|
Giriş |
Introduction |
المقدمة |
SAHÎFE-İ
SECCADİYE'YE
Giriş Rahmân, Rahîm Allahın Adıyla
Kadri yüce seyyid,
Necmüddin Behaüşşeref Ebul-Hasan Muhammed b. Hasan b. Ahmed b. Ali
b. Muhammed b. Ömer b. Yahya el-Alevî el-Hüseynî -Allah ona rahmet etsin-
bize tahdis etti;[1] dedi ki: Sahîfe kendisine okunuyor, ben de duyuyor iken
saadetli şeyh, Ebu Abdullah Muhammed b. Ahmed b. Şehriyar,
(mevlamız Emirül-Müminin Ali b. Ebu Talib aleyhisselamın
hazinedarı) Hicrî 516 yılının rebiülevvel ayında
bize haber verdi; dedi ki: Ebu Mufazzal Muhammed b. Abdullah b. Muttalib
eş-Şeyhbanîden naklen Şeyh Saduk Ebu Mansur Muhammed b.
Muhammed b. Ahmed b. Abdulaziz el-Ukberî el-Muaddele okunurken ben duydum;
dedi ki: Şerif Ebu Abdullah Cafer b. Muhammed b. Cafer b. Hasan b. Cafer
b. Hasan b. Hasan b. Emirül-Müminin Ali b. Ebu Talib aleyhimusselam bize
tahdis etti; dedi ki: Abdullah ez-Zeyyat b. Ömer b. Hattab (Hicrî) 265
yılında bize tahdis etti; dedi ki: Dayım Ali b. Numan
el-Alem bana tahdis etti; dedi ki: Umeyr b. Mütevekkil es-Sekafî el-Belhî
babası Mütevekkil b. Harundan naklen bana tahdis etti; dedi ki:
Babasının öldürülmesinden sonra Horasana doğru giderken Ali
(İmam Zeynelâbidin) aleyhisselamın oğlu Zeydin oğlu
Yahya ile karşılaştım; kendisine selam verdim. Bana,
nereden geldiğimi sordu. Hacdan geliyorum. deyince, benden;
Medinedeki ailesini ve amcazadelerini sordu. Özellikle de Cafer b. Muhammed
(İmam Sadık) aleyhisselamın durumunu öğrenmek istedi.
Ben de, kendisine onun da, diğer yakınlarının da durumlarını
anlattım ve babası Zeyd b. Ali aleyhisselama çok üzüldüklerini
söyledim. Bunun üzerine bana dedi ki: Amcam Muhammed b. Ali (İmam
Muhammed Bâkır) aleyhisselam babama kıyam etmemesini tavsiye
etmiş, kıyam edip Medineden ayrılırsa başına
neler geleceğini kendisine söylemişti. Yakınlarda amcamın
oğlu Cafer b. Muhammed (İmam Cafer Sadık) aleyhisselam ile
görüştüğün oldu mu hiç? [1]
- Bize tahdis etti diyen
ravi, Hicri 609 yılında vefat |
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
AL-SAHIFAT
AL-SAJJADIYYA is
the oldest prayer manual in Islamic sources and one of the most seminal works
of Islamic spirituality of the early period. It was composed by the Prophet's
great grandson, `Ali ibn al-Husayn, known as Zayn al-'Abidin (`the adornment
of the worshippers'), and has been cherished in Shi'ite sources from earliest
times. Zayn al-'Abidin was the fourth of the Shi'ite Imams, after his father
Husayn, his uncle Hasan, and his grandfather 'Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law. Shi'ite
tradition considers the Sahifa a book worthy of the utmost
veneration, ranking it behind only the Qur'an and `Ali's Nahj al-balagha.
`ALI IBN AL-HUSAYN `Ali ibn
al-Husayn was born in There is
no need to recount here the tragedy at Several
accounts are related concerning his grief over this tragedy. It is said that
for twenty years whenever food was placed before him, he would weep. One day
a servant said to him, `O son of God's Messenger! Is it not time for your
sorrow to come to an end?' He replied, `Woe upon you! Jacob the prophet had
twelve sons, and God made one of them disappear. His eyes turned white from
constant weeping, his head turned grey out of sorrow, and his back became
bent in gloom [cf. 12: 84], though his son was alive in this world. But I
watched while my father, my brother, my uncle, and seventeen members of my
family were slaughtered all around me. How should my sorrow come to an end?' Zayn
al-'Abidin resided in After AL-SAHIFAT AL-SAJJADIYYA The
title Al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyya means simply `The Book of al-Sajjad'.
Al-Sajjad is one of the titles given to Zayn al-'Abidin and signifies `the
one who constantly prostrates himself in prayer'. The book is often called Al-Sahifat
al-Kamilat al-Sajjadiyya, that is, `The "Perfect", or
"Complete", Book of al-Sajjad'. According to its commentator Sayyid
`Alikhan Shirazi, the word kamila refers to the perfection of the
style and content; some sources state that the adjective was added to
differentiate it from another, incomplete version of the work, which is known
among the Zaydis, but this seems less likely, given the manner in which the
title is employed in the preface (verse 20). The Sahifa has been
called by various honorifics, such as `Sister of the Qur'an', `Gospel of the
Folk of the House', and `Psalms of the Household of Muhammad'. According
to Shi'ite tradition, Zayn al-'Abidin had collected his supplications and
taught them to his children, especially Muhammad al-Baqir and Zayd. In later
times the text became widely disseminated among Shi'ites of all persuasions. The
specialists in the science of hadith maintain that the text is mutawatir;
in other words, it was generally known from earliest times and has been
handed down by numerous chains of transmission, while its authenticity has never
been questioned. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the text allows us to draw
a certain distinction between the fifty-four supplications which make the
main body of the text and the additional supplications which make up the
fourteen addenda (including the prayers for the days of the week) and the
fifteen munajat or `whispered prayers'. The original fifty-four
supplications show an undeniable freshness and unity of theme and style,
while the latter, especially the munajat, add a certain orderliness
and self-conscious artistry which may suggest the hand of an editor. The
addenda are said to have been collected and added to the text by Shams al-Din
Muhammad ibn Makki, known as al-Shahid al-Awwal (the `first martyr'), the
famous author of Al-Lum'at al-Dimashqiyya in jurisprudence (fiqh)
who was killed in Aleppo in 786/1384. The fifteen munajat have been
added to several modern editions of the Sahifa and seem to have been
brought to the attention of the main body of Shi'ites by `Allama Muhammad
Baqir Majlisi (d. 1110/1689-9 or a year later), author of the monumental
compilation of Shi'ite hadith, Many
supplications have been handed down from Imam Zayn al-'Abidin in addition to
those recorded in the text of the Sahifa as given here, and various scholars
have collected these together in a series of works known as the `second Sahifa'
the `third Sahifa' and so on. The second Sahifa which is
about as long as the Sahifa itself, was compiled as the `sister' of
the Sahifa by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hurr al-'Amili (d.
1104/l692-3), author of the famous Wasa'il al-Shi`a in the year
1053/1643. A third Sahifa was put together by the author of Riyad
al-'ulama' Mirza 'Abd Allah ibn Mirza `Isa Tabrizi, known as Afandi and
a student of Majlisi. The longest of the published versions is Al-Sahifat
al-Sajjadiyyat al-khamisa (`The Fifth Sahifa of al-Sajjad') by
Muhsin al-Amin, the well known contemporary author of A'yan al-shi'a.
It includes all the supplications included in the previous Sahifas;
130 of these are found in the first and second Sahifas and 52 are
added. In her sympathetic study of Islamic prayer manuals, Muslim
Devotions, Constance Padwick made use of this fifth recension of the
text, which fills more than six hundred pages. Any
serious attempt to sort out the relative historical reliability of the
individual supplications found in all the versions of the Sahifa on
the basis of modern critical scholarship would be an undertaking of major
proportions. The result of such a study - if one can judge by studies of
other ancient texts - would probably be that, after years of toil, we would
have a series of hypotheses, leaving varying degrees of doubt. This would be
of interest to Western scholars and modernized Muslims, both of whom, in any
case, have no personal involvement with the contents and teachings of the Sahifa.
But the attitude of most Muslims has been to look at the content of the texts
established by the authority of tradition and not be too concerned with who
actually wrote the words in `historical fact'. In this regard the saying of
'Ali is well known: `Look at what has been said, not at who has said it',
since only the truth or untruth of the words is of real concern. From this
point of view, if the author of the Sahifat al-kamila was not Imam
Zayn al-'Abidin, he - or they - would in any case have to have been a
spiritual authority of equal rank, so the whole exercise leaves us where we
started: with a text which expresses the highest aspirations of the Muslim
soul. However
this may be, we can be satisfied to have the core text which has been
attributed to Zayn al-`Abidin by centuries of Shi'ite tradition. In other
words, in the fifty-four basic prayers of the Sahifa we have the
Zayn al-'Abidin who has been known to Shi'ites for more than a thousand years
and who has helped give to Shi'ism its specific contours down to the present
day. Scholars may eventually reach the conclusion that the Zayn al-'Abidin of
'historical fact' differs from the Zayn al-'Abidin of tradition, but this
will remain a hypothesis, since at this distance 'historical facts' are
impossible to verify and as open to interpretation as literature. Whether or
not historians accept the text as completely authentic will not change the
actual influence which Zayn al-'Abidin and the Sahifa have exercised
upon Islam over the centuries, nor is it likely to change the way they
continue to influence practising Muslims. The 'real' Zayn al-'Abidin is the
figure enshrined by the text as it now stands. The
opinion of the writer of these lines concerning the authenticity of the Sahifa
- admittedly based only upon an intimate acquaintance with the text gained
through many months spent in translation - is that the original fifty-four
prayers go back to Zayn al-'Abidin, that the addenda are nearly as
trustworthy, and that the munajat may have been worked upon by
others. But the Sahifa in its larger forms probably contains a good
deal of material from later authors. It is interesting to note Padwick's
comments on the Sahifat al-khamisa: `The great body of devotion
attributed to him is characterized by a deep humility and sense of sin, and
by an intransigent, undying resentment against the foes of his house.' Only
the first half of this statement is true about the present Sahifa. Though
the Imam makes a number of allusions to the injustice suffered by his family
and the fact that their rightful heritage has been usurped, no one can call
this a major theme of the Sahifa or an 'intransigent, undying
resentment'. In the one instance where Zayn al-'Abidin speaks rather
explicitly of the injustice suffered by the Imams (48.9-11), this is
accompanied by an admission of God's wisdom in His ordainment. THE ARABIC The
Arabic text of the Sahifat al-kamila which forms the basis for the
translation was established by al-Shahid al-Awwal. The modern Iranian
editions are based mainly on the version of this text transmitted by the
father of the above-mentioned Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, Mulla Muhammad Taqi
Majlisi (d. 1070/1659-60), also an important scholar of the Safavid period.
and another son, Mulla `Abd Allah (d. c. 1084/1673); but at least one of
these editions goes back to the famous Safavid jurist, philosopher,
architect, poet, and mathematician Shaykh-i Baha'i (d. 1031/1621-2). The
elder Majlisi had at his disposal numerous manuscripts of the text, which he
had received from the foremost Shi'ite authorities of his day. In one of his
works he refers to all the chains of transmission by which he had received
the Sahifa, and, we are told, these number more than a million. The
question naturally arises as to why Majlisi chose the particular chain of
transmission mentioned in the preface out of the many he had at his disposal,
especially since the chain itself is exceedingly weak (as indicated by the
commentators and recorded in the notes to the translation). The reason for
this seems to be the accuracy of this particular version going back to
al-Shahid al-Awwal, as confirmed by another 'special' route through which
Majlisi received the Sahifa. This special route is worth mentioning
in detail, since it provides a good example of the aura which has surrounded
the text in Shi'ite circles. One day,
lying in bed half asleep, Majlisi saw himself in the courtyard of the 'Atiq
mosque in Entering
Aqa Hasan's library, Majlisi immediately saw the book he had seen in his
dream, so he said: `This is enough for me.' It was a copy of the Sahifa.
