Ep 22 — The Outcome of Prophethood (1)

Session 20: The Outcome of Prophethood (1). delivered Tuesday, 16 Mehr 1353 / 21 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Ra'd (13:16-18). Say: God is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the All-Subduing. He sent down water from the sky, and the riverbeds flowed each according to its measure, and the flood carried a swelling froth. And from that which they heat in the fire, seeking to make ornaments or utensils, there rises a froth like it. Thus does God strike [the parable of] the true and the false. As for the froth, it goes away as scum; but as for that which benefits people, it remains in the earth. Thus does God set forth the parables. For those who respond to their Lord is the most beautiful reward. But as for those who do not respond to Him — even if they possessed all that is on earth and the like of it besides, they would offer it as ransom. Theirs is a terrible reckoning; their abode is Hell, and what an evil resting place! (To the gentlemen who have a Qur'an with them, and to those who have these mimeographed sheets — please look at these sheets. I will recite the verses. Some of the vowel-marks on the verses are incorrect; correct them with your pens. I also have a request to make of the friends: if you sense that there is no room inside the prayer hall, do not come in from outside into the hall, because then space becomes cramped and continuing the talk becomes a little difficult. If the friends and brothers who are inside the hall, and those who are outside, are ready for us to begin our talk, let them all send a collective salawat [blessing on the Prophet and his family].) Now, gentlemen, I ask you to look at those sheets of yours — those who have them. Some of the vowel-marks on the verses have minor errors. I will recite, and if you see any mistake, correct it. The next verses pertain to Surat al-Saffat. Those who have a Qur'an, find Surat al-Saffat: Our word has already gone forth to Our servants, the messengers: that they will surely be the ones helped, and that Our hosts will surely be the victors. So turn away from them for a while, and watch them — for soon they too shall see. Do they then seek to hasten Our punishment? When it descends upon their courtyard, evil will be the morning of those who were warned. So turn away from them for a while, and watch — for soon they too shall see. Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, above what they ascribe. The prophets were commissioned and set foot in their societies carrying that very lofty, progressive aim that we explained on the previous days. It is the most progressive of all aims — even by the cultural standards of the age of light and human awareness, that is, the twentieth century. It is the aim of bringing humankind into one class, of leveling human beings, and of casting out ignorance and poverty and oppression and exploitation and class division. With this most precious, progressive, and lofty aim they set out. A continuous chain of activity and striving and struggle is the harvest of the lives of God's prophets. From the very beginning of the mission, never again to sleep in comfort, never again to slumber on the bed of ease, never again to taste pleasure and rest, but to struggle unceasingly — this is the summary of the story of the divine prophets. At the end of their lives, too — as we have learned from the religious sources — some had their heads severed from their bodies by the tyrants and despots of the age and carried off as a trophy; some were placed within a tree and sawn from head to foot, cut in two; some passed from this world in exile and in distress. None of them amassed any wealth, however little; none of them, at the end of their lives, left behind a palace, an apparatus, and vast riches, as the rulers of this world and the worldly leaders do. This is the summary of the lives of the prophets and the envoys and the deputed ones and the messengers of God; these things we have come to know. A question now arises. As it stands in our minds, and as we read in the history of the prophetic missions, the prophets all passed their lives in struggle and striving, and many of them drank the draught of martyrdom. So was their work, then, a fruitless and useless work? Did the prophets meet defeat in history? Is it as the simple-minded of the world still imagine it to be — and as the anti-prophetic powers, too, are not displeased to have lodged in the minds of the common people — that the prophets gained no fruitful result from their striving, and that across the whole of history, oppression and tyranny and inhumanity and rebellion and unbelief have held sway? Is it so? We believe that it is not so. Consider these dear deputies of God — whose chain began with Adam and Noah and Abraham, and in whose chain the choicest of creation came one after another. These men not only were not defeated, not only did not fail, not only did not see what they said and what they wanted in the world, in history, in society meet with defeat. Rather, among all of humanity, among all those who have ever run after some aim and goal and striven for it, no one has had the chance of success that the prophets had. This is our belief. We believe that the outcome of prophethood and the end of the prophets' work, throughout all history, in the time that is past, has ended according to what was desired — and so it will be in the future too. And we shall prove this. There are two matters and two topics here. (I ask the brothers who have heard this series of discussions from the previous days to pay careful attention, so that the important part of this chapter may be connected to the earlier discussions; and the brothers who, it seems, were not here on the other days and have come today — let them attend well to this very topic again, for in itself it is a topic that must be grasped and known. But you must pay attention.) We have two matters here. The first concerns the chain known by the name of prophethood and messengership — that is, the caravan of the prophets from Adam to the Seal [of the Prophets]. What did they do? What did the totality of them accomplish? Did they push things forward, or did they go bankrupt? That is one matter. The second concerns each of the great divine prophets, in his own time: did he succeed, or did he meet defeat? These are two questions, and I would like to finish both of them today, God willing. By your own measure, if you reflect, you will find that you would like to understand this matter. This is something the knowing of which is beneficial to us — by the very criterion I have always placed in your hands. It is beneficial in the sense that it not only increases our information — for there are many words that