Ep 9 — Glad Tidings (2)

Session 7: Glad Tidings (2). delivered Wednesday, 3 Mehr 1353 / 8 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Ra'd (13:28-29). …those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God. Verily, in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest. Those who believe and do righteous deeds — blessedness is theirs, and a goodly return. We have stated that God the Exalted, in the Qur'an, gives the believers the glad tidings and the promise of every element of felicity. At the level of thought and conception, we identify certain things as the elements of felicity — ten or twelve of which we set out in the previous written note and the previous recitation. The Qur'an gives all of these to the believers in the form of decisive promises. Two of those promises — guidance and light — we observed yesterday in the course of the noble verses of the Qur'an; they were recited, and we benefited from them. Two more we shall raise today, reading their verses briefly. The rest I leave to you, my friends: follow the very order I arranged in the previous note, and take up the subjects one by one. When you study the Qur'an and recite it, try to find those subjects — those of you who know Arabic, from the text of the Qur'an itself; those who do not, with attention to a translation of the Qur'an. For example, one of those subjects is the reward of the Hereafter — one of those promises. Keep your eye on the Qur'an yourselves; see in how many places, and in which places, the Qur'an gives the believers — those who possess faith and righteous deeds — this promise. Or, for example, one of them is superiority over the enemy, and victory over him. See whether there is a place in the Qur'an where God the Exalted has told the believers that you will gain the upper hand over your enemies. Right now, do you know of a place where the Qur'an has promised the believers that you are higher and superior to your enemies, to the ranks of your opponents — provided that you have faith and act upon the commitments of faith? Or that has said that you will ultimately triumph over your enemies, provided that you strive in the path of your thought? Is there such a verse in the Qur'an or not? Can the gentlemen answer whether there is such a verse in the Qur'an or not? And if anyone remembers the verse, he can recite it now. (One of those present: wa antum al-a'lawna in kuntum mu'minin.) Very well, that was one verse — wa la tahinu wa la tahzanu wa antum al-a'lawna in kuntum mu'minin — Do not lose heart and do not grieve, for you are the higher ones, if you are believers. Yes, here is a verse for it: if indeed you are believers, you are superior; the upper hand, the stronger hand, is at your disposal in relation to your enemies. There are numerous other verses that give the promise and the glad tidings to the believers that they gain a decisive victory over the enemies and the opposing ranks: God has decreed: 'I shall surely prevail, I and My messengers.' And verily Our host — they shall be the victors. Verses of this kind are abundant. Keep these in mind. When you look at the Qur'an, when you study it, instead of making your aim to finish a juz' or to finish a surah, let your aim be to understand the Qur'an. As it is reported from the Imam, peace be upon him, or from the Prophet of God, may God's blessings be upon him and his family, that during the recitation of the Qur'an your concern should not be to finish the surah or to finish the juz'. Whether it is finished or not, recite a single verse — with reflection, with care. See whether, in this verse, there is something of these promises we have mentioned — the pillars and elements that are necessary and effective for attaining felicity — whether you find that the Qur'an has promised the believers something of these elements. Has the glad tidings and the promise been given, or not? By this means I want you yourselves to refer to the Qur'an. Until the end of the month of Ramadan, if I succeed, I will translate and explain very many of the Qur'an's verses for you. Say, for example, I explain fifty verses, or another fifty, or another sixty. The Qur'an has roughly six thousand verses — more than six thousand; you yourselves must develop an intimacy with it. Those who know Arabic should try to make that intimacy and companionship with the Qur'an firm. Those who do not know Arabic should try to learn it and become familiar with the language of the Qur'an. But don't put off reading and understanding the Qur'an until after you've learned Arabic — read it now too; only, find good translations of the Qur'an. Some of the translations, in my view, are good and to my liking. When you read the Qur'an, pay attention to those translations, and bring care and reflection to the meanings of the verses; see which of these promises we've discussed here you can find in the Qur'an. So today I will mention two further subjects of interest among these promises that come up in the Qur'an. The rest I leave to you, and I hope you won't put it off until after Ramadan, or until some time of idleness and leisure. This very night, this very day, at the first opportunity, in the first moment of leisure, when you open the Qur'an, read it with this very intention, and teach yourselves familiarity with it, intimacy with it, and how to draw