Ep 29 — Concerning Wilayat (2)

Session 27: Concerning Wilayat (2). delivered Tuesday, 23 Mehr 1353 / 28 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Nahl (16:98-100). So when you recite the Qur'an, seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. Indeed, he has no authority over those who have believed and rely upon their Lord. His authority is only over those who take him as their guardian and who associate others with Him. Today, by means of these verses, we want to establish and explain one point. We have already come to understand that every Muslim — everyone who claims to be a servant of God — must regard the master of his own life as coming from God. The ruler, the one in charge of all the activity and striving of his entire lifespan: he must seek that from God, surrender his head to the wali whom God appoints and designates, and give the hand of obedience to the wali of God. In short: in all the activities of life, one must recognize as governor and ruler only God, and whoever God has chosen to be His own deputy. Of course, we have already discussed this question too — who exactly are those whom God has chosen to be His deputies. We said that they are the prophets, and after the prophets, the awliya' — the very ones whom you also know by the name of awliya'; that is to say, the divine rulers and governors. However, we said that the wali and the divine ruler is designated in one of two ways: either with both name and description, or else not designated by name but designated by a description. These were the matters that became clear in the course of yesterday's discussion, and perhaps somewhat in the day before that as well. Here is the matter under consideration today. Suppose someone does not accept the wilayat of God and goes under the command of other than God. First, what is the ruling concerning this person himself? Second, what is the name of this act? Third, what is the outcome of this deed? These are the discussions that we said belong to the topics surrounding wilayat. True, once we have accepted wilayat in our minds and embraced it, it comes to be counted among the established principles of practical Islam; and within the framework of the discussion about the principle of wilayat, these issues become secondary, peripheral, and subsidiary matters. Yet in themselves they are matters of principle. In the Noble Qur'an, every wilayat other than the wilayat of God has been introduced as the wilayat of the Taghut. Whoever is not under the wilayat of God is under the wilayat of the Taghut. What does Taghut mean? Taghut is from the root tughyan. Tughyan means to rebel, to transgress — to go beyond that natural and innate boundary and circle of a human being's life. For example, suppose that humanity came into being in order to reach perfection; whoever causes humanity to fall short of reaching perfection is a Taghut. Suppose human beings ought to live by the religion of God — this is an innate matter, natural and in accordance with the very disposition of human beings. If someone brings people up in such a way, does something to them, exercises such control over them that they come to live by a religion other than God's, this person is a Taghut. A human being must always be in earnest effort and striving to bring his own existence to fruition. Any factor that encourages and incites a human being toward lack of seriousness, toward not striving, toward laziness, toward ease-seeking, toward seeking comfort and safety — that is a Taghut. Human beings must be obedient to the command of God; anything that draws a human being aside from the command of God, takes him out of it, causes a human being to rebel in the face of God — that is a Taghut. So Taghut is not a proper name — as some imagine, that Taghut is the name of a particular idol. Yes, it is the name of an idol, but that idol is not one specific idol. Sometimes that idol is you yourself; sometimes that idol is your money; sometimes that idol is your ordinary, comfort-seeking life; sometimes that idol is your object of desire; sometimes that idol is the person into whose hand you placed your own hand, closing your eyes and bowing your head so that he may take you wherever he takes you. Sometimes this idol is gold and silver — it is inanimate, it is metal; sometimes it is a human being — it is alive; it is a social order; it is a law. Taghut, therefore, is not a proper name. (Of course, in connection with the social classifications I mentioned in the discussion of prophethood — the way one infers it from among the Qur'anic verses — alongside the mala' and the mutrafin and the ahbar and the ruhban, the Taghut is the rank above all these. That is a different interpretation and a different place, which we are not discussing for now.) Therefore, anyone who has left from under the wilayat of God has inevitably entered into the wilayat of the Taghut and of Satan. What is the relationship between Satan and the Taghut? Do they have a relationship with each other? Yes — and they have more than a relationship. Satan is the very Taghut; the Taghut is the very Satan. The verse of the Qur'an says this. I want to recite the verse only for a verbal inference, so that it may become clear that Taghut is equivalent to Satan. The verse of the Qur'an says: Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Taghut; so fight against the allies of Satan — indeed, the plotting of Satan is weak. Those who have believed do their fighting and struggle in the way of God; those who have disbelieved in and rejected the religion, their fighting and their war is in the way of the Taghut. Then He says: fight, oppose, and combat the awliya', the comrades, the adherents, and the dependents of Satan — for the scheme of Satan, the contrivance of Satan, is weak. In this verse you see that Taghut is named in place of Satan, and Satan in place of Taghut. Satan is every element that, from outside the human being's existence, drives him toward wicked deeds, toward corrupting deeds, toward degradation, toward baseness, toward abjectness, toward oppression, toward evil, toward crookedness — this is called Satan. We have satans among humankind, satans among the jinn; we have a satan among kin and women, a satan among the great, a satan among strangers, a satan among the emotions — this is what is called Satan. One of the instances and examples of it is Iblis, who, in the face of Adam, the Chosen of God, stood up in opposition and independence, made his claim of superior knowledge, and said those words. Whatever curses you and I utter throughout our lifetimes, we curse that poor wretch, the first Satan — whereas Satan was not only him; perhaps it did not begin with him, nor did it end with him. There are satans without number in the world. They can even be touched, they come within reach, they come within sight; a human being is sometimes even in their company. Satan is Satan. Whatever drags a human being from the path of God toward corruption and wickedness and evil and degradation is Satan. Every wilayat that is not God's is a satanic and taghuti wilayat. Whoever does not live under the command of the true wali must know that he is living under the command of the Taghut and of Satan. You may ask: Sir, what harm is there in living under the command of Satan and the Taghut and submitting to his command? This is one of the points of today's verses, and on it the Qur'an gives us several answers. The first answer is this: if you submit to the wilayat of Satan, he will gain mastery over all the creative, generative, fruit-bearing energies of your existence. Turn your neck toward Satan and the Taghut, let him cast the rope of his wilayat around your neck, and you will no longer find any deliverance from his hand. Whatever exists within you — of strength, of initiative, of constructive activity, and of radiant manifestations — will come under the grip of the Taghut and of Satan. And once your entire existence has come into his grip, he can then easily drag you and take you along the very road that he himself wants, to the very place that he himself wants, by the very means that he himself wants. And it is plain that Satan and the Taghut do not guide a human being toward light, knowledge, ease, welfare, and spirituality. These things are not his aim. For Satan and the Taghut, his own personal interests are the primary aim, and he wants to secure them; so he puts you to work in the path of his own personal interests. Pay attention to this sequence I have laid out. These words and these sentences are carefully calculated, with a meaning beneath every sentence — and you will see how greatly it corresponds with the historical realities, from the beginning of recorded history down to today. If you have submitted to the wilayat of the Taghut, all your forces, energies, initiatives, and talents fall into the grip of the Taghut; and once they have fallen into the grip of the Taghut, they are not put to work for your benefit, because your benefit is of no concern to the Taghut and Satan. For Satan, he himself is what matters; his interests are what matter; his path is what matters. If, on that path and for those interests, you are sacrificed, then you are sacrificed; if you are led astray, then you are led astray. If, to secure those interests, it becomes necessary for you to be sacrificed, then you must be sacrificed; if it becomes necessary for you to be led astray, then you must go astray. He is Satan, after all; the power is in his hands, and you, who have given yourself into his hands, are dragged wherever it pleases him. This is the verse of the Qur'an — this verse that I am reciting for you from Surat al-Nisa' — a verse very worthy of attention and reflection. I myself am less in the habit of reading the Qur'an without attention and reflection. Yet at times, when I apply a greater reflection and find and sense something fresh in the Qur'an, I am all the more grieved that we still reflect so little upon it. This verse, which we have written down here, which we have rendered, and which I will also explain now: And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him, and follows other than the way of the believers, We give him over to what he has turned to. Whoever rises up in dispute and contention with the Prophet after the path of guidance has become clear to him — separating himself from the Messenger, branching his road off from the road of prophethood, the very road that we earlier mapped out for you — and follows a way other than the way of the believers and the Islamic community and the goals of faith, withdrawing himself from the company of the upright, purposeful, directed Muslim: that very thing which he himself has cast around his own neck, We make fast upon his neck. That very wilayat which he himself accepted with his own hand, We make the fixed coloring of his wretched life. With his own hand he had gone to that region and taken up residence there; We make him stay right there, broken-footed. Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. You yourself went and gave your reins over to Satan; so let these reins remain in the hand of Satan. This is Our way; this is the law of creation. This — for this world of yours — and for that world of yours, what is the consequence? "And We will burn him in Hell"; from here, once you have closed your eyes, you will go straight to the Hell of the Lord's wrath and the everlasting torment of God. When a human being looks at history, he sees that it is exactly so. These are very important matters — important social matters. We have worked very little on the Qur'an from this standpoint, and we have applied it very little to the history of Islam. How good it would be if people who possess the gift of reflection — those interested in the Qur'an, and especially in its social and historical matters — would reflect and ponder more. And if they then applied these to historical realities, it would become clear which interpretations and historical accounts conform to reality. This historical piece is an interpretation of this verse. Of course, you know it is not my custom in gatherings of this kind to recount history; today I want to recount a bit of history. The city of Kufa is one of the most remarkable cities in the history of Islam. You hold several kinds of memories of Kufa. What I am about to say is nothing new concerning Kufa. You remember that Kufa is the place that the Commander of the Faithful, among all the Islamic lands and the cities attached to the great Islamic realm, chose for his caliphate. This is one positive point, as the gentlemen say. Again you remember that the people of Kufa took part in the wars of the Commander of the Faithful: they brought the Battle of the Camel to its conclusion; they finished the Battle of Nahrawan; in the Battle of Siffin too it was the tribes around Kufa and certain other tribes — and these very fighting men of that city — who brought that war to its conclusion, to where it reached. Again, in another place, you remember that it was these very people of Kufa about whom the Commander of the Faithful would complain and grumble: why is it that when I say, "Come to battle," you do not come? Again, it was these very people whose notables wrote letters and went into the service of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (the blessings of God be upon him): "Sir, come; we will hand this city over to you completely, at your disposal" — yet he did not come. Again, it was these very people whose notables wrote a letter to al-Husayn ibn 'Ali (peace be upon him): "Indeed, we have no Imam" — we have no Imam, we have no leader, we have no ruler, and God has set this tyrant in authority over us; so you come. And they were telling the truth: Sulayman ibn Surad, Habib ibn Mazahir, Muslim ibn 'Awsaja, and others. And again, it was these very people who came, in a most unequal and unbalanced battle, and lined up against al-Husayn ibn 'Ali (peace be upon him), and that catastrophe took place. Again, it was these very people who, a little later, brought about an episode in history that is among the very rare and glorious examples in the history of Islam: the episode of the Tawwabun (the Penitents). They went out with the intent of going to sacrifice their lives and to repent for not having reached the episode of 'Ashura' and the event of Karbala. And again, it was these very people among whom the seed of most of the revolts of the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods was sown, and sprouted, and came to fruition. How many martyrs they gave, how many slain they gave, how many splendid, brilliant, glory-bringing, glory-displaying deeds they brought forth from themselves! And again, it is these very people in whom — in certain affairs — you find slackness and laziness and weaknesses and the spiritual and intellectual incapacities that meet the eye. What is this, then? Did these people have two kinds of character, two spirits, two faces? The very ones to whom Zaynab the Great says: "O people of Kufa, O people of deceit and treachery," recalling them as a treacherous folk. This is a problem; the matter of Kufa is a problem. In my view, a study of Kufa and a discussion of the psychology of the city of Kufa in history would be a very interesting discussion — if someone were equal to this task. Let the specialists, the sociologists, the psychologists sit down and talk about Kufa, think about it, discuss it, and see what a strange creature this is: in one place, all that astonishment in displaying the great manifestations of humanity; in one place, all this slackness and laziness and incompetence. What is it, then? Are the Kufans two classes? Does the society of Kufa have two aspects and two faces? Kufa is a region that was so shaped and so tempered under the command of the dignified, eloquent words of the Commander of the Faithful, that whatever it nurtures, whatever it brings up green, is a sapling fit to be cultivated. This sowing-ground — its every shoot, its every nurtured thing, its every seedling — is altogether of fertile soil and life-giving climate; the very ground and air are human-making. That is why the great epic-creating men of the history of Shiism are, more than anywhere else, even more than Medina, in Kufa. On account of what? On account of the teachings and the instilling of the Commander of the Faithful during those very four years. It is no trifle that someone like 'Ali ibn Abi Talib should govern in a city. It is true that this government, in the span of four years, at the level of the Islamic world was a failure; but at the level of Kufa it was certainly a success. In the society of Kufa it surely had wondrous and remarkable effects. Kufa thus became a cradle of Shiism, the birthplace of Shiite authenticities and virtues. Is that right? But wherever there is a birthplace of authenticities, it is not necessary that everyone who is there be authentic and virtuous and ideal people. One class of people are always, in a passionate and tumultuous society, the showcase of the passion and tumult of that society. Among millions of people, sometimes several tens of thousands, even several