increase a person's information but are of no benefit to him. There is no harm at all in all of you, this whole gathering, now being aware of how the tiny particles of the rocks in the volcanic mountains of the moon are composed. To know it — is that bad? But is it beneficial? No. Much of the information that we run after, or that they make us run after, is of this sort. After we have sat and listened and spoken and studied and researched and put pen to paper and brought our life to its end, then when we look, we see a heap of empty information, useless information, that did not bring us a single step closer to Paradise and to the good pleasure of God, nor a single step closer to the sound, authentic Islamic society in this world; it did nothing at all. Yes, it had only this benefit: that we could pride ourselves, could believe that we are very learned, very knowledgeable, and could close upon ourselves the window of receptivity and learn nothing more from anyone; this was its only benefit. This matter that I am presenting is beneficial in the true sense; it brings not only awareness but awareness and commitment. It is of that kind of faith that I was explaining and speaking of to you here on the third and fourth and fifth of the month. Now the first question: this chain whose members are called the prophets — from first to last, what flower did they pin upon the head of humanity? The prophets came and took a being who could not even, at the level of an animal, distinguish the road from the pit — a being in whom even instinct was not so capable and path-opening. And they brought this being up to the level of a being from whom even the angels of heaven must come and learn something. They brought humankind from the lowest depth of savagery and ignorance up to the level of a civilized human being, such that if he wishes to act according to their teachings, the loftiest, the most beautiful, the most eloquent manifestations of creation will appear in his life. The prophets treated human beings like a schoolchild — I am trying to bring the matter down to a very low level — who knows nothing, not even the alphabet. For one year they labored over him, and he came to the second grade; but the teacher of the first grade, in the very midst of this, when the child had reached the second grade, had laid down his own life over this work. They labored for another period, and he came to the third grade; but the teacher who had brought him from the second to the third grade lost his own life on this path. They labored for another period, and he came to the fourth grade; and again that compassionate teacher, that kind father, that aware guide — over the course of this time during which he was raising the pupil to a higher grade, to a higher rank — lost his own life, departed from this world, and passed his life in hardship. Grade by grade, step by step, stage by stage, they kept bringing this little child up, and up, and up. Now, when you look, you see that the level of his culture, his knowledge, his insight, his sensitivity is far higher than in that time which was two periods before the present, and he is at the peak of progress and elevation and comprehension and understanding and thought. You look, and the teachers are not there. Where are the teachers? One, in the midst of the first grade, while he was bringing this slow-witted pupil up — let us say — gave up his life. Another, while these very pupils were learning something from him, at the end of the year, over some disagreement, over some matter, gathered together, rose up against him, and killed him. The teacher of the third grade in another way, the teacher of the fourth grade in another way. The teachers are not there; each teacher carried out his mission and, to outward appearance, died in failure and perished. But did he really fail? Think well; see whether that teacher really failed. What, after all, was the teacher's aim? Did not this compassionate teacher want exactly this? He wanted this pupil to rise from the black dust to the summit of the peak of culture and knowledge and understanding — and has this not now come to pass? So the teachers did not die as failures. It is true that they died, it is true that they did not attain the affluent, comfortable life of this world, it is true that they did not see with their own eyes this sapling come to fruit — but did they fail? No, they did not fail. Their aim was precisely this: that this human being should traverse the first and second grade; that this ignorant, unaware student should go up this road with difficulty, with hardship, with toil, until he reached that summit of the peak — and now he has reached it. The prophets were just like this: Adam, Noah, Lot, Hud, Salih, Shu'ayb, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, Jesus, and thousands of other prophets throughout history — their work was this: to bring this human being up, to teach him knowledge and understanding, to prepare him for ordering the life to come, to give him the necessary substance. And this work was accomplished — although, along the way, a number of these prophets were killed in a horrible manner, in a pitiable form, and departed from this world without seeing this end. And still humanity is moving forward. Today the world, more than it was a thousand years ago, is prepared to hear the true word of Islam. Today humanity is more ready to accept the divine government than it was a thousand years ago, than it was twelve or thirteen hundred years ago — and a thousand years from now it will be more ready than today. On the day that our Imam of the Age — may God hasten his noble relief — went into occultation from sight, humankind was not yet ready to accept a revolutionary reforming Imam with sword in hand. This is why an Imam who must spread out the carpet [of justice] among the people does not spread it out. And if that noble one had wanted to rise up and make a revolution and overturn society, he certainly could not, given the unfavorable conditions of that time, have built a society such as he desired. The experience of the noble Imams of the Prophet's household had reached its limit. This society had become so corrupted — the oppressive, tyrannical hands of the despotic powers, of the Umayyads and the Abbasids, had so worked this field for the worse and poisoned it and corrupted it — that no sound plant could any longer be grown in it. And so the Imam, peace be upon him, was hidden from sight. The day he comes — how will it be? The day he will appear — and we do not know whether it is ten years away or ten thousand years away, nothing is known at all — on that day, when the Imam appears, humanity will have reached readiness; it will be ready to hear and to accept the true word of Islam. It will