In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, in previous sessions we said that God Almighty has, in the Quran, promised many good things to the believers for their happiness and success in this worldly life and in the hereafter. We have already explained dozen of such good news; they are all decisions and categorical promises. Two of those promises were ‘guidance’ and ‘light’ which were already made clear. Two other important factors will be the subject of today’s discussion. Yet I ask you to read the Quran yourselves and find the relevant verses. Those who know Arabic will find them directly and others should try to search for the relevant verses through good translations.
Well, one of these important factors is the final rewards in the next world; it’s one of those rewards. It would be most fruitful if you did try to find out for yourself about those verses of the Quran in which certain rewards for true believers and those who perform good deeds are promised. One of these promises is the fact that believers will have superiority over their enemies. See for yourself, where in the Quran, God promises that you’ll have the upper hand over your adversaries if you have a firm belief and act according to the requirements of your faith. Find such verses and if anyone of you knows one, please say it loud
One among the audience says: “Be not infirm and do not grieve, and you shall gain the upper hand if you believe.”
Yes, that’s one but, as I said, there are other verses in which God promises you victory over your adversaries and that He will empower you to have the upper hand. I read two verses: “God has decreed: I surely shall prevail, Myself and My apostles…”. And the other verse: “And that Our hosts will surely be the winners.” There are plenty more of such verses in the Quran. So please study the Quran carefully; you should not focus on finishing the reading of a whole chapter or a joz’ (one 30th of the Book) but try to understand the Quran. There is a Tradition from the holy Prophet (PBUH) or from an Imam (AS) that it is not important whether you finish reading a whole Sura; it is the deliberation in the Ayas and understanding it deeply that matters. So, read the Quran and find out the Ayas in which God has promised good news to the believers, the good news and promises that are the fundamental elements for human success, happiness and salvation. By this approach, I want you to delve into the holy Quran and find the relevant Ayas yourselves.
Even if I tried my best to the last day of the holy month of Ramadan, I could only explain and interpret some 50 to 60 verses, but the Quran contains some 6236 verses and that’s why I recommend that you must make yourselves more familiar and closer to the Quran. And, as I said earlier, those who know Arabic, should try to make their familiarity more firm and those who don’t, should do their best to learn Arabic as well as find good translations of our holy Book, and when you perform this, find out which verses correspond to the good news and promises by God, which I pointed in this session.
Today I shall explain two more points regarding the promises made in the Quran. But I repeat my request that you to read the Quran whenever you could; don’t leave for after Ramadan, start as from this evening, with the purpose of more and more intimation and familiarity with the Quran and employing its teachings in your behaviour and deeds. After all, the Quran is the everlasting source of our learning, knowledge, education and understanding; whatever makes us happy, successful and prosperous could all come out of the Quran. This does not mean that we should not benefit from the correct and documented Traditions of the holy prophet (SA) and the Imams (AS) and the ‘Nahj-al-Balaagha’. Certainly we ought to benefit from them too alongside the Quran. But the Quran is the word of God and most available to us all .we should try to always carry a small copy of the Quran in our pockets.
Well, I have written down three words in the papers handed out to you; they are ‘certainty, tranquility and safety’ which are almost near- synonyms. I shall express my impression of these words first and then I’ll return to the Quranic verses in this respect and tell you what the Quran teaches us about certainty in the heart and tranquility in the mind and soul; I shall make clear what they exactly mean. What sort of repose, peace of mind and calmness of the heart is meant by the Quran? Does peace of mind and calmness of the soul or the spirit mean that our minds and souls should be devoid of all sorts of dynamism, as when we are half-asleep or semi-conscious? No, the peace of mind and calm of heart mentioned in the Quran are meant to heal and remove all human anxieties, restlessness and temptations in the soul.
Let me cite a couple of examples in this regard to make the matter more clear: imagine two students who are about to take part in an important examination. One of them has studied his lessons deeply and has reviewed them several times; he has also raised the questions and problems in the field with his friends and is now quite ready to take the exam with a clear mind. The second student has hurriedly studied some parts of his lessons and because of this he cannot rely on his memory completely. Now, could we claim that these two students will participate in the exam with an equal spiritual strength! No, not at all. The first student, when entering the examination hall, enjoys a calm heart with no stress or anxiety and he tells himself ‘no matter what questions are asked, I could answer them because I know my lessons in and out. The second student, however, is very anxious, restless and unsure. He feels that he is in a small boat afloat on an ocean, constantly being pulled in different directions by the winds, not knowing what the end will be. The same state of mind could be found in two persons standing in front of a judge in a judicial court. The same thing is true in social activities, in social struggles and throughout history; you could detect these two different states of mind or peace of heart.
