Question 465 - 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. It is permissible to work in a shop that sells meat unlawful to eat, such as pork or meat not slaughtered in the religiously prescribed manner. Likewise, it is permissible to work as a driver of a truck carrying meat unlawful to eat. It is not permissible, however, to work selling wine or as the driver of a truck carrying wine. Regarding transactions with banks owned by non-Muslims or by nasibis who show enmity toward the Imams or the Mahdis, you may take loans from them with interest or deposit your money with them and take interest from them, because there is no usury between a believer and a non-Muslim, or between a believer and one who shows enmity. If you take a loan from such people and are unable to repay it, there is no problem. May Allah grant you success. A4: The Exalted said: ‘He said, “My Lord, expand my breast for me, ease my task for me, untie the knot from my tongue so that they may understand my speech, and appoint for me a minister from my family.”’ The Exalted also said: ‘And when your Lord called Moses: “Go to the wrongdoing people, the people of Pharaoh. Will they not be mindful?” He said, “My Lord, I fear that they will deny me, my breast will constrict, and my tongue will not speak freely, so send for Aaron”’ (^[48]). Moses’s supplication clearly requested the following from Allah: Expand my breast for me. Ease my task for me. Untie the knot from my tongue. So that they may understand my speech. And appoint for me a minister from my family. In the verses, Moses (a) explained that he requested the untying of the knot from his tongue so that they would understand what he said. He also explained that he requested the expansion of his breast because he feared that his breast would constrict and his tongue would not speak freely. The clear conclusion is that Moses (a) had a problem with speaking and conveying information to others. This problem was partially resolved in Moses (a) personally and fully resolved in the mission of Moses (a) through sending Aaron (a) as a minister to assist him in conveying the message. Allah’s response to the supplication of Moses (a) was therefore fulfilled with the utmost wisdom. Moses wanted his ability to convey the message to them to improve and asked that Aaron be sent with him as a minister. Allah improved Moses’s ability to convey by a certain measure and completed it through Aaron (a). Allah’s sending of Aaron (a) was a response to Moses’s request, and He made his sending the utmost wisdom: through him He completed the solution to Moses’s problem in conveying the message to Pharaoh and the people to whom Moses (a) was sent: ‘He said, “You have been granted your request, O Moses”’ (^[49]). The Exalted explained that a remnant of the defect in Moses’s expression was not removed when He related Pharaoh’s words: ‘I am better than this contemptible one who can scarcely express himself’ (^[50]). The Exalted also said when relating the words of Moses (a): ‘My brother Aaron is more eloquent than me in speech, so send him with me as support, confirming me. I fear that they will deny me’ (^[51]). Thus, Moses (a) personally retained some defect in expression. This was Allah’s will so that the defect would become a pretext invoked by claimants of falsehood, such as Pharaoh, his soldiers, and those whom he belittled, claiming that they were more entitled than Moses, that they were upon the truth, and that Moses (a)-far be it from him-was false: ‘Pharaoh called out among his people, saying, “O my people, does not the dominion of Egypt belong to me, with these rivers flowing beneath me? Do you not see? Am I not better than this contemptible one who can scarcely express himself? Why then have bracelets of gold not been cast upon him, or why have angels not come accompanying him?” Thus he belittled his people and they obeyed him; indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people’ (^[52]). Notice that Pharaoh’s discourse is religious and scarcely differs from the discourse of the scholars of misguidance today. He says: ‘O my people, does not the dominion of Egypt belong to me, with these rivers flowing beneath me? Do you not see?’ That is, he says to his people: Look, Allah has granted me victory, established me in ruling Egypt, and eased the affairs of rule for me. If Moses (a) were the truth, Allah would have established him and eased them for him. This is the first religious fallacy of Pharaoh and the scholars of misguidance in every age. ‘I am better than this contemptible one who can scarcely express himself’: Pharaoh says that Moses (a) can scarcely express himself. If he were with Allah, Glorious and Exalted, Allah would have completely corrected his tongue and no defect in speech would have remained. The result, therefore, is that Pharaoh considers himself better because he is more capable of expression and there is no defect in his tongue. This is the second fallacy. The scholars of misguidance and those who beat the drum for them today have followed it, as though Pharaoh were their Imam and teacher; they scarcely depart from his words and actions. ‘Why then have bracelets of gold not been cast upon him, or why have angels not come accompanying him?’ Pharaoh said-and the scholars of misguidance and those who follow them today are with him and share his statement-that the one Allah sends and the one Imam al-Mahdi sends must be enriched and supplied with every power: financial power and miraculous power by which he compels us to believe. Do you notice the verse clearly, and how Pharaoh said thousands of years ago a statement repeated in exactly the same way by the scholars of misguidance today: ‘Why then have bracelets of gold not been cast upon him, or why have angels not come accompanying him?’ Its meaning is: Let him bring something outside the ordinary; let him bring us a miracle; let him prove through a clear and overpowering miracle that Allah is with him and that the angels are with him. They want to be compelled to believe. A staff turning into a serpent does not benefit them, because many people other than Moses do this. If those people are sorcerers, then he is a sorcerer; if he overcomes them, then he is their chief and more skillful than they are, but he can never be a messenger from Allah. Nor does a white hand indicating the purity of Moses (a) benefit them. How could it benefit them? Had it benefited them, they would not have needed it. Was the purity and cleanliness of Moses’s heart (a) hidden from them when they had associated with and known him before he was sent and after he was sent? Nor does a Nile turning red benefit them. They can easily argue that this is a natural matter: the Nile was colored with blood as a result of bloody battles that occurred along its course before it reached them. They simply say, ‘What does Moses (a) have to do with this matter?’ The result is that whoever wants to deny explains anything through anything. They preferred blindness and misguidance over sight and guidance. Pharaoh and the scholars of misguidance therefore do not need much; a few words suffice. It is enough for Pharaoh to say that Moses (a) has a defect in communicating speech and that Moses (a) did not bring a clear and unambiguous miracle. Pharaoh and the scholars of misguidance then find most people following them, with unparalleled stupidity, as they always do, unfortunately. ‘Thus he belittled his people and they obeyed him; indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people.’ What bitter belittlement it was, causing Ali (a) to say that he felt its bitterness embedded like a blade in his mouth: ‘and a bone in the throat’ (^[53]). It is indeed a bitter matter: you find Allah, Glorious and Exalted, exposing the Pharaohs and the scholars of misguidance before all witnesses and making their falsehood clear through their own hands, actions, contradictions, deviant conduct, pursuit of desires, and pursuit of this world. Despite all this, the people follow them and offer flimsy excuses for their conduct, statements, and deviant behavior that distorts the religious law. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I counsel you and the believers to treat your spouses and families well-may Allah grant you success. Good treatment of a believing wife eases affairs toward that which contains the good of the Hereafter and this world, increases provision, and wards off poverty and evil. I ask Allah for the good of the Hereafter and this world for you and for harmony among you. May Allah grant you success in every good. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. Ahmed Alhasan Rabi al-Awwal 1431 AH