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| gencnurCom | The
Twenty-Second Letter In
His Name! And
there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise. [This
letter consists of Two Topics; the First summons
believers to brotherhood and love.] First
Topic In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Verily
the believers are brethren; so reconcile then your
brothers.1 * Repel evil with
what is better than it; then the one between whom and
yourself enmity prevails will become like your friend and
intimate.2 * Those who suppress
their anger and forgive people-verily God loves those who
do good.3 Dispute
and discord among the believers, and partisanship,
obstinacy and envy, leading to rancour and enmity among
them, are repugnant and vile, are harmful and sinful, by
the combined testimony of wisdom and the supreme humanity
that is Islam, for personal, social, and spiritual life.
They are in short, poison for the life of man. We will
set forth six of the extremely numerous aspects of this
truth. _____________________ 1.
Qur’an, 49:10.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.312 FIRST
ASPECT They
are sinful in the view of truth. O
unjust man nurturing rancour and enmity against a
believer! Let us suppose that you were on a ship, or in a
house, with nine innocent people and one criminal. If
someone were to try to make the ship sink, or to set the
house on fire, because of that criminal, you know how
great a sinner he would be. You would cry out to the
heavens against his sinfulness. Even if there were one
innocent man and nine criminals aboard the ship, it would
be against all rules of justice to sink it. So
too, if there are in the person of a believer, who may be
compared to a dominical dwelling, a Divine ship, not
nine, but as many as twenty innocent attributes such as
belief, Islam, and neighbourliness; and if you then
nurture rancour and enmity against him on account of one
criminal attribute that harms and displeases you,
attempting or desiring the sinking of his being, the
burning of his house, then you too will be a criminal
guilty of a great atrocity. SECOND
ASPECT They
are also sinful in the view of wisdom, for it is obvious
that enmity and love are opposites, just like light and
darkness; while maintaining their respective essences,
they cannot be combined. If
love is truly found in a heart, by virtue of the
predomination of the causes that produce it, then enmity
in that heart can only be metaphorical, and takes on the
form of compassion. The believer loves and should love
his brother, and is pained by any evil he sees in him. He
attempts to reform him not with harshness but gently. It
is for this reason that the Hadith of the Prophet says,
“No believer should be angered with another and cease
speaking to him for more than three days.”4 If
the causes that produce enmity predominate, and true
enmity takes up its seat in a heart, then the love in
that heart will become metaphorical, and take on the form
of artifice and flattery. O
unjust man! See now what a great sin is rancour and
enmity toward a brother believer! If you were to say that
ordinary small stones are more valuable than the Ka‘ba
and greater than Mount Uhud, it would be an ugly
absurdity. So too, belief which has the value of the
Ka‘ba, and Islam which has the splendour of Mount Uhud,
as well as other Islamic attributes, demand love and
concord; but if you prefer to belief and Islam certain _____________________ 4.
Bukhari, Adab 57, 62; Isti’dhan 9; Muslim, Birr 23, 25,
26; Abu Da’ud, Adab 47; Tirmidhi, Birr 21, 24; Ibn
Maja, Muqaddima 7; Musnad i, 176, 183; iii, 110, 165,
199, 209, 225; iv, 20, 327, 328; v, 416, 421, 422. Letters
/ Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.313
shortcomings
which arouse hostility, but in reality are like the small
stones you too will be engaging in great injustice,
foolishness, and sin! The
unity of belief necessitates also the unity of hearts,
and the oneness of our creed demands the oneness of our
society. You cannot deny that if you find yourself in the
same regiment as someone, you will form a friendly
attachment to him; a brotherly relation will come into
being as a result of your both being submitted to the
orders of a single commander. You will similarly
experience a fraternal relation through living in the
same town with someone. Now there are ties of unity,
bonds of union, and relations of fraternity as numeous as
the Divine Names that are shown and demonstrated to you
by the light and consciousness of belief. Your
Creator, Owner, Object of Worship, and Provider is one
and the same for both of you; thousands of things are and
the same for you. Your Prophet, your religion, your qibla
are one and the same; hundreds of things are one and the
same for you. Then too your village is one, your state is
one, your country is one; tens of things are one and the
same for you. All of these things held in common dictate
oneness and unity, union and concord, love and
brotherhood, and indeed the cosmos and the planets are
similarly interlinked by unseen chains. If, despite all
this, you prefer things worthless and transient as a
spider’s web that give rise to dispute and discord, to
rancour and enmity, and engage in true enmity towards a
believer, then you will understand -unless your heart is
dead and your intelligence extinguished- how great is
your disrespect for that bond of unity, your slight to
that relation of love, your transgression against that
tie of brotherhood! THIRD
ASPECT In
accordance with the meaning of the verse: No
bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another,5 which
expresses pure justice, to nurture rancour and enmity
towards a believer is like condemning all the innocent
attributes found in him on account of one criminal
attribute, and is hence an act of great injustice. If you
go further and include in your enmity all the relatives
of a believer on account of a single evil attribute of
his, then, in accordance with the following verse in
which the active participle is in the intensive form, Verily
man is much given to wrongdoing,6 you
will have committed a still greater sin and
transgression, against which _____________________ 5.
