 Islam and politics, two sides of the same coin, or as the author puts it, Sayyid Sadaq Ash-Shirazi, two expressions for the same meaning. This phrase, as we concluded yesterday's episode, while we were touching upon some of the key points in the book, Politics, the Very Heart of Islam. This topic was discussed with my dear guest and esteemed guest, Dr. Zahir. Welcome back, Dr. Yesterday we touched upon various things regarding politics in Islam and Islam in politics. Now we did say that you cannot separate the two. They are inseparable. And if you want to separate one, just like one right now in the United States or somewhere else, they try to separate the church from the state or the state from the church. In our case, you cannot separate them because one completes the other. Without one, you cannot move forward with only one side. You need both sides. However, compared to the previous episode, I would like to focus on the idea of the prophet, the conduct of the prophet and Imam Ali Al-Talib, and compare it with modern-day politics. Of course, keeping in mind the circumstances that were present during that time. In this book, the author begins with highlighting a number of cases, instances, where it reveals the conduct of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Amir al-Mu'mineen, the commander of Saif al-Mam Ali, peace be upon him. How they behaved towards their opponents or those who threatened them or their would-be killers or those who conducted, behaved in a way and committed acts which deserved punishment in one way or another. We begin with one case, the case of Imam Ali, peace be upon him, towards his would-be killer, Abdul Rahman bin Munjim, al-Muradi. It is narrated that the Imam used to say it frequently through his knowledge of the unseen and the knowledge that has been passed on to him from the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, which in turn has been passed on from Aqa and Jojib Ra'il, that he used to tell Abdul Rahman bin Munjim that you would kill me, even though he used to express his affection for the Imam. He used to say he likes the Imam, but Imam used to tell him that eventually you will kill me. But keeping that one thing in mind that even if someone doesn't have the intention of killing you, you always tell them you are the one going to kill me, yet that individual has shown affection towards me. So when you say that to someone, it's either he's going to kill you or die in some way. So it does not form the murder mentality within bin Munjim that resulted in the murder of Ali Al-Qalib. No, basically at that time he didn't have any of that attitude towards the Imam. He knew who the Imam was. He knew Ali Al-Qalib, peace be upon him, and his virtue and his status. And he never thought that he would commit such an act against Imam Ali, peace be upon him. And it was only during the last short period of time before the conduct that he was led to do that. And he was enticed by various individuals to do this act. And in fact, up to the very last moments he found it very hard to do because he knew who Ali Al-Qalib was. It was, if you like, a last-minute decision that he decided to do, this treacherous act which is to kill Imam Ali. I don't know if it's last-minute because they planned it. The Khawarij, the people who were bound against the government of Ali Al-Qalib, they've planned it. They had that in their mind. Yeah, the Khawarij didn't plan this. He was one of the Khawarij, but the Khawarij didn't plan it. So they weren't responsible for the Khawarij? No, all the Khawarij. I don't want to go off-topic, but this is something related to the story. No, all the Khawarij. As I said, he was one of the Khawarij. And he and of course some of his students say that agents of Muawiyah were behind it to entice him to do that. So he wasn't, sorry, the Khawarij weren't involved. Not the entire body of the Khawarij were involved. He was alone, as I said, with agents, according to some of his students with agents of Muawiyah. But the point is that Imam Ali, the point of this argument is that Imam Ali did not embark on any conduct to prevent him doing that, or to preempt his behavior by, for example, killing him, or stopping him from doing that. Could he put some sort of supervision over it? I'll come to that. Because people did say, his companions did say that if he is going to kill you, then we should kill him, we should eliminate him. He stopped them from doing that. I mean, not to that extent. He stopped them from doing that because he said he hasn't done anything to me yet. He hasn't done anything wrong yet. And therefore, we have no right to punish him in any way. And they insisted, and he said, do you expect me, that's the statement, and do you expect me to kill someone who hasn't done anything to me? The importance of this issue is that this leader, this Islamic leader, Imam Ali, although he knew that he would be killed, he would kill him eventually one day, he did not take preemptive strike and kill him. He left him to his own accord. Not to the extreme measures though. I'll come to that. I just want to make the point that in Islam, we don't have this notion of the end justifies the means. Contrary to that, we have an expression which says, Allah is not obeyed through any act of