Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌼🔆🌼Spiritual Wayfaring in the Orbit of Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him🌼🔆🌼
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🔅🌹“The Secret of the Four Alids” “God is the Nourisher” “Knowledge is nourishment” “The Monotheistic Discourse of Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him” “The Eve of the Martyrdom of Imam Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi, peace be upon him” and more … An abstract with an addendum 1403.10.15 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903) 🌹🔅
🔅🌼 Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him: the vast canopy of divine serenity and dignity🌼🔅
🌹Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, is a divine secret kept hidden, the abode of mysteries and the sanctuary of divine secrets
🔅🌼 Be the nourishment of your Imam🌼🔅
🌹Taking stock of one’s bond with Imam al-Naqi is the foundation for affirming his divine authority. Let us assess that bond within our own souls.
🌹Let us examine the authority of Imam al-Naqi within ourselves and make sure it is present and in good health!
🌹What have you done for Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him? How much have you supported and championed his imamate?
🌹There is a reciprocal influence between Imam and follower: in relation to the Imam, one may be a source of grace or a source of harm, an adornment or a disgrace.
🌹How remarkable! Yes, this is the truth: we are influenced by the sun, and the sun by us.
🌹Our positive influence comes about not through ourselves, but through our Lord. We need only reflect on the rank and worth of blessings and salutations; surely every act of affirmation is accepted.
🌹Then what is the rank and worth of blessings and salutations? Make yourself a blessing from God for God’s chosen servant.
🔅🌼 Four mirrors facing one another🌼🔅
🌹Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, is one of the four pillars of the celestial realm.
🌹The sublime vision of the Four Alids—“Ali al-Murtada, Ali al-Sajjad, Ali al-Rida, Ali al-Hadi”—is surely the crowning vision of the celestial realm in this existence, formed by the four names of Ali and their immense manifestations.
🌹Ali, Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, and the three exalted branches—al-Sajjad, al-Rida and al-Hadi—are signs of a hidden mystery. No doubt this arrangement and order of names holds special secrets. Let us not forget the all-embracing blessings and salutations: let us offer them in the name of each of the Infallibles.
🔅🌼Do not forget to move on 🌼🔅
🌹Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, is a sublime window onto the passage to hidden peaks.
🌹Let us gaze upon the landscape of our souls and find ourselves. While the light still shines, let us treasure the chance to see.
🌹 What secret does Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi hold?! A vast window onto the world of Ali, Commander of the Faithful; vast windows, too, onto the wonders of each of the Imams, and ultimately onto the City of the Prophet’s Knowledge. It is a gateway into parallel and successive worlds, the secret of entering the depths of the Secret of Secrets.
🌹 Let us not look casually at the sky, for it is a centre of wonders! Every galaxy has wonders of its own. The wonders of Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, are Ali-like, Naqi-like and Hadi-like, and encompass every kind of virtue and goodness in the world.
🌹 Let us strengthen our practices of spiritual vigilance in the way of Imam al-Naqi!
🔅🌼Be the bird of your Imam’s soul🌼🔅
🌹 Through Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, what mysteries have you discovered?! What truths have you uncovered?!
🌹 Activate the Hadi-like pole within your soul!
🌹 Have you passed through the orbit of Imam al-Hadi?
🌹How do birds and other creatures find their way?! What classrooms have the birds attended?! Activate your faculty of discernment; set the compass of existence in motion. Neglect extinguishes the soul’s hidden capacities and knowledge. Find the paths leading to the Highest Kingdom,
🌹Attend to the movement of the world: with what order and discipline all things revolve!
🌻🔆Al-Anbiya: 33 وَ هُوَ الَّذي خَلَقَ اللَّيْلَ وَ النَّهارَ وَ الشَّمْسَ وَ الْقَمَرَ كُلٌّ في فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ
🔆It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each travels in its own orbit!
🌻🔆يس : 40 لاَ الشَّمْسُ يَنْبَغي لَها أَنْ تُدْرِكَ الْقَمَرَ وَ لاَ اللَّيْلُ سابِقُ النَّهارِ وَ كُلٌّ في فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ
🔆It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night precede the day; each floats in its own orbit.
🌹The orbit of the Naqawī ideal order reforms and strengthens our world’s ideal Naqawī order.
🌹Let us not neglect the Naqawī organ that is the soul of our world.
🌹The Guiding Imam embodies a distinct and independent sensibility, and a particular state of servitude to God.
🌹We are moving through the world within us; let us not stray from the orbit of the ideal order.
