The Miracle of the Believer’s Character

🌼🔆🌼Ethics: God’s Miraculous Staff🌼🔆🌼
🔹 Sessions on the Commentary and Exegesis of al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, Supplication 20
📅 Date: 1404/06/27 – 25 Rabiʿ al-Awwal 1447
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:

Passage 8 of the supplication 📜

( 8 ) اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ ، وَ اجْعَلْ لِي يَداً عَلَى مَنْ ظَلَمَنِي ، وَ لِسَاناً عَلَى مَنْ خَاصَمَنِي ، وَ ظَفَراً بِمَنْ عَانَدَنِي ، وَ هَبْ لِي مَكْراً عَلَى مَنْ كَايَدَنِي ، وَ قُدْرَةً عَلَى مَنِ اضْطَهَدَنِي ، وَ تَكْذِيباً لِمَنْ قَصَبَنِي ، وَ سَلَامَةً مِمَّنْ تَوَعَّدَنِي ، وَ وَفِّقْنِي لِطَاعَةِ مَنْ سَدَّدَنِي ، وَ مُتَابَعَةِ مَنْ أَرْشَدَنِي .

Strength in the Face of Oppression 🛡

My God, my Lord, grant me the strength to stand against whoever wrongs me and subjects me to every kind of pressure—organized pressure of an economic, political, military, cultural and intellectual nature. O God, give me the strength to stand firm against them.

Refuting Organized Lies 🧭

And, my God, my Lord, grant me the means to refute whoever attacks me, slanders me, spreads all kinds of rumours about me, fabricates lies and seeks to ruin my reputation. O God, grant me the means to refute them. In other words, equip me with a stronghold—a fortress from which I can stand against lies and destroy them. Indeed, in satanic countries, ministries of fabrication work around the clock to raise aloft the rule of Satan and ignorance in this world. Their banner is the lie, Satan’s highest banner, and they want to keep it flying forever. They establish ministries—ministries devoted to fabricating lies—and devise schemes, from the smallest lie to the greatest, to destroy truth and honesty. They know that with the weapon of lies they can bend the body of truth. If we have no way to refute lies, no strong fortress, we will be destroyed. Our truth and honesty will be made to look like lies, while our enemies’ lies will seem true—and we will be the ones who perish. We must not be silent in the face of lies; we must raise our voices against them. They shout their lies aloud, and we too must proclaim the truth in response. The higher they raise the banner of lies, the more fiercely we must rise up against those same lies with refutation and integrity, and bring them down.

Actively Countering Lies 🧯

O God, equip me. If we let lies go unchecked, they will spread like germs, consume the life of society and weaken its ability to discern. If we leave lies alone, without refuting them, neutralising them or exposing them for what they are, they will burn truth and honesty like a fire. So if we are to uphold truth and honesty, we must fight lies. Lies are among the tools used to discredit worthy and virtuous people, so that the unworthy and corrupt can be imposed upon us. If we enter the struggle against lies armed with the means to expose them, then truth and honesty will come to life.

Neutralising Lies and the Rule of Ignorance 🛠

In response to ministries that manufacture lies, we must establish ministries to counter them and rise up against them so that truth may live. The aim of manufacturing lies is to impose the rule of ignorance and destroy reason. That is why fuel is poured onto the fire of lies, afflicting society with them. If the bomb of lies is not defused, it will destroy everyone. We must equip ourselves with specific methods for defusing organized lies and use every means at our disposal to expose their true nature to all—to reveal their hideous face, so that society will flee from them, from pain and disease, from corruption. If we fail to shut the door on small lies, the great gates of falsehood will swing open before us, and immense calamities will engulf us. Throughout history, tyrannical rulers have seized power with weapons, germs, and bombs of lies. So we must rise up, from the smallest to the greatest, and refuse to believe the great lie. When lies infiltrate different spheres of society, they turn our universities into breeding grounds for ignorance. Lies can enter our creed and our thoughts, and burn away our pure beliefs. So we must never dismiss small lies as insignificant: that very small lie can kindle enormous fires of falsehood.

The Danger of Shirk and Slander ⚠️

Allah forgives all sins, but He does not forgive shirk. Let us know this and be fully aware: Allah will never forgive shirk; He will not pardon it. As for sins other than shirk, He forgives whomsoever He wills. For shirk is a slander against God, a tremendous lie: it is a grave falsehood against Allah and His oneness, and God will not forgive it. This is the very great lie that, in the end times, will sever the lifeline of humanity’s pure beliefs. Those equipped to reject lies will be able to stand firm against this grave slander and defuse it. Perhaps they will feed us shirk in the name of tawhid, and we will not even know it. If we keep our command post for rejecting lies alive, and ask God to grant us the power to reject them, we will no longer be afflicted by the pain of falsehood. We will not be afflicted by shirk, whether manifest or hidden. They will open up all kinds of avenues to feed us lies and employ all sorts of deception. They repeat a lie until our minds come to believe it. They present lies with the greatest ease, setting them before us with carefully prepared pretexts and contexts. We take them in gladly and make them the food of our hearts and souls. To make us swallow lies, they resort to every kind of embellishment and beguilement. They use all kinds of tunes and enlist people of a satanic disposition, dressed in the garb of learning, to inject their lies into people’s souls. Through artifice and calculated adornment, through alluring speech, they will ensnare people in falsehood. They exploit whatever stirs the human heart and senses to make people swallow lies. We must therefore equip ourselves with a ministry devoted to rejecting lies, or we will be destroyed. Lies ensnare the gullible; they are a weapon that swallows up every other weapon. It may be that 99 percent of the reach of satanic forces comes through lies.

