Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Devotion and Knowledge
Al-Zumar (The Crowds) Sura 39: Verse 9

"Is one who does devotions throughout the night, prostrating himself and standing, cautious about the next world and hoping for the mercy of his Lord? Say: 'Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?'"

"Devotion" is undertaking the courteous acts of service outwardly and inwardly without slackening or shortcoming, being cautious because of the threatened chastisement and hoping for the promised reward.

This is the attribute of a group who are constantly at God's threshold in the station of service. Their makeup at the time of prayer becomes entirely reverence itself, and they are always burning in remorse because of shame for sin. One of the great ones of the religion said, "You must show reverence for God's commands, for it is not apparent which command brings proximity to God. You must avoid all prohibited things, for it is not apparent which prohibition brings distance from God."

It has been said that putting God's commands into practice is of two sorts, one according to the property of servanthood, the other according to the property of love. The property of love is higher than the property of servanthood, because the lover's constant wish is for the Friend to command a service. Hence his service is all voluntary and nothing of it is coerced. He acknowledges the favours done to him, and he never lays favours on God, nor does he look for recompense.

In contrast, a service that is done because of servanthood has both free choice and coercion. The person is seeking a reward and expecting recompense.

The latter is the station of the worshipers and the common faithful, and the former is the attribute of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The two groups can never be equal. The worshipers are satisfied with the blessings and held back from the Beneficent, but the recognizers have reached the Presence and take ease in contemplating the Friend.

Say: "Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?" Knowledge is three: reported knowledge, inspired knowledge, and knowledge of the Unseen. Reported knowledge is heard by ears, inspired knowledge is heard by hearts, and knowledge of the Unseen is heard by spirits. Reported knowledge comes to outwardness so that the tongue may speak of it, inspired knowledge comes to the heart so that explication may speak of it, and knowledge of the Unseen comes to the spirit so that the present moment may speak of it. Reported knowledge comes from narration, inspired knowledge comes from guidance, and knowledge of the Unseen comes from solicitude.

Concerning reported knowledge, He said, "Know that there is no god but God" [47:19]. Concerning inspired knowledge, He said, "Surely those who were given knowledge before it" [17:107]. Concerning knowledge of the Unseen, He said, "We taught him knowledge from Us" [18:65].

Beyond all these is a knowledge never reached by the Adamite's imagination or grasped by his understanding. It is God's knowledge of Himself in keeping with His reality. God says, "They encompass Him not in knowledge" [20:110].

Compiled From:
"Kashf al-Asrar wa Uddat al-Abrar" - Rashid al-Din Maybudi. pp. 432, 433

From Issue: 1045 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Glorifying God

Al-Bara said: 'When the Prophet wanted to sleep, he placed his hand under his right cheek and said: "My Lord, protect me against Your punishment on the day You bring Your servants back to life".' [Allahumma qini adhabak yawm tabathu Ibadak.] [Nasai, Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi]

This hadith mentions an action and a supplication by the Prophet (peace be upon him) at the time when he went to bed, which is a natural thing we do every day. Since he did not indicate that putting his hand under his right cheek was obligatory or recommended or would achieve a desirable result, it is not a Sunnah. However, if one does it with the intention of emulating the Prophet, believing that whatever the Prophet did was good, one receives a reward for intention, but the act itself does not count as a Sunnah. The supplication, on the other hand, is a Sunnah because it is an appeal to God, and in whatever concerns man's relations with God we should follow the Prophet's lead. It would be obligatory only if the Prophet said so. Since he did not, it remains a Sunnah, although it is not strictly emphasised.

What we should be even more keen to do is outlined in the following hadith where the Prophet makes his recommendation clear, encouraging his followers to observe certain things at certain times.

