True Vision - Blessed Vision
Blessed Vision
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
God knows why my dear friends gave me this lovely suggestion to express my thoughts on the subject of vision. It was perhaps because of the fact that our beloved spiritual guide and leader, Hazrat Mawlānā Dhanī Salāmat Dātār Shāh Karīm al-Husaynī, `alayhi's-salātu wa's-salām, was soon going to graciously come to our beloved country Pakistan, to bless us the Ismailis, with his sacred dīdār. Thus before describing its grace, blessings, results and fruits, I think it is appropriate to present some easily understandable examples from the external world, so that everyone may easily cross this physical and material bridge and reach the city of truth and wisdom.
In this connection, it is important to give a cogent and easy answer to the question: Which of the five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, is the most superior? and what is the importance of the faculty of seeing? and how much happiness can man attain through it?
To respond, first we should pay attention to the word "vision", the Persian word for which is "dīdār", which is derived from the infinitive "dīdan". According to me and certainly according to others too, it is an extremely pleasing and lovely word. Why not, since it is used for the observation of the internal and external beauty of God and nature, and it is the name of the observation of the wonders of creation and traces of Divine mercy; it is used for the manifestations and observation of the world of spirituality, in addition to the world of imagination, the world of dream and the world of reflection and thinking, in which every beautiful thing is coloured in the colour of God (2:138) and above all in its ultimate meanings, it is used for the holy encounter with God.
It should be known that although our five external senses first relate to material things, some of them are superior to others, and the faculty of seeing surpasses them, because its reach is boundless and its pleasure unlimited. That is, the pleasure and happiness which it attains by observing the exquisite wonders of nature and the beautiful and attractive scenes of the world, never cease. If you go to an orchard and eat the various delicious fruits, how many can you eat? If you go to a rose garden and smell the fragrance of beautiful flowers, how much fragrance can you absorb? It is possible that after a while, you might have a headache, because physically the brain is limited and cannot contain the particles of fragrance beyond a specific quantity. On the contrary, the beautiful scene of a garden is not such that it may tire your mind or you may be satiated or dejected by it. Also among the wonders of the eye is that it can contain within itself not only the earth, but also the heaven and can even compress very big things and make them small. This shows that the power of the eye is very close to spiritual forces.
Those who have true knowledge know that, in addition to external senses, there are internal senses in man and among them, the faculty of the inner eye is most exalted and superior. Therefore, in the Qur'ānic wisdom, the topic which is selected to indicate all the spiritual pleasures of Paradise, is the vision (dīdār, liqā') of God. Whatever may be the nature and reality of the vision of God, it contains within it Paradise with all its favours and delights. And wherever in the Qur'ān, Paradise is described and praised, it is an allegorical explanation of the vision of God or the Divine manifestations. This explanation should not arouse fear in someone about the existence of Paradise, rather he should be assured that Paradise and all its bounties are there, but in an intellectual and luminous form, not in a material and physical form, because there everything, every bounty and every pleasure is tinted in the Divine colour. Or, in other words, Paradise is the abode of the diverse manifestations of the absolute Light.
The vision thus, whether it is of the Holy Prophet or of the Imam of the time, is the only means for the vision of the Hereafter or Paradise. This vision is the source of satisfaction of the heart and the means of comfort of soul for the followers, because this belief and concept is consequent to the belief in the existence of God and yearning for His closeness. The purpose of vision is return to the religion of God and attachment to it, attainment of Divine guidance and fulfilment of obedience to Him and thus to receive a part of His mercies and affections and those of His Prophet, the mercy for the worlds. Vision is the means of attaining all these.
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