Woman: A Special Sign of God

🌼🔆🌼The Secret of Fatima Ma‘suma’s Allure🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹 “The Hidden Secrets of Womanhood”  “The Miracle of Purity”  “Innate Sensibility” “Fatima Ma‘suma’s Lofty Horizon”  “The Night of Fatima Ma‘suma’s Birth” and more … An abstract with a supplement       1403.02.20    Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🔅🌼A General View of the Themes’ Horizons 🌼🔅

🌼 The secret of Fatima Ma‘suma’s purity! The secret of the world’s devotion to Fatima Ma‘suma!

🌼 The secret of innate allure; the secret of Lady Fatima Ma‘suma’s attraction; the role of the Holy Spirit in her allure!

🌼 Woman is a sign of God, and a pure woman is God’s greatest sign.

🌼 Among God’s greatest signs, Fatima Ma‘suma holds a place of singular rank and majesty.

🌼 Pure women and men are God’s pure ground. 

🌼 Purity is like light, and a pure person like a lamp.

🌼 Fatima Ma‘suma is a lamp of purity; her light illuminates hearts.

🌼 Without purity, no art can come into being in existence.

🌼 The Creator displays His art and beauty upon a pure page.

🌼 Purity is beauty’s secure home; purity is the register of knowledge and wisdom.

🌼 Pure hearts are where God’s “Be, and it is” takes place.

🌼 A pure soul is an enduring martyr.

🌼 A believing woman who is martyred is dearer than a believing man who is martyred; a pure soul is the soul of the world.

🌼 What might purity become when joined with noble virtues!!!

🌼 Clothed as male and female, human beings have entered God’s great contest.

🌼 God Himself is the buyer of His own crop.

🌼 Why is gold so captivating? Why are diamonds and rubies so enchanting? Is it only because of their appearance? Through our own inner nature, we apprehend their inner nature; a jewel is a field of intimate communion, a reflection of the remembrance of God. If a stone can attain such a station, what might the noblest of creatures, the human being, accomplish through remembrance of God!!!!

🌼 God does not give His special gifts to just anyone.  Women of purity possess beauty beyond beauty in their souls.

🌼 Not everyone can grasp the majesty of a pure woman. The worth and beauty of a believing woman are beyond measure; only an enlightened eye can perceive them. A pure woman is a living sign of God.

🌼 The secret of connection to the greatest means of divine approach

🌼 The God who brought nonbeing into being—what might He do with what already exists!!!  He can turn beauty into beauty beyond beauty, raise a man beyond manhood, and a woman beyond womanhood.

🌼 Pleasure, colour, taste, touch—everything that exists is a distinct kind of vibration.

🌼 It seems the trial of servitude to God is nearing its end.

🌼 If we purify the self, we attain a semblance of sinlessness.

🌼 A believing woman’s transcendent radiance emerges after the trial of this world. 

🌼 Man and woman are like letter and letter, word and word—like hydrogen and oxygen, from which the water of life springs.

🌼 How did Ma‘suma become Ma‘suma? Through watchfulness and the elevated purification of the self.

🌼 Whoever safeguards their own dignity, God makes a place of pilgrimage.

🌼 Paradise is surrounded by hardship, and Hell by desires.

🌼 Obedience to God entails hardship; every act of disobedience is bound up with desire.

🌼 God placed diamonds in hard rocks and pearls in the depths of the sea.

🌼Ali Sa‘i (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼

🌼🔆🔆🌼🌸☘️🌷🔆🌹🌻🔆🔆🌻

🔅🌼 An Innate Sense of the Infallible Lady 🌼🔅

🌹We feel an innate bond with Lady Maʿṣūma, through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the divine breath, the spirit of faith, and the intellect. With the aid of God’s supreme means, we receive inner knowledge of Maʿṣūma (peace be upon her). This is the secret behind our restlessness and the powerful attraction we feel toward her.

🌹The world has fallen in love with Maʿṣūma without ever seeing her. What might it have been like had it known her virtues?!

🌹How, indeed, did Maʿṣūma (peace be upon her) become Maʿṣūma? What kind of intuition is this innate intuition?

🌹How did Fāṭima Maʿṣūma make such a commotion through her silence!!! She did not seek to be seen, yet God presented her to the world with such dignity.

🔅🌼Woman: God’s singular sign 🌼🔅

🌹Woman is a special sign of God, and a pure woman is God’s greatest sign, God’s fairest sign.

🌹What is the secret of Maʿṣūma, of Zaynab, and above all, of Fāṭima? Where does this attraction, this magnetism, come from? These attractions are rooted in the hidden mysteries of creation, and the Creator, through His mighty means, inspires them in human hearts.

