Ali Akbar: The Secret of Youth and Martyrdom

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🌼🔆🌼The Secret of the Soul: Youth, Love and Martyrdom🌼🔆🌼
🔹The Birth Anniversary of ʿAli al-Akbar (AS) and Youth Day

📅 Date: 1404/11/11 – 11 Shaʿban 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:

🌹 Love never grows old

Indeed, ʿAli al-Akbar brought love to life in this world and made it young again. He made love and martyrdom forever young in this existence. Love can never grow old, for someone like ʿAli al-Akbar displayed the masterpiece of martyrdom so gloriously on the Day of Ashura. He is ʿAli al-Akbar, the son of Husayn; he planted this magnificent masterpiece of martyrdom in the world. ʿAli al-Akbar gives life to the young and breathes new life into their souls; he even makes the elderly young again. Whoever speaks his name feels their spirit and life grow young; everything they possess becomes young, because the spirit of ʿAli al-Akbar courses through their soul.

It is ʿAli al-Akbar who brought worship to life. It was as though the Messenger of God himself walked this earth—in his character, his appearance and his speech. What nights ʿAli al-Akbar must have spent! What moments he must have known! What a sight his beauty must have been to Imam Husayn (AS). If only we could glimpse his son’s beauty for a moment through Imam Husayn’s eyes. By God, our Lord cherished ʿAli al-Akbar, took pride in him, and wrought wondrous things in this existence through him. Why? Because God brings wonders into being in this world through the purity of young people who devote themselves to worship and servitude.

🌟 What an exalted station a pure young person holds

What an exalted station a pure young person holds! The Messenger of God (PBUH) narrated this hadith: Allah, Exalted is He, brings wonders into being in this existence for the sake of the young person who refuses to indulge in the frivolities of youth, who casts idle play aside and does not act foolishly or say, “I’m young; I should enjoy my youth.” When God looks upon such a young person, He brings wonders into being in this world. The hadith says that God Himself is astonished. Our Lord is never astonished; the Messenger of God spoke this way to make clear the young person’s greatness. God takes pride in the pure young person who restrains their carnal desires, and brings wonders into being through them.

👑 Allah, Exalted is He, takes pride in the young person devoted to worship

Allah, Exalted is He, takes pride in the young person devoted to worship, boasting of them before His angels. He lines up the angels, shows them that young person, and proudly declares: “Look at My servant, at that young person! They have renounced their desires for My sake alone; they have turned away from them because they love Me.” He takes pride in them before the angels.

Allah, Exalted is He, loves the young person who repents. How deeply God loves such a young person! It is astonishing! God loves no one and nothing more than the young person who repents. No one is more beloved to God than a young person who turns back to Him. And no one is more hateful to Him than an old man who persists in sin and will not give it up. On the one hand, He loves the young person who repents with a love beyond compare; on the other, He hates the one who persists in sin as He hates no other.

God loves the young person whose youth is spent—and brought to its end—in obedience to Him. What an exalted station! To be young, yet offer one’s youth to God as a sacrifice, and bring it to an end in obedience to Him. How great is the merit and distinction of the young worshipper who worships God at the peak of youthful desire! The merit of a young person who worships God in their youth, compared with that of an old man who worships Him only after reaching advanced age, is like the merit of a messenger-prophet over other people. How great is the superiority of the Prophet Muhammad al-Mustafa, the Messenger sent by God, over all others? It is beyond measure! The distinction of the young person over the old man is just as immeasurable. Well done to the pure young person who worships in obedience to God.

📖 The Quran becomes interwoven with their flesh and blood

What a lofty station it is for someone to recite the Quran while still young! A young person who loves the Quran, recites it, and makes it part of their life—what is the effect? The Quran becomes interwoven with their flesh and blood, and God, the Almighty and Glorious, makes them the companion of «کرام البرره» (the noble and righteous angels). It keeps them company, and the Quran itself becomes their advocate and defender. On the Day of Resurrection, the Quran will stand up for them. It will not leave that young person’s side, but will say: “My Lord, everyone who did a good deed received its due reward—everyone but my companion, my reciter.” It is as though God has already given them their reward, yet the Quran seeks an even greater reward for that young person. “So, O Lord, bring all Your gifts to their fullest measure; let them reach their full perfection.” Then the Most High will clothe them in the garments of Paradise and place the crown of honour upon their head. But the Quran will not be satisfied, and will address the Lord, saying: “I had hoped for even more than this.” Then God will place security and peace in their right hand, and everlasting life in their left, and enrich them so greatly that the Quran is satisfied with them. This is the secret of youth.

