The Role of Ideology in Constructing the Human Being

The Manners of the Ideology in Confronting Calamities

In this course, the ideology enlightens in the spirits of its followers-the psychological pressures and tensions to which they are subjected, so they become weak and insignificant, thereby following several manners:

A- Displaying the nature of the life in which man lives: the results and benefits of this knowledge are manifested in his consciousness and behavior. The ideology then, through its knowledge sources shows the nature of this life and calls for renouncing its pleasures.

Imam Ali (A.S.) says: “O people’ look at this world the look of renouncers, who turns away from it, as it will shortly remove the resident dweller, and millagonize the safe luxurious man…its happiness is mixed with sadness” [^9]

He (A.S.) also said: “I warn you of this world as it is an abode of departure, a place of embitter ness; its resident is a traveler; its dweller is departing, its ways with its dwellers like a ship (in a disturbed sea) [^10]

It has been natural that the Islamic ideology warns Moslems of connecting themselves with the means of the transient world, which results in negative influences on Moslem’s soul. It is narrated from Aalkama, from Abdullah, that he said:

“The prophet slept on straw mat, then he stood up the mat influenced his side, we said: O the prophet of Allah let us make to you a bed?” He said:

“what have I to do with this world? I am no more in this world than like a rider who rested under a tree then he left it and went on…” [^11]

His executor Imam Ali (A.S.) says: “I beware you of this world as it is an abode to be left and not an abode of hope and enjoyment, it has adorned herself with its arrogance, cheated by its ornaments, it is despised by its creator so He mixed its “halaal” with its “haraam”, its evil with its god, its life with its death and its sweat with its bitter,

Allah Hasn’t recommended it to his lovers and Hasn’t refrained from granting it to His enemies, its good is little, its evil is forth coming, what is collected in it is exhausted, its properties are spoliated, its prosperous building demolishes, so what good has an abode which is ruined like the ruin of building, and an age exhausted just as food is exhausted, and a duration which runs out as the journey runs out…”[^12]

Alsheikh Aldailemi says: No one could express the reality of this world as Ameeral mu’amineen (A.S.) did by his saying: “It is a residence surrounded by calamities, known of treachery, its circumstances do not last, its dwellers are not safe, her states are changeable, she deals with her inhabitants in various ways, living in it is dispraised, security in it is nonexistent, her inhabitants in her are but targets, she hits them with her arrows and exterminates them by her death…”[^13]

It was natural that this deep realization of this world leads to an extreme precaution of it. It is enough to give this narration as an example: Muaweia asked Zerrar Ebna Zumrah Alsheibaani about Ameer Almu’amineen (A.S.), he said: I give a witness that I have seen him in some of his circumstances as night had loosened its curtains while he was standing in his (Mihrab), gripping his beard, fidgeting like a snake- bitten person, crying like a grieved man saying:

“O world’, O world’ away from me, have you molested me, or have you longed for me?! May this time not approach, how impossible! Cheat other than me; I have no need to you, I have divorced you three times, without possibility of returning as your living is short, your importance is little, your hope is mean alas! The sustenance is little, the distance is far, the journey is long, the future is serious”[^14]

One of these examples is that we find the belief uncover the nature of this world and the bad end at him, who is deceived by it or rests to it, it also shows the narrow-sightedness of him, who seeks or hopes to find complete rest in this world, it is related from the Imam Alsaadiq (A.S.) saying: Do not hope the impossible, they said: who can hope the impossible? Imam (A.S.) said: you do, do you not hope relaxation in this world? They said: yes, he said: “relaxation for believer in this world is impossible”[^15]

B- Misfortunes involve a reward and a recompensation: this belief enlightens the suffering of man from misfortunes, so he confronts them with a solidated heart, and a tranquil soul hoping Allah’s reward and mercy, they do not leave an influence on his heart more than the influence of a bubble on the surface of water. The prophet (S.W.A.) says:

Misfortunes are the keys of reward” [^16]

A person wrote to Abbijaafar (A.S.) complaining to him about his misfortune of his sons demise, Abujaafar (A.S.) wrote to him: “haven’t you known that Allah chooses of the believer’s properties, sons and self to reward him for that.”[^17]

C- drawing the Moslem’s attention to the great catastrophe:

Which is the affliction in his religion, this minimizes and facilitates his endurance of small earthly afflictions, it is a clever way to absorb the psychological pressures the belief undertakes. This tendency had the priority in the educational practices of “Ahlilbait”.

It is narrated that Alsaadiq saw a person who was very grieved over his son’s death, Imam (A.S.) said to him: “O’ you have grieved over the small misfortune and passed over the great misfortune, had you been ready to meet your son’s death, you shouldn’t have grieved over him so much, so your misfortune with lacking or giving up your readiness to his death is much more than you’re affliction with your son’s death.”[^18]

Abuabdullah (A.S.) says when he is afflicted with a misfortune: (Praise is to Allah in that He has not made my affliction in my religion and praise is to Allah who-if He wished- Hasn’t made my affliction greater, and praise is to Allah who has determined that this accident should take place so it took place.” [^19]

In brief we conclude that Islamic ideology molds moderate strong spirits that face hard situations with a steadfast heart confidant of Allah’s destiny and judgement. It defines for man his associative path.

Therefore a man with out an ideology is like a ship without a compass, which soon hits the rocks and is wrecked.

