The Key to Unlocking the Treasure of the Two Weighty Trusts

🌼The World of Interpretation and Exegesis🌼

and …

🌸🔆🌿   “Question-and-Answer Session”  “Keys to Drawing Benefit from the Two Weighty Things” « » « »

🔅🌹 Summary with Supplement: “Question-and-Answer Session” “Keys to Drawing Benefit from the Two Weighty Things”  “The Mysteries of the Human Self”  “Cellular Rebellion” “Expansion of Being” and …       1402.07.06   Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌼 The Mysteries of Benefiting from the Two Weighty Things to Attain Illumination 🌼🔅

🌻The Lord of the worlds makes the Two Weighty Things known to us and guides us to the keys they hold. To benefit from them in the highest way, therefore, we must wholeheartedly ask God to grant us knowledge of them.

🌷🔅 The Secret of the Supplication: « اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي نَفْسَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي نَفْسَكَ لَمْ أَعْرِفْ نَبِيَّكَ اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي رَسُولَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي رَسُولَكَ لَمْ أَعْرِفْ حُجَّتَكَ اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي حُجَّتَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي حُجَّتَكَ ضَلَلْتُ عَنْ دِينِي‏»

🌻In this supplication, “the self of God” does not mean God’s Essence, for the Essence of the Real is beyond our reach. Here, “self” means the ultimate reality that has been made manifest, the highest faculty of knowing, which we ask God to grant us. “The self of God” is like “the hand of God”: just as “the hand of God” points to divine power, “the self of God” points to God’s highest sign, means and faculty—the means by which a person attains special forms of knowledge, including prophethood.

🌻Thus, through knowledge of “the self of God,” we come to know “the Prophet of God”; that is, “the self of God” is the key to knowing “the Prophet of God.”

🌻Our connection with God is a transcendent connection: unceasing and beyond comprehension. We use the word “connection” only for want of a better term. God is the One who connects us with the self of God, the Prophet of God and the Proof of God.

🌻Neither the Quran nor the Prophet’s Household can stand as a barrier between us and the Creator, for God Himself is the intermediary—that is, He is the One who connects us with everything.

🌻When we seek, through the Household of the Prophet, to draw near to God, this does not mean that without such an intermediary the Creator would not receive our prayers and requests. Rather, by doing so we make our prayers more honored, more pure and more reverent.

🌻The All-Knowing God knows our prayer before it even occurs to us and before we utter it. Indeed, God, the All-Knowing, conveys our message and our plea to the one to whom we turn.

🌻Thus, through intercession we adorn our prayer and make it fragrant. Moreover, the Creator Himself has willed that we seek the intercession of His chosen ones in order to draw near to them.

🌻It is God, then, who grants us awareness of the Two Weighty Things.

🌻We know the truths in keeping with our own capacity and measure.

🌻The Exalted Lord is ever with our hearts. And, with God, we know the Prophet, the Friend of God and the Quran with all our hearts.

🌻Our Mighty God makes us believers in the truth of the Two Weighty Things.

🌻So, to benefit from the Two Weighty Things, let us wholeheartedly cling to the Exalted Lord.

🌻To deepen our understanding and strengthen our faculties, we need the vast faculty of “the self of God.” The self comes before prophethood and messengership. Prophethood conveys to us the reports that issue from the Essence of the All-Majestic; to understand, comprehend and hear them, we need the vast faculty of “the self of God.”

🌻Thus, through the self of God we reach the Prophet of God, and through the Prophet of God we reach the Friend of God and the Word of God.

🔅🌼 The World of Interpretation and the World of Exegesis 🌼🔅

🌻From the higher vantage point, at the summit of creation, everything begins with God and returns to Him. From the lower vantage point, the world is a sign and a means leading to Him. Yet, despite this mediating role, the Creator of existence is the One who connects us with these means. Everything, in every circumstance, lies within God’s encompassing presence.

🌻« إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَ إِنَّا إِلَيْهِ راجِعُون‏» shows that we are from God and journey toward God; we are with Him continually, whether in our fall and descent or in our ascent and rising.

🌻With God, we have come from the Origin of all origins to this lowest point in the world; and with Him, we shall return from this depth to that Origin of all origins. Once this migration is complete, a new beginning will unfold there, bringing a new undertaking from the Divine.

