AL-SAHIFAT AL-SAJJADIYYA is
the oldest prayer manual in Islamic sources and one of the most seminal works of Islamic
spirituality of the early period. It was composed by the Prophet's great grandson, `Ali
ibn al-Husayn, known as Zayn al-'Abidin (`the adornment of the worshippers'), and has been
cherished in Shi'ite sources from earliest times. Zayn al-'Abidin was the fourth of the
Shi'ite Imams, after his father Husayn, his uncle Hasan, and his grandfather 'Ali, the
Prophet's son-in-law. Shi'ite tradition considers the Sahifa a book worthy of the utmost
veneration, ranking it behind only the Qur'an and `Ali's Nahj al-balagha.
`ALI IBN AL-HUSAYN
`Ali ibn al-Husayn was born in
Medina, according to most sources in the year 38/658-9. He may have been too small to have
remembered his grandfather 'Ali, who was killed in 40/661, but he was brought up in the
presence of his uncle Hasan and his father Husayn, the Prophet's beloved grandchildren.
Many Shi'ite sources state that his mother was Shahrbanu, the daughter of Yazdigird, the
last Sasanian king of Persia. Thus he was said to be `Ibn al-Khiyaratayn', the `son of the
best two', meaning the Quraysh among the Arabs and the Persians among the non-Arabs.
According to some accounts, his mother was brought as a captive to Medina during the
caliphate of `Umar, who wanted to sell her. `Ali suggested instead that she be offered her
choice of the Muslim men as husband and that her dower be paid from the public treasury.
`Umar agreed and she chose 'Ali's son Husayn. She is said to have died shortly after
giving birth to her only son `Ali.
There is no need to recount here the
tragedy at Karbala' in 61/680, when Husayn and many of the male members of his family were
killed by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid, an event which shook the Islamic world
and precipitated the nascent Shi'ite movement. Zayn al-'Abidin accompanied his father on
the march toward Kufa, but he had fallen deathly ill and was lying on a skin in a tent.
Once the Umayyad troops had massacred Husayn and his male followers, they looted the
tents, stripped the women of their jewellery, and even took the skin upon which Zayn
al-'Abidin was prostrate. The infamous Shamir (Shimr) ibn Dhi l-Jawshan was about to kill
Zayn al-'Abidin in spite of his helplessness, but Husayn's sister Zaynab threw herself on
top of him to save him, and `Umar ibn Sa'd, the Umayyad commander, told Shamir to let him
be. Zayn al-'Abidin was taken along with the women to the caliph in Damascus, and
eventually he was allowed to return to Medina.
Several accounts are related
concerning his grief over this tragedy. It is said that for twenty years whenever food was
placed before him, he would weep. One day a servant said to him, `O son of God's
Messenger! Is it not time for your sorrow to come to an end?' He replied, `Woe upon you!
Jacob the prophet had twelve sons, and God made one of them disappear. His eyes turned
white from constant weeping, his head turned grey out of sorrow, and his back became bent
in gloom [cf. 12: 84], though his son was alive in this world. But I watched while my
father, my brother, my uncle, and seventeen members of my family were slaughtered all
around me. How should my sorrow come to an end?'
Zayn al-'Abidin resided in Medina
until his death in 95/713-4 (or 94/712-3). He was the object both of great sympathy
because of the massacre of his family and of veneration as the great grandson of the
Prophet. He dedicated his life to learning and worship and became an authority on
prophetic traditions and law, but he was known mostly for his nobility of character and
his piety, which earned him his sobriquet already in his lifetime. The details that have
reached us about his life in Medina mainly take the form of anecdotes affirming his
constant preoccupation with worship and acts of devotion. He fathered fifteen children,
eleven boys and four girls.
After Karbala', there were a number
of different factions in the Shi'ite community, not all of which supported Zayn al-'Abidin
as the rightful Imam of the Muslim community. Many Shi'ites, such as those involved in the
`Tawwabun' movement, felt that the Umayyads had to be overthrown and that it was the duty
of the Imam to lead a revolt. But Zayn al-'Abidin himself refused to become involved with
politics. After his death, a split occurred between his eldest son and designated
successor Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Imam, and his second son, al-Baqir's half brother
Zayd, who advocated active resistance to Umayyad oppression and gained a large number of
followers as a result. Al-Baqir continued to pursue his father's policy of rejecting any
sort of involvement with political movements until his death (probably in 117/735). Zayd
revolted toward the beginning of the imamate of al-Baqir's son Ja'far al-Sadiq and was
killed in Safar 121/January 739; his son Yahya, who plays an important role in the preface
to the Sahifa, continued in his father's path and was killed three years later at the age
of eighteen. The Zaydi Shi'ites, still strong in the Yemen today, trace the lineage of
their imams back to Zayd.
AL-SAHIFAT AL-SAJJADIYYA
The title Al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyya
means simply `The Book of al-Sajjad'. Al-Sajjad is one of the titles given to Zayn
al-'Abidin and signifies `the one who constantly prostrates himself in prayer'. The book
is often called Al-Sahifat al-Kamilat al-Sajjadiyya, that is, `The "Perfect", or
"Complete", Book of al-Sajjad'. According to its commentator Sayyid `Alikhan
Shirazi, the word kamila refers to the perfection of the style and content; some sources
state that the adjective was added to differentiate it from another, incomplete version of
the work, which is known among the Zaydis, but this seems less likely, given the manner in
which the title is employed in the preface (verse 20). The Sahifa has been called by
various honorifics, such as `Sister of the Qur'an', `Gospel of the Folk of the House', and
`Psalms of the Household of Muhammad'.
According to Shi'ite tradition, Zayn
al-'Abidin had collected his supplications and taught them to his children, especially
Muhammad al-Baqir and Zayd. In later times the text became widely disseminated among
Shi'ites of all persuasions. The specialists in the science of hadith maintain that the
text is mutawatir; in other words, it was generally known from earliest times and has been
handed down by numerous chains of transmission, while its authenticity has never been
questioned. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the text allows us to draw a certain
distinction between the fifty-four supplications which make the main body of the text and
the additional supplications which make up the fourteen addenda (including the prayers for
the days of the week) and the fifteen munajat or `whispered prayers'. The original
fifty-four supplications show an undeniable freshness and unity of theme and style, while
the latter, especially the munajat, add a certain orderliness and self-conscious artistry
which may suggest the hand of an editor. The addenda are said to have been collected and
added to the text by Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Makki, known as al-Shahid al-Awwal (the
`first martyr'), the famous author of Al-Lum'at al-Dimashqiyya in jurisprudence (fiqh) who
was killed in Aleppo in 786/1384. The fifteen munajat have been added to several modern
editions of the Sahifa and seem to have been brought to the attention of the main body of
Shi'ites by `Allama Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1110/1689-9 or a year later), author of the
monumental compilation of Shi'ite hadith, Bihar al-Anwar.
Many supplications have been handed
down from Imam Zayn al-'Abidin in addition to those recorded in the text of the Sahifa as
given here, and various scholars have collected these together in a series of works known
as the `second Sahifa' the `third Sahifa' and so on. The second Sahifa which is about as
long as the Sahifa itself, was compiled as the `sister' of the Sahifa by Muhammad ibn
al-Hasan al-Hurr al-'Amili (d. 1104/l692-3), author of the famous Wasa'il al-Shi`a in the
year 1053/1643. A third Sahifa was put together by the author of Riyad al-'ulama' Mirza
'Abd Allah ibn Mirza `Isa Tabrizi, known as Afandi and a student of Majlisi. The longest
of the published versions is Al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyyat al-khamisa (`The Fifth Sahifa of
al-Sajjad') by Muhsin al-Amin, the well known contemporary author of A'yan al-shi'a. It
includes all the supplications included in the previous Sahifas; 130 of these are found in
the first and second Sahifas and 52 are added. In her sympathetic study of Islamic prayer
manuals, Muslim Devotions, Constance Padwick made use of this fifth recension of the text,
which fills more than six hundred pages.
