Past eventOther · The Art of Supplication · Session 19

The Prison, The Portal, and The Presence

Saturday, 18 October 2025

For seven years, Imam Musa al-Kadhim, peace be upon him, was chained in a Baghdad dungeon — while thousands of his own followers walked past that very prison, on foot, to weep at a shrine instead. Imam al-Kadhim earned his title, "the one who restrains his anger", not through passivity but through a struggle of the soul, embodying the Qur'anic praise of those who "restrain anger and pardon the people." His ziyarah speaks not of battles but of "the companion of the long prostration" and "the abundant tears." A dungeon, inhabited by a friend of God, became a mihrab, a prayer niche. From that era comes the A'maal of Umm Dawood, the supplication Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, taught his wet nurse to secure her imprisoned son's release, and the Imam's own dua from his cell: "O Deliverer of the plant from between the sand, clay, and water… deliver me." From Kadhimiyyah the evening travels to Samarra, where Imam Ali al-Hadi and Imam Hasan al-Askari lived under siege — the threshold where the Occultation began, and where intidhar, waiting, was established as an active, not passive, discipline. It closes among the dispersed shrines of the Imamzadehs, lamps of an unbroken chain scattered across the globe. Are our rituals of mourning fuel for our allegiance to the living Imam, or a substitute for it? What the evening covers The imprisoned light. How the dungeon became a sanctuary, and a mirror held up to the Imam's own community. Supplications for the unjustly imprisoned. The A'maal of Umm Dawood, the Imam's own prison dua, and a dua for constricted affairs. Samarra, the portal. The house arrest of the tenth and eleventh Imams, and the beginning of the Occultation. Constructive waiting. The difference between a waiting that sits silent and one that prepares for the Reappearance. The dispersed lamps. How the Imamzadeh shrines carry wilayah to every corner of the earth.

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Sermon: The Prison, The Portal, and The Presence

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أَيْنَ الْخِيَرَةُ بَعْدَ الْخِيَرَةِ أَيْنَ الشُّمُوسُ الطَّالِعَةُ أَيْنَ الْأَقْمَارُ الْمُنِيرَةُ أَيْنَ الْأَنْجُمُ الزَّاهِرَةُ أَيْنَ أَعْلامُ الدِّينِ وَ قَوَاعِدُ الْعِلْمِ أَيْنَ بَقِيَّةُ اللَّهِ الَّتِي لا تَخْلُو مِنَ الْعِتْرَةِ الْهَادِيَةِ أَيْنَ الْمُعَدُّ لِقَطْعِ دَابِرِ الظَّلَمَةِ أَيْنَ الْمُنْتَظَرُ لِإِقَامَةِ الْأَمْتِ وَ الْعِوَجِ أَيْنَ الْمُرْتَجَى لِإِزَالَةِ الْجَوْرِ وَ الْعُدْوَانِ أَيْنَ الْمُدَّخَرُ لِتَجْدِيدِ الْفَرَائِضِ وَ السُّنَنِ أَيْنَ الْمُتَخَيَّرُ [الْمُتَّخَذُ] لِإِعَادَةِ الْمِلَّةِ وَ الشَّرِيعَةِ أَيْنَ الْمُؤَمَّلُ لِإِحْيَاءِ الْكِتَابِ وَ حُدُودِهِ أَيْنَ مُحْيِي مَعَالِمِ الدِّينِ وَ أَهْلِهِ أَيْنَ قَاصِمُ شَوْكَةِ الْمُعْتَدِينَ أَيْنَ هَادِمُ أَبْنِيَةِ الشِّرْكِ وَ النِّفَاقِ أَيْنَ مُبِيدُ أَهْلِ الْفُسُوقِ وَ الْعِصْيَانِ وَ الطُّغْيَانِ أَيْنَ حَاصِدُ فُرُوعِ الْغَيِّ وَ الشِّقَاقِ [النِّفَاقِ ] ،

Where is the best of the chosen after the best of the chosen? Where are the radiant suns? Where are the luminous moons? Where are the shining stars? Where are the banners of religion and the pillars of knowledge? Where is that Remnant of Allah, from whose progeny the line of guides is never severed? Where is the one prepared to uproot the oppressors? Where is the one awaited to straighten every deviation and crookedness? Where is the one hoped for to remove injustice and enmity? Where is the one stored away for the renewal of obligations and traditions? Where is the one chosen to restore religion and sacred law? Where is the one longed for to revive the Quran and its ordinances? Where is the reviver of the signs of religion and its people? Where is the one who shall shatter the might of the transgressors? Where is the demolisher of the edifices of polytheism and hypocrisy? Where is the annihilator of the people of wickedness, disobedience, and tyranny? Where is the one who shall reap the branches of misguidance and discord?

Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Dua Nudba, Line 10