The Fourth Imam...

The Fourth Imam, the chief of the worshippers, Ali Ibne Husain (as) has indicated the same thing when he said in one of his Munajaat (confidential supplication) to the Almighty Allah: “My aspirations have stopped in Your realm. And all my desires are aimed at You. Only You, no one except You is my desire. And I am only for You and not for anyone else, in my sleep and awakened state…” Or that it implies that when man attains that lofty status, whatever he desires, happens.

And no door is closed for him. Thus the meaning of that Allah, the Mighty and the High becomes his ears, eyes and hands is that he can hear all that is possible to be heard, he sees all that is possible to be seen and he does whatever what he wants. Thus he hears, sees and does what others cannot hear, see and do. And these are divine qualities that the Almighty Allah has bestowed to me by taking him as His friend. Therefore it is said: If man obeys Allah, everything obeys him.

That which proves this is the statement of Allah, the Mighty and Sublime in Hadith Qudsi : “If he asks Me, I give him and when he calls Me, I respond to him…” In the book of Layali there is an anecdote narrated by Ibrahim bin Adham: I passed by a cattle-herd and asked him: Do you have water or milk that you can give me? He asked: Which would you prefer? I replied: Water. Thus with his staff, he strikes at a hard stone that had no crack and water burst forth from it. I drank from it.

It was colder than ice and sweeter than honey which astounded me. The cattle-herd said: Do not be surprised, if man obeys the Lord, anything that he orders, happens. After being inspired by divine grace and mercy, I referred to the Sharh al-Arbaeen of Shaykh Bahai, Sharh Usool Kafi of the divine scholar, Mulla Salih Mazandarani and Miraat al-Uqool of Allamah Majlisi.

In the statements of the first two gentlemen I obtained the matter that applies to the first aspect and in the statements of Allamah Majlisi there was support to the second aspect. There is another aspect also of the opinion of Allamah Majlisi that applies to both the aspects – even though his method is different – it does not remain hidden that these discussions are such that steps waver in them and the Almighty Allah is the guide and protector.