Abdal Hakim Murad – Imam Ali (ra) Paradigms of Leadership
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen or
salat wa salam ala extrafill NBI one mursaleen see denominado Have
you been a Muhammad in Walla early he was here at nine
resuming then are now quite long standing series of lectures
entitled paradigms of leadership has taken us in so many directions
historically and geographically and perhaps we've just begun to
get a sense of the amplitude of the Sunnah ideal.
So many Muslims nowadays think that the Sunnah is a way of
restricting you into a particular bandwidth of the human potential.
But as a whole history of the OMA with all of our paradigms
indicates that, in fact, it opens up the bandwidth and allows a wide
range of different human types to demonstrate the capacity which God
has created within them. This is perhaps one of the differences
between ideological religion as it is sometimes touted nowadays,
which is essentially totalitarian and classical religion, which
allows us to grow into those positive,
divine gifts, which each one of us has within him or herself.
So it's been a complex journey here and there, but I felt that it
would be
perhaps indicative of a lack of courtesy if
in our list, we didn't do justice to Imam Ali Shah he held on surely
hold up.
I will Hassan and will to rob the Great's kind of paradigm of
heroism, if you like that has always captured the Muslim
imagination.
We've looked at said no off man. And in a sense, this narrative
picks up from that, but I don't want primarily to talk about dates
and battles and the outward politics of the thing even though
of course, he is an intensely political figure. And a reminder
that the amplitude of the Sunda personality has to fill the
political sphere of the human experience and exemplify the
political virtues, as much as every other aspect of
remarkable neuroplasticity which we have this capacity to Excel or
to repel in different areas of the human experience, but rather to
focus. Well, we've been weaving our story around the
the narrative of chronology to look a little bit about what we
can say about the inner story, the inner paradigm,
because in an alley, occupies so many areas in the inspired Muslim
imagination, and many of them are esoteric, are they not? There's
hardly an easy Tarik tradition in Islamic civilization.
A guild for instance, Mala Amity, for eternity that AFI corporations
the ways in which Muslim civil society, virtuously banded itself,
sometimes medieval equivalents of the sort of Rotary Club and
sometimes full scale religious orders with severe disciplines is
hardly been one that hasn't inspired itself with the example
of Imam Ali, not so much his politics, although his politics is
part of the whole but his, as it were inward, CSR is inward
magnitude.
This is of course, one of the areas in which our idea of a human
Paragon stroke paradigm is going to be a little bit different from
that which is perhaps familiar to those who have been schooled in
the West.
The West has always had this tension, this difficulty between
on the one hand the founding sacred finger of Western
civilization taken to be Satan, Asa Alehissalaam, and in the tar
to Christie, a true paradigm is Christ Himself. And the fact that
so much of what is representative in his
Paragon like status is actually unrepeatable and can't be
emulated.
You can't also be God's only begotten Son. There's just one.
You can't also be an omniscient or creating baby in a manger. Just
happened one. You can't be somebody who is always perfect but
as a human being you grow towards perfection.
And this has been a tension for them in their model of sainthood.
The emitter to Christie Yes, but at the same time, the growth
towards that which Jesus himself doesn't do, or at least if you
read the gospels, you might see well, he does learn carpentry or
whatever it is. And he kind of grows in wisdom. But that's not
the Orthodox position really, because the incarnation is always
perfect.
The non engagement with the political
human societies have to engage with the political by definition,
but said that he said, doesn't do that render unto Caesar, he leaves
it alone, according to the gospel authors anyway, engagement with
gender, marriage and so forth that dimension of human endeavor, not
there either.
Whereas when we look at parodic Matic human perfection in the
Islamic context, and probably in most religious contexts in the
prehistoric pre modern world, we find all of those dimensions fully
and naturally incorporated into the ideal of heroic humanity.
So the idea of the paradigm of leadership is kind of the idea of
the hero,
isn't it? But of course, as we noticed with Sakina, and there are
plenty of others. One of the startling things about earliest
alarmists, there's plenty of
quite active women in the story, which you don't get, say in the
New Testament, Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Martha and so forth.
They're kind of
receptacles for the discussion. They don't actually take an active
part by and large but the Sahaba yet really do.
We might revert to that if we look at some of the grapes or hobby out
and some of the great females amongst the tablet.
So there is a gender dimension to this. But when we look at Imam Ali
we are looking at really a great paradigm of moral worth. Manly
virtue.
The Latin word virtuosos means manly Veer is a man in Latin. It's
the idea of the strong, decisive risk taking hero that protects his
people and changes the world for the better.
And that obviously is one of the archaic inspirational ideas of the
human imagination. When we look at the life of Imam Ali Khan on Allah
who watch a whole we are inspired because so many really primordial
ideals and principles are being triggered within ourselves.
A classic text on this is the 1949 book by Joseph Campbell, the hero
with 1000 faces, one of the really influential books, culturally
speaking, not so much philosophically, of the 20th
century. And here, Campbell explores what he calls the
monomyth.
The other simplifies, of course, but he tries to determine the
fundamental, inspirational narrative, alchemical story, which
is behind all of the legends and stories and fairy tales and epics
of human beings going back to Gilgamesh, and as far back as
there are records, which of course isn't really very far.
And it's the male figure, who differs, who cuts himself loose,
both from the maternal world goes forth to seek his fortune, etc,
but also becomes a hero. And then, through some kind of subtle,
transformative process of return, comes back as the king the priests
King in order to uplift and transform the world. That's an
oversimplification of course. But it's interesting he gets this word
for her. For this the monomyth.
From James Joyce, if you've ever tried reading, Finnegans Wake,
good luck. You may be you get that far, but it seems to have been his
idea. And when reading a Finnegans Wake, which Joyce thought was his
best book, and therefore, maybe the best book of
Anglophone literature in the 20th century
was that it was also a contemporary, very kind of
Hibernian
retelling of this ancient story of transformation but down the ages
it begins with Adam and Eve.
feel familiar with the characters? Here wicker is Adam, and Olivia
Flora Belle is Eve and then they have three children. You see who
has two natures is obviously ASA because interestingly Irish known
for Jesus is the same with the Quranic name ASA they say
who has these two natures and is regarded as being at the root of
some of the problems that the book then
He imagines itself to be a dressing, and then Shem and Shawn,
which are obviously representations of Isaac and
Ishmael, hence the Jewish and Islamic narrative, and there's a
lot of Quranic stuff in Finnegans Wake actually. But the point is
this word the mono myth comes from that he seems to have been a D
more or less says it in the book, that he is hearing that too handy.
The Quran challenges people to come up with even an idea which is
like it. And so he's writing Finnegans week in this unusual
kind of empty fat style with pronouns, pointing in different
directions as Western literature's supreme attempt to do the Quran in
the English language, but with the same kind of broad story about
heroism, the fall of redemption, different sorts of religiosity,
anyway, it's an interesting footnote perhaps, but
the idea of the hero with these 1000 faces present in Aboriginal
mythology, Native American mythology, Gilgamesh, the the male
Warrior Hero,
the hunter, not so much the gatherer, the hunter, the ideal of
the, the fully integrated figure of masculine virtue vittatus
represented, say, by the
Lakota Sioux of, of America before the Americans, wipe them out and
ply them with an alcohol and shut them away and reservations. But
that idea of nobility, the warrior, bear back on the pony,
with the spear, fully physically and mentally and spiritually
present with the invocations and the awareness of the sanctity of
the landscape, and the great spirit, watching the tribe judging
that idea of the hero and getting the buffalo bringing it back. So
the female realm can then cut it up and nourish the children and
each with its own idea of, of perfection, very attractive model
that somehow despite the alienness of those cultures, there's
something instinctual within us that automatically responds to
that and says yes.
Which is why quite a lot of cultural figures in the second
half of the 20th century, acknowledged that they've been
using
Campbell's idea of the mono myth, George Lucas, for instance, says
yeah, that's the story of Star Wars. Not the new dignified work
Star Wars, which is all over the place. But the original Star Wars,
talked about the initiation about warrior hood about entering the
world about taking on evil.
