Causes Of The Propagation Of Shiaism In Persia ALLAMA EHSAN ALAHI ZAHEER IN HIS BOOK "THE SHITES AND THE SUNNAH" HAS CAREFULLY TRACED THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SHIAISM IN IRAN. HE APTLY REMARKS:
WHEN PERSIA WAS CONQUERED AT THE HANDS OF THE GREAT FARUQ (I.E. UMAR) THE UNITY OF THE PERSIANS WAS SMASHED TO PIECES, THEIR POWER WAS CRUSHED AND THIER IMPERIALISM WAS TOTALLY ANNIHILATED. THE PEOPLE OF PERSIA BEGAN TO NESTLE RANCOUR AGAINST AL-FARUQ, HIS COUNSELLORS AND HIS ARMIES. THE PERSIANS HAD AN INGRAINED LOVE FOR THE IMPERIALISTIC TYPE OF GOVERNMENT AND THEY WERE TEMPERAMENTALLY INCLINED TO BE RULED BY A KING. THE JEWS NOTICED THE SITUATION WITH INTEREST. THEY FOUND IT CONGENIAL TO THEIR OWN PURPOSE. IT WAS AN EASY JOB FOR THEM TO GRAFT MISCHIEF IN THAT LAND. VERY MUCH ACCIDENTALLY THE DAUGHTER TO YAZDGARD, THE FORMER KING OF PERSIA CALLED SHAHRBANO WAS MARRIED TO HUSSAIN IBN ALI (POPULARLY KNOWN AS ZAIN AL-ABIDIN) AFTER WHEN SHE HAD BEEN BROUGHT AMONG THE PERSIAN CAPTIVES. THE JEWS MANAGED TO EMPLOY THEIR CROOKEDNESS AND THE PERSIANS FORGOT THEIR MUTUAL DIFFERENCES. THE PEOPLE OF PERSIA FELT INCLINED TO COOPERATE WITH THIS GROUP OF THE JEWS. THE TYRANNOUS PARTY, AND ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PERSIANS HAD KNOWN FULLY WELL THAT THE PERSIAN ROYAL BLOOD NOW FLOWED IN THE VEINS OF ALI IBN HUSAIN POPULARLY KNOWN AS ZAIN ALABIDIN AND HIS CHILDREN-THROUGH HIS MOTHER SHAHRBANO, DAUGHTER TO YAZDGARD, THE EMPEROR OF PERSIA AND A DESCENDANT OF THE SASANIAN MONARCHS, MUCH REVERED BY THE PERSIANS. ON THIS ACCOUNT MOST OF THE PERSIANS EMBRACED SHI'ISM, AND AT THE SAME TIME THEY FOUND SOLACE IN REVILLING THE COMPANIONS, AND UMAR AND UTHMAN THE CONQUERORS OF PRESIA, AND WHO HAD EXTINGUISHED THE ETERNAL FIRE OF THE MAGIAN TEMPLES IN PERSIA. WITH ALACRITY THE PERSIANS COOPERATED WITH THE CUNNING JEWS. THUS THEY ALLIED THEMSELVES WITH THE JEWS. THEY ADOPTED THEIR FAITH, AND ADHERED TO THEIR METHODS. THE GREAT ENGLISH ORIENTALIST (E.G. BROWNE), WHO HAD LIVED AMONG THE PERSIANS FOR A LONG TIME AND HAD HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A CLOSE STUDY OF THEIR HISTORY, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE SAYS IN UNEQUIVOCAL WORDS IN HIS BOOK A LITERARY HISTORY OF PERSIA: "THE PERSIANS BORE MALICE ONLY AGAINST 'UMAR IBN KHATTAB, NOT BECAUSE HE (I.E. UMAR) USURPED THE RIGHTS OF ALI AND FATIMA, BUT BECAUSE HE INVADED PERSIA AND EXTERMINATED THE SASANIAN DYNASTY." HE FURTHER SAYS: "THE PERSIANS FOUND SOLACE AND COMFORT IN THE CHILDREN OF ALI IBN AL-HUSAIN, AS FAR AS THEY HAD KOWN THAT THE MOTHER OF ALI IBN HUSAIN WAS THE DAUGHTER OF THEIR KING