On the holy birthday anniversary of Imam Husain, peace be upon him, last Monday I
began a discourse saying that anyone who possessed a lofty spirit must suffer physical
discomfort while only those who have loose spirits live in comfort, sleep soundly and
enjoy delicious dishes and other benefits.
Tonight, I wish to discuss the greatness and nobility of the spirit and
show the differences between the two. Greatness of spirit is one thing but nobility is a
higher quality. In other words, every greatness is not nobility but every nobility is also
greatness.
Determination is obviously a sign of greatness of the spirit and there
are different levels of determination. One person is content to secure a diploma while
another knows no limit to the pursuit of knowledge, and his aim is to make the utmost use
of his life and gain as much knowledge as he can.
You may have heard the well-known story of Abu Rayhan Biruni, a man
whose true worth according to scholars, is not quite known. He was so extraordinary a
mathematician, sociologists and historian that he is considered by some to be superior to
Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna).
These two were contemporaries. Abu Rayhan was in love with knowledge,
research and discoveries. Sultan Mahmud summoned him to attend his court and he had to
obey the call. He accompanied the King in his conquest of India and found a great treasure
of knowledge in that country. But he did not know Sanskrit, so he began learning it.
Inspite of his old age, he learned it to a very high degree and after many years of study,
he produced a book called Tahqiq mal al-Hind min maqulihi marzulah fi al-aql wa maqbulat
which is a very valuable source of reference for the Indianologists of the world.
He was on his death bed when a jurisprudent neighbour of his, learning
of his serious illness, went to visit him. Abu Rayhan was still conscious and, in seeing
the jurisprudent, asked him a question of jurisprudence concerning inheritance or some
other issue. The jurisprudent was amazed that a dying man should show interest in such
matters. Abu Rayhan said, "I should like to ask you which is better, to die with
knowledge or without it?" The man said, "Of course it is better to know and
die." Abu Rayhan said, "'?hat is why I asked my first question." Shortly
after the jurisprudent reached home, the cries of lamentation told him that Abu Rayhan had
died. This shows his determination even at the moments of death.
One person is great in gathering wealth, for example, while others show
no such endeavours and are content with earning a simple livelihood by whatever means they
can, whether it is by serving others or begging or submitting to abasement. Are those two
types of effort equal? Not at all.
Sometimes you see the people who lack the resolution to get rich,
simply because they are weak and others scorn and laugh at them. They recite verses of the
Qur'an about asceticism, based on fallacious reasoning. But they are wrong. The person who
pursues the amassing of wealth, with all his misery, with all his devotion to the world,
is still better than those having a weak determination or no determination, who resemble
beggars and thus, he has more character. This person is not blameworthy before him.
These persons can be considered blameworthy only before a real ascetic
who himself is a man of determination. Like Ali, peace be upon him, he, can gather riches,
not because of his own needs, but to spend on others and help the needy. He is in a
position to reproach another for whom storing and hiding riches have become a goal, not a
means.
Similarly, one may seek high rank and position. Alexander the Great was
such a man who desired to rule the world. He is a superior to a man who lives in servility
and has no determination for feelings of nobility. Nadir Shah is another example of
high-mindedness. These men have great spirits but it cannot be said that they have noble
spirits. Alexander is an example of a great ambition, and his greatness has developed only
in one direction, in ambition, fame and influence, in being the most powerful man in the
world. His spirit is noble only to that extent. But did he experience any ease and
comfort? Could Nadir have had an easy life with his tyranny, and his building of minarets
with the skulls of those he had killed, the man who pulled men's eyes out of their
sockets, the man who was madly ambitious? He had no time sometimes to take off his boots
for ten days. A story is told about him that in a very severe winter night he reached a
caravanserai by himself.