Any serious attempt to sort out the
relative historical reliability of the individual supplications found in all the versions
of the Sahifa on the basis of modern critical scholarship would be an undertaking of major
proportions. The result of such a study - if one can judge by studies of other ancient
texts - would probably be that, after years of toil, we would have a series of hypotheses,
leaving varying degrees of doubt. This would be of interest to Western scholars and
modernized Muslims, both of whom, in any case, have no personal involvement with the
contents and teachings of the Sahifa. But the attitude of most Muslims has been to look at
the content of the texts established by the authority of tradition and not be too
concerned with who actually wrote the words in `historical fact'. In this regard the
saying of 'Ali is well known: `Look at what has been said, not at who has said it', since
only the truth or untruth of the words is of real concern. From this point of view, if the
author of the Sahifat al-kamila was not Imam Zayn al-'Abidin, he - or they - would in any
case have to have been a spiritual authority of equal rank, so the whole exercise leaves
us where we started: with a text which expresses the highest aspirations of the Muslim
soul.
However this may be, we can be
satisfied to have the core text which has been attributed to Zayn al-`Abidin by centuries
of Shi'ite tradition. In other words, in the fifty-four basic prayers of the Sahifa we
have the Zayn al-'Abidin who has been known to Shi'ites for more than a thousand years and
who has helped give to Shi'ism its specific contours down to the present day. Scholars may
eventually reach the conclusion that the Zayn al-'Abidin of 'historical fact' differs from
the Zayn al-'Abidin of tradition, but this will remain a hypothesis, since at this
distance 'historical facts' are impossible to verify and as open to interpretation as
literature. Whether or not historians accept the text as completely authentic will not
change the actual influence which Zayn al-'Abidin and the Sahifa have exercised upon Islam
over the centuries, nor is it likely to change the way they continue to influence
practising Muslims. The 'real' Zayn al-'Abidin is the figure enshrined by the text as it
now stands.
The opinion of the writer of these
lines concerning the authenticity of the Sahifa - admittedly based only upon an intimate
acquaintance with the text gained through many months spent in translation - is that the
original fifty-four prayers go back to Zayn al-'Abidin, that the addenda are nearly as
trustworthy, and that the munajat may have been worked upon by others. But the Sahifa in
its larger forms probably contains a good deal of material from later authors. It is
interesting to note Padwick's comments on the Sahifat al-khamisa: `The great body of
devotion attributed to him is characterized by a deep humility and sense of sin, and by an
intransigent, undying resentment against the foes of his house.' Only the first half of
this statement is true about the present Sahifa. Though the Imam makes a number of
allusions to the injustice suffered by his family and the fact that their rightful
heritage has been usurped, no one can call this a major theme of the Sahifa or an
'intransigent, undying resentment'. In the one instance where Zayn al-'Abidin speaks
rather explicitly of the injustice suffered by the Imams (48.9-11), this is accompanied by
an admission of God's wisdom in His ordainment.
THE ARABIC TEXT
The Arabic text of the Sahifat
al-kamila which forms the basis for the translation was established by al-Shahid al-Awwal.
The modern Iranian editions are based mainly on the version of this text transmitted by
the father of the above-mentioned Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, Mulla Muhammad Taqi Majlisi (d.
1070/1659-60), also an important scholar of the Safavid period. and another son, Mulla
`Abd Allah (d. c. 1084/1673); but at least one of these editions goes back to the famous
Safavid jurist, philosopher, architect, poet, and mathematician Shaykh-i Baha'i (d.
1031/1621-2). The elder Majlisi had at his disposal numerous manuscripts of the text,
which he had received from the foremost Shi'ite authorities of his day. In one of his
works he refers to all the chains of transmission by which he had received the Sahifa,
and, we are told, these number more than a million.
The question naturally arises as to
why Majlisi chose the particular chain of transmission mentioned in the preface out of the
many he had at his disposal, especially since the chain itself is exceedingly weak (as
indicated by the commentators and recorded in the notes to the translation). The reason
for this seems to be the accuracy of this particular version going back to al-Shahid
al-Awwal, as confirmed by another 'special' route through which Majlisi received the
Sahifa. This special route is worth mentioning in detail, since it provides a good example
of the aura which has surrounded the text in Shi'ite circles.
One day, lying in bed half asleep,
Majlisi saw himself in the courtyard of the 'Atiq mosque in Isfahan, and before him stood
the Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam. Majlisi asked him about a number of scholarly problems which
he had not been able to solve, and the Mahdi explained their solutions. Then Majlisi asked
him for a book which he could put into practice, and the Mahdi directed him to seek out
Mawlana Muhammad al-Taj. In his vision Majlisi found the book, and it appeared to be a
book of supplications. Waking up, he saw that his hand was empty, and he wept until
morning at his loss. At daybreak it occurred to him that perhaps the Mahdi had meant
Shaykh Muhammad Mudarris, calling him by the title `Taj' (the `crown') because he was so
famous among the scholars. Hence he went to see Shaykh Muhammad, and, entering his circle,
saw that he held a copy of the Sahifa in his hand. He went forward and recounted his
vision to Shaykh Muhammad, who interpreted it to mean that he would reach high levels of
gnostic and visionary knowledge. But Majlisi was not satisfied with this explanation, and
he wandered around the bazaar in perplexity and sorrow. Upon reaching the melon market, he
met a pious old man known as Aqa Hasan, whom the people called, Taja (`Crown'). Majlisi
greeted him, and Aqa Hasan called to him and said that he had a number of books which were
consecrated for religious purpose (waqfi) but that he did not trust most of the students
to put them to proper use. `Come', he said, `and take whichever of these books which you
think you can put into practice.'
Entering Aqa Hasan's library,
Majlisi immediately saw the book he had seen in his dream, so he said: `This is enough for
me.' It was a copy of the Sahifa. He then went back to Shaykh Muhammad and began collating
his newly acquired copy with that of Shaykh Muhammad; both of them had been made from the
manuscript of al-Shahid al-Awwal. In short, Majlisi tells us that the authenticity of his
copy of the Sahifa was confirmed by the Mahdi himself.
At least forty commentaries and
glosses have been written on the Sahifa mostly during the period extending from the
Safavid era (907-1125/1502-1722) to the present. Among famous Safavid scholars who wrote
commentaries are Shaykh-i Baha'i, the philosopher Mir Damad (d. c. 1040/1630), and the
younger Majlisi. The most well-known of the commentaries is Riyad al-salikin by al-Sayyid
'Alikhan al-Husayn al-Hasan al-Shirazi (d. 1120/1708-9).
PRAYER IN ISLAM
The Sahifa has been called a `prayer
manual', but this description may be misleading to Western readers not familiar with the
different varieties of prayer in Islam. The best introduction to these - as well as to the
contents of the Sahifa - is provided by Padwick's Muslim Devotions which also analyzes the
major themes common to all supplications and explains many of the important Arabic terms
employed. Given the existence of Padwick's study, we can be excused for providing only a
few comments to situate supplication in the larger context of Muslim prayer and to suggest
the importance of the Sahifa for gaining an understanding of Islam as a religion.
