SURAH AL-‘IKHLAS
Dear friends, for several weeks now we are remembering to one another the verities delineated on the Surahs of the Qur’an. In these last weeks we have spoken on the Al-‘Ikhlas surah which in brief points summaries the one entity, the essence of the Qur’an. The Surah Al-‘Ikhlas, even by its title refers to sincerity. Abu Bakr (PBUH) delineates: “If you do not have sincerity, then don’t even bother trying to go heaven”. The path to heaven is contained from the stones of good will and the stones of sincerity. This is the greatest fear of the devil, the principle of evil, in the Qur’anic literature both in the Qur’an and the comments on it the identity of the devil encompasses all the principles of evil. To this reason when the devil turns to Allah Almighty to tell Him: “I shall deceive from the righteous path all servants, except those which are sincere (I do not use the word slave since several times we have said that semantics is not highly important; depending on how one concepts things also he uses language; a slave is a person who does not have free will, whereas abd / kull in our Albanian literature this word has been used, refers to the person who submits his freedom to the will of Allah Almighty, meaning that his will / iraden, this person submits to the will of Allah Almighty. Even in Tasawwuf, the followers of tasawwuf are known as murids, which infers a person which has submitted his will in the hands of Allah Almighty). Inasmuch the devil says he deviates from the right path all of those except for Your servants who are sincere, don’t bring them forth my path”. Precisely to this reason the Surah Al-;Ikhlas is one very significant surah; each word of the Qur’an as an encompassment but especially the words in the surah Al-‘Ikhlas since there is a unique philosophy within it.
We said that in order to acquaint with Allah Almighty we ought to be directed hither the Qur’an, and hence to observe in which manner the Qur’an presents God to us. It has always been man’s desire to reach and be closest to the Creator and this is precisely the reason why polytheism has appeared. People have always desired to be in contact, to be able to touch the Creator, the one which they love the most, to be able to meet with Him.
Love is expressed in two ways. Either by meeting or by longing for the loved one. This moment of meeting the loved one, with the Creator has pushed people to create idolatry, to believe in things which they see. Whereas the Qur’an, Islamic apologetics / akaids has abstained God from man. There is a number of religious people and imams who are bodyguards of God, as if God would need protection. God is not in need of a bodyguard. We should be enlighten with God, and not to try and protect Him; He does not need for anyone to act as His protector, and precisely here our approach to Allah Almighty receives importance.
The most sincere approach with Him, is appointed and addressed by the Qur’an. Most often apologetics has been preoccupied with protecting God. To be honest, the Qur’an does not seek form us to protect Him, God does not mention in any place that we ought to protect Him. In most cases He presents Himself, He represents Himself in order for Him not to be an abstract term, alienated to us. Do you know why in most cases people commit to sin, why they make mistakes? Since they find heaven and hell afar from them, they consider God foreign to them; they do not consider Him close to themselves and this is alienation (in Islamic literature this is known as Tanzih). As much as tanzih is considered a good thing, it is also dangerous. In most cases tanzih of God from the material things distances people from polytheism / shirk, however great tanzih / alienation of God distances people from God Himself. For instance imagine for you to have faith but not to experience God. When you work on a computer, or you are managers of companies, or a student, professor then you are in a position to commit to thousands of wrongdoing with your science. Inasmuch the promise which we ought to give to God is that whatever the circumstances you shall be set in, you shall always remain in contact with Him. Such type of a connection cannot possibly be established with people you don’t know well, it is indubitable that you know the other person, in this same manner Allah Almighty presents Himself to us in the Qur’an: through His names and attributes, regardless of how you shall name them (these are matters which can be discussed furthermore but I don’t intent to weary you, if you wish in the future I can elaborate them since several scholars have spoken on whether there are or there are not attributes or names of God), however it is a fact that Allah Almighty in the Qur’an uses synonyms which delineate His power. Those synonyms we established as the personal pronouns of Allah Almighty, and we elaborated them. Moreover last week we also encountered another attribute which is the reflection of God in the universe, and this attribute was acknowledged as hayat / viral. Without God there is no ardency. I believe even since last week we concluded that even the biological viral and the aesthetical viral given to matters is arising from Allah Almighty. The rose is not beautiful because in itself it’s beautiful, the rose it’s beautiful because we experience the rose and the ardency which the soil gives to the rose as beautiful. Einfuhlung, is one term used among German expressionists carried to Europe by one philosopher who has preoccupied with abstract arts: Wassily Kandinsky. Expressionism is one artistic movement which gives birth to art, arises aesthetics from woe; German expressionism appeared post the Hitler reign period in Germany, since society at that time carried one great woe which could not have been else like expressed, merely by arts. Even Muslim women are expressionists. I don’t know if you have had the occasion to read the poems of our women throughout history, it took place due to the hegemony of men over women. What is currently taking place in the world, this attack on Islam subject to the treatment of women by Muslims, are little right on this. We should be auto critiques, since the hegemony of men has reigned for a long period among Muslims and as a consequence all the women poets are expressionists. Through various puzzles these women seek to transmit their woe, which they cannot express freely. Whereas alienation is a little more abstract movement, not very concrete and grasped by every person. For instance in painting abstract is conveyed through the usage of various colors, which in first sight don’t give a harmony among each other and as a result (it’s the same instance in religion, that’s why I am encountering this example with arts) it is one movement of very sound painters or a product of those who don’t know anything; it is either a colorful presentation of ideas or a loose idealess presentation. Kandinsky is the person who has transmitted the abstract concept, however Kandinsky had learned this from Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, and Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi had learned this from the Qur’an.
