Ep 4 — Faith (2)

Session 2: Faith (2). delivered Friday, 29 Shahrivar 1353 / 3 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Anfal (8:2-4). The believers are only those who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble; and when His signs are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord they rely; those who keep up the prayer and spend out of what We have provided them. Those are the true believers; for them are ranks with their Lord, and forgiveness, and a generous provision. The chapter opens on the verse just before it: They ask you — O Prophet — about the spoils (al-anfal)… They are asking you, briefly, about the anfal — for whom are the anfal, and to whom do they rightfully belong? The anfal can be translated this way: it means the wealth that belongs to the generality of the Muslims. One example is the income that falls to the Muslims in war — not every income, but specific incomes. Another is the mines, this underground wealth. Another is the forests. Another is these vast plains and grazing lands that lie here and there and upon the mountains. In short, the anfal refers to those forms of wealth that belong to no one particular individual and to no one particular group, but are at the disposal of everyone — belonging to the whole nation. One example of these is, of course — as has been mentioned — the particular spoils that fall to the warriors of the Muslim army in war. The first time this issue was raised for the Muslims was, it seems, in the Battle of Badr. The Muslims were debating among themselves: to whom do these spoils belong? A disagreement arose among them. They referred the matter to the Holy Prophet, they asked that noble one, and the verse of the Qur'an gave the answer. God inspires His Prophet: Say: the anfal belong to God and the Messenger. The anfal belong to God. What does "belonging to God" mean? It means they are not for any specific, designated group of God's servants — they are the Prophet's. To belong to God means that whatever bears God's name upon it must be expended for divine aims, for divine goals. The "wealth of God," clearly, is not spent for God's own needs; God Almighty has no such interests, no need, no want that His wealth should be expended to meet it. What belongs to God is in reality the wealth of God's servants, and it must be spent in the channels of welfare that God Almighty has appointed. So mal-Allah — the anfal belonging to God — means this. "And the Messenger" — what does this mean? Does the Messenger stand as a pole opposite God? No. Anyone might think himself entitled to dispose of God's wealth. Everyone might say, "This is God's wealth, and we too are God's servants" — and under this pleasant-looking, fine-seeming name, under this attractive, popular slogan that "this wealth is God's wealth and we too are God's servants," they might expend the public wealth on their own personal expenses. Such a thing is possible. The wealth of God must indeed reach the welfare of the generality of Muslims and the true servants of God. But reaching the generality does not mean a free-for-all — everyone spending whatever his heart desires. There must be a central authority, a powerful hand that is reckoned the representative of God and the guardian (qayyim) of the people's affairs. Who is he? He is the Messenger. The Messenger here is not raised in his capacity as messengership and prophethood, but in his capacity as divine governance. That is, when the Messenger departs from this world, the Imam has full charge of the anfal. The Imam means the divine ruler. In the era when the Infallible Imam is not governing the people, the one who, on God's behalf, can and must govern the people — he has full charge of the anfal and the public wealth. In any case, this wealth is public. The mines belong to everyone, the forests and reed-beds are for everyone, the grazing lands are for everyone, the spoils obtained from the enemy are for everyone, the royal treasures (sawafi al-muluk) are for everyone, and so with all the like cases and instances cited for the anfal. Yet even though it is for everyone, in the end it must rest at the disposal of a powerful divine authority — none other than the Islamic ruler. Who is that? In the time of the Prophet, the Messenger of God; after him, the Infallible Imam; and if there is no Infallible Imam, the just divine leader — the one in whose hand the reins of the Islamic government must lie. He has authority over the matter of the anfal. This is the first part of the verse, which of course was not the part under our discussion. After it appoints the use of the anfal, it says: So fear God, and set right the relations between you, and obey God and His Messenger, if you are believers. If you are believers, do these three things. First, the fear of God — "fear God" — so be wary of God. In the necessarily approximate Persian translation we have given on this sheet: "fear God," so be wary of God — this is one. "And set right the relations between you" — set right what is between you. Remove the disputes from among yourselves. In favor of truth, let those who speak something other than the truth give up their words; remove the disputes from among yourselves. "And set right the relations between you" — set right what is between you; do not fall upon each other over trivial things; do not seek pretexts to fall