Ep 15 — The Psychological Effects of Tawhid

Session 13: The Psychological Effects of Tawhid. delivered Tuesday, 9 Mehr 1353 / 14 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat Al 'Imran (3:172-173). Those who responded to God and the Messenger after the wound had befallen them — for those of them who did good and were mindful of God there is a great reward. Those to whom people said, 'The people have gathered against you, so fear them,' yet it only increased them in faith, and they said, 'God is sufficient for us, and how excellent a Guardian He is.' We have taken up a number of discussions about the effects that tawhid produces within the fabric of society — the shape it gives to human community and to a monotheistic community. There are, of course, still other discussions on this subject, but for various reasons we are setting aside continuing with them. Here is the most important reason. Take the effect of tawhid and of the monotheistic outlook upon the financial affairs of a tawhid-based society — one of the important planks of the tawhid "resolution." That topic, of course, requires a great deal of discussion. But to derive this matter from the verses of the Qur'an is a somewhat exacting and delicate task, and it is not a subject suited to public sessions and general gatherings. True, the Qur'an does show the monotheistic outlook on worldly wealth, in the expression and give them of the wealth of God which He has given you — that is, give of the wealth of God, the wealth that God has given you and which is God's wealth; meaning give it to the needy and to cases of need and want. These points do exist. But to take the totality of the verses dealing with wealth and, in light of the monotheistic outlook, draw inferences and make use of them, is a task that belongs to more scholarly settings. It is delicate, it is exacting, and it is not really suitable for us to write out on these mimeographed pages, hand them to people, and then sit here for an hour and debate it. So we set those discussions aside. The other reason was this: we have more pressing discussions to undertake regarding the doctrinal and ideological foundations of Islam. We still have material to cover, and it is necessary that — if life and opportunity permit — we bring these discussions to a conclusion by the end of the month of Ramadan, or at least bring them to some point of completion. And it is obvious that if we wished to proceed in this manner and discuss every chapter and every issue, we would not reach the destination that is intended. So that is the second reason. All in all, these were the reasons that we set aside continuing with the discussion of the social effects of tawhid. Today our discussion is about tawhid, but it bears a relationship to our earliest topics — the ones we discussed concerning faith, the effects of faith, and the glad tidings given to the believers. Faith, as we said back then, means precisely that state of action-producing, commitment-creating belief. Action-producing belief — and of course we said that it must arise out of awareness, that it must not be blind, bare, and divorced from righteous action. These were the discussions we conducted earlier. Belief in tawhid is a kind of faith. It is a conscious faith for the aware monotheist; it is an action-producing, commitment-engendering faith. The commitment that tawhid places upon the shoulders of the monotheist is the greatest of commitments, the heaviest of commitments, the most consequential of commitments among all Islamic and religious beliefs. The commitment of tawhid, on the part of a monotheist, is in truth summed up in the commitment to build a monotheistic world. The commitment of tawhid, from the standpoint of the monotheist and for the monotheist, consists in the commitment to wipe away all the traces of polytheism. These are the commitments of tawhid. Let me here point out something to the friends and brothers who have a little familiarity with the Arabic language. The word tawhid belongs to the taf'il form (the causative/intensive verbal pattern). Ask any seminary student what tawhid means, what its literal meaning is, and he will say: "to make one." Tawhid comes from wahdat (oneness), from the root of oneness, from the stem of unity — that is, to be one. Tawhid, in its taf'il form — as we seminary students put it — means "to make one." Tawhid means to make one, to render unified, to make into a single thing. What does that mean? It means turning a multiplicity of gods into one single God; turning a non-monotheistic society into a monotheistic one; making the polytheist's mind and the polytheist's heart into a monotheist's mind and a monotheist's heart. Tawhid — making-one — is entirely commitment. There is doing in it, there is work in it; the very word tawhid demands and entails this. And this is a point such that attention to it causes a special clear-sightedness regarding tawhid to come into being within a person. Well then: belief in tawhid is a faith of this magnitude and grandeur, a commitment of this weight, this decisiveness, this determinativeness. Whichever of the other beliefs you consider — Islamic, religious, or any of the non-Islamic social beliefs — its commitment is not of this weight and this grandeur. Removing poverty from society, for instance, is a kind of commitment; or moderating