Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌼A Vision of Knowledge in the Soul of Imam al-Baqir (peace be upon him) 🌼
🌼When knowledge is cleft open, what lies beyond manifest knowledge is revealed🌼
🌸🔆🌿 “The Secret of Baqir” “The Secrets of Unfolding Knowledge” “Drawing Forth the Nectar and Honey of Knowledge”
🔅🌹 An Abstract with Supplementary Notes: “The Secret of Baqir,” “The Secrets of Unfolding Knowledge,” “Drawing Forth the Nectar and Honey of Knowledge,” “The Consequences of the Tongue Outrunning Knowledge, and Reason Outrunning Knowledge” « » 1402.04.04 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat 110.141(903) 🌹🔅
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
☘️ 🔅 🌸 O God, make Your Baqir known to us 🌸 🔅 ☘️
🌺 A contemplative and scholarly visitation to Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (peace be upon him) is one of the keys to entering the sanctuary of his wilaya!
🌻🔆🌱 الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الْباقِرُ بِعِلْمِ اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الْفاحِصُ عَنْ دِینِ اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الْمُبَیِّنُ لِحُکمِ اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا القائِمُ بِقِسْطِ اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا النّاصِحُ لِعِبادِ اللّه الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الدّاعِی إلَى اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الدَّلِیلُ عَلَى اللّهِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الحَبْلُ الَمَتِینُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الْفَضْلُ المُبِینُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا النُّورُ السّاطِعُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الْبَدْرُ الْــلاّمِع الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الحَقُّ الاَبَلَجُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا السِّراجُ الاَسْرَجُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا النَّجْمُ الاَزْهَرُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الکَوْکَبُ الاَبْهَرُالَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا المُنَزَّهُ عَنِ المُعْضَلاتِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا المَعْصُومُ مِنَ الزَّلاّت الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الزَّکِیُّ فِی الْحَسَبِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا الرَّفِیعُ فِی النَّسَبِ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ اَیُّهَا القَصْرُ الَمَشِیدُ الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ یا حُجَّةَ اللّهِ عَلى خَلْقِهِ اَجْمَعِینَ
🌻🔆🌱 اَشْهَدُ یا مَوْلای اَنَّکَ قَدْ صَدَعْتَ بِالْحَقِّ صَدْعاً وبَقَرْتَ العِلْمَ بَقْراً، ونَثَرْتَهُ نَثْراً لَمْ تَاْخُذْکَ فِی اللّهِ لَوْمَةُ لائِم وَکُنْتَ لِدِینِ اللّهِ مُکاتِماً وَقَضیْتَ ما کانَ عَلَیْکَ وَاَخْرَجْتَ اَوْلِیاءَکَ مِنْ وَلایَةِ غَیْرِ اللّهِ اِلى وِلایةِ اللّهِ وَاَمَرْتَ بِطاعَةِ اللّهِ، وَنَهَیْتَ عَنْ مَعْصِیَةِ اللّهِ حَتّى قَبَضَکَ اللّهُ اِلِى رِضْوانِهِ وَذَهَبَ بِکَ اِلى Darِ کَرامَتِهِ وَاِلى مَسَاکِنِ اَصْفِیائِهِ وَمُـجاوَرَةِ اَوْلِیائِهِ
الَسَّـلامُ عَلَیْکَ وَرَحْمَةُ اللّهِ وَبَرَکاتُهُ
🔅 🌸 In Praise of Baqir
☘️ 🔅 🌸 How beautiful is praise of Baqir! Praise of Baqir is the very essence of delight 🌸 🔅 ☘️
🌷 Who is Baqir? Who can know Baqir? Who can know this divine marvel, this treasury of wonders, mysteries, and secrets? Who understands what it means to cleave open knowledge? Who knows what knowledge is—and what it means to open it up? Who can know the one who strives, unveils, and cleaves open knowledge?
☘️ Who would claim to grasp the majesty of the one who cleaves open knowledge? How can someone outside the realm of knowledge comprehend knowledge and the one who opens it up? Is it easier to cleave open the sun than to cleave open knowledge? Whoever opens up knowledge becomes its gardener.
🌷 The least we owe an Imam in knowing him is to stand astonished before the shadow of his sublime grandeur, our mouths open in wonder.
☘️To be apart from Imam al-Baqir (peace be upon him), or heedless of him, is to be apart from knowledge, light, and illumination—indeed, the loss is even more grievous. Separation from knowledge of Imam al-Baqir and his wilaya is a fall into the wasteland of poverty and wretchedness, a deprivation of the water of life, the summit of wealth, and the crown of beauty.
🌷 If a person suffers poverty and want amid a sea of jewels, it reveals utter ingratitude and ignorance. How deeply lamentable it is to be surrounded by the immense riches of Baqir and yet afflicted with poverty of knowledge.
☘️Why are we poor? Because we know nothing of our own riches—or perhaps we know, yet disregard them. Do we not have Baqir al-ʿIlm, the one who cleaves open knowledge?!!!
🌷 With the light of the Divine present, why are we blind? The great pain of our age is that, despite Baqir’s presence, our hearts remain dark and our understanding so meagre.
☘️With Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, we must delve into the heart of truths and discover new realms of knowledge at every moment!
🌷 With Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, we must reach the very heart of servitude to God.
☘️ 🔅 🌸 O God, connect me to the Baqir system 🌸 🔅 ☘️
🌻🔆وَ اسْمُهُ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ الْبَاقِرُ يَبْقُرُ الْعِلْمَ بَقْرا
☘️The prophets foretold the coming of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, so that people throughout the world might prepare themselves to understand his presence and recognise that his blessed existence is the greatest event in the enrichment of the world. All people must strive to the utmost to benefit from the grace of his blessings, knowledge, and wonders.
