Word 42: A person who guards his Nafs for a few days and is careful about its import and export will realize his pain and find a way to cure it

Word 42: A person who guards his Nafs for a few days and is careful about its import and export will realize his pain and find a way to cure it

We must be cautious about the export and import of our existence, what is exported from us, and what is imported into us. When we speak, this is one of our existential exports. When we do something, it will be one of our existential exports. One of our existential imports will be while we are seeing and another when we are listening.

We should be careful what we hear because it affects us; this is the customs from where goods are brought into our country. It would be best if you were careful what enters your country of existence. When we listen to the words of someone who is the lover of this world, what enters our lives is impurity. When You look at a non-mahram with joy or a bad movie that you see, impurities enter your being. A bad book that you read will enter your body. When impurity enters your body, the export of your body is also contaminated!

Some imports bring many things with them (refuge to God), that is, God forbid, a sin is committed, a devil enters his existence, demons enter into his being and attack him. Sin pulls other sins onto itself. Some sins open the gateway of the citadel of the country of existence, allowing the adversary to assault with his entire army simply. Sometimes, a person sins and loses his faith.

For example, a person may claim to himself, “I’ve never seen a bad movie before!” Why am I looking now? These are the results of the sin that was committed, which allowed the enemy to enter through the castle gates. He committed a transgression, and the adversary has gained access to his fortress of existence.

It has been said that as long as a believer respects the five prayers every day, the devil will not dare to turn towards him; nevertheless, if he ignores the prayer, the devil grows daring and assaults him, capturing his fortress of existence. According to the narrative, if you commit a sin and realize it, repent immediately, beg for pardon, pray for forgiveness, and say, “O God, I will not repeat it; I made a mistake”.

According to the narration, sin is not registered until seven hours, and a person has a deadline to repent and be forgiven. A person should pay attention to his aspirations and be mindful of who he looks at and talks to.

The human soul acquires color from people’s ideas and statements. Maulana warns in a poem: There are many devils with human faces, so don’t shake hands with everyone. Every call that pulls you up knows that it came from above. Every call that makes you greedy is the howl of a wolf that tears people apart. The individual sitting in front of you talks about money, capital, and ugly things, which increases your thirst and greed for the world; he is like a wolf roaring, tearing people apart, so beware.

A long time ago, I had a dream that one of our friends was seated somewhere, and I was standing on the stairs. I noticed a very old woman wearing a white prayer veil and black clothing. She was sitting in front of our friend, and the two of them were conversing. I asked myself: Is this his wife? She is quite elderly, and then I noticed that she flung herself into the arms of our friend and began giggling.

“Khwaja Rabi (one of the ascetics in early Islam) was so meticulous with his words that he wrote them all down! At the end of the night, he would look to see what words came out of his mouth. Then he would exclaim, “Woe to me, woe to me, that those who remained silent were saved!” He said so little that they could write, and then he became unhappy because I talked so much. And what for? Consider how careful people were in the past.

A pupil of Seyyed Ali Ghazi, a renowned Islamic mystic, observed a bruise on his master’s tongue. He asked his master, “Why is your language like this?” Why is it purple-colored? He didn’t respond right away, but then he replied, “When I was looking after myself and my exports, I used to put a stone in my mouth for several years.” I used to put a stone in my mouth so that I wouldn’t open it. If there were a situation where I needed to talk, I would pull the stone out, say what I wanted to say, and then put the stone back in. This bruised tongue is for reminder and preventer of nonsense talks. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said, “Until someone remains silent, he will not taste the taste of faith”. And he said, “If someone remains silent, it is as if he has followed the entire Quran”. Silence means not to talk excessively and unnecessarily.

One of the people of knowledge and care saw a building and questioned how many years it had been built. Someone responded four years ago, and he thought to himself, “What does it matter how many years this building has been built?” Why I asked him this question, it is not my business. He was chatting to himself until a stone hit and broke his head. The mystic told himself, “This is my punishment,” and proceeded to his residence. We don’t say we shouldn’t be in the community, but we shouldn’t be in the community for no reason.

Run away from people just like you would from lions and snakes. It is sometimes essential and needed. Yes, people do it. A person’s words have an impact on us and others, and they are recorded and audited. Allameh Hassan Zadeh said: You did not practice self-monitoring to learn what flames you light with your tongue, what intrigues you generate, and what hearts you break. You did not practice self-supervising to notice what you were doing. What type of argument and hate did you start amongst people using your words?

A single phrase may cause sedition, even if you are unaware that you have uttered it and have sparked the fire of this argument in the home, which has flared up. We need to control and oversee our existential imports and exports.

