Socio Political Thought Of Shah WaliAllah Rahmatullahi Alaihi

212 Selections from Hujjat Alldh al-Bdlighah
merits Divine pleasure and reward, and a commission of those acts
that are interdicted, incurs God's wrath and punishment;
(ii) There are certain interdictions which are not so strong. A conscious
abstention from them merits pleasure and reward, but a commission
of those acts does not incur any wrath or punishment.
142. For example, if you consider the words you have for denoting prescription
and prohibition, and look at the common usage of people,
you will find a suggestion of pleasure and displeasure in relation to
a pronouncement. This is an inescapable natural fact.
143. The injunctions are, therefore, classified into five categories: (a)
obligatory, (b) recommended, (c) permissible, (d) reprehensible, and
(e) prohibited. Obviously, the mode which could be employed for
ordering the lives of manlund, could not possibly indicate the condition
of each individual act separately, among the infinite conditions
of those individuals who are charged with duties. Because human
beings are incapable of encompassing their detailed knowledge. It
was, therefore, necessary that people be ordered with reference to
general principles, whereby a unity may regulate a multiplicity so
that they [the people charged with duties] may be able to encompass
that knowledge, and to understand through it, the value of their acts.
In the generalisations adopted in various disciplines, you can find
an illustration of this. These generalisations are employed as rules
governing particular conditions. For instance, a grammarian says:
alfi 'ilu ma&-'un (a subject is in the nominative case). His listener
comprehends this statement and accordingly understands the position
of Zayd in the sentence: qama Zaydun (Zayd stood up) and that
of 'Amr in the sentence: qa 'ada 'Amrun ('Amr sat down), and so on.
Now this unity, which regulates a multiplicity, is called the 'illah, or
cause, around which an injunction revolves.
144. The cause ('illah) is classified into two categories:
(i) First, a condition present among those charged with duty, is taken
into consideration. But this condition cannot possibly be so permanent
as never to disappear from them. For, if it were so, the purport
of the command would have been to permanently charge them with
something, which they are not capable of, except, of course, in matters
of belief. It is, therefore, necessary that the condition which is
to be taken into consideration, should be a composite condition. It