Note: The Alislam Team assumes full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in this translation of the Friday Sermon.
Date: 25 January 1924 Published in: Al-Fazl, 1 February 1924
Topics: Surah Al-Fatihah, Humility, Hope and Fear, Spiritual Vigilance
After the recitation of Tashahhud, Ta'awwudh, and Surah Al-Fatihah, Huzur(ra) said:
Due to a throat ailment, I am unable to speak at length. However, since the Friday sermon is the one occasion when friends from the surrounding areas gather and have the opportunity to hear certain matters, I have myself risen to deliver a brief address. It is my practice — and if not always, then at least most of the time — to recite Surah Al-Fatihah before a lecture or sermon. In my view, this Surah encompasses all the matters toward which Islam directs human attention. Every single word of this Surah carries within it expansive meanings. And as Muslims have held for a long time, the essence of the Quran's entire teaching has been set forth in it. After Bismillah — which is the key to all the Surahs and is not particular to Surah Al-Fatihah — Allah the Exalted has begun this Surah with Al-hamdu lillāh and concluded it with ghayril-maghḍūbi 'alayhim wa laḍ-ḍāllīn.
On the surface, it appears strange that a person who commences with praise (hamd) could ever be in danger of falling among the maghḍūb 'alayhim (those who incurred wrath) or the ḍāllīn (those who went astray). How could someone of perfect faith — one who attributes every excellence to God and sees no excellence in any being other than God — be in such danger?
The word hamd is a verbal noun (maṣdar), and in Arabic it serves as the verbal noun for both the active (ma’roof) and passive (majhool) voices. Thus, hamd signifies both "to praise" and "to be praised." When a person says Al-hamdu lillāh, he declares: "Neither do I have the capacity to praise anyone, nor am I myself worthy of praise. And the creation besides me is also not worthy of being praised. He regards only the Being of Allah the Exalted as that which is worthy of praise and which alone can truly praise."
Consider now the depth of humility this entails, and the extent of self-abasement: a human being negates even his own existence and sees no skill or excellence within himself. Such a person acknowledges that there is no intrinsic beauty in himself, nor is there intrinsic beauty in anyone else. In the world, there are two things: knowledge, or the reality of something — either something possesses a quality, or someone possesses knowledge of that quality. These are the only two things that render anything praiseworthy. For example, quinine is worthy of praise because it has the property of curing certain fevers. But a doctor is also worthy of esteem because he knows that quinine brings relief in such-and-such types of fevers. Or again, wood and iron are things of value because buildings are constructed from them and ships are made. But a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a builder are also praiseworthy, because they know how to work with wood, iron, brick, and stone.
So all realities are of two kinds: either the possession of an excellence in something, or the knowledge of that excellence. When a person says Al-hamdu lillāh, he acknowledges that no excellence exists in anything except God — that intrinsic excellence belongs to God alone. This is the pinnacle of humility and self-abasement. The servant denies every excellence from his own being, and then surveys all of creation and finds in it no excellence that he could call praiseworthy in comparison to God. Having thus surveyed all of creation, he declares: there is no excellence in anyone save God.
After this magnificent opening — which begins with Al-hamdu lillāh — one says: ghayril-maghḍūbi 'alayhim wa laḍ-ḍāllīn: "O God, do not send Thy wrath upon me, and let it not be that I stray from the path of Thy pleasure."
People say — and they say truly — that through knowledge and gnosis (ma'rifah) a person is saved from destruction. People say — and they say correctly — that no one enters a jungle where there is a lion, and no one passes through a jungle where robberies occur without protection. Yet despite this, when one has attained gnosis, it is difficult to understand why ghayril-maghḍūbi 'alayhim wa laḍ-ḍāllīn is enjoined. What fear of wrath and going astray remains after gnosis?
I say: it is true that after attaining gnosis, one does not fear it. But it is also a reality that gnosis can be taken away and lost. So even the highest gnosis and knowledge cannot render a person so secure that he is completely safe from wrath and going astray — because it is possible for a person to have gnosis and knowledge, yet have it seized from him or to lose it himself.
