Why People Shun True Faith
2. WHY PEOPLE SHUN TRUE FAITH
Prophets preached, after them their inheritors the learned saints continued to preach on
the same lines; what is more, the saints practiced what they preached so that they could
not be blamed for hypocrisy. Yet people’s response to them has always been both
extensively and intensively quite limited.
What I mean by ‘extensively’ and ‘intensively’? By the first I mean the numerical
proportion of the good responders to the bad. For example, we may guess that only ten
percent of the listeners to a preaching gave signs of conversion to the ideas preached. As regards the second, namely the intensity of the response, an example may be this: Of the
ten converted only two looked overwhelmed and added to their conversion any serious
enough commitment. What makes people to respond to calls which could save them a lot
of trouble in this world and assure their salvation in the next?
Let us listen to the Source of all true guidance: The Almighty, All-Gracious says:
“You love the early, quick satisfactions (of this world) and abandon the deferred (but far better satisfactions of the next)” (75: 20- 21).
Because Allah is out to try us before He can guide us through a process of trial and error and our taking lessons as a result, He explains:
“Whoever desires the what is hasty we rush such to whom We want and then make him enter the Hell, blamed and humbled” (17: 18).
This verse can be interpreted on two sequential levels: The worshippers of worldly pleasures (usually called ‘hedonists’) must make haste to get what they want from them because opportunities are limited both as regards quantity and time. They either grab this opportunity for dirty cash or that opportunity for dirty sex or it is gone. But when they get each of such a bad thing and because it is harmful or shameful they have to taste all the unpleasant and at times suicidal effects of the wrong they dared to commit. Everyone’s life contains some harmful or shameful conduct on his or her part. Most of these are examples of a hasty bad judgment made on the spur of the moment while irresponsibly pleasure seeking. At the end of each, both a blame and a shame will burn and scar him, even if after a time of drunken satisfaction. If he is wise he will learn from the experience, if not he will grow into a shameless if slick opportunist, or, even into a criminal. That must be what Allah means by guiding us through a trial and error process. Do what offends your conscience and you feel or will eventually feel awful inside the most secret corner of your heart and a disease lesion will grow, glow and suppurate and release poisons into your system. When you are thrown into one of such tempting situations in which fast action promises to secure you one of the guilty (haram) delicacies of this world, you either take the plunge and shame yourself (and may get a sharp punishment for it) or control yourself, desist and as a result raise yourself in moral status at least in your own eyes. That feels cool and in fact should feel like a triumph if you are a spiritually aware, up and coming soul. Said the Prophet “Sense of shame if part of faith”.
This is the first level then. The second level is not recognizing one’s shameful error after the commission of the bad act but realizing it after death. Then not the mere blame and shame of this world but the eternal and indelible blame and shame of the Hereafter will hit the offender. We find a similar judgment in still another verse:
“The Day when man looks at what his two hands forwarded (for his future eternal life) and the blasphemer says ‘Woe to and shame on me! Would that I had turned into dust” (78: 40), and,
“That Day the Hell is brought- that Day man remembers but what use is to him that great remembering? “Woe to and shame on me for what I forwarded for my (eternal) Life” says he (89: 23- 24). Even more telling and terrible is the verse:
“As for the one whose record is handed to him from the left- “Would that I was never handed my record, that I never came to know my account, that all had ended with my death. My wealth availed me nothing, my authority perished”. “Grab him and tie him up and hurl him into blazing fire- then insert him into it chained with a chain seventy cubits long. Because he used not to believe in Great Allah, he used not to encourage the feeding of the poor. As a result today and here he has no warm friend, nor has he food other than the purulent blood the sinners eat” (69: 25- 37).
The catalogue of evil first informing and motivating and then shaming and punishing a Godless man could not be described more impressively than above. It is obviously pointed out that Godlessness is being devoid of a fully humane, warmly loving and merciful conscience and that one such person can only earn friends by winning hearts all his life as a result of which he builds up conscience and consciousness as vast, cool and blissful as Paradise. This must be the greatest existential success in human life no matter what else; accordingly All-Gracious, All-Wise says:
“The charitable are (buried) in blessings, gazing, seated on couches. In their faces you recognize the joy of the blessed gifts. They are served a drink sealed, its seal being musk. Its flavor is from Overflowing Generosity, a spring from which the Near Ones (of Allah) alone drink. In this let those yearning for delicate tastes exert their yearning (83: 22- 28).
I especially draw your attention to this last verse: here the highest and ultimate success which attaining Paradise is finds its most revealing description. You can cross into paradise territory and take up your sumptuous seat and take in its breathtaking glory and beauty by cultivating a heart full of Overflowing Generosity of soul, I mean an inner heart in which this precious liquid is sealed under a seal of loveliest perfume of an extremely good and pleasant character. Mind you, this Spring of Overflowing Generosity of Spirit is made to gush forth by none other than Allah and its output is served in overflowing cupfuls by Allah’s angels to those who ask for it- that is to say who, above all things beg Allah to grant them that kind of an inner heart.
