Precious Treasure - Journey and Observation

Journey and Observation

May the True God grant peace, progress and success in this world and the next and may He exalt in both the worlds all the respected office-bearers and members of Khanah-yi Hikmat and Idarah-yi `Arif of Karachi and the Northern Areas, who are extremely dear to my heart and soul and who are parts and pieces of my soul and heart! Amin ya rabba'l-`alamin (Amin, O the Lord of the worlds!)

With heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for the Divine blessings and bounties, I convey the holy prayer of Ya `Ali Madad and salam to all nears and dears in the east and west and always expect the same kind of prayer from them, for this magnificent prayer is full of Divine mercies and blessings.

Al-hamdu li'llah, I flew on 18th June, at 11p.m. from Karachi and reached London the next day via Tashkent and Moscow. The duration of the journey was about twenty hours, including a stop-over and the distance perhaps more than twelve thousand kilometres. The journey was extremely wonderful and marvellous for me. I shall always remember the way my friends helped me and the way they demonstrated their sincerity and love at the time of my departure from Karachi and my arrival in London.

There is no doubt that the spiritual journey is by far more wondrous, amazing and important, in which the soul and the particles of soul pass through various wonders and marvels. If it is accepted that we, as the particles of soul, come and go from one another, this law of omnipresence and ubiquity of soul necessitates that not only in this journey but also in the great journey of China we were together in the search for knowledge, so that on the Day of Resurrection, God willing, we will see our common achievement.

There are wondrous and marvellous concepts of spirituality in the poetry of great Sufis like Mawla-yi Rum, who had successfully attained the stage of tariqat. But if we study deeply, we will come to know that the concepts of Ismaili spirituality and reality (haqiqat) are most amazing. The reason is obvious that here, the far distant journey of spirituality reaches its ultimate destination in the guidance of the mazhar (locus of manifestation) of God's light, namely the Imam of the time, and then every spiritual observation gradually becomes a treasure of knowledge and recognition.

The three tenses of the external world - past, present and future - are either far from or running away from man. That is, the past has gone, the present passes fast and the near future arrives fast and escapes. As for the remote future, it undoubtedly remains far away and therefore human beings suffer from wistfulness and despondency owing to ignorance of the events and conditions of all these states. Contrary to this, in spirituality and paradise time is immovable, which is present only without the past or the future. The immovable time of paradise is called dahr, in which all the times of the world are centred and become everlasting.

The wise Qur'an says that on the Day of Resurrection, the universe will be folded in the right hand of God (39:67). This wisdom-filled verse speaks of the centring of the expanse of space (universe), in which is also included the centring of time and its becoming immovable. Since time is the name of the movement of the spheres it cannot be separated from space. Therefore, despite being far and wide, when space by the command of God becomes centred and near, time too leaving the distance of past and future, is contracted in the centre of the present. This means that everything of spirituality and paradise draws near and comes in front without spatial distance and temporal duration, as God says: "And the paradise is brought nigh for the righteous ones, no longer distant" (50:31). That is, paradise which is equal to the length and breadth of the heavens and earth (3:133; 57:21) will be compacted and centred in the size of a pearl and will come before [an `arif].

The entire universe, namely, the heavens, the earth and what they contain has four forms: dense body, subtle body, soul and intellect. The dense body [consists of] the universe, the heavens and the earth; the subtle body and the Universal Soul are the paradise that is equal to the universe, and the Intellect is the paradise which is being brought close to the righteous, as mentioned above.

If we accept that resurrection is the name of spiritual progress and closeness to God, which is possible individually (6:64), it means that the real resurrection happens individually, in which a collective resurrection is also hidden. If such is the case, no time is devoid of the chain of this spiritual resurrection. However, it is a different matter whether the resurrection is a small one or a big one. This concept raises the question that if such is the case, why does the Qur'an speak mostly about the occurrence of resurrection in the future tense, as it says that "the resurrection is going to come"?

The answer to this question is that except for the Perfect Men, resurrection does not happen to people consciously. Therefore, with respect to the common people resurrection is mentioned mostly in the future tense. For, there is no past and no future in any act of God. For the past is related to the one from whose hand a portion of time has passed away and the future is related to the one who cannot reach the time that is going to come. However, God is One, and all the things of time and space are confined in His powerful grip. This means that at the place of Intellect, the entire time turns into a finite and immovable present and prostrates in God's presence, since all temporal and spatial things prostrate in His Divine presence (16:49).

London,
22nd June, 1984.

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