Source: http://alhaydari.com/ar/2017/08/61061/

I want to now discuss something else, and that is whether or not any of our scholars from the school of the Ahlulbayt have come to a similar conclusion to that which we have taken on this matter. This isn’t to justify this view, as I have mentioned repeatedly that we should look at the value of the evidence alone and there is no (epistemic) value in the words of the scholars. But rather this is to see whether they also arrived at a similar idea from examining the traditions, rational concepts and legal practice in respect to the salvation of different religions and nations.

Today I want to look at the words of Faydh Kāshāni. As you know, Kāshāni was one of our biggest scholars and has written a number of different works such as Tafsīr al-Sāfī and Asfā. I have taken his views from a book ^[1] which has been compiled and has researched all the different discussions related to him, it’s a rather big one with roughly a thousand or so pages and it is written in Farsi. On page 126 the following is narrated from Kāshāni:

 من أحب أحداً لاعتقاد الخير فيه أو ابغض أحداً لاعتقاد الشر فيه يؤجر على حبه وبغضه وان اخطأ في اعتقاده

Whoever loves a person on the basis that the person being loved was good, or hates a person on the basis that the person being hated was evil, he shall be rewarded for his love and hatred even if he was incorrect in his belief (as to them being good or bad). ^[2]

How strange! So a person can love the first Caliph Abu Bakr, or the second Caliph Umar, or even Banῡ Umayyah, believing that they were people who did good, yet in reality, their beliefs of those people are completely wrong (and on the contrary they were bad people), will they be rewarded or not? Yes, they will be rewarded because their love (or hatred) for them was not done specifically for that person but rather out of love for the goodness they were believed to have embodied. After that, Kāshānī brings a tradition from the 5^th Imām, al-Bāqir to support this view:

لو أن رجلاً أحب رجلاً لله لأثابه الله على حبه إياه وإن كان المحبوب في علم الله من أهل النار

If a person loves someone for the sake of Allah, Allah will reward him for his love even if the person being loved was in God’s knowledge to be from the people of Hell. ^[3]

On this basis can we really say that salvation is limited only to Muslims or does it include non-Muslims also? Is salvation limited to Shi’ī only does it include other sects also? What about nations and different cultures? The tradition of the 5^th Imām continues:

و لو أنّ رجلا أبغض رجلا للَّه لأثابه اللّه على بغضه إيّاه و إن كان المبغض في علم اللّه من أهل الجنّة

And if a person hates someone for the sake of Allah, Allah will reward him for his hatred even if the person being hated was in God’s knowledge to be from the people of Paradise ^[4].

So then the Khawārij and the Nawāsib, those who hated Imam Alī in their belief that he was hated by God, while we know that Alī was from the people of Paradise, will they be rewarded for their hatred? Faydh Kāshāni (as supported by this tradition) said yes they would be. ^[5] Look and see how he continues and explains this:

و لا يخفى أنّ الحبّ و البغض من هذه الجهة أعني جهة طاعة اللّه و معصيته يرجع في الحقيقة إلى محبّة المقام و الحقيقة دون الشخص. خصوصا إذا لم ير المحبّ و المبغض محبوبه و مبغوضه و إنّما سمع بصفاته و أخلاقه

It is clear that the reason a person loves and hates [an individual] is out of their obedience and disobedience to God, and in reality, this relates back to the love for the ideal [being embodied] and not the specific person [being loved or hated]. Specifically, when they are not looking at the person who they love or hate in and of themselves, but rather they [love them because they] have heard about their ethics and characteristics.^[6]

This person loved so and so because he understood that person to be a pious person and a walī of Allah. So then, all the Muslims who love the Companions of the Prophet on the basis that they were just, good and virtuous people, will they be rewarded by Allah for loving them (as Faydh Kāshānī says) even though we know that some of the Companions are from the people of Fire as the tradition in Sahīh Bukhāri mentions. From here Faydh Kāshānī takes an important conclusion:

 ومن هنا نحكم بنجاة كثير من المخالفين الواقعين في عصر خفاء امام الحق

And from here we have ruled that many non-Shi’ī in the time of the Occultation of the True Imam shall gain salvation. ^[7]

After this he quotes a tradition from Imām Hussayn:

فمن أخذ بما عليه أهل القبلة الذي ليس فيه اختلاف، ورد علم ما اختلفوا فيه إلى الله، سلم ونجا به من النار، ودخل الجنة

Whosoever acts in accordance to what the Muslim are on in which there is no difference, and refers the matters of difference to Allah, he shall succeed and reach salvation from the Fire and enter Paradise. ^[8]

So whoever acts in what all the Muslims agree on and leaves to Allah that which they differ shall be saved. Similarly, he mentions another tradition to this effect:

 رجل آخذ بما لا يختلف فيه ورد علم كل ما أشكل عليه إلى الله ولا يأتم بنا ولا يعادينا ولا يعرف حقنا فنحن نرجوا أن يغفر الله له ويدخله الجنة 

A person who acts upon which there is no differences and leaves that which is differed upon to Allah, and does not fight us, nor show enmity to us nor does he recognise us, we pray for God to forgive him and enter him into Paradise. ^[9]

From here it is clear to see that Faydh Kāshānī has taken the exact same position that we have, that a person who loves someone out of love for the good he believes him to embody, even though this may be incorrect, he shall still be rewarded. Although I should point out as we have elaborated on this many times previously that this belief should be based on strong proof and not just a baseless dream.

References

1 – Faydh Pajῡhī, Majmῡ’eh Maqālatī dar Barrasī Arā, Ahvāl va Athār Faydh Kāshāni by Shahnāz Shāyānfar

2 – Al-Mohajat al-Baydhā by Mullah Mohsin Faydh Kāshāni, v. 4, p. 374.

3 – Al-Kafi by Shaykh al-Kulayni, v. 2, p. 127, Al-Mahāsin by Al-Barqi v. 1, p. 265, Amāli by Shaykh Tῡsi, p. 622

4 – ibid

5 – Syed Kamāl has previously mentioned that one of the conditions for salvation is not showing hatred for the Imām (refer to lesson 11), whereas here Syed Kamāl is alluding to the fact that Faydh Kāshāni does not include this condition. However, Kāshāni actually appears to be silent on the specific issue of Khawārij and the Nawāsib at the time of the Imām and it would not be far-fetched to believe that he would have considered them condemned (like Syed Kamāl does in lesson 11) as the evidence would have been established for them at the time of the Imām. The exception to this could be those individuals from the Khawārij and the Nawāsib who were mere followers of scholars of these groups and only displayed hatred because of what they believed to be true, rather than personal animosity and enmity against the Imām. Also the Imām’s own words in a sermon where he asks his followers to not fight the Khawārij after him are worthy of contemplation: https://www.al-islam.org/nahjul-balagha-part-1-sermons/sermon-61-do-not-fight-khawarij-after-me

6 – Al-Mohajat al-Baydhā by Mullah Mohsin Faydh Kāshāni, v. 4, p. 374

7 – Faydh Pajῡhī, Majmῡ’eh Maqālatī dar Barrasī Arā, Ahvāl va Athār Faydh Kāshāni by Shahnāz Shāyānfar, p. 126

8 – Al-Ihtijāj of Tabarsī, v. 2, p.6

9 – ibid, p. 8