We must now say a few words about the understanding of shirk. The Quran, as you know, says that the Creator forgives all sins, except for shirk, that is, attributing a partner to God: “Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills” (4: 48).
The translation of the word shirk as “polytheism” will not be entirely correct, and now we will understand why. “Shirk” is precisely the “association.” It comes from the verb sharika – “to share,” or ashraka – “to associate a partner.”
Now we have to ask, associating a partner with whom is meant here? It must be said that the proper understanding of shirk in the Quran is fundamentally different from that which is now accepted on the plane of what is today called “Islam.” Because today it is generally accepted that the shirk is idols and all that. Worshiping them is the sin that the Almighty will never forgive… According to this understanding, there are not many polytheists today because almost no one worships idols so directly; no one says that there are two gods, three gods, or many gods. It seems to have remained in the past, excluding some Chinese or Indian villages, that is, the second or third plane of today’s world.
But in fact, according to the proper understanding and the hadiths of the Infallible Imams (A), a much deeper thing is meant here. True shirk is not only idol worship. Rather, idol worship is only a historical consequence of the shirk. True shirk is the associating partners with the Wilaya of Allah, i.e., the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit, the Fourteen Infallibles (A). That is, Allah will never forgive the associating partners with Him by associating someone else with the leadership of Ahl ul-Beit, which is the leadership of Allah.
The “Wilaya Verse” says, “Your Wali is none but Allah and His Messenger and those who have believed and establish prayer and give zakah while they bow (that is, Imam Ali and Imams from his descendants)” (5: 55).
The word “Wali” (sacred leader) is used here in the singular, and the owners of the Wilaya (sacred leadership) are used in the plural. This verse mentions ONE Wilaya and several of its owners. Hence, the Wilaya of Allah is the same Wilaya of the Messenger (S) and the Imams (A). Otherwise, we can express it as follows: for all creations, the Wilaya of Allah is manifested through the Wilaya of the Fourteen Infallibles (A). Obeying them is obeying Allah, disobeying them is disobeying Allah, their anger is the anger of Allah, their pleasure is the pleasure of Allah, their will is the will of Allah, and so on. They are the sign of Allah, His masal, His word, and His best names, as we have already said in previous parts.
Therefore, the one who associates partners with the Wilaya of the Fourteen Infallibles (A), chooses a will other than the will of Allah, follows someone besides Allah, obeys someone other than Allah, and this is the “attributing partners to God,” i.e., the shirk in its true sense.
And we have already said that all 124 thousand Prophets are the manifestation of the Wilaya of the Fourteen Infallibles, the rays of their light, a trace of their actions, and a cast from their revelation. Therefore, according to earthly time, Muhammad (S) and his Family came after them, but they exist before them in real time.
So, the pagan project is fundamentally more than just idol worship. Idols are only a consequence of the great shirk. The essence of the pagan project is to build a parallel Wilaya, to create one’s own earthly power in addition to or along with the true Leadership. Take the place of Wali. We have already talked about this in the 12th part. This is true shirk, great shirk. The one that the Almighty will never forgive. And this shirk was the foundation of ancient magical civilizations, where Pharaoh was saying, “I am your highest Lord.”
If you read the Quran carefully, you will notice that in many places, it says that the “partners” will be resurrected and asked. “And [warn of] the Day He will call them and say: Where are My partners which you used to claim? Those upon whom the word will have come into effect will say: Our Lord, these are the ones we led to error. We led them to error just as we were in error. We declare our disassociation from them to You. They did not used to worship us” (28: 62-63). And also, in surah “The Bees,” we read, “And when those who associated others with Allah see their partners, they will say: Our Lord, these are our partners to You whom we used to invoke besides You. But they will throw at them the statement: Indeed, you are liars” (16: 86).
But how will these “partners” be asked on the Day of Judgment, and how will they talk if they are just fictional deities? How will this happen? Will the Almighty create them anew on the Day of Judgment? Or will He resurrect these idols and statues and make them speak?
