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The Bayan Manavi Institute, the publisher of Ali Reza Panahian's works, was established in 2008 by a group of young people under the supervision of Ali Reza Panahian. It currently operates in 8 languages with about 40 employees and a number of volunteers. (Our website: panahian.net)

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When we are suspicious about God…

When we feel bad about the past, this means that we are ungrateful. If we feel bad about the future, we become hopeless. The human being is a creature that loses hope very quickly. The psychology of human beings in the Qur’an shows this. The Almighty God has said this repeatedly about human beings. This shows that God doesn’t like us to despair. It also shows that becoming hopeless is a bad mental state, which we usually suffer from. “If We let a human being taste Our Mercy and then withhold it from him, he becomes desperate and ungrateful.” (Qur’an 11:9)
There is something, which has happened many times in the meetings held for the Kumayl supplication, or when we were reading it ourselves with friends. In the beginning it says, “God forgive all the sins that I have committed and all the mistakes that I have made.” After asking for forgiveness in different ways, in conclusion on the second page of the small Mafatih books, it says, “God forgive all of our sins.” I tell the friends, “Whoever wanted God to forgive his sins, God has forgiven him. Now he may go.”
The rest of the supplication is not about insisting to God, “Forgive me. Have You forgiven me, or not? Let me say it again! Maybe You haven’t forgiven me! How should I know if You have forgiven me? It is not easy for You to forgive me!” No, the rest of the supplication is not for being suspicious about the Lord.
Instead, it’s construed in this supplication, “God, since You have forgiven me, ‘I come close to You by remembering You.’ I want to get close to You so that I can talk to You more. Will You let me?” A person is sitting in a corner depressed and broken hearted. This person is not thankful about the past nor hopeful about the future. When this person cries, everyone says, “Pray for me too.” Don’t ask such a person to pray for you! If they were thankful, they weren’t sad now. What kind of sadness is this? Not every broken heart is beautiful.
There is an interesting supplication to be read in Aba Abdillah al-Husayn’s (‘a) shrine. The pilgrim says, “God! If I stay in Imam Husayn’s shrine for a long time, it is not because I am suspicious about You and wondering if You have forgiven me or not, and to stay to insist a little more. And, if I leave, it is not because I am tired of being in the shrine. My heart is still here. If I leave, it’s based on a feeling of my duty. If I stay it is because of my interest.”
The interesting point is that if you want to stay in Imam Husayn’s (‘a) shrine due to your despair, this is bad. Don’t think that if you read ten more supplications, you have done a very good deed. Why are you doing this? Why are you saying it ten more times? One might say, “Because, I don’t know. I doubt and am desperate. I don’t know if they will answer my prayer or not.” This is a bad mood.
“On the Day (of Judgment) when all secrets will be made public,” (Qur’an 86:9) it will become clear that whatever God has given to anyone is in the amount of his or her hope and good thoughts about God.
[From the series of speeches under the topic of, “A human being’s moods, as stated in the Qur’an”]

1- Feel the resemblance between the “Night of Destiny” and the “Resurrection Day.”
2- Be optimistic and pray for forgiveness, our wishes, and particularly for getting close to Him.
3- Be restless to achieve closeness to God.
4- The faithful should resemble the sinful in showing empty hands to God. The sinful must pray like the faithful with hearts filled with certainty as to God’s Kindness and Generosity.
5- Attract God's Compassion by being kind to others (by forgiving and praying for them).

6- Be generous by praying for others.
7- Help those in need, and be kind to relatives.
8- Show kindness to our parents, pray for our spiritual leaders.
9- Ask for a good livelihood and the destruction of those who bring about poverty.
10- Join the prayer gatherings with other people, at least for a part of the night.

11- Recite supplications, which are appropriate with our mood.
12- Read some of the Qur'an.
13- Reflect and evaluate ourselves.
14- Think about the moment when we leave this life and review our will.
15- Don’t neglect remembering and thinking about Imam Ali (‘a).

16- Continually feel the presence of the living Imam, al-Mahdi (‘aj).
17- Plan for our future and changes to be made in our behaviour.
18- The third “Night of Destiny” is the night to pray for the coming of Imam Mahdi (‘aj).
19- Pray for a good destiny and martyrdom in the way of God (if one wants).
20- Make a pilgrimage to Imam Husayn’s (‘a) shrine, or send your greetings to him from far. Pray for the martyrs.

