🌼🔆🌼The Triangle of Spiritual Wayfaring🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹 “The Divine Staff” · “Fabricators of Personas” · “A Commentary on Supplication 20 of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya” · “Grant me the delight of following the path of the righteous…” · “Session 223” and more … Summary with Supplement       1403.05.04    Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🔅🌼An Overview and Map of the Discussion of the Highway Robbers of the Mind🌼🔅

🌼O God, immerse us so completely in the guidance of the righteous that we cannot emerge from its depths. Set us upon the path of truth so firmly that we do not stray from it toward other paths, and grant us an intention to grow that never falters.

🌼To journey spiritually, we need a lamp: a light by which we may be guided. We ask God for such a light.

🌼Once we have found the light, we need a path for our spiritual journey—both earthly paths and heavenly, celestial ones. Having become firm upon the path of truth, we need an intention to grow; in a sense, we must have a plan. Our intention to grow guides us to our destination.

🌼Steadfastness in the guidance of the righteous, the path of truth, and the intention to grow keeps us from stumbling as we journey in servitude to God. These are the three sides of the triangle of journeying in divine servitude. In a word, they are summed up in the Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt.

🌼We must not take our spiritual and doctrinal sustenance from anything outside the Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt. Many are highway robbers of the mind: outwardly, they present themselves as following the Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt, yet they lead us toward misguidance.

🌼We must align our present circumstances with the horizon of the End Times.

🌼We must abide by several principles.

🌼We must not trust anyone whose foundations in monotheism are flawed, even if they are a spiritual mentor. You cannot bestow good character by burning away its roots.

🌼We must flee from anyone who weakens your steps on the path of virtuous spiritual wayfaring.

🌼The highway robbers of the mind may, through prose, poetry, logic, philosophy, and the like, and by means of particular personalities, try to steal the guidance of the righteous from our hearts.

🌼Each of the Imams (AS) was unrecognized in his own time. But in this age, we must recognize the Imam of our time so that he may turn his special attention toward us.

🌼If we saw the Imam (AS) among people in this age, would we be able to recognize him?

🌼How can we return to our innate nature?

🌼If today we struggle to discern people’s true beliefs about God, we will likewise struggle to recognize the Imam of our time.

🌼How can I reach a station where I am no longer liable to stumble?

🌼The realization of the triangle of spiritual wayfaring reveals a connection to the Imam of the Time (AS).

🌼If we pray the Supplication of Noble Character with all our hearts, and it is answered for us, we will attain all our hopes.

🌼We must not trust those who cling to anything other than the Two Weighty Things. The Prophet of God is the finest example; only he and his Household are worthy models.

🌼We must rely only on God’s staff.

🌼To cling to the rope of the Two Weighty Things is to hold fast to God. Whoever pledges allegiance to the Messenger of God has pledged allegiance to God; whoever clings to the Two Weighty Things has taken refuge in God.

🌼Beware of trusting those who rely on anything other than the Two Weighty Things. Those who board their ship will drown.

🌼Those aboard the ship of falsehood move so swiftly that no ship can overtake them. Yet we must remember that our Master said: Whoever boards any ship other than ours will drown.

🌼The Ahl al-Bayt (AS) are like Noah’s Ark: whoever boarded it was saved.

🌼 How can someone whose pillar of divine unity lies in ruins lay the foundations of human ethics?

🌼 A teacher either helps people grow or leads them into decline.

🌼 Teachers of ethics should be judged by the standard of divine unity.

🌼 The subtle fabricators!

🌼 Examples of fabricating verses and narrations include interpreting or explaining them according to personal opinion. The fabricators are those who appear outwardly virtuous, posing as mystics or holy people.

🌼 Blind imitation in matters of faith is a clear sign of having lost one’s reason.

🌼 Recommended acts are the fuel that sustains obligatory duties, repairs them and adorns them.

🌼 Recommended acts strengthen kindness toward people; they do not stand in its way.

🌼 Why do some people try to lead us toward the bare minimum in serving God? (They are robbers of the mind.) Their invitation begins here, then leads on to calling people toward wrongdoing.

🌼 Our spiritual journey should not be motivated solely by escape from Hell; rather, we should seek God’s good pleasure.

