Alif Lām Mīm: Ḥusayn (peace be upon him)

🌻🔆🔆🌻

🔹The Third Night of Muharram
📅 Date: 1404/04/07 – 03 Muharram 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
🩸 If only we had been among those souls…

Peace be upon you, O avenger of God’s blood, son of His avenger, and the one whose blood has gone unavenged…
If only we, too, had been among those souls
who had entered the very being of God’s proof, Imam Hussein (peace be upon him).

Those pure souls had melted into the being of their Imam
and attained that exalted station.

Ah… how worthy of our envy!
At every moment, we should say:
یالَیْتَنی کُنْتُ مَعَکُمْ فَأَفُوزَ فَوْزاً عَظِیماً
If only we, too, had been among those souls;
if only we had known Hussein…

🔥 Kindled by the Imam’s light—not merely by his side

We would have known that proof of God
and expressed the most ardent devotion to God.

Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) did not simply kindle his companions;
he transformed them into pure light
and led them into that supreme realm.

If only we, too, had known Hussein…
We are still stuck at the “Alif, Lam, Mim” of Imam Hussein!
We have not yet set out on the path of knowing the Imam;
we have not journeyed or undertaken the spiritual wayfaring.

Worship and devotion to God without His proof are impossible!

A person must either be God’s proof
—which we are not, and never will be—
or become the companion and intimate of God’s proof.

Otherwise, worship is meaningless.

Until we are connected to Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) and the other Imams (peace be upon them),
we have not worshipped God.

🧭 Until we know Hussein, we will never become lovers

How can we become connected?
How can we become bound to him?
We must attain knowledge of God’s proof…

Otherwise, we will lose our way.
And if Your proof does not make me known to You, I will stray from my faith.

That is, we will stray from the path of devotion.
Without God’s proof, a person is severed from the orbit of devotion and left adrift.

Therefore, it is the duty of every Shiite to know their Imam.
To know one’s Imam is to gain ears, to become able to hear,
to gain seeing eyes and perceptive nerves.

Without the Imam, a person is truly dead.
They are no different from dust.
Any breeze can sweep them away.

Until we know Hussein,
we will never know love.
We will never taste the joy and delight of seeing God.

It is through Hussein that we can:

• taste the sweetness of worship and devotion
• fall in love with martyrdom
• fall in love with the vision of God

How can we attain knowledge of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him)?
This sky is not here merely to be gazed upon;
it is here to set us on our way.
This is a path… a way… ways…

I must set out.

Why has God placed His rendezvous beyond this world?
The path to God begins at God’s rendezvous.
To reach the destination of seeing God,
I must set out with Hussein.

Set out with Hussein…
This path is itself a guide.
It walks on its own.
It is a path beyond paths.

What a wondrous way…
it travels beyond the path, beyond every path.

When I am with Hussein, I am always at my destination.

🌌 A path within the destination, a destination along the way: journeying through the heavens of Hussein

Within the destination itself, I am on a path;
I have reached a path beyond all paths.
That is, I have arrived beyond the way.

My task is this:
to journey through Hussein, to traverse Hussein, to journey through God’s Proof.

And that Proof of God, too, goes on his way,
drawing me along with him.

Where to?
He will draw me into those “nowheres.”

So let us not look only at the sky;
let us look to the heaven of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him,
and not only gaze upon it, but take flight within it.

Let us receive the light of that heaven
and illuminate our hearts, our souls, our bodies, every limb and every faculty,
for then the gates of nearness to God will open.

Yes, that light opens them.
The light of Hussein opens them.

I must know the mysteries of Hussein
so that my soul may open.

All I need do is enter into Imam Hussein’s intimate prayers, peace be upon him,
and it opens of itself.

In an instant, I find myself at the destination.
What does Hussein do to us?
Through his intimate prayers, his sermons, his love…

Let us not forget the “gates of Hussein.”

Without the words of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him,
without understanding his intimate prayers,
anyone who claims to be of Hussein,
to love Hussein, is lying.

Because
love wells up from knowledge.
One who has no knowledge
is merely making a claim.

🌊 From a dewdrop of love to Hussein’s seas

That dewdrop of love we have
must reach the ocean of love for Hussein.
Let us not be content with that single drop.

