Pure Heart Vibes

Quantum Islam

2008-12-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

Does Physics Confirm the Qur'anic Worldview?

By Dr Kevin J. Barrett

The Qur'an, it has been argued, is unique among the scriptures of the major world religions in its compatibility with the shifts in world-view that have accompanied major scientific discoveries.

When Copernicus argued that the earth was not the center of the universe, the Christian worldview was thrown into chaos. Christians, with their anthropocentric cosmology, believed that we human beings were the be-all and end-all of the entire cosmos, so our planet had to be at the exact center of everything. This error was the natural result of confusing God with one of His creatures, a human being. The humanist heirs to Christianity persist in the same error, though they, along with most Christians, have grudgingly accepted the Copernican revolution, at least in astronomy. Muslims, on the other hand, have always known Allah as rabb al-`alamin, the Lord of the Worlds. That means that there are many worlds, of which ours is just one. Copernicus's discovery was not particularly surprising or disturbing to Muslims.

The success of popularizations of quantum physics, especially the recent film What the Bleep do We Know, suggests that a new Copernican revolution is brewing. Once again Muslims will find that its consequences are in accordance with Qur'anic teachings, even as non-Muslims find their entire worldviews turned upside-down. And once again, at the heart of the change is a scientific discovery showing that our world is merely one of an almost infinite plethora of other worlds.

Quantum physics, the most successful mathematical model of physical reality, tells us that “deep reality” consists not of physical objects, but of probability waves. Each point on a probability wave corresponds to an actual state of physical reality as we experience and measure it. But along with the one that we perceive and measure are an almost infinitely large number of other realities—other worlds—that seem to exist in parallel universes to which our senses and instruments do not have access.

The Western scientists who developed quantum theory have had difficulty accepting its implications. Like the pre-Copernican popes, they are emotionally attached to the idea that their own little world is the center of everything. Could my physical universe really be just one of a huge number of parallel universes branching out to infinity? If there are so many worlds, why do I just perceive one of them?

Islam answers “Why not?” If quantum physics is correct, Allah is Lord of the Worlds not just in the sense of having created an enormous number of suns and planets, but also in unfolding a multiplicity of worlds (universes) as part of the very process of creation. The idea that these unfolding worlds exist in a realm hidden from us should not surprise readers of the Qur'an, which repeatedly speaks of `alam al-ghaib (the concealed dimension of reality). Nor should Muslims be dismayed by the almost infinite richness and mulitiplicity of Allah's creation. After all, Allah is the One who only has to say “Be” and it is. Nor should Muslims have difficulty accepting their humble place in this magnificent scheme. After all, our purpose and place is to submit to Allah, not boastfully insist that we and we alone must be the center of creation.

The new Copernican revolution of quantum physics inspired the recent movie sensation What the Bleep Do We Know, a lively, thought-provoking film that predictably takes a somewhat narcissistic approach to quantum reality. Whereas Islam orients us toward awed submission to the Lord of the Worlds, new age spirituality often emphasizes personal power and gratification. Rather than finding balance and inner peace, and marveling at the stunning richness and multiplicity of unfolding creation, the new age approach to the discovery of multiple universes is, “That means I can choose which universe I want to live in—I can control the very reality I perceive! Wow, I'm almost a god! Maybe I AM God!” This mistake is inevitable, given Western culture's drift from Christianity (which confuses a man with God) to humanism (which makes mankind into its God) to the current state of confusion as technology grasps for seemingly godlike powers.

Are there really multiple realities branching out all around us, and can we really choose between them? This question reduces a tremendous insight into the nature of reality into a pragmatic quest for power. Here are the stages the Western world is going through as it confronts the new Copernican revolution of quantum reality:

(1) Denial. From Einstein's “God does not play dice with the universe” to the ongoing attempts to explain how the many “unreal” quantum realities collapse into the single “one truly real” reality that I perceive, the egocentric consciousness desperately clings to the illusion that its reality is the only real one; all others are mere illusion that must be explained away.

(2) Egocentric, power-mongering acceptance of quantum reality. Exemplified by the film What the Bleep do We Know, this approach accepts the multiple realities implication of quantum physics, but views it mainly as a tool for personal empowerment: getting rid of negative emotions, experiencing more pleasure, and generally choosing to live a more enjoyable, less neurotic life. While there is nothing wrong with getting rid of addictions and negative emotions and experiencing pleasure, making this the central goal of existence is self-defeating.

(3) Experiencing the larger vision of reality quantum physics describes, and assuming an orientation of awed, grateful submission to the Creator of that amazing reality-process.

The third stage is the one recommended in no uncertain terms by the Qur'an. Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, Creator of all that exists, is the One who is All-Knowing and All-Seeing. The basic grounding and orientation of our existence should be awed submission to Allah, not a neurotic pursuit for power over the tiny corner of reality that we inhabit.

Of the popularizations of quantum physics that I am familiar with, perhaps the best—and certainly the most interesting from a Muslim perspective—is Science, Sense & Soul: The Mystical-Physical Nature of Human Existence by Casey Blood, Ph.D. (Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 2001). The author, a physicist who has been heavily influenced by Islamic ideas, offers an amazingly lucid interpretation of quantum physics that closely fits the Qur'anic cosmology.

As Blood describes it, the quantum description of reality puts an end to the age of materialism, by requiring the existence of nonphysical Mind behind the physical brain. This nonphysical element is extremely rich and complex, and corresponds to the part of us that survives death—the ruh in traditional Islamic cosmology. During life, it makes choices between the quantum realities corresponding to our thoughts, and these choices have immense repercussions for our experience not only of life, but also after death. In fact, the choices we make in life will have their most immense repercussions after death, as Islam teaches us. Why? Because while we are alive, the physical universe modifies and structures our consciousness, rendering finite the repercussions of each thought-choice we make. When our non-physical Mind is cut off from the physical universe, as happens to a certain extent in sleep and with absolute finality at death, the thought-forms of Mind itself become the whole of consciousness. All the good and bad that we have done is eternalized, and we enter the form of eternity shaped by our own actions. In other words, we enter an eternal paradise or jahannum that is the fruit of our choices during life. Thus our choices are of immense importance, as the Qur'an repeatedly warns us.

Blood's quantum cosmology not only suggests the existence of Allah, creator and sustainer, Lord of the Words, it demands it. By assuming that quantum reality is physical reality, Blood shows that something else—a very big something else—is needed. At the level of our individual consciousness, that something else is the nonphysical Mind or soul. At the level of the cosmos as a whole, a unifying non-physical mind underlying and creating the quantum-governed physical dimension is equally necessary. Now what could we call such an all-creating, all-embracing, absolute-justice-dispensing, all-merciful non-material mind? Muslims would call it Allah.

Besides suggesting the reality of Allah, paradise, hellfire and judgment, based on the most straightforward interpretation of contemporary physics, Blood also demonstrates where angels and jnun fit into the scheme. The realm of angels, he writes, is an aspect of non-physical Mind that is relatively closer to Allah and further from quantum-governed material reality; while the realm of the jnun is a denser layer of non-physical Mind closer to material reality. Our own Mind (ruh) can and does experience both planes.

It is well known that certain passages in the Qur'an have prefigured later scientific discoveries. But until I read Blood's book, I had never heard anyone claim that the most straightforward interpretation of the most basic scientific approach to reality, physics, had confirmed the key principles of the Islamic worldview. This is quite an interesting bit of news. As the amazing implications of quantum physics slowly seep into global consciousness, perhaps the narcissistic “Wow! I create reality” phase will give way to a more mature understanding of the cosmos—an understanding rooted in an Islamic worldview confirmed by the ripening of scientific knowledge

Spiritual Freedom Manifestation

2008-12-08T16:46:00.000-08:00

Manifestation (1)

In the beginning, when there was no earth nor heaven, there was no other phase of existence than the eternal consciousness, which in other words may be called a silent, inactive state of life or unawakened intelligence that man has idealized as God, the only Being.

In the first stage of manifestation the unconscious state of existence turns into 'Ilm,' consciousness. Every soul is a ray of the consciousness. The nature of the consciousness is that it is radiant, it sends out rays. These pass through all the planes until they reach the ideal manifestation in man.

In the Vedanta the soul is called by three names which denote its three aspects, Atma, Mahatma, Paramatma. Atma is the soul conscious of the life on the surface, Mahatma is the soul conscious as well of the life within, Paramatma is the consciousness that is the soul of souls, conscious of the Absolute within and without, the God of the knower, the Lord of the seer.

In the primal stage of manifestation the consciousness has no knowledge of anything save of being, not knowing in what or as what it lives. The next aspect of the consciousness is the opposite pole of its experience, where it knows all that it sees and perceives through the vehicles of the lower world but is limited to this. When it rises above this experience and experiences the higher world as far as the highest aspect of its being, as said above, it becomes Mahatma, the Holy Ghost that unites Paramatma, the Father, with Atma, the Son, as explained in the terms of Christianity.

This whole manifestation is constituted of two aspects of the consciousness, power and intelligence, in poetical terms love and light. All power lies in the unintelligent aspect of the consciousness, and the wisdom of the Creator that we see in the creation is the phenomenon of the intelligent aspect of the consciousness.

All this creation is not created of anything that is outside of the consciousness. It is the consciousness itself which has involved a part of itself in its creation while a part remains as Creator, as water frozen turns into ice and yet water abides within and the ice lasts only for the time that it is frozen; when light reaches the ice it turns into water, its original element. So it is with the consciousness; all things have been created out of it, and when their time of existence is finished all return and merge into it.

The consciousness has taken four distinct steps in manifestation, which in Sufi terms are called 'Ilm, 'Ishq, Wujud, Shuhud. 'Ilm is the stage in which the consciousness acts as intelligence. 'Ishq is the stage when the activity of the rays of the consciousness has increased and this has caused confusion among the rays and made power out of the intelligence, which is will in simple terms and in poetical terms love. The third step of the consciousness, Wujud, is the creation of vehicles, such as mind and body, through which it experiences the life on the surface. And its fourth step is its conscious experience of life from the depth to its utmost height, which is called Shuhud, and this fulfills the purpose of all manifestation.

The divisions of one into many are caused by light and shade, and if we looked keenly into life, both within and without, we should realize clearly that it is one life, one light, which appears divided and made into many by different shades. Every luminous object under the shadow of a less luminous object turns darker in part, and this in terms of art is called shade. It is this secret which is hidden under the variety of things and beings.

Time and space are the cause of all creation and the source of all its variety. It is time that changes things and beings from the raw state to the ripe condition, from youth to age, from birth to death. Time brings rise and fall, and space gives success and failure. A person may meet with failure in one place and in another place with success, in one country he may rise and in another country he may fall. If one were to look closely into life one would see that all creation is changed under the influence of time and space whereas no change ever takes place in space or in time. It is in these that the mystery of the whole world abides.

The activity of the consciousness has two aspects, motion and stillness, which causes two distinct things, the expressive power and the faculty of response. From the highest to the lowest plane of existence and in the life of all things and beings we see these two forces working unceasingly, each being for the other, and in the experience of expression and response lies the joy of both; in other words, the satisfaction of the consciousness. The sun expresses, the moon responds; the voice expresses, the ear responds. All the dual aspects in life, such as male and female, show these two aspects. There is not a single thought, speech, action, or event that takes place without the activity of these two; all happiness and success are in their harmony and every fall and failure are in the lack of it. The birth of every thing and being is caused by the meeting of their glance, and death and destruction are the result of their conflict, when either merges into the other and both lose their power.

There are two different ways in which creation takes place from the highest to the lowest plane: intention and accident. The former shows the wisdom of the Creator, who makes all things suited to their purpose; and accident is that which reveals a loss of purpose in things and beings. All the opposites, such as good and evil, sin and virtue, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, are accounted for by the above two tendencies of the Creator that work throughout creation.

The whole creation acts under the law of attraction and repulsion. Attraction is the affinity which collects and groups atoms and vibrations and all things and beings;it is power, and repulsion is the lack of it. It is these two that uphold the universe; if one of them were to cease to exist the whole universe would crumble to pieces.

The life of the universe in all its workings is entirely dependent upon the law of tone and rhythm. The pure consciousness has so to speak gradually limited itself more and more by entering into the external vehicles, such as the mind and the body, in order to be conscious of something, for the joy of everything is experienced when it is tried.

The first state of manifestation of the consciousness is of a collective nature, in other words a universal spirit, not individual. There is a saying of a dervish, 'God slept in the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awakened in the animal kingdom, and realized Himself in the human race.' Therefore the ultimate aim of the eternal Consciousness in undertaking a journey to the plane of mortality is to realize its eternal being.

Each of the said kingdoms has sprung from the preceding one, and each preceding kingdom has developed into the succeeding kingdom. In the mineral kingdom one sees by a careful study how the rock has developed into metal, and from metal into softer earthy substance, until it develops into the plant. And one sees how the development of the plant creates germs and worms, which we call lives, and how from their germ and worm state of being they develop into insects, birds, and beasts. This all shows that nature is working continually to rise to a greater consciousness of life, and finds its satisfaction at last when it has accomplished its journey by rising to its natural and normal state of being, which it accomplishes in man.

Chapter III
Manifestation (2)

When a ray starts out from the universal Spirit, projecting towards manifestation, it is called Dipak, meaning light, which in its lower manifestation turns into Cupid, the reverse of the word 'dipak' in spelling. In Arabic it is called Nur, light, from which words Nar, man, and Ndri, women, are derived.

It is very difficult to differentiate rays from light and light from rays. It depends on our understanding. In the rays light is more separate, more distinct, while light itself is more collected, more together. But at the same time we should remember that the truth cannot be put into words; all we can do is to make an effort to render the mystery of life intelligible to our minds. The distinction between light and sun and rays is most useful, but it must be understood by the light of intuition; then it will become clear. Take for instance the example of the rain; why must the raindrops also rear poisonous plants and weeds, why should they not fail only upon corn, fruits, and flowers? They fail in all places; and so do the rays coming from the sun. The divine light fails everywhere without distinction just as the rain does.

When science discovered the secret of electricity, on that day science was also discovering the secret of the soul. For the secret of the soul is not far removed from the secret of electricity. The current of electricity is not necessarily the same as electricity. Electricity is the power which is hidden in the current. It is the same with the soul; the soul attracts atoms by some secret current; and that current is the soul itself. It is like one globe over another. There is something within the body, but at the same time it is all collected and gathered in that current; and that current is the ray; it is the divine current.

In the angelic sphere the soul attracts angelic atoms; in the jinn sphere it attracts jinn atoms, and on the earth physical atoms. Thus mankind is clothed in the garb of an angel, of a jinn, and of a human being; but when he only sees himself in the garb of a human being without seeing the other garbs, he believes he is nothing but a human being.

The souls coming out get impressions from souls going back because they absorb, conceive, learn, and receive all that is given to them by the souls leaving the earth. But what really happens is reflection; souls coming from heaven become impressed. It is just like an impression upon a photographic plate; and when they come on earth the photographic plate is developed and finished.

As a rule the reflection of two souls meeting takes place like this; but there is a difference in the qualities of souls. There is one upon which an impression is made instantly, and another soul upon which it takes longer. That is due to the intensity of power and radiation that the soul brings along within itself.

Souls on their way to the earth plane know, and at the same time do not know exactly, that they are on the way to experience life here. There is an impulse to go forward and to experience that which they may be able to experience. That tendency gives the soul strength to advance, and those which are able to advance far enough manifest as human beings.

The soul brings on earth an accommodation for its mind, already prepared in a very negative state, from the world of the jinns that is the plane it gets its accommodation from. It gets a body after coming on earth, but the accommodation is filled later on, after the soul's awakening on the earth plane; it is here that the soul collects everything. For instance there may be one child which listens attentively to music, while another runs away from it; this means that the latter has not got the mold in which music is engraved. It will learn to appreciate music later i£ it will listen to it, but with the first child the mold was already made, and the music it hears will readily fit into that mold.

The soul gathering impressions first builds up the astral being, then attracts both sexes towards each other, manifesting to them first in ether, feeling; then in air, thought; then in fire, desire; manifesting after this into water and earth elements, gathering and grouping the substance from both, choosing a clay suitable for its formation. Generally a soul chooses also its birthplace and family. The soul inherits the father's qualities and the mother's form, in other cases the reverse; attracting the heredity on the father's and the mother's side until it steps on earth as an infant.

A mother seeing the growth of her child, says that her child has gained so many pounds. In fact it has lost as much, for the soul of the child has produced from its immortal nature mortal unconsciousness in order to experience life, and the more the earthly substance is built up, the more the heavenly being is lost, the more feeble it has become and the more the almighty power is lessened.

Sex is determined in every plane where the soul forms its vehicle; first on the plane of consciousness where it emerges as dynamic force or intelligence, then on the plane of the abstract as sound or light, which gives power to man and wisdom to woman. In man this manifests as influence and in woman as beauty. In the spiritual plane it manifests as expression and response, which gives man the fatherly and woman the motherly quality.

When and why was the difference of sex produced in manifestation? One cannot say that the soul of woman or the soul of man was made first, as the soul is neither male nor female. When the soul reaches the point where the distinction of sex arises, it is first male; then if it wishes to become finer, it becomes female. We can see in the kernel of the almond and of other nuts, that where there are two kernels in one shell the female form has been formed from the male.

One sometimes calls men and women who love each other very much two parts of one soul; but this can only be said in the sense that we are all parts of one soul. Between man and woman there can be affinities of the angel plane, of the jinn plane and of the physical plane; many different ties and affinities attract them to each other.

This whole world of illusion could only be produced by duality. In reality there are not two, but one. In order to produce this world, the one Being had to turn Himself into two, and the two had to be different. We have two eyes but one sight, two ears but one hearing, two nostrils but one breath. According to whether the breath flows through the one or the other nostril, it has distinct qualities and faculties; but it is the same breath.

If we hold a mirror in the sunshine, and turn it about, some of the flashes will be stronger, others weaker; some therefore positive, others negative. In the same way the rays of consciousness differ from one another in their energy from the very beginning. Then the ray on its course towards manifestation at once meets the male and the female soul, and the impression of the male and female is made upon it. It may have great creative forces and yet appear as woman because of this impression, or it may be of feminine quality and appear as man because of the impression it has received. When the soul reaches the physical plane, its sex depends upon the parents, upon the planets, and upon the time.

The sex that it takes at the time of formation is not changed later. In the Gulman and Peri sex exists also, though in a lesser degree. We have passed through the plane of Gulman and Peri, but we are not Gulman and Peri; just as we might pass through Germany on our way to Russia, yet we would not be Germans because we had passed through that country. Those who settle in the world of Gulman and Peri, are Gulman and Peri. They have either no inclination or no power to go further.

The reason for all manifestation is that manifestation is God's nature. By this he obtains His satisfaction through the fulfillment of the purpose of the whole creation. But God's satisfaction is not something He is only conscious of; it is something which belongs to Him but is brought to fulfillment. Joy is something which belongs to us, but it is aroused by a certain emotion, a certain action; so this whole creation, which is an action, brings to God the satisfaction for which it was created. It does not bring anything new to God; it only makes Him conscious of what He is.

It is most interesting to understand how the action of God works in manifestation. For instance, sometimes a person begins to walk about the room, or starts drumming with his fingers, or looks up and down without there being any need for it. Why does he do it? Because the absence of action has the effect of paralysing the activity of the mind; and when the absence of action has paralysed the mind the soul begins to feel lonely and begins to wonder whether it is living or not. But when it begins to walk or to stop, then it realizes that it is alive, because then it lives in the outward consciousness of life. If we think about this more it opens a vast field of knowledge.

Naturally not all motion is caused by restlessness, for there are two states: weakness and strength. When a person is weak, once put in motion he will act and go on acting without any control; the other aspect, however, is strength, and that is quite different.

Manifestation takes place in time and space. The sun, the moon, and the planets all have their influence. Morning, noon, evening, night, and every hour of the day each have their special influence too. The children of one father and one mother are very different from each other in height, in breadth, in appearance, in every way, because they are born at different times. If one brother is fifteen years old and the other five, the difference between them will be very great. Twins are very much alike because there is little difference in the time of their birth. Lambs are all much alike because they are born in the same season; and fishes of the same kind are almost exactly alike because thousands of them are produced at the same moment.

This gives rise to the variety, in which the art of the Creator is shown. Since the beginning of the world there have been no two faces alike. Every artist will draw some faces that are similar; how great then must be the art of that Creator who has made all this variety!

All manifestation is made by the two forces of accident and intention, and by the creative and responsive forces. We can see the forces of accident and intention at work in our lives. For instance, if we intended to go for a walk in the park but met a friend who said, 'You must come to my house', and he took us there, we had the intention of going to the park, but accident took us to the home of the friend.

Everything in the world is creative or responsive. When someone speaks he is performing the creative part; those who are listening are performing the responsive part. The sun and the moon, male and female, the fruit and the flower, all represent nature's creative and responsive forces. Is the Creator then not master and able to make everything work as He wishes? The mastery is there, but its working out is in accordance with the impressions which are received from the external world.

When a person has been sitting still for some time he will want to move, to rub his hands, his feet, just to feel he is alive. If someone is very fond of the society of his friends and they are not with him, he will want to go out to see them. It is not really because he wants the friends; it is because if his friends are not talking to him, if he has to miss their activity, he does not feel that he is alive.

A blind man will say, 'I am half dead. This external world is nothing to me.' He is alive, but because he cannot see the activity of the world he feels dead. If one pondered upon what one's life would be without all the organs to experience the external world, one would see that then one could realize 'I am', but nothing else. No doubt if a person is inactive but looks at his hands and feet, he realizes that he is alive; but if he were not aware of this body his feeling would be different.