Watership Down as well. You might remember it from maybe a
generation ago, Richard Adams book about the rabbit hijra, and the
hero rabbit. He said, Yep, Campbell was his model. And that's
why those stories, however fanciful, they might appear, a
galaxy far, far away, well, how likely is it really, immediately
push very ancient buttons within us. And this is part of what we
mean when we say Islam as the religion of the fitrah that it
offers us human types, which are truly archetypal, and buried in
some deep, you don't have to adopt the union system, which is
problematic in many ways. But there's something deep down within
us. That starts to light up ancient neglected circuit boards
at the bottom of the human consciousness that say, Yes, well,
we know who that is.
So when we see somebody like Imam Ali would say, yes, certainly not
an alien story, despite the Arabian foreignness of it all. But
yeah, we can relate to this as part of the immediacy of the
Sierra itself. why it's such a page turner, because it's one of
those timeless stories that activate. This is longing that we
have for the one who will let us out. And of course, it's the exact
opposite of the modern thing whereby there wasn't really a
hero.
There is a kind of indifference to past to narratives. A lot of young
people nowadays don't know their past don't know their heritage,
don't know their history don't care at all. They're completely
alienated and detached. Neither do they have the idea of transcending
themselves. Because the self is what they are. And the world is
saying, Be yourself, not transcend yourself. It's the perverse
inversion of the traditional ideal of what the youth have come
through the seeker whatever should be doing, overcome the self, the
self has a witch in it. It's something to be to be overcome.
That we don't do that any longer. And instead, to be yourself is all
about whatever you feel you are. Don't let anybody else interrupt
your desire to be that wispy, vague thing
A 12 year old boy who thinks is a girl, everybody bows their head
and says, yes, you're a girl. And here's the medication and puberty
blockers and it's become the opposite of the traditional ideal.
No longer though is the initiation into manhood or womanhood, that is
said to be who you feel you are, which is causing all manner of
increasingly evident dysfunctions. And actually Nietzsche talks about
this, we think of Nietzsche as this kind of crypto Nazi believer
in a superman who transcends good and evil, but it's not really like
that it's not even an atheist in a conventional sense, he's just
preternaturally aware of where the mediocrity of the machine age and
the
homogenizing of the human experiences is leading is the idea
of the last man who read him on the last manual set. It's exactly
how we are nowadays.
Immensely concerned with status with compliance with material
treats with what are people thinking about me.
But no idea of of heroism, the standing on the mountaintop
contemplating the divine. Not really.
If you go up the mountain top, it's probably because you're in
lycra, and there's a drone
watching you, and you're gonna get lots of hits on YouTube. And it's
the ego that's conquered the mountain, not you conquering your
mountain, your ego so you can get it's profoundly subversive. So
Nietzsche talks about something which he thinks it is the nature
of modernity to let go of which is what he calls Roush, which is a
feeling of kind of completeness and fulfillment.
That experience of the Dakota brave when he has successfully
dragged the buffalo back. I've done it, here I am, I have
completed my vocation. And it's not about sitting around the
campfire and scratching my head, it's about action. It's about
sacrifice. It's about risk taking.
He talks about this and he identifies it really as Muslims,
where does the the loss of the primordial
like a lot of 19th century thinkers, including Freud, he is
convinced that modernity is leading us into increasing madness
and dysfunction. Because we're no longer occupying the kind of space
that we were designed by Heaven or evolution or accident or whatever.
To occupy, we're alienated. So we're sick. This is in his book,
Genealogy of Morals.
So I found an interesting quote in Nietzsche instance, interestingly,
which indicates the state of a lot of modern Muslims, because
deprived of the inward jihad, which is the regime has closed the
Sufi lodge or the Schaefers died, or whatever, and everything is
about the external aspect of religion, and their sense of
humiliation.
So this is what he says, when some men fail to accomplish what they
desire to do, they explain angrily made the whole world perish. This
repulsive emotion is the pinnacle of envy, whose implication is if I
cannot have something no one can have anything, no one has to be
anything exactly how they are the kind of suicidal destructiveness
of it. We can't control the world trade. So let's smash the World
Trade Center. We can't have the Great Mosque of Zen gi in Mosul
because we're losing Mosul. So let's blow it up as we leave kind
of complete nihilistic selfish determination that nobody will
have anything at all. He talks about this as one of the possible
outcomes of this loss of prime modality and this externalizing
This is the exact opposite of the virtue of fatawa, which our
tradition immediately identifies with Imam Ali.
So the story he is shot he moved on she realized on pitch via the
Dean Kosh if you simply rely at Haida Ricard Allah must
the king of the use the Lion of God, refuge and pride of the
people of religion, the revealer of the secret of sainthood.
heidari corral Hi, Doris. The line cutter is the one who
never retreats from battle
is a million poems and actually, I have talked about Imam Ali before,
but 10 years ago for Quilliam press, I did a presentation this
one's going to be a little bit different. And I'll be looking a
bit more at the literature, the Muslim way of being inspired by
this line like learnign example. So first of all, the outward story
I leap into
Have you pilot son of Apple toilet Apple toilet is the Nerf Ibn Abdul
Muttalib in Hersham imminent, imminent Kosair so he's one of
these big Qureshi families is
a noble in that double sense.
Again, this is something that are mediocre, Welsh less world doesn't
quite understand the quality of nobility and breeding because of
the idea of self.
We don't really understand the idea of a natural aristocracy.
If you've been in the presence of it, you immediately see the, the
charisma that comes from being brought up to certain noble values
by a father who was brought up in that way, sometimes for the
hundreds of years, where you see the real, selfless non ego
aristocratic virtues. Very impressive thing.
Yeah, I remember.
Prince Otto von Habsburg. He died now but before he died, he gave a
talk at the Guildhall in London.
And had history worked out differently. I mean, I guess he
was one of my heroes is extraordinary life, he would have
been the Archduke of the Austro Hungarian empire. And he even
claimed to remember when his uncle was assassinated in Sarajevo
starting the First World War. So he really went back a long time.
He's very sympathetic to Islam.
But the presence of this guy who hadn't really had any titles for
70 years or something, he was a kind of European type executive.
He was the one who tried to get the name of God mentioned in the
European Constitution.
So he comes to this talk at the Guildhall, which is full of kind
of Lloyd's names and Baltic Exchange traders, stockbrokers,
and so forth.
And the present is quite extraordinary and kind of
observing this and it's as if he was in his kind of
crown and furs and very extraordinary, a little skinny
man, he was about 90 Something at the time.
And he gave his talk about Europe and religion. And at the end of
it, everybody stood up as he left. I've never seen anybody do that,
let alone City Slickers. But they just couldn't help themselves
because of the aristocratic regal bearing of this man who seemed to
come from a different world.
Very interesting to see that
without deterring too far,
if you have an idle hour, you can watch his funeral on YouTube.
Stephens Dortmund, the big Cathedral in Vienna.
And everybody is there. It's as if the Empire had never come to an
end. And all these Austrians somehow find their old hats in
their uniforms and
quite remarkable, it was a very big deal in in Austria, this last
royal hero, because Austro Hungarian monarchy was actually
really loved.
And you see the Bourbons are at the front of the Hapsburgs. And
then Prince Philip is summer at the pack. Because the house of
Saxe Coburg is really nothing European, traditional royal
protocol. And then the funeral court he
took him to the Church of the capuchins in Vienna, which is
where that they're buried.
And then the royal Marshal in his fancy dress goes up and hits with
his staff three times the gate of the chapel. And the monk inside
says who's there. And then the marshal recites all of the titles
of Otto who's there waiting in his coffin Margrave of upper cyl
easier, Grand Duke of Bohemia and blah blah and it goes on. And then
the people titles night of the holy grails grandmasters the
Teutonic Knights blah, blah on.
And they don't open the door.
And so he tries again.
And he recites all of the titles. They didn't let him in. And then
finally, the marshal
says, not the titles, but he's just as I mentioned, a man and the
monks opened the door and he goes in and is buried with his
ancestors. And so that's the traditional idea where you can
still find it of aristocracy with all of its failings where you see
it really working. It is about service and humility and a kind of
nobility that in our mediocre bland
age is something that you don't often see anyway, so here we're
talking about real ability to kind of grab on then dignity that is
from ancestry, and that of course, is the entire idea of the atman
bait, isn't it? There are kind of
aristocratic line, literally.
