Nobility and Magnanimity of Spirit

Nobility and Magnanimity of Spirit
by  (Martyr) Murtadha Mutahari

Oh soul at peace return unto your Lord, well pleased, well-pleasing. Enter
among My servants. Enter My paradise. (89:28-30)
On the holy birthday anniversary of Imam Husain, peace be upon him, last Monday I
began a discourse saying that anyone who possessed a lofty spirit must suffer
physical discomfort while only those who have loose spirits live in comfort, sleep
soundly and enjoy delicious dishes and other benefits.
Tonight, I wish to discuss the greatness and nobility of the spirit and show the
differences between the two. Greatness of spirit is one thing but nobility is a higher
quality. In other words, every greatness is not nobility but every nobility is also
greatness.
Determination is obviously a sign of greatness of the spirit and there are different
levels of determination. One person is content to secure a diploma while another
knows no limit to the pursuit of knowledge, and his aim is to make the utmost use of
his life and gain as much knowledge as he can.
You may have heard the well-known story of Abu Rayhan Biruni, a man whose true
worth according to scholars, is not quite known. He was so extraordinary a
mathematician, sociologists and historian that he is considered by some to be
superior to Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna).
These two were contemporaries. Abu Rayhan was in love with knowledge, research
and discoveries. Sultan Mahmud summoned him to attend his court and he had to
obey the call. He accompanied the King in his conquest of India and found a great
treasure of knowledge in that country. But he did not know Sanskrit, so he began
learning it. Inspite of his old age, he learned it to a very high degree and after many
years of study, he produced a book called Tahqiq mal al-Hind min maqulihi marzalah
fi al-aql wa maqbulat, which is a very valuable source of reference for the
Indianologists of the world.
He was on his death bed when a jurisprudent neighbor of his, learning of his serious
illness, went to visit him. Abu Rayhan was still conscious and, in seeing the
jurisprudent, asked him a question of jurisprudence concerning inheritance or some
other issue. The jurisprudent was amazed that a dying man should show interest in
such matters. Abu Rayhan said, "I should like to ask you which is better, to die with


knowledge or without it?" The man said, "Of course it is better to know and die." Abu
Rayhan said, "That is why I asked my first question." Shortly after the jurisprudent
reached home, the cries of lamentation told him that Abu Rayhan had died. This
shows his determination even at the moments of death.
One person is great in gathering wealth, for example, while others show no such
endeavors and are content with earning a simple livelihood by whatever means they
can, whether it is by serving others or begging or submitting to abasement. Are those
two types of effort equal? Not at all.
Sometimes you see the people who lack the resolution to get rich, simply because
they are weak and others scorn and laugh at them. They recite verses of the Quran
about asceticism, based on fallacious reasoning. But they are wrong. The person
who pursues the amassing of wealth, with all his misery, with all his devotion to the
world, is still better than those having a weak determination or no determination, who
resemble beggars and thus, he has more character. This person is not blameworthy
before him.
These persons can be considered blameworthy only before a real ascetic who
himself is a man of determination. Like Ali, peace be upon him, he can gather riches,
not because of his own needs, but to spend on others and help the needy. He is in a
position to reproach another for whom storing and hiding riches have become a goal,
not a means.
Similarly, one may seek high rank and position. Alexander the Great was such a man
who desired to rule the world. He is a superior to a man who lives in servility and has
no determination for feelings of nobility. Nadir Shah is another example of high-
mindedness. These men have great spirits but it cannot be said that they have noble
spirits.
Alexander is an example of a great ambition, and his greatness has developed only
in one direction, in ambition, fame and influence, in being the most powerful man in
the world.
His spirit is noble only to that extent. But did he experience any ease and comfort?
Could Nadir have had an easy life with his tyranny, and his building of minarets with
the skulls of those he had killed, the man who pulled men's eyes out of their sockets,
the man who was madly ambitious? He had no time sometimes to take off his boots
for ten days. A story is told about him that in a very severe winter night he reached a
caravan serai by himself. The keeper was awakened by a loud knock, and when he
opened the gate he saw a burly-looking man riding a big horse. He asked the keeper
what food he had, and the latter said he only had eggs.