🔅🌼 Hasten to excel in every branch of virtue 🌼🔅

🌹The Qur’an and the Prophet’s Household alone are our model; do not replace them with anything else.

🌻🔆Al-Ahzab: 21   لَقَدْ كانَ لَكُمْ في‏ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِمَنْ كانَ يَرْجُوا اللَّهَ وَ الْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثيراً

🔆Indeed, in the Messenger of God you have an excellent example to follow—for those who hope in God and the Last Day and remember God often.

🔅🌼 The triangle of spiritual wayfaring 🌼🔅

🌷🔆وَ مَتِّعْنِي بِهُدًى صَالِحٍ لَا أَسْتَبْدِلُ بِهِ، وَ طَرِيقَةِ حَقٍّ لَا أَزِيغُ عَنْهَا، وَ نِيَّةِ رُشْدٍ لَا أَشُكُّ فِيهَا

🔆My Lord, grant me worthy guidance that I will never exchange, a true path from which I will never stray, and an intention to grow in goodness in which I will never doubt.

🌹This passage from the Sahifa Sajjadiya is, in truth, a prayer for a blessed and happy end.

🌹Being equipped with “sound guidance, the path of truth, and an intention to grow in goodness” safeguards one’s worshipful devotion to God—provided these are firmly rooted in the soul.

🌹Those who hold up false lights, mislead others and rob them of their minds are the real obstacles on the path to God.

🌹A servant journeying toward God needs a “lamp, a path, and a design, map and plan”—the three principles that form the triangle of spiritual wayfaring in worship. Once acquired, this triangle must become firmly and enduringly established, so that the wayfarer toward God can continue along the path of devotion without deviation or faltering.

🌹A person may travel the road for a hundred years, yet in a single moment, one small deviation can set all that they have woven and found ablaze.

🌹Every ethical, theological or practical instruction from anyone other than the Two Weighty Things must be tested against them, whatever its form—especially if it is presented as poetry or song, or in a logical, philosophical or literary guise. This applies regardless of the speaker’s rank or standing.

🌹The standard for affirming those associated with the Two Weighty Things is like the standard by which one recognizes and believes in God’s messengers and heavenly books: it is possible only through the affirmation of human nature’s innate disposition. That innate disposition is realized only through sincere seeking.

🔅🌼 Rely only on the staff God provides 🌼🔅

🌹Recognize the staffs God provides, and trust no one else.

🌹Be careful whom you entrust with your mind and ears. Blind trust can ruin a person’s Hereafter.

🌹Someone whose pillar of divine unity is unstable will not make a good teacher of ethics or theology; taking such people as role models can lead to ruin.

🌹Seek God’s guidance and ask Him to show you the way. Reciting the Prayer for Noble Character with heartfelt devotion—especially the passage “ وَ مَتِّعْنِي بِهُدًى صَالِحٍ لَا أَسْتَبْدِلُ بِهِ، وَ طَرِيقَةِ حَقٍّ لَا أَزِيغُ عَنْهَا، وَ نِيَّةِ رُشْدٍ لَا أَشُكُّ فِيهَا”—is a heartfelt plea not to be deceived and to choose the right teacher and role model.

🌹The worst kind of misguidance is misguidance mistaken for guidance.

🌹What would the people of Saqifah do if they knew that their guidance was misguidance, their path falsehood, and their intention deviance?

🌹A sound intention springs from a sound heart and sound convictions and beliefs. A weak intention arises from a person’s own weak convictions and beliefs—or sometimes takes shape through trust in, and alignment with, the weak and faltering intentions of others.

🔅🌼The triangle of spiritual wayfaring stands firm upon the pillar of the Two Weighty Things🌼🔅

🌹Sound guidance, the path of truth, and an intention for growth—in a word, these mean the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt; they mean the Two Weighty Things. Whoever attains this station has reached complete safety in servitude to God. The farther we stray from these three sides of the path of servitude, the more we veer into misguidance, ending up in falsehood and the fabrication of unsound beliefs.

🌹Rely only on the staff of the Two Weighty Things.

