Ramadhan Thoughts - The Supplication of the Opening - Part 3a
This is a short series of discussions on the Holy month of Ramadhan, specifically discussing the Supplication of the Opening (Dua al-Iftitah).
Dedication
This series of posts is dedicated to the heroic children and wider population of both Gaza and Palestine; we pray to God, the Most Sublime that he increases their strength and patience and removes the despots that are committing a genocide against them; and all who support said genocide - in both the East and the West, the North and the South.
We also dedicate this post to the children of the Donbass, who have been under the terrorism of NATO and its Ukrainian Nazi vassal, and, who are now, with the support of Mother Russia and of course the boundless support of God, liberating themselves from their Bandarite oppressors.
In recent days we also see that the Zionist War Machine has started to up the ante in its attacks on the civilian population of Lebanon, desiring to open a full new front in the north of Occupied Palestine in Lebanon. We have seen many martyrs, and we also dedicate this post to the martyrs in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and across the world, who are standing firm against the Satanic Zionist-NATO-US-UK-EU Axis of Terrorism and Empire of Lies.
We pray that God give strength to all these people - both children and adults, to all the righteous ones in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, the Donbass and the Russian Federation (and indeed elsewhere), that He protect them, that He destroy their enemies and their partners in crime, and hasten a new dawn where peace and justice reign supreme and the hypocrites and despots plaguing humanity are destroyed and rendered as cautionary tales in the books of history.
Amen
Introduction
This post continues from the previous two posts building upon what has been discussed there and continuing in our discussion wherein we are attempting to gain some wisdom and enlightenment from the supplication of the Opening - Dua al-Iftitah.
As mentioned previously this supplication is commonly recited during the nights of the month of Ramadhan (but can indeed be recited at anytime) and provides a great deal of food for thought, and helps the sincere and discerning reader, who also reflects upon its profound words and has a desire to gain a greater understanding of themselves as well as gaining a means to get closer to God, helps such a person to become closer to and more aware of God, as well as their duties towards God and humanity as a whole.
In this post we will discuss the 26th stanza, which is - in the opinion of the author - one of the most profound stanzas within this supplication.
As per the process we have followed in the last two posts; we will first provide the Arabic text of the stanza, and then a translation in English; following which we will move onto our discussion.
Before we move on, while certainly these posts can be read in isolation, it is highly recommended that the previous two posts are read prior to reading this post; so as to get the most benefit. While we are not going through each and every stanza of the supplication; and indeed are only covering a very small amount of it, God willing, over the coming years, if He permits and gives us the ability, we will go through other stanzas and attempt to gain more lessons from the wonderful pros found therein.
Stanza #26
Arabic
اَللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَرْغَبُ إِلَيْكَ فِي دَوْلَةٍ كَرِيمَةٍ
تُعِزُّ بِهَا ٱلإِسْلاَمَ وَأَهْلَهُ
وَتُذِلُّ بِهَا ٱلنِّفَاقَ وَأَهْلَهُ
وَتَجْعَلُنَا فِيهَا مِنَ ٱلدُّعَاةِ إِلَىٰ طَاعَتِكَ
وَٱلْقَادَةِ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِكَ
وَتَرْزُقُنَا بِهَا كَرَامَةَ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلآخِرَةِ
English
O God, we ardently desire that You confer upon us an honourable government,
through which You honour Islam and its followers,
(and through which You) humiliate hypocrisy and its people,
And include us among those who invite people to You,
Guiding them towards Your way,
And grant us through that, both the good of this world, and the world to come.
In reality, this is only the first portion of stanza 26, as there is a lot more within the stanza, as it carries with it a number of paragraphs. It is also, possible to suggest that this stanza is connected to earlier stanzas, where the supplicant by way of the supplication beseeches God to support and shower His blessings upon the Awaited Saviour, Imam Mahdi, may our souls be his ransom, and may God hasten his return (from occultation).
Therefore, for the sake of completeness and indeed clarity; I will also include here the stanzas immediately before this, that is stanzas 22 through 25.
However, we will not go into these in great detail, but as mentioned, since stanza 26 arguably builds on the stanzas prior to it, or can be understood, from one perspective, as building upon stanzas 22 through 25, it would be remiss to not include them, if for no other reason than for reference and clarity:
Stanzas 22 to 25
Arabic
اَللَّهُمَّ وَصَلِّ عَلَىٰ وَليِّ أَمْرِكَ
ٱلْقَائِمِ ٱلْمُؤَمَّلِ
وَٱلْعَدْلِ ٱلْمُنْتَظَرِ
وَحُفَّهُ بِمَلائِكَتِكَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبِينَ
وَأَيِّدْهُ بِرُوحِ ٱلْقُدُسِ
يَا رَبَّ ٱلْعَالَمِينَاَللَّهُمَّ ٱجْعَلْهُ ٱلدَّاعِيَ إِلَىٰ كِتَابِكَ
وَٱلْقَائِمَ بِدِينِكَ
ٱسْتَخْلِفْهُ فِي ٱلأَرْضِ
كَمَا ٱسْتَخْلَفْتَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ
مَكِّنْ لَهُ دِينَهُ ٱلَّذِي ٱرْتَضَيْتَهُ لَهُ
أَبْدِلْهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِ أَمْناً
يَعْبُدُكَ لاَ يُشْرِكُ بِكَ شَيْئاًاَللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّهُ وَأَعْزِزْ بِهِ
وَٱنْصُرْهُ وَٱنْتَصِرْ بِهِ
وَٱنْصُرْهُ نَصْراً عَزِيزاً
وَٱفْتَحْ لَهُ فَتْحاً يَسِيراً
وَٱجْعَلْ لَهُ مِنْ لَدُنْكَ سُلْطَاناً نَصِيراًاَللَّهُمَّ أَظْهِرْ بِهِ دِينَكَ وَسُنَّةَ نَبِيِّكَ
حَتَّىٰ لاَ يَسْتَخْفِيَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ
مَخَافَةَ أَحَدٍ مِنَ ٱلْخَلْقِ
English
O God, send blessings to the custodian of Your commandments,
The vigilant guardian and the most reliable patron,
The awaited establisher of Justice.
Surround him with Your best angels
And assist him with the Holy Spirit.
O Lord of the universes!O God, task him (choose him) to be the caller to Your Book
And the establisher of Your faith (religion, ideology, system);
Make him succeed in the earth
As You caused those who came before him to succeed,
Establish for him that faith (religion, ideology, system) which You have approved,
And give him in exchange, safety, after the fear.
(For indeed) He serves You alone, ascribing no partners to You.O God, grant him power and make him the source of power,
Grant him your infinite aid (support), making him the means of Your victory,
And help him with a magnificent help,
Make him prevail over all with ease,
And delegate by (through) him, Your supportive (sublime, most perfect) authority.O God, thereby make prevalent your faith (religion, ideology, system)
and the teachings and manner of Your Prophet through him
Such that no element of the Truth will need to be hidden, for fear of your creatures.
This set of four stanzas, speak exclusively about the Awaited Saviour, the Messiah so to speak, in Islam, we refer to him as the Imam Mahdi, but alongside Imam Mahdi, there is also Jesus, the son of Mary. Both of whom will return at the end of days, working together, to establish justice and equality upon the earth as it is filled with injustice and tyranny.
This is a universal belief - albeit with differing details - amongst the Abrahamic faiths; and indeed within some non-Abrahamic faiths.
Before we proceed, however, it is important to understand the origin of this supplication, who scribed it, who configured it as it is, and where did we get it from? We will now cover this.
Origin of Dua al-Iftitah (the Supplication of the Opening)
This supplication was given to one of the four deputies of the twelfth Imam of the Muslims. Specifically, it was given by Imam Mahdi, to the second deputy named, Muhammad ibn Uthman. But what are these deputies; and who are they? Why did the twelfth Imam of the Muslims have or need deputies. All will become clear momentarily.
The twelfth Imam of the Muslims, Muhammad, the son of Hasan ibn Ali al-Askari, was born in the Iraqi city of Samarrah at a time of great oppression of the Muslims. During the Abbasid Caliphate, which was in reality a hereditary kingdom dressed in the veneer of Islam.
Before we proceed, we need to clarify an important point. Were the so-called ‘caliphates’ actually Islamic governments - i.e. governments that established the religion of God and His instructions, operating as a means to liberate humanity from oppression and tyranny, or were they simply empires or corrupt regimes that presented themselves as ‘Islamic’, merely as a veneer, as a means to garner some sort of legitimacy for themselves?
