Written transcript of the lecture
The Meshkat-e Noor teachings series🌼🔆🌼Ali’s Way of Relationship🌼🔆🌼
🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹
🔅🌹 “The Revered Month of God” “Dwelling in the Night of Decree” “A Feast for Particles and All Creation” “Ali’s Way of Love” “The Night of the 23rd of Blessed Ramadan” and more … An abstract, with an addendum 1404.12.03 Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903) 🌹🔅
🔅🌼 The Revered Month of God🌼🔅
🌱🔆☘️فَأَبَانَ فَضِيلَتَهُ عَلَى سَائِرِ الشُّهُورِ بِمَا جَعَلَ لَهُ مِنَ الْحُرُمَاتِ الْمَوْفُورَةِ، وَ الْفَضَائِلِ الْمَشْهُورَةِ، فَحَرَّمَ فِيهِ مَا أَحَلَّ فِي غَيْرِهِ إِعْظَاماً، وَ حَجَرَ فِيهِ الْمَطَاعِمَ وَ الْمَشَارِبَ إِكْرَاماً، وَ جَعَلَ لَهُ وَقْتاً بَيِّناً لَا يُجِيزُ- جَلَّ وَ عَزَّ- أَنْ يُقَدَّمَ قَبْلَهُ، وَ لَا يَقْبَلُ أَنْ يُؤَخَّرَ عَنْهُ.
🌱🔆☘️ثُمَّ فَضَّلَ لَيْلَةً وَاحِدَةً مِنْ لَيَالِيهِ عَلَى لَيَالِي أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ، وَ سَمَّاهَا لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ، تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلائِكَةُ وَ الرُّوحُ فِيها بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ مِنْ كُلِّ أَمْرٍ سَلامٌ، دَائِمُ الْبَرَكَةِ إِلَى طُلُوعِ الْفَجْرِ عَلَى مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ بِمَا أَحْكَمَ مِنْ قَضَائِهِ.[1]
🔅🌼 O God, I have no doubt of Your Oneness🌼🔅
اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كَانَ الشَّكَّ فِي أَنَّ لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ فِيهَا أَوْ فِيمَا تَقَدَّمَهَا وَاقِعٌ فَإِنَّهُ فِيكَ وَ فِي وَحْدَانِيَّتِكَ وَ تَزْكِيَتِكَ الْأَعْمَالَ زَائِلٌ وَ فِي أَيِّ اللَّيَالِي تَقَرَّبَ مِنْكَ الْعَبْدُ لَمْ تُبْعِدْهُ وَ قَبِلْتَهُ وَ أَخْلَصَ فِي سُؤَالِكَ لَمْ تَرُدَّهُ وَ أَجَبْتَهُ وَ عَمِلَ الصَّالِحَاتِ شَكَرْتَهُ وَ رَفَعَ إِلَيْكَ مَا يُرْضِيكَ ذَخَرْتَهُ اللَّهُمَّ فَأَمِدَّنِي فِيهَا بِالْعَوْنِ عَلَى مَا يُزْلِفُ لَدَيْكَ وَ خُذْ بِنَاصِيَتِي إِلَى مَا فِيهِ الْقُرْبَى إِلَيْكَ and …[2]
🔅🌼 Rise above this world in reverence for the blessed month🌼🔅
🌹The many sacred observances of blessed Ramadan attest to the immense reverence due to this blessed month.
🌹Fasting points to obstacles that must be overcome: the belly and sensual desire are formidable barriers to worship and servitude to God.
🌹When our attention and focus are no longer fixed on food and desire, we turn our attention to our higher nature.
🌹Some divine prohibitions are not eternal. At one time, breaking the fast is forbidden; after the appointed time, continuing to fast is forbidden—as on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
🌹Fasting is a sign of practical God-consciousness.
🔅🌼 He made its excellence clear 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 فَأَبَانَ فَضِيلَتَهُ عَلَى سَائِرِ الشُّهُورِ بِمَا جَعَلَ لَهُ مِنَ الْحُرُمَاتِ الْمَوْفُورَةِ، وَ الْفَضَائِلِ الْمَشْهُورَةِ، فَحَرَّمَ فِيهِ مَا أَحَلَّ فِي غَيْرِهِ إِعْظَاماً، وَ حَجَرَ فِيهِ الْمَطَاعِمَ وَ الْمَشَارِبَ إِكْرَاماً، وَ جَعَلَ لَهُ وَقْتاً بَيِّناً لَا يُجِيزُ- جَلَّ وَ عَزَّ- أَنْ يُقَدَّمَ قَبْلَهُ، وَ لَا يَقْبَلُ أَنْ يُؤَخَّرَ عَنْهُ.
رَبِّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ صَلَاةً تُجَاوِزُ رِضْوَانَكَ، وَ يَتَّصِلُ اتِّصَالُهَا بِبَقَائِكَ، وَ لَا يَنْفَدُ كَمَا لَا تَنْفَدُ كَلِمَاتُكَ.[3]
🔆And for this reason, He gave that month precedence over the other months on account of its many sacred observances and renowned excellences. To magnify the month, He forbade what had been lawful at other times, and prohibited food and drink. He appointed a fixed period for it, which He—exalted and mighty is He—does not permit anyone to begin early or accept anyone’s delay beyond it,
🔅🌼 Then He made its night excel 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 ثُمَّ فَضَّلَ لَيْلَةً وَاحِدَةً مِنْ لَيَالِيهِ عَلَى لَيَالِي أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ، وَ سَمَّاهَا لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ، تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلائِكَةُ وَ الرُّوحُ فِيها بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ مِنْ كُلِّ أَمْرٍ سَلامٌ، دَائِمُ الْبَرَكَةِ إِلَى طُلُوعِ الْفَجْرِ عَلَى مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ بِمَا أَحْكَمَ مِنْ قَضَائِهِ. [4]
🔆 Then He gave one of its nights precedence and excellence over a thousand months, and named it the Night of Decree. On that night, the angels and the Spirit descend, by their Lord’s command, with every decree. It is a night of peace and enduring, unceasing blessing, lasting until dawn, for whichever of His servants He wills, in accordance with the decree He has made firm.
🔅🌼 Welcome to the Divine Training Ground 🌼🔅
🌹The blessed month of Ramadan is a training ground and nursery for worship and servitude to God.
🌹A gathering is an entryway; a feast is the threshold of something momentous. A gathering is the pretext for an important, hidden purpose. It is a prelude, not the main event.
🌹True fasting is realized only when the greater world within the human soul fasts; the whole realm of the human being must fast.
🌹Bondage to this world stems from the illusion of a petty offense: people resign themselves to the insignificance of their own smallness. Such fasting diminishes the reward of the fast.
