Shamelessness: The Cause of Knowledge’s Decline and the Heart’s Upheaval

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Session dated: 00.10.2

Master Ali Saei

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَی مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ بَلِّغْ بِإِیمَانِی أَکمَلَ الْإِیمَانِ، وَ اجْعَلْ یقِینِی أَفْضَلَ الْیقِینِ، وَ انْتَهِ بِنِیتِی إِلَی أَحْسَنِ النِّیاتِ، وَ بِعَمَلِی إِلَی أَحْسَنِ الْأَعْمَالِ.

اللَّهُمَّ وَفِّرْ بِلُطْفِک نِیتِی، وَ صَحِّحْ بِمَا عِنْدَک یقِینِی، وَ اسْتَصْلِحْ بِقُدْرَتِک مَا فَسَدَ مِنِّی

Why, indeed, do we persist in discussing modesty and refuse to let the subject go? Because the earth is afflicted by the incurable malady of shamelessness. Shamelessness is raging like a blaze; its volcano is erupting, and soon it will bring down the human race. Almost all of humanity is bent on being transformed beyond recognition; only a few remain. Why is the subject of modesty so important? Because it is one of the earth’s most pressing afflictions.

Why, despite all the progress made, has modern humanity become the most ignorant of all? If we leaf through the pages of history, we see that the present age is an age of modern ignorance: the most ignorant people are alive today. What, indeed, has happened? Had the scientific advances we have made been joined with modesty, humanity would have been immersed in God’s all-embracing mercy. But through ignorance and shamelessness, despite its scientific progress, humanity has become immersed in hardship. Little by little, not only has scientific and economic progress stalled, but people have grown poorer and poorer.

What has happened that people today can no longer take pleasure in life? Humanity has experienced the greatest pleasures it can reach, yet it is not as happy as an ant. It cannot feel the joy of pleasure. What is the cause of the decline of knowledge? Knowledge has advanced, but in the opposite direction. Why? Because the heart has been turned upside down. As we have noted, when a person crosses the bounds of shamelessness, they lose all sense of honour, and this leads to the heart being overturned. Once the heart is overturned, every part of it is turned upside down. In other words, the person is turned head over heels: instead of ascending, they fall.

In our time, knowledge is in free fall because of shamelessness, though people foolishly imagine it is rising—a claim that can be disproved. Soon humanity will destroy itself; soon it will sever its own lifeline. Thus the reason for the absence of genuine progress is the shamelessness of our age. The affliction of shamelessness has given rise to obsolete sciences. Humanity itself has been transformed beyond recognition because the heart has been overturned, and all its advances have been turned upside down.

Instead of cultivating the spirit of faith, so that the limbs of faith might take root and the person become a vessel ready to take flight, humanity has nurtured its evil spirits. It has made a dragon of its inner desires, its vile lusts, and become the prey of its own appetites, falling under Satan’s influence. Modern humanity is, in the fullest sense, under Satan’s sway. Once the heart is overturned, its governance passes out of the angel’s hands. When the heart is overturned, a person can no longer hear the messages of the angels. ثُم بُکم عُمی The eye of the heart goes blind, while their satanic, darkened vision opens—something worse than utter, absolute blindness. Instead of an angel setting the human heart in motion, Satan becomes its driving force. These are the effects of an overturned heart. Once a person becomes shameless, these consequences follow.

Even if countless pearls float in the sea of shamelessness, they will be buried beneath the flotsam and debris. In this age, the believer will be buried; their worth and standing will go unseen. A shameless person, then, is devoid of good intentions—let alone the ability to form the very best intentions. Humanity will no longer be able to aspire to beauty: having reached the bounds of shamelessness, it has been transformed beyond recognition. People think like cockroaches; their aspirations have become those of rats and pigs. Their very temperament has changed, and they have sunk to an animal nature—to bestial passions, indeed to something lower than the beasts. Their appetites have changed.

Why do people today pursue manufactured products? Why does pure honey no longer delight their palate? What is the cause? Why, despite all these outward advances, can modern humanity no longer produce the most beautiful fruits or ease its burdens? We must see the cause in the affliction of shamelessness. If conferences are to be held, they should be held in this spirit, so that knowledge may once again rise.

A shameless person is a person without skill; a modest person is a person of skill. If we want to recognise the beautiful people of the future, modesty is the best measure. Once shamelessness reaches the point of dishonour, the brakes of modesty fail. A person then moves without restraint, and nothing but ugliness will come from them. They will be deprived of beauty and of the light of goodness and excellence. The possibility that the light of the heart might illuminate the inner self and bring forth beauty will be lost.

Indeed, what is the ugliest being in the world? When outward veils are lifted and the inner form is revealed, the ugliest being in the world will appear. Those who seem lovely and beautiful on the outside, yet are shameless, possess a beauty that is merely skin-deep; within, they are vile. When the heart is overturned, height gives way to lowliness: what is above becomes below, beauty becomes ugliness, and the Hereafter gives way to this world. Eternity loses all meaning, and people prefer the fleeting world to the Hereafter, which will last for ever. When the heart is overturned, evil is made to seem beautiful to a person.