This is an important point that must be understood, especially in the context of stanza 26, but also from a wider understanding of Islam, and indeed the Abrahamic faiths collectively.
Caliphate or Empire?
While a great many positive developments took place during these so-called ‘caliphates’, these caliphates, or rather regimes, were in fact, not Islamic, even though they presented themselves wearing the veneer of being Islamic.
Having said that, what were they then? And more so what constitutes an ‘Islamic government’? What is a government? Let us examine these points together.
What is a Government?
A government is a system - there are many different types - that are used as means to govern a collective. There are many forms of government, and in his Republic, the classical scholar Plato describes five types of government:
Aristocracy - rule by law and order, like ideal traditional "benevolent" kingdoms that are not tyrannical
Democracy - rule by pure liberty and equality, like a free citizen
Oligarchy - rule by wealth and market-based-ethics, like a free-trading capitalist state
Timocracy - rule by honour and duty, like a "benevolent" military; Sparta as an example
Tyranny - rule by fear, like a despot
While these can describe a part of what a government is, they still do not describe or provide the means by which the legislation, the law, that is implemented, the rules that make such a government either benevolent or tyrannical.
This is important because a government (of any type) has multiple arms that it is made up of, you would have the military, the judiciary, the legislature, the financial, the cultural, the educational, the social and so on.
Multiple facets that combine and work in unison (ideally) to provide a safe, secure and productive environment for the population; ensuring that the rights of the people are safeguarded, and that the realm (region, locality, etc.) is protected from those who wish it harm.
Of course, each of the facets described above themselves have multiple departments within them. For example, the judiciary (or justice system) would be responsible for law and order, and would have the police, the criminal justice system and so on under its authority, but it would not be responsible for deriving the laws themselves; that is the remit of the legislature; the judiciary would be tasked with upholding the laws.
But a question keeps coming to mind when discussing this. If we take the example of the legislature (and extending to the judiciary); we need to understand the source of the law that is upheld by the government.
Where does this law come from? Is it - as some would have you believe - simply a series of rules? Like for example a family might make up in a board game while playing? This is a recipe for chaos, as the more ‘powerful’ or ‘respected’ person within the family, would be able to alter the rules to suite themselves; there by ensuring that they are never falling foul to the laws.
Of course, one would like to believe that this would never happen, and that laws once formulated would be shall we say cast in stone, and would not change based on whims or desires; but this requires infallibility, not only from the people in authority, but also from the position of the people being governed.
So this doesn’t work.
Generally, in the collective West, the laws that are used to govern are built up of historical understandings, some suggest that the origin of the laws that are used to govern societies are built from the Law of Moses and of Jesus the son of Mary, the Judeo-Christian laws; but given that many of the core points of law are found in all societies across the world; it would be fair to say that the origin of such laws is within the innate nature of humanity; that is self-evident.
For example, the notion of murder, of stealing, of lying, of being cruel and so on, these are well understood as vices. Indeed, in common western thought there is the notion of the ‘seven deadly sins’ - whereby certain characteristics; which are mentioned as sins - but a sin is essentially a synonym for a crime (be it against oneself or against another).
The Purpose of the Law
Therefore; since the basis of the law is to safeguard humanity; to ensure the propagation of the human race, to ensure that chaos is never permitted to reign supreme over a society, it would not be unreasonable to say that the basic laws are provided by either ‘nature’ (if one doesn’t as yet understand the concept of a Supreme Omnipotent and Omnipresent Creator - be it called God, Allah, Jehovah, etc.), or by God through His revelations - be they to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Joseph, to Moses, to Jesus, the son of Mary, or to Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace be upon them all.
These laws are baseline principles that a society must adhere to; and they are not mutable at the drop of a hat, or because ‘circumstances look different this afternoon’. Of course, the nuances and details of these laws are able to be ‘tweaked’ to cater for new innovations within a society, new concepts, new understandings and so on; but the core of them remains immutable and unchanging.
For example, the notion of ‘you will not kill’, this is a universal truth, it is a core principle, it does not get nullified because someone is upset at another. It is a constant. Killing is wrong. Yes, when coupled with the idea of justice, of crime and punishment, of sin and retribution; then it can be applied differently.
For example; in a society that implements capital punishment, if a person commits a crime of - for example - murder; then if they are proven guilty - not beyond a ‘reasonable doubt’ - but beyond any doubt and without the witnesses, judge, jury, population, victim’s family being coerced in any way, shape or form; then it is possible that the criminal could be given a death sentence.
However, because God is Merciful, and enjoins mercy upon His creation; there is always the caveat of the victim’s family to take a merciful approach to the murderer; and thereby waiving the death penalty in lieu of something else, for example a number of years of hard labour, or imprisonment, etc.
Indeed, within the law, other stipulations may also be present; such as the notion of blood money (where the criminal is duty bound to pay compensation to the victim’s family - or victim if the case is not that of murder, but of harm or oppression, etc.).
I am trying to use very simplistic examples here for the sake of trying to make things clear and help explain an important point. I am not giving actual laws here; that would be extremely difficult to summarise but I’m giving concepts.
Also, the judiciary has to operate along side the other arms of the government to ensure that the population are not put in a position where they ‘need to commit a crime to merely stay alive’.
If, for example, a government finds that the situation that the people are living in, the cost of living, the quality of life, and so on, is plummeting, and as a result the level of crime is going up; then the priority of the government is not to spend inordinate amounts of the peoples money on external campaigns against ‘their rivals’, or on mythical theories about the world ceasing to be liveable in if because of unproven hypothesis delivered by large corporations and their agents.
Indeed, in such a situation; the immediate duty of the government is to resign, since it has led its people down the proverbial primrose path to destruction; without being attentive and aware of the consequences of going down this proverbial path.
A government is duty bound, as part of the contract is has to govern the people. This applies whether the government was elected by the people or is a hereditary regime that was never elected by anyone, the contract between the government and the people is paramount, and if the people refuse to recognise the government; then the authority of the regime collapses.
Of course, given that a government that allows the situation of its people to fall to such a low level is not really working for the people; this is very clear; and as a consequence of that, said government starts using other measures to subdue the rebellion of the people, including - but not limited to - controlling the flow of information, total control of news, manipulation of the educational system, silencing of anyone speaking in a critical manner, or even asking questions, of the government and its agents and more besides.
However, it is well known that any regime that keeps itself in power through coercion and fear will not last, and will collapse under the weight of its own corruption. Granted it may appear that said collapse takes place over a lengthy period of time; but in reality, every day for such a regime is devastating. Just as it is said, a criminal at run from the law is always ‘looking over his shoulder’ - a tyrannical government is always looking over its shoulder - and it knows deep down that its days are numbered; that the proverbial writing is on the wall.
Tyranny, Arrogance and Insanity
Of course, it must be noted that tyranny and arrogance lead by themselves to a state of insanity in those exhibiting such qualities; as a result; while the end of such an arrogant system is certain; to those within the circle of insanity, they might feel - incorrectly; but in their mind, completely correctly - that they are invincible and indeed immortal.
After all, Pharaoh, just prior to his destruction, considered himself to be the most powerful on the land, and indeed declared himself as ‘I am your Lord the most high’, as described in the Quran. How did the arrogance of Pharaoh work out for him? Not as he expected, that much is very clear.
هَلْ أَتَاكَ حَدِيثُ مُوسَىٰ
إِذْ نَادَاهُ رَبُّهُ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى
اذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ طَغَىٰ
فَقُلْ هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ
وَأَهْدِيَكَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَتَخْشَىٰ
فَأَرَاهُ الْآيَةَ الْكُبْرَىٰ
فَكَذَّبَ وَعَصَىٰ
ثُمَّ أَدْبَرَ يَسْعَىٰ
فَحَشَرَ فَنَادَىٰ
فَقَالَ أَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْأَعْلَىٰ
فَأَخَذَهُ اللَّهُ نَكَالَ الْآخِرَةِ وَالْأُولَىٰ
إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِّمَن يَخْشَىٰHas the story of Moses reached you?
When His Lord called out to him in the sacred valley of Tuwa.
“Go to Pharaoh—he has transgressed.”
And say, “Do you care to be cleansed?
And I will guide you to your Lord, and you will turn reverent.”
He showed him the Greatest Miracle.
But he (Pharaoh) denied and defied.