🌻Humanity has stepped down from the Best of all orders into the lowest realm. The Best of all orders lies beyond time, measure, proportion and dimension.

🌻The realm of “measure” is the realm of size and quantity. Before it, the order of measurement and apportionment gives way to boundlessness and the absence of distance.

🌻In the timeless order, a being is connected, in its entirety and in every dimension, to the whole truth.

🌻At the Origin of all origins, the whole truth, in all its dimensions, was gathered into a single point. This world, in all its splendor, is an interpretation and unfolding of that one point—like a book opening into pages for us to read, study and understand; like a seed that holds hidden knowledge in its very substance, which, as it opens, brings that knowledge forth and gives it form. In the journey “from God,” we move from the singularity of knowledge into its interpretation, elaboration and expansion. In the journey “to God,” we move toward the deeper meaning of the world as a whole—with its signs, words and likenesses—until, in absolute boundlessness and timelessness, we taste the truth all at once.

🌻Thus, in the journey “from God,” we arrive at the interpretation of the divine will; in the journey “to God,” at its deeper meaning.

🌻Beings have entered the classroom of the very center of truth from that center. Having completed the course and graduated, they come to understand the one truth both interpretively and in its deeper meaning, and are made ready for the next stage of the divine will.

🌻By “the Self of God” is meant the reality that reveals creation’s hidden and manifest mysteries.

🌻By learning how the visual system works and activating it, we become able to see; by learning how the auditory system works and activating it, we become able to hear. By understanding the heart and bringing it to life, we become able to feel and comprehend; by understanding the spirit and bringing it to life, we become able to partake of life. Likewise, by learning about the vast system of “the Self of God” and activating it, we become able to understand and draw upon the system of “the Prophet of God” and “the Proof of God.”

🌻Just as “the Light of God” refers to a light belonging exclusively to the Majestic Essence, “the Self of God” refers to a self and reality belonging exclusively to His incomparable Essence.

🌻A specialized use of prophethood is possible only through the Self of God. Without this faculty, it is impossible to grasp the full perfection of truth or the perfection of prophethood.

🔅🌼 We are but a screen on which truth appears, within the measure of our souls 🌼🔅

🌻We cannot comprehend God’s station. We know Him only to the extent of our own capacity—and even then, not through His Essence, but through His signs and wonders. This is the meaning of “Whoever knows himself knows his Lord.”

🌻As our perception expands beyond and beneath the “seven bands of visible light,” our awareness will expand too. Thus, the expansion of being and perception is essential to higher understanding.

🌻The expansion of being is the expansion of perception.

🌻The longing must be genuine. Only someone parched truly longs for water; the thirsty seeker sees water everywhere, asleep or awake, in reason and imagination alike.

🌻A sound heart and pure intention are among the first conditions for seeking with sincerity, ardor and all one’s heart.

🌷🔅 صَاحِبُ النِّيَّةِ الصَّادِقَةِ صَاحِبُ الْقَلْبِ‏ السَّلِيم‏[1]

🌻Knowledge is light, and God casts it into the heart of whomever He deems worthy. We need only be worthy of a thirst to seek, and devote our capacity to it.

🌷🔅 الْعِلْمُ‏ نُورٌ يَقْذِفُهُ اللَّهُ فِي قَلْبِ مَنْ يَشَاء[2]

🌻One contemporary testament to the blessing bestowed upon a wholehearted seeker is the story of Karbalāʾi Kāẓem Sāruqī, who memorized the Qur’an.

🌻Karbalāʾi Kāẓem Sāruqī (1261–1339 SH), one of the memorizers of the Noble Qur’an, was a simple, unassuming farmer who received divine grace and miraculously memorized the entire Qur’an. He could recite its surahs not only from beginning to end but also from end to beginning; though unable to read or write, he could instantly distinguish Qur’anic words within other texts.

Karbalai Kazem was tested by many scholars and eminent figures, who confirmed his astonishing powers of memorization.

🌻 Sincere striving, together with the fulfilment of one’s duties, causes divine grace to well up from within the human soul—just as wisdom wells up from the heart to the tongue after forty days of sincere effort.

🌻 Studying the Imams, like reciting the Qur’an, is essential to discovering the truths and mysteries of creation.

