Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌼🔆🌼Monotheism in Love🌼🔆🌼
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🔅🌹 “The Lie of a Kind of Immortality” “The Snare of Allure” “Do Not Consult Satan” “Commentary on Supplication 20 of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya” “Session 240” and … Summary with Supplement 1403.11.11 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903) 🌹🔅
🔅🌼In Search of Everlasting Life 🌼🔅
🌸🌹☘️وَ عَمِّرْنِي مَا كَانَ عُمُرِي بِذْلَةً فِي طَاعَتِكَ، فَإِذَا كَانَ عُمُرِي مَرْتَعاً لِلشَّيْطَانِ فَاقْبِضْنِي إِلَيْكَ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَسْبِقَ مَقْتُكَ إِلَيَّ، أَوْ يَسْتَحْكِمَ غَضَبُكَ عَلَي ☘️ 🌹 🌸
🔅🌼O God, take charge of my life Yourself 🌼🔅
🌹O God, grant me a life in which I may devote myself to obeying You. O God, grant me a life I may dedicate to serving You. O God, make me such that Satan gains not even the slightest hold over me.
🌹Life is a trust placed in our keeping by God.
🌹Life is the ground of everlasting felicity—or eternal disgrace.
🌹Do not be an easy morsel for Satan; become a morsel that chokes him.
🌹Make yourself beyond Satan’s reach.
🔅🌼 False love deceives the human senses and activates the false nerve.🌼🔅
🌹A life is made flourishing by love of God; a life lived in love is a landscape of beauty.
🌹A human being’s pure self is a field of love and worship.
🌹Every kind of love for this world’s fleeting goods instills in a person a false sense of immortality.
🌷🔆وَ مَنْ عَشِقَ شَيْئاً أَعْشَى بَصَرَهُ وَ أَمْرَضَ قَلْبَهُ فَهُوَ يَنْظُرُ بِعَيْنٍ غَيْرِ صَحِيحَةٍ وَ يَسْمَعُ بِأُذُنٍ غَيْرِ سَمِيعَةٍ قَدْ خَرَقَتِ الشَّهَوَاتُ عَقْلَهُ وَ أَمَاتَتِ الدُّنْيَا قَلْبَهُ وَ وَلِهَتْ عَلَيْهَا نَفْسُهُ فَهُوَ عَبْدٌ لَهَا وَ لِمَنْ فِي يَدَيْهِ شَيْءٌ مِنْهَا حَيْثُمَا زَالَتْ زَالَ إِلَيْهَا وَ حَيْثُمَا أَقْبَلَتْ أَقْبَلَ عَلَيْهَا لَا يَنْزَجِرُ مِنَ اللَّهِ بِزَاجِرٍ وَ لَا يَتَّعِظُ مِنْهُ بِوَاعِظٍ وَ هُوَ يَرَى الْمَأْخُوذِين[1]
🔆Whoever loves something has his sight blinded and his heart made sick. He then looks with impaired eyes and listens with deaf ears. His passions tear his intellect to shreds, and this world deadens his heart and enthralls him with material things. Thus, he becomes the world’s slave, and the servant of whoever possesses even a little of it. Wherever the world turns, he turns with it; wherever it faces, he faces too. He does not desist from sin when admonished by God’s warnings, nor does he heed any divine preacher, though he sees people die suddenly—at a point from which there is no breaking one’s pledge and no way back. He sees how an unforeseen calamity overtakes them, how they are seized by their departure from a world in which they had felt safe and secure, and how they enter the Hereafter of which they had been promised.[2]
🌹When a person loves anything other than God, his decline begins, ending in servitude to the world and its people. One who loves the world becomes its slave, and a slave to those who worship it.
🌹The one who loves the world turns with every breeze that blows through it and adjusts his course accordingly. The world is his imam and object of worship; he circles around it.
🔅🌼Strip the adornment from the face of desire, and its true nature will be revealed.🌼🔅
🌹Do not be caught in the snare of the allure of desire.
🌻🔆Āl ʿImrān: 14 زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَواتِ مِنَ النِّساءِ وَ الْبَنينَ وَ الْقَناطيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَ الْفِضَّةِ وَ الْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَ الْأَنْعامِ وَ الْحَرْثِ ذلِكَ مَتاعُ الْحَياةِ الدُّنْيا وَ اللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ
🔆Love of worldly things—women, children, heaps of gold and silver, fine horses, livestock, and crops—has been made alluring to people. These are the assets of this fleeting life, but the finest end rests with God.
