Know that the Salat is the state of ascension to the state of Proximity and being present in "the Presence of Intimacy" [nahdar-i uns], and the salik has to observe the disciplines of being present in the Holy Presence of the King of kings. As from the lowest of the degrees and stages of the appearance of the soul which is most superficial (the crust of the crust) and is its formal and visible body to the highest of its stages and realities -which is the innermost and the secret state of the heart -all are present in the Sacred Presence of Allah, likewise the salik must prepare himself to display all the internal and external soldiers of the overt and covert kingdoms in the Presence of Allah, the Exalted and Most High, and to return back to His Holy Presence all the trusts which His Sanctified Essence has bestowed upon him with complete purity, clarity, without the intrusion of any being, and with His hand of Power, Beauty and Majesty. He has to return the deposits as they have been given to him out of Kindness.
Therefore, there are many dangers in the discipline [adab] of the Presence, which the salik must take care not to neglect. He is to take the purity of the clothes -which cover the crust, or rather, the crust of the crust -as a means for the purity of the internal clothes, and to know that as these formal clothes cover the visible body, the body itself covers the isthmus body, which is actually existent, but is hidden within the curtains of the corporeal body which covers it. The isthmus body is the cover, the clothes and the veil of the soul, which covers the heart, and the heart is the cover of spirit, and the spirit is the cover of the secret, which covers the hidden latifah (the real essence), and other stages. Each low stage is the cover of its higher stage, and though all these stages are existing in the most pure people of Allah, and the others are void of them, yet only some of these stages are mentioned because all people have them.
So, it must be noted that as the external form of the salat is not proved to be correct without the purity of the clothes and the body, and as impurities - which are of Satan's vile acts and cause repellence from the Presence of the Beneficent [rahman] -block the way of attending the Presence, the musalli with clothes and body polluted with Satan's vileness is expelled from the divine Presence and prevented from attending the station of familiarity [maqam-i uns]. Similar is the vileness of disobeying Allah, which is also of Satan's practices and of the filths of that foul creature. It also prevents one from entering the Presence [mahdar]. So, the red-handed disobedient one, with an impure cover of the isthmus body, cannot be admitted to Allah's Presence [mahdar]. Purifying this cover is of the conditions of the realization and correctness of the internal salat. As long as man is in the veil of this world, he cannot know about the invisible body, the purity and filth of its clothes and the condition of its being pure and without filth. The day he comes out of this veil, and the sovereignty of the interior and of the day of gathering [yaumul jam] twists aside the extensive disunion of the exterior, and the sun of truth rises out of the dark mundane veils, and the eye of the invisible interior opens, and the eye of the visible animality closes, thereupon, with the eye of insight, he will understand that his salat , had been, till the end of life, void of purity and surrounded by thousands of obstacles, each one of which was an independent cause for expelling one from the Holy Presence of Allah. Alas! A thousand alas! For on that day there will be no way for indemnity and there will be no cure. There will be nothing but regret and remorse -endless regrets and continuous remorses: "And warm them of the day of anguish when the matter shall have been decided ... " [140]
After that the clothes of the interior body became pure, it would be necessary for the very invisible body to be purified from Satan's filths, that is, purification from the filths of the dispraised characters, as each one of them is apt to pollute the interior and to expel man from the Presence [mahdar] and prevent him from the Proximity. Such characters are of the filths of Satan, who is deprived of (Allah's) mercy. The origins of all the dispraised acts are self-conceit, selfishness, ostentation and obstinacy, each of which is the origin of many dispraised characters, and is at the head of many sins
Having completed this purification, and purified the clothes of taqwa with the water of sincere repentance and lawful austerity, the salik will have to busy himself with the purification of the heart, which is the real concealer [satir] and into which Satan's intrusion is greater, and its impurities spread to other clothes and concealers. So, without purifying the heart other purifications will not be easy. The purification of the heart passes through several stages, some of which will be referred to in these pages.
One of them is purging the heart from loving this world, which is at the head of all sins and it is the origin of all corruptions. As long as man has this love in his heart, it will not be possible for him to be admitted to the Presence of Allah; and divine affection, which is the mother of purities, is not accomplished with this impurity. Perhaps in the Book of Allah and in the advices of the prophets and holy men (AS), particularly Amirul Muiminin (Ali) (AS), importance is the least given to other than abandoning this world, neglecting it and avoiding it, all of which are of the realities of taqwa. This stage of purification is not achieved except by useful knowledge, strong cordial austerities, concentrating one's thoughts on the beginning [mabda'] and the return (to Allah) [ma'ad], engaging the heart in taking lessons from the decay and the destruction of the world, and the excellence and happiness of the invisible worlds: "May Allah have mercy upon one who knows where he has come from, where he is and where he is going." [141]
Another purification is to be purged from dependence on the creatures, which is a concealed polytheism; yet, to the people of knowledge, it is a manifest polytheism. This purification is accomplished through (the belief in) Allah's Unity of Acts, which is the source of all cordial purifications. It must be noted that mere demonstrative knowledge and contemplative step concerning the Unity of Acts do not have the required result. It sometimes happens that too much indulgence in the experimental sciences brings darkness and displeasure to the heart, and hinders man from attaining to the higher objective. In this respect it is said: "Knowledge is the greatest veil." The writer believes that all sciences, even the science of tauhid (monotheism), are functional [practical = 'amali] Perhaps the grammatical etymology of the word "tauhid", which is "taf'il", proves that, as according to its etymological function it means advancing from multiplicity to oneness, and annihilating and abolishing the aspects of the multiplicity in "the Essence of Union" ['ain-i jam]. This idea cannot be proved with evidence, as with cordial austerity and instinctive inclination towards the Owner of the hearts, the heart is to be informed about what proofs say, so that the truth of tauhid can be understood. Yes, proof tells us that "There is no effecter [mu'aththir] in the (world of) existence except Allah" [142], which is one of the meanings of "There is no God but Allah." By the blessing of this proof we cut short the intruding hands of beings from the realm of the Majesty of existence, and return the invisible and visible worlds to their Owner, and display the truth of: "His is what is in the heavens and the earth", [143] "And in His hand is the Kingdom of everything," [144] and "He it is Who in the heaven is God and in the earth God." [145] But unless this proved subject reaches the heart and becomes an internal form [surat] of the heart, we will not cross the limit [hadd] of knowledge to the limit of faith; and of the light of faith, which illuminates the kingdom of the interior and the exterior, we shall have no share and no profit. This is the reason that although we have the proof supporting this divine, lofty subject, we are still in multiplicity and know little of tauhid which is the pleasure of the eyes of the people of Allah -we do ring the bell of: "There is no effecter [mu'aththir] in the (world of) existence except Allah", yet we look with the eye of greed, and extend the hand of demand to everybody:
The legs of the inferentialists are wooden, Legs will be very much infirm, if wooden. [146]
This purification is of the great stations of the wayfarers to Allah. There are, however, further stations, which are beyond our limit, though probably we may refer to some of them within these papers, when the occasion arises, insha' allah (Allah willing).
Notes:
[140]. Surah Mariam: 39.
[141]. Mafatihul Ghayb, by Mulla Sadra, edited by Khajawi, p. 50.
[142]. It is ascribed to the theologian philosophers, as is related by Mirza Abul Hasan Sha'rani in the Preface of his The Secrets of the Maxims, p. 32.
[143]. Surah an-Nahl: 52.
[144]. Surah Ya Sin: 83.
[145]. Surah Zukhruf: 84.
[146]. A poem by Maulawi.
On Some Disciplines Concerning Permissibility [ibahah] of Place
Having understood the stages of the place according to his states and existential growths [nasha'at], the salik is to exert his effort, in respect with the cordial disciplines of their permissibility, so that his Salat may come out of the usurping intrusions of the evil Iblis. In the first stage he is to perform the formal disciplines of worship and servitude, and to fulfil his former promises of the world of pre-existence and the Day of Covenant, cutting Satan's intruding hand from the kingdom of his nature, so as to establish amicable relations with the Owner of the House, and his actions [tasarrufat] in the world of nature may not be usurping. Some of the people of good aptitude say that the inner meaning of the noble ayah " O you who believe! Fulfil the obligations. The cattle quadruped are allowed to you," [165] is that allowing the cattle quadruped is conditioned by the fulfillment of the guardianship obligation. Noble hadiths relate that all land is the Imam's, and that other than the Shi'ahs are its usurpers. [166] People of knowledge regard the waliy ul'amr (the religiously legal authority) as the owner of all kingdoms of the existence, and the stages of the visible and the invisible, and regard using them without the Imam's permission to be wrong.
The writer says: The accursed lblis is the enemy of Allah, and his conducts and all the Satanic intrusions in the world of nature are tyrannical and usurping. So, if the wayfarer to Allah could bring himself out of the control of that wicked one, his conduct would be divine, and his place, clothing, food and matrimony would be permissible and clean. And as much as he remains under Satan's control, his permissibilities become less and Satanic polytheism [shirk] will affect them. So, if man's external organs become under Satan's control, they will be Satanic organs, usurping Allah's kingdom, as the seclusion of the invisible powers in the mosque of the body can only be permissible and right when those powers are of the soldiers of Allah, in which case lblis's soldiers will not have the right to intrude into the kingdom of the human body, which is the property of Allah, the Exalted. Having cut the intruding hand of Satan short off the kingdom of the heart, which is the private residence of Allah, and cleared his heart for Allah's manifestation, and excluded other than Allah, such as lblis, from it, the external and internal mosques and the visible and invisible places become permissible for him, and his salats become like those of the people of knowledge, and consequently, the purity of the mosque is realized, too.
Notes:
[165]. Surah al-Ma'idah: 1.
[166]. Usulul Kafi, vol. 2, p. 266, "Book of the Proof', narratives in ch. "Concerning that All Land is the Imam's"
Objective Four
Times of Salat
Know that the people of knowledge and of observance pay attention to, and take care of, the times for the Salats according to the depth of their knowledge of the Sacred State of the Lord, and according to their longing for supplication with the Creator, Honoured be His Name, as these times are for supplication and meeting Allah.
Those who are attracted by the Beauty of the Beautiful, and are fond of the beauty of eternity, and are drunk with the cup of affection, and are in a state of ecstacy by (drinking) a goblet from "alastu"? (Am I not ...?) [167], are delivered from both worlds, closing their eyes against the regions of existence and joining the Majesty of the Sanctity of Allah's Beauty. To them the Presence is continual, and they do not forget, even for a single moment, remembrance, contemplation, perception and observance.
The people of knowledge, virtues and honourable learned souls, and of good disposition, would prefer nothing to supplication to Allah. They demand supplication and privacy with Allah. They take glory, honour, virtue and knowledge to be in supplication and remembering Allah. Should they look at the universe and the world, their look would be gnostic. In the world they are in quest of Allah and want Him. To them, all beings are the manifestations of Allah and the charms of the Beautiful: "l love the whole world as the whole world is from Him." [168] They watch for the times of the salats with all their hearts, and eagerly wait for the time of supplication to Allah, preparing themselves to be present at a fixed time to meet Him. Their hearts are present, and from the Presence [mahdar] they demand the Present, as they respect the Presence [mahdar] for the sake of the Present. They believe that servitude is association and sociability with the Absolute Perfect, and their eagerness for worship is due to this fact.
And those who believe in the invisible and the other world, and are fascinated by the generosity of Allah, the Exalted, and who would not change the eternal heavenly blessings and the everlasting pleasures and the permanent cheerfulness for mundane perishing chances and the temporal, incomplete and suspected delights, at the times of worship -which is the seed of the blessings relating to the other world -they prepare their hearts and perform it whole-heartedly and anxiously. They wait for the times of the salats -which are the times for getting the results and winning the treasures -and take nothing for the eternal blessings. As their hearts are aware of the invisible world and they cordially believe in the eternal blessings and the continual pleasures of the Hereafter world, they fully utilize their time and do not waste it. Those are the owners of Paradise and the lords of grace in which they will remain forever.
Those groups that have been mentioned, and the others which have not been mentioned, obtain pleasure from worshipping itself, in proportion to their ranks and their knowledge. They never feel the heaviness of the obligations, but it is we, the helpless, who are in the chains of hopes and desires, and in the fetters of whims and wishes, drowned in the overflowing dark sea of the world of nature, where neither a smell of affection and love has reached the sense of smell of our spirit, nor has our heart's sense of taste tasted any delicacies of knowledge and virtue. We are neither of the people of gnosticism and vision, nor of the people of faith and tranquillity. We take the divine worship to be a heavy obligation, and regard supplication unto Allah a burden. We trust nothing but this world, which is a manger for animals, and are attached to nothing except to this house of nature, which is the seclusion place of the unjust. The eye of our heart's insight is blind to the Beauty of the Beautiful, and the taste of our spirit is void of the taste of gnosticism.
The master of the circle of the people of knowledge, and the gist of the people of affection and truth says:" I spend the night with my Lord Who feeds me and gives me to drink." [169] O Lord! what a night which Muhammad (SA) spent in the House of Private Intimacy with You! What food and drink were those which You, with Your own hand, fed that honourable being and freed him from all worlds! It is proper for that master to say: "I have with Allah a time which is not within the capacity of any favourable angel and prophet." [170] Was that time of the times of this world and the other world? Or was it the time of the Privacy of "qaba qausayn" (the distance of two bows' length) and discarding the two worlds? Moses, the interlocutor with Allah, fasted for forty days and could attain to a meeting with Allah, and Allah said: "So, the appointed time of his Lord was complete forty nights." [171] Yet, he could not attain to a meeting like Muhammad's, and it cannot be compared with that of him. In the meeting place Moses was told: "Take off your shoes" [172], which is interpreted to mean "affection to family", while the Seal of the Prophets was told to love' Ali. In my heart, of this secret, there is a firebrand, of which I would not talk. You yourself, from this brief, read its detailed talk.
Notes:
[167]. This is a reference to the ayah: "and made them bear witness against their own souls: 'Am I not your Lord?' They said: 'Yes, we bear witness"' (Surah An'am: 172).
[168]. By the world I am pleased, since the world is pleasant by Him, I love the whole world, as the whole world is from Him. (by Sa'di)
[169]. Wasai'lush Shi'ah, vol. 7, p. 388, with a slight difference. Al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol. 4, "Book of Wishes", p. 251. Maulawi, in a couplet says: As "I spend the night with my Lord" became knowledge, "He feeds and waters" afterwards became porridge.
[170]. 'Awaliyul La'ali vol. 4, p. 7, hadith 7. Biharul Anwar, vol. 18, p. 360, "Book of the Prophet's History", ch. on "Proving the Mi'raj".
[171]. Surah al-'Araf: 142.
[172]. "I am your Lord; take off your shoes"," Surah Ta-Ha: 12.
