The history of Islam, especially the history of Shiism, is full of great martyrs and assassinated leaders who can be referred to as “Leading Martyrs”. The leading martyrs were firstly from among the Ahl al-Bayt and the Infallible Imams and secondly, those who were martyred in many post-Karbala uprisings such as Tawwabun Uprising, the Uprising of Mukhtar, the Uprisings of Zaydiyya, and the Uprising of Fakhkh. The leading martyrs were not martyred as individuals but as leaders of movements that never stopped struggling against the systems of tyranny and oppression. Now we have to see how these movements continued in a more enthusiastic manner. In response to this issue, three short points can be mentioned:
A) The roots of the survival of the Islamic and Shia movements after the martyrdom of its leaders should be sought in reason and faith, and more importantly in the meaning of life and the nature of death in Shiism. In the bloody Shia movements, death for the cause of God and “martyrdom in the way of God” is not the end but the beginning, and not the transition to the hereafter but a new beginning in this current world. According to Søren Kierkegaard, “Kings end when they die, but when martyrs die their activities begin.” From this point of view, the bigger the martyr and the more epic and even more painful the martyrdom, the more profound, wider, and more lasting his worldly function becomes. Therefore, some civilizational researchers not only consider the life of the characters to be important in the formation of civilization, but also emphasize the impact of their death (such as Socrates, Jesus Christ, and Husayn ibn Ali) in human and civilizational developments. From this point of view, not every character can play the role of macro transformers, rather those characters can leave a fundamental impact on the process of civilizations, which can have an effective impact on social life both in their lifetime and the type of their death. Now, the question is as to why the martyrdom of lofty human beings, rather than causing the defeat of resistance movements, causes transformation and trains new leaders for the movement.
One of the causes of the emergence of new and young leaders is the element of model-making in martyrdom. Basically, after martyrdom, the martyr becomes a role model and a dream and when the martyr becomes a model and aspiration, new wills are activated at the leadership level in the Islamic world, and great motivations get formed for great actions. The desire for martyrdom, and the will to become a martyr, not only creates new leaders but also provides a new philosophy of life and death for those who seek martyrdom. Martyr Sheikh Hossein Ma’an (one of the students of Martyr Sadr and one of the leaders of the Dawah Party of Iraq) had a slogan that “Never dies a person who seeks death”. In a speech of his, Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Shamsuddin emphasized the will to die in the way of God and considered such a will necessary for every member of the Islamic Ummah. Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Asefi also talks about the desire for martyrdom in the discussion of martyrdom and considers such a heartfelt desire to be important and productive in the formation of the dignity and strength of Islam. Now the culture of seeking and welcoming death brings life, honor, and even dignity to the nation of resistance and destroys the foundations of deterioration.
B) The second point is that in the theology of resistance, resistance does not occur externally but internally, and resistance does not arise from matter but from the human spirit. In this approach, resistance is “faith in battle”, which means the inseparability of faith from the action and also the effect of faith in creating constructive waves of life and rapid movements in it. The essence of such faith (especially faith in the unseen and unseen help) is a kind of “faith-based hope” vis-à-vis “secular hope”. Secular hope means hope for the here and now (which can be considered “illusory hope”) as opposed to faith-based and Islamic hope or hope for big and distant horizons, which can be considered “rational hope”. Faith-based hope and attention to the future of the world and the hereafter have caused the resistance movements not to despair from the short-term events and lacunae in the here and now, and continue to remain optimistic about the futures of this world and the next.
C) The last point should be sought in the more or less globalized element of Islam in the past and seriously in the globalized world of Muslims now. Today, not only the resistance and the Ummah of resistance but also the leadership of the resistance has become global. Today, resistance leaders are no longer limited to a specific geography. Lebanese resistance leaders have found a charismatic position for Iranians, just as Iranian resistance leaders have found a charismatic position for Lebanese or Iraqis.
The existence of diverse and numerous leaders, and, of course, coordinated and complementary, makes the possibility of the death of leadership in this space impossible. The globalization of leadership in the Islamic world is not only because of today’s virtual and media world, but the depth of this globalization should be seen in the naturalness, spirituality, and universality of the matter of Vilayah (guardianship) in Islam, which, of course, with the use of modern platforms, the scope of its influence has become much wide and faster. The globalization of resistance and its role as a model for freedom-loving nations will result in the emergence of more people on a global scale and in all parts of the world who seek to avenge the blood of the martyred leaders of the resistance, and a new global movement against oppression and injustice will be formed at the world level, and also new wills emerge for the formation of a just order.
By: Dr. Habibollah Babaei, Associate Professor of Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy
