SECTION ONE

On Some Disciplines of the Adhan and Iqamah Discussed in five Chapters

CHAPTER ONE

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 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 nalwin,, 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, ad 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 ie Chapters of the adhan and the iqamah, is to continually inform the heart bout the greatness of the Meeting, Presence and the Present, and to Dutifully think of his own humility, inability and shortcoming, in order to ring about (in the heart) fear and awe, while, on the other hand, he is to Show ) his heart Allah's vast mercy and generous kindness, in order to bring about n 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 contumacy, and their hearts, by means of that invisible attraction, will, till the rid of the .sa1at and through their love of the Presence and the Present, practice mutual embracing and fondling with remembering Allah and thinking f Him. Imam 'All ibn Abi Talib (A.S.) is quoted to have said: "The best of ie people is the one who adores worship, embraces it, whole-heartedly loves touches it with his body and disengages himself for it. He would not care tether he gains his share af 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 :he 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 hadiths it is quoted from Musa ibn ja'far (A.S.) that he said : "Amirul mu'minin ('Au) (A.S.) 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 a kind manifestation, and the attraction of love becomes their guide, as the hadith says that the Messenger of Allah (S.A.) used to be waiting for the time f the salat, his longing ever increasing, until at last he would say to Bilal (the messenger's mu'adhdhin): "Relieve us, 0 Bilal." ⁽¹⁸⁷⁾ Sometimes He would rest Himself through greatness and sovereignty, such that they feel they filled with fear and awe. Such states are related from the messenger of (S.A.) and the Imams of guidance (AS.). Semites He manifests "the Collective Oneness" jami-i ahadi according to the endurance the hearts and the capacities of their vessels. We, the veiled, the busy with world,

the imprisoned in the prison of nature and in the chains of desires hopes, and the deprived of the divine intellectual happiness who, because being drunken with nature, will not come back to sobriety nor get up from deep sleep till the dawn of eternity, are out of the calculations of these and excluded from this declaration. Thus, the disciplines of the 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 generate for these are of Iblis's dangerous soldiers and of the inspirations of the human and jinn Satan's. 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 headings 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 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 a glory are but manifestations of the greatness of the heavenly world which have descended to this world, and the heavenly world alam-i ma1akut 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 especial 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⁾

In an elaborated speech quoted from Amirul Mu minin All (A S) it said: "... The other aspect is that Allahu akbar implies negation of His queuing as if he (the mu 'adhdhin = the one who speaks out the adhan) says: 'Allah 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 able His quality being understood by the describers ..." as the hadiths. 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 Greater. As -sadiq (A.S.) is quoted to have said: "When you say: Allahu akbar, slight whatever is there between the high (haven) 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: " 0 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 e there can be glory, might, majesty, greatness and dignity for any created and as long as we are wrapped in the veils of the created specific ta ayyunat, the dominion sultan of the Majesty of Allah, the Glorify not manifest in our hearts.

So, of the disciplines of takbir is that the salik should not stop outer form, or be satisfied with its wordings and with mere pronunciation the tongue. First, he is to prove to the heart, with the power of argument 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 the poverty, humility and helplessness of all the possible dwellers and 4 corporeal and spiritual beings After that, with the power of austerity, frequent intimacy murawadah and complete familiarity, he is to enliven the heart this divine grace and grant it spiritual and intellectual life and happiness. Y, 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, with contemplation and remembrance reach their assigned limit, and the attains to familiarity and tranquility, he will see with the eye of insight effects of Allah's Glory and Majesty in all beings, and the diseases and fail his heart will be cured. Only then will he taste the deliciousness of supply and the sweetness of remembering Allah, and the heart will affirm Al Sovereign Majesty, and the effects of Majesty will appear in the exterior 9 the interior of the kingdom, and the heart, the tongue, the outside and inside will go in harmony. So, all the external and internal powers, visible invisible, reciter Allahu akbar, and one of the thick curtains is drown away he gets one stage nearer to the truth of the sa1at. There is a reference to some of what has been said in a lengthy. hadith in Ilalush-Shara 'i, quoting Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (A.S.) describing the He said: "Allah, the Glorified and Almighty, sent down, to the Prophet carriage of light comprised of forty sorts of light which were around 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 Mother one was red, and it became the cause of the redness of the red..." men he added: "... He (the Messenger S.A) 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 (S.A.) 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 dissension 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. 217

