Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌼The Hidden Secrets of Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon him)🌼
🌼Drawing on Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon him)🌼
🌸🔆🌿 “A Spiritual Journey” “The Jawadian Secret” “The Mysteries of the Imamate”
🔅🌹 An abridged account, with supplement: “A Spiritual Journey,” “The Jawadian Secret,” “The Mysteries of the Imamate,” “The Secret of Attaining Knowledge of Body, Soul, and World” 1402.03.28 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat 110.141(903)) 🌹🔅
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🌸The Imam’s words: a secret from among the innermost secrets سرّ، سرّ در سرّ The Imam is the secret of secrets
☘️وَ قَالَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ: الْأَيَّامُ تَهْتِكُ لَكَ [الْأَمْرَ عَنِ] الْأَسْرَارِ الْكَامِنَةِ.
🌸The days will reveal hidden secrets to you.
☘️Time is a screen upon which secrets appear; it will draw back the veil from their faces.
🌸Our breaths are spent in solving the mysteries of creation. Not one breath is drawn in vain; each is an effort to uncover its secrets.
☘️Sunrise and sunset are, in truth, the opening of new pages on which secrets, knowledge, and arts are presented—not a repetition of what has gone before.
🌸Nothing in creation is mere repetition: every moment is a new scene.
☘️Each day is a new page in the book of existence. Do not leave it unread.
🌸New manifestations of knowledge and wisdom emerge each day. To suppose that everything is the same is a sign of the shortcomings in our own perception.
🌸The days lift the veil from mysteries
☘️The days interpret mysteries; they lead us through their midst.
🌸We are entrusted with a lifetime, every moment of which is a unique and incomparable jewel.
☘️Every moment of creation is a new manifestation, a fresh book and page. Let us read it well.
🌸Every moment, this world is itself a new world. The world’s unfolding is one world combined with another, forming a chain of worlds.
☘️At every moment, the human being undergoes a new experience.
🌸Every moment is a fresh opportunity that cannot be recovered once lost.
☘️Every moment of time is filled with the appearance of signs in the horizons and within ourselves.
🌸At every moment, the sky takes on a new form: a new beauty, with something new to say. Light carries a message in this world, and at every moment new messengers, bearing fresh knowledge, shine before our eyes.
☘️Every moment brings new signs into view across the vast expanse of existence, through the sunlike beauty of the outer and inner worlds, and of the wilayah.
🌸In their deeper meaning, the days are God’s proofs upon the earth: they open, disclose, and uncover mysteries, and display what lies hidden.
☘️Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon him) sees, hears, and knows us better than we know ourselves. By the permission of the All-Merciful, Imam al-Jawad precedes time and is fully aware of it.
🌸أَنَا أَعْلَمُ بِسَرَائِرِكُمْ وَ ظَوَاهِرِكُمْ وَ مَا أَنْتُمْ صَائِرُونَ إِلَيْهِ عِلْمٌ مَنَحَنَا بِهِ مِنْ قَبْلِ خَلْقِ الْخَلْقِ أَجْمَعِين
☘️The Imam is a perfect mirror.
🌸The Imam perceives our outward and inward faculties; he is the very reality of knowledge and learning. He guides us to ourselves and to the whole world.
☘️A person cannot know themselves, even when standing before the most powerful mirror. But the Imam reveals us to ourselves in the finest and most complete way, displays all existence to us, and joins our time to our place.
🌸Through Imam al-Jawad, I attain complete knowledge of myself and succeed in knowing myself fully; then I am granted success in knowing God.
The Imam reflects me back to myself better than I can know myself.
☘️In the mirror of Imam al-Jawad’s beauty and majesty, both sides of creation are revealed.
🌸The Imam of the Age presides over time, and time is subject to the Imam of the Age.
☘️If I come to know the Imam, a great leap in understanding takes place.
🌸The journey of spiritual refinement is a journey through all mysteries and the universe.
☘️The state of expansiveness is attained through the Imam, and its wings unfold to embrace the vastness of the universe.
🌸The human being is, in truth, the whole universe, for separation from it is impossible. We can grasp, absorb, and benefit from this sublime gift only by awakening our understanding, knowledge, and certainty of this wondrous truth—and that can happen only through the Imam.
☘️When I connect with the station of divine authority embodied by Jawad, the storm of servitude begins.
