The Blessed Month of Ramadan, God’s Herald

🌼🔆🌼Ramadan is the celestial clock🌼🔆🌼

🔹 A ceremony to welcome the blessed month of Ramadan
📅 Date: 1403/12/12 – 1 Ramadan 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:

Ramadan, lifting the veil from divine mysteries 🌙

Having crossed many veils and passed through lands of wonders and marvels, Ramadan has arrived in our land!
This blessed month is meant to lift the veil from divine mysteries, reveal the beauty of the Real, speak its secrets, and disclose the truth!

This month is the blessed countenance of the Imam of Our Time (AJ)!
It brings the memory of our Imam to life!
That lonely Imam, that Imam hidden behind the veil of occultation!

Behind the veil of minds…
Have we looked for its new moon?!
As we sought the new moon of God’s month, did we let our eyes be illumined by its light?!
Have our eyes yearned for that crescent of God—or not?

How eagerly do we await God’s month?
At every moment, we should have been watching for its crescent—for its rising!

And now, the blessed month of Ramadan has arrived!
This “messenger of God” has come to us bearing “God’s mysteries”!

O beloved of God!
What service have we ever rendered to God that He should show us such kindness?!
And that, to servants like us, who have not even been no-servants of His, let alone servants of God!

Ramadan: God’s most radiant month ✨

This is the very “month of God’s invitation”!
It calls us to come to Him!
This is the very “bride of the months”!
This is “God’s most radiant month”!

Laylat al-Qadr, the shining heart of Ramadan 📖

God’s most radiant month is Ramadan!
And the heart of this blessed month is “Laylat al-Qadr”!

So let us welcome God’s month with the Qur’an!
Have we welcomed it?
Have we kissed it?

We must kiss this month of God with our hearts!
Kiss the beautiful face of God’s month!

God’s vast table has been spread!
Are we ready to sow?!
Are we ready to be “sown”?!

It is sowing time—and God Himself is the sower!
At His feast, He Himself cultivates us!

In this month of God, we too must become “God’s month”!
But this month is the “month of months”!
The most beautiful month of God—the bride of God’s months!

In this month of God, we must become “God’s cherished servant”!
We must become a source of pride and honor for God!

But why does God not let us go?!
Why, despite all our audacity, does He still not give up on us?!
Why does He not let us go? Why does He not leave us to ourselves?!

What have we ever done?!
What “virtue of servitude” have we shown?!

That God pours His own “goodness” down upon us from above, from every side?!

Ramadan: proof of God’s love for His servants ❤️

The blessed month of Ramadan bears witness to God’s love for His servants!

If this “divine love” were to cease,
no one would ever see the beautiful face of God’s month again!

What does this month do?
What does this “envoy of God” do?
It comes… and goes…

But why does it go? And why does it come?

It does not go…
It wants to take us with it!

Had we set out with last year’s month of Ramadan?
Had we come along with it?
Or had we remained apart from it?

If the remembrance of God had been torn from our hearts, then we had also been cut off from this month!
This month is an emissary of God!

It inscribes the “design and pattern of God’s mysteries” upon the tablet of existence!

But what does it inscribe?
If only we could see what “patterns and designs” this month weaves!
If only we could witness its manifestations!
If only we resolved to accompany it, never to be separated from this month for even a moment!

The mystery of this month lies with the Imam of Our Time (AJ)!
If we are distant from him, we are distant from God’s month as well!
We have been distant, and we remain distant!

If we are under the Imam’s leadership, then he is our guide!
We are never separated from him for a moment!
Through his worship, we worship God!
Through his standing in prayer, we stand in prayer!
Through his prostration, we prostrate!
Through his remembrance, we remember God!

So we will never be separated from him for a moment!

Accompanying Ramadan: returning to God’s banquet 🌍

We have accompanied this month; we have returned!
We have journeyed around the world of existence and come back once more!

But not by circling around ourselves or the world;
rather, we have journeyed through the vastness of this world, alongside it!

We are not God’s former servants; we are new!
We have been renewed!

From His majesty and grandeur, God has spread an endless banquet!
A banquet that calls for an immense appetite!

This magnificent feast requires a heart of great capacity, able to gather up all its provisions!
Is the vessel of our being ready?
Or is it narrow and broken?

