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The infalliblesThe Religious
Authority Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah has written many books articles an
gave lectures about Fatima Az_Zahra, as a role model fpr both men and
women . the following are some chapters from a booklet by the Sayyed
illustrati
Her stances were stances for the right, and her sorrow was the sorrow
for the cause of Islam, and her joy was the joy of the message; the depth
of Islam was manifested in the depth of her personality and she amassed
within herself all the Islamic human virtues. Being the Doyenne of the
Women of the World, she should be at the highest level, spiritually and
morally.
Our intense interest in Fatima(a.s) springs from our deep interest in
both her message and her role as well as in the dynamic issues in which
she was a central figure; hence, we feel that she is with us sharing all
our concerns and worldly worries. There are people in history who come to
an end when they die because their existence is encapsulated in the span
of their lives; there are others who remain alive as long as life exists
and who continue as long as their message continues and as long as there
are people who are open to their message. Fatima (a.s) is the ideal
example of such people since you cannot mention the Messenger of Allah
(P.) without mentioning her ; she was his lot and the spirit inside his
body. And you cannot mention Ali (a.s) without mentioning her as she was
his companion in his suffering and in his life as well; and you cannot
mention al-Hasan, al-Hussein, and Zaynab (a.s) without mentioning her as
she was the secret of formulating their purity and their personality in
their childhood and adulthood stages; she was the inspiring power of all
their life. This is the inspiring secret of Fatima (a.s); it imposes
itself on
us to keep her in our minds and our hearts
as a message and thought, not only as just a cause of tears. Although we
cannot but shed tears upon the suffering she went through, we have at the
same time to thoroughly understand her message because she lived all her
tears and all her life for the Message and never did she live one moment
for herself. This is the secret of all the members of the House (a.s):
they lived for the whole of Islam and gave their lives for Islam and for
the Message as well
.
Not an inflation of the past
Talking about Fatima (a.s) involves no unwarranted inflation of
history. In addition to her virtues, she represents the living present
and the bright future. We have seen her in her motherhood as the greatest
of mothers, and we have seen the cruelty imposed by that role on her weak
body, but she withstood all this with an open mind and with patience.
Then we have seen her fulfilling her different religious responsibilities
when she stirred up the conscience of the nation and presented the
greatest lesson in how to deal with the circumstances following the death
of the Prophet (P.). She honestly held that stance which has proved
itself over time and stayed permanently and perpetually valid.
Studying the experience of Fatima (a.s) is neither a reversion to the
past nor a mere confinement to ourselves within those limitations, but
rather a question of trying to learn lessons from a pioneering experience
of an infallible personality - an experience which has never been
confined to the past but one which shall always be current and new.
A role model for both sexes
Because she is a constituent element of Islam and the Muslim people as
a whole, and even her role as a woman was great, Fatima(a.s) is not only
a role model for women but she is also a role model for men; in other
words, Fatima (a.s) is a representative for both sexes. Both Muslim women
and men can learn a lot from Fatima (a.s) when they want to know how to
spend their time valuably and how to widen their horizon with knowledge,
with spirituality and with dynamic attitudes that suit their abilities.
Love versus allegiance
Love for the great personalities and individuals who hold great
religious responsibilities is not only an emotion but also a stance. This
is the difference between being a loving person and being an advocating
follower: allegiance is a stance while love is an emotion. Although it is
natural that the emotion should motivate and engulf the situation, it
should at the same time go beyond this situation to overwhelm both the
holy message and it’s faithful followers. Yet the greatness of the
members of the House lies in the fact that their allegiance to the
Prophet and to Message turned out to become a pure love and allegiance to
Allah . Accordingly all the sayings and deeds of the Members of the House
represent the legitimacy of the Islamic religion. A person is usually
confused whether he is taking the right path or not, but when he depends
on the infallibles and follows their instructions, he will feel the
safety of what he is doing. He is confident that there can be no place
for either falsehood or for injustice. In fact, he knows that he is
taking the truth from a pure fountain, which nothing can impure. In this
sense, Imam al-Sadiq (a.s) said: 'My tradition is the tradition of my
father, and my father's is that of my grandfather, and my grandfather's
is that of al-Hussein, and al-Hussein’s is that of al-Hasan, and al-Hasan's
is that of the Commander of the Faithful, and the Commander of the
Faithful’s is that of the Messenger of Allah, and the Messenger of
Allah's is the word of Allah ,the Great and Almighty.'
His eminence and Fatima’s virtues
Fatima(a.s) has always been in my mind and heart. I wrote a poem on
the anniversary of the death of Fatima (a.s) before I was twenty when I
was in Al-Najaf in Iraq. I talked about her in lectures, interviews,
dialogues and poems. With words filled with spiritual passion and
intellectual love, I spoke about her virtues, merits ,and spiritual
meanings, and then extended to analyze her words, especially her famous
sermon, because I always believed that Fatima (a.s) had to be known and
to be understood in her spirit, heart, thought , and attitude so that she
would become 'the pioneer who would not fail his folks', and the role
model whom both men and women should imitate and follow in their Islamic
lives.
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