Ep 8 — Glad Tidings (1)

Session 6: Glad Tidings (1). delivered Tuesday, 2 Mehr 1353 / 7 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Nisa' (4:174-175). O mankind, a proof has indeed come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. As for those who believe in God and hold fast to Him, He will admit them into mercy and bounty from Himself, and He will guide them to Himself along a straight path. The discussion about faith is, in reality, a preliminary one. We need to know the worth of faith and the quality of faith for a definite purpose: so that we may understand religion and know its essential, foundational principles, so that a desire for the doctrinal belief of religion may be kindled within us, and so that we may set out, in a serious way, to grasp religion and to know it. That is why we discussed faith, and to this end. The two or three matters stated about faith were fundamental and important ones. First: faith must be conscious, not blind. Second: faith must be coupled with commitment and action — it must produce commitment and give birth to action, and not be a dry, empty belief in the heart and the mind. Third: a committed believer is a believer only when his faith is not occasional, not opportunistic, not self-interested — but rather constant, present everywhere, embracing everyone, comprehensive in every dimension. These are the matters that were pointed out in connection with faith, and which it was necessary to know. Before we enter into the substance of the topics we have in view — that is, the doctrinal teachings of Islam — one more short discussion is necessary. We are obliged to begin it today, and tomorrow it will continue. At first I imagined that we would finish it in a single day; but once I delved into it, I saw that it would inevitably take four or five days to complete. Today we will certainly discuss it, and tomorrow as well — provided we remain alive, it will probably not drag on to a third day. And here is that discussion: to know the value of faith and the result of faith, we must become acquainted with the glad tidings and the promises that God has given to the believers. Let us see what God Almighty pledges in return to the believer — in exchange for his faith, in exchange for his righteous deeds and his fulfillment of his commitments, what He pledges to him in reciprocation. A human being who has grown accustomed to give-and-take, who has passed his life by way of exchange, likes to see what his exchange with God amounts to. He brings faith, and on the basis of that faith he becomes committed; in return he likes to know what commitment God takes upon Himself in his regard, what glad tiding and what promise He gives him. For the believer — for one who wishes to be firm-footed, steadfast, and unshakeable in the field of faith — this is an interesting, sweet, desirable, and lovable subject, and a source of hope. We gathered all the verses in the Qur'an that bear on faith and the believer. There are roughly seven hundred verses in the Qur'an concerning the believer and faith and certain other characteristics. We set about looking at these verses to see what, upon faith, God has made to follow. (I am describing the method of the work, so that the friends, the brothers and sisters who are familiar with the Qur'an, may learn how to find subjects in the Qur'an.) We searched through these six or seven hundred verses to see what promises, what glad tidings, what worthy, desirable, and longed-for outcomes God has appointed for the believers. We found that they are very many. In my view, there are perhaps around thirty or forty items that God Almighty, in the Qur'an, has made to follow upon faith. The believer enjoys these thirty or forty great privileges — and all of these privileges are great, all of them are important, all of them are necessary, obligatory, and essential for a human being to become happy. One of these thirty or forty subjects is the otherworldly Paradise; that is one of them. One of these glad tidings is …gardens beneath which rivers flow… — and others of this sort, thirty or forty of them. (I saw that if we wished to examine all of these, then — just as I mentioned — at minimum four or five days are needed for these glad tidings and good news given to the believers to be examined. We have set out two of them today, in this written handout that is in your hands. One or two more subjects will be examined tomorrow, and the rest is left to you yourselves, to refer to the Qur'an.) Before we set out these few subjects, some of these subjects that the Qur'an has promised to the believer have been noted here, and I will read them — from this very handout that is now in your possession, and which is also before me — there are ten or eleven of them; I will read them out one by one, briefly, and explain them, so that afterwards we may reach the Qur'anic verses. Here we have written: in order to benefit from comprehensive