Embraced by Ramadan: An Opportunity for a Life of Purity and the Hastening of the Reappearance
«The Persian year 1403 is a special year, rich in divine opportunities, with a blessed month of Ramadan at both its beginning and its end. Encompassed by the Nights of Decree, it offers a precious opportunity to attain a life of purity and to help hasten the reappearance of His Eminence, al-Hujjah (AJ). The choices we make in this life of trial shape the true substance of our being.»
🌼🔆🌼A Banquet Without Bounds🌼🔆🌼
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🔅🌹 “Life as a Trial” “True Life” “The Relationship Between Choice and Character” “Experiencing a Wholesome Life” “ ” and more … An outline with an addendum 1403.01.02 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141 (903) 🌹🔅
🔅🌼The Blessed Year 1403 🌼🔅
🌷The year 1403 is among the most blessed years in all of existence, for it holds two blessed months of Ramadan within it. This year is embraced by the holy month of Ramadan: it begins with Ramadan and ends with the arrival of Ramadan.
🌷The divine banquet is spread at both the beginning and the end of the year 1403.
🌷This year is surrounded on two sides by the Nights of Decree. We can make the fullest use of this precious opportunity and witness its effect in hastening the advent of the Awaited Imam.
🔅🌼 Choice: The Defining Element of Character 🌼🔅
🌷Life in this world is a laboratory for testing, not a place for industry and technology. True life lies beyond worldly life; worldly life is a period of practice and preparation for the struggle ahead.
🌻🔆العنكبوت : 64 وَ ما هذِهِ الْحَياةُ الدُّنْيا إِلاَّ لَهْوٌ وَ لَعِبٌ وَ إِنَّ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ لَهِيَ الْحَيَوانُ لَوْ كانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ
🔆This worldly life is nothing but amusement and play; the true life is the life of the Hereafter, if only they knew!
Life in this world is a time for practice and training, a path toward entering true life. Compared with the life of the Hereafter, worldly life is like play and amusement. Who will attain true life?
Who will be left behind?
🔅🌼 Experiencing a Wholesome Life 🌼🔅
🌷Even in this world, people of purity can have their first experiences of true life.
🌻🔆النحل : 97 مَنْ عَمِلَ صالِحاً مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثى وَ هُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَياةً طَيِّبَةً وَ لَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ ما كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
🔆Whoever does what is right, whether man or woman, and is a believer, We shall surely grant them a wholesome life and reward them according to the best of what they used to do.
🌷There is such a thing as a wholesome life, but no such thing as an evil life in the true sense. What is called an evil life is really an evil death—a semblance of life, devoid of life itself, the life of carrion.
🌼🔆صُورَةُ إِنْسَانٍ وَ الْقَلْبُ قَلْبُ حَيَوَانٍ لَا يَعْرِفُ بَابَ الْهُدَى فَيَتَّبِعَهُ وَ لَا بَابَ الْعَمَى فَيَصُدَّ عَنْهُ وَ ذَلِكَ مَيِّتُ الْأَحْيَاء[1]
🔆His appearance is human, but his heart is that of an animal. He knows neither the path of guidance and salvation, so that he might follow it, nor the path of error, so that he might shun it. He is therefore a dead man among the living.
🌷This world is where we plan and make choices, and the choices we make will shape our character.
🌷In this world, we stand at the threshold of a great choice, one that will reveal our true character.
🌷In this world, whoever gave in to lamentation was defeated. We must be patient: patient in the face of affliction, patient in maintaining our worship and obedience, and patient in resisting sin, which we must flee.
🌷Every choice has its own particular test. Differences among people in gender, age, outward and inward qualities, status, wealth and poverty, time, place, and lifespan, and so on, are all connected to the kinds of choices they make.
🔅🌼 The Hidden Nature of Beings 🌼🔅
🌷One day the human shell will be split open, and a person’s true nature and essence will be revealed.
🌷Each person is tested in keeping with the choices they make. No one is accepted without being tested.
🌹Every object has its own price; the more valuable it is, the higher the price it commands. Every station has a price that must be paid to attain it. The price of being human is higher than any other, which is why the duties laid upon human beings are the greatest of all creatures.
🌹Many creatures have chosen their own rank, desire and inclination, and their trials have been set accordingly.
🌹Ask for whatever you wish, but you must bear the trial that comes with it. Even the time and place in which you live, your poverty or wealth, your parents and friends, and the quality and extent of your life are all in keeping with that same desire.
🌹Each creature’s choice is unique to it, like its fingerprint.
🌹The weight of one’s duties reflects the greatness of one’s desire.
🌹Each new choice is either a step towards a higher station or a chance to make up for what was lost.
🌹The world is not a place of rest; it is a testing ground.
🌹The extinction of wild animals is due to their transgression of the laws laid down for them.
🌹Before the manifestation, all creatures must bring themselves into accord with the conditions required by their nature and their ordained instincts.
🌼Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat), 110.141 (903)🌼
[1] Nahj al-Balagha (ed. Subhi Salih), p. 119Sharif al-Radi, Muhammad ibn Husayn, Hijrat—Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.