Seeing by Light and Seeing the Light

🌸🔆🌿 “The Insight of the Worthy” “Insight with Light and the Vision of Light”

🔅🌹 A Summary with Supplement: “The Opinion and Insight of the Worthy” “Commentary on Supplication 20 of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya” “Session 212” “ وَ مِنْ ظِنَّةِ أَهْلِ‏ الصَّلَاحِ‏ الثِّقَة” “ ” and so on       1402.08.18    Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌼 The believer’s discernment🌼🔅

🌷The worthy are not deceived.

🌷The schemes of schemers do not deceive the worthy. Their penetrating insight pierces the intentions of the schemers.

🌷The worthy are hunters of flatterers!

🌷🔅 قَالَ أَبُو الْحَسَنِ الثَّالِثُ ع لِرَجُلٍ وَ قَدْ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ‏ إِفْرَاطِ الثَّنَاءِ عَلَيْهِ أَقْبِلْ عَلَى شَأْنِكَ فَإِنَّ كَثْرَةَ الْمَلَقِ يَهْجُمُ عَلَى الظِّنَّةِ وَ إِذَا حَلَلْتَ مِنْ أَخِيكَ فِي مَحَلِّ الثِّقَةِ فَاعْدِلْ عَنِ الْمَلَقِ إِلَى حُسْنِ النِّيَّةِ.[1]

🌷🔅 Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon him) said to someone who had gone too far in praising him: “Give up this behaviour and attend to your own affairs. Excessive flattery arouses suspicion. If your believing brother has lost confidence in you, stop flattering him and show good faith.”

🌷The Infallible Imams (peace be upon them) are God’s light; realities are made visible by light. The worthy among humankind come to discover realities through God’s light. What they behold, then, is a flash of truth. Neither the flattery of flatterers nor the deceptions of deceivers can keep them from discovering the truth.

🌷Flattery is among the clearest signs of cunning, deceit, falsehood and ill intent, and it breeds suspicion.

🌷How, indeed, is God’s light connected to the truth of reality? How does God’s light see the truth—or is there no need for light to see? The relationship between light and realities goes beyond sight, for light enables vision, while light itself is beyond it.

🌷When assessing and rejecting people’s suitability, we ought to consult the people of integrity, for they are the finest observers of realities and the ones who perceive what lies hidden in people’s hearts: they see them by God’s light!

🌷If the judgment of the people of integrity governed society, no hypocrite would dare enter its sensitive institutions, for they would be exposed.

🌷Sweet talk and persuasive speech do not cloud the worthy’s understanding!

🌷Ignorant praise is worse than any blame.

🌷Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon him) reminds the flatterer that everyone must know their own measure and not overstep their bounds.

🌷Flattery invites a wave of suspicion and is a clear sign of the flatterer’s ill intent.

🌷Curbing flattery is a way to avoid becoming an object of suspicion.

🌷🔅 وَ قَالَ ع‏ لِرَجُلٍ أَفْرَطَ فِي الثَّنَاءِ عَلَيْهِ وَ كَانَ لَهُ مُتَّهِماً أَنَا دُونَ‏ مَا تَقُولُ‏ وَ فَوْقَ مَا فِي نَفْسِك‏[2]

🌷🔅 Mawla Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him) said to someone who had gone too far in praising him—raising him to the rank of divinity: “I am less than what you say, and greater than what you hold in your heart.”

🌷In fact, this person’s knowledge of God, the Blessed and Exalted, and of God’s proof is so deficient that even if he praises God, his praise would fall short of the praise of a servant of God. In other words, he raises the Imam to the rank of divinity while being utterly ignorant of knowledge of God.

🌷The worthy perceive the heart of what is said and grasp its spirit. The outward words people use do not distract them from the intentions within.

🔅🌼 Beware of suspecting those who wish us well🌼🔅

🌷🔅 قَدْ يَسْتَفِيدُ الظِّنَّةَ النَّاصِحُ.[3]

🌷🔅Sometimes, all the one who offers advice gains from it is suspicion.

🌷That is, the adviser suffers and is accused. The hadith mentioned above allows for two interpretations: either the adviser gives poor advice and is accused, or the person being advised cannot bear the counsel and accuses the adviser.