upon one another. The characteristic of a people who delight in quarreling with friends and with enemies alike is precisely this: they go looking for small pretexts to fight, to dispute, and to create discord. The counsel of God and the Messenger to people of this sort is this: instead of seeking pretexts to fight with your friends, do not conceal the pretexts for fighting with your enemies. If you are a person of war, then fight the enemy — but why your brother? Why your friend? "And set right the relations between you." These two are great counsels. The third counsel is a matter that is general and encompasses all good deeds and abstention from all evil deeds: "and obey God and His Messenger" — and obey, take the command of, God and His Messenger, "if you are believers." Faith is an inclination of the heart — an intellectual, doctrinal, and psychological attachment to a matter, to a person, to a pole, to a center. But it is not summed up merely in the heart's having this inclination, this leaning, this attachment. Faith truly exists in a person only when he acts in accordance with that faith. A person can claim to be a true believer only when he is bound to the requirements of faith and the commitments of faith. A person can say "I believe in God and am convinced of Him" only when his life, and the very reality of his being, differs from that of one who denies God. The one who today denies God — how does his deed differ from the deeds of those who claim to believe in God? Both commit oppression. Both are drowned up to the throat in materiality. Both, for the sake of these few breaths of life, a few more days of breathing and a couple more morsels to eat and fouling the air, for a couple more days of comfortable living, are ready to trample every virtue underfoot. Except that this one openly says, "I am not convinced of God," while the other claims that he is convinced of God. What kind of faith is this? The verse of the Qur'an here is explicit. Here there is no longer the reckoning of rational arguments that admit of doubt; you must do these deeds, if you are believers. And one of these deeds is obey God and the Messenger. Obey God and the Prophet; set out in the path of following their command. What is the command of God? Whatever it is, this much is evident: God has appointed obligations, responsibilities, duties, and tasks — concerning a person's wealth, concerning a person's life, concerning a person's lifespan, concerning the relations of a human with other humans, concerning the relations of a human with God, concerning the relations of a human with animals and even with plants. In this too, if you obeyed God, you can say "we are believers." Otherwise faith is of no use. A person's heart and soul may be attached to some pole, but if the radiance of this attachment is not reflected at all in action — in the hand, in the tongue, in the foot, in the other limbs and members — then in the view of Islam the very name of faith does not hold true for him. This is the logic of the Qur'an. "Fear God" — so be wary of God; "and set right the relations between you" — set right what is between you; "and obey God and His Messenger" — obey God and His Messenger; "if you are believers." Now, on the occasion of the name "believer" at the end of this verse, the next verse continues the discourse concerning the attributes of the believers and the conditions of faith: The believers are only those who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble; and when His signs are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord they rely; those who keep up the prayer and spend out of what We have provided them. Those are the true believers. For the true believer, five traits are appointed here. It may be that these five traits are not present in the speaker and the listener; but if a person makes some effort and exertion toward bringing these five traits into being within himself, he is still on the path of faith, on the path of the goal of faith, and worthy of the name "believer." The true believer is the one in whom these five traits are present. First: "The believers are only" (innama al-mu'minun) — exclusively, the believers; "those who" (alladhina) are the ones who, "when God is mentioned" (idha dhukira llah) — when God is remembered, "their hearts tremble" (wa-jilat qulubuhum) — their hearts come into fear. What does "to come into fear" mean? What does fearing God mean? Is it like a sinner before a judge, or is it another and subtler kind? Someone might say, "I have committed no sin, so I do not fear God." Yes, the fearing of a sinner before the judge and the prosecutor — the one who must punish the man — that kind of fear is, of course, ruled out by the absence of sin; but who is the person who can be certain that he has no sin? But there is another kind of fear, and it arises from knowledge (ma'rifah). In the face of great things, mighty essences, majestic realities, a human inevitably feels awe and bewilderment. This is the property of the human being's existence; the spiritual and bodily composition of the human necessitates it. In the face of anything of grandeur, every human feels a state of awe within himself. This state of awe is not from the standpoint that he fears that being — it may be that he has no fear at all, in the sense of any aggression — the fear here is not the fear