Nature
and Habits
In respect to prudence,
determination, tolerance, scholarship and valor Caliph Mamoon Rasheed was
superior to all amongst the Banu Abbas dynasty. He used to say, "Amir
Muawiya needed Amr bin Aas and Abdul Malik needed Hajjaj but I needed no one."
He had a predilection to the Shiite way; he felt that the Alawiites deserved
respect and the Caliphate more than all others. That was why he removed his
brother Motamin and made Ali Raza his successor and had his daughter married to
him. He had a mind to vacate his Caliphate and install him as Caliph in his own
presence. However, after the passage of ten years and during the last period of
his Caliphate he changed his mind following the betrayal and rebellion of the
Alawiites. He also wanted to issue instructions that none should remember Amir
Muawiya with respect and he should be declared a wrong doer but he did not do
so at the instance of the people.
He was also very fond of reading the
Quran. During some Ramadan, he finished the Quran once everyday. When he made
Ali Raza his heir-apparent, a few from among Banu Abbas said to him,
"Please don't hand over the Caliphate to the Alawites." Mamoon said,
"During his regime Ali bin Abi Talib had deputed Banu Abbas to govern most
of the provinces. I want to reciprocate and give power and the Caliphate to
their descendants."
When Mamoon provided an opportunity
to the followers of all faiths and religions to give vent to their opinions
openly at Darul Munazirah, the institution that he created to allow free
exchange of thought, academic discussions began to take place in an
unrestrained way. Hair splitting and sophistic techniques more dedicated to
debate than the seeking of truth evolved. The points of debate, which had
little to do with the science of the religion, produced antagonistic parties
over frivolous philosophies. Mamoon was drawn into these debates and became a
participant in this competition. These unrestrained religious debates resulted
in the creation of unnecessary and insignificant problems. There was a debate
about the creation of the Quran. Mamoon was convinced by the school of thought
that maintained that the Quran was created and he began to perpetrate
atrocities on those who did not agree with him. The consequence of that
pressure and oppression was disastrous. The scholars of the opposite points of
view began to oppose him more vehemently and that generated even more rigid
antagonism and prejudice to the extent that even after his death some scholars
of Islam have been greatly agonized on account of this unreal and unnecessary
problem.
Abu Muhammad Yazidi says that he
used to teach Mamoon in his childhood. Once the servants complained to him
saying, "When you go away, he beats the servants and behaves wantonly with
them." Yazidi struck him with his stick seven times. Mamoon was weeping
and wiping his eyes when the Prime Minister Jafar Barmuk appeared while Yazidi
left. Jafar talked to Mamoon until he laughed and then left. Yazidi came back
to him and said, "I was fearing that you would complain to Jafar."
Mamoon said, "Leave Jafar I can not complain to my father for you had
beaten me for my benefit." Yahya bin Aksam says: "One day I was
sleeping in Mamoon Rasheed's room, Mamoon was also asleep. He awakened me
saying, 'Please see if there is something near my feet?' I looked but found
nothing but he was not satisfied. He called the servants. They lighted a lamp
and saw that a snake was sitting under his bed. I said to him, 'you possess the
knowledge of the unseen along with your other merits.' He said I seek refuge in
Allah! What are you saying? The fact is that I just had a dream in which
somebody warned me against the danger of a naked sword. I at once woke up and I
felt that some ugly incident would take place very soon. The bed was the
nearest thing. So I looked into it and the snake was found."
Mohammad bin Mansoor says:
"Mamoon used to say that 'a noble man is he who bears the atrocities
perpetrated against him by his superior and does not persecute him who is
inferior to him.'" Sayeed bin Muslim says: "Mamoon once said, 'If the
criminals come to know how much I love forgiveness, their fear will vanish and
their hearts will be filled with joy.'"
Mamoon said to a criminal, "By
Allah, I shall slay you." He said, "Please be tolerant for softness
is half of forgiveness." Mamoon said, "Now I have sworn an
oath." He said, "If you go to Allah as a violator of an oath, it is
better than to go to Him as a killer." Mamoon forgave him. Abdus Salam bin
Salah says: "One day I was sleeping in Mamoon's room. The lamp was going
out. He found that his servant was asleep. Mamoon left the bed, set the wick
right and went back to sleep." In another incident Mamoon would say,
"Often it happens that I am in the bathroom and the servants abuse and
accuse me. They think that I have not heard them but I hear and forgive them
and never let them know that I have heard them."
