Writer’s view is personal, must not be considered editor’s

About Marji'ya and events in Iraq - Episode 1

By: Hassan Tabatabai, owner almujtaba.com

It is good to clarify the points about Da'awa Party, Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and Marjiiya (Religious Authority).

1) Basically, followers of religions (Muslims, Christians, Jews .etc) get the teachings of their faiths from their religious authorities as in Christianity there are Catholics, Protestant, Orthodox and each one has his own religious authority to follow (e.g. The Pope John Paul II for Catholics). The Muslims also follow the religious authorities who explain Islam as it has been revealed to the holy prophet Muhammed (PBUH&HF). The Sunnis have followed four religious scholars who are Abu Hanifa, Malik, Al- Shafi'i and Ahmad Bin Hanbal. Hence the names come Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali. After that they closed the door of Ijtihad. The existing religious scholars (ulama) are actually following one of these four sects and they have no opinion from their own on any religious matter, it is based on what they get from one of those four scholars.

Regarding the Shi'as (followers of Ahlul Bayt), they were taking their religious teachings from the 12 Imams after the holy prophet Muhammed (PBUH&HF). It is interesting to mention that the 6th Imam (Imam Ja'afar Al Sadiq PBUH) was one of the teachers of Abu Hanifa and Malik. At the year of 260 Hijra, the 11th Imam (Imam Al Hassan Al Askari PBUH) was martyred, and because Imam Al Mahdi (PBUH) is the last imam and he feared that he will be killed like his father and grandfathers by the tyrant rulers at that time, it was the will of Almighty God that he should go into occultation. He disappeared from view of the people in what is called "Short Occultation" for 70 years. During this period there were 4 representatives of the Imam who were appointed by him one after the other and the people used to refer to them to deliver the questions, letters and religious dues to the Imam and receive the answers from him and return them back to his followers. 3 days before the death of the last representative, a letter from the Imam came that you are going to die after 3 days and the long occultation will start till the end of the time when the Imam will reappear and fill the earth with justice and equity after being filled with injustice and oppression. It is worth mentioning that all Muslims believe in the appearance of Imam Al Mahdi (PBUH) at the end of the time. The only difference is that sunnis believe he will be born at the end of the time while shias believe that he was born at the year of 256 Hijra and he is the 12th imam and he is the son of Imam Al Hassan Al Askari who is the son of Imam Ali Al Hadi descendent of Imam Ali (Peace be upon them all). At times of the imams, shias used to refer to the imam for any religious question but at the occultation the imams tought the shias to refer to the religious scholars for any religious order. It is related to Imam Hassan Al Askari (11th imam) that he said:

"He among religious scholars (fuqaha), protecting himself (from sins), preserving his faith, disobedient to his selfish desires, obedient to his master (Allah), the public should follow him".

Also, it is related to Imam Al Mahdi (PBUH) saying:

"And for the coming events, you should refer to the narrators of our traditions, they are my divine authority upon you and I am the divine authority of Allah".

From these traditions we know that for any coming events we have to refer to our religious authority (maraji) and we receive the order only from them not from any party or political group or political leader. It is self evident that the religious people (Muslims or Christians or others) are taking their religious responsibilities from their religious scholars of authorities not from the political parties, which are formed claiming that they follow the religion although they may contradict the views of their religious authorities.

2) Through out the history , the shias followed their religious scholars (maraji) one after the other starting from Ibin Qawlawe and Shaikh al Sadooq then Al Shaikh Al Mufeed and then Shaikh AL Toosi who is the founder of ?Al Hawza Al elmiya in An Najaf Al Ashraf 1000 years ago. There were no political parties among the shias through out the history. This is in spite of the fact that they were living always in opposition to their ruling governments, rulers, caliphs...etc.

