The One Is Alone in His Oneness

🌼🔆🌼A Self-Assessment in Devotion and Tawhid🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹 « تَوَحَّدَ بِالتَّوْحِيدِ فِي تَوْحِيدِه‏»  «The Secrets of Tawhid in the Words of Imam al-Baqir (peace be upon him)»  «The One and Only» «Understanding Religion with Imam al-Baqir (peace be upon him)»  «The Night of Imam al-Baqir’s Martyrdom» and more … An overview with an addendum       1403.03.25    Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🔅🌼The Imam is the means of unlocking our primordial nature🌼🔅

🔅🌼The Imam is the key to our primordial nature🌼🔅

🔅🌼An unparalleled reality named Muhammad al-Baqir🌼🔅

 🔅🌼A radiant light🌼🔅

🌹To describe Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (peace be upon him) is impossible, for he is a light and a mighty, hidden mystery of God.

🌸🔆أَلَا إِنَّ هَذَا النُّورُ الْأَبْلَجُ‏  الْمُسْرَجُ وَ النَّسِيمُ الْأَرِجُ وَ الْحَقُّ الْمَرْجُ‏[1]

🔅🌼A beautiful radiance🌼🔅

🌹Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (peace be upon him) is a beautiful, expansive, shining light; a lamp that never ceases to glow; a pure, fragrant, life-giving breeze from the Divine; and truth, forever held aloft.

🔅🌼If only we knew al-Baqir🌼🔅

🌹If we knew Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (peace be upon him), we would let the one who lays open the depths of knowledge open the secrets of our hearts.

🌹How well do we know our hearts? How do we relate to them? If we knew our hearts and were fully connected to them, we would feel the whole universe. We would plant love for the whole universe within ourselves! We would make the sanctuary of the All into our own sanctuary. We would reveal its boundlessness and make it the abiding home of the remembrance of God, the Greatest; we would make it His greatest sanctuary.

🌹If we knew the hearts that are the life of the universe and held fast to them, we would attain perfection from beginning to end!!!

🔅🌼Understand religion through the Imamate🌼🔅

🌻🔆Al-A‘raf: 179   وَ لَقَدْ ذَرَأْنا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثيراً مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَ الْإِنْسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لا يَفْقَهُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لا يُبْصِرُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ آذانٌ لا يَسْمَعُونَ بِها أُولئِكَ كَالْأَنْعامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ أُولئِكَ هُمُ الْغافِلُونَ

🔆We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and humankind. They have hearts with which they do not think or understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle—indeed, even further astray. They are the heedless.

🌹We must seek understanding, reason, reflect and ponder with Imam al-Baqir and each of the members of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them). We must look and listen with them, and experience love and servitude to God.

🌹When will the time come for us to draw upon and benefit from the Imams, the very life of our souls?

🔅🌼Let us soothe the heart🌼🔅

🌹Let us cherish the Imams, the life of our souls, so that we may feel the whole universe.

🌹Instead of soothing our hearts, we wound them. We injure our own hearts, kill our souls, and bring our primordial nature to ruin.

🌹Let us examine our connection with our own minds. If we fully activated this divine computer, we would connect it to the network of existence.

🌹If we activated the Supreme Mind and connected through it to the greatest, highest, most exalted, most subtle and most knowing network, we would awaken our greater universe.

🔅🌼Knowing the mind sets thought in motion🌼🔅

🌹If I knew my mind and made use of it, I would bring the world under my control and take the reins of existence into my hands. Just as I put my limbs and organs to work, I would have this power—which God, the All-Knowing and Wise, has placed within us.

🌹What percentage of the energy of the sun and the stars do we draw upon? How much do we draw upon the power of God, the might of God, the majesty of God, and so on? Let us make ourselves a mighty force.

🌹How much light and illumination do we receive? How much do we benefit from the light of God, the knowledge of God, the wisdom of God?! By God’s light, all the realities of the world are clear to us.

