notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Please explain these three hadiths:
Imam Ali (AS) says:
For a person, knowing themselves is sufficient knowledge.
کفی بالمرء معرفه ان یعرف نفسه
Ghurar al-Hikam
Imam Ali (AS) says:
Whoever knows themselves knows others better.
من عرف نفسه فهو لغیره اعرف
Ghurar al-Hikam
Imam Ali (AS) says:
Whoever knows themselves, their affairs become great.
من عرف نفسه جل امره
Ghurar al-Hikam
Self-knowledge is the most important form of knowledge: it opens the way to love, worship, and nearness to God. Whoever knows themselves understands others better and recognises their own standing and the greatness of their being as a sign of God. This knowledge is a ladder to discovering other signs and walking the path toward God.
The first hadith is better rendered as follows:
For a person’s knowledge, it is enough that they know themselves!
Knowledge is the gateway to love, worship and servitude. The nearest gateway is the self: the divine sign nearest to us, through which the Exalted Real is made known. This nearest gateway is therefore enough to draw us near to God; whoever passes through it will find the other gateways easy to pass through.
Once we come to know ourselves as signs of God, understanding and recognising other signs—whether like or unlike ourselves—becomes easier. Once we have passed beyond the self, the spiritual wayfaring through other signs becomes easier. Self-knowledge is our ladder to recognising the other signs.
To know oneself is to unfold every dimension of one’s being, to bring its hidden depths into view, to reveal the splendour of the blossoms within the human being, and to manifest the worth and dignity of the human spirit as a sacred, merciful sign.