Obstacles in the path of Revolution

The Islamic revolution has passed through several obstacles in its thirty years. The obstacles in the path of revolution can be divided into few types amongst which the most significant ones are: foreign obstacles, obstacles of thoughts, political blockades, religious obstructions, communal obstacles, Western world, Arab world, neighbouring countries, stagnancy and narrow mindedness, following West, enlightened thoughts, economic sanctions and above all this the most important and effective are obstacles from Personalities.

Success - conditional to overcoming obstacles

There are several conditions for success of any system, revolution, movement or path but along with this is a significant condition of overcoming obstacles and difficulties. A movement that cannot overcome obstacles gets defeated. Amongst the qualities of a revolutionary leader it is also present that he should steer the nation and revolution through multitudes of obstacles and difficulties making them reach the desired destination. The obstacles are of different types; some are easy to overcome whereas others are very difficult. And amongst these most tough and unbearable stage is leaping across the obstacles present in the form of personalities. The able leadership of Islamic Revolution has every time demonstrated his abilities in this area and this is the reason that this great bounty of Allah (s) is present amongst us. The Islamic revolution from its beginning had to pass through several crisis. If we have to say that everyday it had to face a new crisis than this won't be an exaggeration. Certain crisis amongst these were so severe that any one of them was sufficient to destroy the revolution but it was the grace of Allah (s) and the deep vision of the Supreme Leader that every stage has been passed through in a colourful way.

It is essential for everyone to familiarize with the history of encountering crisis and challenges because every nation and community comes across such crisis; thus the experience of one nation could be useful for other. Specifically the Pakistani community which is under the siege of such crisis is in severe need for such successful experiences.

The obstacle of Personalities in the path of Revolution

We present over here the analysis of only one such obstacle in the path of revolution which is the biggest, complex and unbearable difficulty of overcoming the obstacles of Personalities. This difficulty has come on the path of revolution several times and every time it has been a successful overcome. If this difficulty would not have been overcome than today there would be stack of personalities in Iran and nothing remaining in the name of revolution and Islam.

Who is a personality and what is meant by personality?

Personality means those effective persons who acquire an eminent position in society. Due to their personal and economical specialties they are effective on the actions, character and thoughts of others; and their decisions, steps and opinion become an accomplishment of proof for common public.

The individuals who are looked upon with respect by people are considered as personalities and they also acquire the degree of sacredness in a religious society. In other words the reigns of the thoughts and visions of people lies in their hands. At every instance the people look at them and whichever direction they move people also follow them.

The positive role of personalities in communities

It is an established fact that without the presence of evident personalities no movement can take place in a society, no mission starts, reformation and revolution cannot take place, a system cannot be established and without senior and effective personalities no form of academic and practical system gets established. In social, academic, visionary, ideological and political fields when dwarfs come out in place of senior personalities the destruction of community and nation becomes definite. The absence of personalities is big of source of lowliness of many communities. The lack of personalities like Allama Iqbal brings into existence visionary astonishment and bewilderedness in communities; and due to absence of politicians like Quaid-e-Azam the community gets indulged into games played by dirty politicians. In the absence of religious personalities the community comes under the control of brokers of religion and jugglers of religion.

The birth of personalities

The birth of personalities in any community or field is a natural phenomenon because individuals are of different levels in relevance to their abilities. Thus certain individuals on getting opportunities in some field of actions become more prominent than others on the basis of their self capabilities, actions and certain qualities. They rise and come forward based on their abundant capabilities, intellect and hard work thereby holding the reigns of the relevant field.

False Personalities

Though at times along with true personalities certain false and small personalities also come into existence. Individuals inside whom personality elements are missing come out as personalities under specific circumstances. Communities that do not possess the ability to give birth to personalities and fails to produce great persons witnesses the birth of artificial, fraudulent and false personalities. Certain communities and societies due to lack of true personalities develop the feeling of deprivation and to suppress these feelings it becomes a compulsion on them to create false personalities. As in sports the admirers give names of famous players to their locality teams for compensating their feeling of deprivation. The community indulged in false personalities can never become victorious, it becomes a victim of crisis in every field, failures, confusion and bewilderedness becomes its fate and the support of personalities which they take to come out crisis makes them further victim of bigger crisis. The product of false atmosphere are false faces and false titles who in order to preserve their image create an atmosphere and in this manner a community rather than giving birth to a true personality remains occupied in preserving the image of false personalities.

