The first invocation concerns the praise of Allah

The topic for the fifty four sections of Sahifeh Sajjadieh is invocation. Since the issue in the first invocation concerns the praise of Allah, and due to the fact that during history a group of people, for some unknown reasons, were negligent of God, it was deemed crucial to have a discussion on the recognition of God and to show that that realization of Allah is not a difficult thing, at all. We want also to mention the fact that all the teachers of monotheism and theology including prophets, Imams, God’s men, Gnostics, and philosophers have all concentrated their energies to correct man’s opinion on God, the Creator, and not to reason for the existence of God. During the entire history, you could not find anybody who has doubted the existence of the Creator. Rather, those who are counted as skeptics, have never questioned the existence of God. In fact, they would say the pivot of the world is the nature or accident. Now, if you ask these people if nature has determination or not, they would give you one of the two possible options. If they give positive answer, then they have accepted the existence of God. If they choose the other option, i.e., that nature lacks determination and wisdom, while every order in nature confirms the opposite, we could say they are just ignorant of the powers at work in the nature. In any case, as it is shown in the long and delicate narration reported by kafi, Imam Sadiq (s) says: those who are ignorant have to confess to the existence of God[1] anyhow.

All scholars who have made researches on this issue, say: the recognition of God, the Almighty, is possible through three ways:

1) The nature;

2) Research on creatures;

3) Reasoning and rational thinking;

1) The Nature

The feeling of theism (the recognition of God) and looking for God, like other instincts is innate in the nature of man. It is an undeniable truth.

Suppose we left a child in nature, away from social life and community. After a while, he will understand that he could not have created himself, became he did not previously exist and then came into being. It is not rational for something which did not exist to create it self. He would then generalize this thinking to other creatures such as the sun, moon, stars, trees, earth, vegetable and all other things that he can think about or touch.

He will then conclude that above all this delicate order in nature there should be a supreme power which he can not name, of course. He has to learn it later from God’s Prophets. This is man’s innate nature and Abraham’s monotheism, which exists in each heart.

The conclusion that I and every creature have a Creator does not include the Creator, however. This is because firstly the Creator is above all reasoning’s in creation and is the Creator of these reasonings.

Secondly, those nature attributes and the names of the sacred being which is the topic of the following verse:

لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ.

“Nothing is like a likeness of Him. 42:11”

Refer to He who is eternal and will eternally dominate the whole creation and will be described by the following verse of the Holy Quran:

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ، اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ، لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ.

“Say: He, Allah, is one; Allah is He on whom all depend; He begets not, nor is He begotten; and none is like Him. 112:1-4”

Anyway, this very precious sense of theism and looking – for – God is laid by Allah in every heart. As Motahhari says: it is some sort of spiritual attraction between the heart center and human sensation, on one hand, and the creation center, i.e., the supreme Initiator and the Absolute perfection, on the other hand. It is like the attraction between things and masses. Man has been under this mysterious power without knowing it himself. It seems as if there were an “I” inside “I”.

The issue of innate nature has always been the focus of attention in both religion – based texts and in texts on human knowledge in general. These scholars unanimously contend that the same Creator who has taught the plants the obsorption of useful material from the ground, and has let birds know haw or when to migrate from the cold localities to warmer ones and has given the child the reflex to suck its mother’s breast when born,[2] has laid the instinct of monotheism and God-loving deep inside human nature.

The topic is so clear that in the present century, which is the century of sins and opposition to truth carried out by the world imperialism, the scientists and psychologists and psychotherapists have officially announced that:

Man, behind his overt intelligence, has a hidden intelligence or instinct. They, thus, believe in the validity of the hidden or natural instinct.

These scholars recognize the ethical instinct, artistic instinct, scientific instinct, and the religious instinct of the human soul.

Regarding this topic, the knowledgeable Gnostics, the complete lovers have stated delicate topics relating instinct to the soul of man.

The point of departure between the philosophers and Gnostics starts here. Since Gnostics believe in natural love, they try to strengthen it and contend that the center of the supreme, divine, heartfelt and genuine feelings and sensations should be fortified and the obstacles on the way of its progress should be removed. In other words, they believe the heart should get purified and then through the strong palfrey of love we should fly to heaven. But the philosophers wish to arrive at their objectives through wisdom, thought, and reasoning’s. The Gnostic wants to fly; the philosopher wishes to ponder. The Gnostic wants to watch; the philosopher wishes to know.[3]

Scientists like Carl, William James, Pascal the well–known mathematician, Bregson and, Jung, Freud’s student, all confess to the power and effects of nature and have accepted it as genuine sensation in human being. From a cursory look at their articles and books, it becomes clear that belief in truth, and concentration on the creation is a natural action. The Holy Quran brings this topic up so elegantly:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ.