He then went back to Shaykh Muhammad and began collating his newly acquired
copy with that of Shaykh Muhammad; both of them had been made from the
manuscript of al-Shahid al-Awwal. In short, Majlisi tells us that the
authenticity of his copy of the Sahifa was confirmed by the Mahdi
himself. At least
forty commentaries and glosses have been written on the Sahifa
mostly during the period extending from the Safavid era (907-1125/1502-1722)
to the present. Among famous Safavid scholars who wrote commentaries are
Shaykh-i Baha'i, the philosopher Mir Damad (d. c. 1040/1630), and the younger
Majlisi. The most well-known of the commentaries is Riyad al-salikin
by al-Sayyid 'Alikhan al-Husayn al-Hasan al-Shirazi (d. 1120/1708-9). PRAYER IN ISLAM The Sahifa
has been called a `prayer manual', but this description may be misleading to
Western readers not familiar with the different varieties of prayer in Islam.
The best introduction to these - as well as to the contents of the Sahifa
- is provided by Padwick's Muslim Devotions which also analyzes the
major themes common to all supplications and explains many of the important
Arabic terms employed. Given the existence of Padwick's study, we can be
excused for providing only a few comments to situate supplication in the
larger context of Muslim prayer and to suggest the importance of the Sahifa
for gaining an understanding of Islam as a religion. `Prayer'
in Islam can be divided into obligatory and voluntary. The obligatory prayer
includes the daily ritual or canonical prayer (salat) which the
Prophet called the `pillar of Islam', and various occasional prayers such as
the Friday congregational prayer (according to most opinions), which need not
concern us here. Nothing is more basic than the daily prayers to Muslim
practice except the testimony of faith or shahada: "There is no
god but God and Muhammad is His Messenger.' Every Muslim must perform the
salat five times a day, exceptions being made only for children and for women
during periods when they cannot fulfill the requirements of ritual purity. Even
the bedridden must pray the salat if they are conscious and
coherent, though they are excused from the physical movements which normally
accompany it. `Perform the salat!' is one of the most common
injunctions in the Qur'an. Most of
the many forms of recommended prayer can be classified either as salat,
dhikr or du'a'. The recommended salat involves the same
movements and recitations that are contained in the obligatory salat
while the Prophet's sunna sets down various times during the day or
occasions when various specific salats may be performed. In
addition, the worshiper is free to perform salat as he desires, and
thus it is related that Imam Zayn al-'Abidin used to perform one thousand
supererogatory cycles of salat every night, in imitation of his
grandfather 'Ali. Dhikr
- which means
literally `remembrance' or `mention' and which is frequently translated as
`invocation' - is the mention of a name or names of God, often in the form of
the repetition of a Qur'anic formula such as There is no god but God,
Praise belongs to God, Glory be to God, or God is great. Most
Muslims recite such formulas a set number of times after completing an
obligatory ritual prayer. Fifteen Qur'anic verses command dhikr of
Allah or the `name of Allah', emphasizing the fact that this practice
involves a verbal mention of a divine name. If the Shari'a does not
make dhikr an incumbent act, this has to do with the fact that the
Qur'anic command to remember God was not given a single, specific form by the
Prophet's sunna, in contrast to the command to perform the salat.
In other words, everyone agrees that it is important to perform dhikr
and that the Prophet practiced it constantly. But the Prophet never made any
specific form of dhikr mandatory for the faithful; on the contrary,
he practiced many different forms and seems to have suggested a great variety
of forms to his Companions in keeping with their needs. From
earliest times the sources confirm the power of dhikr to provide for
human psychological and spiritual needs and to influence activity. It is not
difficult to understand that reciting ya rahman ya rahim (`O
All-merciful, O All-compassionate') will have a different effect upon the
believer than reciting, la hawla wa-la quwwata illa bi-llah al- `ali
al-`azim (`There is no power and no strength save in God, the All-high,
the All-mighty'). Spiritual teachers eventually developed a science of
different adhkar (plural of dhikr) appropriate for all the
states of the soul. Du'a' or `supplication' is closely
connected to dhikr, such that it is often difficult to make a
distinction between the two. The term means literally `to call upon' and it
is commanded by the Qur'an in several suggestive verses, including the
following: Supplicate your Lord humbly and secretly; He
loves not transgressors. ( Supplicate Allah or supplicate the
All-merciful. Whichever you supplicate - to Him belong the most beautiful
names. (17:110) Supplicate God, making your religion His
sincerely, though the unbelievers be averse. (40:14) Your Lord has said: `Supplicate Me and I will
respond to you. Surely those who wax too proud to worship Me shall enter
Gehenna utterly abject.' (40:60) And when My servants question thee concerning
Me - I am near to respond to the supplication of the supplicator when he
supplicates Collections
of hadith, both Sunni and Shi'ite, devote chapters to the benefits
of supplication; the following sayings of the Prophet from Sunni sources are
typical: Supplication
is the pith of worship. (TIRMIDHI) When one
of you supplicates, he should not say, `O God, forgive me if Thou wilt', but
he should be firm in his asking and make his desire great, for what God gives
is nothing great for him. (MUSLIM) God will
respond to the servant as long as he does not supplicate for anything sinful
or for breaking the ties of the womb, and as long as he does not ask for an
immediate response. (MUSLIM) Each of
you should ask your Lord for all your needs; he should even ask Him for the
thong of his sandal when it breaks. (TIRMIDHI) Shi'ite
sources provide some of the same sayings while adding many more. For example:
The
Prophet related that God says: `O My servants, all of you are misguided
except him whom I guide, so ask Me for guidance, and I will guide you. All of
you are poor except him whom I enrich, so ask Me for riches, and I will
provide for you. All of you are sinners except him whom I release, so ask Me
to forgive you, and I will forgive you.' The
Prophet said: `Supplication is the weapon of the man of faith, the centrepole
of religion, and the light of the heavens and the earth.' `Ali was
asked: `Which speech is best in God's eyes?' He replied: `A great amount of dhikr,
pleading (tadarru'), and supplication.' `Ali
said: `Four things work to a man's benefit and not against him: faith and
thanksgiving, for God says: What would God do with chastising you, if you
are thankful and have faith? (4:147); asking forgiveness, for He says: God
would never chastise them with thee among them; God would never chastise them
while they prayed forgiveness ( Husayn
said: `The Prophet used to raise his hands when he implored and supplicated,
like a man in misery begging for food.' Imam
Muhammad al-Baqir said: `God loves nothing better than that His servants ask
from Him.' In
short, supplicating or calling upon God is to address Him with one's praise,
thanksgiving, hopes, and needs. It is `prayer' in the personal sense commonly
understood from the term by contemporary Christians. It forms a basic part of
the religious life, but like dhikr, though commanded by the Qur'an in
general terms, it does not take a specific form in the injunctions of the Shari'a
because of its personal and inward nature. Everyone must remember God
and supplicate Him, but this can hardly be legislated, since it pertains to
the secret relationship between a human being and his or her Lord. The salat,
however, is the absolute minimum which God will accept from the faithful as
the mark of their faith and their membership in the community. Its public
side is emphasized by the physical movements which accompany it and the fact
that its form and contents are basically the same for all worshipers, even if
its private side is shown by the fact that it can be performed wherever a
person happens to find himself. In contrast dhikr and supplication
are totally personal. But the
private devotional lives of the great exemplars of religion often become
public, since they act as models for other human beings. The `sunna'
of the Prophet is precisely the practices of the highest exemplification of
human goodness made into an ideal which everyone should emulate, and the
supplications which the Prophet used to make are part of his sunna. When
he recited them aloud, his Companions would remember and memorize them. They
also used to come to him and ask him for supplications which they could
recite on various occasions and for different purposes. To the
Prophet's supplications, the Shi'ites add the supplications of the Imams,
beginning with `Ali. Nowadays the most widely employed of the comprehensive
prayer manuals, which contain a wide variety of supplications from all the
Imams and for every occasion, is probably Mafatih al-jinan (`Keys to
the Gardens of Paradise') by `Abbas Qumi (d. 1359/1940). THE ROLE OF SUPPLICATION Though
many of the supplications which have been handed down from the Prophet and
the Imams were certainly spontaneous utterances of the heart, others must
have been composed with the express purpose of reciting them on specific
occasions or passing them on to the pious. Most of the prophetic supplications
are short and could easily have been recited on the spur of the moment, but
some of the prayers of the Imams - such as Zayn al-'Abidin's supplication for
the Day of 'Arafa (no. 47) - are long and elaborate compositions. Even if
they began as spontaneous prayers, the very fact that they have been
designated as prayers for special occasions suggests that they were noted
down and then repeated by the Imam or his followers when the same occasion
came around again. Naturally
it is not possible to know the circumstances in which supplications were
composed, but we do know a good deal about early Islam's general environment
which can help suggest the role that supplication played in the community. Many
Muslims, no doubt much more so than today, devoted a great deal of their
waking lives to recitation of the Qur'an, remembrance of God, and prayer. Even
those who left In the
Islamic context, supplication appears as one of the primary frameworks within
which the soul can be moulded in accordance with the Divine Will and through
which all thoughts and concepts centered upon the ego can be discarded. The
overwhelming emphasis in the Sahifa upon doing the will of God -
`Thy will be done', as Christians pray - illustrates clearly a
God-centeredness which negates all personal ambitions and individual desires
opposed in any way to the divine Will, a Will which is given concrete form by
the Shari'a and the sunna. For Muslims then as today,
obeying God depended upon imitating those who had already been shaped by
God's mercy and guidance, beginning with the Prophet, and followed by the
great Companions. For the Shi'ites, the words and acts of the Imams play such
a basic role in this respect that they sometimes seem - at least to
non-Shi'ites - to push the sunna of the Prophet into the background.