🌻🔆Women : 27 وَ اللَّهُ يُريدُ أَنْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ يُريدُ الَّذينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَواتِ أَنْ تَميلُوا مَيْلاً عَظيماً
🔆God wants to forgive you, but those who follow their desires want you to stray far from the right path.
🌻🔆Mary : 59 فَخَلَفَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ خَلْفٌ أَضاعُوا الصَّلاةَ وَ اتَّبَعُوا الشَّهَواتِ فَسَوْفَ يَلْقَوْنَ غَيًّا
🌻🔆Then, after them, came unworthy successors who neglected the prayer and followed their desires. They will soon face the consequences of their error!
🌹No entry into Satan’s beauty salon!!!
🌹Who are the beauties in the eyes of Satan and those who follow his ways?
🌹How long will you dance and beguile cockroaches, rats, and swine?!
🔅🌼The love of God fills the heart🌼🔅
🌹Divine love prevails over and subdues hearts and all existence, leaving no room for any other love.
🌹Divine love admits no partner: its outward expression is monotheism. To be one in love is the highest mark of servitude to God.
🌷🔆قَالَ الصَّادِقُ ع حُبُّ اللَّهِ إِذَا أَضَاعَ عَلَى سِرِّ عَبْدِهِ أَخْلَاهُ عَنْ كُلِّ شَاغِلٍ وَ كُلُّ ذِكْرٍ سِوَى اللَّهِ ظُلْمَةٌ وَ الْمُحِبُّ أَخْلَصُ النَّاسِ سِرّاً لِلَّهِ وَ أَصْدَقُهُمْ قَوْلًا وَ أَوْفَاهُمْ عَهْداً وَ أَذْكَاهُمْ عَمَلًا وَ أَصْفَاهُمْ ذِكْراً وَ أَعْبَدُهُمْ نَفْساً تَتَبَاهَى بِهِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ عِنْدَ مُنَاجَاتِهِ وَ تَفْتَخِرُ بِرُؤْيَتِهِ وَ بِهِ يَعْمُرُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى بِلَادَهُ وَ بِكَرَامَتِهِ يُكْرِمُ اللَّهُ عِبَادَهُ يُعْطِيهِمْ إِذَا سَأَلُوهُ بِحَقِّهِ وَ يَدْفَعُ عَنْهُمُ الْبَلَايَا بِرَحْمَتِهِ وَ لَوْ عَلِمَ الْخَلْقُ مَا مَحَلُّهُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَ مَنْزِلَتُهُ لَدَيْهِ مَا تَقَرَّبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ إِلَّا بِتُرَابِ قَدَمَيْهِ وَ قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ع حُبُّ اللَّهِ نَارٌ لَا تَمُرُّ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا احْتَرَقَ وَ نُورُ اللَّهِ لَا يَطْلُعُ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَضَاءَ وَ سَمَاءُ اللَّهِ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْ سَحَابٍ تَحْتَهُ I [extra] شَيْءٌ إِلَّا غَطَّاهُ وَ رِيحُ اللَّهِ مَا تَهُبُّ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلَّا حَرَّكَتْهُ وَ مَاءُ اللَّهِ يَحْيَا بِهِ كُلُّ شَيْءٍ وَ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ يَنْبُتُ مِنْهَا كُلُّ شَيْءٍ فَمَنْ أَحَبَّ اللَّهَ أَعْطَاهُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ مِنَ الْمُلْكِ وَ الْمِلْكِ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ص إِذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ عَبْداً مِنْ أُمَّتِي قَذَفَ فِي قُلُوبِ أَصْفِيَائِهِ وَ أَرْوَاحِ مَلَائِكَتِهِ وَ سُكَّانِ عَرْشِهِ مَحَبَّتَهُ لِيُحِبُّوهُ فَذَلِكَ الْمُحِبُّ حَقّاً طُوبَى لَهُ ثُمَّ طُوبَى لَهُ وَ لَهُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ شَفَاعَةٌ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ[3]
🌷🔆Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said: “When the love of God illuminates the inner being of His servant, it purifies it of every distraction and every thought or remembrance of anything other than God. The true lover is the purest of people in heart, the most truthful, the most faithful to commitments and covenants, the purest in deeds, and the most constant in turning to and remembering the Almighty Lord. Such a soul is the most perfect in servitude and worship. The angels of heaven rejoice when the lover communes with God, and take pride in seeing and beholding him. Through him, the Almighty God brings life to His lands and the earth, and honors and dignifies people. When people turn to God through his standing with Him, the Almighty Lord grants their requests; through His kindness and mercy, He removes their trials and afflictions. Were people to realize the lofty rank and exalted station he holds with the Almighty God, they would surely draw near to God by the dust of his footsteps.”
