Hazrat Amir (Imam `Ali), upon whom be peace, was the leader of all Muslims with a domain perhaps ten times larger than today’s Iran. It extended from the Hijaz to Egypt and even farther into Africa, reaching parts of Europe. Yet when this divine leader sat with a group of people, just as we are sitting here now, even this25 was not beneath him. He possessed one pelisse, which, tradition holds, he and Hazrat Fatima would sleep upon at night and during the day he would scatter grass upon for his camel to eat. This was also the kind of lifestyle the Prophet had. This is Islam. (14)
4 July 1979 (13 Tir 1358 AHS)
The ideology was being erased and destroyed by the deviationists remaining from the Age of Ignorance26 and by the calculated plans for the revival of nationalism and Arabism with the slogan ‘no message received, no revelation revealed’,27 the just Islamic government was being turned into a monarchical regime and Islam and the revelation dragged into obscurity, when suddenly a great figure, who had been nourished by the juice of divine revelation, nurtured in the household of the lord of the messengers, Muhammad Mustafa, and the lord of the Imams, `Ali Murtaza (Imam `Ali), and raised in the care of Siddiqa Tahera (Hazrat Fatima), rose up and through his unequalled sacrifice and movement for God created a great inciden Wafat, which brought the palaces of the oppressors tumbling down and saved the ideology of Islam. (15)
16 June 1980 (26 Khurdad 1359 AHS)
This small house of Fatima’s, upon whom be peace, and these people reared there, who numbered four or five, in reality manifested all the power of God the Exalted. They rendered services at which all of us, all of mankind, marvel. (16)
9 March 1982 (18 Isfand 1360 AHS)
A woman in a small room of a humble home nurtured human beings whose light shone from the vast expanse of the earth to the highest heavens, from this world to the next. May the blessings and peace of God the Exalted be upon this small room, which was the place where the light of divine majesty was made manifest and was the nursery of the elite children of mankind. (17)
14 April 1982 (25 Farvardin 1361 AHS)
We had a humble dwelling in the early days of Islam and that belonged to Fatima Zahra, upon whom be peace. It was even smaller than these rooms here,28 but what blessings it bestowed. The blessings that came from this small hut were such that they filled the world with enlightenment. And man would have to traverse a great distance before he could reach the station of those who bestowed these blessings, for the dwellers of this humble home occupy such a high station in the spiritual realm that even the hands of the angels cannot reach them, and their teachings are such that whatever good one sees in the Muslim lands, especially in our land, comes from their blessings. (18)
21 March 1983 (1 Farvardin 1362 AHS)
In the exegesis of Al-Burhan (Tafsir al-Burhan), there is a narrative from Hazrat Baqir.29 Being a noble hadith referring to several pieces of information and disclosing important secrets, we will, owing to its blessedness, relate it in full: The author of Tafsir al-Burhan, may God have mercy on him, quoting a narrative from `Abdullah ibn `Ajlan as-Sakuni who quoted from the men of Shaykh Abu Ja`far at-Tusi who quoted Abu Ja`far himself who said: I heard Abu Ja`far (Imam Baqir), upon whom be peace, say: The house of `Ali and Fatima was the room of the Messenger of God, upon whom be peace, and the roof of their house was the Throne of the Lord of the worlds. At the back of their house there was an opening to the Throne, the curtain before the stairs of revelation having been raised. And the angels would bring down revelation to them in the morning, in the evening and at any hour or any moment. The comings and goings of groups of angels were endless. Verily did God, the Blessed and Exalted, draw back the curtain on the heavens for Abraham till he saw the Throne and He increased his seeing power. And verily did God increase the seeing power of Muhammad, `Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn, upon whom be peace. They would look at the Throne and they found no roof over their home except the Throne. Their home was roofed with the Throne of the Beneficent, and “therein ascend the angels and the Spirit by God’s permission on every affair, in peace,” (Qur’an 97:4-5). I asked: “For every affair?” He replied: “For every affair.” I asked: “Is this what was revealed?” He replied: “Yes.”
Adab al-Salat, p. 448
Notes:
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24. - The book of fifty-seven prayers known as the Sahifa-yi Sajjadiya, which is one of the major Shi‘ite manuals of prayer, was composed by Imam Zayn al-’Abidin Sajjad, the fourth of the Twelve Imams and the only son of Imam Husayn to survive the massacre at Karbala.
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25. - Imam is referring to the simple mat on which he was sitting in his home in Qum.
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26. - Referring to the pagan times before the rise of Islam.
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27. - A line from a poem attributed to Yazid ibn Mu’awiya, which denies the revelation and the basis of the prophet’s mission.
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28. - Referring to his own humble home.
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29. - The fifth Imam, Muhammad al-Baqir.
