"And when Allah alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who believe not in the Hereafter are repelled, and when those (whom they worship) beside Him are mentioned, behold! they are glad." [39:45] (according to Marmaduke Pickthal)
The Fifth Infallible: Imam Hussein
#25 of the Forty suggested for memorization:
A man came to the chief of martyrs Imam Hussain (A.S.) and said, "I am a man who commits sin and do not have patience and restraint regarding sins and wrongs so admonish me with a piece of admonition."
Thus he (pbuh) said, "Do five things and commit any sin you may wish. First is that do not eat the sustenance of Allah and do commit any sin you wish. And secondly, get out of the dominion of Allah and do perform any sin you wish and thirdly, seek a place where Allah does not see you and commit any sin you please and fourthly when the angel of death comes to take your soul, repel him from your self and do any sin you may please. And fifthly when Malik (Iblis) makes you enter the fire, DO NOT ENTER the fire and do any sin you please."
Hussein is of course, the grandson of the prophet. Not a paid for representative of the Hindu council*. It is also important to note that part in the Quran about the poets and that some are good and some, not very.
SERMON 17 (Hadrat Ali, pbuh)
About those who sit for dispensation of justice among people but are not fit for it.
Among(1) all the people the most detested before Allah are two persons. One is he who is devoted to his self. So he is deviated from the true path and loves speaking about (foul) innovations and inviting towards wrong path. He is therefore a nuisance for those who are enamoured of him, is himself misled from the guidance of those preceding him, misleads those who follow him in his life or after his death, carries the weight of others' sins and is entangled in his own misdeeds.
The other man is he who has picked up ignorance. He moves among the ignorant, is senseless in the thick of mischief and is blind to the advantages of peace. Those resembling like men have named him scholar but he is not so. He goes out early morning to collect things whose deficiency is better than plenty, till when he has quenched his thirst from polluted water and acquired meaningless things.
He sits among the people as a judge responsible for solving whatever is confusing to the others. If an ambiguous problem is presented before him he manages shabby argument about it of his own accord and passes judgement on its basis. In this way he is entangled in the confusion of doubts as in the spider's web, not knowing whether he was right or wrong. If he is right he fears lest he erred, while if he is wrong he hopes he is right. He is ignorant, wandering astray in ignorance and riding on carriages aimlessly moving in darkness. He did not try to find reality of knowledge. He scatters the traditions as the wind scatters the dry leaves.
By Allah, he is not capable of solving the problems that come to him nor is fit for the position assigned to him. Whatever he does not know he does not regard it worth knowing. He does not realise that what is beyond his reach is within the reach of others. If anything is not clear to him he keeps quiet over it because he knows his own ignorance. Lost lives are crying against his unjust verdicts, and properties (that have been wrongly disposed of) are grumbling against him.
I complain to Allah about persons who live ignorant and die misguided. For them nothing is more worthless than Qur'an if it is recited as it should be recited, nor anything more valuable than the Qur'an if its verses are removed from their places, nor anything more vicious than virtue nor more virtuous than vice.
SERMON 68
Admonishing his companions about careless behaviour Amir al-mu'minin said:
How long shall I accord you consideration that is accorded to camels with hollow hump, or to worn clothes which when stitched on one side give way on the other. Whenever a vanguard force of Syria (ash-Sham) hovers over you, everyone of you shuts his door and hides himself like the lizard in its hole or a badger it its den. By Allah, he whom people like you support must suffer disgrace and he who throws arrows with your support is as if he throws arrows that are broken both at head and tail. By Allah, within the courtyard you are quite numerous but under the banner you are only a few. Certainly, I know what can improve you and how your crookedness can be straightened. But I shall not improve your condition by marring myself. Allah may disgrace your faces and destroy you. You do not understand the right as you understand the wrong and do not crush the wrong as you crush the right.
From the letter to Hassan:
If your kindness or indulgence is going to bring forth cruel results, then severity of strictness is the real kindness.
An accessory of an accomplice who insults you and a friend who has not formed a good opinion of you will not be of any help or use to you.
Do good to your brother when he is bent upon doing harm to you. When he ignores or declines to recognize the kinship, befriend him, go to his help and try to maintain relations. If he is miserly with you and refuses to help you, be generous with him and support him financially. If he is cruel with you, be kind and considerate with him. If he harms you accept his excuses. Behave with him as if he is a master and you are a slave, and he is a benefactor and you are a beneficiary. But be careful that you do not thus behave with undeserving and mean persons.
Advise your friend sincerely and to the best of your ability even though he may not like it.
Every arrow of yours will not hit the bull's eye.