⚔️ The greatest jihad is one in which blood is shed

A young person can set the whole world ablaze with change. For a young person to be pure and devoted in worship, to rein in their desires—that is a source of wonder and pride in this world. God takes pride in them. And if that young person enters the battlefield of jihad, what happens? Let us try to picture Ali Akbar’s courage in battle, and how our God looked upon him there: how He looked upon that young man, pure beyond compare, that young man, flawless and noble, the beloved red rose of Husayn. How proud He was of him! How He addressed His angels! What grandeur, what mysteries lay within that moment!

What are the best deeds, the deeds most beloved to God, the Almighty and Glorious? The Prophet said: “Faith in God and jihad in His cause.” They asked: “And which jihad is the greatest?” He replied: “How wondrous, how lofty a station! May those who long for it aspire to this! The greatest jihad is that in which the fighter’s horse collapses and their blood is shed: both the mount is slain and the fighter’s blood is spilled.”

Jihad is a mighty force within the human soul, one of the soldiers of reason. When it is active, the power of jihad lives within a person. When it is absent, jihad has died within them; it has departed. To abandon jihad… “Shall I tell you about Islam, its root and branches, and what makes it rise?” The Imam said: “The root and foundation of Islam is prayer; its branches are almsgiving; and what raises it to eminence and glory is jihad.”

To reach that innermost spirit of jihad, we must take four steps so that its spirit may awaken within us. Faith rests upon four pillars: certainty, patience, justice, and jihad. And jihad rests upon four branches: enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong; truthfulness in the field; anger for God’s sake; and enmity toward the wicked. When these four spirits have been breathed into a person, they become a fighter in God’s cause. In the struggle along God’s path, they achieve such astonishing deeds that they adorn the whole world for all eternity. Let us aspire to jihad and to martyrdom alike. Whoever does not strive in jihad has lost. What a lofty station jihad and martyrdom hold!

🔑 Paradise lies beneath the shadow of swords

Our master, the Commander of the Faithful, was preaching to the people and urging them to jihad. A young man rose and addressed Imam Ali: “Tell me of the virtue and merit of those who fight in God’s cause.” The Imam replied: “I was seated alongside the Messenger of God (PBUH) on his she-camel, al-Ghadba (al-Ghadba was a swift camel)—that is, we were returning from a military expedition. I then asked him the very question you have just asked me.”

And the Imam said: “When a warrior for Islam… May God grant us the blessing of jihad in His path. If we are not granted jihad, then truly we have lost. When a warrior for Islam resolves to undertake jihad, Allah writes for him deliverance from the Fire. And when he prepares for jihad, equips himself for it and shoulders his weapon, God boasts of him before the angels. When that warrior bids farewell to his family, the walls and houses begin to weep. They grieve, and his sins fall away from him as a snake sheds its skin. He, too, is freed of his sins; they fall from him, and he sets out pure and cleansed. And Almighty God appoints forty thousand angels to protect each one of them, assigning them to guard him from before and behind, and from his right and left. Whatever good deed he performs is multiplied for him many times over. How could I not long for this? How else could I attain such a station but through jihad? For him is recorded the worship of a thousand people—those who worshipped God for a thousand years, each year 365 days, and each day as long as the life of the world. I cannot begin to calculate the measure of this worship, this reward, this recompense, this attention from Allah.

“When he stands before the enemy, the knowledge of the people of this world falls short of the reward they will receive. That is, there is no one on earth or in heaven who can calculate the reward, recompense and merit God will grant them; it is beyond everyone’s reckoning. And when they face the enemy, when spears are thrust and arrows set to the bows, when one man charges another—what an extraordinary scene! The battlefield of jihad: we had no idea what astonishing scenes unfold there! The field of jihad is all tumult and fervour. God raises up a Day of Resurrection on that battlefield. The angels encircle them with their wings and pray to God for their victory and steadfastness. At that moment, a herald proclaims: Paradise lies beneath the shadow of swords.

