The Attraction and Repulsion of Ali (a.s.)

Men Who Have Repulsion But Not Attraction

( 29 )

They make enemies but do not make friends, they are deficient individuals; and this assertion is based on the fact that they lack positive human qualities, because if they would have possessed such qualities they must have made a group of friends or at least a few ones; needless to say that may be, though, very small in number yet men with virtue do live among the masses. Had all men at a time on globe, been mendacious and tyrannical, all feuds would have been evaluated as truth and justice. However, at a time all men are not vicious, in the same manner, as all men are not virtuous at a time. Naturally, fault lies somewhere with him to whom all are foes, otherwise how is it possible that a man having merits could not win a single friend? Such persons do not have any positive point in themselves and their negative points are also totally bitter, and bitter for all; they do not have such a single point as might be cherished by any one person.

Ali says, "The weakest of men is he who is too weak to attract a friend; and still weaker is the one who loses friends and gets isolated".

Men who have attraction and repulsion both are men of principle, who struggle for the glory of their own faith and conviction; they attract groups to themselves, they are held in esteem and are loved by many a soul, and along with this they ward off and drive away many from their vicinity. They befriend and offend; they are benevolent friends and noble foes.

( 30 )

Attractions and repulsions have a few categories, in some case attraction .and repulsion both are forceful, in others both are weak, while in the rest of the cases the degrees of the strength of attraction and repulsion are at variance interse. The dignified are those whose attraction and repulsion both are forceful, and this is relative to the strength of positive and negative values in their nature. Of course, the force also has degrees, so that it should reach the point that captivates friends who lay down their lives for his sake and may sacrifice themselves at his pleasure; on the other hand, their enemies are also headstrong and heedless about themselves while acting in their opposition. Their power of attraction and repulsion becomes so predominant that it permeates the vast canvas of the generations for centuries to come and this three dimensional attraction and repulsion is among the special charms of the saints, as to be a three-dimensional mission is the special distinction of the Apostolic missions.

Yet another aspect for us to see is what types they attract and what types they repel, e.g., sometimes the wise are attracted and the fool arc repelled and sometimes vice versa. Sometimes the noble and the virtuous are attracted and the ignoble and the vicious are repelled and sometimes vice versa. Hence the friends and the adversaries of and those attracted and repelled by a man form the irrefutable evidence of his intrinsic faculty

Only a person's having attraction and repulsion, or even his faculties being forceful, will not suffice it to say that he has a commendable personality; it is rather an index of the origin of his personality, and nobody's personality alone is evidence of his virtue. All great men and leaders of the world, including the cunning criminals like Changaiz, Hajjaj and Mo'aviyha, were men having both attraction and repulsion. Without some "positive" points, no one can oblige thousands of warriors to submit to him and be subdued to his designs, unless one has the quality of leadership, one in one's time cannot muster the people around oneself.

( 31 )

Nadir Shah is one of such figures. How many men were beheaded and how many eyes were extracted by him from the sockets, but he had an exceptionally powerful personality. From amongst the relics of a defeated and outraged Iran of the last days of Safavide dynasty he raised an army and like magnet attracting fragments of iron, he rallied warriors around him and not only liberated Iran from the foreigners but also conquered the extremes of India. He annexed new territories to Iranian sovereignty.

Hence every person has attraction for his homogeneous and repulsion for the divergent. A personality with grace and righteousness would attract the benevolent and the righteous, to him and would repel the selfish, the mercenary and the hypocrite. A criminal personality would rally the sinners around him and would repel the virtuous. As alluded to above, another difference lies in the proportion of force of attraction. It is said about Newton's Theory of Gravitation, "Increase in force of gravitation is proportionate to the mass of the bodies and lessening of the distance between them". Likewise, amongst men also attraction and repulsion vary proportionately to their proximity.