Stages of Sincerity Befitting

One of the stages of sincerity is to purge the act from thinking of deserving a reward. The counterfeit of it is the act blemished with demanding the expected reward. This is not free from a degree of admiring the act, and the salik is to rid himself of it. Assuming deserving reward is caused by the deficiency in one's knowledge of his condition and of the right of Allah, the Exalted. This is also a fruit of the Satanic evil tree, stemming from being proud of oneself, one's act, I-ness and selfishness. How hopeless man is! As long as he is wrapped in the veils of being proud of his acts, believing them to be of his own, and regarding himself the manager of the affairs, he will not be cured from this disease, and will not be able to purge his act and purify his intention. Therefore, the salik is to strive to inform his heart, through cordial austerity and mental and gnostic conduct, that all acts are of Allah's blessings and gifts which He carries out by the hand of His servant. Should the Unity of Acts get fixed in the heart of the salik, he would not regard his acts as to be of himself, therefore he would not demand any reward, and, actually, he would regard the reward to be favour and the blessings to be new beginnings.

This divine delicacy is frequently stated in the words of the pure Imams (AS), especially in As-Sahifatus-Sajjadiyah [a book of invocations and supplications by Imam 'Ali ibn-Husayn, as-Sajjad], a divine and luminous book, which has descended from the gnostic heaven of the knower of Allah, the luminous intellect, Sayyidus-Sajidin [the master of the prostrate worshippers], for the sake of the salvation of the servants of Allah from the prison of nature, demonstrating the discipline of servitude and of being at the service of the Lord. In the thirty-second invocation he says: " ... so praise be to You for Your beginning with great favours, and for Your inspiring gratitude for [Your] benevolence." [263]

He also says, on another occasion:"... since all Your benevolence is favour and every one of Your blessings is a new beginning." [264]

In Misbahush-Shari`ah it is said: " The least limit of sincerity is the servant's doing all his best, then he should not attach to his act [of worship] any value with Allah, by which he would impose on his Lord [to give him] a reward for his act." [265]

Another stage of sincerity is to purge the act from demanding much and being pleased with it and depending on it. This is also one of the important tasks of the salik, lest he should be retained back from joining the caravan of the travelers to Allah, confining himself to the dark dungeon of nature. This is a situation stemming from the vile Satanic tree, and from the selfishness inherited from the legacy of Satan who has said: "You created me of fire and created him of clay." [266] This is but man's ignorance of his own state [maqam] and of the state [maqam] of Allah, the Glorified.

If this wretched "possible [existent]" could only recognize his own state of deficiency, incapability, weakness and helplessness, and realize Allah's state of greatness, grandeur and perfection, he would never boast of his act and of performing an act. Wretched! His act [of worship], which would be worth only a few pence for a whole year, should it prove to be complete and correct, he would ask; for only two of its rak`ats, unlimited expectations. It is this expectation and much-demanding that originate many immoralities and other acts of mischief, which cannot be mentioned here for fear of becoming lengthy.

The noble hadiths frequently refer to this subject, as is in noble al-Kafi, quoting Imam Musa ibn Ja'far (AS) to have said to some of his sons : "My son, you are to be diligent, never to clear yourself from falling short of fully worshipping and obeying Allah, the Most High, for He can never be worshipped as He deserves." [267]

In another hadith, he (AS) said: "Any act you do for Allah, take yourself as to be falling short of it, since all the people, in their acts, between themselves and Allah, are derelict [muqassir], except the one whom Allah, the Exalted, protects against that." [268]

He (AS) is also quoted to have said: "Do not consider plenty the plenty good deeds." [269]

The complete Sahifah, describing the angels, says:" Those who, looking at Hell breathe out to the people of disobedience, say" `Glory to you, O Allah, we have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped. " [270]