Thus, the salik must first strengthen, with judicial proof, the fact that here is no effecter mu 'aththir in the (world to) existence except Allah". He 1st not evade the divine knowledge, which is the objective of sending prophets, and not turn away from remembering Allah and from the affairs of Essence and Attributes, for the source of all (kinds of) happiness is the remberance of Allah: "And whoever turns away from remembering Me, shall surely be a straitened life".⁽¹⁹²⁾ After attaining to the truth of this Inc 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 it, through remembrance and austerity, familiar with them until it believes hem. This would be the first stage of the truthfulness of his words, and it IS ted by complete dependence on Allah, and by taking the eye of greed arid e away from all beings, a fact which results in believing in Allah's Unity to ion, being one of the great states of the people of knowledge. Having inscribed all effects to Allah, and closed the eye of greed against all beings save his sacred Essence, the salik becomes worthy tending the Sacred Presence, or' rather his heart becomes, by nature, attentive to that Presence. Repeating the testimony may be for or firming 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 Dignity of Essence and the other to the Divinity of Action. in this instance, its reparation at the end may be to confirm them, and that is why it is not mentioned there with the very words "I testify."

Know that testimony is of many stages, of which we shall he satisfied With referring to a few, as suits these pages. The first is the Verbal Testimony shahadat-1 qauliyah which is already knowledge. 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 (A.S.). ⁽¹⁹³⁾

The second is the Practical Testimony shah?dati- 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, not 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 of) existence except Allah" in his external kingdom.

The third is he Cordial Testimony shahadat-I qalbiyah which is source ol the practical and verbal testimonies, as without it, these would come to actuality. And it is that Allah's Units of Action manifests in the heart which realizes, by way of its inner secret, the truth of this grace, and separate 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 aI-Kafi, on the authority of 'All ibn al-husayn (A.S.) that he said:' I found that the entire goodness is gathered in cutting ones 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⁾Hadith 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 jam 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 ahadiyat -i tammah This Oneness hadiyat 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.

in the exegesis of Muhammad ihn Mas'ud al-'Ayyashi. quoting 'Abdus-Samad ihn Bashir, it is said: "The beginning of the adhan was mentioned to Abu 'Abdullah (imam as-sadiq) (A.S.). 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 and told him (0 wash himself With it. Then he (the Prophet) was put in a triage with a thousand colors of tight, 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: AIlahu akbar! AIlahu 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: l 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 hadiths goes on. ⁽¹⁹⁷⁾

A similar concept is stated in a narrative in 'I1a1ush-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 formability, and, thus, no door will be opened to us and no veil will be pushed off Our faces.

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".^(198/1) 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 devotees and the attainders to Allah. If anybody tries, depending On his Selfishness and without clinging to their guardianship, to tread upon this road, 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 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 Gnostic 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 'uzm?, 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 Au's General Guardianship wilayat-i mullaqa-i 'a1awiyah . The relevant details are stated in the Misbahu1 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 qayyüm with each being and encompassing each of the entities akw?n 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 'tihar?t mingling the state of the multiplicity of the stages of existence with the vanishing fana of the individuations ta 'ayunat . 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'arif and completed their journey is a must for the travellers to Allah, as is frequently mentioned in noble hadiths, such that in Wasa'il (Wash 'ilush-Shi'ah) there is a Chapter ruing the invalidity of worship without adhering to the guardianship of Imams (the 12 Imams) and believing in their Imamate. In Wash 'ii it is from the noble al-Kafi, on the authority of its writer quoting Lad ibn Muslim who said: "I was told by Imam Baqirul 'Ulum (the fifth L) (A.S.) who said: 'Know, o Muhammad, that the leaders of despotism their followers are isolated from Allah's religion. They are misleading and So, their deeds are like the ashes at which a violent wind blows on a day and it disperses them." ⁽²⁰¹⁾ in another narrative from Imani 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, 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 'Au ibn al-Husayn (A.S.) asked us: 'Which spot is most preferred?' We said 'Allah, His Messenger and the son of His Messenger know better.' He said: best of spots for US is that which is situated between the rukn and the (two places in the Ka'bah). If some one lives as long as the life of --who lived among his people for a thousand years less fifty - and spends in fasting in daytime and in worshipping at nights in that spots 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 Messenger ship is to convey to the testimony of the Messenger's being sent by Allah, as well as the of the state of the Messenger Ship, especially that of the Last Messenger, since the whole circle of existence , the invisible and visible worlds are creation ally, legislation ally, 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 any one 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 Messenger ship in the adhan, the iqamah and the salat has become clear, for the traveler 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 mir 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 (S.A.), 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 j, a gift. that he brought from his moral and spiritual journey for his which is the best of the ummahs, and by that he favoured them and them with blessings. When this belief sets inside the heart and is by repetition the salik will, as a matter of course, understand the grottoes of the state and the place ani will proceed with fear and hope, to this stage, and it is hoped, insha 'Allah (Allah willing), if tie does his best it, that master will assist him and lead him to the state of "the One" qurb-i ahadi which is the original innate objective. In 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 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⁾

