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THE PURPOSE OF AFFIRMING FAITH IN ' KALIMA TAYYIBA'
Brethren-in-Islam!
I have explained to you the meaning of Kalima Tayyiba in
my two previous lectures. Today I shall discuss the question as to what benefit accrues
from affirmation of faith in the Kalima and why this affirmation is necessary.
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You know this fact that whatever work a man does he has a purpose or
some benefit in view. He never does anything which is purposeless or useless. You drink
water because it quenches your thirst. If after drinking water your condition remains the
same as before, you will never drink it because this will be quite futile. Why do you take
food? Simply because you want to satisfy your hunger and you get strength to live. If the
result of taking food and that of not eating anything were to be the same, then you will
naturally feel that this is a useless pursuit. Why do you take medicine when you are ill?
Just because you should get rid of the disease and regain health. But if after taking the
medicine you remain as before, you will say that treatment is a useless thing. Why do you
work so hard while cultivating land? So that crops, fruits and vegetables may be produced.
But if nothing grows from the earth after sowing the seeds, you will never exert yourself
so much to plough the field, to sow the seed and water the ground. In short, whatever work
you undertake in this world, it always has an object in view. If the object is achieved,
you say it was a good work and if no purpose is served you say it was bad.
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Please keep this point in mind and answer my
questions one by one. The first and foremost question is : Why is the Kalima
recited? You can give no other answer to it than this that its purpose is to
draw a line between a Kafir and a Muslim. Now I ask : What is the
meaning of this difference? Does it mean that if a Kafir
has two eyes, a Muslim will have four? or if a Kafir has one head, a
Muslim will have two? You will say: no, it does not mean that; it means that
there should be difference between the end-result of a Muslim's life and Kafir's
life. The end-result of a Kafir is that he is deprived of God's mercy in
the Hereafter and is a total wretch, while that, of a Muslim is that he gains
the pleasure of God and is honoured in the Hereafter.
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I shall say that this answer of yours is perfectly correct. But tell me
what is the Hereafter? What is the meaning of being a failure in the Hereafter? What
does it mean to be successful and honoured there? Until this point is made clear I cannot
proceed further.
You need not give an answer to the question. Its answer has already
been given: ( Ad-Dunya Mazra'atul Akhirah ) ( The world is the cultivating
ground of the Hereafter ).
This means that the world and the Hereafter are not two separate things
but a continuous process whose beginning is the world and the end, Hereafter. The relation
between the two is the same as between cultivation and crop. You plough the land, then sow
the seeds, then irrigate, then look after the field till such time as the crop is ready.
Then after reaping it you feed yourself with it comfortably throughout the year. You will
naturally reap whatever you have cultivated in the land. If you sow wheat, only wheat will
grow. If thorns are sown, only thorns will grow. If nothing is sown, nothing will grow.
Whatever mistakes and errors are committed by you in the course of ploughing, sowing,
irrigating and looking after the field, their cumulative effect will be noticed by you at
the time of reaping the crop. But if you have carried out all the necessary things
properly without any mistake, you will see its benefit also at the time of reaping. This
is exactly the position in respect of this world and the Hereafter. The world is like a
ground for tillage. Man has been sent into this field for the purpose of raising a crop
for himself with his own efforts and hard work. He has been allotted time to do this task
from birth till death. Whatever type of crop he has grown during this period, he will reap
the same crop in his next life beyond the grave, and the produce will be his mainstay for
his life in the Hereafter. If anyone has grown good fruit in the field of this world
throughout his life and has nourished it with abundant water and proper supervision, he
will find at the very first step into the next life the fruit of his labour ready in the
shape of a blooming garden. There he will not be required to do any hard work because he
will live happily on the fruits of the garden he has cultivated after strenuous labour
throughout his life in this world. This is called Paradise and the state of gratification
in the Hereafter. In contrast to this, whoever in this worldly life sows thorns and grows
bitter and poisonous plants, he will reap the crop of these kinds in the next life. He
will not get there a chance to compensate for this folly and grow a good crop again after
burning the previous bad one. He will then have per force to sustain himself in his next
life on the bad crop which he had grown in his worldly life. He will have to lie on that
bed of thorns which he had grown. This is what is meant by loss and failure in the
Hereafter.
The elucidation of the meaning of the Hereafter I have made is
supported by the Hadith and Qur'an. This shows that failure or a success of a
man in the life after death and his ending being good or bad, are in fact the result of
his knowledge and deeds being correct or incorrect in his worldly life.
