We transcribe from the book of Reza Shah-Kazemi, Justice and Rememberance, Introducing the spirituality of Imam 'Ali, which is online (in the site https://www.docdroid.net/gKobLtv/justice-and-remembrance-introducing-the-spitituality-of-imam-ali-reza-shah-kazemi-pdf, and his also printed by Editorial Bizâncio in portuguese), some paragraphs of the 3º chapter, in order to make his wisdom, power and blessings be more present within us, and notably helping us, in these day of war, to stabilize our mind through prayer or dhikr, the repetition of a sacred formula or name of God:
«The following reference to ʿAlī by ʿAlī Hujwīrī (d. 464/ 1071), author of the first manual of Sufism written in Persian, Kashf al-maḥjūb, can be taken as altogether representative of the way in which ʿAlī is viewed within the Sufi tradition:
"Among them [i.e. the Sufis] is the son of Muḥammad’s uncle, he who drowned in the ocean of trying affliction, and was consumed in the fire of loving passion, (gharīq-i baḥr-i balāʼ wa ḥarīq-i nār-i walā) the leader of the saints and the pure ones (muqtadā-yi awliyāʼ wa’l-aṣfiyāʼ). In this Path he holds a place of tremendous honour and elevated degree. He had complete mastery over the precise expression of the principles of the supernal realities, such that Junayd (5) said of him, ‘ʿAlī is our master as regards principles and affliction (shaykhunā fi’l-uṣūl wa’l-balāʾ)’… That is, ʿAlī is the Imam of this Path in respect of both theoretical knowledge and practical application (andar ʿilm wa muʿāmalat imām-i īn ṭarīqat), for the adepts of Sufism call the knowledge of this Path its ‘principles’, while its practice is summed up in the endurance of affliction."(6)
.jpg) |
| The twelve Imams, with Ali at the center, protectors and inspirers of Iran and the Shiites, who demonstrated such resistance to suffering and afflictions throughout their lives, that are still today present within the ation, soil and soul of Iran! |
The mention here of the ‘endurance of affliction’ reminds us of the Imam’s reference to the sages as those who ‘befriend that by which
the ignorant are estranged’, noted in Chapter 1 above. A possible
meaning of this elliptical sentence, as advanced earlier, is that one of
the things which the sages befriend and the ignorant flee is prayer,
and more specifically, the act of pure concentration on the Absolute,
excluding all other thoughts; for this is a kind of death, the ego and
all its preoccupations being as it were ‘sacrificed’ before the divine
Reality on which concentration is exclusively focused. The remem-
brance of God, the focus of this essay, can be conceived both as the
consummation of this concentration as well as constituting the path
leading to the summit of spiritual realization: self-effacement before
the sole reality of God.
The corpus of Imam ʿAlī’s teachings elucidates in a remarkable
manner the notion, the principle and the practice of the dhikru’Llāh,
a theme of central importance both in the Qurʾān and in the Sunna
of the Prophet. The sayings of the Imam constitute a valuable com-
mentary on those verses of the Qurʾān referring to the dhikr; and,
given the centrality of the dhikr within Sufi practice and doctrine,
these sayings also help one to appreciate why it is that the Sufis refer
to the Imam as the first spiritual ‘Pole’ (quṭb) of Sufism after the
Prophet himself. The close relationship between remembrance and
spiritual realization will also be explored in the light of both the sayings of the Imam and the expositions of representatives of the Sufi tradition, particularly those belonging to the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, known in the tradition as al-Shahkh al-akbar, ‘the greatest Master’, on account of his preponderant influence upon the subsequent expressions of Sufi thought.(7) These expositions can be seen as doctrinal reverberations of the dense, often elliptical, pronouncements of the Imam. Key aspects of the spirituality of the Islamic tradition are brought into sharp focus by these sayings of the Imam, together with the elaborations of the Sufis, on the meaning and the implications of ‘the remembrance of God’.
First, one must look at what is meant by this term dhikr and ask
why it is given such prominence in the sphere of Islamic devotional
practice. The term is extremely rich and no single word in English can do justice to its polyvalence. It comprises the following lexical meanings: remembrance, recollection, invocation, repetition, incantation, recitation; it can also mean memory, mention, telling, relating (as of a story), praise, glorification, celebration, fame, eminence, honour, exhortation, warning, as well as denoting the Qurʾān itself, (8) or any book of revelation or religion. But the definition that brings us close to the spiritual principle expressed by the term is that given by al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī in his Qurʾānic dictionary. He writes that dhikr is that by means of which ‘man preserves that knowledge (maʿrifa) which he has attained, so it is akin to memory (ḥifẓ), except that memory is spoken of in respect of its function of acquisition (iḥrāz), whereas dhikr is spoken of in respect of its function of rendering present (istiḥḍār). Dhikr is also used to refer to the presence of a thing in one’s consciousness (lit. ‘heart’) or in one’s speech. Thus, it is said that there are two types of dhikr: dhikr of the heart and dhikr of the tongue, and each comprises two further kinds of dhikr: a dhikr which follows forgetfulness, and a dhikr which does not follow forgetfulness but which, on the contrary, expresses a continuous remembering.
As will be seen later, there is much in this definition of dhikr which resonates with the Imam’s perspective. What is to be stressed for now is that when the thing remembered, or ‘rendered present’ to consciousness, is God, the importance of the principle of dhikru’Llāh becomes clear. Dhikru’Llāh should thus be seen, in the first instance and above all else, as a principle of awareness, an in-depth assimilation of the divine presence; but it must also be seen as an action, a practice or a series of practices (10) and thus as a spiritual discipline. In other words, dhikru’Llāh can be understood both as the end and a means to that end, both spiritual awareness and methodic practice aiming at that awareness. It is in the Sufi tradition that this relationship between the practice of the dhikr and the principle of consciousness intended by the practice is most highly elaborated. That is, the dhikr is presented both as a contemplative discipline centring on the methodic invocation or repetition of a Name of God; (11) and as the cognitive consequence and mystical fruit of this methodic discipline.»
 |
| May our prayers, our truly concentrated dhikr, and souls be attuned to the Imams, Spiritual beings and God, and blessed in the Infinite Cosmos of beauty, justice and love, our spiritual realm, that shall shine in us, as Xvarnah, light of glory. Nûr! |
.jpg)
