Eidol Ghadir and a Pious Leadership

On the 18^th of Zilhejjah of the 10^th year after Hijra, a great event took place by a small pond which lay on the way between Holy Mecca and Medina. On that day the holy Prophet of Islam (May the blessing of Allah be upon him and his progeny) conveyed his message to the 120,000-strong crowd of Haj pilgrims. This great event became known as Ghadir Khom in the history of Islam. Muslims term this day as Eid and celebrate it since it has a special value and sanctity for them. Eidol Ghadir was the day the holy Prophet of Islam returned from his last Haj pilgrimage from holy Mecca.

On return from the Haj pilgrimage the caravan was passing through the desert. The sound of camels belling broke the silence and brought uphoria and ecstasy to this valley. In that vast desert there are a number of huge trees. There was a region named Ghadir Khom, the site where the Haj caravans separated from each other. Each one of the Egyptians, Iraqis and the people of holy Medina had to traverse this spot to return to their lands.

God’s messenger was delving into himself. The caravan approached Ghadir Khom. It was then that the crowd of pilgrims noticed the changes in the Prophet’s mood.

At that moment Ayah 67 of Surah Maidah was revealed to him:

“O Apostle! Deliver what has been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do it not, then you have not delivered His message.”

The holy Prophet ordered the caravan to stop. Then the pilgrims made a pulpit for him. A tumult aroused among the crowd. All were keen to know what had happened. It seemed that a great mission was entrusted to the holy Prophet. So the holy prophet ascended the pulpit and said:

“O people, Hear my words, for it is possible that I may not meet you at this spot in the future. You and I are responsible. Have we carried out the mission?”

The pilgrims replied:” We testify that You have fulfilled Your mission. Then the holy Prophet said: I am leaving two memorable things among you-one of them is the Book of Allah and the other is my household , and if you abide by them you will never go astray.” After a pause the holy Prophet looked for Ali (PBUH) among the crowd, the person who was the constant companion of God’s messenger and the first person who believed in   the holy Prophet. The Prophet himself had several times praised the knowledge and competence of Ali (PBUH). The holy Prophet called upon  Ali and said: “O People who is the most competent to the faithful? “ The people answered: “God and His messenger know better.” At this juncture, the holy Prophet raised Ali’s hand and said: “God is my Master and I am the master of the faithful. Then the prophet continued Whosever master I am from  now on  Ali is his master  He then repeated these  sentences three times and then  said : “My God be friend with anyone who makes friendship with Ali and be enemy to anyone who has enmity toward  Ali. Love whoever loves Ali and hate whoever hates Ali. O people! Those present should convey these remarks to those who are absent.”

When the holy Prophet’s speech came to an end part of Ayah 3 of Surah Maidah was revealed to the holy Prophet:

“This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favor on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion;”

The appointment of Ali as leader was aimed at continuing the holy Prophet’s programs and policies after his passing away, whereas the infidels and the opposition thought that with the passing away of the holy Prophet, the light of Islam would be extinguished. God refers to this event as a perfection of religion. The Ghadir event is worth pondering from different aspects.

One is that leadership in Islam does not mean to win power and post but it is a divine posts and leader who should be immune from any wrongdoings. A pious leadership and Imamate of Muslims is so significant that God has cited it as one of the significant affairs of religion and a source for its perfection. For this reason, even the holy Prophet too can not appoint anyone to a divine status without God’s command. An issue which was explicitly acknowledged by God’s messenger. The history of Islam says: “When Prophet Mohammad invited the Bani Aamer tribe to embrace Islam, they said If we embrace Islam, would you entrust the leadership after you to us?” The holy Prophet replied: “It is the task of God to choose a successor to the Prophet. The Almighty will choose anyone He wishes. “

Therefore the choice of Ghadir has been made by God.

According to Islamic thinkers and exegetes the existence of a pious leader in the society is the most appropriate executive guarantee for safeguarding Islamic values and the security and soundness of a society. The Holy Prophet could not leave all the hardships he sustained for Islam without conclusion and planning.

Meanwhile, the appointment of Ali (PBUH) as successor proved that the leader of the Islamic community should enjoy special characteristics. Ali had spent all of his life in the path of justice and piety. Justice and piety are two prominent characteristics in the life of the Imam. It is evident that the human community is in dire need of such faithful and just leaders.

The other aspect of the Ghadir event is the issue of guardianship of people and society. The holy Prophet introduced Ali (PBUH) as the leader and guardian of Muslims. In this way the person who is the ruler and leader of people can not do whatever he wishes or embark on power display. He is responsible vis-à-vis the people so that with their cooperation he would materialize divine values and establish justice and security in the society.

Islamic guardianship stresses the fact that a leader of a society should have prominent characteristics such as piety, knowledge, insight, bravery and justice.

Imam Ali (PBUH) believed that ruling by itself has no value unless it becomes a means for materializing the rights of the oppressed. For this reason, he said: “Ruling to me is as worthless as priceless shoes, unless I restore a right and remove evil. “

Throughout history, thinkers and scholars have spoken and researchers have written many books about the Ghadir event. In the book entitled Al-Ghadir written by the famous Islamic thinker Allameh Amini   the names of about 60 Sunni thinkers who confirm the Ghadir event have been mentioned. One of them is Ebne Moghazeli who writes in the book entitled Manaqeb:

“The Hadith of Ghadir is a credible one which has been narrated by about 100 companions of God’s messenger. This Hadith is a virtue allocated only to Ali (PBUH).

Ebne Talhe Shafei also says:

“This day is termed Ghadir Khom and became an Eid for Muslims, for, God’s messenger appointed Ali to a high status."

How much do we know About God?

