Mazīn al-Muʾminīn: The Calligrapher of Divine Unity

🌿🎼The Radiance of the Ornament of Faith: Toward an Understanding of the Razavi Order of Divine Unity🎼🌿

🔹The Birth of Imam al-Ridha, peace be upon him
📅 Date: 1404/02/18 – 10 Dhu al-Qi‘dah 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:
🌸 Congratulations to the celestial beings

On the eve of the birth of Imam al-Ridha, peace be upon him, congratulations to the celestial beings.

💎 The greatest felicity: attaining God’s good pleasure

Who is it that attains God’s good pleasure—that greatest felicity in all existence? Whoever conquers “Ridha” attains God’s good pleasure. Ridha, the ever-radiant jewel of God’s servants, is the adornment of the believers on the Day of Kawthar, that blessed day, when every moment is “Ridha, Ridha.”

By God, he is the adornment of the believers.
Whoever enters the paradise of Ridha,
whoever comes to possess love for Ridha,
has attained Paradise.

Whoever attains this felicity is continually being adorned. When the Messenger of God comes to the Pool of Kawthar, the Seal of the Prophets, the Messenger of God, is there; Ali is the cupbearer at the Pool of Kawthar, alongside Hasan, Husayn, A‘amir, Fariz, and Nashir… and the master Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha, is the adornment of the believers.

✨ Imam al-Ridha: the adornment of the believers’ souls

He will adorn the believers and make them beautiful.
What will Ridha do for the believers, and what does he do?
Even here in this world, Ridha is the adornment of the believers.
He adorns them, gives life to their souls, and makes them people of Paradise.

All we need is to know Ridha.

Imam al-Ridha, peace be upon him, is a miracle of adornment; he is the one who adorns.
All he needs is to glimpse a spark of faith,
and then he reveals his own Razavi epic—he makes himself known.
Wherever the hue of faith is found, Imam al-Ridha is there.
There, faith takes on the hue of Ridha**; he adorns faith;
and he adorns in such a way that, through faith, he brings those very believers to *the fullness of beauty through faith*.

🌿 God-consciousness: the water that brings obedience to flower**

All we need is to be helpers of our Imam al-Ridhain the work of adorning others.
All we need is for our hearts to shine with a spark of faith.
Water is what obedience to God depends on;
when we water our obedience to God, obedience blossoms.
That same obedience to God bears fruit, becomes a tree, and yields fruit.
The water that brings obedience to God to flower is God-consciousness.

The nature of trees and fruits—in their colours and their tastes—
is like the varying degrees of faith.
In other words, the more faith increases,
the more a person’s taste, fruitfulness, and colour are enhanced.

If a person wishes to beautify themselves,
they must become a person of faith.
The more their faith grows,
the sweeter their taste becomes, and their colour brightens and turns to joy.

My point is this:
our Imam al-Ridha is the adornment of the believers.
All we need to do is provide Imam al-Ridha with the tools of his artistry,
so that our Imam al-Ridha may bring us to the fullness of beauty.

A believer must attain perfect beauty.
Unless Ridha’s brush touches the human soul,
can a believer attain the fullness of goodness and beauty?
No, they cannot.

The believer is Imam al-Ridha’s canvas**.
Imam al-Ridha is **an artist of beauty.
If a person is a believer, their Imam al-Ridha is the artist who works upon that believer’s canvas.

All we need to do is provide our Imam with the materials of faith;
show our Imam a window into faith.

So let us assist Imam al-Ridha in the work of adorning those in his care.
The more we increase the mortar for Imam al-Ridha’s work,
the more we add to our own beauty.

If we adorn ourselves with the ornament of noble character**,
that is, **if we plant the qualities of nobility in our souls,
our Imam al-Ridha will cultivate them and make them beautiful.⟦73⟁

If we become masters of the seventy-five soldiers of reason,
what will our Imam do with us?
How will the art of Imam al-Ridha shine forth from our very souls?

🌿 The miraculous art of al-Ridha: adorning soul and genes

Our Imam al-Ridha adorns the faithful—not merely their outward appearance. By God, he inscribes beauty upon their inner selves as well.

By God’s grace and power, our Imam al-Ridha surpasses every art.
He brings his blessed art into the depths of our souls,
to the very bottom of our hearts, to their innermost core.

By God, I believe with absolute certainty in everything I say:
our Imam al-Ridha is the beautifier of our souls,
and indeed the beautifier of our genes and cells,
the very elements of our souls.

Why? Because God is the artist.
God Himself taught him.
He Himselfraised al-Ridha to the rank of one who adorns.

And Imam al-Ridha attained the station of the Imam of miraculous adornment.
The Imam is a miracle.
He works miracles through his adornment,
by God’s permission, grace and power.

So let us make our being a safe place for our Imam al-Ridha to work his art.
If, through faith, we guarantee our Imam al-Ridha a secure place,
what wonders our Imam al-Ridha will work within our being…

📖 Imam al-Ridha: the speaking Qur’an, the adornment of all adornments

In truth, the Imam is the speaking Qur’an,
and the Qur’an is God’s mercy and healing.
And the true source of God’s healing and mercy is God’s Proof.

“وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَلاَ یَزِیدُ الظَّالِمِینَ إِلَّا خَسَاراً…”

Divine mercy and healing pave the way for transcendent adornment.
When God’s mercy and healing reach us,
adornment will follow, too.

God’s Proof is a treasure,
God’s Proof is an adornment,
one who adorns,
even the adornment of all adornments.

He adorns adornments themselves.

Whoever wants God to love them
need only visit their Imam al-Ridha with faith.

How can we attain that beauty?
When our Imam al-Ridha’s pen touches our souls,
when his pen moves across our countenance and beauty,
we attain the perfection of adornment.
We receive the mark of al-Ridha, and God comes to love us.

All we need is to raise the banner of faith;
then we will witness the splendour of al-Ridha’s art within our souls.

Imam al-Ridha is an imam and a university of human formation and refinement.
He brings human beings to the fullness of their humanity
and adorns them with the perfection of refinement.

🎨 Ridha’s pen upon our souls: calligraphy of the divine names

He is the Imam, God’s Proof.
As I explain one of the exalted stations of my Imam al-Ridha,
there is no room for false modesty:

he is the adornment of the faithful,
the one who adorns the faithful.
He transforms their very foundations,
bringing them to instant refinement,
inwardly and outwardly.

Imam al-Ridha’s adornment is a miracle of God.
Imam al-Ridha is God’s artist,
inscribing God’s image upon our beauty.

He is God’s calligrapher.
He writes the names of God in exquisite calligraphy upon our very being.

By God, I do not say these words merely to flatter.
I am certain; I feel it in the depths of my soul.

Imam al-Ridha adorns our eyes
and brings them to the height of beauty.

Our eyes, quite literally,
will become reflections of God’s Most Beautiful Names
if the pen of Imam رضا rests upon them,
and the light of our faith streams from them.

He awakens our sense of the subtle mysteries through love.

Our Imam رضا is the architect of the spirit and soul.

His words, his voice, his whispered counsel, his intimate prayers, his calls,
are all adornments of God.

He is the springtime of God’s adornment.
And what happens to anyone who enters that springtime of divine adornment?

🌊 Immersed in the miracles of Imam رضا: adornment upon adornment

Anyone who immerses themselves in the oceans of their Imam رضا’s words
has immersed themselves in adornment and beauty.
And the miracle of adornmentwill reveal itself of its own accord.

It is Imam رضا who stitches adornment upon adornment, adding one to another,
and sets light upon light.

He speaks to our primordial nature.
He brings that nature to life.
Our Imam رضا is the cosmic architect of beauty.

