AL-FALAQ SURAH
We are recalling to one another one of the most significant Surah of the Noble Qur’an. I am sourcing this since the Surah of the last part of the Qur’an are Surah which have descended to the Prophet (PBUH) in Mecca, inasmuch the Surah of Mecca discuss matters on faith.
In our current reality people have a problem with faith. Today I was discussing a matter on idolatry with a friend of mine, Professor Ali Payaziti. People no longer have problems with the traditional conception on idolatry, the primitive way of framing idolatry, when people used to make idolatry from rocks, wood and thus had returned to them as gods. This primitive way of committing shirk finds great hardship being communicated to the contemporary man, but nowadays our world and people have a chronic problem on concentrating their faith, the question stands: upon where should one drive his belief? In Islam the focal point is mainly characterized as Teuhid. Belief in the oneness of God is the outmost centerpiece of faith, one which has no interruption in history. The cultural anthropology of mankind clearly portrays that in each period, worship in one God alone, is above every other thing, and exists since the first day of its presence in the corporeal world.
Even among primitive religions, the religions of the East, among those religions which we now consider as polytheist, all of them in essence contain belief in a superior God. Moreover even the western philosophy hither the XIX century, primarily discusses one Creating Might which is a super power; this movement has been characterized as creationist movement. Creationists have been opposed by the evolutionists of the XIX century, beginning with Darwin who claimed that life is pure coincidence and that the development and changes of the human gene are one evaluative process which occurred in accordance to the system of causality.
Hence it is a matter of belief, concentrating our faith. What is my point here? Currently this world is experiencing the period of Mecca. The period of Mecca is the time when Muslims were in lack of a republic. Upon this day Muslims don’t have their own country. Let me be more clear, I don’t intent to refer to a classical structure of the Sheriah law, for us to establish the rules of the Shariah in society (Shariah means religious law, Islamic legislation). Each law which in essence contains the principles of the Qur’an, those of the hadiths and transmits belief in one God, in Allah Almighty, is thus the ideal law of God. Moreover the Prophet (PBUH) as a messenger has not been sent to create the Islamic republic, but rather to develop one Muslim society, the Islamic society. This shows that the message with which the Prophet (PBUH) has been designated is one spiritual message, the development of a society which shall be led by the principles of religion.
Whereas in reality the phrase political Islam appears more frequently, believing that the mere purpose of Islam is creating the Islamic federation, the Muslim federation. It does not have to do with the above mentioned, these terms are rather hyperbolized which in their inner consistency lack the actual building brick, or let me say it this way, for instance under this subject the Shariah also takes part, as well as the term jihad, these terms encompass a different content of that which the shape and form of the word tends to represent. The term Shariah is like one jar, and inside this jar you could put peppers (spicy ones), and yet in the packaging you could write that it is a jar of jam, but for it inside to still consists something else. In our time in this corporeal hemisphere there is a complexity and confusion of terms. Oftentimes people use terms which have predominant meanings, for instance people use the term diplomacy, but in the actual practice there are lies, and bribes; you could buy a jar of jam from the outside, but when you open it you will get spicy peppers.
The same thing takes place with the Shariah, people mainly speak to us about the Shariah, from the outer domain they insert certain labelling as people subjectively judge and they still fill the inside with other content, to this reason we ought to be very careful with these arising matters. The most paramount matter for the contemporary man is to locus and direct his belief, on which direction should one orient his iman (faith), upon which domain ought one keep constant focus on this life. The Surah of the Mecca in most cases refer to these scenarios, the periods when Muslims are in lack of their own commonwealth country, but still endlessly strive to establish one Muslim society, and hence the individual generates significant importance within such society; the more royal and solid characters one society produces, the stronger becomes the society itself. On the other hand in the course of the Medinah period, when republics were to be established or the institutionalization then priority was given to institutes rather than to the individual. The Eastern world, let me not only encounter the Islamic world, has not disembroiled this problem. The Eastern world has substantial members, but not a solid institute. Think of the moment when this strong individual passes away, then the institutes also perishes alongside. Think of the entire ideology on development, I am being rather frank here. For instance the development of Turkey is rather focused on one man, and think when this one man passes away then the entire system has 90% of collapsing, whereas in England Toni Blair was a man with charisma, Margaret Thatcher was also a character with charisma but the system did not collapse with their departure. Why? Since when one country is it is building state they seek for solid institutes not only solid members. The individual could never reign over the institute, for then the institute would collapse. Thereupon in the course of the period when Muslims did not have an organ or in other words a well organized organization, then individuals received all the importance. The period of Mecca is the time when solid individuals aroused, to this reason ordaining work with such significant individuals beheld importance and moreover was necessary.
