A024
Surah: 008 - Ayah: 024
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8:24
Wisdom 22: God says in verse (8:24): "O you who believe! Respond to Allah and to His Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you (real) life (yuhyikum)". Yuhyikum literally means "it will revive you", as though in a sense you were dead. But the question is: Dead with respect to which soul, since we have the rational soul? The answer is that we have not yet received the soul which is in the Perfect Man.
In the Holy Qur'an, the importance, necessity, virtue and loftiness of the true knowledge is abundantly mentioned. Further, in the Holy Qur'an, by commanding to know the higher realities, it is established that the climax of knowledge can be reached, see for instance: "And know that Allah comes in between the man and his own heart, and that He it is unto Whom you will be gathered." (8:24). This wisdom-filled concept has shown that his heart is separate from his body and by this heart is meant, not the physical heart which is a lump of flesh, but the real heart which is the Holy and Pure Imam. The Holy Imam is the real heart and the higher I (ana-i ulwi)' of the mumin, which has to be attained, if not today, then tomorrow.
The word "qalb (heart)" which is used for the Imam in the above-mentioned verse has many meanings, such as heart, intellect, soul, the centre of an army, kernel, marrow, the purest or choicest part, essence, pith, core, noble, changing and turning. And all these meanings befit the Holy Imam. For the Imam is the intellect and soul of the entire universe; he is the real intellect and soul of every mumin; he is the centre of the array of God and quintessence of everything, he is noble from every aspect and he is travelling throughout the universe by the juththah-i ibda, or the subtle body. Therefore, one of his ta'wilic names is the 'qalb (changing, turning)'.
Mustajib: This word is derived from the root of jim, waw, ba'. It literally means "the one who responds", "the one who accepts" and technically it means "the one who has accepted the Ismaili dawat\ That is, the one who belongs to the initial stage of the Ismaili Tariqah, whether born in this faith or has come into it from outside, for as the Holy Qur'an says: "O you who believe! Respond to Allah and to His Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you (spiritual) life." (8:24).
Imam is the Heart of the Mu'mins:
God says: "And know that Allah comes in between man and his heart." (8:24). That is, God keeps the Imam who is the heart and centre of man and humanity, in the veil of the secrets of marifat (recognition), so that his marifat may be the greatest trial and its reward the greatest favour.
According to Nasir and other Ismaili dais, such knowledge is not confined to the Prophet and the Imam, but is granted to other people as well. However, this is conditional on ita'a (obedience and submission) or istijaaba (responding) to the dawa. He explains that when minerals submit to plants they attain the vegetative soul, when vegetative souls submit to animals they attain the animal soul and when the latter submit to human beings they attain a rational soul. Similarly, when human beings submit to the Prophet and his successors and accept their dawa, they attain the Holy or Divine Spirit. He quotes the Quranic verse (8:24) to substantiate this: "O you who believe! Respond (istajibu) to God and the Messenger when he invites you (da'dkum) unto that which will give you life (yuhyikum)". It is this real and higher life that enables one to be born twice and to enter the kingdom of heaven (malakut al-sama'). Nasir, alluding to his second birth and his witnessing the kingdom of heaven, writes:
Gar man darln saray nablnam daran saray
Imruz ja-yi khwlsh chi bayad basar mard
If in this world I cannot see
What my place in that world is
What use have I of sight?
Further, he says:
Khirad ra ba-iman-u hikmat biparwar Ki farzand-i
khwud ra chunin guft Luqman Chujdnat qawi shud
ba-iman-u hikmat Biyamuzi angah zabanha-yi
murghan Biguyand ba tu haman mur-u murghan Ki
guftand azin pishtar ba Sulayman
Nurture the intellect with faith and wisdom
For as the Prophet Luqman told his so
When your soul is fortified by faith and wisdom
You will learn the languages of the birds
The ants and birds will tell you
What they once told Solomon!
Although each and every verse of the Glorious Quraan is full of the rubies and pearls of heavenly knowledge and wisdom, yet let us see one extremely amazing secret which is related to the supreme treasure of human grandeur. In this blessed and holy verse, first it is said that mu’mins should accept the special da’wat (call, conversation) so that they may revived in the spiritual life. Then they have to know in the light of knowledge and recognition how god comes between man and his hearth for the sake of trail. Where is the real hearth? Where it and what is is its status? All these secrets will be unveiled only when a mu’min recognizes his Lord in his personal world. It should be remembered that by this heart is meant the Imam of the time, who is the higher “I” of mu’min as well.(8:24)
Qalb (Heart)
According to the great wisdom hidden in verse (8:24), the heart means the Imam, i.e. Hazrat qa’im (a.s.), who is the heart of every mu’min man and mu’min woman.
Mustajib: This word is derived from the root of jim, waw, ba'. It literally means "the one who responds", "the one who accepts" and technically it means "the one who has accepted the Ismaili da'wat". That is, the one who belongs to the initial stage of the Ismaili Tariqah, whether born in this faith or has come into it from outside, for as the Holy Qur'an says: "O you who believe! Respond to Allah and to His Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you (spiritual) life." (8:24).
The microcosm is also called the personal world. Thus potentially you are a world. If you accept the real spirit of Islam (8:24), you save your personal world from the death of ignorance and by Divine ta'yid you bring it to life from potentiality to actuality. The example of this feat is as though someone rescued the entire people of the world from an atomic destruction. Why is this feat so important and so great? It is so, because of the fact that the people of the entire world live in the personal world. It is in this sense that Qabil assassinated and destroyed the inner world with all the people of the entire world of Habil, who was a personal world.
In the same book, Pir Nasir says that by obeying the Prophet and the Imam, true mu'mins can also be revived in the Holy Spirit and he substantiate this with verse (8:24): "O you who believe! the da'wat (call) of Allah and the messenger when he calls you to that which revives you."
It is said: "The heart of the mu’min is the Throne of God". However, it is necessary to ask and know what the real meaning of this saying is. Because the word "mu’min" is applicable to many people, but the concept of the Divine Throne is very high. You should understand that the heart of the mu’min is the Imam of the time and it is this holy personality in which the Divine light shines, for as the Wise Qur’an says: "And know that Allah comes in between the man and his heart" (8:24). That is, in the light of true knowledge, you should know the law of trial: Why does God come between man and his heart (i.e. the Imam of the time)? Indeed the wisdom-filled allusion and the secret of success in this is that one should have recourse to God with his true heart. He should return to Him and further go where his heart is. This shows that in reality, the Jamacat-khanah of the heart is also the Imam of the time. And I have no success except by God (11:88).
In the Noble Qur’an wherever it is commanded to do something, it applies to all lower as well as higher ranks. For instance, it is commanded in 27 different verses: "And know ( wa’clamu)!" This does not mean that one should continue to acquire knowledge only in this world, but to become attached to it in the hereafter also, for it is said: "And know that Allah comes between man and his heart, and that to Him you shall be gathered." (8:24). The purpose of this command is that the knowledge concerning human essence must be acquired completely and perfectly so that the secret of how God comes between man and his heart is known. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds!
This verse has been referred 11 times.