Did He want to bother me, or He wanted me to enjoy?

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Why did God create me? For which enjoyments? How does He want to overwhelm me? Has He made me in a way that I want to be overwhelmed, but He doesn’t overwhelm me? God is the creator of enjoyments. Is He Himself less enjoyable than His creatures? What does God want for me? Will He be satisfied with less than Himself for me? Has He created you to bother you or for you to benefit, so that when you prostrate you say, “God, I am greatly thankful to You”? Hasn’t God created you and me to fall in love? What does God want me to fall in love with? Is God indifferent about me?
He says in Chapter Rum, “Have they never thought about themselves?” [30:8] Don’t they spend time alone to think about themselves? Think about what? It tells us what to think about. “…that Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them except with truth…” Don’t they think about themselves that God has not created them in vain? “…and for a stated term…” What was His goal? Think about it. It doesn’t explain the goal. “…a stated term…” See the true end after these have finished. See that ending point. “Yet most people disbelieve that they will ever meet their Lord.” Why? Because they don’t think.
A person told the Prophet(s), “I helped you in the desert.” The Prophet (s) said, “Ask me for something and I will give it to you.” He said, “So let me think.” He left, thought, and came back. He said, “I want to be at your level in Heaven.” He said the ultimate peak! The Prophet (s) asked him, “Did you think of this yourself or someone helped you?” If he had said someone helped him, the Prophet (s) wouldn’t have accepted it from him. The man replied, “I thought of it myself.” The Prophet asked him to explain. He replied, “I thought that this world will finish and whatever I ask you for will be eliminated. In the Hereafter, no position will be higher than yours. I want that. If it existed, it would have been yours. So there is no request higher than being at your level [in the Hereafter].” The Prophet (s) said, “Ok, I’ll take you.” Because he had thought about it.
Someone asked me, “Is it good to listen to many speeches?” I said, “No, not at all! So when do you yourself want to think?” Even if you were with the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (as), leave him and spend time to think yourself. After thinking, you will come to a result. You’ll see that the most valuable goal for you is to meet God in the best form. This will be the ultimate goal of your life. Think and come to this point where you say, “I have one goal in life. I want to get close to God. Nothing else is valuable to me. I only want to get close to You!” If you think some more, other things will happen. This will become your only goal.

Searching within Our Inner Being

In a tradition, we have been told to purify our internal being before the reappearance. Because, at the time of the reappearance there will be some tests, which many don’t expect, and they therefore fall to the ground. Before the reappearance, everyone should purify his or her internal being as much as they can from some flaws, which even wine drinkers may not have. They might become corrected when the Imam (‘a.j.) comes. But me, a believer and Muslim, I go to the mosque and am very sacred, but I stand up to the Imam.
Basically, a human being’s life from the beginning to end is spent to uncover the hidden parts of his existence. Our life on the path to perfection is nothing but finding the hidden parts of our existence. Religiosity is nothing but finding the hidden parts of a person! The only philosophy behind the divine tests is uncovering the hidden parts of a human being.
God said, “I created you to test you.” This means that He created us for us to look inside ourselves and see what is going on there. A tradition explains that the Imam’s (‘a) followers look inside themselves very much. The Imam (‘a) said, “A person who doesn’t evaluate himself every day, is not from us.” They evaluate themselves every day.
The ‘Friends of God’ weep and cry in the middle of the night! The Commander of the Faithful, Ali (‘a), was born inside the Ka’ba! He was worried until the end of his life that there may be some hidden bad points within himself to cause him to die as an unbeliever! He was worried! When struck, he said, “I’ve become prosperous.” Now he felt comfortable that he would die as a Muslim. The Commander of the Faithful (‘a)!
What is going on inside a person that he must evaluate himself so much? The Commander of the Faithful (‘a) wasn’t joking. During the Sha’baniyah sermon, when the Prophet (s) saw him, he cried. The Imam (‘a) asked, “O Prophet of God, why did you cry when you saw me?” The Prophet (‘a) replied, “I saw that your beard will become colored with your blood in the month of Ramadan.” The Imam (‘a) asked, “Am I a believer at that time?!” O Allah! Where are you Imam?! He is busy with himself to make sure there aren’t any bad points hidden in the corner of his heart.
Find your hidden self. Each one of us should spend some time. Make your faith firm deep inside your heart before the reappearance. Whoever has some hypocrisy in his heart, will fall down due to the tests before the reappearance. And, they will fall to the ground.

