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Towards the Inner Vision of the Truth

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"Lo! those who believe and do good works, their Lord guideth them by their faith." — Holy Qur'an 10:9

 

Candle Posts :: Motivational Gems for Higher Spiritual Enlightenment

:: Candle Post #44 :: What are the Spiritual States of Murids of the Holy Imam? ::

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Ya Ali Madad. Today, May 14, 2009, marks the end of the Baitul Khyal satado and is also day 14 of 40-day project entitled "Welcoming NOOR Mowlana Hazar Imam (a.s.) to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada". At this point, I request the members who are participating in the 40-day project to keep the goal of reaching 100% in their minds. Currently we are at 35% (14 out of 40 days are completed). Click here to view the activities for each of the remaining days.

What Happened to the Holy Prophet During Merâj?

In the last candle post, we learned that Jibrîl stays behind in Jabrût, the World of Light and Majesty, and the true Prophet or the true believer goes on his own into the Lâhût, the World of Divinity and Oneness. Let us now read more about this concept:

'According to the tradition, not even Gabriel could accompany the Prophet beyond the ultimate lotus tree, as-sidrat al-muntahâ. "If I would go one step further, my wings would get burned," is the archangel's sigh, as the poets and mystics interpreted it. For Rumi, the answer describes the weakness of discursive reason (thinking power) when it draws nearer to the mystery of divine love:
 
'Reason speaks, like Gabriel: O Ahmad,
If I advance one step, He will burn me.'
(Mathnawi-i ma'nawi 1:1066)
 
It was at this moment that the Prophet was left alone in the loving encounter with God that he describes with the words, "I have a time with God in which no created being has access, not even Gabriel who is pure spirit." For Gabriel is still a veil between the lover and the beloved.
 
The Prophet's expression "I have a time with God" (li ma'a Allah waqt) is often used by the Sufis to point to their experience of waqt, "time", the moment they break through created time (or relative time marked by the movement of stars and heavens or the word 'zaman' in the first part of Holy Dua) and reach the Eternal Now in God (or absolute time where there is only the present, and the past and the future do not exist, also referred to as 'asr' in the first part of our Holy Dua), when everything created (including the archangel) remain outside and is, in their experience, annihilated. Iqbal, in his modern interpretation of mystical symbols, understands this tradition as a reference to the moment at which "the infidel's girdle," namely, "serial" (or relative) time is torn and the mystic establishes direct contact with God in a person-to-person encounter.
 
This emphasis on the person-to-person encounter is the mystical interpretation of the mi'raj seems particularly revealing. The Prophet, although created as the most perfect being, still remains a creature and is not united with God. The opening words of Sura 17—"praised be He who traveled with His servant at night" — indicate that even in the moment of rapture the Prophet is still called 'abduhu, "His servant." That implies that "servant" is the highest possible name for a human being, who, however, is able to speak to God without being extinguished.'
 
(Source: Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, pages 219-220)

The moral from the above teaching:

Each one of us has a potential spiritual world that needs to be developed. Now, from the above teaching, we have learned that when a true mu'min achieves merâîj, he/she gets out of the world of time and space, i.e., the created world and enters into the World of Command in which everything manifests itself instanteneously (Be and it is!). In other words, there is only the present (or Eternal Now) in the World of Command and this is called 'asr' or absolute time. The ultimate power and goal of bandagi is to reach the World of Divinity and Oneness. In Baitul Khyal firmans, this is the place of He Who is above all else. This is the greatest reason that we have Baitul Khyal bandagi (meditation) in our Tariqah.

The Pirs have taught us knowledge and have made the statement that you have just heard about mystical vision but we have actually seen it! Therefore, we have to ask ourselves: "Should we just stop after hearing this or should we perform bandagi so that we can also see and experience this?".

How does the above knowledge relate to our Holy Imam?

In the third paragraph of the first part of our Holy Dua we say:

Allahunna salli 'ala Muhammadinil-Mustafa, wa 'ala 'Aliyyinil Murtaza, wa 'alal a'immatil at'haar, wa 'ala Hujjatil amr, Sahibizzamani wal asr, Imaminal Hazaril Maujood, Mawlana Shah Karimil Hussaini

O Allah, let Thy peace be on Muhammad—the chosen, and on 'Aly—the favorite, and on the Imams—the pure, and on the evidence of Thy Authority—the Lord of [present] age [Zaman] and the [Eternal] time [asr], our present living Imam, our Lord Shah Karim Al-Hussaini.

From the above teaching of meraj, relative time (zaman) and immoveable or absolute time (asr), we have to ask who is the Lord of Zaman and Asr of our personal worlds? According to our Holy Dua, our Holy Imam is the Lord of the Zaman and Asr of our personal worlds.

How does the above knowledge relate to our spiritual status?

All people live in the world of humanity (Nasut) and are at different stages along the path of spiritual progress and development. This path is like a ladder with four steps:

  1. The True Mu'mins live in this world but have reached the first step of the ladder of spiritual progress and development. As they have achieved this, they have no fear of deviation from the Right Path and have the choice of living in this state or advancing to the next step.
     
  2. The Righteous Ones (Salihin) also live in this world, but have reached the second step of the ladder of spiritual progress and development, i.e., spiritually they have reached the world of angelicity (Malakut). They see the manifestations of light and have recognized their own soul.
     
  3. The Spiritual Martyrs (Shuhada) also live in this world, but have reached the third step of the ladder of spiritual progress and development, i.e., they experience the Light (Noor) of the 99 Divine Attributes (99 Names of Allah) in the world of majesty (Jabarut). The world of majesty is also the world of pure intellect which manifests itself as Light.
     
  4. The Truthful Ones (Siddiq), also known as Wali (the Friends of Allah), also live in this world, but have reached the fourth step of the ladder of spiritual progress and development, i.e., they have reached the world of divinity (Lahut). In this world of divinity, they experience the hidden treasure of Allah and are given the knowledge of key secrets. In the material world, such persons speak most truly, and explain knowledge most clearly, because they have seen this in the world of divinity. The world of divinity has many names such as the World of Oneness, the World of One Reality (Monoreality), the Abode of Eternal Peace, and the place of annihilation and Eternal existence.

The Holy Prophets, the Holy Imams and the Holy Pirs have all experienced the World of Divinity. Some true believers have also reached this stage so all of us have an opportunity of following the dignitaries of our faith.

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Ardent Supplications:

Ya Ali, Ya NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam, create Sunshine in our hearts, light in our foreheads, and bless us all with the inner vision of the Truth!

Ya Ali, Ya NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam, grant the global Jamat luminous (noorani) and spiritual (ruhani) tayid (help) to advance materially, spiritually and intellectually. Ameen.

Haizinda — Qayampaya
(Our Present Imam is Living and His NOOR is Eternal)

Rakh Mowla je Noor te Yaqeen (Certainly, we trust in Mowla's Light only),
Noorallah Juma
SalmanSpiritual.com
Thursday, May 14, 2009

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