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Chapter 1
( Perfect Man )
The subject under discussion is the perfect man from the
viewpoint of Islam. A perfect man means an exemplary human
being, who is superior and exalted, or any other interpretation
that one can make. Like everything else, a human being may be
perfect or imperfect, and sound or defective. A sound person,
too, may be both sound and perfect or sound and imperfect.
To know a perfect or exemplary human being from the viewpoint
of Islam is necessary for Muslims because it is like a model and
example, by emulating which we can, if we wish, attain our human
perfection under Islamic teachings. We should, therefore, know
what a perfect man is, how he looks spiritually and
intellectually, and what his peculiarities are, so that we may
improve ourselves, our society and other individuals based on
that model. But if we do not know what a perfect human being is
in Islam, surely we cannot become a perfect Muslim, or even a
relatively perfect human being.
From the viewpoint of Islam, there are two ways of knowing a
perfect person: One way is to see how the Qur'an in the first
place and tradition in the second place have defined a perfect
man, even if it is meant to be a perfectly faithful and good
Muslim. A perfect Muslim is a person who has attained perfection
in Islam; a perfect believer is one who has attained perfection
in his faith. Now we must see how the Quran and tradition have
portrayed such a person and with what peculiarities. As it
happens, we have many things to quote from both of these
sources.
The second way is to regard real individuals who are built up
on the model of the Qur'an and Islam, not an imaginary and
idealistic being, but a real and objective personality who
exists in various stages of perfection at its highest level or
even at slightly lower stages.
The holy Prophet himself is an example of a perfect man in
Islam. Imam Ali is another example. To know Ali (as) is to know
a perfect man, and that means to know him thoroughly, and not
only his name, lineage and apparent identity. We may know that
Ali is the son of Abu Talib and the grandson of Abdul-Mottalib,
and that his mother is Fatima, daughter of Assad-bin-Abdol-Ezi,
and his wife is Fatima Zahra (as) and he is the father of Hassan
and Hossain, and at what dates he was born and died, and what
battles he fought etc. But this knowledge is only about his
apparent identity, and not about him as a perfect man.
Recognition of Ali means knowing his personality, rather than
his person.
To the extent that we get acquainted with his whole
personality, we will know him as a perfect man of Islam; and to
the extent that we take him as a model and accept him in
actuality and not literally as our leader and Imam, and follow
and emulate him, we will then be a Shi'a follower of this
perfect man.
A Shi'a means one who accompanies Ali, not only with words
and sentiments, but with the act of following him in practice
and act in philosophical and academic terms.
These two ways of recognition of a perfect man are not only
theoretically useful, but we must also use this knowledge to
follow the ways shown by Islam to become a true Muslim and make
society truly Islamic. The way is thus shown and the result is
explained.
But the question arises as to the meaning of 'Perfect'. Some
things may seem obvious, but explicit things are sometimes
harder to explain than difficult matters.
In Arabic the two words meaning 'Perfect' and 'complete' are
close to each other but not exactly similar in meaning, and both
of them have an antonym meaning 'defective'. The difference
between the two words is as follows: The word 'complete' refers
to something which is prepared according to a plan, like a house
and a mosque, and if any part of it is unfinished, it is
incomplete or defective. But something may be 'complete' and yet
there may exist a higher degree of completion or many degrees
higher than that, and that is called 'perfection'. 'Complete' is
a horizontal progress to maximum development and 'perfect' is a
vertical climb to the highest degree possible.
When we speak of a 'perfect wisdom or knowledge', it refers
to a higher degree of an already existing wisdom or knowledge. A
man may be complete in a horizontal sense, without being perfect
vertically. There are people who are half-complete or even less
than that. But when perfection is attained, there are still
higher levels of perfection until a perfectly perfect state is
reached.
