Amaan–Protection and Peace

Size: 14”x22” // Medium : Watercolours

The fourth wa’z mubarak of Ashara Mubaraka 1443 ^AH by al-Dai al-Ajal Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin ^TUS was based on the following kalaam muneef by Imam Ali b. Abi Talib ^AS.

طلبت الامن فوجدته في ترك الذنب

I sought protection, safety and peace and found it in abandoning sins.

Syedna ^TUS explained that true peace is achieved when people are able to live comfortably, undisturbed by the threats of their environment because they have ensured their protection.

Syedna ^TUS mentioned a letter that Dai Abi Abdillah ^RA dispatched to many locations in North Africa at the onset of zuhur over a thousand years ago that reflects his efforts to establish a just society. Among its contents, it stated ‘I pray that Allah Ta’ala enables me to foster a just society to the extent that a wolf and a sheep may drink from the same waterhole.’ A wolf will often prey on a sheep if given half a chance. However, Imam’s ^SA Dai wished that a sheep would be able to quench its thirst without fear even though a wolf would be standing next to it. This would only be possible if the sheep felt secure and protected adjacent to the wolf. The metaphor drawn here refers to the Dai’s noble resolve that the Imam’s state should be so safe and just that even a commoner, akin to a sheep, need not fear an influential or powerful person of means, akin to a wolf, without valid cause.

This analogy made me ponder how we as individuals could benefit from it to attain a state of inner peace in our own mental states. Could the inner sheep learn how to protect itself from the sabotaging and belittling voice of the inner wolf that takes on the voice of a relentless inner critic? And instead of turning into a helpless victim that always feels bullied, undervalued, unloved, insecure and, most of all, scared, can the inner sheep find protection from the inner wolf?

To ensure this protection, the inner sheep has to realise its own fault in undervaluing its true source of power and becoming prey to the ideas of the inner wolf. Just as stated by Maulana Ali b. Abi Talib ^SA “One who doesn’t recognise his worth has perished”. The sheep too needs to recognise its true worth and believe in it. It is the role of the intellect to ensure that a just and peaceful mental environment be created within our mental fortresses where the wolf cannot scare or overpower the sheep because the sheep has finally ensured its protection by making peace with its identity.