THE THIRTY-SECOND LECTURE BY PROF.DR. METIN IZETI
Surah An-Nasr ِحيمِ َّ نِ الر ٰ ـ َ ْ م َّح ِ ـه الر َّ ْ مِ الل ِس ب ُ ْح ت َ ف ْ َ ال ِ ـه و َّ ُ الل ْ ر َص َ ن َ اء ا ج َ ِ ـه إ ﴿١ِ ﴾ذ َّ ِي ِدينِ الل َ ࡩ ون ُ ل ُ ْ خ َد َّ َ اس ي َ الن ْت ي َ أ َ َر و ا ً َ اج و ْ ف ُ أ ﴿٢َ ۚ ﴾ ْه ِفر ْ غ َ ْ ت َ اس َ و ّك ِ ب َ ِد ر ْ َ م ِح ْ ب ّح ِ َ ب ً ف ا ﴿ َس َّ اب و َ َ ت َان ُ ك ه َّ إ ٣ ِ ﴾ن“When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest, And you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes, Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him. Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance.”
Last week we discussed about the first and second verse of the surah Al-Nasr; one of the most meaningful chapters of the Qur’an, and according to many interpreters of the Qur’an, this was also the final surah that descended from Allah Almighty. In other words, Allah Almighty brings the Prophet (PBUH) closer to Himself. You know that for people who been infatuated with Allah Almighty, passing away from this world into the other is a state of joy; meeting the true lover. Today is a special day for us, since it’s the 16th December and the 17th night which in our Islamic tradition is named as Sheb-i, arus. When speaking about death in Tasawwuf we mainly talk about walking hither the truth; tonight, is the night when Mawlana Jalal Ad-Din Rumi walked towards the truth (he passed away) and that’s why it is called Sheb-i Arus. This night of transferring to the other world, Rumi has considered it as the night of pearls since he has met with Allah Almighty. This concept of love has existed among all prophets. Perhaps some of you know that each prophet was given an additional name; for instance our prophet is called Muhammad Rasool Allah, Isa (PBUH), was called Jesus Ruhulah (Jesus the spirit of Allah Almighty), whereas Abraham (PBUH) was called, Halilu-llah (halil means companion, friend), a friend of Allah Almighty. This name was given to Abraham when one evening he was visited by an angel of Allah Almighty and told that God has a message and testament for him and asked him if he is willing to accept this (spirit). Then Abraham (PBUH) said “there is nothing that I seek and wish more than my meeting with my friend; I seek this meeting more than anything in the universe”; this is where he gained the name halil – friend. The same thing happened with the Prophet (PBUH), when the angel of death / Melek’l-meut (the only angel which the Qur’an does not encounter its name, is the name of the Angel of death – known as Azrael, and the other three angels mentioned are Jibreel, Mikail and Israfil), came to take his soul, he asked the Prophet (PBUH) the same question and our Prophet (PBUH) replied “surely that I choose my companionship with my closest Friend”. This surah informs the Prophet (PBUH) that his time to meet with Allah Almighty is approaching, and walking towards al-haqq, as well. Under this occasion I wanted to encounter Sheb-i Arus, the night towards haqq, meeting the beloved by one of the crucial and main Sufis of Islamic history, Mawlana Jalal Ad-Din Rumi (the author of Masnawi). In the first verse Allah Almighty says” Idha jae nasrul-lahi wal fet’j” /”When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest”; “wara’ayta’ n-nasa jad’huluna fi dini’l-lahi afvaja” / “And you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes” (Surah, An-Nasr, 1-2). (In the previous lecture we translated the word victory, used in the Qur’anic transmission here as aid, help, assistance to better understand the concept).This afvaja has a philosophical essence, that is quite important. The first element is, becoming the witness that you will observe how people enter into the religion of Allah Almighty; those who have studied the comparative religions, speaking about foreigners not us, because comparative sciences (nowadays we also have it Islamic universities, hence this is common among us as well mukarenetu’l-adyan – religious comparative study) in reality have begun to be used since the days of the linguistic faculties, that is where comparative languages have been taught and the founder of this science is Max Műller. Among all religious comparative studies, Islam is the only religion which amid all historical periods has seen an increase number of believers; in other religions this has been seen in specific periods either under captivation of certain territories or other cases, whereas among Muslims, in a permanent manner there is acceptance to religion. There are cases even when Islamic territories were colonized by the west, in the XIX-XX century; during this time many of the inhabitants were not Muslim yet they accepted the call to Islam. And the true message of the verse in the surah Nasr is right here under this context “You will see people…” is being said to the Prophet (PBUH) in his last Hajj, referring to the people who will walk under the same path as the Prophet (PBUH) in his last Hajj, because it was in that place in Arafa, Mecca where the Prophet (PBUH) started his journey as a man, whereas in the last Hajj, according to some transmissions there were 40000, or even 120000, some transmissions say, people accompanying him. This is said to the Prophet (PBUH) but at the same time to us as well; there is an element here which can be observed only through a special lens. If we are wearing glasses, then we are keen to various prejudices and we sometimes are not able to observe all realities. Islam and God cannot be imposed; they can only be experienced, understood and be put in front of people. This is the sacred manner of representation of religion and we should never dare to impose religion on anyone. It is our duty to merely find the best way to present and expose religion, but under any case we are not allowed to impose it; this is what Allah Almighty also shows in His actions