In the honoraria hadiths 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 (S.A.) mounted on the mount of light, which had been sent down by the of Might, and ascended accompanied by Gabriel, and reached the third 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.

In some untrustworthy narratives it is stated that after testifying to the 'Messenger ship in the adhan one is to say: "I testify that 'Au is waliyullah :Allah's friend)" twice. In other narratives, one is to say: "I testily that 'Ali is truly Amirul Mu'minin" twice. In some others, one is to say: "Muhammad md 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 hem.⁽²⁰⁹⁾ It is well known among the 'ulama'(may Allah be pleased with them) hat these narratives are not reliable. Some narrators regard them among the commendable, due to "the negligence of the proofs of the laws." This opinions 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 Messenger ship, it is desirable to testify to the guardianship and leadership of the believers. In the hadith of lithium (argumentation) it is said Qasim ibn Mu'awiyah said: "I said to Imam as-sadiq that the people of the relate a hadiths about the mi'raj, that when the Messenger of Allah was n the mi'raj ,the saw upon the Arsh: 'There is no god but Allah, is the messenger of Allah, and Abu Bakr as-Sadiq.' He Glorified be Allah! They changed everything even this?' He said" 'Yes'. he continued: 'When Allah, the Exalted, created the 'Arsh, He wrote 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and 'All is the Commander (Leader) of the believers. He ordered these to be written on the water, on the Chair(Throne)r on the Tablet, Out 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: 'Alt is the Commander (Leader) of the believers."⁽²¹⁰⁾ in short, this noble remembrance, after testifying to the Messenger Ship 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 (successor ship 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-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 Successor ship 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 Messenger ship implies the testimony to Guardianship because Guardianship is the inside of Messenger ship. The writer says that these two testimonies are both implied in the testimony to His Divinity, and the testimony to Messenger ship 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.

CHAPTER FIVE

Some 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 Messenger ship and Guardianship, he has chosen his comrade and company and adhered to the sacred position of successor ship and guardianship - as it is said: "The companion (first) then the journey" ⁽²¹¹⁾ then, with quite an explicit he is to prepare his visible and invisible powers for the salat, announcing me presence to them by saying: "Hayya 'alas-Salat", (come to the .sa1at ) 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 sa1at, by the "Hayya 'a1a1-fa1ah" (come to prosperity) and "J- Hayya 'ala khayril 'amal (come the best of deeds) so as to wake up the fitrat (disposition = nature) be prosperity and salvation are absolute happiness, and all the human beings toe, 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 tauhids 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 sürat 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 sa1at , in which absolute comfort, complete rest and perfect calmness also appear, bringing about the two corners of happiness. So, the sa1at 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 report When the salik reaches this stage, he announces his presence by saying "qad qamatis-sa1at" (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 and the Absolute Great, and to inform his heart about the dangers ii of which are due to the incapability and the inefficiency of and to feel ashamed of the carrying out the amr, approached tear alit! hope, towards the Generous. He is not to regard travelling provisions and company. He is to see his heart to think his deeds good ones; rather, worth not a penny. become firm in his heart, he would hope to get Allah's care: answers the distressed one, when he calls unto Him, and the evil?⁽²¹³⁾

Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, quoting Abu 'Abdullah as-sadiq (A.S.) , says: you reciter the adhan and the iqamah, two rows of angels will perform sa1at behind YOU, but if you said the iqamah (only), one row of the angels perform the salat behind you."⁽²¹⁴⁾ There are many other hadiths to the effect, some of which say that the length of each row is as the distance the east and the west.⁽²¹⁵⁾Another hadiths says that wit ell Imam as-sadiq(A s) was asked about the length of each row, he said: "The length of the row is as the distance between the east and the west, and the length of longest is as the distance between the heaven and the earth.⁽²¹⁶⁾ In some it is said that if he said the iqamah without the adhan, an angel it! at his right side and another at his left side,⁽²¹⁷⁾ and other similar The difference among the narratives may be due to the difference the knowledge and the sincerity of the musallin, as can be inferred from narratives in this respect, such as the narrative concerning performing the With the adhan and the iqamah in the desert or waste-land.⁽²¹⁸⁾ In short, when the salik sees himself leader of the salat for the angels of the leader of his visible and invisible power, 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 reciting of the ma'mümin 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, aid 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!

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 instance 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 flafsiyah ,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 qayyumlyat 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 praise dhakir and the praised madhkür, will be the Haqq (Allah) Himself, and some of the secrets of the Fate will be exposed 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 art of the gnostic will receive some of the secrets of the salat, such as looking the place of prostration, which is of dust, the principal origin (of man), or objurgating the neck and declining the head, as required, implying humility and subjugation of "the possible", and the annihilation under the Might and the sovereignty of (His) Majesty. "0 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 e blessed surah of al-Hamd, insha 'Allah (Allah willing).

These (disciplines) are such that the salik is to consider himself present in the Presence mahdar of Allah, anti 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 prefect 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 , are of little advantage . Actually, he is to go through their biography and 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 elf-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 forgetful Ne 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 (S.A) 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 elevant 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(A.S.), says: "Whenever Ali ibn al-Husayn (A.S.) used to stand for the .-salat, his face turned pale. going down for prostration, he would not raise his head unitl he was wet with perspiration."⁽²²³⁾ n the same authority he says: "My father used to say, when Ali ibn Husayn (A.S.) 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 al-Sadiq (A.S.): 'I noticed that when 'Au ibn 1-Husayn (A.S.) stood for the salat, his color changed.' He said to me: By Allah, 'Ali ibn al-Husayn knew before whom he was standing.'⁽²²⁵⁾ ,In a hadiths in Falahus-Sa'il , on the authority of as-Sayyid 'Ali ibn 'Tawus, it is said : "... then Abu 'Abdullah (A.S.) 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 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 Whom he bounds and comes, and from Whom he seeks help. he achieve all these, the salat would be of the ordered type and of the about, and it is the very salat which forbids evil and vice." ⁽²²⁶⁾ Muhammad" ibn Ya'qub, quoting our master, zaynul-'Abidin (A.S.), says Lt he said 'As regards the rights of the sa1at , you are to know that it is a visit Allah and that in it you are stating before Him. If you realized that, you deserve to be, through it, in the position of a slave who is humble, horrified, frightened, hopeful, distressed, imploring, and glorifying the One in front of Whom he stands with complete stillness, solemnity, submissions of the limbs, humility, well supplicating to Him for himself, 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 (S.A.) is quoted to have said: "Worship your Lord as if you see Him. it 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 hadithgoes. ⁽²²⁹⁾ In 'Uddatud-Da'i it is stated: "It is narrated that the imploring meanings of Ibrahim (A.S.) 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 front the chest of our Prophet (S.A.).Fatimah (A.S.) used to pant in the salat because of her fear of Allah."⁽²³¹⁾ 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 'Mi ibn al-Husayn, the supplications of that great man and his imploring 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 (A.S.). 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! 'Mi 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 sahll 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 lave 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.

