In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, those who have copies of the Quran with or the copies we distributed, please look at them attentively while I read some verses from Sura Ra’d (the above quoted verses are read).
For our discussion today I’d like to draw your attention to some verses from Sura Al-Saaffaat. Let me read them to you:
“Surely Our Word already has gone forth to our servants, the messenger that they shall certainly be succoured, and that our hosts will surely be the winners. Thus disregard them for a while and just behold them, for they will also have to behold! Do they indeed intend to urge Us to speed up our scourge? Dreadful will be the morning of the men who were forewarned already when It shall descend upon their courtyard! Thus let them be and disregard them for a while; and just behold them, for they will also have to behold! Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Grandeur and Power, far above their imputation.” (Sura Al-Saaffaat, Ayas 171-180)
I have already described the sublime, progressive goal of the divine prophets which are most advanced even in comparison with what we have in the 20th century; those goals of classless societies and abolition of all forms of ignorance, poverty, oppression, exploitation and social, class discriminations. Their history includes constant struggle, never being fatigued, never resting but relentless Jihad in the Path of God. And towards the end of their corporeal lives, according to historical reports, some were beheaded, some were slain in different ways and some died under intolerable conditions; they never gathered any riches, even in smallest amounts, they never owned any big houses or castles as the world-worshipping rulers. All this we have already known so far about the lives and struggles of the prophets of God.
Yet there is a big, important question concerning the prophets that have not been, fully and fairly, dealt with: what was the end-product of the struggles of the prophets? Weren’t they all defeated in their missions, especially those martyred while trying their best? Don’t you notice that, despite their godly efforts, the history of the world today as well as in previous centuries has been that of oppression, exploitation, class differences, paganism and disbelief? Can’t we rightly claim that the divine prophets did fail?
Such questions are usually welcomed by simple-minded people and certainly by those who do not believe in divine prophethood. We don’t, however, believe so. We believe that the dynasty of prophethood starting with Adam, Noah and Abraham and others, who were the choicest of God’s Creation, were not defeated at all but, among all those people who in the history of mankind struggled and fought for certain sublime, human and divine goals, they have been the most successful. I further believe that the end-product of the revelations and struggles of divine prophets came to their desired results and it will be so in the future as well. I shall try to explain and prove this.
There are two separate issues in this respect. One is whether each individual prophet was successful at his own time and his life-time or not. The second issue is the question: Did the whole caravan of divine prophets, from Adam to Khaatam, advanced their divine mission or failed to do this; these are two separate but interrelated questions, and I hope to deal with them in one or two meetings, if God will. I am sure you all want to comprehend the matter completely because knowing about these two issues is most useful. As I have often said there are many things which add to your knowledge but they are not really useful or beneficial. There is nothing wrong if you all happen to know about the quality of the small pieces of stone remaining on the Moon as a result of the eruption of volcanoes. But are they useful in your actual lives? We could talk about, research and put in writing many useless topics and finally find out that we have amassed a great heap of knowledge which has not made us come closer even one step towards the formation of a rightful, legitimate, Islamic society or, on a higher, spiritual level, to God’s Paradise and His welcome. The accumulation of this kind of knowledge has only one petty result: we may boast about our vast knowledge and believe that there is no more to learn; it is certainly useful in this respect!
Now, what I discuss today is something that brings about awareness, consciousness and commitment. Let me explain this by answering the question: what have these divine prophets really done for humanity? The short answer is: before the prophets, this creature called man could not tell right from wrong and his instincts did help him less than they do in animals; they tried to elevate this backward, ignorant and superstitious creature to a higher, sublime level than God’s angles. If humanity were to act and behave on the basis of their teachings, the best, the most excellent and the most beautiful manifestations of creation would be found in its life.
Let me give you a simple example, I should cite the example of a six-year old pupil who doesn’t even know the alphabet. A teacher teaches him for one year, then he goes to the second teacher, and so by the teaching of many teachers, one after another, he climbs the ladder of knowledge, say, up to the 12th year; let’s imagine that before this, a teacher who taught him in the third year passed away or another of his former teachers was killed, did these incidents stop his progress? Of course not, all these teachers did their best to educate the former small pupil for some 12 years or more to make him where he is today: at a much higher stage of insight, knowledge and awareness, so were the struggles of divine prophets for the refinement, spiritual elevation and social consciousness of humanity.
