Question 405 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 5

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. A1: The warner is Muhammad (s), and also Allah’s Proof and His vicegerent upon His earth in every age. The Quran is alive and does not die, and every age has a warner. A2: His words, the Exalted: ‘O you who believe, if you are mindful of Allah, He will grant you a criterion, remove your misdeeds from you, and forgive you; and Allah is Possessor of tremendous bounty.’ Mindfulness of Allah, Glorious and Exalted, results from the servant avoiding everything that displeases Him, Glorious and Exalted, and adhering to everything He loves: ‘O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may become mindful’ (^[9]). This mindfulness makes a person watchful of Allah, Glorious is He, in all his movements and stillness. Such a servant remembers Allah, Glorious and Exalted. How then would He, Glorious is He, not remember him, explain to him, and make known to him everything he needs for salvation and deliverance? Consequently, the mindful person possesses the instrument that distinguishes truth from falsehood-namely, the light or the criterion. The mindful person recognizes the truth and follows it, and recognizes falsehood and avoids it. The result of mindfulness is a degree of infallibility that Allah bestows upon the one who pays its price: watching Allah and remembering Him in every condition, doing everything that pleases Him, and avoiding everything that displeases Him. The Exalted said: ‘That Book-there is no doubt in it-is guidance for the mindful’ (^[10]). Yes, it is guidance for the mindful, because the mindful possess the instrument for distinguishing truth from falsehood. Through it Allah has protected them from turning away from Allah’s Proof and opposing him: ‘O you who believe, if you are mindful of Allah, He will grant you a criterion.’ A person needs this criterion and light for as long as he is in this life, because he is in a continuous test. Even if he believes in Allah’s Proof in his own age, the Proof may die and Allah may test him with a subsequent Proof, and he may lose the way if he does not possess this light and criterion. The Exalted said: ‘O you who believe, be mindful of Allah and believe in His Messenger; He will give you two portions of His mercy, make for you a light by which you walk, and forgive you. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful’ (^[11]). Belief in the Messenger, as is clear, may not be sufficient for salvation, especially if the Messenger or the Proof dies, his successor comes, and the person fails to recognize and join him. For this reason, Allah, Glorious and Exalted, explained that there is an instrument that protects a person from misguidance and that this instrument also has a price. Its price, as is clear in the verses, is mindfulness, and this instrument is the light and criterion by which a person distinguishes truth from falsehood. This instrument is Allah’s revelation, Glorious and Exalted, to the mindful and His making truth and falsehood known to them. The clearest form of this revelation, known to nearly all people, is the visions that people see. Through a vision, Allah makes the path of truth and the path of falsehood known to the mindful person. Nothing remains except for him to believe in the unseen and act according to it. The reality is that the mindful person must believe in the unseen and act according to it, because the quality of belief in the unseen is inseparable from him. ‘That Book-there is no doubt in it-is guidance for the mindful, those who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend from what We have provided them’ (^[12]). Ahmed Alhasan Dhu al-Qidah 1431 AH