Shaikh-ul-Islam Mawlana Abdol-Hamid urged on the importance of purification of the soul, saying true faith and piety increase the value of mankind before the Sublime.
Talking to thousands of worshippers gathered for Friday prayers on Dec. 27, 2013, he said, “As the beloved prophet, peace be upon him, stated people are minerals. Every nation is like mineral either enriched with gold or silver. This Hadith suggest human beings are ‘cash’ in any condition. This shows the great value of mankind.”
He added more, “There is another important point that should be noticed; when gold is taken out from mines it is not bullion, but it needs to be melted to extract. In the same way, when a child is born, he or she is not pure and net morally; there must be the same process of extracting to gloss the person and throw away the bad habits and attitudes.”
Pointing out to the great status of mankind, Shaikh Abdol-Hamid said human beings have a very big rank before Allah as believers are higher than the angels in rank. Allah has given mankind honor. They can be closer to Allah by doing good and avoiding bad. But all people have some bad tributes like selfishness, greed, arrogance, enmity and dozens of other defects. Then lucky people purify themselves and work hard to be pious.
“There are some people who are very close to Allah due to their good acts and deeds. On the other side, some other people commit sins and neglect their duties, so they are worse than animals as the Noble Qur’an affirms. Mankind can be higher than angels and also worse than animals. Rapacious people cannot be valuable before Allah; if someone does not offer prayers and leave the straight path, he has no worth.”
The rector of Darululoom Zahedan termed the punishment of Allah the result of mankind’s opposition to the divine law, saying He gets somebody to the Hell, punishes another in his or her grave and destroys the home of someone else on him only because they violated the commands of Allah. The secret of mankind’s respect and value is in the life with the directions of the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Concluding his points in the first part of his speech, Shaikh said, “None of the commands ordered by the Shari’ah is free of any rationality. If they were so, still we were supposed to obey them. The fact is that, all rules of the Shari’ah are full of wisdoms and rationales. So obey Allah to increase your value and get rid of sins to not be worthless.”
‘Fraternity’ and Reluctance of Violence, Path of Iran’s Sunnis
In the second part of his speech, Khateeb of Zahedan alluded to the trip of some high officials to the province of Sistan-Baluchistan in the last week, calling it the sign of the government’s focus on this deprived province.
He said, “Many of the bereft provinces of the country have been ‘developed’ now; Sistan-Baluchistan suffers from lack of factories, industrial areas, a huge unemployed population plus arid lands. It is a poor province that needs more attention from the rulers.”
“But despite it, there are many ‘latent talents’; Sistan-Baluchistan is enriched with talented citizens. If the officials utilize these talents eagerly, they will see how the province gets development. Not only we can progress our own province, but also we can provide the capital our services,” Sunni leader underlined.
He called on the government of Dr. Hassan Rouhani to pay more attention on the deprived province of Sistan-Baluchistan. “He is invited to travel to this province himself to meet people and know more about their problems directly,” he added more.
The member of the IUMS further said, “People of this province and the rest of Sunnis of Iran have been taking steps on the path of fraternity and approximation refusing violence. They do not support extremism and Takfeer. Our people enjoy a foresight; they are broad-minded and the unity of Muslims around the world is their vision.”
He finished his points by saying the Iranian nation, including Shia, Sunni and other communities must avoid going to extremes. Instead, working together for an advanced state should be the common aim of everyone in the country.