SURAH AL-‘ IKHLAS
We have a significant problem with translation of things. At our present time the world is experiencing a complexity and a mixture of terms and it happens that people tend to forget themselves inside these terms. For instance, it often happens that when people are handling a jar and one cannot tell from afar what is inside the jar, and if you put a letter on the jar and if the letter reads hot peppers, you would think this jar really has hot peppers inside, but once you open the jar there can be jam, vegetables etc. It depends what one has put inside; this is currently happening with the terms as well. One of the terms, which has been greatly misunderstood in the contemporary world is jihad. In most cases when people mention jihad, they infer blood; we as Muslims are also responsible for this, since the easiest way to justify yourself as an adherent is to attack the other and with arrogance protect one who is righteous. This is the easiest way since the self or ego of man in first place uses the ego to satisfy himself; have you noticed sometimes when somebody gets you annoyed you want to fight right away since the nafs / self makes you repressive since the first moment.
Precisely to this we should profoundly come to understand religious terms and to understand their essence. What is the person of God? The issue of the person is one philosophical issue which has been greatly discussed, however the Prophet (PBUH) elaborates this with one transmission. The prophetic transmission is not one transmission which has been justify in history, have this in mind, the prophetic transmissions of the Prophet (PBUH) and the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) are constitutive prophetic traditions, inasmuch in each periods they motion within the gens of men and Muslims. At present when we say sunnah; we all experience the matter of sunnah here since one of the sunnahs of the Prophet (PBUH) is for the adherent to be pure and when the adherent is refined, in that moment the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) is experienced. One of the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) is to be noble, when the person is courageous this transmission pertains the dimension of the eternal universality and looses up the historical dimension. All of those who remain in the historical context and seek to understand Islam within the historical frame cause the greatest harm to Islam. In one transmission (in regards to our topic) the Prophet (PBUH) says: “dwell in thought for what God has created, mediate for what God has created, but do not think about His person”. The issue of not thinking dweling in thought about the person of God, has to do with the physical scope of the appearance of God and this, Allah Almighty and the Prophet (PBUH) have dismissed, in order for this not to lead to polytheism, since polytheism has to do with the shape to God. We are focused on polytheisms which has to do with the shape of God, however shirk (the term for believing in more than one God among Muslims) does not only have the connotation of shirt from the aspect of giving personification to other gods, but it also has the dimension of giving values to other gods. If we approach the matter subject to what things we most value in our lives, then we can see a lot of polytheists around. For instance one god which tends to be more appreciated and valued than Allah Almighty is the self / ego of man; let us say one of the religious obligations is to pray namaz, perhaps we haven’t prayed namaz today, but nobody today stood without eating and without drinking anything, meaning that what this self/ ego is seeking from us we must cover, but what God seeks from us we don’t undertake to realize.
Henceforth when the Prophet (PBUH) says do not dwell in thought about His person, he infers not to give shape to Him, we can still think. Islam does not have any taboo topics; nothing in Islam is taboo, nothing is untouchable in Islam, we can discuss about all matters, surely within the reasonable thinking, not the unreasonable thinking.