🌷🔆 قَالَ الصَّادِقُ ع قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ص الصَّوْمُ جُنَّةٌ مِنْ آفَاتِ الدُّنْيَا وَ حِجَابٌ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْآخِرَةِ فَإِذَا صُمْتَ فَانْوِ بِصَوْمِكَ كَفَّ النَّفْسِ عَنِ الشَّهَوَاتِ وَ قَطْعَ الْهِمَّةِ عَنْ خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ وَ الشَّيَاطِينِ وَ أَنْزِلْ نَفْسَكَ مَنْزِلَةَ الْمَرْضَى لَا تَشْتَهِي طَعَاماً وَ لَا شَرَاباً وَ تَوَقَّعْ فِي كُلِّ لَحْظَةٍ شِفَاكَ مِنْ مَرَضِ الذُّنُوبِ وَ طَهِّرْ بَاطِنَكَ مِنْ كُلِّ كَذِبٍ وَ كَدِرٍ وَ غَفْلَةٍ وَ ظُلْمَةٍ يَقْطَعُكَ عَنْ مَعْنَى الْإِخْلَاصِ لِوَجْهِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى قِيلَ لِبَعْضِهِمْ إِنَّكَ ضَعِيفٌ وَ إِنَّ الصِّيَامَ يُضْعِفُكَ قَالَ إِنِّي أُعِدُّهُ بِشَرِّ يَوْمٍ طَوِيلٍ وَ الصَّبْرُ عَلَى طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ أَهْوَنُ مِنَ الصَّبْرِ عَلَى عَذَابِهِ وَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص قَالَ تَعَالَى الصَّوْمُ لِي وَ أَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ وَ الصَّوْمُ يُمِيتُ مُرَادَ النَّفْسِ وَ شَهْوَةَ الطَّبْعِ وَ فِيهِ صَفَاءُ الْقَلْبِ وَ طَهَارَةُ الْجَوَارِحِ وَ عِمَارَةُ الظَّاهِرِ وَ الْبَاطِنِ وَ الشُّكْرُ عَلَى النِّعَمِ وَ الْإِحْسَانُ إِلَى الْفُقَرَاءِ وَ زِيَادَةُ التَّضَرُّعِ وَ الْخُشُوعِ وَ الْبُكَاءِ وَ حَبْلُ الِالْتِجَاءِ إِلَى اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَ سَبَبُ انْكِسَارِ الْهِمَّةِ وَ تَخْفِيفِ السَّيِّئَاتِ وَ تَضْعِيفِ الْحَسَنَاتِ وَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْفَوَائِدِ مَا لَا يُحْصَى وَ كَفَى بِمَا ذَكَرْنَاهُ مِنْهُ لِمَنْ عَقَلَهُ وَ وُفِّقَ لِاسْتِعْمَالِهِ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى[5]
🔆 Imam al-Sadiq (AS) relates from the Messenger of God (PBUH) that he said: “Fasting is a shield against the misfortunes and hardships of this world, and a veil and barrier against the punishment of the next. When you fast, let your intention and purpose be to guard yourself from the soul’s desires and to cut off the devil’s advances. Consider yourself like someone who is ill and has no appetite for food or drink, and abstain completely from sensual desires until you recover. At every moment and every hour, await and hope for healing from the illnesses of sin. Purify your heart of every stain, heedlessness and darkness that would keep you from sincere devotion and the intention to draw near to God.”
A devout person was told, “You are frail, and fasting will make you weaker and thinner!” He replied, “I am storing it up for the hardship and distress of a day that will be very long. It is easier for me to endure obedience to the Exalted Lord than to bear the punishment and anguish of the Hereafter.” …
🔅🌼 Dwelling in the Night of Decree 🌼🔅
🌹A life lived in the Night of Decree surpasses every other lifetime. Once you have experienced the Night of Decree, you must dwell in it—become its eternal inhabitant.
🌹If we remain ignorant of the greatness of the Night of Decree, we will be buried in our ignorance, for we will be deprived of immense wealth and capital. Ignorance is a dark dungeon of light.
🌹People become confined, diminished and small in proportion to the limits of their understanding.
🔅🌼 Taking Account of Our Limbs 🌼🔅
🌹Let us open a file for our limbs and faculties.
🌹The grade we earn through fasting is the true measure of our servitude.
🌹We partake of God’s feast according to the greatness and breadth of our hearts; according to the unseen vastness of God’s generosity and grace.
🔅🌼 Nurturing Our Limbs in the Realm of the Unseen 🌼🔅
🌹Each of our faculties is at the very beginning of its journey! It is on the path of growth—though perhaps also on a path toward transformation and decline.
🌹Let us nurture our limbs and faculties with the waters of majesty.
🌹Every part of the body is a verse, a sign, a token of the Real. Let us safeguard God’s signs; the human being bears God’s banner.
🌹To set our limbs and faculties in motion is to set the divine signs in motion; it is to awaken our primordial nature.
🌹Our limbs, faculties and inner senses are at the beginning of their growth. Let us not neglect to nurture them. Growth reaches from the earthly carpet to the Throne.
🌹Every limb, every thought and every deed has a form that belongs to the Throne, and a reality beyond and beneath it. Let us attend to the cultivation of our being in the realm of the Throne.
🔅🌼 Inspire us with knowledge of His majesty 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ، وَ أَلْهِمْنَا مَعْرِفَةَ فَضْلِهِ وَ إِجْلَالَ حُرْمَتِهِ، وَ التَّحَفُّظَ مِمَّا حَظَرْتَ فِيهِ، وَ أَعِنَّا عَلَى صِيَامِهِ بِكَفِّ الْجَوَارِحِ عَنْ مَعَاصِيكَ، وَ اسْتِعْمَالِهَا فِيهِ بِمَا يُرْضِيكَ حَتَّى لَا نُصْغِيَ بِأَسْمَاعِنَا إِلَى لَغْوٍ، وَ لَا نُسْرِعَ بِأَبْصَارِنَا إِلَى لَهْوٍ
🔆 O God, bless Muhammad and his Family, and inspire us with knowledge of this month’s excellence and reverence for its sanctity. Inspire us to refrain from what You have forbidden during it, and help us to fast this month, guarding our limbs from sins and putting them to use in what pleases You, so that our ears may not listen to idle talk, nor our eyes hasten to gaze upon amusement,
🔅🌼 The fare of God’s feast 🌼🔅
🌹The poor are invited to God’s banquet—the truly poor, those who have attained “complete detachment” and “the complete negation of attributes.” Whoever negates all attributes in relation to Him has, in truth, passed beyond every veil.
🌷🔆 إِلَهِي هَبْ لِي كَمَالَ الِانْقِطَاعِ إِلَيْكَ وَ أَنِرْ أَبْصَارَ قُلُوبِنَا بِضِيَاءِ نَظَرِهَا إِلَيْكَ حَتَّى تَخِرَقَ أَبْصَارُ الْقُلُوبِ حُجُبَ النُّورِ فَتَصِلَ إِلَى مَعْدِنِ الْعَظَمَةِ وَ تَصِيرَ أَرْوَاحُنَا مُعَلَّقَةً بِعِزِّ قُدْسِكَ إِلَهِي وَ اجْعَلْنِي مِمَّنْ نَادَيْتَهُ فَأَجَابَكَ وَ لَاحَظْتَهُ فَصَعِقَ لِجَلَالِكَ فَنَاجَيْتَهُ سِرّا[6]
O God, grant me complete detachment from all but You, and illumine the eyes of our hearts with the radiance of Your gaze, so that the eyes of the heart may pierce the veils of light and reach the source of majesty and generosity.
🌷🔆 وَ كَمَالُ الْإِخْلَاصِ لَهُ نَفْيُ الصِّفَاتِ عَنْه
🌹Complete detachment leads back to the complete negation of attributes.
🌹The negation of attributes is, in truth, the journey’s passage and its end. The divine attributes are pathways to God: they are meant to be traversed, not to be dwelt in.
🔅🌼 Earth and heaven are guests of God 🌼🔅
🌹Part and whole, atom and galaxy, are guests of God.
🌹Those who journey need no food.
🌷🔆سَيِّدِي أَنَا مِنْ حُبِّكَ جَائِعٌ لَا أَشْبَعُ أَنَا مِنْ حُبِّكَ ظَمْآنُ لَا أَرْوَى وَا شَوْقَاهْ إِلَى مَنْ يَرَانِي وَ لَا أَرَاهُ يَا حَبِيبَ مَنْ تَحَبَّبَ إِلَيْه[7]
🔆My Lord, I hunger for Your love and am never sated; I thirst for Your love and am never quenched …
🔅🌼 A banquet of atoms 🌼🔅
🌹Every atom is a guest of the Generous God; limb by limb, world by world, we sit at His infinite table.
🌹Where are the admirers of Joseph? No—the admirers of the Best of Creators!
🌹At the banquet of love, one must become a garden of love.
🔅🌼 You are my need 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 شغلنى عن مسألته لذّة خدمته، لا حاجة لى غير النّظر إلى وجهه الكريم.[8]
🔆Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her: The joy I find in serving her has made me seek nothing else. I have no desire but to gaze upon her noble countenance.
🌹The joy of utter detachment cannot be put into words.
