A Key to Wisdom - Ta'wīl of Istirjā`: Qālū innā li'llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji`ūn
Ta'wīl of Istirjā`: Qālū innā li'llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji`ūn
Tags: inna li'llahi wa-inna ilayhi raji`un, Darkness
Hazrat Hakīm Pīr Nāsir-i Khusraw says in his Wajh-i Dīn, when physical calamities and difficulties befall people in their physical state, it is necessary to recite this verse, in which God says: "Who, when misfortune befalls them, say: verily, we are Allah's, and verily to Him we are going to return." (2:156). The Arabs compare difficult tasks with the darkness of night, because there is no task more difficult than the one in which they cannot find the way to come out of it, and that is darkness. Darkness is of two kinds: physical and spiritual. The cause of physical darkness is the night which the sun can illumine, because it is the physical sun which can illumine physical darkness and remove physical obstacles. But spiritual darkness is ignorance and difficult questions related to the intelligibles. In order to remove this kind of darkness, the light comes from God through the Asās. After the Asās, the sun for the inner eye (in spiritual darkness) is the Imam of the time, through whom such difficult knots are untied. When someone faces physical darkness (misfortune), it is incumbent upon him to submit to the Divine will and be content with what has been decreed for him and say: "Verily, we are Allah's and verily we are going to return to Him." That is, we belong to God and we have accepted what He has ordered and we return to Him if we receive any physical calamity from these difficulties and die of them. And according to ta'wīl, when a mu'min faces a problem in the intelligibles which he cannot solve, it is incumbent upon him to recite these words in the sense that our souls belong to the Lord of the age, because we have received spiritual life from him and the recourse in difficulties is also to him. He should know that he cannot come out of this problem and that the knowledge of it is with the Lord of the age, so that the door of spiritual blessings may open for him, he may understand these difficulties, and one of the hudūd-i dīn may open that door for him. If those difficulties befall one of the hudūd-i dīn, he should seek the māddah (that soul which uses the atom) of ta'yīd (spiritual help) from the Lord of the time, so that he will be able to strive and that hidden (point) will be revealed to him. If it does not open, he should know that it is due to his own weakness and affirm that people should have recourse to the one who knows the solution of their spiritual difficulties. This is a satisfactory explanation for a mu'min.
Wa's-salām.
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