Those parts of creation that do not have much activity we may call living-dead. The mineral does not feel itself alive because it has very little activity. We consider the insects, birds, and animals to be the most alive because they have the greatest activity, and we sympathize most with them.

The destruction of form during manifestation does not affect the great Breath of God, as the ebb and flow of the sea is not at all affected by the waves, whether they go this way or that way. The manner of manifestation is the same all through, from beginning to end and from God to the smallest atom. For instance as God breathes, so we breathe and so do the animals and birds breathe; and when we see that act of breathing going on in the whole manifestation, in the same manner in which it has begun, then we realize that there is one law, one way in which the whole creation took place and will go on until its end.

We can see how minerals turn into plants, and plants into animals. There are some stones that change their shape every six months or so. They are on the way to becoming plants. And there are plants that are very near the stones, that look very much like stones; their leaves are like stones, their flowers are like stones. There are plants that catch and eat flies.

The plant by its decay produces the germ and the insect. Every fruit that is not used decays and produces many germs and worms. We think that it is wasted, because we think of it as a fruit; but it turns into a higher form of life, into more activity and more consciousness.

From the insects, as their activity increases and as they develop, come the birds. Those birds that are very greedy and eat flesh become heavy and do not stay in the air. Those that do not eat so much fly in the air; but those that eat much flesh remain on the ground and their wings become legs. Then the animals come into being. On some birds one may see that among the feathers on the neck and other places there is some brown hair; this shows that they are becoming animals. The animals evolve until man is formed.

The kangaroo and the monkey are most like man. In some primitive races, which have been human for a relatively short time, one can see the likeness to the animals. Other races have been man for a very long time and are more human.

The wheel of evolution is such that the consciousness gradually evolves through rock, tree, animal, to man. In man it evolves enough to seek its own way back to its eternal state of being. Man is the most active being; he has to do with a great many things. A rock has very little activity, and it lasts long; a tree has a little more activity, and its life is not so long as that of the rock. There are many animals that live much longer than man. Man has the greatest activity, and in him the consciousness reaches its highest point of manifestation. In the human race one also finds that man's face has improved at every period of evolution.

If man and animal are both made of the same substance, why then is man superior to the animal? Man and animal are made from the same element, spirit substance, but man is the culmination of creation; that is, man was made with all the experience of the previous creation. A sculptor, as he practices his art, grows more and more expert. His earlier work is not so perfect as the later. A poet grows more and more skilful in writing verse. His earlier poems are generally less skilful and perfect than the later. When man was manifested the Creator had all the experience of His earlier creation, and all the former creation was so to speak the framework for man, the ideal creation. The Creator is the greatest idealist. Man can have his limited ideal; the ideal of the Unlimited is far greater, and this ideal is man.

Some of the human race come straight from God, others have come from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Primitive man is the result of this evolution. Man in his higher development does not pass through these stages. It is like the work of a sculptor in India who wishes to model a statue. First he goes to the jungle to get the clay; then he kneads it and soaks it and prepares it. When it is prepared, he does not go back to the jungle to fetch fresh clay for every statue. He has it ready; it is always in process of preparation.

The difference between what parts of God are expressed by plants, animals, and man is in their bodies and minds. The soul is a ray; and as a ray they are all one and the same. But the body is adorned, in accordance with the fineness of the soul which inhabits it, with more or less intelligence; thus animals and plants differ from man, but among mankind one will also find differences of the same kind. Some have a vegetable quality, some an animal quality, some a human, some an angelic quality. Among Hindus there is a custom, when a couple contemplates marriage, for their family to take their horoscopes to a Brahmin. He may not see very much in the horoscopes, but he is generally a psychologist and he ponders over the question as to what category each person belongs in--whether it is angelic, human, animal, or still denser. If he finds that there is a vast difference between the categories, he will tell them it would not be right for them to marry.

All the time sparks of consciousness are thrown off by the consciousness. They reach to various points of the stages of evolution, and when man is reached the ideal creation has been attained. It is then that the return journey begins. Man only can return to that light, to that consciousness from which the whole of creation came. Neither the horse, nor the dog, nor the cat will reach that light; it is only man who is the seed of that divine fruit. If you put the rind of an orange in the ground, it will not produce an orange tree. All the lower creation was made for the creation of man, God's ideal creation. In man all creation is contained, and he alone can return to the original source, God, from whence he came.

The perfection of God's manifestation is man. When man reaches perfection, His manifestation is perfect, and without man's perfection, God's manifestation would not be perfect. Perfection is reached when mam becomes truly human.

One might ask if plants and animals, mountains and streams, also have a beginning or an apparent individual existence on the higher planes, as human souls have. All that exists on the earth place has its existence on the higher planes too; but what is individual? Every being and object which is distinctly separate may be called an entity, but what one calls an individual is a conception of our imagination; and the true meaning of that conception will be realized on the day when the ultimate truth throws its light upon life. On that day no one will speak about individuality; one will say 'God' and no more.

There are many beings, but at the same time there is one, the only Being. Therefore objects such as streams and mountains are also living, but they only exist separately, to our outer vision. When our inner vision opens then the separation is shown as a veil; then there is one vision alone, and that is the immanence of God.

Chapter IV
The World of the Angels

A materialistic person cannot easily believe that there are such beings as angels. He says, 'How can there exist beings whom we have never seen, heard, nor known?' And as this is a materialistic age, even the religious person doubts whether there are such beings.

In Hindustani angels are called Deva; they are Devata, immortals, while the other beings are called Rakshasa, that is mortals. In reality all are immortals, but we are what we consider ourselves to be.

Where, in nature, there is a beautiful and peaceful feeling, it is said that a Deva is living there. The soul of a Deva is creative of beauty and peace. The part of the Deva in the scheme of life is loving, forgiving, and serving God and humanity. The Deva is the divine soul. We find traces of the same word Deva in the English words 'divinity' and 'divine'. In Persian the angel is called Farishta, one who is sent.

The relation of angels to human beings is that of a little child to a grown-up person; they can help human beings as an infant can help its elders.

Some souls remain angels; they are in the highest glory; and others become jinns or human beings according to the strength with which the mechanism is wound, as is the nature of the clock. The first offshoot of the divine Light is the angel; some but not all experience life on all succeeding planes. It is as if a thousand birds had started from Paris for England, and some went as far as Rouen, where they remained, as they liked the place; and enjoying themselves they forgot about England. Some went to Le Havre and stopped there; some crossed the Channel and arrived in England. The ones who stayed in Rouen did not have far to go when they returned to Paris, but the ones who reached England had farther to go on the return journey.

In the angelic heaven there is purity, but not perfection, as there is only one perfection and that is God; there cannot be perfection where there is duality. Imperfection is not learned; it is a state of being, it is limitation. Limitation is the condition of life; however great, virtuous, pure, and strong a person may be, still there is imperfection going towards perfection. The entire interest lies in going forward; if we were born perfect there would be no joy in life.

The word angel suggests an, without, and jel, mortality. Angels are souls which, coming out of the consciousness, have reached as far as the world of the angels and remain there. Every angel has a limit to its reach. When it reaches as far as man, then, by the effort of travelling so far and by the activity of man's life, its impulse is exhausted.

Angels do not experience birth and death in the sense we generally understand them; yet there is only one being: God, who is above birth and death; all else is subject to the law of birth and death. The difference between the earth plane and the angelic plane is very great; but there is a time of youth and a time of age in everything, a time when the fruit is unripe and a time when it is ripe; and so it is with the angels, though there is no comparison possible between the life of angels and that of human beings, human life being too limited.

Just as in our life there is a time when we grow taller, broader, stronger, and everything in us increases, and then, when the limit is reached, we do not grow any more and become weaker every day, so it is with the angels. Only, the life of the angels is much longer than man's life. Theirs is a life of illumination and of praise; they are much nearer to the universal, everlasting sound, the universal, eternal light, much nearer to God, than we are. They have luminous bodies, as solid, as concrete, as the light one sees. The speed of a journey in the heavens is also much quicker and cannot be compared with that of the tower world; it is quickest in the heaven of the angels.

The question arises: do angels have a form, a face? This question is very difficult to answer in words. The reason is that every being and object that has a name has a form or a face; but we are accustomed to give a name to something only when we can distinguish a form; and what our eyes cannot see we do not call a form. One might as well ask whether our imaginations have faces. Our imaginations have the faces we give them and by which we distinguish the one from the other; our feelings too have the faces that we give them, and these faces distinguish one feeling from another feeling. However, the face of an angel is not so concrete as this physical form of ours which we call our self, 'I'; but in order to conceive, to picture, the form or the face of an angel, one needs to become an angel oneself. We are accustomed to consider every form like our own; therefore, when we picture angels, fairies, or ghosts, we picture them like ourselves. The fairies of the Chinese have Chinese features, the fairies of the Russians wear Russian hats. The form we imagine covers the angelic form.

Every atom of manifestation can be said to have a soul, because all manifestation has come from the heavenly source, the divine spheres; so every atom comes from that source and cannot exist without that heavenly radiance. Every atom has radiance, even those of dust; we see this because it has light in it. It is its own light which shows it to us, and that light is its soul. Much that seems to us devoid of intelligence is not so in reality; only the intelligence is buried in the heart; it has projected itself and it has been buried by what it has projected; one day, however, it must emerge.

One can see this in the stars and the planets, in lightning and in volcanic eruptions, when that which is captive desires to burst out. But its greatest chance is in human life, and thus spirituality is the only object in the fulfillment of human evolution.

Not only angels, jinns, and human beings, but even animals, birds, insects, trees, and plants all have a spiritual development in their lives. No creature ever born on earth will be deprived entirely of spiritual bliss, however bad or wrong it may seem. It is a matter of time and progress. Human beings all have a moment, a day, when they touch spiritual bliss; thus all other beings have a moment of promise, and that promise is the fulfillment of their life's purpose. There is nothing in this world without a purpose, and though our places in the scheme of life may seem different from one another, yet in the sum total of things we and the lower creation, together with the angels and the jinns, all have our purpose. That purpose is the realization of truth, and this realization comes to us in the form of bliss.

Is there a likeness between the bodies of an angel, a jinn, and a human being? One cannot give a definite picture of the likeness between those bodies, but they all develop towards the image of man. The physical body is the most distinct and clear; the jinn body is less clear, more phantom-like; and the body of the angel is still less distinct, that is to say less distinct to human eyes. Therefore one cannot compare the things of the earth with those of the other spheres. If there is any similarity it is only because the whole of creation is a development towards the human image.

There is one and there are many; in manifestation many, and in truth one. There is for instance the rise and fall of a nation, the prosperity and decline of a race, and there is also the birth and death of a world;yet at the same time even the lower creation is individual. Every animal, beast, or bird, every tree or plant, has its own soul and spirit; if one says that animals have collective souls, then so have human beings. Our body is one yet every organ is separate; and when we go more deeply into this we discover the wonderful phenomena of life, and we shall come to a place where the entire nature of being will unveil itself; then we shall be able to say there is nothing but God.

Every soul has come through the world of the angels, and every soul has the angelic quality and its connection with the world of the angels. Sometimes a very bad person will show a very good trait. We say that it comes through a certain influence, a certain situation. In part it is so, but mostly it is the influence of the angel. Sometimes a very good person does something very bad. This also is the angelic influence.

Muslims say that when a person performs Wuzu, the washing before prayers, from every drop of water that falls from his hand an angel is created. The meaning of this is that by that noble action for which he is preparing himself the angels are created, and to create an angel means to attract an angel, so that he can communicate with it.

The Qur'an distinguishes five principal angels, of whom Azazil was the chief, the most powerful, the favorite of Allah. The Qur'an tells that Allah created a form made of earth. The angels were bidden to bring the substance for that form. That form was made into man, Ashraf al-Makhluqat, the Khalif of creation. All the angels were commanded to bow before him, but while all the other angels prostrated themselves, Azazil alone rebelled, saying, 'I have been chief of the angels. I will never bow before this thing made of earth.' It was pride, it was arrogance, it was hatred that made Azazil rebel, and he was degraded and deposed by God and called Shaitan (Satan).

The names of the five most important angels are: Jebrail, Israil, Israfil, Azazil, and Azrail.

Jebrail, who in the Bible is called Gabriel, is the compeller, the spirit that compels men to the way of Allah, to do something for Allah. He came to the prophets, he comes to those who have given up everything, all the desires and the interests of the world, for the sake of God.

Israil comes as inspirer. Some call what he brings inspiration, others call it revelation. This comes also to the pure-hearted musicians and poets.

Israfil is the further revelation, the explanation of the revelation. For instance, if there comes a revelation that a friend is arriving, the further revelation reveals why he is coming. The reason of everything is explained. By communication with these two influences all the metaphysics, all the philosophy that one tries to learn by study, can be acquired through inspiration, without any learning.

Azazil is the spirit that leads towards darkness, towards wrong actions, towards evil. Hatred is a wrong kind of attachment. By his evil action a person attracts this spirit. When a person goes astray he attracts this influence, communion with this spirit.

Azrail is the spirit of death. When he comes, then comes the death of everything, the destruction.

Chapter V
The Soul's Experience

The conditions of the ordinary soul when it first leaves the body is confusion; for before death it has realized that it is dying, yet it is really only after death that it lives. It is like a person who is alive thinking that he is dead. As long as this condition remains the soul goes no further; it is this state which is called purgatory. When the soul has realized itself, when it has realized that it is still living, then the clouds of confusion are dispersed and the soul finds itself, together with the atmosphere which belongs to it.

All souls return to God, some with open eyes, some blindly. Every moment of this life is an opportunity, whose value is so great that all the pains, all the troubles, all the sorrow of existence would be too small a price for even one moment of life. It is as if God threw darts. Some reach the point at which they are aimed, others fall short, others might go much further than man is now.

The being of God is a perfect being. The riches that the souls bring from the earth, by knowledge or by anything else, are no addition to God; for God it only means that something which was in the hand has come to the elbow. What difference does it make? It is all the same. Yet it is better that the thing of the hand should be in the hand rather than at the elbow. All that is known on earth and in heaven belongs to God; it already exists and is already in Him, the perfect Being.

No soul is attracted to what we call Satan or the devil. Our soul does not like us to do what is wrong for us. Our soul does not like us to be unkind. Every soul has in it the highest attributes, and has a tendency towards the light and a tendency towards awakening. If it has not there are reasons for it. Either the soul has gathered around it vibrations that are undesirable; or it has not come through the proper channel of manifestation and therefore it is weak; or it clings to its undesirable habits and ideas and will not let them go. The condition of the soul can turn any place into heaven. Not only the earth but even hell could be turned into heaven, i£ only the soul attained the perfection which is its only goal.

On its return the soul passes through the same planes and states that it comes through on its way to manifestation, with all the experiences it has acquired in its life on earth. When it arrives it is blank; when it leaves it goes away with the experience that it has gathered. Souls keep their individuality after death, for individuality is not made by the physical body; individuality is covered by the physical body. When the cover disappears, individuality still remains.

All that the soul has borrowed through manifestation, it returns to its origin. It is natural that the physical body should be the earth's due. And when it is paid back to the earth it is .just like giving the child into its mother's arms. It is a most natural process. The soul does not wither and get worn out, but what it has gathered around it on earth, what it has imagined itself to be, all that it has taken from the lower plane, withers and becomes worn out; not its real self but its false self.

The one who does not come to God-realization in this life will come to it on the way towards the goal. It will be perhaps easier there, but it is better to do all one can on earth. Nothing that we really value can we put off till tomorrow. What one puts off one does not value enough.

Souls which have passed away are nearer to us in one way than those on earth, but in another way they are further. They are nearer in the way that if they want to get in contact with us, or we with them, it is more easily done than with the souls on the earth. But when we look at the difference between the plane on which they live and our plane, they are further than those on earth, because there are more means of communication here.

Souls which have passed away are engaged in doing the same thing that they were doing before. Their world is more beautiful than nature on earth, for mind is nature also; mind is an improvement upon nature and it is part of nature at the same time. For instance the idea of paradise is an improvement upon nature, and while on earth paradise is an imagination, in the hereafter the same paradise will become a reality. To create happiness for oneself and others, therein lies the whole of religion and the whole of philosophy. After passing away some remain under the impression of death for a long time, but one cannot compare the time of this world with the time of the other worlds. The time of the next world is much longer than the time of this world. The deeper the impressions are, the longer one has to remain in purgatory. The sages, the prophets, have shown their spiritual advancement at the moment of their death. That is the time when the truth comes out; then there can be no falsehood, and a man has no chance of acting. When his soul is passing from the earth, where his heart was is shown--on the earth or in heaven. Besides, the person who has earned peace throughout his life then shows his wealth, he passes away peacefully and with willingness to meet what awaits him in the life beyond.

The soul upon its journey back to consciousness passes through the world of jinns until finally it reaches the infmite goal where the soul is no more individual. It still has a slight feeling of 'I'. It does not distinguish between 'mine' and 'thine', but when a man has thought of himself all his life as 'I' he will still keep a slight sense of 'I'.

The soul is hindered in its progress by being called back to earth by mediums and sorrowful friends. Suppose a person is going somewhere, and all the time people call out, 'Please stop, we want you', he will never be able to get to his destination; the purpose for which he is going is hindered. To call a soul back would be acting against nature itself. It is better to help the soul to go forward, and that one does by sending one's loving thought.

The meeting of a soul going towards manifestation and a soul returning from there may be unconscious. Also, a soul going towards the earth cannot ask for advice or help from a returning soul, because his mind has not yet become like that of a human being and he is passive. What he receives he gets without asking, in the same way that an infant does not ask for something; it only wants to have it. Just as human beings are generally not conscious of angels or jinns, so the angels are not all conscious of jinns, nor are all jinns conscious of angels, although some are. A soul can attract a jinn to help it to accomplish something on earth, and a jinn may attract a soul for the same purpose. A jinn is not really interested in accomplishing anything on earth, but when it sees what is going on there it may become interested. A person who does not go out of town has no interest outside the town, but when he goes to the country, his interest is awakened.

One may ask if a jinn who is sent to the earth looks like a human being. The jinn who is on the jinn plane is quite distinct as a jinn; but when a soul which is very much impressed by the jinn plane has come on earth, it will show something of the jinn even in form and features.

Souls return through the jinn world and the angel world by the same way by which they have come. But the ones who have realized God on earth do not stop there; they go to God while on the earth. There is no condition of having to go to God through the outer death; the condition which the Sufis call Fana is no crucifixion, for God is nearer to them than anything else. To the jinn world is one step; to the angel world is two steps; but to God there is no journey: He is there.

The joy of life is the joy of the journey. If one could close one's eyes and be put immediately on top of the Himalayas, one would not enjoy it as much as the one who climbs and goes from one peak to another, and sees the different scenery and meets the different people on the way. The whole joy is in the journey.

There are many souls who after having passed away try to communicate with the people on earth, but generally these do not receive their communications clearly. However, unconsciously they do receive them, and very often they do errands for those who have passed away, thinking they are doing it because they themselves wish to. In order that a person should be convinced of the reality of the spiritual world, why should the spirits strive? Why should not man develop his faith? And if man is so obstinate as to avoid developing himself here, he will avoid development even in the spirit world. For in man is the possibility of faith; the jinn world is not necessary as an intermediary.

Children and infants who die also come to spiritual maturity, often on the jinn plane and sometimes on the plane of the angels. It depends upon the qualities of the soul and upon the object it is meant to accomplish.

Souls that are not in tune will enter the angelic heavens all the same; even in heaven there is no peace. The inharmonious people follow the harmonious ones even there. One soul is more harmonious than another, but in the music of the heavens they all fit in, just as in our music we would not want everything to be alike. And the souls who are still out of rhythm will continue to have the choice of becoming harmonious; for there is a choice at every step in the heavens too. Life is progressive, and that is why there is always hope of improvement.

If a link of sympathy exists, then the light of those who are our well-wishers, either in the sphere of the jinns or in the angelic heavens, will certainly be thrown upon those on earth. Their love, tenderness, and goodness shine upon those on earth just like the love, tenderness, and goodness of parents towards their children. In short, illuminated souls in whatever sphere they are will be showing their light.

The soul is continually on the way towards improvement, therefore even in the angelic world the soul is not quite perfect. The perfection is in the goal, not in the soul.

In a way there is a difference in the degree and experience of happiness of the soul going towards manifestation, and of a soul returning; but the difference is like that of notes in music. This applies particularly to the souls returning to the goal, who have acquired something from the earth or from the sphere of the jinns which has influenced the tone and rhythm of their being; and therefore they so to speak tell the legend of their past in the music they make in the heavens of the angels.

There is a relationship between the bodies of souls on the different planes, because they borrow their body from the clay of the plane where they are, and from that comes the connection caused by the clay or matter of that plane.

The soul, while being a current, has two kinds of atoms, physical atoms and mental atoms. If one garb is thrown away the other garb is not free from individuality. It goes on living; it lives longer than the physical body. Life is limited for the very reason that substance is limited. Mind and feeling have their own life, they do not belong to the brain but to the original condition; that is why the mind lives longer than the body. The hereafter means living in the inner garb. One still continues one's life in the hereafter because the soul is consciousness itself.

The higher body of the soul is formed from the lower body of the same soul; there is no break. It is a continuation. Something is taken, although not everything can be taken.

In the jinn world there will be silence. Silence is necessary just as sleep is necessary for repose; but at the same time there will be action, and its speed will be incomparably greater than the speed of action on the earth. Spirits on the jinn plane meet with all kinds of experiences, just as on the earth; they can even have accidents or get killed. But in the jinn sphere it will be easier for us to see our goal, for the possibilities there are greater as there is less limitation.

