Guidance for Perceiving Minds — Page 73
73 and do not follow your desires. You do not consider game to be lawful while you are in a state of pilgrimage, so how can you assert your opinions when you have an arbiter?1 The arbiter is a mercy sent down to the believers, without him, they would still be in disagreement. The Mahdi appeared when the misguided people prevailed, and the supplication of “Guide us” was heard after two hundred years, fulfilling what your Lord said in al-F a ti h ah and the clear Furqan. Allah took the covenant of the Muslims in this chapter, and He warned them of the Jews and Christians until the Day of Judgment. So where is the mention of the Antichrist and where is its deafening temptation mentioned? Did Allah forget to men- tion it when teaching this prayer? Those who are firmly grounded in knowledge know that the name of the Antichrist is not men- tioned in, the Discrimination, i. e. the Quran, while it is full of mentions of the temptation of the People of the Cross, which is the greatest trial in the Eyes of Allah that heavens may well-nigh rend asunder because of it. And they lived for a thousand years after the first three cen- turies, O you who are endowed with reason. Their presence was initially felt like the rustling of a snake as it moves and stretches. Then, the awareness of their existence intensified until the sneaking 1. Different opinions are like birds flying in the air, and the arbiter is akin to a safe sanctuary that safeguards from mistakes. Just as hunting is for- bidden in the Sacred Mosque out of respect for Allah’s holy land, like- wise, following different opinions is forbidden in the presence of the arbiter, who is infallible and has from the Lord of Glory the status of a Sacred Mosque. Rather, the position of etiquette requires that every matter be presented to him, and nothing is taken except from his hands. (Author)