Alone with the beloved: the words of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn in The Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya

For over thirteen centuries the Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya has enjoyed importance amongst Muslims, its authorship attributed to ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 95/713-4), the great grandson of Prophet Muḥammad, and fourth Imam in the Twelver Shīʿi School. Despite its immense and rich repository, the study of Shīʿism has mostly been a neglected branch of Islam in the West, consequently little has been written on the Ṣaḥīfa, other than a significant and valuable translation with an introduction by Chittick. This, being a first serious research of the Ṣaḥīfa focuses to reconstruct its context, based on the thesis that to understand a text is to follow its dynamics, its movement from what it says to that which it discloses, including a biography, investigation into authenticity, an exploration of style and themes and conclusion. Chittick describes the Ṣaḥīfa as “one of the deepest veins of Islamic spirituality”. Religion and even non-religious systems although diverse, universally and inevitably aim to achieve a better life by guiding the individual and community by what is most natural in the form of common human values and aspirations. These are reflected and resonated in the Ṣaḥīfa, directing both the individual and community towards growth and thereby fulfilling their own purpose. The Ṣaḥīfā Sajjādiyya invites the reader to ponder over the depths of goodness inherent in the human being as it serves as a treatise of instruction in the development of the human self. God, as the Object of the Ṣaḥīfa portrays the most noble rank befitting humanity, serving as both a Means and the Ultimate goal for the culmination of human beauty