The Month of Nurturing the Hearts

🌼🔆🌼The Complainants on the Day of Judgment🌼🔆🌼

🔹 The twenty-first night of blessed Ramadan, the Night of Decree
📅 Date: 1404/01/02 — 21 Ramadan 1446
✨ Gathering: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed:

🌌 Experiencing the Night of Decree: Are we among those whom He wills?

By God’s grace, we were granted the opportunity to experience the twenty-first night of blessed Ramadan.
The twenty-first night, the Night of Decree—the night when…
O God! Are we too among those whom You will?
O God! Will we partake of this blessed night’s unceasing blessings until dawn?
Will we draw in the Night of Decree, with all its blessings, heart and soul?
If there is a bond of attraction between us and that Night of Decree, and we truly know its worth, it will not let us go; it will draw us towards itself.
Then we will become companions of the Night of Decree for all time; wherever it goes, we will go with it.
O God…

📖 A night of gifts for those accepted: every verse bears the weight of a thousand months

My God! This is the night You named the Night of Decree, on which You sent down Your firm remembrance,
Your Quran, this blessed light, this firm word, upon us.
And You made this night superior to a thousand months.
For those who are accepted, the Night of Decree is a night of gifts, a night of giving.
Who are those who are accepted? Who are the ones welcomed on this night?
Are we among those accepted, or among those turned away?
If we are accepted on this night, it is a night of gifts, a night of giving.
God, the Ever-Giving, who is always generous, sends down on this night a weight of blessings unlike any other—a thousand months’ worth.
Every moment of it bears the weight of a thousand months.
Where is the heart ready to receive? Who is the heart that will accept and take in God’s immense gifts on this night?

⚖️ A night of loss for those turned away: repentance on the brink of ruin

For those rejected, this is a night of calamity.
For the losers, it is a night of calamities.
The weight of this calamity is unlike that of the nights and days before it; this loss cannot be made good.
O God, I repent to You this very moment, lest I be turned away.
I ask You to count me among those accepted and welcomed, so that we may not be deprived of Your gracious gifts.
Alas for loss! Alas for ruin and harm!
Who would incur God’s wrath on this night?
Could anyone do such a thing?
Indeed—one act of backbiting is enough to place someone among the losers.
It is enough for the heart to turn towards falsehood for a person to be among the ruined.
It is as though this lower self lies in wait for me, ready to bring me down like Iblis.

🌠 Standing in prayer on the Night of Decree: the posture of servitude, drawn to greatness

Blessed is the one who receives a share of His mercy.
So, Lord—Allahumma, O God—grant me the blessing of standing in prayer on this night, raising myself to the posture of servitude.
On this night, let me stand and rise**;
in **servitude and love of You, in remembrance and invocation of You, and in accepting whatever befalls me.
Blessed is the one who turns their attention on this night to that which Allah has exalted.
If only we too could stand tall and gaze upon that exalted one, behold him.
It is a night of greatness.
What must our Imam of the Age, Mahdi, the master of this age and time, be feeling?

🕊 Angels circling the noble stature of God’s Proof

When all the angels gather around him, they circle him as they circle the Kaaba.
They long to cover that form with their kisses, to draw him into their arms.
They long never again to be parted from that noble being, the pride of earth and heaven.
That stranger upon the earth… Those celestial beings remember the stranger in God’s land,
who, in this realm, is so unknown and so wounded.

🌙 Ramadan: divine protection against the trials of this world

It is the blessed month of Ramadan, and we are in its heart, at its very core.
Can we hear Ramadan’s heartbeat?
We are in the heart of the blessed month of Ramadan.
We have come to be saved, to be delivered, to break free from every prison.
The afflictions of this world have closed in around us.
God Most High has sent us a shield called Ramadan—the fast—so that we may be saved from the afflictions of this world.
The world subjects us to thousands of pains and calamities. We become so sick that we imagine we belong to this world,
and forget our Lord’s majesty and divinity, His Book and the Prophet’s family, and our duties.
We imagine we came to God’s earth merely to eat and sleep, and forget that God is testing us.
But God sends us the fast to save us, to deliver us from these afflictions.