`Prayer' in Islam can be divided
into obligatory and voluntary. The obligatory prayer includes the daily ritual or
canonical prayer (salat) which the Prophet called the `pillar of Islam', and various
occasional prayers such as the Friday congregational prayer (according to most opinions),
which need not concern us here. Nothing is more basic than the daily prayers to Muslim
practice except the testimony of faith or shahada: "There is no god but God and
Muhammad is His Messenger.' Every Muslim must perform the salat five times a day,
exceptions being made only for children and for women during periods when they cannot
fulfill the requirements of ritual purity. Even the bedridden must pray the salat if they
are conscious and coherent, though they are excused from the physical movements which
normally accompany it. `Perform the salat!' is one of the most common injunctions in the
Qur'an.
Most of the many forms of
recommended prayer can be classified either as salat, dhikr or du'a'. The recommended
salat involves the same movements and recitations that are contained in the obligatory
salat while the Prophet's sunna sets down various times during the day or occasions when
various specific salats may be performed. In addition, the worshiper is free to perform
salat as he desires, and thus it is related that Imam Zayn al-'Abidin used to perform one
thousand supererogatory cycles of salat every night, in imitation of his grandfather 'Ali.
Dhikr - which means literally
`remembrance' or `mention' and which is frequently translated as `invocation' - is the
mention of a name or names of God, often in the form of the repetition of a Qur'anic
formula such as There is no god but God, Praise belongs to God, Glory be to God, or God is
great. Most Muslims recite such formulas a set number of times after completing an
obligatory ritual prayer. Fifteen Qur'anic verses command dhikr of Allah or the `name of
Allah', emphasizing the fact that this practice involves a verbal mention of a divine
name. If the Shari'a does not make dhikr an incumbent act, this has to do with the fact
that the Qur'anic command to remember God was not given a single, specific form by the
Prophet's sunna, in contrast to the command to perform the salat. In other words, everyone
agrees that it is important to perform dhikr and that the Prophet practiced it constantly.
But the Prophet never made any specific form of dhikr mandatory for the faithful; on the
contrary, he practiced many different forms and seems to have suggested a great variety of
forms to his Companions in keeping with their needs.
From earliest times the sources
confirm the power of dhikr to provide for human psychological and spiritual needs and to
influence activity. It is not difficult to understand that reciting ya rahman ya rahim (`O
All-merciful, O All-compassionate') will have a different effect upon the believer than
reciting, la hawla wa-la quwwata illa bi-llah al- `ali al-`azim (`There is no power and no
strength save in God, the All-high, the All-mighty'). Spiritual teachers eventually
developed a science of different adhkar (plural of dhikr) appropriate for all the states
of the soul.
Du'a' or `supplication' is closely
connected to dhikr, such that it is often difficult to make a distinction between the two.
The term means literally `to call upon' and it is commanded by the Qur'an in several
suggestive verses, including the following:
Supplicate your Lord humbly and
secretly; He loves not transgressors. (7:55)
Supplicate Allah or supplicate the
All-merciful. Whichever you supplicate - to Him belong the most beautiful names. (17:110)
Supplicate God, making your religion
His sincerely, though the unbelievers be averse. (40:14)
Your Lord has said: `Supplicate Me
and I will respond to you. Surely those who wax too proud to worship Me shall enter
Gehenna utterly abject.' (40:60)
And when My servants question thee
concerning Me - I am near to respond to the supplication of the supplicator when he
supplicates Me. (2:186)
Collections of hadith, both Sunni
and Shi'ite, devote chapters to the benefits of supplication; the following sayings of the
Prophet from Sunni sources are typical:
Supplication is the pith of worship.
(TIRMIDHI)
When one of you supplicates, he
should not say, `O God, forgive me if Thou wilt', but he should be firm in his asking and
make his desire great, for what God gives is nothing great for him. (MUSLIM)
God will respond to the servant as
long as he does not supplicate for anything sinful or for breaking the ties of the womb,
and as long as he does not ask for an immediate response. (MUSLIM)
Each of you should ask your Lord for
all your needs; he should even ask Him for the thong of his sandal when it breaks.
(TIRMIDHI)
Shi'ite sources provide some of the
same sayings while adding many more. For example:
The Prophet related that God says:
`O My servants, all of you are misguided except him whom I guide, so ask Me for guidance,
and I will guide you. All of you are poor except him whom I enrich, so ask Me for riches,
and I will provide for you. All of you are sinners except him whom I release, so ask Me to
forgive you, and I will forgive you.'
The Prophet said: `Supplication is
the weapon of the man of faith, the centrepole of religion, and the light of the heavens
and the earth.'
`Ali was asked: `Which speech is
best in God's eyes?' He replied: `A great amount of dhikr, pleading (tadarru'), and
supplication.'
`Ali said: `Four things work to a
man's benefit and not against him: faith and thanksgiving, for God says: What would God do
with chastising you, if you are thankful and have faith? (4:147); asking forgiveness, for
He says: God would never chastise them with thee among them; God would never chastise them
while they prayed forgiveness (8:33); and supplication, for He says: My Lord esteems you
not at all were it not for your supplication (25:77).
Husayn said: `The Prophet used to
raise his hands when he implored and supplicated, like a man in misery begging for food.'
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir said: `God
loves nothing better than that His servants ask from Him.'
In short, supplicating or calling
upon God is to address Him with one's praise, thanksgiving, hopes, and needs. It is
`prayer' in the personal sense commonly understood from the term by contemporary
Christians. It forms a basic part of the religious life, but like dhikr, though commanded
by the Qur'an in general terms, it does not take a specific form in the injunctions of the
Shari'a because of its personal and inward nature. Everyone must remember God and
supplicate Him, but this can hardly be legislated, since it pertains to the secret
relationship between a human being and his or her Lord. The salat, however, is the
absolute minimum which God will accept from the faithful as the mark of their faith and
their membership in the community. Its public side is emphasized by the physical movements
which accompany it and the fact that its form and contents are basically the same for all
worshipers, even if its private side is shown by the fact that it can be performed
wherever a person happens to find himself. In contrast dhikr and supplication are totally
personal.
But the private devotional lives of
the great exemplars of religion often become public, since they act as models for other
human beings. The `sunna' of the Prophet is precisely the practices of the highest
exemplification of human goodness made into an ideal which everyone should emulate, and
the supplications which the Prophet used to make are part of his sunna. When he recited
them aloud, his Companions would remember and memorize them. They also used to come to him
and ask him for supplications which they could recite on various occasions and for
different purposes.
To the Prophet's supplications, the
Shi'ites add the supplications of the Imams, beginning with `Ali. Nowadays the most widely
employed of the comprehensive prayer manuals, which contain a wide variety of
supplications from all the Imams and for every occasion, is probably Mafatih al-jinan
(`Keys to the Gardens of Paradise') by `Abbas Qumi (d. 1359/1940).
THE ROLE OF SUPPLICATION
Though many of the supplications
which have been handed down from the Prophet and the Imams were certainly spontaneous
utterances of the heart, others must have been composed with the express purpose of
reciting them on specific occasions or passing them on to the pious. Most of the prophetic
supplications are short and could easily have been recited on the spur of the moment, but
some of the prayers of the Imams - such as Zayn al-'Abidin's supplication for the Day of
'Arafa (no. 47) - are long and elaborate compositions. Even if they began as spontaneous
prayers, the very fact that they have been designated as prayers for special occasions
suggests that they were noted down and then repeated by the Imam or his followers when the
same occasion came around again.