Lovely Sedition!

The philosophy behind the seditions at the end of time is completely clear. For example, there is a tradition from Imam Baqir (‘a), “Never, never! The reappearance won’t take place until you’ve been filtered, filtered again, and filtered again.” The reappearance won’t happen until you’ve been filtered and separated from one another.
At the end of the “Iftitah Supplication,” we read, “God, we complain to You about the severity of the seditions that come to us and the passing of time, which are to our detriment.” God, in the severe seditions that come upon us, and the domination that our enemies want to have over us, have mercy on us . The Almighty God wants to put aside those who are not worthy, and keep the pure people.
It has been clearly said in a tradition, “The seditions at the end of time, are for the hypocrites who are among the believers and should be removed.” It is possible that hypocrisy be in those who are awaiting the Imam (‘a.j.). It doesn’t matter how the people who are not awaiting are, because filtering has been mentioned for the believers.
For example, Imam Reza (‘a) said, “Some of the people who have fondness for us, the Household of the Prophet (‘a), create more severe seditions than the sedition of the Dajjal.” People asked him, “O son of the Prophet, what’s their sedition?” The Imam’s (‘a) explanation can clarify the sedition of these kinds of people. The Imam (‘a) said, “They are friends with our enemies and enemies with our friends.”
About the complexity of the seditions at the end of time, and how much people can be incited, people asked Imam Sadiq (‘a). The Imam (‘a) raised up the curtain of the tent and sunlight entered. The Imam asked, “What’s this?” The person said, “O the son of the Prophet, this is light.” The Imam said, “Are you mistaken?” He replied, “No, I can see the sunlight.” The Imam said, “It is true that the seditions at the end of time are horrific. Many fall down. The filtering is severe. Making distinctions is a serious matter. But, the truth is this clear for the people of the truth.”
If a person claims to be a believer, he or she should be ready for seditions. The Holy Prophet of God (s) said, “Don’t’ be upset about the seditions at the end of time, because they destroy the hypocrites.” In another tradition, the Household of the Prophet (‘a) even said, “Ask for the seditions at the end of time.” Ask God for these tests to happen one after another. Because in these seditions the work will finish sooner, and the believers will be rescued sooner.
Sedition is a horrifying event. It’s hard. Some will fall down. It also brings some surprising growth too, and it creates a strength for the believers. Because of that strength, it has been said to ask for the seditions at the end of time. “Don’t’ be upset about the seditions at the end of time, because they destroy the hypocrites.” “Until you’ve been filtered, and filtered again.”
[From the series of speeches under the topic of “The Month of Ramadan, the month of hope for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (‘a.j.).” ‘A Commentary on the Iftitah Invocation.’ An excerpt from the 28th session.]

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Is it right to give hope about the Reappearance?

If people become hopeful but the Imam doesn’t reappear, won’t they become irreligious?


