The Lover’s Journey to the House of God

🌿 From the Pilgrimage of the Dust to the Eternal Hajj 🌿

🔹 A Commentary on al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya: Supplication 23
📅 Date: 1404/02/25 — 17 Dhu al-Qaʿda 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some points discussed during the session:

🌟 وَ کانَ مِنْ دُعائِهِ إذا سَأَلَ اللَّهَ العافیةَ

وَ کَانَ مِنْ دُعَائِهِ عَلَیْهِ السَّلَامُ إِذَا سَأَلَ اللَّهَ الْعَافِیَةَ وَ شُکْرَهَا:

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ أَلْبِسْنِی عَافِیَتَکَ، وَ جَلِّلْنِی عَافِیَتَکَ، وَ حَصِّنِّی بِعَافِیَتِکَ، وَ أَکْرِمْنِی بِعَافِیَتِکَ، وَ أَغْنِنِی بِعَافِیَتِکَ، وَ تَصَدَّقْ عَلَیَّ بِعَافِیَتِکَ، وَ هَبْ لِی عَافِیَتَکَ، وَ أَفْرِشْنِی عَافِیَتَکَ، وَ أَصْلِحْ لِی عَافِیَتَکَ، وَ لَا تُفَرِّقْ بَیْنِی وَ بَیْنَ عَافِیَتِکَ فِی الدُّنْیَا وَ الْآخِرَةِ…

🕊 My God, how had I not seen this before?

Imam Sajjad—what hidden mysteries he has entrusted to this blessed Sahifa! My God, how had I not seen them? I had read it many times, but why had I not grasped its secrets?
My Lord, bestow upon me the blessing of Hajj, ʿUmrah, and a visit to the tomb of Your Messenger**, upon whom be Your blessings, mercy, and grace.

🕌 For all eternity… Hajj, ʿUmrah, and visitation

My God and my Lord, for all eternity, bestow upon me the blessing of visitation, Hajj, ʿUmrah, and a visit to the tomb of Your Messenger and the family of Your Messenger.
Yes, this is the prayer: he asks God for his Hajj, his ʿUmrah, and a visit to the Messenger and his family. In other words, at every moment we should be engaged in Hajj, ʿUmrah, and visiting the Messenger and his family—in the universal realm, in time, and beyond time; in this world and the next; in the realm of the spirit and through the realm of the body.
In this year—that is, in this common year, the year shared by all in the material world—and in every year, he asks God for Hajj, ʿUmrah, and a visit to the Messenger and his family for all eternity: inwardly and outwardly, this year and every year.
And O God, make that Hajj, ʿUmrah, and visit to the Messenger and his family accepted, rewarded, remembered, and blessed. How beautiful is this prayer of Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him! If only I had seen it sooner! That is, if only I had witnessed this blessed prayer with the eye of my spirit… How fortunate you are to hear this magnificent intimate prayer, as the Imam, year after year and moment after moment, **draws aside the veil from the beauty of his prayers.

💫 Love for God is a sign of God’s love

What a mystery! No one can love God Most High unless God loves that person.
In other words, whoever loves God should know with certainty that this love is a sign of God’s love and affection for them.
God takes the lead in love and affection.

🕋 We are all circling in love, unaware…

God loves first; then God’s servants fall in love with Him.
Indeed, this whole spiritual journey, this entire universe, is the path of the Greater Hajj.
We are all circling in love, and we do not know it.
If we were to ask the particles in motion, they would say:
All our striving is our own journey between Safa and Marwa.
All are journeying between Safa and Marwa; all are circumambulating the Inhabited House,
even if we are unaware of it. This is the absolute truth.

So at every moment we must be mindful of our state of consecration.
If someone goes on pilgrimage without entering ihram, their Hajj is invalid.
If they are not pure when performing the Hajj, their Hajj is invalid.
In this world of being, we are in a state of Hajj.
Have we entered ihram for this Hajj, or are we unaware?
Have we formed the intention?
At every moment, we must be mindful of our state of nonbeing.
I am a pilgrim, performing Hajj alongside all of existence, and I don’t even know it.
Why did I enter ihram without knowing?
So let us set right the nonbeing of our Hajj, and renew it.