Then turned his back, and tried.
And gathered and proclaimed.
He (Pharaoh) said, “I am your Lord, the most high.”
So God seized him with an exemplary punishment, in the last and in the first.
In this is a lesson for whoever fears.Quran, Surah an-Nazi’aat (those (angels) who drag out [the souls of the wicked]) #79, Verse 15 to 26
Therefore, it is important to understand in light of this; that the laws that are implemented by a government, must be from those laws that ensure and move the society towards perfection, towards improvement, and indeed above all towards the most natural condition of a society - which is to be in sync with the Creator.
It is also important to note that said laws apply equally to the population as a whole, as well as to every person in the government, from the lowly janitor who looks after the facilities, to the ‘caliph’ or ‘king’ or ‘president’ or ‘prime minister’ or whatever title is used by the ‘leader’ - these laws apply equally to all.
This is a very important point; and points out very clearly that no-one is above the law, regardless of who they are. No-one can use loopholes to get out of ‘difficult situations’, no-one has a ‘get out of jail free card’, not at all. Everyone is equal, and is treated equally.
Indeed, we have the famous saying that ‘justice is blind’, it must be blind in the sense that it doesn’t see a richer person in a different light to a poor person, it doesn’t see a lowly peasant who works the fields in any different light to the leader of an entire government; both are treated equally by the law. The importance of this cannot be under emphasised.
An Islamic government if we expand upon the explanation given above, is a government that works to establish the rules of Islam - as scribed in the Quran and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, his Family and his Righteous Companions.
These laws are connected to the laws given by the Prophets mentioned above, by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jesus and of course Prophet Muhammad, may God shower His blessings and peace upon them all.
One way of understanding what Islam is, can be done from the perspective of things that we use in our day to day lives.
For example, we might use a computer, that has an operating system. This operating system might have started as for example Windows 95, or MacOS 9 (for those who remember that far back, early operating system of the Macintosh series of computers by Apple), or even Linux (or perhaps AT&T Unix, or BSD is a better analogy, but I’ll not digress, the point I think is clear) and over the years, it may have been upgraded to a newer version, say Windows XP, or Mac OS X, or indeed to the all new shiny Ubuntu 16.04 (a variant of the Linux operating system), for example These operating systems build on each other; and improve on the versions that came before.
As computer technology improves; and people get newer computers; they find that they are using newer operating systems, in current times - as an example - we might be using Windows 11, or MacOS Sonoma, or even Linux by way of Ubuntu 23.10, for example. Sadly, some of the newer versions - as they take advantage of new advances in technology, will not operate as efficiently (or in some cases at all) on older hardware.
Now, there is also the notion; that some folk, using the older operating systems, the earlier versions, might have chosen to ‘hack’ these operating systems to suit their needs.
A side effect of this would be that they are no-longer compatible with the underlying system, and therefore have essentially become broken and cannot be upgraded (even if the physical hardware is able to run the newer version).
Indeed, the only way they can be salvaged is if they do a ‘re-install’ from scratch, removing everything, and starting over; and in such a case; the optimal manner would be to use the current version of the operating system; so as to be able to make best use of their hardware.
Now, if we consider the Abrahamic faiths; the Abrahamic laws, we see that they have similarities; but at the same time there are great differences. Certain things are more vague in the earlier iterations, but are more specific and precise in the newer versions.
A reason for this is that as the understanding of humanity progressed, as humanity matured; as the ‘hardware’ so to speak improved, they were able to understand things in greater depth; but at the same time, baseline principles remain the same.
Across all the Abrahamic faiths, killing, stealing, lying, adultery, and such are categorically forbidden this is indisputable.
Indeed, anyone with at least some humanity in them, knows that these are all crimes - both against oneself, but also against others.
Hypocrisy, Loopholing and Manipulation of the Law
Now, a person, or system, can declare itself as being a following of something. They might even have laws within their system of governance that prohibit certain things - for example - they prohibit manipulating government officers by offering them monies to pass specific amendments to certain laws, or to win over certain lucrative government contracts and such.
But, you might also see, that while laws exist, these laws are almost always ‘loopholed’. Where they are circumvented so as to acquiesce to the desire of the government or an official of said government.
This is unacceptable; as this then creates a disparity between those who govern and those who are governed; and indeed, creates a situation where corruption and laws are broken covertly, and are implemented selectively.
A case of ‘do as I say, not as a I do’. Which is the definition of hypocrisy.
When hypocrisy comes into play; there is a feigning of righteousness; there is the idea of this system (or person) is ‘righteous’ - they abide by all the commands; they do good deeds, and avoid bad deeds, and so on; and superficially this might be the case. But under the covers (and this is what makes hypocrisy so insidious and evil) the exact opposite is the case.
You will also find such people constantly (due to as mentioned them having to look over their proverbial shoulders as they know they are in the wrong, and that retribution and justice are around the proverbial corner) acting in a manner that all the cries and any criticism is exclusively directed at them, that when people talk, they are talking about them, that every cry is against them. These are important qualities to understand.
We saw, earlier this year, when George Galloway won the by-election in the UK city of Rochdale. This election was won fairly, freely, and righteously, because of the honesty, and good will that had been built up by the efforts of the Workers Party of Britain and by Mr Galloway.
What was, however, very interesting, is that following that historic victory, where a new party decimated the larger ‘uni party’ parties; the currently unelected ‘prime minister’ of the UK, came outside Downing Street, and declared that this win by George Galloway was somehow an affront to ‘democracy’, that it was shaking the pillars of the society, and was ‘dangerous’ and ‘hateful’ and other such rubbish.
There was no requirement for Mr Sunak to say anything; the people in Rochdale had decided, they cast their votes honourably and honestly, said votes were then collated, and it was determined - by an overwhelming majority - that the Workers Party of Britain, and Mr George Galloway had won.
There was no reason for Mr Sunak to rush outside and make his performance. But he was compelled; because he knows he is completely unelected, he has no mandate, but continues to waste the people’s resources, to modify the laws of the land to suite his paymasters and cares nothing for the rights of the people; he operates as a classic hypocrite.
I will not labour this point, as information about the many crimes, acts of stupidity, examples of their acute hypocrisy and more besides, of both Mr Sunak and the Labour party ‘leader’ Mr Starmar can be easily found all over the internet. I merely wanted people to get an idea of what hypocrisy is in the real world, how hypocrites operate, what their characteristics are, and indeed why this is the case.
In the Quran, there are many verses discussing the hypocrites and how dangerous they are to a society and to people; in fact there is an entire chapter of the Quran on the hypocrites, Chapter 63. its first few verses provide a clear description of what hypocrites are and how they operate:
إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُنَافِقُونَ قَالُوا نَشْهَدُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُهُ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ لَكَاذِبُونَ
اتَّخَذُوا أَيْمَانَهُمْ جُنَّةً فَصَدُّوا عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ سَاءَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ آمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا فَطُبِعَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ
وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ تُعْجِبُكَ أَجْسَامُهُمْ ۖ وَإِن يَقُولُوا تَسْمَعْ لِقَوْلِهِمْ ۖ كَأَنَّهُمْ خُشُبٌ مُّسَنَّدَةٌ ۖ يَحْسَبُونَ كُلَّ صَيْحَةٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ هُمُ الْعَدُوُّ فَاحْذَرْهُمْ ۚ قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۖ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَWhen the hypocrites come to you, they say, “We bear witness that you are God’s Messenger.” God knows that you are His Messenger, and God bears witness that the hypocrites are liars.
They treat their oaths as a cover, and so they repel others from God’s path. Evil is what they do.
That is because they believed, and then disbelieved; so their hearts were sealed, and they cannot understand.
When you see them, their appearance impresses you. And when they speak, you listen to what they say. They are like propped-up timber. They think every shout is aimed at them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. God condemns them; how deluded they are!Quran, Surah al-Munafequn (the Hypocrites) #63, Verses 1 to 4
A regular person in such a system, might be working hard, but due to the corruption at its core; due to certain strata of society, because of ‘loopholes’ and ‘gifts’ and the like that corrupt the laws of the land, the regular person is constantly kept in a weak position.
The powers that be, feign imaginary crises, they feign self inflicted economic issues, they sabre rattle with others who stand up to their madness, and they push for war and strife, which if the powers that be succeed in creating, will push the regular people to go and fight for a cause they have nothing to do with, but that they simply enter the meat-grinder of war, to ensure the position of the corrupt elites is maintained.
