Sermon 220                                                  				 				Delivered after reciting the verse: . . . therein declare glory  unto Him in the mornings and the evenings; Men whom neither merchandise  nor any sale diverteth from the remembrance of Allah and constancy in  prayer and paying the poor-rate; they fear the day when the hearts and  eyes shall writhe of the anguish. (Qur'an, 24:36-37) 
 
 Certainly,  Allah, the Glorified, the Sublime, has made His remembrance the light  for hearts which hear with its help despite deafness, see with its help  despite blindness and become submissive with its help despite  unruliness.    In all the periods and times when there were no prophets, there have  been persons with whom Allah, precious are His bounties, whispered  through their wits and spoke through their minds. With the help of the  bright awakening of their ears, eyes and hearts they keep reminding  others of the remembrance of the days of Allah and making others feel  fear for Him like guide-points in wildernesses. Whoever adopts the  middle way, they praise his ways and give him the tidings of  deliverance, but whoever goes right and left they vilify his ways and  frighten him with ruin. In this way, they served as lamps in these  darknesses and guides through these doubts.    There are some people devoted to the remembrance (of Allah) who have  adopted it in place of worldly matters so that commerce or trade does  not turn them away from it. They pass their life in it. They speak into  the ears of neglectful persons warning against matters held unlawful by  Allah, they order them to practise justice and themselves keep  practising it, and they refrain them from the unlawful and themselves  refrain from it. It is as though they have finished the journey of this  world towards the next world and have beheld what lies beyond it.  Consequently, they have become acquainted with all that befell them in  the interstice during their long stay therein, and the Day of Judgement  fulfils its promises for them. Therefore, they removed the curtain from  these things for the people of the world, till it was as though they  were seeing what people did not see and were hearing what people did not  hear.    If you picture them in your mind in their admirable positions and  well-known sittings, when they have opened the records of their actions  and are prepared to render an account of themselves in respect of the  small as well as the big things they were ordered to do but they failed  to do, or were ordered to refrain from but they indulged therein, and  they realised the weight of their burden (of bad acts) on their backs,  and they felt too weak to bear them, then they wept bitterly and spoke  to each other wile still crying and bewailing to Allah in repentance and  acknowledgement (of their shortcomings), you would find them to be  emblems of guidance and lamps in darkness, angels would be surrounding  them, peace would be descending upon them, the doors of the sky would be  opened for them and positions of honour would be assigned to them in  the place of which Allah had informed them. Therefore, He has  appreciated their actions and praised their position.They call Him and  breathe in the air of forgiveness, they are ever needy of His bounty and  remain humble before His greatness, the length of their grief has  pained their hearts, and the length of weeping their eves. They knock at  every door of inclination towards Allah. They ask Him Whom generosity  does not make destitute and from Whom those who approach Him do not get  disappointed.    Therefore, take account of yourself for your own sake because the  account of others will be taken by one other than you.  	 			  
 |