--- title: "Wilayah in an Individual and in Society" event: "The Lantern of the Path" session_number: 17 published_at: "2025-03-19" canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/wilayah-in-an-individual-and-in-society" event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path" type: "event-session" scripture_reference: "Sahifa Sajjadiyyah, Prayer 54: His Supplication for the Removal of Worries, Verse 5" --- # Wilayah in an Individual and in Society *Session 17 of [The Lantern of the Path](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path) — 19 March 2025* Wilayah, Part 3 Weeping at a majlis for Imam Husayn, on its own, is not wilayah — the session says so in as many words. This is the session's central correction. It is not opposed to grief for Imam Husayn, peace be upon him — it says plainly that such grief has, at times, been enough to redirect a nation. Its target is the belief that grief is sufficient by itself: that loving the Prophet's household in one's heart, and saying "peace be upon him" at the mention of their names, discharges the whole of what wilayah — the binding allegiance owed to God's rightful guardian — actually demands. The definition offered instead is exacting and personal: his fight is your fight, his friend your friend, his enemy your enemy. Anyone who can say that of themselves, honestly, has wilayah. Most people, the session suggests, cannot. The proof offered that tears can become something more is the Tawwabun, the Penitents, who gathered at Imam Husayn's grave in Karbala and wept for two or three days — then made a pact never to return home alive, and went to the battlefield to keep it. That, the session argues, is what grief looks like when it is not the end point but the beginning of one. The session closes by asking whether an individual's wilayah can be genuine at all if he feels no responsibility toward a wider society that lacks it. Can a person truly have wilayah while feeling no duty to anyone who lacks it? What the evening covers The correction. Why grief for Imam Husayn, however sincere, is not itself the fulfilment of wilayah. The four-part test. His fight, his friend, his enemy, his side — the personal definition of what it means to have wilayah. The Tawwabun. How days of weeping at a graveside became a pledge never to return home alive. The unanswered question. Whether wilayah held privately, without any sense of duty to a society that lacks it, can be called wilayah at all. This session fell on the martyrdom anniversary of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali, peace be upon him, and the evening's programme included a eulogy in his memory. ## Scripture > اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِ مُحَمَّدٍ، وَاقْبِضْ عَلَى الصِّدْقِ نَفْسِي، وَاقْطَعْ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا حَاجَتِي، وَاجْعَلْ فِيمَا عِنْدَكَ رَغْبَتِي شَوْقاً إِلَى لِقَائِكَ، وَهَبْ لِي صِدْقَ التَّوَكُّلِ عَلَيْكَ > > O God, bless Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad, take my soul while it is firm in sincerity, cut off my need for this world, make my desire for what is with You become a yearning to meet You, and give me true confidence in You! — *Sahifa Sajjadiyyah, Prayer 54: His Supplication for the Removal of Worries, Verse 5* ## Programme - [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/AokpBteU348) - [Sermon: Wilayah in an Individual and in Society](https://youtu.be/AokpBteU348) - [Maqtal: The Martyrdom of Imam Ali — written](https://www.themartyr.net/p/the-martyrdom-of-imam-ali?utm_source=publication-search) - Nohe: Ya Ali, Ya al-Mortada - [Supplication: Dua al-Ifitah (English)](https://youtu.be/SfT5Zwug1VA?si=ookQH70PkY9h6wop) - [Supplication: Munajat (Whispered Prayer) of Imam Ali](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS7U_gI4Ak0) - [Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin](https://youtu.be/uSJNHMq3oYs?si=q7Sshrb6uRwXksSe) ## Other sessions in this event - [Session 69 — The Architecture of Guidance - Part 9 - The House Beside the Grave - Part 1 - Shaykh al-Ta'ifa](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-architecture-of-guidance-part-9-the-house-beside-the-grave-part-1-shaykh-al-) — 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 3 — Keeping God's Limits](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/keeping-gods-limits) — 10 December 2025 - [Session 30 — Imam Baqir: The Splitter of Knowledge](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-baqir-the-splitter-of-knowledge) — 18 June 2025 - [Session 29 — Imam Sajjad: The Whispered Revolution](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-sajjad-the-whispered-revolution) — 11 June 2025 - [Session 28 — Sayyedah Zaynab, Imam Sajjad and the Messengers of Karbala](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/sayyedah-zaynab-imam-sajjad-and-the-messengers-of-karbala) — 4 June 2025 - [Session 27 — Imam Husayn ibn Ali, The Master of the Martyrs](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-husayn-ibn-ali-the-master-of-the-martyrs) — 28 May 2025 - [Session 25 — The Lady of Light and the Mother of the Imams, Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lady-of-light-and-the-mother-of-the-imams-sayyedah-fatimah-al-zahra) — 14 May 2025 - [Session 24 — The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-commander-of-the-faithful-imam-ali) — 7 May 2025 - [Session 23 — Prophet Muhammad](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/prophet-muhammad) — 30 April 2025 - [Session 22 — Introduction to Imamah, Part 2](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/introduction-to-imamah-part-2) — 23 April 2025 - [Session 21 — Introduction to Imamah, Part 1](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/introduction-to-imamah-part-1) — 16 April 2025 --- _Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/wilayah-in-an-individual-and-in-society_