A172
Surah: 007 - Ayah: 172
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7:172
Renewal of the Covenant of "Alast (Am I not?)":
If you believe with total certainty that countless cycles of Adams have elapsed before the Adam of Ceylon, how is it possible for the covenant of "Am I not?" to be a single spiritual event? Even if someone believes in one Adam only, it is established and clear that the covenant of "Am I not your Lord?" (7:172) takes place in the personal world of every Prophet, every Imam, every Bab, every Hujjat and others. Since it is an event of the same nature, which is repeated in different ages, we can say that there is the renewal of the covenant of "Am I not?" Further, the secrets of this covenant are related to the children of Adam, and the children of Adam in the true sense are the Perfect Men, who are present in all ages. Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds!
Alam-i Dharr (World of Particles)
Q. 86. What does alam-i dharr mean? Where is it? Is it physical or spiritual? If it is physical, why cannot everybody see it?
A. 'Alam-i dharr means the world of particles, which means the particles of the souls. It exists in this world and is a compound of the subtle body and soul. There is a great wisdom hidden in its being so. It can be seen only after the eye of the heart opens, therefore, everybody cannot see it. It was the alam-i dharr in which God had asked the souls of the people to confess His Lordship (rububiyyat): "Am I not your Lord?" and the souls said: "Yes, verily". (7:172).
Nuh's Ark and the Particles of Soul
Q. 37. You have said that the spiritual particles in the loins of the mu'mins carried in Nuh's Ark had seen the scene of the deluge. Here the question arises, how did it become possible for them to do so while they had no consciousness?
A. Today all the people living on the planet earth were, before now, spiritual particles in the loins of the children of Adam. The Lord of the world took them from there and brought them in the spirituality of a personality, where the Divine light was illumining the realities and gnoses. Then, God asked those particles: "Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, verily" (7:172). This shows that where the Divine light illumines things, not only do the spiritual particles receive consciousness, but also all the inanimate particles speak out. As the Qur'an says: "They will say: Allah gave us speech, Who gave speech to all things" (41:21). Thus, the light of Prophethood and Imamat was illumining the spiritual particles in Nuh's Ark and all souls, in a way, were observing this great deluge.
Offspring (Dhurriyyat) of the Children of Adam:
There cannot be any doubt that the words of the Qur’an are extremely comprehensive. For instance, think about the covenant of alast (Am I not?) mentioned in verse (7:172). It begins with the words “Wa idh akhadha rabbuka..” That when your Lord took the offering of the children of Adam from their lions and elevating them through the stages of spirituality caused them to reach the world of Intellect, where their inner eye became open and they were shown the higher end of their soul…It must be remembered that “akhdha” (He took; He held) is the act of Divine hand, the manifestation and perfection of which is at the place of Intellect. There whatever is in His fist is everything, including Intellect and the offspring of Adam.
The Quraanic mention of the event alast (Am I not? 7:172) is like the removal of time. That is, in this event the spirituality and luminosity of Prophets and Imams is mentioned together and the time between them removed.
You might have studied the article of the “Removal of Time”. It is very great revolutionary secret. See verse (7:172) in whish the event of “alast (Am I not?)” is mentioned.
Alastu? (1) (Am I not?)
God says in verse (7:172): "Am I not your Lord?" This is indeed the event of the personal world. When a mu'min-i salik reaches the rank of the truth of certainty by Divine guidance and providence and he is given all those bounties and favours which are kept in grades and degrees in the stages of spirituality and intellectuality, then God asks him and others like him: "Am I not your Lord?" That is, have I not brought you up spiritually and intellectually? They will testify in their respective times and say: O Bounteous Lord, why not?
Alastu? (3) (Place of vision and recognition)
The external and internal journey of the higher world which is the world of unity, is not possible in the disturbance and noise of multiplicity, therefore, God separated the world of particles (calam-i dharr) of the dhurriyyat (progeny, off-spring) of the Perfect Man from his loins which in due time annihilated in him and became one with him. Then God made him to be present at the upper end of his soul and made him observe and see it and made him a witness of this great miracle. All these meanings are contained in "wa ashhadahum cala anfusihim" (7:172). Not only that, but it also alludes to His holy vision and supreme recognition. Thus the verse of the covenant of "Am I not?" embraces all spiritual and intellectual events.
Alastu? (5) (Verse of "Am I not?" (7:172))
Question: In verse (7:172) the children of Adam are mentioned but not Adam himself. What is the secret in this? Is Adam exempt from this rule or is there any other wisdom hidden in not mentioning his name?
Answer: In the verse under discussion, the Adam of the cycle is also mentioned, because with respect to the previous cycle, he is a son of Adam and with respect to the present he is Adam and the father of human beings.