be ready to carry the elevated and lofty Islamic society upon its own shoulders. On that day humanity will be ready for the Qur'an to be put into practice. But in the time of the Imam of the Age it was not ready — and who has done this work? The teachings of the prophets have done it, and the Imams are the followers of the prophets. In the discussion of the Imamate, when I expound the philosophy of the Imamate, I will explain what the philosophy of the Imam's existence is; I will make this clear. So the prophets were not unsuccessful in history, and we see that every day humanity has moved forward and added to its own age, it has come one step closer to the peak of progress and perfection and elevation. What more do we want than this? What do the prophets want? The Lord of the worlds wants to bring this unripe, raw substance, by a natural movement, toward its natural and innate destination — that is, perfection and elevation. This the Lord of the worlds has willed, and humanity will certainly reach that point of ultimate perfection. And this is the determinism of history; the determinism of history means just this, and in this form he [who used the phrase] spoke correctly. These are precise discussions; I ask you to pay attention, to the very words and expressions. The course of humankind is toward elevation and perfection, and toward the promised paradise of this world; that is, humanity will see a day for itself in which, on that day, there will be no oppression, no evil, no ugliness — everything will be according to the desire of humanity. The creation of the human being is like this, and the creation of the world; that this being, in its own course, will at last arrive at such a destination — it must arrive. In that era humanity will have ready all that is necessary for its perfection. Then it will enter the channel of progress and perfection and elevation, and with the utmost speed it will move toward God — that is, toward absolute perfection. And the more we have come forward from the beginning of human history up to this time of ours, the closer we have drawn toward that destination; this is the determinism of history. The creation of the human being is like this, and the creation of the world; God has so created that human beings move toward progress and elevation, willy-nilly. As for the "willy-nilly," you must of course derive its meaning in the course of these discussions — what "willy-nilly" means — for later, when we tie it to the subsequent discussion, it will become clear what it means. Of course the will of human beings is intensely involved, and it is the wanting of human beings that brings human beings to progress, and this wanting will be there. This is one of the Islamic principles, and in the Islamic worldview it ranks among the certainties: that the end of humankind is in accordance with goodness. Why? Because God Most High created the earth and the heavens in accordance with truth, and He created the human being too with a truth-seeking innate nature. Since the human being possesses will, he must move along the path that accords with his innate nature, in order to reach that destination. And who can present this path to him and tell him: if you do such-and-such, you have acted in accordance with your innate nature? The prophets — the prophets come for this. They come to show humankind the path of innate nature; that is, to hasten and ease his course toward a good end. Therefore human beings are moving forward; humanity is drawing day by day closer to felicity and to the destination of goodness, and this is because of the movement that the prophets gave it. The prophets set it in motion; if some delay has occurred in the middle of history, and in each segment and stage of the stages of history, it is because of a relative distancing from the teachings of the prophets — but in the end they had this course. This is one matter in general. In the first question, we draw this conclusion: we say that the great divine prophets, although each one of them individually met with deprivations and failures, yet in the aggregate, the course of humanity has been toward progress and elevation, and its agent was the prophets. It was the prophets who pushed the human being toward that intended destination and toward the kneaded-in human end, set him in motion, helped him in traversing this road; this is the first question. But now the second question — the one that is of greater interest to many, the one I shall make clear for you. When a prophet brings about a movement in the world, raises up a revolution and an uprising, can it be said that this revolution has a good outcome, or not? Can one hope that the end of this work is good? Or can one not hope? What is the general rule here? Some say: however much we look, we see that wherever a true word issued from a tongue, wherever the melody of truth reached the ear from some quarter, in the end it did not reach result and fruit, and it was choked off. From this they have constructed an "experience"; they say: the experience of human history has always shown us that the prophets failed. Now, even granting that you say overall they succeeded — fine — but in the end the revolution they brought about, they were unable to bring it to fruit. Not in a single place were they able to bring truth to power and destroy falsehood. So then, what should we do? Should we too, after this, not raise a hand, not draw it from our sleeve, not follow the path of the prophets? Since the great divine prophets themselves, in their own time, were unable to accomplish anything, and in the end falsehood has always — even if seasonally and by stages — gained the upper hand over truth, then let the truth-seekers and the truth-speakers of the world sheathe their swords, go and lie down to sleep, and know that it is of no use — unless some hand should come out of some sleeve, a hand of power, an unseen hand should come forth and do something. This is the logic of many people, and this is the very logic that I mentioned: the tyrants of history take great pleasure in this logic. This is the very logic that the bullies of the age have always loved the people to hold as their belief — that is, that the people should believe that, sir, no striving, no activity, no struggle in the path of truth will ever reach a result. This the tyrants of the world have always wanted. The political bluffs of the heads of the states of the world, which you read so much of in the newspapers that carry world news, are for precisely this purpose. Take that certain man who has only a few hours or a few days left before the throne of his rule collapses and he comes down from the peak of the presidency to become an ordinary man. Even a few days before, that very man is bluffing: "We