Imam al-Askari, the Masterpiece of Creation

Tlost, [13.10.24 17:51]
🔹Imam al-Askari, a Masterpiece among Masters
🔹The eve of the birth of Imam Hasan al-Askari, peace be upon him
📅 Date: 1403/0721 – 8 Rabiʿ al-Thani 1446
✨ Gathering: Meshkat-e Noor
📖 Weekly session on the commentary and interpretation of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (Supplication 20)
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed:

🌸 The masterpiece of existence

🌺 The greatest masterpiece: What a blessed tree this Imam is, bearing a fruit such as the Mahdi—and this Mahdi holds within himself every flavour of existence.
He has both a heavenly and a transcendent flavour.

🌼 How can I know Imam Hasan al-Askari? I must know him, for if I do not, I will depart this world blind.

🌻 The Imam’s lamp shone forth, and the beauty of the Mahdi was revealed. Blessed be this heaven, this tree, this Imam and proof of God. The proof of al-Askari, Imam Hasan al-Askari, is an Imam whose beauty nourishes Paradise with its light; without it, Paradise would wither away. Paradise is frail and diminished without His presence.

🌷 He is the beacon of the people of Paradise. The people of Paradise draw light from the radiance of His beauty, while He Himself is the Paradise of all paradises. For Paradise, His presence is Paradise. He is the paradise of our souls. If our souls experience the light of His presence and love for Him, we will then see that our very being is the highest garden of Paradise—the most beautiful paradise in all existence. Our souls must ever shine with knowledge of and love for al-Askari, and continue to live their beautiful life. From which sun do I receive my light? How many suns and constellations fill my sky? Each sun will make fruit grow within my soul. The garden and field of my being need every one of the suns in the Muhammadan firmament.

🌿 We touched on a saying of Imam al-Askari about God’s Greatest Name, in which he said: بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم.

🌹 The boundary between me and the Greatest Name depends on my intention and the sincerity of my intention. If my heart is pure and knowledge wells up within me, then I will possess the Greatest Name.

🌸 When I pray, “اللهم عرفنی نفسک، عرفنی نبیک و عرفنی حجتک…”, I am, in truth, seeking God’s Greatest Name. I am seeking His most beautiful Name. I am seeking His most merciful Name. I ask God for the highest degree of sign; I seek it, and I wish to reach the utmost knowledge of God. Without the Greatest Name, this is impossible. “اللهم عرفنی نفسک” is a plea for knowledge. I wish to attain a comprehensive knowledge of the Most Beautiful Names. Why do I wish to possess the Greatest Name? Anyone who seeks it in pursuit of the power to fly or perform miracles has failed, for the Greatest Name should lead me to the remembrance of God, the Greatest.

🌺 Could there be anything higher than this? Through it, I wish to attain the fullest remembrance of God. The Greatest Name has twelve keys. Until I have attained them all, I will not reach God’s Greatest Name. I must attain the scholarly manifestations of Imam al-Askari and each and every one of his manifestations of knowledge and light. I must be granted the honour of visiting all these beauties before I can claim to be a follower of Imam al-Askari. Until I reach them, I have failed.

🌻 Imam al-Askari has shown us the way. I keep reciting God’s Greatest Name, so why do I see no effect? Show me a name of God that is not the greatest. Every one of its letters, verses and surahs, and all the supplications of the Ahl al-Bayt, is the Greatest Name. They ask Imam al-Sadiq where to find the Greatest Name. The Imam replies: بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم, is the Greatest Name.

🌼 Elsewhere, he has said: When I recite Surat al-Fatiha, I am in fact reciting God’s Greatest Name. On another occasion, he was asked about the Greatest and Most Great Name. His Eminence said: Recite Surat al-Fatiha, Surat al-Ikhlas, Ayat al-Kursi and “إنا أنزلناه”, then turn to God and call upon Him.

