Imam Husayn, the Vessel of Truth

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🌼🔆🌼 Husayn, the Idol-Breaker of Polytheism and Doubt 🌼🔆🌼
🔹The Birth of Imam Husayn (AS)
📅 Date: 1404/11/02 – 2 Sha‘ban 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some points raised in the session:

⚜️ O God, help us know Your Husayn

On the night of the birth of the foremost of those who strive in devotion, the lamp of those who put their trust in God, the pride of the leaders of the faithful, the light of the Fatimid Household: our master Husayn ibn Ali (AS).
The radiant full moon, the purest and greatest of all creation, our master, Sayyid al-Shuhada (AS)—congratulations and blessings to the celestial beings, accompanied by the sweet invocation of blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad (PBUH).

O God, help us know Your Husayn—this glass vessel of Yours, this vessel of Your light. O God, when will we come to know this pearl of Yours, this coral of Yours? O God, when will we attain, through Your Husayn, pure devotion to religion? O God, when will we taste the sweetness of serving You through Your Husayn? Husayn is the key to waking from sleep: to leap up, reach the light, escape darkness, leave polytheism behind, and plunge into divine oneness. Is the Imam not God’s light? If he is God’s light, then Husayn is God’s light. So through Husayn I must look out, cross the bounds of existence, traverse them, see, and grasp the heart of reality. With Husayn, there should be nothing unknown to me in this universe. Through Husayn, I must journey throughout all of existence. If Imam Husayn is the Imam of twelve thousand worlds, then I too must be a bird soaring through twelve thousand worlds. Why am I not? Why have I imprisoned Husayn in my mind? Why have I diminished him? By God, Husayn is not small. He is God’s light, God’s servant—Abu Abdillah. Husayn is the father of God’s servants: he cares for them as a father, guides them, helps them grow, and nurtures them.

🌪 Love for Husayn sets the soul in a storm

With Husayn, I must traverse every layer of service to God. Through Husayn, I must grasp every level, every level of mystery. With Husayn, I must enlist the whole universe in the service of pure devotion to God. Every act of mine reverberates throughout all existence. Why am I so numb? Because I am without the Imam of my time, without Husayn. Had I been with Husayn, I would have felt the pulse of servitude, tasted worship, and found the joy of intimate communion with the Beloved. All of existence feels something for Husayn. The whole universe knows Husayn. How does a flower know him? How do the birds of the sky, the stars? And how do I, a human being, know Husayn? It seems I know him less than others—even less than the particles of the universe. If the water of the sea knows Husayn, why do I not? I have made him small. I have yet to draw any benefit from this vast system of God’s. I have not even acquired the tender feeling that should be worthy of him. Love for Husayn is the key to walking and to taking flight. With Husayn, I must soar, reach up into the heights of the heavens, and unleash a storm of devotion. Why have I not? Because I am unjust—to myself and to my Imam. This is not love for Husayn. Love for Husayn sets the soul in a storm; it shakes heaven and earth and binds them together. So why am I silent? Why do I not add to the flourishing of devotion? Had I truly been of Husayn, I would have stirred the soul of this universe, moved things from their places, become a wave, surged, and made the world surge with me. If I speak Husayn’s name, I must honor its worth and show it respect. When I put on the mantle of Husayn, I must do the work of Husayn.

🔑 Guardianship is a trust from God

I must shatter the Yazidis. Husayn is the highest pinnacle of devotion to God, a mighty tree of servitude. From Husayn, I must learn the way and the very name of devotion to God in their highest form. I must draw sustenance from Husayn, find renewed energy for devotion, and discover passion and love. Why do I not? Why am I out of the water? Why am I a fish out of water? I am dying, yet I do not even realize it. If Husayn is God’s trust, have I honored the duty of safeguarding it, or have I broken that trust? Have I betrayed what was entrusted to me?