On Watching Over the Time
Dear, you too, are to seize this opportunity for supplication, as available and according to the possible measure, and apply its cordial disciplines, informing your heart that the origin [mayah] of the eternal Hereafter life, the source of the spiritual virtues and the capital of the unlimited generosities are in the Proximity to and Intimacy with Allah, the Exalted, and in supplication to Him, especially in the Salat which is a spiritual mixture [ma'jun] prepared by the hand of Allah's Beauty and Majesty. It is the most comprehensive and perfect worship among all types of servitude. So, take care, at your best, to keep its times, and select its virtuous times, for in them is a sort of luminosity not found in other times. In those times you are to lessen, or even sever, your heart's engagements, and this can be achieved by arranging your times and assigning special times for the Salat, which guarantees the eternal Hereafter life for you, such that in those assigned times you would have nothing else to do, and the heart could have no other attachments that might rival the Salat, and the heart can be prepared and made present with ease.
Now I am going to relate some of the hadiths about the conditions of the infallibles (the Imams) (AS), as needs be, so that contemplating their conditions may lead to being awake, and perhaps the importance of the situation and seriousness of the state can be recognized by the heart and it be awakened from its sleep of negligence.
Some wives of the Messenger of Allah (SA) were quoted to have said that "The Messenger of Allah (SA) used to talk to us and we used to talk to him. But when the time for the salat arrived he appeared as if he did not know us and we did not know him, as his attention was completely directed to Allah." [173] It is said that Amirul Mu'minin ' Ali (AS), when it was time for the salat, used to writhe and tremble. Asked once about his uncommon state, he said: "The time has come for the trust which Allah, the Exalted, offered to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it". [174] Sayyid Ibn Tawus (may his spirit be sanctified) says, in Falahus sa'il, that when Imam Husayn (AS) used to perform the Wu'du, he changed colours and his joints trembled. Asked about the reason, the Imam said: "When one is going to stand before the Owner of the arsh, his colour is ought to turn pale and his joints to tremble". [175] Imam Hasan had a similar condition. [176] It is narrated that Imam as-Sajjad (the fourth Imam) (AS) used to get pale at the arrival of the time of the wudu '. He was once asked: "What is this state which happens to you whenever you want to perform the wudu '?" He said: " Do you not know before whose presence I am to stand '? [177]
If we, too, think a little and tell our veiled and discarded heart that the times of the salats are the times of being present at the Holy Threshold of the Owner of Majesty, the times in which Allah, the Exalted, the Master of the Kings and the Absolute Great, invites His helpless and worthless servant to supplication, admitting him to His House of Generosity, so that he may win the eternal happiness and permanent pleasures and cheerfulness, we will have pleasure and cheerfulness, according to our level of knowledge when the time of the salat arrives. If the heart understands the greatness and the importance of the situation, there will be fear and dread in proportion to the extent of its understanding of the greatness. But as the hearts of the holy men [auliya'] and their conditions are different, according to the gracious and the overpowering manifestations and feeling the greatness and mercy, sometimes their longing for the meeting, and their feeling the mercy and beauty excite them to display pleasure and cheerfulness, and they hail: "Relieve us, O Bilal!" [178] And sometimes (divine) manifestations of Greatness, Power and Sovereignty, drive them to ecstasy, trembling and shivering.
In short, O you helpless! The cordial disciplines of the times are in preparing yourself for entering into the Presence of the Master of this world and the Hereafter, for conversing with Allah, the Almighty and Most High. So, cast a glance at your weakness, helplessness, humility and indigence, and at the Greatness, Glory and Majesty of the Sanctified Essence, Glorified be His Majesty, in Whose court of Greatness the prophetic Messengers and the favourite angels go into rapture, and confess their incapability, humility and wretchedness. Having so looked, and taught your heart, it would feel afraid and you regard yourself and your worship trivial and worthless. Then, contemplate the extent of the mercy, complete kindness and all-embracing affection of His Sacred Essence, to realize that such a helpless servant, with all his impurities and wretchedness, is invited to His Sacred Court, received by the ceremonies of sending down of angels, heavenly Books and Prophets and Messengers (AS), who call him to the meeting of intimacy, without this helpless possible servant having any previous aptitude, or there being imaginable, in this invitation to His Presence, any benefit for Him -we take refuge with Allah -or for the angels of Allah and the Prophets (AS). It is natural, however, that the heart is pleased with this contemplation, and it is filled with hope and expectancy. Therefore, with steps of fear and hope, desire and dread, prepare yourself for the Presence and have ready the required provisions for the Attendance, the most important of which is to attend the Meeting [mahdar] with a shy and fearing heart, feeling broken, humiliated, weak and helpless, and believing yourself unworthy to worship and servitude and to be admitted into the Presence, and regarding that giving you permission to enter into worship and servitude was only because of the general mercy and the all-inclusive kindness of the One, the Almighty and Glorified. If you put your humility before your eyes, and humbly and heartily submitted to the Sacred Essence of Allah, and if you considered yourself and your worship worthless and trivial, Allah, the Exalted, would be kind to you, raise you and bestow upon you of His graces.
Notes:
[173]. Mustadarkul Wasa'il, "Book of as-Salat" , chs. on "The Acts of the salat", ch. 2, Hadith 17.
[174]. Ibid., Hadiths 5 and 14.
[175]. Sayyid Ibn Tawus (may his spirit be sanctified) has stated this point in his Falahus Sa'il, quoting al Lulu'iyat, concerning the conditions of Imam Hasan ibn 'Ali (AS)
[176]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 77, p. 346, "Book of purification", chs. on "Wudu"', ch. 34, Hadith 34, quoting Falahus Sa'il.
[177]. Mustadarkul Wasa'il, "Book of as-Salat", chs .On "The Acts of the salat, ch. 2, Hadith 35.
[178]. al Mahajjatul Bayda fi Tahdhibil ahya " val. 1, p. 377. (Bilal was the Prophet's mu'adhdhim, or the caller for the salat), Maulawi, in a couplet, says: The soul is perfect and perfect is its call, The Chosen One said: "Relieve us, O Bilal!"
On the General Secret of Orientation
The appearance of orientation consists of two aspects:
One is (turning to) the forefront, which is turning the face from all dispersed sides.
The other is psychological, and it is the orientation of the face towards the Ka'bah, which is the ummul qura ' ( the Mother of the Towns) and the center of the extension of the earth.
This appearance has an inside, and the inside has a secret, or rather, secrets. The people of the invisible secrets distract the interior or the spirit from dispersed directions [jihat] of the multiplicities of the invisible and visible, and direct the secret of the spirit towards being attached to the One. They regard all the multiplicities as vanished in the secret of the "Collective Oneness" [ahadiyat-i jam]. When this spiritual secret settles in the heart, the Haqq (Allah) appears in the heart as the Greatest Name, which is the state of the "Union of the Names" [jam '-i asma'i], and the multiplicities of the Names are vanished and disappear in the Greatest Name, and the heart is directed, in this instance, to the Greatest Name. And when it comes out from inside the heart to the outer visibility, the plan for annihilating [fina] (all) other (than Allah) is to turn away from the east and west of the visible world, and the plan of the orientation towards the Union [hadrat-i jam] is the orientation towards the center of the extended earth, which is Allah's hand in the earth.
As regards the traveller to Allah, who travels from the outside to the inside, and advances from the overt to the covert, he is to use this formal orientation towards the center of the earthly blessings, and discarding other diverse orientations, as a means for the cordial moods, and never to be satisfied with the meaningless appearance. He is to divert the heart -which is the focus of Allah's attention -from the different and diverse directions, which are real idols, directing it towards the qiblah of the truth, which is the origin of the origins of the blessings of the heavens and the earth, and doing away with the custom of other [ghair] and otherness [ghairiyat] so as to get to the secret of: " I have turned my face toward Him Who originated the heavens and the earth " [179] to some extent, and to have in his heart an example of the manifestations and gleams of the invisible world of the (Divine) Names, so that the diverse directions and the different multiplicities may be burnt away by the divine gleam. Allah, the Exalted, would help him, and the small and big idols in the inmost corner of the heart may be destroyed by the hand of (His) guardianship. However, this is an endless story, so let me drop it and go by.
Notes:
On Some of the Cordial Disciplines of Orientation
O you traveler to Allah, know that by turning the outer side of your appearance away from the dispersed points of the world of nature, and turning it to a single point, you have claimed two of the inborn divine dispositions, which the hand of the Invisible has hidden in your essential nature [khamira-i dhat], and Allah, with the hand of Beauty and Majesty, has mixed your nature [tinat] with them, and you have shown these two inborn states in mundane and visible displays. And, in order not to be deprived of the light of these two divine dispositions, you have proven that you have apparently turned away from all directions, and you solely faced the qiblah, which is the place of the appearance of Allah's hand and power. The two divine dispositions are, first, repugnance to imperfection and the imperfect, and, second, loving perfection and the perfect. These two, of which one is original and autogenic, and the other is subordinate and a shadow, are of the dispositions which are mixed with the nature of the family of mankind without exception. They are in the whole human species disregarding their differences in beliefs, characters, habits, temperaments, places, traditions, and whether nomads or urbans, uncivilized or civilized, learned or ignorant, godly or naturalists. In all of these the two innate dispositions are concocted, even if they themselves do not recognize them in themselves, and differ in distinguishing perfection and imperfection, and the perfect and the imperfect. One who is brutal, blood-thirsty and murderer takes perfection to be in his victory in assaulting the lives and the honors of the He thinks blood-shedding and homicide are perfection, and he spends his life on that, while the ambitious who is in quest of rank, position and wealth in this world thinks that in these he will find perfection, and so, he adores them.
In short, everybody with an objective thinks that objective to be perfection, and the one who attains to his objective is the perfect; so he loves it and is repugnant to any other thing. The prophets (AS), the knowers of Allah, and the people of knowledge have come in order to take the people out of the veil and to save the light of their inborn dispositions from the darkness of ignorance, and to teach them the meaning of perfect and perfection. And, after distinguishing the perfect and perfection, there would remain no need to invite them to attend to that and neglect the others, for the light of the inborn disposition is, in itself, the greatest of the divine guidances, present in all the human species.
In this divine mixture [ma'jun], that is, the salat, which is the ascension to the Proximity of Allah, facing the qiblah and the central point, and giving up and turning away from other diverse directions, denote the wakefulness of the innate disposition, and the emission of the light of the disposition out of the veils. This is a reality for the perfect ones and the people of knowledge. As to us, the people of the veil, the relevant discipline is to tell the heart that in the entire House of Realization [dar-i tahaqquq] there is no perfection nor perfect except His Sanctified Essence, the Absolute Perfect, for that Sanctified Essence is a Perfection with no imperfection, a Beauty with no defect, an Actuality with no blemish of potentiality, a Goodness mixed with no evil and a Light with no blemish of darkness. In the entire House of Realization whatever there are of perfection, beauty, goodness, dignity, greatness, illumination, actuality and happiness, are emissions of the Light of the Beauty of that Sacred Essence, and nobody has any share of personal perfection of that Sacred Essence, and no being has beauty, perfection, light and magnificence except through His Beauty, Perfection, Light and Magnificence. In short, the splendor of the light of His Sacred Beauty illuminates the world, bestowing upon it life, knowledge and power, as otherwise, the whole House of Realization would have been in complete darkness of non-being, in the latency of non-existence and in the inside of nullity. The one whose heart is lighted with the light of knowledge, sees everything, other than the light of the Beauty of the Beautiful, as void, worthless and non-existing, eternally and for ever. It is narrated that when the Messenger of Allah (SA) heard this poem of Labid;
'Oh, indeed, everything, save Allah, is batil And every pleasure [na'im] is, inevitably, transient!', he said: "This is the truest poetry said by the Arabs." [180]
Having informed your heart about the falsity of all that is in the House of Realization, and about the perfection of the Sacred Essence, there would be no need for the heart to premeditate for turning to the real qiblah and loving the Beauty of the Absolute Beautiful, and detesting the entire House of Realization, except the manifestation of the Sacred Essence, as in fact, the very divine disposition in man naturally invites to that, and: "I have turned my face toward Him Who originated the heavens and the earth," [181] becomes the motto of man's soul, heart and situation, and "I do not love the setting ones," [182] becomes his natural motto.
Thus, O poor, know that the world, excepting Allah, is transient, perishing, vanishing and batil. None of the beings has anything by itself, and none of them in itself, has any beauty, glory, light or splendor. Beauty and splendor exclusively belong to the Essence of Allah. As the Sacred Essence is unique in Divinity and in being Necessary Existent, He is also unique in Beauty, Glory, Perfection, and particularly He is unique in existence, while the humility of essential non-existence ['adam-i dhati] and nullity are engraved on the foreheads of the others. So, turn the heart, which is the center of the light on the divine innate disposition, away from the different aspects of falsities, nullities and shortcomings, and direct it toward the Center of Beauty and Perfection, and in your pure conscience let the motto of your disposition be what the gnositc of Shiraz says:
Our conscience accommodates none but the Beloved,
Give up both worlds to the foe, suffices us to have the Beloved.
Connection:
Imam as-Sadiq (A.S) is quoted to have said: "When you face the qiblah, despair of the world and of what is in it, and of the creatures and of what they are busy with. Empty your heart of whatever takes your attention from Allah, the Exalted. Discern with your heart the Greatness of Allah, the Glorified. Remember your standing before Him on the day when" 'Every soul shall become acquainted with what it sent before, and they shall be brought back to Allah, their true Guardian,' [183] and stand on the foot of fear and hope." [184]
These noble instructions are for the like of us, the veiled, who are unable to keep the states of our hearts constant, join between Oneness and multiplicity and attend to both Allah and creation. Such being the case, we should despair of the world and what is in it when we turn to Allah and face the qiblah. We should also sever our greed from the creatures and empty our heart and spirit of whatever takes our attention from Allah, so as to be worthy of His Presence and let a manifestation of majesty appear in the secret of our spirit. And when we gain the light of majesty according to our capacity, we are to remember our return to Allah and our standing in His Sacred Presence on the day when "Every soul shall be acquainted with what it sent before and they shall be brought back to Allah, their true Guardian" (Surah Yunus:30), and they shall cross out all the whims of the soul and the false deities.
Thus, in the Presence of such a Great One, of whose manifestations of act is this House of Realization, some one like you and a poor man like me, must walk and stand on the foot of hesitation, fear and hope. When we see our weakness, laziness, helplessness, poverty and humility, and discern Allah's Greatness, Haughtiness, Majesty and Might, we are to feel fear and awe from the danger of eminence; and when we understand His unlimited mercy, kindness, leniency and boundless generosities, we are to be hopeful.
Notes:
[180]. Ilmul Yaqin, vol. 1, p. 106.
[181]. Surah al-An'am: 79.
[182]. Surah al-An'am: 76.
[183]. Surah Yunus: 30.
[184]. Misbahush Shari'ah, ch. 13, on "Opening the salat", Mustadrakul Wasa'il, "Book of as-Salat", chs. on "The Acts of the salat", ch. 2, hadith 9.
