And when My servants ask you
concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant
when he calls on Me, so they should answer My call and believe in Me that they
may walk in the right way. (2:168)
Too many are the
Qur�anic verses and traditions that emphasize on the necessity of referring to
Almighty God, the Creator, on all occasions and under all circumstances so that
the relation between the All-merciful God and His servants will be firmer. One
of such relations, if not the most important, is the supplication, which is
familiarly known as Du�a. In the Holy Qur�an, Almighty God has
guaranteed responding to the pure, well-intended prayers of His servants and,
moreover, has encouraged on making Du�a a daily activity that connects
the needy servant to the Perfect Lord to Whom everything is returned. Hence, a
believer must never dispense with Du�a and must always direct all his
feelings towards the Creator asking for help and guidance.
In point of fact, Du�a,
like any other item of connection with the All-beneficent God, is conditional
upon a set of matters and spiritual and material preparations so that it will
achieve its aims and purposes as completely as expected.
In this book, Du�a
is presented with thorough details so that its conditions, circumstances
and effects will be exposed for the gentle readers hoping they will act upon
such affairs so as to achieve the best connection with God.
The book is in fact
a translation of the preface of the famous Persian-origin book entitled �Shuhoud
wa Shenakht� (Witnesses and Knowledge), which is of several volumes
explaining in details the innumerable points contained by the famous al-Sahifah
al-Sajjadiyyah of Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin. This famous epistle
is called �the Psalms of Islam� for it comprises the most subtle points of the
worldly and hereafter lives that each mortal will pass by.
The Ansariyan
Publications is pleased to present this book to the dear readers for it
believes in the necessity of shedding more light on the reality and
significance of Du�a.
INTRODUCTION
The school of supplication (du�a) is a huge divine
door open to the believers. It has absorbed divine attention towards this world
and has awakened the ignorant and busy man from getting involved in the wrong
entertainments, pastimes and diversion. It has, as well, informed him of his
genuine needs.
The most significant Islamic scientific resources are
reserved in this sublime treasure and have been handed down to us. Thus
centuries should pass before a genius is found to open up this valuable reserve
and to reveal the mysteries hidden there.
Of course, during the long history of man, this untold
secret has always been hidden in the hearts of the men of piety and knowledge
and the present wits have not been well-equipped to solve them. Thus, that
precious jewel has always remained intact in the hearts of men of God.
We hope we shall never be deprived of this great asset in
the years to come. We also hope that the elite and scholars could take
advantage of this immense divine knowledge in their lectures and discussions.
We hope as well that this group of thinkers could reveal to people the
brightness of this divine revelation in such a way so as to release this nation
from the false holders of this sea of knowledge, those who unlawfully connect
themselves with divine knowledge.
At the end, during the present century, a salvaged man who
has more than the others been involved in the publication of these divine facts
and in the education of this government, is Seyyid Mohammad Husayn Tabataba�iy,
the head of all masters in the field of research, a well-educated son in the
school of Ahlul Bayt[1] (s)
and the translator of the Holy Qur�an. The present article is a humble
acknowledgement of this endless ocean of knowledge. I hope that His mercy will
include this humble servant of His.
The scholars are well aware of the fact that there are
different and numerous ways to describe and explain an ambiguous issue. Each
way is used in certain conditions to cause man to reach his aims. These ways
are briefly the following:
ŸVerbatim definition: This is when
we use a clearer concept in order to solve an ambiguity;
ŸReal definition: When the essence
of an object is in question, we describe the category to which it belongs.
Ÿ�Sharhol Esmi� definition: This is
when we are asked about the appearance and effects of some thing, and we provide
a person with some features of that object.
ŸDefinition based on the existence
of an item: This time a question is asked concerning the forms of the object.
In this case, we must endeavor to delve into the forms and quality of the
object.
ŸDefinition based on samplers: This
time, in order to define an item we can provide the questions with samplers or
examples of the event or object.
Since old times, the provision of defining supplication has
always been available. Here we offer several definitions for supplication.
Ibn Faris in his Mo�jam Maqaiis al-Logha, under the
title of supplication, says: �supplication means attracting one�s attention by
using words�.[2]
Raghib has written in the section Mofradat: �Supplication is the same as vocative
speech except that in vocative speech we use vocative articles (Ya or Aya(�.
If we take the absolute supplication as a genus and if we
consider the kinds of supplication such as �genesis� supplication, �tongue�
supplication, �heart� supplication, creature�s supplication, the Creator�s
supplication, people�s supplication as Fasl or a chapter, we may adjoin
the absolute supplication with one of the above features and call it
supplication.
Among the most prevalent definitions in sciences is to
mention the characteristics and features of an item. This is because the
realization of the essence and the truth behind things are not accessible even
by all the scientists since they unanimously have believed that the recognition
of the truth of existence is relative. All what science has revealed is but a
very small portion of the secrets of the creation. These secrets still remain
behind a curtain of ambiguity.
The introduction of supplication through its effects has
frequently been observed. We read in some traditions that �supplication is a
believer�s weapon, is the foundation of religion, the heavenly light on the
earth, it changes one�s fate, it will cause the disasters to be away and
finally supplication is a relation between God and His servants�[3]
and the like in all of which the answer is based on the effects of
supplication.
As we have seen earlier, the best kind of definition is the
one, which distinguishes the essence of something. Through this definition we
may separate our question from ambiguity and find its borders. A good example
is mentioned in the Holy Qur�an where God discloses the nature of man:
�And certainly we created man of an extract of clay. Then we
made him a small seed in a firm resting-place. Then we made the seed a clot,
Then we made the clot a lump of flesh, then we made in the lump of flesh bones,
then we clothed the bones with flesh; Then we caused it to grow into another
creation 23:12-14�
This holy verse shows the
evolution of man clearly. Inexplaining
supplication, this last definition is prevalent in the words of the great
people. An example has been mentioned in Al-Mizan:
�Supplication
originates from the heart and is uttered by the tongue one�s nature. It is not
the movement of the tongue, however�.[4]
This simply means that man recognizes this truth deep inside
himself and clearly knows its values. One of the significant features of this
definition is that it will include genesis supplication as well. None of the
above definitions is inclusive as this one is. Allamah Tabatabai says:
�Thus, you will observe that Allah responds to supplications
that are not uttered by our tongues. Allah says in the Holy Qur�an:
��And He gives you of all that you ask
Him; and if you count Allah�s favors, you will not be able to number them. 14:34 �
���������� ���� ��� �������������
������.
�All those who are in
the heavens and the earth ask of him. 55:29�
This shows clearly that Allah�s favors are not countable.
People ask God of what is in the Heavens and on the earth. What has been stated
by this verse makes our definition clear.
Perhaps the best thing we may get out of the above
definitions of supplication is the following: The best and most inclusive
definition for supplication is �asking� in its broad and common sense. It will,
then, include all the above definitions, even the genesis definition. The
specific features of supplication under different situations depend on special
motives which a user has in mind. Thus, we may say that the word �supplication�
refers to asking a superior one by an inferior one, or to asking by an inferior
from a superior or to asking of one from an equal one. This will include the
genesis and innate asking as well. Thus, the use of the word �supplication� or
(du�a) in the holy verse, �And Allah invites you to the abode of peace,�
means asking for something.[5]
We could say that defining supplication in this manner does
not solve any problem unless if the intention behind its use is clear.
The summary of this discussion is that if we can find
different conditions in which supplication takes place and if we arrive at
different definitions and if we can analyze the cases of supplication, then the
ambiguity of the word disappears and we can subsequently arrive at our
destination. At the same time, what we have in mind when discussing
supplication is the people�s asking from their Creator and establishing
relation with Him through supplication. This can be done either through the
tongue of our hearts or through our ordinary tongues.
�Say: My Lord would not care for you were it not for your
prayer. 25:77�
This means that supplication is the only way of the relation
between the servants and their Lord (Allah) and it is the only way commanded by
Allah for people to have relation with Him. In other words, all of the
supplications narrated form the infallible imams establish relations between
the Creator and the creatures. Allah would cut His special favors if there were
not these relations established. In such cases, Allah�s subjects would lose the
ability to deserve Allah�s favors.
The Holy Qur�an calls this state �pride� (Istikbar)
by a creature that originally has no prestige except for the prestige of being
Allah�s humble servant.
�And your Lord says: call upon me, I will answer you; surely
those who are too proud for my service shall soon enter hell abased. 40: 60�
Doing such a crime by an individual is obnoxious and its
insolence is inexplicable so much so that Allah has explicitly announcing that
such individuals will be deprived of His favors. As a conclusion out of these
verses it can be understood that why the Holy Qur�an through different means has
invited man to use supplications; for instance, the previous verse and the
following verses:
�And as for those who
keep off from the worship of the idols and turn to Allah, they shall have good
news. 39: 17�
A cursory look at these verses reveals two points; one is
the exposure to severe punishments in cases where supplication is left aside
and the other is getting Allah�s special care and favors if supplication is
used sincerely.
Concerning this issue, there are numerous traditions in Al-Mahajjat
al-Baydhaa, Bihar al-Anwar, and al-Kafi
which have dealt with the matter to such an extent that no sufferer or
miserable person could bring excuses when not practicing supplication. In Al-Mahajjat
al-Baydhaa, it is narrated from Imam as-Sadiq (s):
If we put aside the reasons offered by the infallible imams
about the necessity of supplication for a moment and concentrate on the
rational reasons for the necessity of supplication, we will definitely conclude
that we can not do anything else except turning towards Allah. Allamah
Tabatabaiy when talking about the verse, �All praise is due to Allah the Lord
of the worlds,� says:
�Thus, man possesses only the prestige of worship. This truth
does not depend on our awareness of it. Whether we realize it or not, this is
an innate and compulsory relation. This is a truth related to man�s existence
and to other creatures� existence as well.�
For further elaboration, let us refer to the words, which
Allamah Tabatabai has added when talking about this verse:
�And whoever that is in the heavens and the earth makes
obeisance to Allah only. 13:15 and 16:49,�
�Thus, if in front of
Allah, the Almighty, man and the other creatures have no prestige except that
of obedience, then what is left for us to carry out is to have direct relation
with Allah and we have to ask Him for our needs. In fact, if human wisdom could
comprehend this truth thoroughly, man would never establish any connection
except with Allah. Of course being effective and affected is inevitable among
the creatures, but all these effects are done by Allah�s will.�
�One of the poets says:
The Almighty God in creating the Heavens,
Did so to satisfy our needs;
Where there is a pain, the medicine would go there,
Where there is poverty, sustenance would be available;
Do not go far for more water, lest you get thirsty,
So that your water boils everywhere.
This rational reasoning is enough to convince us to be
compelled to pay full attention to the source of the creation. For instance,
this verse �Say: My Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer,�refers to this
rational necessity. The establishment of the school of supplication in Islam
and the emphasis of the verses and traditions on worshipping Allah, all reveal
a secret in this school and it shows how supplication is necessary for our
daily lives. This is among the most fundamental and basic issues in the realm
of the secrets between the Creator and the creatures, which if enacted, would
bring about actions and movements.
The human nature, which is always after the gaining of
benefits and interests, will demand more if its needs are constantly met.
Satisfying all these necessities will call for extraordinary endeavor, however.
In order to satisfy his needs, man resorts to any thing. But no matter how hard
we attempt, there always remain some needs unsatisfied. In this case, man will
select one of the two ways; either he despairs and resorts to depression or he
attempts frantically. In other words, in order to satisfy his needs, man leaves
the human boundary and tries so hard that he may neglect what is good and what
is bad. This is because he is controlled by some whims and desires which have
made him blind.
This is where we observe the secrets behind the strict
recommendations of Islam. We will see that this religion bridges the
spiritual-mental gaps in man, and has provided him with some apparatus through
which he may not lose himself in the hazardous waves of unsatiable needs and
necessities and to be strong against inevitable hardships.
It is a fact that man can, through supplication, add up
energy to his feebled muscles and join the Initiator of all the creation. He,
in this way, can stand against any problem and consider his capabilities above
all needs. This is because he has asked for the assistance of Allah and has
determined to progress because his success is guaranteed. We should add that
human wisdom will not allow man to stand lonely and helpless in the face of
innumerable difficult moments of life and to get along life without using
supplication. This is because supplication is the nearest means, the safest
way, a helper with no hypocrisy, a support void of any hatred and a revelation
in harmony with the divine nature of man.
The history of supplication is as old as the history of
mankind. This is because man is always in need of different sorts of
supplications and has constantly felt deep from inside that he needs a strong
support. Never in the history of mankind has man been negligent of the concept
of the Initiator of the creation. The researches shows that even in the oldest
phases of human history temples have been among the undeniable facts of life.
Even at the time when man was not able to conceive the concept of an
everlasting Initiator of the creation and erroneously resorted to gods for
help, he used to combine his adventurous life with hope.
The secret of the foundation of the existence is the mere
relation with the Creator. It is as if the secret of the existence of our
tongues is in its continuous asking God, the Almighty, for the continuation of
His favors. This means that the characteristics and features of each creature
are its connection with the Absolute Rich, whose very existence is constantly
dependent on His favors and blessings. Thus all the existence is a tongue which
always asks Almighty God for its continuity. This is because if at any fraction
of a second He decides to cut off His favors, everything becomes null and void.
Thus, God has said:
�If He pleases, He will take you off and bring a new creation.
14:19�
All this indicates our absolute poverty before God�s
absolute richness. The researchers call this kind of innate begging for
assistance as �Du�a Takwini� or genesis supplication. Of course, as
asking for existence is creational, it is also applicable to other creatures.
For instance, a child born to a mother asks God with its lips, mouth, larynx
and digestive system for suitable food and nourishments. Man, too, in
accordance with his creation, asks Allah for food, clothing, medicine and other
needs. In answer to this creational supplication, God says: �And He gives you
of all that you ask Him�. Thus, the existence depends in all its aspects on
supplication. The existence is among the necessary assets from which all the
creatures benefit.
Of course, in philosophy, sometimes this relationship is
interpreted as dominated by effects or non-causative when our discussion deals
with the creation and existence. And it is interpreted as causative where the
existence is already before the Creator. Sometimes it is interpreted as �in a
state of being created� and �in a state of being feasible� that the person, who
practices supplication is controlled by Almighty God. Thus, each one of the
above expressions is used in a specific sphere of philosophy and should be
observed taking everything into consideration.
However, man has unfortunately been negligent of this very
close relationship and since he erroneously thinks that God arranges the things
and events and that man does not have any freedom of action whatsoever, he has
not grasped the true meaning of supplication. A poet says:
The expedience is here and the miserable, me, over there,
See how far away we both are.
Yes, according to the above poem, where are we and where are
those great men who are familiar with the true language of existence and have
disclosed the mystery of the creation and have started to worship the Creator
of all these beauties and have understood every aspect of this secret?
Of course, it should be known that one of the virtues of man
is his realization of the absolute domination of Almighty God over the whole
creation �Judgment is only Allah�s�. He realizes that there is no power except
in Allah and that any movement is made possible only through His determination.
