The Faith of Shi'a Islam

35. Themes in the Ad'iyah From As-sahifat As-sajjadiyyah ========================================================

After the deplorable tragedy (of Karbala'), and after the Ummayids had taken over the leadership of the Islamic community, they committed excesses in oppression, revelled in bloodshed and made a mockery of Islamic teachings. There was no alternative for Imam Zayn al-'Abidin, Sayyid as-Sajidin (A.S.) but to remain in the seclusion of his own home, dejected and full of sorrow. No-one dared to approach him in his house, and he was forbidden to guide the people as they should have been.

He was forced to adopt the method ofdu'a' (as we have mentioned, this is one of the methods of nurturing purity of character) as a means of propagating the teachings of the Qur'an, the principles of Islam, and the message of the Household of the Prophet, of instilling in the minds of the people a sense of spirituality and piety, and as a means to the necessary purification of the soul and morality. This was a method of dissemination that he adopted to teach people without arousing the suspicions of the tyrannical rulers, and without giving them any evidence with which to condemn him. That is why we see that most of these eloquentad'iyah, some of which have been collected together in as-Sahifat as-Sajjadiyyah, also known as Zabur Ali Muhammad (The Psalms of the Household of the Prophet), consist of various topics in Islamic learning. Their style and meaning count them among the greatest examples of authorship in Arabic literature; they are the embodiment of the teachings of the true religion; they contain the innermost subtleties oftawhid andnubuwwat; and they constitute the best way to propagate the ethics of Muhammad and Islamic morality. Thus they are spiritual and ethical teachings in the style ofad'iyah, orad'iyah in accordance with spiritual teachings and ethics. Without doubt, after the Qur'an and Nahj al-Balaghah these are the greatest examples of literary style in Arabic, and the best philosophical discussions of theological matters and ethics.

From then, we understand how to praise Allah and how to sing his glories and how to thank Him and turn to Him in repentance; and it is in this way that we can understand how to establish communion with Allah and to express our secrets to Him in private, and how to become solely dependent on Him. It is by this method that we are made to understand the meaning behind invoking benedictions on the Prophet of Allah, on His Messengers and Chosen Ones from His creation, and the manner of doing this. It is thus that we can understand how we should do good towards our parents - the obligations of the father towards the son, and of the son towards the father, as well as the obligations towards one's relatives and neighbours, and the obligations of all Muslims in general obligations of the poor towards the rich, and vice versa.

We are warned about repaying our debts towards others, about how we should act in commerce and business, and about how we should cooperate with our relatives, friends and all people with their interests at heart. In this way, all the good qualities in man are brought out. These ad'iyah comprise a comprehensive system of instructions in the science of ethics.

By reciting them we can come to know how to show patience in the midst of hardships and difficulties, and how to face both sickness and health. They explain the duties of Islamic armies and their soldiers, and the duties of the people towards these soldiers, and many other things which are in accordance with the essence of Islam and the revealedshari'ah, and all this has been done only in the form of thedu'a'.

The following themes are recurrent in the Sahifah, and are frequent. a) A description of Allah and His Grandeur and Power and a description of His Oneness and Transcendence, couched in the most exact and scholarly terms. This theme occurs in almost all of thead'iyah in various styles and ways of expression. For instance, in the firstdu'a' we come across the following passage:

All praise is due to Allah, the First before Whom no being preceded, and the Last after Whom will be no other.

Whom the eyes of those who see cannot perceive, and Whom our descriptive imagination cannot envisage. With His Power He brought Creation into being out of nothingness, and made His creatures totally subservient to His Will.

In this passage, he has explained the exact nature of the eternity of Allah, and has set Him above the level at which sight and mind may encompass His Being and has referred to the true nature of the Creation of Allah.

In the sixthdu'a' the Power of Allah and His regulation of the universe are referred to in a different manner.

All praise is due to Allah Who created day and night by His Might, and made them different from one another by His Power, confined them both to specific limits, each following on the heels of the other, so that people might obtain their sustenance and might grow;

He created night for them so that they might relax from the stress of life, and from excessive fatigue, and made it a garment of comfort and rest for people so that it might be for them a gathering of new strength, and an enjoyment of leisure and sensual delights.

He continues mentioning the wisdom of the days and the nights, and how it is a duty for man to be thankful and grateful to Allah for them.