And another example I may cite is about two soldiers who step in the battle field with different morale. One is confident of his supply of weapons, his commanders being competent military leaders, aware of the enemy’s weak points and the selfless courage of his comrades; he also knows that support groups are also arranged and ready to come to their assistance when necessary and enters the battle field with such high morale. The second soldier is the one who does not believe in the sufficiency of his weaponry and in the skill and knowledge of his commanders; he sees himself as small and weak in the face of a big, strong enemy; he may feel bare-handed in confrontation with an enemy armed to the teeth. Will these two soldiers be equal in bravery, morality and self-sacrifice?
As I said earlier, these were only examples to make the subject under discussion a little more clear. In fact I want to draw your attention to the essence of trust in oneself and confidence in one’s beliefs and peace of mind. This does not mean that, in the case of the confident soldier, he puts his head on his boots and rests or lights a cigarette! No, he is watchful of all the enemy’s movements and is ready for combat at any moment but he is not anxious, he is not distressed, the future is clear and bright before him, he is not frightened of anything and he is sure that final triumph will be his.
Before discussing the kind of moral and spiritual firmness as described in the Quran, let me say something about a traveller who aims to reach a certain destination. Many factors and motives may hinder his journey; fear is one of these factors which may stop him from continuing his journey: fear of thieves and high-way robbers, fear of wolves and other beasts, fear of sleeplessness and lack of food or finally fear of not reaching his destination. All these elements may shake his resolve.
Another adverse factor is greed and avarice; greedy about what? Greed for a comfortable way of life; the traveller may say to himself: if I do not set out on this journey and not try to reach this perilous destination; I could be at home in the warm bosom of my children and wife and not be in any danger. This is what may happen to an ordinary person, to a weak-minded man who is not ready to endanger his comfort. Or he may be advised: if you don’t choose to walk in the direction of your ideal, such and such a high position will await you. So you see what makes a man hesitate to treat on the path of his ideals. Yes, they are fears and greeds, and if we analyze these two factors in detail, we would come across dozen of factors such as leading an easy life, opportunistic tendencies, profit-seeking, wishing for a sound, healthy end to his affairs and the like.
Now, let’s think of a person who has initially overcome all those temptations and blocking obstacles and has finally set out on his journey. Even then, would those discouraging elements leave him alone?
No, they’re still there in his mind and soul. The traveller must have a strong resolve while he is on the way. Those negative factors are still at work. They make him think of his love for his children, of his wife and his comfortable life before; there are other incentives such as the attraction of wealth, positions and the fact that he may lose his life in the quest of his ideal. Thus he must possess such a very strong will and absolute dedication to his cause that will not allow those factors to shake his determination.
Now what are the qualifications of such a person? One must be an embodiment of the Quranic verse: “O Soul serene, delighting, come to your Lord again, enchanted and enchanting.” You see, those who may travel to the end of the path of God and reach their ideal, are the ones who are absolutely certain and absolutely tranquil along the path, that is, the attraction of faith, the greatest attraction, and love of God drives them on. This greatest of attractions overshadows all other worldly attractions; then all such attractions would be worthless, empty and even ludicrous. As an example, if you throw a stone up on the Himalayas, this great mountain will bring down the stone through its strong gravity but the gravity of this huge mountain is almost zero compared to the gravitational force of the earth, and of course you may extend the comparison to the gigantic gravity of the Sun.
So you may imagine the gravitational force of your faith in God Almighty, that is, once you truly believe in God and His infinite might, there shall be no other force or factor to rival it or make you abandon His glorious path. All those worldly attractions are truly infinitesimally small vis-à-vis your firm faith. There have been many instances of people with weak beliefs, even in the early days of Islam, who were attracted by a small worldly attraction and did go astray from the path of God. I don’t cite any examples regarding such people; you yourselves could read about them in history books.
I now try to make the meanings of the three words more clear. The first is ‘itminaan’ meaning certainty, confidence and trust, in short, it is the certainly in our souls and tranquility of our hearts. This does not mean that our souls and hearts should be motionless or senseless and not to advance to higher stages. This state of calm in your soul means that it is not disturbed by transient, worldly factors and not drawn this way and that way by various attractions; it means that love, belongings, whims and temptations could not dominate it and would not govern it. Then because of its firm faith, it could make a fast journey to the final destination of humanity and the purpose of Creation. This is the true sense of ‘certainty’.
The second word is ‘sukoun’ or ‘sakeena’, roughly meaning ‘tranquility’, ‘spirit of repose’, ‘peace and calm’. The Quran says: “But Allah sent down His sakeena on His Messenger and upon believers…” I think this concept is observed in three or four spots in the Quran. Unfortunately I have not written them down in the two pieces of photocopies you have in your hands. If I wrote down more verses, then it would need more pages and we didn’t have enough papers or means to copy them! What great facilities we have at our disposed in this mosque!
Anyway, one of those verses mentioning ‘sakeena’ is the momentous event of the Battle of Hunain when Muslim warriors were victorious in the first stage of the battle, so they became too proud of themselves and thought that no force on earth could defeat them because they outnumbered the enemies. But then the enemies attacked them, in the rather small valley of Hunain where numbers did not matter, from different sides, and they were about to suffer defeat. And here the Quran says: “But Allah sent down His ‘sakeena’ on His Messenger and upon believers…”. This means that after the Muslims came to their senses, and after left behind their arrogance and were alert again, God Almighty helped them to overcome their enemies.
Another instance when ‘sakeena’ is mentioned, is when the infidels and polytheists of Mecca planned to murder the holy Prophet and the Prophet decided to flee Mecca, go to Medina to form the community of Muslims. The Prophet has powerful ideals and an iron determination to fight the pagans, but he must first reach Medina safely because if the enemies could find him and murder him on the way, none of Prophet’s Islamic ideals would be realized. The Prophet, knowing that the pagans are following him, hides in a small cave and “then God sent down His ‘sakeena’, peace of mind and tranquility upon him…” at those highly sensitive moments of life and death. As you notice, all this means that if you are a true believer with a firm faith, you shall enjoy God-sent calm to face all dangerous conditions.
The third word I meant to explain, is ‘safety and security’. Of course this does not mean ‘social safety or security’ but the spiritual safety of the individual believer. Social security means that all people in a community live in peace, that they enjoy their equal rights and legitimate wants. But the peace of mind and spiritual calm means that the faithful do not have fears, anxieties in their minds and are most firm in their beliefs.
Now we recite some verses of the Quran regarding the spiritual qualities of the faithful: “those who have embraced the Faith, whose hearts are set at rest by God’s remembrance; surely by God’s remembrance the heart is set at rest.” This remembrance of God is the same great source of gravity we have already explained, the greatest attraction that belittles all other worldly attractions in the eyes of the believers. Why has so much emphasis been put on daily prayers? Why is it said that if your ‘salaat’ (prayers) are not approved by God, all your other endeavours would be fruitless? Why is the pilgrimage to Mecca once in your life, fasting once a year, ‘zakaat’ and other religious obligations on special occasions, but ‘salaat’ must be performed every day and five times a day, and if more than that, the better? Why is it so? I have already talked about ‘salaat’ in some of our sessions. Well, the short answer to the afore-mentioned question is: performing prayers is the capsulated remembrance of God, the essence of prayers is the remembrance of God. The Quran itself describes prayers as: “…keep up prayers, for prayers indeed helps you avoid abominations and unlawful, wicked deeds; surely the greatest thing is God’s remembrance…”. As you see prayers do help you avoid wicked things but the remembrance of God is more significant than that, because one of its values is that hearts are at rest vis-à-vis all temptations, anxieties, worldly attractions and other petty whims; this is the real meaning of God’s remembrance.
I repeat: “those who have embraced the Faith and their hearts are at rest with God’s remembrance.” I have also used the words ‘stability’, ‘firmness’ and ‘constancy’ in the copies you have in your hands because, as I have added in brackets, those believers will be guided by God himself. The reason for this is that in the previous verse we quoted the Quran saying: “those only who have faith and do not taint their faith with idol-worship, shall attain protection, for they are already upon the guided terrain.” What guidance? Obviously ‘Guidance of God’. You see that remembrance of God has such tremendous effects and that ‘certainty, firmness and steadfastness’ immensely affect man’s success and prosperity. The believer enjoys this great spiritual superiority. Then we have: “…those who do have faith and do good deeds, are happily blessed and have a fair journey’s end.” This means that they are blessed and happy in this world and their state in the next world will be the finest.
At this juncture I have written down some comments concerning Prophet Abraham and his clan’s disputing with him. The Quran says: “and his clan disputed with him…”. The Quran does not say what they told him but from Abraham’s response to them, we may infer what they said. Abraham asks them: “…have you come to argue with me concerning God, while I am guided by God Himself…”. This means that ‘I have been guided, I am on the right path, I am quite clear about my faith, that is, you could not make me doubt my belief with your godless arguments. According to the Quran, Abraham goes on: “…nay, I have no fear of those mute idols you join with Him, for nothing happens unless Allah be willing…”. What Abraham says is: I fear nothing but God Almighty but those things you join with Him, do not frighten me at all. From this response by Abraham, we may infer that the polytheists had said to Abraham: you must fear our idols, they may ruin you, they could put an end to your life and they could, at least, make your life miserable. This fact becomes clearer when we read what Abraham said next: “… Indeed everything falls within the knowledge of my Lord, will you not ever take heed?!” He means that everything is within the power and knowledge of my Lord, His knowledge of everything is all-extensive, it covers all; thus are you not moved, can’t you go back to your senses, won’t you use your faculty of wisdom?
