Three elements to getting near to Ahle Beyt

A lecture by Professor Ansarian:

Now the holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is guiding how to communicate with him and his Ahle Bayt (God bless them), because holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is at the top of his Ahle Bayt (God bless them). The communication will be possible with three elements; it means a key that has three jags which can open that door. The first element is cognition. The world of cognition is very valuable and majestic. My brother, the people who wanted cognition, sometimes traveled thousands of miles with difficulties so that they acquire cognition. An old man whose stature was curved used to travel the dangerous way from Basreh to Medina about one thousand and four hundred years ago to reach Imam Sadegh’s (God bless him) home and after arriving had said him “ I couldn’t understand a thing, so I have come here to ask you and then I will go.”

I don’t whether he was living or not when he came back to Basreh? Two times he had gone and come back from Qum to Bokhara that I think the distance between these two cities is about four thousand kilometer, it means he had traveled about eight thousand kilometer; and also he had traveled this path for two times. Sheikh Sadogh had traveled from Qum to Bokhara for two times in order to he knows something. There are a lot of people who had deprived themselves from many conveniences so that they learn something. They had been moved away from their father and mother, their family and form any comfort to know the realities. When our Aeme-ye-Atehar (God bless them) were asked about the best deeds, they said “cognition”[1] there is a line of poem about it:

If they give you cognition, sell the gold / and if you given gold without cognition, you are pauper

The question which posed is that how we can know the holy Ahle Bayt (God bless them)? the first way to know Ahle Bayt (God bless them) is holy Quran:

“Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O Ahle Bayt (God bless them)! And to purify you a (thorough) purifying”[2]

I (God) have completed all perfections and purifications in you and removed all imperfections and impurity from you. After that we have to know with whom we should communicate and from where we should feed ourselves in our lifetime in this world; with whom we should adjust our behavior and from where we have to provide our knowledge; with which kinds of people we have to give direction to our life? We should know:

“Defiantly Hussein (God bless him) is guidance light”:

Hussein (God bless him) is light, not that professor or that university master or that foreign scientist. Those persons need a world of lights for themselves, but we should know it that holy Prophet’s (peace be up on him) life is light; light is Imam Ali’s (God bless him) life. And sainthood Fatimah’s (God bless her) is light for people guidance. The guidance light is Imam Hassan’s (God bless him) and Imam Hussein’s (God bless him) life. We should know and understand it.

The second element is love which is easy to obtain and it doesn’t need that much effort; because when I identify the holy Ahle Beyt (God bless them), I will have all ideal values and if I identify them correctly I won’t find any imperfection and defect in them. The absolute beauty I will give my heart to them. The love doesn’t need to asset. If I fall in love and sacrifice myself when I see beauty, so I have obtain my lifetime’s target. There is a poem about it:

The lifetime’s crop is three words / I was crude, then I ripened, then I burnt

The magic of this second element, I mean love is very strange, very strange. Just a lover knows about his condition. There is a poem about it:

We are in this scorching fire / the love has killed us and we are alive for it

However the Khezr water is better than our life / the love is better than Khezr water

Ask me about fire of love / ask about stars from butterfly

The rebuked people who are going healthy / they are crossing the healthy way by being rebuked

If you feel comfort in this stage / so you had fallen in love for yourself

The holy Prophet says about the third element that it is accepting the superintendence of Ahle Beyt (God bless them). The superintendence word is apparent in holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) utterance. The superintendence has taken out from holy Quran:

“There is Allah’s special superintendence that (he) commands there rightly and he gives the best remuneration and futurity.”[3]

“O people, who have believed to Allah, follows Allah and follows holy Prophet and commanders from them (whom they have specified for you).”[4]

The superintendence means that one submit himself to Ahle Beyt’s (God bless them) hands and say, give me whatever you like. I’m your obedient; I am your submissive. In this world, I’m like a traveler for forty or fifty years. I want you to tell me how I should manage my business, and I want you to direct my business. I want you to direct my social life. I want you to direct my child and wife. “superintendence”; means I’m servant, I’m thrall, I’m slave and I put myself in holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him), sainthood Fatimah’s (God bless her), Ali’s (God bless him), Hassan’s (God bless him) and Hussein’s (God bless him) hands and say that I’m a slave and God has sold me to you and I want God to doesn’t retake me. Now direct me. That is the meaning of superintendence. You have to regard holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) and Ahle Beyt’s (God bless them) words in these three elements. The cognition is light. The love is enjoying. The superintendence is submission.