Wilayah is a trust from God. Whoever seeks to claim that trust for anyone other than the rightful one is an unbeliever. Can anyone take the place of water? Can anyone take the place of light? Those who usurped the trust passed themselves off as water and took its place, leaving the fish thirsty. Now humanity is dying. The soul is dying; ethics are dying. Why? Because the trust has been betrayed, and we still do not understand. We remain caught in this question: do we need water, or does water need us? Was water trying to fight for power, to gain control? By God, it was not so. Water was thinking of the fish, not seeking power. What would the Imam gain by ruling over me? It would only add to his burdens.

🪴 Have we watered the pot of love for Husayn?

The Imam is the refreshing water for the thirsty. He is the guide who leads to guidance, the rescuer who saves from ruin. It was we, then, who needed the Imam. The Imam wanted us to drink from his life-giving water, to scatter his light in our hearts, and to save us from the path to ruin. We did not understand; we set out on the path of darkness. Now everything—all that is good—is dying. And now there is another trust: the trust of wilayah within our hearts. We must honor that trust. One of those trusts is Husayn. How have we upheld our duty as custodians of what was entrusted to us? Was not safeguarding a trust one of the duties of servitude to God? Did we not keep Husayn in our hearts? Then why did we hand those hearts over to Satan? Did we not? We did! We entrusted the trust to our own selves and to Satan, and we do not even realize it. We should have entrusted it to our God and sought His help in protecting and honoring it. But we forgot our God, too, and Husayn was forgotten. We became a prison for Husayn. Have we watered the pot of love for Husayn? How much love for Husayn do we possess? Do we know its measure? Have we honored the small measure of love bestowed upon us? Did we water that pot of love for Husayn, or not? We let it dry up. Had we watered it, we would have reached the garden of love for Husayn—but we did not.

🎭 Husayn has silent, invisible killers

How often have we thanked our God for this great blessing of His—for the blessing of Husayn? Do we count the wealth we have gained through Husayn? What have we gained from him? What are the fruits of Husayn’s wealth and treasure? How much have we gained? The penalty for ingratitude is a severe punishment. We did not merely fail to thank God for the blessing of Husayn; we were ungrateful for it and hurt him. A severe punishment will overtake us! Husayn has silent, invisible killers. How many Yazidis there are who do not think themselves Yazidis, yet are worse than them. How many invisible Shimrs commit a hundred deeds worse than those of Shimr and Yazid, without even realizing it. Perhaps our hearts have become Husayn’s killing ground, and we do not know it. Perhaps through our words, deeds, conduct, and thoughts we assail Husayn without realizing it; we hurt Husayn and do not know it. Tawhid is God’s sanctuary. God is Husayn’s first and last love. How can we say that anyone who attacks or disregards Husayn’s sanctuary has attacked Husayn? Do we now recognize the invisible Yazidis? Imam Husayn rose against idolatry and sacrificed his life for tawhid. Let me remind myself: Imam Husayn offered up his very life, the blood of his heart, the innermost core of his being, for tawhid. So Husayn’s curse falls upon every idolater, even if that idolater appears to love him. To profess love for Husayn while acting like an idolater is to be worse than Yazid. Husayn is the son of Abraham.

💎 The greatest trust God has placed with us is Husayn

To Abraham, it made no difference whether the idolater was his uncle or anyone else. Once it became clear that his uncle was an enemy of God and an idolater, he disavowed him. By God, Husayn disavows the idolaters. By God, Husayn disavows those who sin. By God, Husayn loves those who affirm God’s oneness; he loves those devoted to obedience and worship. He is God’s appointed meeting place, the station of turning one’s attention to God. The greatest trust God has placed with us, then, is Husayn: he is a pillar of tawhid, a martyr of tawhid—and a martyr is always alive. He shines, making this world of existence more radiant with the light of his tawhid. How well do we know Husayn? If we were asked, “What have you received from Husayn? What have you carried away?” what would we say? Let us consider these words of Husayn and measure our worth—our worth as followers of Husayn. Imam Husayn (AS) is asked to explain the meaning of “al-Samad,” and the Imam replies:

📖 Allah, the Eternal Refuge; He neither begets nor is born.

