[3] Keeping God's Limits

A series of discussions on the teachings of Imam Sadiq (sixth Imam of the Muslims), from the book Misbah ash-Sharia (The Lantern of the Path)

In His Name, the Most High

This is part three of an ongoing series of discussions on the book by Imam as-Sadiq titled ‘Misbah ash-Sharia’ (the Lantern of the Path).

It is strongly recommended that the previous parts are read, before proceeding with this one; to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding within the subject matter.

The nature of the subject matter, and the style of discourse requires that each part build upon those that came before it, so once more, I strongly recommend that the reader, read the previous parts, then continue with this one.

The previous parts, can be found here:

The Lantern of the Path - Index

Video of the Majlis (Sermon/Lecture)

This write up is a companion to the video majlis (sermon/lecture) found below:

Contents

• Majlis - Misbah ash-Sharia - Servitude - Part 3

• Nasheed - The Melody of Sisterhood and Brotherhood

• Ziyarah: Ziyarat Ashura

Recap

In the first part, we discussed and attempted to understand the Greatest Right of God, following on from that, in the previous discussion; we covered the remaining eight rights in a combined and somewhat holistic manner.

This we accomplished by going through a simple two unit prayer; that required the use of all our faculties; and allowed us to understand - in a holistic manner - the idea of the rights that God has against us - in addition to His Greatest Right:

• The Right of God against your self (nafs)

• The Right of God against our tongue

• The Right of God against our hearing

• The Right of God against our sight

• The Right of God against our hand

• The Right of God against our legs

• The Right of God against our stomach

• The Right of God against our private parts

This places us in a better position to proceed with the hadeeth from Imam as-Sadiq, in the book we are studying - Misbah ash-Sharia (the Lantern of the Path) - and continue in our understanding of the notion of Ubudiyyah, or Servitude.

The first point in what is required to attain true Servitude was that of Giving Him, His due; and we have attempted to cover this in the first two sessions in this series.

Having said that; it should be made very clear; that what has been covered is but a drop in the ocean of that which is His due. It provides us with a starter; and a means to proceed; but it is by no means exhaustive, nor should it be considered as such.

Moving forward; we will be looking at the idea of ‘Keeping His Limits’ - which has been marked as the second point within the Conduct of God subject that is a pre-requisite to attaining the station of true Servitude - of Ubudiyyah.

The Conduct with God - Keeping His Limits

In order to understand this idea, this notion of ‘keeping God’s limits’ - we have to first understand that these are not limits that God has upon Himself; but rather these are limits he has set upon us.

But how do we understand those limits? How do we adhere to them? What type of limits are they?

Through the course of this session, and more than likely the next also; we will work together to understand what these limits are, how we can ensure that we always keep them - that is adhere to those limits, and also that we understand what type of limits they are and more.

What is a Limit?

Generally, if you consider a child. This child lives in its parents home, with his parents or guardians and siblings. There might be a garden outside the house, and there might be a public highway, which is a potential hazard for the child.

Let us assume that it is summer, the child, and its siblings want to go out to play in the beautiful sunny weather, they want to play football (soccer) in the garden that is outside their home.

They go to tell the parent or guardian they will be going to the garden to play football. The parent or guardian will immediately tell them - be careful of the highway and do not go near it.

In a simple manner, this parent or guardian has set some ‘limits’ for the children playing. This limit is specific to their boundary while outside. They should avoid going near and also be careful of the public highway.

What does this mean? What can the child do? Why should they abide by these limits? Why has the parent or guardian set these limits?

Let us examine each of these so as to understand. Also, I understand that some might feel this is extremely mundane, and a pointless exercise, but bear with me; there is a reason for this understanding as a precursor to us moving forward.

The children have been told, there are limits to where you should play. You should not go near the public highway, and furthermore you should be careful or mindful of what is happening on the highway.

Perhaps a car is driving carelessly and will come of the highway and cause an accident.

Perhaps their football gets kicked out, and goes onto the highway. What should they do? Run out to the highway and retrieve it? Leave it there? Call their parent or guardian and ask them?

These are limits that have been set by the parent or guardian for the children playing in the garden. This is something quite normal, and not something that is difficult to understand.

Without the parent setting these limits, these rules if you like, then it is entirely possible that the children, and thereby the family, might face a catastrophe.

