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From that day when Muhammad (pbuh&hf) left Makkah after thirteen years of
anguish and continuous struggle and went to Madinah, he knew that the period of
weakness and concealment of Islam has terminated and that he must, with the help
of his loyal and valiant followers, build the foundation of a structure of the
glory of an Islamic organization and build the basis of his political regime in
the way which God so desired.
At this time, to the east of the peninsula, the King of Iran had a splendid
palace and sumptuous court in which thousands of female slaves, thousands of
enslaved persons and servants had been appointed in order to perform the
ceremonious duties there and the product of the labor of the miserable and
hard-working people was spent in order to manage that system.
To the north of Arabia, also, Heraclitus was looming with his frightful
regime and sumptuous empire .It could be said that which showed itself off in
these two large countries were these palaces which reached towards the sky,
exclusive to the rulers and art, literature, war, collection of taxes, taste and
invention were all undertaken so that the monarchial and imperial ceremonies
could be held with the greatest splendor possible.
But as to the Prophet of Islam, the moment he entered Madinah, he built a
mosque and his humble house beside it. The door to it opened from inside the
mosque. Until the end of his life when Islamic rule was established throughout
Arabia, he did not change his life-style.
He was the absolute ruler of a country and he ate barley bread . He would sit
with the poor upon the dust at their spread just like a humiliated slave. He
would ride a donkey bare-backed and, most often, he would sit another person
behind him.
This method of rule of the ruler was to show the difference between his
regime and the monarchial regime of Iran and the Roman Empire. The people could
see with their own eyes that a new regime and a young organization had come into
being between two aristocratic bases in which there is no difference between
ruler and ruled, com- mander and commanded, master and slave and that all stand
in one rank upon the threshold of God and justice.
The founder of this regime passed away and with the deprivation of 'Ali and
political positioning, the first brick of the wall of the caliphate was laid
crooked. Abu Bakr, then, designated 'Umar as his successor and the second blow
comes to the Islamic regirne.
Even though 'Umar and Abu Bakr were themselves the cause for this deviation,
yet the political organization of Islam was established upon the very bases
which the Prophet had structured: simplicity, equality, fair distribution of
wealth, and prevention of its centralization, just as could be seen.
'Umar also left and 'Uthman, this incapable, pseudo-religious old man took
over the reins of rulership and instability which had come into being in the
foundation of Islamic rule had become so strong that the structure of Muhammad (pbuh&hf)
all at once was destroyed. During his rule, the caliphate was changed into a
monarchy and the mud homes of the Islamic rulers were changed into monarchial
palaces, simplicity into splendid ceremony of the court of Mu'awiyah and the
extravagant organization of 'Uthman.
Abu Dharr,who was the [fourth or] fifth person who joined Islam and whose
sword was most effective in the pro gress of the Islamic movement, saw this
deviation. 'Ali, the image of piety and truth, became isolated and the enemies
of Islam had found their way into the caliphate organization and like termites,
they were eating away Islam.
The liberated truth-seekers were each one driven away into a corner and made
silent. The day when Abu Bakr pushed 'Ali aside from the political scene, and he
himself sat upon the throne of the caliphate, Abu Dharr be- came anxious and
terrified. The future of Islam darkened in his mind and appeared frightful but
he still saw that, at any rate, the caravan of Islam still moved forward upon
its main way and even though a great right was disregarded, the Islamic system
had not been rend apart. Even though he was incensed and boiling with
indignation, he imprinted the seal of silence upon his lips. When the regime of
'Uthman dominated Islam, the abased, working masses and the help- less were
suppressed under the steps of usurers, slave mer- chants, the wealthy and
aristocrats who were 'coming and going' in the courts of 'Uthman and Mu'awiyah.
Class differences and the concentration of wealth were revived; Islam,
threatened with a great danger, was changed from the position of the Prophet and
the simplicity and unpreten- tiousness of Abu Bakr and 'Umar, who were living
like average people and even poor and indigent. Thousands of dinars were spent
to build a Green Palace for an Islamic governor [Mu'awiyah] and a regime was
established like the monarchial court.
Abu Bakr, in order to earn his livelihood, had milked the goats of a Jewish
woman yet, now, a necklace of the wife of 'Uthman, the Prophet's caliph! was
worth a third of the taxes of Africa!