wealth in any society is a kind of commitment that a given school of thought may have undertaken. Abolishing war is a commitment that a given school may have placed upon its own shoulders, and a people, by inclining toward that school, by adhering to that school, may have transferred that commitment to themselves. All this is correct. But take tawhid in its proper meaning, its Islamic meaning — not in its superstitious, lazy-minded sense, but in its true and correct sense. If we conceive of tawhid as making God one, bringing into being divine governance, a divine society, divine law, a divine order, then it encompasses all of those commitments that I mentioned, which one school and another may possess, and beyond them other commitments as well. See how heavy the commitment of tawhid is. Well then: so this is a faith; it is conscious; it is accompanied by commitment; its commitment is heavier than the commitment of all foundations of belief, religious and non-religious, and it is more decisive, more comprehensive, and more all-embracing. This is tawhid. If tawhid carries this meaning and is a sound, real faith, then it is fitting that we examine and see what the effect of this faith, the effect of this action-producing belief, will be upon the psyche of the believer, and what it ought to be. This is an independent question. Consider the one who has come to believe in tawhid — who has come to believe that God is one in every corner and nook and in the various domains of human life, just as God is one in all the corners of the world of creation. When a person attains this belief, what sorts of effects come into being in his spirit? The benefit of this discussion is twofold. One is that we will become a little more acquainted with tawhid. We will understand what kind of spiritual and psychological instruction tawhid means. If at some point someone draws a numbing, sedative inference from tawhid, we can say: Sir, this is wrong; the effect of tawhid is not what you say; what I say — that is what it is. So we come to know tawhid: this is the first benefit. The second benefit is that we come to know ourselves — whether we are monotheists or not monotheists. It is a touchstone for recognizing the substance of tawhid within one's own heart. How am I to know that I am a monotheist? How am I to know that this faith has, within my spirit, in the depths of my being, taken effect and penetrated? Once I have learned what the psychological effect of tawhid is like — once I have understood what definite effects this medicine produces in one's being — then I can put it to the test. I look and see whether these effects are present or absent. From that I will know whether I took the medicine correctly or took the wrong one; whether they gave me the genuine one or the counterfeit. If I see that those intended effects do not exist in me, I will understand that the bottle of medicine they had given us was a bottle of counterfeit medicine, that it was not the genuine one — for if it had been genuine, it would have produced other effects. As for me, if I wished to speak about the psychological effects of tawhid as well, the discussion would drag on and grow long. So I want to finish this today too, so that tomorrow, God willing, we may turn to the discussion of prophethood. The psychological effect of tawhid can be summed up in a few sentences. One effect the monotheist's spirit derives through tawhid is a breadth of horizon in his vision. The monotheist is free and at ease from narrow-mindedness, from shortsightedness, from near-sightedness. The monotheist does not say, "I was defeated in this arena," or "our front retreated in this matter and the affair ended to our loss." He is not so shortsighted. He knows that monotheistic thought has a domain as long as the lifespan of mankind. Measured against the lifespan of humanity, ten years, twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years are no more than a single instant, a single minute. To put it another way, and from another vantage point: the monotheist's horizon of vision is not confined to, does not come to a halt at, material concerns and base, paltry needs. When the monotheist looks before himself, alongside his material needs he sees dozens of needs, hundreds of needs, among the most immense and most precious of human needs. His entire mind and thought and attention are not arrested at base, paltry, petty needs. He has not imprisoned himself within them — in the way that human beings who are inwardly material, even if outwardly divine, outwardly spiritual, have incarcerated themselves. When the monotheist looks, he sees the future before himself as infinitely vast. As I mentioned on one of the past days, the monotheist does not regard the world as having an end — because he sees the end of this world as connected to the Hereafter. He regards the Hereafter and this world as the two ends of a single scroll. He does not regard death as the wall of life; he does not suppose it to be the end of this road; rather he regards it as an opening and a passage and a thoroughfare toward a vaster world. These are the properties of tawhid. A non-monotheist, however self-sacrificing, however captivated by noble and humane ideals, finds that everything for him comes to an end at the moment of death. Whereas for the monotheist, death is the