The keeper was awakened by a loud knock, and when he opened the gate he
saw a burly-looking man riding a big horse. He asked the keeper what food he had, and the
latter said he only had eggs. He was sharply ordered to fry the eggs and bring it with
some bread for him and some fodder and barley for his horse. The keeper did so and the man
rested there an hour or two and after grooming his horse, he threw some gold coins on to
the keeper's lap and said, "Very soon a column of soldiers will reach here. Tell them
Nadir has gone in that direction and they must follow at once." On hearing the name
of Nadir, the keeper was so frightened that he let the coins fall down. Nadir ordered him
to go on the roof and shout to the soldiers on their arrival not to linger a moment but to
follow him speedily. The men grumbled when they heard the message but none of them dared
to stay a minute to refresh himself.
One may become a Nadir, but he can never enjoy a comfortable bed, fine
food and hundreds of other luxuries. His body can never relax. And eventually he will die.
Whoever has great determination, in whatever area it may be, will have no physical ease.
But none of these men possessed noble souls. Their souls were great but were not noble.
Suppose a man to be a great man of learning without any other good quality He has lofty
thoughts about human knowledge. Another is skilful in gathering wealth. Someone else is
full of rancour, envy or ambition. All of them are extremely selfish but none of them is
noble and magnanimous.
The point is that from a psychological and philosophical point of view,
there is another kind of greatness which does not depend on selfishness and which is
called humanity. I have not yet seen how materialists explain away this aspect of the
human being. What makes the human being or, at least, some individuals, have a feeling of
honour in their spirits, something which is beyond and above selfishness? Such a human
being wishes to be noble and great, but not at the expense of another. One's spirit does
not allow one to tell a lie. Nobility is the opposite of baseness and a person avoids
baseness completely
Mussolini the well-known Italian dictator, is reported to have said to
a friend that he preferred to live like a lion for one year, rather than like a sheep for
a hundred years. He insisted that his friend should not quote his words to anyone since
his being a lion must mean that other people are sheep and if other people learned what
Mussolini desired, they, too, would want to be lions in which case the dictator could no
longer remain a lion. There is no nobleness in such an attitude.
But what is a noble person like? It is a person who wants all people to
be lions rather than sheep in the world. The Prophet has said, "I was appointed to
perfect the morality of nobility," not "I was appointed to perfect good
morals." The latter is not the correct meaning. Every innovator of a school claims
that what he teaches is right. Even Nietzche who believes in might and has no compassion
for the weak, considers his school as one of the true ethics. His words mean nobleness not
mastery over others.
Ali, peace be upon him, says to his son, Imam Husain, peace be upon
him, "Uplift your spirit above every mean act and think that your spirit is worthier
than to be polluted by meanness." He advises his son to think himself nobler than to
demean himself by lies or by abasing himself before others. All, peace be upon him, says
that an honourable person never commits adultery and this is irrespective of the fact that
it is forbidden by the divine law and punishable in both worlds.
In the epic of the Nahjul-balagha it is said that in the first
encounter of Ali, peace be upon him, with Mu'awiyyah, in the Battle of Siffin, the Imam
had no desire to fight and wished to settle matters through letters and emissaries. But
when Mu'awiyyah seized the access to the waters of the Euphrates to prevent Ali's army
from reaching it, hoping to inflict defeat on them through lack of water, he wrote a
letter asking Mu'awiyyah to desist from such strategy since fighting had not begun yet and
there was the possibility of reaching an agreement.
Mu'awiyyah refused to forego his advantage and when Ali found that his
insistence was of no avail, he gathered his men and delivered a discourse saying,'' These
people are seeking war like food. If so, do you know what should be done? You are thirsty
and there remains only one way, and that is to quench your swords with their blood in
order to satisfy yourselves. If you die victoriously, you are alive but if you live in
defeat, you are dead."
This is how Ali, peace be upon him, inspired the spirit of nobility and
self-respect in his followers. Ali, peace be upon him, believes that all vices are caused
by the baseness of character. For example, he thinks slandering is the act of a weak
person. A brave person is so noble and magnanimous that he or she expresses the objections
he or she feels for another to that person's face or at least keeps silent. One who is
covetous towards others is making the self contemptuous. One who laments one's misfortune
before others is abasing the self.
Someone came before Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, lamenting his
distress and poverty. The Imam asked an attendant to go and pay him a few dinars. The man
said in apology to the Imam, "I did not intend to ask for anything." The Imam
said, "I did not say that you did but my advice to you is to abstain from narrating
your difficulties before others, for you lose your worth, and Islam does not wish a
believer to be humbled before others."
