7.8. Inviting Others for Fast-breaking (Mar) and
Acceptance of Their's Invitations
One of the most esteemed etiquette of this month is to invite the
fast-observers for the fast-breaking
(iftar),
whose profound reward as described by the Holy Prophet
(S.A.W.) in the
(Sermon-of-Sh'abanyeh )
was mentioned earlier. Of course here too like other deeds and worships,
what is more important is the sincerity of the deeds, and the one who
wishes to perform this act much strive that his aim and intention should be
only for Allah's pleasure as well as to follow divine etiquettes and manners
regarding this month. Has not Allah invited his servants for a feast in this
month and Himself taken the responsibility of their reception and
hospitality?
Therefore, to be host and to invite others for
fast-breaking
(iftar)
and food-at-dawn
(saheri)
are divine acts and etiquettes). Allah
forbids, that one should perform
these acts with the intention of hypocrisy,
egotism, publicity, and even for the sake
of the reward in the hereafter, or
should perform these things because of
the influence of following local customs and prevailed etiquettes of the
society. And since, how to give
iftar,
type of food, how to treat the guests,
who should be invited, etc. etc.
all are effective as far as the aim and degree of sincerity or hypocrisy of
the host are concerned, therefore, while beseeching Allah (the glorious, the
( 132 )
exalted), for help he should be careful and pay attention towards all these
details and in their selection nothing should interfere except Allah's pleasure.
Similarly whenever one accepts other's
fast-breaking invitation, lest in
acceptance of his invitation nothing should interfere except sincerity
and Allah's pleasure, and in
attainment of this sincerity, one should make
his best endeavors, because, quite often
it might happen, that by sincere acceptance of a believer's invitation and
sincerely sharing the table with a fellow Muslim one may have access to such
huge rewards and profits which can not be achieved by worshiping of several
years or deeds.
Because, what is more heavier than every
thing else in the acceptance of
deeds is this very sincerity and cleansing and not the
abundance and frequency. Was not it that
Satan's thousand years of worship
in acceptance of his deed was weightless but one single
repentance of Adam (AS.) with sincerity
was responsible in his attaining
divine acceptance, and therefore, it is because of this reason that
righteous Allah's servants strive
their best for attaining sincerity and purity in their
deeds, and not for their repeatation and
abundance.
( 134 )
8. The Leadership (Imamat) and Preaching (Va'iz)
The other most esteemed etiquette of this month for religious scholars, jurisprudents,
congregational prayer imams, and
preachers is to preach and
admonish, and in summary — the
scholar who has spent years of
his age in the path of achieving knowledge
and asceticism, and through the
experience of these long years has
identified the Satan's astonishing
tricks as well as self's unique plans for
entrapment of human beings — it
would be appropriate for him to preach
and admonish and should not
deprive the people from his guidance and
rich experience. Because, the
gains and benefits received by others
through these preaching, guidance,
and admonishment, can not be
accomplished through any other religious deeds. And it is therefore, from
this consideration, that the religion has recommended it profoundly, and
in this regard, there are plenty of traditions, narrated from the Sinless
Imams (AS.), which can not be described here. of course, in preaching and
leading the congregational prayer,
what is more important than any other
thing — is sincerity, purity, and
abstinence from egotism and hypocrisy.
Especially, preaching and admonishing which are relatively more
esteemed acts and are more beneficial
as compared to other deeds,
unfortunately they are more
vulnerable to injuries and calamities as
( 135 )
compared to other deeds. Therefore,
from this consideration the one who wants to perform this act, first of all
must first examine himself thoroughly, and if does not have any other motive
except Allah's pleasure and people's
guidance — he should undertake it. But if he discovers other than this,
instead of engaging himself in preaching, with sincerity and purity
of heart, should engage himself in
self-purification and self-refinement. And if he does so Allah (the
glorious, the exalted), in accordance with the following
verse of the Holy Qur'an would bestow
upon him the required grace to succeed in this task.
"
And those who strive in Our (cause), We
will certainly guide them to Our path. "
—the Holy Qur'an (29:69).