🌹How can we bring the supreme order of movement into alignment with this motion? It is enough to remain connected to the heart of movement.
🌹The greater the world, the greater and swifter its movement! If an error occurs in this greater universe, its losses will be irreparable.
🌹How swiftly do we move with our Guiding Imam? What is the course of our movement within his orbit? Let us take in the sights along this path!
🌹The Imam is our ideal order. Our condition is the lowest of the low; with the Imam, we must transform the depths of our soul into the finest order.
🔅🌼 An appetite for Naqawī words 🌼🔅
🌹Contemplating Naqawī words guides us to Naqawī mysteries.
🔅🌼 He does not eat 🌼🔅
🌷🔆يَا فَتْحُ كُلُ جِسْمٍ مُغَذًّى بِغِذَاءٍ إِلَّا الْخَالِقَ الرَّزَّاقَ فَإِنَّهُ جَسَّمَ الْأَجْسَامَ وَ هُوَ لَيْسَ بِجِسْمٍ وَ لَا صُورَةٍ لَمْ يَتَجَزَّأْ وَ لَمْ يَتَنَاهَ وَ لَمْ يَتَزَايَدْ وَ لَمْ يَتَنَاقَصْ مُبَرَّأٌ مِنْ ذَاتِ مَا رَكَّبَ فِي ذَاتِ مَنْ جَسَّمَهُ وَ هُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ الْوَاحِدُ الْأَحَدُ الصَّمَدُ. لَمْ يَلِدْ وَ لَمْ يُولَدْ وَ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُواً أَحَدٌ مُنْشِئُ الْأَشْيَاءِ وَ مُجَسِّمُ الْأَجْسَامِ وَ مُصَوِّرُ الصُّوَرِ
🌷🔆O Fath! Every creature has food that sustains it, except God, the Creator and Provider. Indeed, He gave bodies their corporeality, yet He is not a body and has no form. He has no parts and no end; He neither increases nor diminishes. He is not composed of what He has placed among created things (He is free of composition and of being composed of the things to which He gave corporeality). He is Subtle, Knowing, Hearing and Seeing, One, Unique and Self-Sufficient. He neither begets nor is begotten, and there is none like Him.
He brings creatures into being, gives bodies their corporeality, and forms all forms.
🔅🌼He acts and nourishes 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي يُطْعِمُ وَ لا يُطْعَمُ وَ يُجِيرُ وَ لا يُجارُ عَلَيْهِ وَ يَسْتَغْنِي وَ يُفْتَقَرُ إِلَيْهِ اللَّهُمَّ لَكَ الْحَمْدُ عَلَى مَا رَزَقْتَنِي مِنْ طَعَامٍ وَ إِدَامٍ فِي يُسْرٍ وَ عَافِيَةٍ مِنْ غَيْرِ كَدٍّ مِنِّي وَ لَا مَشَقَّة[1]
🔅🌼 Food: the fuel of movement 🌼🔅
🌹Nourishment reveals need, the necessity of replenishment, and the sign of change.
🌹Nourishment supplies the energy needed for movement and action.
🌹Nourishment comes in different kinds, types, and varieties.
🌹Gaining benefit and warding off harm are among the essential purposes of nourishment.
🌹All foods, in their quantities and qualities, are quantitative and qualitative; attributes, too, are descriptive foods. God has no need of any food. “Negation of attributes” means the negation of nourishment through attributes.
🔅🌼The geography of human need is the human table of food 🌼🔅
🌹Human beings need food in proportion to the breadth of their needs.
🌹The closer a being comes to perfection, the greater its needs and the wider its fare.
🌹A stone’s needs and a human being’s differ by the whole span from earth to the Throne—provided, of course, that the human being is truly human.
🌹From inanimate matter to plants, animals, human beings and angels, needs grow ever broader. Human need is infinite.
🌹If human beings do not partake of the infinite, they die.
🌹Human food and its many kinds cannot be counted or enumerated; human need cannot be counted.
🌹The essential nourishment of human beings is God’s Most Beautiful Names. All else consists of the fruits of the tree of the Most Beautiful Names, or their shade.
🌹Whatever nourishment a person is deprived of, they remain diminished to that extent.
🔅🌼Feeding on Knowledge🌼🔅
🌹Food sets knowledge in motion; it acts like a key, opening doors and enabling flight.
🌹Human beings must feed on the living; they draw nourishment from life through living beings, and food adds to their knowledge.