🌹Love for the friends of God lies beyond the bounds of the human; it reaches a superhuman station, from that exalted realm extending to the whole world, its phenomena and all its beings.

🔅🌼 Purity gives life 🌼🔅

🌹Purity grows, flows, gives life, rises and shines. Pure men and women are the very soil and fabric of that purity. Purity is like light, and the pure person is its lamp.

🌹Purity is the space and the ground where growth, effusion and life take root.

🌹Purity is the tablet on which visions and beauty are displayed, a gallery of sublime art.

🌹Purity is the Preserved Tablet, the innermost secret of secrets.

🌹Purity is the treasury and the secure house of God.

🌹Purity is the soul of the world, its light and its book of knowledge and wisdom.

🌹The pure soul is a vantage point for the Creator of souls, a repository of God’s “Be, and it is.”

🔅🌼 Purity is a rushing river 🌼🔅

🌹The pure soul of a martyr flows on and endures. Such a martyr’s testimony is testimony upon testimony, light upon light, life upon life. A believing woman who is martyred is more alive than a believing man who is martyred, because she is more precious.

🌹The pure soul is the soul of the world, the place where divine creations appear and the springs of the Creator’s inventions well up.

🌹The pure soul is the leaven of the highest Paradise, the primal element of the ḥūr al-ʿayn and the delights of bliss.

🔅🌼Purity is brought to life through noble virtues and worship 🌼🔅

🌹When purity is joined with noble virtues and steeped in worship, a great and wondrous transformation takes place in the world of beauty.

🌹At every moment, by the divine will, a pure woman is newly created and adorned with a fresh radiance.

🔅🌼Woman and man: two poles in the contest of humanity 🌼🔅

🌹One of the distinctive contests in the universe is the contest between the feminine and masculine elements.

🌻🔆النحل : 97   مَنْ عَمِلَ صالِحاً مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثى‏ وَ هُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَياةً طَيِّبَةً وَ لَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ ما كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

🔆Whoever does righteous deeds, whether man or woman, while being a believer, We shall grant them a pure life, and We shall reward them according to the best of what they used to do.

🌹The pronouns huwa and muʾmin in this verse refer to both male and female; the verse holds particular mysteries.

🔅🌼No one can compete with God 🌼🔅

🌹God Himself buys what He has produced; He is the buyer of His own cultivation, paying a worthy price in return.

When God has chosen someone as His own, others can only love them; they cannot possess them. No one can buy what belongs to God.

🌹Worth is measured by purity: a pure woman is precious both in measure and in refinement.

🌹No one can measure the worth or purity of Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (peace be upon her) and Fāṭima Maʿṣūma (peace be upon her).

🌹Why are people so drawn to jewels and precious stones? Because in all their beauty, they sing of God, and the human spirit and soul perceive their song.

🌹A pure woman is a mine of remembrance of the Holy God, the highest ode of creation, the fragrance and serenity of the world, and the vibrations of existence. The exalted woman lies veiled behind many layers.

🌻🔆At-Tawbah: 111   إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرى‏ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنينَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَ أَمْوالَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ يُقاتِلُونَ في‏ سَبيلِ اللَّهِ فَيَقْتُلُونَ وَ يُقْتَلُونَ وَعْداً عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْراةِ وَ الْإِنْجيلِ وَ الْقُرْآنِ وَ مَنْ أَوْفى‏ بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمُ الَّذي بايَعْتُمْ بِهِ وَ ذلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظيمُ

🔆Indeed, God has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight in God’s cause, killing and being killed. This is a true promise binding upon Him, in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an. And who is more faithful to His covenant than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made; that is the supreme triumph.

🌻🔆At-Tawbah: 112   التَّائِبُونَ الْعابِدُونَ الْحامِدُونَ السَّائِحُونَ الرَّاكِعُونَ السَّاجِدُونَ الْآمِرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَ النَّاهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَ الْحافِظُونَ لِحُدُودِ اللَّهِ وَ بَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنينَ

Those who repent, worship, give thanks, journey, bow, prostrate, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and observe God’s limits—and give glad tidings to the believers!

🔅🌼God’s hand of artistry is ever upon Maʿṣūma’s soul 🌼🔅

🌹Fāṭima Maʿṣūma is polished and refined through creation; Fāṭima Maʿṣūma is ascending.

🌹God does not bestow the special gift of His attractions upon everyone.

