Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌻🔆🔆🌻
🌼🔆🌼The Giver of the Attribute Is His Attribute🌼🔆🌼
🔹 The Night of the Martyrdom of Imam Hadi (peace be upon him)
📅 Date: 1404/10/02 – 2 Rajab 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:
Imam Hadi, the Surgeon of the Soul’s Beauties ✨
Imam Hadi is the surgeon of beauty, the surgeon who awakens in the souls of the followers of Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad the nerves of delight. Until Imam Hadi performs this surgery on the nerves of delight within us, until he implants the nerve of beauty in our souls, we will know nothing of beauty or joy.
Imam Hadi (peace be upon him) holds secrets—secrets beyond those of the Prophet Solomon. He possesses wonders that surpass even the marvels of Dhul-Qarnayn and encompass the whole of creation. Imam Hadi is the adornment of Muhammadan sublimity. Imam Hadi (peace be upon him) is this vast treasury of God’s knowledge, this secret of the lights, this key to every question of creation: the secret of sight, the secret of life, the secret of motion.
An Imam is God’s answer sheet on earth. Whatever we ask, its answer lies in the soul of God’s Proof. What secrets dwell in the soul of Imam Hadi that have yet to be unveiled? No one has yet sought out this treasury of all treasuries.
What is my number and rank in this universe? Which place do I occupy in its order? How many digits does my cosmic code have? By what number am I known across this vast expanse of existence? Every secret is uniquely connected to this number and to God’s Proofs on earth. The stronger these connections become, the more our souls grow rich with God’s light, and the higher our number will be. We will take precedence in this universe.
The Imams are not wronged; rather, we are the ones who wrong ourselves. They are wronged by us, because we received their invitation and then did them injustice. Not all invitations are confined to this world. Rather, every invitation has been sent from the soul of our primordial nature to the heavenly realm; the Compassionate God has answered us and sent His Proofs to raise us up and grant us sublimity. It is we who have wronged ourselves. We have forgotten this mighty ladder of God, which can carry us higher than the highest heights.
What have we gained from Imam Hadi? We have fled from light and illumination. This world is a vast classroom, and we must graduate; we must become learned in this class. Without knowing God’s Proof—without reading this great book of God—how can we graduate from the school of this world? The answer to every mystery on earth and every mystery in the heavens lies with God’s Proof. Our level is measured by the questions we ask. The weightier, more profound and loftier my questions, the higher my station rises in keeping with those very questions, in keeping with the heights of my needs.
If my needs are at the level of inanimate matter, I remain at that level; or perhaps at the level of plants, or higher, at the level of animals, or higher still. When a human being moves beyond the belly and looks beyond it, then their questions and needs rise to human levels, and then higher still—to angelic levels. Higher even than that, a person rises beyond these questions altogether.
Bestial Needs and Severed Connection with God’s Proof 🕯
We had no questions for God’s Proof; in fact, we had no need of God’s Proof at all. What is God’s Proof for, anyway? What does God’s Proof do? What could I have done with God’s Proof? I don’t know. My connection with God’s Proof reaches no further than my capacity for affection—and even that affection is meagre. If my connection had become luminous, if it had become devotional, I wouldn’t be here now; God’s Proof wouldn’t be waiting for me.
My needs reach only the level of an animal, because they are animal needs. I think only of eating, sleeping and drinking. My mind has withered; my heart has died. Why? Because I have killed my human and devotional needs.
If only I could take the measure of my appetites. If someone asked me, “What do you desire?” what would I say? If they asked, “What is your deepest need?” what need would I name? If the heavens opened above me and I were asked what I needed, with anything I asked for granted, what would I ask for? I don’t know. The very highest level of my questions reaches only as far as—at most—my humanity, which I should have leapt beyond to ask for what I truly need. What is my prayer? What are my needs?
When I turn to my body’s appetites, what does my body need? What kind of sweetness does it crave? Are the cells in my body sending those instructions to my brain? Foreign powers have taken the land of my soul captive. I don’t realise that tiny microbes have seized my soul, that parasites have taken over my nervous system. They crave whatever they want; they demand it, and I meet their needs without even knowing.
If I turn to my gut, the bacteria there demand what they need. And because I have let myself go and forgotten my fundamental needs, I obey whatever they command. I provide whatever those parasites want.
But if I enter my heart—if angels had taken it over—I would have needs, luminous and spiritual needs. They would make their demands and stir my appetite, and I would answer them, consuming the whole of the highest heavenly realm.
Instead, devils have taken over my heart and enslaved my mind. They give the orders, and I carry them out. I grow thin while they grow fat. One day I will see that I have rotted away, and only they remain; there will be nothing left of me.