In the world we are living in, it is almost impossible in these days to live without being insulted of ones dignity his/her religion or God. We are living in a time in which everything has been and will be criticized. It does not matter how these values are noble, holy, or scared and important to others. In this era, God is being questioned, creation is being doubted, and faith is being criticized. Therefore, how much we know about God depends on who you are explaining to. However, there should some common sense to every one whether they are believer of God or not. Through his signs, such as his creations including human beings, many things can be known about God. Even though there are some limitations of how much we know about Him due to our limited capability of understanding about his power and miracles. The word God is being defined in almost all dictionaries, books, and major monotheistic religions as Deity, omniscient powerful, perfect, originator, ruler, and creator of the universe. Therefore, for this definition, it is clear that there is something called God exists. However, it might not be convincing enough to some individuals. The word sign is defined as something that suggests the existence, or presence of a fact, condition, or quality.
From the definition in which it was defined to both God and sign will help us to elaborate our knowledge about the creator- God. Everything in this world has origins and base, in which they have begun in the first place. This beautiful building that we are sitting in is consisted of many different things including woods, bricks, and concretes, iron, metals, which themselves were brought from other places and have been put together. These objects have not just come randomly together and formed themselves this s helpful, and useful beautiful building. Architectures, engineers, economist, and other well expert individuals have come together to make it what we as a building today. These experts planned and calculated how many bricks, woods, metals, and money would be in this building. After all these plans and calculations, it became a very useful place that we are using to study, sleep, relax, and use for our daily affairs. Thus, there would be no doubt about the creation of this building, if you ask anyone; they would tell you the same thing. If you say this building just evolved and became the way it is, they will laugh and look at you as crazy, idiot, and unthinkable person. They do not say that you are ignorant, because how it obvious process. They assume that even an ignorant person can know this building does not just come out of the blue but instead, it was constructed and built by knowledgably group of people. As humans we have been given the ability of reasoning, thinking, and understanding capability that give us a sense that this did not erect itself.
From that basic example, we, humans are able to understand that this building was made, and it was made for a purpose. On the other hand, we see heaven, sky, humans, and water; to name a few, but still reject the presence of God. One example would be enough for us to think for a moment about the existence of God. The miracle of human being’s creation is of what we are made of originally; the tiny gushing water is placed in the female’s womb, the unification of the egg and sperm, the development of heart, lungs, legs, hands, skin, muscles, blood, the five sense etc. Each one of these organs or systems in our body is designed to do a specific job.
For example, the heart that starts beating after the beginning of the unification of the egg and sperm till we die. If the heart stops beating for a minute or so our life will be in danger and our existence on earth will come to an end. The life in the womb, and birth would be a miracle it-self. The intelligence we develop during our life, creativeness, and ability to run the whole world are other things to consider. Almost all other creations are here in the world for our benefits. For example, we use horses, cows, camels, sheep, and goats for useful gains. We also benefit from rain, seas, and oceans even though they are God’s creations. Therefore, we are given the authority of the world’s affairs to use everything in it and the intelligence to know a simple thing as a building cannot just come by itself and the fact no one can claim it as the creator of the building, but instead we give names and credit the architectures and engineers who built it. How can we not know and understand the engineer and Creator of our won selves? I think one is contradicting him or herself when they claim that they know this building was built by a group of people but to not know God’s creation (Their own body).
For the above fact, we indeed understood the existence of God. For the fact of those creations we know a lot about him because he taught about himself to us through his messengers. Given the fact that we need to have laws to govern ourselves to keep us out from deviation and misguiding, so did God chose individuals amongst us and sent to us with guidance, which allows us to maintain justice and fairness amongst us and to govern the world, in which He gave its authority to us. He knows us better then we do. Therefore a religion is God’s law to humankind and away to know Him.
A religion is the God’s word and that same religion explains about him that he created all the creations from nothing and gave the following attributions to Him. Inbody said in his book the Faith of the Christian Church, “Transcended, eternity, simplicity, infinity, immutability, holiness, omniscience, Omnibenevolnce, and omnipotence” (P. 139).
Based on this fact, we know about him a lot even though, the knowledge about God may vary between individuals. Since we see all the signs including our won creation and have his actual words (religion), we have enough knowledge about him. For example, if you are told by someone, you have not seen this writer, political figure, mathematician, etc. Physically, but you have seen his or her books, letters, and saw a lot of stuff that this person did including his or her buildings, roads, bridges etc, you know as a fact that this individual, for you have his or her writings before. Logically everyone will accept the practical evidence of this person, when you give them his or her books, and show them all their actions, arts, and works he or she did even though they have not seen him or her physically. However they kind of see it mentally, therefore they will have in their mind images of this person.
Thus, we know God subjectively, for we have seen His signs, and read His words. One has enough knowledge about Him but there are some individuals who know God more than the rest. These individuals are the scholars of religions. In normal life, there are always some individuals whose knowledge exceeds the rest. For example, if you read the writings and biography of someone called Gate, you probably know more about him than us who did not read about him but heard. In this case the churches, synagogues, or mosques have big roles in educating people about God.
On the other hand, objectively, our knowledge, about God is limited. There are some limitations that we cannot pass. Physically, we do not know about God, and there is no need to know about Him. As same as we do not know the person whom we read about his or her writings, saw his or her actions, designs, but never saw him or her physically. Overall, we know a lot about God, we have witness a lot of his actions, saw His religion, and finally read His books, the different religions.

