Wilayah in an Individual and in Society

Wilayah, Part 3 Weeping at a majlis for Imam Husayn, on its own, is not wilayah — the session says so in as many words. This is the session's central correction. It is not opposed to grief for Imam Husayn, peace be upon him — it says plainly that such grief has, at times, been enough to redirect a nation. Its target is the belief that grief is sufficient by itself: that loving the Prophet's household in one's heart, and saying "peace be upon him" at the mention of their names, discharges the whole of what wilayah — the binding allegiance owed to God's rightful guardian — actually demands. The definition offered instead is exacting and personal: his fight is your fight, his friend your friend, his enemy your enemy. Anyone who can say that of themselves, honestly, has wilayah. Most people, the session suggests, cannot. The proof offered that tears can become something more is the Tawwabun, the Penitents, who gathered at Imam Husayn's grave in Karbala and wept for two or three days — then made a pact never to return home alive, and went to the battlefield to keep it. That, the session argues, is what grief looks like when it is not the end point but the beginning of one. The session closes by asking whether an individual's wilayah can be genuine at all if he feels no responsibility toward a wider society that lacks it. Can a person truly have wilayah while feeling no duty to anyone who lacks it? What the evening covers The correction. Why grief for Imam Husayn, however sincere, is not itself the fulfilment of wilayah. The four-part test. His fight, his friend, his enemy, his side — the personal definition of what it means to have wilayah. The Tawwabun. How days of weeping at a graveside became a pledge never to return home alive. The unanswered question. Whether wilayah held privately, without any sense of duty to a society that lacks it, can be called wilayah at all. This session fell on the martyrdom anniversary of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali, peace be upon him, and the evening's programme included a eulogy in his memory.

In this session

Full session

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Sermon: Wilayah in an Individual and in Society

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Maqtal: The Martyrdom of Imam Ali

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Nohe: Ya Ali, Ya al-Mortada

Supplication: Dua al-Ifitah (English)

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Supplication: Munajat (Whispered Prayer) of Imam Ali

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Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin

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