Note: The Alislam Team assumes full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in this translation of the Friday Sermon.
Friday Sermon Delivered by: Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad(ra), Khalifatul Masih II Date: 18 April 1924 Published: Al-Fazl, 2 May 1924
Topics: Purpose of Human Creation, Worship, Divine Proximity, Moral Reform
After reciting the tashahud, ta'awwudh, and Surah Al-Fatihah, Huzur(ra) said:
In last Friday's sermon I drew attention to one of the great benefits of Ramadan — that Allah has placed within it particular times devoted to worship, such that if a person worships God during those hours with complete humility and perfect submission, he can surely attain union with his Beloved. He can reach a station from which not even all the governments of the world combined could dislodge him; his footing would remain absolutely firm. At that station there remains no possibility of falling, and he attains the nearness of God — a reward beyond which there is none greater in this world or the next.
Today I wish to draw attention to another dimension of this same theme. Allah says in the Holy Quran:
"And I have not created the jinn and the men but that they may worship Me." — Al-Dhariyat 51:57
The sole purpose for which Allah created jinn and men is that they become His servants — that they endure whatever hardships come their way on the path toward His nearness, pass through them with ease, and utter not a single word of complaint. Only when a person does this does he become worthy of being called a true servant of God.
The Arabic word 'ubudiyyah (servitude) means complete humility and self-abasement. Tadhallul means to be so affected by another's influence that one receives its imprint. When a person presses his hand into soft clay, the clay bears the imprint of the hand. In Arabic, this receiving of an imprint is called Tadhallul. Since wet clay is readily impressed by whatever force acts upon it and assumes whatever shape is desired, those who wish to express humility and meekness liken themselves to dust and call themselves khaksar — "servants of the earth."
With this quality of self-abasement in mind, there is an Arabic idiom: tarbat yadak/ تربت یدک — "may your hands be dusted." Arabs use this expression when they wish to indicate someone's lowliness. The wisdom of invoking the word "dust" is that no substance possesses greater capacity for self-surrender than soil. And along with this capacity for total impressionability, clay can also assume an infinite variety of forms. If you pour fine soil into a wide vessel, it takes a wide shape; if into a round vessel, a round shape. Wet clay can be moulded into any form desired — you can make pots, cups, and vessels from it, and bricks can be fashioned from it with which to build the finest dwellings.
It is to draw attention to this very quality that Allah has declared that He created the human being from clay. The meaning is that just as clay can be affected by any number of forces and absorb countless impressions, and can take on an infinite variety of forms, so too has God placed within the human being the capacity to travel either the path of good or the path of evil — to absorb the qualities of either. Had the human being possessed no capacity to absorb evil — had he been like the angels, capable only of good and incapable of approaching evil — he would never have deserved exalted rewards, nor would his ranks have progressed. Thus, God's repeated declaration that He created man from clay in fact points toward this truth: that man, like clay, can transform himself and can absorb the imprints of both good and evil and be affected by their influences.
Despite possessing this capacity to receive varied impressions, man has then been commanded to assume one particular form — to become righteous and to become God's servant; to absorb within himself the reflection of God's own Being and to be called His perfect servant. A perfect servant is only one who possesses both qualities: on the one hand he obeys his Master, while on the other he possesses the power to disobey — yet despite possessing this power of disobedience, he chooses to obey and submit.
A question naturally arises: when God commands us to become His servants, does He mean 'abd in the same sense in which the word is ordinarily used? Does He command servitude in order to fulfil the same purposes that a master seeks when he purchases a slave?
A master sometimes purchases a slave to help him carry various burdens and assist him in his work. Sometimes a master keeps a servant so that the servant may guard the house while the master is away on a journey. Sometimes a slave is purchased so that enemies will fear the master's strength and dare not attack him unawares. Sometimes a slave serves as a bodyguard, accompanying the master like a shadow at every moment so that no enemy can suddenly strike him down. Sometimes a slave is purchased for the sake of outward pomp and prestige — when the master strolls in the bazaar, the slave clears the path ahead, announcing "Make way, my master is coming!" thus displaying the master's grandeur before the people.
But is God in need of any of this? Does He make you His servant so that you may help Him in His tasks? So that you may guard His home while He travels? So that through your servitude His enemies will be filled with fear and awe of Him? So that you may act as His bodyguard and protect Him from His enemies in moments of His inattention? So that He may display His majesty and splendour through you?
Certainly not. God's majesty stands in no need of you to manifest it. His glory was manifest before you existed and will remain so after you are gone. So when none of these purposes motivates His command to become His servants, what then is the purpose? The answer is this: He desires to make you His servants for your own benefit — so that you may become righteous for your own good, adopt humility before Him, and become entirely His. To this Allah points in the Holy Quran: the very purpose of your creation is that you absorb His reflection within yourselves, and become coloured with His attributes, so that you are called His own. Become like wet clay, upon which impressions can easily be made, so that God's reflection may fall upon you and His attributes be inscribed within you.
