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The "Indispensability Equation" of Islam
THE EARLY YEARS OF ISLAM WERE A TIME OF STERN TESTS
and grim trials for the Faithful. Every day brought for them new confrontations with, and
new challenges from the polytheists, and merely existing in a hostile environment, was an
unending struggle. The entire ministry of Muhammad as God's Last Messenger to this world,
which spanned the last 23 years of his life, was overshadowed by this struggle. It was a titanic struggle. Only men and women of
invincible faith, indomitable courage, and unflagging strength could have lived through
its stresses and tensions. To grapple with it, therefore, Islam produced its own
"titans." The "titans" of Islam were two individuals and two groups.
The two individuals were Abu Talib ibn Abdul-Muttalib and his son, Ali; and the two groups
were the Banu Hashim in Makkah, and the Ansar in Medina. The "base of operations" of Abu Talib and
the Banu Hashim was Makkah whereas the "theater" of the conflicts in which Ali
and the Ansar were drawn, was Medina. Together, they made up what might be called the
"indispensability equation" of Islam. Each of the four components of this
"equation" was indispensable for the existence of Islam, and each of them was
destined to play a very special role in its history. The first component of this equation was Abu Talib.
God charged him with the duty of protecting Muhammad and defending Islam. His house in
Makkah was the cradle of Islam. Muhammad, the future Prophet, was born in his house.
Later, the same house became, first the "school" of Muhammad, and then the
"fortress" of Islam. Abu Talib was a man of great prestige,
resourcefulness and power but the problems he faced, as the defender of Islam, were of
such magnitude that he could not have overcome them all by himself. He had, therefore, to
enlist support. But who in Makkah would support him against the Quraysh except the members
of his own clan – the Banu Hashim? He rallied them, and it was their collective
support that guaranteed the existence and the survival of Islam in Makkah. The clan of Banu Hashim was consistent and
monolithic in its support of Muhammad and Islam. Its members dared three years of perils
and privations as exiles in a mountain ravine but they did not forsake Muhammad. The
polytheists were daunted and dismayed by the united and defiant front presented by the
Banu Hashim to them, and to the rest of the world. The day Abu Talib died, it appeared to Muhammad that
the mighty bulwark of Islam had caved in. The death of Abu Talib did not, however,
interrupt the tradition of protecting Muhammad and defending Islam that he had founded; it
was carried on by his son, Ali, who was destined to distinguish himself even more than his
illustrious father in service to Islam. His genius unfolded in Medina. He busted up the
pagan monolith of Arabia. But just as the support of Banu Hashim was found to be
indispensable for Islam in Makkah, the support of the Ansar was found to be indispensable
for it in Medina. The Ansar rallied behind Muhammad in Medina just as the Banu Hashim had
rallied behind him in Makkah. Abu Talib and Ali, and the men and women of the Banu
Hashim and the Ansar were extraordinary by the standards of their day as well as by our
own. They took up every challenge to Islam, and they overcame ever crisis in its career.
They alone protected and defended the principles, the honor and the heritage of Islam. The
names of all these heroes are not known to history but each of them was indispensable for
Islam. Each of them, man or woman, made up the "indispensability equation" of
Islam. Without the contribution in services of each of them, the "equation" of
Islam might not have "jelled" at all. There were other Muslims also – the companions
of the Prophet – who played roles of their own in varying degrees of importance in
the history of Islam. Some of them played major roles and others played minor roles but no
one among them played roles that were great enough to make them indispensable. Many of
them distinguished themselves after the death of the Prophet but if they had died in his
lifetime, they would not have even been heard of. In his lifetime, they were secondary and
marginal characters who assumed individual reality and complexity only after the death of
their master. John Kenneth Galbraith, the American economist and
diplomat, once isolated the journalistic malady he called "the build-up." The
essence of the build-up, he said, is to recast a personage of average attributes into
historic, indeed immortal image. This appears to have been done in the case of many of the
Muhajireen. Most extravagant praise has been lavished on some of them, and in many cases,
the praise has been attributed to the Prophet himself, and has thus been given the
"status" of hadith (tradition of the Prophet). Actually, countless of these
"hadith" or traditions are nothing more than fanciful embroideries of the
fertile and fervent imagination of some admirer or admirers of the companions. Examples of "hadith" glorifying some of
the companions of the Prophet are legion but here it is possible to quote only one of