thousand human beings, perform some heroic deed of their own such that the name of those several million becomes fruitful in the world for heroism and passion-creating and epic-creating. There was one class among the people of Kufa who were striking. Not a class in the sociological sense, no — rather a stratum, an assembly, a group, a streak of people who were like this. But the mass of the people, the common people, were like the people everywhere else; they were no worse. Like the people of Mashhad, like the people of Tehran, like the people of Isfahan, like the people of Medina, like the people of everywhere else. But that small group, in that corner of the Islamic realm — namely Kufa — were a source of dread and terror to the governments of the time. So the governments would always appoint over that city the worst elements, the vilest governors, the basest of their own men, their lackeys and their executioners. And these would do such things to the people — whether by way of severity and suppression, whether by way of poisonous propaganda, whether by way of spreading poverty and destitution among them — that the mass of the people would, unconsciously and unawares, develop a greater pull toward corruption and degradation. For whose sake did they do this? For the sake of that fighting group, that elite group, that existed in this city and did not exist in other cities. For the sake of crushing the ground that those pure, pure-natured, great human beings might have been able to make use of. So that they could not make use of it, the rulers would go and ruin that ground entirely. They would carry out poisonous propaganda, would put the people under pressure, would put them under suffocation, would weaken the people financially — in short, by all sorts of means they would place the people of the city of Kufa in conditions in which the people of other cities were not. And it was precisely on account of this that the common people, under the influence of the activity of the oppressive, treacherous, tyrannical apparatuses, performed certain deeds that were unbecoming; but their source was not the wickedness of the people of that city. This is a brief account concerning Kufa. In this field, if some people are able to think and study, in history, in my view they will come upon interesting things. I want to explain the verse for you. Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was sent to Kufa by the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik, because he knew that no one but Hajjaj was equal to the task of dealing with the rebellious, epic-creating people of Kufa. He sent the most cruel and the basest of his own lackeys, and that was Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. Hajjaj ibn Yusuf came; he entered the city in the middle of the night. No one realized that Hajjaj had arrived. The previous governor, too, the people had apparently expelled, or something like an expulsion. He had brought with him a hundred swordsmen, or thirty or forty men. (Today we want to recount history. When I recount history I tire less. These are the last days of the month of Ramadan; I am tired, you are tired too; we want to recount history.) He came and stationed his men around the mosque of Kufa, where the murmuring of the worshippers at the prayer-niches, the night-vigil keepers, and the pious could be heard. He himself slipped into a corner, off to one side, among the crowd. He gave the necessary instructions to his slaves and lackeys. The people in the mosque of Kufa, at the first call to the dawn prayer, came and gathered to pray the dawn prayer with the imam. They came for worship and prayer. But it turns out that, as they should have, they were not worshipping with awareness. The proof of it is the very thing I am about to relate. Hajjaj ibn Yusuf came — without the people realizing that he had entered the mosque, or for what he had come and what his intention was. He came and slipped among the crowd, without attracting anyone's attention, and suddenly threw himself up onto the pulpit; he went up there, to the top. And you have seen how large the mosque of Kufa is. The people did not notice at first. And here he was, seated on the pulpit, without uttering a single word. Suddenly one person raised his head and saw that Hajjaj was on the pulpit — of course, he did not recognize him. He said: Who is this on the pulpit? He had also fashioned a strange appearance: he had wrapped around his head a turban of silk, red in color, and he had also bound a veil over his face. That is, he had unwound the taht al-hanak of his turban and bound it up to the bridge of his nose, so that only his eyes were visible. They saw that it was a strange figure: an armed man with a sword and a cloak and a red turban, seated this way on the pulpit, in the mosque of Kufa; and the silence drew the people's attention. This one said to that one, that one said to this one; suddenly all of this crowd that was scattered in the mosque — their eyes fell upon him and their attention was drawn. And little by little they were drawn toward the pulpit, to see who this was. Pay close attention to what the verse of the Qur'an says: "We give him over to what he has turned to." It says that whoever turns aside from the path of faith and the believers — the bond that he has cast around his own neck, We draw tight around his throat. Well — you were a Muslim; on the pulpit of your own mosque a man you do not know is seated. Why do you go there and sit down? You should have gone up and said, "Sir, who are you? Introduce yourself!" The first person, the second person, the third person should have questioned him. Had they asked this question, the situation would have been different. They