A Blessed Welcome to the Month of God’s Blessing

🌼🔆🌼The Moon Is in Love with God🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹 “The Moon’s Journey of Love”  “God’s Artistry in the Moon”  “The Moon’s Inner Reality” “Sovereign of the Night”  “Supplication 43 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya” and more … An abstract with an addendum       1402.12.21    Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🔅🌼A Blessed Introduction to Supplication 43 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya🌼🔅

🌹In this supplication, set your intention to journey from the outward to the inward: from the moon above your head to the moon at the edge of the world of being; set your sights on the moon among moons. Behold the moon in all its dimensions, across all the earth and heavens. Set your intention on the moon of the heart, the moon of the spirit, the moon of this world, the moon of the hereafter, the moon of the earthly realm, the moon of the unseen kingdom, the moon of the realm of divine power, the moon of the realm of divinity; the first moon, the last moon, the twelfth moon—the seal of the moons.

🌷🔆Supplication (43) from al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (وَ كَانَ مِنْ دُعَائِهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ إِذَا نَظَرَ إِلَى الْهِلَالِ:)

🔅🌼Passion and rapture are the way of lovers 🌼🔅

🌷🔆 (1) أَيُّهَا الْخَلْقُ‏ الْمُطِيعُ، الدَّائِبُ السَّرِيعُ،

🌹O obedient creature of God, O swift and tireless striver, O creature of God who hastens in the steady rhythm of your nature: you are constant in your work, and constancy is the charge entrusted to you. O moon, you are diligent, striving, skilled, and swift.

🌹Perhaps the difference between rāʾik and dāʾib is that dāʾib encompasses movement, precision, and the fulfillment of a particular mission; it is a movement that takes place throughout every sphere and in the very heart of creation.

🌹The moon is a moving body that never ceases its motion, a motion that knows no rest. It is swift and purposeful in its work. It has no desire to stop or stand still.

🌹The moon is a swift and tireless striver. Its nature is to move swiftly in fulfilling its mission.

🌹The moon never tires; it perseveres in its work. Its activity is constant and unceasing, its striving uninterrupted, its movement perpetual, so that it never stands still.

🌻🔆Ibrahim: 33   وَ سَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الشَّمْسَ وَ الْقَمَرَ دائِبَيْنِ وَ سَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَ النَّهارَ

🔆He subjected the sun and the moon to your service, both of them dāʾib—steadfast and constant in carrying out their mission—and He subjected the night and the day to your service as well.

🌹The moon is a creature obedient to God, endowed with awareness; it understands and obeys God of its own free will. With eagerness and longing, it hastens lovingly to carry out God’s command.

🌹Love lies at the heart of dāʾib action.

🌹O moon, O swift striver, ever restless and eager in your habit of worshipping with excellence: your nature and character are to hasten in obedience to God. Your swiftness cannot be erased; you are always moving and striving with love.

🔅🌼The Moon Dances to the Divine Rhythm 🌼🔅

🌷🔆 الْمُتَرَدِّدُ فِي مَنَازِلِ التَّقْدِيرِ، الْمُتَصَرِّفُ فِي فَلَكِ التَّدْبِيرِ.

🌹O moon, you revolve through the stations ordained by God; you journey and move through the stations of divine decree. You undergo transformation as you circle within the orbit of divine governance.

🌹You sail upon the vessel of divine governance, changing from one state to another within its orbit. You journey through appointed stations and move within the sphere of God’s governance;

🌹O moon, your course and movement accord with the decrees of the All-Merciful. You journey and travel in keeping with God’s will, setting foot in the stations appointed for you. O moon, you are wholly obedient to God’s decrees.

 🌹Your course lies only within the orbit of divine governance; you journey along the track of God’s will.

🔅🌼God Parts the Womb of Darkness with the Moon’s Light 🌼🔅

🌷🔆 (2) آمَنْتُ بِمَنْ نَوَّرَ بِكَ الظُّلَمَ،

🌹I have faith in the One who illumined the darkness through you.

🌹I have faith in the One who set the darkness ablaze through you!

🌹 What a blessing it is that God has made you a means of bringing light to the darkness.

🔅🌼The moon reveals hidden beauty🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ أَوْضَحَ بِكَ الْبُهَمَ،

🌹 Through you, God has made the mute and inarticulate clear.