🌷🔅 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: مَنْ أَحَبَّنَا أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَ حَقَّقَ حُبَّنَا فِي قَلْبِهِ جَرَى يَنَابِيعُ‏ الْحِكْمَةِ عَلَى لِسَانِهِ وَ جُدِّدَ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قَلْبِهِ وَ جُدِّدَ لَهُ عَمَلُ سَبْعِينَ نَبِيّاً وَ سَبْعِينَ صِدِّيقاً وَ سَبْعِينَ شَهِيداً وَ عَمَلُ سَبْعِينَ عَابِداً عَبَدَ اللَّهَ سَبْعِينَ سَنَة[3]

🌷🔅 قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص‏ مَا أَخْلَصَ عَبْدٌ لِلَّهِ عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ أَرْبَعِينَ صَبَاحاً إِلَّا جَرَتْ يَنَابِيعُ‏ الْحِكْمَةِ مِنْ قَلْبِهِ عَلَى لِسَانِهِ.[4]

🌻 The greater world—the human being—lies dormant and must be brought to life, just as a seed is activated as a program of knowledge.

🌻 When each of the four spirits—“the body, the faculty, desire, and faith”—is rightly brought to life, the greater world, the reality of the human being, is revealed. When the spirit of the body is fully brought to life, it is as though the entire material world has taken shape. When the spirit of the faculty is brought to life, it is as though all plants, with all their beauty, have taken shape. When the spirit of desire is fully brought to life, all pleasures, beauty, and feelings surge forth from within the human being. And when the spirit of faith is fully brought to life, the entire spiritual kingdom of the human soul is made manifest.

🌻 If the human being is not rightly brought to life with this capacity, they remain at the level of beasts—or sink even lower.

🌻 Each person has a duty to join the Holy Spirit and be strengthened by it, so that their world may expand to encompass another world.

🌻 Through this journey of ascent, the human being ultimately becomes the whole world, ready to be transformed and begin expanding into the world beyond.

🔅🌼 With God, the human being has no need of food 🌼🔅

🌻 The human being’s true nourishment is nourishment through remembrance; beyond that, through the very bond with the Creator, all their needs of every kind are met. For the human being is the noblest of creatures, while the angels’ nourishment is glorification and their drink is sanctification.

🌷🔅 وَ جَعَلَ فِي كُلِّ سَمَاءٍ سَاكِناً مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ خَلَقَهُمْ مَعْصُومِينَ مِنْ نُورٍ مِنْ بُحُورٍ عَذْبَةٍ وَ هُوَ  بَحْرُ الرَّحْمَةِ وَ جَعَلَ طَعَامَهُمُ‏ التَّسْبِيحَ‏ وَ التَّهْلِيلَ وَ التَّقْدِيس‏[5]

🌷🔅 فَقَالَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ لَنْ يَسْتَنْكِفَ الْمَعْبُودُونَ دُونِي أَنْ يَكُونُوا عَبِيداً لِي وَ لَا الْمَلَائِكَةُ الرُّوحَانِيُّونَ وَ هُمْ مَعْصُومُونَ لَا يَعْصُونَ مَا أَمَرَهُمْ‏ وَ يَفْعَلُونَ ما يُؤْمَرُونَ‏ لَا يَأْكُلُونَ وَ لَا يَشْرَبُونَ وَ لَا يَأْلَمُونَ وَ لَا يَسْقُمُونَ وَ لَا يَشِيبُونَ وَ لَا يَهْرَمُونَ طَعَامُهُمْ وَ شَرَابُهُمُ‏ التَّقْدِيسُ‏ وَ التَّسْبِيحُ وَ عَيْشُهُمْ مِنْ نَسِيمِ الْعَرْشِ وَ تَلَذُّذُهُمْ بِأَنْوَاعِ الْعُلُومِ‏  خَلَقَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِقُدْرَتِهِ أَنْوَاراً وَ أَرْوَاحاً كَمَا شَاءَ وَ أَرَادَ وَ كُلُّ صِنْفٍ مِنْهُمْ يَحْفَظُ نَوْعاً مِمَّا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ and …[6]

🌻 The human being needs nothing but God; neediness is a sign that they have been admonished.

