Introduction

Introduction

In the name of God, the Abundantly Merciful, the Intensely Merciful

Praise be to God. May God’s prayers be upon Muhammad and his family, the infallible ones. And may the prayers of God be upon the Blessed End, the Light of God, and His Proof (Hujjah)^[2] on His earth; may my soul be ransomed for him.

The Almighty said: {[13] On the [same] Day the hypocrite men and hypocrite women will say to those who believed, "Wait for us that we may acquire some of your light," and it will be said, "Go back behind you and seek light." A wall will be placed between them with a door; its interior side will contain mercy, but on its outside is torment. [14] The hypocrites will call to the believers, "Were we not with you?" They will say, "Yes, but you afflicted yourselves and awaited [misfortune for us] and doubted, and wishful thinking deluded you until the command of God came. And the Deceiver deceived you concerning God. [15] So today, no ransom will be taken from you or from those who disbelieved. Your refuge is the fire. It is most worthy of you, and wretched is the destination.”}^[3]

In the stories of previous prophets and the nations that sometimes followed them but at other times followed the Samiris, occasionally supporting the prophets but often failing them and supporting tyrants instead, there is a moral for those who consider and a reminder for those who reflect.

To comprehend what became of the Prince of Believers and his infallible sons^[4] requires researching these stories. Examining those stories that take place from the time leading up to and following the death of the Prophet helps. The events include the displacement of his successor^℗[5], the seizing of his authority, and the tragedies these events brought to this Islamic community after the Prophet’s death^℗.

Even today, the Islamic community continues to experience suffering as a result of these afflictions.

The Prince of Believers and his infallible sons suffered at the hands of the tyrants who seized the helm of governance with oppressive force. They also suffered from the leaders of misguidance–the Samiris–who were always trying to distort the jurisprudence of the Muslims and degrade them.

Therefore, I, the one who is poor [before God], whose work is meager and missteps many, decided to present this research so that it may serve as a shield for some believers to avoid falling into the abyss.^[6] An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the only remedy for siding with the Sufyani or the clerics of evil who will fight the Mahdi^℗ is drinking scalding water and being chained in hellfire. This book may motivate some believers to prepare the proper foundation to establish the state of justice on the earth, based on the belief that “there is no deity but God,” the state of truth and justice of the Mahdi^℗ at a time when worldwide injustice prevails. The American tyrant is stifling the weak nations day after day and leading the people of the earth toward the abyss. As for the tyrants who control the Islamic communities, if they are not slaves to these tyrants, the likes of whom humankind has never seen before on the earth, then they join him in worshipping Satan. The Muslim nations, which are the weakest in the world, suffer from two issues:

First: the hammers of the tyrant America,^[7] as well as the tyrants dominating the Muslim nations.

Second: the tyrants that typically exist inside an Islamic framework; the dysfunctional clerics who claim to represent Islam. These clerics have marginalized Islamic communities and obtained many followers, to whom they teach passivity, submission, and surrendering to tyrants, all of which leads to repression, hunger, and humiliation. Inside and outside the Islamic communities, the war is continuous. A disbelieving enemy is incessantly striking from the outside, and a hypocrite is plaguing from the inside. From the outside, we have the Pharaoh or Pilate, and from the inside, we have the Samiri, or the dysfunctional clerics of the Children of Israel.

From one side, a tyrant is waging a relentless war on the religion of Islam. A television channel presents verses from the Holy Quran; a few minutes later, the channel displays songs, images of semi-naked women, and TV series aimed at dismantling the Islamic societal structure. You could say that all that is left to do is to shave the beard and elongate the mustache, as the Magi did in ancient times.^[8] This is Islam, according to them! They kill the believers who say, “There is no deity except God,” imprison their women, and demolish their homes! The greatest catastrophe is that some of the oppressors claim to be Arabs and carry out their injustices, such as attacking and raping women and filling their prisons with women and children, in the name of Arabism.

The truth is that the Arab man is honorable. If he fights, he fights men, not women. So, to what type of Arabism do those gypsies-the remnants of the Mongols and Tartars-lay claim? They have darkened the face of mankind and committed crimes and scandals of which even Pharaoh and Nimrod (may God curse them), who lived at the time of Moses and Abraham, would be ashamed.

From the other side, the Samiri (dysfunctional cleric)^[9] attempts to distort Islam’s jurisprudence, neglecting the obligation to command good and forbid evil. He does not strive in the way of God through words or actions, even when he can. He pretends to forget that the Messenger of God^℗ said, “You are to command good and forbid evil, or the worst of you will be empowered against the rest of you. The best of you will then pray, and your prayers will not be answered.”^[10]

Is anyone more evil than the tyrants who are oppressing the Islamic communities today? The results of such oppression exist, so precursors to it must have existed, and they continue to exist today. The reason for the tyrannical authority over Islamic societies today is that these societies followed the dysfunctional clerics’ footsteps by abandoning their responsibility to command good and forbid evil. They have abandoned this obligation because the dysfunctional clerics abandoned it: “If the cleric is corrupt, the world is corrupt.” Subservience, submission, and giving in to the tyrant and the love of this world, love of life, and an unnatural fear of death are deeply rooted in the souls of many Muslims today. These Muslims are beginning to think that a humiliating life is better than an honorable death. So, just like that, humans degrade themselves and subvert the standards of Islam with these dissident thoughts. It is Satan's (may God curse him) ultimate desire for the weak Islamic communities to remain immobile between the hammer and the anvil; for example, between the Pharaoh and the Samiri. These weaker communities are stuck between a tyrant, corrupting, killing, and looting, and a dysfunctional cleric who avoids commanding good and forbidding evil. Behind the curtain, the fingers of the American tyrant move the strings left and right, leaving no remnant of Islam but its name.

