The people of the
“Return”.
Part 1 of 3
Translated from French and based on a series of lectures
given during the holy month of Ramadan 1428H.
بِسمِ
اللهِ الرَّحْمَن الرَّحيم
Introduction
I have
come to realise in the past few years that the perception of
Islam and its faithful Muslims is greatly misunderstood, by not
only the western societies and their many different ideology,
but in fact is greatly misunderstood by our own brethren. Since
this situation saddens me greatly and is perhaps one of the main
factors in many of the adversities we face by the different
societies surrounding us, I have decided to write this brief
study on the issue of our true identity. By the Power and
Guidance of ALLAH (swt) I hope not only to offer a proper
portrait of the essence of the faithful believers in Islam to
these diverse societies, but also to refresh our own minds and
hearts with the true beauty and love of Islam.
This
study is divided into 3 different articles based on lectures
that I have given during the Holy month of Ramadan 1428 AH. The
first part will be a brief study of our ideal and ideology and
knowledge of the heart, in the second part, we will study the
meaning of human being and our lifestyle according to our
Ideology, and finally in the third part, we will make a
comparison of our Ideal and the Ideal of the secular worlds, as
well as how our Ideology is the only effective, progressive and
beneficial system for all mankind.
May the
Creator of all existence and all things, the Most Merciful and
Most Generous Lord; ALLAH (swt) accepts this minute effort by
this very insignificant and wretched slave. I ask that my
readers please forgive me for my errors and shortcomings.
Our Ideal and our Ideology in brief:
While
the subject at hand would surely fill volumes and volumes, I
wish to base my short study and research on one of the many
issues, and the root of my study begins with the following Ayah
of the noble Qur’an:
إنَّا لِلَّهِ وَ إنَّا إلَيهِ رَجِعُونَ
“Indeed we belong to ALLAH, and to Him do we return”.
(Al-Qur’an 2-156)
This
extremely powerful statement contains within it many great
secrets of existence, life, death, Tawheed, etc... In fact all
Muslims agree that this ayah of the Qur’an can easily be used as
our logo and a true statement of who we are. This is the
powerful statement that reflects the inner feelings of the
faithful and is without doubt the bases of their ideology; we
can even say that this is the title of the book found in the
heart of the faithful believer. But before we analyse these
divine words from ALLAH (swt) let us look at the logo of today’s
so-called modern society, so that we can later have better
understanding of the differences between the man of faith and
the man of material.
-
Western civilisation, it’s ideal, its ideology and its
logo:
Today’s
extremely secular and materialistic western civilisation has
very little to offer to someone who seeks to perfect himself and
his society outside of material goals and idle expectations,
which in reality leads mankind to a life of selfishness and
immorality. The loud drum of capitalism is beating out the same
old tune of fanatical individualism, which promotes
self-centredness, disrespect of true freedoms and rights and
promotes a nation of deaf, dumb and blind heathens who live only
for their stomachs and sexual desires. Even the term
‘Human’ has been degraded to mean something less than a
wild beast, yet by changing the meaning of ‘Human’,
they claim to be the leaders of ‘humanism’.
In the
capitalist west God is forgotten, and thousands of manmade gods
are created, painting an ugly picture of an ultra-high tech
society of ignorant halfwits, roaming the earth like zombies,
with very little on their minds and even less in their hearts.
Don’t get me wrong I am not pointing out all of the individuals
in today's so called developed west, I am speaking
in general terms and in particular about their social system and
beliefs, the role of morality in their society has just about
vanished, while their leaders and media speak of saviours of the
human race and enforcers of true human values!
The
Ideal in this kind of society is the “self” and
all of its “lusts”, he is the king and the
overflow of trashy and meaningless “material”
drowning this society in over consumption is his castle. This is
their new trinity (selfishness, lusts, and materialism), these
are their ideals and these are their deities.
“Have you seen him who chooses for his deity his own
lust”.
(Qur’an 24-43). With such deities leading their existence,
we can surely all understand very well how they can be confused
and cling to wrong images of other societies, other
philosophies, other schools of thought and of monotheistic
religion, and certainly their leaders make great efforts to keep
them in that darkness.
The
so-called freedom they cherish is truly an open gate leading to
a life of doom, unhappiness and feeling of despair. I know
because for over 30 years of my existence I was among them as
one of them, I don’t want to use the words “live among
them” because believe me my dear brothers and sisters
that was not a life! Whenever someone steps out of line of their
society that we can call “Selfishism” , their
leaders turn to bribes to buy off rivals, threats to those who
cannot be bought or prison to keep their true opponents away
from anyone’s view, this is freedom in the capitalistic state,
yes indeed it is freedom to fit in or else!!! How can anyone
claim this to be a kind of freedom?