This means what? Why, it just means that a true and serious believer, in his endeavor of obtaining Allah’s Pleasure realizes that Allah is Pure and Kind and Generous and to be a friend of Allah he has no other option but inform and reform himself to that effect!
Attaining Allah’s Pleasure by attaining and making his own Allah’s graceful qualities as far as humanly possible is the single greatest and most victorious triumph for a man seeking success in life; it is the most delicious of attainments, it joins you with the Company of Allah and His best friends in their joint goodwill for and help to whole creation. If then people are seeking the finest and most delicious experiences in the course of their lives this is it! Bravo if you can understand and follow this! You then have the entire secret of Islam or for that matter Tasawwuf/Sufism which is a later name for Islam at its deepest and best.
In more general terms, what is being described above? In the first part, is it not the burning, searing regret of a man who, after a series of disastrously bad and shameful acts he committed on the spur of a moment or in an extended period of proud and greedy ambition, realizing at long last, how incredibly evil he had been and, as a result, coming to hate himself as none else, including perhaps his victims, could hate him? Allah calls such an outcome “Zalika huwa khusran ul mubeen”(22: 11), i.e. “That is indisputably clear, most regrettable failure (for anybody”).
And what was the reason behind this most self-reproachful failure? The reason was, empty of True and Noble God as his heart’s Guardian, Adviser and Helper, he was on his own like an illiterate street urchin, thieving, prostituting and occasionally even murdering- for that is perhaps one of the best parables applicable to persons who are spiritual illiterates. Spiritual illiterate means deprived of a proper study and appreciation of Allah’s Book and His Messenger’s inspiring example and instead formed in the crucible of a Godless culture where bestial instincts are the only guide and their satisfaction the only law.
In the second part, namely the part about the Godly fortunates, the cause of their blessedness and bliss is their generosity of effort in pleasing their Creator, the exercise of which generosity covers everything from worshipping Allah sincerely, enthusiastically and properly to seeking out all avenues of charity and going down them with zeal and joy because these people are ‘sanely drunk’ with that holiest and noblest of all ambitions which is blessing all in need of blessing, blessing them in the Name of the Lord by whatever means in their power.
This does not of course mean that people are only of two extreme types, namely the few who are angels and the many who are devils. Human condition are rarely divided that bad. For most of the time in all societies and at most levels of them there is a modicum of decency and a semblance of moral laws- even the brutal mafiosi have their internal moral regulations- but such is never enough to take man to his highest and noblest potential he can otherwise attain- the potential of being a privileged, close friend of the All-Gracious (al Rahman) and All-Loving (al Wadood) and Greatly Thanking (al Shakoor) Allah the Most Sublime (Subhan) and Holy (Quddus). God is not only man’s Origin (I blew into him of My Spirit), but also equally man’s Destiny (You shall be returning to Me). In more concrete words we are imparted many glories of our Creator in the form of seeds of potentiality (and naturally so) and may, if we care to tend and cultivate those potentialities, attain that level of perfection of grace which will entitle us to His eternal Company, i.e., living with and in Him in utmost and most total and enduring bliss! How is it that we have been imparted many glories of our Creator? Why, is that not so and so simple? Don’t you see when a great painter, composer or architect produces a masterpiece that masterpiece is nothing but a demonstration of his superb artistic abilities? What do you see in the great mosques of Sinan the greatest of Ottoman architects or in the Mathnawi of our master sheikh Jalaluddin Rumi if not inner beauties and wealth of each? I dare say if you don’t see Allah (I mean His glories) in this world you will not be seeing them in the Hereafter either. We are promised to see Allah’s Face, famously in the Hereafter. But if we care to read Allah’s Book more carefully we can and should see His Beautiful Face right in this world as well. Read if you wish “Whichever direction you turn to right there is the Face of Allah” (2: 115) and read also the ominous warning “Whoever is blind in this world is also blind in the next and even more lost in fact” (17: 72). Make up your mind!
So, if we are serious lovers of Allah we must act accordingly and an action plan is necessary. It could be like this:
1.
Stop taking pleasure from pride and learn to take pleasure from humility.
2.
Stop assuming that you know all that are necessary to find your way in life and understand that more knowledge and those more knowledgeable than you are out there at your service if you want.
3.
Stop thinking that your victory in spiritual matters is winning against others but learn that real victory is NOT wanting to win against anybody. The last thing spiritual advancement needs is jealous competition which assumes that for one to win the others must lose. All true worshippers of Allah realize that enjoying each others’ victories make those victories also theirs. Don’t you see how believers enjoy Rasulullah’s reported victories? As they enjoy them Allah rewards them with the rewards He All-Gracious rewarded His Messenger. What in fact were the false prophets like Musailaima the Liar if not, unlike Abu Bakr and Umar (RA) were not happy with our master Muhammad’s sws successes as theirs also but wanted to claim their own territory in greatness as they saw it? In more practical terms and closer to home: never be jealous of any fellow believer/disciple who is apparently gaining more favor from the teacher or from fellow believers but be as happy as you think he is because of it, celebrate his success and rest assured that eventually you will not be left behind . Your humility and goodwill shall not be lost on Allah the Most Gracious. Had Iblis (Satan) not been jealous of but celebrating Adam’s promotion he would be granted the same promotion.