An Elkwood assess. Early Prophet says heredity is true.
So
his descendant of course it is from the nobles of the city of
Mecca.
Other titles been ushered in MOBA, sharena. Bill Jana, one of the 10
granted knowledge of paradise while they lived.
He is able to rob
father of dust.
You often get this in our literature. Why is he the father
of dust, this is a very fertile war type thing.
good parenting lesson here.
He was once angry with thoughts in their little house, angry with his
wife.
And presumably remembers the prophetic instruction about anger.
For men, a Hassan in Kobe bellicum In shapefile, yells up Phil or
whoever feel something of that, Let him lie down.
And so in this anger, he goes out, and he lives down next to the wall
of the mosque. And Holy Prophet finds him and finds this dust on
him and brushes it off, and that's why he gets his name. And we'll
tour ARB.
In the old Medina, they used to know where the place was, and they
would point it out would be one of the places you would visit.
So the father of dust and this is really important for the fatawa
principle and actually able to Rob was his favorite name, that's the
name that he liked to be addressed by Father of dust, Hadith scholar,
underrated 586 Hadith evenness old if an abbess of Hassan Al Hussein,
obviously HumbleBundle Hana via particularly the admin bait, but
others as well. He's a significant at Narita of Hadith.
Now, we know cousin and son in law of the Holy Prophet both of those
things, but also kind of like a son because his father Apple told
him, like many even have the hi born in NACA was suffering from
the not climate change, but the very difficult
circumstances of living in that city. And there came a time when a
multilevel couldn't cope with all the children in his house. And so
some of them were kind of placed with not fostered or adopted but
placed with other family members. So Jafar, who is Ali's famous
brother is placed with Omar fadul, whose story with Abu Lahab, some
of you might recall, and then Imam Ali as a boy is placed with
Sydenham, Mohammed and Fallujah.
With about five at the time.
We know that he will, he's said to have been the first to have
accepted Islam after a DJ did after the crop and the zombie
loony and
yeah, he would defer that episode. That tremendous episode when she
was his refuge.
Imam Ali, still a boy was also in the house. Some people say he was
10 Some people say he was less than that
key role of course in the Hijra.
He's all great stories, but we have to fast forward a little bit
if I'm to get into my literature.
The role of ally on the heater is of course, well known Gibreel
Alayhis Salam has told the Holy Prophet of Qureshi his plan to
assassinate him the Night of the Long Knives, and he tells Ali, and
they agree that Ali will lie down in the profits place in his green
100 army gown, so that the assassins looking in will assume
that the Holy Prophet is still there. And then he recite Surah
Yaseen
which are Anam in benei ad him said the norm in healthy hymns and
then for Akshay know whom for whom law you have zero on. And Holy
Prophet leaves the house and the onlookers in the dark. Don't see
him then he goes to the House of Abu Bakar. And then out to the
back window, there's two camels. This is the story and you see this
juxtaposition of the to Abu Bakr at an ally in many ways, which
we'll be talking about a little bit later when we talk about ways
in which the Sunni and the Shia at reception of this memory have
differed but also converged.
The Hijra takes place and then the Pact of brotherhood in Medina,
between the answer in the Moorhead urien the famous moment when the
Holy Prophet alayhi salam Salam takes the hand of Ali and raises
it up and says her that it this is my brother
My cousin, actually, but brother.
So
then that begins, of course, that growth to the political and social
economic transformation of Arabia and the dethroning of the old
pagan oligarchy is so.
And incidentally, one reason why I'm doing this subject now is that
we're kind of on the edge of Muharram. And as many of you will
know, we have a reading of the Roberta Shahadat in Cambridge,
every haram
it's been our tradition for about 15 years I think.
Okay, so here is something about the
life of Imam Ali. I said I want to do a lot of literature today. And
this is from the auditor Shahadat, which is still the most popular
Muharram narrative of the Al Bayt Sunday work but it's used by she
as well. The author has seen vies cash if he was a Knox Bundy
Hanafi meta Ed from
Herat in modern day Afghanistan, but he writes the great book
rather than the shahada garden of the martyrs about the added bait.
So here's the the chapter which is specifically on Imam Ali,
traditionally recited on the fifth day of Muharram. The robot is to
go to some of the big posh gatherings Maha fill in Hyderabad
for instance, they do something every night.
And this is Imam Ali's on the fifth night, so
now on his name be praised to the sky, a champion brave and strong,
one heart with two blades in his sword to defy the heat of the
hidden throne.
In the 13th spring of the elephant's ear did Abu Talib
smile, the line of God in this world did appear for free of pride
and guile.
Then Providence placed him in prophecies house is cousin to the
chosen one. When Gabriel came God's truth to announce
straightway to that truth he wants.
He married the light of God's Chosen One that Fatima Albert all
of worldly wealth he was owner of non Illa era soul except the
inheritance of the messenger.
A PC lay in his holy teachers place her own in Musa stead, a
Yemeni road Vale the site of cooperation and thus his masters
bed
at 100 and better and honeymoon was the scene where swords flashed
like the sun. The rallying cry from the hill and ravine was know
that our God is want.
Love feta Illa Ali comes to cry alone see him slay Walid the
champions of high bar thought to defy his saber but did concede.
The City of Knowledge took him for its gate, two guards stood watch
each side. Its towers watched by the road that is straight, its
master the CO guide.
No beggar heard rebuke at his door. He worked the fields for a
wage. He gave his humble fare to the poor. He had no surf nor page
the treasures of Persia and Rome at his feet his eye never glanced
that way. Instead of the palace of Kufa so sweet. He slept on sand
and hey,
even Tayyar came to call him for the prayer.
He reached the prayer hall gate, and even more jam his blade in the
air he slew him in violent hate.
That's while he lived and also as he died, he filled the world with
signs. All noble youth take Ali as their guide. His saintly courage
shines
very classical general eulogy med of Imam Ali
Radi Allahu Allah, and indeed very often distresses on his Shama is
nightly heroism, his manly virtues in the field of battle, and he was
as the poem said that a better and offered an all of the battles
except for the battle of that
the
raid on Tabuk because he'd been made governor of Medina during
that time. Bad are famously he carries the black banner of the
Moorhead urien and it's bad or where he first shows his progress
in single combat, stepping out in front of the Muslim lions and the
coloration their champion, and Walid ibn Abi gehele. And in the
sight of everyone, he he defeats him and Kilson
battle of offered also Abul Sofiane is really angry that both
of his standard bearers had been killed
At the Battle of Bader, and he gives the standard of Quraysh to a
really huge, powerful man pulsa, who is from the Underdark family
of Makkah. Tunghai then strives out in this very kind of ancient
samurai like, sort of display of manly virtue couldn't imagine.
In a modern war people doing anything like this
modern war has none of this real sort of dignity and nobility about
it modern warfare, press a button and some city blows up.
Or depleted uranium shells, blow up Saddam Hussein's tanks or
something. It's a completely different model of warfare, very
cruel and primitive compared to medieval times. So tougher steps
forward, Ally steps forward, and there's a long fight and Ally
Kilson in single combat and he becomes really renowned throughout
Arabia.
For this
it said that on the day of offered, that Imam Ali receives 16
wounds, side even more saleable is the witness this so he's very much
at the front line, but there's this unknown exploit, which Kashi
mentioned is the siege of high bar.
These are times before gunpowder and a fortress is not so easy to
reduce.
And
on the eve of the attack,
this is narrated by Bukhari and Muslim.
Holy Prophet says, look at the end there her the Himalaya, Rajul and
Yifter Hello Alia date, your hyperbola Hawara sola, where
you're headed to la hora solo.