benefit from it. The Qur'an is, after all, the inexhaustible source of our knowledge. Whatever we have, we draw from the Qur'an, and whatever can be the means of our felicity and good fortune must come out of the Qur'an too. This clear, definite text is at our disposal; we are obligated to make use of it. Of course, when I say "the Qur'an," I don't mean to confine it to the Qur'an alone — not Nahj al-Balaghah, no; not the authentic traditions from the rightly-guiding Imams, peace be upon them, no. Why not? Because we should make use of Nahj al-Balaghah too, alongside the Qur'an; we should make use of hadith too, alongside the Qur'an — the authentic and sound hadith. Of course, the Qur'an is a text at everyone's disposal — anyone can carry a correct, sound, complete copy of it in his pocket. Access to hadith isn't this easy, nor is access to Nahj al-Balaghah. In any case, above this we wrote "assurance, repose, and security," which we considered close in horizon — we considered them as one. Let us now state what we mean by these three words, and then return to the verses of the Qur'an to see what they teach us about assurance, repose, and security. Assurance means the state of tranquility of the heart — the calm of the spirit and the heart. But what does "calm" mean here? Does it mean our spirit should have no movement, no striving — a kind of half-sleep, half-unconsciousness in the heart? No. It means calm as opposed to anxiety and agitation; assurance as opposed to disquiet. Picture two people, both due to sit the same exam. One has studied the material well: he has reviewed it ten times, discussed it with his friends, and every problem in the book he'll be tested on is clear in his mind. The other has not studied it, or has covered only part of it, or simply does not trust his own memory. Both are about to walk into the exam room. Do these two carry the same spirit into that room? Watch the first one: his spirit is calm, with no turbulence, no agitation, no anxiety, no unease. He says, "Ask me anything — I know it." The other is in constant turbulence, like a skiff, a small boat that has fallen into a churning sea — thrown this way, then that way, this route, then that route, blown by every wind. That is the state of an unprepared person's spirit. You can find these same two states of spirit in a person facing a judge. You can find these same two states, these same two dispositions, in an individual or in a whole society caught up in social struggle and the great contests of history. Take two soldiers stepping onto a battlefield, each carrying a different disposition. One trusts his equipment, trusts the leadership above him, trusts the planning and competence of his commanders, trusts that the enemy's force is weak, trusts his own capability and that of his comrades-in-arms. He also knows reinforcements are waiting behind the front line, ready to move in at the signal, the moment they're needed. That soldier steps onto the field one way. The other man has no confidence at all — not in his equipment, not in his friends, not in his own weapon. He sees himself as small against a great enemy, sees himself bare-handed against an enemy armored and armed to the teeth. That soldier steps onto the field a different way. These are examples of assurance. I want to make clear to you what assurance really means — what it means for the self to be assured, for the heart to hold calm, and in what sense. That first soldier has assurance; his heart is at peace. A peaceful heart does not mean that in the middle of a battlefield he puts his shoes under his head, stretches out, and sleeps with his snoring rising to the sky. Assurance does not mean that. It does not mean that in the thick of battle he says, "Let's have a cigarette and take in the scenery." Certainly not. Nor does it mean the enemy's slightest movement escapes his notice. Assurance means he is not agitated, not disquieted; the future is clear to him, he knows he will prevail, and so he does not fear. That heart, that spirit, is at peace — like a heavy ship, laden with cargo, moving across a calm sea. That is what they call assurance. The unassured one is that small boat, that broken plank tossed on a turbulent river, agitated without end, thrown back and forth from one route to another. These are the two dispositions. Let me give another example of assurance. We must gradually draw near to that disposition of assurance that is intended in the Qur'an. We begin from the examination of a student, then a defendant before a court, then a soldier on the field of battle. Another instance: a person who has set out upon a road and is moving, going toward a purpose and a destination. Dozens of motives may hold him back from traversing this road and pursuing this goal. Fear is one of these motives. Out of fear he may fail to continue this road. Fear of what? Fear of hunger along the way, fear of the thief on the road, fear of the ravening wolf that lies in ambush on the way, fear of the toils and the sleepless nights of this road, and finally fear of not arriving. This is one category of the things that prevent this traveler from pursuing his road and going forward. Greed is another. Greed for what? Greed for a comfortable life — that if I do not traverse this road, do not set out and go after this purpose, I