Praise is due to Allah whose worth cannot be
described by speakers, whose bounties cannot be
counted by calculators and whose claim (to
obedience) cannot be satisfied by those who attempt
to do so, whom the height of intellectual courage
cannot appreciate, and the diving’s of understanding
cannot reach; He for whose description no limit has
been laid down, no eulogy exists, no time is
ordained and no duration is fixed. He brought forth
creation through His Omnipotence, dispersed winds
through His Compassion, and made firm the shaking
earth with rocks.
The foremost in religion is the acknowledgement of
Him, the perfection of acknowledging Him is to
testify Him, the perfection of testifying Him is to
believe in His Oneness, the perfection of believing
in His Oneness is to regard Him Pure, and the
perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes,
because every attribute is a proof that it is
different from that to which it is attributed and
everything to which something is attributed is
different from the attribute. Thus whoever attaches
attributes to Allah recognizes His like, and who
recognizes His like regards Him two; and who regards
Him two recognizes parts for Him; and who recognizes
parts for Him mistook Him; and who mistook Him
pointed at Him; and who pointed at Him admitted
limitations for Him; and who admitted limitations
for Him numbered Him.
Whoever said in what is He, held that He is
contained; and whoever said on what is He held He is
not on something else. He is a Being but not through
phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not
from non-existence. He is with everything but not in
physical nearness. He is different from everything
but not in physical separation. He acts but without
connotation of movements and instruments. He sees
even when there is none to be looked at from among
His creation. He is only One, such that there is
none with whom He may keep company or whom He may
miss in his absence.
The Creation of the Universe
He initiated creation most initially and commenced
it originally, without undergoing reflection,
without making use of any experiment, without
innovating any movement, and without experiencing
any aspiration of mind. He allotted all things their
times, put together their variations gave them their
properties, and determined their features knowing
them before creating them, realizing fully their
limits and confines and appreciating their
propensities and intricacies.
When Almighty created the openings of atmosphere,
expanse of firmament and strata of winds, He flowed
into it water whose waves were stormy and whose
surges leapt one over the other. He loaded it on
dashing wind and breaking typhoons, ordered them to
shed it back (as rain), gave the wind control over
the vigor of the rain, and acquainted it with its
limitations. The wind blew under it while water
flowed furiously over it.
Then Almighty created forth wind and made its
movement sterile, perpetuated its position,
intensified its motion and spread it far and wide.
Then He ordered the wind to raise up deep waters and
to intensify the waves of the oceans. So the wind
churned it like the churning of curd and pushed it
fiercely into the firmament throwing its front
position on the rear and the stationary on the
flowing till its level was raised and the surface
was full of foam. Then Almighty raised the foam on
to the open wind and vast firmament and made there
from the seven skies and made the lower one as a
stationary surge and the upper one as protective
ceiling and a high edifice without any pole to
support it or nail to hold it together. Then He
decorated them with stars and the light of meteors
and hung in it the shining sun and effulgent moon
under the revolving sky, moving ceiling and rotating
firmament.
The Creation of the Angels
Then He created the openings between high skies and
filled them with all classes of His angels. Some of
them are in prostration and do not kneel up.
Others in kneeling position and do not stand up.
Some of them are in array and do not leave their
position. Others are extolling Allah and do not get
tired. The sleep of the eye or the slip of wit, or
languor of the body or the effect of forgetfulness
does not effect them.
Among them are those who work as trusted bearers of
His message, those who serve as speaking tongues for
His prophets and those who carry to and fro His
orders and injunctions. Among them are the
protectors of His creatures and guards of the doors
of the gardens of Paradise. Among them are those
also whose steps are fixed on earth but their necks
are protruding into the skies, their limbs are
getting out on all sides, their shoulders are in
accord with the columns of the Divine Throne, their
eyes are downcast before it, they have spread down
their wings under it and they have rendered between
themselves and all else curtains of honor and
screens of power. They do not think of their Creator
through image, do not impute to Him attributes of
the created, do not confine Him within abodes and do
not point at Him through
illustrations.
Description of the Creation of Adam
Allah collected from hard, soft, sweet and sour
earth, clay which He dripped in water till it got
pure, and kneaded it with moisture till it became
gluey.