Naturally it is not possible to know
the circumstances in which supplications were composed, but we do know a good deal about
early Islam's general environment which can help suggest the role that supplication played
in the community. Many Muslims, no doubt much more so than today, devoted a great deal of
their waking lives to recitation of the Qur'an, remembrance of God, and prayer. Even those
who left Mecca and Medina to take part in the campaigns through which Islam was spread or
participate in the governing of the new empire did not necessarily neglect spiritual
practices. And for those who devoted themselves to worship, supplication was the flesh and
blood of the imagination. It provided a means whereby people could think about God and
keep the thought of Him present throughout their daily activities. It was an intimate
expression of tawhid or the `profession of God's Unity' which shaped their sensibilities,
emotions, thoughts, and concepts.
In the Islamic context, supplication
appears as one of the primary frameworks within which the soul can be moulded in
accordance with the Divine Will and through which all thoughts and concepts centered upon
the ego can be discarded. The overwhelming emphasis in the Sahifa upon doing the will of
God - `Thy will be done', as Christians pray - illustrates clearly a God-centeredness
which negates all personal ambitions and individual desires opposed in any way to the
divine Will, a Will which is given concrete form by the Shari'a and the sunna. For Muslims
then as today, obeying God depended upon imitating those who had already been shaped by
God's mercy and guidance, beginning with the Prophet, and followed by the great
Companions. For the Shi'ites, the words and acts of the Imams play such a basic role in
this respect that they sometimes seem - at least to non-Shi'ites - to push the sunna of
the Prophet into the background.
The companions of the Imams
constantly referred to them for guidance, while the Imams themselves followed the
Prophet's practice of spending long hours of the day and night in salat, dhikr, and
supplication. Though much of this devotional life was inward and personal, the Imams had
the duty of guiding the community and enriching their religious life. As Imam Zayn
al-'Abidin emphasizes in the `Treatise on Rights', translated in the appendix, it is the
duty of every possessor of knowledge to pass it on to others, and the Imams were
acknowledged as great authorities of Islam by their contemporaries, Sunni and Shi'ite
alike. Hence it was only natural that they would compose prayers in which their knowledge
of man's relationship with God was expressed in the most personal terms and which could be
passed around and become communal property. Many if not most of the supplications recorded
in the Sahifa seem to be of this sort. A few of them, such as `His supplication for the
Day of Fast-Breaking' (46) or `for the Day of Sacrifice' (48) seem to have been composed
for public occasions. One of them provides internal evidence to suggest that the Imam had
in mind his followers rather than himself: in the supplication for parents (24), he speaks
as if his parents were still alive, whereas this could hardly have been the case, unless
we suppose that he composed it in his youth before the events at Karbala'.
TAWHID IN DEVOTIONAL MODE
No one with any sensitivity toward
human weakness and God's love can fail to be moved at least by some of the supplications
contained in the Sahifa. Here we have one of the greatest spiritual luminaries of Islam so
overawed by the sense of God's goodness, mercy, and majesty as to express his utter
nothingness before the Creator in terms that may seen surprisingly explicit for one deemed
by his followers to be the possessor of such holiness. In the Sahifa we see Islamic
spirituality - or that dimension of the religion of Islam which deals with the practical
and lived reality of the personal relationship between man and God - expressed in the most
universal of languages, that of the concrete and intimate yearning of the soul for
completion and perfection.
Muslim ideas and attitudes go back
to tawhid or the `profession of God's Unity' as expressed in the first half of the
shahada: `There is no god but God.' This is the essence of the Qur'anic message, as Muslim
authorities have affirmed and reaffirmed throughout Islamic history. The Sahifa provides a
particularly striking example of what this means in personal, practical terms, not in the
abstract language of theology or metaphysics. The basic theme of the Sahifa can be put
into a series of formulas simply by taking every positive human attribute and placing it
within the context of the shahada: `There is no goodness but in God', `There is no
repentance but by God's grace', `There is no gratitude but through God', `There is no
patience without God's help', `There is no knowledge but in God', `There is no love except
through God's initiative'. The complement of this perspective is that every negative
attribute belongs to the human self: `There is no evil but in me', `There is no pride but
in myself', `There is no impatience but in my own ego', `There is none ignorant but me',
`There is no hate but in myself.'
Later authorities frequently cite
the first prophet and his wife, Adam and Eve, as Qur'anic examples of this attitude of
self-deprecation demanded by the shahada. When Adam and Eve had disobeyed their Lord's
commandment, they said: `Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves' (7:23). In contrast, Iblis -
who personifies the tendency in the human soul to pride, self-centredness, and
heedlessness said to God: `Now, because Thou hast led me astray...' (7:16). The prophetic
attitude is to ascribe any evil, sin, error, stumble, slip, fall, inadvertence,
negligence, and so on to oneself, while the satanic attitude is to ascribe these to God or
to others. To suggest that God is responsible - certainly a temptation in the Islamic
context where the stress on the Divine Unity tends to negate secondary forces - is the
epitome of discourtesy and ignorance, since it is to deny one's own self precisely where
it has a real affect upon the nature of things: where evil enters into the cosmos.
In short, the shahada means in
practice that the worshiper is nothing and God is all. Everything positive that the
servant possesses has been given to him by God, while every fault and imperfection goes
back to the servant's own specific attributes. If he has patience in adversity, this was
given by God, but if he lacks it, this is his own shortcoming. If he knows anything at
all, the knowledge was bestowed by God's guidance and mercy, but if he is ignorant, that
is his own limitation. If he possesses a spark of love in his heart, God has granted it,
but every coldness and hardness belongs to himself. Every good and praiseworthy quality -
life, knowledge, will, power, hearing, sight, speech, generosity, justice, and so on - is
God-given. Only when this fact shapes a person's imagination and awareness can he begin to
see things in their right proportions and be delivered from his own self-deceptions.
From the beginning of Islam,
supplication has been one of the fundamental modes through which Muslims actualized the
awareness of correct proportions and trained themselves to see God as the source of all
good. In its great examples, as typified by the Sahifa, supplication is the constant
exercise of discernment by attributing what belongs to God to God and what belongs to man
to man. Once this discernment is made, man is left with his own sinfulness and inadequacy,
so he can only abase himself before his Lord, asking for His generosity and forgiveness.
Those familiar with the writings of
the later spiritual authorities may object that the perspective of supplication as just
described deals with only one-half of Islamic spirituality, leaving out the theomorphic
perfections which the friends of God (awliya') actualize by following the spiritual path.
Granted, on the one hand man is the humble and poor slave of God, possessing nothing of
his own. But is he not - at least in the persons of the prophets and friends - God's
vicegerent (khalifa) and image (sura)? In fact, this second perspective is implicit in the
first, since the more one negates positive attributes from the servant, the more one
affirms that they belong to the Lord. By denying that the creature possesses any good of
his own, we affirm that everything positive which appears within him belongs only to God.
To the extent that the servant dwells in his own nothingness, he manifests God's
perfections. This point of view is made rather explicit in the famous hadith qudsi in
which God says: `My servant continues drawing near to Me through supererogatory works
[such as supplication], until I love him, and when I love him, I am the hearing through
which he hears, the sight through which he sees, the hand through which he grasps, and the
foot through which he walks.' But the early Islamic texts leave the mystery of `union with
God' or `supreme identity' largely unvoiced, since it is far too subtle to be expressed in
the relatively straightforward terms which characterize these texts. In any case, identity
is alien to the perspective of supplication, which keeps in view the dichotomy between
Lord and servant, a dichotomy which remains valid on one level at least in all
circumstances and for all human beings, even in the next world.