I ask for your prayers,
Alireza Panahian

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The Cure for All Pains

Prayer is the cure for incurable pains. What does prayer do? It eliminates your greed for this world and makes you want God. Friends, do you agree prayer does this? Or, should I explain how we should pray for it to have this effect? I should explain. So, you don’t believe that prayer does this.
Ayatollah Bahjat has a solution about how to pray for it to be like this. “Sir, do you want to say, ‘Praying while paying attention’? I’m not like a mystic for you to talk like that!” “Nah! I’m not like a mystic either.” “Do you want to say praying with observation of its long rituals, recommended supplications, and these kinds of things?! I don’t have time! I can’t put that much effort for God!”
How should prayer be for us to get the best result from it? The best result! All the results that you want to have from prayer! Pray on time. Someone asked Ayatollah Bahjat, “Paying attention while praying on time?” He replied, “No! A regular prayer.”
What is the advantage of it being on time? That is what I want to explain. Why does praying on time correct a person this much? Do you know when ‘praying on time’ is? This is the meaning of praying on time. God looks at you and says, “My angels, let My servant live his life for a few hours.” You are living and busy with different tests and tribulations. Suddenly, you become entangled in a simple or complex issue. You’re resting, studying or doing business. In a moment that God knows, He says, “Someone go and recite the Call to Prayer. Recite it right now. Let Me see if he leaves what he is doing and comes, or not?” “God, why now?” God replies, “He is now in a situation where he should leave what he is doing. Recite the Call to Prayer now.”
“Sir, are you saying the Call to Prayer is mobile, fluid, and doesn’t have a certain time?” “Yes, it doesn’t have a certain time. Accept this from me!” God looks and says, “He is living his life. He is hungry.” When this person is hungry, God says, “Recite the Call to Prayer now! He is hungry. Recite it. Will he stop and come to pray, or not?! If he does, he will gain many things!”
The time of the Call to Prayer is not fixed. Friends, pay attention. God determines when the Call to Prayer for each person should be. God knows exactly when to recite the Call to Prayer to remove your bad mood and give you a good mood.
God is an ethics teacher and a tutor in mysticism. “Is God really like this?” “Yes, He is.” What would Ayatollah Bahjat do if you were in his presence? He knew everything. He used to say, “So and so…”
Once, Ayatollah HaqShenas was coming back from his class. It was after prayer, and friends were saying goodbye. Suddenly he said to one of them, “No matter how much your wife curses you, don’t say anything.” The man replied, “I don’t have any problems with my wife.” This man went home and saw a tragedy had occurred. All their relatives were there too. His wife started cursing him and ruined him completely. He wanted to get upset and answer her. But, he remembered what Ayatollah HaqShenas had said. So, he didn’t say anything. Not saying anything changed his life.
How good it is if someone, who knows my life, gives me advice at the right time. Better than Mr. HaqShenas is the God of Mr. HaqShenas! Are you willing for God to be your tutor? God says, “Live your life. I will fix you with JUST the time for prayer. Go do your work. Now recite the Call to Prayer to see what he does!” God knows at which moment, in what situation, He should announce that it is praying time for each person.
You say, “If this is how it is, then the time for the Call to Prayer will be different for each person.” I reply, “Yes.” “But, everyone hears the same call to prayer.” That’s nothing to do with you! You see that the apparent time of praying is the same for everyone. But, this Call to Prayer is only for you. In this situation, you should leave everything and pray. The reason for you is different from the reason for this person and that person. It’s enough for you to just say, “Alright!” God will fix the rest. He is a professional!
Someone asked Ayatollah Bahjat, “When Ayatollah Qazi said that whoever prays on time will reach to high levels, did he mean this prayer should be with careful attention?”
Ayatollah Bahjat replied, “No! If he meant careful attention was needed, people would have asked how they should pray? How can they pray a complete prayer? This sentence is useful when it refers to praying in general. If a person is committed to praying on time, he will reach high levels. He will automatically reach there, and go higher every day.”

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We haven’t been able to help people to understand this attractive, affectionate, deep, rational concept of getting close to God.
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The most important feature of a goal is that it should create a fire from within a person. It should give warmth, strengthen, entertain and give direction to a person’s imaginations. This is how a person’s goal should be, otherwise one’s life is useless. [As a poem says,] “Pray over his body although he’s not dead.” A life in which one’s goal doesn’t give warmth and doesn’t answer one’s need for love is a very low level of life.
In our life, everything really depends on the goal we choose. Imagine if you let people be free but don’t talk about religion, God’s commands or beliefs. Just tell people, “Live with a goal that warms you, creates a fire and answers your need for love. See where you can find this goal yourself.” They can’t find such a goal even if false propaganda is used.
Have you seen that people talk about love and affection? It’s interesting that everyone talks about love, but no one reaches to it. Everyone likes and admires a life filled with love. Instead of using the term “a life with love,” God has designed this in religion in this way that He says, “Set your goal to be getting close to Me.” Getting close to God will light a fire (of love) in one’s heart. Maybe when people talk about a life with love, this is what they mean.
And we have worked so poorly and weakly in this regard! The effects of our deeds have sometimes been so repulsive that we haven’t been able to help people to understand this attractive, affectionate, deep, and so rational concept of getting close to God. People do not know religion to be getting close to God. But no deed without having the intention of getting close to God is accepted. Unfortunately, if you introduce religion without the concept of getting close to God, religion will seem awful to people. Those people [who’ve learned this kind of religion] are right to hate it. Perhaps religion without the passionate, attractive meaning of closeness to God has been taught to them.
Imagine if one is able to understand such a goal, he sets it as his goal and he is able to gradually strengthen this goal. Imagine what effects this will have on one’s heart. The explosive part of religion that awakens one’s heart and causes him to move can be found in the concepts of getting close to God and how to get close to Him. God shows us this majestic universe and says, “I have created these. These are my creation. Now look at Me Myself.” It’s incomparable. Then God says, “Set your goal to be getting close to Me.”

