ineffective in rituals representing a great general, public, benefit, one that conflicts with the personal interest of the worshipper, as is the case with Jihad which serves a great public purpose which collides with the desire of the individual performing it to preserve his own life and blood, and also in the case of Zakat which represents a great interest contrasting the strong desire of the person paying it to keep his wealth and money for himself. The issue of Jihad is very well understood by the person performing it, and the issue of Zakat is generally understood by the person who pays it: Neither Jihad nor Zakat thus loses any element of submission and obedience (to God), for the difficulty of sacrificing life and possession is what makes man's acceptance of a worship—for which he sacrifices both life and possession—is indeed a great deal of submission and obedience. Add to this 48

the fact that Jihad and Zakat as well as similar rituals are not meant to be merely aspects of upbringing just for the individual, but they also are for the achievement of social benefits which they secure. Accordingly, we observe that obscurity is highlighted more and more in rituals dominated by the educating aspect of the individual, such as prayer and fasting.

Thus do we derive the conclusion that the unseen in worship is strongly linked to its educating role in attaching the individual to his Lord, deepening his relationship with this Lord.

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INCLUSION IN WORSHIP

When we observe the different Islamic rituals, we find in them an element of inclusion of all different aspects of life.

Rituals have never been limited to specific norms, nor have they been restricted to only needs which embody the manner of glorifying God, the Praised, the High, like bowing, prostrat-ing, praying and invoking; rather, they have been extended to include all aspects of human activity. Jihad, for example, is a rite. It is a social activity. Zakat is a rite. It, too, is a social activity, a financial one. Fasting is a rite. It is a nutritional system. Both ablution and Ghusul (ceremonial bathing) are norms of worship. They are two ways of cleansing the body. This inclusion of worship expresses a general trend of Islamic upbringing aiming at linking man, in all his deeds and activities, to the Almighty God, converting each useful deed into an act of worship, no matter in what field or type. In order to find a fixed basis for this trend, fixed rituals were distributed to the different fields of human activity, preparing man to train himself on pouring the spirit of worship over all his good activities, and the spirit of the mosque over all places of his actions: in the field, factory, shop or office, as long as his deed is a good one, for the sake of God, the Glorified, the Sublime.

In this respect, Islamic jurisprudence differs from two other religious trends: One is a trend to separate worship from life, and the other is a trend to limit life to a narrow frame of worship as do monks and mystics.

As for the first trend, it separates worship from life, leaving worship to be conducted at places made especially for it. It requires man to be present in these places in order to pay God His dues and worship Him, so much so that when he gets out of them to different aspects of life, he bids worship farewell, giving himself up to the affairs of his life until he goes back again to those holy places.

From here came Islamic jurisprudence to distribute the rituals on the different aspects of life, urging the practice of 50

rituals in every good deed. It explains to man that the difference between the mosque, which is God's house, and man's home is not in the quality of building or label; rather, the mosque has deserved to be God's house because it is the yard whereupon man practices a deed that goes beyond his ego and from which he aims at a bigger goal than that dictated by the logic of limited materialistic gains, and that this yard ought to extend to include all life's stages. Each yard, whereupon man does a deed that goes beyond his self, his ego, aiming thereby to achieve the pleasure of God and to please all people, does, indeed, carry the mosque's spirit.

As for the second trend, which restricts life in a narrow frame of worship, it tries to confine man to the mosque instead of extending the meaning of the mosque to include all yards which witness a good deed of man.

This trend believes that man lives an inner conflict between his soul and body, and that he cannot accomplish one of these two, the duality of worship and the different activities of life, for they paralyze worship itself, obstructing its constructive upbringing role in developing man's motives and in achieving the objective, enabling him to go beyond his ego and narrow personal interests in various scopes of his deeds. God, the Glorified and Praised One, never insisted on being worshipped for the sake of His own Person, since He is independent of His worshippers, so that He would be satisfied with a worship of this sort, nor did He ever put Himself as the goal and objective of the human march, so that man may bow his head down to Him within the scope of his worship, and that is it! Rather, He meant such worship to build the good person who is capable of going beyond his ego, participating in a bigger role in the march. The exemplary achievement of this goal cannot be reached except when the spirit of worship gradually extends to other activities of life, for its extension—as we have already seen—means an extension of objectivity of purpose and the inner feeling of responsible behaviour, the ability to go beyond the self, to be in harmony with man within this inclusive cosmic frame, with eternity, immortality that both encompass him.

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This is to be done unless it is at the cost of the other [the interest of the worshipper himself]. Therefore, in order for him to spiritually grow and to be elevated, he has to deprive his body from the good things, to shrink his presence on life's stage to continuously combat his desires and aspirations in different aspects of life, until he finally achieves victory over all of them through long abstention and deprivation as well as the practice of certain rituals.

Islamic jurisprudence rejects this trend, too, because it wants rituals for the sake of life. Life cannot be confiscated for the sake of rituals. At the same time, it tries hard to ensure that a good man pours the spirit of worship over all of his norms of behaviour and activity. This must not be taken to imply that he has to stop his different activities in life and confine himself to the altar's walls; rather, it means that he converts all his activities into rituals.

The mosque is only a base from which a good man sets to conduct his daily behaviour, but it is not limited to that behaviour alone.

The Holy Prophet (?) has said once to Abu Tharr al-Ghifari:

"If you are able to eat and drink for the sake of none save God, then do so!" Thus, worship serves life. Its upbringing and religious success is determined by its extension, in meaning and in spirit, to all aspects of life.

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WORSHIP AND THE SENSE

Man's perception is not merely through his senses, nor is it merely an intellectual and non-material reasoning. It is a mixture of reasoning plus material and non-material feeling. When worship is required to perform its function in a way with which man interacts perfectly, one which is in harmony with his character, worship becomes comprised of one's mind and senses; worship, then, must contain a sensitive aspect and a non-material intellect, so that it will be compatible with the worshipper's personality, and the worshipper, while performing his worship, thus comes to live his attachment to the Absolute One through all his existence.

From here, the intention, as well as the psychological conten-tion of worship, always represents its intellectual and non-material aspect, for it links the worshipper to the True Absolute One, the Praised, the High. There are other aspects of worship which represent its material aspect:

The qibla towards the direction of which each worshipper must face while praying;

The Haram [Ka'ba in Mecca], which is visited by both those who perform the pilgrimage and the Umrah, around which they both perform tawaf; The Safa and Marwah, between which he runs; Jamratul Aqabah, at which he casts stones; The Mosque, which is a place specifically made for worship, one in which the worshipper practices his worship.

All these are things related to the senses and tied to worship: There is no prayer without a qibla, nor tawaf without a Haram, and so on, for the sake of satisfying the part related to the senses in the worshipper and giving it its right and share of worship.

This is the midway direction in organizing worship and coining it according to man's instincts as well as particular intellectual and sensual composition.

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Two other directions face him: One of them goes to the extreme in bringing man to his senses, if the expression is accurate at all, treating him as if he had been a non-material intellect, opposing all sensual expressions of his within worship's sphere. As long as the True Absolute One, the Praised One, has no limited place or time, nor can He be represented by a stat-ute; then worshipping Him has to stand on such a premise, and in the manner which enables the comparative thinking of man to address the Absolute One Truth.

Such a trend of thinking is not approved by Islamic jurisprudence, for in spite of its concern about the intellectual aspects brought forth by the hadith that says: "An hour's contemplation is better than a year's adoration," it also believes that pious worship, no matter how deep, cannot totally fill man's self or occupy his leisure, nor can it attach him to the Absolute One Truth in all his existence, for man has never been purely a mere intellect.

From this realistic and objective starting point, rituals in Islam have been based on both intellectual and sensuous premises. The person who performs his prayers practices through his intention an intellectual adoration, denying his Lord any limits or measurements, or anything like that. For when he starts his prayer with " Allaho Akbar!" (God is Great), while taking at the same time the holy Ka'ba as his divine slogan towards which he directs his feelings and movements, he lives worship by both intellect and feeling, logic and emotion, non-materialistically as well as intellectually.

The other trend goes to the extreme when it comes to the part relevant to the senses, changing the slogan to an identity and the hint to reality, causing the worship of the symbol to substitute what the symbol really stands for, and the direction towards it instead of the reality to which it points; thus, the worshipper sinks, in one way or another, into shirk and paganism.

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Such a trend totally annihilates the spirit of worship, and it stops its function as a tool linking man and his civilized march to the True Absolute One, converting it into a tool for linking him to false absolutes, to symbols which changed—through false intellectual stripping of the matter—to an absolute. Thus, false worship becomes a veil between man and his Lord, instead of a link between both of them.

Islam has rejected such a trend because Islam indicted paganism in all its forms, smashing its idols and putting an end to all false gods, refusing to take any limited object as a symbol for the Truly Absolute One, God, the Glorified, or as a personification of Him. Yet it deeply distinguished between the meaning of the idol which it crushed and that of the Qibla it brought forth the meaning of which conveys nothing more than a particular geographic spot which happens to have been divinely favoured through linking it to prayers for the sake of satisfying the worshipper's aspect relevant to the senses. Paganism is really nothing but a deviated attempt to satisfy such an aspect, and Islamic jurisprudence has been able to correct it, providing a straight path in harmonizing between the worship of God, as being dealing with the Absolute One Who has neither limit nor personification, and the need of man who is composed of feeling and intellect to worship God by both of his feeling and intellect!

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4

Chapter

CONCLUSION: THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF

WORSHIP

Essentially, worship represents the relationship between man and his Lord. It provides this relationship with elements of survival and stability. This has been formulated in the Islamic jurisprudence in a way which often made it an instrument for the relationship between man and his brother man, and this is what we call the social aspect of worship.

Some rituals, by nature, force segregation and the establishment of social relations among those who practice that ritual.

For example, Jihad requires those worshippers fighting for God to establish among themselves such relations as would naturally happen among the corps of a fighting army.

There are other rituals which do not necessarily impose congregating, but in spite of this, they are linked, in one way or another, to congregation in order to bring forth a mixture between man's relation with his Lord and his own relationship with his brethren men.

Among prayers' rituals is the congregation, in which the individual's prayer becomes a group's worship, strengthening the ties among the group, deepening the spiritual links among them through their unity in practicing rituals.

The tenet of pilgrimage has definite timings and places, and each participant in it has to practice it within those timings and places; hence, such participation evolves as a great social activity.

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Even the tenet of fasting, which by nature is a purely individual act, is tied to the fitr Feast, as the social facet of this tenet, uniting its participants in their ecstasy of vanquishing their desires and inclinations! While siding by man's relation with his Lord, the tenet of zakat creates spontaneously a relation between him and his patron to whom he pays it, or to the poor man, or to the charitable project channeled directly by zakat. So do we observe that the social relation is found in this way or the other side by side with the relation between the worshipper and his Lord in performing one ritualistic practice of a social role in man's life, and it cannot be considered successful except when it becomes a dynamic force properly directing whatever social relations it faces.

The social aspect of worship reaches its zenith through whatever slogans worship puts forth on the social stage as spiritual symbol to the nation's unity, feeling of genuinity and distinction. The qiblah or haram House, is but a slogan put forth by Islamic jurisprudence through its legislation of worship and prayers.

Such a slogan has not been taken as merely a religious dimension, but it also has its social dimension as the symbol of this nation's unity and genuinity. Therefore, when this jurisprudence legislated for them their new qibla, Muslims faced a great deal of harassment from the mongers, as the Holy Qur'an states, for those mongers realized the social implication of this jurisprudence, and that it was a phenomenon which endowed the nation its personality, making it an even nation: Thus have We made of you an ummah justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Apostle a witness over yourselves; and We appointed the qiblah to which thou wast used, only to test those who followed the Apostle from those who would turn on their heels (from the Faith).

Indeed it was (a change). And never would Allah make your faith of momentous, except to those guided by Allah. no effect.

Allah is to all people most surely full of kindness, most Merciful. We see the turning of thy face (for guidance) to the 57

heavens: now shall We turn thee to a qiblah that shall please thee. Turn then thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque: wherever ye are, turn your faces in that direction … (Qur'an, 2:143-144)

These are just few remarks on rites in Islamic jurisprudence.

In addition to all this, there are other general important lines representing the role of rites in man's life and their social character istics as we have discussed above, the roles and detailed particulars of each rite. For each rite brought forth by Islamic jurisprudence there are effects, characteristics and hues of output for the worshipper, and for man's civilized march as a whole. There is no room here to deal with that in detail. Therefore, we leave the roles, detailed particulars and the exposition of axioms and benefits implied in the instructions of the legis-lator concerning each of these Islamic rites to another level of discourse. We have already given some of our students permission to cover that. From God do we derive assistance, and Him do we implore not to deprive us of the honour of worshipping Him, praying Him to reckon us and His pleased servants, to forgive us through His Mercy and Bounty; verily, His Mercy has encompassed all things:

Why should I not worship Him Who has created me, and to Him do ye return?! (Qur'an, 36:22)

The first edition of this book was completed on Jamadi alAwwal 2, 1396 Hijri/April 18 (according to the Julian calendar, or the May 1st according to the Gregorian calendar), 1976.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds; prayers and sa-lutations upon Muhammed and all the purely-guided ones from among his progeny.

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5

Chapter

MARTYR AMINA HAIDAR AL-SADR "BINT

AL-HUDA" By Bayān Ubayd al-Urayyid, Ph.D.1

The issue of the Muslim woman and her role in life and society, and what the limits of this role are, has been one of the hot issues over which goals and slogans of political currents have been fighting. These currents have used their media frontal as means to submit the

1 Dr. Bayan Ubayd al-Urayyid was born in al-Najaf al-Ashraf in 1959. She earned her B.A. from Baghdad University in 1981, her M.A. in 2006 and her Ph.D. in 2012, specializing in interna-tional relations and contemporary Islamic media. She has worked in the press field since 1979 as an investigative writer, particularly in issues related to women, culture, education and politics. Among her works is a book on the Omani American relations (Dar al-Jawahiri, Baghdad, 2013). This essay was originally written in Arabic and I translated it. —Tr.

"ideas of liberation", that is, from their own viewpoint, and the need to activate woman's role in all fields of life, originate from foreign made convictions that woman was robbed by Islam and Islamic teachings of many of her personal liberties and creativity.1

Exchanged arguments and charges between the secular and atheist currents on the one hand, and the Islamic current on the other, formed part of a doctrinal culture during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th Century2, prompting Islamist writers, including theologians, to write books to rebut 59

these charges which were directed at the woman's relationship with the Islamic creed which raised her status and social value.

In such political atmospheres, male pens confronted the Islamic propagation work in all its types and means, and Iraq, as was the case with other Islamic area countries, was seldom lucky to have feminist pens that would write and innovate in this regard. The matter becomes understandable if we discern the early beginnings for the appearance of feminist press which rose and flourished on the Egyptian field first at the turn of the 20th Century with direct support from the British occupation and under its auspices3. From the year 1892, when Le-banese Hind Nouvelle published the Fatāt (young lady) magazine as the first Arab woman-owned magazine in Egypt, and the year 1913 when there were no less than fifteen feminist magazines. Numerical superiority in this new press field was the lot of non-Muslim women. This phenomenon was the most that attracted attention with regard to the beginnings of feminist writing at the time.4 Of course, 1 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman: Concerns and Challenges, Dar AlHadi for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, first edition, 1428 A.H./2007 A.D., Beirut, p. 10.

2 Nizar Haidar Atiyyah, a/m (above mentioned), p. 254.

3 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, p. 15.

4 Names surfaced for female editors such as Mary Ajami (En-trepreneur of the subjects of those publications were as far from the teachings of Islam as they could be.

The same situation existed with regard to the first feminist publications in Iraq which tried to follow in the footsteps of their Arab peers: We could not trace feminist pens and books about the social values and Islamic virtues, notwithstanding the fact that the press world reflected an honest image of a society that started leaning towards disintegration and the abandonment of its Islamic constants in the pretext of fighting backwardness and in order to set out towards modernization and contemporization.

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In the 1930s of the 20th Century, radio warbled as an effective weapon for disseminating those ideas with the popular song of "O one wearing the cloak! Do take off your cloak!" so the veil battle and taking it off would shift from the pages of newspapers to people's ears and minds, and literature adopted the path towards existentialism and the existentialists. The educated elite, writers and poets started composing their poetry and literature and writing articles that contained neither modesty or pristine values. Here is their stark role model, Poet Hussain Mardan (1927 – 1972), publishing his first collection of poems in 1949 under the label "Naked Poems", dedicating them to himself. Among its contents is this text: I suckled lewdness from my mother's breast, And I was reared in the darkness of vice, So I learned everything,

but I Remain ignorant of the meaning of virtue!1

Bride Magazine), Julia Tùhmah, a Damascene ( New Woman), Iskandara (Alexandra) Avrino ( Anis Al-Jillees), in addition to the rest of names: Rose el-Yousuf, May Ziyada, Olivia Àreeda and others. For more, see: Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 16.

1 A/m, p. 24.

In the tumult of those years, which were rife with ideas and counter ideas, the pioneer of the feminist Islamic media in Iraq was born in the most fragrant and deeply rooted house, and I do not think that she knew that she would one day become a media pioneer. Actually, most references, books and researches which wrote about her sailed with her in fields of Islamic pioneering, in jihad and in martyrdom, in pioneering the Islamic, social, intellectual and educational feminist endeavor, but they did not do justice to her distinctive leadership of the feminist Islamic media. This woman is the martyred Āmina al-Sadr, Bint al-Huda.

Our media pioneer belongs to a huge and unparalleled family legacy: It is the chain of the Sadr family which is regarded as one of the most staunch scholarly families that produced many 61

renown men whose fame covered the horizons and whose reputation spread in the Arab and Islamic world.1 Her honorable lineage goes back to Prophet Muhammed. This family is famous for its numerous scholars of theology who proved their genius in the fields of religion, jurisprudence, jihad and politics.2

1 Salah al-Kharsan, Imam Sayyid Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr, p. 16.

2 The list includes Sayyid Hassan al-Sadr, one of the great scholars of alKazimiyya. He had an opinion on the jihad movement which was almost distinguished him among the rest of Imami scholars. He died in Baghdad - Karkh on Thursday, June 12, 1935. He is maternal uncle of Sayyid Haidar, father of Sayyid

Muhammed-Baqir

al-Sadr,

as

well

as

Sayyid

Muhammed al-Sadr who took over for several cycles serving as Speaker of the Senate [during Iraq's monarchy], and he used to perform the functions of head of the Prosecution Authority for the king and his crown prince during their absence outside Iraq. He formed the cabinet of ministers on January 29, 1948.

This was the first time in the history of the Iraqi ministries that a religious scholar assumed the presidency of the government.

He also was the one who protected the royal family after the events of May of 1941. This is the origin of a popular Iraqi mar-tial song saying "The Sayyid's house is secure".

Sayyid

Muhammed al-Sadr died on April 3, 1956. See: Salah al-Kharsan, Imam Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr, p. 34.

