Islamic opposition to oppression and hopes for a deliverer

1. Islamic opposition to oppression and hopes for a deliverer

Islam has a horror of fitna, sometimes appropriately translated as ‘strife’ but also having connotations (depending on the context) of ‘oppression’. The classic texts in this regard are Surah al-Baqara 2:191, 193:

And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter…

And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrong-doers…

Say: Warfare therein is a great (transgression), but to turn (men) from the way of Allah, and to disbelieve in Him and in the Inviolable Place of Worship, and to expel His people thence, is a greater with Allah; for persecution is worse than killing...

Thus, the Islamic reaction to oppression involves resistance – i.e. defensive jihad. Indeed, Surah Al-Anfal 8:39 commands that Muslims ‘fight them until persecution is no more’. In different ages, the reality of political oppression has caused some Shia to back illegitimate candidates for the title of Mahdi:

They were …easily carried away by the talented eloquence of Mukhtar and his successful propaganda for Ibn al-Hanafiya as the deliverer (Mahdi) from the tyranny and injustice inflicted upon them by the Umayyads. It was, therefore, not so much the rights and personality of Ibn al-Hanafiya which made the masses of the Shi‘is of Kufa accept him as Mahdi-Imam as it was their desperate yearning for a deliverer from Umayyad domination and oppressive rule. A careful examination of Mukhtar’s propaganda for Ibn al-Hanafiya would show that the overriding emphasis in introducing him was on his role as Mahdi and not so much on his being the Imam. This may prove to have been the main factor which attracted people to him.[1]

In this regard, an ayah that is of particular relevance to the experience of Shia down the ages, and of Muslims in places such as Lebanon and Palestine today, is Surah An-Nisa 4:75:

How should ye not fight for the cause of Allah and of the feeble among men and of the women and the children who are crying: Our Lord! Bring us forth from out this town of which the people are oppressors! Oh, give us from thy presence some protecting friend! Oh, give us from Thy presence some defender!

It is significant that the text does not exactly call for ‘liberation’, ‘salvation’ or ‘defence’ in the generic sense of an action: rather, the concept is individualised – the call is for a personalised Defender/Saviour. Arguably, this may just be meant in the generic sense, but equally, it is easy to see how this could be applied to the Mahdi as the ultimate Defender/Saviour of the Oppressed who cry out to God. Significantly, Imam Hussein made his way to Iraq in response to an agonised plea by the people of Kufa;

This is a letter to Husayn bin Ali from his Muslim and faithful supporters. Be quick and hurry up, for the people are waiting for you, and they do not look towards anyone other than you. Hurry up. Hurry up. We repeat: Make haste. Make haste.[2]

Equally significantly, the usual Shia exclamation upon reference to the Mahdi is ‘May Allah hasten his appearance’. The people of Kufa urgently desired the coming of an Imam who would establish justice and deliver them from oppression, and it was this Hussein promised in his reply to the people of Kufa:

You have written that you do not have an Imam and asked me to come to you so that Allah may perhaps draw you together on truth and guidance through me… I swear by my life that a true Imam and leader is only he who takes decisions according to the Qur'an, establishes justice, promotes the Divine religion and dedicates himself to the path of Allah.

Likewise, Muslims today are often in situations where they crying out for justice, so it is not surprising that today there is deep longing and expectant hope for a Saviour to come and vanquish oppression whilst establishing Just Governance – i.e. the Mahdi.

Throughout Islamic history, and especially in the present day, it is not that Muslims wish to be delivered from a place – indeed, one of the features of Palestinian resistance is the determination not to repeat the tragedy of 1948 by fleeing from the enemy forces after the latter had deliberately committed a massacre in a neighbouring place to encourage ethnic cleansing. Rather, Muslims seek to be delivered from an oppressive political context. At times certain Muslims have looked to ‘defenders’ that others saw as questionable – many Palestinians had hopes that Saddam Hussein might prove to be their ‘defender’ during the Gulf War, whilst some Iraqis looked to the Americans to be delivered from the same figure. Early in Islamic history, however, such hopes for a ‘defender’ sent by Allah to deliver the righteous Ummah from oppressive rulers came to centre on the Mahdi:

Narrated by Abu Sa’id al-Khudaris:

I heard the Prophet declare from the pulpit: ‘The Mahdi … will fill the earth with justice and equity as it is filled with tyranny and injustice.’

Bihar al-anwar, Vol. 51, p. 74

Identification of the Mahdi as the ultimate ‘defender’ immediately demonstrates a difference with those who have looked to ordinary human figures, whether arguably estimable (e.g. Mossadeq or Nasser) or questionable (e.g. Saddam). The Mahdi, in contrast, is a supernatural character, and for Shia in particular, his manifestation to the world is supernatural and thus God-given:

Ja’far as-Sadiq

… Abu Khalid al-Kabuli … said:

Ali b. al-Husain… told me: ‘…I see your master, rising above the hill of your Najaf destined for Kufa, with three hundred and some odd over ten men, Jibraeel on his right, Mikaeel on his left, Israfil ahead of him, and with him (is) the Prophet’s standard, unfurled… (Bihar al-anwar, Vol. 52, p. 327).[3]

The fact that the Saviour is supernaturally manifested in Iraq (i.e. attended by angels), aiming to reach Kufa just as Hussein did, provides a further connection with the martyred Imam. The land where an Imam – specifically the Lord of the Martyrs (in Shia terminology) was slain, will be the land where the last Imam – al-Mahdi – will manifest himself to complete the work begun by Hussein in confronting tyranny, as this hadith quoting his words demonstrates:

I am the seal of successors. And through me shall Allah, the Mighty and Glorious, drive away the calamities from my progeny and my Shias.

(Bihar, v. 52, p. 30)

So just as the journey to Kufa was the scene for the greatest tragedy in Shia history, the ultimate journey to Kufa will be the scene for the final triumph of the Saviour over oppression. This is confirmed by a saying of Imam Mahdi himself and by a tradition of Imam Reza:

Imam Mahdi said, ‘I pray for any believer who remembers the sufferings of my martyred grandfather, al-Husain, and then prays for my relief (al-Faraj)’ [4]

…O Son of Shabib! If you wish to cry for anything or anyone, cry for al-Husain Ibn Ali (PBUH) for he was slaughtered like a sheep… Certainly, the seven heavens and earths cried because of the murder of al-Husain (PBUH). Four thousand Angels descended on earth to aid him, but (when they were allowed to reach there) they found him martyred. So they remained at his grave, disheveled and dusty, and will remain there until the rising of al-Qa’im (Imam al-Mahdi (PBUH)), whereupon they will aid him. Their slogan will be, ‘Vengeance for the blood of al-Husain.’…[5]

The Ziyarat Al-Nahiya, traditionally ascribed to the Twelfth Imam, emphasises the identification of the Mahdi with opposition to the oppression that Imam Hussein resisted:

Salutations from the one, who, had he been present with you in that plain, would have shielded you from the sharpness of the swords with his body and sacrificed his last breath for you… But … as I could not fight those who fought you, and was not able to show hostility to those who showed hostility to you I will, therefore, lament you morning and evening, and will weep blood in place of tears, out of my anguish for you and my sorrow for all that befell you…

Sachedina also comments on the annual condolences that Shi offer at Ashura which demonstrate the link between the service of Hussein and the jihad of the Mahdi: ‘May God …make us among those who will exact vengeance for his [Hussein’s] blood with his friend… the Imam Mahdi…’[6]