In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, yesterday I explained that God Almighty has given the good news to His prophets, who carry out the mission trusted upon them and to all those who call people to truth and to divine religions that He will help them to succeed in this world and to grant them grand rewards in the next world. I also said that we must look at the missions of the prophets as unified, continuous struggles that finally led humanity to mental maturity. They contributed to this maturity and human consciousness as in the example I cited yesterday: different teachers who in some 12 or more classes taught a very young pupil to become a wise, educated grown-up and that some of the teachers who taught him in the primary classes may have died or were killed but this did not stop the pupil’s educational progress.
The divine prophets have been performing their religious tasks throughout the history of mankind, not for a few years as in the case of teachers I mentioned; they have been carrying the heavy burden of guiding humanity and helping mankind to reach the Zenith of cultural, moral progress and have faced many hardships in fulfilling their missions including tortures, persecution and death. After Prophet Noah, numerous divine prophets continued to carry out the mission and so did our holy Prophet who enhanced his predecessors’ struggles so that mankind could constantly march forward. And, as we believe, humanity also awaits the appearance of the very last ambassador of God, our 12th Imam Al-Mehdi (AS). The belief in the coming of this last ambassador in shared by other religions and nations.
The logic behind the success of prophets’ missions does lie in the quality of the continuation or sequence of the Prophets’ work and their sequential oration on monotheism: Moses after Abraham, Jesus after Moses and so on. Thus in this context we notice that Noah was not unsuccessful, Abraham was not frustrated, Zachariah, the Jewish priest who was sawed in two and another prophet who was thrown down into a deep well, were not unsuccessful, because each of them carried out his mission despite all dangers, and their godly work was carried on by the following prophets. All this is a short recap of what I fully explained yesterday.
A second important issue which I only pointed at yesterday is this: Apart from the universal, ultimate success of God’s prophets as I explained, some of them were in fact most successful in their time or in a short time after them in establishing a monotheistic system and society. The most obvious is the case of the holy Prophet of Islam; the formation of a virtuous community after the demise of Moses. Abraham succeeded in creating a divine community, Solomon was able to gather all people of his time around the flag of monotheism in vast regions of the world and the conversion of the whole Roman Empire into Christianity as a result of divine teachings of Jesus. This demonstrates that some prophets did establish divine, monotheistic societies.
Now we may ask ourselves why others did not succeed in their own time? Yes, there were other prophets who did not have the opportunity to reach their goals in their own time. As I said already, Zachariah was cruelly murdered, Prophet John (the Baptist) was beheaded and others were persecuted in different ways. The answer lies in the important principles of firm faith and committed patience: their friends, followers and supporters lacked these absolutely necessary qualities and no prophet could achieve his sublime goal single-handedly. And whenever their followers patiently and faithfully fought on and were not shaken, the prophets did succeed. The prophets of God speak the truth that the world was created on the basis of truth. The prophets are bound to succeed unless the people around them are not ready to accomplish their missions. In verses 171 to 173 of Sura Al-Saaffaat which we recited yesterday, God says: “Surely Our Word already has gone forth to Our servants, the messenger, that they shall certainly be succoured and that Our hosts will surely be the winners”. God thus ordains that the hosts, the warriors and the people who believe in Him, will be the triumphant parties; this is an inviolable injunction. So if you see that some of such seekers after truth were defeated, it proves that those supposedly fighting on the path of God were not true believers and lacked the unshakable faith necessary for overcoming their opponents and in one word, they were not Jundallah (the army of God), because if they did possess the necessary qualities, they would have been victorious according to the Word of God.
Yes, firm believers always fight to the end, they never forsake their leaders and commanders and, even if they think they’re about to fail, they would still continue their struggle. In fact a Quranic verse tells us the same: “And when at length Our messengers despaired, and thought that they were looked upon as liars, Our Help came down to them…”. This shows that some prophets were under such immense pressures, accusations and opposition that they had almost lost hope and that their supporters and followers were also despairing, but because they possessed unshakable beliefs and continued their struggle on the path of God and exactly when the truthful front were thinking that maybe God Almighty has not promised them victory, the Help of God came down and they were triumphant.
Therefore, when we read historical accounts about some personalities such as Zaid-Ibn-Ali, who was shot and killed at the Kufa Mosque or Muhammad-bin-Abdullah known as ‘Nafsi-Zakiya’ who fought Mansour the unjust ruler but was defeated and Ebrahim-Bin- Abdullah, the brother of Nafsi-Zakya and Husain-ibn-Hassani who was killed together with all his followers near Medina. All these incidents should not form a general pattern or universal experience that whenever there is a confrontation between right and wrong, the rightful believers will be defeated. Some people ignorant, of the Quran, suppose this; this is exactly what the oppressors and godless rulers love most, they do encourage this way of thinking that all faithful efforts against them are doomed to fail!
Zaid-Bin-Ali’s failure and murder does not mean that all those seeking truth and justice will always be defeated. No, it means that we are devoted to godly truth and justice, we must do our best and struggle to realize our goal; we can’t believe in the Quran but think the Quran itself will realize our just goal without any effort and struggle on our part! For reaching the goals of truth, justice and virtuosity, many should struggle, many should offer sacrifices; they must be steadfast and patient and ready to face martyrdom. Zaid-Bin-Ali’s struggle was truthful and he managed the rebellion against Husham very well, but many among his followers feared the might of the enemy, some were hoodwinked by the adverse publicity of the Khalif’s henchmen and abandoned him at the most crucial moment of his struggle. So you see, if the followers of a godly leader do the best in their power faithfully, they’ll have the upper hand, if they don’t behave so, they’ll fail. This is a universal reality. There have been many schools of thought in the world that were successful through the ceaseless, faithful sacrifices and struggles of its proponents; some of them were in fact false ideologies, untruthful doctrines and against the natural order of things and against human mature but they were successful due to the facts I mentioned. How come then the movement seeking truth and struggling in the path of God should not embrace victory if their supporters and followers are not morally shaken?
Well, at this point I should start translating and explaining the Quranic verses jotted down in the papers handed to you, but I just remembered one of Imam Ali’s (AS) sermons concerning what we have been discussing, and I think it would help us to fully understand the issue we’re discussing. I don’t quote the original Arabic; I just translate and explain some sentences in this sermon. The Imam (AS) tells us about the way the faithful fought along with the holy Prophet (PBUH) when in some battle-fields they confronted our fathers, sons and uncles who struggled in the path of paganism and polytheism. We never said to ourselves: ‘oh, this is my own brother, father, etc. I shouldn’t kill him’; no, we fought them and killed them mercilessly. Ali (AS) goes on: and when we returned from the battle, we never regretted it and we never said to ourselves: ‘oh, I killed my son or my uncle for the sake of this new religion’; in fact our faith was more strengthened after such confrontations. Anyway, there are more instructive lessons in Ali’s sermon as when Muslim combatants tried to go faster than their comrades to face the enemy; it seemed as a race towards martyrdom. Imam (AS) finally says that when God saw how we fought in His path, He did help us into victory. The Imam gives this sermon when he was the Khalif of the umma many of whom had become lazy, weak, egoistic pleasure-seekers and divorced from the true, Islamic teachings and so he warns them: if we, at the time of the Holy Prophet, acted as you do, I swear to God that Islam would have never flourished.
Now, what we do learn from Imam Ali’s sermon? Ali’s statements are exactly as those of the Prophet and he walked on the same path as his brother, the holy Prophet did. He’s informing us of a great secret, the secret about the advancement of Islam and the triumphs of the faithful Muslims. The secret is: those days on the side of the holy Prophet, we were most patient with burning hearts, we left the comforts of an easy life behind to go to battle-fields, we sacrificed our lives and all material attractions for the sake of God, but today, you people are not ready to take on any tough tasks or to go through any hardships on the path of God; those days we embraced success and today we are backward and hopeless; the reason for this state of affairs is obvious, as obvious as two and two make four.