beginning of a vaster life and a more interesting, more pleasing environment. A materialist, even if he were very self-sacrificing, is prepared to cast himself into that place, into that zone, which in his view is nothingness and non-existence. But a monotheist, even if he is very self-sacrificing — like a moth, like a candle — nothing is expected of him except self-immolation, except not giving a thought to his own personal interests. And even if he were not so self-sacrificing, even if he did not rise to it, even if he did not want to sacrifice himself so much, still, for him, falling into that zone which the materialist saw as non-existence is easier — for the reason that he does not see that place as non-existence. He knows and recognizes that place too as another environment, another station, another zone of this vast zone of human life. Among the effects of tawhid upon the spirit of a monotheist is this: it dries up the root of fear within him — and this is very important. In the Qur'an, in several places — and in today's recitations one or two instances will reach the hearing of the gentlemen and will be reflected upon — the believers are addressed with: "…so do not fear them, but fear Me…" — dry up the root of fearing others within your heart, and fear Me. And whoever fears God fears no one else. Whoever was a monotheist, whoever had belief in the power of the Lord, fear vanishes within him. And I, when I look, when I reflect, when I calculate, I see that it is fear — dread and terror — that strips this world and the Hereafter from those who possess them. Fear of poverty causes a person not to give in charity. Fear of being afflicted and beset by hardships causes a person to submit to crimes and catastrophes and humiliations and degradations. Fear of not being able to live in this world for even two more days — and what a life! what a kind of life! — fear of losing this very base life, which is not even certain to last two days or three days. No official deed was issued guaranteeing that you will be alive until such-and-such a year, until such-and-such a date. Fear of losing such a worthless life causes a person to put an end to other lives, to embitter or destroy social life. Greed traces back to fear, and fears are the root of the miseries in human lives. Look across the whole of history and you will see what things caused the supporters of truth to find themselves in the minority — there, where they found themselves in the minority. What things caused a people who had recognized the truth not to follow the truth — there, where truth-recognizing people did not follow the truth. What things caused a people to stain themselves with great crimes — there, where you see a people staining themselves with crimes. Most often, when a person pursues, investigates, and studies, he finds that the source of all of this is fear. Fear! As all of you know, the course of the Islamic society fell into deviation and decline. True Islam was a gift and present that God had given and delivered to the Muslims free of charge — the second generation had received it free of charge; the sacrifices had been made for the first generation. This gift was placed at their disposal at no cost. What, then, caused them to be unable to keep it for themselves, to preserve it? What but fear? Who did not know Mu'awiya among the people who were around the Commander of the Faithful and within range of that great man's teachings and instructions and discourses — who? In the Hijaz, who did not know Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan? Who did not know Yazid ibn Mu'awiya? Who did not know 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan? The dynasty of the Umayyads — who were the ones who did not know them, did not recognize them, had not tested them, had no historical experience of them, had not understood — had not felt — the word of the Qur'an and the word of the Prophet and the condemnatory historical reality concerning them? Everyone knew. What but fear? The reason they went and submitted, the reason they collaborated, the reason they became hirelings, the reason that in their station of hireling-service they also engaged in flattery and danced attendance — this was nothing but fear. And this fear, from the lowest classes of the people up to the elite classes, up to the famous figures, up to those in whom the people had placed their hopes — it had taken hold of them all. 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar was a symbol of incapacity, of weakness of soul, and of refusal to accept the truth. His refusal to accept truth was paired with incapacity — as I have said, otherwise 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr too was a refuser of truth. When a person looks, he finds, on the whole, the figure of 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr — that executioner-henchman opposed to 'Ali — more acceptable than the figure of a man like 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar. 