In such a time, the duty of the lay person is to stand and resist such insanity, as this is a pathway that will destroy a society in its entirety.
Of course, the powers that be are aware of the risks their behaviour presents, therefore, from time to time, they would throw scraps at the people, but this is a means of enacting ‘bread and circuses’ to appease the masses; rather than genuinely wanting to improve their situation.
While in some cases, the people will be subdued by this inane gesture, it is becoming less effective in more recent times; and this is the trajectory of such approaches by the corrupt regimes. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
This point should be kept in mind as it will become important as we get into understanding the stanza we are discussing.
Just as a person can declare themselves one thing, but in reality be something completely different, a government can also do the same.
For example, a person can put on a white doctors jacket, place a stethoscope around their neck, carry a clipboard (or tablet in these days), and declare themselves a doctor. In fact there have been cases, where people have done this, which ultimately led to great harm to the population.
Generally when a person announces themselves as being something - for example a doctor - then their credentials are verified; where did they study, how was their performance, have they experience, so on and so forth. This happens quite normally for all professions when the applicant is interviewed, and indeed many a time (especially in technology) given a technical test to ensure their level of learning and understanding is sufficient and real.
Only if they are successful, are they then offered the role. (Yes, I am aware, there are other factors that are taken into account in hiring these days, DEI, whether the person ‘fits’, has the ‘correct socio-political thoughts’, has a ‘clean social media presence’ and so on, but my example is only that, a simple example to facilitate learning, additional factors should be discussed at some point; perhaps I will do a paper on that at some stage; but for now we shall discard them in this example).
A government system, can declare itself one thing and on the surface appear such, but under the surface it operates in an entirely different manner.
However, it is the role of people who live under said government to constantly hold that government to account. Indeed, the media - also known as the ‘fourth estate’ in for example the collective West (with the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government being the first, second and third ‘estates’ or branches of the government) is expected to always be holding the other three branches to account; to ensure that corruption is caught at the start, and that the rights of the people are not usurped by elements that operate with coercion and deceit.
It should be noted that sadly, in the 21st Century (and for at least the last quarter of the 20th Century) the so-called fourth estate has, rather than be a means to protect the people and prevent corruption within the government and to uphold the rights of the people, has become a means to harm the people; with truth tellers such as Julian Assange being incarcerated indefinitely for simply speaking the Truth, and exposing the crimes of various parts of the governments of the collective West.
The so-called ‘fourth estate’ of the collective West has refused to even speak about the case of Julian Assange, and indeed the legacy media parrot the talking points of those corrupt ones in the government, and thereby enable both the hypocrisy of the government, as well as its self-destruction by way of corruption.
Indeed, looking at the etymology of the word corruption gives some important insight:
corruption (n.)
mid-14c., corrupcioun, of material things, especially dead bodies, "act of becoming putrid, dissolution, decay;" also of the soul, morals, etc., "spiritual contamination, depravity, wickedness," from Latin corruptionem (nominative corruptio) "a corruption, spoiling, seducing; a corrupt condition," noun of action from past-participle stem of corrumpere "to destroy; spoil," figuratively "corrupt, seduce, bribe" (see corrupt (adj.)).
Meaning "putrid matter" is from late 14c. Of public offices, "bribery or other depraving influence," from early 15c.; of language, "perversion, vitiation," from late 15c. Meaning "a corrupt form of a word" is from 1690s.
Etymology Online
corrupt (adj.)
early 14c., "corrupted, debased in character," from Old French corropt "unhealthy, corrupt; uncouth" (of language) and directly from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere "to destroy; spoil," figuratively "corrupt, seduce, bribe," from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + rup-, past participle stem of rumpere "to break," from a nasalized form of PIE *runp- "to break" (source also of Sanskrit rupya- "to suffer from a stomach-ache;" Old English reofan "to break, tear").
Meaning "decomposing, putrid, spoiled" is from late 14c. Sense of "changed for the worse, debased by admixture or alteration" (of language, etc.) is from late 14c. Meaning "guilty of dishonesty involving bribery" is from late 14c. Related: Corruptly; corruptness.
corrupt (v.)
mid-14c., "deprave morally, pervert from good to bad;" late 14c., "contaminate, impair the purity of; seduce or violate (a woman); debase or render impure (a language) by alterations or innovations; influence by a bribe or other wrong motive," from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere "to destroy; spoil," figuratively "corrupt, seduce, bribe" (see corrupt (adj.)).
Intransitive sense of "putrefy, change from a sound to a putrid state" is from late 14c. Related: Corrupted; corrupting. In Middle English also corrumpen (mid-14c., along with corrumpcioun), from Old French corompre, from Latin corumpere.
This clearly tells us that this malady, corruption, this corrupting of, the system, this having a set of rules for one group, and another for another, is destructive, and contaminates everything, spoils the entire system if it is not dealt with immediately. If it is allowed to fester, it will destroy everything.
Tragically, we can see this happening, in front of our eyes in the collective West, where due to the weight of corruption; the insanity surrounding the situation in Ukraine, the support of genocide in Palestine by the Zionist regime, due to the lack of any introspection; or wanting to look after their own people, to openly break their laws, while feigning that they uphold the law; we can see that these broken and corrupt regimes in the collective West are falling apart under the intolerable weight of their corruption; and due to the abject stupidity and ignorance, arrogance and self-righteousness, hypocrisy and haughtiness of their officers.
This has, tragically, led to these maladies infecting the systems directly. It is clear to any sane person, that the collapse of the collective West, and those who align themselves with the collective West is imminent; and will happen due to their own hubris.
But I’ll not get into that at this time; this was only to provide an example in a more current context.
What is an Islamic Government? What is ‘the Sharia’?
The notion of an Islamic government is really quite simple. It is a government system that requires that its laws are built on the laws outlined in the Quran (and as explained before in the previously revealed divine scriptures). That its entire system is in sync with the revelations; and its laws are derived from the divine instructions given by God to His creation.
Indeed, the Islamic system of government (or as it is called in Arabic, Sharia - meaning ‘the Way’) is a system that is completely in sync with the human condition. Those who blindly reject this system - and sadly, especially in current times - we see many people mindlessly suggest that this system is harmful to the rights of people, that it is oppressive, that it is bad in this way and that.
The reality is that such folk have never actually spent the time to study what the Islamic form of government is, and have preconceived notions, provided to them by various lobbies and entities that make up the ‘Islamophobia Industry’
Yes, there is an entire industry built around fermenting what is known as ‘Islamophobia’ (an irrational fear of Islam), by the Zionist bloc and others related to them, this has been proven, and written about extensively.
For example, Max Blumenthal of the Grayzone has given this excellent interview many years ago on the subject of the Islamophobia industry.
Islamophobia - Max Blumenthal explains the anti-Islam industry
The purpose of this industry is to muddy the waters, to construe that which is done by people professing to follow Islam, as well as regimes that profess to be Islamic (but in reality are anything but), and thereby to keep the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) regarding Muslims and Islam alive and strong, especially within the collective West populations.
If people actually understood what Islam was, if people actually bothered to read and study Islamic thought; and do so objectively; they would see that it is completely different to the mindless image portrayed by the Islamophobia industry and its Zionist propagandists.
In Islamic thought, there are many books written, including books written by the Aimmah; but essentially, the legal system is designed to secure the rights of people. An excellent reference on the rights within Islamic thought is the Treatise on Rights by Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn, the fourth Imam of the Muslims, and the great grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Indeed, one of the problems that the polytheists of Arabia had at the advent of Islam was that of the rights given by Islam to the people, to animals and more besides. They refused to accept Islam - initially, until they were left with no choice - because it ‘broke the social order’.
The social order that they had implemented created huge disparities between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, between the ‘rich’ and the poor. Even between the man and the woman, where in Arabia at the advent of Islam, the custom was that if a female child was born, then this child would be deemed a bad omen and a curse upon the parents and family, and as a result had to be buried alive until it was dead.
The Quran speaks of this clearly:
وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ
بِأَيِّ ذَنبٍ قُتِلَتْWhen the girl, buried alive, is asked:
For what crime was she killed?Quran, Surah al-Takwir (the Overthrowing) #81, Verses 8 to 9
This short book, Treatise on Rights by Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn, covers all the type of rights within Islam, from the right of God towards each of us, as well as our rights toward Him, to the rights of (and towards) leaders, to the rights of (and towards) families (womb relatives), the rights of others and more besides.
