Saturday 20 October 2012

"Ma'arifah" of the Imams

 Ma'arifah of the Imams is a very important topic. Yet at the same time, it is surrounded with complexities. It is often seen that those claiming to possess ma'arifah, will brand innocent Shias as muqassirs; while EXTREME forms of shirk are seen as the epitome of ma'arifah.
Therefore this post shall answer what exactly is ma'arifah of the Imams.


وسائل الشيعة (آل البيت) للحر العاملي (١١٠٤ هـ) الجزء١٤ صفحة٥٥٤

Wasail al Shia by Shaikh Hurr al Amili (1104 AH) Volume 14 Page 554

[ 19807 ] 10 ـ وبإسناده عن حمزة بن حمران قال : قال أبو عبدالله ( عليه السلام ) : تقتل حفدتي بأرض خراسان في مدينة يقال لها : طوس ، من زاره إليها عارفا بحقه أخذته بيدي يوم القيامة وأدخلته الجنة ، وإن كان من أهل الكبائر ، قلت له : جعلت فداك ، وما عرفان حقه ؟ قال : يعلم (1) أنه إمام مفترض الطاعة غريب شهيد ، من زاره عارفا بحقه أعطاه الله عزّ وجلّ أجر سبعين شهيدا ممن استشهد بين يدي رسول الله ( صلى الله عليه وآله ) وسلم على حقيقة. 
ورواه في ( عيون الاخبار ) عن الحسين بن إبراهيم بن تاتانه والحسين بن إبراهيم بن أحمد بن هشام المكتب وأحمد بن علي بن إبراهيم بن هاشم ومحمد بن علي ماجيلويه ومحمد بن موسى بن المتوكل وعلي بن عبدالله الوراق (2) كلهم ، عن علي بن إبراهيم ، عن أبيه ، عن محمد بن أبي عمير ، عن حمزة بن حمران (3).
ورواه في ( المجالس ) عن الحسين بن إبراهيم بن تاتانه ، عن علي بن إبراهيم مثله

[19807] 10- And by his isnad from Hamza b. Hamran who said: Abu Abdillah (as) said: "My grandson (Imam Ali al Reda) would be killed in the land of Khurasan, in a city called Toos. The one who did ziyarah of his grave with ma'arifah of the Imam, I shall take him by my hand and enter him into Heaven on the Day of Resurrection, even if he was from the people who had committed major sins." I (narrator) asked him: "May I be sacrificed for you! What is ma'arifah of the Imam?" He said: "It is to acknowledge that he is an Imam who must be obeyed, ghareeb (i.e. a poor stranger in the foreign city of Toos, in the case of Imam Ali al Reda) and a martyr. So the one who did his ziyarah with ma'arifah, Allah Almighty would bestow him with the reward of seventy martyrs martyred (fighting) alongside the Messenger of Allah."

This hadith was also reported by Shaikh Sadooq (in Uyun Akhbar al Reda) from Al Hussain b. Ibrahim b. Tatanh, and Al Hussain b. Ibrahim b. Ahmad b. Hisham al Muktab and Ahmadb. Ali b. Ibrahim b. Hashim and Muhammad b. ali Majiloweh and Muhammad b. Musa b. al Mutawakkil and Ali b. Abdullah al Warraq, all of them from Ali b. Ibrahim, from his father, from Muhammad b. Abi Umayr, from Hamzah b. Hamran.

And Shaikh Sadooq also reported similar hadith in Al Majalis from al Hussain b. Ibrahim b. Tatanh, from Ali b. Ibrahim.

Grading

Shaikh Murtada al Ansari (Faraidul Usul, Vol 1 Page 567): Authentic
Sahikh Hurr al Amil (Khatima Wasail, Page 249): Sahih 
 
الفوائد الرجالية - السيد بحر العلوم - ج ٣ - ص ٢١٩-٢٢٠
 
Al Fawaid al Rijaliyah by Syed Bahrul Uloom, Volume 3, Page 219-220

وقد حكى جدي العلامة - قدس سره - في كتاب الايمان والكفر عن الشهيد الثاني - طاب ثراه - : أنه احتمل الاكتفاء في الايمان بالتصديق بامامة الأئمة - عليهم السلام - والاعتقاد بفرض طاعتهم ، وإن خلا عن التصديق بالعصمة عن الخطأ . وادعى : أن ذلك هو الذي يظهر من جل رواتهم وشيعتهم ، فإنهم كانوا يعتقدون أنهم - عليهم السلام - علماء أبرار ، افترض الله طاعتهم ، مع عدم اعتقادهم العصمة فيهم ، وأنهم ( عليهم السلام ) مع ذلك كانوا يحكمون بإيمانهم وعدالتهم