It is clear that these verses are about living beings endowed with taklif. “Partners” are people associated with the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit (A). And the basis of these partners is Jibt and Taghut, the first two usurpers of the Khalifate, who, according to real time, are the supreme idols, and from them, all other idols come. In the Zarr world, they were the first to abandon the Wilaya and call on other people to do so, and therefore all delusions, all murders, crimes, and sins from Adam to the Day of Judgment are on their necks. Imam Sadiq (A) says, “Our enemies are the basis of all evil.” And he says about the first two usurpers, “They are two idols of Quraysh who are worshiped besides Allah.” The adoption of their wilaya instead of the Wilaya of Allah, that is, the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit (A), is the great shirk from which all other historical forms of shirk follow.
So, through the denial of the leadership of the Prophets, in which Tawhid is embodied, such things as the worship of idols have historically been born. And the guidance of the Prophets is nothing more than the rays from the light of the Ahl ul-Beit’s Wilaya, about which Allah says, “This is Wilaya of Allah – the truth. He is better in reward and better in outcome” (18:44). So the shirk begins when humanity goes out from under this luminous dome of the Wilaya, which is “truth” and “better in reward and better in outcome.” And there is no truth, except in this Wilaya and through this Wilaya: “This is Wilaya of Allah – the truth.” And in another verse, we read: “What is there after the truth but error?” (10: 32). Everything that except the truth is a lie and a falsehood, and the truth is the Wilaya of Allah, that is, the Wilaya of Muhammad, Ali, and the Household of Ali (A).
And true man is the one who turns to the Creator through His Wilaya and His face, which is Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad (S). He has acquired the true form of humanity, which is light and Paradise. And if he turned away from this face, he received a satanic form, which is darkness and Hell.
Iblis refused to bow to Adam because of envy since the loins of Adam became the place where the lights of Ahl ul-Beit were kept. And this is also a very important point… In fact, this story does not revolve around Adam. The angels bowed not to Adam himself. Iblis did not envy Adam himself. He wanted these lights of the Wilaya to be placed in his loins, and through this, he would become the viceroy of Allah, bearer of the highest sign. And so, he said, “I am better than him.” My substance is higher. “You created me from fire and created him from clay” (38: 76). That is: place this light in my loins.
And so, he decided to show that Adam and the descendants of Adam are not worthy of this program and these lights. He wants this program to be destroyed. Therefore, the main task of Iblis is to separate the human race from the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit, which is also the Wilaya of all the Prophets. He tries to divide between them. And this division is the primary meaning of shirk. A true mushrik is the one who left their Wilaya and associated someone else with their Wilaya. This is what Iblis is seeking. Iblis’ program consists of dividing the human race and the Wilaya. Follow whatever ideology you want, whatever leader you want: only not Prophets and Imams!
Therefore, he comes to Adam and says: don’t you want to take the place of Wali? “Shall I direct you to the Tree of eternity and enduring power?” (20: 120). This Tree, which fruits are all things, belongs to you. Create your own hierarchy parallel to the Creator’s one! This is the program of Iblis… And he creates such a hierarchy, such a system of power here on earth. He has been doing this for many centuries…
An ordinary person does not even have an idea of the enormity and multiplicity of those infernal forces that swarm “below” our world, always ready to penetrate it. And he is all the more defenseless in front of them because he does not understand their action. Meanwhile, they constantly strive to embrace our world and transform it into their own. The fact that we do not see them does not mean that they do not see us. Therefore, the hadith says that the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit is the ship of salvation. And in other hadiths, it is compared to a fortress. “Wilaya of Ali is My fortress, and whoever entered this fortress is protected from My punishment.” All these expressions are used for a reason. Because the one who goes beyond the walls of this fortress immediately becomes a victim of infernal forces, whether he understands it or not.
