Documents of the Right Word

animosity. All they wanted was to eliminate the faction that had
been aroused among Muslims and to enforce the duty of talion. It
ended in war. Voluntary actions are done of one’s intention and
free will. An action’s being good or bad depends on the intention’s
being good or bad. For instance, if a person said, “I shall beat
anyone who breaks this container,” and if another person walking
by the container slipped and fell down, breaking the container, it
would not be appropriate for the first person to beat the second
person. The case with those who fought hadrat Emîr “kerrem-
Allâhu wejheh’ was similar to this example.
Even if we were to admit that fighting hadrat Alî would be
fighting the Messenger of Allah, then fighting the Messenger
would not always be disbelief. It would be disbelief if it were done
in denial of his prophethood. Yet it would not be disbelief if it were
done out of worldly ambitions, such as for obtaining property. For
Qur’ân al-kerîm contains an âyat-i-kerîma which purports about
highwaymen, “They are fighting Allah and the Messenger of Allah
and striving to arouse turbulence on the earth.” On the other hand
it has been reported unanimously that highwaymen are not
necessarily disbelievers. The âyat-i-kerîma uses the expression,
“fighting Allah and the Messenger of Allah.” The hadîth-i-sherîf,
on the other hand, contains the phrase, “fighting the Messenger of
Allah.” When it is not disbelief to fight Allah and His Messenger,
how can it be disbelief to fight only against the Messenger? Yes, it
is definitely disbelief to fight the Messenger in order to deny the
religion and to affront Islam. Yet any war not made with an
intention of this sort would not be disbelief. Hadrat Mûsâ’s
(Moses’) holding (his brother) hadrat Hârûn’s (Aaron’s) hair and
beard with anger is a kind of fight. Such things happen in warlike
situations. What would be said if a person came forward and
lodged the hadîth-i-sherîf, “Your position with me is like that of
Hârûn with Mûsâ,” against the background of this warlike
situation? Rasûlullah’s beloved and blessed wife (hadrat Âisha)
was of the opinion that hadrat Alî was indulgent towards the
murderers (of hadrat ’Uthmân) and slack in executing the law of
talion. So she was offended with him. Likewise, hadrat Mûsâ,
seeing that hadrat Hârûn was indulgent towards the people who
had been worshipping a calf and slack in punishing them, hurt his
brother, who was a Prophet. If any kind of war against a Prophet
were disbelief, hadrat Mûsâ would have become a disbeliever then
and there (may Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us from saying so)! By the
same token, Yûsuf’s (Prophet Joseph’s) ‘alaihis-salâm’ brothers
– 308 –