🌷🔅 رُبَّمَا كَانَ الدَّوَاءُ دَاءً وَ الدَّاءُ دَوَاءً وَ رُبَّمَا نَصَحَ غَيْرُ النَّاصِحِ‏ وَ غَشَّ الْمُسْتَنْصَح‏[4]

🌷🔅How often a medicine brings pain, and pain becomes a cure. How often one who is no well-wisher gives sincere advice, while the one asked for counsel betrays that trust.

🌷“The gaze, bearing, conduct and gestures” of the worthy are counsel in themselves, without a word leaving their lips.

🔅🌼 An opinion close to certainty 🌼🔅

🌷The opinion of the worthy is close to certainty; their opinion is certainty’s brother.

🌻🔅al-Baqarah: 45   وَ اسْتَعينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَ الصَّلاةِ وَ إِنَّها لَكَبيرَةٌ إِلاَّ عَلَى الْخاشِعينَ

🌻🔅al-Baqarah: 46   الَّذينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلاقُوا رَبِّهِمْ وَ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ راجِعُونَ

🌻🔅Seek help through patience and prayer; this is indeed hard, except for the humble.

🌻🔅They are those who know with certainty that they will meet their Lord and return to Him.

🌷🔅 الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلاقُوا رَبِّهِمْ‏ يَعْنِي يُوقِنُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُبْعَثُونَ‏ وَ يُحْشَرُونَ‏ وَ يُحَاسَبُونَ وَ يُجْزَوْنَ بِالثَّوَابِ وَ الْعِقَابِ فَالظَّنُّ هَاهُنَا الْيَقِينُ خَاصَّةً [5]

🌷🔅Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Those who know they will meet their Lord are certain that they themselves will be raised, gathered, called to account, rewarded and punished. Thus, in this verse, the word “opinion” specifically means certainty.

🌷🔅Ali ibn Ibrahim (may God have mercy on him)— الظَّنَّ فِی کِتَابِ اللَّهِ عَلَی وَجْهَیْنِ فَمِنْهُ ظَنُّ یَقِینٍ وَ مِنْهُ ظَنُّ شَکٍّ فَفِی هَذَا الْمَوْضِعِ الظَّنُّ یَقِینٌ.[6]

🌷🔅Ali ibn Ibrahim (may God have mercy on him): In the Book of God, “opinion” has two meanings: certainty and doubt. In this verse, it means certainty.

🔅🌼 The spirit and essence of certainty 🌼🔅

🌷The horizon of the humble and the worthy does not reach the horizon of the Exalted Ones. The Infallible Ones, peace be upon them, are pure certainty; they are the very essence, spirit and soul of certainty.

🌷🔅 اللَّهُمَّ بَلَى لَا تَخْلُو الْأَرْضُ مِنْ قَائِمٍ لِلَّهِ بِحُجَّةٍ إِمَّا ظَاهِراً مَشْهُوراً وَ إِمَّا خَائِفاً مَغْمُوراً لِئَلَّا تَبْطُلَ حُجَجُ اللَّهِ وَ بَيِّنَاتُهُ وَ كَمْ ذَا وَ أَيْنَ أُولَئِكَ أُولَئِكَ وَ اللَّهِ الْأَقَلُّونَ عَدَداً وَ الْأَعْظَمُونَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ قَدْراً يَحْفَظُ اللَّهُ بِهِمْ حُجَجَهُ وَ بَيِّنَاتِهِ حَتَّى يُودِعُوهَا نُظَرَاءَهُمْ وَ يَزْرَعُوهَا فِي قُلُوبِ أَشْبَاهِهِمْ هَجَمَ بِهِمُ الْعِلْمُ عَلَى حَقِيقَةِ الْبَصِيرَةِ وَ بَاشَرُوا رُوحَ‏ الْيَقِينِ‏ وَ اسْتَلَانُوا مَا اسْتَوْعَرَهُ الْمُتْرَفُونَ وَ أَنِسُوا بِمَا اسْتَوْحَشَ مِنْهُ الْجَاهِلُونَ وَ صَحِبُوا الدُّنْيَا بِأَبْدَانٍ أَرْوَاحُهَا مُعَلَّقَةٌ بِالْمَحَلِّ الْأَعْلَى أُولَئِكَ خُلَفَاءُ اللَّهِ فِي أَرْضِهِ وَ الدُّعَاةُ إِلَى دِينِهِ آهِ آهِ شَوْقاً إِلَى رُؤْيَتِهِم‏[7]

🌷🔅O God, yes: the earth is never without one who rises for God, with God’s proof—a manifest and renowned guide, or one who is fearful and hidden—lest God’s signs and clear proofs be rendered void.

