It is astonishing to think that one man, living under an oppressive regime, can achieve so much and inspire so many, but such are the Imams of the Ahlul-Bayt. The dedication they have to their Lord is so absolute and so sincere that it drives them to achieve the impossible and they leave behind legacies that become ever-lasting.
It is astonishing to think that one man, living under an oppressive regime, can achieve so much and inspire so many, but such are the Imams of the Ahlul-Bayt. The dedication they have to their Lord is so absolute and so sincere that it drives them to achieve the impossible and they leave behind legacies that become ever-lasting.
In many ways we are living in unprecedented times, with so much political turmoil in our midst. Since 2010, there has been a gradual shift in the political landscape of this country towards adopting a more right-wing view. More worryingly, since the Brexit referendum in 2016, we have seen the emergence of Islamophobia at alarming rates and the rise in hate crimes against Muslims at record levels.
We have been through several governments since 2010, and each of them have left the country in a worse state with increasing measures of austerity. People witnessed the under-funding of front line services, schools and public transport. Homelessness was on the rise and dependence on food banks increased, with many families often having to rely on them to feed their children despite being in employment. Benefits were slashed and with the disorganised roll out of Universal Credit, many people were left out of pocket.
As a GP, I have seen this funding squeeze on the NHS happen on my watch and I have seen patients suffer as a result.
Therefore when the 2019 General Election came, I genuinely thought that people would wake up to this fact and vote for a party that promised real change and one that worked for the common people. However I, like many others, woke up to the devastating reality of another Conservative government, but this time one that commands a huge majority in the House of Commons.
This reality shook me to my very core and I even seriously contemplated leaving the country for the sake of my children for fear of them growing up in an Islamophobic country. Over the next few days, and as I got over my initial shock, I began to reflect on matters and I thought to myself ‘what would the Imams do?’
So I decided to look at our own history; that of the Imams, and what they did when faced with similar situations. I found that our 6th Imam Jafar Al Sadiq lived through very similar times of political upheaval, where he witnessed the toppling of the tyrannical Umayyad Dynasty and the establishment of the (arguably even worse) Abbasid Dynasty. He saw many caliphs come and go and he was often urged by his followers to rise up and revolt against their oppressive regimes, but he knew that there was no real appetite amongst his followers for a true revolution, like that of Imam Hussain (as). He therefore felt it was better and wiser to remain patient, speaking out against the atrocities of the caliphs, but ultimately opting to devote his blessed life to the spread of knowledge. As a direct result of his teachings, the 5 jurisprudential schools of Islam (the Twelver Shia school, the Hanafi school, the Maliki school, the Shafi’i school and the Hanbali school) were established.
He also taught the famous scientist Jabir bin Hayyan, referred to in the West as Geber, and whose work was later translated into Latin and opened the door to the development of chemical knowledge in the West. He also inspired the likes of Hisham ibn Al Hakam, the famous Islamic theologian and master debater.
It is astonishing to think that one man, living under an oppressive regime, can achieve so much and inspire so many, but such are the Imams of the Ahlul-Bayt. The dedication they have to their Lord is so absolute and so sincere that it drives them to achieve the impossible and they leave behind legacies that become ever-lasting.
We live in troubled times and it can be easy to feel outnumbered and ostracised by society and the right-wing media, but as is written in the Holy Quran, 94:5: “So verily with hardship there is relief”.
To conclude, I feel that as Muslims awaiting the return of the awaited Imam (atf), we cannot be content to sit on the side-lines of life and wait with apathy. We have to work for his return using whatever skills we have to spread the values of Islam and the Ahlul Bayt.
Imam Jafar Al Sadiq even stressed this point in the following hadith: “When the man among you is conscious in regard to his faith, is honest in his words, delivers the trusts, perfects his manners with people, it will be said, ‘He is Jafari (a follower of Jafar),’ and that would bring joy to me. But if the man among you is in a condition other than this, his ordeal and disgrace would falsely become attributed to me, when it is said that, ‘these are the manners of Jafar.’”
So whatever avenue of life we are in, we must strive to be the best and most impressive. And like Imam Al Sadiq this can be the way we make our mark in the world. We revolt silently, and through our actions counteract the media narrative and prove that Muslims are NOT the enemy.
