Ep 27 — The Paradise of Wilayat

Session 25: The Paradise of Wilayat. delivered Sunday, 21 Mehr 1353 / 26 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Hajj (22:41). [They are] those who, if We give them authority in the land, establish the prayer and pay the alms-due and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong; and to God belongs the final outcome of all affairs. Following the previous discussions, two things in the matter of wilayah are worth noting: first, a brief introduction to the society possessing wilayah and to the individual possessing wilayah; and second, the role — a panoramic view — of a society in which wilayah exists. Over the past day or two, as we discussed this theme, something came into our hands from reflection upon the verses of the Qur'an. That reflection, of course, was aided by our connection with the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt in the matter of wilayah, which already existed in our minds, and it reached its conclusions on that basis; so what we have stated is a distillation, both from the Qur'an and from the hadith. And the distillation that emerged from these discussions was this: wilayah has several dimensions, several manifestations. One of them is this: that the Muslim society should not be dependent upon and attached to elements outside its own being; it should not have attachment to the non-Muslim. And of course we explained that this not being attached and not being dependent is one thing, while having no relations at all is quite another thing. We never say that the world of Islam should live in political and economic isolation and should have no relationship whatsoever with any of the non-Muslim nations and countries and powers; no, that is not the point. The issue is the issue of not being dependent, not being attached and a mere follower, not being digested and dissolved into other powers, of independence and standing on one's own feet — in short. Another manifestation, another body and surface of wilayah, is the very intense internal cohesion and bond among the Muslim elements. That is: when the Islamic society is under discussion for us, in our minds, what they call wilayah is the Islamic society's being unified and moving in one direction. As there is in the Prophetic and non-Prophetic narrations: The likeness of the believers in their mutual affection and their mutual mercy is like the likeness of a single body — like one single frame, like one single building, like the interconnected parts of a single structure; the Muslims must be joined to one another, fused to one another, knotted to one another, and in short, must be a single hand against the other hands and against the conflicts and enmities that will arise. You saw this point fully in yesterday's verse. Again, among the verses of Surat al-Ma'idah is the verse humble toward the believers, mighty against the disbelievers. In another verse of the Qur'an, this very same point is again expressed even more clearly: Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and those who are with him are severe against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. When they stand facing the external front, you see nothing firmer and more impervious to breach than they are; you see nothing more impervious to influence and more impenetrable; independent. But in the internal fronts — and to use the term "front" here is essentially incorrect, since there is no front-formation inside; inside, among the bodies and the wings of this immense Islamic frame, there is no impenetrability at all, no breach and no imperviousness to influence; on the contrary, all of them act upon one another, all of them draw one another toward goodness and virtue, all of them counsel one another to follow the truth ever more, all of them counsel one another to persevere ever more firmly in the path of truth and to resist ever more strongly against the motives of evil and corruption and decline, all of them hold one another up. And as I gave the example the other day: like ten seasoned mountaineers and climbers, who are making their way through these twists and turns of the mountain, along these narrow trails where, if a single clod, a single stone, slips out from beneath the foot of one climber, that is enough to send him plunging headfirst into the depths of a ravine — a hundred meters, two hundred meters, five hundred meters down. Here, the way for all the individuals to remain safe is this: that they bind their waists to one another with a rope as strong as possible, that they have mutual attraction, that they take one another's hand, that they call out to one another: "So-and-so, you have not lost the way, have you? You have not fallen behind, have you? You have not gone hungry, have you?" They watch to see whether there is among them anyone who, intellectually, materially, or in terms of knowing right and truth, is weaker than the others. If there is, then all strive to guide him, all try to draw him onto the straight path — in short, a family with members and individuals who are one hundred percent sincere with one another. This too is another of the manifestations of wilayah, that the Islamic society is of this kind. Yet another manifestation of wilayah is