The term ‘perfect’ did not exist in Islamic literature until
the seventh century of the Hejira. It is now used
frequently in Europe, but was first used in the Islamic world by
the well-known Gnostic "Mohyedin Arabi Andalusi Ta’i",
who is the father of Islamic Gnosticism, and many Islamic
Gnostics, including Iranian and Persian-speaking ones, and even
Rumi, have been his pupils. Rumi with all his greatness is small
compared with Mohyedin in Gnosticism. He is of Arab extraction
and a descendant of Hatam Ta'i, from Andalusia, that is modern
Spain. He has traveled in Islamic countries and died in Damascus
where he was buried. He has a pupil called Sadredin Ghownawi who
is rated second to his teacher as a Gnostic. Islamic Gnosticism
has been given a complicated form by Mohyedin and commentaries
of Sadredin. Rumi is a contemporary of the latter and his
follower through whom he imbibed the ideas of Mohyedin.
This man used the term "perfect man" from the special
viewpoint of gnosticism, but we intend to discuss it from the
viewpoint of the Qur'an. We have human beings who are physically
sound or defective. But you do not consider blindness, deafness,
paralysis, or shortness as defects of virtue, personality or
humanity. For example Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher,
who is sometimes rated as a prophet, was a most ugly man, but
this ugliness is not counted as a defect. Abol-Ala Mo’arra, and
Taha Hossain of our time were blind. Is this blindness a defect
of personality? This means then that a person has a physical
personality and a spiritual one, with two distinct reckonings.
It is a mistake to suppose that the spirit is a dependent of the
body. Can the spirit be sick while the body is sound or not?
This is a question in itself. Those, who deny the genuineness of
the spirit and believe spiritual peculiarities to be the direct
influence of the nervous system, have no belief in the spirit
and for them everything is dependent on the body, According to
them if the spirit is sick, it is because the body is sick, and
mental sickness is, in fact, the same as physical sickness.
Fortunately, it has been proved to-day that the body may be
perfectly sound with regard to blood composition, nerves,
vitamins, etc, and yet, one may be mentally ill, such as
suffering from what they call a "complex". Consequently, the way
to treatment mental illness may not be medicine and drugs at
all. Can we find a drug for someone who is suffering from
narcissism, which is a kind of mental disorder? Can we change a
person’s haughtiness into modesty, or his cruelty into kindness
by means of a pill or an injection? It is deprivations, which
produce such illnesses, and cause someone for example not to
rest until he takes revenge.
What is this feeling of revenge? What is this envy which
rouses a person to dislike other people's enjoyment of a
blessing, and long to deprive them from it. Such a man is not
thinking of having that blessing for himself. The envy of a
sound person always gives priority to his own goal, and this is
not a fault. But desiring harms and defeats for others is an
ailment. You find that such individuals are prepared to hurt
themselves wholly in their bid to even partially harm the envied
person.
A historical story is told in this connection. In the time of
a caliph, a rich man bought a slave whom he treated, from the
beginning, like a gentleman, giving him the best of food and
clothes, and money exactly like his own child or even more
lavishly. But the slave noticed that his master always felt
uneasy. Eventually he made up his mind to set him free and
provide him with some capital. One night as they were sitting
together, the master said: "Do you know why I have treated you
so well?" The slave asked the reason. The master said: "I have
one request to make which if you fulfil, you would enjoy all I
have given and will give you! But if you refuse, I will be
discontented with you." The slave said: "I will obey
whatever you ask. You are my benefactor who has given me my
life." The master said: "You must promise me in good faith to do
it, for I am afraid you may refuse it." The slave said:
"I promise to do what you want." The master said: "My
proposal is that you must behead me at a specific time and
place." The slave exclaimed: "What? How can I do that?"
The master said: "That is what I desire." The slave said:
"That is impossible." The master said: "I have got your promise.