Qur’an, 6:164.
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/ Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.314
truth,
the Shari‘a and the wisdom of Islam combine to warn
you. How then can you imagine yourself to be right, and
say: “I am in the right”? In
the view of truth, the cause for enmity and all forms of
evil is in itself evil and is dense like clay: it cannot
infect or pass on to others. If someone learns from it
and commits evil, that is another question. Good
qualities that arouse love are luminous like love; it is
part of their function to be transmitted and produce
effects. It is for this reason that the proverb has come
into being, “The friend of a friend is a friend,” and
also that it is said, “Many eyes are beloved on account
of one eye.” So
O unjust man! If such be the view of truth, you will
understand now, if you have the capacity for seeing the
truth, how great an offence it is to cherish enmity for
the likeable and innocent brothers and relatives of a man
you dislike. FOURTH
ASPECT It
is a sin from the point of view of personal life. Listen
to the following four Principles which are the base of
this Fourth Aspect. F
i r s t P r i n c i p l e : When you know your
way and opinions to be true, you have the right to say,
“My way is right and the best.” But you do not have
the right to say, “Only my way is right.” According
to the sense of “The eye of contentment is too dim to
perceive faults; it is the eye of anger that exhibits all
vice;”7 your unjust view and distorted opinion cannot
be the all-decisive judge and cannot condemn the belief
of another as invalid. S
e c o n d P r i n c i p l e : It is your
right that all that you say should be true, but not that
you should say all that is true. For one of insincere
intention may sometimes take unkindly to advice, and
react against it unfavourably. T
h i r d P r i n c i p l e : If you wish to
nourish enmity, then direct it against the enmity in your
heart, and attempt to rid yourself of it. Be an enemy to
your evil-commanding soul and its caprice and attempt to
reform it, for it inflicts more harm on you than all
else. Do not engage in enmity against other believers on
account of that injurious soul. Again, if you wish to
cherish enmity, there are unbelievers and atheists in
great abundance; be hostile to them. In the same way that
the attribute of love is fit to receive love as its
response, so too enmity will receive enmity as its own
fitting response. If you wish to defeat your enemy, then
respond to his evil with good. For if you respond with
evil, enmity will increase, and even though he will be
outwardly defeated, he will nurture hatred in _____________________ 7.
‘Ali Mawardi, Adab al-Dunya wa’l-Din 10; Diwan
al-Shafi’i 91.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.315 his
heart, and hostility will persist. But if you respond to
him with good, he will repent and become your friend. The
meaning of the lines: If you treat the noble nobly, he
will be yours, and if you treat the vile nobly, he will
revolt,8 is that it is the mark of the
believer to be noble, and he will become submitted to you
by noble treatment. And even if someone is apparently
ignoble, he is noble with respect to his belief. It often
happens that if you tell an evil man, “You are good,
you are good,” he will become good; and if you tell a
good man, “You are bad, you are bad,” he will become
bad. Hearken, therefore, to these sacred principles of
the Qur’an, for happiness and safety are to be found in
them: If
they pass by futility, they pass by it in honourable
disdain.9 * If you forgive, pardon, and
relent, verily God is All-Relenting, Merciful.10 F
o u r t h P r i n c i p l e : Those who cherish
rancour and enmity transgress against their own souls,
their brother believer, and Divine mercy. For such a
person condemns his soul to painful torment with his
rancour and enmity. He imposes torment on his soul
whenever his enemy receives some bounty, and pain from
fear of him. If his enmity arises from envy, then it is
the most severe form of torment. For envy in the first
place consumes and destroys the envier, and its harm for
the one envied is either slight or nonexistent. The
cure for envy: Let the envious reflect on the
ultimate fate of those things that arouse his enmity.