“What a state of joy martyrdom brings! Every thrust and every blow that strikes a martyr is easier and sweeter than a refreshing draught of cool water on a hot summer’s day. And when the martyr falls from his mount, pierced by a thrust or struck by a blow, before he has even reached the ground, his companion from among the houris embraces him between earth and heaven and honours him with God’s promises. And when he reaches the ground, she says to him: ‘Welcome!’ As he strikes the ground—may God grant us this—she says: ‘Blessings on that pure and immaculate spirit, released from a pure and immaculate body. Good news! What awaits you is something no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no heart has ever conceived.’ And Almighty Allah says: ‘I shall take his place among his family. Whoever brings joy to his family brings joy to Me, and whoever angers them angers Me.’

“God places his spirit within the breast of green birds—that is, those special birds become his mount—which fly wherever they wish in Paradise, feeding on its fruits and taking refuge in golden lamps suspended from the Throne. By God, whoever is not granted jihad and does not attain martyrdom has lost.”

“Each of them is given seventy chambers in the chambers of Firdaws. Their light fills the space between east and west. Each chamber has seventy doors; each door has seventy golden leaves, with curtains hanging over them. Each chamber contains seventy tents; each tent, seventy golden couches, their legs joined with pearls and their finials of emerald. On each couch are forty carpets, each carpet forty cubits thick, and on each carpet a pair of houris…”

“…And the Imam said: ‘That is the contented houri, who has seventy thousand servants, both men and women, adorned with yellow gold and with radiant white faces. On their heads are pearl crowns, and in their hands are bowls and ewers. At the Resurrection, when she comes forth, her colour will be the colour of blood and her scent the scent of musk. She will stride across the plain of Resurrection. By Him in whose hand my life rests’—this is how the Imam swears—‘the martyred warrior will stride across the plain on the Day of Resurrection. By God, by Him in whose hand my life rests, if the prophets were to cross his path, they would dismount and show him special honour. Whatever prophet it might be, he would dismount from his mount—even from his Buraq, whatever mount he rode—to honour that martyred warrior, until they reach tables laden with jewels and sit down at them. Each of them will intercede for seventy thousand of his family and neighbours, until the neighbours begin to dispute over who is fortunate enough to sit beside him. And with Abraham, the intimate friend of God (AS)… We have reached this point, the very summit we hoped to reach. This is the goal; everything before it was merely a prelude to bringing us to this centre… And with Abraham, the intimate friend of God, they will sit at the table of eternal life, gazing upon their Lord morning and evening.’

🦁 I am Ali, son of Husayn, son of Ali.

اللهم ارزقنا توفیق شهادت و جهاد.

This is Husayn. Can we even imagine the beauty and perfection of Ali al-Akbar? We cannot. All that has been described so far belongs to the rank of an ordinary warrior. What, then, was Ali al-Akbar’s rank? No human being or angel could fathom it. What a masterpiece Imam Husayn (AS) created on that battlefield! What a selection he made—no one before or since has shown such originality, such artistry in the realm of love and martyrdom. What blossoms he had! What loves he cultivated and brought to the threshold of martyrdom! What a constellation Imam Husayn (AS) had! What a garden he created—a garden of love and martyrdom. It was a work of sublime artistry, the art of Husayn, which one must sit and contemplate for years—indeed, for centuries, for light-years—to behold its grandeur.

Search from the realm of angels to the realm of the divine, and we will find no one like Ali al-Akbar. No one like Ali al-Asghar, Ali al-Awsat… What a deed Imam Husayn (AS) accomplished! And what must the vision of Ali al-Akbar look like, from the realm of angels through the divine, the dominion of power, and the realm of the divine essence? No one can conceive it: the vision of his martyrdom, his worship, his beauty and majesty, his character and form. Imam Husayn sprinkled salt across the world of existence, adding an everlasting savor to it; no one can imagine being without that enduring taste, even for a moment. Imam Husayn’s art of Ashura endures, bearing its own distinctive patterns, colors, and melodies, woven from many different notes and voices.

When Ali al-Akbar stepped onto the battlefield, he recited these verses:

أنا عَلی بن الحسین بن عَلی
We and the House of God have the greater claim to the Prophet.
By God, the son of a bastard will never rule over us.
أضرِبُ بالسیفِ أحامی عَن أبی
ضربَ غُلامٍ هاشمیٍّ عَلَوی

“I am Ali, son of Husayn, son of Ali. By God, we are closer and more entitled to the Prophet than the lowborn Shabath and Shimr. I will strike you with my sword until it bends—the sword of a young Hashemite, an Alid. By God, I will keep defending my father today, so that the son of an adulteress does not rule over us.”

Had it not been for those blows, Yazid would now rule over our very lives; the wickedness of wicked Shimr would hold sway over our souls and hearts.