Appendix 2: Enlightenments from the Quran

Appendix 2: Enlightenments from the Quran

I ask God and His Messenger for forgiveness, and I ask the believers to forgive not commenting on these verses because time was short, which, in the end, is due only to my own shortcomings. The noble, however, excuse those who fall short. I hope the believers will not forget me in their prayers and in asking forgiveness for me from a merciful Lord. I leave it to the believers to reflect on their meanings and draw deeply from the divine wisdom they contain.

1. “Whoever strives, strives only for his own sake. Surely God is beyond need of all the worlds.”^[187]

2. “Those believers who sit back, other than those with an impairment, are not equal to those who strive in the path of God with their wealth and their lives. God has raised those who strive with their wealth and their lives one degree above those who sit back. To each God has promised the best, but God has favored those who strive over those who sit back with a tremendous reward.”^[188]

3. “We will surely test you until We distinguish those among you who strive and those who remain steadfast, and We will test your affairs.”^[189]

4. “Or did you think that you would enter Paradise while God has not yet made evident those among you who strive and those who remain steadfast?”^[190]

5. “Or did you think that you would be left alone while God has not yet made evident those among you who strive and who take no allies besides God, His Messenger, and the believers? God is fully aware of what you do.”^[191]

6. “But the Messenger and those who believed with him strove with their wealth and their lives. For them are all good things, and they are the successful.”^[192]

7. “Surely your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful toward those who emigrated after being persecuted and thereafter strove and remained steadfast.”^[193] 8. “Fight those among the People of the Book who do not believe in God or the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not follow the religion of truth, until they pay the tax while subdued.”^[194]

9. “O you who believe, fight those of the disbelievers who are nearest to you, and let them find harshness in you. Know that God is with the God-fearing.”^[195]

10. “Those who strive in the path of God are like one who stands in devout worship, persisting in his fasting and prayer until he returns to his family.”^[196]

11. “Those who remained behind rejoiced at staying behind the Messenger of God. They disliked striving with their wealth and their lives in the path of God, and said, ‘Do not go forth in the heat.’ Say: ‘The fire of Hell is far hotter,’ if only they understood.”^[197]

12. “O you who believe, whoever among you turns back from his religion, God will bring forth a people whom He loves and who love Him, humble toward the believers, harsh against the disbelievers, striving in the path of God and fearing no one’s blame. That is God’s favor, which He gives to whom He wills. God is all-encompassing, all-knowing.”^[198]

13. “Those who believe fight in the path of God, while those who disbelieve fight in the path of the tyrants. So fight the allies of Satan; indeed, the plot of Satan is weak.”^[199]

14. “Indeed, God has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight in the path of God, kill and are killed. It is a true promise binding upon Him in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. Who is truer to his promise than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have struck. That is the great triumph.”^[200]

15. “Permission has been given to those who are fought because they have been wronged-and indeed, God is capable of giving them victory.”^[201] 16. “Indeed, God loves those who fight in His path in rows, as though they are a firmly constructed structure.”^[202]

17. “Fighting has been prescribed for you, though it is hateful to you. Yet it may be that you hate something while it is good for you, and it may be that you love something while it is bad for you. God knows, and you do not know.”^[203]

18. “Have you not considered the assembly of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs, ‘Appoint a king for us so that we may fight in the path of God.’ He said, ‘Perhaps if fighting were prescribed for you, you would not fight.’ They said, ‘Why should we not fight in the path of God when we have been driven from our homes and separated from our children?’ But when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away except for a few of them. God is Knowing of the wrongdoers.”^[204]

19. “Have you not seen those to whom it was said: ‘Restrain your hands, establish prayer, and give almsgiving’? But when fighting was prescribed for them, a group of them feared people as they should fear God or even greater fear. They said: ‘Our Lord, why have You prescribed fighting for us? If only You had delayed us for a short time.’ Say: ‘The enjoyment of this world is little, and the Hereafter is better for whoever is mindful of God, and you will not be wronged even as much as a thread.’”^[205]

20. “O Prophet, urge the believers to fight. If there are twenty steadfast among you, they will overcome two hundred; and if there are one hundred among you, they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand.”^[206]

21. “Those who believe say: ‘Why has a chapter not been sent down?’ But when a decisive chapter is revealed and fighting is mentioned therein, you see those in whose hearts is disease looking at you like the look of one overcome by death-so woe to them.”^[207] 22. “Obedience and appropriate speech. Then when the matter is resolved, if they had been truthful to God, it would have been better for them.”^[208]

23. “So do not obey the disbelievers, but strive mightily against them with it.”^[209]

24. “O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, driving out the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in God, your Lord-if you have come out striving in My path and seeking My pleasure. You secretly show them affection, while I know what you conceal and what you reveal. Whoever among you does that has certainly strayed from the straight path.”^[210]