🔥 The fervour begins: seeking the Face of God

Let us embark on a passionate journey to attain the Face of God… let us plead for the Face of God.

🤝 The covenant I had made…

When did I make a covenant of Hajj with my God?
I had made a covenant of Hajj—so why have I not become a pilgrim?
Along with yūsāt, I had made the covenant of Hajj too, without knowing it.

🐪 The thirst for Hajj, like thirsty livestock

God made pilgrimage to His Sacred House obligatory.
That House which God made a qibla for humankind.
Our master, the Commander of the Faithful, says:
“God Almighty has made pilgrimage to His Sacred House obligatory for you—the House He appointed as the qibla for all people.”
So that, like livestock—like those startled animals making their way to their watering place—they thirst**,
see their watering place, and rush towards it in **a state of eager excitement.

Whoever is overcome by thirst does not forget water for a moment.
Human beings should learn from livestock.
When thirst overwhelms livestock, they know nothing but water.
They will not stop until they find water, drink from it, and slake their thirst.
Their sleep and their thoughts are filled with the sound of water.
They hear water, see water, and are sustained by water, until they reach it and drink.

This is the example our master gives: livestock.
Let us not mistake his meaning!
Livestock, too, have their way of prostrating; they, too, lie low.
Indeed, there are people who are lower than those animals.
Yes, even the beautiful gazelle is among the livestock.
Human beings should learn from livestock: the lesson of thirst, the lesson of love, the lesson of love for God.
Our hearts must burn with love for God.
We must hasten towards the water of God’s love.
Our watering place is the Kaaba: the Sacred House of God.
Whether the outward Kaaba or the inward Kaaba.

🐎 Buraq, the Prophet’s vessel to Sidrat al-Muntaha

Buraq is a mount, a living creature—the very Buraq that served as the vessel for the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad Mustafa, on his journey through the realm of the covenant to Sidrat al-Muntaha.
A creature smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey.
I have used livestock as an example so that, for a moment, my mind might grow more receptive to our master’s examples.

💖 The greater the thirst, the wider the vessel

We must be like the thirsty one.
The thirst of our hearts grows stronger, moment by moment.
We must have a capacious heart**, so that our thirst, too, may grow.
How can our hearts grow larger? **The way is through knowledge.
As knowledge deepens, the vessel of knowledge, too, expands.
The vessel of knowledge is the human heart.
When it is purified, pure wine is poured into that purified vessel.
We must hasten towards the state of thirst.
At first, one prays like this…

🌌 O my master, I can never have enough of your love

He prays in this way:
My Master, my Lord,
I hunger for Your love and affection; I can never be sated.
I thirst for love of You; I am parched, and cannot be quenched.
O You for whom my longing is so great, though You see me and I do not see You,**
O God, *my longing has cleft itself open from longing. O Friend and Beloved! O Friend and Beloved of whoever turns toward affection and reaches out a hand in friendship to You, O light of my eyes*;
You to whom one flees for refuge, turning away from all others, and who draws near in return,
**You see my loneliness among people, and my desolation among them.

The Master says: God made pilgrimage to His Sacred House obligatory. He made it the qibla of all people,
so that they might hasten toward it as grazing animals rush to their watering place;
so too, they hasten toward the Sacred House of God,
like doves flying eagerly, almost beside themselves, toward their nests.

In other words:
The Kaaba is both our watering place and our nest;
it is our home, our place of rest.

🕋 An unceasing pilgrimage, until life’s final moment

Yes, we must perform the Hajj and the ʿUmra.
But let it be an ʿUmra that lasts for ever—as long as God has decreed that we shall live.
Our state should be that of a pilgrim, of one performing the ʿUmra.
We should remain ever in the presence of the Messenger of God,
possessing both inward and outward capacity.
In every respect, we must be capable.
Our hearts must be ready for the journey;
our whole being, every cell, must be prepared for pilgrimage, for meeting God.

The Hajj and ʿUmra are visits to God’s messengers.
They must be continual, perpetual, uninterrupted—
just as the remembrance of God must never be uprooted from our hearts.
Just as the remembrance of God is not confined to prayer alone,
our state should be that of one who is ever at prayer,
and likewise, we must be ever on pilgrimage.
We must always be pilgrims, always performing the ʿUmra.
If that inward pilgrimage were to vanish from our being for even a moment,
we would be cast aside, fall, and cease to move forward.
A pilgrim is one who is always moving, to the extent of his capacity, along the path of spiritual wayfaring.

