A026
Surah: 055 - Ayah: 026
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55:26
According to the verses: "All that (creation) is on the earth is going to be annihilated, but will abide the Face of thy Lord, majestic, bounteous" (55:26-7) and then God says: "Of which of your Lord’s bounties will you deny (0 the groups of jinn and mankind)? (55:28). Here some important questions arise: What Is the nature of this annihilation? Is it a physical one or spiritual? Or both? Can the Face of God be included in the category of creatures? If not, then why is it included in "All that is on the earth" and then is excepted from them? Is it an annihilation for the sake of annihilation or annihilation for the sake of abiding? These questions are necessary so that every intelligent mumin should think well in the above verse, for in it the law of annihilation and its result are mentioned. The answers to these questions are: In this annihilation is included, every kind of annihilation, but the most rewarding annihilation is the one which can be attained only during the life-time, for this is the result of inbiath and ibda . The Face of God is the Imam of the time and Imam has two aspects, the human and angelic. Thus from one aspect he is with human beings and from another with angels. It is because of this that with respect to body, Imam, who represents the Face of God, is included among the creatures, but with respect to light, he is excepted and affirmed Immortal. This wisdom-filled verse alludes that all the people on the earth annihilate, very few of them in the light of ma rifat and the rest without ma rifat, and gather and become encompassed in the sublime and exalted personality of the Imam, as is said in the verse (36:12) that God has encompassed everything in the personality of the manifest Imam. Nonetheless, for the time being all people despite being in the Imam, cannot be equal, as in the human body there are Innumerable particles of soul ("cells), which are not equal with respect to feeling. For, among them those particles are more sensitive which are at the centres of the external and internal senses.
Worldly things are of two kinds; higher and lower. When the higher things are annihilated, they become still higher. For Instance, some of them transform into light or fragrance or energy etc., by their burning and some others become the food of the plants, animals or human beings. In both cases, there is betterment and progress of these things. This is an example of the external world, but the annihilation of the internal world is very great, where, as mentioned in the above, everything goes to the hand of God and transforms into the light of Intellect and knowledge. In addition to this, see the verse (55:26-27): "Everything on it is perishable; there remains only the face of thy Lord of might and glory". The ta'wil of this verse is, that all the creatures and existents of the personal world are annihilated and merged into the light of Intellect, when they reached the place of Intellect, and there remains only the face of God, who has might and glory and in Whose hand is the light of Intellect. Further, think about the verse (40:85) that this Divine law has always continued to take place in His servants, as He says: "The Divine law has ever taken place in His servants and there the disbelievers are in loss" (40:85). God's habit (law) has always continued to pass in His selected servants (the Prophets and the Imams). And the disbelievers are in loss in this place. For, they did not recognize the Perfect Man in whose person the Divine law remains hidden.
In the surah of Rahman intellectual annihilation is mentioned where God's face is mentioned (55:26-28), then are mentioned His majesty and benevolence and all His bounties. The precious allusion and wisdom of this is that when a successful lover attains the holy didar of his Lord at the place of the renewal of azal and abad, there he also has the practical experience and observation of fana' fi'llah (annihilation in God) and baqabi'llah (survival with God) and the doors of inner bounties are opened to him.
Ta'wil of Qalb (Heart): The main reason for the importance of qalb is its tawil. The tawil of qalb is the Imam of the time, because the pure heart of the mumin, which has the extremely great status of being the Rahman's Throne is the holy light of the Imam of the time, which if not actually, is potentially in the forehead of the mumin. The proof of this is that during the tawili death, the earth of the personal world (including the heart) dies several times, but its heaven and the Throne upon which manifests the face of God, i.e. the Imam of the time, which are the head and the forehead, nothing happens to them and they remain intact. And this extremely great secret is among the secrets of the special treasure (55:26-27). Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds!
According to a wisdom-filled verse of surah-iRahman,all human beings on the planet earth are going to be annihilated by various forms of death and will finally merge into the Face of God, i.e the Luminous Body or ibdai body. This great favour of God is a bright proof that He is the Owner of Glory, Honour and Favour (55:26-28).
Wajh Allah (Face of God, destination of annihilation)
The surah of Rahman, due to its spiritual beauty is called the Bride of the Qur'an. In this blessed surah it is said in verses (55:26-27): "Everyone that is on it (earth or the personal world) is perishable, there remains but the face of your Lord, the Glorious, the Bounteous”, i.e. the representative of God.
Annihilation does not mean the extinction of a thing, rather, it means the changing of a thing from one state to another state. Thus annihilation in God, means to die from the carnal existence and become eternally alive in the light of God, as implied in verses (55:26-27): “All those souls which are on the earth of the personal world are going to perish and only the Face of Your Majestic and Benevolent Lord will remain. Man in himself is an independent world, in which, in the form of souls, dwell innumerable people, who have to perish in the Face of God and have to return to the presence of God, the Exalted, as a Single Soul” (6:94; 31:28).
The purport of verses (55:26-28) in which annihilation is mentioned is that annihilation of everything on earth and the ever-abiding of the face of the Lord Who is full of majesty and honour is His greatest favour for both jinn and mankind. This shows that the annihilation of one's ego or lower "I" by effacing it with humility, and reviving and abiding eternally in the real beloved, is the greatest bounty.
This verse has been referred 14 times.