It happens that jinns are sent to the earth with a mission, like angels. The jinns are capable of knowing their imagination to be imagination, their mind being clearer than that of man.

Jinns are able to communicate with spirits returning from the earth; but it is with them as with the inhabitants of a certain country who may have heard of other countries, but are generally much happier in their own, with their own way of living; and when some go out and bring back knowledge from the other countries, it may not be agreeable to the ones who remained at home.

The path of the jinn is the path of beauty, as the path of every soul is one of beauty; and every soul, good or bad, is seeking after beauty. When it steps wrongly on the path we call it evil, and when it steps rightly on the path of beauty we call it victory.

The scenery of the jinn world is peculiar to itself. It is a negative state of what one sees positively in this world, but there is more beauty there than one can find on earth. In a way it interpenetrates, but at the same time it has its own peculiarity which cannot be compared with the beauty of this earth. The reason is that manifestation on this plane has limitations owing to its rigidity. The higher the world, the fewer are the limitations to be met with.

Is there no illness or impression of illness on the jinn plane? There is; as there is illness on the plane of the earth so there are certain discomforts on the other planes. But the healing power of the soul is such that even on earth it can heal the body it finds itself in, and the illness it takes from the earth it heals in the hereafter. The struggle is easier there, but some of the discomfort will remain on that plane, for life is a continual struggle.

Very often it happens that a soul which had meant to go on towards the physical plane remains in the jinn plane out of love for a soul already there. It is love that takes one forward, and it is love that holds one back. The difference is that it is a higher love that takes one forward, and it is a lower love that holds one back. Once a soul has individualized itself on a certain plane, it becomes an inhabitant of that plane; it does not go forward.

Chapter VI
The Law of Heredity

Heredity has been much thought of among all peoples and in all ages. If we look at the animal kingdom we see that the lion cub is never the offspring of the snake, nor are toads hatched from pigeon's eggs; the oak tree will not produce dates nor do roses spring from thistles.

We see in the East that of all breeds of horses the Arab horse is the best. One slight touch of the whip will make it leap any obstacle or cover any distance, while there are other horses that are like donkeys, on whose backs dozens of lashes are laid and they put one foot forward and stop, and again twenty lashes are given to them and they take one step forward. The Arabs value their horses so highly that they preserve the breed and never allow it to be mixed with any other strain. Among dogs there are some who will follow anyone. Whoever gives them a bone is their master, and if another person gives them meat, they leave the first and run after the other. And there are others who follow only one master, who obey only one and sometimes even sacrifice their life for him. It depends upon the breed, the heredity.

In the East they have considered this subject of heredity very much and have attached great importance to it. The son of a poet will always be a poet, the son of a musician is expected to be a musician. If a man handles weapons they ask him, 'Are you the son of a soldier?' The son of a miner will never do the work of a shepherd, and the son of a shepherd will never do the work of a miner. A great many words of abuse have more to do with the parents than with the person to whom they are addressed, and a great many words of praise have to do with the ancestors, not with the person of whom they are spoken.

In India, in Rajputana, there is a family of poets whose ancestors have been poets for ten or fifteen generations, and they are all of them great and wonderful poets. They are called Shighrakavi, improvisers, and are appointed to the courts of the Maharajas. Their work is to stand up in the assembly upon any occasion, and to recite verses, in rhyme and meter, in a manner suitable to the occasion and to the people present.

In ancient times, when sons of kings and great people were often driven from their country and wandered unknown in other lands, the way of recognizing them was always by some test of their quality. It has happened in the history of the world that slaves have become kings, and yet they could not keep themselves from showing from the throne, through their grandeur, glimpses of their slavish nature.

Is it the soul that transmits its qualities, or is it the mind or the body that transmits qualities? This is a vast subject. Before explaining it I will say, as to the word soul, that there are some people who call soul those qualities which compose the individuality. This is not the soul but the mind. The soul has no qualities, it is the pure consciousness and therefore it does not transmit any qualities.

When the soul starts from its original point, it comes first to the world of the Farishta, the angels, and is impressed with the angelic qualities. The angels are absorbed in the hunger for beauty and the thirst for song. They do not distinguish good and bad, high and low. The infant, who represents the angel on earth, always turns to what appears to it radiant and beautiful. There are two sorts of angels, those who have never manifested as man, and those spirits who upon their way back to the infinite have reached the world of the angels. Love, light, and lyric are the attributes of the latter, and from them the soul receives these impressions. Devotion, service, and worship are the attributes of the former. The angels are masculine and feminine; the former are called Malak, the latter Hur.

In the world of the angels the soul for years and years enjoys these experiences. When the desire for more experience urges it on, it goes forth and comes to the world of jinns, which is the astral plane. In the Bible we read that Adam was driven out of paradise; this means that the wish for more experience makes the soul leave the world of the angels and go to the astral plane and the physical plane.

The occupation of the jinns is to imagine, reason, and think. The jinns are of two sorts: there are those who have never manifested physically and there are those spirits who have left the earth with all the load of their actions and experiences upon them. The jinns also are masculine and feminine, and are called Gulman and Peri. From the first sort of jinns, those who have not manifested physically, the soul receives the impressions of imagination and thought. The soul that leaves the earth can take to the world of the angels only whatever love, good feelings, and kindness it may have. Even its love and kindness and its good feelings it cannot take higher than the world of the angels; these are still too heavy for the higher plane.

For there is a higher plane, and on that plane there is no individuality, nothing but the infinite consciousness. All the rest the soul must leave in the astral plane, and until it can leave behind all the evil that it has gathered it must remain there, as it is too heavy to go higher. It is like milk that is put over the fire: when all the watery part has evaporated, the cream, the good, the essential part of the milk remains. This plane is just like a street where someone is walking with a bundle. He says to a soul, 'Will you take this bundle?' The soul is inexperienced, and so it says, 'Yes, is it a nice bundle? Has it a good sound or a good perfume?' It takes the bundle, and receives all the impressions that go with it.

Every soul possesses the best qualities. However wicked a person may be, be assured that his soul possesses the best qualities as a special inheritance, though they are covered up by all that has been gathered afterwards. And there is always a possibility of spiritual progress for every soul, even for the most wicked.

The soul, on its journey from the unseen to the seen world, receives impressions from the souls which are on their return journey from the seen to the unseen. In this way the soul collects the first merits and qualities. It is this which forms a line for the soul to follow, and it is this line that leads it to the parents from whom it inherits its later attributes. The soul receives the impressions of another soul if it is attuned to that other soul. For instance a soul meeting the soul of Beethoven receives the impression of Beethoven's music, and then is born with the musical qualities of Beethoven. The upholders of the theory of reincarnation say that he is the reincarnation of Beethoven; the Sufi says that if they mean that Beethoven's mind is reincarnated in him, it may be so; but as the spirit comes from the unlimited, he says it need not necessarily be called reincarnation. Therefore a person of poetical gifts may be born in the family of a statesman where there was never a poet before.

The soul of a saint or murshid has remained long in the world of the angels, and being more impressed by it, it brings with it the angelic qualities of that world.

When the Bible speaks of 'the son of God', and the 'son of man', it means that he is a son of God who has recognized the eternal spirit as his parent, and that he is a son of man who has recognized himself as the son of his parents who are as limited as he. We recognize our father and mother as our origin. The parents claim the child as their own, and so delude themselves. Its origin is the universal spirit; and in this we are all brothers and sisters, without distinction of high or low, of race or caste, of creed or religion.

Each soul is like a ray of the sun or of any light. Its work is to project itself, to go forth as far as it can. It is creative and responsive. It creates its means, its expression, and it is impressed by whatever comes before it, in proportion to its interest in that. The soul goes always to what appears to it beautiful and radiant, and so it goes on and on and finds different qualities and different experiences and collects them round it, until at last it finds the mother's womb.

A child may or may not inherit the qualities and defects of its parents. If the impressions previously received by the soul are stronger it does not inherit them. Very wicked parents may have a very saintly child, and very good parents may have a very bad child.

The mental attributes of the parents are inherited by impression on the mental plane. The thought, the feeling of the parents are inherited by the child as a quality. If the father is engaged in thinking, 'I should build an orphanage', the child will have a philanthropic disposition. If the father is thinking, 'This person is my enemy, I should revenge myself on him', the child will have a vindictive disposition. If the mother admires something very much, for instance flowers, the child will have that love of beauty in its nature. Also the qualities and features of the relations and of other persons of whom one of the parents thinks a great deal are impressed on the child. To explain the relation between heredity and environment, one may say that heredity is the foundations of the house, and environment is the building itself; and from this one may conclude which has the more importance.

Often a child is like an uncle or an aunt of the father or mother; why is this? It has two aspects: it may be either that the father or mother has the qualities of this relation, although in them they have not fully developed, and those qualities develop in the child; or it may be that the grandmother or grandfather or other relation is so much attached to his descendants that his spirit watches and impresses with his qualities the child that is born in that family. Heredity is a matter of vibrations. There must be harmony in the number of vibrations, in the same way that color and sound are made by the harmony of vibrations. Thus a person may be more like his grandfather than his father. If the grandfather has been a poet, the grandson may again be a poet if the number of the vibrations corresponds, even when the son is not one.

It is true that genius is transmitted by heredity and develops at every step, but it is sometimes found that the child of a very great person happens to be most ordinary, and sometimes the child of a most worthy person proves to be most unworthy. This may be explained in the following manner: every manifestation of genius has three stages, Uruj, Kemal, and Zeval, ascent, climax, and decline. When the genius is in the ascendant it develops more and more in every generation; when it reaches its climax it surpasses all previous manifestations of genius in that family; when it is in the decline it shows gradually or suddenly the lack or loss of genius. It is thus with families, nations, and races.

That which is outward is given in heritage more than that which is inward. A man may not be very like his father in looks or nature, yet he inherits his property; the State will give the property to the son. It is inherited because it is more outward. The qualities of the body are inherited more than those of the mind, because they are more outward.

Every physical atom of the parents becomes radiant and its qualities are imparted to the child. In the case of a father who has liked drink, the child, of course, is born without the tendency for strong drink, but as it grows and develops, the cells of its body, being the same as those of the father's, may have the same craving for drink. And so it is with all vices; though the parents would never wish to impart them to their children, yet they do so unconsciously by their weakness and neglect.

Often a man has so much concern for his posterity that he earns money and amasses it, not spending it on himself, in order that he may leave it to his children. He even gives his life on the battlefield that his children may enjoy the fruits of the victory. But if he only knew how much influence the life that he leads has on his posterity he would think it of more value to keep his life pure and elevated, both in health and mind, in order that his children may inherit the wealth of humanity, which is much more precious than earthly wealth and possessions.

Coming now to the question whether more qualities are inherited from the paternal side or the maternal side, I will say that the qualities inherited from the father are more deep-seated while those inherited from the mother may be more apparent, because the father's inheritance is the substance, while the mother's is the mold. The soul has many more attributes of the father because these are the fundamental, original attributes; the attributes of the mother are added to these, they are more active because they are later attributes. Those qualities which are first impressed upon the soul are stronger and those attributes which are acquired later are more active. From association with its mother, from her training, a child acquires very many of her attributes.

A man may not like the qualities of his father and may hide them. A small child may have a face just like its mother's, but at some period of its life it will grow so like its father in looks that it is astonishing. A coward by association with brave people may become brave; he may go to the war, but then, when he hears the guns, the cowardice which was the original attribute of his soul will show itself. Although the father's qualities are stronger, the responsibility of the mother is far greater. It is she who molds the child. The mother's responsibility is a hundred, a thousand times greater than the father's. Therefore mystical knowledge is very necessary for women; in these times of civilization this should not be withheld from them. Control of mind is very important for women.

It is the mother's fear that gives the child fear; her anger gives it anger; her contempt gives it contempt. Her bad surroundings and impressions give the child bad impressions; her good and desirable impressions give the child good and desirable impressions. It is she who molds the human race. From her are born the prophets and murshids. The credit for all good and great people is hers; but at the same time children are often born weak and defective because of her want of control and foolishness. By putting too many coals on the fire, the fire may be covered up and the flame cannot come out.

Krishna is often represented with his mother Devaki, and Christ with his mother the Virgin Mary. This is woman's greatest merit and glory. In the Gayan it is said, 'The mother was the stepping-stone of Jesus to Christhood.' This means that human nature is such that man often forgets, seeing the great glory of the Master, that modest and humble help given at the time of need which enabled the Master to show forth his divine glory. The soul which was to expand as Christ was enabled to come on earth by the mother; and that is why in every case thought and consideration for the mother are important. Even Jesus Christ, the manifestation of the Almighty God, was dependent on his mother for his manifestation.

A child may be very like its mother in appearance, yet the quality is the father's. For instance, if the father is very generous, and the mother is finer, the child will perhaps be both generous and finer. In this way the evolution of the world goes on by the intermingling of nations and races. Those families who keep themselves segregated in the end become weak and very stupid. For this reason the Prophet in Islam allowed all races and castes to intermarry, because the time had come for the human race to evolve in this way. When a child is different from both its mother and its father, this is partly because of its heritage from other ancestors on either side, but also because of its astral impressions. Besides every thought, speech, and action of the child builds its self from the moment of its birth upon earth. It is for this reason that there can be such a difference between father and son, while there is no difference between fleas or mosquitoes of East and West.

If we inherit the attributes of our father, our mother, our grandfather and forefathers, and acquire the attributes of the jinns and angels, how can we help what our character is? A man may say, 'I have a quick temper because my father had a quick temper, I have a changeable disposition because that is in my family; I cannot help this, it is my character.' This is true in part, but it is developed by belief in it. The soul acquires and casts off attributes and qualities throughout life. A coward who joins the army through hearing always of bravery, by living with soldiers may in time feel inclined to go to the war and to fight. A joyous person from being in the society of serious people may become serious, and a sad person from being with cheerful people may become cheerful. The soul acquires only those qualities in which it is interested, it will never take on those in which it is not interested. And the soul keeps only those attributes in which it is interested, it loses those in which it is not interested. However wicked a person may be, however many undesirable attributes he may have inherited, he can throw them all off by the power of will if he does not like them.

But can we change our physical body, can we change our face? We can. People become like those of whom they think much or with whom they associate. I have seen herdsmen whose faces have become very like those of the cattle and sheep with which they lived. It is our thoughts and feelings that change our appearance, and if we had control over them we should develop the appearance that we wish to develop.

When one looks at pictures of Christ, of Zoroaster, of Moses and of other prophets, one will see that they resemble each other. These pictures are drawn from imagination; the painters have not seen their subjects. Are they then not lifelike? They are, for the mind is greater than the camera. There exist pictures of the murshids of the Sufi order, from Kwaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti onwards, and these pictures of ten or twelve murshids and their mureeds are very much alike. If it were imagination, why should not imagination produce different pictures, as the nature of imagination is more to differentiate than to unite?

But for those who are walking in the path of truth there is no heredity. By realizing their divine origin they free themselves from all earthly inheritance. As Christ said 'My Father in heaven', so they realize their origin from the spirit, and by their concentration and meditation they can create all the merits they wish for and clear away from their soul all influences which they do not like to possess.

Chapter VII
Reincarnation

When we study religions, comparing them, we find that part of the world has believed in reincarnation, but most of the world has not held this belief. Krishna, Shiva, and Buddha are said to have taught the doctrine of reincarnation; Moses, Christ, and Mohammed have said nothing about it. This divides religions into two groups; but when we make a deeper study we see that we can combine the two, for the tendency of the Sufi is rather to unite than to differ.

There are four widely-spread religions, Brahminism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, which have great influence upon humanity through their diffusion. Let us ask each what it has to say on the matter.

Islam is silent on this subject; Christianity says nothing. In their scriptures if there may rarely be a verse which supports this idea, there will be ten verses which disprove it.

Let us now consider Brahminism. There are four grades of Brahmins: Brahmachari, Grihasta, Vanaprasti, and Sanyasi. The three lower grades will perhaps answer, 'Yes, there is reincarnation, but it depends upon our Karma, our actions. If we, who are men, behave like animals, we may come again as animals; we may be a cow or a dog or a cat, or else we may be a human being of a lower order than we are now; and if we live a righteous life we shall find ourselves in a better condition in our next incarnation.' When we ask the highest authority among Hindus, the Sanyasi, he will say, 'You will perhaps reincarnate, I shall not. I am Jivan Mukhta, free; I am above the cycle of births and deaths.'

What has Buddhism to say about reincarnation? It says that as the world is in evolution, we shall by no means become animals, but evolve into higher and higher incarnations until we have overcome all weaknesses and have reached Nirvana, perfection; then we return no more. By this we see that there are only two believers in reincarnation, and even these two have contrary beliefs.

We read in the Bible (John xiv. 3), 'I will come again and receive you unto myself,' and (Acts i. II), 'This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.' This does not refer to the person of Christ, but to the innermost being of the Master, which was in reality the Being of God. If it concerned his person he would have said, 'I shall come, but you also will come again, either in a better condition or in a worse state of being', but nothing of the kind is said. One might say, 'Why then did the Master say 'I', why did he not clearly say "God"?' The answer is that divine personality is the losing of the thought of one's limited self, the absolute merging into the divine and only personality; then the ego becomes the divine ego. The 'I' is not identification with the limited personality but with the personality of God. When Christ said I he meant God.

One reads the same in the Masnavi of Jelal-ud-Din Rumi, 'Seventy-two forms I have worn and have come to witness this same spring of continual change.' This also refers to the divine Consciousness which wears various forms and comes to witness this world of changes; it is not the seventy-two comings of Maulana Rumi himself. Seventy-two is symbolical of many; otherwise it would mean that since the human creation the divine Consciousness visited the earth only seventy-two times, which would be very few times for such a great length of time.

There are many statements in the Qur'an such as these:'Some faces on that day shall be downcast', said of the wicked, and: 'They will be as monkeys, despised and hated.' The real meaning of the former is, 'We will cause the brightness, or the happiness, of their expression to fade away by throwing light upon their hidden crimes which so long have kept them bright and happy'. The meaning of the latter is, 'Those who have imitated that which they were not, will be taken for that which they are in reality, and not for that which they falsely pretend to be'; in other words, 'We will lay bare the mockery of the impostors'.
In the Gospel we read (John ix. 1-3), 'And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."' This needs no interpretation, for it plainly says that the man's blindness was not the punishment of his former sins.

In the Qur'an it is written, 'It is He who multiplied you on the earth, and to Him shall you be gathered.' This denies a return to earth. Mention is nude, however, of another life in that sura. 'Every soul must taste of death, and ye shall only be paid your reward in full on the resurrection day.' Here the resurrection is spoken of, the making alive of the souls without the physical body, and it is plainly said that this existence will be as clear and distinct as is our life on earth.

As the world advances in intellectual development it becomes more and more interested in novelty; whatever is new is taken up and often the new idea is accepted and followed. The idea of reincarnation has made a great impression in the present age, because it appeals at once to the scientific faculty and reasoning natures and it also satisfies those who wish to keep a fast hold on their individuality.

I remember, when at an early age I first knew of death, how for hours I was sad, thinking, 'This, my body, the only means of experiencing life, will one day be in the grave. I shall be away from all things and beings that are the interest of life to me today. This whole environment which interests me and keeps me engaged all day long will one day be a mist; neither shall I see anybody nor will anybody see me; all whom I love now will one day be separated from me.' Now my own experience in the past clearly tells me how others must feel at the idea of turning into what seems nothing after being something. It is just like when a dream interests us so much that if we wake up in the midst of it and realize at once that we were dreaming, we yet like to close our eyes again and give ourselves up to the enjoyment of the experience. Such is the case of all those who are so much interested in the dream of life that the idea of death, which is a more real state of being, is horrible to them. They would rather live a life unreal but individual than a life real but unrealized.

The idea of reincarnation often comforts those who think that it is too soon to renounce the pleasures of life in order to commune with God. 'Perhaps,' they say, 'in our next life on earth we shall achieve what we have not achieved in this.' Also, it consoles those who have lost their loved ones, for they think these are not lost for ever, but will be born again, and often they look for them whenever a child is born among their acquaintances. It consoles those people too who have not obtained the fruit of their desires in this life and have always longed and hoped for something which they could not get; these build their whole hope on gaining it in their next incarnation.

This idea often becomes a great hindrance to real spiritual attainment, though it is helpful to a person who is discontented with his life, suffering from pain, poverty, or illness, and who thinks that it is his Karma to suffer this and that, but that when he has paid the uttermost farthing his circumstances will change. Then he has no more complaint to make; though he knows he has not in this life committed sins worthy of such punishment, still he thinks that there is justice, as he has perhaps sinned in his past life. The idea seems reasonable, especially to a person who looks at life from a practical point of view. Every man weighs the world on his own scales. And the thought of reincarnation is still more helpful to those who do not believe in God or know His being, also to those who neither believe in everlasting life nor can understand it. For some people it is very consoling to think that they will come to this earthly plane again and again, brought there by their Karma, rather than to think, as many materialists do, that when we are dead we are done with for ever.

The reason why the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to the Hindus and Buddhists must have been that the people of India at that time were very highly developed intellectually, in philosophy, in science, in logic, in the material phenomena, and believed in law rather than in love.

In the present age, especially in the West, people are now beginning to search for truth by the light of science and logic, as did the Hindus of the Vedic period. The peoples of India were working along the same lines at the origin of Brahminism and still more in the time of Buddhism.

