Summary of Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani’s Jurisprudential Class 87/12/14

Ayatollah Nuri Hamedani

In this session the Ayatollah discusses the Nahj al-Balaghah and the principles of the ‘Alawi government, its importance, and examples of governance.

The first principle that is mentioned was taking precision in dealing with the public treasury. This was already discussed.

The second principle is that the Islamic leader must live in the same class level as the indigent people of the society.

There are a few points that were discussed regarding indigent people:

First: It is an Islamic command to like indigent people. We must be aware of their pains and must show compassion for them. There are many traditions that state that we must love the impoverished and this is extremely important for the scholars.

There is an ethical point to this as well: when one sits with poor people and compares his life to theirs he will become optimistic about his life. The opposite is true with sitting and socializing with rich people.

Second: Sitting and socializing with poor people.

Third: The Islamic leader must live as a poor person. Not being attached to the world is of utmost importance. The Prophet (s) told Imam Ali (a): “O’ Ali! Allah has adorned you with a beauty and no other servant has been adorned with a beauty that Allah loves more than this. Your beauty is not being attached to the world and love for the impoverished while the impoverished love you.”

The 160^th sermon of Nahj al-Balaghah is a sermon where Imam Ali (a) describes the characteristics of the prophets including Prophet Muhammad (s). At the end of the sermon it states: “By Allah, I have been putting patches in my shirts so much that now I feel shy of the patcher. Someone asked me whether I would not put it off, but I said, “Get away from me.” Only in the morning do people (realised the advantage of and) speak highly of the night journey.”

There is a tradition from Imam Baqir (a) which states that Imam Ali ruled the government for five years but did not leave anything as inheritance due to poverty.

A person who has a social position in the society and is attached to the world, from the Islamic point of view, would not be able to perform his duties. This is something that is necessary for scholars as well. The Prophet (s) said that a person who gains knowledge but whose attachment to the world does not lesson to that same degree will distance himself from Allah.

This sermon has many interesting topics in it. The beginning of it is about tawhid and was read because it is good to read the words of the Imams. This part of the sermon states:

O’ my Allah! Praise be to Thee for what Thou takest and givest and for that from which Thou curest or with which Thou afflictest; praise which is the most acceptable to Thee, the most like by Thee and the most dignified before Thee; praise which fills all Thy creation and reaches where Thou desirest; praise which is not veiled from Thee and does not end, and whose continuity does not cease.

We do not know the reality of Thy greatness except that we know that thou art Ever-living and Self-subsisting by Whom all things subsist. Drowsiness or sleep do not overtake Thee, vision does not reach Thee and sight does not grasp Thee. Thou seest the eyes and countest the ages. Thou holdest (people as slaves) by foreheads and feet. We see Thy creation and wonder over it because of Thy might, and describe it as (a result of) Thy great authority; whereas what is hidden from us, of which our sight has fallen short, which our intelligence has not attained, and between which and ourselves curtains of the unknown have been cast, is far greater.

He who frees his heart (from all other engagements) and exerts his thinking in order to know how Thou established Thy throne, how Thou created Thy creatures, how Thou suspended the air in Thy skies and how Thou spread Thy earth on the waves of water, his eyes would return tired, his intelligence defeated, his ears eager and his thinking awander.

It is interesting that at the beginning Imam Ali speaks about the greatness of the world and then he speaks about not being attached to it. The Ayatollah mentioned that when he was younger he studied a little about the universe. He said that there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the world and that in each galaxy there are over 100 billion stars. If you multiply this number you would get 10,000,000,000,000,000 stars. This shows the greatness and enormity of the universe.

Summary of Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani’s Jurisprudential Class 87/12/13

Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani

The discussion is the defense section of the book of Jihad.

If any Islamic country, society, or center is attacked by the enemies it is incumbent upon all Muslims to defend it. This is backed up by the 194^th verse of Surah Baqarah:

فَمَنِ اعْتَدَى عَلَيْكُمْ فَاعْتَدُواْ عَلَيْهِ بِمِثْلِ مَا اعْتَدَى عَلَيْكُمْ

The difference between a defensive jihad and other jihads is:

There is no doubt that this jihad is not conditioned upon the presence of an infallible imam or his representative. Everyone must participate in this form of jihad – even women and the elderly.

The author of Jawahir has mentioned this in the 21^st volume, page 19. He stated the four sources of derivation dictate that all Muslims must defend an Islamic country that is being attacked.

In books of jurisprudence the only form of attack that is mentioned is a military attack. But, there are other forms of attacks – for instance a cultural attack, a political attack, and an economical attack. The oppressive governments realized that these non-military attacks have more of an effect – they change a nation’s politics to suit their own benefits.