Ali, peace be upon him, says, "He who describes his helplessness
for others is destroying his self-respect and honour which are the dearest things for a
true believer. And he who lets his carnal desires dominate him is abasing himself."
Ali, peace be upon him, believes that all virtues are due to the nobleness of spirit.
Being truthful, honest, perseverant and avoiding all vices are the result of that
nobleness. Drinking, to give an example, causes drunkenness, even though temporarily
robbing one of reason and reducing one to the level of a stupid animal.
He also says, "I do not base my life on excess." the
teachings of our Gnostics and Sufis have many exalted thoughts. But one of the problems
that Islam suffered through the teachings of the Gnostics and Sufis was that it was
influenced by the teaching of Christianity, Buddhism and Manicheanism. They lost hold of
the correct balance in what they called forgetting the self and killing the self. IT they
had paid attention to Islam, they would have realised that Islam is in favour of
annihilating one aspect of the self and reviving another aspect of it. It advises you to
forget your animal self and strengthen your noble spirit. I have come across the same idea
in the works of the poet-philosopher, Iqbal Lahouri.
Islam believes that one of the divine punishments is that the human
being is brought to forget the self altogether. The Qur'an says, "Be not one of those
who forgot God and so He caused them to forget their souls. " (59: 19)Do you know of
anyone like Ali who called people to renounce the world? Ali did this but at the same time
he emphasised self-respect and magnanimity. He says to his son, Hasan, peace be upon him,
"Do not be the slave of another being. God has created you free. HOW is it that Ali,
peace be upon him, as the most humble man in the world, invites people to regard the self!
This self that he respects is the noble side of mankind.
We have in hand many sayings of this kind belonging to Ali, peace be
upon him, but few quotations from his two sons, a result of the despotic conditions of
their time. But in the books containing the words of Imam Husain, peace be upon him, the
question of narrowness of the spirit is noticed abundantly, particularly his sayings in
the last moments before his martyrdom, blaming those who had sold themselves to tyrants.62
He says, "If you are not religious and do not fear the Resurrection, at least be free
men in your world."b3In his discourse in Mecca, he says that his spirit does not
allow him to live and see such corrupt conditions, let alone be a part of it.
Again he says, "Verily I consider death to be nothing but felicity
and life with these tyrants to be anything but misery." By this he means that it is
an honour for him not to be amongst such people who bring nothing but weariness and sorrow
to his soul.
To those who advised him to abandon his fight against tyrants, he
quoted the sentence of one of the Prophet's friends, said as an answer to his cousin who
wished to prevent him from fighting. The sentence is, "No. I will go forth. Death is
no disgrace but honour for a free man whose intention is to follow the right path and
fight a holy war. Death in aiding the good and opposing the wicked is an honor." He
continues saying," You who forbid me this humility is enough for you to live in
abjection. Do you not see that they do not act according to what is right and no one
forbids all this corruption?" Again he says, "A believer must seek death".
When it was reported to Ali that Mu'awiyyah's army had plundered the town of Ambar, and
seized the earnings of a Muslim woman, he says, "By God, if a Muslim dies in sorrow
for such a happening, he is not blameworthy."
On the day of his martyrdom (the 10th of Muharram), Imam Husain, peace
be upon him, gives this answer to the messenger of Ibn Ziad who was demanding allegiance,
"I will never offer my hand in humiliation nor confess like a slave (that I have been
in error." Even in his last moments of fighting when all his relatives and companions
died and he himself , in facing death, and his household is in danger of capture, he
continues to declare his exalted goal of nobility and freedom.
Thus we see that all great men are not noble but all noble ones are
great. 69About Imam Husain, peace be upon him, we must say that he was great in his good
deeds, his indifference to wealth, his endeavours in enjoining to good and forbidding the
wrong, in his lack of ambition and vengefulness, in his insistence on prayer and communion
with God and in his revival of the noble self in fighting for God and the truth. I pray
God to grant us such spirits of nobleness and to give us the awareness of our destiny.
