The First Issue

The First Issue

As has been clarified in The Fourth Word, our Creator beneficently gives us twenty-four hours of life’s capital every day, so that we are able, using this capital, to buy everything that we need for both our two lives. (5)

How irrational a mistake we would make were we to spend twenty-three hours for the sake of this worldly life, which is exceedingly short, and not spend the single hour sufficient to pray all of the five prescribed prayers for the sake of our life in the hereafter, which is exceedingly long. As punishment for this mistake, we would suffer both emotional and spiritual distress, and due to [the pressure of] emotional and spiritual troubles, our morality would become corrupted (6) and [as a result] we would live out [miserable and] desperate lives. By not even acting in accordance with this training [provided by our imprisonment], let alone [allowing ourselves to be] educated [by it], we would end up in this great loss. Let [the difference in the consequences of sparing and not sparing time for the prayers] be compared, then.

Everybody must reflect on the fact that were we to spend a single hour praying the five prescribed prayers, every single hour spent in prison and tribulation might at times become as good as a whole day of worship.

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5. By this, the lives of this world and of the Hereafter are intended.

6. Stress and depression, whether arising from spiritual or emotional "troubles", often give rise to sinful acts because of the loss of spiritual determination that they entail. Despair and negativity often engender misguided beliefs and ideas; these "troubles" refer to the darkness of the heart that constitutes the locus of the spiritual depression that leads to foolish sins. 

A single of those transient hours might be as good as ever-enduring hours, and the misery and suffering of heart and spirit would largely disappear. [This imprisonment] would constitute a ground for our being forgiven for the mistakes that brought us to the prison in the first place and an expiation. We would thereby receive the discipline that is the underlying wisdom of the prison, all of which would be an immensely profitable trial and lesson, as well as [providing] comforting good company amongst our friends who are facing the same tribulation.

As was said in The Fourth Word, consider the case of someone who would pay out five or even ten of the twenty-four golden coins that he owns in order to gamble in a lottery in which one thousand people participated, hoping to win a prize worth one thousand gold coins. He would not, however, spend a single of these twenty-four gold coins in order to win a ticket to an endlessly eternal treasure of jewels although the likelihood of winning a thousand gold coins in the lottery of this world is one in a thousand for there are one thousand participants other than himself.

On the other hand, the likelihood of winning in the lottery of the destinies of men for the Hereafter is, for the people of faith (7) who have a good end, (8) nine hundred and ninety-nine out of one thousand, as has been reported by twenty-four thousand Prophets (anbiyā'), (9) limitless numbers of truthful reporters amongst the saints (awliyā') (10) and the purified ones (aṣfiyā') (11) who by way of their mystical unveiling (kashf) attest to the reports of the Prophets.

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7. Īmān: (al-īmān) True faith - the heart's assent to the truth of the revelation Allāh sent down to our Prophet Muḥammad, upon whom be blessings and peace. "Faith" has always been a problematical translation of the Arabic īmān. One of the main difficulties stems from the negative connotations the word has acquired in the especially Anglo-American, post-Enlightenment world. The impact of empiricism and positivism have so infected the contemporary academic and even mainstream zeitgeist that the notion that religious "faith" is to be equated with "blind faith" (for which no form of evidence is even in principle possible) is now normative. It is for this reason that we have decided to qualify our translation of "īmān" as "true faith". This is our attempt to reflect the principle in Islāmic theology that real īmān must be grounded in logical reasoning and metaphysical investigation. It is not blind faith that one must have, but faith in the truth, which is knowable via the demonstrations and evidences vouchsafed us by, amongst many other great books of the Islāmic heritage, The Book of Light. However, we also used faith in many occasions not to make the text overburdened with extra adjectives and keep the text as “plain” as possible. What we intend in those cases are stated as below. "īmān" or faith in Islām is an end result of a well-informed decision. It is a well-established position, firm belief and persuasion built by quality questions, investigative readings and unshakably affirming truths. The words 'belief' and 'faith' are very light and inadequate translations of īmān which is in reality a firm conviction in the level of certainty. This word, "faith," is a fairly poor rendering of īmān; one might better understand the word if it is translated as "reasoned faith" or "firm conviction." What constitutes this faith is summed up in the shahādah or confession/testimony of faith. If one declares, witnesses and announces that he certainly has a conviction of this following sentence, they become Muslim. "There is no god but Allāh and Muḥammad is the messenger of Allāh."

8. The term "good end" (ḥusnu’l-khātima) refers to someone's dying in the True Faith (īmān), and in a manner befitting worshipful servanthood to the Creator. This world is the sowing-field of the Hereafter; there, one will harvest that which one had planted in this life. The identity of those who will have a good end is known only to the Creator; someone outwardly "religious" but who has no real, deeply-rooted faith may not die well, although those around him might assume that he has died in the best possible way. Likewise, someone who has spent their life in sin and outward irreligiosity may have their repentance accepted at the very end of their lives, and die in a state of deep faith and humility that is pleasing to Allāh. All true guidance is from Him, and He Alone knows the true sincerity of one's intention; this is why Muslims seek refuge in Allāh, and ask for a good end. In the meantime, we know that Allāh Most High says in the Qur’ān: مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ - To whoever, male or female, does good deeds and has faith, We shall give a good life and reward them according to the best of their actions. (Qur’ān: al-Naḥl, 16:97)

And it is narrated that Prophet Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) said "You shall die in the way that you have lived." (‘Aliyyulqārī, Mirqātu’l-mafātīh 1/332, 7/375, 8/431). As a result, a good end is highly likely for someone with a good life.

9. Anbiyā' (pl of nabī): Prophets or Messengers of Allāh who deliver the message from Allāh to their people. A nabī is a messenger who does not receive a specific book and a code of law (sharī‘a) yet he acts upon the previous messenger’s book and the code of law. A messenger with a new law or a book (scripture) is called rasūl.

10. Awliyā' (pl of walī): Saints

11. Aṣfiyā' (pl of ṣāfi): The purified ones, the spiritual elite, the people of purity, taqwā, spiritual perfection and critical verification (taḥqīq) who follow the Qur’ān and sunnah hence are also known as the inheritors of the Prophet (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām). 

You should compare [the two lotteries, therefore]; how contrary it would be to wisdom and the proper course if one were to run to the first lottery and run away from the second.

It is fitting, then, that the prison governors, chief guards and indeed the governors of the country and security forces, should be gladdened by this lesson from The Book of Light. For it is an established fact of experience that controlling and governing a thousand observant religious people who constantly remember the prison of hell (jahannam), is easier than controlling and governing ten people who have neither prayer nor belief in anything, those who think only of the prison of this world, who know not the meaning of ‘forbidden’ (ḥarām) and ‘permitted’ (ḥalāl) and who have become partially accustomed to idleness and being astray.