SECONDLY: RELEASING THE SPIRIT FROM FEARS:

It is doubtless that fear scatters one’s activity, and paralyzes his mental and bodily energy. Man before Islam had been in a lasting fear of his brother, and his intrigues, of the nature around him and its disasters of the inevitable death of poverty and drought of diseases and the pains accompanying it. The Islamic ideology enlightens the severness of the feeling of fear which paralyzes one’s energy and prevents him from movement and production and makes him a target for fears and grieves.

DEATH IS A GIFT: The Holy Qur’an draws peoples’ attention to an eternal truth that Man should make himself ready to meet, it is “every spirit tastes death” [^20]

So death is inevitable, it is something that one can not avoid, and it will had the living human as it has caught those before him, Allah Has said: “Wherever you are, death will overtake you, though you are in lofty towers” [^21]He also says: “say, feed shall not do you any good if you feed from death…”[^22]

Qur’an, then emphasizes that death is inevitable, then it is a mater at the hand of Allah (be exalted) and not at the hand of other than Him. This truth has suggestive reflections on man’s spirit that there is no earthly or heavenly power-what ever powerful it is- can not deprive him of his life Allah (be exalted) has said: “And a soul will not die but with the permission of Allah, the term is fixed…” [^23]

Qur’an has showed the falsity of the Jews’ allegations. In spite of their extreme desire for this life, the claim that they are the lovers of Allah without other people the Qur’an uncovered the falsity of their allegations by this challenge which addresses the hidden secrets of souls as the real believer doesn’t fear death when he meets him. Death is a passing from a transient residence to an eternal life. Due to what they are characterized of extreme material tendency the Jews fear death and hold by this life. Hence the Holy Qur’an confronted them with this grave challenge Allah has said:

“Say: O you, who are Jews, if you think that you are the favors of Allah with the exclusion of people, then invoke death if you are truthful. And they will never invoke it because of what their hands have sent before; and Allah is cognizant of the unjust”[^24]

Imam Ali (A.S.) says: “…He who fears death doesn’t get away from it, and he who loves staying will not have eternity” [^25]what is wonderful in the matter is that at the time the ideology enlightens Man’s fear of death it depicts death to the believer as a gift! To which he has to setout. The prophet (S.W.A.) says: “Death is the gift of the believer” He said that because this life is a prison for the believer as he is still in a strive and tiredness of training himself, resisting his lusts and withstanding the Satan. Death then is a release to him from the chastisement and this release is a gift to him to pass to the eternal blessing”[^26]

Imam Abuabdullah (A.S.) said to his proponents on the day of “Aashouraa”: “Be patient O’ nobles, death in nothing but an arch you pass through it from poverty and suffering to immense paradises and the eternal blessing. Which of you dislike to shift from a prison to a palace?…” [^27]

From another side the school of “Ahlilbait” calls to know the death as knowing a thing may eradicate he fears of it. Ameeralmu’amineen says: “ When you fear something fall in it because the difficulty of guarding against it is greater than what you fear” [^28]

It is narrated from Imam Ali Ebna Mohammaad Al-Haadi (A.S.) that he said to a sick person of his companions when he entered to him and found him crying impatiently for fear of death: “O’ servant of Allah, you fear death because you do not know it, can you suppose that you have become dirty and filthy and you have suffered from the plentiness of dirtiness and ugliness and you suffered from wounds and scabies, if you know that taking a bath eliminates all that; do you not want to enter that bathroom and wash all that or do you not like to enter it so that dirtiness and filthiness remain with you? He said: certainly yes, O’ son of the prophet.

He (A.S.) said: that death is that bathroom, it is the last stage to pass to be purified of your sins, when you reach it and pass through it you will then be saved from all sorrow, grieves and suffering, and will reach to all happiness and blessing”. The man became calm, submitted, inspired, he shut his eyes and passed away…” [^29]

In this concern Imam Alsaadiq says, as he was asked to describe death for them: “Death for the believer is like the sweetest perfume he smells and so becomes sleepy, and all tiredness and pain are shutoff, but it is for infidels like the sting of snakes and the bite of scorpions or severer…” [^30]

Thus, the Islamic ideology introduces a light of safety which enlightens the hardness of death, as it is for the believer a gift and comfort. The prophet (S.W.A.) says “Two things are disliked by a human being: he dislikes death while death is a comfort for the believer from the trouble, he also dislikes the littleness of property while littleness of property is easier in accounting (at Doomsday)[^31].

Imams insist on remembering death so much, for the educational influences it includes. It subdues the lusts enlightens the calamities of life which blow Man away like the storms. The prophet (S.W.A) says: “Remember death too much as it purifies you of sins and induces to abstain from worldly appetites” [^32]

Imam Ali (A.S.) says: “Remember death very much and the day of your coming-out of your graves, and your call to be present before Allah on the day of judgment, then your calamities become easy.”[^33]

In some of Ameeralmu’amineen’s recommendations to his son Alhassan (A.S.): “O my son’ remember death so much, and remember what you will meet, and what you come after death, till it comes to you in a state you have made your preparations, and tightened your back for it, do not let it comes to you suddenly so it overwhelms you”[^34]. He also says, “He who remembers death very much will be satisfied with the little of this world” [^35]

We return to say that the Islamic ideology releases spirits from fear of death by insisting on that it is a truth, which can not be denied, we must submit to it and make up with it by knowing its truth, and that it is for the believer a comfort. Instead of forgetting or pretending to have forgotten it we must remember it continuously for the good results it has, which we have mentioned previously.