this: the Islamic society needs an administering center with particular conditions. We mentioned it in the previous days as being very important — the most important of all — and it is also the guarantor of the survival of wilayah in the first and second senses. The Islamic society must have the status of a single frame: both mutually attracted and cohesive with one another within, and outwardly manifesting like a single fist, like a single body, like a single person in the face of the external fronts. This unity is necessary in the Islamic society; and unity, without a concentration of administering power, is not possible. If over every corner of the corners of the world of Islam there should rule some agent, some power, some pole [of authority], the parts of this frame will disperse from one another, will separate from one another, will not move along a single path. It becomes exactly like this: that the organism of the administering nerves of the human being should be transformed, from its present condition, into the state in which there were two nervous command-systems in the human being — one for the right side, one for the left side. Now that both of them are one, if I wish to move these two hands of mine in a coordinated fashion, I can; because both hands take their inspiration from a single center. The gentleman who wishes to lift a column and set it on that side, to lift a weight and place it on that side — both his hands, since they obey a single command-center, work together, work in proportion with one another. This hand comes and takes hold from this side, that hand also takes hold from that side, both press toward one side, then together they lift the weight. But if the command-center of the body's nerves became two in the human being — one for the right side, one for the left side — then here the right hand and the left will no longer have coordination with one another. The right hand, to take hold of this weight and heavy load, has opened its fingers; now the left hand, since it is taking its command and inspiration from another center, at that very moment is pressing these fingers together all the more tightly. The right hand says to the left hand, "Cooperate, you too take this side of the weight." No indeed, it does not lend an ear at all. At the very moment when this hand is ready to lift and grasp this load, the other hand has turned completely into a fist drawn in upon itself, clenched, frozen — under no circumstances is it willing to take this load at all. They reach another place, [where] they come up against an enemy; this hand that had been a fist now wishes to strike that enemy on the head; it says to the other hand, "Well, you help too, so we may land two double-blows on his head, with two fists smash his brain to pieces, so we may sooner be rid of him." But this hand now, to make up for the fact that the other had been obstinate there, in obedience to the command-center of the right-side nerves, becomes obstinate. It says, "No indeed, I now wish to be open, wide open." Well, this one comes down as a fist; that one is not at all ready to strike upon the head of that enemy. You see, sir, that if the body of the human being were to take its command and its inspiration, in its nerves, from two command-centers, what an absurd condition this body would acquire. Where it is supposed to lift a load, it cannot. Where it is supposed to transfer something from one place to another, again it cannot. Where it is supposed to repel an enemy, again it cannot. If the Islamic society wishes to repel its enemies in the right place, at the right time, and well — if one corner of the Islamic society today takes a thought to repelling the enemy, and another corner takes it up the day after tomorrow, again there is no benefit. If a society and a single frame wishes to do battle with its enemy, all the wings of this Islamic society must, at one and the same time, confront and face that enemy. If this one takes the thought today, that one tomorrow, the third day that other wing and that other corner awakens from sleep, then that enemy, with an easy mind — [creates and brings about] the affair of those same three persons who had gone into the vineyard which Rumi has related — brings about and produces this affair, and will out-trick them all; just as this experience has occurred not once, not twice, but at least ten times in the history of Islam. So if the Islamic society wishes to attract benefits at the right time, to repel harms and losses at the right time, to be on the inside parts that are congenial and connected with one another, and on the outside, in the face of the enemy, to hold the status of a single fist and a single hand — in short, if it wishes to secure within itself those two surfaces and two dimensions and two aspects of wilayah, it needs to have within itself a powerful command-center, so that all the active and energetic elements of this society may take their inspiration from that center: their intellectual energy, their practical energy, the activities of their life, their crushing of enemies, their cherishing of friends. That center which, in the heart of the society and within the body of the Islamic society, administers all the wings, sets each