Hence the matters which we discuss regarding the Al-Falaq Surah correspond to the individual which ought to be freed from other believes, from the religious frame of view. Mehemt Akif Ersoy Peyan has one significant saying, he says: “Inmemiştir hele Kur’an bunu hakkıyla bilin, ne mezarlıkta okumak ne fal bakmak için” he says: “Be aware that the Qur’an did not descend neither for it only to be read in grave yards nor for having your fortune told”, since in our recent times the modern man is trying to portray religion to the level of primitive beliefs. The moment when religion is no longer the system of life, withal as Aliya Izetbegovic would say, all other religions are purely religions, whereas Islam is a way of life, system of life. When we put boundaries to the scope of Islam in certain locations and aspects of life, be aware that you have caused the greatest harm to Islam. The universality of Islam is focused on the element of taking part on all the segments and spheres of our lives.
You have come here before me and together we are reminding ourselves several important principles of religion, once we go out from here, none of the mentioned principles are actually part of our life, and this is not Islam. We walk into a mosque we pray namaz and in that place we are great Muslims. The moment we walk out of the mosque, the principles which namaz, the mosque seek from us, we leave behind, we do not encounter them in our daily lives, this is when there is no benefit out of religiousness. This is not the nature of Islam, this is not how one becomes a good Muslim.
From this frame of mind, there arise two groups of people. One are the ones who do not practice the religious obligations, for instance, they don’t conduct namaz, they do not fast, they drink alcohol and so forth. From the social aspect perhaps this first group are less damaging than the second group who only conduct the obligations as physical. For instance the first group considers life as a war between good and evil and this one person is significantly involved in many segments of everyday life and says he does not need to pray since he has done good to people, has helped people and so forth, whereas the second group claims that he/she prays to God and inasmuch this is where his / hers religiousness ends.
Both groups from the religious point of view, from the Islamic perspective, are not ideal, both groups have something positive in them yet they are not ideal. An adherent ought to be ideal. Being ideal contains two distinctions: one is perfection in ideology, which then it ought to be passed onto practice. If you are not perfect in your mindset, then under no circumstance can you transmit that conception into practice. Inasmuch it is important to have in mind that in order to become good adherents, good Muslims, praying is not enough, but in addition we ought to be present in all the everyday spheres of the society, altogether.
Are we going to be able to bring this under a frame, within our minds? No matter how many times we are given the opportunity, it is important to be on this path, not to go astray since nobody from us could entirely perform the obligations, we all make mistakes in life and nobody from us is pretentious to show himself as perfect. If we would have been perfect, then God would not have asked us to seek repentance from Him. Then the frame of repentance, the state of seeking forgiveness would not exist. Instead it is important for us to know in our minds, that we are not doing our obligations if we only pray and abandon the good-doing in society, or if we preoccupy ourselves with our social life and abandon our ibadah.
When we speak on religion, it needs to be clear to us that the rule of the game are established by God, we cannot affix the rules according to our preferences. Hence the rules of religion are assigned merely by God and subject to those rules we can learn to approach God.
One of these principles is Wamin sharri hasidin ”idha hasada., the last verse of the Al-Falaq Surah, where Allah Almighty shows us how to pray to Him when we seek refuge in Him from the envious, the covetous the moment it is being ordained. One of the properties which cannot engage and coexist with faith is being covetous; being both a believer and not inviting goodness is simply impossible. The Prophet (PBUH) on one hadith says: “Two characteristics could never coexist within one adherent, al iman wal hassad, iman-faith, and envy-hassad, these could never coexist in the heart of a believer, thus if the individual who seeks to be closer to Allah Almighty contains this distinction, then his road is closed. The Prophet (PBUH) remarks this by saying that under no circumstance could one prosper hither Allah Almighty if one is envy. The opposite of this is altruism, empathy, setting another in your place, both for good and bad. In regards to this the Prophet (PBUH) in one hadith infers: “The adherent has not reached for an ideal faith if he does not wish for his brother what he wishes for himself”.
By this element man becomes human. All the elements of egoism which produce envy are elements by which animals are also characterized; man is the only being who contains the feeling of altruism, the feeling of empathy. At this moment there are two terms mostly discussed in contemporary philosophy: the term of the other and under the frame of the other, the issue on empathy is questioned as well as the subject of altruism. There is no possibility for one to understand another as long as we are not in his shoes, or as long as we do not put him in our position. This frame of mind is the foundation of democracy. Democracy is one notably used term of which we have little knowledge, alike the terms I mentioned above; one intensively used term of which we are unaware of its consistency. An X person, leader of an institute might speak on democracy but his actions reflect him against his own words. This is also how the world is functioning, for instance we once had a deputy prime minister of the USA who used to say: “you are either with me, or against me”. This is not democracy, in democracy there is no black and white, there are nuances. Man is one complex being which cannot be defined as black and white. For one to only discern in black and white, an authoritative system of thought is thus conveyed by this. Religion seeks from us to observe and to assay the nuances. One of the anomalies which prevent man to acknowledge the nuances is covetousness. Hazrati Mawlana has one significant saying which helps us walk on this path. He infers that “the jewels, pearls are found amid the rocks, do not seek a rock amid pearls”. In most cases the diver is one who reveals the pears from the depth of the sea. That person can find one or two pearls, but Hazrati Mawlana says that man contains a whole pocket of jewels, pearls and still in this man you wish to find a rock. If you seek for one surely you will find one. Man in general is like a pocket of jewels, pearls, each person. If amid these pearls we seek for a rock, we will find one, but amid the rocks which are the consistency of one individual we should strive to seek the pearl, and through that pearl for us to establish the relationship with that person.
