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Qur'anic Minarets - Wisdoms and Only Wisdoms
Wisdoms and Only Wisdoms
- If all the treasures of the holy Qur'an, the light of guidance, Supreme Name, House of God, vigil of the night, giryah-u zari (weeping and groaning), constant Divine remembrance, love for Muhammad (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny) and his progeny, humility, macrocosm and the personal world are seen interrelated with knowledge and action, there will appear only wisdoms. Wisdom is the lost property of a believer, without recovering it, how can you be at rest? Therefore, continue to search frenetically for knowledge and wisdom, until you are enriched with the treasures of the realities and recognitions.
- Hazrat-i Adam (May peace be through him) was Allah's Supreme Name in his time. Therefore, there was a very great secret hidden in the command to prostrate to him, obeying which the angels attained the light of "the knowledge of names", but Satan remained deprived of this great bliss because he did not prostrate due to his arrogance. The cause of arrogance is ignorance, as every evil is born of ignorance and every good of knowledge. In short, Satan was ignorant, therefore he considered himself great without any right and remained ignorant. Had he been wise, he would not have shown arrogance but he would have bowed down in humility in front of the Supreme Name. Satan showed enmity towards the Supreme Name (i.e., Hazrat-i Adam (May peace be through him)), how could he then repent and have recourse to him?
- Hazrat-i Adam (May peace be through him)'s exalted vicegerency has to continue and last in the chain of the Prophets and Imams until the Resurrection of resurrections, therefore the angels ascribed to Hazrat-i Adam (May peace be through him) every possible mischief and bloodshed from the beginning to the end (2:30). The angels had seen such events in the cycles of the previous Adams. This mischief and bloodshed have an exoteric aspect and an esoteric aspect. The exoteric aspect is known to all, but the esoteric one is very amazing. It is when as a result of Divine remembrance, worship, knowledge and recognition, the personal resurrection takes place in someone's personal world, first of all with the sound of Israfil (May peace be through him)'s sur countless Gog and Magog (who are extremely tiny subtle particles) come to the town of the personality and make mischief. This mischief is extremely necessary for reformation and it is the same army which sheds blood in the personal world, that is, removes doubts and suspicions. Just as the blood shed by the slaughter of a sheep is unlawful, similarly doubt and suspicion are unlawful and are removed by [the knowledge of certainty] so that a believer may progress spiritually. This means that the length of Adam's story is up to the egression of Gog and Magog or it should be accepted that the Prophets and Imams are the Adams of their respective times.
- After the recognition of Hazrat-i Adam (May peace be through him), the recognition of Hazrat-i Habil (May peace be through him) is necessary. For this purpose, study verses (5:27-32) carefully. Their esoteric aspect and ta'wili meaning is: (O Messenger!) Recite to them through the truth of certainty (haqqu'l-yaqin), the story of the two sons of Adam (May peace be through him), when they both offered sacrifice. It was accepted from one, but not from the other. That is, the sacred fire (light of Divine love) burnt Hazrat-i Habil (May peace be through him)'s sheep of his carnal soul and transformed it into light. Thus, by Divine command, he became the Imam and the Supreme Name. Here, the words "qurban" and "qabul" concerning Adam (May peace be through him) and his legatee (wasi) imply extremely sublime meanings. Thus, such proximity and acceptance mean that Hazrat-i Habil (May peace be through him) continued to progress on the spiritual path from one stage to another until he entered the destination of merging and the Divine Spirit (light) was breathed into him according to the Divine sunnat, because the vessel of the lamp continues to be changed, but the light of guidance never extinguishes.
- Qur'anic wisdom is extremely amazing. Thus, Hazrat-i Habil (May peace be through him)'s physical martyrdom and spiritual martyrdom are mentioned together in one place. Had there not been something more than the exoteric subjects and historical events in the holy Qur'an, it would not have been called "Hakim" (wise)! However, the real fact is that there is an explanation of everything (16:89) in the Qur'an. Thus, Hazrat-i Habil (May peace be through him) passed through all the stages of martyrdom, which are five:
- The explanation of the above is as follows: First of all, it has to be understood that the wisdom-filled Qur'anic stories of the Prophets and others are the models of guidance and the laws of mercy, which invite all people [to attain] Divine proximity. Had it not been so and were they confined only to the Prophets and Imams, people would not have repeatedly been invited to walk on the straight path, the path of Prophets and Imams (awliya). [Further] God vouchsafes His special bounties for those who walk upon it. Having presented this bright proof, we would like to say that there cannot be any difference [of opinion] regarding the death of the carnal soul and `Izra'il (May peace be through him)'s action before the physical death. However, as far as the analysis of death as a whole is concerned, it is indeed difficult [to understand]. In any case, the above-mentioned destinations are fixed for every believer who walks on the spiritual path. The wise Qur'an is full of their examples.
