Surah AN-NAS
Dear respected friends, last week we began with a Surah from the Qur’an Adihm-shan (and we said that when the Qur’an is mentioned we use the virtue adhimusham, which means, renewed), it is one of the brief Surah’ of the Qur’an and moreover it is the last Surah of the Qur’an. The beginning of this Surah Allah the Almighty initiates with the kul –say order, indubitably this refers to the Prophet (PBUH) but since the Prophet (PBUH) is vital and alive, spiritually, metaphysically, continuously he does not seize to be, he is found among us, his soul has been amid people even before Adam (PBUH), this decree simultaneously is directed to all the periods and the space before us.
There is one saying, which infers that when Adam (PBUH) was in paradise, in one of the gates of the paradise it was written: lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, muhammadun rasūlu-llāh there is no God but Allah the Almighty and Muhammad (PBUH) is His messenger). Adam (PBUH) said: I understood the part La ‘ ilaha “illa-llah, but the part Muhammedun rasulu-llah, I cannot comprehend and I do not know who this Muhammad is. Then Almighty Allah said to the latter: he is the most preferred soul created from Me for whom I shall create the universe and henceforth in all the literature coming after Muhammad (PBUH) in a never seizing way that literature will be composed in love for Muhammad (PBUH). Muslims have brought this love to its institutionalized frame, for instance: reading of Mawlud is one institutionalization of the love for the Prophet (PBUH). Thus Almighty Allah in the beginning of this Surah firstly speaks to the Prophet (PBUH), but in addition, in his personality to all the others who shall read the Qur’an and shall consider the Qur’an as the book for their savior in this world and the hereafter.
Simultaneously, the verb KALE, which we here use in imperative form, in the Arabic language attains the meaning of thought and opinion. For instance: in the books where rights /Islamic fihk is discussed, also those books which speak on apologetics / akaid, the science guarding the fundaments of religion, in the Arabic language when one comes across the word KAUL it does not have the literature meaning of Word, despite that in the etymological linguistic aspect, the word KAUL in the Arabic language means Word, yet when one uses it in the specific Islamic literature, this word attains the meaning of thought, the understating of idea, opinion; it refers to the meaning of giving, representation of the dimension where we shall find the joy and happiness in this world and the hereafter, thereupon when Almighty Allah in the beginning of this Surah says KUL, it is simultaneously said: I am thy Creator, and I know what is better for my creatures, and thus I show the path hither Myself; how to approach Me. The XIX and XX century are the centuries of liberalization in all spheres of man’s life, especially of the liberalization of thought. One of the persons who has sought to present his philosophy merely around the existence of man is Zan Pol Sartr, he is a French existentialist, the founder of the materialist existentialism – since existentialism is assigned under two divisions in philosophy, in the materialistic existentialism, which has for its orbit the material and an idealistic existentialism mainly presented by Søren Aabye Kierkegaar. he latter has one saying which has shocked us living in the modern world, he says: “I am tired from freedom, and freedom has transformed into prison for me.” His entire life he was compelled to perceive the existence of this world in the freedom of man, and in the end, one of his theories claims that freedom enslaves him / man. To live without God is a restrain, it is not freedom. To live without the branch upon which we shall drive our existence is not freedom, is thwart and thus freedom in absence of God puts man astray from the dimension of being man, and thereupon, Sartr, claims that freedom enslaves him.
