Reaching for Unity (Pt.2)
So, the third cause…
THIRD
CAUSE
Disagreement among the
people of truth does not arise from lack of zeal and aspiration, nor does union
among the people of misguidance arise from loftiness of aspiration. Rather
disagreement among the people of truth arises from their misuse of high
aspiration, and union among the people of misguidance arises from the weakness
and impotence that come from lack of aspiration. What impels the people of
guidance to the misuse of their high aspiration - and hence to disagreement, and
rivalry - is the desire for heavenly reward that is counted as a praiseworthy
quality in the Hereafter.
It is even recorded in authentic traditions of the Holy Prophet that at the End of Time the truly pious among the Christians will unite with the people of the Quran and fight their common enemy, i.e. irreligion. Then the people of religion and truth will sincerely unite not only with the truly pious and spiritual ones among the Christians, but with all classes of pious and sincere people refraining from the discussion and debate of points of difference in order to combat their joint enemy, i.e. aggressive atheism.
Thinking to oneself, “Let
me gain this reward, let me guide these people, let them listen to me,” one
takes up a position of rivalry with respect to the true brother who faces him
and who stands in real need of his love, assistance, brotherhood and aid.
Saying to oneself, “Why are my students going to him? Why don’t I have as
many students as him?” one falls prey to egoism, inclines to the chronic
disease of ambition, loses all sincerity, and opens the door to hypocrisy.
The cure for the error,
this wound, this fearful sickness of the spirit, is the principle that “God’s
pleasure is won by sincerity alone,” and not by a large following or great
success. For these latter are a function of God’s will; they cannot be
demanded, although they are sometimes given. Sometimes a single word will
result in someone’s salvation and hence the pleasure of God. Quantity should
not be sought – but quality preaching, quality and sincere believers, for
sometimes to guide one man to the truth may be as pleasing to God as guiding a
thousand. Moreover, sincerity and adherence to the truth require that one
should desire the Muslims to benefit from anyone and at any place they can. To
think “Let them take lessons from me so that I gain the reward” is a trick
of the soul and the ego. Irrespective of who gets the reward, if one is egoless
and consider the benefit of the whole Muslim Ummah and consequently whole
humanity and who gladly helps and is glad when others also help the Ummah, then
it is that which is most needed to truly be sincere. And when pride and ego are
absent, God Almighty does not let the believer without any reward as he has
forego his own ego and reward for the benefit of others, choosing to have the
whole Ummah benefit from the reward.
But those who are
filled with ego, who want to have rewards for themselves even if the Ummah has
to suffer, such rewards are lost hereafter. If a truly sincere one sacrifice
for the benefit of the whole Ummah, his sacrifice will never be in vain.
The gain should be for
the common interest of the Community of the believers, and all humans. Remember,
Muslims do not only have the duty to unite with other Muslims but to establish
the One Community of God (Ummat-e-Wahida) on earth. If they let their
selves be greedy of the boons of divine rewards in this life and the hereafter
while casting aside the best interest of the people of God on earth, their
efforts will be met with failure as egoism has become part and parcel of their
existence and create a wall of division in the Ummah of Islam.
O man greedy for reward
in the Hereafter and the performance of deeds entitling you to that reward! Remember,
there have been certain prophets who had only a limited following but received
the infinite reward of the sacred duty of prophethood. The true achievement
lies, then, not in gaining a vast following, but in gaining God’s pleasure.
What do you imagine yourself to be with that saying “Listen to me”? You
forget your function, and interfere in what is strictly God’s concern?
To gain acceptance for
you and to have people gather round you is God’s concern. So look to your own
duty and concern, and do not meddle with God’s concerns. Moreover, it is not
only men who earn reward for those who hear and speak the truth. The sentient
and spiritual beings of God and His angels have filled the universe and adorned
its every part. If you want plentiful reward, take sincerity as your foundation
and think only of God’s pleasure. Then every syllable of the blessed words that
issue forth from your mouth will be brought to life by your sincerity and
truthful intention, and going to the ears of innumerable sentient beings; they
will illumine them and earn you reward. For when, for example, you say, “Praise
and thanks be to God,” the words are reproduced in the air in a million
forms, great and small, by God’s leave. He created innumerable ears, as many as
were needed to hear those multiple blessed words. If those words are brought to
life in the air by sincerity and truthful intent, they will enter the ears of
the truly spiritual beings like some tasty fruit in the mouth. But if God’s
pleasure and sincerity do not bring those words to life, they will not he
heard, and reward will be achieved only for the single utterance made by the
mouth.
FOURTH CAUSE
In just the same way that rivalry and disagreement among
the people of guidance do not arise from failure to remember the Hereafter or
from short-sightedness, so too wholehearted agreement among the people of
misguidance does not result from farsightedness or loftiness of vision. Rather
the people of guidance, through the influence of truth and reality, do not
succumb to the blind insensitivity of the soul, and follow instead the
farsighted inclinations of the heart and the intellect. Since, however, they
fail to preserve their sense of direction and their sincerity, they are unable
to maintain their high station and fall into dispute. As for the people of
misguidance, under the influence of the soul and caprice, and the dominance of
sense-perception, which is blind to all consequences, and always prefers an
ounce of immediate pleasure to a ton of future pleasure, they come together in
eager concord for the sake of instant benefit and immediate pleasure.
Indeed, lowly and heartless worshippers of the ego are
bound to congregate around worldly and immediate pleasures and benefits. It is
true that the people of guidance have set their faces to the rewards of the
Hereafter and its perfections, in accordance with the lofty instructions of the
heart and the intellect, but even though a proper sense of direction, a
complete sincerity and self-sacrificing union and concord are possible, because
they have failed to rid themselves of egoism, and on account of deficiency and
excess, they lose their union, that lofty source of power, and permit their
sincerity to be shattered. Their function leading to reward in the Hereafter is
also negated. God’s pleasure is not easily achieved. The cure and remedy for
this serious disease is to be proud of the company of all those travelling the
path of truth, in accordance with the principle of love for God’s sake; to
follow them and defer leadership to them; and to consider whoever is walking on
God’s path to be better than oneself, thereby breaking the ego and regaining
sincerity. Salvation is also to be free from that disease by knowing that an
ounce of deeds performed in sincerity is preferable to a ton performed without
sincerity, and by preferring the status of a follower to that of a leader, with
all the danger and responsibility that it involves. Thus sincerity is to be
free of all egos and preferring others to oneself, and by walking on that path,
thus one’s duties of preparation for the Hereafter may be correctly performed.
I stop here for today. May Allah bless the Muslim Ummah to succeed in attaining unity by abandoning the self and thinking about the common interest of the Ummah and world, everything for the sake and pleasure of Allah. May Allah enable His Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam to succeed in making Islam whole and to remove all barriers of misinformation and differences so that the greater good of the Muslims and humanity is achieved under the blessed care of Allah. Insha-Allah, Ameen.
---Friday Sermon of 06 January 2023~ 13 Jamadi’ul Aakhir 1444 AH delivered by Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius.