|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
SEEDS
OF TRUTH 2
In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate
All
praise be to God, and all blessing and peace be upon our master
Muhammad and on all his family and Companions.
-
Time
has demonstrated that Paradise is not cheap, nor is Hell
altogether futile.
-
The
merits of the people regarded in the world as the elite
lead them to haughtiness and oppression, whereas they
should be inspired by those merits to be modest and self-effacing.
Instead of arousing in mankind feelings of compassion
and benevolence, the helpless destitution of the poor
leads to their deeper captivity and subjection.
-
Honors
and fineries are made presents of for the elite; shortages
and defects and evil consequences are shared out among
the common people.
-
The
absence or the forgetting of an ideal leads minds to turn
into themselves in self-interest.
-
The
cause of all revolutions and societal corruption, and
the root of all moral failings, are these two attitudes:
First:
I don’t care if others die of hunger so long as my own
stomach is full.
Second:
You must bear the costs of my ease – you must work
so that I may eat.
The
cure for the first attitude is the obligation of zakat,
the alms-tax prescribed by the Qur’an. The cure for the
second attitude is the prohibition of all interest-bearing
transactions. The justice of the Qur’an stands at the
door of the world and turns away interest, proclaiming
– ‘No! you have no right to enter!’ Mankind did not heed
this prohibition and have suffered terrible blows in consequence.
Let them heed it now to avoid still greater suffering.
-
One
who takes an [Islamically] unlawful route to a lawful
objective is often made to attain, by way of punishment,
what is opposite to his goal. The reward for an un-Islamic
love, like the love of Europe, is the pitiless enmity
of the beloved.
-
Whatever
is past as well as [present] misfortunes should be considered
in the light of Destiny, and what is to come, and sins
and questions of responsibility, should be referred to
human free will. In this way, the extremes of fatalism
(jabr) and the denial of a role for Destiny in human actions
(i’tizal, the view of the Mu’tazila) may be reconciled.
-
One
should seek solace neither in lamentations over one’s
failure in regard to what one cannot do, nor in demonstrations
of impotence in regard to what one can do.
-
The
wounds of an individual life can be healed. But the wounds
that have been struck against the dignity of Islam and
the honor of the nation are too deep to heal.
-
It
sometimes happens that a single utterance may drive an
army to defeat, as a single bullet may lead to the deaths
of thirty million people. (A bullet fired by a Serbian
private at the heir to the Austrian throne became the
final pretext for the outbreak of the First World War,
which resulted in thirty million deaths.) Under the appropriate
conditions a [seemingly] insignificant act may cause its
doer to be elevated to the highest of the high, as it
may cause him to be reduced to the lowest of the low,
according to the circumstances and conditions in which
it is done.
-
A
single truth can bring down a whole heap of lies. Again,
a single reality is to be preferred to a whole heap of
fancies.
-
He
who attends to the good side of everything contemplates
the good, and one who contemplates the good enjoys his
life.
-
What
energizes people is ambition and hope; it is the absence
of hope that demoralizes them.
-
This
exalted State collapsed. It had carried through centuries
of self-sacrifice the banner and burden of Islamic Caliphate,
the collective duty to fight for the protection and independence
of the Muslim peoples, for the exaltation of the Word
of God. Its collapse will be compensated in the future
with the general happiness and full independence of the
whole Muslim world – for its collapse is a calamity that
urges us to develop brotherhood, which is the essence
of our life as Muslims.
-
A
demonstration of how the wheel of time can rotate backwards:
the beauties of civilization are ascribed to Christianity
which has no share in them; Islam is accused of encouraging
barbarism and regressiveness of which it is an enemy.
-
A
fine diamond though tarnished is always preferable to
a piece of glass no matter how it has been polished up.
-
Those
who regard matter as the origin of everything have limited
their intellectual capacity to what their eyes can see.
But eyes cannot see the domain of the spirit.
-
When
a metaphor is appropriated by the ignorant, they take
it literally as the reality, which opens a door for them
to superstitions.
-
To
represent someone as better than the virtues with which
God endowed him does him no favor at all. Better describe
everything as it really is.