🌹He gives nourishment but does not consume; He imparts knowledge but does not acquire it.
🌹We must feed on knowledge, lest we feed on ignorance and undergo a reversal of growth.
🌻🔆‘Abasa: 24 فَلْيَنْظُرِ الْإِنْسانُ إِلى طَعامِهِ
🔅🌼Joy Is Food🌼🔅
🌹We should become acquainted with the many kinds of nourishment and look over our own list and menu of foods. Let us not eat too little or forget our share of the foods of the unseen realm.
🌹Our Creator has no need of any kind of nourishment—whether earthly, heavenly, transcendent, intellectual, wise, or any other kind.
🌹Love, too, is nourishment. He has no need of love; He made love for us and pours it into us.
🌹Happiness, anger, love and every kind of benefit we receive are among the forms of nourishment.
🔅🌼Reflection Is Food🌼🔅
🌹Reflection, reason and learning are among the other expressions of nourishment.
🌹Hearing, seeing, understanding and the like are among its forms.
🌹Food and nourishment have an end toward which the nourisher moves with the food.
🌹He is not a receiver but a giver.
🔅🌼Knowledge Is Food🌼🔅
🌹Knowledge is intellectual nourishment.
🌹“God knows” should be understood in the same way as “God creates”: God brings His knowledge into manifestation; He set creation in motion.
🌹Just as the Most High God is the source of provision, He is also the source of knowledge.
🌹Knowledge comes from Him; He grants awareness, and ignorance has no access to His presence.
🌹Even infinity can apply only to what is other than God. Infinity is one of God’s instruments; His incomparable Essence is too great to be described as infinite. His knowledge encompasses all things, just as His Names embrace all things.
🌹There is also that which lies beyond infinity, but it is not of the order of existence, nor is it a kind of “beyond” or “what lies beyond.”
🌹He is not a receiver but a giver; knowledge comes from Him, and He has no need of knowledge.
🔅🌼 غُذِّيَا بِالْعِلْمِ غِذَاء 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: جَاءَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى الْحَسَنِ وَ الْحُسَيْنِ ع وَ هُمَا جَالِسَانِ عَلَى الصَّفَا فَسَأَلَهُمَا فَقَالا إِنَّ الصَّدَقَةَ لَا تَحِلُّ إِلَّا فِي دَيْنٍ مُوجِعٍ أَوْ غُرْمٍ مُفْظِعٍ أَوْ فَقْرٍ مُدْقِعٍ فَفِيكَ شَيْءٌ مِنْ هَذَا قَالَ نَعَمْ فَأَعْطَيَاهُ وَ قَدْ كَانَ الرَّجُلُ سَأَلَ عَبْدَ اللَّهِ بْنَ عُمَرَ وَ عَبْدَ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ فَأَعْطَيَاهُ وَ لَمْ يَسْأَلَاهُ عَنْ شَيْءٍ فَرَجَعَ إِلَيْهِمَا فَقَالَ لَهُمَا مَا لَكُمَا لَمْ تَسْأَلَانِي عَمَّا سَأَلَنِي عَنْهُ الْحَسَنُ وَ الْحُسَيْنُ ع وَ أَخْبَرَهُمَا بِمَا قَالا فَقَالا إِنَّهُمَا غُذِّيَا بِالْعِلْمِ غِذَاء[2]
🔅🌼Keeper of Time🌼🔅
🌹Time is all-encompassing, and He has spread this canopy.
🌹 Time is like a prison; those it contains cannot escape it.
🌹 Knowledge encompasses all things, and He has spread this canopy over them.
🌹 From beyond knowledge, He watches over it; He is the One who spreads knowledge.