disobedience. If, for example, the act of establishing an Islamic system of government or preserving an Islamic system of government which is an obedience to Allah, we are not allowed to do that to preserve the Islamic system of government or to establish Islamic system of government through disobedience, through killing an innocent person. We don't have that in Islam which is the end justifies the means. On the contrary, we have this, that we cannot do something wrong in order to achieve something which is right. We don't have that option in Islam. Now, coming back to your point which was not the extreme measures but we could be supervised. The regular measures? Yes. The necessary measures? Yes, but that means, that means he's acting on his inside knowledge. He's acting on his knowledge of the unseen. He already did act. He didn't act. If he's telling people that you know what, this person is the one that's going to kill me. He already revealed the knowledge. He revealed it, but he didn't act on it. He didn't act on it. For someone, he's jeopardizing the whole Islamic government of that time. Yes, but again, you cannot act on, the Imam or the Prophet does not act on their knowledge of the unseen, does not act on their inside knowledge in the sense that the Prophet knew that he's going to be poisoned by so and so but he didn't act on that. He didn't stop the killer, his assassins. In fact, if he had stopped it, it would have been good. The divine link would have been preserved. The Prophet would have stayed alive and he would continue to receive revelation from Allah Almighty but he didn't act on that nor did Allah act on the unseen knowledge and allowed the assassin to do his job, his or her job. Therefore, the Imam or the Prophet, who have the knowledge of the unseen, do not act according to their knowledge of the unseen. The proof of this is that he knew that Ibn-e-Muljim would kill him. He revealed that but he didn't stop him and eventually Ibn-e-Muljim killed him. Other than revealing that knowledge, he didn't act on it because they are not meant to do that. The whole point is, if you like the test, people to be tested. They are given the opportunity, they have the opportunity to do right or wrong and they have the opportunity to make sure, strive to be on one side or the other, to be on the right side or the wrong side. Ibn-e-Muljim, in this test, although he was amongst the reciters of the Qur'an or the memorizers of the Qur'an, they fought Imam Ali in the Battle of Nahrawan and he was extremely unfortunate, Ashqa al-Akhirin, to kill the commander of the faithful, who is the brother of Rasulullah. Let us keep one thing in mind. For example, if someone was threatening the head of state of any government right now, let alone Ali Nabi Talib, the commander of the faithful, someone you know, you have intel, that this person is about to commit murder or is about to assassinate the head of state, at least supervision. At least for the people that threaten Ali Nabi Talib, there are a couple of stories in the book about it. If you have intelligence through normal means, through human means, if you have intelligence that someone is going to kill this head of state, then yes, you take the necessary measures to prevent that. But this intelligence had come through the unseen and Imam Ali and the Prophet did not act on that. So the people around Imam Ali know about this? That Ibn-e-Muljim was about to kill? Yes, of course. When he revealed that, a lot of his companions wanted to kill Ibn-e-Muljim. I wouldn't kill him, but the responsibility of the guards, the companions of the head of state, the generals, they are responsible for the safety and the well-being of the... That's a very good point. They were given the knowledge, but they didn't seem to... So it's like a walk in a park for Ibn-e-Muljim? They didn't seem to act, at least think about it. Okay, the Imam has told us this, but we should sort of keep watch on Ibn-e-Muljim, so they didn't do that. I mean, this discussion is endless, because the knowledge, for me, I would end here, because the knowledge of Ibn-e-Muljim isn't compared to our knowledge. But what I understand is his companions and their role. But in this book, it is also mentioned that someone threatened Ali Ibn-e-Muljim. Yeah, I'll come to that in a minute. I mean, after this. Threatened? Yeah. I mean, it goes from someone that wants to assassinate someone threatening. Yes. And both of them get away just like that? Yes, he... Well, I mean, as I said, we need... Okay, now that you're mentioning this, I wanted to talk more about the knowledge of the unseen and the fact that they should behave like a regular ordinary person as far as the unseen is concerned. They shouldn't use that knowledge of the unseen. But anyway, now that you mentioned that, yes, we have in the traditions that someone actually threatened to kill Imam Ali. And Imam Ali did not... Okay, he must have been repelled, but did not go on to kill that man. As soon as they managed to repel the danger of that individual, they didn't actually kill him. They didn't do anything to him. So, yes, the whole thing, this is the policy of this book and the point that the author is trying to make is to highlight these attitudes of these leaders of Islam, these