These three forms of attacks are not mentioned in books of jurisprudence but they must be discussed in the Islamic seminary of Qom. The reason for this is that our religion is a religion for all times and must give answers for every situation.

This is a discussion that has not been discussed so we must ponder over how we would want to research it. The only person who mentioned this discussion is Imam Khomeini who has a chapter in Tahrir called defense. In this chapter 10 rulings are mentioned which point to these three types of attacks.

First we must define what is meant by a cultural attack. A cultural attack is when oppressive super powers try to change the culture of a society to be similar to their own.

Every nation has a culture; even nations which worship cattle have culture – their culture shows respect for cows, for instance. The west has a culture; its culture is a communistic culture where humans are put first and God or religion is placed on the back-burner – if it is on the stove at all. An example of this is when the west culturally attacked Iran before the revolution. All of the books of the universities, for example, were western books. Anyone who followed what the west said was enlightened and considered elite whereas anyone who opposed them was considered as being backwards.

Imam Khomeini stated that Muslims must speak out against this form of attack. They must be aware and must not allow a foreign nation to control them. We must recognize our battlefields because Islam has battlefields where it does not allow its enemies to influence Muslims.

The first battlefield which was discussed was the principle of negating a path. This religiously forbids any disbeliever to overpower a Muslim.

The second battlefield which was discussed was the verses of the Quran which do not allow one to take a disbeliever as a guardian.

In this battlefield there are a few discussions:

1. Recognizing the enemy
2. Defining taking the enemy as a guardian
3. The dangers that the Quran mentions of taking the enemy as a guardian

There are a three dimensions to the discussion of recognizing the enemies of Islam. They are:

1. Listing the enemies mentioned in the Quran
2. The plans of the enemies mentioned in the Quran
3. The methods of protecting oneself from these plans mentioned in the Quran

Allamah Tabatabai mentioned in his Tafsir al-Mizan numerous times that there is nothing more emphasized than not taking the enemy as guardians and not practicing usury – these are even more emphasized than adultery.

The Quran mentions three types of Enemies:

1. Disbelievers mentioned in the 101^st verse of Surah Nisa:

إِنَّ الْكَافِرِينَ كَانُواْ لَكُمْ عَدُوًّا مُّبِينًا

2. Jews mentioned in the 82^nd verse of Surah Ma’idah:

لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ عَدَاوَةً لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ الْيَهُودَ

The Zionists are probably meant by this verse – those who consider themselves superior to all others.

3. Hypocrites mentioned in the 4^th verse of Surah Munafiqun:

هُمُ الْعَدُوُّ فَاحْذَرْهُمْ

Summary of Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani’s Jurisprudential Class 21/11/87

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The discussion was about the principle of negating the path. This principle is the base of not giving the disbelievers a path or a way to control and be on top of Muslims in any way; be it politically, economically, militarily, or culturally.

Any law that would necessitate a disbeliever to be placed over a believer would be in opposition to this principle.

In the previous session, there was a discussion about what Shaykh Ansari mentioned in Makasib, in the volumes of business transactions, after mentioning the governance of the jurist. He mentioned that, due to this principle, renting a Muslim slave to a disbeliever is not permissible. He also said that renting a free Muslim to a disbeliever is not permissible.

It is stated that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (a) worked for a Jew and that Fatimah Zahra (a) sowed for a Jew. This is in opposition to this principle and cannot be correct. Look at how much strength in bearing difficulties Imam Ali and Fatimah (a) had. They would even give the food that they saved for breaking their fasts to needy people. So, how would it be that they would work for a Jew like this?

Shaykh Ansari, continuing his previous discussion, stated that if a Muslim slave fell into the hands of a disbeliever (for instance, the disbeliever’s father was a Muslim and owned the slave, then he died leaving the slave in inheritance) he would have to be forced to sell him right away. The religious leader would force him to sell it. Here a question arises: if he does sell the slave without being forced does he have a choice of nullification? In normal business transactions (buying and selling) there is a choice of nullification until the people depart or for animals and slaves up to three days. In all there are 14 reasons where one would have a choice of nullification. The answer is that he would not have such a choice so that he could not become in control of the Muslim once more.

Back to the discussion about the principle:

Is there any other proof for it other than the verse of the Quran (4:115)? There are many verses in the Quran that state the reasons why disbelievers would be in authority over Muslims and the Muslims are ordered to solve all of these problems.

‘Allamah Tabataba’i states in Al-Mizan, under the explanation of the 275^th-281^st verses of Surah Baqarah that two things are emphasized more than anything else in the Quran.

1. Economy (interest) which is emphasized more than any other sin.
2. Tawali with disbelievers.

Tawali means loving or being attracted to believers.