O You helpless! When the Messenger of Allah (SA), who was the most knowledgeable among Allah's creatures, and whose act [of worship] was the most luminous and the greatest of all others', admitted his shortcoming and inability, and who says: "We have not known You as You ought to be, and we have not worshipped You as You deserve it," [271] and when the infallible Imams (AS), in the Presence of His Sanctity, display their shortcomings and deficiencies, what can a tiny gnat do? [272] Yes, their status and knowledge urged them to admit the incapability of "the possible existent" and the Greatness and Glory of the "Necessary Existent", Allah, the Exalted, whereas we, the helpless, because of ignorance and diverse veils, arrogantly show off our ostentation and pride in our acts. Glory be to Allah! How right Amirul Mu'minin 'Ali (AS) was when he said: "Man's self-admiration is one of the enviers of his intellect." [273] Is it not irrational that Satan should make obscure for us a necessary matter, and we should not try to intellectually reason it? We ourselves, know, of necessity, that our acts [of worship] and the acts of mankind as a whole, as well as the acts of the angels of Allah, and the spiritual people, cannot be compared with the acts of the Messenger of Allah (SA) and the Imams of guidance (AS), as ours can have no value whatsoever, and cannot be of any regard at all. Yet, those great ones confess their shortcomings and do not conceal their incapability of performing the worship due to Allah, the Exalted, according to so many successive hadiths. These two necessary cases give us to conclude that we should not be pleased with any of our acts. Or even if we spend as long as the life of the world in worshipping and in acts of obedience, we should still be ashamed, abashed and disgraced. Nevertheless, Satan has so deeply established himself in our hearts, and so strongly has his control over our minds and senses, that the states [ahwal] of our hearts have been changed to the contrary, let alone our failure in deriving the necessary conclusions from those preliminaries.

The great man ['Ali ibn Abi Talib], whose strike on the Day of the Trench [274] was more merited than the worship of all jinn and ins [mankind], according to the confirmation of the Messenger of Allah (SA) - and 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, with all his worships and austerities, though known to be the greatest worshipper of all Allah's creatures, shows his inability to attain to his state of worshipping- [274a] declares his shortcoming in this respect more than we do. The Messenger of Allah (SA)-at whose threshold 'Ali al-Murtada and all, other than Allah, are servants and live on the crumblings of his blessed table of knowledge and are the students of his teachings-after receiving the cloak of honour of the Final Prophethood, the complete circulation of perfection and the last brick of knowledge and tauhid, continued, for ten years, to stand on his feet in Hira cave, performing his worshippings in obedience to Allah, until his feet swelled such that Allah revealed: "TA HA, We have not sent down the Qur'an upon you that you should be distressed." [275] i.e.: "O `pure' and `guide'! We did not reveal the Qur'an to you to cause you difficulty. You are pure and you guide the people, and if they disobey you, it is because of their own shortcoming and misfortune, not because of any shortcoming in your conduct or guidance". Nevertheless, he still announces his inability and falling short.

Sayyid Ibn Tawus [may his soul be sanctified] quotes from 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) a hadith which we shall relate to honour our thesis and, although it is a bit lengthy, since it is an explanation of the position of that master, yet the smelling sense of the souls will be scented by it and the palate of the hearts will take a delight in it.

He [may his soul be sanctified], quoting az-Zahri, in Fathul Abwab , says: "I, together with 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS), called upon 'Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. 'Abdul Malik, regarding it as magnificent to see the mark of prostration between the two eyes of 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS), said: `O Abu Muhammad, perseverance is obvious on your face, and Allah has already been beneficent to you, as you are a part of the Messenger of Allah (SA), a close relative with a firm relation to him, and you have a great favour upon your family and your contemporaries. You have been given such merits, knowledge, godliness and piety that have been given to no one like you or before you, except your past ancestors.' He continued praising and extolling him. 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) said: `All that which you have described is of Allah's favour , support and grace. But how is [my] thanking Him on what He has favoured [me], O Amirul Mu'minin? The Messenger of Allah (SA) used to stand in his salat on his feet till they got swollen, and he remained thirsty during his fasting such that his mouth would dry up. He was asked: `O Messenger of Allah! `Did not Allah forgive what has passed and what is to come of your sins?' He replied: `Am I not to be a thankful servant?' Praise be to Allah for what He has favoured us with and for His testing us, and praise be to Him in the Hereafter and in this world. By Allah, even if my limbs were cut to pieces and my eyeballs ran down my chest just to pay tribute to Allah, the Most Glorified, for just a tenth of one tenth of a single one of all His favours, which no reckoner can reckon, nor the praise of the praisers can pay the tribute due to a single one of them, I could not pay the due tribute to Him. Never, by Allah, unless He grants me that nothing should keep me from praising and remembering Him all days and nights, secretly and publicly. Had I not been under obligations to my family and to other people, in particular and in general, who have rights against me, and which I cannot but fulfill to them as it is possible and as is in my capacity, I would have turned my eye to the heaven, and my heart to Allah, and then I would have never taken them back till He would take my breath-He is the best of judges.' Then he (AS) wept, and so did 'Abdul Malik ... " as the hadith goes. [276]

We forgo mentioning other stages of sincerity which do not suit the position of these papers, lest it should be lengthy and boring.