And the last one is certainly, the most accurate.
10 comments:
Now, I do not encourage Islam as a "gematrical" religion. That is a nice to have but definitely, not a cornerstone on which to build one's faith.
It is however useful to look at something a bit out of the ordinary...the built in "mistakes" of the gematrical system:
The Zakat charity is mentioned in 2:43, 83, 110, 177, 277; 4:77, 162; 5:12, 55, 7:156; 9:5, 11, 18, 71; 18:81; 19:13, 31, 55; 21:73; 22:41, 78; 23:4; 24:37, 56; 27:3; 30:39; 31:4; 33:33; 41:7; 58:13; 73:20; and 98:5. These numbers add up to 2395. This total does not quite make it as a multiple of 19; it is up by 1.
The Hajj Pilgrimage occurs in 2:189, 196, 197; 9:3; and 22:27. These numbers add up to 645, and this total does not quite make it as a multiple of 19; it is down by 1.
Thus, Zakat and Hajj, together, give a total of 2395+645 = 3040 = 19x160
Zakat and Hajj are two "exceptions" in the five pillars as some cannot afford either one so it isn't really unusual that a 'mistake' might be built into the system right there.
To make it an "exception" in a field of "no exceptions" to the mathematical curiosities KNOWN to exist in the Quran. Trust me, the Hebrew scholars know more about it that the muslim. If it weren't for a Hebrew scholar, I'd never have bumped into the 19 situation.
To make a long story short though, even when it appears that there is an exception to this mathematical and monstrous miracle of the book, it is actually a signal that not one thing is left out and for anything that is missing, you will find the missing piece in a very logical place.
There are no gaps in it. Even the mistakes aren't mistakes.
The following quotation is taken from STUDIES IN JEWISH MYSTICIM, (Association for Jewish Studies, Cambridge, Mass., Joseph Dan & Frank Talmage, eds., Page 88, 1982). The quotation refers to the work of Rabbi Judah the Pious (12th Century AD):
The people [Jews] in France made it a custom to add [in the morning prayer] the words: "`Ashrei temimei derekh [blessed are those who walk the righteous way]," and our Rabbi, the Pious, of blessed memory, wrote that they were completely and utterly wrong. It is all gross falsehood, because there are only nineteen times that the Holy Name is mentioned [in that portion of the morning prayer]... and similarly you find the word `Elohim nineteen times in the pericope of Ve-'elleh shemot.... Similarly, you find that Israel were called "sons" nineteen times, and there are many other examples. All these sets of nineteen are intricately intertwined, and they contain many secrets and esoteric meanings, which are contained in more than eight large volumes... Furthermore, in this section there are 152 (19x8) words.
And heh, the miracle of Islam IS the book. Nothing more and nothing less. That is probably the hardest thing to digest for such stalwart boneheads. Just a book. Not a flying donkey nor a shower of brimstone. Just a book.
A poet who dismisses the most important aspect of Islam which is called "The Glorious Quran" is truly...off the mark by about a potential infinity of distances.
Missed it completely but you know how it is...even Abu Sina was a bit of a drunkard.
wbIt isn't referred to as "Just the Quran" or "The Mostly Okay Quran"...it is referred unashamedly as:
The GLORIOUS Quran because it is fabulous, infallible and not misleading unless you ahve a heart made out of lead.
*In fact, in terms of "using" the gematria as a cornerstone, that is EXACTLY what divided some of the Hebrew sects in the first place. That is history.
Secondly, the gematria of the Quran cannot be used "predictively" and it is no more than a means of 'validating' results much like one would in a scientific experiment.
I repeat, it is a lovely thing to see it and actually understand it (some of it IS simple but the issue of taxicab numbers and "mansions" in physics are not for the average non mathematical afficionado...which, btw, most poets are not.).
But that old quip was really good...what was it?
The protocols of calicoe.
If I hadn't been such a naive and trusting person, I'd have called it quits then pal.
But you see, I'm good and hope for others and made that as clear as a muslim is allowed to make that to them. Once a declaration of "treaty infringement" is made though...it is not just a war, it is a death match.
I'm a take no hostages kind of person when push comes to shove and that one act was so disingenuous as to be outright stupidity.
Well whatever.
You though, as notoriously ignorant of words as you tend to be, need to look up the meaning of the words "conciliatory" and "obligatory". When it comes to people I actually do care about, conciliatory goes out the window because obligatory is what it is. Obligatory.
Amir al-mu'minin recited the verse:
O' thou man! what hath beguild thee from thy Lord, the Most Gracious One. (Qur'an, 82:6)
Then he said:
The addressee (in this verse) is devoid of argument and his excuse is most deceptive. He is detaining himself in ignorance.
