Mohammad Ghotbi's essay “Supplication in Process Theology”

In the thirteen previous writings of the Doboni Theology series, it was said of the human world that "the human world has been divided into two parts: the individual world (personal world) and the social world (surrounding world). The individual part of the human world relates to the personal and private lives of human beings and encompasses the moral, mental, psychological, intellectual, etc., dimensions of the individual. The social part of the human world pertains to the individual's social life and includes interpersonal relationships and their interaction with other human beings in society. In this series of articles, the individual part of the human world was called the personal world, and its social part the surrounding world, and it was emphasized that ignoring and neglecting either of these worlds leads to a one-dimensional God, a one-dimensional monotheism, and a one-dimensional spiritual wayfaring, and everything was said about the multi-dimensional monotheist wayfarer versus the one-dimensional monotheist wayfarer." It was also emphasized that "Doboni here means a balanced engagement with both the personal world and the surrounding world in religiosity and the dual-axis teachings of religion." Subsequently, in the article on the Doboni theology model of religion-as-identity, it was stated that Doboni theology can create a synthesis for existential-individualist and existential-collectivist approaches to religion.

If we look at the contemporary tradition of writing supplications, figures like Shariati and Chamran can be cited as examples whose supplications, in addition to personal and individual aspects, also had socio-political dimensions. In his 1972 lecture, "The Most Beautiful Worshipping Soul of Imam Sajjad," published under the same title in the collected works (8) titled (Supplication), Shariati says about supplication in Islam and Shi'ism: "...Therefore, human need, as well as the human's amorous and mystical feeling, has created two types of prayer, with both of which we are familiar. But Islam preserved these two fundamental dimensions of prayer and added a third dimension to it, which is specific to Islamic prayer, and that is: the dimension of awareness, intellectuality, or the part of wisdom, in Islam's own terms, which has been added to the other two parts—the expression of feeling and love, and the presentation of the supplicant's need, want, and poverty. In this sense, a complete text of an authentic Islamic prayer comprises three dimensions that fulfill three needs: one is the manifestation of poverty and need; another is the manifestation of a mystical and amorous feeling—which is merely the secret communion of a lover; and the third is intellectual and scientific education and the creation of philosophical and doctrinal self-awareness for the supplicant within the text of the prayer. It is here that the direction of the prayer completely changes. The direction of prayer is always from the human towards the worshipped and towards God, but in the dimension of awareness, it is the opposite: while the supplicant is praying, the addressee is, in truth, themselves, because in this part, [attention to the dimension of] wisdom is involved; here, nothing is asked of God. [In the position of asking,] the addressee is God. I call upon Him, I pray—that is, I call. Likewise, here I do not offer my mystical feelings, worship, affection, and love to my beloved and worshipped, so that the direction of feeling is from me towards God. In this third dimension, which I call the dimension of awareness, or the ideological dimension, or the doctrinal dimension, or intellectual education, while I am calling upon God in a form called prayer, I myself am the addressee, and the prayer is the text of a lesson. It is here that the one praying is, in truth, the one being addressed. This is the third dimension that is added in Islamic prayer. But Shi'ism, due to its particular historical and social destiny—which was a struggle against the ruling establishment—and also lacking any means of jihad, as well as lacking the right of expression and the pen to articulate social pains, class, social, doctrinal, intellectual, and group slogans, and to present its demands, ideals, and principles of belief, and to lay out the most fundamental sufferings and the most fundamental aspirations of its group, for itself and others, has used the form of prayer, in its most sublime form, which is the prayer of Imam Sajjad, as a means of jihad and also as a means of presenting and expressing social thoughts, sufferings, pains, and also the specific destiny of Shi'ism, its past, calamities, catastrophes, wills, aspirations, submissions, crimes, oppressions, instances of being oppressed, acts of tyranny, and martyrdoms, all of which collectively shaped the historical destiny of Shi'ism in the history of Islam, and all of them are manifested in the text of Shi'i prayer. It is here that prayer is both a way of speaking with God—as it has always been—and, in Shi'ism, 'a way of speaking out.' Therefore, Shi'i prayer, as the most complete school, is itself defined in four specific dimensions: need—love—awareness—struggle."

Therefore, a supplication in this tradition, in addition to its personal and individual aspects (poverty and need / love and mysticism), simultaneously possesses socio-political aspects (wisdom and awareness / commitment and struggle).