There is a program of the Almighty, a program of Prophets and Imams, which seeks to organize the human world (the world of Adam’s descendants) in a certain way, outlined in Revelation. And there is a program of black demonic worlds that constantly attack our world, acting through people’s consciousness, through their nafs ammara, which is an instrument of their influence. This program is as opposed to the program of the Prophets as the human form is opposite to the satanic form. So, they strive to turn the inner human form of the inhabitants of our world into a satanic one. And their agents among the human world are predominantly those who are called awliya of Satan in the Quran. “The devils give revelation to their awliya” (6: 121), i. e., to their viceroys, their friends. There are special people whom they choose, with whom they actively work, giving them specific knowledge, suggestions, and abilities. A certain inspiring aura emanates from such people, attracting ordinary individuals like a magnet. They may take it for divine inspiration, while it is a satanic inspiration.
When in the world of Zarr, before our earthly world, Allah addressed the question to all creatures, “Am I not your Lord? And is Muhammad not your Prophet? And are the Imams of his Household not your Imams?” – some people, out of envy and arrogance, rejected the Wilaya of Ahl ul-Beit and said, “O our Lord! If You force us to submit to them, we have no authority over You. But if You give us a choice, we will reject them, will be at enmity with them and kill them.” Allah said, “I do not force slaves to faith.” And the first to reject them were Jibt and Taghut, and they began to call on everyone else to do so.
And so, now, in the justice and wisdom of Allah, it should be so that for each of these groups, such conditions are created in which they can realize what they have chosen. This is our dunya, the earthly world. Therefore, dunya is divided into two parts: the kingdom of lies and the kingdom of truth. The wisdom of the Almighty has determined so that the first group has power and that the second group has power. Therefore, the commander of the believers Ali (A) said: lil batyli jawla wa lil haqqi dawla – “lies have their own period, and truth has its own realm.”
Now, if at first the supporters of the truth had power, and then the supporters of lies, this would mean the final victory of lies in this world. Therefore, the Almighty has established the opposite: first, the supporters of lies will have power, and then the supporters of truth. And the division between them He made the coming of the twelfth Imam (A). Therefore, when Iblis asked to give him a respite until the Day of Judgment, Allah refused him and gave him respite only “until the day of the time appointed” (38: 81), that is, until the arrival of the Imam of time (A), since he cannot have power in the realm of truth, in the realm of Ahl ul-Beit (A).
All conditions in each of these two periods are opposite. In the realm of lies, the adherents of the truth are oppressed, persecuted, and killed. This is inevitable because each opposite tends to destroy the other. On the contrary, in the realm of truth, the adherents of the lies will be persecuted and killed.
The adherents of the truth must be patient in the face of persecution. And so it will be until oppression, lies, and tyranny reach the extreme. Because the adherents of lies must fully manifest themselves in this world of deeds so that they have no justification before the Almighty. The merciful Lord cannot send His creatures to Hell forever without a final and clear argument over them. And this argument is realized in the course of history, in the deeds they perform.
But this period of darkness, too, cannot remain without argument. There must be light in the darkness so that the people of darkness have no excuse. And Allah in the world of Zarr asked, “Who is ready to sacrifice himself for Me in this realm of darkness under completely exceptional conditions, to give everything for Me, so that this event would be a light illuminating all the worlds? Who is ready to manifest My light in this darkness?” Manifest not through victory and suppression of opponents but through martyrdom and fire in people’s hearts.
And Hussein (A) said, “I.”
And since our world is the world of deeds, this event should be inscribed with blood from the throat, not words and calls. With the letters of an incredible, one-of-a-kind sacrifice. The Almighty designed such an event as a torch illuminating all the worlds. And Hussein (A) took it upon himself. And Abbas, Zeynab (A), the children and companions of Hussein (A) took it upon themselves. Therefore, Allah had created them in advance precisely for this event, as people possessing all the necessary and exclusive qualities specifically for Ashura.