true leaders of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Amir-e-Mumineen, the commander of the faithful Imam Ali, peace be upon him. The whole point is that this guy comes along, he threatens to kill him. They repel his danger and that's it. They don't do any harm to him. The point of this work, which is to show the attitude and the conduct of these leaders, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Amir-e-Mumineen, Imam Ali, peace be upon him, towards their enemies, the point is to try to forgive as much as possible. As soon as they managed to repel the danger of that individual who was trying to kill Imam Ali, that's it, all forgiven. These are the, that's why they say Imam Ali and the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, are the embodiment of the teachings of Islam. And we have in the Quran on various occasions when Allah, peace be upon him, instructs the Prophet and of course the faithful to forgive as soon as they are out of danger or by the grace of Allah to forgive. Even in instances where they see harm, Allah recommends that if possible, not seek retribution and forgive. Even though Allah, now we're going into different territories, Allah mentions that we have this principle of basas, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And then He says, if you forgive, it's even better. It's even better. Yes. And Imam Ali, peace be upon him, in these instances, two instances, at least in the second one, the person was actually trying to kill Imam Ali, but the danger was repelled and he forgave them and they did nothing to him. He forgave them. But that individual goes on to creating the khawaraj. That person goes on to create a group that repelled against the government, caused bloodshed and wars. Yes. Yet, Al-Ibn Talib just forgave. No. You see, it doesn't mean that if he hadn't forgiven that, none of the khawaraj would have happened. Of course they would have happened. They would have happened, but not in this manner. In any other manner, they would have still come back and fought at Naharawan. The khawaraj were... I don't know if they wouldn't came back, but... Well, no, the khawaraj were 9000. This is one individual. So if Imam Ali had killed that individual, he would have had still the 9000 or 8999. Okay? There were about 9000. If he had killed him, who tried to kill Imam Ali, which of course he didn't. Imam Ali was saved. The danger of that assailant was repelled. So he actually, eventually he did not kill. So that doesn't justify Imam Ali to kill him. But anyway, not only that, he forgave him. Even the last assume for the sake of argument that he killed him, we still have 9000 khawaraj. They still come back with even more vengeance to fight Imam Ali at Naharawan. Even though they fought Imam Ali who was so kind and compassionate to them, if he had killed them, they would have come back with more vengeance. Okay? So yes, there would have been no benefit in killing that individual. In fact, there is far greater benefit in forgiving him because this is in accordance with the teachings of Islam, the teachings of the Holy Quran. And with them being the embodiment of those teachings, they acted on that in this case and in the previous case. And of course we've got more cases to come. Insha'Allah. But that's after the short break. Okay. If you insha'Allah detour. Respect the viewers. Do stay tuned for the short break and we'll be back shortly. So stay tuned. A brief biography of the eminent Islamic authority brand Ayatullah Sayyid Sadaq Al-Shiairazi. He was born on the 20th of Al-Hijjah in the 1360 of the Hijrah in the holy city of Karbalaq, Iraq. He was raised and cultured in a family that was renowned for its history of learning, striving, sacrifice and morals. He received his specialist education of Islamic sciences at the hands of eminent scholars of the Hausa until he acquired a distinguished degree of HDH. Through his relentless endeavors, he developed himself the quality of continually seeking knowledge along with unremitting observance of paiti. Tiredly promoting the teachings of the Anubaid peace and blessings be upon them, disseminating their culture and defending their sacred laws and sharia. He has written numerous works in various fields on different levels, ranging from politics, economics, history and ethics. To specialist works of Hausa students on such topics as Feeqah and Osul, which is also known as Jurisprudence, that total more than 80. Sayyid Sadaq Al-Shiairazi has been teaching at the Hausa for more than 40 years. He is distinguished for being accessible to the people, directly dealing and meeting with various sectors of members of society. Listening to diverse views from different spectrum of the community. Equally, he is distinguished for his humility respecting the young and old and also for his tolerance in regard to insult or evil with kindness and consciousness. He is renowned for his independence and for his policy of boycotting despotic governments. Over-observes hundreds, organizations and institutions throughout the globe, for example those that address social issues such as marriage services and social reforms. Those that address humanitarian matters such as clinics, orphanages, financial organizations giving interest-free loans. Intellectual institutions such as centers for research and studies, seminaries, houses, libraries as well as religious centers such as mosques and Hussainiyas. Respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, one second. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to the second part of today's episode as we discuss some of the key points mentioned in the first chapter of politics, the very heart of Islam written by Sayyid Sadab Al-Shiairazi and these topics will be discussed and are discussed with my dear and esteemed guest, Dr. Zuhair. Welcome back, dear doctor. Thank you. Before the break, we mentioned a couple of stories that somewhat are controversial but inshallah we'll get to a point where we bring the answer that satisfies the question. Now, we talked about how Aleemna Bita'aleb A.S. had the unseen knowledge of certain individuals who will either rage war against him or eventually kill him, Ibn-Muljam. This is crazy intel. This is precise intel that Aleem Bita'aleb got but yet they weren't allowed to act upon that knowledge. Prophet Muhammad, did he receive the same knowledge because in this book also it does touch upon how some individuals who went to confrontation with Prophet Muhammad ended up fighting Prophet Muhammad and fighting Imam Ali and so on and so forth. So why not prevent? Satisfy the question. Yes. You call it controversial. I call it these conducts show the magnanimity of people like Imam Ali and Prophet Muhammad. This question is for the same meaning. And forgiveness. The whole point of this is to show that Imam Ali and Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, they forgive or forgave their would-be killers and forgave people who were of danger to their individuals, to their persons. And this forgiveness is really based on the teachings of the Qur'an. They were the embodiment of the teachings of the Qur'an. And the Qur'an, Allah SWT states in the Qur'an on numerous occasions that they should forgive. Allah SWT instructs the Prophet on various occasions to forgive wasfah or w'afu turn blind eye and forgive them. Even those who attempted to kill the Prophet wuhammu bimay lamya nalu they attempted to assassinate you but you should now that you haven't been killed you should forgive them. And as I said, in the case of Imam Ali with Ibn-e-Muljim or the other person who actually threatened him the point is forgiveness. And that shows the magnanimity of Imam Ali and Prophet Muhammad who are the true leaders of Islam and the true embodiment of the teachings of Islam and the teachings of the Qur'an. Coming back to the case that we want to consider in this part of the show is that the Prophet, through the knowledge of the unseen he used to reveal to his people to his companions or the people around him companions doesn't carry any special status the companions just happen to be in his company and they could have been his assassins or his enemies. Anyway, he used to reveal to the people around him that an individual, a certain individual would cause commotion between the Muslims or he would bring an invent a new religion make an innovation and not only that, having said that he would not take any step to eliminate him and not only that, he does not allow the Muslims to do anything like that to eliminate him, to kill him given the fact that he had the full knowledge that he would cause a lot of hardship a lot of commotion and in fact that individual turned out to be the leader of the Khawarj who waged war against Imam Ali, which is known as Battle of Nahrawan an area in southern Iraq known as Nahrawan so the point is, even though the Prophet knew full well that this individual would cause so much damage but of course, because he hadn't done anything yet they couldn't do anything to him this is just as according to Islam even though he would be the cause of the death of thousands of people thousands of people this is the Khawai Surah but because he hadn't done anything at that time, at the time of the Prophet the Prophet did not issue any instruction nowadays, you see people who just speak Arabic on an airplane being kicked off of that airplane and it goes from that to someone who people know that he is going to wage war he will create an army to fight the state no one takes any measures but now, people haven't even done anything they get arrested, they get kicked off an airplane they are being discriminated against in various ways yes, in here we are trying to show the justice that we have in Islam in the sense that in the case of this individual he hadn't done anything even though the Prophet was sure given the divine knowledge that he had that he would do this and that he would be the cause of a lot of commotion a lot of battles and a lot of loss of life but because he hadn't done anything yet he didn't do anything to him and not only that, he didn't allow the Muslims to do anything to him at that time yeah, so this and not only that, this individual he goes on to insult the Prophet accuse the Prophet of injustice it's a narration in Kitab al-Irshad that when the Prophet was dividing the spoils between the people and he came along this individual and said to him you haven't done it justly, be just in dividing the spoils and the Prophet said that I am just if I don't do justice, who