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SERMON 91This sermon is known as the Sermon of Skeletons (1) (Khutbatu'l-Ashbah) and it holds one of the highest positions among the sermons of Amir al-mu'minin. Mas'adah ibn Sadaqah has related from al-Imam Ja'far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq (p.b.u.t.) saying: "Amir al-mu'minin delivered this sermon from the pulpit of (the mosque of) Kufah when someone asked him 'O' Amir al-mu'minin! describe Allah for us in such a way that we may imagine that we see Him with eyes so that our love and knowledge may increase about Him.' Amir al-mu'minin became angry at this (request of the questioner) and ordered the Muslims to gather in the mosque. So many Muslims gathered in the mosque that the place was over-crowded. Then Amir al-mu'minin ascended the pulpit while he was still in a state of anger and his colour was changed. After he had praised Allah and extolled Him and sought His blessings on the Prophet he said: Description of AllahPraise be to Allah whom refusal to give away and stinginess do not make rich and Whom munificence and generosity do not make poor although everyone who gives away loses (to that extent) except He and every miser is blamed for his niggardliness. He obliges through beneficial bounties and plentiful gifts and grants. The whole creation is His dependants (in sustenance) (2). He has guaranteed their livelihood and ordained their sustenance. He has
prepared the way for those who turn to Him and those who seek what is with Him.
He is as generous about what He is asked as He is about that for which He is not
asked. He is the First for whom there was no 'before' so that there could be
anything before Him. He is the Last for whom there is no 'after' so that there
could be anything after Him. He prevents the pupils of the eyes from seeing Him
or perceiving Him. Time does not change over Him so as to admit of any change of
condition about
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to reside in Paradise and arranged for his eating in it and also indicated from what He had prohibited him. He told him that proceeding towards it meant His disobedience and endangering his own position. But Adam did what he had been refrained from just as Allah already knew beforehand. Consequently Allah sent him down after (accepting) his repentance to populate His earth with his progeny and to serve as a proof and plea for Him among his creatures. Even when He made Adam die He did not leave them without one who would serve among them as proof and plea for His Godhead and serve as the link between them and His knowledge but He provided to them the proofs through His chosen Messengers and bearers of the trust of His Message age after age till the process came to end with our Prophet Muhammad - Allah may bless him and his descendants - and His pleas and warnings reached finality. He ordained livelihoods (3) with plenty and with paucity. He distributed them narrowly as well as profusely. He did it with justice to test whomever He desired with prosperity or with destitution and to test through it the gratefulness or endurance of the rich and the poor. Then He coupled plenty with misfortunes of destitution safety with the distresses of calamities and pleasures of enjoyment with pangs of grief. He created fixed ages and made them long or short and earlier or later and ended them up with death. He had made death capable of pulling up the ropes of ages and cutting them asunder. He (4) knows the
secrets of those who conceal them the secret conversation of those who engage in
it the inner feelings of those who indulge in guesses the established
certainties the inklings of the eyes the inner contents of hearts and depths of
the unknown. He also knows what can be heard only by bending the holes of the
ears the summer resorts of ants and winter
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of them and His bounty encompasses them despite their falling short of what is due to Him. * * * * *O' my Allah! thou deservest handsome description and the highest esteem. If wish is directed towards Thee Thou art the best to be wished for. If hope is reposed in Thee Thou art the Most Honoured to be hoped from. O' my Allah! Thou hast bestowed on me such power that I do not praise any one other than Thee and I do not eulogise any one save Thee. I do not direct my praise towards others who are sources of disappointment and centres of misgivings. Thou hast kept away my tongue from the praises of human beings and eulogies of the created and the sustained. O' my Allah! every praiser has on whom he praises the right of reward and recompense. Certainly I have turned to Thee with my eye at the treasures of Thy Mercy and stores of forgiveness. O' my Allah! here stands one who has singled Thee with Oneness that is Thy due and has not regarded any one deserving of these praises and eulogies except Thee. My want towards Thee is such that nothing except Thy generosity can cure its destitution nor provide for its need except Thy obligation and Thy generosity. So do grant us in this place Thy will and make us free from stretching hands to anyone other than Thee. "Certainly Thou art powerful over every thing. " (Qur'an 66:8).