-
Fame
gathers to the famous what they do not truly own.
-
The
sayings of the Prophet, upon him be peace and the blessings
of God, are the authority and source for Islamic life,
and the inspiration of truths.
-
The
revival of the religion means the revival of the nation.
The being of the religion is the light of life.
-
The
Qur’an is a mercy for mankind; therefore it urges a civilization
which really secures the greatest happiness of the greatest
number.
-
Western
civilization in its present phase is founded upon five
negative principles:
1.
It is founded and rests upon power; power tends to oppression.
2.
It aims at the realization of individual self-interests;
pursuit of their self-interests causes people to rush
madly upon things in order to possess them.
3.
Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life
is struggle; struggle causes internal and external conflicts.
4.
It unifies the mass of its people on the basis of national
and/or racial separatism, fed by swallowing up the resources
and territories of ‘others’; and racism leads to terrible
collisions between peoples.
5.
The service it offers to people is satisfaction of the
novel caprices or desires it arouses in them; (whether
the satisfaction is real or not) this service brutalizes
people.
As
for the civilization founded upon and sustained by Islam:
1.
It rests upon right, not upon power; and right requires
justice and balance.
2.
It aims to encourage people to virtue, which is a spur
to mutual affection and love.
3.
Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life
is not struggle but mutual help, which leads to unity
and solidarity.
4.
It unifies people on the basis of a common religion in
a common state, which leads to internal peace and brotherhood
and a willing self-defence against external enemies.
5.
Islam guides people to the truth. Therefore, besides encouraging
them to scientific progress, it elevates them, through
moral perfection, to the higher ranks of humanity.
Never
break with Islam, for it is the guarantee of our survival;
stick to it, heart and soul, or we shall perish utterly.
-
A
general misfortune is the consequence of a failing in
which the majority of the people have a part. While every
misfortune is the consequence of a failing, it is also
a door opening to a means of reward.
-
A
martyr knows that he is still living. Since he does not
experience the event of his death as death, he sees the
life that he sacrificed for the sake of God as permanent
and uninterrupted, indeed he finds it more refined.
-
The
perfect justice of the Qur’an does not permit the taking
of an innocent life, not even as a sacrifice for the whole
of the rest of mankind. In the sight of Divine Power and
Justice, a single life is equal in value to the life of
the whole of mankind. Yet, there are people whose selfishness
is such that they would, if they could, if the realization
of their ambitions is frustrated, destroy everything,
including the whole of mankind.
-
Timidity
and weakness give encouragement to the agents of external
enemies.
-
A
benefit certain to come should not be renounced for fear
of a harm that is only suppositional.
-
Politics
at the present time is a disease like ‘the Spanish disease’
so-called, syphilis.
-
It
is not uncommon for the sanity of a lunatic to be restored
by telling him repeatedly that he is sane; and a good
man can become bad after hearing repeatedly that he is
bad.
-
As
long as an enemy persists in his enmity, his enemy is
a friend. As long as a friend maintains his friendship,
his enemy’s friend is an enemy.
-
Obstinacy
in one’s cause can lead one to regard a devilish person
as angelic because he assists and supports the same cause,
and then to call God’s mercy on him. Equally, it can lead
one to regard an angelic person as devilish because he
opposes that cause, and then to call God’s curse upon
him.
-
What
is a cure for one condition may be a poison for another.
Excessive doses of a medicine can create new illnesses.
-
A
community among whose members there is solidarity is a
means created to get moving those who lack movement; one
among whose members there is jealousy is a means created
to bring to a halt those who are moving.
-
The
sort of superficial unity which lacks substance, depth
and sincerity, in fact breaks up a community making it
slighter and weaker, just as a fraction multiplied by
a fraction makes the resulting sum smaller. (As everyone
knows, a whole number multiplied by a whole number leads
to a sum which is greater than the two numbers: for example,
three times two is six; but a fraction multiplied by a
fraction leads to a sum which is smaller: for example,
a third times a third is a ninth.) Thus, a community that
lacks a sound and sincere unity will grow weaker by mere
multiplication of numbers, by mere growth of population.