Let us put in simple terms, what is my point here? In a number of occasions man chooses to be enslaved himself, for instance you are interested in a matter regarding life, and you are free to make your own choices upon your life as you regard, yet some of you might come and consult with Faqir (tendency of mostly Sufis to live life as poor, meaning in need of God, mainly a Sufi leader). At the moment when the person is being consulted, if he listens to me he becomes slave to my thought, despite being free to make his own choice; he comes to me and chooses for his freedom to be enslaved under another person. You know why this happens? For no matter how shallow this person’s concern may be, it is better than undergoing a dilemma, regardless of which choice you make, including making the wrong one, it is still better than not undergoing sleepless night from that distress (thinking what I should do). Dilemmas tend to appear when one is not relying on the Absolute Might, this is surely the answer to the existential dilemmas’ which man is found in; in such occasions our nights are spend in delusion. In one verse of the Qur’an, when Almighty Allah regards the Prophet (PBUH) says: “Your companion [Muhammad] has not strayed, nor has he erred, Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed,..” (Surah An-Najm, verse:2-3-4). He never spoke from his own inclination, instead everything which he said, was merely the revelation which came to him by Almighty Allah. In this perception, the involvement of Almighty Allah in the life of the Prophet (PBUH), simultaneously assures us freedom. One Arabic poet el Mearr says: “I found freedom in slavery, in slaver towards the Greatest”, this is true for only then man is known to be under the tutor and guidance of Allah the Almighty.
To be under the tutor, protection of Almighty Allah is the greatest freedom, since one is attached to the chain of existence; his entire life then takes the prosperous path. One of the most renewed sociologists from Turkey, Jamil Meric has one significant saying: “The populations which pray namaz in devotion, undergo no psychic disease whatsoever, for they are under the protection and tutoring of the greatest existential might, and He has them under His shadow forever more”.
Resultantly those who pray namaz in devotion, and in deity prostrate to Allah the Almighty are the ones who have received the sacred thought of the humane life in this world and simultaneously they receive the order with which this Surah begins KUL / SAY. For those persons who pursue the never seizing existence Allah the Almighty says: EUDHU
Eudhu infers: “I seek refuge or I enter in your refuge”. We have here two things which are exclusive rights of Allah the Almighty. Both of these are mentioned in the Al-Fatihah Surah, this is the Surah which we always recite. For instance we say: al-ḥamdu li-llāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn – All Praise be to God alone, the God of the worlds; Ir-rahman ir-rahim – He is the All Merciful in this world, both for those who believe and for those who do not believe this refers to the word Rahman; Ir-Rahim –but he is All Merciful only for the believers in the hereafter; Maliki yaumid-din – Sovereign of the Day of Recompense; Ay-yake na’budu ve ay’yake nestain – It is You we worship, shows that worship is an exclusive right of Almighty Allah, Allah Almighty does not allow for another worshiper, we ay-yake nestain, and You we ask for help, it shows also that this matter can be requested only from the Creator, it is upon these two elements where the contact with God is assigned and through deity – ibadah (worship, acts of devotion), one seeks refuge in Almighty Allah, it is then when nothing can cause harm to man.
In our religious tradition, we learn from the age of 5-6 the saying A’udhu billahi min-ash shaytaan-i’r rajeem . This eudhu is used in eudhu billahi, it is the identical word used in Kul eudhu birabi-bin nar. “Eudhu” indicates that one is seeking refuge in Allah the Almighty from the devil, the shaytan, but the word shaytan, according to the contemporary scholar fazlur-rahman: (he is one contemporary scholar from the inner continent of India who has lived in the United States. This scholar who is no longer among us today, has been one professor before the Second World War who has been mostly active and engaged in the matters of the Islam in the United States. Fazurr-rahman, has one very significant work known under Islam, in Bosnian it has been translated as “Duh Islama” published in Bosnian in the years 1975-1976), in the Qur’an this word does not only attain the meaning of the devil, shaytan, the jinn which Adam (PBUH) has confronted, since this one has a particular name in the Islamic literature, known as Azazel, that shaytan is known by this name Azazel, whereas the group which has followed him in refusing to prostrate before Adam (PBUH) is known as Iblis. Now we know these are two distinct terms, which have to do with the historical shaytan, whereas the shaytan which Fazur Rahman is referring to (despite that he has been criticized for this, to Faqir this thought is welcomed) has the sense of the primary evil. Under this scenario, when the person says A’udhu Billahi min ash-shaytaan-i’r rajeem – I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, simultaneously it infers, I seek refuge from God from the primary evil in order for that evil not to embrace my life.
