The Laws of the Kazemian Will

🌻🔆The Laws of the Kazemi Will🔆🌻
🌼🔆🌼The Seven Cities of Being🌼🔆🌼

🔹The Eve of the Martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kazim, peace be upon him
📅 Date: 1403/11/04 – 24 Rajab 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some points discussed in the session:

🌟 The secret of becoming Salman

The secret of becoming “one of us, the People of the Household” is the Imam; the secret of becoming Salman is the Imam.
Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, is the locus of God’s Kazemi will.
His blessed heart is the vessel of God’s will, for he himself said:
“Our hearts are vessels of God’s will.”

That is, if we look to God’s will, the blessed heart of Imam Musa al-Kazim is the vessel in which that will is made manifest.
Whatever God wills is revealed in his heart.

✨ The Imam: the Book of Divine Law

The divine laws that govern the expanse of existence flow from the heart of Imam Musa al-Kazim.

• This heart is the book of God’s all-embracing law:
• the laws of nature,
• and the laws beyond nature.

The heart we speak of is the very heart through which we must attain deep understanding.
If we do not attain deep understanding through the Kazemi heart, God forbid, we will cross beyond the bounds of our humanity.
We must know Imam al-Kazim, peace be upon him.

🌟 The issuance of divine laws

At every moment, new laws issue from the Imam’s heart:

• natural and supernatural laws,
• physical and metaphysical laws,
• laws of the material, imaginal, dominical and divine realms.

If these laws remain undiscovered,

• the world will be nothing but a cemetery to us.

But if these laws are discovered,

• this world will truly become the Hereafter.

The speed at which divine laws issue:

• The laws of the universe move faster than light.
• Yet I have still not managed to reach even a billionth of the speed of light.

This truth has left me exhausted and helpless.
I am not only “deaf, dumb and blind”; I am also lame in this world.

🕊 A Kazemi heart for discovering the world

My heart must be a Kazemi heart,
so that it can discover the laws of this universe.

🌟 Perceiving the material world and what lies beyond

I still cannot perceive a butterfly’s wing.

• A butterfly moving at a modest speed.
• If it were to speed up a little, I would no longer be able to see it.

Whatever in this universe increases in speed slips beyond the reach of my perception.
I am blind even to this material world.
How, then, could I hope to step into the supernatural?

Where are the laws of nature and the supernatural discovered?

• In the hearts of the Immaculate Imams.
• We must come to possess these hearts if we are to interpret the universe.

Without understanding and receiving God’s laws, we will have no understanding of this universe.

🌟 Our helplessness before the divine attributes

Yes, we are helpless and blind before God’s wondrous acts in this world of being.
His ancient laws are hidden from us, and so are His new ones.
God’s decrees are unknown to us, and our understanding of them is limited.

✨ Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar’s beautiful words

In a beautiful saying, Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar reveals the first and final mystery:
a boundary that marks the way to freedom and the attainment of truth.

The Imam is the history and geography of the universe; he is God’s complete book.

• Every part of this history shapes our identity.
• If we fail to remember our history, we become estranged from our past and from who we truly are.

How can we become connected to the Imam?

• If we can become the Imam’s friend and companion, we will become a sentence of the universe.
• We will discover this entire universe.

The first and final mystery:

• To discover the truth of the human being, we must understand the whole universe, across all its ages and possibilities.
• Until we attain this understanding, we have not even reached the first stage of perfection.

The first stage of perfection:

• If we can govern the entire universe, we will only then have reached the starting point of our own perfection.
• Governing the universe as we govern our own limbs and faculties becomes possible only when we are in the Imam of the Age’s company.

🌟 Becoming the Imam of the Age’s companion

When we become the Imam of our Age’s companion, we can become the soul of the universe.
Then we will govern space and time as we govern our own limbs and faculties.

At every moment, God is engaged in a new affair:

• كل یوم فی شأن.
• At every moment, God wills a new universe—or even a new *jafr*.

But how far have I come?

• The time of Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar is our time.
• His blessed heart is the command center of God’s Kazimi will.

God’s will is still being inscribed in the being of Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar.

✨ Discovering the laws of the Kazimi will

How astonishing! We must discover the laws of the Kazimi will.

