A Commentary on the Chapter of Praise

Brief Summery on Some of the Secrets behind the Hamd Surah Extracted from Sirr as-Salat

part 2

The meaning of “lillah”‌ for the stage of the perfect name, i.e. “Allah”‌ is constant and for Him is the rank of divinity and nourishing the “Worlds”‌, i.e. the stage of evenness and the manifestation of nature.

And this is the stage of divinity being, manifested in compassionateness mercifulness’s Deity that within the material world offering blessedness, through compassion, and in the “hayuli”‌””matter [the marital realm] stage, after nourishing, would be taken to their own especial stage. And it is “maliki yawmi ad-din”‌ that through the authority of ownership would seize all the particles of the beings and revert them to the unseen stage.

“Kama bada’akum ta‘udun.”‌

And this the whole circle of the being which in bismillah”‌ has been mentioned briefly, but in verse praise in detail. And, as, there has been in tradition, “maliki yawmi ad-din”‌ is for the justice only.

And as the creature of spiritual wayfaring upon the ladder “iqra’ wa’rqa”‌ and on the threshold of ascending “as-salatu mi‘raj al-mu’min”‌ would observe the reverting of all beings and the defacing of the house of realization to the justice and the justice   caused   the   spiritual   wayfarer   comprehend   the manifestation of unity, the creature through the intuitive tongue would utter; “iyyaka na‘budu wa iyyaka nasta‘in”‌ And because the light of the perfect man is encompassing overall limited illuminations, prayers and the house of realization [the praiser] in the plural case would utter;

“Sabbahna  fasabbah al-mala’ikatu  wa  qaddasna faqaddasati  al-mala’ikatu  wa  law  lana  ma  sabbahat  al-mala’ikatu”‌

And when the spiritual wayfarer would offer himself coupled with his egoism and selfishness entirely to the sacred essence and would abolish everything but the justice the eternity bounty from the unseen unity stage through the sacred blessing would reach him and causes him become sober coming to sobriety after purge. Then he will be reverted to his own stage defacing into the justice being. And when he occurs in multiplicity he will worry about the separation and detachment and asks for his guidance, which is the absolute guidance to the straight path of humanity the comprehensive spiritual wayfaring reverting to the stage of God’s supreme name-which is beyond the limitation of the two extremes, namely beyond the limitation of “maghdubun ‘alayhim wa lad-dallin”‌.

Or he asks for the leading to the limbo stage which is the stage of being lack of domination of the unity over multiplicity and [on the contrary] lack of the domination of multiplicity over the unity. This is the stage between veiling of unity to the veiling of multiplicity: the stage of “maghdubun ‘alayhim”‌. This is also the stage of multiplicity to the stage of unity namely the stage of “dallin”‌ [astrays] and the puzzled ones at the court of divine Glory, where the spiritual wayfarer will ask for.

Union: Ruwiya fi’t-tawhid ‘an ar-rida (A.S) hina su’ila ‘an tafsiri’l-bismillah,  qala  ar-rawi  faqultu  lahu:  ma’s-simatu? Qala: al-‘Allamah.

And by means of this holy tradition it is clarified that the spiritual wayfarer must be knowledgeable to the stage of God’s name while praying. Achieving this stage of the reality of obeisance is to be defaced into divinity stage and as far as the spiritual wayfarer is within the veil of egoism he is out of the obeisance state, rather, he is self-love, selfish and his idol temples are his whimsical desires:

[ara’ayta man attakhadha ilahu hawa’u]   and his view conforms will view of the dammed Satan who saw himself and Adam (A.S) while considering himself superior to Adam (A.S). “khalaqtani min nar wa khalaqthu min tin”‌.

He (Satan) replied and caos expelled out among the saints from the threshold of the God’s Court. Therefore the utterer of bismillah would engage his spirit endowed with “God’s Sign) and he himself would achieve the formal stage and his view would conform with the Adam’s (A.S) view and would see the house of realization in which exists himself “wa ‘allama adama al-asma’a kulluha”‌.

In this case his naming is the reality naming and he is knowledgeable to the worshipping stage which is the instillation of “selfhood”‌ and disconnecting desires as to connecting to the God; as the tradition quoted of Imam al-Sadiq (A.S) is mentioned; “Yaqta‘u ‘ala’iqa al-ihtimami bi ghayri man lahu qasada wa ilayhi wafada wa minhu istarfada.”‌

Then he sees himslef “God’s Name”‌ the sign of God and being defaced into God; likewise, he sees the other creatures with the same aspect.

And  if  he  were  a  perfect “wali”‌  he  would  become knowledgeable to the absolute name and the case of realization of the absolute obeisance would touch him, then he will become a real obeisance, namely “God’s slave”‌ And it is possible that interpretation used for “Obeisance”‌ in the holy verse:

[Subhana al-ladhi asra bi-‘abdihi.]

The ascending would be proximity and the sacred stage, the proximity  state  through  the  obedient  step  and  indigence, rejecting the egoism corona, selfhood, which is independence. And confessing to the prophethood in the profession of faith state, which is followed after confessing to obeisance, because the obeisance is the ladder of prophethood. And in prayer, which is the pious’s ascension, and the manifestation of the Prophet’s (A.S) ascension, with the foregoing profession in the prayer, must be started. [Confessing to the obeisance] Having abolished the veil, [entering] “bismillah”‌ which is the reality of obeisance “fasubhana al-ladhi asra bi nabiyyihi bi mirqati al-‘ubudiyyati al-mutlaqah”‌.

Source:

A Commentary on the Chapter of ‘Praise’ 

Witten by: Imam Khomeini(R.A)

Translator: Bahram Afrasiabi 

Other Links:

Surah al-Fatihah: Interpretation of Al-hamdulillah Rabb al-‘alamin

Surah al-Fatihah: Interpretation of Iyyaka na‘bud wa iyyaka nasta‘in