How many are they, and where are they? By God, they are few in number, yet hold a very lofty station before God. Through them, God preserves His proofs and clear signs, entrusting them to people like themselves, who sow their seeds in the hearts of others. Knowledge has come to them with true insight, and they are infused with the spirit of certainty. What the pampered find hard, they find easy; what the ignorant shrink from, they find familiar. Though their bodies dwell in this world, their spirits are suspended in the highest realm. They are God’s trustees on earth and callers to His religion. Ah, how I yearn to meet them! O Kumayl, if you wish, you may go back.

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 3   كَلاَّ سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 4   ثُمَّ كَلاَّ سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 5   كَلاَّ لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ الْيَقينِ

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 6   لَتَرَوُنَّ الْجَحيمَ

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 7   ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّها عَيْنَ الْيَقينِ

🌻🔅Al-Takāthur: 8   ثُمَّ لَتُسْئَلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ النَّعيمِ

🌻🔅No indeed! You will soon come to know.

🌻🔅Again, no indeed! You will soon come to know.

🌻🔅No indeed! If you had certain knowledge, you would surely see Hell.

🌻🔅Then you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.

🌻🔅Then, on that Day, you will be questioned about the blessings you enjoyed.

🌷Those who are humble before God remain within the realm of conjecture: strong conjecture, conjecture accompanied by certainty, assured conjecture, something akin to certain knowledge, or even the direct vision of certainty or the truth of certainty. But they do not attain the spirit of certainty.

🌷The spirit of certainty is the spirit through which certainty lives. The spirit and very life of certainty is God’s proof on earth; without it, “certainty” dies. In the presence of the “spirit and life of certainty,” every other certainty is no more than conjecture. Only when we become connected to the spirit of certainty will we attain the truth in its fullness.

🔅🌼 Conjecture mixed with doubt 🌼🔅

🌷The beliefs of the superficial are nothing but empty fancies.

🌻🔅Al-Baqarah: 78   وَ مِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتابَ إِلاَّ أَمانِيَّ وَ إِنْ هُمْ إِلاَّ يَظُنُّونَ

🌻🔅Some among them are unlettered, knowing nothing of the Book except empty wishes; they rely on nothing but their own conjectures.

🌷Conjecture mixed with doubt makes a person captive to empty fancies and keeps them from reaching the truth.

🌷We must examine our beliefs lest we fall prey to the affliction of believing in fantasies.

🌻🔅Al-Baqarah: 155   وَ لَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْ‏ءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَ الْجُوعِ وَ نَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوالِ وَ الْأَنْفُسِ وَ الثَّمَراتِ وَ بَشِّرِ الصَّابِرينَ

🌻🔅We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth, lives and crops. And give glad tidings to those who remain steadfast.

🌷Those who come to doubt God’s justice are among those whose beliefs consist of empty fancies. Out of ignorance, they accuse the sacred presence of injustice.

🔅🌼 The believer sees by the light of God 🌼🔅

🌷🔅 عَنْ سُلَيْمَانَ الْجَعْفَرِيِّ قَالَ: كُنْتُ عِنْدَ أَبِي الْحَسَنِ ع‏ قَالَ يَا سُلَيْمَانُ اتَّقِ‏ فِرَاسَةَ الْمُؤْمِنِ فَإِنَّهُ يَنْظُرُ بِنُورِ اللَّهِ فَسَكَتَ حَتَّى أَصَبْتُ خَلْوَةً فَقُلْتُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ سَمِعْتُكَ تَقُولُ اتَّقِ‏ فِرَاسَةَ الْمُؤْمِنِ فَإِنَّهُ يَنْظُرُ بِنُورِ اللَّهِ قَالَ نَعَمْ يَا سُلَيْمَانُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَلَقَ الْمُؤْمِنَ مِنْ نُورِهِ وَ صَبَغَهُمْ فِي رَحْمَتِهِ وَ أَخَذَ مِيثَاقَهُمْ لَنَا بِالْوَلَايَةِ وَ الْمُؤْمِنُ أَخُو الْمُؤْمِنِ لِأَبِيهِ وَ أُمِّهِ أَبُوهُ النُّورُ وَ أُمُّهُ الرَّحْمَةُ وَ إِنَّمَا يَنْظُرُ بِذَلِكَ النُّورِ الَّذِي خُلِقَ مِنْهُ.[8]

🌷🔅 I was with Imam Musa al-Kazim (peace be upon him) when he said, “Sulaiman, beware of the insight of a believer, for he sees by God’s light.” I said nothing until we were alone. Then I asked, “May I be sacrificed for you, I heard you say, ‘Beware of the insight of a believer, for he sees by God’s light.’” He replied, “Yes, Sulaiman. God created the believers from His light and immersed them in His mercy. He took from them a pledge of allegiance to us. A believer is the brother of another believer through both father and mother: his father is light, and his mother is mercy. He sees by the light from which he was created.”