Even
their pseudo opponents are very often nothing else but the same
dread and nothingness dressed up in different clothes, we
recently had the great example of the total failure of Marx and
his Marxism; whose sociology played against his own philosophy,
and created a inhumane life with no ambitions and no human
goals, philosophically placing man on a thrown as a self created
king, then sociologically throwing him into the dirt of the
mucky ground ordering him to be a slave of the machine, what a
silly and illogical system of contrast indeed. We find today
that Islam in its true meaning is the only true alternative to
mankind to re-become humans, and to tread the path that leads to
perfection and purification.
Imam
Ali Ibn Musa Rida (a-s) reported by the golden chain leading
back to Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali Ibn Abi Talib (a-s) this
magnificent and very deep Hadith that is worth to ponder on:
“There are many who are ignorant and make a piece of
clothing to wear but it becomes their burial shroud, and build a
house in which to live but that house will be their burial
place”.
(Uyun Akhbar al-rida, p.556 28-50)
In fact
just the mention of the logo of the western society paints a
perfect portrait of who they are: “The ends justifies
the means” a logo they keep with pride in their
blemished hearts not realising that they are themselves the
reason for all of their unhappiness. Can any society that claims
it is a human society, justify such a logo, perhaps if we were
talking of a pack of starving wolves, we possibly could, but we
are here talking about the so called “developed nations”.
When any society turns to greed and hate as its ideology, the
“self”, “lust” and “material”
as its ideal and its logo is to trample on everything that
stands in its way of filling their bellies and fulfilling their
lusts, then any logical person, religious or secular can see
that such a society is destined to ruin.
“These are they who buy error for the right direction, so
their bargain shall bring no gain, nor are they the followers of
the right direction”.
(The Glorious Qur’an 2-16)
But
what worries me more than all of that and the true reason behind
this article is not only how can we show them our Ideal,
ideology and logo, but even more importantly do we ourselves
know and live by our Ideal, ideology and logo?
-
Islam, it’s ideal, its ideology and its logo:
In the
life of the faithful; mankind is always on a road to perfection
and purification, his Ideal is his God, and he realises not only
how everything comes from his God, but in fact how all returns
to his God also. Unlike the materialists who submit to all that
brings them temporal pleasures, the faithful believers submit
only to God (ALLAH) and nothing or no one else, the faithful
believer accepts that this life is a great test, great mission
and great blessing, which will determine his existence for all
of eternity.
This
transient life is in fact his key to his true existence, he
understands that ALLAH (swt) has created him, and that his
essence is the spirit that ALLAH (swt) breathed into him, he
feels that his human body in this life is his vehicle to help
him strive in his great mission in order to achieve the highest
of positions in the Hereafter, the faithful believer understands
the finality of this life and the infinity of his existence in
the next realm, he feels and absolutely knows without doubt,
that the perfecting and purifying of his soul will free him from
his human body and the realms of this world of material and will
transcend him in his subtle body to the greater realm of
infinity, in order to meet his most Beloved Creator and Lord;
the One; ALLAH (swt), on a day for which he awaits since being
created and for which he strives to obtain throughout all of his
existence.
Imam
Ja’afar Sadiq (a-s) reports in his masterpiece ‘Masbah
Al-Shari’ah’ the following:
“Be like someone who has shed his soul from his body, or
like someone who is attending the great parade on the Day of
Reckoning, not distracting yourself from the obligations which
your Lord has laid on you in His commands and prohibitions, His
promises and His threat. Do not be occupied with yourself rather
than with the duties laid down by your Lord...”
Yes
indeed, the faithful believer lives his true humanness in this
life as a great effort towards perfection and certainly his logo
is:
“Indeed we belong to ALLAH, and to Him do we return”.
(2-156).
Let us take a little time in this article to take a most
beautiful journey towards our only true Reality, let us feel
deep within ourselves who we are, why we are and be proud of
what we are doing, let us in this brief article forget the
burdens and threats pushed upon us, and let us remember and feel
our Islam deep within us, let us hold on to our most Beloved
ALLAH (swt) with tears flowing from our eyes, let us now explore
and share to the world our universal belief of True Love.
“Arise because those who tread the path are all on the
way, constantly they move on toward the dwelling, there, where
there is no memory save that of the Friend (Allah), and the
depressed hearts are all black faced”.
