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The Secret World of Allah
By His Holiness M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
(may God be pleased with Him, and with Us)
Selection: Chapter 5
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Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim - In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
His Holiness Teaches Us:
I give you my love, my children, my daughters and sons, my brothers and sisters. Will you come with me to yet another ocean?
This is a vast ocean, very different from the ones we crossed earlier. It is fathomless, far too deep for us to reach the bottom or to discover all the secrets within it.
If you want to embark upon this ocean, you must board a large ship. And to go deep within this ocean, you have to change your form.
So before we begin our journey, we must once again leave our bodies behind. If we put them here on the rocks by this mountain, we can fly up to a higher point.
Come, my children. Look up, and you will see a resplendent light with many brilliant colored lights emanating from its center.
From this one great resplendence, ninety-nine smaller lights are emerging, some much brighter than others. Each one of those lights contain within it another ninety-nine lights, and within each one of them, there are yet another ninety-nine.
Endless groups of ninety-nine within ninety-nine are revolving within that great resplendence. Look at them. So much can be seen within each one!
Now direct your wisdom and your qualities solely on the resplendence in the center. Surrender to it and remain focused on that one point until you come to a state in which you can speak to it.
Focus all of your thoughts, your mind, your intentions and your whole being on that light in the center and listen to what it says.
Can you hear each ray speaking to you? Listen to every atom of that sound. Absorb each word and be absorbed in that light alone.
Fix the focus of the life of your soul and your heart on that resplendence. The radiant power in the center is Allah. And the lights you see emerging from Him are His qualities, and His duties, and actions, or wilayats. They rule all the universes in this world and the next.
My grandchildren, you must make your wisdom, qualities, and good conduct disappear into that resplendence. You must seek only to surrender to that light. Your one thought must be, "Accept me."
It was in such a state that Moses (A.S.) spoke to Allah on Mount Sinai. And it was through this light that Moses (A.S.) met God.
In the same way, your eyes, your wisdom, and your faith, certitude, and determination, your iman, must not turn toward anything else. They must all be directed solely toward that one point of Allah.
To Him you must say, "Only You are God, Ill Allah". To everything else you must say, "There is nothing other than God, La ilaha."
Now, let your soul journey directly to that point of surrender, and become a part of the light.
Look, my children, we have taken the form of the soul, the ruh, and we have been absorbed into the light. The body has been left behind. We can come back to it later, but now let us journey forward in the form of the soul.
Here we are on top of a high, rocky mountain, surrounded by a vast and unfathomable ocean. Come with me down the mountain to the ocean. We must go along a passageway so narrow that only an atom of air can pass through it.
Now we have come out on the other side. Look at this huge world, this great kingdom, surrounded by water, air, and fire. When we look up, we see sky; when we look down, we see earth. The same things exist here that exist in the world from which we came.
Can you see how far this kingdom extends into the distance? Let us travel through it and explore.
This section here is the secret world of Allah's essence, His dhat. It exists within the innermost heart, the qalb, which is shaped like a mango. In this kingdom are many, many fairies, angels, jinns, celestial beings, prophets, lights of God, and those who explain with divine wisdom, the qutbs.
Look over there at the fairies, whose special kind of beauty can entice the whole world. How lovely they are!
And here is the kingdom of the jinns. They are performing every kind of miracle. They can make sand into stone and stone into sand, and they can even assume many different forms. Watch how they turn themselves into snakes, demons, stones, animals, cows, and goats. They can change into whatever form they wish and do whatever they want to do.
Now look here and you will find the angels, the celestial beings, and the houris
performing their duties in all the eight heavens. Next to them is the section where the prophets are. And close by are the lights of God, or olis, and the friends of God, or
auliya's.
In still another section are the wise men, or gnanis, and the qutbs who explain with divine wisdom. They are close to the center. Next to that is the section of insan kamil, the perfected, God-realized beings.
Further out from the center of this group comes the community of mankind. And even further out are the people who have the qualities of birds and animals.
My children, you can never finish traveling through all this. These are the 18,000 universes.
Now look back in the middle. In the center of the resplendent light of Allah is His kingdom, where you will find all that has been revealed through His duties and actions. The resplendence and the wealth that you saw earlier is here.
Children, let us go now to a different part of the ocean. If we climb a little higher, we can look off into the distance and see trees, flowers, gold, diamonds, gems, and many miraculous things. How beautiful they all appear to be. But look again, my children!