We’re conveying a message to the world on Arbaeen.

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Imam Husayn’s uprising, martyrdom, and Ashura were of a kind that were for propagating and getting the message to others. Imam Husayn’s uprising didn’t make any practical, immediate changes in the Islamic nation.
An example is that during the time of Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as), the biggest gatherings for drinking, dancing and women singing were held in Medina. So Imam Husayn’s (as) martyrdom didn’t lead to the safeguarding of morals and to an actual reform in morals in the society of Medina. The oppressors, what they were doing, the corruption and the depravity weren’t actually eliminated. And no oppressed person actually got his right.
When we say there was no immediate result, what we mean is that what is important about Aba Abdillah al-Husayn’s (as) uprising is his message. Imam Husayn’s (as) uprising was of a kind that was for propagating the message. Why was Imam Husayn (as) martyred? So that this message would be spread. Why has God put this heat in our hearts (for the Imam)? So that we will burn within and express our excitement publicly. Why did he take his children with him? So that they’d help in propagating the message. Right? So whatever we can do for propagating this message is in the direction of Imam Husayn’s goal. God and Imam Husayn made it such that when someone mourns for Husayn (as), he himself is actually participating in and is a part of Imam Husayn’s uprising.
My dears, when you mourn for Imam Husayn, your mourning isn’t separate from the Ashura uprising. You’re a part of Karbala [events]! You’re a part of the Ashura story since you are spreading the message to others. My dear, will your spreading of this message be more effective when you each cry alone in your homes or when you come to the streets on Ashura? Everyone who holds a mourning ceremony or puts up a black flag over his door, whoever wears black on Muharram wherever he/she is, will be a part of Imam Husayn’s uprising. Now will this spreading of the message be more effective when tens of millions of you gather around Husayn (as), or is it more effective when you come visit his shrine in small groups without much commotion?
Can coming for Arbaeen be compared to coming at any other time of the year? If you were told, “Don’t go for Arbaeen,” say, “Excuse me, so why was Imam Husayn martyred? Wasn’t he martyred to convey a message? If I don’t go for Arbaeen and don’t make a commotion by bringing the number of pilgrims to 20 million, the world won’t find out. So what about Lady Zaynab being beaten? Should this be forgotten and neglected?!” O Husayn, we’re zealous about Arbaeen!
It’s time to introduce Imam Husayn (as) to the world. Imam Husayn (as) is not only for the people who cry for him. Imam Husayn (as) has given us an opportunity to help him. What are we doing on Arbaeen? We’re conveying a message to the world. If ten times more people than those who come on Arbaeen come gradually at other times during the year, even neighbouring countries or cities won’t find out. You may come ten times a year. You take selfies, tolerate hunger on the way and are bothered. These trips will be rewarded. But will this be more effective or if you come one time a year on Arbaeen when everyone comes? In this way, everyone in the world will ask, “What’s going on?!”
Shortly after Ashura, thousands of people were martyred during the “Tawwabin Uprising” that was led by Sulayman bin Surad and others. They were martyred too and won’t go to Hell. They’ll go to Heaven, thousands of people. But compare this with if they had been in Karbala. My dear, you can only appreciate Husayn (as) and his sister, Zaynab, with Arbaeen. The situation is right now too. What about all that has happened so far? It was an introduction for this. They were all an introduction to bring us to this point!
Is it valuable to hold mourning ceremonies in the home? Yes, they have helped to train you so that if you want to participate in the 20 million Arbaeen walk, you will know that you must put all your effort for it. Holding mourning ceremonies in the home is necessary. Your mothers have trained you in these ceremonies and helped you to reach this point. Your mothers trained you in those ceremonies in the home and in those trips when you went to Karbala alone. They trained you so that if one day Husayn (as) asked you for help, you wouldn’t leave him alone!
I swear this is my belief that Imam Husayn (as) asks for his mourners’ help on Arbaeen! When Imam Husayn was going toward Karbala, he knocked on everyone’s door and asked them to come. He asked them to come. Many rejected. O Husayn (as), now we have come too. Similarly, Husayn (as) put this in our hearts and got us to come! What are we doing on Arbaeen? We’re conveying a message to the world.