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Having understood the above theme, this point becomes automatically
clear that the difference between the sequel of a Muslim and a Kafir does not arise
without cogent reasons. In fact, the difference accruing at the end is the outcome of the
difference which existed in the beginning. Unless there is a difference between the
knowledge and practice of a Muslim and a Kafir in this world, there cannot be
variance between the ultimate states of these two in the Hereafter. It is in no way
possible that the knowledge and practice of a person be the same as that of a Kafir
and yet he may escape the doom that is destines for a Kafir in the Hereafter.
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Now the same question arises again as to what is the purpose of
reciting the Kalima? You had first given the answer that the purpose is to
differentiate between the end-results of a Kafir and a Muslim. Now having heard the
elucidation of the meaning of the ultimate result and of the Hereafter, you will have to
reconsider your answer. Now you will have to say that the purpose of reciting the Kalima
is to reform man's knowledge and deeds so that his ultimate position becomes good in the
Hereafter. This Kalima teaches man to lay that garden, the fruits of which he has
to pluck in the Hereafter. If a man does not believe in the Kalima how can he lay
that garden and from where will he pluck the fruits in the Hereafter? And if a man utters
the Kalima just from his mouth but his knowledge remains the same as of one who has
not uttered it, and, his deeds too remain the same as those of a Kafir, then you
would say that it is futile to recite the Kalima in this manner. There is no reason
why the end-result of such a person should be different from that of Kafir. After
all he has not obliged God by merely muttering the Kalima. How, then can he expect
that he may neither learn the method of laying a garden nor actually he may have not laid
it and have, instead, sown thorns all his life, and yet he will get in the next world a
flourishing garden with flowers and fruits. As I have explained to you giving several
examples, it is futile and meaningless to undertake a work whose execution and
non-execution both produce identical results. That medicine is not a medicine at all if a
patient's condition remains the same even after using it. Exactly like this, if a Kalima
reciter's knowledge and deeds remain the same as those of a non-reciter of Kalima,
such a recital is utterly meaningless. When no difference exists between the lives of a Kafir
and a Muslim in this world, how can there be a difference between their lives in the
Hereafter?
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Now the question arises as to what is that knowledge which Kalima
Tayyiba imparts to a person? Also what difference takes place between the deeds of
a Muslim and a Kafir after acquiring this knowledge?
The first thing that you learn from this Kalima is that you are
a slave of Allah and no one else's slave. Having come to know this fact you automatically
understand that you must act in this world according to the will of that Being Whose slave
you are because if you act contrary to His will, it will tantamount to revolt against
your
Master.
After learning this, the second knowledge you get from the Kalima
is that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the messenger of Allah. Having learnt this, the
point becomes simultaneously clear by itself that you have to lay a garden, as he has
taught you, to grow flowers and fruits in the field of this world instead of thorns and
poisonous plants. If you follow his system, you will reap a good crop in the Hereafter.
And if you act against his system, you will grow thorns in this world and reap thorns only
in the Hereafter.
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On acquiring this knowledge it is essential that your deeds should be
in conformity with it. If you believe that you have to die one day, that after death there
is another life and in that life you will have to sustain yourself on that crop only which
you had raised in this world before leaving it, then it is impossible for you to deviate
from the path shown by the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and take to any other system.
Why do you cultivate fields in this world? Simply because you are sure that no crop will
grow without cultivating it and without crop there will be death from starvation. Had you
not been sure of this and had you thought that crop could grow without cultivating it, or
that you can satisfy hunger even without cereals, you would have never done all this
labour to cultivate the fields. Thus you may judge your position on this basis. A person
who verbally asserts that he acknowledges God as his Master and the Holy Prophet as God's
messenger, and also believes in life-after-death, but his deeds are against Qur'anic
teaching and Holy Prophet's Sunnah, he is verily of a weak faith. Just as he is certain of
bad results if no cultivation is done in his field, in the same way if he were equally
sure of bad results by not growing the crop for the Hereafter, he will never be negligent
in this respect. Nobody knowingly sows thorns for himself. Only that person does it who
does not believe that what he is sowing will produce thorns and that these thorns will
cause him harm. You never lift embers with your hand knowingly because you are certain
that they will burn it. But a child puts his hand in the fire because he is unaware of the
result.
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