Sublime Realities - Qur'anic Science of Numbers - Part II

Qur'anic Science of Numbers - Part II

Tags: Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, One Hundred, One Thousand, Taqwim, `arsh, Throne, Hazrat Musa, Nine Miracles, Hudud-i Din, Hazrat Yusuf, Ba`atha

EIGHT:
There are eight Paradises. They are ever-living and adorned with the highest values of intellect and soul (29:64) and they are the Prophets and the Imams, the six Natīqs, Hazrat Qā'īm and Khalīfah of Qā'īm, as well as the seven Imams and the minor vicegerency¹, because in order to act as Paradise, God has created no better creature than the Perfect Man. Nor does a wise person want to enter a Paradise which is devoid of the perfect attributes of intellect and soul. Numerous proofs of Ādam and man being the most noble and excellent of creatures and of having the supreme status of the Image of the Compassionate can be presented. For instance:

God, swearing four times, says that He has created man in the best taqwīm, i.e. in the best way of raising up and making him reach the supreme rank (95:1-4).
God created man after every kind of creation and preparation of the universe and existents, and designated him "another creation", i.e. the creation of the perfect rank and in this respect, calls Himself the best of creators (23:19).
Undoubtedly, God has created everything beautiful, but He has distinguished man with all abilities and breathed His spirit into him.
The proof of the fact that God has honoured the children of Ādam over other creatures is that He, carrying them on His back, showed them the physical and spiritual land and sea and provided pure sustenance for the body and the soul (17:70). Thus, it is clear that Paradise is in human form, and that every Perfect Man is Paradise actually and the rest of human beings potentially.

On the Day of Resurrection, the bearers of the `arsh (69:17) will be eight. The `arsh indeed means throne, but God's throne is light. Thus from the first Imam to the seventh Imam respectively, the bearers of the throne are seven and all those mu'mins who are linked to the light of guidance are included among them as the eighth bearer, individually in the personal world and collectively in the world of religion (57:12, 57:19; 66:8). Here this secret should be noted that the supreme throne is always in motion and due to this luminous movement, both the worlds are kept alive.

NINE:
God had granted Hazrat Mūsā nine miracles (17:101), which are: Staff, white hand (7:108-109), drought, dearth of fruits (7:130), deluge, locusts, lice, frogs and blood ((7:133)). By staff is meant the supreme name, by white hand the demonstration of the rank of intellect, drought means lack of spiritual knowledge, dearth of fruits - not receiving grace from the hudūd-i dīn, deluge - spiritual revolution, locusts - those souls which destroy the crops of belief about the true religion, lice - harmful souls, frogs - those souls whose shapes and voices torture and the turning of fresh and pure water into blood stands for the pure knowledge of Hazrat Mūsā and Hazrat Hārūn turning into a collection of doubts and uncertainties.

TEN:
Ten which is the perfect number (2:196) is for the Holy Prophet, because he was at the perfect rank of the physical hudūd. The order of hudūd is:

Mustajīb
Ma'dhūn-i asghar
Ma'dhūn-i akbar
Dā`ī-i makfūf
Dā`ī-i mutlaq
Hujjat-i jazīrah
Hujjat-i a`zam
Imam
Asās
Nātīq

In verse (6:161), God says: "Whosoever comes with a good deed for him shall be ten like thereof." That is, whosoever accepts the true da`wat will receive the above-mentioned ten ranks as a treasure. It is important to listen to this wisdom also that the physical hudūd are ten and the Mustajīb is its tenth part, which in the language of the Qur'ān is mi`shār (tenth) (34:45). Thus whatever of the Book and hudūd God had given to the people before Islam, they could not reach one tenth of it, i.e. they could not become Mustajīb, therefore they belied the Messengers of God (35:45). In verses (20:103-104), it is said that on the Day of Resurrection, the guilty will whisper among themselves that they tarried (in the world) not but ten days. By these ten days are meant the personal worlds of ten hudūd. And the most intelligent among them will say: "You have not tarried but a day." (20:104). Since Nātīq is the sum of the physical hudūd, as is his successor, the Imam of the time, therefore in reality, there is only one personal world. Thus the personality of the holy Imam is like one day, as mentioned in verse (30:56), that people tarry in the (speaking) Book of God till inbi`āth. That is, they tarry in the personal world of the Imam of the time in the form of particles.

ELEVEN:
Hazrat Yusuf had seen a dream in the beginning that eleven stars, the sun and the moon were prostrating to him (12:4). The ta'wīl of this is that at that time he was also a star. Hazrat Ya`qub was the mustawda` Imam of his time and his twelve sons, the twelve stars, i.e. the twelve Hujjats. One of these stars (Hazrat Yūsuf) was made the moon and the sun (Bāb and Imam) by God. Thus the eleven Hujjats, the previous Imam and the Hujjat-i a`zam obeyed him. However, some important questions arise here:

In this story, are the Hujjats of the night, or those of the day or both mentioned? Are there not twelve jazā'ir (pl. of jazīrah) or islands? And are there not hudūd on them?
Are all Hujjats of the night and day from the family of the Imam, as is apparent from the story of Hazrat Yūsuf?
When did the brothers of Hazrat Yūsuf prostrate to him?

A. In this story there is the mention of both the Hujjats of the night and Hujjats of the day. Yes, there are twelve jazā'ir of the planet earth, and in every jazīrah there are hudūd. They can be in the dense body as well as in the subtle body. The heir to the throne of Imamat is from the family of Imam. For the rest of the hudūd, place and family are not a condition. Although the entire Qur'ān is the best of narratives, yet it is mentioned about this sūrah (12:3) that it is the best of narratives. It also alludes that in it there is an answer for every question related to the system of hudūd-i dīn and the law of ta'wīl (12:7). Thus we believe that from the centre of Imamat to all the Hujjats of the jazā'ir there is a spiritual connection, if not always, at least at special times. It is because of this that in the story of Hazrat Yūsuf, all Hujjats are presented linked to the Imam. The exoteric aspect of the story appears to be an affair of the house of Hazrat Ya`qūb only, but esoterically, it is the story of hudūd-i dīn, in which both the negative and positive wisdoms of Hujjats are mentioned together.

TWELVE:
In verse (5:12) God says about the children of Israel: "We appointed (ba`atha) from amongst them twelve chiefs." From the view point of spirituality and recognition, the most important word which deserves attention is the word "ba`atha", because this word shows what was the cause of the grandeur and status of these chiefs. The real purport of ba`atha is inbi`āth, which is the climax of spirituality, where there are the miracles of ibdā` also. You have studied what ibdā` and inbi`āth mean! Thus those twelve chiefs were the Hujjats or Naqībs of Hazrat Mūsā and among them the first were Asās, Imam, and Bāb respectively. Thus Hazrat Mūsā, by God's command, struck the rock of intellect of each of them with the staff of ism-i a`zam and let a spring of knowledge and wisdom gush forth from it and thus there were twelve springs in their personal worlds (2:60; 7:160). In this divine teaching there are many great wisdoms, therefore you should discuss amongst yourselves and ask: Were these hudūd and springs in the time of the Holy Prophet or not and similarly are they after him or not?

As there are twelve months in a year of the physical world, in the same way, there are twelve months of a year in the world of religion, but nothing in religion is without life and knowledge, therefore the months of religion are living and speaking. They are the Hujjats of the cycle of Prophethood and those of the cycle of Imamat. Four out of the twelve are called muqarrab (the close ones). They are hurum (pl. of harām, sacred), because they have been freed from the spiritual jihād. Since the personal world and the world of religion have been created, the same law of twelve months continues. See verse (9:36). In addition to the twelve Hujjats, there are twelve ranks of religion as well, whose names and numbers of wisdom are given below:

Number	Name
1	Mustajīb
2	Ma'dhūn-i asghar
3	Ma'dhūn-i akbar
4	Dā`ī-i makfūf
5	Dā`ī -i mutlaq
6	Hujjat-i jazīrah
7	Hujjat-i a`zam or Bāb
8	Imam²
9	Asās
10	Natīq
100	Nafs-i Kull
1000	`Aql-i Kull

Nasīr al-Dīn Nasīr Hunzā'ī,
London, 24th December, 1986.

Notes:
^1. See verse (24:55) and reflect upon it. Also think about the people of the Cave and the bearers of the throne. If a mu'min can be annihilated in the Imam of the time, then by the grace of God what cannot he be!

^2. God has made Imam-i mubīn the city of His knowledge and has encompassed everything in him, including the hudūd-i dīn (36:12). Thus, in order to acquire the wisdom of the Qur'ān, it is extremely important to study the hudūd-i dīn in the illumination of the light of Imamat, without doing which, the ta'wīl of the Qur'ān is not at all possible.

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