Imam
Ruhullah Khomeini July 15, 1984
“Submit your soul to those who’ll never part, while
there’s still hope don’t wallow in despair, why choose the dark
when there’s sun up there?
Your heart will lead you to the Gnostic way,
Your body drags you to its cell of clay.
So give your heart food from those in accord-seek fortune
from the ones who know their Lord”.
Rumi; the
Masnavi.
The knowledge of the heart:
At this
point and time there are some issues that need our attention,
not only are they vital to us as individuals but also as a
nation and society that is founded on the Great Return. All of
these issues can be put into categories, I have chosen the 3
that we very often seem to forget in our daily lives and
Insha’ALLAH would like to go over them briefly.
-
Freedom of the soul:
An
important issue to start with, is that, in general all logical
societies, the human being strives to reach what is beyond his
simple base desires, this is a faculty that is not found in
animals, this human attribute is one that surely makes him
different from other creatures, and the more the human perfects
himself, the more he gets purified and the more he becomes
purified, the more he wants to strive to reach higher and higher
and this becomes dedication, and when his dedication goes beyond
the realm of this existence and its earthly rewards then he has
entered the realm of faith. The human realm of faith is the
greatest freedom of all freedoms, for it is the freedom of the
soul, and the soul is the true existence of man.
“And that your LORD is the final goal”
(The Glorious Qur’an 53-42).
In the
words of the philosophers mankind's potentiality that must
attain necessary existence, this is mankind ‘raison d’être’ and
his mission and purpose, this is the everyday reality of the
faithful believer, his lifestyle is based on his conviction and
belief of the day of return to his Lord; ALLAH (swt), and it is
this fact that becomes fuel in his great mission and that is the
main source of his true faith. On one hand the faithful believer
knows that his body has a great importance to him, but only for
a certain and determined time and then it will perish, and on
the other hand he understands that his true existence is his
soul for which he dedicates his temporary life in this world to
perfect and that perfection will lead to his purification. This
purification will allow him to become closer and nearer to ALLAH
(swt) and this is his main objective. This is in very simple
terms the human beings travel from darkness towards the Light,
his going from potentiality to necessity, his being fallible to
infallible, and from the realm of finite to the realm of
infinity.
It is
when the human being finally frees himself from the chains of
his finite human body of matter, that his soul becomes free and
enters its subtle body of infinity. But what is more important
for us to understand now is that we must use our human bodies in
order to seek the knowledge to perfect us, to complete our
duties that will purify us and to maximise every second of this
life with that objective in mind, in fact that is the only
happiness in this life and the only guaranty to the faithful for
the happiest existence in the realm of infinite existence. This
explains the station of the people who live actively and
productively in this life and yet they are truly already in the
next realm, the realm of Light. These great faithful believers
are the true Gnostics and the true purified. They are the true
followers of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saww), the glorious
Qur’an and they are guided by their Imams (a-s).
They
don’t only fill their minds with the knowledge about the Imams
(a-s) of the exoteric world, but in fact they live by the Imams'
(a-s) teachings and lifestyle in all ways possible and at all
times. As well, they also follow the great Imam that is found in
them, the esoteric Imam who has a direct link to the exoteric
Imams, the Holy Prophet (saww) and the Miracle of the holy
Qur’an. This reflects in their manners and in their behaviour,
and the root of it all leads to ALLAH (swt), in fact we can
safely say that this is the Sirat-al-Mustaqim (the Straight
Path) of ALLAH (swt). This is the true freedom of the soul and
all of the above factors are vital and necessary for the
faithful believer’s salvation, for the lack or absence of anyone
of them, will lead the human being into impossibility of faith
and impossibility of faith is not an attribute of potentiality,
but an attribute of impossibility, and impossibility is not
quality of the followers of Truth, but is in fact a
characteristic of the followers of falsehood.
-
Active life is a most important part of the Hereafter:
If we
keep the first point in our hearts and minds on a daily basis,
it will become a constant reminder for us of our mission, and
will help us to fight Shaiton and his armies who want us to
forget about our soul and live only for our base desires and
temporal lusts. Now in this our second point; we will see how we
can keep our minds, our hearts and our bodies busy with the
mission and our reason of existence the “Return”.
Activity and being active on the Straight Path is a very
important point for our travel towards ALLAH (swt) and as we
will see very briefly it is like a garden full of change, growth
and in the end a great harvest.
Imam
Ali Ibn Abi Talib (a-s) said:
“Perfect faith is the offspring of perfect action”.
