Although Islam is the religion of truth and reality, why did the anti-Islamist ideas of Ibn Saba spread among some Muslims?
Islam spread in a short time to a wide area. In such a big area it was extremely hard for the newly founded Islamic State to convey all the aspects and meanings, wisdom and truths of Islam to the nations that recently accepted Islam, and to unit them in the melting pot of Islam. Wherever Islam reached there were swarms of people accepting Islam. This was pleasing for the Muslims; however, the spiritual dough could not be given proper shape, Muslims in the ideal fashion could not be raised, and therefore they could not gather upon the ideal stance and in the ideal way of living. The public were like raw earth. This was especially visible in Iran.
New Muslims were not wholly separated from their former wrong faiths. It was rather difficult for these people whose souls, minds and hearts were darkened with ages-long superstitions to entirely accept the clear and pure truths of Islam which are far from doubt and imagination, falsehood and superstitions. Islam could not be well understood by these bigoted people and hearts and feelings could not be well illumined by the right religion. They psychologically desired that they could retain their former beliefs, customs and usages with Islam. On the other hand, the institution of caliphate could not also fulfill its duty of warning and instructing properly in that country. The service of establishing Islam in that area with all its institutions and cleansing their doubts and hesitations was rather lacking; this was because Islam spread to a wide area, many of the Companions were killed in internal conflicts, and some of them preferred a life of solitude, and some others were too old to intervene in the social life.
These new countries stayed neglected for a long time as a result of overlooking this important duty. They could not wholly take in the truths of the Quran and faith with the first knowledge and relish they acquired at the time of conquest. For this reason, they were not yet capable to distinguish between the right and wrong, between superstition and truth.
Therefore, the mischief-making nation of Jews succeeded in benefiting from this social situation. One of the factors that Ibn Saba could establish his malignant ideas in Iran was the psychological structure of the public. In their spiritual worlds emotions were dominant more than intellect. Their hearts were more open to mythos and superstitions more than truths. They could not reason events properly.
Moreover, they could not accept that their ages-long sovereignty and national prides were undermined by Arabs, whom they once saw as slaves and though not in the field of reason, but in that of emotion, they showed a kind of coldness towards Islam.
Ibn Saba succeeded in manipulating all these factors. He gathered his friends and said to them: We have just begun the real war. Be well aware that this is the onset of a war that will continue among Muslims till Doomsday. Now we will glorify and make people glorify Ali. We will ascribe divinity to him in one place, in another call him prophet, and still in another we will say: The caliphate was the right of Ali, but Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman wrongfully took this right from him.
Having taken this decision, Ibn Saba and his friends charged their friends around them with issuing these ideas. They began propagations: The caliphate was the right of Ali. Ali and his offspring deserve the caliphate. This right was taken from them wrongfully. Three caliphs, especially Omar, opposed to the will of God by the wrongful seizure of caliphate. We must support Ali in order to obey the will of God When these propagations were accepted by the public, they went further and tried to insert the Belief of Hulul into Islam. They tried to warp the creed of Islam and began spreading a belief contrary to the creed of oneness. The Belief of Hulul was also present in the former religions of Iranians. Therefore, this wrong belief could easily spread among them.
New Muslims were not wholly separated from their former wrong faiths. It was rather difficult for these people whose souls, minds and hearts were darkened with ages-long superstitions to entirely accept the clear and pure truths of Islam which are far from doubt and imagination, falsehood and superstitions. Islam could not be well understood by these bigoted people and hearts and feelings could not be well illumined by the right religion. They psychologically desired that they could retain their former beliefs, customs and usages with Islam. On the other hand, the institution of caliphate could not also fulfill its duty of warning and instructing properly in that country. The service of establishing Islam in that area with all its institutions and cleansing their doubts and hesitations was rather lacking; this was because Islam spread to a wide area, many of the Companions were killed in internal conflicts, and some of them preferred a life of solitude, and some others were too old to intervene in the social life.
These new countries stayed neglected for a long time as a result of overlooking this important duty. They could not wholly take in the truths of the Quran and faith with the first knowledge and relish they acquired at the time of conquest. For this reason, they were not yet capable to distinguish between the right and wrong, between superstition and truth.
Therefore, the mischief-making nation of Jews succeeded in benefiting from this social situation. One of the factors that Ibn Saba could establish his malignant ideas in Iran was the psychological structure of the public. In their spiritual worlds emotions were dominant more than intellect. Their hearts were more open to mythos and superstitions more than truths. They could not reason events properly.
Moreover, they could not accept that their ages-long sovereignty and national prides were undermined by Arabs, whom they once saw as slaves and though not in the field of reason, but in that of emotion, they showed a kind of coldness towards Islam.
Ibn Saba succeeded in manipulating all these factors. He gathered his friends and said to them: We have just begun the real war. Be well aware that this is the onset of a war that will continue among Muslims till Doomsday. Now we will glorify and make people glorify Ali. We will ascribe divinity to him in one place, in another call him prophet, and still in another we will say: The caliphate was the right of Ali, but Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman wrongfully took this right from him.
Having taken this decision, Ibn Saba and his friends charged their friends around them with issuing these ideas. They began propagations: The caliphate was the right of Ali. Ali and his offspring deserve the caliphate. This right was taken from them wrongfully. Three caliphs, especially Omar, opposed to the will of God by the wrongful seizure of caliphate. We must support Ali in order to obey the will of God When these propagations were accepted by the public, they went further and tried to insert the Belief of Hulul into Islam. They tried to warp the creed of Islam and began spreading a belief contrary to the creed of oneness. The Belief of Hulul was also present in the former religions of Iranians. Therefore, this wrong belief could easily spread among them.
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