The positive elan achieved by the early Muslims lost its...

The positive elan achieved by the early Muslims lost its dynamism in the second century of the Hejira. By then Muslims had begun to spurn action and take their faith for granted. This negative trend was encouraged by the corrupt, incompetent and worldly rulers. It began as early as the Ummayad caliphates. The Ummayads aimed at overcoming any effective criticism of their worldly and almost secular ways.

Accordingly, they propagated the misleading notion that, given the basic faith (in Islam), one's action is of no importance. With their vast power and wealth, they could unduly influence the ethos of the people, even through their patronization of pseudo-intellectual groups like the Murjites.20 The Murjites advocated that when a believer is seen to be indulging in sinful behaviour, one should be left to God's Last Judgment.

Therefore, all those who profess to be Muslims should be-even tentatively-regarded as true Muslims. Thus. they implied that even the deviationist Ummayads were to be tolerated. (see John B. Noss: "Man's Religions", the Macmillan Company, New York. Third Ed., 7th Printing, 1967, p. 748) -Ed. Shi'a Muslims, inspired and guided by their pious Imams (a.s.), firmly believed in acting according to one's faith.

The Imams always reiterated that faith is verified or confirmed by three things: verbal assertion, heart-felt conviction and physical action. They were averse to the theory that faith is independent of action. After all, when the Qur'an praises devout believers, it endorses not only one's belief but the conformity of his actions. What the Murjites among the Sunni Muslims did in the past is noticeable today among the Shi'a Muslims.

The latter have come to scorn action, while upholding their allegiance to the guidelines set by Hadrat Ali (a.s.) and the other Imams. They participate in the mourning sessions for Imam Husain (a.s.), as if - God forbid - the Imam believed in an attitude of partisanship. On the contrary, the philosophy underlying Imam Husain's martyrdom showed that he wanted to reorient Islam to action. In other words, he died to render Islam dynamic in actual practice.

Yet, many seem to think that he died in trying to establish Islamic order of a theoretical kind! Reverting to the Ummayad period, it will be interesting to recall what Abul Faraj Isfahani mentioned in his book: "Aghani" (Melodies").