In the 20th century in the first world war (1914 -1918) when the British army attacked Iraq, our religious scholars (ulama) gave Fatwa of Jihad and they fought against the British army. The marji at that time was Ayatullah Sayed Muhamed Kadhem Al-Tabatabai Al-Yazdi. Also two of the religious scholars were Sayed Muhammed Sa'eed Al Habboobi and Sayed Muhsen Al Tabatabai Al-Hakim (who was general in the army at that time). Also in 1920, the marji of that time was Mirza Hassan Al Shirazi and then Shaykhul Shari'a Al Asfahani and they led the revolution against the British troops in Iraq (The Mirza died after several months then Shakhul Shari'ah led it).

And after them Ayatullah Sayed Abu Al Hassan Al Asfahani was always opposing the British occupation in Iraq and their interference in Iraqi affairs that’s why the Iraqi government exiled him 3 times to Iran between 1921 and 1946. Also, Ayatullah Shaikh Muhammed Hussain Kashif Al Ghita and ?Ayatullah Shaikh Mahdi Al Khalisi were exiled to Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively.

In 1946, after the death of Ayatullah Sayed Abul Hassan Al Asfahani, the marjiiya of Ayatullah Sayed Muhsen Al Tabatabai Al-Hakim started (1946-1970). He established the new era in Al Hawza Al-ilmiya in An-Najaf Al Ashraf and attracted thousands of students from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and Africa etc. It was very difficult for the British to infiltrate the unity of Shia people with their maraji because millions of Shias were all following one marji. That is why it is believed that they were the ones who desired forming a Shia political party so they can divide the shias from within. So in 1957/1958, some youth have started the idea of having a Shia political party with the aims and objects to defend the Shia rights in the political situation of Iraq and fighting with the existing governments or other political parties like The Ba'ath party, The Communist party, Socialists, nationalists etc. Those who started the idea of The Da'aw party invited the martyr Sayed Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr who led the party because he was a religious scholar and his knowledge was much more than them (The youths who founded the party). Also, sayed Muhammed Baqir Al Hakim and Sayed Mahdi Al Hakim joined The Da'awa party and were with Sayed Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr. In 1961, by the order of Ayatullah Sayed Muhsen Al Hakim, his two sons and Sayed Muhammed Baqir Al Sadr left Da'aw party, his view was that ulama should not be linked to any party because they are fathers for all the people not to any particular group and they should sympathize to all of the people equally. If they are in a party, they will have a special favour to the members of their party and will not care about other people.

In 1974, Ayatullah Sayed Muhammad Baqir Al Sadr following the footstep of Ayatullah Sayed Muhsen Al-Hakim also gave a fatwa that it is disallowed (haram) for ulama to be members of Da'awa party. It was noticed from the beginning that members of Da'awa party (like other parties) used to fabricate lot of stories and lies and abuse the ulama who were not agreeing with their views and practices.

At the beginning, the founders of Da'awa party claimed that they are supporters of maraji (the right hand of the marjiiya and their organization is to fulfill the aims and objects of the marji. but it is obvious that later on they claim to be the religious authority of the people rather than the maraji and they started abusing the maraji who do not support them.

In 1979 after the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the leaders of Da'awa party, all migrated to Iran like Shaikh Mahdi Al Asifi, Sayed Kadhim Al Ha'iri, Ali Al Adib (Abu Bilal), and Dr. Ja'afari etc and they were fully with the Iranian government because it represented their ambitions of the establishment of an Islamic government in the new era. Later on, they were divided into many groups, Sayed Kadhim al Hairi was annoyed by them because they were not following the views of ulama and maraji and he left the party in 1986 and wrote a full book about their bad and wrong practices. The book is called "qarar el hathf ". Then there were many subdivisions among the party. Some of them joined "wilayat Al faqeeh " and one group became a member of SCIRI till today and they are led by ?Abu Yassin (who controls the members of Da'awa party inside Iraq especially in Basra and Southern areas), others were lost and left the party. Some were in Syria and some migrated to London, The UK.

To be continued....

Source: http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showthread.
php?s=&postid=146043&t=4913#post146043 

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