🔅🌼A hungry stomach works wonders🌼🔅
🌷🔆 يَا أَحْمَدُ إِنَّ الْعَبْدَ إِذَا جَاعَ بَطْنُهُ وَ حَفِظَ لِسَانَهُ عَلَّمْتُهُ الحِكْمَةَ وَ إِنْ كَانَ كَافِراً تَكُونُ حِكْمَتُهُ حُجَّةً عَلَيْهِ وَ وَبَالًا وَ إِنْ كَانَ مُؤْمِناً تَكُونُ حِكْمَتُهُ لَهُ نُوراً وَ بُرْهَاناً وَ شِفَاءً وَ رَحْمَةً فَيَعْلَمُ مَا لَمْ يَكُنْ يَعْلَمُ وَ يُبْصِرُ مَا لَمْ يَكُنْ يُبْصِرُ فَأَوَّلُ مَا أُبَصِّرُهُ عُيُوبُ نَفْسِهِ حَتَّى يُشْغَلَ بِهَا عَنْ عُيُوبِ غَيْرِهِ وَ أُبَصِّرُهُ دَقَائِقَ الْعِلْمِ حَتَّى لَا يَدْخُلَ عَلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ يَا أَحْمَدُ لَيْسَ شَيْءٌ مِنَ الْعِبَادَةِ أَحَبَّ إِلَيَّ مِنَ الصَّمْتِ وَ الصَّوْمِ فَمَنْ صَامَ وَ لَمْ يَحْفَظْ لِسَانَهُ كَانَ كَمَنْ قَامَ وَ لَمْ يَقْرَأْ فِي صَلَاتِهِ فَأُعْطِيهِ أَجْرَ الْقِيَامِ وَ لَمْ أُعْطِهِ أَجْرَ الْعَابِدِين[9]
🌷🔆 O Ahmad! When a person keeps their stomach hungry and restrains their tongue, I will teach them wisdom. If they are an unbeliever, that wisdom will be evidence against them and a burden upon their shoulders; but if they are a believer, it will be light, guidance, healing and mercy for them. They will come to know what they did not know and see what they could not see. The first thing I will show them is their own faults, so that they will stop concerning themselves with the faults of others. I will also reveal to them the subtle points of knowledge, so that Satan cannot find a way into them. O Ahmad! No act of worship is dearer to Me than silence and fasting. Whoever fasts without guarding their tongue is like one who stands in prayer but recites nothing: they will be rewarded for standing, but not given the reward of those who worship.
🌹Hunger brought to its fullness is the attainment of “utter detachment.”
🌹A hungry heart works wonders.
🌹Beware lest the heart perish from poisoned knowledge.
🔅🌼A brief dive into Ali’s perfections🌼🔅
🔅🌼The measure of nobility🌼🔅
🌹Ali is the measure of nobility in the realms of the seen and the unseen.
🌹أشرفها عند الله أشد حبا لعلي بن أبي طالب عليه السلام
🔅🌼Love is knowledge🌼🔅
🌹Love is knowledge; without knowledge and understanding, love is impossible.
🌹Love is forbidden to the ignorant! The ignorant cannot become lovers!
🌹If they say, “Describe Ali’s rank,” what do we have in our hearts to say?
🌹Read about Ali, speak of Ali, read the Book of God—for Ali is the book of divine knowledge.
🌹Have you passed through the Gate of God? What have you reached? Through the Gate of God, you have reached the vision of God.
🌹How does a lover describe the beloved? Through their state, through the image of the beloved’s face, the lover describes the beloved. The beloved’s mark is woven through every vein and every part of the lover.
🔅🌼Tawhid, the highest sign of love for Ali🌼🔅
🌹The highest sign of love for Ali is tawhid.
🔅🌼The heart of Ali🌼🔅
🌻🔆Al-Hujurat: 7 وَ اعْلَمُوا أَنَّ فيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ لَوْ يُطيعُكُمْ في كَثيرٍ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ لَعَنِتُّمْ وَ لكِنَّ اللَّهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإيمانَ وَ زَيَّنَهُ في قُلُوبِكُمْ وَ كَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَ الْفُسُوقَ وَ الْعِصْيانَ أُولئِكَ هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ
🌹“المعروف علی قدر المعرفه، المعروف علی قدر عقول” We partake of love for Ali according to the measure of our knowledge and reason. Love for Ali is God’s immense grace upon all creation.
🌹How much of Ali’s light can the heart bear? What state would we be in if we came under Ali’s absolute attraction? Which of Ali’s stations is imprinted upon our hearts?
🔅🌼The path of Ali’s love🌼🔅
🌹Whoever is estranged from Ali’s Nahj al-Balagha—the path of Ali’s love, the path of ethics, aspiration, divine unity, deeds and worship—is estranged from Ali.
🔅🌼 The Observatory of the Commander of the Faithful 🌼🔅
🌹Just as we now observe events from billions of years ago, so too do we look back billions of years, before Ali’s heavenly era. We gaze into the distant past of this vast, divinely fashioned universe: this immense, supreme light of God, this great star of creation, this boundless sky, this sovereign of time.
🔅🌼 The Imaginal Forms of Our Master, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him 🌼🔅
🌷🔆وَ قَدْ رَوَى الرُّوَاةُ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا أَنَّ اللَّهَ خَلَقَ مَلَائِكَةً عَلَى صُورَةِ مُحَمَّدٍ ص وَ عَلِيٍّ وَ جَمِيعِ الْأَئِمَّةِ ع.
وَ كَانَ النَّبِيُّ ص حَدَّثَ أَصْحَابَهُ بِأَنَّهُ رَأَى لَيْلَةَ الْمِعْرَاجِ فِي كُلِّ سَمَاءٍ مَلَكاً عَلَى صُورَةِ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ ع فَقَالَ جَبْرَئِيلُ يَا مُحَمَّدُ إِنَّ مَلَائِكَةَ السَّمَاءِ كَانُوا يَشْتَاقُونَ إِلَى عَلِيٍّ ع فَخَلَقَ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ مَلَكاً فِي كُلِّ سَمَاءٍ عَلَى صُورَتِهِ لِيَسْتَأْنِسُوا بِهِ [10]
🌷🔆Indeed, God created angels in the forms of Muhammad, Ali and all the Imams.
The Prophet of Islam related this to his companions: On the Night of the Ascension, in every heaven he saw an angel in the form of Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him. Gabriel then said, “O Muhammad, the angels longed so deeply for Ali that God created an angel in his form in every heaven, so that they might find comfort in his likeness.”
🌹Within our hearts, too, the images of the Infallibles adorn us.
🌹Let us look within: in our hearts we bear the Throne of Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad.
🌹Our hearts are sweetened by love for Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad, and made tender by devotion to and knowledge of them. If we prove unworthy, they will take away the portrait of the beloved! How wondrous and beautiful our hearts appear, adorned with the images of the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them!
🌹If the image of Ali’s face is clouded over in the heart, grief and despondency take hold.
🔅🌼 As long as faith endures, Ali is the Commander of the Faithful 🌼🔅
🌹If Ali is the Commander of the Faithful, then his command over the faithful is never severed, not even for a moment.
🌹Ali is commander over the earth and time, over the Imams of purity, over light and proof, over angels, the sun, the moon and the stars. Every being that believes in God has Ali as its commander.
🌷🔆صَاحِبُ رَايَةِ الْأَنْصَارِ قَالَ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ع يَقُولُ لِعَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ ع: لَا يَتَقَدَّمُكَ بَعْدِي إِلَّا كَافِرٌ وَ لَا يَتَخَلَّفُ عَنْكَ بَعْدِي إِلَّا كَافِرٌ وَ إِنَّ أَهْلَ السَّمَاوَاتِ السَّبْعِ يُسَمُّونَكَ أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ بِأَمْرِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى[11]
🔆The Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him: “None but an unbeliever will ever get ahead of you, and after me none but an unbeliever will oppose you. Indeed, by the command of «الله تعالی», the inhabitants of the seven heavens call you Commander of the Faithful.”
🔅🌼 If Ali were set free 🌼🔅
🌹The knowledge that wells up from the soul of this river, this mine and treasury of knowledge, is beyond description. What would happen if the power of knowledge were to surge forth and be set free!
🌹The spread of Alid knowledge is expanding throughout the whole of existence, like the light of stars and galaxies. Hunters of pearls are busy seeking the pearls of Alid knowledge!
🌹Satellites and telescopes can capture the world’s vistas; the vistas of Ali can be apprehended by hearts that are loving and mature.