ASKING FORGIVENESS
As is well known, the Shi'ites hold
that the Imams are `inerrant' or `sinless' (ma'sum, from the verb `isma, which means to be
preserved by God from sins). The reader of the Sahifa will be struck by how often Zayn
al-'Abidin asks God to forgive his sins, employing all the standard terms (ithm, dhanb,
ma'siya, etc.). To be surprised at this or to suggest that therefore the Shi'ites are
wrong to call the Imams sinless is to miss the points which have just been made about the
shahada as the root of Islamic spirituality. It is not my concern to defend the dogma of
`isma, but I should at least point out that one cannot object to it on this level.
According to various hadiths, the
Prophet used to pray for forgiveness seventy or one hundred times a day by repeating the
formula `I pray forgiveness from God' (astaghfiru llah), a formula which is pronounced
universally by practicing Muslims. Muslims hold that all prophets are sinless, and the
Prophet Muhammad is the greatest of the prophets, yet no one has ever seen any
contradiction between his asking forgiveness and his lack of sins. One easy but shallow
way of explaining this is to say that the Prophet was the model for the whole community,
so he had to pray as if he were a sinner, since all those who followed his sunna and
recited the prayers which he taught would be sinners. But to say this is to suggest that
he was a hypocrite of sorts and to lose sight of the meaning of the shahada.
Christians have never doubted
Christ's divinity because he said: `Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone'
(Mark 10:18). Here, in Christian terms, is a concise statement of the shahada as applied
to the lives of God's creatures. In as much as anything can be called created, it is
`other than God' and less than absolutely good. God is possessor of mercy, knowledge,
love, life, power, will, patience, and so on - the `ninety-nine names of God' provide a
basic list of the divine attributes. If something `other than God' possesses any of these
attributes, it clearly does not possess them in the same way that God possesses them. They
belong to God by the fact that He is God, but if they belong to the creatures in any
sense, it is by His bestowal, just as the creatures have received their existence through
His creation.
This basic teaching of the shahada
means that nothing and no one - not even the greatest of the prophets - stand on a par
with God. Since goodness is a divine attribute, `None is good but God alone', and
everything other than God is evil at least in respect of being `other'. `Evil' here may be
another name for `lesser good', and no one in the Islamic context would dream of
attributing evil to the prophets. Nevertheless, the prophets in as much as they are human
beings cannot be placed on the same level as God. The respect in which human beings differ
from God is all important for the spiritual life. It is man's clinging to the difference
his own servanthood, his own createdness, his own inadequacy, his own sinfulness - which
allows him to fulfill what is required of him as the creature of his Lord. Just as the
Prophet is first `abduhu, `His servant', and only then rasuluhu, `His messenger', so also
every human being must first actualize the fullness of his own servanthood before he can
hope to manifest anything on behalf of his Lord.
The greater a person's awareness and
knowledge of God, the greater his awareness of the gulf between the `I' and the Divine
Reality. As the Qur'an says: Only those of His servants fear God who have knowledge
(35:28). The greater the knowledge of God and self, the greater the understanding of the
claims of independence and pride that are involved with saying `I', and so also the
greater the fear of the consequences. Those nearest to God fear Him more than others
because they have grasped the infinite distance that separates their created nature from
their Creator; hence also they are the most intense in devotion to Him, since they see
that only through devotion and worship can they fulfill His claims upon them. No Muslim
can think that he has reached a point where he no longer has need for God's forgiveness,
so no Muslim can stop praying for it. Moreover, the overriding goodness of God and the
nothingness of the creatures demands that a pious act can never belong to the servant. To
the extent that a human being is able to do what God wants from him, this is because God
has granted him the power to do so. The well-known formula wa ma tawfiqi illa bi-llah, `I
have no success except through God', is of universal application. In the last analysis, no
good act can be attributed to the servant - the merit is always God's (for example,
Supplication 74.2). It is here that the mystery of God's ever-present and immanent reality
manifests itself, such that there is nothing left of the creature but a face of God turned
toward creation.
If the Prophet and the Imams
constantly prayed for forgiveness with the utmost sincerity, this does not contradict the
idea that they were `sinless', since the sins envisaged here entail a willful disobedience
to the divine command, not the `creaturely sin' of being other than God. Later authorities
invariably distinguish among levels of sinfulness as also among levels of virtue, a
doctrine epitomized in the oft-quoted saying, `The good qualities of the pious are the bad
qualities of those brought near to God' (hasanat al-abrar sayiyyat al-muqarrabin). At
least three basic levels are distinguished for every positive human quality, though these
levels are not exclusive and may coexist in various degrees within a single person
depending upon his spiritual maturity. The examples of `repentance' (tawba) and `asking
forgiveness' (istighfar) can illustrate these points.
In the Sahifa the Imam often asks
God for success in repentance, which may be defined as turning toward God through acts of
obedience and avoiding disobedience. The later authorities speak of a first level of
repentance belonging to the faithful in general, who sin by breaking the commands of the
Shari'a and who repent by asking God to forgive their sins and trying their best not to
repeat the sin. In other words, their repentance pertains basically to the level of the
activities governed by the Shari'a while the forgiveness they seek means that they ask God
to pardon any act of commission or omission which is contrary to the Shari'a.
On the second level of repentance
there are those who have dedicated their lives to God and spend their waking moments in
careful observance of the details of the Shari'a and following the recommended acts of the
sunna. Such people, who might be called the `pious' in keeping with the above saying, have
no difficulty following the practical commands and prohibitions of the Shari'a, so they
turn their attention toward the inward attitudes which should accompany the outward
activities. They repent of the heedlessness (ghafla) of their own souls, which are unable
to remember God with perfect presence. They see their acts of obedience as falling short
of the ideal because of their inward weaknesses and the various forms of blindness and
hypocrisy which Satan is able to instill into their hearts, such as the temptation to
ascribe their piety and diligence in observing the Shari'a to themselves. They repent not
of sinful acts, since they observe the Shari'a with exactitude and do not `sin' according
to the Shari'ite definitions. Rather, they repent of inappropriate thoughts and intentions
and ask God to forgive these whenever they occur.
The third level is that of `those
brought near to God'. They have passed beyond outward and inward sins, since they see
nothing but God's will, guidance, and mercy in every act and every thought, but they are
still faced with the greatest of all barriers, that of their own self, the `supreme veil'
between man and God. God has given them knowledge of Himself and of themselves, so they
have come to understand that the `I' can never be totally innocent or sinless. They repent
of their own inadequacies as creatures and ask forgiveness for their own existence as
separate beings.
Western readers may object that
there is something artificial about this division of `repentance' into levels. How can one
`repent' of one's own existence? How can one ask forgiveness for something which is not
one's own fault? These objections might be valid if the texts had originally been written
in English, but in fact the objection arises because of the difficulty of translating the
concepts of one religious universe into another. The original Arabic words translated as
`repentance' and `forgiveness' convey meanings far broader than the English terms, both of
which are connected with a sentimental and moralistic sense of guilt. (Similar problems,
it should be remarked, exist with much of the terminology which is normally used to
translate Islamic texts and which has also been employed - because there is no other real
choice - in the present translation of the Sahifa.)
The word tawba or `repentance' means
literally to `turn' or `return' from one thing to another. One of God's Qur'anic names is
al-tawwab, `He who turns', and the verb from this root is used both for God's turning
toward man and man's turning toward God. Man's `repentance' refers to every level of
turning away from self and towards God; it makes no difference whether the self is
conceived of as a tissue woven of sins or as the veil of ignorance and heedlessness that
pertains to one's creaturely situation. There may be a moralistic sense attached to the
word in a particular context, and there may not.
In a similar way, maghfira in Arabic
is far richer than the term `forgiveness' in English. To begin with, the Qur'an attributes
three different divine names to God from this root, al-ghafur, al-ghaafir, and al-ghaffar,
and subtle distinctions are often drawn to differentiate the different modes of
`forgiveness' which they imply. More importantly the root meaning of maghfira is `to cover
over', `to veil', `to conceal'. Hence the `Forgiver' is He who veils human sins and
inadequacies. In Arabic the literal sense of saying `I pray forgiveness from God' is `I
ask God for concealment.' Most people may understand that they are asking God to conceal
their `sins', but `those brought near to God' will see that they have need for the
concealment of something much deeper and more radical since it is inherent to every
created thing.
When the Prophet or Imam Zayn
al-'Abidin ask God to `forgive their sins, they are perfectly sincere in this request, but
this does not necessarily imply that their sins lie at the same level as our own. As
Islamic texts frequently remind us, qiyas bi l-nafs, `judging others by one's own self',
is always misleading, especially if the others happen to have been the recipients of God's
special favours.
SPIRITUAL ATTITUDES AND NAMES OF GOD
Muslim thinkers have often divided
the names of God into two broad categories by contrasting attributes such as wrath
(ghadab) and mercy (rahma), justice (`adl) and bounty (fadl), severity (qahr) and
gentleness (lutf), majesty (jalal) and beauty (jamaal), or majesty and munificence
(ikram). The `names of wrath' are connected to God's distance and transcendence, while the
`names of mercy' are connected to His nearness and immanence. The Shari'a and kalam
(dogmatic theology) tend to emphasize God's severity and incomparability (tanzih), while
Islamic spirituality and the devotional literature put more stress on His gentleness and
similarity (tashbih).
The Shari'a is not particularly
concerned with speaking about God, since its function is to set down guidelines for the
domain of activity. To the extent that God is taken into account, He is conceived of
primarily as the Commander and the Lawgiver. In respect of laying down the Law, He is a
monarch who must be obeyed. A monarch - and especially the Eternal King - stands far above
his subjects, who are in fact his slaves, and he enforces his edicts by means of scourges,
dungeons, and executions. Hence the Shari'a naturally calls to mind the God of
transcendence and justice, and the `jurists' (fuqaha'), generally speaking, present Islam
with a stern and severe countenance.
The God of the jurists shares many
of the attributes of the God described by the proponents of kalam, who concerned
themselves mainly with bolstering the authority of the Shari'a while employing the tools
of rational thought. Moreover, kalam has never played the same important role in Islam
that theology plays in Christianity, since its concerns are far overshadowed by the
dedication of all Muslims to the Shari'a. Kalam sets out to defend the Shari'a and the
tenets of the faith against rational criticisms, so the theologians have approached their
subject by employing reason (`aql or al-nazar al-'aqli). As a result, they singled out for
their consideration certain subjects which were of no interest to the community at large.
For most people, it makes no difference if the Qur'an is eternal or created, so long as
God speaks to them through it. Though kalam performs a necessary function in the Islamic
universe, the vast majority of the faithful had no knowledge of the rational criticisms
against which kalam was defending them, so they had no use for kalam. It was simply
irrelevant to the religious life of most people.
Since the theologians called upon
reason to bear witness to their endeavors, they affirmed God's transcendence with great
fervour. Reason cannot accept the literal sense of many details of the Qur'an and the
hadith, such as God's face, eyes, hand, feet, sitting, laughter, smiling, wavering,
yearning, joy at man's repentance, surprise at the lack of sensual desire in a young man
of piety, and so on. Hence the theologians felt compelled to explain such descriptions in
terms of abstract qualities. Thus, for example, God's `hand' is interpreted as a reference
to an impersonal quality such as power. This is not to question the validity of these
interpretations, only to point out that the relatively concrete words and images found in
the Qur'an and the hadith provide food for the imagination; through them human beings gain
the ability to think about God in personal terms and establish an intimate, inward
relationship with their Lord. An inconceivable God - or a God who can only be known
through abstract creedal statements - is of no use to the vast majority of people.
Imagination feeds upon the concrete,
not the abstract. When God speaks in a language that appeals to the imagination, He
thereby addresses all the faithful, bypassing reason and appealing to something far more
universal in human hearts. But when the theologians employ a disciplined rational
methodology, they are addressing intellectuals like themselves. As a result, the faithful
found spiritual nourishment not in the dry and abstract depictions of a far-away God
provided by kalam but in the warm and concrete imagery of the Qur'an, the hadith, and the
spiritual authorities. No one could love the God of the theologians.
In short, by the nature of their
disciplines, the jurists and the theologians lay stress on the God of remoteness and
transcendence. In contrast, the spiritual authorities speak of the God described in the
Qur'an and the hadith as He describes Himself, not neglecting His nearness to all
creatures. Since the God of the Qur'an is pre-dominantly a God of mercy and tenderness, a
God of intimacy and concern, the spiritual authorities emphasize the personal dimension of
the human/divine relationship. They stress God's nearness and immanence, and they often
remind us of Qur'anic verses such as, Whithersoever you turn - there is the face of God
(2:115); He is with you wherever you are (57:3); We indeed created man; We know what his
soul whispers within him; and We are nearer to him than the jugular vein (50:16).
Since the Shari'a concerns itself
basically with activity, it is directed toward the outward affairs which are governed by
the laws of the remote King. Kalam is polemical and rational, concerning itself mainly
with the divine attributes of the transcendent God, not with the human dimensions of the
relationship with a God who is also immanent. The Qur'an and the hadith provide the seeds
from which the Shari'a and kalam grew up, but they also provide the seeds for the
subsequent attention that was paid by the spiritual authorities to all the dimensions of
the soul. Devotional literature addresses this inward domain in an eminently practical
way, attempting to shape the soul according to the revealed models.
There is, of course, no
contradiction between thinking of God as transcendent and perceiving Him as immanent, any
more than there is a contradiction between perceiving Him as Merciful and as Wrathful. God
reveals Himself under a variety of guises, and these in turn demand different rational
perceptions and psychological responses. One cannot think in exactly the same terms about
the Glorified (al-subbuh), who transcends everything that man can conceive, and the Near
(al-qarib), who is closer than the jugular vein; nor can one feel the same toward the
Gentle, the Kind, and the Compassionate as one feels toward the Vengeful and the Severe in
Punishment. Once codified and institutionalized, the human responses to God's
self-revelations in the Qur'an came to emphasize certain divine attributes rather than
others. One response was called `jurisprudence', another `kalam', another `Sufism', and so
on. All of these points of view coexist in the great representatives of Islam, just as
they coexist in the Qur'an and in the soul of the Prophet. But in the early period, it is
difficult to disentangle the different strands, since the institutional forms which
highlight them have not yet come into existence. However, it is easy to see that certain
manifestations of early Islam tend in one direction or another. The particular
characteristic of the devotional literature such as the Sahifa is to emphasize the
personal quality of God's relationship with His servants and His all-pervading love.
THE PREDOMINANCE OF MERCY
Some modern day Muslims and many
Western scholars have looked at the Qur'an wearing the eyeglasses of the jurists and
theologians. As a result, they see a God who is a just and stern Commander, concerned only
with beating His servants into shape so that they will follow His Law. They tend to ignore
the fact that practically every chapter of the Qur'an begins with the words, In the name
of God, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, and that the Qur'an mentions God's names
of mercy, compassion, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and love about ten times as often
as it mentions His names of wrath and severity. The overwhelming Qur'anic picture is that
of a God deeply concerned with the well-being of His creatures and ready to forgive almost
anything, if only they will repent and acknowledge His sovereignty.