Then Abraham goes on: “How could I fear your idols? Is it not you who should fear your joining gods and icons as partners unto God without His sanction?!…”. Here we well understand what the whole dispute was about. Abraham says: you should fear greatly. The pagans presumably told Abraham to fear their idols. Shall I fear your lifeless idols or some animate partners you have associated with God Almighty?
Which idols or partners? We may ask. Briefly speaking, we know through history that the infidels and pagans set up all sorts of idols and partners: calves, stones, pieces of wood as well as such persons as Pharaoh and Nimrod. So Abraham says: it’s you fools who should fear God because your deeds lack “…any sanction sent down by Him.” This means that there is no reason or logic behind your wrongful habits. The verse continues: “…so which side is more deserving of safety and security, if you ever comprehend?”. We see what Abraham means. He in fact is saying: I deserve to be spiritually safe and secure because I believe in God and I do love Him. I have been guided by God, so I have no worries; but you poor people, you have no proof and no rational argument for your wrong, deviated deeds. And in the following verse we read: “Those only who have faith and do not taint their faith with idol-worship (iniquity) shall attain safety and protection for they are already upon the guided path.” Well, so much so concerning ‘safety and security’.
Now, in the notes passed to you I have written that the 4th factor is ‘fruitfulness’, which is, the fourth good piece of news given to the believers by God Almighty. This means that when a believer has a clear destination or purpose in mind and is surely hopeful and optimistic about his ultimate goal, and that his endeavors will certainly be fruitful, then he or she takes firmer steps on the way to the goal, is never shaken or worried and knows that his or her deeds and struggles will never be wasted. The believer who knows that each of his steps will bring him closer to the goal, will certainly take faster and firmer steps; but if the believer is in doubt about the fruitfulness of his attempts, he won’t be as steadfast, firm and patient as necessary. We must then know that a true believer is certain that his endeavours will not be wasted.
There are numerous verses in the Quran which declares that the deeds and endeavours of believers shall not be wasted. I give you some examples: “…surely God does not allow a loss of wages to the doers of good.” In the Sura the Cave, we read: “the faithful, who did right and good, must be most certain that We would never let go waste the wage of those who raced after good deeds.” Similar verses, as I said, are numerous in the Quran. I took a glimpse at the copy of the Quran available here and I found some 12 verses in some parts of the Sura the Cow.
Further we may look at the verses in the same Sura concerning the change in the direction of ‘Qibla’. Before quoting the relevant verses, I must say a few words about the history of Qibla. Before the ‘hijra’ of the holy Prophet from Mecca to Medina, the Muslims prayed in the direction of Ghods (Jerusalem) as did the Jews and the Christians but, after some 16 months of their residence in Medina, God’s revelation ordered them to change their Qibla and pray in the direction of Mecca: “…now We assign to you a Qibla that you will best like, you shall turn your face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque, no matter where you are…”. There are some 9 verses in Sura the Cow in this regard which I do not feel necessary to read them now.
Well, one of these verses explains to the Prophet and the believers why this change was brought about. Briefly speaking, it is said that this change was a test of true believers: How far are you ready to abandon what you used to do and to say goodbye to your habits and traditions. Now one may question: How about all those prayers you performed towards Jerusalem? Were they all in vain? No, not at all, they are approved in the sight of God, but the space of time between the two Qiblas was only meant to put you to a divine test.
Now let us read the relevant verses again: “…and the direction of the Qibla, that which you used to turn to, We altered only to distinguish the Messenger’s true adherents from those who turn on their heels…”. This means distinguishing true believers from those who only look at the past, from those who may easily turn away from the faith, and from some quibblers amongst you. This verse goes on: “…this was indeed a hard, momentous that except for those blessed by Allah’s Guidance, for God will never let go this faith of yours to waste; indeed God is Mercifully Most Kind to humankind.” This last sentence is a part of our logical argument ‘God will never let your faith go to waste’, that is, every step you take, every good you perform and every move you make, will advance you towards your goal in the path of spiritual perfection. This verse and many other verses in the Quran give the believers the good news of God’s promise that what you do for God’s sake is not ineffective; it is indeed fruitful. If this state of mind is realized in believers, then walking forward in godly direction of spiritual perfection will become easier and easier everyday. And now I should only mention that in tomorrow’s session we will be discussing the most important question of all, the Unity of God.