He was sharply ordered to fry the eggs and bring it with some bread for him and
some fodder and barley for his horse. The keeper did so and the man rested there an
hour or two and after grooming his horse, he threw some gold coins on to the
keeper's lap and said, "Very soon a column of soldiers will reach here. Tell them
Nadir has gone in that direction and they must follow at once." On hearing the name
of Nadir, the keeper was so frightened that he let the coins fall down. Nadir ordered
him to go on the roof and shout to the soldiers on their arrival not to linger a moment
but to follow him speedily. The men grumbled when they heard the message but
none of them dared to stay a minute to refresh himself.
One may become a Nadir, but he can never enjoy a comfortable bed, fine food and
hundreds of other luxuries. His body can never relax. And eventually he will die.
Whoever has great determination, in whatever area it may be, will have no physical
ease. But none of these men possessed noble souls. Their souls were great but
were not noble. Suppose a man to be a great man of learning without any other good
quality. He has lofty thoughts about human knowledge. Another is skillful in gathering
wealth. Someone else is full of rancour, envy or ambition. All of them are extremely
selfish but none of them is noble and magnanimous.
The point is that from a psychological and philosophical point of view, there is
another kind of greatness which does not depend on selfishness and which is called
humanity.
I have not yet seen how materialists explain away this aspect of the human being.
What makes the human being or, at least, some individuals, have a feeling of honor
in their spirits, something which is beyond and above selfishness? Such a human
being wishes to be noble and great, but not at the expense of another. One's spirit
does not allow one to tell a lie. Nobility is the opposite of baseness and a person
avoids baseness completely.
Mussolini, the well-known Italian dictator, is reported to have said to a friend that he
preferred to live like a lion for one year, rather than like a sheep for a hundred years.
He insisted that his friend should not quote his words to anyone since his being a lion
must mean that other people are sheep and if other people learned what Mussolini
desired, they, too, would want to be lions in which case the dictator could no longer
remain a lion. There is no nobleness in such an attitude.
But what is a noble person like? It is a person who wants all people to be lions rather
than sheep in the world. The Prophet has said, "I was appointed to perfect the
morality of nobility," not "I was appointed to perfect good morals." The latter is not the
correct meaning. Every innovator of a school claims that what he teaches is right.
Even Nietzche who believes in might and has no compassion for the weak, considers


his school as one of the true ethics. His words mean nobleness not mastery over
others.
Ali, peace be upon him, says to his son, Imam Husain, peace be upon him, "Uplift
your spirit above every mean act and think that your spirit is worthier than to be
polluted by meanness." He advises his son to think himself nobler than to demean
himself by lies or by abasing himself before others. Ali, peace be upon him, says that
an honorable person never commits adultery and this is irrespective of the fact that it
is forbidden by the divine law and punishable in both worlds. In the epic of the Nahj
ul-balagha it is said that in the first encounter of Ali, peace be upon him, with
Mu'awiyah, in the Battle of Siffin, the Imam had no desire to fight and wished to settle
matters through letters and emissaries. But when Mu'awiyah seized the access to the
waters of the Euphrates to prevent Ali's army from reaching it, hoping to inflict defeat
on them through lack of water, he wrote a letter asking Mu'awiyah to desist from such
strategy since fighting had not begun yet and there was the possibility of reaching an
agreement.
Mu'awiyah refused to forego his advantage and when Ali found that his insistance
was of no avail, he gathered his men and delivered a discourse saying, "These
people are seeking war like food. If so, do you know what should be done? You are
thirsty and there remains only one way, and that is to quench your swords with their
blood in order to satisfy yourselves. If you die victoriously, you are alive but if you live
in defeat, you are dead."
This is how Ali, peace be upon him, inspired the spirit of nobility and self-respect in
his followers. Ali, peace be upon him, believes that all vices are caused by the
baseness of character. For example, he thinks slandering is the act of a weak
person. A brave person is so noble and magnanimous that he or she expresses the
objections he or she feels for another to that person's face or at least keeps silent.
One who is covetous towards others is making the self contemptuous. One who
laments one's misfortune before others is abasing the self.
Someone came before Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, lamenting his distress and
poverty. The Imam asked an attendant to go and pay him a few dinars. The man said
in apology to the Imam, "I did not intend to ask for anything." The Imam said, "I did
not say that you did but my advice to you is to abstain from narrating your difficulties
before others, for you lose your worth, and Islam does not wish a believer to be
humbled before others."
Ali, peace be upon him, says, "He who describes his helplessness for others is
destroying his self-respect and honor which are the dearest things for a true believer.
And he who lets his carnal desires dominate him is abasing himself." Ali peace be


