Allah's Spiritual House
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1. Although Allah, the Glorified, the Exalted, transcends space and spacelessness, everyone knows that there is a holy house of Allah in the physical world, and that is Khanah-yi Kacbah. It symbolises and testifies to the spiritual house of God, the reality of which is the Imam of the time, who is the real and luminous house of God. Indeed, the eternal treasure of beatific vision (ru'yat) and recognition (macrifat) is present in it.
2. The wise Qur'an emphatically points out the reality that everything exists in pairs (55:52, 13:3, 51:49, 36:36). Thus, without doubt, Allah has two dwellings, one physical, which is the symbol, and the other spiritual, which is the symbolised. This spiritual one is the Imam, who is the luminous house of Allah, i.e., the prosperous house (baytu'l-macmur), in which is everything that belongs to God (36:12).
3. The spiritual house of God (i.e., Imam) has been praised in several places in the holy Qur'an. The translation of one blessed verse is: "And they say: 'If we follow the guidance with you, we shall be carried off from our land'. Have We not established for them a secure sanctuary, to which are brought the fruits of all things? (And this is) a sustenance from Our nearness, but most of them know not" (28:57). Whoever recognises the exalted Imam in luminosity [i.e., at the rank of intellect] enters God's haram (i.e., sanctuary, refuge), where the fruit of all things automatically comes to them. This is the special sustenance from God's presence. Physically, nothing bears fruit except a few trees, but in spirituality, the soul of everything is its fruit, in which there are numerous bounties.
4. We have repeatedly talked about the particles of souls in our writings. Its various examples in the wise Qur'an are: fruits (thamarat), people, hosts (junud), birds, Gog and Magog, angels, everything (kullu shay'), etc. Thus, God addressed Hazrat-i Ibrahim, who was the Imam and baytu'llah (God's house) in his time, as follows: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among people, that they come to you on foot and (mounted) on every lean camel coming from every deep ravine" (22:27). This command was fulfilled when Hazrat-i Ibrahim's faculty of Israfil (quwwat-i Israfiliyyah) blew the trumpet of resurrection and [consequently] all the people of the world in the form of particles came to visit him (ziyarat = hajj, i.e., pilgrimage).
5. The particles of souls (i.e., people) come to the spiritual house of God, i.e., Imam, in various examples. See surah-yi Bani Isra'il: "The day when We shall summon all the people of time with their Imam" (17:71). This noble verse is on the one hand the universal principle of Imamat and on the other hand the universal principle of resurrection. Thus, [according to this verse] a hidden spiritual resurrection takes place in the time of every Imam, and every resurrection is linked to the Imam of the time. This very resurrection is the spiritual pilgrimage in the example of Hazrat-i Ibrahim, and there are numerous examples of these particles of souls.
6. This treasure of God's, Prophet's, Imam's, as well as carif's own recognition is in the personal world. Therefore, it is essential that the people of faith attain the highest rank of the knowledge of certainty, so that they may consequently enter through the gate of the eye of certainty, and after its observations they may ascend to the truth of certainty. However, this extremely difficult journey is not possible at all without the guidance of the Guide of the time [i.e., the true Imam]. In any case, the knowledge of certainty is indispensable.
Margala Towers, Islamabad Thursday 18 Dhu'l-Hijjah 1418 AH / 16 April 1998
Note: We are planning to write some historical words about those cazizan who have rendered valuable services. As the USA is very far away, we will give priority to our friends there. Governors are requested to help us with their worthy suggestions. Thank you!
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