I will give this standard to a man at whose hand the conquest will
take place who loves God and His messenger and who is loved by God
and His messenger? Makes this announcement. Of course, everybody
has a gong that night around the campfire as everybody is saying
who's it going to be? For better nurseries or corner lay letter
home or your home your otter hat so that people spent much of the
night discussing who's going to be given it for Han
Aina Ali ibn Abi Talan varkala yara Sula, la yesh Turkey I know
who the Prophet says, Where's Ali bin Abi? Talan can't see him and
people are saying he's got
an infection it is i
Oh piracetol. Elaine, center him.
That ought to be all of her bessacarr Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam a few I knew he were the other who, for better or
hotter Catalunya couldn't be he was what I told right now the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spat and pressed the saliva
to each eye for Bara, and he was healed
as if nothing had been wrong with him.
So he gives him the flag.
And famously in the great charge,
arrows showering down with his great strength is able to pull up
the door of the fortress from its hinges using traditional hinges
they're not like the modern ones, but it's just a kind of spindle
pushed into a receptacle.
He lifted up, carries it on his back, and Muslims charging and the
fortress of high bar is captured.
So this is
what does the 1000 faces of the hero, the great warrior who brings
about this new age in Arabia.
But there's another aspect, which is marriage. Of course. We've
already seen the apple to rob episode.
He's married to the beloved daughter of the chosen ones, leave
us alone, thereby becoming
his son in law as well as his cousin.
Bottom at the time is 20.
Ali has really been too
ashamed to ask for her hand because if he's real extreme
poverty isn't going to kind of hot without windows sackcloth over the
door near the mosque.
But the Holy Prophet agrees around it sacrificed. I shouldn't makes
the house ready sprinkling soft sand. Very simple. We could
imagine how basic it was
just a sheepskin, a striped Yemeni piece of fabric. That's it that's
All there is in the house.
And then another famous incident, the Holy Prophet says to a man,
bring me some water.
And then again, his best saliva, splits it into the water. And then
Ali and Fatima come,
he tells Ali to sit in front of him and sprinkles some of the
water over his head, his chest and his arms.
Then he calls thought Amma who went kind of war of her father
almost trips as she comes in, she's looking down. He does the
same, and then he makes famous prayer for them and for their
children.
So
since it's nearly Malhotra and I want to read another poem from the
robot, and this is actually translated from not from Kashi
feet, but by somebody called Muhammad aside etre Billy
doesn't 1931
who is one of the last really great holiday Naqshbandi shifts of
Turkey,
who had had his own Zoja in Iskandar and had been head of the
Mejlis of the shakes that the Ottomans created before it was
abolished.
Ataturk of course had the sheiks killed or imprisoned.
But this one was particularly difficult because everybody loved
him. He wrote the famous kenzel Irfan, which is a Hadith
collection. I have not seen it, but it's said to be a commentary
on 100,000 Hadith.
But he has a famous Deewan in Turkish and Persian
and was a saint, the great air of the Nakba, India,
in Turkey at the times that eventually Ataturk has been
poisoned in prison.
And Turks nowadays will tell you terrifying stories about what
happened to the general who ordered that.
Anyway, so this is
a version of one of his
many poems about Fatima does Iraq.
Recall the father and mother pure, perfect parents to every faithful
heart. One day did think on the garden shore, yearning, burning,
burning, all for that land apart.
Then came an angel with wondrous news falling like an apple from
Heavens power. The gardens Lord love that couple out. So Khadija
brought forth that perfect flower.
In Days of Darkness, the heathen cried, let the moon be split by
this Chosen One. With tongues like serpents they all denied, open
wide their eyes could not see that sun.
They're scorned, weighed hard on Khadija his heart. Ah, alas, cried
she to her holy spouse.
But then her wounded good news in part, they are not God's will save
servants of his house.
No other lady shall be her pure. God's own nature makes it of the
prophets pride.
The Shining names of that daughter dear, signaling the virtues of
Ali's Bride
The Shining lady, the chaste and pure
mother of two sons, each a perfect guide for the modest daughter ever
demure queen of women who paradise abide.
And a noble Father, this word did say phantom as a piece of my
flesh, he said,
Who social harm HEARD OF GOD betray? So to Duffy Hanmi does he
said
that child breathed deep of his perfume sweet, like her soul, his
soul? In his steps, she tried
water and bread ground from humble wheat in the joy of faith, did
they serve their God?
So 13 years here, the Hijra was to actually humbly in her father's
house with many angels she served his cause. fill the world with
light as she served her spouse.
So here are fleeing from the burning Blaze. seek forgiveness
for all your evil days, give prayers and blessings and always
praise she whom God did keep from all evil ways.
Again, ultimate as the Herat
hasn't been a Muslim poet who hasn't referred to her with or and
respect.
The next key symbolic event is the so called MOBA Hala.
This is later in the medina period. When the delegations were
fooled come
to the Holy Prophet so the lava
Let us help them
to reconcile themselves to his project of the unification of
Arabia
and the end to the Tribal Wars. And this is a Christian delegation
led by the Bishop of neutron.
In this MOBA, hello.
They dispute with the Muslims over the nature of Christ.
The bishop says, He was born of a virgin, this proves his divinity.
But Islam points out, of course, the Holy Prophet voices this that
Adam had neither father nor mother. But he was not defined.
The dispute continues, and to resolve it, a test of sincerity is
devised, but interesting way of
bringing about a resolution.
Each side will bring the ones they love most.
And together, they will pray to God to bring his curses upon the
party that is lying.
And the Holy Prophet brings Ali, Fatima, Al Hassan and Al Hussein
places them underneath a cloak, the above.
And when were the monk sees this and sees who they are, he goes to
the bishop and says, I don't think we should do that. These people
have some spiritual acuity and when they see the quality of those
people, the luminosity, they think, Oh, we don't want to be
cursed by them. And so they apologize and they withdraw.
So
next we get into
the story of his Khilafah
fast forwarding a bit again.
As you'll recall, perhaps from the
electron hazard your Ceman Muslims are divided
as to what should happen next.
This shock events this kind of chaotic situation that nobody had
really predicted or anticipated or wanted even
some of those
who had been involved in what looks like
looks to have been a conspiracy invite Ali to become Khalifa but
he refuses
he says I won't be Khalifa I won't be Ameerul Momineen but I'm happy
to be his advisor.
Paul Hart and eBay are also offered this but they refused.
So there's a power vacuum and the rebels in this chaotic situation
in Medina give them 24 hours to disciple
gathering in the mosque waiting for the decision.
And reluctantly Imam Ali agrees. Lemma kana in Emery offner Can
cada Ali on fee Beatty What a terrible nursery or cologne Amira
meaning Ali?
What Dr. Lu Allah He Daraa who call nobody Oka for call Lacedelli
que la come in the mother luckily actually better
than under all the heavy burden for her Khalifa Columbia. I don't
mean Ali Baba Illa at Alinea global by ah well who are yet the
Ali.
The Imam Ali is in his house and everybody is saying and the
meaning will be ally.
And they came into his house and said we want to pledge our
allegiance. And he says that is not for you to decide. It should
be the decision of those who are present or better.
Whoever is
acceptable to the people of better here's the Khalifa.
And then all of the people of better who are still alive came
one by one to the house of ally seeking
to pledge their allegiance to him. You have to warn that they were
yet that I like him that still he didn't accept.
For them Maria Alejandra Lee coming home how Raja Lal Masjid
Vasa Eidelman bar
but when Ali saw that this was just continuing to happen.
You went out to the mosque and stood on the minbar the Hamid
Allah wa ethna Allah Ethan McCall in praise God, and then said
evenness Roddy Don't be an akuna Alikum Amira are people
you are satisfied that I should be the ruler over you.
That can a woman say that, you know he pulled her
from eBay. eBay It was horrible. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam
the first person to go to him to be
edge allegiance was Tomahawk and then Zubair and then
the other companions of Allah's Messenger.
luminaires Ella aka Dr. Nash, Sophie cutely often. And then when
he descended the game, people were just above talking about the
assassination of Othman
from Inhumans in the rocket dealers on that on in humans that
I met and the whole party they must Aloma. Some were saying that
he was killed because of
his injustice. Others said he was killed and he was the victim of
injustice.
de la Mora allele Flf a nurse if you're cuddly often so I don't
mean baraka to even
go call. And when Ali saw that people were just talking about
what had happened with off man he went back up the minbar and said
Are you a nurse or up below lamb is now equal more upside equal?
