It was on one of those days when Muhammad of Najd
and I had become very intimate friends that I received a message from London
ordering me to leave for the cities of Kerbelâ and
Najaf, the
two most popular Shiite centers of knowledge and spirituality. So I had to put
an end to my company with Muhammad of Najd and leave Basra. Yet I was happy
because I was sure that this ignorant and morally depraved man was going to
establish a new sect, which in turn would demolish Islam from within, and that
I was the composer of the heretical tenets of this new sect.
’Alî, the fourth Khalîfa of the Sunnites, and the
first one according to the Shiites, was buried in Najaf. The city of Kûfa, which was a distance of one fersah
(league), i.e., an hour’s walk from Najaf, was the capital of ’Alî’s caliphate.
When ’Alî was killed, his sons Hasan and Huseyn buried him outside Kûfa at a
place called Najaf today. In the course of time, Najaf began to grow, while
Kûfa gradually fell into decay. The Shiite men of religion came together in
Najaf. Houses, markets, madrasas (Islamic schools and universities) were built.
The Khalîfa in Istanbul was kind and generous to
them for the following reasons:
1- The Shiite administration in Iran was
supporting the Shiites. The Khalîfa’s interfering with them would cause tension
between the states, which in turn could lead to warfare.
2- The inhabitants of Najaf included a number of
armed tribes supporting the Shiites. Although they did not have much
significance in terms of weaponry and organization, it would be unwise for the
Khalîfa to run the risk of getting into trouble with them.
3- The Shiites in Najaf had authority over the
Shiites all over the world, particularly those in Africa and India. If the
Khalîfa disturbed them, all the Shiites would rise against him.
Huseyn bin ’Alî, the Prophet’s grandson, i.e., his daughter
Fâtima’s son, was martyred in Kerbelâ. The people
of Iraq had sent for Huseyn in Medina and invited him to Iraq to elect him
their Khalîfa. Huseyn and his family were in the territory called Kerbelâ when
the Iraqis gave up their former intention and, acting upon the order given by
Yazîd bin Muâwiya, the Umayyad Khalîfa living in Damascus, set out with the
intention of arresting him. Huseyn and his family put up a heroic last-ditch
fight against the Iraqi army. The battle ended in their death, so the Iraqi
army was the winning side. Since that day, the Shiites have accepted Kerbelâ as
their spiritual center, so that Shiites from all over the world come here and
form such a huge crowd that our religion of Christianity does not have a
likeness to it.
Kerbelâ, a Shiite city, contains Shiite madrasas.
This city and Najaf support each other. Upon receiving the order to go to these
two cities, I left Basra for Baghdad, and thence to a city named ‘Hulla’
situated alongside the Euphrates.
The Tigris and Euphrates come from Turkey, cut
through Iraq, and flow into the Persian Gulf. Iraq’s agriculture and welfare
are due to these two rivers.
When I was back in London, I proposed to the
Ministry of the Commonwealth that a project could be drawn up to change the
beds of these two rivers in order to make Iraq accept our proposals. When the
water was cut off, Iraq would have to satisfy our demands.
From Hulla to Najaf I travelled in the guise of an
Azerbaijani tradesman. Establishing close friendships with Shiite men of
religion, I began to mislead them. I joined their circles of religious
instruction. I saw that they did not study science like the Sunnites, nor did
they have the beautiful moral qualities possessed by the Sunnites. For example:
1- They were extremely inimical towards the Porte.
For they were Shiites and the Turks were Sunnites. They said that the Sunnites
were disbelievers.
2- The Shiite scholars were entirely absorbed in
religious teachings and had very little interest in worldly knowledge, as was
the case with priests during the period of standstill in our history.
3- They were quite unaware of Islam’s inner
essence and sublime character, nor did they have the smallest notion of the
time’s scientific and technical improvements.
I said to myself: What a wretched sort of people
these Shiites are. They are sound asleep when the whole world is awake. One
day a flood will come and take them all away.
Several times I attempted to entice them to revolt against the Khalîfa.
Unfortunately, no one would even listen to me. Some of them laughed at me as
though I had told them to destroy the earth. For they looked on the Khalîfa as
a fortress impossible to capture. According to them, they would get rid of the
caliphate with the advent of the promised Mahdi.
According to them, Mahdi was their twelfth imâm,
who was a descendant of Islam’s Prophet
and who disappeared in the Hijrî year 255. They believed he was still alive and
would one day reappear and rescue the world from this state of utter cruelty
and injustice, filling it with justice.
It is consternating! How come these Shiite people
believe in these superstitions! It was like the superstitious doctrine, “Jesus
Christ will come back and fill the world with justice,” held by our Christians.
One day I said to one of them: “Isn’t it fard for
you to prevent injustice like the Islamic Prophet
did?” His reply was: “He managed to prevent injustice because Allah helped
him.” When I said, “It is written in the Qur’ân, ‘If you help Allah’s religion, He will help you in return.’[1] “ If you revolt against the torture of your
shâhs, Allah will help you” He answered, “You are a tradesman. These are
scientific matters. You cannot understand this.”
The mausoleum of ’Alî the Emîr-ul-mu’minîn was
profusely decorated. It had a splendid yard, a gold-covered dome, and two tall
minarets. Every day great numbers of Shiites visited this mausoleum. They
performed namâz in jamâ’at in it. Every visitor first stooped in front of the
threshold, kissed it, and then greeted the grave. They asked for permission and
then entered. The mausoleum had a vast yard, which contained numerous rooms for
men of religion and visitors.
