Page 129 - Arabian Studies (V)
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The Yemeni Poet al-Zubayri 119
A traditional attitude is expressed by al-Mujalli, MS. in the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana on the law of the Zaydi Imams, uncatalogued (the author is
unknown to my Zaydi informants and the vocalisation of his name is
uncertain) 14a, quoting Qur’an, xlviii, 4 and 7, Li-'llahi junudu 'l-sama'
wa-’l-ardi, God’s are the troops of the Heavens and Earth, averring that al-
Zaydiyyah are the ‘troops of the Earth’.
44. The Prophet, himself a rain-maker, withheld rain if the zakat-tax
was not paid (South Arabian hunt, London, 1976, 36; Al-Baladhurl,
Ansab al-Ashraf, ed. Hamldullah, Cairo, 1957, i, 82). Imam Ahmad Was
particularly famed for bringing rain when he came to a place, but the happy
virtue of bringing rain might be attributed to anybody, as they say, 'Fitan
rijl-ah khadra\ So and so’s foot is moist (khadra’ = mubtallahy. If it
rains when one arrives somewhere people say half-jokingly, ‘Your blessing
0barakahy. Cf. M. J. Kister, Extracts from Arabic manuscripts concerning
the Jahiliyyah and early Islamic period, Jerusalem, 1969, 8, K. al-Manaqib
al-Mazidiyyah ... of Abu ’1-Baqa’ Hibatullah, ‘When they fought the
Muslims the Prophet invoked against them (da‘a 'alay-him), saying, “O
God, tread severely on Mudar and send down upon them (rainless) years
like the years of Joseph”. And he prayed (qanata) against them forty days,
invoking (God) against them at each prayer. In consequence drought over
them followed seven successive years until they perished ... Then their
delegations came to him saying, ‘‘O Muhammad, your people have
perished, so invoke God in their favour”’. Of the first Zaydi Imam of the
Yemen the Sirat al-Hadi of al-‘AbbasI, Damascus, 1972, 65, tells us that
Banu ‘Aqil said, ‘Abu ’1-Husayn has never passed through our country but
it rains’, while others say, ‘Rain has come to us through the barakah of
Abu *1-Hasan’.
45. The position is defined by al-Mujalli, MS. cit., 16 a. In the time of
an Imam disposal/administration (tasarruf) in the tithes, zakat, fifth,
treasuries, andy7(r alms (al-as/Tar wa-’l-zakat wa-’l-akhmas wa-buyut al-
mal wa-sadaqat al-fitr) is only by his permission or order. In discussing
sadaqah (ibid, 17 a) he says, *Ma kana ila Rasul Allah ...fa-huwa ila 7-
Irnam ba 'da-hu bi-la 'khtilaf, Whatever is to the Apostle of God pertains
to the Imam after him, without dispute’. The Imam al-Mansur, says al-
Mujalli, stated that if the tithes are paid to some other, without the Imam’s
permission, he is a kafir (infidel) and his territory/house (dar) in the event
of resort to arms ((?) ma'a \l-shawkah) becomes Dar Harb. Killing them,
taking captive their offspring and plundering their properties is licit, as the
Companions did after the Prophet.
The Sirat al-Hadi, op. cit., 174, alludes to the Hashimfs of the earliest
Zaydis in the Yemen as inheriting the Prophet’s position (maqam).
46. Sayyid Ahmad al-Shaml tells me that only the §alat al-Jum‘ah of
the Friday comes into this category. He agrees this is not an early Zaydi
tenet but in late books it is laid down that, with the presence of a just ruler
(al-hakim al-'adil = al-irnam al-'adil), one must attend the Friday prayer.
The Head of the Court of Appeal (Ra’is al-isti’naf) in San‘a’, Zayd al-
Daylami (ob. 1365/1946), for a number of years during the latter days of
Imam Yahya, never attended a Jum‘ah prayer, on the grounds that *La