Wednesday, September 24, 2008

From Surat al-A'raf (7) verse 160


"When his people asked him to drink, we inspired to Mussa : "Strike the rock with your staff !" from it gushed twelve springs; each community knew their drinking place"
Imam Jaafar al Sadeq (ra):
"From Divine knowledge ( Maarifa) 12 springs gushed forth, so that the people of each rank, in each station, would drink from one of the springs. The first spring being that of Unicity, the second that of pleasurable slavehood, the third the spring of Sincerity, the fourth the spring of Truthfulness, the fifth the spring of humility, the sixth the spring of Acceptance and Reliance, the seventh that of Serenity and dignity, the eight that of generosity and trust in Allah, the ninth the spring of Certainty, the tenth the spring of the Intellect, the eleventh the spring of Love, the twelfth the spring of Seclusion and Intimacy which is the mother spring of Divine Knowledge from which all other have sprang.
Each drinks from a spring, tastes its sweetness and desires to drink from the spring that is higher; so that in this way, he drinks from one spring to another until he reaches the mother spring, the source where he is verified by Al-Haqq."
My comment: Here Mussa (as) is shown to be the spiritual leader, the Prophet. There is no reference to the tribes as in exoteric commentaries which have introduced to the Qur'an material from non-Islamic sources. In addition, this makes complete sense of the verses and returns the Qur'an to its true rank of a spiritual scripture and not a history text.

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