Discourse Three
General Secret and Disciplines of the Adhan and Iqamah
Know that the salik to Allah has to announce attending the Meeting [mahdar], in the adhan, to the heart, which is the sultan of the covert and overt powers, and to other soldiers scattered throughout the visible and invisible realms. As the time of the presence and meeting has drawn near, he is to prepare them, so that, if he is of the eager lovers, he may not lose control at the sudden appearance of a manifestation; and if he is of the veiled, he may not enter the Sacred Presence [mahdar] without making ready the means and the disciplines for the occasion. Thus, the general secret of the adhan is the announcement to the overt and covert powers and the divine armies to attend the Meeting. Its general discipline is to be aware of the greatness of the position, its significance and the majesty of the Presence and the Present, and it is the servility, helplessness, poverty, incapability and shortcoming of the "possible" (existent) in carrying out orders and deserving to attend the Meeting [mahdar], unless the kindness and mercy of Allah, the Most High, extend the helping hand to make up for the shortcomings.
The iqamah is to set up the visible and invisible powers in the Presence, and to make them present in the Meeting; and its discipline is fear, awe, shyness, shame, and a firm hope in the boundless mercy. The salik, during all the chapters of the adhan and the iqamah, is to continually inform the heart about the greatness of the Meeting, Presence and the Present, and to continually think of his own humility, inability and shortcoming, in order to bring about (in the heart) fear and awe, while, on the other hand, he is to show to his heart Allah's vast mercy and generous kindness, in order to bring about (in it) hope and eagerness.
So, eagerness and attraction will conquer the loving hearts, and with the steps of love and affection they (the saliks) will proceed to the Presence of Intimacy, and their hearts, by means of that invisible attraction, will, till the end of the salat and through their love of the Presence and the Present, practice mutual embracing and fondling with remembering Allah and thinking of Him.
Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) is quoted to have said: "The best of the people is the one who adores worship, embraces it, whole-heartedly loves it, touches it with his body and disengages himself for it. He would not care whether he gains his share of this world with difficulty or with ease." [185]
And the fearing hearts will be overpowered by the manifestation of the Greatness, and overwhelmed by the attraction of the Omnipotence, so that they (the saliks) will be led to ecstasy, their hearts will melt with fear and awe, and their personal shortcomings and their feeling of humility and inability will hold them back from everything.
In a hadith it is quoted from Musa ibn Ja'far (AS) that he said: "Amirul Mu'minin ('Ali) (AS) said: 'Allah has servants whose hearts are broken by fearing Him, causing them to keep silent."' [186]
Sometimes Allah, the Exalted, manifests Himself to His perfect friends in a kind manifestation, and the attraction of love becomes their guide, as the hadith says that the Messenger of Allah (SA) used to be waiting for the time of the salat, his longing ever increasing, until at last he would say to Bilal (the Messenger's mu'adhdhin): "Relieve us, O Bilal." [187] Sometimes He would manifest Himself through greatness and sovereignty, such that they feel they are filled with fear and awe. Such states are related from the Messenger of Allah (SA) and the Imams of guidance (AS). Sometimes He manifests Himself in "the Collective Oneness" [jam'i-i ahad] according to the endurance of the hearts and the capacities of their vessels. We, the veiled, the busy with the world, the imprisoned in the prison of nature and in the chains of desires and hopes, and the deprived of the divine intellectual happiness, who, because of being drunken with nature, will not come back to sobriety nor get up from the deep sleep till the dawn of eternity, are out of the calculations of these divisions, and excluded from this declaration. Thus, the disciplines of the Presence which suit us are different, and the performance of the cordial duties has a different form. But what should be the first and foremost, before all else, is to drive out of the heart the despair of Allah's mercy, and prevent it from losing hope in His generosity, for these are of Iblis's dangerous soldiers and of the inspirations of the human and jinn Satans. We should not imagine that those stations have been cut to suit particular persons, such that our hand of hope is too short to attain to them, or man's treadings cannot reach them. Hence, we should not mistake hand for foot, and with coldness and weakness, remain sticking to the land of nature forever. No, it is not like what has been imagined! But I still say that the special station of the perfect people of Allah is not possibly attainable by everybody. Yet, the spiritual stations and divine knowledge have unlimited degrees and many ranks. Many of those stations, sciences, states and stages are available to the (human) species, if only their coldness and weakness let them, and if only the obstinacy and fanaticism of the people of ignorance and obstinacy take their hands off the hearts of the servants of Allah, and they turn not to be Satans on the road of their travel to Allah.
So, the discipline of the Presence for us is that at the beginning, as we have not yet passed through the stage of sensation and the appearance, and think of nothing except the mundane greatness and splendor, while knowing nothing of the Divine Invisible Greatnesses, we have to look at Allah's Presence [mahdar] as we look at a great sultan's presence whose greatness has been realized by the heart, informing it that all kinds of greatness, majesty and glory are but manifestations of the greatness of the heavenly world which have descended to this world, and the heavenly world ['alam-I malakut] is of little importance compared with the invisible worlds. Thus, we are to inform the heart that the world is the Sacred Presence of Allah, the Exalted, since He, the Glorified, is Present at all places and spaces, especially the salat which is a special permission for attending the Presence, and a special date for meeting and intimacy with Allah, the Exalted. Now, having incited the heart to feel the Greatness and the Presence, even if at the beginning it was not so easy to do so, the heart gradually becomes familiar with it, and the imagery becomes real. So, by observing the formal disciplines of dealing with the King of the kings and the Sultan of the sultans, and applying the disciplines of the apparent Presence, the heart will also be affected and will feel the greatness, and will gradually attain to man's desired results. Similarly, inciting love and adoration can be achieved by means of perseverance and austerity.
So, at the beginning, one should exhibit the formal mercies and sensual blessings of Allah, the Exalted, to the heart, and then introduce to it the state of Mercifulness, Compassionateness and Bountifulness, until the heart gradually becomes intimate, and the exterior affects the interior, and the kingdom of the interior is illuminated by the effects of the Beauty, and then the desired results will be achieved. If a man carried out the matter and strove in the way of Allah, the Exalted, He would help him and save him by His invisible hand from the darkness of the world of nature, and would throw the light of His Beauty to the dark earth of his heart, and turn him into a spiritual heaven: "And whoever does a good deed, We add unto its good for him. Surely Allah is forgiving, Thankful." [188]
Notes:
[185]. Wasa'ilush Shi'ah, vol. 1, p. 61, " Book of purity", chs. on "Preliminaries to Worships", ch. 19, hadith 2, quoted from the Messenger of Allah (SA)
[186]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 75, p. 309, "Book of ar-Rawdah", ch. 25, hadith 1, from Tuhaful 'Uqul.
[187]. Refer to footnote No. l78.
[188]. Surah ash-Shura: 23.
Some Disciplines and Secrets of Takbirs in the Adhan and Iqamah
Know that, as the adhan (call to the Salat) is the announcement of the presence [hudur] of the external and internal powers of the soul in the Presence [mahdar] of Allah for the sake of praising His Sacred Essence according to all the Names, Attributes, Affairs and ayahs -since the Salat, as has already been mentioned, is a comprehensive praising of the Sacred Essence according to the manifestation of the Greatest Name, which is the state of "the Collective Oneness of the Names" [ahadiyat-i jam'-i asma'] in His Unity [hadrat-i wahdiyat], and the state of manifestation through the collectivity [jam] differentiation [tafriq], overtness [zuhur] and covertness [butun] in the essences [ayan] and essential names [asma-i ainiyah] -the salik's attention is first directed to the Majesty of the Sacred Essence according to this general affair [sha'n-i jami]. So, at first, he introduces the said Greatness and Majesty to the invisible and visible powers of his own kingdom. Then, secondly, to the angels of Allah in charge of the invisible powers spread in the kingdom of the soul.
Thirdly, to the beings of the invisible and visible worlds, and fourthly, to the angels of Allah in charge of the Kingdom of the heavens and the earths (lands = aradin). So, through these four takbirs (saying: "Allah is Greater") he announces the Majesty of the Grand Name (Greatest Name) to all the dwellers of the invisible and visible worlds of the inward and outward kingdoms. And this, by itself, is an announcement of his being incapable of undertaking the duty of praising the Sacred Essence, and an announcement of his falling short of performing the salat. This, in itself, is one of the general affairs of the suluk and of the comprehensive disciplines concerning praising and worshipping, which must be before the salik's eyes during the whole period of performing the salat. That is why the takbir is repeated in the adhan and the iqamah, as well as in the salat. It is also repeated when passing from one stage to another so that the salik's innate inability, and the Greatness and the Glory of the Sacred Essence are confirmed in his heart.
As such, its discipline, as it appears, is that the salik should, in each takbir, remind himself of his inability and Allah's Majesty. On another supposition, it is possible that each one of these preliminary takbirs of the adhan points to a state: The first takbir means: He is Greater than the attributive Essence; the second means: He is Greater than the attributive Attribute; the third means: He is Greater than the attributive Name; and the fourth means: He is Greater than the attributive Act. Thus, it is as if the salik says: Allahu akbar [Allah is Greater] than your description of His Essence, or of His Essence-manifestations, and He is Greater than your describing Attributes, His Names and His Acts, or their respective manifestations.
In an elaborated speech quoted from Amirul Mu'minin 'Ali (AS) it is said: "... The other aspect is that Allahu akbar implies negation of His quality, as if he (the mu'adhdhin = the one who speaks out the adhan) says: ' Allah's attribute, with which He is qualified, is far above being comprehended by the describers', for the describers describe Him according to their own measure, not according to the measure of His Greatness and Majesty. He is far above His quality being understood by the describers ..." as the hadith goes.[189]
Another important discipline of the takbirs is that the salik is to strive, and, by cordial austerities, he is to prepare his heart to be the place for the Majesty of Allah, the Glorified, and to regard Greatness, Glory, Sovereignty and Majesty to be exclusively ascribed to the Sacred Essence of Allah, the Most High, and to exclude the others from Majesty. If he feels in his heart even a tiny bit of anyone else's greatness, without taking it to be the light of that of Allah's, his heart is sick and is controlled by Satan. It is quite possible that Satan's intrusion would cause the sovereignty of the majesty of other than Allah, in the heart, to be more than that of Allah's, and the heart would regard him greater than Allah. In this case, man would be counted among the hypocrites. The symptom of this devastating disease is that man regards the pleasure of the creatures to be preferred to the pleasure of Allah, and in order to obtain the pleasure of the created, he would incur the displeasure of the Creator.
As-Sadiq (AS) is quoted to have said: "When you say: Allahu akbar, slight whatever is there between the high (heaven) and the earth, regarding it below His Majesty, because if Allah looked into the heart of the servant while telling the takbir, and saw therein something contradicting his takbir, He would say: " O you liar! Are you deceiving Me? By My Might and My Majesty, I will deprive you of (tasting) the sweetness of remembering Me, and I will exclude you from My proximity and from getting pleasure through your supplication. " [190]
My dear, the fact that our wretched hearts are deprived of the sweetness of remembering Allah, the Exalted, and that the enjoyment of supplication to the Sacred Essence is not tasted by our spirit, and that we are prevented from reaching the proximity of His Threshold and deprived of the manifestations of His Beauty and Majesty, is because our hearts are sick and faulty, attracted by the world, stuck to it and wrapped in the veils of the darkness of nature. And this fact deprives us of recognizing Allah's Majesty and of discerning the lights of His Beauty and Glory. As long as our look at the beings is Satanic and independent, we shall never drink of the wine of intimacy, not attain to the pleasure of supplication. As long as we believe that in the world of existence there can be glory, might, majesty, greatness and dignity for any created being, and as long as we are wrapped in the veils of the created specifications [ta 'ayyunat], the dominion [sultan] of the Majesty of Allah, the Glorified, will not manifest in our hearts.
So, of the disciplines of takbir is that the salik should not stop at its outer form, or be satisfied with its wordings and with mere pronunciations of the tongue. First, he is to prove to the heart, with the power of argument and the light of divine knowledge, Allah's Glory and the confinement of greatness and majesty only to the Sacred Essence of Allah, Most High, informing it of the poverty, humility and helplessness of all the possible dwellers and all the corporeal and spiritual beings. After that, with the power of austerity, frequent intimacy [murawadah] and complete familiarity, he is to enliven the heart with this divine grace and grant it spiritual and intellectual life and happiness. When the salik realizes the poverty and the humility of the possible (the creatures) and Allah's Greatness and Majesty, and puts that before his eyes, while his contemplation and remembrance reach their assigned limit, and the heart attains to familiarity and tranquillity, he will see with the eye of insight the effects of Allah's Glory and Majesty in all beings, and the diseases and faults of his heart will be cured. Only then will he taste the deliciousness of supplication and the sweetness of remembering Allah, and the heart will affirm Allah's Sovereign Majesty, and the effects of Majesty will appear in the exterior and in the interior of the kingdom, and the heart, the tongue, the outside and the inside will go in harmony. So, all the external and internal powers, visible and invisible, recite Allahu akbar, and one of the thick curtains is drown away, and he gets one stage nearer to the truth of the salat.
There is a reference to some of what has been said in a lengthy hadith Ilalush Shara'i, quoting Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (AS) describing the Mi'raj. He said: "Allah, the Glorified and Almighty, sent down, to the Prophet, a carriage of light comprised of forty sorts of light which were around the' Arsh. The arsh of Allah, Blessed and Most High, blurs the eyes of the onlookers. One of them was yellow, and it became the cause of the yellowness of the yellow. Another one was red, and it became the cause of the redness of the red..." Then he added: "... He (the Messenger (SA)) sat in it and it ascended him to the lower heaven. The angels ran to the outskirts of the heaven, then they fell in prostration, and said: 'All-Glorified and All-Holy is our Lord, the Lord of the angels and the Spirit. How this light is like the light of our Lord!' Jibrael (Gabriel) said: :Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!' The angels stopped talking, and the heaven was opened. The angels gathered and came to pay tribute to the Prophet (SA) group after group ..." as the hadith goes. [191]
In this noble hadith there are great secrets to which the hand of our hopes is too short to reach, and what can be said is now out of our purpose, like the secret of the descension of the carriage of light, the secret of the many lights, the secret of their diversity, the secret of the figure forty, the secret of its being sent down by Allah, the secret of their gathering around the 'Arsh, the truth of the 'Arsh in this respect, the secret of the yellowness of the yellow and the redness of the red caused by them, the secret of the angels' running, their bowing, praising and glorifying, and likening his light to Allah's, and the like. To speak about each of them would be lengthy. Yet, that which suits this occasion and testifies to our subject is that the angels of Allah quieted down as they heard Gabriel's takbir, and gathered around the candle of the meeting of the Absolute Guardian. By that takbir the first heaven opened, and one of the curtains, which blocked the way to Allah, was drawn away. It should be noted that the curtains which are pushed aside by the adhan are other than the curtains which are in the opening takbirs. We shall probably refer to this concept later on, insha 'allah (Allah willing).
Concerning there being only two takbirs in the iqamah, it is probably because the salik has set up his powers in the Presence, and has somewhat advanced from multiplicity toward unity, magnifying the Essence and the Names, or the Names and the Attributes; and it may be that the magnification of the Essence and the Names implies the magnification of the Attributes and the Acts.
Notes:
[189]. Biharul Anwar, vol. R1, p. 131, "Book of the Salat", ch. on "The Adhan and the Iqamah", hadith 24.
