Ethics and Spirituality

To live for God with sincerity, we must experience the sweetness of worship through knowledge and purity of heart. Turning away from attachment to this world and its pleasures brings us closer to tasting spiritual delights. One who truly yearns devotes all their efforts to reaching the Beloved and lets everything but Him slip from mind.

The faculty of imagination is like a screen that reflects the heart: it displays whatever is on the network to which the heart is connected. When the heart is guided by reason, it connects to the realm of the unseen and becomes receptive to divine inspiration. This connection gives rise to true imaginings and thoughts, both in sleep and while awake. The stronger one’s reason and noble character, the clearer and truer one’s imaginings become.

Poverty does not mean merely a lack of money. It also includes being deprived of inner peace and joy—things sinful people lack even when they possess great wealth. True provision lies in enjoying life’s blessings, and great wealth may become a burden. Divine punishment will inevitably come, in this world or the next; its delay does not mean escape.

One who is honored through Imam Husayn is someone who follows him completely and embodies the qualities of a true Shi‘i. Absolute obedience, sincere devotion, and wholehearted emulation are the keys to attaining esteem in the sight of God—so much so that a person becomes, in effect, a mirror reflecting the one they follow.

Human clay takes one of two forms—Illiyyīn or Sijjīn—and provides the basic substance of a person’s character and inner qualities. These forms combine with the six modes of being (light, substance, air, water, fire, and earth), as well as the bodily and inward faculties, giving rise to the diversity of creation. The primordial covenant is only one of the realms through which human beings have passed, and it is possible to transform Sijjīn clay into Illiyyīn clay through prayer and repentance.

To understand a dream and free oneself from moral failings, one must seek God’s pleasure and turn to Him with one’s needs. A profound inner transformation—giving up hope in oneself and in anyone besides God, and placing one’s hope in Him alone—is the way forward.

The promise of reward for good deeds encourages those who are just beginning and reminds them of the value of worship. Yet worship is truly sincere when it is offered solely for God, without seeking a reward. This is the worship of the free: it is superior to the worship of slaves, who act out of fear, and hired hands, who act in hope of recompense.

Ways to draw near to God include seeking knowledge, strengthening one’s faith and certainty, gaining knowledge of divine unity and guardianship, reciting the Qur’an, reflecting on creation, maintaining family ties, cultivating good character, observing hijab and modesty, and following the teachings of Nahj al-Balagha and Sahifa Sajjadiyya. It is also recommended to follow Imam Sajjad’s (AS) Treatise on Rights and avoid disliked acts.

Any desire that follows the path of attachment to this world and distracts us from the Hereafter is blameworthy. God should be our true aspiration, and we manage our desires by orienting them toward Him. Worldly desires are nothing but mirages, drawing us toward humiliation and Saqar.

God’s gratitude means His grace and beneficence in creation and His care for His servants, expressed through giving, generosity, encouragement, and reward. A servant’s gratitude means acknowledging God’s blessings and using them in a way that pleases the Lord. God’s gratitude is creative and bestowing; the servant’s is expressive.

The blessed verse encourages us to place our hope in God and avoid miserliness. The right balance is to put our hope in no one but God and ask only Him not to leave us to anyone else. We should not stop giving out of fear of poverty.

The expression “annihilation in God” is polytheistic, since it treats God as a container and the one who is annihilated as something contained within it and made nonexistent. The Divine Essence is exalted above being a container. Created beings pass away by God’s permission, and only the Face of God remains. This is the station of abiding by God’s permission. Abiding itself is a work of the Ever-Abiding, and is too exalted to be described.

The acceptance of other deeds depends on the acceptance of prayer, but this does not mean that prayer is the sole condition for accepting one’s worship. Prayer is like the main pillar of the edifice of devotion: without it, other deeds collapse. A complete prayer includes asking for guidance to the straight path and helping God’s servants along the way.

A programme for a forty-day spiritual retreat while remaining with one’s family and engaged in society includes a daily review of one’s deeds, reciting prayers for forgiveness, completing the Qur’an and the Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya, reflecting on the Fifteen Whispered Prayers, performing the night prayer, giving charity each day and night, and caring for those in need.

God’s being grateful means that He values a believer’s intention and effort in fulfilling their duties, even when their presence of heart is imperfect. A believer’s intention is superior to their action, but they must strive to fulfil that intention to the best of their ability—and God values that effort.

Giving is when someone parts with their surplus wealth, while self-sacrifice is when, despite being in need themselves, they put someone else’s need first and give from what they have. This is among the highest forms of goodness. Knowing when to practise it depends on the heart’s desire to seek God’s pleasure.

Putting educational justice into practice is extremely challenging. When a school pressures teachers to raise pass rates and students and their families are facing difficult circumstances, teachers must weigh all the relevant considerations and act prudently, without wronging anyone.

A child’s duty when faced with unreasonable demands from parents is not to obey them in disobedience to the Creator. While maintaining courtesy and respect, a child should refrain from joining their parents in sin and should encourage them to do what is right and discourage what is wrong.

The most effective way to erase the pleasure of sin and let the joy of worship prevail is to free oneself from attachment to the world and focus on divine knowledge. Through spiritual discipline, the lower self can be transformed into the soul at peace. Whatever a person gives their attention to, the soul comes to perceive clearly and love. Attuning the heart to the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Household is the way to leave behind base pleasures and attain a taste of the heavenly realm.

Spiritual states of constriction and expansion arise from the quality of the soul’s nourishment through the teachings of the Two Weighty Things. The greater a person’s knowledge, the richer the sources of nourishment for the soul. If we seek knowledge with sincerity and put it into practice, our faculties awaken and the soul’s palate comes alive. As for abandoning acts that cause spiritual constriction, we should await a response from the Imam of Our Time (AJ).