The effects of false personalities is not just on the current generation but instead the future generations also do not remain secure from their evil effects.

It is also found in history that at times the real and true personalities face such issues and difficulties due to which they remain unrecognized and instead false personalities take advantage of this opportunity to mount on their personality position. The most clear example of this is our Holy Imams (a.s). There is no doubt in Holy Imams being personalities and both friends and foes have accepted this fact that during their times there was no personality even near to them forget about being comparable. But despite of this the Imams (a.s) remained in a destitute state and the Ummah (nation) despite of Imams present referred to individuals who could not be considered as personalities in any context.

The need for creation of false personalities

At times creation of personality becomes a necessity and what is meant by creation over here is creation of false and fraudulent personality. There could be several reasons for this ; one of which is that some incapable individual gets enthusiastic about becoming a personality. There are enormous examples of this in the political and religious world. An incapable person on the basis of his wealth or assets or taking advantage from certain opportunities presents himself as a personality and the general public also accepts him like a fraud sage, false doctor or a false scholar.

Another reason for creation of personality is that at times a specific group or sect for the purpose of securing its gains is pursued to create a false personality like they appoint an incapable son of a capable father on the position of father so that the gains can be secured. This reason is seen more and common in the religious world. It has become very common to bring someone who does not possess any qualities of a Marja-e-Taqleed at the level of Marjai'yat. It is also seen that after one Marja passes away just for the sake of keeping control of Islamic taxes (Khums) an incapable person is introduced as his successor who has no signs of grandeur as that of a Marajae.

One other reason for creation of personality is that certain persons are presented as personalities by governments, secret agencies and enemies of religion and community. It is a common devilish tactic to promote deviated persons with the help of media and achieving evil goals; this is being benefitted from almost every day.

Public protocol for false personalities

Whether it is self carnal desires or group, organization interests; whether the basis is enemies of religion or nation or some other cause the false and fraudulent personalities receive a high protocol from the people. This is due to several reasons:

1. One is that there is no correct standard and appropriate measure of recognizing personality present amongst people.

2. Second are the psychological tricks played by the creators of false personalities resulting into deceiving of people.

3. Third is that those nations who do not have an ideal for a true personality very easily become captive of false personalities.

4. Fourth is the attribute of flock of herds present amongst common persons helps the promotion of false personalities. This attribute implies blind following of the path and direction of majority.

5. Fifth is that people are always exterior oriented and small personalities are expert in presenting an excellent exterior and outward appearance. In order to deceive people they talk things that are liked by people, to please people they adopt common public traits, to misguide people they raise passionate slogans.

False Personality creation in the vision of Ali (a.s)

While addressing the dangers of false and fraudulent personalities in Nahjul Balagha Ali (a.s) says:

"Two categories of persons are under wrath of Allah: one are those who are left on their own state and second those individuals who have gathered ignorant talks from here and there, he squashes his hands and feet in the ignorant river of nation, he remains negligent and unconscious in the darkness of "Fitna", he closes his eyes with peace and comfort, certain so called human beings give him the tile of a Scholar and he becomes a Scholar though in reality he was never a scholar.

Every morning he is occupied in gathering those things in abundance whose absence would have been better than their presence. And when he fulfils his thirst with this dirty water and gathers all baseless talks he sits amongst people as a jurist, he takes the responsibility of solving public issues and if some complicated matter is presented to him he carves proofs and evidences based on his personal opinion and also develops certainty on it. He is trapped in doubts and conjectures similar to a spider getting trapped in its own cobweb. He himself is not aware whether he has issued a right or a wrong verdict. Even if he has said something right still he is afraid about its incorrectness and if he has given a wrong answer then he expects that maybe this was correct. He is an ignorant wandering in ignorance and is riding the lost vehicles in the darkness of his faded vision. He has neither experimented the reality of knowledge nor has he reached its depth. He presents traditions in such broken and distorted form just like wind scattering dried husk and straws.