From it He carved an image with curves, joints,
limbs and segments. He
solidified it till it dried up for a fixed time and
a known duration. Then He blew into it out of His
Spirit whereupon it took the pattern of a human
being with mind that governs him, intelligence which
he makes use of, limbs that serve him, organs that
change his position, sagacity that differentiates
between truth and untruth, tastes and smells, colors
and species. He is a mixture of clays of different
colors, cohesive materials, divergent
contradictories and differing properties like heat,
cold, softness and hardness.
Then Allah asked the angels to fulfill His promise
with them and to accomplish the pledge of His
injunction to them by acknowledging Him through
prostration to Him and submission to His honored
position. So Allah said:
"Be prostrate towards Adam and they prostrated
except Iblis (Satan)."
(Qur'an, 2:34; 7:11; 17:61; 18:50; 20:116)
Self-importance withheld him and vice overcame him.
So that he took pride in his own creation with fire
and treated contemptuously the creation of clay.
So Allah allowed him time in order to let him fully
deserve His wrath, and to complete (man's) test and
to fulfill the promise (He had made to Satan). Thus,
He said:
"Verily you have been allowed time till the known
Day." (Qur'an, 15:38;
38:81) Thereafter, Allah inhabited Adam (p.b.u.h.)
in a house where He made his life pleasant and his
stay safe, and He cautioned him of Iblis and his
enmity. Then his enemy (Iblis) envied his abiding in
Paradise and his contacts with the virtuous. So he
changed his conviction into wavering and
determination into weakness. He thus converted his
happiness into fear and his prestige into shame.
Then Allah offered to Adam (p.b.u.h.) the chance to
repent, taught him words of His Mercy, promised him
return to His Paradise and sent him down to the
place of trial and procreation of progeny.
Allah chooses His Prophets
From his (Adam's) progeny Allah chose prophets and
took their pledge for his revelation and for
carrying His message as their trust. In course of
time many people perverted Allah's trust with them
and ignored His position and took compeers along
with Him. Satan turned them away from knowing Him
and kept them aloof from His worship. Then Allah
sent His Messengers and series of His prophets
towards them to get them to fulfill the pledges of
His creation, to recall to them His bounties, to
exhort them by preaching, to unveil before them the
hidden virtues of wisdom and show them the signs of
His Omnipotence namely the sky which is raised over
them, the earth that is placed beneath them, means
of living that sustain them, deaths that make them
die, ailments that turn them old and incidents that
successively betake them.
Allah never allowed His creation to remain without a
Prophet deputised by Him, or a book sent down from
Him or a binding argument or a standing plea.
These Messengers were such that they did not feel
little because of smallness of their number or of
largeness of the number of their falsifiers. Among
them was either a predecessor who would name the one
to follow or the follower who had been introduced by
the predecessor.
The Prophet hood of Muhammad
In this way ages passed by and times rolled on,
fathers passed away while sons took their places
till Allah deputized Muhammad (peace be upon him and
his progeny) as His Prophet, in fulfillment of His
promise and in completion of His Prophet hood. His
pledge had been taken from the Prophets, his traits
of character were well reputed and his birth was
honorable. The people of the earth at this time were
divided in different parties, their aims were
separate and ways were diverse. They either likened
Allah with His creation or twisted His Names or
turned to else than Him. Through Muhammad (p.b.u.h.a.h.p.)
Allah guided them out of wrong and with his efforts
took them out of ignorance.
Then Allah chose for Muhammad, peace be upon him and
on his progeny, to meet Him, selected him for His
own nearness, regarded him too dignified to remain
in this world and decided to remove him from this
place of trial. So He drew him towards Himself with
honor. Allah may shower His blessing on him, and his
progeny.
The Holy Qur'an and Sunnah
But the Prophet left among you the same which other
Prophets left among their peoples, because Prophets
do not leave them untended (in dark) without a clear
path and a standing ensign, namely the Book of your
Creator clarifying its permission and prohibitions,
its obligations and discretion, its repealing
injunctions and the repealed ones, its permissible
matters and compulsory ones, its particulars and the
general ones, its lessons and illustrations, its
long and the short ones, its clear and obscure ones,
detailing its abbreviations and clarifying its
obscurities.
