A Servant of God or a Servant of the World?

🔹Weekly sessions on the commentary and interpretation of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (Supplication 20)
📅 Date: 1403/11/11 – 29 Rajab 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei

📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:

🌿 Worldliness and heedlessness of the truth

🔹 He will hear, but not with an ear attuned to truth; he will not hear the truth.
🔹 He will see, but what he sees will be false.
🔹 His passions will tear his reason apart, like a wild beast destroying the faculty of reason.
🔹 The world will kill his heart, destroy his inner life and leave him heartless.
🔹 What remains of him will be a stone, harder than stone itself.

🔥 Attachment to the world

🔹 His carnal desires have made him madly in love with the world.
🔹 He has become infatuated with the world and its servant.
🔹 He is a servant of the world and of everyone who has a share in it.
🔹 He worships the world—and worships those who worship it.

🌀 Enslaved by the world’s turning

🔹 Wherever the world turns, he will turn in the same direction.
🔹 The world will be his compass: however it turns, so will he.
🔹 The world will be his mount, and he will be its true captive.

🚫 Indifference to divine guidance

🔹 Nothing God sends to restrain him will keep him from worshipping the world.
🔹 Neither the Quran, the Prophet’s family, nor the admonition of any preacher will affect him.
🔹 The world will be his God, his Messenger, his Imam—his everything.
🔹 He will circle endlessly around the world, turning about the Kaaba of the world.
🔹 He will never let go of the world, remaining forever enamoured of it.

🔥 Directing desire towards God

🔹 Desires must become «fi-Allah»—for God’s sake—so that they may lead a person towards Him.
🔹 Otherwise, like firewood, they will burn a person up.
🔹 If love is reserved for the One and Only, the unity of love will be realised.
🔹 God lets the taste of His love flow through all His signs.
🔹 Whoever devotes himself to God will taste the divine in everything.

💖 The radiance of God’s love

🔹 God will plant His love in his heart.
🔹 Then the whole universe will fall in love with him.
🔹 If love of God shines in someone’s heart, he will be freed from every occupation.
🔹 His only occupation will be God; God’s love will free him from everything else.
🔹 He will find one occupation: the work of God—unemployed in the world, yet engaged in God’s service.
🔹 He burns with the torch of God’s love; only His light does he kindle.

🔥 The fire and light of divine love

🔹 God’s love is a fire that, once kindled, leaves nothing behind.
🔹 It burns and destroys everything but His love.
🔹 Wherever God’s light shines, it illuminates what is there.
🔹 Nothing but His light will remain; it will encompass everything.
🔹 In the presence of divine light, nothing will be seen but its radiance.

🌿 God’s love is a light that sets everything aglow, while attachment to the world is a darkness that plunges a person into heedlessness.

🌿 Worldliness and heedlessness of the truth

🔹 He will hear, but with an ear that cannot hear the truth.
🔹 He will see, but what he sees will be false.
🔹 His passions will tear his reason apart, like a wild beast destroying the faculty of reason.
🔹 The world will kill his heart, destroy his inner life and leave him heartless.
🔹 What remains of him will be a stone, harder than stone itself.

🔥 Attachment to the world

🔹 His carnal desires have made him madly in love with the world.
🔹 He has become infatuated with the world and its servant.
🔹 He is a servant of the world and of everyone who has a share in it.
🔹 He worships the world—and worships those who worship it.

🌀 Enslaved by the world’s turning

🔹 Wherever the world turns, he too will incline in that direction.
🔹 The world will become the compass of his being; however it turns, he will turn with it.
🔹 The world will be his mount, and he will become its true captive.

🚫 Indifference to Divine Guidance

🔹 Nothing from God will restrain him from worshipping the world.
🔹 Neither the Qur’an, nor the Prophet’s family, nor the counsel of any adviser will have any effect on him.
🔹 The world will be his God, his Messenger, his Imam—his everything.
🔹 He will circle endlessly around the world, turning about the Ka‘ba of worldly life.
🔹 He will never turn his heart away from the world, but remain enamoured of it.

🔥 Directing Desires along the Divine Path

🔹 Desires must become “for God” so that they may lead a person toward Him.
🔹 Otherwise, like firewood, they will consume him.
🔹 If love is devoted solely to the “One and Only,” the unity of love will be realised.
🔹 God lets the sweetness of His love flow through all His signs.
🔹 Whoever devotes himself to God will taste the divine in everything.