person to the work worthy of his rank, prevents conflicts, guides the forces in one direction — he must be from God, must be learned, must be aware, must be trustworthy and safeguarded [from error], must be a crystallized being of all the constituent elements of Islam, must be a manifestation of the Qur'an. What name do we give him? We give him the name of wali (guardian). So wilayah in the Islamic society, in those two respects which I have stated, requires that there be a wali present in the society. This too is one dimension and one body and one surface from among the dimensions of the matter of wilayah. This was the explanation of the previous discussions. The question that arises after this is: do I and you, sir, possess wilayah or not? It is possible that I and you possess wilayah; but does our society, taken as a whole, possess wilayah or not? Does it make a difference, sir? Yes — it is possible that one member [of the body] should in itself be sound, but the soundness of one member, first, does not mean the soundness of the whole body — this is one point; and second, a sound member, if it is placed in an unsound body, cannot possess all the merits of a sound member — these are two points. First let us see what kind of person a human being with wilayah is, so that we may understand whether I personally and you personally possess wilayah or not. And if it should be proven and made clear — God willing — that I and you possess wilayah, then we must proceed to see how a society must be in order to possess wilayah. There is no obstacle to it whatsoever; "there is no obstacle" — I mean it is possible; that is my meaning; not that there is no problem with it — there is a great deal of problem with it — but there is no obstacle at all to our supposing a human being possessing wilayah within a society devoid of wilayah. Has this human being's responsibility come to an end? Merely because he himself possesses wilayah, even though he lives in a society deprived of and bare of wilayah — is this life a desirable life? And if a person himself possessed wilayah but lived in a society that is without wilayah, and he felt no responsibility in the face of the society's lack of wilayah — does this very absence of a sense of responsibility not itself injure and ruin his own wilayah? These are headings upon which you, the Muslim man, the Muslim woman, and especially the Muslim youth, must reflect. It is possible that I may not have enough time and opportunity to expound each one of these for you; and if I wished to expound each one of these for you, so that all the individuals here present might properly grasp the matter, this would require that we discuss each one of these headings for a day, say — and I do not have that much time. The question is this: first, let us see what kind of human being a human being possessing wilayah is. How must I be, [so that] I possess wilayah? How must I be, [so that] I do not possess wilayah? That is one. Second, let us see how we — the society, the social body of human beings who have gathered together in one place — must be, in order to possess wilayah, and how we will not possess wilayah. In what condition is a society a society possessing a guardian (wali) and a custodian and friends-and-helpers (mawali), in the form that Islam has commanded; and in what condition, and under what circumstances, is it deprived of wilayah — that wilayah which Islam has spoken of. Now the third and fourth questions — and I am repeating, so that each of you gentlemen may fix them in your minds. Those of you who are people of precision and reflection and note-taking, take notes. Go and think on it yourselves. Use your own stored-up Islamic mental resources and the existing Islamic texts. Arrive at the meaning of the verdict on these questions yourselves. The third question: a human being who possesses wilayah — has his duty come to an end merely with the possessing of wilayah for his own person? Does he have no duty to build a society possessing wilayah? This too is a question. The fourth question: if a man himself possessed wilayah, lived in a society deprived of wilayah, and felt no sense of duty to make the society possess wilayah — will this not feeling of duty not blemish his own wilayah? This very thing, that he is not thinking of making others too possess wilayah — does not this very not-thinking itself weaken his wilayah, blemish it, ruin it? This too is another question. These questions we must discuss. Now I will raise one or two of them, discuss them, talk them over. Of course, when this has been discussed, then compare in your own minds this progressive, exalted, fascinating, sensible meaning of wilayah — pronounced by the Qur'an, spoken by the hadith — with that meaning which the lazy, ease-loving, comfort-seeking, hardship-fleeing, facility-seeking man imagines wilayah to be for himself. A group imagine that possessing wilayah is a matter of a man's merely weeping in the gatherings of the Ahl al-Bayt. They imagine that possessing wilayah is a matter of necessarily saying peace be upon them after the name of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) is mentioned; only this and nothing more. They imagine that possessing wilayah is a matter of having