Do you recall when we would generally say that one does not become a scholar by reading a translation of the Qur’an, namaz is not prayed with the translation of the Qur’an, since the translation of the Qur’an is the transmission of the reality of the revelation into a laboratory of man. Just as when they rivers flow from different angles and then they reach one carrier, they enter one hydro center. The translation of a work could never transmit the religiousness of the original. For instance the word Kahhar (one name of Allah Almighty); oftentimes when distressed occurred in Egypt we could see from the social networks some groups who asked to pray to God in the Ya kahhar / o You who destroys those who are not on your path, condemn the wicked. This was the prayer which was made, however if you see the word Kahhar, it is not used to refer to God if you discuss it from the domain of destruction. However God is Kahhar since he destroys a number of cells within the organism of man in order to generate new ones, in this context He is Kahhar. Now tell me how shall you translate Kahhar? To this reason it can be said that an abstract concept brings forth a colorful frame of ideas.
In one verse of the Qur’an it says: “Have you not considered how Allah presents an example, [making] a good word..” , if you open the comments or the translation of the Qur’an you shall see that this verse from the Surah ‘Ibrahim infers kelimei tayyibet / the good word which refers to the Noble Qur’an. Moreover a good work also infers a good pleasant conversation with a person, the good word also refers to the hadiths of the Prophet (PBUH), the good word may refer to a poem, or a story. All of these elements cannot be transmitted into a translation, to this reason the names of Allah Almighty and His attributes along with the colorfulness which is presented to us, each one in its own way, approach us to God.
Lately we hear people say “I have my own God, I belief God in the way I want to believe Him”; this cannot be taken for truth. An apple remains an apple, namaz is namaz, fasting is fasting, zakaah is zakaah; we cannot claim to approach God the way we personally think it’s right by saying this is how I am a good adherent. The rules on becoming a good adherent can established by God alone; the rules of the game are made public from the domain of ibadah / deity. Whereas from the domain of experiencing there are no rules, inasmuch from this domain subject to one’s spirit one experiences God. There is no chance for one person who has more love for jurisprudence to love God the same way, as would one painter or poet; the former has a more concise conception, that is how God appears more appealing to him in faith, whereas the poet is found more attached to faith through metaphors, metrics and various poetic synonyms used in the author’s work.
The second attribute of God is ilm, and tonight I shall speak to you about this. We usually translate Ilm as knowledge and a great number of verses, approximately 777 verses in the Qur’an mention Allah Almighty as Alim; as He who has knowledge and in 90 – 100 verses Allah Almighty is known as God who has knowledge and is acquainted with all surroundings which take place in the universe. The knowledge of Allah Almighty is one greatly discussed matter even in philosophy in general, but even in Islamic philosophy. Albeit, I would like to inform you that there is a system of intangibles which Aristotle has characterized as categories. The Muslim philosophers which were under the influence of Greek philosophy, which in the terminology of Islamic philosophy is known as mashshaiyyun, meaning persons which walk. Inasmuch the Aristotelian, Plutonian philosophy is characterized as peripatetic; inferring persons who walk. In most cases, the terms which we nowadays transmit as philosophical terms, in their essence don’t contain any philosophical meanings; students have written them after one academic because when Aristotle would have been teaching he would have walked, and this is where the name peripatetic arises. Why am I mentioning this? Since now have a great discussion (which does not concern us), one polemics among the Muslims claiming whether the science over Islamic faith or the protection of Islam we shall call kelami / ilmul kelam, are we going to characterize this as akaid or are we going to call this teuhid.