🛡 The Intention of Fasting: Renouncing Desires and Avoiding Satan’s Trap

It becomes a veil between us and the punishment of the Hereafter.
When you fast, set your intention.
How?
By resolving to break free from desires, to keep myself away from them, not to be enslaved by them or fall into their trap.

⚔️ Resolving to Cut Off Satan’s Footsteps

And I will intend:
May I never follow in the footsteps of Satan and the devils.
May I never set my own foot where the devils have set theirs.
I will sever my foot from ever stepping where Satan has stepped.
And if I have the strength, I will cut off the devils’ feet, too.

🧠 Making the Ego Sick: The Beginning of Healing and Liberation

Make your ego sick—that carnal appetite…
If it does not fall ill, we will never be healed.
Until our carnal appetite becomes sick,
we will remain sick with it, enfeebled by this base, commanding self.
Make this carnal appetite so sick that it has no appetite at all.
Beat it down so completely that it no longer craves food, that it forgets the food and desires of this world.
Let food and drink no longer enter its thoughts, so that we may be healed.
How long must we remain captive to this commanding self? When will the time come for us to take flight?

🧼 Cleansing the Sickness of Sin: Recovering a Quranic Palate

I had forgotten that I was afflicted with the sickness of sin.
It has taken from me all my spiritual sensitivity.
I can no longer feel spiritual delights.
I ask God to heal me of the sickness of sin, and
I cleanse my heart of every lie and darkness, every stain, heedlessness and gloom.
Those barriers that kept me from sincerity in seeking God’s pleasure…
The blessed month of Ramadan is the month of steadfast remembrance of God; the month of reconciliation with the Word of God.
It is a month of encounter, a time to embrace the Quran.
This is the time when the Quran opens itself up and unfolds.
The Quran interprets itself, opens itself, reveals itself.
But I do not see.
It opens every petal, releases its fragrances, displays its beauty, pours forth its nectar, reveals its honey…
But I cannot comprehend.
My palate has gone blind.
I had not understood that I must cultivate Quranic character to draw benefit from God’s Word.
I am far from the Quran.
The night of the Quran’s unfolding and boundless expansion has arrived. God is about to open it up.
Blessed are the hearts that are open to the light of the Quran.

🌧 The Night When Divine Gifts Pour Down: Betraying the Trust of the Two Weighty Things

Tonight, hearts are to be opened wide, for Allah is about to rain down His grace and gifts from heaven.
The majesty of the Qur’an is about to be unveiled. Knowledge will rain down; wisdom will rain down.
Had I asked the Creator of this breast for this heart?
The blessed breast is the speaking Qur’an, receptive to all these gifts.
What share is there for me?
This forsaken Qur’an, which I have confined and made a prisoner…
What do I want now? Which of its veils do I wish to lift?
That tremendous light which the mountains could not bear…
The Day of Judgment will come: a day of complaints and grievances.
A day when this mighty Word of God will take us to task.
Why?
Because I had asked to become the bearer of God’s trust, yet I betrayed that trust.
On one side, the Qur’an; on the other, the Prophet’s Household—they will take me to task.
I had chosen to be entrusted with the Two Weighty Things, but I betrayed them.
The Day of Judgment is the day when the Two Weighty Things will seek justice.

🕋 The Prophet’s first step on the Day of Resurrection

The Messenger of God, the Messenger of the Qur’an, Muhammad al-Mustafa (PBUH), says:
“On the Day of Judgment, I will be the first to enter the presence of Allah, the Almighty, the All-Compelling.”

📜 The great question on the Day of Judgment: What did we do with the Book of God and the Prophet’s Household?

After me, the Book of God… or, rather, with me, the Book of God and my Household.
Then my community will enter the presence of Allah, the Almighty, the All-Compelling.
Then I will question them.
Whom?
He will question his community:
What did you do? What did you do with the Book of God and my Household?
If only we could say just this:
“We forgot it; we did not throw it aside like a stone.”
If only that were enough for us…
But it will not be so.
We cause harm to the Qur’an, by day and by night.
And we cause harm to the Prophet’s Household.
Unwittingly, we invoke their names, then turn our backs on them and speak insolently against them.
We bury them beneath domes.

