In the Name of God, the Almighty

In the Name of God, the Almighty

Being an Imam

I know that the subject of today is the Ghadir Khum and the role of the Imam, and my lecture might seem to far of the topic, but I ask you for some patience and then you'll see what link there is.

Last summer I read an English book, which was about happy people versus troubled people. I can imagine that you might think: what a luxurious issue, while you have to deal with dropping inflations, lack of electricity and other life necessities, however, in the West, were everything alhamdulillah is in stock, people ask themselves why they still aren't happy.

This book stated how strange it is, that the study of psychology always focuses on mental disorders and how to treat them, in stead of studying happy people who managed to live a well balanced life. But since there are a few of these studies about happy people, this book focused on the characteristics of these happy people/ families.

To begin with: if one sees the video's of these happy families, everybody likes them, because these people are friendly and cheerful, in active mood. All of us would like to have them as neighbors! And these happy families you'd find in different layers of the society, regardless material wealth, income or social status!

So it really is interesting, what characteristics do these happy families have in common? I'll mention:

1) They are believers in some faith, regardless which faith. This is understandable, Because any faith keeps a person humble, and makes him acknowledging that the creation of the universe is far more impressive than any accomplishment of himself. By being a believer he feels connected to the universe and other creatures, and that creates in his inner self a feeling of: "Trust".

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2) These happy people also have an open view to other people, well willing, interested, helpful, but not easy to fool!

They don't consider the world as fearful, and its inhibantas as enemies They do not have a mentality of "we" versus "them". Like Imam Ali (a.s.) said: every person is your brother, either in religion, or humanity.

So if someone is different, holding other views or chooses for a different life path, they choose to treat this other person as a common human fellow. They focus on their similarities, in stead of their differences. And they are not afraid that the contact will jeopardize their own beliefs. That is because their actions towards others are based on: "Trust."

3) The relations between husband and wife are based on respect. They manage to accept a big space of personal freedom between them and they are tolerant towards each others individual performances in life, both husband and wife. With as result that both of them do share intimacy together, but are also functional and satisfied in other groups, without feeling abandoned by their spouse and getting jealous. Their basis is trust.

Now, there were more points in this book, but I leave it for here. Because I think, if we look at the family lives of our beloved Prophet and his descendants (a.s.), we will find numerous validations of trust as a basic ground for belief, for actions, for relationships.

Now what surprises me, that since I became a Muslim, I've seen may Muslims who were putting sincerely their trust in Allah, may Allah reward them.

However, when it comes to trusting oneself in contact with others, you see a great reluctance. Most Muslims are very proud of their nationality and in Holland only few of practicing Muslims step out of their national based circles. But then you might say, they are mostly sunni's and they are not well informed. But also here in Iran I've noticed also at the common people surprised glances of how a blue eyed person can visit Mashhad!

Regarding the last point, trust in the marital life, I don't even want to start to appoint the difficulties in this respect. It seems that the general attitude of men in different degrees is, that one should not trust a woman, unless she is willing to give up her personality for her spouse. To me this notion does not have a great predictive value for happiness.

Our beloved Prophet (s.a.) put his first trust in Allah SWT. His whole prophethood was a struggle against all kind of aggressions and resistances, but he trusted Allah that He would save him.

His example of dealing with others, was always one of love and respect. He allowed people to be different than himself. He trusted that there would be a good outcome of the contact. Even before a fight he would invite the enemies to accept Islam, and if they would, as happened sometimes, he profited from a not biased starting point.

About the last point, trust in the marital life. When it came to marrying his daughter, Rasullullah rejected several men, saying: I leave the matter for Allah. Choosing a husband is like appointing an Imam.

Being an Imam is not only being in power in politics. Being an Imam is not only in the political field, each head of a family is also an Imam. A family breeds new generations, capable of changing the world. To accomplish this enormous challenge, there has to be trust, trust in the wife and trust in the children. Both need to be trusted, in order to develop themselves.

That Imam Ali was appointed as a spouse for Rasulullahs daughter, was in fact the only possibility - no husband for Fatima Zahra would be available, if it hadn't been for Imam Ali. He was the only one, who could acknowledge her value, and meet up with her high quality. By trusting and loving her, and the love of her Holy father, she blossomed to the best of her potential.

If we are real shia, we take this Holy Family as an example for our lives. If wives and children are being trusted they might develop sound personalities, who can heal the sick world around us. This is what Imam Ali did, what Fatima Zahra did, and what Hassan and Hussayn did, for their qualities were able to develop and reach their optimum in a house filled with trust and love, for God, mankind and each other. We can learn also in this field a lot of lessons from them, for being a follower of Ali is not only outside the house, but also in. It is therefore wise to th(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - ink deep about the words of our Holy Prophet: "The best Muslim is the one, who is best to his wife." It is not the one who is the best to Allah, nor the one who is best to other people. In my opinion now it is more often the other way around, and we should improve ourselves in this regard, before we think of political power.

And I wait for the quick reappearance of Imam Mehdi (a)for he will be the best in every regard.

Assalamu alaykym.