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Fruit of Paradise - The Wisdom of Hadith

The Wisdom of Hadith

Tags: Walayat, Knowledge, Light, Certainty, Imam Ja`far as-Sadiq

It is related that Hazrat Imam Ja`far as-Sadiq said that someone once came to the Holy Prophet and asked the Prophet to pray for him so that God would admit him to Paradise. The Holy Prophet told him: Look! I will pray for you, but you should help me with an abundance of prostrations. From this Hadith we can see not only the virtue of abundant prostrations, but also that even the highest prayer is conditional on action by a believing servant and that without this intercession is not possible. It is said in verse (53:26): “And how many angels there are in the heavens whose intercession avails not save after Allah gives leave to whosoever He wills and chooses.” There is a clear allusion in this Divine teaching that it is in the nature and part of the characteristics of angels to pray for people of the earth, but their prayers are accepted only for those people who have the requisite knowledge and action.
It is related from the same Imam that the Holy Prophet said: The first stage of knowledge is silence, the second is to listen attentively, the third is to act upon it and the fourth is to spread it. The exoteric aspect of this Hadith needs no explanation because it is perfectly clear. What can be learnt about the ta'wil (esoteric aspect) of this Hadith from the way of life of the Holy Prophet? The answer is that by silence is meant the result of worship and remembrance, which is in the form of self-effacement and annihilation, an excellent example of which is found in the early life of the Prophet. In the first stage of knowledge, the Prophet performed abundant `ibadat which created such a state of silence in his heart that apart from the sound of the Supreme Names of God, all other sounds were silenced. The purpose of this example is to explain that if there are insinuations, imagination or other thoughts during remembrance, then even though one may be silent externally, in reality this is not so. Thus, to obtain the silence of the heart one should follow the example of the Prophet and seek the help of Divine remembrance.
On one occasion the Holy Prophet said: “Indeed, `Ali is from me, and I am from `Ali.” Hidden in this Hadith are many wisdoms some of which are:
1. The light of walayat (Imamat) manifests itself from the light of nubuwwat (Prophethood), and the light of the Prophet merges into the light of the wali (Imam).
2. By the command of God, the Holy Prophet appointed Mawla `Ali the Imam of all Muslims and Mawla `Ali, as the gate of knowledge and wisdom, made them aware of the light of the Holy Prophet.
3. At the place of tanzil the Natiq introduced the Asas physically, and at the place of ta'wil the Asas taught the spiritual recognition of the Natiq.
It is related that the Prophet said: “I enjoin upon those of you who have faith in God and in me and have declared me to be truthful, the walayat of the Commander of the Faithful, `Ali bin `Abi Talib. For, truly, devotion to him is devotion to me, a command my Lord has given me and a covenant which He has made with me and has ordered me to convey to you from Himself.” The greatest wisdom in this luminous teaching of the Holy Prophet is that belief in God and the Prophet is the first stage of religion, that affirmation of the Prophethood and Messengership is the second stage, and that affirmation of the walayat of Mawla `Ali is the third stage. Another wisdom is that the word “walayat” has many meanings, and a third wisdom is that God took a covenant from the Holy Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, about the walayat of Mawla `Ali. This point is so important and useful that it is only by understanding this that many of the secrets of the Wise Qur'an are revealed. For instance, it says in verse (33:7): “And when We took a covenant from the Prophets and from you (O Muhammad) and from Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa and `Isa, son of Maryam, We took from them a solemn covenant.” A sound Hadith is the logical and intellectual interpretation of Qur'anic verses and so it is clear that the above Hadith is an explanation of this Qur'anic verse, and that God took a covenant from all the Prophets that they should make people aware of His command about the Imamat.
It is narrated from Imam `Ali that he said: “Acquire knowledge before it is taken away. Listen to me! I do not say it will be taken away in this way and he lifted his hand - but it is possible that there is a learned man in a tribe and that he dies, and his knowledge departs with him. And there is another learned man in the tribe, and he dies, and his knowledge departs with him ...”.
It is related from the Holy Prophet that he said: “God does not seize knowledge from the people by snatching it from them. He takes it by taking the learned ones ...”.

It is thus clear from the above that knowledge does not go into the earth (with the body of the learned) but that God grasps it in His hand. It ascends unto Him on a throne which is made of good deeds, for as God says: “Unto Him the good word (knowledge) ascends and the good deed exalts it.” (35:10).
It is reported by Mawla `Ali that the Holy Prophet said: “The position of my ahl-i bayt among you is like the Ark of Nuh, whoever embarks upon it is saved and whoever lags behind is drowned.” The Holy Prophet has also said: “Acquire knowledge from the learned man (`alim) of my ahl-i bayt, or from one who has acquired knowledge from the `alim of my ahl-i bayt, so that you may be saved from the fire (of Hell).” By both the Ark of Nuh and the `alim of ahl-i bayt is meant the Imam of the time, who has been appointed by God and the Prophet to protect people from the flood or the fire of ignorance. It is because of this, that in all the Qur'anic parables the more true knowledge is praised, the more ignorance is condemned.
It is a well known historical event (Ghadir Khumm) that the Holy Prophet addressing the companions said: “O people! Know that `Ali is to me like Harun was to Musa, except that after me there will be no other Prophets. And he is your wali after me. Thus he whose Mawla I am, `Ali is his Mawla”. Then he raised his hands and prayed: “O Allah! Befriend him who befriends him and be an enemy to him who is his enemy, and help him who helps him, and forsake him who forsakes him and turn the truth with him wherever he turns.” This Hadith of the Holy Prophet is extremely important from many aspects: It is not only full of the fundamental realities of religion but also full of sublime wisdoms. Firstly, referring to the Divine law and the Qur'an, he indicates to that most important point that the inheritance of the Heavenly Book and the vicegerency of the Holy Prophet is not a new event but a continuation of the Divine law from the very beginning. The only difference being that there will be no further Prophets after the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a.s.), who was the last of the Prophets. In the Holy Qur'an, God has considered the appointment of the True Guide as His law (sunnat) and it is such that there cannot be any change in its spirit or essence. It is completely clear from this Hadith that Messengership and Prophethood end after the Holy Prophet but that walayat and Imamat continue. This Hadith proclaims in the language of wisdom that the presence of Mawla and Imam is always necessary. For it is not possible for the possessor of exalted behaviour (68:4) to pray to Allah for Mawla `Ali in this way if it had been contrary in any way to Divine law or the law of religion. Therefore the Holy Prophet recited this most beautiful prayer of Islam for the sake of the proper interpretation of religion and prayed that Allah should love all those who love His mazhar (the person through whom He manifests Himself). In this concept the Holy Prophet has revealed the greatest treasure of knowledge and wisdom.
The Holy Prophet said: “Knowledge is a light which He places in the heart of he whom He wills from among His servants.” This attribute belongs firstly to the Prophets and the Imams and then according to the capacity of obedience to them it can be attained by mu'mins also. Knowledge is light and light is in the form of knowledge. Thus wherever knowledge is mentioned in the Qur'an, it is a mention of light and vice versa.

The exoteric definition of light is that which makes hidden things visible and itself is visible as light, such as the sun. But this definition is not complete for there is another aspect to it. For instance, the light of dawn spreads without the sun having risen and does not disappear when the sun is hidden behind clouds. This means that light is both hidden and manifest and both visible and invisible. Similarly, the light of knowledge has two forms, the visible and the invisible. And there is knowledge in both of them.
Although light is one in the supreme fountainhead, it has many forms which come under the two classifications of visible and invisible. It is clear from this prayer of Imam Ja`far as-Sadiq that light applies to every sense both external and internal: “O Allah! Make for me a light in my heart, a light in my ear, a light in my eye, a light in my tongue, a light in my hair and a light in my skin, a light in my flesh and a light in my blood, a light in my bones and a light in my nerves, a light in front of me and a light behind me, a light from the right side of me and a light from the left side of me, a light from above me and a light from below me.” From this blessed saying it is clear that the Perfect Man is light from head to toe and is a complete specimen of Divine power and in whom although essentially the light is one, it appears in different forms to guide each of the external and internal senses, as it is evident from the above prayer.
It has been reported from the Imams of the ahl-i bayt that the Holy Prophet said: “There is no action without intention, and no worship without certainty, and no nobility without piety (taqwa).” What has been said about intention is clear to everyone but it is not possible for everyone to know the difference between worship with certainty (recognition) and worship without it. It should be known that certainty is a synonym of recognition or ma`rifat and the meanings of certainty from a Qur'anic point of view are very sublime, such as the knowledge of certainty, the eye of certainty and the truth of certainty. This means that the first place of acceptable worship is the knowledge of certainty, the second is the eye of certainty and the third is that of the truth of certainty. And these are all ranks of the recognition of God or ma`rifat.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds!

Note: All the Ahadith used in this article are from the first volume of Da`a'imu'l-Islam.

A humble slave of the holy and pure Imam,
Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai,
12th November, 1984.

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