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In the Name of Allah
Say:
"O
Allah. Lord of Power (And Rule),
Thou givest power to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off power
from whom Thou pleasest: Thou enduest with honour whom Thou pleasest,
and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest…"
This article is a research on the above
Ayah (Verse 26 of
Surah Āl-i Imrān).
What
do honor and disgrace themselves mean?
v
Materialism
says: Honor is in size. In other words, those who have many
things; the rich and those who have a lot of land and many houses are
honorable people.
v
Nihilism says:
Honor is in suspicions. This is a doctrine which considers
scientific dispute to be the main principle. The doctrine of
nihilism comprised a group of teachers who caused people to become
suspicious. They considered everything in the world to originate from
illusion and imagination.
They said man's honor is in
his ability for scientific dispute.
v
Realism says:
Honor is in realism. In other words, he who is closer to realities
and spiritualities has honor.
v
Some say: He who
is always contented has honor. But he who is always wishing is
dishonorable and never gets full. Whatever they give him he asks for
more. His mouth is open like a duck; a beak of a duck is always open and
it asks for more whatever it is fed.
Imam Bagher (AS) says: He who is
contented has honor and he who is covetous is dishonorable.
v
Some say:
Honor means doing research in science.
When the great philosopher, Mir Damad,
would discover a scientific issue, he would go on the rooftop around
midnight; not for the intention of saying prayers or call for prayers
(Adhan). He would go on the rooftop and say," Where are these powerful
people and their children to see what pleasure and honor I have?" In
other words, when he found a solution to a complex issue in philosophy,
kalam (sometimes called theological philosophy) or theosophy, he would
say no honor, pleasure or power was greater than that he had attained.
"Thou enduest with
honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest."
Mir Damad says when I discover these
principles, I have both honor and pleasure.
This too was one meaning of honor.
v
But
most gnostics believe:
It is true that some believe honor is in
wealth and power, we accept this. But the honor a gnostic and a
lover of God feels in his moments of connection and his private moments
with God, at times when he is close to Him and is whispering to God, he
would not exchange those moments with all other moments in the world.
v
Some say:
True honor means Islam.
In other words, all
those who repeat these statements, "la
ilaha illallah, Muhammadun Rasulullah
(There is
no god but Allah, and Muhammad (PBUH) is the Messenger of Allah)" have
honor. These statements are related to Islam and we add to them "Aliun
Waliullah
(Ali (AS) is the
Wali of Allah)", "Al-Fatimah
Ismatullah (Fatimah is the Ismah of Allah)"
Honor is in being with Allah; it is in
truly accepting the religion of Islam and honor is in true belief.
This is what
"Thou enduest with
honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest"
means.
It is not right to compare these
issues, but for the sake of clarification, Louis Pasteur had a lot of
honor because of his discovery of microorganisms. He dealt with people's
bodies but his scientific honor will never perish. Edison's scientific
honor too will never abate because of his invention related to
electricity.
The honor and magnificence Allah
granted to great people such as Seyyed Abul-Hassan Isfahani or Ayatollah
Burujerdi (may Allah exalt their status) will not only never vanish but
will even become more apparent as times goes by.
Ayatollah
Burujerdi (may Allah exalt his status) was honorable because:
Always at the
beginning of the months of Shaban and Ramadan, he would send money for
the students of theology in Najaf.
Once, he was
supposed to send the money the next day or the day after. When it was
the first of the month, Agha Sheikh Ahmad (Ayatollah Burujerdi's
secretary) said, "Sir, tomorrow is the first of the month. What do we
do, we have no money?"
Ayatollah Burujerdi
replied, "Whom do we work for? Do we work for ourselves or for Imam
Zaman? If we work for ourselves so nothing, but if we work for him,
he will take care of everything!"
Then he said,
"Tonight I will be at home. You do not come there."
(Apparently, he would
usually take him to a place for saying prayers and other affairs at
nights.)
That
night finally arrived.
His secretary was sitting in the outside part of the house. The sun had
not set yet. It was before the time for prayers. An Arab man in a long
garment in a special way came in and asked:
"Where is Seyyed?"
(He meant Ayatollah Burujerdi.)
Sheikh Ahmad
replied: "He is over there. Let me go and ask."
The man said: "No,
there is no need for you to go and ask. We ourselves see things."
Sheikh Ahmad
explains the situation in this way:
He entered the house
and I saw as soon as the Arab man entered, Seyyed himself came and
closed the door so that no one would enter the room. After some time he
immediately returned and said: Agha Sheikh Ahmad come to me tomorrow so
that we can have the money order issued.
The next day they
took the money to Qum or Tehran for the money order to be issued for
Najaf and the money they paid was for three or four months instead of
two!
Sheikh Ahmad asked,
"Sir, who was this man?"
Ayatollah Burujerdi
replied, "What is it to you? You just expect that we should pay the
theology students' shares."
This
is the ultimate degree of honor.
This
was a research on
"Thou enduest with
honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest"
and concerning different groups and schools who consider honor in
various things.
It should be said that attaining the
highest degree of honor is through one's own effort and perseverance and
the final signature is with Allah. Therefore, it should be said:
He gives honor to whom he pleases and
brings low whom he desires. |