8.1. How to Examine Sincerity?
The one who wants to know whether his preaching and
Imumat (of
the congregational prayer) consist of
truth and sincerity or not, may undertake the following test:
For example, he should find out why does he like and desire to be the
leader of the congregational prayer? Is it because being the leader of
the congregational prayer is a respectable job and brings respect,
publicity, and distinction for the
leader? Or is it because of Allah's pleasure, and for the obedience
of His commands? In this manner he should self-examine himself that whether
knowing that more people are participating in the
congregational prayer headed by him, or
increase in the number of
worshipers accompanying him, or knowing that his followers consist of
VIPs, scholars, and wealthy people, are
influential in his liking and desire of being the congregational
leader?
That is, under these circumstances and situation does he prefer and enjoy
more to be the leader of the congregational prayer, as compared to
( 136 )
the conditions whereby very few people are aware of his
Imamat, very
few worshipers offer prayer behind
him, or the worshipers accompanying him are not scholars and great
personalities rather are ordinary people? If such was the case, than he
should know that his desire to be the leader of
the congregational prayer is altogether
for the sake of fame and hypocrisy or at least is contaminated with
these things.
And if Satan and
imperious-self, whispers your heart in justifying the
correctness of your above-mentioned acts
misguiding you in this manner,
that your liking for increase in the number of worshipers, or their being
from scholars and nobles are
because of the reason that — such congregational prayer possesses
more reward as well is a manifestation of religious grandeur, which as a
result would earn more divine pleasure. One
should not be cheated so easily with
this justification, instead should conduct another self-examination.
For example, in order to test whether
his aim is more reward or not, he
should imagine that suppose there are two congregational prayers, one only
with two worshipers but with certain reasons with more reward, and
the other one with a huge number of worshipers but due to certain reasons
with less reward. Which one would he like more, i.e. to lead, the one which
has huge crowd but with less reward, or
the one with only two worshipers but more reward?
And in order to test his aim for
strengthening the religious grandeur,
he should imagine, that if instead of
himself, suppose a certain person's leading the congregational prayer
would result in more religious grandeur,
especially, if he himself joins that congregational prayer as a follower
under his leadership, then even in that situation, would he still
prefer for himself to be the leader of
that congregational prayer? Or would he prefer
to hand over the leadership to him, and
would join the prayer
as a follower?
If Satan and imperious-self further trick
you that your preference for being the leader of congregational
prayer over others under the above
circumstances is — for the reason that this worship, i.e. strengthening
religious grandeur, are the type of worships, in which the believers
must compete with each other, and therefore, you too with this intention
( 137 )
prefers your being the leader of the congregational prayer over others. Again
one should not be tricked easily rather must undertake another
self-examination, e.g. he should imagine that if his offering prayer under a
certain leader of congregational prayer would result in greater religious
grandeur as compared to others following
him as a leader of the
congregational prayer than which one would he prefer, being a leader, or
the follower?
Of course, having sincerity in such type
of afairs is indeed very difficult
and complex and its true recognition requires hair-splitting efforts,
and it is because of this reason that very often its true identification
might remain hidden from some one for
prolonged periods, and then
because of a certain happening or encounter, the reality becomes
manifested. Following is an example:
It has been reported about a certain
great religious scholar, that for
thirty years he offered the prayer in
the first row behind the
congregational leader. After thirty years, one day it happened that he
found himself standing in the
second row of the prayer. Suddenly this feeling prevailed upon him,
that today others worshipers will notice him standing in the second row,
which made him uncomfortable and awkward. And right at this juncture he
discovered, that his thirty years efforts and
endeavors for presenting him in the first
row of the congregational prayers,
were not free from hypocrisy and egotism, and because of this reason he
repeated his prayers of thirty years, offering them as make up
prayers
(qadha).
A little bit pondering at the above
story of this combatant scholar,
who preferred for himself to be a follower instead of leader and
endeavored to be present in the first row
of the congregational prayer for
thirty long years, and ultimately having encountered with this
contradiction had repeated his prayers of thirty years, indicates that the
difference between the sincerity and egotism is so fine and thin, as well as
proves that in order to achieve it, how
much the predecessors have tried hard.
