In the Name of the Love of the Sincere Hearts

Suppose my dear that the Prophet(S), whose truthfulness can not be denied by the deniers, where to say;
“In the hereafter, it makes no difference if you spent all your lifetime swimming in
an ocean of wicked sins, drowning yourself in satisfying your base desires and do
whatever pleased you, or if you spent it in timeless hours of intense worship, with
tears of mercy sparkling your face, shining your very essence with the beauty of
repentance and worship for Allah, you will still reach the Gardens of Paradise,
whatever road you chose to walk. Both would save you from the everlasting
chastisement and bring you salvation. It would not make any difference if you
prayed or sinned, both would lead you to Paradise, however if you chose to obey
the Beloved, abstain from evil acts and purify yourself with worship to Him, you
would win His good pleasure. Both leads you to Paradise, however if your pious you will win His smile and pleasure.”

How many of us would continue to worship Allah? Would we wake up from a good nights sleep to pray at dawn, or put that interesting book aside to pray our evening prayers?
Indeed here lays a great problem, the mother of idols (as stated by Prophet Muhammad(S)) which Prophet Ibrahim(A) prayed to be rescued from – the Ego. We don’t worship Allah because He is worthy of being worshipped, but rather to reach Paradise or save our weak selves from Hell. Don’t be like the writer, a weak youth who have played havoc with all his years and now imprisoned in a dungeon of carnal desires, making his Ego his Master and won’t accept the fact that all the nights of worship he has spent was not to reach the threshold of the Beloved, but rather to seek proximity to the self. He puts aside this world for the pleasures of the next one. My friend! Wake up and realize that when you step upon the prayer rug, which is like a Buraq for you to ascend to the seventh heaven, and say: “I intend to pray such and such prayer to seek the nearness of Allah”, you only deceive yourself and the truth is your prayer serves as an ascension into the ego of yourself. You don’t worship Allah because He is Absolute Love, He is Supreme Beauty and He is there for you always and forever, even if you turn your back to Him, the One worthy of worship, but you pray unto Him for the sake of His reward. You abstain from this world for the next. Judge yourself, before you will be judged! (Imam Musa(A)). None of us would do all the mustahabat, pray five times a day, fast for a whole month, if Allah revealed in the Quran that you won’t be given any reward for this and there is no chastisement, you will only win Allah’s good pleasure.
Open your eyes, the time has come for you to examine yourself and start your journey with the caravan of heart to the castle of the Beloved,
I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth, (a man or pure faith; I am not of the idolaters,) (6:79)

Purity of Intention

A long journey begins with a small step, and the first one is the intention. You can not perform any action, without intending to do so. You can not drink, walk or swim without intending to do so. When you wish to grow a tree, you place some seed and then nurture it so with the grace of Allah one day it will bear delicious fruits. Indeed you chose to plant the seed on good earth where both the mercy of rain and the warmth of sunshine reach. If you don’t do this, but plant it in a salty earth, the earth will devour all the water and the tree will become naked and die sooner or later. The intention is similar to the earth, if you have good earth a beautiful tree will grow, but if you plant in bad earth the outcome will be almost ghost like.
We must strive to purify our intentions for the sake of Allah, and Allah only. This is indeed a very tough battle and I dare to say that the very core of Jihad al-Akbar, the struggle against ones Self, Ego and base desires, lays in purifying the intention.
Allah states in the Quran, and this luminous verse is indeed worth reflecting upon,
Lo, to God belongs sincere allegiance (al-din al-khalis). (39:3)
If we only cared to put some effort into the intention, making it sincere without any trace of ego or desire, we would bear such sweet fruits beyond the trees of Paradise; just ponder upon why Imam Muhammad Baqir(A) says, “The intention of the man of faith is better than his act. Lo, verily intention is act itself!” [1]

Just as water is a purifying agent for the body in the fields of Jurisprudence, so is the water of life, Love, the purifying agent for the soul in the fields of Gnostic, Mysticism and Spirituality (‘Irfan). The only way to purge your hearts from the filthy traces of egoism and carnal desires is by awakening it to the celestial dimensions. Just a glance at the Infinite Beauty of the Beloved will illuminate the impure heart with His Sublime Light and all the shades of the world will be lost in its Shine. As you open up your inner eyes of soul and start beholding the wonders of Allah, you will slowly begin to love Him, and just as a lover wish to be with his beloved, you wish to be with Allah. As this love increases and only your Beloved is your concern, the traces of the world will be lost.

When you fall in love with the Sacred Essence, who is beyond names, actions, stations and the like, you only wish for one thing – to be with your beloved. Only this feeling of love will motivate you to perform all the worship and abstain from the impure actions and thoughts. Within love there are no rules, just pleasure. You just wish to please your beloved and through that you will be pleased. Poison from the Beloved will be more preferable then candy from your enemy. Allah’s will, will become yours. You would even give your life if this would please your Lord, and through purging the intention from duality and do all the actions just for the sake of One, His Love and Pleasure, you will transform your former plural intentions into unity and only for Allah.
Just feel the power and love of these invocations;

Suppose my God, my Master, my Protector and my Lord, that I am able to endure Thy chastisement, how can I endure separation from Thee? (Dua Kumail)

My Lord, if You condemn me for my crimes, I will cling to Your forgiveness, and if You hold me for my sins, I will cling to Your granting pardon. If You haul me into the hell, I will tell its inmates that I love You. (Munajate Shabaniya)

May Allah open our Inward Eyes of Heart to behold the Infinite Beauty of His Absolute Love,
Pouring upon our lips His Sweet Divine Wine, making us Intoxicated by His Sacred Essence to such extents we Soar and Ascend to His pure threshold, to the Highest of Ranks in the Station of His proximity, for the sake of Taha – amen.

None except the Beloved has a place in our heart,
Give both the worlds to the enemy, for the Beloved suffices us.

And All praise is due to Allah in the Beginning, at the End, Outwardly and Inwardly and may His Smile, Mercy, Love and Blessings be upon the Prophet(S) and his Pure Household(A).

Notes:
[1] Al -Kulayni at-Kafi, kitab al-’iman wa al-kufr, bab al-niyyah, hadith No.2.