will sleep in the warm, soft bed of my own home, I will pass my time beside my children and my beloved wife. For an ordinary person, for a small person, for a weak spirit, this is an ideal, and it draws him to itself: he is not willing to give it up easily. Greed for a comfortable life; greed for the one who says, "If you do not go on this road, this purse of money is yours"; greed for attaining the positions which, if you do not accept this wandering exile, those positions await you. Greed! These are the motives that hold a person back from traversing this road — the fears and the greeds. Dissect the fears and dozens of categories emerge; dissect the greeds and dozens of other categories emerge: love of ease, love of well-being, opportunism, self-interest, and the like. Now picture a traveler who has finally taken the risk, as people today put it, and set foot on this road, moving and going forward — but have these motives come to an end? This person moving on this road — have those obstacles that would not let him enter it vanished? No, they have not. These obstacles, at first, would not let him enter this long and far road; now that he has entered it, they will not let him traverse it in tranquility and peace. With every step he takes, like a thorn, like a hook, like a chain, they catch his foot, the hem of his garment, his hand, and drag him back from traversing the road. He keeps falling to this side, keeps falling to that side; this thorn keeps catching his hem, that chain keeps dragging his foot, the love of his child keeps drawing him toward itself, the recollection of a comfortable life keeps pulling him toward itself. From this side and from that side, the various motives carry this person off in different directions. He becomes unstable, like that very skiff, like that very boat — sometimes to this side, sometimes to that side. This is the unassured person. There is also a person who, once he has entered this road, creates for himself a single motive, a focus of attention that leaves him heedless of all these small motives. One attraction draws his heart so powerfully that these small ones — the attraction of the child, the wife, of life, of money, of position, of one's very life — are annihilated in the face of it. They have no effect. Dozens of magnets pull a small object this way and that, but when a stronger magnet appears, its attraction draws that small piece of iron, that filing, toward itself so completely that the others have no effect at all — they are neutralized. Once this person, with this strong attraction and this strong disposition, has entered a road and set himself to traversing it, then the attraction of wife and child and everything else — its beauties, its comforts, its pleasures — no longer has any effect on him. Who is this person? This is the assured person: O soul at peace! Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing. The one who is assured — in whom there is the state of assurance and repose — is the one who can traverse the road of God to its end, and reach the resting-place, the intended purpose and destination. This is what assurance means: an attraction draws him. The attraction of faith, of love for God, of love for the goal, captivates him and pulls him toward itself so completely that all the other attractions look empty and absurd to him — empty and absurd. This does not mean that the earth, in all its immensity, whose gravity draws every body toward itself, should cease to exist. But suppose some other body, some mountain — even the Himalaya, even the greatest mountains on earth — should also assert itself: would the Himalaya draw toward itself a stone that you fling? No. The Himalaya has gravity, but against the earth's gravity its own is zero. It is neutralized; it does not act. The Himalaya, and any body of that magnitude, exerts its pull and draws smaller objects toward itself only where there is no greater body, like the earth, beside it. When the earth's gravity is present, the gravity of the Himalaya is nothing. When faith in God acts on a person's spirit like a strong attraction, it draws him toward the goals of faith so powerfully that the small attractions — the ones that loom large for the faithless but shrink to nothing before faith — no longer have any effect on him. The heart keeps tempting me to bring up here the abundant historical evidence from the early period of Islam — you yourselves should search out that evidence and find it. Those astonishing attractions that drew certain individuals… I only want to explain these two or three words. Assurance — so what does assurance mean? Here is the gist of it: assurance means the tranquility of a person's spirit, the heart at peace. What does it mean to be at peace? Not that it sit motionless, not that it stop advancing. Rather, the various attractions do not pull him this way and that, do not become a source of trouble for him. His loves, passions, and caprices do not rule him. Instead, under the weight of faith, at peace and assured, yet moving with the utmost possible speed, he advances toward the purpose of creation. This is the meaning of assurance. Next, the second word is sukun (repose). Sukun, too, has this very meaning. Then God sent down His sakinah (tranquility) upon His Messenger… God sent down sakinah upon the Prophet. This