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: “Love for God is a fire that penetrates whatever it touches and burns it; a divine light that shines upon no heart without illuminating it; and a sky beneath whose shade all things receive their share of its blessings. It is like a breeze and the mercy of the All-Merciful, bringing life and movement to whatever it passes over. It is like water sent down from the sky, by which all things are given life, and like the earth from which plants spring forth. So whoever loves God will be granted by God Most High all things, both material and spiritual.”
The Noble Messenger (PBUH) said: “When God Most High loves a servant, He places love for that servant in the hearts of His chosen and purified servants, the angels of heaven, and the inhabitants of His Throne. They all come to love that person. This is what a true lover of God Most High is like. Blessed is that person, for on the Day of Resurrection they will be granted the rank of intercessor, able to intercede for whomever they wish.”
🔅🌼Write the name of God above everything delightful and delicious 🌼🔅
🌹Give everything a divine direction; do not forget God. In contemplating God’s signs, do not forget the One whose signs they are! 🌹Remember God within the frame of His creation; give all your friendships a divine hue.
🌷🔆قَالَ الصَّادِقُ ع الْمُحِبُّ فِي اللَّهِ مُحِبُّ اللَّهِ وَ الْمَحْبُوبُ فِي اللَّهِ حَبِيبُ اللَّهِ لِأَنَّهُمَا لَا يَتَحَابَّانِ إِلَّا فِي اللَّهِ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص الْمَرْءُ مَعَ مَنْ أَحَبَّ فَمَنْ أَحَبَّ عَبْداً فِي اللَّهِ فَإِنَّمَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى وَ لَا يُحِبُّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى إِلَّا مَنْ أَحَبَّهُ اللَّهُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص أَفْضَلُ النَّاسِ بَعْدَ النَّبِيِّينَ ص فِي الدُّنْيَا وَ الْآخِرَةِ الْمُحِبُّونَ لِلَّهِ الْمُتَحَابُّونَ فِيهِ وَ كُلُّ حُبٍّ مَعْلُولٍ يُورِثُ فِيهِ عَدَاوَةً إِلَّا هَذَيْنِ وَ هُمَا مِنْ عَيْنٍ وَاحِدَةٍ يَزِيدَانِ أَبَداً وَ لَا يَنْقُصَانِ أَبَداً قَالَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى- الْأَخِلَّاءُ يَوْمَئِذٍ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ إِلَّا الْمُتَّقِينَ لِأَنَّ أَصْلَ الْحُبِّ التَّبَرِّي عَنْ سِوَى الْمَحْبُوبِ وَ قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ع إِنَّ أَطْيَبَ شَيْءٍ فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَ أَلَذَّهُ حُبُّ اللَّهِ وَ الْحُبُّ فِي اللَّهِ وَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ قَالَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ- وَ آخِرُ دَعْواهُمْ أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعالَمِينَ وَ ذَلِكَ أَنَّهُمْ إِذَا عَايَنُوا مَا فِي الْجَنَّةِ مِنَ النَّعِيمِ هَاجَتِ الْمَحَبَّةُ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَيُنَادُونَ عِنْدَ ذَلِكَ وَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين[4]
🌷🔆Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said: “Whoever comes to love another for the sake of God is a lover of God, and the one who is loved in this way becomes beloved and dear to God, for the love that flows between them is for God’s sake.”
The Noble Messenger (PBUH) said: “Every person will be gathered with the one they love. So whoever loves a servant for the sake of God has loved God; and no one loves God unless God loves them.”