We should make each other hopeful about the Reappearance (of the saviour) that is close. God willing all these events are preparing the preliminaries for the quick Reappearance of Mahdi, the son of Fatimah (‘a.j.). The doubt is that what if we make people hopeful, but the Reappearance is delayed? Then what will happen? This is truly a wrong statement. If we are worried about making people hopeful using logic, reasons and in accordance with the divine traditions about people’s lives, because if the Reappearance is postponed, we will have hurt people’s religion, this idea is wrong. I’ll give some examples.
The Holy Qur’an says, “Call on Me and I will answer you.” [40:60] It’s wrong to say, “No, we shouldn’t promise that He will answer. A person may pray but not be granted his request. Then, he’ll become irreligious!” Or, the Qur’an says, “If you help God, He will help you.” [47:7] But, in some cases in the frontlines, some people were martyred and God didn’t help them, in appearances. Should we say, “This verse isn’t good to propagate”?!
The Jewish people of Medina created this doubt for the first time. After the “Battle of Uhud,” Ammar Yasir and his friend were passing by. The Jewish people said, “Your prophet gave you good news of victory and divine help. So why did you lose? Even ‘Hamza’ was martyred.”
Ammar Yasir’s friend said, “I won’t discuss it with you. You make people irreligious.” But, Ammar Yasir said, “I will discuss it with you. Our Prophet promised us, but he had set a condition. The condition was for us to listen to what he said. The Prophet told us, ‘If you listen to me, God will move mountains with your power.’ But, we didn’t listen to him completely. We went to war, but we left our posts and pursued the bounty. We didn’t follow the rules and were defeated.” After answering them, he went to the Prophet. He said, “O Prophet of God, I had this conversation.” The Prophet told Ammar, “Since you answered them, you have struggled on the path of God.”
Due to a fear of not getting an immediate, certain result, we shouldn’t refrain from increasing good thoughts about God and decrease good thoughts about Him. This is like visiting patients who have difficult diseases – may God heal all patients, especially those with Corona - and saying, “According to logic, you will either pass away or live!” You must give hope. This is what religion recommends. We should pray for them and not stop praying. We should wish them health. No one should say, “Why are you giving false hope to them?!” We shouldn’t be hopeless about praying since some prayers have not been accepted.
If the believers’ hope increases but the Reappearance is delayed, they’ll be broken-hearted. These broken hearts will turn to God. It is at this time that praying and supplicating truly starts. This is a very beautiful scene! “Imam, we hoped you would come. We really hoped you would come on the 40th anniversary of the Revolution. We really hoped that when one of these oppressed believers who were beheaded moans, you would come.” More than 200 thousand martyrs in this region, all the oppressed and even the scholars throughout history have brought us to this point. Maybe, just maybe, we are only moments away from the Reappearance. When a person has much hope, he will struggle and work hard.

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Why do we like to follow celebrities?
What a great plan God has for us to become good!
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We read in Chapter Waqi’ah that people are three groups, “You will be three groups. The People of the Right Hand - and what are the People of the Right Hand?! And the People of the Left Hand - and what are the People of the Left Hand?! And the Foremost are the foremost. They will be the nearest ones to God.” [Qur’an 56:8-11]
But those who win the contest and those who speed up, they are the ones who are close to God. The People of the Right Hand are different from the Foremost. The Almighty God explicitly differentiates between the group of the Foremost and the group of Good People. What a great plan God has for us to become good! How does one feel about winning a contest? “I have to win the gold medal.” Religion means winning the contest.
This should be the basis for the religious education of teenagers. You should tell them, “Do you want to be one of the Good People or among the Foremost?” If you don't give these two options to a teenager, you have destroyed him/her, because a teenager has a tendency toward wanting to win the contest. Don’t you see that he is constantly playing? Don’t you see that he is constantly following celebrities that have won contests? He spends his time to win a contest. But we have asked a group of elderly people who are not in the mood to win a contest anymore to write the texts for Guidance School. They don’t understand teenagers. God has created this age group to win in contests.
May this outdated method of propagating religion be eliminated! Some consider religion to be like the rules for driving that are only for preventing accidents and traffic jams. But this is not religion at all. Religion is a rule book for a competition. If a person doesn’t want to participate in a contest, why does he need religion?! Religion wants all of us to enter into a contest.
Once I travelled abroad. I went to participate in a group prayer downtown in a Mosque there. There were three or four people there who had come to pray. I joined the prayer. I stood in the second row. There were a few [in the first row], and there were a few of us standing in the second row. I prayed and afterwards I was smiling and feeling I had done a good job for praying with my brothers in faith. But the prayer leader kept frowning at me.
Then he talked to me in his own language, which was a little hard to understand. He asked, “Why did you stand in the second row?” I said, “No special reason. So where should I have stood?” He asked, “Don’t you know that standing in the first row brings more reward?” What a mistake! He was right. I should have stood in the first row. You’re arrogant if you say that you don’t need the reward of standing in the first row. You ruin everything like that.
From that day on, wherever I join a group prayer, I stand in the first row. And the first row is always empty! “Agha, you go ahead [stand in the first row]!” “You go ahead!” “No, we are full of spirituality [and don’t need to]!” Is this the way to participate in a contest?!
According to the traditions, if two people arrive at the group prayer at the same time and there is only one empty space in the first row, they must draw lots. We shouldn’t say, “You go ahead.” Rather, we should say, “I’m more in need. We got here at the same time, so we must draw lots. I can’t let go of this reward.” If you are willing to let go of this reward, this means you haven’t understood that religion is a competition!
The Almighty God explicitly differentiates between the group of the Foremost and the group of Good People. “And the Foremost are the foremost.” What a great plan God has for us to become good! Religion means winning the contest. How does one feel about winning a contest? “I have to win the gold medal.”

