 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. As-salamu alaikum my dear respected viewers and welcome to the Treaties of Rights series. One of the most well-known pieces of work known to the Muslim society by the fourth imam Imam Zain al-Abdin, peace and blessings be upon him, is the Treaties of Rights. Imam Zain al-Abdin's Treaties of Rights is the only work attributed to him other than supplications or relatively short sayings and letters. A glance at the Treaties of Rights will quickly show that the word rights might better have been translated as duties, obligations or responsibilities since the Treaties is not directly concerned with the rights of the individual but rather with the rights of others which the individual must observe. Islam views the individual in his total context which means that it considers first his relationship with God then his relationship with God's creatures. What is important for the individual and his relationship with God is that he attains to salvation and in other words that he follows God's guidance which is based upon mercy and directed towards his own best interest. In short Islam devalues the individual's perspective since human beings on their own can see no further than their immediate interests during life but this devaluation of individualism is not a devaluation of the individual on the contrary it raises him to the ultimate pinnacle of importance since everything is directed towards his happiness in the next world. Islam merely recognizes the ignorance of human beings and their inability to perceive their own ultimate good without divine guidance then it sets about to undermine and destroy individual ignorance a process which involves deflating the ego and eliminating all self-centered desires as a result the human self or soul the nefs has few rights but many duties and responsibilities or rather the soul has only one true right the right to salvation. The individual's right to salvation follows naturally upon God's right which is to be worshiped without any partner i.e. to hate the way to salvation is to obey God and hence it is the soul's right to be employed in obedience towards him but his very nature since his mercy precedes his wrath God displays compassion and guidance and through obedience the servant opens himself up to the full range of this compassion in other words partaking of God's mercy and compassion depends upon following his guidance and following his guidance means following the shariah as revealed through the holy Quran and the Sunnah. Hence the Imam speaks of being employed in obedience as the self's key right since only that can bring about its deliverance. The Imam peace and blessings be upon him starts by saying in the name of Allah the all merciful the all compassionate know God have mercy upon you that God has rights against you and that these encompass you in every movement through which you move every rest through which you rest every way station in which you reside every limb which you employ and every instrument which you put to work some of these rights are greater and some less here the Imam peace be upon him describes that everything surrounding us has a right towards us every move we take and every step we make forward will be accounted for everything that we use in this world has many rights towards us this means that we must use them and treat them in a correct manner now the magnitude of these rights varies some being higher up the scale and some being lower mom's in an abidin al sajad peace and blessings be upon him then proceeds to the right of Allah against us as humans regarding this mom sajad says the greatest of Allah's rights against you is that the right which he has made incumbent upon you for himself and which is the root of all the rights then those which he has made incumbent upon you and yourself from your crown to your foot in keeping with the diversity of your organs this part is quite magnificent and important because it is through knowing this right that we can continue and proceed to knowing the remainder of the rights the root of all rights is Allah's right it is mandatory of us to worship only Allah and no one else it is our duties as human beings to worship him and to do as he says in the holy Quran Allah's rights upon his creation are the rights that must be kept the most Allah is the sole creator and the sustainer of the universe he is the Almighty who created everything with absolute wisdom Allah is the one who initiated every being from nothing he is the one who protects humans and their mother's wombs as infants as children's and as adults he alone sustains all humans and provides them with food and every aspect of life in the holy Quran it says and Allah has brought you out from the wombs of your mothers while you know nothing and he gave you hearing sight and hearts that you might give thanks to Allah chapter 16 verse 78 Allah only wants mankind to worship him alone and ascribe no partners with him in worship and truly be his slaves he wants them to surrender to his will as they surrender to his control for the means of their lives it is only fair to worship only the the one who holds the existence of everything and everyone is in his hands one should thank Allah who alone provides for him by worshiping him alone Allah SWT has said in the holy Quran and whatever of blessings and good things you have it is from Allah then when harm touches you unto him you cry allow it for help holy Quran chapter 16 verse 53 let's go for a quick short break we'll be right back welcome back my dear viewers what Allah wants from us is to worship him with sincerity and to perform religious deeds five prayers a day brings forgiveness from him and purity in the heart Muslims must try to perform prayer in the best form so fear Allah as much as you are able chapter 64 verse 16 Allah SWT also wants his slaves to pay a small amount of their money to the poor the needy strangers who have no money the indebted and to others who are eligible to take the money from zakat zakat is so minimal that it does not harm the rich yet it provides tremendous benefits for the poor Allah also requires fasting in the lunar month of Ramadan in the holy Quran it says so whoever of you cites the crescents of the first night of the month of Ramadan he must fast on that month and whoever is ill or on a journey the same number of days he misses from other days chapter 2 verse 185 also the Hajj or the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime is mandatory upon all Muslims if they are able to do so in general we have the obligation to abide by all of Allah's orders and stay away from all he had made forbidden upon us above mentioned are the duties of Allah slaves towards him they are not difficult to perform the reward outweighs the requirements by far the reward is and whoever is removed away from the fire and admitted to paradise he indeed is successful the life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception chapter 3 verse 185 mom's the judge peace be upon him then proceeds to talk about the rights of oneself regarding this mom's in an abideen says he has given your tongue a right against you your hearing a right against you your sight a right against you your hand a right against you your leg a right against you your stomach a right against you and your private part a right against you these are the seven organs through which acts of or if I'll take place therefore we must respect the rights of our body parts that Allah has given us in order to honor ourselves we should seek God's help in doing so as Sheikh Tabarsi said the Arabic word nefs meaning self is used to mean the spirit or the soul as we can read in the following verse it is God that takes the souls of men at death and those that die not he takes during their sleep those on whom he has passed the decree of death he keeps back from returning to life but the rest he sends to their bodies for a term appointed verily in this are signs for those who reflect the holy Quran chapter 39 verse 42 another example where self is used to mean the soul is found in the following verse then guard yourselves against the day when one soul shall not avail another nor shall intercession be accepted for her nor shall compensation be taken from her nor shall anyone be helped from outside the holy Quran al-Baqarah chapter 2 verse 48 Sadr al-Mutaahleen Shirazi coded the Sheikh al-Rais Abu Ali Sina from Shafa there are three divisions for the self at first we have the plant self that is the first degree of perfection for an organic natural being having the ability to feed and grow the second division is the animal self that is the first perfection of an organic natural being which only has the ability to feel and move combined with will the third is the human self which is the perfection of an organic natural being with the ability to think understand and draw conclusions then the various properties and characteristics of these divisions are presented in the 22nd chapter of Risaleh Fusous al-Hakam Abu Nassal Farabi known as the second teacher said the following regarding the self indeed the perfection of the self is in the recognition of God's first right incumbent upon oneself this will result in a state of self-confidence Mr. Ilahi Gumshee made the following comments on this there are many aspects of the speaking self it is called the lascivious self because it is highly inclined to animal lustful desires as lust overtakes it the self considers obscene acts to be the beautiful ones thus it is called the adorning self also it uses trickery to do his animalistic acts and is deceitful it is called the deceitful self as it returns to his own nature and blames himself whenever he commits a wicked act it is called the reproachful self as whenever it is freed from his eagerness or for animalistic lustful desires it benefits from mental pleasures it is called the confident self whenever it fully submits to the will and pleasure of his true lover being God and destroys his own will and pleasure then it is called the pleased self for a confident self the only form of pleasure and perfection is derived from the recognition of Allah's first right that is to purify the soul from the filthiness of the body we shall discuss these aspects of the self as viewed in the Holy Quran with this we conclude and we hope to see you next time and for the next episode may Allah peace and the reappearance of our beloved Mahdi was salam Aleykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh