The quality of employment of means in the Holy Prophet’s and religions opponent’s manner-2

Innovation in matters other than religion such as poetry, art, philosophy, etc, is permissible. But in religion, it is forbidden because neither we (ordinary people), nor the Imams ( A.S) who are successors of the Prophet ( and executors of his will and the treasury of his knowledge have introduced the religion of Islam. Even the Prophet himself in not a way the one who introduced religion. In truth, it is God who revealed the religion to His Prophet through Gabriel ( the Angel of Revelation), and the Prophet delievered it to people and explained it comprehensively to his successors.

New Deductions are Permissible
I jtihad means striving to deduce ( to derive from the Quran and other reliable sources ) a commandment. Thus, Mujtahid ( the one who exercise I jtihad) may draw out a new conclusion about which he or others had a different perception in the past. This is permissible ( in Islam), for it is a new deduction rather then a bid ‘at, i.e. innovation in religion, which is wrongly applied to all everything nowadays and which is considered as one of the greatest sins in Islam. Concerning innovation in religion, tradition reads: “ He who pays a visit to an innovator ( originator) has verily ruined his religion.” i.e. calling on a person who introduces something novel or original in religion, is forbidden. There is also another in which the word fabahituhum has been used for innovator.

The word buht has two implications. One is to bewilder ( to astonish) which is used in the Holy Quran concerning the dispute between Abraham and the tyrant of his time, saying that “ the infidel was confounded”, that is, he was bewildered against Abraham’s logic and was thus astounded. The second meaning is calumny’ or false accusation’ which can also be found in the Quran where it says:

“ O God! By thy Glory, this is a gross calumny?

The late Sheikh Ansari explicitly asserts in one place that bahituhum’ means confronting them (infidels) with a strong logic to bewilder them and prove them guilty in the same way that Abraham debated with Namrud and astounded him. Some others have however interpreted that while facing innovators one is allowed to tell lies and make false accusations in order to condemn them, i.e. employing unsacred means to achieve a sacred goal. This is never acceptable by men of sound reason.

The problems and fraudulent machinations of the human “soul” are astonishing. sometimes the subconscious self deceives man in such a way that the himself is not aware. For example, on the night before the Holy Prophet’s birthday anniversary, one may commit a sin or vice expeciting thereby he will please the Prophet ,wherease the letter has condemned such a sinful behaviour.

A story in narrated that once a man went to bar and asked for a penny’s worth of wine. The barman informed him that his much wine would not make him drunk. But the man remarked that its intoxication would be the same as that of too much wine. He wanted that very little amount of wine so as to feign drunkenness and do as he wished. This is true of some people today. They look for pretexts to realize their aims. For example, they insult and shower calumny upon their opponents by accusing them of innovation and under the opinion that false accusations against all innovators by sorting out lies and blames against them is permissible. What will happen to religion (of Islam) if such an attitude persists?

The story of forging Tradition by Abu Hurairah for selling onions
Once in Abu Hurairah ‘s reign in Mecca, a man brought onions for sale, but no one bought them. Then he met Abu Hurairah and asked him to do a good act worthy of recompense by saving his property from ruin. He said that he was a Muslim and on learning that there was a scarcity of onions in Mecca, he had sold all his possessions and purchased onions and broought them to Mecca, but his onions were getting decayed and putrified since Meccans would not buy them. Abu Hurairah asked him to take the onions to a certain place at the time of the Friday prayers, On Friday, when people assembled for prayers, Abu Hurairah addressed them: “ O people! I head from my beloved Messenger of Allah, that whoever ate onins of Akka in Mecca, would definitely be qualified to enter paradise.” Hearing this ( fabricated tradition). the people bought all the onions within an hour, Abu Hurairah’s conscience was satified for having saved a Muslims believer from bankruptcy.