You must do it." One midnight, he awakened the slave and gave
him a sharp knife and a bag full of money and climbed up a
neighbor’s roof, and told the slave to behead him there and then
go wherever he liked. The slave asked the reason for such an
act. He answered: "I hate this one man and prefer death to
seeing his face. We have been rivals but he has gone ahead of me
and excels me in everything, and I am burning with hatred. I
desire him to be jailed for this fake murder and this idea is a
relief to me. Everyone knows him to be my rival, and so he will
be condemned to death for this act." The slave said: You seem to
be a foolish man and deserve this death." So he beheaded the man
and ran away, His rival was consequently arrested and
imprisoned, but no one believed that he would have killed his
rival on his own roof. It had become a mystery. At last, the
slave felt a prick of conscience, went to the authorities and
confessed the truth. When they understood the matter, they freed
both the slave and the neighbor.
This is a fact that envy is a disease. The Qur'an says in
Chapter "The Sun" (Shams), Verses 9 and 10. "He will indeed be
successful who purifies it, and he will indeed fail who corrupts
it." Thus, the first proposal of the Qur'an is purification of
the self from ailments, complexes, ignorance, deviations and
metamorphoses. You could have heard that in the past there were
people who, because of excess of sins, were cursed by the
Prophets of their time and were thus metamorphosed, that Is,
they were transformed into animals such as a monkey, a wolf, a
bear etc.
One may not become physically metamorphosed, but he may be
mentally or spirituality transformed into an animal the like of
which in wickedness and nastiness may not be found in the world.
The Qur'an speaks of those "who are in worse errors" and who are
lower than quadrupeds.[1] How can
that happen? Man's personality depends on his ethical and
spiritual qualities, without which he would be a beast. Thus, a
defective man may be lowered to the level of a metamorphosed
being. Some may think this a fancy, but it is real and true.
Someone said: "We had made a pilgrimage to Mecca along with
Imam Sajjad and when we looked down at the Desert of Arafat it
was full of Hajis (pilgrims). There were so many of them
that year. The Imam said: "There is much uproar, but few are
true pilgrims." The man says: "I don't know how the Imam gave me
the insight, but when he asked me to look down again, I saw a
desert full of animals, like that in a zoo, among whom a few
human beings were moving about." The Imam told him how things
looked to those who had a clear sight and were concerned with
the inward concept of things.
This is quite obvious but if our so-called modernized mind
does not accept it, we are at fault. In our own time there have
been and are individuals who have discerned the real character
of others that, like animals, knew nothing but eating, sleeping
and sexual intercourse. They had lost their human qualities and
been turned into beasts. We read in the Qur'anic Chapter,
the "Great Event" (Naba) Verse 6. "The day on which the
trumpet shall be blown, so you shall come forth in hosts,
and the heaven shall be opened so that it shall be all
openings."
Religious leaders have repeatedly said that only one group of
people is to be raised from among the dead in the shape of human
beings; others would appear as animals, tigers, monkeys,
scorpions, snakes and ants. Does God do so without a reason? No,
there are reasons. When a human being has done nothing in this
world but to sting and hurt others, he takes his real form in
the next world and that is a scorpion. He who acts like a monkey
in this world, will appear as a monkey in the next world. And a
person with a doggish nature will be a dog. Thus, all people
will be raised from the dead according to their intentions,
desires, and true character. Are your desires in this world
those of a human being, or an animal or a bird? You will take
the same form on resurrection. That is why we are forbidden to
worship any but God. If we worship anything else, we will have
it with us in the hereafter. If we worship money it
becomes a part of our nature, and as the Qur’an says in Chapter
"Immunity" (Baraat), Verse 35 that molten metal will be with us
on resurrection: "And (as for) those who hoard up gold and
silver and do not spend it in Allah’s way, announce to them a
painful chastisement, on the day when it shall be
heated in the fire of hell, then their foreheads and their sides
and their backs shall be branded with it; this is what you
hoarded up for yourselves." Do not say that currency notes have
taken the place of coins; in the next world, these banknotes
would be turned into a fire as scorching as gold and silver
coins!
