A010
Surah: 048 - Ayah: 010
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48:10
Where there is the mention of the blessed Hand of God in the Qur'an, it is meant the blessed hand mentioned in the verse of bayat (48:10). A mumin should not forget this Divine law that when God attributing some magnificent thing to His Holy essence says that "this thing is mine", then that thing becomes ever-lasting and imperishable and never disappears from the world, such as the Book of God (the Qur'an), the Rope of God, the Light of God, the House of God (Kabah), the Religion of God (Islam), the Symbols of God, the Signs of God in the physical and the spiritual worlds, etc. Then how Is it possible that the Hand of God (yad Allah) may sometimes exist and sometimes not exist7 This bright proof strengthens our certainty more and more that the true successor of the Prophet (I.e. the Imam of the time) has the status of being the Hand of God.
My azizan! as has been mentioned in the beginning, the Wise Qur'an has given true mu'mins the rank of living shahids, and this means that when, by the command of God, bayat is taken from mu'mins (48:10), it is in the sense that God has bought their souls and their wealth in return for Paradise (9:111). If they are happy with this contract and have the zeal to sacrifice their souls, then they are given the rank of shahids. Thus every mu'min should know that the virtue of sacrificing life and wealth in the service of religion is the same shahadat of the shahids and the rank of shahid is conspicuous and clear in the Qur'an.
Dear friends! Have you ever reflected properly on the verse (48:10), regarding bayat (oath of allegiance)? Is it true that, in religious matters, the hand of the Holy Prophet used to represent the hand of God? Yes, it is true that the Holy Prophet, in his time, was the beloved messenger and vicegerent of God, therefore, his pure speech and act represented the speech and act of God, for as it is said: "And he does not speak of (his carnal) desire" (53:3). Also it is said: "And you did not throw when you threw, but God threw" (8:17). These wisdom- filled Qur'anic teachings strengthen the certainty that the special acts of the Prophets and Imams, may peace be on them, are from God.
Perpetual presence of the Perfect Intellect as God's Proof on the earth:
The necessity of the presence of God's Proof on the earth has been discussed earlier in the context of the upbringing of the innate intellects. Nasir states this very emphatically in his Diwdn. In fact his personal quest begins when he becomes aware of this need, therefore it is pertinent to quote it here. He says:
Yak ruz bikhwandam zi Quran ayat-i bayat
Kizid ba-Qur'an guft ki bud dast-i man az bar
One day I read in the Qur'an the verse of bayat (Qur'an, 48:10)In which God says: "My hand is above (their hands)".
An qawm ki dar zir-i shajar bayat kardand Chun Jafar-u Miqdad-u chu Salman-u chu Bu Dharr Those companions who had done bayat under the tree, The likes of ]afar, Miqdad, Salman and Abu Dharr.
Guftam ki kunun an shajar-u dast chigunast An dast kuja juyam-u an baycat-u mahdar I asked: 'Whereof that tree? That hand on which to pledge?
Where should I seek that hand, that bayat and that group?'
Guftand dar anja nah shajar mand-u nah an dast Kan dast paraganda shud an jam mubattar They replied: The tree no longer exists, nor that hand, For that group has now dispersed and that hand disappeared,
Anhd hama ydrdn-i rasuland-u bihishti Makhsus badan bayat-u az khalq mukhayyar All of them are the companions of the Prophet in Paradise,
Singled out by that bayat and chosen from among the people'.
Guft am ki ba- Qur 'an dar paydast ki Ahmad Bashir-u nadhirast-u sirajast munawwar\\
I said: 'It is clear in the Qur'an that Ahmad is a Bearer of glad tidings, a warner and a luminous lamp' (Quran 33:45-46).
Gar khwahad kushtan ba-dahan kafir u ra Rawshan kunadash Izid bar kama-yi kafar Even if unbelievers intend to extinguish it with their mouths,
God will keep it shining despite their intention (Qur'an, 9:32).
Chunast ki imruz namandast azan qawm Juzhaqq nabuwad qawl-i jahan-dawar-i akbar How is it that today no one is left from that group?
Is the speech of God, the Supreme Ruler of the world,other than the truth?
Ma dast-i ki girim-u kuja bayat-i Yazdan Ta hamchu muqaddam bidihad ddd-i mu'akhkhar Whose hand should we take and where is God's bayat?
That He may treat the later ones as justly as the earlier?
Majurm chi kardim nazadtm badan waqt Mahrum chiralm zi paygham-bar-u mudtarr What sin did we commit that we were not born at that time?
Why are we deprived of the Prophet and distressed?
Wisdom of the Hand of Allah (Yadu'llah)
Q. 100. This is the last question and perhaps the most important one, which is: What is the ta'wil of the "Hand of Allah"? What does it allude to say that mulk (67:1) malakut (36:82) and khayr (3:26) are in the Hand of Allah? Do all things exist in the Guarded Tablet (6:56) or do they exist in the Manifest Imam (36:12)? Is not everything encompassed in a Book (70:29)?