There were two mausoleums similar to that of
’Alî’s in Kerbelâ. One of them belonged to Huseyn and the other one belonged to
his brother Abbâs, who
had been martyred with him in Kerbelâ. In Kerbelâ the Shiites repeated the same
practices as they did in Najaf. The climate of Kerbelâ was better than that of
Najaf. It was surrounded with graceful orchards and lovely
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[1] Muhammad sûra, âyat: 7. To help the religion
of Allâhu ta’âlâ means to adapt oneself to the Sharî’at and to try to promulgate
it. To revolt against the Shâh or the State would mean to destroy the religion.
During my mission to Iraq I met with a scene that
gave relief to my heart. Some events heralded the end of the Ottoman Empire.
For one thing, the governor appointed by the administration in Istanbul was an
uneducated and cruel person. He acted as he wished. The people did not like
him. The Sunnites were uneasy because the governor restricted their freedom and
did not value them, and the Shiites felt indignant over being governed by a
Turk while among them there were sayyids[1] and sherîfs,[2] the Prophet’s
descendants, who would have been a much better choice for governorship.
The Shiites were in an utterly sorrowful
situation. They lived in squalid and dilapidated environments. The roads were
not safe. Highwaymen always awaited caravans, and attacked whenever they saw
that there were no soldiers escorting them. For this reason, convoys would not
set out unless the government would appoint a detachment to escort them.
The Shiite tribes were mostly warlike with one
another. They killed and plundered one another daily. Ignorance and illiteracy
were dreadfully widespread. This state of the Shiites reminded me of the time
when Europe had been under an ecclesiastical invasion. With the exclusion of
the religious leaders living in Najaf and Kerbelâ and a small minority, who
were their votaries, not even one out of every thousand Shiites knew how to
read or write.
The economy had collapsed entirely, and the people
were suffering utter poverty. The administrative system was quite out of order.
The Shiites committed treasons against the government.
The State and the people viewed each other with
suspicion. As a result, there was no mutual aid between them. The Shiite
religious leaders, totally given to vituperating the Sunnites, had already
relinquished knowledge; business, religious and worldly alike.
I stayed in Kerbelâ and in Najaf for four months.
I suffered a very serious illness in Najaf. I felt so bad that I completely
gave up hope of recovery. My illness lasted three weeks. I went to a doctor. He
gave me a prescription. Using the medicine, I began to recover. Throughout my
illness I stayed in an underground room.
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[1] Descendants of hadrat Huseyn ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’.
[2] Descendants of hadrat Hasan ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’.
Because I was ill, my host prepared my medicine
and food in return for an insignificant sum of money and expected great thawâb
for serving me. For I was, so to speak, a visitor of ’Alî the Emîr-ul-mu’minîn.
The doctor advised me to have only chicken broth during the first few days.
Later on he permitted me to eat chicken as well. The third week I had rice soup.
After becoming well again I left for Baghdad. I prepared a report of one
hundred pages on my observations in Najaf, Hulla, and Baghdad and while on the
way. I submitted the report to the Baghdad representative of the Ministry of
the Commonwealth. I waited for the Ministry’s order on whether I should remain
in Iraq or return to London.
I wished to go back to London. For I had been
abroad for a long time. I missed my homeland and my family. Especially, I
wanted to see my son Rasputin, who had been born after my departure. For this
reason, I appended to my report a petition for permission to return to London
for a short time at least. I wanted to give an oral report of impressions about
my three-year mission in Iraq and to get some rest in the meantime.
The Iraq representative of the Ministry advised me
not to call on him often lest I should arouse suspicion. He also advised to
rent a room in one of the inns alongide the Tigris River, and said, “I shall
inform you of the Ministry’s answer when we receive the mail from London.”
During my stay in Baghdad I observed the spiritual distance between Istanbul,
the capital of the caliphate, and Baghdad.
When I left Basra for Kerbelâ and Najaf, I was
very much anxious that Muhammad of Najd would swerve from the direction I had
led him. For he was an extremely unstable and nervous person. I feared that the
aims I had built upon him might be spoilt.
As I left him he was thinking of going to
Istanbul. I did my best to dissuade him from the notion. I said, “I am very anxious
that when you go there you may make a statement whereby they will pronounce you
a heretic and kill you.”
My apprehension was quite the other way round. I
was anxious that upon going there he should meet profound scholars capable of
setting his fallacies right and converting him to the Sunnî creed and thus all
my dreams should come to naught. For there was knowledge and Islam’s beautiful
morality in Istanbul.
When I found out that Muhammad of Najd did not
want to stay in Basra, I recommended that he go to Isfahan and Shîrâz.
For these two cities were lovely. And their
inhabitants were Shiites. And Shiites, in their turn, could not possibly
influence Muhammad of Najd. For Shiites were inefficient in knowledge and
ethics. Thus I made it certain that he would not change the course I had
charted for him.
As we parted I said to him, “Do you believe in
Taqiyya?” “Yes, I do,” he replied. “The unbelievers arrested one of the Sahâba
and tormented him and killed his parents. Upon this he made Taqiyya, that is, he said openly that
he was a polytheist. (When he came back and said what had happened), the Prophet did not reproach him at all.” I advised
him, “When you live among the Shiites, make Taqiyya; do not tell them that you
are Sunnî lest they become a nuisance for you. Utilize their country and
scholars! Learn their customs and traditions. For they are ignorant and
stubborn people.”
As I left, I gave him some money as zakât. Zakât
is an Islamic tax collected in order to be dealt out to the needy people. In addition,
I gave him a saddled animal as a present. So we parted.
After my departure I lost contact with him. This
made me utterly uneasy. When we parted we decided that both of us were to
return to Basra and whichever party was back first and did not find the other
party was to write a letter and leave it with Abd-ur-Rîdâ.