A method of the self
Imam al-Sajjad (a)
Risalat al-Huquq
حَقُّ نَفْسِكَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ تَسْتَعْمِلَهَا فِي طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ
“Your soul has a right over you: to employ it in obedience to Allah.”
The method
The Treatise on Rights maps devotion into duties — the right your own soul holds over you, then those of the tongue, the prayer, the parent, the child, the neighbour, the teacher, and everyone met in a day. The self is not corrected only by looking inward at a trait; it is corrected by discharging what is owed. Worship that does not improve how people experience you has not yet reached them.
Their practice
Choose one person whose right you regularly overlook. Read the relevant passage from Risalat al-Huquq, perform one specific duty toward them for seven days, and keep the action private unless disclosure is necessary.
Sit with these
- Does my private worship improve the way people experience me?
- Which right becomes invisible when I am tired, hurt, or preoccupied?
Key texts: Sahifa Sajjadiyya · Risalat al-Huquq · Du'a Abu Hamza al-Thumali
Their life and the shared path →How the app helps you keep it
You can follow this method for forty days. It adds 3 steps to your day, each one tickable, with the reasoning behind it a tap away:
- The right of your own soul — morning
- One right you overlook — through the day
- Account for the rights of the day — evening
Each evening you write what happened and which defence held, so the forty days end in a record of your own pattern rather than a row of ticks. A slip is noted and never resets the count.
Source
Composed for this app from Risalat al-Huquq and Sahifa Sajjadiyya
Risalat al-Huquq and Sahifa Sajjadiyya — Imam Ali Zayn al-Abidin (a)