If it is narrow, if it is broken,
let us entrust it to the one who mends what is broken!

He knows well how to mend it!
He is the finest mender of broken things, the “Healer”!
The Healer has immense resolve!
He mends every broken thing, makes it whole again, and restores it better than it was at first!

Ramadan, bearer of divine mysteries 📜

This month is God’s month!
It is a traveler returned from a blessed journey!
It is itself blessed, too!

But what has it brought back from this journey?
It carries an immense bundle with it!

A “cosmic memory” lies within the soul of this month!
It is a vast celestial supercomputer—or rather, beyond the heavens, indeed, of the Throne and the highest realm!

This month is the “Banner of God”!
By God, we must use this computer to bring ourselves to life!

So that we may see and comprehend the wonders of servitude to God!
So that we may witness the wonders of our God!

But this blindness… this deafness… this voicelessness…
How much longer?!

Is there no end date?
Will this blindness never end?!
Is it infinite?!

This month is an “eye,” an “ear,” a “tongue,” and a “heart”!
But not an ordinary heart: it is the “Eye of God” we are seeking!
This is the “Ear of God”!
This is the “Tongue of God”!
This is the “Heart of God”!

We must reach the highest degree of remembrance of God!
With this month, we must equip ourselves with God’s latest prescriptions!

So that we may prove our servitude!
So that we may go beyond servitude!
So that we may see how God deals with us!
And what lies hidden beyond this servitude, things we do not yet know!

Mysteries lie behind this servitude!
Until we prove ourselves, the second class of servitude will not open to us!

The inner reality of Ramadan, beyond its outward form 🌌

This month has both an outward form and an inner reality!
But its inner reality is greater than its outward form!

Its outward appearance bears witness to the truth!
But its inner reality… we will not know it until we reach the very heart of this month!

This month has come to make us fall in love in a single night!
To revive the weary and the bankrupt!
To make them prosperous again!

We have squandered the wealth we had in servitude to God!
But this month will make us rich overnight!

We must measure this month against its horizon!
The horizon of its seven heavens! Its furthest limit!

When we see Ramadan in the sky, this is not the same month as the one we saw the night before!
Above us, this month has a “Ramadan spirit”!

This is another kind of month!
A heavenly wonder!

If we look closely, this month is a window onto the higher realm!
It will draw us in!
It will bring us to the highest destination!

What is this month above our heads?
It is an empty place, left for His Eminence, the Remnant of God, the Most Great (AJ)!

Ramadan: a divine book for God’s servants 📖

Beware of stopping at this month’s outward appearance!
Do not become heedless of its inner reality!

This month is God’s “great messenger”!
A “great book”!

In its presence, we must learn this book by heart!
We must become learned in this book!
Become scholars! Become sages!

This book is God’s “new creation”!
It is freshly written by God!
It is among God’s newest writings and marvels!

Who can join themselves to this month?
So they may see, so they may witness, the waves of servitude to God!
So they may experience the true longing of love!

Yes, I can!
I, too, am a “servant of Ramadan”!

“Ramadan” means “Allah”!
The month of Ramadan means “the month of Allah”!

How wondrous!

What has this month brought with it?!
What spirits have been breathed into its very being?!

That same spirit is stirring within us, too!

Beware of becoming heedless!
Let us awaken!

We, too, are “servants of Ramadan”!
Each orbit of this month is a heavenly journey!

Ramadan: joined to the Throne and the mysteries of existence 🌌

This month is connected!
Connected to all the heavens!
Connected to what lies beyond the heavens!
Connected to the Throne!
Connected to the furthest reaches of this world!

This month turns in harmony with that farthest realm!
That “all things” which are recorded in the “Manifest Imam” begin to revolve in this month!

With every turn, something beyond the ordinary takes place!
Each person is a different servant in every month!
But in this month, they are a more special kind of servant!

Natures are transformed!
Everyone sets out on a path!
So they may reach its end!
So they may complete this special course in servitude to God!

This month—this “month of God”—is meant to bring that course to a close!
It is meant to make us graduates of God’s special courses!

If we succeed, a new course will begin once more…

Ramadan: moments and the mystery of meeting God ⏳

This month is the “month of God”!
It is forever turning and revolving!
It is a “sign of God”!
A “sign obedient to God”!