I would highly encourage the reader to take sometime and study this excellent (and indeed concise) book on the subject of rights. This covers the rights from both the spiritual aspect, to the aspect of the self (the body and soul), as well as rights from a more societal and cultural perspective.
In western culture and thought at this time, in the first quarter of the 21st Century, we can see many people, especially following the rise of the LGBTQ movement and all that is inferred by that (which I will not go into here), we can see many people in the collective West, especially within those communities or social groupings who consider themselves to be ‘conservative’ or ‘right-wing’, or those who consider themselves to be Christian (in one form or another) and such, moving towards what they call ‘traditional values’.
Traditional values, where the rights of women were safeguarded, where the man had the responsibility to provide for the family, where things like pornography and other vices within society are shunned and much more besides.
It would not be unfair to say, that essentially what is happening with these people, who can see the problems that vices within society are bringing, and their desire to move towards what they call ‘traditional values’, is in fact a move towards divine values, divine teachings.
So, to summarise, the notion of an Islamic government, is a government that configures itself around Islam (not around Muslims, there is a difference between Islam and Muslims, and sadly Muslims are not always the best exemplars of Islam). Islam as an ideology, as a system, has provisions for every eventuality; much as the true Judaism and Christianity also had provisions for all scenarios.
However, tragically, due to the corruption that entered within these divine systems - Judaism and Christianity - the fact that the original scriptures and teachings were lost, and where remembered, polluted by political and social bias - as the base sources were always oral and never written from the time of the various prophets.
More so, when looking at Christianity, we can see that many of the Gospels were ‘removed’ from what is described as the Bible, for highly political reasons - an important episode that evidences this is the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, which resulted in many problems being created in the wider Christian community (and this was more than 200 years before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad).
Now, such teachings might well be from what is presumed to be the teachings of Jesus, the son of Mary and such; but in reality, this is all enclosed within the teachings given by God to all His prophets, from Adam, to Muhammad and including Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jesus and so on - may God shower his peace and blessings upon them all.
So there is a natural desire towards these wholesome, decent values, that uphold the family, that protect the weak, that stand firm against oppression; but sadly, there is also a huge industry, a satanic industry one might argue - since it seeks to take people away from God, and as a result, it is without a doubt operating in a Satanic manner - Satan has said, after all, that he would misguide everyone from humanity, from all different directions that is muddying the proverbial waters into what that wholesome, decent system is.
Indeed, we see that many of those who wish to move towards these so-called ‘traditional values’ are also from those who heavily support the genocide of the Palestinian people, and who have huge anti-Islamic (or should I say Islamophobic?) tendencies. What is ironic is that they know very little about what Islam teaches; and all their information is from damaged sources, out of context readings and so on, all provided by this huge Islamophobic industry and its Zionist mouthpieces.
Following on from this, it is straightforward to understand that while a system might superficially consider itself a ‘Christian’ or ‘Jewish’ system or even an ‘Islamic’ system; the proof of the proverbial pudding is in the eating. This all depends on the level of understanding and wisdom of those within the system, and especially those who are the ‘elites’ within that system.
If a system while presenting itself as Christian, goes against basic Christian values, taught and espoused by Christianity from the beginning, ideas like the family unit, like the rights of the husband and the wife and the children, and where such rights are manipulated and altered to serve other interest - that are indeed completely antithetical and diametrically opposed to what can be considered Christian values - all the while being promoted by those who superficially present themselves as Christian.
Can such a system be classified as a ‘Christian government’? Can such a system be spoken of as one upholding Christian teachings? Far from it. It can call itself a ‘Christian government’ all it wants; it can have its officers send out greetings for various important events within the Christian calendar; but those are meaningless gestures; and the regime in question can never be classified as one that abides by the teachings of Jesus, the son of Mary; but rather it is one that dresses itself in the veneer of Christendom to garner respectability, but then proceeds to rip out the very soul of Christianity.
You will find such a regime, constantly talking about the importance of helping others, of protecting people’s lives and property; yet they will be in cahoots with the worst of killers - child killers even - you will find them stealing from the people, to give to criminals, with a view to further harm another people; whereas the teachings given by Jesus, the son of Mary, were against such horrific and evil activities; and that is just looking at a tiny example, and only scratching the surface very superficially.
Within Islam there has been an important aspect that has protected Islam’s teachings from being corrupted as sadly has been the case with Judaism and Christianity. This is the fact that firstly; Islam is much younger, that the authenticity of the Quran is beyond dispute; and indeed in the Quran itself, God says clearly that:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
Surely We revealed the Message, and We will surely preserve it.
In Chapter 41 of the Quran, Surah al-Fussilat (the Explaining in Detail), we can also see God mentioning the idea of protecting the Quran:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِي آيَاتِنَا لَا يَخْفَوْنَ عَلَيْنَا ۗ أَفَمَن يُلْقَىٰ فِي النَّارِ خَيْرٌ أَم مَّن يَأْتِي آمِنًا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۚ اعْمَلُوا مَا شِئْتُمْ ۖ إِنَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِالذِّكْرِ لَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ ۖ وَإِنَّهُ لَكِتَابٌ عَزِيزٌ
لَّا يَأْتِيهِ الْبَاطِلُ مِن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَلَا مِنْ خَلْفِهِ ۖ تَنزِيلٌ مِّنْ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ
مَّا يُقَالُ لَكَ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ قِيلَ لِلرُّسُلِ مِن قَبْلِكَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ وَذُو عِقَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
وَلَوْ جَعَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا أَعْجَمِيًّا لَّقَالُوا لَوْلَا فُصِّلَتْ آيَاتُهُ ۖ أَأَعْجَمِيٌّ وَعَرَبِيٌّ ۗ قُلْ هُوَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا هُدًى وَشِفَاءٌ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ فِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرٌ وَهُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَمًى ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ يُنَادَوْنَ مِن مَّكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ
وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ فَاخْتُلِفَ فِيهِ ۗ وَلَوْلَا كَلِمَةٌ سَبَقَتْ مِن رَّبِّكَ لَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّهُمْ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِّنْهُ مُرِيبٍ
مَّنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلِنَفْسِهِ ۖ وَمَنْ أَسَاءَ فَعَلَيْهَا ۗ وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِThose who despise Our revelations are not hidden from Us. Is he who is hurled into the Fire better? Or he who arrives safely on the Day of Resurrection? Do as you please; He is Seeing of everything you do.
Those who reject the Reminder when it has come to them—it is an invincible Book.
Falsehood cannot approach it, from before it or behind it. It is a revelation from One Wise and Praiseworthy.
Nothing is said to you but was said to the Messengers before you: your Lord is Possessor of Forgiveness, and Possessor of Painful Repayment.
Had We made it a Quran in a foreign language, they would have said, “If only its verses were made clear.” Non-Arabic and an Arab? Say, “For those who believe, it is guidance and healing. But as for those who do not believe: there is heaviness in their ears, and it is blindness for them. These are being called from a distant place.”
We gave Moses the Book, but disputes arose concerning it. Were it not for a prior decree from your Lord, judgment would have been pronounced between them. But they are in perplexing doubt concerning it.
Whoever acts righteously does so for himself; and whoever works evil does so against himself. Your Lord is not unjust to the servants.Quran, Surah al-Fussilat (the Explaining in Detail) #41, Verses 40 to 46
This is not a paper that discusses in great details the arguments regarding the preservation or not of the various divine scriptures; so I will segue away from this point herein; suffice it to say, that in Islam (and this has never been disproved, even by those spending millions to prove the Quran as not preserved and such things) it is known that the Quran is untainted, unchanged and unadulterated from the time of its revelation, and it will remain so until the Day of Reckoning.
This video published by the Muslim Paradigm Youtube channel, on the European Research Council’s attempt to suggest that the Quran was not preserved - linguistically, makes for some very interesting viewing:
Scholar Paid 2 Million To Find Mistakes In Qur’an, SHOCKED By What He Found!
It is now important to move onto a brief discussion into the duties of the Aimmah, and indeed these correlate in many ways to the duties of the many prophets, warners, apostles and teachers sent down by God to the Children of Israel, sadly many of them were abused, ridiculed, harmed and indeed even murdered by the corrupt leadership of the Children of Israel.