The first element, knowing Ahle Beyt (God bless them)

The holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said “if a person die, while he hadn’t identified the Imam (superintendent) of his time, so he has died in ignorance death.”[5] It means if a person dies without knowing his time’s Imam, his death is like Abu Jahl’s and Abu Lahab’s death. This is ignorance death. It doesn’t make any difference that who is that person. Salim the son of Gheys said “I have asked from Imam Ali (God bless him) that what is the least phase of aberrance?” Imam Ali (God bless him) said “the least phase of aberrance is that one doesn’t know God’s commanders and doesn’t know the person who has appointed by God to be supervise to his work in this world and in hereafter” Salim asked “who are these people?” Imam Ali (God bless him) said “refer to holy Quran. These are the people whom God has mentioned their name beside his name and his holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) name.” Salim asked “in which part of holy Quran?” Imam Ali (God bless him) recite this verse: “O people, who have believed to Allah, follows Allah and follows holy Prophet and commanders from them (whom they have specified for you).”[6]

Salim said to Imam Ali (God bless him) “O Ali (God bless him) you have greatly clarified the matter for me’ because holy Quran is criterion; my grief has been removed and I understood that I have to follow Ali (God bless him), Fatimah (God bless her), Hassan (God bless him) and Hussein (God bless him) and you removed every doubts that were in my heart.”

Therefore I shouldn’t follow Lenin, Stalin and other universities’ masters. I should take my religion from you; I should take my world from you; I should take my hereafter from you; I should take my heaven from you; I should take my security of hell from you. The God’s mercifulness come toward them and it distributes from them. This utterance was about cognition. It is very accurate. Imam Sadegh said

 “Someone who sleeps one night without knowing his Imam in that night, he has died in ignorance death.”[7]

I want to say to young people how has acquainted with religion recently that don’t think our Aeme-ye-Atehar (God bless them) want to make compliment about themselves; they want to give you God’s mercifulness’ address; they want to show you the liberation way.

The second element, loving Ahle Beyt (God bless them)

But holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said about loving Ahle Beyt (God bless them) “God has created all messengers from different behavior and all of them aren’t from same tree, but rather are from different trees; but God has created me and Ali (God bless him) form a tree; I’m the root of that tree and Ali (God bless him) is its stem and Fatimah (God bless her) is its reason to grow;” it means if she has been taken from us, we will become shriveled. That is really amazing. “My Hassan (God bless him) and Hussein (God bless him) are the fruits of this tree.” Isn’t this a picture of a complete tree? He has said its root, its stem, its reason to grow and its fruits. A tree has leaves. So who are its leaves? After that holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said “Their Shiites are its leaves.”[8]

We are the leaves of this tree it means we should try to not fall down from it. The autumn doesn’t attack us. The lucre falls down these leaves. Backbiting and slander fall down these leaves. Being suspect to other falls down these leaves. Leaving the pray falls down these leaves. Our Shiites are as leaves of this tree. Then holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said “if every one of you resort to a branch of this tree, he can be hopeful to save. If one resort to any branch of this tree, it doesn’t matter that he follows Hussein (God bless him) or Hassan (God bless him) or Fatimah (God bless her) or follows Ali (God bless him), he will be eventually rescued”. Because all of us are same and with together and it’s not important that with whom you connect. We will bring you to other branch because there isn’t any difference in us. And also you haven’t ten hands, you have just one hand. So resort to Ali (God bless him) and he will bring you to all of them; O ladies, resort to Fatimah (God bless her), she will bring you to other. They have given us a great deal of discount, but one who doesn’t resort to them “if one doesn’t resort to us, however his body will be shriveled like a withered leather bottle from intensity of praying God, but doesn’t has our love or fondness, in hereafter God will take him from his nose and falls him down in hell.”[9] This work will be done by God not his angels because God hate and dislike someone who hasn’t any fondness to Hussein (God bless him).