From an honorable descent to an honorable and holy birthplace [al-Kazimiyya city], the martyred ìlwiyya lady, Āmina Haidar al-Sadr, incorporated the purity of both foun-tains. She was born on Muharram 19, 1356 A.H./April 1 [according to the Gregorian calendar, the equivalent of the 19th of March according to the Julian calendar] of 19371 in the shade of the minarets of al-Kazimiyya and both its golden minarets. She was given the name "Āmina" [Aamina] in honor of the mother of the Holy Prophet, Muhammed2. Sayyid Haidar al-Sadr, her father, was one of the senior scholars of Islam in Iraq, and he died when his only daughter was two years old.3

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As for her mother, she belongs to a prestigious family of knowledge and scholarship, one well known in religious circles, and she is sister of the religious authority Ayatollah Shaikh MuhammedRidha Āl Yasin. Her eldest brother, Sayyid Ismaèel al-Sadr (right picture), took her in his guardianship, looked after her and raised her since she was a child. As for her brother, the senior

1 Some references make the mistake of placing the Hijri date of her birth in 1356. For more information, refer to Muhammed al-Hassoun - Umm Ali Mashkur, "Àlam al-Nisaa al-Mu'minat", The Information Media of Believing Women, Dar al-Usra for Printing and Publishing, Iran, second edition: 1431, p. 89 ; Rasheed al-Qassam, Shaheedat al-Àqeeda wal Mabda', Batalat al-Àsr (martyr of faith and principle, Bint al-Huda, champion of the era), Al-Nibras - Laith for Publication, first edition, 1424

A.H./2007 A.D., p. 12.

2 Ahmed al-Àmili, a/m, Volume One, p. 81.

3 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 12. Some sources indicate that she was orphaned when she was one year old, and in a testimony by her mother, the latter states that her daughter was a suckling infant when her father passed away. See: Ahmed al-

Àmili, p. 106].

religious authority, martyr Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr, he was the twin of her soul1, and he is the one who drew the path of Islamic salvation for her and its broad outlines when she was a little girl then as a grown-up youth. His role has been the greatest in building her distinctive personality, coining her thoughts and encouraging her to delve into the world of writing, authorship and woman work in all its educational, social and movement dimensions.2

As is the case with historical biographies of great men, a researcher will be in awe of this creative human monument who was not founded by a school or a university. Martyr Bint alHuda studied at home the sciences of grammar, logic, jurisprudence and the principles of the faith side by side the conventional sciences taught at public schools. Thus, she combined modern study and the study of Islamic types of knowledge3, all 63

under the ample care of her mother, brother and maternal uncles. She, thus, did not receive any education or culturing from anyone other than both her brothers till she grew up, matured and became the one to open learning and education circles for the daughters of the faithful.

1 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, p. 255. (Bint al-Huda had jihadi positions with her brother, martyr Sayyid al-Sadr, with whom she was strongly connected, so much so that she said,

"My life is from my brother's life, and it will end with his life's end, if Allah so wills." See: Ahmed alÀmili, a/m, Vol. 1, p. 81].

2 Fatima al- Iraqi, Diary of a Female Prisoner (Red Pages from a Forgotten History), Vol. One, Documentary Center for Female Martyrs of the Islamic Movement in Iraq, House of Jurisprudence, Fadel Press, first edition, Holy Qum, 2003, p. 51.

3 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 90. (Some notifications have stated that her mother sent her, when they were in Kazimiyya, when she was six, to the mulla (a woman who teaches girls of her age the Holy Qur'an). On the first day when Āmina (Bint al-Huda) entered the house of that mulla, she noticed the oven lit and the fire flames were rising, making a noise that scared her. She, therefore, returned to her mother obtrusive of learning in any house other than that of her parents, and so it was.) See: Ahmed alÀmili, a/m, p. 106.

Lady Bint al-Huda testified to her brothers' care, especially that of her martyred brother, Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr, who did not stop for one day looking after her, teaching and nurturing her up to the last day of her life. She says the following in his praise: "I am glad for the special circumstances that were available for me and enabled me to aspire to build a generation of believing educators who can serve Islam in the best possible way. Thanks to Allah Almighty and to the closeness of my brother from whom I get the guidance regarding how to work, the sound and suitable visions on the one hand, and the in-depth culture and sound understanding of Islam, on the other.

I referred to him regarding anything which I found to be difficult, and I got from him the best that can be attained, especially in juristic and ideological matters, and this is a great blessing for which I must thank Allah."1

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Martyr Āmina al-Sadr was a preserving container for all genius, brilliance and effort which her brother exerted to attain and nurture. This is the source of amazement of anyone who knew her and who sensed her leadership, starting from those who founded her preliminary formulating, including writer Dr.

Bint al-Shaati who met her in al-Najaf and asked her, "From which college did you graduate?" With a promising smile, the martyr answered, "I am the graduate of our house's school."

Dr. Bint al-Shaati was shocked at this stunning surprise which she did not expect to hear, finding herself standing before an Islamic thinker who never went to school.2

Despite the significant role which her martyred brother, Sayyid Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr, played in building and pol-ishing her personality, coining her ideas and encouraging her to write, author and shoulder media and feminist work, one cannot overlook the reality of her brilliant character and distinctive features with which she was known since her childhood such as: fiery intelligence, quick

1 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 76.

2 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 66.

memorizing and the ability to convince and attract. Any woman who saw her and listed to her speech and logic would admire her and become one of her fans.1 She is the sister of the struggling martyr, Sayyid al-Sadr, but she at the same time is Bint al-Huda, the personality that is full of distinction, ambition and fusion into Islam's nectar and beauty. Had she not been so, she would not have benefitted from martyr al-Sadr at all. How many sisters have religious authorities and great men had by whom history passed, yet they did not reach the leadership and sacrifice which martyr Bint al-Huda reached?2

Her passion for books started early, so the martyred Bint alHuda became an avid reader of religious books and modern works which broadened her knowledge of many matters. This opened before her distant scopes in the forefront of which is studying the society and diagnosing the ills of the Muslim 65

woman in Iraq and the Islamic world, how incoming ideologies and Western culture invaded the circles of the Muslim society, trying to influence the way women in particular thought. Narrating her memories of childhood, she says, “When I was little, our financial condition was very poor, yet I had a daily allow-ance of ten fils. I used to save this modest amount of money every day then go to the market to buy a book about Islam. I had a friend who used to do the same, i.e. saving her daily allowance, but she would buy another book. We, therefore, would read each other’s book once either of us is through reading hers.”3

1 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 90. (One of the believing sisters living in London who was one of those who attended lectures by martyr Bint alHuda in Karrada says, "I used to wear jeans and a tight shirt. I never thought for one day that there was someone who could convince me of wearing the hijab and of changing my lifestyle. But after listening to lectures by martyr Bint al-Huda in Karrada, I was convinced about wearing hijab and truly committing myself to Islam." See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 74.

2 A/m, p. 70.

3 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 256.

Thus was martyr Āmina daughter of Sayyid Haidar al-Sadr, who is better known by her pen name “Bint al-Huda,” daughter of guidance, able to give herself a high level of education in the Islamic Culture and expand the scope of her education through exerting more effort, research and self-education. This act is not unusual for a girl who grew up in a religious house and a conservative environments, first in Kazimiyya, her birthplace, then in Najaf. She opened her eyes to find her brother and role model, Martyr Muhammed-Baqir1 son of Sayyid Haidar alSadr, pursuing the same approach.2 He used to keep himself informed of the Islamic books published in the 1940s as well as of a number of newspapers and magazines, but he did not have sufficient funds to buy new unused books. He, therefore, used to go to public libraries. With his sister Āmina, he used to collect whatever little money they would acquire to buy a used 66

book. After they both had read it, absorbing its contents, they would sell it in order to buy another book, and so on.

On one occasion, he entered a public library in Najaf and asked for a book about philosophy, one comprehended only by those who are deeply acquainted with philosophy. Those present wondered about him. One of them asked him a tough question in philosophy, promising that he would give him the book he wanted free of charge if he could answer it correctly.

It was then that al-Sadr provided a detailed answer that stunned the audience, leaving them baffled and at a loss.3

1 Some people erroneously think that the first name of martyr al-Sadr is “Muhammed” and that that of his father is

“Baqir”. This is wrong. His name is compound, i.e. a combination of both “Muhammed” and “Baqir”. There are numerous compound

names

in

Arabic:

Abd-Allah

or

Abdullah,

Muhammed-Ali,

Muhammed-Hussain,

Muhammed-Mahdi,

MuhammedSadiq…, Abdul-Khaliq, Abdul-Zahra, Abdul-Rida…, etc. The name of alSadr’s father is Haidar. – Tr.

2 Islamic Dàwa Party, Imam Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, one of the publications of the media center, Dar al-Ùloom Press, Baghdad, Iraq, a/m, 1426 A.H./2005 A.D., p. 29.

3 Hassan al-Saeed, Martyr Imam Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr: the symbol

An elementary outcome resulted from this approach since the early days of works written by martyr Bint al-Huda. It pointed to her early readiness to delve into the field of book writing, authorship and the media as a whole. Here she is at eleven excelling in a small cultural magazine the topics of which are versatile and rich in context. She duplicated by hand as many of its articles as she could which she distributed to her relatives and neighbors.1

This early genius made martyr Bint al-Huda feel comfortable with her outpouring pen to write and write, for this became her only form of entertainment. Rather, she was able to employ her pen in translating whatever she liked of Islamic thoughts, 67

writing and producing an Islamic intellectual output that took control of her full attention. She, therefore, started translating a book by Martyr Mutahhari about the issue or philosophy of hijab because she realized its benefit and urgent necessity on the woman's field in Iraq.2

Martyr Bint al-Huda's delving into the world of writing and the media was not to satisfy a personal desire for recognition or fame, or to be occupied by writing for the sake of writing.

Rather, she found the media field in need of an Islamic female pen that would address a huge amount of opposing and contending writings which were pushing woman in the direction of aversion towards her values and to be distant from the teachings of her religion.

and the issue, a/m, p. 24.

1 Ahmed al-Àmili, Vol. 1, a/m, p. 106.

2 A/m, p. 108.

She, therefore, followed this blessed path. So we find her writings bearing a new spirit and a clear mentality combined with lucidity and ease in tackling the problems of her contemporary life. Her writings targeted woman's suffering from the aspects of culture, education and society. She attempted to treat the society's religious and political problems. From here, we can describe Bint al-Huda as a media pioneer in the field of objective writing that aims at educating the Muslim woman where nobody ever preceded her in so doing in this field. In her writings, she dealt with everything that would guarantee the Muslim woman's dignity and fortify her from deviation and loss in a transforming society which did not grant woman her anticipated role.1

After the July 14, 1958 revolution, atmospheres in Iraq became widespread, sentiments with which the society was never familiar, especially on the level of values and the social fabric.

The Muslim woman was in the front row of the victims of that serious transformation. Bint al-Huda, for this reason, undertook on her shoulders the responsibility to confront the wave of Westernization and social disintegration through articles which 68

she wrote for the Adhwā’ (Lights) magazine (pictured here)2

round which she was keen about rallying until it ceased publication in late 1960s.3 Also, she contributed articles for the Al-Iman magazine of Najaf which was published by Shaikh Mousa al-Yàqoobi.4

Her writings were responsible for providing the women's base with advanced Islamic ideologies, giving a clear vision of the Muslim

1 Imam Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, a/m, p. 29.

2 I found the graph on this page for the first issue of the Adhwā’ magazine on the site of His Eminence Sayyid Muhammed-Hussain Kashifal-Ghitaa logo of whose Library is shown on the next page. – Tr.

3 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 256.

4 Imam Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr: the religious authority, thinker and leader, a/m, p. 29.

woman's role in an Islamic society that is the most exem-plary1 in addition to her objective articles about woman's affairs, her suffering from backwardness, injustice, ignorance and persecution. The Adhwā’ magazine used to publish her narrative writings, so she became truly the pride of the Islamist writers.2

Journalistic writing was to Bint al-Huda one of the methods of religious propagation and social change which the Islamic movement in general and the religious Marjiìyya3 in particular, to which the martyred lady belonged, anticipated. As soon as she knew that the first issue of the Adhwā magazine was coming out, she took the initiative to write a high quality article in which she urged young Muslim girls to uphold the teachings of the Islamic faith and not be dragged behind the immoralities of the Western civilization.4 Let us take a look at this statement of hers: "How badly we nowadays need, as our beloved Message is subjected to various trials and tribulations, to raise the torch of the Islamic call and to invest in the sciences which we learn in order to get to know the path of 69

propagation through wisdom and beautiful exhortation, to always and forever remember that our Prophet of Mercy had ad-monished us to seek knowledge, making it an 1 Haidar Nazar Atiyyah, a/m, p. 253.

2 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p.. 15.

3 The term "marjiìyya" refers to the highest religious authority in the Shià School of Muslim Law. – Tr.

4 The articles of Martyr Bint al-Huda appeared under borrowed signatures such as Bint al-Huda from which she derived her reputation, and she was known by "Umm al-Walaa (mother of loyalty), as well as by the initials "AH" (Āmina Haidar) and

"AHĀ" (Āmina Haidar Āl-Yasin).

obligation on every Muslim male and female. The purpose has always been so that the Muslim woman would attain her share of inviting to Islam's principles and eternal system, and so that she would be able to withstand the attacks of interest seekers and repel the skeptics' propaganda. She must not leave herself exposed to the winds to turn her yellow or red, eastern or western, but so she may tread the blessed Straight Path. We must uphold Islam as a religion, a principle and a system, to understand it so we may see in it everything which we anticipate: progress, advancement and prosperity. So, do not be a parasite on intrusive principles and imported ideologies."1

Employing an attractive literary style and honest statements, she kept attracting the souls of the readers to her line. Bint alHuda starts by explaining what Islam expects of woman, what it wants her to be, adding, "It wants woman to learn so she may come to know the essence of Islam according to its magni-ficent reality, not to become familiar with the moral looseness of Western women and the closemindedness of the Eastern ones. Islam wants her to be a torch of Divine light, while the corrupt society tries to turn her into a puff of fire. Islam wants her to be a fragrant flower, whereas the carnal concept wants her to become like a yellow withered leaf with the wind playing havoc with it. The Almighty created her to be the captain of the ship, but the false civilization has made her for quite some time 70

a toy. He created her to be the school for the generations, but the forces of evil exert themselves to turn her into a dumb machine."2

The pen of Bint al-Huda never stopped addressing the Muslim girl, sharpening her mind through all means of addressing the challenges and resisting the temptations of the time. We see her writing in another article in the said magazine, Adhwā’ (lights), about another issue saying, "Be an emulated role model, and do not be an

1 Al-Adhwā’ (Lights) Magazine, No. 1, first year, Thul-Hijja 1379 A.H./ June 10, 1960, p. 20.

2 A/m, p. 21.

emulating puppet. Be a followed leader rather than a follower; resist temptations, hold your grounds as you face everything; I know that the obstacles in front of you are numerous, that your path is not without thorns and pitfalls, but it is a shame to retreat, to go back, for death is better than riding shame, and shame is better than the Fire (of Hell)."1

As she chooses her words, one can quite clearly observe her spirituality and attachment to the tragedy of Imam al-Hussain and to the poetry and prose composed in its regard as well as speech metaphors. This is also related to her massive effort to disseminate the cultural, intellectual and religious awareness through the Hussaini majalis where she used to deliver her lectures.2

Martyr Bint al-Huda finds no qualms about submitting her Islamic thoughts and religious commitments boldly and courageously during a period of time that witnessed the decline of the veil and the growing phenomenon of adornments in the Iraqi society. Here she pinpoints the wound, so she writes the following to describe such a trend saying, “How many are those who have disgracefully walked behind the foreign horn, and in their unawareness and conceit took off their veil and started going backwards, trying to find an excuse for the night-mare of misconceptions which the brutal imperialist dictated to 71

us after desiring to colonize us in everything, even in the most precious and pure of what we have: woman?"3

Bint al-Huda demonstrated a great deal of interest in the issue of woman's hijab, expressing such an interest by confront-ing this

1 Al-Adhwā’ Magazine, No. 7, second year, 1388 A.H./1961, p. 20.

2 We will discuss this aspect in detail in this research later.

3 A/m

phenomenon and responding to the opposing ideologies through her writings, articles, poems and stories, or by raising the issue by submitting direct discussions and dialogues in her meetings with women in their homes and at the majalis. She guided many women and restored self-confidence to many from among those who followed such a Message-bearing line.

Here she writes time and over again, in one issue of the said magazine after another, saying, "Do not let these conjectures discourage you, nor should you lose resolve as you face such ominous tunes. Rather, they must increase your determination, strength and power, so you may prove to them the soundness of your way and the error of their zigzag route to the right and to the left, and so you may explain to them that they are the ones who reverted in their conduct to what is even beyond the ages of jahiliyya (pre-Islamic days of ignorance) where there were no rules, laws, ethics or principles."1

She resumes answering all pretexts invoked by those who advocated woman's flaunting as a pretext for woman winning her rights for civilization and progress. Rather, she rebuts their imported ideas that are distant from harmonizing with the reality of the Muslim woman to the extent of revulsion, emphasizing that the Muslim woman can attain science and knowledge, that she can compete with men in scientific, educational and ideological pursuits provided she does not relinquish her Islamic values.2

72

Often, Bint al-Huda would repeat her appeals in several articles, identifying our real enemies thus: "Is it possible for a nation – any nation – to advance and become civilized through foreign civilizations that do not have any relevance to it so it would thus become advanced?! A nation never advances a single step, nor does it prosper for one moment; rather, foreign ideologies and propaganda are the ones that have advanced and prospered at our own cost; we are their real enemies."3

1 Al-Adhwā’ Magazine, No. 7, first year, 1380 A.H./1960 A.D.

2 Ibid., fifth edition, second year, Rajab 1381 AH/1961, p.

242.

3 Al-Adhwā’ Magazine, No. 7, the first year of 0.1380 A.H./

1960.

The writings and articles of this leading media pioneer, Bint alHuda, did not exclude in their analysis, monitoring and addressing any foreign or domestic entity, nor did they flatter anyone when she addressed the orthodox Islamists and those steeped in strictness, saying: "Why did you impose on women restrictions and limits which descend neither from Allah nor from the Qur'an? Pressure generates a blast, and strictness invites attempts against all matters, even against the Sharià, which is a must."1

Martyr Bint al-Huda herself was not far from the inflexibility of the orthodox and their close-mindedness. A strict blockade was enforced on her due to her articles, stories and poems not being published in her real name despite all the sophistication, creativity and excellence in which she wrote her topics. The Adhwā’ magazine refused to publish her writings only because she is a woman. It published her articles using her first initials

"A.H."

(Āmina

Haidar).

This

prompted

` allama

Sayyid

Muhammed Hussain Fadlallah, a member of the magazine's Editorial Committee at the time, to comfort her with a poem in which he explained his regret at the magazine's reluctance to publish her articles in her real name. Ìlwiyya 2 Bint al-Huda memorized that poem because she was impressed by it."3

73

Bint al-Huda wrote in the Adhwā’ Islamic magazine, then a leading Islamic magazine, which was issued by a group of scholars in alNajaf al-Ashraf. It was regarded as a distinguished media outlet on

1 A/m, No. 8, second year, Shawwal 1381 A.H./1961 A.D., p..

367.