The socio-political aspects can be seen in the Sahifa Sajjadiya and the supplications of Imam Sajjad (AS). In the twentieth supplication (the Supplication for Noble Moral Traits), he says: “O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, and grant me a hand (power) over one who wrongs me, a tongue (proof) over one who disputes with me, and victory over one who shows enmity and stubbornness towards me; and grant me a way and strategy against one who deals with me with cunning and ill-will, strength against one who pressures and harms me, the power of denial against fault-finders who find fault with me and revile me, and security against the threatening danger of enemies…” In other passages, he says:

“Allahumma inni a‘udhu bika min hayajan al-hirs ... wa ilhah al-shahwa wa ta‘ati al-kulfa wa ithar al-batil ‘ala al-haqq ... wa su’ al-wilaya li-man tahta aydina ... : O God! I seek refuge in You from the stirring up of greed ... and the insistence of lust, and undertaking affectation, and preferring falsehood over truth ... and bad governance over those under our authority. ‘Aw nu‘dida zaliman aw nakhdhula malhufan: O God, do not make us among those who aid an oppressor or abandon a distressed person.’ ‘Wa la taj‘al li’l-zalimin zahiran: Do not make us a support for the oppressors.’”

Now, consider an example of Chamran’s supplications, which incorporates these four dimensions (need, love, awareness, commitment) together within itself:

《.. O God! You have bestowed so much mercy upon me and have regarded me with such favor that I am ashamed of my own existence, I am embarrassed to stand before You, and I consider myself too insignificant to thank You in response to all this magnanimity and lordship, and I even deem thanking You a shortcoming and an insult to Your sacred presence.

O God! You made me love, to burn in the hearts of lovers.

You made me tears, to burn in the eyes of orphans.

You made me a sigh, to ascend to the heavens from the breasts of widows and the afflicted.

You made me a cry, to proclaim the word of truth as loudly as possible before the tyrants.

You made me a measure of assessment, to be a manifestation of divine values, to demonstrate truthfulness, sincerity, love, and sacrifice.

You kneaded the warp and woof of my being with sorrow and pain, You burned me with the fire of love. You refined me in the storm of events, melted me in the furnace of pain and sorrow, You drowned me in the sea of calamity and affliction, and burned me in the desert of poverty, deprivation, and loneliness.

O God! I thank You for creating tears, which are the essence of human life, when I burn in fire, or melt in intense pain, or dissolve in the longing for beauty and mystical taste, and my entire being becomes spirit, becomes grace, becomes love, becomes burning, and the essence of existence turns into tears, and as the most beautiful product of life, which has one aspect turned towards love and taste and another towards sorrow and pain, drips down upon the lap of existence.

If the great God asks me for a document, I will present my heart, and if He asks for the product of my life, I will offer my tears.

You made me pain and sorrow, to be a companion to the deprived and the broken-hearted, You made me love, to burn in the hearts of lovers.

You made me asceticism, to be present in times of pain, sorrow, defeat, pressure, and discomfort, and in times of victory, celebration, and the division of spoils, to gather up my skirt and remain alone with my God in the desert of solitude.

O God! I thank You for creating sorrow, and for melting Your sincere servants in its fire, and for enriching me with this great blessing.

O God! I was burning in personal sorrow and pain, You so immersed me in the pains and sorrows of the tormented, the deprived, and the broken-hearted that I forgot my personal pains and sorrows...》.

And Shariati’s own supplications, which, with his particular literature, beautifully intertwined these four dimensions:

《.. O God: "sincerity" and "sincerity" and "sincerity" O God: in my soul, let not the difference in "humanity" be mingled with the difference in "thought" and the difference in "relationship," such that I can no longer distinguish these three separate hypostases from one another.

O God: do not make me, out of envy, malice, or bias, an amateur agent of the oppressors.

O God: so slay selfishness within me, or so exalt it, that I may not feel the selfishness of others and suffer from it.

O God: grant me, in faith, "absolute obedience" so that in the world I may be "absolute rebellion."

O God: do not drag me into the banality of comfort and happiness; bestow upon my soul great anxieties, noble sorrows, and immense bewilderments.

O God: do not lower my thought and feeling to a level where I might notice the petty cunning, the wretched vileness, and the foulness of the "scarcely human pseudo-people."

O God: so kindle the sacred fire of "doubt" within me that it burns away all the "certainties" they have engraved upon me. And then, from behind this heap of ashes, let the compassionate smile dawn upon the lips of a morning of certainty, washed clean of dust.

O God! Destroy this petty, fault-finding, calculating, expediency-worshipping reason, which ties so many knots upon the two great wings of migration from "is" and ascension toward "ought," beneath the steps of this caravan of restless flames of longing that passes swiftly through me.

O God! Purify me from the wretchedness of the friendships and enmities of base spirits, in the shelter of magnificent souls and the hearts of all centuries, from Gilgamesh to Sartre, and from Siddhartha to Ali, and from Loppi to Ayn al-Quzat, and from Maitreya to Razas.