It reminds us of every moment!
And every moment has a meaning: the “special station of meeting God”!

A moment has no other meaning!
A moment is simply a moment!
The repetition of moments creates “time”!
But a moment, in itself, is not time!
A moment is free from the bounds of time!

Time is what we experience when we sense continuity between moments!
Yet in truth, no moment takes place within the confines of time!

The moment whose repetition lets us count “time” has no dimension, no duration, no limit!
A moment is captive to no constraint!

Is this what lies “beyond time”?
I don’t know!
But I am certain it is not “time”!

The moments of creation: endless acts of “Be, and it is” 💫

No moment has temporal dimension or duration!
If it did, it would no longer be a “moment”!

So let us measure the moment by “meeting God”!
God wills, and each of His acts of will is a new moment!
His will cannot be contained by time!

God’s will is “Be, and it is”!
Every moment is another “Be, and it is”!

Every moment differs from the next, ever new!
For its Creator is “the Originator”!
For its Creator is “the Initiator”!
For its Creator is forever “new”!

If every moment is itself the “station of meeting God,”
then every “meeting with God” has its own distinct taste and flavour!
Every encounter has a new taste!

But how can we seize these moments, these encounters?

I have not been a witness…
because I am not alive at all!
Alive enough to understand…

“صُمٌّ، بُکْمٌ، عُمْیٌ”
That is me!

Those who see and hear are alive in heart!
They are the ones we should ask!

But to understand, we still need a “heart”!
We need “reason”!
We need “servitude to God”!

And I have none of these…

Ramadan: the celestial clock of existence 🌙

This month is like a clock in the heavens!
The “month” reminds us of time and the hour!

We keep our eyes on the clock so that we may make the most of our time!
Time’s passage reminds us that in every moment we are being “created anew”!

Time: a reminder of the supreme destination ⏳

We must not forget time!
Time and the clock must always remain in our thoughts!

For they remind us of our “destination”!
All these moments remind us of the “supreme destination”!
And at last, we will arrive…

Ramadan: attuning ourselves to the clock of existence ⏳

Each of our “إِنَّ لِلَّهِ” takes place in every moment!
In the end, we will reach “the greatest and most exalted Return”!

The month of God reminds us that we are God’s servants!
It calls us to undertake the “struggle of servitude”!

This month of God came to awaken us!
To remind us to set ourselves by the “clock of existence”!
And to become attuned!

It reminds us that we are connected to all of existence!
We are not separate!
We simply cannot be severed from the life of this world of being!

This world is growing!
So we too must become “magnificent,” in keeping with the grandeur of this world!

Setting the clock of the soul by the clock of the unseen realm ⏳

Are we aware of this state of things?
Are we in harmony with this universe?

Is our clock set to the time of the celestial realm?
Or is only our material, belly-driven clock at work, while our celestial clock lies dormant?
Has the hand of our clock of the realm of divine power broken, so that it no longer turns?

We cannot grasp the horizon of the celestial clock!
If we could, our celestial ears would hear!
We would awaken to the call of the celestial beings’ prayers!
We would join them!
And add to the fervor of their supplications!

Bond with the universe, or fall apart? 🌍

If we fail to preserve that order and connectedness with the universe, we will disintegrate!

How many worlds within us have we let crumble!
There is almost nothing left of us!
Only dust, a material shell…

Our celestial spirit has departed!
The blessed month of Ramadan has come so that we may revive ourselves once more!
So that we may set the clock of our soul to the clock of God’s Throne!

Let us not forget our heavenly nourishment!
Let us drink celestial water!
Let us partake of heavenly food!

So that our celestial power may awaken!
And we may break free from the captivity of this body!

The bond between the beginning and the end of the universe: a trust placed upon us 🌌

Yes, the beginning of this universe is connected to its end!
Not for a moment is the bond between the two severed!
But we do not know it!

What an uproar there is within us!
We look only at ourselves!
At our appetites and desires!

Unaware of the trusts God has placed within our souls!
And we do not feed them!
We leave them hungry!

This land is filled with celestial beings!
Filled with mighty creatures, earthly and heavenly!

