Fruit of Paradise - Preface
Preface
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
“Indeed Allah and His angels send salawat on the Prophet. O you who believe! say salawat on him and submit to him with due submission” (33:56).
O Compassionate and Merciful Lord! Through Your infinite mercy grant your incapable and powerless servants the ambition to say salawat on Your chosen and beloved Prophet and his pure progeny in the correct manner which is in the light of ma`rifat.
Allāhumma salli `alā Muhammadin wa-āli Muhammad. (O Allah! Send blessings through Muhammad and his progeny).
O You Who are Holy and Unique! You are above both space and non-space and yet are closer to us than our jugular vein. We present all our physical and spiritual needs in Your presence. O God, you are Unique and Self-Sufficient. O God, every believing servant always wants to praise You to his heart's content. O King Incomparable! You who know everything and from Whom nothing is hidden, know that this task is extremely difficult, not only because of the weakness of our particular intellect, but also because of the inadequacy of words and their meanings for this purpose. So O Allah, through Your indubitable guidance make this poor and helpless heart the fountainhead of burning ardour, enabling me to shed tears like a baby, so that just as the baby attracts the attention of its loving mother, Your Divine Mercy may provide me with the means to explain what needs to be explained. But Lord! Your favours do not really compare to that of a physical mother, for her love is merely a drop of water compared with the endless ocean of Your mercy.
The Name of this book: This lovely book has been called “Fruit of Paradise”. It is a collection of some important articles which were written on various different occasions. At the end of each article the date on which it was completed is shown so that readers can determine the evolutionary sequence and order of the articles. This has not been the practice in some of my early writings, but this procedure seemed best in the interests of providing as much historical information as possible for scholars interested in researching Khanah-i Hikmat and Idarah-i `Arif.
The meaning of the phrase “Fruit of Paradise” in Qur'anic wisdom is extremely comprehensive. The reason for this is that God, the Knowing, the Wise, has selected fruit from all the nourishments of the material world so that the sublime bounties of the soul and the intellect can be compared to it. The reason for this selection is that in the example of fruit (which in Qur'anic language is called thamar, fakihah, etc.) there are allusions to spiritual and intellectual gems which only people of wisdom can appreciate.
Fruit of Knowledge: Just as every worldly fruit is the complete essence of its tree, that is, it contains every feature of the entire tree in the form of essence, including the capacity of growing another tree of its own kind, similarly is the fruit of the soul, intellect and knowledge of Paradise, for it is the essence (gawhar ...) of the tree of the existents and the universe and hence, its colour, fragrance and taste are very pleasant and delightful to the eye, nose and tongue of the soul and intellect. Physically a rosarium is an enclosure where flowers blossom and an orchard is an enclosure where there are fruit-bearing trees, but the state of spiritual Paradise is such that it is not only a rosarium within a rosarium and an orchard within an orchard, but also a rosarium within an orchard and an orchard within a rosarium. This is because it is the subtle world, the world of command which is governed by the miracle of the command “Be” and things appear faster than in the twinkle of an eye. If we examine the Paradise of the personal world, from one aspect the flowers of spirituality appear first followed by the fruits of knowledge and wisdom.
An intelligent person who is aware of the exoteric aspect of the Qur'an might ask where these flowers have been mentioned in the Qur'an. The answer is that everything is mentioned in the Qur'an in the language of wisdom and accordingly wherever words like jannah, rawdah, hadiqah or any other word that is used for Paradise is mentioned in the Qur'an, there you will find hidden the mention of flowers. Further, flowers of Paradise are also mentioned in those verses in which the trees and fruits of Paradise are described, for Paradise (garden) presents the concept of both fruit and flower, and trees and fruits are not possible without flowers. An important point here is that just as sight is the most noble of the external senses, similarly the noblest of the internal senses is spiritual insight (basirat), for which there are various kinds of subtle scenes (43:71) including scenes with subtle flowers.