🌻🔆Āl ʿImrān: 103   وَ اعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَميعاً وَ لا تَفَرَّقُوا وَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنْتُمْ أَعْداءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْواناً وَ كُنْتُمْ عَلى‏ شَفا حُفْرَةٍ مِنَ النَّارِ فَأَنْقَذَكُمْ مِنْها كَذلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آياتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

🔆And hold fast, all together, to the rope of God, and do not become divided. Remember God’s blessing upon you: how you were enemies and He brought your hearts together, so that by His blessing you became brothers. You stood on the brink of a pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus God makes His signs clear to you, so that you may be guided.

🌻🔆Al-Nisāʾ: 175   فَأَمَّا الَّذينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَ اعْتَصَمُوا بِهِ فَسَيُدْخِلُهُمْ في‏ رَحْمَةٍ مِنْهُ وَ فَضْلٍ وَ يَهْديهِمْ إِلَيْهِ صِراطاً مُسْتَقيماً

🌻🔆As for those who believe in God and hold fast to Him, He will soon admit them into His mercy and grace, and guide them to Himself along a straight path.

🌹Beseech God with all your heart, for He alone will lead you to worthy guidance, to His path of truth, and to an intention for growth.

🌻🔆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

🔆Wherever they are found, the mark of disgrace is upon them, unless they are bound by a rope from God and a rope from the people. They have incurred God’s wrath, and misery has been stamped upon them, because they disbelieved in God’s signs and killed the prophets unjustly. This was because they sinned and transgressed the rights of others.

🌷🔆رَفَعُوهُ إِلَى أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)، فِي قَوْلِهِ: إِلَّا بِحَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَ حَبْلٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ‏. قَالَ: “الْحَبْلُ مِنَ اللَّهِ: كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَ الْحَبْلُ مِنَ النَّاسِ: هُوَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ).[1]

🔆“الْحَبْلُ مِنَ اللَّهِ” means the Book of God, and “الْحَبْلُ مِنَ النَّاسِ” means عَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)”

🔅🌼The hidden impostors🌼🔅

🌹Beware of subtle impostors: those with an appealing appearance and silver tongues, the famous and celebrated. For believers are most often bitten by the good-looking, the pious pretenders, the faux mystics, and those claiming ties to spiritual stations and miracles. In truth, they are foxes and predators in attractive disguises, lying along the road of guidance to lead people astray.

🌹Those who are crooked themselves will never set someone else straight.

🌹Beware of fabricators of reputations—those who invent fictitious personas: supposedly scholarly, religious, mystical, or ethical figures.

🌹A person’s reputation may be manufactured either by the person themselves or by others, to serve and fulfil their own particular aims.

🌹 The fabrication of miraculous gifts and virtues is the salt of forging a personality; individuals credited with fabricated gifts and virtues are more dangerous than any viper, for their followers will blindly tread their path and accept their words.

🌹 Step away from anyone in whom you sense the stench of hypocrisy, and reflect.

🌹 Hypocrites begin by forbidding the recommended acts and proceed to forbidding the obligatory ones, and then they call people to indecencies and obscenities.

🔅🌼 The Unseen Forgery 🌼🔅

🌹 Mistranslation, misinterpretation and distorted exegesis driven by personal taste and opinion resemble the forgery of hadith—and are often more dangerous, for they present themselves as explaining and describing the Quran and the traditions.

🌹 Any translation, commentary, interpretation or exegesis of the Quran and the traditions that conforms to personal belief is a form of forgery and distortion of the Quranic verses and the traditions.

🌹 Quoting a hadith in “segments” should only be done when the audience is already familiar with its earlier and later parts; otherwise it falls under the distortion of hadith.

🔅🌼 Pay attention to the mount of your spiritual journey 🌼🔅

🌹 On which vessel are you travelling your spiritual path—are you riding on light or riding on darkness; riding on the Buraq or riding on a donkey?

🌹 Whichever ship we board, we will travel its course and reach its destination, and whoever boards the wrong ship will drown.

🌷🔆 قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا ذَرٍّ يَقُولُ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ص يَقُولُ‏ إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ أَهْلِ بَيْتِي فِيكُمْ مَثَلُ سَفِينَةِ نُوحٍ مَنْ‏ رَكِبَ‏ فِيهَا نَجَا وَ مَنْ تَخَلَّفَ عَنْهَا غَرِق.[2]

🔆 The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said: The likeness of my Ahl al-Bayt among you is the likeness of Noah’s Ark; whoever boarded it was saved, and whoever turned away from it drowned.