Through the attributes which are reflection of God in the Universe we strive to approach, to acquaint God; the person which we don’t know, we cannot even grow compassion and love for him, mainly people are not very welcoming and cannot love strangers, they love the ones which are close to them, those with whom they are friends; even the term waliyullah or awliya has this meaning (waliyullah or awliya means a friend of God), a person with whom you are not a stranger; even in order to be friends with God we ought to seek to acquaint with Him. We have mentioned several attributes, if you recall we spoke about some ways of intellectual assertion / ilma’-yakin, we spoke about the visual assertion / ayalna’l-yakin and we spoke about the absolute assertion /hakka’l-yakin. In the literature of Islamic Tasawwuf there are three terms which discuss these matters which we are now elaborating here. The initial one is wajd, which comes from an Arabic word which means finding. The Prophet (PBUH) in one transmission says: “wisdom / hikmat is the matter which the adherent has lost, wherever he finds it he attains it:, but in order to find something, man ought to search, meaning that very rarely you can find something in coincidence, even when you find it in coincidence you are still in an upcoming search. As a result, by just sitting at home you cannot find anything, you need to go out there, to seek, in order to find. In religious terms it is such, the acquaintance / companion with God is such; this companion with God only people who seek it can find it. God does not need for us to look for Him, we need to acquaint Him, we are in need of Him and each day the life of this world shows us that we are in even greater need for meeting Him, but acquaintance does not approach us to Him. Our scholars, this finding of God, what we are doing here, these discussions or the books we read, are just like going for a vacation and going for a walk in the sea shore; you have gone by the sea to rest and you are only walking nearby the shore; this is wajd. As long as you don’t go in, you shall be unable to experience the pleasure of the sea. At present the religiousness of the contemporary people is in this stage and both of those who pray namaz and of those who don’t pray namaz, even the religiousness of those who pray namaz is in the dimension of only gazing at the sea, but not venturing to go inside, this is also the vajd dimension. The second part of this process is tawajud, which means to become united, to have reciprocity with what you have found, and ibadah enables this to us. I think that a great part in either this or that way know the existence of God, understand the existence of God, they can rationalize that there is one supra power.
Lately we are used to hear the words “I believe, but I believe in my God the way I think of it. There is no God the way one might think He is. If we will play basketball, the rules of the game are known, because we cannot play basketball with the rules of football. The rules are known, and based on them we will play basketball. Even faith in God has its own rules. In order to better furnish acquaintance we need to enter and to unite with water, we need to dwell in reciprocity, we need to give something to the water, and for water to give something back. Ibadah enables this experience to us. To this reason knowledge on God, does not provide for us a spiritual contentment. In the history of mankind even today there have been a great number of scholars who have not achieved to experience deity. (now every one of us can give various examples in regards to this), for instance I can be very good at knowing the rules of football, but Messi is the one who plays football; I can know the rules even better than him, but he is the one playing; he is inside the game and this is one of the important elements of experiencing one phenomenon. The knowledge which we attain from the religious domain, if we want for this knowledge to refresh us like the sea in the greatest heat, then we need to motion within what we have found; this is done through ibadah, namaz, fasting, good deed making, through the purification of the heart (look here, the heart is a platform for which Allah Almighty says: “The Universe cannot behold Me, but the heart of the adherent can”; if we want to reach God, in order for the rays of the absolute Creator to be reflected, the heart needs to be purified and the refining of the heart is done through showing devotion, deity and ibadah towards Allah Almighty).
One time there was one king who had gathered Greek and Chinese painters and has asked from them to paint two paintings, to make a competition among them. He put them in one long hall, he put a curtain between them and on one side there were the Chinese painters and from the other side the Greek painters. You mainly know that the Chinese are in favor of the colorfulness and in their wall they put all their possible and best colorful combinations, their colors. Whereas throughout this time the Greek painters only cleansed and polished clear their wall and when the time of their competition finished, the king took off the curtain, and the rays of the Sun had fallen on the Chinese painting and the colors on the Chinese painting were marvelously reflected onto the Greek wall, and the same colors have looked even more perfect in the Greek wall, so the reward was given to the Greek painters. The point is that the paintings, these colorfulness convey the formal human dimension, of the ibadah dimension, whereas the cleansing of the wall conveys the inner profound dimension which is highly important, and there even if we have one color it would look astonishing. Indubitably that in order for us to attain this stage we need a particular maneuver, which shall enable this bird which has come from Allah Almighty to cultivate and to return back as it has come to us. Each human/ egoistic involvement in the good, ruins us.
