Recognition of Imam Part III - Key 5 Spiritual Meeting with Everything
Key 5 Spiritual Meeting with Everything
Tags: vision of certainty, `Aynu'l-Yaqin, Holy Spirit
The eighth part of the holy Qur'ān begins: “And though We should send down the angels unto them, and the dead should speak unto them, and We should gather against them all things in array, they would not believe unless God so willed. How be it, most of them are ignorant” (6:112).
Always remember the principle of wisdom that the wise Qur'ān presents for human beings only the concepts of those things which are possible for them, because the holy Qur'ān as the sacred speech of God, may He be exalted, contains the substance of utmost truth and justice. Thus, if the spiritual meeting and conversation with the angels, the dead and the souls of everything were impossible for man and if God, may He be exalted, had never actually tested the mu'mins and the infidels with such miracles in any time, then (God forbid), there would be neither justice nor truth in mentioning this miracle. Hence, it becomes evident that whatever has been mentioned in the above universal law is a practical reality. According to the real mu'mins, this event is called the unveiling of spirituality (kashf-i ruhaniyyat). According to Divine expediency this miracle also happens to infidels, in which case it is called “descent of Divine punishment”.
Those real mu'mins who want to attain the rank of the vision of certainty (`aynu'l-yaqin), with the help of the knowledge of certainty (`ilmu'l-yaqin) have to believe in these realities of spirituality that the spirit, in contrast to the external and material things, is a miraculous substance. It is among the miracles of the world of command (`alam-i amr), where everything appears by the Will of “Be” (kun). Thus, the spirit is endowed with the characteristic of presenting all the miracles of knowledge. It is an indisputable fact that the spirit of every mu'min, who has recognized God, can adopt the spiritual form of the universe and existents and demonstrate an example of the occurrence of Resurrection and of the next world. In such a state, the mu'min finds himself in the midst of a stormy and turbulent ocean of spirits, which appear in the form of angels, the dead, the alive, Gog and Magog and everything else, so much so that these spirits include the spirits of inanimate things too. However, it must be remembered that great sacrifices have to be made in order to attain such lofty experiences of spirituality.
If one questions how a mu'min's spirit can accomplish such a great feat, my answer is only in one sentence that, with the true obedience of the ever-living and ever-present Imām, the spirit of a mu'min can accomplish this great feat.
Again, if one asks what the mutual relation between the light of Imāmat, the Holy Spirit and a mu'min's spirit is, the answer is that the Holy Spirit is not separate from the light of the exalted Imām, nor can a mu'min's spirit alone accomplish any great deed without the help of the Holy Spirit. The mutual relation of these three spiritual realities is like that of the sun, the sea and the rivulet. That is, the light of Imāmat is the sun, the Holy Spirit is the sea and the mu'min's spirit is the rivulet. Whence does the water of the rivulet come? It comes from the mountains, where it is the product of the rain and the snow. What is the source of the rain and the snow? It is the clouds which rise from the sea. How are clouds formed from the sea? By the heat of the sun.
The water of the rivulet can decrease, as well as increase. It decreases when the light of the sun is far from the mountains or when the clouds without rain cast their shadows on them. In the same way, there is the increase and decrease in a mu'min's spirit, which is due to closeness to or remoteness from the light of Imāmat.
When the sun is near and the sky is clear, its rays are cast on the rivulet everywhere and its water also increases (due to melting ice and snow). However, this is not a great miracle of the sun. The rivulet will see a great miracle of the sun where it meets the ocean and merges with its unity, and realises how comprehensively it (the unbounded ocean) is in the grip of the heat of the sun and how, having saturated the whole world with a substantial portion of itself, returns its surplus [to the ocean] in the form of rivers and then continues to rise to the heights of the sky in the form of vapour and clouds!
Likewise, the spirit of every true mu'min can have the vision (didar) of the light of the Imām of the time at one or the other spiritual stage and can also progress spiritually. But this is in no way a great didar and a great miracle. Of course, the great miracle is the place where a mu'min's spirit, riding on the river of the knowledge of Pirs and dignitaries [of faith] merges in the ocean of the Holy Spirit. One of the innumerable miracles of this place is that the True Guide's light continues to send out countless guiding spirits to all sides of the world from the ocean of the Holy Spirit. The natural and reflective guidance of every group, every class, every rank and every individual is based on this system. The holy light of the exalted Imām does not care whether a group or an individual acknowledges his universal guidance or not. Nonetheless, in this guidance, there is definitely a differentiation with respect to the ranks of ma`rifat and according to the need of people. Or in other words, [in order to receive the guidance] the capacity of its acceptance is an essential condition.
In short, the fountainhead of all the miracles is the Holy Spirit, which is under the influence of the True Guide's light. Every miracle results in two forms: either as prosperity of the souls or their destruction. If a true mu'min prepares himself to endure the miracles by means of obedience, `ibadat, spiritual exercise and the knowledge of certainty and progresses further and further [in bearing] the gradual miracles, they are only mercy for him. Whereas if a human being encounters a great miracle all of a sudden [without preparation], it causes destruction, unless the Imām of the age helps him even in such a situation.
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