that arises from sin; rather this awe and dread arises from the sense of His grandeur and the sense of one's own smallness before Him. Such a fear of God is fitting, is desirable, is necessary, is beneficial. Consider the one who sees himself, before the Lord, as small and deficient and lowly, and beholds God as dominant, all-encompassing, and overpowering (muhaymin, musaytir) over every aspect of his affairs. Such a person strives to travel by no path other than that straight line of conduct which the God of the world has appointed for him, and to move no other way. This is the greatest guarantor of action, movement, and effort in a Muslim person and in a Muslim society. This that you see — the Commander of the Faithful, in the depths of the night, in the nights of the month of Ramadan, writhing upon himself and shedding tears; this that you see — Imam Sajjad at times crying out; this that you see — the Messenger of God, with all his majesty and grandeur, when the last ten days of the month of Ramadan come, saying, "Roll up my bedding," not spreading any bed for himself — that is, the nights are no longer the time for sleep; they are the time for worship, the time for supplication, the time for humility before the Lord — do not imagine that these are contrived acts being performed. How deficient and unaware is the one who says that the Imam, in the Du'a of Abu Hamzah, wishes to teach the people something and is not speaking of himself. How untutored and uninformed of the spirit of supplication and of the manner of the intimate communion of God's righteous servants with God is the one who imagines that the weeping and lamentation and tears of the Imam, peace be upon him, are for the sake of instruction. That is, did they weep artificially so that you and I would learn? This is a mistake. They truly shed tears. Why did they shed tears? Because their knowledge of God is greater. In the sacred being of the Lord, the Commander of the Faithful sees a grandeur that these near-sighted eyes of yours and mine cannot see. "You are great, and do not show forth in a small mirror." This small mirror of our soul cannot reflect within itself that wondrous grandeur; but what of the mirror of the soul of the Commander of the Faithful? He can; he comprehends this grandeur, he grasps it, he perceives it — and it is for this very reason that he writhes upon himself like that and sheds tears. When the remembrance of God comes into the midst, a certain state takes hold of the believer's heart: that state of awe, that state of reverent fear (khashyah), that sense of fear and dread, that terror that arises from the sense of one's own smallness before the grandeur of God: "when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble." God ceases, for a person, to be a plaything; the name of God ceases to be a kind of habitual incantation. In a gathering a person sits down and says "ya Allah" as a mere phrase of respect; he yawns and finishes it off with "la ilaha illa Allah," out of weariness. These states are the sign of indifference, of dull perception, of an absence of sensitivity in a person's soul before the remembrance of God and the name of God and the grandeur of God. From all of this the heart of a God-knowing, grandeur-perceiving human departs — one who comprehends and feels the grandeur of the Lord. "The believers are only those who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble." The believers are those who, when God is remembered, their hearts come into trembling (wajal) — into fear and dread and terror, into the sense of grandeur in the Lord and of smallness in themselves; their hearts become filled with this sense. This is one. "And when His signs are recited to them, it increases them in faith." Another sign of the believer is that when the signs (ayat) of God are recited to them — whether they recite them themselves or someone else recites these signs to them — their faith is increased: "it increases them in faith." This faith, like a seed in his heart, in his soul, grows, becomes great, comes up like a plant, becomes — like a tree — sturdy in stem and root, to the point that the possibility of uprooting it disappears. Faith in the form of stagnant water, within the being of a believer, has no meaning. Consider those who learned a single word in childhood, and then, through the doubt of the years of adolescence, watched that one word fall from its firmness and its grandeur in their souls. It grew small, became deficient, became insignificant; a half-faith, a half-truth, remained in their souls. And that too, through the coming of various currents and events, was continually diminished and diminished. Such a faith too will one day be easily taken from a person. A faith held in trust (mustawda'), a borrowed ('ariyat) faith — the believer is not like this. The true believer is the believer who, if a single word of the realities and the religious and divine teachings is in his heart, takes that one word — through reflection, through precision of insight, through thought, through whatever is conducive to that one word — and makes his faith greater, and rescues this faith from vanishing. This is the true believer. From this verse and from this sentence we derive that, through the recitation of the Qur'an, the believing person's faith must increase. And from this sentence we adopt a proof — pay