But beyond all that…
Every cell of our soul, every molecule, atom, and electron in our fundamental particles is a trust we must nourish!

I have been made a trustee!
I accepted this trust!
Yet I have left them hungry and thirsty!

Alas for the celestial lions I should have watered moment by moment!
But I cannot keep up!

They have had enough of my injustice!
One day, they will bring me to account before God!
They will become my adversaries!

The dawn of God’s month within our souls 🌙

So let us turn our gaze inward, to our innermost selves!

What is happening inside our cells?
Within them, within the fundamental particles, how does “time” pass?

How does God’s month dawn within these atoms of ours?
What is the atmosphere like within our “spirit” and “heart” during this blessed month?

Is it still night within us?
Or is dawn near?

Ramadan: the secret of life and the divine balance 🌙

Yes, this month is the secret of life!
Its time is the spirit of time!

Let us look to the sky!
Let us gaze into the depths of the sky!

God raised the sky and established the balance!
But what is the sky? What is the balance?

“Do not transgress the balance!”

If we transgress the divine balance, our order will fall apart!
The order and structure of our souls will collapse!

Whoever rebels against their “Imam of the Time” rebels against God’s “Balance”!
They break the bounds and throw all order into disarray!

And the first to fall will be the rebel themselves!

Their thinking, their ideas, their actions, their spiritual path, their growth…
Everything about them will collapse!

For they have no “balance,” no “scales,” no “discipline,” no order or accountability!

The Sun and the Moon: divine signs and the path of wilayah 🌞🌙

Let us know that the “Sun” and the “Moon” are two of God’s signs!
They move at God’s command!

Then God gives an example…
Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said:
“Whoever attacks us, violates our sanctity, and wrongs us will be in God’s punishment!”

Let us pass from the outward to the inward!

The “Star” is the Messenger of God (PBUH)!
The “Tree” is Amir al-Mu’minin (AS) and the Imams (AS)!

Not for a single moment—not even for the blink of an eye—did they disobey God!
They thwarted sin and left it in regret!

The Messenger of God and the divine Balance: obeying the Imam of justice ⚖️

Here, the “Heaven” means the Messenger of God (PBUH)!
And the “Balance” means Amir al-Mu’minin (AS)!

God Himself appointed him to the station of His Messenger!

“Beware of disobeying the Imam!”
“Beware of opposing the Imam!”

That is, obey the Imam of justice!
And beware of wronging him!

Aligning with the Imam, keeping clear of rebellion ⏳

Whoever fails to align with their Imam will become a rebel!

Joy, beauty, and delight lie in order and discipline!
And this order can be realized only through the “Balance”!
And the “Balance” is the “Imam of the Time”!

The month of Ramadan is God’s month!
The “Moon” shines over the whole world!
Above every likeness, there is a moon made of the same substance as that moon!

And within our souls, too, there is “a moon”!
But has that “moon within our soul” risen?
Have we sought its first sighting?

Are we aware of our inner and outer selves, of atomic time, celestial time, and the time of the unseen realms beyond the heavens?
Or have we remained unaware?

Let us align the course of our servitude with this “blessed month”!
Let us bring ourselves into balance with the “Imam’s Balance”!

Beware of becoming “blind to time”!

To become blind to time is to suffer “temporal death”!
And in “temporal death,” there can be no journey or movement at all!

If our “time of the unseen realm” dies, we will no longer journey through that realm!

If only, as this month turned its face toward us, its “face from the unseen realm” would also shine upon the eyes of our hearts!

For one who is “blind to the time of the unseen realm,” the clock of that realm falls out of order!
Its order and system become unstable!
They lose their sense of the unseen realm!
They will take no pleasure in spiritual things!

And suddenly, their “world of the unseen” will collapse!

The month of Ramadan: a reminder of the truth “إنا لله و إنا إلیه راجعون” 🌌

This month came to make us understand that we are “إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ”!

We must not be heedless of God!
We are with Him!
We are moving toward Him!

From beginning to end…
He is the “First” and the “Last”!
If we are with Him, then we are in the “First”!
We are in the “Outward” and in the “Inward”!
We are in the “Ancient” and in the “New”!

We are “فِي شَأْنِ اللَّهِ”!
We are moving in “وَ إِلَى شَأْنِ اللَّهِ”!