🌹Without doubt, a beauty beyond beauty resides in the souls of the pure women of existence, and one day it will be fully revealed. Realms upon realms and delights upon delights, in degrees beyond number, will become manifest in a repose beyond description.

🔅🌼The marriage of the pure holds hidden mysteries 🌼🔅

🌹Not everyone can comprehend the greatness of a believing woman; yet a believing man is to her pure soul as hardware is to software.

The purest delights are found within the families of the pure. Believing spouses are one another’s software and hardware.

🌹No one can comprehend the world of a pure, believing man and woman in married life. By “believer,” I mean one who truly possesses faith, not one who merely displays it.

🌹A believing woman is a living sign of God.

🌹In his relationship with his believing wife, a believing man opens every realm of connection and delight. Connection is not limited to gender.

🌻🔆Ar-Rūm: 21   وَ مِنْ آياتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْواجاً لِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْها وَ جَعَلَ بَيْنَكُمْ مَوَدَّةً وَ رَحْمَةً إِنَّ في‏ ذلِكَ لَآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

And among His signs is that He created for you spouses of your own kind, so that you might find repose in them, and placed between you affection and mercy. Surely in this are signs for people who reflect!

🌹Through a believing woman, a repose encompassing the dimensions of the greater universe is realised.

🌹Marriage and intimacy must not be brutish. True intimacy comes about through the participation of the intellect and its hosts, the spirit of faith, the spirit of the body, the spirit of power, and the spirit of desire in its higher form, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and other exalted means.

🌹Let us remember that spouses are each other’s distinctive signs of God.

🔅🌼The two poles of God’s artistry 🌼🔅

🌹Reflect more deeply on this mirror: the arts of servitude and marriage, the radiance of servitude, and the world’s divinely ordained counterparts.

🌻🔆الأحزاب : 35   إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمينَ وَ الْمُسْلِماتِ وَ الْمُؤْمِنينَ وَ الْمُؤْمِناتِ وَ الْقانِتينَ وَ الْقانِتاتِ وَ الصَّادِقينَ وَ الصَّادِقاتِ وَ الصَّابِرينَ وَ الصَّابِراتِ وَ الْخاشِعينَ وَ الْخاشِعاتِ وَ الْمُتَصَدِّقينَ وَ الْمُتَصَدِّقاتِ وَ الصَّائِمينَ وَ الصَّائِماتِ وَ الْحافِظينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَ الْحافِظاتِ وَ الذَّاكِرينَ اللَّهَ كَثيراً وَ الذَّاكِراتِ أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ مَغْفِرَةً وَ أَجْراً عَظيماً

🔆 Surely, for Muslim men and Muslim women, believing men and believing women, obedient men and obedient women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, men who give in charity and women who give in charity, men who fast and women who fast, chaste men and chaste women, and men who remember God often and women who remember Him often, God has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.

🌹The occurrence of events beyond events, and the wonders of creation, through the union and intermingling of immense divine workings: the mighty tree of servitude, bearing fruit beyond fruit.

🔅🌼 How far do the horizons of Ma‘sumeh extend? 🌼🔅

🌹From the pure soul issue vibrations and rays that stir the world into life and renew it.

🌹Vibration means color and beauty, taste and flavor, touch and love—and all that is; and beyond these, things no one has ever experienced. Vibrations beyond all vibrations issue from the pure soul.

🌹God, the All-Wise, tenderly cherishes His signs. He brings nothing into being, raises what exists beyond existence, beauty beyond beauty, pleasures beyond pleasures, and creation beyond creation. He will raise woman beyond womanhood and man beyond manhood.

🌹Ma‘sumeh is Ma‘sumeh again, and more than Ma‘sumeh.

🔅🌼 Sacred bonds bearing sacred fruit 🌼🔅

🌹There is no doubt that nonsexual offspring come into being between man and woman, especially between a believing man and a believing woman.

🌹At every moment, particular earthly and heavenly, hidden and manifest connections take place between spouses, accompanied by wondrous fruits.

🔅🌼 The tree of marriage 🌼🔅

🌹Every tree bears its own fruit; the tree of humanity is a tree rich in fruits.

🌹In married life, through their looks, conduct, invocations, and states of being, a believing man and woman bring about events and leave behind effects beyond all effects. The married world of a believing man and woman is a world of wills: the two sides, the two poles, of the divine will are realized and made manifest.

🔅🌼 Women are nourished by Ma‘sumeh 🌼🔅

🌹Women are nourished by Ma‘sumeh and draw sustenance from her; they themselves grow spiritually abundant.

