As a boy of thirteen, Ali powerfully affirmed the Prophethood of Muhammad and was designated by the Messenger, at that moment, to be his inward spiritual successor. This noble warrior, called the whirling Lion of Allah, saved the precious life of the Prophet three times during righteous battle. Hazrati Ali is chosen by Allah and by the Prophet of Allah as the protector of the mystical path that ascends through countless radiant levels and degrees of submission and union. Ali is the root of the ever-flowering Tree of Tariqa, which brings forth fruit in all seasons of human history, in whose fragrant shade the dervishes have found and will always find refuge and delight. Thus all secret Sufis, ecstatic lovers of Truth, and poor faqirs who have lost their possessions and their personal awareness in Allah are under the special spiritual protection of the Great Ali, the foremost representative of the holy Prophet to his mystical community, the People of Nearness. The boldness of Ali must become ours. We must never worship out of a sense of conventional religious duty. The marriage of our soul to the Beloved will not be a social arrangement but an all-consuming passion of the heart. Atom from the Sun of Knowledge (Lex Hixon)