In it there are some verses whose knowledge (1) is
obligatory and others whose ignorance by the people
is permissible. It also contains what appears to be
obligatory according to the Book (2) but its repeal
is signified by the Prophet's action (sunnah) or
that which appears compulsory according to the
Prophet's action but the Book allows not following
it. Or there are those which are obligatory in a
given time but not so after that time. Its
prohibitions also differ. Some are major regarding
which there exists the threat of fire (Hell), and
others are minor for which there are prospects of
forgiveness. There are also those of which a small
portion is also acceptable (to Allah) but they are
capable of being expanded.
In this very sermon he spoke about Hajj
Allah has made obligatory upon you the pilgrimage
(hajj) to His sacred House which is the turning
point for the people who go to it as beasts or
pigeons go towards spring water. Allah the glorified
made it a sign of their supplication before His
Greatness and their acknowledgement of His Dignity.
He selected from among His creation those who on
listening to His call
responded to it and testified His word. They stood
in the position of His Prophets and resembled His
angels who surround the Divine Throne securing all
the benefits of performing His worship and hastening
towards His promised forgiveness. Allah the
glorified made it (His sacred House) an emblem for
Islam and an object of respect for those who turn to
it. He made obligatory its pilgrimage and laid down
its claim for which He held you responsible to
discharge it. Thus, Allah the glorified said:
". . . And (purely) for Allah, is incumbent upon
mankind, the pilgrimage to the House, for those who
can afford to journey thither. And whoever denied
then verily, Allah is Self sufficiently independent
of the worlds" (Qur'an, 3:96).
(1). "The foremost in religion (din) is His
knowledge." The literal meaning of din is obedience,
and its popular sense is code, whether literal sense
is taken or the popular one, in either case, if the
mind is devoid of any conception of Divinity, there
would be no question of obedience, nor of following
any code; because when there is no aim there is no
point in advancing towards it; where there is no
object in view there is no sense in making efforts
to achieve it. Nevertheless, when the nature and
guiding faculty of man bring him in contact with a
superior Authority and his taste for obedience and
impulse of submission subjugates him before a Deity,
he finds himself bound by certain limitations as
against abject freedom of activity. These very
limitations are din (Religion) whose point of
commencement is knowledge of Allah and
acknowledgement of His Being.
After pointing out the essentials of Divine
knowledge Amir al-mu'minin has described its
important constituents and conditions. He has held
those stages of such knowledge which people
generally regard as the point of highest approach to
be insufficient. He says that its first stage is
that with the natural sense of search for the
unknown and the guidance of conscience or on hearing
from the followers of religions an image of the
Unseen Being known as Allah is formed in the mind.
This image in fact is the forerunner of the
obligation to thinking and reflection and to seeking
His knowledge. But those who love idleness, or are
under pressure of environment, do not undertake this
search despite creation of such image and the image
fails to get testified. In this case they remain
deprived of Divine knowledge, and since their in
access to the stage of testifying after the
formation of image is by
volition they deserve to be questioned about it. But
one who is moved by the power of this image goes
further and considers thinking and reflection
necessary. In this way one reaches the next stage in
the attainment of Divine knowledge, namely to search
for the Creator through diversification of creation
and species of creatures, because every picture is a
solid and inflexible guide to the existence of its
painter and every effect to the action of its cause.
When he casts his glance around himself he does not
find a single thing which might have come into
existence without the act of a maker so much so that
he does not find the sign of a footstep without a
walker nor a construction without a builder. How can
he comprehend that this blue sky with the sun and
the moon in its expanse and the earth with the
exuberance of its grass and flowers could have come
into existence without the action of a Creator.
Therefore, after observing all that exists in the
world and the regulated system of the entire
creation no one can help concluding that there is a
Creator for this world of diversities because
existence cannot come out of non-existence, nor can
existence sprout forth from nothingness.
The Holy Qur'an has pointed to this reasoning
thus:
". . . What! about Allah is there any doubt, the
Originator of the heavens and the earth ?. . ."
(14:10).
But this stage would also be insufficient if this
testimony in favor of Allah is tarnished by belief
in the divinity of some other deity.
The third stage is that His existence should be
acknowledged along with belief in Unity and Oneness.
