In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, on the question of faith and its ensuing commitments, it should be made clear that a believer’s duties and commitments are not arbitrary, occasional or optional. Whenever something is profitable to your own person, whenever you may gain something by pretending to be a believer, then you talk and preach about faith in Islam. But when belief, faith and Islamic commitments do not bring about profits, and I say ‘unjust profits’ for you, you turn your back to all Islamic teachings and Quranic obligations. I call such people ‘unfaithful profit-seekers’; they only think about their worldly gains and are quite ready to sacrifice other people’s interests. In my opinion they are violators of rights and interests of other Muslims.
Such people’s approach is simple! As far as they could gain whatever they like and make some profits through feigning to be believers, they do so. But from the viewpoint of Islam such persons are not believers and the verse quoted clearly says that lack faith. And in our discussions so far about faith and obligations, we concluded that faith devoid of commitments, responsibilities and without fulfilling one’s duties and ‘carrying out good deeds’, according to the Quran, is not true faith indeed. In other words, a subjective, abstract and empty belief is not faith at all.
There is another important point in being faithful: the permanence and comprehensiveness of faith. If one is a true believer and intends to remain so to reap the fruits of being a believer, he ought to always feel responsible vis-à-vis God’s injunctions and orders and feel responsible at all times. The person who is committed to God and is a true servant of God, also believes that all humanity must become servants of God and he does his best in this respect. The faith in the Prophet and ‘witnessing and confirming the Prophethood of the Messenger’, means that we follow the Prophet and tread on his path. Thus, when you so believe and witness, you are most angry and most emotional by observing a trivial incident that is against the Prophet’s manners, but then, when faced with a much greater incident that is absolutely against the Prophet’s teaching and behaviour but involving a lot of risks and hardships, you forget all your commitments and responsibilities! And as the Arabic proverb goes: ‘Against me you are like a roaring lion but when you’re faced with an armed enemy, you behave like an ostrich!’ A faithful Muslim’s commitment cannot be like this.
So we see that the requirements of being a believer are not seasonal, occasional or locational; they are for all times, for all individuals and for all occasions and locations. In this respect, the Quran cites the example of some Jews who used to say that all the Sons of Israel are our dear brethren whom they will always support and defend, but the same brethren, when clashing with one another over certain worldly concern, fought and killed their brothers or took them captives and even sold them at good prices! The Quran truthfully asks these people: “…do you believe in some parts of the Scripture and disbelieve in others?…”. In days of comfort and joy and for personal gains, you seem to be faithful people but when it comes to injunctions of your faith about commitments and obligations, you are forgetful and neglectful! This cannot be because you may not draw lines between verses and commands issued by one single sublime Source!
Imam Baqer, our 5th Imam (AS), in a tradition cited in the Waafi Book also mentioned in the Book ‘Principles of Kaafi’- quotes the Imam as saying that there are such believers who perform their prayers and do fast, actions that are not too difficult to carry out, but they are neglectful of other duties such as ‘Enjoining to do good and prohibiting what is evil and unlawful’ which may bring about troubles and risks. The Imam (AS) does not go on to say whether such people are believers or not, or if they are hypocrites; yet the Quran clearly says that those who are only after their own interests and personal pleasures and do not act upon the commands of their faith, are not believers.
There were people, at the time of the Prophet, who listened to the Prophet’s judgment in certain affairs and obeyed him when the Prophet’s sentence was in their favour, but when they knew that the Prophet’s judgment might go against them, they avoided the Prophet and did not obey the injunctions of their religion. The Quran asks: Did you fear the Prophet’s judgment, did you have doubts in your hearts and were you uncertain of the truthfulness of your religion? On the question of fearing the Prophet’s judgment- which is tantamount to disbelief, the Quran asks them: “…Do they fear that God and His Messenger may unfairly settle their affairs…?!” Therefore, we may conclude that believers are committed to their faith requirements in all affairs of life, at all times and in all problems facing them, not only when their interests so require.
I must again talk about the example of Muawia because he is well known. As you know, whenever his interest dictated he did his prayers, even set up Congregational Friday Prayers and served as the imam of such prayers, he pretended to be a follower of the Prophet and the Quran. He went as far as praising Imam Ali (AS) for high qualities when he met with followers of Imam Ali to deceive them and attract them to himself.