Without any rules, without any instructions telling the children not to go near the highway, then, if while they are playing, the ball is kicked and goes towards the highway, one or more of the children may run out to get it, but since they would be so engrossed in their game; they would not see the car that is racing towards them; and the unthinkable would happen.

More so, what is important here, in the context of these children is that the limits were set by someone they trust, love and respect.

Had the same instructions been given by their neighbour; the same one who keeps deflating all the footballs that are hit over the fence in the neighbours garden; then there would not be much respect for those instructions - and even if the instructions were excellent and wise; the motivation for abiding by them would be weak, simply due to a lack of respect at where they originate from.

What has been said in this preamble is nothing complicate or new, I’m sure.

Therefore; when examining ‘rules’ or ‘laws’ that are for the benefit of the people, one key component that will ensure - or at least lead to ensuring - that a given law will be followed successfully; is the position of the legislature; the one providing the law.

If there is no respect or trust in the legislature; then people will work hard to find loopholes in the law, so as to be able to circumvent it.

These are important points.

Further more; there is the notion; that sometimes a law, a cold hard piece of legislation; such as for example the prohibition of theft; can become a means of oppressing a society; and therefore; there needs to be a lot of understanding, compassion, empathy and indeed morality that walks along the side of the legislature; to avoid potential disasters, heartbreaks and acts of inadvertent oppression.

Understanding the Limits God Sets for Us

So, here we start to build our understanding of what limits God sets for us; but before we can do that; we need to first - as we mentioned in our example with the children, determine who these limits are from; and whether we respect, trust, love, and honour or such the entity that has set these limits for us.

A key reason for that - which I’m repeating for the sake of clarity; and also to emphasise how important it is - is that when a law is from someone that we feel simply ‘forces’ people to abide by ‘laws’; and doesn’t operate with compassion; and further more lacks the respect of the people; then such a law is doomed to failure in its implementation.

While it might be ‘passed’ - it will never be followed properly by people; and a thousand and one loopholes compromising the original law will be found or created.

Therefore, it would not be invalid to suggest, that the first requirement for someone to follow a set of laws properly; is for said person to have great trust in where the laws are originating from.

Said person, also needs to have surety that these laws are in their best interests; and this can be ascertained by having the same trust in the originator of the laws, the source of these laws so to speak.

In light of this; it becomes important, in order to understand, and thereby abide by the limits that God has set for us; thereby ‘keeping his limits’, we must first have an understanding of the baseline ideology that God has provided, the reason and configuration of the ideology, and then we can appreciate where the many laws and requirements are placed.

A person, when their underlying belief in their Creator, the Lord Sustainer of the Universes, their Beloved, is clear; will want to abide by the laws, the rules, the requirements set by their Beloved.

In this part and the one following it - and perhaps the one after that still, depending on how we progress in this and the next - we will be attempting to understand the core ideology; the core beliefs, and their configuration, and how they are a means for us to understand what is required by our Beloved, by God, so that we can, not just as serfs and people compelled to follow a law, but rather as free people, as lovers, not just follow and abide by the requirements and laws that God has provided, the limits He has set, so to speak; but that we abide by such laws and requirements with joy and vigour.

This will also - God willing - mean that we will also not be from those who look constantly for ‘loopholes’ and ‘exceptions’ to laws, so as to circumvent them, while superficially attempting to abide by them.

That being said; it is important to know and accept that while this can be the case for laws that are on the personal and familial, and potentially social level; at the wider level; and especially in areas as as geopolitics and economics, the abiding by the laws of God, without resorting to exceptions, becomes very difficult if not impossible, due to the corrupt systems that we are embroiled in at this time.

The purpose of this series is for us to understand what the ideal is - and where there is a need for genuine exceptions to be factored into the equation. Not, as sadly is the case in many Muslim communities - from all the various schools of thought, that the exceptions are what is attempted to be practiced; while being dressed as the core.

As we proceed, this will become clearer, God willing.

Understanding the Ideology - The Traditional Configuration

Generally, in Islamic teachings; there are two core areas, those that are directly connected to the notion of belief, commonly referred to as the Usul ad-Din (or the Foundations of Belief), and there are the branches, which are made up of the practical laws, the legislation that the adherent must abide by, and these are called Furu’ ad-Din (or the Branches of Belief).