Then, especially among the Mongols, a people most advanced in arts and sciences, the enlightened were very logical and scientific, with little devotional tendency, and the masses had innumerable objects of worship. There the average person could not conceive the idea of the soul, the hereafter, and God as it was propagated in another part of the East by the Hebrew prophets, so the theory of reincarnation was the best means of appealing to their reason instantly in order to break their former ideas. But as it is the nature of the human heart to worship someone, naturally their worship was directed to Buddha.

There is every probability that this idea came originally from the Devata, the divine messengers born among the Hindus. Each of these declared that he was the incarnation of Brahma, God, and each in turn claimed to be the reincarnation of the preceding Deva, whom he succeeded. In claiming to be the incarnation of Brahma or the Deva they succeeded, they did not mean that in their guise God was born or their predecessor reborn, but that they had realized God or that they possessed the same knowledge and mission as their predecessor. When the others asked them, 'Of what are we the incarnations?' they were obliged to give them some explanation of a like kind, and they told each one that which his condition of life suggested to them.

When the four Varnas or castes were made in India, Brahmin, Kshattria, Vaisha and Sudra, these were not in fact different castes but classes. The whole administration was arranged in this way: Brahmins to study, meditate and be worshipped, Kshattrias to fight and guard the country, Vaishas to carry on commerce, and Sudras to labor and serve. None save Brahmins had Adhikar, the right to study the Vedas, the books of mysticism and philosophy; even Kshattrias and Vaishas had to be content with the worship of the Brahmins and with the Purana, the religion taught in legends; Sudras, the laboring class, were denied even that.

It has always been the tendency of the stronger and more intelligent men to keep the weak and simple down. Owing to the inclination of the higher caste to keep itself pure from further admixture of the lower classes, a religious rule was made enforcing the belief that the Sudra, the lowest, could not become a Vaisha, the Vaisha could not become a Kshattria, nor a Kshattria be admitted among Brahmins, the highest and supreme class of the time, unless by his good actions he had made it possible that he should be born, in the next incarnation, in a family of the higher caste. The idea of reincarnation, as a belief generally held, was made the basis of the Hindu religion, upon which the whole building of Brahminism was erected. But everyone in the world has an inclination to raise his head and climb up higher, if he can, from that level upon which he may have been set in life. Verily the light of truth, the beauty of nature, the desire for freedom, the idea of unity cannot be covered up; sooner or later it flashes forth.

The law of Karma or action is the philosophy which a reasoning brain holds in support of reincarnation, saying, 'There is no such being as God as an intervener in our life's affairs, but it is we who by our actions produce results similar to them. There is the ever-ruling law of cause and effect, therefore every occurrence in life must be in accordance with it. If we do not get the results of our good or wicked deeds immediately that is because they need time to mature so as to produce similar results;if they do not do so in this life, then the law forces us to be born again in another incarnation, in order to experience in that the effect of our deeds.'

Looking at the wheel of evolution we see that we do not always rise, we also fall, we do not always become better people, sometimes man grows worse than he was. The nature of evolution is like a wheel turning round, not rising always. This gives us reason to doubt how far the Buddhistic idea of better and better reincarnations can prove to be logical.

In support of reincarnation a story is told of two friends who were going out on a holiday. One said, 'Let us go to the temple, there we shall hear the name of God, we shall be uplifted.' The other said, 'You are always such a melancholy boy; you always find such dull occupations. We will not go to the temple, we will go where we can enjoy ourselves; we will go to the Gaiety.' The first said, 'I do not like that idea, I will not go with you.' So they parted. The one who went to the temple on the way met with an accident from a wagon on the road and his foot was crushed. He thought, 'What a good thing that my friend did not come with me; he too would have been injured.' The other on his way to the Gaiety had great luck, he found a purse full of gold coins. He thought, 'Thank God! If my friend had been with me, I should have had to share this with him.'

As soon as the first had recovered a little, he went to a Brahman and asked him, 'What was the reason that I, who was on my way to the temple, had the bad luck to have my foot crushed, and my friend, who was on his way to the Gaiety, had the good luck to find this gold purse?' The Brahmin said, 'The reason is that you in your former life did some very bad action, and you were meant to be killed, and not only killed but hanged for everybody to see, but it happened that only your foot was crushed. Your friend in his former life did some very good action and he was meant to be a king, but it happened for his present sins that he only found a purse full of gold coins.'

If we believe in this idea we must first understand where evil ends and where good begins. It has never been possible even for a deep thinker to draw a line between good and evil. What distinction do we then find, from this point of view, between good and evil, if we look at it closely? None but the difference of degree and difference of point of view. What seems good to one person to another does not, and so it is with evil. Also every evil to the eye of the seer is a lesser good, which in comparison with the greater good appears different from that and so is called evil.

And if the wheel of births and deaths depended upon cause and effect, I should say it would have to go on for ever and ever and there would never be an end to it. According to this doctrine, not only the punishment of our sins, but even the reward of the good we have done would drag us back to earth; we should have to come back on earth in any case. Even should we not wish for a reward we cannot stop the wheel, for we have no power over nature's law. What a helpless condition! Neither does God intervene in our affairs, that He might stop it with His all-might, nor can we, helpless human beings subject to the law of came and effect.

Again, we see that everything existing can be destroyed by some other thing or substance. There is no stain that cannot be removed by some chemical solution. There is no record which cannot be erased from the surface of the paper; even if it is engraved upon stone it can be scraped off.. Man, the master of the whole creation, has found the means to destroy all things; and it is very astonishing if he is unable to find a solution to wipe off the impressions of Karma, life's deeds, so as to escape the wheel of births and deaths, when he professes to know all things of' the earth and claims to have solved all the mysteries of the heavens.

Some believers in God say in support of reincarnation, 'God is just. There are many who are lame or blind or unhappy in life, and this is the punishment for the faults they have committed before, in a former incarnation. If it were not so, that would be injustice on the part of God.' That makes God only a reckoner and not a lover, and it restricts Him to His justice like a judge bound by the law. The judge is the slave of law, the forgiver is its master. In fact we ourselves, limited as we are, have mercy in us, so that often if someone has done something against us we would forgive. If he only bows before us we say, 'He has humiliated himself, I will forget.' Even if a son has caused his mother much sorrow, when he is in trouble, he only needs to say, 'Mother, I have done this, but you are the one to whom I can come for sympathy', and she will say, 'My child, I forgive you, though at the time it made me sad.' If we, who are full of faults and errors, have in us that little spark of mercy inherited from God and can forgive, how can we think that God, the most Merciful, will reckon our faults like a judge? We are as little children before Him. Regarding God as a personal being, how can we think that He, whose being is love, whose action is love, who is all love, can weigh our actions as a judge would?

A judge, when someone is brought before him, after he has looked into the case, says, 'I have looked into your case and I find that you are guilty. You are given six months', or five years', or ten years' imprisonment. Your crime is very grave and so you must learn not to do it again.' But if we go to the blind and lame and ask them, 'Were you given this in punishment? Were you told so?' they say, 'No, we were told nothing.' Now how are we to imagine that God could be so unjust as to punish them and yet not tell them of their crime?

If we return, then every child that is born should know what he was before. If only exceptional ones feel that they know what they were before, in another life, then it may be a delusion, a pretence, or a scheme for gaining notoriety by appearing to know what everybody does not know.

If God is most merciful, how could He govern us only by law devoid of love and compassion, when even we human beings forget and forgive another's fault in spite of law, reason, and logic, when moved by love, our divine inheritance? God is love, not law. Love in its lower manifestation turns into law by forming habits, yet it is not law which rules love, it is love that controls law.

The idea of forgiveness is the result of our idealizing God. As we idealize God so He proves to be. Sometimes the sins of a whole life may be wiped off in one instant; sometimes all the virtue and piety of a whole life may be lost by one sin.

A story is told that Moses was going to Mount Sinai and on his way he met a very pious person, who said to him, 'Moses, speak to God of me. All my life I have been pious, I have been virtuous, I have prayed to God, and I have had nothing but troubles and misfortunes.' A little later Moses met a man sitting in the street with a bottle of liquor. He called out, 'Moses! Where are you going?' Moses said, 'To Mount Sinai.' The man called out, 'To Mount Sinai? Then speak to God of me', for he was drunk.

Moses went to Mount Sinai and he told God of the pious person whom he had met. God said, 'For him there is a place in the heavens.' Then he told God of the drunken man whom he had met. God said, 'He shall be sent to the worst possible place in hell.'

Moses went away and first he met the drunken man. He told him, 'God says you shall be sent to the worst possible place in hell.' The man said, 'God spoke of me?' and he was so overjoyed that he could not contain himself but began to dance, just as a poor man might be overjoyed if he heard that a king had spoken of him, even if the king had said nothing good of him. Then he said, 'How happy should I be that He, the Creator and Sovereign of the universe, knows me, the great sinner.' Then Moses told the pious person what God had said. He said, 'Why not? I have spent all my life in the worship of God and in piety, sacrificing all else in life; and therefore I am entitled to have it.'

Both the pious person and the drunkard died, and Moses was curious to know what had become of them. He went to Mount Sinai and asked God. God said, 'The pious person is in hell, and the drunken man is in heaven.' Moses thought, 'Does God break His word?' God said, 'The drunkard's joy on hearing that We had spoken of him has wiped out all his sins. The pious person's virtue was worthless. Why could he not be satisfied if We made the sun shine and sent the rain?'

If anyone were to weigh his righteous actions against the myriad favors of God, all the righteous actions of every moment of his life would not compare with one moment of God's favor. Therefore the devotee forgets his righteous actions, looking only at the favor of God. As Amir says, 'When the pious was looking for the beloved God among the righteous, His mercy cried out, "Come hither. I am busy among sinners, forgiving them their
sins."

Chapter VIII
Man, the Seed of God

Man may most justly be called the seed of God. God the Infinite, most conscious within Himself, embraces His nature full of variety;in this way He is one and He is all. The whole of manifestation is just like a tree sprung from the divine root. Nature is like its stem and all the aspects of nature are like the branches, the leaves, the fruit, and the flower; and from this tree again the same seed is produced, the human soul, which was the first cause of the tree. This seed is the spirit of man, and as God comprehends the whole universe within Himself, being one, so man contains within himself the whole universe as His miniature. It is said in the Qur'an, 'In our own image we have created man.' Therefore neither can God be anything else than what He is, for the very reason that He is one and at the same time He is all, nor can man; neither can man be reincarnated nor can God.

The men Of science of today have admitted the fact that the whole skin of man is changed in so many years and they have also been able to discover that each atom of man's constitution changes so many times in life, renewing his body each time. If the body is subject to change, so is the mind, and it is only by these that man's person is identified. Again, in our food and drink we live upon so many small lives and so many small lives live upon us, dwelling in our blood, veins, tubes, and in the skin, all of which constitute our individuality. And in the mind our every thought and feeling is as alive as we, even such beings as the elementals, demons, and angels, which are created within us, from us, and of us, and yet may as fitly be called individuals as we. So in the end of the examination it is hard for a man to find out whether he exists as one or many.

In our dreams all the inhabitants of our mind resurrect, forming a world within ourselves. We see in the dream things and beings, a friend, a foe, an animal, a bird, and they come from nowhere, but are created out of our own selves. This shows that the mind of an individual constitutes a world in itself, which is created and destroyed by the conscious or unconscious action of the will, which has two aspects: intention and accident. We have experience of this world of mind even while awake, but the contrast between the world within and without makes the world without concrete and the world within abstract.

Someone may ask, 'If all that we see in the dream is we ourselves, then why do we even in the dream see ourselves as an entity separate from all the other things before us in the dream?' The answer is, because the soul is deluded by our external form, and this picture it recognizes as I, and all other images and forms manifesting before it in the dream stand in contrast to this I; therefore the soul recognizes them as other than I.

However, if it is one individual that reincarnates should we hold our changeable body to be an individual or our mind, both of which appear to be one and at the same time many? One might ask Jack, 'Which part of yourself is Jack, the eye, the nose, the ear, or the hand or foot, for each of them has a particular name? Or are your thoughts and feelings Jack? They are numerous, changeable, and diverse; you name them as such an imagination, such a feeling.' This shows that Jack stands aloof as the owner of all the finer and grosser properties that have grouped and formed an illusion before him, which, reflected upon his soul, makes him say, 'I, Jack'. He is the owner of all that he realizes around and about him, and yet each atom and vibration which has composed his illusionary self is liable to change, and to a separate and individual birth and death.

The soul on its journey to the infinite cannot turn back halfway; and when it reaches that goal, it experiences only the light, the wisdom, the love of God, and it loses two things: it loses all the marks of the experiences and thoughts of its manifestation, and it gradually loses its individuality and merges in the infinite, divine Consciousness.

If an earthen thing is thrown into the water it has a tendency to go to the bottom, to its own element. If water is accompanying fire on its journey as steam, its watery part still drips down. When fire travels with the air its smoke is taken a certain distance but in its higher spheres the air gets rid of the fire. When ether turns into spirit it drops its contact with the air element. Thus it is with the soul; on its return journey it gives back all these properties to their own sources, thus lightening its load on its way towards its own element. The earthly body goes to earth, its water part to the world of waters, its heat to the kingdom of heat, its air to the spheres of the air, its ether into the ethereal regions. Its impressions, thoughts, feelings, merits, qualities go as far as they can reach, and remain there wherever they are meant to be. Then it is the soul in its own essence that is left, merging into the ocean of consciousness where nothing of its previous properties remains.

Our personality is just like a bubble in the water. There is as little probability of a bubble once merged in the sea coming out again composed of the same portion of water, as there is of the soul once merged in the ocean of consciousness coming out again formed of the self-same portion of consciousness. The bubble may come back in the same place with the same portion of water, or it may be another portion of water. There may be half of the first drop of water in the second bubble, there may be a small part, or there may be some other portion of water added to it.

If one bubble comes, and we call that bubble John, and then we call another Jacob and a third Henry, yet they are all the same water, and if we call the water John then they are all the same John. All is the same spirit, the same life, involving itself into all the forms and the names. From this point of view there is no I, no you, no he, no she, no it, in the light of reality; all are but the differences of a moment.

Every bubble loses both reflections and any properties it possessed during its existence as soon as it merges into the water, and even if in one of a thousand chances it should come formed of the self-same portion of water, it would not retain its previous property. In the same way supposing, as a mere assumption, that the self-same portion of consciousness, which in any case is not so substantial and stable as water, could possibly appear again on the surface without any addition or deduction, it is utterly impossible that it should still possess its past qualities and impressions, for it has been absolutely purified by sinking into the consciousness. If even a drop of ink loses its ink property in the sea, why should not the ocean of consciousness purify its own element from all elements foreign to itself?

As Hinduism teaches the doctrine that bathing once in the Sangam at the confluence of the two rivers can purify man from all life's sins, how can it deny that this bath of the soul, sinking into the consciousness even once, purifies the soul from all the properties it has gathered during its previous life? In the first place, the nature of absorption into the Spirit is itself purification from the material state of being, and the very nature of manifestation is for the soul to arrive new and fresh.

Suppose we granted that cream was the reincarnation of milk, and butter was the third step of the reincarnation of milk, and its fourth reincarnation could be called ghee; then the question would arise, of what was milk the reincarnation? Milk is composed of several chemical substances, and its chemical arrangement changes the name, savor, smell, and effect. Butter cannot be called milk, nor is ghee cream. If there is anything which seems to exist through all the manifestations of the milk, it is the inner ruling current which groups and scatters atoms, compelling them to change, and which may be likened to the soul.

Also, if Jack has reincarnated as John, or John has reincarnated as Jack, what were both in the beginning? Were they two or one? If one became two, then one could become thousands, millions, and still he is one only.

The shooting forth of the soul from the consciousness can be symbolized as an arrow. The arrow shot up in the air goes up as far as the will and power of the bow-man has destined it to go, and when it reaches its utmost height its return begins. The death of the physical being is the return of that arrow. Of course, on its return it may perhaps be detained on its way, as the arrow is sometimes caught in the branches of a tree, but it returns some day or other to the earth, its own element. It does not go up again from there by any means. So it is with the human soul, which, after finishing its course on earth, returns to its origin, drawn by its power of attraction.

When we look at the world we see that everything makes a circle. The plant grows from the seed to its developed state and returns to dust. Man grows from childhood to youth, to maturity, then to old age. This, it is said, is an argument for our passing through many lives. But it is not the circle which journeys, but the point which, journeying, forms the circle and returns to the place from which it started. It is the consciousness that performs the journey and not the individual soul.

The drops of water in a fountain go up, some higher, some lower, some go a very little way, some rise very high. When each drop falls down it sinks into the stream, flowing away with it, and does not rise again, although the water of the same stream rises again and falls again in drops, which proves to us the fact that it is the water which rises and falls continually, not the drop; yet apparently it rises and falls as drops, though the portion of water in every drop is different.

One argument which the reincarnationists bring forward in support of their doctrine is that sometimes unusual genius or gifts are found in a child who does not seem to inherit them from its ancestors and cannot have acquired them from its surroundings. Sometimes in the slums a child is born which has great poetical genius which could not be traced to its father or mother nor to its forefathers; or it shows a great musical gift which was not found in its father or grandfather or ancestors.

The soul before coming to the face of the earth on its way to manifestation, for a very, very long time gathers the impressions of those souls whom it meets on its way, and takes on their attributes. In this way the attributes of the past souls are manifested again. A soul may receive the impressions of one soul or of a few souls or of many souls.

The soul on its way towards manifestation may meet the soul of a genius in poetry or music and take with it these impressions. When some very great or very good or philanthropic person has died you will find that soon after a child of like qualities will be born to balance the world. A child may be born with the qualities of Alexander the Great. This is because the new soul coming out towards manifestation has met the soul of Alexander and has become impressed with all his qualities or part of his qualities. Such a one may assert, 'I am the reincarnation of Alexander.' But the soul of Alexander does not return. If it did, then every soul that has left this life would know of his former lives.

Much of the difference of understanding is the difference of words. If someone says that the soul is the world of impressions which the consciousness holds before it, and the spirit is the consciousness, then he may say that the soul returns.

When the child of unpoetical parents sings, making up words of its own, this shows that it has received the impression of some poetical soul. The soul that comes to the surface is more responsive than creative; it is not creative, because it has nothing to give. The soul on its return is creative; it imparts its experiences' there. For example, an unused photographic plate takes the impression of the object before it, but the used plate reflects its impression on to the paper. Suppose, for instance, the soul of Vishnu meets a soul on its way to manifestation, this powerful soul may impress the other with its attributes. Then that soul may say, 'I am Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu.' The soul is impressed with whatever comes before it. Sometimes children of quite ordinary parents may be so impressed by a great person in whose presence they are that they themselves become great. And as man's personality is nothing but an agglomeration of his thoughts and impressions, the inheritor of these may be called the reincarnation of the past one, although his soul is his own.

Sometimes a child appears to see and understand very much of what is going on around him from his infancy up. Sometimes a young man sees and understands more than an old person. Such people are supposed by the average person to be old souls, and the reincarnationists take it as a proof of the doctrine of reincarnation. But in reality knowing and understanding do not depend upon learning; knowledge is the soul's quality. The knowledge of the spirit has been man's in all ages. An old person does not need to read many books in order to learn that he was once a little child; he knows it, it is his past experience. So the soul knows its own experience; it needs only a little awakening to make it conscious of itself.

When the Shah of Persia wished to have the history of Persia written by some literary person, no one could be found to do it until the mystic poet Firdausi said that he would write it. And he wrote, from his inner knowledge, the Shah-nameh, the history of the Shahs of Persia. If he had this knowledge from the recollection of his own previous lives he must have reincarnated interruptedly in Persia and in Persia only, endowed each time with the same degree of intelligence, so as to have acquired and retained all this knowledge.

There is nothing which the soul cannot know, for the whole objective existence is made by the soul for its own use; and therefore it is not astonishing if man possesses great qualities that he has not inherited, and if he has knowledge of all things through revelation, not by learning. It is astonishing only when he lacks this, and that is owing to the globes upon globes of the objective world covering the light of the soul.

Conclusion

I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I wondered about the secret of its nature. I persevered and strove in search of the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover over my soul. I realized that that in me which believed and that in me which wondered, that which persevered in me, and that which found, and that which was found at last, was no other than my soul. I thanked the darkness that brought me to the light, and I valued the veil which prepared for me the vision in which I saw myself reflected, the vision produced in the mirror of my soul. Since then I have seen all souls as my soul, and realized my soul as the soul of all; and what bewilderment it was when I realized that I alone was, if there were anyone; that I am whatever and whoever exists; and that I shall be whoever there will be in the future. And there was no end to my happiness and joy.

Verily, I am the seed and I am the root and I am the fruit of this tree of life.

Spiritual Liberty

2008-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

THE PHENOMENON OF THE SOUL

The Philosophy of the Soul

The soul is called Atma in Sanskrit; in Persian it is called Rub. When the Prophet was asked, 'What is the soul?' he answered in two words, Amr-e Allah, which means 'an activity of God'.

The connection between the consciousness and the soul is like the connection between the sun and the ray. The ray is formed by the activity of the sun shooting forth its light. The activity of the consciousness shoots forth its ray, which is called the soul. Activity in a certain part of the consciousness makes that part project itself towards manifestation. The ray is the sun; but we distinguish the ray as apart, distinct in itself, longer or shorter, stronger or fading away, according to the state of activity in it.

