45. " and seek you help (from
allah) through patience and prayer;
and most surely it is a hard thing, save upon the humble,"
46. " those who bear in mind the certainty that they will meet their
lord and that verily unto him shall they return."
commentary :
to enable man to overcome his latent low
desires and to clean his
mind from the love of position and rank, the qur'an says:
" and seek
you help (from allah) through patience and prayer;
and most surely it is a hard thing, save upon the humble,"
how to overcome difficulties
to overcome difficulties and solve
problems demands two
fundamental principles. the first principle is a strong inner will, and
the second one is a firm outward refuge. these two principles are
referred to in the above verse as ` patience ' and ` prayer '. patience,
here, has been rendered into ` fasting ' and ` perseverance ' during
difficulties while prayer is a connection with allah and a means of
communication with this helpful refuge.
about the term /sabr/ `patience',one of the commentary books 1
says that it is a natural phenomena well-known to every enlightened
one that bodily mortification is to some extent necessary in disciplining
the human ego accommodated in the physical framework, to lighten it
by liberating it from the clutches of the desires and passions of the
material world otherwise it would sink deeply into its own devious
personal interest. this is essential to elevate it unto the heights of the
spiritual realms. a religion merely consisting of some mere formal
rituals and the offering of chanting or the recitation of some verbal
prayers or charms without the demand on the individual for the
practical control of the animal-self in him can hardly be worth anything.
the truth endowed or the spiritual strength one gets through
overcoming his selfish passions, is by itself a very vast subject to be
dealt with in the brief notes meant to explain the particular aspects of
the wordings of the divine
verses here. however, an islamic tradition says that imam sadiq (a.s.)
was once asked about the meaning of the word /sabr/ `patience ',
mentioned in this verse, when he said: " patience means fasting." 2
again, commenting on this verse, the leading commentators have
cited that whenever any difficulty confronted the prophet of islam
(p.b.u.h.), he used to resort to ` fasting ' and ` prayers ' to be helped
with. 3( 47) also, hadrat ali (a.s.) did the same. 4
it is also narrated from imam sadiq (a.s.) who has said: " it does
not matter that when one of you is involved in a grief out of the griefs
of the
world, you would make ablution and enter a mosque. then, you would
recite a prayer and offer a petition therein to allah, because i know he
has
commanded: ` and seek you help (from allah) through patience and
prayer'." 5
yes, verily prayer connects man to an everlasting power, to
allah, for whom all the hard problems and complicated difficulties
are easy. this very feeling causes man to be calm, powerful, and
steadfast against misadventures.
and with prayer, ö what else can ever be imaginably more
effective or successful than any individual in his helplessness
approaching the all-merciful, almighty through prayers for help ?
in the verse following the above one, the
holy qur'an introduces
the humble ones, thus :
" those who
bear in mind the certainty that they will meet their lord
and that verily unto him shall they return."
so, it is narrated from amir-ul
mu'mineen ali (a.s.) who has said
that one of the characteristics of the humble ones who are the same as
the believers, is knowledge and certainty about their meeting with
allah which will take place in the hereafter. 6
what is ` meeting with
allah ' ?
the idea of ` meeting with allah ' has
been mentioned
repeatedly in the qur'an where it totally means ` presence in the
hereafter '. it is obvious that the purpose of ` meeting with the lord '
is not a physical meeting like the meeting of people with each other
face to face. we also know that allah is not a bodily substance to
have colour or place, or to be seen with the eyes. then, as some
commentators have said, the purpose of the phrase may be the
observation of the effects of his power in the scene of the hereafter,
such as: his bounties, rewards, and punishments.
or, it means an esoteric intuition in the heart or soul, because,
sometimes, man reaches a point that he sees the lord in front of him
by his heart's eye, and in that case no doubt will continue for him.
this state may come to being for some people in this world as a
result of piety, worship, and purification of the carnal soul. the
following explanation, cited in nahjul balaqah, attests to the idea:
one of the companions of amir-ul mu'mineen ali (a.s.), di`lib
al-yamani, who was a learned man, once asked him (a.s.) whether ali
(a.s.) had seen allah, his lord, when he (a.s.) replied: " do i worship
the one whom i have not seen? " then the man asked him to explain it
more and ali (a.s.) added: " eyes do not see him face to face, but hearts
(souls) perceive him through the (light of) realities of faith. ..."
7
however, in the hereafter, all human beings will attain this
esoteric intuition, since, therein, the effects of the glory and power of
allah will be so manifested that none can deny them, and all will have
a decisive faith in everything.