🌹 Through you, God has brought to light everything obscure, mysterious, uncertain, unclear, hidden, intricate, dark, enigmatic, baffling, confounding, unknown, or incomprehensible.

🌹 Through you, God has revealed what was hidden!

🌹 The moon sheds light both outwardly and inwardly—on all the darkness and obscurity of existence. It is like someone gazing at the sanctuary and remembering its Lord.

🌹 Know for certain that this moon shines from the depths of the soul.

🔅🌼The moon is the banner of God’s kingship🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ جَعَلَكَ آيَةً مِنْ آيَاتِ مُلْكِهِ،

🌹 Almighty God has made you a sign of His sovereignty, dominion and rule.

🔅🌼The moon is the torch of the Sovereign of the universe🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ عَلَامَةً مِنْ عَلَامَاتِ‏ سُلْطَانِهِ،

🌹 God has made you a sign of His sovereignty,

🌹 God has made you a banner, an emblem, a symbol, a marker of His rule.

🔅🌼The moon’s form and features change at God’s command🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ امْتَهَنَكَ بِالزِّيَادَةِ وَ النُّقْصَانِ،

🌹 He put you to work and enlisted you in His service, making you wax and wane.

🌹 He made you increase and decrease, giving you the capacity to grow and diminish.

🌹 He makes you grow, then diminishes you. He makes you plump, then thin. Through all these states, God’s wise purpose is fulfilled. By changing your measure, God works His craft, bringing to pass countless things, seen and unseen.

🌹 The moon is an agent of divine change and transformation.

🔅🌼At God’s command, the moon reveals and conceals itself🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ الطُّلُوعِ وَ الْأُفُولِ،

🌹through waxing and waning,

🌹through brightening and diminishing.

🌹The moon rises and sets, and through its rising and setting it serves as an agent of renewal at God’s hand.

🌹It appears and disappears, and in either state a particular divine purpose is fulfilled. Both its rising and its setting are signs of renewal.

🌹At the moon’s rising, what was hidden comes into view; and as it wanes, other manifestations of the divine will unfold.

🔅🌼The moon is a source of events and influences🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ الْإِنَارَةِ وَ الْكُسُوفِ،

🌹through brightness and eclipse,

🌹through radiance and concealment.

🌹All its increase and decrease, rising and waning, illumination and eclipse, follow the rhythm of order. Every particle, celestial body, physical form, cell of the body, limb and organ, and every other phenomenon is in harmony with the rest, willingly or otherwise.

🌹The moon’s changes are not merely a display of images; they are a source of influence.

🔅🌼Disobedience is beyond the moon’s comprehension🌼🔅

🌷🔆 فِي كُلِّ ذَلِكَ أَنْتَ لَهُ مُطِيعٌ،

🌹In every one of its states, you obey Him.

🔅🌼The moon has devoted its speed to its beloved🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ إِلَى إِرَادَتِهِ سَرِيعٌ

🌹And toward His will you hasten with swiftness

🌹You hasten swiftly toward His will

🌹By the Lord’s will, you hasten

🔅🌼How wondrous is Allah’s design in fashioning the moon!🌼🔅

🌷🔆 (3) سُبْحَانَهُ مَا أَعْجَبَ مَا دَبَّرَ فِي أَمْرِكَ!

🌹Glory be to Him! How wondrous is the design Allah has fashioned in your course.

🔅🌼The moon has devoted its speed to its Worshipped One🌼🔅

🌷🔆 وَ أَلْطَفَ مَا صَنَعَ فِي شَأْنِكَ!

🌹How subtle, refined, and precise is the work Allah has wrought in your course

🔅🌼The moon is on a new mission at every moment🌼🔅

🌷🔆 جَعَلَكَ مِفْتَاحَ شَهْرٍ حَادِثٍ لِأَمْرٍ حَادِثٍ

🌹He made you the key to a new month and a new task

🌹A new occurrence is something without precedent—a fresh event

🔅🌼Let us join the moon in prayer🌼🔅

🌷🔆 (4) فَأَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ رَبِّي وَ رَبَّكَ، وَ خَالِقِي وَ خَالِقَكَ، وَ مُقَدِّرِي وَ مُقَدِّرَكَ، وَ مُصَوِّرِي وَ مُصَوِّرَكَ: أَنْ يُصَلِّيَ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ أَنْ يَجْعَلَكَ هِلَالَ بَرَكَةٍ لَا تَمْحَقُهَا الْأَيَّامُ، وَ طَهَارَةٍ لَا تُدَنِّسُهَا الْآثَامُ

🌹So I beseech the God who is my Lord and your Lord, my Creator and your Creator, my Ordainer and your Ordainer, my Fashioner and your Fashioner: may He send blessings upon Muhammad and his family, and make you a crescent of blessing—a crescent whose passage of time cannot destroy, and that remains pure, untainted by sin.