will crush our enemies, we will wipe out our opponents, we will continue to rule." You yourselves saw this quite recently, on a very vast global scale — saw it with your own eyes, read it, were informed of it. A power of such magnitude suddenly comes down and turns into an ordinary man; yet a little before this transfer and transformation he says, "They cannot, they cannot, they cannot touch us, our position will not be lost" — and then we see that it was lost. These bluffs are for precisely this purpose. They always wish to make the people understand in this way: that nothing can come from your hands, because our power is a power that you cannot even imagine. All means and resources are at our disposal, and you have none. Do you imagine that these things have arisen in the world only today? No; they have existed at all times in history. This is a very interesting and amusing affair in history that, whenever I recall it, I am amazed at the cunning of al-Mansur the Abbasid. Al-Mansur the Abbasid was, as you know, the greatest and most powerful caliph of the Abbasids, and the second Abbasid caliph. As it happened, in al-Mansur's time, opposition had begun from the margins of the religious community of that day. Among those who had placed al-Mansur under severe pressure were Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah and Ibrahim ibn 'Abdullah, the two sons of 'Abdullah al-Mahd. These two men struggled fiercely against al-Mansur. Al-Mansur had been rendered helpless. Although everything was at al-Mansur's disposal and these two self-sacrificing brothers had nothing at their disposal but faith and a handful of believers, nevertheless, in the face of their relentless striving and activity and struggle, al-Mansur had lost his footing. Many rumors, concerning the power and might of al-Mansur's apparatus, were being spread among the people, with the sole aim of preventing the true believers and the genuine Shi'a from joining these two brothers. Among them was this: al-Mansur had spread the rumor that he had a mirror, and that when he looked into this mirror he could tell where Ibrahim ibn 'Abdullah was — and woe to the man into whose house al-Mansur, looking into the mirror, should see that Ibrahim was, or with whom he was fleeing. This is the very story of the mirror that those tyrant kings of history fashioned a thousand, two thousand years before al-Mansur — Jamshid and this one and that one — in the form of the world-revealing cup. No doubt this too was for the same purpose: that the enemies should know and imagine that they could never carry out any deed outside the sight of these powers. They had even resorted to such things. Therefore the tyrants of the world ask of the God of the two worlds — a God in whom they do not believe — that the people should imagine that the prophetic missions and the great divine prophets and the envoys of truth and reality have always been doomed to defeat. They ask of God that the people should imagine and suppose that no truth-worshipping melody will ever receive a favorable and positive response from the nature of this world. They ask of God that the people should despair of any movement ever growing and reaching fruit against falsehood without being defeated. But is the reality of the matter really like this? A number of minds, uninformed and under the sway of these powers, have imagined it so; the people have supposed that the prophets and the followers of the prophets and the Imams have always been defeated, and that every movement in the world will be defeated. Are we too, then, obliged to accept it? Should we set aside the Qur'an? Should we not hear correctly the word of the Qur'an, which recounts to us the opposite of this logic, and instead hear the word of false fancies? No; we will not do this. We turn to the Qur'an; we take a lesson from the Qur'an as to what the outcome of the prophetic missions is, and what effect the revolutionary movement of the prophets and their followers can have. Let us learn this from the Qur'an, then we return to the text of history, and we see that history too bears witness to this matter. The Qur'an strikes a parable in these very verses that I recited, and which I now recite again and translate; it tells us: No! In the world there is a truth and there is a falsehood; the truth remains, the falsehood is annihilated. From the mountains, in the rivers, water flows and streams; froth appears on the surface of the water; the froth dies, the waters remain. Falsehood is that very froth that will die; the water is that very truth that will remain. Up to here, as the Qur'an teaches us and historical reality also confirms it, each of the prophetic missions that has appeared in this world, from first to last — besides having, in the chain of the prophetic missions of history, performed a deed, having moved humankind one step forward — each of them in itself also possessed the possibility of success. It is not as al-Mansur the Abbasid kept pouring into the people's ears, saying, "It is not possible, people; it is not possible for you to carry anything forward against my power." That is not how the matter is. It is not as the powers of history, over the course of time, made the people understand and instilled in them — that against the worldly powers who are upon falsehood, truth will have no room even to draw breath. No, it is not so; rather it is the opposite of this. The prophets have everywhere had the possibility of success, and the followers of the prophets too everywhere have this same possibility, and they will surely succeed — but on two conditions (here is where I said that the human will is involved in the building of the future of history). If these two conditions exist, then all the movements grounded in religion, in Qur'anic and Islamic thought, that have been carried out and will be carried out throughout history, will succeed forever and will be victorious; there is no need for a miracle either. It is not necessary that a miracle must certainly take place for the adherents of religion to succeed and be victorious — no; without any hand coming forth from the unseen, if these two conditions exist, Islam and the Qur'an and religion and Qur'anic thought will have the essential possibility of success. What are those two conditions? One of those two conditions is faith — a belief grounded in awareness, a conviction accompanied by the acceptance of commitment, an assent accompanied by striving and movement; this is the first condition. The second condition is patience [sabr]. What does patience mean? It means resistance, not fleeing the field, not abandoning the work at the sensitive and dangerous moment. Wherever you see, throughout the history of the prophetic missions, a prophet defeated by the