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SERMON 220Qualities of the God-fearing and the piousHe (the believer) kept his mind alive and killed (the desires of) hisheart till his body became thin his bulk turned light and an effulgenceof extreme brightness shone for him. It lighted the way for him andtook him on the (right) path. Different doors led him to the door ofsafety and the place of (his permanent) stay. His feet balancing hisbody became fixed in the position of safety and comfort because hekept his heart (in good acts) and pleased his Allah. * * * * *SERMON 221Amir al-mu'minin recited the verseEngage (your) vying in exuberance until ye come to the graves. (1) (Qur'an 102:1-2) Then he said:How distant (from achievement) is their aim how neglectful are these visitors and how difficult is the affair. They have not taken lessons from things which are full of lessons but they took them from far off places. Do they boast on the dead bodies of their fore-fathers or do they regard the number of dead persons as a ground for feeling boastful of their number? They want to revive the bodies that have become spiritless and the movements that have ceased. They are more entitled to be a source of lesson than a source of pride. They are more suitable for being a source of humility than of honour. |
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They looked at them with weak-sighted eyes and descended into the hollow of ignorance. If they had asked about them from the dilapidated houses and empty courtyards they would have said that they went into the earth in the state of misguidance and you too are heading ignorantly towards them. You trample their skulls want to raise constructions on their corpses you graze what they have left and live in houses which they have vacated. The days (that lie) between them and you are also bemoaning you and reciting elegies over you. They are your fore-runners in reaching the goal and have arrived at the watering places before you. They had positions of honour and plenty of pride. They were rulers and holders of positions. Now they have gone into the interstice where earth covers them from above and is eating their flesh and drinking their blood. They lie in the hollows of their graves lifeless no more growing and hidden not to be found. The approach of dangers does not frighten them and the adversity of circumstances does not grieve them. They do not mind earthquakes nor do they pay heed to thunders. They are gone and not expected back. They are existent but unseen. They were united but are now dispersed. They were friendly and are now separated. Their accounts are unknown and their houses are silent not because of length of time or distance of place but because they have been made to drink the cup (of death) which has changed their speech into dumbness their hearing into deafness and their movements into stillness. It seems as though they
(1). The genesis of the descending of this verse is
that the tribes of Banu 'Abd Manaf and Banu Sahm began to boast against each
other over the abundance of their wealth and the number of their tribesmen and
in order to prove they had a greater number each one began to include their dead
as well whereupon this verse was revealed to the effect that abundance of riches
and majority in numbers has made you so forgetful that you count the dead also
with the living. This verse is also taken to mean that abundance of riches and
progeny has made you forgetful till you reached the graves but the utterance of
Amir al-mu'minin supports the first meaning.
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![]() ![]() are fallen in slumber. They are neighbours not feeling affection for each other or friends who do not meet each other. The bonds of their knowing each other have been worn out and the connections of their friendship have been cut asunder. Everyone of them is therefore alone although they are a group and they are strangers even though friends. They are unaware of morning after a night and of evening after a day. The night or the day when they departed has become ever existent for them. (2) They found the dangers of their placed of stay more serious than they had apprehended and they witnessed that its signs were greater than they had guessed. The two objectives (namely paradise and hell) have been stretched for them upto a point beyond the reach of fear or hope. Had they been able to speak they would have become dumb to describe what they witnessed or saw. Even though their traces have been wiped out and their news has stopped (circulating) eyes are capable of drawing a lesson as they looked at them ears of intelligence heard them and they spoke without uttering words. So they said that handsome faces have been destroyed and delicate bodies have been smeared with earth. We have put on a worn-out shroud. The narrowness of the grave has overwhelmed us and strangeness has spread among us. Our silent abodes have been ruined. The beauty of our bodies has disappeared. Our known features have become hateful. Our stay in the places of strangeness has become long. We do not get relief from pain nor widening from narrowness.
(2). This means that for him he who dies in the day
it is always day whereas for him who dies in the night the darkness of night
never dispels because they are at a place where there is no turning of the moon
and the sun and no rotation of the nights and the days. The same meaning has
been expressed by a poet like this:
There is sure to be a day without a night
Or a night that would come without a day.
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