Allah (s) has gifted Muslims and specifically Shia Muslims several bounties and abundant opportunities about which we lack recognition. Due to lack of recognition we do not realize the value of these bounties and as a result we are not getting benefited by the effects of these bounties on us. The biggest of all bounties is that Allah (s) has given us the recognition of his essence and made us believers in God, by presenting us the proofs of his oneness he has made us monotheists, by teaching us the ways of his worship he has made worshippers, his kindness and generosity has guided us with the lamp of Prophethood, he has given us a pure religion like Islam, he has descended a book like Holy Quran, he has made us followers of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) and has granted us the love and obedience of the progeny of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s), and apart from this there are thousands of other bounties given to us which we are completely negligent about and hence we are not appreciative and grateful of these bounties; but sill Allah (s) has not abandoned us from these bounties. Allah (s) has granted us thousands of opportunities; the significance and value of which is not known to us due to which we are not getting benefitted by these opportunities given to us though some of the opportunities are such that they suffices the need for making up our hereafter.
One of the bounties amongst these is the Azadari of the doyen of martyrs (a.s) which majority of Muslims are not acquainted with, some have become victims of doubts and fabrications and with utmost grievances there are few who out of ignorance have become enemies of Azadari. Even those who have accepted and perform Azadari are also not well acquainted with its reality and are unaware of it status and esteemed position. Opportunities, spare time and bounties are wasted due to being unappreciative and the punishment for such deeds is very severe from Allah (s) because the losses due to wasting opportunities are very high and specifically for those opportunities whose availability has been an outcome of stringent efforts, sacrifices and hardships. Allah (s) does not tolerate negligence and abandonment of such bounties for which great capital have been used.
The opportunity of Azadari has not come to us easily; for this the greatest capital of universe has been spent; for this the purest of beings have suffered unimaginable calamities by the hands of impure beings.
If the recognition (Maarifat) of Azadari is acquired than becoming an Azadar would never be considered as a shortcoming it would be something prestigious. The Azadar will then realize the great reality with which he is associated and he will also become aware about his responsibilities. Any level of expression of gratefulness would be considered as less for those who have received this great opportunity of Azadari and god forbid if they become the cause of any damage to Azadari then there won’t be a crime greater than this. It is essential to understand that human being cannot fulfil the rights of anything without its recognition; without recognition that action does not meets its objective and it does not gets delivered the way it has to be delivered.
For actions without recognition (Maarifat) Ali (a.s) says:
“Two persons have broken my back; a Scholar without deeds and an ignorant performer of deeds.”
Ali (a.s) says that; both the scholar who has knowledge but is not making his knowledge practical and that ignorant being who is performing actions but without knowledge and recognition have broken my back. The meaning of breaking back of an Imam is breaking the back of religion. The outcome of the actions of both the Scholar without actions and actions without knowledge is same; that is both become the cause of defaming religion, distancing people from Islam and breaking the back of the Leader. Any action performed with recognition (Maarifat) gives results whereas even for the entire life if something is done without recognition (Maarifat) it gives no results. If two units of prayers are performed with recognition it will give results whereas if prostration is done for entire life without recognition it won’t give any results. If a person with recognition just looks at the Holy Kaaba he will get the results whereas a person without recognition keeps on circling around the Holy Kaaba for his entire life then also he won’t get results. Similarly if Azadari is done with recognition (Maarifat) it will give results but if done without recognition it won’t be effective.
Thus every act has to be performed with recognition (Maarifat); shed tears but with recognition, beat your chest but with recognition, recite elegies and poems of grief but with recognition, recite the virtues of Ahlulbayt (a.s) but with recognition and organize Majalis and calamities oration but with recognition. All these dealings have to be with recognition and if actions are performed with right knowledge and recognition then no one can snatch these from you but if they are done without recognition than any one can easily snatch it away from you by creating little doubts about your action, sometimes by deceit, sometimes by misguidance and sometimes by making you sleep. If a person sleeps then all his goods are in danger and generally people are robbed while they are sleeping. Those who go to sleep on airports and railways station their goods are lost and when they wake they find that they are robbed and there are some fools who might feel happy that now they don’t need to carry their luggage.
Iqbal had this complaint from his community. Allama Iqbal says:
Woe on failures! The goods of caravan was getting lost
And the caravan kept on loosing the feelings of loss
It is a pity that the goods of the caravan are lost but more than this it is pitiful that the caravan does not even feel that their goods are lost.
Azadari is the custom of the great Lady Zainab (s.a.) and this great custom has two dimensions; one dimension is that of its benefits and second dimension is that of the purpose in it. The benefit of Azadari is rewards (Thawaab) but the purpose of Azadari is something else. We need to come towards the purpose of mourning and lamentations which brings us towards worship and religion. Even if we do not intend to earn rewards still we get rewards but a purpose cannot be acquired until we intend for it. Purpose itself means something that is acquired with intention and cannot be acquired without intention. Rewards can be acquired without recognition (Maarifat) but purpose cannot be acquired without recognition.
