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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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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).

    “Then a soul shall know what it readied for itself” (81-14) 
     

  1. 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.


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