The
companions of the Imams constantly referred to them for guidance, while the
Imams themselves followed the Prophet's practice of spending long hours of
the day and night in salat, dhikr, and supplication. Though
much of this devotional life was inward and personal, the Imams had the duty
of guiding the community and enriching their religious life. As Imam Zayn
al-'Abidin emphasizes in the `Treatise on Rights', translated in the
appendix, it is the duty of every possessor of knowledge to pass it on to
others, and the Imams were acknowledged as great authorities of Islam by
their contemporaries, Sunni and Shi'ite alike. Hence it was only natural that
they would compose prayers in which their knowledge of man's relationship
with God was expressed in the most personal terms and which could be passed
around and become communal property. Many if not most of the supplications
recorded in the Sahifa seem to be of this sort. A few of them, such
as `His supplication for the Day of Fast-Breaking' (46) or `for the Day of
Sacrifice' (48) seem to have been composed for public occasions. One of them
provides internal evidence to suggest that the Imam had in mind his followers
rather than himself: in the supplication for parents (24), he speaks as if
his parents were still alive, whereas this could hardly have been the case,
unless we suppose that he composed it in his youth before the events at
Karbala'. TAWHID IN DEVOTIONAL MODE No one
with any sensitivity toward human weakness and God's love can fail to be
moved at least by some of the supplications contained in the Sahifa.
Here we have one of the greatest spiritual luminaries of Islam so overawed by
the sense of God's goodness, mercy, and majesty as to express his utter
nothingness before the Creator in terms that may seen surprisingly explicit
for one deemed by his followers to be the possessor of such holiness. In the Sahifa
we see Islamic spirituality - or that dimension of the religion of Islam
which deals with the practical and lived reality of the personal relationship
between man and God - expressed in the most universal of languages, that of
the concrete and intimate yearning of the soul for completion and perfection.
Muslim
ideas and attitudes go back to tawhid or the `profession of God's
Unity' as expressed in the first half of the shahada: `There is no
god but God.' This is the essence of the Qur'anic message, as Muslim
authorities have affirmed and reaffirmed throughout Islamic history. The Sahifa
provides a particularly striking example of what this means in personal,
practical terms, not in the abstract language of theology or metaphysics. The
basic theme of the Sahifa can be put into a series of formulas simply
by taking every positive human attribute and placing it within the context of
the shahada: `There is no goodness but in God', `There is no
repentance but by God's grace', `There is no gratitude but through God',
`There is no patience without God's help', `There is no knowledge but in
God', `There is no love except through God's initiative'. The complement of
this perspective is that every negative attribute belongs to the human self:
`There is no evil but in me', `There is no pride but in myself', `There is no
impatience but in my own ego', `There is none ignorant but me', `There is no
hate but in myself.' Later
authorities frequently cite the first prophet and his wife, Adam and Eve, as
Qur'anic examples of this attitude of self-deprecation demanded by the shahada.
When Adam and Eve had disobeyed their Lord's commandment, they said: `Our
Lord, we have wronged ourselves' ( In
short, the shahada means in practice that the worshiper is nothing
and God is all. Everything positive that the servant possesses has been given
to him by God, while every fault and imperfection goes back to the servant's
own specific attributes. If he has patience in adversity, this was given by
God, but if he lacks it, this is his own shortcoming. If he knows anything at
all, the knowledge was bestowed by God's guidance and mercy, but if he is
ignorant, that is his own limitation. If he possesses a spark of love in his
heart, God has granted it, but every coldness and hardness belongs to
himself. Every good and praiseworthy quality - life, knowledge, will, power,
hearing, sight, speech, generosity, justice, and so on - is God-given. Only
when this fact shapes a person's imagination and awareness can he begin to
see things in their right proportions and be delivered from his own
self-deceptions. From the
beginning of Islam, supplication has been one of the fundamental modes
through which Muslims actualized the awareness of correct proportions and
trained themselves to see God as the source of all good. In its great
examples, as typified by the Sahifa, supplication is the constant
exercise of discernment by attributing what belongs to God to God and what
belongs to man to man. Once this discernment is made, man is left with his
own sinfulness and inadequacy, so he can only abase himself before his Lord,
asking for His generosity and forgiveness. Those
familiar with the writings of the later spiritual authorities may object that
the perspective of supplication as just described deals with only one-half of
Islamic spirituality, leaving out the theomorphic perfections which the
friends of God (awliya') actualize by following the spiritual path. Granted,
on the one hand man is the humble and poor slave of God, possessing nothing
of his own. But is he not - at least in the persons of the prophets and
friends - God's vicegerent (khalifa) and image (sura)? In
fact, this second perspective is implicit in the first, since the more one
negates positive attributes from the servant, the more one affirms that they
belong to the Lord. By denying that the creature possesses any good of his
own, we affirm that everything positive which appears within him belongs only
to God. To the extent that the servant dwells in his own nothingness, he
manifests God's perfections. This point of view is made rather explicit in
the famous hadith qudsi in which God says: `My servant continues
drawing near to Me through supererogatory works [such as supplication], until
I love him, and when I love him, I am the hearing through which he hears, the
sight through which he sees, the hand through which he grasps, and the foot
through which he walks.' But the early Islamic texts leave the mystery of
`union with God' or `supreme identity' largely unvoiced, since it is far too
subtle to be expressed in the relatively straightforward terms which
characterize these texts. In any case, identity is alien to the perspective
of supplication, which keeps in view the dichotomy between Lord and servant,
a dichotomy which remains valid on one level at least in all circumstances
and for all human beings, even in the next world. ASKING FORGIVENESS As is
well known, the Shi'ites hold that the Imams are `inerrant' or `sinless' (ma'sum,
from the verb `isma, which means to be preserved by God from sins). The
reader of the Sahifa will be struck by how often Zayn al-'Abidin
asks God to forgive his sins, employing all the standard terms (ithm,
dhanb, ma'siya, etc.). To be surprised at this or to
suggest that therefore the Shi'ites are wrong to call the Imams sinless is to
miss the points which have just been made about the shahada as the
root of Islamic spirituality. It is not my concern to defend the dogma of `isma,
but I should at least point out that one cannot object to it on this level. According
to various hadiths, the Prophet used to pray for forgiveness seventy
or one hundred times a day by repeating the formula `I pray forgiveness from
God' (astaghfiru llah), a formula which is pronounced universally by
practicing Muslims. Muslims hold that all prophets are sinless, and the
Prophet Muhammad is the greatest of the prophets, yet no one has ever seen
any contradiction between his asking forgiveness and his lack of sins. One
easy but shallow way of explaining this is to say that the Prophet was the
model for the whole community, so he had to pray as if he were a sinner,
since all those who followed his sunna and recited the prayers which
he taught would be sinners. But to say this is to suggest that he was a
hypocrite of sorts and to lose sight of the meaning of the shahada. Christians
have never doubted Christ's divinity because he said: `Why do you call me
good? No one is good but God alone' (Mark This basic
teaching of the shahada means that nothing and no one - not even the
greatest of the prophets - stand on a par with God. Since goodness is a
divine attribute, `None is good but God alone', and everything other than God
is evil at least in respect of being `other'. `Evil' here may be another name
for `lesser good', and no one in the Islamic context would dream of
attributing evil to the prophets. Nevertheless, the prophets in as much as
they are human beings cannot be placed on the same level as God. The respect
in which human beings differ from God is all important for the spiritual
life. It is man's clinging to the difference his own servanthood, his own
createdness, his own inadequacy, his own sinfulness - which allows him to
fulfill what is required of him as the creature of his Lord. Just as the
Prophet is first `abduhu, `His servant', and only then rasuluhu,
`His messenger', so also every human being must first actualize the
fullness of his own servanthood before he can hope to manifest anything on behalf
of his Lord. The
greater a person's awareness and knowledge of God, the greater his awareness
of the gulf between the `I' and the Divine Reality. As the Qur'an says: Only
those of His servants fear God who have knowledge (35:28). The greater
the knowledge of God and self, the greater the understanding of the claims of
independence and pride that are involved with saying `I', and so also the
greater the fear of the consequences. Those nearest to God fear Him more than
others because they have grasped the infinite distance that separates their
created nature from their Creator; hence also they are the most intense in
devotion to Him, since they see that only through devotion and worship can
they fulfill His claims upon them. No Muslim can think that he has reached a
point where he no longer has need for God's forgiveness, so no Muslim can
stop praying for it. Moreover, the overriding goodness of God and the
nothingness of the creatures demands that a pious act can never belong to the
servant. To the extent that a human being is able to do what God wants from
him, this is because God has granted him the power to do so. The well-known
formula wa ma tawfiqi illa bi-llah, `I have no success except
through God', is of universal application. In the last analysis, no good act
can be attributed to the servant - the merit is always God's (for example,
Supplication 74.2). It is here that the mystery of God's ever-present and
immanent reality manifests itself, such that there is nothing left of the
creature but a face of God turned toward creation. If the
Prophet and the Imams constantly prayed for forgiveness with the utmost
sincerity, this does not contradict the idea that they were `sinless', since
the sins envisaged here entail a willful disobedience to the divine command,
not the `creaturely sin' of being other than God. Later authorities
invariably distinguish among levels of sinfulness as also among levels of
virtue, a doctrine epitomized in the oft-quoted saying, `The good qualities
of the pious are the bad qualities of those brought near to God' (hasanat
al-abrar sayiyyat al-muqarrabin). At least three basic levels are
distinguished for every positive human quality, though these levels are not
exclusive and may coexist in various degrees within a single person depending
upon his spiritual maturity. The examples of `repentance' (tawba)
and `asking forgiveness' (istighfar) can illustrate these points. In the Sahifa
the Imam often asks God for success in repentance, which may be defined as
turning toward God through acts of obedience and avoiding disobedience. The
later authorities speak of a first level of repentance belonging to the
faithful in general, who sin by breaking the commands of the Shari'a
and who repent by asking God to forgive their sins and trying their best not
to repeat the sin. In other words, their repentance pertains basically to the
level of the activities governed by the Shari'a while the
forgiveness they seek means that they ask God to pardon any act of commission
or omission which is contrary to the Shari'a. On the
second level of repentance there are those who have dedicated their lives to
God and spend their waking moments in careful observance of the details of
the Shari'a and following the recommended acts of the sunna.
