Fruit of Paradise - Mi`raj and Ma`arij

Mi`raj and Ma`arij

Tags: Mi`raj, Hudud-i Din, Ladder

Mi`raj means a ladder or a series of steps or stairs, the occasion of the Holy Prophet's vision of the Divine light in the higher world. Its plural is ma`arij, as mentioned in verse (70:1-4): "A questioner questioned the (spiritual) chastisement about to fall on the unbelievers, which none can avert, from Allah, the Lord of the ladders and to Whom the angels and the (supreme) spirit ascend in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years."

Wisdom 1. One must always remember that every great secret of God has a veil of some kind. Here too, there is a great secret behind the veil.

Wisdom 2. Chastisement in reality occurs on the path of spirituality (19:71), but God the Merciful, averts it from the mu'mins, as is alluded in this verse.

Wisdom 3. The questioner had asked for spiritual progress. He was a mu'min. But as has been mentioned earlier in this article, God kept it in a veil according to the exigency of wisdom.

Wisdom 4. The Prophets and the Imams are the living ladders of God. Each of them has the rank of the Supreme Soul and by the command of God, makes the souls of mu'mins angels and enables them to ascend to the exalted court of God.

Wisdom 5. Although this spiritual journey by worldly reckoning is fifty thousand years long, the way in which the light of mu'mins runs before them and on their right hands, the distance is traversed in a short time (57:12; 66:8).

We also need to reflect well upon this wisdom-filled verse (7:40): "Verily, those who belie Our signs and turn away in haughtiness from them, the gates of heaven shall not be opened for them, nor shall they enter Paradise until the camel passes through the eye of the needle."

Wisdom 1. By the signs of God are meant the holy Imams. Therefore to belie them is to belie the signs of God, and to claim their office is the worst haughtiness.

Wisdom 2. Since there are seven heavens, seven doors of spirituality are mentioned here.

Wisdom 3. Here, the ta'wil of camel is to aggrandise oneself. And the ta'wil of the passing of the camel through the needle's eye is that man should follow religion in the true sense and with true humility should transform the frozen camel of his soul into particles. Now this camel, which like the she-camel of Hazrat Salih, is in the form of particles of soul, can pass through the eye of the needle.

It is clear from the above-mentioned verse that mi`raj, ma`arij and the path of Paradise all have the same meaning. For, at the highest place of the soul and intellect, where the extreme proximity to God is attained, is mi`raj as well as Paradise. That is, the journey of mankind is from the lowness of this world to the heights of the higher world and this journey is likened to the climbing of a ladder. And the ladder of spirituality is the blessed personality of the True Guide.

In the truest sense, it is the Prophets and the Imams who are the children of Hazrat Adam, for they are the heirs and possessors of the characteristics of Hazrat Adam. Thus, according to verse (7:172) it is a Divine law (sunnat) that He takes from the loins of every Prophet and every Imam the children (dhurriyyat) of his world in His hand when their personal Resurrection takes place. And He takes these dhurriyyat (particles of soul) in His hand in the sense that they were caused to move and under the spiritual progress and elevation of the respective Prophet or Imam, they were also elevated in a way. As the Qur'an says: "And when your Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their children (dhurriyyat) and made them bear witness over their souls, (saying): Am I not your Lord? They replied: Yes." (7:172).

Wisdom 1. The event described above of the covenant "Am I not your Lord?" in which there is the miracle of mi`raj happens in the spirituality of every Perfect Man and in this experience, all the people of the time are present in the form of spiritual particles.

Wisdom 2. In the same way God made the children of Adam (the Prophets and Imams) see the soul and granted them its perfect recognition.

Wisdom 3. On that height (of mi`raj), there were the particles of the souls of all other people also, but they were not conscious of this event.

In a worldly example, the path and the guide on the path exist separately from one another, but in religion the same one person is both the path and the guide. Thus the Qur'an names him sometimes as the right path, or sometimes as the guide or as Light or as the ladder, or as mi`raj etc. Because he has numerous functions so he has numerous different names, for God has given him the status of being everything (36:12).