displayed slackness. They displayed a state of will-lessness and weakness of soul. They sat down so that he might speak. Then, when he saw that all the people were looking at him, he said: It seems the people of Kufa do not know me. The people glanced at one another — well, it was obvious they did not know him. He said: I will now introduce myself to you. He removed the turban from his head. This veil too was removed. He cast a glance at the people and recited a line of Arabic verse: Ana ibn jala' wa-talla' al-thanaya / idha ada' al-'imamata ta'rifuni "When I lift off my turban, you will recognize me." Some looked — once before, this man had come to Kufa — one or two said: I think it is Hajjaj. A whisper spread: Hajjaj, Hajjaj, Hajjaj. The people were suddenly seized with dread, seized with fear, that Hajjaj had come and was seated on the pulpit. He said: Yes, Hajjaj — yes, yes, you have understood rightly. The people now sat in a state of terror. Here, not one person says to himself: Well now, friend, Hajjaj is one man, I too am a man; he is seated above, I am below; whatever he has, I have too. The people's weakness of soul took hold of them here. He said: O people of Kufa, I see heads that, like ripe fruit, hang upon the necks, and the time for their plucking has come. I see that it is necessary for a number of heads to be parted from these bodies. The people were all the more terrified by his pronouncements, which were hollow, which were empty. Well — Hajjaj had not gone to Kufa with an atom bomb; and even if he had had an atom bomb, he would not have detonated it, because if he had detonated it, no one would have remained for him to rule over. It was necessary that a number remain alive; he would not kill them all. If he killed them all, over whom would he rule? Over the walls and doors? What pleasure is there in that? Would he go and rule in the desert? The people did not think of this point. He said: I see that heads are hanging upon the necks. The time for plucking and severing them has come. Well, now I shall determine whose head must be plucked. Stand up, slave! He called his slave; his slave rose and stood upon the pulpit. He said: Read out the letter of the Commander of the Faithful for these gentlemen. The slave — the letter of the Commander of the Faithful, by which, of course, you know is meant his honor 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan! — the slave opened the letter of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the caliph, and began to read. Its opening was this: "In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. From the Commander of the Faithful 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to the people of Kufa. O people of Kufa, peace be upon you." — "O people of Kufa, peace be upon you." He had read to this point when suddenly Hajjaj turned to the slave and said: Quiet! Be still. He fell silent. He turned to the people and said: How very ill-mannered you have become! The Commander of the Faithful is greeting you, and you do not return his greeting. Slave, read from the beginning. The slave began again from the start: "From the Commander of the Faithful 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to the people of Kufa. O people of Kufa, peace be upon you." — Suddenly from the whole mosque a voice rose up: "And upon the Commander of the Faithful, peace." They returned his greeting. A satisfied smile took shape upon Hajjaj's lips; in his heart he said: The work is done. And indeed the work was done. The work of the people of Kufa was finished right there. And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him, and follows other than the way of the believers, We give him over to what he has turned to. You accepted Hajjaj? You answered the greeting of "the Commander of the Faithful" — he who is the commander of the disbelievers and the commander of the corrupt? Very well; now that you want him — Hajjaj for you! Now that you are of Hajjaj's persuasion, God will not, by a miracle, remove Hajjaj and put Zayn al-'Abidin (peace be upon him) in his place. That same Hajjaj for you, until such time as you no longer want Hajjaj. As long as you yourselves find Hajjaj to your liking, all of your life and your thought and your spirit will be at Hajjaj's disposal. This is the way of the world of creation; it is the way of history. This is history. I would have very much liked to recount ten more historical pieces for you, in exchange for the twenty-seven days past on which I did not recount history for you. History is a lesson. Better that the description of beloveds / be told in the discourse of others. History is the interpretation of the Qur'an. Find the Qur'an in history. And know that: For the wise, world-seeing man, two lives would be needed in this age: that in the one he might gather experience, and with the other put that experience to work. And the experience of history is our very former life. Pay attention to history; become a little familiar with history. But strive to take from history that which lies in its heart. Do not content yourselves with merely versifying a tale, telling a story out of history. See what history wants to tell us. What does the episode of Hajjaj tell us in history? It is not amiss for me to add this word too: that this very Hajjaj, at the hands of the very people for whose sake he was committing these atrocities, met his end in the most atrocious manner. It is also not amiss for you to know this: "Whoever aids an oppressor, God sets that very oppressor in authority over him." This too is another way. See what lesson history holds for us, what word it has for us, what message, what counsel. Let us delve into history with the utmost