Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

What Does Nearness To Allah Mean?

Our familiarity with the derived and colloquial meanings that we use in social life often results in error and mistake. It happens that words which are used in Islamic sciences have abandoned their real meaning, and have found a derived and commonly used meaning. Now, when we use the word `nearness' outside of its colloquial meaning, we intend it in its real meaning: that is, we may say: `there is a spring near that hill', or `I myself went near that hill'. Here we are using `near' in its real sense. That is to say that we really do conceive of distance and nearness as the intermediate space as far as the hill, and we use the word `nearness' to indicate that that distance - which is a real fact, not just something we have agreed upon - has been reduced.

But when we say that so-and-so is close or near to someone of eminence in society, or we say that so-and-so, because of some service he rendered, became close to this or that person of social standing, what do we mean? Is the meaning that the distance between the two has decreased; for example, before he was within five hundredmetres and now he is within a hundredmetres ? Of course not; if it were so, than a servant in someone's house would auto-matically be morefavoured than anyone else in nearness to him.

Our meaning is rather that the servant, as a result of his service, influences his master's state of mind, and thus the latter becomes pleased with him when before he was not pleased, or he becomes more pleased, and in the end, because of this, the master bestows morefavour on him than before. So the use of nearness here is a figurative use, not a literal one; in reality, the external existence of one person is not fixed in nearness to the external existence of another. Rather, because of the special psychological relationship which exists between the master and the servant and its effects, which in this particular relationship derive from the psychological situation, the term `nearness' is defined figuratively and by comparison.

What, then, is `nearness' to the Being of al -Haqq ? is it literal nearness or figurative nearness? Are the slaves of Allah, through submission, worship, conduct and purity moving up towards Allah, and thus becoming nearer to Him? Is the distance between them becoming shorter; to that point at which distance vanishes, and, in theQur'anic expression, "meeting with the Lord" (liqa'u'r-rabb ) takes place? Or, if all these expressions are figurative expressions, then what is `approaching near to' Allah?

Of course, Allah has no nearness or distance. Nearness to Allah is exactly like closeness to someone of social eminence; that is to say, Allah acquires satisfaction from His slave, and, in the end, His grace andfavour is returned and it increases. Of course, another question then arises, and that is: what is Allah's satisfaction? Allah is not a locus of events such that He could be dissatisfied with someone, and later become satisfied, or be satisfied with someone and then become dissatisfied. Inevitably the answer comes that the expressions `satisfaction' and 'dissatis - faction' are also figurative expressions, the object of works for Divine mercy andfavour which come in the form of obedience and devotion and nothing else.

So what is this mercy andfavour ? Here there are differentreasonings . Some divide mercies andfavours generally into spiritual and material. Spiritual blessings, for example, wisdom and the joy acquired through it, and material blessings, for example, the Garden of Paradise, the maidens and palaces (of Paradise). Others, even though they acknowledgespiri -tual mercies, also reject them, and confine thefavours and positions of men in nearness to Allah to the Garden, the physical paradises, the maidens and palaces, apples and pears." The result of the argument of the latter group is that the meaning of `the friends (wali ) of Allah' becoming closer to the Being of Oneness is that he has the right to more maidens, palaces, apples, pears, garden and orchard than another person.

The meaning of what the deniers of true nearness say is that, the result of devotion and worship is not that there is a difference in the relation of Allah to His slave (as the supporters of real nearness also acknowledge in this mat -ter ), and not that there is a difference in the relation of the slave to Allah. From the point of view of nearness and distance the foremost individuals of the human world, the Prophet, and the most wretched of them, such as Phar-aoh or Abu Jahl24 are equal.

The truth of the matter is that this con- fusion originates from a kind of materialistic thinking about Allah and man, especially about man. Someone who only knows man as a heap of water and clay, and does not wish toacknow - ledge the fundamental; So when I have shaped him and breathed My Spirit into him (15:29), and does not even want to consign a figurative meaning to this expression, has no remedy against the denial of real nearness to al-Haqq . But what need is there for usto . suppose that man is so lowly and mundane that we are forced to give everything an allegoricalexplana tion and justification? Allah is pure perfection and infiniteness, and from the point of view of reality existence is the same as perfection, and every true perfection returns back to the reality of existence which is true reality, as with know- ledge, power, life, will, mercy, goodness, and more.