attention, from this word of God we adopt a proof — and to those who say "do not translate the Qur'an, do not give its meaning, do not interpret it, for our minds do not reach it," we say: if we could not understand the Qur'an, how is it that our faith increases by the reading of the Qur'an? So it is evident: the Qur'an is not a book of code. The Qur'an is a book that must be read with the intent of understanding, and understood with the intent of increasing and growing stronger in the faith of the believer. We adopt this proof; pay attention. The continuation of the verse: "and upon their Lord they rely." Another sign of the believers is that they rely and depend upon the Lord. "And when His signs are recited to them, it increases them in faith" — this is the second condition, the second trait. "And upon their Lord they rely" — that is, what does it mean that they rely (tawakkul)? Does it mean they fold their hands together and say, "Let God set it right Himself"? No, the meaning of tawakkul is not this. Picture the man who folds his hands together in the face of his obligations and responsibilities, and who, instead of holding his own power responsible, presumes a divine miracle to be responsible. Such a man should know that the Qur'an has rejected this deed — it dealt it a firm blow to the mouth of the Children of Israel, who said to Moses: You and your Lord go, busy yourselves with the war, do battle with the enemy; we will sit here — in my own expression, by the wall, in the shade — when you have conquered, then inform us too so that we may come. The Qur'an negates this method. This method is the method of the accursed, banished Children of Israel, far from the road of humanity, deprived of the delights of religion and faith; it is for them, not befitting a Muslim. So tawakkul does not mean this. This saying that has become current among the people — I am saying it so that all may hear and all may understand — this thing that is current among the people, when they say, "Sir, God Himself must set things right; nothing can come from God's servant" — this is wrong. If nothing could come from God's servant, if for the removal and uprooting of corruption the will of man and the power of man were of no avail, God would not have mobilized the prophets. He would not have invited the people to follow the prophets. He would not have sent the divine prophets, with their heavy missions, into the arena of battle in this world. This that you see — that God has sent persons for the uprooting of corruption, and those persons are of the human race — so know that human corruption must be uprooted by humans. So what does tawakkul mean? Tawakkul means that, in every state, your reliance and your hope are upon God. If you examine carefully, you will see that with this expression which I am stating — that in every state your reliance and hope are upon God — with this expression, tawakkul ceases to be a kind of narcotic and manifests itself as a stirring agent, an agent of dynamism. You have seen what some people do in the hardships of life, in crises, in the place where their hands fall short of all outward means — have you seen? Have you heard? They do one of several things: either he surrenders to the enemy, saying, "When nothing can come from me, what am I to do?" — surrender to the enemy, this is one. Or he surrenders to the ordinary course of life: he does not go and fall prostrate before the enemy, but in practice he takes up some path and routine, leaves behind some movement and effort, and forgets that he has, in reality, surrendered to the ordinary current of life. Such a man too, although outwardly he has not surrendered to the enemy, has inwardly surrendered to the enemy. This too is a kind — a state that the common run of people adopt in such crises. The other way is to put an end to their own life. Take that gentleman who, when he comes to power, is harassed from all around by the gamesmanship of the international powers — every time, every day, they raise some uproar against him from some corner of his country. When he is forced and compelled, when he is wearied, exhausted, made wretched, he puts an end to his own life, he commits suicide. These are the paths that present themselves to a Godless person at impasses. When you have reached an impasse, when you have reached a place where it seems to you that this is the end of the alley, that there is no path through, for ordinary people several doors open: surrendering to the enemy — that is, in surrender; surrendering to the natural course of life — that is, in surrender; surrendering to events — that is, in surrender; suicide and self-destruction — destroying oneself and being relieved and at times regret. But for the person with God, another door opens at impasses, a door whose opening shuts upon him the other doors, the doors of self-betrayal of honor. What is that door? It is the door of tawakkul upon God. He says, "Here is an impasse." He says, "The God I know breaks through the impasse too. What is an impasse? In God's view we have no impasses. All impasses, by the hand of God's power, are open at the end! There is a way." Is there an impasse higher than the Battle of Uhud? The small army of Islam, in the midst of being occupied with gathering the spoils, is suddenly attacked from two directions, because of the heedlessness of a few