the love of the Ahl al-Bayt in one's heart, this and nothing more. Yes, to have the love of the Ahl al-Bayt is obligatory and incumbent. To utter the name of these great ones with reverence is most fitting and necessary. To hold a gathering in their name and to draw lessons from their mourning and their joy, to recount their mourning, to recount their joy, to weep over their nobilities, over their gallantries, over the wrongs done to them — all of these are necessary; but all of these are not wilayah; wilayah is higher than this. The one who sits in the gathering of the Master of Martyrs (the blessings and peace of God be upon him) and sheds tears does a good thing in that he sheds tears; but he does a bad thing if he reckons the shedding of tears to be sufficient for the possessing of wilayah. Understand well what I am saying. Those whose minds are under the influence of the malicious or ignorant suggestions and inducements of certain mercenary and malicious hands — let them pay close attention. Let it not be said that someone is opposed to weeping for the Master of Martyrs — no. Even if anyone is opposed, we are not opposed; we are in favor. We say that weeping over Imam Husayn (the blessings and peace of God be upon him) can at times save a whole nation. The Tawwabun (the Penitents) went and sat at the grave of Husayn ibn 'Ali, and for twenty-four hours, or forty-eight hours, or three days, did nothing but weep. What was the result of that weeping? The result of those weepings was that they made a pact of death and blood with one another. They said, "We will go into this battlefield, we will not turn back; we make a covenant that we will not return alive." This is the weeping for Imam Husayn. No one is opposed to this. To utter with reverence the name of Husayn ibn 'Ali (the blessings of God be upon him) and of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) — no sane person is opposed to it, no Shi'ah; the Sunni too is not opposed, the unbeliever too is not opposed. Anyone who comes to know them confirms that the name of these ones must be uttered with reverence. On the twenty-third night I said here, for those of you who were present: a family whose inheritance is martyrdom, a family whose most precious keepsake is sacrifice and giving one's life in the way of God, a family whose every resource, whose whole being, is dedicated and devoted purely to God — should a human being not commemorate this family with reverence? He must do so. I give you my word: go to Europe, to America, to any city of any unbeliever-land, to any land of foreigners-to-Islam, in any place where they have not even heard the name of Islam; say, "There was a man, his name was 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, his life-story is this." Begin to recount the life-story of the Commander of the Faithful from beginning to end in summary, and you will see that, in honor of this figure, in honor of this human being who has so many glories in his life, they will applaud, they will show respect, they will glorify, they will bow in reverence, and they will keep his name in their minds as a precious memorial from you. This is not peculiar to the Shi'ah. Have you now performed some great feat that, when you say "'Ali ibn Abi Talib," you say "peace be upon him" after it? Have you done some momentous thing? And do you imagine that wilayah means just this? What a great mistake. That wilayah which carries a human being to Paradise — this is not it. Of course, weeping over Imam Husayn can be counted as one of the corners, the branches, the very far-removed sections of the great principle of wilayah. A group of people, truly out of ignorance, and — God willing — out of ignorance and not out of malice, raise these issues. They raise the issue of weeping; the issue of, may I say, verbal enmities with the enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt — not intellectual enmities; they raise issues of this sort; they raise the superficial issues of the chapter of wilayah and Shi'ism, and they confine wilayah to these; and how astonishing it is that they beat down the comprehenders of wilayah, the knowers of wilayah, and the possessors of wilayah with this very weapon. This is most amusing. They confine wilayah within a domain and a narrow, small precinct that is not worthy of this great Islamic principle. Wilayah in a human being means an ever-greater and ever-increasing intellectual and practical attachment to the wali. Find the wali; come to know the wali of God, the one who is the rightful wali of the Islamic society; identify him; and after you have identified him, connect yourself to him personally, intellectually, in deed, in temperament, in path and method and manner; link yourself to him, bind yourself to him; set out after him, move. If your effort is his effort, your jihad his jihad, your friendship his friendship, your enmity his enmity, your front-formations his front-formations — then you possess wilayah. Two words, and easy. Did you grasp what I said? The person possessing wilayah is this: that he know the wali, know the thought of the wali, become of one mind with the wali, know the conduct of the wali, become of one deed with the wali, set out after him, make himself