🔅🌼 Unmindful of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir🌼🔅

🌹We should be ashamed before Imam al-Baqir; we are heedless of his precious soul. To be heedless of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, is to be deprived of the very heart and soul of knowledge and wisdom.

🌹When the means of the soul lie idle, it sinks to its lowest depths; setting them in motion sends the soul soaring to its highest heights.

🌹To be heedless of the Imam is to be heedless of light and illumination. If the sun in our hearts goes out, we become a silent, scorched land. We have turned our gaze away from the sun and set our hearts on knowledge and reason,

🔅🌼 Testing our knowledge of al-Baqir🌼🔅

🌹O God, make al-Baqir known to us, and grant us a worthy longing for him.

🌹How familiar are we with the words of the Imam?! The more we understand them, the more truly we are in touch with our own primordial nature. A sense of estrangement from al-Baqir’s words reveals how estranged we are from our true nature and from reality. Put yourself to the test; take account of yourself.

🌹If we take delight in the words of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, and their meaning flows through our souls, then to that extent we are close to knowing him.

🌹If our hearts are locked against the Imam’s words, then our primordial nature is locked away. When his words flow freely into our hearts, it is a sign that our primordial nature has opened.

 🔅🌼 Soaring through the celestial realm of Imam al-Baqir’s words🌼🔅

🌹The hidden mysteries of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him, lie in his monotheistic teachings and words.

🌷🔆عَنْ جَابِرِ بْنِ يَزِيدَ الْجُعْفِيِّ قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ ع عَنْ شَيْ‏ءٍ مِنَ التَّوْحِيدِ فَقَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَبَارَكَتْ أَسْمَاؤُهُ الَّتِي يُدْعَا بِهَا وَ تَعَالَى فِي عُلُوِّ كُنْهِهِ وَاحِدٌ تَوَحَّدَ بِالتَّوْحِيدِ فِي تَوَحُّدِهِ‏  ثُمَّ أَجْرَاهُ عَلَى خَلْقِهِ فَهُوَ وَاحِدٌ صَمَدٌ.

قُدُّوسٌ يَعْبُدُهُ كُلُّ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَ يَصْمُدُ إِلَيْهِ كُلُّ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَ وَسِعَ كُلَّ شَيْ‏ءٍ عِلْماً. [2]

🌷🔆Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju‘fi said: I asked Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him, about the oneness of God. The Imam replied: “Indeed, God—blessed are His names, by which He is invoked—is exalted in the loftiness of His unique essence;

in His oneness, He is alone in His unity. Then He made His unity manifest throughout His creation. He is One, the Eternal Refuge, the Most Holy; everything worships Him, everything turns to Him as its purpose, and everything lies within the reach of His knowledge.”

🔅🌼 He is One in His oneness🌼🔅

🌹The One and Only God is Himself the witness to His own oneness.

🌹God Himself has instilled and impressed the affirmation of His oneness in the souls of His creatures.

🌹Just as none but God is worthy of praise, none but He is worthy to affirm His oneness.

🔅🌼 Our very existence bears witness to His oneness🌼🔅

🌹We know His oneness through Him; we possess no other knowledge by which to know it. His oneness, through Him, is firmly established within us, and we have no explanation or interpretation to offer for it.

🌹The One God has made our very existence a word affirming His oneness. Our existence, like that of every other being, is His signature—a signature that needs no explanation, yet cannot be explained. It is enough to remain true to our pure primordial nature, so that the radiance of His signature may continue to shine.

🔅🌼 The One and Only🌼🔅

🌹In His oneness, God is uniquely and utterly alone.

🌹In His oneness, God is “the One alone.”

🌹In affirming His oneness, God is unique in His unity.

🌹God has no rival in His oneness. He is as He is: Himself, and Himself alone. And that is all. Yet this phrase is not free of anthropomorphism; it calls for glorification, transcendence, and repentance.

🌹His single Essence is one in its oneness.

