Speech [Man's desire for Absolute Perfection and his self-centeredness]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Our nation has faced many challenges and problems during the past year. However, experience has proved that man is not liberated from the inclinations of his lower nature to seek comfort and ease in the absence of problems, hardships, war, and other such trials. This war has undoubtedly proved to be severely distressful for our nation but it should be mentioned that our youth and those who serve at the warfronts and all the war-affected peoples exhibited exemplary patience and forbearance, beyond all expectation. These were the blessings that came along with all the privation and hardship of the war. Had the nation been unsupportive of the government and its efforts and had it not shared the problems and difficulties that came with the war and had it instead chosen to stay aloof without any active involvement of the youth and the rest of the nation, this war would have proved to be futile. But today, our entire nation, and not only the youth and those who are serving at the warfronts, but also all the elderly men and women as well as our young girls and even our minors are actively present at the scenes and everyone has taken on the responsibility of defending the country.

The appreciation that I experience within myself when I watch these noble ladies on television, actively supporting the armed forces, is not experienced within me for anyone else. These ladies are offering selfless service without any expectation for posts, positions, or for any other compensation from the nation. They are in fact like the anonymous soldiers who are busy serving at the holy warfront. Even if the Islamic Republic would not have presented any other benefits except for this national involvement and such an active participation in all the national affairs, this in itself would have been an unprecedented divine miracle. This is a divine gift that has reached us through God without any human interference. We should be grateful for this blessing and should learn from these ladies and children who are serving behind the scenes as well as from those who are present in the ruined or the semi-ruined cities. We should take our lessons from their Islamic behavior, their faith, and their selflessness. We could be doing a lot of social service that could prove to be beneficial for the society but not for our own selves. We could be doing work for the welfare and progress of the society but cause regression for ourselves. In such case, not only would we end up without any divine rewards but we would even suffer great personal damage.

We should follow in the footsteps of those who are serving the country selflessly and should reform ourselves. Were we to develop such a selfless spirit, all our services, too, would gain direction. If everyone were to serve toward a common goal, or in other words if the common goal would be serving God selflessly, there would be no room for any individual differences. All problems faced by humanity have stemmed from man himself. And all our human problems and in fact even the natural calamities that inflict us, like earthquakes, floods, or storms are probably because we have not given enough attention to reforming our unconscious ways. If we only reformed our own ways and especially if those who hold a sway over the masses reformed their own selves and if we were to have a common goal and if all our works were for God then no differences would issue among us. And even if some differences of opinion were to arise, they could be dealt with in a divinely-prescribed manner instead of a wicked one. The key to everything is self-reformation. All our problems stem from our own" self" and reform should begin firstly with our own" self". No one should expect to reform others before he has reformed himself. This is a baseless expectation. Only if one has succeeded in reforming himself can he succeed in reforming others.

Man has certain characteristics that cannot be found in any other being. One of those characteristics is that man, by nature, seeks nothing short of Absolute Power. He is satisfied with nothing less than Absolute Perfection. His quest is for Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Power. And since Absolute Power cannot be found in anything but God Almighty, man by nature- quite unwittingly- only seeks God. One of the strongest and most evident proofs of Absolute Perfection is man's love for Absolute Perfection. Man truly loves Absolute Perfection. Not some imaginary" Absolute Perfection" but Absolute Perfection Itself. It is impossible to find the presence of a lover without there first being the presence of a Beloved.

Imagination and selfish fabrication are ineffective in this realm because man's natural disposition seeks actual Absolute Perfection and not a mere imagination for the skeptics to call him deluded. Man's pure primordial nature cannot be fooled. All human beings, owing to the pure primordial nature, seek Absolute Perfection for themselves. Man is acquisitive by nature and seeks monopoly even over Absolute Perfection. However, Absolute Perfection, no matter who or how many seek it, is only One Single Reality. It is not divisible so that any sort of monopoly can apply here. It is only One Single Indivisible Reality. Man is such that if he were to possess authority over an entire city, he would still not be satisfied because he would then desire authority over a province. And if he were to be declared the governor of a province he would still find himself dissatisfied. His heart will now desire to rule over an entire country. Even if that country were to be given into his hands, he would remain unfulfilled. Now he will wish to gain control over other countries too. You can all see how the two superpowers of our times are not happy with their positions. America wants to eliminate the Soviet Union from the scenes while the Soviet Union holds the same desire toward America, both believing that if this desire of theirs would be fulfilled they would experience satisfaction. The truth is that even if this entire earth were to be handed over to someone, he would still remain dissatisfied and would seek something else to chase. This is because man loves Absolute Perfection and Absolute Power. Even if the whole universe along with all the galaxies and all the stars and planets were to come under the control of a single person, he would still remain dissatisfied because none of these are Absolutely Perfect. Unless and until man unites with the Ocean of Absolute Perfection and loses his individual identity in that Infinity he will never attain peace of heart and certainty. The Glorious Qur'an says:" Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest." «1» And, thus, neither presidency or premiership nor the might of the big powers and nor the ownership of all the material and spiritual worlds can satisfy man. That which brings in real certainty and frees the heart from its anxieties and endless desires is only the remembrance of God! Of course, the remembrance of God with an oral litany (dhikr) of" There is no god but Allah" is not enough. The litany should flow from the heart, with remembrance and a total focus on Him. Elsewhere the Holy Qur'an says:" But Ah! Thou soul at peace! Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure! Enter thou among My bondmen! Enter thou My Garden!" «2» It would be too lengthy to explain what these verses imply so let me just offer an allusion. A" soul at peace" is a soul that is freed of all individual desire. There is no question here of chasing the presidency now after becoming a prime-minister and so on. Even if the entire universe were to be handed over to him as a single morsel he would see imperfection in it and would find that he is seeking something else. He will only attain complete peace when he reaches Absolute Perfection. Absolute Perfection is attained when only He remains and when there are no traces of anyone else. No desires for kingdoms or rule, no desires for the material or spiritual realms, and no desires for the unknown realms or martyrdom remain within him whatsoever. When remembrance is focused solely upon God, the heart finds peace. And that is when he is told:" But Ah! Thou soul at peace!" Now has the heart freed itself of all temptation and now it is that it has no desire for anything else! Nothing else will now quench your thirst, so return to your Lord! Enter thou among My bondmen! This verse does not say" enter among the bondmen of Allah" and nor does it even say" enter among the righteous bondmen"- it simply says" enter thou among My bondmen"! This is how subtle it is! And then," enter My Garden" and not" The garden"- because that garden is for others! That garden, with all its vastness and expanse, is for the" righteous bondmen" but it is not good enough for" My bondmen"! The divine servant seeks nothing but service. And that, too," His" (Huwa's) service! That is the Garden of Union and the Garden of the dhat and not the garden that the others seek. This is the Garden you all seek, God willing, and not the garden of the" righteous bondmen". This Garden is union with none other than Him! That is when the" soul at peace" has entered the Source of Light and Absolute Perfection and has united with the True Beloved! Man does not love anything else; he is only deluded! These big powers are under the delusion that they will be content with domination over this world and everything in it. This is proved by the fact that it is in the nature of man to desire an infinite kingdom which is not owned by anyone else. And yet if he only gets to hear that there is still another kingdom beyond all the earthly and heavenly realms, he will- having no choice of his own- start yearning for it. And even after he has been granted control over all the earthly, heavenly, and spiritual realms, if he hears that there is yet another realm and if he is asked whether he desires it or not, his answer is bound to be in the positive! This is what the primordial human nature is like. No human being can claim to be any different. If you ask a scholar who is well-versed in all the knowledge of this world as well as the hereafter, if he still desires to gain some knowledge beyond what he already possesses, the answer will be," Yes". He will start yearning for that knowledge now. All these yearnings only end when Absolute Knowledge is reached and when this drop merges into that Ocean.

So remember that whatever it is that you are yearning for, believing that attaining it will satisfy you forever, it is never going to be enough. You could believe that what you are yearning for is something quite negligible. An ordinary man may yearn for a home and a meager living and until he does not succeed in acquiring these, he may believe that these are his only wants. But the moment he gains these, he will want something else. Until one has not become a prime minister he may think that this is what he is yearning after but the moment he reaches that position, he will realize that this is not what he wanted. He will now want something bigger. Take for example the President of America. Today, he possesses half the power over this entire planet, and believes that if he succeeds in defeating and eliminating the Soviet Union and if the entire power comes into his own hands, he will then be satisfied. Least does he understand that such is not going to be the case. He does not realize that his love is actually for God and not for these worldly things. What proves this is that even when he reaches all such worldly desires, he is still going to be left with an empty sense of desire! If you then ask him if he desires power over the planet Jupiter, he will say" Yes". Man's desires are endless. It is futile to even try to reach complete contentment within this paradigm. All our differences arise because we are under a misconception and the problem lies with our choice of goals. Our goals are not based upon our primordial nature and we are unaware of that reality. We have not bothered to read the" book" of our primordial nature and since we are not acquainted with it, we end up chasing false goals like endless power etcetera. No matter what goals we pursue, when we attain them, we realize that this is not what we were seeking after and our hearts are still restless and this restlessness grows day by day. The primordial human nature, without any exception, loves Absolute Power and loves God. The greatest problem is that we do not understand this reality and we are unaware of this truth and are under false notions. If we only responded to the true desires of our primordial nature, we would reach Absolute Perfection. The bane of man is that he instead pursues a false notion of perfection. He falsely believes that he will reach perfection if he becomes a big" boss". Least does he realize that even if this entire universe were to be handed over to him, he would still remain restless and dissatisfied. This is because his true desire is for Absolute Perfection. Regarding this, the Glorious Qur'an says: The nature (framed) of Allah, in which He hath created man. «3» This primordial nature is tawhid; this primordial nature is Absolute Perfection. And until one does not reach them, he keeps seeking. He is actually seeking a lost treasure and the problem is that he does not even know what it is that he is seeking. Everyone looks covetously at what others have. What you are truly seeking is Absolute Perfection and this is the best proof that it very much exists.

There would be no talk of love without the presence of an actual lover and an actual beloved. This is one of the strongest proofs of Absolute Perfection. Do not run around in vain! Do not take all this trouble because you are never going to attain satisfaction in this manner. Pursue something that will grant you true joy and a peaceful soul. What salvages man from all anxiety is the remembrance of God. It is only with the remembrance of God that all anxieties disappear and certainty of heart is obtained. It is only when certainty of heart is attained and when the heart is fixed only upon God that it is addressed in the words:" O soul at peace!" It has been narrated that this verse is addressed to the Doyen of the Martyrs, Imam Husayn (`a). «4» Then what is it that all of you are striving to attain with your pens or your words? It is only a false imagination! You are only under a false notion that once you attain these goals your heart will find peace. No! In fact, the moment you attain such goals, they will only add to your anxiety and your restlessness will increase. Remember that a dervish sitting in a corner with a small piece of bread is much less anxious than the president of America. Strive to rid yourself of these apprehensions instead of adding on to them. The higher you climb, the more restless you become.

