The Master and the Mullahs

End of August Roundup, Masterly Talk on Mullas

By John Taylor; 2007 August 29

My, we have been busy. On Sunday we spent the day at a lovely riverside park upstream on the Grand River, which was leased for several generations by Tomaso's friend Tommy's mother's family. Fishing, corn roast, swimming; I canoed around the island with the two Thomases in the front. On the other side, without a landing in sight the inevitable happened. "Tata, I have to go lulu." Great. He stuck it out until we got back. The highlight of the day for the kids was a pet raccoon named Daisy. According to the several family members there who have owned them, they make wonderful pets.

Coincidentally, the night before we had been raided by a wild cousin of Daisy, who was after our grape bower. I took a pool noodle and chased it out onto our clothesline, where it hung precariously. "Look at his trick!" Silvie declared, furiously taking photos of the masked marauder. Silvie had her thirteenth birthday party on Monday; not having any friends of her own (and worse being temporarily disfigured by cold sores, a by-product of her recent bout with strep, and being extra shy about her appearance for that reason), Silvie compensated by filling the couch with stuffed animals, "guests" at her birthday party.

On Sunday night we went to the YIC (the new name for what Thomas even in English calls in Esperanto the "Junula", the Youth Impact Centre) for the first of what will be a regular Sunday night improv evening. The seminar was held by a very experienced acting coach, who has held improv evenings at the Grand Island restaurant and in the Backstairs Theatre in Hamilton. Silvie started off extra shy, understandably, since the cold sores made her look like she had just eaten very sloppily a jar of jam (as one person earlier that day, to his embarrassment, thought she had done). For the first hour it was just myself, Silvie and the coach, so I had no choice but to participate. Later, others arrived and it became lively, though not the same as if we had a hilarious audience watching.

I definitely am not used to the spontaneity of improvisational acting. Writing, they say, is 90 percent re-writing, but for me it must be more like 99 percent. In spite of the shock and jet lag, it was nonetheless a very refreshing and enjoyable experience to react instantly to a changing situation. Later, as more people came, Silvie warmed up to it too and fully participated. We played games like this: engage in conversation but start every sentence with a letter of the alphabet, starting with "a" and continuing to "z." Very challenging for an absentminded sort like myself.

I have revised an essay on the Badi Blog about health that I wrote in the summer of '04, called "Wubs Again," prompted by the kind comments of somebody going by the moniker "Heidi." The new version is in place of the old, at: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2004/08/wubs-again.html

Yesterday the kids and I went to see "Mr. Bean's Holiday." I found the French, European flavor of this film bracing, and much preferred it to the Californian pulp of the first Bean movie. Tomaso did not agree. Fortunately, we arrived late and missed the opening commercial, which I have come to dread. I hate having my desires manipulated. Here is what Ali, Son-in-Law of the Prophet, had to say about desire, long before advertising became an entire profession:

"He who hankers after this world there is no limit for his desires. If one wish is fulfilled the desire for fulfilment of another wish crops up. This world is like the reflection [mirage?]. If you run after it then it will itself run forward but if you leave it and run away from it then it follows you. In the same way, if a person does not run after the world, the world runs after him." (Ali b. Abi Taalib, Sermons)

I am no poet but I wrote the following attempt at a poem back in May. As Plato said, "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet," and my mother's love still touches me, even though next year it will be a good thirty years since cancer took her, the heart and soul of this family, to a better place.

To My Mother, Almost Thirty Years after her Death (18 May, 2007)

I am ever aware, Mom, that you loved me more than I love you,
But that never bothered you, it is to be expected;
This is a law of nature, I know now,
For a parent to love the child more than the child can ever love back;

And besides,
If love less requited ever were to bother you,
The quality of your love would not be what it was,

No, what it is.

And besides,
How could anyone but a mother, my mother,
Love as you did, giving every minute,
every thought, in total devotion?

I should write a poem about the Baha'is in Iran, for theirs is a touching love. I thought of them when I came across the following talk by the Master, given to Persian Baha’is in 1914. It is interesting to observe here that Abdu'l-Baha picks out and praises one Mulla, one of the very few whose sense of justice kept him from dipping his hands in Baha'i blood. Hard as it is not to be cynical about the Mullocracy, we too need to try to see the fair and the good among them, and ignore the fanatics, as did our exemplar.