• But what do I know of the Kazimi will?
• Nothing! For I have yet to know Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar.

🌟 God’s knowledge and divine will

Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar, peace be upon him, was asked about God’s knowledge.
The Imam replied:
“God knows; God wills.”

These words can be understood as follows:

• God wills.
• God ordains.
• God decrees.
• God ratifies.

This is the knowledge of God.
The Imam has shown us the path to discovering this knowledge.

His noble father, Imam Jaʿfar, peace be upon him, also illuminated this path.

🌟 The seven attributes of being

Nothing in heaven or on earth comes into being except through these seven attributes:

1. His will.
2. His desire.
3. His measure.
4. His decree.
5. His permission.
6. His book.
7. His appointed term.

No one has the power to annul any one of these seven attributes.
Whoever claims otherwise is an unbeliever.

The existence of things in this world depends on these seven qualities.
If we open our eyes and hearts, we will discover that there is something beyond existence, though it is not of the same order as existence.

The seven cities of existence are built upon these seven qualities.
Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, said:
“Nothing comes into existence unless God wills it.”

✨ The meaning of thingness and existence

The thingness of anything is higher than its existence.
A thing comes into existence only when God wills it, intends it, determines its measure and decrees it.

Existence is a gift from God.

• God is not of the same order as existence.
• He created existence and bestowed existence upon things.

We must not confine God within existence.
Existence is but one of God’s works of art.

The precise meanings of the seven qualities:

1. Will: the beginning of God’s action; His desire and intention.
2. Measure: determining the limits of things, their length and breadth; until God determines their bounds, they cannot be perceived.
3. Decree: when God decrees something, He seals it—that is, with His seal, the decision becomes final and irrevocable.

Existence is God’s seal.

• When we see God’s seal, it means we have apprehended existence.
• The existence of all that exists points to God’s seal.

The existence of every thing has spirit and soul—not just one spirit, but many.

🌟 From will to seal: the manifestation of existence

From will to seal, the manifestation of thingness and existence unfolds.
We imagine that we apprehend the existence and thingness of things, but in fact we perceive only a display of them.

What is God’s will?

• When we reach God’s will, we have gained access to the spirit and soul of things.
• Will is the mother of the spirits of existence.
• The First Creator created the mother of the spirits, then gave it form.

Thingness is higher than existence.
Which aspect of things do we encounter?

• Have we apprehended every dimension of things?
• All the pleasure, beauty and peace in this world bring us only to the very beginning of God’s art.

Our discussion extends only from God’s will to His seal.
Indeed, however much we speak of the thingness of things, we are still only at the beginning of apprehending the wonders of this world of existence.

🌟 Before the will: a where that knows no where

Before the will comes knowledge.
But what lies before knowledge?
Before knowledge is a place that knows no where.

We may not even call God “beyond existence,” for God is beyond knowledge.
Only to avoid negating all description can we say: He is beyond everything.

We have not yet reached the reality of things, yet we claim to understand God.
We seek refuge from such a thought in God, and seek God’s protection.

✨ The rank of things surpasses their existence

A golden insight from the words of Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, is this:
“The rank of things surpasses their existence.”

🌟 Deep understanding: the path to knowledge

Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, calls us to deep understanding.
He said:
“May God have mercy on a servant who attains deep understanding.”

A golden insight:

• Until a servant of God attains deep understanding, he will not attain knowledge.
• Until we become learned in religion, we will not know the people, the world, or ourselves.

Here, fiqh does not mean practical jurisprudence, but the fiqh of divine oneness.
Unless we become deeply learned in the fundamentals, even mastery of the subsidiary branches will leave us standing on shaky ground.
A true jurist is one who attains full mastery of both the fundamentals and their branches.

✨ Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar’s Instruction

Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar’s instruction:

1. Learn what you do not know.
2. Overcome your ignorance.
3. Teach the ignorant what you have learned.
4. Honor the scholar for the knowledge he possesses.
5. Do not quarrel with the scholar.
6. Win over the ignorant, but do not belittle them.

The purpose of this instruction:

• To honor knowledge and overcome ignorance.
• To encourage the ignorant to seek knowledge.

But if we honor the ignorant, we bury them in their ignorance.

🌟 Who Is a Jurist?