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar is a man who, after 'Uthman was killed, did not pledge allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful. Why did he not pledge allegiance? He said: "The matter is not clear to me." He exercised caution; he did not pledge allegiance to 'Ali, peace be upon him. Out of utmost caution for the sake of religion, he did not pledge allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful. For he saw that — by his own reckoning and in his own imagination — not all the Muslims were in consensus on this question. Well, if you had no personal interest, if you were not gripped by ulterior motives and diseases of the heart, consider this sentence you had heard from the Commander of the Faithful: "Do not feel desolate on the path of guidance because of the fewness of those upon it". Had its very import — from the Prophet, from the Noble Qur'an — not sunk into your very flesh, become a part of you? Had you not known that on the path of God, on the right path, on the path of guidance, whether the travelers be few or many, a person ought not to change his path and alter his resolve, but must see whether the path of guidance exists or not? There is an important Islamic principle effective in life: not paying attention to what others say, not heeding how the ignorance-enslaved or motive-driven majorities act. Because this principle was not at his disposal, was not in his hand, was not operative, he withdrew from the Commander of the Faithful and did not pledge allegiance, out of caution. Years passed after this episode. The Commander of the Faithful — God's blessings be upon him — was martyred, and Mu'awiya ruled for years. By then this same 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar had come to know Mu'awiya thoroughly and from close up; and even if it had not been clear to him that day, it had become clear to him afterward. Then too the era of Yazid — those three disgraceful years in the history of Islam — had passed; Marwan ibn al-Hakam was Yazid's successor and the father of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and he too spent his brief period of rule; then 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan came to power. And throughout all this period 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar had been in Medina, in the heart of affairs and events, in the very midst of historical incidents and occurrences. He had not been uninformed; he had not been unaware of what had passed and had come upon the Islamic society; individuals had not remained unknown to him; he had come to know the Umayyads well. Even so, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, the notorious executioner-henchman of the Umayyads, came on behalf of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to conquer Mecca, which was in the possession of 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr. 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr was resisting there and fighting fiercely against the forces of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan that had come from Syria. They saw that they must bring this disturbance to an end and finish it. Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was the most ruthless executioner of them all; they sent him. And he came, set up catapults atop the mountains surrounding Mecca, and rained stones upon the House of God; he killed a great number of the people; then they killed 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr too, and crucified the corpse of his slain body. Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was sitting in his tent, occupied with writing a letter and reporting the conquest to Syria, the center of the caliphate. 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar too was among the people of Mecca. The people began coming group after group and pledging allegiance to Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. It was not that these people did not know Hajjaj — they knew him. It was not that they were well aware of his Islam, his piety, his godliness, and his competence — everyone knew what a vile, base creature Hajjaj was, and on behalf of what even baser and viler creature he was an agent here. They knew these things too. But nevertheless, because he was the conqueror, because the power was in his hands, because if the people did not pledge allegiance to him he would set the sword loose upon them — out of fear, group after group they came and pledged allegiance to Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, in the midst of thousands of other people, came near the tents of Hajjaj, which had been pitched outside the city. He said: "Tell him 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar has come" — imagining that they would honor him, would receive him with open arms, would warmly welcome him. He did not know that power, by its very nature, is heedlessness and shamelessness. He imagined that because he had once helped Mu'awiya and had given no help to the household of the Prophet, they would now appreciate his worth. He did not know that these people eat the salt and then break the saltcellar. He came; he said, "I am 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar." They told Hajjaj, "It is 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar." He said, "Tell him to come in." He came in. Hajjaj did not stir for him, did not pay him respect, did not even lift his head up from the paper to look at him and offer him a welcome. He said, "Commander, give me your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you." Who is saying this? 