The Weapon of Rejecting Lies 🗡

Lies are the wicked spirit behind satanic wars. Anyone unfamiliar with these techniques will be defeated. We must therefore equip ourselves and ask God to arm us with this mighty weapon: the rejection of lies.

A Shield of Well-Being Against Threats 🩺

O God, grant me well-being in the face of threats. O God, grant me health and safety against every kind of threat. We must not treat threats as a joke: they begin in jest and end in earnest. Indifference in the face of threats makes it possible for them to become reality. We must therefore have a shield of well-being against threats, too. Let us ask God to equip us with such a shield.

The Grace to Obey the Guide 🧭

O God, grant me success. O God, enable me to obey the one who shows me the straight path. O God, show me Your grace and grant me the success to obey the one who sets a goal before me. Grant me the success to obey the one who guides me along the right path. Obedience to an upright person is a gift from God. Not everyone can obey the one who shows them the straight path, for an army of devils stands against them, intent on driving them toward Hell. We must obey the one who takes us by the collar to lead us to Paradise. What a noble person, seeking to save us from Hell—yet we drive him away, eager to be led toward Hell. So I have been deprived of God’s grace: I transgress against and defy such guides, because Satan commands me to lash out at that upright person, grow angry, and shout.

Following the spiritual guide 👣

I want him to leave me in peace so I can plunge into Hell, full of longing. To the one who sets me straight, gives me strength and steadfastness, puts my aims in order, guides me over level ground, and becomes the wings that let me fly—O God, grant me the success to obey him, so I may take him into my embrace. Why, when I seek to make peace with my enemy, do I make an enemy of my friend? And as for obeying the one who guides me: O God, grant me the success to follow my spiritual guide, to become his devoted follower—the one who wishes to guide me, help me grow upright, and lift me up. Let me follow him, walk behind him, and never lose sight of him.

Steadfast guidance in confronting deceit 🎯

O God, guide me aright so that I may face and confront the one who has deceived me, and wish him well. O God, set me right; guide me aright and place me on the right path. O God, give me a clear purpose, so that I may confront the one who has dealt dishonestly with me—and wish well to the one who has deceived and betrayed me, lied to me, and schemed against me; so that I may help him become well-intentioned and turn his deceit toward good. O God, unless You guide me aright and set me straight, I will never attain the station where I can straighten what is crooked.

Repaying kindness and maintaining family ties 🤝

And let me repay with kindness the one who has abandoned me and kept away from me. Let me repay the one who has fled from me and withdrawn—not with just any kindness, but with a kindness that is abundant, open-handed, and boundless. O God, make my kindness toward him vast as a great desert; let my generosity encompass him. And let me reward with generosity the one who has denied me; let me respond with giving to the one who has withheld from me. Let me give to the one who denied me, and answer threats with generosity; let me give freely to the one who deprived me. That is, let me take my service to its utmost, wear myself out and grow old in doing good and serving him. He deprived me; let me wear myself out serving him in return. Let me repay with kindness the one who has cut me off. O God, show me such grace that I may repay the one who has severed family ties by maintaining them.

Rejecting backbiting; speaking well of others 🕊

And let me answer the one who has backbitten me by speaking well of him. He has backbitten me, eaten my flesh, and I too should answer in kind—but by doing the opposite of what he has done: speaking of his good qualities and saying good things about him. He has spoken ill of me; let me speak well of him. And bestow Your grace upon me, so that I may give thanks for what is good, turn a blind eye to what is bad, overlook it, let it go, and ignore it. O God, who are these people? Surely they resemble the Prophet; and if they do not, they are followers of Imam Sajjad.

A map for spiritual ascent in the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya 🌟

This blessed supplication—the twentieth prayer of the *Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya*—and these blessed passages offer a complete model of the lofty ethics our Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn has shown us: a road map to spiritual growth, to the summit of servitude to God. Our Imam teaches us not to be passive in our world, in society, or among our fellow human beings; not to remain silent in the face of evil, but to act with awareness and purpose, answering evil with the utmost grace. We are to overcome both those who do evil and evil itself. How? Through moral excellence.

The Imam’s way breaks the cycle of corruption, weakens ignorance, and frustrates Satan. This is the Sajjadian way of answering evil: it revives the spirit of ethics and, through virtue and noble character, deprives vice of its hold. This is the Sajjadian weapon. This is the flowering of the Sajjadian path at its highest: it carries the human being to the utmost heights, to a beauty beyond imagining. When confronted, opposed, or wronged, whom does the believer answer in kind? The believer answers with kindness, repays good with good, and meets evil with goodness—so that an ethical and discerning response may take root in the heart of society.