We clearly see them that neither those teachers nor the divine prophets were unsuccessful. All prophets of God, Adam, Noah, Lot, Hood, Saalih, Shu’aib, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses and Jesus and hundreds of others did their best to raise, enhance and elevate mankind, to increase their knowledge and insight and to prepare them for a wonderful after-life, and they succeeded in their missions, although many died or were killed and couldn’t witness the results of their struggle. Despite this the whole humanity is still marching towards their lofty, godly goals.
Today the world is more eager to hear the rightful message of Islam than a thousand years ago and humanity is readier to approve of a divine administration. At the time when our 12th Imam (May God speed up his reappearance) went hidden from view, humanity was not yet ready to welcome the greatest, reformist revolutionary on earth. This occult Imam will start his grand mission when mankinds quite prepared to hear and welcome the rightful message of Islam, be it tomorrow, ten years from now or after then thousand years; this we do not know.
The experience of our Imam also showed that, despite everything the divine prophets had done, the society under the taaghoot regimes of Bani-Umayya and Bani-Abbas and their corrupt, perverted domination over the people were deep and widespread and the prevailing conditions did not allow the Imams to rise against the oppressors and that’s why the 12th Imam went hidden from view.
In the forthcoming discussions on Imamat I shall explain to you how those Imams followed the path of the divine prophets and continued their efforts. None of these efforts has been in vain because we do witness that humanity has, step by step, come nearer to progress, gradual perfection and spiritual elevation and this was the sublime objective of all God’s prophets. This has been the Almighty’s will to guide humanity to its lofty goal of human perfection. Some schools of thought speak of historical determinism, well, if there is any historical determinism, God’s determinism is the only true one.
The divine prophets always spoke the truth; unlike most political leaders and politicians who are always trying to deceive people, who always pretend to be most powerful, and who always indirectly claim that without them, the people cannot get anything done. Examples for what I said are abundant, if you follow world news. This kind of behaviour, however, is not new in the history of mankind. Whenever I read about historical events in the Islamic world, I am most surprised how clever some of the leaders were. One good example in this respect is Mansour, the Abbasid ruler. Among those who opposed his unjust, un-Islamic rule were two famous brothers, Muhammad-Bin-Abdullah and Ebrahim-Bin-Abdullah. Their father was Abdullah-Bin-Hassan-Mathnaa who was also called ‘the pure Alavite’, because his father was the son of Imam Hassan (AS) and his mother was Fatima, a daughter of Imam Husain (AS). Briefly speaking the two brothers were in hiding and trying to gather support to fight the ruler. Mansour did everything in his power to find them but he failed. Then he thought of a new stratagem: he spread the rumour among the ordinary people that he owned ‘a ball’ which allowed him to see everything- the same sort of story about an ancient king in Persia who possessed such a device and could see what was going on in the world! The rumours said that the ruler was looking in it, house by house, and if the brothers were found in somebody’s house, all its residents would be put to the sword! This way of deceiving and frightening the people meant that nobody could rival his power.
As we see, the oppressors of the world do wish that the people are convinced that the prophets of God and other reforming truth-seekers of the world have always been doomed to fail. They loved people to think and believe that the nature of this world does not allow the progress of the prophets’ missions and that no movement against oppressive, despotic rulers will ever be successful. Well, here we should think: are such claims factual? Do we too have to believe that God’s prophets have always faced failure and defeat? Do we have to forget the holy Quran? No, because the logic of the Quran absolutely contradicts such defeatist opinions. No, we refer to the Quran, we learn from the Quran and find out what it says about prophethood, about the struggles of divine prophets and the effects and the results of these divine missions.
The holy Quran, in the verses I read earlier, explains the matter by some similitudes that there are rights and wrongs, and that the truth, the right and the godly remain and falsehood will disappear: “…the foam will be gone and that which is useful to man shall remain on the earth…”. As you see the foam in this similitude is falsehood and the water is the truth that remains.
What the Quran teaches us which is confirmed by historical facts that the struggles of divine prophets have always taken humanity many steps forward; they not only carried out their missions but the possibility was there that they would embrace success in their own periods. What the oppressors in the world tried to instill in the minds and souls of the people about constant failure of God’s prophets is not true. No, on the contrary, each one of the prophets and their followers did have the opportunity to win their causes. But success in this respect depends on two conditions, and here you should remember what I have often said about the free will of mankind this human will or choice plays a big role in making the future history of humanity. If the two conditions which I’ll be describing to you were there, all prophetic missions could have been successful in their own time, and so will all the movements and struggles based on Quranic, Islamic school of thought in the future, and there will be no need for any miracles or a helping Hand from the unseen world.