أَفَمَن زُیِّنَ لَهُ سُوءُ عَمَلِهِ فَرَآهُ حَسَناً فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ یُضِلُّ مَن یَشَآءُ وَ یَهْدِى مَن یَشَآءُ

When an evil deed is made alluring in a person’s eyes, they come to regard it as beautiful. They perform it with love and fervour, because it has been adorned—and its adornment has come from the accursed Satan. زین للذین کفرو الحیات الدنیا. Why have the disbelievers embraced this world? Because their hearts have been turned upside down: they can see no beauty greater than the beauty of this world. Why do spiritual things hold no sweetness for them? Because the outward adornments of this world have taken hold of their hearts.

زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَواتِ مِنَ النِّساءِ وَ الْبَنينَ وَ الْقَناطيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَ الْفِضَّةِ وَ الْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَ الْأَنْعامِ وَ الْحَرْثِ ذلِکَ مَتاعُ الْحَياةِ الدُّنْيا وَ اللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ

If this is so, and this adornment is visible to everyone, then it should prevail over everyone. Yet, by contrast, the Exalted Lord has made faith beloved to us.

حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإيمانَ وَ زَيَّنَهُ في قُلُوبِكُمْ وَ كَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَ الْفُسُوقَ وَ الْعِصْيانَ أُولئِكَ هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ

Whoever has had the spirit of faith taken from them has died a death of faith. Such a person will fall prey to the adornments of this world: the love of worldly desires will overcome them, and they will be overturned. But when love of faith prevails, and a person is immersed in its beauty, they will taste such joy in the sanctuary of worship that the angels will envy them.

Let the heart not be turned upside down; let love of faith prevail. One example of this is love for Mawla Ali, peace be upon him. If it takes hold in someone’s heart, Mawla will guide that heart; he will set it on its course. If disbelief takes hold of the heart, then who will guide it? Why did the community turn away from religion after the Prophet—after the three, after those three people? Because disbelief, transgression and disobedience overcame them, and they abandoned faith. When they abandoned faith, those three became the guides of their hearts: representatives of ignorance, representatives of Satan.

How does Satan draw all his forces together? How does he concentrate them? He chooses the most corrupt person and gathers all his forces at that stronghold. Once assembled, he drives the people of the world towards disbelief. Then he can easily take the helm of the heart and guide it, shaping it however he wills. One way to discern whether the heart is being guided by the friends of God or by Satan is to pay attention to one’s dreams. In the world of dreams, a person can see which force has prevailed over their heart, who is guiding it, whether it is upright or overturned—whether it faces towards God’s Throne or has been cast down, its face turned towards the lowest of the low. During the day, if a person pays attention to the thought that most dominates their heart, they can tell whether it has been turned upside down, who is guiding it, and … زین لهم الشیطان ما کانو یعملون.

أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ الَّذِي هُوَ أَدْنَى بِالَّذِي هُوَ خَيْرٌ

When the Children of Israel are reproached for abandoning manna and quails and asking for garlic and onions, it is because their hearts had been turned upside down. They preferred what was lower to what was higher; they chose evil instead of good.

اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ  وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ يُخْرِجُونَهُمْ مِنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ  أُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ  هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ

When Allah guides the heart, He brings a person out of darkness into light. But when someone comes under the authority of a false deity, they are brought out of light into darkness: they are cast down and turned upside down with ease. They plunge into darkness, wander through it and become submerged in their ignorance.

Where does a person think? In the head, in the brain—or somewhere else? We think through different parts of the body. If we look closely, we see that every part of the body can function like a brain. For someone whose brain has been turned upside down, thought takes place in the stomach and in desire; they no longer think with the crown of the head or with the spirit of faith. They think with the spirit of desire, with the animal spirit. Reason is no longer their mount, nor is it the lamp that lights their being: ignorance takes its place and rules the heart. Ignorance becomes the commander of thought. This is what is meant by inverted knowledge, by a reversed spiritual journey: a person falls, yet imagines they are ascending. There are four kinds of heart:

إِنَّ اَلْقُلُوبَ أَرْبَعَةٌ قَلْبٌ فِيهِ نِفَاقٌ وَ إِيمَانٌ وَ قَلْبٌ مَنْكُوسٌ وَ قَلْبٌ مَطْبُوعٌ وَ قَلْبٌ أَزْهَرُ أَجْرَدُ فَقُلْتُ مَا اَلْأَزْهَرُ قَالَ فِيهِ كَهَيْئَةِ اَلسِّرَاجِ فَأَمَّا اَلْمَطْبُوعُ فَقَلْبُ اَلْمُنَافِقِ وَ أَمَّا اَلْأَزْهَرُ فَقَلْبُ اَلْمُؤْمِنِ إِنْ أَعْطَاهُ شَكَرَ وَ إِنِ اِبْتَلاَهُ صَبَرَ وَ أَمَّا اَلْمَنْكُوسُ فَقَلْبُ اَلْمُشْرِكِ

There is a muddled heart that is sometimes a believer and sometimes veers toward unbelief. It goes to the mosque and watches obscene films; it can neither let go of God nor let go of Satan. It is an apostate, wandering between hypocrisy and faith.