Notes:

[263]. As-Sahifah as-Sajjadiyah, invocation No. 32.

[264]. Ibid., invocation No. 12.

[265]. Misbahush-Shari`ah, ch. 76, on "Sincerity".

[266]. Surah al-A'raf: 12. Surah Sad: 76.

[267]. Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 116, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Admitting Shortcomings", hadith No. 1.

[268]. Ibid., hadih No. 4.

[269]. Ibid., vol. 3, p. 394, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Slighting the Sin", hadith No. 2. Also vol. 4, p. 196, ch. on "Reckoning the Deeds", hadith No. 17.

[270]. As-Sahifah as-Sajjadiyyah, invocation No. 3.

[271]. Mir'atul `Uqul vol. 8, p. 146, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Thanking".

[272]. "Where a falcon drops its feathers, What can a tiny gnat do?" Amthal and hikam, by Dehkhuda, vol. 2, p. 579, Poet's name not mentioned.

[273]. Nahjul Balaghah, ed. by Faydul Islam, p. 1172, Maxim 203.

[274]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 39, p. 2, "Tarikh-i Amirul Mu'minin".

[274a]. Ibid., vol. 46, p. 75, "Tarikh-i 'Ali ibn al-Husayn" ch. 5, hadith 65.

[275]. Surah Ta-Ha: 1 and 2.

[276]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 46, p. 57, "Fathul Abwab".

The Discipline of Reverence

One of the important disciplines of reciting the Divine Book, shared by the gnostic and the common man, and which brings about good results causing luminosity for the heart and the interior life, is to regard it with "reverence", which depends on realizing its greatness and majesty. This, however, is, actually, out of the scope of explanation and beyond the human capacity, because understanding the greatness of a thing depends on understanding its truth, while the truth of the Divine Holy Qur'an, before being sent down to the stages [manazil] of creation and before undergoing practical modes [atwar], is of the affairs [shu'un] of His Essence and of the facts of Knowledge in His Unity [hadrat-i wahidiyat]. It is the truth of a "Self-speech" [kalam-i nafs], which is the "Essential Argument" [muqari`a-i dhatiyah] in His Names. This truth appears to no one, neither by means of formal sciences or cordial knowledge nor by unseen disclosure, except through complete divine revelation to the blessed person of the Final Prophet (SA), in the intimacy of qaba qausayn [at the distance of two bows' length], or even in the secret privacy of au adna [or nearer]. The hand of hope of the human species is short of that, except, that of the sincere of Allah's friends who, according to the spiritual lights and the divine facts, share in the spirituality of the Prophet's sacred essence and, through their complete subordination, they vanished in him. They receive the disclosing knowledge by inheriting it from him, and the truth of the Qur'an may be reflected in their hearts, with the same luminosity and perfection with which it appeared in the heart of that great personality, without its descending to [mundane] stations and taking [mundane] forms. That Qur'an is without change and alteration, and it is of the book of divine revelation. The one capable of carrying this Qur'an is the noble person of the absolute friend of Allah, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS). Others cannot take this fact in, unless it descends from the station of ghayb [the invisible] to the station of visibility and takes the seen form, wearing the apparel of mundane words and letters. This is one of the meanings of "changing" [tahrif] or alteration which has occurred in all Divine Scriptures as well as the Qur'an, changing all the noble ayahs, which, with a change, or rather many changes, according to the stations and stages which continue from His "Names" to the last of the worlds of vision and visibility, are placed within the reach of man. The number of the stages of the change corresponds to the number of the stages of the butun of the Qur'an exactly. The meaning of the change [tahrif] here is the descent from absolute ghayb to absolute visibility, in accordance with the degrees of the worlds, whereas the butun is the return from absolute visibility to absolute ghayb. So, the beginning of the change, and the beginning of the butun are opposed. Whenever a salik attains to a stage of the butun, he gets rid of a degree of the change. When he arrives at the absolute butun, which is the seventh, according to the general classification, he absolutely gets rid of the change [tahrif]. So, it maybe that the Qur'an appears to some to be full of different changes. To another, it may appear with few changes, while to a third it appears with no change at all. It may also appear to somebody changed in some instances and unchanged in some others, or with some sorts of changes in a third instance.