Without this the testimony to Allah's existence
cannot be complete because if more gods are believed
in He would not be One whereas it is necessary that
He should be One. The reason is that in case of more
than one god the question would arise whether one of
them created all this creation or all of them
together. If one of them created it there should be
some differential to distinguish him otherwise he
would be accorded preferential position without
reason, which is unacceptable to the mind. If all
have created it collectively then the position has
only two forms; either he cannot perform his
functions without the assistance of others or he is
above the need for their assistance. The first case
means his incapability and being in need of others
while the other case means that they are several
regular performers of a single act and the fallacy
of both has already been shown. If we assume that
all the gods performed the act of creation by
dividing among themselves then, in this case all the
creation will, not bear the same relationship
towards the creator since each creature will bear
relationship only to its own creator whereas every
creature should have one and the same relationship
to all creators. This is because all the creation
should have one and the same relationship to all the
creators as all the created in their capacity to
accept effect and all the creators in their capacity
to produce effect should be similar. In short there
is no way but to acknowledge Him as One because in
believing in numerous creators there remains no
possibility of the existence of any other thing, and
destruction proves implicit for the earth, the sky
and everything in creation. Allah the glorified has
expressed this argument in the following words:
"Had there been in (the heavens and the earth
[other] ) gods except Allah, they both had been in
disorder. . ." (Qur'an, 21:22).
The fourth stage is that Allah should be regarded
free of all defects and deficiencies, and devoid of
body, form, illustration, similarity, position of
place or time, motion, stillness, incapability and
ignorance because there can be no deficiency or
defect in the perfect Being nor can anyone be deemed
like Him because all these attributes bring down a
being from the high position of the Creator to the
low position of the created. That is why along with
Unity, Allah has held purity from deficiency of
equal importance.
"Say: 'He (Allah) is One (alone).
Allah, the needless.
He baguettes not, nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him" (Qur'an, 112:1-4).
"Vision perceived Him not, and He perceived (all)
vision; He is the Subtle, the All-aware" (Qur'an,
6:104).
"So coin ye not any similitude’s to Allah; verily
Allah knoweth (every thing) and ye know not."
(Qur'an, 16:74).
". . .Nothing whatsoever (is there) like the like of
Him; and He (alone) is the All-hearing and the
All-seeing." (Qur'an, 42:11)
The fifth stage of completing His Knowledge is that
attributes should not be put in Him from outside
lest there be duality in His Oneness, and deviating
from its proper connotation Unity may fall in the
labyrinth of one in three and three in one, because
His Being is not a combination of essence and form
so that attribute may cling to Him like smell in the
flowers or brightness in the stars. Rather, He is
the fountain head of all attributes and needs no
medium for manifestation of His perfect Attributes.
If He is named Omniscient it is because the signs of
his knowledge are manifest. If He is called
Omnipotent it is because every particle points to
His Omnipotence and Activity, and if to Him is
attributed the power to listen or to see it is
because the cohesion of the entire creation and its
administration cannot be done without hearing or
seeing but the existence of these attributes in Him
cannot be held to be in the same way as in the
creation namely that He should be capable to know
only after He acquires knowledge or He should be
powerful and strong only after energy runs into His
limbs because taking attributes as separate from His
Being would connote duality and where there is
duality unity disappears. That is how Amir al-mu'minin
has rejected the idea of attributes being addition
to His Being, presented Unity in its true
significance, and did not allow Unity to be tainted
with stains of multiplicity. This does not mean that
adjectives cannot at all be attributed to Him, as
this would be giving support to those who are
groping in the dark abyss of negativism, although
every nook and comer in the entire existence is
brimming with His attributes and every particle of
creation stands witness that He has knowledge, He is
powerful, He hears, He sees. He nurtures under His
care and allows growth under His mercy. The
intention is that for Him nothing can be suggested
to serve as an adjunct to Him, because His self
includes attributes and His attributes connote His
Self. Let us learn this very theme in the words of
al-Imam Abu `Abdillah Ja`far ibn Muhammmad as-Sadiq
(p.b.u.h.) comparing it with the belief in Unity
adopted by other religions and then appreciate who
is the exponent of the true concept of Unity.
