Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: God lets go of people who insist on deviation, sickness of their hearts
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Monday, the second of Rabi al-Awwal. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudential issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi explained the tenth verse of Surah Baqarah and the 93rd verse of Surah al-Nahl, and discussed the reason for one of the divine traditions: abandoning some of His creations.
On verse 10 of Surah Al-Baqarah, “In the hearts of the hypocrites, there is a disease, and God increase their disease, and for them is a painful punishment, as a punishment for those who lie (in professing their faith),” his Eminence said: “Here, God Almighty is referring to the hypocrites who despite knowing the truth, refuse to accept it. In this context, there’s a proverb among the Arabs which says: Ya’aref wa Yahref, meaning he knows and distorts reality.”
His Eminence continued “This is like when a patient goes to a doctor, and despite his order, even though he knows that it is necessary to take medicine for treatment, he intentionally refuses to do so. In such a situation, when the doctor sees the patient’s stubbornness and insistence on not treating his illness, he leaves the patient to himself. In the same way, God Almighty, when He sees the hypocrites are not treating their heart disease, and stubbornly insists on not accepting the facts, God leaves them to themselves. Increasing the disease in this verse means to abandon them.”
The Marja also touched on verse 93 of Surah al-Nahl, “He leads astray whom He wills and He guides whom He wills,” and said: “Leading astray in this verse here also has the meaning of letting go of those who insist on remaining astray, and it does not mean God Almighty actually misleads them. In such a situation, the Almighty God will not help a person who insists on his deviating path, and will not protect them against the machinations of the devil and their carnal whims.”