Then he will understand that the beauty, strength, rank,
and wealth possessed by his rival are transient and
temporary. Their benefit is slight, and the anxiety they
cause is great. If it is a question of personal qualities
that will gain him reward in the hereafter, they cannot
be an object of envy. But if one does envy another on
account of them, then he is either himself a hypocrite,
wishing to destroy the goods of the hereafter while yet
in this world, or he imagines the one whom he envies to
be a hypocrite, thus being unjust towards him. If
he rejoices at the misfortunes he suffers and is grieved
by the bounties he receives, it is as if he is offended
by the kindness shown towards him by Divine Determining
and Divine Mercy, as if he were criticizing and objecting
to them. Whoever criticizes Divine Determining is
striking his head against an anvil on which it will
break, and whoever objects to Divine Mercy will himself
be deprived of it. How
might justice and sound conscience accept that the
response to _____________________ 8.
Mutanabi. See, al-‘Urf al-Tayyib fi Sharh Diwan
al-Tayyib 387.
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/ Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.316
something
worth not even a day’s hostility should be a year’s
rancour and hostility? You cannot condemn a brother
believer for some evil you experience at his hand for the
following reasons: Firstly,
Divine Determining has a certain share of responsibility.
It is necessary to deduct that share from the total and
respond to it with contentment and satisfaction. Secondly,
the share of the soul and Satan should also be deducted,
and one should pity the man for having been overcome by
his soul and await his repentance instead of becoming his
enemy. Thirdly,
look at the defect in your own soul that you do not see
or do not wish to see; deduct a share for that too. As
for the small share which then remains, if you respond
with forgiveness, pardon, and magnanimity, in such a way
as to conquer your enemy swiftly and safely, then you
will have escaped all sin and harm. But if, like some
drunken and crazed person who buys up fragments of glass
and ice as if they were diamonds, you respond to
worthless, transient, temporary, and insignificant
happenings of this world with violent enmity, permanent
rancour, and perpetual hostility, as if you were going to
remain in the world with your enemy for all eternity, it
would be extreme transgression, sinfulness, drunkenness,
and lunacy. If
then you love yourself, do not permit this harmful
hostility and desire for revenge to enter your heart. If
it has entered your heart, do not listen to what it says.
Hear what truth-seeing Hafiz of Shiraz says:
“The world is not a commodity worth arguing over.” It
is worthless since it is transient and passing. If this
is true of the world, then it is clear how worthless and
insignficant are the petty affairs of the world! Hafiz
also said: “The tranquillity of both worlds lies in the
understanding of these two words: generosity towards
friends, forbearance towards enemies.” I
f y o u s a y : “I have no choice, there is
enmity within my disposition. I cannot overlook those who
antagonize me.” T
h e A n s w e r : If evil character and bad
disposition do not exhibit any trace, and you do not act
with ill intention, there is no harm. If you have no
choice in the matter, then you are unable to abandon your
enmity. If you recognize your defect and understand that
you are wrong to have that attribute, it will be a form
of repentance and seeking of forgiveness for you, thus
delivering you from its evil effects. In fact, we have
written this Topic of the Letter in order to make
possible such a seeking of forgiveness, to distinguish
right from wrong, and to prevent enmity from being
displayed as rightful.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.317 A
case worthy of notice: I once saw, as a result of
biased partisanship, a pious scholar of religion going so
far in his condemnation of another scholar with whose
political opinions he disagreed as to imply that he was
an unbeliever. He also praised with respect a dissembler
who shared his own opinions. I was appalled at these evil
results of political involvement. I said: “I take
refuge with God from Satan and politics,” and from that
time on withdrew from politics. FIFTH
ASPECT Obstinacy
and partisanship are extremely harmful in social life. I
f i t i s s a i d : “There is a Hadith which
says: ‘Difference among my people is an instance of