attached to the wali both in thought and in deed — this is [a person] with wilayah. Which of you is ready to raise your hand and say, like a man, "I possess wilayah"? And which of us is ready to confess, like a man, that we did not possess complete wilayah? We confined wilayah to nothing but this — that in our hearts there is love of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and that we shed a single tear too for the Commander of the Faithful — even though our deeds are contrary to the deeds of 'Ali, our thought and our notions contrary to the thought and notions of 'Ali. Have we named this wilayah? We made up for ourselves a legend, a myth, a superstition, and gladdened our hearts with it; we reckoned ourselves to be among the friends and helpers (mawali) of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) and to be possessors of wilayah, and were happy that all that belongs to the friends of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, we reckon to be certainly and definitely ours. This is a great wrong; this is a great injustice against the right of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib. This is a great injustice against the right of Islam, since wilayah is for Islam; and this is a great injustice against the right of this great principle, the principle of wilayah. And we are not even willing to understand wilayah. This — that Imam al-Sadiq (the blessings and peace of God be upon him) recognizes the worth of his friends, those who possess wilayah, and holds them in honor, and reckons wilayah to lie in deed, and says, "The one who possesses deed, he is our wali [friend]; the one who does not possess deed, he is our enemy" — this is based on this very thing. Since Imam al-Sadiq interprets wilayah in that way, since wilayah in the culture of Imam al-Sadiq is different from wilayah in the culture of that ignorant or malicious person who is living off the name of Imam al-Sadiq — these two are different from one another. Why should I and you not understand the meaning of wilayah? Why should we not deeply comprehend this Islamic principle, so that we may not remain, ever more, in stagnation and rigidity and torpor and backwardness and remoteness from Islam and remoteness from this world and the next — why? I fear that we may keep ourselves, in hope of Paradise, a lifetime in the hellfire of this world, and that at the moment when we give up our soul — which is the time for the embodiment of wishes and the realization of long and far-reaching hopes — there too there may be no trace of Paradise. How great a cause for regret that is. The wilayah of a human being is his absolute attachment and dependence upon the wali; he must be attached and joined — this is one. And now, the wilayah of a society — in what does it consist? The wilayah of a society consists in this: that the wali in that society, first, be identified; that they know that this is the wali; this is one. Second, that he be the source and the inspirer of all the forces, energies, and activities of that society. That he be a pole from which all the streams and wellsprings flow down. That he be a center from which he issues all commands and by which he executes all laws. That he be a point to which all the threads and strings return, to which all look, after which all go. That he start up the engine of life in this society; that he be the driver and the vanguard of the caravan of life in the society. This society is a society possessing wilayah. The Commander of the Faithful (the blessings of God be upon him), after the Prophet, did not hold the reins of the community in his hand for twenty-five years. The Islamic society, after the Prophet, for twenty-five years did not possess wilayah; it was finished and gone. In that society, Salman personally possessed wilayah, Abu Dharr personally possessed wilayah, Miqdad personally possessed wilayah, that other one personally possessed wilayah — but what of the Islamic society? The Islamic society, after the Prophet, for twenty-five years did not possess wilayah. Then the Commander of the Faithful reached the rule, and the Islamic society came to possess wilayah. How much of it? Exactly that much by which 'Ali, in that measure, in that portion, in that part, was the source and the inspirer and the bedrock of the commands and ordinances and gnoses and recognitions. The wilayah of a community is in this. Whenever the Imam rules in a society, when the Imam becomes the source of command and prohibition in the society, when all the threads issue from the Imam, when the Imam is actually administering the society, when it is the Imam who fastens the banner of war, when it is the Imam who gives the order of attack, when it is the Imam who writes the peace treaty — then the society is a society possessing wilayah; and otherwise, the society does not possess wilayah. This too is the society possessing wilayah. Now, if you possess wilayah, give thanks to God; if you do not possess it, set out after it. If such a blessing rests upon your head, give thanks to God. There is no blessing greater than the blessing of wilayah. I will now explain for you how there is no blessing greater than wilayah. If you do not possess it, set out after it, secure wilayah