Whatever has been said regarding the
sincerity and truth
in leadership is also true for the preacher and preaching which are
also
( 138 )
susceptible to severe injuries. Are not the injuries of tongue and speech
also the injuries of preacher and
preaching; are not the injuries of tongue
and speech so dangerous, and abstinence
from them so difficult, that some
of the elders, for the sake of
abstinence from it, altogether decided to
remain silent, while some of the wise
ones from this consideration
preferred silence superior than the speech even though speech is
undoubtedly superior than silence, and a
lot of goodness and benevolence are originated and propagated as a
result of speech.
8.2. Etiquettes of Preacher and Preaching
A preacher should strive his best to
speak nothing but truth and have sincerity in his preaching. Whatever
earlier was explained for the congregational prayer leader is also valid for
the preacher; he must pay attention towards it, in addition to that, he must
endeavor to keep himself immune from the tongue's injuries, should not say
any thing unknowingly, and should not
lie about Allah (the glorious, the exalted), and the Holy
Prophet (SAW.). The words which give the
smell of egotism and self-glorification should not be uttered, the
speech which intentionally or unintentionally will result in disturbance,
loss, and deviation should be renounced,
even though if the deviation of his speech is for the sake of proving
a certain clarification, e.g. for responding to the doubts raised by
apostates and hostile elements but those
listening to them may not
understand and comprehend them properly and correctly, thus, resulting in
their becoming further deviated. He should not speak in a manner that
the listeners become hopeless because of
fear, or on the contrary due to too much hope, become proud and
arrogant.
While speaking about the prophets and
other distinguished
personalities, he should not speak in an exaggerated or rhetorical manner,
so that the listener might develop misconception regarding them, or
might open their tongue in their
criticism. Likewise, he should be careful to speak regarding
religious commandments, he should not speak in a
( 139 )
manner which would result in weakening of the listener's faith about Allah (the glorious, the exalted), the
Holy Prophet (S.A.W.), religion, and
Islamic law
Shari'a.
By narration of stories relevant to some
thiefs, bandits, murderers, and profligates, should not teach
listeners about the methods of looting,
murdering, and debauchery, and by describing the interesting stories of
fornication and debauchery should not arouse the feelings of
listeners, thus, making them intersted in these things. He should strictly
be careful in narrating the stories of
coquetry upon the pulpit, especially,
if ladies are present in the audience. He should not act like a
preacher, about whom it is said, that
upon the pulpit, practically demonstrated the method of purification for the
listeners, or like another preacher about whom
it is
said that from the pulpit, even though
with the intention of encouraging
good and forbidding evil
(amr bil maruf and nahi anil munkar) and prevention from sins,
described the most obscene and indecent acts of fornication commited by the
sinners. In addition to the above he should try
not to be included among those about
whom Allah (the glorious, the exalted), has said:
"
Enjoin ye
righteousness upon mankind while ye yourself
forget (to practice it)? "
—the Holy Qur'an (2:44).
First of all, before preaching and admonishing people about their
self-refinment and sel-fpurification,
firstly he must endeavor towards his
own self-purification and
self-refinement, and only then with compassion
and gentleness, being tolerant and kind,
and with wisdom should try to preach others, inviting them towards
self-refinement and self-purification,
lest his words do not match with his deeds and his character does not
confirm his sayings. Allah forbids, may he be among those who glorify
themselves at the altar and pulpit,
before the people but when they resort to their own privacy, engage
themselves in other things. Because such
( 140 )
behavior makes the listeners more impudent for sinning, makes them
pessimistic and hopeless towards the
preachers and scholars, even damaging their belief and faith about
the prophets and sinless imams, and worst then that, very often, this
pessimism makes them disgusted about the religion.
If among the listeners, there dose not exist any special group which
should be preached in a special manner the preacher should mention about
Allah's wrath, Hell, and its horrible punishment, in order to scare
the listeners from sins, transgressions,
and deviations. of course while
using this style he should not extravagant so that the listeners become
hopeless, which would result in their becoming more contaminated with
sins. And in case, if there are special group present in the audience, that
such style of preaching is not suitable
for them, either he should change his
topic, should arrange for them a
separate meeting, or should be careful about their presence, and
should strictly avoid speaking any thing which
would produce a negative impact upon them.