Divine Mercy,’11 and difference requires partisanship. The
sickness of partisanship also delivers the oppressed
common people from the oppressor elite, for if the elite
of a town or village join together, they will destroy the
oppressed common people. If there is partisanship, the
oppressed may seek refuge with one of the parties and
thus save himself. It
is also from the confrontation of opinions and the
contradiction of views that truth becomes apparent in its
full measure.” T
h e A n s w e r : To
the first part of the question, we say: The
difference intended in the Hadith is a positive
difference. That is, each party strives to promote and
diffuse its own belief; it does not seek to tear down and
destroy that of the other, but rather to improve and
reform it. Negative difference is rejected by the Hadith,
for it aims in partisan and hostile fashion at mutual
destruction, and those who are at each other’s throats
cannot act positively. To
the second part of the question, we say: If
partisanship is in the name of truth, it can become a
refuge for those seeking their rights. But as for the
partisanship obtaining now, biased and self-centred, it
can only be a refuge for the unjust and a point of
support for them. For if a devil comes to a man engaged
in biased partisanship, encourages him in his ideas and
takes his side, that man will call down God’s blessings
on the Devil. But if the opposing side is joined by a man
of angelic nature, then he will -may God protect us!- go
so far as to invoke curses upon him. To
the third part of the question, we say: If the
confrontation of views takes place in the name of justice
and for the sake of truth, then the _____________________ 11.
al-‘Ajlu\ni, Kashf al-Khafa’ i, 64; al-Manawi, Fayd
al-Qadir i, 210-12.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.318 difference
concerns only means; there is unity with respect to aim
and basic purpose. Such a difference makes manifest every
aspect of the truth and serves justice and truth. But
what emerges from a confrontation of views that is
partisan and biased, and takes place for the sake of a
tyrannical, evil-commanding soul, that is based on
egotism and fame-seeking -what emerges from this is not
the ‘flash of truth,’ but the fire of dissension.
Unity of aim is necessary, but opposing views of this
kind can never find a point of convergence anywhere on
earth. Since they do not differ for the sake of the
truth, they multiply ad infinitum, and give rise
to divergences that can never be reconciled. I
n S h o r t : If one does not make of the exalted
rules, “Love for the sake of God, dislike for the sake
of God, judgement for the sake of God”12 the
guiding principles of one’s conduct, dispute and
discord will result. If one does not say, “dislike for
the sake of God, judgement for the sake of God” and
take due account of those principles, one’s attempts to
do justice will result in injustice. An
event with an important lesson: Imam ‘Ali (May God
be pleased with him) once threw an unbeliever to the
ground. As he drew his sword to kill him, the unbeliever
spat in his face. He released him without killing him.
The unbeliever said: “Why did you not kill me?” He
replied: “I was going to kill you for the sake of God.
But when you spat at me, I became angered and the purity
of my intention was clouded by the inclinations of my
soul. It is for this reason that I did not kill you.”
The unbeliever replied: “If your religion is so pure
and disinterested, it must be the truth.” An
occurrence worthy of note: When once a judge showed
signs of anger while cutting off the hand of a thief, the
just ruler who chanced to observe him dismissed him from
his post. For if he had cut the hand in the name of the
Shari‘a, his soul would have felt pity for the victim;
he would have cut it off in a manner devoid of both anger
and mercy. Since the inclinations of his soul had had
some share in his deed, he did not perform the act with
justice. A
regrettable social condition and an awesome disease
affecting the life of society, fit to be wept over by the
heart of Islam: to forget and abandon internal
enmities when foreign enemies appear and attack is a
demand of social welfare recognized and enacted even by
the most primitive peoples. What then ails those who
claim to be serving the Islamic community that at a time
when numberless enemies are taking up positions to
attack, one after the other, they fail to forget their
petty enmi- _____________________ 12.