In ancient times, for lack of paper, books were written on clay tablets — and indeed such clay tablets inscribed with various books are still found today. So become wet clay, that the reflection of My glory may fall upon you, and I may make you My sign, My manifestation, and a model for those who have not yet become true servants. Let them see My signs within you, let them behold My attributes, so that they may know: if those servants of God who have absorbed His attributes within themselves are so compassionate and tender-hearted, how infinitely compassionate and loving must that God be whose mirror they are.
It is to this very reality that the Bible alludes when it says that God created man in His own image (Genesis) — so that God might manifest His attributes within His servant and present him as a model for other servants to follow. When a servant reaches the station of being a beautiful example (uswah hasanah) for others, he attains salvation from all sins and reaches that station to which Allah points in the Holy Quran:
"Enter thou among My servants. And enter thou My Garden." — Al-Fajr 89:30-31
Because you have become My servant and a manifestation of My attributes, you may now stand in My station — and My station is one in which no want causes pain; neither hunger torments nor thirst afflicts, nor is there the sting of annihilation. There it is a matter of kun fayakun — "Be, and it is":
"They shall have therein whatever they wish, and with Us there is yet more." — Qaf 50:36
Whatever they desire shall be given to them. This is precisely the meaning conveyed in the verse of kun fayakun: whatever God decrees comes to be. In short, after death, upon reaching that station, a person absorbs God's attributes within himself and is coloured in His hue. No wants or needs afflict him, just as God Himself is free of all wants. These divine attributes are granted to the servant in Paradise, not in this world — for were the servant to fully manifest God's attributes here, there would be a danger of shirk (associating partners with God). But since in the Hereafter there will be no such danger, the servant will then be the full manifestation of God's attributes.
Yet there remains this distinction between God and the servant: God's attributes are essential and self-subsisting — He is Al-Samad, free of all need, having received His attributes from none other. But the servant is not samad; he is dependent, having received those attributes from God, and shall remain dependent upon Him at every moment.
Having stated this, I ask you: are you self-sufficient from God? Do you have no need of Him? Have you fulfilled the purpose of your creation and striven to be coloured in His attributes — to attain Him, to be entirely His, to stand for Him, to yearn restlessly for His attainment?
You are fortunate that you saw a Prophet of God and benefited from his companionship. God granted you a blessing for which other nations yearn but have not received. Nineteen hundred years have passed since Christians saw the face of a prophet. Three thousand three hundred years have passed since Jews beheld the face of one sent by God. And thirteen hundred years have passed since Muslims benefited from the companionship of any chosen one. So however much you rejoice at receiving this blessing, it is not too much — however great your celebration, it is still insufficient. But your rejoicing alone is not enough. You must value this blessing and draw benefit from this sun. Other nations are like bats before this sun and do not know the worth of this light — they seek to hide from its radiance, for their eyes are diseased and lack the strength to behold it. But you have seen this sun and witnessed its light.
Therefore I ask you: how many among you genuinely desire to meet God and to produce His attributes within yourselves? Regrettably, very few harbour even this desire — and fewer still are those who, though they have this desire, are restless with urgency to fulfil it. Most people pass their time in heedlessness. Many among you heard the sermons and lectures of Hazrat Sahib (the Promised Messiah(as)), then attended the lessons and exhortations of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih I(ra), and have since heard my own sermons and lessons — yet despite all this, no marked transformation is visible in you, nothing to indicate that you are driven with passionate urgency to attain something, that you are consumed with such deep restlessness that you cannot find even a moment's peace.
This is why the pace of your progress is so slow, and why people among you are found who are ensnared by all manner of vices. You will find many given to backbiting, many to dishonesty, many to lying — and despite these ugly habits they remain at ease, making no effort to abandon them, to produce a marked difference within themselves, or to strive to make themselves a manifestation of God's attributes.
I do not say that transformation must come instantly — it did not come instantly even among the Companions. What I do say is that restlessness and disquiet are absolutely essential for reform, and a believer must strive unceasingly toward his own reformation. Bitter medicine disturbs a person's constitution, yet that very bitterness drives away the illness. When a patient reaches a crisis, physicians say: either the patient will die or he will recover. At that moment the patient's very restlessness most often brings his condition to a good resolution and he regains his health.
A restlessness, a disquiet, an urgency to attain God must arise within you — so that your cure may come quickly and your healing be swift. How can a patient recover who does not even know he is ill, and when people tell him to seek treatment and regain his health, he retorts angrily: "You are wrong. I am perfectly well"? Such a patient's recovery is exceedingly difficult. A doctor will be sought only by one who knows he is ill and is restless about his condition. So produce within yourselves this disquiet and this restlessness.
