Spiritual Experiences - `Ali `Ali `Ali
`Ali `Ali `Ali
Tags: Heavenly Love, Love
1. Without any doubt, today's topic is extremely full of love and intoxicating. Perhaps there may be some reasons for this and one of them indeed is that in paradise there are long rivers which, if observed with insight, we will come to know without any doubt that they have reached this world [also]. One of them is that of the wine of paradise, which abounds in rapture and joy and the intoxication of heavenly love. Heavenly in the sense that the command has come from heaven to give this holy love a place in one's heart. It is that pure love whose pleasant teaching is present in the Qur'an and hadith. Thus, I have a saqi (cup-bearer) who has a new glory every time.
Qurban ba-lab-i yar gahi gunchah gahi gul
May I be sacrificed for the lips of my beloved, which are sometimes a bud and sometimes a flower".
2. In the eye of the people of wisdom, it is clear that sometimes heavenly love burns all sins by becoming fire and sometimes shows the path by becoming the light of guidance. Thus, the ladder of heavenly love is based on four steps: Love of God, love of the Prophet (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny), love of Hazrat-i `Ali (May peace be through him) and love of the Imam (May peace be through him) of the time. This is because the trial of servants is not related to the past but rather, it is related to the present, therefore it is necessary for every mu'min and mu'minah to have this staunch faith that the wisdom-filled name of the Imam (May peace be through him) of the time is the "`Ali of the time" because he has the same light as Hazrat-i `Ali (May peace be through him).
3. It is mentioned in the second volume of Tirmizi that: "Indeed, `Ali is from me and I am from `Ali and he is the custodian (wali) of every mu'min after me". Here, if there is the light of love, the intellect will be able to work better and better in its light. That `Ali means the Imam (May peace be through him) of the time, because Hazrat-i `Ali (May peace be through him) was the Imam (May peace be through him) of his time. Since the Prophet (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny) has said "after me" and "every mu'min", so today as well as tomorrow is the time after the Prophet (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny) and every believing man and woman needs such a custodian (waliyy-i amr) now as well as in the future. This is because a sound hadith is among the most comprehensive words, whose meaning is never incomplete, rather it has tremendous eloquence of meaning.
4. `Ali, `Ali, `Ali is the topic of conversation as well as the slogan of ardent love. In the intoxication of love, I have shouted the slogan of "`Ali, `Ali, `Ali" so loud as to rent the sky asunder and I am sure that this wisdom-filled voice and echo of the love of Hazrat-i `Ali (May peace be through him) has become immortal in the luminous movie of angels. I am a lover of the holy and pure Imam in my spiritual life, because it is he who generously revived me whereas in reality, I was previously dead. Hazrat-i `Isa (May peace be through him) used to revive people from the death of ignorance which has been a perennial need, and therefore the miracle of Hazrat-i `Isa (May peace be through him) remains and continues in Islam, which is the perfect religion. However, it is a pity that common people would like to see and test every miracle with the external or physical eye and this thinking is utterly wrong. Had there not been in this world Islam's extraordinary miracles, the wise Qur'an would have never said "They are deaf, mute and blind so they do not return" (2:18). From this it is clear that there are miracles of listening, speaking and seeing, starting from this very [physical] world.
5. Indeed, love is a heavenly light and light has four relations: the light of God, the light of the Prophet (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny), the light of Hazrat-i `Ali (May peace be through him) and the light of the Imam (May peace be through him) of the time. Therefore, you must merge in the light of love and continue to climb the ladder step by step and see what happens. In this way I think that you will be merged in God. Thus, highly blessed is the one who attains the perfection of love.
Ta na-bakhshad Khuda-yi bakhshindah
6. I wish and humbly pray that may the light of love dawn in all hearts! This love is a product of spiritual knowledge. It is the fruit of [studying] the Qur'an and the hadith. It is a result of staunch belief. This love is the fruit of the observation [of spiritual] beauty and elegance. Just as He is the most beautiful, similarly His pure love is the sweetest and highest. As Hafiz-i Shirazi says:
Sabt ast bar zaidah-yi `alam dawam-i ma
7. A mu'min can be very weak in the love of the `Ali (May peace be through him) of the time. The reason could be that doubts and suspicions have been created in his heart. The cure [of such a disease] has to be done by allopathy. That is, in the light of the Qur'an and hadith and the teaching of the dignitaries of religion, the attributes and virtues of the Imam (May peace be through him) of the time have to be highlighted so that he may love Mawla. If any mu'min says: "I believe in `Ali with heart and soul but that there is no Imam like him now", then such a person does not have true knowledge. [That is, he does not know that] it is due to the light of Imamat that the people of the time progress externally and internally. Therefore, the `Ali (May peace be through him) of the time is today doing far greater work than before, as the Qur'an says in (61:8) "And Allah will complete his light". This is an allusion towards the time of Hazrat-i Qa'im (May peace be through him). Al-hamdu li'llahi Rabbi'l-`alamin!
Karachi, 17th June 1997
Tuesday, 11 Safaru'l-muzaffar 1418 A.H.
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