soldiers. One group attacks from the front, another group from behind. These men have laid down their swords, have dismounted from their horses, have set their weapons on the ground; suddenly they see two groups attacking them from two sides — armed, savage, enraged, furious. Well, it is evident what an army without weapons and without equipment does at such times: flight. They fled. Satan, from the throat of the Satan-natured ones, proclaimed that the Prophet too had perished. It is very clear; Satan always does these things. One of Satan's very clear schemes and his exposed hands is this: to proclaim, sooner than its time, the defeat of the divine and merciful front — that, "Yes, you are defeated; the Prophet has passed away." In such a crisis, in such an impasse, what does a believer who relies on God do? Sir, is there an impasse higher than this? The paths of deliverance entirely closed, the weapons fallen on the ground, the enemy equipped, dominant, overpowering — what comes to the aid of a person here is that window which only the God-worshippers possess: reliance upon God. What impasse? Which is the impasse? Suppose the Prophet has passed away — the God of the Prophet has not perished. The duty has not perished. With tawakkul here, the man acts like whom? Like the Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib; like Abu Dujanah; like two or three other soldiers — these were people of tawakkul. Who were the ones without tawakkul? Those who, from Uhud to Medina, did not even look back, but ran all the way to the very gates of the city. Now you have seen what tawakkul means. The one who pretends that tawakkul is the folding of hands together, sitting without effort in hope of an unknown future, stripping his faith of his own power — the one who pretends that tawakkul means a stroke of cancellation upon man's will and his power — such a man either does not understand tawakkul (Islam does not get into his head; he does not perceive tawakkul), or else he does understand it, but honor does not get into his head; he wants to misinterpret it deliberately, so that people are raised without tawakkul, so that people are raised wrongly. The meaning of tawakkul is this: "and upon their Lord they rely." In my view there are two mighty wings for the flight of man in the efforts of life: one is patience, one is tawakkul. Any ummah that has these two wings will become wholly beyond the range of the earthbound enemies; the wing of patience and the wing of tawakkul: "and upon their Lord they rely." These are three signs for the believer. (The worth of faith; what kind of thing is faith? The characteristics concerning faith — these are very necessary discussions that, God willing, if God grants the success, I shall prepare tomorrow, so that they may again make a duplicate and bring it and place it at the disposal of the gentlemen, and they may also find its Qur'anic verses and recite them for you. For now, what is raised today concerning faith is these signs and commitments of faith.) Third: "and upon their Lord they rely." Fourth: "those who keep up the prayer" — those who establish the prayer. Gentlemen, pay attention: there is a difference between the expression alladhina yusallun (those who pray) and "those who keep up the prayer" (alladhina yuqimun al-salah). Yusallun means "they perform the prayer." If only the performing of prayer were at issue, if only this getting up and bending down were at issue, there would have been no need to say "those who keep up the prayer" — no need to bring two words and give them length and interpretation. They could simply have said yusallun, alladhina yusallun, those who pray. So it is evident: "those who keep up the prayer" — those who establish the prayer — is something other than reciting prayer; it is something else, a higher and loftier reality. In your view, what is this reality? What does "establishing the prayer" mean? Several possibilities can be supposed, and it may be that all of these possibilities are correct. One is that we say: the establishment of prayer, the keeping up of prayer, means performing the prayer in a complete form, in an all-around form, in a perfect form: "those who keep up the prayer." And "establishment" (iqamah), in the Arabic language, in Arabic usage, is precisely in these very meanings — that is, carrying out the work in a complete form: So set your face toward the religion, devoted purely (to it). Turn the whole face, the whole being, toward religion, in a complete form. This is one possibility, and it holds true. If a person establishes the prayer in this sense — performs it in a complete form, with correct pillars, with attention to the teachings and inspirations of the prayer (about which I conducted, in that mosque over the course of several weeks, a relatively detailed discussion) — then success and salvation surely await him. A person who prays well — all his difficulties become easy for him. You have heard that some of the great ones of religion, at the time of facing hardships and calamities, would pray two rak'ahs? You have heard that the Messenger of God, at the time of crises and severities, would turn to Bilal and say, "Comfort us, O Bilal" (arihna ya Bilal) — Bilal, ease us; go give the call to prayer. "Cool us, cool us, O Bilal" (abrid, abrid ya Bilal) — cool our hearts, O Bilal; that is, give the call to