Existents, in the source of their creation, in every respect in which they share in a more perfect existence, that is to say, a more powerful and stronger existence with the Divine Essence which is absolute existence and puretranscen -dence , are nearer; naturally the angels are nearer to Allah than inanimate things and plants, and similarly some angels are more in advance than others. Some have control over and are obeyed by others: and remoteness is connected with the source of creation, and, as they say, is con-nected with the arc of descent.

Existents, especially man, according to; surely we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return (2:156), return to Allah. Man, according to the degree of his existence, must make that return in the form of obedience and in acts of free-will and the accomplishment of his duty, and in the form of choice and liberty. Man truly passes through stages and degrees of nearness to his Lord by travelling the way of obedience to his Lord; in other words he journeys from the station ofanimality to the station above the angels. This ascension and rising is not a matter of formality and routine, it is not an arrange-ment or a construct of our minds, it is not a kind of promotion from simply belonging to some ministry to being a minister, or from simply being a party member to being a party leader, rather it is anascendence of the ladder of existence, which is the same thing as the increasing and completion of knowledge, power, life, purpose, will, extending the bounds of penetration and possession. "Nearness to Allah" means really passing through the degrees and stations of being and becoming nearer to the infinite centre of being.

Therefore, it is impossible for man, as a result of devotion, servitude, and travelling the path of submission not to reach the station of the angel, not to go higher than the angel, or at least not to share to the same extent as the angel in the attainments of being. In order to make clear the station of man, the Qur'an has saidWe said to the angels: "Bow yourselves down to Adam!" So they bowed them- selves, saveIblis , who refused (2:34). Truly, it must be said, the repudiator of the station of man, whoever he may be isIblis .

THE OUTWARD LIFE AND THE LIFE OF MEANING

Man has, within his outward, animal existence, a spiritual life. Man's spiritual life, the preparedness for which is in every individual, originates in the growth and perfection of his actions and aims. The perfection and felicity of man, and hence his descent and wickedness, are dependent on his spiritual life which is related to his actions and intentions and goals and to what aim and purpose he progresses by the vehicle of his deeds.

Our attention to the precepts of Islam is only from the direction related to individual and social mundane existence. However, there is no doubt that Islamic precepts are saturated with a philosophy of life covering all matters. Islam never despises the problems of life or deems them of no significance. From the point of view of Islam, spirituality has no separate existence from life in this world. Just as, if the spirit became separate from the body it would no longer belong to this world and another world would have to determine its destiny, spirituality separate from life also does not belong to this world, and talk of spirituality subtracted from life in this world is absurd.

But it must not be thought that thephil -osophy of Islamic precepts is confined to questions of this life; not at all. At any rate, the application of these precepts is the means of travelling the path of servitude and jour-neying on the way of nearness and of perfecting existence. Man has a movement towards inward perfection which is outside the limits of the body and matter and individual and social life, and has its source in a chain of spiritualsta -tions . Man, by his submission and sincerity, takes part in that movement. He witnesses, sometimes in this world, and, if not, in the next world where the veils have been removed, all the stations which he passes through, which are these stations and degrees of nearness, Wilayah - The Station of the Master and in the end ofwilayah .

Prophethood and Wilayah:

al-`Allamah at-Tabataba'i has written: The commands and principles of the din, one section of which are these socialregula -tions , form, exoterically, a series of social concepts, and the connection of these with felicity and wretchedness in the next world , or, in simple religious terminology, with the blessings of Paradise and the afflictions of Hell, depends on realities which come into existence by means of the practice of these principles andregu -lations or the non-practice of them by man, and which are stored behind the curtains of perceptions, and becomemani - fest and revealed after his transition to the second coming forth (the life of the next world) and the tearing of the curtains of heedlessness and the veil of egoism. So underneath the veil, the social life which man spends in the observance of religious principles is a living event and a spiritual life, in which the blessings of the next world and its everlasting felicities originate.