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar. To whom? To Hajjaj. The same 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar who did not say to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, "Give me your hand so that I may pledge allegiance," who exercised caution there — caution in religion — says to Hajjaj, "Commander, give me your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you." What did Hajjaj say in reply? Hajjaj said, "My hand is occupied with writing the letter; pledge allegiance to my foot." He stretched out his foot and said, "Pledge allegiance to my foot." And the man pledged allegiance to the foot of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. A base and abject person who, for the sake of two more days of living — and a living so wretched at that, a living in which there is neither the sweetness of this world nor the sweetness of the Hereafter, a living that holds within it nothing but the making-forbidden of a few kilos of food and nothing more, a living that does not bring a person closer to God; and brings him closer to Satan — for the sake of two more days of living of this sort, a man should come and pledge allegiance to Hajjaj, and to the foot of Hajjaj? What is its source? Its source is nothing but fear. Therefore the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt — peace and blessings be upon them — and the supplications that have come down to us give much special attention to these psychological matters, to what pertains to the human spirit. This is true above all in the month of Ramadan. And I have a most emphatic recommendation to everyone: recite the supplications, attend to the supplications transmitted from the Imams. In one of the supplications of Imam al-Sajjad — God's blessings be upon him — see how Imam al-Sajjad's teachings are — he says: "O God, grant me long life" (Allahumma 'ammirni). This is one sentence of supplication that I am explaining for you, for two reasons. First, so that those who recite supplications and those who love supplications may understand why supplication has been so emphasized — so that they may not take it lightly, may not recite it thoughtlessly and ignorantly, but recite it with a little attention. Second, so that those who are against supplications may know what things they are setting themselves against. Of course, we do not have a "supplication" in the sense of an anti-supplication; let those who categorically reject supplication know and understand what things lie within the teachings hidden in supplications. "O God, grant me life — long life — so long as my life is expended in obedience to You" (Allahumma 'ammirni ma kana 'umri bidhlatan fi ta'atik): O God, grant me life, grant me living — but I do not want it unconditionally. I do not want a long life and a hundred years and a hundred-and-twenty years in vain. "…so long as my life is freely poured out in obedience to You" — so long as my life is poured out without stint upon the path of Your obedience and on the path of servitude to You, grant me life. The long life that makes my servitude to You longer — that is what I want. The long life that is expended in work, expended in action — that is what I want. I do not want a long life that is purposeless and pointless and idle. "O God, grant me life so long as my life is expended in obedience to You; and when…" — fa-idha kana 'umri marta'an li-l-shaytan fa-qbidni ilayk — "O God, whenever You see that my life has become a pasture-ground for Satan…" Satan — pay close attention; bring well into your mind the meaning of Satan, the meaning of Satan that we gave and that the speaking Qur'an gives: the forces that engender evil, anyone who drags the human being and humanity toward the way of error and the way of sin and the way of corruption — Satan means that — "…whenever You see that my life is the pasture-ground of satans, You see that it is a means by which the satans make use of me, You see that my life is the substance and the ground by which the fronts opposed to God profit from it, make use of me as propaganda, make use of my ignorance, make use of me as a weapon and an instrument, make use of my conceit, make use of my arrogance; whenever You see that I have become a means for the success of the wicked and for the failure of the good and virtuous; whenever You see that I have, in practice — even without my own knowing it — become a slave of Satan, become a pasture-ground of Satan — fa-qbidni ilayk — then take me unto Yourself. I do not want this life." This is the supplication. I implore you by God: a person who says these words with his spirit, who says these words truthfully, who says these words out of attention to their meaning — what state does he come to find in his life? This is one supplication. This is how the Imams of guidance — peace and blessings be upon them — instruct us: those lives that are a means by which the enemies of God attain their desires — death is far better than those lives. Well, then why fear death, you wretch! 