The Virtures of the Persians: Abu Huraira reported Allahs Messenger (saw) as saying: If the deen (religion) were at the Thurayya (the furthest star, the Pleiades), even then a person from Persia would have taken hold of it, or one amongst the Persian descent would have surely found it. (Sahih Muslim 31, 6178) With the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih, Imam Khomeini [qss] empowered the ulama in Iran to participate and even assume leading positions in governance. Before him this was unthinkable in Shi’ism, because of the Shiite belief of the illegitimacy of all authority except that which is exercised by the designated members of the Household of the Holy Prophet [SAW]; but in Sunnism, Wilayat al-Faqih was organic to it and had been the norm wherever a jihad tradition had existed. The meaning of the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih is simply ‘the rule of the [most learned] alim;’ and when Sheikh Usman Danfodiyo led his revolution here, it was a wilayah of the faqih that he created, though he didn’t have to call it that since his followers had no problem with the leadership of the ulama, whom both traditions recognise as the inheritors of the prophets. Imam Khomeini [qss] had to spend his entire life preaching and writing books to convince the Shia of its necessity and practical implication. In the very early years of the revolution I had myself met some ulama in Iran who had, on account of his formulation of the doctrine, accused the Imam [qss] of being a crypto-Sunni! - Adamu Adamu _Yasir Ramadan Gwale
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:21:03 +0000