In this sermon he recalls the creation of
the Earth and the Sky and the birth of Adam. Praise is due to Allah whose
worth cannot be described by speakers, whose
bounties cannot be counted by calculators and whose
claim (to obedience) cannot be satisfied by those
who attempt to do so, whom the height of
intellectual courage cannot appreciate, and the
divings of understanding cannot reach; He for whose
description no limit has been laid down, no eulogy
exists, no time is ordained and no duration is
fixed. He brought forth creation through His
Omnipotence, dispersed winds through His Compassion,
and made firm the shaking earth with rocks. The foremost in religion is
the acknowledgement of Him, the perfection of
acknowledging Him is to testify Him, the perfection
of testifying Him is to believe in His Oneness, the
perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard
Him Pure, and the perfection of His purity is to
deny Him attributes, because every attribute is a
proof that it is different from that to which it is
attributed and everything to which something is
attributed is different from the attribute. Thus
whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognises His
like, and who recognises His like regards Him two;
and who regards Him two recognises parts for Him;
and who recognises parts for Him mistook Him; and
who mistook Him pointed at Him; and who pointed at
Him admitted limitations for Him; and who admitted
limitations for Him numbered Him. Whoever said in what is He,
held that He is contained; and whoever said on what
is He held He is not on something else. He is a
Being but not through phenomenon of coming into
being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is
with everything but not in physical nearness. He is
different from everything but not in physical
separation. He acts but without connotation of
movements and instruments. He sees even when there
is none to be looked at from among His creation. He
is only One, such that there is none with whom He
may keep company or whom He may miss in his absence. He initiated creation most
initially and commenced it originally, without
undergoing reflection, without making use of any
experiment, without innovating any movement, and
without experiencing any aspiration of mind. He
allotted all things their times, put together their
variations gave them their properties, and
determined their features knowing them before
creating them, realising fully their limits and
confines and appreciating their propensities and
intricacies. When Almighty created the
openings of atmosphere, expanse of firmament and
strata of winds, He flowed into it water whose waves
were stormy and whose surges leapt one over the
other. He loaded it on dashing wind and breaking
typhoons, ordered them to shed it back (as rain),
gave the wind control over the vigour of the rain,
and acquainted it with its limitations. The wind
blew under it while water flowed furiously over it. Then Almighty created forth
wind and made its movement sterile, perpetuated its
position, intensified its motion and spread it far
and wide. Then He ordered the wind to raise up deep
waters and to intensify the waves of the oceans. So
the wind churned it like the churning of curd and
pushed it fiercely into the firmament throwing its
front position on the rear and the stationary on the
flowing till its level was raised and the surface
was full of foam. Then Almighty raised the foam on
to the open wind and vast firmament and made there
from the seven skies and made the lower one as a
stationary surge and the upper one as protective
ceiling and a high edifice without any pole to
support it or nail to hold it together. Then He
decorated them with stars and the light of meteors
and hung in it the shining sun and effulgent moon
under the revolving sky, moving ceiling and rotating
firmament. Then He created the openings
between high skies and filled them with all classes
of His angels. Some of them are in prostration and
do not kneel up. Others in kneeling position and do
not stand up. Some of them are in array and do not
leave their position. Others are extolling Allah and
do not get tired. The sleep of the eye or the slip
of wit or languor of the body or the effect of
forgetfulness does not affect them. Among them are those who work
as trusted bearers of His message, those who serve
as speaking tongues for His prophets and those who
carry to and fro His orders and injunctions. Among
them are the protectors of His creatures and guards
of the doors of the gardens of Paradise. Among them
are those also whose steps are fixed on earth but
their necks are protruding into the skies, their
limbs are getting out on all sides, their shoulders
are in accord with the columns of the Divine Throne,
their eyes are downcast before it, they have spread
down their wings under it and they have rendered
between themselves and all else curtains of honour
and screens of power. They do not think of their
Creator through image, do not impute to Him
attributes of the created, do not confine Him within
abodes and do not point at Him through
illustrations. Allah collected from hard,
soft, sweet and sour earth, clay which He dripped in
water till it got pure, and kneaded it with moisture
till it became gluey. From it He carved an image
with curves, joints, limbs and segments. He
solidified it till it dried up for a fixed time and
a known duration. Then He blew into it out of His
Spirit whereupon it took the pattern of a human
being with mind that governs him, intelligence which
he makes use of, limbs that serve him, organs that
change his position, sagacity that differentiates
between truth and untruth, tastes and smells,
colours and species. He is a mixture of clays of
different colours, cohesive materials, divergent
contradictories and differing properties like heat,
cold, softness and hardness. Then Allah asked the angels
to fulfil His promise with them and to accomplish
the pledge of His injunction to them by
acknowledging Him through prostration to Him and
submission to His honoured position. So Allah said: "Be
prostrate towards Adam and they prostrated except
Iblis (Satan)."