In the nurse if none with Aletheia less 30 seller home
Malecon Tara be Jannati he will not be Yun acha de la will be
Eddie. I Milan Motorhead and what am Milan Jada draw
us here on
our had on Andover her the ALMA Toby edinbane BeSafe assault. Now
he worded her under assault on V her for study Ruby Citarella what
else we hold that the nickel
so basically what he's saying is that people are in six categories.
And there's one of his famous Cottbus or in five categories is
there is no six.
There is an angel flying with his wings, there is a Prophet whose
hand is taken by God. There is somebody who works hard in a bad
there is somebody who postpones things in idle hope. And there is
somebody who is in a state of shortcoming in hellfire.
But what is required is for somebody to discipline this Alma
with the sword and the voice. Somebody who wishes to do this
must accept rulership. So seek God's protection and reckon be
reconciled one to another
that what he's saying in this and it's a long clip, but in his on a
firework Arabic is
you don't really know who is who you don't know which category you
are, on which category he was.
Always give others the benefit of the doubt.
And this becomes the basis for the mainstream position of the Sahaba
the tablet in give people the benefit of the doubt, respect
people say Radi Allahu Anhu and move on.
From another lower Amudha Illa btw Melfa, aka Raja Murphy, he
referred Raka, who Allah Muslimeen. And then he went off to
the Treasury, opened it up and distributed everything that was in
it to the Muslims.
And then some of the other Sahaba come and pledge their allegiance
to him.
Yeah, and then the famous incident with hazarded the ICER on the
Levana, the so called Battle of the Camel, although it wasn't
really a battle at all.
She, as far as we can tell, and the sources here, of course, are
quite contentious. Many of the lady historians are taking sides
or expressing their preferences,
really getting to the bottom of things, it's not going to be so
easy, but we know her as the beloved of the chosen one
sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And he was not
mistaken in judging personalities, she was another of these towering
figures. Very often, we find subsequent generations of Muslims
trying to rank people
look great Sahaba and the greatest of the whole of it and who was
greater and who is less great. I've always found that a strangely
modern kind of thing to do like league tables or rankings.
And complexity and the profundity of the human soul, which is the
basis on which these judgments have to be made, really makes that
really strange. In many ways. We're like,
little worms, looking up at great giants, trying to figure out who
is the taller and stronger I'm not in a position to do that. And so
the wise position is always to acknowledge all of them as being
all upright witnesses and as being giants otherwise, who are we to
say he was better than him and she was, it's meaningless,
particularly at this great historical distance.
So we have this this episode of these two giants, taking different
views. And it's clear from there she was protests and we have
things from her that she was not against us or that he ally at all.
She was more about trying to bring about justice for her kinsmen of
man against those ruffians, who were not really part of Ali's camp
at all, who had been responsible for suddenly breaking into the
keenness house and assassinating Him and who are now kind of
embarrassing, are they by supporting him?
supporting him strongly, although he was trying to keep his distance
from them.
Yep, so that the outcome of it is that it's indecisive.
And Ali sends her back more karma honored with a retinue back to
Makkah. Next episode
is that have more aware,
governor of Syria, and this is another area in which
Muslims seem to be
divided into
different groups. And this is really a kind of spiritual
question rather than one that can be resolved through looking once
again for the millionth time at the historical record to try and
determine who was the taller.
Or that's human nature.
But it's
really a futile exercise, because you're dealing with intentions.
And you're dealing with these enormous personalities, all of
whom are negotiating and being transformed by the
extraordinary light
that has been unleashed by the prophetic moment, and which they
all according to their particular personalities are receiving
implementing differently.
So
you might say that there are the
the dividers and the detractors.
Those who believe that if we just work hard enough, at those ancient
books, we will be able to demonstrate who was right and who
was wrong.
The only sure outcome of that is that the Muslims remain divided.
That's the only real outcome that those revisitation 's have.
There are others who say, well, let's just leave it to God.
This is a kind of Aerojet position, that they just kind of
leave it to the future.
But there are others who and this tends to be the way of the Sufi
reception of these stories, which as we'll see later, is very much
concordance and trying to say it's not either or, but both and in
complex and inspiring ways, I
would say, the enormous immeasurable power of the Quranic
light which shone in these transformed souls, reflected
itself in the expression of certainties in different ways that
sometimes collided, Giants can be real giants, but can not always
see eye to eye.
So there's a way in which the differences can be recognized
without us having to get into the league table business, which I
think in our culture, which is very much a culture of inclusion,
and reconciliation and drawing a veil over real or imagined false.
That's a much more authentically, Quranic response.
So
I'm running late, but many of you will already be aware of the
dispute with my our governor of Syria who had been the recipient
of prophetic prayer Allahumma Aleem Wilkie, terrible he served
by what he saw as either a lot teach him writing calculation and
keep him away from
your punishment.
What I was also interested in speeding up the investigation into
the assassination of Hoffman
and
the famous event at Safin another battle that wasn't really a battle
a few people seem to have been hurt, but again, these giant
personalities with absolute certainty,
sometimes different points of view, and that's part of the
amplitude of classical Islam which is not totalitarian, the way of
A lot of believers would like it to be. And some modern believers
think well, the seller for the ideal community, why is it that
they disagreed on this? Well,
part of being
an excellent human being is that you are prepared to stand up for
your own convictions even though there's FTF with somebody else.
This is not like the Nazi party where everybody has to be
identical in everything that this is a real human community in which
the prophetic light is refracted in different ways.
So you have the proposal by more hour of arbitration, that's the
theme because the arm is really can't bring themselves to,
to fight.
And then the division becomes more complex, the beginning of the
Hawaii bridge movement 12,000 from Ali's army who thinks you can't
really sort this out by
some kind of bureaucratic procedure kind of committee
resolving something so important in religion. So these zealots
mostly Tamim is from Central Arabia march out and they go to
the banks of the river at the heroine.
And it goes up to reason with them, some of them return from the
error.
Others persist.
So this is the beginning of the of poulet, or absolutist position.
They're against everybody really, they're against often then they're
against more out there against ally they're just Puritans on
their own. These are the coverage
and they become
assassins. They are in the eyes of many of the kind of prototype of
the ISIS type assassin
one of them even more jam was in love with a college woman.
what Tom said to the beautiful woman of our ages cetera. And she
was one of these zealots. And she said I'll only marry you.
If you give me three things that are desired obika Illa Allah,
Allah 30 lf.
What I did, what kinda Wakata the Ali ibn Abi Talat on Marielle, but
my dowry is going to be 3000 gold coins, and a slave and the singing
girl and the assassination of Ali
can imagine what she was like. So he poisoned his sword goes into
the mosque in Kufa. Ali is calling the people to the prep, even mode
and brings out his sword and hits Ali, a massive blow from behind,
drops his saw people grab him, at least take them back to his house.
Shortly afterwards, at the modem is put to death.
So this again, like the killing of Hoffman
indicates something about
the
emergence tendencies of the civilization to
the left.
And the way in which the civilization ultimately
accommodates that is by saying enough, as long as it's not
lethal,
is a natural phenomenon in this final religion, which is to be all
embracing shamon cotton. This isn't a model of a single Pope who
lays down the magisterium, which is the only right thing to believe
Islam has, in its majoritarian formulations sought to welcome a
plurality of views. And this is again, something that a lot of non
modern Muslims don't like this, they want the Islamic answer to
everything. Well, when I finish off and talk a bit about the
fatawa principle associated with them, Imam Ali will see
that
as it were, Imam Ali's idea of fatawa is that principle which
ultimately enabled the majoritarian suddenly generic form
of Muslim scholarship to regard these things in a positive light.
So Imam Ali quoted by the natural Bulava
a lot later says,
with regard to me, two groups of people shall be destroyed namely
he who loves Me to access so that love takes him away from what is
correct. And he hates me so much that hatred takes him away from
the truth.