and complete happiness, what does a human being need? What does a human being need in order to be happy? Those things that a human being needs in order to be completely and comprehensively happy have, in their entirety, been promised to the believer and made to follow upon faith. These things that we have written here are ten or twelve subjects. See: is it truly the case that if even one of these subjects is lacking, a human being can feel happy? You see that, no, he cannot. Of course, there are other subjects too that play a part in a human being's feeling of happiness. And all of these subjects that are written here, and a great many other subjects besides, exist in the Qur'an in the form of a glad tiding and good news upon faith and to the believer. What conclusion do we draw? We draw the conclusion that faith — belief coupled with action, in the way that the Qur'anic culture defines it — is equivalent to all the conditions of happiness and felicity, as regards the needs and requirements that a human being might imagine for himself. The matter is not a matter of bias for the sake of a creed or of religiosity. What we have written here as the conditions of becoming happy — for a materialist, too, these very same things are the conditions of becoming happy. Now we will read them one by one and see whether a materialist, if he were to possess these, would feel happy or not. And after it becomes clear that these are the conditions of becoming happy, then we will return to the Qur'an, we will lend our ear to the heart-soothing speech of the Qur'an, and we will see that it has promised all of these to the believer, given the believer glad tidings of all of these, brought all of these as a gift for the believer — …and God has spoken the truth… — God does not give a false promise; though, of course, this part is connected to our particular religious way of thinking, namely that we believe in God. What does a human being need? One: he needs to know the goal and the destination of happiness. He needs to know where he wants to arrive, for what goal he wants to strive; to see the point of completion and the end of the road from the very beginning, and to know the road to it. Beyond knowing and recognizing and understanding the goal, he needs to know by which road one must travel toward it in order to arrive — to arrive sooner, and to arrive with certainty. Is not the recognition of the goal, the recognition of the end, the recognition of the destination, and the recognition of the road that leads to it, the very first and principal element of a human being's happiness? Here there is no difference between the godly and the materialist; the materialist, too, accepts this, agrees to it, feels it. In parentheses we wrote "guidance" — the first condition. Of course, this "first," and the "second" that we have numbered here, are certainly not meant in the sense of a logical sequence such that you might say this "second" could be placed first and the "first" could be placed second. Well, let it be so; we have now brought them in succession, and it is possible that other things too could be inserted in between these. Two: that the veils be removed — the veils of ignorance, of conceit, of fancy, and of everything that wraps the jewel of his insight and reason in a dark covering and strips from him the power of seeing and understanding. Many things prevent a human being from understanding. A person's conceit prevents him from understanding; ignorances prevent a human being from seeing and understanding; fancies and superstitions prevent a human being or a nation from grasping and understanding the truth; tyrannical systems prevent human beings from understanding and knowing. Various veils and obstacles, from within and from without, prevent a human being from putting to work the God-given jewel of intellect and reason and from knowing and understanding; they keep him in darkness, they seat the human being in a prison of darknesses, they hold him far from light, from the radiance of correct perception and understanding. One of the pillars of a human being's happiness, one of the elements of his felicity, is that he be delivered from these darknesses, from everything that creates darkness for him; that he find his way to the light and the radiance of truth, and that a beam of the light of truth shine upon his heart. In parentheses we wrote "light." So, first, guidance is necessary, in the sense that has been explained; second, light is necessary, in the sense that has, again, been explained — and these are two distinct things. Three: that on his long road toward happiness — on this road that he is traversing toward that destination and the end of the road — he be delivered from the inner anxieties and temptations (pay attention) which are more exhausting than the external deterring factors. Sometimes they block your road and say, "Sir, we will not let you pass from here." Experience has