The Sajjadian path and the gentle weapon of ethics ✨

Yes, these blessed passages from al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya offer an unsurpassed example of the lofty Islamic and human ethics fostered in the school of Imam Sajjād. They are a practical programme for rising higher, for striving to outdo one another in love and devotion to God. Our Imam Sajjād shows us that, in the face of instinctive, negative reactions, we must counter them with positive, ethical and elevated actions, disarming those instincts through noble responses. Through our generosity of spirit, we can rise above the habits of ordinary human nature and show that we are God’s chosen servants, empowered by His grace and able to overcome every evil. We go to war with darkness through light, and with light we take the life out of darkness.

Imam, we have made ourselves strong at the height of our power, not in a moment of weakness. It is at the height of our strength that we shed the light of ethics with such beauty, so that it may leave its mark on society and the world. Answering evil with force calls for its own particular expertise; when the time comes to use hard power, it must be wielded with the utmost precision. Imam, there are times when hard power is unnecessary: with the soft power of ethics, society can be brought to the heights of flourishing and vitality. Imam, if a person feels that their gentleness is sharpening a snake’s fangs, then doing good would be an injustice to goodness itself.

Taming the snake after removing its fangs 🐍

Imam, once the snake’s fangs have been pulled, there is no longer any need to kill it; it should be subdued, calmed and tamed. Yes, in the work of self-cultivation, the real victory is to overcome one’s own lower self. Then we can win over the souls of others through good character and particular acts of kindness, spreading divine attractions throughout society until its heart is filled with the fragrance of God’s own nature and takes on His attributes.

Love, generosity and initiative ❤️

Indeed, love is a remedy without equal; generosity is a remedy that makes gardens bloom from the heart of fire. Love and generosity can build up society and the world. This supplication teaches that a believer must never become captive to the reactions of their surroundings. They must always take the initiative, shape their conduct according to lofty values, choose beauty in their decisions, and master their emotions. This is the highest form of human dignity. Through their consistently noble and thoughtful conduct, they must find their way into the hearts of society and help it flourish. When confronted with evil, the strategy of transcendent ethics is to strike at the heart of ignorance; it will collapse in an instant. Through such beautiful and elevated conduct, this strategy turns fire into a garden and a desert into a surging sea. This way of responding to evil is a classroom for the noblest virtues—a practical lesson in enjoining what is right.

Ethics: The Miracle-Working Staff ⭐️

He should equip himself with the ethics of al-Sajjad. The voice of ethics is the miracle-working staff of every believer—the very staff of Moses, now in the hands of the faithful. Through his ethics, the believer works miracles; through his ethics, he heals suffering. With strength and authority, he equips himself with ethical virtues, attaining the utmost firmness of spirit and gentleness. He heals society all at once, becoming its healing remedy and breathing life into the rule of reason. Indeed, ethics is a star in the sky of reason, a beautiful star in that sky; and through his ethics, the true believer interprets God’s signs—and even discloses their inner meaning.

The Believer’s Mercy and Light 🌙

God’s special regard rests upon the souls of the faithful. The believer is God’s mercy to His creation, working such wonders through his ethics—not passively, but actively, with the utmost strength. The believer grows angry only for God’s sake; when the time comes, he brings down the foundations of disbelief and godlessness. Yet there are times when he must be water, light and purity, overcoming oppression and darkness through his radiance. The believer’s voice is a presence that turns the desert into a surging sea. The believer is a sacred presence, as though his very being were a prayerful communion with God.

The Believer’s Station and Intimate Prayer 🕯

Such is the believer: as though he were the loudspeaker of God’s intimate prayer, crying out, «یا مبدّل السیئات …», and thus turning evil deeds into good ones. He is a believer, and his station is exalted. He learns only from God, seated at God’s school. In God’s presence, the believer is honoured, exalted and great. He knows that tomorrow, when he returns to God, he will raise his hands in supplication to his Lord—and so he knows how he must conduct himself in this world. The believer is that benefactor who says, «یا محسن، یا مسجن» …..

«یا محسن»; Seeking Refuge in Mercy 🙏

O God, You are the Beneficent, O Beneficent One. The wrongdoer has turned to You, and You Yourself, O Beneficent One, have asked Your servants to pardon those who do wrong. O God, You are the Beneficent; so, by the right of Muhammad and his family, and bless Muhammad and his family …
forgive my wrongs as well. The believer who asks this of God pardons the wrongs of those around him and repays them with kindness, for he is God’s servant—the servant of the One who transforms evil deeds into … . The believer knows these words: «اللهم لیس یرد غضبک الی حلمک». My God, no one can turn back Your wrath; it is Your forbearance that can turn it back. My God, Your displeasure can be turned away only by Your pardon and forgiveness. My God, no one is safe from Your punishment unless Your mercy shelters us from it; it is to Your mercy that we will flee for refuge from Your punishment. My God, no one can escape Your punishment and retribution except one who supplicates You and stands before You.