2 "` Ilwiyya" is title of a woman who descends from the progeny of Imam Ali. For male descendants, more than one title is used, but the most common is "Sayyid". – Tr.

3 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 27. (This ossified position went on until her first literary publications; therefore, the first edition of her book ("Virtue Triumphs") came out bearing the initials (AH) as referring to its author due to the impact of the that fossilized trend. Some people who were not familiar with the truth thought that it was written by Sheikh Muhammed Amin Zayn ad-Deen]. See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 52.

the pages of which nothing was written but the products of expert pens of those who specialized in the fields of writing, religious and juristic authorship. Her writings for woman were in a transparent and new language to which women in the past woman were not accustomed. Such writings on women were undertaken by clergymen and Islamic writers, and they contained a great deal of affectation and oddity, for a man is not like a woman in his knowledge of woman's conditions, concerns and thoughts. Thus, the writings of Bint al-Huda formed a touch of affection and kindness that harped on woman's concerns and conditions, whether she is a Muslim or a non-Muslim woman, bridging gaps between female elements in the society and the religious authority. It should be right for us to say that Bint al-Huda the leader had started reforming the Islamic address directed at woman, and that what she offered truly formed unprecedented pioneering in the Islamic media where a distance is maintained between strictness and extremism.1

Those objective articles and writings which Al-Adhwā’

magazine published were later compiled in a book titled Kalima wa Dàwa (a word and a call). It was welcomed by women who were interested in teaching and educating the next 74

generations on sound and creative principles having deep knowledge of the problems and issues facing the Muslim woman in the Islamic society.2

The bulk of what was intended by martyr Bint al-Huda in her press writings was to sound the siren about the dangers that threaten the personality of Muslim women, such as her saying,

"This is a result of her poor understanding of Islam and the distance that keeps her away from its spirit and precepts on the one hand, and a result of the nurturing of poisonous imperialist education which invaded our lands on the other. Such education publicized for their concepts which oppose Islam and which, in reality, do not aim at anything other than ending woman's originality, feminine spirit and dignity… They are tunes which we heard and which we will continue hearing 1 Nizar Haidar Atiyyah, a/mm p. 256.

2 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 52.

so long as the foreign microbe runs in the veins of our poor society, as long as we continue upholding our right principle, promoting its straightforward path."1

The depth of the analysis and its clarity for the reality of the Muslim woman, which is obvious in the articles Bint al-Huda wrote, is nothing out of the ordinary for the first student in the Islamic School of Martyred Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr. One of the followers of this School, which distinguished itself for integration, originality, depth, vitality and renewal, absorbed its lessons, so she was apt to set out from it to build the integrated Islamic personality which is capable of facing the ideological and political challenges and which can present Islam as a divine message, as the only path of salvation in every time and clime.2

It is worth noting that our media pioneer was not entirely dedicated to her pen, articles and press concerns. Rather, she was distracted by concerns and obligations in every direction: the religious, promotional and social inclination for change, teaching Islamic concepts, sustaining the link between the 75

religious authority and its men, scholars and women's class in the society. All these magnanimous concerns, which martyr Bint al-Huda shouldered in one period of her amputated lifespan, had their toll to a great extent on her dedication to media innovation. Had the conditions been favorable for her as a writer, we would have found her to be a media monument and a pioneering Islamic media school which could have produced generations and generations of Islamic writers without the least doubt.

The personality of martyred Bint al-Huda included in its folds many literary talents, including poetry and the writing of Islamic stories having a purpose, an objective, a goal. Here, she is also its pioneer and the first to shoulder this serious Islamic mission: She tried through her story to unveil her thoughts and principles in which she

1 Al-Adhwā’ Magazine, No. 7, first year, 1380 A.H./1960 A.D.

2 Hassan al-Saeed, Martyr Imam Sadr, a/m, p. 32.

believed and for which she labored in order to disseminate them through the story structure to the broadest possible segment of her homeland's women.

Thus did she leave behind for the Islamic library an aware legacy and a pioneering Islamic understanding in the role of the story in bringing about change.1 Among what was published for her have been these titles: Virtue Wins; Two Women and one Man; the Lost Aunt; I wish I Knew; the Seeker of the Truth, a Struggle from the Reality of Life; Memories on the Hills of Mecca; a Word and a Call; Heroism of the Muslim Woman; Woman and the Talk of Islamic Concepts; Women with the Prophet; A Meeting at the Hospital (which was the last the martyred lady had written).2

A series of writings has been published of her writings bearing the name "Bint al-Huda". She answers the question of why so herself when she says the following under the title "Who are you?": "A sister Muslim wrote me asking: 'Why, in the Name of Allah, did you not state your real name so we may know who 76

you are?' So, here, Sister, is my answer, perhaps from it you will come to know who I am: First of all, I am personally your sincere sister who never tires of keeping track of your steps out of love and affection for you. I am also a volunteer who has chosen the cause of Islam, carrying its bright torch as much as I can and bear and according to my abilities in the struggle. I also want to make myself an example, a role model, for carrying out experiments in Islam's culture which some ignorant folks may regard as being a failure. I want to prove by myself what the Islamic history tells us about our mothers and sisters in the dawn of Islam who raised, through their education, the greatest of men while upholding Islam and its teachings.” After the writer, Bint alHuda, describes various images of Muslim women in the condition

1 Muhammed al-Haidari, Imam Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr: Living Closely to Him, Salmi Press, first edition, Baghdad, 1424

A.H./2003 A.D., p. 81.

2 Al-Amini, a/m, pp. 97, 108, 264, 313. (She has other manuscripts which the Baath authority confiscated when it stormed the house of Martyr alSadr.] See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 53.

in which her female readers can be, and in order to place herself with them in every image and at every age stage, she addresses her saying, “Imagine any of these images which you find to be the closest to your thinking and choose one of them, or choose another, and be like I am.” This is so because her initials do not offer her much, whether her name is real or borrowed. What concerns her is to reach her readers' souls, to get her readers to reach her transparent human soul, so she bids that inquirer farewell saying, “Remember me in my spiritual personality so I may be proud of it, and rest assured that my name has nothing to do with what I write or with what you read.”1

The participation of conscience is the most obvious writing attribute of Bint al-Huda. In her stories, she shares the worries of the Muslim woman, the suffering and grief of her helpless people. Thus, she played a major role in the Islamic story 77

which is regarded as the most distinctive characteristic of her writings, a pioneer in her feminine aspect, due to a creative talent, a broad education, a solid style and full knowledge of the issues of her Islamic society and of its problems, in her employment of the committed word with all strictness and strength of the deviated ideologies and intrusive social practices. She succeeded thus in coining the objective Islamic thought in beautiful literary clichés, and her works in the short story testify to it.2

The relationship of martyr Bint al-Huda with the pen and with writing was essential: Through it, an exchange is made of the conditions of life and survival; therefore, we do not see her deserting it even in the darkest circumstances of her jihad, struggle. For example, during the period of her imprisonment, she directed herself towards writing and authorship, putting together a book which she called Days of the Ordeal. She composed lines of poetry, poems, and started explaining the Holy Qur’an in a simple way to the believing

1 Complete story collection (A Book and an Invitation) - Book III, pp. 131134.

2 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 26.

girls. She reached about half the Baqara Chapter (Ch. 2, the longest chapter of the Holy Qur’an).1

The relationship between martyr Bint al-Huda on the one hand and the pen and writing on the other was an obligation, a religious propagation duty, a commitment of principles to Allah, the most Exalted One, the most Great, and to Islam. Her delving into this field was, hence, with strength and persistence. Some people, men and women, who had preceded her in walking along this path since the inception of this century had promising starts, but soon they had setbacks, or they stumbled, or they were attracted to the glamorous Western civilization.

This is why the short story field, actually the Islamic novel as well, remained without knights until it was forcefully invaded by Lady Bint al-Huda with determination and resolve, following 78

the path of the Holy Qur’an and its unique artistic and narrative style.2

Martyr Bint al-Huda found in the field of writing the Islamic story a wider room for disseminating and spreading the principles of the creed. Actually, she found in it a media podium with a great role nonparallel in bringing awareness to the Muslim girls and in making them closer to their faith and Islamic message. Her stories were a paved path for many believing sisters to get to know and admire her due to what she had written and before they met her in person, as was the case with “Umm Abrar” al-Haidari3.

1 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 60.

2 Ibid., p. 67.

3 Umm Abrar al-Haidari is Lady Ilham Baqir, wife of sayyid Muhammed al-Haidari. She emigrated from Iraq to Syria in 1980 in an informal manner over her Islamic activity, then she settled in Iran in 1982. With the consent and support of martyr Bint al-Huda, she exercised authorship, writing the following: The Zainab of the Era, Who Leads Me?, Who Guides Me?, Who Helps Me?, Who Answers Me?, Who Saves Me?, How do I Attain Happiness?, and Edicts that Concern You. She practiced Islamic propagation work in Syria and London and oversaw the magazine Mir'aat al-Shaban (mirror of the youths), Association of Martyr Salwa alBahrani, and the Foundation of Martyr Bint al-Huda. She has more than

The priority of the goal was clear for martyred Bint al-Huda in any field in which she worked and to which she resorted in order to realize her Islamic conviction. The priority in the field of the Islamic story was not to demonstrate her artistic prowess but Islam’s brilliant way in attracting a Muslim individual to its green pastures; therefore, the thoughts and words of her stories were synchronized, so much so that we find no separation between the personality of the writer and what she wrote. From here came her denouncement of writing that existed in the other flank: “Some of our men of letters have unfor-tunately turned themselves into translators and publishers, nothing more or less. Their ideas are strange to them, distant 79

from their reality and society. They incline towards the call; they respond to the tune; they become intoxicated by the sip.

They, therefore, sing the glory of the foes as they remain unaware, inadvertent, lauding the poisonous ideologies while comprehending nothing of them. They became immersed in the foreign culture which the imperialist introduced into our homeland a long time ago, and it is the one that caused our young generation to swerve right and left, making sure to make their literary productions in all forms and trends on par. As a result of this misunderstanding of the intrusive culture, a hostile imperialist concept is directed at us, we daughters of Islam, in particular, and it has widely spread out.”1

Perhaps the recourse of martyr Bint al-Huda to the fiction method was not to satisfy a hobby or establish a road towards professionalism; rather, it was for a noble and clear goal which she kept in mind since her first collection of stories: addressing the

150 videotaped lessons and 300 audio lessons mostly in education, women's education and Islamic awareness. Regarding the beginnings of her relationship with martyred Bint al-Huda, she says, "I wrote a letter to martyr in which I said, 'I read your books and am very impressed by your thoughts. In order the benefit may include us, I suggest that you come to the Hussainiyya of Al Mubaraka to give lectures because it is a public place and receives all women." For more information, see: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 69 and beyond.

1 Al-Adhwā’ Magazine, No. 9, first year, RabiÌI 1380/Octo-ber 1960.

younger generation in a simple narrative style in order to convey the Islamic teachings to it. She pointed out in the introduction to her story titled “A Conflict from the Reality of Life”

to this effect saying, "The embodiment of concepts of the Islamic point of view of life is the genre of these short stories".1

80

In the introduction to “Virtue Triumphs,” she reemphasizes the same meaning saying, "You will find in each story the positive attitude imposed by the Islamic point of view of life, and the wide gap between the cleanness of this attitude, its purity and loftiness, and the lowliness and degradation represented by the other perspectives of life."2

Bint al-Huda kept the society in which her Muslim sisters lived in mind with all its struggles, realities and facts to deduct from it her stories without resorting to cheap excitement or to delving into the world of taboo as was done by most female pens that wrote in that era and beyond it as they imitated the West and its writers and men of letters in the different types of cross-pollination of ideas between the erotic thoughts (sex, money and religion) in order to attract the reader, the publishing houses and the media.

The artistic doctrine embraced by the writings of Bint alHuda was loftier and above that, for the life formulated by her narrative works is the finest that transcends the teachings of divine religions and the clean souls with a yearning for goodness. 3

Her pristine Islamic culture led her to recognize the value of man’s conduct, to an understanding of its divine nature on earth, to a belief in the act of righteousness done by a man or a woman. Thus, her support for the elements of goodness and justice in the innermost of this being, who is perceived as being weak, is a factor in

1 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 96.

2 Ibid.

3 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 68.

demonstrating that she is strong and powerful when it comes to stories that place her on the path of the Unity of Allah, not on that of atheism.

Perhaps the writings of Bint al-Huda are not more famous than those of Nawal el-Saadawi, Ghada Samman or Ahlam 81

Mosteghanemi, but if you put these writings in the balance, how many women and girls who are in the prime of their youth and who have fallen to temptation, becoming lost and swerving from the right path when they read those writings which are immersed in pornography and in prohibition? How many others who found the right guidance when they became familiar with the writings of Bint al-Huda, so she became their guide towards virtue and the following of the true religion?

These stories played a significant role in solving many family problems faced by the Muslim woman in the Muslim world.

Bint alHuda treated with extreme precision and a gentle manner the issue of marriage, for example, and the outcome of the attitude of Muslims nowadays, where the perfect spouse is perceived to be the one who has a huge fortune or a prestigious degree, as well as the image of the ideal wife: She is the one who possess superior albeit false beauty. She depicts her as sitting hours and hours in beauty salons in order to conceal her true face. So, titles emerged such as: Islamic [propagation]

work, the suffering of working women, the ridiculing, distorting, beautifying, the applying of cosmetics and the wearing of the veil. All these were labels for problems which martyr Bint al-Huda addressed in her stories in a convincing contemporary style.1

The martyr presented her constructive ideas through her stories in an easy way, in a language close to the soul; there are neither far-fetched nor complicated words. She expressed big ideas with easy words expressive of many basic Islamic concepts. Thus, she turned the dry material into an easy one through the venue of stories, poems and ideas. She resorted to the style of details in narrating events in order to make their persona closer to the reality experienced by Muslim women.

1 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 97.

The martyr always looked forward to the concerns, problems and ambitions of girls who live through the mentality of their age, understanding the flurry of ideas of the girls of the younger generation. She, therefore, would address them and hear 82

their calls. Her intellectual activity helped others achieve salvation and sense the path of redemption. It also helped others succeed in life through the word, the honest advice; after all, does not religion mean offering advice?1 After all of this, martyr Bint al-Huda did not find for herself humility as a story writer. We find her pointing out to this in the introduction to Virtue Triumphs when she says, “I am not a story teller or a writer of story; actually, I have not tried before now to write a story. What I did was nothing more than a constructive attempt to open and pave the road in order to walk in the direction of reviving a silent media apparatus that copes with our march while we are at the beginning of the road.”2

Despite the publication of those stories and the enthusiasm of the girls for acquiring and reading them, for more than a house of publications collected them in short story volumes, we find that martyr Bint al-Huda had been subjected to injustice in her struggle as well as intellectually. She did not enjoy her real opportunity for her books to spread widely, and she did not shed light on her pioneering of the Islamic media and of the Islamic story that parallel their clout and true impact.

1 Rasheed al-Qassam, p. 31.

2 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 96. (Professor Muhammed al-Qaddusi used to say: What a legend this woman some of whose I have read?! We in Egypt have Bint al-Shati, and you have in Iraq Bint al-Huda. We have in Egypt female story writers, poetesses and struggling women of letters. But when I imagine the resilience of this woman and her standing along-side her brother, as well as her detonating an overwhelming uprising in Iraq, I imagine myself going back to the atmospheres of Kerbala, al-Hussain and Zainab, to Yazid's army, the neighing of horses and the desert sands…] See: Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 29.

Such was the condition with regard to Bint al-Huda, the poetess: Although she was not a professional poetess, nor did she write much, signs of her poetic ability surfaced early on the day she was congratulating her family on the occasion of the birth of Maram, daughter of her brother, Muhammed-Baqir al-83

Sadr, on RabiÌI 27, 1371 A.H./January 25, 1952 A.D. when she recited these rhymed words:

O Maram, O captivator of the souls,

O star that shines in the morning!

O Maram! You captivate every heart,

A star shining as sunset does start.

Al-Sdr liked these words, so he kept calling his daughter most of the time “captivator of the hearts.”1

Martyr Bint al-Huda did not compose poetry as a hobby.

Rather, she found a sweeping cultural shortage in this field, that is, Muslim women did not delve into the field of writing objective poetry which lifts the poet to the highest degrees of mercy and the Pleasure of the Almighty. For this reason, she undertook on her shoulder to write poetic pieces through which she expressed what she had in mind: the suffering of the Muslim woman, her low level of religious education, so she had her in mind as she wrote these lines of poetry: Glad tidings to you, O Messenger of Allah! Look at how the light

Of righteousness has shone in us bright!

O Messenger of Allah! We are young ladies who have refused to see

The Qur’an deserted on the shelves for many a year.

You obligated woman to learn

To leave the world of ignorance behind The world that crushed the mind,

So she would know the true religion and does understand The essence of Islam, of the faith, its precious meaning for man.2

1 Ahmed al-Àmili, a/m, p. 321.

2 To see more of her poetry, refer to: Muhammed al-Hassoun, M/A, p.. 99

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In response to the designation of the nation’s girls who adhere to the Islamic line as “reactionaries,” she composed a directive poem in which she said,

My shyness from the most High is not bent, Nor has it shackles to my hand sent.

No, nor has this veil blocked me

From my goal, from what I want to be.

She expresses herself in the best way when she portrays how a truly

Muslim women can be by saying the following in another poem:

With the hands of modesty

Do I safeguard my chastity

Through my abstention do I rise

Above my peers and be wise,

With an idea that it does ignite

With a critical talent that is bright Have I perfected my every manner:

My shyness towards the most High for ever Does not stop me from covering,

Wrapping myself and my body veiling.1

The field of writing, story, poetry and journalistic articles was her outlet to broader fields which had previously occupied her mind and took the largest share of her thinking and activity. ` Ilwiyya Bint alHuda played a significant role in strengthening the relationship and the bond between the religious authority and women. She was a link in the transfer of the concerns and aspirations of women as well as their demands to the religious authority. Sayyid al-Sadr in turn, monitored, enriched and supported these women in order to perpetuate their movement in the society. Thus, Bint al-Huda shouldered the role of clarifying the Islamic legislative issues to and beyond.

1 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, pp. 55-56.

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women, urging them with regard to the necessity of arming themselves with awareness and learning, to ask about matters relevant to their religion and life.1 So, Bint al-Huda got down to the reality on the ground in order to make it a laboratory for practice, and it produced amazing results: She was able to set up the foundation for a generation of women who uphold the Divine Message, contrarily to an overwhelming Westernization movement2, and her means were: the Hussaini gatherings ( majalis) and the Zahraa Schools.