Indeed a clear cut example is the treatment of Jesus, son of Mary, at the hands of the Sanhedrin of the Children of Israel, and what they attempted to do to him; something that is commemorated in these few days - known in Christendom as Easter, starting from Good Friday, through to Easter Monday; but I’ll not dwell on that at this time; though I do wish all the honourable Christian readers much love, respect and peace on these important days of Easter.
Duties of the Aimmah
The Aimmah, the grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad, had and have an important duty; this stemmed from the time of the passing of the Prophet Muhammad, and indeed from the establishment of the government by Prophet Muhammad following the Hijra (or migration) from Makkah to Madinah from when the Lunar Hijri (commonly known as the Islamic) calendar started.
This duty was to ensure that the teachings of Islam, as revealed to Prophet Muhammad were not corrupted, damaged, misinterpreted or harmed; and indeed a key component of that duty was ensuring that the government that the people were living under was just, righteous, honourable, and that in as far as was possible, abided by the teachings of Islam, and protected the rights of the people across all strata of society.
More so, when the government did not carry these qualities; then the Aimmah have also taught us how to operate within such a government of lies and hypocrisy (irrespective of what religion it professes to follow), and this is one of their most important duties.
Of course, there is much more detail that can be discussed when looking at the role of, and duties of the Aimmah, but for now this will suffice.
In the same way that the prophets that came to the Children of Israel, be it Imran, Zachery, John, and many others, their duty was to protect and teach people the law of Moses, to preserve the law and to ensure that this law was not corrupted to serve the few ‘elites’; that the Sanhedrin were not manipulated and also corrupted into making these important laws but a plaything that was then used to oppress the people.
These prophets were also tasked with speaking to and educating believers on their rights towards God, and God’s rights towards them, to their rights upon each other and the wider society, to inform them of the rights they have on their parents and children and so on and so forth.
The Aimmah following the passing of Prophet Muhammad, have this duty also. In the time of the absence of the 12th Imam - the time known as ‘the Greater Occultation’, this falls on the shoulders of the righteous and true scholars of Islam, and indeed upon the truthful and honourable believer him or herself.
Another key point is that within such a government - that the Aimmah - ensured the rights of all those who both submitted to God, or were followers of Islam (which essentially is the ideology of submission to God), as well as those who followed other faiths.
Having said that, of course, if anyone from any of the faiths, or even from within Islam, began to create sedition, to create strife - be it sectarian or otherwise - who harmed the rights of the people; then it was and is the duty of the government to deal with such folk, initially with attempts to educate and reform, and if that fails, then to move to stricter measures.
While the optimal situation in ensuring this would be for the Aimmah to be the leaders of the governments, this wasn’t and isn’t a necessary requirement. But it is optimal.
This is because, if there is a government, where the leaders of said government take the sage advice and guidance from the Imam of their time, and wherein the rights of the population are taken care of, then this is ensuring that justice is established as well as is possible.
So the key tasks - on the geo-political, economic and social realms for the Aimmah - including the Awaited Saviour, Imam Mahdi - is to establish a government of justice, truth, dignity and fairness in as far as is possible within the confines of the human experience.
Indeed, these tasks and their scope, merge into the spiritual; since in truth the entire purpose of humanity on this temporal realm is to worship and serve God, that they are successful in the hereafter.
The establishment of a government of justice, creates a situation where the worship of God can be established, fairly and without hinderance.
Indeed, when we examine the verses of the Bible regarding Jesus, the son of Mary, over throwing the tables of the money changers and lenders and such, who were creating a hinderance towards the people’s worship by way of bogging them down with debt and other yokes, thereby essentially prohibiting the worship of God, and removing the freedom of the people, Jesus, called them thieves, robbers, and rejected them.
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
“It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”
In all aspects of the human experience, be it spiritual, personal, psychological or be it geo-political, economic, cultural, social and so on; there should always be an aspiration and movement towards getting as close to perfection, as possible.
The checks and balances of a legislature are there to provide an additional safeguard that can help move society and individuals towards that perfection.
Returning to the subject of Islamic Government and indeed of ‘Sharia Law’, it is important to understand this. The word ‘Sharia’ in Arabic means literally ‘the way’. It does not mean any sort of draconian despotic system that beats up on people if they do this or don’t do that that, rather it is a means to ensure that a society is run fairly, justly, effectively and in a righteous manner.
That society is run in a manner where the rights of people are protected, and that the rich do not overpower the poor, where people of one colour or race are not deemed superior to another. This has been discussed earlier in this paper as well as throughout this series of posts, so I will not labour it here.
Indeed, a key reason why people fall into such traps of crime is when there is a corrupt banking or economic system; where the banks and like loan money to people in need; but do so by way of a system named usury.
This is also a mechanism to move people away from God, because a person who is bogged down in this world with troubles; will rarely find the time to introspect and reflect on God - they should, as that is their only real means of salvation, but the whisperings of the Satans, and the terrorising of the victim by the corrupt lenders, all serve to weaken the persons resolve and move them further and further away from God.
The begin to essentially worship money, and their entire lives become preoccupied with getting money - this happens to both the victim, as well as perpetrator. But I’ll not go into this is more detail than I have, as that will further extend this paper. Perhaps at another time this can be discussed.
This system of usury, of ‘interest’, this is something which from both the perspective of Christianity and Islam is against the path of God and is amongst the most oppressive systems ever devices.
Indeed, in Islam it is akin to waging a war with God.
God has in the strongest terms condemned usury in the Quran:
الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَا لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا الْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ الرِّبَا ۗ وَأَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا ۚ فَمَن جَاءَهُ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِ فَانتَهَىٰ فَلَهُ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمْرُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ الرِّبَا وَيُرْبِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَا إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ۖ وَإِن تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَThose who swallow usury will not rise, except as someone driven mad by Satan's touch. That is because they say, “Commerce is like usury.” But God has permitted commerce, and has forbidden usury. Whoever, on receiving advice from his Lord, refrains, may keep his past earnings, and his case rests with God. But whoever resumes—these are the dwellers of the Fire, wherein they will abide forever.
God condemns usury, and He blesses charities. God does not love any sinful ingrate.
Those who believe, and do good deeds, and pray regularly, and give charity—they will have their reward with their Lord; they will have no fear, nor shall they grieve.
O you who believe! Fear God, and forgo what remains of usury, if you are believers.
If you do not, then take notice of a war by God and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may keep your capital, neither wronging, nor being wronged.
This is but one example within the Quran, in the Bible, we have also learned Christian and Jewish position, regarding this abomination known as usury:
Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
It is a mark of kindly feeling to help him who has nothing, but it is a sign of a hard nature to extort more than one has given. If a man has need of thy assistance because he has not enough of his own wherewith to repay a debt, is it not a wicked thing to demand under the guise of kindly feeling a larger sum from him who has not the means to pay off a less amount?
Thou dost but free him from debt to another, to bring him under thy own hand; and thou callest that human kindliness which is but a further wickedness.
The Sacred History of Sulpitius Severus, Book 1, chap. 18, and Ambrose, On the Duty of Clergy, Book 3, chap. 3, par. 20
He will not steal, nor will he covet anything at all belonging to another. He will not give his money to usury, for that is to seek after gain from the evils of others; nor, however, will he refuse to lend, if necessity shall compel any one to borrow.
Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes, chap. 64
For nothing, nothing is baser than the usury of this world, nothing more cruel. Why, other persons’ calamities are such a man’s traffic; he makes himself gain of the distress of another, and demands wages for kindness, as though he were afraid to seem merciful, and under the cloak of kindness he digs the pitfall deeper.”
Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, fifth homily (on Matthew. 1:22-23):
Many other examples exist.
However, given that we are not engaged in a Bible study session at this time, I will leave this there, concluding on this point that according to the Abrahamic faiths, the concept of usury is an abomination, and something despised in the eyes of God.
One of the key tasks of Satan is to mislead, to misguide, to corrupt and take humanity away from the path of God. This is accepted across all the Abrahamic faiths, and indeed also in some non-Abrahamic faiths.
While Satan is there to misguide; and of course, this is his promise (this is also an important series of verses that we had discussed in the previous post in this series).
قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُم مِّن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَائِلِهِمْ ۖ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَHe said, “Because you have lured me, I will waylay them on Your straight path.
Then I will come at them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right, and from their left; and you will not find most of them appreciative.”