The obligation of today’s clerics is to reform the Islamic communities. They must bear the weight of the message they have undertaken. Do you, students of religious studies and clerics of Islam, both Shia and Sunni, believe that you are only expected to obtain rational, conveyed knowledge without applying it or commanding good and forbidding evil, even though part of your obligation is to reform the Muslim communities, warn their people, and be prepared to sacrifice everything to strive in the way of God?

If that is what you believe, then I am telling you the truth: You are wrong.

It is not difficult to acquire rational knowledge that is conveyed to you. However, giving your food to a captive, a stranded traveler, and a destitute person, like Imam Ali did, is a difficult task. Living your life for the sake of making others happy and getting rid of unfairness and injustice is difficult. Giving to others in God’s way, as Imam Hussain^℗ did, is truly difficult.

Peace be upon you, O father of Abdullah. May my parents be of service to you. You have given up everything, including the infant and women who were with you.^[11] You left no excuse for the apathetic ones.

If you do not go further than acquiring knowledge and performing your own worship, you are giving the tyrants everything they desire: to turn you into servants, not clerics. The term “servant” cannot be dissociated from the cleric who does not carry out his duty to command good and forbid evil. The infallible ones^℗ have said that the cleric is better than seventy servants because he is occupied with the salvation of the people, whereas the servant is occupied with his own salvation. Imam Al-Sadiq^℗ said, “Narrating our words that strengthen hearts is better than a thousand worshippers.”^[12]

The Almighty said: {A company from every group should go forth to obtain understanding of the religion. Then they can warn their people when they return to them, so they might be cautious}^[13] to warn their people, not to fall asleep or warn one or two individuals. O people, if your concern is saving yourselves, do not say that you are religious students or clerics, and do not wear the clothes they wear to deceive people. Do not be a wolf in sheep’s clothing as many are today. This is not the place for requesting the temporal world or fulfilling desires, but rather for bearing the weight of the message of the prophets and infallible ones^℗, so be cautious. Otherwise, you will lose this world and the hereafter.

Jesus^℗ said, “The clerics of evil are like a rock that falls on the mouth of a river. The rock does not drink, nor does it allow water to reach the plants.”^[14]

In 1971, when Sayyed Al-Khomeini (may God have mercy on him) was in the Holy City of Najaf, and his students were waiting for him to give a lesson about self-discipline, he began by saying, “I feel an obligation on some occasions to remind the gentlemen here about the disasters that befell the Muslims . . .” He then said, “Now you want me to talk about ethics? We will never be ethical unless we think about these circumstances. If we had been ethical, we would have considered them.”

So I say to the dysfunctional clerics: Compare your actions to the conduct of the prophets and messengers. Praise be to God, there are enough of their^℗ stories in the Quran before us today that will confirm the drastic difference between your life and theirs. So, either follow the path of the prophets and messengers, or step aside so that you do not become obstacles on the path to reaching God, similar to what the Prince of Believers^℗ said, “I say to you what Jesus^℗ said to the arrogant and dysfunctional Jewish clerics: [13] ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.’”^[15]

Wake up before your soul reaps what it has sown and perishes; wake up before the day comes when you say, “How great is our regret over what we neglected regarding God.”

The roots of Islam and the Muslims are being annihilated today, and you want me to talk about self-discipline?

Wake up before the sword of Fatima’s son leaves its sheath, for then you [clerics] will regret your actions that placed you in the opposition’s trenches. Wake up and admit your obscene wrongdoings, as shame is better than entering hellfire.

At the same time, I praise the ascetic clerics who work and strive, whose exterior reflects what is within them, who work day and night to spread justice within the Islamic community through the words, “There is no deity but God”-though they are very few-as Imam Al-Sadiq^℗ has stated.^[16]

God will bless these clerics’ work and make it a source of abundant good, God willing. So do not become weak or tired. God willing, you are the higher ones. Blessed are those known in the heavens but unknown on the earth, despite their abundant work and few possessions. I ask God to make me a servant of those blessed ones and resurrect me with their group-despite my great ignorance and little knowledge and work-by His favor, mercy, and generosity.

I only wanted to reform whatever I could,^[17] begging the Living One who does not die that I am not of those who fear criticism when it comes to God. My support is from God alone. I rely upon Him and turn to Him. He is my supporter and He supports the righteous. I take refuge in God from humiliation in this world and in the hereafter.

I fortify by the Owner of Sovereignty and the Kingdom; I hold fast to the Owner of Ability and Might; I seek help from the Owner of Greatness and Divinity, from all that I fear and am wary of, and by Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Al-Hassan, Al-Hussein, Ali, Muhammad, Jafar, Musa, Ali, Muhammad, Ali, Al-Hassan and Muhammad^℗. Praise be to God alone.

In the name of God, the Abundantly Merciful, the Intensely Merciful {[10] [Mention] when your Lord called Moses, [saying], "Go to the wrongdoing people– [11] The people of Pharaoh. Will they not fear God?" [12] [Moses] said, “My Lord, I fear that they will deny me, [13] and that my breast will tighten, and my tongue will not be fluent, so send for Aaron. [14] They have upon me a [claim due to] sin, so I fear that they will kill me." [15] [God] said, "No. Go both of you with Our signs; We are with you, listening.}^[18]