Or, expressed in another way, they are itsphenomenalization . This is a fact and reality which has been given the namewilayah .Nubuwwah (prophethood ) is a reality which gains access to the religious commandments andDivine precepts related to life, and imparts them to people, andwilayah is a reality which comes into existence as the result of the putting into practice in man of what was caused to descend through the Prophet and the Divine precepts.

Imam - The Bearer of Wilayah:

Concerning the testimony relating towilayah and its bearer, the Imam, and the fact that the human world is never without a man who is the bearer ofwilayah (the Perfect Man), al-`Allamah at-Tabataba 'i has written In proving and making certain the way ofwilayah in which man travels through the degrees of inward perfection, and becomes a dweller in the station of Divine nearness, there can be no doubt, because the exoteric aspects of the din cannot be conceived of The Outward Life and the Life of Meaning without an inward reality; and the scheme of the Creator, Who provided man with the exoteric aspects of the din (practical, ethical and social precepts) and Who sum-moned him to His side, will necessarily make ready this inward reality which is the link between the exoteric aspects of the din and the station of the spirit; and the evidence which gives instruction in the human world through the witness and perpetuity ofprophethood (theshari`ahs and the commandments) and establishes the regulations of the din also givesguid -ance through the evidence, perpetuity and actuality of the establishment ofwilayah .

So how is it conceivable that one of the levels oftawhid , or one of the command-ments of the din actually has a living mandate as long as the inward reality which it necessitates does not exist, or as long as the link between the world of man and that level issevered. Someone who is the holder of the degrees of nearness, and is the leader of the caravan of the people ofwilayah , and preserves the link between humanity and that reality is called, in the language of the Qur'an, Imam." The Imam is someone who has authority on behalf of Allah (al-Haqq ), may He be praised, for leadership in the way ofwilayah , and who has taken the reins of spiritual guidance into his hands Wilayah, which makes the hearts of the slaves of Allah shine, is the rays and beams of light from the centre of light which is with Him, and strewn blessings -particles from theshoreless sea which is near to Him.

InUsul al-Kafi , in the chapter, "The Imams are the Light of Allah", it is narrated from Abu Khalid al-Kabuli that he said: "I asked al-Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s .) about thisayah : .

Therefore believe in Allah and His Mess-enger and the Light whichWe have sent down (64:8). The Imam then expounded on the meaning of this ayah and said: `By Allah, O Abu Khalid, the Light of the Imam in the hearts of the people ofiman (who are under the influence of his sovereignty) is brighter than the light of the sun during the day.' "

The Outward Life and the Life of Meaning

The meaning is that it is a great mistake to restrict the purpose, the intention, the inward and outward aspects of the precepts of the din only to the results that ensue according to the perspective of this life; and to interpret nearness to Allah, which is the direct result of the true practice of these actions, as a derived orfigu -rative matter of the same kind of nearness to the "Lords of wealth and power" in this world, without there being an active design in the spiritual, real life of man, and without it raising him, in reality, up the ladder of existence.

Those who really become close to the centre ofbeing, naturally enjoy its benefits, and these are the ones who are fully conversant with the world of man and who take within their authority the spirits and hearts of others, and are the witnesses of the deeds of others.

Fundamentally, every existent who takes a step forward on the path of the completion of his own destiny, and travels through one of the stages in the perfection of hisself, walks the road of approach to al-Haqq . Man is also an existent in this world, and the way to his perfection is not only that he should progress, so to speak, in what is today called civilization - that is, a series of sciences and technical skills which are effective and useful in theamelior -ation of this life, or a series of customs and traditions which are requisites of the improved life of society. If we envisage man only on this level, then this really is what it is all about, but man has another way, another future, which is obtained through the refinement of the soul and through acquaintance with the ultimate goal, that is to say, with the Most Purified Essence of Unity.