This refers to uttering an supplication in which the tongue
is not in harmony with the heart. We know that the mere mentioning of the order
of events does not bring about the desired sensation. For instance, if we
perceive fire in our mind, our perception does not have the properties of the
fire, i.e. heat and light.
Thus, if we use supplication only verbally, it does not
convey the proper conception of the supplication. In philosophy, it is known
that a true representative of a class of phenomena is the one in which form and
meaning coincide with each other. Thus if you move your tongue and lips
verbally but you are not thinking on what you are uttering, then what you utter
is not supplication. Such a person is involved in using supplication only
verbally. He has not employed supplication in the right sense of the word. In
such a case a person should expect for anything to happen. In Mathnawi,
we read:
This occurs when your tongue is in harmony with your heart
when uttering an supplication.
(The tongue is the interpreter of the heart). In such a case, this is a genuine
sample of supplication and is very likely to being responded to. Of course,
this sort of supplication may not be answered superficially; but we should
realize that this kind of supplication is a sort of worship, which will
definitely be rewarded. But a delay in responding to it by Allah might be due
to the secret behind that issue. Imam Ali (s) writes in his will to his son
Imam Hassan (s):
�Sometimes you ask Allah, the Almighty, for something, but you
are not given what you have asked for or you may be given something better than
what you have asked for sooner or later or may never be given just for your
advantage. There may be something you ask for but it will destroy your faith if
you are given it.�[8]
Sometimes in supplication, the form (language) and the
meaning (content), �the tongue and the heart� coincide, but the problem is that
the supplicant�s knowledge is limited. This means if a supplicant knew the
secrets behind his demand, he not only would reject it but he would try to keep
away from it. It is narrated that once
Imam Ali (s) heard a man saying, �O God, protect me against seditions,�
Imam Ali (s) said:
�By using this supplication you are asking God to let you keep
away from your wife, children and your wealth because Allah, the Almighty has
said: your wealth and your children are seditions. You are to say: O God, I
seek Your protection the misleading seditions.�
�There may be something that one tries his best to get but when
he gets it, he wished he had not got it.�
It is a fact that most of us in our prayers and
supplications ask God for something which really we do not want. But the
beneficent God compensates for our wishes that He does not achieve. However,
sometimes we become worried when our supplications are not responded to and we
do not understand that it is Allah, the only One, Who knows where our
advantages are. Hafiz, the Iranian famous poet, says:
Hafiz, obtain a cup from the
spring of wisdom,
Till the image of ignorance is
deleted from the plate of your heart.
�O my Lord! If it is delayed, I complain because of my
ignorance and perhaps the delay is better for me for You know the ends of the
matters� I have not found a generous guardian more patient than You towards a
mean servant like me, O my Lord!�
�Know the ways of your deliverance and perdition lest you ask
Allah for something that makes you perish whereas you think it will deliver
you. Allah has said: �And man prays for evil as he ought to pray for good, and
man is ever hasty. 17:11�
It is also narrated that the Prophet (s) has asked Allah not
to respond to the cursing of a lover upon the beloved one because the lover�s
curse on the beloved is not the lover�s true intention and Allah�s favor is in
such a way that such curses are not responded to.
Sometimes, an utterer of supplication, due to his ignorance
to the wordings of the supplication or his lack of attention, might offer the
form of supplication in wrong ways while his spiritual intention was something
else. In traditions and religious books, this kind of supplication is called
Malhun. In the book entitled Uddat al-Da�ee, there is a tradition
narrated from Imam al-Jawad (s) saying that the right pronunciation of the
words in an supplication is not the condition for the response to that supplication.
It is only important for more elegance. Thus, Imam al-Jawad�s statement ��and he is not to mistake in his
supplication� is not to be taken as praise to this kind of supplication because
when an supplication is uttered appropriately, it will explain the intention
better.
The rest of Imam al-Jawad�s statement: �The solecistic
supplication does not ascend to the Heaven� also indicates that an supplication
uttered wrongly will not ascend to the Heaven because responding to one�s
supplication by God is God�s immense favor upon His servants. The opposite of
this generosity will never occur however. The statement of the Prophet (s) too
�A non-Arab of my nation recites the Qur�an mistakenly but the angels raise it
to the Heaven as recited in correct Arabic,� attests to this topic that the
issue in supplication is the spiritual connection.
In this concern, it is narrated that somebody has come to
Imam Ali (s) and told him: �Today Bilal was arguing with an Arab and he
committed an error in his speech and the man laughed at him�. Imam Ali (s)
replied:
�O Servant of God! Nothing will benefit anyone whose doings are
wrong whereas his supplication is correct�nothing will harm Bilal if he
mistakes in uttering his supplication whereas his doings are of the best
doings.�
We read in a tradition narrated from Imam al-Jawad (s):
�If two men are equal
due to their ancestry and faith, the politer of them will be better near Allah.�
The narrator asked him, �What is his virtue near Allah?� Imam al-Jawad (s)
said, �His reciting the Qur�an as it has been revealed invoking Allah with no
mistake because a solecistic supplication does not ascend to the Heaven.�[9]
In this kind of supplication, words are not used; rather,
only the heart turns towards God. This innate and genuine relation always
occurs between Allah and His servants. This is the truth behind supplication
and it is assumed to be the best spiritual state in man�s life.
This is something desired internally by somebody, but not
uttered to Allah yet. Allah, the Almighty, will respond to this kind of
supplication as well. However, this positive response might be due to something
good having been done before or perhaps it might be related to another
supplication uttered previously but not being carried out due to the fact that
it was inadvisable. This same content is observed in numerous supplications and
traditions. Imam Ali (s) in �Komeyl supplication� says to God:
�O my Lord, how many bad doings I have done but You have
covered them, how many serious disasters You have saved me from, how many
troubles You have removed from my way, how many misfortunes You have got me rid
of and how much fine praise that I do not deserve You have spread!�
�O my Lord, how many distresses You have relieved me of, how
many griefs You have dispelled, how many troubles You have removed, how many
mercies You have spread, how many ordeals You have kept (me) safe from.�
�Anybody who goes on
fasting on Mondays and Thursdays in the month of Sha�ban, Allah will satisfy
twenty of his worldly needs and twenty of his needs in the Hereafter.�
These evidences show that most of man�s real needs which are
not raised yet or have not yet entered into man�s mind will be satisfied
someday.
This is an supplication desired by our evolutionary nature.
Basically nature is managed by the Creator in such a way that all the needs of
the creatures, plants, animals and the like are met. One example is the
infant�s food which is made ready in the mother�s breasts even before its
birth. This food is needed by the child. In the holy Qur�an, we read:
���������� ���� ��� �������������
������.
�All those who are in the heavens and the earth ask of him.
55:29�
�And He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you count
Allah�s favors, you will not be able to number them. 14:34�
It is clear that man is unable to ask for infinite assets
which he needs. Therefore, all the assets which exist in the world other than
ours, and which are innumerable are the evolutional blessings of Allah.
It is worth mentioning that most of Allah�s assets are not
conceivable by man; so man would not wish for them. Thus, if many of our needs
(such as all kinds of fruits, vegetables, colors, beauties, and the like) did
not exist in nature, nobody could even think of them or wish for them. For
instance, if winter and summer fruits did not exist, who would think of them or
ask for them? Thus, most divine assets are created in response to man�s natural
and evolutionary needs without our asking for them. It is only He, who knows
what kind of needs a particular creature requires.
If we and our needs did not
exist,
Your favor would listen to our
desires.
Of course, it should be known that this kind of supplication
is always responded. This is because it is created by God and anything which He
deems as inevitable is done.
Considering the previous issues, it is clear that
supplication is a truth which is beyond the spiritless words and it possesses a
particular spirit which is the exact relation between the utterer of
supplication and the one for whom supplication is uttered. In other words, when
practicing supplication, after using words, if words are to be used, our
determination should be serious. It is the result of attraction and being
attracted and it is one of the human traits. In supplication, man should say
what he cares for.
Thus, if we analyze the truth behind supplication, we will
find that it is the fact of being slave in front of Allah, the Almighty. We can
generally say that any sort of worship done by man is a kind of supplication,
and asking for Allah�s favors. In this concern, Allamah Tabataba�iy, in Al-Mizan,
refers to the mistake which the writer of al-Manar has committed. This
writer has erroneously assumed that not every worship is an supplication (for
instance fasting, although a kind of worship, is not considered as
supplication). Allamah Tabataba�i says:
�Supplication is analytically asking for divine assistance and
favors. Therefore, fasting, which is, by nature, a kind of asking for
perfection, growth and for Allah�s favors, is considered as an important way to
beg God�s benevolence.�[10]
As a conclusion, the previous discussions show that if your
tongue gets involved in supplication but your heart does not, it means that a
real supplication has not occurred. This may also show that there is a
separation between the tongue in our mouths and the tongue of our hearts. That
is to say, the tongue of our mouths asks for something which is denied by the
tongue of our hearts. For instance, a father might engage in supplication,
praying for his son to be guided in the right path. However, this father
performs some actions that may lead to his son�s destruction; for example,
inappropriate associations or causing unsuitable conditions to the family.
It is evident that this father�s real intention is not his
son�s prosperity because unless the heart�s attention precedes that of our
tongues, literal supplication is of no use. This is like a sick man who wishes
for his healing, but he does not take the necessary medicines. In such cases,
no doubt, supplication is not influential. In this connection, Imam Ali (s)
tells Imam Hassan (s):
����������� ���� ������ ����������.
�The gift of Allah will be as much as one�s intention.�
Imam Ali (s) says:
�� �������� ����� ������ ������ �����.
�Allah will not respond to the supplication of a heedless
heart.�[11]
In Tafseer Al-Mizan, concerning this tradition, we read:
��The secret behind not responding to this
supplication lies in the fact that it was not genuine and sincere.�
�And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am
very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they
should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way.
2:186�
This verse has referred to a number of delicate issues
concerning supplication. The author of Al-Mizan believes that this verse
has used the techniques of supplication in the simplest and most elegant style.
The first point is that the verse does not refer to a third person; rather it
uses a first person singular, which clearly depicts the concern of Allah
towards supplication. The second point is that the believers are not indicated
by �people;� but �my servants.� This shows the close relation between Allah and
His servants. The third point is that Allah does not use any intermediary;
rather He uses �I� and refers to Himself as the responder to the supplication.
The fourth point is that the emphasis marker inna (��� ) is used. The fifth point is that Allah,
the Almighty, uses the word �Qurb� meaning closeness; and this shows
eternity and stability. The sixth point is that the word �ujeebu�I
respond to� is used in the future tense which indicates stability, duration,
and repetition of responding to the supplication. The seventh point to be
discussed here is that a supplicant should be honest and sincere in his
supplication; therefore the condition for the response the supplication relies
on the supplicant.
After mentioning these seven points, the author of Al-Mizan
says that this holy verse has been arranged concisely and in a delicate manner.
The first person singular pronoun �I� is used seven times which is a unique
phenomenon in the Qur�an.
One of the important issues included in the holy verse
regarding supplication and Almighty God�s promise to respond (2:186) is that it
has mentioned some constituents for supplication:
The first constituent is the the attraction between the
supplicant and Allah.
The second constituent is the supplicant who should have
certain conditions for his supplication to be responded to. The supplicant
should be sincere in his intention. This is because, as it has been mentioned
earlier, the mouth�s tongue should express the heart�s tongue. Therefore a
wandering heart (Lahi) and an ignorant heart (Sahi) can not be a
supplicant (da�ee).
The third constituent is Allah (or Mad�uo�the invoked
one). This means that the supplicant should recognize his God and should know
that Allah is unique.
Now we will deal, in more details, with each one of these
constituents so that we can use supplication with more insight and benefit from
this treasure, which is of great significance to God�s servants.
�Supplication causes
a divine decree to be annulled after it has been confirmed. Practice
supplication too much for it is the key to every mercy and the means for every
need to be satisfied. Nothing of the blessings of Allah will be gained save by
supplication. Every door that is knocked repeatedly will be opened.�[15]
We read in Imam Ali�s will to Imam Hassan (s) mentioned in Nahj
al-Balaghah:
�Then Allah put into your hands the keys of His treasures when
He allowed you to ask Him for what you like. So whenever you like, you can open
with supplication the doors of His blessings and ladle from His mercy.�[16]
�Praise be to Allah, Whom I call whenever I like and become
alone with Him without an intercessor so that He achieves my need.�[17]
Thus, supplication is a huge abundance and blessing which
Allah, the Beneficent, has given to His servants. It is a treasure exposed to
them. Thus anybody, who is lucky enough to gain it, will have an immense asset.
Despite the fact that it may be answered or not, supplication is a great virtue
by itself.[18]
�O My God, if you do not bestow upon me Your mercy by making me
succeed in turning towards You, then who is going to guide me to You in the
clear way?�
�O my God, invite me with Your mercy to join You and attract me
with Your favor so that I approach to You!�
It happens that a man, in difficult times of depression,
does everything and resorts to any means but he forgets supplication, despite
the fact that the only way of salvage is supplication. After suffering a lot of
hardships and realizing that nobody could help him, one resorts to
supplication. Of course, this is reckoned as a success, but the real success is
obtained when we resort to supplication at the initial stages of coming across
with impassable hurdles so that God may open up His doors of blessings and
abundance before we get despair. Shaykh al-Koleyni, concerning this issue,
reports from Imam as-Sadiq (s):
�Do you recognize a long or a short duration of a calamity? We
said: No. He said: If at the time of disaster it is inspired to one of you to
engage in supplication, he should realize that the disaster will last short.�[19]
�When a calamity befalls a faithful servant and Allah inspires
him to engage in supplication, that calamity will soon disappear. But if one,
when afflicted with a calamity, refrains from supplication, the calamity will
last long. Thus, when there is a disaster, keep on invoking Allah.�[20]
If we ponder on the issue of supplication carefully, we will
understand that supplication is a kind of acceptance. Thus, �For each
supplication there are, in fact, two kinds of acceptance: one is giving the
chance to a supplicant to engage in the supplication in the first step, the
other one is the acceptance of the supplication by God after it is uttered. It
can be said that man will not be given this chance unless the conditions are
favorable. This is because the mere fact that he has the chance to involve in
supplication is a great blessing. Lack of engagement in supplication is due to
one�s previous negligence.
Regarding this issue, there are numerous evidences from the
infallible imams (s). Some of them have emphasized this topic. The Prophet (s)
has said:
�O Allah, do not try
me by letting me resort to other than You when being compelled, nor submit to
other than You when being poor and not invoke other than You when being
frightened lest I will deserve, by that, Your humiliation and Your turning away
from me.�[22]
This statement shows that Imam as-Sajjad (s) has asked
Allah, through his supplication, to give him (us) the chance to get involved in
supplication. He has said:
�We are Yours, from You, with You and we have no means to You
save by You.�[25]
A poet says:
�Both supplication and response are yours,
Security is from you,
magnanimity is also yours.�[26]
These high issues show that what occurs in this world is the
blessing of Allah over His servants; either the appearance of the clouds in the
skies and the rain which makes the earth awaken and blossom or where the stars
pray and go on prostration. Imam Husayn (s) says:
�My negligence and opposing to You did not make You stop
guiding me to be close to You and assisting me to approach to You.�[27]
We have already said that not everyone would be given the
honor to take part in supplication. This is especially true when a lofty
position is asked for. In such cases more confirmation is necessary. This is
because the degree of the elegance of each supplication depends on the amount
of wisdom a supplicant has, and it reveals his dignity and position. Of course,
anyone who could enjoy even a bit of this divine asset should be considered
lucky. This divine asset could not be appreciated by everyone, however.