🔄 The movement of the cosmos is a dance of love

I pondered: Why does this world turn?
And I realized: These things are not merely moving; they are in love!
By God, the cosmos is engaged in a dance of love.
In the great circumambulation of existence,**
together with *Bayt al-Maʿmur*, they circle that very House;
they are **engaged in loving God.

🌌 From the circling of particles to the supreme encounter

The cells of our souls, our molecules, atoms, and particles,
and the particles of the universe, along with its celestial bodies and nebulae,
are all revolving, all circumambulating.
They seek to show their love for their Creator.
In other words, the whole universe is on pilgrimage, performing the ʿUmra, alive with fervour and love;**
and **not for a moment does it cease its movement.

These vast galaxies, revolving in their orbits,
are circumambulating.
When will this circumambulation come to an end?
And when will the supreme encounter take place?
The Eternal Beloved will reveal Himself…

🛤 May we be pilgrims in every realm

Yes, let us ask God:
Our Lord! We too must become pilgrims to the Sacred House of God in the years of this material world.
And in the years of the higher worlds,** to *each and every heaven*,
in the years of those heavens too, **we must become pilgrims.

📖 Reflections on two great prayers from al-Ṣaḥīfa

How beautifully Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him, addresses God in prayer!
The first prayer was in the twenty-third prayer of al-Ṣaḥīfa;
and this prayer is part of the forty-seventh prayer of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya.

🕯 The next moment is all the life I have left…

O my God and my Lord,
by the uprising of sorrow**, make my life a pilgrimage and an ʿumra.
**My God, in the life I have left, I want to be nothing but Your pilgrim, one who performs ʿumra for You.
May I seek and pursue only Your countenance.
My God, the next moment is all the life I have left.
That is, I ask God
that from this moment on, I may be God’s pilgrim, one who performs ʿumra for God.
The next moment—the next moment of every human life—is all that remains of it.

In other words, our Imam Sajjad
asks God, from the very moment of his birth, from the dawn of his life and existence, to be God’s pilgrim.
To hasten only toward Him,
to seek Him, to love only Him.
And peace…
What a wondrous prayer!

🍯 If only we were the bees of the Sahifa…

By God, O God!
Each time a person reads this prayer, its sweetness grows.
If only we were the bees of the Sahifa Sajjadiyya,
drawing out its nectar and making it into honey.

Yes, the next moment is all the life we have left,
and it must be spent in pilgrimage and ʿumra,
with no desire but seeking the Face of God, seeking God’s pleasure and God’s love.
Anything else is forbidden.

My God, turn the life I have left into pilgrimage and ʿumra for You.
One must move from circumambulating the Kaaba to reaching the Kaaba itself.
The goal is to reach the Kaaba and enter the Sacred House of God;
to attain that greatest and most magnificent encounter.

💓 Pilgrimage is the fervour of love and longing

A person sets out on the path of love and longing; they must see it through to the end.
Love is itself a road**; one day, it will reach its end.
A new journey must begin **beyond love.

Pilgrimage is the fervour of love and longing.
It means that when love for God stirs within someone,
they attain it and are swept beyond themselves**,
roused to passion and motion.

**So we must arrive.
We must carry the journey through to its end.

Pilgrimage means: I love God; I must hasten toward my beloved.
Pilgrimage means: He has called me to Himself; I must hurry.
Not for a moment must I fall still in this journey, this impassioned movement.
Pilgrimage is longing to meet God.
Whoever longs to meet God, God too longs to meet them.

🔁 The practice of love, the practice of meeting God, the practice of the Resurrection

Can such love exist?
If it can, then I am always a pilgrim, continually performing the Hajj and the ʿumra.
And whoever finds the prospect of meeting God abhorrent, God too finds meeting them abhorrent.

Pilgrimage is a sign of love for God; it is the practice of love, the practice of meeting God,
the practice of what lies beyond this world, the practice of the Resurrection, the practice of reaching the final encounter.

I must practise now, so that I may be ready for that greatest and final encounter.
I must place my trust in the reality of pilgrimage.