As we draw closer, what appeared to be a gem is really a pillar of hell. We can see that these things which at first glance seemed to be beautiful treasures have taken on different forms when we look at them carefully.
What we are now visiting is the kingdom of satan, where demons and ghosts exist in hideous forms. At a distance they appeared to be beautiful birds and animals, but as we draw closer we can see their appearance changing.
Approach them very carefully. Do not let their breath or even the air they breathed touch you.
Look at those beings that have the outer forms and movements of human beings. Now look within them and you will see all their animal qualities, the qualities of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas and wasps.
These people are not really human, they are just crawling things and insects. What may look like a beautiful woman from a distance is really a hideous snake up close.
My children, this is the section of illusion. At first glance all these forms appear beautiful, but as you look more intently, you can see them laughing, crying, shouting, howling, and even killing and eating one another.
This is hell. Look around. Here you will see many wonders and find everything you desire. But what cannot be found here are the good qualities, truth, faith, certitude, true prayer, and the connection to God (wisdom).
Satan's kingdom is a tiny atom, a tiny point. That is all he has. Throughout his kingdom you can see fires burning, and from a distance the many colors and hues of the flames appear to have the beauty of heaven.
Attracted by this external beauty, men come running from all four directions, but they all end up burning in the flames. How they scream and shout as they burn! No one escapes. The fire consumes everyone who is drawn to it.
This is the hell called the mind. It is what illusion, or maya, is - the world of mind and desire. This is what is meant by the fire of the seven hells. Do you understand?
Those who come here believing in what they see find it very difficult to overcome that illusion and escape. Most of them are caught and destroyed by the flames.
However, those who have a connection to God (wisdom) have blocked off the path to this place. Within themselves they see only Allah, His mysteries, and His ninety-nine duties and actions.
Children, if you want to see God, know His secrets, and live in His kingdom where the secret of His essence exists, you must close the borders of illusion, the borders of hell. You must also block off the miracles of the jinns and the fairies. For those who have not blocked this path, hell is always wide open.
Children, come away from there, and let us go back to the section of the prophets of God, the friends of God, and the lights of God. Here we will also find the qutbs, who explain with divine wisdom. They are the ones who come forward to do the work.
My children, would you like to see some of the prophets? Look, you can see Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, David, Jesus, peace be upon them all, and finally
Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Him.
They all look alike, standing there holding Allah's flag. These eight were selected as Allah's representatives, to show proof of His power.
At the time Allah created Adam (A.S.), He placed His great resplendent light and His
qudrat, or power, in the center of Adam's (A.S.) forehead.
Look at that light again. In the beginning it came to Adam (A.S.), and then finally it was given to Muhammad (Sal.). There are many, many great secrets here.
Now look at all the prophets standing in a congregation facing Allah. They are with God, following Him and speaking to Him every second, praying and begging God's forgiveness for the children of Adam (A.S.).
Twenty-five of these prophets are radiantly clear. Do you see? The eight main representatives are standing in the first row and the rest are behind them. You can see His light coming to each of those eight prophets in front.
It always comes from the same point. Those lights, those rays, come from His mystery, from His ninety-nine duties and actions.
Listen! Allah's sound and words are coming to every prophet. He is speaking to them. Are you able to hear His sound?
You must listen with the ear of wisdom, with the ear of divine knowledge ('ilm), and with the ear of the soul, which is the form of that light. You can only see and hear such things with the eyes and ears of the light form, and you can only speak of them with the mouth of that light form.
My precious children, you cannot hear these sounds nor see His grace and power with the body you were carrying before. That form is a huge schoolhouse, and if you carry such a burden with you it will be far too heavy.
You must not lock the door of your house and keep these burdens within, for if you do, you will never hear Allah's sounds.
You will remain a prisoner in your own dark house and exist there with that heaviness within you. You will be alone in the jail you have made for yourself, and no one will be able to get inside.
Only when you leave that jail and come out will the heaviness leave you, and your burdens cease to exist. Only when you leave that form behind and allow the form of the soul to emerge will you be able to hear Allah's beautiful sounds.
Such things can only be heard and understood by the light of the soul.
My children, the light form of your soul must emerge. Then your faith, certitude, and determination will have a one-pointed focus on Allah, and you will be able to listen to the sound which connects you to Him. You will be able to see and understand His actions, His goodness, His conduct, and His qualities.
