ONE OF THE TWO GLORIOUS THINGS AWAITS THE BELIEVERS
Friday Sermon Presented by
Dr Mahmud Abul-Huda Al Husaini
In Al “Adiliyya Mosque Aleppo, 672007
The Exalted Allah said in His accurate Book:
"If good befalls thee, it grieves them; but if a misfortune befalls thee, they say, we took indeed our precautions beforehand, and they turn away rejoicing. Say: “nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: he is our protector: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust” " (At Tawbah, vs. 50-52).
In this verse, there is a dialogue between two groups, namely, the believers and the disbelievers. The disbelievers who are materialistic feel joy at the distress of the believers, but when the believers are victorious, the former feel gloom, worry and grief.
In this dialogue, the Exalted Allah teaches the group of believers, addressing the Imam of this group, our Master, Muhammad (PBUH) in particular, and all the believers in general, saying: "Say: “can you expect for us other than one of two glorious things” ".
According to your only perspective, you look forward to any harm that may befall us in this life, but we have quite a different point of view. We are waiting for one of the glorious things. Do not feel joy at our weakness and calamity, for we understand your joy at our distress in a different way. This different understanding on our part is the lot of the believer from these two glorious things. I”d like to have a little stance in this sermon to explain to you the connotations of this subject.
What are the two glorious things, according to the Exalted Allah”s promise, that are inevitable for the people of faith to attain?
In order to present to you some of these connotations, I”d like to begin first with the language, then I”ll move on to the Qur”anic guidance so that the Holy Qur”an is explained by its own indications to enable us to have an Arabic Qur”anic banquet.
In Arabic, "Husnayain" (two glorious things) is a dual word, the singular of which is "Husna". It is derived from the Arabic word "Hasan" (good). This word indicates whatever is nice and beautiful. When a female is beautiful, she is called as "Hasanatun or Hasna", and the male as "Hasan, Hassan or Husain". The most beautiful of the male is described as "Al Ahsan" and the female as "Al Husna". Thus "Al Husna" means the matchless and the most beautiful. In other words, it means the climax of beauty.
One of the two "Husnayain" are awaiting the believer. We should distinguish between "Husna" and "Hasanah". There might be better than "Al Hasanah", but "Al Husna" is the superlative degree of "good": "Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter" (Al Baqarah, v. 201).
Nothing is equal to "Al Husna". It is above "Al Hasanah", according to the linguistic denotation.
What are Al Husnayain?
They are the most glorious reward in the Hereafter, and the most glorious one in this life.
We should not discuss this matter on the grounds of its certainty or probability, because the Prophet (PBUH) had already explained it. Certainly, the Qur”anic verses, as the Prophet (PBUH) explained and clarified, are undoubtedly indisputable.
The Prophet (PBUH) interprets the flowing verse, "for those who have done good is the best reward and even more" (Yunus, v. 26), saying that the "reward" is Paradise, and "more" is looking at the face of Ar Rahman (the most Merciful).
In the Hereafter, there are resurrection of people, their spreading and the weighing of their deeds. On that Day, there will also be pulpits of light and shadows under the Throne. On that Day, there will be a lot of what is heard and well known, but Al Husna in the Hereafter is Paradise that is as wide as the Heavens and earth.
The meaning of the first Husna of the Hereafter has already been clear, but the idea of the second Husna of this life has been controversial. Each religious interpreter has his own potential point of view about it. In such a case, we had better appeal to the Holy Qur”an to derive some indications from it. I have chosen three places in the Holy Qur”an in which the word Al Husna is mentioned and referred to as the reward of this life, to explain its meaning so that the believer has a clear and certain meaning of Al Husnanyain.
1-The first place is in the Exalted Allah”s saying:
"The word of thy Lord was fulfilled for the children of Israel, because they had been patient, and we leveled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected (with such pride)" (Al A”raf, v. 137).
When the Holy Qur”an uses the expression "word” referring to something, it means that the Exalted Allah will reveal an extraordinary act. For example, Christ is called “Messiah” because he was created by the word "Be", and he was. The usual means by which a child is created were not present in his case and were not the cause of his existing. It was rather the Hand of the Able that revealed the extraordinary. Challenge of the means was obvious and clear in this case. That was exactly what happened when the Exalted Allah destroyed Pharaoh, his army and his wealth with a mere word.
Thus the Exalted Allah called Messiah (PBUH), who is a miracle and extraordinary in his existing, “Word”. He also called the incident of annihilating falsehood to reveal the truth (with the absence of all ordinary means), “Word”. He, the Exalted, described this “Word” as “Al Husna”. Thus the vanishing of the authority of falsehood, as well as the ending of the captivity, conquering and tribulation of the people of the truth, is described as Al Husna, or the Good Word of Allah.
The Exalted Allah called the performance of this extraordinary activity in this distinguished incident as effected by “the Good Word”:
"How many were the gardens and springs they left behind, and corn fields and noble buildings, and wealth (and conveniences of life), wherein they had taken such delight! Thus (was their end)! And We made other people inherit (those things)" (Al Dukhan, vs. 25-28).
Nobody could ever imagine the collapse of the reign of Pharaoh, because the law of the material would deduce that Pharaoh would never be conquered. In spite of all that, the Exalted Allah destroyed him by the “Good Word". The Exalted Allah punished him and made an example of him in the Hereafter and in this life.
2-the second place where the earthly Husna is mentioned in the Holy Qur”an is when the Exalted Allah related the story of Zul Qarnain:
"Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water. Near it he found a people. We said: “O Zul Qarnain (thou hast authority) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness”. He said: “whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back to his Lord; and he will punish him with a punishment unheard of before” " (Al Kahf, vs. 86-88).
Zul Qarnain wanted to urge people to be believers and do good deeds:
"But whoever believes, and works righteousness, he shall have a goodly reward"(Al Kahf, vs. 86-88).
He meant to say that worldly reward will be the lot of the believers to honor them in this world. They will have security against fear as well as abundance in wealth so that they get human dignity in its best and brilliant aspect.
3-The third place the earthly Good is mentioned is in the following verse in the Holy Qura”n:
"And there are those who put up a mosque by way of mischief and infidelity to disunite the Believers and in preparation for one who warred against Allah and His Messenger aforetime. They will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good; but Allah doth declare that they are certainly liars" (At Tawba, v. 107).
The disbelievers defended themselves by saying that they did not intend disunity of the Muslims, nor harming them or instigating the opponents of Truth to unite and wage war against Allah and His Apostle. They pretended to aim at presenting Al Husna in building this mosque.
By comparison, we can understand the meaning of the believers” Husna and that of the disbelievers mentioned in the previous verse. The believers” Husna means the unity of the Muslims, the growth of their faith, and gathering of the rows of the believers who support Allah and His Apostle. This is opposite to what the disbelievers did. The Exalted Allah described the disbelievers” deed saying:
"but Allah doth declare that they are certainly liars"
The exalted Allah uncovered their intention by saying that they wanted exactly the opposite of what they pretended to say.
They swore that they aimed only at Al Husna, but the Exalted Allah unversed their evil intention in details.
Thus, by comparison, the meaning of the Exalted Allah”s address is:
Unity of Muslims, growth of their faith, gathering of the rows of the supporters of Allah and His Apostle.
From the three Qur”anic indications in the three places mentioned above, we can deduce that the meaning of earthly Husna is:
the supremacy of the right over falsehood in addition to supporting the people of the right with security in their religion, their wealth and their souls against the domination of their enemy.
BY this, we will have understood the meaning of the dialogue in the verse: "Say: can you expect for us other than one of two glorious things".
This is the path, the result and the end of the people of faith.
