The Pledge of Martyrdom Fulfilled
By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
"Among the faithful are men who fulfill what they have pledged to Allah; of them are some who have fulfilled their pledge, and of them are some who still wait; and they have not changed in the least.” (Holy Qur’an 33:23)
The reference here is to the firm of faith, who are so steadfast in their pledge to the Almighty Creator that they spare no efforts in striving to fulfill it, even if it means martyrdom in the heat of battle, or their eagerly awaiting it while engaged in their daily duties to the All-Merciful, including performance of the ritual prayers and other acts of worship, after having emerged victorious in many a battle.
It is thus clear that the Lord Most High meant some selected persons when He revealed this Ayah to His Last and Greatest Messenger.
In turn, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) informed the nearest and dearest person to him of God’s Grace for those who sincerely fulfill their pledge without the least flinching from their goal of promoting the universal message of Islam.
The advent of the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and Divinely-designated Heir on the 21st of Ramadhan in the year 40 AH (660), as a result of the fatal blow on his head by the poison-dipped sword of a renegade two days earlier in the Mosque of Kufa while engrossed in the early Dawn Prayer, brings into sharper focus the meaning and purpose of this Ayah, as well as the peerless personality of the Commander of the Faithful, the Leader of the Pious, the Barometer of Faith, and the Symbol of Justice, Imam Ali ibn Taleb (AS).
The Imam has said: "This Ayah was revealed in my honour, and that of my uncle Hamzah, and my cousin Ubaydah ibn alHareth ibn Abd alMuttalib.”
He then says how the pledge to Allah for achieving martyrdom in the defence of Islam and humanitarian values was attained by the two (Ubaydah in the Battle of Badr and Hamzah in the Battle of Ohad). The Imam adds:
"As for myself, I am awaiting a most painful death, when this (pointing to his beard) shall be drenched from the blood of this (pointing to his head)… and I have never changed the least.”
He was referring to what the Prophet had informed him decades earlier while delivering a memorable sermon on the advent of the blessed month of Ramadhan:
"O Ali, I weep for that which will befall you in this month. (visualizing myself) to be in your place when you will be praying to your Lord, and the most wicked person of all times, like the one who chopped off the feet of the camel of (the tribe of) Thamoud (which was proof of Prophet Saleh’s mission) will strike you on your head and your beard will be dyed in blood.”
The questions that arise are: Why did the wretch Ibn Muljam al-Muradi, who claimed to be a Muslim, assassinate the First and Foremost Muslim? What had Imam Ali (AS) done to earn his enmity or the enmity of those who for 25 years had deprived the Prophet’s Vicegerent of the right of political leadership of the Ummah? Why would anyone professing Islam opt for the eternal fires of hell by breaking allegiance and imposing battles on the person whom the Prophet has hailed as the criterion to determine faith from hypocrisy?
To find the answers we should zoom in on Mount Noor, near Mecca, where on the 27th of Rajab, a barely ten-year lad was all attention to the voices coming in from Cave Hera.
He hears his 40-year cousin – son of his deceased uncle Abdullah – reciting the Revealed Words of the Lord Most High conveyed by Archangel Gabriel. Then from a distance comes the sound of moaning as if someone has lost everything and become despaired forever.
Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) emerges from the cave on formal appointment as the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, and tells his cousin that the heavy sigh that echoed following the entrustment of the universal message of Islam to him, was that of the Satan, who has become totally despaired of misleading the majority of the children of Adam.
Yet Iblis was not ready to give up his stratagems. He resolved to mobilize his hordes among the pagan Arabs against Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
When the Prophet assembled the Quraish to publicly announce his message of monotheism by openly testifying to the Oneness of God and received blank looks from the stupefied gathering, it was the testimony of the mission of Muhammad by the young Ali that sowed the first seeds of satanic sentiments in the hearts of the Arabs against the pre-teen boy.
They left the assembly mad with rage that if not for the son of Abu Taleb, the mission of the son of Abdullah would have died there and then.
The Meccans instructed their sons to mock and stone the Prophet, only to be frustrated by the lad Ali, who warded off the boy-assailants – most of whom returned to their homes with black eyes and broken limbs.
Satan, that Archenemy of Truth, now started working overtime to make the enmity of Imam Ali (AS) take roots in the hearts of the polytheist Arab tramps and their sinful sires, whose plots, including the bid to assassinate the Prophet in Mecca (the Night of Hijra) and the wars subsequently imposed upon him at Badr, Ohad, Khandaq (joint venture with the Israelites), Khaybar (a wholly Israelite venture), Hunayn, etc, were all nipped in the bud – thanks to the Imam’s flashing twin-blade sword, the Dhu’l-Feqar.