📖 An excuse worse than the sin: Imam al-Sadiq’s warning

Someone once said to Imam al-Sadiq (AS):
“I owe many debts, and I have no chance to read the Qur’an.
This distress, this mountain of debt, has taken the Qur’an from me. It has made me forget it.”
The Imam replied—or, as he says:
“Do not make excuses! Do not offer an excuse worse than the sin.”
I urge you, when it comes to showing reverence for the Qur’an, to turn to the Qur’an—to the Qur’an!
Why?
Because on the Day of Judgment, a verse from the Qur’an, or one of its surahs, will come forth
and reveal a thousand of its ranks in Paradise.
Each verse rises through a thousand degrees.
And the Qur’an will say:
“If you had preserved me, I would have taken you there—to those far-off, unknown realms…”
Where is that exalted station?
If we had preserved the Qur’an—not merely its words, but its allusions, subtle meanings, commands, and practice—
then we would have truly preserved it.
Otherwise, we are the losers.
On the Day of Recompense, we will be buried at the foot of that very supreme gathering.

⚖️ Three particular claimants on the Day of Judgment: the Qur’an, the mosque, and the Prophet’s Household

Whoever forgets a surah of the Qur’an will see the Qur’an appear before them on the Day of Judgment in its most beautiful form.
It will stand before them and say:
“What are you, to be so beautiful? I wish you belonged to me!”
And the Qur’an will say:
“Do you not recognize me? I am that very surah of the Qur’an. Had you not forgotten me, I would have raised you up.”
One thing is for a person to rise by their own effort;
another is for the Qur’an to carry us with it—to envelop us in its light and take us along.

On the Day of Judgment, three particular claimants will bring their complaint before Allah, Blessed and Exalted:
1. The Book of God
2. The mosque of God
3. The Prophet’s Household, the family of purity and protection from sin

The Qur’an will say:
“My Lord, they have set me on fire! They have torn me to pieces!”
One kind of burning is outward;
another is inward:
one person tears the Qur’an’s pages;
another tears apart its meaning.
They speak of the Qur’an, yet act against it.
They interpret it to suit their own desires—in other words, they distort its meaning.

And the mosque will say:
“My Lord, they have closed me down; they have neglected me.”
We have turned the mosque into a reception hall!
We have changed its very character, using it only for our own benefit.
What will happen on the Day of Judgment?
Do we love the mosque?
Do we remember to hasten eagerly to the mosque, to offer a few rak‘ahs and remember God there?

🩸 The Household’s Complaint Before God: Blood Unjustly Shed

And the Household of Purity and Infallibility will complain:
“My Lord! They attacked us and killed us; they rejected us, drove us away, and made us wanderers!”
By God, we have made our Imam of the Age a wanderer.
The Prophet of Islam says:
“I myself will stand firm on my own two feet to seek justice for these three particular complainants before Allah, the Almighty.”
And God will say:
“I am the particular complainant. I, Allah, the One, the All-Compelling, will call them to account.”

🏛 The General Complainants on the Day of Resurrection: The Silent Mosque, the Stranger Scholar, the Dust-Covered Qur’an

Let us look at this from another angle:
A person has not only three complainants of the most particular kind; there are also specific complainants and general ones.
And these three general complainants will bring their complaint before Allah, the Almighty:
1. A mosque in which no one prays
2. A scholar among the ignorant
3. A copy of the Qur’an left under the dust of heedlessness

🕯 The Qur’an Beneath the Dust: Reciting Its Truths in Tartīl, Not Merely Its Sound

A neglected mosque, disregard for a scholar, and a dust-covered copy of the Qur’an will all complain to God.
The dust of heedlessness and forgetfulness…
The dust of separating the Qur’an from the Household—take the Household away from the Qur’an!
The dust of using the Qur’an for worldly ends,
of personal interpretations…
We failed to recite the Qur’an in tartīl, as it should have been recited.
It is not only its words that should be recited in tartīl; its allusions, subtleties, and truths should be recited in tartīl as well.
We should have reflected on it and reasoned deeply about it.
This is the Qur’an’s intellectual tartīl.
Its truths have not been recited in tartīl; we must read them in tartīl.
Let us ponder its meaning, live by the heart of the Qur’an, and turn toward God with an attentive heart and full spiritual vision.
The number of درجات in Paradise is equal to the number of verses in the Qur’an.
When the bearer of the Qur’an enters Paradise, he will be told, “Recite, and rise.”
There is a degree for every verse, and no one reaches the highest degrees except the one who has memorized the Qur’an.