The best person with regard to me as he who follows the middle
course so be with him and be with a great majority of Muslims
because Allah's hand of protection is with the maintenance of unity.
You should beware of division because the one isolated from the
group is a predator shaytaan just as one isolated from the flock of
sheep is a prey to the wolf. They were well
Have a close to this course of sectarianism fighting, even though
he may be under this banner of mine.
So we don't want to talk too much about that much later, as it were
religion icing of what initially just sort of administrative
disputes.
It's outside my competence apart from anything else. But it cannot
be coincidental that this amo, which is described by Heaven, as
Alma, Mater, Alma, and Alma on which there is that kind of Divine
Mercy,
with its great honor that many of whom from the little bait and it's
great traditions of Wilaya majoritarian form of Islam has
favored not taking sides.
In other words, a Sahaba Kula, whom although the companions are
all upright witnesses, the criteria for that are quite
exhaustive to be a proper upright witness in the Sharia courts
court, you have to be really nameless,
and this is the position that was taken.
And there is in this, it seems to me a kind of Latter Day revisiting
of Islam's understanding of the divisions that allegedly took
place between Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
The descendants of Isaac said, we alone are heirs to the promise,
Ishmael is the wild man,
banished, dry root, sent out into the wilderness, that becomes a
binary.
But part of the vision of the Mohammed and intervention in
sacred history is that it includes it says Isaac and Ishmael
the bunny is up to do so many Anbiya
and the Benny Ismail produced ultimately the miracle of
the Hajj, and say no Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the
hartham. So it's part of the vision of Islam and sacred history
to include, rather than to like these binaries, not of binaries in
the book of Genesis and all of them, if you look at the way in
which Islam receives them, if it's if it's interested at all, it's
some of them it isn't really are about bringing together
this, particularly in the Sufi tradition becomes the kind of
ethos that's what characterizes the people of Sufism. So below
Nursey, 15 fe was a beautiful poem, if at laughy, the way of
ordinary people is
different and argument. And the way of the people the soothe is is
reconciliation. So let's look a little bit more some of these
texts with apologies for delaying your lunch. But I did say that I
wanted this primarily to be looking at the literature. I'm
just skating over the outlines of the story.
One thing that often arises is
there's disputes of
the worms looking up at the 4k lifts and trying to see who is
highest and why and in what way but the another issue that arises
is Abu Bakr and Ali.
We know that Imam Ali is basically the fountainhead of the Sunni Sufi
tariqas.
But the Naqshbandi is believed that Abu Bakr is the first figure
in the Silsila Nocturne Pandia are the largest probably tariqa and
have a considerable extent in this country. So
sometimes popularly, this is taken to be a kind of tension, but it's
not. And I want to explain how this works. Drawing attention once
again to mainstream Islamic desire to reconcile it enough to bring
people together by looking at one of the great works of the 19th
century Nutch Pandia, the chef with two intermediaries of Chef
Assad, lb Lee, who we looked at earlier in his poem on authority,
Fatima, Radi Allahu Anhu. And this is Molana Khalid
dies in 1826, buried in the Kurdish district of Damascus and
the scholar who really revives the Nokia bandier throughout the
Middle East.
And Turkey.
Not so much the Balkans, the Nokia Bandy lines in the Balkans tend to
function in a different way and sometimes it's an older version of
the knotch bandier. As I understand it,
Maulana Khalid and he has this D one.
One of the great monuments or
Naqshbandi literature, it's mostly in Persian
and he begins with his mana jet. I'd like to just read a little bit
from this where he is explaining
how that said directly affiliation of the NAACP, BAM dia
works with the eyelid affiliation of the tradition of Atilla beats.
And it's important I think, to understand this, not only to look
at the mechanics mechanics of how the sencilla works, but also to
see the
the mindset which wants to bring about kind of Concordia solution.
So this is how his great poem starts. It's long, we won't be
able to look at much of it, but we'll take it at least as far as
the Imam where the cities seem to come together, which a lot of
people really misunderstand. This isn't one and yet
hold on and on behalf pays me Azam, they normally say Ed oh
lordy, Arden, the rough translation
My God, by the sanctity of the greatest names, by the light of
the master of the children of Adam, so is beginning with a kind
of
one add yet or invocation reminding us and reminding the
divine object with the purpose and address to god
of the of what is truly great in his creation.
The source is seen as a deity Akbar, Bissell man obey Carson
Barbary digger.
So verse two
is
by the virtue of the the flame of light, which is in the soul of the
Cydia
by the virtue of salmoni, Pharisee, and Kasim
okay.
This is really important for all the Naqshbandi sensation of
Abu Bakr Siddiq, then youth Nene Thorne, I feel vital, this great
companion of the chosen one.
According to the National anti stories that the key spirituality
of workers to do was to do the vicar silently which is what most
NOC commanders do, whereas the therapists that take the lineage
to Imam Ali, very often will use
January spoken or sung
forms of liquor.
But
figure number two
in the chain, some manual Pharisee
finger number three figure number three is L Carson is Kasim bin
Mohammed bin Abu Bakr
dies. Round about the year 107 of the hedgerow is actually important
figure one of the great muftis and Hadith scholars of his times a lot
of his Hadith in Sahih Muslim, for instance,
regarded as one of the seven foci of Medina,
studied under Abu Hurayrah under love and honorable ask some of the
great ones some of the greatest nerves come through him.
And
a costume
has three daughters who are famed for their piety and their
scholarship.
One of them is called on fatwa
and she
marries in Mohammed Al Bakr and therefore becomes the mother of
Imam Jaffa esodoc.
So, if you get your mind around the kind of family tree situation
here Jafra Sadat's mother is the great granddaughter of
Abu Bakr, Cindy.
Incidentally, her mother was a certain estimate, but Abdur
Rahman,
then Abu Bakr, who is also from the lineage of Abu Bakr, so she's
a kind of double great granddaughter of Abu Bakr, and
this is from the Naqshbandi point of view, why there isn't really
attention because Jaffa Assad has this very powerful stream of air
fan of knowledge and wisdom and acidity appear coming from Abu
Bakr as well as to the former lineage of Muhammad Abu Bakr Ali's
in Aberdeen, Imam Hussain and
Imam Ali.
So that's really important the nakshi golden chain which goes on
to the present day through the Nakba and alcoholic orders Divani
and so forth, goes back to Jaffa sodic. We tend to think
Have you don't really look into the sources as the sixth imam of
the Shia are
too big and capacious for Seoul
to be just limited to that perspective, but also for figuring
the golden chain of them Naqshbandi or who we always
associate as being the Sunday tariqa par excellence but when you
look into these texts you'll see that for somebody like Milena
Farley, it's not like that it's not some that against chia, except
for some exotic tourists who
dividers.
Instead, the spiritual lineages of Islam interact and flow and
certainly doesn't seem to have been a problem for Imam Jaffa
Assad at that he had the lineage of
Abu Bakr Siddiq. So
let's read a little bit more of this because he does. It's
something knocked funded in particular want to emphasize the
filiation to Imam Jaffa Bashar has often recorded our hierarchy as
Nero Yeshe for short Barbie high bar
by the
the noble king who overcame the ranks of the powerful enemy
haidara The the lion
who with his own bare strength carried on his back the gates of
the citadel of high but
they both firstly be Roosegaarde is Irish kasra yellow Darby
Zulfiqar Irish
hazard deoli Karim Allah azza wa jal
was the one who was so successful in the fortunes of war in using
his sawed off a car that it was as if he was the angel of death as
the uncertainty Gulistan in a war with the Amish and my Shabbos
stone if at all it
he was the tall cypress tree in the prophets garden the lamp in
the palace of photo
Mandriva to
see we'll have to fast forward
Yep, verse 12, Mohammed Ibaka encore Himmelfarb hair, k as Rishi
is that nahiri Ashgrove 10 Barker
the one who was the summit of nobility and glory and
plunged the very depths of knowledge and Barker by his merit,
and then be Hockley, much Maribor Harini Anwar Kishore du Razi,
satirical Alibaba.
