SELF-PURIFICATION - THE CHIEF GOAL OF DIVINE MESSENGERS
The book Self Building states: “The greatest aim of Divine Messengers was to emphasize the importance of refinement, purification, and training of human selves. God-Almighty said in the Holy Quran:
God did confer a great favour on the believers when he sent among them an apostle from among themselves rehearsing unto them the signs of God, sanctifying them and instructing them in scripture and wisdom, while before that, they had been in manifest error.
Quran 13-164
[See how the Quran too has cognized the importance of God’s Apostle (Mohammad) and the signs of God (signs of God means the manifest proofs who are the Devatas or Ahlulbayt.]
Therefore, it is obvious that the subject of human education and training was of such vital importance that God-Almighty sent Divine Messengers especially for this purpose thus conferring a great favour upon the believers. The individual as well as collective personality, prosperity or cruelty (of this world and Hereafter) of a human being depends upon how much efforts he had already made or is still making for self-building. It is from this consideration that self-building is regarded something of such vital importance because it determines ones eventual destiny.
The Divine Messengers came to teach human beings regarding the path of self-building, nourishment and perfection of self, as well as to accompany them as their guide and helper in this vital and determinant task.
They came for cleansing and sanctifying human selves from their indecent moral characteristics and animal instincts, and bestowing upon them superior spiritual virtues. The prophets lectured human beings about the self-building program, acted as helper and knowledgeable guides in identifying the ugliness in their moral conducts, and showed them the ways and means for self-control against their selfish whims and passions. By timely issuance of warning and intimidating they succeeded in sanctifying the human selves from the moral obscenities and indecencies. They came for plantation of sapling of higher moral virtues within human souls, nurtured and protected it for its eventual blooming, and in doing so acted as guides, friends, and helpers of the people by encouraging and pursuing them towards the desired sublime objectives. Prophet Mohammad has said:
I emphasize the importance of good morals for you because God-Almighty has sent me especially for this purpose.
Bihar al-Anwar vol. 69, p-375
He further said:
I was appointed for the Prophethood so that I may accomplish the important task of moral perfection within human souls.
Al Mustadarak, vol. 2, p-282
Jafar al-Sadiq, the eighth Ahlulbayt, said:
God-Almighty appointed prophets with good morals; therefore, whoever discovers these virtues within himself should be thankful to God for his bounty; whoever lacks these virtues must pray, cry, and shed tears before God Almighty asking for such blessings.
Al Mustadarak, vol. 2, p-283)
Ali, the chief of Imams (Adityas) said:
Supposedly, if neither there was any desire for Paradise nor there was any fear of Hell, and also there would have not been any belief about the reward and punishment in the Next World; even then it would have been befitting to strive for moral perfection, because, good morals are the path towards prosperity and victory.
Al Mustadarak, vol. 2, p-283)
Mohammad al-Baqar, the seventh Ahlulbayt, said:
The most perfect believers from the point of view of faith are the ones who excel in moral conduct.
Al-Kafi, vol. 2, p-99
Prophet Mohammad said:
There is nothing better than good moral conduct which could be written on the “Letter of Deeds”, on the Day of Resurrection.
Al-Kafi, vol. 2, p-99
And said:
My Ummah will enter into Paradise mostly on the basis of piety and excellence in moral conduct.
Al-Kafi, vol. 2, p-100
And see the following narration:
A man approached the Holy Prophet and asked:
‘What is religion?’ The Holy Prophet replied: ‘Good moral conduct.’ The man asked the same questions from the Holy Prophet alternatively by appearing from right, left, and behind the Messenger. Finally the Holy Prophet took a deep look at him and said: ‘Why don’t you understand?’ Religion is defined as never to get angry.’
Mohajateh al-Baizah, vol. 5, p-89
[We are sure that after reading these statements you will agree that Buddha alone was not the person who emphasized on moral conduct, as is portrayed by a lot many Buddhists. Rama is known as maryada-purushottama, Krishna conveyed the same teachings all through his life, so did Jesus, and Mohammad and the rest of Ahlulbayt only took these teachings to greater heights.]
Islam has attached special importance for moral ethics, and because of these considerations the Holy Quran contains relatively more verses regarding ethics as compared to verses related to obligations. Inside the books of narrations, one may find thousands of narrations regarding ethics as compared to narrations dealing with any other topic; if this number is not regarded greater in quantity, certainly it is not smaller either. The rewards and promises mentioned for good moral deeds are certainly not lesser than the rewards prescribed for other actions, and likewise the warnings and punishments described for indecent moral actions are certainly not less than the punishments for other actions.
Therefore, in Islam, ethics constitute the basics and should not be treated simply as secondary religious obligations or something related to the beautification and decoration of religious persons. If religion has defined dos and don’ts for obligations, it has defined the same for ethics. If encouragement, persuasion, rewards, punishment and warnings have been utilized for obligations, the same approach has been applied for ethics as well. Therefore, there exists no difference between ethics and obligations as far as religious recommendations are concerned, and in order to achieve perfection and prosperity one cannot remain ignorant of ethical matters.
The moral obligations cannot be ignored by taking the excuse of treating them simply as moral obligations, likewise forbidden moral acts should not be performed either. If performance of daily-prayers is compulsory and their non-performance is prohibited and brings Divine Punishment, equally important is the fulfilment of a promise and its breach is prohibited and brings Divine-Wrath. The real religious and prosperous is someone who is committed to his religious obligation as well as is honest in fulfilment of his moral commitments. On the contrary ethics play an important role for achieving prosperity and spiritual perfection. [We request you not to look at your next-door neighbour, if he happens to be a Muslim, upon reading all this; Satan seems to have worked overtime on them.]
God says in the Holy Quran:
Verily, we have honoured the children of Adam. We carry them on the land and the sea, and have made provision of good things for them, and have preferred them above many of those whom we created with a marked preferment.
Quran, 17:285
Therefore, if a human being should strive for self-building he must build his human-self and not his animal or physical-self. The aims of prophets had been to strengthen the human beings in their endeavours for perfecting their human selves. Prophet Mohammad said to the human beings:
Don’t forget that your self is your human-self; in case you sacrificed your human-self for the sake of whims and passions of your animal-self; you will inflict upon yourself a terrible loss.
The God-Almighty has said in the Holy Quran:
Say: the losers will be those who lose themselves and their house folk on the Day of Resurrection. Ah, that will be the manifest loss.
Quran, 39:15
Those who never think about anything except their animal existence have indeed lost their human personality and are not striving for their recovery either. Imam Ali said:
It is indeed strange to see someone so desperately looking for lost personal things, while making absolutely no efforts to find his lost (human) self.
There cannot be more severe and painful loss than someone losing his human personality and real self; for such a person nothing is left except animalism.”
It is imperative that the path to moral perfection is treaded on the lines shown by the Devatas/Ahlulbayt, who have been created as intermediaries between man and God. Devatas/Ahlulbayt owing to their coming in human body and connection with the self inside us are connected with humanity and owing to their Noor state are connected above.
No comments:
Post a Comment