" Most of the verses/signs [of the Qur'an] possess an eye that is gazing at many other verses, and a face that is directed towards those verses; in this manner, each one verse extends spiritual lines of kinship and connections towards other verses, thus weaving the miraculous pattern"
"He created you all out of ONE living entity and from it brought out its mate; and He descended for you EIGHT pairs of cattle; He creates you in the bellies of your mothers one creation following another within THREE darknesses. THAT for you all is your Sustainer. The Dominion is His, There is no deity other than He, so then how do you get diverted, led away, turned away?"
The Ayat ( Sign, verse) chose to visit to me a few days ago at the time of Fajr. I listened to it every morning being recited by a Qari' who was previously unknown to me; the recitation is OK but somehow I do not move away from the Ayat. Every morning as I am having my coffee for the pre-dawn meal, I listen again and again to the Ayat. Today finally it started unlocking its secrets...There are many varieties of attention and many types of listening to the Qur'an, I have accepted that those various kinds of listening will also be visited on me depending on my state when I listen, on the Ayat itself which will be ready to unlock some of its treasure at the right time and above all depending on where Allah swt chooses to take me today. Some days, after listening I do not feel that I have listened ; on other days I listen but I know that I am skimming the surface and not diving and finally on other days the waters open, my attention is fit and I am allowed to go in.. it is on those days that I feel that i have been given a key and am permitted to look into the details of the Ayat...it is then that I sit down, read it carefully, look at the meaning of each word, at the ordering of the words...it is just the beginning of a process that will by Allah's permission continue for years for this ONE Sign.
The first thing that caught my attention is "He created you all out of ONE living entity" : this time instead of focusing on Creation, I am led to see all those who exist presently in this world as coming out of one entity and thus related. We are not strangers to one another, our original bond cannot be broken no matter how much it is denied in our heedlessness; difference and distance are not our original relations conditions. I, you and the others going back in the chain of species are relatives through this act of creation :
And He it is who out of this water has created man, and has endowed him with [the consciousness of] descent and marriage-tie: [I.e., has enabled him to attribute spiritual value to, and to derive strength from, his organic and social relationships.] for thy Sustainer is ever infinite in His power.
Another indication of our similarities is the exact way we are being created stage after stage in the darknesses of the womb.
The second thing are the numbers: Mathematical order of creation. This is not just an enumeration of things that happened: the numbers in themselves must be signs. I have never understood the Sufi interest in numbers but may be this Ayat is going to open that door for me. 1, 8,3. Inshallah.
Then the last verb (Tusrafoon) in the passive tense: "You get diverted away" from this straight knowledge, from this Truth (Haqq) and the verse that had been previously floating in my consciousness for days finds her place here :
"And Hu [is the one] who created the heavens and the earth by/with/by means of/according to the Truth"
This evident Truth the pivotal pole of Creation is what we are being diverted away from. InSarafa means has turned away from the Direction, the Face of The Truth ( Al-Haqq) Allah swt.
And now the rest of the verse is clear :" THAT for you all is your Sustainer. The Dominion is His, There is no deity other than He". Haqq.
Alhamdullillahi Rabbil 'Alameen - Gratitude to Allah the Sustainer of the Universes for this Sign, this reminder, this morning, the gift of the Ayat, and the inexhaustible gift of the Qur'an.
أَوَ مَن كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَن مَّثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا
Can he who was dead and to whom We gave life, and a light whereby he can walk amongst men, be like him who is in the depths of darkness, from which he can never come out?
Imam Ismail Haqqi:
The Friends of the Absolute Truth (Haqiqa) have stated: “Death is through the frivolity (Hawa) of the Self [ Hawa: is also “He fell”], and life is through the love of the Truth (al-Haqq)”.