From Human ServilityTo Divine Sovereignty

Is it an offensive thing to say, fromhu - man servility to DivineLordliness ? Is it not possible for the slave to leave the boundary of his servility and take two steps within the Divine boundary? In the words of MahmudShabistari Non-being is not divorced from the con-tingent In the two worlds: Allah is All-wise.26 Wilayah - The Station of the Master True, but the meaning of `Lordliness' is godliness, not God. Every person who has power is the `Lord' over those things which are under his influence and in his possession. `Abdu '1-Muttalib said toAbrahah who had arrived with the intention of destroying theKa'bah : "I am the lord (owner) of the camels (to claim which I have come to you), but the House has itself a Lord (to defend it) .27

We found the above expression from following a famoushadith which is found inMisbahu 'sh-shari`ah . In thathadith it is said; "Servility is a jewel whose centre isSover -eignty ," which means: Indeed, being the slave of Allah and travelling on the path of nearness to al-Haqq is a jewel whose centre is lordship, that is, power and strength. Man always was, and still is, seeking to find a way to have mastery overhimself and the world.

For the present we are not interested in the matter of which way to take for thispur - pose, nor in what leads to success or failure in that way. But among these way there is one From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty way which has amarvellous condition, in this sense that man, alone, takes this way, without having the formerly mentioned aim, that is his aim is not to gain power and control over the world; but rather his aim is at the opposite extreme to this aim, that is his aim is self-abase-ment , humility, self-annihilation and non-being, this amazing way is the way of servility.

What can that person who has knownYou do with his soul? What can he do with his children, his family,his home? You make himdilerious andYou give him the two worlds, What can someone who isdilerious for You do with both the worlds? Stations and Stages:

Sovereignty, lordship, andwilayah , in other words, perfection and power, which are allotted to mankind as a result of servility, sincerity and true worship, have stations and stages. The first stage is the giving ofinspirffion and the giving of control to man overhis own soul. In other words, the smallest sign of the acceptance of man's deeds by Allah is that first of all he earns a penetrating insight, he becomes radiant and clear-sighted. The Qur'an says: If you fear Allah He will assign you a salvation (8:29).

It also saysBut those who struggle in Our cause, surely We shall guide them in Our ways (29:69). Secondly, man conquers and subdues his own soul and physical forces; man's will-power becomes powerful over his bodily and animal desires; he becomes the master of his own From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty existence; he acquires merited control within the limits of his own existence. The Qur'an says Prayer forbids indecency anddishonour (29:45). About fasting, it says: Prescribed for you is the Fast, even as it was prescribed for those who were before you so that you may guard against evil - haply you will fear Allah (2:183). And about both forms of worship, it says: O you who believe! Seek your help in patience and prayer (2:153). In this stage of servility, that which be- come man's lot is that through a kind of insight

man's bodily passions and tendencies are con-quered . In other words, the first effect of servility is sovereignty andwilayah over the carnal soul. The second state is control andwilayah over various thinking processes, that is, control over the imagination.

The faculty of the imagination is one of our most astonishing powers. By virtue of this faculty, our mind can at any instant turn its attention from one subject to another, and, so to speak, take the form of an association of ideas or a chain of mental phenomena. This faculty is not under our control, rather we are surprisingly under its control, and so whatever we may want, it is impossible for us to fix our minds on one determined subject so that our attention does not turn to something else. Without control, the faculty of the imagination pushes us in this direction, then in that. For example, however much we want to have presence of mind in prayer, that is to say, how- ever much we want to keep this student present at the top of the class of prayer, we cannot. All at once, we understand that the prayer has reached its end, and that the student was absent during the whole period.

The Prophet makes an elegant comparison in this matter. He compares the heart - the heart of someone who is overcome by hisi maginative powers - to a feather which is hanging from a tree in a desert, and which every breath of wind blows to and fro. He said: The heart is like a feather in the middle of an open desert, hanging from a tree and blown to and fro by the wind.

The Prophet said that the heart is like a featherIn the desert, a captive of a violent blast. The wind drives the feather recklessly in every direction: Now left, now right, with a hundred diversities. In another tradition (the Prophet said)Deem this heart to be As the water boiling in a cauldron from the fire. At every time the heart has a different resolution. That (resolution) is not from it, but from some place.28 The other tradition thatRumi indicates in these verses isSurely , the heart of man is in more upheaval than a pot when it is completely on the boil. But is man condemned compulsorily and necessarily to be doomed forever to his thinking, and is this mysterious power, which, like a sparrow, is always flying from branch to branch,

From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty to be an absolute ruler over his existence? Or does this condemnation in the face ofthei maginative faculty stem from rawness andi mmaturity ? Those who become whole, the people ofwilayah , are they powerful enough to subjugate this force?