🔅🌼 Recognizing the Imam of the Age, peace be upon him 🌼🔅

🌹 One of our duties in the age of the end times is to recognize and find the Imam of the Age, peace be upon him.

Can we find our Imam of the Age among the crowds of people and recognize him? Do we have a heart and an eye that know the Imam of the Age and can discern him?

🌹 Let us take stock of ourselves: how far apart are light and darkness? Is it difficult to tell them apart? 🌹And what of distinguishing faith from disbelief, and monotheism from polytheism? Then why do we trust and take as role models someone whose contamination with polytheism has been established?! In this same way, our Imam of the Age is left alone and unrecognized, and perhaps even if he is recognized he is again rejected, and the Imam is once more driven away and estranged.

🌹 Finding the true adherent of the Two Weighty Things is the exercise of recognizing the Imam of the Age, peace be upon him. Identify the most learned, the most righteous and the most God-fearing, so that it may be a practice for recognizing our Imam of the Age.

🌹 We must observe the true nature of teachers of ethics and teachers of belief through the evidence of our innate nature.

🌹 The candle is a guide toward the sun.

🌹 Following the most learned is obligatory, but recognizing the most learned must rest on heartfelt conviction, not on imitation of others; consultation is a guide toward heartfelt conviction.

🌹 Those whom we take as our models—in reality we are thereby constructing and designing our own guidance, path and intention, and aligning our course with them.

🌹 Let us be mindful that a teacher and mentor can be the cause of our growth or our decline, so let us be careful in choosing one.

🌹 Recognize teachers of ethics by their monotheism.

🔅🌼 Let us raise our awareness to the horizon of the end times 🌼🔅

🌹 Set all your educational, economic, political and similar plans according to the horizon of the end times.

🌹 The age of the end times is not a time for trial and error; the opportunity is slipping away.

🌹 Do not trust or promote anyone who has a deviation in monotheism.

🌹Do not smile at someone who teaches polytheism under the name of a class on divine unity! Frown! Speak out! And alert others to that person’s deviation.

🌹Flee from those who weaken your resolve to walk the path of pure and excellent servitude to God.

🔅🌼 The heavens are exalted by His beauty 🌼🔅

🌷🔆يَا نَافِذَ الْعِدَةِ، يَا وَافِيَ الْقَوْلِ، يَا مُبَدِّلَ‏ السَّيِّئَاتِ‏ بِأَضْعَافِهَا مِنَ الْحَسَنَاتِ إِنَّكَ‏ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ‏.[3]

🌷🔆 مُبَدِّلَ‏ السَّيِّئَاتِ‏ حَسَنَاتٍ وَ جَاعِلَ الْحَسَنَاتِ دَرَجَاتٍ [4]

🌻🔆Al-Hadid: 21   سابِقُوا إِلى‏ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَ جَنَّةٍ عَرْضُها كَعَرْضِ السَّماءِ وَ الْأَرْضِ أُعِدَّتْ لِلَّذينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَ رُسُلِهِ ذلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتيهِ مَنْ يَشاءُ وَ اللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظيمِ

🔆Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who believe in God and His messengers. This is God’s grace, which He bestows upon whom He wills; and God is Possessed of immense grace!

🌼Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141 (903)🌼

[1] Al-Burhan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an    vol. 1    677

[2] Basa’ir al-Darajat fi Fada’il Al Muhammad صلى الله عليهم ؛ vol. 1 ؛ p. 297  Saffar, Ayatollah Mar‘ashi Najafi Library – Iran; Qom, second edition, 1404 AH.

[3] Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya ؛ ؛ p. 36  Ali ibn al-Husayn عليه السلام, the fourth Imam, Daftar Nashr al-Hadi – Qom, first edition, 1376 SH.

[4] Misbah al-Mutahajjid wa Silah al-Muta‘abbid ؛ vol. 1 ؛ p. 87  Tusi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Mu’assasat Fiqh al-Shi‘a – Beirut, first edition, 1411 AH.