I will give you an example which Hazrat Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi brings in the “Masnawi”, he says that in time there was a king who had a beautiful parrot with a beautiful voice, the parrot could sing and speak. One day the parrot ran away from the king, he goes and stops at one castle of one bedouin (mainly when we mention the term bedouin it refers to a person who is little bit more primitive who does not comprehend art and culture) and when this bedouin sees the parrot it looks to him as a new and interesting creature since never in his life he hadn’t seen a parrot; this one didn’t look like other birds. When he sees the parrot he thinks that the parrot needs some changes. He saw that his beak was little bit turned and the bedouin saying to himself that the parrot will not be able to eat in this way and so he cut his beak; he looked at his long nails and the man said that the nails are too much also and cut the nails of the parrot as well; he saw the parrots non functional wings, and said that the bird will be unable to fly with these wings and so he cut the wings as well; the parrot results handicapped in his physical shape. After some time telallet / the messengers of the king go out in the street and say: “the parrot of the king has gone missing, who shall find it shall get a big price”. When the bedouin hears, he is happy for he shall be rich and takes the parrot and brings it to the king, but the king puts the bedouin to jail. And why? Because the parrot has been handicapped. The example of this parrot is the example of the Islamic religion. In this perfect way Allah Almighty has given us a religion to make us human, we have no right to degrade this; whereas the reward for the one who returns religion to God the way one has attained it is jannah. Jannaha, we have spoke about this several times, it doesn’t only refer to the hereafter, the adherents are in jannah even in this world. To this reason, the ones who will return this parrot the same way they have taken it from Allah Almighty, deserve the reward and this can only be done through the way which Allah Almighty seeks this from us. There is no significant philosophy here, the more we dwell in thought the aspect of religion in philosophy, the moreweary we can get. The manner of devotion on God is expressed very clearly, in clear points in the revelation and the constitutive / sunnah tradition of the Prophet (PBUH); this is done through ibadah and though the education of the character. The third way is wujud. It was wujud / finding, it was tawajud / motioning in reciprocity with what we have found and wujud is melting, becoming one in what we have found. Each time we shall give priority (what I said in the beginning) to something greater than God, then we have entered dimensions which from the human aspect, shall ruin us. Mainly, Tasawwuf and Islamic mystics take us closer to this dimension and to the third scope, in order for us to be able to melt through ibadah in the person of Allah Almighty, and then the character of man is set free from a number of matters which inevitable suffocate him; he is set free from wickedness, hatred, ager, seeking interest from people; all of these become superficial matters to him. This is not a case which can be understood by explaining, this can only be experienced, hence even the manner of approach to this element is through experiencing.
Today I wanted to speak to you about one attribute of Allah Almighty known as kalam, but God had wanted me to speak to you on this other profound discussion, however I will say a few words regarding kalam. Amid the focal attributes of God (thubutiya) in the Universe, the attribute kalam also takes place. Kalam means making conversation. Mainly the greatest issues which have concerned philosophers but theologians as well has been the contact of God with the Universe. For instance, Descartes has gone mad when across this matter; he could not find how to establish this contact amid the spirit and the body; he even resulted making some medical experiments and he concluded that (one of the greatest weaknesses of Descartes) the spirit is located in one part of the brain. This has been one tremendous err Descartes has made in his philosophy, but as an element it is very crucial and it actually shows how much people have strived to establish this contact between the Universe and God. For instance in the Greek mythology this has been done through small gods, even among Arab polytheists it has been the same; Christianity has showed the contact between God / The Father with the Universe through the sacrifice and by sending the son, meaning that sending the son or the Father in the form of the son on earth, is the conclusion of a significant issue. This shows that there is no way how the contact between God and Universe can be established. Allah Almighty establishes this in Islam through His attributes which are manifested in the Universe, which even one of these attributes is man himself. Inasmuch, the conversation of God is one element which has not physically been recorded, we are saying that this conversation in contact with the Universe takes place with the decree kun; the decree kun, means act of manifestation / the act taking place. From the religious point of view we ask how was the Universe created, then the answer is that God has said “Kun