Solution and Treatment Lie in Returning to God

I seek the protection of God against Satan, the accursed.

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

One of the undeniable truths that God, the Blessed and Almighty, has revealed in the Holy Quran in order to stick it in the mentalities of the faithful believers (in Him) is that whatever ordeal, tribulation, affliction, distress, or trouble affects them is only the result of their wrong deeds. Declaring this fact, the Holy Quran says,

“Whatever misfortune happens to you is because of the things your hands have wrought; and for many of them He grants forgiveness. (42/30)”

“The evil results of their deeds overtook them, and that very Wrath at which they had scoffed hemmed them in. (16/34)”

“Whatever good happens to you is from Allah; but whatever evil happens to you is from your own soul. (4/79)”

On an occasion, God the Almighty drew the attentions of the companions of the Holy Prophet to the fact that reason for their defeat in their military encounter against the polytheists of Quraysh in the Battle of Uhud was their negligence of self-discipline. This, but not any other natural reason, was the actual reason for their defeat. Referring to this fact, the Holy Quran reads:

“Those of you who turned back on the day the two hosts Met, it was Satan who caused them to fail because of some evil they had done. (3/155)”

Meanwhile, God the Almighty has shown us the way out and guided us to the paths of escaping such sufferings. This way out is our return to Him, imploring Him, beseeching Him, and filtering our hearts from all sorts of rancor, spite, and such vices like envy, self-conceit, hatred, and egoism. Thus, the Almighty says in the Holy Quran,

“If the people of the towns had but believed and feared Allah, We should indeed have opened out to them all kinds of blessings from heaven and earth; but they rejected the truth, and We brought them to book for their misdeeds. Did the people of the towns feel secure against the coming of Our wrath by night while they were asleep? Or else did they feel secure against its coming in broad daylight while they played about care-free? Did they then feel secure against the plan of Allah? But no one can feel secure from the plan of Allah except those doomed to ruin. To those who inherit the earth in succession to its previous possessors, is it not a guiding, lesson that, if We so willed, We could punish them too for their sins and seal up their hearts so that they could not hear? (7/96-100)”

With regard to the Muslim community, the wrath of God the Almighty does not inflict them in the form of uprooting and eradication that occurred to the nations that had existed before them, because the Almighty has saved this nation from such sort of punishment as a blessing He has conferred upon the Holy Prophet. Nevertheless, this nation is not exempted from other sorts of punishment and chastisement when its members act wrongfully, such as shortage of fruits, infliction of seditious matters, engagement in wars so that they will trouble each other, and the other nations helping each other against them. In fact, all these sorts of punishment have been practically undergone by this nation. We pray the Almighty’s protection against any sort of punishment. In this respect, the Almighty has said in the Holy Quran,

“As for those who fear Allah, He ever prepares a way out and He provides for them from sources they never could imagine. (65/2-3)”

Addressing the nations that flounder in their ignorance and inadvertence and deviate from the path of the truth, God the Almighty says,

“Say: ‘I do admonish you on one point: that you do stand up before Allah, in pairs or singly and reflect within yourselves.’ (34/46)”

This means that you should pay attention to yourselves and return to God, the All-blessed and Exalted, individually or in groups. Then, you should pray ardently to Him and seek His aid. However, such ardent prayers should not be dedicated to the cases of emergency when man finds himself having no other means than the Almighty; rather, man is required to remember God under all circumstances, asking His help and imploring Him for success, steadfastness on faith, increase in doing charitable actions, and support. In fact, the Almighty presents with wonder the states of those who refer to Him only when they are afflicted by an ordeal or distress, such as in the case of outburst of seas:

“Now, if they embark on a boat, they call on Allah, making their devotion sincerely and exclusively to Him; but when He has delivered them safely to dry land, behold, they give a share of their worship to others! (29/65)”

Of course, in this holy verse, the Almighty does not mean the apparent polytheism, which stands for idol-worshipping and the like, because He has indicated that they call on Him sincerely; rather, what is meant is the covert polytheism, which stands for turning away from God and resorting to other things than Him.