By Allah! he is incapable of solving the problems referred to him and neither is he eligible for those positions given to him. Those things which he is unaware of is not considered by him as worthy of investigation and just assumes that the extent of his approach is the final limit and no one can go beyond that. He swallows those things which are not understood by him because he is himself aware about his ignorance. The innocent blood from his verdicts are shouting and unjustified inheritance received as an outcome of his verdicts are yelling . It is a complaint only to Allah about those who live in ignorance and die in misguidance. If Quran is presented to them as a real truth than it becomes a most unworthy thing for them but if its verses are used out of context than Quran becomes the most valuable thing for them. There is no goodness greater than evils near them and no evil greater than goodness."
Sermon 17

The criminals who create false personalities

Ameerul Momineen (a.s) has declared the creator of false scholars and fraudulent personality as the most dejected and accursed person because human society specifically Muslim nation receives uncompensated losses from these false personalities. In this sermon He (a.s) has pointed towards the trend of false personalities that certain so called human beings mount ignorant on the positions of scholars. They give them false titles, sing praises about them and promote these incapable beings as personalities amongst people.

One fine point in these words is that Ameerul Momineen (a.s) has eliminated those who create false personalities from the category of human beings. This means as He says that those who create and present false personalities to people are not human beings but are imitations of human beings. This is because this filthy act of theirs in reality is a non human act due which they do not remain as human being.

A crime not worthy of forgiveness

To make false and duplicate things is worthy of condemnation but when these false things are related to necessities of life than creating and producing such things becomes a crime which cannot be forgiven. If someone adulterates the daily necessities and eatables like oil, sugar, flour etc than he is a criminal of humanity. If someone creates duplicate medicines and sells than he is much bigger criminal. If someone creates a false religion and vision than he is a much more dangerous criminal. And if someone creates and presents false personality in front of people than he is a criminal of humanity and also most dejected and accursed person near Allah (s). Thus these king makers who are creators of false and duplicate personalities are the biggest criminal of Allah and humanity. In this market of false creation these criminals till date have presented several ignorant as scholars, many lustful beings as sacred, many thieves as rulers, many traders as well wishers, many highway robbers have been presented as guides, many senseless beings as possessors of sense, many insane as Jurists (Faqeeh), many simpletons as possessors of vision, many power hungry beings as Marajae, many merchants as Prophets, many slaves as rulers, many betrayers as trustees, many traders of religion as most religious beings, many transgressors as believers, many poisonous snakes as nice and good, many sexual beasts as chaste and many oppressors are presented as oppressed.

The damages from false personalities

It has been a big false creation that took place with religion, humanity and nation but none got any clue about this. We seek refuge from these false personalities and their creators. Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that someone who is not a scholar but is presented as a scholar, someone who is not a Mujtahid but presented as Mujtahid is the most accursed and dejected person near Allah. When a false made up person is accursed to this extent than one who has created him should be more cursed and dejected. When a scholar like ignorant is worthy of condemnation than a human like human being creator of false scholar is also worthy of condemnation, criticism and hatred. A nation's everything becomes false and fraudulent if it gets involved with these false creators and false personalities; and with false and duplicated means no nation can achieve success.

While expressing the precise and fine traits of these false and fraudulent personalities Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that their resemblance is that of a spider; they make plans out of their self carved opinions and due to their immaturity it is frail like that of spider's web and is so entangled due to their confusion that they themselves get trapped inside it. They take wrong decisions and remain expectant of being correct and after speaking out certain correct things they remain scared that that it might be wrong.

Due to their incapability, incorrect verdicts and wrong steps blood of innocents streams out and unjustified inheritances are transferred. There is no one present to talk about their mistakes but innocent blood keeps on screaming and unjustified inheritances keep on yelling.

True Personalities - A social necessity

True personality is a necessity of every society without which a society cannot progress. The laps of history is full with such personalities. Whether it is religion or politics, the world of science and technology, the valley of culture and literature, the deep sea of philosophy and wisdom; all these fields are at the mercy of great personalities. On the other hand false personalities are the basis of stagnancy, stillness, disgrace and lowliness. Thus there is a strong relationship between communities and personalities; the type of personality getting born in a community would be similar to the type of community and vice versa.

The association of personality and society

In order to give birth to eminent personalities great communities are required. In ponds and dirty water steams only frogs and leeches are born whose task is only to make noise or suck blood of others whereas in seas and oceans big whale fishes are born. For the birth of esteemed personalities oceanic culture and nature is required whereas in traditional and legacy cultures, communities only small and false personalities are born.