-
Not
affirming that something exists is often confounded with
affirming that something does not exist. The absence of
a sign or evidence that a thing exists may justify someone
not affirming its existence if he is disinclined to accept
its existence. But affirming the non-existence of something
requires clear evidence that proves its non-existence.
For not-affirming its existence is doubt; whereas affirming
its non-existence is denial.
-
Even
if doubt upon a point of belief were to bring to nothing
a hundred proofs for it, the truth of that point of belief
would yet remain intact since the number of proofs for
it abound in their thousands.
-
One
should follow the consensus of the majority of the Muslim
ummah. Following such a consensus, the partisans of the
Ummayyads finally joined the Ahl al-Sunnah wa l-Jama‘ah,
though they had used to be, at the beginning, neglectful
of the principles of Islam. But the Shi‘a, who had been
strict in following the principles of religion, became
in the end Rafizites in part, since they preferred to
remain a small minority.
-
When
the pursuit of what is better or truer leads to dissensions,
consensus on what is good and true should be sought. Consensus
on what is good and true is always preferable to dissension
on anything more than that. Thus, what is good and true
sometimes turns out to be better and truer than what,
in the abstract, appears to be better and truer. So, let
a man declare by all means that ‘My way is good and true’;
but let him never claim that ‘My way is the only way,
the truest and best’.
-
But
for Paradise, the torment of Hell could not be perceived
or known as such.
-
As
time grows older, the Qur’an becomes younger, its secrets
and signs clearer and better understood. As light may
be mistaken sometimes for fire, so force of eloquence
may lead some to find excess in it.
-
Gradations
of heat are measurable because of their present contrast
with cold; likewise degrees of beauty are known by the
admixture of ugliness. The Eternal Power of God is an
essential attribute of Divine Being, necessary to His
Essence. Since impotence cannot dilute it, there are no
degrees of the Power of God, everything is equal before
It.
-
Consider:
the reflection of the sun in both the whole expanse of
the sea and in the smallest wave or bubble of it has the
same identity.
-
Life
is a manifestation of the Oneness of God and brings the
multiplicity to unity.
-
Among
the people, who the saints are; on Friday, the hour when
prayers are most acceptable; among the nights of Ramadan,
which the Night of Power (Qadr) is; among the Beautiful
Names of God, the Greatest Name; in a life, the time appointed
for its death – these are not known to mankind. And because
they are not known, the rest are also esteemed and given
importance. A life of twenty years with an unknown end
is preferable to a life of a thousand years whose end
is known.
-
The
outcome in the world of the evils done in it are a demonstration
that their punishment is to come in the Hereafter.
-
In
the sight of Divine Power, the provisioning of a life
is as important as the life. Provision is produced by
Power, apportioned by Destiny, and given out by Grace
(Favor). Life is the sure, certain outcome of particular
circumstances and events, and so it is witnessed. But
provision is not sure and certain, it is not something
obtained within a certain time. Rather, it comes by uncertain
degrees, leading man to contemplation. Those who appear
to die of hunger die before the sustenance stored in the
body (as fat, for example) is wholly consumed; thus, what
they die of is the diseases caused by alteration or abandonment
of the routine form of nourishment.
-
The
carcasses of animals constitute the lawful sustenance
of many wild carnivores. By consuming those carcasses
they both feed themselves and cleanse the surface of the
earth.
-
Two
morsels of food, one priced at ten cents, the other at
ten dollars, which, usually, do not differ in nutritional
value. For the sake of the few seconds of pleasure it
may give to the sense of taste (which is, as it were,
the inspector and doorkeeper of the factory of the stomach),
is it not the meanest form of waste to prefer the morsel
priced at ten dollars?
-
When
a pleasures draws you, you should say, ‘Enjoyed it already’.
A man who adopted this principle did not spend the money
which he used to build a mosque, now called the Mosque
of ‘Enjoyed it Already’.
-
Where
the majority of Muslims are not hungry, a life of ease
may appeal to the imagination. But where the majority
of Muslims are hungry, no Muslim can choose to live such
a life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