In the seventhdu'a' the fact that everything is in the hand of Allah is described in the following way:

O Allah! through Whose Will the knots of problems are unravelled. O Allah! with Whom we take refuge in times of hardship. O Allah! to Whom we look for relief in times of misfortune. It is Thy Might before which even the most brazen are humiliated, and it is through Thy Grace that the ways to make better our situation are provided. Destiny is determined by Thy Power, and things follow the dictates of Thy Will. That which Thou dost order hastens to the bidding of Thy Will without waiting for Thy Command, and according to Thy Wish is withheld without Your Forbidding.

b) The second recurring theme of as-Sahifat as-Sajjadiyyah concerns the Bounties and Grace of Allah towards man, and the inability of man to pay back what is due through worship and obedience to his Lord, and through sole reliance on Him. Thus we read in the thirty-eighthdu'a':

O Allah! No-one is able to complete his thanksgiving to Thee without new bounties being bestowed upon him which require further gratitude; and no-one reaches the level of complete obedience, try he ever so hard, without being short by that which Thy Grace bestows on him; thus Thy most thankful servant offers his thanks to Thee, but not as he ought to, and Thy most devoted servant obeys Thee, but always short of perfect obedience.

Due to the magnitude and multitude of the bounties of Allah, which never stop, even for one moment, it is impossible for man to thank Allah as he should (even if he is grateful and obedient to Him), so how could one who has committed one act of ingratitude make up for it, even if he were to do all that was in his power to make amends. This is what is suggested in the following quotation from the sixteenthdu'a':

O Allah! Were I to weep until I became blind, were I to moan until I lost my voice, were I to stand in prayer until my feet could no longer support me, were I to bow inruku' until my back was paralysed, were I to prostrate before Thee until I became a skeleton, were I to eat clay all my life or to drink the most filthy water until the end of my days, were I to sing Thy Glory until my tongue dried up, even then I could not raise up my eyes to the heavens because of my shame, undeserving to request the erasing of even a single one of the sins which I have committed in my life.

c) The third most common theme of thead'iyah concerns Divine reward and punishment, Hell and Paradise; and it is pointed out again and again that Allah rewards his servants solely on the basis of His Grace and Mercy; for man deserves nothing but punishment even for the minutest of his sins. All thead'iyah of as-Sahifat as-Sajjadiyyah make mention of this theme, in order to produce in man a sense of fear of the punishment of Allah and hope for His reward and Mercy. All this is conveyed to such an effective manner and style that it generates in the heart an intense fear and awe, and saves man from falling into the abyss of sin. For instance, we read in the forty -sixthdu'a':

The signs are clear, and Thy Supremacy is eternal and will not diminish, therefore eternally beset with misfortune is he who disobeys Thee, and ignominiously lost is he who turns away from Thee, and the worst calamity befalls he who strays from Thee. How fiercely he will be overtaken by Thy punishment, and how long he will linger in that terrible state, how far he will be from any remission, and how hopeless a state he will be in. The sentence passed by Thee will be the just sentence, and the Justice of Thy decision cannot be challenged. Thou hast made all things exceedingly clear, and no room for excuse has been left. . . .

Or as we read in the thirty-firstdu'a':

O Allah! Have Mercy on the one standing alone in front of Thee, my heart beating through fear of Thee, my limbs trembling in awe of Thee.

O Lord! My sins cause me to stand ashamed before Thee; if I keep silence, no-one will speak on my behalf. even if someone would intercede for me, I have no right to intercession.

We also read in the thirty-thirddu'a':

If Thou shouldst punish me justly, I should perish, but if Thou shouldst pour on me Thy Mercy, I should retain my existence. . . . And lift from me the burden of my sins whose weight has bent my back, and I beg help from Thee for the heaviness which brings my knees to the ground. May peace be upon Muhammad and his Family. Have Mercy on my soul for the wrong I have done to myself, and let Thy Mercy take up the load of my sins. . . .

d) The fourth merit of thosead'iyah is to lift the one who recites them towards perfection, away from evil deeds and badness of character, to cleanse his conscience and purify his heart, as we read in the twentiethdu'a':

O Allah! Increase the sincerity of my intentions by Thy Kindness, and strengthen my certainty of Thee, and by Thy Power correct my faults. . . . O Lord! Bring peace to Muhammad and his Family, grant me correct guidance that I may not change, and a true path from which I may not deviate, and integrity of intention that I may not doubt. . . . O Allah! Do not leave me any characteristic which may be a blemish on me without correcting it, or any defect which is a misfortune for me without improving it, or any imperfect quality without perfecting it.

e) The fifth theme is to inspire the one who recites thead'iyah to realise the necessity for independence from others, not to demean himself in front of them, and not to rely for his needs on any but Allah. For greediness for things which belong to others is one of the worst characteristics a man can have. We read in the twentiethdu'a':

Do not tempt me to beg from anyone but Thee, or to demean myself by asking from anyone but Thee when I am in need, or to implore anyone but Thee when I am afraid, so that from these things I merit being abandoned by Thee, being deprived of Thy blessings, or being ignored by Thee.

And in the twenty-eighthdu'a':

O Allah! Verily I have sincerely devoted myself to Thee, and I have turned away from (relying on) those who (in fact) need Thy help, and I no longer beg from those who are in need of Thy Favour, for I have realised that for someone in need to beg from someone else in need shows the foolishness of one's views and the delusions of one's mind.

