Question 422 - 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 peace. A1-2: The Exalted said: ‘To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is upon the earth. Whether you disclose what is within yourselves or conceal it, Allah will call you to account for it. He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, and Allah has power over all things’ (^[31]). As is clear, this verse states that Allah calls a person to account for what is harbored within souls. That is, if a person harbors evil, he is called to account for it. Allah explained that this matter does not lie beyond a person’s ability. According to his innate disposition and the capacity placed within him, a person can always be good and harbor no evil. According to his innate disposition, he can be among those for whom Allah granted an opening: ‘Indeed, We have granted you a manifest opening,’ so that Satan has no real share in him, his intentions, or his actions. Although this matter lies within a person’s ability, we find it beyond the capacity and power of most children of Adam-not because of a deficiency in their innate dispositions imposed upon them by Allah, but because of their own shortcomings. Consequently, in the verse you cited-may Allah grant you success-Allah says that this accounting for the intentions within the soul has been lifted from people generally. Allah burdens people only according to the capacity and power most of them possess, even if they are believers. This is a mitigation for people and means that Allah calls them to account according to an ability that is, in reality, less than the true ability placed within them. The Exalted said: ‘Against it is what it acquired.’ That is, Allah calls a person to account for evil that actually issued from him, not merely that which he intended. In other words, Glorious is He, Allah calls a person to account for evil if he intended it and it issued from him; He does not call him to account merely because he intended it but was unable to carry it out, or because he did an evil without a prior intention to do it. ‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. To its credit is what it earns, and against it is what it acquires. Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or err. Our Lord, do not place upon us a burden as You placed upon those before us. Our Lord, do not burden us with what we have no power to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us. You are our Guardian, so grant us victory over the disbelieving people.’ Thus, His words, the Exalted: ‘Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or err … and do not burden us with what we have no power to bear,’ explain that every person has a capacity and ability that he-the person-has determined through his action and striving. He is supposed to ask Allah to forgive his shortcomings and his forgetting-that is, his abandoning and neglecting-Allah’s commands: ‘Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or err.’ He also asks that his test remain within the bounds of his capacity and ability, even though it is less than the capacity and ability placed within his innate disposition and even though his own shortcomings caused this. If Allah charged him beyond his limits-that is, outside his capacity and ability, which because of his shortcomings are below the true ability placed within his innate disposition-he would fail and lose everything. Consequently, this supplication is the utmost wisdom for one who has lost something and does not wish to lose everything, and such are most of the children of Adam: ‘Do not burden us with what we have no power to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy upon us. You are our Guardian, so grant us victory over the disbelieving people.’ A3: Allah makes Himself known through His creation; it is not that His creation makes Him known. This is the meaning of the narration. That is, if we say that Allah is known through His proofs (a), and that the proofs of Allah are those who make Allah known, what is meant is that through them Allah made Himself known to the rest of His creation-not that they made Him known. They are the Face of Allah through which He faced His creation. That is, He is the One who faced His creation through them so that He might be known; it is not that, from themselves or through themselves, they make Allah known. If the matter is so, the reality is that none of the affair belongs to them. He, Glorious is He, desired to be known, so He created them, made others know through them, and made Himself known through them. As for the reality of this knowledge and how it occurs, you will find it and the foregoing in greater detail, Allah willing, in the book Interpretation of Surat al-Tawhid, which is on its way to publication, Allah willing. A4: Seeing Him, Glorious is He, is knowledge. I have spoken about it previously, but, Allah willing, you will find the matter detailed in Interpretation of Surat al-Tawhid. Since it will be published soon, there is no need for me to repeat the discussion here, especially because it is lengthy. May Allah grant you success. A5: The Exalted said: ‘The Trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is upon the earth will fall unconscious, except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown another time, and behold, they will be standing, looking on’ (^[32]). Those who do not perish are those who truly were the Face of Allah through which He faced His creation, as an honor to them and an honor to the Greatest Name they bore in their hearts, illuminated by His light, Glorious and Exalted is He. These do not perish or pass away, ever, because they chose the Everlasting, Glorious is He, over themselves. Blessed are they, and theirs is an excellent return. May Allah grant you success: they are not only Muhammad and the family of Muhammad (a). The door is open-before and after their coming (a)-for every person to become the Face of Allah. So do not fall short and lose your share. The door is open, the opportunity is available, and the loser is the one who loses his portion of this tremendous grace. Blessed are those who chose and choose Allah, Glorious is He, over themselves. They are the truly mindful. I ask Allah to grant me success in serving all of you and to make you among the mindful who do not perish or die, but remain through the remaining of the One they chose-Glorious and Exalted is He, far above all. ‘Indeed, the mindful will be in a secure station, amid gardens and springs, wearing fine silk and brocade, facing one another. So it will be, and We will pair them with fair ones with wide, beautiful eyes. There they will call for every fruit, secure. They will not taste death therein except the first death, and He will protect them from the punishment of Hellfire-as a bounty from your Lord. That is the tremendous triumph. We have only made it easy in your tongue so that perhaps they may remember. So wait; indeed, they too are waiting’ (^[33]). Ahmed Alhasan Rabi al-Awwal 1431 AH