Hussein is an overflowing ocean;
indeed, seas upon seas, a heaven, heavens upon heavens;
stars, indeed, the very “Lote Tree of the Farthest Boundary,”
indeed, the very “distance of two bow-lengths or nearer.”

With Hussein, I must set out on the way.

Knowledge of Hussein transforms me.
Knowledge illuminates a person.
Hussein is God’s pure knowledge,
the very knowledge of the unseen that belongs to God.

The breath of Hussein’s soul is the very love of God.

With this engine of love,
what heights could we not reach!

The paths are open;
the gates stand wide.

Knowledge changes a person.
Light transforms a person.
What does God’s light do to a person?

It transforms both his character and his very being,
his outward form and his inner nature.

I, who claim to love Hussein,
should have been transformed.
My outward form and inner nature should have changed.

Why have I not changed?
It seems there is a veil
that has kept me from bringing that knowledge and light of God into my heart.

🕊 From a leaf on Hussein’s tree to the hidden page of his scripture

Hussein is “Hussein.”

He renewed worship and servitude to God.
He made it a circuit of devotion, made it a diamond.
He brought about a transformation in the realm of servitude to God.

He left the prophets astonished,
struck them speechless.

Hussein is.

What have I received from Hussein?
If I truly knew Hussein,
if I were his Shi‘a, what would that be like?

A Shi‘a is a leaf, branch, and fruit of that very tree.

When that tree worships,
the leaf, too, is engaged in worship.
When the tree grows, its leaves and fruit grow as well.

What tree can grow
while its branches, leaves, and fruits remain still?

The Shi‘a are the leaves of that tree of Husayn.
And Husayn is beloved of God.
He is in flight, bound for “سِدرَةُ المُنتَهی”.

How far have I come?

If I have stayed where I am,
I have not grown.
I fear I am not connected to that tree.
I have been cut off.

If I cannot find joy in worship,
I am cut off from God’s tree.

We have remained at the beginning of Imam Husayn’s register.
When will we read the final page of Husayn’s book?

To know Husayn is to read God’s scripture in its entirety.
Until I have committed this scripture to heart and fully absorbed it,
I have not attained knowledge of him.

And yet
our God is, at every moment, manifesting His attributes,
writing at every moment.

God’s pen moves across the book of Husayn,
adding to its pages.

And I?
I am still at the beginning of Husayn’s register.

When will I reach the hidden pages of Imam Husayn?

What does the Exalted God do with Husayn?
Husayn is in love with God.
Or perhaps God is in love with Husayn?

Can anyone outstrip God?
No, no one can.

What does He do with Husayn?
With his manifestations and beauties?

I am still caught up in his “eternal beauty”—
and I have not even seen it!

At every moment, God’s attention and gaze are upon Husayn’s beauty.

What can a single glance of His do to the world?

What does it do with his “sīn,” and that “supreme beauty”?

Each instant, a new artistry comes into being.
It brings forth uprising and resurrection.

🕯 We stand with Husayn; if we are parted from him, we are dead

We stand with Husayn…
We are attuned to Husayn.

If knowledge of Husayn is not established in our hearts, we have lost.
Whoever does not find Husayn
and remains apart from him
is dead.

One who has not attained knowledge of that noble Imam
yet claims to be “of Husayn”
may be making a false claim
that only adds to the atonement required for their deeds.

🧎‍♂️ Devotion must be renewed at every moment

At every moment, a person must renew their devotion.
In the path of serving God, to stand still is to lose.

Worship should move forward, should lead the way,
become more refined and more beautiful.

How?
Through Imam Husayn…

If we were companions, our worship would be renewed at every moment.

Imam Husayn turned the world upside down.
To lack knowledge is to be blind—
blind of heart and blind of sight.

Whoever lacks knowledge has nothing.
They are blind to love.
We have not yet experienced love.

If only we were connected to that source…
(I speak for myself.)
If I were connected,
I would find true love.

I would know that this love is itself a path
to what lies beyond love.

It is knowledge that leads a person to understanding and beauty.
Without knowledge, no understanding of beauty is possible.

The world today has fallen behind beauty.
It searches for beauty amid ugliness.
Why?
Because the light of its innate nature is fading.