Such people, who might be called the `pious' in keeping with the above
saying, have no difficulty following the practical commands and prohibitions
of the Shari'a, so they turn their attention toward the inward
attitudes which should accompany the outward activities. They repent of the
heedlessness (ghafla) of their own souls, which are unable to
remember God with perfect presence. They see their acts of obedience as
falling short of the ideal because of their inward weaknesses and the various
forms of blindness and hypocrisy which Satan is able to instill into their
hearts, such as the temptation to ascribe their piety and diligence in
observing the Shari'a to themselves. They repent not of sinful acts,
since they observe the Shari'a with exactitude and do not `sin'
according to the Shari'ite definitions. Rather, they repent of inappropriate
thoughts and intentions and ask God to forgive these whenever they occur. The
third level is that of `those brought near to God'. They have passed beyond
outward and inward sins, since they see nothing but God's will, guidance, and
mercy in every act and every thought, but they are still faced with the
greatest of all barriers, that of their own self, the `supreme veil' between
man and God. God has given them knowledge of Himself and of themselves, so
they have come to understand that the `I' can never be totally innocent or
sinless. They repent of their own inadequacies as creatures and ask
forgiveness for their own existence as separate beings. Western
readers may object that there is something artificial about this division of
`repentance' into levels. How can one `repent' of one's own existence? How
can one ask forgiveness for something which is not one's own fault? These
objections might be valid if the texts had originally been written in
English, but in fact the objection arises because of the difficulty of
translating the concepts of one religious universe into another. The original
Arabic words translated as `repentance' and `forgiveness' convey meanings far
broader than the English terms, both of which are connected with a
sentimental and moralistic sense of guilt. (Similar problems, it should be
remarked, exist with much of the terminology which is normally used to
translate Islamic texts and which has also been employed - because there is
no other real choice - in the present translation of the Sahifa.) The word
tawba or `repentance' means literally to `turn' or `return' from one
thing to another. One of God's Qur'anic names is al-tawwab, `He who
turns', and the verb from this root is used both for God's turning toward man
and man's turning toward God. Man's `repentance' refers to every level of
turning away from self and towards God; it makes no difference whether the
self is conceived of as a tissue woven of sins or as the veil of ignorance
and heedlessness that pertains to one's creaturely situation. There may be a
moralistic sense attached to the word in a particular context, and there may
not. In a
similar way, maghfira in Arabic is far richer than the term
`forgiveness' in English. To begin with, the Qur'an attributes three
different divine names to God from this root, al-ghafur, al-ghaafir,
and al-ghaffar, and subtle distinctions are often drawn to
differentiate the different modes of `forgiveness' which they imply. More
importantly the root meaning of maghfira is `to cover over', `to
veil', `to conceal'. Hence the `Forgiver' is He who veils human sins and
inadequacies. In Arabic the literal sense of saying `I pray forgiveness from
God' is `I ask God for concealment.' Most people may understand that they are
asking God to conceal their `sins', but `those brought near to God' will see
that they have need for the concealment of something much deeper and more
radical since it is inherent to every created thing. When the
Prophet or Imam Zayn al-'Abidin ask God to `forgive their sins, they are
perfectly sincere in this request, but this does not necessarily imply that
their sins lie at the same level as our own. As Islamic texts frequently
remind us, qiyas bi l-nafs, `judging others by one's own self', is
always misleading, especially if the others happen to have been the
recipients of God's special favours. SPIRITUAL ATTITUDES AND NAMES OF GOD Muslim thinkers
have often divided the names of God into two broad categories by contrasting
attributes such as wrath (ghadab) and mercy (rahma),
justice (`adl) and bounty (fadl), severity (qahr)
and gentleness (lutf), majesty (jalal) and beauty (jamaal),
or majesty and munificence (ikram). The `names of wrath' are
connected to God's distance and transcendence, while the `names of mercy' are
connected to His nearness and immanence. The Shari'a and kalam
(dogmatic theology) tend to emphasize God's severity and incomparability (tanzih),
while Islamic spirituality and the devotional literature put more stress on
His gentleness and similarity (tashbih). The Shari'a
is not particularly concerned with speaking about God, since its function is
to set down guidelines for the domain of activity. To the extent that God is
taken into account, He is conceived of primarily as the Commander and the
Lawgiver. In respect of laying down the Law, He is a monarch who must be
obeyed. A monarch - and especially the Eternal King - stands far above his
subjects, who are in fact his slaves, and he enforces his edicts by means of
scourges, dungeons, and executions. Hence the Shari'a naturally
calls to mind the God of transcendence and justice, and the `jurists' (fuqaha'),
generally speaking, present Islam with a stern and severe countenance. The God
of the jurists shares many of the attributes of the God described by the
proponents of kalam, who concerned themselves mainly with bolstering
the authority of the Shari'a while employing the tools of rational
thought. Moreover, kalam has never played the same important role in
Islam that theology plays in Christianity, since its concerns are far
overshadowed by the dedication of all Muslims to the Shari'a. Kalam
sets out to defend the Shari'a and the tenets of the faith against
rational criticisms, so the theologians have approached their subject by
employing reason (`aql or al-nazar al-'aqli). As a result,
they singled out for their consideration certain subjects which were of no
interest to the community at large. For most people, it makes no difference
if the Qur'an is eternal or created, so long as God speaks to them through
it. Though kalam performs a necessary function in the Islamic
universe, the vast majority of the faithful had no knowledge of the rational
criticisms against which kalam was defending them, so they had no
use for kalam. It was simply irrelevant to the religious life of
most people. Since
the theologians called upon reason to bear witness to their endeavors, they
affirmed God's transcendence with great fervour. Reason cannot accept the
literal sense of many details of the Qur'an and the hadith, such as
God's face, eyes, hand, feet, sitting, laughter, smiling, wavering, yearning,
joy at man's repentance, surprise at the lack of sensual desire in a young
man of piety, and so on. Hence the theologians felt compelled to explain such
descriptions in terms of abstract qualities. Thus, for example, God's `hand'
is interpreted as a reference to an impersonal quality such as power. This is
not to question the validity of these interpretations, only to point out that
the relatively concrete words and images found in the Qur'an and the hadith
provide food for the imagination; through them human beings gain the ability
to think about God in personal terms and establish an intimate, inward
relationship with their Lord. An inconceivable God - or a God who can only be
known through abstract creedal statements - is of no use to the vast majority
of people. Imagination
feeds upon the concrete, not the abstract. When God speaks in a language that
appeals to the imagination, He thereby addresses all the faithful, bypassing
reason and appealing to something far more universal in human hearts. But
when the theologians employ a disciplined rational methodology, they are
addressing intellectuals like themselves. As a result, the faithful found
spiritual nourishment not in the dry and abstract depictions of a far-away
God provided by kalam but in the warm and concrete imagery of the
Qur'an, the hadith, and the spiritual authorities. No one could love
the God of the theologians. In
short, by the nature of their disciplines, the jurists and the theologians
lay stress on the God of remoteness and transcendence. In contrast, the
spiritual authorities speak of the God described in the Qur'an and the hadith
as He describes Himself, not neglecting His nearness to all creatures. Since
the God of the Qur'an is pre-dominantly a God of mercy and tenderness, a God
of intimacy and concern, the spiritual authorities emphasize the personal
dimension of the human/divine relationship. They stress God's nearness and
immanence, and they often remind us of Qur'anic verses such as, Whithersoever
you turn - there is the face of God (2:115); He is with you wherever
you are (57:3); We indeed created man; We know what his soul
whispers within him; and We are nearer to him than the jugular vein
(50:16). Since
the Shari'a concerns itself basically with activity, it is directed
toward the outward affairs which are governed by the laws of the remote King.
Kalam is polemical and rational, concerning itself mainly with the
divine attributes of the transcendent God, not with the human dimensions of
the relationship with a God who is also immanent. The Qur'an and the hadith
provide the seeds from which the Shari'a and kalam grew up,
but they also provide the seeds for the subsequent attention that was paid by
the spiritual authorities to all the dimensions of the soul. Devotional
literature addresses this inward domain in an eminently practical way,
attempting to shape the soul according to the revealed models. There
is, of course, no contradiction between thinking of God as transcendent and
perceiving Him as immanent, any more than there is a contradiction between
perceiving Him as Merciful and as Wrathful. God reveals Himself under a
variety of guises, and these in turn demand different rational perceptions
and psychological responses. One cannot think in exactly the same terms about
the Glorified (al-subbuh), who transcends everything that man can
conceive, and the Near (al-qarib), who is closer than the jugular
vein; nor can one feel the same toward the Gentle, the Kind, and the
Compassionate as one feels toward the Vengeful and the Severe in Punishment. Once
codified and institutionalized, the human responses to God's self-revelations
in the Qur'an came to emphasize certain divine attributes rather than others.
One response was called `jurisprudence', another `kalam', another
`Sufism', and so on. All of these points of view coexist in the great
representatives of Islam, just as they coexist in the Qur'an and in the soul
of the Prophet. But in the early period, it is difficult to disentangle the
different strands, since the institutional forms which highlight them have
not yet come into existence. However, it is easy to see that certain
manifestations of early Islam tend in one direction or another. The
particular characteristic of the devotional literature such as the Sahifa
is to emphasize the personal quality of God's relationship with His servants
and His all-pervading love. THE PREDOMINANCE OF MERCY Some
modern day Muslims and many Western scholars have looked at the Qur'an
wearing the eyeglasses of the jurists and theologians. As a result, they see
a God who is a just and stern Commander, concerned only with beating His
servants into shape so that they will follow His Law. They tend to ignore the
fact that practically every chapter of the Qur'an begins with the words, In
the name of God, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, and that the
Qur'an mentions God's names of mercy, compassion, kindness, generosity,
forgiveness, and love about ten times as often as it mentions His names of
wrath and severity. The overwhelming Qur'anic picture is that of a God deeply
concerned with the well-being of His creatures and ready to forgive almost
anything, if only they will repent and acknowledge His sovereignty. Faced
with the reality of both mercy and wrath, the worshiper seeks out the one and
does everything he can to avoid the other. This is a constant theme in the
devotional literature in general and the Sahifa in particular. The
Prophet set the pattern in his well-known supplication: `I seek refuge in Thy
good pleasure from Thy displeasure and in Thy pardon from Thy punishment. I
seek refuge in Thee from Thee.' God is both He who becomes pleased and He who
becomes displeased, He who pardons and He who punishes. Hence the worshiper
prays to God for protection against God Himself, since there is no other
significant threat. Moreover, the servant can be confident that God's mercy
will in fact overcome His wrath, since God is essentially merciful and only
accidentally wrathful. The Qur'an tells us in two verses that God's mercy embraces
all things (7:156, 40:7), but it never suggests that His wrath is so
universal. According to a famous hadith qudsi, God says: `My mercy
precedes My wrath', or `has precedence over My wrath', or `predominates over
My wrath.' God appears to His creatures as harsh and domineering only in
certain circumstances and for specific purposes - purposes which themselves
are defined by mercy. The Prophet expressed this point with his remark:
`Hellfire is a whip with which God drives His servants to Paradise.' God's
mercy is so overwhelmingly real that He will certainly overlook the sins of
those who open themselves up to it. Padwick
refers to the `mosaic' quality of Muslim supplications. She writes: `While
the prayers of some of the great saints show a spiritual individuality, the
great mass of these devotions is built up of well-tried small items arranged
in ever new patterns - traditional prayers of the Prophet, Qur'an verses,
blessings of the Prophet, forgiveness-seekings, cries of praise, all on known
and authorized forms.' The Sahifa is strongly marked by the
individuality of the Imam, while also displaying this mosaic quality. But
this quality itself reflects the Qur'an, which is a mosaic of God's names and
activities, stories of the prophets, legal injunctions, and promises and
warnings about the Last Day. It was
said above that one of the purposes of supplication is to shape the
imagination of the worshiper in accordance with Islamic norms. A well-known hadith
tells us that Muslims can know the `character' (khuluq) of the
Prophet through studying the Qur'an. By following the Prophet's sunna
the worshiper absorbs the Qur'an on all levels of his being, and in turn he
is absorbed by the Qur'an, the Divine Word and the divine model of his own
soul. If some early authorities referred to the Sahifa as the
`Sister of the Qur'an', part of the reason for this may lie in the fact that
its mosaic quality expresses a variety of spiritual attitudes that reflect
accurately the Qur'anic and prophetic model for human perfection. Every
element in the Sahifa's mosaic corresponds to elements of the
Qur'anic text and the Prophet's soul. The
connection between the spiritual attitudes expressed in the Sahifa
and the Qur'anic statements about God and His relationship to His servants
can most clearly be perceived in the Imam's constant recourse to God's names
and his always appropriate expression of the corresponding human attitude. On
the one hand the Imam places great emphasis upon his own inadequacy and
sinfulness, acknowledging that he deserves nothing but God's wrath. On the
other, he repeatedly takes refuge in God's mercy and in God's own Qur'anic
statements concerning the primacy of forgiveness, asking God to do with him
as is worthy of such a merciful Being, not as he himself deserves. Act toward me with the forgiveness and mercy
of which Thou art worthy! Act not toward me with the chastisement and
vengeance of which I am worthy! (73.3) In
short, through the mosaic of the supplication, the worshiper moves from
viewpoint to viewpoint in keeping with the different relationships which
exist between himself and God as described in the Qur'an. Man's point of view
changes because each of the divine names points to a different face of God
turned toward him. Yet all are faces of God, and `There is no god but God',
so the apparent multiplicity of names and faces dissolves into the divine
Unity. Human
inadequacy and sin are real enough on their own level, and the Sahifa
among others shows a remarkable awareness of the depth of human imperfection.