My dear, now that the chance is available, and you are still in the prime if 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 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 preset, 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 tranquility and a torment which has no comfort with it: And to whomsoever Allah does not give light, he has no light.⁽²³⁵⁾ 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 (S.A) - 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 Sheykh. 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 share ship, and passes from the shape and form to the core and the truth, whithot lingering in this world except sassing their durance (thorn) in the way of mankind. Those who call for the mere external earache surat , preventing the people from the internal disciplines alleg. that religion has no meaning and no reality other than its appearance and face, are but the Satans on the road to Allah, and the thorns in the way of sanity. To be saved from their evil one has to take refuge with Allah, the tited, 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 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 corporal ties, and to its falsities, and divert them from spiritualities and intellectual happiness, confining the invisible world and the promised paradises exclusively food, drink, sex and other animal desires,

They think that Allah, the Exalted, has laid out His table-cloth of mercy. .t down, with so much ceremony, His Books, employed His noble angels and mined great prophets, just for the sake of satisfying hunger and sex. The Most y know is: Take care of your stomach and sex drive so that you may attain to desire in the other world. The importance which they attach to a sexual recourse lasting for five hundred years (in Paradise according to a narrative do not attach to tauhid and prophethood, and they take knowledge to he a :luminary to satiate their libido and gluttony. If a godly philosophy a me gnostic, wanted to open a door of mercy to the servants of Allah. of to d a paper of divine wisdom to them, they would spare no abuse, curse and Forget accusations without throwing them at him. They arc so indulged in into forged a mundane affairs, and so concerned about sex and stomach, unknowingly, that Gering in this world and the surface, for loitering in such affairs is the not desire any other happiness lust, despite the fact that the intellectual happiness should they care for 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. 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 interested in neither of the invisible and visible worlds. those paradises and are I 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 of the hearts of the servants of Allah major objective is to direct the attention 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 moan 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 qusur and obstinacy 'mad ,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.

CHAPTER ONE

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 eve act, such that if one wanted to do a voluntary act without it, it would 'lot be possible. Nevertheless, the whisperings of the wicked Satan and the Sporting 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-conceives 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 (0 g Idhe 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 hi perfervid essence dhat and secure his growth nash 'ah of life, he, on the negates all these matters, or, much worse, besides regarding them e 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(A.S.) (a e concerning) a man who was afflicted with frequently performing the wudu' and tile salat, and described him to be a man of reason. The Imam said: "What reason has e in obeying Satan?' I asked him: 'How is it that be is obeying Satan?' He said: 'If you ask him wherefrom his hesitation comes to him, be will tell you it is of the work of Satan."⁽²³⁶⁾ In short, mail 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 (S.A.) and-I the Imams of guidance (A.S.) were also like the ordinary people in theses matters. From among all the people only this group of fastidious persons ion act Contrary to the Messenger of Allah (S.A.), the infallible Imams (A.S.), the jurists of religion and the scholars of the 'ummah, regarding the acts of worship Ol all of them worthless, believing their own to be done according 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 (S. A.-) are many and successively transmitted. It seems that the messenger of Allah (S.A) 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 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 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 peroration who is not satisfied with twenty handfuls (of water), each one of Which j enough to fully wash the hand and to consider it a" Complete Wash". in ti case his wudu' is undoubtedly invalid. But this wretched, feeble-minded person who performs this act in obedience to Satan's orders and whispers, thin 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 hadiths 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 (S.A.), 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. same instructions are also recommended in the noble hadith to remedy excessive doubt, which is also of the Satanic inspirations. In the noble aI-Kafi, on the authority of Imam al-Baqir (A.S.).it is 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 to as it is not caused but by Satan." ⁽²³⁸⁾ In another narrative Imam al- Baqir (AS.), or Imam as-Sadiq (A.S.) , is 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 be will not come back to you."⁽²³⁹⁾ this is an important cure for all cases of Satan's intrusions and of the of jestings of devilish fancies .in same hadiths invocations are also recommend. in this respect, refer to Wasa'il Shiah, Mustadrakul Was'il at the end of book of al-khalal.