In his time, Hazrat Ya`qub was the entrusted Imam, the right path and God's ladder with fourteen steps, namely the Imam, Bab, and twelve Hujjats. An example of this is provided in the Qur'an in which Hazrat Yusuf saw the sun, the moon and the eleven stars prostrating to him in a luminous dream (12:4). When he saw this dream he also was a star at the lowest step, i.e. the first Hujjat and then by God's command ascended this ladder step by step and reached the top, when all the others (the sun, the moon and eleven stars) prostrated to him. From this example the fundamental reality of religion becomes clear, that the Prophets and the Imams are the living ladders of God.

Another example of the ladder of God is:

Mustajib
Minor Ma'dhun
Major Ma'dhun
Limited Da`i
Absolute Da`i
Hujjat of Jazirah
Hujjat-i Huzuri (Muqarrab)
Imam
Asas
Natiq
Universal Soul
Universal Intellect

As it is mentioned in the Qur'an: "They are ranks with Allah and Allah sees what they do" (3:163), i.e. (hudud-i din) are ranks (darajat) (of proximity) to Allah:

Wisdom 1. The ranks of proximity to God are only found on the right path, in fact, they themselves are the right path and the ladder of God.

Wisdom 2. You know well that there is a difference between saying "They are ranks" (3:163) and "For them there are ranks" (4:8).

In the Holy Qur'an the way in which rank and ranks are mentioned is a reference to the hudud-i din for as it says: "The Exalter of ranks, the Lord of the Throne. He casts the spirit by His command to whosoever He wills of His servants that He may warn of the day of meeting." (40:15). That is, God exalts the hudud-i din and through them, others.

Wisdom 1. When Allah wants to exalt someone He does so through the ladder of the fixed steps. For this is the right path and the ladder which is raised up to the roof of the Throne in order to reach the Lord of the Throne.

Wisdom 2. Through this ladder descends the living soul of revelation to the Prophets and it is through this ladder that the Holy Prophet ascended and attained the honour of the special mi`raj.

Wisdom 3. There is not a thing but its treasures are with God, and the things which descend from these Divine treasures, do so through this ladder.

Wisdom 4. When one of the great and wisdom-filled names of God is "the Lord of the ladders" then there must be a systematic concept and explanation of this in the Qur'an (which contains the explanation of everything, 16:89). Indeed this is so, for there are several such verses, the meanings of which we are currently discussing.

Hazrat Mawlana Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah has emphatically drawn attention to the blessed verse of "istirja`" (i.e. to say innā li'llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji`ūn). In this connection the three verses are: "We shall surely try you with something of fear, and hunger, and loss of wealth, and lives and fruits: and give glad tidings to the patient ones, who when misfortune befalls them say: Verily, we are Allah's and to Him we return. Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and they are those who are rightly guided." (2:155-157).

Wisdom 1. For every mu'min with high ambition, every trial is beneficial for the soul, for there is no ascension or elevation without trial.

Wisdom 2. According to God, the important trials which were necessary for extremely fruitful results were only these ones.

Wisdom 3. Fear is a state of the heart in which the soul abandons all worldly thoughts and adopts a humble and pitiable form. In such a condition man pays complete attention towards God.

Wisdom 4. The animal soul is reformed by hunger.

Wisdom 5. By loss of wealth and lives, a state of brokenness and annihilation pervades the heart.

Wisdom 6. By loss of fruits is meant the loss of spirituality. In short, all these states help one to return to God both temporarily and permanently provided there is religious awareness.

Wisdom 7. Istirja` means to say "Verily, we belong to Allah and to Him is our return." But it is necessary to know that by this is meant that the original abode of man is the Divine Presence. He has come here by descending the ladder of God and is to return to the ocean of His light by ascending it.

As was mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Prophets and Imams are the living ladders of God. This means that every Prophet and every Imam together with his hudud act as a living spiritual ladder. This Perfect Man is both the guide as well as the guidance. Just as in the example of the heaven and the Supreme Throne he is the ladder, so in the example of the earth and the House of God he is the right path. In the example of the deluge he is the ark of salvation also and it is because he is such a comprehensive and all-inclusive reality that examples are given in so many different ways.

Humble Nasir,
2nd January, 1985.

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