Imam Ali (AS) not just excelled on the battlefield, but also displayed his other merits, such as knowledge, wisdom, piety, prudence, courage, and generosity, whenever the situation demanded, be it the Peaty of Hudaibiyya, the Surrender of Mecca, the conveying of the opening ayahs of Surah Towba at the holy Ka’ba, the giving as alms of his ring while in prayer, and the unique Mubahela contest with the Christians of Najran.
The desperate Iblis made sure that the Arab pagans who now professed Islam (lip service only) and joined the company of the Prophet as Sahaba (hypocrites at heart), would keep their enmity of Ali firmly embedded in their hearts.
The climax to their enmity towards the Most Virtuous Believer (Saleh al-Mominoun) was sealed at the historic assembly of Ghadeer-Khom, where on God’s express orders the Prophet publicly proclaimed Imam Ali as his Vicegerent.
Two months and ten days after this event when the Prophet left the mortal world, the former pagans now Muslims but hypocrites, lost no time in depriving the Imam of his right of political leadership by seizing the caliphate at the gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa’da. Next they attacked his house to force him to swear allegiance to their misrule, and in the process smashed down the burning door of his house upon his wife, the Prophet’s Impeccable Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).
They spurned the Imam’s compiling of the holy Qur’an between two covers in book-form as per the order of revelation of the Ayahs, and for a quarter of a century kept him away from the political affairs of the so-called Islamic state,
In 35 AH, when the Muslim masses, fed up with the corruption and anarchy of the self-styled caliphs, begged Imam Ali (AS) to take up the reigns of the caliphate, and he reluctantly took up political rule on condition to abide only by the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah and Seerah, the satanic enemies indulged in open warfare against him.
The Battles of Jamal, Siffeen, and Nahrawan by the oath-breakers, the seditionists, and the renegades, are outside the scope of this brief column.
In short, the pledge for martyrdom made to God by Imam Ali (AS) decades earlier was fulfilled on the 21st of Ramadhan as his soul flew towards the ethereal heavens.
"Among the faithful are men who fulfill what they have pledged to Allah; of them are some who have fulfilled their pledge, and of them are some who still wait; and they have not changed in the least.” (Holy Qur’an 33:23)
The reference here is to the firm of faith, who are so steadfast in their pledge to the Almighty Creator that they spare no efforts in striving to fulfill it, even if it means martyrdom in the heat of battle, or their eagerly awaiting it while engaged in their daily duties to the All-Merciful, including performance of the ritual prayers and other acts of worship, after having emerged victorious in many a battle.
It is thus clear that the Lord Most High meant some selected persons when He revealed this Ayah to His Last and Greatest Messenger.
In turn, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) informed the nearest and dearest person to him of God’s Grace for those who sincerely fulfill their pledge without the least flinching from their goal of promoting the universal message of Islam.
The advent of the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and Divinely-designated Heir on the 21st of Ramadhan in the year 40 AH (660), as a result of the fatal blow on his head by the poison-dipped sword of a renegade two days earlier in the Mosque of Kufa while engrossed in the early Dawn Prayer, brings into sharper focus the meaning and purpose of this Ayah, as well as the peerless personality of the Commander of the Faithful, the Leader of the Pious, the Barometer of Faith, and the Symbol of Justice, Imam Ali ibn Taleb (AS).
The Imam has said: "This Ayah was revealed in my honour, and that of my uncle Hamzah, and my cousin Ubaydah ibn alHareth ibn Abd alMuttalib.”
He then says how the pledge to Allah for achieving martyrdom in the defence of Islam and humanitarian values was attained by the two (Ubaydah in the Battle of Badr and Hamzah in the Battle of Ohad). The Imam adds:
"As for myself, I am awaiting a most painful death, when this (pointing to his beard) shall be drenched from the blood of this (pointing to his head)… and I have never changed the least.”
He was referring to what the Prophet had informed him decades earlier while delivering a memorable sermon on the advent of the blessed month of Ramadhan:
"O Ali, I weep for that which will befall you in this month. (visualizing myself) to be in your place when you will be praying to your Lord, and the most wicked person of all times, like the one who chopped off the feet of the camel of (the tribe of) Thamoud (which was proof of Prophet Saleh’s mission) will strike you on your head and your beard will be dyed in blood.”
The questions that arise are: Why did the wretch Ibn Muljam al-Muradi, who claimed to be a Muslim, assassinate the First and Foremost Muslim? What had Imam Ali (AS) done to earn his enmity or the enmity of those who for 25 years had deprived the Prophet’s Vicegerent of the right of political leadership of the Ummah? Why would anyone professing Islam opt for the eternal fires of hell by breaking allegiance and imposing battles on the person whom the Prophet has hailed as the criterion to determine faith from hypocrisy?
To find the answers we should zoom in on Mount Noor, near Mecca, where on the 27th of Rajab, a barely ten-year lad was all attention to the voices coming in from Cave Hera.
He hears his 40-year cousin – son of his deceased uncle Abdullah – reciting the Revealed Words of the Lord Most High conveyed by Archangel Gabriel. Then from a distance comes the sound of moaning as if someone has lost everything and become despaired forever.
Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) emerges from the cave on formal appointment as the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, and tells his cousin that the heavy sigh that echoed following the entrustment of the universal message of Islam to him, was that of the Satan, who has become totally despaired of misleading the majority of the children of Adam.
Yet Iblis was not ready to give up his stratagems. He resolved to mobilize his hordes among the pagan Arabs against Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
When the Prophet assembled the Quraish to publicly announce his message of monotheism by openly testifying to the Oneness of God and received blank looks from the stupefied gathering, it was the testimony of the mission of Muhammad by the young Ali that sowed the first seeds of satanic sentiments in the hearts of the Arabs against the pre-teen boy.
They left the assembly mad with rage that if not for the son of Abu Taleb, the mission of the son of Abdullah would have died there and then.
The Meccans instructed their sons to mock and stone the Prophet, only to be frustrated by the lad Ali, who warded off the boy-assailants – most of whom returned to their homes with black eyes and broken limbs.
Satan, that Archenemy of Truth, now started working overtime to make the enmity of Imam Ali (AS) take roots in the hearts of the polytheist Arab tramps and their sinful sires, whose plots, including the bid to assassinate the Prophet in Mecca (the Night of Hijra) and the wars subsequently imposed upon him at Badr, Ohad, Khandaq (joint venture with the Israelites), Khaybar (a wholly Israelite venture), Hunayn, etc, were all nipped in the bud – thanks to the Imam’s flashing twin-blade sword, the Dhu’l-Feqar.
Imam Ali (AS) not just excelled on the battlefield, but also displayed his other merits, such as knowledge, wisdom, piety, prudence, courage, and generosity, whenever the situation demanded, be it the Peaty of Hudaibiyya, the Surrender of Mecca, the conveying of the opening ayahs of Surah Towba at the holy Ka’ba, the giving as alms of his ring while in prayer, and the unique Mubahela contest with the Christians of Najran.
The desperate Iblis made sure that the Arab pagans who now professed Islam (lip service only) and joined the company of the Prophet as Sahaba (hypocrites at heart), would keep their enmity of Ali firmly embedded in their hearts.
The climax to their enmity towards the Most Virtuous Believer (Saleh al-Mominoun) was sealed at the historic assembly of Ghadeer-Khom, where on God’s express orders the Prophet publicly proclaimed Imam Ali as his Vicegerent.
Two months and ten days after this event when the Prophet left the mortal world, the former pagans now Muslims but hypocrites, lost no time in depriving the Imam of his right of political leadership by seizing the caliphate at the gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa’da. Next they attacked his house to force him to swear allegiance to their misrule, and in the process smashed down the burning door of his house upon his wife, the Prophet’s Impeccable Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).
They spurned the Imam’s compiling of the holy Qur’an between two covers in book-form as per the order of revelation of the Ayahs, and for a quarter of a century kept him away from the political affairs of the so-called Islamic state,
In 35 AH, when the Muslim masses, fed up with the corruption and anarchy of the self-styled caliphs, begged Imam Ali (AS) to take up the reigns of the caliphate, and he reluctantly took up political rule on condition to abide only by the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah and Seerah, the satanic enemies indulged in open warfare against him.
The Battles of Jamal, Siffeen, and Nahrawan by the oath-breakers, the seditionists, and the renegades, are outside the scope of this brief column.
In short, the pledge for martyrdom made to God by Imam Ali (AS) decades earlier was fulfilled on the 21st of Ramadhan as his soul flew towards the ethereal heavens.