So, a human being with a complex is defective, and one who
worships a matter is imperfect and metamorphosed. Perfection in
every kind of creature is different from perfection in another
kind. A perfect human being is different from a perfect angel,
and each has separate degrees of perfection. Those who have told
us of the existence of angels, say that they are created with
pure intelligence and thought in whom the earthly aspect, lusts,
anger etc are absent, whereas animals are wholly earthly, and
lack what the Qur'an terms as divine spirit.
But man is a mixture of the two, both angelic and earthly,
both high and low. This is described in a narration in the book
"Usul al-Kafi", and Rumi, the poet, has turned it into a poem
the translation of which is as follows:
"A narration says that the Glorious God created three
different groups of creatures: The first group is the angels who
are pure intellect, knowledge and liberality, and
know only prostration. They lack every element of greed and
passion, but are pure light, and alive with the love of God.
Another group lacks knowledge altogether, and is fattened like
animals in the pasture, They see nothing but the stable and
fodder and are ignorant of both villainy and honor, The third
group are human beings who are half angel and half donkey, the
donkey half is inclined to the low and the other half is
inclined to the sublime; one must see which half wins the day,
and which one conquers the other,"
The Qur'an says in Chapter "The Man" (Insan) Verse 2; "Surely
we have created man from a small life-germ uniting' (itself): We
mean to try him, so we have made him hearing, seeing. Surely we
have shown him the way. He may be thankful or unthankful."
This means that he has been granted many talents and left
free to show whether he deserves a reward or punishment by his
acts, whereas other creatures do not possess such deservedness,
He must choose his own way and attain perfection through
moderation and equilibrium and by employing all his talents.
A child grows up and is sound in all his organs and limbs,
and these develop harmoniously. But if he grows up cartoon-like,
some parts of whom develop to excess and others not growing at
all or growing insufficiently, he cannot attain perfection. But
a harmonious and well-rounded development may result in a
perfect human being.
The Qur’an says in Chapter "The cow"(Baqara), verse 124:
"And when his Lord tried Abraham with certain words, he
fulfilled them. He said: Surely I will make you an Imam of men.
Abraham said: And of my offspring? My covenant does not include
the unjust, said He."
Abraham was tested in many ways, including his readiness to
sacrifice his son for God, when a call from God said (the Qur'an,
Chapter "The Rangers" (Safat), Verse 104:
"And we called out to him saying: 0 Abraham! You have indeed
shown the truth of the vision." When Abraham successfully passed
through various trials, the Qur'an said about him: Chapter "The
Bee", (Nahl) Verse 120:
"Surely Abraham was an exemplar, obedient to Allah, upright,
and he was not of the polytheists."
He stood alone fighting against all unbelievers, and it was
then that God called him an Imam, a leader and a model for
others to follow. Imam Ali is a perfect man since all the human
values have had their maximum growth in him and in a harmonious
manner.
You have watched the low and high tide in the sea, which is
caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon. The spirit
of man, too, as well as that of society shows a similar tide,
Human beings undergo such ebb and flow, and this attraction is
sometimes to one direction to such an extent that all other
values are forgotten. In this way, they are like defective
beings that show growth in one respect, and lack of it in other
respects. Society, too, may lack harmony in its development;
this is true that it is not wholly deviated but it is very often
corrupted in one way or another.
One of the human values confirmed by Islam is devotion, which
is communion with God. Of course, in Islam every act performed
for God is devotion. Having a job and a trade to support oneself
and one's family and to serve society is in itself a form of
devotion. But devotion, in its special sense, is
private communion with God in prayer, hymns, remaining awake for
vital acts at nights etc., all of which are part of religion and
can not be omitted. Sometimes, you see individuals or society
being drawn only to one aspect of devotion, and performing the
recommended acts of prayer, ablution etc, all of which, done in
excess, will ruin society.