'Umar, for one horse, sent a boy, who misused his father's position and his
father, who was one of his leading commanders, to court because they tried to
take a horse with coercion whereas 'Uthman had made Marwan Hakam- that is, a
person who the Prophet had exiled-his consultant and had given Khaybar and the
taxes (kharaj) of the north of Africa, part and parcel, to him!
Abu Dharr was watching these shameful scenes and because he could no longer
bear it, could no longer remain silent, he rose up, a manly and wonderous
arising; an arising which caused rebellion in all of the Islamic lands against 'Uthman;
an arising, the waves of enthusiasm of which can be seen at the very present
moment in the scenes of human societies.
Abu Dharr was trying to develop the economic and political unity of Islam and
the regime of 'Uthman was reviving aristocracy. Abu Dharr believed Islam to be
the refuge of the helpless, the oppressed and the abased people and 'Uthman, the
tool of capitalism,was the trench to preserve the interests of the usurers,
wealthy and aristocrats.
This struggle between Abu Dharr and 'Uthman began and Abu Dharr, in the end,
lost his lifc upon this way. Abu Dharr would cry out, "This capital, wealth,
gold and silver which you have hoarded must be equally divided among all
Muslims. Everyone must share in the others' benefits in the economic and ethical
system of Islam, in all blessings of life." But 'Uthman saw Islam in ceremonies,
external show and pretense at piety and sanctity. He did not believe that
religion should 'interfer' in the poverty of the majority and the opulence of
the minority. Abu Dharr, who had begun the struggle for the development of
Islamic equality, would not be soothed and would not let the enemy be soothed,
either...
Whenever I think about the wonderous life of Abu Dharr and I see his worship
of God, I recall Pascal. Pascal says, "The heart has a reason which the
intellect does not attain. The heart bears witness to God's existence, not the
intellect; faith comes in this way."
Abu Dharr says, "In this shoreless existence, I have found signs by which I
have been guided to God. There is no hope that the intellect will reach His
Essence through discussion and analysis because He is greater than any of that
and there is no possibility of encompassing Him."
Abu Dharr, just as Pascal believed, knew God through the heart and three
years before he met the Prophet, he had worshipped [God].
When he was speaking of capitalism and the hoarding of wealth and he was
strongly defending the wretched and when he was turning against aristocrats and
the palace dwellers of Damascus and Madinah, he recalls an extreme socialist
like Proudhon [1] but the truth is that Abu Dharr is one thing and Pascal and
Proudhon are something else. Abu Dharr knew God; from that day, he never stopped
upon His Way; not for a moment did he weaken in thought or action. Neither does
Proudhon have the purity, devotion and worship of Abu Dharr nor does Pascal have
his activity and ardency. Abu Dharr had become a 'complete human being' in the
school of Islam and this commentary is sufficient to show his greatness.
It is possible for this question to arise for many of the persons who are
studying Islamic history: What was the glorious result of this movement, other
than a few move- ments of armies, victories and the creation of a great empire
which dispersed after a few centuries? What is the difference between the
Islamic movement and other political and mili- tary movements of history which
attained similar victories and even greater triumphs, particularly when we see
that the Islamic movement, from the very first phase, was faced with political
differences, was made to deviate from its main line and the real leaders of
Islam were also aware of this point?
Then what did Islam do? What results were attained from all of those
sacrifices and struggles of the Prophet and his God-worshipping, brave
followers? If it had victories, they are not deserving of importance in the way
we look at religion, in particular since these victories were gained through the
Bani Umayyid and Bani 'Abbas sultans and people like them, not having a real and
direct relation with the truths of Islam.
This judgment to this point is somewhat correct and we must not conceive that
this expansionism,these military victories and the Islamic empire's power to be
the goal of Islam nor believe them to be among the great results of this
movement. If we look at Islam with the view in which we must look at religion,
this problem will not only be solved but rather we will wonder at the glorious
results, progress and victories of Islam, as well.
Religion is the only factor which has a duty towards the universal elevation
of creation obliging humanity to progress and ascend and just as some causes
made the inanimate into the plant and the plant into an animal and an animal
into a human being and they find completion, religion is also a cause which is
the continuation of this amazing story of creation and carries the human being,
as well, to the final station which he or she must reach, allows the human
spirit to fly to the highest summits of the loftiness of gnosis and humanness,
even elevates one beyond that desert and puts one above time and place. Thus one
can use this commentary that religion is the instigator, stimulant and impetus
for the human being to move up the ladder of transformation . In other words,
religion is a factory in which the real human being is built and we should
expect nothing other than this from religion.
