Last week I mentioned that our discussion consists of three parts: The
meaning of freedom, the two kinds of freedom, namely social and spiritual freedom and the
dependence of these two types of freedom upon one another, especially the dependence of
social freedom on spiritual freedom.
Tonight, I wish to devote myself to the subject of spiritual freedom,
its meaning and its necessity for mankind. This is particularly urgent since today little
attention seems to be paid to spiritual freedom by human societies, which is the cause of
many present troubles. This is so evident that many people consider spiritual freedom as
something abolished, even though the need for it is much greater than in the past. What
does spiritual freedom mean? Freedom requires two sides so that one side becomes free of
the bond of the other. In spiritual freedom what must the human be free of! Spiritual
freedom is freedom from one's self as against social freedom which is freedom from the
bonds of Others. One may be asked whether the human being can be enslaved by the self.
Can a person be both a slave and a slave owner? The answer is in the
affirmative. In the case of animals this may not be true but what about this strange being
called the human being? How is it possible for it to be at the same time a slave and
master? The reason is that the human being is a complex creature and that is a fact which
has been confined by religion and philosophy by scientists and psychologists and about
which no doubt exists.
38 (15:29) It is not necessary to know what this divine spirit means
but it is enough to know that this earthly being is granted something else which is
unearthly. According to a Tradition, the Prophet says that God created angels and granted
them only intelligence. He created animals and gave them only appetites and He created man
and granted him both intelligence and appetite; an utterance of the Prophet that has been
used in a poem by Rumi.
Now, besides these verses of the Qur'an and Traditions and what has
been affirmed by philosophers and psychologists, what does spiritual freedom consist of in
simple language We will begin with something which everyone would understand. Undoubtedly
we need food to live and the more of it the better, and we need clothing and the finer the
better and we require a dwelling and the more magnificent the better. We desire wives and
children, luxury, money and material things. But at one point we may reach a cross-road
where we should keep our honour and nobility and at the same time put up with poverty, eat
dry bread, wear shabby clothes, live in a poor hut and have no money and be distressed. If
we ignore our honour and nobility and submit to abjection, then all material benefits will
be provided for us. We see that many people are not willing to suffer abasement for the
sake of material things while others readily accept this exchange, even though they and
their consciences are ashamed of themselves.
In the Gulistan Sa'di describes two brothers, one of whom was rich and
the other poor. The former was in the service of the government and the latter was tin
ordinary worker who secured a livelihood by manual labour, One day the rich brother said
to his poor brother, "Why don't you accept government service, to be delivered from
hardship and distress?" The poor brother answered, "Why don't you work to be
delivered from abjection?"
That kind of service with its accompanying wealth means lack of
freedom, for, it involves bowing to others and being humbled. Sa'di Foes on to say that
according to the wise, sitting down to eat your own bread is far better than wearing a
golden belt and standing to serve others.
You may be well-versed about this subject but I wish you to analyse it
from a psychological point of view. What feeling makes the human being prefer pain and
hardship, labour anti poverty to humbling himself. or herself before others? He calls it
captivity to serve others though it is not of the type of material slavery. It is not his
or her strength that is enslaved but the spirit is attributed to Ali, peace be upon him,
saying, "If you desire to live freely, labour like a slave, work and suffer pain and
shut your eyes from Adam's offspring whoever they may be, even from Hatam Ta'i (a heroic
figure famous for his generosity in pre-Islamic Arabia). So have no expectation not only
from mean people but also from the generous."
He goes on to say that when a job is offered to someone, that person
considers it below his or her dignity to accept it. He or she thinks every kind of manual
labour as mean. But Ali, peace be upon him, believes that every kind of' work and labour
is better than extending your hand before others begging for something. He says,
"Nothing is worse than going to others to beg for something."
Having no need of others means being superior to them. Once I came
across a remark of the poet Hafiz, who was an extraordinarily eloquent man and had a deep
respect for Ali, peace be upon him. He quotes nine sayings of his which are relevant to
our discussion, one of which is, "You may be in need but remember that if you have
need of someone, you still turn yourself into his slave. But if you do away with that
need, you will be his equal and if you show benevolence to someone, you will be his
master,". So you see that your need makes you someone's slave.
What kind of slavery? Slavery of spirit. These sayings are fine but
today they are disregarded since mankind prefers to discuss other problems and pays little
attention to ethical ones. Again Ali, peace be upon him, says, "Greed means perpetual
slavery." Thus he considers greed worse than slavery. So then, spiritual slavery is
mentioned as something worse than physical slavery. There is also slavery to wealth
against which all moralists have warned mankind.
Another saying of Ali is, "The world is a passage not a
residence." Again he says, "There are two groups of people in the world."