🌹His oneness is described by oneness. Who can attain that oneness? He alone suffices for His own oneness and unity.

🌹The One is one in His oneness.

🌹He is One, and every attribute is alien to Him, for no attribute is His equal, and no attribute can reach His oneness.

🔅🌼 Only the One can describe the One 🌼🔅

🌹He is singular, and in His singularity no one in the universe knows Him.

🌹Oneness has no attribute—unless oneness itself has an attribute?! For if oneness had an attribute, that attribute would be like the One; so oneness can have no attribute. He alone is His own attribute. And that is all.

🌹To describe is to ascribe a likeness or counterpart to the one described; thus the description becomes like its subject. But no likeness or counterpart can be ascribed to the One, the Singular. That the One cannot be described, that He has no attribute—this is the most beautiful description of the One.

🌹To describe the One as one is utterly impossible. Apart from confessing our inability, there is no way to describe oneness! How could we make the singular a mirror of the One, when we cannot even say that He is His own image?

🔅🌼 He alone affirms His own unity 🌼🔅

🌹He who affirms His own unity confirms us in affirming it.

🌹If we know the Singular, then He is no longer singular. Our knowledge of Him—even if it counts as no more than a shadow of His knowledge—still deprives the Singular of His singularity, even if only by a shadow’s breadth.

🌹None but the One can describe the One.

🌹None but the One knows anything of the One.

🌹The One alone speaks of the One’s unity.

🌹God Himself sings the song of His own unity.

🌹Through His own affirmation of unity, we affirm His unity. Just as through His praise we are His eulogists, so through His own affirmation of unity, we affirm His unity.

🔅🌼 The solitary One 🌼🔅

🌹He is One, and nothing else; yet to describe His oneness is utterly impossible. His own declaration of unity is a confession of this inability.

🌹No one has access to His oneness.

🌹Who could comprehend and describe His oneness, pass by His side or through His domain, catch its fragrance, or discern a trace of the Unseen One?

🌹The One is singular in being one—in being solitary, singular, and alone.

🔅🌼 He is His own witness 🌼🔅

🌹He alone bears witness to Himself and to His oneness.

🌹He made the affirmation of unity a means by which another might bear witness to His oneness. Yet no cause, means, or instrument is a likeness or counterpart of His oneness, for He has no equal or like.

🌹Only by way of concession can we say that the affirmation of unity is a sign of the Signless, who needs no sign. In truth, it is an effort to acknowledge precisely that He has no equal or likeness.

🌹The affirmation of unity became a means of His oneness—not so that this means might make us fully aware of His absolute oneness and His oneness alone, but rather as an effort to awaken us to ourselves and keep our innate nature awake.

🔅🌼 Describing unity 🌼🔅

🌹The incomparable One consented to be praised for His oneness. That is, He willed that the One should be known as one.

🌹The incomparable One has no need to be described as one. Indeed, even the power to praise Him as one cannot confer such a power upon the incomparable One. Rather, this rests wholly and solely upon His will.

🔅🌼 تَعَالَى فِي عُلُوِّ كُنْهِهِ أَحَدٌ 🌼🔅

🌹He is exalted—exalted in the loftiness of His innermost reality. His essence reaches the highest height; His innermost reality and essence are exalted. Who could attain such exaltation and thereby gain any understanding of it?

🌹He who is at the highest height cannot be reached, for His height has no end. He is what He is, and we do not know.

🔅🌼 The innermost reality is only a sign pointing to Him 🌼🔅

🌹His oneness is through unity.

🌹He made His names blessed.

🌹Like His name, His innermost reality is only one of the signs pointing to Him.

🌹Just as God is not identical with His name but is its meaning, so too He is not identical with His innermost reality but is its meaning. Whatever we use to turn our attention towards Him—whether a name, an attribute, His essence or His innermost reality—serves this purpose. Even our understanding of the meaning we seek becomes a sign of its absolute meaning, and this process continues.