The Prophet of God (PBUH) said: “The best of people after the prophets of God, in this world and the Hereafter, are those who love God and love one another for His sake.” Any love that is not sound and not for God ultimately leads to estrangement from the beloved—and indeed to hatred and enmity. Only love for God and love for His sake flow from a single source, continually growing and increasing, never weakening or diminishing. God Most High says: “Friends on that Day will become enemies of one another, except the God-fearing.”
🌹One who loves God loves God alone, and can love only those whom God loves. In truth, one who loves God loves only those who love God, for they are beloved by God, and love for God has been cast into their hearts.
🌹A sign of God is not God Himself, but the road to God. The signs of God are tokens of His love. Loving a divine sign while forgetting Allah is incompatible with faith; it is shirk.
🔅🌼The work of loving God frees a person from every other occupation 🌼🔅
🌹One occupied with God is free of every occupation besides Allah. The lover of God attains tawhid in their work; they have only one heart and one desire.
🌹Whoever is illumined by the flame of love for God will be consumed by no other flame.
🌹One who loves God is wholly encompassed by God’s love. There is no emptiness in their heart or soul—so what within them could connect to what, or to whom?
🌹Love for anything other than God is a supreme calamity and a tremendous loss.
🌹One who loves a thing is “deaf, dumb, and blind”—how much more so one who loves filth, impurity, and sin.
🌹Every lover is captive to the beloved.
🌻🔆Al-Ḥajj: 46 أَ فَلَمْ يَسيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِها أَوْ آذانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِها فَإِنَّها لا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصارُ وَ لكِنْ تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتي فِي الصُّدُورِ
🔆Have they not travelled through the land, so that they might have hearts with which to understand the truth, or ears with which to hear the call of truth? For it is not the eyes that go blind, but the hearts within the breasts.
🔅🌼The truth of the human being must not be buried🌼🔅
🌹A human being must discover their true nature.
🌹A human life is an opportunity to bear witness to the oneness of love. Life must be polished until the truth shines forth.
🌹At every moment, a human being is shedding a skin; through intention and action, their very flesh and skin are transformed.
🌹Sometimes gold is extracted from silver, and silver from gold; gold is drawn from the earth in furnaces and with acids, lest it lie buried and trapped beneath tons of soil.
🌹How many people seem to be diamonds on the outside yet are glass within; and how many seem like glass on the outside yet are pure diamonds within.
🌹Pure servitude to God must emerge from the ordeal of existence: has a person freely chosen to serve God alone, or lost the way of servitude?
🔅🌼The human being is the place of their own fall🌼🔅
🌹A person either falls into themselves or takes flight from their own soul.
🌹A person falls or rises through the very exercise of choice and free will. The self is either their place of descent or their ladder of ascent.
🌻🔆Al-Aḥzāb: 72 إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمانَةَ عَلَى السَّماواتِ وَ الْأَرْضِ وَ الْجِبالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَنْ يَحْمِلْنَها وَ أَشْفَقْنَ مِنْها وَ حَمَلَهَا الْإِنْسانُ إِنَّهُ كانَ ظَلُوماً جَهُولاً
🔆We offered the Trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it; yet the human being took it up. Indeed, they are most unjust and ignorant.
🌹The human being took on the weight of the Trust; unjust and ignorant as they were, they did not have the strength to bear that burden.
🌹The human being answered the call of the greatest trial without first measuring their own capacity.
🔅🌼Wealth: the eternal lie of immortality🌼🔅
🌹A human life is the gateway to immortality.
🌹The reason people turn to addiction is that they seek their lost innate nature in the hope of finding release; but, through ignorance, they end up ensnared by a false sense of liberation.
🌹Life is the capital that can lead us beyond wealth to what lies beyond it: eternal felicity.
🌹Beware the false notions of immortality that lead a person down the path to eternal misery.
🌹Why are people so eager to amass wealth? Because it gives them a false sense of immortality. They are so foolish that they seek the infinite and eternal in what is limited, pursuing permanence in what passes away.
🌻🔆Al-Humazah: 2 الَّذي جَمَعَ مالاً وَ عَدَّدَهُ
🔆The one who amasses abundant wealth and counts it over and over,
🌻🔆Al-Humazah: 3 يَحْسَبُ أَنَّ مالَهُ أَخْلَدَهُ
🔆thinking that their wealth will make them immortal!
🌹Wealth, force, power, beauty, and attention can all foster a false sense of immortality.