One of the important disciplines of the niyah, which is of the important 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 than Allah, and clearing the heart from discerning anything other the Exalted in all formal, intellectual, external and internal acts. It its perfection by absolutely neglecting the other (than Allah), and pounding upon I-ness , selfishness, the other and the otherness. Allah, says: "Surely Allah's is the pure religion."⁽²⁴⁰⁾ So, if the religion with any selfish and Satanic desires, it would not be pure; and that is not pure is not acceptable to Allah, and that which has a blemish of and selfishness is outside the limits of Allah's religion. Allah, the Exalted, says: "And they were not enjoined except that Should worship Allah, making the religion His sincerely' ⁽²⁴¹⁾ And He also says: " ,.. And whoever desires the tillage of this world, him thereof, but in the Hereafter he will have no portion."⁽²⁴²⁾ has been narrated that the Messenger of Allah (S.A.) 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 sa1ik 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, W 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) (A.S.), can commence his divine journey without a journey which himself, as that exclusively belongs to the perfect ones (A.S.). 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 stag 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 (S.A.) 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 Mulük 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 person some say that it was not written by the said great personality, which is quite possible.

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 paradisiacal 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 favorite angels. Its counterfeit is acting for this purpose. Although this stage is great and an important goal, and the wiremen 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 As regards this stage, I mean the sixth one , it is to purge the act from 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 'Au (A.S.) 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 'Au's saying: "How could I forbear separating from You?" ⁽²⁴⁹⁾is just a reference to a brim-full common State of him ''-' of one like him. Generally speaking, purging the act from these two stages is also a must the people of Allah, for to act with them will be endued with causes and not from selfish wants. It is, thus, perfect sincerity. Next, there are other stages Out of the limits of sincerity, and fall under the criterion of ism abstraction and guardianship all of which do not fit here.

Now as you have got acquainted with the stages of sincerity and states of acts of worship to some extent get ready to acquire them, since to have without putting it to practice is worthless, and knowledge is a evidence against the claimant and he is more exposed to argument. It is regretted that we are completely deprived of the divine knowledge, Spiritual states of the people of Allah and the lofty positions of the men of A group of us completely deny all the states and regard their people to us and their acts ban! (false) and worthless. They even take those who appraisingly mention them, or invite to their states, to be forgers and their to be a paradox. There is no hope in drawing the attention of such to their own faults and shortcomings, and in waking them up: "Surely you can't guide everyone whom you Love"⁽²⁵⁰⁾"…You cannot make in the graves hear"⁽²⁵¹⁾ yes, those who, like the helpless writer, know nothing at all, and whose 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 assign light, for him there is no light ⁽²⁵²⁾Much as you try to reciter 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: "0 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 0 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^(252/1)

So, what do "barriers of light" mc n? Does "looking at A lab" mea, looking at the palaces of Paradise9 Does "the Source of Greatness" means heavenly palaces? Does "the hanging of the souls to the Might of Sanctity' mean hanging to the skirts of the hour's for sensual desires? This "being stunned because of His Majesty', does it mean being spell-bound at this beau ties of the women of Paradise? Those ecstasies and fainting which used to, befall the Messenger of Allah (S.A.) during his ascending salat , and thuds lights of grandeur, and the things loftier than them, which he used to discerns in that meeting in which the Archangel, Gabriel (A.S.), was not admitted and2, he dared not to advance even for an inch farther, were those ecstasies for on of the very good women? Or did he discern lights like those of the sun and though moon or much brighter9 That sound heart which was referred to by the infallible ma'süm (A.S.) 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, j 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 lo 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 Satan's 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 (A.S.) is a good thing: Shaykh as-Saduq (may Allah have mercy upon him) in his book alkhisal, quoting Abu 'Abdullah (as-sadiq) (A.S.), 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

owledge 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 honor and intellect. These are at the seventh step of the Fir⁽²⁵⁶⁾ Al-Kulayni (may Allah have mercy upon him), in his comprehensive (book) al-Kafi , quoting Imam al-Baqir (A.S.) , 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 (A.S.) 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 (A.S.): '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 silks 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 multiplication 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. 0 dear! All sciences are practical. Even the science of Tauhid (monotheism) also consists of cordial and formal acts. Tauhl4, 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: "0 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 undoes 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. 0 you, the polytheist who claim to be a monotheist! 0 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).