Generally, these two subjects are taught in isolation, and indeed, a third component, that of Ethics (Akhlaq), which is what we are studying here within the book that we have chosen to base our studies on - Misbah ash-Sharia (the Lantern of the Path) - is many times taught entirely in isolation, and in a manner disconnected from from all else.

An important note; going forward, there are two key terms that will be used a lot - and I will generally use the Arabic terms. These are the Usul ad-Din (the Foundations of Belief) and the Furu ad-Din (the Branches of Belief).

Therefore, I would ask the reader to please keep these two terms and what they mean in mind; so as to make traversing this paper - and the ones after it - more coherent and useful.

Now, if we examine firstly the Usul ad-Din (the Foundations of Belief); we can see that they are made up of five key concepts:

1. Tawheed
   Monotheism, the notion of the Uniqueness of God

2. Adl-e-Ilahi or Adalah
   The Justice of God or Divine Justice

3. Nubuwwah
   Prophethood, or the notion of following the Prophets of God, from the first to the last.

4. Imamah
   Vicegerency of the Prophets; that is, while s Prophet comes to renew, to give a new version of the ideology; the vicegerent’s role is to protect, and explain and educate the population, and to ensure adherence to, by way of establishing, the given ideology.

5. Ma’ad or Qiyamah
   Judgement, often referred to as the Day of Judgement, when all the souls will be sorted by God, and judgements will be apportioned; with those who were righteous being granted eternal heaven and therefore eternal bliss, and those who were vicious, who were evil, being placed in hell for eternity.

Now, these are difficult concepts in and of themselves, countless volumes have been written attempting to explain each of these ideas; however, in many places; especially when you look outside the various Islamic Seminaries; the way these subjects are taught is entirely in isolation.

There is a reason for this; a reason of simplicity; where, since in these five core points of belief, a person must be entirely convinced themselves, by way of their own research and understanding.

There is no following someone in these subjects. That is not to exclude the notion of, for example, listening to lectures, reading books and such from actually learned and righteous scholars so as to obtain an understanding of these concepts; but that a person must be convinced of them, in and of themselves.

Let me illustrate this so it is understood.

Consider the idea of Tawheed - or Monotheism. A person must be convinced themselves - based on their own research, reflection, understanding and so on, that there is only One Unique Creator.

It would be invalid for someone to, for example, when asked ‘Why do you believe in One Unique Creator’, to answer with ‘because I read it in such and such book by such and such scholar’ or ‘because I heard it in a speech by such and such person’.

No, that would be invalid and incorrect. Rather the person must be convinced themselves and indeed to be able to argue the point, at the very least to their own satisfaction, that they belief in this.

Certainly, using examples that might have been found in a book, or heard in a lecture or rather sermon; that is fine; but the person must have conviction in this notion themselves, without any reliance to the opinion or position of another.

However, when I look at these points; I have two problems.

Firstly, the ordering of them, and secondly their categorisation; and I will attempt to explain this shortly.

Before we go to that; let us also understand what are commonly known as the Furu ad-Din (or the Branches of Belief), which number ten and are as follows - please also bear in mind that the explanations provided here and above for the Usul ad-Din, are very superficial, and as we continue our discussion we will garner much stronger and more robust explanations.

The explanations here are brief and somewhat superficial, and serve merely as a rudimentary primer:

1. Salaat or Namaaz
   This is generally the notion of praying, with a focus on the obligatory, required prayers, that a believer must complete in a given day.

2. Saum or Roza
   This is the fasting, primarily in the month of Ramadhan, but that is not the only time when a believer fasts, or indeed must fast.

3. Hajj
   This is the pilgrimage to the blessed city of Makkah, and to the House of God (this is of course metaphorical, as God is not contained by four walls, but I digress, and this will become clearer later, in any case)

4. Zakaat

   This is the mandatory charity or alms that the believer must give from his/her wealth.

5. Khums
   This is a percentage of the believers surplus income over a given year, that must be paid to the Righteous Islamic Jurist they follow or the Righteous Islamic Leadership. There is much more nuance here which we will cover in due course.