We are now traveling in the form of the soul, the ruh. All the being we see here are in the form of the resplendent grace of Allah, the form of light, the soul within the soul.
They have the forms of Allah's power, and resplendence, and are connected to Him. Bowing in obeisance, these prophets, saints, and lights of God are joining together in one congregation, praying to Allah in many ways.
Do you see them as you once saw them, as the physical forms of the prophets? No, there is no visible forms. Instead, you see each one as a ray connected to that resplendence. All the lights connect with that one Light.
My children, look at the prayers of these prophets, these resplendent lights. Let us watch and see how they pray. First the body is discarded, and then the soul disappears within Allah. Then the soul within the soul prays to Allah.
This is true prayer, and this is how you should pray. This is ilham, the prayer which merges with Allah. Ilham occurs when God and prayer become One. This is the divine knowledge ('ilm) that is understood within wisdom.
In order to go to God and merge with Him, we must leave this body. The merging of prayer with God must be exactly like a flower merging with its fragrance. Truth, Allah's qualities, and our faith, certitude, and determination (our iman), must unite with Him. Our hearts must unite with Him.
Our prayers will not merge with Allah unless we forget this body and leave it behind. As long as we do not establish prayer in the right way, ninety percent of our prayer will be futile. Only when we can discard the connection to this body will our prayers be fulfilled.
In order to understand every aspect of the divine knowledge ('ilm) that came from Him, we have to merge with Him. First, we must merge with the prophets, and then with Allah.
We must merge with every word and meaning so that we can understand the cause and effects of everything. Without attaining this state, it is difficult to learn the divine knowledge called 'ilm. Do you understand, my children?
Now let us listen to the prophets praying to God. They are speaking to Him and listening to the explanations He is giving them. God is relating certain things to each one. He is also listening, and even before they can think of what to ask, He answers them.
What limitless grace is coming down to the prophets! Did you look at the food, the light, the crowns, and the wealth that Allah has given them?
Allah is showing the prophets the wonders of all the heavens. So many great and mysterious wonders exist that you can never finish seeing them all. This is the secret of Allah's grace, known as the sirrudh-dhat.
Now the prayers are finished, and the prophets feel complete and blissful. They have finished bestowing the blessings upon the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon Him), or salawat, and are giving salams, or greeting of peace, to each other.
Do you see their joy? Now that you have come to the state in which you can hear them, you must listen to their sounds, join their prayers, and give salams to each of the prophets.
My children, now look again at the center. Here is Allah's mystery. Come closer, but not too close, for the brightness is so intense. Sounds are coming from every light. Resplendent light and sound are scattering everywhere.
Answers are resonating for every question, every second. Everything is occurring simultaneously; there is no time. His answers, His protection, and His sustenance are flowing endlessly throughout eternity.
Look at the light of Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, that is shining above. Now look at the prophets, one by one.
"In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate",
Is written on their foreheads. The words,
"La ilaha ill-Allah, Muhammadur-Rasulullah: There is no god but God, and
Muhammad is His Messenger",
Is written on the eyebrows of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, David, Jesus, Idris, Isaac, Job, Joseph, and all the prophets, may the peace of God be upon them all.
Now look at the forehead of Muhammad (Sal.), the Final Prophet. There you can see the resplendent light of Nur Muhammad.
These same words which are written on the foreheads and the eyebrows of the prophets, are also inscribed on all the children of Adam (A.S.). But the children of
Adam (A.S.) have covered them with the paint of the mind, with the dog of desire, and with illusion, or maya.
As a result, that light is hidden and can no longer be seen in them. As soon as man applies this paint he becomes blind, and now he dwells in darkness. Man has lost the light of his original beauty, and now he has only the transient beauty of the base desires and the beauty of hell and illusion.
He grows in this world, but then he fades and perishes. His form keeps changing and his beauty wanes like the moon and then disappears. We must think about this.
Now look at the prophets again. They are all representatives of the One Allah. Since the time of Adam (A.S.), each prophet who came brought a deeper explanation. With each one, the revelations increased, until finally God's message was complete.
In this way, man's wisdom, and the divine knowledge known as 'ilm, increased step by step. We can learn about Allah's duties and actions to a certain extent, but we can never complete our knowledge of Him, for His resplendence never ends.
It is continually coming forth in all the universes, atom by atom. This is the secret mystery of Allah.
My children, we can see Allah outside and inside. On the outside we see the example, and on the inside we see the cause.