Bukhari, Iman 1; Abu Da’ud, Sunna 2; Musnad v, 146.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.319 ties,
and instead prepare the ground for the enemies’
attacks? It is disgraceful savagery, and treason
committed against the social life of Islam. A
story to be pondered over: There were two groups of
the Hasanan, a tribe of nomads, hostile to each other.
Although more than maybe fifty people had been killed on
each side, when another tribe such as the Sibgan or
Haydaran came out against them, those two hostile groups
would forget their enmity and fight together, shoulder to
shoulder, until the opposing tribe had been repelled,
without ever once recalling their internal dissensions. O
Believers! Do you know how many tribes of enemies have
taken up position to attack the tribe of the people of
belief? There are more than a hundred of them, like a
series of concentric circles. The believers are obliged
to take up defensive positions, each supporting the other
and giving him a helping hand. Is it then at all fitting
for the people of belief that with their biased
partisanship and hostile rancour they should facilitate
the attack of the enemy and fling open the doors for him
to penetrate the fold of Islam? There are maybe seventy
circles of enemies, including the misguided, the atheist,
and the unbeliever, each of them as harmful to you as all
the terrors and afflictions of this world, and each of
them regarding you with greed, anger and hatred. Your
firm weapon, shield and citadel against all of them is
none other than the brotherhood of Islam. So realize just
how contrary to conscience and to the interests of Islam
it is to shake the citadel of Islam on account of petty
hostilities and other pretexts! Know this, and come to
your senses! According
to a noble Hadith of the Prophet (PBUH), noxious and
awesome persons like Sufyan and the Dajjal will come to
rule over the godless at the end of time, and exploiting
the greed, discord and hatred amongst the Muslims and
mankind, they will need only a small force to reduce
humanity to anarchy and the vast world of Islam to
slavery. O
people of faith! If you do not wish to enter a
humiliating condition of slavery, come to your senses and
enter and take refuge in the citadel of: Indeed
the believers are brothers,13 to
defend yourselves against those oppressors who would
exploit your differences! Otherwise you will be able
neither to protect your lives nor to defend your rights.
It is evident that if two champions are wrestling with
each other, even a child can beat them. If two mountains
are balanced in the scales, even a small stone can
disturb their equilibrium and _____________________ 13.
Qur’an, 49:10.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p.320 cause
one to rise and the other to fall. So O people of belief!
Your strength is reduced to nothing as a result of your
passions and biased partisanships, and you can be
defeated by the slightest forces. If you have any
interest in your social solidarity, then make of the
exalted principle of “The believers are together like a
well-founded building, one part of which supports the
other”14 your guiding principle in life!
Then you will be delivered from humiliation in this world
and wretchedness in the hereafter. SIXTH
ASPECT Spiritual
life and correctness of worship will suffer as a result
of enmity and rancour, since the purity of intention that
is the means of salvation will be damaged. For a biased
person will desire superiority over his enemy in the good
deeds that he performs and will be unable to act purely
for the sake of God. He will also prefer, in his
judgement and dealings, the one who takes his side; he
will be unable to be just. Thus the purity of intention
and the justice that are the bases of all good acts and
deeds will be lost on account of enmity and hostility. The
Sixth Aspect is extremely complex, but we will cut it
short here since this is not the place to enlarge on it. ?? _____________________ 14.
Bukhari, Salat 88; Adab 36; Mazalim 5; Muslim, Birr 65;
Tirmidhi, Birr 18; Nasa’i, Zakat 67; Musnad vi, 104,
405, 409.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - p.321 Second
Topic In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Verily
God it is Who gives all sustenance, Lord of Power and
Steadfast.15 * How many are the
creatures that carry not their own sustenance? It is God
Who provides for them and for you; He is All-Hearing,
All-Knowing.16 O
people of belief! You will have understood by now how
harmful is enmity. Understand too that greed is another
awesome disease, as harmful for the life of Islam as
enmity. Greed brings about disappointment, deficiency,
and humiliation; it is the cause of deprivation and
abjection. The humiliation and abjection of the Jews, who
more than any other people have leaped greedily upon the
world, is a decisive proof of this truth. Greed
demonstrates its evil effects throughout the animate
world, from the most universal of species to the most
particular of individuals. To seek out one’s sustenance
while placing one’s trust in God will, by constrast,
bring about tranquillity and demonstrate everywhere its
beneficient effects. Thus,
fruit trees and plants, which are a species of animate
being insofar as they require sustenance, remain
contentedly rooted where they are, placing their trust in
God and not evincing any greed; it is for this reason
that their sustenance hastens toward them. They breed too
far more offspring than do the animals. The animals, by
contrast, pursue their sustenance greedily, and for this
reason are able to attain it only imperfectly and at the
cost of great effort. Within the animal kingdom it is
only the young who, as it were, evince their trust in God
by proclaiming their weakness and impotence; hence it is
that they receive in full measure their rightful and
delicate sustenance from the treasury of Divine mercy.
But savage beasts that pounce greedily on their
sustenance can hope only for an illicit and coarse
sustenance, attained through the expenditure of great
effort. These two examples show that greed is the cause
of deprivation, while trust in God and contentment are
the means to God’s mercy. ____________________ 15.
Qur’an, 51:58.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - Second Topic- p.322 In
the human kingdom, the Jews have clung to the world more
greedily and have loved its life with more passion than
any other people, but the usurious wealth they have
gained with great efforts is merely illicit property over
which they exercise temporary stewardship, and it
benefits them little. It earns them, on the contrary, the
blows of abjection and humiliation, of death and insult,
that are rained down on them by all peoples. This shows
that greed is a source of humiliation and loss. There are
in addition so many instances of a greedy person being
exposed to loss that “the greedy is subject to
disappointment and loss” has become a universally
accepted truth. This being the case, if you love wealth,
seek it not with greed but with contentment, so that you
may have it in abundance. The
content and the greedy are like two men who enter the
audience-hall of a great personage. One of them says to
himself: “It is enough that he should admit me so that
I can escape from the cold outside. Even if he motions me
to sit in the lowest position, I will count it as a
kindness.” The
second man says arrogantly, as if he had some right in
the matter and everyone were obliged to respect him: “I
should be assigned the highest position.” He enters
with greed and fixes his gaze on the highest positions,
wishing to advance toward them. But the master of the
audience-hall turns him back and seats him in a lower
position. Instead of thanking him as he should, he is
angered against him in his heart and criticizes him. The
lord of the palace will be offended by him. The
first man enters most humbly and wishes to sit in the
lowest position. His modesty pleases the lord of the
audience-hall, and he invites him to sit in a higher
position. His gratitude increases, and his thankfulness
is augmented. Now
this world is like an audience-hall of the Most Merciful
One. The surface of the globe is like a banqueting spread
laid out by His mercy. The differing degrees of
sustenance and grades of bounty correspond to the seating
positions in the audience-hall. Furthermore,
even in the minutest of affairs everyone can experience
the evil effects of greed. For example, everyone knows in
his heart that when two beggars request something, he
will be offended by the one who greedily importunes him,
and refuse his request; whereas he will take pity on the
peaceable one and give him what he asks. Or
to give another example, if you are unable to fall asleep
at night and wish to do so, you may succeed if you remain
detached. But if you desire sleep greedily, and say:
“Let me sleep, let me sleep,” then sleep will quit
you entirely.