Layer upon layer, he adds adornment upon adornment,
beauty upon beauty.
He himself is an immense ocean of beauty.

What will happen if we reach that exalted station?
With Imam رضا, the human being becomes a flourishing world of humanity.
Let us enter the workshop of Imam رضا,
enter the art studio of Imam رضا,
visit the clinic of Imam رضا, peace be upon him,
enter his university, sincerely and wholeheartedly…

Then we will witness the full height of the miracles of Imam رضا.

What should we do? Imam رضا’s words are easy to follow.
By God, they are not difficult; they flow naturally,
are refreshing and delightful.

🚫👂 The Imam’s voice: a barrier against Satan

By God Almighty, Satan comes between
believers and the words of Imam رضا and all God’s proofs.

It is the human being who must stone Satan
so that the Imam’s words may settle into their soul.

How can one touch them?
How can one touch the words of God’s proof?
Only after stoning this base self and that accursed Satan.

When a person drives Satan away,
they will hear and understand the sweetness of their Imam’s words,
with the depths of their soul.

When we encounter the Imam’s words, what should we do?
What is the secret to understanding them?
It is enough to listen with sincerity, wholeheartedly;
to hear with the depths of our soul.

By God, the effects of the Imam’s words will become manifest within us.
I do not know the nature of light…
but I know what light does:

• Does it not illuminate my eyes?
• Do I not see the world around me by its light?

If, in that state, I turn my attention to the Imam’s words,
they are light, and their effect will be felt.

Even if I do not understand them, my primordial nature knows my Imam’s words.

I must listen with sincerity,
drink water and eat bread with sincerity,
and witness their effects, even if I do not know what they are;
they will reveal themselves.

💧 Nurturing our primordial nature with the Imam’s light

Our primordial nature knows what to do.
We need only provide it with water and bread,
with the faith and light it needs,
and then we will see the effects of that very nourishment.

Let us listen with all our being to the Imam’s words of divine unity,
for they are God’s music.

That music will leave its mark on our whole being.
It is God’s symphony, the symphony of divine unity.

The Imam’s intimate prayer is God’s own melody;
it is a divine inspiration, and it will do its work.

• It is the living music of divine unity.
• It revives divine unity.
• It sets our innate nature in motion.

If we approach it with sincerity,
we will grasp the miraculous power of the Imam’s words.

Let us enter the vast ocean of the words of our Imam رضا,
and listen without a trace of distortion.

The Imam’s words must not be changed,
nor distorted.

📿 The Imam’s words: the life-giving water of our innate nature

We must listen with all our hearts to the Imam’s words just as they have come down to us.
Let us not alter a single word, lest its meaning and power be changed.

Can water be changed and still be called “water”?
If water is altered, it brings destruction.
If light is changed, it becomes darkness.
If bread is altered, it will no longer nourish.
If God’s words are distorted,
“صمٌ بُکمٌ عُمی” we will become.

Let us listen wholeheartedly to the words of our Imam, just as they are.
Only then will we experience their effects.

🎨 Imam رضا: the adornment of spirit and soul

How beautifully our Imam رضا speaks;
he teaches us about our innate nature,
and our innate nature recognises these words.

The Imam is an adornment.
His words, too, are an adornment.
They beautify our spirit and soul.

🕊 Freedom from Satan: the beginning of divine unity

First, we must stone Satan,
then enter the seas of Imam رضا’s words,
so that we may feel their effects deep in our souls.

The first act of worship is knowing God.
And the foundation of that knowledge is His oneness.

The root of knowing God is divine unity.
Worship rests on knowledge, and knowledge on divine unity.
Divine unity is the heart and soul of knowledge.
Knowledge springs from the soul of divine unity.

🧵 The order of divine unity: a thread for the pearls of existence

Let us attend to the rhythm of the Imam’s words.

The order of the divine unity of Allah, Exalted is He,
lies in denying attributes of Him.