As for her role in the Zahraa Schools, she was commissioned by the Islamic Charity Fund Society3 with the task of overseeing the schools in Kazimiyya in 1967, in addition to overseeing another school for girls in Najaf. Bint al-Huda found in this sacred mission a step towards expanding her general Islamic activity. She took part in the establishment of private schools that follow the official curriculum, but she would add to them two or more classes, such as lessons in the Islamic faith, in a professionally focused and solid way.4

Martyr Bint al-Huda continued her weekly movement between Najaf and Kazimiyya, continuously moving and dili-gently working,

1 Islamic Dàwa Party, a/m, p. 33.

2 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 256.

3 This society was formed in 1958 in Baghdad under the presidency of Sayyid àllama Murtaza al-Askari. Soon it branched out to Basra, Diwaniyya, Hilla and al-Kazimiyya. It distinguished itself for its many charitable activities. In the field of education, it supervised the faculties of the College of Usool ad-Deen (principles of the faith) in Baghdad and the Schools of Imam al-Jawad for Boys in both their primary and secondary stages, as well as the Zahraa Schools for Girls Zahra in both their primary and secondary stages. For more information, see Risalat al-Islam (Message of Islam) magazine, Nos.

5-6, first year, September month of Ramadan 1386 A.H./

December 1966 (Julian), p.. 194.

4 Ahmed al-Àmili, Vol. 2, a/m, p. 97.

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prompted by one noble goal: her great faith in Islam. The goal behind setting up the Zahraa Schools was not to meet society’s need for schools; rather, there were imperative necessities that required their establishment which included: facing the materialistic culture that advocated corruption, deviation and moral decadence, and to endeavor to disseminate the sound Islamic culture and awareness to which woman must aspire. Those schools were the best means that suited that era and met its requirements.1

The leading martyr, Bint al-Huda, did not confine her effort to only supervision and education; rather, she took to spending the rest of her time to meet with the teaching cadres in order to deliver educational lectures after the end of the official school hours.2 The cadre members were mostly graduates of teachers’ houses and institutes. She would, moreover, meet in the afternoon with university students in order to talk to them about the responsibility of a Muslim woman, delivering lectures and lessons to them on the Islamic types of knowledge.3

Thus was she able to extend bridges to college girls in order to be able to disseminate among them the veil phenomenon in the corridors of Iraqi universities, after they had been devoid of them completely, if we do not say that those universities served as an important means to removing the veil. Daughters of so many families – even scholarly and religious ones – used to remove their veils as soon as they entered their university campuses.4

1 It is noteworthy that an inspector wanted once to enter one of the girls' classrooms, so Bint al-Huda said to him, "You should not enter the classroom, and it should suffice you to simply take the information you need from the administration. I hope that an inspectress will visit our school." The inspector agreed to her request and wrote a report to the Ministry of Education in which he said, "These schools are veil fortresses."

2 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 94.

3 See: Ahmed al-Àmili, Vol. 2, a/m, p. 97.

4 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 257.

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These schools scored a significant success rate in ministry exams among government schools, so much so that they became famous for their scholastic and educational reputation, and more people sought them to the extent that the classes could not accommodate all students. Four schools were listed under the name of the name of the Zahraa Private Schools, three of which were in Baghdad and Kazimiyya and the fourth was located in al-Najaf al-Ashraf near the sacred Shrine [of Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali] in the Mishraq neighbor-hood. All of them were under the supervision of Bint al-Huda.

These schools were torches of light and guidance, factories for Islamic pride and dignity and the object of hope for the believers, the deprived and the poor, a source of trust and credibility among the masses.1

This case could not continue after the arrival to power of the Iraqi Baath Party which clashed with the trend of Islamic awareness led by martyr Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr, brother of Bint al-Huda. The said Party took the initiative to close all Islamic institutions, including the Zahraa Schools. These Schools were at the forefront of targeted Islamic projects for no reason other than their being Islamic.2 In 1972, a law was issued for the nationalization of education, and its primary target was the elimination of the barricades of chastity and light and the castles of the veil in Iraq. Although this ill-famed law covered all private schools, according to its articles, the authority soon revalidated the private Schools of the Christians and Armenians as well as other private schools with the authority’s financial and media support, but there was no support for the Zahraa Schools; instead, they were buried alive.3

Martyr Bint al-Huda resigned from her work after knowing that she would not be able to carry out her missionary role, explaining her

1 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 54.

2 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 257.

3 Ahmed al-Àmili, Vol. 2, p. 99.

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position by saying, "The goal behind my stay in the school was only to earn the pleasure of Allah. When this goal was no longer there at the school after being nationalized, what is the benefit of my presence there?"1

Thus, the effort and attention of martyr Bint al-Huda focused on the widest field of Muslim women’s work: the Hussaini majalis where she had her own distinctive viewpoint of what those majalis should be. This notion was due to her serious missionary role, to the stance adopted by her martyred brother, Sayyid Muhammed-Baqir al-Sadr. Al-Sadr endeavored to develop the Hussaini majalis through developing the Hussaini pulpit by establishing an oratory institute, adopting speakers and deploy-ing them everywhere in the Muslim community.2 So, he was the scholar who encouraged preachers the most, looked after their conditions and provided them with guidance. He did so due to his belief in the significance of the Hussaini pulpit in the Iraqi reality, so much so that he used to send some of them to areas far from cities, and he used to find out that the preachers' impact in those areas was greater than that of the proselyte or cleric who ascends the pulpit and delivers a sermon.3

Martyr al-Sadr used to see in the preacher the tongue that expressed the rightly guided Marjiìyya; actually, he is the trusted middleman between the Marjiìyya and the nation.

Shaikh Ahmed al-Waeli says the following about Sayyid alSadr’s interest in the Hussaini platform: “One of the concerns that occupied his mind was the issue of the Hussaini pulpit. He used to call on me to bear a portion of the pulpit’s responsibility even if it could be done through a simple 1 Muhammed al-Hassoun, a/m, p. 95.

2 Muhammed al-Haidari, a/m, p. 56.

3 Martyr al-Sadr was in his childhood attached to the platform/pulpit ( minbar) of Sheikh Kazem Noah in al-Kazimiyya due to what was known of his beautiful voice and dramatic fer-vor. He was regarded as one of the aware preachers in the Hussaini pulpit. Actually, Sayyid al-Sadr himself used to ascend the Hussaini pulpit on Ashura in al-Kazimiyya when he was young in age. See: Sadiq Jafar al-Rawaziq, a/m, p. 282.

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work that would later develop,” and he had an ambitious plan in this regard.1 In the beginning, martyr Bint al-Huda used to attend the usual women’s majalis and participate in them despite their violation of some Islamic principles. She was convinced in this regard that those majalis preserve the Islamic and social legacy, so they must be perpetuated and cultivated from any trivial features or impurities in order to show Islam's shiny reality. She had her own special style which she described thus: “We should start with people from where they want in a way which is not inconsistent with seeking the pleasure of Allah so that we can get them to reach where we want them to be.”2 The Hussaini majlis has a lofty value, an import-ance in the woman’s society, in her being attracted to it, so it keeps her quite distant from being busy with other matters that are quite distant from Islam and the principles of Ahl al-Bayt. She advocated that our women must get down to the field of reality in order to become aware of the suffering because of misconceptions, and this can be done at the women’s Hussaini majalis, in terms of clothes, the latest fashions, the scarcity of the cultural, spiritual, religious and ethical education, whereas the role of the propagator, the mulla, starts in explaining the philosophy of commemorating al-Hussain's martyrdom.3

Martyr Bint al-Huda started building the infrastructure and the fundamental work for women’s public awareness work in Iraq, where the Iraqi field is dominated by two trends: the trend of degradation and watering down which the West advocates, and a traditional conventional Islamic trend that demands women to sit at home, preventing them from speaking with men. In the middle of these two rejected trends, she moved to put up a third trend.4 She,

1 Ibid., p. 285. One of the basics of this project is to integrate the speakers into the scholarly hawza and find a formula that provides for them a guarantee for their future, in addition to establishing a central institution to unify their curricula and trends.

2 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 55.

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3 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 36. 4 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p.

73.

therefore, demanded Muslim women to rise up and assume their responsibility, to carry out their role of changing the society. She set out prompted by the theory of martyr al-Sadr in which he differed from other religious authorities. This was achieved by the martyred Bint al-Huda through giving women a major rather than a marginal role. So, when she started to move to establish different Hussaini majalis, the beginning was in the Āl Mubaraka Hussainiyya in Karrada. Both trends were fighting her, and there was so much talk and rumors launched to fight her, in addition to the authority fighting her, too. Police rescue cars used to park at homes where martyr Bint al-Huda used to deliver her lectures, yet this could not prevent the attendance of more than 300 women at the house of the Zalzalah family to listen to her.1

These sophisticated majalis formed the first nucleus of massive Islamic work in Iraq among women's circles. The Āl Mubaraka Hussainiyya in Karrada was the first Hussainiyya that opened its doors to women.2 Martyr Bint al-Huda was the leader, educator and supervisor of this work, and she had initiatives which were not

1 The researcher attended the assembly of Lady and former MP Mona Zalzalah in her home in Karrada in the summer of 2003. The female audience were recalling the historical mo-ments of the majalis of martyr Bint al-Huda and setting aside time in the lectures to read some of her articles and valuable instructive writings. Open discussions would then start of views expressed by the attendants.

2 We can imagine the difficulty of the matter from the following incident: Lady Ilham Baqir says that she wrote Sayyid Murtaza al-Àskari saying that she was of the opinion that it was necessary to set aside a fixed place for women to attend congregational prayer services in the Hussainiyya which, at the same time, could be used as a forum to air their concerns, to work and propagate (the cause). She gave the letter to his daughter who was used to attend the commemorative 91

gatherings. "After some time," she goes on, "Sayyid al-Askari sent me a letter of reply also through his daughter in which he stated the following: 'My daughter, this has been my dream for quite some time. I hoped to open a place for women but, my daughter, I am afraid I will then find no men praying behind him.' This statement goes back to 1967." See: Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 69.

common in Iraq at the time. It was common for the woman to only be "mullaya" (female mulla) who would recite commemorative eulogies of Imam al-Hussain. The one who founded this trend, i.e. the religious awareness through delivering lectures, lessons and direct dialogues, was martyr Bint al-Huda; so this was truly a quantum leap in the massive Islamic work.1

In majalis such as these of her own, martyr Bint al-Huda confronted extraneous practices, including women going a majlis looking as if they were going to a wedding party or a fashion show. She explained that al-Hussain id not need the tears of such women; also, Islam cannot be promoted through such practices that are from its essence and values as far as can be.2

Through those sessions was the martyr able to sow the seeds of an aware feminist work that was conscientious, disseminating it in the society. Thus, she shouldered her role in inviting people to the way of Allah, to struggle in His cause, and to sacrifice for the sake of the creed. It was also through raising the girls of her generation to be courageous, heroic and daring, principles which she perfectly embodied both in the way she lived and in the way she was martyred.

In the beginning, the audience was quite limited, then its circle widened, and the number of attendees kept increasingly, raising the concerns of the oppressive authority, so the latter scaled the sessions down by broadcasting falsehoods and ca-nards in order to instill fear in the people's hearts.3

For these reasons, the martyr's sessions proliferated in 1968, then the meetings became fixed monthly sessions at the 92

Zalzalah family house in 1972. Through those sessions, the martyr succeeded in

1 Ibid., p. 70.

2 Rasheed al-Qassam, a/m, p. 36.

3 Fatima al-Iraqi, a/m, p. 65.

attracting all age groups: There were mothers attending as well as girls; martyr Bint al-Huda was selecting for every situation what it suited, responding quickly and intuitively with weighted words. She was never surprised by any question or inquiry directed at her by the audience which included various segments of the feminist society. Her dialogue was character-ized by calm and by being fair to everyone in the majlis, acting like a caring mother who did not want to discriminate among her daughters. It was through such sincerity of intention that she created a rising generation of women who upheld their creed. Many university girls were attracted to her majlis, and they responded to her Islamic instructions in disciplining themselves and in raising others. Each of them had a role in saving her sisters from deviation which distances her from straightforward Islam.

As time went by, the few aware believing women turned into a large number, spreading in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriyya and many other Iraqi cities. The veil phenomenon became something witnessed rather than hidden, and the martyr was following up with the girls in weekly and monthly sessions, with oral and written directives through her stories, poems and objective articles.1

The tragic end to this noble humanitarian edifice put an early end and a great loss to the Islamic nation. On Saturday, the twentieth of Jumada I 1400 A.H., which coincided with April 5, 1980, Baathist security forces raided the residence of the religious authority, martyr al-Sadr, her brother and mentor, in order to whisk him away [from al-Kazimiyya] to [downtown]

Baghdad just to come back the next

1 Ibid. , p. 77.

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day to arrest his fellow jihadist sister, Bint al-Huda. They both were tortured, and they both eventually embraced martyrdom together, just as they had thus lived together. Thus, she was emulating the steps of the heroine of Kerbala, Zainab al-Kubra, in her brave stance side by side her brother, Imam al-Hussain, peace with them both, in the face of Umayyad oppression.1

The leading role played by martyr Bint al-Huda in Islamic media manifested itself through the following: 1 – presenting a role model for women as a proselyte and writer who upheld the Islamic creed and its teachings during a period that was fraught with pens influenced by the ideas of the West and their ideological, cultural and media models which are distant from the reality of the Iraqi society.

2 - Martyr Bint al-Huda worked to present a bright image of Islam in terms of its ability to meet the aspirations of Muslim women and to develop realistic solutions to the various problems of everyday life.

3 - Martyr Bint al-Huda, the pioneering proselyte, worked to create a feminist generation aware of its religious culture and defending its Divinely-revealed message; therefore, her impact did not terminate after her martyrdom.

4 – She encouraged many believing women to tread this path; actually, she urged many of them to write in what looked like a prophecy about the works they would be writing in the future, which they did.

5 – She colored her media productions in various creative skills: She wrote newspaper articles and prosaic thoughts as well as poems. As regarding the story field, she was truly the pioneer of the Islamic story writing in Iraq.

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1 Hassan al-Saeed, Muslim Woman, a/m, p. 258 ; Muhammed Reza alNùmani, Martyr al-Sadr: Years of the Ordeal, a/m, p.

313 et seq.

6 – She had a clear vision and a long term strategic plan. The media innovation was not merely a flurry of creativity, nor was it to satisfy a selfish need; rather, she was a woman who es-poused great ideas, who worked towards achieving them and bringing them out to existence up to the end line of martyrdom.

7 - Her educational, ideological and media creativity was part of her character. To her, work was a sacred act of worship, as is the case with the daily obligatory prayers. To her, multi-faceted Islamic work, including its media aspect, was a sacred duty rather than something marginal or secondary.

8 – Her creative work in life was part of her commitment to her Marjiìyya. She actually fused herself into this Marjiìyya (that of Sayyid Muhsin alHakim1, pictured here), and this matter was one of the most obvious of her distinctive characteristics and easily visible personal merits.

9 – She brought forth a third trend of change in her society which distinguished itself from both trends of atheism and en-ticement (on the one hand) and the conventional Islamic trend which is stonewalled in its attitude towards the Muslim woman and her role in the society (on the other). She was truly a pioneer in this enlightening revolutionary trend which has carried her name and mark.

1 Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhsin al-Tabatabai al-Hakim (1889–1970) was the sole marjì taqlid (emulation authority) in 1961 after the death of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hussain Bor-ujerdi. His son, Abdul-Aziz alHakim, who was born in 1953, was the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), the largest political party in Iraq, up to his death due to lung cancer in 2009.

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Martyr Bint al-Huda was the liaison between the religious authority (Marjiìyya) and its masses. She was committed to the creed, and she persevered to highlight Islam's shiny image up to the last day of her life when she was martyred, and what a loss it was, and what a most heinous crime committed by those cowards who executed her… Surely we belong to Allah, and to Him shall we all return.

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SILENT SUPPLICATION TO ALLAH BY A REPENTANT SINNER SEEKING HIS

FORGIVENESS AUTHOR UNKNOWN

All praise belongs to You, O Possessor of bounty, glory and loftiness!

Glory to You, You grant whomsoever You will, and You withhold.

O Allāh! My Creator, fortress and refuge!

To You do I resort, in hardship and in ease, for relief.

O Allāh! Even if my sins have become grave and numerous, Your forgiveness is far greater and without a limit.

O Allāh! If I had given my soul all that it desired, Here I am reveling in the land of regret.

O Allāh! You see my condition, poverty and destitution, And You hear my softly whispered supplication.

O Allāh! Do not sever my hopes, do not distract my heart (From

loving

You),

for

I

anticipate

Your

boundless

generosity.

O Allāh! If You disappoint me or chase me away, To whom shall I plead? Who can intercede for me?

O Allāh! Protect me from Your torment, indeed I am A captive, abased, fearful and subservient to You.

O Allāh! Be kind to me by inspiring me to articulate my excuse

When the grave becomes my abode and resting place.

O Allāh! Even if You punish me for a thousand years, My hopes on You, nonetheless, will never be severed.

O Allāh! Let me savor Your forgiveness on the Day, 97

When neither progeny nor wealth will be of any avail.

O Allāh! If You do not look after me, I will be lost!

But if You do look after me, I am never lost.

O Allāh! If you do forgive only the doers of goodness, Who is there for the disobedient one indulgent in his desires?

O Allāh! Even though I have been negligent in pursuing piety,

Here I am now tracing and following the path of forgiveness.

O Allāh! If I have sinned in ignorance,I have also often been Solicitous until others wondered why I am in such anxiety.

O Allāh! My sins have become like mountains or even higher, Yet Your ability to pardon is greater and still higher.

O Allāh! Remembering Your might alleviates my sorrow, While remembering my sins causes my eyes to shed their tears.

O Allāh! Amend my slips and efface my every sin, For here I am confessing, terrified and beseeching.

O Allāh! Grant me peace from You and tranquility, For I knock at only the gate of Your mercy.

O Allāh! If you distance me from Yourself or debase me, What recourse will I have, Lord? What should I then do?

O Allāh! Those allied in Your love remain awake nightly and remember,

You, entreating and praying (to You), while the unmindful ones slumber.

O Allāh! Here are creatures: Most of them are sleeping, But the mindful ones spend the night to You supplicating.

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All of them hope for Your favors, Your infinite mercy anticipate

Covet Your blessings in the Gardens that never terminate.

O Allāh! My hopes have allowed me to anticipate safety, While the ugliness of my sins bespeak my sins horribly.

O Allāh! If You forgive me, Your pardon will save me, Otherwise, my devastating sins will destroy me.

O Allāh! For the sake of Muhammed the Hashemite do Forgive me, by the sanctity of the Progeny humbling itself to You.

O Allāh! For the sake of the Chosen One and of his cousin, For the sanctity of those who truly submit to You and never sin.

O Allāh! Resurrect me as a follower of the religion of Ahmad, As a repentant to You is devout, obedient and a humble servant.

And do not deprive me, O Allāh, O my Master, Of his great intercession, for he is the true intercessor.

And do, Lord, bless him whenever a monotheist calls on You, And whenever the righteous bow at Your gate, beseeching You.

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SELECTED SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET OF

ISLAM

Reading the following statements made by the Prophet of Islam (P) on various subject matters will provide one with an insight into the tenets of this faith, its morals and ethics, individual and social norms and systems… It is a bird's eye view at what religion stands for.