6. Jihad
   This is the notion of struggle - be it against internal strife, desires and the machinations of the self so to speak, as we have touched on briefly in our previous sessions, as well as the idea of physical struggle as and when required and where deemed necessary by the Righteous Islamic Leadership, or potentially the Righteous Islamic Jurist.
   
   Again there are many nuanced points; and tragically the term ‘jihad’ has been misappropriated by the legacy media, corrupt regimes as well as various so-called ‘Islamic’ groups.
   
   We have nothing to do with such broken definitions; and we will be understanding Jihad in all its forms through the course of this series, God willing.

7. Amr bin Ma’rouf (Enjoining the Good (Righteousness))
   This is a very important point; where the believer is required to enjoin that which is good. Of course; a key requirement of enjoining that which is good (righteousness), is to firstly know what is good, or rather righteous.

8. Nahi anil Munkar (Forbidding the Evil)
   Again, a very important point; and generally discussed alongside the previous point. However, it too has the key caveat that one forbidding an evil, must first understand what is evil.

9. Tawalla (sometimes referred to as Tawalli)
   This is also a very important point; and it is related to the notion of loving, and being close to, and thereby following the instructions of the Prophets and Imams, especially with reference to the Prophet Muhammad and his family.
   
   This also includes those who are from those that God loves, and who genuinely love God. Again, this then requires understanding, who and what God loves. We will, God willing, be attempting to understand this as we proceed.
   
   Furthermore, this is directly connected to the notion of Love, that we have discussed, the Love of God, and all that God loves.
   
   This is yet another subject that is grossly misunderstood, and so we will be discussing this in more detail further in future parts of this series.

10. Tabarra (sometimes referred to as Tabarri)
    This is another important and highly misunderstood term. It primarily refers to and is a complementary item to the previous.
    
    It means to disassociate from - not hate - but disassociate from (and this will be explained further in due course) - the enemies of God, the enemies of the Prophets and the Imams, as well as the enemies of the ones that God loves, and to disassociate from those that have displeased God, and upon whom God’s wrath descends.
    
    Again, this is tied closely to the previous point, and as mentioned, is hugely misunderstood; and has formed the basis for many horrific mistakes due to this misunderstanding; either as an innocent misunderstanding due to a lack of wisdom and knowledge, or due to a far more insidious and malicious misunderstanding.

The ten points above; are those that form up the actions, the areas wherein there is legislation and regulation within Islamic thought; and these ten points (each of which is also an ocean of thought in and of itself), are generally, from the perspective of the believer, followed directly based on the legislation delivered by the Righteous Islamic Jurist, as well as that of the Righteous Islamic Leader.

For the ‘lay-believer’, one who has not studied to a high level, a very high level, in the Islamic Seminaries, and has not reached the position of being deemed a Jurist (a Faqih, as per the Islamic terminology), in these subjects, then, it is necessary to follow a qualified and righteous Islamic Jurist.

There are many reasons for this; primarily; these are actions; as opposed to the Usul ad-Din, which are more conceptual and ideological.

An action has a certain configuration; a manner on how to do it; a series of rules, or steps that enable it to be completed successfully; and these are provided by the Righteous Islamic Jurist in the compendiums that make up their thesis on practical Islamic laws (commonly known as either Resaleh Amaliyyah or Tawzih ul-Masail, in some cases, they maybe referred to as a series of answers to questions, and in this form they are known as Istifta’at).

This is the traditional configuration that is generally how many people; be they people from Muslim families, or those who have returned to Islam, learn, and are taught Islamic ideology in the first instance.

Now, while this is something that can be done, clearly many people have learned it this way; even myself, when I learned Islam initially, I was taught it in this traditional configuration; there are shortcomings of this configuration.

Shortcomings that have the potential to generate confusions, and that ultimately - while teaching the foundations - do not provide a journey.

Understanding the Ideology - The Holistic Configuration

The other way that a person can learn and understand the ideology of Islam, is to look at things in a much more holistic manner.

To not look at just the Usul ad-Din in isolation; and then look at the Furu ad-Din in isolation. Rather; to look at how the Usul ad-Din leads to and encourages one to areas of the Furu ad-Din, and indeed, how elements of the Furu ad-Din are linked directly back to the Usul ad-Din.

In the previous part, we saw there are five Usul ad-Din and ten Furu ad-Din. However, on examination, we can see that there appears to be no real order, or structure to them.