🌷 A special qualification is essential for benefiting from the presence of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him: that qualification is a sincere desire to know him.
☘️Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, surpasses all worth and price in the entire world. He is God’s sole, peerless jewel. With this system, we must journey into the heart of knowledge and voyage across its boundless sea.
🌷 With the veins and life of the Baqiri spirit, we must live the blessed life shaped by Imam al-Baqir; with a Baqiri heart, soul, and sensibility, we must savour the world and worship God as He deserves.
☘️In the presence of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, we are immersed in an ocean and enfolded in light. Yet how tragic that we do not become moistened by its waters or illumined by the seas of his radiance.
🌷 A dark heart sees the world as dark. Without a connection to Imam al-Baqir, our whole world is dark.
☘️Divine light is borne upon divine light—“نُورٌ عَلى نُور”; giving thanks for the light that came before enables us, by God’s grace, to attain the light that follows.
🌷 We dwell amid light within light, and knowledge within knowledge. We stand in the vast arena of wilayah and imamate.
☘️The sun never ceases to shine, and the radiance of the Imamate never dims, even for a moment. We are at fault: we have closed our eyes and hearts. When we free ourselves from enslavement to the belly and the passions, our hearts will open to the sun.
🌷 Knowledge has inner depths, and Imam al-Baqir unveils them all. At what level of knowledge do we stand? We must grasp truths at every level of learning. Without this immense system of knowledge, tasting its delight, pleasure, and beauty is impossible.
☘️With Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, we must attain a state of direct encounter.
🌷 Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, is the one who opens up knowledge, not merely a body of information. He carries us beyond knowledge and into light.
☘️Only with Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, can we dive into the City of Knowledge.
🌷 Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, penetrated to the very heart of prophethood and tasted the fragrance, nectar, and honey of knowledge. He does not split open the shell of the pearl oyster; he reveals the pearl within. He brings us to the heart and inner reality of the divine will and purpose.
☘️With Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, we can reach the limits of time and space.
🌷 In the heart and spirit of knowledge lie tidings beyond all tidings.
☘️If we are truly followers of Imam al-Baqir, we will be connected with his guidance to the heart of truths and gain access to the hidden dimensions of knowledge and what lies beyond them. Through him, we perceive the unseen by means of the unseen—that is, through a perception beyond sight.
☘️ 🔅 🌸 At the table of Baqir’s words, let us partake of the highest blessing 🌸 🔅 ☘️
🌻🔆Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him: إني لأكره أن يكون مقدار لسان الرجل فاضلا على مقدار علمه كما أكره أن يكون مقدار علمه فاضلا على مقدار عقله
Sharḥ Nahj al-Balāghah by Ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd, vol. 7, p. 92 Ayatollah Marashi Najafi Library, Qom; first edition, 1404 AH.
🌻🔆Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him: I dislike a man’s eloquence exceeding his knowledge, just as I dislike his knowledge exceeding his reason.
🌷 The ugliest state for any scholar is for his tongue to outstrip his knowledge—to know less than he says, and to make claims beyond what he knows.
☘️ Whoever mingles knowledge with ignorance and speaks beyond what they know is one whose tongue has outstripped their knowledge.
🌷 Whoever oversteps the bounds of their knowledge brings disgrace upon themselves. The tongue must not stretch beyond the limits of knowledge; to do so is to take knowledge’s life—a betrayal and an affront to its dignity.
☘️ Whoever spends beyond their means ends up bankrupt and in debt. To go beyond the bounds of knowledge is an intellectual bankruptcy from which there is no recovery.
🌷 A tongue that outruns knowledge shows ignorant disrespect for it. The tongue should follow in knowledge’s footsteps and take knowledge as its guide; when it gets ahead, ignorance becomes its guide.
☘️ An overlong tongue strips knowledge of its integrity.
🌷 When knowledge oversteps the bounds of reason, it brings about great calamities.
☘️ Knowledge that races ahead of reason becomes satanic; then knowledge becomes a servant of ignorance.
🌷 Unrestrained light blinds the eyes; light kept in check illuminates them. Fix your gaze directly on the sun, even briefly, and you will be blinded in an instant. Yet beneath its vast canopy of light, you can behold nature in all its beauty.
☘️ If heat is not controlled, it turns everything to ash. But through systems that harness it, heat can be transformed into light, power, and pure benefit.
🌷 Knowledge must be governed and guided by reason; otherwise, it will bolt like a wild horse.
☘️ The sun is both learned and wise; that is why it shines so beautifully and gives forth purity and warmth.
🌷 Let us be learned and wise like the sun, so that we may spread the light of knowledge across the world.
☘️ Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, has spent a lifetime sweetening the palate of the world with the honey of knowledge, and remains awaited by those thirsty for understanding and awareness.
🌷 Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, has woven together the warp and woof of knowledge and clothed the soul of the world in its garment.
☘️ If we forget the shelter of the knowledge and guardianship of Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, we will be cut off from Almighty God, for he is the firm rope of divine knowledge.
🌷 Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, is the living embodiment of divine grace and generosity.
☘️ Had Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, not been there, the Shi‘a would have been taken captive under Satan’s guardianship.
🌷 Imam Baqir, peace be upon him, has freed his friends from the guardianship of all but God.
🌻🔆وَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ صُلْبِ عَلِيٍّ وَلَدٌ اسْمُهُ اسْمِي وَ أَشْبَهُ النَّاسِ بِي يَبْقُرُ الْعِلْمَ بَقْراً وَ يَنْطِقُ بِالْحَقِّ وَ يَأْمُرُ بِالصَّوَابِ وَ يُخْرِجُ اللَّهُ مِنْ صُلْبِهِ كَلِمَةَ الْحَقِّ وَ لِسَانَ الصِّدْق
🌼 Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903) 🌼