🕊 Humbly answering the call before the majesty of God

The Most Glorious God made it a sign for those who humble themselves before His majesty.
Thus pilgrimage became a sign from God of humility before His majesty
and of complete obedience to His might.
From among His creation, He chose and selected those most ready to hear,
those who answered His call with “Here I am.”

Who are the ones who hear?
Who answered God’s caller with “Here I am,”
affirmed His word,
stood at the stations of God’s prophets,
and made themselves like the angels who circumambulate?

Let us review once more:
They hurry like thirsty livestock,
like swiftly flying doves—fervent and enraptured, hastening toward the Hajj.
Before God’s majesty, they show the utmost humility;
they acknowledge the glory of the Exalted Lord.
They have ears that hear: they answered His call with “Labbayk,” responding to the summons,
and affirming God’s word.
They took their place among God’s prophets,
and made themselves like the angels circling God’s Throne.

🕯 Rich profits in the marketplace of servitude

In the thriving marketplace of worship and servitude, they reaped rich profits.
They vie to draw near to Him,
at the appointed meeting place of divine forgiveness and pardon.

God made the Hajj a banner of Islam,
its most distinctive emblem.
For those who seek refuge in the Sacred Precinct, He established a sanctuary and a sign.
He made it their duty, ordained the Hajj,
and prescribed and recorded their journey to it.

To journey there means to hasten on horseback.

God willing, if I am granted the opportunity, I will speak of its mysteries in sessions to come, if life and the grace to continue are granted.

📯 The primordial response to the call of Abraham, God’s intimate friend

Then Allah, Glorified is He, said:
Pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to God by all who are able to make the journey. And whoever disbelieves should know and be certain that Allah is beyond need of all the worlds.
Indeed, Allah made the Hajj obligatory.

There were people who answered the call to Hajj, who responded “Labbayk” to God’s herald.
The noble verse says:
…

وَ أَذِّنْ فِی النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّCall the people to the Hajj, and they will come to you on foot and on every lean mount, from every distant, deep-cut road.

I have mentioned this only to arrive at the following point:

Whoever did not hear has lost out.
When Allah, Glorified is He, commanded Abraham to summon the people to the Hajj,

he stood upon a stone and called out.
The narrator relates:

The Imam said: If the call had been phrased this way—let me repeat it:
Abraham, God’s intimate friend, called out:
“Hasten to the Hajj! Hasten to the Hajj!”
The Imam says that if he had called:

“Hasten to the Hajj,”
his call would have reached only those who were alive at that time,
and the Hajj would have been obligatory only for them.
But he called: “Come to the Hajj.”

So people answered “Labbayk” while still in their fathers’ loins,

saying, “Labbayk, O herald of God!”
For each person who said it ten times, ten pilgrimages were recorded.
For each time they said it, a Hajj was recorded for them.
And for anyone who did not say “Labbayk,” no Hajj was recorded.
“Halam al-hajj” means that every person, in every age, in the world of primordial ذر, whether in their fathers’ loins or their mothers’ wombs,

received Abraham’s direct transmission of God’s command.
That is, God’s command reached every single human being directly.
📡

A call that reaches the ear of every human being’s primordial natureThe address is to each and every person.

And each should have answered “Labbayk” there.
So whoever became a pilgrim
answered the call of Abraham, God’s intimate friend.
Abraham, God’s intimate friend, conveyed God’s command to the ear of every human being’s primordial nature—

or, we might say, to the ears of every particle in the universe.
Everyone heard God’s command
and answered His call with “Labbayk.”
Everyone is familiar with this call from God.
And all God’s calls are the same command as “Yawm al-Alast”:

Am I not your Lord?
They said, “Yes, You are our Lord.”

🕊 A timeless, placeless proclamation—to all

Prophet Abraham, as God’s herald,
personally conveyed God’s command to every person,
and obtained their pledge.

This proclamation
knows neither time nor place.
It has reached every region of this world.

Everyone is on the inward pilgrimage,
and must also fulfill the outward pilgrimage.
Just as we should remember God at every moment,
so, at the time of prayer, we should recite, follow, and establish the prayer.

🧪 God puts us to the test…

God tests us with the most heavenly trials.