[190]. Misbahush Shari'ah , ch. 13 , on " Finishing the Salat" . al Mahahhatul Bayda, printed by as-Saduq Library , vol. 1 , p. 385 , Mustadarak Wasa'il, 'Book of as-Salat", chs. on "The Acts of the Salat", ch. 2, hadith 9.
[191]. 'Ilalush-Shara'i " vol. 2, p. 312, chs. on "The Causes of the Wudu" the Adhan and the salat", hadith 1.
Some Disciplines Concerning Testifying Divinity And its Connection with the Adhan and the Salat
Know that divinity has many states [maqamat], which are, according to "Collectivity" [jam], explained in two: First: Divinity of Essence. Second: Divinity of Action. If by testifying that divinity is confined to Allah we mean the Divinity of Essence, its truth, with that of takbir, will come close to each other if ilah (divinity) is derived from "aliha fish-shay' ", i.e. 'He became perplexed about it', or derived from "laha", i.e. 'He became lofty' or derived from "laha yaluhu", i. e. 'He concealed himself. In this case its connection to the adhan and the Salat becomes known by referring to the chapter of takbir, and so does its discipline. But to repeat it again, though not void of some advantage, is contrary to brevity. If we take aliha to mean: "He worshipped", and ma'Iuh to mean: "the worshipped", then the salik must make the formal testimony of the confinement of diety to Allah, the Most High, comply with the inner cordial testimony, and he should know that should there be in the heart a diety other than Allah, he would be a hypocrite in his testimony.
So, the salik is to convey to his heart, by whatever austerity, his testimony about divinity, and to smash in his heart the big and small idols which have been engraved by the intruding hands of Satan and the evil-commanding soul, and to sweep them away, so that he may become fit to be in the Presence of His Sacred Essence. As long as the idols of loving the world and mundane affairs are still in the ka'bah of the heart, the salik will find no way to his goal. So, testifying to divinity is to announce to the worldly and heavenly powers that the false dieties and the crooked objectives should be trod upon so as to be able to ascend to Allah's Proximity.
But if the confinement of divinity is intended for Divinity of Action, which is management and effectiveness, the meaning of the testimony will be: I testify that there is no manager and no effective influence in the world of achievement, and in the visible and the invisible save the Sacred Essence of Allah, the Most High. If the salik's heart cherished dependence on any being among the beings, and trusted any individual among the individuals, his heart would be diseased and his testimony false.
Thus, the salik must first strengthen, with judicial proof, the fact that "There is no effecter [mu'aththir] in the (world of) existence except Allah". He must not evade the divine knowledge, which is the objective of sending prophets, and not turn away from remembering Allah and from the affairs of the Essence and Attributes, for the source of all (kinds of) happiness is the remembrance of Allah: "And whoever turns away from remembering Me, his shall surely be a straitened life". [192] After attaining to the truth of this divine delicacy, which is the source of the divine knowledge and the door of the doors of the hidden facts, by way of thinking and reasoning, he is to make his heart, through remembrance and austerity, familiar with them until it believes in them. This would be the first stage of the truthfulness of his words, and it is marked by complete dependence on Allah, and by taking the eye of greed and hope away from all beings, a fact which results in believing in Allah's Unity of Action, being one of the great states of the people of knowledge. Having ascribed all effects to Allah, and closed the eye of greed against all beings, save His Sacred Essence, the salik becomes worthy attending the Sacred Presence, or rather his heart becomes, by nature, attentive to that Presence. Repeating the testimony may be for confirming it, and by the testimony we mean one of the two testimonies, or it may not be a repetition, but one may refer to the Divinity of Essence and the other to the Divinity of Action. In this instance, its repetition at the end may be to confirm them, and that is why it is not mentioned these with the very words: "I testify."
A Gnostic Note
Know that testimony is of many stages, of which we shall be satisfied with referring to a few, as suits these pages.
The first is the Verbal Testimony [shahadat-i qauliyah], which is already known. If the verbal testimony is not accompanied with cordial testimony, even in a lower stage, it will not be a testimony, but a deception and a hypocrisy, as it was mentioned in the hadith concerning takbir, quoted from Imam as Sadiq (AS). [193]
The second is the Practical Testimony [shahadat-i fi'liyah], which means that man testifies through the practices of his organs. For example, he is, in the type and method of his action, to apply the fact that: "There is no effecter [mu 'aththir] in the (world of) existence save Allah", and, as his verbal testimony requires him to think that nobody is effective, he should work out the plan of his acts accordingly. Hence, he should not extend the hand of need to anybody except to the Sacred Presence of Allah, the Most High, nor should he open the eye of expectation at any being. He should show himself rich and in no need, before the weak servants, and keep aloof from weakness, humility and inability.
This is frequently referred to by noble hadiths, as is in a narrative stated in the noble al-Kafi: "A believer's dignity is to manage without the help of the people." [194] Showing oneself well off and prosperous is one of the religious commendable practices, while demanding things from people is undesirable. In short, one must put to practice the divine grace: "There is no effecter in the (world of) existence except Allah" in his external kingdom.
The third is the Cordial Testimony [shahadat-i qalbiyah], which is the source of the practical and verbal testimonies, as without it, these would not come to actuality. And it is that Allah's Unity of Action manifests in the heart, which realizes, by way of its inner secret, the truth of this grace, and separates itself from other beings. Most of the narratives quoted from the infallible Ahlul Bayt (AS) concerning abandoning looking with greed at what is in the hands of the people, and despairing of the servants, and trusting and confiding in Allah, the Exalted and Most High, refer to this situation.
It is in al-Kafi, on the authority of 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) that he said: "I found that the entire goodness is gathered in cutting one's coveting what is in the hands of others, and whoever placed no hope on the people in anything, and entrusted himself to Allah, the Exalted, in all his affairs, Allah would respond to him in all the things." [195] Hadiths of this kind are many.
The fourth is the Essence Testimony (Personal Testimony = shahadat-i dhatiyah), i.e. the existential testimony, and it appears in the perfect holy men. To the holy men, this testimony is present in all beings, in one way or another. Perhaps the ayah :"Allah bears witness that there is no god but He, and (so do) the angels and the possessors of knowledge", [196] is a hint at the Essence Testimony, for Allah, the Exalted, in the state of " the Collective Oneness " [ahadiyat-I dhatiyah] gives Personal testimony to His own Unity [wahdaniyat] , because mere existence by itself denotes the Essence-Oneness [ahadiyat-I dhatiyah], and in the rising of the Day of Resurrection it appears in Complete Unity [wahdaniyat-I tammah]. This Oneness [ahadiyat] appears first in the mirror of the Collectivity [jam], then in the mirror of distinctness [tafsil]. For this reason He said :" ...and the angels and the possessors of knowledge". In this instance there are many states of knowledge [ma'arif] that are out of the obligation of these pages to explain.
Connection:
In the exegesis of Muhammad ibn Mas'ud al-'Ayyashi, quoting 'Abdus Samad ibn Bashir, it is said: "The beginning of the adhan was mentioned to Abu 'Abdullah (Imam as-Sadiq) (AS), and he said: 'The Messenger of Allah (SA) was (once) sleeping in the shadow of the ka'bah, when Gabriel came to him with a bowl of water from Paradise. He woke him up and told him to wash himself with it. Then he (the Prophet) was put in a carriage with a thousand colors of light, and he was taken high up to the doors of the heaven. When the angels saw him, they ran away from the doors of the heaven, exclaiming: 'Two gods, a god in the earth and a god in the heaven!' Allah commanded Gabriel to shout: Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!' So the angels returned to the doors of the heaven. The door was opened, and he proceeded until he reached the second heaven. The angels ran away from the doors of the heaven. There he said: 'I testify that there is no god but Allah! I testify that there is no god but Allah!' The angels returned, as they realized that he was a creature. Then the door was opened and he went in ..." as the hadith goes on. [197]
A similar concept is stated in a narrative in 'Ilalush-Shara 'i'. [198] These hadiths denote that testifying to Allah's Divinity opens the doors of the heaven and penetrates the barriers, and causes the angels of Allah to gather. The veil which is penetrated through by testifying to His Divinity and by confessing it to be exclusively His, is of the thick veils of darkness, and, as long as the salik is wrapped in it, he will have no way to attend the Presence, and unless this door opens to him, he will not be admitted. That barrier is the veil of the multiplicity of acts, and to fall in this multiplicating veil results in taking the created beings to be effective and influential, which means regarding them to be independent in their action, which is admitting, the impossible and is a great polytheism, while, on the other hand, the result of testifying to the divinity to be exclusively Allah's, is testifying to the Unity of Action and annihilating the multiplicities in Allah's Act, and denying anyone else to have any effect or effectiveness, and believing that independence belongs to Allah, the Exalted. It was by means of this testimony that the angels of the heaven came out of the veil of the multiplicity of "A god in the earth and a god in the heaven", and returned from fleeing away and dispersing to familiarity and gathering, and then the doors of the heaven opened to them. So, the salik must also penetrate through this veil of his darkness by way of this testimony and open the doors of heaven to himself, and step out of the heavy veil of the independence, so that the way of ascension to the mi'raj of His Proximity becomes closer. But this cannot be brought about by mere verbal utterances of remembering Allah, as that is why our acts of worship do not cross the limit of the mundane formality, and, thus, no door will be opened to us and no veil will be pushed off our faces.
Notes:
[192]. Surah Ta-Ha: 124.
[193]. Refer to footnote No. 190.
[194]. Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 218, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Doing Without the People" hadith 1.
[195]. Ibid., hadith 3.
[196]. Surah Al-i 'Imran: 18
[197]. Al-'Ayyashi's Exegesis (on the Qur'an), vol. 1, p. 157, Commenting on Surah al-Baqarah, narrative 530.
[198]. Ilalush Shara'i, vol. 2, p. 312.
Some Disciplines of Testifying to the (Prophet's) Messengership Implying Testifying to the Guardianship
Be aware that this spiritual journey and faithful ascension cannot be made with this broken leg, ruptured reins, blind eyes and lightless heart: " And whomever Allah has not given light, for him there is no light ". [198a] Therefore, in setting off upon this spiritual road and ascending to this gnostic mi'raj, it is a must to adhere to the spiritual state of the guides along the ways of knowledge [ma'rifat] and the lights [anwar] of the road of guidance, who are the devotees and the attainers to Allah. If anybody tries, depending on his selfishness and without clinging to their guardianship, to tread upon this road, his journey will be to Satan and to the pit (of hell) [hawiyah]. Scientifically speaking, to connect between the novel [hadith] and the Eternal [qadim], the changing and the Unchanging, there should be an intermediate, a connector, with the characteristic of being unchanging and changing, eternal and novel. Without such an intermediate, the Emanation of the Eternal and the Unchanging would not pass to the changing and the novel in the divine law, and the universal and existential connection would not take place. As regards the connector between these two, the scientific opinions of the experts in the evidential knowledge ['ulum-i burhani] are diverse, as the gnostic taste is different, to give the details of which is out of the scope of these papers. In the gnositc taste, the connector is the Sacred Emanation [faid-i muqaddas], the Expansive Existence [wujud-i munbasit], which has the position [maqam] of the big isthmus [barzakhiyat-i kubra] and the great intermediate [wasatiyat-i 'uzma], and it is the very position of the spirituality and the guardianship of the Seal of the Prophets, which is united with the position the Ali's General Guardianship [wilayat-I mutlaqa-I alawiyah]. The relevant details are stated in the Misbahul Hidayah by the writer. [199] Similarly, in the ascending spiritual connection - which is the opposite of the descending existential connection, or in other words, it is "the contraction of existence" [qabd-i wujud] and returning to the Beginning there is need for an intermediate, without which it does not take place, and the connection of the imperfect and the chained hearts, and of the limited descending spirits, with the Complete, Super Complete and the Absolute from all aspects, is not implemented without the spiritual intermediates and the invisible connectors.
If somebody thinks that Allah, the Exalted, is self-subsisting [qayyum] with each being and encompassing each of the entities [akwan] without the intermediation of the intermediates, as is referred to in the noble ayah: "There is no living creature but He holds it by the forelock" [200], he is mixing between the states [maqamat] and is making a mistake in the status [i'tibarat], mingling the state of the multiplicity of the stages of existence with the vanishing [fana'] of the individuations [ta'ayyunat]. This discussion, however, is not so much connected to this paper, and, actually, what has already been said was caused by the overflowing of the pen.
In short, adhering to the masters of graces [auliya '-i ni'am] -who have themselves found the way of ascension to ma'arij and completed their journey to Allah is a must for the travelers to Allah, as is frequently mentioned in the noble hadiths, such that in Wasil'il (Wasil'ilush-Shi'ah) there is a chapter concerning the invalidity of worship without adhering to the guardianship of the Imams (the 12 Imams) and believing in their Imamate. In Wasil'il it is quoted from the noble al-Kafi, on the authority of its writer quoting Muhammad ibn Muslim who said: "I was told by Imam Baqirul 'Ulum (the fifth Imam) (AS) who said: 'Know, O Muhammad, that the leaders of despotism and their followers are isolated from Allah's religion. They are misleading and misled. So, their deeds are like the ashes at which a violent wind blows on a windy day and it disperses them." [201]
In another narrative from Imam al-Baqir, he said:"... If a man spent his nights performing the Salat, spent his days fasting, gave out all his wealth in charity, and went to hajj every year of his life, yet he did not know the guardianship of Allah's friend to follow him and return to him in all his deeds, he would have no right to ask Allah, the Glorious and Almighty, for any reward, nor would he be of the people of faith." [202]
Shaykh as-Saduq, quoting Abu Hamza ath Thamali, says that he said: "Imam 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) asked us: 'Which spot is most preferred?' We said 'Allah, His Messenger and the son of His Messenger know better.' He said: 'The best of spots for us is that which is situated between the rukn and the maqam (two places in the Ka'bah). If some one lives as long as the life of Nuh who lived among his people for a thousand years less fifty and spends it in fasting in daytime and in worshipping at nights in that spot, and then goes to meet Allah without accepting our guardianship, he will not be benefited by it whatsoever." [203]
The narratives on this topic are too many to be contained in this summary.
The discipline of testifying to the Messengership is to convey to the heart the testimony of the Messenger's being sent by Allah, as well as the greatness of the state of the Messengership, especially that of the Last Messenger, since the whole circle of existence, the invisible and visible worlds, are creationally, legislationally, existentially and from guidance point of view living on the crumbs of his table. That great man is the means of Allah's Emanation and the connection between Allah and the creatures. Had it not been for his spiritual status [maqam] and absolute guardianship, no existing being could have been worthy of being benefited by the state of the Invisible Oneness [ghaib-i ahadi], and Allah's grace would not have passed over to any being, and the light of guidance would not have shone onto anyone of the internal and external worlds. He is the light mentioned in the ayah of Nur (Light): "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth". [204]
When the greatness of the legislator of the religion and of the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds enters a man's heart, the importance of his precepts and rules enter the heart, too. Then, when the heart has comprehended that greatness, the other visible and invisible powers would submit to it, and the sacred Shari'ah would be observed in all the human kingdom. The sign of the truthfulness of the testimony is that its effects will appear in all the invisible and visible powers, and they will keep adherent to it, as has already been stated.