them. One of the most famous "traditions" is the one called the "Hadith of
Ashra Mubasharra." The Prophet is alleged to have given his personal assurance to ten
of his principal companions that all of them would enter heaven. They were: 1. Abu Bakr 2. Umar 3. Uthman 4. Ali 5. Talha 6. Zubayr 7. Abdur Rahman bin Auf 8. Saad bin Abi Waqqas 9. Abu Obaida Aamir bin al-Jarrah 10. Saeed bin Zayd The authenticity of this tradition is open to
question on the following grounds: (1). All these ten companions are Muhajireen and not
one of them is an Ansari – a very curious omission indeed! Just as the Ansar had no
share in the Saqifa government, now it would appear that they had no place in heaven
either. It is truly fantastic that the Prophet could not find a single Ansari who was
worthy of belonging to this group of ten. And yet, it were the Ansar who gave sanctuary to
Islam and to the Muhajireen themselves. Muhammad Mustafa was neither ungrateful nor
forgetful. He could not have forgotten the hospitality shown by the Ansar to him. He had,
in fact, accepted the hospitality of the Ansar with great pleasure. On the other hand, he
appeared to have had many reservations in accepting any obligation from any of the
Muhajireen, and he never did. If he was not ungrateful, and he was not, then this
"tradition" cannot be genuine. (2). Some of these citizens of paradise, when they
were living on this earth, were fighting against each other, and were trying to kill each
other. Two of them – Talha and Zubayr – were rousing the mob to kill an
incumbent khalifa – Uthman – who was also a member of the same group. Later,
both of them broke their solemn pledge of loyalty to another incumbent khalifa – Ali
– and shed the blood of thousands of innocent Muslims. Ali had, in fact, tried to
save the same Muslims from butchery. And yet, according to this tradition, the potential
killers and the potential victims – both would enter heaven! (3). Even among the Muhajireen, there were men who
were more distinguished than some of these ten men but the Prophet didn't assure any of
them that they would enter heaven. Mas'ab ibn Umayr, Abdullah ibn Masood, Bilal ibn Ribah,
Zayd ibn Haritha, and his son, Usama, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha, were far more distinguished
than Uthman, Abdur Rahman bin Auf, Obaidullah bin Aamir al-Jarrah, and Saeed bin Zayd, and
yet the Prophet did not give them any assurance that they would enter heaven. It is not known what was the standard for judging
who would enter heaven, and who would be refused admission to it. If piety was the
touchstone for admission to heaven, then among the companions – both Muhajireen and
Ansar – there were many others who were more pious and more devout than some of these
ten men. Five out of them were great capitalists. They were the pillars of the capitalist
system of the Muslims. There is nothing wrong in being a capitalist as
such; but capitalism, especially in its undiluted form, was the symbol of an economic
system against which Muhammad, the Messenger of God, had fought all his life. He fought
against it because it rested upon the principle of ruthless and unconscionable
exploitation of the poor. He found predatory capitalism nursed and protected by the
powerful cartel of the Quraysh of Makkah. The cartel was entrenched, fortified and
impregnable but through long and persistent effort he was, at last, able to demolish it. Muhammad never identified himself with the guardians
of the capitalist system. On the other hand, he identified himself with the poor. He often
said: Alfaqru fakhri (Poverty is my pride). But after his death, the capitalist system was
exhumed and was resurrected. The Electoral Committee which Umar had appointed to select a
new khalifa, was a cartel of the (new) capitalists, reconstituted in Islamic times. It is
true that he had made Ali one of the electors but the latter did not belong to the group.
Actually, his relationship with this cartel was the same as that of Muhammad with the
cartel of the Quraysh in Makkah. Both cartels were exclusive. The cartel in Makkah
excluded the non-Qurayshites and the poor from its membership; the cartel in Medina
excluded the Ansar and the poor from its membership. Both cartels were run by the
Qurayshites for the exclusive benefit of the Qurayshites. The new capitalism was "sanctified"
because of its connection with the principal companions of the Prophet, and very soon it
rose into such a position of dominance in Dar-ul-Islam that it could not be dislodged
again. When Ali made an attempt to dislodge it, its guardians challenged him, and
Dar-ul-Islam erupted into civil war. Soon Ali was assassinated, and after his
assassination, predatory capitalism found itself free to swagger unchecked and unbridled
over the landscape of Islam. The Shia Muslims consider the "Ashra
Mubasharra" a fake tradition because it does not jibe with reason, and still less
with the ethos of Islam. They consider it a product of the malady called "the
build-up." Its essence, they believe, was to recast common, garden-variety men into
historic, indeed immortal image.
