Malfuzat - Volume IV — Page 153
153 Malfuzat – Volume IV Additionally, God Almighty states: 1 َِْيَْن ْح ِ ُل ٰ ْلَص ا َى ٰل َ ْو َتَ َـ ُي َ ْو ُ ْه َوَ And He protects the righteous. The Holy Quran is full of verses that expound how God Almighty is the Guardian and Provider of those who are righteous. So, when a person puts their trust and confidence in apparent means, they, as if, deny these attributes of God Almighty and ascribe these divine attributes to those worldly means instead and take those means to be another god, as it were. For the person in question leans to one side. From here one advances towards polytheism. Those people who are subserviently inclined to high-ranking officials and who are in receipt of rewards and titles from them, begin to hold in their hearts a reverence for these officials that is akin to the sense of greatness which is due solely to God. They begin to worship these offi - cials. This is the specific trait which destroys one’s belief in God’s Unity and casts a person away from their actual purpose. Therefore, the Prophets, peace be upon them, give the teaching that no inconsistency should arise between the means available to us and God’s Oneness; in fact, both should be given the position they deserve, and ultimately everything culminates in the Oneness of God. They wish to teach people that the Provider who gives every honour, every comfort and fulfils every need is none other than God. Hence, if anyone else is given a posi - tion in contestation to God, it is clearly obvious that the conflict of two opposites results in the destruction of one. Therefore, the Oneness of God Almighty must be given precedence; one ought to make recourse to apparent means, but these means should not be turned into God. It is this very divine Unity which culti - vates a love for God Almighty when a person understands that all benefit and harm is in His hand alone; He is the true Benefactor, and each and every particle emanates from Him. No one else stands between them. When a person achieves this state of purity, they are called a believer in the Unity of God. In short, one state of belief in divine Oneness is when a person does not turn a stone, other human beings, or anything else into God, and in fact abhors and detests the dei - fication of these things. The second state is when a person does not excessively depend on apparent means. 1 al-A’raf , 7:197 p. 421