These terms are strictly technical, they do not refer to ideology at all. The name Teuhid comes from the name of pages of a book, since the first pages written regarding the protection of Islamic religion have been contained as risala tauhidiya / brochures for the oneness of God and from there this science. Akd in the Arabic language refer to a joint and essentially the issues concerning akaid are matters which cannot easily be accessed, for instance the matter on teodice, of justice of God, the creation of good and evil is one issue which is hard to comprehend by logic, or for instance the issue of destiny / kader or ejel / death are issues which can be experienced by are significantly hard to be absorbed in a person’s mind. Inasmuch in Farabi and Ibn Sina (they are known as mashshaiyun / peripatetic) there is one system known as ma’kulat. Ma’kulat are the inteligeble, the systems, the platforms of the mind, the platforms of reason. According to philosophers creation is one product, existence is one production of the knowledge of God, there is one open path from the knowledge of God and there is no creation from nothing. We did mention earlier and said that nothingness does not exist, there is no creation from a thing, nor from nothingness, since if God exists there is no nothingness. He encompasses everything, nothingness is inexistent, nothingness does not exist, the non present relative exists, for instance Faqir was not even present 45-46 years ago (I am not that old, I am 43 years old) in this world, he was somewhere else, but it does not mean that he was not existing, he was existent in the spiritual platform. And before that? Even before it, it wasn’t nothing, since he existed In the knowledge / ilm of God. Inasmuch we can say that the knowledge of God is not such which follows what is known, it does not follow objects, but it exists before the objects. This is the difference between the knowledge of God and the knowledge of people, primarily God knows matters before they take shape or before they take place, before their shape of an object, of the substance. Inasmuch the knowledge of the created things is different, even the knowledge of things before they occur is different, to this reason the platform of God, the sacred platform is the knowledge which knows matters before they even take place. When we approach knowledge in this fashion, when we have this perception about knowledge, then we are acting in two essential principles of both religion and Tasawwuf. The initial principle is azm, azm refers to maximum strive to commit to the good “wa idha azamta fe tavakkal alallah” – “if you strive your maximum for good, then rely on God” says Allah Almighty. This first principle among those persons which strive to acquaint God in this fashion, which this is what we believe: to give the maximum for the representation of good. What we constantly say that we ought to be the best professors, we have to become the best students, we have to be the best works meaning that we ought to be the best individual I society from the physical dimension of this world, the worldly dimension, but simultaneously to rely on God after each strive and to reflect this through ibadah. Today I mentioned it to a person (I don’t recall to whom I was speaking to) that a true adherent, a true Sufi, one true Muslim has his obligation for a priority, the priorities in this worldly life are such that regardless of which stage of life a person might be, he might be a student, a manager, in pension and still ought to give his maximum in his affairs. I have given you one example ( I don’t intent to repeat myself but we have younger people among us) I had a student in my class in university and each class he would weary me, he used to speak to me about the shii and the sunni, for the bektashi, he would tell me how a great believer he is, he would tell me about namaz, whereas my course was on the aesthetics of Plato, on the theory of Plato’s conception> This student would not even bother to listen to these lectures and when time of the exam approached, I didn’t ask him about the shii or the sunnit, but I asked him about Plaato and when he returned a blank page and he failed the exam he came and said to me: “Professor, me? And I told him: “yes exactly you, you are not only trying to bribe me, but moreover you want to make me a briber too”. Meaning that matters which are second hand, secondary for one element, one should not use them as primary, this is an attribute of weak people, since this person does not accomplish his tasks but commits only to the secondary one. The primary obligation is in that moment the greatest ibadah along with the ibadah which God seeks from us. You cannot come to me tomorrow an tell me “I say 165 times or 500 times a day La Ilaha Illallah, but I didn’t pray the morning namaz prayer”; you cannot even say this to God. In another verse of the Qur’an in the Surah Anfal,the second verse (these 2-3 initial verses of the surah Al-‘Anfal it is good to read, Allah Almighty delineates on the attributes of true adherents). Allah Almighty says: “The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts become fearful, and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord they rely –“, (there are three descended books, have this in mind. The Qur’an is not the mere revelation, one of these books is the Universe, the second one is the Qur’an, and third is man; to this reason nobody can complain that they have not succeeded to see God somewhere) “The ones who establish prayer, and from what We have provided them, they spend.” Not from their wealth, but from what God has given to them “Those are the believers, truly. For them are degrees [of high position] with their Lord and forgiveness and noble provision”, people can be given to have a lot or little, but let it be fruitful. To this reason each time we pray to God we say “May God give Baraqat”, years ago this term was also found in our vocabulary, but now we have began to forget this manner of conversation. May God give baraqah means may God give wealth which shall be fruitful and good, since we can be in possession of great wealth but not to see it as