The Source of Joy and Delight

🟠 The System of Joy and Gladness
🔘 The Night of Imam Reza’s Martyrdom, peace be upon him
📆 Date: 1403/06/13 – 30 Safar 1446
📌 Meshkat-e Noor Session
📌 Weekly Session: Commentary and Exegesis on the Sahifa Sajjadiya (Supplication 20)
👤 Lecture by Master Ali Saei

🗒 Some topics discussed during the session:

🌼 On the night of the martyrdom of the adornment of the believers, the master of joy and delight: without al-Ridha, Paradise has no taste or sweetness; without him, the universe would know no joy.
🌼 Imam al-Sadiq عليه‌السلام said of his grandson, Imam al-Ridha: “My son will be killed in Tus. Whoever visits him there, knowing his rightful station, I will take by the hands on the Day of Resurrection and bring into Paradise, even if he is among those who have committed grave sins.”
🌼 What does it mean to know al-Ridha’s rightful station? It means recognising that al-Ridha is an Imam whose obedience is obligatory.
🌼 Whoever visits al-Ridha, recognising his rightful station, will be granted by Allah, the Almighty and Exalted, the reward of seventy martyrs—not just any martyrs, but those who were truly martyred at the sacred threshold of the Prophet.
🌼 In creation, al-Ridha is the one who is pleasing; God Himself named him Ali.
🌼 On the Day of Resurrection, Imam al-Ridha will be the proof of who is a true Shi‘a.
🌼 Who could attain the rank of being a Shi‘a of Imam al-Ridha?
🌼 Who is a Shi‘a? One who remains constantly with their Imam.
🌼 Whoever is counted among us—even if they are one of our close relatives—does not belong to us if they do not obey God.
The first principle is obedience to the Most Exalted Lord. Whoever loves al-Ridha must obey God.
Kinship has meaning only through obedience to God.
🌼 Imam al-Ridha عليه‌السلام said: “Our Shi‘a submit to our command.”
🌼 Anyone who has never read even one line of the Imam’s teachings, yet calls themself the Imam’s servant, is lost in wishful thinking.
🌼 Al-Ridha’s words—His Eminence’s sermons on divine unity—are like a garden. Whoever has never walked in that garden or breathed in its fragrance is not a Shi‘a of al-Ridha.
🌼 His Eminence says: “Our Shi‘a are those who oppose our enemies.” Whoever lacks this quality is not a Shi‘a.
🌼 Let us learn the bounds and requirements of being a Shi‘a.
🌼 Imam al-Ridha عليه‌السلام relates the following from the Gospel: “Blessed is the servant through whom God is remembered; woe to the servant through whom God is forgotten.”
🌼 Whoever worships God with reason will turn away from the people of this world and those who seek it, and will seek what is with God.
🌼 When a believer detaches from the world, they rise and taste the sweetness of love for God. But how do worldly people see such a believer? They think the person has lost their mind. In truth, however, the believer has come to know the love of God and has parted ways with the people of this world.
🌼 Wealth and children, too, can become a means of forgetting God; yet these very things can also become a source of remembrance of God.
🌼 One key to awakening the innate disposition toward divine unity is attaining knowledge of God.
🌼 Lack of knowledge is sheer godlessness; those who merely make a show of faith are godless.
🌼 The first knowledge is bestowed; it is held in trust.
🌼 Sincere, striving, and pure seeking
🌼 The greatest means is knowledge of God, which must always be joined to the spirit and the soul. Imam al-Husayn said: “O people, O servants of God, God created His servants for no reason other than that they might know Him and, through this knowledge, worship Him, freeing themselves from worshipping anything besides God.”
🌼 This means that whoever is not a servant becomes captive to all of God’s servants.
🌼 To be connected to the Imam is to be connected to a being who is wholly connected to God. The Imam is connected to God without a veil—because he himself is the veil!
🌼 The Imam is a purely epistemic system.
🌼 The Imam is the innate disposition in its fullness, the disposition brought to fruition.
🌼 Knowledge through the Imam means reconnecting to the process of renewal.
🌼 We can benefit from our senses to the extent that we are connected to them. If we did not know our sight, we would be blind.
If I had complete knowledge of my eye, I would see the whole universe, its beginning and its end.
🌼 The supreme system of knowledge of God has twelve keys. Until we reach these twelve keys, we have not attained the worship of God.
🌼 God’s proof is the nerve network of knowledge of God.
🌼 The ritual bath before a pilgrimage is a kind of purification that prepares one to connect with the pure.
🌼 Whoever is mindful of God will be quenched, and their intellect will rise. They will meet people only with their body and physical self, while their intellect and heart remain elsewhere, remembering God. Those subject to the prescribed punishments—people who have incurred a penalty by committing a sin—are Muslims, but neither believers nor unbelievers. God Most High will never admit a believer to the Fire, while an unbeliever will never be separated from the Fire, for God has promised them the Fire.🌼 God will never forgive the extremists.
🌼 Sinners who affirm divine unity will not remain in the Fire forever. This statement shows that divine unity is not the end of the path, but its beginning: it is the first step in servitude. We imagine that divine unity is the final station of servitude.
🌼 The Imams’ intercession will extend only to those who affirm divine unity.
🌸His Eminence’s sermons on divine unity
🌼 Knowledge is the beginning and starting point of servitude to God. Knowledge is both worship and the means to worship.
🌼 Worship without knowledge is silent, lifeless worship.
🌼 Knowledge is bestowed; all that is needed is to seek it.
🌼 Knowledge is one of God’s acts. He brings His act to fruition within our souls, and our worship takes on a divine hue.
🌼 The human being is always situated on the path of knowledge of God; all that is needed is to keep oneself on track.
🌼 There are three kinds of knowledge: اللهم عرفنی نفسک (interpretive knowledge), اللهم عرفنی نبیک (explanatory knowledge), and اللهم عرفنی حجتک (structural knowledge).