Worship and Freedom from Need:

It should be known that ghina (self-sufficiency, richness, independence, and being without need of others) is a virtue of the soul or, rather, a virtue of being qua being. Hence ghina is an Essential Attribute of the Sacred Essence of God, Glorious and Exalted. Wealth and riches do not bring spiritual self-sufficiency. Rather, it may be said that those who lack spiritual self-sufficiency are made more greedy and avaricious due to the possession of property, riches and wealth, and their need becomes greater. True richness is unattainable except through God, Glorious and Exalted, Who is Self-sufficient-by-Essence, and all other existents, from humble dust to the topmost heaven and from primal matter to the higher jabarut, all are `poor' and needy. Hence the more the heart's attention is turned to other-than-God and the more is one's inner self attentive to the cultivation of the mundane and the corporeal world (mulk), the more one's poverty and need become day by day. The spiritual aspect of this poverty is quite obvious, because attachment and love is need by itself. The external aspect of this poverty, which reinforces spiritual poverty, also becomes stronger; for one who is not independent in managing his own affairs inevitably stands in need of others. Even if the rich and the wealthy should outwardly appear to be without need, a closer look will reveal that their need increases in proportion to the amount of their wealth. Hence the wealthy are the poor in the garb of rich and needy in the garb of self-sufficient.

The more is the attention of the heart and its attachment to mundane matters and cultivation of the world, the more does it get covered with the dust of abasement and poverty and the greater become its need and darkness of abasement. Conversely, if someone should turn his back upon attachment to the world and orient the heart toward absolute richness and self-sufficiency, convinced in the essential poverty of all beings, understanding that no existent possesses anything of itself and that there is no power, honour or authority except through God, and listens to the voice of the malakuti caller and the call from the Unseen that:

O mankind, you have the ones that have need of God; He is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable, (35:15)

he would attain freedom from need of both the worlds and his heart would become so free from need that the kingdom of Solomon would have no worth in his eyes. If the keys of the earth's treasures be offered to him, he would be indifferent to that offer, as narrated in tradition that when Gabriel brought from God, the Exalted, the key to the world's treasures to the Seal of the Prophets-may God's benediction be upon him and his Family-he declined them out of humility, considering his poverty to be his pride. The Commander of the Faithful-may peace be upon him-said to Ibn `Abbas, "This world of yours has lesser worth in my eyes than this old shoe of mine which is full of patches." The Imam `Ali ibn al-Husayn-may peace be upon him-says: "It is a matter of disdain for me to ask the world's Creator to do me a mundane favour, to say nothing of asking it of other creatures like myself."

Out of the common lot, Najm al-Din Kubra, after swearing some formidable oaths, declares: "If the world's wealth as well as the other world's Paradise with its houries and palaces be offered to me on condition that I should associate only with the rich and wealthy, and if the world's adversities and those of the Hereafter be offered to me together with association with the poor-given this choice I will select the company of the poor and will not surrender myself to the disgrace of associating with the rich and `The Fire is better than, dishonour.' "

Yes, they know well the nature of the darkness and rust formed in the heart as a result of attachment to worldly treasures and riches and due to the company and association with those who possess these. They know how these weaken the will and afflict the heart with need and poverty, making it inattentive to the Centre of absolute perfection. But when you surrender the heart to its Owner and this house to its Master, abstaining from making any dispensation in it, turning away from it all strangers, and refraining from handing it over to an usurper, the Master of the house will reveal Himself therein. The presence in it of the absolutely All-sufficient will bring absolute self-sufficiency, immersing the heart in the ocean of honour and contentment and filling it with freedom from need:

Yet honour belongs to God, arid to His Messenger and the faithful. (63:8)

Then, the affairs of. the house are managed by its Master and one is not left to one's own devices(gadgets). He takes care of all the matters of Isis servant, or, rather, He becomes his hearing, vision and limbs, and this nearness is the outcome of the nawafil as mentioned in this tradition of al-Kafi:

In al-Kafi, (al-Kulayni reports) with his isnad from Abu Ja'far-may peace be upon him-that in ahadith qudsi God says: "...And verily he seeks nearness to Me through the .means of the nawafil,until I love him. And when I love him, I become the hearing with which he hears and the vision with which he beholds, and the tongue with which he speaks, and the hand by which he grasps ...." (and so on, until the end of the hadith) [24]

Thus the servant's poverty is totally removed and he becomes free from the need of both the worlds. Of course, in this revelation of the Divine (within the heart), the fear of all the existents is removed from him, giving its place to the fear of God, the Exalted, Whose Greatness and Majesty fills the entire heart of the devotee, who no longer sees any greatness, majesty or efficiency in anything other than God, having perceived in his heart the fact signified by this statement:

There is nothing that is efficient in the realm of being except Allah.