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/ Twenty - Second Letter - Second Topic- p.323
Yet
another example is this, that if you greedily await the
arrival of someone for some important purpose and
continually say: “He still hasn’t come,” ultimately
you will lose patience and get up and leave. But one
minute later the person will come, and your purpose will
be frustrated. The
reason for all this is as follows. The production of a
loaf of bread requires a field to be cultivated and
harvested, the grain to be taken to a mill, and the loaf
to be baked in an oven. So too in the arrangement of all
things there is a certain slow deliberation decreed by
God’s wisdom. If on account of greed one fails to act
with slow deliberation, one will fail to notice the steps
one must mount in the arrangement of all things; he will
either fall or be unable to traverse the steps, and in
either event will not reach his goal. O
brothers giddied by preoccupation with your livelihood,
and drunk on your greed for this world! Greed is harmful
and pernicious; how is it then that you commit all kinds
of abject deed for the sake of your greed; accept all
kinds of wealth, without concern for licit or illicit;
and sacrifice much of the hereafter? On account of your
greed you even abandon one of the most important pillars
of Islam, the payment of zakat, although zakat
is for everyone a means of attracting plenty and
repelling misfortune. The one who does not pay zakat
is bound to lose the amount of money he would otherwise
have paid: either he will spend it on some useless
object, or it will be taken from him by some misfortune. In
a veracious dream that came to me during the fifth year
of the First World War, the following question was put to
me: “What
is the reason for this hunger, financial loss, and
physical trial that now afflicts the Muslims?” I
replied in the dream: “From
the wealth He bestows upon us, God Almighty required from
us either a tenth or a fortieth17 so that we
may benefit from the grateful prayers of the poor, and
rancour and envy may be prevented. But in our greed and
covetousness we refused to give zakat, and God
Almighty has taken from us a thirtieth where a fortieth
was owed, and an eighth where a tenth was owed. “He
required of us to undergo, for no more than one month
each year, a hunger with seventy beneficial purposes. But
we took pity on our instinctual souls, and did not
undergo that temporary pleasurable hunger ____________________ 17.
A tenth, that is, or wealth like corn that every year
yields a new crop; and a fortieth of whatever yielded a
commercial profit in the course of the year.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - Second Topic- p.324 God
Almighty then punished us by compelling us to fast for
five years, with a hunger replete with seventy kinds of
misfortune. “He
also required of us, out of each period of twenty-four
hours, one hour to be spent in a form of Divine drill,
pleasing and sublime, luminous and beneficial. But in our
laziness we neglected the duty of prayer. That single
hour was joined to the other hours and wasted. As
penance, God Almighty then caused us to undergo a form of
drill and physical exertion that took the place of
prayer.” I
then awoke, and upon reflection realized that an
extremely important truth was contained in that dream. As
proven and explained in the Twenty-Fifth Word, when
comparing modern civilization with the principles of the
Qur’an, all immorality and instability in the social
life of man proceeds from two sources: The
First: “Once my stomach is full, what do I care if
others die of hunger?” The
Second: “You work, and I’ll eat.” That
which perpetuates these two is the prevalence of usury
and interest on the one hand, and the abandonment of zakat
on the other. The only remedy able to cure these two
awesome social diseases lies in implementing zakat
as a universal principle and in forbidding usury. Zakat
is a most essential support of happiness not merely for
individuals and particular societies, but for all of
humanity. There are two classes of men: the upper classes
and the common people. It is only zakat that will
induce compassion and generosity in the upper classes
toward the common people, and respect and obedience in
the common people toward the upper classes. In the
absence of zakat, the upper classes will descend
on the common people with cruelty and oppression, and the
common people will rise up against the upper classes in
rancour and rebellion. There will be a constant struggle,
a persistent opposition between the two classes of men.
It will finally result in the confrontation of capital
and labour, as happened in Russia. O
people of nobility and good conscience! O people of
generosity and liberality! If acts of generosity are not
performed in the name of zakat, there are three
harmful results. The act may have no effect, for if you
do not give in the name of God, you are in effect
imposing an obligation, and imprisoning some wretched
pauper with a sense of obligation. Then you will be
deprived of his prayer, a prayer which would be most
acceptable in the sight of God. In reality you are
nothing but an official entrusted with the distribution
of God Almighty’s bounties among His servants; but if
you imagine yourself to be the owner of wealth, this is
an
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - Second Topic- p.325 act
of ingratitude for the bounties you have received. If, on
the contrary, you give in the name of zakat, you
will be rewarded for having given in the name of God
Almighty; you will have offered thanks for bounties
received. The needy person too will not be compelled to
fawn and cringe in front of you; his self-respect will
not be injured, and his prayer on your behalf will be
accepted. See how great is the difference between, on the
one hand, giving as much as one would in zakat,
but earning nothing but the harm of hypocrisy, fame, and
the imposition of obligation; and, on the other hand,
performing the same good deeds in the name of zakat,
and thereby fulfilling a duty, and gaining a reward, the
virtue of sincerity, and the prayers of those whom you
have benefited? Glory
be unto You; we have no knowledge save that which you
have taught us; indeed, you are All-Knowing, All-Wise.18 O
God, grant blessings and peace to our master Muhammad,
who said: “The believer is with respect to the believer
like a firm building, of which one part supports the
other,”19 and who said too
that “Contentment is a treasure that never perishes,”20
and to his Family and his Companions. And praise be to
God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds. ____________________ 18.
