notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
A question from one of our dear readers:
Please offer some advice on how to benefit from the blessing of the days and times we are living through.
َّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ
To benefit from the blessing of our days, we must align ourselves with the divine will through obedience, sincere worship, and remembrance of God. Time is a sign of God, the Eternal without beginning or end, and through it we can attain knowledge of God and the meeting with Him.
A temporal unit is of a supratemporal nature. For time is where the divine will is realized within the supratemporal realm. On this understanding, no temporal unit is limited in any way, for it has no bounds or constraints. Thus, the whole of existence, across all its ages, can be gathered within the life of a single temporal unit. Laxity in servitude to God is, in a sense, a failure to align with and accept the divine will; its penalty is to be deprived of the full measure of the outpourings of Allah, Blessed and Exalted.
Time is a sign of God, who is without beginning and without end—though even “without beginning and without end” cannot describe «الله اکبر». Through the “sign of time,” then, one must journey beyond time and attain what is higher still: knowledge of God and encounter with God.
To forget God is to forget the One who is without beginning and without end; it is to forget boundlessness and fall into narrowness, limitation and darkness.
God knows best.
Through obedience, sincere worship, and remembrance of God with every faculty of one’s being, one may attain the blessing of time:
اللَّهُمَّ بِيَدِكَ مَقَادِيرُ اللَّيْلِ وَ النَّهَارِ وَ مَقَادِيرُ الدُّنْيَا وَ الْآخِرَةِ وَ مَقَادِيرُ الْمَوْتِ وَ الْحَيَاةِ وَ مَقَادِيرُ الشَّمْسِ وَ الْقَمَرِ وَ مَقَادِيرُ النَّصْرِ وَ الْخِذْلَانِ وَ مَقَادِيرُ الْغِنَى وَ الْفَقْرِ اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِي دِينِي وَ دُنْيَايَ وَ فِي جَسَدِي وَ أَهْلِي وَ وُلْدِي اللَّهُمَّ ادْرَأْ عَنِّي شَرَّ فَسَقَةِ الْعَرَبِ وَ الْعَجَمِ وَ الْجِنِّ وَ الْإِنْسِ وَ اجْعَلْ مُنْقَلَبِي إِلَى خَيْرٍ دَائِمٍ وَ نَعِيمٍ لَا يَزُولُ.
Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 2, p. 546, Kulaynī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, 4th ed., 1407 AH.
عَنْ أَبِي خَدِيجَةَ قَالَ: كَانَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع إِذَا خَرَجَ يَقُولُ اللَّهُمَّ لَكَ خَرَجْتُ وَ لَكَ أَسْلَمْتُ وَ بِكَ آمَنْتُ وَ عَلَيْكَ تَوَكَّلْتُ اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِي يَوْمِي هَذَا وَ ارْزُقْنِي قُوَّتَهُ وَ نَصْرَهُ وَ فَتْحَهُ وَ ظُهُورَهُ وَ هُدَاهُ وَ بَرَكَتَهُ وَ اصْرِفْ عَنِّي شَرَّهُ وَ شَرَّ مَا فِيهِ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ وَ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعالَمِينَ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي خَرَجْتُ فَبَارِكْ لِي فِي خُرُوجِي وَ انْفَعْنِي بِهِ وَ إِذَا دَخَلَ مَنْزِلَهُ يَقُولُ مِثْلَ ذَلِك
Al-Maḥāsin, vol. 2, p. 351