Now, what are those two conditions? The first is faith, a faith based consciousness and a belief in commitments followed by action and struggle. The second condition is Quranic patience which means resistance, steadfastness and not discontinuing the struggle at sensitive, perilous moments. Whenever it seems to you that a prophet has apparently failed in confrontation with the prevailing taaghoot of the time, you will immediately notice that his followers and the people close to him lacked proper faith or sufficient patience, and whenever you see a prophet who succeeds in carrying out his mission, you find out that his followers did possess a firm faith and an unshakable patience.
Well, are there any clues to what we said in the holy Quran? Yes, there are many a verse confirming this. The verses I recite to you today are some of such verses that explain the intellectual infra-structure of the Quranic thought. The verse 139 of Sura Aali-Imraan says: “Be not infirm and do not grieve, and you shall gain the upper hand, if you believe.” This is not a Narration the authenticity of which may be doubted and it is not a similitude that may be interpreted differently, no, it is an absolute injunction in the holy Quran, clear and easy to understand: O You Muslim, do not feel weak and never be frustrated or saddened, no, because you will overcome all obstacles, you will be successful and your Quranic school of thought will ultimately dominate the whole world; and what is the condition for such success or salvation? The Quran answers this question clearly: if you are truly faithful, if you are true believers.
Some people may say that Imam Ja’far Saadiq did everything he could against the taaghoot of his time but did not succeed in changing the oppressive ruler and was finally killed by this ruler, why was it so? The answer is that many of his followers, friends and relatives and many who claimed to be Shi’ites were people just like you and me! And the Imam (AS) was not able to do anything against the God-given traditions of history. This also shows that he was not supposed to defeat the taaghoot through some miracles; Imam Musa-Bin-Ja’far was also murdered by the oppressive rulers. All this happened because their friends and followers lacked the necessary faith, patient resistance and required commitments to help the Imam to carry out his mission. Today too, if we happen to be like those friends and followers, the result would be the defeat of Islam and the Quran and the humiliation of Muslims. But if we try to be like the Muslims around our holy Prophet whose patience, steadfastness and their firm faith in the cause of Islam were the envy of God’s angles as manifested by the Muslim who were fasting in the scorching heat of Arabia (Hijaaz) dug defensive trenches and ditches and fought the enemy. The Quran advises us: “Believers, fortify yourselves with patience and prayers…”. You’ll overcome your enemies by the weapon of patience and you’ll reach your goals through patience; that helping Hand to aid you is human patience. In fact, we often misinterpret the term Al-Sabr (patience): we often think that being patient means that we just sit at home and wait to see what will happen. Well, you don’t have to wait and see what happens: I could foretell what happens: if you don’t make a move, if you don’t try hard and if you don’t struggle, the result will be humiliation, disaster and meanness, the loss of your religion and the losing of both your worlds. And here we have the Quranic warning: “… he will be a forfeiter of both this world and the Hereafter; that is the manifest perdition.”. Yet, if you are steadfast and firm, you’ll save both your world and the next.
This is the assured destiny of events as the Quran tells us. The verses I quote here are taken from the Sura Al- A’raaf and I’m specially concerned with Ayas 126 and 127 of this Sura where Pharaoh does not agree with the call of Moses. Then Pharaoh’s sorcerers step forward to defeat Moses; they fail and do admit to the prophetic mission of Moses. Pharaoh is more wrathful and threatens his sorcerers and cries I shall kill you all. Then the well-positioned mala’ and courtiers around him say: “And then the chief of Pharaoh’s nation enquired ‘will you leave Moses and his folk at liberty to spread corruption throughout the land, and to forsake you and your gods’?…”. You see, they all want Moses and his followers to be severely restrained because they would spread corruption and disrupt their oppressive rule and do away with gods of your fathers!
Thus Pharaoh comes up with a new evil plan to crush Moses and his godly mission; so he firmly says: “…let’s slaughter every young man of them and spare their daughters; we have domination over them.” This means that Pharaoh would not allow Moses to do what he likes by murdering all the young men that follow him but keep the daughters and wives alive. This is a new plan, as you notice. After all Pharaoh did to beat Moses, especially after his sorcerers knelt down before the godly power of Moses, he now decides to kill all male followers of Moses to disarm him complexly by resorting to violence and murder. The plan is really satanic, for he decides to keep daughters and women alive for purposes such as prostitution, slaving and destroying the purity of the tribes of Moses. Well, this is a devilish plot. Here is when the faithful may be shaken, here is when only the most patient believers may opt to resist the Pharaoh, and here is when the faithful should be spiritually strengthened not to be defeated and completely annihilated.