'Alastu? (5) (Treasure of vision, after fana’ fi’llah and baqa’ bi’llah'';
(b) Vision is both before and after fana’ (annihilation)
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As mentioned in the above, great spiritual secrets are hidden in "wa ashhadahum cala anfusihim''" (7:172). That is, it indicates the sacred vision of the Soul of souls. And it is a crystal clear fact that the Supreme Soul or the Soul of souls is the one by annihilating in which we can receive the highest life. Thus, O the light of my eyes! try to make a habit of thinking universally, that God did not say "Am I not your Lord?" except after granting universes full of everlasting bounties, and the soul of all bounties is the vision of God.
If we try to understand Qur’anic wisdom and accept the system of cycles, then we should also accept this law of the soul which is that when the cycle of the previous Adam was complete, and the cycle of our father Adam began, the Lord of the worlds took the offspring from the loins of the children of the previous Adam and having presented them in the spirituality of His vicegerent of this cycle (i.e our Adam), and after taking a covenant from them, considered them the children of the present Adam (7:172). This miracle takes place first in every person in the chain of vicegerency (i.e. Prophethood and Imamat).
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 micraj), there were the particles of the souls of all other people also, but they were not conscious of this event.
It is said in the Qur’ᾱn that Allah brought forth from the loins of the children of Ᾱdam, their children and made them testify of themselves, and asked them: “Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, verily we testify,” (7:172)
The subject of "Practical Sufism and Spiritual Science" is based on the secrets of recognition. Therefore, it is extremely important for us to discuss the subject of recognition more and more. But, as you know discussion on its own leads nowhere, until someone is granted guidance and success by God in practical experience. Thus, it should be known that one of the miracles of the Noble Qur'an is that by reflecting upon it, a limited subject becomes unlimited. For instance, let us take the very word marifat (recognition). Its root letters are ayn, ra', fa', from which altogether only seventy one different forms are mentioned in the Qur'an. Thus, at first glance, the circle of marifat seems to be so limited. But if we continue to reflect on it we begin to understand that the subject of marifat is not so limited. In fact, there are many other words in the Qur’an which imply the same subject of marifat. Study the following article carefully in order to come to this conclusion.
(1) Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth, that is, He is the light of marifat (recognition) in whose illumination the secret of marifat reveals from every thing of the heavens and the earth and from every word of the Qur'an. He is the light of guidance, therefore He can shed light for the mu'mins on the spiritual path which starts from the meaning of every verse, up to His holy vision. One of the names of Allah is an-nur (the Light) and He is az-zahir (the Manifest) as well, and in both senses God granted all souls His holy vision and asked them: "Am I not your Lord?" They all said with one voice: "Why not?" (7:172). Thus, there are at least three meanings hidden in this question of God. Have I not brought you up spiritually and intellectually? Have I not manifested Myself in front of you and is this not My vision? Am I not your hidden treasure, i.e. the treasure of marifat?
(2) There is great spiritual happiness for the people of marifat in the secret that the Glorious Qur'an has manifestations of meaning and recognition, such as a manifestation of intellect, whereby the Wise Qur'an becomes a subject of intellect from the beginning to the end; similarly, manifestation of knowledge, manifestation of mercy, manifestation of affection, manifestation of love, manifestation of guidance, manifestation of wisdom, manifestation of vision, manifestation of marifat, etc. The inner eye is a pre-requisite in order to see these manifestations. Thus, the manifestation of marifat is explained here.
(3) Although the revelation of the Qur'an has many purposes, its last and supreme one is marifat. That is, every one should recognise himself and his Lord, as this Divine purpose becomes evident from verse (7:172) that the souls whom God wants to ask about His Lordship, are first brought to the illumination of the light of marifat in the most perfect state, and then questioned by Him. Otherwise, without spiritual and intellectual upbringing, vision and recognition, such a question cannot be possible.
It is mentioned in verse (7:172): “When your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their offspring and made them bear witness over themselves, [saying]: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, verily. We testify. Lest you should say on the day of resurrection: Verily we were not aware of this.”
Q224 This question relates to verse (7:172) in which it is mentioned: “When your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their dhurriyyat (particles of soul), and made them witness over themselves. [Then asked them]: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, we testify.” Is this event a part of the individual resurrection of the carif or is it a separate event? What is meant by the children of Adam(c)? At what stage is the question “Am I not your Lord?” asked?
A224
- The covenant of alast (Am I not?) is a part of every carif’s resurrection,
- By the children of Adam(c), in reality, are meant the kamils and the carifs.
- The question “Am I not your Lord?” is asked in the sacred Sanctuary.
This verse has been referred 16 times.