“Then set your face upright for religion in the right state __ the nature made by Allah in which he has made men; there is no, altering of Allah’s creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know. 30:30”

Imam Sajjad (s), as well, in the beginning sentences of the first invocation of Sahifeh Sajjadieh refers to the issue of nature:

ابْتدَعَ بقُدرَتهِ الخلق ابتدعاً، و اَخْتَرعَهُمْ على مَشيّتِهِ اختراعاً، ثمَ سَلَك بهم طريق ارادتِهِ، وبَعَثهمْ في سبيلِ مَحَبّتِهِ.

He created creatures through His power; and with His own determination dressed them the dress of existence and let them go as He wished and He enticed them towards His own love.

In the precious book called “Islam and man’s ideas”, we will read: without doubt, if we ask those believers in God what their strongest reason is for their belief, they will definitely refer to their “natural sensation” as the most reliable source of their conviction. The effects of this natural, internal sensation are so great that they changed the direction of those who have always been under the material or philosophers ideology towards Allah.

Here, we will present the confessions of some of the most staunch materialistic philosophers who strongly believe in blasphemy; they are called the repentant philosophers:

Reign, the famous German philosopher, who was one of the serious followers of Darwin, under the continuous pressure of his internal nature, wrote a book called “The world is created”, and has humbly confessed that there exists a Creator.

Rumen, another English philosopher, who first considered God as the result of material factors and who was a staunch follower of the foundation of materialism, was finally under the mysterious power of his internal nature and had to confess:

“All the scientific and philosophical foundations I have used to prove that the world is the result of unconscious matters is null and void. The world has a Creator as my internal nature forces me to admit and as the creation wisdom leads me to verify. The Creator is a fact.”

Michael Faradeh, the English philosopher and researcher of natural sciences, physics and chemistry, who believed the whole world as the result of accidental combination and did not believe in any Creator, and who spent all his life in research in physics and chemistry, on one of the days of the year 1867 when he was on his bed, suffering from illness, and was asked what theory he was thinking on then, he answered:

I thank God that I am not thinking on any theory now. I humbly worship God and sincerely confess before Him. Now I am thinking only on Him whose existence my instinct, internal nature and all scientific foundations attest to. I recognize my God and I am sure that He will pardon all my nonsenses, shortcomings and sins.

2) Research and Focusing Attention on Creation

Since the inappropriate environmental factors, the wrong judgment of our wisdom, our thought, deviations, the aggression of books on blasphemy, the torrent of our lusts and instincts may all cover the beautiful features of internal, natural sensations and our instincts and deprive us of the divine agent called human nature, Islam has invited our external senses to identify and comprehend the world sensations and has asked our wisdom, as well to judiciously verify the foundations of existence so that through this way we may recognize the Great Love and remove the curtains of doubt over human nature.

3) The Reasoning and the Rational Philosophy

Although tough and at times puzzling, reasoning is the safest way to recognize God.

The Holy Quran and the Islamic precious knowledge not only have not rejected reasoning as the feeble–minded individuals have erroneously assumed but also have encouraged this way of the recognition of God and have laid the groundwork on this kind of research.

The verses which are concerned with monotheism and the Resurrection, both those which are God’s own words and the ones which are the Prophet’s statements narrated by the Almighty God, sometimes refer to man’s nature, or attract our attention towards God’s works in the arena of creation. And sometimes they are pure reasoning to verify the existence of Allah and the issue of resurrection.

The reasonings and the discussions narrated in the best books on narrations concerning the issue of monotheism from the great Prophet and the Infallible ones include the method of reasoning.

I wished to refer to the different facets of reasoning as used in the Holy Quran and the Divine knowledge and in books on gnostism and philosophy. But for two valid reasons, I decided not to do this:

The first reason is that these forms of reasoning are dealt with in many books accessible to the public. For instance, you may refer to the following:

The Holy Qoran, Nahjolbalaqe, kafi principles, vol one, Beharol Anvar, volumes 3 and 4, Tabarssi Reasoning, Kefayatol Mowahedin: in this last source God’s verses and the knowledge of the Infallible ones are recorded.