Sometimes this way of devotion becomes fashionable in an
Islamic society, and once one gets used to it, it is difficult
to observe moderation. Such a person cannot say to himself that
God has created him a human being, not an angel, and as a human
being he should develop every aspect of himself harmoniously.
It was once reported to the Prophet that a number of his
companions had sunk in devotion. The Prophet felt uneasy, came
to the mosque and shouted it out loud: "O People, what has
happened to some groups who have appeared among my people. Even
I as your Prophet do not show devotion in this way to keep awake
all night. I rest part of the night and attend to my family. I
do not observe fast every day. Those who are following their new
way have deviated from my tradition:" Thus, when the Prophet
notices that an Islamic value is about to eliminate other
Islamic values, he combats this trend severely,
Amr ibn Aas had two sons called Abdullah and Muhammad. The
former was noble and advised his father to follow the way of
Ali, while the latter, who like his father loved the world and
position, urged him to follow Muawiah. Abdullah was mostly
inclined to devotion. One day, the Prophet met him on the way
and said: "I hear that you spend the whole night in prayer and
the whole day fasting." He replied in the affirmative. The
Prophet said: "But I am not so, and I do not agree with your
way."
Sometimes a society is drawn towards asceticism. Asceticism
is a fact which is undeniable, and is a value which must exist
in a prosperous society. But when everything in a society is
based on asceticism and nothing else, there is something wrong
with it. Another value is to serve people, and it is fully
supported by Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an in Chapter "The
Cow" (Baghara), Verse 177:
"It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards
the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should
believe in Allah," and the Verse ends emphasizing the value of
serving God's creatures. But sometimes people go to excess and,
as the poet Sa'di says: "Devotion is nothing but
serving people", The next step is to negate the value of
devotion, asceticism, knowledge or jihad, all of which are the
exalted values for man in Islam.
Today some of our intellectuals imagine that they have found
a very lofty principle called "humanity and humanitarianism".
Serving people is fine and we should serve them. But if we
provide them with food and clothes alone, we would be treating
them like animals, especially if we suppose no higher values
exist for them. If service is confined to this, what would be
the difference between Abu Dhar and Muawiah? This is another
example of going to excess, similar to the overvaluing of
freedom.
Freedom is among the highest of human values which is above
man's animal nature and material values. You can see that those
who possess humanity are willing to bear hunger and nakedness,
and live under hard conditions, provided they are not enslaved
by another human being and can live freely. A story is told in
the book of "The Mirror of Scholars", about Avicenna who held
the rank of a minister for some time. One day, he was passing
through a street with great pomp and show when he noticed a
scavenger removing putrid stuff from a pit. Avicenna heard him
murmuring to himself a couplet meaning that he honored his
'self' for finding his world easy. Avicenna laughed to hear a
man who was doing the lowest task so contently. He drew the vein
of his horse called the man to him and remarked
sarcastically: "What a way to choose to honor the "self"! The
man on recognizing Avicenna by his appearance said: "I have
chosen this job so that I would not be the slave of another in
the way you are! To enjoy freedom while being a scavenger is far
better than your rank, assets and dependence," It is said that
Avicenna became red in the face with shame and had no answer to
give.
According to the worldly and animal aspirations, there is no
point in forsaking the best food, and having servants and all
that pomp and show and becoming a scavenger, and then speaking
of freedom. Is freedom something tangible? No, but for a
vigilant conscience, it is so worthy that a man prefers
scavenging to slavery. This value is sometimes forgotten in some
societies, but when it is awakened in them, they claim freedom
to be the only value and forget about other values like justice,
wisdom etc. Others may consider love as the only value, and
forget the intellect, as the Gnostics do; while some go to the
other extreme, thinking love to be a fancy, and intellect as the
only worthy thing
Love, intellect, justice, freedom, service and devotion are
all values. Who is a perfect human being? One who is an absolute
devotee, or ascetic, or freeborn, or in love, or intelligent?