fayaqun” – “Be and that (the universe) has been created”. The first decree of the attribute kalam / conversation / speaker of Allah Almighty is the decree of allowing something to take place and by the decree kun of Allah Almighty the Universe has been created. The other exchange of Allah Almighty is the conversation He has made with the spirits in the before creation in bazm-i alast, when He said to the spirits: “Do you accept me for your God” and the answer has been: “Kalu bala”. “Yes without doubt we take you for our God”. The other conversation is (the Qur’an informs us on this) the conversation of Allah Almighty and the discussion which takes place between the angels / malaks. The angels say: “will you create a creature which shall make disruptions in the surface of earth and shall spill blood”. Allah Almighty says: “I know that of which you do not know”. And seek from the angels to answer to the question for naming of the concepts, whereas the angels reply: “You are the highest God, we do now know anything more than of which You have taught us, we only know that which You have taught us. Meaning that, this is the answer for the earlier words when it is said: “I know that which you do not know”. As a result man shall have inherited the ability of religious intellectual potential and for this; the result of this potential shall be the reward from Allah Almighty. To this reason, from Islamic view man can strive even higher than angels, but he can even befall lower than the devil, this is in the free will of man. Then Allah Almighty teaches Adam (PBUH) these names and seeks from the angels to respect Adam (PBUH), to go in prostration before Adam (PBUH). Recently respect and the rules of cultural respect are being attacked even by Muslims themselves. In our contemporary world there is a type of Islam which is protestant (I call it Islamic protestant). Mainly in this protestant Islam the culture and Islamic civilization are attacked throughout history; the respect made to the Prophet (PBUH) (have in mind one thing, if you take away the Prophet (PBUH) there is no religion, there is no Islam), the people who follow the Prophet (PBUH) are also attacked, whereas before the iconic era the curse of the devil was not made because he didn’t prostate to God, but because he did not prostate to Adam, he went against the decree of God; the decree of God was for him to reach God through Adam; the astray of the devil from God’s mercy is because the devil refuted to show respect to Adam (PBUH). To this reason respect / itaat is one of the fundamental religious elements and from the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and hither the Judgment Day, people who follow the religious spirituality ought to be respected. If there doesn’t exist respect shown towards people who are in the chain of companion and acquaintance with the Prophet (PBUH) and Allah Almighty then we cannot approach Allah Almighty as we should.
One of the Prophets who is mentioned in the Qur’an as having spoken with Allah Almighty is Moses (PBUH). There are several verses which speak about the duologue of Moses (PBUH); one of them is when Moses (PBUH) asks from God to see Him. Allah Almighty told Him: “It is not possible for you to see me. If you wish to see me, then go to this hill, if this hill shall stand in the same position, then you will also be able to see me”. And when Allah Almighty showed His authority / jalal to the hill, then the hill fell apart and Moses (PBUH) fainted. Inasmuch this was one of the conversations which Allah Almighty has made within the Universe with one of His messengers. Allah Almighty has even spoken to the Prophet (PBUH) in the Miraj (one of the most crucial events of the Prophet (PBUH) is the event and visit made to the sacred presence)/ Aside from these events the Qur’an speaks about other inner exchanges between God and people. In the beginning of these lectures we encountered a discussion about a voice which inevitable shows the righteous path to man, it shows him where he is being mistaken; the voice of conscience. The voice of conscience is the result of the conversation between God and man. To his reason God in the Qur’an says: “You shall find God in the Universe and within you” and the inspiration which comes to the poets, artists is one exchange of God with His creatures. For instance there can be one professor teaching painting theory teaching for 100 years and perhaps he is still unable to produce a painting, but perhaps there can be a person who has never studied painting and he is able to produce a mesmerizing painting, or even in literature there can be a professor teaching literature but unable to write one, and maybe there is a person who is a shepherd and still able to produce an amazing poem.
Inasmuch this voice can be experienced by each of us, not in the same fashion however. But each one of us can feel it, but what we all need in order to experience it is the religious dimension; we can find this voice there. This conversation of God is each day witnessed with all of us and in this fashion we can experience the presence and manifestation of God in the universe. He is not outside the Universe, all of those who seek to put God aside from their lives, to alienate the reward and punishment of God, are wrong. He is together with us and we experience than in our innerness.
Thank you.