This is where the elite and wise ones ask: (accept my
repentance). Of course, anyone reaching this stage will not have any of his
supplications unanswered. This is the state of getting to the perfect degree of
devotion and servitude, to which Imam Husayn (s) has referred in the
supplication of Arafah.
�O people! You are they who stand in need of Allah, and Allah
is He Who is the Self-sufficient, the Praised One. 35:15�
This indigence does not mean the need for the appliances of
life; clothing, food, shelter and the like; rather by this poverty is meant the
innate indigence which is in contrast with the innate richness. The number of
those people, who reach this state of mind in each century, is less than the
number of one�s fingers.
�O Allah, let me resort to You when being afflicted with a
calamity.�[28]
This is because they are under the permanent influence of
supplication. There is not even a moment of negligence in their life. They are
always present. No distracter may cause them lose their interest. The Satan has
no way here even in the initial stages, to let alone the loftiest stages of
knowledge and cognizance.
�He said: Then by Thy Might I will surely make them live an
evil life, all except Thy servants from among them, the purified ones. 38:82-3�
In other words, that lofty position is beyond the Satan�s
reach. At this stage, the attraction between God and His servants has reached
the highest degree of elevation. Their supplication �O my Lord, fill my heart
with love to You and fear of You,�[29] is
already answered. There is no place in their hearts for the Satan�s
penetration. This is because they are among those, who say: �O my God! Let me
be among those, in whose hearts the trees of longing to You have rooted and
whose hearts have been occupied with Your love so to the best of grace they
resort, in the gardens of nearness and disclosure they delight and from the
ponds of love they drink.�[30]
Thus, supplication is the attraction between the Creator and
the servants, which is, by itself, a kind of worship. This supplication is
revealed to the servants. And we do not have to wait for the supplication to be
responded. There have been numerous scholars who, when in the process of
supplication, thought on nothing else and since they saw themselves as God�s
servants who were given the privilege to engage in supplication, they carried
the order out and got busy engaging in supplication. In this process, if their
supplication were answered, they saw it as another asset that God would bestow
upon them. Imam as-Sadiq (s) has said:
�Once I invoked Allah. My supplication was answered but I
forgot my need I wanted to ask for. This is because Allah�s response to His
servant when invoking Him is greater and loftier to him than achieving what he
wants.�[31]
The Prophet (s) says (that Allah has inspired to him by
saying):
�Sometimes a servant needs something from Allah and then he
begins praising Allah and praying Him to bless Mohammad (s) and his pure
progeny to a degree that he forgets his need. But Allah achieves his need
without being asked for it by this servant.�[33]
�O my Lord, make us among those, whom You have made their
hearts submit to Your will, whom You have chosen to see You, whom You have
attracted their faces towards You alone, whom you have emptied their hearts
except from Your love, whom You have made look forward to what You have.�[34]
The first condition for a supplicant is to recognize his
servitude toward his Creator. He has to know his status and to be aware that he
is absolute poor and the only Absolute Rich, is Allah, the Almighty. Imam Ali
(s) in his prayer says:
�O my Lord, my request is not like the requests of the
supplicants because if a supplicant is rejected, he will refrain from asking
again but I have no any other than You to request in any case. O my Lord, be
pleased with me and forgive me! A lord may forgive his servant while he is not
pleased with him. O my Lord, how do I dare to invoke You while I am what I am?
Or how do I despair of You while You are what You are?�[35]
�My mean face prostrates to Your honored face, my mortal face
prostrates to Your immortal face, my poor face prostrates to Your rich face, my
face, my hearing, my sight, my flesh, my blood, my skin, my bones and all what
is there on the earth prostrate before Allah, the Lord of the worlds.�[36]
�O my God, it is enough honor to me to be your humble servant
and it is enough pride to me that You are my God. You are as I like so make me
as You like!�[38]
The second condition for a genuine supplicant is to
recognize Allah with the attribute of �Absolute Rich� and realize that the
Creator is aware of all the contents of one�s heart and is capable of
satisfying all his needs and that there is no impediment and hurdle on the way
of His might and power.
Imam as-Sajjad, when asking God to fulfill his needs, says:
�You have been praised with being not in need of Your creatures
and You deserve this attribute. You have considered Your creatures as needy and
they are so in their need to You. Whoever tries to cure his defect by resorting
to You and drive poverty away from himself by Your richness surely he has
chosen the right way and got his want from its right source.�
Imam as-Sajjad (s) adds, stating that Allah hates for His
people to ask other than Him:
�O my Lord, we are under Your control, possessed by Your
kingdom and rule, submitted to Your will, acting according to Your orders and
moving according to Your management. We have no choice save what You have
determined and we have no goodness except what You have given.�[42]
Al-Koleini says in his book: �The Prophet (s), in one of his
wars, was resting at the foot of a hill. One of his enemies seized the
opportunity, drew his sword and went up to the Prophet (s) saying to him: �Who
is going to save you now?� The prophet (s) instantly replied: �My God and your
God.�
This means: �between your sharp sword and my head there is a
power which is invisible to you�. The infidel, who did not believe in what the
Prophet (s) was saying, smiled and put his sword aside to give the Prophet (s)
a blow. But the Prophet (s) showed the right reaction, forcing him to let the
sword fly in one direction. Now the prophet (s) drew his sword, asking the
infidel: �Now who is going to save you?� He replied: �Your generosity; because you
are a great man�. Then the Prophet (s) pardoned him.[43]
Imam Ali (s) said:
�O my Lord, I approach to You by Your great mercy, which has
encompassed everything. O my Lord, You see my place, You know what there is in
my conscience, You know my secrets and nothing of my affairs is unknown to You.
You are closer to me than my life-vein.�
And we read in Abu Hamzeh Thomali�s prayer, �Praise be to
Allah, Whom I ask for my need whenever I like and Whom I become alone with to
disclose my secret whenever I like and then He achieves my need without an
intercessor.� Thu�lub al-Yamani asked Imam Ali (s), �Have you seen your God?�
Imam Ali (s) said, �Do I worship what I do not see?� Imam Ali (s)then was asked how he had seen God and he replied:
�The eyes do not see Him but the hearts perceive Him with the
facts of faith. He is near to things without mixing with them and far from them
without neglecting them.�
�He is so high that nothing is higher than Him and He is so
near that nothing is nearer than Him. Neither His highness makes Him far from
His creatures nor does His nearness make Him equal to them.�[46]
The fourth condition for a supplicant is to be sincere. It
means that he should call only God and no one else.
��������� ������� ����������� ����
��������.
�Therefore call upon Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience.
40:14�
A servant of God should not assume that anybody else could
help him except God. His heart should be ready to invoke the One and Only God
about his needs and tell Him his untold and hidden secrets and disconnect
himself from any means other than God. If he sees that the superficial means is
effective, he should realize that the effecter and influencer is God. In the
holy Qur�an we read:
�Or, Who answers the distressed one when he calls upon Him and
removes the evil. 27:62�
Yes, a non-afflicted and non-depressed person does not know
who the real manager of the affairs is. But an afflicted and depressed person
knows that the initiation and the end of everything is God alone. A real
monotheist considers the others as a means to get to one�s goals and knows that
God has appointed them as an intermediary only. Imam as-Sajjad (s) invokes God
by saying:
�O Allah, I have become sincere by devoting myself to You, come
to You with all my soul, turned away from anyone, who needs Your support and
have refrained from asking anyone, who is in need to Your favor. I have found
that it is foolishness and insanity when a needy one asks another needy one for
support.�[48]
He has, as well, allocated the preface of one of his most
beautiful and longest supplications to sincerity, in which he sees that the
source of every good and salvage is God. Every evil-doer or good-wisher is in
the domain of Allah. He adds:
�O my Lord, where from can I get goodness whereas it is not got
except from You, how can I get deliverance whereas it is not possible except by
You? Neither he, who has done good, does that without Your support and mercy,
nor does he, who has done wrong, opposed You and has not believed in You, get
out of Your power�.
The fifth condition for a supplicant is that his invoking
must be real and genuine. This means that when he asks for something and gets
it, he should not show repugnance. Such a person in fact has asked for
something which he does not need. Thus he has not really involved himself in
supplication. This is because that the act of supplication entails lots of
responsibilities which this individual has been negligent of. He may even use
his tongue without intending what he says. This means that his mouth�s tongue
might not be in harmony with his heart�s tongue. Imam Ali (s) says:
The sixth condition in supplication is good manners. A supplicant
should engage practice supplication with good manners and in complete
humbleness. Ibn Fahad al-Hilli says: �There was a certain believer, who had
worshipped God for seventy years spending his nights in worshipping and his
days in fasting. One day he asked God for a need, but his request was not
answered. He addressed his very self saying: you are responsible! What have you
been doing all this long time? If you had been good, your need would have been
answered. Then God sent him an angel to tell him: �O son of Adam, when you were
checking your own defects and you were criticizing yourself, you were in a
state which was better than your worships.�[50]
In other words, the best kind of good manners is obedience
and servitude towards God and self-denial and confessing one�s faults. Such
have been the morals of the prophets and the infallible imams (s). Concerning
the matter of obedience and servitude to God, Allamah Tabatabaee has stipulated
certain conditions all of which are based on the Holy Qur�an. We will briefly
refer to some of them.
�And when Allah will say: O Issa son of Maryam! Did you say to
men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah, he will say: Glory be to
Thee, it did not befit me that I should say what I had no right to say; if I
had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. 5:116�
Out of this verse we learn the following points:
ŸJesus Christ (s) started his
answer by glorifying Allah: �Glory be to Thee�because he had heard something that he could not ascribe
to God. His good manners forced him to glorify Allah. Of course, we should be
aware that he had enjoyed divine manners.
ŸJesus Christ (s) did not use
negative response to God�s question. He did not say that he had not done it.
There are two points here. Firstly, negation here is one sort of denying, which
is against etiquette. Secondly, negation is used when there is a possibility
for an act to occur, but we know that being a god for any of God�s servants is
impossible.
ŸSome people, at that time,
ascribed the position of God to Jesus Christ (s), so what he denied and negated
was that he had never had such a claim. He added that if people had erroneously
called him God, this was their own error and he had nothing to do with it.
Thus, he said: �You would have known if I had done such a thing�. And this is
not the absolute negation of the issue.
ŸJesus Christ (s) had denied having
the dignity of being a god. He said this was beyond him. Denying being a god is
more significant than negating his claim of divinity. He said:� �It did not befit me that I should say what I
had no right to say.�
ŸJesus Christ (s) left the issue to
be cared for by Allah. Thus, he said: �If I had done this, you would have known
it�. It is because that God�s knowledge is not like ours. It is not incomplete.
Whatever is in the whole creation is within His knowledge.
This verse teaches us to be polite when we talk to God. A
servant should observe all the sides of his servitude. By the way, one of the
advantages of the establishment of the school of supplication is that a God�s
servant has to learn how to behave before Allah, the Almighty.
�Who created me, then He had shown me the way. And He who gives
me to eat and gives me to drink. And when I am sick, then He restores me to
health; and He who will cause me to die, then gives me life; and who, I hope,
will forgive me my mistakes on the Day of Judgment. 26:78-82�
He has ascribed to God the power of guidance and the
acceptance of guidance to himself. He has ascribed feeding to God and hunger and
thirst to himself. He ascribed healing to God, but disease to himself. He
recognizes life and death to be Allah�s. He knows that to err is a matter of
man but to forgive is Allah�s. Then he invoked Allah by saying:
��My Lord, grant me
wisdom, and join me with the good; and ordain for me a goodly mention among
posterity; and make me of the heirs of the garden of bliss. And forgive my
father, for surely he is of those who have gone astray; and disgrace me not on
the day when they are raised. 26:83-86�
Abraham,
through these words has asked God for all means of perfection. He considers
himself as devoid of any sort of perfection and he has ascribed to God all good
epithets.
�Keep to the morals of supplication and see whom you invoke,
how you invoke and why you invoke. Preserve the greatness and highness of Allah
and see with your heart that He knows what there is in your conscience and He
knows your secrets whether good or bad. Know the ways of your deliverance and
perdition lest you ask Allah for something, which leads to your perdition
whereas you think that it leads to your deliverance. Allah has said: �And man
prays for evil as he ought to pray for good, and man is ever hasty. 17:11�
Think too much about what you ask for, how much you ask and why you ask.
Supplication is you submitting to the truth, being devoted to see the Lord,
leaving your choice and entrusting all the affairs, whether apparent or hidden,
with Allah. If you do not regard the conditions of supplication, then do not
wait for response. Allah knows the secret, and what is yet more hidden so that
you may ask Him for something but He knows that there is something else in your
heart.�[51]
When you want to invoke God and you want Him to respond to
you, you have to regard the conditions of supplication well and to have in mind
to Whom you talk, Whom you invoke for a favor and what for you invoke. Here are
the conditions:
● A
supplicant should regard the grandeur of God.
● He should be aware that God has the infinite power.
● A supplicant should have in mind that God knows how
to respond to one�s needs.
● A supplicant should be aware that God knows what
there is in one�s mind and knows his secrets, whether good or bad.
● A supplicant should distinguish between the right
and the wrong so that he may not ask for something destructive. Allah has said:
�And man prays for evil as he ought to pray for good, and man is ever hasty�.
● A supplicant should do what he is supposed to do and
should avoid what is forbidden.
● A supplicant should sacrifice every thing to gain
Allah�s favors. He should love Him sincerely, submit to God in managing his
affairs, do away with his wishes, be obedient to God and follow God�s commands.
This is because the result of all supplications is determined by God. Anybody,
who reaches this stage of prosperity, is successful in this life and in the
hereafter.
A request includes only a specific desire; for instance,
property, positions or knowledge. A supplicant concentrates only on his special
want and sees God as a means that achieves his objective. Of course, this is an
asset given by God. It embraces a servant who has not referred to others to
achieve his wishes but he has turned towards God only. Imam Ali (s) in his
prayer says:
�O my Lord, every oppressed one resorts to You and every
distressed one looks forward to You. O my Lord, the worshippers hear of Your
great reward so they submit to You, the ascetics hear of Your great mercy so they
become satisfied, the deviants hear of Your generosity so they return to You,
the criminals hear of Your great forgiveness so they covet to come to You and
the believers hear of Your pardon and favors so they long to You until masses
of disobedient servants of Yours crowd at Your gate and they clamor invoking
You in Your sanctum and every one of them has a hope leading him to You to
fulfill his need.�[52]
�O Allah, relieve me from whatever I fear, save me from
whatever I dread, protect my soul and religion, take care of me in my travels,
make me blessed with my family and properties, bless my livelihood, make me low
before myself and honored before people, make me safe from the evils of the
jinn and people, do not shame me with my sins, do not make me ashamed by
disclosing my secrets, do not try me with my living affairs, do not deprive me
of Your blessings and do not leave me to other than You!�
�O my Lord, do not make me rely on Your creatures. Be the only
one, Who fulfill my needs! Suffice me with all what I want! Look at me and look
after all my affairs!�
One day, Imam as-Sajjad was told in Mecca
that his garden in Medina had been
confiscated. They told him that al-Waleed Ibn Abdul Melik, the Umayyad caliph,
had come from Damascus to Mecca
to offer the hajj and he might have asked for his help. Imam as-Sajjad (s)
said: �Woe to you, should I ask, for help, other than God in God�s House?�
At this stage, a supplicant knows that the Almighty God
likes His servants to practice supplication:
��������� ���������� ������.
�Call upon Me, I will answer you. 40:60�
�Thus, a supplicant practices supplication just
to carry out God�s commands and he is to be always content with his God and he
is not to care if his wishes are answered or not. Hafiz, the Iranian poet says:
�Hafiz, it is your duty to engage in supplication,
You should not worry if it is
answered or not.�
If one�s wishes are answered, it shows that God has more
favors towards that one. If they are not answered, God sees that they are not
appropriate for that one. Thus, an obedient servant of God obeys the command
�call upon Me, I will answer you� and wishes not to be among those who are
meant by the following verse:
�O my Lord, Your managing my affairs suffices me rather than my
management and Your choice to me is better than mine to myself.�[58]
Such a person will have no request at all and he will be
content with what Allah is content with. This is the same as �the status of
being content�, which is the characteristic of God�s true believers. These
people have excelled in servitude and have tasted being God�s genuine servants
and they will not compare any pleasure with being at the service of Allah. In
such a status, we come across many supplications narrated from our infallible
imams (s), who have given people the best kind of education. We read in the
Sha�baniyyah supplication:
�O my Lord, You do whatever You like. You torture whomever You
like and however You like and have mercy upon whomever You like, with whatever
You like and however You like. You are not asked about whatever You do.�[60]
�The diversity of Your managements and the hastiness of Your
determinations make Your knowing servants not refrain from asking for Your gift
and not despair from Your mercy when afflicted with calamities.�
�How do I complain my state to You whereas it is well-known to
You or how do I beseech Your mercy with my words whereas they are from You, To
You and to Your inevitable verdict and mighty will. Your rule and will have
left to no sayer a saying nor to a powerful one a power.�[61]
�You have inspired us to submit to what You have determined by
Your Will so that we do not like delaying what You have hastened or hastening
what You have delayed and we do not hate what You like and we do not prefer
what You hate.�[62]
�O my Lord, delight my soul with Your judgment, please my heart
with Your determination and grant me confidence in order to confess that Your
judgment does not decide save what is good.�[63]
Imam Ali (s) says: �The stage of satisfaction is the result
of the stage of the true belief.� He introduces the following concept:
satisfaction is the source of obedience.[64] In Sabah
Supplication Imam Ali (s) says:
�O my Lord, this is the rein of my soul. I have tied it with
the hobble of Your will.�[65]
When Abraham (s) was being thrown into the fire, Gabriel
asked him: �Do want me to do you anything?� He replied: �As from you, no. Allah
is sufficient for me and He is the Protector.� Then Michael came and said: �If
you want, I can put out the fire. The sources of waters and rains are in my
hand.� But Abraham (s) replied: �No, I do not want that.� Then the Angel of the
wind came and said to him: �If you like, I will fly the fire.� Abraham said:
�No, I do not.� Then Gabriel said to Abraham: �Invoke Allah.� Abraham said: �It
suffices me that He knows about my state.�[66]
This is the position of an individual who has no want or
desire because he knows the secrets of the creation, the divine determination
and the past and the present. This, in fact, is the position of the prophets
(s) and the infallible imams (s). These sincere servants of God are so obedient
to God that they can know the poison in the water they drink and realize that
the dates in al-Ma�amun�s court are contaminated with poison. This is because
they believe in the divine destiny. They know that this destiny is not
changeable; therefore, for them, the only way available is obeying God. Before
his departure from Mecca towards Karbala, Imam Husayn (s) said:
�As if I see that the beasts of the deserts (the armies of
Kuffa), in the land between Nawawis and Karbala, will cut my limbs apart.�[67]
Not only Imam Husayn (s), but his beloved and honorable
father, Imam Ali (s), too has referred to this matter:
Nasr bin Hazim mentioned in Kitab Siffeen a tradition narrated
by al-Hasan bin Katheer that his father had said: �Once Imam Ali (s) came to
Kerbala and stopped there. It was said to him: �O Ameerul Mo�mineen, this is
Kerbala�. He said: �It is of anguish and affliction�. Then he pointed with his
hand at a place and said: �Here will be the place of their camping�[68].
He pointed at another place and said: �Here their bloods will be shed�. Then he
went on towards Sabat.�[69]
Nasr bin Hazim also mentioned in his book a tradition narrated by Harthama bin
Saleem saying: �We went with Ali bin Abu Talib to fight in the battle of
Siffeen. When we arrived at Kerbala, he led us in offering the prayer and when
he finished the prayer, he took some soil and smelt it and then he said:
�Ah! O you soil! Some people of you (of Kerbala) will be
resurrected (on the Day of Resurrection) and will enter into Paradise without
being inquired.�
For this reason, even at the last stage, looking at the sky,
Imam Husayn (s) said:
This is the stage in which a believer asks God due to faith
only. Fatima az-Zahra (s) invokes Allah just before the last moments of her
pure life by saying: �O my Lord, I have no one save You to relieve my heart,
comfort my soul, delight my eyes, gladden my face, brighten my features and to
ease all my self.� In the Arafah Supplication, we read as well:
�O my Lord, would he, who tasted the sweet of Your love, think
to resort to other than You? And would he, who became pleased near You, ever
try to turn away from You?�
�I intercede with You by You O my Lord, grant me to be serious
in fearing You and in keeping on serving You� to be close to You as the
closeness of the sincere ones and to be near You with the believers.�
This is the position of an individual whose request �I
invoke You to let me get to You� has been accepted and has reached such a state
in which �no body thinks to ask for such a position.� In Al-Ziyarah
Al-Jami�ah, we read:
�Allah has granted you with the most honored position, the
highest rank of the closest ones (to Allah) and the highest positions of the
prophets that no one reaches, exceeds, precedes or ever thinks to get. There is
no angel, prophet, truthful one, martyr, learned or unlearned man unless Allah
has made them know your loftiness.�
And this is special to the infallible imams (s). Allamah
Tabatabai has a significant and delicate elegy which begins with the following
line:
From the day I was born,
I have been bereaved and
enamored.
In this elegy, he depicts the midnight at a garden in such a
way that the human soul soars high in the skies. He has seen candles and
butterflies intimate with flowers and nightingales and he has written:
The butterfly�s world was all
secrets,
The nightingale�s world was all
songs;
The morning bird put forth all
its secrets,
In its songs like a raptured
reed.
At this juncture, the nightingale makes a protest against
the silent butterfly saying:
Indeed you are an ecstasized
lover,
Why on earth are you so
perplexed?
You should either forget the
beloved ones,
Or you should forget your soul
and heart;
You should either forget the
treasure,
Or forget the pains you
suffered.
And finally the butterfly reaches a point where:
When the butterfly heard this
advice,
It became so enchanted as to
forget its very being;
The delicate point to be observed in the supplications of
the infallible imams (s) is that they have left for the believers an ocean of
knowledge from which each individual takes according to his capability. These
beloved ones have instructed us to take our wants and desires, either small or
big, from our God. The secret behind this issue is that these honorable ones
have established a school, which instructs everybody. These scholars have
opened up the doors of prosperity to every body. Thus, in supplication a
special aptitude is not required.
The educational school of supplication is different from
other schools that everybody can take in it freely and everybody can benefit
from it in accordance with his specific taste. In other words, the inclusive
nature of the knowledge of the infallible imams (s) makes their knowledge so
pervasive that everybody can enjoy it anywhere in the world and is not specific
for a location; it is in accordance with:
�O You, Who are near although You are so high and high even in Your
nearness.�
And this delicate issue can be found only in the school of
supplication, and not in other educational schools. In those schools it is
compulsory to know that philosophy is prior to Gnostics, to know that logic is
prior to the study of philosophy and to know that sciences are prior to the
study of philosophy. In the educational schools of supplication such
requirements are not needed. Everybody is sitting around the table of the
divine assets to get his share.
Knowing God has effects on the believers, who take part in
supplication. This knowledge influences the hastiness of the acceptance of
supplication by Allah. This knowledge also has effects on the quality and
quantity of supplication, on selecting the wording and their annunciation.
Concerning this subject, Imam al-Kadhim (s) said when some people had asked him
that why they invoked Allah but He did not respond to them: �Because you invoke
the One, whom you do not know.�[71]
Some people said to Imam as-Sadiq (s): �We invoke God, but our
supplication is not responded to. Imam as-Sadiq (s) said:
��������� ������� ���� ��
�������������.
�You invoke One, whom you do not recognize.�
Knowing God makes a supplicant so enchanted that he forgets
his wish and gets absorbed in the supplication itself. Here the attention
towards supplication becomes the focal point. The love towards God draws us to
supplication. The supplicant under these circumstances does not wish for
disconnection with God. The Prophet (s) has said concerning this matter:
�The best of people is he, who loves worship and embraced it
and undertakes it wholeheartedly and does not care whether his life is easy or
troubled.�[72]
Ma�ath ibn Jabal narrated that the Prophet (s) had said:
�If you know Allah as He is, you will move the mountains with
your supplication.�
Under this tradition, Allamah Tabatabai says:
The secret of this problem lies in the fact that the ignorance
of God�s kingdom gradually brings about this illusion that the means are
effective and that each effect is based on a predetermined cause. Sometimes man
believes that these causes are definite and nothing can replace them. For
instance, we see that movement and speed take us to our destination. But if our
knowledge n monotheism develops, we will lose this belief and will consider
movement, not as an independent factor; rather we will consider Allah as the
effective Mover and movement as intermediary.
As a summary, we believe that the effects follow their means
and stimuli closely even if the stimuli do not act independently. The genuine
effects are caused by the Great Causer and the means and stimuli are
intermediary. We should reach such a degree of recognition that we could put
the events in their real positions. As a result man should observe the Qur�anic
etiquette; i.e. he should never assume that the effects are independent; he
should know that all the creatures are created. He should not forget the
intermediary status of the superficial means and stimuli. He should, as well,
be aware that Allah had created the world on the principle of cause and effect.
Here we will present some evidences from the verses of the
Qur�an and from some supplications on monotheism. In the Holy Qur�an, we read:
Do they not then look up to the Heaven above them now We have
made it and adorned it and it has no gaps? And the earth, we have made it plain
and cast in it mountains and we have made to grow therein of all beautiful
kinds; to give sight and as a reminder to every servant who turns frequently to
Allah; and we send down from the cloud water abounding in good, then we cause
to grow thereby gardens and the grain that is reaped; And the tall palm-trees
having spadices closely set one above another; a sustenance for the servants,
and we give life thereby to a dead land; thus is the rising. 50:6-11�
����� ���������� ������ ���� �������
�������.
And you do not please except that Allah pleases. 76:30�
Monotheism is the most observable issue in the supplications
of the infallible imams (s). Imam Ali (s) says:
������������� ����� ������� �������
���� �����.
�I beg you with Your attributes that have occupied everything.�
�It is in Your hands, and not in the hands of anyone else,
every abundance, every defect, every benefit and every harm of mine.�
Thus, the etiquette in worshipping, especially at the time
of the involvement in supplication, forces us to turn and to rely on God only
and to forget anything except God. This principle is of utmost importance
because if we rely only on God and think about nothing else, then we will
worship with all our bodies and souls. The Prophet (s) has said:
�The Almighty God says: I am the best partner. He, who offers
some of his doings to a partner other than Me, I will leave him to My partner
because I do not accept save what is offered sincerely to Me.�[73]
The Almighty God does not like His servants to recognize any
partner with Him. He considers this act as a great defect. The following holy
verse refers to this kind of association:
�And most of them do not believe in Allah without associating
others with Him. 12:106�
The following holy verse teaches us to set aside the concept
of any partnership with God so that our sincere supplications may save us from
great calamities:
�And Yunus, when he went away in wrath, so he thought that we
would not straiten him, so he called out among darkness: There is no god but
Thou, glory be to Thee; surely I am of those who make themselves to suffer
loss. So We responded to him and delivered him from the grief, and thus do We
deliver the believers. 21:87-88�
This verse describes the horrible event that has happened to
Prophet Yonus (s) who was in the darkness, inside the whale�s stomach, deep in
the sea. He was prisoned there and he was hopeless. He knew that God was the
only One, who could rescue him. He invoked Allah by saying: �There is no god
but You.� He begged Allah after confessing his defect.
�But had it not been that he was of those who glorify us; He
would certainly have tarried in its belly to the day when they are resurrected.
37:143-144�
It is indeed correct to say that the sincerely-uttered
supplication saves man from dangerous afflictions. This means where wealth,
power, intellect and wisdom are important, a mid-night worship gets us free of
all calamities on condition that we recognize our beloved God, love Him and
ascribe all powers to Him.
In Uddat al-Da�ee there is a tradition narrated by Muhammad
bin Ajlan from Muhammad bin Ubaydillah bin Ali bin al-Husayn from his cousin
from Imam as-Sadiq (s) from his fathers that the Prophet (s) had said: Allah
the Almighty, revealed to one of His prophets concerning his guardians:
I swear by My magnanimity and Honor that I will cut the desire
and wish of anyone, who relies on other than Me and will dress him in the dress
of ignominy among people and I will deprive him of My favors. Does my servant
rely on other than Me during afflictions whereas the afflictions are in My
hands? Does he expect other than Me while I am the Self-sufficient, the
Praised? I have the keys of the gates, which are closed, whereas My gate is
open to everyone, who calls upon Me.
The Prophet (s) said that Allah the Almighty says:
If a creature resorts to another creature instead of Me, I will
deprive him of the means of the heavens and the earth. If he asks Me for
something, I will not give him and if he invokes Me, I will not respond to him.
But if a creature resorts to Me rather than any of My creatures, the heavens
and earth will insure his livelihood. If he calls upon Me, I will respond to
him, if he asks Me for anything I will give him and if he asks Me to forgive
him, I will forgive him.�[75]
In TafseerAl-Mizan, after mentioning the
following two traditions, which talk about depriving one, who resorts to any other
creature rather than Allah, of all means of prosperity, we read:
What we understand from these two traditions is that
supplication should be uttered sincerely and should not negate the Great Cause
behind all causes. This is because everybody knows that there are causes and
effects in this world but the Great Cause is behind the all. These causes are
not independent of the Great Cause, however.
To explain the above issue, we should add that man, through
his inner nature, knows that for his wants there is a Giver, whose actions are
under His control, and is aware, as well, that the superficial stimuli and
means to which he resorts are not absolute.
Therefore, man recognizes that the origin, in which all the
control rests and the pillar, on which he depends to satisfy his desires, are
something different from these superficial means. It is compulsory for man not
to depend entirely on these means and not to forget the existence of the
Absolute Cause.
Man, with the slightest attention, will comprehend this issue.
Now if he asks for something and his needs are satisfied, he will find out that
his asking is really addressed to God. Here the Cause is God. Now suppose he
asked the same thing from some other cause, he should know that this cause can
not satisfy his needs. In this case a wrong assumption has made him assume the
wrong giver as the real Giver. In this case we see that man�s inner nature is
different from his apparent one.
A good example on this case is when a person loves something
and tries hard to get it. But then he realizes that what he has got is a
hindrance on the way of his other benefits which are more significant and
dearer to him. Now he has to put it aside and goes to the dearer one. The
opposite is also true. He might abhor something and escapes it to secure his
other benefits but accidentally he comes across it and finds out that it is
even more profitable than the other things.
A sick child refuses to have the bitter medicine although he
wants to recover his health soon. This child, through his intelligence, asks
for his health, using his nature tongue, despite the fact that he asks for its
opposite through his mouth�s tongue and his actions.
Thus man has two systems: one is his innate nature and his
innate intelligence, the other system is his imagination. His innate nature
guards him against errors. But his imagination and assumption puts him in the
wrong way. It very often happens that man asks for something on the basis of
imagination, but he does not understand that, through this asking, he indeed is
asking for the opposite thing.
The author of Uddat al-Da�ee reports from the Prophet
(s) his saying:
������ ����� �������� ���������
������������.
�Invoke Allah while being sure of His response.�
In this expression, this scholar refers to one of the
secrets of God. He explains:
● Sincerity
in supplication should be observed: we should be aware that the Absolute Cause
is God. Therefore we should not associate Him with anyone else.
● Sincerity is the absolute attention to the Real
Cause: therefore, associating anybody with Allah is something impermissible. If
we see that our want is satisfied, we should know that we have resorted to God.
Then, the meaning of that heavenly tradition becomes clear. It declares: �If
one resorts to somebody other than Me, My favors would not reach him.�
Therefore, in those situations when the causes have satisfied one�s needs, it
is due to God. Sometimes a man does not superficially recognize God, but his
inner nature is familiar with God.
But sometimes this drowsy nature is awakened through man�s
knowing inner-being. A good proof is the holy verse:
�So when they ride in the ships they call upon Allah, being
sincerely obedient to Him, but when He brings them safe to the land, they
associate others (with Him). 29:65�
The strange thing is that man has not previously believed in
God, but now he sincerely calls upon Him.
�Say: Who is that
delivers you from the dangers of the land and the sea when you call upon Him
openly humiliating yourselves, and in secret: If He delivers us from this, we
should certainly be of the grateful ones. Say: It is Allah that delivereth you
from these and all (other) distresses: and yet ye worship false gods! 6:63-64�
● With a
little attention we would come to the conclusion that we should not pay whole
attention to these destructible means and we should be aware that the Great
Cause is somewhere else.
● Cause and
effectiveness of the creatures are not deniable, but the thing we should be
aware of is the fact that none of the creatures are independent of this
effectiveness; rather, they are intermediary means, which are established by
God, between He Himself and other creatures and their effect over one another
is in accordance with the system of the creation.
● We should recognize that most of the strength of the
effective factors are neuter by nature and we should not depend on their
results. This is because there are numerous unrecognized agents. Sometimes
these agents have acted inversely. For instance, some factors were previously
reckoned as good but turned out to be pernicious. Imam Ali (s) says:
�O people, every one will meet what he escapes from. The fate
(death) is the destination of the soul. Escaping from it will lead to it.�[76]
Thus each organism will go on the path, which the creation
system has predetermined for. But our understanding of the general system of
cause and effect is in fact in accordance with our mental capability. This is
confirmed in the Holy Qur�an:
����� ���������� ���� ��������� ������
��������.
��And you are not given
aught of knowledge but a little. 17:85�
Imam Ali (s) once was asked: �How have you recognized your
god?� He answered:
�I recognized God through revoking the determinations and
breaking the intentions. When I determined and I was prevented from achieving
my determination and I intended and the fate contradicted my intention, I
realized that the administrator was other than me.�[77]
Although everybody tries to explain the relation between the
�cause and effect� and frantically attempts to bring the events to fruiting, it
will not be easy to recognize these relations entirely. The poet says:
�When the cloud becomes dry after pouring all its water, Then
you can not call it as water-giver;
The nature which is not given
life,
How can it be a life-giver?�
Of course, it should be noted that Allah has put the world
of causes in contrast with the world of effects, in such a way that each one
modifies the other. Thus, we read in the Qur�an:
�[I swear] by those who float in space, then those who are
foremost going ahead, then those who regulate the affair. 79:3-5�
This is interpreted to mean that those angels, who speed up
and excel the others, are the true managers and they will dominate the others.[78]
● It is
frequently observed that there is an indestructible, imperishable and absolute
cause at work, which if being asked will answer our needs. This Absolute Cause
does not falter and its effect is inevitable.
● The human nature has recognized this Absolute Cause
and has known that it is always at work. The common sense, too, will accept
this. But sometimes our imaginations force us to adopt the pseudo-cause for the
real-cause and we like our wishes to come true through these unrealistic means.
Such cases are usually void of common sense and the innate intelligence has
rejected them. Here the imaginative factors have led the way. It often happens
that our inner being asks God for something, but our imagination asks for
something else. This is like the sick person, whose inner being (his nature)
asks for health and wishes for medicine, but his imaginative system forces him
to escape taking the medicine. It also happens that an individual asks for the
negative side of something and escapes the positive side of it; but when it
becomes clear to him that what he has been escaping from has been more profitable
than what he has wished to keep.
When the Almighty God invites the servants through different
expressions, He uses different techniques. For instance, sometimes He makes use
of the third person pronoun in referring to Himself and asks us to refer to Him
in this way:
�And call on Him fearing and hoping; surely the mercy of Allah
is nigh to those who do good to others. 7:56�
It seems as though there was a big distance between the
Creator and the creatures and the earth-dwellers should remember God and then
send their hearts towards the sky-dwellers and then, through the close angels,
they reach the presence of God the Almighty. Then man should wait for the
answer to reach him through certain means.
The Second Stage
Sometimes Allah would select a closer approach and would
send the good news to the earth through his Messenger.
�And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am
very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they
should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way.
2:186�
Due to much attention, man could feel deep in his heart the
true meaning of the verse:
����� ������� ���������� ���������
�������.
�Most surely Allah is Affectionate, Merciful to the people.
2:143�
One can also fill his heart with the generosity of that
Great Generous One. Imam al-Baqir (s) in this concern says:
It is written in Torah which has not been distorted that Moses
(s) has asked his God: �O God, are you close to me to talk with You, or You are
far so that I may call You?� God revealed to him: �O Moses, I associate with
anybody who calls on Me.�[79]
�During your prayers raise your hands to engage in supplication
because the prayer time is the best time. At that time Allah looks on His
servants mercifully and if they call on Him, He will respond.�
Al-Koleyni, on the issue of the requirements of supplication
writes: �First, say �ya rabb: O God� ten times and then say �rabb�. This is
because man feels himself distant from Allah. He will call Him with vocative
sign. Sometimes this sign is explicitly mentioned and sometimes it is deleted.
But when he comes closer to Allah, he will use the vocative sign less and will
resort to whisper.
The Third Stage
At this stage Allah is so close to His servants that He
says:
�And we are nearer to it than you, but you do not see. 56:85�
This verse refers to the generosity and pardoning of Allah.
The verse indicates a significant secret and discloses a strange hidden point:
God has not employed distance as a measure; rather, He introduces His Closeness
in such a way difficult to be comprehended. This verse notifies the one, who is
embracing a dying man that Allah is close to him. Concerning this, Imam
As-Sadiq (s) says:
�Imam Hasan (s) was
busy praying when somebody crossed in front of him. Some one of the attendants
prevented him. When Imam Hasan (s) finished his prayer, he said to the man: why
did you prevent him from crossing? The man said: �O son of the messenger of
Allah, he crossed between you and your mihrab. Imam Hasan (s) said:
�And We are nearer to him than his life-vein. 50:16�
God refers to another secret and gives good news to the true
believers and the monotheists, i.e., God is closer to man than his life. This
verse depicts the relation between God and man. This shows firstly that if we
comprehend the situation, we do not have any other choice than to resort to
Allah and secondly it clarifies the sacred tradition (O Moses, I am your
necessary piety). And let us know that the only resort at the time of
depression is Allah. If man pays constant attention to God, he will be engulfed
in the world of light and life will be of a different flavor to him and he will
behave differently than the others. His world will change and life will be
interesting to him since he will be surrounded by the infinite sea of
knowledge. He will always be delighted as long as he is with his love. Every
moment he adds something to his virtues.
Imam Ali (s) was one of those, who had conquered this mount
of knowledge and tasted the flavor of being close to his love. Seyyid Ibn Tawus
says:
Habbah al-Arani says: when Nouf and I were sleeping in the yard
of the Governor�s building we saw Ali (s) putting his hands against the wall
like a distracted person. He was whispering: �Most surely in the creation of
the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there
are sings for men who understand�etc.�[80]
Habbah al-Arani adds: �Ali (s) was reciting these verses and was walking about
like one, who has lost his mind. Then he told me: Are you asleep or awake? I
answered I was awake. �If you are in this condition, so what about us then?�
Then Imam Ali (s) stared at the ground and begun crying. He, then, said to me:
�Allah knows everything we do. O Habba, Allah is closer to us than our
life-veins. He knows everything�. Then he added: �O Nouf! Are you awake? He
said: �Yes, I am awake�. Imam Ali (s) then gave them some advice. He advised
them to fear God. Then he said: �O God, I do not know whether You care for me
or not. I wish I knew how I should be with the amount of sins that I have
committed. Nouf says: �Imam Ali (s) was still in this state until the dawn.�[81]
A verse, which is more exciting than the previous verses, is
the one, whose comprehension is in the domain of the believers and the sincere
gnostics, who are really rare in the creation system. In this sacred verse we
read:
�Allah intervenes between man and his heart. 8:24�
Thus man belongs to God and he is in direct relation with
the Great love. Hafiz, the Iranian poet says:
�There is no wall between the lover and the loved one, You,
yourself, Hafiz, are the hindrance, get vanished.�
In this process, if a person could, by good luck, stay on
the right path and delve deep inside himself, he will realize that he is a
servant of God before becoming an independent being and that he does not
possess any prestige and identity except being a servant to God, the Almighty.
At such a stage he will find the necessity to submit to God. Since he may not
separate himself from the great love, he is proud to be permanently at God�s
presence. He is not ready to lose such a status. This is such a great honor for
him that he does not wish to let it go. Imam Ali (s) says:
�O God! You have registered our sins, You are aware of the
inners of people and You are between man and his heart. The hearts are
submissive to You and the secrets are open before You.�[82]
Hafiz says:
�I asked her why your beautiful face is hidden from us,
She said: you are a curtain
yourself, or else my face is visible.
I asked: how much more separation!
She replied: as long as you live,
Is said: I have the last
breath. She said: I won�t change my decision.�
�And call not with
Allah any other god; there is no god but He; everything is perishable but He;
His is the judgement, and to Him you shall be brought back. 28:88�
At this stage, a well-informed subject of God, sees the
world as God�s presence and recognizes a will-power dominating the whole
creation. This is because man is familiar with the attributes of the Great
Initiator.
These seven stages are, in fact, the natural direction for
human perfection which is clearly depicted in the Holy Qur�an. Meanwhile, the
ignorant ones are going away from the right path. It is as though there is
nothing in this world except superficial pleasures. Being away from God is the
most hazardous of all calamities of mankind. It is so misleading that it causes
man to disconnect from God and concentrate wholly on material issues. What a
losing deal! Our heart, which, by nature, is the place for God�s secrets, is
filled with wishes and whims.[83]
Imam Husayn (s) says:
�You have removed the others from the hearts of Your lovers
until they have not loved other than You and have not resorted to other than
You.�
If anybody paid sufficient attention to this issue, he would
not stop weeping and would regret his wasting time. Then he would start all
over again paying full attention to the way he has selected.
�Surely the vilest of animals, in Allah's sight, are the deaf,
the dumb, who do not understand. 8:22�
In fact, the verses of the Qur�an cover all stages of human
development, from the very lowest stage of human fall to the highest degree of human
status. These verses want us to move in the right direction. A cursory
comparison between the following two verses Clearly shows the distance between
two ways of thinking:
���������� ��������� ������� ������
�������.
�Whither you turn, thither is Allah�s purpose. 2:115�
�Surely the vilest of
animals, in Allah�s sight, are the deaf, the dumb, who do not understand. 8:22�
The ambitious, self-centered man, who interprets everything
in the light of his own desires, at the time of dying suddenly becomes aware of
the great loss of having wasted his time and realizes that he has not done
anything in this world for the hereafter. This state is depicted clearly in the
verse of the Qur�an:
In the previous discussions we pointed to two issues:
The first point is that a human need is determined genetically
and it will not let man alone to the last minute of his life. This leads man to
resort to a power, which could supply him with these needs. Now, he may do this
through resorting to Allah to fill this natural gap.
The second point is man�s God-seeking nature. Since man has
experienced illusionary powers and the system of formal cause and effect and
has observed their limitations, he is after an infinite and limitless power to
resort to. He is after an invincible power, which is dominating the whole creation.
This is frequently observed that man at the time of great despair and
depression is absorbed to the unparalleled power of Allah. This state of
affairs is repeatedly stated by the Holy Qur�an:
�To Him is due the true prayer; and those whom they pray to
besides Allah give them no answer, but they are like one who stretches forth
his two hands towards water that it may reach his mouth, but it will not reach
it; and the prayer of the unbelievers is only in error. 13:14�
�And when distress
afflicts you in the sea, away go those whom you call on except He; but when He
brings you safe to the land, you turn aside; and man is ever ungrateful. 17:67�
�And when affliction
touches a man, he calls on Us, whether lying on his side or sitting or
standing; but when We remove his affliction from him, he passes on as though he
had never called on Us on account of an affliction that touched him; thus that
which they do is made fair-seeming to the extravagant. 10:12�
With an eye on the above points, the first effect of
supplication is to fill out the gap which exists in the human nature. This will
stop man�s falling in the wrong path and will help him to avoid the hazards.
This is because resorting to limited powers causes man to engage in flattering
others, man�s humiliation, and mental failures. It also causes, above all, to
forger God, and, as a result, to suffer greatly. In fact, the school of
supplication is a general invitation to all needy, depressed and sufferers and
the promise to accept and to respond to these needs on the part of that great
Almighty�s power, which is the only power that can solve the problems.
The second effect of supplication is the relation of the
unlimited divine power with the weak man which will bring froth permanent
security for man and will fill out his mental gap and will bring him grandeur
and glory with which he may confront problems easily. As the following verse
from the Holy Quarn depicts:
����� �������� ������� �����������
����������.