expression occurs in five or six places in the Qur'an, one of which is among the very verses I think we shall now read — those verses that pertain to the sakinah of the self. It seems, unfortunately, that I have not brought them here. (Time is short, space is short, and our resources, too, are truly meager. I keep thinking that if I bring two more verses, these two pages will become three — and how are we to mimeograph that? You understand! Our resources in these matters are this scant and weak. I say this so that you know: if the print of this has come out faint, it is because, had it not come out faint, it would not have come out at all. Suppose, for example, that our situation is now such that we cannot easily and conveniently provide even two ordinary sheets of paper. Otherwise, I gathered all these verses pertaining to security and assurance and sakinah — I took real pains over it; searching them out is difficult work. At the least, a person must search for one or two hours just to find the verses, let alone draw the conclusions from them. Even so, having gathered the verses, I was always troubled by this: that if we brought two more, this one and a half pages would become two and a half or three, and mimeographing that would be a hard task. See our resources — I want you to bear in mind just how weak they are.) In any case: there are five or six verses in the Qur'an that concern sakinah at critical moments. One, for example, is in the Battle of Hunayn. In the Battle of Hunayn, the Prophet's troops fell into an unwarranted pride. They grew conceited about their own strength and thought that today no one could defeat them. But it is the way of God that a conceited person must fall flat on his face — every conceited group is bound to grow heedless and take a blow. So constant alertness and sensitivity are necessary for every person, every community, every nation. The Commander of the Faithful, may God's blessings be upon him, put it this way in Nahj al-Balaghah: "I am not like that dazed, dumb animal that is put to sleep with a lullaby": wa-Allahi la akunu kal-dib'i tanamu 'ala tul al-ladm — like the hyena, lulled to sleep with lullabies: they go to its den and sing it lullabies, this makes it fall asleep, then they catch it. He is saying: I am not the sort to be lulled to sleep and grow heedless. I am constantly alert, and it is the way of God that a person who is not constantly alert is bound to see and take the blow. These people became heedless on the field of battle, and they had reason to: …when your great numbers pleased you, but they availed you nothing. They were many, and their sheer numbers filled them with wonder. Wonder! Are we all this multitude? "But it availed you nothing" — this very pride is what made them heedless in the war and led to their defeat. After the enemy defeated them — not a decisive, final defeat, but a partial breaking — they immediately came to themselves. A handful of good soldiers, a few steadfast commanders of serious faith — the Commander of the Faithful and a few others — turned back the routed troops with every ounce of effort. And there the Lord says: Then God sent down His sakinah upon His Messenger. God returned to you the peace, the sakinah of the spirit. One instance came when the Muslims renewed their allegiance to the Prophet beneath that tree. Another came when the Prophet had fled Mecca for Medina to build the Islamic society, carrying decisions dangerous to the unbelievers and their enemies, a thousand resolves, a thousand thoughts. The Prophet has set out, and he must reach Medina; every one of those aims, those thoughts, those plans depends on one condition — that he arrive there safely. Otherwise, if the unbelievers could kill him on the road and destroy him, none of those visions would ever come to pass. The Prophet has taken refuge in a cave, and there too God says: …so God sent down His sakinah upon him. God sent down His sakinah and peace upon the heart of the Prophet in that critical moment. And there are several other instances. The believer possesses sakinah; this is what sakinah means. So sakinah, peace, repose of the self — again, it does not mean the absence of movement, falling asleep, becoming heedless. And now the last phrase, the last word — security. Here the meaning is plainly spiritual security, not social security. Social security means that everyone enjoys a certain peace in society, so that each can take what is his by right — and enforced silences are something other than security. Security is all the people being able, in complete safety, to attain their rights and their legitimate wants. But the security we are speaking of here is not that social kind. It is spiritual security — freedom from instability, from agitation, from fear. Now see what the verses of the Qur'an state about the believers under these three attributes. The verse of Surat al-Ra'd, verses 28 and 29 — two short verses: …those who believe, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God. The verse is perhaps a continuation of what comes before, but to recount the previous verses would take too long. "Those who believe, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God" — those who brought faith and whose hearts found peace in remembering Him. This remembrance of God is that very strong