🔅🌼 “The excessive lover and the spiteful slanderer” stand in the way of our Master’s wonders being revealed and spoken of 🌼🔅
🌷🔆وَ اللَّهِ لَوْ شِئْتُ أَنْ أُخْبِرَ كُلَّ رَجُلٍ مِنْكُمْ بِمَخْرَجِهِ وَ مَوْلِجِهِ وَ جَمِيعِ شَأْنِهِ لَفَعَلْتُ وَ لَكِنْ أَخَافُ أَنْ تَكْفُرُوا فِيَّ بِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ص أَلَا وَ إِنِّي مُفْضِيهِ إِلَى الْخَاصَّةِ مِمَّنْ يُؤْمَنُ ذَلِكَ مِنْهُ وَ الَّذِي بَعَثَهُ بِالْحَقِّ وَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَى الْخَلْقِ مَا أَنْطِقُ إِلَّا صَادِقاً وَ قَدْ عَهِدَ إِلَيَّ بِذَلِكَ كُلِّهِ وَ بِمَهْلِكِ مَنْ يَهْلِكُ وَ مَنْجَى مَنْ يَنْجُو وَ مَآلِ هَذَا الْأَمْرِ وَ مَا أَبْقَى شَيْئاً يَمُرُّ عَلَى رَأْسِي إِلَّا أَفْرَغَهُ فِي أُذُنَيَّ وَ أَفْضَى بِهِ إِلَيَّ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنِّي وَ اللَّهِ مَا أَحُثُّكُمْ عَلَى طَاعَةٍ إِلَّا وَ أَسْبِقُكُمْ إِلَيْهَا وَ لَا أَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْ مَعْصِيَةٍ إِلَّا وَ أَتَنَاهَى قَبْلَكُمْ عَنْهَا[12]
🔆By God, if I wished, I could tell each of you how your life began and how it will end, and about every aspect of your life. But I fear that doing so would lead you to disbelieve the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) and to exaggerate my status, while forgetting him.
Know that I will entrust these secrets only to those I can trust not to stray or go to extremes in their regard for me. By God, who sent Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) with the truth and chose him from among all people, I swear that I speak nothing but the truth. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) taught me all this. He informed me of the ruin of those who would perish, the salvation of those who would be saved, and the outcome of this affair—the caliphate. Nothing happens without his having whispered it in my ear and placed its knowledge in my keeping.
People, by God, I never urge you to obey God in anything without first putting it into practice myself, and I never forbid you to commit a sin without first keeping away from it myself.
🔅🌼 If We Knew What ʿAlī Knew 🌼🔅
🌷🔆وَ لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ مَا أَعْلَمُ مِمَّا طُوِيَ عَنْكُمْ غَيْبُهُ إذاً لَخَرَجْتُمْ إِلَى الصُّعُدَاتِ تَبْكُونَ عَلَى أَعْمَالِكُمْ وَ تَلْتَدِمُونَ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ وَ لَتَرَكْتُمْ أَمْوَالَكُمْ لَا حَارِسَ لَهَا وَ لَا خَالِفَ عَلَيْهَا وَ لَهَمَّتْ كُلَّ امْرِئٍ مِنْكُمْ نَفْسُهُ لَا يَلْتَفِتُ إِلَى غَيْرِهَا وَ لَكِنَّكُمْ نَسِيتُمْ مَا ذُكِّرْتُمْ وَ أَمِنْتُمْ مَا حُذِّرْتُمْ فَتَاهَ عَنْكُمْ رَأْيُكُمْ وَ تَشَتَّتَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَمْرُكُمْ وَ لَوَدِدْتُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ فَرَّقَ بَيْنِي وَ بَيْنَكُمْ وَ أَلْحَقَنِي بِمَنْ هُوَ أَحَقُّ بِي مِنْكُمْ قَوْمٌ وَ اللَّهِ مَيَامِينُ الرَّأْيِ مَرَاجِيحُ الْحِلْمِ مَقَاوِيلُ بِالْحَقِّ مَتَارِيكُ لِلْبَغْيِ مَضَوْا قُدُماً عَلَى الطَّرِيقَةِ وَ أَوْجَفُوا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ فَظَفِرُوا بِالْعُقْبَى الدَّائِمَةِ وَ الْكَرَامَةِ الْبَارِدَةِ أَمَا وَ اللَّهِ لَيُسَلَّطَنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ غُلَامُ ثَقِيفٍ الذَّيَّالُ الْمَيَّالُ يَأْكُلُ خَضِرَتَكُمْ وَ يُذِيبُ شَحْمَتَكُمْ إِيهٍ أَبَا وَذَحَة[13]
🔆If you knew what is hidden, as I do, and could see the dark future awaiting you, you would leave your homes and flee into the wilderness. You would weep over your deeds and strike your heads and faces. You would abandon your wealth unguarded, without appointing anyone to look after it in your absence. Each of you, overcome with terror, would think only of himself and give no thought to anyone else. Yet you have forgotten the warnings given to you and feel safe from what you were cautioned against. As a result, your minds have gone astray, and your affairs have fallen into disarray.
By God, I wish that He would separate me from you and unite me with those who are more deserving and worthy of me than you are: a people whose thoughts, by God, were blessed and fruitful, who possessed knowledge and understanding; who spoke the truth and forsook injustice and oppression; who had already set out on the path of guidance and swiftly advanced along the clear road. Thus they attained everlasting bliss and a life of ease and honor.
🔅🌼 Obstacles to the Manifestation of the Master’s Wonders and Miracles 🌼🔅
🌷🔆 أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ص قَالَ لِأَبِيكَ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ ع لَوْ لَا أَنْ يَقُولَ فِيكَ طَوَائِفُ مِنْ أُمَّتِي مَا قَالَتِ النَّصَارَى فِي الْمَسِيحِ لَقُلْتُ فِيكَ قَوْلًا لَا تَمُرُّ بِمَلَإٍ إِلَّا أَخَذُوا مِنْ تُرَابِ قَدَمَيْكَ يَسْتَشْفُونَ بِهِ[14]
🔆The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said to ʿAli, peace be upon him: “By the One in whose hand my soul rests, were I not afraid that groups among my community would say of you what the Christians said of Jesus son of Mary, I would say something about you today such that whenever you passed by a gathering of people, they would take dust from beneath your feet, seeking healing through its blessing.”
🔅🌼Love: Putting “ʿAli to the Test” Through His God-centred Words 🌼🔅
🌹Our understanding of ʿAli’s words is the best measure of how much we love him.
🔅🌼Associating Partners with God and Delusion 🌼🔅
🌷🔆وَ سُئِلَ عَنِ التَّوْحِيدِ وَ الْعَدْلِ فَقَالَ ع التَّوْحِيدُ أَلَّا تَتَوَهَّمَهُ وَ الْعَدْلُ أَلَّا تَتَّهِمَه[15]
🔆They asked Imam ʿAli, peace be upon him, about divine unity and justice. He replied: “Divine unity means not imagining Him; justice means not accusing Him.”
🔅🌼The Masterpiece of Understanding🌼🔅
🌹The highest achievement and pinnacle of human knowledge takes shape through learning and reason. Reason’s recognition that the Divine Essence cannot be grasped by reason is proof that it cannot be comprehended or understood—let alone imagined, which is a subordinate faculty of reason.
🌹The same applies to visual perception, imaginative perception, and so on.
🔅🌼Every Attribute Is Limited 🌼🔅
🌹Every attribute, and every apprehension of an attribute, belongs to the realm of perception. The highest and most advanced form of perception is rational understanding. Mystical witnessing lies below reason, since it gives expression to what reason grasps. Reason, in the true sense, stands above every station. Reason is the root of love and affection; without reason, love itself has no meaning.
🌹Whatever is contained within something is limited, whether that container be reason, something below it, or something beyond it.
🌹Witnessing with the heart is, in reality, rational apprehension, for reason governs the heart.
🔅🌼Description Is Delusion 🌼🔅
🌹At most, description expresses our attachments, while He transcends them.
🌹From the heart’s witnessing to logical expression, everything takes place through an instrument.
🌹When we affirm that the Attributes are identical with the Essence, in reality we are making our own understanding of God’s Attributes correspond to His Essence (God forbid).