It is widely reported that when meeting Abdullah-Bin-Abbas, he asked him to tell him about Imam Ali’s virtues. Abdullah asked him for a quarter and Muawia said: You’ll be safe and secure to tell about Imam Ali’s virtues and high moral qualities.
The reports say that he did weep after hearing Abdullah’s impressions of Imam Ali (AS)! So you see, whenever necessary he talks about his affections for the Imam. He frequently talks about the Quran and the teachings of Islam because he is an opportunist, populist man whose only goal is to continue his rule and so he does try to attract the favourable attention of the common people. In such circumstances he pretends to be a most faithful Muslim.
Yet under different circumstances, when respecting the injunction of Islam and the Quran do not serve his interests he turns into a most irreligious person; he plunders people’s properties, forgets about social justice, and harms the oppressed and the deprived people in the interest of his own family members and his close courtiers! Islam is for carrying out justice, for raising the living standards of poor people, for raising the consciousness and awareness of ordinary people- which has also been the sublime goals of all divine prophets. Yet these important Islamic values mean nothing to Muawia; his faith lacks all religious commitments.
I spoke about Muawia in order that we could compare ourselves with him. If being a faithful believer means performing some Islamic duties and neglecting other commitments, then Muawia could be a first-rate believer! I have often said that Muawia did perform many Islamic rituals and he was one who did his prayers at the earliest moments and often led the public’s Congregational Prayers. Well, the Muawia sort of faith is easy and comfortable, it raises the believers’ emotions and it is a harmless faith.
But the Faith whose Prophet is, according to the Quran, chosen to educate people and raise their knowledge and awareness is a different faith: “Certainly God has blessed the believers by raising a Messenger from their midst to read His revelations to them, to purify and teach them the Scripture and the Wisdom…”. Well, this Islamic faith is there to advance people, to deepen their insight, to increase their knowledge and wisdom and help them fight against vices, wrong-doings and corrupt actions which the faith forbids. Our Islamic faith fights against anything and anyone that blocks people’s common-sense, consciousness, insight and wisdom; it fights all elements that hinder people from thinking and understanding. This is our faith.
The kind of religion that has been described as ‘the opium of the people’ is a completely different faith than ours. In the actions and behavior of our holy Prophet, our religious leaders and our Islamic teachings, one may not find a single sign of that ‘opium-of-the-people religion’. Islam struggles against unbelief and godlessness and any kind of deviated cult or religion.
Imam Ali (AS), our great Islamic leader says: God has sent His prophets to open up the treasures of thinking and wisdom inside the people. Therefore, anything or any factor that may bury these treasures deeper or does conceal under tons of earth, that is, elements such as prejudices, superstitions, illusions or suppression- are operating against the philosophy of the missions of God’s prophets and it does not matter when and where these elements operate.
Prophethoods have something to do with the wisdom, knowledge and the intellect of the people; the better and higher the people’s wisdom, the more effective the missions of the prophets would be. The prophets tried hard to elevate the thinking power of the people. So all factors, whether in one’s own person or outside it, that would hamper this mental and intellectual growth and block people’s free-thinking and their insights, should be considered as anti-religion. Muawia was a good example: Islam enjoins that Muslims should do away with hunger and poverty, that they should abolish all discrimination among people, that they should not appoint their ruthless friends and relatives to govern people and that they should not lead people to the fire of Hell, but for Muawia such Islamic, Quranic injunctions were of no importance; he never took a step in the direction of enlightening the people about their Islamic teachings.
It is reported that Muawia once told Ibn-Abbas: please stop reading the Quran. Ibn-Abbas said: How on earth should I not read the Quran? Muawia said well, if you read it, then don’t interpret it. Why must I stop interpreting the Quran for the people? Protested Ibn-Abbas. Muawia noticed that what he asked was not at all pleasant because those days people expected such eminent scholars as Ibn-Abbas to explain the verses of the Quran for them. So Muawia changed his request and asked him: Okay, if so, please don’t interpret the Quran the way your family did, especially that of Ali (AS); don’t tell the people what you and Ali understand of the verses of the Quran! It goes without saying that Muawia does not want the general public to really understand the Quran; the less they think and the less they understand, the more beneficial to Muawia!