tyrant of his time, it has been because his followers, those around him, did not have sufficient faith or sufficient patience. Every time you see that truth has advanced, it is because they possessed brimming faith and the necessary patience. Is there any witness from the Qur'an to this matter? Yes; there are several witnesses in the Qur'an. The verses I recite today are the intellectual foundation, and there are many other verses too that state the matter. I will read two of its verses for you. One verse is this: Do not be faint, and do not grieve; for you are the higher, if you are believers. Here it is a verse of the Qur'an — this is not a narration that someone might cast doubt on, saying perhaps its chain of transmission is weak; nor is it an ambiguous [mutashabih] verse either, that some might cast doubt on, saying we do not understand its meaning — no; clear, plain. "Do not be faint" means: O Muslims, do not become weak. "And do not grieve": and do not be sorrowful. "For you are the higher": you are the higher, your hand is the upper one, you will be the victorious, you will overcome the enemy, your thought will at last be seated upon the throne of the world's governance. What is its condition? "If you are believers" — if you are believers, if you have faith, if faith exists, this is so. You say: "Sir, I have seen Imam al-Sadiq — the blessings of God be upon him — struggle so much against the tyrant of his time and yet was unable to seize the government." Yes; but that was because those around him, many of his friends, many of the claimants to his Shi'ism, were like you and me, were like us — impatient, weak in faith. Did you want Imam al-Sadiq to be able to reach power against the established custom of the Lord in history? This very thing is itself proof that no miracle and no unseen hand is meant to appear in the field of conquests and victories. If a miracle were meant to occur, then a miracle would have occurred so that Imam al-Sadiq might reach power. Imam al-Sadiq was, in the end, killed at the hand of the tyrant of his own time; and Musa ibn Ja'far likewise. This was because his friends and followers did not have, to the necessary degree, as much patience as is needed; faith and conviction together with commitment had not been stored up in their souls to the degree they should have been. If today, too, it is like that, the result is defeat — the defeat of Islam, the defeat of the Qur'an, the condemnation of the Muslims. But if today we became like the time of the Prophet! The Muslim of the Prophet's time — his faith was a certain and indubitable faith. His patience was that very patience before which the angels of heaven were small; a patience that, on a day of the month of Ramadan, in the heat of the Hijaz, with a fasting mouth, fights the enemy and digs a trench — this is the patience of that Muslim. Seek help through patience and prayer. By means of the weapon of patience, conquer your enemies; by means of patience, carry your aims forward. This is the miracle that belongs to patience. That hand which must come out of the sleeve and do something — it is the hand of human patience; patience. We even misconstrue patience. We have imagined that patience means that we should now sit and watch how things will turn out. I tell you how things will turn out: it does not mean that we should sit and watch. If you sit without activity, without striving, without throbbing effort, the end is wretchedness, it is abasement, it is disgrace, it is irreligion and worldly ruin. the loss of this world and the hereafter — that is the manifest loss. But if you go forward with patience, the end is both religion and this world. This is the end that the Qur'an tells us of. These verses are from Surat al-A'raf — which, if I wanted to write out, would become lengthy; you must go and look, reflect over it. What I am saying — my heart wishes that you would act on it as a religious mode of thought. Truly pay attention; if you see that it accords with the Islamic standards, accept it as a mode of thought. This is the Qur'an, in Surat al-A'raf, from verse 120 onward — indeed even before these — the verse I have in mind is verses 126 and 127. The matter is raised through the affair of Pharaoh and Moses: Moses comes and states the divine call, Pharaoh does not accept it, does not assent to it, and not only does he not accept it, but he even threatens Moses. After all these words, the sorcerers of Pharaoh come; their sorcery accomplishes nothing against the Mosaic miracle, and in the end they themselves come to faith. Pharaoh threatens them, saying, "I will kill you. Why did you believe in Moses?" All this passes, and after the affair of Pharaoh's magicians and their defeat by Moses, then it is like this: And the chiefs of Pharaoh's people said: … The chiefs — the leaders and commanders and notables of Pharaoh's people said to Pharaoh: "Will you leave Moses and his people to spread corruption in the land…?" — "Are you releasing, letting go of Moses and his people, the believers in him, his party, his throng, that they should make corruption in the land? That they should cause disorder? You are letting them go? …and abandon you and your gods?" — and that they should set aside you and your gods? Is it like this? "He said…" — Pharaoh, in the face of this speech and this casting of doubt, said: No; I will destroy Moses. He prepared a harsh assault against Moses, devised a new scheme for crushing the party of the Moseans in Egypt. What was it? He said: We will slay their sons and let their women live. Pharaoh said: I will not leave Moses be; I will not permit what he wants to do; rather I will kill their young men and keep their women alive. This is a new plan. Pharaoh, after he had struggled against Moses in every way and had thought that Moses would be destroyed, has now reached the conclusion that — no, even his sorcerers and magicians are coming to faith in him, and the sorcery will not stand up against the miracle — he falls to thinking of carrying out a severe measure. The plan becomes a plan of severity; he says we must resort to severity. What shall we do? All the young men who have inclined toward Moses — these we will kill. All their women we will keep alive. "and let their women live" — taking the women alive, keeping the women alive — no doubt for debauchery, or to ruin their lineage, or for something of this sort. Well, the matter became hard now; the party of Moses found themselves facing the severe-measures plan of the Pharaonic apparatus. This is the place where the bones of the elephant tremble; this is the place where firm and sturdy hearts are shaken — is it a joke? Someone like Pharaoh saying, "I will make them suffer terribly; I have a plan for them, to leave them not a single