And my grandfather, the Allama, had recounted in the book "Al Eeman wal Kufr" (The belief and the disbelief) from Shahid al Thani that he (Shahid al Thani) supported the sufficiency of the belief consisting of confirmation of the imamah (leadership) of the Imams (as) and the belief in their (the Imams') obedience being obligatory although not affirming their infallibility from mistakes. And he claimed that this is what is evident from the bulk of their (the Imams') narrators and followers (companions); for indeed they would believe that the Imams (as) are righteous scholars whose obedience has been made obligatory by Allah (swt) without believing in their infallibility, and that they (the Imams) however were leading by their faith and uprightness.

 *Translator's note: As is evident from authentic hadith as well as the behavior of the foremost companions of the Imams, ma'arifah of the Imams does not at all mean ascribing super human qualities and super natural powers to the Imams. Rather, ma'arifah simply entails considering their obedience to be absolutely compulsory, as well as acknowledging the severe hardships that they endured (so as to realise that they do not merely give orders, but actually endure extreme hardships in the path of truth).

As ma'arifah primarily entails acknowledging absolute obedience to the Imams, those professing by ma'arifah must then follow their ahadith so as to be able to obey the Imams (because the instructions/orders of the Imams are found in ahadith, not in popular culture, pre conceived notions etc) and must not reject (let alone mock) ahadith from our authoritative sources. Therefore, if for example (among MANY other things) authentic ahadith from our primary sources tell us to lock up women, not teach them how to write and only teach them the love of Ali and other than that leave them completely idiotic etc etc, we must not reject (and mock) those ahadith as being remnants of the stone-age (naudhubillah!) just because they do not comply to the current norms.

All in all, it is very easy to pay lip service to the Imams by rejecting their ahadith because they do not suit our tastes and disobeying them, while ascribing super human qualities to the Imams (and thus committing kufr and shirk)  and fooling oneself into thinking that this is ma'arifah. True ma'arifah is solely in obeying the Imams (i.e. their ahadith).  


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11 comments:

  1. Anonymous5 October 2011 at 10:23

    What the heck man. Did that pig believe that our imams asws were not masoom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bhooka_bhairiya5 October 2011 at 22:44

    @Anonymous: Salam,

    Why are you calling the author that I quoted (or the one whom he quoted) a pig? He is only narrating the beliefs of the early shias, not his own beliefs.

    Wassalam

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6 October 2011 at 02:25

    Bcos these shaheed e awaal saniy and hilli
    Infiltrated shiism by getting sunnism in. You should read books of fadl ibn shadaan or pre ghayba scholars

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bhooka_bhairiya6 October 2011 at 23:03

    The manhaj of shaheed 1 and 2, hilli etc did differ from the muqaddimeen and they introduced practices in fiqh, hadith science etc which were from the mukhalifeen.

    But in this particular post, the author is only referring to what is minimally sufficient to believe in the imamah and it is correct. Obviously that doesn't mean we should only have the bare minimum belief and reject the merits of the Imams (as), but we shouldn't blame those either who have only minimum belief because it is not correct to fault fellow shias.

    Wassalam

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7 October 2011 at 02:48

    I can understand the sahu part if Allah azwj wills but sinning of any of the imams a.s is outright against quran and the bare minimum necissity of the qualities found in an imam appointed by Allah azwj.

    These mullers want to proof that the imams were like them, like how the wahabis believed. They did so to confirm with extremist Sunni belief that rasool Allah saww sins and is like them

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bhooka_bhairiya7 October 2011 at 23:36

    I agree, Muhammad wa Aale Muhammad (pbuh) are not susceptible to sins and this is beyond doubt. As for what's been quoted in the post, you can see that the belief of the earlier shias that has been listed says that they (early shias) did not consider the Imams(as) ma'soom from MISTAKES (not sins, mistake would include sahw, oversleeping etc). And it also states that they considered the Imams (as) to be fully upright people with adalah.

    Some (many?) of the early shias and the classical scholars did consider the Imams (as) to be capable of forgetting etc (i.e. mistakes which are not sins) but they also didn't consider them to be susceptible to sins otherwise they would never consider their obedience obligatory.

    That is why I made this post because it highlights correct minimalist belief. If it considered the Imams (as) sinners or susceptible to sinning then I wouldn't have included it because that is not the belief of our salaf.