and how the Qur’an teaches us too. In order to observe the progress of religion, we need various lenses; in the contemporary methodology we use the term critical eye, but here I am inferring to the critical eye of the heart. Let me give you an example from the Islamic history and even earlier: the XI and XII centuries were vastly dangerous from the Muslim society point of view, from one side we had the crusader armies coming in, who have killed whatever was before their eyes that was not catholic (both Muslims and orthodox), and on the other side we have Mongols, who have also killed whatever was in front of their feet, yet the crucial scholars who have left traces to date have been present during these times. I will mention two scholars who lived during that time Imam Ghazali and Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi. Whereas Mawlana Jalal Din Rumi lived after that era. This era, which if you look it from the aspect of all the wars that took place and the lack of domination from Muslims side, looks like a regression and destruction of Muslims, however on the other side, from the aspect of knowledge and Islamic spirituality, it has been considered as one of the most successful centuries for Muslims. The same goes for the end of XIX century and the beginning of XX, it was the time when Muslims didn’t have a single Muslim state of their own, especially the Ottoman Empire; it was colonized by foreign powers. Albeit from the year 1900 onwards, in the Islamic world, we see some theologians appearing that will leave traces up to date, regardless if we agree with them or not, they have managed to leave traces hither the progress of knowledge, science, and the viewpoints of Muslims in the world. This was the last period of XIX century with presence of Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani Mohammed Abdulu, Rashid Rida, scientists who have published two paper (nowadays publishing papers is not as important as it was back then), which have generated many readers and has enabled Islam to walk parallelly with the world progress of that time. This paper was called “Urwatul – wuthqa”, published by Mohammed Abdulu, first copy in Paris then in Egypt and the other paper is “Al-Manar”, published by Rashid Rida in Egypt. Later, we have Mohammed Iqbal, whose mindset and ideas are used in Islamic literature even to date. All these elements remind us that we need a special lens to see the progress of religion. Back to our verse, this verse is like mercy / siharik, for them and all Muslims; they don’t become pessimists even if that one specific area of their life is not figured out, the other domains of life have their own pace of development, and they understand this. In the end of the verse it says afvaja / you will notice the people in waves; waves in general are a metaphor and a symbol of various nuances, shades that arise within one wholeness. This Qur’anic verse comes in contradiction with our contemporary thinking. The contemporary mindset is against nuances and shades; the contemporary mindset seeks to see things as black and white, and this is their main weakness. Moreover, the Qur’an too, does not fully agree with this mindset, because man cannot be put in a box, whereas the contemporary mentality seeks this from people. Whereas within religion there are many nuances since the time of the Prophet (PBUH); these shades reflect the religious dimension. Several times Fakir has used an example (those of you who have been around me have heard this example many times), if you sow one type of flowers in a garden, for example only tulips, then this garden cannot be called a garden; but it’s a plantation; but if you sow tulips, roses and some other flowers then this garden will spiritually satisfy you. Islam is the same way. Islam is the biggest opponent of the disqualifying mentality of believers. Under no circumstances has the believer the right to disregard another person’s belief only because that person does not share the same view; that’s why even the motto of our foundation is “Come, whatever you are, come”. Islam, especially the Sufi mentality, is like the water filters inserted before they reach us in the form of tap water, inside there, there are waters from all around the mountains, but they also get filtered and people drink the purified water. Many times this “come” has been misunderstood, since if Tasawwuf says come, it doesn’t mean we will gather just whomever; it doesn’t refer to gathering whomever, but it means it is up to us to filter this water so people can drink it. My main point was regarding the Surah Nasr, Allah Almighty says that you will see people how in waves – nuances, shades, will become part of this religion. Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi speaks of these nuances and says that each religious shade is presented in the personality of a person, dating back to the prophets. If we assay all the prophets up to Adam (PBUH), especially those mentioned in the Qur’an and their highlight in the Qur’an is not a coincidence; if God mentions a prophet in the Qur’an by his first and last name, then this shows us that God is trying to tell us something through this prophet. That’s why its very important to read about the life and history of the prophets, since simultaneously they give an example of how our attitude needs to be in society and life (I am not sure if you have had the chance to read something about the prophets life, but Amr Khaled, a contemporary scholar has several papers on the life of the prophets and he is a descent author that you could look into). So, these nuances are extremely important and we need to consider Islam like a highway with wide lanes, not a street to the village in which only one or few people can walk on, but instead as a wide road in which various people with various shades and nuances, parallelly, can walk on.