Safeguard your father's affection; do not sever it lest Allāh should put your noor (celestial light) out.

Be kind to your parents, your offspring will be kind to you; be chaste, so your women may be chaste (too).

Three supplications are honored, there is no doubt therein: the supplication of a wronged person, the supplication of a traveler

and the supplication of a father against his son.

A father's supplication for his son is like a prophet's supplication for his nation.

Obedience of Allāh lies in obeying the father; disobedience of Allāh is disobeying the father.

If Allāh loves one of His servants, He tests him so He may hear

him pleading.

Allāh afflicts His believing servant with illness till He wipes out all his sins.

If only you see destiny and its march, you will hate hope and its vanity.

The blessing lies in our elderly; one who is not merciful to our young,

nor does he hold our elderly in high esteem, is not one of us.

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None of us is one who does not hold the elderly with high esteem,

who is not merciful to the young, who does not enjoin the doing of what is right and does not forbid the doing of what is wrong.

Hold in high esteem the one from whom you acquire knowledge,

and (likewise) hold in high esteem one whom you teach knowledge.

Miserable is a monopolizing servant (of Allāh): When Allāh lets prices go down, he is grieved,

and when He permits them to rise, he is elated.

A trader awaits sustenance, whereas one who monopolizes awaits the curse.

One who hoards the Muslims' food will be hit by Allāh with leprosy.

If you leave behind you rich heirs, it is better than leaving them

a burden on others.

If your neighbors compliment you as a man of benevolence, you are a benevolent man.

When you judge, be just; when you speak, say what is good, for Allāh is good and He loves those who are good.

Goodness is that you worship Allāh as though you see Him; for if you do not see Him, He sees you.

Allāh Almighty is benevolent; so, you should be benevolent.

If you see three traits in your (Muslim) brother, rest your hope on him;

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they are: modesty, trustworthiness and honesty; and if you do not see them,

do not rest your hope on him.

The best of deeds is to bring happiness to your believing brother

or pay a debt on his behalf.

Allāh helps His servant so long as the servant helps his brother.

Support your brother when he is a wrongdoer or when he is wronged:

If he is a wrongdoer, keep him away from wrongdoing, and if he is wronged, do support him.

Your smile in the face of your brother is (equivalent to) charity;

your enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is charity;

your providing guidance to someone in the land of misguidance is charity,

and your removal of rocks,

thorns or bones from the way is counted as an act of charity for you.

If one has three traits, Allāh Almighty forgives him everything else:

One who dies without associating anything with Allāh, nor was he a magician following the path of magicians, nor did he bear any grudge against his brother.

The best of your brothers is the one who guides you to your faults.

A servant (of Allāh) who helps his brother for one day is better

than his worship in solitude for a month.

Fighting a Muslim is apostasy; taunting him is debauchery; 102

a Muslim is not allowed to stay away from his brother for more than three days.

It is not lawful for a believer to look at his brother in a way that harms him

(hurts his feelings).

When time approaches its end, death will select the good ones from among my nation

just like when one of you selects fresh ripe dates from a platter.

There will be sedition in which a man receives daylight as a believer,

then he receives the evening as an unbeliever save one whom Allāh grants life through knowledge.

Time will come to my nation when the poor are many, when the faqihs (jurists, those who know their creed very well) are few,

when knowledge is held back and there will be plenty of fuss.

Time will come after that when men from among my nation shall recite the Qur’ān,

but it will hardly go beyond their throats. Then time will come

after that when a polytheist argues about Allāh with a believer similarly to the way the latter argues.

Time will come to people when one does not care whether the money he gets is from a permissible or prohibitive source.

Two stupors have overwhelmed you: love for life and love for ignorance.

It is then that you will not enjoin the doing of what is right, nor will you forbid the doing of what is wrong.

Time will come to people when one who holds on to his religion

is like one who holds burning timbers.

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One of the conditions of the Hour is that knowledge is removed, ignorance prevails,

committing adultery is rampant, wine is drunk, men will be gone and women will remain,

so much so that for every fifty women there will be one man to look after them.

Be bashful with regard to Allāh as you should; one who is truthfully bashful with regard to Allāh is one who safeguards the head

and that of which it is aware, who safeguards the stomach and what it contains,

and who remembers death and affliction.

One who seeks the Hereafter abandons the embellishment of the short life;

so, if one does all of that, he truly is bashful with regard to Allāh.

The most regretful of all people on the Judgment Day is one who sold his

Hereafter for the sake of someone else's life.

Shall I inform you of the worst of all people?

He is one who eats alone, who does not give others, and who beats his slave (servant).

Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him? He is one whose evil is dreaded,

and nobody anticipates any goodness from him. Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him?

He is one who has sold his Hereafter for someone else's life.

Shall I inform you of one who is even worse than him? He is one who has consumed life in this world through the medium of religion.

One who receives the most torment on the Judgment Day is a man of knowledge

who was not enabled by Allāh to benefit from his knowledge (on account of not applying his knowledge).

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Allāh, the most Blessed, the most Exalted One, holds in contempt

anyone who knows about this life but does not know about the Hereafter.

The best of this life and of the one to come lies with knowledge,

whereas the evil of this life and of the life to come lies with ignorance.

The best of you is one who is the most ascetic in this life, the most desirous of the Hereafter.

The best of you is one who does not leave his Hereafter for the sake of his life,

nor his life for the sake of his Hereafter, nor is he a burden on people.

One who has in him three traits has a perfect conviction: A man who does not fear, when it comes to Allāh, anyone's blame, who does not make a show of any of his good deeds;

and when two matters are offered to him one of which is for the sake of this life

while the other is for the sake of the Hereafter, he prefers the matter of the Hereafter over that of this life.

One who loves his life harms his Hereafter, and one who loves his Hereafter harms his life;

therefore, you should prefer what lasts (forever, i.e. the Hereafter) over what comes to an end.

Empty your minds of the worries of this life as much as you can, for if one's utmost concern is this life, his loss will be disseminated by Allāh, and He will let him see his poverty with his own eyes.

And if one regards the Hereafter as his greatest concern, Allāh will gather his affairs for him

and will render him rich of heart.

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The best of you is not one who abandons his life for the sake of his Hereafter nor his Hereafter

for the sake of his life until he enjoys his share of both of them, for this life is a passage to the Hereafter, and do not be a burden on people.

Be sincere in practicing your religion, few good deeds will then suffice you.

Dedicate your good deeds sincerely for the sake of Allāh, for Allāh accepts only what is purely dedicated to Him.

The best of you in conviction is the best of you in conduct.

You shall never please all people with your wealth; so, do please them with your good manners.

Good manners melt sins just as the sun melts ice.

The best of the faithful in his acceptance of Islam is one from whose tongue and hand (mischief) people are safe, and the best of the believers in belief is the best among them in conduct.

People have never been granted anything better than good manners.

A believer who is the most perfect in his belief is the one who is the best in conduct

and is the nicest to his family.

Three things are regarded by Allāh among traits of good manners:

You forgive the one who wrongs you, you give the one who deprives you

and you maintain your ties with the one who severs them from you.

The best a believing man is granted is a good conduct, and the worst a man is given

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is an evil heart in a good form.

Good manners are among the deeds that win Paradise.

One who is without good manners is without reason.

Sickness is Allāh's whip on earth with which He disciplines His servants.

O people! Your God is One, and your father is one: You all belong to Adam,

and Adam was created of dust; the best of you in the eyes of Allāh is the most pious among you;

no Arab is better than a non-Arab except according to the cri-terion of piety.

When Allāh Almighty shaped Adam in Paradise, He left him for as long as He willed,

so Iblis (Eblis) kept hovering around him, examining him; when he noticed that he was hallow,

he knew that he was a weak being.

One who repents his sin is like one who never sinned; one who seeks forgiveness for his sin

and yet continues to commit it is like one who ridicules his God;

and whoever harms a Muslim shall bear sins similarly (in depth) to the roots of date trees.

Harm hours of this life wipe out harm hours in the Hereafter.

Every harmful individual shall be lodged in the Fire.

There is no part in the body that does not complain about one's sharp tongue.

One who harms a Muslim harms me, and whoever harms me harms Allāh.

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Any hardship, affliction, illness, harm or grief afflicts a believer

is used by Allāh to wipe out his sins.

No disappointment shall be the lot of one who seeks Allāh's guidance,

nor does one regret if he seeks advice, nor does one believe in the Qur’ān

if he deems as permissible what it decrees to be prohibitive.

Seek refuge with Allāh against poverty, against being a burden on others,

against wronging others or being wronged by others.

Seek refuge with Allāh against evil women, and be alert with regard to the

good ones from among them.

Seek refuge with Allāh against the exertion of affliction, against unavoidable suffering,

against destiny which is bad for you and against enemies'

gloating.

If one seeks refuge with you in the Name of Allāh, you should grant him refuge;

if one asks you in the Name of Allāh to give him (something), do give him;

if one calls on you, you should respond to him, and if one does you a favor,

you must reward him, but if you find no way to reward him, you should supplicate for him until you come to know that you have, indeed, rewarded him.

A covert desire and pretension are akin to polytheism.

Satan said, "By Your Exaltation, O Lord, (do I swear that) I shall never stop enticing

Your servants so long as their souls remain in their bodies."

The Lord, whereupon, said,

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"By My Exaltation and Greatness, I shall never cease forgiv-ing them so

long as they plead for My forgiveness."

Seeking Allāh's forgiveness obliterates sins.

When a servant of Allāh commits a sin, a black spot takes its place in his heart. If he reverts,

regrets and repents, his heart will be cleansed of it. If he commits it again, its size will be greater, so much so that it covers his heart, which is the spot of stain mentioned by Allāh Almighty in this verse:

"By no means! But the stain of the (ill) that they do is on their hearts!"

(Qur’ān, 83:14).

No sin is too big so long as one seeks forgiveness, nor is there a sin that is too small if one insists on committing it.

If one seeks forgiveness much, Allāh will find an ease for each of his worries,

a way out of each hardship and will provide him with sustenance from where he does not expect.

There is a medicine for every illness, and the medicine for sins is seeking forgiveness for them.

It is extravagance if you eat everything you desire.

Eat, drink, pay charity and clothe yourselves without extravagance or making a show.

One who economizes is sustained by Allāh, and one who squanders is deprived by Allāh.

One who economizes is enriched by Allāh; one who squanders is impoverished by Allāh;

one who is humble is raised in status by Allāh, and the back of one who is haughty is split by Allāh.

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One who seeks knowledge (actually) seeks mercy; a seeker of knowledge is the column of Islam, and he shall be rewarded with the Prophets.

Three which nobody but a hypocrite takes lightly are: One who grows gray hair in Islam

, a man of knowledge and a just imam.

If one grows gray hair in Islam, it will be noor (celestial light) for him on the Judgment Day.

Islam started like a stranger and shall return like a stranger; therefore, congratulations to the strangers!

The best kind of charity is mending broken ties.

The reformed of all people is one who is the best in mending their broken ties.

Mend people's broken ties even if you intentionally tell a lie.

Serve your food to the pious, and do your favors to the men of belief.

Miserable is the food served in a wedding: The rich eat it, while the destitute are deprived of it.

If one feeds a hungry Muslim, Allāh feeds him of the fruits of Paradise.

Three things cause one's peril and three others save him: Perilous things are: an obeyed miserliness, a followed inclination and one feeling conceited.

The three that saves are: fear of Allāh in secrecy and in the open, moderation in spending

even when one is rich, and fairness during the time of anger and of pleasure.

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Those from among my nation who deserve Allāh's mercy are those who are moderate.

If one does not accept the excuse of an apologetic person, be he truthful or lying, he shall never earn my intercession (on the Judgment Day).

The worst of people is one who eats alone, who does not give others and

who whips his slave (harms his servant). More evil than him is one who neither mends a stumble

nor accepts an excuse. Still worse than him is one for whose goodness nobody hopes

nor from whose evil is anyone secure.

If one wishes his supplication be honored and affliction removed must find an ease

for someone who is in hardship.

If one finds an ease for a Muslim from one of life's hardships, Allāh will find an ease

for one of the hardships of the Judgment Day for him. If one finds ease for one who is suffering from a hardship,

Allāh will find ease for him in the life of this world and in the Hereafter.

And if one covers a Muslim's fault, Allāh will cover his faults in the life of this world and in the

Hereafter

One who leads a blind man the way for forty steps will have all his past sins forgiven.

Beware of being extremist in your religion; people before you perished because of religious extremism.

The best of good deeds is the sincere intention.

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If Allāh desires goodness for a family, He enables them to be faqihs in their creed,

their youths honor their elderly, He blesses them with moderation in their sustenance,

economizing in their expenses and enables them to see their faults, so they would repent;

but if He desires for them otherwise, He ignores them.

Economizing is half the sustenance, while good manners form half the creed.

The best of matters are the most moderate.

Disseminate your greeting of peace, feed others, maintain your ties with your kinsfolk,

perform your prayers during the night while people are asleep so

you may enter Paradise in peace.

The best of virtues is that you maintain your ties with those who sever them,

give those who deprive you and forgive those who wrong you.

There are five things the doer of which receives a hasty punishment:

oppression, treachery, disobedience of parents, severing the ties with relatives

and not expressing thanks for favors.

The best of you are those who are the best to their families.

Eating with the servant is a sign of humbleness.

Do not cause the death of the hearts by consuming too much food and drinks,

for the heart dies similarly to plants given too much water.

One who gets used to much food and drinks becomes hardhearted.

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The body of one who eats less will be healthy, whereas one who eats too much

exposes his body to sickness and his heart to hardiness.

Allāh very much holds in contempt those who eat without being hungry,

those who sleep without feeling drowsy and those who laugh without there is anything out of the ordinary.

The one who has the greatest right on a woman is her husband,

and of all people, the one who has the greatest right on a man is his mother.

Allāh Almighty commends you to be good to women, for they are your mothers, daughters and maternal aunts.

Paradise lies at the mothers' feet.

Allāh Almighty prolongs a man's lifespan on account of being kind to his parents.

The Pleasure of the Lord lies in pleasing the parents and His wrath lies in their displeasure.

Nobody is better in the sight of Allāh than an imam who is truthful

when he speaks and just when he issues a verdict.

You shall fill the earth with injustice and aggression, then a man from among my Household

(al-Mahdi, may Allāh hasten his reappearance) shall come out until he fills it with justice

and equity as it was filled with injustice and iniquity.

Return the trust to the one who trusted you, and do not betray even one who betrays you.

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If you have in you four things, never mind what you missed of life: saying the truth,

safeguarding the trust, good manners and the goodness of what you eat.

If you guarantee six things to be found in you, I shall guarantee Paradise for you:

Say the truth when you speak, fulfill your promise, return the trust, safeguard your modesty,

lower your gaze and do not harm others.

There is no conviction in one who is not trustworthy, nor is there faith in one who never safeguards his pledge.

There are three things for which there is no license for anyone:

kindness to the parents, be they believers or unbelievers, fulfillment of a promise to a believer

or a non-believer, fulfillment of a pledge for a believer or a non-believer,

and giving the trust back to a man, be he a believer or a nonbeliever.

If one has three things in him, he is a hypocrite no matter if he fasts, prays,

performs the pilgrimage and the ùmra and says, "I am a Muslim;"

they are: When he talks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he does not honor it,

and when he is entrusted, he betrays the trust.

Jihad (struggle) means four things: enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong,

being truthful in stances of perseverance and staying away from debauchees.

Enjoin the doing of what is right even if you yourselves do not do it,

and prohibit the doing of what is wrong even if you do not avoid all of it.

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You should enjoin the doing of what is right and the forbidding of what is wrong;

otherwise, Allāh will grant power to your evil ones against you, so your men of righteousness will supplicate, but their supplication will not be answered.

If one's prayers do not prohibit him from committing sins and abominations,

it only further distances him from Allāh.

If one of you sees wrongdoing, he has to change it with his hands;

but if he cannot, he must change it with his tongue; but if he cannot, he must do so in his heart,

which is a sign of the weakest faith.

Allāh Almighty is shy, generous; He is too shy when someone raises his hands to Him

with a plea to send them back empty handed.

Allāh, the most Exalted One and the most Great, created three types of jinns:

one type are snakes, scorpions and earth ruff-age; and a type like wind in the air;

and a type that will be judged and punished. And Allāh created three types of mankind:

one is like cattle, one with bodies similar to those of human beings but with souls like those of demons, and a type that will be shaded by Allāh's shade when there shall be no shade but His.

No descendant of Adam has filled any container worse than a stomach.

As you are, so shall you be ruled.

If Allāh grants one of you something good, let him start with himself and his family.

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The best dinar is one which a man spends on his dependents.

The worst of people is one who straitens [does not spend enough] on his family.

Jihad (struggle) does not mean a man striking with the sword in the way of Allāh Almighty;

rather, jihad is spending on the parents and children, such is the performing of jihad.

And if one sustains himself and does not depend on people (to sustain him),

he is one who performs jihad.

None of us is one who is granted abundance by Allāh yet he is stingy when spending on his dependents.

Whatever you feed your wife is counted as charity for you; whatever you feed your children is counted as charity for you;

whatever you feed your servant is counted as charity for you, and whatever you feed yourself is counted as charity for you.

A man's expenditure on his family is charity.

The most that worries me about my nation is a large belly, too much sleep, laziness and a weakness of conviction.

The best type of conviction is that people feel secure in your regard,

and the best type of Islam is that people are safe from your tongue and hand.

Allāh refuses to accept the good deeds of one who has invented an innovation

(bidà) unless he abandons it.

One who respects an individual who invented a bidà assists in the demolition of Islam.

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It is charity when you greet people with a smile on your face.

A blind man is not one who loses his eyesight; rather, one is blind when his foresight is blind.

Two types of eyes are prohibited from being harmed by the Fire:

an eye that wept out of fear of Allāh, and an eye that kept vigil guarding Islam

and its followers against apostasy.

Seven types of people will be under the shade of Allāh's Throne on the Day

when there will be no shade but His: a man whose heart was attached to mosques,

a man who was seduced by a woman having a high status but he said, "I fear Allāh,"

two men who loved each other for the sake of Allāh, a man who kept his eyes away from whatever Allāh forbids, an eye that remained on guard in the way of Allāh, and an eye that wept out of fear of Allāh.

Congratulations to whoever controls his tongue and weeps over his sin.

There are four things, if one is granted them, he is granted the best of this life and of the Hereafter: a tongue that always mentions the Name of Allāh, a heart that is grateful,

a body that is patient when affliction falls and a wife who does not wish to betray him

with regard to her own self or to his own wealth.

Fortify your wealth with zakat, medicate on your sick with charity,

and prepare supplication for affliction.

Supplication averts affliction.

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Allāh Almighty has said, "If one does not accept My judgment,

nor is he patient with regard to My affliction, must seek a god other than Myself."

The best of you is the one who is best for his women and daughters.

If one from among my nation raises three girls or three sisters, remaining good to them,

they will act as a barrier for him against the Fire.

Allāh Almighty loves it when a man suffering of anxiety is provided relief.