Faced with the reality of both mercy
and wrath, the worshiper seeks out the one and does everything he can to avoid the other.
This is a constant theme in the devotional literature in general and the Sahifa in
particular. The Prophet set the pattern in his well-known supplication: `I seek refuge in
Thy good pleasure from Thy displeasure and in Thy pardon from Thy punishment. I seek
refuge in Thee from Thee.' God is both He who becomes pleased and He who becomes
displeased, He who pardons and He who punishes. Hence the worshiper prays to God for
protection against God Himself, since there is no other significant threat. Moreover, the
servant can be confident that God's mercy will in fact overcome His wrath, since God is
essentially merciful and only accidentally wrathful. The Qur'an tells us in two verses
that God's mercy embraces all things (7:156, 40:7), but it never suggests that His wrath
is so universal. According to a famous hadith qudsi, God says: `My mercy precedes My
wrath', or `has precedence over My wrath', or `predominates over My wrath.' God appears to
His creatures as harsh and domineering only in certain circumstances and for specific
purposes - purposes which themselves are defined by mercy. The Prophet expressed this
point with his remark: `Hellfire is a whip with which God drives His servants to
Paradise.' God's mercy is so overwhelmingly real that He will certainly overlook the sins
of those who open themselves up to it.
Padwick refers to the `mosaic'
quality of Muslim supplications. She writes: `While the prayers of some of the great
saints show a spiritual individuality, the great mass of these devotions is built up of
well-tried small items arranged in ever new patterns - traditional prayers of the Prophet,
Qur'an verses, blessings of the Prophet, forgiveness-seekings, cries of praise, all on
known and authorized forms.' The Sahifa is strongly marked by the individuality of the
Imam, while also displaying this mosaic quality. But this quality itself reflects the
Qur'an, which is a mosaic of God's names and activities, stories of the prophets, legal
injunctions, and promises and warnings about the Last Day.
It was said above that one of the
purposes of supplication is to shape the imagination of the worshiper in accordance with
Islamic norms. A well-known hadith tells us that Muslims can know the `character' (khuluq)
of the Prophet through studying the Qur'an. By following the Prophet's sunna the worshiper
absorbs the Qur'an on all levels of his being, and in turn he is absorbed by the Qur'an,
the Divine Word and the divine model of his own soul. If some early authorities referred
to the Sahifa as the `Sister of the Qur'an', part of the reason for this may lie in the
fact that its mosaic quality expresses a variety of spiritual attitudes that reflect
accurately the Qur'anic and prophetic model for human perfection. Every element in the
Sahifa's mosaic corresponds to elements of the Qur'anic text and the Prophet's soul.
The connection between the spiritual
attitudes expressed in the Sahifa and the Qur'anic statements about God and His
relationship to His servants can most clearly be perceived in the Imam's constant recourse
to God's names and his always appropriate expression of the corresponding human attitude.
On the one hand the Imam places great emphasis upon his own inadequacy and sinfulness,
acknowledging that he deserves nothing but God's wrath. On the other, he repeatedly takes
refuge in God's mercy and in God's own Qur'anic statements concerning the primacy of
forgiveness, asking God to do with him as is worthy of such a merciful Being, not as he
himself deserves.
Act toward me with the forgiveness
and mercy of which Thou art worthy! Act not toward me with the chastisement and vengeance
of which I am worthy! (73.3)
In short, through the mosaic of the
supplication, the worshiper moves from viewpoint to viewpoint in keeping with the
different relationships which exist between himself and God as described in the Qur'an.
Man's point of view changes because each of the divine names points to a different face of
God turned toward him. Yet all are faces of God, and `There is no god but God', so the
apparent multiplicity of names and faces dissolves into the divine Unity.
Human inadequacy and sin are real
enough on their own level, and the Sahifa among others shows a remarkable awareness of the
depth of human imperfection. But the great spiritual authorities of Islam hold that in
responding to human weakness, God's overwhelming mercy takes charge and the divine wrath
pales by comparison. The more that human beings admit to their own inadequacy, the more
they call down upon themselves God's pity and commiseration. Supplication and pleading are
the natural human response to the shahada the fact that man is nothing compared to God,
and that God - who is fundamentally mercy - is the only true reality. Supplication
responds to God's command, Despair not of God's mercy! Surely God forgives all sins
(39:53).
A hadith is related concerning Imam
Zayn al-'Abidin which is worth recounting because it is so completely in character with
the Sahifa's emphasis upon God's mercy and forgiveness. One day he was told that Hasan
al-Basri (d. 110/728), the famous ascetic, had said: `It is not strange if a person
perishes as he perishes. It is only strange that a person is saved as he is saved.' The
Imam replied, `But I say that it is not strange if a person is saved as he is saved; it is
only strange that a person perishes as he perishes, given the scope of God's mercy.'
The supplicant who responds to the
God of the Qur'an never forgets the wrath of God, but he remains confident that God's
essential nature will show itself, in spite of his own weaknesses. Padwick was so struck
with the devaluation of human sins that seems to result from this attitude that she
displays a rare instance of Christian bias, objecting that it `leads to a certain moral
shallowness in some forgiveness-seeking prayers' and is unable `to attribute any moral
cost to God's forgiveness', alluding here and in the rest of the passage to the Christian
doctrine of atonement. Among three examples of `moral shallowness' she cites the following
lines from Imam Zayn al-'Abidin, found in Al-Sahifat al-khamisa:
My God my sins do not harm Thee and
Thy pardon does not impoverish Thee. Then forgive me what does not harm Thee and give me
what Thou wilt not miss.
In order to understand the attitude
expressed here, one needs to put it into its larger context. The specific attitude
expressed by the Imam corresponds precisely to the reality of God's infinite mercy and
forgiveness as revealed in various Qur'anic verses. Many passages from the Sahifa present
the same point of view. Moreover, when the Imam says: `Thou art the Generous Lord for whom
the forgiveness of great sins is nothing great' (31.10), or `Pardoning great sin is
nothing great for Thee, overlooking enormous misdeeds is not difficult for Thee, putting
up with indecent crimes does not trouble Thee' (12.13), he is merely echoing the command
of the Prophet mentioned above: The worshiper `should be firm and make his desire great,
for what God gives is nothing great for Him.'
In any case, the context of these
prayers shows that the accompanying moral attitude is hardly shallow, since it demands
`refraining from arrogance, pulling aside from persistence [in sin], and holding fast to
praying forgiveness' (12.13). Moral shallowness could only follow if the worshiper
remembered God's mercy and forgot His wrath, but both are always kept in view.
THE SAHIFA AND ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY
In spite of studies that have
rejected the idea, many people in the West still believe that `true Islam' lies in
simplicity, austerity, legalism, formalism, and a God perceived as Just and Transcendent.
Hence those elements of Islamic civilization which demonstrate complexity, subtlety,
warmth, love, inwardness, spirituality, and a God of mercy, compassion, and immanence are
seen as largely extraneous to or reactions against Qur'anic Islam. Scholars such as
Massignon have pointed out that a person of spiritual sensitivity only needs to read the
Qur'an for such ideas to be dissolved. But few people who have adopted the old stereotypes
possess this sort of sensitivity or would be interested in changing their preconceived
ideas, lest sympathy be stirred up in their hearts. It is not my aim here to reject, as so
many have done before me, these common biases concerning the nature of `true Islam', but I
would like to point out that a work like the Sahifa brings out an inward dimension of
Islam which may be much more difficult to perceive in other early texts.