attentiveness; then we will see that the verse of the Qur'an comes to have meaning for us. I have recounted this history; its connection and link with the verse of the Qur'an, I leave to your own minds. Let me explain the verses for you. So when you recite the Qur'an, seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. Now that you have recited the Qur'an, now that you have learned the teachings of Islam — O brother, you who until now did not understand, now that you have understood — keep yourself safe from the satanic harm that wants you not to know and not to understand the Qur'an. What does "keep yourself safe" mean? It means: strive that he not take from you the Qur'anic knowledge that has been heaped up in your heart; that he not close upon you the road of action and the road of fuller understanding. Indeed, he has no authority over those who have believed and rely upon their Lord. Can I, then, take refuge in God? Can I, then, flee from the evil of Satan? Yes. Satan — the evil-creating, corruption-creating, powerful one — has no mastery or might over those who come to believe in God and put their trust and reliance upon God. Those who place themselves under the wilayat of God, and strive and hasten toward the region of the wilayat of God — over them Satan has no mastery. His authority is only over those who take him as their guardian and who associate others with Him. Indeed, the mastery of Satan is only over those who have accepted his wilayat. The mastery of Hajjaj is only over those who accepted his harsh speech, who with their own hand gave the rope around their own neck into his hand — over those who have accepted his wilayat and those who have taken him as a partner with God. And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him, and follows other than the way of the believers, We give him over to what he has turned to; and We will burn him in Hell — and evil it is as a destination. Whoever separates himself, whoever wars in contention with the Prophet after the path of guidance has become clear and manifest to him, and yet separates himself from the path of the Prophet — he does not submit his body and neck to the commitment of faith, to the profession of prophethood, to faith in prophethood, and to bearing witness to prophethood — and follows a way other than the way of the true believers: every thing and every one whom he has accepted into wilayat, We make a wali and ruler over him. Whatever he himself has accepted into wilayat, We make its ruler over him. And We hurl him down into Hell — and how evil a fate and end Hell is. Indeed, Allah does not forgive that He should be associated with, and He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. God does not pass over the one by whom He is associated with partners. Go back to the discussion of tawhid and the meaning of tawhid and shirk; see what shirk is, what tawhid is — and what is the sin that God does not pass over, which God does not forgive? If I want to be more precise and exact, there is still more to say. God does not extend His forgiveness to the one who has accepted shirk. The one who has become a polytheist has entered into the wilayat of other than God, has surrendered the domain of God's influence to other than God; those wounds that have settled upon his soul from sin and disobedience, from evil and wretchedness and disorder, will never be healed — that is, he attains no forgiveness. This is the meaning of maghfirah, after all; I explained it to you. The forgiveness of sin means the smoothing-over and healing of that wound which arises in the human soul on account of sin and error and slipping and deviation. When it is smoothed over, forgiveness and pardon have included him. That wound and distress had come upon your soul by way of evil conduct, of a wrong course, of not walking the path of God; once it heals, you have become forgiven. Ghufran means this. And if you are under the wilayat of other than God, that wound which had arisen from sin will never heal; the blow and kick of sin will never be made good. But the sins less than and lower than this, He brings under forgiveness for whomever He wills. Of course, God's willing is not arbitrary either. The one who repents, the one who makes amends, the one who turns toward God — him God wills to place under forgiveness. And whoever associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray — again it comes back to the matter of shirk: whoever assumes a partner for God and a peer has gone astray very, very far from the path of guidance. There is a time when you lose your way from the road in the wilderness, but you are only one kilometer apart from it. There is a time when, in the desert, you lose your way from the road and you have become tens of kilometers apart from the road; returning from that is not easy. It requires greater effort, greater alertness, a stronger guide. Those who have associated partners with God have likewise gone very, very far from the straight and middle path of guidance; they have fallen into bewilderment and a far-reaching misguidance. They call upon none besides Him but female deities, and they call upon none but a rebellious Satan. Other than God, whatever they call upon are nothing but a few female idols; and they call upon none but a Satan who is rebellious and far from virtue and devoid of goodness. There is a narration in connection with this phrase that those who are people of hadith should consult and examine; I do not relate it. We have rendered marid here as "rebellious"; but you may also write, beside "rebellious," "devoid of goodness and virtue" — this too is a meaning of marid. Allah cursed him, and he said: I will surely take from among Your servants an appointed portion. A Satan who is outcast from God. From the very beginning, Satan made his pact with God; the front of Satan and the front of God, by their very nature and disposition, are not capable of reconciliation. Here He is speaking of the nature of the satan-like ones and the satans; all the satans, and the class of Satan, are essentially this way. Satan has pledged and said: I will, O God, set apart for myself a fixed portion and an allotted share from among Your servants; that is, I will drag a number of Your servants from the straight path into misguidance; I will seize their reason; I will blind their insight and intellect; and instead of their being under Your wilayat, I will bring them under my own wilayat and rule. And I will surely lead them astray, and I will surely arouse in them desires, and I will surely command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will surely command them so they will alter the creation of Allah. And whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly suffered a manifest loss. I will lead them severely astray. I will bind them severely to far-flung, long desires. Dwell a little upon the phrase "and I will surely arouse in them desires." Far-flung, long desires — that which holds a human being back from every effort in the path of God. The desire to live for another ten years in pleasure and comfort and welfare; the desire to marry off the eldest son and find husbands for the daughters; the desire to enlarge this small two-room house and make it three rooms; to make this one-room shop a two-room one; the desire to become the head and director of such-and-such an office and organization and to draw such-and-such an amount of money; the desire that they call my son "Mr. Engineer," or call me that — far-flung, long desires. Desires that, like a millstone fallen upon a human being's neck, bend the head, double the back, and bring a human being to his knees; desires that, if you draw out the tooth of their greed and cast it away, suddenly you find yourself free, you find yourself light, you find that no shackle or bond has tied your hand and foot in the path of God. "And I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle" — I will command them to slit the ears of the cattle. This is an instance of an ignorant and false custom — though it is possible that a greater secret and mystery lies hidden in this phrase. I have not thought much upon this phrase. I did not have much opportunity to examine all that has been said in this regard; perhaps there is a fresh point in it, though I did not have much hope of that either. But I think it likely that there is a point fresher than what I am stating in this phrase; you too should think about it. The apparent matter is this: the ignorant custom of that time, in the time of the Prophet, dictated that the ear of this animal be cut, snipped, slit, so that by this means — suppose, for example — they might secure sustenance and blessing and well-being for it. It is an ignorant custom. He cites this here as a symbol of the non-divine customs and ideas and methods and programs. See how ridiculous it is; see how hollow this custom is. The satanic customs are all of this sort. In the view of the very followers of this custom, it is not hollow, but in the view of a rational person it is hollow. "And I will command them so they will alter the creation of Allah." This phrase is very striking. I command them to alter and transform the creation and the fitrah and the God-given nature. Those human beings who are under my command — O God, those whom I hunt out from the region of Your governance and wilayat, my Lord, and carry off to the saltmarsh of my own wilayat — I command them, I compel them to set aside the divine creation and fitrah, to depart from that line of conduct which You appointed for them. I set down laws for them, laws contrary to fitrah; I give them commands, commands contrary to nature; I place before their feet a road, a road that brings them to a destination other than the natural, human destination. I will command them, definitely and decisively, certainly and emphatically, to transform Your creation, Your fashioning, the God-given fitrah. This is Satan's pact with God. Satan's pact with God is a pact of this sort, a pact of obstinacy and a pact of defiance against God. "This is how we are, O God!" This is the scroll, the placard of the program of all the satans. The work of all the satans of the world is this very work. Be assured that if a people want to live by the God-given fitrah and nature, Satan will not allow it; the Satan who holds wilayat over them will not allow it — it is impossible that he should allow it. And by whatever means, those who are under his wilayat, under his wilayat and dominion, he draws them away from God-given creation and fitrah; because without this, his work does not get done — Satan's satanity goes lame. Therefore, after this, God says — and the address is to me and to you: And whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly suffered a manifest loss. Whoever accepts Satan, instead of God, into wilayat has incurred a very plain and evident loss, has suffered injury. He promises them and arouses desire in them; but Satan does not promise them except delusion. Satan makes promises to these people: your future, your lifetime, your life — all lies. He afflicts them with far-flung desires and fancies. Satan gives a human being no promise but delusion and deception and falsehood; he gives them nothing but deluding and beguiling promises. This too is one verse. The next verse as well — "Allah is the ally of those who believe" — its translation I have written here, with a brief explanation. I ask you to consult it.