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A. The ta'wil of the Hand of Allah is the Divine power, authority, control, disposal, i.e. to give and take, to use things for oneself and for others, to gather, provide and keep things ready, etc. The most comprehensive ta'wil of the Hand of Allah is the exalted Prophet and the pure Imam. Therefore, all the ta'wlls of the Hand of Allah are related to these holy personalities, since to do bayat (oath of allegiance) on their blessed hand, is to do bayat on the Hand of Allah (48:10).
The meaning of mulk (sovereignty), malakut (spirituality) and khayr (good) being in Allah's Hand, is that they are in the custody of the Prophet of Islam and the true Imam, for these two Supreme Angels in human form are the Hands of Allah as well as His treasures (15:21).
The Guarded Tablet, the Manifest Imam and the Book are all the same reality. Thus all things are gathered in one place and that is the place of spirituality, which holds the status of the blessed Hand of Allah. That is the holy light of Muhammad and *Ali, in which there is everything, the mulk, as well as the malakut.
Praises be to Allah for His favours!
Wajh Allah (Face of God)
According to verse (48:10), if it is true that the hand of God can be represented, then it is also true that His face can be represented, as Mawla cAli has said: "I am the face of God in the heavens and the earth", as it is said in verse (28:88): "Everything is perishable except His face." (Kawkab, p. 206). The face of Allah, His vision and His recognition, all these attributes are the attributes of the exalted Imam.
Yad Allah (Hand of God)
Reflect upon the verse of the oath of allegiance (bay'ah) and try to grasp the universal wisdom of it, which is verse (48:10): “(O Prophet!) Those who give bay'ah to you, they give bay'ah to God, God’s hand is above their hands.” Here it is clear that the hand of the representative of God is in fact the hand of God. It is not an analogy and conjecture, it is God Himself Who says this.
For true Baycat, the presence of the Prophet or the Imam of the Time is necessary
“Inna’lladhina yubayicunaka innama yubayicuna’llaha yadu’llahi fawqa aydihim, fa-man nakatha fa-innama yankuthu cala nafsihi, wa-man awfa bi-ma cahada calayhu’llaha fasayu’tihi ajran cazima = Verily those who give baycat (oath of allegiance) to you (O Prophet), they verily give baycat to Allah. Allah’s Hand is on their hands. So whoever breaks his baycat, does so to his own soul’s loss, and whoever fulfils his covenant with Allah, He will soon grant him immense reward” (48:10).
The word baycat is derived from bayc, which literally means ‘buying and selling’. Technically, it means mu’mins making a covenant with God, through the Prophet or his successor, that in order to attain the pleasure of God and salvation, they are pleased and ready to offer any kind of sacrifice of life and wealth. Further, in order to truly obey God, the Prophet and the ulu’l-amr, they [are pleased and ready to] abandon unlawful desires. This is the meaning of baycat in the verses mentioned in the Qur’an: (48:10,18; 60:12).
Here it is essential to mention the fact that, with respect to the Prophet’s expediency and choice, there are two kinds of commands in the holy Qur’an. One kind of commands is, those that God issued out of His own will or out of the desire of the Prophet and then they were acted upon. The other kind of commands is those which were alluded to by God or that the Prophet acted upon out of his choice according to the expediency of time, then God endorsed those acts through revelation. Baycat-i ridwan (baycat of happiness) is one such act, in which, on the occasion of the treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 6 A.H., the Prophet took baycat from fourteen hundred companions and which was endorsed by God later on in the two verses of the surah of Fath (48:10, 18).
Thus, to act upon the true baycat and its conditions is a final test of Islam (surrender) and Iman (true faith) and for which the presence of the Prophet of God or the Imam of the time is necessary. For, in order to take baycat from mu’mins there must be someone present in the world whose baycat amounts to God’s baycat, and his blessed hand represents God’s Hand with respect to his personality, so that mu’mins will always remember their covenant. That is, they remember that they have given baycat to God and in His presence they have made the covenant of true obedience.
Q307 Part of the verse of baycat (48:10) is: “(O Prophet!) Verily those who give baycat (oath of allegiance) to you, indeed, give baycat to Allah, Allah’s hand is above their hands.” Please explain its essential wisdom to us.
A307
- If baycat to the holy Prophet is baycat to Allah and his hand is Allah’s hand, how is it possible to doubt the presence of the khalifah of Allah on the earth?
- If in one time people attain the supreme bliss by doing baycat to the khalifah of Allah, how is it possible that people in other ages should be deprived of it?
- The holy Prophet has rightly said: (a) “He who did my didar, did Allah’s didar.” (b) “He who saw me in a dream, saw Allah”; (c) “He who saw me in spirituality and luminosity, saw Allah”.
This verse has been referred 17 times.