The unhappy search for the “gay” Muslim

As anyone who has criticised Zionism, we’ve been accused of being anti-Semitic, and now we are likely to be called homophobic too, for not conceding that homosexuality is a normal condition and simply a matter of choice. However, as our guest writer Alexander Baron points out in his article in this issue, these are smear terms coined to discredit and bereft of any real meaning. People who disagree with homosexuality are not afraid of homosexuals, as the term homophobia would imply, they are disgusted by them. Nor is there anything gay about the unhealthy and unstable lifestyles of members of the vociferous GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transsexual) movement.  
So why do we concern ourselves with them in this issue of Common Sense? All too often have Muslims in the West closed their eyes and buried their heads in the sand vis-à-vis the civilisational diseases surrounding us, hoping and praying that they were somehow immune to them. Ignoring a problem does not make it go away, and the problem of homosexual propaganda and intimidation must be addressed rather than ignored or laughed off. Young people especially are vulnerable and more susceptible to propaganda. The Muslim youth are confused and unsure of their identity, they have dabbled into rap music and drug culture, they are experimenting with relationships, whilst their elders pretend that all is fine as long as they continue flattering each other at the mosque about the great services they render to the community. Our youth are a welcome prey to ill-meaning people with an agenda.  
In the past “gay rights” campaigners limited themselves to trying to make Muslims feel bad for not understanding and for “victimising” them. Muslim speakers at universities were asked to give an undertaking that they would not say anything considered prejudicial to people with a different “sexual orientation”. In the old one rule for one, another rule for another tradition, non-Muslim speakers were never asked not to offend Muslim sensitivities during their lectures. Muslim bashing remains the acceptable face of anti-Semitism.  
On an international level a similar approach brought repeated attempts to have an unnatural sexual orientation enshrined as a human right. Once this concept were accepted, UN support programmes or any other assistance could then be tied to the condition placed upon the recipient party to safeguard this “human right”. Thus, bullying and bribery remain the most potent means of changing the minds of people who refuse to be convinced by a spurious argument.  
Meanwhile, the movement feels confident enough to target the Muslim community more directly, very much in the same way as they have already broken the resistance of the Catholic Church, for example. The high-profile reporting of homosexual priests portrays Christian opposition to such unnatural practices as hypocritical. If Muslims could be made to “come out”, or be exposed, as homosexuals, the persistent opposition of Muslims as a whole might equally be broken.  
A cursory search of the internet, this hotchpotch of truths, half-truths, and the bizarre shows a growing presence of such attempts. It also shows the increased confidence of those who want to undermine and pervert Islamic teachings. There is, for example, a group called “Queer Jihad”, which used to be run by a Sulaiman X, a self-styled admirer of Malcolm X with Buddhist leanings. His approach was one of pleading for “tolerance” for Muslims who “discovered” that they were gay or lesbian, advocating a non-physical “love” relationship between Muslim members of the same sex attracted to each other whilst acknowledging the opposition of Islamic teachings to such a relationship. He obviously realised that a religion which does not even condone heterosexual casual relationships and insists on marriage as a precondition for intimacy would hardly be lenient towards members of the same sex living in sin together.  
This “pioneer” of the Muslim branch of the homosexual movement has now been replaced by a former Baptist convert to homosexual Islam who has come with his own agenda. From the plea for tolerance of his predecessor this advocate of the homosexual lifestyle has moved to dabbling into the interpretation of Qur’an and Hadith and trying to make the case that homosexuality is Islamically acceptable per se. The people of Lot were not destroyed simply because they were homosexual, but because they tried to force themselves with lust upon others who were not, he argues. It’s the public rape they were guilty of, not the same sex activity amongst each other. He goes further trying to construe from a selection of Hadith that homosexuality was an accepted practice at the time of the prophet, provided that those engaged in it did not intend to marry a member of the opposite sex at a later stage.  
Absurd as all this may sound, it is a poison administered at a time where the new generation of Muslims are no longer well versed in the teachings and source texts of Islam and obtain much of their information from the world wide web. Unless one understands that this is a concerted propagandistic effort by a well-organised and funded movement, not just the “queer” ramblings of a few eccentric and deranged people, there is a real danger that the certainties of faith will be eroded as has happened in the case of other religions.  
The “gay” lobby in this country is powerful enough to force a leadership debate in the Conservative Party. Public sympathy for homosexuals is not as common as the propaganda suggests, but neither is there much sympathy for Muslims. Just as the British National Party joined the convenient bandwagon of anti-Muslim sentiment to pursue its racist agenda, the homosexual movement will find this an opportune time for attacking Islam’s “homophobia”. To withstand this onslaught, we must address the issues in an informed way and avoid being apologetic.