None of these results in a perfect man. But if all these values
are developed in him in a harmonious way, he may be considered
perfect,
Imam Ali was such a man, In Nahjul-Balagha you meet
mostly the eloquent side of him, and in reading this book, you
get different pictures of him. Sometimes in reading the sermons,
you suppose that Avicenna is there lecturing. At other times,
you observe Rumi or Mohyedin Arabi speaking to you. Then you
feel the epic of Ferdowsi, or a man of liberty, or an ascetic or
a retiring devotee in a state of giving discourses. All human
aspects show themselves in Ali’s words, and then you discern how
great he is, and how small we are.
In the past and until fifty years ago, our society was
inclined, in religious matters, towards asceticism. Preachers
often confined themselves to those sermons of Nahjul-Balagha
which were related to ascetic matters, calling this world a
transient place and the next world eternal, and advising people
to prepare for the hereafter.
The rest of the sermons had no place because the society
could not absorb them, as it had turned to a series of values
only. For a period of a hundred years, no one read the decree of
Imam Ali to Malik Ashtar, which is full of social and political
injunctions [2]. There, Ali speaks
of an utterance of the Prophet that "no people can attain the
degree of sanctity and freedom from defect until they reach a
position where the weak stand against the strong and claim their
right without stuttering". Fifty years ago the society could not
understand this, because it was a society of a single value,
while Ali’s words contain all human values as shown in his
biography and personality.
I do not intend to praise our present society, but
fortunately some worthwhile values have appeared in it. I fear,
however that once more they may become single-dimensional and
destroy other values. If we wish to have Imam Ali (as) as our
model and a perfectly well balanced man, this should not happen.
He is a man in whom all human values have developed
harmoniously. At night and during the communion with God, no
Gnostic can rival him in his divine ecstasy and his flight
towards Him. He is so deep in his devotion that nothing can
divert his attention, and this divine love seems to have taken
him to another world. This is how he is in the altar of worship
at night.
In daytime, he is a different man. Unlike many ascetics, he
is cheerful sitting with his companions and even witty. Amr ibn
Aas criticized him and termed him as unsuitable for the
Caliphate since he was so cheerful, as if a caliph must always
look glum to frighten people. In battle too he was cheerful and
smiling, while in the altar he was tearful.
The Qur'an says in Chapter "Muzzamil", Verses 6-7: "Surely,
the rising by night is the firmest way to tread and the most
corrective of speech.. Surely, you have, in the day time, a long
occupation."
The night is for worship, and the day for living and mingling
with society. The poet Hafiz is sometimes alluded to a pretext
to mislead the young, They say this great poet was addicted to
wine, whereas in reality, his poems are wholly spiritual and
mystical, and his wine is of a spiritual nature. He was a
religious man who was an interpreter of the Qur'an, and, later
on, became famous as a poet. He has expressed the above Verse of
the Qur'an in a poem, saying that daytime is for work and
effort, and nighttime for the wine of devotion.
Ali is such a man, and has been recognized in this way for
over a thousand years. The compiler of "Nahjul-Balagha", Sayed
Razi, says: "The amazing thing about this book is that you see
Ali in so many different worlds as you read it, that is in the
words of devotion, philosophy, mysticism, military affairs,
court of justice, religious jurisprudence and so on, and he is
never absent from any human world."
Safiyedin Hilli, a poet of the sixth century of the Hejira,
says about Ali that he is a collection of all contraries, he is
both a ruler and a sage, docile and brave, poor and generous,
gentle and resolute, and a devotee and a man of action. He is a
hero in all human spheres, something that we cannot be, but we
can at least maintain a certain degree of equilibrium among all
values to be called a true Muslim in different walks of life,
Notes:
[1]. Chapter A'raf, Verse 179
[2]. Nahjul Balagha, letter 53
Chapter 2
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