Prophet Muhammad (S) said: “Whoever spends 40 days purifying himself for God will experience springs of wisdom flowing from his heart to his lips”. If someone does all his actions for the sake of God for forty days. Knowledge and wisdom pour from his heart to his mouth. Truths and knowledge flow in his mouth. This individual becomes a scholar without having an instructor. He learns without studying. We should be genuine to God in our deeds and maintain control over our existential export and import.

Am I going to this location for God or not? Is this what I want to say for God’s sake, or not? Is it something I desire to accomplish for God’s sake, or not? When he realizes this, he asks, “Am I joking for God’s sake?” He cannot confiscate the people’s property or destroy their rights. Allameh Tabatabaei told one of his students to devote one week to God and leave all other matters to Him. Let your love, anger, eating, and sleeping be for God, then watch what you see.

Have you ever seen a horse be punished and trained? Initially, a long stick is fastened to an axis similar to a spinning millstone; the horse’s mouth is tethered to this stick, and it revolves around this axis, stopping once. At first, the animal kicks a lot because it wants to move anywhere it wants, but the horse trainer teaches it that when I say you must move, when I say you must stop, gradually, the horse learns that it must obey the coach’s commands.

Our Nafs resembles that horse. When Nafs meets a beautiful woman, Nafs wants to stare, converse, and go on. But intellect says: Don’t glaze for enjoyment. If the intellect does not govern Nafs, it will fall into the valley of ruin. Nafs sees plenty of money and claims it is yours, but the intellect disputes this. Intellect says: Where did it come from? Isn’t it for orphans? Isn’t this usurpation? Isn’t this a bribe? Is this not embezzlement?

At first, Nafs is wild for a while. The intellect must control Nafs. The more intellect controls Nafs, the weaker it gets. One of his characteristics is that the more you listen to Nafs, the stronger it becomes, and vice versa. For example, our Nafs enjoys eating BBQ today. Say: No, because you want to eat BBQ today, I will not give you one. Eat BBQ tomorrow, but do not obey your Nafs the same day. If you see that the ego likes something, say that because you like it, I will not do it today. After doing this, and when you start to challenge the Nafs, you receive spiritual joy.

But other people, like some Indian ascetics, go too far. Some Indian ascetic or someone who practices false austerities eats something they dislike, such as feces, and they say, “Well, I eat it because I dislike it.” We don’t have such austerities in Islam. We discipline the Nafs to the point where it is under the control of the intellect and does not interfere with it.

Allameh Hassanzadeh said: “O Lord, I feel I am behind. Thank you that I reached my pain in which the doctor is looking for a patient” (it is mentioned in O Lord book). He realizes that he is behind. He did not acquire the knowledge he should have; he did not reach the positions he should have reached. Therefore, on the Day of Judgment, when people understand where they could have reached, they say an “ah” that hell burns from it. One of the names of the Day of Ressurection is called the Day of Sorrow. God, where could I have reached, but what futile pursuits did I engage in. When divine pain comes and enters a person’s life, he will not be involved in greediness. A mystic said in a poem: “It is a pleasure to have pain because the cure for the pain of painless people is fire”. Let’s pray that God will give us divine pain. Allameh Hassanzadeh said: “O Lord, Everyone will ask for a cure from you, but Hassan asks for pain from you”. How sweet is the pain that You are its cure, and How pleasant is the road that You are its end?

The satisfied people are not the hunger of God. When God gives divine pain to people, He also causes them calamities. “We did not send any prophet to any town, but We afflicted its people with misery and adversity, so that they may humble themselves” (Al-A’raf: 94). People sometimes experience obstacles in their lives. Examples include a lousy spouse, a nasty neighbor, disease, poverty, and pain. These are happening to remind people to return to God and say, “God, please help me”. One of the causes of calamities occurring to believers is to inflame the divine fire in their souls. After the charcoal sets fire after you blow it, it is not necessary to blow it more because it has turned into a fire and has heat, which ignites everything that is near it.

If divine pain takes our lives, we will not be able to sleep easily. We are no longer happy with the happiness of worldly life. The one who has divine pain, his heart is somewhere else on his wedding night even. When divine pain comes, the human heart is stripped of its worldly ornaments. Man becomes the afterlife human. We have to be careful about our existential exports and imports. Allameh Hassanzadeh said: My son, the key to the treasure of all happiness is care. Take care of yourself. Be careful not to sin, do not make a mistake, do not break someone’s heart, do not follow the whims of the ego, do not forget the remembrance of God, do not forget death, be careful what is issued from you.