young man." "We will slay their sons" — I will kill their young men. This is the place where the Moseans must be charged up; in this very sensitive and dangerous moment they must not feel defeat. A sentence came to my mind from one of the great men of our own history — from about a hundred years ago, fifty or sixty years ago. They used to quote a sentence from him in these constitutional struggles and the like; his name is much on people's tongues. They say he used to tell his companions, his friends: "Fight, struggle. At the very moment when you see that the work is hard, struggle still. Until you see that you will certainly be defeated, keep on; reach the point where you see that now you will certainly be defeated; and when you reach the point where you see that you will surely be defeated, struggle still — then you will be victorious." And this is a correct saying. A nation, a community, an individual who wants to strive for his own welfare and salvation, at one moment is hopeful that this striving will bear fruit; when the severity increases, his hope too diminishes. If he lets go of the striving, then assuredly his striving will no longer reach a result; but if he carries on his striving in that very place, continues it so far, goes forward so far, until he sees that it is certainly futile — if at the very moment he sees that this striving of his is futile, he strives still, that striving is successful. Moses is using this scheme to mobilize the Children of Israel. When the Children of Israel see that they will certainly be defeated — because Pharaoh is resolved to kill all their young men — against the new Pharaonic scheme, Moses too presents his own new scheme. What does he say? When they find themselves facing this situation, Pharaoh speaks thus; Moses, in turn, in the face of this Pharaonic proclamation: Moses said to his people: … Moses says: "Seek help from God and be patient." Ask aid of God and be patient. Continue, resist, do not leave your striving half-finished — hope breathes within this — why? "Indeed, the earth belongs to God" — the earth is God's; "He gives it as inheritance to whom He wills among His servants" — He gives it and grants it to whomever of His servants He wills. That is, we are the servants of God; Moses tells the Children of Israel: you are the servants of God; the servants of Pharaoh — their work will reach no result. The earth is for the servants of God. "And the [good] end belongs to the God-fearing" — the outcome of the work, the end of the affair, belongs to the people of piety. This is the Qur'an, and historical reality too conveys and shows us the very same thing. The very Abraham whom one day they cast into the fire — one day we see that in Mecca and at the House of God he forms a monotheistic society, and for centuries after himself that society endures. Moses, who one day has such a conflict with Pharaoh and the Children of Israel are under pressure — another day we see that the command to enter the holy land is given to him: "O my people, enter the holy land…" — go there, and there form the divine, monotheistic society. Take Jesus son of Mary, whose striving and activity during the short period of his sojourn upon the earth and among human beings reached no outward fruit. After he ascends from the surface of the earth and departs from among the people, within one or two centuries the greatest powers of that day fall under the sway of the thought of the Messiah. That is, the Roman Empire, the vast Roman Empire, falls under the sway of Christian thought, and the emperor himself becomes a Christian, a believer in the religion of the Messiah. Our Prophet, who in Mecca was so much under pressure — for thirteen years they arranged for him the most severe tortures and conditions — then comes to Medina, forms a government there, brings a society into being, establishes an order, drives human beings toward perfection, and crushes his foundational enemies, casts them to the ground. But under the shadow of what? Under the shadow of faith and patience. Whenever there was faith and there was patience, Yes, if you are patient and God-fearing… — if faith together with deeds and patience existed, if piety together with faith was present, then victory comes. And this is one of the customs of the world, the custom of the Lord in history. Yesterday it was like this, today it is like this, tomorrow too it will be like this. All the religious powers, if they have been able to become a power or to remain in being, it has been under the shadow of faith and patience. Today too, those who love the Qur'an, Islam, Tawhid, prophethood, the sacred Islamic principles — those who wish that these could take into hand the reins and governance of people's lives in the world, those who wish to see God sovereign in the world — let them strengthen within themselves two substances: the substance of faith and the substance of patience. If the substance of faith and the substance of patience grow strong within us, Indeed, the earth belongs to God; He gives it as inheritance to whom He wills among His servants, and the [good\ end belongs to the God-fearing,nofn] — but without faith and without patience it cannot be. This is the answer that we give to these two questions. The first question was: did the divine prophets, in the aggregate, succeed or fail? We say: in the aggregate they succeeded, all the prophets — for the reason that they wanted to bring humankind up, and they brought it up. Of course, in the various gatherings and assemblies in which — in lessons, in Qur'anic exegesis, in the discussions after the prayer — I have raised this matter, each time I would give an example; if I wanted to give all those examples it would take long. I gave you one of its examples: the schoolchild. The prophets in the aggregate succeeded and were triumphant; they did not fail. But now, each single one of the prophets — that is, each single one of the divine and monotheistic revolutionary movements — did they succeed or not? Here we say there is a general rule. The general rule is this: each one that possessed sufficient faith and patience succeeded; each one that did not possess sufficient faith and patience did not succeed. Now pay attention while I read these verses of the Qur'an. Today's verses are from two places: one from Surat al-Ra'd, and the other from Surat al-Saffat. (Allow me to mention this matter first, because I am afraid I will forget it, and I also become tired and may not be able to say it. Gentlemen, this recommendation has been made to me on behalf of the friends attached to this mosque — and I myself, of course, was not unwilling to say it — concerning help to this mosque, which in the previous sessions, at the beginning of the month, we once mentioned. With the situation that has arisen regarding that back courtyard and a place for the ladies and a passageway for the ladies' coming and going, and likewise concerning the electrical arrangements here — you have observed how disordered our electricity situation is, suddenly leaving us in the middle of our work — it needs a great deal of help. Of course, of the tasks that are very hard for me and that I do not really know how to do well, this is one: to take money from people for the mosque and the like. This is one of the tasks that is very difficult for me and that, truth be told, I really do not know how to do — you see that my present conduct shows that I do not know how. But I wanted to say it in summary: let the gentlemen who have financial means make an effort, take pains, and finish this work as soon as possible. Here, these friends who have shops beside the mosque are ready to accept the gentlemen's cash contributions. Please refer your cash help or your pledges to them, and refer to me as well, and let the friends apply themselves. This is money that, for such a work, is very little — though in itself, of course, it is a large sum. Let this work be carried out. This is something I wanted to say at the end of the talk, and in the middle of the talk it was perhaps a little out of place; but since I saw that there is a great likelihood that I would forget, and I would certainly have forgotten, and just now it suddenly came to my mind, I said: now that it has come to mind, let me say it. Well, now send a salawat so that I may read the verses. [The audience sends salawat.]) "Say: God is the Creator of all things." Say: God is the Creator of everything. Since He created, He can say what its outcome will be. Because afterward He wants to speak about the outcome of truth and falsehood, He first says: We created this world, We know the customs and laws of history, hear them from Us. "Say: God is the Creator of all things" — say: God is the Creator of everything. "And He is the One" — He is the sole and unique; "the All-Subduing" — the powerful and mighty. "He sent down water from the sky" — He is striking a parable for you. This verse is so beautiful in respect of its Arabic phrasing — unfortunately, those who are not familiar with the Arabic language cannot properly grasp this beauty either. He does not say beforehand, "I am striking a parable"; you who are listening do not realize that this is a likeness and to what it applies, you do not catch it; at the end you understand what the matter is — He is striking a parable. "He sent down water from the sky" — from the sky He sent down water, a rain. "and the riverbeds flowed each according to its measure" — rivers and streams of various sizes flowed; small rivers, large rivers flowed from the rainwater. "and the flood carried a swelling froth" — this flood that flowed in the rivers carried upon its shoulders a swollen, prominent froth. When you stand beside a river that the flood-water is bringing along, what you see is not the water; it is froth. The water is beneath the froth. These froths, prominent and surging upon this water that flows in the river, the flood-water, are showing themselves off. You see froth; beneath the froth is water. Let us go to another place — the other example is this: "And from that which they heat in the fire" — those things that they heat in the fire, like mineral substances and like iron, which they place in the fire; "seeking [to make] ornament or utensil" — in order to make some adornment, they place gold in the fire so as to make jewelry; they place iron in the fire so as to make objects; they place copper in the fire so as to make things. These things that they place in the fire so as to make from them an ornament and adornment and finery and goods and wares — in these too there is "a froth like it" — a froth there is, like the froth of the river-water. There too, when they melt this iron, they see that upon it there is froth; it too has a froth. When they melt gold, it too has a particular froth. There the froth was upon the water — what was the essence? What was the life-giving substance? The water or the froth? The water. But what met the eye outwardly? What was making a display? What showed itself more? The froth. Here, is the desired means the iron or the froth, in the melting of iron? The gold or the froth, in the melting of gold? Of course the gold, of course the iron. What is the froth? A parasitic thing, a superfluous thing. But which comes more to the eye? That froth — not that gold and not that iron. Once these are set up, immediately He says: "Thus does God strike [the parable of] the true and the false" — God shows you truth and falsehood in this way; the parable of truth and falsehood God strikes for you in this way. "As for the froth" — that is, the thing that you saw to be visible, that very froth, that is the false. The thing that is hidden beneath the froth — that is, the water, that is, the gold, that is, the iron — that is the truth. Now that you have learned this much of the parable, hear from God the continuation of the parable — what its outcome will be. "As for the froth, it goes away as scum" — but those froths will go to vanity and waste and emptiness, will be annihilated. The froth on the river is not permanent; it is there one instant, gone the next. When you open the water onto your field, what remains for you from the river is the water, not the froth; its froth perishes. "As for the froth, it goes away as scum" — but that froth goes to annihilation and emptiness; "and as for that which benefits people" — but that which benefits people, that is, that water, that iron, that gold, it tarries "and remains in the earth", it is not annihilated. "Thus does God set forth the parables" — God strikes the parable for you in this way. He means to say: the truth remains. The call of the prophets is truth, the movement of the prophets is truth, and it remains. The falsehoods that puff out their chests against the prophets, show themselves off, rebel, run riot — they are froth, they are bubbles upon the water, they are doomed to perish. This is the parable that God strikes. The continuation of the verse applies this same parable to the field of the social struggles of the Muslims. He says: "For those who respond to their Lord is the most beautiful" — for those who answer their Lord are the most beautiful of outcomes and rewards; the good end is for them. The end of the work is for those who respond to the movement of the prophets. "But those who do not respond to Him" — but those who do not respond and step onto the path of falsehood, they — "even if they had all that is in the earth" — if all the surface of the earth were theirs, "and the like of it with it" — and they had as