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar! Why? Well, let yourself not stay alive. What would Hajjaj have done to you? As for your life — about which you did not even know whether you would be alive ten minutes after that shameful pledge of allegiance, or whether you would be alive ten years, and if alive, what kind of alive — let Hajjaj put an end to that life; let him put an end to it. Did you not see with what wretchedness 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas departed from this world? The 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas who left 'Ali alone in one place, who left al-Hasan alone in one place, who left al-Husayn alone in one place — from his fate, O 'Abdullah — 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar — you should have taken a lesson. 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas did not live very long. His heart was full of blood. He had seated his son — 'Ali ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas — beside himself and was pouring out his sorrows to him. They had slaughtered a cow, or apparently a calf, whose liver was diseased — what condition it was in, all torn to pieces — and he showed it to his son and said: "Look, your father's liver is more torn to pieces than the liver of this sheep or cow or calf that we slaughtered. I have been utterly worn down by this life." And what had happened, after all? That very city of Mecca, which had been 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas's refuge from the wrath of the Commander of the Faithful and his place of comfort in the face of the responsibility that the Commander of the Faithful would assign to him — that same city of Mecca had become the hell of 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas. I say that 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas does not have a sound tawhid; 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar does not have a sound tawhid. Had they been monotheists — A monotheist — whether Indian sword be set upon his head, or showers of gold be poured before his feet — has neither hope nor dread of anyone: this and this alone is the meaning of tawhid. He speaks truly — he speaks truly. The most important psychological effect of tawhid upon the spirit of a human being is this: that on the path of God, on the path of duty, on the path of what he discerns to be the purpose of his own existence, he does not dread the enemies of this path. I do not say that he should have no nervous weakness, that his heart should never sometimes feel a tremor of anxiety — no; he should have no active fear, no active dread. The fear and dread that would hold him back from treading the path of God — that should not exist within his being. These fears, these dreads, these terrors that obstruct virtues, that are a very good ground for the growth of unmanliness, the growth of crimes and catastrophes — these fears and dreads he should cast aside. Now, in any case, this passage that we have selected today from the Noble Qur'an to recite for you consists of two parts: one is from Surat Al 'Imran — as we said, we will first recite that — and then there are a few verses from Surat al-Ra'd. Those of you who have a Qur'an with you, open it and find this portion that I mentioned. And the gentlemen who do not have a Qur'an, pay attention and concentrate. (I am afraid I will forget this matter. Gentlemen, tonight — on the occasion that it is the night of the middle of the month of Ramadan and the birth of Imam al-Mujtaba, God's blessings be upon him — we are holding a ceremony in this mosque, in this very half-built mosque; that is, we have in fact arranged a celebration, an ordinary celebration, you understand. Last year too there was, of course, a celebration gathering here, and this year there is one as well. We have tried to make it from seven until nine — of course seven is the start of the session, but it may run from nine to nine-thirty, for instance; as for the end of it, we have nothing definite. In any case, we have arranged a youthful program, a fresh and delicate new program, to be carried out and performed here. A passage of the Qur'an will be recited, a poem will be recited, a short address will be given — in brief, it may be a very friendly gathering. Whichever of you gentlemen has the time may come. I forgot to mention it yesterday and today too I was afraid it would slip my mind, so I have mentioned it now.) Which verse did we say? 172. Yes! Verse 172. Surat Al 'Imran, verse 172: Those who responded to God and the Messenger after the wound had befallen them — for those of them who did good and were mindful of God there is a great reward. Of course, the preamble to the verse is lengthy; even this portion that I have selected — it is two or three verses of it that I have in view. So that you may have hold of the thread of the discussion, I will read two or three verses before it. "Those who responded to God and the Messenger" — those who gave answer to God and the Prophet. What does "gave answer" mean? It means they accepted the call of the Prophet and the divine call; they accepted it actively. Not just to say in their hearts, "Well, sir, we accept what you say" — no; they set out after the Prophet of God. And when? In the most severe and most difficult of circumstances they accepted the call of God and the Prophet. And when was that? It was at the time when they had been wounded on the battlefield. "After the wound had befallen them" — min ba'di ma asabahum al-qarh — after the qarh, that is, the wound, had reached them. "For those of them who did good and were mindful of God there is a great reward" — for those who did good and acted with virtue and adopted