There are many verses in the Wise Qur'an which signify that the dead earth is revived (and thrives) by rain from heaven. The ta'wil of this is that when the rain of true knowledge falls on the hearts of mu'mins from the heaven of the light of Prophethood and Imamat, extremely beautiful scenes of the gardens of Paradise appear in their hearts. Thus when flowers appear in spiritual observations they are symbols of knowledge and fruits are the symbols of wisdom.
The Fruit of Everything: If we examine Qur'anic wisdom, we will note that in the spiritual world everything has a flower and a fruit and nothing is exempt from this universal rule (28:57). This is also implied by naming the spiritual kingdom Paradise (an orchard or rosarium). Thus the elegant and beautiful spiritual form of everything is its flower and its spiritual particle is its fruit and its wisdom is its kernel. This means that in its luminous form the world of imagination is that garden of Paradise in which everything in the universe and the existents, in the colour of God (2:138), is either a flower or is as colourful as a flower; the world of particles is that orchard where the souls of all things are present and which are called fruits and the treasure of intellect is the Divine treasure that contains the kernel of wisdom of every fruit in Paradise.
If one asks what bounties are found in Paradise, or how many different kinds of bounties can be found there, the answer is that from one aspect, the innumerable bounties of Paradise are of two kinds: Firstly, those bounties that man knows and which he desires and secondly those bounties which he cannot even conceive (50:35). From yet another aspect, the bounties of Paradise are divided into intellectual, spiritual and of the subtle body and which themselves have many subsidiary kinds. The gist of what has been said here is that recognition of Paradise and its bounties is necessary in order to inspire the desire for them. For, if one does not know the supreme bounties of God and does not desire them, then according to the law of treasures (15:21), the law of recognition (47:6) and the law of desire (16:31; 25:16; 39:34; 42:22; 50:35) they will not be given.
Everything in the universe and the existents works like a tree, and a fruit of its kind is produced from it. Look at the heaven! Are not the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars like the fruits of this tree? Where the mountain is a tree, gems and minerals are its fruit. If the ocean was not a tree, then pearls would not be its fruits. Another wisdom is that the earth is a tree and its fruits are plants and vegetables, the vegetable kingdom is a tree and its fruits are the animals, and the animal kingdom is a tree and its fruit is mankind, and the world of humanity is a tree and the fruit of its intellect and soul is the Perfect Man. Another example is that a noble person in childhood is lovable and beautiful like a flower bud, in his youth like an attractive and delicately scented rose and in maturity, due to his wisdom and intellect, like a ripe fruit full of flavour and fragrance. These examples show that everything has a fruit and that the order of the universe is similar to the order of fruits in which the secret of Paradise is hidden.
An Expression of Gratitude: If service in the cause of knowledge is considered to be a jihad (struggle), then it is true to say that luminous help (ta'yid) and succour of God and His true Prophet can be obtained through the Imam of the time. In this jihad many devoted mujahids of Khanah-i Hikmat and Idarah-i `Arif have taken part. Pray for them in this way: “O Lord! For the sake of all the murids of the exalted Imam and all the holy institutions grant them success and victory! Amin!”
In this jihad for the cause of knowledge, both the celebrated Presidents Messrs Fath `Ali Habib and Muhammad `Abdu'l-`Aziz are the mujahids of the first rank. They participate in all related works both big and small. They are the moths around the lamp of Imamat and the lovers of true knowledge. Their friendship is extremely sweet and soothing like the fruit of Paradise because they are adorned with the beauties of ethics and faith. I consider every office-bearer and member of both these organisations a potential angel, for they have resurrected a revolution of knowledge in both the east and in the west.
I take this opportunity to also remember all my friends and colleagues in the east and the west. My heart, mind and thoughts are filled with those `azizan, who by their services, have contributed to the success of these organisations. I am grateful to them all. If it is true that every soul is a compendium of innumerable particles then this pleases me greatly, for I wish all the particles of my soul to show gratitude to my benefactors, pray for them and be sacrificed for them! Amin!
Note: Presidents Fath `Ali Habib and Muhammad `Abdu'l-`Aziz suggest that articles and books such as these should be read several times to attain more and more knowledge of Qur'anic secrets and treasures of spiritual knowledge.
The dust under the feet of people of faith,
Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai,
16th June, 1985.
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