Look at this in the world around us. A man meets another after they have been separated for a long period. When they meet, he asks, "Do you recognise me?" The other says, "No." He replies, "You and I played and studied together." The other says, "I still cannot recognise you." It often happens that even after recounting many details of their shared past, a person still says, "I am sorry, I have still not recognised you." This proves that knowledge and gnosis can be erased. And it also proves that when it is said of someone, "He was such a sincere person, such a great servant — how did he stumble?" — he stumbles precisely at the moment his sincerity is taken away or fades. For we see that even when the right path is known, people deviate from it. Having embraced love, they can still forget it. Such people are like what the Holy Quran says: wa man nu'ammir-hu nunakkis-hu fil-khalq (Ya-Sin 36:69) — when life extends, faculties weaken. Just as with advancing age knowledge diminishes, so too does a spiritual old age come upon certain people.
In such a state, someone who has gnosis, who knows how to say Al-hamdu lillāh, yet whose grasp of its reality has weakened — he can be counted among the maghḍūb 'alayhim. Surah Al-Fatihah draws attention to this very point: that no one should stumble because of another's stumbling, and no one should fall because of another's fall. Until God declares of a person that he is safeguarded from error and can no longer stumble, it cannot be said of anyone that he has reached his destination.
Those who are safeguarded from wrath and going astray are the Prophets of God. They are like an infant cradled in God's arms. God declares their being to be His own being, and drapes over them the mantle of His Divinity. Divinity itself does not enter them, but they become manifestations (maẓhar) of God. Their praise is but a reflected praise and their hamd a reflected hamd. Other than them, no one can be of whom it is said with certainty that he cannot stumble.
Regarding a certain man, the Holy Prophet(sa) said: "Whoever wishes to see a person of the Fire, let him look at this man" — and with that he gestured toward a man who was fighting the disbelievers in battle with extraordinary self-sacrifice. One Companion narrates: I feared that some people might be troubled by this, since such a sincere man had been called a person of the Fire — for he was fighting in a manner that made Muslims say, "May God reward him with good." That Companion followed the man. Eventually the man was wounded and began to weep. The Companions came and said, "Glad tidings of Paradise to you." But he said, "Do not give me glad tidings of Paradise — rather give me glad tidings of the Fire, for I was not fighting for God but for my own self." Finally, when he was overwhelmed by the pain, he planted his spear in the ground and threw himself upon it, killing himself.¹ In this way, by taking his own life, he proved that he was indeed a person of the Fire. Thus no person's state is secure until Allah the Exalted declares his being to be His own being and his condition becomes as expressed in the Persian verse:
Man tū shudam tū man shudī, man jān shudam tū tan shudī Tā kas nagūyad ba'd azīn, man dīgaram tū dīgarī
(I became Thee and Thou became me, I became the soul and Thou the body — so that none may say hereafter: I am other than Thee and Thou art other than me.)
No matter how sincere a person may be, and no matter how much service he may render, to say that he cannot stumble is not correct.
Some people in our Jamā'at have stumbled for the reason that they found among the Paighāmīs individuals who appeared very sincere and devoted servants. But I say: no doubt they rendered services, yet it is also evident that knowledge and gnosis can be seized and lost. And that is precisely what happened in their case.
The second point worthy of note in this Surah is the condition of hope (rajā') and fear (khawf). The Holy Prophet(sa) says² — and it is also found in the Holy Quran — that faith (īmān) lies in hope and fear, and the reality of faith is between hope and fear. Surah Al-Fatihah also guides toward this same truth. With Al-hamdu lillāh, hope is kindled; and with ghayril-maghḍūbi 'alayhim wa laḍ-ḍāllīn, fear presents itself. This is the path upon which the Muslim walks — this is the Pul-Sirāt (the Bridge), on one side of which is Paradise and on the other is Hell. Faith is perfected by walking upon this bridge. Therefore, however sincere a person may be, it is necessary for him to keep both of these things in view. I counsel the members of our Jamā'at not to forget this point in any of their affairs.
May Allah the Exalted grant us His gnosis, so that we may acquire the knowledge that comes from Him, and then let that knowledge neither be seized from us nor be lost by us. And may our faith remain between hope and fear. May Allah save us from all those intoxications that lead toward destruction, and may He set us upon those paths that lead to Paradise, and make us among those to whom Paradise comes in this very world. Until this station is attained, there remains the fear of destruction; but beyond this station there is no destruction — only success upon success.
(Al-Fazl, 1 February 1924)
Footnotes
¹ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Qadar, Bāb al-'Amal bil-Khawātīm — Bukhari 6606
² Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Riqāq, Bāb al-Rajā' ma' al-Khawf — Bukhari 6469
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