But the great spiritual authorities of Islam hold that in responding to human
weakness, God's overwhelming mercy takes charge and the divine wrath pales by
comparison. The more that human beings admit to their own inadequacy, the
more they call down upon themselves God's pity and commiseration. Supplication
and pleading are the natural human response to the shahada the fact
that man is nothing compared to God, and that God - who is fundamentally
mercy - is the only true reality. Supplication responds to God's command, Despair
not of God's mercy! Surely God forgives all sins (39:53). A hadith
is related concerning Imam Zayn al-'Abidin which is worth recounting because
it is so completely in character with the Sahifa's emphasis upon
God's mercy and forgiveness. One day he was told that Hasan al-Basri (d.
110/728), the famous ascetic, had said: `It is not strange if a person
perishes as he perishes. It is only strange that a person is saved as he is
saved.' The Imam replied, `But I say that it is not strange if a person is
saved as he is saved; it is only strange that a person perishes as he
perishes, given the scope of God's mercy.' The
supplicant who responds to the God of the Qur'an never forgets the wrath of
God, but he remains confident that God's essential nature will show itself,
in spite of his own weaknesses. Padwick was so struck with the devaluation of
human sins that seems to result from this attitude that she displays a rare
instance of Christian bias, objecting that it `leads to a certain moral
shallowness in some forgiveness-seeking prayers' and is unable `to attribute
any moral cost to God's forgiveness', alluding here and in the rest of the
passage to the Christian doctrine of atonement. Among three examples of
`moral shallowness' she cites the following lines from Imam Zayn al-'Abidin,
found in Al-Sahifat al-khamisa: My God my sins do not harm Thee and Thy
pardon does not impoverish Thee. Then forgive me what does not harm Thee and
give me what Thou wilt not miss. In order
to understand the attitude expressed here, one needs to put it into its larger
context. The specific attitude expressed by the Imam corresponds precisely to
the reality of God's infinite mercy and forgiveness as revealed in various
Qur'anic verses. Many passages from the Sahifa present the same
point of view. Moreover, when the Imam says: `Thou art the Generous Lord for
whom the forgiveness of great sins is nothing great' (31.10), or `Pardoning
great sin is nothing great for Thee, overlooking enormous misdeeds is not
difficult for Thee, putting up with indecent crimes does not trouble Thee'
(12.13), he is merely echoing the command of the Prophet mentioned above: The
worshiper `should be firm and make his desire great, for what God gives is
nothing great for Him.' In any
case, the context of these prayers shows that the accompanying moral attitude
is hardly shallow, since it demands `refraining from arrogance, pulling aside
from persistence [in sin], and holding fast to praying forgiveness' (12.13). Moral
shallowness could only follow if the worshiper remembered God's mercy and forgot
His wrath, but both are always kept in view. THE SAHIFA AND ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY In spite
of studies that have rejected the idea, many people in the West still believe
that `true Islam' lies in simplicity, austerity, legalism, formalism, and a
God perceived as Just and Transcendent. Hence those elements of Islamic
civilization which demonstrate complexity, subtlety, warmth, love,
inwardness, spirituality, and a God of mercy, compassion, and immanence are
seen as largely extraneous to or reactions against Qur'anic Islam. Scholars
such as Massignon have pointed out that a person of spiritual sensitivity
only needs to read the Qur'an for such ideas to be dissolved. But few people
who have adopted the old stereotypes possess this sort of sensitivity or
would be interested in changing their preconceived ideas, lest sympathy be
stirred up in their hearts. It is not my aim here to reject, as so many have
done before me, these common biases concerning the nature of `true Islam',
but I would like to point out that a work like the Sahifa brings out
an inward dimension of Islam which may be much more difficult to perceive in
other early texts. When
scholars and other outsiders look at Islam, they naturally perceive what can
be seen at first glance, that is, events, written reports and records, social
relationships, and so on. It is not easy to look into people's hearts or to
investigate their personal relationship with God, nor are most people
interested in doing so. If there is a way into hearts, it must come by
studying the most inward concerns of individuals as reflected in their
outward activities and writings. But those dimensions of Islam which have
caught the most attention of outside observers are external and obvious, and
they also happen to be relatively devoid of the love and warmth normally
associated in the West with spirituality. Islamic
civilization as a whole is much like a traditional Muslim city: The outer
walls make it appear dull and sombre, and it is not easy to gain access to
the world behind the walls. But if one becomes an intimate with the city's
inhabitants, one is shown into delightful courtyards and gardens, full of
fragrant flowers, fruit trees, and sparkling fountains. Those who write about
Islamic history, political events, and institutions deal with the walls,
since they have no way into the gardens. Some of the gardens are opened up
through the study of Sufism, art and architecture, poetry, and music, but
since all of these have appeared in specific historical forms influenced by
the surrounding environment, their deep Islamic roots can easily be lost to
sight. The most traditional and authentic gardens of the city, and the most
difficult of access, are the hearts of the greatest representatives of the
civilization. It is here that the supplications handed down from the pillars
of early Islam can open up a whole new vision of Islam's animating spirit,
since they provide direct access to the types of human attitudes that are the
prerequisite for a full flowering of the Islamic ideal. OTHER DIMENSIONS This
introduction may seem to be suggesting that the Sahifa deals
exclusively with Islamic spirituality. But the Sahifa deals with
other domains as well. As was pointed out above, the great representatives of
Islam bring together all levels of Islamic teachings, just as these are
brought together by the Qur'an and the hadith. If spirituality has
been emphasized in discussing the Sahifa, this has to do with the
fact that the work is a collection of supplications, and these presuppose
certain attitudes toward the Divine Reality which cannot be understood
outside spirituality's context. But the Sahifa
also provides teachings that are applicable on many different levels, from
the theological (in the broadest sense of the term) to the social. A thorough
analysis of these would demand a book far longer than the Sahifa
itself. It is hoped that the publication of this translation will encourage
scholars to study the content of the prayers contained in the Sahifa
(as well as the prayers left by other pillars of early Islam, the Shi'ite
Imams in particular) to bring out the whole range of teachings they contain. The
most that can be done here is to allude to some of the other important topics
touched upon by the Sahifa and mention a few of the significant
questions which these bring up. Islam is
an organic reality possessing three basic dimensions: practice or the Shari'a
(al-islam) faith (al-iman which includes doctrine and
intellectual teachings), and spirituality (al-ihsan). In the lived
experience of the community, these dimensions are intimately interrelated,
even if various institutional forms tend to deal with them separately. The
earliest sources, such as the prophetic hadith or `Ali's Nahj
al-balagha deal with all three of these dimensions, though different
passages can be isolated which stress one specific epic rather than another. But
a work like the Nahj al-balagha converges profoundly from the Sahifa
in that it brings together sayings on all sorts of matters, from metaphysics,
to the nature of correct government, to the personal flaws of some of `Ali's
contemporaries. There is no stress on spirituality, since this is clearly one
dimension of Islam among others, though a deep spirituality and holiness
underly everything that 'Ali says. In
contrast, the Sahifa by its supplicatory form and content, stresses
the innermost dimension of Islam. But at the same time, it also touches upon
Islam's other dimensions. For example, the traditional category of `faith' is
concerned with God, the angels, the prophets, the scriptures, the Last Day,
and the `measuring' (qadar) of both good and evil. These objects of
faith form the basic subject matter of most of Islamic thought as developed
in kalam philosophy, and theoretical Sufism. Imam Zayn al-'Abidin
discusses all of these in the Sahifa sometimes briefly and sometimes
in detail. Thus he often mentions the angels, while his `Blessing upon the
Bearers of the Throne' (3) provides the best available summary of Muslim
beliefs concerning them. The Imam
also refers frequently to the domain of Islamic practices, or the Shari'a
in the wide sense. He emphasizes the absolute necessity of following
God's guidelines as set down in the Qur'an and the hadith in both
individual and social life. Hence the Sahifa provides many specific
social teachings as well as general injunctions, such as the necessity of
establishing justice in society. But since the social teachings deal with the
domain of practice, the outermost dimension of Islam, they need to be viewed
within the context of the Imam's doctrinal and spiritual teachings. As he
makes eminently clear in his `Treatise on Rights', a hierarchy of priorities
must always be observed: The individual comes before the social, the
spiritual before the practical, and knowledge before action. Each human being
has a long series of social duties, but these depend upon his more essential
duties, which are first, faith in God, and second, placing one's own person
into the proper relationship with the Divine Reality. THE TRANSLATION The
present translation of the Sahifa follows the Arabic original with
as much literal accuracy as could be contrived while maintaining a readable
and understandable English text. I have kept Arberry's Koran Interpreted
in view as the model of how this might be done. I have been particularly
concerned with maintaining consistency in rendering terms and preserving the
concreteness of the original terminology, feeling that the `meaning' of the
text cannot be grasped without due regard for its form. It has already been
suggested that one of the virtues of the early devotional literature is its
ability to speak in a relatively concrete, pre-theological language of great
universality. As a result, any move in the direction of rendering concrete
terms abstractly, by paying attention to the rational meaning rather than the
images conjured up by the linguistic form, will take us in the direction of kalam
and away from the universe of the Qur'an, the hadith and the
intimacy of the supplications themselves. This explains why I have usually
preferred more literal terms such as `Garden' to relatively abstract terms
such as `Paradise'. Where
difficulties arose in interpreting the meaning of the text, I have followed
the commentary of Sayyid 'Alikhan Shirazi. I have also profited from the
excellent Persian translation and commentary by 'Ali Naqi Fayd al-Islam and
the less useful Persian translation of Mirza Abu l-Qasim Sha'rani. I have not
tried to be exhaustive in the notes, aiming only to identify proper names,
clarify obscurities, and point to a few of the Qur'anic references in order
to suggest how thoroughly the text is grounded in the revealed book. In a few
cases I have mentioned relevant hadith or discussed the different
interpretations offered by the commentators. The
translation of the Sahifa is followed by a translation of Imam Zayn
al-Abidin's `Treatise on Rights', which is the only work attributed to him
other than supplications or relatively short sayings and letters. This
treatise is especially important for the manner in which it deals with many
of the same themes as the Sahifa in a different style and language. The
Arabic text printed here was copied from the Sha'rani edition by Tehzib
Husayn Naqvi. It was proof-read by the dedicated and diligent efforts of S.