🌸أَنَّهُ قَالَ: كَانَ بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ يَوْماً يَقْرَأُ فِي اللَّوْحِ، إِذْ رَمَى اللَّوْحَ مِنْ يَدِهِ، وَ قَامَ فَزِعاً، وَ هُوَ يَقُولُ: إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَيْهِ راجِعُونَ، مَضَى- وَ اللَّهِ- أَبِي عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ.
فَقُلْتُ: مِنْ أَيْنَ عَلِمْتَ?
قَالَ: دَخَلَنِي مِنْ إِجْلَالِ اللَّهِ وَ عَظَمَتِهِ شَيْءٌ لَمْ أَعْهَدْهُ.
فَقُلْتُ: وَ قَدْ مَضَى؟! فَقَالَ: دَعْ عَنْكَ ذَا، ائْذَنْ لِي أَنْ أَدْخُلَ الْبَيْتَ وَ أَخْرُجَ إِلَيْكَ، وَ اسْتَعْرِضْنِي أَيَّ الْقُرْآنِ شِئْتَ، أَفِ لَكَ بِحِفْظِهِ.
☘️Only God knows the hidden mysteries within the Imam’s soul. God alone knows what He has done within the Imam’s soul, what He has planted there, and what He has gathered within it.
🌸Let us seek the Imam’s words, so that our path to knowing him may be made clear.
☘️Once we have expended our capacity in the pursuit of knowing the Imam, God’s greatest grace encompasses us.
🌸God’s greatest grace is the due of our souls once we have fulfilled our lesser duty.
☘️Every Imam is a creation of God; every Imam is a divine wonder. With the Imam, we are immersed in perpetual renewal.
🌸The Imam is the true lifeline, the spiritual, heavenly, empyrean, and sacred artery of life.
☘️The Imam is the lifeline, the life of goodness, the sacred life—and God stands between us and His lifeline.
🌸At every moment, we are present at the Imam’s table; let us not forget to partake of its sustenance from the All-Merciful.
🌸Being in the presence of the martyred Imam
☘️The Imam is a witness, so let us be present before him.
🌸The taste of ruby, the savor of digesting diamonds, the taste of primordial light—all are attained through the Imam.
☘️Without the Imam, we are lowly and lost; with the Imam, we are honored and gentle.
🌸True allegiance comes after truly holding fast. Let us cling to the rope of God and seek refuge in it.
☘️Āl ʿImrān: 112 ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ أَيْنَ ما ثُقِفُوا إِلاَّ بِحَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَ حَبْلٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَ باؤُ بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَ ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَسْكَنَةُ ذلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ بِآياتِ اللَّهِ وَ يَقْتُلُونَ الْأَنْبِياءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ ذلِكَ بِما عَصَوْا وَ كانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ
🌸No one tires of breathing; to tire of the Imam is impossible. Let us never tire of drawing the breath of divine mercy.
☘️The stirring of dust and the stirring of the dead among the living are no sign of true life.
🌸If our Muhammadan life and our life through the family of Muhammad die, then we have met true death.
☘️Who could turn away from God’s water and pure drink?!
🌸The Imam is true food and drink. Without this merciful sustenance, we are frail on the path of servitude to God; with it, we grow strong in that servitude.
☘️Whoever is heedless of knowing the Imam forgets the truth, loses themselves, and sinks into a state akin to death.
🌸Whoever flees from purity becomes impure; to flee from the Imam is to welcome impurity.
☘️Reciting the Imam Jawad is essential to interpreting the meaning of existence.
🌸The Imam is God’s Clear Book and must be read in its entirety. We must commit God’s Book to memory in order to taste the joy of servitude.
☘️Until we have read the Book of God in its entirety and tasted its sweetness, we remain unsuccessful in our worship of God.
🌸Attaining true servanthood depends on a genuine bond with the Imamate.
☘️The Fourteen Infallibles are fourteen greater universes: Paradise, the Greatest Sun, and the Supreme.
🌸Jawad is the interpreter of Jawad.
🌸Jawad defines Jawad; Jawad is a mirror of Jawad.
☘️The Imam is that supreme and exalted sense through which we see, hear, and taste the Lote Tree, the Throne, and the most sacred heavenly realm.
🌼 Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903) 🌼