When scholars and other outsiders
look at Islam, they naturally perceive what can be seen at first glance, that is, events,
written reports and records, social relationships, and so on. It is not easy to look into
people's hearts or to investigate their personal relationship with God, nor are most
people interested in doing so. If there is a way into hearts, it must come by studying the
most inward concerns of individuals as reflected in their outward activities and writings.
But those dimensions of Islam which have caught the most attention of outside observers
are external and obvious, and they also happen to be relatively devoid of the love and
warmth normally associated in the West with spirituality.
Islamic civilization as a whole is
much like a traditional Muslim city: The outer walls make it appear dull and sombre, and
it is not easy to gain access to the world behind the walls. But if one becomes an
intimate with the city's inhabitants, one is shown into delightful courtyards and gardens,
full of fragrant flowers, fruit trees, and sparkling fountains. Those who write about
Islamic history, political events, and institutions deal with the walls, since they have
no way into the gardens. Some of the gardens are opened up through the study of Sufism,
art and architecture, poetry, and music, but since all of these have appeared in specific
historical forms influenced by the surrounding environment, their deep Islamic roots can
easily be lost to sight. The most traditional and authentic gardens of the city, and the
most difficult of access, are the hearts of the greatest representatives of the
civilization. It is here that the supplications handed down from the pillars of early
Islam can open up a whole new vision of Islam's animating spirit, since they provide
direct access to the types of human attitudes that are the prerequisite for a full
flowering of the Islamic ideal.
OTHER DIMENSIONS
This introduction may seem to be
suggesting that the Sahifa deals exclusively with Islamic spirituality. But the Sahifa
deals with other domains as well. As was pointed out above, the great representatives of
Islam bring together all levels of Islamic teachings, just as these are brought together
by the Qur'an and the hadith. If spirituality has been emphasized in discussing the
Sahifa, this has to do with the fact that the work is a collection of supplications, and
these presuppose certain attitudes toward the Divine Reality which cannot be understood
outside spirituality's context.
But the Sahifa also provides
teachings that are applicable on many different levels, from the theological (in the
broadest sense of the term) to the social. A thorough analysis of these would demand a
book far longer than the Sahifa itself. It is hoped that the publication of this
translation will encourage scholars to study the content of the prayers contained in the
Sahifa (as well as the prayers left by other pillars of early Islam, the Shi'ite Imams in
particular) to bring out the whole range of teachings they contain. The most that can be
done here is to allude to some of the other important topics touched upon by the Sahifa
and mention a few of the significant questions which these bring up.
Islam is an organic reality
possessing three basic dimensions: practice or the Shari'a (al-islam) faith (al-iman which
includes doctrine and intellectual teachings), and spirituality (al-ihsan). In the lived
experience of the community, these dimensions are intimately interrelated, even if various
institutional forms tend to deal with them separately. The earliest sources, such as the
prophetic hadith or `Ali's Nahj al-balagha deal with all three of these dimensions, though
different passages can be isolated which stress one specific epic rather than another. But
a work like the Nahj al-balagha converges profoundly from the Sahifa in that it brings
together sayings on all sorts of matters, from metaphysics, to the nature of correct
government, to the personal flaws of some of `Ali's contemporaries. There is no stress on
spirituality, since this is clearly one dimension of Islam among others, though a deep
spirituality and holiness underly everything that 'Ali says.
In contrast, the Sahifa by its
supplicatory form and content, stresses the innermost dimension of Islam. But at the same
time, it also touches upon Islam's other dimensions. For example, the traditional category
of `faith' is concerned with God, the angels, the prophets, the scriptures, the Last Day,
and the `measuring' (qadar) of both good and evil. These objects of faith form the basic
subject matter of most of Islamic thought as developed in kalam philosophy, and
theoretical Sufism. Imam Zayn al-'Abidin discusses all of these in the Sahifa sometimes
briefly and sometimes in detail. Thus he often mentions the angels, while his `Blessing
upon the Bearers of the Throne' (3) provides the best available summary of Muslim beliefs
concerning them.
The Imam also refers frequently to
the domain of Islamic practices, or the Shari'a in the wide sense. He emphasizes the
absolute necessity of following God's guidelines as set down in the Qur'an and the hadith
in both individual and social life. Hence the Sahifa provides many specific social
teachings as well as general injunctions, such as the necessity of establishing justice in
society. But since the social teachings deal with the domain of practice, the outermost
dimension of Islam, they need to be viewed within the context of the Imam's doctrinal and
spiritual teachings. As he makes eminently clear in his `Treatise on Rights', a hierarchy
of priorities must always be observed: The individual comes before the social, the
spiritual before the practical, and knowledge before action. Each human being has a long
series of social duties, but these depend upon his more essential duties, which are first,
faith in God, and second, placing one's own person into the proper relationship with the
Divine Reality.
THE TRANSLATION
The present translation of the
Sahifa follows the Arabic original with as much literal accuracy as could be contrived
while maintaining a readable and understandable English text. I have kept Arberry's Koran
Interpreted in view as the model of how this might be done. I have been particularly
concerned with maintaining consistency in rendering terms and preserving the concreteness
of the original terminology, feeling that the `meaning' of the text cannot be grasped
without due regard for its form. It has already been suggested that one of the virtues of
the early devotional literature is its ability to speak in a relatively concrete,
pre-theological language of great universality. As a result, any move in the direction of
rendering concrete terms abstractly, by paying attention to the rational meaning rather
than the images conjured up by the linguistic form, will take us in the direction of kalam
and away from the universe of the Qur'an, the hadith and the intimacy of the supplications
themselves. This explains why I have usually preferred more literal terms such as `Garden'
to relatively abstract terms such as `Paradise'.
Where difficulties arose in
interpreting the meaning of the text, I have followed the commentary of Sayyid 'Alikhan
Shirazi. I have also profited from the excellent Persian translation and commentary by
'Ali Naqi Fayd al-Islam and the less useful Persian translation of Mirza Abu l-Qasim
Sha'rani. I have not tried to be exhaustive in the notes, aiming only to identify proper
names, clarify obscurities, and point to a few of the Qur'anic references in order to
suggest how thoroughly the text is grounded in the revealed book. In a few cases I have
mentioned relevant hadith or discussed the different interpretations offered by the
commentators.
The translation of the Sahifa is
followed by a translation of Imam Zayn al-Abidin's `Treatise on Rights', which is the only
work attributed to him other than supplications or relatively short sayings and letters.
This treatise is especially important for the manner in which it deals with many of the
same themes as the Sahifa in a different style and language.
The Arabic text printed here was
copied from the Sha'rani edition by Tehzib Husayn Naqvi. It was proof-read by the
dedicated and diligent efforts of S. Ata Muhammad Abidi Amrohvi. Agha Ahsan Abbas is also
to be thanked for his efforts in coordinating the production of the Arabic text.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my dear
friend Wing Commander (ret'd) Qasim Husain, the moving spirit behind the Muhammadi Trust.
He caught me in a weak moment and pushed me into accepting a project which I never would
have undertaken otherwise. His gentle but always firm and forceful pressure has made it
possible for me to complete the translation practically on schedule. Without his
intervention I would have been deprived of the opportunity to gain an intimate
acquaintance with one of the deepest veins of Islamic spirituality. Anyone who comes to
appreciate the contents of the Sahifa through the present work would do well to offer a
prayer of thanks for the sake of Commander Husain. I also thank Sayyid Ali Mohammad
Naqavi, who read the translation and offered a number of useful suggestions for its
improvement, and Sayyid Muhammad Husain al-Husaini al-Jalali, who placed at my disposal a
useful bibliography of works concerning the Sahifa.
Foreword by S.H.M. Jafri
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