--- title: "Two Sons, One Mother, One Teacher" event: "The Lantern of the Path" session_number: 65 published_at: "2026-04-22" canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/two-sons-one-mother-one-teacher" event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path" type: "event-session" scripture_reference: "Mafatih al-Jinan, Supplications (Duas), Dua Sabah, Line 4" --- # Two Sons, One Mother, One Teacher *Session 65 of [The Lantern of the Path](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path) — 22 April 2026* Mahdawiyyah, Part 21 · The Architecture of Guidance, Part 5 · The Brothers of Baghdad, Part 1 of 4 A woman came to a scholar in his sleep and told him to teach her sons. He woke, walked to the mosque, and found them waiting. Shaykh al-Mufid dreamed of Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra, peace be upon her, holding the hands of two boys and saying: take these two, my sons, and teach them jurisprudence. In the morning he walked to the mosque of al-Karkh and found a mother waiting there with her two young sons, and wept. Those boys, born four years apart, entered one of the most exposed households in fourth-century Baghdad. Their father held the office of Naqib al-Talibiyin — the state-registered guardian of every descendant of the Prophet's family in the capital, trusted enough to mediate between caliph and Buyid prince — seven separate times across his life. Their mother was granddaughter to al-Hasan al-Atrush, an Alid scholar and poet who had died decades earlier founding an independent state on the Caspian coast. Their father named them from a single Arabic root meaning divine pleasure: al-Radi, "the one who is pleased", and al-Murtada, "the one chosen" — a prayer, spoken at their naming, for what these two boys, carrying the heaviest lineage in Islam, would become. What does a household have to become, to raise men like this? What the evening covers The father. Naqib al-Talibiyin seven times over — the office that made him mediator between the caliph and the princes who really ruled. The mother's line. Granddaughter of an Alid warrior-scholar who died founding a state on the Caspian coast. The names. Al-Murtada and al-Radi — one root, two meanings, a father's prayer for his sons. The dream. Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra's words to Shaykh al-Mufid, and the morning that followed them. ## Scripture > إِلَهِي إِنْ لَمْ تَبْتَدِئْنِي الرَّحْمَةُ مِنْكَ بِحُسْنِ التَّوْفِيقِ فَمَنِ السَّالِكُ بِي إِلَيْكَ فِي وَاضِحِ الطَّرِيقِ وَ إِنْ أَسْلَمَتْنِي أَنَاتُكَ لِقَائِدِ الْأَمَلِ وَ الْمُنَى فَمَنِ الْمُقِيلُ عَثَرَاتِي مِنْ كَبَوَاتِ الْهَوَى وَ إِنْ خَذَلَنِي نَصْرُكَ عِنْدَ مُحَارَبَةِ النَّفْسِ وَ الشَّيْطَانِ فَقَدْ وَكَلَنِي خِذْلانُكَ إِلَى حَيْثُ النَّصَبُ وَ الْحِرْمَانُ. > > O Allah, had Your mercy not encompassed me from the very beginning with gracious success, who then would have guided me to You upon this illuminated path? And if Your respite surrenders me to vain hopes and false desires, then who would compensate for my slips from falling into the whims of the ego? And if Your aid abandons me at the time of battle against the self and Satan, then this withholding of Your assistance would cast me into the embrace of suffering and deprivation. — *Mafatih al-Jinan, Supplications (Duas), Dua Sabah, Line 4* ## Programme - [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/yAPZpfS-XKs) - [Sermon: Two Sons, One Mother, One Teacher](https://youtu.be/yAPZpfS-XKs) - [Nohe: The Princess of Qom — written](https://www.shiasounds.com/p/the-princess-of-qom) - [Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin](https://youtu.be/uSJNHMq3oYs?si=PKBRrMLLZOtXX_Hq) ## Other sessions in this event - [Session 69 — Shaykh al-Ta'ifa](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/shaykh-al-taifa) — 12 August 2026 - [Session 26 — Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba: A Life of Strategic Sacrifice](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-hasan-al-mujtaba-a-life-of-strategic-sacrifice) — 20 May 2026 - [Session 68 — The World That Surrounded Them](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-world-that-surrounded-them) — 13 May 2026 - [Session 67 — Sayyed al-Murtada and the Twenty-Three Years](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/sayyed-al-murtada-and-the-twenty-three-years) — 6 May 2026 - [Session 66 — The Pen and the Sword of the Intellect](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-pen-and-the-sword-of-the-intellect) — 29 April 2026 - [Session 64 — The Beneficial One: Shaykh al-Mufid](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-beneficial-one-shaykh-al-mufid) — 15 April 2026 - [Session 63 — When the Light Was Hidden: The Preservers](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/when-the-light-was-hidden-the-preservers) — 8 April 2026 - [Session 62 — The University of al-Sadiq: Four Thousand Students and a Living Imam](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-university-of-al-sadiq-four-thousand-students-and-a-living-imam) — 1 April 2026 - [Session 61 — Building Before the Builder Returns](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/building-before-the-builder-returns) — 25 March 2026 - [Session 60 — The Antidote Applied](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-antidote-applied) — 18 March 2026 - [Session 59 — The Poison Identified](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-poison-identified) — 11 March 2026 - [Session 58 — The Contemporary Codification](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-contemporary-codification) — 25 February 2026 --- _Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/two-sons-one-mother-one-teacher_