Here, I remember a statement by one of the greatest figures in our Islamic history whose name escapes my mind at this moment. Anyway he used to say to his friends and followers: when you see that the battle is hard to win, do fight on, when you see you are about to be defeated, do fight on, when you reach a point of thinking of absolute failure, do fight on and then you’ll realize that you will be victorious. This is a grand, logical advice. When a group, a party or a nation is struggling and fighting for his victory and salvation it does have high hopes for its success. But when people in these groups find out the opponents are too strong, their hopeful determinations weaken and if they reach the conclusion that their struggles would bear no fruits, then surely they’ll be overcome. But if, even under such tough, dangerous circumstances, they resolutely and hopefully continue their struggle, they’ll ultimately overcome their opponents.
Prophet Moses has such a brave plan; he mobilizes the Israelites because he clearly sees that Pharaoh is intent on murdering their men and he presents his plan to his followers. According to the holy Quran Moses advised his people: “let’s implore God for assistance and show fortitude; surely the earth is God’s and He will give it to whom He chooses from the multitude of His own creatures (servants), and the happy end belong to those who have restrained.” He asks his people to only beseech God’s help, to be patient and steadfast, to resist to the last minute and never despair. Why does he say so? Because the earth is vast and it belongs to God Almighty and He grants it to the most virtuous of His servants. He also says: you are God’s servants and you shall overcome the godless servants of Pharaoh.
This is what the Quran says and historical facts also tell us the same. Abraham, who was once thrown into heaps of flaming fire, is the one who later on goes to Mecca, to the house of God, and declares monotheism which lasts for many centuries after him. Moses who is the confronting Pharaoh and his mighty army, is later allowed to enter the Holy Land: “O People mine, enter the holy land, which Allah has for you assigned…”. God tells them to go there and establish a divine, monotheistic order. Jesus Christ who, in his short span of life on earth, does not appear to succeed in his divine mission, will be the founder of the greatest religion of the time in a couple of centuries after his ascension or worldly demise, that is, the most powerful empire of the time, the Roman Empire, has to convert to Christianity and its most arrogant emperor seemingly embraces Christianity before his death. And our holy Prophet, after some 13 years of tolerating pressures, tortures and persecutions in Mecca, migrates to Medina, forms a government there, establishes a new society, defeats all his enemies and leads the Muslim community towards the goal of spiritual, monotheistic elevation. How does he achieve such lofty goals? He accomplishes all these through a firm faith and steadfast patience. The Quran says: “You! If you do show fortitude while fearing God…your Lord will back you…”. Yes, faith and patience tightly knit with relentless struggle will end up in victories; this is a God-ordained universal tradition. It was so yesterday, it is so today and it will be so tomorrow. And today all those people who love to witness that the Quran, Islam, monotheism, prophethood and Islamic teachings do reign the world, those whose heart-desire is to see God as the supreme ruler and judge of the whole world should strengthen two qualities in themselves: faith and steadfast patience.
We raised two questions in this respect at the beginning of our discussion today. The first question was whether the divine prophets succeeded in their missions. The answer, as I explained, is that the prophets did succeed as a whole, for they meant to elevate humanity spiritually and they did; and I explained this through the simile of those teachers who raised a very young pupil’s consciousness and knowledge at different levels throughout long years. But if we want to answer the question whether each individual prophet was successful or not, we should say that the degree of their success or temporary failure depended on the faith and patience of their followers at their age.
Now I want to recite some verses from the Sura Al-Ra’d and Al-Saaffaat. But before this let me mention a point that some friends and supporters of this masque asked me to say. As you know, this masque is half-built and it does not have proper space for men and women to sit comfortably. Well, the person in charge asked to mention this so that you make some contribution towards this charitable cause. To tell you the truth I am not very good at asking people for money! Anyway I was asked to say this and I mentioned it at this point before I forget!