Does it bring obsession and depression?

This book is an answer to a thought provoking question.

This book attempts to answer the question "Why does God command?" from the perspective of the effects God’s commands have on one’s personal training and morals. While answering this question, he also explains some of the deep, educational concepts of Islam in a simple language. The valuable effect this book has is that it leaves the reader with a delightful, glorious, pleasant image of the concept of "God's commands," which has an automatic impact on one’s spiritual development.

This book is now available in both paperback and Kindle edition on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Alireza....-Panahian/e/B00DSJYW

f you don’t have access to the paperback on Amazon in your region, you can try another way to benefit from the contents of this book. You can read the e-book or electronic version of the book (Kindle). The e-book is available on Amazon throughout the world.

#WhyDoesGodCommandMe

👉🏼 We should divide the work and inform others.

🔻According to the words of the Prophet of God (s) on the day of Ghadir, it is obligatory for the believers to tell the story of Ghadir to those who do not know it until the Day of Resurrection.
🔻 Narrating the Prophet of God's (s) sermon on the day of Ghadir for others is an important example of carrying out this obligation for those who have the ability and opportunity to do so.

👉🏼 You can find this sermon online at:

📎 http://duas.org/ghadirkhutba.htm

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One of the topics mentioned on the Day of Ghadir was informing people. We still haven’t done this although we now have the tools to do so. Can you believe that each one of you can send a message to one billion people? We just need to design the mechanism and help each other. There are no obstacles.
Who should tell others? The Holy Prophet told everyone to gather, and he asked them to tell everyone what he said. This is what he meant if we want to say it in today’s language. There is an important, obligatory command in the speech of the Prophet (s) that was delivered on the Day of Ghadir and which is still obligatory. The Holy Prophet (s) said that whoever heard him should be a medium for telling others about it.
The Prophet of God (as) made this obligatory. All the scholars know this. This was a command to those who were there and people who were to live later. He asked us to tell others about this.
This is similar to if we all gather here to do a task. What is that task? To spread news of something to everyone. We should divide the work and inform others.

#EidAlGhadir

📘 This book is now available in paperback on Amazon and lulu.com
🔻 The Kindle edition will be available soon, God willing.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSJPYTBS/

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ali-reza-panahian/a-shower-of-goodness-a-commentary-on-imam-alis-as-best-sermon-on-ethics-in-nahj-al-balaghah-volume-1/paperback/product-vz5qgy.html?q=ali+reza+panahian&page=1&pageSize=4

🔴 Why is this sermon of Imam Ali (as) so special and enjoyable to read?
Its unique characteristics, such as the clear reason for him giving the speech, it having a mystical tone, it being applicable to various situations, it being comprehensive, and finally its descriptive tone, make it perhaps the best sermon on ethics in Nahj al-Balaghah.

🔴If you are tired of hearing advice, this book is for you!
People usually get tired of hearing “advice” very quickly. Some people even escape from hearing advice. However, “describing” something does not have the same effect on them, especially when it is describing goodness. Perhaps there is nothing that is able to bring enthusiasm, give enough motivation and increase resolve in people for them to move and do good deeds in the same way that describing goodness is able to do.
The Commander of the Faithful (as) has given an artistic description of pious people in the best, most famous sermon on ethics in Nahj al-Balaghah, the “Muttaqin (Pious) Sermon.” No advice is given in this sermon. It is entirely a description of the virtues and beauties of pious people from the beginning to the end.

🔴 Practical and contemporary
"A Shower of Goodness" is not just a book of knowledge that just gives us new information and that's it! No, the author deals with both the visible and hidden details of each attribute of the pious mentioned by the Commander of the Faithful (as) and examines these attributes using a completely practical approach. He also gives everyday but new examples that can be used by the reader.

🔴 A look at the chapters of the book:
Becoming Familiar with the “Hammām Sermon”
Hammām’s Question
Piety: Something Needed by All Human Beings
The Beauty of Piety
Being Proper
Output is more important than input
Wearing Good Clothes
Humbleness
Controlling Our Eyes
Only Useful Knowledge

🔴 Where can I get this book from?
The paperback version of the book “A Shower of Goodness” is available through Amazon and Lulu.com, and they are able to ship it to most countries.
The Kindle edition will soon be available from anywhere in the world, God willing.


#AShowerOfGoodness