Opens 15 minutes before the session begins.
Wilayah, Part 5 Idolatry does not always look like a statue. The Qur'an has a word for every authority that competes with God's: taghut. The session insists the word never names one fixed thing — it can be your own self, your wealth, or "the person who takes you by the hand, closes your eyes, and takes you wherever he pleases". Whoever is not under the wilayah of God is, by definition, under this authority, whether or not they recognise it. To show what submission to taghut costs a people, the session turns to Kufa. Founded around 17 AH as a garrison town, Kufa became the capital of Imam Ali, peace be upon him, in 36 AH, and its people fought at his side at the Battle of the Camel and at Siffin. The same city later wrote to Imam Husayn, pleading for his leadership — and then largely failed to reach him at Karbala. It was also this city that produced the Tawwabun, the penitents who took up arms to atone for that failure. How does the same population produce both the fiercest resistance and the deepest betrayal, within a single generation? What the evening covers The anatomy of taghut. Why the Qur'an uses "Satan" and "taghut" interchangeably, and why the word can attach itself to almost anything — including your own ambition. Kufa's two faces. One city's swing between valour and paralysis, under the same Imam and the same surrounding threats. The machinery of pressure. How a ruling power that could not bend a resistant population instead starved it, propagandised it and placed it under siege. The verse that explains the pattern. A close reading of Surah al-Nisa's warning that God abandons a people to the authority they themselves chose.
In this session
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا وَلِيَّ اللَّهِ أَنْتَ أَوَّلُ مَظْلُومٍ وَ أَوَّلُ مَنْ غُصِبَ حَقُّهُ صَبَرْتَ وَ احْتَسَبْتَ حَتَّى أَتَاكَ الْيَقِينُ فَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ لَقِيتَ اللَّهَ وَ أَنْتَ شَهِيدٌ عَذَّبَ اللَّهُ قَاتِلَكَ بِأَنْوَاعِ الْعَذَابِ وَ جَدَّدَ عَلَيْهِ الْعَذَابَ جِئْتُكَ عَارِفاً بِحَقِّكَ مُسْتَبْصِراً بِشَأْنِكَ مُعَادِياً لِأَعْدَائِكَ وَ مَنْ ظَلَمَكَ أَلْقَى عَلَى ذَلِكَ رَبِّي إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ يَا وَلِيَّ اللَّهِ إِنَّ لِي ذُنُوباً كَثِيرَةً فَاشْفَعْ لِي إِلَى رَبِّكَ فَإِنَّ لَكَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَقَاماً مَعْلُوماً وَ إِنَّ لَكَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ جَاهاً وَ شَفَاعَةً وَ قَدْ قَالَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى وَ لا يَشْفَعُونَ إِلا لِمَنِ ارْتَضَى)
Peace be upon you, O Guardian (Wali) of Allah. You were the first to be wronged, and the first whose right was usurped. You bore it with patience and entrusted your account to Allah until death came to you. I bear witness that you met Allah as a martyr. May Allah punish your killer with all manner of torment, and may He renew the punishment upon him. I have come to you, recognizing your right, aware of your station, hostile toward your enemies and toward those who wronged you. God willing, I shall meet my Lord upon this belief. O Guardian of Allah, I have many sins; intercede for me before your Lord, for you hold a known station before Allah, and you possess honor and the right of intercession in the sight of Allah. And Allah, the Most High, has said: 'And they do not intercede except for one whom He approves.'
Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Fifth Ziyarat, Line 1
More in The Lantern of the Path
The Architecture of Guidance - Part 9 - The House Beside the Grave - Part 1 - Shaykh al-Ta'ifa
Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba: A Life of Strategic Sacrifice
Keeping God's Limits
Imam Sajjad: The Whispered Revolution
Sayyedah Zaynab, Imam Sajjad and the Messengers of Karbala
Imam Husayn ibn Ali, The Master of the Martyrs
The Lady of Light and the Mother of the Imams, Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra
The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali
Prophet Muhammad
Introduction to Imamah, Part 2
Introduction to Imamah, Part 1
Migrating to the Wilayah of God