Majalis-ul Muayyadiya - by Al Muayyad fid-din Shirazi
Life and Lectures of Al Muayyad fid-din Shirazi
Contents Lectures 1
through 20 of the Majlis - (Lectures Coming soon!)
O Momins, May God help you in thanking Him for the favour He has done to you by guiding you through the Imams. Cut short your connections with the wicked world which have been according your inner self. Attach yourself to the place where you will be free from worries. This is the Abode of Bliss, the keys of which are in the hands of the Imams.
Disown those who have become ungrateful to them. They are like those about whom God says, "Don’t you observe those who have denied the favours of God and have become ungrateful and have thus led their people to hell-fire where they burn for ever. It is the worst imaginable place. They maintained that God had associates. They did so to lead people astray. Tell them, (O Muhammed). Enjoy yea this life of short duration. Your ultimate destination is hell."
Last time I dealt at length with the explanation and the inner meaning of the verse from the Holy Qur'an and now I am going to deal with the verse which follows the previous one. The verse is as follows: "with regard to him who fears the ‘Rehman' in ‘ghaib' and comes to God with a penitent heart...”
The commentators say that the word ‘ghaib' means unseen. Here it stands for the world which is hidden from the people living in this world. ‘Rehman' according to them is derived from'Rehmat' and is synonymous with ‘Raheem.' But ‘Rehman' is applicable to none but God and ‘Raheem' is applicable to God as well as man. ‘Rehman' they say meant the one who transforms a wicked man into a virtuous one when He wishes to favour him. The word ‘Raheem' does not imply all this. They say when it applies to man, sometimes he does show kindness and sometimes he does not. At times he is able to show it and at time he is not. There is a very subtle difference between these two epithets.
The Holy Qur'an says: "There are people who disdain devotion to the ‘Rehman.' There is a tradition to the effect that this people believed in God but did not believe in the ‘Rehman.' If God and ‘Rehman' mean one and the same thing then there is no meaning in saying that they believed in God and did not believe in the ‘Rehman.' This is one of the subtleties of the Holy Qur'an which needs an elucidation. There is another verse in the Holy Qur'an which says, "When they were ordered to bow down to the one whom you order us to bow to?"
We say that God is ‘Rehman'. ‘Rehman" is the most important of all the names of God. The names have got forms, which can be written down and effaced, and the substance, which they stand for. They are the symbols of realities. The Hudud i.e. the Imams are the spirit of the forms and the realities of the symbol.
The word ‘Raheem' from the point of view of its substance stands for the great Hudud, some of which are spiritual beings, and others are in human form. It is through them that we can attain to the true knowledge of the Unity of God. It is through them that we can reach the Abode of Bliss. It is they about whom God says, "And He taught Adam all the names and said to the angels, tell me what you know of their names if you think you are right."
It was the names of these Hudud (authorities) which were taught to Adam and it was through the knowledge of these names that Adam established his superiority over the angels. Tabaree and other commentators like him who float on the surface and do not dive deeper say that these ‘asmah' stand for horses, camels, donkeys, cattle and sheep. They go to the length of mentioning all sorts of things including the wooden plates and utensils under the category of ‘asmah.' Our ‘Majalis' are above this rude and crude stuff. The ‘asmah; stand for nothing other than the living Natiqs i.e. spokesmen of God - the Hudud; and Allah and ‘Rehman' also belong to this category. It is blasphemous to say that the ‘asmah' stand for cattle and donkeys.
God has praised the one who fears ‘Rehman' in ‘ghaib' i.e. he who knows the position of the Hudud in this world of darkness and appears before Him with a penitent heart. We must bear in mind that the heart is the center of human activities. It governs the body. The working of the body depends upon it.
Just as the arteries of the human body depend for the supply of blood on the heart, in the same way, in spiritual matters also we depend for guidance on the Imam of the time who is the heart of the ‘shariat'. The Holy Qur'an says, "We shall show you Our signs in the world and among yourselves in order that the truth may become clear to you." In short, just as our physical existence depends on our hearts, our spiritual elevation depends on the Imams. The Holy Qur'an says, "There will come the day when We shall call every generation to appear before us with their Imams"!
May God make you fear God in ‘ghaib' and may you approach Him with your hearts directed to Him. This will suffice for this ‘Majalis'. The rest of the verse I shall explain to you in the next meeting.
Contents Lectures 1
through 20 of the Majlis - (Lectures Coming soon!)
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