Observing Body and Soul (No. 1)

Observing the Body and the Soul (No. 1)
• Engage in self-examination; do not keep the noble and the base traits of your being away from the surveillance of the heart and the mind!
• Strive to observe the countenance of your soul!
• Do you have a human face?! What is your human form like?! Are you beautiful, are you captivating? Do you fall in love with yourself as a sign of love?

• Do you have an angelic face? If so, while that is a cause for joy, you have nonetheless fallen short! For angelic nature and heavenly beauty are only one facet and one capacity of yours, not the whole of it!

• نعوذ بالله — far be it from perfection and from your presence — is your face the face of a beast, like the four-legged, like cattle, sheep and camels! Or like the many-legged, with varied traits!

• Which kind of animal? The beasts are better than the reptiles and predators! Woe to those who resemble the pig, subject to belly and lust, but in an ugly and unseemly way, and of the forbidden kind. Or of the reptiles: snake, scorpion, tarantula and the like… or of the predators: lion, wolf, jackal and the like… or like the crow…

• It suffices to review some of the traits of the spirit and the psyche for the human countenance to become visible. Do not fear the mirror, do not break the mirror! For it makes the state of a person’s spirit and psyche worse. Keep Satan away, for he makes ugliness appear beautiful and encourages a person in the opposite direction, and he will not rest until he drags a person down to the lowest of the low! Keep your conscience awake and bright; do not kill your conscience — let the true face become visible!!!

• Treatment, correction and surgery of the face, and the healing of beauty, are easy; it suffices to turn to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Ever-Relenting. He will restore our beauty, add to it, and become enamoured of us.

• Would that the beauties of lovely fish, the charms of beautiful birds, the noble qualities of angels and the goodness of every beautiful creature were engraved upon your soul, and that once again you might witness the call of «فتبارک الله احسن الخالقین»!
• Ponder the following hadith; I hope you are not among any of the six categories! Remember that a Shi’a is a believer who is like a honeybee!

أحْمَدُ بْنُ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ الْبَرْقِيُّ عَنْ أَبِيهِ يَرْفَعُهُ إِلَى زُرَارَةَ بْنِ أَوْفَى‏ قَالَ: دَخَلْتُ عَلَى عَلِيِّ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ ع فَقَالَ يَا زُرَارَةُ النَّاسُ فِي زَمَانِنَا عَلَى سِتِّ طَبَقَاتٍ أَسَدٍ وَ ذِئْبٍ وَ ثَعْلَبٍ وَ كَلْبٍ وَ خِنْزِيرٍ وَ شَاةٍ فَأَمَّا الْأَسَدُ فَمُلُوكُ الدُّنْيَا يُحِبُّ كُلُّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمْ أَنْ يَغْلِبَ وَ لَا يُغْلَبَ وَ أَمَّا الذِّئْبُ فَتُجَّارُكُمْ يَذُمُّونَ إِذَا اشْتَرَوْا وَ يَمْدَحُونَ إِذَا بَاعُوا وَ أَمَّا الثَّعْلَبُ فَهَؤُلَاءِ الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ بِأَدْيَانِهِمْ وَ لَا يَكُونُ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَا يَصِفُونَ بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ وَ أَمَّا الْكَلْبُ يَهِرُّ عَلَى النَّاسِ بِلِسَانِهِ وَ يُكْرِمُهُ النَّاسُ مِنْ شَرِّ لِسَانِهِ وَ أَمَّا الْخِنْزِيرُ فَهَؤُلَاءِ الْمُخَنَّثُونَ وَ أَشْبَاهُهُمْ لَا يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى فَاحِشَةٍ إِلَّا أَجَابُوا وَ أَمَّا الشَّاةُ فَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذِينَ تُجَزُّ شُعُورُهُمْ وَ يُؤْكَلُ لُحُومُهُمْ وَ يُكْسَرُ عَظْمُهُمْ فَكَيْفَ تَصْنَعُ الشَّاةُ بَيْنَ أَسَدٍ وَ ذِئْبٍ وَ ثَعْلَبٍ وَ كَلْبٍ وَ خِنْزِيرٍ.
Al-Khisal, vol. 2, p. 339
• Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Sarur narrated to us, saying: Muhammad ibn Ja’far ibn Battah narrated to us, saying: Ahmad ibn Abi Abdullah al-Barqi conveyed the hadith from his father’s account to Zurarah ibn Awfa, who said: I came into the presence of the fourth Imam, and he said to me: O Zurarah, people in our time are of six categories: lion, wolf, fox, dog, pig, sheep. The kings are like the lion, each of them wishing to prevail and not be overcome. The merchants among you are wolves: when they buy, they speak ill of the goods, and when they sell, they praise them. The fox is the one who eats bread in the name of religion and does not accept in his heart what he expounds with his tongue.

• The dogs are the foul-mouthed and abusive, who bite people with their tongues as a dog does, and people respect them out of fear of the sting of their tongues.

• The pigs are those who have the nature and disposition of the effeminate and the like, and who accept being called by every vileness and disgrace.
• The sheep are the afflicted believers, whose wool is shorn, whose flesh is eaten and whose bones are crushed. What can a sheep do amid the claws of the lion, the wolf, the fox, the dog and the pig??!
Al-Khisal / Kamareh’i translation, vol. 1, p. 302
• 110-141