Of course there is also the base human instinct that drags one towards base desires and evil, but the whispering of Satan who whispers and attempts to corrupt humanity is not without effect. The tragedy of those who follow Satan (and their base desires) is that Satan himself will fully reject them when the judgement comes. He will completely reject the notion that he ‘made’ the human do something sinful or bad, and declares his fear and awe of God, the Lord of the World, as per these verses of Quran:
كَمَثَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِذْ قَالَ لِلْإِنسَانِ اكْفُرْ فَلَمَّا كَفَرَ قَالَ إِنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِّنكَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
Like the devil, when he says to the human being, “Disbelieve.” But when he has disbelieved, he says, “I am innocent of you; I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds.”
Indeed, elsewhere in Quran, in the Chapter of Abraham (Surah Ibrahim), in Verse 22, there is a very interesting dialog about Satan and how he lies to, makes false promises, and thereby misleads and corrupts humanity, but then, he himself admits that he lied to them, more so Satan then proceeds to reject those who followed him.
وَقَالَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمْ وَعْدَ الْحَقِّ وَوَعَدتُّكُمْ فَأَخْلَفْتُكُمْ ۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيْكُم مِّن سُلْطَانٍ إِلَّا أَن دَعَوْتُكُمْ فَاسْتَجَبْتُمْ لِي ۖ فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوا أَنفُسَكُم ۖ مَّا أَنَا بِمُصْرِخِكُمْ وَمَا أَنتُم بِمُصْرِخِيَّ ۖ إِنِّي كَفَرْتُ بِمَا أَشْرَكْتُمُونِ مِن قَبْلُ ۗ إِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
And Satan will say, when the issue is settled, “God has promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you, but I failed you. I had no authority over you, except that I called you, and you answered me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor can you come to my aid. I reject your associating with me in the past. The wrongdoers will have a torment most painful.”
Lying, Disbelief and Covering Up (the Truth) are all Satanic Traits
It is important - in light of the verse of Surah al-Hashr (the Gathering) cited above - and especially the translation of the verse that while the word used is ‘اكْفُرْ’ which has been translated as ‘disbelieve’ - the inference is not just that of refusing to believe; it is rather meant as ‘sin’, ‘do a wrong thing’, ‘oppress’, ‘terrorise; and so on - all the bad things.
This is because the word used is ‘اكْفُرْ; which means literally ‘cover up’ - meaning - cover up the truth, i.e. obscure the truth (with a falsehood); this can be in matters of belief in God, where someone actively rejects and thereby covers up a teaching of God, in matters of the temporal domain, where a person does a wrong; murders, steals, harms, etc - and then denies it - i.e. attempts to cover up the crime or sin.
The word ‘kafir’ that is used commonly to denote a ‘disbeliever’ is and has been for centuries incorrectly translated into western languages; it should be translated as one who covers up (that which is true). This is more accurate; and indeed more meaningful.
But again, this is not a post on the nuances of the Arabic language and its lexicography, so I will not delve further into that - but the point had to be made since the understanding is required to understand this paper.
Back to the verse itself; it is profound how Satan - or anyone else who operates with the Satanic trait - encourages people to do a wrong thing, to cover up the truth, to commit a sin or a crime, etc - but then when they are called to account; they deny they have encouraged the committing of the crime, they feign innocence.
Indeed, they declare they have no authority over the human, and that they were simply lying and deceiving them, and that - and this is important - the human made a point of accepting the lie. The reason why the human accepted the lie - even though deep down they knew it was such - could be discussed for years; and to avoid the further lengthening of this paper (which seems to happen at every iteration of my proof-reading), I will avoid going into that any further at this time.
We have seen this vividly in recent years across the television screens of the collective West, regarding many subjects, regarding Iraq, regarding Afghanistan, regarding Ukraine, regarding the Zionist genocide in Gaza and Palestine as a whole.
We saw it during the so-called ‘COVID-19’ episode; where people were told to take experimental (and extremely harmful and dangerous) treatments, and were given all manner of assurances that everything was ‘safe and effective’ and when the truth came out - the criminal liars who convinced the wider population to take these experimental (and extremely harmful and dangerous) treatments - denied all knowledge and attempted to take back all they had said.
They barred people on multiple platforms, and were indeed actively working to cover up the truth, and if anyone opposed them that person, group or platform or whatever it was, was immediately ‘canceled’ - was immediately rejected.
This is the behaviour of entities, people, groups, etc that are infected with Satanic traits. I could bring up concepts regarding Satan and his machinations within the Bible, but I will not do that at this time as the point is reasonably clear and also for the sake of trying my utmost to keep this paper as brief as I possibly can.
Investigate, verify, and do not believe blindly
Finally, before we move on to discussing the stanza itself, it is very important for the reader to understand, that - and this might seem repetitive, but its importance is profound - that while someone might profess to be following something, this can only be understood by their actions; which necessarily requires the observer to have at least a fair and sensible (and untainted and/or unbiased) understanding of the system they are critiquing.
For someone to, without having any real knowledge or understanding (and no Wikipedia and legacy media, or random articles on the internet - including this one - don’t necessarily give you sufficient or even correct understanding) immediately declare something valid or invalid is both unfair but also remarkably ignorant.
One must research and read extensively to understand before they can critique or declare invalid (or even valid) something.
After all, when some information is given to you, would you blindly accept it? Such ignorance has led to all manner of problems, both at the personal level but also at the geo-political level.
The Quran provides some sage advice on this subject:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَن تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ
O you who believe! If a troublemaker brings you any news, investigate, lest you harm people out of ignorance, and you become regretful for what you have done.
Therefore, if someone comes to you with information declaring that ‘Islamic law’ or ‘Sharia law’ is evil - or even comes to you and says ‘this Sharia law is the best thing since the proverbial sliced bread’, don’t just mindlessly accept it - either way; investigate, read, reflect, read some more, think, and then come to an understanding, otherwise, you will almost certainly be operating from a point of ignorance, and will therefore only do harm to yourself.
Also, as I have mentioned before; the Abrahamic faiths are all connected; and indeed the human condition has concepts in-built within; that dictate the most basic of good and bad, right and wrong; and then within the books and teachings of the various faiths - from Judaism, through Christianity and of course Islam, we see the evolution of the law given by God.
It is important to mention; that while the books of Judaism and Christianity are not written by God, and are rather written by humans - indeed many of the books of the Bible were written years after the ascension of Jesus, the son of Mary, there is a risk of interpretation or error creeping into their text. The main book of Islam, however, the Quran, is evidenced as being revealed and indeed put to writing during the early years of Islam.
More so, given the idea of ‘versioning’ that I have explained earlier in this paper; it seems logical to use the most current version; the most ‘up-to-date’ version; which indeed, essentially complements, removes misunderstandings, omissions and additions that may have crept into previous revisions, and provides the most current teachings, the most current law.
Indeed, much of what can be found in Islam, can also be found within the other Abrahamic Faiths. And while, agreed, there are differences; for the most part these differences are due to the corruption brought in by corruptors and those who sought to use religion to further their own agendas, be they personal (marriage and divorce), be they territorial (centuries of pointless war) and much more besides.
For someone to reject ‘Sharia Law’ - or their lack of understanding leading them to declare ‘sharia law’ as something inherently evil; is to expose the abject ignorance of the one rejecting. Since at its core; there are huge commonalities between what is perceived as ‘sharia law’ and indeed many if not all other systems of law, and indeed governance.
Yes, there are differences; and I’m not going to delve into every detailed point of contention that some people have suggested between what they see as ‘sharia law’ and other systems of law; that would both take far too long; and would also probably never be read by those making these inflammatory and invalid claims; for if they had the capacity to read objectively and to think; they would never have made such claims in the first place.
In any case, this introductory portion has become extremely lengthy; so I will now wrap it up so that we can move onto the meat of our discussion.
The Sanhedrin and the Corrupt Caliphates - Partners in Oppression
Imam Mahdi, the twelfth Imam of the Muslims, as well as Jesus, the son of Mary, were both raised up by God, and placed into occultation - as a means to protect them from the machinations of evil people; who saw them as a threat.
It is well known that the Sanhedrin of the Children of Israel, considered Jesus, the son of Mary, as an upstart, a rebel, and one who went against their instructions, their rules. As a result, they conspired with each other, and then manipulated the Roman regime into removing Jesus, son of Mary, from the equation; and from their midst.
Of course, we could go into the whole idea of crucifixion, and whether it actually happened, or was there a replacement, and so on; but that is not relevant, since both Muslims and Christians believe that Jesus, the son of Mary, was indeed raised up (the details how, when and such are points of discussion but not within this document - perhaps in another), and that he will return at the end of days to establish justice and equity at a time when injustice and tyranny is rampant.
For Imam Mahdi, the situation was not dissimilar. Following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, many forces were trying to - some sincerely, some not so much, become the rulers of the ‘Islamic empire’.
The land was fertile, resource rich, and indeed bang in the middle of the Silk Road; so it would be lucrative. Also, there were some who were manipulated by the Roman Empire - such as Muawiyyah and others from the Umayyad regime - by the Romans into operating in a way that ultimately saw the death of the Roman Empire through its own corruption. Again, that itself is a very lengthy - and indeed very interesting - subject, but I’ll not cover that at this time.
Suffice it to say, that from the martyrdom of the brother of the Prophet Muhammad, the fourth Caliph of the ‘Righteous Caliphs’ (Abu Bakr, the first, Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second, Uthman bin Affan, the third and then Imam Ali, the fourth and last of the rightly guided caliphs of the Muslims), in 40AH (approximately 661CE) on the 21st of the month of Ramadhan, after having been attacked by an extremist from the corrupt ‘Khawarej’ cult, the government was morphed from one that worked to establish the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, and indeed the prophets who came before him (as discussed earlier), to being one that served the ‘kings’ or ‘sultans’ (sometimes called caliphs).
That is not to say that nothing good came out of these regimes and their subjects, no, that would be dishonest and untrue; a lot of good people came out, a lot of learning, science, technology, art, culture, poetry and more was spread and indeed came out under these regimes; but the fact is that the regimes did operate in a manner that exposed their corruption.
I could give examples of how Muawiyyah was corrupt, and how he manipulated the economy, and was confronted by the famous and close companion of the Prophet Muhammad known as Abu Dhar al-Ghiffari, how he saw mistakes made by the third caliph of the Muslims, which led to much harm being done to the Muslims, and how as a result of his speaking truth to power, was tragically exiled to the desert where he ultimately died.
Of course, there is much more to this; and a discussion on why Abu Dhar acted as he did, why he confronted Muawiyyah and indeed the third Caliph of the Muslims, Uthman bin Affan, but that would again be well outside the scope of this paper; so I will avoid that. The reader is welcome to do their own research in this regard.
So, the situation of the Islamic government (and by extension the Muslim community) a mere 26 or so years after the passing of the Prophet Muhammad, was in some ways superficially ‘good’ (expansion of territory, learning, culture, etc), but was at its core precarious and dangerous.
Governments that worked as a means to help the people, we re rapidly being morphed into regimes that usurped the rights of the people. The truthful were declared liars, and liars were promoted to the highest echelons of authority.
This continued until the Ottoman Empire, which ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own corruption, as well as the machinations of the British, who desired to steal the land that was held under Ottoman authority.
In the time of the Abbasids (specifically the reign of al-Mu’atamid), the persecution towards anyone connected to the Prophet Muhammad via Imam Ali, was profound; this stemmed from the means by which the Abbasid caliphate had taken power; which was based on a lie and manipulation.
As a result of this, the Abbasids kept the Aimmah of the Muslims under very close scrutiny. There were times, for example during the time of al-Ma’moun, when the eighth Imam of the Muslims was superficially granted the position of ‘heir’ to the Abbasid regime. This was a a means to cloak the corruption of the Abbasid regime, and to convince the more devout people of the righteousness and ‘good intentions’ of the Abbasid regime.
Of course, this was a farce, and the eighth Imam of the Muslims, Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Ridha, was murdered cruelly by the same al-Ma’moun that pretended he would make him his heir apparent.
Again, there is much information on this available, and there is even a detailed series on the life of Imam ar-Ridha, the eighth Imam of the Muslims.
Birth of Imam Mahdi, the Lesser Occultation and the Greater Occultation
So, following on from this. when the eleventh Imam of the Muslims, Imam Hasan al-Askari’s honourable wife, Lady Narges Khatoon, became pregnant with the twelfth Imam; there were divine instructions given to Imam al-Askari by God, and information was given as to the imminent commencement of the occultation, initially the lesser occultation which lasted approximately 70 years (starting in 260AH (approximately 873CE) and ending, moving into the greater occultation in 328AH (approximately 939CE).
During the lesser occultation of the twelfth Imam, he was not directly accessible to the wider population; but rather he assisted the people through his representatives. During the roughly 70 year period of this lesser occultation, Imam Mahdi had four representatives. Each of whom were directly appointed by the Imam. These representatives - also known as deputies - were a connection between the Imam and the people; and allowed the Imam to continue to support and help the people; to keep speaking truth to power; while being protected from harm by the regime in power.
Once the last of the four deputies, Ali bin Muhammad al-Samari, passed away; the period of the lesser occultation ended, and the period of the greater occultation started. It continues to this day, and we pray to God, to hasten the return of Imam Mahdi, and of Jesus, the son of Mary, may God show his blessings and peace upon them all. Amen.
It is important to note that the righteous, senior scholars of Islam - such as the Wali al-Faqih, in the person of Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, and prior to him Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and initiator of the Islamic Revolution in Iran - serve as indirect representatives of Imam Mahdi.
But, it is extremely important to note that in the ‘Greater occultation’ there is no direct communication between the Imam Mahdi and those who are his indirect representatives, at least there is no official direct communication.
Does Imam Mahdi communicate with the Righteous Islamic Leadership? Almost certainly; but I will not delve into that discussion here for fear of falling into another rabbit hole, which would ultimately delay the release of this paper. Perhaps it can be discussed at a later stage.
Without a doubt, the explanation I have given above is extremely simplified and summarised; there are huge thesis that can be written on this; and reasons why and so on; but I am unable to do that here; as that would make this already long document, significantly - and I mean significantly longer - it would also take much longer to complete; so I will not do that at this time.
Also, it is important that the additional stanzas of the Supplication of the Opening mentioned above (stanzas 22 to 25), describe Imam Mahdi, and describe his duties as understood by us, that He is a vigilant guardian of the Truth, that he calls to the (teachings of) the Book(s) of God, that he establishes - and works to establish - the government of Truth, and so on. This is important to reflect on, so at this juncture I would ask the reader to reflect on stanzas 22 to 25 (mentioned above), before we proceed with our more detailed discussion on stanza 26.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, this supplication was given by Imam Mahdi to his second deputy, Muhammad ibn Uthman; he was instructed to tell the people to recite, reflect and learn from this supplication, so as to actively be awaiting and hastening the return of Imam Mahdi.
Imam Mahdi, while his return is awaited by the Muslims, it is important to note that one of his titles is the one who is waiting. So while the Muslims await him, he awaits the Muslims, and people as a whole to be ready for his return. The same is the case with Jesus, the son of Mary; who without any doubt will return at the end of days, and work alongside Imam Mahdi to establish justice and equity within this world as it had been swamped by injustice and tyranny.
Also, during the time of these despotic regimes such as the Abbasids and Umayyads, there was an acute need for the Aimmah to operate with great caution and care, so as to avoid them being immediately killed by the powers that be. They were unable to give lectures and speeches to educate the people; to inform the people where the regimes they were living under were breaking with the teachings and instructions of God.
They had to be more subtle, and this was something that was being done from the time of the Prophet, indeed it was done during the time of prophets prior to Prophet Muhammad. We have the examples of the prayers of Joseph, the son of Jacob; while incarcerated, unjustly, in Egypt, or thrown into the well by his brethren. You can see the entire series of Joseph the Truthful, which covers the life of Prophet Joseph, and this series will explain much on this.
Therefore, many a time, the means by which the people were taught was through supplication. As we can see, and as we have discussed through the previous two posts, even the stanzas within the supplication that speak of praising God, are in fact more than just praise for God, but are lessons to us; and when reflected upon, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that within just a few words, or stanzas of such supplications; there are oceans of learning, of instruction, of lessons, of guidance and more besides.
Finally, it would be pertinent to now move onto discussing the 26th stanza; as has been our intention since we started this paper. However, given the length of this paper at this time, and the fact that when we get to discussing the stanza itself, there is much more that we can discuss; I will end this post at this time, and the next post will cover the stanza 26 and build directly upon this one.
I think that will also give the reader time to digest what has been discussed above, and will also prepare them to better garner learning and wisdom from the stanza of the supplication itself.
As always, any useful points within this paper are from God’s infinite grace and kindness to me, but all of the mistakes are without exception mine.
And from Him alone is all ability and He has authority over all things.