They also said, death is through denial while life is through knowledge of the Divine (Maarifat). There are those who are alive as humans but as the dead in their graves, whose hearts cannot escape the darkness of their potential existence; there are others who are alive through the life of Maarifat. But human life will pass as per His words : “Every Self will taste death” Surat al-Anbiya’:35, as opposed to the life of Maarifat “We grant him a worthy life” Surat al-Nahl:97 and according to the Prophetic utterance (saaws): “The faithful is alive in both abodes”.
" المؤمن حى فى الدارين ".
Know also that the One who is truly Alive ( HAYY), was never dead and will never die is Allah (swt) and all other than Him is dead; for this other was dead at one point and will die once again at some other point.
The Sheikh al Akbar (Qas) stated:” Whoever witnesses the created beings as possessing no acts, has won; and whoever witnesses them as possessing no quality of life has won; and whoever witnesses them as the locus of non-existence (‘Ayn al-‘Adam), he is the one who has reached”
Abdullah bin Zaid recounted: “I met a monk and asked him: “How long have you been in this position?” He said “24 years”. I asked “Who is your companion?” He said “The One, Incomparably Unique (al-Fard), the Self sufficient; the One who is impermeable to the effects (al-Samad)” so I asked “And of the creatures?” He said “The solitary animal”. I asked: “What is your nourishment?” He replied “The remembrance of Allah ( Dhikr’ullah), so I asked: “And of the earthly foods?” He replied “The fruits of these trees and the plants of the earth”. I asked: “Do you not miss anyone?”. He said: “Yes, I miss the Beloved of the Hearts of the Knowers ( al’-Arifeen), I asked: “And of those created?” He replied: “The one whose intense anxious yearning (shawq) is for Allah swt, how does he yearn for His creatures?. I asked” Why have you forsaken His creatures?” He said: “They are thieves of the Intellect, they (like bandits) obstruct/block the highway to Guidance”. I asked “How does one recognize [that one is on] the highway to Guidance?” He replied“If he manages to escape to His Lord from all other than Him and becomes busy with His remembrance away from all other than Him. Each Salek has a different step on his way to the King of Kings.”
Shaykh Abdul Wahed Ibn Zaid also recounted: “I wanted to reach al-Quds but got lost on the way. A woman came to my encounter, so I said to her “Stranger you are lost!” She replied “How can one be a stranger when one knows Him, and how can one be lost when one loves Him?” She then added “Hold on to my cane and come closer to me”; So I did approach about 6 steps, and suddenly found myself inside a Masjid in al-Quds, I rubbed my eyes and thought I was mistaken. However, she said ”O you! Your step is that of the ascetics and mine is that of the Knower (‘Aref). The ascetic walks but the ‘Aref flies”. Then she became absent from me, so that I could no longer see her.”
And so it became clear from this story that the ‘Aref has a Light with which he walks anywhere he wishes, while the Ignorant remains in the valleys of perplexity and cannot find a way except through gifts of Success from Allah swt and His Guidance. As the blind and the one who can see are not equal, so are the ignorant and the knower not equal; be the knowledge in the station of Sharia, or Tariqa or Maarifa or Haqiqa (absolute Truth). Allah swt differentiates between those who are people of Hal (station) and those who are people of words (Maqal). The greatness of the bestowed Light and its expanse are appropriate to the vastness of the heart and the heart’s knowledge of Allah; for the heart is in the hand of Allah, He turns and changes it as He wills. He beautifies directions of Goodness to the people of belief and He beautifies all types of badness to those who are veiled [from the Truth]. “But the slaves are not coerced, they can choose to leave the darkness”...the foregoing statement is again nothing but the appearance of the situation, for were you to look closely at the proofs of creation and guidance you would understand that the bottom line in Tawheed (Unicity) is that all and everything is in the Hand of Allah affected only by what comes from Allah. If you find goodness, so praise Him intensely, for His care has preceded you and your wish...But do start by imitating those who understand! it is the case that, at times, imitation has led to realization.
Truthfully, Guidance is only from Allah the most great.