shown, and history has told us explicitly, that when someone's road is blocked, the traveler becomes more eager in traversing this road, his enthusiasm increases, the fire of his ardor blazes more fiercely. If they say, "We will not let you go," the human being presses harder to go, to pass through. This is the external deterring factor. This deterring factor is outside the human being's existence. But sometimes it is from within that they rot the human being. They create doubt within him; they do not block the road — the road is open — but they strip from the human being the power to go, the will to go, the resolve to move, the possibility of striving; and this is worse. "Why are you going? What benefit does it have? Perhaps you will not arrive; perhaps a thief will reach you on the road; perhaps a wolf will come; on what warrant are you going? You need not go." Very coolly, sympathetically, in the manner of a wise old man, in the manner of a master — and the road is also open. This obstacle, this temptation, this anxiety, is by far more exhausting than that stick they place in the middle of the road, saying, "We will not let you go." This anxiety has existed for most travelers, most wayfarers of the roads of happiness throughout history. How much they pleaded with Moses, saying, "We fear that you have said something false, that a false promise has been given to you." In the Qur'an it says that the pressure and poverty were so great that even the elite would waver, asking: …When will the help of God come?… — So when? So where is it? What happened? You see, these doubts and waverings and inner anxieties make even the elite slip. If a human being wishes to be happy and to reach the destination and the end of the road of happiness, one of his conditions, too, is that he be delivered from this anxiety, from this agitation, from this spiritual insecurity, from this lack of calm and this absence of assurance — that he be able to overcome this anxiety and agitation and inner temptation. This, too, is one of the things that brings a human being to happiness: that on his long road toward happiness he be delivered from the anxieties, the temptations, and the inner temptations that are more exhausting than the external deterring factors. Inside the parentheses we wrote "assurance and security." You may put "safety" in place of "security"; it makes no difference. We chose "security" because it was the very Qur'anic expression. It would not be amiss for me to mention this sentence here — perhaps I have said it several other times as well: in the Du'a' Kumayl we recite, "Ya Rabbi, ya Rabbi, ya Rabbi" — O my Lord! O my Lord! O my Lord! "Qawwi 'ala khidmatika jawarihi" — strengthen my limbs and members in Your service; "wa ashdud 'ala al-'azimati jawanihi" — make my heart firm upon resolve. May I be able to resolve, may I be able to overcome weaknesses, doubts, uncertainties, temptations, and anxieties — for this is what halts a human being on the road, seats him long upon the road, and bars him from traversing the road. Four: that he reckon his striving to be fruitful, that he be hopeful that this striving will reach somewhere. Those who are not hopeful that their striving and movement will lead to some result will assuredly not reach the destination of happiness and salvation. He should be assured that his striving is fruitful, should know that every act he performs leaves behind a positive effect, should know that every step he takes brings him one step closer to the goal. In a wilderness, if you know that the lodging is in this direction, you know where you are going; even though it has grown late, even though you have been left alone, you have fallen behind the caravan — steadfastly, firmly, with striving, with fervor, you move, you walk, you go forward. But if you have lost the road, you do not know whether to go this way or that way; in whatever direction you set off, you take a step, you see that you are sluggish — why? Because you do not know whether this striving will be fruitful. You reckon it possible that this very step, this one step, takes you farther from the lodging; and so you turn back from this way, you go again that way, you go again that way. Thus one condition for a human being to reach happiness — for that wayfaring person, that striving person, that exerting person — is that he reckon his striving and exertion to be fruitful. Five: that his slips and errors be reparable and subject to pardon. This, too, is very important. In the course of his life and movement a human being has mistakes, has errors. If every error he commits were to remain as an unhealable wound, were to remain as an irreparable act, the human being would always be in anxiety lest he commit yet another error, and this further error throw him still farther from the goal and cast him aside from the road. He is always despairing of the past and always pessimistic about the future. But if he