This divine delicacy is frequently stated in the words of the pure Imams A.S.) , especially in As-Sahifatus-Sajjadiyah (a book of invocations and supplications by Imam 'All ibn-Husayn, as-Sajjad), a divine and luminous book, which has descended from the gnostic heaven of the knower of Allah, the luminous intellect, Sayyidus-SAjidin (the master of the prostrate worshippers), or the sake of the salvation of the servants of Allah from the prison of nature, Demonstrating the discipline of servitude and of being at the service of the .word. In the thirty-second invocation he says: " ... so praise be to You for (our beginning with great favours, and for Your inspiring gratitude for Your) benevolence."⁽²⁶³⁾ He also says, on another occasion:"... since all Your benevolence is favor and every one of Your blessings is a new beginning."⁽²⁶⁴⁾ In Misbahush-shari'ah it is said: The least limit of sincerity is the servant's doing all his best, then he should not attach to his act (of worship) fly value with Allah, by which he would impose on his Lord (to give him) a ward for his act.⁽²⁶⁵⁾ Another stage of sincerity is to purge the act from demanding much and being pleased with it and depending on it. This is also one of the important tasks of the salik, lest he should be retained back from joining the caravan of re travellers to Allah, confining himself to the dark dungeon of nature. This is situation stemming from the vile Satanic tree, and from the selfishness inherited from the legacy of Satan who has said: "You created me of fire and eated him of clay."⁽²⁶⁶⁾ This is but man's ignorance of his own state maqam and of the state maqam of Allah, the Glorified. If this wretched "possible (existent)" could only recognize his own state deficiency, incapability, weakness and helplessness, and realize Allah's state f greatfl5' grandeur and perfection, he would never boast of his act and of perfection an act. Wretched! His act (of worship), which would be worth only a few pence for a whole year, should it prove to be complete and correct, he ask for only two of its rak'ats, unlimited expectations. It is this expectation and much-demanding that originate many immoralities and other acts of mischief, which cannot be mentioned here for fear of becoming lengthy. The noble hadiths frequently refer to this subject, as is in noble al-Kafi, quoting Imam Musa ibn Ja'far (A.S.) to have said to some of his sons : "My you are to be diligent, never to clear yourself from falling short of fully worshipping and obeying Allah, the Most High, for He can never be worshipped as He deserves."⁽²⁶⁷⁾ In another hadiths, he (AS.) said: "Any act you do for Allah, take yourself as to be falling short of it, since all the people, in their acts, between themselves and Allah, are derelict muqassir, except the one whom Allah, the Exalted, protects against that."⁽²⁶⁸⁾ He (AS.) is also quoted to have said: "Do not consider plenty the plenty good deeds."⁽²⁶⁹⁾

The complete Sahifah, describing the angels, says:" Those who, looking at Hell breathe out to the people of disobedience, say" 'Glory to you, 0 Allah, we have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped."⁽²⁷⁰⁾ O You helpless! When the Messenger of Allah (S.A.), who was the most knowledgeable among Allah's creatures, and whose act (of worship) was the most luminous and the greatest of all others', admitted his shortcoming and inability, and who says: "We have not known You as You ought to be, and we have not worshipped You as You deserve it,"⁽²⁷¹⁾ and when the infallible Imams (AS.), in the Presence of His Sanctity, display their shortcomings and what can a tiny gnat do? ⁽²⁷²⁾ Yes, their status and knowledge urged admit the incapability of "the possible existent" and the Greatness and of the "Necessary Existent", Allah, the Exalted, whereas we, the helpless. of ignorance and diverse veils, arrogantly show off our ostentation and Our acts. Glory be to Allah! How right Amirul Mu'minin 'Au (A.S.) was when he said: "Man's self-admiration is one of the enviers of his intellect."⁽²⁷³⁾ Is it not irrational that Satan should make obscure for Us a necessary matter, and we should not try to intellectually reason it? We )ourselves, know, of necessity, that our acts (of worship) and the acts of mankind as a whole, as well as the acts of the angels of Allah, and the Spiritual )people, cannot be compared with the acts of the Messenger of Allah (S.A) and the Imam of guidance (AS.), as ours can have no value whatsoever, and cannot be of any regard at all. Yet, those great ones confess their shortcomings and do not conceal their incapability of performing the worship due to Allah, he Exalted, according to so many successive hadiths. These two necessary cases give us to conclude that we should not be pleased with any of our acts. Or even f we spend as long as the life of the world in worshipping and in acts of obedience, we should still be ashamed, abashed and disgraced. Nevertheless, Satan has so deeply established himself in our hearts, and so strongly has his control over our minds and senses, that the states ahwal of our hearts have een changed to the contrary, let alone our failure in deriving the necessary conclusions from those preliminaries.