🌹Is the phrase “denying description and being indescribable” itself a description? No; it expresses our helplessness. It is not a description!
🔅🌼Reason Is Not One Who Reasons🌼🔅
🌹Why did the Imam say that He cannot be imagined? Why did he not say that He cannot be understood by reason? Because one who reasons does not, in any way, comprehend the Divine Essence; they observe their own limits!
🌹Knowledge through reason is knowledge expressed through glorification, sanctification, magnification, the affirmation of God’s oneness, and praise.
🔅🌼Reasoning Is the Sovereign of Perception 🌼🔅
🌹Imagination is not even the little finger of reason.
🌹Reason is not one who reasons; reason is reason itself. So we cannot say that reason is one who reasons, because one who reasons is someone who makes use of reason.
🔅🌼Stirring the Innate Disposition 🌼🔅
🌹Let us read the hadiths on divine unity with attentive hearts, so that our innate sense of God’s oneness may grow stronger.
🌷🔆سَهْلٌ عَنْ بِشْرِ بْنِ بَشَّارٍ النَّيْسَابُورِيِّ قَالَ: كَتَبْتُ إِلَى الرَّجُلِ ع أَنَّ مَنْ قِبَلَنَا قَدِ اخْتَلَفُوا فِي التَّوْحِيدِ فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ هُوَ جِسْمٌ وَ مِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ هُوَ صُورَةٌ فَكَتَبَ إِلَيَّ سُبْحَانَ مَنْ لَا يُحَدُّ وَ لَا يُوصَفُ وَ لَا يُشْبِهُهُ شَيْءٌ وَ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ.[16]
🔆Glory and transcendence belong to Him who is neither confined nor described, who has nothing like Him and is like nothing, and whom nothing resembles. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
🔅🌼He cannot be conceived by the imagination🌼🔅
🌷🔆 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: مَنْ شَبَّهَ اللَّهَ بِخَلْقِهِ فَهُوَ مُشْرِكٌ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَبَارَكَ وَ تَعَالَى لَا يُشْبِهُ شَيْئاً وَ لَا يُشْبِهُهُ شَيْءٌ وَ كُلُّ مَا وَقَعَ فِي الْوَهْمِ فَهُوَ بِخِلَافِه[17]
🔆Whoever likens God to His creatures is a polytheist, for nothing can be likened to God, Blessed and Exalted is He, nor can anything be likened to Him. (Nothing is like Him, and He is like nothing.)
🌷🔆 هُوَ مُبْدِعُ الْأَوْهَامِ وَ خَالِقُ الْحَوَاس[18]
🔆He brings forth imaginings and creates the senses.
🌷🔆 عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ أَبِي نَجْرَانَ قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ الثَّانِيَ ع عَنِ التَّوْحِيدِ فَقُلْتُ أَتَوَهَّمُ شَيْئاً فَقَالَ نَعَمْ غَيْرَ مَعْقُولٍ وَ لَا مَحْدُودٍ فَمَا وَقَعَ وَهْمُكَ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَهُوَ خِلَافُهُ لَا يُشْبِهُهُ شَيْءٌ وَ لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَوْهَامُ كَيْفَ تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَوْهَامُ وَ هُوَ خِلَافُ مَا يُعْقَلُ وَ خِلَافُ مَا يُتَصَوَّرُ فِي الْأَوْهَامِ إِنَّ مَا يُتَوَهَّمُ شَيْءٌ غَيْرُ مَعْقُولٍ وَ لَا مَحْدُودٍ [19]
🔆Ibn Abi Najran relates: I asked Imam al-Jawad (AS) about divine oneness, saying, “Can I conceive of God as a thing?” He replied, “Yes—but as a thing whose reality cannot be apprehended and which has no limit. For whatever comes to mind, God is other than that. Nothing is like Him, and thoughts cannot apprehend Him. How could thoughts fail to apprehend Him, when He is conceived in a way contrary to whatever can be understood? The only thing one can conceive of God is this: ‘A thing whose reality cannot be apprehended and which has no limit.’”
🔅🌼He cannot be imagined🌼🔅
🌷🔆 لَا تَنَالُهُ الْأَوْهَامُ فَتُقَدِّرَهُ وَ لَا تَتَوَهَّمُهُ الْفِطَنُ فَتُصَوِّرَهُ وَ لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْحَوَاسُّ فَتُحِسَّهُ وَ لَا تَلْمِسُهُ الْأَيْدِي فَتَمَسَّهُ وَ لَا يَتَغَيَّرُ بِحَالٍ وَ لَا يَتَبَدَّلُ فِي الْأَحْوَالِ وَ لَا تُبْلِيهِ اللَّيَالِي وَ الْأَيَّامُ وَ لَا يُغَيِّرُهُ الضِّيَاءُ وَ الظَّلَامُ وَ لَا يُوصَفُ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْأَجْزَاءِ وَ لَا بِالْجَوَارِحِ وَ الْأَعْضَاءِ وَ لَا بِعَرَضٍ مِنَ الْأَعْرَاضِ وَ لَا بِالْغَيْرِيَّةِ وَ الْأَبْعَاضِ وَ لَا يُقَالُ لَهُ حَدٌّ وَ لَا نِهَايَةٌ وَ لَا انْقِطَاعٌ وَ لَا غَايَةٌ وَ لَا أَنَّ الْأَشْيَاءَ تَحْوِيهِ فَتُقِلَّهُ أَوْ تُهْوِيَهُ أَوْ أَنَّ شَيْئاً يَحْمِلُهُ فَيُمِيلَهُ [20]
🔆The reach of imagination and fancy cannot touch the hem of His majesty and so confine Him, nor can the keenest intellect form an image of Him in the mind. The senses cannot perceive Him, so as to make Him an object of sensation; hands cannot touch Him, so as to make Him tangible. He never changes or undergoes alteration. The passage of nights and days does not wear Him down, and light and darkness do not change Him. He can never be described as having parts, limbs or organs, as possessing an accident or attribute, or as being divided or composed of parts. He has no limit or boundary, no interruption or end. Things cannot encompass Him and raise or lower Him, and nothing bears Him up so as to incline Him in one direction or keep Him fixed.
He is neither within things nor outside them. He gives news, but not with a tongue or throat; He hears, but not with the aid of bones of hearing or an eardrum. He speaks, but not in words. He holds all things in His knowledge, but not through the effort of remembering; He wills, but not through an inward act of decision. He loves and is pleased, but not out of tenderness or softness of heart; He hates and is angered, but not through distress or inward suffering. Whenever He wills a thing, He says, “Be,” and it comes into existence at once—not in the sense that a sound from Him reaches the ears or that a cry is heard. Rather, God’s word is the very thing He brings into being and gives form to. Before it, nothing existed; had anything existed eternally before it, God would have had a second object of worship.
🔅🌼Imagination is forbidden🌼🔅
🌷 لَا تَنَالُهُ الْأَوْهَامُ فَتُقَدِّرَهُ وَ لَا تَتَوَهَّمُهُ الْفِطَنُ فَتُصَوِّرَهُ وَ لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْحَوَاسُّ فَتُحِسَّهُ
🔆Thoughts cannot encompass Him so as to measure Him; keen intellects cannot imagine Him so as to conceive Him; and the senses cannot apprehend Him so as to perceive Him.
🌷 وَ لَا تَلْمِسُهُ الْأَيْدِي فَتَمَسَّهُ وَ لَا يَتَغَيَّرُ بِحَالٍ وَ لَا يَتَبَدَّلُ فِي الْأَحْوَالِ وَ لَا تُبْلِيهِ اللَّيَالِي وَ الْأَيَّامُ وَ لَا يُغَيِّرُهُ الضِّيَاءُ وَ الظَّلَامُ
🔆Hands cannot touch Him so as to reach Him. He does not change from one state to another or undergo alteration in His conditions. Nights and days do not wear Him down, nor do light and darkness change Him.
🌷 وَ لَا يُوصَفُ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْأَجْزَاءِ وَ لَا بِالْجَوَارِحِ وَ الْأَعْضَاءِ وَ لَا بِعَرَضٍ مِنَ الْأَعْرَاضِ وَ لَا بِالْغَيْرِيَّةِ وَ الْأَبْعَاضِ
🔆He cannot be described as having parts, limbs, organs, or any accident; nor as having anything other than His Essence alongside Him, or as being divisible.