He continues, "One of these two groups come and sell and enslave themselves and go
and the others come and buy their freedom and go." 42 these two attitudes can also be
applied to wealth, either to be a slave of wealth or free from it. A person should say
that as he or she must not be a slave to riches, he or she should say, "I am a human
being. Why should I make myself a slave of inanimate things like gold and silver, land and
other things?"
But the truth is that when a person thinks the self to be a slave of
wealth, that person is in fact a slave to his or her mental characteristics, a slave to
greed and one's animal nature. For inanimate things like money, land, machine and even
animals have no power to enslave that person. When one panders deeply over this matter,
one finds the source of slavery to lie in one's own peculiarities such as greed, lust,
anger and carnal desires.
The Qur'an says, "Have you noticed someone who has made his
cardinal desires his God?" Wealth itself is not to blame when a person is warned
against his or her own desires. Thus if one liberates oneself from the bond of one's
wicked desires, one will realise that one is not at the service of wealth.
It is then that one finds one's own true worth and understands the
significance of this verse of the Qur'an, "All we have created on the Earth is for
you". Thus riches are at the service of the human being and not vice versa. If. so,
then, envy and avarice have no meaning and if one engages in them, one is enslaving
oneself. There are two stages for the human being: A lower, animal stage and a higher,
human one.
The Prophets are sent to preserve the spiritual freedom of humanity.
What does that mean? It means preventing human honour, humanity, intelligence and
conscience from being subjugated to its own lust, passion and love of profits. If you
overcome your passion, you are free. If you conquer your lust and not vice versa, you are
free. If you are in a position to gain an illegitimate profit, but your faith and
conscience and intelligence forbid you to do so, you have overcome your desire and then
you can say that you are really spiritually free.
If you see a woman, but you check your lustful desires and obey your
conscience, then you are a free human being. But if your eyes, ears, and stomach incite
you to satisfy them by whatever means, then you are their slave. The human being is ruled
by two types of ego: An animal ego and a human one. This fact and this contrast are well
illustrated by Rumi in a story of Majnun (in eastern literature, Majnun is the equivalent
of Romeo and Laila is the equivalent of Juliet) and the camel.
The story goes that Majnun was riding a camel intending to visit
Laila's home. The camel happened to have a baby camel and Majnun ,in order to ride faster
to his destination, confined the baby camel to the house. He was deep in thought about his
Beloved while the camel was worried about its young. Every moment Majnun absentmindedly
let the reins loose, the camel turned back towards home. This was repeated several times
until the camel collapsed. The poet digresses to say that the human being has two kinds of
inclinations: that of the spirit and that of the body.
If you wish to be free in spirit, you cannot be a glutton, a
woman-worshipper, a money-lover, a lustful person of passion. I have come across a
narrative in the Nahj ul Balagha which says that one day the Prophet went among the
Companions (the ansar who were the poor followers of the Prophet in Medina who had
migrated there. The Prophet first let them stay in a mosque, but a divine command was
issued to him to find another home for them since a mosque was not a proper place to live
in and they obeyed the order. Subsequently, they lived in a large shelter near the
mosque), One of them said to the Prophet, "I feel as if the whole world is worthless
in my eyes." He did not mean that he made a similar use of stones and gold but that
neither of them had the power to attract him. The Prophet looked at him and said, "
Now I can say that you are free." Thus we can say that spiritual freedom is in itself
something real.
We can give other reasons to show that the human being's personality is
complex and that one can either be spiritually free or a slave. God Almighty has granted
this power to a person to be one's own judge. In society, a judge stands apart from the
plaintiff and defendant. Have you ever heard a person to be his own plaintiff and
defendant and judge, all at the same time?
A person is called just. What is a just human being? Does it not mean
that a person can judge impartially one's own problems and issue a verdict against one
when guilty? Does this not show the complex nature the human being? Many a time you have
seen people will judge fairly about themselves and prefer the rights of others to their
own. The late Sayyid Husain Kuh Kamari who was a great religious authority with a
following and an uncle o the late Ayatullah Hujjat Kuh Kamari who was our teacher was such
a man. It is narrated about him that he had theological class in Najaf which had not yet
won the reputation it had later on, especially as his stay in Najaf had not been long for
he had been in the habit of travelling here and there to benefit from the teachings of the
great masters in various towns such as Mashhad, Isfahan and Kashan.
The late Shaykh Ansari who was dressed poorly and whose eyes suffered
from trachoma happened to teach in the same mosque as Sayyid Husain, each in turn, the
Shaykh first and Sayyid Husain next, without meeting each other. One day the latter
happened to arrive an hour earlier than usual. As there was no time to go home and come
back, he thought he would wait there for his pupils to arrive. He noticed a peculiar
looking Shaykh sitting there teaching two or three fellows. He sat in a corner and could
hear the Shaykh's words. He found them to be profound and wise. It was a strange
experience for a great scholar like him to meet an unknown but erudite teacher. He decided
to go earlier to the mosque once more to see how things went. The second visit proved to
be as beneficial as the first and he found the Shaykh very learned and in fact more of a
scholar than himself. On repeating the experience for the third time, he was fully
convinced of the man's profound knowledge. So he decided to join the small class and when
his own pupils arrived, he said to them, "I have news for you. That Shaykh is much
more learned than I am as I have discovered and I advise you to accompany me to join his
class." They arose together and attended the Shaykh's class.