⚠️ Ingratitude for Blessings: Even Dry Bread Will Call Us to Account

Even if they do not bring a complaint, by God, we will still be called to account.
We will be questioned about God’s blessings.
If we ask God for a particular blessing, let us know that we will be called to account for it—unless we use it in a way that pleases God.
The food we eat—even a piece of dry bread—will complain against us if we do not invoke God’s name.
We will be questioned even about that dry bread.
But if we use all that we have to draw nearer to God,
those blessings will become wings that carry us toward His good pleasure.

Woe to us on the day we are ungrateful for blessings…
If we want a full stomach, a refreshing drink, a peaceful sleep,
if we seek a home and a place to rest, let us be aware: one day we will be questioned about all of it.

🍞 Forgetting the Needy: We Will Be Questioned About Beauty and Outward Blessings

You filled your stomach, but forgot the needy.
You drank a delicious drink without sparing a thought for those who were thirsty.
Whether it was food for the body or nourishment for the mind, status, remembrance, and the like…
You enjoyed the pleasure of sleep without a thought for those who were awake;
for those so hungry they could not sleep,
their pain driving sleep from their eyes.

If someone seeks a balanced character, if they ask God to make them beautiful,
they adorn themselves with every ornament to become attractive…
One day, they will be asked:
What did you do with that beauty?
Did you honor that beauty by observing the limits set by God?
You will be called to account!

O you who seek beauty, beware the reckoning on the Day of Judgment.
If we are questioned about these things,
will we not be questioned about the greatest blessing of the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt?
Every particle of our being will be called to account.

God’s speaking Qur’an is a supreme blessing, beyond which there is none greater.
What did we do to fulfil their due? Did we know what was owed to them, or not?
Through His Qur’an, God makes Himself known to us.
He wishes to speak to us, just as He spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Just as He spoke to His Muhammad, He wishes to speak to us, too.
He wishes to reveal His majesty to us: His exaltedness, glory, grandeur, oneness, riches, attributes and words.

🌧 The earth and heavens live through the blessing of God’s Proof

We are the hands of God’s compassion and mercy. We are the Face of God.
That Face of God through which gifts are bestowed.
We are the very Gate of Guidance, through which you are guided.
We are God’s treasurers, in His heaven and on His earth.

Through us, the trees bear fruit.
For our sake, fruits ripen.
Rivers flow.
The sky sends down its rain.
The earth brings forth its growth.

Through our acts of worship, God is worshipped.
If our Imam of the Age were to pass away, worship would be taken from the face of the earth.
Without God’s Proof, the earth would be left without worship.
Though He remains hidden from view,
the light of His worship reaches us.
The power to serve God comes alive within us.

Were it not for Him, we would be lower than cattle, sheep and camels.
Speaking for myself, I would be worse.

📡 Why don’t we know Ali? Because we lack a heart that knows Ali

The Master of the Godwary, the Commander of the Faithful, says:
“I am, and this noble codex…”
Ali is the very hardware that reads the Qur’an’s software.
He is the Qur’an’s all-encompassing display.

What would happen if we connected to the Master’s network?
What would we see? What would we witness?
How can we come to know Ali?

What qualities do Ali’s devoted followers possess?
Why don’t I know Ali?
Because I lack a heart that knows Ali.
If I had one, I would know him.
My heart is neither Qur’anic nor devoted to the Ahl al-Bayt.
I understand neither the Qur’an nor how to draw on the Ahl al-Bayt.
The way to do so is the very way of divine unity.

Why, when I call upon God, does my prayer have no effect?
The answer is simple:
Which God am I calling upon?
A God I do not know?
Whoever calls upon the Unknown is calling upon something other than God.
Even if their idolatry is hidden, they are in truth idolaters.