prayer. Truly, if a person establishes the prayer — with attention, with humility, with reverence, with presence of heart, with comprehension of what he is doing and what he is saying, and with the intent of taking a result from the prayer — then certainly that which has been promised to the believers will exist for him. This is one possibility. The other possibility is that "those who keep up the prayer" means: they establish prayer in society, they make society a praying society. Some people are content that they themselves pray — instead of seventeen rak'ahs in a day and night, they pray fifty-one rak'ahs, besides the other recommended prayers. If they are told, "Sir, the people are turning away from religion in droves," they feel no grief over it. As the saying goes: "He carries his own rug off the wave." He says, "Sir, to carry our own rug off is already a great task, a great feat; we cannot get to others." Some are like this. That deed which is the sign of faith is not this deed. For anyone to pray well himself, but pray for himself and have no concern for others — this is not right. It is not right — that is, it is not complete; complete. What is the sign of faith? The establishment of prayer — keeping up the prayer in society, making everyone a praying people — not in the sense that everyone performs a single act of worship. (I want you to take your mind out of the mold of the words, to think more broadly. I too think in just that way. Words are small and inadequate and deficient.) Not that so-and-so is not a prayer-performer, so let us make him a prayer-performer; rather, a praying society means a society that is always remembering God and on God's path. A society that says: You alone do we worship, and from You alone do we seek help. A society that worships and serves none but God, and relies upon none but God and seeks help from none but God. A praying society means that society which every day disavows the ringleaders of corruption — that is, those upon whom is wrath (al-maghdubi 'alayhim) — and the followers of corruption — that is, those who go astray (al-dallin). This is their prayer. If a person strives to make other human beings into prayer-performers in this sense, he has in reality made an effort and exertion on the path of the absolute servitude of God, on the path of uprooting corruption, on the path of doing away with "me" and "us," on the path of bringing about social and human unity among the individuals of the Muslim ummah and the individuals of humanity — an effort on these paths; this is what the establishment of prayer means. That is, you do something so that all the people, every day, five times, and each time several times, say "You alone do we worship, and from You alone do we seek help." O God! Only before You do we bend the neck of servitude and the back of servitude — not before any other than You. Five times every day, and each time several times, from "those upon whom is wrath" and from "those who go astray" — that is, from the ringleaders of corruption and from their followers — we disavow, we declare our innocence; we make such a society. The establishment of prayer may also have this meaning. "And spend out of what We have provided them" (wa mimma razaqnahum yunfiqun). What is another sign of the believers? It is that they spend (infaq) out of what We have provided them. What does infaq mean? (Yesterday I mentioned it by way of allusion. Up to now I have explained the meaning of infaq perhaps ten times on the occasion of various discussions — this time too, let it be the eleventh.) Infaq means filling voids and needs. That spending which fills a void, which meets a need — this is called infaq. The wall of this mosque has been freshly painted; if you came and gave money and painted it over again, that is not infaq. Why? Because there was no need for this work; there was paint already here. Or if there was no paint, but it was a place that had no need of paint — if you came to the dirt floors of the Imam Hasan Mosque and sprinkled sums of money in paint, and said, "I spent for the Imam Hasan Mosque; we took several boxes and cans of paint to the mosque and used them up — what did you do, sir? Over the clods and the dust and the mud, we painted it all" — yes, this is spending, but it is not infaq. Infaq consists of there being a void and a need in the very fabric of society, and your filling that void and need; infaq means this. "And spend out of what We have provided them" — what does it mean? It means that the believers are those who, out of what We have provided them — the word "wealth" is not in it; out of the moneys We gave them? No; it makes no difference — out of the money We gave, out of the lifespan We gave, out of the child We gave, out of the reputation We gave, out of the bodily strength We gave, out of the tongue We gave, out of the thought and brain We gave, out of all the resources We gave; He said "what We have provided them" — out of everything We have provided them, what do they do? "They spend." They make infaq. That is, they spend it in its place — not just any spending. This is one of the signs of the believer. O brother named "believer," O believer-seeming brother, O brother who, if you are called "believer," are pleased — if someone shows the slightest wavering and doubt in your faith, you take offense, and it may even be that