The principle of practical divine conduct means traveling towards the Truth, traveling towards God, and becoming a human being. We must be careful about the export and import of our existence moment by moment. Imports are those things that enter our souls. When we look at a place or a scene, something is imprinted on our soul. When we listen to a word or a song, its truth is imprinted in our lives. These truths became embodied in our souls. Then, they cause us to perform actions related to them. For example, if we see heinous scenes or scenes against modesty, it becomes easy for us to perform actions contrary to modesty; therefore, we can easily sin.

An image that a person sees or a word that a person hears affects positively or negatively on his soul. So the import of our existence is very important because they are the builder of the export of our existence. What you see, what you hear, what you eat has an effect. Allameh Hassanzadeh said: “A person who eats without considering balance and order would likewise act and speak in the same way”. We should be careful about our own food, whether the food is prepared with money and in the right way or if it is from stolen money. A person who wants to become divine must be careful about the existential imports and exports of his soul. It is worth mentioning that divine Islamic mysticism is for the level of the intellect, but above the level of the intellect, which is the level of annihilation of “I” in God.

Occasionally, we see a sight that becomes imprinted in our souls and then materializes unexpectedly. We ask ourselves, “Why did I act badly?” I had no prior knowledge of these acts. Why did I act in this way here? This is a result of an event that we witnessed some months ago, which is now bearing fruit here. Or, After hearing heavenly words while gathered, we perform a big divine act. This surprises us, and we ask ourselves, did I really do such a nice thing? This is the result of the gathering that was left in our soul. As a result, while selecting companions, we must exercise caution. Prophet Muhammad said: “It is impossible for people to repent without changing their friends”. A poet says: “There are many Satans with human faces, so we should not shake hands with everyone”.

So, we should be very careful of our behavior and speaking. Prophet Muhammad (S) said: “Backbiting is worse than adultery. It was said, “How?” He said, “A man commits adultery, repents, and God accepts his repentance.” However, the backbiter will not be forgiven unless the person whom he was backbiting forgives him”. We backbite, defame, and make fun of others with a lot of our words. “Oppression is more serious than murder” (Al-Baqara:191). “O you who believe! Avoid most suspicion—some suspicion is sinful. And do not spy on one another, nor backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would detest it. So, remain mindful of God. God is Most Relenting, Most Merciful” (Al-Hujurat:12). Many of our statements are backbiting, malicious, defamatory, and mocking of others.

Sometimes, a person does a good deed and says I did it for God, but when you look inside, you see that it was out of self-love. Sometimes, we may be in a meeting, and we want to give a speech. If we realize that others are better than us, but we still like to speak, then it is because of ego, not for God’s sake. If it was for God, he would speak better and more clearly. Let’s check our actions. We have to be careful. Are we angry and are saying this sentence or do we want to say this for the sake of God? If it is due to anger, then it is for our ego and selfishness.

On the day of the Khandaq battle, Amr bin Abduwud (one of the best fighters of the time) crossed the ditch and constantly shouted, “Is there any brave man to fight with me”. The Holy Prophet (S) said that someone should answer him, but only Imam Ali (A) courageously announced his readiness. When Imam Ali (A) went to fight, the Prophet (S) said the following famous sentence: “All faith stands against all polytheism”. This great Arab hero was killed by the sword of Imam Ali (A). After being injured, he spat on the face of Imam Ali (A) in despair. The Imam was patient and delayed in killing him so that his action was not motivated by anger and ego.

Beloved, don’t think that jealousy and stinginess are not in us. The first sin that happened on earth was jealousy. Cain was jealous of his brother Abel and killed him. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and planned to kill him. How far does jealousy go? It takes a person to the point where a brother plans to kill his brother. People should meditate a lot so that their hearts are free from jealousy. We have a narration that “jealousy” eats faith like fire eats wood. Envy has no place in the world of existence because all is apportioned fairly. Let’s read moral books and learn how to cure it, and then we will see how envious we are.

A heart can be free of “jealousy” that has abandoned the love of the world. People asked Imam Sadiq (A) why, despite all the orders that the Messenger of God (S) made regarding the Commander of the Faithful (Imam Ali (A)) and introduced him as his successor, caliph, guardian, and Imam, the people usurped Imam Ali’s rights? He said: “Jealousy”.

A divine man does not care what people say about him, whether they say good or bad, because he knows that his sustenance is in the hands of God, not people. God is hearing, seeing, and powerful. The last thing that comes out of the hearts of the righteous is love for position. Some people have a zoo of animals within them. In the resurrection, these people will tell themselves, “I thought I was a very good person. “What are these creatures doing within me? What are the vices doing within my existence? Then, I used to curse others and look down on them; don’t tell me I was in the worst possible situation.