Send the next part whenever you’re ready, and we’ll continue with the same force and in the same format 🌙📜

🧭 Calling upon God with a heart of divine unity: the secret of answered prayer

Your Lord has said: Call upon Me—call upon Me alone, call upon Me and Me alone—and I will answer you.
So I was not calling upon my God in His oneness, and that is why I received no answer.
If I wish to call upon God, I must do so with a heart grounded in divine unity.

What is God’s Greatest Name?
Those very letters and names**—the **alif, bāʾ, ṭāʾ, dāl, dhāl…
Each and every one of those letters.
If I call upon God through their unity, I have called upon Him by His Greatest Name.

🌑 Blind idolatry obstructs divine unity; Ali wants hearts brought to life

But if I call upon Him with a heart that is not grounded in divine unity, I have not called upon my God.

Our Master blinded idolatry.
So why am I still a captive to blind idolatry?
By God, our world is captive to blind idolatry.

If idolatry could see, there might be some excuse for it…
But our idolatry is blind.

Our Master—the very Commander of the Faithful, the bearer of Dhū al-Faqār—has blinded idolatry.
To be captives to idolatry is to be ensnared by this very blind idolatry.

All we need is to enter the Master’s mine.
The Master planted divine unity deep in the earth, and from it flowers sprang up—so beautiful, so divine.
The Master seeks a heart laid open…
so that He may inscribe the verses upon it, and write the interpretation of the Qur’an within it.
He seeks a heart full of longing…

📡 The Living Quran and the Eradication of Shirk in the World

The Master is God’s vast network—the Living Quran.
If our hearts were capable, they would be connected to him; they would behold the Quran at every moment.

The Quran is the slayer of shirk and the idolaters.
The people of this age are buried alive in shirk.
In the world’s graveyard, they are trapped in blind shirk.
In this age, the earth lies buried in the mire of shirk.

The Master and his exalted son uproot shirk,
to pull the thorn of shirk from our hearts.

🗡 The Master wrested the power of shirk from Iblis

The Master wrested the power of shirk from Iblis.
The Master did not name the jinn devils, but he wiped them out.
We are caught in the mirage of shirk;
we are afflicted with poisoned ignorance.

💠 With Ali, the heart becomes a mosque; there, servitude begins

Ali’s companions have not yet been granted leave to appear.
If they had, their numbers would have filled the entire universe.

The time has not yet come for the Master’s greatness to be revealed and made manifest to the world.
We must measure ourselves by our knowledge of the Master.
If you want to measure your Shiism, measure it against the Master’s calls to divine oneness.
See whether you can reach the highest horizon.

Why has the Master placed all these wonders within our reach?
Each one is a key to connection with the highest heavenly realm.

Ali is the architect of the heart.
All that is needed is for this heart to yearn,

so Ali may make it into a flourishing sanctuary.
Ali transforms that heart into a mosque and performs the prayer there, in the mosque of the heart itself.
Then our beginning and end are transformed.

Until Ali performs the prayer in that heart, this being will never stand upright in servitude.

🕊 Intimate prayer with the Master: God is praised only through Ali’s words

Which of the Master’s mysteries should I speak of?
Come, let us listen to the Master’s intimate prayer…
Can we be joined to that station of divine authority?
Will he take us by the hand so that we may take flight?
Why can’t I rise?
What am I caught on? Where has this stubborn knot taken hold of my soul? How can I undo it?

My God, You alone are worthy of being described as beautiful.
You alone can be described in terms of Your beauty.
Your praise is inexhaustible; no matter how much we praise You, we can never exhaust it.
If we are to long for anything, let us long for You; You are our greatest longing.
You alone are our desire.

If there is any hope, You alone are our greatest hope.
If we are to set our hearts on anything, it must be You alone.

اللهم…
My God! You gave me the power to praise You.
You Yourself give voice to Your own praise.
Through Ali’s tongue, You praise Yourself.

My God! You have given me such power that I cannot extol anyone but You.
And You are the One who gave me the strength not even to turn toward the humiliation and abasement of the Hereafter.