godfearing piety, those who gave answer to the call of God, a great reward, an immense recompense, is in store for them. This verse relates to the Battle of Uhud. You know that at the Battle of Uhud a group had fled, and the Prophet of God was calling out to them; some were afraid and did not come, and some, even though they were wounded, came. The Commander of the Faithful on that day sustained seventy-one wounds — seventy-one, perhaps fewer, perhaps more; I do not exactly recall right now — he sustained many wounds, and a number of the other companions of the Prophet likewise, a little fewer. Some responded and accepted the call of God and the Messenger, and some did not accept and fled. This verse declares the recompense and reward of that group who did not flee but accepted and responded. Those to whom people said… Alladhina qala lahum al-nasu — pay attention to the general aspects of these verses; let us not imprison ourselves in the Battle of Uhud, let us not confine the Qur'anic ideas to the events of early Islam and to what occasioned the revelation of these verses. What matters to us is the idea of the verse. What does the verse mean to say? And this is a point in the Qur'an that I have perhaps noted on suitable occasions. Sometimes, in the course of a story, by the utterance of a single sentence connected to that story, a general Islamic principle is stated. Pay attention to this. For example, take the story of the Prophet Noah, at the point where Noah the Prophet has boarded the ark. He has brought his family and household aboard, and the believers and adherents and those on his front as well, while the rest of the creatures were placed under the threat of the divine fury of the Flood. A flood is coming, the water is welling up, the death-dealing waves are drowning the people on all sides. And there is a son of Noah who is not among the believers in him, who has not come to board. This is a story, an ordinary story being told, but full of subtleties and allusions. Noah the Prophet — an old man, white-bearded, very advanced in years — and this, his young son, his beloved son, he says to him: "Come, board; come, board; you will drown." He says: "No indeed, I will not board, nor will I drown; I will go up the mountain, and I have no need of you either." In the midst of these very exchanges and conversations, a wave comes between them as a barrier, and the father no longer sees the son, and the son drowns. The matter comes to its end. Noah's heart, from its human side, is somewhat troubled — well, his son perished in this event. He lays his trouble before the Lord of the worlds, saying: "My Lord, You had promised that You would save my family, that You would save my household; well, my son too, who was of my household — would that he had been saved." Then, from the Lord of the worlds, an address comes: Indeed he is not of your family; indeed it is an unrighteous deed. "Innahu laysa min ahlika" — he is not of your family; "innahu 'amalun ghayru salih" — he is an unrighteous deed. "…an unrighteous deed" — that act is unrighteous. We do not have to dwell on the whole story — though of course I am now leaning on a single word of it, otherwise there are abundant points to lean upon in these stories and in the story of Noah — "innahu laysa min ahlika": it presents to us and teaches us a general Islamic principle. It says: two brothers who do not think alike are strangers to one another, and two strangers who think alike are brothers to one another. If father and son did not think alike — this one a believer in God, that one a denier of God; this one on the front of God, that one on the front of Satan — then father and son have no kinship or relation with one another; they are not of one family. Kinship by lineage and by marriage, kinship related to blood, is, from the standpoint of Islam, of the second degree; kinship of thought is of the first degree. See — this is an Islamic principle. Again, when a person looks into the narrations as well, he finds abundant indications and many pieces of evidence for this principle. I have seen a narration from the Imam, peace be upon him, who says: "The believer is the brother of the believer through his father and his mother" (al-mu'minu akhu al-mu'mini li-abihi wa-ummih) — the believer is a brother through father and mother; that is, you may be as distant from your full brother — your brother through father and mother — as the East is from the West, but with a believer on the other side of the world you may be a brother through father and mother; with one who thinks like you, with one on your front, with one whose faith matches your faith. This is an Islamic principle. In these Qur'anic accounts, pay attention to these points; see what it means to say, what principle, what idea, what historical reality — which may perhaps be repeated in a hundred other places — it is stating. Now pay attention to this verse. Those to whom people said… "Alladhina qala lahum al-nasu" — these recipients of our reward and recompense are the ones to whom they said, "the people"; a group said to them. What did they say? They said: "Inna al-nasa qad jama'u lakum fa-khshawhum" — they said to them, "The creatures have gathered against you, they have plotted, they have joined hands, they want to wipe you out; so fear them." This is what the well-wishers and the