And again in the thirteenthdu'a':

For someone who seeks gratification of his needs from Thee and relies for the relieving of his poverty on Thee, surely he has taken his need to the proper place, and has approached his w ants from the right direction. And someone who comes for his needs to one of Thy creatures and has considered that someone other than Thee will be the cause of his succeeding, surely he will deserve an end to Thy Beneficence.

f) Sixthly, thesead'iyah teach people the necessity of considering the rights of others, of helping them, of being compassionate and kind towards each other, of making sacrifices for somebody else's sake, so as to make a reality of Islamic brotherhood. For example, we read in the thirty -eighthdu'a':

O Allah I beg forgiveness from Thee for ill-treatment meted out to someone in my presence without my coming to his aid, and for kindness shown to me without my giving thanks, and for something unpleasant for which the doer asked forgiveness from me but I refused, and for any hungry person who asked from me but I ignored, and for the rights of a deserving believer which it was my duty to see to but to which I did not attend, and for the defect in a believer which I noticed but did not conceal.

This asking for forgiveness is a most effective way of admonishing the soul to do those things which are necessary for exalted, divine morality. In the thirty-ninthdu'a' there is something more important that this. It teaches how it is your duty to forgive someone who has wronged you, and stops you from taking revenge on him, and can elevate you to the ranks of the saints.

O Allah! Anyone who has taken from me when Thou hast for bidden, and has slandered me when Thou hast prohibited, and has died with my shadow on him, or did this to me and is still alive, forgive him for that through which he harmed me, and do not rebuke him for that which he has done to me, and do not humiliate him for what he has taken from me. Make the forgiveness with which I forgive them, and the gift which I have offered to them, the purest offering that anyone can offer, and the highest liberality of those near to Thee, and reward me for my forgiveness by forgiving me, and for mydu'a' for them by Thy Mercy, so that everyone of us may rejoice through Thy Grace.

How amazing are these last phrases! and how beautifully they enter the souls of the good to warn them of the necessity for pure intentions towards all people, to make them ask for happiness for everyone even for those who have been unjust or iniquitous to them.

There are many examples of this in thead'iyah of as-Sahifat as Sajjadiyyah, and if people would only listen to their guidance, they are full of all kinds of teachings in Divine morality.

**36 Our Belief in Pilgrimage (ziyarah) to the Holy Shrines ** One of the practices which distinguish the Shi'a from all other Islamic sects is the attention paid to pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines, such as those of the Prophet (S.A.) and the Imams (A.S.), and the building of magnificent domes and buildings over their tombs by good will and faith.

All of these things are done through the recommendations of the Imams, for they were continually persuading and encouraging their followers to make pilgrimages, so as to derive great reward from Allah. It is one of the best forms of worship after the obligatory ones, and the shrines are the best places for supplicating and approaching Allah. Furthermore, according to the sayings of the Imams, this, is a form of fidelity to them. Imam Rid . a (A.S.) said:

For every one of the Shi'a and their followers has an understanding with them (the Imams), and pilgrimage is a way of fulfilling and being faithful to that understanding. Whosoever undertakes a pilgrimage of his own free will, believing in it, for him the Imams will intercede with Allah on the Day of Resurrection.

There are social and religious advantages in makingziyarah. Thus our Imams have stressed its performance, for it fortifies the bond between them and their followers and reminds us of their virtues and their struggle for the truth. Moreover, it gathers Muslims together in one place so that they can get to know and establish friendships with one another, in order that the condition of obedience to Allah and devotion to his commandments becomes firmly imprinted in their hearts. And it confirms in them the true meaning of pilgrimage: the truth oftawhid, the sanctity of Islam, the prophethood of Muhammad, the various Islamic duties such as the striving for an elevated. morality, bowing down and prostrating before the Commander of all creatures, and how to thank Allah for His gifts by means of those prayers which are recited during pilgrimage. And these prayers are among those with the most exalted meanings. For example, thedu'a' "Amin Allah" composed by Imam Zayn al-'Abidin (A.S.) when he made a pilgrimage to the grave of his grandfather 'Ali, Amir al-Mu'minin (A.S.).

Also the recitations during the pilgrimage point out the magnificent characters of the Imams, their sacrifices in defending the truth and elevating the religion, and their perseverance in obedience to Allah. They are written in the most excellent Arabic, full of great eloquence and easily understandable phrases, and they contain the best exposition oftawhid, and supplication and prayer to Allah. Truly, among them is the greatest religious literature after the Qur'an, Nahj al-Balaghah and the other prayers of the Imams, because they have included in them summaries of their teachings on Islamic matters and morality. There are also teachings and guidance in certain pilgrimage ceremonies mentioned below for the spiritual progress of the Muslim, the cultivation of sympathy for the poor, and encouragement for fostering brotherhood, good behaviour and understanding between people.