knows that his errors — on the condition that he himself sets about repairing them — are reparable; that his mistakes, conditioned upon his being himself remorseful of those mistakes, are subject to being overlooked — if he knows these things, his desire, his hope, his vigor, and his fervor will multiply several-fold. Inside the parentheses we wrote "forgiveness and mercy." Six: that in every state he enjoy a trustworthy support to hold onto. He should know that everywhere, in all circumstances, there is a helper of whom he can avail himself — exactly like a person who has placed the complete map of the road in his pocket, set out upon the road, and is going along these roadways; he does not make mistakes, of course, but he also has no anxiety. He knows that if, perchance, at some time, at some place, he loses the road by mistake and goes astray, this map is at his side; he takes it out, looks at it, and avails himself of this map. Everywhere there is a handhold and a refuge that he can grasp and avail himself of. Seven: that in confronting enemies and hostilities he enjoy the help and aid of God. This, too, is another condition of happiness, felicity, and success. Of course, the materialist does not believe in God; but with the materialist we do not bring up the name of God. We say, "Sir, in this material striving of yours, in this social striving of yours, in this jihad you are carrying out — if you knew that there were a power, suppose, beyond the power of matter and nature, and that this power is with you and accompanies you, how would that be? Were you to have such a thing, were you to suppose for yourself such a help and aid and support, how would that be?" You see the spark fly from his eyes; he says, "That would be very good." How interesting it is for a human being to have a power beyond the power of matter and material things as his backer, so that when he faces enemies and their hostilities, their plots, their intrigues, their executioners' cruelties, he believes and knows that that power beyond matter is his helper and protector. Except that the materialist does not know the name of God, has no belief in God — although he also has no certainty that God does not exist. But the godly person, who has certainty in the existence of such a dominant and overpowering might, beyond all these phenomena and relying upon it — see how much more swiftly and admirably he moves along the road of happiness. Eight: that he have superiority and preponderance over the opposing fronts and ranks; that he know that, in the end, superiority and preponderance and preferability belong to him. This, too, in itself, has a remarkable effect on enabling a human being to traverse this road with greater ease. Nine: that he be victorious over the enemies of his road and his goal, who are the obstructers and neutralizers of his striving. Should a person make all these efforts and then, in the end, be defeated?! That does not bring him to happiness. So one of the most important elements of a human being's happiness is that in the end he be victorious — is it otherwise? Do not the world's schools of thought strive for victory? So one of the elements and factors of human happiness — individual, social, and collective — is that in confronting enemies he be, in the end, victorious over them. Ten: that in the end he be released from all the hardships and pressures and bonds and barriers, and attain his object and aim, reaching that destination. Inside the parentheses we wrote "triumph and prosperity" — these very Qur'anic expressions. Eleven: that in every state, on the road and at the lodging — both on the road to the goal and at the destination of the goal itself — he benefit from and enjoy the stores that have been made ready for the human being in this world. That the blessings of heaven and earth rain down upon him: the wheat of the earth, the drop of rain from heaven, the stores of the seas, the stores of the forests and the mines of the mountains, and all the vital materials and the non-vital materials necessary for the human being — and, above all, the source and mine of intelligence and perception and reason and aptitude and ingenuity of the human being — that all of these be opened up to him, and that he avail himself of all of them. This, too, is one of the things that has a part in a human being's happiness. And other things of this sort, which a human being might reckon to play a part in his own becoming happy. And finally, after all these — which come to pass during the span of a human being's life and striving and wakefulness — afterward, when he dies, when this lamp is extinguished, when he becomes, to all appearance, the equal of an inanimate thing: then, far from ending, may the very thread of his benefit not come to an end. May his rest only then begin; may his receiving of reward and recompense only then begin; may it be reckoned the first point and the first step of his ease