Therefore; in order to understand them better; let us attempt to configure them in a more understandable, and useful manner; much like a person would prepare themselves to go on a journey.

The Journey

The first point that the person would need to know is what is their destination. Anyone who simply jumps into the car, or train or whatever mode of transport they wish to use; without any notion of a destination will never arrive anywhere.

They will essentially flail around, going from point A to point B to point C and so on; without actually getting anywhere. This is because they have not understood what their destination is.

Rather; if a person wishes to buy - for example - some milk; they know they will have to go to, for example, the market, or the farm, to procure this milk.

Therefore, their destination will be the farm, with the ultimate goal being the procurement of milk.

Reaching the ultimate goal, will require arriving first at the destination and successfully navigating the destination, so as to reach the ultimate goal. The procurement of milk, in our example. With the destination being the market or the farm, from where said milk can be procured.

Two key points that make up a successful journey. The destination; and the goal.

In the context of the ideology; we need to determine what is the destination; and what is the ultimate goal.

In Islam, the ultimate goal of all believers is to reach God, to fall into God, to be entirely in love with God, and more so to fall into His Uniqueness. To become such that everything is Him.

Last week, we quoted Mansour al-Hallaj and his famous saying:

The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup.

Such that everything is Him, and He is the Most Unique, that indeed, without Him there is nothing.

I must caveat here, that I am not suggesting, for a nanosecond, the notion of ‘pantheism’, where literally everything is God. No, not at all, indeed the notion of Pantheism is antithetical to what Islam teaches.

I am rather saying that the goal of belief, of the ideology is to arrive at the proverbial Face of God, to be completely absorbed in God, in the Beloved.

This is the goal.

The destination that leads us to that goal, is in fact being successful in the idea of Qiyamah (also known as Ma’ad), which is the Day of Judgement.

If a person, wishes to - metaphorically - be absorbed in God, then the way to do that is to be successful when being judged by God; so as to be someone who does nothing God dislikes, and does only that which God likes or loves.

To be a true lover of God.

To become - even before the greater day of Judgement - such that the love that the believer has for God compels said believer to always do that which is loved by God, and to always eschew that which is disliked by God; in that way; on the greater Day of Judgement, the believer will already be on the pathway to success.

This, as they say, is the dream.

Therefore to use our farm and milk procurement example; and understand these points in that way; we can say:

The goal is Tawheed (to be entirely absorbed in the Monotheism of God), and the destination, that determines if a person is worthy of the desired goal, or to what level a person is worthy of the goal, is the notion of Ma’ad or Qiyamah (being successful on the day of Judgement).

So now, consider, we have our goal, and we have our destination. What we lack at this time, is the route; how do we get there.

In the case of the person wanting to procure milk; they will find that they have perhaps a car or other means of transportation to traverse the road.

They will be able to read the road signs and traffic signals, that will ensure that they safely arrive, if they follow all of these diligently and carefully, to their destination - the farm or market; and from there can reach their goal - obtaining milk.

Therefore, there are now a number of components that we need to understand, a diagram perhaps will be more useful as an illustration.

Firstly for our person wanting to procure milk:

Therefore, looking at this diagram; the start point leads to the ‘Road’, which leads to the ‘Road Signs’ - which if followed correctly, lead us to the yellow diamond, which asks us the question: “Are we at a Farm or Market and is there milk?”.

If we are, then we can attain success and we have followed the road and the road signs correctly.

However, there is also the possibility, that the farm or market that we have found has no milk available, therefore, if that is the case, we must look for another, and then check to see if that has milk, if it does; wonderful; we have procured our milk, if not, then we must restart from the beginning by finding another market or farm, and going on the road, following the road signs and then checking if we are once more at a farm or market, and whether it has milk.

If, however, we find that we are at the zoo, for example, and therefore not at the farm or market; then we have failed to follow the road and road signs correctly; and therefore, we have failed; and we therefore fail to procure milk.

Now if we modify our diagram to include the elements of the Usul ad-Din as described above, the diagram would look as follows:

This diagram is very similar to our milk procurement task. With some key differences.

Firstly, as Muslims we do not believe in the notion of reincarnation; therefore; there is no pathway following Ma’ad or Qiyamah, for us to return back to the road; and start over so to speak.