fruitful, and we can still have little wealth and yet have it as fruitful. I don’t know if you have had the occasion to be around a person that reminds you of God, and when you sit with them to eat, you feel as if you are praying namaz, since this food is much dearer when you eat with this person (inshallah God enables for you to be around His companions) as if you are conducting ibadah for God. To this reason, the true adherent experiences knowledge for God; in this manner each time devoted since Allah Almighty is near him. One of our great scholars, one of the great Sufi Imam Junajd Bagdadi, had one time told him students / murids “take one bird and kill it in some place where nobody would see you”. Every student took one bird and went to take its life in a place where they thought nobody would see them. Only Imam Shibliu, which later shall be one of the Sufi one of the great imams of Tasawwuf, came back with the living bird and Imam Junajd had said: “why my son didn’t you kill the bird, my order was for you to kill it?” and the latter replied: “Yes, but I could not find a place where God could not see me”. Meaning that everything is under the control of Allah Almighty, and this control is not a dictatorial control. Abu Ala Al Meari, one Arab poet had gone to hajj (God willing / inshallah you may also have the occasion to go to hajj, the greatest experience, the most beautiful experience in life is meeting with the Kabba, Faqir has not had any greater experience than meeting the Kabba) and when he had entered in the Bajtullah, he had sat across the Kabba (even Muhyuddin IBn al-Arabi had written his greatest work around the Baitullah – The House of God, a work consisting 20-30 volumes, the work known as: “Futuhat el Mekkije”-“Meccan Revelations”)he had said: “I see a great number of people who have come to visit the house, whereas I have come to visit the Owner and I experienced freedom when I submitted my freedom to Allah Almighty”. If we truly want to experience our lives, to experience the pleasures of this life, then we submit and we become part of the chain of existence. The moment we show deity to God, this is not a dictatorial, this is one tutorial conducted with pleasure and in this fashion Allah Almighty takes care of us with His knowledge. The Prophet (PBUH) in one transmission says: “whoever acts according to what he knows, Allah Almighty teaches him what he does not know”. Mainly in the history of Islamic thought, scholars and scientists (be those of the religious domain, since among us Muslims, as we have mentioned before that there has not been a division of religious and worldly sciences, for instance iBn Sina and Ibn Rushdi was both an Islamic jurist / fakih’ but simultaneously he was a doctor and philosopher; to this reason we don’t have such division. This division followed in the XIX century, laicism, excess of positivism) have been expelled from tasawwuf, not because we are close to the tasawwuf, but a great number of our scholars, around 90% of our scholars like Imam Ghazali, Suyut, Muhyuddin Ibn al-Arabi, Al Jabir, Ibn Tufayl, Ahamd Ghazali are persons coming from the tasawwuf frame of understandings, and do you know why? Since the initiatives to create science, arts is accomplished by this transmission: “people who act with what they know, Allah teaches them what they don’t know”. If one acts according to what I known to him, Allah Almighty enables to learn and come to know what one could not know, even knowing that which others don’t know.
Inasmuch reason in Islam is divided into two groups, one is known as Ilm kesbi, the other known as Ilm wahbi. Ilm kesbi means knowledge attained through studying, learning, ilm wahbi infers knowledge gifted by Allah Almighty. The poet does not have attained knowledge; he can be a great literary critique but he could also be unable to write two verses of poetry; there can be a sheep keeper yet this person might be able to write poetry. Inasmuch ilm kesbi is knowledge which we learn, whereas ilm wahbi is knowledge gifted by Allah Almighty, this second knowledge Allah Almighty gifts from His personal ark to people to which He wants. Oftentimes this description is used for the Prophet (PBUH) among theologian, which is very dangerous, they say: “what are you saying, the Prophet (PBUH) I just a man like us”. The Prophet (PBUH) is not just a man like us, since then God would not tell him, “We have not sent you but for the mercy of all mankind”, the Prophet (PBUH) is of the human race, he is not an angel, he is not a jinn, but he is not like us a human. He is not a simple man… The Prophet (PBUH) from the biological structure, from his construction is a man, he is neither a jinn nor an angel, but he is not like all other men; he differs from all men since Allah Almighty has chosen him. Even after him, people from the sense of gifts attained from God faqilets / virtues are not the same, we need to understand this; from the biological construction however every human is the same. Allah Almighty infers in the Qur’an: “Allah Almighty grants from His treasure, to whomever He wants”., this is where we cannot interfere, He gives to whomever He wants how much He wants. It is indubitable that man has to give his maximum, it is our obligation to learn knowledge which is kesbi (knowledge which ought to be attained), but Allah Almighty seeks from us to be the best in our profession, not in the name of religion to learn and then quit from studying economics, literature, IT , architecture, no. we need good Muslim architects. There is one book on the history of Islamic spread in the world by Thomas Arnold, it has been translated in Albanian and in Bosnian “The history of Islamic spread” it is called and there the author says “when religion is only for the imams, religion has not moved forward”, since then religion has been professionalized. This conversation is not on the religious knowledge but on religiousness. Meaning that when the doctor will take a stethoscope or shall say bismilah, it has more effect than 10 of my lectures, the same goes for the architect, and for the worker in IT and this is the will which Allah Almighty presents in the Qur’an. Thank you.