The father of the believer is light, and his mother is mercy. The believer is the product of light mingled with mercy.

🌷The Prophet’s station is higher than that of fatherhood and motherhood, for he is, in effect, the father and mother of the world. Muhammad (may God bless him and his family and grant them peace) is the city of the first parents. The first father is our master Ali, Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), and the first mother is our mistress Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her).

🌷Just as Ali (peace be upon him) is the Commander of the Faithful, he is also their father; and Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her) is their mother.

🌷The believer sees through Ali, the Commander of the Faithful—that is, he beholds realities through God’s proof. More broadly, it is the divine proofs who serve as the discerning believers’ eyes, though this is true of the believer in the fullest sense of the word.

🌷The believer sees, hears, speaks and feels through his Imam.

🌷The believer is joined to the All-Seeing Eye of God, the All-Hearing Ear of God, the Speaking Tongue of God and the Understanding Heart of God. Thus, in the truest sense, the believer sees, hears, speaks and feels. Anyone without God’s proof is blind, deaf and dumb—like a lifeless corpse. The truly worthy are the true believers.

🔅🌼 The Righteous Find Solitude 🌼🔅

🌷🔅 الصَّالِحِ‏ وَ السَّعِيدُ مَنْ وَجَدَ فِي نَفْسِهِ خَلْوَةً يَشْتَغِلُ بِهَا[9]

🌷🔅 Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: “Fortunate and righteous is the one who finds solitude and leisure within himself and devotes himself to setting his soul aright.”

🌷The believer turns inward to take account of himself and call himself to account, and to purify and adorn his soul. The believer’s heart must be his retreat, sanctuary, mosque and prayer niche.

🌷In the solitude of the heart, the believer finds perfect communion with his Lord.

🌷If the heart does not attain solitude, it will never taste reality. The delight of serving God can be experienced only in the solitude of the heart. 🌷Through the solitude of the heart, the night prayer becomes a source of delight for the believer.

🌷Beyond solitude lies the attainment of a lofty station that cannot be described or expressed. Solitude is the prelude to the very heart of the encounter. The believer, too, must empty his heart and soul, so that the encounter with eternal Truth may reach its fullest consummation.

🌷Pleasure, sweetness and beauty are, in truth, steps on the way—and veils that obscure our arrival at reality. We must pass beyond them, too, to attain absolute perfection.

🔅🌼 The Crispy Bottom of the Gathering of Intimacy 🌼🔅

🌷To help us solve the intellectual and practical questions and duties of servitude, the Lord of the Worlds has placed special signs and guidance on the testing ground of His creatures. In other words, He has set before us the “formula, instructions, model and rule” for resolving the questions and fulfilling the duties of servitude.

🌷The Lord of the Worlds has taught us the foundational knowledge needed to solve these questions. Innate nature is like a supercomputer present in every human being alike; people’s degrees are determined by how fully they benefit from it and bring it to life.

🌷At the “zero point of obligation,” all beings were alike; differences came about through the ways they exercised their capacities for choice.

🌷At the “zero point of motion,” all beings had the same capacity. Differences became apparent in how they exercised their freedom and made their choices.

🌷The “I” of each person is continually changing in its structure with every movement. The “I” has a changing unity, a renewable unity. It has a quantity and a quality, and its quantity is its quality at every moment of movement and time.

🌷The “I” has a single identity.

🌷Time is one way of sensing a segment of reality.

🌷The human being has a scientific, volitional, intentional and ordained reality. Their scientific reality precedes their other identities.

🌷The human being’s lifetime encompasses the expanse of existence. A person’s material life is very short compared with their life in the universe, and their earthly life is the shortest of all. To judge a person, their circumstances, and the ظلم and darkness of the earth without consulting the book of their life in the universe is unjust.

🌷The “I” is like a pilot, a driver or a cyclist: its true nature is concealed beneath different coverings.