If one
is working towards his return to ALLAH (swt) surely he must take
special precautions and Insha’ALLAH if he does so righteously he
will also go through many great transformations in this life
that will make his death easy, and his return a most beautiful
and great occasion, but let us now look at how.
Individually:
Individually: it is obvious that if the human being keeps
himself busy in his duties and doing deeds. he has very little
time to waste on unnecessary foolishness, he has no time to
think of idle and unimportant things, also when he dedicates his
activities to ALLAH (swt) Path, he develops within himself a
kind of need which slowly overpowers all of his other needs, and
that’s because his potentiality begins to develop and begins to
change all that is important to him, his physical and material
needs, although always existing begin to take a back seat sort
of speak to his need and wanting to be near to his most Beloved
Creator.
Socially:
Socially: when the person adopts an active life and dedicates
himself to the Path of ALLAH (swt), he becomes aware of many
different issues that escaped him before, his love is no longer
only towards himself, but towards his society, this creates in
him a deep awareness of all the creatures and creations of ALLAH
(swt) and stimulates him to love, protect and strive for the
success of his society, not for material purposes but because he
truly feels this social love to be a direct link to the Creator
ALLAH (swt), for one who loves the Creator must also love HIS
(swt) creations. If one day we can be successful in truly
understanding this fact and act upon it, we will develop and
transform into a true Islamic society that is based on Divine
knowledge, Divine reason and Divine love. Not only will this be
the greatest society ever seen on earth, it will also truly be a
Godly society.
Hereafter:
Perhaps
what we most often overlook in the struggle and adversity of
this life is that we are truly architects, engineers and
constructors of our Hereafter in this realm of matter, if this
was not so, this realm of matter would have no purpose and our
existence here would be useless, and since we are all creatures
of the most Wise, the Most knowledgeable, ALLAH (swt), it would
be impossible for us to think for one second that all is for
nothing (We ask ALLAH (swt) to protect us and we seek refuge in
HIM (swt) against such evil and wicked thinking). But let us
elaborate a tiny bit on exactly what is meant by that.
By our
actions, our behaviour, and our manners we are in fact building
our own Paradise or our own Hell fire. We all have Paradise and
Hell fire contained within our spirit and it is by how we choose
to live in this life that will determine our position and place
in the infinite realm of reality (the Hereafter). Each of our
action contains within it a great reward or a grievous
punishment, for that action will appear to us in a true form in
the Hereafter on the day of Judgement and will be a part of our
existence for all of eternity, this fact is proven in the
Glorious Qur’an and in the great Sunna of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad (saww).
-
Knowledge must contain love in order to be accepted by
faith:
In
today’s world of technological advancement, the human being has
lost himself and has forgotten his true humanity, even among
what we call the knowledgeable or intellects, we find more and
more that they are only filing cabinets of theoretical
information with little else to offer. Even in Islam today, an
unfortunate trend has started, where quantity seems to outweigh
the quality, today we are faced with scholars who’s so-called
knowledge is limited to what they learnt in books, they and we
are now in a dangerous position of becoming pseudo knowledgeable
while we turn away from our hearts and let them perish in the
world of material darkness.
“As for the faithless, their patrons are Rebels, who drive
them out of light into darkness”
(2-257)
Today
we can find that the majority of Muslims can easily quote many a
great Hadith or complete Surahs of the Glorious Qur’an, and we
do it with pride and haughtiness, yet very few of us are using
any of it in practice, and even less of us are filling our
harden hearts with the miraculous lessons found in those Ahadith
and Ayats of the Holy Qur’an. We are forgetting the most
important lessons from our Infallibles (a-s) which was the
education of the hearts through piety, deep reflection about our
selves, our salvation and the love of ALLAH (swt). Our Imams
(a-s) have in fact taught us that this kind of self love and
haughtiness is a weakness of ‘AQL. Amir-ul Mu’mineen Ali Ibn Abi
Talib (a-s) said:
“Self infatuation is proof of the weakness of ‘AQL”.
(Al-Kafi; al-Kulayni) True ‘AQL according to our beloved
Infallibles (a-s) is one of the greatest gifts and blessings
given to mankind from ALLAH (swt), and that’s because it belongs
to the knowledge of the heart, and faith cannot be complete
without this kind of knowledge. Imam Ali Ibn Musa al-Rida (a-s)
said:
“‘AQL is a favour from ALLAH, whereas good education is a
quality acquired with difficulty. He who works to achieve a good
education can succeed, while he who works to attain ‘AQL only
increases his ignorance”.
