The Imamate trend (course of events) started since the first day after the demise of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.)–the month of Ṣafar, 11 A.H.–and continued through the Muslim community until the demise of Imam Ḥasan ‘Askarī (P.B.U.H.)–the month of Rabī‘ al-Awwal, 260 A.H. During this time, the Imamate went through nearly four periods and each period had its characteristics in terms of the Imam’s (P.B.U.H.) positioning against the dominant political powers.
The first trend is the period of the Imam’s (P.B.U.H.) silence or cooperation with these powers. The newly established and neonate Islamic community by no means have the power to stand the division and disagreement among the ranks. The least breach in the solid stature of this community can be a threat to its principle and foundation. Moreover, the deviation angle of reality from the truth is not so substantial that it would not be tolerable for someone like Amīr al-Mu’minīn (P.B.U.H.)–who is himself the most compassionate and committed to the Islamic school and community–and perhaps it has been for these very reasons, which had been intuitively reflected in advance in the holy Prophet’s (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) insight, that he ordered his elect disciple to practice tolerance and patience before such events.
This period includes all the twenty five years between the demise of the holy Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.)–the year 11 A.H.–and the beginning of Amīr al-Mu’minīn’s (P.B.U.H.) Caliphate–the year 35 A.H. In a letter to the Egyptians, his holiness (P.B.U.H.) explains his situation at the beginning of this intermission as follows,
«فَأمسَكتُ يَدي حَتّى رَأيتُ راجِعَةَ النّاسِ قَد رَجَعَت عَنِ الإسلامَ يَدعُونَ إلَى مَحْقِ دَينِ مُحَمَّدٍ –صلّی ا لله عليه وآله- فَخَشِيتُ إن لَم أنصُرِ الإسلامَ وَ أهلَهُ أن أرَى فِيهِ ثَلماً أو هَدماً تکونُ المُصيبة بِه عَلیّ اَعظمُ مِن فَوتِ وِلايَتکُم فَنهضت فی تِلکَ الاَحداث.»
[At first, I withdrew from all activities till I found the heretics had openly taken to heresy and schism and were trying to undermine and ruin the religion of Muḥammad (P.B.U.H. & H.H.). I felt afraid that if I did not stand up to help Islam and the Muslims it would be a worse calamity to me than my losing authority and power over you. Therefore, I stood up amidst the sweeping surge of innovations….]
The twenty-five-year life of Imam ‘Alī (P.B.U.H.) in this period suggests his active intervention and the assistance and protection that he has compassionately provided for Islam and the Muslim community. The responses and guidelines of his holiness to the Caliphs of the time concerning the political, military, social, and other issues are quoted in Nahj al-Balāgha and other books of Ḥadīth and history, which is an indubitable witness to this procedure in the Imam’s (P.B.U.H.) life.
The second period is the time for the Imam’s (P.B.U.H.) rising to power. This period includes the forty-nine month Caliphate of Amīr al-Mu’minīn (P.B.U.H.) and the several months of Ḥasan b. ‘Alī’s (P.B.U.H.) Caliphate, which despite its brevity and the many annoyances and troubles that is inseparable from a revolutionary ḥukūma, were the most prominent years of the Islamic ḥukūma. Humane methods, absolute justice, and observance of various dimensions of Islam in social life along with decisiveness, frankness, and courage are recorded in this period more than ever in the history.
This period of the Imams’ (P.B.U.T.) life was a sample for ḥukūma and social life, two centuries after which the Shi‘ite Imams (P.B.U.T.) have constantly been called to it and endeavored in its way, and the Shi‘ites have remembered it as a cherished memory, felt pity for its loss, and condemned the latter regimes in comparison to it. At the same time, it has been an instructive lesson and experience that could show the state and condition of a revolutionary and one hundred percent Islamic ḥukūma among an uneducated or deviated people and from that day on impose long-term methods along with hard and uncompromising party trainings on the subsequent Imams (P.B.U.T.).
The third period is the twenty years between Imam Ḥasan’s (P.B.U.H.) peace treaty–the year 41 A.H.–and the event of Imam Ḥusayn’s (P.B.U.H.) martyrdom–Muḥarram of the year 61 A.H. After the incidence of peace treaty, the Shi‘ite’s half-hidden task began and the planning that was targeted at attempting to restore the power back to household of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) began. As per a normal estimate, this planning was not much inaccessible and there was hope to fulfill it with the ending of the mischievous life of Mu‘āwīya. Therefore, this period can be called “A short-term construction period attempting to create an Islamic state and ḥukūma.”
And finally, the fourth period is the time for pursuing and continuation of this same procedure in a long-term planning; in a time close to two centuries, with the victories and defeats in various stages, along with decisive victory in ideological work, intermingled with hundreds of tactics suiting the time and ornamented with thousands of manifestation of the sincerity, self-sacrifice, and representations of the magnificence of the typical human being in Islam.
The most important notion that has not been properly taken into consideration in the life of the Imams (P.B.U.T.) is the element of “vigorous political struggle”. Since the beginning of the second half of the first century A.H., when the Islamic caliphate was mixed with monarchy and the Islamic Imamate turned into despotic royal rule, the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (P.B.U.T.) intensified their political struggle in a way proportionate to the conditions and circumstances. The greatest objective of this struggle was to establish an Islamic state and to set up a ḥukūma based on Imamate. Explanation and interpretation of religion from the specific viewpoint of the Ahl al-Bayt (P.B.U.T.) and the removal of deviations and misconceptions from the Islamic knowledge and religious rulings is also regarded as a significant objective of the Ahl al-Bayt’s (P.B.U.T.) holy struggle (jihād). However, according to indispensable evidences, the Ahl al-Bayt’s (P.B.U.T.) jihād was not limited to these objectives and its greatest objective was nothing but the “establishment of ‘Alawite rule” and setting up an upright Islamic state. Most of the difficulties of the distressful and self-sacrificing life of the Imams (P.B.U.T.) and their companions were for having this objective and the Imams (P.B.U.T.) were engaged in long-term preparation for this purpose since the era of Imam Sajjād (P.B.U.H.) and after the tragedy of ‘Āshūrā.
In all the one-hundred-and-forty-year period between the tragedy of ‘Āshūrā and the heir apparency of the Eighth Imam (P.B.U.H.), the movements affiliated to the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (P.B.U.T.)–that is, the Shi‘ites–were always regarded as the largest and the most dangerous enemies of the caliphate. During this period, on many occasions the grounds were prepared and the Shi‘ite struggles, which should be an “‘Alawite Movement”, got close to great victories, but every time there were barriers created in the way to final victory and most of the time the greatest blow was struck from the invasion on the axis and the main center of this movement, that is, the Imam (P.B.U.H.) himself, and his incarceration or martyrdom; and when it was the turn for the next Imam, the strangulation, pressure, and restrictions were so much that the preparation of the ground required another long period of time.
Amid the fierce storm of these incidents, the Imams (P.B.U.T.) cleverly and courageously led the Shi‘ism like a small but deep, torrential, and persistent current through the labyrinth of the tortuous and dangerous passages. The Umayyad and ‘Abbasid caliphs were in no time able to destroy the trend of Imamate by destroying the Imam (P.B.U.H.); and this piercing dagger always remained driven in the flanks of the caliphate system and as a permanent threat, took away their peace of mind.
1984/09/08