We are lucky that God loves us; because we have some assets that God loves them. This was chapter of love. When the verse of “I (holy Prophet [peace be upon him]) don’t want any remuneration from you except loving my Family” revealed, some people come to holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and said “what is the intention of “family” in this verse and who are them?” the holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said “Ali (God bless him) and Fatimah (God bless her) and their sons.”[10]

The third element, getting near to Ahle Beyt (God bless them), superintendence

But superintendence; it means accepting color. Imam Bagher (God bless him) has said “the nobility of this religion, its eminency, desideration of messengers and God’s contentment in this religion is listening to our words as Ahle Beyt (God bless them). So listen to our words. Asbagh-ebne-Nabaate said that my sword was on my shoulder and its heaviness was tiring my back. So I take it off and put it on my back. Imam Ali (God bless him) was walking front of me and I was walking two steps back of him and silence was created between us. Suddenly my master turned back and told me “Asbagh! How much will you listen to my commands?” I said “if you command me to kill the person who is walking back of me I’ll kill him with my sword. At first I’ll cut his head then I’ll go to see who that person was. If that person will be my son, swear to God my love to you won’t decrease even a bit and I’ll be happy wholeheartedly that I have listened to Imam Ali’s (God bless him) command.”

Obey us; accustom with our culture; obey what we say about lawful and unlawful things. Connection with cognition, love and superintendence lead to remission of man’s sins. I don’t know to say about which angles of God’s remission neither I have its power to say you about those delicateness and nicety of God’s remission and nor I have enough time to say you even a small particle of what God will do with followers of Ahle Beyt (God bless them) in this world and in hereafter. We really don’t know what God will do with us. While Imam Reza (God bless him) was going to Khorasan, when he arrived to outer part of Nishabur said to people who were keeping his camel’s bridle to stop. Then he dismounted. There were people who were accompanying a coffin to bury him. Imam Reza (God bless him) attended in that funeral and carried the coffin on his shoulder. The people who were with Imam Reza (God bless him) said to themselves that why he goes seven steps and then comes back, but they saw that Imam Reza (God bless him) went and stood beside the grave. Then he opened the door of coffin and brought out the corpse. Afterward he went in grave and opened his arm and said “give him to me.” We had always seen this person in Nishabur, but we didn’t know who is he, we saw that Imam Reza (God bless him) put that corpse in grave and opened his coffin (the cloth in which a corpse has put) and put his face toward kiblah. Then we saw that Imam Reza (God bless him) bent down and kissed the face of that corpse. As he came out from grave his entourage said to him “this was your first journey to Nishabur, were you acquainted with him?” Imam Reza (God bless him) said “moreover that I was familiar with him, I was familiar with his fathers to sainthood Adam (God bless him). Even I knew his mothers and his child.” The entourage said “you treated him in a good manner.” He said “because he was from our Shiites.”

Are cognition and love and superintendence let sin remain in people? Are they let that man’s death be difficult? Are they let that man’s isthmus would be difficult?[11] Are they let that man enter in grave and in doomsday with dishonor? I said that no, they won’t let.

Connection with cognition, love and superintendence has another advantage which is intervention. This intervention is fantastic. Then this connection raises another reality for man which is entering in heaven. And also we don’t want anything from God except Ahle Beyt’s (God bless him) intervention and entering in heaven. Also there isn’t anything to request. There isn’t anything to appeal in any way.

Refrence: Adopted from a lecture given by Professor Hossein Ansarian