🔅🌼O God, preserve the moon as a moon🌼🔅

🌷🔆 (5) هِلَالَ أَمْنٍ مِنَ الْآفَاتِ، وَ سَلَامَةٍ مِنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ,

🌹A crescent safe from afflictions and unharmed by evils,

🌷🔆 هِلَالَ سَعْدٍ لَا نَحْسَ فِيهِ,

🌹a blessed, auspicious crescent, untouched by ill fortune,

🌷🔆 وَ يُمْنٍ لَا نَكَدَ مَعَهُ,

🌹a felicitous and auspicious crescent, free of hardship and distress,

🌷🔆 وَ يُسْرٍ لَا يُمَازِجُهُ عُسْرٌ,

🌹an easy, restful crescent, unmingled with difficulty,

🌷🔆 وَ خَيْرٍ لَا يَشُوبُهُ شَرٌّ,

🌹a crescent of goodness, unmingled with evil

🌷🔆 هِلَالَ أَمْنٍ وَ إِيمَانٍ وَ نِعْمَةٍ وَ إِحْسَانٍ وَ سَلَامَةٍ وَ إِسْلَامٍ.

🌹A crescent of safety, faith, blessing, grace, well-being, and Islam.

🌷🔆 (6) اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ اجْعَلْنَا مِنْ أَرْضَى مَنْ طَلَعَ عَلَيْهِ,

🌹O God, send blessings upon Muhammad and his family, and make us among those most pleased by the month’s rising

🌷🔆 وَ أَزْكَى مَنْ نَظَرَ إِلَيْهِ,

🌹among the most devout of those who gaze upon it

🌹Pure: clean, untainted, purified, devout, refined, nimble, flourishing, intelligent,

🌷🔆 وَ أَسْعَدَ مَنْ تَعَبَّدَ لَكَ فِيهِ,

🌹and among the happiest of those who worship You during that month,

🌷🔆 وَ وَفِّقْنَا فِيهِ لِلتَّوْبَةِ,

🌹 And grant us success in repentance during that month; bestow upon us the grace to repent.

🌹Success: alignment, application, conformity, agreement, reconciliation, accord, compatibility, harmony

🌷🔆 وَ اعْصِمْنَا فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَوْبَةِ,

🌹 and preserve us during that month from every ruinous act of disobedience.

🌷🔆 وَ احْفَظْنَا فِيهِ مِنْ مُبَاشَرَةِ مَعْصِيَتِكَ

🌹 O God, keep us from engaging in disobedience to You.

🌹 O God, guard me from becoming the perpetrator, agent, executor, director, or overseer of disobedience to You.

🌷🔆 (7) وَ أَوْزِعْنَا فِيهِ شُكْرَ نِعْمَتِكَ,

🌹 and inspire us to give thanks for Your blessings.

🌹 Make us deeply devoted to giving thanks for Your blessings.

🌷🔆 وَ أَلْبِسْنَا فِيهِ جُنَنَ الْعَافِيَةِ,

🌹 and clothe us in the mantles of well-being and health.

🌹Well-being: health, soundness, felicity, success, righteousness, piety, asceticism, good health, prosperity, felicity

🌷🔆 وَ أَتْمِمْ عَلَيْنَا بِاسْتِكْمَالِ طَاعَتِكَ فِيهِ الْمِنَّةَ، إِنَّكَ الْمَنَّانُ الْحَمِيدُ، وَ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ.

🌹 Complete Your favor upon us by bringing our obedience to perfection,  

🌹 bring the bounty of Your blessings to its fullest measure through perfecting our obedience, for You are the Bestower of blessings, the Praiseworthy. May God’s blessings be upon Muhammad and his pure and purified family.

🌹 Bring us to the perfection and summit of obedience to You.

