🌼Treating Narcissism: The Cure of Love🌼

🌹🔆☘️ Theoretical and Practical Struggle Against Self-Admiration and Arrogance ☘️🔆🌹

🌿A distillation of the discussions at the Meshkat-e Noor gathering, 1401.10.1 

🌼 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌼

☘️🔅🌷 (3)… وَ أَعِزَّنِي وَ لَا تَبْتَلِيَنِّي بِالْكِبْرِ، وَ عَبِّدْنِي لَكَ وَ لَا تُفْسِدْ عِبَادَتِي بِالْعُجْبِ، وَ أَجْرِ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى يَدِيَ الْخَيْرَ وَ لَا تَمْحَقْهُ بِالْمَنِّ، وَ هَبْ لِي مَعَالِيَ الْأَخْلَاقِ، وَ اعْصِمْنِي مِنَ الْفَخْرِ. (4) اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ لَا تَرْفَعْنِي فِي النَّاسِ دَرَجَةً إِلَّا حَطَطْتَنِي عِنْدَ نَفْسِي مِثْلَهَا، وَ لَا تُحْدِثْ لِي عِزّاً ظَاهِراً إِلَّا أَحْدَثْتَ لِي ذِلَّةً بَاطِنَةً عِنْدَ نَفْسِي بِقَدَرِهَا.

🌸🌷 O God, make me a river of Your blessings, so that goodness, kindness, grace, and generosity may flow through me to Your servants.

🌸🌷 O God, bring me to the highest horizon of creation and character, so that I may rise to the summit of noble virtues and, once there, turn not to myself but behold Your gracious countenance.

O God, make me such that the higher You raise me on the ladder of virtues, the lower I descend on the ladder of the ego. (As our virtues grow, the farther we descend from the ego, the greater we become: we grow in stature from both ends.) (But if we climb higher on the ladder of the ego, we become smaller, for that is nothing but a free fall.)

🌸🌷 A person cannot become noble until the ego is humbled. Until we humble ourselves before God, we cannot become dear to God.

🌸🌷 Sincere remembrance of God dispels arrogance and pride. Let us remember God so fully that we forget ourselves and everything besides You.

🌸🌷 When God is remembered as the All-Great, everything besides Him becomes small and insignificant. In declaring God’s greatness, everything must be reduced to zero; otherwise, our glorification of Him is incomplete.

🌸🌷 To remember God as the Greatest is to recognize, in truth, that we are incapable of describing Him—to know that He is greater than can be described.

🌸🌷 To struggle against self-admiration and pride, in thought and deed, we must take refuge in God with all our heart and soul, from hardships, the ego, and Satan.

🌸🌷 Self-knowledge helps erase self-admiration.

🌸🌷 Understanding this world and the Hereafter wards off self-admiration.

🌸🌷 Let us understand the nature of self-admiration, recognize the destructive effects of its bomb, and remember that among its dire consequences are degradation and humiliation: in the end, a person becomes not merely as lowly as an ant, but lower still—like a cockroach or a rat.

🌸🌷 Sensing the foul odor of self-admiration can help us flee this palpable evil.

🌸🌷 Flee the things that stir up self-admiration.

🌸🌷 Through humility, let us keep the spirit from falling.

🌸🌷 Disavowing, in thought and deed, self-admiration and those given to it, as well as arrogance, ostentation, and the pursuit of fame, safeguards our well-being.

🌸🌷 The most honorable scholars are the most humble.

🌸🌷 Practice humility by studying the lives of God’s exalted servants, who, even at the height of humility, remain concerned about their deeds—like our Master, who, despite his greatness, pours out his anguish before God: « آهِ‏ مِنْ‏ قِلَّةِ الزَّادِ وَ طُولِ الطَّرِيقِ وَ بُعْدِ السَّفَرِ وَ عَظِيمِ الْمَوْرِد»

🌸🌷 The secret of « فزت و رب الکعبه» is that it reveals our Master’s perfect humility and meekness before God.

🌸🌷 Avoiding frivolity and those who indulge in it helps guard against arrogance and pride.

🌸🌷 Reciting Supplication 20 with all one’s heart and soul softens the heart and fills it with humility and reverence.

🌸🌷 Showing humility in practice toward one’s parents, relatives, kin, and teacher is among the practical ways to cultivate humility and modesty.