Afterwards, we said this is a conditional sentence that needs its condition and answer. Allah Almighty says “when you will see this”, in this case if you wish to experience the beauty of religion you need to reply and say: Fasabbih bihamdi rabbika wastaghfirhu / Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him. In many cases the Qur’an speaks about tasbih dimension / worship towards Allah Almighty. Tasbih means to worship Allah Almighty in enthusiasm and exaltations; in literal translation we translate this as worship. Let me ask you this, now that all of you know what tasbih is, how do you experience it better, when I say worship or tasbih? As if there is something more profound about the word tasbih. The worship of Allah Almighty is conducted on all dimensions. When Allah Almighty speaks of Jannah in the Qur’an, says that their occupation in Jannah will be to worship Allah Almighty”. When we speak of Jannah we are reminded of the houri, the beautiful valleys, the running water, we have no daily duties and we become at ease, whereas at the same time amid all these details, Allah Almighty mentions worship, glorification to Him as the most crucial characteristic of Jannah. This tells us that the most important matter will be to worship Allah Almighty in Jannah. For the one who is a true sincere adherent, this is the highest pleasure: to have Allah Almighty in remembrance, to praise Him by conducting tasbih, 33 times to say subhanallah, to conduct namaz and say Allah Akbar, to begin the namaz with Alhamdulilah Rabbil Alamin. This is a pleasurable experience we cannot replace and find in any other type of pleasure of this world. In one hadeeth, the Prophet (PBUH) says “there are two words which are very easy for the tongue, they are cherished by Allah Almighty, they weight a lot in the day of the Hereafter and those two words are: Subhanallah wa bihamdeehi subhanallah’l-aadeem” / May glory be to Allah and Praise Him; Glory to Allah Almighty since there is no power greater than Him. Its good to learn this by heart and each time during the day we remember Allah Almighty to whisper these two words that are easy but weight a lot for Allah Almighty. This tasbih and this worship is the essential element in relations between God and the creature. I will merely recall an instance which most of you probably know. In the Al Baqarah surah Allah mentions that when He decided to create man, He said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.” In this case Fakir will not translate the term successive authority because there is not an adequate translation, but I will merely try to explain what it means. In the Qur’anic context it is translated as a replacement, leader, but Fakir here does not agree with this connotation because God cannot have a replacement, because if one is to be His replacement, one must have His attributes. Hence, successive authority means a person to whom God has granted under him His abundances, which are to be carried out on this life in justice and sincerity. Then the angels replied: “ “ َ َ اء ّ م ُ ِ الد ِفك ْ َس ي َ ا و َ ُ ِفٕڈ ِسد ْ ُف َ ن ي ا م َ ُ ِفٕڈ َل ْ ع َج ت أ “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood” (Al-Baqarah, 30). This shows us that the angels, based on the characteristics Allah mentioned to them, they knew that humans have that one characteristic, and they went on to declare themselves better than humans by saying “while we declare Your praise and sanctify You” (Al-Baqarah, 30). This tells us that angels considered themselves more favorable because they conducted tasbih to Allah Almighty; this also shows us that even in this world, we can achieve this angel-like level, eternal absolute good will state (angels represent the absolute good-will) by remembrance, true worship to Allah Almighty. In another verse of Al-Isra surah, verse 44, Allah Almighty says: “ ُ الس َ ات َ او َّ م ُ الس ه َ ُ ل ّح ِ َ ب ُس ۚ ت َّ ِ ن َ ن ِفٕڈ َم ْ ُض و ر َْ َ ٔالا ُ و ِك ب ن ْع ٰ ـ َ ل َ ِ و ِده ْ َ م ِح ُ ب ّح ِ َ ب ُس َّ ي ِال ٍء إ ْ َ ܣ ّ ن ءۜ ِن ِم إ َ و ْ ُ م َ ه ِيح ْ ب َس َ ت ُ ون ه َ ْق ف َ ال ” َّ ت “The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts [ Allah ] by His praise, but you do not understand their [way of] exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving..” (Al-Isra, 44). We have learned this from some transmissions from several prophets but also from some evliyas that lived even before and after the Prophet (PBUH). One of the prophets that communicated with other living creatures was Solomon (PBUH). The Qur’an does encounter this. The Qur’an mentions the dialogue between Solomon and an ant; this is an event that can be interpreted both from the semantic and philosophical dimension. When the army of Solomon was approaching, the leader of the crowd of ants turned to the rest and said to make space because the army of Solomon was coming to battle against the enemy of God. “ َ ُون ُر ْ ع َش َ ي ْ ال ُ م َ ه ُ و ُه ُود ُ ن َج ُ و َ ان ْم ي َ ُ ل ْ س ُ م َّك َ ن ِطم ْ َح َ ي ْ ال ُ م ك َ َ ِاكن َ س ُوا م ل ُ ْ خ ُ اد ْ ل م َّ ا الن َ ڈ ُّ ٱ َ ا أ ي “ َ “Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said, “O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and his soldiers while they perceive not.” (An-Naml, 18). Moreover, one of the Sufis and great evliya transmits one occasion during the time of Abraham (PBUH); you know that Namrud, the emperor during the time of Abraham (PBUH), started a fire in which he threw Abraham (PBUH) and an ant inside of it. This ant, in its limited ability, tried to gather as much water as possible in a small dish and went towards the fire to try and put it out. Those that were supporting Abraham (PBUH) said to the ant: “where are you heading, this water you are trying to gather won’t make a difference in putting out the fire”. The ant replied to them “I know that it won’t put it out, but I want to be on the side of those who tried to help Abraham, I want to be among those who carried the water to put out the fire, and not those who made it worse”. This shows us that all creatures are in remembrance of Allah Almighty. Also, in the Qur’an, Allah Almighty says that all-natural phenomena are a remembrance of Allah Almighty. In one verse regarding striking lightening it is said ” ِتِه ْ ِخيف ِمن ُ ة َ ِك ئ َ ال َْ َ امل ِ و ِده ْ َ م ِح ُ ب ْ د َّع ُ الر ّح ِ َ ب ُس ي و “ َ “And the thunder exalts [ Allah ] with praise of Him – and the angels [as well] from fear of Him” (Ar-Rra’d, 13). Hence, if Allah Almighty says something in the Qur’an, such as, even “when lightening strikes, that is a tasbih towards God”, then here surely that aside from the physical interpretation we have the metaphysical connotation as well. Also, have in mind that there is a metaphysical meaning to all phenomena that occur in the world, those that are merely physically visible. Have you ever thought why there is salat ul-kusuf / namaz two rakat when there is an eclipse? What does the blocking of the sun, which is a natural physical process, have to do with namaz? There is a relationship. Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi in his ”Futuhat-i Mekkiye” mentions that after every eclipse and blockage of the sun, there will be an enormous catastrophe that will follow; earthquakes etc. (an example of this is the earthquake that took place in Turkey in 1999, the same with tsunamis). My point was to explain that if we become too indulged in the metaphysical aspects, we separate from reality a bit, which is not a good thing, but also, an indulgent in the physical dimension only, also separates man from his human nature and turns him to his animalistic version. That’s why we should stick to the words of Farabi: finding a golden middle. God willing, inshallah, next week we will elaborate a bit further about hamd / praise being to Allah Almighty. Thank you!