🔅🌼All embodied beings depend on nourishment 🌼🔅
🌷🔆يَا فَتْحُ كُلُ جِسْمٍ مُغَذًّى بِغِذَاءٍ إِلَّا الْخَالِقَ الرَّزَّاقَ
فَإِنَّهُ جَسَّمَ الْأَجْسَامَ وَ هُوَ لَيْسَ بِجِسْمٍ وَ لَا صُورَةٍ لَمْ يَتَجَزَّأْ وَ لَمْ يَتَنَاهَ وَ لَمْ يَتَزَايَدْ وَ لَمْ يَتَنَاقَصْ
🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼
🔅🌼A student’s reflection on the session “Taking Stock of the Naqawiyyah Relationship” 🌼🔅
🔹 Taking stock of the Naqawiyyah relationship
🔹 The martyrdom of His Holiness Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi, peace be upon him
📅 Date: 1403/10/15 – 3 Rajab 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
Some of the topics discussed in the session:
### 🌟 The divine knowledge of Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi (AS)
Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi was a noble whose sacred soul God Himself entrusted with His knowledge. He became the guardian of God’s knowledge and the keeper of His hidden mysteries. He carries God’s concealed secrets in his heart. God granted him such power that he knows every secret. He knows what lies in people’s hearts and is aware of their innermost thoughts. God makes known to him what lies within every heart. Whatever anyone conceals is revealed to Imam Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi. 🌿
### 🌟 The intercessor who leads to Paradise: Imam al-Hadi (AS)
Whoever recites this supplication will have Imam al-Hadi as their intercessor and guide, leading them on their way to Paradise. Let us examine ourselves and take stock according to the Naqawiyyah measure. Have we settled our account? Have we called ourselves to account? Have we completed the self-examination of the Naqawiyyah relationship? Have we searched for al-Hadi within our hearts? He is God’s trust placed in our hearts, and one day we must return that trust. 🌸
« يَا نُورُ يَا بُرْهَانُ يَا مُنِيرُ يَا مُبِينُ يَا رَبِّ اكْفِنِي شَرَّ الشُّرُورِ وَ آفَاتِ الدُّهُورِ وَ أَسْأَلُكَ النَّجَاةَ يَوْمَ يُنْفَخُ فِي الصُّور»
### 🌿 The primordial bond between Imam and follower
What have we done for our Imam al-Hadi? Let us question ourselves and hold ourselves accountable. Imam al-Hadi is our Imam. So what have we done for him? What great act of devotion have we brought to completion? How have we benefited from this means of drawing near to God, the Guide? We must take stock of ourselves. Let us examine our lives and our bond with Imam al-Naqi. When I search within myself, do I find my Imam al-Hadi, or do I find no trace of him? If I cannot see him, I am blind to the Imam—that is, blind and deaf to the imamate of Imam al-Hadi. If I cannot sing of his radiant beauty with joyful, sweet praise, then my tongue is struck dumb before Imam al-Hadi. 🌟
### 🌸 God’s light and the secret of invoking blessings
But my God can. Through my God, I must build a bond with my Imam al-Hadi—with each of my Imams. I can cast God’s light upon the face of the sun. Do we not know the secret of invoking blessings upon them? 🌼
### 🌟 The secret of invoking blessings and its role in our bond with Imam al-Hadi (AS)
The secret of invoking blessings is that I send a divine gift of connection to the sacred presence of Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad. When I enter the realm of Imam al-Hadi’s wilayah, a two-way relationship is formed. In turn, the Most Merciful God bestows His grace upon the Imam on my behalf and sends forth His own bond of connection. We too can become a source of mercy for our Imam and benefit from the grace of his existence. Imam al-Hadi is one of the four pillars of the ‘Illiyyun: Amir al-Mu’minin, Imam Zayn al-Abidin, Imam al-Rida, and Imam al-Hadi. These four bearers of the name Ali hold special mysteries. A comprehensive salawat, recited with mention of His Holiness’s titles, brings us to the station of nearness to God. 🌿
### 🌼 The effect of invoking blessings and the greatness of Imam al-Hadi (AS)
Sending greetings and blessings upon the Imams in order heals illness and cures disease. Imam al-Hadi is a window onto hidden summits. Through this Imam, we could look into the world within our souls and beyond ourselves. God’s light is within our reach through Imam al-Hadi—but why have we not benefited from his radiance? Imam al-Hadi is a great mystery, a window onto parallel and successive worlds, and the key to entering the depths of the innermost secret. 🌟
### 🌿 The Importance of Knowing Imam al-Hadi (AS)
Imam al-Hadi is an exceptional and distinctive Imam. Have we uncovered his mysteries, or do we remain asleep in heedlessness? Birds find their way through the sky, but have we found our way by the guiding stars of al-Hadi and al-Naqi? If our Hadi-like world lies in darkness, we must awaken and journey in the orbit of al-Hadi. 🌌
### 🌟 The Most Excellent Orbit of al-Naqi and the Soul’s Order through Imam al-Hadi (AS)
Had we entered Imam al-Hadi’s orbit, we would have discovered the world within us and beyond us, and come to know its mysteries. The Infallible Imams are our path to salvation. Imam al-Hadi can bring the most excellent order and harmony to our souls and free us from confusion. What a tremendous calamity would befall us if we lost this orbit! 🌸