🌷Where is the “I”? In reality, the “I” must be in the realm of “knowledge,” or beyond it. Time and space, too, are like garments for the “I.”

🌷Forgetting is among the things by which human beings are tested in the material world, and they are charged with freeing themselves from its limitations.

🌷Reading one’s innate nature—in other words, rereading it, revisiting and studying it—is among a person’s duties in this world. 🌷After rereading one’s innate nature, one must interpret it and draw on it as the raw material for the great works of devotion to God.

🌷This world is not a place for indulging oneself. Human beings are not here to pursue pleasure. God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise, has made this world a classroom in which we may learn and then ascend to higher stations. So wealth should not be seen as a privilege, nor poverty as a punishment: both are means of testing us.

🌷In this world, God has not allowed anyone to indulge excessively in pleasure on account of their advantages. Rather, we must act justly and never forget equality and compassion for one another.

🌷Unless a person studies their own being, they will not become aware of their true nature or know themselves. The human being’s true nature is a book that we must read.

🌷A person who takes their own life is, in a sense, making an ignorant withdrawal from the contest of worldly life.

🌷Eternity means the continuation of God’s will that a particular phenomenon or thing should endure.

🌷Everything begins with God, while God Most High begins with nothing. The Creator is called the First to affirm that the Absolute, Incomparable One has no beginning whatsoever. «الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الْأَوَّلِ بِلَا أَوَّلٍ كَانَ قَبْلَهُ، وَ الْآخِرِ بِلَا آخِرٍ يَكُونُ بَعْدَه»‏

🌷Everything that is first has a beginning and a prior state of nonexistence, whereas Allah is the First without beginning, exalted above being described as “first.”

🌷The relationship between Creator and created is higher and greater than any other relationship. The reality beyond relationship belongs to no category; it is beyond nearness, for He existed when nothing else existed. He created all things, and only after creation did nearness and distance acquire meaning. In truth, God, the All-Wise and Incomparable, created “nearness and distance” too, as a veil between Himself and His creatures. The veil, in reality, is simply the body of knowledge through which human beings perceive.

🌷The veil of mercy, the veil of pleasure, the veil of beauty, the veil of nearness and the veil of distance are only roads and paths. One must pass beyond them to reach the highest destination.

🌷In this age of modern ignorance, human devils sacrifice knowledge to unbelieving pretenders to scholarship, so that their names and ideas may dominate the minds of students throughout the world. They keep atheist scholars at the forefront and prevent believing scholars from gaining recognition.

🔅🌼 Innate doubt 🌼🔅

⁉️Please explain innate doubt in greater detail. May God reward you.

☘️🔆 Innate doubt is doubt concerning innate truths. The innate nature is the fixed, unalterable memory that the Creator of existence has imprinted and engraved within every being. Innate truths are merely overlooked: a person becomes indifferent to them, or a veil is cast over their innate nature as a consequence of sinful excess!

The sole role of the prophets has been to turn people back to their innate nature, through reminders. Belief in divine oneness, acceptance of the prophetic mission and the authority of the Imams, and belief in the revealed scriptures and the angels all arise from innate nature.

[1] Bihār al-Anwār (Tehran edition – Beirut), vol. 70, pp. 295–296; Majlisī, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, second edition, 1403 AH.

[2] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition), p. 482; al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[3] ʿUyūn al-Ḥikam wa-l-Mawāʿiẓ (al-Laythī edition), p. 365; al-Laythī al-Wāsiṭī, Dār al-Ḥadīth, Qom, first edition, 1376 SH.

[4] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition), p. 402; al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[5] al-Tawḥīd (al-Ṣadūq edition), p. 267; Ibn Bābawayh, Society of Seminary Teachers, Iran, Qom, first edition, 1398 AH.

[6] al-Burhān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 1, p. 210; al-Baḥrānī, Baʿthat Institute, Qom, first edition, 1374 SH.

[7] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition), p. 497; al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[8] Baṣāʾir al-Darajāt fī Faḍāʾil Āl Muḥammad صلى الله عليهم, vol. 1, p. 79; al-Ṣaffār, Ayatollah Marʿashī Najafī Library, Iran, Qom, second edition, 1404 AH.

[9] Kashf al-Ghumma fī Maʿrifat al-Aʾimma (old edition), vol. 2, p. 158; al-Arbalī, Banī Hāshimī, Tabriz, first edition, 1381 AH.