Ethics and Spirituality

Before making du'a, perform wudu and sit facing the qibla. With a pure and tender heart, first speak privately with God. After expressing your love for Him a few times, begin your supplication.

The soul is always in flight, and nothing can prevent it; what matters is the level and realm in which it flies. A person absorbed in worldly life flies through the world of this life, while a soul attuned to the celestial realm flies through the world of the unseen. Leaving the body during sleep or meditation does not mean the soul has severed its connection with the body; rather, the soul’s rays branch out and expand, while its essence remains within the body. The more refined the heart and the more deeply it is filled with spiritual knowledge, the higher the soul’s flight.

A wife’s willingness to put up with a bad-tempered husband and forgive her dowry is not an absolute duty; it depends on the husband’s character and conduct. Many hadiths emphasize that a man should treat his wife with honor. For a man of faith and piety, encouraging his wife to forgive her dowry is commendable, since the one who does so is promised a profitable bargain.

The human self and its essential reality have four spirits, connected to the intellect and its corresponding faculties. When any one of these spirits takes flight, its root remains connected to the essence of one’s being while its branches extend outward—like the sun, whose center remains fixed as its rays reach the horizons. Departure comes only when the root is severed; until then, the body is left unharmed.

Inner backbiting means recalling, within oneself, the faults, affairs, actions, and words of a fellow Muslim, and turning them over in one’s heart. This can revive old resentments and deepen hostility. In this state, a person is both the one who backbites and the one being backbitten about, with satanic whispers and the promptings of the lower self at work.

Imam Husayn (AS) is a guide and proof leading to God and to winning His pleasure—not in the sense of reaching the nature and essence of the Divine Being. This virtue is also mentioned in connection with Imam Ali (AS), who was uncompromising in the cause of God. In such contexts, “dhāt” means God’s direction, path, way, or pleasure.

If a believer’s heart and limbs are in Satan’s grip and the Sovereign, too, is disobedient, this points to his weakness and negligence. In such circumstances, the pleasure of sin turns bitter for the Sovereign, and a serious struggle begins between him and his limbs—one that may lead to severe illness or madness. This battle continues until the Sovereign willingly sets about putting his own being in order.

If the heart is under Satan’s control, a person’s innermost being—their “self” and “soul”—has a particularly important duty: to strive to heal the heart. Then the heart itself must take the matter seriously. The other limbs, like members of a family, can also support the head of the family (the heart) and are responsible for guiding and directing it.

To break free from Satan’s hold, all the limbs must strive: both the commander and the troops are responsible. Just as the body’s cells can become cancerous, individual limbs can rebel against the body’s commander—the heart. The limb itself, the other limbs, and above all the heart all play a vital role in freeing the body from Satan’s sway.

The heart is regarded as the ruler of the body. If it has sufficient authority, it can keep the limbs and faculties under control. But when the heart is weak, it loses control over them. Each limb has its own identity and distinct capacities, and may fall under Satan’s sway.