Then there is the inverted heart, a heart turned upside down; the heart sealed shut, locked away; and the heart that is illuminated, radiant, shining like a lamp. The sealed heart is the heart of the hypocrite.

The finest sign of one who possesses a clear heart is this: when the Almighty Lord bestows His blessings upon them, they give thanks; and when they are afflicted and beset by hardship, they are patient. Whoever loses modesty and a sense of honour falls into the pit of ruin and is destroyed by outright idolatry.

A person can find the Bridge of Ṣirāṭ in this world and walk upon it—the bridge sharper than a sword and finer than a hair. All one needs to do is take stock of oneself: how am I moving between faith and unbelief? Between justice and oppression, contentment and displeasure, gratitude and ingratitude? The illuminated heart is one that is moving along the bridge of faith. The inverted heart falls from faith into unbelief. It falls away from God; it grows accustomed to injustice instead of justice, greed instead of trust in God, ignorance instead of knowledge, idolatry instead of divine oneness, and doubt instead of certainty.

So the Bridge of Ṣirāṭ is laid out here in this earthly world. We are on the brink of the pit of ruin. That very precipice is the Bridge of Ṣirāṭ spread out before us. A person may fall into the depths of that pit. All it takes is to focus on one of the buttons of the little Dajjāl, who is being nursed like a child, and one will fall into the pit of ruin. This little Dajjāl will one day grow large. Now everyone is nursing him. Instead of breaking the little Dajjāl’s horns, they are raising him. This little serpent is turning into a dragon. Once it becomes a dragon, a person is nothing but a commodity of Dajjāl and Satan. When he has acquired and taken possession of a person, he will sell them off for a pittance.

How does a person sell their soul to Satan? By entering into all kinds of transactions and redirecting the course of their pleasure toward forbidden delights. Then they plunge into the lowest depths. When the heart is overturned, a person strikes the bottom of the pit of ruin. One who was humanity’s noblest becomes its vilest, cast aside—not even an animal, but more astray than beasts.

If a galaxy were to collapse, what momentous event would take place in this universe? A human being, like a butterfly, ought to soar again. Yet rather than rise, they fall. A human being, like a flower, ought to ascend and reach beyond the flower, but instead they fall. What does a beautiful flower become? Before entering this world, what lofty station did a human being occupy? Why did they fall from that exalted station and descend into this world? Is this how one ends up overturned, wretched and disgraced?

Now it is time to fly—yet once again, a person wants to fall. Did humanity not already descend? It did. Does it want to descend again? Is that not enough? Have we not reached the very end of the downward path? A human being, who dwells in the fairest of forms, has reached the lowest of the low—is that not enough? Does one still want to fall, to keep on falling? If a cockroach has fallen and become a cockroach, what terrible thing would happen if it fell again? What has happened—that a wolf has turned into a wolf again—and now wants to fall further? Why have our pleasures gone into free fall, our appetites withered away like this? Why have our values been overturned? Yes: it is because the heart has fallen, because the heart has been turned upside down. The heart must rise. Until the heart is lifted up, the human being will never stand tall.

أَفَمَنْ يَمْشِي مُكِبًّا عَلَى وَجْهِهِ أَهْدَى أَمَّنْ يَمْشِي سَوِيًّا عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

Is one who walks on his head more rightly guided, or one who walks upright and steady? Which of them is moving straight ahead? Which, then, is more rightly guided? If we look at the world today, we see that those who walk on their heads are regarded as the enlightened and rightly guided, while those who stand upright are considered misguided and ignorant.

Now shamelessness and lack of honour have reached saturation point. Ugliness has had its fill. We see that it has grown so rampant, and rebellion and transgression have increased so greatly, that the vessel of unbelief and godlessness is on the verge of overflowing. It can no longer contain all this ugliness and degradation. That is why the wretched person of today wants to turn back and revive the ways of the Stone Age.

Now collective shamelessness is spreading, enabled by social and virtual spaces and the like. Collective shamelessness calls for collective modesty and collective resistance. Unless there is collective resistance—unless there is collective striving—there can be no overcoming shamelessness. The believers will be brought down. If a believer remains indifferent, the believer will be the first to suffer a blow. If a believer is indifferent to sin, or joins those who sin and engages in sin, unexpected events will follow. God forbid, believers are seen sitting at the table of sin. The fire rises from the believers’ own tents.

Let me share a hadith: The scourge of punishment falls differently upon unbelievers and people of faith. When the Exalted Lord wishes to discipline the people of faith, He disciplines them so severely that the sound of it reaches the Highest Throne. اذا اسانی من خلقی من یعرفنی When someone among My creation who knows Me disobeys Me, I set over them someone who does not know Me. When someone who knows Me disobeys Me, He sets over them someone who لا یعرفونی.

Is this age that very age? Why have those who do not know Allah been set over those who do? Because they have remained silent in the face of disobedience to God; they themselves have reached the point of rebellion.

My God and my Lord, I am one whose back has been weighed down by his errors. If I disobeyed You, I did so out of ignorance; I made a show of my sin and felt no shame before You.

اللهم عجل لولیک الفرج