🌷 وَ لَا يُقَالُ لَهُ حَدٌّ وَ لَا نِهَايَةٌ وَ لَا انْقِطَاعٌ وَ لَا غَايَةٌ وَ لَا أَنَّ الْأَشْيَاءَ تَحْوِيهِ فَتُقِلَّهُ أَوْ تُهْوِيَهُ أَوْ أَنَّ شَيْئاً يَحْمِلُهُ فَيُمِيلَهُ
🔆No limit or boundary, break or end, can be ascribed to Him. Things do not encompass Him so as to raise or lower Him, and nothing can bear Him.
🔅 A student’s perspective on “The Sacred Month and Reverence”🌼🔅
🌻🔆The Sacred Month and Reverence🔆🌻
🌼🔆🌼The Way of Ali’s Relationship🌼🔆🌼
🔹 The twenty-third night of the blessed month of Ramadan, the Night of Decree
📅 Date: 1404/01/04 – 23 Ramadan 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei
📝 Some of the topics discussed in the session:
### 🌌 Laylat al-Imḍāʾ; I may doubt whether it is the Night of Decree, but I do not doubt You
The twenty-third night of the blessed month of Ramadan… Laylat al-Imḍāʾ.
O God, is this night the Night of Decree?
Or were the nights before it the Night of Decree?
Or will the nights to come be the Night of Decree?
O God! Our Lord…
If we are unsure whether tonight is Laylat al-Qadr,
we have no doubt about Your divinity.
I do not know whether tonight is the Night of Decree,
but I know that You, my God, are my Generous One.
I know I may not experience the Night of Decree,
but, my God, You are always aware of me.
Even if I fail to apprehend You,
You are ever mindful of me.
O God, I am not afraid of missing the Night of Decree;
I am afraid that the sweet remembrance of You will leave my heart.
But even if Your remembrance departs from me,
You will not grow distant from me.
You are closer to me than my jugular vein…
—
### 💫 Certainty in God’s nearness; I have no doubt that You will accept me
O God, if I doubt whether this is Laylat al-Qadr,
I have no doubt about Your oneness, Your generosity, or Your power to purify.
I know,
By Your will, grace, forgiveness, and pardon, You will purify my deeds.
My God, tonight I wish to draw near to You…
But I know this too:
Whenever I seek to draw near to You, You do not turn me away.
You welcome me and draw me close to Yourself.
—
### 🙏 Your response is never withheld; You even give thanks for my good deeds
I know, my God,
that whenever I ask You for something, You answer me.
I know that when I do a righteous deed, You give thanks.
—
### 🕯 I am Your runaway slave; free me from the bondage of appetite and desire
So, my God, be my ally and helper.
Help me.
Draw me close to Yourself.
My God,
take me by the forelock.
I am that runaway slave.
If You let me go, I will run away again.
If You do not hold on to me, I will stray from You again.
Take me by the forelock,
and lead me to where Your good pleasure lies.
My God,
You have made this month blessed.
You have honoured it with many sanctities.
The sanctities of this blessed month of Ramadan show that it is a month of honour and greatness.
Through its fasting, this month has reminded me:
the greatest barriers between me and my Beloved are my appetite and desire.
If I can master my appetite and desire,
every obstacle to servitude will be removed.
You have shown me Your grace, giving me the experience of curbing my lower self’s cravings,
controlling my appetite and desires,
so that I may behold You,
reach You,
and draw near to You.
We know:
whatever we focus on, we become its prisoner.
If our focus is on appetite and desire, we become their captives.
But when our attention is freed from these two giants,
the way to Allah opens before us.
Fasting will not last forever.
A time will come when fasting will be forbidden,
just as breaking the fast is forbidden today.
If I do not benefit from the outpourings of divine grace,
I will be punished.
—
### 🏵 Fasting: a sign of blessed poverty and complete detachment
Fasting is a practical expression of God-consciousness.
Fasting is meant to bring me to blessed poverty: to be needy of none but God, and to attain poverty before God.
I must free myself from all but God,
so that through this blessed poverty I may reach the blessed threshold of God,
and attain complete severance—the utmost detachment from all but God.
In this month, the poor are God’s guests.
Those who are truly poor are poor in heart.
That is, they have emptied their hearts of everything they possessed. They have detached themselves from themselves.
They have become poor through poverty itself.
They have embraced absolute poverty and joined themselves to God, the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.
This is blessed poverty: the grace of complete severance.
To cut oneself off entirely from all but God, and reach His threshold.
This is the perfection of negating attributes.
We must pass beyond every veil—
whether the veil of the Divine Names or of the Divine Attributes.
Until we move beyond our many “selves,”
we will never reach God.
—
### 🌙 From Sha‘ban to Ramadan: From Severance to Union
When we were in Sha‘ban, didn’t we recite:
الهی هب لی کمال الانقطاع الیک…
What does it mean?
It means: I want to detach myself from everything apart from God, so that I may reach Him.
In Sha‘ban, I strove to attain this grace,
so that in His blessed month I might attain absolute, blessed union.
Blessed are those who have reached this station.
In this month, we are God’s guests.
This “I” of mine is God’s guest.
My limbs and faculties are God’s guests.
Every particle of my being is God’s guest.
May no particle of my being deprive my whole self of this hospitality.
The earth and the heavens, every particle and every galaxy, are God’s guests…
But blessed are those who hunger and thirst and partake fully of this hospitality.
Those who say:
“My Lord, I hunger for love of You! I hunger for Your love and cannot be sated!”
“I sit at Your table; the more I eat, the hungrier I grow, and my longing only deepens.”
O God, I thirst for love of You.
—
### 🔥 وا عطشا; The Love of God Never Sates
I burn with thirst for Your love… I cannot be quenched.
I cry, “وا عطشا,” and will not give up until I reach perfect quenching.
Blessed are those who have left behind and cut themselves off from everything apart from God,
and have reached the service of God.
Is this not the night of Laylat al-Qadr?
Is Laylat al-Qadr not the blessed embodiment of Fatima al-Zahra?
The same Fatima who said:
“The delight of serving my Lord keeps me from needing anything.”
“I am so immersed in the delight of worship that I have forgotten my own needs.
I have no need but to behold Your noble countenance…
O God, my one desire is to be able to behold Your noble countenance.
—
### 🕊 Beholding the Noble Countenance: The Utmost Longing for Detachment
Whoever has beheld Your noble countenance has, in truth, reached You.
O my Lord, bring me to Your noble countenance…
O God, let us taste the joy of complete detachment from all but You…
—
### 📿 Hunger of the Stomach, Key to Heavenly Wisdom
O Ahmad! Any servant who keeps their stomach hungry and restrains their tongue—I will teach them wisdom, even if they are an unbeliever.
Whoever they may be, believer or unbeliever,
if they keep their stomach hungry, I will make them wise in wisdom.
But…
for an unbeliever, wisdom becomes a burden upon the soul.
For wisdom benefits only the believer.
An unbeliever, too, may receive spiritual gifts,
but those very gifts will become evidence against them.
But for every believer who keeps their stomach hungry:
I will transform their hunger into luminous wisdom,
into proof, healing, and mercy.
They will come to know what they did not know.
They will see what they did not see.
Their first insight
will be awareness of the flaws in their own soul,
so that they may be free of concern with the flaws of others.
I will make them wise in the subtleties of knowledge,
in special forms of knowledge that would never occur to anyone.
Allah will make them wise in these very forms of knowledge, until Satan can no longer find a way into their heart.
Satan will be driven away from them…
—
### 🔕 Fasting Without Guarding the Tongue; Prayer Without Recitation
O Ahmad! No act of worship is dearer to Me than silence and fasting.
Whoever fasts but does not make their tongue fast
is like someone who stands in prayer but recites nothing.
Woe to the fasting person whose only share is hunger and thirst…
Blessed are those whose
bodies,
stomachs,
and souls all fast.
—
### ✨ The Night of Decree: The Night the Dead Return from the Grave
I will grant them the reward of standing in prayer,
but not the reward of My worshipping servants.