💖 The Radiance of God’s Love

🔹 God will plant His love in his heart.
🔹 Then the whole of creation will fall in love with him.
🔹 When love of God shines in someone’s heart, he will be freed from every occupation.
🔹 His only occupation will be God; God’s love will free him from everything else.
🔹 He will find one vocation: the work of God—unemployed in the world, devoted to God.
🔹 He burns with the torch of God’s love; only its light does he kindle.

🔥 The Fire and Light of Divine Love

🔹 God’s love is a fire that, once kindled, leaves nothing behind.
🔹 It burns and destroys everything apart from His love.
🔹 Wherever God’s light shines, it illuminates what is there.
🔹 Nothing but His light will remain; it will encompass everything.
🔹 In the presence of divine light, nothing but its radiance will be seen.

🌿 Love of God is a light that makes all things shine, while attachment to the world is a darkness that immerses a person in heedlessness.

✨ God’s Love Enters the Heart

🔹 If God’s love enters a heart, that heart too will become a light of God.
🔹 Whatever is beloved of God and follows the path of loving Him will become pure light.
🔹 Love of God is the heaven of God, encompassing all things.

☁️ God’s Love Like the Sky

🔹 God’s love is like a sky that, when it casts its shade over someone, envelops them like a cloud.
🔹 Wherever God’s love shines, it takes that place into its embrace and never lets it go.

🍃 The Divine Wind and Breeze

🔹 The wind is God’s breeze.
🔹 Wherever it blows, it sets things in motion, stirs them up and makes them move.
🔹 God’s love is like water, the water of God**, which brings everything to life.
🔹 It gives life and revives: it brings the dead to life and makes the living more alive.

🌍 The Earth and Divine Field

🔹 God’s love is the earth of God; everything grows from it.
🔹 It is God’s earth, a field in which love of God grows.
🔹 The beloved becomes God’s earth, from which goodness and blessing spring.
🔹 So what can we do to turn everything toward God?

❤️ Love of God in Creation

🔹 Let us ask Him to place in His creatures the same love He has placed within us.
🔹 So that in everything we may see only God’s name and love.
🔹 A lover of God is one who loves in God’s way and for His sake. If we direct every sensual desire toward God, it becomes love for God. Whoever falls in love with that desire has, in truth, fallen in love with God. Even if he loves his child, let him love them for God’s sake, so that he may become a lover of God. Before we love anyone or anything, we must first love God. Let us inscribe God’s name upon our sensual desires, so that everything may be turned toward Him. Let only God be remembered, and no one besides Him.

🌿 **The love of God brings all things to life, makes them heavenly, and gives life its true direction. So let us adorn every love and longing with His name, and journey from the darkness of this world to the light of the Divine.

❤️ Lover and Beloved on the Divine Path

🔹 Any love that is for God’s sake makes the beloved, too, a beloved of God.
🔹 When we love someone for God’s sake, in truth we have loved God.
🔹 Thus the beloved, too, attains the rank of ḥabīb Allāh—what a lofty station!
🔹 On the path of *fī Allāh*, the lover is a lover of God, and the beloved is beloved of God.
🔹 Why? Because no two beings can love one another except in the way of God.
🔹 *The love of God passes between lover and beloved, a divine sign in circulation. 🔹 If we grasp this truth, we will be both lovers of God and beloved of God. 🔹 «المَرءُ مَعَ مَن أَحَبَّ»*; a person is with the one they love.
🔹 So **whomever we love for God’s sake, we have in truth loved God.

✨ Taking the Lead in Divine Love

🔹 No one can come to love God unless God has first loved them.
🔹 In love, no one can outstrip the Creator.
🔹 God first loves His servant, then makes the servant fall in love with Him.
🔹 So let us devote ourselves to God**, surrender to Him, and let Him make us a **field of love and worship.

🔍 Discovering the Truth of Love

🔹 Let us take care to discover ourselves: who are we?
🔹 If God did not love us, He would not have created us!
🔹 Let us seek this love within our souls.
🔹 Let us remove every veil, so that we may see the truth behind it.
🔹 Let us sever every cord that binds us to the earth.
🔹 Let us cleanse our being of its earthly dross.
🔹 Let us burn ourselves in the furnace of worship, so that the gold of the truth within us may be revealed.
🔹 Let this truth not remain hidden and buried.
🔹 God granted us life so that we might free this jewel from the great prison of heedlessness.
🔹 We must reveal the sharp edge of this truth.

💎 Unity in Love

🔹 We must bring the love within us to the oneness of tawḥīd.
🔹 Let us become people of tawḥīd, so that our love, too, may become one and be purified.
🔹 How many people appear to be diamonds, yet are glass within.
🔹 And how many appear to be glass, yet are diamonds within.
🔹 We must reveal this diamond of truth.
🔹 God granted us life so that we might discover this truth, not bury it.