Thus if you look at Muawia’s record, you’ll see that, apart from all the crimes he committed-including burying some people alive, letting many rut in horrifying prisons, murdering such important, Islamic dignitaries as Hojr-bin Udai Rushaid Hojari and Maytham Tammar – he did commit a crime that more than equaled all other crimes. Let’s explain this a little:
Muawia could greatly advance the newly-established Islamic system during his 20 year-rule but he not only did not preserve the same Islamic system founded before him, he in fact took the society back for many decades. How did he manage this backwardness? Did the riches of the state become less? No, they didn’t. Were the Islamic territories curtailed? No, they didn’t. He managed to lead the Islamic community backward, morally, intellectually, mentally and, in one word, he changed the people’s bright Islamic insight and led them to ignorance and darkness. This was his greatest unforgivable crime, a phenomenon that would not be easily reversed even through some good, proper administration for some twenty years. In fact it took some 3 decades before Umar-bin-Abdulaziz, the just, honest Khalif of the Umayya dynasty came to power, but even he could not do away with the evil heritage that Muawia had left behind! He, however, did not have much time to execute his reforms because those corrupt elements who had become wealthy and powerful under Muawia poisoned him and then killed him at the end of the second year of his rule as the Khalif.
During Muawia’s reign, people were kept in utter ignorance and were to believe in what the government’s publicists used to declare. There are numerous narrations and reports about the ignorance of the people in Syria (then called ‘Shaam’) during the reign of the Umayya dynasty. I have cited some of them in my lectures and sermons in the past. It may be interesting to narrate one of them as a joke:
During the reign if Abdul-Malik Marwaan, Mecca was conquered by one of his commanders called Hajjaaj- bin- Yousof. He was a powerful, competent military leader who dealt most ruthlessly with the Shi’ites. Mecca at this time was ruled by Abdullah Zubair. Hajjaaj finally defeated Zubair and entered the city; he and his soldiers climbed the Mount of Abu-Qubais in Mecca. Hajjaaj wrote a message to Marwaan in a symbolic manner: Thank God we are on top of Abu-Qubais. The Khalif ordered that this message be read to the people from all pulpits in Damascus. But when the preachers read it loudly to the people, they shouted: No, this is not enough, you must put this heretic Abu-Qubais in chains and bring him to us, then we shall believe it! They thought that Abu-Qubais was a man! There are many other reports about the lack of knowledge, insight and understanding among the general public.
Well, who is ultimately responsible for the public’s low level of consciousness. You may say that such eminent people as Shuraib-bin-Haarith, the Judge, Muhammad-bin-Shahab Zohri and Abu-Yousof, the Judge are also responsible; they should have enlightened the people, but they did not, and committed many crimes. I too agree with this. But who created the conditions and who gave the chance to these personalities to carry out what they did? Was it not the Muawia’s un-Islamic system of governing that carried the responsibility for all their atrocities? It is ridiculous that Muawia and his henchmen sometimes talked about Islam and the Quran.
Well, we don’t know how to describe such people as Shuraib, Zohri, Abu Yousof, Mughaira and Zaid-bin-Amr because, according to their records, they sometimes adhered to Islamic principles and some other times they did commit big crimes. Were they faithful persons or heathens?
The Quran is outspoken about them: Such people are not faithful; they are not believers with such shaky, occasional faithfulness. Firm believers are those who act upon a true faith at all times and at all places: “Those are true believers who do good deeds…”. And the promises that God has given: That believers will be victorious, that God’s Hand accompanies the believers or that the laws of nature cooperate with the believers, all these are for the kind of believers as described in the holy Quran. The least benefit we may gain from this discussion is that we’ll find out whether we’re true believers or not. If we notice that our prayers are not responded to, and that we are not blessed by promises God Almighty has given us, then we should realize that we are not true believers.
Now let us go over the verses that were recited before I began my discussion. I try to translate them. Verse 46 says: “We have now sent down plain, enlightening verses and God will guide, whomever He will, to the right path”. Here you notice that Quranic verses are quite enlightening, so those people who do not try to understand the Quran, they deprive themselves of enlightenment. And then we have “God guides whomever He will”, what does this mean? What does the will of God mean? Does that mean that God wants one person to be guided and He does not want another person to be guided?! This means that God favours some people and rejects others! Not at all, this interpretation is not right. The true fact is that God’s will, in ordinary affairs, is not manifested but that we are the objects of usual, natural causes. Thus if you do not try your best in your life and if you block your way into the understanding of the Quran, does it mean that God intends that you don’t understand! No, because you yourself have not decided to make use of all your God-given senses, talents and existing natural causes. God did not will, so I could not decide! No, you enjoy the freedom of deciding for yourself; ‘God did not will it’ means that you did not employ the necessary means God has already provided for you.