prudence-minded said to this group of believers. The believer whose reward and recompense we mentioned in the previous verse is the kind of believer who, when the well-wishers and prudence-minded said such a thing to them, in answer — what did they say? "Fa-zadahum imanan" — first, their faith was increased by this matter. That the enemy's plot should increase the believer's faith is most remarkable. First, their faith was increased; then what did they say? "Wa-qalu hasbuna Allahu wa-ni'ma al-wakil" — they said: "God is enough for us, and how excellent a Guardian is God." A good one is He to whom a person can entrust his affair. "Hasbuna Allahu wa-ni'ma al-wakil" — God is enough for us. What does "God is enough for us" mean? "God is enough for us" has several meanings, all of them correct. God is enough for us, and He aids us with His own help. God is enough for us — He has set, and sets, the forces of nature in the direction of our course, which is the direction of the truth. God is enough for us — meaning, even if we do not attain the sweetness of this world, may God be pleased with us; God is enough for us. And each of these meanings, and the other meanings that you may take from "hasbuna Allahu wa-ni'ma al-wakil," is correct. "Fa-zadahum imanan" — when it was said to them, "fa-khshawhum," "fear the people, fear the enemies," their faith was increased, "wa-qalu" — and they said: "hasbuna Allahu wa-ni'ma al-wakil" — God is enough for us, and He is the best guardian and support. So they returned with a blessing from God and bounty; no evil touched them, and they followed the good pleasure of God; and God is the possessor of great bounty. "Fa-nqalabu bi-ni'matin mina Allahi wa-fadlin lam yamsashum su'" — "lam yamsashum su'," no evil touched them; they returned with a blessing from God and bounty and increase. First, these very people — their abode became the blessing of God, and no evil, distress, or harm touched them, and they became happy and glad. How did they become happy and glad? The Qur'an does not say what became of them; it makes no difference; however it may have come about, whether they were martyred on that battlefield or returned safe and free to their homes, made their way back to the city of Medina — it is all one ('ala al-sawa'). If they returned to their home and life, they came as victors and triumphant ones, and no distress touched them — because the wound of the battlefield, in the warm environment of family and with contentment from triumph and victory, heals quickly. "Fa-nqalabu bi-ni'matin mina Allahi wa-fadl" — and if they fell upon the dust of the battlefield and were martyred, then here, all the more — "fa-nqalabu bi-ni'matin mina Allahi wa-fadl" — there they returned toward the blessing of God: blessing without decline, bounty without end, a bounty in which there is no evil whatsoever, an ease in which there is not the least trace of distress or harm. "Lam yamsashum su'" — no evil touched them. "Innama dhalikum al-shaytanu yukhawwifu awliya'ah" — remember this verse, keep it in mind, recite it often and learn it. "Innama dhalikum al-shaytanu yukhawwifu awliya'ah" — it is nothing but that these speakers are Satan. It is Satan who frightens his own friends. He says: "Sir, they have laid a plot for you, they have hatched a conspiracy against you, the enemies have gathered an army, the hypocrites have joined hands with the Quraysh unbelievers, the hypocrite has fastened a sword beneath his cloak, he is about to strike you, he is about to kill you, he is about to do such-and-such." The one who frightens you — that is Satan. It is only Satan who frightens his friends; so do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are believers. "Innama dhalikum al-shaytan" — the one who frightens you of the enemy of God is Satan, and Satan frightens. But — you? Do you take fright at Satan's word? Are you made afraid? It depends on who you are. He succeeds in frightening his own friends. If you were his friend, you would be afraid; if you were not his friend, you would not be afraid. See how short the verse is and at the same time how pithy and full of meaning. "Innama dhalikum al-shaytan" — indeed this is Satan; "yukhawwifu awliya'ah" — who frightens his friends — the time is short; I want to translate quickly — "fa-la takhafuhum" — so do not fear them; "wa-khafun" — but fear Me, observe My command, fear My chastisement and My wrath; "in kuntum mu'minin" — if you are believers. The next verse: And let not those who race toward unbelief grieve you; they will not harm God in the least. God wants to assign them no portion in the Hereafter, and for them is a great chastisement. "Wa-la yahzunka alladhina yusari'una fi al-kufri" — let them not grieve you and sadden you, O Prophet — those who hasten and rush ahead in the valley of unbelief — "innahum lan yadurru Allaha shay'a" — they will not harm God in the least. "Yuridu Allahu alla yaj'ala lahum hazzan fi al-akhirati wa-lahum 'adhabun 'azim" — for them is a great chastisement; God wills that they have no share or portion on the Day of Resurrection. Of course, I think the subsequent verses are no longer the ones we have in view; it was just these two or three verses, in which the question of the fear of God and of Satan was contained. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of God and His blessings.