Let us not interpret it in another way; that would be distortion.
How can we weave divine unity
into every part of our being,
into every particle of our soul?

How can we become a thread woven from the beauty of divine unity?
How can our outer and inner selves
become attuned to divine unity?

Divine unity has a face.
How far must we go?
Until we ourselves become a word of divine unity,
until we become the loftiest word of divine unity.

Let us take on a pattern shaped by divine unity.
Order is the thread
on which the pearls are strung.

Without the thread,
the pearls fall apart.

Even if a person attains every virtue, from first to last,
but does not attain perfect sincerity and the order of divine unity,
all those virtues will fall apart.

💎 The order of divine unity: the worth of the human soul

The true ordering principle of ethics and acts of worship is tawḥīd alone.
Without tawḥīd, all a person’s acts of worship and obedience are mere dust.
But with tawḥīd, they become pure diamonds.

To raise the value of one’s soul, one must weigh it against tawḥīd.
The system of tawḥīd means denying attributes of God.
This is the only path to pure tawḥīd.
Until we reach it, we are still unripe…

📖 From Narrating Tawḥīd to Understanding It

It is not enough to narrate tawḥīd; we must attain a discerning understanding of it.
Until we reach this understanding, we are merely pretending to be people of tawḥīd.

The system of tawḥīd means:
understanding that all attributes are created by God.
And God is above and beyond every attribute and every bearer of an attribute.

Without this system, a person will never attain maturity in tawḥīd.
And the odor of associating partners with God will continue to emanate from them.

🧠 Reason Testifies that Attributes Are Created

Reason bears witness:
Every attribute and its bearer are created.

If you want to know whether you possess reason,
take the words of Imam Reza as your criterion.

Reason testifies that:
Every attribute and its bearer are created by God,
and God is free of and exalted above them all.

🔦 Reason, the Ever-Bright Lamp of Tawḥīd

Tawḥīd is the very nature of reason’s soul.
Reason is the ever-bright lamp of tawḥīd.
Wherever reason is present, tawḥīd shines.

Without reason, associating partners with God takes hold of a person’s soul.

Reason puts everything in its proper place:

• God in the highest station,
• an attribute not in the place of its bearer,
• its bearer not in the place of the attribute,
  and neither in God’s place.

🧠 Reason, the Guardian of Tawḥīd

Whoever possesses reason puts everything in its proper place.
So we must guard our reason
if we are to witness God’s tawḥīd.

It is through reason alone that God is worshipped.
What this means is:
if I do not attain the system of tawḥīd,
then in truth I have not worshipped God.

It is those who possess reason who attain this system
and reach the highest form of worship of God.

⚖️ Wealth Without Reason, a Trap of Ruin

If a person’s wealth outstrips their reason**,
that wealth will become **the cause of their ruin.

Let us not allow our understanding and discernment to overpower our reason.
Reason must rule.
Understanding must spring from reason.

• Reason is the leader of thought,
• thought the leader of the heart,
• the heart the leader of feeling,
• and feeling the leader of the limbs.

📜 Reason’s Testimony: Attribute and Bearer

Reason itself testifies:
Every attribute and everything described by an attribute is created.
And everything described by an attribute also bears witness
that it has a Creator who is neither an attribute nor something described by an attribute.

These three witnesses—

• reason,
• the attribute,
• and that which is described—
  all testify that the Creator is beyond them.

Whoever says otherwise
denies the testimony of these three divine witnesses
and, in truth, presumes to speak before they have testified.

God created reason, attributes, and that which is described by them.
Their very existence and nature testify
that they are created, not creators.

🧩 The Conjunction of Attribute and Thing Described as Proof of Origination

An attribute and that which it describes always go together.
Neither makes sense without the other.
And this conjunction itself bears witness to their having come into being.

That is to say:

• they did not exist,
• then came into existence,

which rules out their being eternal.
God is eternal and cannot be brought into existence.