Religion & Culture

Imam Ali’s death was total distinction of Allah’s light – Shah Abdul Aziz

16-May-2020

Young modern political Islamist either from Salafi Sunni sect or from Deobandi Hanafi Sunni sect, either they are from Jamat-e-Islami or from other similar tendencies, they all try to show family of Shah Waliullah particularly Shah Waliullah and Shah Abdul Aziz as promoter of Indian subcontinent brand of Wahhabism or they present Shah Waliullah […]

They often skip the description of those writings where Shah Abdul Aziz dehlvi describes those things which are usually they reject while declaring them as innovations and polytheism. Shah Abdul Aziz in fantastic spiritual way describes the martyrdom of Imam Ali, (A.S), thay way and style we never find in writings or sayings of those people and group of which i have mentioned above.

Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlvi indirectly accepts that Imam Ali (A.S) was Qaim-UZ-Zamman-Wal-Makkan and Qaim-e-Ummah, when he calls Ali(A.S) a light of God and of Faith, Muhammad’s nation can be destroyed like Thamud nation if sons of Ali(A.S) would not survived and not emerge imams from his descendants:

Ali’s death was total distinction of Allah’s light – Shah Abdul Aziz

In the exegesis of Ashqa (most wretched or basest) in verse twelve of chapter 92, Alshams(The Sun) the Shah says that according to Prophet Muhammad, the basest person among the post-Islamic generation was Ali’s assassin , Abd Al-Rahman Al-Muradi ibn Muljam, a Kharijite, and, in the pre-Islamic generation , it was Qadhar bin Salif of the Thamud tribe who cut the tendons of the She-camel whom God had produced from a rock as a miracle for the Thamud ‘s Prophet Salih.

Shah Abdul Aziz then goes on to describe how ibn Muljam , Ali’s assassin , was goaded into his heinous crime by his beloved Qatami. Ali, the Shah adds, was a true replica of the perfection of the Prophet’s wilayat (Sainthood) and was the seal of Caliphs. His death marked the end of vice regency of the Prophethood.

The Shah then quotes Ayesha the Prophet’s wife, who said to have told the Prophet’s companions, that the tragedy had freed the Arab to act as they liked and there now no one to prevent them from sinning. Although after Ali’s death there were innumerable preachers and scholars who had been among the Prophet’s companions who fearlessly attempted to prevent the people sinning and were not even frightened of Ummayyad rulers, their guidance differed from that of Ali, which embodied all Prophet’s virtues.

Comparing Ali’s death with that of earlier Caliphs, the Shah says that their death did not undermine the faith’s progress because other competent people replaced them, but Ali’s death amounted to the total extinction of Allah’s light and guidance. That calamity couldn’t be remedied.

However, the Shah notes, that unlike the Thamud nation Prophet Muhammad’s nation was not totally destroyed. He says there were two main reasons: firstly unlike the Thamud nation, the entire community of the Prophet did not endorse Ali’s assassination and secondly, after the she-camel‘s death her child also disappeared but after Ali’s death, his sons survived. They and their descendants therefore inherited the light of Ali’s wilaya and imams continued to emerge from his descendants.

Although with Ali’s death the total effect of his external presence was removed, the light of his guidance continued to act as beacon among different groups of righteous people. This guidance, the Shah concludes, saved Prophet Muhammad’s nation from destruction.

(Shah Abdul Aziz: Puritanism, Sectarianism, Polemics and Jihad by Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, P:134, Published by Sohail Academy Lahore, First Edition,2004)