LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE HOLY QUR'AN'S METHOD

It seems proper to refer to some lessons that are derived from the method of the Holy Qur'an's reforming and guiding the communities to the right path.

Sixth Lesson

The sixth lesson that must be learnt from the method of the Holy Qur'an is the encouragement on learning, seeking education and mastership of any knowledge that draws near to Almighty Allah and increases one's wisdom. It is said that the Holy Qur'an comprises more than five hundred verses urging to learning and to ponderation over things, praising the knowledgeable, condemning ignorance and threatening the ignorant of bad consequences.

The Holy Qur'an has made the qualities of learnedness, understanding and acquaintance with Almighty Allah the cause of doubling the power of the believers tenfold. The last statement in the following holy verse corroborates this fact: "O Prophet! Rouse the believers to the fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred. If a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers, for these are a people without understanding. 8/65"

On the other hand, the Holy Qur'an has considered steadfastness, which is one of the most essential reasons for victory, increase the believers' power twofold only: "For the present, Allah path lightened your task, for He knoweth that there is a weak spot in you. But even so, if there are a hundred of you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred, and if a thousand, they will vanquish two thousand, with the leave of Allah, for Allah is with those who patiently persevere. 8/66"

This concept is applicable to all aspects of life. The Holy Qur'an has in reality supplied the believers with many concepts that can be put under the title of 'Instructions of Conflicts against the Atheists.' In this regard, listen to the following holy verse: "And slacken not in following up the enemy. If ye are suffering hardships, they are suffering similar hardships; but ye have hope for Allah, while they have none. And Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.

4/104"

Since damage will afflict both parties, absconding from battlefields is meaningless. Yet, the difference between the two parties is that the party of the believers hopes for Almighty Allah and for the rewards in the Next World while the other party hopes for nothing. Accordingly, the party of the believers will lose nothing while the other party, whose penalty will be unbearable chastisement, will win nothing.

In the same respect, the Holy Qur'an reads, "It is He Who got out the unbelievers among the People of the Book from their homes at the first gathering of the forces. Little did ye think that they would get out. And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allah! But the wrath of Allah came to them from quarters from which they little expected it, and cast terror into their hearts so that they destroyed their dwellings by their own hands and the hands of the believers. Take warning, then, O ye with eyes to see. 59/2"

"It was not fitting for the people of al-Madinah and the Bedouin Arabs of the neighborhood to refuse to follow Allah's Messenger nor to prefer their own lives to his, because nothing could they suffer or do, but was reckoned to their credit as a deed of righteousness, whether they suffered thirst, or fatigue, or hunger, in the cause of Allah, or trod paths to raise the ire of the unbelievers, or received any injury whatever from an enemy: for Allah suffereth not the reward to be lost of those who do good. Nor could they spend anything for the cause of Allah -small or great- nor cut across a valley, but the deed is inscribed to their credit that Allah may requite their deed with the best reward. 9/120-121"

It is thus meaningless to fall behind in offering all things necessitated by the obedience to Almighty Allah, including efforts and property, and to mistrust Him when we are asked to defray the legal taxes, such as the Zakat and Khums.

In the same respect, the Holy Qur'an reads, "In the end, We deliver Our messengers and those who believe. Thus is it fitting on Our part that We should deliver those who believe. 10/103"

It is worthy for everyone to move in heart, spirit and intellect to that duration, which is the most pleasant throughout the history of humankind, and to imagine oneself being within the faithful group that surrounded the Holy Prophet and accompanied him since the difficult time when he first promulgated for his Mission when the faithful believers were a few feeble individuals who had to encounter various sorts of torture at the hands of the polytheists of Quraysh, up to the period after the Battle of al-Ahzab (the aliens) when feebleness and despair crept hurriedly into the hearts and minds of the enemies of the Holy Prophet whose victories followed each other beginning with the hudaybiyah Truce then the conquest of Khaybar up to the conquest of Makkah, al-Ta'if, the Yemen and finally the entire Arab Peninsula. One must experience the great feelings of imagining being present on these occasions and being one of those to whom the following direct address of the Holy Qur'an was delivered from the All-exalted Lord, the Director of all affairs and the Creator of the heavens and the earth, saying:

"In the Name of Allah; the All-beneficent, the All-merciful: Those who reject Allah and hinder men from the path of Allah,- their deeds will Allah render astray from their mark. But those who believe and work deeds of righteousness and believe in the Revelation sent down to Muhammad—for it is the truth from their Lord—He will remove from them their ills and improve their condition. This is because those who reject Allah follow vanities, while those who believe follow the truth from their Lord. Thus does Allah set forth for men their lessons by similitudes. Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks. At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly on them, thereafter is the time for either generosity or ransom until the war lays down its burdens. Thus are ye commanded; but if it had been Allah's Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them Himself; but He lets you fight in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah; He will never let their deeds be lost. Soon will He guide them and improve their condition. And admit them to the Garden which He has announced for them. O ye who believe! If ye will aid the cause of Allah, He will aid you and plant your feet firmly. But those who reject Allah,- for them is destruction, and Allah will render their deeds astray from their mark. That is because they hate the Revelation of Allah; so He has made their deeds fruitless. Do they not travel through the earth and see what the end of those before them who did evil was? Allah brought utter destruction on them, and similar fates await those who reject Allah. That is because Allah is the Protector of those who believe, but those who reject Allah have no protector. Verily Allah will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds to Gardens beneath which rivers flow; while those who reject Allah will enjoy this world and eat as cattle eat; and the fire of Hell will be their abode. And how many cities, with more power than thy city which has driven thee out, have We destroyed for their sins? And there was none to aid them. Is then one who is on a clear path from his Lord, no better than one to whom the evil of his conduct seems pleasing and such as follow their own lusts. 47/1-14"

"Allah has promised to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds that He will of a surety grant them in the land inheritance of power as He granted it to those before them and that He will establish in authority their religion—the one which He has chosen for them, and that He will change their state after the fear in which they lived to one of security and peace. They will worship Me alone and not associate aught with Me. If any do reject faith after this, they are rebellious and wicked. 24/55"

In the midst of such a divine promise, the Holy Qur'an has warned against the endeavors of the hypocrites who discourage the believers from facing their enemies and mock at their powerlessness missing out the fact that the secret of the believers' power is their connection to Almighty Allah Who, in this respect, says, "Lo! The hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease say, 'These people; their religion has misled them.' But if any trust in Allah, behold! Allah is Exalted in might, Wise. 8/49"

Under the title of "Instructions of Conflicts against the Atheists," all the divine promises of triumph and overcoming, inheritance of the earth, attaining the good end, having Almighty Allah with the believers for all time, the angels' descending to them with tranquility from their Lord, removal of their terror and grief, Almighty Allah's favorable transaction of purchasing their persons and property for Paradise, the manifold profits from Him in return of their loaning Him a goodly loan and their spending for the sake of Him and many other alike promises—all these are listed under the aforesaid title.

In this regard too, the biggest fact that the Holy Qur'an corroborates is that triumph and defeat before the external enemy, namely the foes of the Muslims, is in reality a part of triumph and defeat before the internal enemy, which is one's soul that is prone to evil as well as Satan. As the Holy Qur'an promises the believers of the inheritance of the earth and all beings thereon, it makes as an essential and first step self-discipline and the application of the divine method to one's self: "And We wished to be gracious to those who were being depressed in the land, and to make them imams, and to make them the heirs, and to establish a firm place for them in the land, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts, at their hands, the very things against which they were taking precautions. 28/5-6"

In view of that, the first step in giving the earth in inheritance to the believers is to make them imams (i.e. leaders), which stands for purifying and cleaning their souls.

In addition, the Holy Qur'an assures that any triumph against the foes is worthless unless it is linked to triumph against Satan and to faithful acting for the sake of Almighty Allah, since a worker whose deeds are not intended purely for Almighty Allah's sake and for attaining His pleasure will not be different from the deeds of the foes of Islam since both, such being the case, are working for the sake of this worldly life and thus losing any lot in the Next World.

When the Muslims were gravely defeated in the Battle of Uhud, the Holy Qur'an addressed them, saying, "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" Hence, their defeat and turning away from the battlefield were caused by the evil deeds that they had done. On the other hand, the Holy Qur'an declares, "O ye who believe! If ye will aid the cause of Allah, He will aid you and plant your feet firmly. 47/7" To aid the cause of Allah is to be obedient to Him, lest He is free of all needs from all creation: "Allah has promised to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds that He will of a surety grant them in the land inheritance of power as He granted it to those before them and that He will establish in authority their religion—the one which He has chosen for them, and that He will change their state after the fear in which they lived to one of security and peace. They will worship Me alone and not associate aught with Me. If any do reject faith after this, they are rebellious and wicked. 24/55"

Supporting this meaning, the Holy Prophet has been reported that on seeing the returning armies from the battlefront, he said, "Blessed are those who have performed the minor jihad (Struggle for Almighty Allah's sake), and have yet to perform the major one." When he was asked what the major jihad is, the Holy Prophet replied, "This is the jihad of one's self." [1]

Let us cite the following example from our present life:

The Muslims are currently going to great pains for facing the aggressions of the corrupt State of Israel and sparing no effort in removing it. Yet, they must understand that this wicked entity is no more than one of the symptoms that emerged to the body of the Muslim community as a result of a deep-rooted disease, which is in fact the cause and origin of all of these symptoms. This disease is the Muslims' turning away from the divine course and shunning applying it to their practices. Consequently, they should not pay all attentions to the symptoms and forget the origin of their disease. In other words, they should treat the disease rather than the symptoms. An intellectual ^[2] has likened the case of the Arabs, in their conflict against the Zionists, to a bull in the fields of bullfighting; while the bull concentrates on and uses all its powers, attention and anger to the red piece of cloth, it forgets completely the matador who catches that red piece of cloth in order to excite and then kill it through thrusting into its neck many daggers. We must not be like that bull, which is completely inattentive to its real killer while it is chasing a meaningless piece of cloth.

It is obviously unquestionable that the Muslims approach triumph as much as they draw themselves near to Almighty Allah.