Three admonitions from a great Sage

Sayyid ‘Ādil al-’Alawī, quotes his late mentor, the pious Shi’ite Marja’, Āyatullāh al-’Uzmā Shahāb al-Dīn al-Najafī al-Mar’ashī as having advised him as follows:

إِذاَ اَرَدْتَ التَّوْفِيْقَ فِيْ حَيَاتِكَ الْعِلْمِيَّةِ فَعَلَيْكَ بثَلاَثَةِ أَعْمَالٍ: الأَوَّلُ: كُنْ دَوْماً عَلىَ طَهَارَةٍ وَوُضُوْءٍ فَإِنَّهُ يُنِيْرُ الْقَلْبِ وَيُزِيْلُ الْهَمّ. الثَّانِي: شَيِّعْ الْجَنَائِزَ اَيّ جَنَازَةٍ رَأَيْتَهَا وَلَوْ بأَقْدَامٍ. الثَّالِثُ: شَارِكْ فِيْ قَضِيَّةِ الْحُسَيْن عَلَيْهِ السَّلاَمِ بأَيِّ نَحْوٍ مِنَ الْمُشَارَكَةِ. ثُمّ قَالَ: كُنْتُ مِنْ مُدَرَّسِي الْحَوْزَةِ الْمَعْرُوْفِيْنَ، وَكُنْتُ آنَذاَكَ أُوَزِّعُ الشَّايَ عَلى النَّاسِ فِي الْمَجَالِسِ وَالْمِآتِمِ الْحُسَيْنِيَّة.

“If you would like divine succor (tawfīq) in your intellectual and practical life, you should practice the following three acts:

(1) Always be in the state of purity and wudū’, for that illumines the heart and removes anguish.

(2) Escort the dead body, whoever it may be [among the Muslims], even for a few steps.

(3) Participate in the matter of Husayn (as) [i.e. any ceremony that concerns his exalted personality]

Then he said to me: I was one of the well-known professors of the Islamic Seminary; and during that period I would distribute tea to the people who attended ceremonies for mourning Imām Husayn (as).”

[Qabasāt min Hayāti Sayyidina al-Ustādh, pg. 118]