It is narrated that whenever Prophet Yahya (AS.) was present
among the audience, Prophet Zacharia
(AS.) in his preaching always
practiced abstinence from mentioning about Allah's wrath and Hell's
horrible punishments, because, Hazrate
Yahya (AS.) was in a state of
special spiritual mood, and therefore, was not in a position to tolerate the
listening of such speech. By
listening such words he used to become
agitated, perplexed, fainted, and
aggrieved etc. In these type of gatherings
the preacher should utilize the method
of giving good tidings, and by
reminding the mercy, compassion, blessings, and forgiveness of Allah (the
glorious, the exalted), should
make the audience hopeful of divine
blessing. of course, this shouldn't be
done in a manner that the sinners
become deceived, and with the hope of receiving Allah's blessing and
forgiveness become more impudent in sinning.
Yes! The method of encounter of a preacher with his listeners
should be like the method of a wise
father dealing with his own children. He should encounter them carefully,
and should speak in a manner which
is most suitable with their conditions,
and their ultimately would result in
their betterment and overall perfection.
Wherever their making scared is
( 141 )
feasible with their conditions, he should do so, and whenever giving glad-tidings
suits with their expediency, he should practice it. Allah
forbids, unintentionally, and because of
the lack of experience, he speaks and utters words, which are not
suitable for the listeners, would injure and hurt their spiritual feelings,
and so 'often, this would result ultimately their being deviated and doomed
into dark vallies of ignorance.
In narrating traditions he should be extremely careful, should avoid
reporting traditions whose acceptance is not easy for every body, or is not
expedient for them, and very often would
result in taunting and mocking of those traditions, rather taunting
and sarcasm of religion, or would make
some people pessimistic, thus weakening their confidence in faith.
Especially, in these dayes in our times
when the grudge and antagonism against religion and skepticism is so
much prevailing and encouraged, and there are those who are being trained
systematically to find out any sort of document, so that they could injure
and destroy the religious beliefs of the common people, gradually making
them pessimistic, weakening their confidence, and ultimately pulling them
towards Paganism.
In narrating such traditions, e.g. traditions which describe plenty of
rewards for a minor deed, the preacher
should be extremely cautious,
either he should practice abstinence from reporting such narrations, or
should present convincing
explanatory commentaries, thereby closing the path of skepticism
against them. For example, if he narrated the following narration for the
people:
"
Whoever offered a certain two rakat
prayer, for every word and invocation
recited in this prayer, Allah (the glorious, the
exalted), would award him a palace of
pearls and topaz in the Paradise. "
Very often, some people will consider it as irrational and impossible
and would be laughing with taunting. In
order to prevent such thinking
that how come an insignificant act like offering two
rak'ats
of prayer
would earn such huge amount of rewards;
for example, he may justify this by giving this argument — has not
Allah (the glorious, the exalted), given
( 142 )
all of us the power of imagination and thought, without even our
requesting or undertaking any deed that by utilization of this power of
imagination we may build thousands of
cities of pearl and topaz in our mind. Allah (the glorious, the
exalted), who has given us such power, also
possesses this power, that whatever
could be imagined by us in our
thoughts, in order to have it we perform a certain act of worship, thus,
changing those imaginations into a real object, having a physical
existence.
Regarding the dwellers of Paradise it
has been narrated, that whatever
they desire is available for them instantaneously, i.e. whatever
they imagine in their mind's eyes, see it
infront of them. In other words they possess the power of changing their
imaginations into real objects having physical existence. Allah (the
glorious, the exalted), who has given
this power of changing the picture into real objects, to some of his
esteemed servants, in this world, could also bestow such power upon his
servants in the Paradise. Did not the authentic narration report that by the
intention and command of Imam al — Ridha (A.S.) the picture of lion upon
the curtain changed in to a living lion
with a physical existence, and
swallowed the wicked person who denied the imam's spiritual power. Did
not Allah (the glorious, the
exalted), bestow this power upon Prophet
Moses (A.S.) to convert a piece of wood
into a living dragon, the power
upon Prophet Jesus (A.S.) to raise the deads into alive, and the power
upon Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.)
that through pointing a finger, could divide the moon into two
portions? Also, he was able to raise the dead into alive, the gravel pieces
recited invocation upon his hand's palms, and cured the sick people.
Even plenty of phenomenons and
astonishments which we all
imagine in our thoughts or see in our dreams as far as their basis or
existence are concerned do not differ very
significantly with the real and
existing phenomenons, with the only difference, that whatever is seen by
us in the state of awakening are
identified as permanent and forever, while
whatever is seen by us in our dreams is
considered as occasional. But
suppose it was opposite, i.e. whatever was seen in the dream was
permanent and forever and whatever was
seen in the awakening state would
have been considered as occasional, then in that case would we have
( 143 )
imagined dreams as real, and the state of awakening some thing as unreal and
imaginary?
Whatever
has been explained above would prove that with the offering of two
rak'ats of prayer — giving reward
of thousands of palaces decorated with
pearls and topaz is not something irrational, impossible,
and is not something beyond the domain of
divine power. Now in addition to this power and potential, if we add
Allah's mercy, compassion, love, and
benevolence — the mercy and compassion whose infiniteness and
vastness in this very world even relevant to His enemies could be seen so
clearly — then it would not be too astonishing that Allah (the glorious, the
exalted), with is benevolence would
bestow upon his servants so much reward for offering an insignificant
deed.
In summary, if the preacher could
present such rational
explanations and arguements, thus, making them acceptable for the
listener's mind and closing the doors of sarcasm and taunting, then in that,
case, there would be no problem in narrating such traditions. Otherwise, it
would be for better to leave such
traditions, and instead to recite only,
those traditions, which do not have
areas of doubts, so that no one could dare to taunt them.
Yes! Like a physician who
is conscientious and caring about the
treatment of his patients — especially, if the number of patients is large
and their diseases are fatal and
hard to cure — he makes his best
endeavores lest he makes a mistake in the treatment, thus, endangering
the life of his patients, the wise preacher too should consider
himself as a conscientious and
responsible physician, and the listeners as patients, who are in need
of proper treatment in the from of his preaching. And for the treatment of
psychological and spiritual diseases of his listeners, he should strive more
than a physician of bodily diseases, because, the psychological diseases are
more fatal, dangerous, and more difficult for treatment.
Also, it is for the wise preacher that
every day and night before
starting his preaching he should submit, and surrender his self and his
deeds to the sinless Imam (A.S.)
of that day and for betterment of his
affairs should seek their help, should
start his preaching in the name of Allah (the glorious, the exalted),
praising and thanking Him and sending
( 144 )
salutations upon those who were bestowed distinction by Him, should take refuge in Him
from Satanic and self's wickedness, then being extremely
cautious should undertake his preaching.
If he does so, Allah (the glorious, the exalted), would help him and
would let his words penetrate through the
listener's heart and making his preaching as pure wisdom, guidance,
and illumination.
His
aim, intention, and endeavors should not be any thing except
strengthening the people's religious
beliefs and making them staunch;
should teach them etiquettes and manners of religion; should teach them
how to respect and pay homage to
Allah (the glorious, the exalted),
prophets, and esteemed personalities;
should make them lovers of Allah
(the glorious, the exalted), prophets, and imams, buyers of goodness,
purity, and truth, disgusted with wickedness, evilness, and sinning; and
encourage them to practice abstinence
from world's allurements and transient pleasures.
In order to have easy access to these discourses, as well as in order to
increase the religious and spiritual sentiments of the listeners, it would
be appropriate to mention the life styles of the righteous ones, gnostics,
and distinguished scholars. He should
narrate the stories about their worships
and servitude, piety and abstinence,
fear and hope, love and eagerness, and sincerity and sacrifice of
these great ones as well as Allah's love, favor, blessings, mercy,
forgiveness, and compassion which was bestowed upon
them for his listeners, and in any way
should not forget to pay attention
towards the eloquence, softness,
easiness, fluency, and kindness in his preaching which is the method
of divine prophets.