What is the implication of such fairness? Sayyid Husain turned himself
into a pupil of Ansari and gave up his claim to being an authority. He must have felt, as
we do, what respect and mastership are and must have been pleased at being an authority.
And yet his noble and free spirit allowed him to judge fairly between himself and that
man, and issue a verdict against himself. This is proof of the human being's complex
personality. A person commits a sin and then blames the self. What is this prick of
conscience? Exploiting governments train individuals in such a way as to kill their
conscience . And yet when that conscience is supposed to be dead, a small light is noticed
to scatter its beams at its proper time. The pilot of the plane who bombed Hiroshima was
actually trained for such a crime but when he dropped his bomb and saw the city burning
and the innocent men and women and children who had no connection with war, being
annihilated, he felt spiritually sick. In America they gave him a fine welcome but they
could not check that torture of conscience which led him eventually to a lunatic asylum.
The Qur'an says, "Nay, I swear by the Self-reproaching soul... '' 45 (7 5:2)·
Ali, peace be upon him, says, "He who is not granted a preacher
within himself by God, will not be affected by other's preaching."46Do not deceive
yourself into thinking that you will be influenced by others if you are not influenced by
your own conscience. One of our religious injunctions is to judge ourselves and issue a
verdict against ourselves when necessary. "Call yourself to account before you are
called to account."47"Weigh yourself before you are weighed for your deeds on
the Day of Resurrection."48 All these show the human being's complex personality
which has a lower animal side and higher human side. Spiritual freedom means that the
higher side is free from the lower one.
In connection with self-punishment, I remember a case related to Hazrat
Ali. A man came to him to repent, supposing that by saying the sentence of repentance,
everything would be allright. Ali reprimanded him sharply by saying, "May your mother
mourn for you. Do you know what repentance means? It is very much higher than saying a
sentence." Then he told the man that repentance is based on several -things: Two
principles, two conditions of acceptance and two conditions of completion. That is, a
total of six points.
He then explained this by saying, "the first principle is that one
should be truly penitent of one's past wicked deeds. The second is to decide never to
commit that sin in the future. The third is to grant people their right if one owes it to
them. The fourth is to perform the obligatory devotions which one may have forsaken."
The last two points, Ali, peace be upon him, mentioned are most relevant to my discourse.
They are: Fifthly, to melt down the flesh that is grown on you by lustfulness through
sorrow and constant grief; and lastly, to give this body which has in the past been
addicted to the pleasure of sin, the pain of worship and devotion.
Have there been people in the past who have reached this stage? Yes.
There have. Today we may forget that repentance exists. But we can cite a fine example of
it by mentioning Mulla Husain Quli Hamadani who was a great moralist of modem times and a
pupil of the great religious scholars, the later Mirza Shirazi and Shaykh Ansari. A sinful
man goes to him to be guided. When the man came back after a few days, he could hardly be
recognised due to his extraordinary leanness. The Mulla used neither a whip nor a weapon
nor a threat. But he could offer true spiritual guidance, lie managed to awaken that man's
conscience to fight his lust and passion.
The most significant program of the prophets is to provide spiritual
freedom. Self-purification is in fact spiritual freedom, The Qur'an says, "Prosperous
is he who purifies it and failed has he who seduces it. " (91:9-10)
The greatest damage of our time is speaking of freedom and confining it
to social freedom. Spiritual freedom is never spoken of and, in consequence social freedom
is not secured. A great crime is committed in our time in the form of philosophy and
philosophical schools totally ignoring the human being, its personality, spiritual honour
and God's revelation. "I breathed into him of My Spirit," is quite forgotten.
They deny that the human being has two aspects, an animal side and a human one. They claim
that the human being is no different from animals and is subject to the survival of the
fittest. This means that each individual's effort is for his or her own interests. Can you
imagine how much damage this attitude has done to humanity? They say that life is a battle
and the world a battlefield. They also say that a right is what one seizes, not what one
grants. But the truth is that a right must both be taken and given, and not only something
which is snatched by force.
The prophets did not come to make such a statement that a right must be
seized by force. They came to persuade the oppressed to secure their rights. They also
compelled the oppressor to rise against their evil deeds and grant others their rights.
In conclusion I pray God to liberate us all from our carnal desires as
he has done for truly generous beings; and to grant us social freedom and blessings in
this and the next world; to acquaint us with the facts of Islam; to meet our legitimate
needs and to grant salvation to our deceased ones.
