Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi
(Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa – Lahore)
Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq
Lahore – Pakistan
Friday Sermon – 19th May, 2023
Sermon 1 : Allah is aware of affairs deep in heart
I invite you all, myself and emphasize you to acquire Taqwa in your lives and make your lives in accordance with Taqwa. It is the plan for divine protection from Allah for human life and all its aspects. This security scheme is as vast as human life. In Surah Maida Allah has given the method of protecting your life by Taqwa.
وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَمِيثَاقَهُ الَّذِي وَاثَقَكُمْ بِهِ إِذْ قُلْتُمْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ {7}
And remember the favor of Allah on you and His covenant with which He bound you firmly, when you said: We have heard and we obey, and acquire Taqwa of Allah, surely Allah knows what is in the breasts.
The first point is to remember all the bounties granted by Allah to you and second remembrance is about the covenant which Allah has taken on obedience on what has been told to you. The tense used in the verse is past where it says we have heard and we obey but this literal use which means it is for future. In Arabic also the language law applies on what you have to do in future you say consider it done or has been done. Such a strong covenant has been done with Allah and has been reminded to live your lives in accordance with this covenant. Now you are asked to acquire Taqwa means protect your covenant which you have done. If you break your covenant then this is neither Taqwa, nor faith or religion. Meesaq means a very strong covenant which means has to be delivered. The one who breaks covenant is Ghadr and someone who does Meesaq which means ascertains that it is done then he has done a bigger Ghadr. The Ghadr means to break covenant (Ahad) and one who breaks Meesaq is leader amongst traitors and the punishment is also much severe. Then the verse says that Allah is aware and has knowledge about the essence of your heart.
Allah is aware of every action of man whether done in privacy or publicly. Amirul Momineen (a) says that you should refrain from sins in privacy where you feel that no one is observing you because there is someone who is watching you. In public there are some people who are looking at us and they condemn , humiliate us and they can only do this much because they are not judge to give us punishment. The people don’t even do Amr Bil Maroof and Nahy Anal Munkar which is obligatory duty and this has been forsaken by entire Ummah including scholars. We have become believers without actions and responsibilities. We see evil and wrong things happening in front of our eyes and pass by closing our eyes. We are afraid to give any admonishment that he would mind it. And everyone would mind it and only a saint of Allah would be thankful to you if you point out their mistakes. We are worshippers of our ego and self; hence we mind everything negative spoken about to us. Even small things on our face if someone points us we mind that. And due to this fear we don’t do Amr bil Maroof. In tradition it is mentioned that worst person is one from whose evils people are afraid. We are believers and still afraid of people. We should be grateful to someone if he points our mistakes as he is our real true friend. We do not develop courage to do Amr Bil Maroof, because we are so afraid of the person doing wrong that we do not interfere. Due to this the essential duty of Amr Bil Maroof has been forsaken. We have to stop the nations and do Amr Bil Maroof in front of tyrant and corrupt rulers. We can’t even stop our colleague from evil so how will stop rulers? Instead we try to achieve proximity with corrupt people.
In privacy people don’t see us but Allah sees us. Ali (a) says one who is observing you in privacy is also the judge and witness who is going to punish you as well. Then whatever you think and is present in your hearts. At times we express our thinking and certain things we never express to people. The things that are on our tongues and those present in our hearts, the intentions are all known to Allah. Then there is one more reality beyond this presented in this verse. It is not just that Allah has knowledge of something that is present in heart but can come on tongue. But Allah has knowledge of essence of heart. This essence of heart are those things which man cannot even bring on his tongue even if he wants to us. The Zaat us Sudoor means something that is the essence or possessed by heart. There are things whose containers are only heart which cannot come on tongue and neither can be seen in actions and Allah is aware about this. At times we confess that the feelings I have in my heart I cannot express specifically the emotions. We cannot express every emotion, feeling because they are only for the heart and can never come on tongue. Allah has knowledge of even those things which are concealed deep in heart.
The Zaat us Sudoor are those affairs which are only meant for heart and man cannot express them in any possible way. Allah says you have to deliver the covenant which you made with Allah. And that Ahad was that you have heard and obeyed on it. It is like you have heard that Friday prayer is obligatory to attend but you do not obey then you are not believer. Allah is asking us to protect these affairs by Taqwa because Allah knows what is deep in the essence of your heart. Allah does not gets deceived by what you express from your tongues. We can deceive people but not Allah. Whether we are loyal to our covenants or not is known to Allah. We all claim that we do not break our covenant because Allah has knowledge of every affair.
SECOND SERMON
Sermon 2: No knowledge is better than thinking
In saying number 113, Imam Ali presents a beautiful system for believers.