That innate knowledge, which should have been kindled,
is dying out.

To perceive the beauty of a flower
is possible only through knowledge and understanding.

When I have that understanding:
I feel the flower’s beauty,
its sweet fragrance,
the beauty of the mountains,
the grandeur of creation.

Without it:
I am blind to beauty.
I will not perceive it.

It is through understanding that I come to know joy.
The deeper my understanding,
the deeper my joy.

If my connection to God’s Proof grows weak,
I will find less joy even in the earth.

In the end, I will be buried in that very earth
and will be unable to visit the higher heavens.

The joy I should taste through the path of Husayn
will remain untasted.

🧠 The secret of “اللهم عرفنی حجتک”: perceiving creation’s message

May I grasp the secret of the supplication “اللهم عرفنی حجتک.”
May I preserve my connection with all existence.

A flower is a messenger from God.
As an observer, with that same understanding, I must read the flower;
I must receive God’s message.

Beauty, joy… spring from the very source
where God’s message has been heard.

All these flowers, all these vistas…
they are all messengers from God.

But…
God’s greatest messenger is His Proof.
Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, is God’s Proof.
The Mahdi, the Master of the Age, is God’s greatest messenger.

May I never remain at the beginning of knowing the Imams!
May I never remain on the first page of the book of Husayn!

Yes, mourning is a blessing,
but it is a beginning!

May I never reduce myself to mourning alone.
Mourning is spirit and soul.

Through this mourning,
I must take flight.
I must make the whole universe Husayni—
a Karbala, an Ashura.

🕊 Mourning is a beginning, not the substance of a Husayni life

Mourning is a beginning;
it is not the substance.

We must breathe this spirit into the whole universe,
into every part of our existence.
May the whole world become Husayni.
May we rise up in the way of Husayn

against polytheism, disbelief, sin, depravity and the depraved.

The deeper our learning,
the greater our grief and our joy.

How can we deepen our learning about Husayn?
How much have we reflected
and reasoned about Husayn?

Have we set aside time
to reflect on this Book of God?
To ponder it deeply?

If I have not…
If only I had…
By God, that very God would have placed knowledge of Husayn in my heart.
He would have let it take root.
I would have been transformed.

Knowledge comes from God;
reflection and reason, striving and seeking, are my part.
Through God’s grace, we attain that knowledge and supreme blessing.

🌊 Dissolving into the embrace of God’s Husayni Names

I am immersed in the majesty of God;
all are immersed in God’s knowledge.
God’s knowledge encompasses all.

Have God’s Husayni Names
not embraced everything?

Then why can I not dive in?
If God’s Names, Beauty and Majesty
surround me,
why do I not feel them?

Where lies the problem?

I should have dissolved into God’s majesty,
into the embrace of God’s majesty.
Why did I not?

Isn’t Husayn God’s Greatest Name?
Why have I not dissolved into Husayn?

Am I not within Husayn’s realm?
Am I not within the realm of God’s Proof?
Then why do I not dissolve?

Which sense? Which nerve has been severed, that I know nothing?

When will I truly recite the Prophet’s Household?
When will I truly recite the Quran?

I read the Quran…
and remain untouched by it.
I am immersed in the Quran, yet unaware.

📚 Where are those who know Husayn, those who pray?

With the Quran and the Prophet’s Household,
I should have read this whole universe,
interpreted and expounded it.

That is what the Two Weighty Things mean.
They are God’s light.
With these two,
I should have dispelled every darkness of ignorance.

But what has happened?
I have become ignorance itself. Why?
Because I am cut off.

Where are those who recite Husayn?
Where are those who know Husayn?
Where are those who pray and ascend?

Those who recite Husayn and, with him, reach realms beyond imagining…
I, who claim to follow Husayn,
how many of his letters have I learned?

There is no room for apathy in serving God.
One who belongs to Husayn
stirs a storm in the arena of service to God.

And I…
have yet to raise a speck of dust.

My feet have not yet set out.
I have not yet turned toward what lies ahead.

So when will I attain that station?
When will I be with Husayn?

Then let me take account of myself.
The dust of heedlessness has covered my whole being.
Unaware, numb,
I have remained still.
And I am dead.
I know nothing…