    Wassalam

    ReplyDelete
  7. ali_hussain21 October 2012 at 17:06

    as salaamu alaykum, but don't you think that simply following the ahadith is problematic because there is are a lot ghullu narrations in our books. In some ways, you can't really blame the ghullat of today in terms of their aqeeda (though it does go again the Qur'an).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ashiq Ali Ratnani22 October 2012 at 08:01

    Salam.

    The above hadees only state the first step.

    Once we read further into the narrations of the Imam's (as), we will finds many things which are really important in the eyes of the Imam's (as).

    Read below an authentic narration, specially the first para which talks about breaking their proof, their rights...

    Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Mahbub from ibn Ri’ab from Durays al-Kunasi who has said that he heard abu Ja‘far (As) the following to an audience of his companions.

    "What an strange case is the case with a group of followers! They acknowledge us as the Divine authority over themselves, accept us as their Imam and say that obedience to us is obligatory just as is the case with the Messenger of Allah. They then destroy the veracity of their belief as such and dispute against their own selves due to weakness of their hearts. They then diminish our right and blame those whom Allah has granted evidence to know us as it should be and the (ability) to submit themselves to our Divine authority.

    Do you not consider that how would Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, make it obligatory to obey those who possess Divine authority over his servants and then hide from them (people who possess Divine authority) `the new of the heaves and the earth? How would He cut them off of the sources of knowledge that might come to them to maintain their religion?"

    Humran then said to the Imam (As), "May Allah, take my soul in service for your cause, how would you explain the case of the uprising of Ali ibn abu Talib, al-Hassan and al-Husayn (As)? They came out and rose up for the cause of Allah, Whose name is so Majestic. How much they suffered and how mercilessly were they murdered at the hands of the rebels? They were defeated, murdered and over powered."

    Abu Ja‘far (As) then said, "O Humran, Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, had determined it on them. He had decreed, approved and made it unavoidable though the voluntary manner. He then allowed to take place. It, thus, happened with a pre-existing knowledge that had come to them from the Messenger of Allah. Ali, al-Hassan and al-Husayn (As) rose up for the cause of Allah with full knowledge of the consequences and remained silent from us those who remained silent.

    Had they, O Humran, when facing what Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, made them to face and suffer defeat at the hands of the rebels (apparent), asked Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, to remove their suffering and would implore Him to destroy the government and kingdom of the rebels He would have answered their prayers and would grant them relief. In such case the destruction of the governments of the rebels and the ending of their time would take place quicker than the dispersal under a great pressure, of beads threaded together. The suffering, O Humran, that befell them, was not because of the sins that they might have committed or the punishment for their opposition to Allah. It was because of the high marvellous position that Allah had prepared and wanted them to reach. Do not let people’s opinions take you away from the right path."

    [Source: Al-kafi, Vol.1 Pg.262, Chapter: The Imams (as) do have the knowledge of what was and will be, and that nothing is unknown to Them (as)]

    Note: Authentic Hadees as per the Sanad analysis. See Miraat-Al-Uqool - Allama Majlisi - Vol.3 Pg.131]


    http://www.marefateahlebait.com/know-the-ahlul-bait/knowledge-of-the-imam

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ashiq Ali Ratnani22 October 2012 at 08:43

    And Taqseer is not identified by what one beliefs, but based on what one rejects from the matters of the AhlulBait (as).
    And we have numerous narrations which clearly comdemn those who reject any of the narrations of the Imam's (as) which are unclear to them.

    Ahmad b. Muhammad narrated to us from al-Hasan b. Mahbub from Jamil b. Salih from Abu `Ubayda the shoemaker from Abu Ja`far عليه السلام. He said: I heard him saying: Indeed, by Allah, verily the most beloved of my companions to me is the most devout of them and the most learned (afqah) of them and the most concealing of them with our hadith. And verily the worst of state of them with me and the most detestable of them to me is the one who when he hears the hadith that is attributed to us and narrated from us, but he does not understand it and his heart does not accept it, he abhors it and denies it, and declares kufr upon the one professes by it, and he does not know whether perhaps the hadith has come out from us and from us is it sourced. So he is by that outside of our walaya.

    [Source: Basaair Al Darajaat, vol. 12, chapter. 22]

    Wassalam

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  10. Anonymous22 October 2012 at 19:48

    I am confused about what you guys are debating/arguing about.

    Please water it down for me please.

    TQ

    Xmen32

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bhooka_bhairiya22 October 2012 at 23:21

    Wa'laikummus salam brothers,

    Inshallah I'll comment a bit later on the points raised.

    Wassalam

    ReplyDelete