🔅🌼 The pillars of tawḥīd differ from its meaning 🌼🔅

🌹The words and pillars of tawḥīd are meant to lead us to its meaning. We must not confuse the words and pillars of tawḥīd with tawḥīd itself.

🌹O God, by Your name we find our way to You, yet we cannot reach Your essence. Through Your name, You set us on a path towards You; tawḥīd, too, is another path to You.

🌹In exaltation, He is exalted; in tawḥīd, He is one. He is unique, peerless in His incomparable nature. He cannot be compared with anything to prove His uniqueness; there is nothing other than Him with which He could be compared. Nor can He be compared with His creatures.

🌹Surely, the Creator cannot be compared with the created.

🌹He was there when time itself did not yet exist. He was—but not in the sense of simply existing. He was in a way beyond knowing. There was nothing, and He was one and alone; and now, too, He is one, alone in His oneness.

🔅🌼 He precedes knowledge 🌼🔅

🌹He is prior to knowledge; knowledge cannot precede Him. Knowledge is knowledge through Him.

🌹Awareness and knowledge are not one with God. He has no likeness with which to become one. Knowledge is knowledge through God, but He is not God through knowledge. He is self-sufficient in every respect, even independent of knowledge.

🔅🌼 Through God, we have knowledge beyond knowledge 🌼🔅

🌹Through God Himself, created beings know His oneness beyond the reach of knowledge.

🌹Tawḥīd is beyond knowledge.

🌹There is no account or explanation of what lies beyond knowledge; knowledge has no path to what lies beyond it.

🌹Knowledge pertains to things known. He is the peerless One, self-sufficient and in need of nothing known. Why would He need knowledge? He brought knowledge to knowledge; He made knowledge knowing.

🌹Our awareness beyond knowledge of His oneness comes through God Himself, not through ourselves. Rather, through our God, we are aware of His oneness.

🔅🌼 بِكَ عَرَفْتُكَ 🌼🔅

🌹Knowledge has no path to what lies beyond knowledge; there is no knowledge of what lies beyond knowledge.

🌸🔆 بِكَ عَرَفْتُكَ وَ أَنْتَ دَلَلْتَنِي عَلَيْكَ وَ دَعَوْتَنِي إِلَيْكَ وَ لَوْ لَا أَنْتَ لَمْ أَدْرِ مَا أَنْتَ[3]

🔆 I have known You only through Yourself! You alone guide me to Yourself and call me towards You! Had You not been, I would not have known who You are!!!!

🌹O God, make known to me Your loftiest sign.

🌹Who can know that which lies beyond all encompassing? He is beyond every form of insight.

🌹God’s knowledge encompasses all things. He is above knowledge, beyond all encompassing. He is the One who wills and directs limits and constraints; if He wills, limits and constraints are removed. If He wills, a thing is encompassed; if He wills, another reality, such as knowledge, encompasses everything. Surely, then, He Himself is above what He wills; He is certainly above the will that is realised.

🌹 He reigns over all that is encompassed. He is sovereign over encompassing knowledge, wisdom, power, and infinitude. He bestows His dominion upon whomever He wills, just as He bestowed the dominion of encompassing knowledge.

🌹 Knowledge is from Him, but He is not knowledge; just as mercy is from Him, but He is not mercy; just as creation is from Him, but He is not creation. Everything is from Him, but He is from nothing.

🌹 God Himself praises Himself, and He alone is worthy of His own praise, just as God alone is worthy of His own love.

🌹 None but God can affirm the oneness of the One God! Yet He is so merciful that He made His creatures lamps of His oneness.

🌼Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼

[1] Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib (by Ibn Shahrāshūb), vol. 4, p. 182ʿAllāmeh, Qom, first edition, 1379 AH.

[2] Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 1, p. 123 Kulaynī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyah, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.

[3]Miṣbāḥ al-Mutahajjid wa Silāḥ al-Mutaʿabbid, vol. 2, p. 583