The best of you is one who learned the Qur’ān then eaches it.

Knowledge is the life of Islam and the pillar of conviction; when one learns some type of knowledge, Allāh will pay him his rewards in full;

and if one learns and acts upon his knowledge, Allāh will teach him what he never knew before.

The best of people is the most pious among them.

What causes people the most to enter Paradise is fear of Allāh and good manners.

I prohibit you from three characteristics: envy, miserliness and haughtiness.

A believer's manners include neither flattery nor envy except when it comes to seeking knowledge.

When one loves a certain people, Allāh gathers him in their company.

Pilgrimage is the jihad (struggle) of every weak person, and woman's jihad is being a good wife.

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Seeking knowledge is preferred by Allāh over prayers, fast, pilgrimage and jihad (struggle) in the way of Allāh, the most Exalted One, the most Great.

When one fulfills a need for a Muslim brother, he will receive rewards equivalent to one

who has performed both the pilgrimage and thè umra.

The best of what is good is good manners.

Allāh has chosen this religion for Himself; what is good for your religion is generosity and good manners; so, do decorate your religion with them.

The most perfect among the faithful is one whose manners are the best,

and your best men are those who are the best in treating their women.

The first to be weighed in the scales is the good conduct.

It is the right of the neighbor is that if he falls sick, you should go to visit him;

if he dies, you should walk behind his coffin; if he asks you to give him a loan, you should loan him;

if he gains something good, you congratulate him; if he is afflicted by a calamity, you should console him; do not raise your building above his and thus block the wind from reaching him.

It is the right of the son on his father to teach him writing, swimming and targeting,

that he gives him sustenance of only what is good, and that he marries him off when he comes of age.

It is the right of the husband on the wife that she must not fast for a single day

without his permission except with regard to what is obligatory;

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otherwise, she would be committing a sin and her fast will not be accepted.

She must not give away anything from his house except with his permission;

otherwise, the rewards will be due to him while the burden will be on her.

She must not leave his house except with his permission; otherwise,Allāh and His angels of wrath

will curse her unless she repents or seeks his forgiveness even if he may be unfair.

It is the right of the wife that her husband feeds when he partakes of food,

clothes her when he clothes himself, that he must never slap her on the face nor call her ugly

nor desert her except while staying at the same house.

Your serving your wife is charity.

Stay away from wine for it is the key to every evil.

Avoid all intoxicants.

I forbid you from partaking of a little of anything much of which intoxicates.

Beware of wine, for its sin branches out to other sins; also, its tree multiplies into other trees (through seeds).

Allāh has prohibited wine, and anything that intoxicates is prohibitive.

Trading in wine is prohibited.

Wine is the mother of abominations;

the prayers of one who drinks it will not be accepted for forty days;

so, if he dies while there is still in his stomach some of it, he dies the death of the days of jahiliyya (pre-Islamic period).

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Four types of people will never be permitted by Allāh to enter Paradise,

nor will He permit them to taste of its felicity.

When a servant of Allāh commits adultery, conviction (iman) comes out of him,

staying above his head like a shade; if he quits doing it, it returns to him.

Four types of people are held by Allāh in contempt: a seller who always swears (so people would believe him and buy his merchandise),

a poor person who tries to show off, an aged man who commits adultery, and an unjust imam.

Allāh's wrath intensified against a women who introduced in-to a people a son who did not belong to them, one who looks at their faults while sharing their wealth.

Adulterers will come (on Judgment Day) with their faces burning.

The seven heavens, the seven earths and the mountains all curse the aged adulterer.

Eyes' adultery is looking (at what is prohibited) The tongue's adultery is speech.

Adultery brings about poverty.

Every eye is an adulteress; if a woman wears perfume then passes by a place where men are sitting, she commits adultery.

One who insists on committing adultery is akin to an idol worshiper

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The greatest fear I have about my nation is what the folks of Lot used to do

(i.e. homosexuality).

A woman who gives birth is more loved by Allāh Almighty than a good looking woman

who does not give birth; I shall brag about your numbers to other nations on the Judgment Day.

If a man looks at his woman (affectionately) and she looks at him (likewise),

Allāh Almighty will look at both of them with a look of mercy.

A woman is married for her faith, wealth and beauty; so, I commend the woman with the faith to you, may your hands be rubbed with dust!

Every individual from among the offspring of Adam is a master:

The man is the master of his family, and the woman is the mistress of her home.

Allāh Almighty hates divorce.

Get married and do not divorce, for Allāh does not like those men

who run after their taste or the women who do the same.

Get married and do not divorce, for divorce causes the Àrsh (of the Almighty) to shake.

There is nothing permissible which Allāh hates more than divorce.

If a woman asks her husband for divorce without harm afflicting her,

she will be banned from sniffing the aroma of Paradise (much less entering it).

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6

Chapter

USEFUL GLOSSARY

This Glossary is phonetic, that is, it is arranged according to how an Arabic word or term is pronounced. It is included in this book for the benefit of Muslims living in non-Arab and nonMuslim countries.

Abadi: ???? Eternal without end

Àbath: ??? mirth, sporting

Abrama: ???? firmly asserted, endorsed, signed Ad¡la: ????? justicèĀdil: ???? fair, just Àdl: ??? the concept of the justice of God Àdw¡: ???? infection, contamination

Àfeef: ???? chaste, modest

Aghlāl: ????? plural of ghill, shackle

Ahādith: ?????? sing.: hadith, a statement (usually by or attributed either to the Prophet or to one of the members of his Progeny or companions)

Ahilla: ???? plural of hilāl, crescent

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Ahl al-Bas ā’ir: ??? ??????? people of vision, of insight Akhlāq: ????? ethics, morals, manners; akhlāqiyyāt: moral ethics, moralities

Alim ???? scholar, scientist, theologian, a highly knowledgeable person

Àmāl: ????? highly recommended acts of adoration Al-Arkan al-Arbabaà: ??????? ??????? The four elements or roots: fire, air, water and earth of which all bodies in the world, mineral, plant, or animal are composed Àrāf: ? customs, traditions; also: areas where humans are grouped for judgment on the Judgment Day; a chapter of the Holy Qur’¡n (Ch. 7)

Àrsh:

??? literally: throne, symbol of the Almighty's Authority

‘Asabiyya: ????? a term made current by the Muslim philosopher and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun (732 - 808 A.H./1332 –

1406 A.D.), for the sense of common honor and loyalty which binds together the members of a family, clan, or tribe, forming a bond of solidarity

Ashār: ????? plural of sahar, the time immediately preceding daybreak

Ashraf: ????? highly respected notables; sing.: shareef Aslah: ???? "Most fitting or best," a thesis of Muslim theodicy that God does what is best for mankind

'Athān: ???? the call for prayers; mu'aththin is one who performs 'athān.

Awdāj Arbaà: ??????? ??????? jugular veins 124

Āyat: ??? verse (from a sacred scripture); plura: āyāt Azal:

??? Eternal without beginning as opposed to abad, eternal without end. See also abad.

Àzl: ??? isolation, separation, quarantine Badiha: ????? self-evident data or premises, i.e. propositions the truth of which is open to direct inspection and requires no appeal to other evidence

Bahraja: ????? flashiness

Barzakh: ???? the place and time wherein the souls of the dead live till the Day of Judgment; refer to the Holy Qur'ān, 23:100; it is "the intervening space", but technically the term denotes the "world of Ideas" which is considered intermediary between the material or phenomenal world and the world of pure spirits as well as of God. This concept is close to that of the Purgatory in the Catholic faith.

Basar: ??? sight, the power placed in the two hollow nerves which meet in the brain; thence, they separate and go to the two eyeballs. By this power are perceived rays of light, colors, shapes, sizes, motions, the beautiful and the ugly and all other things.

Basmala: ????? the uttering of: "Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahim"

(In the Name of Allāh, the most Gracious, the most Merciful) Batar: ??? indolence

Batil: ???? falsehood, false, wrong, un-Islamic Hay'a: ???? form, shape, state or status; also: board or commission

Beed: ??? plural of abyad, white

Birr ?? kindness, benevolence; barr: a kind person 125

Bitana: ????? cortege

Boursa: ????? bourse, stocks exchange

Burhan: ????? a term used in philosophy in various slightly different senses: (1) mode of argumentation; (2) the argument itself; and (3) the manifest evidence or proof of a convincing argument. In this last sense, the term is also used in the Qur’¡n, 4:174; 12:24.

Buhtan: ????? calumny

Dahala: ????? shallowness

Dahr: time, age, eternity, the eternal duration in which eternity in the past past ( azal, q.v.) is in a constant union with eternity in the future ( abad, q.v.). Dahr is the innermost essence or part of time (zaman), encompassing it all. Compared with time and measured by it, dahr is found to have a permanence corresponding exactly to the permanence of time with reference to what is contained in it.

Da’im: ???? perpetual, eternal; al-D¡'im: the Perpetual One, God Almighty

Dalalah: ????? the manner in which a vocable (lafz ???) signifies the meaning of a thing it designates Dalil: ???? evidence, proof, indication, pointer Daran: ??? uncleanness

Dawājin: ? ???? domesticated animals and fowl Dimni: ???? implicit, implied

Dinar: ????? a traditionally Islamic (now Arab) gold currency varying in weight

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Dirham: ???? an Islamic silver currency weighing approx.

3.12 grams

Diwan: ????? office, meeting place; Diwan shìr: a collection of poems

Diyya: ??? blood money, monetary compensation for man-slaughter or intentional murder

Dùā': ???? supplication, invocation

Dù āt: ???? plural of dāìya, caller, advocate, proselyte Durra: ??? jewel; also: staff, baton, heavy stick Ibtihaj: ?????? to have the bliss and beatitude of the experience of the Divine

Ìd: ??? an Islamic feast, a joyous celebration, a merry occasion

Fā'izeen: ?????? (or Fā'izùn) winners

Fajir? an openly sinning and unrepentant person; noun: fujūr

Fajr: ??? daybreak

Falak: ??? (pl. aflak) the celestial sphere surrounding the world and revolving around the earth as its center. According to the cosmogony current with the Muslim philosophers, there are nine such spheres that surround each other like the peels of an onion so that the concave side of the shell of the surrounding sphere touches the convex surface of the one surrounded by it. All these spheres being transparent, one can see through them from the lowest to the highest. The nine spheres in the descending order of their remoteness from the earth are: (1) the sphere of the primum mobile (al-falak al-aqsa or falak al-aflak); (2) the sphere of the fixed stars ( al-kawakib al-thabita); (3) the sphere of Saturn ( Zuhal); (4) the sphere of Jupiter 127

(Mushtari); (6) the sphere of Mars ( Mirrikh); (6) the sphere of the Sun ( Shams); (7) the sphere of Venus (Zuhra); (8) the sphere of Mercury ( ‘Utarid); and (9) the sphere of the Moon ( Qamar). Falak al-aflak is the first celestial sphere or the primum mobile; it is also called al-falak al-aqsa, "the remotest sphere". Al-falak al-awwal, "the first heavens", is the outermost celestial sphere in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e.

the sphere of the fixed stars ( al-kawakib al-thabita). Falak al-tadwir is a smaller sphere that revolves round the circumfer-ence of a larger sphere, i.e. one making an epicycle.

Faqih: ???? jurist, one who is knowledgeable in Islamic jurisprudence

Farāsikh: ????? plural of farsakh, parasang (a loan Persian word), a measure of length (distance). According to Lis¡n al-

Àrab lexicon of Ibn Manzour, it may be three to six miles. "It is called so," the author of Lisan alÀrab goes on, "because one who walks one farsakh will have to sit to rest," suggesting that the original meaning of the word is: to halt, to come to a stand still, to rest.

Farq ??? "difference" or "separation"; technically the difference or separation between the corporeal and the incorporeal, i.e. between body and soul, or between the physical world and the world of pure intelligence ( ‘¡lam al-mufariq¡t); must be distinguished from fasl

Fasl: differentia; i.e. one of the five predicables (al-alf¡z al-khamsa). In logic, fasl signifies the attribute or attributes by which a thing is essentially distinguished from other things.

Fasl must be distinguished from farq which also signifies the difference between things, whereas the former denotes the essential differentia between the bodily or corporeal things, the latter refers to complete separation between the corporeal and the incorporeal, i.e. between body and soul, or between the physical world and the world of intelligence; hence the expression al-‘uqul al-mufariqah for separated intelligences 128

Fat¡wa: ????? plural of fatwā, a religious edict or decision Fattāk: ???? devastating, lethal

Fayafi: ????? plains

Fidya: ???? ransom

Fi'l ??? "action"; in logic, sometimes it is also termed yaf‘al (to act). It is one of the ten Aristotelian categories (al maqūlat al-‘ashr) as opposed to infi‘¡l or yanfa‘il which is the category of passion.

"Action" in this particular sense means affecting a thing that receives an effect, e.g. heating something, while "passion"

would be being heated, or cutting something while "passion"

would be being cut.

Fiqh: ??? the science of Islamic jurisprudence Firdaws: ????? Paradise

Fitam: ???? weaning

Fitna: ???? sedition, trial, upheaval

Fitra: the amount (in cash or in kind) paid to the needy at the end of the month of Ramadan

Fitri: ???? innate, instinctive

Fuqà: ???? (literally: bubble) beer

Fusooq: ???? debauchery, perversity

Ghafla: ???? unawareness, heedlessness, indifference, lack of self-guard

Ghatta: ?? poured over, submerged into

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Ghayy: ?? straying, misguidance Ghazwa: ???? a military campaign, an invasion Gheeba: ???? backbiting, speaking behind someone’s back Ghibta: ???? exultation, elation

Ghuluw: ??? extremism, fanaticism, immoderation Ghush: ?? cheating, deception

Ghusul: ??? ceremonial bath

Hadana: ????? nursing period

Hadd: ?? a term, i.e. word or combination of words, which by itself can be used as a subject (mawdù) or a predicate (mah-mul) of a logical proposition (qadiyah); also the definition of a term

Hadeed: ???? pitfall, abyss

Hadith: ???? (sing.) tradition, a statement made by Prophet Muhammed; plural: ahādith

Hadi: ??? sacrificial animals offered at Mecca's holy precincts

Hads: ? the capacity of the mind to draw immediate inferences from data presented to it or to see through a kind of mental

illumination

the

necessary

connection

between

premises and conclusions

Hufaz: ? one who has learned the entire text of the Holy Qur'ān by heart; plural: huffāz

Hufaz: ???? incentive, motive

Hajiz: ???? barrier, separator

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Hajj: Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca during the prescribed period

Hālà: ??? panic, intense fear, fright

Halāl: ???? Islamically permissible, admissible, allowed Haram: ??? sanctuary, sacred precincts; al-Haram: the Kàba in Mecca

Harām: ???? Islamically prohibitive, inadmissible, forbidden Hatk: ??? disrespect, violation of one’s privacy or sanctity Hayba: ???? veneration, awe, dignity

Haywaniyya: ??????? bestiality; Haywān: animal Hazm: ??? resolve

Hazza: ??? shakeup, earthquake, turbulence Hijāb: ???? veil, curtain

Hilāl: ???? crescent, singular of ahilla Hishma: ???? modesty, decency

Hiss Mushtarik: ?? ????? the commonsense (sensus communis) located in the first ventricle of the front brain; it combines all forms of the sensible objects that are received through the five external senses (al-hawas al-khamsah). It may be said that it is a faculty in which all sense perceptions are so coalesced that they assume a single form. This is how, when we see the yellow color of honey, we can internally tell that it is sweet, goodsmelling and a fluid.

Hiwar ???? dialogue, chat

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Hizb: Literally, it means: party (plural: ahzāb); also the 60th part of the Holy Qur'ān

Hujja: ??? proof, argument, authority

Hujjat al-Islam: ??? ??????? "The convincing proof of Islam”, the honorific title given to a highly recognized Muslim authority. For example, Imam “Abu Hamid” Muhammed al-Tūsi al-Naisaburi al-Shafiì al-Ashàri alGhaz¡li (450 - 505 A.H./1058 –

1111 A.D.) (pictured to the right here) is one of the greatest and most original thinkers not only in the history of Muslim philosophy but in the history of human thought. This title fits him because of his defense of the teachings of Islam through a remarkable criticism of the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers in his celebrated work: Tah¡fut al-Fal¡sifah ????? ???????? which some translators render into English as “The Incoherence of the Philosophers” and which I, also a translator, translate as

“philosophers rushing (recklessly) to conclusions.” The word bears many meanings, including: flocking, crowding, throng-ing, rushing upon, springing upon to collapse, falling down, breaking down, disintegrating, pouncing, collapsing, decom-posing and contradicting (themselves). No dictionary in my possession provides “incoherence” as a meaning for tah¡fut…

Hukm: ??? a proposition, logical, juristic or legal judgment expressed in the form of a sentence. It is an assertion or a statement of the relation of agreement or disagreement between two terms one of which is called the predicate ( mahmūl) and the other the subject ( mawdū`) of that predicate synonymous with qadiyya.

Huri: ? heavenly wife with large lovely eyes married to the male residents of Paradise

Hurmah: ???? sanctity

Ìbra ???? moral lesson

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Ibda: creation from absolute nothingness; to be distinguished from the cognate terms khalq, takwin and ihdath, all of which presuppose the temporal priority of cause to effect.

Ibtila’i: ??????? fate-related

Idrak: perception or apprehension, realization. This term is used to denote any kind of cognitive experience of a particular object, whether it is due to external senseorgans (i.e. idrak al-hiss) or on account of internal senses, such as the formative faculty ( al-quwwa al-mutasawwira or khayal), estimative faculty ( al-quwwa al-mutawahhima), imagination ( al-quwwa al-mu-takhayyila) or rational faculty ( al-quwwa alàqliyya). Sometimes cognition, through the external senses, is distinguished from that through the internal senses by calling the former mahsūsat and the latter wujdaniyyat.

Ìdda: ??? waiting period, grieving period Ìffa: ???decency, purity

Ifham: ????? (also tafheem) explaining something so one may understand it

Ifham: ????? refutation, rebuttal

Iftar ????? the time or meal to break the fast Ightirāb: ?????? becoming ghareeb, stranger; estrangement Ihbat ????? despair, despondency

Ihrām: ????? pilgrimage garb, white unwoven cotton shroud worn by pilgrims

Ihtijaj: ?????? giving a logical argument or proof; it has three major modes or kinds: syllogistic argument (qiyas), inductive argument (istiqra’) and argument by analogy (tamthil).

Ihtiyal: ?????? trickery

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‘Ijāra: ????? leasing

Ijlal: ????? respect, veneration

Ijtihād: ?????? the degree one reaches in order to be qualified as a mujtahid, one who is capable of deriving religious decisions on his own

Ijtiyāh: ?????? sweeping, incursion

Ikbar: ????? veneration, respect

Ikhwan al-Safa: ????? ????? "Brethren of Purity", a free scholarly association of scientists and philosophers, was established in Basra in about 373 A.H./983 A.D. with a branch in Baghdad.