If we fail to understand these words of Imam Husayn (AS), if they are difficult for us to grasp, then we should question our faith and our belief in divine unity. Failing to understand them is a sign that we are caught in the grip of shirk: we will sink into its whirlpools and disappear into its swamps, destroyed in the quagmires of pseudo-science and pseudo-philosophy. These brief words of the Imam Husayn (AS) are the first and last word on divine unity; they roll up the scroll of every pseudo-philosophy. Whoever fails to understand them is lost.

Beware of plunging into the Quran and disputing over it, or speaking about it without knowledge. I heard the same from the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), who said: «هرکس در قرآن بدون علم سخن بگوید، جایگاهش را در آتش ببیند». Indeed, Allah, Glorified is He, has explained «صمد» Himself, saying: «الله احد، الله صمد». Then He explained «صمد»: «لم یلد و لم یولد». He neither begets nor is begotten, and there is none equal to Him, none comparable to Him.

«لم یلد»—He does not beget; that is, nothing substantial issues from Him. Am I saying that something issues from Him? Yes, that is what they say. They weave proofs and philosophies, tailoring them into elaborate arguments. Nothing substantial issues from Him, such as a child. He does not beget; He has no offspring. Yet they say that He begets. I will explain how they say it. In their specialized terminology, they spin out rules about the One: “The One begets from the One,” they say.

Nothing substantial issues from Him, as things issue from created beings; nor does anything subtle issue from Him, like a breath or a spirit. No spirit comes from Him. No particular state manifests or issues from Him: drowsiness or sleep, passing thoughts, sorrow or grief, joy or laughter, tears or fear, hope or desire, restlessness, weariness or thirst—none of these comes from Him. Nothing at all issues from Him. Nothing is born of Him, whether substantial or subtle.

He is not begotten; He does not issue from anything. He is not like substantial things that emerge from their elements, one thing from another, one living creature from another, water gushing from a spring, or fruit growing on a tree. Nor is He like subtle things that issue from their centers: sight from the eye, hearing from the ear, smell from the nose, taste from the mouth, speech from the tongue, knowledge and discernment from the heart, or fire leaping from a stone. He is none of these. He is Allah, the صمد: the One who is not from anything, not in anything, and not upon anything. He is the Originator of all things, bringing them into existence from absolute nothingness.

The Imam means that He is not from Himself, nor from within Himself, nor from outside Himself. He is the Originator: He brought things into being from absolute nothingness, not from Himself or from anything outside Himself. For our Lord to be utterly without need does not mean that all things have welled up from within Him. By God, people say… If I were to explain it, you would be astonished. The Imam answers them all. He is the Originator, Creator and Source of all things; by His power, He will scatter them all to bring them to their end, willing their annihilation. And He preserves, through His knowledge, what He has created, so that it may endure. Allah is the صمد, «لم یلد و لم یولد», Knower of the unseen…