Ata Muhammad Abidi Amrohvi. Agha Ahsan Abbas is also to be thanked for his
efforts in coordinating the production of the Arabic text. I owe a
debt of gratitude to my dear friend Wing Commander (ret'd) Qasim Husain, the
moving spirit behind the Muhammadi Trust. He caught me in a weak moment and
pushed me into accepting a project which I never would have undertaken
otherwise. His gentle but always firm and forceful pressure has made it
possible for me to complete the translation practically on schedule. Without
his intervention I would have been deprived of the opportunity to gain an
intimate acquaintance with one of the deepest veins of Islamic spirituality. Anyone
who comes to appreciate the contents of the Sahifa through the
present work would do well to offer a prayer of thanks for the sake of
Commander Husain. I also thank Sayyid Ali Mohammad Naqavi, who read the
translation and offered a number of useful suggestions for its improvement,
and Sayyid Muhammad Husain al-Husaini al-Jalali, who placed at my disposal a
useful bibliography of works concerning the Sahifa. |
اَلصَّحيفَةُ
الْكامِلَةُ
السَّجّادِيَّةُ
أَدْعِيَةٌ
مَأْثُورةٌ عَنِ
الإمامِ
زَيْنِ
الْعابِدينَ عَلِىِّ
بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ
عَلَيْهِمَا
السّلامُ بِسْمِ
اللّهِ
الرَّحْمنِ
الرَّحيمِ حَدَّثَنَا
السَّيِّدُ
الاَْجَلُّ
نَجْمُ
الدّينِ
بَهاءُ
الشَّرَفِ
أَبُو
الْحَسَنِ
مُحَمَّدُ
بْنُ
الْحَسَنِ
بْنِ
أَحْمَدَ بْنِ
عَلِيِّ
بْنِ
مُحَمَّدِ
بْنِ عُمَرَ
بْنِ
يَحْيىَ
الْعَلَوِىُّ
الْحُسَيْنِيُ
رَحِمَهُ
اللّهُ قالَ:
أَخْبَرَنَا
الشَّيْخُ
السَّعيدُ
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
مُحَمَّدُ
بْنُ
أَحْمَدَ
بْنِ
شَهْرِيارَ
الْخازِنُ
لِخِزانَةِ
مَوْلانا
أَميرِ
الْمُؤمنِينَ
عَلِيِّ
بْنِ أَبي
طالب
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ،
في شَهْرِ رَبيع
الاَْوَّلِ
مِنْ سَنَةِ
سِتَّ
عَشْرَةَ
وَخَمْسِمِائَة
قِراءَةً
عَلَيْهِ
وَأَنَا
أَسْمَعُ،
قالَ:
سَمِعْتُها
عَلَى الشَّيْخِ
الصَّدوقِ
أَبي
مَنْصُور
مُحَمَّدِ
بْنِ
مُحَمَّدِ
بْنِ
أَحْمَد
بْنِ عَبْدِ الْعَزيزِ
الْعُكْبَرِيِّ
الْمُعَدَّلِ
رَحِمَهُ
اللّهُ،
عَنْ أبِي
الْمُفَضَّلِ
مُحَمَّدِ
بْنِ عَبْدِ
اللّهِ بْنِ
الْمُطَّلِبِ
الشَّيْبانِيِّ
قـالَ:
حَدَّثَنَا
الشَّريفُ
أَبوُ عَبدِ
اللّهِ
جَعْفَرُ
بْنُ
مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ
جَعْفَرِ
بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ
ابْنِ
جَعْفَرِ
بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ
بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ
بْنِ أَميرِ
الْمُؤْمِنينَ
عَلِيّ بْنِ
أَبي طالِب
عَلَيْهم
السَّلام
قالَ:
حَدَّثَنا
عَبْدُ
اللّهِ بْنُ
عُمَرَ بْنِ
خَطّاب
الزَّيّاتُ،
سَنَةَ
خَمْس وَسِتّينَ
وَمِائتَيَنِ،
قالَ:
حَدَّثَني
خالي
عَلِىُّ
بْنُ
النُّعْمانِ
الاَْعْلَمُ
قالَ: حَدَّثَني
عُمَيْرُ
بْنُ
مُتَوَكِّل
الثَّقَفِىُّ
الْبَلْخِيُّ،
عَنْ أَبيهِ
مُتَوكِّلِ بْنِ
هارُونَ
قالَ: لَقيت
يَحْيَى
بْنَ زَيْدِ
بْنِ عَليٍّ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
وَهَوَ
مُتَوَجِّهٌ
إِلى خُراسانَ
بَعْدَ
قَتْلِ
أَبيهِ،
فَسَلَّمْتُ
عَلَيْـهِ،
فَقـالَ لـي:
مِـنْ أَيْـنَ
أَقْبَلْتَ؟
قُلْتُ: مِنَ
الْحَجِّ،
فَسَأَلَني
عَنْ
أَهْلِهِ
وَبَني
عَمّه بِالْمَدينَةِ،
وَأَحْفَى
السُّؤالَ
عَنْ جَعْفَرِ
بْنِ
مُحَمَّد
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ، فَأَخْبَرْتُهُ
بِخَبَرِه
وَخَبَرِهِمْ
وَحُزْنِهِمْ
عَلى أَبيهِ
زَيْدِ بْنِ
عَلِيٍّ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ،
فَقالَ لي:
قَدْ كانَ
عَمّي
مُحَمَّدُ
ابْنُ
عَلِيٍّ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
أَشارَ عَلى
أَبي
بِتَرْكِ
الْخُرُوجِ،
وَعَرَّفَهُ
إِنْ هُوَ
خَرَجَ
وَفارَقَ
الْمَدينَةَ
ما يَكُونُ
إِلَيْهِ
مَصيرُ
أَمْرِه، فَهَلْ
لَقيتَ
ابْنَ عَمّي
جَعْفَرَ
بْنَ مُحَمَّد
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ؟ قُلْتُ:
نَعَمْ. قالَ
فَهَلْ
سَمِعْتَهُ
يَذْكُرُ
شَيْئاً مِنْ
أَمْري؟ قُلْتُ:
نَعَمْ. قالَ: بِمَ
ذَكَرَني
خَبّرْني؟ قُلْتُ:
جُعِلتُ
فِداكَ ما
أُحِبُّ أنْ
أسْتَقْبِلَكَ
بِما
سَمِعْتُهُ
مِنْهُ. فَقالَ: أَ
بِالْمَوْتِ
تُخَوِّفُني؟
هاتِ ما
سَمِعْتَهُ. فَقُلْتُ:
سَمِعْتُهُ
يَقولُ:
إِنَّكَ
تُقْتَلُ
وَتُصْلَبُ
كَما قُتِلَ
أَبوكَ
وَصُلِبَ. فَتَغَيَّرَ
وَجْهُهُ
وَقالَ:
(يَمْحُو اللّهُ
ما يَشاءُ
وَيُثْبِتُ
وَعِنْدَهُ
اُمُّ
الْكِتابِ) يا
مُتَوَكِّلُ،
إِنَّ اللهَ
عَزَّوَجَلَّ
أَيَّدَ
هذَا
اْلاَمْرَ
بِنا،
وَجَعَلَ لَنَا
الْعِلْمَ
وَالسَّيْفَ
فَجُمِعا
لَنا،
وَخُصَّ
بَنو
عَمِّنا
بِالْعلْمِ
وَحْدَهُ. فَقُلْتُ:
جُعِلْتُ
فِداءَكَ،
إِنّي رَأَيْتُ
النّاسَ
إِلَى ابْنِ
عَمِّكَ
جَعْفَر عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
أَمْيَلَ
مِنْهُمْ
إِلَيْكَ
وَإِلى
أَبيكَ. فَقالَ:
إِنَّ عَمّي
مُحَمَّدَ
بْنَ عَلِيٍّ
وَابْنَهُ
جَعْفَراً
عَلَيْهِمَا
السَّلامُ
دَعَوَا
النّاسَ
إِلَى
الْحَياةِ
وَنَحْنُ
دَعَوْناهُمْ
إِلَى
الْمَوْتِ. فَقُلْتُ:
يَابْنَ
رَسُولِ
اللّهِ
أَهُمْ أَعْلَمُ
أَمْ
أَنْتُمْ؟ فَأَطْرَقَ
إِلَى الاْرْضِ
مَلِيًّا
ثُمَّ
رَفَعَ
رَأْسَهُ
وَقالَ:
كُلُّنا
لَهُ
عِلْمٌ،
غَيْرَ
أَنَّهُمْ يَعْلَموُنَ
كُلَّما
نَعْلَمُ
وَلانَعْلَمُ
كُلَّما
يَعْلَمُونَ،
ثُمَّ قالَ
لي: أَكتَبْتَ
مِنِ ابْنِ
عَمّي
شَيْئاً؟ قُلْتُ:
نَعَمْ. قالَ: أَرِنيهِ. فَأَخْرَجْتُ
إِلَيْهِ
وُجُوهاً
مِنَ الْعِلْمِ،
وَأَخْرَجْتُ
لَهُ دُعاءً
أَمْلاَهُ
عَلَيَّ
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ،
وَحَدَّثَني
أَنَّ
أَباهُ مُحَمَّدَ
بْنَ
عَلِيٍّ
عَلَيْهِمَا
السَّلامُ
أَمْلاهُ
عَلَيْهِ،
وَأَخْبَرَهُ
أَنَّهُ
مِنْ دُعاءِ
أَبيهِ
عَلِيّ بْنِ
الْحُسَيْنِ
عَلَيْهِمَا
السَّلامُ،
مِنْ دُعاءِ
الصَّحيفَةِ
الْكامِلَةِ. فَنَظَرَ
فيهِ يَحيْى
حَتّى أَتى
عَلى آخِرِهِ
وَقالَ لي:
أَتَأْذَنُ
في نَسْخِه؟ فَقُلْتُ:
يَابْنَ
رَسُولِ
اللّهِ
أَتَسْتَأْذِنُ
فيما هُوَ
عَنْكُمْ؟ فَقالَ:
أَما لاَخْرِجَنَّ
إِلَيْكَ
صَحيفَةً
مِنَ
الدُّعاءِ
الْكامِلِ
مِمّا
حَفِظَهُ
أَبي عَنْ
أَبيهِ، وَإِنَّ
أَبي
أَوْصاني
بِصَوْنِها
وَمَنْعِها
غَيْرَ
أَهْلِها. قالَ
عُمَيْرٌ:
قالَ أَبي:
فَقُمْتُ
إِلَيْهِ
فَقَبَّلْتُ
رَأْسَهُ
وَقُلْتُ
لَهُ: وَاللهِ
يَابْنَ
رَسُولِ
اللّهِ إِنّي
لاَدينُ
اللهَ
بِحُبِّكُمْ
وَطاعَتِكُمْ،
وَإِنّي
لاََرْجوُ
أَنْ
يُسْعِدَني
في حَياتي
وَمَماتي
