Nahjul Balagha: Sermon 1, paragraph 2 part 2

Salams.

In our last post we looked at the first sentence of the second paragraph of sermon number 1.  This sermon covers the first of the principles of submission which is tawhid or the unity of Allah (SWT).

The second sentence of this paragraph:

The perfection of acknowledging Him is to testify Him

is a very deep, profound and complete idea that covers the entire faith and belief if we allow ourselves to contemplate on it fully.  As we saw in the first sentence, that testifying Allah is the very first step to belief, and it can not be done without thinking about His creation on the outside of ourselves or contemplating deeply on the meaning of our own lives and why we have been placed within His creation in the first place.  Once we have gained the awareness that ourside ourselves is a universe that has not been put in place functioning in a perfect manner by some power we are logically taken to the perfection of that level when the threshold has been reached of the certainty that it is not by mistake as well as the fact that it is undeniable that it was created by a single entity - Allah. 

This is where the automatic perfection kicks in, that of testifying Him, however, testifying Him is multifaceted beginning with a very basic mental testimony of yes it is undeniable that there is One creator of this entire existence.  The mental testimony is followed by the verbal "La illaha Illallah" or There is only One God. and this is the most basic involvement of a human being.  In this instance we can all agree that not all Muslims are equal.  There are some of us who merely testify with our tongues but we may not have reached the point of witnessing with our bodies.  Again this witnessing also follows the course of many levels.

We may not yet have reach the point of obeying the simplest of commands of Allah such as:
Praying, fasting, giving charity, paying the poor taxes or going for hajj.  This are as we will all agree the most basic fundamentals and manifestations of submission whereby we are not necessarily considered believers but are at least within the boundaries of Islam.  One evidence of this is the Holy Prophet's tradition paraphrased reads:
The fine line between belief and disbelief is the prayer.  
If we do not yet pray, we have not entered belief but are merely on the level of verbal testification of Him.  Once, however we have committed to fulfilling these commands, we have entered an inner circle of testification beyond the level of verbal testification and that is the testification of Allah with our limbs.  

It was Imam Zainul Abideen (as) the 4th Imam who spoke of the duties of human beings.  He began with our duties towards Allah and these duties towards Allah began with the testification of our limbs to His Oneness.  Again, this level is still on the physical level even though it does go beyond verbal testimony but has not yet reached the testimony of the heart which is obviously a higher grade of both understanding and of testimony because the heart can either be attached to Allah and His friends or towards the physical and material life (the dunya) based on the level of the human beings' superior understanding of his duties towards Allah and his understanding of his relationship with Allah. The submission of the limbs, although being a manifestation of man's verbal testimony is not evidence of his emotional testimony.  This is what the holy Prophet meant when he said:

Say not that you are believers, but say that you are muslims for Islam has not yet entered your hearts.  

This shows the point at which a person is transformed from a simple Muslim to a believer because belief is a term used to refer to the state of the heart not of the mind or the limbs.  It is interesting also to note here that the "revolution of the heart" is the point at which a human being is transformed because it is the heart that has become revolutionary because understanding takes place in the heart rather than the mind.

Once this belief or testimony has touched the heart, we witness the tranquility within the person in question because of the submission of the person towards Allah over the difficult events that he encounters in life however in these events, he is able to remain patient, still and in control of his emotions.  The stillness of his limbs in these sittuations is the sign of the level of belief and submission because in the previous level where the limbs were testifying Allah, the heart was not yet submitted to Allah and therefore patience had not yet been gifted to him.

One of the exercises to increase this belief and patience is the act of fasting whereby Muslims are under training to keep their mouth, and limbs under the power of submission which leads to the heart being submitted and this leads to a higher level of morality where one loves Allah over his own nafs or self.

We can take this a step further as we climb the faculties of man and arrive at the throat, expression or communicative center.  The throat is under the control of man's self until he is able to offer his mind into the control of Allah. This requires a superior level of thinking not just understanding and a higher  level of intelligence which only comes from higher knowledge beyond the self into an understanding of man's duties towards at least the initial limits of society - the family, and neighbourhood.  This will cause man to control his tounge.

Once man has connected his mind and thoughts to Allah, he will be able to have control over his entire body and this is the submission of his entire self to the will of Allah.  This is the completion of the level of testifying Him at which point it is called - believing in His One-ness.  The reason for this is that, at this point we have understood the unity of purpose of all man in submitting to Allah's will and only in this understanding comes the submission of the entire self.  This is what we have seen in the behalvior of the Imams and this is the difference of verbal testimony vs complete testimony whereby once's life becomes the testimony to His one-ness.

Remember, this is only the second level of Islam where submission crosses over to belief.