Another point is that most people enjoy with the imagination of different things. For example, The imagination of being a king has pleasure; otherwise, a king himself has no pleasure if his imagination goes away. Another example: you are sitting here, and someone comes and says that the bank put 100 million into your account. You will enjoy with the thinking of having the money. Think deeply. It’s a fantasy. Money that is not in your hand now, but why are you enjoying it right now? You enjoy thinking about the money you have in the bank; otherwise, you are the same person as before with no money in your hand.

When an average person approaches a king, his hands and feet shake in front of the ruler; nevertheless, if the same monarch changes his clothing and comes to the street, wanting to move ahead of the people in the wait, they warn him to respect the queue and go to the end of the queue. What was the cause of the initial fear? Did it come from the monarch himself? They won’t let him do anything without standing in line. So the terror was due to the position rather than the monarch himself. If the monarch departs the realm, no one will treat him with the same reverence as previously.

The question is, what is the status of the monarchy? Does the position of monarchy exist apart from the king? No, it does not exist. It is an illusion and a fantasy. People are afraid of their imagination because they become attached to it. The world is also a fantasy. People respect the head of the department because they have their own imaginations that they respect. The discussion of imagination is very sweet but needs further discussion that is out of the scope right now.

Beloved, do not be envious of other people’s worldly lives or positions. Jealousy is a trait that most people suffer from. If we want to travel through the divine path, we must search and remove this attribute from our existence and throw it out. Many behaviors, words, backbiting, slander, and greed are because of jealousy. We do not have any crime higher than murder. Jealousy is mentioned two times in the holy Quran that causes the killing of even brothers. 1- the story of Abel and Cain, and 2- the story of Joseph’s brothers.

The system of existence is perfect justice and everything that we do will return to us. A woman told her husband that I was a very chaste and pious woman for you. He said: maybe, but you didn’t bother; I took the trouble of not looking at anyone’s wife out of lust! The woman said: Well if this is the case, I will put on makeup and go on the street. Her husband said: Well, go out and see what happens. The woman put on lots of makeup and went on the street. No matter how far she went, she saw that no one was looking at her. He came to her house, and her husband said: No one looked at you, right? Except only a child pulled your dress aside and looked into your face. He said: Yes, were you following me? Wife said. He said: No. The wife said: Then how do you know? The husband said: Because I had done this once when I was a child, and I was sure it would happen to me.

Once, in between sleep and wakefulness, I saw a person come to Allameh Hassanzadeh and ask him: Sir, I went to the house of a person who was with his family. When I sat down, I saw this person’s wife, and it crossed my mind that I would betray this person’s wife. All of a sudden, I came to myself: what was this thought that came to my mind? I am not a sinner! Why should such a thought come to me? Allameh said: It is not your fault that the lady’s husband betrays the other person’s wife. Therefore, whoever is next to him, the wave of betrayal will influence him to betray his wife.

“Whoever has done an atom’s weight of good will see it. (7) And whoever has done an atom’s weight of evil will see it”(Al-Zalzala:7-8). Not that people will see this on the Day of Judgment; they will see it here as well. You may have heard this classic tale about a shepherd who kept adding water to milk and then sold it to others as milk. A flood once took away his sheep. A wise man once said: “The water that took his sheep was the one that he added to the milk”.

The system of existence is pure justice, which returns even minor amounts of good or harm. So let us be cautious about our exports and imports. After a time of care, heavenly agony surrounds us, and we must seek to cure while suffering. People run to the divine master if they are in divine suffering. Saying, “Sir, I am in pain, sir, I am asking God, I am thirsty for divine truths, give me water,” they take down the master’s house doorpost.

Allameh Hassanzadeh in “Ilahi Nameh” (O My Lord letter) said: “O My Lord, Everyone asks for a cure from You, and Hassan asks for pain from You”. “O My Lord, The one who does not have pain is not a human”. If a human does not have divine pain, they are like animals that eat and drink and may even pray two rakats.

I would like to give one more piece of advice to the dear ones of our gathering: Dear ones, our tongues should be locked, and we should not say whatever we hear wherever we go. Some words don’t belong everywhere; not every person deserves to hear them. Imam Sadiq (A) said to his Shia followers: If your tongues were locked, we would tell you some secrets, but every hadith we tell you, you would lose it.

Muhammad Mahdi Me’marian

All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.