The soul, during its life on earth and after, does not change its plane of existence; if any change takes place it is in the direction of its movement. The soul has originally no weight, but on its way it gathers around it properties produced from itself and borrowed continually from the elements which compose the universe, and as our possessions are not necessarily ourselves, so the properties are not the soul. The best comparison is with our eyes, in which vast tracts of country, huge mountains and miles of horizon on the sea are reflected at one time, and yet the eyes are scarcely an inch across. Such is the nature of the soul, which is so small as to be counted one among the numberless souls contained in the universe, and yet so vast as to contain within itself the whole universe.

The external self, the mind and the body, have confined a portion of the whole consciousness; the same portion is in reality the soul. It is as if a line were drawn upon a cloth marking off a part of it as separate from the whole. Or it is as if we were to stand before a curtain with a small lantern so that the light of the lantern falls upon the curtain and forms a patch upon it. In like manner the impressions of the mind and body are reflected on the soul and separate it from the whole consciousness. Upon the soul is reflected the happiness or misery, the joy or sorrow of the external self, but the soul in itself is neither sad nor joyful. The soul is neither subject to birth and death no: does it increase or decrease; it neither evolves nor degenerates.

If we stand before a mirror clothed in rags the mirror holds the reflection of our rags, but it is not itself in misery. If we stand before the mirror covered with pearls and diamonds the reflection of our pearls and diamonds falls upon the mirror, but the mirror does not turn into diamonds or pearls. So is it with the soul: it is neither a sinner nor is it virtuous; it is neither rich nor poor. All life's joy and sorrow, ups and downs, are reflected for the time being upon the curtain of the soul, and after a time pass away. Therefore both the joy and sorrow of yesterday are nothing to us today.

The soul and the body are of the same essence; the soul has formed the body from itself, the soul being finer, the body grosser. What in the soul may be called vibration in the body becomes atom. The soul has become mind in order to experience more, it has become body in order to experience still more concretely; yet the mind is independent of the body, and the soul is independent of both mind and body.

The soul sees through the mind and the body, the body is the spectacles of the mind, and the mind is the telescope of the soul. It is the soul that sees, but we attribute sight and hearing to the eyes and ears. In absence of the soul neither the body nor the mind can see. When a person is dead the eyes are there, but they cannot see; the ears are there, but they cannot hear.

The work of the soul is to know and to see, and the work of the mind and body is to act as a magnifying glass for it. Yet they in their turn also see and hear what is external to them, as the consciousness works through them also. The soul sees the play of thought in the mind, the mind perceives the pains and sensations of the body, the body is conscious of heat, cold, and touch. Its consciousness may be seen when something is accidentally about to fall on it; before the mind can think of a plan for safety the exposed part of the body instantly contrives its escape.

The mind sees the body alone, but the soul sees both the mind and the body; neither the body nor the mind is able to see the soul. The soul is accustomed to see what is before it, and so it cannot see itself. Our soul has always looked outward, that is why our eyes, nose, ears, all our organs of perception are outward. It is our mind and our body that attract our soul outward. And as the eyes, which see all things, yet need a mirror to see themselves, so the soul cannot see itself without a mirror.

When the eyes are closed, do you think that the soul sees nothing? It sees. When the ears are closed, do you think that the soul hears nothing? It hears. This proves that it is the soul that sees and hears. In the meditative life, by the mystical experiences of Anvar and Ansar, I a Sufi realizes the fact that there are objects which the soul can see without the help of the eyes, and that there are sounds which it can hear without the help of the ears. The great poet Kabir has said, 'What a play it is that the blind reads the Qur'an, the deaf hears the Gita, the handless is industrious, the footless is dancing.' He refers to the soul which has the capacity of working even without instruments, such as the organs of the body and the faculties of the mind.

Sleep, the unconscious condition, is the original state of life from which all has come. As the body sleeps and the mind sleeps so the soul sleeps. The soul does not always sleep at the same time as the mind and the body. This sleep of the soul is experienced only by mystics; they are conscious of this experience in themselves, and so can recognize it in others. The body sleeps more than the mind, the soul sleeps much less than either the mind or the body. When a person is fast asleep his soul does not lose its contact with the body. If the soul lost its contact with the body, the person would die; if the soul withdrew from the mind, the mind would be dispersed, the collection of thought would be scattered, it would be like a volcanic eruption.

The soul takes pleasure in the experience of the senses, in eating and drinking, in every experience. It indulges in this, and the more it indulges in it the more it becomes bound to it. All that we eat and drink contains a narcotic, even pure water. Therefore after eating and drinking a sort of sleep comes upon us, the soul feels a little relieved, it feels rather detached from the body.

Clairaudience and Clairvoyance

The soul cannot easily be free from the body and the mind. Though its real joy is to attain peace by being free from experience, yet it has forgotten this. 'He will indeed be successful who purifies it, and he will indeed fail who corrupts it.' There are people who take strong drink, hashish, opium, drugs, and all such things. Under their influence the troubles of the body are felt less and the thoughts are blurred, the soul feels relieved; but it is a transitory happiness because it is dependent upon matter instead of upon spirit.

The ordinary person knows that after deep sleep he is calm, reposed, his feeling is better, his thoughts clearer. The condition of Hal, or Samadhi, the highest condition, is the same as that of deep sleep, the difference being only that it is experienced at will. The difference between the perfect person and the ordinary person is only this, that the perfect person experiences consciously what the imperfect person experiences unconsciously. Nature provides all with the same experience, but most people are unconscious of the experience, which is to their disadvantage.

When the mind is dispersed no impression will remain on the soul, nothing will retain it from merging into the whole consciousness.

Some philosophers have said that we are parts of God. That is not so. They have said this because they have seen the physical body. What more can the intellect see? In the physical existence each individual is distinct and separate, but behind this physical existence all are one, the consciousness is one. If it were not so we should not be able to know one another, neither the face nor the voice nor the language of each other. We can know when we advance spiritually how our friend is; even if he is in Japan or in Arabia and we are here, we can know if he is ill, whether he is sad or happy; and not the state of our friends only but everything is known to the advanced soul.

Mira's Burden

2008-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, Bright Blessings on this powerful night!

I wanted to ask everyone who reads this post to spend a moment or 2 just to boost or focus on a really special friend I have who has suffered since I have known her for 22 years.

A beloved friend Mira who I believe is my twin soul is suffering from massive metal poisoning, (Uranium,arsenic,lead,and a number of others,) this lead to something called 'Dysautonomia' which is a terrible way to live and many are suffering this moment and are in pain.

A while ago during surgery she suffered brain damage during surgery and was left in a vegetative state doctors pronouncing her 70% brain dead.

Her consciousness is completely intact, astrally she is around and I can feel and connect to her whenever she astrally connects to me, she is suffering and in pain still...

I wanted to ask anyone who feels for this womans burden and what she has suffered most of her short life, she is 44 years old and has 4 children.

I found an email she wrote online, I had no idea things were this bad, she never complained, we were so far away.

(What I can't figure out though is how Mira who was running a deaf school and for poor and sick children out of her home while she was in this state, and how in heavens name, did she get uranium in her blood!!)

Dear Dr. Schultze

I have just recieved a call from my doctor advising me to get in touch with you and working closely with you to try and help me get on to some kind of a recovery. I am what he calls a very big challange and if he can help me he can then help other people.
I have the highest levels of metals seen by my doctors who have been helping me for the last 10-12yrs.
I am now at a point where I really don't know which direction to take so his call today gives me some hope.
I have Uranium, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic, lead and few more like Tatanium even, in my blood. I have come to a halt as my syptoms keep changing and any kind of addition or subtraction makes me react very badly.
All I am doing now is trying to live minute by minute. I honestly need help and have no idea how many times I have tried everything. DMPS, EDTA, but when they saw Uranium we can to a halt. My symptoms were getting worse and for three years I couldn't come back to the USA for treatments and got much worse and bed ridden. Now I am here in the US just to finish my treatment.
DMPS and EDTA were too strong for me. Any kind of chelation was too strong. So now all I do is take Multi Vitamins and minerals daily through my port to get me moving a little. I get four hours or more with the daily minerals. But we need to start finding a way to get me better.
I am also on oxygen too as I have trouble breathing too. I also take 4 hourly shots of Pentazocine and are too scared to even try and alter the balance of chemicals.

All I learned to do is mask what ever problem comes up. I have lost all my bone and my teeth are falling off, I am losing muscles, I do not retain any nutrition, I collapse all the time. Pentazocine helps one kind of collapsing. Others its oxygen that helps. I turn into a heavy very heavy person with no ablity to move at all or talk at times. It feels like I am paralyzed full of pain too, where nothing helps (sometimes putting hot towels on me will help).

I have 4 young children who have moved here too, waiting for me to recover. I can't go home again where I am much worse and get repoisioned. I would appreciate any kind of help.
I get over whelmed by what is available for advice and have a hard time reading as well. My eyes are blurry. Let me know where to start.
Thank you very much
Mira

Please boost for Mira, I feel her desperation and can't seem to think of anything else, i feel her thoughts and found out only through her guiding me to this info.
I feel as though if everyones Good healing thoughts fill her space for even a moment, I just know that something good will happen!
Specially these miraculous days....

Thanks
yasmine

The Ocean of Power

2008-06-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

The ocean of power is Laylat al-Qadr ~ Night Of Power[Energy]

That is why Allah described Laylat al-Qadr, "You have been created your soul and I put it in bahr al-Qudra spinning." The first that he created was the Prophet’s light and it was spinning. Then it creates energy.

From every side I am sending to you, directing to your moving to you this energy this kind of power. To the center. The Prophet is the focus.

When he was spinning everything that was coming, he was absorbing, and absorbing and spinning, that was producing more and more energy. That energy produced from Allah’s spinning and his soul, form that energy universes were created.

That is why He said, "salaamun. Tanazalul malaikatuh feeha bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amr."

And the spirit described here is a huge angel, it is not the souls of human beings. It is a huge angel that Allah created. The angels and that angels are coming down from every direction. Not from every “command.” From every way possible Allah is sending them.

All of them with one direction to the Prophet and he is absorbing and when he absorbed, what he absorbed no one can absorb.

When he was spinning he was reducing this energy first absorbing it and reducing it to that level and then coming up with new energy that people can carry.

That is why he said "salaamun", [peace] be upon that energy.

That is the example of Ibrahim when Nimrrod thru him in the fire. Jibreel/Gabrielle came and asked if he needs help. He said, no Allah will help me. Then Allah said "salaamun `ala Ibrahim.

What He said, "Peace" So when the Prophet was in that ocean of power and getting all that heavenly energy, what did he say, salaamun.

Means it is going to be peaceful. You know these transformers, take 500 volts and reduce to 220. if you get it directly from source what happens, you burn.

So the Prophet was the transformer of that energy.

So he was mc2.

[ Muhammadan Nurun Allah Nur] he took that energy and reduced it's vibration/frequency/ to a mass multiplied by the speed of light that is mc squared.[mc2]

Because the mass came from energy, as Prophet (s) was energy.

So he was transforming that energy into a lower level.

How was he transforming it, form energy transforming into mass multiplied by the speed of light.

It means if we have energy of 10, that mass is going to be small.

If that energy is 20 the mass will be higher.

Because speed of light doesn’t change except slightly.

So Believers when their mass becomes huge it means they have become loaded, loaded as they are mountains on earth. That is why Allah called the True Believers, "[they are like] mountains on earth."

And that is why Allah said, and a sign from us that we carried their descendants [Noah] in the laden ship, that ship.

You know what we call the electric charge or energy it is shuhna. That ship was full of those charges.

Who was that boat. It is not the boat of Sayyidina Nuh. The sign to them is that we carried their progeny in that boat.

And that boat is Sayedena Muhammad {s} and he carried everything in it, mashhoon means loaded with all these electrical energy or charges. Every progeny is a shuhna, an electric charge.

That is why energy { Energy-Angelic} is equal to mc squared.

From energy Allah does not want that energy to be gone because it does not belong to human beings.

It belongs to Allah swt where the Prophet (s) was carrying it, charged with it and then like a main source of electricity, thru the transformer of the Prophet (s) he reduced it to different battalions. What you have in the army? Battalion.

That is why he said, souls are like armies in battalions. So those who know each other come to each other. So the battalions are coming from the Prophet (s) like charges. Like a transformer, when it gets power form the main source it does not go to one house, it goes to many houses, like a battalion receiving energy.

He was like a bundle (mishkat) the manifestation of Allah’s light was the bundle carrying all these small lights transformers that each transformer is a group of people.

{Similar to Today's Fiber Optic Cable Hold hundreds of Fiber cables of Light}

That is why you see these group of people come to each other, like one family they come together like shaykh with his mureeds.

So amr is not only command it is a command in two-sided. Amr is a command for that energy to move from the ocean of power, bahr al-qudrah. And from the Prophet (s) out, it becomes `umur al-dunya, issues of the dunya or issues of akhira, different situations of people that concern them in this life or in the next life.

That energy belongs to Allah and it has to go back. So when He sends that energy it reduces thru the Prophet (s) as mass multiplied by speed of light. When the mass disappears, when it is gone, when you take the mass out, what will it become? It becomes no more mass, zero.

[It is infinite]

There is no more mass there no where to reduce it down. So if you are on a sphere and shooting to the center, all on same distance, equal distance so they go and come back. And that is why Awliya'ullah when they become as they are going higher by Allah, their masses, not their physical mass, but they become very heavily loaded with electrical charges, meaning qudrah power, that is the miraculous power.

That is the power that Allah gave to the Prophet and he gave to them. So as they approach closer to the Prophet (s) , they become nothing in the presence of the Prophet (s) , then they become everything, because the Prophet (s) is everything. When they come there, they understand the real command [amr]. That is the real command.

Here there is no command because no one listens.

Only the Prophet (s) listens, when Sayyidina Jibreel comes to him. Not one of us can reach, except some rare Awliya'ullah. Not reaching what the prophet reached but reaching the footsteps.

Not here, this the artificial obedience and artificial amr.

The only one who really obeyed is the prophet.

That is why it was coming to me from Mawlana Shaykh, the importance of mc2. I was sleeping and I woke up before Fajr, and Mawlana was explaining what is energy is mc2.

He said, that energy is been like a laser that is being shot out, in every direction to reach one place and from that one place it goes out. Before it reaches that place we cannot explain it he said,. I woke up and he was explaining in my ear, I was hearing that.

{Qalam { Al-Qadir , Lahut to Muhammad = Qul ya Muhammad}

From the moment it is shot from bahr al-Qudra to out to reach that place where it has to reach, the reality of the Prophet (s) , no one can understand it except the Prophet. That is the real amr.

From the Prophet (s) down, Awliya'ullah down can understand. That is the imitational amr.

So when Allah wants back that amr, he made death on human beings. He wasn’t that Abd to be under his (own) command. Now Abd cannot say “no.” Because death no one can say “no.”

Hatta yateeaka al-yaqeen. You know the yaqeen that you cannot run away from Allah’s command.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji`oon.

Returning to that reality, mc2 is that reality in this universe. It means in every individual, in everything you see, energy=mc2. there are infinite number of mc2. is it not.? we are representing mc2. we are mc2. he was explaining, and I was hearing.

He said, human beings are mc2. { Angelic Energy=or Supporting Insan Mass Two w/2 Lights }

when that mass { Body} that soul is in that mass, that mass has value.

When that soul disappears that mass has no value. { You Bury it}

The soul understands now.

Wa in min shayyin illa yusabhih bihamidi. { String Theory}

Everything praises Allah even stones.

If you take that tasbih out that stone disappears.

Everything is appearing with that praises.

We are appearing because our masses are praising. { specifically the heart Praising of Al-Hay}

When that praising goes away that body will disintegrates completely.

Every mass has a living tongue.

Because he said Wa in min shayyin illa yusabhih bihamidiwa laakin laa tafqahoona tasbihahum …

It means a rock is praising - it has an Angelic Energy. If you remove the mass, the mass becomes less the soul

So mc2 is soul and in reality the soul is inside. We are not calculating it.

Allah said, that everything praises.

How do we calculate the mass?

It means the mass is equal the body plus the soul it is not just the mass alone. It is a combination there.

So when you eliminate the mass, then what is left is the soul multiplied by the speed of light.

So energy is not lost, energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light.

We know the mass is in realty mass plus soul.

So when the soul is gone, then the mass is not moving anymore.

At that time Allah will load the soul with same weight of the mass that is left behind in order to keep the energy equal to mc2.

so the soul becomes heavily loaded to equal what is left behind which the m, that is the mass plus the soul.

so Allah will multiply the mass by same mass that was taken away, the soul leaving the body you know the yaqeen at that time.

You reach the reality of certainty. W ‘abud rabbuka hatta yateeaka al-yaqeen.

At that time you will be loaded to see, it will be loaded completely. Because energy cannot be lost. So that soul will now be able to see everything.

As death came.

So now that soul is able to see what you were not able to see when you were carrying that mass.

But Awliya'ullah because they have been loaded they left behind their bodies, because they left behind their egoes.

That is why Prophet said, , no concern to form, no body anymore.

Then they will be loaded, they can see what cannot be seen. Then they can see with that energy.

For them they have body but no body. They can transform. Can be here in china, and in Malaysia, in Indonesa. That is why you can see their form.

They said to one wali of Baghdad saying things that cannot be accepted. Then they told him. He said “next time cut me with the sword.” Next time on jumuah he was saying that cannot be accepted and they took their swords and cut him but he became tansparent.crystal like water, shfafiyya. That sword had no effect on him, as if passing through light.

So the real `amr tanazal al-malaikatu war-ruhu bi idhni rabbihim min kulli `amr.

Then quickly he said, salaamun. Peace. Salamun

The Heart of Holy Quran 36.58 "Peace!"Salamun - a word (of salutation) from a Lord Most Merciful!

If that peace comes on us, we cannot carry it, we will be destroyed completely.

Salaamun hiya, peace that command, with it until the rising of the dawn.

Until the tidings of the dawn? It means until the light comes.

Until the reality of Muhammad appears. On the Day of Judgment.

When the reality comes you know the amr. { Alif, Meem,Ra- Allah Essence to Muhammad {s} to -Al Rabb- rabbi alAAalameena -Spiritual Government}

Reality comes in akhira. Then you know the real reality that is hidden. The imitational `amr is know.

May Allah forgive us and bless us and..

Bihurmatil fatiha.

If the soul weight 1 and the mass is 100. the mass is heavier than soul.

The soul might be whatever, minimal epsilon relative to the mass.

So now when that heavy weight is gone, energy has to be equal mc2.

so it means that there must be replacement for that heavy weight.

Then the heavenly charges will be on the soul, to make the mass as it was before.

So when the heavenly electric charges are burdened on it since they weigh nearly nothing.

They become very huge and with that they can see what cannot be seen.

That is why the wali when he leaves his mass behind Allah replaces it with a very powerful electrical charge, that is not actual electrical charge, that will allow the mass times light to equal energy.

That is called heavenly mass if we like to cal it that.

That will be applied to awliya that have it in dunya. That will be for unbelievers only in akhira, there they will see hellfire.

At that time they will see yaqeen.

The Prophet (s) went to isra and miraj, Allah dressed him with that heavely weight. He went with his body. That is a miracle. Only the Prophet (s) went with his body. Awliya cannot move with body.

That is why they can transform in dunya, but one body must be in a particular place.

That is why we say Mawlana shaykh is in body in Cyprus but the other manifestations, are manifestation of his own reality.

Like mirror images. It shows hundreds of you and the mirror is manifestation of the real one.

Like one thousand television and only one camera and you can see 1000s of you

You have one true existence which is illuminated by the light of Muhammad, but when it is reflected like thru mirrors, it is seen. And the reality is hidden too.

That reality is the source of the reflections. The reflections since they part of the reality are realities in themselves and they are realities according to the level of the observer where they manifest.

Like Sayyidina ibn Arabi said, if not my hand, Nuh and his people would have drowned,

They said, how? Ulama began to question.

Of course if you bring a cup of water, and you put your finger in it and take it out, what do you see? A drop.

Is that drop from that water? Yes, so it is part of the water.

Yet you can see it. If you put it back there it becomes the whole.

A part is from the whole. So it cannot be seen anymore

So he said "I am a part of the whole, and the whole is sayyidina Muhammad.

I am from blood and from spirituality an inheritor of the Prophet (s).

So I entered back in my ocean.

That is why I said, because of my hand, in reality that is the ocean that raised Sayyidina Nuh from drowning because I am part of the whole."

So the reflections are part of the whole and then the reality appears thru the reflection and they are realities but not the real reality.

Just a there is secrete, hidden, most hidden. Different levels of heart. Secret for Naqshbandis, akhfa for Allah swt. Khafa for Prophet (s) .

Reality, then reality of realities. So it is part of him but not the complete part. That is why he appears according to the level of those whom he appears to at different places.

That is an ocean of knowledge. They open we can enter, they don’t open we are lost.

The Hidden Powers of Allah

2007-07-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world of Unseen Forces

Shamanism, occult powers, psychicism, ESP, geniis [Djinn], magickal pearls, psychic projection, astral travel, magick, charms, clairvoyance, Powerful spells, telepathy, magical empowerment: Legitimate Magick

E M P O W E R M E N T S

This space is a source of metaphysical empowerments that exist, I have gone to great lengths to aquire this knowledge! And have taken greater measures to protect it, it is only visible to the Sincere and only accessible to the True seeker.

If you are fortunate enough to find your way here, you have been divinelyguided and it will be a significant leap in your spiritual as well as your worldly existence if you bring this knowledge into action and make it part of your own reality.

Vibrating Higher

Among the information you will find Ancient secret knowledge that will increase and amplify the powers of any Prayers or Spells, Please do not underestimate the Power they hold and Remember be careful what you wish for! The Law of Karma is always in effect as with all Universal Laws.