These rites must be performed before entering the shrine and reciting the special prayer of pilgrimage, and some others must be said during or after. Here we shall indicate some of them in order to make clear what we have already said.

Firstly the pilgrim must wash himself (ghusl) as commanded in the books of Islam, and clean his body before beginning. This is so that he may rid himself of dirt, prevent disease and suffering, so that his odour does not offend others,[^6] and at the same time to cleanse his spirit from moral impurities. Traditions have been narrated instructing that after completing this washing, and in order to fix his attention on these high aims, the pilgrim should say.

O Allah! Give me light and purity, and preserve me from all disease, sickness, calamity or corruption, and also through this washing purify my heart, my body, my bones, flesh and blood, my hair and skin, my brain and nerves and every place 1 touch the earth, and provide me with a witness on the Day of my poverty, necessity and requirement.

Secondly, the pilgrim should wear the best and cleanest clothes that he has, because in such days of gathering it causes people to love and be kind to one another, increases their dignity and thus enables them to understand the importance of pilgrimage. It should be noted that the pilgrim should put on the best clothes that he can afford, not the finest that are obtainable. For not everyone can wear the best, and such a command would cause despair among the poor, and thus it would go against the favour of Allah. So it is said that there is a two-fold meaning, i.e. that people should be well-dressed and that they should pay due regard to the condition of the poor.

Thirdly, the pilgrim should wear perfume where possible, for its benefit is like that of being well-dressed.

Fourthly, he should give alms to the poor, according as he is able. The purpose Of this is, firstly, to help the poor, and then to instill in the pilgrim a sense of generosity .

Fifthly, the pilgrim should proceed towards the shrine slowly and Quietly without gazing around. This is clearly in respect for the sacred place (haram), the pilgrimage and those who are buried there, but also that the pilgrim may give his undivided attention to Allah, and avoid inconveniencing others along his way.

Sixthly, he must say"Allahu akbar" (Allah, the Supreme) and repeat it as much as he can. Some traditions instruct the pilgrim to repeat it one hundred times. By this he becomes aware of Allah's Greatness and Magnificence, and realises that nothing is greater than He. This is for the sake of Allah and His Dignity and to revive the sacred rites of Islam and to strengthen the religion.

Seventhly, after visiting the tomb of the Prophet or an Imam, the pilgrim should pray at least tworak'ah. This is in order to worship Allah and give thanks to Him, and to ask for success in one's pilgrimage', then he should ask that the spiritual reward for the prayer should go to the soul of he who is buried in that place.

The specialdu'a' that follows, which the pilgrim must recite after his prayer, serves to show him that prayer and worship during pilgrimage are only for Allah, that no-one deserves to be worshipped save Him. It is a means of winning Allah's favour, for the pilgrim says:

O Allah! To Thee alone do I pray, to Thee alone do I bow down and prostrate myself. Thou art One, Thou bast no partner, and it is a sin to pray, bow down or prostrate oneself before anyone else but Thee. O Allah! Praise be to Muhammad and his Family. Accept my pilgrimage, and grant my request for the sake of Muhammad and his Immaculate Descendents.

Thisdu'a' explains to those who want to know, the purpose of pilgrimage to the shrines as it was performed by the Imams and their followers, and it answers those who suppose that pilgrimage is a kind of idolatry and polytheism.

No doubt, the purpose of such detractors is to discourage the Shi'a from the benefits of meeting one another, and the solidarity which increases in the times of pilgrimage, because such brotherhood is like the shafts of arrows in the eyes of the enemies of Muhammad, for they cannot be unaware of the Imams' intention. It is not possible to believe that those whose every saying and doing were for the sake of Allah, and who gave their blood in the cause of the religion of Allah, should call the people to polytheism and idolatry.

Finally, one of the necessities of the pilgrimage is that "the pilgrim should behave towards and treat his fellow pilgrim with politeness, that he should say few words but ones of benefit and purpose, that he should remember Allah,[^7] be humble, worship often, ask for the Mercy of Allah on Muhammad and his Descendents, lower his eyes and not stare around,. assist his brothers when they have nothing and console them, remain far from what is unlawful, avoid quarrelling and arguing about one's beliefs."

The reality behind the pilgrimage is the salutation of Muhammad or the Imam, because, in accordance with the Qur'an:

They are alive and are provided with sustenance from their Lord. (3;168)

And they hear the words of the pilgrim and answer his salutations. It is enough to say, for example, before the tomb of the Prophet:"As-salamu 'alayka ya rasul allah" (Peace be upon thee, O Messenger of Allah), but it is much better to say the words prescribed by the Household of the Prophet, for they express the highest intentions and the greatest religious significance by their eloquence, and they are the most excellent prayers through which the pilgrim may contemplate Allah.