🌸🌷 Giving thanks for blessings, not taking celebrities as role models, and making God’s friends our examples are among the means of struggling against arrogance, self-admiration, and pride.

🌸🌷 The hadith of the bell is a warning to those heedless and caught up in self-admiration and pride.

🌸🌷 The Hadith of the Bell: The bell’s admonition is for the noblest of all creation.

🌸🌷 To interpret and hear the bell’s sound—and to interpret and hear thunder and lightning, flowers and nightingales; to receive the message and admonition of fragrance, and the admonition of the sun, moon, stars, sky, night and day, and lunar and solar eclipses—all this is possible only with a heart that is alive and awake.

🌸🌷 To hear the message of stone and mountain, and to hear the admonitions of the Ṣaḥīfa Sajjadiyya, the Nahj al-Balāgha and divine counsel, and the melody of the verses of divine majesty, is possible only with a heart that is gentle, tender and humble.

🌸🌷 Deafer than the deaf and blinder than the blind is one who cannot hear the call of Allah and the friends of Allah.

🌸🌷 Our heartbeats and breathing are constantly admonishing us.

🌸🌷 **Summary:** Sincerely remembering God in His majesty, greatness and exaltedness; making the devout and sincere remembrance of Allah as the Greatest; being more attentive during the takbīrs of prayer; seeking refuge and help from God against the evil of the self, Satan and afflictions—including pride, self-admiration and conceit; seeking aid from Allah, Glorified and Exalted; learning about this world, the Hereafter and oneself; attending to the weakness and losses inherent in our existence; practising humility; understanding pride and self-admiration; reflecting on the consequences of pride, self-admiration and conceit, and how they corrupt one’s deeds; reviewing the verses and traditions concerning pride and self-admiration, as well as those concerning the virtues and blessings of humility; reflecting on the reason for Satan’s fall; and cutting off the roots of self-admiration and the impulses that stir up pride and self-admiration

avoiding the company of the proud; in thought and deed, disavowing pride and the proud, those who compete in amassing wealth, boast, make a show of themselves, and ostentatiously flaunt their status; strengthening reason and weakening ignorance; asking God for the highest spiritual ranks and turning to the great friends of God; avoiding frivolity and its devotees; attending to moderation in the virtues; avoiding worldly ambitions and nurturing hopes for the Hereafter; and showing humility toward one’s parents, loved ones, friends, teacher and the faithful.

🔆☘️ The Hadith of the Bell ☘️🔆

عَنِ الْحَارِثِ الْأَعْوَرِ قَالَ: بَيْنَا أَنَا أَسِيرُ مَعَ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ فِي الْحِيرَةِ إِذَا نَحْنُ بِدَيْرَانِيٍّ يَضْرِبُ النَّاقُوسَ‏ قَالَ فَقَالَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ ع يَا حَارِثُ أَ تَدْرِي مَا يَقُولُ هَذَا النَّاقُوسُ‏ قُلْتُ اللَّهُ وَ رَسُولُهُ وَ ابْنُ عَمِّ رَسُولِهِ أَعْلَمُ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَضْرِبُ مَثَلَ الدُّنْيَا وَ خَرَابَهَا وَ يَقُولُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ حَقّاً حَقّاً صِدْقاً صِدْقاً إِنَّ الدُّنْيَا قَدْ غَرَّتْنَا وَ شَغَلَتْنَا وَ اسْتَهْوَتْنَا وَ اسْتَغْوَتْنَا يَا ابْنَ الدُّنْيَا مَهْلًا مَهْلًا يَا ابْنَ الدُّنْيَا دَقّاً دَقّاً يَا ابْنَ الدُّنْيَا جَمْعاً جَمْعاً تَفْنَى الدُّنْيَا قَرْناً قَرْناً مَا مِنْ يَوْمٍ يَمْضِي عَنَّا إِلَّا أَوْهَنَ [أَوْهَى‏] مِنَّا رُكْناً قَدْ ضَيَّعْنَا دَاراً تَبْقَى وَ اسْتَوْطَنَّا دَاراً تَفْنَى لَسْنَا نَدْرِي مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِيهَا إِلَّا لَوْ قَدْ مِتْنَا قَالَ الْحَارِثُ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ النَّصَارَى يَعْلَمُونَ ذَلِكَ قَالَ لَوْ عَلِمُوا ذَلِكَ لَمَا اتَّخَذُوا الْمَسِيحَ‏ إِلَهاً مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ قَالَ فَذَهَبْتُ إِلَى الدَّيْرَانِيِّ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ بِحَقِّ الْمَسِيحِ عَلَيْكَ لَمَّا ضَرَبْتَ بِالنَّاقُوسِ عَلَى الْجِهَةِ الَّتِي تَضْرِبُهَا قَالَ فَأَخَذَ يَضْرِبُ وَ أَنَا أَقُولُ حَرْفاً حَرْفاً حَتَّى بَلَغَ إِلَى مَوْضِعٍ إِلَّا لَوْ قَدْ مِتْنَا فَقَالَ بِحَقِّ نَبِيِّكُمْ مَنْ أَخْبَرَكُمْ بِهَذَا قُلْتُ هَذَا الرَّجُلُ الَّذِي كَانَ مَعِي أَمْسِ فَقَالَ وَ هَلْ بَيْنَهُ وَ بَيْنَ النَّبِيِّ مِنْ قَرَابَةٍ قُلْتُ هُوَ ابْنُ عَمِّهِ قَالَ بِحَقِّ نَبِيِّكُمْ أَ سَمِعَ هَذَا مِنْ نَبِيِّكُمْ قَالَ قُلْتُ نَعَمْ فَأَسْلَمَ ثُمَّ قَالَ لِي وَ اللَّهِ إِنِّي وَجَدْتُ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ أَنَّهُ يَكُونُ فِي آخِرِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ نَبِيٌّ وَ هُوَ يُفَسِّرُ مَا يَقُولُ النَّاقُوسُ.