The second alternative is correct; one of the duties of man is to gain mastery over the capriciousness of his imagination. If not, this power ofShaytan (Satan) will give a quality of chance to Allah and to travelling this way to nearness, and will cancel and ruin all the power and ability in man's being.

How great wasRumi who said All day long, from the buffets of fantasy,And from loss and gain and from fear of decline. There remains to the soul neither joy, nor grace and glory,Nor way of journeying to heaven.29 From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty The Prophet said: "My eyes sleep, But my heart is not asleep to the Lord of created beings. " Your eyes are awake and your heart is sunk in slumber,My eyes are asleep, but my heart is at the opening of the door.'Tis not I that am seated beside you, 'tis my shadow,My station is higher than thoughts.

Because I have passed beyond thoughts, I have become a swifttraveller outside of thought. I am the ruler of thought, not ruled by it,Because the builder is ruler over the building. All creatures are subject to thought;For that reason they are sore in heart andpractised in sorrow. I am as a bird of the zenith, thought is a gnat;How should a gnat have power over me? When weariness at the qualities of the low seizes me, I soar up like birds which spread theirpinions .30

Let us look at a man like `Ali (a. s.) orZaynu '1-`Abidin (a.s .) who were so absorbed in Divine reality during their prayer that, forin stance , when they took an arrow out of `Ali's foot, he did not come back from his state of total concentration, and did not notice what had happened. Or the young child orZaynu '1- `Abidin (a.s .) who, when the latter was in a state of completeabsorbtion in worship, fell down from a height and broke his hand. The cries of the children and the women of the house made quite a disturbance, and in the end the bone- setter arrived and set the child's hand. WhenZaynu 'l-`Abidin had finished his prayer, that is to say when he had returned from his heavenly journey, his eyes fell on the child's hand, and, astonished, he asked what had happened that it was bandaged up. We can see how these cries and the uproar could not bring the Imam out of his concentration in Divine reality.

Yet let us look at this degree of man. Among their followers, we have seen a number in our lifewho had such peace of mind and concentration of spirit in the time of prayer that they were assuredly unaware of anything From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty apart from Allah.Our great and respected teacher, the late HajjMirza `AliAgha Shirazi Isfahani 3l was a man of this degree.

In order to win this victory, there is no- thing like worship, whose foundation isconcen -tration on Allah. Self-discipline can be counted among other ways, and, at the most, self- mortification and self-mutilation fall a little into this category, but Islam secures this result from the way of worship without having recourse to these unacceptable practices.Fixing theatten -tion of the heart towards Allah, and meditation on that which is directed towards the Lord of Lords and the Creator and Disposer of all things, prepares the basis ofgatheredness of thought and concentration of the mind.

Hisdishevelled lock (of hair) is the cause of us gathering. Since it is this way, then he must make it moredishevelled . It would be a pity not to mention here something which can help us from theShaykh of the philosophers of Islam (Ibn Sina ), the prodigy of his time, who, by the grace of the teachings of Islam, took philosophical thought to places where his Greek, Iranian, and Indian predecessors had never reached.

In the ninth section of his al-Isharat,32 after a description of ordinary worship which is done only for reward and has little value, this great man proceeds to worship in itsrela -tionship with `irfan (gnosis). He says: "Worship as seen by the people of gnosis is the training of aspirations and faculties, the imagination and thought, which, as a result of repetition and habituation of appearance in the presence of Allah (al-Haqq ), continually draws them away from attention to problems of nature and matter, towards thepreception ofMalakut . And, in the end, these faculties submit to the secret of the heart and to the in-nate instinct of man to seek Allah, and become obedient to Him so that whenever he wills that he should engage himself in union with Allah (al-Haqq ), these powers do not do any- thing in way of opposition, and do not start a conflict between two desires, a stronger one and a weaker one, and the hidden, inner secret occupies itself with illumination without their interference."

From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty The third station is that the spirit, in its stages of strength, power, sovereignty andwila - yah, reaches a stage in which, in a great deal of things, it becomes able to do without the body, so that the body is one hundred percent subservient to the spirit.

