Replacing the Two Weighty Treasures

📆 Date: 1403/06/15 – 1 Rabiʿ al-Awwal 1446
📌 Meshkat-e Noor session
📌 Weekly session on the commentary and interpretation of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (Supplication 20)
👤 Lecture by Master Ali Saei

🗒 Some of the topics raised in the session:
🌼 The opposite of guidance is undoubtedly misguidance. Anyone who claims that guidance has a substitute is effectively equating one thing with another, even though light can have no equal.
The substitute for ʿAli is misguidance; the substitute for peace of mind is falsehood. Peace of mind has no substitute.
🌼 Whoever seeks a substitute for medicine will find poison!
🌼 Can a human being have a substitute? A substitute for a human being would be of the animal kind—and perhaps even lower!
🌼 If we fashion a substitute for our own innate nature, we will be ensnared and fall into the pit of ignorance.
🌼 One of Satan’s schemes is substitution: he sets it against the Resurrection.
🌼 First, he will deny the Resurrection, then manufacture ersatz versions of it—ideas such as reincarnation and karma, and so on.
🌼 In this world, every valuable thing has a counterfeit. The aim in making counterfeits is to steal a person’s real gold and give them bronze in its place. Another aim is to make people hate gold.
🌼 Those who work to replace religion and create groups like ISIS drive people enslaved by their desires away from religion.
🌼 God’s religion has no substitute. If you find one, be certain that it is false.
🌼 There is no religion called “humanity.”
🌼 A human being is made up of reason and desire, while an angel is pure reason. When reason overcomes desire in a human being, they rise above the angels. But when desire overcomes them, they are no longer truly human: they are like animals, whose desires rule them.
🌼 Whoever does not seek understanding with the heart is not truly human; they are like cattle—or even lower.
🌼 Let us learn to recognize genuine human beings.
🌼 They carry the Torah without acting upon it; their likeness is that of a donkey.
🌼 Let us beware of those who play at being substitutes. Whoever claims to offer a substitute for life is surely offering death. Water and bread have no substitutes.
🌼 Even if manna and quails were sent down, they would seek substitutes for them; they would seek out Samaritans to set against Moses, and worship a calf in place of God.
🌼 The result of substitution is humiliation and misery. This is the punishment of this world; the punishment of the next world endures.
🌼 Whoever stands against God will be cast aside.
🌼 Our parents are dearest to us, but if they stand against religion, they must be set aside.
🌼 Adam was afflicted by substitution once and was transformed. Human beings are constantly consuming what God has forbidden. What have we done to ourselves? We do not know.
🌼 The Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt cannot be replaced. All the troubles in this world stem from replacing the Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt.
🌼 Hasan al-Basri wrote a letter to the Imam, and Imam Hasan replied: “We are indeed the Ahl al-Bayt you mentioned. If we are truly as you say, then you should not have put anyone ahead of us, nor chosen someone else as our substitute.”
He then cites in his letter the verse concerning the Children of Israel, saying: “They found a substitute to satisfy their stomachs, whereas you have fashioned a replacement for your guidance.”