🌷🔅 al-Zumar: 36   أَ لَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِكافٍ عَبْدَهُ وَ يُخَوِّفُونَكَ بِالَّذينَ مِنْ دُونِهِ وَ مَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَما لَهُ مِنْ هادٍ

🔅🌼 The transformation of the digestive and reproductive systems 🌼🔅

🌻 The human being has lost their food—and lost themselves—because they have forgotten God, or have failed to remember Him as they ought.

🌻 What the human being produces should be more valuable than what they take in. They should turn dust into gold; base elements, upon entering the human soul, should become precious jewels.

🌻On the surface, the human intestine appears to be a vast industrial complex in which incoming food should be transformed into products of the highest order. Yet, by allowing impurity into the soul, we have turned this alchemical refinery into a producer of filth.

🌻Humanity shared in the disobedience of Adam, the father of humankind, with only a few exceptions.

🌻Human beings were present as cells in Adam’s loins and, with only a few exceptions, their cells were nourished by the essence of the forbidden tree.

🌻We know that the cells of the body possess a particular vitality, awareness and discernment. They examine and approve the food that enters the body before consuming it; otherwise, the body would suffer severe illness.

🌻Through our cellular presence in Adam’s loins, we responded consciously to the forbidden tree.

🌻We may even suppose that after Adam’s remorse and repentance, our cellular presence, too, manifested a corresponding cellular remorse.

🌻Some of the human body’s systems have departed from their original state and undergone transformation; among them is the reproductive system.

🌻Humanity was endowed with the most beautiful systems in all creation, none of which needed to be concealed. When we look at a flower, we see its entire reproductive system exposed, yet we perceive nothing ugly in it.

🌷🔅 Ṭā Hā: 121   فَأَكَلا مِنْها فَبَدَتْ لَهُما سَوْآتُهُما وَ طَفِقا يَخْصِفانِ عَلَيْهِما مِنْ وَرَقِ الْجَنَّةِ وَ عَصى‏ آدَمُ رَبَّهُ فَغَوى‏

🌷🔅 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع‏ فِي قَوْلِ اللَّهِ‏ فَبَدَتْ لَهُما سَوْآتُهُما قَالَ كَانَتْ سَوْآتُهُمَا لَا تَبْدُو لَهُمَا فَبَدَتْ يَعْنِي كَانَتْ‏ مِنْ‏ دَاخِل‏[7]

🌻Those who are pure have been refined of these shameful parts. We may suppose that no one but Khadija understood the Prophet’s secrets, and no one but Fatima understood Ali’s.

🌻Adam’s descendants were present as cells in his loins in a particular way. Before his disobedience, Adam’s loins were like a pure, refined storehouse, and his cells were like pure guests dwelling within them. Their state cannot be equated with that of loins today. After Adam’s disobedience, the cellular presence of his descendants in his loins was transformed.

🌻When the pure among humanity were present as cells in Adam’s loins, they retained their dignity and sanctity.

🌷🔅 يَا ابْنَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ كُنْتَ نُوراً فِي الْأَصْلَابِ الشَّامِخَةِ وَ الْأَرْحَامِ الطَّاهِرَةِ لَمْ تُنَجِّسْكَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةُ بِأَنْجَاسِهَا وَ لَمْ تُلْبِسْكَ الْمُدْلَهِمَّاتُ مِنْ ثِيَابِهَا[8]

🌻We may suppose that the core of a person’s identity is placed in the loins, where it is neither male nor female; the core is in the loins, and its derivative in the ribs.

🔅🌼 The human soul possesses unity 🌼🔅

🌻Let us note that the reality of the human soul is distinct from the spirit.

🌻A person dies when the soul departs, not when the four spirits depart. Cardiac or brain death is not itself the sign of death.

🌻The death of faith occurs when the spirit of faith departs.

🌻The soul is one, without any parts.

🌻At every moment, the human soul remains one in its varying qualities and degrees. The final outcome of one’s actions, thoughts and intentions is realised in the soul.

🌻There are many animals that were transformed from human beings.

🌻Before its transformation, the peacock was a different kind of peacock.

🌻If a sinful person appeared in their true form—that is, if the form of their spiritual transformation became manifest in their body—they would terrify many wild animals.

🌻Envy makes the devil and is his foulest instrument. Arrogance and self-conceit are among the clearest signs of envy.

🌻Out of compassion and concern, but without envy, one may wish for a servant’s blessings to be taken away if their abundance threatens to lead them astray in worship. One may likewise wish this for an enemy, out of disavowal, not envy.