🌹Ma‘sumeh is alive and breathes, and with this breath she brings vitality to our world.

🌹The world is filled with the effects that flow from Ma‘sumeh’s fragrance and purity.

🌹The rain of Ma‘sumeh’s nobility, gentleness, and purity falls upon all existence without cease.

🌹How much sunlight do we capture? How much of the sun of Ma‘sumeh’s world have we absorbed!!!

🌻🔆الشمس : 9   قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاها

🔆Truly, successful is the one who purifies their soul.

🌹The secret of Ma‘sumeh lies in her pristine soul, in the jewel at its heart.

🔅🌼 Woman is connected to the weighty test 🌼🔅

🌹When we choose the weights of our trials, we must raise them with goodness, preserve them, and bring our test to a wholly beautiful success.

🌹Let us attend to the weights of God’s test. All that is beautiful, all wealth and riches and possessions, are particular weights in the test of servitude to God—even ugliness, poverty, pain, and deprivation.

🌹Wealth and poverty are elements of the test.

🌹A woman’s beauty and the powers of attraction she possesses are a test alone.

🌹The means and gifts of the test are not for putting up for auction or selling, but for safeguarding and nurturing. Their presentation to the universe comes only by God’s permission.

🌹To sell what God has made back to its rightful Owner is the greatest profit.

🌹The splendour of the believing woman’s radiance in the universe will one day be revealed.

🌹After the test comes the time to shine, to rise, to radiate and to flourish.

🌹Take heed: the test is nearly over.

🔅🌼The wonder of the sacred bond between woman and man🌼🔅

🌹The bond between woman and man is like the joining of letters to form a new word; words unite to create a beautiful sentence; and in the end, the most beautiful Book of Creation is composed, and a mighty tree, rich in fruit, comes into being. This is a mystery found in the union of hydrogen and oxygen.

🌹What beautiful and unique letters, words, sentences, elements and wonders have believing men and believing women brought into being!

🔅🌼A pure woman is God’s sanctuary🌼🔅

🌹In one sense, woman is a divine sanctuary; may God’s sanctuary never forget its sanctity.

🌹A pure woman is life-giving, flowing and radiant.

🌹A pure woman is the ground and setting for divine miracles.

🌹A pure woman is a field in which purity and goodness grow.

🔅🌼Be your own school🌼🔅

🌹The secret of becoming a man or woman of purity lies in self-discipline and the refinement of the soul.

🌹Whoever becomes their own school will one day become a university for all humanity.

🌹Guard your own sanctity, until you become a sanctuary of God and a place of visitation for the righteous.

🌷🔆وَ قَالَ ع:‏ مَنْ نَصَبَ نَفْسَهُ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَاماً- [فَعَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَبْدَأَ] فَلْيَبْدَأْ بِتَعْلِيمِ نَفْسِهِ قَبْلَ تَعْلِيمِ غَيْرِهِ وَ لْيَكُنْ تَأْدِيبُهُ بِسِيرَتِهِ قَبْلَ تَأْدِيبِهِ بِلِسَانِهِ وَ مُعَلِّمُ‏ نَفْسِهِ‏ وَ مُؤَدِّبُهَا أَحَقُّ بِالْإِجْلَالِ مِنْ مُعَلِّمِ النَّاسِ وَ مُؤَدِّبِهِم‏[1]

🔆Imam Ali, peace be upon him: Whoever places himself in a position of leadership over the people must first teach himself before teaching others, and discipline himself through his conduct before doing so with his words. One who teaches and guides himself is more deserving of honour than one who teaches and guides others.

🔅🌼Take care lest the jewel of the soul perish🌼🔅

🌹If you safeguard the jewel of the soul, raising its worth and value, you also increase the worth of the one who possesses it.

🌹A human being is the steward of the jewel of the self. By preserving its finest order, one must bring it to its greatest order; otherwise, when it falls, the human being falls with it.

🌹The secret of the pure lies in guarding the self: they have honoured the jewel of their souls with the jewel of servitude to God.

🌹Polish your soul; turn the coal of the self into a pure diamond.

🌷🔆إنّ النَّفسَ لَجَوهَرَةٌ ثَمينَةٌ ؛ مَن صانَها رفَعَها ، و مَنِ ابتَذَلَها وَضَعَها .

🔆The soul is indeed a precious jewel: whoever guards it elevates it, while whoever defiles it debases and disgraces it.

🔅🌼The sweet taste of servitude is found amid hardship🌼🔅

🌹You can reach the delicious kernel of a walnut or almond only by breaking through its hard shell; whatever is sweet and delightful lies beneath a hard outer covering.