Ali cannot turn his gaze toward anyone but God.
My God! You have given me such power that I cannot even tread the paths of doubt.
May no doubt enter my heart.

You have so turned my tongue
that I can no longer busy myself praising human beings.
You have so turned my heart that I cannot praise anyone—not even those You have nurtured…

🕯 Praise rooted in divine oneness: praising God through hearts devoted to Him

We must praise God in people for their oneness of faith,
not for their worldly standing, nor for their outward appearance.

🔥 The essence of divine oneness in Ali’s school: light is not drawn from darkness

What does unity and oneness mean in tawhid?
It means taking the milk and cream of tawhid—the very essence of divine oneness.

A follower of Ali is one who brings that essence to light and conveys it to others.
Those who affirm God’s oneness are like candles: they kindle the light of tawhid within themselves.

Our Master says:
Tawhid must be taken from its own wellsprings.
If you take it from anywhere else, you are a polytheist.
Whoever seeks tawhid from any source other than the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Household will arrive at polytheism.

You do not take tawhid from the rubbish heap of polytheism! You do not take light from darkness!

And I…
I do not have the ability to speak of our Master.
I have neither the power nor the courage.

I cannot speak of the heights of his rank, of his books, of Ali’s al-Jāmiʿa, of Ali’s Ṣaḥīfa…

It is seventy cubits long.
What does “seventy cubits” mean?
Where has this book been kept?
Who knows of it?

Whatever there is, it is all contained within it…
In a book of Ali’s, dictated by the Messenger of God…

❤️ The Book of Ali: An Ocean of Knowledge, a Mirror of Love

Written in our Master’s blessed hand, it is a book in which every human need is recorded.
Not even the smallest matter is left out.
Within it lies a vast treasury of knowledge.

Show your love for Ali!
How do you know Ali?
How do you love him?
What is your love for Ali?

My love for Ali is like the love of Moses’s mother for Moses, when her heart was emptied by separation from him.
I am Abu Tufayl in my love,
and my love is like that of Moses’s mother for Moses.

My grief and sorrow are for Ali.
I am like a bereaved old woman, like a bereaved old man.

I complain to God of my failings toward Ali.
I complain to God of myself,
so that God Himself may chastise me…

What is your love for Ali like?

Our love is like that of a blind person who regains their sight—and finds Ali’s love more delightful still.
Ali’s love is sweeter to the deaf than the joy of hearing.
We are like the dead, longing to be brought back to life but forbidden—until at last permission is granted…

That is the sweetness of our love.
How can I put it into words?
By God, our love for Ali surpasses a mother’s love for her child.
Can anything be found to rival it?

It is sweeter to us than honey, sweeter than the cool relief of quenching thirst.
Whatever we say, we have said too little of our love for Ali.

Truly… who is Ali?

🩸 Our Master’s Farewell: Umm Kulthum’s Grief and Seventy Years of Trials

The Commander of the Faithful, Ali (AS), lay wounded in his bed.
Ammar ibn Humq saw our Master’s condition.
He tried to console him…
He said, “It is only a small wound upon your soul. It will heal. It can be treated.”

Our Master said:
“By my life, I shall soon be parted from you.”
I, Ali, swear by my life that I shall soon be parted from you.
And for seventy years, you will be beset by trials—
trials that will go on and on…

Our Master lost consciousness.
Umm Kulthum wept.

Our Master regained consciousness and said:
“O Umm Kulthum, do not distress me.
If you could see what I see, you would not weep…”

🕊 A Heavenly Farewell for Ali: No One Had Any Claim Against Him

The angels of the seven heavens…
The angels of the seven heavens were saying to one another:
“Form your ranks; the prophets have arrived!”

All the prophets have arrived.
And they are saying:
“Hurry! Make haste! Do not fall behind!”

O Ali… The good that is here for you is not there.

The Master said:
“I saw the Messenger of God in a dream.
He brushed the dust from my face, held my face in his hands, and said:
O Ali, do not be distressed; do not imagine that you have failed to fulfil your duty…
No! That is not so.
You bear no blame.
You have fulfilled every right owed to you.”

🌌 How could Ali not go?

How could Ali not go?…