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SEEDS
OF TRUTH 3
In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate
All
praise be to God, and all blessing and peace be upon our master
Muhammad and on all his family and Companions.
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Rather
than welcoming with a smile transient pleasures, one should
so welcome transient ailments. Pleasures past lead one
to sigh with regret, the cry ‘alas!’ being a sign of a
hidden ailment. Ailments past lead one to sigh with relief,
which is news of a hidden joy and a favour to come.
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Forgetting
is a blessing in some ways. It leads one to suffer the
hardships of the present day, and forget the accumulated
store of the hardships past.
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There
are degrees of Divine Favor in every misfortune. Be mindful
of the greater misfortune so as to be thankful for the
favor of the lesser misfortune. Concentrating on the latter
and so exaggerating it only doubles it, making it greater.
Its exaggerated reflection in the heart or its imagination
makes it real and that gives serious trouble to the heart.
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In
social life each man has a window called status through
which he looks out to see others and be seen. If the window
is built higher than his real stature, he tries, through
vanity and giving himself airs, to stretch himself up
to be seen taller than he really is. If the window is
set lower than his real stature, he must bow in humility
in order to look out, to see and be seen. Humility is
the measure of a man’s greatness; just as vanity or conceit
is the measure of a low character.
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The
self-respect which a weak man should wear before a powerful
man becomes, if the powerful man assumes it, self-conceit.
The humility which a powerful man should wear before a
weak man becomes, if assumed by a weak man, self-abasement.
The solemnity of an administrator in his office is dignity,
while his humility in the same place is self-abasement.
The same solemnity in his house is self-conceit, but his
humility there is humility. Forbearance and sacrifice
(of one’s rights) on one’s own account is good and a virtue;
but when done on behalf of others, it is bad and a treason.
An individual may bear patiently with whatever is done
to him personally; but it is impermissible for him to,
on behalf of the nation, bear patiently what is being
done to the nation. Whereas pride and indignation on behalf
of the nation are commendable, on one’s own behalf they
are not.
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Entrusting
an affair to God without, at the outset, taking all the
necessary precautions, and making the necessary arrangements
with regard to it, is laziness. To leave to God achievement
of the desired outcome, having first done all that one
can, to God, is to put one’s trust in God. Contentment
with what one has obtained as a result of all one’s efforts
is a laudable virtue which encourages further efforts
and reinvigorates one’s energy and industry. Contentment
with what one already has is to lack endeavor.
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A
man is free to obey or disobey the commandments of the
Religious Law. He is likewise free to obey or disobey
the Divine Laws of creation and life. While the return
for one’s obedience or disobedience to the former is usually
deferred to the Hereafter, the return for obedience or
disobedience to the latter usually comes in this life.
For example, the reward for patience is success, while
the punishment for indolence is privation. Industry brings
wealth, and steadfastness victory. Any claim to justice
which has not observed equality is a false claim.
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Being
same in rank, age, and similar things causes rivalry and
conflict. Complementarity and proportionateness is the
basis of solidarity. An inferiority complex provokes arrogance.
Weakness of character provokes haughtiness. The origin
of hostility and finding fault is impotence. Curiosity
about something leads one to learn it.
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The
Power which has created everything with a disposition
singular to it has restrained mankind and all the animals,
first of all, by means of their neediness (especially
hunger), and ranked them in a certain hierarchy. It has
also saved the world from disorder and confusion and,
by making neediness a motive for civilization, secured
progress in every field.
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Boredom
schools a person in (fantasies of) indulgence. Despair
leads him into intellectual deviations. Spiritual ignorance,
the darkness of the heart, brings him to distress and
depression.
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When
men become womanish through over-cherishing worldly whims
and fancies, women become mannish through crudity and
authoritarianism.
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If
an attractive woman enters a company of men, sentiments
of display, rivalry and envy are aroused among them. The
unveiling of women, that is, their mixing freely among
strange men, has led to the encouragement in people of
bad morals.
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Pictures
and statues, especially obscene ones, have a significant
part in the present sinfulness and ill-temper of mankind.
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Statues
– which are prohibited by religion – are either an injustice
fixed in stone, or a fantasy personified, or ostentatious
pride monumentally exaggerated.
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If
a man follows the injunctions of Islam, strictly and with
firm belief and complete sincerity, his desire and efforts
to find Islamic solutions to new problems are a tendency
toward perfection. Such desire or efforts on the part
of one who is so indifferent to the Islamic injunctions
as to place himself outside the circle of Islam are a
tendency toward ruin. The right course of action in a
time of ‘tempests and earthquakes’ is not to throw open
the doors to far-fetched efforts to derive ‘new’ laws
from the Qur’an and Sunnah; rather to close the doors
and even shutter the windows against innovations. Those
who are already indifferent to religious duties, free
and easy about whether they do them or not, must not be
rewarded with special dispensations to release them altogether
from those duties. Rather, they should be urged with severe
warnings to do them as best they can.
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The
sphere of being to which we belong bears some resemblance
to a living organism. If it were compressed to the size
of an egg, would it then be a kind of animal? Or if the
sphere of a microbe were to be enlarged to the dimensions
of our sphere, would one be like the other? If the sphere
is living, it has a soul. If the universe were compressed
to the size of a man with its stars forming the elements
of that man’s constitution, would it not be a conscious,
animate being? God has created so many kinds of living
organisms like this.
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There
are two kinds of Shari‘a or Divine Laws. One: the kind
issuing from the Divine Attribute of Speech, which regulate
the deeds and states of man who constitutes the normo-universe.
Two: the kind which, greater in number, govern the creation
and operation of the universe. They issue from the Divine
Attribute of Will and regulate the movement of the universe
which is a macro-human. This second group of laws is wrongly
called nature.
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Angels
constitute a mighty community and convey, represent and
embody the Divine commandments of creation and order,
issuing from Divine Will and called the Laws of Creation
and Order.
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When
you compare the senses of a microscopic creature and those
of a man, you will confront an astounding, mysterious
truth. Man is in the form of the sura Ya Sin; in him is
inscribed the sura Ya Sin.
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Materialism
is a spiritual plague that has infected mankind, as a
Divine punishment, with a sort of terrible fever. So long
as false propaganda and cynicism spread among people,
so too will that plague.
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The
unhappiest of men, who suffers the greatest distress,
is the one with nothing to do. For doing nothing is a
close relative of non-existence, whereas working hard
is the vigour of the body and the awakening of life.
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The
benefits that come from banks, which are houses of usury
and open the doors for usury, go to the unbelievers, especially
to the most unjust and the most dissolute among them.
The harm they bring to the Muslim world can hardly be
denied. They cannot be left alone just because they happen
to benefit a portion of mankind. The unbelievers, especially
those of them who are aggressive and on a war footing
with the Muslims, do not deserve to be respected or defended.
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The
sermons in the Friday prayers are to remind the congregation
about the essentials of Islam, not to expound to them
its abstract, theoretical points. Therefore, the Arabic
phrases in which those essentials are expressed are the
best fitted for this reminding.
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When
the Qur’anic verses are compared with the sayings of the
Prophet, upon him be peace and the blessings of God, it
will be noticed that even the most eloquent of human beings
cannot compete with the eloquence of the Qur’an.
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