within your own person and within human society. Try to live in the manner of 'Ali; let us try to set out after 'Ali; let us try to establish a bond between ourselves and 'Ali, who is the wali of God. These require striving, require effort, require struggle, require the consuming of heart's blood. And let me tell you that the rightly-guiding Imams (peace be upon them), after the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, strove ceaselessly in the path of wilayah, ceaselessly. The whole effort of the Imams was for this: that they should bring wilayah to life, revive the Islamic society, and make this sapling — which has been planted in the name of "the human being" in this field, in this orchard, in this nursery — alive and verdant and flourishing with the wholesome water of the life-giving, life-creating wilayah. This was the effort of the Imams, by its own path, in the requisite form. To strive for the wilayah of a society does not mean that we should sit and constantly wag our chins and constantly babble idly and curse Zayd and 'Amr, this one and that one. By these deeds, wilayah is not built; by these deeds, we fall farther from wilayah. The way is for us to strive to give power to the wali of Islam, to the wali whom God has named. Yesterday I specified what kind of being the wali whom God has named is. Yesterday I said: one wali God names by name, one wali God names by description. There is a case in which 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), Hasan ibn 'Ali (peace be upon him), Husayn ibn 'Ali (peace be upon him), 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (peace be upon him), down to the last of the Imams, are specified by name and by particular characteristics; and there is a case in which, no, they are not specified by name; that very wali who has been specified by name says: As for the one among the jurists who is a guardian of his own soul, a protector of his religion, an opposer of his own caprice, obedient to the command of his Master…; in this way he specifies him. The wali is the wali; this one too is from God, that one too is from God. Only, that one they have specified by name, this one they have not specified by name; this one's characteristics they have stated. You yourself reckoned, measured, took the dimensions, set the pattern, and saw that — for example — His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Aqa Burujirdi fitted it. Did you take note? When a human being is resolved to bring to life and revive the Islamic laws and the divine ordinances in the society, in the form that wilayah dictates, then he goes searching and finds the way to it. He searches, and learns the methods and modes that the world lays upon the shoulder and around the neck of the human being. Now we are not discussing methods and modes; we are discussing the principle of it. Then, if a society comes to possess wilayah, what happens? It is well that I say it in a single word: it is a corpse that will come to possess a soul. This single word is enough. Consider a corpse: it lies there lifeless. It has a brain — it does not work. It has eyes — it does not see. It has a mouth — it does not digest and swallow food. It has a stomach and a liver and a digestive apparatus, but it does not absorb food. It has veins, but the blood does not circulate in them; it has blood, and it does not circulate in it — why? Because it has no soul. It has hands, but it does not even repel this tiny ant from itself. It has feet, but it is not willing to move from the sun into the shade — it cannot. It is just a corpse, just a corpse. Once the soul is breathed in, the brain works, the nerves work, the hand grasps, the mouth eats, the stomach digests, the digestive system absorbs, the blood turns and circulates, conveys energy to the whole body, warms the body, sets it to striving — it walks, it crushes the enemy, it attracts friendships, it makes itself ever more perfect and more flourishing. Place this parable before your eyes for the purpose of grasping the importance of wilayah in a society. Take away the dead corpse of the human being, set a human society in its place; take away the spirit, set wilayah in its place. A society that does not possess wilayah — the talents and capacities exist in this society, but they are either neutralized, wasted, destroyed, squandered, or, worse, set to work to the detriment of the human being. It has a brain and it thinks, but it thinks for the creating of corruption, thinks for the killing of human beings, thinks for the setting of the world ablaze, thinks toward making human beings wretched, thinks for the strengthening of the foundations of exploitation and oppression and despotism. The human being has eyes, but what it ought to see, it does not see, and what it ought not to see, it sees. It has ears, but it does not hear the word of truth; the nerves do not convey the word of truth to the brain. The brain issues no command in accordance with truth to the limbs and organs. The limbs and organs perform no deed in accordance with truth in the world. The conditions of the world give the human being no leave to act in accordance with truth. This is the society without wilayah. In the society without wilayah, the lamps not only