So by the right of he who was the measurement of Bahrain, the one
who is the point at which the two oceans come together
which was the way of the Cydia and the way of ally
so this is an understanding of what Imam Jafar was Imam esodoc
They must all be Jafar can in Dortmund sub aura should move ASR
Imam esodoc The one who is also must doctor when it was believed
Jaffa
who in this has the two roles and this was made easy for him? So
Jaffa esodoc
commentary it has of course the details of the family tree Jaffa
esodoc on the father's line, humbler Barkat alleys in Aberdeen
hazard Hossein hazard the alley it's an easy Tarik thing that for
some later generations became the basis of a exoteric Mohab.
And through the mother's line on firewall, the scholar luminary of
Medina, asked him, Mohammed hazarded he mo Baca. So there's
that filiation as well, the mother and the father.
Yeah.
I think that then the Imam goes on. It's a very long beautiful
poem, but he really wants to emphasize this is a figure of
considerable political importance in the Ottoman Empire spends a lot
of time in Iraq, which is why they call him hardly debuff Daddy,
where of course, even in those days there's she districts on the
districts. And as a nurse, she Sufi he really wants to create
this way of
overcoming that binary and demonstrating
that alley is the city of knowledge for the NAACP, Dundas,
as well as he is for anybody else. So just to finish a little bit
with the photo
The idea that her Illa Ali, there is no chivalrous young man but for
Ali and this is understood as being
not so much progress on the field of battle but the inward state
that enables but also regulates that progress. So,
some examples of this inwardness, which becomes the key Sufi
principle of
fatawa is something that I quite like.
Once 10 learned men approached Ali and said, we seek your permission
for our putting a question to you, Ali said, you're at Liberty, they
said of knowledge and wealth, which is better and why, please
give each one of us a separate concept.
Allah gave the following 10 answers. Number one, knowledge is
the legacy of the prophets wealth is the inheritance of the
pharaohs. Therefore, knowledge is better than wealth.
Number two, you are to guard your wealth, but knowledge guards you,
so knowledge is better.
Three, a man of wealth has many enemies, while a man of knowledge
has many friends, hence knowledge is better.
Number four, knowledge is better because it increases with
distributions while wealth decreases by that act. Number
five, knowledge is better because a learned man is apt to be
generous, while a wealthy person is apt to be miserly.
Six, knowledge is better because it cannot be stolen, while wealth
can be stolen.
Number seven, knowledge is better because time cannot harm
knowledge, but wealth rusts in the course of time and wears away.
Eight knowledge is better because it is boundless, while wealth is
limited, and you can keep account of it.
And benign, knowledge is better because it illuminates the mind
while wealth is apt to black in it.
Number 10 Knowledge is better because knowledge induce the
humanity in our profit, to say to God,
we worship the as we are Your servants.
Well wealth engendered in fairer and Nimrod, the vanity which made
them claim Godhead.
So many government wise
things in the tradition.
An aspect of this photo is that although it represents
fearlessness, and manly virtue, it doesn't represent
the egotistic signaling of one status.
So Imam Ali famously used to ride a mule into battle. This is said
to be the same duel duel, the mule that was given to the Holy Prophet
by the ruler of Egypt, due to svar.
Rider.
This was a little bit strange to some of the Arabs, perhaps the
world's best horses. So it was us Why do you ride this mule?
In the battle? It is the mules, they're quite strong, but they
can't really run fast.
And he says, Well,
if a man is running away from me,
that is defeated. I don't need to chase him and attack him from
behind.
But I'm not going to run away from the battle. So I don't need a
horse that's going to go fast.
Yeah, very different mentality to that which prevails nowadays.
Here's another one. Because he's aka whom ally is famous state of
being a good judge.
KDF ally, the supreme head of the Muslim empire, the darkness here
over 100 battles, his favorite shield was stolen.
All wondered who could have had the rashness of committing this
crime. At last the shield was found with a Jew ally asked for
the return of his shield. The Jew curtly replied the shield is mine,
and it shall remain with me.
The Companions of the cave got terribly furious at the impudent
answer of this man. How does that foolish creature dare in rage hide
up the lion for those who are present there.
But line though Ali was he was a lost lion. So he turned to his
companions and said no, you must not think of my position. The king
of these subjects are equal in the eyes of law, and unnecessarily the
Calif must seek the protection of the Court of Justice.
Kufa was the capital of ally and the famous jurist Sharif was the
call the of Kufa. He had been appointed to the post by ally
himself, so Ali sought the help of Sharif Scott.
The jury was duly summoned, and he appeared before the court. The
court was packed by visitors long before the trial began. Ducati
came in
and took his seat. Ollie past with the assembled crowd stood before
the Guardian and greeted him with due respect. The Guardian did not
leave his seat nor did he show any other mark of respect to the Calum
body. Have you stolen the shield of ally?
The defendant says no, a false charge has been brought against
me. The Shield belongs to me. It is in my possession.
The call data ally? Have you any witness to prove that the shield
is yours? Ally says yes, my son Hassan and my servant convert my
witnesses. God he says I cannot rely on the evidence. Ali says Why
do you think they will bear false witness the call he says Never. I
know you are closely related to the Holy Prophet and a perfectly
pious. Further I even believe that the door of Paradise is open for
you. But the prophets law is that the sun is evidence in favor of
the Father and of the servant in favor of the master is
inadmissible. So for want of proper evidence, your case is
dismissed.
And then the defendant comes to ally and says, unimaginable
wonderful. This is unique law that respect not even the position of
the Calif and the man who promulgated it must not have been
an ordinary human being Amira, meaning the shield was really
yours, please take it. But with it, please take something more
that was not yours. From today, my body, my heart and my allegiance
are yours.
There is no god but Allah, Mohammed is his apostle. There's
lots of other stories about this kind of rigor for justice, but
also generosity.
Another story that you often find is the Imam Ali was in one to one
combat with a man in the thick of battle. And the man's lost his
sword.
That was unknown before Imam Ali.
And the man didn't know what to do.
And said, I have no sword. Imam Ali gives him his own sword.
And this is regarded as an example of the fact that he would never
refuse a gift.
If somebody else needed something, he would always give it and the
man is kind of completely dumbstruck.
And he lets the sword fall, and he says, You're not an ordinary human
being, I can't fight with you.
So our literature is full of these things. But just to close, the
virtue which these people are all attributing to him is the virtue
of fatawa.
Which is the virtue of ensuring that
your outward and your inward life is balanced.
One of the things that the hybridize didn't understand, and
that possibility, which is with us today doesn't understand is the,
the size of the non negotiable
magnificence of the external law. The Sharia sometimes preoccupies
people so much that intentionality and mercy and context, just as
itself can be lost sight of,
you might call it to pennyfarthing Islaam. Do you remember those
pennyfarthing bikes, one enormous wheel and one tiny little one.
And
people who are riding those things, rather than a proper
bicycle, it's like the Shediac is this huge thing that kind of, they
have to jump up to get on it, because it's so big and Barton
side of Islam is just a little thing that they hardly pay any
attention to. And it's not a comfortable thing to write.
For tour means that you cannot allow your sense of
outward property to get in the way of the reality of mercy, and
justice, and humanity.
And that's what the stories of Imam Ali are all about. So I want
to just close by reading a much later text by Abu Huff's. Surah
worthies Kitab al fatawa.
The tradition of fatawa that is to say manly virtue, sacrifice is
something that's hugely important not just in the context of the
Sufi orders in our
civilization, and it's to do with the added virtues of hospitality,
of nobility, of sacrifice, of compassion, of justice.
So this is how sort of a word he begins.
His book he doesn't 1230 for the name of Allah, the merciful,
compassionate we asked him for help. Praise belongs to Allah,
Lord of the two worlds greetings and peace be upon our Master
Muhammad upon all his family.
Let me say I need a formal legal opinion. What command is the holy
law the Shetty at give can want perform this task or not.
If that task or business is proper and recommended, then they write a
fatwa and give it to him. They say it is lawful to perform that task.
It is not a proper if it is not a proper act and they do not write
up the fatwa and they say that one must not carry out that act.
So, it is clear that affetto for a task is good because nobody can
complain with a Mufti writes out a fatwa.