will then? and what I'm doing is correct the people around him at least the faithful around the Prophet were very angered by his accusation and they attempted to murder him by the Prophet even though he had insulted the Prophet and he had accused the Prophet of an act of injustice which is a grave accusation still the Prophet did not forgive him and prevented the Muslims from doing anything wrong to him fully understandable so when someone insults me I have the chance of forgiving when someone calls me names it's up to me either I forgive or I punish but for someone I know you have another story but for someone to take it to the next level where I know that this individual is going to harm me and the people that are surrounding me I let him go there is a verse in the Quran that I want to mention but after you continue the answer says at that moment he hasn't done anything he will be the cause of the killing of thousands of people but at the moment he has done anything I know for sure he will be doing it but he hasn't done it now so the Prophet could not do anything to him so we understand through this act the level of justice that government has had I mean for some it takes patience it takes a lot of patience for someone to know such information and perseverance as well and that's one of the key principles strength of the Prophet that I mentioned in this book but as I mentioned for someone to know such information and yet still at the individual walk if such things happened in our world today we would move forward we would develop in every means I don't think there will ever be crimes anymore there will be crimes but not to that extent no there will be crimes there will be even more crimes through forgiveness not the act of forgiveness through forgiveness you listen the impact of crime because when you the more retribution and killing there is it will generate even more so in fact why is forgiveness considered to be an act of a virtuous act a good act because it has benefits because the long term consequences and impact of forgiveness far outweighs short term measures or the consequences of the measures that if you weren't going to forgive and as I said it's a major fundamental issue in Islam and in the Quran the act of forgiveness and the Prophet is the first one or should be of course he is the first one to act to behave accordingly and forgive people who commit do wrong to him the Prophet even though he knew what he is going to do for sure he couldn't do anything and he wanted to stick to justice and justice is absolutely essential it's one of the most important aspects in the teachings of Islam and there is no way they could deviate from justice by one ayat and they are the embodiment of justice and there is no way they could have done otherwise now we do have a couple of more minutes before we conclude the episode so if you do have anything any extra points that you would like to add to this discussion feel free yes another one another one incident that took place at the time of the Prophet which is very important and it reveals it shows the stance of the Prophet and and also fortunately one of his companions it is narrated that the Prophet was dispatched Khalid bin Walid with the group of Muslims to go and call for Islam and teach Islam to the tribe of Bani Judayme and they had become Muslim beforehand so they were going to them as Muslims and specifically the Prophet obviously ordered them not to engage in any fighting and in fact the reference is given in here in the book which is volume 2 page 173 but when Khalid bin Walid got there to the tribe of Bani Judayme he used the sword against them and he killed a number of them and because of some dispute or argument that they had in pre-Islamic time and it was an act out of vengeance that news reached the Prophet and the Prophet was very distressed and he actually wept because of those killings and he got up and he went up to the pulpit, the member and he raised his hand to the sky and three times he said O Allah, I disassociate myself from the conduct of Khalid bin Walid and he repeated it again O Allah, I disassociate myself from the conduct of Khalid bin Walid and for the third time I disassociate myself from the conduct of Khalid bin Walid because obviously he did something which was totally wrong absolutely unacceptable it's not enough, let me just finish the Prophet then called Khalid and he gave him a box which had gold coins in it and he said to him go to Ben Judayma and pay them expiation or deal compensation for all the damage and the killing that had taken place by Khalid so Imam Ali alaihi salam came to them and he gave first of all he gave compensation for those who have been killed for those who have been killed by Khalid bin Walid he gave the compensation to their heirs for each one who was murdered by Khalid Ibn Walid Imam Ali paid them 1000 gold dinar and 1000 gold dinar is about in the footnote is about a quarter kilograms of pure gold three kilograms and a quarter kilograms of pure gold this was for every individual who was murdered by Khalid bin Walid and then he paid compensation for every slave that they had who was murdered and then he also paid compensation for everything that they had lost including the pots from which the dogs drank water the