Past eventOther · The Lantern of the Path · Session 12

Prophethood and Its Relevance Today

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

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Prophethood, Part 7 Some of God's prophets were beheaded. None died with any real wealth — and this session argues that of everyone who has ever pursued anything in this world, none succeeded more completely than they did. The opening half of a two-part session on the outcomes of prophethood, this evening poses two questions: did the prophets, as a single chain from Adam to Muhammad, achieve what they set out to achieve — and did each one, individually, succeed or fail in his own lifetime? Its answer rests on an image of teaching: a school where every teacher is killed by their own students at year's end, yet each new class is further along than the last. Has any one of those teachers actually failed? The evening also turns to how power convinces people that resistance is pointless — citing a powerful ruler who spread a rumour that he owned an "enchanted mirror", able to see every move made against him, a trick traced, in legend, two thousand years earlier, to a Persian king's "enchanted cup". If a prophet is killed before he ever sees the outcome, has he actually failed? What the evening covers Two separate questions. Whether the prophets succeeded as a whole, and whether each one succeeded in his own time — treated as genuinely distinct. The teacher who dies mid-lesson. An image for judging a life's work by whether the next generation advances, not whether its author lives to see it. The enchanted mirror. A fabricated claim of total surveillance, used to frighten a resistance movement into giving up — and how old the trick actually is. A promise repeated across scripture. The verses cited as God's standing guarantee that His messengers are always, ultimately, the ones helped. This session fell in the days marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution — the evening's second historical example of the pattern it traces.

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وَ تَكْفِيَنِي هَمَّ مَنْ أَخَافُ هَمَّهُ وَ عُسْرَ مَنْ أَخَافُ عُسْرَهُ وَ حُزُونَةَ مَنْ أَخَافُ حُزُونَتَهُ وَ شَرَّ مَنْ [مَا] أَخَافُ شَرَّهُ وَ مَكْرَ مَنْ أَخَافُ مَكْرَهُ وَ بَغْيَ مَنْ أَخَافُ بَغْيَهُ وَ جَوْرَ مَنْ أَخَافُ جَوْرَهُ وَ سُلْطَانَ مَنْ أَخَافُ سُلْطَانَهُ وَ كَيْدَ مَنْ أَخَافُ كَيْدَهُ وَ مَقْدُرَةَ مَنْ أَخَافُ [بَلاءَ] مَقْدُرَتَهُ عَلَيَّ وَ تَرُدَّ عَنِّي كَيْدَ الْكَيَدَةِ وَ مَكْرَ الْمَكَرَةِ اللَّهُمَّ مَنْ أَرَادَنِي فَأَرِدْهُ وَ مَنْ كَادَنِي فَكِدْهُ وَ اصْرِفْ عَنِّي كَيْدَهُ وَ مَكْرَهُ وَ بَأْسَهُ وَ أَمَانِيَّهُ وَ امْنَعْهُ عَنِّي كَيْفَ شِئْتَ وَ أَنَّى شِئْتَ اللَّهُمَّ اشْغَلْهُ عَنِّي بِفَقْرٍ لا تَجْبُرُهُ وَ بِبَلاءٍ لا تَسْتُرُهُ وَ بِفَاقَةٍ لا تَسُدُّهَا وَ بِسُقْمٍ لا تُعَافِيهِ وَ ذُلٍّ لا تُعِزُّهُ وَ بِمَسْكَنَةٍ لا تَجْبُرُهَا اللَّهُمَّ اضْرِبْ بِالذُّلِّ نَصْبَ عَيْنَيْهِ وَ أَدْخِلْ عَلَيْهِ الْفَقْرَ فِي مَنْزِلِهِ،

And suffice me against the sorrow of the one whose sorrow I fear, and the hardship of the one whose hardship I dread, and the harshness of the one whose harshness I fear, and the evil of the one whose evil I fear, and the deception of the one whose deception I dread, and the aggression of the one whose aggression I fear, and the injustice of the one whose injustice I fear, and the domination of the one whose domination I dread, and the scheming of the one whose scheming I fear, and the power of the one whose power I fear for myself, and I ask You to grant me security from the malice of the malicious and the cunning of the deceitful. O Allah, whoever intends against me, intend against him, and whoever plots evil against me, plot against him, and turn away from me his trickery and deceit and strength and desire, and keep him away from me however You will and wherever You will. O Allah, occupy him away from me with poverty that You will not mend, and with an affliction that You will not cover, and with a need that You will not fulfill, and with an illness for which You will not grant recovery, and with humiliation from which You will not grant honor, and with destitution that You will not compensate. O Allah, strike humiliation before his two eyes, and bring poverty upon him in his dwelling,

Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Dua of Safwan Known as Dua Alqamah, Line 3