The sign of Imam Husayn’s (as) special love for those who walk for Arbaeen

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From the Series “The Secrets of Ashura,”
Part 8. [To be continued…]

“The truth has come and falsehood has vanished.”

People to Govern

Are we willing to help Imam Husayn (‘a), or not? Even if we are willing to help Imam Husayn (‘a), we haven’t done something special. The Imam of the Time’s (Mahdi’s) (‘a.j.) coming, won’t be fixed with this. You can’t say, “O Ibn al-Hasan, come. If there is a night like Ashura for you, I will be one of those who stay in your tent.”
The Imam would reply, “I’m sorry. I won’t have a night like Ashura. I believe you. If they surround me in a ditch where they want to slaughter me, you will help me. But, the world’s problems won’t be fixed like that. I want something else.”
I, as a witness and observer, believe that all of the people who mourn for Imam Husayn… Not all, 99% of them. No, 50%. If 50% of these mourners were in Karbala, they would have been sacrificed for Imam Husayn (‘a). If half of the mourners are willing to be sacrificed for Imam Husayn, how many people will that be? How many people? 50 million people? 20 million people? 1 million people? The number will be much more than 1 million people. So, why doesn’t Imam Mahdi (‘a) come? He is looking for 313 people.
Imam Mahdi’s (‘a.j.) mission is not like that of Imam Husayn (‘a) in Karbala. Do you understand? When a person is going to be martyred, he will be corrected automatically. Imam Mahdi (‘a.j.) wants to govern.
Like the martyrs of Karbala, who were so devout the night before Ashura, you must be that pure in Imam Mahdi’s government. “It’s very hard to be that pure while governing! Many religious people have gone astray. How? They were revolutionary. But, they went astray. There is money and fame in power! It’s not that simple.”
Imam Husayn’s training is the beginning of the way. Because, we won’t have a situation like what Imam Husayn (‘a) had. If there is a situation like Imam Husayn’s, the Islamic nation will win. Look at the Martyr Hujaji and other martyrs. There are many people like them.
So, why doesn’t Imam Mahdi (‘a.j.) come? It is not that the level of the companions of Imam Mahdi is higher than the martyrs of Karbala. Their function is different. The martyrs of Karbala were unique people in their own situation. But, in a situation like Karbala, what Imam Mahdi wants to accomplish won’t happen. Imam Mahdi wants very special companions.
If we are going to sacrifice ourselves for a lonely and oppressed person, we will certainly do this. Imam Mahdi says, “Excuse me, I don’t want to be lonely and oppressed. I want to be a ruler. I want to be powerful.”
What should you sacrifice? Your world, although you are still alive. It is very easy to pass on this world when a person is going to be martyred. If there is a situation like Imam Husayn’s, the Islamic nation will win. It is not that the level of the companions of Imam Mahdi is higher than the martyrs of Karbala. Their function is different. It is very easy to pass on this world when a person is going to be martyred. What should you sacrifice? Your world, although you are still alive. Imam Husayn’s training is the beginning of the way.