They authored fifty-one treatises know as Rasa’il Iknwan al-Sa-fab ????? ????? ????? (Treatises of the Brethren of Purity) which form an Arabic Encyclopedia of science, philosophy and religion, probably the first of its kind in the literature world.

Iktisab: ?????? Acquisition.

Ilhād: ????? apostasy, disbelief

Ilja' ????? coercion, constraint

Ìlliyeen: ????? )????? ( ?? lucky ones who occupy the highest pinnacle of Paradise; see Holy Qur'ān, 83:18.

Imām: ???? leader of an umma, a group of people (small or big); he may be the one who leads others in congregational prayers, a supreme religious authority, or one of the Twelve Infallible Imams

Imān: ????? faith, conviction

Imtihān:

??????

humiliating;

??????

imtihan:

testing,

examining

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Inbahara: ????? dazzled, impressed Inghimās: ?????? immersal, immersing, dipping into Inqida': ?????? lapsing, passing away. tajaddud wa inqida': renewal and lapse

Insihār: ?????? fusion

Iqāma: ????? the pronouncement of certain statements in preparation for the performing of the prayers, usually following the athān; also: residency

Ìshā': ???? nighttime, evening

Ishtibāh: ?????? perplexity felt in deciding between the truth and falsehood of a statement

Ìsma: ???? protection (against sinning), infallibility Isnad: the method whereby one hadith is traced and in the end attributed to a muhaddith, traditionist, one who transmitted it the first time

Isr ??? chain

Isra: night journey; usually a reference to the Prophet's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem

Istighātha: ??????? seeking ghawth, relief Istihalah: ??????? qualitative change in a body from one state or condition to another, e.g. water becoming hot being cold Istidlāl: ??????? reasoning in general but more specifically the mode of reasoning in which we proceed from the given facts or effects to the inference of their causes Istinbāt: ??????? derivation, deduction, drawing a conclusion 135

Istinjā’: ?????? ? the use of water for ceremonial purification Ittihad: ????? Union by relation, say of two or more pairs of things when the terms or parts of each pair have the same relation or ratio as the terms or parts of the other pair, e.g. the relation individually of two brothers to their father, or the relation of ration 2 : 4 to the ration 3 : 6; the relation between such pairs is technically called munasabah.

Ìtikāf: ?????? the act of remaining most of the time at a mosque for prayers and supplications

Ittisal: ????? a term used in logic to denote the connection between the antecedent and the consequent in a conditional or hypothetical proposition. It also means: continuous.

Ìzza: ??? dignity, glory

Jāhiliyya: ?????? pre-Islamic period of ignorance Ja'ir: ???? oppressor, unfair

Ja'l:

??? causation; in the science of logic, it means

"creation".

Jāmi à: ????? inclusive, universal, university; it also means: handcuffs

Janāba: ????? uncleanness caused by seminal discharge Jannat: ??? heaven, Paradise, garden; pl.: jannāt Jārā: ???? followed suit, went along with, supported Jazà: ??? anxiety

Jiàla: ????? (trade or business) royalty 136

Jihad: a struggle, an effort exerted, or a war waged in defense of Islam

Jirm: (pl. ajram); "body"; a term used specifically for a heavenly body ( falak) as opposed to jism which denotes a "body" in the world of four elements.

Jirri ??? catfish (scale-free fish)

Jism: a body composed of the four elements ( al-‘anasir al-ar-bàh) in various proportions; a body thus is a composite and divisible. According to philosophers, a body is composed essentially of a prime matter ( hayula) and a form ( sura) both of which in themselves are imperceptible and indivisible. A distinction must be made between the two cognate terms, jism and jism: The former refers to the earthly bodies and the latter to the heavenly ones.

Jizya: protection tax paid to Muslims by non-Muslims residing in areas under Islamic control whereby the Muslims protect their lives and property and exempt them from the military service

Jumood: ???? stagnation

Juzāf: ???? arbitrary

Kaffāra: ????? atonement for a sin

Kafir: infidel, apostate, atheist, one who does not believe in the existence of the Creator; noun: kufr Kaid: ??? scheme, scheming, mischief

Kalima: ???? synonymous to " shahāda," it is a Muslim's declaration of faith (that is, to testify that there is no god except Allāh, and that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allāh), and it is always pronounced in Arabic

137

Kantar: ????? qintār in Arabic, a varying weight of 100 ratls (rotls); a ratl in Syria is roughly 3.202 kg., whereas in England it is 449.28 grams, and in Lebanon it is 2.566 kg.

Karama: ????? dignity, self-respect, prestige Khabeeth: ???? lowly

Khalià: ????? related or connected to nudity; khalaà: nudity Khandaq: ???? moat

Khasm: ??? opponent, enemy, contender, adversary in a discussion, i.e. each one of the two controversialists who speaks either for or against an issue

Khasoosiyya: ?????? particularity, privacy Khawalif: ????? surrogates, a term used by logicians for demonstrative or personal pronouns

Khayba: ???? disappointment

Khayri: ???? charitable

Khiraj: ???? annual Islamic land tax

Khiyāna: ????? treachery, betrayal

Khums: ??? one-fifth of one's savings (now paid only by Shià Muslims although there is a Qur’anic text referring to it, so it is supposed to be paid by all Muslims) set aside from annual income

Khur āfa: ?????superstition

Khuthlān: ????? betrayal

Kuhl: ??? kohl

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Kunya: ???? the use of "Abū" (father of) or "Umm " (mother of) often as a prefix for one’s name

Kursi: ???? literally: chair, symbol of the Almighty's Seat of Judgment and Authority; see Holy Qur'ān, 2:255 which is called

“¡yat al-Kursi”

Khushoò: ???? full concentration on an act of worship, rever-ence, total submission

Khutba: ????lecture, sermon; a speech delivered on a specific occasion

Khuwā’: ???? emptiness

Kufr: ??? apostasy, infidelity, disbelief Labbayk: ???? ! an exclamation conveying the meaning of "At your service!" or "Here I am!"

Lafz: ??? Vocable, pronouncement

Lajāja: ????? argumentation, persistence (in a negative way) Laqta: ???? find, something found whose owner is unknown; laqeet: foundling; also: snapshot

Lazim: ???? concomitant

Luwati: ????? homosexual; also: mithli (same gender) Màād: ???? the Return: a reference to the returning of the souls to their new bodies after the period of barzakh and their ultimate returning to their Maker for judgment; generally, it is used to refer to death and the life hereafter.

Madada: ????? bitterness

139

Madlūl: ????? literally, it means "referent" and "meaning",

"sense". It also means "proved", "inferred".

Mahr: dowry paid by the groom to the bride (or vice versa as is the case in some cultures)

Majālis: ????? meetings or gatherings held to commemorate certain religious occasions, mostly applied to those held during the month of Muharram or to recite the Fātiha for a deceased person; singular of majlis, a place where people sit together Maknoon: ????? treasured, very highly appreciated Makr ??? cunning; makir: a cunning person : Maksab: ???? gain, profit, benefit

Manzil: ????station, house, home

Maq¡m: ???? station, position, status

Marjì taqlīd: ???? ????? the highest theological authority-ref-eree who has followers who refer to him regarding juristic issues

Mash àr: ???? a place where certain rites are to be conducted, a sacred area or place or precinct

Màsiya: ????? disobedience (of the Almighty’s Command-ments), transgression. The Preipatetics (those who walk around), the name given to the followers of Aristotle ( Aristatalis) for he is reported to have lectured to his pupils while walking in the Garden of Lyceum near Athens; hence, the term is also called Peripateticism ( mashsha’iyat). Aristotle’s influence on Muslim philosophy was immense: Major Muslim philosophers, such as al-Farabi (d. 339 A.H./950 A.D.), Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (d. 428 A.H./1037 A.D.), Ibn Rushd (d. 595 A.H./

1198 A.D.), and others were primarily known as Peripatetics.

140

Maslak: ???? Road

Màsoom: ????? infallible, divinely protected from sinning Mawla: ???? depending on its usage, it may mean either

"master" or "slave," or it may mean one who is most fit for a specific position of honor and prestige. Derived from the adjective awla (one who is best qualified), it means: the person who is best suited to be the religious and temporal leader of all Muslims.

Mihna: ???? profession; mihna ???? dilemma, problem Mira’ ???? pretension

Mìrāj: ????? the Prophet’s ascension from Jerusalem to the heavens

Mithāliyyā:

??????

principles,

values,

idealism;

adj.

exemplary

Mithqāl: ?????a weight equivalent to 24 karats or 4.68

grams

Muàshara: ?????? companionship, socialization Mu'aththin: ???? caller to prayers (usually at a mosque) Mu'āwad: ???? compensated `

Mubtathal: ????? mean, lowly, indecent

Mughhlatah (pl. mughalahat): a logical "fallacy", i.e. a piece of reasoning which appears to establish a conclusion without really doing so. The term applies equally to the legitimate deduction of a conclusion from false premises and to the illegitim-ate deduction of a conclusion from any premise.

Mudaàfat: ??????? repercussions, consequences 141

Mudaf: ???? relational, added to Mudaraba: ?????? (trade) speculation

Muèel: ???? supporter, guardian

Mufaraqat: ??????? separated beings or things, i.e. purely spiritual beings separated from all that is bodily. The term more specifically is used to denote the souls and intelligences of the celestial spheres.

Mufassir: ???? a theologian who is well-versed in the exegesis of the Holy Qur'ān

Muhaddith: ???? a narrator of hadith, one who quotes statements of Prophet Muhammed

Mujāhid: ????? one who practices jihād (se jihād above) Mujanasa: ?????? relation of similarity between two or more objects or individuals belonging to the same genus (jins), e.g.

the relation between man and horse subsumed under the genus "animal".

Mujtahid: ????? one who acquires the degree of ijtihād and thus becomes capable of deriving religious decisions on his own

Mukallaf: ???? responsible (accountable) adult Mukashafah: ?????? a mode of intuitive or mystical apprehension which leads to the disclosures of divine things. According to al-Ghaz¡li, mukashafa is a light which appears in the heart after it has been purified of all that is dross and blam-able. Through this light many matters are revealed of which one had until then only heard names or had merely vague and general ideas. As a result, the meanings of spiritual verities become clear and one begins to have a true apprehension of the nature of the Divine Being, His attributes, His acts, etc., as 142

well as understanding the real meanings of terms such as angels, the devil, prophecy, prophet, revelation, etc.

Mulhid: ???? disbeliever, unbeliever, atheist; noun: ilhad Mumathalah: ?????? "resemblance" or "similitude"; technically the relationship among objects or individuals belonging to the same species, e.g. the relationship between Zaid, Bakr, Ù-

mar, etc., subsumed under the species "man".

Mu'min: ????believer, one who has imān, conviction, true belief

Munafiqùn ??????? hypocrites :

Munajat: ?????? whispering or silently supplicating to the Almighty seeking His foregiveness

Munàkis: ????? the converse or opposite, i.e. the proposition inferred from a given proposition by transposing its subject and predicate but without changing its quality; for example: the proposition: "No circles are triangles" is the mun‘akis of the proposition "No triangles are circles" or “Some Arabs are Jews" is the mun‘akis of "Some Jews are Arabs". The negative particular proposition ( al-salibat al-juz’iyah, q.v.), however, has no munàkis form of it.

Munharif: ????? deviated, abnormal, immoral Munasaba:

?????? The relation of "proportionateness"

between two or more pairs of things when the terms or parts of each pair have the same relation or ratio as those of the other pair, e.g. the relation individually of two brothers to their father or the relation of ratio 2:4 to ratio 3:6.

Muqaddam: ???? antecedent, i.e. the clause of a conjunctive which is conditional or hypothetical ( al-qadiyyat alshartiyya al-muttasila) which precedes the consequent ( tali) as its condition or cause, e.g. the clause "If it rains," in the statement: "If it rains, the ground shall be wet".

143

Musadara: ?????? an initial proposition or principle which is postulated to be true whether one believes it to be so or not like the postulates of Euclidean geometry.

Musafih: ?????fornicator, committing sifah, fornication Mushabahah: ?????? "resemblance" or "similarity"; technically the relation between objects possessing the same quality, say, of color, touch, taste, or smell

Musahara: ?????? intermarriage, entering into a marriage relationship

Mushakis: ????? obnoxious person

Musnad: ???? a compilation of traditions ( ahādith) which are consecutively and chronologically traced to their transmitters Mutawātir: ?????? consecutively reported, traced by a perfect chronological chain of ascertained narrators of hadith Mu'min: ????(Muslim) believer, a man of conviction Musawara: ?????? keeping company with

Mushakalah: ?????? the relation of similarity between objects having a common property ( proprium), e.g. the relation between triangles of different kinds in respect of their common property that the sum of two of their sides in each case is greater than the third.

Mushtari: ????? planet Jupiter or its sphere; also: buyer Mutabaqa: ?????? complete accord; correspondence Mutahallil: ????? licentious

Mutamahhid: ????? immersed into, dedicated to, being exclusive

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Mutawatirat: ???????? transmitted data or premises, i.e. the propositions to which the continuous testimony of other people causes our assent.

Muwazana: ?????? "equivalence" or "equilibrium", balance or balanc-ing; technically, the relation of equivalence or similitude between wholes having similar composition of parts, e.g.

the relation between the skeletal systems of two mammalians or vertebrates.

Muzri: ???? demeaning, humiliating, insulting Nafaqa: ???? alimony

Nafl: ??? optional, non-compulsory, supererogatory, highly recom-mended act of worship; plural: nawāfil Nafs al-ammara: ????? ??????? “The commanding soul”, i.e.

the soul which is wont to enjoin evil, an expression used in the Holy Qur’¡n (12:53) for the lowest stage in the spiritual growth of man, the stage when the low desires and animal passions rule the mind of man, so he succumbs to his carnal desires like a brute.

Nafs al-insaniyah: ????????? ????? The human mind or soul. It possesses all the faculties and powers of the vegetable mind ( al-nafs alnabatiyya) as well as those of the animal mind ( al-nafs al-hayawaniyya), but in addition it has the rational faculty ( al-quwwat al-‘aqliyya) peculiar to itself which has two forms: one theoretical or speculative ( nazari) which enables man to have abstract thinking, and the other is practical (` amali) on which morality depends. Al-nafs al-hayawaniyya: the animal soul or mind possesses all powers or faculties of the vegetable mind ( al-nafs alnabatiyya), viz. the nutritive power ( alquwwat al-ghadhiyah), the power of growth ( al-quwwat al-namiya) and the power of reproduction (al-quwwat al-muwallida). In addition, it possesses two powers or faculties peculiar to itself: motive faculty ( al-quwwa al-muharrika) and the cognitive faculty ( al-quwwa al-mudrika) each one of which has many kinds 145

of subclasses. Al-nafs al-falakiyya: The celestial or heavenly soul: The view that celestial spheres, i.e. stars and planets, have souls and intelligences was subscribed to by almost all Muslim philosophers, for it had the overwhelming authority of Aristotle behind it. Al-nafs al-kulliyya: The universal soul is inclusive of all individual souls, and it corresponds to the Psyche of Plotinus ( Fulutin or al-Shaikh al-Yunani). al-nafs allawwama,

“the self-accusing soul”: an expression in the Holy Qur’¡n (75:2) for the second stage in the spiritual and moral growth of man at which the slightest departure from the path of rectitude at once brings the pricks of conscience.

Nahw: ??? mode

Safeeh: ???? silly, impertinent; also: one who does not enjoy full rational capabilities

Najāsa: ?????uncleanness, impurity; adjective: najis Nameema: ????? calumny, same as buhtan Nasb: roguery; also: hostility towards the Prophet’s family; such a hostile person is called nasibi (sing.), nawasib (pl.) Naseeha: ????? advice

Nathr: ??? one's pledge to do something very good to show appreciation for the Almighty's favorable response to his supplication and the attainment of his worldly wish Nawamis: ?????? title of the Arabic translation by Hunain ibn Ishaq (d. 264 A.H./877 A.D.) of Plato’s Dialogue the Laws considered to be the earliest extant classic of European jurisprudence

Nazila: ????? (sing.) disaster; plural: nawazil Niqma: ???? wrath

Noor: ??? divine or celestial light

146

Nubuwwah: ???? the conveying of the prophetic message, the belief in prophets and their messages Nushooz: ???? status of wife’s refusal to carry out her marit-al responsibilities, refusal to cohabit with her husband, disrespecting him, etc.; such woman is termed as nashiz.

Qadiyya: ???? asserted statement or proposition, a judgment expressed in some particular language indicating the affirmation or denial of a certain relation between two terms, one of which is called subject ( mawdu‘) and the other is the predicate.

Qāìda: ?????principle, base, basis, norm Qalb: inversion, i.e. an immediate inference in which from a given proposition we derive another proposition, having for its subject the contradictory of the given subject; more often qalb is used for the proposition so derived; literally, it means: heart.

Qaniteen: ?????? )?????? ( ?? those who are constantly supplicating

Qanit: ???? one who is hopeless, despondent, in despair Qarana: ??? conjoined, associated

Qarina:

????? "connection"; technically the connection between the two premises of a syllogism (qiyas) wherein they are united by a middle term

Qada’: ???? compensatory, making up for a missed rite; also: judiciary

Qibla: ???? direction towards the Kàba, Mecca Qimār: ???? gambling, betting

147

Qiyām: ???? standing, praying all night long Qiyas: ???? Arabic term given to Aristotle’s third book on logic, Analytica Priora; Qiyas Syllogism, i.e. a form of mediate inference in which a conclusion ( natija) necessarily results from the two given propositions when taken together, one of which is the major premise ( al-muqaddima al-kubra) and the other is the minor premise ( al- muqaddima al-sughra), because of a connection ( qarina) between the two premises wherein they are united through a common, i.e. middle term ( alhadd alawsat); analogy

Qudsi: ???? divine, related to the Almighty Qunoot: ???? supplication during prayers Qunoot: ???? despondency, despair

Rahn: ??? (or rihān) pawn; marhoon: pawned Rafidi: ????? (sing.) rejectionist, a misnomer used by some extremist or misinformed Sunnis to label Shià Muslims on account of the latter’s rejection of the so-called “election” of the first three successors to the Prophet of Islam; (pl.): rawafid or r¡fida; Islam prohibits name calling of any kind. To those name callers, the author of this book would like to quote these verses of poetry which the great Shāfiì imām composed about Rafidi: O rider! Stop at the rocky plains of Mina And shout at those in the Kheef,

The ones who sit and those who stand At the sahar time when the pilgrims come To Mina like the overflowing Euphrates:

“If loving Muhammed’s Progeny makes one Rāfidi,

“Let both humans and jinns testify:

“That indeed Rāfidi am I…!”

Rājiha: ????? preferred; rājih: preferable, commendable Rajìyya: ????? backwardness

148

Rashaqa: ????? physical fitness, slimness, the opposite of obesity

Ratheela: ????? vice, abomination

Ra’uf: ???? compassionate, affectionate, kind Rawaqiyah: ?????? Stoicism, so named by the Muslim philosophers because the founder of the school of Stoicism, Zeno ( Zainun, as distinguished from Zainun al-Akbar) used to teach in a rawaq, i.e. in Stoa Poecile or a Painted Porch, a pavilion, at Athens. According to the Stoics, virtue alone is good while there are no degrees of moral goodness: It is all or nothing.