Abdullah ibn Amr reports that the Prophet said: 'Two practices, if maintained by a Muslim, will ensure his admission into heaven. Although easy, they are maintained only by a few'. People asked: 'What are these, Messenger of God?' The Prophet replied: 'After each prayer, a person should say Allahu akbar ten times; al-hamdu lillah ten times; subhan Allah ten times. That makes up one hundred and fifty phrases he says with his tongue, but they are counted as one thousand five hundred in the balance [of good deeds]'. I saw the Prophet counting them on his fingers. [The Prophet then added]: 'And when one goes to bed, one says the same three phrases to make up a total of one hundred times, which will be counted as one thousand in the balance. Who of you commits two thousand five hundred bad deeds in one day and one night?' People asked: 'Messenger of God! How is it that a person might not maintain them?' He said: 'Satan comes to him during his prayer reminding him of this and that, and so he will not remember to say them'. [Bukhari]

The Prophet's encouragement to say these phrases is very clear. First of all, he tells us that they will get us into heaven if we practise them regularly. Then he explains how, adding them up and multiplying their reward ten times on the basis of the rule that God rewards every good action at least ten times its worth. He then compares this abundant reward with possible bad deeds one may commit. It is highly unlikely that anyone should commit 2,500 bad deeds a day. Hence the reward he gets for such glorification of God is certain to wipe out any punishment he might incur for his bad deeds. Indeed, he will be left with a balance of reward, which accumulates and ensures his admission to heaven. The Prophet then points out what happens with most people to make them negligent of such an easy reward-earning practice. Distraction and thinking about worldly matters get the better of us so that when we finish our prayers we immediately rush to attend to our business, while a minute spent in glorifying and praising God is much better for us.

What do these phrases mean? Allahu akbar means 'God is supreme'. It is an acknowledgement of His supremacy over all beings anywhere in the universe. Al-hamdu lillah is a form of thanksgiving which means 'praise be to God', while subhan Allah means 'limitless is God in His Glory'. Together they represent the form of glorifying God prescribed in Islam. They are the glorifications used by the angels and other creatures of God.

Compiled From:
"Al-Adab al-Mufrad with Full Commentary: A Perfect Code of Manners and Morality" - Adil Salahi

From Issue: 1053 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

Hardening of Hearts

We routinely and rightly condemn the terrorism that kills civilians in the name of God, but we cannot claim the high moral ground if we dismiss the suffering and death of the many thousands of civilians who die in our wars as "collateral damage." Ancient religious mythologies helped people to face up to the dilemma of state violence, but our current nationalist ideologies seem by contrast to promote a retreat into denial or hardening of our hearts. Nothing shows more clearly than a remark of Madeleine Albright's when she was still Bill Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations. She later retracted it, but among people all around the world, it has never been forgotten. In 1996, on CBS's 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl asked her whether the cost of international sanctions against Iraq was justified: "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more than died in Hiroshima ... Is the price worth it?" "I think this is a very hard choice," Albright replied, "but the price, we think the price is worth it."

On October 24, 2012, Mamana Bibi, a sixty-five-year-old woman picking vegetables in her family's large open land in northern Waziristan, Pakistan, was killed by a U.S. drone aircraft. She was not a terrorist but a midwife married to a retired schoolteacher, yet she was blown to pieces in front of her nine young grandchildren. Some of the children have had multiple surgeries that the family could ill afford because they lost all their livestock; the smaller children still scream in terror all night long. We do not know who the real targets were. Yet even though the U.S. government claims to carry out thorough post-strike assessments, it has never apologized, never offered compensation to the family, nor even admitted what happened to the American people. CIA director John O. Brennan had previously claimed that drone strike caused absolutely no civilian casualties; more recently he has admitted otherwise while maintaining that such deaths are extremely rare. Since then, Amnesty International reviewed some forty-five strikes in the region, finding evidence of unlawful civilian deaths, and has reported several strikes that appear to have killed civilians outside the bounds of law. "Bombs create only hatred in the hearts of people. And that hatred and anger breed more terrorism," said Bibi's son. "No one ever asked us who was killed or injured that day. Not the United States or my own government. Nobody has come to investigate nor has anyone been held accountable. Quite simply, nobody seems to care."

We are now living in such an interconnected world that we are all implicated in one another's history and one another's tragedies. As we - quite rightly - condemn those terrorists who kill innocent people, we also have to find a way to acknowledge our relationship with and responsibility for Mamana Bibi, her family, and the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have died or been mutilated in our modern wars simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Compiled From:
"Fields of Blood" - Karen Armstrong, pp. 391, 392

From Issue: 854 [Read original issue]