O' man! what has emboldened you to (commit) sins, what had deceived you about your Allah and what has made you satisfied with the destruction of yourself. Is there no cure for your ailment or no awakening from your sleep? Do you not have pity on yourself as you have on others? Generally, when you see anyone exposed to the heat of the sun you cover him with shade, or if you see anyone afflicted with grief that pains his body you weep out of pity for him. What has then made you patient over your own disease, what has made you firm in your own afflictions, and what has consoled you from weeping over yourself although your life is the most precious of all lives to you, and why does not the fear of an ailment that may befall you in the night keep you wakeful although you lie on the way to Allah's wrath due to your sins?
You should cure the disease of languor in your heart by determination, and the sleep of neglectfulness in your eyes by wakefulness. Be obedient to Allah, and love His remembrance, and picture to yourself that you are running away while He is approaching you. He is calling you to His forgiveness and concealing your faults with His kindness, while you are fleeing away from Him towards others. Certainly, Great is Allah the powerful, Who is so generous, and how humble and weak are you and still so bold to commit His disobedience although you live in His protection and undergo changes of life in the expanse of His kindness. He does not refuse you His kindness and does not remove His protection from you. In fact, you have not been without His kindness even for a moment, whether it be a favour that He conferred upon you or a sin of yours that He has concealed or a calamity that He has warded off from you. What is your idea about Him if you had obeyed Him? By Allah, if this had been the case with two persons equal in power and matching in might (one being inattentive and the other showering favours upon you) then you would have been the first to adjudge yourself to be of bad behaviour and evil deeds.
I truthfully say that the world has not deceived you but you have had yourself deceived by it. The world had opened to you the curtains and divulged to you (everything) equally. And in all that it foretold you about the troubles befalling your bodies and the decay in your power, it has been too true and faithful in promise, and did not speak a lie to you or deceive you. There are many who advise you about it but they are blamed, and speak the truth about it but they are opposed. If you understand the world by means of dilapidated houses and forlorn abodes, then with your good understanding and far reaching power of drawing lessons you will find it like one who is kind over you and cautious about you. It is good abode for him who does not like it as an abode, and a good place of stay for him who does not regard it a permanent home for stay.
Only those who run away from this world today will be regarded virtuous tomorrow. When the earthquake occurs, the Day of Resurrection approaches with all its severities, the people of every worshipping place cling to it, all the devotees cling to the object of their devotion and all the followers cling to their leader. Then on that day even the opening of an eye in the air and the sound of a footstep on the ground will be assigned its due through His Justice and His Equity. On that day many an argument will prove void and a contention for excuses will stand rejected.
Therefore, you should now adopt for yourself the course with which your excuse may hold good and your plea may be proved. Take from the transient things of this world that which will stay for you (in the next world), provide for your journey, keep (your) gaze on the brightness of deliverance and keep ready the saddles (for setting off).
So, we want to listen to a 15th century poet do we?
And what then?
Problem is, you confuse poetry with poets and muslims with Islam.
A poet of this type was aided by the rhetorical poetry of actual advice and built on it by whatever means he found.
It is called, in Islam, innovation.
Fact is: you cannot blend soul and Creator. That is pure nonsense but only a well versed person who has studied the actual books can tell you that. If you have not armed yourself with careful study (takes a while mind you) then you will easily accept whatever any Tom, Dick or Harry tells you.
How it is. And clearly, there are those who refuse to study.
I always tell my kids (fearing that I've not been able to "coerce" them as is my actual right but against my principles and as I see it, unwise in any circumstance, impossible even):
If you cannot have "faith" then have faith in someone who does. Someone who is willing to face outright mockery in order to tell you the truth.
And believe me, children can be the worst of supporters but in the end, as I have found, they will come around if you stick to your guns.
And you see, in this world, it is the single most important problem:
Children are let loose and not cautioned and not curtailed in ANY way, let alone a firm way.
There is however, a mid ground that takes care of the parent's soul as well as "prepares" the soul of the child for that which WILL come to pass.
What will come to pass for each individual?
A lot of things not the least of which is death. Along the way however the child may see many things.
Right now, my son is seeing many things including girls whose only hope is to give a boy something he thinks he wants.
It is pretty tough guiding a kid through something like that you know. And there are no guarantees of hitting a bull's eye everytime but even less chance of hitting one when one is operating from "no system" or a "partial system" or hey, a "blended system" comprised of cults and poet leaders.
The prophet uttered poetry but it is cautioned, he WAS NOT,
...a poet.
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