(Al-Kafi; al-Kulayni)
Knowledge without heart is not only useless, but can actually
harm the servants of ALLAH (swt), for without love the human
being is missing out on the reason of purification, one cannot
become perfect on theories alone and one cannot be purified by
empty slogans and loveless words. Many times I have met such
people who seem to think that Islam is a philosophy with
different theories, their Islam is heartless and lacks the
reality and the beauty of true Islam. In their futile efforts of
trying to mix their limited knowledge along with selfish ideas,
popular slogans and materialistic thinking, they in fact try to
make themselves appear as the elite of Islam, and do the outmost
to try and propagate this false message, in fact Islam is
strongly opposed to all such heartless thinking and class
divisions.
In fact
if we look at the lives of all of the truly outstanding people
in history, we always find that they did not achieve their
greatness until they filled their hearts with love. How can one
ever claim to be a faithful believer if his entire existence was
not based on love? How can one be a worshiper without love? Can
one possibly be a sincere faithful believer by knowing only, of
course not, that in itself is totally illogical, for in order to
have faith one must have a very special kind of conviction and
this kind of conviction is not found in knowledge alone,
therefore based on knowledge alone one cannot achieve faith.
Mulla
Sadra (r-a) the master of the philosophers and the man who would
revive and change Islamic philosophy to what it is today, has a
very unique story that fits this subject perfectly. After his
studies in philosophy and other Islamic sciences in Isfahan,
Mulla Sadra taught for some time, however, because of the death
of his father in 1010 AH he returned to his home Shiraz for a
short period, however, since Shiraz of that time had nothing to
offer in the sciences of philosophy, he retired to Kahak a small
village near Qum. There he turned to his heart and to ALLAH
(swt) in purity and in love and he lived as a Gnostic away from
everyone, and reflected and pondered for 7-10 years. When he
returned to his home town Shiraz after being offered a teaching
position there, he arrived there with a new enlightenment and
amazing and deep philosophical theories that no one had ever
seen or heard of before at that time, his pioneering in
philosophy and gnosis would change Islamic philosophy for ever.
It was only when he decided to open his heart to the deep inner
realms of creation and to the Pure Light of ALLAH (swt) would
Mulla Sadra (r-a) be filled with the deep mysteries and
metaphysical truths of existence, which would be the foundation
of his transcendent theosophy. He (r-a), confirms this in his
writings:
“I exerted great effort and devotion consistently and
carefully to study the books of the rational philosophers until
I began to think that I was something. But when my spiritual
insight opened up a little and I looked at my state, I saw
myself... far removed from the knowledge of reality and true
visible realities, which can only be perceived by experience and
ecstasy and are reported in the Glorious Qur’an and the Sunna
concerning the Knowledge of ALLAH, His attributes, His names,
His scriptures, His prophets, and knowledge of the soul and its
states from the grave to the Resurrection...which one can only
know from divine teachings and which can only be revealed by
light of prophecy and Walaya”.
(Tafsir VII, 10)
“ In order actually to attain and comprehend divine
insights and inner truths, it is necessary to acquire lights
from the lamp-niche of the Seal of the Prophecy through the
intermediary of the first of his successors; Ali Ibn Abi Talib
(a-s), the most excellent of his friends and the most noble gate
of the city of knowledge. For only through the seeds of
Sainthood (al-Walaya) and the tree of guidance (al-hidaya) that
divine knowledge and spiritual insights can be disseminated and
expanded in the hearts of those prepared and capable of
receiving their guidance”.
(Hikmat al-Arshiyya)
“The difference between sciences of the people of
ratiocination and the people of true Insight is like the
difference of knowing the meaning of sweetness and actually
tasting it. Or like knowing the meaning of health and sultanate
and being healthy or being a sultan. Thereupon I am convinced
that faith-related realities cannot be learned without the
purification of the heart”.
(The
introduction to the commentary on surah al-Waqa’a)
Here I
conclude this first part with the beautiful words of Sheikh
Sana’i, which truly contains the feeling of love that is needed
in order to be among
“The people of the Return”
may ALLAH (swt) bless you all and peace be upon His Prophet
Muhammad and his holy progeny; Ahlul-Bayt (a-s).
Your heartrending fire
Made me bloom like a rose.
I died at your feet
And returned fast to life.
My inborn freedom
Offered nothing in profit;
But now I am free,
Since becoming Your slave.
Sana’i
The
poor and wretched slave: Ali Ja’afary.