From whom does one seek refuge? Rabbin-nas. The word Rabb, in the Arabic language is used for God. Ya rabbi (My God) is also used among us. Although the word rabb in the Arabic language comes from the same infinite as the word Tarbiyah, which in Albanian or the English language refers to educating / education. Hence when in the Qur’an, Allah the Almighty uses the word Rabb, it is mainly on a matter about educating and organizing of the universe and the elements within it. When it is said: “I seek refuge in Rabb / God, it refers to the God who is the educator of mankind in order not to allow for these people to cause harm, malikin-nas, I seek refuge in God who at the same time is Providence and Master of all mankind.
One of the most complex issues for decoding religion, not only in Islamic religion, is the matter on predestination/ determent / kader. And when malikin-nas is said, Providence and Master of all mankind, Almighty Allah clarifies that at the end, He is found behind every act. In a number of occasions you might have noticed that when a desperate disaster was about to take place, all at once it appears as if something less severe took place instead, you might have been in a very bad car accident, and all at once something takes place and that does not occur as severe at it ought to have been in the first place. There is one saying among our population: you have conducted sadaqah (voluntary charity). It is true that the Prophet (PBUH) says that if you seek and wish to intervene in the setting, kader, then give sadaqah, help others and pray to Allah the Almighty. The prayer / dua and sadaqah alter and affix a new inspiration to your destiny, or put in other words ease the already assigned destiny, the kader – predestination. Precisely to this we seek refuge in God, the God who is Sustainer of people, and Master of people; ilahin-nas, real Deity of all mankind shows that He is God to whom people pray, regardless of which religion and believe they come from.
Some of you might have read on history of religions, regardless which religion the issuer spoke, being that the Christian, Hebrew, Buddhism even Confucianism, Shintoism, the primitive religions of America, the aboriginal of Australia, the Busnamanes of Hottentots, all these religions have believed in one superior God, despite believing in other smaller gods. Even in the Greek mythology, as you know Zeus was the superior god in Aristotle’s language, Demiurge is the god who stands upon the other smaller gods. Even amid the mushriks, the Arabic polytheists, during the period of the Prophet (PBUH) it was a similar scenario. The Qur’an speaks of their justification when they would claim that they believed in one God, yet these smaller gods served as a tool of idolatry, acquainting one with the superior God, the highest. It thus shows that when we say ilahin-nas, we are under the protection of one God who is above all others. This matter ought to be observed under the following three distinctions, from the physical reign aspect, second from the sense of the spiritual metaphysical reign and lastly from the aspect of sustaining, educating of mankind.
Allah the Almighty beholds in his hands, metaphorically said, the entire existence, and when we reach for this surah in complete sincerity, we are found under the refuge, protection of Almighty Allah, it is precisely in this moment when nothing in the universe can cause us harm. Moreover you must be assured that it is an Islamic principle that nobody can cause us harm if Allah Almighty does not allow it. In the Qur’an it is said: “They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance. And if they fight you, they will show you their backs; then they will not be aided. (Surah Ali’Imran verse: 111)
Taking for reference this verse and this Surah the question stands, to whom do we approach for help? Why do we seek refuge in Allah the Almighty? Min ser-ril waswasil hannas? The foremost thing as most dangerous, even more dangerous than the jinn, the beasts and the outmost maliciousness which exist in the world are enticements and ill traits which live within people.
To this reason, the seek for help is conducted by saying Min sher-ril waswasil han-nas, seeking refuge from evil, from harm and from the ill caused by those enticements, manners and voices which exist within man. If man succeeds in acquainting the presence of Allah Almighty within him, or better said if Allah Almighty exists, as the Qur’an says: “O you who have attained to faith! Respond to the call of God and the Apostle whenever he calls you unto that which will give you life; and know that God intervenes between man and [the desires of]his heart, and that unto Him you shall be gathered. And beware of that temptation to evil which does not befall only those among you who are bent on denying thetruth, to the exclusion of others; and know that God is severe in retribution..” (Surah Al-Enfal, verse: 24) in the innerness of man or as the other verse proclaims: “And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein” (Surah Qaf, verse: 16), thereupon in his innerness there can be found nothing else besides Allah.