From what has so far been stated, the reason of testifying to the Messengership in the adhan, the iqamah and the salat has become clear, for the traveller on this spiritual road is in need of adhering to that sacred being, so that he may accompany him and have his helping guidance in performing this spiritual ascension.
Another aspect of this testimony is the announcement to the mundane and heavenly powers that the salat, which is the reality of the ascension [mi'raj] of the believers and the source of the knowledge of the people of gnosticism and of faith, is the result of the complete revelation [kashf] of Muhammad (SA), who, with his spiritual journey, divine attractions and the embers of the Beneficent, attained to a position "at the distance of two bows or closer still", [205] revealing its truth, following the Essential, Nominal and Attributive manifestations and intimate inspirations in the Invisible Oneness. In fact, this is a souvenir, a gift, that he brought from his moral and spiritual journey for his ummah, which is the best of the ummahs, and by that he favoured them and overwhelmed them with blessings. When this belief sets inside the heart and is fixed by repetition, the salik will, as a matter of course, understand the greatness of the state and the place, and will proceed, with fear and hope, to cover this stage, and it is hoped, insha 'allah (Allah willing), if he does his best to perform it, that master will assist him and lead him to the state of "the Proximity of the One" [qurb-i ahadi], which is the original innate objective. In the divine sciences it has been proved that the return of all beings is implemented by means of the Perfect Man: "As He brought you forth in the beginning, so shall you also return." [206] "With you Allah started and with you He will end, and the return of the creatures is up to you." [207]
A Gnostic Note
In the honourable hadith in 'Ilalush-Shara'i', which gives details about the salat of the mi'raj and describes it, it is said that when the Messenger of Allah (SA) mounted on the mount of light, which had been sent down by the Lord of Might, and ascended accompanied by Gabriel, and reached the third heaven, the angels ran away, bowed and glorified Allah. Gabriel said: "I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." The angels gathered and greeted the Messenger of Allah, and asked him about Amirul Mu'minin ('Ali). The doors of the heavens opened and the Messenger ascended to the fourth heaven. There, the angels of Allah said nothing. Then the doors of the heaven opened, and the angels gathered, and Gabriel finished reciting the 'iqamah ..." [208] etc.
Al-' Ayyashi, in his exegesis of the Qur'an, relates almost the same context.
From this hadith one may gather that the angels of each of the heavens were incapable of enduring to see the Ahmadan Beauty, and they fell bowing at seeing his sacred light, and dispersed, thinking it was the light of Allah. Then, as they heard the chapters of the adhan and the iqamah they came back to his intimacy, the doors of the heavens opened and the veils were lifted.
Hence, the salik is to come out from these veils by means of the said testimonies -by testifying to the Messengership he is to completely come out from the veil of the creational individuality [ta'ayyun-i khalqi], because the position of Messengership which He assigned to the most honourable of the creatures, is the position of absolute annihilation [fana'] and complete dependence, since the final absolute Messengership is the big divine isthmus khilafat (vicegerency, succession).It is a vicegerency [khilafat] in respect of appearance, manifestation, genesis and legislation. The vicegerent [khalifah] is not to be independent nor to have individuality in any way, as otherwise, the vicegerency becomes the principalship itself, which is not possible for any of the beings.
So, the salik is to convey the great state of the Ahmadan khilafat to the innermost of his heart and soul, by means of which he is to remove the veil and penetrate the barriers, and to completely come out of the veils of the creational individuation. Then, the doors of all the heavens will open to him and he will attain, unveiled, to his objective.
A Juristic Branch and a Gnostic Principal
In some untrustworthy narratives it is stated that after testifying to the Messengership in the adhan one is to say: "I testify that 'Ali is waliyullah (Allah's friend)" twice. In other narratives, one is to say: "I testify that 'Ali is truly Amirul Mu'minin" twice. In some others, one is to say: "Muhammad and his progeny are the best of people". Ash-Shaykh as-Saduq(may Allah have mercy upon him) took these narratives to be invented and he denied them. [209] It is well known among the 'ulama' (may Allah be pleased with them) that these narratives are not reliable. Some narrators regard them among the commendables, due to "the negligence of the proofs of the laws." This opinion, however, is not far from being true, although if "absolute proximity" [qurbat-i mutlaqah] is intended, reciting it is better and more admired, because after testifying to the Messengership, it is desirable to testify to the guardianship and the leadership of the believers. In the hadith of ihtijaj (argumentation) it is said that Qasim ibn Mu'awiyah said: "I said to lmam as Sadiq that the people of the Sunnah relate a hadith about the mi'raj, that when the Messenger of Allah was taken on the mi'raj, he saw upon the :Arsh: 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.' He said: 'Glorified be Allah! They changed everything even this'!' He said" 'Yes', Then he continued: 'When Allah, the Exalted, created the 'Arsh, He wrote upon it: 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and 'Ali is the Commander (Leader) of the believers. He ordered these to be written on the water, on the Chair (Throne), on the Tablet, on Israfil's forehead, on the two wings of Gabriel, on the shoulders of the heavens and the earth, on the tops of the mountains, on the sun and on the moon.' Then the Imam added: 'When anyone of you says: 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', let him say: ' Ali is the Commander (Leader) of the believers.' [210]
In short, this noble remembrance, after testifying to the Messengership is generally recommendable. In the chapters of the adhan, especially, it is probably commendable. Nevertheless, as the notable 'ulama' have denied those narratives, one may pronounce it by way of precaution and with the general intention of proximity (to Allah), not as a feature of the adhan.
As to the gnostic note concerning "writing these words on all the beings, as from the High :Arsh to the low earth", it is that the truth of the khilafah and wilayah (successorship and guardianship) is the manifestation of divinity, which is the origin of existence and its perfection. Every being which has a share of existence, also has a share of the truth of divinity and its manifestation, which is the truth of the khilafah and wilayah, and the divine grace is fixed on the foreheads of all beings all over the universe, as from the invisible worlds to the end of the visible world. The said divine grace is the truth of" The Expansive Existence" [wujud-i munbasit], "The Breath of the Beneficent" [nafasur-rahman] and "The Created-in Right" [haqq-I makhluqun bihi], which are the very inside of the Last Successorship and of the Ali's General Guardianship. On this, the gnostic Shaykh Shahabadi (may his spirit be sanctified), used to say that the testimony to Messengership implies the testimony to Guardianship, because Guardianship is the inside of Messengership.
The writer says that these two testimonies are both implied in the testimony to His Divinity, and the testimony to Messengership implies the other two testimonies, as well as the testimony to Guardianship implies the other two testimonies. Praise be to Allah at the beginning and at the end.
Notes:
[198a]. Surah Nur: 40.
[199]. Misbahul Hidayah is a book written in the Arabic language by Imam Khomeini (may Allah sanctity his honourable soul), explaining some truths and knowledge concerning the caliphate and guardianship. In the Preface to this honourable book he says: "I like to uncover for you, in this paper, by the help of Allah, the guardian of guidance in the beginning and in the end, and indication of the Muhammadan caliphate, and an exudation of the truth of the , Alawian guardianship (upon them be the greeting from the Beginning to eternity) and how they spread through the invisible and visible worlds ..., or rather it should be named: Misbahul Hidayah to Caliphate and Guardianship. I ask Allah success, as He is the best assistant and company, and I ask His pure guardians their patronage in this world and in the other world ..." The writer finished writing the book in the month of Shawwal, 1349 H.
[200]. Surah Hud: 56.
[201]. Wasai'lush Shi'ah, vol. 1, p. 90 chs. on "Preliminaries to Worship." ch. 29, hadith 1. Usulul Kafi, vol. 1, p. 259," Book of Proof " , ch. on "Knowing the Imam and Returning to Him", hadith 8.
[202]. Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 30. "Book of Faith and Infidelity", ch. on "The Pillars of Islam", hadith 5.
[203]. Iqabul Amal, ch. on "He Who Ignores the Merits of Ahlul Bayt hadith 2. Wasa'ilush-Shi'ah, vol. 1, p. 93, chs. on "Preliminary to Worships", ch. 29, hadith 12.
[204]. Surah Nur: 35.
[205]. Surah an-Najm: 9.
[206]. Surah al-A'raf: 29.
[207]. 'Uyunu akhbarir Rida, vol. 2, p. 272 (Al-Jami'ah ai-Kabirah invocation).
[208]. Refer to footnote No. 191.
[209]. Man la Yahduruhul Faqih, vol. 1, p. 188, "Book of the salat", ch. on "The Adhan, the Iqamah and the Reward of the Mu'adhdhins (Those who call for the sa'lat), comment on the narrative No. 35.
[210]. al Ihtijaj, vol. 1, p. 230.
Disciplines of the Hayya 'ala (s)
When the wayfarer to Allah has announced, by his takbirs, that Allah is greater than any description, and by testifying to His Divinity exclusively confined all attributes and praise, or, actually, every influence and effect, to Allah, and confessed his incapability of managing the amr, and by the testimony to Messengership and Guardianship, he has chosen his comrade and company and adhered to the sacred position of successorship and guardianship -as it is said: "The companion (first) then the journey" [211] then, with quite an explicit tone, he is to prepare his visible and invisible powers for the Salat, announcing the presence to them by saying: "Hayya 'alas-Salat", (come to the Salat) twice . Its repetition is intended to complete awakening [tanbih] and waking up [iqaz], or one is for the inner powers of the kingdom, and the other is for the outer powers of the kingdom, since they also accompany the salik on his journey, as has already been said, and will follow, too.
In this stage, the discipline of the salik is to tell his heart and powers, even the innermost of the heart, that the time of presence is near so as to prepare himself for that, fully observing the formal and the spiritual disciplines. Then he is to announce the general secret and result of the salat, by the calling: "Hayya 'alal-falah" and "Hayya 'ala khayril 'amal (come to the best of deeds) so as to wake up the fitrat (disposition = nature), because prosperity and salvation are absolute happiness, and all the human beings love absolute happiness by nature. The innate nature [fitrat] is in quest of perfection and comfort. The truth of happiness is the absolute perfection and absolute comfort, and that is brought about in the salat, which is the best of deeds, cordially, formally, outwardly and inwardly. This is because the salat, according to its form and appearance, is a great and comprehensive remembrance and a praise of the Greatest Name, which encompasses all the divine affairs [shu'un]. For this reason, the adhan and the iqamah open with the word "Allah" and end with it, and Allahu akbar (Allah is Greater) is repeated in all stages of the salat, and the three tauhids (professions of the Unity of Allah), which are the delight of eyes of the holy men, are effected in the salat, in which the form [surat] of absolute annihilation and complete return are mixed. According to the interior and the truth, it is ascension to the proximity of Allah, the truth of reaching the Beauty of the Absolute Beautiful and vanishing in that Sanctified Essence, dearly loved by the inborn nature [fitrat]. It is by the salat that the complete calmness, absolute comfort and the complete mental happiness are achieved: "Surely by Allah's remembrance are the hearts set at rest." [212]
Therefore, the absolute perfection, which is attaining to Allah's Court, joining the Necessary Limitless Sea, discerning the Eternal Beauty, and being immersed in the Sea of Absolute Light, is effected in the salat, in which absolute comfort, complete rest and perfect calmness also appear, bringing about the two corners of happiness. So, the salat is perfect prosperity, and it is the best of the deeds. The salik will have to repeat this divine grace, to remind the heart and to wake up his disposition [fitrat] , and after having it in his heart, his inner nature would attach importance to it and observe it, since it looks for perfection and happiness. The same point is true in respect of the repetition. When the salik reaches this stage, he announces his presence by saying: "qad qamatis-salat" (The salat has just started). Then, he is to see himself at the Presence of the Master of the kings of the worlds of existence and the Sultan of the sultans and the Absolute Great, and to inform his heart about the dangers of the Presence, all of which are due to the incapability and the inefficiency of "the possible", and to feel ashamed of not carrying out the any, approaching, with the steps of fear and hope, towards the Generous. He is not to regard himself possessing travelling provisions and company. He is to see his heart empty of safety, not to think his deeds good ones; rather, worth not a penny. Should this state become firm in his heart, he would hope to get Allah's care: Nor Who answers the distressed one, when he calls unto Him, and removes the evil?' [213]
Connection and Completion
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, quoting Abu 'Abdullah as-Sadiq (AS), says: "When you recite the adhan and the iqamah, two rows of angels will perform the Salat behind you, but if you said the iqamah (only), one row of the angels would perform the Salat behind you.', [214] There are many other hadiths to the same effect, some of which say that the length of each row is as the distance between the east and the west. [215] Another hadith says that when Imam as-Sadiq (AS) was asked about the length of each row, he said: "The length of the shortest row is as the distance between the east and the west, and the length of the longest is as the distance between the heaven and the earth." [216] In some narratives it is said that if he said the iqamah without the adhan, an angel would stand at his right side and another at his left side, [217] and other similar narratives. The difference among the narratives may be due to the difference among the knowledge and the sincerity of the musallin, as can be inferred from some narratives in this respect, such as the narrative concerning performing the salat with the adhan and the iqamah in the desert or wasteland. [218] In short, when the salik sees himself leader of the salat for the angels of Allah, and his heart as the leader of his visible and invisible powers, and gathers, with the adhan and the iqamah, his visible and invisible powers, together with the angels of Allah, he is to regard his heart -which is the best of the external and internal powers, and the intercessor for the other powers - as to be an Imam. And, as the heart is liable for the recitings of the ma'mumin [musallin] after its leadership, and as their faults are undertaken by it, the salik is to be quite keen and a good observant of its presence, and to completely guard the disciplines of the Sacred Presence, making the most of this Sanctified Meeting, admitting the great importance of the attention and the support of the angels of Allah, taking them to be of the favours of the Real Benefactor, and acknowledging his incapability of giving the due thanks to His Sacred Majesty for these great blessings. Surely He is the Benefactor!
Notes:
[211]. Wasai'lush Shi'ah, vol. 8, p. 299. "Book of Hajj", chs. on "The Manners of Travel", ch. 30, hadith 11, quoted from al-Barqi's Mahasin, p. 357. Similar concepts are in some other narratives, such as: "Inquire about the company before the journey" as in Nahjul Balaghah, ed. by Faydul Islam, p. 936, and "The company (first), then the journey", in al-Ash'athiyat, p. 164, ch. on "Bad Neighbouring".
[212]. Surah ar-Ra'd: 28.
[213]. Surah al-Naml: 62.
[214]. Furu'ul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 303, "Book of The salat" ch. on "Starting the Adhan and the Iqamah", hadith 8.
[215]. Thawabul A'mal, p. 54, "The reward of the one who performs the salat with the Adhan and the Iqamah", hadith 2.
[216]. Ibid.
[217]. Wasa'ilush-Shi'ah, vol. 4, p. 620, "Book of the salat" , chs. on "The Adhan and the Iqamah", ch. 4, hadith 4.
[218]. Ibid., Hadith 9: " O Abu Dharr, your Lord boasts over His angels for three persons: a man in a waste land ..."