🌹What does a human being want with eternal life? Eternal servitude to God, or eternal disobedience? Eternal corruption? To become Satan’s food forever?
🔅🌼 Forgetting true eternity leads us into the false trap of a counterfeit eternity. 🌼🔅
🌹Forgetting the primary causes is the first step toward a false sense of immortality.
🌹Spiritual gifts should become wings that carry us aloft, not causes of our downfall and ruin.
🌻🔆Al-A‘raf: 176 وَ لَوْ شِئْنا لَرَفَعْناهُ بِها وَ لكِنَّهُ أَخْلَدَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ وَ اتَّبَعَ هَواهُ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ إِنْ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَثْ أَوْ تَتْرُكْهُ يَلْهَثْ ذلِكَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
🔆Had We willed, We could have raised him up by means of those signs; but he clung to the earth and followed his own desire. So his likeness is that of a dog: if you attack it, it pants with its tongue hanging out; and if you leave it alone, it still pants with its tongue hanging out. Such is the likeness of those who deny Our signs. So relate this story to them, that they may reflect.
🔅🌼Eternity means being imperishable.🌼🔅
🌹“To make something eternal” means to leave it in place and establish it so that it is deemed everlasting and enduring. It is in this sense that God, the Exalted, says:
وَ لكِنَّهُ أَخْلَدَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ— 176/Al-A‘raf).
That is, he clung to the earth, relying on it, in the belief that he would dwell there forever.[5]
🔅🌼Clinging to this world means separation from heaven.🌼🔅
🌹An intense attachment to this world brings the poison of a false illusion of immortality.
🌹Do not cling to the earth; attachment to this world is tantamount to becoming Satan’s delicious food.
🌹This world is Satan’s salt; beware of it.
🔅🌼Satanic saltiness🌼🔅
🌹When Satan becomes a person’s adviser and advocate, that person’s wings are torn away.
🌹The ignorant become so gullible that they appoint their own enemy as their advocate and adviser.
🌹The human being is the only creature that trusts its enemy.
🌹Do not be easy prey for your hunter; make yourself costly to catch.
🌻🔆Al-Nahl: 100 إِنَّما سُلْطانُهُ عَلَى الَّذينَ يَتَوَلَّوْنَهُ وَ الَّذينَ هُمْ بِهِ مُشْرِكُونَ
🔆His authority extends only over those who have chosen him as their protector, and those who associate others with God.
🌻🔆Fatir: 6 إِنَّ الشَّيْطانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا إِنَّما يَدْعُوا حِزْبَهُ لِيَكُونُوا مِنْ أَصْحابِ السَّعيرِ
🔆Satan is certainly your enemy, so treat him as an enemy. He only calls his followers to become people of the blazing Fire!
🌹Human beings are one another’s sworn, implacable enemies.
🌹Satan is humanity’s sworn enemy.
🌹We must not surrender our reason, minds and thoughts to devils, whether human or jinn.
🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼
🔅🌼A student’s perspective on the discussion of being devoted to love—servant of God or servant of this world🌼🔅
🌻🔆Devoted to love—servant of God or servant of this world🔆🌻
🔹Weekly sessions on the commentary and interpretation of Sahifa Sajjadiya (Supplication 20)
📅 Date: 1403/11/11 – 29 Rajab 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
🎥 Watch the full lecture at the link below:
🔗 Jame Jan website
🌍 jamejan.com
🟠 Jame Jan Eitaa channel
🔹Weekly sessions on the explanation and interpretation of the Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya (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:
A divine vocation
🔹 God will plant His love in that person’s heart.
🔹 Then all of creation will fall in love with them.
🔹 If the love of God shines in someone’s heart, they will be freed from every other occupation.
🔹 God alone will become their vocation; the love of God will set them free from everything else.
🔹 They will find one vocation: a divine one—unemployed in the world, yet employed by God.
🔹 They burn with the flame of God’s love, kindling nothing but His light.
### 🔥 The fire and light of divine love
🔹 God’s love is a fire that, once kindled, leaves nothing behind.
🔹 It burns away and destroys everything other than His love.
🔹 Wherever God’s light shines, it illuminates.
🔹 Nothing but His light will remain; it will encompass everything.
🔹 In the presence of divine light, nothing but its radiance can be seen.