If you are interested in obtaining Powerful Talismen, please send, your full name and address, date of birth, the name of your parents, and the necessary funds for compensating the work. The empowerments may be received by anyone regardless of race, religion, sex, age, etc.

Free Magick Talismen

I do however understand that most people who enter into this paradigm are in need of immediate protection and a change in 'Luck' and fortune, I have therefore extended a large part of important information needed in this time, for everyone and share my knowledge freely, all the information I offer is solely for the Empowerment of the self and understand our limitless potential as humans living a 3 dimensional experience, Please take the time to navigate the different links and find the connections you need to understand universal Law and natural Phenomena.

I offer several Islamic Magickal Talisman for different purposes, due to their power it can easily be manipulated by the dark forces and I therefore do not have them viewable to the public, They are powerful secrets that have been entrusted to me by various sources and if it wasn't for the vital importance of balancing the poles at this time, I would not be offering these types of Empowering formulae at all.

I ask those who are sincere in heart and TRUE seekers to email me and I will foward free of charge the Talisman, All other services and Magick items can be found at the Link Spirit Sanctuary [side menu]
Please spend time to navigate the interconnected Blogspots that I have linked to each other, it is so for a purpose and each person will intuitively find his own path through to match his own evolving understanding. Find here all the tools for Freedom and Empowerment you will need for these Strange and powerful time!

Peace and Blessings !

Yasmine

Wingmakers Wall Painting

2007-01-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

Astral Wars & Etheric Intervention

2006-11-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

In today's modern world psychic protection has never been more important. Anyone who works with the public everyday can benefit from this knowledge, especially those serving Humanity in some way.

It is of vital importance for anyone pursuing a spiritual path or psychic development.In fact anyone who is doing any kind of service in the name of the Lord, Psychic protection can make all the difference in the distractions and Psychic Attacks as well as developing ones gifts safely!

Some may believe during their spiritual training that their "guides" will protect them. This is not always the case. Psychic protection should always been your own responsibility. On some occasions they may indeed provide protection but they do not do so all of the time. There may be instances where they a not permitted to intervene and must allow things to happen.

The individual concerned is upon their own path and good and bad experiences must be embraced together. Each experience teaches the soul a very valuable lesson and paves the way towards enlightenment.

Psychic Attack can come in many forms. This is usually the result of a weakened auric field which allows negative energy to penetrate the bodies defences. Insecurity, guilt, blame, fear, indecisiveness, stress, negative habits and thoughts, alcohol, drugs, emotional upset can all take their toll on the aura.

The seven main energy centres of the body (chakras) can become congested preventing the normal flow of the life force through the body. (This can also be affected by geopathic stress)

As well as manifesting illnesses this also makes it all the more easier for spirits and entities to make attachments and form a parasitic relationship with the host. This can leave the person feeling extremely exhausted, often suffering from aches and pains and also headaches.

Discarnate entities (earthbound spirits) can be attracted to the living through a desire to experience the things they enjoyed whilst alive. If their will is strong they can overshadow the personality of the living individual. This may involve simply entering the auric field or an attempt to enter the body. Some that have experienced this "know" that they are "not" themselves.

Once in the lower astral many negative spirits are unable to reincarnate due to many evil deeds in their last life. They remain their until they learn their lessons. This may take a great deal of time for some and some many never move on as they are so wrapped in bitterness and the desire for earthly pleasures. Being restricted from acquiring an earthly body, the next best thing for them, is to attach themselves to the living, particularly someone who finds enjoyment in the same things they did.

Some entity attachments have formed through relationships/cords sometimes through ancestors or old contracts. In one particular case, the spirit, manifesting from the lower realms, made itself present in the clients life.

Upon psychic investigation it was discovered that this was a situation resulting from a 'blood tie' through an old curse on her father, in fact manifesting itself onto both his Daughters [her sister included] both suffering the same fate. The entity who continued to be a very negative individual even in death was refusing to move on. Even through it was explained that he was also holding himself back spiritually.

Sometimes it can be quite complicated, for it is not merely a question of spirit removal but also the balancing of karma.

It is not just unseen forces that can be harmful. People can be equally as dangerous, often this is unconscious on their part. Feeling jealous, angry and hateful towards someone or gossiping are all forms of psychic attack.

Some people may leave you feeling drained and depressed. This is because they are either unconsciously drawing from your energy or are deliberately wishing to take it. Anyone who is demanding, selfish and extremely negative can deplete your energy.

In most instances they are not even aware that it is taking place as they are so wrapped up in their own emotions and problems. One must understand that these people need help and healing and it is best to imagine sending them love and light and to hope that they themselves realize how to change things in their own life.

It is best to limit your contact with people like this. Another good way of protection yourself from energy "vampires" is to fold your arms across your solar plexus and cross your ankles. This prevents them from drawing upon your energy as it seals off your auric field.

There are many forms of psychic attack but you should never feel afraid as there are equally as many ways to protect yourself. Remember, forewarned is forearmed!

Forms of Psychic Attack can entail

A heavy weight upon the chest.
Entity attachments
Spirit attachments
Negative people
Black magic
Nervousness
Sleeplessness
Headaches
Aches & Pains
A run of so called "bad luck"

Every other avenue must be explored before deciding that it is a "psychic attack."

Forms of Psychic Protection

There are several different ways but which ever way feels comfortable is the best.
You can visualize:

Putting on a cloak of protection

Being in a column of light

Being inside a glowing flame

Putting on a suit of armour

Protection Bubble

In the Article section there is Information on Psychic Defense & Astral Warfare, You must understand that there is a balance of polarities and the Angelic Realms will always prevail, against any odds, but ONLY if you are engaged in Action, and conscious of where your thoughts/energy is directed, so read, learn and Empower yourselves with this natural ability.

It should be noted that when you are in combat Astrally, we in the physical realm are the initiaters, the moment we become active the Angelic realm becomes your support system, you get plugged into a dynamic expansive universal consciousness, where ALL that IS is available , much like an army of souls gathered.

When Should I protect myself?

Protection should be undertaken at different segments of the day ~ Everyday!
.

It is also beneficial to practice psychic protection each morning on waking, every evening before going to sleep [for protection whilst on the astral plane] and when coming into contact with negative people who can vampire your energy. It only takes a minute and it gets easier to visualize each time.

Thoughts are very powerful! Thoughts have energy! Always remember it is your INTENTION, if your intention is strong then so will be your protection.

Gifting with Orgone and Boosting [incl. Praying] are the most dynamic ways to negate the destructive intent and Energy of Darksiders.

check out the link to [OR] section for more info on the Power of Orgone.

Yasmine

Cheb Mami ~ Desert Rose

2006-11-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

Cheb Mami - Desert Rose
Music Video Codes

Universal Law of Psychic Energy

2006-11-29T19:59:00.001-08:00

The Seven Laws of Psychic Energy

"These laws of energy are not alterable. These laws have always been and will always be in existence."

Traditional secular scientists are now in agreement with the spiritual scientists and have conceded that all visible matter and invisible waves in the world can be reduced to 'vibrating energy'.

Below you will find laws of energy taken from information accumulated over the last few hundred years of documented human experience.
When I first started doing research into psychic phenomena I was looking for psychic laws.
I found that although the laws existed by imputation, no one had hitherto formulated specific universal psychic, non-physical energy laws.

We have laws for everything - civil and criminal laws to conduct human behavior, laws of physics describing the forces which regulate the universe, laws of biology and other laws.
Accordingly, now for the very first time it is proposed that specific laws be codified about psychic energies - not just those which operate in the physical world but energies that also transcend the physical world.

Whilst more than half of the people of the world to-day will readily attest to the validity of these laws of energy it may take some decades for these laws to be universally accepted.

First Law of psychic energy:

All 'solid' objects are vibrating energy.
Unseen waves are also vibrating energy- sound, radio, electricity, light, television waves, microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays and psychic energy waves.

Second law of psychic energy:

The mind is an 'energy station' which creates transmits and receives energy.
The will (of the mind) can change the form of energy.
Thoughts and images, which are waves of energy, can be transmitted to and from human minds within the earthplane and to human and other entities in the afterlife in a process called telepathy.

Third law of psychic energy:

All living humans have a body made up of vibrationary energy which is a duplicate of the physical body and will survive physical death.
This vibrationary energy body invisible to physical eyes can change form but can never be destroyed and retains consciousness.

At the time of physical death, the duplicate body will have reached a certain vibrational level and will go to an energy sphere that can accommodate those vibrations.
Selfless spiritual service increases the vibrational energy of the duplicate body.

Fourth law of psychic energy:

The afterlife has different levels of energy which form different spheres according to the speed of vibration.
The faster the vibrations of a sphere the higher and more spiritually evolved are the entities which reside there.

Fifth law of psychic energy:

The more spiritually evolved a being is the brighter the energy of the aura.

Sixth law of psychic energy:

Slowing down the speed of the atomic vortices of the energy will result in materialisation. Speeding up the vortices will result in de-materialisation

Seventh law of psychic energy:

The Law of Cause and Effect: for every (energy) action there is a (an energy) reaction ie, energy is a 'boomerang' - the 'energy' you give out will inevitably return to you.

source; Victor Zammit

The Ocean of Power

2006-11-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

The ocean of power is Laylat al-Qadr ~ Night Of Power[Energy]

That is why Allah described Laylat al-Qadr, "You have been created your soul and I put it in bahr al-Qudra spinning." The first that he created was the Prophet’s light and it was spinning. Then it creates energy.

From every side I am sending to you, directing to your moving to you this energy this kind of power. To the center. The Prophet is the focus.

When he was spinning everything that was coming, he was absorbing, and absorbing and spinning, that was producing more and more energy. That energy produced from Allah’s spinning and his soul, form that energy universes were created.

That is why He said, "salaamun. Tanazalul malaikatuh feeha bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amr."

And the spirit described here is a huge angel, it is not the souls of human beings. It is a huge angel that Allah created. The angels and that angels are coming down from every direction. Not from every “command.” From every way possible Allah is sending them.

All of them with one direction to the Prophet and he is absorbing and when he absorbed, what he absorbed no one can absorb.

When he was spinning he was reducing this energy first absorbing it and reducing it to that level and then coming up with new energy that people can carry.

That is why he said "salaamun", [peace] be upon that energy.

That is the example of Ibrahim when Nimrrod thru him in the fire. Jibreel/Gabrielle came and asked if he needs help. He said, no Allah will help me. Then Allah said "salaamun `ala Ibrahim.

What He said, "Peace" So when the Prophet was in that ocean of power and getting all that heavenly energy, what did he say, salaamun.

Means it is going to be peaceful. You know these transformers, take 500 volts and reduce to 220. if you get it directly from source what happens, you burn.

So the Prophet was the transformer of that energy.

So he was mc2.

[ Muhammadan Nurun Allah Nur] he took that energy and reduced it's vibration/frequency/ to a mass multiplied by the speed of light that is mc squared.[mc2]

Because the mass came from energy, as Prophet (s) was energy.

So he was transforming that energy into a lower level.

How was he transforming it, form energy transforming into mass multiplied by the speed of light.

It means if we have energy of 10, that mass is going to be small.

If that energy is 20 the mass will be higher.

Because speed of light doesn’t change except slightly.

So Believers when their mass becomes huge it means they have become loaded, loaded as they are mountains on earth. That is why Allah called the True Believers, "[they are like] mountains on earth."

And that is why Allah said, and a sign from us that we carried their descendants [Noah] in the laden ship, that ship.

You know what we call the electric charge or energy it is shuhna. That ship was full of those charges.

Who was that boat. It is not the boat of Sayyidina Nuh. The sign to them is that we carried their progeny in that boat.

And that boat is Sayedena Muhammad {s} and he carried everything in it, mashhoon means loaded with all these electrical energy or charges. Every progeny is a shuhna, an electric charge.

That is why energy { Energy-Angelic} is equal to mc squared.

From energy Allah does not want that energy to be gone because it does not belong to human beings.

It belongs to Allah swt where the Prophet (s) was carrying it, charged with it and then like a main source of electricity, thru the transformer of the Prophet (s) he reduced it to different battalions. What you have in the army? Battalion.

That is why he said, souls are like armies in battalions. So those who know each other come to each other. So the battalions are coming from the Prophet (s) like charges. Like a transformer, when it gets power form the main source it does not go to one house, it goes to many houses, like a battalion receiving energy.

He was like a bundle (mishkat) the manifestation of Allah’s light was the bundle carrying all these small lights transformers that each transformer is a group of people.

{Similar to Today's Fiber Optic Cable Hold hundreds of Fiber cables of Light}

That is why you see these group of people come to each other, like one family they come together like shaykh with his mureeds.

So amr is not only command it is a command in two-sided. Amr is a command for that energy to move from the ocean of power, bahr al-qudrah. And from the Prophet (s) out, it becomes `umur al-dunya, issues of the dunya or issues of akhira, different situations of people that concern them in this life or in the next life.

That energy belongs to Allah and it has to go back. So when He sends that energy it reduces thru the Prophet (s) as mass multiplied by speed of light. When the mass disappears, when it is gone, when you take the mass out, what will it become? It becomes no more mass, zero.

[It is infinite]

There is no more mass there no where to reduce it down. So if you are on a sphere and shooting to the center, all on same distance, equal distance so they go and come back. And that is why Awliya'ullah when they become as they are going higher by Allah, their masses, not their physical mass, but they become very heavily loaded with electrical charges, meaning qudrah power, that is the miraculous power.

That is the power that Allah gave to the Prophet and he gave to them. So as they approach closer to the Prophet (s) , they become nothing in the presence of the Prophet (s) , then they become everything, because the Prophet (s) is everything. When they come there, they understand the real command [amr]. That is the real command.

Here there is no command because no one listens.

Only the Prophet (s) listens, when Sayyidina Jibreel comes to him. Not one of us can reach, except some rare Awliya'ullah. Not reaching what the prophet reached but reaching the footsteps.

Not here, this the artificial obedience and artificial amr.

The only one who really obeyed is the prophet.

That is why it was coming to me from Mawlana Shaykh, the importance of mc2. I was sleeping and I woke up before Fajr, and Mawlana was explaining what is energy is mc2.

He said, that energy is been like a laser that is being shot out, in every direction to reach one place and from that one place it goes out. Before it reaches that place we cannot explain it he said,. I woke up and he was explaining in my ear, I was hearing that.

{Qalam { Al-Qadir , Lahut to Muhammad = Qul ya Muhammad}

From the moment it is shot from bahr al-Qudra to out to reach that place where it has to reach, the reality of the Prophet (s) , no one can understand it except the Prophet. That is the real amr.

From the Prophet (s) down, Awliya'ullah down can understand. That is the imitational amr.

So when Allah wants back that amr, he made death on human beings. He wasn’t that Abd to be under his (own) command. Now Abd cannot say “no.” Because death no one can say “no.”

Hatta yateeaka al-yaqeen. You know the yaqeen that you cannot run away from Allah’s command.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji`oon.

Returning to that reality, mc2 is that reality in this universe. It means in every individual, in everything you see, energy=mc2. there are infinite number of mc2. is it not.? we are representing mc2. we are mc2. he was explaining, and I was hearing.

He said, human beings are mc2. { Angelic Energy=or Supporting Insan Mass Two w/2 Lights }

when that mass { Body} that soul is in that mass, that mass has value.

When that soul disappears that mass has no value. { You Bury it}

The soul understands now.

Wa in min shayyin illa yusabhih bihamidi. { String Theory}

Everything praises Allah even stones.

If you take that tasbih out that stone disappears.

Everything is appearing with that praises.

We are appearing because our masses are praising. { specifically the heart Praising of Al-Hay}

When that praising goes away that body will disintegrates completely.

Every mass has a living tongue.

Because he said Wa in min shayyin illa yusabhih bihamidiwa laakin laa tafqahoona tasbihahum …

It means a rock is praising - it has an Angelic Energy. If you remove the mass, the mass becomes less the soul

So mc2 is soul and in reality the soul is inside. We are not calculating it.

Allah said, that everything praises.

How do we calculate the mass?

It means the mass is equal the body plus the soul it is not just the mass alone. It is a combination there.

So when you eliminate the mass, then what is left is the soul multiplied by the speed of light.

So energy is not lost, energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light.

We know the mass is in realty mass plus soul.

So when the soul is gone, then the mass is not moving anymore.

At that time Allah will load the soul with same weight of the mass that is left behind in order to keep the energy equal to mc2.

so the soul becomes heavily loaded to equal what is left behind which the m, that is the mass plus the soul.

so Allah will multiply the mass by same mass that was taken away, the soul leaving the body you know the yaqeen at that time.

You reach the reality of certainty. W ‘abud rabbuka hatta yateeaka al-yaqeen.

At that time you will be loaded to see, it will be loaded completely. Because energy cannot be lost. So that soul will now be able to see everything.

As death came.

So now that soul is able to see what you were not able to see when you were carrying that mass.

But Awliya'ullah because they have been loaded they left behind their bodies, because they left behind their egoes.

That is why Prophet said, , no concern to form, no body anymore.

Then they will be loaded, they can see what cannot be seen. Then they can see with that energy.

For them they have body but no body. They can transform. Can be here in china, and in Malaysia, in Indonesa. That is why you can see their form.

They said to one wali of Baghdad saying things that cannot be accepted. Then they told him. He said “next time cut me with the sword.” Next time on jumuah he was saying that cannot be accepted and they took their swords and cut him but he became tansparent.crystal like water, shfafiyya. That sword had no effect on him, as if passing through light.

So the real `amr tanazal al-malaikatu war-ruhu bi idhni rabbihim min kulli `amr.

Then quickly he said, salaamun. Peace. Salamun

The Heart of Holy Quran 36.58 "Peace!"Salamun - a word (of salutation) from a Lord Most Merciful!

If that peace comes on us, we cannot carry it, we will be destroyed completely.

Salaamun hiya, peace that command, with it until the rising of the dawn.

Until the tidings of the dawn? It means until the light comes.

Until the reality of Muhammad appears. On the Day of Judgment.

When the reality comes you know the amr. { Alif, Meem,Ra- Allah Essence to Muhammad {s} to -Al Rabb- rabbi alAAalameena -Spiritual Government}

Reality comes in akhira. Then you know the real reality that is hidden. The imitational `amr is know.

May Allah forgive us and bless us and..

Bihurmatil fatiha.

If the soul weight 1 and the mass is 100. the mass is heavier than soul.

The soul might be whatever, minimal epsilon relative to the mass.

So now when that heavy weight is gone, energy has to be equal mc2.

so it means that there must be replacement for that heavy weight.

Then the heavenly charges will be on the soul, to make the mass as it was before.

So when the heavenly electric charges are burdened on it since they weigh nearly nothing.

They become very huge and with that they can see what cannot be seen.

That is why the wali when he leaves his mass behind Allah replaces it with a very powerful electrical charge, that is not actual electrical charge, that will allow the mass times light to equal energy.

That is called heavenly mass if we like to cal it that.

That will be applied to awliya that have it in dunya. That will be for unbelievers only in akhira, there they will see hellfire.

At that time they will see yaqeen.

The Prophet (s) went to isra and miraj, Allah dressed him with that heavely weight. He went with his body. That is a miracle. Only the Prophet (s) went with his body. Awliya cannot move with body.

That is why they can transform in dunya, but one body must be in a particular place.

That is why we say Mawlana shaykh is in body in Cyprus but the other manifestations, are manifestation of his own reality.

Like mirror images. It shows hundreds of you and the mirror is manifestation of the real one.

Like one thousand television and only one camera and you can see 1000s of you

You have one true existence which is illuminated by the light of Muhammad, but when it is reflected like thru mirrors, it is seen. And the reality is hidden too.

That reality is the source of the reflections. The reflections since they part of the reality are realities in themselves and they are realities according to the level of the observer where they manifest.

Like Sayyidina ibn Arabi said, if not my hand, Nuh and his people would have drowned,

They said, how? Ulama began to question.

Of course if you bring a cup of water, and you put your finger in it and take it out, what do you see? A drop.

Is that drop from that water? Yes, so it is part of the water.

Yet you can see it. If you put it back there it becomes the whole.

A part is from the whole. So it cannot be seen anymore

So he said "I am a part of the whole, and the whole is sayyidina Muhammad.

I am from blood and from spirituality an inheritor of the Prophet (s).

So I entered back in my ocean.

That is why I said, because of my hand, in reality that is the ocean that raised Sayyidina Nuh from drowning because I am part of the whole."

So the reflections are part of the whole and then the reality appears thru the reflection and they are realities but not the real reality.

Just a there is secrete, hidden, most hidden. Different levels of heart. Secret for Naqshbandis, akhfa for Allah swt. Khafa for Prophet (s) .

Reality, then reality of realities. So it is part of him but not the complete part. That is why he appears according to the level of those whom he appears to at different places.

That is an ocean of knowledge. They open we can enter, they don’t open we are lost.

Most people do not realize is that what we see is at the intersection of time and timelessness

Inner Circle of Humanity ~ Conscious Souls & Critical Mass

2006-11-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

Gurdjieff spoke of an inner circle of humanity, a group of conscious men who more or less ran things at the local level in each age.

The idea was not new, but the terms he used to describe it were. He explained to Ouspensky at one point that humanity was divided into three concentric circles: the inner circle of conscious men, the middle circle of men mediating between the two other circles and the outer circle containing most of humanity.

The inner circle of humanity strove to bring the rest of mankind conscious ideas or "C" influences through schools and unbroken chains of transmission. "B" influences also reflect ideas from the Inner Circle but are not delivered through schools. "A" Influences are ideas floating about in life and from life.

Clumsy parodies of this idea have been practiced on a patient world throughout the ages. In the last century, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky kicked off her Theosophical movement with the help of an invisible friend called Hoot Koomi. This spirit acted as a well oiled deus ex machina by delivering letters to her just at the roughest spots in her tumultuous self-invention.

More recently, Claudio Naranjo, one of the inventors of the thriving Enneagram industry, reported that he had personally contacted a member of this inner circle with the aid of a heady cocktail of psychotropic drugs. The spirit so summoned was named Metatron, an appellation which seemed to anticipate a video game action hero.

In the extreme example of this inventive genre, shortly before becoming the Governor of Alabama, an American Evangelist solemnly advised his congregation that his daily wardrobe ensemble was the result of divine dictate, revealed to him in considerable detail by the Almighty Himself.

More seriously, the Gurdjieff notion of an Inner Circle forces us to consider a class of superhumans. While Gurdjieff was strangely reticent about naming names, humanity has widely recognized extraordinary messengers and prophets from beyond the temporal plane for thousands of years. One such cycle of revelation is the Judaic/Christian/Islamic chain.

Taken collectively, the influence of the prophets Abraham, Jesus and Muhammad, (peace be upon all of them), has reverberated down through the last four millennia with a force powerful enough to create and recreate entire civilizations.

Setting aside, for the moment, [the fact that each of them brought a parallel Message according to the Conscious Evolution of humanity during his time], this class of beings possessed qualities far beyond scientific explanation. This all-important factor renders moot arguments among their respective followers about their relative merits. Failure to grasp this point can result in endless hairsplitting.

Religious strife among and within these three groups is generally a sign that the messengers' messages have been lost among the disputants. These three men are so influential that their impacts cannot be separated from our civilization. How could ordinary humans second-guess the lives and missions of beings possessing such sweeping powers and ranges of consciousness? How much do we really understand of their missions? Why were their techniques so remarkably similar? To what extent do they, even now, shape our thoughts?

Much of art, literature and law seem to revolve around the teachings of these men. Millions of lives have been changed by the energy they conducted. And who, if not these, would be the Inner Circle of Humanity? Granted, they are not "hidden," and therefore not as attractive to those who seek the exclusivity of extraterrestrial personal trainers, but there they are, looming large in known history - and with all the right qualifications.

It stands to reason that these leaders have much more in common with each other than we do with them. Do they, in effect, form a special class of beings, conscious men who maintain constant contact with one another while they oversee our spiritual affairs? Such an arrangement would be beyond our poor comprehension.

For those with a penchant for secrecy, Gurdjieff explained that there were naturally evolved people tucked away here and there, separated from schools. Along the same lines, Sufis assert that there are "spiritual poles" in each age (Qutbs), who are often hidden and somehow act as a kind of voltage regulator for the spiritual energies coursing through mankind.

The planet is never without them and they operate largely unnoticed, from incredibly high stations of being.
Subsequent events have revealed the effects of lesser men appropriating the missions of the major Prophets only to deflect the original impetus slightly with each succeeding generation. In any event, from the Gurdjieff perspective, left to its own devices, everything runs down in time. Each great messenger arrives, winds up the mainspring in the clock of human civilization, and then the clock gradually runs down.

Only the intervention of schools of consciousness, operating outside of these general cycles of human history, can rewind the mainspring and preserve some portion of the regenerative aspects of a religion. The great Sufi saints have carefully tended the clock of Islam since its initial winding, revitalizing that faith for each generation, successfully countering the ravages of time against all odds, even into this age.

Gurdjieff contended that, with regard to esoteric schools, the world had long ago been divided up into areas of expertise. Egypt had theory, India had philosophy, and the Middle East had practice. From this perspective, it is not surprising that the three most influential religions of this era were founded by men originating from, (in order of appearance), Chaldea, Israel, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Many of the forty Sufi brotherhoods have traditionally been concentrated in this geographical area specializing in the practical application of mysticism. Such a mission could only have issued from the Middle East according to Gurdjieff's particular information source, whatever it was.
All the Sufi Orders trace their origins directly to the Prophet Muhammad, (peace be upon him). All the orders maintain precise records of lineage leading back to the seventh century of the Common Era.

Each leader of each order has carefully conducted his life in the mold of his prophet. Uniquely positioned for emulation, this Messenger left a surprisingly complete record of his life, practices and sayings. From the Work point of view, the implications of the Sufi phenomena are considerable: these orders strive to emulate practice what is described as the Chain of Transmission. It is more than interesting to see this transmission not as a theoretical postulate - not merely as a blueprint - but as an actual practice.

John Bennet said that the Naqshbandi Sufis seemed to fit the description of a group close to the "Inner Circle." He then appeared to "overhear" himself saying this and went on to wonder, why would such a group be exclusively Islamic? The answer to his question may lie in the placement of Islam in the timeline of human history.

The Sufis insist that the message of Islam was crafted for the modern era, that it caps the succession of messages to the Children of the Book, and that there will be no more messages until the end of this era. Consequently, special care has been taken to maintain life in the tree of Islam, because it's the last tree we're going to get.

In the historical instance of a particular "conscious man" being born to lead his people to a new spiritual plateau, the Prophet Muhammad, (peace be upon him), left in his wake a very detailed tradition about the specific details of his life.

It's not generally known in the West just how much he left behind. His house and certain personal effects still exist in Medina. His sayings (outside of the Quranic revelation, called Hadith) have been carefully recorded in a system that rates the validity of each account. His amazingly tangible history is unique in the cycle of the messengers. His manners and his daily practices virtually form the core of Islamic Law.

The practice of Islam is, in effect, the imitation of the life of a conscious man and the study of the divine revelation he received in the form of the Quran. With varying degrees of success, there are today something over a billion people trying to follow his specific example.

Practice is the key to the Sufi Way. The Quest relies on technique, sincerity, and reinforcement in the person of a guide. Irfaan, the successful transmission and reception of the legacy of the Prophet, (peace be upon him), is a potent and long-lived example of how "C" influences are generated and propagated over the fabric of civilization.

*Note: The Golden Chain of Hadith/Prophetic Tradition has been Passed down from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through the 12 Apostles of God ~ The Prototype Of Humanity.

Rememberance ~ Awareness upon Remembering

2006-11-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

In'saan meaning 'Man' in Arabic: A literal term meaning 'One who forgets' -- Awaken and Remember the Lord who created you!

1. "Conscious Breathing"

Each breath taken with heedlessness is dead, and each breath taken with worship and presence is alive and connected with the divine presence. While this is devotional in tone, the relevance to both traditions is self-evident.

2."Watch Your Step"

Lower your gaze to your feet. This will screen out many distracting and disturbing images throughout the day, and is also a sign of humility. From the Gurdjieff aspect, the practice could help prevent many of the more destructive "identifications" that seize us at each moment creating ever widening ripples of associations and daydreams. This exercise sounds deceptively simple. Just try it!

3. "Journey Homeward"

The journey from the world of creation to the world of the creator is made in two stages: first, the external journey is to locate a true guide; and second, the inward journey is to cleanse the heart while enjoying the guidance. Phrased in terms of the Work, find your teacher and begin the task raising your level of being and cleaning your machine.

4. "Solitude in the Crowd"

There are two kinds of seclusion: external and internal. The external requires solitude for set periods of time in order the carry out specific exercises. The internal seclusion means to be outwardly with people, but inwardly with God. The Naqshbandi Way includes both, but typically emphasizes the second. Gurdjieff followers widely quote the related Sufi ideal, "Be in the world, but not of it!'

5. "Essential Remembrance"

This practice is rather like some of the "sensing" exercises prescribed in the Gurdjieff Work. The phrase, "la ilaha ill-Allah," (there is no God, but God, is repeated many times. With each word of the phrase, the chanter "says" each word from a different part of his body in a particular order.

6. "Returning"

This is the practice of remembrance of Allah (dhikr) with the aim of achieving unity. An invocation to instill an awareness of the oneness of God is a key element of mysticism in general - to a Gurdjieff follower, alerted to the fatally fragmented state of his own being, the search for unity takes on a special importance.

7. "Attentiveness"

This is the practice of safeguarding the heart from bad inclinations. Such vigilance, maintained continuously for even fifteen minutes, is considered a great achievement. For Gurdjieff pupils who have struggled with the exercise of not expressing negative emotions, the difficulty of blocking them nearer to their source can be readily appreciated.

8. "Recollection"

This term corresponds to the actual accomplishment of raising the heart into the divine presence. It marks the point of liberation from egoistic, evil and imaginary thoughts. With this sustained act, reality, unity and truth are fully embraced. This seems to echo some of the stations attributed to the higher numbers of men described in the Gurdjieff teaching and their accompanying degrees of permanence.

Esoteric teachings of Naqshbandi

Parallels

2006-11-29T09:12:00.000-08:00

World View

In the main, the two systems hold to the same outlook
That man occupies an important position in creation little guessed and less explored by western science.

That the cosmos is arranged in a structure of hierarchical realms of ascending refinement.
That few things are what they seem at any level.
That, to varying degrees, all of us are locked in a deep sleep continuously induced and reinforced by the dazzling and relentless evidence of our five senses.

The Human ConditionMan, without the benefit of special guidance, will inevitably degenerate into a state lower than that of the animals. Messengers are sent from time to time to reverse this descent and remind us of our rightful place in the universe. Upon registering the significance of one of these messages, a man or a woman may embark upon a journey with the possibility of deliverance from this general downward drift. Paradoxically, a successful journey leads the traveller to the origin of his being as well as a completely altered state of being.

The actual significance of mankind has been almost completely misread by the sciences and humanities of the west. We are, in short, a kind of cosmic bet that the Absolute can create something from nothing where the "nothing" contributes, to some extent, in the process.
The GuideBoth paths require experienced guides to show the way. The general notion is, not unreasonably, that a specialist is needed to practice a specialty.

A patient requiring surgery will not, under most circumstances, consult a rock star to remove his gallstones. Just as surgeons must graduate from accredited institutions, so guides must be, without exception, products of a chain of continuous transmission from a genuine source of higher knowledge. The soundness of the chain determines the quality of the teaching. Broken chains are broken paths and lead either in circles or to places worse.

Each link in this living chain confirms and tests the strength of the link he forges with his successor. Attempts at self-initiation on either of these two paths lead to predictable fiascoes. Observe the geographically confused devotee who emerges from a few weeks at Esalen to declare that he has found his way to the Sarmoun Monastery and is receiving daily instructions from a member of the Inner Circle of Humanity.

Both paths encounter considerable resistance on the matter of the guide. Western sophisticates generally exhibit a marked distaste for mystical masters of any sort, Gurdjieff included. The idea that the person sitting next to you on a train might possess a completely different order of being from your own seems unlikely, undemocratic, even unfair.

This is not surprising in a society where most public figures carry out their larger-than-life existences with every foible and misdeed aired on the evening news. There are few obvious examples of trustworthy leaders of any sort. On the other side of the equation within the Islamic world, fundamentalists are now noisily asserting that spiritual guides are forbidden in general, and Sufi Shaykhs in particular - this, after more than a thousand years of sweeping spiritual authority held by the forty Sufi orders.

AwarenessA number of exercises prescribed for both Gurdjieff students and Naqshbandi murids (followers) are designed to increase self-awareness. Gurdjieff admonished his followers to "self remember" as much as they possibly could. In one of his later writings he shared his frustrations in trying to practice the art himself and revealed the lengths to which the exercise could be extended.

The eleventh Grand Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Order, Khwaja Abdul Kaliq al-Ghujdawani, taught eight methods of consciousness which have since become principles of the order. This Twelfth Century teacher described techniques which have caught the attention of many Gurdjieff followers for here, couched in spiritual terms, is a intense and exact prescription for consciousness.

Self knowledge brings another kind of awareness, and generally runs along two lines of work: learning about the general case of mankind as it relates to the cosmos as a whole and discovering the unsettling specifics of one's own weaknesses. Nomenclature, cultural references and imagery vary greatly between the Gurdjieff and Naqshbandi Ways, but initially both seem to focus on setting your house in order in the ordinary sense before proceeding on to bigger things.

Non-identification is the method used to bridge the second gap in the Gurdjieff food octave. "Life" concerns are generally considered distractions along the path, but also the propulsion fuel for the traveller who wishes to move beyond sense-based reality. Sufis in general view dunya (the material world) as something not quite real, but again, as something dangerously distracting. Both systems put forth extensive elaborations of the degrees of materiality and reality which span the universe, and to some extent both define an individual based on his orientation within these ranges.

Rules of the PathPupils in the Gurdfjieff tradition soon grow accustomed to the notion that in order to become free of the lowering effects of mechanical laws at this particular location in the ray of creation, one must temporarily submit to artificial rules, beyond what nature imposes on the general population. Sufis, (traditional ones, that is), likewise submit to the Islamic law of Shariah, a system of rules established by the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) over a period of 23 years. More than a billion Muslims, including Sufis, are obligated to observe these practices to the best of their abilities. Both rules systems are rigorous behavioral directives and would constitute a major undertaking in any setting, in any age.

CosmologiesBoth traditions present robust cosmologies, vast in scope and rich in detail. The Gurdjieff pupils study a system of knowledge which is at once startling in its precision and reassuring in its internal coherence. More and more western intellectuals are attracted to this system because of the remarkable success that Ouspensky had in capturing Gurdjieff's cosmology in a systematized presentation. Indeed, it is this very well worked out model of the universe that is the centerpiece of Gurdjieff's contribution to Twentieth Century mysticism.

Throughout known history many great teachers have alluded to the fact that man is a replica of the universe in miniature, but no other known system has gone so far in filling in the specific details of just how this might be the case and what the key replicating pattern might be. This system is so compelling in its completeness and detail that a whole school of writers has emerged over the last fifty years to work out its correspondences with the natural sciences and many other disciplines.

Similarly, the Sufis draw on the Quran, which in some sense is an intricate and tightly compacted summation of man's possibilities in the current era. Its various chapters allude to the Seven Heavens and the Four Gardens of Paradise discussed in a section of this site, The Mullah and the Moon. Significantly, much of the Sufi teaching is spoken, and when an inspired shaykh expounds on the heavens and the earth, it is often a onetime event - the vision of man's place in the world is summoned in a way appropriate to the moment and that moment alone.

Like the Gurdjieff system, Sufi teachings on the cosmos are always precise and framed from the point of view of the spiritual dimensions of man and his correct orientation in Allah's overall creation.

UniversalityBoth traditions are framed within a universal context. Gurdjieff's underlying assumption is that the laws he described are nothing less than the underpinnings of creation. The laws discovered by modern science are but a small and imperfectly perceived instance of this larger set. Mankind on earth is merely the local instance of the universal classification of self-evolving organisms - the biped mammal is simply the current terrestrial vehicle. Similarly, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said, "Before the Adam known to us God created a hundred thousand Adams."

A case of mistaken identityBoth teachings address the identity of man in terms of our disastrous sense of self. Gurdjieff pupils learn an elaborate and compelling set of teachings on false personality and multiple "I's" set against the background of the machinery of the centers. The general idea is that for most of us, nobody's at home because our internal landscape is in total disarray. To add to the confusion, our fragmented beings are continually bombarded by external stimuli via the five senses. We live in a state of kaleidoscopic fascination, and the moments of our lives are drained away to little purpose.

The Sufi's similarly fight against the Nafs (ego) and maintain an arsenal of techniques to overcome and even reverse the ill effects of its utter mastery over us. We have eternal selves which are continuously in the divine presence, but stranded on this sad planet, we have forgotten this aspect of our existences and the connection to these higher selves has become attenuated. Both systems teach that there are higher functions within us that may be activated after a great deal of hard work on this problem of identity.

''They open doorways that I thought were shut for good. They read me Gurdjieff
and Jesu. They build up my body, break me emotionally. It's nearly killing me,
but what a lovely feeling!
I love the whirling of the dervishes. I love the
beauty of rare innocence. You don't need no crystal ball, Don't fall for a magic wand. We humans got it all, we perform the miracles.''
Kate Bush

Sacred Places ~ Al Aqsa Masjid Jeruselem

2006-11-28T15:06:00.001-08:00

Islam and the Question of Violence

2006-11-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

Despite the presence of violence in many regions of the world ranging from Ireland to Lebanon to the Pacific Basin and involving many religions from Christianity to Hinduism, the Western world associates Islam more than any other religion with violence. The Muslim conquest of Spain, the Crusades - which were not begun by Muslims -, and the Ottoman domination of eastern Europe have provided a historical memory of Islam as being related to force and power.

Moreover, the upheavals of the past few decades in the Middle East and especially movements using the name of Islam and seeking to solve problems of the Muslim world created by conditions and causes beyond the control of Muslims have only reinforced the idea prevalent in the West that in some special way Islam is related to violence.

To understand the nature of Islam and the truth about the assertion often made of Islam's espousal of violence. it is important to analyze this question clearly remembering that the word Islam itself means peace and that the history of Islam has certainly not been witness to any more violence than one finds in other civilizations, particularly that of the West. In what follows. however, it is the Islamic religion in its principles and ideals with which we are especially concerned and not particular events or facts relating to the domain of historical contingency belonging to the unfolding of Islam in the plane of human history

First of all, it is necessary to define what we mean by violence. There are several dictionary definitions that can be taken into account such as 'swift and intense force', 'rough or injurious physical force or action', 'unjust or unwarranted exertion of force especially against the rights of others', rough or immediate vehemence' and finally 'injury resulting from the distortion of meaning or fact'. If these definitions are accepted for violence, then the question can be asked as to how Islam is related to these definitions. As far as 'force' is concerned, Islam is not completely opposed to its use but rather seeks to control it in the light of the divine Law (al-shari'a).

This world is one in which force is to be found everywhere, in nature as well as in human society, among men as well as within the human soul. The goal of Islam is to establish equilibrium amidst this field of tension of various forces. The Islamic concept of justice itself is related to equilibrium, the word for justice (al-'adl) in Arabic being related in its etymology to the word for equilibrium (ta'adul).

All force used under the guidance of the divine Law with the aim of re-establishing an equilibrium that is destroyed is accepted and in fact necessary, for it means to carry out and establish justice. Moreover, not to use force in such a way is to fall prey to other forces which cannot but increase disequilibrium and disorder and result in greater injustice.

Whether the use of force in this manner is swift and intense or gentle and mild depends upon the circumstances, but in all cases force can only be used with the aim of establishing equilibrium and harmony and not for personal or sectarian reasons identified with the interests of a person or a particular group and not the whole.

By embracing the 'world' and not shunning the 'kingdom of Caesar', Islam took upon itself responsibility for the world in which force is present. But by virtue of the same fact it limited the use of force and despite all the wars, invasions, and attacks which it experienced. it was able to create an ambiance of peace and tranquillity which can still be felt whenever something of the traditional Islamic world survives.

The peace that dominates the courtyard of a mosque or a garden whether it be in Marrakesh or Lahore is not accidental but the result of the control of force with the aim of establishing that harmony which results from equilibrium of forces, whether those forces be natural, social or psychological.

As for the meaning of violence as 'rough or injurious physical force or action', Islamic Law opposes all uses of force in this sense except in the case of war or for punishment of criminals in accordance with the shari'a. Even in war, however, the inflicting of any injury to women and children is forbidden as is the use of force against civilians.

Only fighters in the field of battle must be confronted with force and it is only against them that injurious physical force can be used. Inflicting injuries outside of this context or in the punishment of criminals according to the dictum of the shari'a and the view of a judge is completely forbidden by Islamic Law.

As far as violence in the sense of the use of unjust force against the rights of others and laws is concerned, Islam stands totally opposed to it. Rights of human beings are defined by Islamic Law and are protected by this Law which embraces not only Muslims but also followers of other religions who are considered as 'People of the Book (ahl al-kitab)'.

If there is nevertheless violation in Islamic society, it is due not to the teachings of Islam but the imperfection of the human recipients of the Divine Message. Man 15 man wherever he might be and no religion can neutralize completely the imperfections inherent in the nature of fallen man. What is remarkable, however, is not that some violence in this sense of the word does exist in Muslim societies, but that despite so many negative social and economic factors aggravated by the advent of colonialism, overpopulation, industrialization, modernization resulting in cultural dislocation, and so many other elements, there is less violence as unjust exertion of force against others in most Islamic countries than in the industrialized West.

If one understands by violence 'rough or immoderate vehemence'. then Islam is totally opposed to it. The perspective of Islam is based upon moderation and its morality is grounded upon the principle of avoiding extremes and keeping to the golden mean. Nothing is more alien to the Islamic perspective than vehemence, not to say immoderate vehemence. Even if force is to be used, it must be on the basis of moderation.

Finally, if by violence is meant 'distortion of meaning or fact resulting in injury to others', Islam is completely opposed to it. Islam is based on the Truth which saves and which finds its supreme expression in the testimony of the faith, la ilaha illa 'Llah (there is no divinity but the Divine). Any distortion of truth is against the basic teachings of the religion even if no one were to be affected by it. How much more would distortion resulting in injury be against the teachings of the Qur'an and the tradition of the Prophet!

In conclusion it must be emphasized that since Islam embraces the whole of life and does not distinguish between the sacred and the secular, it concerns itself with force and power which characterize this world as such. But Islam, in controlling the use of force in the direction of creating equilibrium and harmony, limits it and opposes violence as aggression to the rights of both God and His creatures as defined by the divine Law.