The spirit and the body are in need, one of the other; the life-force of the body is the spirit, the spirit is the preserver of the form of the body; removing the regulating attachment of the spirit from the body necessitates the corruption and ruin of the body. On the other hand, the spirit, in its activities, is in need of the services of the body; without the use of the limbs and organs and the instruments of the body it would be impossible to do any work. The spirit's not needing the body, in so far as in some of its activities it is not in need of the services of the body, appears sometimes for a few moments and sometimes repeatedly, and sometimes permanent! This is what is known as `divorce from the body'.

Suhrawardi , the famous HakimIshragi , said" We do not recognize a hakim (atheos -ophist ) as a hakim unless he canpractise divorce from the body." MirDamad says: "We do not recognize a hakim as a hakim unless divorce from the body has become his possession, and every time he wills it, it happens." As these enquirers after truth have ex- pressed it, divorce from the body is not evidence of great perfection. It is possible that those who still have not crossed over from the world ofmithal (the world of form) and have not set foot in the hidden world of contemplation may have reached this station.

The fourth station is that his body, in every respect, comes under the control and will of the individual, in such a way that in the realm of his body the individual originates extraordinary actions. This subject gives scope for much discussion.al-Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq , may peace be upon him, said "Nobody is weak in that about which his decision is firm."-i.e.,With strong deter-mination , any weakness and feebleness can be overcome.

From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty The fifth station,which is the highest station, is that even the external world comes under the control of man's will as well as becomes obedient to man. The miracles and wonders of the prophets and thewalis of Allah are in this category.

The problem of miracles and wonders is itself a matter of discussion which must be treated separately by way of explanation. Piety in any of the revealed religions is a pre-requisite for the acceptance of and faith in supernatural phenomena and miracles. For instance, no-one can be a Muslim and believe and have faith in the Qur'an, but deny miracles and supernatural events. From the point of view of Islamic meta- physic, the difficulty concerning a miracle is a difficulty which must be solved; of course, investigating this problem requires the discussion of many preliminaries. Here we shall discuss this matter from the point of view ofwilayah -tasarruf and naturally there are some people opposed to what we say who have faith and believe in the Qur'an and admit that miracles take place. What we have to say to those people is directed towards showing that a miracle is part of the manifestations ofwilayah-tasarruf and creativewilayah . Leaving aside the Qur'an, which, in addition to being a miracle, is the word of Allah not the word of the Prophet, and has an exceptional position among all miracles, the occurrence of miracles is due to a kind of power and will which was given to its bearer from Allah so that he can, through the permission and command of Allah, bring about changes in creation: he causes a rod to appear as a serpent, he gives sight to a blind man, he causes the dead to live, he is aware of what is concealed. This power and aware-ness were given to him only as a result of his following the way of becoming and closeness to the Centre of Being, andwilayah-tasarruf is nothing else but this.

Some people imagine that in the existence of a miracle the individuality and the will of the miracle-doer do not interfere in any way; he is only the cinema screen; the Essence of Oneness, directly and without intermediary, brings it into existence.For if some event reaches the boundary of the supernatural, it is beyond the power of man at whatever level it may be. So wherever a miracle takes place, man has not brought about any change in creation, for it is the Essence of Oneness itself which directly, and without the intermediary of the From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty will of man, has brought about a change in the universe.

This view is mistaken. Apart from the fact that it denies thesublimeness of the Purest and Unique Being, that physical fact, without intermediary and outside the order of things, should emanate from Him, this concept is against what is explicitly stated in the Qur'an. The Qur'an, in the perfection of itsunambi -guity , acknowledges its prophets as the bringers of `ayat ' (which also means miracles as well as signs), but of course with the leave and per- mission of the Unique Being. It is clear that the permission of the Unique Being is not of the same kind as human permission which is produced by words or by indication of social or ethical restrictions. The permission of the Lord is this granting of a kind of perfection which is the source of such an effect and if Allah had not willedit . He would take this perfection from him.