Qur’an, 2:32.
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/ Twenty - Second Letter - p.326
Conclusion In
his Name, be He glorified! And
there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise. Concerning
Backbiting In
the Fifth Point of the First Ray of the First Light of
the Twenty-Fifth Word, a single Qur’anic verse having
the effect of discouraging and restraining was shown to
induce repugnance at backbiting in six miraculous ways.
It was shown too how abominable a thing is backbiting in
the view of the Qur’an, and that there is therefore no
need for any further explanation of the subject. Indeed,
after the Qur’an has made its declaration, there is
neither the possibility nor the need for anything
further. The
Qur’an reproaches the backbiter with six reproaches in
the verse: Would
any among you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?21 and
forbids him to commit this sin with six degrees of
severity. When the verse is directed to those persons
actually engaged in backbiting, its meaning is the
following. As
is well-known, the hamza at the beginning of the
verse has an interrogative sense. This interrogative
sense penetrates all the words of the verse like water,
so that each word acquires an additional meaning. Thus
the first word asks, with its hamza: “Is it that
you have no intelligence capable of discrimination, so
that you fail to perceive the ugliness of this thing?” The
second word like asks: “Is your heart, the seat
of love and hatred, so corrupted that it loves the most
repugnant of things?” The
third word any among you asks: “What
befell your sense of social and civilized responsibility
that you are able to accept something poisonous to social
life?” The
fourth word to eat the flesh asks: “What has
befallen your sense of humanity that you are tearing your
friend apart with your fangs like a wild animal?” ____________________ 21.
Qur’an, 49:12.
Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - Conclusion - p.327 The
fifth word of his brother asks: “Do you have no
fellow-feeling, no sense of kinship, that you are able to
sink your teeth into some wretch who is tied to you by
numerous links of brotherhood? Do you have no
intelligence that you are able to bite into your own
limbs with your own teeth, in such lunatic fashion?” The
sixth word dead asks: “Where is your conscience?
Is your nature so corrupt that you abandon all respect
and act so repugnantly as to consume your brother’s
flesh?” According
then to the total sense of the verse, as well as the
indications of each of its words, slander and backbiting
are repugnant to the intelligence and the heart, to
humanity and conscience, to nature and social
consciousness. You
see then that the verse condemns backbiting in six
miraculous degrees and restrains men from it in six
miraculous ways. Backbiting is the vile weapon most
commonly used by the people of enmity, envy, and
obstinacy, and the self-respecting will never stoop to
employing so unclean a weapon. Some celebrated person
once said: “I never stoop to vexing my enemy with
backbiting, for backbiting is the weapon of the weak, the
low, and the vile.” Backbiting
consists of saying that which would be a cause of dislike
and vexation to the person in question if he were to be
present and hear it. Even if what is said is true, it is
still backbiting. If it is a lie, then it is both
backbiting and slander and a doubly loathsome sin. Backbiting
can be permissible in a few special instances: First:
If a complaint be presented to some official, so that
with his help evil be removed and justice restored. Second:
If a person contemplating co-operation with another comes
to seek your advice, and you say to him, purely for the
sake of his benefit and to advise him correctly, without
any self-interest: “Do not co-operate with him; it will
be to your disadvantage.” Third:
If the purpose is not to expose someone to disgrace and
notoriety, but simply to make people aware, and one says:
“That foolish, confused man went to such-and-such a
place.” Fourth:
If the subject of backbiting is an open and unashamed
sinner; is not troubled by evil, but on the contrary
takes pride in the sins he commits; finds pleasure in his
wrongdoing; and unhesitatingly sins in the most evident
fashion. In
these particular cases, backbiting may be permissible, if
it be done
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