We do however, have the notion of atonement for our sins; of spending some time in a state of partial damnation if you will, following which, when our sins are cleansed, we can, potentially, find ourselves at the desired destination of Tawheed.

It should be noted, that how I have explained this notion above, is very simplistic; we will delve into it in more detail when we cover the notion of Ma’ad in more detail, in the next session of this series, God willing.

Furthermore, an aspect that exists within this diagram - which is essentially of the Usul ad-Din - is that of the blue bar at the bottom - the notion of Adl-e-Ilahi or Adalah - the Justice of God.

This concept provides us with constant support on our journey; and indeed, it can be said that the four concepts - and indeed the very start of the journey - are encapsulated within the idea of Adalah. Those being:

1. The Start

2. Nubuwwah (Prophethood)

3. Imamah (Vicegerency to the Prophets)

4. Ma’ad or Qiyamah (the Day of Judgement)

These four concepts are all encapsulated within the Justice of God.

At the start of our existence; it is the very mercy and love of God, which are manifestations of His justice, that gives us life in the first place; we then have the countless prophets - in Islam, we have learned that through history there have been more than 120,000 prophets that have been sent to provide guidance to humanity.

We then have the idea of Imamah, or vicegerency of the Prophets; and this is not something unique to the Muslims; for indeed, the Prophet Moses had his vicegerents; who continued his work after him, chief amongst them being Joshua; and Jesus, the Messiah also had his disciples who could be considered as his vicegerents.

The best of the vicegerents, however, were for Prophet Muhammad, in the form of the 12 Imams of the Muslims, and including the Awaited Imam, Imam Mahdi, may our souls be his ransom, and may God hasten his return.

The role of the vicegerent being to help the people understand the message; to provide clarity, to provide understanding and to help people understand the various - to use our metaphor - road signs that lead us to the path of righteousness or away from said path.

Now, I hear the reader ask, where does the Furu ad-Din fall into this? Why is that no where on the diagram; and that dear reader; this is where I will provide a brief teaser of what we will discuss in the next part, where all will become clear, God willing.

When looking at the notion of Adl-e-Ilahi (Adalah), and knowing that both Prophethood, and Imamah, as well as the notion of Ma’ad (Qiyamah) are encapsulated by this Adalah; it stands to reason that the elements of the Furu ad-Din are also a key part of this Adalah, are a manifestation of the Justice of God.

If God wishes for his lovers to worship, to love Him, then He has certain laws and requirements; these were delivered by the Prophets (Nubuwwah) and elaborated and clarified on by the Imams (Imamah), as a means to have his lover be successful in his journey to God.

Therefore; it stands to reason that any and all laws, requirements, which are all derived from the divine scriptures - in the case of Islam, from the very word of God, the Holy Quran, as well as the Ahadeeth or narrations - teachings of the Prophet Muhammad; that were espoused and explained by the Imams, and are further explained and clarified by the Righteous Islamic Jurist.

Therefore, the ideas of Furu ad-Din reside under the blue bar of Adl-e-Ilahi as shown in the updated diagram below:

In the coming session, we will go into each element on this diagram; and explain what it means, attempting to dispel any misunderstanding or confusion, as best as is possible, with His permission and grace.

This will allow us to further our understanding of the limits set by God for us; and this will ultimately allow us to further deepen our love for God, for when it is understood, that like the kindest of Beloved ones; He has given us every provision for our journey; He has given us a complete map of how to get from where we are, to where He wants us to be, and that if we are diligent, if we are careful, then we can - and He wants us to - reach His Tawheed, His Unity; and gaze in to His beautiful Face, the most beautiful of all faces.

And from Him alone is all ability, and He has authority over all things.

To those souls who yearn for His Face

To the ladies in Damascus, who our hearts ache and bleed for, the one who only saw beauty, we will not abandon you, Oh our mother Zaynab!

To the blessed children, who one must become once more, to enter the Kingdom of the Most Beloved

To those pure souls, who departed, who left us orphaned, yet who stay with us, guiding and comforting us, as we move towards our Beloved.

To the Awaited one, and his deputy, may our souls be your ransom, and may God hasten the return of the one that the hearts yearn for, and protect his deputy, our beloved Leader.