I know that this sounds very optimistic but in the conception, in the mind it ought to exist as such, since if in our minds we have the opposite then we surely are fallen, and a Muslim cannot be this character. The Muslim cannot simply take the keys of Jannah and Jahannum under his control and put whomever he wishes Jahannum and Jannah; man does not possess this exclusivity. Thus in the construct of our cognition this is precisely how our mindset ought to be affixed, one which embraces each individual and says: “everyone can come, but those who will come to us shall never abandon us as they have first arrived”, this reflects that we ought to become like the place where people enter and regenerate. The biggest problem is when the mirror decays. It is an obligation for the Muslim to be a mirror for people, and when this mirror decays, then people do not have where to look at themselves, thus one of the crucial elements which decay the mirror or being mirror for people is envy and covetousness. Surely when we refer to envy this does not encounter one when one looks up to something, the want to be like another, this is an edict, religion seeks this latter form from us, to want the good, to want to become like somebody who is good in construct, but under no circumstance by violating the rights of others.
This conception (violation of other in order to integrate oneself) is one current movement highly saturated in society, and what is thus justified: the strong one is justified. If the strong one has exclusive rights, then there is no chance given to justice in this world, moreover this is essentially against the development of one prudent society.
Islam seeks from us to abandon these traits, recidivist, primitive, as well as primitive from the entire human specter, these anomalies part of the moral ethical regression.
In conclusion I shall encounter one last matter. Oftentimes we are convinced that these are hard things to achieve and we shall fail to practice them in society. Since the first lecture, Faqir said that we are not interested in other people’s business, everything which is being said here we should each apply it to ourselves. Each time we will righteously seek to shape another person before us, we should be aware that we will be mistaken in our steps. Instead it is important to try our outmost against our own anomalies.
Faqir inasmuch has translated one work into Albanian being a student, 20 years ago, “Direction hither success in life”, a work of our great philosopher Al-Farabi. In this work the author speaks on the positive and negative human traits, he says that if we wish to succeed in the realization of the positive traits and the abandonment of the negative ones, the solution is for us to transform these positive traits into habits, inasmuch if we leave them outside practice we have not generated success. For instance, courage ought to become a habit, as you might have noticed, people who are courageous when another seeks help from them they don’t take long to think about it, this reflects how this trait has become their habit; when injustice has been committed to a person, those who have pertained heroism as their habit do not wait for anyone to tell him to go for help, he himself immediately goes to help the one in need.
In order to depart from the negative traits, it is inevitable to seek a better alternative. For instance the Prophet (PBUH) says to us not to offend another, and at the motion when you are about to offend a person, then you infer by saying SubhanAllah, which means you find an alternative. Several elements which help us establish a good relation with the positive traits are also ways and fashions of remembering Almighty Allah. For instance, if in the course of the day we say for 100 times or 99 times La ilaha Ilallah which means There is absolutely no deity worthy of worship except Allah, believe me very little during that day you will result in bad defamed behavior. Moreover if during the day you say SubhanAllah – praise be to Allah, then very rarely you will use a profuse language or as the Prophet (PBUH) says: “there are two words which are very clear in language, are very heavy, weight a lot the day when people’s actions are weighted before God, and very endeared to Allah Almighty, those two words are: subhanAllah wabikhamdihi..subhanAllahil adhim – all Glory be to Allah Almighty, the Supreme, all praise be to Allah Almighty, which reflects the manner of remembrance of Allah Almighty simultaneously neighbors us with Allah Almighty and also divorces us from the negative and evil traits which arise during the day.
Moreover there is another transmission by the Prophet (PBUH) who says: “Man is together with those whom he loves”. If on this world we are together with the words, with the remembrance of Allah Almighty, then be assured that even when you depart from this corporeal world, something very important to the adherent to be able to leave this world in the rejoice state, with conveying the greatness of Allah Almighty, by saying La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulallah, leaving this corporeal atmosphere with these words; with the words which one shall depart from this place with the same words shall one meet Almighty Allah. In Tasawwuf, the Islamic spirituality we call this to die before one actually dies, this reflects to be able to bring before you Jannah and Jahannum, before actually going before these gates, to bring to you the life after death, to bring before your eyes the Bridge of As-Sirat (the bridge amid Jannah and Jahannum) before you actually come forth with it, to bring before you resurrection and gathering before Allah Almighty, prior to being gathered before Allah Almighty and to await for the record of your deeds.
If we achieve to obtain this then we have undertaken the first step towards perfection. This does not mean for us to immediately deliver this, but we can begin to do something which previously we have held back, one by one, all these deeds shall double triple and grow into habits of our everyday life.
Thereof with these words we shall conclude the Al-Falaq Surah and inshaAllah God grant us health and a long life, the next week we shall speak on a Surah we all know, the Surah Al-Ikhlas which is a constitute of Teuhid, a constitute of believe in the oneness of Allah Almighty.
I think we shall spare more time for the following Surah. Thank you.