🌹Perfection: to seek completion; to ask for wholeness; to desire fulfillment; to bring to completion; to perfect

🔅🌼 Welcoming the month begins with sighting the new moon 🌼🔅

🌹 Sighting the new moon is to welcome the moon of God, the month of God. It is a sign of eager expectation: from sighting the new moon to awaiting the advent of God’s Proof, His Eminence, the Remnant of God, the Supreme.

🌹 Sighting the new moon proclaims and affirms love and remembrance of the Beloved.

🌹 Lovers are forever awaiting the one they love.

🌹 To watch for the moon of God, with one’s eyes fixed upon it, is a sign of longing to meet God.

🌹 The moon is a celestial pen, calligraphic and dancing; it clothes meanings in the signs of calligraphy.

🌹 The moon never tires; within it lie hidden immense truths.

🌹 This month is the month of the primordial covenant, of light and spirits—a word that holds deep meanings within it.

🌹The month of Ramadan marks the beginning of the spiritual year, the year of servitude—or the renewal of that year, whether with loss, regret, or gratitude.

🌹 The month is a verse, itself a treasury of divine verses and signs.

🌹 The month is God’s banner unfurled across the roof of heaven.

🌹 The month is a sign bearing God’s name. Each moment it displays a new name of God.

🌹 The month is God’s book upon the page of heaven: a book already written, still being written, and ever in motion.

🌹 The month is a celestial system and a heavenly messenger.

🌹 The month is a screen on which the beauty of the universe can be watched; it is the world-reflecting soul, a unique kind of software.

🌹 This month, Ramadan, represents the foremost of months, the master of months.

🌹 This month is an image of our master, the Remnant of God, the Supreme.

🌹 To behold the moon of God, one must have eyes that can see the moon. A heart that is clear and subtle witnesses the moon’s beauty and reads what is written upon it.

🔅🌼Behold the moon with the Eye of God 🌼🔅

🌹 Only through Imam Sajjad’s gaze upon the universe are its truths revealed. How did Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) look at the sky? How did he read its truths?

🌹 Did Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) read the sky, the stars, and the moon?

🌹 Imam Sajjad’s (peace be upon him) gaze upon the moon is the gaze of the whole upon a part: the gaze of the source of knowledge upon what is known.

🌹 Let us become the well of the Imam’s mysteries, so that we may read the universe—read the book of the world. Whoever cannot read the universe is illiterate in the language of the world.

🔅🌼The Moon Is the Sovereign of the Night🌼🔅

🌸🔆 وَ فِي رِوَايَةِ أَبِي الْجَارُودِ عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ ع‏ فِي قَوْلِهِ‏ لَا الشَّمْسُ يَنْبَغِي لَها أَنْ تُدْرِكَ الْقَمَرَ- وَ لَا اللَّيْلُ سابِقُ النَّهارِ وَ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ‏ يَقُولُ الشَّمْسُ سُلْطَانُ‏ النَّهَارِ وَ الْقَمَرُ سُلْطَانُ اللَّيْلِ- لَا يَنْبَغِي لِلشَّمْسِ أَنْ تَكُونَ مَعَ ضَوْءِ الْقَمَرِ بِاللَّيْلِ وَ لَا يَسْبِقُ اللَّيْلُ النَّهَارَ- يَقُولُ لَا يَذْهَبُ اللَّيْلُ حَتَّى يُدْرِكَهُ النَّهَارُ «وَ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ‏» يَقُولُ يَجِي‏ءُ [يَجْرِي‏] وَرَاءَ الْفَلَكِ الِاسْتِدَارَة[1]

🔆 Imam Baqir—according to the narration of Abu al-Jarud—said concerning the words of God, the Exalted: لَا الشَّمْسُ یَنْبَغِی لَها أَنْ تُدْرِکَ الْقَمَرَ وَ لَا اللَّیْلُ سابِقُ النَّهارِ وَ کُلٌّ فِی فَلَکٍ یَسْبَحُونَ He said: “The sun is the sovereign of the day, and the moon is the sovereign of the night. It is not fitting for the sun to accompany the moon’s light at night. Nor does night overtake day; night does not depart until day catches up with it. God, the Exalted, says: وَ کُلٌّ‌ٌّ فیِ فَلَکٍ یَسْبَحُونَ They all move along in their circular orbits.”

🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141 (903)🌼

[1] تفسير القمي ؛ ج‏2 ؛ ص214Qummi, Ali ibn Ibrahim, Dar al-Kitab, Qom, third edition, 1404 AH.