🌻A single unit has no dimension and is independent of measurement; its breadth is zero. Every unit has this property.

‌🌻A single unit has no quantity. A unit of anything cannot have parts, for if it did, it would no longer be one.

🌻The sum of the entire universe is zero, since it is the sum of units.

🌻At every moment, the universe possesses unity. Unity has no extension. Extension is one of the mysteries; for us, it is impossible to analyze extension.

🌻The present moment has no extension; it possesses unity. The same is true of place.

🌻The relationship between time and timelessness is beyond the realm of mysteries.

🌻The people of the world are astonished by the grandeur of the Creator’s creative power; His incomparable Essence is beyond all that.

🌻The soul is more magnificent in its unity.

🌻Through its own unity of being, every existent is connected to «الله واحد و احد».

🔅🌼 Keeping dogs distracts from spirituality 🌼🔅

🌷🔅 al-Māʾida: 4   يَسْئَلُونَكَ ما ذا أُحِلَّ لَهُمْ قُلْ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّباتُ وَ ما عَلَّمْتُمْ مِنَ الْجَوارِحِ مُكَلِّبينَ تُعَلِّمُونَهُنَّ مِمَّا عَلَّمَكُمُ اللَّهُ فَكُلُوا مِمَّا أَمْسَكْنَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ اذْكُرُوا اسْمَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَريعُ الْحِسابِ

🌻A house in which there is a dog is devoid of angels. It is bereft of purity and spirituality. The same applies to images and statues.

🌷🔅 أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ص قَالَ: إِنَّ جَبْرَئِيلَ قَالَ إِنَّا لَا نَدْخُلُ بَيْتاً فِيهِ كَلْبٌ وَ لَا صُورَةَ إِنْسَانٍ وَ لَا بَيْتاً فِيهِ تِمْثَال‏[9]

🔅🌼 Each of God’s Proofs has a distinct and particular mission 🌼🔅

🌻“The lamp of the people of Paradise” speaks to the special mission of His Eminence Imam al-Askari عليه السلام toward the faithful.

🌻Each of God’s Proofs has special missions and graces for the faithful and the world, both in this life and in the Hereafter.

🔅🌼 The human spirit is the wings that carry us aloft 🌼🔅

🌻The human spirit may be either wings that carry a person aloft or a stone that sends them plunging down.

🌻For a pure person, the self, the spirit of faith, the intellect, and noble virtues serve as wings carrying them to the heavens and the highest realm.

🌻If the spirit of faith departs while the spirit of desire remains, a person falls in sleep from the earthly realm to the lowest and darkest region of creation.

🌻By divine wisdom, God’s appointed agents cause some people, after they awaken, to forget the events of their dreams.

🌻It may be that, in sleep, heavenly knowledge is instilled in a person.

🌻If the bonds connecting the spirits to the body are severed in sleep, death occurs.

🌻Dream interpretation and explanation arise from the effort to turn intelligible realities into sensory forms.

🌻In dreams, forbidden wealth sometimes appears in the form of filth.

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

[1] Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa, p. 53  Attributed to Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad عليه السلام, Aʿlamī, Beirut, first edition, 1400 AH.

[2] Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa, p. 16  Attributed to Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad عليه السلام, Aʿlamī, Beirut, first edition, 1400 AH.

[3] al-Maḥāsin, vol. 1, p. 61  al-Barqī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Qom, second edition, 1371 AH.

[4] ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Riḍā عليه السلام, vol. 2, p. 69  Ibn Bābawayh, Jahān Publications, Tehran, first edition, 1378 AH.

[5] Bihār al-Anwār (Beirut edition), vol. 54, p. 92Majlisī, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, second edition, 1403 AH.

[6] Bihār al-Anwār (Beirut edition), vol. 26, p. 348Majlisī, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, second edition, 1403 AH.

[7] Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, vol. 2, p. 11Al-ʿAyyāshī, al-Maṭbaʿa al-ʿIlmiyya, Tehran, first edition, 1380 AH.

[8] Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām (edited by Khurasan), vol. 6, p. 114Al-Ṭūsī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.

[9] Al-Maḥāsin, vol. 2, p. 614Al-Barqī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Qom, second edition, 1371 AH.