attraction — the one I said erases the small attractions and neutralizes their effect. This is precisely dhikr Allah (the remembrance of God). Why did they place such great emphasis on the prayer (salat)? Why did they say that if the prayer is not accepted, no other deed is accepted? Consider how they weighted the rest of the acts of worship: the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime, fasting once a year, zakat for a specific case, khums likewise, and so on — but the prayer, they said, is every day, five times a day, and if you do more, it is better. Why did they say this? Because the prayer is a capsule of the remembrance of God — I have spoken about it in detail over several sessions. The prayer, from head to foot, is dhikr Allah. That is why the Qur'an itself, after it says: Surely the prayer restrains from indecency and wrongdoing… — that the prayer forbids and restrains from indecency and wrongdoing — follows it with: "and the remembrance of God is greater" (wa la-dhikru Allahi akbar). The remembrance of God is higher. This dimension of the prayer is the more important one: that it is the remembrance of God. This is the greatest property of the prayer. And the property of dhikr Allah is this: remembering God, turning to Him, ever seeing Him, knowing Him, considering Him present with oneself keeps the heart, in every undertaking and on every road, away from its agitations, its temptations, its anxieties, and the many attractions pulling at it. This heart finds peace. It is like a weight set upon a boat, which makes it a little heavier and steadies its movement. This is dhikr Allah. "Those who believe" — those who brought faith, and whose hearts attained steadiness and assurance through the remembrance of God — I deliberately chose the word "steadiness" here, meaning that state of calm — are guided toward God. This phrase "are guided toward God" I wrote in parentheses. Why? Because, as I said, the verse is connected to what precedes it, and in the previous verse it was said that they are guided toward God: "and He guides to Himself whoever turns" — those who believe — to the end of the verse. So the words "are guided toward God" that we placed in parentheses render the translation with attention to that previous verse, where the guidance of this group is derived. Surely, by the remembrance of God do hearts find rest. By the remembrance of God, hearts take on tranquility and steadiness. The remembrance of God has this astonishing property, and you can see how powerfully tranquility and steadiness work for a person's success. This is the believer's distinction: he enjoys this astonishing spiritual capacity. Its continuation: Those who believe and do righteous deeds — blessedness is theirs, and a goodly return. Those who brought faith and did righteous deeds — righteous deed meaning that they carried out the commitments that faith demands — "blessedness is theirs, and a goodly return": blessed be their today, and goodly be their morrow. This is a conclusion that I drew from "blessedness is theirs, and a goodly return." In summary it comes to this: their today good, their tomorrow too good; their world goodly, their Hereafter too goodly. And the reality is just this. The believing society — a believer who acts upon the commitments of faith — its world too flourishes, its Hereafter too flourishes; its world too is paradise, its Hereafter too is paradise. This is one verse. The next passage is the disputation of Abraham with his people. Abraham, the Friend of the Merciful and the herald of monotheism in olden and ancient times, used to dispute and argue with his own people. They would argue with him, and he would argue back and answer their words. The Qur'an recalls this disputation. It says, And his people disputed with him — the people of Abraham took to arguing with him. The Qur'an does not say what they said, how they argued with him, what their words were; but from the answer Abraham gave them, which the Qur'an narrates, one can guess. Read the answer first, and then guess for yourself what they were saying to Abraham. He said: Do you dispute with me concerning God… When they took to arguing with Abraham, "He said: Do you dispute with me concerning God?" — do you argue with me about God? — "while He has guided me" — whereas God has guided me. That is: I am clear, I have no doubt about my own road, no doubt you might hope to exploit and use to turn me back. "And He has guided me" — I have found the way, I know what I am doing — "and I do not fear what you associate with Him, except that my Lord should will something" — of what you have set up as partners to God, I have no fear at all, save that God should will something concerning me. In truth, I fear only God. From the events God may place on my road, and from the future God may intend for me, I am apprehensive, and that is all; but of those things you have set up as partners to God, I have no apprehension. A little becomes evident here, and more becomes evident later. From this answer it emerges that they were saying to Abraham: fear these partners we have set up for God, fear them. These will wither you, will torment you, will blacken your world, will embitter your days — no doubt that is so! In answer, Abraham says: I do not fear them, I have no apprehension of them at all. From