notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Peace and greetings to our beloved teacher.
What does it mean for the eyes and ears to become heirs after a person’s death in the following supplication?
«اللهم صل علی محمد و آل محمد و متعنا باسماعنا و ابصارنا واجعلهما الوارثین منا.....»
In a supplication, for one’s eyes and ears to be heirs means that they remain in perfect health until the end of one’s life, continue to bring benefit, endure beyond physical death, and are adorned with the beauty of obedience. It may also mean becoming worthy of the eternal companionship of the Infallibles (AS), who are “the seeing eye of God and the hearing ear of God.”
اللهم صل على محمد و آل محمد و متعنا بأسماعنا و أبصارنا و اجعلهما الوارثین منا فإنه لا حول و لا قوه إلا بک
When our hearing and sight become our heirs, it means that these faculties will remain with us until the end of our lives, in full health and soundness. In a sense, this is a prayer that our hearing and sight may remain healthy.
Inheritance, on the other hand, also includes a person’s wealth. When our hearing and sight become our heirs, they gain something of benefit from us. In other words, this prayer asks God to make us beneficial to them, just as they are beneficial to us.
From another perspective, their becoming our heirs means that our hearing and sight will continue to live on after our earthly life.
In a sense, becoming heirs makes their companionship with us a source of pride and honour. We pray that we may not taint these faculties with sin, but instead adorn them with obedience.
For our hearing and sight to inherit from us is as though we become a paradise for them—a source of joy, delight, peace and comfort.
From one perspective, for the friends of God, hearing and sight are like their followers; for us, they are like our companions, children and kin.
From a higher perspective, the true hearing and sight in the realm of existence are the Infallible Ones, peace be upon them. They are «عین الله الناظره و اذن الله السامعه». To benefit from them is to attain the Truth, and to become their heirs means to become worthy of their eternal companionship.
The framework of a devotional prayer can be formed in several ways:
1) We may intend that the purpose of our prayer be the same as the purpose intended by the Imam who taught it.
2) Alongside intending the Imam’s purpose, we may also bear our own intentions in mind.