Traditions of this sort are numerous. perhaps ninety five percent of them are narrated about the virtues of cities and other places. They have actually been fabricated to benefit some people. For example, it is narrated that the Holy Prophet had once said: “ The best among the cities is Baihaq. “It is quite clear that some residents from Baihaq have invented this tradition to realize their aims. How could the Holy Prophet be concerned about such a remote place in Iran? These false tradition have jeopardized the religion of Islam.

Ali’s (p.b.u.h) position and employment of means
The attributes and traditions of the Prophet never permit false means to attain the truth. why did Ali (A.S) follow an inflexible policy and reject the suggestions of Ibne’ Abbas, Mughairah Ibn Shu’bah and like, though his aims were undoubtedly sacred? It is related that Mughairah suggested to the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (A.S), at the beginning of his Caliphate, to remain indifferent of Mu’awiah and to let him hold his position for a while and depose him at once when the Caliphate was quite established. Ali ( A.S) rejected this suggestion and said that if the appointed Mu’awiah the governor ( of Sham), even for short period, it would mean that he had accepted him as a reighteous person at least within that period of time. He added that he knew Mu’awiah was wicked and so he would not lie to people and impose him upon them. Mugharirah, on finding that his suggestion would not influence Ali ( A.S), asserted that Ali ( A.S) was right and went to take care of his own business. Ibn ‘ Abbas later said that Mugharirah’s suggestion was actually his belief, but because he joined Mu’awiah he doubted Mugharirah’s last statement that “Ali was right”.

Ali’s inflexibility in such matters was due to the fact that he followed the ways and manners of the prophets and considered the policy of deceit as wrong. The predecessors of Ali ( A.S) were called geniuses because they used all means whatsoever to attain their goals, and Ali’s policy was rejected by some because to realize his goal, he made use of true and legitimate means only.

The Prophet forbided employment of means for guidance
Once the representatives of an Arab tribe were received in the presence of the Holy Prophet (S) and asserted that they would accept Islam on three conditions: 1) if allowed to worship their idols for one more year -2) if exempted from prayers, for it was too difficult for them -3) if spared from breaking the great idol with their own hands. The Holy Prophet (S) replied that he did not agree with the first two conditions but would accept the third. Although the Prophet never thought of losing tribe which would convert to Islam thus add to the number of Muslims, he would not let them worship their idols for a period of one year before embracing Islam. Had he accepted the first two conditions, he would have actually confirmed idolatry, and to this he would never agree even for twenty four hours. Simmilarly, had they asked the Prophet to exempt them from prayers even for twenty four hours ( not for a whole year) after their conversion to Islam, he would never have agreed to it.

Most astonishing still, some people not only make use of unsacred and illegitimate means, but they also take advantage of other s ignorance and negligence to support and strengthen the truth and religion. There is a fabricated story for instance, that the honorable mother of Imam Sajjad ( A.S) was alive and present at the catastrophe of Karbala. Some people believe in this, while books of history as well as traditions narrate that she had died after delivering her baby( Imam), and not a single elegy has recorded the truth of this story. But some ( so –called supporters of religion) assert that since people believe in this matter, it should be repeated and emphasized regardless of tis authenticity. This is not correct. We are responsible to awaken people from their deep slumber of ignorance, and this is one of the attributes of the Holy Prophet (S), Ali ( A.S) refers to it in the follwong words:

The Prophet was like a roaming physician who has set ready his ointments and heated his instruments. He uses them wherever the need arises for curing blind hearts, deaf ears, and dumb tongues, He traveled with his medicines to places of negligence and perplexity. The ( people ) did not take light from the lights of his wisdom nor did they produce flame from the flint of his speaking knowledge. So in this matter they are like grazing cattle and hard stones.

The Holy Prophet vehemently used force in some situations and used salves ( for spiritual wounds) in others, i. e. he behaved very harshly with firm determination as well as quite leniently to suit different situations, both behavious being directed at awakening the people. In fact, he applied moral principles where they could serve as a means to awaken people and made use of the sword ( force and authority ) where it could help in their growth and development.

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