the continuation of the verse and Abraham's speech, this point becomes clearer still. My Lord encompasses all things in knowledge. — my Lord's knowledge is extended over everything. wasi'a — is extended; rabbi — my Lord; kulla shay'in — over everything; 'ilman — in respect of knowledge. In fluent, simple Persian it comes out just as we wrote it here: my Lord's knowledge is extended over everything. "Will you not then take heed?" a-fa-la tatadhakkarun — with all this, do you not come to yourselves? tatadhakkarun — that is, do you not become aware, do you not become attentive, do you not call to mind? These all mean one thing, so the Persian I wrote comes to just what I stated: a-fa-la tatadhakkarun — that is, with all this, do you not come to yourselves? Abraham's speech with his people still continues; this was one portion of it. Following this, Abraham says: And how should I fear what you associate, while you do not fear that you have associated with God that for which He has sent down upon you no authority? Here it becomes clear what argument they had with Abraham. Abraham says: How is it that I should fear?! It is you who should fear. Should I fear those whom you, without reason, have set up as partners and rivals to God in dominion and rule and command and creation and direction — when God has guided me and the matter is clear to me? And you do not fear that you have set up, without reason, without logic, with no rational warrant whatsoever, partners and rivals and peers to the Lord of the worlds? You should fear, not I. From this it becomes evident that in their argument with Abraham they were saying: Fear! Fear! But fear whom? Fear what? Whether the inanimate partners of God, or the living partners, or both — that is no longer evident. Which partners they said one must fear is not clear. In summary, they set up all sorts of partners for God the Exalted. The calf-worshipers set up the calf, the stone- and wood-worshipers the stone and the wood, the Pharaoh- and Nimrod-worshipers Pharaoh and Nimrod. And from what we discussed concerning tawhid, it becomes evident that that calf and that stone and that Pharaoh and that Nimrod are all kindling for one fire, are all filth of one valley, and have no difference among them. At any rate, these people were saying that one must fear the partners of God. And which partners those are — the human ones, the ones among the jinn, the living, the inanimate — this too is not evident. And how should I fear what you have associated… — how should I fear what you have set up as partners to God — "while you do not fear that you have associated with God…" — while you feel no fear at having set up partners to God? "…that for which He has sent down upon you no authority" — something for which you have no proof at all. Our rendering here is this: How should I fear what you have set up as partners to God, while you do not fear that you have associated partners with Him — even though you have no proof or demonstration whatsoever in this? Then its continuation: …So which of the two parties has more right to security, if you but knew? — we or you? I am the more deserving, the more fitting, to be spiritually secure, to have no disquiet; or you? I, whose heart is attached to God — Abraham says — I, who am the object of God's guidance, am I the freer of disquiet, or you, wretched one, who have taken up a road and a work for which you have no proof, while to me the matter is clear? "So which of the two parties has more right to security, if you but knew?" — which of the two of us, I, Abraham, or you idol-worshipers, is more deserving of security? Abraham was saying this. Then in parentheses I have explained: I, who have known God and found the way to Him with insight and awareness, or you, who have no proof at all for your vain conjecture. "If you but knew!" — that is, the result is evident, the answer is evident; it is evident who is condemned to disquiet and dread, and who is spared these miseries and made secure. And at the end He says: Those who believe and do not clothe their faith with wrongdoing — for them is security, and they are the rightly guided. Those who have brought faith and have not stained it with injustice and oppression — to them alone belongs security, and they are the rightly guided ones. This is concerning security. Then we wrote: "4 — Being fruitful." What does this mean? The fourth promise is this: being fruitful. Whether this traveler considers his work fruitful or not is one of the things that decide his journey. If he has this conviction, he can move better, and he is likelier to arrive; if he lacks it, he moves more slowly, and he is likelier not to arrive at all. Suppose he considered this road — his movement, his work, his step — fruitful. Suppose he felt that none of it goes to waste, that his deed is not ruined, that some effect follows upon each step, that every movement of his creates a wave carrying him nearer to the resting-place. If he believed this, he goes forward faster, works better, tires less, moves more easily. And if he did not believe it — alas! The believer is of this first sort: he considers his own work fruitful, because the Qur'an has taught him so. The Qur'an, of course, has abundant instances: Indeed God does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste. …the reward