We can see Him in this world (the outside or example), and in the hereafter (the inside or cause), in dunya and akhirah, and both of these worlds (the outside and the inside world, the example and the cause world) can be found within the heart of man.
If we learn from what we see, we can begin to understand the heaven and hell of good and evil.
A true man, an insan, is one who understands the difference between these two, and finds clarity. He becomes a true believer, a mu'mim, one who has seen the prophets and the angels.
I give you my love, my children. Did you see all the prophets? You must think about this wondrous state. But now it is getting late, and we still have other places to go.
Can you see heaven now? Before you try and look at it, you should learn some things about it. That is true both in this world and in the hereafter.
Before you act upon anything, you should know the good and the evil within it. You have to understand first one section and then the other.
You have to know what belongs to the world in order to know what belongs to God's kingdom. You have to understand the form of the body, in order to understand the meaning of the light form within it.
You must know the evil qualities and injustice of illusion and desire, (of the darkness), in order to understand the good qualities and the justice of Allah, (of the light). And in order to analyze all this, you need to learn divine knowledge ('ilm).
My children, we can never finish describing these secrets of Allah's essence, His dhat. There are so many mysteries, one within the other, secret within secret. But you can understand some of it, little by little, as you go along. I have only shown you a small part, a minute portion, and there are still countless other places to see.
Now look at the beauty of the trees and bushes, and smell the fragrance of the flowers. Come, and taste the sweet fruits of heaven.
On the island of hell called the world you will never find beauty such as this, or anything equal to even one drop of this taste. A single drop will dispel all your hunger, disease, old age, and death.
This taste (of heaven) will control and rule everything and give you freedom. Nothing can equal it. This is a great secret which you must understand.
My children, we came here and we saw a small point, covered with His power, His
qudrat (the power of God's grace, and the qualities which control all other forces).
Surrounding and protecting that power (that qudrat of God) is a fortress made of earth, fire, water, air, and ether. This fortress was built with that same power which exists within His actions and qualities.
This is a vast mystery, a wondrous secret. There are still many more meanings we must understand, but to understand even one small point we would have to remain here for ages and ages.
One who has studied the outside world and then comes to this place must spend eons upon eons learning what is here. He would never return to that island of hell and illusion called the world, because there is so much to do in this school, studying the power of Allah, step by step.
The mystery of His power is this resplendent light, and within it are contained all other mysteries. The deeper you dig, the more you will receive. The more you knock, the more it will open.
If that intention is always within you, you will continue to receive increasing benefits. Your own efforts will determine how much you receive.
My children, now we must leave this vast ocean beyond the five oceans, return to the mountainside and reenter those bodies we left behind. We must climb back into the form of the world of hell and illusion. After that we will leave the mountain and return to the city of the world, the dunya.
Children, there are so many meanings which you have to know and understand. We have seen the realm of the world, the realm of the soul, and the realm of Allah's grace.
As you gazed upon all these wonders, did you understand why no one can carry the form of the body and come here? You live in the realm of the world, but your soul must leave that world and go to the realm of the soul. Then it must leave that realm and enter the realm of the light of Allah; it must enter Allah's resplendence in the hereafter.
This is how the soul must travel in order to attain His secrets.
I give you my love, my children, my brothers and sisters. Did you understand what we saw? We have journeyed to the secret world of Allah, and learned about the connection we have with Him, a connection of unity and love.
There is no separation between the Light and the ray of that Light.
Both the beginning and the end are in Allah's hands. The power to create and to destroy is in His hands. It is all His responsibility. You must think about this.
Allah is eternally ruling His kingdom with peace, tranquility, unity, love, compassion, patience, justice, His three thousand gracious qualities, and His ninety-nine beautiful actions and duties. All of these must gradually come into us.
That inner patience, contentment, and trust of God, known as sabur, shakur, and
tawakkul must come into us.
When we arrive at such a state of faith, we can receive the wealth of the primal beginning, of this world, and of the next. We can receive Allah's wealth, the wealth of divine knowledge ('ilm), grace, and wisdom).
We must try to do this. We have to search for wisdom and Allah's qualities. The seeds of truth, and of faith, certitude, and determination (or iman), must be planted within us. We must grow with good qualities and try to receive the benefit of this goodness.
May Allah open the path to His secret world and help us to attain the complete treasure that is ours. Amin.
As-salamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon all of you.
End of This Selection
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