The Imam says:
"Our Allah the Glorified, the Magnificent has ever
had knowledge as His Self even though there was
nothing to know, sight as His Self even though there
was nothing to know, sight as His Self even though
there was nothing to behold, hearing as His Self
even though there was nothing to hear, and Potence
as His Self even though there was nothing to be
under His Potence. When He created the things and
the object of knowledge came into existence His
knowledge became related to the known, hearing
related to the heard, sight related to the seen, and
potence related to its object." (at-Tawhid by
ash-Shaykh as-Saduq, p.139)
This is the belief over which the Imams of the
Prophet's family are
unanimous, but the majority group has adopted a
different course by creating the idea of
differentiation between His Self and Attributes.
ash-Shahristani says on page 42 of his book Kitab
al-milal wa'n-nihal:
According to Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash`ari, Allah knows
through (the attribute of) knowledge, is Powerful
through activity, speaks through speech, hears
through hearing and sees through sight.
If we regard attributes distinct from Self in this
manner there would be two alternatives; either the
attributes must have existed in Him from ever or
they must have occurred later. In the first case we
have to recognize as many eternal objects as the
attributes which all will share with Him in being
eternal, but "Allah is above what the people deem
Him to have equals." In the second case in addition
to subjecting Him to the alternations it would also
mean that before the acquiring of the attributes He
was neither scent, nor powerful, nor hearer nor
beholder and this runs counter to the basic tenet of
Islam.
". . . Allah hath decreed trade lawful and hath
forbidden interest..."
(Qur'an, 2:275)
"And when you have finished the prayer remember
Allah standing, and sitting, and reacting, and when
ye are secure (from danger) establish prayer . . ."
(Qur'an, 4:103)
"O' ye men! eat of what is in the earth lawful and
good and follow not the foot-steps of Satan; for
verily he is an open enemy unto you." (Qur'an,
2:168)
"(And) say thou: 'I am only a man like you, it is
revealed unto me that your god is but one God,
therefore whosoever desireth to meet his Lord, let
him do good deeds, and associate not any one in the
worship of his Lord'." (Qur'an, 18:110)
"What! enjoin ye upon the people righteousness and
ye forget your own selves?
Yet ye read the scripture? What: do ye not
understand?" (Qur'an, 2:44).
(2). About the Qur'an, Amir al-mu'minin says that it
contains description of the permitted and the
forbidden acts such as "Allah has allowed sale and
purchase but prohibited usury."
It clarifies obligatory and optional acts such as
"when you have finished the prayer (of fear)
remember Allah rising, sitting or lying and when you
feel safe (from the enemy) then say the prayers (as
usual)."
Here prayer is obligatory while other forms of
remembering (Allah) are
optional. It has repealing and repealed verses such
as about the period of seclusion after husband's
death "four months and ten days" or the repealed one
such as "till one year without going out" which
shows that this period of seclusion should be one
year. In particular places it permits the forbidden
such as "whoever is compelled without being
willfully wrongful or transgressor, commits no
sins."
It has positive injunctions such as "One should not
add anyone with Allah in worship." It has particular
and general injunctions. Particular is the one where
the word shows generality but the sense is limited
such as "I have made you superior over worlds, O'
Bani Isra'il."
Here the sense of "Worlds," is confined to that
particular time, although the word is general in its
literal meaning. The general injunctions is one
which is extensive in meaning such as "Allah has
knowledge of everything." It has lessons and
illustrations lessons such as "Allah caught him in
the punishment of this world and the next and there
is lesson in it."
"So seized him Allah, with the chastisement in the
hereafter, and the life before (it)." (Qur'an,
79:25)
"Verily in this there is a lesson unto him who
feareth (Allah)." (Qur'an, 79:26)
"A kind word and pardon is better than charity that
is followed by injury, and verily Allah is
Self-sufficient, the Most forbearing." (Qur'an,
2:263)
"And remember when We made a covenant with you and
raised the 'tur' (the Mountain) above you (saying),
'Hold ye fast that which We have bestowed upon you
with the strength (of determination) and remember
that which is therein so that you may guard
(yourself) against evil'." (Qur'an, 2:63)
"So we made it a lesson for (those of) their own
times and for those (of their posterity) who came
after them and an exhortation unto those who guard
(themselves) against evil." (Qur'an, 2:66)
"He it is Who fashioned you in the wombs (of your
mothers) as He liked;
There is no god but He, the All-mighty, the
All-wise." (Qur'an, 3:5)
"Obedience and a fair word; but when the affair is
determined then if they be true to Allah, it would
certainly be better for them." (Qur'an, 47:21)
"O' those who believe! It is not lawful for you to
inherit women against their will; and do not
straiten them in order that ye may take a part of
what ye have given, unless they are guilty of
manifest lewdness; but deal kindly with them, and if
ye hate them, it may be that ye hate a thing while
Allah hath placed in it abundant good." (Qur'an,
4:19)
"Say thou (unto the people of the Book), 'Dispute ye
with us about Allah; whereas He is our Lord and your
Lord, and for us are our deeds and for you are your
deeds; to Him (alone) we are (exclusively) loyal?"