True personalities carry the burden of society and community on their shoulders, they become the support for their community and nation whereas false and disgraced personalities becomes the burden on community. True and great personalities give freedom to captive communities from imprisonment, captivity and poverty whereas false personalities turn free and independent communities to slavery. Many generations grow and progress under the shadow of true personalities whereas false personalities are like banyan tree which does not allow any other tree to grow and rise under its shadow and in fact by spreading its root far it grows on the support of others.

The summary is that true personality is the need and necessity of every community and nation whereas false personalities are ulcers for society and community; and continues to be the basis of the pains, agony and grievances of the community.

Following Personalities

The personality irrespective of being real or false there is always one danger hovering above the community which is of blind personality following. When a community becomes captive of a personality and starts worshipping him, considers him as the scale of measure for everything and blindly starts walking behind him, considers him pure from all deficiencies and errors, considers personality as ultimate truth and brings truth at par with personality then this community has encountered a very big danger. These things are possible in infallibles but such type of referral and thoughts for a non infallible is the basis of destruction. As it is mentioned in tradition.

" Extravagant love for a thing makes person blind and deaf"

This tradition in Arabic has transformed into a proverb. The love of personality also makes a person blind and deaf. The extravagant love for personalities and their blind following is termed as following personalities (blindly). The personality following public do not go after truth they always tread behind personalities because for them personalities are affirmation of truth. If such individuals get an option to choose any one between truth and personality then definitely they will select personality and leave truth. There are several historical evidences present on this that for the sake of favouring personalities people have explicitly stampeded truth, they have choked the throat of justice, ignored truth , left the support of oppressed, capable persons have been sacrificed as a consequence of blind following of personality whereas the criteria of religion is that personality should not be made the scale for truth instead personalities should be measured on the scale truth and righteousness.

The scale of testing personalities

In Nahjul Balagha the divine law related to personality worshippers has been mentioned by Ameerul Momineen (a.s) as:

When Harith ibn Haith came to Ameerul Momineen (a.s) and said:

Do you think that I can even think of getting misguided about the companions of camel (means battle of Jamal)? In reply He (a.s) said:

O Harith! You have seen below and not raised your eyes higher due to which you are astonished and bewildered, you do not recognize truth so that you can identify the followers of truth and neither do you recognize falsehood so that you can identify those walking on the path of falsehood.

The difficulty of Harith was that on one side he was able to see truth whereas on the other side were big personalities. For a short while he went into internal turbulence but then became comfortable under the effects of big personalities and came to Ameerul Momineen (a.s) saying that you should not even doubt that I will support you instead me and my companions do not consider the party of Jamal to be wrong.

The category of the Group of Harith

Ameerul Momineen (a.s) has given a very fine and delicate answer to the expression of Harith which for people similar to Harith type thinking that is the personality following group bears the status of a principle.

He (a.s) said that you have become captive of personalities, your thoughts are lowly because you do not possess recognition of truth thus you are not aware about the followers of truth. Thus what He (a.s) is saying that anyone who leaves truth and does personality worship then he is having abased and lowly thoughts. Hence he guided him and said that he should look above and high also which means adopt correct and high thoughts testing personalities on truth. If you can recognize truth then the followers of truth can be easily recognized. The reason behind Harith's astonishment and confusion was the ignorance of this principle.

There is a tradition narrated from Ameerul Momineen (a.s) from Biharul Anwar:

" O people! Recognize truth so that the followers of truth can be recognized."

It is narrated from Ameerul Momineen (a.s) that :

" Be amongst the followers of truth, identify through truth and be identified through truth."

Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says:

" Always speak truth, identify through truth and act on righteousness so that you become from amongst the followers of truth".

People on witnessing the attributes, services, achievements and esteemed sayings of true personalities get polarized around them whereas they are impressed with propaganda, rumours and outward activities of false personalities.

Divine and Selfish Personalities

True personalities are those who acquire a distinctive position in society. In the Holy Quran two categories of personalities are mentioned: one are those personalities who are termed as Divine (Rabbani) and second are those individuals who are termed as selfish and self oriented.