Strive to remove the veils that are between you and God Almighty. It is you that is the thickest veil! Man himself is the thickest veil! Try to attain a peaceful heart. Put your efforts in seeking comfort and not in gathering restlessness and insecurity. Even in this very world, such anxieties and insecurities keep man in an inferno. These very anxieties are one of the gates of hell. Strive to rid yourselves of this restlessness. Your restlessness is not going to disappear once you attain that additional post. No, it will only add to your anxiety! Try your best to eliminate these deep fears and anxieties which are part and parcel of chasing self-centered goals. Eliminate the mischief of your carnal self. Once you succeed in doing that, all your restlessness will come to an end. All these anxieties that man creates for himself by chasing posts and positions, believing that he wants to serve God through them, are false notions. Since man is drowned in self-love, he believes that whatever he does is good and is for God. But if only he were to consult a God-Knowing man, he would soon learn that all his acts have only been out of self-love. Only if you succeed in putting aside all your selfishness and then work, such work would be selfless. It is only natural that when there will be no" you", there will also be no hostility. The divine prophets (`a) had no hostility among themselves. Even if all the prophets (`a) were to gather in one place, they would never have any differences among themselves. This is because all of them have their eyes fixed upon One common Goal and all other selfish goals have been eliminated. There is no ego at work. There is a narration which says that we will all have to pass through a narrow path or bridge in the hereafter. This path will actually be passing through hell and will not be like a bridge suspended over a river under which, hell, which we face the danger of falling into, lies. No! We shall all have to pass through it! Even when a believer has to pass through this path, the fires of hell are very much present. The only difference is that in this case, hell will ask him to pass by swiftly lest its fires cool down! Our narrations mention that the prophets (`a) and the Imams (`a) have said that such is the case of the" Friends of God" [awliya' Allah] who have claimed to have passed through the" path" while the fires of hell had cooled down for them. «5» This is because this cooling of the fires begins with the" self" and when the fires of hell within man have cooled down, then all the fires will cool down for him. The fires of hell that eventually burn man have been ignited only by his own self. Whatever we undergo is only because of our own actions. The Qur'an says: Whatever of misfortune striketh you, it is what your right hands have earned. «6» We have created hell with our own hands. A narration mentions that when the Prophet (s) had ascended on his nocturnal journey and ascension [isra' wa'l-mi`raj], he witnessed a certain group of angels engaged in building houses in Paradise. These angels worked for some time and then halted for some time. The Prophet (s) asked Jibra'il (Gabriel) why this was so. Jibra'il explained to him that it is the deeds of man that are the raw material required for these constructions and only when these deeds reach the angels can they continue with their construction work. The periods during which man becomes negligent about his actions are the periods when the angles have to stop their work. So whatever eventually comes upon you is wrought at your own hands. God Almighty sent all the divine prophets (`a) to salvage you from this abyss and all of them strived to their very best to prevent you from falling into the same. They did not gain much success because the call of man's carnal desires took precedence over their divine invitations.

My purpose in bothering you all with this conversation was only to point out that the superpowers and all the top officials are not left under the fallacy that once they achieve this and that desire they will be left content. These will only add to your anxieties and restlessness. Why would man want to add on to his restlessness?! Why would he wish to add on to his problems and spin webs around himself like a spider?! All our acts will manifest themselves in the other world like the web of the spider. We are only entangling ourselves with our own hands. Why are you striving to add on to your own problems? Salman was the governor of Mada'in. Once, when that place had been hit by floods, he simply picked up his meager belongings (only a piece of animal skin) and stood upon an elevation, saying:" Salvaged are those whose burdens are light. I have nothing that the floods can carry off!" And mind you, Salman was the governor of that place! But those who have added to their belongings in this world- whether material or positional- are the ones who will have to face the most difficulty in the other world. Why should we add on to our own difficulties?!

Let us all strive for the sake of this nation. Let us put in everything we have in order to save this country from its current plight, brought upon it by all those who have jointly declared war against us. Let us all concern ourselves with salvaging this country instead of seeking our own personal interests. Let us all work together to save our peoples, our nation, and Islam from the evils of the big powers. Even if you want to manage a simple home it is not possible to do so unless all the members- the husband, the wife, the children, and even the servant- are in alignment. And it is impossible to manage an entire nation without alignment even if you have all the determination to do so. Keep the interests of the people in mind. Our people are all working for God. All those who are dying at the warfronts, all those who are afflicted by the problems of war, all those who have been rendered homeless and are living in tents without even the basic amenities are all doing so for the sake of God and they are more dear to God than me. They may possibly even be dearer to Him than you. Why shouldn't we be concerned about their interests? Why should not we think about saving this nation? Why should our hearts not even contain a fraction of what the hearts of the divine prophets (`a) contained? The Holy Qur'an tells the Prophet (s):

"Then maybe you will kill yourself with grief sorrowing after them." «7» The Noble Prophet (s) grieved at the ignorance of the kuffar [disbelievers]. He could see that they were igniting the fires of hell for themselves. Why should our hearts not contain even a fraction of what those noble" souls at peace" contained so that we can work selflessly for this nation?! Everything will get rectified if only we strive for the interests of this nation. In this New Year, let us all resolve to work selflessly for this nation. Even if we take on posts and positions, let it be in order to serve this nation. If we succeed in doing this, even to the smallest degree, this New Year will prove to be prosperous and peaceful.

I pray to God to guide us and to grant us awareness toward our responsibilities and to reveal to us the shortcomings of our souls and to lead us to salvation from its evils.

May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.