The General Secret of the Qiyam
Know that the people of knowledge regard the qiyam (the standing position in the Salat) to be a sign of Unity of Actions. Similarly, they see that the ruku' (bowing in the Salat) refers to the Unity of Attributes, and the sujud (prostration) refers to the Unity of Essence -these will be explained in their proper places. But qiyam's reference to the Unity of Action is in the very standing position as well as in the wordings recited while standing. As to the standing position and its reference to the Unity of Action, it is because it denotes the servant's observation of his duty toward Allah, as well as His position [maqam] of self-Existence, manifested in the Sacred Emanation as a manifestation of Action. In this manifestation the position of Allah's Activeness [fa'iliyat] is displayed, and all the beings are absorbed in the manifestation of Action and perished under the Manifest Majesty. In this instance, the gnostic discipline of the salik is to remind his heart of this divine grace and to give up, as much as he can, his personal individuations [ta'ayyunat=I nafsiyah],and to explain to his heart the truth of the Sacred Emanation, and to bring to the core of his heart the fact concerning Allah's Self-Existence [qayyumiyat] and that the creatures are dependent upon Him. Hence, after the fixation of this fact in the salik's heart, his recitation will be by the tongue of the Haqq ( Allah ), and the praiser [dhakir] and the praised [madhkar] will be the Haqq ( Allah) Himself, and some of the secrets of the Fate will be exposed to the gnostic's heart, and "You are as You praised Yourself' [219] and "I take refuge in You from You" [220] will be disclosed to him in some degrees, and the heart of the gnostic will receive some of the secrets of the salat, such as looking at the place of prostration, which is of dust, the principal origin (of man), or subjugating the neck and declining the head, as required, implying humility and destitution of "the possible", and the annihilation under the Might and the Sovereignty of (His) Majesty. "O mankind! It is you who are in need of Allah, and Allah is He Who is the Self-sufficient, the Praised One." [221]
As concerning the wordings of the recitation being a reference to the Unity of Action, we shall explain that in details when we come to comment on the blessed surah of al-Hamd, insha' allah (Allah willing).
Notes:
[219]. Of an invocation from the Messenger of Allah (SA) in 324. Misbahush Shari'ah, ch. 5. his prostration. Furu 'ul Kafi vol. 3, p. 'Awaliyul-La'ali, vol. 1, p. 389, hadith 21.
[220]. Ibid. Misbahul Mutahajjid wa Silahul Muta'abbid, p. 308.
[221]. Surah al-Fatir: 15
On the Disciplines of the Qiyam
These [disciplines] are such that the salik is to consider himself present in the Presence [mahdar] of Allah, and regard the world as His Presence, and himself one of the audience at that gathering, standing before Allah, trying to convey the Greatness of the Present and the Presence to his heart, letting it understand the importance and the significance of supplicating to Allah, the Exalted, and, by thinking and contemplating, before starting the salat, to prepare the heart to understand the importance of the situation, obliging it to humbleness, submission, calmness, fear, hope, humility and modesty till the end of the salat. He is to stipulate that his heart should be keen on observing these affairs, and think about the great holy men and guides, and about their moods and how their conducts with the Master of the kings were, so as to learn a lesson from the Imams of guidance and imitate them as his models, not being satisfied with just knowing the names of the infallible Imams, the date of their birthday, death day, the length of their honourable lives and similar details, which are of little advantage. Actually, he is to go through their biography and godly conducts, in order to find out the method of their worship and how their journey to Allah was carried out, and how their gnostic stations, which can be inferred from their miraculous speeches, were.
It is much regretted that we are negligent, intoxicated by nature, empty self-conceited and the stooges of the vile Satan in all matters, without there being any sign of our getting up from our deep sleep and endless forgetfulness. We get so little benefit from the positions and the knowledge of the Imams of guidance (AS) that it is negligible, satisfying ourselves with the outer appearance of their lives, completely disregarding the objectives for which the prophets have been sent, and, actually, we are covered by the proverb: "To take a swelling for a fleshy". [222] We shall, therefore, relate some of the relevant narratives, so that some of the believing brethren may have a remembrance. Praise be to Allah and thanks to Him!
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, quoting Imam as-Sadiq (AS), says: "Whenever 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) used to stand for the salat, his face turned pale. Going down for prostration, he would not raise his head until he was wet with perspiration. " [223]
On the same authority he says: "My father used to say, when 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) used to stand for the salat, he looked like a trunk of a tree, nothing of which would move unless the wind would move it." [224]
In al-`Ilal, Aban ibn Taghlib, quoting Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, says: "I said to Abu'Abdullah [as-Sadiq] (AS): `I noticed that when 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) stood for the the salat, his color changed.' He said to me: By Allah, 'Ali ibn al-Husayn knew before whom he was standing."' [225]
In a hadith in Falahus-Sail, on the authority of as-Sayyid 'Ali ibn Tawus, it is said : "... then Abu `Abdullah (AS) said : `The salat will not be complete except for the one who has a full purity and a mature completeness , and is away from temptation and deviation, and knows [Allah] and [so] stands [before Him], submits [to Him] and persists. He, thus, stands between despair and hope, [between] patience and worry, as if the promises to him have been done, and the threats upon him have happened, lowering his fame [`ird] and manifesting his aim. He sacrifices for Allah his soul, treads upon the road to Him as his goal, not unwillingly, severs the relations of interest for the sake of the One to Whom he bounds and comes, and from Whom he seeks help. Should he achieve all these, the salat would be of the ordered type and of the informed about, and it is the very salat which forbids evil and vice." [226]
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, quoting our master, Zaynul-`Abidin (AS), says that he said: "As regards the rights of the salat, you are to know that it is a visit to Allah and that in it you are standing before Him. If you realized that, you would deserve to be, through it, in the position of a slave who is humble, desirous, horrified, frightened, hopeful, distressed, imploring, and glorifying the state of the One in front of Whom he stands with complete stillness, solemnity, submissiveness of the limbs, humility, well supplicating to Him for himself, requesting Him to free his neck, which is encircled by his faults and consumed by his sins; and there is no power except by Allah. [227]
The Prophet (SA) is quoted to have said: "Worship your Lord as if you see Him. If you do not see Him, He sees you." [228]
In Fiqhur-Rida it is stated: "When you want to perform the salat, do not go to it lazily, sleepy, hurriedly, or unmindfully. You are to approach it calmly, solemnly and slowly. You are also to display submission, imploringly and humbly, to Allah. You are to show awe and sings of fear and hope, with caution and apprehension. Thus, you are to stand before Him, as an escapee and sinful slave stands at attention before his master, on the alert, with joined heels, erected trunk, not looking to right and left, reckoning as if you see Him, and if you do not, He certainly does see you ..." as the hadith goes. [229]
In `Uddatud-Da`i it is stated: "It is narrated that the imploring moanings of Ibrahim (AS) used to be heard from a mile's distance, such that Allah praised him by saying: "Ibrahim was mild, imploring, penitent." [230] When performing his salat, a sound of fizz , like that of a boiler, was heard coming from his chest. A similar sound was also heard from the chest of our Prophet (SA). Fatimah (AS) used to pant in the salat because of her fear of Allah." [231] And there are other similar hadiths.
There are too many noble narratives on these subjects to be covered in these papers. Contemplating these few narratives suffices the people of thought and remembrance, in respect of the formal, cordial and spiritual disciplines, as well as concerning the way of standing before Allah.
Think a little of the conditions of 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, the supplications of that great man and his implorings to Allah, the Exalted; as well as his elegant invocations, by which he taught the disciplines of servitude to the servants of Allah. I do not allege that the supplications of those great men were intended to teach how to worship, for it would be an empty and meaningless statement prompted by being ignorant of the state of Lordship and of the knowledge of Ahlul Bayt (AS). Their fear and awe were much greater than anybody else's, and the Greatness and Majesty of Allah were manifested in their hearts more than in anyone else's heart. I only say that the servants of Allah should learn from them how to worship Allah and how to travel to Him. When you read what they used to say in their supplications and invocations, you should not read them as mere pronunciations of the tongue. They should be pondered upon, and their behaviour with Allah, their displaying humility, inefficiency and destitution, are also to be noted.
By the Beloved! 'Ali ibn-Husayn was one of the greatest blessings which Allah, the Most High, had bestowed upon His servants as a grace, bringing him down from the sacred world of Proximity, for the sake of teaching the ways of servitude to His servants: "Then, on that Day, you shall most certainly be questioned about the bliss". [232] If we are asked: "Why did you not appreciate the value of that bliss and did not get benefit from that great man?", we shall have no reply but to droop down our heads for being ashamed, and to be burnt with the fire of remorse and regret, when no regret would avail.
A Piece of Good Advice
My dear, now that the chance is available, and you are still in the prime of life, the way of journeying to Allah is open, the doors of His mercy are not closed, the soundness of the organs and powers is obtained and the land of planting [daruz-zar`] in the material world is still there, strive to realize the value of these divine favours in order to be benefited by them. Try to acquire the spiritual perfections and the eternal happiness. Take advantage of all these branches of knowledge which the honourable divine Qur'an and the infallible Ahlul Bayt (AS) have spread in the land of the dark nature, and illuminated the world with their divine bright light. Enlighten the land of your dark nature, as well as your eyes, ears, tongue and your other external and internal powers, with the light of Allah, the Exalted, and change this dark earth to another one, luminous, or rather to an intellectual heaven: "On the day when the earth shall be changed to a different earth", [233] "And the earth shall beam with the light of its Lord." [234] On that day, if your earth is not changed to a different one, and if it is not lighted with the light of the Lord, you will encounter darkness, difficulty, horror, pressure, humility and torture.
At present, our external and internal powers are darkened with Satanic darkness. Should we remain so, our material earth with its inborn light will gradually change into a dark dungeon, empty of the inborn light and veiled from the rules of the divine disposition. This is misfortune entailing no happiness, a darkness which comes to no luminosity, a horror which does not see the face of tranquillity, and a torment which has no comfort with it: " ... And to whomsoever Allah does not give light, he has no light." [235] I take refuge in Allah, the Exalted, from the Satanic conceitedness and from the evil-commanding soul.
The principal objective of the great prophets, of legislating the laws, of establishing the rules and of the coming down of the heavenly books-especially the all-embracing holy Qur'an, the projector of whose pure light is the Seal of the Messengers (SA) - is spreading monotheism and divine knowledge, and uprooting infidelity, atheism, hypocrisy and dualism, for the secret of monotheism and abstraction is flowing in all the cordial and formal worships. The Sheikh, the gnostic and perfect, Shahabadi, [may my soul be his ransom], used to say: "Worship is the operation of tauhid [monotheism] in the kingdom of the body from the inside of the heart."
In short, the sought-for result of worship is acquiring knowledge, confirming monotheism and other knowledge in the heart. This objective cannot be attained except when the salik vindicates his cordial shares of worship, and passes from the shape and form to the core and the truth, without lingering in this world and the surface, for loitering in such affairs is a hindrance [thorn] in the way of mankind. Those who call for the mere external appearance [surat], preventing the people from the internal disciplines, alleging that religion has no meaning and no reality other than its appearance and surface, are but the Satans on the road to Allah, and the thorns in the way of humanity. To be saved from their evil one has to take refuge with Allah, the Exalted, for they extinguish the divine inborn light, which is the light of [divine] knowledge, tauhid, guardianship and other kinds of knowledge, and draw the covers of imitation, ignorance, tradition [`adat] and fancies [auham] on it, deter the servants of Allah, the Exalted, from advancing to His threshold, and from reaching to His Beautiful Beauty, and block the way of knowledge. They direct the pure and sincere hearts of Allah's servants - in which He, with His hand of Beauty and Majesty, hid the seeds of knowledge in their disposition, and sent the great prophets and heavenly Books to breed and bring them up - to the world, to its ornaments, to its materialities and corporalities, and to its falsities, and divert them from spiritualities and intellectual happiness, confining the invisible world and the promised paradises exclusively to food, drink, sex and other animal desires.
They think that Allah, the Exalted, has laid out His table-cloth of mercy, sent down, with so much ceremony, His Books, employed His noble angels and assigned great prophets, just for the sake of satisfying hunger and sex. The most they know is: Take care of your stomach and sex drive so that you may attain to your desire in the other world. The importance which they attach to a sexual intercourse lasting for five hundred years [in Paradise according to a narrative] they do not attach to tauhid and prophethood, and they take knowledge to be a preliminary to satiate their libido and gluttony. If a godly philosopher, or a divine gnostic, wanted to open a door of mercy to the servants of Allah, or to read a paper of divine wisdom to them, they would spare no abuse, curse and forged accusations without throwing them at him. They are so indulged in mundane affairs, and so concerned about sex and stomach, unknowingly, that they do not desire any other happiness in this world except satisfying their animal lust, despite the fact that the intellectual happiness, should they care for it, would not injure their lust for sex and food.
Like ourselves, since we have not yet crossed the limit of animality, we think of nothing but food and sex, to which we may attain by the grace of Allah, the Exalted. We are not, however, to believe that happiness is confined to that, and that the paradise of Allah, the Exalted, is restricted only to this paradise of animals. As a matter of fact, Allah, the Exalted, has such worlds that no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard of, and never occurred to any heart. Yet, the people of divine love and knowledge pay attention to none of those paradises, and are interested in neither of the invisible and visible worlds. To them, paradise is meeting Allah.
If we want to relate the relevant Qur'anic ayahs and the hadiths quoted from the infallible Ahlul Bayt, it would not be within the scope of these papers. Actually, even what has been said was out of the overflowing of the pen. Our major objective is to direct the attention of the hearts of the servants of Allah to what they have been created for, that is, to know Allah, which is superior to all sorts of happiness, and everything else is but a preliminary to it. By referring to "the thorns on the road of the suluk", we did not mean the great 'ulama of Islam, nor the honourable faqihs of the Ja'fari sect [may Allah's contentment be upon them], but we do mean some of the people of ignorance and those who pretend to be of the people of knowledge by means of insufficiency [qusur] and ignorance [jahl], not by means of negligence [taqsir] and abstinacy [`inad],and who became highway robbers of the servants of Allah. I take refuge with Allah from the evil of an overflowing pen, bad intention and false objective. Praise be to Allah at the beginning and the end, externally and internally.
Notes:
[222]. It means: "To be deluded by the appearance" or "To take an unreal matter for a real one".
[223]. Furu'ul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 300, "Book of the Salat", ch. on "Submission in the Salat and Disapproving Toying", hadith 5.
[224]. Ibid., hadith 4.
[225]. `Ilalush-Shara'i` p. 88, as in Wasa'ilush-Shi`ah, vol. 4, p. 685, "Book of the Salat" chs. on "The Acts of the Salat" ch. 2, hadith 4.
[226]. Falahus-Sail, p. 23. ch. 2, "On the Description of the Salat.
[227]. Mustadrakul Wasa'il, "Book of the Salat", chs. on "The Acts of the Salat", ch. 2, hadith 3.