So I have been serving up food to devils; I was their restaurant and didn’t know it. For I have turned away from God’s Proof. If I had surrendered my heart to God’s Proof all at once, my sustenance would have been God’s Most Beautiful Names. I would have settled for nothing less.
The Soul’s Multivariable Equation and the Blessed Tree 🌳
My journey, my spiritual wayfaring, was nearing its end. Now I understand that my innate nature had not yet been fully activated. I should have activated it, but instead I connected it to a satanic computer. That is what is activating me. Had I connected my innate nature to God’s Proof and activated it with him—God’s Proof, the secret in whom God has encompassed all things—what might I have become? If I had been activated by that computer, I would have conquered the highest horizons of existence.
Where do I stand on this blessed tree? Am I, too, a leaf on the great tree of Muhammad? If I were a leaf of that tree, I should have become one of its finest branches; my circumstances would have been transformed. If I had planted a leaf from this blessed tree, that very tree should have sprouted and blossomed. Have I arrived, or not? Have I been duped and burned without even knowing it?
Within me are secrets. My being is an equation of God’s with many unknowns. I should have solved those equations, then opened my soul to the lofty stations. What am I supposed to do if I do not solve my soul’s questions, its unknowns? Had I come here just to sleep and eat, then die and depart?
God, the Exalted, the All-Knowing and All-Wise Origin, does nothing in vain. I signed my covenant and then forgot it. When will its time come? The worm within me has not yet become a butterfly. I died in my wormhood. So when am I to emerge from this cocoon, come out, become a butterfly, take flight, and embrace the whole of creation?
I have wiped away a few of the dark veils from my sight—never mind the veils of light. I should have passed through the darkness, conquered the land of illumination, and gone beyond, reaching out toward the far horizons. The secrets lie beyond. Light is God’s messenger; it has brought news from those distant horizons so that I might reach them, make my way there. But I have sunk into my own darkness. When, then, will I attain the wealth of the whole world? If I do not become wealthy in this world, I will be among the losers in the next. When will I obtain God’s vast treasure? When will I acquire God’s treasures? When will I cling to the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt? When? When am I meant to reach that station?
Yes, the All-Wise God has arranged this trial so that sweetness is concealed beneath bitterness. He has spread a thin layer of bitterness over its sweetness, so that human beings—His chosen servants—will cling to it, rather than simply reach for the sweetness. Since it is God’s command, they hasten toward the bitterness; and when they taste even a little of it, they find themselves immersed in sweetness, unable to break free.
The nourishment of created beings and God’s freedom from food 🍞
Yes, we must cling to the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt and unlock their secrets. When will I take stock of myself?
“Yā Fatḥ” is a saying of Imam Hadi. This guide of the family of Muhammad breaks open wisdom. At our last session, on a special occasion, we spoke about this exceptionally exalted saying of Imam Hadi.
“O Fatḥ, every being has food that nourishes it, except God, the Creator and Provider. God does not eat.” It is not as simple as it sounds; it holds secrets. The Imam unveils a secret. With this simple sentence, the Imam opens my heart, unseals it.
Indeed, He gave bodies their corporeality, yet He is not a body and has no form. He has no parts, and no end. He neither increases nor diminishes. He is not composed of what He has placed in created beings, nor is He composite in what He Himself composes.
Why am I lost in these words of my Imam, my Guide, so clear and luminous? Do I understand nothing? No—the devils assail me, drawing a veil between my eyes and the words of my Imam, between me and understanding his meaning. The Imam’s words are clear. He brings light into the world—how much more into my body and my intellect! He is exalted above becoming one of the parts that He Himself brings into being and creates. He created composites, but they have no place in His sacred Essence. He is exalted above having parts of His own, and above being composed of the parts He has combined in the things He created. He is unlike His creation; He has not fashioned Himself anew or made a likeness of Himself. He is free and exalted above all corporeal forms.
He is Subtle, All-Aware, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, One, Unique, the Self-Sufficient. لم یلد و لم یولد و لم یکن له کفوا احد Why does He bring His words to this point? Why begin with food and end here? He is Subtle: He bestows subtleties but does not receive them. He is subtle and the source of subtlety. He is All-Hearing, yet He is not nourished by sound, hearing, or any sign. He is All-Hearing; He grants the gift of hearing to His beings, His creatures—He bestows hearing on them! He is not nourished by subtlety. What does this mean? He derives no benefit from His own attribute of subtlety; He has no need of any attribute. He is All-Aware, yet God is not nourished by knowledge of things; He gives knowledge.