pots which were broken the dogs which dogs drank water from which were broken in the course of this fighting and in the course of this assault even the pots and even the ropes which were cut Imam Ali paid compensation for every minute thing every damage which was caused to them physical damage they re-encompassed it to the people what happened to Khalid bin Walid let me finish the list of the thing he also paid compensation for things which he asked them what have you lost they said these are the things which we have lost and he also paid them extra for cases for the things which they have lost or things which have been damaged which they may not be aware of so on top of the compensation which he paid for all the damages caused he paid compensation for the things which they may not at that time they may not be aware of probably they would have discovered later on and then he also paid compensation for the terror and the fear felt by the women and children because you can imagine people come assault them riding their horses wielding their swords and hitting the men in the camp women and children would be terrified Imam Ali alaihi salam paid compensation for the terror caused to the women and children and it says that he paid compensation for any property which may have been damaged in the course of this assault and then he paid compensation in order to be contented with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wali in order to be pleased with the Prophet so after all the physical damage after all the mental and psychological damage which he paid compensation for he wanted to seek their pleasure and their contentment with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wali towards the Prophet salallahu alaihi wali so he paid the money for that and then he paid it says he paid the money in order to be happy given the sadness they sustained so these were the eight categories of money or compensation that Imam Ali alaihi salam gave to the people of ben juday that's all great people whatever they lost Prophet Muhammad compensated and they gave them money instead and of course before Muhammad disrespected himself from the conduct of Khalid ibn Wali but Allah states in the Holy Qur'an if someone murders one individual or causes corruption in earth as if he has killed all of mankind now Khalid ibn Wali did not discuss corruption both of them together the only thing he can do was to disassociate himself from Khalid ibn Wali and he paid the people and he paid the people such things when they go unpunished other people they just learn the same way if he didn't get punished and Prophet Muhammad bought the pleasure of them I will do the same thing and Prophet Muhammad will pay instead of me well no that is an argument which is a vectitious argument but the point is what you are saying is that why didn't he he committed murder according to Islam and life for life so he committed murder he should have been killed and that has been raised as to why the Prophet did not go on to kill execute Khalid ibn Wali for murdering innocent people for murdering people who are absolutely innocent they had nothing to do with it they didn't deserve to die and he killed them first of all the reason stated in here is that first of all the guardian of the deceased or many of them themselves they did not seek the death penalty for Khalid so that is the first thing and and therefore the sentence commutes to compensation first of all the sentence for that for the conduct for Khalid who committed murder of the innocent is death penalty according to Islam without any hesitance but because they didn't seek the death penalty the necks of kin if you like the bani judaima didn't seek death penalty for Khalid it commutes to compensation and of course these compensation should be paid by Khalid ibn Wali but because he was a murderous individual and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala he resulted to paying the compensation because he is the prophet of mercy and we sent you the mercy of the world the world secondly we are running short on time okay the number of points the last point which I can make is basically is the issue of competing priorities if the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala were to execute Khalid for the murders which he deserved for the murders he committed the execution or the killing he deserved this may have caused uncertainty among the new muslims on those grounds the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala competing priorities so it is more prudent to exercise this right of execution but commuted to a less compensated which is compensation for the dead I would like to thank you very much for joining us last point made today is that through the actions of prophet muhammad and imam Ali we don't have any pre-attempted islam that's what I understood through the actions of such individuals forgiveness is one of the key points which islam is based on I would like to thank you very much for joining us tonight may Allah accept your needs respected viewers thank you very much for tuning in today hopefully we can understand what islam has to offer for its nation and what islam has to offer in the advancement of the entire world thank you very much peace be upon you peace be upon you