A jurist is someone who attains the station of God-consciousness.

• When they reach this station, they shine like a light throughout existence.

We must honor knowledge and overcome ignorance.

• Commercial and outward forms of learning are not true knowledge.
• True knowledge springs from divine oneness.

Anyone who is proficient only in the sciences of appetite and desire is ignorant, not learned.
A learned person is one who has mastered the divine sciences and attained that lofty station.

✨ Trust and Reliance

Imam Musa ibn Jaʿfar said:
“Whoever truly knows people does not put their trust in them.”

• That is, they do not make people their support.
• Their reliance is on God alone.

What do those who pursue the world do?

• They put their trust in the world and its people.
• And even in this world, they come crashing down.

🌟 Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of God

The Imam said:
“Whoever knows God and attains divine oneness comes to solitude.”

How do we come to know God?
Through self-knowledge:

• If I truly know myself, I will also know people.
• If I truly know myself, I will no longer see myself.
• I will find myself to be nothing, and in every instant I will perceive that I am being created anew.

Understanding the truth:

• At every moment, our existence depends on the One who gives existence.
• If God does not sustain our existence, we will perish.

The result:

• When I understand that I am nothing, I will attain spiritual detachment.
• I will become detached in the truest sense.

🌟 Detachment and Liberation

Whoever knows themselves attains spiritual detachment.

• They experience liberation from both the self and all that is other than the self.
• They join themselves to God and come to know Him.

Whoever knows the world:

• Becomes indifferent to it.
• Becomes an ascetic, for they see the world as base and do not gravitate towards baseness.

Whoever knows people:

• Attains individuality, becoming solitary and estranged.
• They lose themselves among people and do not give them more attention than is necessary.
• He sees people as God’s own people, whom God brings into being at every moment.

Whoever knows God:

• will be utterly alone in this world.
• They will find no one familiar to them.
• People will think them mad and ignorant.

✨ Indifference to what people possess

Whoever knows people becomes indifferent to what they have in their hands.
The Imam said:
“Look to the hand of God, not the hands of people.”

• People are tested by what they do, not by what they say.
• Whoever knows people attains individuality and becomes alone.

And God seeks just such an individual:

• God seeks someone who has reached solitude.
• The time of solitude is the time of intimate communion with God.
• Until a person reaches a state of utter singularity, they will not experience the vision of God.

🌟 Recognising God’s beloved

Why should we not recognise God’s beloved in this world?
Recognising God’s beloved is a condition of servitude to Him.

Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, said:
“May God have mercy on one who knows people, while people do not know him.”

If a person recognises the companions of the Imam of the Age, peace be upon him:

• they will be granted the success of recognising the Imam of their time.
• By recognising these singular, detached individuals, they will attain unity with God.
• Their solitude in God will deepen.

✨ Understanding absolute solitude

We imagine that we can understand solitude.
But until we are connected to the Imam of our time, we will not understand absolute solitude.

What is absolute solitude like?

• Through connection to the Imam of the Age, a person reaches complete and absolute solitude.
• In this solitude, they will be alone with God.

🌟 Who is meant by “these people”?

By these people, we mean those who are caught up in and attached to the world.
Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far says:
“Blessed is the one who becomes obscure and unknown.”

• They know people, yet are not tainted by their deeds.
• They keep their company bodily, but do not join them in heart.
• People know them only by their outward appearance, while they see what lies within them.

The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, says:
“Blessed is the obscure servant whom God knows, while people do not know him.”

O servant of God:

• Know God—and that is all!
• Do not let these people know you.

Who are these people?

• God’s shining lamps.
• Fountains of knowledge.
• Those through whose very existence every blind and dark tribulation is dispelled.
• They are not spreaders or exposers of secrets.
• Nor are they ungrateful or hypocritical.

✨ The key to facing tribulation

Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, peace be upon him, said:
“No affliction befalls a believing servant without God inspiring them to pray.”

• When affliction strikes and the servant prays, it is swiftly lifted.
• This is the key to facing tribulation:
  One must pray and not allow the affliction to linger.

If a servant does not pray, affliction will linger in his soul.
The Imam said:
“When affliction comes crashing down upon you, you must pray and humbly beseech God Almighty.”