Most of the Persian ulama (clergymen) became the cause of destruction and the casting of Persia to the winds. The ulama of every sect must act in accordance with the requirements of religion, the first of which is that they must believe in God, turn to God and be severed from all else save God. Such ulama are the illumined lamps of guidance and the stars of the heaven of mercy. But when some ulama enter a school their aim is leadership, to obtain fame, to gather luxuries and worldly possessions. They are like the disease, caboos (influenza), that attacks man with helplessness and heaviness, during sleep, as though a mountain had fallen upon him and he was unable to move.

Now, these learned men are similar to the disease that is attacking the body of the people. The requirements for the ulama are mentioned in the traditions. It is said by the prophet Mohammed,

'Let the public follow whomsoever of the learned controls himself, protects his religion, opposes his desire and obeys the command of his Lord,' that means the learned who controls himself from corruption and negligence, opposes his own desire and passion, protects religion and the divine commands, fulfills the requirements.'

The souls must follow the judgment of such an one regarding laws and bylaws. Sheikh Murtaza, indeed, was strictly religious. Once at noontime prayer, a group of people were praying in the mosque at Kazmin, under the leadership of akhonds (Mohammedan priests). At such a time Sheikh Muraza arrived. He spread his cloak in the front hail and began to pray. Suddenly, thousands of the people left the akhonds and swept from all directions, standing in rows to pray under the leadership of Sheikh Murtaza. He had to employ seven muezzins (men who call the people to prayer from the tower of the mosque). He was trusted and strongly religious. Indeed, he used to work with honesty.

No matter how much the people questioned about this Revelation, he answered according to his belief, `I have not yet investigated this Cause. Go and investigate for yourselves.' The Sheikh never said any unsuitable word. On one occasion the ulama united with the Persian consul in Bagdad and planned sedition. They sent for all of the ulama of Karbala and Nadjaf, also Sheikh Muraza, perhaps he, too, would come to Bagdad. It happened that while on the road he fell and dislocated his shoulder. Although the leaders persisted in asking his opinion about the Cause, his only reply was,

`I do not think that it is my duty to interfere in this matter.'

During those thrilling times, the Blessed Beauty, Baha'u'llah, never changed his attitude. Every day, as usual, He went to the bank of the Tigris river, accompanied only by Agha Mirza Mohammed Kuli. No matter how much the friends tried to interfere, telling him that the multitudes were rising against him, he paid no attention. One day, when Baha'u'llah was walking in the reception room, two of the hypocrites who, at heart were with the ulama, but who claimed to be sincere, went into the blessed presence. A number of the friends were there to whom Baha'u'llah said:

'All of the ulama are urging others from Nadjaf and Karbala to wage a holy war upon us.'

Then, facing the two hypocrites, he said,

'By God! There is no God but Him, I do not need to send more than two persons to chase them to Kazmin!'

Sheikh Murtaza sent the following statement: `I did not know anything about the aims of these people; I pray in your behalf.' He was such a religious man, he never gathered luxuries, enormous funds were sent him from India, but it was all spent on the poor; nothing was left after his death. How wonderful, indeed, were those days in Baghdad! Every one of the friends, through the favor and bounty of the Blessed Beauty, was in the utmost firmness and uprightness. How radiant were their faces! How merciful were their hearts! How severed and attracted they were! (June 26, 1914, translated by Zia Baghdadi, Star of the West, Vol. 9, pp. 123-124)

Here are some other snippets from the sermons of Ali, confirming that arrogance destroys all the good that a body of learned professionals can hope to do in the world. The present rape of Iran by an arrogant theocracy is proof of how right-on Ali was.

"Learned is he who knows his worth. It is enough for a man to remain ignorant if he knows not his worth. Certainly, the most hated man with Allah is he whom Allah has left for his own self. He goes astray from the right path, and moves without a guide. If he is called to the plantation of this world he is active, but if he is called to the plantation of the next world he is slow. As though what he is active for [what] is obligatory upon him whereas in whatever he is slow was not required of him." (Ali b. Abu Taalib, Sermons)

"Certainly, a scholar who acts not according to his knowledge is like the [foolish] ignorant who does not find relief from his ignorance, but on the learned the plea of Allah is greater and grief more incumbent, and he is more blameworthy before Allah." (Ali b. Abi Taalib, Sermons)