One day Mamoon was sailing in a boat
on the Tigris River. There was a curtain hanging separating the compartments on
the boat. On the opposite side were sitting some sailors who did not know that
Mamoon was there. One of them said, "Mamoon must be thinking that I have
love and honor for him in my heart but he does not understand that I have no
love and honor left in my heart for a man who had his own brother killed."
Mamoon began to smile and said, "Friends! Tell me how I can endear myself
to this great man."
Yahya bin Aksam says, "I was
sleeping in Mamoon's room. I was about to fall asleep when Mamoon wanted to
cough. He stuffed his mouth with the lower part of his shirt to prevent making
a disturbance for the other sleepers." He used to say, "To me the
domination of an argument appears to be better than the domination of nature or
power for the latter will vanish with the passing away of nature or power and the
former never meets its end." He used to say, "Love of flattery is bad
for a king. Worse is a judge's narrow heartedness, which precedes the
comprehension of the issue concerned. Still worse is the lack of wisdom on the
part of the legal scholars in the matters of religion. Worse still is the
miserliness of the rich, making fun of the elders, laziness of the youth and
display of cowardice on the battlefield."
Ali bin Abdur Raheem Marwrozi says,
"Mamoon used to say, 'The man is an enemy to his own self who wants the
nearness of the person who likes to be away from him, honors the man who does
not respect him and feels delighted at the praise of a man whom he does not
know.'"
Hudba bin Khalid says, "One day
I was partaking of a meal with Mamoon. When the tablecloth was removed, I began
to pick up the small pieces of food that had fallen on the floor and eat them.
Mamoon said, 'Are you still hungry?' I said, 'I have had my fill but a Hadith
says that one who eats the fallen bits of food after the removal of the
tablecloth will never be poor.' He then gave me 1000 dinars."
Once Haroon Rasheed visited Kufa
after Hajj and requested the presence of the scholars of Hadith from there. All
of them came except Abdullah bin Idris and Isa bin Yunus who refused to come. Haroon
Rasheed sent his two sons Ameen and Mamoon. When they went to Abdullah bin
Idris, he addressed Ameen and narrated a hundred Hadiths to him. Mamoon was
sitting and listening. When he stopped narrating, Mamoon said, "If you
permit me, I can narrate all those Hadith." He granted permission and
Mamoon narrated all the Hadiths quite correctly.
Ibn Idris was stunned by Mamoon's
sharp memory. He said, "I was never stunned into silence by the reply of a
person except once by the inhabitants of Kufa. They came and complained against
the governor of Kufa. I said, 'You lie that governor is very just.' They said,
'Undoubtedly we are liars and Amir al-Muminin is truthful. But why has our city
alone been selected and reserved for his justice. Please send him to some other
city so that, another city should also be benefited from his justice as our
city has been benefited.' I had to say under compulsion, 'Well then, go. I have
dismissed him.'"
Yahya bin Aktham states, "One
night I was sleeping in Mamoon's room, I felt thirst in middle of the night. I
grew restless and began to turn from one side to the other. Mamoon asked me the
reason. I said, 'I am thirsty.' He left his bed, brought water and made me
drink it. I said, 'Why didn't you call a servant?' He said, 'My father heard
from his father and he heard from his grandfather and he heard from Uqba bin
Amir, that the Prophet said, 'The leader of the people is their servant.'"
The most praiseworthy and remarkable
thing about the acts and achievements of Caliph Mamoon Rasheed is the fact that
while nominating his successor he gave proof of his good intention and great
courage and was not trapped by his paternal affection as the Caliphs before him
who continued the injustice of choosing their sons as their successor and thereby
strengthened the curse of hereditary rule on the Islamic Caliphate.
By nominating Imam Ali Raza as his
heir-apparent and depriving the dynasty of the Abbasids he acted freely,
selected the best man for the job in the way adopted by Abu Bakr in making Umar
bin Khattab his successor. However, Mamoon came to know very soon that the
Abbasids would not accept it willingly and it would lead the Islamic world into
trouble by creating disorder and riots. Imam Ali Raza's death nipped Mamoon's
wishes in bud. Then he selected his own brother Abu Ishaq Motasim as his
successor and deprived his own son Abbas of the throne despite the latter's
ability to run the administration and the Caliphate. Since Motasim was more
capable than Abbas in administrative affairs, he selected Motasim and did not
prefer his son. Mamoon's predecessors had continuously committed the fault of
fixing two successors in place of one. Had he followed them, he would have
nominated his own son Abbas and been satisfied that his son would be Caliph
after Motasim but he disliked and rejected this act that had no Islamic
precedent. He is admired for many things but for this deed, he is not
appreciated as much as he deserves.
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