And this is the secret of the kunyah of Imam Hussein (A) – “Abu Abdillah,” that is, “the father of the servant of Allah.” Hussein (A) is the father of Ubudiyya, submission to Allah because his own submission has become the highest. He has raised the banner of submission to the Creator over all the worlds. Therefore, Allah addresses him in the Quran, “O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing, and enter among My servants, and enter My Paradise” (89: 27-30).
Now, if we look at what the story of Adam really was… At first, Adam and his descendants were at the level of the World Soul in the world of Zarr, about which the Almighty says, “Your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify of themselves: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, we have testified. [This] – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: Indeed, we were of this unaware” (7: 172).
Then we go down to the level of Barzakh, that is, alamu l-misal, “the world of images,” where there was a story with the Tree. Almighty says about this, “And We said: O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise” (2: 35), that is, in the Paradise of Barzakh.
Then Adam reaches this world of ours, which is the last stage of the arc of descent, that is, the bottom. After that, the ascent will begin again, the limit of which will be the eternal Paradise. “And was in two bows or even nearer” – in these two arcs of descent and ascent.
The world of Zarr and the Day of Judgment are two sides of the scale of existence, which balance each other: “As was your beginning – so you will return” (7: 29). For the world of Zarr is the Day of taklif, and the world of Qiyama is the Day of reward for the performance of the taklif. And the verse says about that, “The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years” (70: 4).
Now we see a system of worlds, the spirit of which is the taklif. The first was the world of Zarr, that is, the acceptance of the taklif, in accordance with which – that is, with the degree of this acceptance – the creatures were created as they are. Then comes the world of Dunya, i.e., the world of performance of the taklif, the world of trials and deeds. You can compare this world with scrolling a disc on which information is recorded. That is, each of us in the world of Zarr was given a program, as it were, given a disk on which is recorded what we will be. But our task in this world is not to damage this disc, to convey it safe and sound.
Then comes the world of Rajaat. This is a counterbalance to the world of Zarr in the earthly world (a reward for fulfilling or not fulfilling taklif in it). Then comes the world of the Day of Judgment, which will also last 50 thousand years, and this is a counterbalance to the world of Zarr in the next world.
Thus, we can visually imagine the entire set of worlds in the form of an arc that starts from the highest point (this is the world of Zarr), then goes down, reaching the lowest point, that is, the world of Dunya, and then begins to rise again, reaching the same level of the highest point, just on the other side, and this is the world of the Day of Judgment. And the spirit of all these worlds is the taklif before Allah. Then the world of the Day of Judgment will be over, and the world of Heaven and Hell will begin, that is, the world of Akhirat.
There is nothing stable and constant in being except Allah, and everything else changes and moves. So we moved from top to bottom, marking our position with our deeds, and after a death, we will begin to move from bottom to top.
And so, on the plane of this Dunya, traditional man after Adam felt very uncomfortable, he did not forget his previous state – and tried to restore it on his own. Means, the gardens of Barzakh, where Adam was. They tried to return there by separating their Barzakh body from the mixture with the material body through a specific technique, which we call “contemplative.”
As we have already said, we have three bodies: the body of Dunya, the body of Barzakh, and the body of Akhira. They are “inside” each other. The ratio of the body of Barzakh and the body of Akhira to the earthly body is like the ratio of the reflection in the mirror to the mirror itself. The reflection is much more subtle than the mirror. And if you remove or break the mirror, there will be no reflection in it. And in the same way: if the earthly body dies, those two bodies will leave it.
In an ordinary person, the body of Barzakh is “stuck together” with the body of the earthly world, just as gold sticks together with coarse impurities so that you can separate it only by fire. Whereas the Barzakh body of the Infallible Imam or the Prophets is completely separated from the earthly body. Their earthly body is like a layer of dust on a gold bar. You can blow that dust away with one breath.
So, the essence of contemplative manipulations is to separate the subtle body from the rough one. “Descent into Hell” and “work in black” serve this purpose. After that, the ascent should presumably begin, i.e., return to the original Adamic state and approach to the forbidden Tree.