🌿 The love of God is a light that sets everything aglow, while attachment to the world is a darkness that plunges us into heedlessness.
### ✨ God’s love entering the heart
🔹 If God’s love enters a heart, that heart too will become light from God.
🔹 Whatever is beloved of God and sets out on the path of loving Him becomes nothing but light.
🔹 The 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
🔹 Divine love is God’s breeze.
🔹 Wherever it blows, it sets things moving, stirs them, and brings them to life.
🔹 God’s love is like water—God’s water—which gives life to all things.
🔹 It revives and brings to life: it makes the dead live and the living more fully alive.
### 🌍 The earth and field of divine cultivation
🔹 God’s love is God’s earth; everything grows from it.
🔹 It is God’s earth, a field where the love of God grows.
🔹 The beloved becomes God’s earth, from which goodness and blessing spring.
🔹 So what can we do to make everything turn toward God?
### ❤️ Love for God in His Creatures
🔹 Let us ask God to place in His creatures the same love He has instilled within us.
🔹 So that in everything we see only the name and love of God.
🔹 A lover of God is one who loves for God’s sake and in His way.
🔹 Any sensual love, if we place it in the path of God, will become love for God’s sake.
🔹 Whoever falls in love with that becomes, in reality, a lover of God.
🔹 Even if one loves one’s child, one should love the child for God’s sake, so as to become a lover of God.
🔹 Before loving anyone or anything, we must first love God.
🔹 Let us inscribe the name of God upon our sensual loves, so that everything may take on a divine direction and purpose.
🔹 Let only God be remembered, and no one besides Him.
🌿 The love of God brings everything to life, makes it heavenly, and gives life its true direction. Let us therefore adorn every love and longing with His name, so that we may pass from the darkness of this world into the divine light.
### ❤️ Lover and Beloved on the Divine Path
🔹 Every love that is for God’s sake makes the beloved a friend of God as well.
🔹 If we love someone for God’s sake, we have in reality loved God.
🔹 Thus the beloved too attains the rank of a friend of God. What a lofty station!
🔹 On the path of love for God, the lover is a lover of God, and the beloved is a friend of God.
🔹 Why? Because no two beings can love one another except in the way of God.
🔹 The love of God is exchanged between lover and beloved, a divine sign in circulation.
🔹 If we grasp this truth, we will be both lovers of God and beloveds who are friends of God.
🔹 «المَرءُ مَعَ مَن أَحَبَّ»; a person is with the one whom he loves.
🔹 Thus, whoever we love for God’s sake, we have in truth loved God.
### ✨ Precedence in Divine Love
🔹 No one can become a lover of God unless God has first loved him.
🔹 In love, no one can outstrip the Creator.
🔹 God first loves His servant, and then makes the servant fall in love with Him.
🔹 Let us therefore devote ourselves wholly to God and surrender to Him, so that He may turn us into a field for love and worship.
### 🔍 Discovering the Truth of Love
🔹 Let us be careful to discover ourselves: who are we?
🔹 If God did not love us, He would not have created us!
🔹 Let us therefore search for this love within our souls.
🔹 Let us remove every veil, so that we may see the truth beyond it.
🔹 Let us cut every cord that binds us to the earth.
🔹 Let us purify our being of its dust.
🔹 Let us burn ourselves in the furnace of worship, so that the gold of the truth within us may be revealed.
🔹 Let us not allow this truth to remain hidden and buried.
🔹 God has given us life so that we may bring this jewel out of the great prison of heedlessness.
🔹 We must reveal the sharp edge of that truth.
### 💎 Divine Oneness in Love
### 🌿 Worldliness and Neglect of 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 falsehood.
🔹 Desires will tear his reason apart, like a predatory animal that destroys the intellect.
🔹 The world will kill his heart, destroy his inner being, and leave him without a heart.
🔹 All that remains of him will be a piece of rock harder than stone.
### 🔥 Attachment to the World
🔹 The promptings of the lower self have made him madly enamoured of the world.
🔹 He has become infatuated with the world and made himself its servant.
🔹 He is a servant of the world and of everyone who possesses some share of it.
🔹 He worships the world, and he also worships those devoted to it.
### 🌀 Enslavement to 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 the world turns, he will turn with it.
🔹 The world will be his mount, and he will become its true captive.
### 🚫 Indifference to Divine Guidance
🔹 No restraint from God will keep him from worshipping the world.
