A further reason for this delay was that without ‘Ali, worldly rule would most probably have caused the Umayyad kings to go completely astray. However, being confronted with ‘Ali and the Prophet’s Family, and having to appear equal to them and to preserve their prestige before the Muslims, all the leaders of the Umayyad dynasty, even if not they themselves,  in any event due to their encouragement  and recommendations, their followers and supporters, worked with all their strength to preserve  and disseminate  the truths  of Islam and belief and  the Qur’anic  decrees. Thus, they produced thousands of punctilious interpreters of the Law, and authorities on Hadith, and saints and purified scholars. Had they not been faced by the strong religiosity, sainthood, and virtuousness of ‘Ali and of the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family, it is possible that the Umayyads would have gone completely astray as happened at the end of their rule, and as did the ‘Abbasids.

I t   m i g h t   a l s o   b e   a s k e d :  “Why did the Islamic caliphate not remain in the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family, since they were the most deserving and fitted for it?”

T h e  A n s w e r : Worldly rule is deceptive, and the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family had been appointed to preserve the decrees of the Qur’an and the truths of Islam. Not to be deceived by power, the one who was to hold it and the caliphate had to be as sinless as a prophet, or as purehearted and unworldly as the Four-Rightly Guided Caliphs, ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz or the Mahdi of the ‘Abbasids. In fact, the caliphate of the Fatimid dynasty, which was founded  in the name of the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family in Egypt, and the rule of the Almohads in Africa, and the Safavid dynast y in Iran showed that worldly rule was not suitable for the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family, for it caused them to neglect their primary duty, the protection of religion and the service of Islam. When, on the other hand, they gave up worldly rule, they served Islam and the Qur’an brilliantly and successfully.

Now see: of the poles of sainthood descended from Hasan, especially the Four Poles [27] and above all ‘Abd al-Qadir Gilani, and the Imams of Husain’s line, especially Zayn al-‘Abidin and Ja‘far al-Sadiq, each became like a spiritual Mahdi, dispelled wrongdoing and spiritual darkness, and spread the light of the Qur’an and the truths of belief. In so doing each showed that he was a true heir of his noble forefather.

------------------------------

[26] -Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, vi, 244; Musnad, iii, 31, 33, 82; Ibn Hibban, Sahih, ix, 46 no: 6898..

[27] The “four poles of sainthood,” namely, ‘Abd al-Qadir Gilani, Ahmad Rufa’i, Ahmad Badawi, and Ibrahim Dasuqi. (Tr.)