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O God, if the best for me with Thee lies in delaying the taking to task for my sake of him who has wronged me and in refraining from vengeance toward him until the Day of Decision and the Gathering of Disputants, then bless Muhammad and his Household, strengthen me from Thee with true intention and lasting patience, give me refuge from evil desire and the impatience of the greedy, and form in my heart the image of Thy reward which Thou hast stored away for me and the repayment and punishment which Thou has prepared for my disputant! Make this a cause of my contentment with what Thou hast decreed and my trust in what Thou hast chosen! Amen, Lord of the worlds! Thou art of bounty abounding and Thou art powerful over everything. Imam Sajjad (as) Sahifa-e-Sajjadiyah

Saturday 30 March 2013

Ayatollah Tabrizi's secret to Ayatollah Isfahani



Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Isfahani known as Kompani was an outstanding Muslim Jurist and philosopher of his time.  In a letter to Ayatollah Tabrizi - known as ‘The Beauty of Wayfarers’ - he requested him to write a practical prescription for his spiritual perfection.
I quote parts of the prescription from my teacher Ayatollah Hasan-Zadeh (pictured) who quoted it from his teacher Allamah Tabatabaei:

“ … The beneficial way in knowing the self is to endeavour in reducing your animality by the following disciplines: 
1. Reducing your meals in that you don’t have more than two meals a day and not to have meat more than two or three times in a week. 
2. Reducing your sleeping hours in that you don’t sleep more than six hours. 
3. Endeavour in safeguarding your tongue and abstaining from heedless people. These three will be very helpful in reducing the animality of man.


As for accelerating and reinforcing your spirituality:
1. Have permanent grief of the heart (not facial) in fear of not reaching your destination.
2. Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) and Fikr (to think and ponder) as these two are the wings of flying to the heaven of knowledge. As for the Dhikr, the Dhikr of Yunusiyah (Laa Elaaha Ellaa Ant Sobhanaka Enni Konto Mena dhalemin) in the morning and at night is very much experienced and brings about many blessings. The minimum times of reciting it is 400 times. As for the Fikr for a beginner the best is to ponder upon death.”

Ayatollah Hasan-Zadeh, 1001 Words, Word 301

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