Acknowledgement of God’s Glory
The first phase of Islam witnessed an extraordinary expansion of the Islamic Caliphate, but despite the vastness of its area, up to the time of the Umayyads, the centre of the Caliphate was only one, and that was Damascus. After the Abbasid revolution, a separate Sultanate was established in Andalusia. Thus, there came into existence two centres of the Muslim empire. Soon thereafter an independent political centre was established in Morocco. Then followed an independent rule in Egypt. In this way, one after another, independent Muslim states came into existence. A vast empire was divided into smaller Muslim kingdoms. One of these Muslim Sultanates is known as the Samanids. The Samanid Sultanate was established in Iran and lasted for about 150 years.
Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Saman (d. 892) was a Samanid ruler. It is said that when he conquered Nishapur he arranged for a big celebration. When he sat on his throne, he asked a certain Alim (religious scholar) to recite some verses from the Quran on the occasion of his coronation. The Alim recited the appropriate verses from chapter 40, one of which was as follows: “To whom shall the kingdom belong that Day? It shall belong to God, the One, the All Powerful.” (40:16)
When the Alim recited this verse, Sultan Nasr ibn Ahmad trembled with fear of God. He came down from his throne, took off his crown and prostrated himself before God. He said: “O my Lord, undoubtedly the kingdom is Yours, not mine.”
The superior qualities of prayer or the high quality of remembrance of God has nothing to do with mere recitation of words, but has rather to do with the inner states of the suppliant. According to a hadith, “One who humbles himself is the one who is held by God to be deserving of honour.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2588) He is the person who is able, by the grace of God, to remember God and pray to Him in such a way as to invoke His mercy and blessing, and it is as if one who is blessed with such prayer has attained Paradise on this earth itself.