For example, while studying alchemical drawings, we see that the stages of alchemical work are often depicted in the form of a growing tree. One of the drawings shows hands plucking fruits from this tree (at the upper highest stage). We see a red king sitting right on top of the tree in another picture. That is, it depicts exactly what was forbidden to Adam. The king in the crown is at the top of the tree. It symbolizes the Wali of the universe, to the position of which the magician wants to reach…
The difference between modern man and the traditional one is that modern man has forgotten his origin. He does not even feel uncomfortable because he thinks that there is nothing else but earthly life. It is as if a person was buried somewhere, in some kind of grave, and at first, he would be worried about this and try to break out, with the help of one or another manipulation, to return to his previous state. But some time has passed, and now he has got used to it and doesn’t even want to get out anymore. He began to believe that the state of “outside,” with its beautiful blue sky and singing birds, is some kind of stupidity and superstition. This is the state of humanity today.
But the moment will come when Mahdi comes and leads humanity back to that original state – the Gardens of Eden. It will actually be a transfer of our world to another regime – to the regime of Jannat, where Adam was. That is, the restoration of the state that all these mystics longed for, but could not achieve, because they’re not the ones to do it. One of the names of the last Imam is Qaim. The word “Qaim” means “the one who raises.” That is, the one who “raises” or “lifts” the world to another state along the ontological axis. Here, on this earth, things from other worlds will begin to manifest. It will be the same earth, but its regime will change. And in the hadiths, it is said that people will see angels, jinn and talk to them…
Therefore, we do not deny, for example, that such things as alchemy are possible, and there are hadiths about alchemy in our sources. But it is essential to understand the following: if a person is engaged in these practices, they return him to his base (asl). If a person seeks the opposite of the truth, they return him to the opposite of the truth. For the Almighty explained the truth to all creatures, gave them clear arguments, and showed them His signs “in the universe and themselves.” But if they had chosen the lies, He gave them the power to commit it. And so is His word, “We will turn away their hearts and their eyes just as they refused to believe in it the first time” (6: 110) – that is, they refused it in the world of Zarr. “And even if We had sent down to them the angels and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together every thing in front of them, they would not believe unless Allah so willed” (6: 111). And the addition “unless Allah so willed” means “unless Allah forced them to believe” by taking away their freedom and ability to commit disobedience and sins. He can do it, but He does not because, in that case, they would be forced to do good, which would mean that they are not actually doing it. Therefore, Allah has made all creatures capable of disobedience, creating for them the means of performing obedience, with which they can also commit disobedience.
Therefore, when a magician begins to engage in contemplative practices, such as alchemy or some mantras or zikrs, what was hidden in his soul is revealed to him, so he returns to his basis, which he had chosen in the world of Zarr. The hadith says, “Whoever devotes himself entirely to the worship of Allah for forty days – the sources of wisdom will begin to stream from his heart to his tongue. If he was a believer, it will become a light for him, and if he was an unbeliever, it will become an argument over him.”
And so, when these pagans are engaged in their contemplative practices, streams of wisdom flow from their hearts into their tongues, and they begin to speak in the language of their answer to the Almighty in the world of Zarr. So they speak in the words of Iblis, confirming them with strong arguments. And millions and millions of people come to them without drinking the pure water of the wisdom of the Wilaya, Muhammad (S) and the Household of Muhammad (S), and believe what they say, and take the mirage of their words for water, through which they will quench their thirst – “And if they had remained straight on the way, We would have given them to drink of water in abundance” (72: 16).
This is similar to the soul created following the intellect, as the form in which the light of the intellect is clothed. But as the soul deviates from the original fitra, it deviates from following the intellect and tends to jahl (ignorance), becoming black. And along with this retreat, the intellect itself turns into jahl. The intellect does it not in its essence but in its reflection – just as the light of the Sun becomes darkness while reflecting from a black mirror.