4.
Give, give, give instead of take and keep, take and keep, take and keep. Giving to yourself, that is to say seeing to the satisfaction of your and your near and dear ones’ needs is also giving for Allah’s Sake but should not be your only direction of giving. What is more, when you extend your dutiful generosity to those outside you and your near and dear ones Allah blesses your wealth in a thousand ways so subtle and effective that you will want for nothing for the rest of your life: your needs shall be met from a hundred directions and sources you knew nothing about. This is not of course a checkbook-in-hand sign-sign-sign policy but the policy Allah advises when He All-Wise says “Those who, when they give, neither act niggardly nor do they act wastefully but stand middle way between (25: 67)”. One fine point to observe here is to follow the practice of the Prophet sws who, when giving things to various recipients sized each gift to correspond not only to the need or even technically determined entitlement of each recipient but each recipient’s potential for becoming more useful to Islam. As a result you may give to a more pious brother of yours that much and to another who is a bit more worldly greedy a bit more so that his heart will warm to you and by extension to Islam more. In other words, for some pious admonition and for others ‘bribes’ work better. Surely the former are finer souls.
5.
In knowledge always go to the jugular so-to-speak: If you are able go to the Qur’an even if through a teacher well-versed in the Qur’an, then to Hadith even if you need go through with a teacher well-versed in it and leave the other sources as your last and supplementary sources which you must inspect always in the light of the former two. Do not go for shallowly charismatic, apparently miracle-working and explosively popular upstarts, for they often are either semi-madmen in the grip of some semi-holy experience which will fizzle out eventually or crooks. Many of these may make a moderately bright debut only to grow into slick exploiters and manipulators insatiable for money, fame and sex because their intentions had never been pure enough or they are clever crooks from the beginning with only a modicum of non-descript spirituality. That such non-starters can even be would-be prophets Allah testifies to: “Recite to them the story of the one to whom We had given Our signs and verses but had slipped out of them and the Satan had chased and claimed him. Had we wished We could elevate him with our signs and verses but he stuck to the earth (went for his worldly ambitions). His example is like the example of the dog: if you put on it a burden it hangs out its tongue and breathes (wondering what to do with it- because a dog is not a load carrying animal like a mule), if you don’t it again only hangs its tongue and breathes. This is the example of those who deny Our signs and verses (even when given them don’t know what to make of them). Tell them the story so that they contemplate (7: 175- 176).
6.
According to tradition this man was Bal’am b. Baura who was a contemporary of our master Moses and having accepted the religion of Moses was for a while a convincing believer whose prayers were routinely accepted. Later however jealousy and rivalry took the better of him and he fell from Divine favor and ended up disgraced. I personally have seen quite a few false-starters on the sainthood path; after a shallow blazing performance of prophesying and healing they fizzled out and either gave up or continued as spiritual money-grabbing crooks. Incidentally, this example which bears all the authority of the Qur’an al Karim of Allah the Most High indicates that not only sainthood (rather more profound Islamic piety) but even prophethood may be a temporary gift from Allah which is by no means secure. Those who are tested with either may fail the test. In fact Allah the Most High mentions this possibility even for our master Muhammad sws severally one of which is “Are they saying (about your reception of revelation) that ‘he just made it up’? If Allah wish He can seal up your heart” (42: 24).
More can be added to these but let this much suffice for the time being. If you want Allah guiding you to His Pleasure be prepared to learn from the best available books and teachers and pay every price you can afford, price in terms of giving time, exerting effort, spending money and learning and serving ardently until you break into your own free-flight as all young birds must do. Before then, like chicken, you must be fed and trained by a spiritual adult, a saintly, well-meaning, always humble and jolly, honest and charitable to the hilt teacher who won’t rob you or mistreat you under the guise of testing you but will be humbly and honorably be at your service without demeaning himself and only putting you to reasonable tasks without humiliating you. Any teachers who supposedly test their pupils with undignified sacrifices or humiliating chores are misguided. Nothing is easier for a pupil who means business to take on any task however undignified or unpopular for the sake of passing a test set up by his teacher: with enough humble intelligence almost anybody can take on a challenge whose meeting promises promotion, a challenge like a doctor washing the toilets or a general acting as a porter. The Messenger of Allah never demeaned either himself or his followers with such so-called Buddhist or Christian-monastic petty tricks. Instead he even observed the inalienable dignity of even his lowest-born followers treating them like his sons or brothers if not as princes. Surely Allah’s Messenger knew best: all human beings are Allah’s deputies on earth, equally and inalienably so and their affairs and judgment on them are Allah’s business and Allah’s alone. Tasawwuf should only be learned from Allah through His Book and His Messenger’s example and absolutely from nowhere and nowhere else. Only such Sufism is advanced and practical enough on top of being worthy of Allah’s deputies on earth. Amen.