THE HOLY QURAN – PART 48
IMAM AL-‘ASKARY (A.S.) & THE HOLY QURAN- (SECTION 1)
Imam
Hasan al-‘Askary (as) lived a short life of 28 years. In this short
life, he (as) had to endure great sufferings at the hands of the
Abbasid tyrants. But inspite of all that suffering and confinement
in Samarrah, ‘Iraq, many students benefited from his God gifted
knowledge and later became scholars in their fields. He (as)
discussed with agnostics of that age many times about the existence
of God and the reasons for the necessity of the Prophets and Imams
and many atheists changed their minds and converted to Islam.
One
of those was Ishaq al-Kindi. This man was a great philosopher of
‘Iraq. He collected such verses of Quran whose meanings were
apparently contradictory. He wanted to prove thereby that it was not
the word of Almighty Allah. One day his disciples came to Imam al-‘Askary
(as) who told them,
“Refrain your teacher from such tactics”.
They
said, “We are students, how can we dare to do such things?” Imam
(as) said,
“Alright, you ask him as I instruct you”.
“Yes,
that is possible”, they said. Imam (as) said,
“When he mentions to you such verses that apparently carry
contradictory meanings, you tell him: What would you say if the
speaker of these words (Allah) comes to you and says: What have you
understood is not what I meant to say. The words are Mine and you
ascribe their meanings, what type of logic is it? Did you ever ask
Me what I meant to say through these words? If you never had the
opportunity to ask Me, why do you needlessly ascribe meanings to My
words? You only have the right to invent meanings of your own words
and not for My words. Only he can explain the meanings of My words
whom I have informed”.
The
students heard these statements of the Imam (as) and returned to
their teacher and repeated the same to him. He was absolutely
shocked and said, “Except for the Ahlul-Bayt (as), no one can think
of such a thing. I am sure that Hasan al-‘Askary (as) has told you
all these”. Thereafter Ishaq al-Kindi destroyed all the material he
had collected on this subject.
(Akhlaaq
al-Aimma)
Once
somebody asked Imam Hasan al-‘Askary (as), “Whom does the verse
refer to: ‘Nay! These are clear
communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge’
(29:49)?” Imam (as) replied,
“It refers to us – the Ahlul-bayt”.
(Akhlaaq al-Aimma)
Similarly, someone asked, “What does good in:
‘Whoever brings good, he shall have better
than it’ (27:89) and evil in:
‘And whoever brings evil, these shall be
thrown down on their faces into the fire’ (27:90)
mean?” Imam (as) replied, “Good –
denotes recognition of a divine Imam and his obedience; and Evil –
stands for the denial of Imamate”.
mulla@almahdi.org.uk