So, contemplators strive for the lost Paradise. All people, together with Adam, ate from this Tree and put on the leaves of the external material body. Now they strive to throw off this body and find the Paradise of the Barzakh. It was not that Adam from somewhere above came down to the earth, as they usually think. The Almighty rolled up these paradise gardens and dimensions of Barzakh for him and his descendants. As a kind of additional dimension, rolled into a point.
Now, the pagan contemplators are trying to unfold it. This is possible by removing the earthly body and separating the Barzakh body. Their mistake is that they see themselves as the means for everything and therefore claim to this Tree, which fruits and leaves are everything. Whereas Ahl ul-Beit – the highest signs of Allah – are mediators in all matters and Divine mercy, and only through joining them is it possible to gain any faiz and mercy of the Almighty.
Contemplative efforts are the desire to overcome the material world so that man again finds himself in that light world where water, air, and fire are close, and the things are in their true, normal aspect. But they try to do it through some of their own magical efforts, not through following the star of direct guidance and a sign of the proper path. That is, they magically try to remove from themselves those leaves with which Adam and Eve covered themselves.
And if we look at the state of affairs, we will see that we are all now not “on the ground,” but under the ground, because in our world, where we are now, the earth element dominates, that is, the most inert, heavy and coarse element. Therefore, with everything that we call the “universe,” we are “underground” in the literal sense. So, the arrival of the Imam of the time and the beginning of the Rajaat will be an exit to the surface. As a sprout comes to the surface, sees air and water, and then gradually blooms into a beautiful rose or lotus.
They ask when the Imam comes, will he develop modern science and technology, or not? Will there be computers and spaceships? And how will he fight if there are now war planes and atomic bombs, and he comes with a sword? All these questions are a little naive because the Imam will come with a complete change in the world with the transformation of its fundamental laws. It is clear that all these atomic bombs and other sorts of nonsense – all this will simply stop functioning. That is, compared to the transformation of the very laws of our universe, all these modern weapons and these so-called achievements of modern science and technology are just children’s toys. It’s like asking about a rose sprout when it breaks through the ground and comes to the surface: what will become of those microbes that parasitized on it underground? They will simply cease to exist from the wind’s action and the Sun’s rays.
I understand that it is difficult to put this in words because we do not have exact concepts to describe what will happen. But the more spiritual experience a person has, the better he will understand this. This can be compared to what happens at the mourning rituals for Imam Hussein (A) when you see that the gates of Paradise are opening. You understand that everything has changed: the color, the smell, the world has passed into another dimension together with you. These walls, this floor, these people remained the same but nevertheless became different, as if the ceiling of this Husseinia had become paradise tents or the foundation of the Throne. For a second, you can experience it…
Let me put it this way.Imagine that you had descended from the sky into the lower layers of the atmosphere, then into the waters of the ocean, and then underground. And after this, you began to rise again: first you came out of the ground and entered the waters of the ocean, then ascended into the lower layers of the atmosphere, and then into the sky. So likewise, our world is gradually ascending the ontological ladder, and its structure is becoming more and more subtle.
The world moved downward, as the Almighty said to the Universal Intellect (Aql), “Move away” – and it did so, as given in “Kafi.” And now it is in the process of ascent, as He said, “Come closer” – and it did so. That is, we are returning with the world to our original position. And so gradually we will again return to the world of misal, and this will be in Rajaat, and then – to the world of Soul (where Zarr was), and this will be at the Day of Judgment.
Today the whole world is moving towards refinement and the waters of the Barzakh, and the Imam of time is going before him. And when the world comes to the beginning of these waters, the reappearance of the Imam will take place. In fact, we are not waiting for him to come out of occultation, but he is waiting for us to come out of occultation. If you look from the time of those worlds, then his flag stands on the shore of the transition from land to sea, and when humankind approaches this place, this will mean the Imam’s reappearance.
The first volume of Amin Ramin’s “Man in Islam” can be purchased on Amazon at this link.
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