### 🌼 Knowing Imam al-Hadi’s Words and the Opening of Innate Nature
Our familiarity with Imam al-Hadi’s words reflects the degree of our connection to his blessed being. The more familiar we are with his words, the wider the gates of our innate nature open. Being estranged from the Imam’s words shows that the gates of our innate nature are closed. Imam al-Hadi is the Imam of the mystery and of innate nature. 🌿
### 🌿 Floating in Imam al-Hadi’s Words and the Opening of the Gates of Innate Nature
Have we not floated in the sea of al-Hadi’s words? How far have the gates of our innate nature opened? The more estranged we are from the Imam’s words, the more it shows that the gates of our innate nature are closed. The Imam says: “O Fath, every body is nourished by food. But the Creator, who provides sustenance, is not nourished. God has neither body nor form; He cannot be divided and is free of every combination and deficiency. He is Subtle, All-Aware, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, One, Unique, and Self-Sufficient.” 🌟
### 🌟 God, Creator of All Things, Is in No Need of Nourishment
God brings things into being and gives bodies their embodiment. He gives forms their shape. Every body needs nourishment, but the Creator and Provider has no need of food. Our sight is nourished by light so that we can see, yet God is All-Seeing without being nourished. This is what it means to deny attributes of God: He has no need of food or attributes. 🌸
### 🌼 The Human Need for Nourishment and Its Vast Scope
The human need for food, whether material or spiritual, is limitless. Human beings are nourished by God’s Most Beautiful Names. God is not nourished by His Names; rather, He nourishes. God’s attributes are His own, and show that He has no need of anything. Nourishment implies a need for strengthening and movement, but God is free of such needs. 🌿
### 🌟 Knowledge: The Supreme Nourishment and Its Infinite Reach
Human nourishment encompasses gaining benefit and warding off harm. Knowledge is one of its noblest forms. Knowledge is the principal nourishment; other foods are like keys that lead us to it. In truth, we feed on knowledge, whereas God has no need of it. He sends down and bestows knowledge, and His knowledge encompasses all things. 🌟
### 🌼 God’s Freedom from Need of Knowledge and Every Kind of Nourishment
Knowledge, joy, anger, and even thought are all kinds of nourishment. God is not nourished by knowledge; rather, He is the source from which knowledge flows. He has no need of any kind of nourishment, material or spiritual. God “gives food and is not fed,” and every being draws upon His attributes and blessings. 🌸
### 🌿 Reflection and Reasoning: Expressions of Spiritual Nourishment
Reflection is a kind of nourishment. Reflection, reasoning, and feeling pain are all expressions of nourishment. Hearing through the faculty of hearing, seeing through the faculty of sight, and understanding through the faculty of comprehension are all forms of nourishment. These forms of nourishment continue until knowledge is attained. Knowledge, too, is the supreme nourishment: an intellectual sustenance that helps the human being reach perfection. 🌱
### 🌟 God’s Knowledge: Beyond Comprehension and Description
God knows, but not in the human sense of knowing. Just as God creates, He also brings knowledge into being and makes it manifest. He does not wait to learn or to observe the deeds of His servants. Even to say that God encompasses knowledge falls short: He is above it. Knowledge encompasses, but God is beyond all encompassing and every description. He is the Greatest, the Most Exalted. 🌌
### 🌸 The Infinity of God’s Knowledge: The Mystery of the Finite Emerging from the Infinite
Ignorance has no access to His presence. The infinite is an instrument in God’s hands. He created the infinite and brought the finite into being from within it. Within every finite thing lies the infinite, and this mystery is a sign of the grandeur of God’s incomparable essence. 🌠
### 🌿 Time: A Setting for Growth and Movement
Time, too, is a kind of nourishment. Our lives draw sustenance from time; without it, there would be no movement. We consume time in order to move, change and grow. God has spread this canopy of time over the world. Knowledge, too, holds everything within its grasp. God rules over this realm from beyond time and knowledge, though His being beyond them is not itself a kind of existence. 🌟
🎥 Watch the full lecture at the link below:
🔗 Jame Jan website
🌍 jamejan.com
🟠 Jame Jan Eitaa channel
🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141 (903)🌼
[1] مكارم الأخلاق، ص: 144
[2] الكافي (ط – الإسلامية) ؛ ج4 ؛ ص47 Kolayni, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyya, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.