وقال عليه السلام : لاَ مَالَ أَعْوَدُ مِنَ الْعَقْلِ، وَلاَ وَحْدَةَ أَوْحَشُ مِنَ الْعُجْب، وَلاَ عَقْلَ كَالتَّدْبِيرِ، وَلاَ كَرَمَ كَالتَّقْوَى، وَلاَ قَرين كَحُسنِ الخُلْقِ، وَلاَ مِيرَاثَ كَالاْدَبِ، وَلاَ قَائِدَ كَالتَّوْفِيقِ، وَلاَ تِجَارَةَ كَالْعَمَلِ الصَّالِحِ، وَلاَ رِبْحَ كَالثَّوَابِ، وَلاَ وَرَعَ كالْوُقُوفِ عِنْدَ الشُّبْهَةِ، وَلاَ زُهْدَ كَالزُّهْدِ فِي الْحَرَامِ، ولاَ عِلْمَ كَالتَّفَكُّرِ، وَلاَ عِبَادَةَ كَأَدَاءِ الْفَرائِضِ، وَلاَ إِيمَانَ كَالْحَيَاءِ وَالصَّبْرِ، وَلاَ حَسَبَ كَالتَّوَاضُعِ، وَلاَ شَرَفَ كَالْعِلْمِ، وَلاَ مُظَاهَرَةَ أَوْثَقُ مِن مُشَاوَرَةٍ
113. Amir al-mu’minin, peace be upon him, said: No wealth is more profitable than wisdom, no loneliness is more estranging than vanity, no wisdom is as good as tact, no honor is like Taqwa, no companion is like the goodness of moral character, no inheritance is like civility, no guide is like promptitude, no trade is like virtuous acts, no profit is like Divine reward, no self- control is like inaction in time of doubt, no abstention is like that (which is) from prohibitions, no knowledge is like thinking, no worship is like the discharge of obligation, no belief is like modesty and endurance, no attainment is like humility, no honor is like knowledge, no power is like forbearance, and no support is more reliable than consultation.
ولاَ عِلْمَ كَالتَّفَكُّرِ
No knowledge is like thinking
There is no knowledge better than Tafakkur which means to ponder, know the cause, consider its consequence, outcome, understanding the wisdom, philosophy behind this order. Allah has invited man to ponder, think in various verses and has condemned those who do not think. The first thing which Allah has kept in the creation of man that differentiates man from animals and other creations is Aql which is only meant for thinking and to understand affairs. Allah has first given Aql and then religion has been sent to man. The prophets were aroused later and addressee was the Aql of man. The function of Aql is to think and not to do Taqlid. As taqlid can be done without Aql as well because that is blind following like flock that is do what others are do. Since others are doing we are also doing the same this is Taqlid. The sheep do better Taqlid then man. The flocks do not even question whom we are following, where they are going. The sheep has to follow the sheep in front. Man has not been created to follow like this. He has been given Aql, power to think and understand. This reality has been given to man and then the content for thinking has been given. The animals are not created for thinking, they only graze, eating and lust. They do it with full strength. But practically we can see man has taken over animals in both eating and lust. There are certain people who only do these things. The machinery given to animals are only these two for eating and reproduction. The other things are not meant for animals. The Humanity is established with Tafakkur. If he cannot do Tafakkur then humanity is lacking. The lower the humanity the lower is his Tafakkur. Maulana says you are only thinking and rest all present inside you is flesh, fat , intestines, skin, bones which are all present in animals as well. The level of thinking present inside you is the gauge for your humanity.
To abandon thinking is a crime which people have done. When man had time to think then also he did not do, but now that task is as well taken away. The Artificial intelligence today is all about this only that computer has to think. The computer system has taken over man tasks from man like in the beginning they were facilitating man to do things. Now computer is becoming successor of man. Now man is facilitating computer. The Artificial Intelligence is made as a system but still not that vast which will happen soon. It won’t take much time to take control of human being. Those who have made this are also confused as to what is happening. The one who made Kalashnikov also regretted on why he made this weapon which was used to kill human being. In Artificial Intelligence man would not think but now computer will think for you. In the past computer would do whatever you have entered. Now the computer will answer your question based on thinking. It will establish decision based on data, carry out research and suggest you what you have to do. This has started in a limited way. The GPT chat has started and people are taking benefits from this. They have done dangerous things through this Artificial Intelligence. Like it will say how to kill a certain person. How to make poison from the things present with you. This calamity is coming now from Artificial intelligence but man had already abandoned this ability of thinking present inside them. Today the corrupt rulers in our nation is because 250 million people do not think. They do not see corruption, causes, objectives of these rulers. They just look at others like flock of sheep and others start to walk behind them. You can see what has happened recently in the country. There cannot be a worse humiliation of man that his ability of thinking ahs been taken away from him. We have been only told to good things and these good people who do not think, whatever religion, mischiefs, self-carved , illogical things in the name of religion are told to them they accept it. They are given misguidance under the name of politics and they accept it. And then we have given evidences for not thinking. We say one who does not think will get salvation.
The thinking is best worship. One moment of thinking is better than one thousand hours of ritual worship. This is the foundation presented by Quran and Amirul Momineen (a) in this wise saying says that no knowledge is better than worship. One knowledge is like parrot where you memorize information and when you do it to full you become scholar. The knowledge is light when it comes the heart becomes enlightened. If there is only information and terminology then that does not enlighten. The soul of knowledge, worship is Tafakkur. The gem of human being is Tafakkur and it’s value is in accordance with thinking. We should think in everything. We can think about the essence of Allah the most, think about the universe, think about hereafter, its start, end and its masterpiece. Allah has made parrots already so there is no need for you to become parrots. Allah has made Khalifa and planner of the world. The secrets of everything is in thinking and you should think in everything, ponder over it and get contented. The parrot does not think, but only memorizes. If you read one word with Tafakkur it is better than reading 1000 books. We can see the destruction in our country in the name of politics and religion is due to lack of thinking. If thinking develops then this nation can change. We will narrate few traditions about this.
