Question 63 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them abundant peace. This verse was revealed concerning one who proceeds with the truth while not recognizing the truth. You find him putting one foot forward and holding the other back, doubtful about his affair. In a tribulation or an ambiguity he finds an excuse to abandon the truth, or perhaps to stand against it. He is not prepared to sacrifice his wealth, his life, or his reputation for the truth that he claims to follow. Had his faith been genuine, the tribulation would have increased him in faith upon his faith, and he would already have put forward his wealth and his life in the way of the truth in which he believes. Faith must therefore be free of any request for worldly benefit. Indeed, the believer must be prepared to receive any worldly harm that results from his faith. Even if the believer were on the summit of a mountain (^[50]), Allah would appoint someone to harm him so that he would be rewarded through it and his station would rise. Indeed, the people most severely afflicted are the prophets and vicegerents, then the next best and the next best (^[51]). Faith must also be tainted as little as possible by materiality or doubt. Faith in the unseen must be pure of doubt. Faith brought about by an overpowering material sign that admits no interpretation is not accepted. If it were accepted, Pharaoh’s faith would have been accepted: ‘We took the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in oppression and hostility until, when drowning overtook him, he said, “I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am among those who submit”’ (^[52]). He announced his faith and submission after touching the wall of water, which was a sign that admitted no interpretation. But Allah does not accept this faith that is devoid of the unseen, because Allah is the Absolute Unseen: ‘Now? When you had disobeyed before and were among the corrupters?’ (^[53]). Likewise, the faith of those who disbelieved on the day of the opening would otherwise have been accepted: ‘Say: On the day of the opening, the faith of those who disbelieved will not benefit them, nor will they be granted respite’ (^[54]), (^[55]). When doubt penetrates the domain of faith, it negates faith. The believer must work so that he is not merely among those who heard of the Reality or saw it, but among those cauterized by it. Indeed, the best good for the believer is to be among those completely consumed by the fire of the Reality, until the believer himself becomes the Reality and the one who relates the Reality.