Book of Healing - Healing Through Knowledge - Paired Fruits of Paradise
Paired Fruits of Paradise
Tags: Paired Fruits, Zawjan, Pairs, Duality
1. God, the One, the Self-subsistent, may He be glorified and exalted, is free from and above every kind of duality and plurality. He, by His perfect power and profound wisdom has created all creatures and existents in pairs. Nothing is exempt from this universal law, as mentioned in verse (36:36): "Purified is He who created pairs of all things, of what the earth grows, and of themselves and of what they do not know". This is a law which has paramount importance after the law of unity, just as the number two (2) is necessary after the number one (1) for the existence of all other numbers.
2. At the end of the above verse, it is mentioned in the language of wisdom that things which belong to the intellect, knowledge and soul are also in pairs, as mentioned in verse (55:52): "In both of them (gardens) are every kind of fruit in two pairs (zawjan)". That is, every fruit has two pairs, intellectual and spiritual, as well as the external and internal, for God has made all things of the entire universe subservient to His servants and has completed all His external and internal bounties for them (31:20).
3. A human being is like a three storey building, in which the body is the lowest storey, the soul is the second and the intellect is the third, just as the Ark of Nuh, may peace be upon him, had three levels, the bottom, the middle and the top. It resembles human existence, for the spiritual ark is in the personal world. Thus in the above-mentioned three storey building, physical bounties are available on the ground level, spiritual bounties in the middle and intellectual bounties in the upper, so that those who strive hard (jihad) for God should be enriched not only with the everlasting wealth of the recognition of self, but also with the recognition of Paradise through these lofty spiritual and intellectual bounties (47:6), since in the light of recognition is found the unity of recognitions.
4. This book deals with a treatment of its own kind, therefore such examples are required in it, which may duly describe the foods of knowledge and the medicines of gnosis (ma`rifat). If this could be possible in the light of the wise Qur'an, it would be a great bliss, for which the sincere prayers of all mu'mins are required.
5. He who derives pleasure only from physical bounties and has no sense of the pleasure of spiritual bounties, namely dhikr-u `ibadat and of intellectual bounties, namely knowledge and wisdom, frankly speaking, such a person suffers from spiritual diseases. He should therefore cure himself through dhikr-u bandagi, contemplation and knowledge.
6. Man, in fact, lives in a palace in which the scenery of nasut (human kingdom) can be seen from the windows of the first storey; the secrets of the malakut (angelic kingdom) are observed through the windows of the second storey, and the manifestation of the beauty of the jabarut (kingdom of the Divine attributes) are observed through the windows of the third storey. But man is always very negligent and lazy and hence he is in great loss (103:1). He confines himself to the first storey and does not take the trouble to climb the stairs to the second and third storeys. Or it can be said, he is ill and therefore is not able to use the upper storeys of his palace. Except what God wills!
7. An example of how a spiritual bounty is hidden in comparison to or behind a physical bounty is that all people are proud to be the children of a glorious Prophet, namely, Hazrat Adam, may peace be upon him, who was the Vicegerent of God and to whom the angels prostrated. The spiritual meaning of this is that, the place of spirituality where God enfolds the spatial and temporal distances (39:67; 21:104) is also where He gathers Adam and his children and renews their spiritual relationship (7:11). It is in view of this wisdom that the wise Qur'an calls people Adam's children, and not his grandchildren, despite the fact that the word for grandchildren (Hafadah, 16:72) is also used in the holy Qur'an where necessary.
8. Reflect and contemplate on verses (13:3; 43:12; 51:49) so that you will come to know that the fruits of the Paradise of knowledge, are pairs of two things. In this, the main secret is that of the contraries or opposites (azdad), in which two opposite things are called a pair. There are many wisdoms of the law of opposites or pairs, for instance, where the physical ark is mentioned, there the spiritual ark is also mentioned. For the physical and spiritual are two opposites or a pair. Thus the ark of Nuh in the Qur'an is a fruit of knowledge, but it is not single, it is a pair.
9. In verse (4:69) there is the mention of those upon whom God has showered His favours rankwise, and the ranks are not odd, they are in pairs. For example, the Prophets (nabiyyin) and awliya' (siddiqin) are the spiritual parents of their respective communities. In this example, every Prophet is in the position of a father and every perfect wali in the position of a mother. For, the spiritual birth of mu'mins is from the womb (batn = batin = stomach) of walayat and the means of livelihood of religion are provided by the Prophethood, i.e., the exoteric and legal (shar`i) bounties are provided by the spiritual father.
10. There are many examples of how every fruit of the spiritual Paradise and the Qur'anic Paradise can be one externally and a pair, internally. One of them, which is the easiest and clearest, is human existence itself, on which God, the Supreme Creator, with His pen of power and wisdom, has written not only the signs of unity and integrity, but also the laws of duality and multiplicity.
11. Man's body is one, but it has two parts. Although seeing is one, yet the two eyes work for it, hearing is one, but the ears are two, smelling is one but the nostrils are two, speech is one, but the mouth has two parts, the power of holding is one but it is the function of two hands, walking is one but the feet are two, breathing is one but it is the combined function of two lungs. In short, there is no organ and part in the exterior and interior of man's body without the signs of unity, duality and plurality. Indeed, these are the three great laws. By plurality I mean the cells which are in trillions in the entire body of man.
12. The holy Prophet has said: "Indeed, the Qur'an has an exoteric aspect (zahir) and an esoteric aspect (batn), and (each of) its esoteric aspect has (another) esoteric aspect till seven esoteric aspects" (Mathnawi, III, 520; Ihya', I, 99; Ahadith-i Mathnawi, p. 83).
13. The holy Qur'an is the Paradise of knowledge and gnosis. All of its fruits are in pairs, one external and the other internal. As has been repeatedly mentioned in this article with Qur'anic references, everything is in pairs and as the Qur'an has an exoteric aspect and seven esoteric aspects, so all those fruits of Paradise are also in pairs. See for example in the following diagram:
N. N. Hunzai,
14 Dhu'l-Qa'dah 1408 / 29 June, 1988.
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