Now why do we say that ‘God did not want’ instead of saying that the necessary means were not provided to have results? The answer is that God Almighty is the Creator of all causes and it’s He who wills that causes shall have effects. Let me explain this a little more: say there is this burning fire near me, now if I stretch my hand over it and it burns my finger, did God want it to burn? And if I don’t do this, was it God who didn’t want it to burn? What sort of reasoning is this? Well, God wanted it to burn means that the natural causes for burning were there; what are the natural causes? A fire being at hand, lack of any obstacles to block it, my own will and stretching my hand towards the fire are the reasons. In the second case the natural causes for burning were not there: I did not approach the fire, maybe my hands were wet or the fire was not flaming and other reasons. Now why is it that we attribute everything related to causes to God Almighty? Because He is the ultimate Creator of all causes. I have previously also explained this phrase “man yasha’…” which you come across throughout the Holly Quran; today I made a short reference to the subject.
Then we have: “And they claim ‘we do believe in God and His Messenger and we obey’, yet, after this, a party of them turns away…” Here the Quran is not referring to the disbelievers or to renegades who suddenly put Islam aside and went their own ways. No, the verse is about believers, the ordinary believers who are found among the Muslim community at large, and the Quran says categorically that “…such people are not truly faithful”! Could it be clearer than this? And then the Quran says: “But when they are called upon to God and His Apostle that he may judge between them, lo, some parties of them withdrew…” Under such conditions some believers are not ready to listen to the Prophet’s judgment or his decree.
Apparently the verse is about judgment and jurisprudence but the interpretation of governing and government in the Quran is more comprehensive than that. Then we have: “…but if the right be on their side, they will submissively stride towards him.” You see if the Prophet’s judgment is for them, they obey him, but if he rules against them, they don’t obey him; this means that they do not believe in Islam, in the Quran and in the Prophet. Why is it that when something goes against them, they don’t accept it? The Quran answers this question and says that it is due to one of three causes: is there a sickness in their hearts which may be the sickness of hypocrisy, the sickness of whims and carnal desires or the disease of pride and ignorance; they do have one of these sicknesses inside them. Or “are they harbouring doubts? That means they do not really believe in their faith, if it’s not so, why then do they not obey their religion when it is not beneficial to them, when they face some hardships or may lose something? At such times they reject some injunctions of their faith. The Quranic verse go on: “Or do they fear that God and His Messenger might unfairly settle their affairs”? This kind of feeling is far worse than doubtfulness; this is mere faithlessness, that is, a believer not knowing or believing that God and His Apostle will not be unfair to humanity. The person who thinks that God and His Messenger will be unfair to them, the one who has such fear, is a believer who does not know God and His Prophet and does not approve of them. The verse continuous: “…Nay, nay. In fact these are wrong-doing people themselves.” God never oppresses or is unfair to people; it’s they who are unfair to themselves; they are treacherous to themselves and to other people.
But who are the true believers? The Quran contains an exact, special lexicon; it defines the word believer: “…the sole response by true believers, when they are called to God and His Messenger that he may judge between them is: “we have heard and we obey; these are the people who will be the final winners…”. Yes, they say “we have heard” which does not only mean hearing by the ears, it means that we deeply understand and that we consciously believe; as I said earlier, faith and belief must be based on awareness, knowledge and consciousness.
“We have heard and we obey” is what the true believers say, that is, after our conscious belief, we now obey what God and His Messenger declare. “These are the winners”. The word ‘falaah’ in this verse means: to be successful, to reach the ultimate, desired goal and to gain salvation. Other characteristics of believers are also described in the same verse: “those who are god-fearing and most careful and virtuous about their duties to Him, these are the successful ones.” Being successful also means that they have reached their desired goal.
After this verse (Sura 24, Aya 52) there are two verses that are not related to our today’s discussion, but the following verse (Ayah 55) says: “Allah has promised unto those amongst you who do believe and do good deeds that He will make them masters in the land…”. This again is God’s promise to believers, true believers, committed believers, please pay attention, God says most explicitly that we have promised to the believers that they will be rulers of the earth, that is, your religion, your school of thought and your Islamic ideas will overshadow the whole earth and will tower over all other schools of thought. God further says that your fears and troubles shall turn into safety and security; if you have suffered a lot in the course of history, then you could worship your God at ease and without worries and you will remove all anti-God elements from the face of the earth. Such a great promise has God Almighty given to the truly faithful and committed Muslims.