�Now surely by Allah�s remembrance are the hearts set at rest.
13:28�
God�s remembrance is the only pacifying agent which
dominates us. Al-Khidhr (s), at the time of Imam Ali�s death, described Imam
Ali (s) in this way:
�O God! It is You, who have supported me to defeat my foes. If
You have not assist me, I would be defeated. O You, Who have distinguished Yourself
with grandeur and highness. Your guardians are invincible with Your glory. O
You, Who have made the kings put the yoke of lowness on their necks and to be
frightened of Your influence!�
A cursory look at history will elaborate this issue. The history
of the prophets (s) shows that those great ones have always stood firmly in
front of the powers of their time. This means that, in front of any prophet,
there was always a pharaoh, Shaddad or Nimrod. These great men of God in those
days lacked even the simplest physical means to defend themselves. However,
they have never given up. It is interesting to note that the prophets were
always victorious. Prophet Moses (s) had Aaron only; Abraham (s) had nobody to
help him and our prophet only enjoyed Abu Talib�s protection. But finally, the
will of Allah has defeated all the others:
�Allah is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with
Him; these are Allah�s party: now surely the party of Allah are the successful
ones. 58:22�
The third effect of supplication is believing in God, which
accompanies numerous hidden benefits. This great secret is one of the major
causes for the establishment of supplication. This is one of the great customs
of Allah to which everybody is invited and given special dress of knowledge. If
one could grasp the true value of this asset, he would realize that God has not
given men any better asset than this one. But how engagement in supplication
entails believing in God is an issue, to which we will turn now:
● We saw in previous sections that man in his internal
and external relations with the environment comes across numerous needs which
he has to satisfy. Therefore, he is always looking for assistance. If man looks
at God as an assistant, he will engage in worship and supplication.
Since man is always under the pressure of his needs, he will
constantly need God�s assistance. This constant attention and permanent worship
open up to man a horizon of precious treasures. For this reason, the Holy
Qur�an constantly recommends the remembrance of God. Some of these verses are
presented here:
�O you who believe!
Let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the remembrance of
Allah; and whoever does that, these are the losers. 63:9�
�And who is more unjust than he who is reminded of the
communications of his Lord, then he turns away from them? Surely We will give
punishment to the guilty. 32:22�
�And remember Allah much, that you may be successful. 8:45�
The word �Felah� (progress) indicates progress in the
divine and spiritual perfection. This invitation gives a positive response to
the servant�s prayers and it responds to the most of their logical needs and
requirements. Another advantage of it is our familiarity with the Creator. God
has given this asset to His special servants:
������ ��� ���������� ������
����������� �������.
�They have therein what they wish and with Us is more yet.
50:35�
The fourth advantage of supplication is self-believing and
self-recognition. Under the protection of supplication man gets rid of being
distant from God and resorts to a power, which dominates everything.
�O God! Glory be to You. All the creatures glorify You, all the
creatures live by You, all the creatures fear You and all the creatures beg you
earnestly.�[85]
�O God! Glory be to You. You have created everything and
everything returns to You. You have initiated everything and everything will
end to You. You have established everything and the fate of everything will be
to You.�
In fact, not remembering the One, Who is the initiator of everything
means forgetting everything. In such a state of mind, man has not recognized
the real value of things. He has seen everything in a diverted form and he has
lived confusedly. The Holy Qur�an deals with the significant matter of
�forgetting God,� which is not dealt with by any school of thinking. There are
numerous interpretations in the Holy Qur�an about the concept of �forgetting
God.� In the surah of Hashr, we read:
�And be not like those who forsook Allah, so He made them
forsake their own souls: such are the transgressors. 59:19�
From all these verses two issues come to mind: Firstly,
forgetting God entails self-forgetting and secondly, one, who forgets God, will
be forgotten by the Almighty God. With a little attention the relation between
these two groups of verses will become clear. Allamah Tabatabaee concerning the
verse, �The day when the spirit and the angels stand in ranks, 78:38�[86]
discusses the issue of the soul and refers to the sacred verse in which the
topic of soul is brought out:
�His command, when He intends anything, is only to say to it:
Be, so it is. 36:82�
God�s command refers to the initiation of a power by
anything which He wishes to take on life and the soul belongs to this world of
command. There is another verse interpreting �soul� in the following manner:
�When your Lord said to the angels: surely I am going to create
a mortal from dust; so when I have made him complete and breathed into him of
My spirit, then fall dawn making obeisance to him. 38:71-72�
From this verse it is clear that spirit or soul is from God.
All these verses depict man�s relation to Allah. From the sacred verse �and We
are nearer to him than his life-vein� the relation becomes even clearer. And
from the verse ��Allah intervenes between man and his heart� it is understood
that man is nearer to God than to himself. Thus, we will conclude that
forgetting God is, in fact, self-forgetting. This is because if a person
forgets God, he will forget His command, as well. Thus, man�s soul, which is
also of the category of Allah�s command, will be forgotten. Since man�s very
truth lies in his soul and spirit, therefore, he has forgotten himself. This
discussion will reveal that the verse:
�He shall say: My Lord! Why hast thou raised me blind, and I
was a seeing one indeed? He will say: Even so, our communications came to you,
but you neglected them; even thus shall you be forsaken this day. 20:125-126�
This is because if God, who is closer to man than himself,
forgets man, man will definitely end up in self-denial. But what is the
consequence of this self-denial? Where does it take us? And how does the
delicate man endure this state? A cursory look at a blind and non-hearing man,
who has not forgotten himself yet, will make this clear. If such a man is left
alone in a perilous desert, he will have a deplorable condition, �let alone a
person who has forgotten himself.�
�What! Is he whose heart Allah has opened for Islam so that he
is in a light from his Lord (like the hard-hearted)? Nay, woe to those whose
hearts are hard against the remembrance of Allah; those are in clear error.
39:22�
�And do not follow
him whose heart we have made unmindful to Our remembrance, and he follows his
low desires and his case is one in which due bounds are exceeded. 18:28�
�The shaitan has
gained the mastery over them, so he has made them forget the remembrance of
Allah; they are the shaitan�s party; now surely the shaitan�s party are the
losers. 58:19�
It is the Holy Qur�an which has made this prediction and has
commanded and invited man to the right path:
����� ����� ������� �������.
�Call to the way of your Lord. 16:125�
������� ����� �������� ������������.
�And know that this
is My path, the right one. 6:153�
Besides the applicant�s needs being satisfied, the
supplication has numerous other effects. Despite the erroneous assumption of
those simple-minded individuals who think that if their needs are not satisfied
through supplication, then their supplication is useless, it should be said
that the very engagement in supplication is of utmost significance. Imam
as-Sadiq (s) has said:
�No servant raises his hand toward Allah the Almighty, unless
Allah feels shy to leave it empty. He will put in it some of His mercy as He
wills.�
It is for this reason that it is said that there is no
supplication without being responded to.[89] In
the verse �Call upon Me and I will respond to you� responding is based on
delivering the supplication. If supplication takes place, its response is
inevitable, though some supplications do not lead to being answered
superficially.
The sixth effect of supplication, which can be considered as
one of the basic causes for the establishment of supplication by the infallible
imams, is our recognition of the divine knowledge, our understanding of life
instructions, our learning the divine traditions and our learning of the way to
communicate with Almighty God. One of the features of supplications is that we
can find in them the whole truth of the infallible imams who always prayed
Allah.
The important point in the traditions reported from the
infallible imams is that the narrator has understood the answer to each
question offered to the infallible imams in accordance with his own talent. It
has happened that one question was offered to the infallible imams and one
answer was given but the narrators mentioned the answer differently. The
question was: �Can God put the world in an egg shell without making it smaller
or making the egg shell larger?� The Imam (s) has answered: �This question is
like your eyes because what you see is by the lenses of your eyes whereas
neither your eyes have become larger nor the world has become smaller.�[90]
The same question, however, is answered to another person in the following way:
�This is an impossible question.�[91]
Thus, in reporting the traditions the skill of the narrators is a crucial
factor. However, since in supplications, the narrator does not have any role,
it shows that the infallible one is manifested in the expressions which are
used by him. They have taught us a great amount of knowledge through
supplications. They have commanded that these supplications are to be read as
they are without adding or subtracting and be used in communicating with God
and be handed down to the offspring. This is shown by the Prophet�s statement:
�There may be one, who has knowledge but he is not an expert
and there may be one, who teaches another, who is more learned than him.�[92]
It is reported in several traditions that Imam as-Sajjad (s)
has been asked some questions on monotheism to which he replied:
�Allah knows well
that at the end of the world there will be some expert people, who will be
profoundly learned. Therefore He has revealed: �say: He, Allah, is One. Allah,
the Eternal, Absolute.� (sura of Al-Ikhlas, 112) and also He has revealed some
verses at the beginning of the sura of al-Hadid (57) up to His saying: ��and He
is cognizant of what is in the hearts.�[93]
So anybody wishing for anything else will be perished.�[94]
Thus, the supplications are among the greatest treasures
left by the infallible imams (s) for their people. Today, we see that no single
page of this great library is lost and it has remained intact. It should be
mentioned here that the issue of ziyara[95] is
the same as the issue of supplication. The significant point concerning the ziyara
is people�s attention towards the dignities of the infallible imams and towards
the carrying out of their commands or else, simply repeating these lifeless
words will be of no effect.
In fact, if an individual says, when offering ziyara: �peace be upon you� it simply means that
�you are secure in my presence and you are not going to get any harm from me�.
Such a person will never commit a sin, however. This is because engaging in
sins is to destroy the intentions of the infallible imams (s) who have sacrificed
their lives so that the Sharia can continue. Committing sins is the most
vicious blow to the presence of those great ones, however.
Thus, besides other advantages, the school of supplication
and ziyara tries to establish supreme divine knowledge which has not been
raised in the traditions. Therefore the school of supplication is, in fact, an
educational institute which have sublime objectives in mind and which is one of
the greatest educational policies of Islam.
The seventh effect of supplication is to educate a perfect
man. Observing those, who have reached the highest points of mental maturation
and have gained the climax of virtues, reveals that these high positions in the
divine culture of Islam are not a series of idealizations as the feeble-minded
ones erroneously assume and then declare: �This is not the present. They refer
to the future of which we know nothing. We will enjoy now.� This is completely
unfounded, however.
Of course, anybody, who is familiar with the culture of
supplication, knows well that a man can not have uttered statements in the form
of supplication unless he has reached a high degree of knowledge and virtues.
In other words, the very presence of an supplication indicates the high standard
of spirituality. The man standing besides the Arafat Mountain invokes his God:
�You are the God, whom there is no god other than. You have
made yourself known by everything. You have made yourself known to me in every
thing. I see You apparent in everything and You are apparent to everything.�[96]
The negative forms are used in these statements to emphasize
the absolute power of God. The words are selected with such a delicate manner
that it will take centuries for people to realize the depth of this passage.
Where has this infallible one got these delicate words from? This statement has
not been uttered by anybody else before.
Let us notice another occasion when in an orchard in the
middle of Medina, at midnight, a man recites, �By Your attributes that have
filled the corners of everything,�[97] (If
he had not seen it, he could not have uttered anything), and his statement
bewilders everybody. How could he see Allah�s attributes manifested in every
phase of the creation?
Thus, as it was previously mentioned, the high issues behind
supplication, before everything else points to the high spirit and sublime
position of the utterer of the supplication. In other words, we could safely
say that Komeyl, Abu Hamza ath-Thamali and Arafah supplications are really the
itineraries of these dignitaries in the voyage �From people towards God and
from God towards people�. Through supplying us with these precious treasures,
they have invited men to their original resorts and have asked everybody to
attain these divine positions through their research on the Islamic and divine
ethics. These supplications reveal to us that the doors leading to perfection
are always open to man. Thus, they should ask God to show them the ways. This
is because Islam is not a series of words to be uttered only, without
considering the contents behind prayers and supplications. For instance, the
prayer that we perform everyday is a complex set of concepts, in which all
human positions are considered and man is invited to go towards them. In the
Sha�baniyyah supplication, we are told to ask God:
�O my God, grant me to devote myself to You only and light the
sights of our hearts with the light of seeing You until the sights of the
hearts pierce the screens of light to reach to the essence of greatness and our
souls become hung with the glory of Your holiness�
�O my God! Let me reach the light of your bright glory so that
I can recognize You and divert from anyone other than You.�
This supplication is an invitation to the highest degree of
the position which is assumed for a gnostic and it is good news for people to
know that the doors leading to perfection are always open.
In Imam Ali�s (Komeyl) supplication we read that there are
some obstacles on the way of supplication, which if are not removed by the
suppliant, then there will be no response to the supplication. Imam Ali (s) has
referred to these significant conditions through this statement: �O my God, forgive
my sins that invalidate the supplication!� It indicates that the major
hindrances on the way of supplications are sins. Then he has ordered us to ask
for pardon to cure this situation.
Concerning this issue, there is a tradition, narrated by
Ma�ath Ibn Jabal from the Prophet (s) referring to the major obstacles on the
way of supplication.[98] In
that tradition the Prophet (s) refers to the innate aspects of the affairs,
i.e., those aspects which are unknown even by the angels. In this tradition,
the obstacles are enumerated:
1)Backbiting one�s brothers in
religion.
2)An action through which a God�s
servant wishes to gain some worldly benefits.
3)Pride.
4)Macro-mania.
5)Jealousy towards those who engage
in knowledge and practice.
6)Lack of mercy towards the others.
7)An action through which a God�s
servant wishes publicity.
8)An action which is not carried out
for the sake of God.
9)Impudence.
10)�Projecting one�s sins and
wrong-doings over the others.
11)�Belittling the others by being
macro-maniac.
12)�Referring to the others� filth
by pretending to be clean.
13)�Not providing for the Hereafter
through this world.
14)�Finding faults with the others.
15)�Whispering in the presence of
the others.
16)�Being malevolent towards the
others.
The above inventory is a collection of obstacles before the acceptance
of our actions. It is clear that these things can be considered as impediments
in the way of supplications. This is because supplication is by itself a kind
of worship and it takes us close to God and it is responded if it is accepted.
But if it fails to function properly, it naturally will not be accepted.
The school of supplication has numerous features in which
sublime intentions are set by the sacred legislator to educate people. Here
reference will be made to some of them:
One of the most significant features in the sphere of
education is the fact that in all supplications we may not find a case where
the causation is referred to non-God or non-divine names. In other words, in
all these supplications the Absolute Cause is God and nothing can ever take
place without His consent.
Among the divine knowledge and sciences, the closest science
to this school is Gnosticism which ascribes to God the cause of creating all
the creatures and that every creature in the world stems from one of God�s
positions and features. Thus, one of the features of the infallible ones (s) is
to guide their followers towards the supreme God.