God the Almighty sets forth another parable concerning the people of Prophet Jonah whom were surrounded by such an imminent Divine chastisement that their prophet believed that they would be unquestionably chastised and there remained no single opportunity for them to be saved. He therefore left the city. However, when they returned to God the Almighty and went out in groups imploring for His help and praying to Him to remove that chastisement from them, God responded to and delivered them. Thus, the Holy Quran reads:

“Why was there not a single township among those We warned, which believed; so, its faith should have profited it, except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the penalty of ignominy in the life of the present and permitted them to enjoy their life for a while. (10/98)”

As a condition, this connection with God the Almighty cannot be accomplished or thrived except by means of abiding by the Divinely ordained loyalty (wilayah) to the Ahl al-Bayt (the Holy Prophet’s Infallible Household), making them the means to Him for response of prayers, mentioning them continuously, holding ceremonies of commemorating them, and appealing for the help of the Rising Imam (al-Mahdi the Awaited). Supporting this fact, the Holy Quran says,

“But he who turns away from remembrance of Me, his will be a narrow life and I shall bring him blind to the assembly on the Day of Resurrection. (20/124)”

According to traditions that are reported from the Holy Imams, ‘remembrance of God’ stands for the Divinely ordained loyalty to the Ahl al-Bayt; therefore, he who refrains from holding fast to them will live a narrow life; that is a miserable life lacking any spiritual provisions.

Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, is reported to have said that whenever vicissitudes of time attack us, we pray to God the Almighty through the supplicatory prayer that begins with the following statement:

O He through whom the knots of detested things are untied!

This supplicatory prayer, known as Du‘a' al-Amn (Supplication for Security), is one of the supplications of al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah (supplicatory prayers of Imam ‘Ali ibn al-Hussein al-Sajjad). It can also be found in the famous book of Mafatih al-Jinan. Thus does God the Almighty teach us and thus do the Holy Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt educate us. Where are we now from such teachings and education, which are intended to bring us advantage and lead us to felicity?

Although I do not mean to deny the progress in the level of faith that is clearly seen with the current generation that, by a Divine Grace, has astounded our enemies and frustrated their wicked plots against us, I have to say that this high level of faith, in most of its cases, is unfortunately no more than emotional glow and effusive warmth of faith that is not attached to profound awareness or deep-rooted cordial and mental education. As a consequence, this eruption will be worthless, God forbid, unless we boost it with elements that contribute to keeping it on the right path. If this is not accurate, how can we then justify the current campaigns of fabricating lies against faithful believers, accusing them falsely of things they have not said or done, defaming them, and calumniating them?

Moreover, it is presently noticeable that the majority of the uneducated people have no other deed than dispraising, reviling at, and criticizing the religious scholars and the referential authorities. Now I do not understand how these people have had custody over the others due to which they are evaluating the deeds of the referential authorities and the thinkers! Have they not heard this Prophetic tradition: “The sanctity of a faithful believer is more inviolable than the sanctity of the Ka‘bah”? This means that to bring dishonor on a believer, to attack his/her dignity, and to defame him/her are more horrible than attacking the Ka‘bah or the shrines of the Holy Imams, peace be upon them, although such acts are repugnant crimes in themselves.

Have the believers ever thought of these major sins they are engaging themselves in? Unfortunately, they are now too blind to see the dismay of these sins, but they will certainly be astounded when the records of their deeds shall be opened before their eyes when they will be stopped for judgment in the presence of the All-just Lord:

“(To the evildoers, it will be said)… Now We have removed from you your covering, and piercing is your sight this day. (50/22)”

Have they (i.e. the believers) ever felt angry for the violations that are committed against the sanctities of the faithful believers? Or else have they conversely involved themselves in this horrible sin and drunk from the same cup to the heeltap? Unfortunately, some leaders of Friday Prayers exceeded all limits and used their positions to speak evil of others, engage themselves in disputes, discuss personal issues, and disapprove of some scholars, while, about the position of the leadership of Friday Prayers, the Holy Imam says, “O Allah, this is the position of Your devotees and Your vicegerents.”

About this defect in the education of those working in the field of Islamic social activity, Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, the pioneer of the Islamic movement in Iraq, expressing his grief for the imperfection of this education, says, “We can educate the others, yet halfway.” [1]

Commenting on this saying, Martyr Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr II said, “He has not said that we could educate them to the end of the way, because if he had said so, none of these bad consequences would have ever taken place. If the religious individuals had disciplined themselves before the others and put into practice the factors of self-purity, heart enlightenment, profound sincerity, willpower, and conscious chastity, they would have never suffered what they have been suffering and, yet most likely, they would have not needed for undergoing all these tribulations, which are poured on them due to a Divine wisdom. Unfortunately, they have been a practicable example of this holy Quranic verse: ‘If you turn back (from the Path), He will substitute in your stead another people; and then they would not be like you. (47/38)’”

In conclusion, the perfect, well-mannered, and well-qualified individuals are very few and even less than the necessary.

