Burden of Sin of shirk on the Leader
Mu' meneen
Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
This
question has come into my mind while reading a question asked by some other
person.
If Sydena is leading millions of Bohras
towards a religion and guiding us towards a path of reaching our goals in this
world and the other and we follow it with faith in him. In this case where does
the onus or burden of our sins (if we are committing any fall onto?). According
to what you say if we are asked on judgement day
about shirk the millions of people are going to say that we believe in this
religion and we believed in Sydena and he led us to
this path. Will Allah Subhana not forgive us because
when you follow a leader in prayer or in life then all our actions are under
that leadership and why should we have to pay for something we dont know about but have faith in? This is my analogy. I would appreciate a
reply to this very important question which has been discussed by our entire
group of friends
(There may be some
grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not
change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our
readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Burden of Sin of
shirk on the Leader
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever
He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that
there is no one (no idol, no person, no
grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone,
and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of
His Messengers.
Your Question: Will
Allah Subhana not forgive us because when you follow
a leader in prayer or in life then all our actions are under that leadership
and why should we have to pay for something we dont
know about but have faith in?
Beloved brother in Islam, Allah Subhanah
has revealed His Book for the guidance of all those who choose to be guided
aright. If one, of his own free will,
chooses not to follow the Guidance sent by Allah Subhanah,
but instead chooses to put his ‘faith’ in anything other than what Allah Subhanah has revealed; then that is indeed a wrong choice
one makes for himself! The excuse of ‘we
don’t know’ after Allah Subhanah has made available
His Book of Guidance to all mankind, would indeed be an inadmissible defence in the Just Court of Allah Subhanah!
Allah says in Chapter 2, Surah
Baqarah aayat 185:"Ramadan
is the month in which the Quran was sent down: this
Book is a Perfect Guidance for mankind and consists of CLEAR Teachings which
show the
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse
89:We have sent down to you this Book, which makes everything plain, and is a guidance, blessing and good news to those who have
surrendered themselves entirely.
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 6 Surah Anaam verse
157-158:Now that a clear proof, a
Guidance and Blessing, has come to you from your Lord, who can be more unjust than the one who
treats Our Revelations as false and turns away from them? We will inflict the severest torment on
those who turn away from Our Revelations because of their aversion. Do the people now await
that the angels should come down before them?
Or that your Lord may Himself come down?
Or that the manifest Signs of your Lord should appear?
If one chooses to put his absolute ‘faith’ in Allah, His
Messenger (saws), and His Message, then indeed he has made the right
choice. But if one chooses to put his
absolute ‘faith’ in anything or anyone other than Allah and His Messenger
(saws), he will indeed be brought forth on an Inevitable Day to give a severe
accounting of his deeds!
Only Allah and His Messenger (saws) deserve our absolute
and unconditional faith and obedience; everyone and everything else will only
be believed on the sole condition that it complies with the guidance of Allah
and His Messenger (saws).
Your Question: In
this case where does the onus or burden of our sins (if we are committing any
fall onto?).
Allah Subhanah has bestowed upon
man two things which He has not given to any amongst His Creation:
Intelligence or the Power of Reasoning,
A Free Will to choose the path he
wishes to follow
If one, of his own free will, chooses to deny the guidance
of Allah and His Messenger (saws), and instead chooses to put his unconditional
‘faith’ in his self-declared leader or high-priest; the person will be held
absolutely responsible for his own deeds!
And this Judgement has been Declared
by the All Knowing, All Wise Lord of the Worlds several times in the Glorious Quran in absolutely unequivocal and unambiguous terms!
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab
verse 66-68: On the Day their faces are rolled about on the Fire, they will
say, “Would that we had obeyed Allah and His Messenger!” And they will say, “O our Lord, we obeyed our
CHIEFS and our GREAT MEN, and they led us astray from the Right Path. O our Lord, give them a double chastisment and curse them severely”.
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 9 Surah Taubah
verse 31: They have made their scholars and their monks as their Rabbs besides Allah!
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 6 Surah Anam verse
94: (And Allah will say), “So, you have come before Us
all alone, as We created you at first.
Now, you have left behind all that We gave you
in the world. Now We do not see with
you those ‘shufa’a’ (intercessors), who, you believed, had a share in moulding your destinies!
All the relations between you and them have been cut off, and all those,
in whom you trusted, have left you in the lurch.”