and enjoyment. A materialist, after he dies, holds that all his strivings have only a worldly result; beyond the world he has no hope of anywhere. To that very one we say, "Sir, after you have died and gone — granting the impossible, which here is not impossible — supposing that the very moment of your death becomes, freshly, the first moment of your ease, how would that be?" You see that this is the greatest pillar of happiness. And finally, that after the passing of the span of life and the ending of all strivings, he find himself met by a worthy reward, and repose in the Paradise of bounty and good pleasure. These are the conditions of happiness. For a human being to be happy, for a human being or a society to become fortunate, these are necessary. Now lend your ear to the speech of the Qur'an, which promises all of this to the possessor of faith — a faith that is committed and coupled with action. How is it? The Qur'an gives the believing people glad tidings of all those things that are reckoned to be the elements and constructive factors of happiness and felicity — these, and dozens of things besides these. It says these are for you. It promises guidance, it promises light, it promises safety and assurance and tranquility and repose of the spirit. It promises the fruitfulness and non-waste of strivings. And all of this — if we look at history and the past with a clear eye — we will observe in historical and human realities. And the way of God is also always one and the same. Now give attention and care to today's verses, with regard to this introduction that was read out and partly explained. The first verse pertains to Surat Yunus. Today's verses are scattered; they are not from one place, they are from several places. Indeed those who believe and do righteous deeds — their Lord guides them by their faith… Those who have brought faith and have done righteous deed — we explained "righteous deed," in parentheses, with a particular expression: righteous deed means the commitment commensurate with that faith. A human being's faith places a commitment upon his shoulders; the fulfillment of that commitment, the taking of that commitment upon one's shoulder, is the righteous deed. Those who bring faith, who attain that belief, and then also act in accordance with its commitments — "yahdihim rabbuhum bi-imanihim" — their Lord will guide them on account of their faith. Faith itself causes them to find the road. To which road do they find it? Both to the goal and to the roads, to the means. Some people say, "Sir, how can we reach that desired destination?" When you probe this remark, you see that the faith of the first step is not in his heart; or if there is faith, action does not accompany it. If he acts, illumination and guidance will fall to his lot; he will also find the second step. "Set foot upon the road, and ask nothing at all; the road itself will tell you how one must go." When a human being brings faith in the goal and the road, and moves in pursuit of this faith, the road, of itself, shows itself. "Yahdihim rabbuhum bi-imanihim" — by means of faith their Lord will guide them, will open the road before them. At the first step, none of the leaders and great ones and wayfarers and followers knew what the tenth step was. I sometimes give an example. I say: in a wilderness which, suppose, is tens of kilometers or more in length and breadth, on a dark and pitch-black night — no moon, no star — your honored self is going along the road alone, and a single small flashlight, a small bulb of the fifth size, a small candle, is also in your hand. They say to you, "Sir, with this candle you must go to the very end of that wilderness." You take a look and say, "Sir, this candle of mine illuminates no more than a radius of one meter; am I to traverse all these ten kilometers with this single candle? This candle of mine illuminates only one meter — am I to go ten kilometers?" This is a logic that an uninformed, inexperienced, unfamiliar person might have. What is its answer? What, in your view, is the answer to this blind logic? Is not the answer to this remark this: "Respected sir, is one meter around you lit, or not? Take one step forward — one more meter will be lit. If it is not, do not go. Go this one meter that is lit; take this one step that you can take and where you know you are placing your foot. If one more step is not lit before you, do not go; if it is, then go again. You will see that, gradually, to the very end of the wilderness it will become lit, and you will traverse this road and reach the lodging." Is it otherwise? Is it otherwise? "Yahdihim rabbuhum bi-imanihim" — God, by their faith, will guide them; faith itself is the cause of a human being finding the roads. In several other verses of the Qur'an, too, there is a reference to this matter. In one place, in a verse — which we have not written here — He says that when a sura or a verse is sent down, the unbelievers and opponents and hypocrites and the ill-willed and the diseased of heart say: …Which of you has this increased in faith?… — Whose faith is increased by this verse? Then the Qur'an replies, saying: Say that those who are believers, those who have truly given their adherence, are increased in faith by this verse and this sign. That very faith of theirs, in their hearts, is what causes them to take guidance from this source of guidance. (These parentheses that we have opened — we wrote inside them, in the form of explanation, that thing — pay attention to these.) The next verse: O mankind, a proof has come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. Behold, O people, from your Lord a proof has come for you — a decisive and clear argument, a firm and establishing demonstration; "wa anzalna ilaykum nuran mubinan" — and We have sent down to you a manifest light. What is meant by this proof and light is the Qur'an and the Qur'anic truths. The evidence for our claim is in its following verse: As for those who believe in God and hold fast to Him, He will admit them into mercy and bounty from Himself, and guide them to Himself along a straight path. So those who bring faith in God and become attached to and reliant upon Him — for faith in the heart alone is also not enough; one must grasp God, the skirt of God, that is, the skirt of God's religion and the godly road, become attached to it. "Fa-amma alladhina amanu bi-llahi wa-'tasamu bihi" — they clung, they became attached; if it is thus, "fa-sa-yudkhiluhum fi rahmatin minhu wa fadlin" — God will admit them into His mercy and bounty. After it: "wa yahdihim ilayhi siratan mustaqiman" — He guides them toward Himself, leads them; and He guides by a straight and near road. This guidance is special to the believers. If you do not have faith — or if you have faith but do not have holding-fast, do not act upon your commitments before God — you will not find the road to God; the illumination of that guidance will not cast its radiance in your heart. This is special to the believers. Surat al-Nisa', verse 175. Another verse: And those who strive for Us — We will surely guide them to Our roads; and indeed God is with the doers of good. This is a well-known verse that is much upon people's tongues. "Wa-lladhina jahadu fina…" — those who, on Our road — God says it, and what is God's road? — and for the sake of the divine goals, the divine aims, any goal that God has in this world, strive… What are God's goals? It is justice, it is security, it is the servitude of the servants before Him, it is the servants of God reaching maturity and perfection, it is the flourishing of the face of the earth, it is the flourishing of human hearts, it is the rendering-prosperous of this world and the next world of human beings, it is all beings falling onto the track and rail of perfection — these are God's wishes. It is the absence of conjecture, the absence of polytheism, the absence of unbelief, the absence of insecurity, the absence of bestiality and brutality, the absence of rebellion and tyranny — these are God's wishes. "Wa-lladhina jahadu fina" — those who strive on the road of Our goals and wishes, the divine wishes; "la-nahdiyannahum subulana" — without doubt and without question, We will show them Our roads; We do not leave them bewildered, We do not leave them astray. That poem I recited is fitting here: "Set foot upon the road, and ask nothing at all; / the road itself will tell you how one must go." "Wa-lladhina jahadu fina la-nahdiyannahum subulana." In every field it is thus. In the field of understanding religion, in the field of grasping religion, in the field of researching religious matters, in social matters, in world matters, in every field — whoever entered upon the divine goals, set foot, every step he advanced, the next step is lit for him. Those who strive on Our road and for the sake of the divine goals — to their own roads, which are the roads of the happiness and perfection of the human being, We lead them. "Wa inna Allaha la-ma'a al-muhsinin" — and without doubt God is with the doers of good. Surat al-'Ankabut, verse 69. These were the verses that exist in the Qur'an in connection with guidance, that first subject. And there are abundant other verses, such that if I had wished to gather all the verses, to write them here and read them, I would have had to speak about guidance alone for at least three or four days. We said that light is one of the things necessary for a human being to become happy, with that explanation that we gave about light on that previous page. To the believers, light has been promised: God is the wali of those who believe; He brings them out of the darknesses into the light… God is the guardian and the comrade-in-the-same-front of the believers. I render wali as comrade-in-the-same-front, joined, on the same level, and I prefer it over "guardian" and "friend" and "helper" and