In the blessedsurah al-Mu'min , it is written It was not for any messenger to bring a sign (ayah) save by the leave of Allah (40:78). In this ayah it is made known that the bringers of the ayah were prophets, but by the leave of the Lord. Specifically, the words `leave of Allah' were added so that it should not be fancied that anyone himself has independencevis -k-vis the Being of Truth, and that all should know that `there is no might and no power ex-cept with Allah'. Any common `might or power', from the least to the most, the small to the great, depends on the Holiest Unique Being; every existent, in every stage, is a channel for the Divine Will and Decree and is one of His manifestations. The prophets, in every work, and among them their miracles, are channels, and they are those who fill their pens from the eternal spring of the Unseen.

In the blessedsurah an-Naml , the story ofSulayman and the Queen of Saba' (Sheba) is told.Sulayman summoned the Queen of Saba', and the Queen set out to present herself toSulayman .Sulayman wanted from those present in the assembly that her throne should be brought before him before she herself came. Some volunteered, andSulayman became happy at their way of work, until:

Said he who possessed knowledge of the Book: "I will bring it to thee before ever thy glance returns to thee (27:40). The meaning of the Qur'an is that the one who knew said, "I am the one who can bring it in this short space of time'. Therefore he attributed the `might and the power' to himself, and, moreover, it says that "he who possessed knowledge of the Book said . .'; pointing to the fact that he did thisextraordi - nary feat by virtue of a kind of knowledge, and that kind of knowledge is a kind of science which till now has not been recorded in any human book, it is a knowledge which can only be obtained from the Guarded Tablet, that is, from nearness to the Essence of Truth. Again, the Qur'an explicitly states, while talking about the same prophet:

SoWe subjected to him the wind, that ran at his commandment, softly, wherever he might light on, and theSatans , every builder and diver and others also, coupled in fetters: "This is our gift; bestow or with- hold without reckoning" (38: 36 -39).

In an ayah which was revealed concerning Prophet `Isa -may peace be upon him - the Messiah, mention is made of the meanings of the Qur'an in this matter; we excuse ourselves and refrain from extending the matter through mentioning them. The point is that according to the Qur'an,wilayah-tasarruf in the universe cannot be denied. But if someone wants to, he mayinves tigate this subject merely according to the standards of science and philosophy. Of course there are other stories, but these are beyond our present objective.

In the last point which we made at the beginning of this discussion, we explained that all these stations were the result ofnearnness to the Lord, and nearness to the Truth is a fact and a reality, not a figurative explanation, or one depending on perspective.

In the famous and remarkable alHadithu l-qudsi , which both theShi`ahs and the Sunnis relate, this reality is explained in a very beautiful manner.al-Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a. s.) narrated from the Holy Prophet.

Allah says: No slave has become near to Me by anything more pleasing to Me than what I have made obligatory on him; and surely he can approach Me through works ofsuperero -gation more than what is obligatory on him, until I love him. Then when I love him, I will be his ear through which he hears, his eye through which he sees, his tongue through which he speaks, his hand with which he strikes. If he calls, I will reply to him; if he asks from Me, I will give to him.33 In thishadith the essence of the matter is set down: worship causes approach, and approach causesbelovedness near to Allah; that is to say, by worship man becomes near to Allah, and as a result of this nearness he becomes worthy of specialfavour , and as a result of thatfavour his ears and eyes and hands and tonguebecome , as it were, Divine. By Divinenearnesss he hears, and sees, and speaks and strikes; his supplication is accepted and his request is granted.

The fact is that the spirit ofShi`ism , which distinguishes it from other schools of Islam, and gives it a special Islamic insight for its followers, is the special view of this school concerning Man. On the one hand, it acknowledges that man's powers are truly wonderful, as was pointed out before, and it makes it known that the world of man is never without the being of the Perfect Man in whom the potentialities of man are actualized; and on the other hand, according to the in- sight of this group, servility is the sole means of arriving at the stations of men, and travelling the way of servility in a perfect and complete manner is not possible except with spiritualfavour and with the leader of the caravan, From Human Servility to Divine Sovereignty the Perfect Man, who is thewali andhujjah (Proof) of Allah.

For this reason, thewalis of this school have said Islam is founded on five things: Onsalat , onzakat , onsawm (fasting), on hajj, and onwilayah : and we were not called for anything as we were called towilayah .34