The Straight Path is Ali

The following was an ongoing translation of the book 500 verses Revealed About Imam Ali (خمس مائة آية نزلت في أمير المؤنين) by Al-Hafiz Rajab al-Barsi. The book is an exploration of the inner and counter connections of Imam Ali and the Holy Qur'an. The translation was underwork by Shaykh 'Abd al-Hakeem Carney, who journeyed onwards to another realm on July 10, 2007. His translation is offered here in memoriam.

500 Verses Revealed About Imam Ali - Chapter One
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Here, we will begin by explaining the verse bismillahi ar-rahman ar-rahim (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم). The manifest meaning of this verse is safety, and the inner meaning of this verse is faith. Its words are bounty and blessing. It is the remembrance of Allah’s oneness, and it contains nineteen letters, the same as the number of letters of the five shadows which Allah wrote in Light with the right-hand of His Power in the World of Light, before He created the ages. Because of this, the Family of the Prophet have said: “Whoever reads the basmallah, taking the Family of the Prophet as their leaders, believing in their external and internal reality, the Allah will give that person a blessing for letter, a blessing that is greater than all that exists in the world.” This means that one must know that the Prophet and his Family are the beginning and end of creation, and that they are the secret of existence, and the very meaning of existence, that if it were not for them nothing would exist, and nothing would have been created. If there was not there bounteous status with Allah, nothing would be sustained. They are the bounty and the bestowers of bounty, the pure intimate friend of the Lord of Glory.


Glorious reports have been narrated concerning their noble creation. They cannot be understood except by those whose heart is pure and whose religion is true. Shaykh Abu Ja’far has narrated concerning the verse “They will be overturned in prostration” [1] that Imam Musa al-Kazhim said: “Indeed, Allah the Glorious created the light of Muhammad from the light of His existentiating command, from the light of His Glory, which is the Light of His Divinity. This was the light from which everything began, and which was manifested to Moses when he was on the Mountain of Tur Sina. Moses could not stay in his place, and was unable to bear its vision, until he collapsed in a state of absolute awe. This light was not anything except the light of Ali and the Prophet, who said: “Me and Ali were created from the side of Allah, and nobody else was created from Him except us.”


The Prophet elsewhere said: “Me and Ali were created from a single tree, and the rest of humanity were created from other trees. He created us with His Hand, and breathed into us from His Spirit, by means of His Spirit, to His Spirit. He made them in their forms, and made them guardians and witnesses over His Creation. He made them His Eye, watching over His servants, and made them His Tongue in His Land. He deposited His Knowledge with them, and entrusted His Creation to them. He thought them the Explanation [al-bayyan/البيان], and showed them the secrets of the hidden realm. He made one of them His Soul [nafs], and the other of them His Spirit [ruh]. Neither one of them will ever stand without the other. Their outermost form is humanity, and their inner form is Divinity, until they fully manifest themselves in the form of the Temple of Humanity, and the human race is finally able to gaze upon them in full. They are the Two Stations of the Lord of the Universe, and the Two Veils of the Creator of Creator. In both of them is the beginning of the Creation, and by them is sealed the truths.


“After them, the light of Fatimah was taken from the light of Muhammad, just as Muhammad was taken from the Light of Glory. From the Light of Ali and Fatima was taken the light of Hasan and Husain, just like one lantern illuminates another. They were created from lights and transferred into the loins of the good, and the wombs of the pure, who exist on the highest plane. They were moved one by one, not through despised fluid, nor through blood clots. No! They were moved as Lights, moving amongst the pure, and became manifested in the books of the great prophets. The Lord placed them in His Position above His servants. There are the ones who translate His Revelation, and speak of it, and transmit it to the servants. With them, His Power becomes manifest, and from them, His Signs are seen. By then the servants know His Self, and by them they obey His Command. If it were not for them, none would know, because He passes His Command however He wills.”


The Prophet said: “Indeed, in the bismillahi ar-rahman ar-rahim” and in the “al-hamdu lillahi rabb al-‘alamin” are thousands of thousands of blessings. The letter alif in them represents the covenant of Allah on His Creation. The letter ba represents the glory of Allah. The letter sin represents the brilliance of Allah. The letter mim represents the Kingdom of Allah. The lam represents his glory, and the creations submission to the walayah. The ha represents those fight against the family of Muhammad. He is ar-rahman [the Merciful] to all His Creation, and ar-rahim [the Mercy Giing] to the believing Shi’a.”


The Prince of Believers is given two special mentions in this chapter. He has made them the Wise and High, as He says “Indeed, it is in the mother of the Book with us, the High, the Wise.” [2] What this means is that He has given Ali the right to judge on the Day of Account. He is the one who will let loose and bind on that, and to him does the affair return entirely.

Allah made Ali the Straight Path. The people disagree about the Straight Path; some say that it is the Clear Book. Others say it is the religion of Allah the Glorious and Exalted, which will be the only religion accepted from people. But it is also said that it is Ali, because the book is Ali, and the true religion is love of Ali, and so the Straight Path is Ali.


Then, Allah ordered His Prophet and His Servants that they submit their guidance to the Straight Path. This is because Allah has made clear that the Path is the Book of Allah and the family of the Prophet, and for this reason has made them two, intertwined cords, with two blessings: the external blessing and the internal blessing. The external blessing is Islam, and the internal blessing is the family of the Prophet. Therefore, the external blessing is Islam, and Ali is the one with precedence in it. He is the most learned. Amongst the near relatives of the Prophet, he is the soul of the Prophet, and the blesser of the wives. He is the one who married the Mistress of the Women of the World, and his progeny continues in the two lords of the youths of paradise.


It has been reported by Anas ibn Malik from the Prophet: “We are the children of ‘Abd al-Mutallab, and we are the masters of the people of Paradise: Me, Ali, Hamzah, Ja’far, Hasan, Husayn, and the Mahdi.” And so know that the Prince of Believers is the Straight Path in this life and the next. Whoever is guided by his walayah, then he will pass over the Path with firm feet.


Allah then made the Path the most important thing, meaning that their religion is the Path of Truth. This is when He says: “The path of those whom we have blessed,” by which he refers to the family of Muhammad. Allah then described their enemies as being those whom Allah is enraged with, when He says: “Not those upon whom is your wrath.” These words have an external and internal meaning. They say that those who have His Wrath are the Jews, and those who are in misguidance are the Christians. In the internal meaning, He means those who follow the Christians and Jews in their hatred of the Family of the Prophet, are those who have the wrath of Allah upon them, and are in misguidance. As far as the sunnah is concerned, the Prophet said: “You will follow the paths [sunnan] of those who came before, in every identical way.” In the narration of Abu Sa’id, the Prophet added: “…even if they follow a lizard under its stone, so will you do so.” The Prophet said to Ali: “You are the one over whom they will fight. You have a quality of Jesus. Just as the Jews hated him, so much so that they slandered his mother, and just as the Christians loved him, so much they claimed he was God. There will be those who follow you who will enter the Paradise because of your love, and there will be a people who will hate you, and will enter Hell on account of their hate, and you will have done nothing wrong.”


He is similar to Jesus insofar as the intense hatred that the Jews had towards him, and the intense love that the Christians had of him. Whoever turns away from the love of Ali is those of whom Allah says in this chapter when he says “Those upon whom is Allah’s wrath”, and this refers to the human beings of this community who have turned into animals.. As far as those whom Allah speaks of when He says, “the misguided”, it is those who are excessive in their love of Ali. May Allah curse those unrelenting haters of Ali, and all who fight against him out of petty jealousy.


References
↑ Shu’ara 119
↑ Zukhruf 4