these things that are customary. Because wilayah means connectedness — two things that are bound and joined to each other: to this they say wilayah. God is the wali of the believers, that is, He is joined with the believers. What does it mean that He is joined with the believers? It means that God and the believers are in one rank. The enemies of God are in another rank, facing the believers and facing God. But wherever it may be — "Wa-llahu waliyyu al-mu'minin" — "And God is the wali of the believers," or …awliya'u… — the expressions that exist in the Qur'an are in this sense; keep this in mind. "Yukhrijuhum mina al-zulumati ila al-nur" — He delivers them from the darknesses and brings them to the light. "Allahu waliyyu alladhina amanu" — God is the guardian and comrade-in-the-same-front of the believers. Here we gave an explanation, and this explanation is also not amiss for understanding the meaning of "the darknesses." He delivers them from the darknesses — the darknesses of ignorance, superstition, conceit, domineering and anti-human systems, all those things that, for humankind and for the jewel of human insight, are reckoned a prison and a dungeon — He delivers them from these darknesses and brings them to light. What light? The light of knowledge, learning, and human values. God does this for the believer. He never brings the non-believer, the faithless one, the doubting and uncertain one, the ungrateful unbeliever to light. Therefore the polytheist is always agitated, the polytheist always has anxiety, the polytheist's life is always a life coupled with agitation; for him there is no luminosity, there is no true knowledge, there is no correct recognition, wherever he reaches. "Wa-lladhina kafaru…" — but what of the unbelievers? "Unbelievers" means those who were ungrateful for religious belief and the school of religion, who rejected this gift and present of God with ingratitude — the ungrateful of blessing. Pay attention to these Persian expressions that I am presenting; these show where the root of the word is and how it came to be that this word was used in this meaning. The unbeliever (kafir) is not the one who did not accept religion; kafir means the coverer of blessing, the ingrate of blessing. Why is such a one called kafir? Well, this person did not accept this religion — why "unbeliever"? For the reason that this religion was a gift of God, this was a present from God for the happiness of him and of all human beings; he rejected this — this ingrate, this thankless one, this ungrateful-of-blessing — and so they call him kafir. "Wa-lladhina kafaru" — those who practiced unbelief and denial; "awliya'uhumu al-taghut" — their guardians and comrades-in-the-same-front are the false idols and the transgressors. And those who practiced unbelief and denial — their guardians and masters are the false idols and the rebellious and the transgressors. "Yukhrijunahum mina al-nuri ila al-zulumat" — they cast them out from the light of knowledge, drawing them into the prison of darknesses and obscurities. "Ula'ika ashabu al-nari hum fiha khalidun" — they are all the companions of the Fire, and in it they abide forever. Surat al-Baqara, verse 257. (One more verse — that is, one more passage of the Qur'an — remains for me to read. I have both grown tired, and the time is passing. And afterward our dear reciter, the honorable Mr. Rida'i, recites these very verses today; he reads them too from the handout. It had been arranged that he would collate them with the Qur'an; doubtless he has collated them and reads them from the handout. These verses, with these meanings and translations that have been written here and that I have explained, then, with his charming and affecting voice that you will hear — you will see that it becomes much more pleasing to the mind.) O you who have believed, remember God with much remembrance; and morning and evening, extol Him with purity and sanctity. It is He who sends blessing upon you, and His angels also. O you who have believed, remember God with much remembrance; and morning and evening, praise Him with cleanliness and purity. What has happened? It is He who sends blessing upon you, and His angels too. Why? "Li-yukhrijakum mina al-zulumati ila al-nur" — that He may deliver you from the darknesses and lead you to light and illumination. This is the Qur'an, and this is the glad tiding of the Qur'an. Of these glad tidings there is also another number that, God willing, I will present tomorrow. And if I wished to state all of these Qur'anic glad tidings, and to enumerate one by one all that the Qur'an promises us, it would certainly take more than ten days and twelve days for me to be able to state the glad tidings and good news that are upon faith and for the believer. Therefore we will discuss only tomorrow; if it becomes necessary, if we are compelled, we will speak the day after tomorrow as well — and if not, we will conclude it tomorrow.