There is a reference to this point in the hadith under exposition, where it says: 'Empty yourself for My worship so that I may fill your heart with ghina.' This `emptying' of the heart for the sake of worship may gradually lead one to the higher degrees of heart's concentration in worship.

These are the effects, some of which have been mentioned. Should the heart turn away from attention to God and fail to achieve the detachment necessary for paying attention to Him, such a neglect would be the source of all forms of wretchedness, defects and diseases of the heart. If that happens, a darkness and obscurity will grip the heart on account of this neglect, and thick curtains through which the light of guidance cannot pass will become an obstruction between it and God, depriving it of Divine succour and making the heart totally absorbed in the world and the pursuit of corporeal pleasures. Then he will be enveloped by the walls of egoism and egotism. The soul will become self-willed and its movements(bustle) will become subject to its egoism. Thereupon, its essential baseness and its real poverty will become manifest; all its movements and pauses will lead it further away from God, and total failure and defeat(thwarted) will be its lot. The noble tradition refers to some of these consequences where it declares, `I will fill your heart with preoccupation with the world and I will not block the entry of poverty and need into it, and I will leave you to your own devices(gadgets).'

A Last Point:

It should be known that that which is meant by forsaking a creature to its own devices does not mean delegation of its affairs to itself, for such a thing is impossible from the viewpoint of the mystical creed and the metaphysical doctrine, in addition(adding up) to being contrary to the true religious doctrine. No existent can dissociate itself from the realm of Divine power and dispensation, and neither can it have (total) freedom to direct its own affairs. When a creature turns away from God and becomes absorbed in the world, carnal nature begins to rule over it and it is dominated by egoism, and autistic, self-seeking and narcissistic tendencies direct his conduct. And this is what is meant by leaving it to its own devices. However, a servant whose heart is turned towards God and the higher malakut and is totally submerged in the Divine light, all its dispensations assume a godly character or, rather, at certain levels, his entire being becomes divine, as alluded to in the noble tradition of al-Kafi that. refers to some of these stations while hinting at the nearness attained through supererogatory acts of worship. And God is All-knowing.

[1]. Al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, ii, "kitab al-'iman wa a1-kufr', "bab al-`ibadah", hadith no. 1.

[2]. Furu` al-Kafi, iii, 269.

[3]. Ibid., iii, 270.

[4]. Ibid., iii, 363.

[5]. Al-Hurr al-`Amili, Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, iv, 688.

[6]. Ibid., iv, 687.

[7]. Ibid., iv, 685.

[8]. Ibid., iv, 686.

[9]. Mafatih al-jinan, "al-Munajat al-Sha'baniyyah."

[10]. Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, iv, 686.

[11]. Ibid., iv, 688

[12]. Usul al-Kafi, "kitab al-tawhid", "bab al-'iradah, annaha min sifat al-fi'l' hadith no. 4.

[13]. Al-Ghazali, Ihya' 'ulum al-Din, iv, 256.

[14]. Falah al-sa'il, 107.

[15]. See Furuzanfar, Ahadith-e Mathnawi. 39.

[16]. Wasa'il al-Shi`ah, iii, 90, with a slight difference of wording.

[17]. Usul al-Kafi, ii, "Kitab al-'imam wa al-kufr" "bab idkhal al-surur `ala al -mu'minin"hadith no. 8.

[18]. Al-Shaykh al-Bahai, al- Arba'in, p. 202, see the commentary on the thirty third hadith.

[19]. Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, ii, 54.

[20]. Author's note: As to the words of the Imam that which is meant by the noble tradition is that, as mentioned in other traditions, the amount of a prayer that ascends to God and is accepted by Him is that which is offered with an attentive heart. Hence the words refer to the ratio, not to the amount that ascends. It is probable that by here is meant tranquillity and softness of the heart, as remarked by al-Jawhari.

[21]. Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, iii, 54.

[22]. Al-Shaykh al-Mufid, al-'Irshad, 255-256.

[23].Ibid., 256.

[24]. Usul al-Kafi, ii, "kitab al-'iman wa al-kufr" "bab man adha al-muslimin" hadith no. 8.