And here the fatwa and fatawa have the same meaning. He who is among
the people of fatawa must also be good and possess justice, fairness
and equity.
Another kind of fatawa there are many things that are impermissible
according to both fatawa and Morula.
But may still be permissible under the holy law.
Sometimes people find this difficult, isn't it the case that
the law defines what is ethical? Well, the law defines what is
actionable and formally assessed. But there may be a lot of things
where the Sharia seems to make something technically illegal. But
we're for Toba, this inward mercy, compassion, justice may say the
thing may have to be looked at differently, but without the law
being violated. So for instance, somebody with a wife might say, it
is halal for me, the federal law say I can take a second wife.
That's not the same as saying it is morally right for me to do
that. It is merely that it is legal in terms of the outward
structures of the religion.
So something can be in fatawa, improper and religiously not
right? If it's the kind of situation that's going to cause
tribulation and words and injustice.
But outwardly, it can be valid. And this is something a lot of
Muslims nowadays with the kind of legalism that has crept into our
understanding of the Sharia, and our insistence that it be just a
single kind of thing that is Islamic ethics have lost sight of
and that's why this added principle of Torah is so
important. So just to repeat what he's saying, there are many things
that are impermissible according to fatawa, but are permissible
under the holy law.
I want to fly first class to Bali, for instance, Shetty is not going
to say you can't do that.
But from the fatawa point of view, it might be a kind of
inappropriate thing.
I want a pair of shoes that cost me 2000 pounds, surely is not
there to regulate those things.
That is in the area of the MOBA. But it may still be improper. So
the existence of the outward Sharia does not mean that we
cannot be inwardly moral people. It's not an alternative to
morality.
This does not mean that the Torah and Marula contradict the holy
law.
However, the attributes of the people for Tor is that if someone
does something bad to them, then they do something good in return.
According to the formality of the shittier they can carry out a bad
act in retribution for a bad act.
And then he gives some examples
the people for tour have said that if someone slanders you, you
should pray for this person, if he deprives you, then at a time when
you are in need, you should give him something. If he runs away
from you adhere to Him faithfully and do not desert him. If he hits
or strikes you if he breaks one of your teeth forgive him. This is
for Toba and moreover, and it's the same as the speech of the
truth. This is because forgiving is derived from Mercy. Justice is
derived from the holy law.
In the time of ally, the Commander of the Faithful some people
brought before him someone who had committed murder.
And he said you say that retribution is necessary and you
cite retribution is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered.
The commander of the troops word is correct, retribution should be
prescribed. But you should have interceded for him. You could have
said don't seize him on the basis of this crime. This crime was his
fate. The pen moves from eternity without beginning and God's
measuring out has been accomplished. The victim had
reached the appointed time of death.
Why not forgive this helpless individual has traveled in the
vehicle of ignorance. Let me a turn for the blood he has spilled
and so Ali interceded for this person.
Some other examples.
If some people brought a woman who had committed some crime, you will
not accept that accusations and
till they brought forward for just witnesses, indeed, who would not
accept their complaints even if they found for just witnesses for
who would demand the attestation of the witnesses honorable record,
he strove so that the sin attributed to that woman could not
be proved. In the end, he called for the woman and admonished her
and made her afraid. If it became necessary, he would command the
legal punishments for the woman. But he would also criticize the
witnesses and would not accept any further testimonies from them,
saying that they had already given testimony to adultery.
In the time of the Holy Prophet, someone came and greeted him and
said, Your Rasul Allah, I saw an unknown man with my wife in such
in such a house, I locked the door and came here to present my
complaint before the Prophet
Prophet turned away from him and did not reply. The man stated
wants more jasola Law, something terrible has happened to me give
me justice, the Holy Prophet given an answer, yet again, the man
said, O Messenger of Allah, something terrible has happened to
me, give me justice. The Prophet turned towards him and asked, Did
you see with your own eyes? He replied, Yes, I saw with my own
eyes, a prophet of God, I saw this.
The Holy Prophet said to Ali, Amira, not meaning Oh, Ali, go to
this man's house and look around well, now there is a question
here. Why did he send Ali and not any other person? Why did he send
Bill owl for other tasks and Ali for this particular task? The
answer is that no one possessed the same degree of knowledge is
Ollie, anyone else would have seen in would have testified with Ali
was greater than all the others in knowledge and more famous to photo
word. Since the Holy Prophet had stated there is no feta but Ali,
and there is no sword except for car. Because a part of photo is
veiling.
So he said, Ali to go and see and return and testify according to
his knowledge, because his testimony will be correct, but
that of anyone else would be wrong. The aim was that the
adultery should remain hidden. Because the Quran says veiled
false forgive sins. So Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, went to
that house, opened the door and went inside. He closed his eyes
and wandered in the house. Still, with eyes closed, he came out of
the house and then returned to the Prophet. He said, I swear to God,
I didn't see a single person in that house. He spoke the truth, he
had shut his eyes. And of course, he saw no one. It is for this
reason that the Holy Prophet said, I'm the City of Knowledge, and
Ally is its gate.
This is a whole dimension of our tradition that hasn't really
survived the transition into modernity, where Islamic law has
become a kind of thing like Western law set of statutes,
rather than part of the larger ethical system.
Yeah, there's so much else here. So just to close, this is my final
thing.
So her awardee likes to he's already talked about fatwah and
fatawa, and how they're not necessarily the same thing.
He also plays with the word fatawa.
And he finds
2725 qualities, included within three letters. They have been
approved and adopted by all virtuous people and wise men.
These 25 seven are within the fat fatawa 14 within the TAT and
fought within the world.
So this is his eyelid understanding of the fullness of
chivalric Islam.
Those qualities which begin with fat are that you fadul Spiritual
openings for taught eloquent language for soffit. Freedom from
unnecessary concerns that aren't understanding for him. Discernment
for asset action fill.
Those which are derived from tap are the following.
To what called trust Tober repentance to us sought to adopt
humility, to steal sincerity, to Soul, the power of imagining to
humble endurance to toe what voluntary service to others to
hedge good reading present night to Latiff showing tenderness to
bedrock spiritual blessing to SOBOROFF having the power to put
spiritual things into practice, Temkin, steadfastness to fetco
contemplation, test keen, bringing about tranquility
the four others which have been derived from that and oh, well,
we're fat, loyalty, what scrupulousness When I had a
friendship with God was a connection to God.
And then he goes on with 480 qualities which are also included
in these medieval text but it's a reminder once again
that is a Tarik deep chivalric wisdom, which this principle
evokes
is something
which is actually fundamental to the religion rather than a bit of
icing on the cake.
And it is the necessary quality of the body. It is the necessary
quality of the counselor. It is the necessary quality of the
preacher it is the necessary quality of the person
who wishes to engage with the principle of Rama and mercy with
many Adam, which is why we say AquaDome Ali, the one who judged
best was Ali precisely because of this two pointed sword of those
are far but nowadays we are bumping into each other on our
penny farthings
inward dimension is something we discuss a lot less than the
outward dimension
that every hijab or beard argument on the internet, how many
discussions about purity of heart either not so many, maybe it
should be the other way around, then nothing, it's better to have
a strong inward life and to do just the basics outwardly, much
better than doing it the other way around.
So that's the set of readings that I wanted to share with you about
Imam Ali Shah who might have done
as a I think, not irrelevant contemporary reminder
that the religion is not just surface and amplitude. But it is
depth as well. And it is about an enhancement of our humanity rather
than a capturing of our humanity within a particular exoteric
paradigm. So may Allah subhanaw taala grant us to be benefited
from the mashup of Imam Ali? May He make us people offer to people
of Muruga people to live fully the rich possibilities, not of our
outward capacities but of the inward richness of our being so
that we are truly rich Alvernia in every moment, whatever our outward
situation might be, that we'd be fearless people that would be
humble, humble people, that would be noble people, and shall allow
that in the month of Muharram. We benefit from the recollection of
Al Bayt and their sacrifices and then ability and their inward
paths in sha Allah. Allah, Allah Allah, Allah for men como Salam
aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.