A Faithful Awakening

Do know that the Sovereignty of Allah, the Exalted, over the worlds is of two kinds:

The first is the “General Sovereignty,”‌ which covers all the beings of the world, and it is the genetic upbringing, which takes every being out of the limits of its shortcomings to its suitable perfection, under the control of the Divine Sovereignty. All the natural and substantial developments and the essential and accidental movements and improvements are under the control of the Lord. In short, from the stage of the primary matter until the stage of animalism and the gaining of the corporeal and spiritual powers of animalism, and the genetic evolution, each one of them testifies, “My Lord is Allah, Glory and Majesty to Him.”‌

The second is the “Legislative Sovereignty,”? which exclusively belongs to the human species, and the other beings have no share of it. This education is guiding to the roads of salvation, showing the ways to happiness and humanity, and warning against what contradicts them, as explained by the prophets (A.S). If somebody voluntarily placed himself at the disposal and education of the Lord of the worlds, and was brought up by Him, such that the actions of his organs and powers, external and internal, would not be prompted by his self, but to be divine, in that case he would attain the human perfection, which exclusively belongs to the human species. Up to the stage of animalism, man goes side by side with the other animals. To step out of this stage he will have to choose, on his own free will, one of the only two ways before him: One is the way to the stage (abode) of happiness, which is the Straight Path of the Lord of the worlds: “My Lord is on the Straight Path.”?1 the other is the way of wretchedness, which is the crooked path of the accursed Satan. Therefore, if he puts the powers and organs of his kingdom at the disposal of the Lord of the worlds to be educated by Him, his heart, which is the sultan of this kingdom, would gradually submit to Him. When the heart becomes a subject to the Lord of the worlds, other soldiers [junud] would follow it, and the whole kingdom would be under His education. Then his invisible tongue, which is the shadow of the heart, would be able to say: “My Lord is Allah. Glory and Majesty to Him,”? in reply to the angels of the world of the grave, who ask him: “Who is your Lord?”? And, as such a man has obeyed the Messenger of Allah, imitated the Imams of guidance and acted according to the Divine Book, his tongue would be expressive in saying: “Muhammad (PBUH) is my Prophet, :Ali and his infallible sons are my Imams and the Qur’an is my Book.”? But if he did not turn his heart to divinity, and the image of there is no god except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and ‘Ali is the friend of Allah was not engraved on the page of his heart such that to become the portrait of the inside of the soul, and if there was no reciprocal spiritual and moral connection between him and the Qur’an as to act according to it, thinking about it, remembering and contemplating on it, all his knowledge would be effaced from memory when suffering from the agonies of death, the death-sickness, and in the death itself”” that monstrous calamity.

My dear! Man, under a typhoid fever and the deterioration of his mental faculties, forgets all his knowledge, except things that have become a second part of his constitution, owing to continual remembrance and close intimacy with them. Should he be inflicted with a serious incident or a dreadful accident, he would be neglecting a lot of his affairs, and the line of forgetfulness would underline his acquired information. So, how about the agonies, sufferings and difficulties of death? What would happen to him then? If the hearing and the heart were not opened, if the heart was not hearing, to instruct him with the necessary beliefs at the time of dying and after it would be of no awail talqin (reminding the dead of his beliefs) can be useful only to those whose hearts have acquired the true beliefs and whose heart’s ears usually open, but at the very moments of death agonies they may undergo a fit of forgetfulness, and thus, the avail will be a means for the angels of Allah to convey it to their ears. However, if man is deaf, with no hearing ears suitable for the worlds of limbo and the grave, he never hears the avail and it can benefit him naught. There is a hint at some of these in the noble traditions.

The other is the state of the Names and Attributes of Acts, which are confirmed for Allah through the manifestation by the Holy Emanation, such as the “Active Knowledge”? which the Illuminists regard as confirmed, and on it depends the “Detailed Knowledge”?. The most merited of the wise men, Khwajah Nasiruddin (May Allah make his face bright), has proved this, following the opinion of the Illuminists who say that the criterion for the “Detailed Knowledge”? is the “Active Knowledge.”? However, although this subject is contrary to research” because the “Detailed Knowledge”? is confirmed for the Essence, and that the exposure and the details of the Essential Knowledge are higher than the “Active Knowledge”? and more extensive, as is proved and confirmed, in its relevant place, by a luminous proof” yet, the original question, that the system of the existence is within Allah’s Active and Detailed Knowledge, is proved and confirmed according to the tradition of proving and the method of Gnosticism, despite the fact that the higher method and the sweeter Gnostic taste have, beside such ways, another way: “The lover’s religion is other than that of the others.”?

Source:

A Commentary on the Chapter of ‘Praise’ 

Witten by: Imam Khomeini(R.A)

Translator: Bahram Afrasiabi

Other Links:

A Commentary on the Hamd Surah: part 4