Brothers and sisters, may God confer upon you all with deeper insight:

Before everything else, we all are required to fight against Satan in our inner selves that are prone to evil. No matter how strong these human and jinn devils may be, they are still less powerful than the inner self, the greatest enemy that is described by a Prophetic tradition as: “The most vehement of all your enemies is your own self that lies between your two extremes.”

As a matter of fact, all devils are but the fruit of this devilish inner self, which if we work towards disciplining it, none of the other devils can ever have any effect on us. As a result, the Holy Prophet has described self-strife as the major jihad (struggle). This means that the enemy we are facing in this struggle must be the most dangerous of all enemies. Similarly, to struggle against all other enemies, no matter how tyrannical they may be, has been described by the Holy Prophet as the minor jihad.

Indeed, our true victory is achieved when we have the ability to control and smash our personal whims and our egoism, remove from our hearts all sorts of rancor, hatred, malice, fondness of all worldly pleasures (the most dangerous of which are attachment to predominance and supremacy and fondness of the clapping of the masses), envy, arrogance, self-conceit, showing off, haughtiness, self-importance, and the like vices, and fill in our hearts with love, mercy, clemency, lenience, pardon, mutual amity, patience, repression of rage, and the like virtues. These are the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, and thus is their education. All over history, whenever the partisans of the Holy Imams believed that it was the time for them to come to power and it was the most suitable opportunity to seize, the Holy Imams would surprise them and take the other unexpected path of self-judgment, self-control, and laying the personal deeds before the criterion chosen by the Holy Imams themselves. To prove this point, one may review Imam al-Sadiq’s answers to those who offered their support to him and Imam al-Rida’s words to those who came out to receive him during his journey from Medina to Marw.

Unfortunately, we have missed even the minimal extent of remembering God the Almighty; namely, resorting to Him in cases of emergency. Now, we are surrounded by ordeals, and our enemies are waylaying us. Even under such circumstances, I have not found a single believer holding assemblies of collective supplications, returning to God, beseeching Him in the name of the Holy Infallibles, and pleading with the Imam of our age (i.e. Imam al-Mahdi) to take us under his custody. Of course, such collective efforts must never violate the other religious obligations.

Our fathers have told us that whenever they were afflicted by a tribulation, they would gather in mosques and Husseiniyyahs (places dedicated to commemorating Imam al-Hussein’s martyrdom) for supplication, remembering the misfortunes to which the Ahl al-Bayt were exposed, and visiting their holy shrines. Similarly, the students of religious studies in the Seminary of al-Najaf would walk to al-Sahlah Mosque or to Karbala to seek the aid of Imam al-Mahdi or Imam al-Hussein, or they would gather in the central mosque of their town and supplicate. Once they did, God the Almighty would always deliver them from tribulations just as He had done with the people of Prophet Jonah or Prophet Jonah himself when he called upon Him, saying, “There is no god but You. Glory be to You. I was indeed wrong!” As a result, the Almighty responded to and saved him: “So, We listened to him and delivered him from distress. Thus do We deliver those who have faith. (21/88)”

Referring to the same event, the Holy Quran says: “Had it not been that he (i.e. Jonah) glorified Allah, he would certainly have remained inside the fish until the Day of Resurrection. (37/143-4)”

Because of this negligence of returning to God, Imam al-Mahdi has often shown the annoyance caused to him by his partisans in many of his meetings with the individuals who had the honor to meet him. For instance, in the famous story of Sayyid al-Rashti’s meeting with Imam al-Mahdi after he had lost his way and found himself experiencing very hard circumstances, the Imam, rebuking him, said, “Why are you neglecting Ziyarat ‘Ashura' (a verbal formula addressed to Imam al-Hussein on the tenth of Muharram), the supererogatory prayers (nafilah), and al-Ziyarah al-Jami‘ah al-Kabirah (a comprehensive verbal formula addressed to all the Holy Imams during visiting their shrines)?” [2]

To come to the point, the only solution and path of salvation is that we should stand up before God in pairs or singly, showing mutual amity, and loving each other with pure hearts and chaste selves. We should then carry out the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, follow their examples, and quit all sorts of fanaticism, intolerance, extremism, and fondness of the worldly pleasures.

“O my people! See you whether I have a clear sign from my Lord and He has given me sustenance pure and good as from Himself? I wish not, in opposition to you, to do that which I forbid you to do. I only desire your betterment to the best of my power; and my success can only come from Allah. In Him I trust and to Him I look. (11/88)”

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and may His blessings be upon Muhammad and his immaculate and pure Household.

Muhammad al-Ya‘qubi

02/Rabi II/1425 AH

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