As you know, understanding the greatness of the Qur'an is beyond the capacity of the intellect. Yet, a general hint at the greatness of this Divine Book, which is within the reach of everybody, is of many advantages.

Do know, dear, that the greatness of a speech or a book is derived from the greatness of the speaker and the writer, from the greatness of its contents and objectives, from the greatness of its results and fruits, from the greatness of its intermediate conveyer, from the greatness of its receiver and its carrier, from the greatness of its keeper and protector, from the greatness of its commentator and explainer or from the greatness of the time of its being sent down and how it was sent. Some of these, however, are by nature the causes of greatness, others are indirectly so, and some are proofs of the greatness. All the said matters are contained in this luminous Book in their very best and satisfaction, or, actually they are its distinguished characteristics. No other book shares them with it, or covers all of them comprehensively.

As regards the greatness of the speaker, the composer and its owner, He is the Absolute Great, for all kinds of greatness that can be imagined on the earth and in the heavens, and all powers descending in the visible and the invisible, are but a seepage of the manifestations of the greatness of the act of His Sacred Essence. Allah, the Exalted, would not show Himself to anybody through manifesting His Greatness from behind thousands of veils and curtains, as a hadith says: "Allah has seventy-thousand veils [of light and darkness, if removed away, the lights of His Face would burn everything other than Him.] " [277] To the people of knowledge, this noble Book has issued from Allah, the Exalted, the Origin of all affairs of the Essence, Attributes and Acts, and of all manifestations of Beauty and Majesty. The other divine Books do not enjoy a similar status and position.

As regards the greatness of the contents, objectives and subjects, it requires a separate chapter, or, say separate chapters, sections, a thesis or a book, so that one may relate only a part of that. We shall, nevertheless, generally refer, in a separate chapter, to its universal principles. In the said chapter we shall point out, insha'allah, its greatness in respect of its results and outcome.

As regards the greatness of the messenger and the conveyer of its revelation, he is the Faithful Gabriel, the Great Spirit. After that the noble Messenger of Allah (SA) had quitted the apparel of the nature of the flesh and directed the heart towards His Majesty, he got in touch with that Great Spirit. He is one of the four pillars of the House of Realization, or rather he is the greatest of its pillars and the most honourable of them, since that noble and luminous Archangel is the guardian of knowledge and wisdom, and the conveyer of the spiritual provisions and moral nourishments. From the Book of Allah and the noble hadiths one realizes the greatness of Gabriel and his preference to other angels. [278]

As regards the greatness of its receiver and carrier, it is the pure and pious, Ahmadan single [ahmadi-i ahadi], Muhammadan collective [jam`i-i muhammadi] heart, to which Allah, the Exalted, appeared in all affairs [shu'un] of the Essence, Attributes, Names and Acts. He [the Prophet] is the Seal of prophethood and the absolute guardian, the most generous of all creation, the best of the human beings, the gist [khulasah] of the universe, the essence [jauharah] of existence, the substance [`usarah] of the House of Realization, the last brick and the owner of the big isthmus and great vicegerency [khilafat].

As regards the greatness of its keeper and guardian, He is the Sacred Essence of Allah, the Exalted as He says in the noble ayah: "It is We Who have sent down the Reminder [ the Qur'an] , and verily We are its keeper." [279]

As regards its commentators and explainers, they are the pure infallible ones-beginning with the Messenger of Allah and ending with "the Proof of the Time" [hujjat-i `asr], may Allah enhance his rise-who are the keys of existence, the deposits of dignity, the sources of wisdom and inspiration, the origins of knowledge and learning, and the possessors of the state of collectivity [jam'] and distinctness [tafsil].

As regards the time of revelation, it is laylatul Qadr [The night of the qadr], which is the greatest of nights and "better than a thousand months". It is the most luminous of times. In fact, it is the time of the attainment [wusul] of the General Guardian [waly-i mutlaq] and the Seal of the Prophets (SA).

As regards how it was revealed and its relevant ceremonies, they are beyond the limits of the capacity of these few papers. They require a special chapter, which, owing to its elaboration, will have to be omitted.

Notes:

[277]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 55, p. 45. This hadith is (also) related by the Sunni sources.

[278]. Look up Surahs ash-Shu'ara: 193, an-Najm: 5-9 and at-Takwir: 19-24. Also Biharul Anwar, vol. 56, p. 258, "Book of the Heaven and the World", chs. on "The Angels" and "Another Chapter on Describing the Favourable Angels", hadith 23 and 24.

[279]. Surah al-Hijr: 9.