- Author:
- Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
- Pages:
- 140
- Price:
- Free
- Publication date:
- 2012
- Book file:
About the book:
Would you like to know who the one coming from the other world is?
I will tell you the answer, but before that, I want you to stir your mind and your senses with me about the reality around you, with a quick look.
Have you noticed things in your life that you did not like?
In yourself… in your family… in your friends… in your society… in your Umma?
You have certainly found that the religion people embrace calls for one thing, while people's behavior veers off to another side away from it: you see manifestations of corruption in some, manifestations of slackness in others, manifestations of failure in others still, and manifestations of disintegration and dispute in other places.
Why go far? Let us come to ourselves, look a little more closely and ask:
Are you satisfied with your behavior?
Why do I still keep some bad habits? Why am I overcome by a feeling of distress at many times? Why do my acts of worship not affect my life? Why is my supplication not answered? And why, whenever I try to turn back from mistakes, do I return to them again?
Although you have advanced in age and armed yourself with knowledge, you are still searching for peace of mind, you lack blessing in your livelihood, and you lack success in life… In a word, you admit that we are not as we ought to be.
Do not lose hope… for the door of hope is open. Before we speak about this matter, I will tell you the answer to the first question, and then we will continue:
Who is the one coming from the other world?
It is you… yes, you. You will be so if you enter through the door of hope that will change the reality of your personality to a better reality. For in the face of the scenes we have spoken about, we need to open up to another world other than our world, which has been filled with negatives and evils, so as to correct our course, and then come to this world anew, in a new garment.
I do not doubt that you have heard of people, or met people, whose behavior and way of life amazed you: people in whose faces you saw light, in whose souls tranquility, in whose hearts mercy, in whose deeds blessing, and in whose movements success!
You may have felt about them that they had come from another world, or that perhaps they were not born of a father and mother like us, or that they did not go through the difficulties we go through in our lives… whereas they are human beings like us, and they may have gone through circumstances harsher than those we have gone through…
The difference is that those people came from another world to be rays and lights in this life; that is why they lived the life they wanted, not the life that circumstances wanted for them, so they overcame all difficulties, surmounted all obstacles and compelled life's circumstances to go along with them.
To live as a person who belongs to the other world does not mean that you will be immune from every slip; rather, it means that you try to be so, and it means that you know how to deal with your slips and mistakes. This life has degrees, and a person's degree in it is determined by the extent to which he has striven to draw inspiration from the other world.
The other world is the holy, divine world; it is the world of the spirit, which is of the command of Allah the Exalted. It is, here, the world of (supplication), which is the passage of the spirit from this world to another world, to draw from it the strength with which to face life. Is not “supplication the weapon of the believer”?[1] as the Messenger (s) said; and “supplication, also, is the keys of success and the keys of felicity”[2], as Imam ʿAli (a) said; and “in it is a cure for every disease”[3], as Imam al-Sadiq (a) said.
So we ought to change our view of supplication: it is not mere babbling of the tongue that we utter; rather, it is a journey of the spirit's ascent to the divine world, so that we may take strength from it, bring down mercy from it, bring in good from it, and seek the blessings of Allah and the success He grants, in order to change our lives for the better.
In addition to all that, the texts of supplication are lights of knowledge that issued from the mouths of our pure masters, the Prophet Muhammad (s) and his Household (a), who are the mine of knowledge and the house of revelation, the princes of speech and the treasury of insights. Therefore, reflecting on the texts of supplication can give us, in addition to attentiveness and humility, several things:
- Depth of knowledge and the discovery of truths.
- The map of the good life and its fixed laws.
- Sound methods of thinking.
- Correct plans of management.
- The paths of glory and the ways of success.
- Noble traits of character and excellent qualities of the self.
- Divine guidance and hidden successes.
And more than that…
If you want to be the one coming from the other world, let us proceed through this book on a journey of light with the short daily supplications of the month of Ramadan, which have been reported from our Most Noble Prophet (s), so that we may live their insights and put on their divine garments, and then come to this world of ours anew.
Introducing the Supplication
We deal with thirty supplications distributed and arranged over the days of the blessed month of Ramadan. All the supplications have been narrated in a single narration, from Ibn ʿAbbas from the Prophet (s), and a great merit has been mentioned for them. Scholars have mentioned them in the most famous books of supplications, such as Taqi al-Din Ibrahim ibn ʿAli al-ʿAmili al-Kafʿami in his book (al-Balad al-Amin), and he mentioned it in his other book (al-Misbah: Junnat al-Aman al-Waqiya wa Jannat al-Iman al-Baqiya); Sayed Ibn Tawus mentioned the text of the supplications in his book (Iqbal al-Aʿmal), and likewise al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi transmitted it in (Bihar al-Anwar); in addition to the later scholars, such as al-Muhaqqiq Shaykh ʿAbbas al-Qummi in the book (Mafatih al-Jinan), and the religious authority (marjaʿ) Sayed Muhammad al-Shirazi in his book (al-Duʿaʾ wa al-Ziyara)[4].
Introducing the Method
- Viewing each supplication as a thematic unit, proceeding along its passages on the chosen thematic basis; this does not mean confinement to the context we followed in the study.
- Adopting the closing parts of the supplication as the thematic starting point of the topic, considering them as means of entreaty or as sought goals.
- Explaining the vocabulary of the supplication within the main text and in the course of presenting the ideas, in order to preserve the thematic form.
- Supporting the idea of the supplication with verses and narrations, and clarifying the thematic horizons from them.
- Confining ourselves to benefiting from the texts of the supplications and contenting ourselves with mentioning them without mentioning their reward, so that the topic of the supplications does not branch out.
- Adopting an educational presentation and style to benefit from the insights of the supplication.
In closing, we ask Allah, the Most High, the All-powerful, to accept this work and to benefit people by it; indeed He is the Grantor of success and the One whose help is sought, by the right of Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad, the good and pure.
Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
Bahrain / Bani Jamra
10 Rajab al-Asabb 1433 AH
[4]/ We have a treatise on the reliability of these supplications, which are narrated in mursal form, drawn from the opinions of the eminent scholars; we decided not to include it in the book so as not to distract from the book's aim.