YAZGARD. THEY THEREFORE, HELD THAT HER SONS HAD A GREATER CLAIM TO THE THRONES OF PERSIA. THIS CLAIM WAS FURTHER AUGMENTED WITH ANOTHER CLAIM, THE CLAIM OF THEIR NEW RELIGION, SHI'ISM. . . . . . . . ." SIMILARLY MUHAMMAD ASAD, A JEWISH CONVERT TO ISLAM AND A LEADING SCHOLAR WRITES ON THIS SUBJECT IN HIS BOOK ROAD TO MAKKAH AS UNDER :- WHEN, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY, THE ARMIES OF CALIPH UMAR CONQUERED THE ANCIENT SASANIAN EMPIRE, BRINGING ISLAM WITH THEM, IRAN'S ZOROASTRIAN CULT HAD ALREADY LONG BEEN REDUCED TO RIGID FORMALISM AND WAS THUS UNABLE TO OPPOSE EFFECTIVELY THE DYNAMIC NEW IDEA THAT HAD COME FROM ARABIA. BUT AT THE TIME WHEN THE ARAB CONQUEST BURST UPON IT, IRAN WAS PASSING THROUGH A PERIOD OF SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL FERMENT WHICH SEEMED TO PROMISE A NATIONAL REGENERATION. THIS HOPE OF AN INNER, ORGANIC REVIVAL WAS SHATTERED BY THE ARAB INVASION; AND THE IRANIANS, ABANDONING THEIR OWN HISTORIC LINE OF DEVELOPMENT, HENCEFORTH ACCOMMODATED THEMSELVES TO THE CUTLTURAL AND ETHICAL CONCEPTS THAT HAD BEEN BROUGHT IN FROM OUTSIDE. THE ADVENT OF ISLAM REPRESENTED IN IRAN, AS IN SO MANY OTHER COUNTRIES, A TREMENDOUS SOCIAL ADVANCE; IT DESTROYED THE OLD IRANIAN CASTE SYSTEM AND BROUGHT INTO BEING A NEW COMMUNITY OF FREE, EQUAL PEOPLE; IT OPENED NEW CHANNELS FOR CULTURAL ENERGIES THAT HAD LONG LAIN DORMANT AND INARTICULATE; BUT WITH ALL THIS, THE PROUD DESCENDANTS OF DARIUS AND XERXES COULD NEVER FORGET THAT THE HISTORICAL CONTINUITY OF THEIR NATIONAL LIFE, THE ORGANIC CONNECTION BETWEEN THEIR YESTERDAY AND TODAY, HAD SUDDENLY BEEN BROKEN. A PEOPLE WHOSE INNERMOST CHARACTER HAD FOUND ITS EXPRESSION IN THE BAROQUE DUALISM OF THE ZAND RELIGION AND ITS ALMOST PANTHEISTIC WORSHIP OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS -- AIR, WATER, FIRE AND EARTH -- WAS NOW FACED WITH ISLAM'S AUSTERE, UNCOMPROMISING MONOTHEISM AND ITS PASSION FOR THE ABSOLUTE. THE TRANSITION WAS TOO SHARP AND PAINFUL TO ALLOW THE IRANIANS TO SUBORDINATE THEIR DEEPLY ROOTED NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE SUPRANATIONAL CONCEPT OF ISLAM. IN SPITE OF THEIR SPEEDY AND APPARENTLY VOLUNTARY ACCEPTANCE OF THE NEW RELIGION, THEY SUBCONSCIOUSLY EQUATED THE VICTORY OF THE ISLAMIC IDEA WITH IRAN'S NATIONAL DEFEAT; AND THE FEELING OF HAVING BEEN DEFEATED AND IRREVOCABLY TORN OUT OF THE CONTEXT OF THEIR ANCIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE -- A FEELING DESPERATELY INTENSE FOR ALL ITS VAGUENESS -- WAS DESTINED TO CORRODE THEIR NATIONAL SELF-CONFIDENCE FOR CENTURIES TO COME. UNLIKE SO MANY IMMEDIATELY A MOST POSITIVE IMPULSE TO FURTHER CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, THE IRANIANS' FIRST - AND, IN A WAY, MOST DURABLE -- REACTION TO IT WAS ONE OF DEEP HUMILIATION AND REPRESSED RESENTMENT. THAT RESENTMENT HAD TO BE REPRESSED AND SMOTHERED IN THE DARK FOLDS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS, FOR IN THE MEANTIME ISLAM HAD BECOME IRAN'S OWN FAITH. BUT IN THEIR HATRED OF THE ARABIAN CONQUEST, THE IRANIANS INSTINCTIVELY RESORTED TO WHAT PSYCHOANALYSIS DESCRIBES AS 'OVERCOMPENSATION': THEY BEGAN TO REGARD THE FAITH BROUGHT TO THEM BY THEIR ARABIAN CONQUERORS AS SOMETHING THAT WAS EXCLUSIVELY THEIR OWN. THEY DID IT BY SUBTLY TRANSFORMING THE RATIONAL, UNMYSTICAL GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ARABS INTO ITS VERY OPPOSITE: MYSTICAL FANATICISM AND SOMBRE EMOTION. A FAITH WHICH TO THE ARAB WAS PRESENCE AND REALTIY AND A SOURCE OF COMPOSURE AND FREEDOM, EVOLVED, IN THE IRANIAN IND, INTO A DARK LONGING FOR THE SUPERNATURAL AND SYMBOLIC. THE ISLAMIC PRINCIPLE OF GOD'S UNGRASPABLE TRANSCENDENCY WAS TRANSFIGURED INTO THE MYSTICAL DOCTRINE (FOR WHICH THERE WERE MANY PRECEDENTS IN PRE-ISLAMIC IRAN) OF GOD'S PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION IN ESPECIALLY CHOSEN MORTALS WHO WOULD TRANSMIT THIS DIVINE ESSENCE TO THEIR DESCENDANTS. TO SUCH A TENDENCY, AN ESPOUSAL OF THE SHIA DOCTRINE OFFERED A MOST WELCOME CHANNEL; FOR THERE COULD BE NO DOUBT THAT THE SHIITE VENERATION, ALMOST DEIFICATION, OF ALI AND HIS DESCENDATNS CONCEALED THE GERM OF THE IDEA OF GOD'S INCARNATION AND CONTINUAL REINCARNATION - AN IDEA ENTIRELY ALIEN TO ISLAM BUT VERY CLOSE TO THE IRANIAN HEART. IT HAD BEEN NO ACCIDENT THAT THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD DIED WITHOUT HAVING NOMINATED A SUCCESSOR AND, INDEED, REFUSED TO NOMINATE ONE WHEN A SUGGESTION TO THAT EFFECT WAS MADE SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH. BY HIS ATTITUDE HE INTENDED TO CONVEY FIRSTLY, THAT THE SPIRITUAL QUALITY OF PROPHETHOOD WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT COULD BE 'INHERITED', AND, SECONDLY, THAT THE FUTURE LEADERSHIP OF THE COMMUNITY SHOULD BE THE OUTCOME OF FREE ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES AND NOT OF AN 'ORDINATION' BY THE PROPHET (WHICH WOULD NATURALLY HAVE BEEN IMPLIED IN HIS DESIGNATION OF A SUCCESSOR); AND THUS HE DELIBERATELY RULED OUT THE IDEA THAT THE COMMUNITY'S LEADERSHIP COULD EVER BE ANYTHING BUT SECULAR OR COULD BE IN THE NATURE OF AN 'APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION'. BUT THIS WAS PRECISELY WHAT THE SHIA DOCTRINE AIMED AT. IT NOT ONLY INSISTED -- IN CLEAR CONTRADICTION TO THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM -- ON THE PRINCIPLE OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION, BUT RESERVED THAT SUCCESSION EXCLUSIVELY TO 'THE PROPHET'S SEED', THAT IS, TO THIS COUSIN AND SON-IN-LAW ALI AND HIS LINEAL DESCENDANTS. THIS WAS ENTIRELY IN TUNE WITH THE MYSTICAL INCLINATIONS OF THE IRANIANS. BUT WHEN THEY ENTHUSIASTICALLY JOINED THE CAMP OF THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT MUHAMMAD'S SPIRITUAL ESSENCE LIVED ON IN ALI AND THE LATTER'S DESCENDANTS, THE IRANIANS DID NOT MERELY SATISFY A MYSTICAL DESIRE. THERE WAS YET ANOTHER, SUBCONSCIOUS MOTIVATION FOR THEIR CHOICE IF ALI WAS THE RIGHTFUL HEIR AND SUCCESSOR OF THE PROPHET, THE THREE CALIPHS WHO PRECEDED HIM MUST OBVIOUSLY HAVE BEEN USURPERS -- AND AMONG THEM HAD BEEN UMAR, THAT SAME UMAR WHO HAD CONQUERED IRAN! THE NATIONAL HATRED OF THE CONQUEROR OF THE SASANIAN EMPIRE COULD NOW BE RATIONALIZED IN TERMS OF RELIGION -- THE RELIGION THAT HAD BECOME IRAN'S OWN: UMAR HAD 'DEPRIVE' ALI AND HIS SONS HASAN AND HUSAYN OF THEIR DIVINELY ORDAINED RIGHT OF SUCCESSION TO THE CALIPHATE OF ISLAM AND, THUS, HAD OPPOSED THE WILL OF GOD; CONSEQUENTLY, IN OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD, ALI'S PARTY WAS TO BE SUPPORTED. OUT OF A NATIONAL ANTAGONISM; A RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE WAS BORN. IN THE IRANIAN ENTHRONEMENT OF THE SHIA DOCTRINE I DISCERNED A MUTE PROTEST AGAINST THE ARABIAN CONQUEST OF IRAN. NOW I UNDERSTOOD WHY THE IRANIANS CURSED UMAR WITH A HATRED FAR MORE BITTER THAN THAT RESERVED FOR THE OTHER TWO 'USURPERS', ABU BAKR AND UTHMAN; FROM THE DOCTRINAL POINT OF VIEW, THE FIRST CALIPH, ABU BAKR, SHOULD HAVE BEEN REGARDED AS THE PRINCIPLE TRANSGRESSOR -- BUT IT WAS UMAR WHO HAD CONQUERED IRAN. THIS, THEN, WAS THE REASON FOR THE STRANGE INTENSITY WITH WHICH THE HOUSE OF ALI WAS VENERATED IN IRAN. ITS CULT REPRESENTED A SYMBOLIC ACT OF IRANIAN REVENGE ON ARABIAN ISLAM (WHICH STOOD SO UNCOMPROMISINGLY AGAINST THE DEIFICATION OF ANY HUMAN PERSONALITY INCLUDING THAT OF MUHAMMAD). TRUE, THE SHIA DOCTRINE HAD NOT ORIGINATED IN IRAN; THERE WERE SHIITE GROUPS IN OTHER MUSLIM LANDS AS WELL; BUT NOWHERE ELSE HAD IT ACHIEVED SO COMPLETE A HOLD OVER THE PEOPLE'S EMOTIONS AND IMAGINATION. WHEN THE IRANIANS GAVE PASSIONATE VENT TO THEIR MOURNING OVER THE DEATHS OF ALI, HASAN AND HUSAYN, THEY WEPT NOT MERELY OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF ALI BUT ALSO OVER THEMSELVES AND THE LOSS OF THEIR ANCIENT GLORY. . . . . MUHAMMAD ASAD "ROAD TO MAKKAH" (Pp. 277 TO 279). __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." 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