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 19 Surah Maryam
verses 81-82: These people have set up other gods than Allah, so that they may
become their supporters! There will be
no supporters! They will not only disown
your worship, but also become their opponents.
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter16 Surah Nahl verses
86-87: When the people who had committed shirk in this world will see those
whom they had made associates with Allah, they will say, “Our Lord, here are
those associate-deities whom we used to invoke besides You.” At this their deities will retort, “You are
liars!” At that time, all of them will
proffer submission before Allah, and all that they used to forge in this world
shall vanish from them.
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 25 Surah Furqan
verses 17-19: And on that Day, (Your Lord) will gather all these people
together as well as those whom they used to invoke besides Allah and ask them,
“Did you mislead these servants of Mine, or did they
themselves go astray?” Those
associate-deities will answer, “Glory be to You! We dared not take any ‘auliya’
besides You. You did give them and their forefathers
all the good things of life till they forgot the Admonition, and incurred the punishment.” Thus will your deities deny all that you are
professing today! Then you shall neither be able to repel your punishment, nor
shall you be able to get any help from anywhere. And whoever is guilty of iniquity among you, We shall make him taste a severe torment!
Your Question: They
say that when you pray after an Imam then all mistakes of prayer behind him are
his not the people who pray behind him. This is my analogy.
The believers pray because Allah has commanded them to
pray! They pray behind the Imam because Allah and His Messenger (saws) have
guided them to pray thus! Thus the only reason the Imam prays the way he does,
and the congregation prays behind him the way they do, is because that is the
guidance of Allah and His Messenger (saws).
But if some Imam tries to pray in the direction of Japan
instead of Makkah, or starts praying four rakahs for Magrib instead of
three, or starts singing pop songs instead of reciting the Holy Quran in the prayer….he will not be followed, but rejected
immediately by the believers! Thus
following the imam is absolutely on the condition that he follows the guidance
of Allah and His Messenger (saws). As
soon as he ceases to do so, he will be immediately rejected by the believers.
Similarly, the leader will only be followed on the
condition that he obeys and guides to the path approved by Allah and His
Messenger (saws). But if the leader
starts to follow or invite the people to any other way or path, other than the
guidance of Allah and His Messenger (saws); he should be rejected by the true
believers.
A few simple litmus tests will prove which leaders are
good and inviting to the Right Path, and which leaders are evil and inviting
their followers to the Hell Fire! If the
leaders are foremost in always advising their followers to worship and invoke
Allah Subhanah Alone, and understand, and
unconditionally obey and follow nothing but the Quran
and the Sunnah, they are indeed on the Right
Path.
Any leader who is foremost in inviting his followers to
invoke or worship anything other than Allah Subhanah
Alone; (be they himself, his ancestors, the Imams, the Prophets, or anything
else in existence other than Allah Subhanah)…know it
for sure that he is inviting his followers to shirk and to the Wrath and Anger
of Allah Subhanah!
If any leader demands or creates circumstances whereby he claims any
material or wordly gain for himself and his cronies
from his followers….know it for sure that he cannot be on the Straight
Path! If any leader creates an environment
whereby he demands unconditional obedience and reverence from his followers
….know it for sure that he cannot be on the Right Path!
And the one thing that will almost always help determine an evil leader is that he will always take the
understanding of the Glorious Quran out of the reach
of his followers. He will create any
excuse to keep his followers from understanding the Message of the Quran, like:
The Quran cannot be understood
by the common man!
The Quran is a book of hints and
hidden meanings which only he and his cronies have a right to understand and
explain!
Never ever try to understand the Quran,
or The Book of Guidance will mis-guide you! Etc.
Such evil leaders must immediately be rejected by the true
believers; but if one insists on following such leaders unconditionally and
with blind faith without determining whether their substance is in accordance
with the guidance of the Quran and Sunnah; they shall indeed have a severe accounting in the
Just Court of Allah Subhanah on an Inevitable Day!
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab
verse 66-68: On the Day their faces are rolled about on the Fire, they will
say, “Would that we had obeyed Allah and His Messenger!” And they will say, “O our Lord, we obeyed our
CHIEFS and our GREAT MEN, and they led us astray from the Right Path. O our Lord, give them a double chastisment and curse them severely”.
If one trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and
commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws), he can be assured of never ever
being misled; but if one believes, obeys and follows any other guidance, other
than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws), he can be assured of being led
astray.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Wister