There are some short-sighted Muslims who claim that all such promises will come about when the invisible Imam (AS) shall reappear. Of course the ultimate manifestation of this promise relates to the reappearance of the Imam, there is no doubt about it, but where in the verse quoted does it say that the realization of God’s promise is only at that time? Which tradition claims this? Why should the meaning of the verse be limited? Didn’t God made his promise good to the faithful at the early stages of Islam? This Quranic verse helped Muslims to enter Medina and people such as Balaal, who did not dare to utter ‘ La Ilaha Illalah’ from fear of the Quraish tribe, proclaimed it most loudly from the tops of minarets. Those who had to bow down in front of some 300 man-made idols and some other human icons and who had been submissive to their carnal, animalistic whims went to Medina to worship God the One in that secure land without any worries or fears; there were no false partners, animate or inanimate, for God Almighty. So you see, this verse was realized there once, it could be realized a thousand other times. But what are the conditions for its realization?
The answer to this question lies in the same verse “God has promised” but to whom has God made this promise? “…to those who do believe and perform good, righteous deeds,” that is, to those who try and act properly according to the requirements of their religion, yes, if so, “we will make them masters in the land.” In this Quran I have in my hand, the translator has made a big mistake: he translates this part of the verse: “we will make you in this land! It means ‘in the Arabian Peninsula’! But the phrase ‘fil-ardh’ means ‘in the earth’ throughout the earth’, not this peninsula! This mistaken translation means that you will never be masters, say in Baghdad, in Persia, in Byzantium, in Andalucía and other spots on the earth!
Anyway, the verse “He will make them masters in the land, just as He made others before them” has a comprehensive meaning. We Muslims sometimes think that believers in God Almighty, since the beginning of human existence, have always been the underdogs whenever they were! And that being a Muslim, being a believer in God and acting as God has ordained are correlatives to being punished, being tortured and being defeated. Such observations are quite the opposite of what the Quran teaches us. One or two years ago I delivered some sermons at Mirza Ja`far School of Theology and there I did elaborate how religion has, since its very inception, been progressing all the time. Religions have never taken a step backward and what some people consider as going back has in fact been progress.
Anyway, what we understand from the Quran is that it declares that the whole earth is yours, governing over it will be yours as it used to be under the rule of some ancient believing rulers. Further in the verse we read: “…and that He will certainly make firm the Faith that He chose for them in truth…” this means that He will help you establish the religion, the school of thought and the way of living; the religion He has chosen for them is the best, and this means: Islam, Islam that embraces all aspects of this life and the next world, the present and the future and the body and the soul; in short, it answers all your needs. The verse continues: “And He will change their fears to peace and safety.”
Well, we may ask: what happens after they are safe and secure? Well, this godly safety and security does not mean that believers could now relax, do nothing, drink tea in cozy places and have fun all the time!
No, this kind of safety and security is for the believers to take steps and long strides towards the final destination of humanity or human perfection and to worship God and obey His injunctions and never bow down to anything or anybody but God Almighty “ and serve no one beside Me” as the verse proclaims. Of course each word in these verses could be the subject of further careful discussions. Anyway, at the end of this verse (Sura 24, Aya 55) we read: “…wicked are they indeed who deny Me after this.” The word ‘faasigh’ used here really means ‘an ungrateful renegade and one who has stepped out of religion.
And now I request Mr. Faatemi, our dear Quran reciter, to read the same verses we talked about today in order that his eloquent, sweet recitation will help the Quranic verses to penetrate your minds and souls, and I do ask all people to stay on and listen carefully to these verse if they don’t really have something urgent to do. And before his recitation, let me say:
O God! Let our hearts be pure in what we say and do make us completely yours,
O God! Let us taste the sweetness of a unitarian life through Muhammad (SA) and his respected progeny,
O God! Remove all polytheistic tendencies from our hearts,
O God! Bless us with your own good; do away with misfortunes, calamities and differences from among all Muslims,
And: O God please engage the enemies of Muslims against one another.