I will bring forth a metaphorical and semiotic explanation on creation, more precisely of the process of creation, which is delineated by one exegesis of the Qur’an, one mufassir (in the Islamic world the exegesis of Qur’an are known as mufassir, whereas the comments of the Qur’an, like the books, are known as Tafsir. There have been hundreds Tafsirs written so far. One of them is by Ismail Hakki Bursevi, the latter has one significant comment of the Qur’an, and Faqir has begun its translation in Albanian some time ago, and InshaAllah God grant us prosper we shall finish that book. This book is translated in Turkish. It is called “Euhul Beyan” which means “The Soul of Clarification”). This is one metaphor, it is not a real event, it is fiction and dramatizing of creation. The author states:
When Allah Almighty created the first man (I am not sure but you might have read Faqir’s work, in reality the critique edition on the work of Hajji Bektash Veli “The Maqalat”. Faqir has mentioned this metaphor in this work, even Hajji Bektash Veli in the “The Maqalat” mentions it), Adam (PBUH) in body, He let him wither (this is how Ismail Hakki Burseviu puts it). He let him wither and thus the devil observed there was something interesting in Paradise, which was not found there prior. Azazil walked, approached Adam (PBUH) and was astounded to see this being. He approached the man’s chest, and knocked. When he knocked on his chest, there came a sound (similar to when one knocks on an empty vase, it was the identical noise which came out of the being) and he said: “This one is empty, hollow, there is no use of him”. Whereas Allah Almighty answered: “So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My [created] soul, then fall down to him in prostration.” (Surah Sad, verse: 72). Thereupon when the breadth of God (in the chest) is not found, truly devil’s word is right, then man is empty, hollow and he does not behold any role or importance.
Only then when in his innerness is man nourished with the sacred soul, as Almighty Allah says in the Qur’an, then man can experience the joy of existence. Bursevi follows by saying, Allah created the mind, and told the mind to choose a place in the body of man, the mind those the brain. Afterwards He created faith, and asked faith to choose a place in the body of man, faith chose the heart. After this Almighty Allah created repentance and the latter chose the face, physiognomy. These are three very important elements, one of which corresponds to rationalism, the other one refers to idealization, iman, and the third one infers the social activities taking place within our society, respectively. After this eventuation, God created three other matters. He created sorrow, it asked it to choose a place and sorrow chose the brain. The mind said, if you venture to approach I shall elope. After this God created rancor, hatred and asked it to choose a place, the latter chose the heart. Faith spoke: if they venture to approach, I shall elope. Then God created quarrel, arguing. It also asked it to choose a place, and the latter chose the face. Repentance spoke: if you venture to approach I shall elope. Inasmuch, in three various states Ismail Hakki Bursevi, speaks to us on three elements which arise from the innerness of man. Each of these anomalies or negative traits, which in this case Bursevi encounters, have their source in the inner distresses of man, to this reason Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi says that the one who is not in possession of hatred, cannot understand one who despises, the man who cannot be envy, could not possibly understand one who is covetous, since this person does not have an idea, a thought a concept on being envy, he has no defining of hatred.
This is the essential element, henceforth Islamic Tasawwuf emphasizes in the inner education of man, and not the superficial, the visible dimension. When the inner part will be educated, there will not appear any problems in the outer portion, and moreover all the negative traits which the Qur’an explains, as is theft, and when this is conducted, as an outer act, it takes a jurisdictional shape, and yet when we conduct theft in our inner self, this attains the moral dimensions and it destroys the person conducting this act. Imagine a theft in the soul who cannot steal, this last one dies, he is imprisoned. Or a vengeful person who cannot cause harm since the law prohibits it (this person will also die). There is one scholar Erzurmlu Ibrahim Hakki, who has written one work which he calls “Marifetname”, it is one of the first books which have been written in the history of physiognomy (ilm-I sia, reading man’s character from his face). We are speaking of a person and the science which according to man’s physiognomy, according to the physiognomic traits, concludes whether that person is a good man or a malicious one. “Marifetame” as the book also says the book of marifat, means the book of profound wisdom.