O God! Do not allow: my faith in Islam and my love for the Prophet's household to make me sing in chorus with the merchants of religion, with the onslaught of fanaticism and the agents of reaction. Let not my freedom become captive to the vulgar taste. Let not my "religion" be buried behind my "religious image." Let me not conceal what I "know to be true" because "they deem it evil."

...If all creation turns into rabid wolves

and terror and hatred rain down upon my head from the sky,

You are my eternal, invulnerable, compassionate one,

O everlasting refuge,

You can be the substitute for all shelterlessness...》.

In accordance with what has been presented, and following the tradition of supplication-writing of Shariati-Chamran, and in the hope of increasing multi-dimensional prayers, the supplication "Liberation from the Lordship of Self" is offered by the author at the end of this writing:

"Liberation from the Lordship of Self"

☘ O Lord

Deliver us from the prison of selfishness and self-conceit

Grant us the gift of altruism

So that instead of for ourselves

We may wish for everyone

Desire for everyone

And like You

Rain and shine equally upon all

Help us

So that in the distance between self and God

We do not forget the people

☘ O Lord

Deliver us from the prison of self-regard and self-praise

So that amidst the great ocean of creatures

Amidst the people of history, near and far

Amidst the infinite galaxies

We may confess to being

An "infinitely small particle"

Help us

So that self-aggrandizement,

Self-superiority and self-omnipotence

We may forget

? O Lord

Deliver us from the prison of self-worship and self-centeredness

Until we become the god of our own world

And do not sacrifice everything and everyone

To our own desires and greed

Help us

Not to play God in the worlds of others

Not to fall into rebellion and tyranny

And in every station

Not to drag people into oppression

Through the levers of despotism, stupefaction, and exploitation

O Lord?

Deliver us from the prison of self-display

So that we may be bound only to You

Not in bondage to the "body"..

So that we may be concerned with how we are in Your eyes,

Not with how we are in the eyes of others..

Help us

So that we may be bound only to You

Not in bondage to the "self"..

Not like the companions of gold, power, and deceit

In bondage to wealth, power, and status,

Or like the opportunists

In bondage to wine, kebab, and the lute

☘ O Lord

Deliver us from the prison of the self

Grant us passion, consciousness, and honor

So that we may not become captives of ignorance, fear, and gain

And not serve the architects of ignorance, oppression, and hunger

Help us

Amidst truth, expediency, and profit

To run after the call of truth

So that we may not turn truth, goodness, and beauty

Into reality, profit, and consumption

O Lord?

All that is foul comes from the lordship of servants

And all that is pure comes from their Godlikeness

At the crossroads of purity, emptiness, and foulness, do not lead us astray

Help us

To safeguard our awareness, freedom, and creativity

And to remain "a Godlike being in exile"

☘ O Lord

Lords are many, and servitudes are many

Help us

So that we may be bound only to You

And from "our own lordship"

And that of others

Be freed...

Shariati believed that in the three domains of culture, politics, and economy, the wielders of force, wealth, and deception—who seek to concentrate power, wealth, and knowledge in their own hands—feed and grow fat on people's ignorance, self-interest, and fear, using the tools of threat, stupefaction, and enticement. Force feeds on fear through threat, wealth on self-interest through enticement, and deception on ignorance through stupefaction. By imposing ignorance, oppression, and hunger upon the people, through despotism, exploitation, and stupefaction, they transform the ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty in people into reality, profit, and consumption. In such conditions, for those who acquiesce to this situation, profit takes the place of value. In Shariati's view, against the trinity of ignorance, self-interest, and fear, one must set the trinity of passion, consciousness, and honor. Against ignorance, consciousness; against fear, passion; and against self-interest, honor, so as not to surrender to the situation. A situation in which force, wealth, and deception strive to create a social Darwinism, to kill passion, consciousness, and honor in people, to transfer the pure to the class of the hollow or the wicked, and to perpetuate their domination over this asphalt jungle. From his perspective, one must defend one's freedom, awareness, and creativity against the guardians of ignorance, superstition, and lies through the continuous reinvention of the self. For the just distribution of power, one must be a proponent of freedom and democracy; for the just distribution of wealth, a proponent of justice and equality; and for the just distribution of knowledge, a proponent of pluralism and diversity. Here we arrive again at the trinity of mysticism, equality, and freedom. In previous articles, the two individual and social foundations of mysticism were elaborated; in the next writing, we will elaborate on the two individual and social foundations of equality and freedom within this trinity in dual-foundation theology.

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Audio file of “Liberation from One's Own Lordship”

A supplication by Mohammad Ghotbi Recited by Hamideh Mansouri Background music: Alireza Heydari [the piece “Meeting with God”]

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