Taslim
Taslim, meaning obedience to God, not objecting to afflictions and adversities, and sincerity in monotheism, is a fundamental principle for achieving spiritual peace and salvation.
Importance and Position of Taslim
Taslim in ethical and mystical terminology means the complete and unconditional acceptance of the will of God and His will.[1] Scholars of ethics and people of gnosis have expressed abundant materials in their works discussing the station of Taslim, its reality and levels, its difference from other stations, and the effects of Taslim.[2]
Imam Khomeini has also addressed the discussion of the reality of Taslim, its levels, its difference from other stations, and the effects and results consequent upon Taslim in his works.[3]
Reality of Taslim
Scholars of ethics and people of gnosis consider Taslim to be exactly the steadfastness and non-alteration of the apparent and the hidden during afflictions and calamities.[4] Imam Khomeini also considers the reality of Taslim to be inner submissiveness, heartfelt belief, the soundness of the soul from defects, and its emptiness from malicious traits, and believes that Taslim is one of the good attributes of a believer that is realized for him through traversing spiritual stations and divine knowledge, and whoever submits to the Truth and the divine awliya' reaches the destination sooner; hence, the wayfaring human must strive to find a skilled physician and submit to him, and if he argues and does not submit to him and wants to cure himself with his own intellect, he may perish. Some scholars of ethics consider the station of Taslim to be higher than the station of rida; because in the station of rida, whatever God does will be agreeable to the individual's nature and inclination, but in the station of Taslim, the person has entrusted his nature and inclination to God.
Imam Khomeini considers the station of rida to be higher than the station of Taslim, although he believes that a level of the station of Taslim is above the station of tawakkul and rida; because if the wayfarer is a person of seeking and love and is far from egoism and carnality, God brings him to absolute annihilation and thunderstrike with a single manifestation and attraction. Just as it happened for Prophet Musa (a), and if he has a defect, he rises from the midst with this very merciful manifestation that has been achieved out of special divine favor, as this station of Taslim is higher than tawakkul and rida with the divine decree.[5]
Effects and Results of Taslim
Scholars of ethics have enumerated numerous effects and results for the station of Taslim, including: tranquility, insight into religion, benefiting from the glad tidings of the Qur'an, benefiting from guidance to the straight path, tawakkul, and success in divine trials.[6] Imam Khomeini has also expressed numerous effects and results for the station of Taslim. Citing the verse "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you judge in what they dispute among themselves, and then find no constriction in their souls regarding what you decide and submit completely,"[7] he believes that the taste of faith is achieved in the palate of the human soul when it submits to the divine rulings in such a way that no constriction from them arises in its being. Imam Khomeini considers Taslim to be from the army of the intellect and the Merciful, which is the requisite of the pure primordial nature (fitra), and believes that by virtue of the soundness of human fitra, one submits to the Truth. Hence, the opposite of Taslim is vacillation and doubt; if the human soul submits, the entire existential realm of the human being has submitted and will not have any egoism, movement, or stillness of its own.[8]
Notes
- ↑ Ṭūsī, Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī, p. 116; Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, pp. 80-85; Kāshānī, Sharḥ Manāzil al-sāʾirīn, pp. 341-345.
- ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 233; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 79, p. 136; Ṭūsī, Awṣāf al-ashrāf, pp. 85-86; Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī, p. 116; Sulamī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya, vol. 1, p. 59.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Sharḥ-i ḥadīth-i junūd-i ʿaql wa jahl, pp. 401-407; Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 23; Sharḥ-i chihil ḥadīth, p. 47; Sirr al-ṣalāt, p. 78.
- ↑ Sulamī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya, vol. 1, p. 59; Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, p. 85; Kāshānī, Sharḥ Manāzil al-sāʾirīn, pp. 341-345.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Sharḥ-i ḥadīth-i junūd-i ʿaql wa jahl, pp. 402-405.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 12, p. 347; vol. 17, p. 231; Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 217; Ḥuwayzī, Nūr al-thaqalayn, vol. 3, p. 94; Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 3, p. 505.
- ↑ Qurʾān 4:65.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Sharḥ-i ḥadīth-i junūd-i ʿaql wa jahl, pp. 401-407.
References
- Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, Tehran, Muʾassasat Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, 1384 SH.
- Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sirr al-ṣalāt, Tehran, Muʾassasat Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, 1378 SH.
- Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sharḥ-i chihil ḥadīth, Tehran, Muʾassasat Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, 1388 SH.
- Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥullāh, Sharḥ-i ḥadīth-i junūd-i ʿaql wa jahl, Tehran, Muʾassasat Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, 1387 SH.
- Jurjānī, Sayyid Sharīf, al-Taʿrīfāt, Tehran, Nāṣir Khusraw, 1370 SH.
- Ḥuwayzī, ʿAbd ʿAlī, Nūr al-thaqalayn, Qom, Nashr-i Maṭbaʿat al-ʿIlmiyya, 1383 AH.
- Sulamī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya, Tehran, Nashr-i Tūs, 1362 SH.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Tafsīr al-Mīzān, Qom, Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1417 AH.
- Ṭabrisī, Ḥasan, Majmaʿ al-bayān, Beirut, Dār al-ʿUlūm, 1379 AH.
- Ṭūsī, Khwāja Naṣīr, Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī, Tehran, Intishārāt-i Khwārazmī, 1399 SH.
- Ṭūsī, Khwāja Naṣīr, Awṣāf al-ashrāf, Tehran, Wizārat-i Irshād-i Islāmī, 1373 SH.
- Kāshānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Sharḥ Manāzil al-sāʾirīn, researched by Bīdārfar, Qom, Intishārāt-i Bīdār, 1385 SH.
- Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Biḥār al-anwār, Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ, 1404 AH.
- Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir, Tafsīr-i nimūna, Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1374 SH.
- Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī, Tehran, Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī, 1366 SH.