Al-Amālī (al-Ṣadūq), text, p. 225Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, Al-Amālī (al-Ṣadūq), 1 vol., Ketābchī, Tehran, sixth edition, 1376 SH.

Maʿānī al-Akhbār / translated by Moḥammadī, vol. 2, p. 74

🔆☘️ Hārith al-Aʿwar relates: As we were walking with the Commander of the Faithful in the city of Hira, on the banks of the Euphrates, we came upon a Christian monastery where a bell was being rung. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, peace be upon him, said, “Hārith, do you know what this bell is saying?” I replied, “God, His Messenger, and the Messenger’s cousin know best.” He said, “It speaks of this world and its ruin, saying: ‘Indeed, and without a doubt, I declare: There is no true god but Allah. This world has deceived us, distracted us, and stolen our hearts; it has led us astray. O child of this world, be still, be still! O son of this world, strike, strike! O son of this world, gather wealth and heap it up. In the end, this world falls into ruin, age after age. Not a day of our lives passes without some vital part of us growing weak. We have squandered the everlasting home and made our dwelling in the fleeting one. We do not know how carelessly and wastefully we have lived there until we die.’”

Hārith asked, “Commander of the Faithful, do the Christians themselves know what the bell’s melody means?” He replied, “If they knew, they would not worship Jesus instead of their Lord.”

He relates: I went to the monk who lived in the monastery and said, “For the sake of Christ, ring the bell once more, just as you did before.” He rang it, and I repeated the words one by one until he reached the final sentence. The monk turned to me and said, “I adjure you, by your Prophet, to tell me who informed you of this.” I replied, “The man who was with me yesterday.” He asked, “Is he related to your Prophet?”

I said, “He is his cousin.” He asked, “Did he hear these words from him, by your Prophet’s own testimony?” I replied, “Yes.” Then the monk became a Muslim and said to me, “By God, I have read in the Torah that at the end of the line of prophets there will come a Prophet who will explain what the bell says.”

🔆☘️  اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ‏ الْكِبْرِ وَ مَوَاقِفِ الْخِزْيِ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَ الْآخِرَة

🔆☘️  إِلَهِي إِلَيْكَ‏ أَشْكُو نَفْساً بِالسُّوءِ أَمَّارَةً وَ إِلَى الْخَطِيئَةِ مُبَادِرَةً وَ بِمَعَاصِيكَ مُولَعَةً وَ بِسَخَطِكَ مُتَعَرِّضَةً تَسْلُكُ بِي مَسَالِكَ الْمَهَالِك‏

سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى عَنِ الصِّفَاتِ فَمَنْ زَعَمَ أَنَّ إِلَهَ الْخَلْقِ مَحْدُودٌ فَقَدْ جَهِلَ الْخَالِقَ الْمَعْبُودَ.

🌼 Ali Saʿi (ʿAbdullah Mishkat) 110.141(903)  🌼