The friend could not distinguish from the foe,
Blindly he played the dice, not knowing where to go.
Your enemy is none but your own self,
Blame not the innocent with false stealth.
This ill-fate seems a fortune in your eyes,
But it strikes like a whip, a sharp demise.
If you do not turn away from this ill gain,
Your spring will turn to autumn’s bane.
The East and West have seen many like you fall,
Severing heads from bodies, kings in thrall.
Neither East nor West remain steadfast in their place,
So how can you, mortal, dream of endless grace?
You boast that from fear, men bow and kneel,
Yet flattery’s fleeting; it’s no real deal.
Whomever people bow to in undue praise,
They feed him poison for future days.
When the worship fades and the flatterer is gone,
He realizes the poison has lingered long.
Blessed is he whose soul is meek and mild,
Woe to the one in arrogance beguiled.
…
What lies flat on the ground escapes the spear,
The one who rises finds wounds to bear.
The ladder of pride leads to lofty air,
Yet all who ascend must beware.
The higher you climb, the greater the fool,
For a harder fall becomes the rule.
This is the branch; its root lies in denial,
When shared with God, it brings no trial.
– Rumi’s Masnavi, Daftar #4, Poem #106, (English Translation)
What we have clearly seen over the past century is that in most authoritarian governments, people don’t earn their positions in society through merit or fairness. Instead, their roles and ranks depend on how much they please and support the ruler. Power is concentrated at the top, and to get there, people often have to harm or step over other innocent people.
In addition, unjust actions by these rulers can only be maintained through force, since reason and logic require strong arguments to convince people. If these leaders or their governance systems had real solutions for their citizens, there wouldn’t be a need for violence, the loss of talented people leaving their homelands, nor the imprisonment of innocent individuals. In these systems, only those who can flatter the rulers or engage in corruption have the power to speak or benefit from the country’s resources.
The lines of poetry above by Rumi explain that in such a system, the higher someone climbs, the more foolish they become because they have to let go of their ability to reason. However, when the system eventually collapses (which it inevitably does), those at the top fall the hardest and eventually suffer the most.
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