The protagonist told a story when he once took the original copy and had gone from Erzurum to have it published in Istanbul. He and his pupil had decided to spend the night nearby a mill for it became very dark outside. But when Ibrahim Hakki had seen the owner of this mill and judging from the man’s physical appearance, the latter concluded this man must had been a thief. Nevertheless, the man had been very friendly and had welcomed them, yet Ibrahim Hakki was in constant distress. The student got worried and asked him: “Professor this man is doing only good to us, he is showing respect, and why are you in distress?”
Ibrahim Hakki said, if this is his true self then I should say farewell to my book, I cannot publish this book, I must return. When they had gone out of the mill in the early morning, the owner had ushered them and the moment they had reached the first visible hill, the man had gone to them equipped in guns and had stolen their things. Ibrahim Hakki had begun to laugh and had said: “Take everything, just leave the book to me.” He was happy he could save the book.
This shows that the anomaly within man can be very dangerous, and this can serve to destroy man. When we read the Surah En-Nasr and once we truly believe in this surah, once we engross in its message, then be aware that little by little we begin to educate ourselves and thus distance the inner anomalies, and when our inner self is revitalized from these anomalies, we can live life in peace, not for the others; it is not important how we look from our outer perception, but life then beholds importance for us, it is important how in peace we live this life for ourselves.
This is precisely the Islamic point of view, aiming for the positive and good things is known as husn-I dhan, it means to behold a healthy and good thought, whereas the contemporary mentality tends to teach man to approach things with skepticism and this has permeated in the contemporary philosophy.
When one of you would want to get employed the company asks a letter from the court in order to justify that you have not committed any crimes, this means man needs to argue he is not vindictive, it means that potentially he is perceived as evil. Why should I argue that I am not malevolent? He needs to give an argument clarifying I am not evil. Or even when you seek to be employed the other party would ask from you a statement from the doctor stating that the pending person for the position is healthy. Man in his essence is healthy, diseases are exclusions (the practice is not as important as the actual philosophy on this matter). The philosophy is such that claims that the one who is demanding the doctor’s statement, should be considered potentially as unhealthy, for you need to justify and prove you are healthy. The same scenario with the one who demands a statement from court, is considering the man a thief or a criminal, and the pending person is put in position to defend his clear case. Thereupon, what is most important among us, is that we are essentially good. Even our Prophet (PBUH) states: “Each newborn baby is born with a pure nature”, it shows that the newborn baby is born good and pure in his nature and later his parents, his surrounding educate him and turn him onto what they think is best, and in order to depart from this befogged situation, Allah Almighty has descended the Qur’an as guidance.
Henceforth it is primary that we seek refuge in God when we say Min sher-ril waswasal han-nas, to protect us from the impetuses within us.
This surah also behold value as a prayer, it is important as a code. We speak on the meaning of the Qur’an and this indubitably beholds considerable value, yet from the aspect of being religious, deity and devotion are more important and more beneficial than the actual understanding, meaning. Protestants have translated the Bible from Latin in their language in order for them to read it in their Mass. Who are more religious the Protestants or Catholics? Catholics, I mean to say, reading and understanding the sacred word does not necessarily make people more religious. Do you know why? Since the sacred word is simultaneously guidance for the life of man, a code and key opening of the spiritual gates. Thus it is preferred that at night when we cannot have an eased rest, and when we are scared in our dream to read the surah Al-Falak or the Surah En-Nasr. And why? For they are simultaneously codes which open the gates to the soothing, the goodness in the spiritual aspect and shut, close the doors of evil.
Thank you.