🌸 Elsewhere, Imam al-Rida (AS) is asked about God’s Greatest Name. He says: “بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم Repeat ‘و لاحول و لاقوه…’ a hundred times. This remembrance is closer to the Greatest Name than the black of the eye is to its white.” Elsewhere, “یا حی و یا قیوم” is mentioned, along with “اللهم انی اسئلک الرحمٰن یا منان یا بدیع السماوات و الارض، یا ذوالجلال و الاکرام,” and elsewhere, “اللهم یا مالک المُلک…” The Imam has also said that the six closing verses of Surat al-Hashr, along with other hadiths, reveal this truth to us: every name and verse is great and exalted; there is no lesser name. All are signs of God Most Great. I must reform myself so that I can call upon God by His Greatest Name. If I cannot utter God’s name as it deserves to be uttered, then my soul is ill; that is why it lacks the ability.

🌼 “اللهم انی اسئلک به عظمتک کلها”… What can I do to attain it? The Imam himself has shown the way. My heart is hard; it cannot bring God’s name to light and invoke Him. The heart should call upon God with due reverence and purity, with holiness and tenderness, but it lacks the strength to do so.

🌻 How can I set it in motion? This world is a great obstacle. The world has made my heart ill. Worldliness and love of this world have poisoned me. I have fallen in love with the world; it has taken hold of me. So how can I free my heart from all these chains that bind it?

🌺 In his commentary on the verse “ثم قست قلوبکم کالحجارة او اشد قسوة”, Imam al-Askari (AS) said: “Then your hearts grew hard, like stone—or harder still. For among stones are some from which rivers gush forth; stones from whose depths streams of water flow; stones that split open and release water; and stones that fall down in awe of God. But your hearts hardened and grew callous; they became firm and dry. They dried up in their capacity for goodness and mercy, and were no longer a place where goodness and mercy could take root.”

🌼 The Imam says: “O company of Jews! After all the clarifications in the time of Moses, God showed you all those brilliant signs, and you witnessed all the miracles of Muhammad al-Mustafa (PBUH)—yet your hearts did not soften. Instead, your hearts became as dry and hard as stone, unable to absorb any moisture. All those signs and miracles failed to soften your hearts.”

🌼 It came to pass that no goodness flowed from these people. They became people of evil instead of good, and failed to give God His due. Whom is Imam al-Askari (AS) reproaching? Those who failed to give God His due: neither from their wealth nor from what they had left over, and they did not honor anyone through kindness. You gave nothing, showed no hospitality, and came to the aid of no one in pain.

🌼 There are stones that split open. Stones millions and billions of years old crack, and water flows from within them. Yet from within human beings, no goodness or moisture emerges. It must emerge. The hadith is long; it goes on to speak of stones falling down. The Jews reproached the Prophet of Islam (PBUH): “Are you saying that stones are softer and better than we are?” The Prophet revealed miracles, showing that the stones possessed greater awareness than they did. The Jews had said, “Our hearts are wrapped in covers.” They themselves admitted that the miracles had no effect on their hearts. They knew the Prophet, yet they did not accept the truth. Why? Because their hearts had grown hard and unyielding.

🌷 Have we not seen in dreams that inanimate things speak?

🌸 They said to the Prophet: “Are you saying that stones are softer and more obedient than we are? If so, call these mountains to bear witness and affirm your claim—your prophethood, your truthfulness and sincerity—so that we too may believe.” Muhammad al-Mustafa (PBUH)—this hadith is related from Imam al-Askari—gave the command. The mountain trembled; water gushed from within it, and it cried out: “اشهد انک رسول رب العالمین.”

🌼 The Prophet says: “I know the stones that used to greet me in the time of ignorance.”
Stones and mountains know him; they know the Messenger of God.

🌻 There are stones in this universe so steeped in awe of God that they seem to belong among His friends. If we were to adjure those stones, we would see how they lose themselves and are transformed from one state to another. I do not know the stone.

🌺 Should I compare myself to a stone? Would I not be ashamed? Stones that hold water within them and become the cradle of rushing streams; stones more beautiful than flowers; stones like birds and fish—or more beautiful still; stones that are like books.