One ought to have a full control of one’s passions and desires by becoming completely indifferent to pain and pleasure; thus alone could one attain the life of virtue. The Stoics expand the area of moral responsibility from the confines of a city-state to include all human beings. Everyone is a citizen of one and the same state, i.e. the State of Humanity. All men are of one blood, of one family; therefore, each should treat all others as

"scared beings". In their view of the universe, they included a kind of pantheism. The Muslim philosophers welcomed their humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism and keenly studied their theory of knowledge and logic.

Rawiyya: ???? consideration

Raziyya: ???? affliction, calamity, shame Rekàt: ???? prostration (during prayer or a ritual) Ribh Fāhish: ??? ???? exorbitant profiteering Risāla: ????? message, letter, issue

Ruh al-jaaiya: ????? ??????? The travelling spirit or soul which is supposed to leave the body during sleep and give rise to dreams; opposed to ( al-rūh al-muhkam). Al-rūh al-hayawaniyya: The animal soul, is common to the rational and non-149

rational animals. It is supposed to be located in the heart from where the animal spirits spread into the arteries and capillar-ies. thus in all parts of the body; also called ( al-rūh al-ghariziyya). See also al-nafs al-hayawaniyya. Al-rūh al-tabi‘iyya: "the natural soul" is common to animals and plants. In animals, it is supposed to be located in the liver from where it spreads into all veins of the body. Al-rūh al-ghariziyya: is the animal spirit emanating from the heart and spreading in all parts of the body.

See

also

al-rūh

al-hayawaniyya

and

al-nafs

al- hayawaniyya. Al-rūh al-muhkam is the resident soul which, unlike the travelling soul ( al-rūh al-jariya), is supposed never to leave the body. Al-rūh al-nab¡tiyya: the vegetable soul: see al-rūh al-tabi‘iyya and al-nafs al-nabatiyya. Al-ruh al-nafsaniyya is the sensual soul.

Rukhsa: ???? license, permission

Rukoò: ???? kneeling

Sabeel: ???? path, way, avenue

Sadaqa: ????charity offered voluntarily; pl.: Sadaqāt Sadeed: ???? pus collected from bleeding wounds to be served to the sinners in hell when they ask for water to quench their thirst…

Sadr al-Muta’allihin: ??? ????????? "The foremost amongst the gnostics", an honorific title given by followers of Mulla Sadra, the celebrated ¯adr al-Din Muhammed ibn Ibrahim al-Shirazi (980 – 1050 A.H./1572 – 1640 A.D.), a distinguished Iranian scholar, philosopher and theologian who wrote in all these fields books that are regarded as unique and of the highest levels.

Sahāba: ????? companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammed; sing.: sahābi

Sahifa: ????? tablet, scroll, parchment, a written document 150

Sajaha: ????? loftiness Sakra: ???? stupor

Samaha: ????? overlooking faults and mistakes, tolerance; also: eminence

Saif: ??? sword

Sajda: ???? prostration

Salāt: Islamic prayers, optional or mandatory; plural: salawāt Salatul-Ìd: ???? ????? late morning prayers comprised of two rekàt (prostarations) performed in the day that follows Ìd al-Fitr (the feat of fast-breaking) signaling the end of the fast of the month of Ramadan

Salwa: ???? solace; also: quails

Sanad: ??? bond (also: support); sanadāt al-khazeena: treas-ury bonds

Saqeefa (or Saqifa): shed, an enclosure shaded from sunrays with a roof, a meeting place; the most famous such a place is Saqeefat Bani Sāìda ???? ?? ??? ? ? ? ??????, a place located few yards from the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, where a power play was staged in order to place Abu Bakr as a successor to the Prophet of Islam. Many books have been written about this Saqeefa.

Saraf: ??? extravagance; also israf

Sārāya: ????? military campaigns personally ordered by Prophet Muhammed; singular: sāriya

Sareera: ????? inner thoughts

151

Sarmad: ???? Absolute eternity, i.e. eternity without a beginning ( azal) and without an end ( abad); sometimes considered time as absolutely fixed and unchanging. Sarmad is distinguished from dahr by maintaining that while dahr encompasses zaman, time, sarmad encompasses dahr, eternity. Sarmad is used with reference to the relation between the two eternals (for e.g., between the essence of God and His attributes), dahr is with reference to the relation between the eternal and the changing (for e.g., between God and the world); and zaman with reference to the relation between the two changing series (for e.g., between the movement of the heavenly spheres and the phenomenal changes on earth).

Shafaq Falaki: ??? ???? cosmic twilight

Shahāda: ????? martyrdom; testimony

Shahr: ??? month

Shā’iba: ????? tint

Shaikh: ??? also shaykh or sheikh, an honoring title with many meanings; literally, it means an old man; in Islamic theology and philosophy, however, it is used to denote a mentor, professor, or scholar of a high caliber

Shakl (pl. ashk¡l): ??? "figure" of a syllogism ( qiyas), i.e. the form of a syllogism as determined by the position of the middle term ( al-hadd al-awsat) in the major and minor premises.

Shamit: ???? spiteful

Sharīà: ????? Islam's legislative system Sharis: ??? fierce, beastly

Shiqqq: ???? discord, disharmony

Shirk: ??? polytheism, the belief in the existence of partners with God

152

Shubha:

????(singular) doubt, suspicion, misconception; plural: shubuhāt

Shūra: ???? the principle of mutual consultation, Islam's form of democracy

Siddeeq: ???? one who testifies to the truthfulness of a prophet

Sihāh: ???? literally: authentic, correct, accurate books; generally used to refer to the collection, group of collections, or books of verified and authenticated ahādith of Prophet Muhammed

Sirāt: ???? path, highway; same as Sabeel Siyām: ???? Islam's norm of fast

Suhoor: ( ???? sahari in some Muslim countries) time or meal taken before daybreak in preparation to fast during the day

Sultān: ?????ruler who rules in the name of Islam, a Muslim monarch

Sunan: ??? plural of sunnah: a highly commended act of worship or way whereby a Muslim seeks nearness to Allāh Sūra: ? ??? (also sūrah) a chapter of the Holy Qur'ān Taànnut: ???? stubbornness, inflexibility Taàrrub: ???? assimilation in non-Muslim societies, a Muslim behaving like non-Muslims

Tabaìyya: ????? following others

Tabassur: ???? looking into, discerning, examining 153

Tabathul: ???? lewdness; also ?????? ibtithal Tabièen: ?????? )?????? ( ?? plural of tabì, one who accom-panied for a period of time, learned from and followed a sahābi, a companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammed Tabligh: ????? missionary work, dissemination of an ideology or a philosophy, notifying; balagh: notification, conveying a message

Tafajjù: ???? grieving

Tafakkuk: ???? fragmentation, disintegration Tafreet: ????? excessiveness; negligence Tafsīr: ????? sing.: exegesis or explanation of Qur'ānic verses; pl.: tafasir

Tafwid: ????? Seale translates it as "delegating" but sees it as being equivalent to 'free will', which is usually used as the opposite of jabr; authorizing, sending someone to represent the sender

Tahneet: ????? embalming; preserving the dead body with special oils (not to be confused with the non-Muslim way of drying the body of blood, a practice which Islam prohibits) Fawwada: ??? literally means entrusted, gave full power of representation, authorization, delegation, etc. Imam Ali uses the term as saying: "man's freedom is between jabr and tafwid"

as we read in Kanz al-Ùmmal, 1: 313.

Tahajjud: ???? night devotions; a mutahajjid is one who keeps religious vigilance, spending the nights in prayer Tahallul: ???? licentiousness, immorality Tahāra: ????? purification, the act of removing najāsa, uncleanness or impurity, physical or spiritual 154

Tahreef: ????? distorting, distortion, textual adulteration Tajalli: ???? becoming clear, obvious, manifest Tajassus: ???? spying, espionage; jasoos: spy Tajrid: ????? Catharsis, separation (from imperfections) Takbeer: ????? the act of glorifying Allāh by declaring in an audible voice: "Allāhu Akbar!" Allāh is Great!

Takhannuth: ????? men acting as women (including being homosexual)

Takwin: ????? Creation of natural beings liable to corruption (fasad) and decay; an act of creation through the intermediary of matter, time and motion, one which presupposes causal priority; see also ibda‘.

Talaqa: ????? ease

Tàlil: ????? Taken generally, the term means causation; more specifically, it denotes the mode of inference or reasoning in which we proceed from the cause or the universal and deduce the effect or the particular from it.

Tamalluk: ???? ownership; also: tamleek, granting ownership to

Tamhees: ????? testing, examining, critiquing Tanabuz: ????? exchanging bad names, name calling Tanaqud: ????? being contradictory, or self-contradictor, or relating to a contradictory opposition between two propositions having the same subject and predicate but differing in both quality and quantity

Tanassul: ???? disclaiming

155

Taqabul: ????? opposition between two concepts or states which cannot be asserted of a thing or an individual at the same time and in the same regard. This is of four kinds: (1) contradiction ( taqabul fil salb wal Ijab) (2) contrariety (taqabul al-diddain) (3) correlation (taqabul al-tadayuf) and (4) the relation between privation and possession ( taq¡bul baina àdm wal milka), all considered by Aristotle as different forms on contrariety.

Tanqeeb: ????? looking for or into, researching; drilling Tamyeè: ????? watering down

Taqazzuz: ???? revulsion

Taqiyya: ???? one's way of exerting precaution in order to save his creed or life when either is in jeopardy, a Muslim’s way of trying to survive in the presence of sure perils Taqleed: ????? the concept of following a mujtahid or an authority recognized as being al-àlam, the most knowledgeable, in Islamic matters

Taqwa: ???? fear of the Almighty, piety

Taraf: ??? affluence, indolence

Tarafù: ????? litigation; taraffu`: rising above Tari’: ????? casual, incidental, an emergency Tarwiya: ????? The Day of Tarwiya is the 8th of Thul-Hijja when the pilgrims fill their water bags and prepare to go to Mina.

Tasdeed: ????? terseness, sagacity; paying back Tashahhud: ???? the testimony regarding Allāh being the Lord and Muhammed being His Servant and Messenger; it is 156

the uttering of " Ashhadu an la ilaha illa-Allāh, wa anna Muhammedan àbdoho wa rasooloh"

Tashreed: ????? displacing, displacement Tashtheeb: ????? clipping, pruning, cultivating Tashweeh: ????? misrepresenting

Tashattut: ???? dispersal, diaspora

Tashreeq: ????? the cutting and sun-drying of sacrificed meat Tasreeh: ????? official permit, license

Tasweef: ????? procrastination

Tashneè: ????? defaming, defamation

Tathkiya: ????? Islamic way of slaughtering animals for food Tawāf: ???? circling around a certain sacred site Tawātur: ????? consecutive reporting, the tracing of one particular hadith to its respective chronological chain of narrators Tawhid: ????? the concept of the absolute Unity of God, the belief that God is One and indivisible, One-and Only One-God, the antithesis of the Catholic concept of the Trinity Tawwabeen: ?????? the penitent ones, those who repented their reluctance to go to the rescue of Im¡m al-Hussain when he was confronted with Yazīd's numerous armies. Those tawwabeen (or tawwaboon) enlisted under the military command of al-Mukhtār ibn Abi Ùbaid al-Thaqafi (1 – 67 A.H./622

– 686 A.D.) and pursued those who massacred Imam al-Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abū Tālib and eliminated all of them.

Tazāfur: ????? support

157

Tazājur: ????? being rude to each other, provoking each other

Tazkiya: ????? endorsement

Thākireen: ?????? those who often mention the Name of the Almighty and Glorify Him

Thayyib: ??? a deflowered woman, a widow or a divorcee Thimmi: ??? non-Muslim enjoying Muslims’ full protection Thireed: ???? pieces of bread cut and dipped in stew Turath: ???? legacy, heritage

‘Ufuq: ??? horizon; plural: afaq

Ùlemā': ????? plural of ` ālim, scholar-theologian Umma: ??? nation, group of people Ùmra: ???? the pilgrimage to Mecca during any time other than the prescribed (first ten) days of the month of Thul Hijja Ùqooq: ???? parental disobedience

Ùrfi: ???? conventional

Usool:

????

the

basics

of

jurisprudence;

usooli:

fundamentalist

Ùra: ???plural of ` urwa: pillar, circle, ring, tie, link Wazifa: ????? function, job

Wadì: ???? secular

158

Wahm: ???whim, apprehension of the meanings of the sensible objects, a kind of cognitive experience which is also available to animals, one on the basis of which they are enabled to draw inferences for their physical well-being and safety Wahsha: ???? loneliness

Wājib: ???? compulsory, obligatory, binding, required Waleeja: ????? trusteeship

Wāli: ???? person to whom wilāyat is obligatory; a wāli, however, is a governor appointed by a Muslim ruler of a higher authority (such as a caliph, Sultan, etc.) Waliyy: ??? guardian, trustee; also: follower Waqar: ???? dignity, esteem

Waqeeà: ????? deliberate entrapment

Waaf: trust, property dedicated to serve any specific good cause, endowment

Wadeeà: ????? trust

Wakeel: ???? agent, representative, custodian Warà: ??? asceticism, renunciation of luxuries, piety Wahsha: ???? solitude, hermitage, feeling of loneliness Wasi: ??? successor to a prophet

Wilāya: ????? a binding supreme authority that combines both temporal and religious powers

Wisāl: ???? fasting the last day of every lunar calendar month 159

Wudu’: ???? ablution

Wujūd: ???? existence, concretion, actuality. Wujūd, existence, is the masdar (source) of the Arabic verb wajada (literally

'has/have found'), so it is mawjūd, an 'individual existent', or the property of an individual existent. Wujūd differs from both

'essence' and 'being'. The prime example of maujūd is an individual substance. Only the Necessary Existent is said to have wujūd as its essence. Other examples of entities having wujūd are accidents of an individual substance which has been realized, such as the color pink in one's skin, In any instance of wujūd other than the Necessary Existent, the essence of the wujūd, i.e. 'what it is', differs from its existence, i.e. from the fact 'that it is'.

Yabhur: ???? dazzles

Yānaseeb: ??????lottery

Yaqiniyyat: ??????? certain or self evident data or premises, i.e. propositions the truth of which is open to direct inspection and requires no appeal to other evidences, such as the statement that "two contradictions cannot be predicated of the same object at the same time" or that "a part is less than the whole of which it is a part".

Ya’s: ??? despair, hopelessness

Yusheen: ???? tarnishes one’s image

Yataàffaf: ????? rises above

Yata’aqlam: ?????? acclimates, conditions himself according to the surroundings

Yujāri: ????? goes along with, copes with Yujāzi: ????? rewards, compensates

Zaif: ??? or zayf: fallacy

160

Zajr: ??? rebuking, reprimanding Zakāt: ???? Literally, it means "purification;" it is a compulsory 2% tax on one of three categories of wealth: 1) metal coins (gold, silver, etc.), 2) grain crops (barley, wheat, grain, rice, etc.), and 3) animals raised for food consumption. Zakāt is somehow a complicated issue. For details, readers are advised to consult books of fiqh, jurisprudence. Among its types are: zakāt al-māl (taxable wealth accumulated during one full year), and zakāt al-fitr (a tax to be paid by the head of a household at the end of the fast of the month of Ramadān).

Zuhal: ??? The planet Saturn or its sphere ( falak); see also al-kawakib al-sayyara.

Zaman: ???? time. It is dependent on movement and yet is different from it. Whereas movement shows diversity in direction, time proceeds always and only in one direction. Time is known only in relation of before and after, such as a movement in a straight line and at a uniform rate. It, thus, can be expressed only in a series of continuous quantities ( al-kamm al-muttasil). Bodies are in time, not in essence. But because they are in movement, and movement is in time, time belongs to the category of the created beings, but it is nowhere except in itself. As far as this world of ours is concerned, it is measured and made known by the movements of the heavenly bodies.

See also dahr and sarmad.

Zuhra: ???? planet Venus or its sphere ( falak) Zawj al-Zawj: ??? ????? "Pair of pair": a number, say 64, which is continuously divisible by two till the dividend is one.

Zandaqa: ????? atheism; zindeeq: atheist Zihār: ???? the making of a similitude between the back of one's wife with that of his mother; i.e. saying that his wife's back looks similarly to his mother's, a tradition that used to 161

exist in pre-Islamic Arabia. Refer to verse 4 of Sūrat al-Ahzab (Chapter 33) of the Holy Qur’ān.

Zina: ???? ornament, adornment, embellishment, decoration And surely Allāh knows best.

162

"Wisdom is the lost property of the Believer, let him claim it wherever he finds it"

Imam Ali (as)

Document Outline

- Chapter 1

- PERSONALITY

- EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

- THE STUDY CIRCLES

- OUR ECONOMY AND OUR PHILOSOPHY

- INTERPRETATING THE QUR'AN

- HISTORIOGRAPHY OF FADAK

- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

- KHILAFAT AL-UMMA (RULING THE NATION)

- MARTYRDOM

- LEGACY OF MARTYR AL-SADR

- Chapter 2

- Chapter 3

- THE NEED TO BE LINKED TO THE ABSOLUTE

- THE LINK BETWEEN THE ABSOLUTE ONE IS A TWO FOLD PROBLEM

- BELIEF IN GOD IS THE REMEDY

- RITUALS ARE PRACTICAL EXPRESSIONS

- SUBJECTIVITY OF PURPOSE AND SELF-DENIAL

- THE INNER SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

- CASTING A GENERAL LOOKS AT RITUALS

- THE UNSEEN IN EXPLAINING RITUALS

- INCLUSION IN WORSHIP

- WORSHIP AND THE SENSE

- Chapter 4

- Chapter 5

- SILENT SUPPLICATION TO ALLAH BY A REPENTANT SINNER SEEKING HIS FORGIVENESS AUTHOR UNKNOWN

- SELECTED SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM

- Chapter 6

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

PERSONALITY

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

THE STUDY CIRCLES

OUR ECONOMY AND OUR PHILOSOPHY

INTERPRETATING THE QUR'AN

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF FADAK

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

KHILAFAT AL-UMMA (RULING THE NATION)

MARTYRDOM

LEGACY OF MARTYR AL-SADR

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

THE NEED TO BE LINKED TO THE ABSOLUTE

THE LINK BETWEEN THE ABSOLUTE ONE IS A TWO FOLD PROBLEM

BELIEF IN GOD IS THE REMEDY

RITUALS ARE PRACTICAL EXPRESSIONS

SUBJECTIVITY OF PURPOSE AND SELF-DENIAL

THE INNER SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

CASTING A GENERAL LOOKS AT RITUALS

THE UNSEEN IN EXPLAINING RITUALS

INCLUSION IN WORSHIP

WORSHIP AND THE SENSE

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

SILENT SUPPLICATION TO ALLAH BY A REPENTANT SINNER SEEKING HIS FORGIVENESS AUTHOR UNKNOWN

SELECTED SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM

Chapter 6