much again in addition and overflowing, "they would offer it as ransom" — they are ready to give it as ransom and rescue themselves from the predicament. Did you not see this in history? Did you not see the conflicts of truth and falsehood — how the leaders and chiefs of falsehood were rolled up like a scroll; and then, if they could, they were ready to give the whole world, and themselves, their lives, their position, to hold on? "For them is the evil of the reckoning" — for them is the worst of reckonings; "and their refuge is Hell" — their abode is Hell; "and what an evil resting place!" — and what an evil place it is. These are the verses of Surat al-Ra'd. The verses of Surat al-Saffat too we have rendered in these writings; they too say this very same thing. "And Our word has already gone forth to Our servants, the messengers" — already Our command for Our deputed servants, that is, the prophets, has passed and been concluded; beforehand We took the requisite and necessary decision concerning them. What is that decision? "that they will surely be the ones helped" — they are the ones helped; they are helped by Us alone. "And that Our hosts will surely be the victors" — it is Our soldiers who become victorious. I told you its condition is that very faith and patience. In the battlefields of the Prophet, the Messenger of God called the people to patience. In the battlefields of the Commander of the Faithful, the Commander of the Faithful called the people to patience. They always used to say: be patient. What does patience on the field of battle mean? What does patience in the state of struggle mean? It means not growing weak in the struggle, it means not finishing the striving, not leaving it half-done; this is the meaning of patience. If the Muslims of the world, on the path of cultural advances and economic advances and political advances, take up these two factors today too — the factor of faith and the factor of patience — the Islamic community, culturally and politically and economically, will gain the upper hand over the unbelievers and the enemies of religion. Let the Muslims not imagine that a stamp of nullity — of ill-repute, of backwardness, of poverty, of abasement — has been struck upon their foreheads; no. Let them not imagine that the enemies who are against religion and against Islam in the various parts of the world, who are these very hostile global powers, must always ride upon the backs of the Muslims and lord it over them and exploit them; no, never is it so. If the Muslims of the world, if the Islamic countries, if the Muslim masses and nations — in short, if the great Islamic ummah, who today number six hundred, seven hundred million in population — if they acquire faith, if they also store up patience for themselves, they will be victorious over the whole world. And this is the Qur'an's counsel to all Muslims in all times. This is the harvest of our discussion today. I wanted you to know that the outcome of the prophetic missions is good. I wanted you to know, from the Qur'an, this matter: that the prophetic missions and their uprisings will in the end be victorious, and that we today are the followers of the prophets. Why should the Islamic nations feel weak? Why? Why should you feel inferior? Why do you imagine that the enemies of religion can always be victorious over the Islamic nations and countries? Why? No; it is not so; rather it is exactly the opposite — provided that we have faith and patience. So from today's session let us at least take this benefit in practice: let us know the meaning of patience, and let us also strive to perfect our faith within ourselves. Our discussion today has ended. I ask you to pay attention: the major and important part of our program is from now on. Let me give one reminder here. Before the recitation of the Qur'an by our dear reciters begins, I translate these verses for you, I set the ground, so that when they recite the Qur'an you may understand its meaning. Let our dear reciter, our dear Qari, Mr. Fatemi, come today, please come forward; if they have come, let them come forward. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make us among the followers of the prophets. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, bring into being within us a strong and rich substance of faith and patience. O Lord! Make us partake of the fruits of faith and patience. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make the Muslim nations and the Muslims of the whole world victorious over their enemies. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, those who, in any spot of the world, in any form, carry on striving and activity to weaken the Muslims, to humiliate the Muslims, to hold the Muslims back — annihilate and destroy them. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, in any spot of the world, each of those people and human beings who pursue some striving and activity for the benefit of the Muslims and for the benefit of Islam and for the benefit of the lofty Islamic ideas — make them successful and aided. O Lord! Cut short and sever the hand of the enemies of religion from the Islamic countries and from the Islamic nations. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, cut short and sever from the head of humanity the hand of the stubborn, obstinate enemies of religion and of the Muslims and of all humankind — namely the Jews. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make us the true followers and adherents of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad. O Lord! Make every day of our life more aware, more learned, more earnest, more believing, and more patient than the day before. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, take under Your protection all the oppressed and the wronged of the world. Annihilate and crush and humble all the oppressors and tyrants of the world; Guide our hearts toward Yourself; Make our souls flourishing and inhabited with Your remembrance and recollection; Make our intention and purpose in this speaking and listening and sitting and rising sincere for Yourself alone; Keep polytheism and hypocrisy and ostentation far from us. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, grant deliverance, very soon, to the innocent prisoners in every spot of the world that they may be. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, fulfill all the sound and reasonable and logical desires and wishes of the community of Muslims. And remove all the personal and individual afflictions from among the Muslims. (One of the matters I wanted to mention is this very subject of the mosque, which I wanted to repeat and to say: that we have not wished to make use of the ordinary kinds of help that are sometimes used in mosques.)