🌼 Stones are like books written by God. What histories and geographies lie within them! For millions of years they have been worshipping God. Could this be the secret behind the attraction some stones hold for us? Many stones are learned and gnostic. Each stone is a distinct being: a sign and a history, a geography. It has understanding and awareness; it feels.

🌷 How can I attain the rank of a stone? I, the noblest of creatures, must sit at a stone’s feet and learn from it, passing through the stone’s classroom before I can enter the classroom of humanity. This stone has outstripped me. What can I do to soften this heart? When I say my heart is hard as flint, I feel ashamed before the stone. Just as we taste our food, we must also taste the most beautiful names of God.
We must remember God with sweetness—with taste and flavour.

🌹 How can I bring this heart to that station? How can I make it sound, ready for God’s names? How can I make it a companion and intimate of those names? How can I make my heart a vessel for God’s name? How can I unite the vessel with what it contains—the name of God? The shortest path is through the sources of God’s names. If all things are felt within that exalted being, then the names, too, surge through their souls. If I connect myself to those waves, I will have reached the most beautiful names of God.

🌸 They have attained the station of the Face of God and brought death itself to its end. Until God creates death, there can be no death; just as, if He does not create life, there can be no life. So let us ennoble our hearts through ʿAbd al-Latif and ʿAbd al-Ra’uf, ʿAbd al-Kabir and ʿAzim. Are these not means provided by God? For every matter, God’s Proof is the means. I want to soften my heart and prepare it for God’s Greatest Name. The greatest means—I want to reach God’s Greatest Name; this is the closest path. The perfect servant is the servant who is great through the greatness of God. By taking God’s great servant as my example, I can reach God’s Greatest Name.

🌼 In this way, all limitations fall away. I must call upon God with a heart meant to be the Throne of the All-Merciful. If I call upon God with such a heart, I will then see that every name is God’s Greatest Name. The Qur’an is God’s greatest speech; it is an explanation of all things and contains everything.

🌻 Through the Qur’an, the Imam speaks of the heavens and the earth. Imam Sadiq (AS) says: “I indeed know the news of the heavens and the earth, and the news of all that is and all that will be, as though it were in the palm of my hand.” From where? From the Book of God, for it is an explanation of all things. So I must reach the Qur’an as an explanation of all things. I have not truly read the Qur’an; I have remained at its wording and have not reached its inner meanings. I have seen neither its outward nor its inward.

🌺 Why, then, do I drink water but gain no life? Why do I receive light but do not shine? Why do I call upon God by His names and receive no answer? Why does my heart take in the seeds of God’s verses, yet fail to blossom? Why has it lost the good it might have borne? What can I do? How can I make it soft and tender? I must reach my goal, find the paths that lead there, and set out along them until I arrive.

🌸 Flowers know the light and display its beauty.
🌸 Each moment brings a new face of the sun into view. The flower bears witness: “I know the sun.” Through its purity and changing colours, it reveals the sun. It has become a mirror for the light; the reflection rising from the flower is a sign of its knowledge, a testimony that it knows the sun. Beautiful landscapes, in truth, are heralds of the sun; they bring the light into view.

🌼 Where is the perfect mirror, so that I may behold the full face of the light? I have not seen the light itself; I have seen only an interpretation of it. I have apprehended a translation of the light. I am striving to see the light in its original reality. How can I see God’s light? I must become transparent, pure, clear and mirror-like, so that the light may shine through me. I must receive His light and reflect it; I must be His moon, the fullest moon, so that I may claim to have known the light: the Light, the Proof, Imam Askari and Imam Mahdi.
When a flower blossoms and becomes a plant and a tree, it bears witness to its knowledge of the seed. Had I been like the seed, I would have known God’s word and borne fruit; I would have scattered tenderness and spread purity. But I have not become so. We must all be mirrors for one another.

🌻 The lover is one who becomes a mirror for the beloved. The one who draws must be a mirror for the one drawn to them. In this world, only Allah has no mirror, for He has no need of one and is One, Unique. But His names and attributes do have mirrors: each of God’s signs is a mirror of His most beautiful names.

🌺 We must become mirrors for God’s Proofs. If we do not, we have fallen short in our duty toward these revered figures.