With my chain of transmission reaching up to the Thiqat al-'Islam Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni-may God have mercy upon him-from Muhammad ibn Yahya, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad, from Muhammad ibn Khalid and al-Husayn ibn Sa'id, and both of. them from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, from `Abd al-Samad ibn Bashir, from someone from among his companions, who reports from Abu `Abd Allah-may peace be upon him-stating: "I said to him (i.e, al-'Imam al-Sadiq), `Aslahahallah!(`May God set you right'). (Is it true that) if anyone loves meeting God (liqa' Allah), God too loves to meet him, and if someone should dislike the meeting with God, God too dislikes(detest) to meet him?' `Yes,' replied the Imam. I said, `Indeed, by God, we detest death.' The Imam said, `It is not as you imagine. That refers to the time of confrontation with death. At that moment when he sees (as lying in store for him) what he loves, there is nothing dearer to him than to go forth towards God. Coil, the Exalted, loves to meet him and he, too, loves to meet God. But if he sees (as lying in store for him) what he detests, nothing is more abominable to him than meeting God, and God too loathes to meet him. '" [1]

Exposition:

Aslahakallah is a prayer of blessing, and in a benediction it is not necessary that the addressee be devoid of the blessing wished for him. Rather, such benedictive expressions are quite customary, even if what is invoked be already there. Hence, to pray for al-'Imam al-Sadiq-may peace be upon him-wishing his welfare and betterment is not something contrary to common custom. Thus it is also correct to say `May God forgive you' (ghafarallahu lak) and `May God pardon you' (`afallahu `ank) in regard to those sacred personages. Some (exegetes) have interpreted the noble verse:

...that God may forgive thee thy former and thy latter sins..., (48:2)

in the same sense, stating that it is like saying to someone `May God forgive you', and it is not necessary in such benedictive expressions to take into consideration that the addressee already possesses the blessing invoked in the prayer. Although such an interpretation seems farfetched in relation to this noble verse-and we have already discussed it under one of the earlier traditions'[2]-it is basically right that mostly the actual possession of that which is invoked in such precative expressions is not taken into consideration.and signify its stronger degrees. Briefly, love and hate are qualities of the soul (sifat-e nafsaniyyah) and are opposite to each other. Their reality, as revealed by self-examination, is evident, like all other directly experienced and psychic qualities, whose essential reality is more evident than what any description of their meaning (i.e. of the words that stand for them) can divulge. However, an explanation of the signification of the ascription of `love' and `hate' to God's Sacred Essence will be given later on, insha' Allah.

As to the narrator's statement, "Indeed, we detest death," he said that because he imagined death to involve liqa' Allah, or because he thought that death was liqa' Allah itself. So he imagined revulsion for death to be aversion for liqa' Allah, and hence his question. The Imam answered him that the general dislike of death is not a criterion; rather, the criterion is the actual moment of death when one observes the signs of the malakut and the other realms.

As to the words of the Imam-may peace be upon him: this sentence does not have an exact equivalent expression in Persian. The import of this expression here may be conveyed by such Persian expressions as or and so on, and the Arabic expression also implies a `going' (dhahab) of the imagination (wahm). Arabic is replete with such expressions. Rather the common usage of`dhahab' and expressions derived from it implies a dhahab of wahm, `aqidah ( belief ) and the like, and the word `madhhab' (going, trend, opinion, religion, creed, ideology, school of law or thought) denotes a similar meaning, which is based on metaphor, for it is derived from external and outwarddhahab.

As to the statement of the Imam-may peace be upon him- mu'ayanah is a verbal noun pertaining to the form (The lexicographers explain its meaning as follows:)

The time of death is called mu'ayanah (viewing, examination, observation), because the dying person views the signs of the other world clearly. His hidden spiritual eye opens and a little of the reality of the malakut is revealed to him. Then he sees glimpses of his own attainments, works and (spiritual) condition. We shall explain in the course of a few sections that which needs exposition in the sacred tradition, putting our reliance in God.

1. Liqa' Allah and Its Character:

Know that the number of verses and traditions which refer to liqa' Allah, either explicitly or implicitly, is quite large and their full details cannot be contained in this brief exposition. However, we shall briefly refer to some of them, and anyone seeking further details should refer to the Risaleh-ye liqa' Allah of the marhum gnostic of God, al-Hajj Mirza Jawad Tabrizi-may God sanctify his soul-wherein traditions concerning this theme have been gathered to a certain extent.