Maulana Ali’s Wasiyyat –Advice and Wise Counsel – Before His Shahaadat

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

فزت ورب الكعبة

'I swear by the Lord of the Ka’aba that I have won' - Maulana Ali SA

شيعة علي هم الفائزون

'The Shi’a of Ali are the true winners' - Rasulullah SA

This article was written by Ra'sul Hududil Mayameen Janab Syedi Aziz Bhaisaheb Qutbuddin in 2015.

During his last Shehrullah Amirul Mumineen SA lived in Kufa, Iraq. On the morning of the 19^th of Shehrullah, Ibn Muljim -- one of the Kharijites who escaped from the battle with the Khawaarij (those who abandoned and denounced Amirul Mumineen after the battle of Siffeen) -- struck a deadly blow with his sword to Maulana Ali while he was praying Tahiyyatul Masjid in Jame’ Kufa.

Amirul Mumineen was then brought to his home. During the next two days, before his Ruh Mubarak (blessed soul) departed this world for the highest heavens on the 21^st of Shehrullah, Amirul Mumineen SA spent his last hours giving advice and wise counsel to his family and the close companions gathered around him.

Amirul Mumineen SA said:

Praise God, who fixed the span of lives, destined the sustenance his servants receive, ordained a destiny for all things, and omitted nothing from the book. He said: “Wherever you may be, death will find you, even if you take shelter in fortified towers.” He also said: “Say: Even if you had been sheltering in your homes, those who were destined to be slain would have gone forth to the places where they were to lie down in death.” And he said to his prophet: “Command good, forbid evil, and bear patiently the troubles that assail you. Truly, this is part of resoluteness in tackling affairs.”

The beloved of God, God’s chosen from among his creatures, the epitome of truthfulness whose veracity we all accept, informed [me] about this day. He entrusted me with a testament regarding it, saying:

“Ali, I wonder how it will be with you when you remain alone among the dregs of humanity. You will call out and none will answer. You will defend the faith and none will come to your aid. Your companions will incline toward another, your advisors will become your adversaries, those with you causing you more harm than your enemy. If you urge them to fight, they will block your attempts and avert their faces. If you exhort them to battle, they will turn their backs and hasten away. Secretly they will wish you gone, all because you undertake God’s command and deter them from worldliness. Among them will be one whose ambition you have forestalled, who suppresses his rage and bides his time. And another whose family you have slain in battle, who awaits his vengeance and hopes that fate’s vicissitudes and calamities’ onslaughts will dispatch you on his behalf. Each will hold malice in his breast, inflamed by wrath. You will remain with them in this state, until, in the end, they will crush you with evil and slay you through deceit. They will call you the names they used on me: soothsayer, magician, fraud, liar. Bear all this patiently, for you have a model to follow in the person of God’s messenger. This is what God commanded when he said: In the person of God’s messenger you have a worthy model to follow.

God has commanded me to bring you close, ʿAlī, and not keep you distant, to teach you and not disregard you, to keep you near and not be harsh with you.”

This was the prophet’s counsel to me and the testament he entrusted to me.

Now I offer my counsel to you, O you who have undertaken God’s command, fought to defend the faith, and worked assiduously to secure the rights of the widowed and the needy. I counsel you to maintain your piety after I am gone. I warn you against the world and her adornments and splendors, for they are the cargo of deception. Shun the path of those who relied on the world, whose hearts were blinded by heedlessness that they lost all mindfulness of the hereafter; God sent them something they had not reckoned with, and seized them suddenly in their blithe oblivioun.

There have been people before you who remained true to their prophets and followed in their footsteps. If you embrace their guidance and pursue their practice you will not go astray. Indeed, God’s prophet has given you God’s book and his own family to lead you after him. They have knowledge concerning what you should or should not do. They are the clear path, the shining light, the supports of the earth, and its just rulers. It is their light from which illumination is sought, and it is their guidance that is to be followed. They come from a tree whose origin is noble, whose roots are firm, whose branches are lofty, and whose fruit is sweet—grown in the solid earth of the holy sanctuary, irrigated by the water of nobility, cleansed of pollution and filth, and selected from the purest of families. Do not turn aside from them or you will be flung asunder. Do not move away from them or you will be torn to pieces. Cleave to them and you will gain guidance and direction. Adhere to the wishes of God’s messenger regarding them. For he informed you that, “the two will not separate until they come to me at the celestial pool”—I mean God’s book and the prophet’s progeny.

I entrust you to God, who never abuses trust.

May God give you what you hope for, and protect you from what you fear.

Convey my greetings of peace to those who bear love for me, to their children, and to their children’s children.

May God safeguard you, and may He safeguard your prophet in you.

Go in peace."

Amirul Mumineen’s words resonate even today, and his guidance to embrace Ahlul-Bayt is as important today as it was then.

Rasulullah’s SA description of Maulana Ali’s time after him bears many resemblances to the situation in Dawat today. Today, Syedna Qutbuddin TUS is the Dai of Ahle-Bayt, the Dai of the successor of Amirul Mumineen, and he continues to defend the faith and call to the Straight Path. In this month of Ramadaan, as we fast and pray, let us reflect on the weighty words of Amirul Mumineen SA and let us reflect whether our actions do indeed follow the wasiyaat of Maulana Ali.

We Mumineen – followers of Syedna Qutbuddin – are the Ummat of Mohammed SA, the Shi’a of Ali, for whom Rasulullah SA declared, “Shi’atu Aliyyin humul faa’izun” (Ali’s Shi’a are indeed victorious). We are Ali’s Shi’a, we are believers in the Imam in Mohammed and Ali’s progeny, we are believers in their Dai, amongst us during the Imam’s seclusion. May Allah Ta’ala grant us a fragment of the fortitude and Sabar of Imam Ali, a fragment of the firmness in belief and Yaqeen of Imam Ali, and may Allah Ta’ala keep us amongst the Shi’a of Imam Ali SA.

The above translation is by Shehzadi Dr Bazat Tahera Baisaheba and published in Treasury of Virtues.