(Quran, 2:34; 7:11; 17:61; 18:50; 20:116) Self-importance withheld him
and vice overcame him. So that he took pride in his
own creation with fire and treated contemptuously
the creation of clay. So Allah allowed him time in
order to let him fully deserve His wrath, and to
complete (man's) test and to fulfil the promise (to
Satan) . Thus, He said: "Verily
you have been allowed time till the known Day.”
(Quran, 15:38) Thereafter, Allah inhabited
Adam (pbuh.) in a house where He made his life
pleasant and his stay safe, and He cautioned him of
Iblis and his enmity. Then his enemy (Iblis) envied
his abiding in Paradise and his contacts with the
virtuous. So he changed his conviction into wavering
and determination into weakness. He thus converted
his happiness into fear and his prestige into shame.
Then Allah offered to Adam (pbuh) the chance to
repent, taught him words of His Mercy, promised him
return to His Paradise and sent him down to the
place of trial and procreation of progeny. From his progeny Allah chose
prophets and took their pledge for his revelation
and for carrying His message as their trust. In
course of time many people perverted Allah's trust
with them and ignored His position and took compeers
along with Him. Satan turned them away from knowing
Him and kept them aloof from His worship. Then Allah
sent His Messengers and series of His prophets
towards them to get them to fulfil the pledges of
His creation, to recall to them His bounties, to
exhort them by preaching, to unveil before them the
hidden virtues of wisdom and show them the signs of
His Omnipotence namely the sky which is raised over
them, the earth that is placed beneath them, means
of living that sustain them, deaths that make them
die, ailments that turn them old and incidents that
successively betake them. Allah never allowed His
creation to remain without a Prophet deputised by
Him, or a book sent down from Him or a binding
argument or a standing plea. These Messengers were
such that they did not feel little because of
smallness of their number or of largeness of the
number of their falsifiers. Among them was either a
predecessor who would name the one to follow or the
follower who had been introduced by the predecessor. In this way ages passed by
and times rolled on, fathers passed away while sons
took their places till Allah deputised Muhammad
(peace be upon him ) as His Prophet, in fulfilment
of His promise and in completion of His Prophethood.
His pledge had been taken from the Prophets, his
traits of character were well reputed and his birth
was honourable. The people of the earth at this time
were divided in different parties, their aims were
separate and ways were diverse. They either likened
Allah with His creation or twisted His Names or
turned to else than Him. Through Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)
Allah guided them out of wrong and with his efforts
took them out of ignorance. Then Allah chose for
Muhammad, peace be upon him and on his progeny, to
meet Him, selected him for His own nearness,
regarded him too dignified to remain in this world
and decided to remove him from this place of trial.
So He drew him towards Himself with honour. Allah
may shower His blessing on him, and his progeny. But the Prophet left among
you the same which other Prophets left among their
peoples, because Prophets do not leave them untended
(in dark) without a clear path and a standing
ensign, namely the Book of your Creator clarifying
its permission and prohibitions, its obligations and
discretion, its repealing injunctions and the
repealed ones, its permissible matters and
compulsory ones, its particulars and the general
ones, its lessons and illustrations, its long and
the short ones, its clear and obscure ones,
detailing its abbreviations and clarifying its
obscurities. In it there are some verses
whose knowledge is obligatory and others whose
ignorance by the people is permissible. It also
contains what appears to be obligatory according to
the Book but its repeal is signified by the
Prophet's action or that which appears compulsory
according to the Prophet's action but the Book
allows not following it. Or there are those which
are obligatory in a given time but not so after that
time. Its prohibitions also differ. Some are major
regarding which there exists the threat of fire and
others are minor for which there are prospects of
forgiveness. There are also those of which a small
portion is also acceptable but they are capable of
being expanded. Allah has made obligatory
upon you the pilgrimage to His sacred House which is
the turning point for the people who go to it as
beasts or pigeons go towards spring water. Allah the
glorified made it a sign of their supplication
before His Greatness and their acknowledgement of
His Dignity. He selected from among His creation
those who on listening to His call responded to it
and testified His word. They stood in the position
of His Prophets and resembled His angels who
surround the Divine Throne securing all the benefits
of performing His worship and hastening towards His
promised forgiveness. Allah the glorified made it
(His sacred House) an emblem for Islam and an object
of respect for those who turn to it. He made
obligatory its pilgrimage and laid down its claim
for which He held you responsible to discharge it.
Thus, Allah the glorified said: ".
. .And (purely) for Allah, is incumbent upon
mankind, the pilgrimage to the House, for those who
can afford to journey thither. And whoever denied
then verily, Allah is Self-sufficiently independent
of the worlds"
(Quran, 3:96).
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