Islam Guidance

From the View of the Islāmic Sages

From the View of the Islāmic Sages

 Islāmic philosophers have discussed this issue in a different way, but the conclusion they have reached in the end corresponds with what we have deduced from the verses and traditions. 

 Avicenna (Ibn SÄ«na) says: “People are divided into three groups in terms of soundness of body or physical beauty: one group is at the stage of perfection in soundness or beauty, another is at the extreme of ugliness or illness.  Both of these groups are in a minority.  The group that forms the majority are the people who in the middle in terms of health and beauty; neither are they absolutely sound or healthy, nor do they, like the deformed, suffer from deformities or permanent sickness; neither are they

“Similarly, from the spiritual point of view, people fall into the same categories; one group is in love with truth, and another is its stubborn enemy.  The third group consists of those in the middle; and they are the majority, who are neither in love with truth like the first group, nor its enemies like the second.  These are people who have not reached the truth, but if they were shown the truth, they wouldn’t refuse to accept it.”

 In other words, from the Islāmic perspective and from a jurisprudential viewpoint, they are not Muslims, but in real terms, they are Muslims.  That is, they are submissive to truth and have no stubbornness toward it.

Avicenna says, after this division:

 ÙˆÙŽØ§Ø³Ù’تَوْسَعَ رَحْمَةُ اللٌّهِ

 “Believe God’s mercy to be encompassing.”[93]

In the discussions of good and evil of al-Asfār, Mullah Åœadrā  mentions this point as an objection: “How do you say that good overcomes evil even though, when we look at the human being, which is the noblest creation, we see that most people are caught in evil deeds in terms of their practice, and stuck in unsound beliefs and compound ignorance in terms of their beliefs?  And evil deeds and false beliefs destroy their position on the Day of Judgement, making them worthy of perdition.  Thus, the final outcome of humanity, which is the best of creation, is wretchedness and misfortune.”

 Mullāh Åœadrā , in answering this objection, points to the words of Ibn SÄ«nā and says: “In the next life, people are the same as they are in this life in terms of their soundness and felicity.  Just as the extremely sound and exceedingly beautiful, and likewise the very ill and exceptionally ugly, are a minority in this world, while the majority is in the middle and is relatively sound, so too in the next world the perfect, who in the words of the Qur’ān are al-SābiqÅ«n, or “the foremost ones,” and similarly the wretched, who in the words of the Qur’ān are Aŝhāb al-Shimāl, or “the people of the left,” are few, and the majority consists of average people, whom the Qur’ān calls Aŝhāb al-YamÄ«n, or “the people of the right.”

After this, Mullāh Ŝadrāā says:

 ÙÙ„أهل الرحمة والسلامة غلبة في النشأتين

 “Thus, the people of mercy and soundness are predominant in both worlds.”

 One of the latter sages, perhaps the late Ä€qaāMuhammad Ridhā Qumshi’Ä«, has some unique verses of poetry about the vastness of the Lord’s mercy.  In these verses, he reflects the belief of the sages, and rather the broadness of the `Ä€rifs’ (mystics’) stand.  He says:

 Ø¢Ù† خدای دان همه مقبول Ùˆ نامقبول
 Ù…ِنْ رَحْمَة بَدَا ÙˆÙŽ إِلَــى رَحْمَةٍ يَؤُلُ
 
از رحمت آمدند و به رحمت روند خلق
 Ø§ÛŒÙ† است سرعشق Ú©Ù‡ حیران کند عقول
 
خلقان همه به فطرت توحید زاده ند
 Ø§ÛŒÙ† شرک عارضی بوچ Ùˆ عارضی یزول
 
گوید خرد که سر حقیقت نهفته دار
 Ø¨Ø§ عشق پرده در، Ú†Ù‡ کند عقل بوالفضول
 
یک نقطه دان حکایت ما کان و ما یکون
 Ø§ÛŒÙ† نقطه Ú¯Ù‡ صعود نماید Ú¯Ù‡ÛŒ نزول
 
جز من کمر به عهد امانت نبست کس
 Ú¯Ø± خوانیم ظلوم Ùˆ گر خوانیم جهول
 

 Consider all to be Gods’, accepted and non-accepted,

From mercy it commenced and to mercy it will return.

From mercy the created ones came, and to mercy they go,

This is the secret of love, which baffles the intellect.

All of creation was born with the innateness of Divine Unity,

This polytheism is incidental, and the incidental subsides.

Says wisdom: Keep hidden the secret of truth;

What will the prying intellect do with love, which pulls aside the curtains?

Consider the story of what was and what will be to be a dot,

This dot sometimes ascends and sometimes descends.

None but I strove to keep the trusts,

Whether you call me oppressive or call me ignorant.

 The discussion of the sages pertains to the minor premise of an argument, not the major premise.  The sages don’t discuss what the criterion of a good deed or the criterion of a deed’s acceptance are; their discussion is about the human being, about the idea that relatively speaking, in practice, the majority of people – to differing extents – are good, remain good, die good, and will be resurrected good.

 What the sages wish to say is that although those who are blessed to accept the religion of Islām are in a minority, the individuals who possess fiÅ¥rah (innate) Islām and will be resurrected with innate Islām are in a majority.

In the belief of the supporters of this view, what has come in the Qur’ān about the Prophets interceding for those whose religion they approve of is in reference to the innate religion, and not the acquired religion, which, through incapacity, they haven’t reached, but towards which they show no obstinacy.

 Notes:

[78] al-Mīzān, Volume 5, Page 51

[79] Refer to al-MÄ«zān, Volume 5, Page 56-61, “Discussion of the Traditions”

[80] al-Mīzān, Volume 9, Page 406, from al-Kāfī

[81] al-Mīzān, Volume 9, Page 407, from Tafsīr al-`Ayyāshī

[82] al-KāfÄ«, Volume 2, “Kitab al-Imān wa al-Kufr,” section “A`nāf al-Nās,” Page 381 (Ä€khÅ«ndÄ« print)

[83] Ibid., Page 382.  The last sentence of the tradition is:

     حَقاًّ عَلـى اللٌّهِ أَنْ يُدْخِلَ الضُّلاٌّلَ الْجَنَّةَ

 translated as above.  But in some texts, it is as follows:

     حَقاًّ عَلـى اللٌّهِ أَنْ لاٌ يُدْخِلَ الضُّلاٌّلَ الْجَنَّةَ

which would mean that the Imam (as) changed his opinion and accepted the view of Zurārah.  Obviously, this isn’t correct, but based on this reading another meaning is possible, which is that the Imam (as) may have intended that these people will not be punished, but they will also not go to Heaven. 

[84] Ibid., Page 388

[85] Ibid.

[86] Ibid., Volume 1, Page 183

[87] Ibid., Page 203

[88] Ibid., Page 187

[89] Ibid., Page 399

[90] Ibid., Volume 2, chapter on deviation (Dhalāl), Page 401

[91] Ibid., Volume 2, Page 463

[92] Ibid., Volume 2, Page 464

[93] al-Ishārāt, towards the end of the seventh section (nama)

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