[228]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 74, p. 74, "Book of Flower Garden", "The Prophet's Preachings", ch. 4, hadith 3. Makarimul Akhlaq, p. 459.
[229]. Mustadrakul Wasa'il, "Book of the Salat", chs. on "The Acts of the Salat", ch. 1, hadith 7 , extracted from Fiqhur-Rida, p. 101, ch. on "The Obligatory salats".
[230]. Surah Mud: 75.
[231]. Mustadrakul Wasa'il, "Book of the Salat", chs. on "The Acts of the Salat" ch. 2, hadith 15.
[232]. Surah at-Takathur: 8.
[233]. Surah Ibrahim: 48.
[234]. Surah Az-Zumar: 69.
[235]. Surah an-Nur: 40.
Section Three
The Truth of the Niyah in Worship
Know that the niyah [intention] is to decide or to determine to do something. It is the soul's decision on performing some act after conceiving it and then acknowledging its advantage and judging its necessity. It is a psychological and conscientious condition which appears after the said procedures. It is, then, expressed as to be a decision, a determination, a want, a will, an objective and the like. It appears in all voluntary actions, as there can be no voluntary act without undergoing the said process, and it is there in the entire action, in reality, not allegorically. It does not need, however, that the details should be in the mind from the very beginning or even during the process, nor should one necessarily imagine the objective and the decision in detail. It sometimes happens that man does the act according to a decision, and yet he is completely unaware of the detailed picture of the act and the decision, while the fact is there, and it takes place in the outside motivated by that fact. This is quite consciously obvious in the voluntary acts.
In sum, this decision and determination, which is the niyah in the terminology of the faqihs [ may Allah be pleased with them], is, inevitably in every act, such that if one wanted to do a voluntary act without it, it would not be possible. Nevertheless, the whisperings of the wicked Satan and the sportings of fancy overrule reason and disguise the necessities in the eyes of the helpless man, and man, instead of spending his precious life in improving and purifying his deeds, and in freeing them from internal evils, and instead of spending it in acquiring monotheistic knowledge, godliness and being in quest of Allah, the vile Satan whispers in his ears and induces him to spend only half of his life in quest of a necessary and obligatory matter. Satan's snares and artifices are too many: one may be induced by him to give up the act altogether, while the other whom he despairs of inducing to drop the act, induces him to commit other follies, such as self-conceitedness and hypocrisy. If Satan could not succeed in this, he would try to falsify one's worship by way of causing him to pretend holiness: by slighting the worships of the people in his eyes, and by causing him to regard the people indifferent [heedless]. Then he induces him to spend all his life on matters such as the niyah , which is inseparable from the act , or the takbir or the recitation , which are common and ordinary acts . At any rate , Satan would not leave man alone before nullifying his worship by one way or another.
Satanic whisperings come through diverse ways, which we cannot discuss for the time being , nor scrutinize them all. But the whispering in the niyah, from among them, may be the most ridiculous and the strangest, because if someone tried, with all his powers, to do a voluntary act in all his life, without a niyah [an intention], it would be impossible for him to do it. Nevertheless, you may find some wretched, sick and feeble-minded person who spends a considerable time at every salat just to have a firm intention. Such a person is more like the one who thinks a long time whether he is to decide to go shopping or to go for a lunch. This helpless man, to whom the salat should be his ascension to His proximity, and the key to his happiness, and, by applying its cordial disciplines and realizing the secrets of this divine grace he should perfect his essence [dhat] and secure his growth [nash'ah] of life, he, on the contrary, neglects all these matters, or, much worse, besides regarding them unnecessary, he takes them all to be false, and uses his dear and valuable capital to serve Satan and to obey his slinking whispers, placing the God-given reason [`aql], which is the light of guidance, under the rule of Iblis.
`Abdullah ibn Sinan says: "I mentioned before Imam as-Sadiq (AS) [a case concerning] a man who was afflicted with frequently performing the wudu' and the salat, and described him to be a man of reason. The Imam said: "What reason has he in obeying Satan?' I asked him: `How is it that he is obeying Satan?' He said: `If you ask him wherefrom his hesitation comes to him, he will tell you it is of the work of Satan."' [236]
In short, man should uproot this by whatever means of austerity and strife, for it deprives him of all happiness and good. It may be that forty years of a man's worship be not correctly performed even in the outer appearance or according to the juristic formal details, let alone the internal religious disciplines. More ridiculous is that some such fastidious persons think that the worships of all people are invalid and take them to be negligent in respect of religion, whereas their religious authorities-whose instructions they follow-are also among the ordinary people. If he is a learned man, let him refer to the Prophet's tradition to see that the Messenger of Allah (SA) and the Imams of guidance (AS) were also like the ordinary people in these matters. From among all the people only this group of fastidious persons, act contrary to the Messenger of Allah (SA), the infallible Imams (AS), the jurists of religion and the scholars of the `ummah, regarding the acts of worship of all of them worthless, believing their own to be done according to precaution and that they take good care of religion. Take, for example, the case of the wudu'. The narratives about the wudu' of the Messenger of Allah (SA) are many and successively transmitted. It seems that the Messenger of Allah (SA) used a single handful [of water] to wash his face, another for his right hand and a third for his left hand. [237] The Imami faqihs are unanimous on definitely regarding this wudu' to be the correct one. The Book of Allah , too, apparently confirms it. As to the second washing, or the second handful, it is objected by some, while there is no harm in the second handful, or the second washing, although its recommendation is questionable. But the third washing is undoubtedly an innovation and renders the wudu' invalid, according to both the narration and the fatwa. Now, look at the acts of this helpless fastidious person who is not satisfied with twenty handfuls [of water], each one of which is enough to fully wash the hand and to consider it a " Complete Wash". In this case his wudu' is undoubtedly invalid. But this wretched, feeble-minded person, who performs this act in obedience to Satan's orders and whispers, thinks that what he does is correct and according to precaution, then, by contrast, he takes the acts of all others to be incorrect and invalid. Here the noble hadith proves true in respect of calling this man insane. The one who thinks correct an act which is contrary to the act of the Messenger of Allah (SA), and regards an act which is in conformity with the Prophet's to be incorrect, is either a renegade or an insane. But as this desperate person is not a renegade, he must be insane, obedient to Satan and disobedient to the Beneficent [rahman].
There is no remedy for this acute disease except through contemplation and reflection on the afore-mentioned matters, making a comparison between his act and that of the pious, the scholars and the faqihs [may Allah be pleased with them]. If he sees that his act differs from theirs, he is to push Satan's nose into the dust and to completely ignore that evil creature. Then, after that if Satan tries and whispers in his ears several times that: "Your act is invalid," let him reply: "If the acts of all the faqihs of the 'ummah are invalid, mine is invalid, too." It is hoped that after some time spent contradicting Satan, taking refuge with Allah, the Exalted, with invocations and imploring, from his evils, this disease will be cured and Satan's greedy eye will be lifted from him. The same instructions are also recommended in the noble hadiths to remedy excessive doubt, which is also of the Satanic inspirations.
In the noble al-Kafi, on the authority of Imam al-Baqir (AS),it is stated that he has said: "When doubts in the salat become too frequent, do not give heed to them , and regard the salat to be correct . It is hoped that this state would leave you, as it is not caused but by Satan." [238]
In another narrative, Imam al-Baqir (AS) , or Imam as-Sadiq (AS) , is quoted to have said: "Do not make it Satan's habit to frequent you by breaking your salat, as this will stir his greed against you. Satan is evil and gets accustomed to what he is habituated to."
Zurarah says that the Imam added: "That malignant wants to be obeyed. So, if he is disobeyed he will not come back to you." [239]
This is an important cure for all cases of Satan's intrusions and of the jestings of devilish fancies.In some hadiths invocations are also recommended. You may, in this respect, refer to Wasa'ilush-Shi`ah, Mustadrakul Was'il at the end of book of al-khalal.
Notes:
[236]. 'Usulul Kafi, vol. 1, p. 13, "Book of Reason and Ignorance", hadith 10.
[237]. Furu `ul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 24, "Book of Purity", ch. on the "Description of the Wudu".
[238]. Ibid., p. 359, "Book of the Salat", ch. on "The One Who Doubts in his Salat", hadith 8.
[239]. Ibid., hadith 2.
Sincerity
One of the important disciplines of the niyah, which is of the important parts of all worships and of the general and comprehensive instructions, is "sincerity". Its nature is purging the act of worship from the impurity of doing it for other than Allah, and clearing the heart from discerning anything other than Allah, the Exalted, in all formal, intellectual, external and internal acts. It achieves its perfection by absolutely neglecting the other [than Allah], and decisively pounding upon I-ness, selfishness, the other and the otherness. Allah, the Exalted, says: "Surely Allah's is the pure religion." [240] So, if the religion was mixed with any selfish and Satanic desires, it would not be pure; and that which is not pure is not acceptable to Allah, and that which has a blemish of otherness and selfishness is outside the limits of Allah's religion.
Allah, the Exalted, says: "And they were not enjoined except that they should worship Allah, making the religion His sincerely." [241]
And He also says:" ... And whoever desires the tillage of this world, We give him thereof, but in the Hereafter he will have no portion." [242]
It has been narrated that the Messenger of Allah (SA) said: "Every person gets according to his intention. So, the one whose intention is to migrate to Allah and His Messenger, his migration will be to Allah and His Messenger; and the one whose intention of migration is to attain to this world [to get something of it] or to marry a woman, his migration is to what he has intended." [243]
Allah, the Exalted, says: "And whoever leaves his house migrating to Allah and His Messenger, and then death overtakes him, his reward is, indeed, with Allah." [244] Maybe this noble ayah covers all degrees of sincerity: One is the formal migration of the body. If this migration was not purely for the sake of Allah and His Messenger, but was for the sake of personal desires, then it would not be a migration to Allah and His Messenger. This is. the formal juristic degree of sincerity.
Another one is the spiritual migration, and internal journey, which starts from the dark house of the self, with its goal being Allah and His Messenger. It, after all, returns to Allah Himself, because the Messenger, as a messenger, has no independence of his own; rather, he is an ayah, a mirror and a representative. So, to migrate to him means migrating to Allah: "The love of Allah's close friends is loving Allah."
So, the gist of the meaning of the noble ayah, based on this possibility, is that the one who leaves the house of the self, and gets out of the mansion of selfishness, on a spiritual migration and a gnostic cordial journey to Allah, disregarding his self, dignity and prestige, his reward will be with Allah. But if the salik to Allah demands, in his suluk to Allah, a personal desire , such as attaining stations, or even attaining to Allah's proximity for himself, this suluk will not be to Allah. Actually, the salik has not even got out of his self; that is, his journey is inside his own house, roaming from side to side and from corner to corner.
Therefore, if the journey is within the limits of the self [nafs] for the sake of attaining to self perfections, it will not be a journey to Allah, it is, in fact a journey from self to self. Nevertheless, the salik in his journey to Allah, will, inevitably, experience this kind of travel. No one, except the perfect walis [friends of Allah] (AS), can commence his divine journey without a journey within himself, as that exclusively belongs to the perfect ones (AS). Perhaps the noble ayah: "Peace it is till the break of the dawn," [245] is a hint at this safety from the Satanic and selfish conducts during all the stages of the journey in the dark nights of nature, which is the night of Qadr in respect of the perfect ones, till the dawn of the Resurrection Day, which means, to the perfect ones, seeing the Beauty of the One. But the others would not be safe in all the stages of the journey. As a matter of fact, no salik would be free from Satan's intrusions in the early stages.
So, it has become clear that this degree of sincerity-whose first stage in the journey to Allah is safety, till its last, which is the attainment of real death, or rather till after the second real life, which is the "sobriety [sahw] after the self-effacement [mahw]-would not happen to the people of suluk and the common people of gnosticism and of austerity. The sign of this kind of sincerity is that Satan's temptation will have no way into those possessing it, and Satan's covetous eye will turn in complete despair away from them, as is said by Satan in the Qur'an: "By Your Might I will tempt them all, except Your sincere servants from among them." [246] Here, sincerity is ascribed to the servant himself, not to his act, which is a state loftier than sincerity in act. Perhaps the well-known noble hadith of the Prophet (SA) who said: "The one who keeps being sincere to Allah for forty mornings, fountains of wisdom will flow from his heart to his tongue," [247] refers to all the degrees of sincerity, i.e. sincerity of act, of attribute and of essence, and probably it appears in sincerity of essence, for which the other degrees of sincerity are requisites.
To explain this noble hadith, and to state what is meant by "fountains of wisdom", the way they flow from the heart to the tongue, the effect of sincerity in this flowing and the significance of "forty mornings", are out of the scope of this thesis, as they need a separate book. The thesis titled Tuhfatul Muluk fis-Sayr-i was-Suluk, ascribed to The knower of Allah , the late Bahrul `Ulum, is mostly concerned with the explanation of this noble hadith. It is a nice thesis, though somewhat arguable. For this reason some say that it was not written by the said great personality, which is quite possible.
Notes:
[240]. Surah az-Zumar: 3.
[241]. Surah al-Bayyinah: 5.
[242]. Surah Shura: 20.
[243]. Mustadrakul Wasa'il, chs. on "Preliminaries to the Acts of Worship", ch. 5, hadith 5.
[244]. Surah an-Nisa': 100.
[245]. Surah al-Qadr: 5.
[246]. Surah Sad: 82 and 83.
[247]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 67, p. 242, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Sincerity", hadith No. 10., quoting `Uyunu Akhbarir-Rida, vol. 2, p. 69, with a slight difference. The same content is stated in the latter source, p. 249, hadith 25.
A Brief Account on Some Stages of Sincerity To Fit Within These Papers
One of these stages is to purge the act, whether cordial or formal, form the blemish of acquiring the creatures' pleasure and attracting their hearts for the sake of a praise, and advantage or anything else. And the counterfeit of it is the act performed hypocritically, which is a juristic hypocrisy and is the meanest of all degrees of hypocrisies, and such a hypocrite is the lowest and meanest of all hypocrites.
The second stage is to purge the act from wanting the fulfillment of mundane objectives and transient desires, although these acts may be fulfilled in order to attain to Allah's grace, such as performing night salats [nafilah] for improving one's sustenance, or performing the salat of the first day of the month, for example, in order to be safe from the plights of the month, or giving out alms to ward off diseases, and other worldly objectives. Some jurisprudents [may Allah's mercy be upon them] regard this degree of sincerity to be necessary for the correctness of the acts of worship, in case the objective of performing the act is to attain to it. But this is contrary to investigation according to the juristic rules. Yet, this salat has no value, whatsoever, in the eyes of the people of knowledge, and it is like all other lawful gains, or maybe even lower.
The third stage is to purge the act from trying to attain to corporeal paradises, houris, luxurious abodes and the likes of the corporeal pleasures. Its counterfeit is the worship of the traders, as is described in the noble hadiths. This, too, is, to the people of Allah, similar to other gains, though the wage of the acts of this trader is more and higher, in case he carries them out and rids them from the formal viles.
The fourth stage is to purify the act from being afraid of the threatened bodily punishment and torture. The counterfeit of this is the worship of the slaves, as is mentioned in the narratives. [248] To the people of the heart, this kind of worship is also of no value and far from being a service to Allah, while, to the people of knowledge, it makes no difference if a man performs an act out of fearing the penalties and punishments of this world or the tortures of the Hereafter, or for the purpose of attaining to worldly women, or for attaining to the paradisiac women, none of them will be for Allah, and they [only] show the intention [reason=da'i] for the performance of an act, which, according to juristic rules, takes the act out of formal invalidity. But in the market of the people of knowledge this stuff is of no value.
The fifth stage is to purge the act from trying to attain to intellectual happiness and everlasting spiritual pleasures, and to join the Cherubim, the group of the sacred intellects and the favourite angels. Its counterfeit is acting for this purpose. Although this stage is great and an important goal, and the wisemen and researchers attach great importance to this stage of happiness and regard it very valuable, yet, in the ways of the people of Allah, this stage has also its shortcomings in suluk, and its salik is also regarded as a trader or a worker, though his trade and business are different, in many ways, from those of others.
As regards this stage, I mean the sixth one, it is to purge the act from being afraid of not attaining to those pleasures and of being deprived of this happiness. Its counterfeit is to act for this stage out of fear. Although this is a lofty stage and is beyond the desire of one like the writer, yet, to the people of Allah, this is also the worship of the slaves, for it has causes.
The seventh stage is to purge it from attaining to the delights of the Divine Beauty and enjoying the pleasures of the lights of limitless glories, which are the Paradise of Meeting [the Lord]. This stage, I mean the stage of Meeting Allah, is one of the most important goals of the people of knowledge and those of heart, and the hands of the hopes of the common people are too short to reach it. Only a few of the people of knowledge are favoured with the happiness of this honour. And the people of love and attraction are of the perfect ones among the people of Allah and His chosen ones. Yet, this perfection is not the most perfect degree of the people of Allah. It is one of their many common states. What we read in some invocations, such as the Sha'baniyah supplication, that Imam 'Ali (AS) and his pure progeny demand the said state, or allude to their being in that state, does not mean that their states are limited to this one, since the eighth stage, which is on the same level as this one, and which is purging the act from the fear of separation, is also not of the perfect states of the perfect ones. Imam 'Ali's saying: "How could I forbear separating from You?" [249] is just a reference to a brim-full common state of him and of one like him.
Generally speaking, purging the act from these two stages is also a must to the people of Allah, for to act with them will be endued with causes and not free from selfish wants. It is, thus, perfect sincerity. Next, there are other stages which are out of the limits of sincerity, and fall under the criterion of monotheism, abstraction and guardianship, all of which do not fit here.
Notes:
[248]. As in Wasa'ilush-Shi`ah, vol. 1, p. 45, chs. on "The Preliminaries to the Acts of Worship", the narratives of chapter 9. Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 131, "Book of Faith and Disbeliever', ch. on "Worship", narrative No. 5.
[249]. Misbahul Mutahajjid, p. 778 (Kumayl's invocation)
Refuting a Group of Ignorants
Now as you have got acquainted with the stages of sincerity and states of the acts of worship to some extent get ready to acquire them, since to have knowledge without putting it to practice is worthless, and knowledge is a stronger evidence against the claimant and he is more exposed to argument. Alas! It is regretted that we are completely deprived of the divine knowledge, the spiritual states of the people of Allah and the lofty positions of the men of heart. A group of us completely deny all the states and regard their people to be erroneous and their acts batil [false] and worthless. They even take those who praisingly mention them, or invite to their states, to be forgers and their invitation to be a paradox. There is no hope in drawing the attention of such groups to their own faults and shortcomings, and in waking them up: "Surely you cannot guide everyone whom you love"; [250] "... You cannot make those in the graves hear" [251]
Yes, those who, like the helpless writer, know nothing at all, and whose hearts are not living up to the life of knowledge and divine love, are but dead ones, for whom the bodily covers are their rotten graves. This dust of the body and dark narrowness of the skeleton have shut them off from all the worlds of light and light upon light: "... And he for whom Allah has not assigned light, for him there is no light." [252] Much as you try to recite of hadiths and of the Qur'an to these groups concerning divine affection and love and concerning longing for meeting [Him], and exclusively being attached to Him, they still try to interpret, justify and explain them according to their own opinions. All those ayahs about meeting Allah and divine love they interpret to be a meeting with the trees of Paradise and the beautiful women. I wonder what these groups would do with the texts of the Sha`baniyah Supplication, which says: "O Allah! Grant me to be completely devoted to you, and lighten the eyes of our hearts with the light of looking at You until the eyes of the hearts penetrate the barriers of light to reach to the Source of Greatness, and our souls hang to the Might of Your Sanctity. O Allah! Make me one of those whom You called and he responded, and when you looked at him, he was stunned because of Your Majesty." [252a]
So, what do "barriers of light" mean? Does "looking at Allah" mean looking at the palaces of Paradise? Does "the Source of Greatness" mean heavenly palaces? Does "the hanging of the souls to the Might of Sanctity" mean hanging to the skirts of the houris for sensual desires? This "being stunned because of His Majesty', does it mean being spell-bound at the beauties of the women of Paradise? Those ecstasies and faintings which used to befall the Messenger of Allah (SA) during his ascending salat , and those lights of grandeur, and the things loftier than them, which he used to discern, in that meeting in which the Archangel, Gabriel (AS), was not admitted and he dared not to advance even for an inch farther, were those ecstasies for one of the very good women? Or did he discern lights like those of the sun and the moon or much brighter? That sound heart, which was referred to by the infallible [ma'sum] (AS) in explaining the verse: "Except him who comes to Allah with a sound heart", [253] by saying: "A sound heart is that one which meets Allah while there is nothing in it save Him," [254] does it mean that "there is nothing in it save Allah" denotes "nothing save the generosity of Allah", which is to mean an allusion to "nothing save [say] pearls and apricots"?
Woe to me for letting the rein of the pen be loose and engage in ecstatic phrases. But, by the life of the beloved, no particular aim was intended by those words, except that there might be, for my brothers in faith, especially the learned, a sort of warning, so that they might not, at least, deny the states of the people of Allah, for such a denial would be the origin of every wretchedness and misfortune. We did not intend to say who Ahlullah [the people of Allah] are. Actually, our intention was that their states should not be denied. As to who the owners of those states are, Allah alone knows them, since it is a matter of which no one is informed: "The one who got an information did not come back." [255]
There is another group who do not deny the states of the people of knowledge and are not against the people of Allah. But their indulgence in worldly matters, trying to obtain them, and their taking to the transient pleasures, have prevented them from acquiring knowledge, practice, intellectual intuition [dhauq] and ecstasy [hal]. They are like those sick people who do know they are sick, but their stomach would not let them be cautious and accept taking bitter medicine, while the former group are like the patients who would never believe in the existence of such patients and such disease in actuality, and despite the fact that they themselves are afflicted with this disease, they deny its existence.
Another group took to acquiring knowledge and engaged in learning theories, but as regards the truths of knowledge and the states of the people of Allah, they satisfied themselves with terms and vocabularies, and with the gaudiness of phrases and expressions. They tied themselves and other wretched ones in the chains of words and terms, and out of all "states", they satisfied themselves with mere talk. Among them there are a few who do know themselves, but, in order to preside over some other unfortunate persons, they use these meaningless terms as a means of winning a living, and, with their deceitful expressions and attractive talks, they capture the pure hearts of the servants of Allah. These are the human Satans whose harm is no less than that of the accursed Iblis himself against the servants of Allah. These unfortunate ones do not know that the hearts of the servants of Allah are the abode of Allah, and no one has the right to occupy them. They are usurpers of Allah's abode and destroyers of the real ka`bah. They carve out idols and place them in the hearts of the servants of Allah, which are the ka`bah, or rather al-Baytul Ma`mur [Allah's Populous House]. They are the sick people who pretend to be physicians, and involve the servants of Allah in diverse deadly diseases.
The members of this group are distinguished for being more interested in guiding the wealthy people and the notable personalities than in guiding the poor and the indigent, and their followers are more of the well-off and notable people. Even they themselves appear in the apparel of the wealthy people. They play on such deceptive talks that while they are polluted with a thousand kinds of mundane impurities, they can show themselves as purifiers and of the people of Allah. The wretched fools and their followers close their eyes against all their tangible faults, and flatter themselves with empty terms and utterances.
Now as we have reached this stage of our speech, it is worthwhile to relate one or two hadiths narrated in this respect, although it would be out of the content of our discourse. However, getting the blessings of the hadiths of Ahlul Bayt (AS) is a good thing:
Shaykh as-Saduq [may Allah have mercy upon him] in his book al khisal, quoting Abu `Abdullah [as-Sadiq] (AS), says: "There are among the scholars those who like to compile their knowledge, and do not like to be quoted. These are at the first step of the Fire. Other scholars are proud when they admonish, but they disdain being admonished. These are at the second step of the Fire. Some scholars prefer to put their knowledge at the disposal of the noble and the wealthy, excluding the poor from it. These are at the third step of the Fire. Other scholars behave like the tyrants and the monarchs in their knowledge, and if they were redressed or neglected in some of their affairs, they would become angry. These are at the fourth step of the Fire. Some scholars look for the hadiths of the Jews and the Christians in order to support their own knowledge and increase their own hadiths. These are at the fifth step of the Fire. Other scholars appoint themselves to give out religious decrees, telling the people: "Ask me!", whereas they may not be right even in a single letter, and Allah does not like the pretentious. These are at the sixth step of the Fire. There are among the scholars those who take knowledge to be a sense of honour and intellect. These are at the seventh step of the Fire." [256]
Al-Kulayni [may Allah have mercy upon him], in his comprehensive [book] al-Kafi , quoting Imam al-Baqir (AS) , says : "The one who seeks knowledge in order to vie with the scholars, or to argue with the fool, or to attract the people to himself, let him have his seat in the Fire-Presidency does not befit except its deserver." [257]
Also quoting Imam as-Sadiq (AS) he says : " Whenever you see a scholar loving this world accuse him of being against your religion, as the lover of a thing seeks to get what he loves. And he said: "Allah, the Exalted, revealed to David (AS): `Do not place between Me and yourself a scholar who is infatuated with this world, as he would prevent you from the way of My love, for those are the robbers of My loving servants. The least I would do to them is to extract the sweetness of supplication to Me from their hearts." [258]
Those from among this group, who are not impostors or fraudulent, and are themselves saliks on the road to the Hereafter , striving to acquire knowledge and high states, it sometimes happens that they are fooled by Satan, the highway robber , and get conceited , thinking that the states and knowledge [ma`arif] are really nothing but the very scholarly terms and expressions which they themselves or others, have coined. They spend the prime of their years and the best of their lives, in multiplicating those terms and composing books and papers, such as a group of versed mufassirs [ writers of commentaries on the Qur'an ] who think that the advantage of the Qur'an is confined to recording a collection of different ways of its recitation, the meanings of its vocabularies and conjugation of its verbs, its verbal and moral beauties, aspects of its miraculous inimitability, its conventional meaning, and its different impressions on different persons, but they are completely ignorant of the Qur'an's message, its spiritual dimensions and divine knowledge [ma'arif]. They are more like a sick man who has gone to a physician and received his prescription, and thinks that he will be treated by way of recording and preserving the recipe and by the mode of its ingredients. This disease will kill such people, for knowing the recipe and going to the doctor come to no avail at all.
O dear! All sciences are practical. Even the science of tauhid [monotheism] also consists of cordial and formal acts. Tauhid, grammatically, denotes turning plurality into singleness - a spiritual and cordial act. Unless you recognize the real and the true cause in the multiplicity of acts, unless you have a truth-finding eye to discern Allah in nature, unless you regard the natural and non-natural multiplicities as perished [fani] in Allah and His acts, and unless the authority of Allah's Unity of Acts has not spread its banner in your heart, you will be far away from purity, sincerity, clearness and purification, as well as from tauhid. All of the hypocrisy of acts and most of the cordial hypocrisies, are caused by the incompleteness of the unity of acts. The one who regards the weak and unfortunate people to be effective in this world, and occupying the domain of Allah, how can he regard himself in no need of attracting their hearts, and purge and purify his act from Satan's polytheism? You will have to make the spring clean so that clear water may come out of it, as otherwise, from a muddy spring you may not expect to get clear water. If you regard the hearts of Allah's servants to be at the disposal of Allah, and make your heart taste the meaning of: "O You Who change the hearts", and let your heart hear it, you, with all your weakness and helplessness, will not try to capture the hearts. If you made your heart understand the truth of " ... In His hand is the dominion of everything," [259] "His is the [whole] dominion" [260] and "In His hand is the dominion," [261] you will need not attract any hearts, nor think that you are in need of the weak hearts and the weak people, and you will attain to a state of cordial satisfaction. You felt yourself being in need of something, and took the people to be undoers of knotty problems, and thus you thought you needed to attract the hearts of the people, thinking that by pretending holiness, you would have at your disposal the hearts of the people. Hence, you needed to be a hypocrite. Had you taken Allah to be the solver of all difficulties, and that you do not have the universe at your disposal, you would not have needed those acts of polytheism.
O you, the polytheist who claim to be a monotheist! O you, an Iblis [a devil] appearing in the shape of a human being! You have inherited this legacy from the accursed Satan, who, thinking himself effective, calls out: "I'll lead them astray." [262] That wretched, miserable being is wrapped in veils of polytheism and self-conceit. Those who believe themselves and the world to be independent and not under management, neither controlled nor owned, have inherited that from Iblis's mischief. So, wake up from [your] deep sleep and convey to your heart the noble ayahs of the Divine Book, the Lord's Luminous Page. These great ayahs have been sent down for me and you to wake up, yet, we confine all our shares to reciting it in formal artistic intonation, disregarding its informative knowledge, until Satan overcomes and rules us such that we become under his control.
For the time being, we end the discourse here, leaving it for a later time. We shall, insha'allah, talk about the disciplines of recitation, opening the way for ourselves and for the servants of Allah to be benefited by the Glorious Qur'an, with Allah's permission and His good help. Was-salam [And that is an end to the matter].
Notes:
[250]. Surah Qasas: 56.
[251]. Surah Fatir: 22.
[252]. Surah an-Nur: 40.
[252a]. Refer to footnote No. 5.
[253]. Surah ash-Shu'ara': 89.
[254]. 'Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 26, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Sincerity, hadith No. 5.
[255]. "Those who claim to be in quest of it are uninformed" "The one who got an information did not come back." (by Sa'di)
[256]. Al-Khisal , vol. 2, p. 352, ch. 7, hadith 33.
[257]. Usulul Kafi, vol. 1, p. 59, "Book of the Merit of Knowledge", ch. on "The One Who Gains His Living from His Knowledge", hadith No. 6.
[258]. Ibid., hadith No. 4.
[259]. Surah Ya-Sin: 83.
[260]. Surah al-Fatir: 13.
[261]. Surah al-Mulk: 1.
[262]. Surah Sad: 82.
source : Adabus Salat The Disciplines of the Prayer by Imam Khomeini