⚖️ The Trial of Servanthood

🔹 A true servant of God must emerge from God’s trial with honor.
🔹 Through free will**, a person chooses servanthood.
🔹 On this path, either *they reach their end through goodness*, or **lose their innate nature along the way.
🔹 Then they no longer know where they came from, where they are going, or why they came.
🔹 If they lose themselves, they become enslaved to their desires and buried.
🔹 They forget what lies with God.
🔹 They do not realize that God granted them a lifetime so it might become a gateway to eternity.
🔹 Yet they fall during that very lifetime.
🔹 They fall within themselves, when they should be taking flight beyond themselves.
🔹 Their lifetime was a runway for flight, not a prison in which to fall!
🔹 But they forgot, became captive to their own ego, were buried, and were destroyed.
🔹 The human being failed to understand, and through free will made themselves wretched and disgraced.

🌿 So let us not lose sight of this truth. Let us direct our free will toward servanthood to God, so that in this divine trial we may discover the pure jewel of servanthood and rise from falling to flight.

⚖️ The Trial of the Divine Trust

🔹 The human being answered the call to this greatest trial**, without first honestly assessing their own capacity.
🔹 They did not consider their *strength and power*, and failed to realize that **the trust was a weight too heavy to lift.
🔹 They took up that heavy trust; their backbone broke, and they brought disgrace upon themselves.
🔹 Life is true wealth, with which one must journey beyond the realm of the unseen—to eternity.
🔹 But a person who has lost their innate nature becomes a field for Satan and his captive.
🔹 They lose the path to eternity.
🔹 Their innate nature calls them to eternity, but they have lost the way.
🔹 Satan and the ego whisper false directions to them.
🔹 They seek eternity in this very world, in this very lowliness.
🔹 They fail to understand, go astray, and grow greedy.

💰 Addiction to Wealth and the Illusion of Eternity

🔹 He amasses wealth, then counts it, tallying the figures that represent his riches.
🔹 Why? He imagines his wealth will make him immortal.
🔹 This is the secret behind attachment to the world: the addiction to accumulating wealth!
🔹 A false sense of liberation takes hold of him. He imagines that the more wealth he accumulates, the closer he comes to immortality.
🔹 An everlasting life? Everlasting servitude? Or everlasting sin?
🔹 Does he seek eternal liberation—to be free of everything, even himself?
🔹 Or will he become a captive of his own desires, condemned to eternal disgrace and to abide in Hell?

🔥 The danger of falling into the world

🔹 He must go beyond even the eternal bliss of Paradise.
🔹 Yet along this path, he becomes fuel for Satan.
🔹 He does not understand that this life is meant to be passed through, to free himself from all that is.
🔹 Instead, he imagines that immortality lies in accumulating wealth and attracting people’s attention.

🕊 Spiritual gifts or downfall?

🔹 He attains spiritual gifts, yet becomes captive to others’ attention.
🔹 Spiritual gifts and knowledge should give him wings to soar, but instead they become the means of his fall.
🔹 He falls, longing for immortality, yet finds it in the praise and gaze of others.

📚 Knowledge and wisdom: wings to soar or snares of the world?

🔹 He attains knowledge and wisdom, but lacks the capacity to bear them.
🔹 He forgets God.
🔹 Instead of soaring to greater heights, he clings to the world.
🔹 His attachment to the world carries him away from all that is.
🔹 He plunges into the depths of the world and, in the truest sense, dies.
🔹 He walks this earth, yet he is a dead man in motion.
🔹 He reaches a point where he takes his enemy for a friend and embraces him.
🔹 The only being that trusts its enemy is the human being!

⚠️ Accepting Satan’s authority

🔹 The human being alone seeks advice from an enemy and appoints that enemy as a trustee.
🔹 Could anyone be more foolish?
🔹 If Satan advises a person, where will he lead them?
🔹 What happens if a person trusts the hunter who is stalking them?
🔹 They draw close to their hunter—and the outcome is clear.
🔹 The human being accepts Satan’s authority and guardianship, placing himself under his rule.
🔹 Satan is your enemy, so take him as an enemy!
🔹 Satan summons his followers so that they may become the companions of the Fire.
🔹 He never lets up on his oath—not even for a moment!
🔹 He will not break his oath to destroy humankind.

🌿 Satan has sworn to destroy humanity. Yet God has given us the chance to soar. Let us wake up, lest we become captives of the world, lest we mistake a waystation for our destination!