Al’lah (Glory to His Name) urged His servants to have faith and believe that there is no god but Al’lah. In the Holy Qur’an He says, “Know, therefore, that there is no god but Al’lah.”[86]
But what is the essence of this faith which He says we should have?
In fact, the faith which God mentioned in His Book is not meant to be that faith which man hears about from others, or the student studies in his book or receives from his teacher, nor is it that which is transmitted to the son from his parents through legacy.
Such kind of faith is not to be desired as it is only personal opinion and blind acceptance.
The true faith is the sure knowledge that the spirit receives and a certain testimony that it attests to by itself which it then retains so that it becomes embedded within the spirit. Thus the two are never separated.
Faith is a moral thing that flows in the spirit as electricity flows through wires, water through branches and the life force in the human body. When faith rises in spirit, the spirit shines with light, knowledge and life. Whenever one sees a man characterized by virtuous attributes, good treatment of others, strong morals and the good deeds he does, know that he has true faith.
When man senses faith in the very depths of his being, then he feels at ease and his spirit becomes pleased too; equally, doubts and suspicions are cleared from his mind and all ambiguity is wiped out.
Faith is a personal form of research and testing associated with a contemplation of the universal signs. That is what our master Abraham (cpth) did. But before doing this, man should ponder on death and feel afraid of it. By that, the spirit realises the Existence of God and derives a torch of Al’lah’s Light and His Supreme Attributes.
If man does not follow this way of belief, he will gloss over the matters necessary to his spirit and thereby delude it. He will depend on mere hopes and uncertainties as he will use ploys for himself and for others claiming that they conform to God’s Legislation. Yet those tactics will deceive no-one but themselves and those who follow them.
The Almighty revealed the reason behind such acts when He says, “This is because they denied Our Signs and paid them no heed.”[87] They failed to meditate on the universe and as a consequence they did not magnify Him, the Almighty.
No man will be on the correct and rightful path however much is shown to him in a logical and eloquent manner unless he applies his positive process of thought to all matters throughout his entire lifetime from his very beginning as a single drop of semen until the time of his death.
The Holy Qur’an tells us the state of the Israelites who resorted to duplicity for they neither followed this way of belief nor did they appreciate their Envoy, our master Moses (cpth) who told them that the Sabbath should be a day of abstention from work and for reflection. However, due to their love of the worldly life and desire for financial gain they paid no heed to his wise words. One Sabbath, when God had ensured a plentiful amount of fish swimming towards the sea shore they dug channels to let the fish swim into them and become trapped. Then, the following day, Sunday, they caught them.
In their duplicity they fooled no-one but themselves! If they had only believed that there is no god but Al’lah, they would have seen Him nearby, watching and assessing their actions, and then surely, they would have never acted in this way. God acquainted us with their clever tricks by His Saying, “[Prophet Mohammad] ask them about the town [88]by the sea: how its people broke the Sabbath when their fish surfaced for them only on that day, never on weekdays. We tested them in this way: because of their disobedience.”[89] Since their spirits were evil-minded the Almighty gave them that test in order for them to cast off the malice settled within them; similarly, any man who does not acquire this belief for himself and through his own actions will surely follow in their steps.
As for those of the Israelites who set up this cunning plan, they were transformed into apes and swine, then they died after three days. This will be the fate of anyone that adopts the same lines. He will be destroyed for, by his actual deeds, his qualities will become debased and no better than those of apes, swine, and snakes (may God protect us from them).
Now here is a practical example of what we have mentioned which the undefiled man Mohammad Amin experienced one day.
A certain wealthy woman related to Mohammad Amin died, but just before her death she had charged her trustee Mohammad Amin, whose faithfulness she was sure of, to dispense a large amount of her money as alms to the poor and needy to gain grace for her pure soul that would bring her nearer to God and His Envoy.
Therefore, he decided to go to one of the clerics to request his assistance in donating the alms since he would know more about the needy families who deserved to receive this bounty.
He picked up the bag, heavy with golden liras, and headed off in search of one of the clerics to ask him to accompany him in order to apportion the money among the poor and needy people according to what he considered to be appropriate. But when the cleric held the bag of golden liras and heard how they rang out, he was so overcome that he could hardly swallow and had to make a great effort to speak. He said to Mohammad Amin with great wonder in his voice, ‘Do you really want to donate all this money to the poor?’
‘Yes,’ replied our man, ‘why not? Come on, let’s go.’
Yet that unctuous hypocrite said, ‘I know a way by which you can pay your money as alms, then you can get it back at the same time, and it will cost you only ten pounds. What do you say?’
Mohammad Amin was quite surprised at his words, so being cheerful and wanting to know more he asked him,
‘How can this be?’
The cleric answered, ‘I’ll bring you a needy poor man who deserves alms, then you can give him the money saying, ‘Take this money as a charitable donation for the soul of the late…’ the needy man will take the money and say, ‘I accept it from you, but I offer it back to you,’ and in return for this, you have to give him only ten pounds[90] which will fulfill the needs of his family for many days. ‘In this way’, the man continued, ‘you will have paid the obligatory amount of alms and you will have gained a great reward from God; but at the same time most of your money will have been returned to you.’
Our virtuous man was astonished at what he heard from the mouth of a man of religion, so he said to that deceitful man, ‘Truly? But what about Him whom you try to deceive? Is He here present with us, or not? Is not His Majesty, Al’lah, everywhere, watching us and taking note of our trickery?’
The religious charlatan was shocked at Amin’s reply and unable to utter a single word. So the honest man took back the bag of money as he had no faith in the cleric’s honesty because of the cunning and devious plans that he had proposed. He decided to do away with his help and intended to allocate the money to needy people by himself and set about looking for the places where those people might be found. Indeed, some people pointed him towards the areas where destitute families, who were truly worthy of charity, were living and he dispensed the money by himself to the deserving people.
As we see, anyone whose sole purpose is God’s Satisfaction will certainly be supported by Him, led by Him and guided by Him to the paths of good and faultless right, as He will also protect him from the cunning of wrongdoers and people of unlawful behaviour.