🗣 Husayn’s cry against those pseudo-philosophers

If I were in my right mind, I would have to read this sacred discourse hundreds of times, until my innate disposition toward divine unity stirred, came alive and was renewed. Nothing issues from Him! O philosophers of the world, pseudo-philosophers of the world! Nothing issues from Him. Neither “the many” nor “the one” proceeds from His Essence. This is Husayn’s outcry against those pseudo-philosophers who claim to reason, yet charge ahead with pseudo-reason, trying to prove their case. Nothing is born of Him. He is the Originator of all things; He brings them into being from nothing, not from Himself. They try to explain how things could come from Himself… They imagine that God plays with Himself, manifests and displays Himself, and that creation is a spectacle. By God, it is not so. He is the Originator of all things, and that is all. “The many do not proceed from the one.” They say that the many proceed from the one, and claim to prove it in the name of divine unity! Imam Husayn (AS) says that neither the dense nor the gross nor the subtle issues from Him. He begets no likeness; He does not beget Himself. His unity is unity itself; it is not unity within multiplicity. Rather, all multiplicities are His creations, His acts of creation. He does not create creatures or multiplicities from Himself. He does not breathe; He has no inhalation or exhalation. No breath or spirit issues from Him. He knows neither weariness, sorrow and grief, nor delight, happiness or misery. He has no contentment, joy or anger. The anger people speak of is created by God. Nothing issues from His Essence. No fatigue, no hunger, nothing at all issues from Him. “I breathed into him of My spirit”: that spirit is His noble, chosen spirit. Because He loves it, He ascribes it to Himself, as in “the House of God.” It is not that something comes out of God and enters a human being. The ambiguous passages must be understood in the light of the clear ones. He is not like a flower from which fragrance and beauty emanate. He brings all lights into being and is Himself above them all. He has no color or vibration; no sound, taste or speech issues from Him. All things are brought into being by His will. He does not radiate light so that we might imagine Him as the sun and creatures as its spectrum. Nothing issues from His Essence. His manifestations are His creations. No effulgence streams from His Essence. All His outpourings are His creations and acts of creation, brought into being by His will. He has no child, even if we call that child “the one.” It is not so. “The one” does not proceed from Him. If a one proceeded from Him, there would be two ones; neither would then possess unity. Would they? They would not! Once the one becomes two—that is, once there are two likenesses—neither has unity anymore. One does not issue from one; one does not come out of one. No light issues from a luminous source. No light comes out of Him. Let us not imagine Him as a source of light from whose center a spectrum… Knowledge does not issue from His Essence; we must not imagine Him as a knower from whom knowledge proceeds. It is not so. No grace issues from Him. The creation of creatures from character, the retrieval of knowledge from memory—these are all attributes of human beings and other created beings. It is not that an intelligible thing proceeds from Him, or sensations from sensation, perceptions from perception, or beauty from a beautiful source. It is not so. He creates all these things and is Himself above them. It is not that an act proceeds from Him by emerging from His power, as an act emerges from potentiality or a manifestation from its source. It is not so. Existence and grace are not born from Him. He admits of no degrees.

⚕️ This discourse is Husayn’s staff

It is not that He becomes manifest, or that a manifestation of Him comes about, or that an aspect of Him shines forth. It is not so. They say, “Nothing but the one proceeds from the One.” Does He come out of Himself, then? Impossible. —These are my words, though I am afflicted with irrationality—. Nothing at all proceeds from the One. Whatever He wills, He brings into being. It is not that, if He is the giver, He possesses what He gives. By God, it is not so. He brings His own giving into being; He does not possess it. It is not that He, the giver, possesses and owns what He gives… It is not that the giver possesses what He gives. Nor is He a cause whose effect is creation, or the “Cause of causes”… He is the one who gives causes their causal efficacy. He has no affinity whatsoever with causes and effects—none, none at all. Neither what is nobler nor what is lesser proceeds from Him. Both the nobler and the lesser are His creations. It is not that He is the totality of things; rather, all things are among what He has brought into being. He does not create within Himself or from Himself. He has no externality in which to create. It is not that He shares anything with another; everything other than Him is His creation, brought into being by Him. He does not issue a rank or degree from Himself. It is not that He is a part of a whole. He was not begotten or born, nor did He come about through intermediaries. It is not so. He is not a ray of light, water from a spring, fruit from a tree, or the summit of realities. All these are signs of that darkness… It is not so. It is not that He came into being, whether from something that exists or from nothing. Nor is it that He brought Himself into being. He is not energy released from bodies, the power of substances, or the delight of all delights. This discourse of Imam Husayn is Husayn’s staff, Husayn’s serpent: it swallows up at once all the sorcery of the pseudo-philosophers. It allows no idolatrous sorcery to show itself. Let us beware of the whirlpools of idolatry.

💎 Husayn, this glass vessel, this Verse of Light

As long as we have Husayn, we carry within our souls the staff above all staffs. Imam Husayn (AS) rose up on the plain of divine unity against idolatry, and his uprising has not come to an end. Let us not leave Imam Husayn alone on the field of divine unity. What is our Imam Husayn? This glass vessel, the Verse of Light.