you say, "What benefit is there that you count us as irreligious and faithless in your talk?" — O brother named "believer," do you make infaq? I do not say, do you spend or not; yes, you spend a great deal. How much money do you give in these days of the month of Ramadan, you cook delicious food, you spread a colorful spread and invite the well-fed; how much you spend — but do you also make infaq? O dear speaker, how much you talk, how much breath you spend, how much from your chest and your lungs and your being, from your body and your nerves, you draw upon; how much of the power of your speech you spend — but do you also make infaq out of this power? To speak much is no feat; to say what is needed, that is a feat. That is not infaq; this is infaq. O you who spend out of your reputations, out of your standing — you write a letter to someone, you go to see someone for some affair, you arrange that some deed be carried out, that some job be given to so-and-so, that some fitting respect be paid by such-and-such a person to so-and-so — you are spending your standing, but what of infaq? Do you also make infaq? O you who spend money in various places, in the name of religion and in the name of other than religion — yes, sometimes a person spends money in the name of religion while he has not made infaq — do not take fright at this saying, for it is a reality, and what a bitter reality! How much money is expended and spent in the name of religion, but it is not infaq, because it does not fill a void, because it does not bring a pain to its cure, because it does not remove a need from this needy society. That which is the substance of being a believer, that which is the condition and sign of faith, is infaq: "and spend out of what We have provided them." After this, if you wish to spend time, if you wish to lay down your reputation, if you wish to spend money, think well; see whether, by this expenditure of yourself, you are making infaq, or you are spending pointlessly. "Those are the true believers" — these are the true believers. "For them are ranks with their Lord." For them are ranks — degrees, ranks, stations — "with their Lord." With their Lord. "And forgiveness (maghfirah)" — and forgiveness too is among these. The very forgiveness that I explained for you yesterday — I hope it has remained completely in your mind and memory and stays there. If God intends to give someone forgiveness, He intends to heal a wound that has arisen in someone's soul from sin; He will heal the wound of sin of such persons. "And forgiveness and a generous provision (rizq karim)" — and an honorable provision, a generous provision, without abasement, without hardship, without disgrace. Such a provision God gives them. Wherever you find a believing society — I am not speaking of an individual; do not say, "By God's grace, we obtain a morsel of bread, we are comfortable too, we have no grief, we are beholden to no one." If you look carefully through the inner workings of his affairs, you see that it is all wretchedness and obligation. All those who have the most disgraceful occupations do not feel that this deed they have is disgraceful and that this morsel of bread is a morsel of disgrace — I am speaking of a society. A society's morsel of bread is pure, honorable, joined with pride and dignity; it receives a noble and honorable provision only when it is believing and possessed of these attributes. And if it were this way, in a society of faith all those slogans would be realized — the slogans that the political parties of the world raise today, here and there, behind the loudspeakers, rightly or falsely, among the nations of the world. Peace, freedom, welfare, comfort, without war, without bloodshed, with brotherhood, with sincerity, a high level of culture, a high level of literacy, a high level of provision — and all these words and verbiage, some of which have meaning beneath them and some of which have no meaning beneath them — taken all together are realizable in a society of faith. "And a generous provision" — and a generous and magnanimous provision. (These are the four verses that we have explained. Mr. Rida'i, our dear reciter today, is present — let him now rise and come here and recite these few verses. However, since it is Friday and you gentlemen probably have no work, occupation, or program, and can sit, we may request that he add two or three more verses and recite them. Concerning faith, at the foot of this sheet I have written something — this duplicated sheet that is in the gentlemen's hands; please pay attention, I am still speaking — this mimeographed sheet that we gave to our friends, those who have it: here I have written below it, I have written that concerning faith attention should be paid to these matters, and I mentioned several matters that I will speak about again — from the Qur'an, I will conduct a Qur'anic discussion like today's discussion. Concerning these very matters that we wrote here — the consciousness of faith, its not being fanatical and imitative; let me say, the realities and effects of faith, for example, the practical commitments of faith of the sort that we read today — concerning these, God willing, on another day I think we shall speak about faith and these subjects and these discussions, until afterward, God willing, we reach the discussions that follow upon faith.)