Regarding this issue, Allamah Tabataba�ee distinguishes between
the Shiite Gnosticism and the common Gnosticism and he says that �in the
verses, traditions and supplications there is a special system which paves the
way for the Gnostic and the believer�. Thus, in the behaviors and manners of
all these great men of virtues in the school of the infallible imams (s) we may
not see anything against the common sense and the rational thinking. Great men
such as Seyyid Ibn Tawus, Seyyed Bahroi uloom, Ibn Fahd al-Helli, Allamah
Tabataba�ee and his great teachers, whose manners and behaviors had been based
on the basis of those of the infallible imams (s), are good examples. All these
men are among the elite scholars in the employment of the verses of the Qur�an,
traditions and the commands of the school of the infallible imams (s).
In order to depict this significant feature of the
infallible imams (s), we will refer to some supplications. This will lead us to
appreciate the magnificent content of these sacred texts. Of course, in each
supplication only those parts are referred to that are crucial to our
argumentation:
In Simat supplication we see that God�s name appears in the
opening passage:
�O Allah! I invoke You with Your Great Name which is greater
than your names, more glorious than Your names and more beloved than them. I
invoke You with this name, with which if You are invoked to open the locks of
the gates of the Heaven they will be opened with mercy and if You are invoked
with it to open up the narrow gates of the earth with deliverance they will be
opened up�.
��and with Your
wisdom, by which You have created darkness and made it as calmness at night and
created light and made it as day and created the sun, the moon and the planets
and made them as stars.�
In the supplication of �al-Jawshan al-Kabir� God is given a
thousand names, each name of which relates to one aspect of the creation.
�O God, I invoke You, Who have the absolute domination and
perfection, Who have created the heavy clouds, Who have made every thing, Who
have created every creature, Who have provided everyone and everything with the
means of subsistence, O You, the Creator of the universe, the Manager of the
worlds, O You, Whom everything is existed because of, Whom everything relies
on, O You, the God of the seeds and the fruits, the God of the rivers and the
trees, the God of the deserts and the wilderness, the God of the wild lands and
the seas, the God of the night and the day, O You, Whose command has prevailed
over everything, Whose knowledge has covered everything, O You, Who there is no
kingdom except His, Who there is no gift except His.�
On the issue of the revolution of the world and the want and
desire of every creature to be absorbed by God, we read:
�I invoke You with Your greatest, most honored and most
glorious attribute, which You have put on the day and it has lit and put on the
night and it has become dark.�
�O You, Who have made the morning shine with brightness,
released the night with darkness, mastered the circulating orbits, made the sun
shine with Your light�O you, Who have created the dawn with Your kindness,
descended the dusk with Your generosity, flown waters from among solid rocks, poured
from the clouds pure water and have made the sun and the moon as shining lamps
for Your peoples.�
��and with Your power, with which You have defeated everything,
with Your glory that nothing ever equals, with Your greatness that has filled
everything and with Your attributes that have filled the corners of
everything��
And we read in the thirty sixth supplication of Sahifeh:
�O Allah, bring down on us the benefits and blessings of these
clouds and turn their harms away from us. O Allah, take away the barrenness of
our country by Your rains and take away the distress of our hearts by Your
blessing. The rich one is he, whom You have made rich and the safe one is he,
whom You have protected.�
�O Allah! Cloud and lightning are two signs of Yours and two
assistances from among Your assistances obeying You with profitable mercy or
harmful wrath. O Allah, do not make them pour over us the rain of wrath nor
make them cover us with the dress of distress!�
�And in the sixth supplication of Al-Sahifah
al-Sajjadiyyah:
�Praise be to Allah, Who has created the night and the day with
His power and distinguished between them with His might and made to each of
them a certain limit�.
��and He has created
the day and made it bright for them to benefit from their Lord�s favors, to
gain livelihood and to rove in His earth to get the necessary needs of their
worldly life and to insure the later necessities of their afterlife.�
It is to be noticed that in these expressions every move and
immovability is directly related to God and the whole causality is ascribed to
the Most Aware Allah. Another significant point is that the infallibles imams
(s) have considered themselves as the manifestation of God�s attributes (In
some traditions they consider themselves as the very content of God�s
attributes). However, the structure of the truth behind God�s attributes is
beyond our thinking and imagination.
The recognition of the Absolute power and the Absolute
knowledge and the absolute magnanimity of God are evident for the infallible
imams (s). This kind of knowledge is not the common knowledge; rather it is
their special understanding. They are, in fact, the manifestations of God�s
attributes. There is no separation between them and these attributes. That is
to say, when the infallible imams (s) refer to themselves, they introduce
themselves as God�s great names.
The reason is that the imam�s body is in this world and his
truth rests in the other world. Imam as-Sadiq (s) says:
�If the curtains (of the truth) are drawn apart, my conviction
will never change.�
Concerning God�s sincere servants, Imam Ali (s) has said: �The
bodies of the infallible ones (s) are here but their souls are in the other
world.� Regarding pious Gnostics, Avicenna in chapter nine of his book entitled
Isharat says: �As if he was present although he was absent and as if he
was resident although he had moved away�. Thus, the bodies of the pious sincere
servants of God are here in this world, but their spirits are in the high
layers of the system of creation.
The above sentence was an introduction for realizing the
fact that when we observe that the infallible ones (s), in their supplications,
invoke God with names, each of which manifests one aspect of creation, they are
not concerned with words per se; rather, they see the whole creation as the
effect of these names; they would also look at the world as it is the creation
of Allah. They have not established their relation with God through this world.
They are familiar with the specific features of each one of God�s names. They
consider this tangible world as the manifestation of God�s power. So we hear in
Komeyl supplication, ��and with Your
attributes that have filled the corners of everything.�
They are, in fact, looking from the higher layers of the
creation downwards the earthly world. They have noticed that each creature
depends on one of God�s Names. In other word, they see the world as true
realizations of God�s Names. They have known the geometry of this world through
God�s Names. They know that, for instance, a certain name includes night, the
other includes day, the third one manifests the sun and the fourth one depicts
the moon.
Sometimes the infallible imams (s) supplicate to God so
intensely that we are amazed how such unique creatures should weep so
anxiously. Of course, no body has any shred of doubt about the cleanliness of
these great people, but their regrets, continual weeping and confessions of
their weaknesses are amazing. We read in the supplication of al-Iftitah:
�O Allah, Your forgiving my sins, Your overlooking my mistakes,
Your pardoning my injustice, Your covering my bad doings Your patience before
my many crimes when I have committed them intendedly and unintendedly��
�O my Lord, I am the little one, whom You have brought up. I am
the ignorant one, whom You have taught. I am the sinful one, whom You have
forgiven. I see my self cheating me and my days deceiving me while the wings of
death are fluttering near my head�what about me! Why do I not cry!�
�O my Lord, can I thank You with this tired tongue or can I
please You with my doings? O my Lord, what the value of my tongue is beside
praising You and what the value of my doings is beside Your favors!�
�O my Lord, have mercy on me if my means fails me, if my tongue
fails to answer You and if my mind becomes reckless when invoking You.�
In these phrases we observe how these sources of knowledge
and treasures of piety employ humbleness with pardon and flattery to be close
to God. This question has got two answers:
Firstly, we should be aware that piety, knowledge, power and
glory of the infallible imams (s) have stemmed from that of God�s. We read in the
first ziyara of Imam Husayn (s) on the day of Ashura:
�Allah has granted you with the most honored position, the
highest rank of the closest ones (to Allah) and the highest positions of the
prophets that no one reaches, exceeds, precedes or ever thinks to get.
All these stem from God and have been given to the
infallible ones (s). If, at any moment, this favor is cut, no sign of
perfection will remain with man. In fact the fear of cutting these forms of
perfection by God has led these elite ones to know that the origin of the
exultant status comes from God. The greater this perfection, the greater is our
need to come close to God and the more vivid is our poverty in the presence of
God. Thus, the infallible ones are away from their very selves and are more in
need of the Absolute Power. To be thankful for this great asset, they would
never put supplications and regrets aside. They have always pointed to this
fact that what there is, could be accounted as to be from God.
Naturally, this great perfection and absolute dependence
bring them humbleness. That is why they get involved in supplications. Imam Ali
(s), in this regard, says: �I have not stopped flattering You.� From this statement
we can conclude that we may not ascribe to those honorable ones what we will
consider appropriate for ourselves, because this is going away from the status
of any of the infallible ones (s). Putting this kind of assumptions in our
minds, we will never arrive at knowledge.
Secondly, coming close to God, the Almighty, and receiving
that bottomless ocean of glory, absolute power and infinite knowledge, make man
so humble that he keeps on worshipping God for ever and if he cuts the
mountains with his eye-lashes, he has yet not compensated for God�s favors and
he will always remember to be humbleness and not to forget that. The
manifestation of glory, which could divide a mountain into two pieces and could
make Moses unconscious, is applied to the infallible ones (s). Any power
compared with the Almighty power is just nothing. In this case, there is a
reverse relationship: the more a person understands the power of God, the less
he will regard himself. No matter how much time he will spend on worshipping or
will go on fasting, he will be ashamed in the presence of God. Therefore, he
will always consider himself as an obedient servant of God. In the Sabah
supplication, we will:
�O God! Glory and praise be to You. Who is he that knows Your
reality without being afraid of You?�
This point has put the traits and features of all the
infallible ones (s) in a special position and let the ignorant ones in the
darkness. Thus Imam as-Sajjad (s) says:
�O my Lord! Your poor servant has come at Your gate; his
poverty has brought him here��
Elsewhere, he adds:
�������! ��� ����������� ��� ������
��������.
�O my Lord! If You leave me to myself, I shall perish.�
The important issue is that he is standing beside the light
of the Creator of the world with no curtain between them. That is why he sees
all his worships as nothing and he humbly invokes God, assuming no right for
himself. This definitely is the highest degree of sincerity. In the sixteenth
supplication of Al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah we read:
�O my God! If I cry until I lose my eye-lashes, and bow to You
until I break my back, prostrate so much till my eyes pop out of their sockets,
eat earth from the ground all my life, drink water mixed with ashes and during
all this time I invoke You until my tongue becomes tired, then I do not dare to
raise my head towards the sky feeling ashamed in front of You, I shall not
deserve that You forgive even one of my sins.�
The one, who feels proud when offering prayer and expects a
lot to happen to him because of his mid-night prayers or his fasting, will be a
prey to his greed and will not realize that servitude does not have any
conditions. One should engage in God�s servitude without having any doubts.
The above two points, which we discussed above, were taken
from the supplications. They will be good guidelines for those who are
entangled in this problem that �how Imam as-Sajjad (s) shows humbleness before
God?� This kind of mental states are seen among the great scholars who are
among special students of the school of the infallible imams (s) who have put
forth a lot of energy in worshipping God with no unusual expectation. It is
enough for the reader to refer to their biographies in order to get to the
truth.
Teaching Islamic knowledge depends on explaining mental and
philosophical issues which are dealt with in some supplications. This is a big
issue which requires several volumes to deal with. It is a spring of knowledge.
In the Arafah Supplication, Imam Husayn (s) said:
�O God! I have known You by You. You have guided me to You.
Without You I will never know what You are�
And this is the best kind of the reasoning used by the
sincere ones, who recognize God through God Himself and use no other form of
reasoning. This means that they will not feel qualified enough in with mind to
realize God. A poet says:
The sun is a proof of the sun,
If you are looking for proof,
just have a look at it.
This is because it is absurd to look for the sun during the
day by the light of the candle. Imam Husayn (s), in another part of his
supplication, refers to the proof of this issue with a fascinating
interpretation;
�Is there any other one besides You having what You do not have
so that other one would introduce you? Have you ever been absent so that we
would need a guide to get to You? Have You ever been distant so that signs
would be needed to lead to You? The eye, which does not see You as the observer
on it, is blind.�
When have You been hidden for
me to look for you?
You have never been absent for
me to be willing to see you;
�O my Lord! You have ordered me to refer to Your signs, in
order to recognize You, so take me to You with the proofs of light and the
guidance of insight so that I shall return to You from them as I have come to
You by them preserving Your secrets when seeing Your signs.�
��Will they not then
consider the camels, how they are created and the heaven, how it is reared
aloft and the mountains, how they are firmly fixed and the earth, how it is
made a vast expanse? 88:17-20�
But I humbly beg Your magnanimity without letting doubts
overcome me. I turn towards You because You are the clearest. You need no
reason to prove Yourself; rather, You are the reason for everything.
Love is observable from every
angle,
She is manifesting herself, O
eyes, see her.
Imam Husayn (s) refers to one of the secrets of the world,
which is to high above the world of reason:
�You have made Yourself known to me in everything and I have
seen You apparent in everything.�
Then he says:
����������� ������� ����� ����
�������� �����.
�You have made Yourself known to everything and there nothing
that has ignored You.�
It is evident that Imam Husayn (s) has observed the secrets
in the entire creation ad he himself, besides having seen God in every thing,
has been aware of the awareness of the creatures.
O God! How should we know? We wish we were at his time to
ask him: �O our Imam, how have you become aware of the stones, mountains, iron
and steel in the other world and how have you got the knowledge to know that
these items know God? What we could say, however, is that you are an infallible
Imam.� In the thirty second supplication of Sahifeh as-Sajjadieh we read:
�O God! O You the possessor of the everlasting kingdom over the
world. Your kingdom is so dominant that it has no limit in its beginning; nor
does it have an end to its termination. Your kingdom is so high that everything
has failed to reach. The utmost description of the descriptors will not reach
the least of what You have appropriated to Yourself.�
In these sentences, Imam Husayn (s) refers to noticable
points:
He has defined the infinite kingdom and might in the
following words: The limits of that kingdom are not shown by any beginning or
end although by the use of the expression �He is the First and He is the Last.�
His kingdom is carrying the attributes of �the beginning and the end.� Every
creature, before being of its own, belongs to God. Imam Husayn (s) has said:
�O You, Who have become so near that nothing is nearer than and
have become so high that nothing is higher than.�
This expression indicates that �He encompasses everything�
and shows that everything in the world is under the control of His power.
Nothing could exist or act without His consent. This fact is called monotheism.
Imam as-Sajjad (s) says:
�O God! I have known You by You. You have guided me to You.