I tell you truthfully: I have delivered to you many sermons such that if you had acted upon them and been seized with the urgency to apply them, you would surely have cured your weaknesses and attained your purpose. But regrettably, many of you heard those sermons, those exhortations, those lectures — with your ears, but gave them no place in your hearts. After hearing them you rose and left, as though you had heard nothing at all and made no effort to act upon them. I say: what is the benefit of hearing such sermons and lectures? The very purpose of hearing sermons and lectures is to act upon the counsel contained in them. And until a person, by acting on that counsel, produces within himself such a transformation that he attains the meeting of God even in this world — until he beholds His luminous countenance and unites with Him — he has, in effect, died before his time.
Many among you are pleased that they have come to know the proofs of the truth of the Promised Messiah(as) and consider their hearts to be at peace with this truth. Some among you consider it quite sufficient that they have resolved the question of the death of the Messiah so thoroughly that no one can challenge them. Some are overjoyed that they possess adequate knowledge of the sciences and arts related to the Quran and that none can rival them in this. Many among you are glad to be excellent debaters whom none can match, or to be great religious scholars with no equal.
But I say: even being the greatest scholar will not bring you to God, nor will it grant you His meeting. Your books and your knowledge are insufficient to bring you to God. If anything can bring you to God, it is one thing alone — a restlessness, an urgency, a disquiet born of longing to attain Him. If you have not produced within yourself that disquiet by which your connection with God is forged, then I say you have accomplished nothing.
Produce within yourselves this disquiet and restlessness; strive to fulfil it, and prepare for that Day when you shall be presented before the Lord of Honour.
So before you are presented before Him and called to account for your deeds, straighten your moral character — for this is the very ladder to God. Speaking from my own experience, I say that I have seen God's attributes, His pleasure, and His wrath, and have come to know that moral rectification and the beautifying of one's character is an absolutely indispensable requirement for attaining God. It has been made manifest to me that bad character is a filth which casts one far from God. Can you present yourself before a king while your body is covered in filth? Can any among you carry a basket of filth upon his head and enter the royal court? Never. Then how can you present yourself in the court of the Lord of All Creation while defiled by the filth of bad character?
So if you wish to gain admittance to the court of the Lord of All Creation, you must acquire noble moral qualities, suppress your passions at various moments, keep your tongue under restraint, sacrifice your desires for God's sake, remain at all times engaged in sympathy for God's creation, and produce a marked transformation within yourselves. Then you will be laid not in the grave of a disbeliever but in the grave of a believer, and a window toward Paradise will be opened for you so that you may gladden your heart with its fragrances.
Some unwise people make noble morals themselves the ultimate goal, imagining that high moral character is man's supreme purpose and the key to success. But I say that noble morals are by no means the purpose and aim of human creation. The purpose of human creation is to attain God and draw near to Him. Morals are merely a means to reach God — by beautifying and rectifying them we can draw nearer to Him, and they serve as a ladder to His attainment — but they are not our ultimate objective.
Even if we were to concede for argument's sake that acquiring noble morals is the purpose of human creation, we would then have to accept that every person who possesses noble morals is among those drawn near to God and beloved by Him — which is manifestly false. Christians possess a degree of noble morals — can we conclude from this that they have attained God and that God loves them and they love God? Often a person who appears most refined and dignified on account of his character is in fact rejected by God's court and unworthy of being admitted by God into the ranks of the righteous. So it is correct that noble morals are a means to reach God — Who is the true purpose and goal of human life — but it is not correct that they are themselves the independent purpose of human life.
The analogy is precisely like this: the matriculation examination is a means to reach the levels of FA, BA, and MA. After passing it, students go on to pass BA and MA examinations and obtain their degrees. In the same way, noble morals are like the matriculation stage. After adopting them, a person can attain God and His nearness.
Noble morals, then, are merely a means to reach God — a ladder to ascend to a great height. So adopt noble morals in order to reach that height and attain your Beloved, that you may come to Him. I say with sorrow: how many among you, on account of their weakness, deny Ahmadiyyat itself at the slightest difficulty, and in anger utter words that not only obstruct the path to God but fall even below the bounds of humanity.
So I counsel you: if you wish to absorb God's attributes within yourselves, first produce a marked transformation within yourselves and adopt noble moral qualities, so that you may easily absorb His attributes within you.
May God grant us all the ability to acquire noble moral qualities, and grant us the life that we shall receive after death. May God produce within us such transformations that we may easily absorb His attributes within ourselves. Ameen.
(Al-Fazl, 2 May 1924)
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