upon him, believes that all virtues are due to the nobleness of spirit. Being truthful,
honest, perseverant and avoiding all vices are the result of that nobleness. Drinking,
to give an example, causes drunkenness, even though temporarily robbing one of
reason and reducing one to the level of a stupid animal.
He also says, "I do not base my life on excess." The teachings of our gnostics and
Sufis have many exalted thoughts. But one of the problems that Islam suffered
through the teachings of the gnostics and Suifis was that it was influenced by the
teachings of Christianity, Buddhism and Manicheanism. They lost hold of the correct
balance in what they called forgetting the self and killing the self. If they had paid
attention to Islam, they would have realized that Islam is in favor of annihilating one
aspect of the self and reviving another aspect of it. It advises you to forget your
animal self and strengthen your noble spirit. I have come across the same idea in the
works of the poet-philosopher, Iqbal Lahouri.
Islam believes that one of the divine punishments is that the human being is brought
to forget the self altogether. The Quran says,
Be not one of those who forgot God and so He caused them to forget their
souls. (59:19)
Do you know of anyone like Ali who called people to renounce the world? Ali did this
but at the same time he emphasized self respect and magnanimity. He says to his
son, Hasan, peace be upon him, "Do not be the slave of another being. God has
created you free." How is it that Ali, peace be upon him, as the most humble man in
the world, invites people to regard the self? This self that he respects is the noble
side of man kind.
We have in hand many sayings of this kind belonging to Ali, peace be upon him, but
few quotations from his two sons, a result of the despotic conditions of their time. But
in the books containing the words of Imam Husain, peace be upon him, the question
of narrowness of the spirit is noticed abundantly, particularly his sayings in the last
moments before his martyrdom, blaming those who had sold themselves to tyrants.
He says, "If you are not religious and do not fear the Resurrection, at least be free
men in your world." In his discourse in Mecca, he says that his spirit does not allow
him to live and see such corrupt conditions, let alone be a part of it. Again he says,
"Verily I consider death to be nothing but felicity and life with these tyrants to be
anything but misery." By this he means that it is an honor for him not to be amongst
such people who bring nothing but weariness and sorrow to his soul.
To those who advised him to abandon his fight against tyrants, he quoted the
sentence of one of the Prophet's friends, said as an answer to his cousin who wished


to prevent him from fighting. The sentence is, "No. I will go forth. Death is no
disgrace but honor for a free man whose intention is to follow the right path and fight
a holy war. Death in aiding the good and opposing the wicked is an honor." He
continues saying,"You who forbid me this humility is enough for you to live in
abjection. Do you not see that they do not act according to what is right and no one
forbids all this corruption?" Again he says, "A believer must seek death." When it was
reported to Ali that Mu'awiyah's army had plundered the town of Ambar, and seized
the earnings of a Muslim woman, he says, "By God, if a Muslim dies in sorrow for
such a happening, he is not blameworthy."
On the day of his martyrdom (the 10th of Muharram), Imam Husain, peace be upon
him, gives this answer to the messenger of Ibn Ziad who was demanding allegiance,
"I will never offer my hand in humiliation nor confess like a slave (that I have been in
error)." Even in his last moments of fighting when all his relatives and companions
died and he himself, in facing death, and his household is in danger of capture, he
continues to declare his exalted goal of nobility and freedom.
Thus we see that all great men are not noble but all noble ones are great. About
Imam Husain, peace be upon him, we must say that he was great in his good deeds,
his indifference to wealth, his endeavours in enjoining to good and forbidding the
wrong, in his lack of ambition and vengefulness, in his insistance on prayer and
communion with God and in his revival of the noble self in fighting for (God and the
truth. I pray God to grant us such spirits of nobleness and to give us the awareness
of our destiny .