بِوَلايَتِكُمْ. فَرَمى
صحيفَتِيَ
الَّتَي
دَفَعْتُها
إِلَيْهِ
إِلى غُلام
كانَ
مَعَهُ،
وَقالَ: اُكْتُبْ
هذَا
الدُّعاءَ
بِخَط
بَيِّن حَسَن
وأَعْرِضْهُ
عَلَيَّ
لَعلَّي
أَحْفَظُهُ
فَإِنّي
كُنْتُ
أَطْلُبُهُ
مِنْ
جَعْفَر
حَفِظَهُ
اللّهُ
فَيَمْنَعُنيهِ. قالَ
مُتَوَكِّلٌ:
فَنَدِمْتُ
عَلى ما فَعَلْتُ
وَلَمْ
أَدْرِ ما
أَصْنَعُ،
وَلَمْ يَكُنْ
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
تَقَدَّمَ
إِلَيِّ
أَلاّ
أَدْفَعَهُ
إِلى أَحَد. ثُمَّ دَعا
بِعَيْبَة
فَاسْتَخْرَجَ
مِنْها
صَحيفَةً
مُقْفَلَةً
مَخْتُومَةً،
فَنَظَرَ
إِلَى
الْخاتَمِ
وَقَبَّلَهُ
وَبَكى،
ثُمَّ
فَضَّهُ
وَفَتَحَ
الْقُفْلَ،
ثُمَّ
نَشَرَ
الصَّحيفَةَ
وَوَضَعَها
عَلى عَيْنِهِ،
وَأَمَرَّها
عَلى
وَجْهِه
وَقالَ: وَاللّهِ
يا مُتَوَكِّلُ
لَوْلا ما
ذَكَرْتَ
مِنْ قَوْلِ
ابْنِ عَمّي
إِنَّني
أُقْتَلُ
وَأُصْلَبُ
لَما
دَفَعْتُها
إِلَيْكَ،
وَلَكُنْتُ
بِها
ضَنيناً،
وَلكِنّي
أَعْلَمُ
أَنَّ قَوْلَهُ
حَقٌّ
أَخَذَهُ
عَنْ
آبائِهِ
وَأَنَّهُ
سَيَصِحُّ،
فَخِفْتُ
أَنْ يَقَعَ
مِثْلُ هذَا
العِلْمِ إِلى
بَني
اُمَيَّةَ
فَيَكْتُمُوهُ
وَيَدَّخِرُوهُ
في
خَزائِنِهِمْ
لاِنْفُسِهِمْ،
فَاقْبِضْها
وَاكْفِنيها
وَتَرَبَّصْ
بِها،
فَإِذا
قَضَى
اللّهُ مِنْ أَمْري
وَأَمْرِ
هؤُلاءِ
الْقَوْمِ
ما هُوَ قاض
فَهِيَ
أَمانَةٌ لي
عِنْدَكَ
حَتّى تُوصِلَها
إِلَى
ابْنَيْ
عَمّي
مُحَمَّد
وَإِبْراهيمَ
ابْنَيْ
عَبْدِ اللّهِ
بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ
بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ
عَلَيْهمِا
السَّلامُ،
فَإِنَّهُمَا
الْقائِمانِ
في هذَا
اْلاَمْرِ
بَعْدي. قالَ
الْمُتوَكِّلُ:
فَقَبَضْتُ
الصَّحيفَةَ،
فَلَمّا
قُتِل
يَحْيَى
بْنُ زَيْد
صِرْتُ
إِلَى
الْمَدينَةِ،
فَلَقيتُ
أَبا عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ،
فَحَدَّثْتُهُ
الْحَديثَ
عَنْ يَحيى. فَبَكى
وَاشْتَدَّ
وَجْدُهُ
بِهِ وَقالَ:
رَحِمَ
اللّهُ
ابْنَ عَمّي
وَأَلْحَقَهُ
بِآبائِهِ
وَأَجْدادِهِ،
وَاللّهِ يا
مُتَوَكِّلُ
ما مَنَعَني
مِنْ دَفْعِ
الدُّعاءِ إِلَيْهِ
إِلاَّ الَّذي
خافَهُ عَلى
صَحيفَةِ
أَبيهِ،
وَأَيْنَ
الصَّحيفَةُ. فَقُلْتُ:
ها هِيَ. فَفَتَحَها
وَقالَ: هذا
وَاللّهِ
خَطُّ عَمّي
زَيْد
وَدُعاءُ
جَدّي
عَلِيِّ
بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ
عَلَيْهمِا
السَّلامُ،
ثُمَّ قالَ
لاِبْنِهِ:
قُمْ يا
إِسْماعِيلُ
فَأْتِني بِالدُّعاءِ
الَّذي
أَمَرْتُكَ
بِحِفْظِه
وَصَوْنِهِ،
فَقامَ
إِسْماعيلُ
فَأَخْرَجَ
صَحِيفَةً
كَأَ نَّهَا
الصَّحيفَةُ
الَّتي
دَفَعَها
إِلَيَّ
يَحْيَى
بْنُ زَيْد،
فَقَبَّلَها
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
وَوَضَعَها
عَلى
عَيْنِهِ
وَقالَ: هذا
خَطُّ أَبي
وَإِمْلاءُ
جَدّي عَلَيْهِمَا
السَّلامُ
بِمَشْهَد
مِنّي. فَقُلْتُ:
يَابْنَ
رَسُولِ
اللّهِ إِنْ
رَأَيْتَ
أَنْ
أَعْرِضَها
مَعَ
صَحيفَةِ
زَيْد
وَيَحيْى. فَأَذِنَ
لي في ذلِكَ
وَقالَ: قَدْ
رَأَيْتُكَ
لِذلِكَ
أهْلاً،
فَنَظَرْتُ
وَإِذا هُما
أَمْرٌ
واحِدٌ
وَلَمْ
أَجِدْ
حَرْفاً مِنْها
يُخالِفُ ما
فِي
الصَّحيفَةِ
الاْخْرى،
ثُمَّ
اسْتَأْذَنْتُ
أَبا عَبْدِ
اللهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
في دَفْعِ
الصَّحيفَةِ
إِلَى
ابْنَيْ
عَبْدِ
اللهِ بْنِ
الْحَسَنِ. فَقالَ:
(إِنَّ
اللّهَ
يَأْمُرُكُمْ
أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا
الاْماناتِ
إِلى
أَهْلِها)نَعَمْ
فَادْفَعْها
إِلَيْهِما،
فَلَمّا
نَهَضْتُ
لِلِقائِهِما
قالَ لي: مَكانَكَ،
ثُمَّ
وَجَّهَ
إِلى
مُحَمَّد
وَإِبْراهيمَ
فَجاءا،
فَقالَ: هذا
ميراثُ
ابْنِ عَمِّكُما
يَحيْى مِنْ
أَبيهِ قَد
خَصَّكُما
بِهِ دُونَ
إِخْوَتِه،
وَنَحْنُ
مُشْتَرِطُونَ
عَلَيْكُما
فيهِ
شَرْطاً. فَقالا:
رَحِمَكَ
اللهُ قُلْ
فَقَوْلُكَ
الْمَقْبُولُ. فَقالَ: لا
تَخْرُجا
بِهذِهِ
الصَّحيفَة
مِنَ
الْمَدينَةِ. قالا:
وَلِمَ
ذاكَ؟ قالَ: إِنَّ
ابْنَ
عَمِّكُما
خافَ
عَلَيْها أَمْراً
أَخافُهُ
أَنَا
عَلَيْكُما. قالا:
إِنَّما
خافَ
عَلَيْها
حينَ عَلِمَ
أَنَّهُ
يُقْتَلُ. فَقالَ
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ:
وَأَنْتُما
فَلا
تَأْمَنا،
فَوَاللّهِ
إِنّي
لاََعْلَمُ
أَ نَّكُما
سَتَخْرُجانِ
كَما خَرَجَ
وَسَتُقْتَلانِ
كَما قُتِلَ. فَقاما
وَهُما
يَقُولانِ:
لاحَوْلَ
وَلاقُوَّةَ
إِلاّ
بِاللّهِ
الْعَلِيّ
الْعَظيمِ. فَلَمَّا خَرَجا
قالَ لي
أَبُو
عَبْدِ
اللهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ:
يا
مُتَوَكِّلُ
كَيْفَ قالَ
لَكَ يَحيْى
إِنَّ عَمّي
مُحمَّدَ
بْنَ عَلِيٍّ
وَابْنَهُ
جَعْفَراً
دَعَوَا
النّاسَ إِلَى
الْحَياةِ
وَدَعَوْناهُمْ
إِلَى الْمَوْتِ؟ قُلْتُ:
نَعَمْ
أَصْلَحَكَ
اللّهُ قَدْ
قالَ لِي
ابْنُ
عَمِّكَ
يَحيْى
ذلِكَ. فَقالَ:
يَرْحَمُ
اللّهُ
يَحيْى،
إِنَّ أَبي
حَدَّثَني
عَنْ أَبيهِ
عَنْ
جَدِّهِ
عَنْ عَلِيٍّ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ:
أَنَّ
رَسُولَ
اللّهِ
صَلّى
اللّهُ
عَلَيْهِ
وَآلِهِ أَخَذَتْهُ
نَعْسَةٌ
وَهُوَ عَلى
مِنْبَرِهِ،
فَرَأى في
مَنامِهِ رِجالاً
يَنْزُونَ
عَلى
مِنْبَرِهِ
نَزْوَ الْقِرَدَةِ،
يَرُدُّونَ
النّاسَ
عَلى أَعْقابِهِمُ
الْقَهْقَرى،
فَاسْتَوى
رَسُولُ
اللّهِ
صَلَّى
اللّهُ
عَلَيْهِ
وَآلِهِ
جالِساً،
وَالْحُزْنُ
يُعْرَفُ في
وَجْهِهِ،
فَأَتاهُ
جِبْريلُ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
بِهذِهِ
الايَةِ (وَما
جَعَلْنَا
الرُّؤْيَا
الَّتي
أَرَيْناكَ
إِلاّ
فِتْنَةً
لِلنّاسِ
وَالشَّجَرَةَ
الْمَلْعُونَةَ
فِي
القُرْآنِ
وَنُخَوِّفُهُمْ
فَما
يَزيدُهُمْ
إِلاّ
طُغْياناً
كَبيراً) يَعْني
بَني
اُمَيَّةَ،
قالَ: يا
جِبْريلُ أَعَلى
عَهْدي
يكونُونَ
وَفي
زَمَني؟
قالَ: لا وَلكِنْ
تَدُورُ
رَحَى
الاِْسْلامِ
مِنْ مُهاجَرِكَ،
فَتَلْبَثُ
بِذلِكَ
عَشْراً، ثُمَّ
تَدوُرُ
رَحَى الاْسْلامِ
عَلى رَأْسِ
خَمْسَة
وَثَلاثينَ
مِنْ مُهاجَرِكَ،
فَتَلْبَثُ
بِذلِكَ
خَمْساً،
ثُمَّ
لابُدَّ
مِنْ رَحى
ضَلالَة
هِيَ قائِمَةٌ
عَلى
قُطْبِها،
ثُمَّ مُلْكُ
الْفَراعِنَةِ. قال:
وَأَنْزَلَ
اللّهُ
تَعالى في
ذلِكَ: (إِنّا
أَنْزَلْناهُ
في لَيْلَةِ
الْقَدْرِ * وَما
أَدْراكَ ما
لَيْلَةُ
الْقَدْرِ *
لَيْلَةُ
الْقَدْرِ
خَيْرٌ مِنْ
أَلْفِ
شَهْر )يَمْلِكُها
بَنُو
اُمَيَّةَ
لَيْسَ فيها
لَيْلَةُ
الْقَدْرِ،
قالَ: فَأَطْلَعَ
اللّهُ
عَزَّوَجَلَّ
نَبِيَّهُ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ
أَنَّ بَني
اُمَيَّةَ
تَمْلِكُ
سُلْطانَ
هذِهِ الاْمَّةِ
وَمُلْكَها
طوُلَ هذِهِ
الْمُدَّةِ،
فَلَوْ
طاوَلَتْهُمُ
الْجِبالُ
لَطالوُا
عَلَيْها
حَتّى
يَأْذَنَ
اللّهُ
تَعالى بِزَوالِ
مُلْكِهِمْ،
وَهُمْ في ذلِكَ
يَسْتَشْعِرُونَ
عَداوتَنا
أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ
وَبُغْضَنا،
أَخْبَرَ
اللّهُ نَبِيَّهُ
بِما يَلْقى
أَهْلُ
بَيْتِ
مُحَمَّد
وَأَهْلُ
مَوَدَّتِهِمْ
وَشيعَتُهُمْ
مِنْهُمْ في
أَيّامِهِمْ
وَمُلْكِهِمْ. قالَ:
وَأَنْزَلَ
اللّهُ
تَعالى
فيهِمْ: (أَلَمْ
تَرَ إِلَى
الَّذينَ
بَدَّلُوا
نِعْمَةَ
اللّهِ
كُفْراً وَأَحَلُّوا
قَوْمَهُمْ
دارَ
البَوارِ *
جَهَنَّمَ
يَصْلَوْنَها
وَبِئْسَ
الْقَرارُ) وَنِعْمَةُ
اللّهِ
مُحَمَّدٌ
وَأَهْلُ بَيْتِهِ،
حُبُّهُمْ
إِيمانٌ
يُدْخِلُ
الْجَنَّةَ،
وَبُغْضهُمْ
كُفْرٌ
وَنِفاقٌ يُدْخِلُ
النّارَ،
فَأَسَرَّ
رَسُولُ
اللّهِ
صَلَّىَ اللّهُ
عَلَيْهِ
وَآلِه
ذلِكَ إِلى
عَلِيٍّ
وَأَهْلِ
بَيْتِهِ. قالَ: ثُمَّ
قالَ أَبو
عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
عَلَيْهِ
السَّلامُ: ما خَرَجَ
وَلا
يَخْرُجُ
مِنّا
أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ
إِلى قِيامِ
قائِمِنا
أَحَدٌ
لِيَدْفَعَ
ظُلْماً
أَوْ
يَنْعَشَ حَقّاً
إِلاَّ
اصْطَلَمَتْهُ
الْبَلِيَّةُ،
وَكانَ
قِيامُهُ
زِيادَةً في
مَكْرُوهِنا
وَشيَعتِنا. قالَ
الْمُتَوَكِّلُ
بْنُ هارونَ:
ثُمَّ أَمْلى
عَلَيَّ
أَبوُ
عَبْدِ
اللهِ
عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ
اْلاَدْعِيَةَ،
وَهِيَ
خَمْسَةٌ
وَسَبْعُونَ
باباً،
سَقَطَ
عَنّي مِنْها
أَحَدَ
عَشَرَ
باباً،
وَحَفِظْتُ
مِنْها نَيَّفاً
وَسِتّينَ
باباً. وَحَدَّثَنا
أَبو
الْمُفَضَّلِ
قالَ: وَحَدَّثَني
مُحَمَّدُ
ابْنُ
الْحَسَنِ
ابْنِ رُوزْبِهْ
أَبو بَكْر
الْمَدائِنيِّ
الْكاتِبُ
نَزيلُ
الرَّحْبَةِ
في دارِهِ
قالَ: حَدَّثَني
مُحَمَّدُ
بْنُ
أَحْمَدَ
بْنِ مُسْلِم
الْمُطَهَّرِيُّ
قالَ:
حَدَّثَني
أَبي، عَنْ
عُمَيْرِ
بْنِ
مُتَوَكّلِ
الْبَلْخِيِّ،
عَنْ أَبيهِ
الْمُتَوَكِّلِ
بْنِ هارونَ
قالَ: لَقيتُ
يَحيَى بْن
زَيْدِ بْنِ
عَلِيٍّ
عَلَيْهِمَا
السَّلامُ... فَذَكَرَ
الْحَديثَ
بِتَمامِهِ
إِلى رُؤْيَا
النَّبِيِّ
صَلَّىَ
اللّهُ
عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ
الَّتي
ذَكَرَها
جَعْفَرُ بْنُ
مُحَمَّد
عَنْ
آبائِهِ
صَلَواتُ
اللّهِ عَلَيْهِمْ. وَفي
رِوايَةِ
الْمُطَهَّرِيِّ
ذِكْرُ الاَْبْوابِ
وَهِيَ: ـ
التَّحْميدُ
لِلّهِ
عَزَّ
وَجَلَّ ـ
الصَّلوةُ
عَلى
مُحَمَّد
وَآلِهِ ـ
الصَّلوةُ
عَلى
حَمَلَةِ
الْعَرْشِ ـ
الصَّلوةُ
عَلى
مُصَدِّقِى
الرُّسُلِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِنَفْسِهِ
وَخاصَّتِهِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
الصَّباحِ
وَالْمسَاءِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الْمُهِمّاتِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الاْسْتِعاذَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الاِشْتِياقِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
اللَّجَأِ
اِلَى
اللّهِ تَعالى ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
بِخَواتِمِ
الْخَيْرِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الاِعْتِرافِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
طَلَبِ
الْحَوائِجِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الظُّلاماتِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
الْمَرَضِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الاْسْتِقالَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عَلَى
الشَّيْطانِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الْمَحْذُوراتِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الاْسْتِسْقاءِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
مَكارِمِ
الاْخْلاقِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
اِذا
اَحْزَنَهُ
اَمْرٌ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
الشِّدَّةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
بِالْعافِيةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لاِبَوَيْهِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِوُلْدِهِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِجِيرانِهِ
وَاَوْلِيائِهِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لاِهْلِ
الثُّغُورِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فىِ التَّفَزُّعِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
اِذا
قُتِّرَ
عَلَيْهِ
الرِّزْقُ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الْمَعُونَةِ
عَلى قَضاءِ الدَّيْنِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
بِالتَّوْبَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
صَلوةِ
اللَّيْلِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الاْسْتِخارَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
اِذَا
ابْتُلِىَ
اَوْ رَأى
مُبْتَلىً
بِفَضيحَة
بِذَنْب ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الرِّضا
بِالْقَضاءِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
سَماعِ
الرَّعْدِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الشُّكْرِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الاْعْتِذارِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
طَلَبِ
الْعَفْوِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
ذِكْرِ
الْمَوْتِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
طَلَبِ
السِّتْرِ
وَالْوِقايَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
عِنْدَ
خَتْمِهِ
الْقُرْانَ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
اِذا نَظَرَ
اِلَى
الْهِلالِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِدُخُولِ
شَهْرِ
رَمَضانَ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِوَداعِ
شَهْرِ
رَمَضانَ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
لِعيدِ
الْفِطْرِ
وَالْجُمُعَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
يَوْمِ
عَرَفَةَ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
يَوْمِ الاْضْحى
وَالْجُمُعَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ في
دَفْعِ
كَيْدِ
الاَْعْداءِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
الرَّهْبَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
التَّضَرُّعِ
وَالاْسْتِكانَةِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي الإلْحاحِ ـ
دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
التَّذَلُّلِ ـ دُعاؤُهُ
فِي
اسْتِكْشافِ
الْهُمُومِ وَباقِي
الاْبْوابِ
بِلَفْظِ
أَبي عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
الحَسَنِيِّ
رَحِمَهُ
اللّهُ:
حَدَّثَنا
أَبو عَبْدِ
اللّهِ
جَعْفَرُ
بْنُ
مُحَمَّد
الْحَسَنِيُّ
قالَ:
حَدَّثَنا |