The Role of the Nation in Political Change

By: Ayatullah Shaheed Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim
The fifth principle on which the political trend of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) is founded is their assertion that the Muslim nation must play a considerable role in the process of changing political conditions, either by acting directly or contributing to create a process of change or by monitoring and observing the progress of this process, its outcome and results. To summarize this approach, the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) believe that the nation is the tool of the process of change; therefore, it is necessary to mobilize and change the public psychologically and spiritually so that they become capable of bringing about that change. At the same time, the nation is both the subject and the object of that process of change, and the sought objective of this process is to guide people towards Almighty Allah and the right path which leads certainly to attainment of divine perfection.
An investigation of the following points gives us a clear understanding of this view:
(1) The concept of the Holy Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) about the leadership of Muslims is that Imamate is a divinely designated position, in the sense that an Imam is assigned on the strength of a nomination made by the Holy Prophet or the preceding Imam. Notwithstanding, we find that in actual practice the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a)—after having been removed from this divinely designated position because of political circumstances that Muslims encountered immediately after the Holy Prophet’s demise—emphasized the people’s role in the processes of political change.
It is evident that Imam `Ali (‘a) became Caliph as the result of a direct election of Muslims living in al-Madinah, while Abu-Bakr claimed the position as a result of election by some people who held a (private) meeting at saqifah of Banu-Sa`idah, `Umar held the position due to direct nomination by one person—Abu-Bakr, and `Uthman came to the position as a result of the vote of four persons out of six persons that `Umar had named to choose the following caliph (without requesting the opinion of other Muslims on the issue).1
The same thing applies to the rulers of the Umayyad and `Abbasid dynasties who totally deprived the nation of its role in a direct election or even consultation.
All this took place against explicit divine wording (nass) and in spite of the slogan that was raised by the followers of the School of Consultation (shura). Apparently, this slogan lacked any substance and was raised just to revoke the divine and Prophetic texts on designating Imam `Ali and his descendants (‘a) as the leaders of the Muslim nation.
It is also clear that the Holy Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) in general political situations used to take the public view into consideration, as shown in Imam `Ali’s stance to the question of arbitration immediately after the Siffin War even though he had originally not supported the validity of this situation. Nevertheless, the Imam (‘a) based his stance on the general viewpoint of his army and declared it after discussion with the Khawarij.2
The same thing can be said about Imam Hasan’s truce with Mu`awiyah and Imam Husayn’s open rejection of Yazid’s demands after being certain that the people of Iraq unanimously agreed with him in this matter.
(2) The Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) adopted a policy that admitted multiple political parties and opposition even if those parties were in the wrong and lacked any legal or actual justification. This policy was obvious in the general setting of Imam `Ali (‘a) who did not take any suppressive procedures against his political opponents as long as they did not use a weapon or power to face him politically. The most obvious example of this policy was Imam `Ali’s attitude towards the mutinous movements of Talhah and al-Zubayr and of the Khawarij after the issue of arbitration—when they isolated themselves from the Muslim community and refrained from carrying out their general duties towards society—as well as many other persons who objected to the Imam’s policy of allowing various sorts of opposing political activities.
(3) As has been discussed in the first chapter of this book, the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) established an exclusive method of choosing a judge or a referential authority in the issue of issuing religious verdicts. This method then developed into the system of religious referential authority (marji`iyyah) by which a religious authority was elected by the people through natural and direct voting for a nominee that met the requirements of the office. In this system too, the two processes of electing the most qualified person and the people getting to know him grew in the nation so gradually that it became the norm in all issues.
The same method is applied while choosing a deputy of the referential authority—a method that takes form by means of gradual approval of the people, familiarity with and consent for that person.
(4) The Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) paid very special attention to the weak, poor, and needy Muslims in general, as well as the lower class of the Muslim society, such as non-Arabs, slaves, and others who later on represented the vast majority of the Muslim community. The Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) were famed for taking good care of these social classes and depending on them such that some individuals of (the tribe of) Quraysh protested against Imam `Ali’s manners towards the non-Arab Muslims who they used to call ‘the red-faced’, as mentioned in their famous complaint to Imam `Ali (‘a), “Those red-faced ones preoccupy you more than we do.”
The majority of the Muslim community, these lower-classed people, bore much love for the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) as a natural result of the care that was shown for them.
This extraordinary attention and care for these classes can be observed in the following section of Imam `Ali’s famous Epistle to Malik al-Ashtar, the governor of Egypt: Beware! Fear Allah when dealing with the lower classes of the poor who have none to sponsor them, who are forlorn, indigent, and helpless and are greatly torn in mind—victims to the vicissitudes of time. Among them, there are some who do not question their lot in life and who in spite of their misery, do not go about begging. For God's sake, safeguard their rights; for upon you rests the responsibility of protection. Assign for their benefit a portion of the state treasury, wherever they may be, whether close at hand or far from you. The rights of the two should be equal in your eyes. Do not let any preoccupations cause you to forget them, for no excuse whatsoever for the disregard of their rights will be acceptable to God. Do not treat their interests to be of less importance than your own, never put them outside the scope of your important considerations, and note those who look down upon them and of whose condition they keep you in ignorance.3
Notes:
1- In this section, we do not intend to discuss whether these restricted elections were right or unjustified; rather, we only want to refer to the point that Imam `Ali (‘a) himself had not agreed to hold the position of caliphate without direct election by the people. Referring to this election, Imam `Ali (‘a) says in his famous sermon known as al-Shaqshaqiyyah: At that moment, nothing took me by surprise like the crowd of people rushing towards me. They advanced towards me from every side like the mane of the hyena so much so that Hasan and Husayn were getting crushed and both shoulders of my garment were torn. They collected around me like a herd of sheep and goats. When I took up the reins of government, one party broke away and another turned disobedient while the rest began acting wrongfully…
2- In Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon No. 127, Imam `Ali (‘a) says: Your own group unanimously suggested the names of these two men and we took the pledge from them that they would not exceed the Qur'an but they deviated from it and abandoned the right way although both of them were conversant with it…
3- Nahj al-Balaghah, Epistle No. 53.