Without You I will never know what You are.�
This means that Allah has given us minds to reason and He
has formed our nature in a way to seek for Him. This is, as we have seen
before, the best kind of reasoning offered by the infallible imams. No better
expression could ever be said by any philosopher. In the forty-seventh
supplication of Arafah, we read:
�You have no boundary to be limited; You are not visualized to
be an object; You have not begotten to be born. You are the one for whom there
is no opponent to oppose You; nor You have an equal to defeat you.�
What is referred to, here in this expression, is the
absolute power and the real monotheism which is neither limited nor
exemplifiable; neither does it have appearance, nor is it derived from anything
else. He does not have any associate or partner. This is because if He has any
of these things, then He will not be the Absolute Power or have the attribute
of being alone. In Komeyl supplication we read:
�O God! I invoke You with Your Face that will remain after the
perdition of everything and with the light of Your Face, with which everything
has lit. O You, the Light, the Most Holy.�
This infallible Imam has collected all of the Gnosticism in
these few words. Imam Ali (s) has seen that everything is reliant on God�s
Light and has seen that man�s salvage from the darkness of non-existence is
only due to God�s light, which is the Absolute Existence. However, by using the
expression �with Your Face that will remain after the perishing of everything�
he has referred to the absolute and everlasting dignity of God. After
considering everything as dependant on God�s Light, he has used �O You, the
Light, the Most Holy� so that to hinder the dubiety of adding an associate or a
partner to Him. This is what he has in mind �O God, You are the Absolute Light
and everything else has got its light from Your light. Glory be to You.�
The expressions of love towards God, which are seen in these
supplications while no exaggeration is involved, show us how feeble we are to
understand these beloved ones. They consider themselves as the simplest of all
the creatures. Now we refer to some aspects of this truth, which is beyond our
intelligence. Considering how innocent and pious these infallible ones are, the
significance of the issue will be clear:
In the fiftieth supplication of Sahifeh as-Sajjadieh, Imam
as-Sajjad (s) has said:
�O God! Punishing me does not add to your Kingdom even as a
weight of one atom. If punishing me adds to Your Kingdom a thing, then I will
ask You for patience and I would love that to You (if it adds something to Your
Kingdom.�
�O my Lord! If You bind me with fetters, prevent me Your favors,
disclose my scandals before the people, order to put me into Hell and separate
me from the pious, I will never lose my hopes in You, I will never despair to
be forgiven by You and I will never take Your love out of my heart. I will
never forget Your favors on me.�
�If You punish me for my sins, I will ask Your pardon. If you
put me in Hell, I will inform its residents that I love You.�
As we see, all we have heard of the love of lovers towards
their beloved ones, their sayings and their exaggerated fictions is not at all
comparable to the tongues of sincerity and assured hearts of these sincere
infallible imams (s).
The language of Gnosticism is the tongue of entr�e into the
world of intuition. It is the language of the unimaginable world. In
Sha�baniyyah Prayer we read:
�O my God! Make me one of those, whom You have called and they
have responded, whom You have observed and they have been stricken for Your
glory and whom You have confide to secrets and they have worked for You
openly.�
We also see in the twelfth supplication of The 15 Munajat:
�O my God! Let me be among those, in whose hearts the trees of
longing to You have rooted and whose hearts have been occupied with Your love
so to the best of grace they resort, in the gardens of nearness and disclosure
they delight and from the ponds of love they drink. The curtain has been
removed from upon their sights�How sweet the taste of Your love is and how
great Your nearness is. Make us among the best of those, who know You, and the
most pious of Your servants.�
�O You, Who have dominated with Your beneficence that the
Throne has become unseen in Your essence. You have effaced the signs by the
signs and removed the opponents by the horizons of light. O You, Who have
hidden in the pavilion of Your Throne so the sights cannot see You. O You, Who
gloried with Your perfect grace so Your greatness has shone loftily� You have
power over all things� Praise be to You alone.�
This part of the supplication is more distinguished and
deeper than the other phrases of the supplication because in the previous
sections Imam has begged God, but at this stage of the supplication, he
describes his intuition, i.e., he talks about the secrets of the heavens and
the glories of God. He considers that everything will vanish except God.
Thus, this supplication in fact is the description of an
innocent voyage, which this infallible imam has adopted and so he has offered a
great honor to the people, who have followed him. Definitely, if he had not
invited us to regard his dignity and if he had thought that the attainment of
such a position was impossible, he would have never described this position in
this supplication.
Most of the secrets are significant and only those
infallible ones know them. When Imam as-Sajjad (s) says in the thirty-second
supplication of his Sahifeh: �The utmost description of the descriptors will
not reach the least of what You have appropriated to Yourself� he refers to
this delicate point that what he knows of the names of God, the wisdom of all
the learned can never reach. Since he knows that nobody can attain those
positions, he does not discuss their stages.
The practical and ethical instructions, which are mentioned in
the supplications, are not deniable. This is especially true in al-Sahifah
al-Sajjadiyyah. Perhaps one of the factors, which led to these instructions
in the language of supplication, was that at that time there was no reliable
narrator at the side of this Imam. These narrators might have been present but
they did not dare to communicate much with Imam as-Sajjad (s). This was because
Imam as-Sajjad�s followers were easily persecuted. That was why Imam
as-Sajjad�s students communicated with him as little as possible.
They even could not teach the others what they had learned
from Imam as-Sajjad (s). Thus those lofty instructions were told in the form of
supplications to be used by the subsequent generations. In this way, these
supplications were kept until the present time. Now it is time to refer to some
instructions of these infallible ones.
�O my God! Let make me fear them (my parents) like fearing a
tyrant king. Make me treat them piously like a kind mother. Make my obedience
and being pious to them more delightful than the sleep of a sleepy one and more
pleasant to my heart than the drink of a thirsty one so that I prefer their
tendencies to mine and their contentment to mine. O my God! I forgave them
whatever wrong they have said or done to me or whatever right of mine they have
wasted or duty towards me they have neglected�O my Lord! I do not dislike
whatever they have undertaken of my affairs.�
From this statement it is clear that Imam as-Sajjad (s)
attracts the full attention of children towards their parents and this is just
an example because both he and his honorable father are infallible and they
never do any wrong. He has definitely not shown any kind of negligence towards
his parents. Thus, the objective of this supplication is the practical side of
it.
The
twenty-sixth supplication deals with the education of children. In this part of
the supplication, Imam as-Sajjad (s) has ordered the parents to pray for their
children and to take much care of them. They are not to indulge in the wrong
assumption that their only task is to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine,
and to send them to schools or to high schools. Rather, the focal attention
should be educating them.
At the same time, in this supplication it is talked about
the ideal children. Should it be enough for them to be only literate or should
it suffice them to be healthy or wealthy? Are there other factors, as well?
Imam as-Sajjad (s) has issued comprehensive commands concerning these issues:
�O my God! I pray You to keep their (my children�s) bodies
healthy and to preserve their ethics and faith�and grant me with their
sustenance. Make them well-doers, pious, discerning and obedient to You and
make them love and follow Your guardians and hate and dissent from Your foes.
Assist me to bring them up and educate them well. Guard me and
my children against the Satan. You have created us and ordered us to do the
right things and prohibited us from doing wrong. You have made the reward of
carrying out Your orders desirous to us and warned us of the punishment of not
obeying Your orders.�
As we see in this supplication that the two objectives above
(i.e. introducing the ideal children and the ways of educating children) are
thoroughly dealt with.
We have been ordered to keep away from the Satan and to
protect ourselves against him to have any control over our souls. This is something
vital to us because disregarding any of the commands of these great ones may
cause man to deteriorate. Moulana, the great Iranian Poet says:
The other day the Gnostic was
going around the city with a lamp;
He said he was tired of seeing
devils; he was looking for a true man;
I told him he cannot find one
because we have looked for him and we have failed.
He said he wanted the one who
is not found.
Imam as-Sajjad (s) has mentioned the dangers of the Satan.
He said that he is a foe, whose stronghold is our breast, whose movement is
into our blood vessels and whose weapon is our doubts.
Through these sentences the Satan is thoroughly introduced
so that man can defend himself against his bloody attacks and nullify his
aggression. Of course, this supplication belongs to an imam, who is in the
stronghold of God and the Satan can never take hold of him. So it is evident
that Imam as-Sajjad (s) has offered these commands for people.
��and guide me (to be good) towards my neighbors and followers,
who have acknowledged our right...and guide them to keep to Your religion and
to follow Your morals in being kind to the needy, reforming their defects,
visiting the sick, guiding the seekers of guidance, advising the consultees,
welcoming the comers, preserving their secrets, covering their defects,
supporting the wronged, assisting the hungry, doing them favors, giving them
what they need before they ask for. O my Lord, make me reward with good those,
who have done me wrong, overlook the unjust, trust in them all, be pious to
them, lower my eyes continently, be humble to them, be kind merciful to
afflicted ones, love them truly, wishing them blessing, wish to them what I
wish to my kins, take care of them as I take care of my close relatives�O my
Lord, grant me like that from them�
It is observed that in all of these constructive pieces of
advice, Imam as-Sajjad (s) has great positive feelings towards the neighbors.
We should know that, according to the Islamic code, until forty houses on each side
of one�s house are considered as one�s neighbors. If these principles are
carried out, we can imagine what utopias persons like Plato and Aristotle have
had in their minds. Under such conditions, the dominance of human ethics and
principles will lead the society without interference of the governors. These
ethical instructions are to secure the social justice. They are charters for
living peacefully and for modifying behaviors and speeches and for controlling
one�s imaginations.
Among the significant commands in supplications are the
ethical issues and the fitness of one�s soul to them. Concerning this, we can
refer to Imam as-Sajjad�s �Resalatol Hoquq� in which he has dealt with all
these items, with which man contacts, and he has offered necessary instructions
for each of them. In the twenty-second supplication of Al-Sahifah
al-Sajjadiyyah we read:
�O my Lord, make Your blessings upon Mohammad and his progeny
and get me rid of envy, make me refrain from sins, make me pious before
prohibitions, do not make me dare to disobey You and make me in all of my
states protected, safeguarded, defended and rescued!�
The supplication of Makarim al-Akhlaq, which is the
twentieth supplication of Al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah, is very useful in
this regard. We will refer to a part of it, which is a sample of the human
ethical system. The content of this supplication equals a visit to a library of
ethical resources. As if a synopsis of a library has been gathered in this
supplication:
�O my Lord! Make me as a means of welfare for people and do not
perish this welfare by making me boast vainly. Grant me with the highest of
morals and keep me safe from boasting. O my Lord, do not make me in need of
anything and ease my livelihood. Do not try me with pride and vanity. Make me
devote myself to You and do not spoil my worship with conceit.�
In another part of this supplication Imam as-Sajjad (s)
says:
�O my Lord! Keep me alive as long as I obey You and when my
life becomes as a pasture to the Satan, then make me die before You will detest
me or You will send Your wrath on me!�
There is another feature of supplication; it is the
reference to the Islamic government and invoking Allah to protect its stability
and defending the borders of the Islamic countries by strong faithful men. Imam
as-Sajjad (s) has devoted the twenty-seventh supplication of Al-Sahifah
al-Sajjadiyyah to the guards of the borders and the armies of the Islamic
state. Imam as-Sajjad (s) has made people alert to defend their Islamic
heritage:
�O my Lord! Protect the borders of the Moslem countries and
support their guards with Your power... increase their numbers and, sharpen
their weapons, guard their land, defend their country, unite their groups,
manage heir affairs, teach them what they do not know, inform them of what they
ignore, enlighten them on what they do not see� O Allah, whoever fighter of
Your nation fights them (the enemies) or a mujahid of the followers of Your
religion strives against them� support him and prepare his affairs� take
cowardness off him, inspire him with courage, grant him with strength, assist
him with victory, teach him the Sunna and the laws and support him in the
rule.�
These statements of this supplication refer to the
organizations of Islam. The Moslems should be so organized that the enemies
could not find a chance to demolish them. They should be equipped with modern
weaponry to defend themselves.
The phrase �sharpen their weapons� refers to the power of
dominating. It means that the weapons should be modified in accordance with the
time. The phrase �teach him the Sunna and the laws� means to learn the latest
military tactics and the phrase �teach them what they do not know, inform them
of what they ignore, enlighten them on what they do not see� indicates that the
Islamic army should learn the military techniques and should behave diligently
in accordance with the position of the enemy. Not only the army should be
ready, but also it should not act foolishly.
It should be noticed that Imam as-Sajjad (s) has recommended
this strong organization not for expanding the country or for dominating over
the poor and the needy; but he (s) has intended to defend the Moslems and the
Islamic countries. Thus he says:
�O God! Make the countries of the Moslems strong and fortified,
do not make them busy with fighting in order to be free to worship You and to
be alone with You so that no one is to be worshipped on the earth save You and
that no forehead of any of them is to be covered with soil to other than You.�
Imam as-Sajjad (s) in the supplication of �the Beginning�
asks God for a pious government:
�O Allah! We are looking forward to an honorable state, in
which You glorify Islam and its people and degrade hypocrisy and its people and
to make us among those, who invite to Your obedience and guide to Your path.�
Elsewhere, he asks God to protect us against the trespassers
and aggressors by saying:
�All praise be to Allah, the Defeater of the tyrants, the
Destroyer of the unjust, the Overtaker of the escapers, the Punisher of the
unfair, the Resort of the resorters and the Responder of the applicants.�
In this statement, the oppressed ones in the world are given
hopes and are encouraged not to despair. It makes them realize that God
remembers them because He is the destroyer of the tyrants, the opponent of the
vicious and the protector of the wretched. So when the wretched escape from the
tyrants, Allah is the only one, to Whom they are to resort to. They will not
find themselves unprotected and they will not give the aggressors a chance to
involve in more injustice.
It is evident that Islam has a firm view towards the Moslem
social parties. It severely punishes those, who make troubles for these
foundations. Even in some verses of the Qur�an, the punishment for
trouble-makers in some cases is killing.
�If the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease and
the agitators in the City (Medina) do not desist, we shall most certainly set
you over them, then they shall not be your neighbors in it but for a little
while. Cursed, wherever they are found they shall be seized and murdered, a
(horrible) murdering. 33:60-61�
There are many such decisive verses in the Holy Qur�an. This
policy is to protect the prestige of the Moslem nation. This prestige is
strongly protected by God. The Holy Qur'an says:
�So the roots of the people who were unjust were cut off; and
all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. 6:45�
This Islamic system and organization is deemed so crucial by
the infallible imams (s). Imam Ali (s) says in Nahj al-Balaghah: �I
found that if I had asked for my rights and stood against the government, it
would have been hazardous to the society of the Moslems. So I gave up my rights
to keep the Moslems safe and I was a sincere counselor.� And for the same
reason, Imam Hassan (s) signed the famous contract with Mo�awiya. In many
supplications the infallible imams (s) have ordered people to pray for the just
imam.
What has been mentioned above is just a few of the concepts
included in the supplications offered by the infallible imams (s). I hope it
will be of use for the dear readers. All praise is due to Allah.
�Most
surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the
night and the day there are sings for men who understand. Those who remember
Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation
of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain!
Glory be to Thee; save us then from the chastisement of the fire. 3:190 -191�
[83]
Imam As-Sadiq (s) has said: �The heart is the sanctum of God; therefore, do not
let anyone else dwell in this sanctum.� (Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 70, p. 25)
�Whatever
is in the heavens and the earth declares the glory of Allah, and He is the
Mighty, the Wise. His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives
life and causes death; and He has power over all things. He is the First and
the Last and the Ascendant (over all) and the Knower of hidden things, and He
is Cognizant of all things. He it is who created the heavens and the earth in
six periods, and He is firm in power; He knows that which goes deep down into
the earth and that which comes forth out of it, and that which comes down from
the heaven and that which goes up into it, and He is with you wherever you are;
and Allah sees what you do. His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth;
and to Allah are (all) affairs returned. He causes the night to enter in upon
the day, and causes the day to enter in upon the night, and He is Cognizant of
what is in the hearts.�
[94]Bihar
al-Anwar, vol. 3, p. 263 and Shaykh Saduq: Al-Tawhid, p. 283.
[95]
Special wordings recited when visiting one of the holy shrines of the
infallible imams or their progenies.