do not flare up and grow brighter, but even that little bit of oil they have is constantly being used up, being used up, until it is altogether dried out. The oils that the Prophet had poured at the foot of the lamps and torches of guidance — did you see how they dried up? Did you see how, in the days after the passing of the Prophet, [the lamp] would flare up, would illuminate, would give light? Its oil the Prophet had poured; but since the hand of wilayah was not above the head of these torches and lamps, did you see how its oil ran low, ran low, dried up, went bad, became foul-smelling, became full of smoke, became dim — reached the time of 'Uthman and was handed over to Mu'awiyah? Did you see what happened? The very things that Fatimah al-Zahra' (peace of God be upon her) said to the women of the Emigrants and the Helpers, and they did not listen in the early days; the very predictions that Fatimah al-Zahra' made, [which] the heedless Muslim people of that day could not understand and did not listen to — those very things were all carried out. That very (the cutting sword), that very blood-shedding sword, that very blade that slew authenticities and virtues, that very hand that strangled human beings and human virtues — all of these Fatimah al-Zahra' had foretold, and before Fatimah al-Zahra' the Prophet too had foretold. These ones saw, these ones understood, they spoke — the Islamic society did not understand. Ears grew heavy, grew deaf. Today too the voice of Fatimah al-Zahra' still reaches our ears. O sensitive and alert ears, do you hear? The society possessing wilayah becomes a society that develops all human talents. All the things that God has given to the human being for his perfection and elevation, it brings to fruition. It makes the human sapling flourish. It brings human beings to perfection. It strengthens human virtues. In this society, the wali — that is, the ruler, the very one to whom all the reins return — makes the society, in terms of its general course, set upon the path of God and possessed of the remembrance of God. In terms of wealth, he brings about a just distribution of wealth. He tries to spread good things; he tries to wipe out evils and uproot them. Those who, if We give them authority in the land… — this is a verse of the Qur'an; those who, if We firmly establish them in the land, if We make them firmly settled in the land — "they establish the prayer" — the remembrance of God; the prayer is a symbol of the godly orientation of a society — for the remembrance of God and for the attention toward God and the orienting toward God, they establish the prayer, they go toward God, they set their orientation in accordance with the orientation that God has pronounced and God has commanded. "And they pay the alms-due" — the just distribution of wealth; they give the zakat (alms-due). According to a likelihood and a conjecture that is in my mind, the zakat in the Qur'an has a far wider scope than what exists in people's minds. I deem it likely — of course this is only a likelihood, mind you, I myself do not yet have proper certainty about it, and you too should not take this as a certain matter — I deem it likely that the term zakat in the Qur'an encompasses all financial spendings and charitable givings. I have, of course, found some indications too, though not to the degree that I would be certain of this matter and could state it decisively. In any case, such a likelihood is in my mind. "And they pay the alms-due" — and, generally and certainly, it means that they bring about a moderation in wealth, in view of the narrations that exist in the chapter of zakat which say that zakat is a cause of the moderating of wealth. "And they enjoin what is right" — the spreading of good things, the extending of good deeds. "And they forbid what is wrong" — the uprooting of evil things. We imagine that enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong means that I should command you, sir, not to do such-and-such bad deed, to do such-and-such good deed — only this commanding and telling. Whereas commanding and telling is [only] one of the manifestations of enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong. They said to the Commander of the Faithful, "Why do you fight Mu'awiyah?" — its narration is lengthy, I will not read it. He said: "For the reason that enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong is obligatory." Listen carefully, draw the conclusion. Sir, what business do you have, after all, with Mu'awiyah in the Battle of Siffin? Go off toward Kufa, and let him too go off toward Syria. He said that God has made enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong obligatory. Imam Husayn rises up from Medina; "Sir, where are you going?" — I wish to enjoin the right and forbid the wrong — I wish to enjoin the right and forbid the wrong. See how wide and far-reaching is the circle and the scope [of it], and how small and constricted and narrow it is in our view. In any case, when wilayah was present in a society, these things too are carried out: the establishing of the prayer, the giving of the alms-due, the enjoining of the right, the forbidding of the wrong — in short, a lifeless frame finds soul and spirit and life.