The scientific books which deal with reasoning are: Avicenna’s Esharat, Mirdamad’s Qabsat, Molla Sadra’s Asfar and sublime knowledge, Shavahedol Robubieh, Arshieh, Khaje Tusi’s Description on Tajrid Description on Esharat, Feiz Kashani’s Osulol Ma’aref, Farabi’s Fosus, Molla Mehdi Naraqi’s Elama’ٍta Elahia, Ibn Torkeh’s Tamhidol Qava’ed, Molla Abdollah Zonuzi’s Lama’at Elahieyeh Haji Sabzevari’s the collection of treatises, Molla Na’ima Taleqani’s Aslel Osul, and other sources such as the five volumes of the principles of philosophy and the Method of Realism by the Allameh Tabatabaee with the footnotes by the great Islamic philosopher, Sheikh Morteza Motaheri.

The second reason why I did not mention all kinds of reasoning here in this book is that I am writing this book for the lay – man, for general public. I avoid referring to the complicated philosophical issues for fear that the reader might get bored and put the book aside completely and deprive himself of God’s blessings. The experts may read those technical books on their own.

The understanding of deductive reasoning for the recognition of God is difficult for layman, especially when the major, the minor or the intermediate is absent: look at the following:

يا منْ دلَّ على ذاته بذاته.

“O God who have referred to your existence through your existence”

وبكَ عرفتكَ و انتَ دللتني عليك.

I recognized you through you yourself and you led me to yourself.

و اَعْرِفوا الله تعالى بِالله.

And know Allah, the almighty, through Allah himself.

This kind of reasoning is hard for general people to grasp. And general people are not the followers of this kind of research. Rather, the revelation of monotheism in their heart is possible and easier through nature.

Akhund Molla Mohammad Na’ima Taleqani, the great Islamic researcher, one of the great teachers of Shiite Islamic centers in the twelfth century, and a great hero in philosophy, Gnosticism, logics, and narrations, in his book called Aslolosul, on page 103, in chapter 3 on the issue of Touhidol Wajib Ta’ala, Wa Ahadiyyata Wa Vahediyyeh, Concerning the use of reasoning for the recognition of Allah, says:

“Know that this high topic, i.e., the realization of monotheism and the understanding of God is the highest degree of perfection and the most sublime of goal of worshippers, and it is the desired objective for the thirsty souls for knowledge and the last wish of the well - wishers.

“But the comprehension of these sublime topics and high stages is only possible through the following factors:

Skill, habit, shrewd mind, special training, possessing the mental facts of the pious, being special among God – believers, observing Islamic codes at all times, holding the chord of sunnah, heavy self – disciplines, difficult trials, shinning worldly ornamentations, full attention towards God being free from layman’s customs, being clean from a filthy nature, the denial of bodily desires, the rooting out of satanic manners and through other means which God has provided for us.”

After these sentences, Akhund Molla Na’ima continues with the following words: “what, however, is said about this significant topic, is of no benefit for those who did not have the prerequisites; in fact, they were drawn far from the truth by being exposed to these topics. Thus, those students who started to listen to these reasoning’s without previous backgrounds were lost completely.”

We have to repeat once again that we did not refer to strong logical reasoning, although it is the best way through which we could recognize Allah, simply because our readers could resort to the other two ways available: i.e., through their nature or through attention to the creature of the great Creator.

O my Lord! O Creator, O God of the two worlds, O beloved of all lovers, O the objective of the knowers, if only the hands of the misled, and the slaves to their lusts, did not interfere in man’s life and if these dangerous thieves would let the inhabitants of the earth free during man’s history, your recognition would not have been so difficult, especially when they have put so many curtains between you and us. You have told us in the Holy Quran that you are very near to us, even nearer than our veins: you have, as well, said:

وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ.

“He is with you wherever you are. 57: 4”

وَلِكُلٍّ وِجْهَةٌ هُوَ مُوَلِّيهَا.

You have also said:

“And everyone has a direction to which he should turn. 2: 148”

O my Lord! let us be attracted by the attraction of your blessings. In order for us to know you, let us enjoy your benevolence. Enlighten our wisdom, heart, and soul with your lights. Let us dwell in the paradise of your knowledge and love. Please accept from me this description and interpretation which I want to offer with the help of the verses of Holy Quran, narrations, scholar’s words and the grosticism of the knowers. Please help this disabled and ignorant writer.

الحمد لله الاول بلا اول كان قبله و الاخر بلا آخر يكون بعده الذي قصرت عن رؤيته أبصار الناظرين و عجزت عن نعته أوهام الواصفين.

All praises are for the Sacred Being who possess all the attributes of perfection. His existence is free from all defects. He is the origin of every creature. There was no one before Him. He is the reference and Resurrection of the creation. There is nothing after Him. The eyes are unable to see Him and the thoughts of the describers are incapable in describing Him.