Now let’s turn to translating and explaining the Quranic verses that contain God’s promises and good news to His prophets and the believers who faithfully follow them. First we read some verses from the Sura Al-Mo’min; “Surely We shall extend Our help to Our apostles and to those who do believe, and We shall do likewise upon the Day when witnesses arise.” Those who know Arabic, do notice that the particles ‘lam’ and ‘inna’ in this verse make God’s promise most emphatic, that is, We will most certainly and undoubtedly support them, not only in this world but also on that Day when witnesses do witness for or against individuals; most interpreters say that ‘the Day’ means ‘the Day of Resurrection’. There are certain narrations attributed to our Imams which extend this divine Help to after the advent of Imam Mahdi (AS); this interpretation, however, is not our concern now.
The verse goes on to say: “…the Day whereon the wrong-doers’ excuses shall be of no use to them…”. When does this happen? “The Day when witnesses arise” and on this Day the world oppressors are absolutely helpless and the excuses for their wrong-doings will not benefit them. There is another verse is Sura Al-An’aam which says: “…upon the Day when certain Signs from God should come, faith will have no benefit for the persons who had no faith before…” After this they’ll only face eternal damnation in Hell.
Anyway, in the Sura Al-Mo’min, before the verses we quoted, the Quran cites the case of Moses to emphasize God’s support for His prophets. In the context of Moses and Pharaoh and what Moses does against Pharaoh’s schemes and violence, God Almighty once again promises to help his prophets. Here the Quran says: “In former times We granted Moses the Guidance, and We made the Children of Israel, be heirs into the Scripture, a Guidance and a Reminder…”. As you see, God grants the Scripture or the Book and divine teachings to Israelites and they kept them for many centuries. This means that God’s prophets were successful, because if ‘taaghoot’ rulers had dominated them completely, they would have done away with all their divine acquisitions and would not allow them to behave according to the teachings of their divine Scripture which was ‘a Guidance and a Reminder’. In the same Sura, immediately after this God addresses our holy Prophet and says: “Therefore have patience, for true is God’s promise.” Why should he be steadfastly patient? Because God’s promise is the absolute truth and he will be definitely helped. This is the same promise by God as mentioned in Sura Al-Saaffaat: “Surely our Word already has gone forth to Our servants, the messengers, that they shall certainly be succoured”; there are many more verses in the Quran indicating the same promise. And what’s the condition for this kind of help from God? If you’re steadfast, if you resist in the face of all opposition and if you never turn back from the holy path of God. God will definitely help you.
Let us now read some verses from the Sura Al-Anbiyaa. I would like to recommend to you to read this Sura over and over again, some of the most excellent considerations about the divine prophets are included in this Sura where God Almighty says repeatedly that His prophets will be succoured and will be met by success: the victory of Moses, the achievement of Abraham and the failure of anti-Abraham evil forces and narrations about Noah, Solomon and others. In all these cases the divine prophets go forward and the forces against the prophetic revolutions, the reactionary elements and those opposing the new ideology of God’s prophets, are utterly defeated and broken down; this is the godly tradition of history.
Well, the Quran says: “Never, before you, have We sent but men, to whom We gave- Our Revelations-Nor did We give them bodies which could dispense with food, nor did they live for good!” God says that He has always sent revelations to His prophets, that they were chosen from among mankind who did eat and walk, that is, He did not send other creatures such as angels and that they lived and died as other men. But “We always fulfilled our promise to them, and we delivered them and whom We willed, and We did put an end to people breaking every bound.” Yes, God saves the faithful and destroys all oppressors and transgressors. Then God Almighty addresses the new umma of Islam and says: “And now We have sent down to you a Book which, for your good, you will understand. What! Aren’t going to use your brains?” All this is meant to increase your knowledge and awareness and to strengthen your gift of wise thinking.