When you are straightforward, sincere and faithful, when your inner self is directed to the Exalted Allah not caring for any other worldly obstacle, do not fear any other thing because the Exalted Allah”s promise in inevitable to make you attain one of the two Husnayain. In case you do not get the supremacy of truth upon falsehood in this world in spite of your being straightforward, stable and not caring for obstacles, then be sure that you will get them in Paradise. No matter which of the two Husnayain you get, for Allah, the Exalted, may give you both or one of the two Husnayain.
O brethren, I have explained the above mentioned situations to show that we need clarification of purpose, and losing purpose distracts us from being stable and fixed.
Losing purpose and being engrossed in our own secular affairs will only make us get astray from one of the two Husnayain.
When one is selfish and individualistic, when one seeks only his own personal benefit and does not understand the meaning of truthfulness, and is not verified by truth, when one does not know how to direct his heart towards Allah, he deviates from the straight path at the slightest temptation and slightest terrifying.
If you do not get the Husna of this world, you will definitely get the one of the Hereafter (i.e., Paradise), waiting for you.
The Husna of Paradise in the Holy Qur”an is mentioned also in the Prophet”s Hadith (PBUH). The Qur”anic Husna is mentioned in the following verses:
"For those who have done good is the best reward, (i.e., Paradise) and even more. No darkness nor shame shall cover their faces. They are indeed the companions of the Garden. They will abide therein forever" (Yunus, v. 26).
And:
"For those who respond to their Lord, are (all) good things. But those who respond not to him, even if they had all that is in the heavens and on earth, and as much more, (in vain) would they offer it for ransom. For them will the reckoning be terrible: their abode will be Hell, what a bed of misery‏" (Ar Ra”id, v. 18).
And:
"Those for whom The good (record) from us has gone before, will be removed far from Hell" (Al Anbiya”, v. 101).
And:
"Yea, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: so that He rewards those who do Evil, according to their deeds, and He rewards those who do good, with what is best" (An Najm, v. 31).
The Prophet (PBUH) said:
"When the Exalted Allah created Adan Paradise, He prepared in it something that no eye has ever seen, and no ear has ever heard, and no human heart has ever perceived. Then He said to it: “Speak”. It said: “The Believers must (eventually) win through” (Al Mu”minun, v. 1).
He, (PBUH) also said:
"The size of a whip of yours in Paradise is far much better than all the world and what it includes".
And:
"There is no tree in Paradise but its trunk is made of gold".
And:
"He who would get into Paradise (would be made to enjoy such an everlasting) bliss that he would neither become destitute, nor would his clothes wear out, nor his youth would decline".
And:
"The fragrance of Paradise can be smelt from a distance of one hundred walk".
And:
"The (members) of the first group to get into Paradise would have their faces as bright as full moon during the night, and the next to this group would have their faces as bright as the shining stars in the sky, and every person would have two wives and the marrow of their shanks would glimmer beneath the flesh and there would be none without a wife in Paradise".
And:
The wives of the dwellers of Paradise would sing to their husbands with the best of voices a person has ever heard. In one of their songs, they would say:"We are the Fair beautiful Companions; wives of the honorable people who are the delight of the eyes".
In another song, they would say:
"We are the eternal who would never die, we are the secure who would never be terrified, we are the settled who would not depart.
And:
"In Paradise there is a street to which they would come every Friday. The north wind will blow and would scatter fragrance on their faces and on their clothes and would add to their beauty and loveliness, and then they would go back to their family after having an added luster to their beauty and loveliness, and their family would say to them: By Allah, you have been increased in beauty and loveliness after leaving us, and they would say: By Allah, you have also increased in beauty and loveliness after us".
The best thing in Paradise is when the Lord of Majesty and Bounty emerges and uncovers the veil of His Countenance to the dwellers of paradise who would become overwhelmed by the bliss of His Beauty.
Oh believers, oh youth, oh clerks, oh merchants… be steadfast, for you will get either of the two Husnayain.
Be steadfast in righteousness, for by Allah, the embellished temptations presented to you are no more worth a wing of a gnat to Allah.
Allahum…Guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask God”s forgiveness.