🔹 Neither the Qur’an, nor the Ahl al-Bayt, nor the admonition of any preacher will affect him.
🔹 His god, his messenger, his imam, his entire existence: all of it will become the world.
🔹 He will remain forever circling the world, circumambulating the world’s Kaaba.
🔹 He will never let go of the world, not even for a moment, and will remain infatuated with it.
### 🔥 Directing Desire Along the Divine Path
🔹 Desires must become «فیالله» so that they may draw a person towards God.
🔹 Otherwise, like firewood, they will burn him.
🔹 If love is devoted solely to the «تنهای یگانه», the oneness of love will be realised.
🔹 God causes the flavour of His love to flow through all His signs.
🔹 Whoever devotes himself to God will taste something divine in everything.
### 💖 The Radiance of God’s Love
🔹 God will plant His love in his heart.
🔹 Then the entire created universe will fall in love with him.
🔹 If the love of God shines in someone’s heart, he will be freed from every other occupation.
🔹 His sole occupation will be God; the love of God will liberate him from everything else.
🔹 He will find one occupation: divine work; unemployed in the world, occupied with God.
🔹 He burns with the torch of God’s love, kindling only His light.
### 🔥 The Fire and Light of Divine Love
🔹 The love of God is a fire that, once kindled, will leave nothing behind.
🔹 It burns and destroys everything except love for Him.
🔹 The light of God illuminates whatever it shines upon.
🔹 Nothing will remain except His light; it will encompass everything.
🔹 In the presence of divine light, nothing but its radiance will be seen.
🌿 The love of God is a light that illuminates all things; attachment to the world is a darkness that plunges us into heedlessness.
### 🌿 Worldliness and heedlessness of the truth
🔹 He will hear, but with ears that cannot hear the truth.
🔹 He will see, but what he sees will be false.
🔹 His passions will tear his reason apart, like a beast of prey that destroys the mind.
🔹 The world will kill his heart, destroy his inner life and leave him heartless.
🔹 What remains of him will be a fragment of stone, harder than stone itself.
### 🔥 Attachment to the world
🔹 His lower 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.
### 🌀 Captive to the world’s turning
🔹 Wherever the world turns, he will turn that way too.
🔹 The world will be the compass of his being: however it turns, so will he.
🔹 The world will be his mount, and he its true captive.
### 🚫 Indifference to divine guidance
🔹 Nothing God sends to restrain him will keep him from worldliness.
🔹 Neither the Quran, nor the Prophet’s family, nor the counsel of any adviser will move him.
🔹 The world will be his God, his Messenger, his Imam—his everything.
🔹 He will circle the world forever, turning around the world’s Kaaba.
🔹 He will never let go of the world, remaining forever enamoured of it.
### 🔥 Directing desire towards God
🔹 Our desires must become «for God» so that they lead us towards Him.
🔹 Otherwise, they will burn us like firewood.
🔹 If love is reserved for the «One and Only», then the oneness of love will be realized.
🔹 God lets the taste of His love flow through all His signs.
🔹 Whoever devotes himself to God will find a divine flavour in everything.
### 💖 The radiance of God’s love
🔹 We must bring the love within us to the unity of God.
🔹 We must become united in God, so that our love, too, may become one and be refined.
🔹 How many people seem like diamonds on the outside, yet are glass within.
🔹 And how many seem like glass on the outside, 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 test of servitude
🔹 A sincere servant of God must emerge from His test with honour.
🔹 Through free choice, a person chooses servitude.
🔹 Along this path, one either reaches the end through goodness or loses one’s innate nature along the way.
🔹 Then he no longer knows where he came from, where he is going, or why he came.
🔹 If he loses himself, he becomes captive to his desires and is buried beneath them.
🔹 He forgets what lies with God.
🔹 He does not realize that God granted him a lifetime so that it might be a gateway to eternity.
🔹 Yet he falls within that very lifetime.
🔹 He falls into himself, when he should be taking flight beyond himself.
🔹 His lifetime was a runway for flight, not a prison in which to fall!
🔹 But he forgot, became captive to his own self, was buried, and was destroyed.
🔹 Humanity failed to understand, and by its own free choice brought itself to misery and disgrace.
🌿 So let us not lose sight of this truth. Let us direct our free will towards servitude to God, so that in this divine trial we may discover the pure jewel of servanthood and rise from falling to flight.