The Quranic verses continue: “Numerous are the guilty habitations that We have broken down, and later, replaced them with other nations.” This verse is really like a happy exciting serenade which shows, beyond any doubts, how divine prophets were successful through God’s help and succor. This divine help is not necessarily through an invisible Hand as some ordinary people imagine. No, this help is rooted by God in the nature of things in this world, that is, if you do struggle relentlessly, you will ultimately be successful.
Yes, God does destroy the societies, civilizations and systems based on discrimination, exploitation, class differences and godlessness. In past history, God says, there are many such societies that He did away with. And the next verse is about the horrendous condition of the oppressors and transgressors when they see God’s scourge coming upon them: “Now, when they felt Our Vengeance coming, lo! They were from it running! Oh, flee not but come back to your luxuries, and to your homes wherein you lived in ease! Perhaps you will be questioned!” This scourge or vengeance could be a catastrophe sent upon them from the sky or it may at the moments of defeat at the hands of the faithful led by their prophets. In both cases under similar circumstances, they start fleeing and leaving behind all their precious belonging, homes and castles in which they satisfied their evil, carnal desires. There is some great sarcasm or cutting irony in these verses about the opponents of God and His prophets; they are asked to return to their previous state of oppressing the people and to answer some probable questions! Finally they say to themselves: “O Woe to us, they wailed and moaned ‘we have been doing wrong indeed; their lamentations came not to an end, until we made them like a corn-field mown, as ashes in extinction.” All the wrong-doers could feel was the awful sorrow about what they had done before we turned them into ‘ashes in extinction’.
Now, we are coming to the end of our discussion today, so please pay particular attention to a few verses I recite which in fact explain the infra-structure of this historical reality. Why should the movement of God’s prophets proceed to be successful and why should the opponents of the prophetic mission be finally defeated? Once again the perfect answer to this question is found in the holy Quran: “For We did not create the Heavens, the earth and all there is between, for Our Own recreation!” God is telling us that He did not create the skies, the earth and all there is between them for no purpose or as playthings! No, the Lord of all universes does not do anything purposelessly or uselessly; He has created everything for rightful, truthful purposes and for reaching certain destinations and certain sublime goals. And humanity as a creation of God Almighty has to proceed on a certain path which is the truthful path of God. This short verse is sufficiently clear for the enlightened believers to understand more than what we notice at the first glance; we do need to contemplate over such verses deeply.
In the next verse we read: “nay, We will hurl the Truth at Falsehood, until the former smites the latter, and lo, it vanishes; but woe to you for falsehood that you utter (against God)”. This means that God Almighty will destroy falsehood through Truth; yes, this truthful option, which lies in the nature of mankind and the cosmos, will ultimately break down falsehood and you’ll see it withering and dying away, but you, oppressors and transgressors, followers of untruth, will be in a sorry state of mind for what you said about God. I am not going to recite the following verses, but you may deliberate on these verses and see how beautifully and simply the Quran goes on about the attributes of God. One must really become more familiar and more intimate with the Quran to enjoy and absorb such delicate, sublime and simple points in it. Then we’ll see how the Quran talks to you, whispers into your ears, advises you and how eloquently but simply inform you about Creation, Truth, and the final defeat of Falsehood. It tells you in simple terms that everything you see or don’t see was created by God, that everything belongs to him and thus His sublime, truthful injunctions and laws should also rule over the lives of mankind. And now to end this discussion, let me make some supplications to the Lord of all there is:
O Lord, help us to be the true followers of Muhammad (PBUH) and his rightful progeny,
O Lord, do not separate us from this holy dynasty,
O Lord, let Muhammad (PBUH) and his truthful progeny be kind and sympathetic to all of us
And: O Lord, pray help us be the followers and practitioners of your holy Quran.