🌹Diamonds lie in the heart of hard rock, pearls in the depths of the sea, and stars in the heart of the sky. Glory is always found atop a mountain.

🌹Becoming a star among God’s servants takes effort: it calls for the depths of night, wakefulness, thirst, hunger, wounds, martyrdom, hardship, pain and poverty.

🌷🔆 إِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ حُفَّتْ بِالْمَكَارِهِ وَ إِنَّ النَّارَ حُفَّتْ بِالشَّهَوَاتِ وَ اعْلَمُوا أَنَّهُ مَا مِنْ طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ شَيْ‏ءٌ إِلَّا يَأْتِي فِي كُرْهٍ وَ مَا مِنْ‏ مَعْصِيَةِ اللَّهِ‏ شَيْ‏ءٌ إِلَّا يَأْتِي فِي شَهْوَةٍ فَرَحِمَ اللَّهُ امْرَأً نَزَعَ عَنْ شَهْوَتِهِ وَ قَمَعَ هَوَى نَفْسِهِ فَإِنَّ هَذِهِ النَّفْسَ أَبْعَدُ شَيْ‏ءٍ مَنْزِعاً وَ إِنَّهَا لَا تَزَالُ تَنْزِعُ إِلَى مَعْصِيَةٍ فِي هَوًى وَ اعْلَمُوا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ أَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ [لَا يُمْسِي وَ لَا يُصْبِحُ‏] لَا يُصْبِحُ وَ لَا يُمْسِي إِلَّا وَ نَفْسُهُ ظَنُونٌ عِنْدَهُ فَلَا يَزَالُ زَارِياً عَلَيْهَا وَ مُسْتَزِيداً لَهَا فَكُونُوا كَالسَّابِقِينَ قَبْلَكُمْ وَ الْمَاضِينَ أَمَامَكُمْ قَوَّضُوا مِنَ الدُّنْيَا تَقْوِيضَ الرَّاحِلِ وَ طَوَوْهَا طَيَّ الْمَنَازِل‏[2]

🔆For the Messenger of God, may God’s blessings and peace be upon him and his family, would say: “Paradise is surrounded by hardships, and the Fire is surrounded by desires. Know that every act of obedience to God entails hardship, and every act of disobedience to God is bound up with desire. May God have mercy on one who tears desire from himself and uproots the cravings of his lower self. The self never wishes to part from desire; it continually longs to turn towards disobedience.”

Know, servants of God, that a believer never sees the day or night pass without holding his own self suspect. He is always finding fault with it and demanding more of it. So be like those who came before you—the generations who cast off this fleeting world as a traveller casts off his baggage, and passed through it as one moves from one dwelling to the next.

🌷🔆 اتَّقِ اللَّهَ فِي كُلِّ [مَسَاءٍ وَ صَبَاحٍ‏] صَبَاحٍ وَ مَسَاءٍ وَ خَفْ عَلَى نَفْسِكَ الدُّنْيَا الْغَرُورَ وَ لَا تَأْمَنْهَا عَلَى حَالٍ وَ اعْلَمْ أَنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تَرْدَعْ‏ نَفْسَكَ‏ عَنْ كَثِيرٍ مِمَّا تُحِبُّ مَخَافَةَ [مَكْرُوهِهِ‏] مَكْرُوهٍ سَمَتْ بِكَ الْأَهْوَاءُ إِلَى كَثِيرٍ مِنَ الضَّرَرِ فَكُنْ لِنَفْسِكَ مَانِعاً رَادِعاً وَ [لِنَزَوَاتِكَ‏] لِنَزْوَتِكَ عِنْدَ الْحَفِيظَةِ وَاقِماً قَامِعا[3]

🔆Imam Ali, Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, writes to one of the commanders of his army:Fear God morning and evening, beware of the world’s deceiving you, and never place your trust in it.Know that unless you restrain yourself from what you love and from what displeases you, your passions and desires will bring you great harm. So keep your self in check and do not let it run free. When anger rises, hold it back and uproot it completely.

🌼Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)🌼

[1] Nahj al-Balagha (ed. Subhi Salih); p. 480 Sharif al-Radi, Muhammad ibn Husayn, Hijrat – Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[2] Nahj al-Balagha (ed. Subhi Salih); p. 251 Sharif al-Radi, Muhammad ibn Husayn, Hijrat – Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[3] Nahj al-Balagha (ed. Subhi Salih); p. 447 Sharif al-Radi, Muhammad ibn Husayn, Hijrat – Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.