Agha Panahian explains the concept of the domino effect to us and where in history did the event of Karbala start.

Everything at the right time!

I told half of a story in a gathering. Because, that half of the story was suited to that gathering. Now, I’ll tell you the whole story.
[Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 26, p. 237; Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, vol. 12, p. 335]
A scorpion had stung two people. They were dying from the pain. They were the friends of the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (‘a). They were brought to the Imam. The Imam said, “You’ll get well; don’t be afraid. You’ll be in pain for a while, and then, your body will get rid of it.” After a while, the Imam went to visit them. The Imam asked, “Would you like me to tell you what the reason behind these stings was?” What was the hidden reason for these stings? They said, “Yes, please.”
The Imam told one of them, “The scorpion stung you because you were sitting in a meeting where they said bad things about Salman since he is my friend. You could have defended him, but you didn’t. If you had defended him, they wouldn’t have killed you, taken away your money or beaten you. You were shy to say anything. This sting is because of that. From now on, wherever they say bad things about my friend, defend him.”
I have told this story up to this point a few times to say we should defend the truth. Now the rest. The Imam asked the other person, “Do you know why the scorpion stung you?” He said, “Why? I defend you well.” The Imam replied, “Once, you were sitting next to a brutal person who really hates us. My servant Qanbar came to you. Due to your affection for me, you got up in front of him and respected him very much. That man asked, ‘Who is this that you respect him this much?’ You praised Qanbar a great deal. That man had a hatred towards us, so he hit Qanbar very much. Was it right to praise him there for him to be beaten like this?!”
“Pious people have superior virtues. Their words are proper.” [Imam Ali (‘a), The Muttaqin Sermon] At the top of the list of moral virtues, which Imam Ali (‘a) lists for pious people, are controlling one’s tongue and using it correctly. “The pious people’s words are proper.” They’re not only honest. Honesty is one of their features. Such a person should have some other features too.
One of the aspects of “being proper” is knowing what to say and to whom. One of the aspects of “being proper” is knowing when and what to say. Much consideration is needed! Should I say this to that person, or not? God! Is it time for this, or not? If I say it when it’s unfitting, or if I don’t say it when it’s necessary, it’ll get worse. “Their words are proper.” See what points it is referring to.
For example, a man has come home and he is very tired. The woman thinks, “I’m tired too, and I’m upset at him.” So, she says a few negative things as soon as he comes in. They argue and get tired. Then the woman says, “I’m sorry. I really become very happy when you get home. I was so upset with you because of that matter.” She starts expressing her love.
It has been said in the traditions to first express your love when a man comes home. If you want to nag, do it 10 minutes later. When you change the timing, everything is ruined. It is the same person. Say both things. But, say this one first, then the other one. Arguments will stop.
Men should do the same concerning women. Sometimes they don’t pay attention what they should say and when. When your child is born, you shouldn’t ask first, “Is the baby alright?” You should say, “Are you alright?! God willing, the baby is well too.” When they bring the baby forward, pay a little attention to him/her. But, focus on your wife. “Darling, you should be healthy. You’ll always be dear to me. This baby put you through so much trouble.” It is very important what you say and when.
One of the aspects of “being proper” is knowing what to say and to whom. One of the aspects of “being proper” is knowing when and what to say.
“Pious people have superior virtues. Their words are proper.”