(Qur'an, 2:139)
"There is a lesson in it for him who fears Allah,"
and illustration as "The example of those who spend
their wealth in the way of Allah is like a grain
which grows seven ears each one of which bears
hundred grains." It has unspecific and specific
verses. Unspecific is one which has no limitation on
specification such as "Recall when Moses told his
people 'Allah commands you to sacrifice a cow.'"
Specific is one where denotation is limited such as
Allah says that "the cow should be such that it has
neither been used for ploughing nor for irrigation
fields." There is clear and obscure in it. Clear is
that which has no intricacy such as "Verily Allah
has sway over everything," while obscure is that
whose meaning has complication such as "the Merciful
(Allah) occupies the throne," whose apparent meaning
gives the impression as if Allah is bodily sitting
on the Throne although the intention is to press His
authority and control. In it there are brief
injunctions such as "establish prayer" and those of
deep meanings such as the verses about which says:
"That the sense is not known except to Allah and
those immersed in
knowledge." Then Amir al-mu'minin dilates upon this
theme in a different style, he says that there are
some things in it which are necessary to know, such
as "So know that there is no god but Allah" and
there are others which are not necessary to know
such as "alif lam mim" etc. It has also injunctions
which have been repealed by the Prophet's action
such as "As for your women who commit adultery get
four male witnesses and if four witnesses do appear
shut such women in the house till death ends their
life." This punishment was current in early Islam
but was later replaced by stoning in the case of
married women. In it there are some injunctions
which repealed the Prophet's action such as "Turn
your face towards Masjid al-haram" by which the
injunction for facing Bayt al-maqdis was repealed.
It also contains injunctions which are obligatory
only at a particular time after which their
obligation ends, such as "when the call for prayer
is made on Friday then hasten towards remembrance of
Allah." It has also indicated grades of
prohibitions as the division of sins into light and
serious ones - light such as "Tell the believers to
lower their eyes" and serious ones such as "whoever
kills a Believer willfully his award is to remain in
Hell for ever." It also contains injunctions where a
little performance is enough but there is scope for
further performance such as "Read the Qur'an as much
as you easily can."
"Verily your Lord, certainly is He the All-mighty,
the All-merciful."
(Qur'an, 26:9)
"Say thou (O' Our Prophet Muhammmad) unto the
believer men that they cast down their gaze and
guard their private parts; that is purer for them;
verily Allah is All-aware of what (all) ye do."
(Qur'an, 24:30)
"Not equal are those of the believers who sit
(holding back) other than those hurt, and those who
strive in the way of Allah with their wealth and
their selves (lives). Allah hath raised the strivers
with their wealth and selves (lives), in rank above
those sitting (holding back); Unto all (in faith)
Allah hath promised good; but those who strive, He
hath distinguished above those who sit (holding
[by]) a great recompense." (Qur'an, 4:95)
"Verily, thy Lord knows that thou stands up (in the
Night Prayer) night
two-third of the night, and (sometimes) half of it,
and (sometimes) a third of it, and a group of those
with thee; and Allah measured (well) the night and
the day; Knoweth He that never can ye take (correct)
account of it, so turneth He unto you (mercifully)
so recite ye whatever be easy (in the prayers) to be
read of the Qur'an; Knoweth He that there may be
among you sick, and others traveling in the earth
seeking of the grace of Allah, and others fighting
in the way of Allah, so recite ye as much as it can
easily be done of it, and establish ye the (regular)
prayers, and pay ye the (prescribed) poor-rate, and
offer ye unto Allah a goodly loan; and whatsoever of
good ye send on before hand for yourselves, ye will
(surely) find it with Allah, that is the best and
the greatest recompense; and seek ye the forgiveness
of Allah; Verily, Allah is Oft-forgiving, the Most
Merciful."
(Qur'an, 73:20)
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