Well, let’s go back to our reading of the Quranic verses. The first verses I recite are verses 16 to 18 of Sura Al-Ra’d which you also find in the papers already handed to you: “…say ‘Allah has created everything, and He’s the One, the Overpowering- He sends down water from the sky, and fills channels and river-beds to overflowing, so that the torrents bear the swelling foams along with them, much like the scums that surface, when metals have been molten in the furnace…”. First of all we are told that all there is belongs to God and then from the beginning of verse 17, we read about the water sent down from heavens. Here I must stress the beauty and eloquence of the verse. The next point is that we are not foretold that a similitude is given; we are suddenly and beautifully thrown into it. Well, we go on reading the verse and then we come to ‘the forth or foam on the surface of fast-flowing currents of water’. If you happen to stand on a high spot and watch the flood-waves in the river below you, you just see the froth on the surface but not the fast flow of water beneath.
Well, let’s read on: “…for making armaments and various vessels; God makes by such similitude, the truth distinct from falsehood…”. Minerals and metals are molten in the fire and then people manufacture all sorts of ornaments, golden, silver, etc. and while being melted, you notice scums and foam-like liquids on the surface, just like the foams on the surface of torrents; but the precious material underneath, just like water underneath the froth of a flood, are not readily seen. Yet what is more precious: the water, the most important element for life or the iron, the gold, silver or the foam over them that is so conspicuously seen?! And then the Quran says: “…and so God makes, by such similitude, the truth distinct from Falsehood…”. Then we read: …As to the foam, it will be quickly gone, and that which is of use to man, shall be remaining on the earth…”. The foams and scums will disappear, one moment you see them and the next moment they’re not there. But water is there forever. Thus we learn from these simple similes that Truth is eternal and the truthful missions of divine prophets will ultimately be fruitful. Those elements, who oppose the prophets, are like bubbles on the surface of water; they’re doomed to annihilation. In verse 18 of the same Sura we are told: “For those who do respond to the call of their Lord, there shall be fine reward, but the rejecters of His call, had they at their disposal all the wealth on earth and as much more, they would surely give it up for their ransom! As their rejection is evil, Hell certainly is their Home, a resting-place most awesome!”
We see again that final salvation is for those who follow the revolutionary mission of the holy prophets but those who follow falsehood, if they owned the whole treasures of the earth, they could not save their souls and their final resting-place will be Hell!
Finally, I have briefly explained some verses from Sura Al-Saaffaat which you find in the papers handed to you. They are Ayas 171 to 173 of this Sura and we read: “surely Our Word already has gone forth, to Our servants the messengers- that they shall certainly be succoured- And that the Quran hosts will surely be the winners.” God Almighty says: We have already ordained the fate of our prophets and it can’t be changed. What is that ordainment? That they will be succoured and that they will finally be victorious. And again, the only condition for their victory is the firm faith and steadfast patience of the faithful. Our holy Prophet and Imam Ali (AS), the commander of the faithful, always, in the peak of struggles and battles called on Muslims to be patient. What does this mean? It means that Muslims should never be shaken, should never give up and should never forget their goals. Today too, if world Muslims have these two important factors in mind, that is, faith and patience, in their march towards cultural, economic and political advancement, they’ll certainly overcome their pagan enemies.
Muslims should never believe that they are doomed to remain backward, humiliated and to suffer from poverty, or that the big powers in the world, that are irreligious and anti- Islam, could be oppressing, exploiting and bullying them forever. No, this is a true supposition. If the Islamic countries, and the masses of the Islamic umma, some 700 million people do have firm faith in their own school of thought and struggle on patiently and steadfastly, they will certainly succeed throughout the world; this is the Quranic advice to all Muslims at all times. And finally I should add that the mission of the divine prophets will ultimately embrace success and salvation; and we are the followers of those prophets of God today. There is no reason to feel humiliated, weak and defeated. Why should we think that the enemies of Islam will always be victorious?! No, this is not true; we shall succeed provided that we constantly strengthen our Islamic faith and our Quranic patience.
Here our discussion comes to an end but I would like to inform you that we shall be dealing with very important issues in the coming days. As you know, in these meetings I always try to translate and explain the content of the verses of the Quran before they are recited in the pleasant tones of our respected reciters. Now let me make some supplications to God Almighty before asking Mr. Fatemi to come and recite the relevant, Quranic verses:
O Lord, please help us to follow the path of your prophets,
O Lord, we implore you to strengthen our faith and our patience,
O Lord, pray help the Islamic umma to overcome their enemies,
O Lord, please make us immune from hypocrisy, polytheism and internal disputes,
O Lord, pray assist those people who do something to benefit Muslims and those who try to spread the sublime Islamic teachings,
O Lord, we implore you to help us to become the true followers of your Prophet Muhammad and his pure progeny,
O Lord, we beseech You to make each day of our life better than the day before in respect of our faith, beliefs, consciousness and patience.
