بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

ÎMÂN-BELIEF – 5

The Second Word

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ1

If you want to understand how great happiness and ni’mah and how great pleasure and ease are to be found in îmân, look and listen to this short story in the form of a comparison:

One time, two men went on a journey for both pleasure and trade. One is self-centred and unfortunate; he entered in one direction; the other one is fortunate; he knows Allah and sees haqq and haqiqah; he entered in another direction, and they went.

Since the self-centred man is both self-conceited and pessimistic and just worries about himself, in his view, he falls into a very bad country as a punishment for pessimism. He sees that the impotent unfortunates exclaim, “Ah, and alas!” due to the fearsome despot men and their destruction everywhere. He sees such a sorrowful, excruciating situation in all the places he travels. The whole country has taken on the form of a general house of mourning. To not feel this excruciating and dark situation, he cannot find any way apart from drunkenness because everyone appears to be an enemy and foreign to him, and all around, he sees fearsome corpses and orphans weeping despairingly. His conscience remains in torment. 2

The other man, who knows Allah and sees haqq and haqiqah and performs ‘ibâdah to Allah, and whose concern is the haqq, had fine morals that he fell in a very beautiful country in his view. Thus, this good man sees a general cheerfulness in the country he enters. All around rejoicing, a festival, and the places for dhikr of Allah within rapture and merriment...  Everyone appears to be a friend and relative to him. Throughout the country, he sees a celebration of the general demobilisation with cheers and thanks. He also hears the rejoicing sound of a drum and melody due to the enlistment of soldiers with "Allahu Akbar!" and "Lâ Ilâha Illallah!" While the first unfortunate man grieves at the pain of both himself and all the people, this fortunate man is pleased and merry, both at his and all the people’s joy. Furthermore, he obtains a profitable trade. He offers shukr to Allah.

Later, he returns and comes across the other man. He understood his condition and said to him, "You have become mad. The ugliness within you must have been reflected in your exterior, so that you imagined laughter to be weeping and demobilisation to be robbery and pillage. Come to your senses and purify your heart, so that this calamitous veil can rise from your view, and you can see the haqiqah. For the country of an infinitely just, compassionate, powerful and tenderly kind sultân who cherishes his subjects and nurtures order, a country that, in front of the eyes, demonstrates works of progress and achievement to such a degree cannot be in the form that your wahm has shown you."

Then, that unfortunate man comes to his senses, repents and says, "Yes, I have become mad due to drunkenness. May Allah be pleased with you that you saved me from a state like Jahannam."

O my nafs! Know that the first man is a kâfir, or a ghâfil fâsiq. In his view, this world is a house of general mourning; all living beings are orphans, weeping at the blows of separation and death. As for the animals and men, they are forlorn, disordered civilians ripped apart by the talons of the appointed hour of death; great beings like the mountains and seas are terrifying corpses without rûh. Many painful, overwhelming and terrifying wahms like these originate from his kufr and dhalâlah and inflict him with torment in a ma’nawî manner.

As for the other man, he is a mu’min. He recognises and affirms Janâb Al-Khâliq. In his view, this world is a place for the dhikr of Rahmân, a place of learning for man and animal and an arena of examination for man and jinn. As for all the deaths of animals and men, it is demobilisation. Those who have completed their duties of life go rejoicingly from this transient realm to another ‘âlam, which is without tempests, so that the places can be opened for new officials, and they can come and work. As for all the births of animals and men, it is the enlistment in the army, the call to arms and the start of duty. Each of all living beings is a rejoicing regular soldier and a mustaqîm contented official. As for all voices, they are either dhikr and tasbîh at the start of the duty, shukr and gladden arising from the end of their shift, or melodies arising from the joy of working. In the view of that mu’min, each of all beings is a companionable servant, a friendly official and a pleasant book of his Sayyîd, Who is Karîm, and Mâlik, Who is Rahîm. Many more subtle, exalted, pleasurable and sweet haqiqahs like these manifest and emerge from his îmân.

It means that îmân bears the seed of a ma’nawî Tûba-Tree of Jannah, while kufr conceals the seed of a ma’nawî Zaqqûm-Tree of Jahannam.

It means that salâmât and security are only in Islam and îmân. In that case, we should continually say, اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ عَلَى دِينِ اْلاِسْلاَمِ وَ كَمَالِ اْلاِيمَانِ3

 

 

فَنَادٰى فِى الظُّلُمَاتِ اَنْ لآَ اِلٰهَ اِلآَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَۗ اِنّ۪ى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِم۪ينَۚ٭ اِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ اَنِّى مَسَّنِىَ الضُّرُّ وَاَنْتَ اَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ ٭فَاِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِىَ اللّٰهُۘ لآَ اِلٰهَ اِلاَّ هُوَۜ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظ۪يمِ* حَسْبُنَا اللّٰهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ ٭لاَ حَوْلَ وَلاَ قُوَّةَ اِلاَّ بِاللّٰهِ الْعَلِىِّ الْعَظِيمِ ٭ يَا بَاقِى اَنْتَ الْبَاقِى ٭يَا بَاقِى اَنْتَ الْبَاقِى ٭ 4

 [This first section of the Thirty-First Letter is six Flashes, which will show one of the many nûrs of each of the above blessed phrases (kalimât al-mubârakah) which have great fadhîlah in being recited thirty-three times every time, particularly between Maghrib and 'Isha.]

