Conjectures Between Propagation Of Truth And Concealing Of Divine Secrets
This Should Not Create A Conjecture That We Must Not Do Any Propagatory Work. Whatever The Scholars Have Learnt From The Infallibles Should Not Be Divulged. I Will Tell You A Parable About The Complexity Related To The Mentality Of Some Theology Students. It Is A Parable About An Ant And A Leaf. The Ant And Leaf Both Had Problems; The Leaf Would Fly When The Wind Came And The Ant Drowned In Water. So They Both Got Into An Agreement; The Ant Told The Leaf That When There Is A Storm I Will Help You And When There Is Flood You Should Help Me. In Order To Sign This Agreement They Decided To Go To A Place Where No Theology Stu- Dent Was Present. They Found An Isolated Place And Got Ready To Make The Pledge, Wherein They Asked Each Other What They Could Do For The Other. The Ant Said, I Will Help You During Storms And The Leaf Said, I Will Help You During Rains. When They Pledged This, Theological Students Came Out From The Bushes And Asked What Would Happen If Both Storm And Flood Happened At The Same Time?
This Is A Repeated Question That If We Have To Keep The Secrets Of Infallibles Then Should We Not Do Any Propagation? Should We Not Invite People Towards Righteousness? Keep- Ing Secrets And Inviting Towards Truth Are Two Separate Things. We Should Not Hide Truth It Should Be Propagated But Truth Has Different Categories. One Type Of Truth Is Known As Secret (Sirr) And This Secret Should Not Be Made Public. We Should Become Protectors Of This Secret. What Is This Secret? This Secret Is That Of The Wilayat Of The Infallibles.
You Should Invite People Towards Wilayat And Truth But When Revealing The Secrets Of Wilayat Just See Whether The Person Is Eligible Or Not. If One Is Not Eligible, Do Not Hand Over The Secrets To Him. It Is Also Mentioned In Narrations That Wisdom Should Not Be Re- Vealed Or Taught To Non Eligible Persons Because Teaching Wisdom To Non Capable Persons Is Oppression On Wisdom. And Also Keeping Wisdom Away And Hidden From The Eligible Ones Is Oppression On The Eligible Person. You Should Not Stop Wisdom From Reaching The Eligible And Never Talk About Wisdom With The Ineligible. This Is The Character Of Infal- Libles. There Are Dozens Of Such Instances Present Where Infallibles Have Said That So And So Person Does Not Keeps Secrets, So Do Not Bring Him. People Would Bring Others To Sit In Their Gatherings So That Others Would Also Learn Something. The Infallibles (a.s) Would Tell Them To Definitely Bring Them To Gatherings But Not To Those Specific Ones Where Secrets Are Talked About. Let Me Present Some Famous Narrations So That Your Level Of Certainty Increases On This Matter.
It Has Been Narrated By Ameerul Momineen (a.s) That The Holy Prophet Would Teach Reli- Gion Every Day To People But Not To The Same Level. Some People Were Preached Religion At Specific Times; Some Were Taught Before The Dawn Prayers And Some After, Some Near Sun- Rise, Some During The Day. These Different Preaching Levels Were Made For People. It Was A Practice For Every Night That The Messenger (s.a.w.s) Would Have A Private Isolated Meeting With Ameerul Momineen (a.s) And There Would Be No Third Person In This Private Meeting. These Meetings Were At Times Held In The Chambers Of One Of The Wives Of The Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) Would Ask Her To Leave The Chamber Even If She Raised A Request To Lis- Ten. Some Of The Wives Were Very Highly Trustworthy But Even They Were Not Allowed To Be Present In This Meeting. But Ameerul Momineen (a.s) Says That When The Meeting Would Take Place In His House And The Daughter Of The Prophet, Lady Fatema (s.a) Would Desire To Be Present, He (s.a.w.s) Would Allow Her To Sit And Never Asked Her To Leave. These Were The Secrets Which The Messenger (s.a.w.s) Transferred To Ameerul Momineen (a.s) Because For Preserving Secrets A Firm Breast Is Required And Ali Had That Secrets Preserving Breast In Him. Then Ali (a.s) Also Had Some Secrets In His Breast For Which He Was In Pursuit Of Other Such Breasts. He Told Kumayl (r.a), O Kumayl! Keep Your Hand On My Chest.O Kumayl! This Chest Has A Sea Of Knowledge Whirling Inside But I Am In Pursuit Of A Chest To Receive This Knowledge.
We Wish Someone Had Been Found To Take Care Of Ali’s Knowledge. When He Did Not Find Anyone, He Delivered The Secrets To The Water Well. This Was A Symbolic Sign That These People Are Not Worthy Of Listening To My Secrets; I Cannot Talk About This To Everyone. Some People Insist On Knowing The Secrets Immediately But How Can We Tell Them The Secrets Because They Are Of Loose Mouth. If Secrets Are Told To Loose Mouthed Persons Than It Remains A Secret No More. It Is Mentioned In Narrations About Dissimulation (Taqiya) But These Narrations Of Dissimulation Cannot Be Considered As Secrets Because They Were Meant To Be Only Hidden From Enemies. Hence The Secrets Of Infallibles Are Not Present In Traditions. The Infallibles Under A Certain Astonishing Wisdom Wrapped These Secrets In Specific Envelopes And Made Attempts To Get Them To Eligible People. These Secrets Remained Through Entire History And People Kept On Reading Them, But They Did Not Know That These Were The Secrets Of The Ahlulbayt (a.s). In Order To Preserve These Secrets The Infallibles (a.s) Prepared The Pilgrimage Testimonials (Ziarat Nama).
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