of one who does good work [We do not let go to waste\.] These verses run from the beginning of the Qur'an to its end, beyond count. I have brought one instance from the beginning of the Qur'an, ready to hand, from Surat al-Baqarah. Ten, fifteen more instances — you can find them yourselves. It is verse 143 or 4 of Surat al-Baqarah. The verse is about the qibla. Let me first give its history in a few words. When the Muslims were in Mecca, they prayed facing the House of the Ka'ba — for prayer, for worship, they faced the Ka'ba. When they came to Medina, at their first entry, they prayed instead toward Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis), by the command of the Lord — the very direction the Jews too were facing. At that time the Jews of Medina worshiped toward Jerusalem, and so did the Muslims. Some time passed, and a verse was revealed: …so turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque. — turn toward the House of God, toward the Ka'ba, the Sacred Mosque. And the Muslims again took to praying in that direction. The episode of the qibla is told in detail at the beginning of Surat al-Baqarah — perhaps seven, eight, ten verses that explain its various dimensions. It is lengthy, and for now there is no need to expound it. This is one of those verses. It says to the believers, and to the Prophet: We set your qibla toward Jerusalem — when you had come from Mecca, at your first entry into Medina — for one reason. We wanted a test carried out upon you. Before you became Muslims, back in Mecca, you already held the House of the Ka'ba in respect, held it sacred; and once you became Muslims, your prayer in Mecca was toward the Ka'ba. Now that you have come to Medina, We wished to take from you, all at once and temporarily, an ancestral custom — to see how ready you are, for the sake of God, to trample custom underfoot. This is very important; this itself is a point. It is not connected to our discussion, but it is a very important point. You who are believers — are you ready, for the sake of God, to trample underfoot all at once an ancestral custom, something you had grown attached to, took interest in, and held in respect? Do not imagine that the prayers you first prayed facing Jerusalem, during your time in Medina, count for nothing — that We do not accept them, that the qibla of Jerusalem was a false qibla. No, certainly not. Everything you did, in all its degrees, is accepted. Your efforts and your endeavors, O believers, both in the matter of the qibla and in general, are the object of God's affirmation and the object of His reward. But that interval took place for this reason alone: that We might test you. This is the category the verse belongs to. Now see from which part of the verse we wish to draw our point. And We did not appoint the qibla which you were upon… — We did not appoint, O Prophet, the qibla you were upon, namely Jerusalem. When was the verse revealed? At the moment they had turned back from Jerusalem to the Ka'ba and were praying toward the Ka'ba. God says: that qibla you formerly faced — Jerusalem — why did We appoint it? "And We did not appoint the qibla which you were upon" — We did not ordain the qibla you were formerly upon — "except" — "that We might know" — except that it might become known — "who follows the Messenger from him who turns back on his heels" — so that those who follow the Prophet would stand out, distinct from those who lean toward their predecessors and turn back to the past. It is a test He carried out upon you. Our rendering of the verse on this sheet runs like this: We had not appointed your former qibla, Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis or Bayt al-Maqdas), except that the true followers of the Prophet might become known and distinguished from the followers of pagan customs. "And it was indeed grievous, except for those whom God has guided" — the change seemed enormous, except to those whom God has guided. For those whose hearts had been guided this was ordinary; they could digest it. The unguided could not. Then the next phrase: "And God was never to let your faith go to waste" — and this phrase is the object of our argument. God would never let your faith go to waste. It was not that your faith and your work would remain void and without effect, that for a stretch of time you would mark time and not go forward. No! Every step of yours, every footstep, has carried you one step nearer to the goal. By that same measure you advanced on the road of perfection and drew near. Your faith is not wasted. Indeed God is, toward the people, most kind, merciful. — indeed God is, toward the people, compassionate and full of mercy. Note this: both this verse and many others in the Qur'an give the believers the same promise — that your faith, your belief, your deed do not go to waste, are not neutralized, but bear fruit. And once this conviction takes hold in the believers, it is clear and inevitable that traveling the road of perfection becomes easier for them. Tomorrow our discussion is about tawhid. Chapter Two:. Tawhid. Tawhid in the worldview of Islam. Tawhid in the ideology of Islam. The exclusive worship and obedience of God. The spirit of tawhid: the negation of servitude to other than God. Tawhid and the negation of social classes. The psychological effects of tawhid.