I want to speak of the glass vessel, of its very being. Our master, Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (AS), entered the mosque. Jabir relates: “Inside the Mosque of Kufa, I saw Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (AS) writing something with his blessed finger and smiling.” I asked him, “O Commander of the Faithful, what makes you smile?” He replied, “I wonder at someone who recites this verse but does not know its true meaning.” I asked, “Which verse, O Commander of the Faithful?” He said, “الله نور السماوات والارض، مثل نوره…”.

I want to take stock of myself: how well do I know Imam Husayn? Can I bring an image of Imam Husayn to mind? Can I behold him inwardly, take in his beauty, and witness him?

Our master says, “الله نور السماوات…”. This niche is Muhammad. I am the lamp, the مصباح. If there were no glass around the lantern, how would its light shine? It is the glass globe that gathers the light into itself and spreads it abroad. When we look up, what we actually see is the glass vessel. The expanse spread before us, the scene we behold in the sky, is in truth the sky’s glass vessel. Reality is something else. The hunter is the truth. This glass vessel embraces that knowledge, that light, and interprets it.

So the glass vessel knows the light: it embraces it, loves it, is familiar with it. Without this globe, there would be no knowing the light, no connection with it, and no spread of its radiance. This is the secret of light’s illumination. I see, I come to witness the light, I perceive its brightness, because that same globe translates it—the reality called the glass vessel. It is the interpreter of knowledge. The glass vessel is knowledge made manifest. It is the glass vessel embracing the light.

Consider what happens between the light that exists… However much I gaze at the light, I will find nothing unless it is translated for me. Who is the interpreter of this created world? Knowledge is in this created world, and yet… Husayn reaches us. The glass of his being translates knowledge for all the worlds. The connection he makes… The glass vessel is a tablet of love. It is the light clasping hands with the loving soul. It is the beauty of light. It is the world made visible, witnessed: a veil, lifted from the beauty of light. It draws a veil. Were this glass vessel not to veil the beauty of light, we would witness nothing; just as, without the glass vessel, we would gaze at the sky and find nothing.

To look upon Husayn is to look upon the truths of the created world. We are dealing with the infinite. How can I, finite as I am, connect with the infinite? Husayn has made this impossible thing possible. Through Husayn, he has translated the infinite. How much of the taste I feel… The taste I feel is the very taste of Husayn’s glass vessel. Husayn is the glass vessel of truth in this created world. The sight of a flower is the flower’s glass vessel: the reflection of the sun’s light in the vessel of light. All beauty, the reality of beauty in this created world… Had that vessel of beauty, that reality of the glass vessel, not existed, no one could have understood beauty.

Husayn translates beauty. Husayn also translates pleasure for the whole created world: touch, smell—everything. In truth, he is the glass vessel, the vessel of light. If the light does not shine into our eyes, our hearing, or our speech, we will have no sight, see nothing, taste nothing; we will feel no pleasure, no flavour, no sweetness, and nothing will be within our grasp.

🌌 Husayn, the world’s sense, the world of being

Everything has a glass vessel. It reflects the whole created world to us, from the earthly realm to the realm of the unseen. From beginning to end, all are gathered in Husayn’s soul; he spreads them all abroad. Without Husayn, the world is a world without a glass vessel. If Husayn did not exist, all would be deprived of God’s Most Beautiful Names. Beauty would cease to be, and there would be no understanding of its qualities.

Imam Husayn (AS) is the sweet taste of serving God. Our senses respond to the radiance of knowledge as glass vessels do: with a pen of light, they interpret through light. They are the voice that translates knowledge, interpreting it through the pen of sound. And Husayn is a sense for the whole world: he interprets the created world in a way that brings it into contact with realities and truths. He gives rise to the purest sense of serving God.

Imam Husayn (AS) makes knowledge and light, beauty and pleasure, and truths perceptible and intelligible. He is the glass vessel of every truth’s splendour. Husayn is the world’s sense, the world of being. Through him, we partake of the world’s senses, its taste, its understanding.

Now, the glass vessel of the Qur’an—the glass vessel of the Qur’an’s inner meanings, the glass vessel of love, of martyrdom, of Imamate.