### ⚖️ The Test of the Divine Trust
🔹 Man answered the call to this greatest trial without first honestly assessing himself.
🔹 He did not consider his own strength; he failed to see that he was a weightlifter taking on a heavy trust.
🔹 He lifted that heavy trust, broke his back, and disgraced himself.
🔹 Life is a true treasure, meant to carry us beyond the realm of creation—to eternity.
🔹 But a person who has lost touch with his primordial nature becomes a field for Satan to cultivate, and falls captive to him.
🔹 He loses the path to eternity.
🔹 His primordial nature calls him towards eternity, but he has lost his way.
🔹 Satan and the ego lead him astray with false directions.
🔹 He seeks eternity in this very world, in its lowliness.
🔹 He fails to understand, makes mistakes, and gives in to greed.
### 💰 Addiction to Wealth and the Illusion of Eternity
🔹 He accumulates wealth, keeps track of it, and counts his riches.
🔹 Why? He imagines that his wealth will make him immortal.
🔹 This is the secret behind attachment to the world: the addiction to hoarding wealth!
🔹 A false sense of freedom takes hold of him. He imagines that the more wealth he accumulates, the closer he comes to eternity.
🔹 An eternal life? Eternal servanthood? Or eternal disobedience?
🔹 Does he seek eternal freedom—to be released from everything, even himself?
🔹 Or will he become captive to his own desires, condemned to eternal disgrace and everlasting torment in Hell?
### 🔥 The Danger of Falling into Worldliness
🔹 He must go beyond even the everlasting life of Paradise—not merely attain it.
🔹 Yet along this path, he becomes Satan’s prey.
🔹 He does not understand that this lifetime is meant to be transcended, to free him from everything that is.
🔹 Instead, he imagines eternity lies in accumulating wealth and attracting people’s attention.
### 🕊 Spiritual Gifts or a Fall?
🔹 He attains spiritual gifts, but becomes captive to the attention they bring.
🔹 Spiritual gifts and knowledge should be wings that carry him aloft, but instead become instruments of his fall.
🔹 He falls, longing for eternity, yet finds it in the praise and gaze of others.
### 📚 Knowledge and Wisdom: A Path to Soaring—or a Trap of the World?
🔹 He attains knowledge and wisdom, but never develops the capacity to bear them.
🔹 He forgets God.
🔹 Instead of taking flight and rising to greater heights, he clings to the world.
🔹 His attachment to the world takes him away from everything that matters.
🔹 He sinks into the jaws of the world and, in the truest sense, dies.
🔹 He walks through this world, but is a dead man who still moves.
🔹 He reaches the point of taking his enemy for a friend and embracing him.
🔹 The only creature that trusts its enemy is the human being!
### ⚠️ Submitting to Satan’s Authority
🔹 The human being is the only creature that seeks counsel from its enemy and appoints that enemy as its agent.
🔹 Could anyone be more naïve than this?
🔹 If Satan advises a person, where will he lead them?
🔹 What happens when a person trusts the hunter who is after them?
🔹 They draw close to the hunter—and the outcome is plain.
🔹 The human being submits to Satan’s authority and comes under his dominion.
🔹 Satan is your enemy, so treat him as an enemy!
🔹 Satan summons his followers so that they may become among the companions of the Fire.
🔹 He never lets up, not for a moment, on his oath!
He does not break his oath to bring humanity to ruin.
🌿 Satan has sworn to destroy humanity. Yet God has given us the chance to take flight. Let us wake up, lest we become captive to the world, lest we mistake the road for our destination!
🎥 Watch the full lecture at the link below:
🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼
[1] Nahj al-Balagha (ed. Subhi Salih), p. 160 Sharif al-Radi, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.
[2]Nahj al-Balagha, translated by Ansariyan, p. 244
[3] Misbah al-Shari‘a, p. 192 Attributed to Ja‘far ibn Muhammad, A‘lami, Beirut, first edition, 1400 AH.
[4] Misbah al-Shari‘a, p. 194 Attributed to Ja‘far ibn Muhammad, A‘lami, Beirut, first edition, 1400 AH.
[5] Translation of Mufradat al-Raghib vol. 1 624 Kulayni, Dar al-Hadith, Qom, first edition, 1429 AH.