The great man ('All ibn Abi Talib), whose strike on the Day of the Trench ⁽²⁷⁴⁾ was more merited than the worship of all jinn and ins mankind! according to the confirmation of the Messenger of Allah (S.A.) - and 'Mi ibn .1-Husayn, with all his worships and austerities, though known to be the greatest worshipper of all Allah's creatures, shows his inability to attain to his state of worshipping^(274/1) declares his shortcoming in this respect more than ie do. The Messenger of Allah (S.A.) - at whose threshold 'Ali al-Murtada and all, other than Allah, are servants and live on the crumbling of his blessed table of knowledge and are the students of his teachings - after receiving the cloak of honour of the Final Prophethood, the complete circulation of perfection and the last brick of knowledge and tauhid, continued, for ten years. ) stand on his feet in Hira cave, performing his worshipping in obedience to Allah, until his feet swelled such that Allah revealed: "Ta Ha, We have not sent down the Qur'an upon you that you should be distressed."⁽²⁷⁵⁾ i.e.: and 'guide'! We did not reveal the Qur'an to you to cause you difficulty. are pure and you guide the people, and if they disobey you, it is because of their own shortcoming and misfortune, not because of any shortcoming in your or guidance". Nevertheless, he still announces his inability and falling short. .Sayyid Ibn Tawus ( may his soul be sanctified ) quotes from 'All ibn (AS.) a hadiths which we shall relate to honour our thesis and, although it is a bit lengthy, since it is an explanation of the position of that ',yet the smelling sense of the souls will be scented by it and the palate the hearts will take a delight in it. He (may his soul be sanctified), quoting az-Zahri, in Fathul Abwab, says: I together with 'Mi ibn al-Husayn (AS.), called upon 'Abdul Malik ibn Abdul Malik, regarding it as magnificent to see the mark of i between the two eyes of 'Au ibn al-Husayn (A.S.), said: '0 Abu perseverance is obvious on your face, and Allah has already been you, as you are a part of the Messenger of Allah (S.A.), a close with a firm relation to him, and you have a great favour upon your family and your contemporaries. You have been given such merits, knowledge, godliness and piety that have been given to no one like you or before YOU, except your past ancestors.'

He continued praising and extolling him. 'Ali ibn (A.S.) said: 'All that which you have described is of Allah's favour, support and grace. But how is (my) thanking Him on what He has favoured me), 0 Amirul Mu'minin" The Messenger of Allah (S.A.) used to stand in his on his feet till they got swollen, and he remained thirsty during his fasting such that his mouth would dry up. He was asked: 'o Messenger of Allah! Did not Allah forgive what has passed and what is to come of Sins?' He replied: 'Am I not to be a thankful servant?' Praise be to Allah for what He has favoured us with and for His testing us, and praise be to Him in the Hereafter in this world. By Allah, even if my limbs were cut to pieces and my eyeballs down my chest just to pay tribute to Allah, the Most Glorified, for just a of one tenth of a single one of all His favours, which no reckoned can Reckon , nor the praise of the praises can pay the tribute due to a single One Of them, I could not pay the due tribute to Him. Never, by Allah, unless He grants that nothing should keep me from praising and remembering Him all days I nights, secretly and publicly. Had I not been under obligations to my family I to other people, in particular and in general, who have rights against inc I which I cannot but fulfill to them as it is possible and as is in my capacity 'would have turned my eye to the heaven, and my heart to Allah, and then

I would have never taken them back till He would take my breath - He IS the t of judges.' Then he (A.S.) wept, and so did 'Abdul Malik ... "as the hadiths goes.⁽²⁷⁶⁾ We forgo mentioning other stages of sincerity which do not suit the ;position of these papers, lest it should be lengthy and boring.