It is Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Opportunity.
It is as though God Most High
has once again granted us a golden opportunity…
Imagine yourself as one who has died,
lying in the earth, with the grave’s stone above you;
it is all over.
But suddenly,
Allah grants him another chance
to return to this world.
Laylat al-Qadr is a night of renewal, a night of new beginnings.
A year is one complete revolution of the universe.
We see only the Earth revolving around the sun,
but what lies beneath that?
That we pass beyond the Throne of God and His furthest horizon.
In this one year, a person can traverse the whole universe
and reach God’s good pleasure.
Laylat al-Qadr is like the world of ذرّ.
Like Yawm al-Alast—the day we made our covenant with God.
Tonight, we renew that covenant.
We wish to begin once more to grow in servitude to God.
The person I am now is not my true self.
I should have grown.
My limbs and faculties should have flourished.
But I gave them neither water nor seed.
I left them thirsty and hungry.
Every one of God’s signs in the universe must be watered.
Every part of me—
my eyes, ears, heart, and tongue—is a sign of God;
through remembrance of Him, they must be watered and brought to life.
—
### 🌌 Laylat al-Qadr: Prince of Nights, the Night the Banner of the Unseen Is Raised
Our limbs and faculties must be brought into action
so that they may attain their perfection and reveal themselves.
Laylat al-Qadr is the Prince of Nights, the sovereign of the nights.
May we never be deprived of its blessings.
It is the night when Gabriel descends with a company of angels and the Holy Spirit,
bearing the banner of revelation…
and plants it atop the Kaaba.
Gabriel visits every believer
and says “Amen” to their prayers.
Be sure to return his greeting when he greets you.
When he embraces the believers,
they embrace him in turn…
—
### 🌌 Laylat al-Qadr: The Soul’s Yalda, a Night of Leaping and Prayer
Laylat al-Qadr is a night of leaping, of surging, of fervour.
Laylat al-Qadr is the soul’s Yalda.
Laylat al-Qadr is our Mount Sinai.
It is our Cave of Hira.
It is a time for intimate prayer.
A time to arrive.
A time of transformation.
For many believers, this night is the Cave of Hira.
But for someone like me,
it is the belly of Jonah’s fish.
I am trapped in darkness.
Now is the time to emerge from the darkness.
It is time for examination and treatment.
It is time to be born, to leap forward, and to attain sincerity.
—
### 🪬 The Night of Breaking Idols: Measuring Love for Ali
Laylat al-Qadr is the night of breaking idols.
The idol of the stomach must be broken,
the idol of desire must be broken,
the idol of this world must be broken.
Everything apart from God must be shattered.
Nothing but the remembrance of God should remain in the heart.
We are to entrust this heart to its rightful owner.
Is this heart not God’s sanctuary?
It is Laylat al-Qadr, the night of our master Ali.
It is a night of reckoning.
We must put ourselves to the test.
Among the angels, the noblest in God’s sight
is the one whose love for the Commander of the Faithful is greatest.
Human beings, too, are ennobled in proportion to their love for Ali.
The finest measure of a person’s nobility is love for Ali.
—
### 📏 Ali and the Measure of Love: The Blind of Heart Cannot Love
Let us take stock of ourselves.
Let us measure the love for Ali in our hearts.
Ali is the measure by which all things are judged.
Do you know Ali?
If you do not,
yet say that you love Ali,
then you are lying.
Without knowledge, neither recognition nor love is possible.
Can a blind person fall in love with a beautiful face?
Can someone blind of heart fall in love with Ali?
Describe Ali, and I will know how deeply you love him.
Have you passed through the Gate of God?
Have you reached God’s Proof?
Do you know that love itself is knowledge?
Without knowledge, without recognition, love is impossible.
Love is forbidden to the ignorant.
By God Almighty,
the ignorant cannot love.
A lover carries the image of the beloved in the heart,
and that image is forever radiant within.
The beloved’s memory takes root in every fibre of the lover’s being.
And now I will reveal the highest sign of love for Ali:
By God Almighty, that supreme sign is tawhid, tawhid, tawhid.
Tawhid is the highest sign of love for Ali al-Murtada.
—
### 🖼 Ali’s Image in the Shiite Heart: God’s Imprint Upon the Heart
In the hearts of those who love our master,
the image—the likeness—of each of the Immaculate Imams is engraved,
including the blessed image of our master Ali ibn Abi Talib.
Because of their intense longing for their master,
In every heaven, an image of Ali adorns the eyes of its inhabitants.
In the heart of every Shi‘i,
the beautiful image of the Imams, the Pure Ones, is inscribed.
Ali’s beautiful image comforts our hearts.
The more spacious the heart, the clearer the image.
The purer the heart, the more radiant its imprint.
The purer one’s heart, the more deeply one will taste that image.
Yes, images of the Imams are etched in our hearts.
By God, He Himself has drawn them.
### 💖 The Measure of Love: A Mirror of Intellect and Insight
The measure of this love is the measure of our insight.
It is the measure of our intellect.
The deeper our insight, the brighter our intellect.
God’s grace in this love, in this sublime adornment, will be all the greater.
Master Ali is the sovereign of hearts; just as he is the Commander of the Faithful, so too is he the commander of faith.
Ali dwells in hearts.
God has placed Ali in the heart of every believer.
It is impossible for a believer to be separated from Ali.
—
### 👑 Ali, Sovereign of Heaven and Earth
Everything in heaven and on earth knows Ali as its sovereign.
The believers know him as their sovereign, and know that whoever gets ahead of Ali or falls behind him is an unbeliever.
By God’s command, the inhabitants of the seven heavens call Ali “Commander of the Faithful.”
Yet Ali, that exalted and boundless being, has not yet fully revealed himself.
And until Ali is revealed, this universe will not be brought to its close.
Alas for blind eyes and closed hearts that cannot see the Master…
A little of the Master’s virtues has been revealed to creation,
and even this little is more than many can bear.
What would happen if that immense force were unleashed?
When we gaze at the sky,
we see billions of years into the past.
The stars we see belong to a time billions of years ago.
So when do we behold the Master?
Which dimension of his celestial reality do we witness?
Blessed are those who see,
and immerse themselves in the waves of his spiritual wisdom.
—
### 📖 Nahj al-Balagha: A Window into the Love of Ali
The universe will witness how Ali orders and unfolds all things,
how he gathers the whole universe into his embrace.
One must love Ali.
How could one not love him?
Whoever is distant from Nahj al-Balagha is distant from love for him.
They are distant from Ali’s path of ethics, deeds, intentions, worship, grace, wonders, and valor;
they are distant from Ali.
—
### ✨ True Oneness of God Speaks in the Language of Love for Ali
I want to give an example
so we can see how close we are to our Master.
If we turn to his words
but fail to understand them, we should question our love for our Master.
The highest expression of love for Ali is tawhid.
Our Master’s words on divine unity affirm the sincerity of our love for him.
Consider this brief saying of his:
He was asked, “What is tawhid?”
He replied:
«Tawhid is not to conceive of Him in your imagination.»
He was asked, “What is justice?”
He replied:
«Justice is not to accuse God.»
Do not say, “Why?
Why have I been given less?
Why do I not enjoy a comfortable life?
Why am I less beautiful?”
This is how our Master describes tawhid:
Tawhid means: do not conceive of God in your imagination!
And what a profound meaning that holds…
I understand that I do not understand.
I fear I may fail in my love for our Master.
I fear I may fail to grasp humanity’s greatest masterpiece of knowledge.
The perfection of knowledge lies in the perfection of reason.
Whoever reasons possesses knowledge.
But what is imagination?
It is the attempt to reach concepts by means other than reason.
Compared with reason, imagination is no more than a speck.
Our Master did not say, “Do not reason about God,”
but rather:
«Do not conceive of God in your imagination!»
Why?
Because reason never apprehends God’s essence.
If it did, it would not be reason but ignorance.
Reason knows its place;
it does not claim to speak beyond its capacity;
it acknowledges its inability to know the divine essence.
That is why he said:
Do not conceive of Him in your imagination.
Those held captive by ignorance imagine;
those freed from ignorance have attained reason.