An example of the destination of `Izra'il (May peace be through him): The disobedient souls which are related to the personal world are destroyed by the powerful sound of sur of Israfil (May peace be through him) and the action of `Izra'il (May peace be through him) as in the case of thamud and cAd (69:4-7).
An example of the destination of the Thunderbolt: The seventy men whom Hazrat-i Musa had chosen, were travelling on the spiritual path, therefore as a principle they underwent the wisdom-filled death of the thunderbolt and quake (2:55; 7:155).
An example of the first inmbi`ath: cIfrit by pulling a great soul, known by the name of Bilqis (27:39), presented it in Hazrat-i Sulayman (May peace be through him)'s presence.
An allusion to the second inmbi`ath: The same act was repeated by the person who had the knowledge of the spiritual Book, but he did it in the twinkle of an eye (27:40). Finally, there is the physical death, which is a proof of itself. - The blessed verse (25:30) is greatly amazing and extremely worth pondering upon: "And [on the day] the Messenger will say: O my Lord! Verily my community took this Qur'an as a thing abandoned." Another authentic translation: "And said the Messenger: O my Lord! My community has held on to this Qur'an as a thing abandoned." That is, they held on to the exoteric aspect and left its esoteric aspect, which is full of the treasures of wisdom.
- Once the holy Prophet said to Mawla `Ali (May peace be through him): "Indeed there is a special house in paradise for you and you are the Dhu'l-qarnayn of this ummat." (Mufradatu'l-Qur'an, p. 417). A worldly kingdom has no importance whatsoever with God and His Messenger. In this context it can be said with certainty that Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) was the Imam of his time, therefore due to this resemblance [with the Imamat] Mawla `Ali (May peace be through him) is praised as Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) because he was the Imam of the ummat until the Resurrection. Thus, whatever is mentioned in the Qur'an about Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) is included in the subject of Imamat.
- The word "Qarn" is used in the wise Qur'an, which means the people of one age and Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) means the holy Imam, whose relation with the people of the age is bilateral, that is, externally and internally. Therefore, God has granted the Imam of the time power in the earth of spirituality and has given him a way unto everything from azal to this side and from here to azal (18:84). Thus, Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) started to traverse the destinations of the personal world (18:85) until when he reached the west of the sun of light, he found the sun setting in a spring of mud, that is, in the personality of the Perfect Man in the lower world, and in the higher world in his luminous face. The word 'spring' is in the sense that this rank and its function continue forever. He saw here a community, that is, all those people who were consciously or unconsciously living in this west … (18:86) …, he then went further (18:89) until he reached the east of the light of the Intellect or the light of azal. There his `arifanah travelling comes to an end, and with his inner eye he observed that the sun of the Intellect was rising on the people of ma`rifat without any veil (18:90). Subsequently, he returned from there (18:92) and as Imam reached a place between two mountains. That is the rank of luminous guidance in which the Imam lifts his luminous veil and the dark veil of a murid and creates the spiritual (batini) relationship so that the miracles of the Imam may appear.
- Question: Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) first reached the west and then the east and finally faced the problem of the Gog and Magog. What wisdom is there in this order? Answer: On the whole the world of Intellect is the east which is the final destination of the spiritual journey, from where the sun of light rises. The personal world is the west, in which the sun of light sets. Thus, in this journey, the west comes first and the east after that. Although the egression of Gog and Magog (i.e., spiritual particles) takes place in the beginning, here concerning others they are mentioned last, that is, it is a matter of returning and control or domination.
- Question: What is alluded to in the Gog and Magog being unable to understand any word? Why were they making mischief? Answer: Whether it is the external world or the personal world, those who work without knowledge and wisdom, and do not obey the True Guide, are the ones who do not understand and make mischief, as mentioned in verse (2:11): "And when it is said to them: Do not make mischief in the earth! They say verily we are only reformers."
- Question: How is Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him)'s wall constructed to escape the evil and mischief of the physical and spiritual Gog and Magog? Answer: [It is done] with such a worship that is performed with complete attention and free from any laziness, with such words of knowledge which are solid as pieces of iron, through such a wisdom-filled remembrance which turns into the fire of love and transforms all those pieces into red embers and from such a knowledge of unity which unifies all these realities into one reality (18:95-96).
- Those people upon whom the sun of the light of azal rises without any veil in the world of Intellect (the world of unity) are aware of all the secrets of recognition. They are the ones who are called "muqarrabin" (the nearest ones to God). If the world of unity is conceived, you must be sure that its east and west are one and this is the meaning of the rising of the sun of the resurrection from the west. It should be noted that as Hazrat-i Dhu'l-qarnayn (May peace be through him) (i.e., the Imam) reached the place of azal spiritually and in the sense of ma`rifat and there he found a community, that this is an allusion to the successful guidance of the True Guide. Finally, it should also be understood that people are not scattered in the world of unity, they are all gathered together in only one person. Thus, you must be sure that such a community was hidden in the Imam himself, as mentioned earlier.
22 Rabi` I 1410 AH/24th October, 1989 AD
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