Azadari – A movement
The custom of Azadari (mourning and lamentations) is a movement. Azadari in its essence, existence and reality is a movement. A movement is getting something into a state of motion. This means if something has a function of motion and it has left its function becoming stagnant; then if something comes and brings it into motion then this is known as a movement. Allah (s) has made human being such that he should be continuously in the state of movement and this movement is towards divinity. The Holy Quran has termed human being as an Emigrant towards Allah:
“O human being! You are going towards your Lord; you are in the state of movement towards your creator” (Surah Inshiqaq – Ayah 6)
The life of human being is in movement; if movement stops human being dies. If the movement of heart stops the body dies. This is one movement which if stops human being dies but there are several other types of movements also that also results into different types of deaths. Silence, Calmness and Stagnancy are also deaths. This means if the movement of heart stops then it is death and the soul of human being is also in state of movement which also if it stops then this is death. Similarly human society is also alive due to movement and a society also dies if movement stops. The nation ((Ummat) is also alive due to movement and if the movement stops then the nation also suffers death. Religion and Ideologies are also alive due to movement and without movement religion also dies. The world of existence is also surviving due to movement and without movement the entire world would be destroyed. Stagnancy and Silence are the other names of death itself. Water is the best example to understand the relationship of movement with life and stagnancy with death.
Water which is the fundamental element of survival for everything itself is alive due to movement. If movement stops then water also dies. The life of water lies in its flow, till the time it is moving it is alive if it stops it dies. The stagnant water is termed as a still pond in which rain water, flood water and dirty streams of water fall but there is no exit. Since there is no exit the accumulated water dies. In Persian there is a precise name for this, it is called as “Murd-Aab” that is dead water. In this water there is no life or existence; in fact if this water is fed to someone his life will also end. If dead water is served to a living being it kills the living being as well. The signs of dead water are the presence of two types of creation inside it; one is frogs and second Leeches.
Leech is a pest living in still ponds whose work is to get stuck to the body of animals and other creatures and suck their blood. It is said that this small pest is capable of sucking blood ten times its weight and it is used sometimes to suck dirty blood out of human body. The work of frog is just to speak and make noise. Its main occupancy is to make noise and generate useless tones. Wherever these two creations are found in abundance than that water is definitely dead.
The example of human society is also similar; if there is movement it is alive, if it develops stagnancy then it dies. Dead society is like a dirty water pond which develops leeches, frogs, harmful insects and damaging germs. Criminals are present in abundance in dead societies, corruption and indecencies are common, the market of evils is hot, robbing and cheating is common, assassinations, murders and terrorism becomes something normal and above all this there are those fraudsters who suck the blood out of dead communities thus making the community weak and themselves prosperous. This society gives birth to a Class system and due to which few leeches becomes the owner of all the capital, wealth and resources. Feudalism is the inheritance of dead societies. In a feudal system the blood of entire society is drained out and an ordinary person can’t even get his daily necessities thereby the ability of movement comes to an end.
The Holy Quran has specified wealth and resources as the means of movement for a society; it carries the status of the backbone for a society. A person whose backbone breaks is not in a position to stand and move. Similarly if the wealth of the society is looted and gets inside the pocket of few capitalists then that society also does not remains in a position of movement, touches ground, becomes abased and poor. The Quran has referred to this state as downtrodden (Miskeen) that is when a community turns low and is not willing to get into movement. When capitalists gather wealth for their ten forthcoming generations then the existing generation of the nation does not even gets enough to eat and drink. The wealth that is looted out from the fulfilment of basic necessities of the people is spent on the luxuries and lavishness of capitalists and feudalist. The people of that society who are not able to acquire their daily necessities loose their ability of movement and uprisings; the clouds of death are always hovering on their heads; humiliation and poverty becomes their fate. If this state develops in a community then this does not ends easily in fact it passes over to its coming generations. The children of beggars are also beggars the way the children of feudalist are also feudalist. Today majority of the Muslim countries and people are in a downtrodden state for this reason; they have inherited poverty from their previous generation.
The other creations like leech and frogs are found in abundance in a stagnant society. In a static and stagnant society people who just talk a lot are found in abundance but they have no practical character. The politicians are contented by just issuing statements rather than doing some practical politics. The rulers don’t take any practical steps and just fool the people by making promises. The religious leaders also are contented with big words and soulless speeches. The enlightened intellectuals consider criticism as enough whereas the people only raise slogans. These are all the traits of frogs which it acquires from its life in a pond.
There are big claims made in stagnant and non motion communities but it lacks actions. Everywhere claimants are found but they all lack sincerity in their claims. Some claim to be standard bearers (or leaders) of the community, some are claimant of being most pious, some claim to possess best abilities, some claim to be utmost sincere, some claim to be servants of community, some claim to be religious, some as nationalist but behind these hollow and heartless claims is nothing other than lies, deceit, fraud and hypocrisy. If the people get deceived by these speeches and claims; and feel happy that their circumstances are going to change by these words then apart from being illusion it is nothing. This is like a troubled person feels happy on listening to noises of frogs and thinks that a big group is coming for his help. The political and religious frogs cannot be relied upon for the survival of any community.
In stagnant and non moving water there is another dangerous creation found which is not visible by eyes and it needs a microscope to see them. These creations are the germs that spread diseases. We should remember that germs are generally born in dirty and stagnant water. There are two types of germs; one group of germs is known as bacteria and other as virus. Both of these spread diseases but their method of attack are different. A bacterium enters inside the body and brings down the energy of the body, it prevents food from entering the body and it absorbs the food itself or wastes it. The method of attack by virus is different; it enters inside the body and damages the system of the body. It takes control of different functions of the body and this is the reason that treating viruses is more difficult.
Such germs get birth inside dead communities and societies as well. Some of them are like bacteria spreading social and communal diseases whereas some others are like viruses who make the society non functional. Those who take bribes act like bacteria. The thieves, usurpers and dacoits block or waste the energy of the society but those who enter inside sensitive community centres and important social organizations taking control of the social system are the social viruses. They acquire political, communal, educational, religious and cultural positions and make the entire community non functional. Dead communities and societies are victims of these calamities.
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