(1). The name of this sermon is the Sermon of "al-Ashbah".
"ashbah" is the plural of shabah which means skeleton since it contains
description of angels and other kinds of beings it has been named by this name.
The ground for being angry on the questioner was that his request was
unconnected with the obligations of shari'ah and beyond limits of human
capacity.
(2). Allah is the Guarantor of sustenance and
Provider of livelihood as He says:
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wrong to expect germination without sowing to hope for results without effort.
Limbs and faculties have been given solely to be kept active. Thus Allah
addresses Mary and says:
And shake towards thee the trunk of the palm-tree it will drop on thee dates
fresh (and) ripe. Then eat and drink and refresh the eye... (Qur'an 19:25-26)
Allah provided the means for Mary's livelihood. He did not however pluck the
dates from the tree and put them in her lap. This was because so far as
production of food goes it is His concern. So he made the tree green put fruits
on it and ripened the fruits. But when the stage arrived for plucking them He
did not intervene. He just recalled to Mary her job namely that she should now
move her hand and get her food.
Again if His providing the livelihood means that whatever is given is given by
Him and whatever is received from Him then whatever a man would earn and eat and
in whatever manner he would obtain it would be permissible for him whether he
obtains it by theft bribery oppression or violence because it would mean Allah's
act and the food would be that given by Him wherein he would have no free will
and where anything is out of the limits of free action there is no question of
permissible or forbidden for it nor is there any liability to account for it.
But when it is not actually so and there is the question of permissible and
forbidden then it should have bearing on human actions so that it could be
questioned whether is was secured in lawful or unlawful manner. Of course where
He has not bestowed the power of seeking the livelihood there He has taken upon
Himself the responsibility to provide the livelihood. Consequently He has
managed for the feeding of the embryo in the mother's womb and it reaches him
there according to its needs and requirements. But when this very young life
enters the wide world and picks up energy to move its limbs then it can't get
its food from the source without moving his lips (for sucking).
(3). In the management of the affairs of this world
Allah has connected the sequence with the cause of human acts as a result of
which the power of action in man does not remain idle in the same way He had
made these actions dependent on His own will so man should not rely on his own
power of action and forget the Creator. This is the issue of the will between
two wills in the controversy of "free will or compulsion". Just as in the
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of drink crowd of beauties and gathering of singing and music. In such a case
the absence of wealth was a blessing. However being ignorant of Allah's
objectives man cries out and being affected by transitory distress begins
complaining but does not realise from how many vices which could have accrued
owing to wealth he has remained aloof. Therefore if wealth produces conveniences
poverty serves as a guard for the character.
(4). The eloquence with which Amir al-mu'minin has
thrown light on Allah's attributes of knowledge and the sublime words in which
he has pictured the all-engrossing quality of His knowledge cannot but impress
the mind of the most die-hard opponent. Thus Ibn Abi'l-Hadid has written:
If Aristotle who believed that Allah is only aware of the universe and not of
its particulars had heard this speech his heart too would have inclined his hair
would have stood on end and his thinking would have undergone a dramatic change.
Do you not see the brightness force vehemence sublimity glory seriousness and
ripeness of this speech? Besides these qualities there is sweetness
colourfulness delicacy and smoothness in it. I have not found any utterance
similar to it. Of course if there is any utterance matching it that can be the
word of Allah only. And there is no wonder in it because he is an off-shoot of
the same tree (of the Prophet Ibrahim who set up the Unity of Allah) a
distributory of the same river and a reflection of the same light. (Sharh Nahj
al-balaghah vol.7 pp. 23-24)
Those who regard Allah to possess only over-all knowledge argue that since
details undergo changes to believe Him to have knowledge of the changing details
would necessitate changes in His knowledge but since knowledge is the same as
His Being His Being would have to be regarded as the object of change the result
of which would be that He would have to be taken as having come into existence.
In this way He would lose the attribute of being from ever. This is a very
deceptive fallacy because changes in the object of knowledge can lead to changes
in the knower only when it is assumed that the knower does not already possess
knowledge of these changes. But since all the forms of change and alteration are
crystal clear before Him there is no reason that with the changes in the objects
of knowledge He too should be regarded changeable although really this change is
confined to the object of knowledge and does not affect knowledge in itself.
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