Now it must be seen whether or not Islam has been able to attain success upon
this way and offer examples or models of its product to the market of humanity.
To study this perplexing issue, one must seek out, in the margins of history,
some of the men and women who arose from among the nameless masses, oppressed
slaves and the exhausted. That is, one must search out the names of those very
people who history has always been too ashamed to register. History has most
often been kneeling before the splendid palaces of the sultans, in the
battlefields and on the threshold of the gods of gold and coercion. But this
time we see that this very aristocracy-worshipper history is going to the old
tents, to the destroyed mud houses of the African slaves, to the nameless,
bare-footed of the Arabian desert, to unknown and unimportant people like Abu
Dharr, a man from the Ghifar tribe, Salman, homeless, from Iran and Bilal, a
cheap slave. History, one by one, records their lives with great greed and
covetousness. With the highest of honors, it offers them to the future
generations of humanity. And it must also be studied why and as of when this
pharaoh-seeker, royal court dweller history became so humble.
Thus, in order to attain the results which the Islamic movement has achieved,
one must not look at the victories in Asia and Africa and the lands in southern
Europe. Rather, one must become attentive to the progress that this movement had
in the depths of the thoughts, brains, hearts and souls of a limited group of
its followers.
The victories which Islam had in the twists and turns of the spirits of these
people appear more splendid, more extensive and more wonderous to those people
who place greater value on truth and humanness than on power and external
military domination.
The Islamic victories in the history of countries like Rome, Iran and in the
fate of expansionists like Ghengis Khan, Dara, Napoleon and others like them,
these 'famous brainless' are not exceptional but structuring a nameless, desert
dweller and half-savage like Jundab ibn Junadah into an Abu Dharr Ghifari is
unique in every ideology or movement. If the result of Islam was no more than
educating these four or five human beings like Abu Dharr, Salman, 'Ammar Yasir
and Bilal, it would suffice for the intellect to be amazed at the victories of
Islam.
But unfortunately the rights of great men who are considered to be an honor
to the history of Islam have been wasted: because the followers of that very
religion, who were nurtured by the power of thought and swords of these people
in the world, do not know them, have not understood the highest levels which
these models of humanness attained in the chain of transformation and are
uninformed about even a brief biography about them.
With this indifference and nonchalance in the destroying of a right of these
rightful pioneers and images of piety and courage, we have struck blows to the
truth and to humanity, which are difficult to make up for and all Muslims share
in this fault.
More amazing than this is that, in general, persons who were considered to be
leaders of the Islamic Revolution, continue to support truth and even sacrifice
themselves for it, during the time of the rule of Abu Bakr and his successor,
when 'Ali, the leader of the Shi'ites, is abased and his right was disregarded.
It can be said with certainty that because of their struggles with the regime
and because of their efforts, the pure Islam was given into the hands of
history. They helped humanity attain the source of truths and wisdom, inspite of
the desires of the hypocrites and the ambitious, and because of their struggles
and brave resistances in the changes of the Islamic regime.
Abu Dharr is one of these few persons, one of those leaders and liberated
saviors who humanity today desires. From the time when the machine created a
severe crisis in the world of economics, making economics the most sensitive
issue of life and the basis of all things, his opinions have found greater
importance and today, once again they recreate those scenes in Damascus and
Madinah. He who gathered the abased and the needy around him, instigating them
against usury, money-worshippers, gold gatherers and aristocrats, has now caused
Muslims of the world to listen to his heart warming words, opinions, his fiery
points. It is as if they see him in the distant history with their own eyes; he
who gathered the oppressed and wretched in the mosque, truly instigating them
against the dwellers of the Green Palace and regime of 'Uthman, cries out, "And
there are those who treasure up gold and silver and spend it not in the Way of
God... "(9:34)
"O Mu'awiyyah! If you are building this palace with your own money, it is
extravagance and if with the money of the people, it is treason."
"O 'Uthman! You have made the poor, poor and the wealthy, wealthy."
By Ali Shariati
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