The process of Islam proceeds through two movements:
- The movement of tanzīl from above to below. This is the movement of revelation or the Qurʾān brought by the Prophet of Islam (S);
- The movement of taʾwīl from below to above. This is the movement led by the Family of the Prophet (S).
So in correspondence to these two movements the axis of Islam has two poles: The Qurʾān and the Family of the Prophet (S). This axis is one of walāyaḧ:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَعَلَ وَلَايَتَنَا أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ قُطْبَ الْقُرْآنِ وَ قُطْبَ جَمِيعِ الْكُتُبِ عَلَيْهَا يَسْتَدِيرُ مُحْكَمُ الْقُرْآنِ وَ بِهَا يُوهَبُ الْكُتُبُ وَ يَسْتَبِينُ الْإِيمَانُ وَ قَدْ أَمَرَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص أَنْ يُقْتَدَى بِالْقُرْآنِ وَ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَ ذَلِكَ حَيْثُ قَالَ فِي آخِرِ خُطْبَةٍ خَطَبَهَا إِنِّي تَارِكٌ فِيكُمُ الثَّقَلَيْنِ الثَّقَلَ الْأَكْبَرَ وَ الثَّقَلَ الْأَصْغَرَ فَأَمَّا الْأَكْبَرُ فَكِتَابُ رَبِّي وَ أَمَّا الْأَصْغَرُ فَعِتْرَتِي أَهْلُ بَيْتِي فَاحْفَظُونِي فِيهِمَا فَلَنْ تَضِلُّوا مَا تَمَسَّكْتُمْ بِهِمَا
Sure Allah has made the doing of walāyaḧ through us, the People of the House, the vector of the Qurʾān; and the vector of all the divine books. Upon this activity do the firm signs of the the Qurʾān revolves, and through it all the divine books are given and dynamic belief and security (īmān) is clarified.
And surely the Messenger of Allah (S) commanded that he be emulated through the Qurʾān and the Family of Muḥammad (S). That is as he himself said, in the last speech that he gave:
Surely I am leaving among you the Two Weights: The Larger Weight and the Smaller Weight. As for the Larger, it is the Book of my Cherisher-Lord. As for the Smaller, it is my Intimate Ones, the People of my House. So protect me [and my legacy] through both of them, and you will never go astray as long as you hold on tightly to both of them!
Our research projects include research on the early history of the Qurʾān and its recitation. One area of particular interest is the work of the Companion of the Prophet (S) ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd on the recitation and transcription of the Qurʾān. In the Ḥusayniyyaḧ (private and invited members only for now) we are already exploring some preliminaries of this research.
In our two books, Islām, Sign and Creation and Islām, Station and Process a foundation for those wanting to explore the basics of the path of walāyaḧ is provided. In a sense those two books are a prerequisite to a number of other projects which will go much deeper into the multi-dimensional aspects of the oceans of the Two Weights. See also our page on Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿAlī Shāhʾābādī.