And reason is a light springing from tawhid…
### 🔮 Imagination cannot give the heart direct vision
Can the heart attain direct vision? It cannot.
If reason is absent from the heart, the heart cannot attain direct vision.
Direct perception is a form of rational perception.
Reason is the sovereign of the heart.
So we have understood this:
Whoever imagines makes God as small as their own imagination.
They place the Everlasting Allah within the confines of their imagination—God forbid.
—
### 🕊 Hadiths on tawhid: keys to the locks of innate nature
The beauty of the Master’s words defies description.
This much is enough to say of them:
Glory be to the One who is not confined,
cannot be described,
has nothing like Him,
and is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
Whatever the mind can conceive, He is other than that.
He resembles nothing, and nothing resembles Him.
Why speak of divine unity on the Night of Decree?
If I do not speak of divine unity, what should I speak of?
If my understanding of divine unity is incomplete, to which God am I praying, and what prayer am I offering?
Hadiths on divine unity must be read with the innate nature.
We have forgotten the keys to our innate nature.
This lock of the innate nature can be opened only with the keys of divine unity.
—
### 🧠 Whatever the mind can conceive is not God
Whatever the mind can conceive, He is other than that.
He resembles nothing.
The mind’s imaginings cannot grasp Him;
He encompasses all imaginings.
He is beyond the intellect’s conception,
and beyond the imagination’s fancy.
For imagining is always limited.
—
### 🕯 Beyond the senses and all states: God cannot be known
The mind’s imaginings cannot reach Him and confine Him,
or measure Him.
Even the keenest intellect cannot
form an image of Him or give Him shape.
He cannot be apprehended by the senses or perceived through sensation;
He cannot be touched by hands.
He is not subject to any state.
Circumstances and conditions do not change Him.
The passage of night and day does not make Him grow old.
Light and darkness
do not alter Him.
He cannot be described in terms of things,
limbs,
organs,
accidents, or parts.
—
### 🗣 When the Master speaks, the world is transformed
The Master is sovereign in speech.
When the Master speaks,
the circumstances and conditions of our existence are transformed.
The Master says:
“If you knew what I know…”
What is hidden from you, but known to me and unknown to you—
if you were to learn of it,
you would flee into the wilderness,
weep over your deeds,
and strike your faces and chests.
You would have fled from the wealth you had embraced.
You would not have appointed anyone to take charge of it.
You would have looked only after yourselves,
not others.
Why?
Because you would have understood what you had brought upon yourselves,
what a loss you had incurred…
—
### 🕳 The secrets of the Master and what keeps him from speaking
The Master says:
By Allah! If I wished, I could tell anyone of his source and his return,
from beginning to end, and of every aspect of his life.
But I do not speak.
Why?
I fear that you will become unbelievers concerning my relationship with the Messenger of Allah.
You do not understand that I am the gate of knowledge,
and he is the city of knowledge.
You cannot bear what I have to say.
You forget the Messenger of Allah, the city of knowledge.
Woe to me—I have become an obstacle to the Master’s knowledge.
Woe to two groups:
1. The bitter enemy, who will not let Ali’s virtues be made known.
They cut out the tongue of anyone who speaks of Ali’s virtues.
2. The ignorant, excessive devotee who goes too far,
raising the Master to the station of divinity.
Because of these two calamities, the Master does not speak.
But he says:
I will speak…
The secrets I hold in my breast,
I will share with trusted intimates.
And who are these intimates?
Those admitted to the Master’s confidence…
What do they know
that we do not…?
Woe to the bitter hater and the excessive devotee…
for they have wronged us.
But…
if we are among the intimates,
the Master himself will come to us
and pour his secrets into our hearts.
### 🕊 Ali bears witness to his own truthfulness: taught by God
By God!
Allah sent me forth in truth.
By the One who sent His Messenger in truth, distinguished him above His creation, and chose him,
I say nothing that he has not taught me.
The place where the doomed meet their end, the place where the saved find deliverance,
and my own circumstances—he has made me aware of them.
Whatever is to befall me, he has conveyed it into my ear.
He has imparted his knowledge to me.
And by Allah, whatever I urge you to do, I am the first to do it.
And I refrain myself from everything I forbid.
—
### ⚔️ The Oppression of the Master; a Curse from a Wounded Heart
The wronged Master, who conceals his knowledge,
lest his knowledge make weak hearts even more ignorant.
These are the very words the Messenger of God spoke:
“O Ali, were I not afraid that a group among my community
would do to you what they did to Jesus, son of Mary,
I would surely say: you would pass no place
without people carrying away the dust from your footsteps to seek healing.”
Yet that same Master was so grieved that he uttered a curse.
What did he say?
He said:
“I wish there were separation between me and you.
May Ali be taken away from you.”
Has Ali not been taken away from us?
Whoever is estranged from his Nahj al-Balagha is estranged from Ali.
They are caught in Ali’s curse.
They must seek forgiveness,
so that once more the Exalted Lord
may restore this bond of union.
—
### 🌸 Keeping Company with the Virtuous; Union with Those Guided to the Truth
O God, join me with those who are more worthy than I am.
Those whose thoughts are blessed.
That is, I shall join those who are:
– blessed, and possessors of enlightened thoughts,
– people of noble forbearance and profound patience,
– speakers of truth and renouncers of injustice,
– pioneers on the path of guidance,
– swift in advancing along the clear path,
– recipients of everlasting felicity,
– and those who have attained a life of ease and contentment.
🎥 Watch the full lecture at the link below:
🔗 Jame Jan website
🌍 jamejan.com
🟠 Jame Jan Eitaa channel
🌼Ali Saei (Abdollah Meshkat) 110.141 (903)🌼
[1]Part of Supplication 44 in al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya
[2] Iqbal al-A‘mal (old edition), vol. 1, p. 207Ibn Tawus, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyya—Tehran, second edition, 1409 AH.
[3]Part of Supplication 47 in al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, passage 60
[4]Part of Supplication 47 in al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, passage 60
[5] Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa; p. 135 Attributed to Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (peace be upon him); Aʿlamī, Beirut, first edition, 1400 AH.
[6] Iqbal al-Aʿmāl (old edition); vol. 2, p. 687 Ibn Ṭāwūs, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, second edition, 1409 AH.
[7] Iqbal al-Aʿmāl (old edition); vol. 1, p. 56 Ibn Ṭāwūs, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, second edition, 1409 AH.
[8] The Life of Lady Fāṭima (peace be upon her) (translation of volume 43 of Biḥār al-Anwār), translated by Rūḥānī; p. 923 Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Taqī; translated by Rūḥānī ʿAlīābādī, Muḥammad; Mahām Publications, Tehran, first edition, 1379 SH.
[9] Irshād al-Qulūb ilā al-Ṣawāb (by al-Daylamī); vol. 1, p. 205 Daylamī, al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Qom, first edition, 1412 AH.
[10] Al-Kharāʾij wa al-Jarāʾiḥ; vol. 2, p. 811 Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāwandī, Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh; Imam Mahdi Foundation—may God hasten his noble advent—Qom, first edition, 1409 AH.
[11] One Hundred Virtues from the Merits of the Commander of the Faithful and the Imams; p. 53 Ibn Shādhān, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad; School of Imam Mahdi—may God hasten his noble advent—Iran, Qom, first edition, 1407 AH.
[12] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition); p. 250 al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.
[13] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition); p. 173 al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.
[14] Al-Amālī (by al-Ṣadūq); text, p. 611 Ibn Bābawayh, Ketābchī, Tehran, sixth edition, 1376 SH.
[15] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition); p. 558 al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.
[16] Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition); vol. 1, p. 102 al-Kulaynī, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.
[17] Al-Tawḥīd (by al-Ṣadūq); p. 80 Ibn Bābawayh, Society of Seminary Teachers, Iran, Qom, first edition, 1398 AH.
[18] Al-Tawḥīd (by al-Ṣadūq); p. 92 Ibn Bābawayh, Society of Seminary Teachers, Iran, Qom, first edition, 1398 AH.
[19] Al-Tawḥīd (by al-Ṣadūq); p. 106 Ibn Bābawayh, Society of Seminary Teachers, Iran, Qom, first edition, 1398 AH.
[20] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition); p. 274 al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.