The Self’s Independence from Attributes and the Divine Names as Nourishment 🌟
He is All-Seeing; He does not draw sustenance from light and illumination—He gives sustenance. He nourishes all things with light and illumination, with words and expressions, with signs. He is One. Whatever gives nourishment is no longer in a state of oneness. That existence which depends on attributes—in other words, needs nourishment—is in need; He is free of all need for nourishment. He is free of all need for attributes. An attribute is to its subject as food is to the one who eats, yet He needs neither food nor attributes. This is the very secret in the words of our master, the Commander of the Faithful: “The perfection of sincerity toward Him lies in denying Him attributes.” Why? Through His attributes, God nourishes the entire world; this is God’s food for all creation.
Have you not read … () After that, from the four pillars of the Name, He brought three into manifestation. Why? For the sake of His creatures, so that He might nourish them—with the nourishment of knowledge, understanding and perception. He Himself takes no nourishment, and He kept one veiled. Why did He keep it veiled? When creatures have had their fill of those three—that is, when they have received all their nourishment—then the time comes for the other to dawn. Then the Creator draws back the veil from that one blessed Name!
The Manifestation of the Divine Will in Every Moment 🕊
At every instant, the thingness of each thing comes into being by the act of the Source; the form of every image is fashioned by the Divine Image-Maker.
The Trial of the Primordial Nature, the Interpretation of Expressions, and the Peril of Unauthenticated Mysticism ⚖️
So why are these expressions and allusions here? Why has God placed them before us? We are being tested: all of this is a trial of our primordial nature. Every expression needs to be translated, like a seed that must be split open, like a particle whose energy must be released. But by what power station? They will be opened by the power station that is God’s Proof, and the immense force contained within these expressions will be unlocked only for those beings of immense stature.
All expressions require interpretation and esoteric explanation. God’s Proof is the one who reveals their hidden meaning, so that we may reach their concealed mysteries. If I try to leap ahead without God’s Proof, I will break my wings for lack of the power to fly; I will be destroyed. And that is what some have done: they broke themselves and brought their followers down with them. How many claimants have rushed ahead in the valley of mysticism and gnosis, unaware that to travel without God’s Proof is to fall into the deepest darkness.
We do not realise that each moment is another “Am I not your Lord?” Each moment, God’s command arrives, and I must bear loud witness to the oneness of my Lord. But I thought the work was done, so I feigned sleep—and was destroyed. The trial is renewed at every moment. It will continue until this universe is folded away: the tremendous trial, the greatest trial facing every single being in existence. The test is that of divine unity, by God’s own divinity. It is not a test of unity against outright polytheism, but a test of unity against things that resemble unity. Things that look like unity appear in my path, and I must pass beyond these obstacles. Polytheism presents itself to me in the guise of divine unity, and I must get past it.
Pharaoh’s sorcerers stand in the way. If I pass beyond those sorcerers, Samiri will come for me once more. This age has shown me this course: how many sorcerers have stood in the path of divine unity, and how many Samiris have drawn the veil before it! Yet God, the Compassionate, the Lord of all that tests, does not cease to test us. His test is simple, yet how many lose! How many mystics thought themselves true mystics, then fell silent, not knowing what they did not know. God’s test is simple: a gnat may bite—and how many mystics are laid low!
The Parable of the Gnat and the Sapling of Divine Unity in the Human Soul 🪶
He gives the example of a gnat, and above that gnat are still tinier creatures. If God wills, He gives them as an example too; He goes beyond them and gives the example of the fundamental particle as well. And this brings human beings low: humanity has not yet attained a station from which it can grasp the secret. But what do the faithful say in the face of these trials? () “Whatever comes from my Lord is true.” () Yet the unbelievers ask, “Why did God give this example? Why does God test us in this way?” () He leads many astray, but only the defiantly disobedient are led astray by it. () Now, here before us is our simple test. Had not the sapling of divine unity been planted in our souls? Yet the test of divine unity is under way. So which mystery am I trying to solve? I myself am the sapling of divine unity—where, then, am I going in search of it? No matter what I do, I cannot fashion a garment out of polytheism. It is all dream and illusion. Yet even this dream and illusion is taken from me
“The Divine Image” and Rising from the Outward Words to the Truth 🕊
They narrate: At the time of trial, God created Adam in His own image. Am I to go astray? Must I set myself on the path by taking God’s proof as my guide, and let my heart shine through it? But is not the created image something brought into being? This is what understanding means: the Imam gives the answer and unveils its secret; he opens the heart of this expression. Its outward meaning is only the surface. If I remain there, I will be buried; I will become an unbeliever. I must go beyond it. By what power can I take flight from within these words? How can I rise from this departure point? The Imam says: The image was created, but God loves it so much that He chooses it, makes it His elect, singles it out above all other images, and for this reason attributes it to Himself—just as He attributes the Kaaba and the spirit to Himself. He says, “My House.” Does God have a house? When something is chosen, He attributes it to Himself: “I breathed into him of My spirit”—the Spirit of God. So the secret lies here: I must not stop at the words. Through the words, I must come alive, take flight, and soar.