The First Flash

The du’â of Hazrat Yûnus ibn Matta ‘alâ nabiyyinâ and ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm5 is one of the greatest du’âs and the most important means for acceptance of the du’â.

A summary of the well-known story of Hazrat Yûnus ‘Alayhissalâm: He was cast into the sea, and a large fish swallowed him. In a state of the sea being stormy, the night tempest and dark and hope ceased from all sides, the du’â of لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ اِنِّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ6 swiftly became the means of salvation for him. The great mystery of the du’â is this: In that state, causes entirely became of no avail. Because in that state, to save him, such a One was needed Whose command to be obeyed and carried out by both the fish and the sea and the night and the sky. Because the night, the sea and the fish were united against him. One Who subjugates the three of these to His commands could disembark him to the shore of salâmât. If all creation had become his servants and helpers, they would have been of no help. That means causes have no effect. Since he saw ‘ayn al-yaqîn, that there could be no refuge other than the Causer of Causes7 , and since the mystery of Ahadiyyah unfolded within the nûr of Tawhîd, that du’â suddenly subjugated the night, the sea and the fish. It turned the belly of the fish into a submarine through that nûr of tawhîd, and the sea amidst the dread of the quaking mountainous waves became a safe plain, an arena for wandering and a place of excursion through that nûr of tawhîd, and it swept the clouds from the face of the sky through that nûr and set the moon over his head like a lantern. The creation that had been pressing and threatening him from all sides showed him a friendly face from every direction. So that he reached the shore of salâmât and witnessed that Rabbânî favour beneath the yaqtîn8 tree.

Thus, we are in a state that is one hundred times more terrifying than the first state of Hazrat Yûnus ‘Alayhissalâm. Our night is the future. Our future, through the eye of ghaflah, is a hundred times darker and more terrifying than his night. Our sea is this bewildered globe of the earth of ours. There are thousands of corpses on each wave of this sea; it is a thousand times more frightening than his sea. The desires of our nafs are our fish; through clenching our eternal life, it works to destroy it. This fish is a thousand times more destructive than his. For his fish destroys a hundred-year life. As for our fish, it works to destroy hundreds of millions of years of life.

Since this is our true state, through following Hazrat Yûnus ‘Alayhissalâm, we too should turn our face from all causes and take refuge directly in our Rabb Who is the Causer of Causes9 and we should say: لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ اِنِّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ10 and understand with ‘ayn al-yaqîn that the One Who will repel from us the harm of the future, the world and the desires of the nafs which unite against us because of our ghaflah and dhalâlah can only be The One under Whose command is the future, under Whose rule is the world, under Whose dominion is our nafs.

Is there any cause other than Al-Khâliq of the Samâwât and Earth Who will know the most subtle and secret thoughts of our heart, and will lighten the future for us by creating the âkhirah, and will save us from the hundred thousand overwhelming waves of the world? By no means! Other than the One Who is Al-Wâjib Al-Wujûd, nothing, in any way, can give aid and salvation without His permission and irâdah.

Since this is the haqiqah of the situation, just as his fish became a mount, a submarine and his sea became a safe plain and the night took a beautiful form with moonlight for Hazrat Yûnus ‘Alayhissalâm as a result of that du’â, so too, with the mystery of that du’â, we should say: لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ اِنِّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ11 . We should engage the gaze of mercy with the sentence لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ اَنْتَ12 upon our future, with the word سُبْحَانَكَ13 upon our world, and with the phrase اِنِّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ14 upon our nafs. So that our future may illumine with the nûr of îmân and the moonlight of the Qur'an, and the terror and wilderness of our night may transform into friendly familiarity and a place of excursion. And on our world and ground, which are cast into non-existence by boarding infinite corpses on the waves of the years and centuries through the continuous alternation of life and death, we may safely travel on that sea embarking on the haqiqah of Islam which is a ma’nawî ship made in the dockyard of Al-Qur’an al-Hakîm, so that the duty of our life may finish by disembarking to the shore of salâmât. Instead of fear and terror, the storms and quakes of that sea may pleasingly caress and illumine the gaze of admonition and tafakkur by refreshing the views of the excursion like cinema screens. Also, by that mystery of the Qur'an and through the tarbiyyah of Furqân; our nafs will not ride us, it may become our mount, embark us on itself and may be a powerful means for us in the attainment of our eternal life.

In Short: Since man, due to the comprehensiveness of his essence suffers from malaria, he also suffers from the quakes and tremors of the earth, and the supreme quake of the universe at the time of qiyâmah. And just as he fears a microscopic microbe, so too, he fears the comet that appears among the lofty planets. Just as he loves his home, so too, does he love the huge world. Just as he loves his little garden, so too he ardently loves infinite and eternal Jannah. The One Who the whole universe is in the grasp of His disposal, both particle and planet are under His command can only be such a man's Ma’bûd, Rabb, refuge, saviour and purpose.

Definitely, such a man is constantly in need to say like Yûnus (as):لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ اَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ اِنِّى كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ15

سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا اِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيم