ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Beams of Illumination From the Divine Revelation (juz' 'amma - the Last Section of the Qur'an) Sura 11 : Surat an Nas Mankind In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful The final part of the Qur'an is concerned with taking refuge, while the beginning of the Qur'an is concerned with the recognition that the only path to success is that of glorification, supplication and praise.

The arrangement of the surahs in the Qur'an is a perfect one which was made by the perfect man, the , salla-llahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam. The very fact that he arranged them pro­vides the proof of the Qur'an's unity and completion. The revelation brought to mankind different aspects of the Tablet, or Book of Real­ity, on different days, in different months, and under different condi­tions.

These diverse aspects, however, all reflected the one and only Light, and only the Prophet, salla-llahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, knew how they were to be arranged in accordance with the only model which exists. Thus the last two steps of the revelation from Allah urge man to seek refuge in Allah, the Lord and Sustainer of all His creation.

1 Say: I take refuge in the Lord of mankind, Nasmeans "people, mankind." Its root word anisa is similar to the word nasiya, which means "to forget," denoting one aspect of man's nature. The attribute of forgetfulness can, however, be used to full advantage when we forget what is of no use to us. Thus we are better able to remember what is of priority to us. In this way we will not forget that at any moment we may die.

2 The King of mankind, 3 The God of mankind, We take refuge in the Lord, in the Creator of this entity called "man," who contains within himself both the higher attributes and the lower attributes. We take refuge in Allah from the lower attributes, from the attributes which cause us loss, which cause us further forget­fulness.

4 From the evil whisperings of the elusive shaytan, There is a great deal written about the word waswas which are subtle whisperings in one's innermost that incite one to evil. In one reference ten meanings are given for al-waswasah, denoting ten different attributes of the whisperer. If we overcome them we will un­derstand the shirk of waswas, and we will be able to truly take refuge from it. Waswas is an onomatopoeic word imitative of the sound of whis­pering.