Salman Spiritual :: Towards the Inner Vision of the Truth :: An Ismaili Perspective

"Vr. 2:201. (227) 'Those who pray for the present life only or only for the hereafter show that they feel themselves secure in the life for they do not pray for, without the help of God. Hence the prayer of a true and a sincere believer must be for both the life here and also for the life hereafter. The prayer for both lives, enjoined upon Muslims by the Holy Qur'an, indicates that Islam wants a human soul to adopt a middle course between materialism and asceticism (i.e., one-sided spiritualism discarding the material life altogether).'

(Source: S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali's translation of the Holy Qu'ran, p.204)

"Vr. 16:43. (1191) 'Zikr' is one of the names of the Holy Qur'an as well as the Holy Prophet Muhammad (15:9). According to the interpretation of the Holy Ahlul-Bait, 'Zikr' here means the Holy Prophet and by his 'Ahlaz-Zikr'. The 'Ahlul-Bait' [are] the divinely chosen ones of the family of the Holy Prophet), [thus] the Imam of every age is the 'Ahle-Zikr' of the age (UB., MFA., DM., Ibne Murdwaih). In the very next verse, the Holy Qur'an is called 'Zikr'. Thus, the 'Ahlaz-Zikr' could be no other than the Holy Prophet Muhammad and his 'Ahlul-Bait'.
 

(Source: S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali's translation of the Holy Qu'ran, p. 856)