The goal of Islam is the attainment of peace but this peace can only be experienced through that exertion (jihad) and the use of force which begins with the disciplining of ourselves and leads to living in the world in accordance with the dicta of the shar'ia. Islam seeks to enable man to live according to his theomorphic nature and not to violate that nature. Islam condones the use of force only to the extent of opposing that centripetal tendency which turns man against what he is in his inner reality.

The use of force can only be condoned in the sense of undoing the violation of our own nature and the chaos which has resulted from the loss of equilibrium. But such a use of force is not in reality violence as usually understood. It is the exertion of human will and effort in the direction of conforming to the Will of God and in surrendering the human will to the divine Will.

From this surrender (taslim) comes peace (salam), hence Islam, and only through this Islam can the violence inbred within the nature of fallen man be controlled and the beast within subdued so that man lives at peace with himself and the world because he lives at peace with God.

Seyyed Hosseini Nasr
*Shar'ia: Juris Prudence ~ Divine Social Law

Allahu ~ Sami Yusef

2006-11-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

Music Codes - MySpace Layouts

Dervish of Northern Iraq & Turkey

2006-11-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

Note on the Jinn

2006-11-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

One of the least understood aspects of Islamic teachings in the modern world concerns that class of beings called the jinn and referred to several times in the Quran. The reason for misunder standing comes from the post-Cartesian materialistic conception of the Universe, which excludes the subtle and psychic world, where in fact the beings called jinn belong in the traditional schemes of cosmology. To understand the meaning of jinn one must therefore go beyond a conception of reality which includes only the world of matter and the mind (this paralyzing dualism which makes an understanding of traditional doctrines impossi ble) to an awareness of a hierarchic reality made up of the three worlds of spirit, psyche, and matter. The jinn can then be identified as beings that belong to the psychic or intermediary world, the barzakh, situated between this world and the world of pure Spirit.

In Quranic terminology and the hadith literature the jinn are usually coupled with ins or mankind and often the phrase al-jinn wa'l-ins (the jinn and men) is used as referring to that class of creatures to which God's commands and prohibitions address themselves. Man was made of clay into which God breathed (nafakha) His Spirit. The jinn in Islamic doctrines are that group of creatures which was made of fire rather than earth, and into which God also breathed His Spirit. Hence like man they possess a spirit and consciousness and have Divine commands revealed to
them. on their own level of existence they are central creatures just as men are central creatures in this world.

But in contrast to men they possess a volatile and "unfixed" outer form and take on many shapes. This means that they are essentially crea tures of the psychic rather than the physical world and that they can appear to man in different forms and shapes.

Having been endowed with a spirit, the jinn, like men, possess responsibility before God. Some are "religious" and "Muslim. These are intermediate angels, the psychic forces that can lead man from the physical to the spiritual world through the labyrinth of thc intermediate world or barzakh. others are malefic forces that have rebelled against God. in the same way that some men rebel against the Divinity. Such jinn are identified with "the armies of Satan (junud al-shaytan) and are the evil forces which by inducing the power of apprehension (wahm) and imagination (khayal) in its negative aspect lead man away from the Truth which his intelligence perceives by virtue of the innate light that dwells within him.

In the religious cosmos of the traditional Muslim, which is filled with material. psychic. and spiritual creatures of God, the jinn play their own particular role. By the elite they are taken for what they are, namely, psychic forces of the intermediate world of both a beneficent and an evil nature: On the popular level, the jinn appear as concrete physical creatures of different shapes and forms against which men seek the aid of the Spirit, often by chanting verses of the Quran.

The jinn and all that pertains to them hence enter on the popular level into the domain of demonology, magic. etc., and are a vivid reality for men whose minds are still open towards the vast world of the psyche in its cosmic aspect. The Muslim of this type of mentalitv lives in a world in which he is aware of God and also of both the angelic forces representing the good and the demonic forces representing the evil.

He sees his life as a struggle between these two elements within him and about him. Although the jinn are of both kinds, the good and the evil most often in ilis thought he identifies them with the demonic forces that lead men astray. They are personifications of psychic forces that work within his mind and soul. On the theological and
metaphysical level of Islam, the order of the jinn becomes under
stood as a necessary element in the hierarchy of existence, an
element which relates the physical world to higher orders of

reality. The jinn are, moreover, especially akin to men in that, as was mentioned above, into them also was breathed the Spirit of God. And some of God's prophets, like Solomon, ruled over both men and jinn, as attested to by the Holy Quran.

For the Western student of Islam, the meaning of the jinn cannot be understood except through an understanding of tra ditional metaphysics, cosmology and psychology. Only through this understanding do these beings and their function, which in fact have their correspondences in other religions, become mean ingful. We cannot reduce the belief in jinn to superstition simply because we no longer understand what they signify.

If a traditional Muslim were asked to give his opinion concerning all the interest in the modern world in psychic phenomena, the exploration of the psychic world through drugs and other means, and the phenomena of a psychic origin that become ever more recurrent nowadays, he would answer that much of this is con nected to what he would understand by the jinn. He would add that most of the jinn involved in these cases are, alas, of the ma lefic and demonic kind before whom there is no means of protec tion save the grace that issues forth from the world of pure Spirit.

The Importance of Angelic Presence

2006-10-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

It is universally known, based on these sources, that God created the angels to carry out His orders and transmit the messages that pertain to human beings. Angels are honored, subtle beings created from light who serve their Lord.

They exemplify the qualities of perfection, obedience, and dedication. They can take any form they like at any time and place. They carry unlimited miraculous powers through which they can reach anyone in the blink of an eye to help and to heal, to serve and to console, to love and to be loved.

Angels take any form they wish in the physical world. As crystal water takes the form of the cup in which it is poured, angels can take the form of any creation which they visit. They do not retain their full original form of light when they are sent to human beings: "Say: If there were in the earth angels walking secure, We had sent down for them from heaven an angel [without change] as messenger" (17:95). Angels can come as birds, as human beings, or as a form of light like a rainbow adorning the sky. They have a mind and a heart, but no will and no desire other than to serve and obey God. They are never too proud to obey Him.

Angels worship day and night without fatigue. They do not need to sleep, as their eyes never tire. They know no heedlessness. Their attention never wavers. Their food is glorification of God, their drink is to sanctify and to magnify Him. Their intimacy is in calling their Lord through hymning and singing His praise. Their enjoyment is to serve Him. They are devoid of any and all physiological restraints. They suffer no mood-changes.

Angels inhabit Paradise and the seven heavens. They worship more than human beings because they came before them and they have greater and more powerful faculties than they. They are more pious than human beings because they are innocent and unable to fall into mistakes or wrongdoings.

They never ask forgiveness for themselves but always for human beings. This shows us how much they care for us and to what extent God created them to look after us. God made them our guardians because a guardian is more perfect than the one he guards.

Angels are more knowledgeable than human beings. The teacher, again, is better than the student. Their knowledge is of two kinds: intellectual and traditional. "Intellectual" means here: "of the essence of reality" or "of the heart." "Traditional" means: "revealed and translated down from above."

Intellectual knowledge is a must, such as knowledge about God and His attributes. It is impossible for angels, the prophets, and pious people to fail to possess it. They have no excuse in failing to know it. The knowledge that is not obligatory is the way in which God has created the wonders of creation, such as knowledge of the Throne, of the Pen, of Paradise, Hell and Heavens. In addition there is the knowledge of the different kinds of angels, human beings, the inhabitants of the earth on the ground, under the ground, in the air, and under the sea. In the latter kind of knowledge angels are undoubtedly more versed than human beings. This is because they were created long before them: angels accompanied the entire process of creation of the universes as well as that of human beings.

They are also more familiar with that knowledge because of their God-given vision and hearing. But such knowledge is only attainable to those who have purified their heart and vision among human beings.

As for traditional knowledge, it is the prophetic knowledge that cannot be known by human beings without benefit of revelation. Only angels are able to bring that kind of knowledge to them. They were indeed the intermediary between God and human beings in that respect. Furthermore, it is possible that they are the continuous intermediaries of the events of the Last Day, after having been those of past and present events up to the Last Prophet, Muhammad, Peace be upon him.

They are knowledgeable in the traditions that particularly regard them and with which God has entrusted them. That is the reason why angels are far more knowledgeable than human beings and carry six kinds of perfect attributes:

They are messengers from the divine presence;

are noble in God's sight;

They have been empowered by God with a power rendering them capable of pure obedience;

are well-regarded and firmly established in the Divine Presence;

They are obeyed in the earthly world;

are trustworthy in receiving, keeping, and delivering the revelation.

The perfect state of human beings can no doubt never be achieved until the angelic power is linked with it. By God's permission, angels monopolize that angelic power which enlightens any human individual that connects with it.

The perfection of human beings, therefore, depends on the capacity to annihilate the human soul in the crucible of the angels. The conclusion of this process is described in the Koranic verse: "Thou soul in complete rest and satisfaction! Return unto thy Lord, accepted and accepting! Enter thou among my servants (angels), and enter thou my Garden!" (89:27-30)

According to that verse, God causes the spirit of human beings to enter the throng of the angels first, then Paradise. A condition of entering Paradise is to receive angelic greetings and revelation, at which time one enters it as a spirit endowed with angelic attributes. God then makes of such spirits messengers for His continuous creations; they are granted the happiness of living in Paradise and enjoying the sight of their Lord.

God made the greetings of angels necessary for human beings when their spirits enter into the angelic power. This is to elevate them to a higher state and produce for them a great happiness. Therefore, without the heavenly input of angels, the spirit of human beings cannot reach everlasting happiness.

The contribution of the angels to human happiness is derived from their perfection. Angels are free from any kind of anger, illusion, imagination, or delusion. This characteristic gives them the power to be in the divine presence and under God's divine light.

It is because of these shortcomings that human beings are prevented from being in the divine presence. Because perfection resides only in the state of reaching the divine presence, only angels can properly be said to have the attribute of perfection among created beings.
The spiritual dimensions of angels have different aspects.

The angel is a sublime luminescence.

His knowledge is perfect and complete because he knows the secret of the unseen and
is acquainted with the hidden secrets of creation.

His knowledge is real, active, and continuous.

The action of the angel is genuine because angels are committed to serve and their commitment is perfectly carried through.

Angels inhabit the seven moving planets, the polestar, and all the fixed stars of every other galaxy.

Orbits are like their bodies whose hearts are the planets.

The movements of these planets in their orbits is the principle of the changes on this planet earth.

The movements of angels in this universe has an influence on the states of human beings on this earth.

From the movements of these angels, by God's order, the connection is made between the movements of galaxies.

The transmission of signals even millions of light-years away from us affect the states of human nature.

The heavenly world thus always holds sway over the earthly world.

God created the sun from the angelic light. It allows this world to see everything of the material objects that were previously wrapped in darkness. Without that light of the sun nothing can be seen.

The latter always shines and reflects on the moon like a mirror so that it appears like a shining body. In the same way human beings, though they are inscribed by an angelic power, darken themselves through the oppression of their ego. Never theless, they are in a position to be always shining, and shining far more radiantly than the moon.

The moon possesses nothing of the light of the sun by itself; it only reflects at best. The main power belongs to the sun. Similarly, God has placed and organized in every orbit of the heavens, skies, galaxies, planets, and Paradises a creation differing from one orbit to another. They act like mirrors that reflect the light of the angels from the divine presence.

These celestial phenomena extend that angelic light, mirror-like, for the benefit of human beings and other creations. That light is "made subject" (musakhkhara) to whatever is needed by creation. That light is the source of the angelic power, the very angelic power itself. Indeed, it is the substance of goodness and benefits every place of creation.

As the angels move in the divine presence, their lights move in and upon the orbits which God created to be governed by them. Angelic powers affect the movements and contents of these orbits. Since these orbits reflect angelic lights upon earth, we see how human beings can in turn be affected by the movements of orbits in their lives. Angelic lights also affect feelings, moods, manners, and actions.

The elements and qualities of human beings and other created objects on earth vary according to their respective distances from the sources of angelic power. Hence we find differences between human beings, even though their bodies are similar. This is because they differ in respect to their connections with angels. The differences are not really in bodies but in the human beings' spiritual attributes and characteristics.

Human beings carry from childhood either the characteristics of goodness and holiness, or those of evil and wrongdoing. That is a very real picture of the spiritual "dress" of human beings and their hierarchies: one receives an angelic power while the other does not. This is what makes one better than the other, just as diamonds excel emeralds, which are better than sapphire, which is better than rubies.

All these are rare jewels but they vary in exellence. For all these jewels are more precious than gold. Gold is more precious than silver and silver is more precious than iron. The latter ends up as scrap while the others are always kept as valuable elements.

Light is better than darkness. The transparent is better than the opaque. The subtle is better than the dense. The enlightened person is better than the one in darkness. The beautiful is better than the ugly.

The one calling to goodness is better than the one calling to evil. The shy, courageous, generous, patient one is better than the one who carries hatred, enmity, darkness, evil, greed, and stinginess. All the above-mentioned characteristics depend on the nearness or farness of their respective bearers to the sources of angelic power.

Therefore, in this world the human spirit is a sign pointing dimly to the perfection of the higher world. It is like the light of the candle in relation to the light of the sun, or a small drop in relation to the ocean. Angelic light is the means of visibility of light on earth, both material and spiritual. We know about the sun from its rays.

Similarly, we know about God from the creations of the heavens and the earth, the perception of which is brought about by the shining of angelic light upon them and their expression through revelation by that light. There is no darkness for us deeper than the non-existence of angelic light. There is no light of God more expressive for us than the angelic light.

The appearance of each single thing is the result of this light, just as the existence of each thing proceeds from its existence. In this way God preserves creation through the light of the angels.

Human beings are themselves like a veil or eclipse of the angelic light. That is, they eclipse the angelic light which eclipses the light of God. Thus you can see the attributes of the Creator through His wonderful creations. This is the meaning of the Prophet's saying: "Think of the creations of God. Do not think of His essence."

The spirits of human beings can be described as atoms inside the heavenly world and their bodies as the houses of their spirits. Now, the house has a state and the inhabitant of the house has a state distinct from the first state.

It is clear to us that the inhabitant is more honorable than the house, for the greatness of the house depends on its inhabitant. { What makes Kabbah is Muhammad {S}}
These human spirits are an actual part of the angelic spirits.

That is why the condition of entry into Paradise for the soul of a dying person is that it be accepted into the angelic realm first, as we have said. That is also why the human spirit is qualified to receive transmission from the angelic powers, as the satellite dish is made to receive transmission from the main station.

To the extent that these individuals are connected to the angelic powers, they become undoubtedly more and more important to other human beings on earth. However, human bodies remain a compound of many different elements mixed together. The bodies of angels, on the other hand, are only made of light from the divine presence.

It is important to know that this difference never goes away in the material world. That is why the angels prefer to support the spirits of the bodies of prophets. For the prophetic spirits have elevated their bodily receptacles to the point where they acquire all manners of gnosis and spiritual states.

These in turn enable them to become beacons of light spreading heavenly gifts and carrying God's message to His creation. All these relations between angels and prophets, saints and pious people, obtain by God's will and His permission.

Angels are honored because of their knowledge and status as inhabitants of Paradise and recipients of God's satisfaction. They always look at their Lord and seeing nothing but their Lord. As we said previously, the inhabitant is more important than the body it inhabits. This is evident in the fact that the Prophets are more precious than their mothers, although they inhabited their mothers' wombs.

The status goes to the prophets, not to their mothers, because of the prophets' greater connection to the angelic powers. As an illustration we may say that the spirit of Jesus is better than his mother's body, and similarly that the spirit of the Messenger of God (Muhammad) is better than his mother's body.

When God created creation, He said: "Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the Beneficent; with Whom none can converse. On the day when the angels and the Spirit stand arrayed, they speak not, saving him whom the Beneficent alloweth and who speaketh right." (78:37-38) God shows in these words that the angels are from among His greatest creations.

They stand second to him and they are His messengers of revelation sent to His prophets. He has honored them by letting them reveal the astounding knowledge in two ways: spiritually and phenomenally. He reveals it spiritually by letting prophets bring such knowledge in heavenly books and thereby guide others to the faith and honorable manners characteristic of the servants of God.

He reveals it phenomenally by inspiring the hearts of humankind to investigate and discover the visible world and accumulate empirical data. Hence, they achieve the most sophisticated technology that can possibly be reached by them in every given century.

This opens another window into understanding the role of angels among human beings. Scientists are actually using the energies that radiate from the angels on this earth to build up technological knowledge. By use of angelic energy they achieve a perfect mode of living: educating, helping, and healing those in need.

Spiritual people use the angelic power as a path of discovery for different purposes. They use this power in the knowledge that it is special grant from God.
He gives them a sacred and noble trust that has the potential to govern countless bodies other than their own.

This ability is defined as " the angelic power in them." These spiritual people are known in Islamic spirituality as abdal: "changed ones."
They can move from one place to another in the blink of an eye. They can live at one and the same time in the first and the second place.

They can live in many other places as well and yet maintain the same appearance as their original self. This is called ubiquity.
Sufi scholar-saints such as these, also known as knower-saints or gnostics (`arif, pl. `arifun), have confirmed that there is another world between that of human bodies on earth and that of angels, and have called that world the imaginal world.

This imaginal world is more subtle than the earthly world and yet denser than the angelic world. This characteristic of the imaginal world allows the abdal to travel within that dimension in the way that we have mentioned.

The method used by these spiritual people can be described as a self-riddance of the trappings of gravity. Everything yearns for its origin and the body yearns for earth which is pulled by gravity.

The spirit, however, yearns to the heavenly realm which pulls upwards. These abdal were capable of balancing the opposite elements earth/heaven, or upward/downward, within themselves in such a way that the element earth which once dominated over the other is now dominated by the other and follows it.

The intellect dominates the conscience to the extent that some have said that the conscience is in the prison of the mind. If the intellect is of the destructive type, that person will use knowledge and self-discovery to hurt instead of to heal.

Laser beams can be used for destruction as well as healing, but they are the same rays in either case. If that intellect does not balance properly between right and wrong, then it will be using the knowledge it acquires in an inappropriate way. If, however, the conscience dominates and plays a greater role, it will at one point dominate over the mind and ensure that it is controlled by the yearning to do good.

That is best for himself and for humanity at large, for that person will be constantly motivated to use his knowledge to help and to serve others.
This is the case in the body that imprisons the spirit: the person who can balance the two poles within will be qualified as a wise one.

Further down the road, if that person can progress more in the heavenly direction, he can use his spirit to dominate the body and acquire those powers that cut through the fetters of gravity.
This enables him to use the spirit to move the mass of the body, not only his own but those of others as well. For such a spirit, when it connects with its angelic power, will become a form of energy and light.
These entities can move mass at higher speeds than the mind can conceive.
This is how these pious people known as saints or abdal were known to appear at any critical time and any place that they liked.

Thus, they help people and teach them. The ubiquitous appearances of one's person in many places are like reflected images of the same one body through the mirror of an angelic power.
This mirror produces thousands upon thousands of pictures at the same time, except that those pictures are every bit as real as the original which is being reflected. {similar to Facsimile machine}

God will create an angel called al-Natiq, " the Uttering Angel," out of His own dhikr (remembrance) of Himself for every one of these types of realized people.
That angel is instructed to inhabit the heart of the pious servant of God.

His duty is to continuously inform that servant of his duties and obligations in each twenty-four hour cycle, besides the known duties of worship.
This link of information establishes a further possibility for the saint of reaching other human beings through the power of his heart.

Furthermore, God will enable him to hear the minutest cell in his body.
The angel speaks to him and explains why God created it, what physical purpose it serves in the body, what can poison it, and what can heal it. Moreover, it will inform him how to heal himself from any disorder of his body, and enable him to heal others through his acquired angelic energy.

The saint's angelic power thus enables him to converse freely with every cell in his body as if he were speaking to another person sitting in the same room. This ability will open for him the understanding that the human body to which is joined an angelic power is greater and even less fathomable than this entire universe.

Indeed, each cell is a world unto itself. It is inhabited by all kinds of infinitesimally small spiritual laborers. Their function is to run the life support system of that cell. A factory needs all kinds of instruments and machines, labor and managers to keep it alive and protect it from any kind of error and destruction.

In the same way, scientifically speaking, the cell has its own defense system against any invader from outside: that protection is produced by the tiny angelic staff whom God created for that purpose.

As the saint becomes more and more perceptive in his inner hearing and speaking, he will concentrate his entire power. He then places it in his heart exclusively of any other focal point. This process can be compared to the concentration of light which does not burn if scattered over the paper, but burns if reassembled into one ray under a magnifying glass.

At that time the saint will be able to send that gathered angelic light out of his heart in order to reach any human being on this earth and any heavenly being above.
The continuous build-up of this angelic power in the saint's heart allows him to witness heavenly sights and acquire heavenly knowledge.
This continues until the day comes when an indescribable light appears in the horizon of his heart.

This light expands the heart to an infinitesimal degree. It removes from it all the remaining veils that up to this point prevented it from reaching the realities of the heavenly world.
Meanwhile, God orders the angels, each one in his state, duty, and position, to inform that pious individual of three things:

the reason of his creation,

his position in the divine scheme, and

his duty within creation.

Every single one of these angels will thereupon adorn that spiritual person. They will endow him with a kind of gift. At a certain point, he will himself become "dilated" which, in the language of mystics, means that he will be clad in a subtle body of light, the same light that characterizes angelic beings.

That body is not visibly transparent to other human beings. Nevertheless, they can feel the light that emanates from the saint's body and be attracted to him as a magnet attracts other elements.
When people are attracted to this Knower-saint, however, he must not show that he is different from others and pretend to be higher than them. He must be an instrument of this angelic power. Being proud puts him in the same category as Satan.

Although the latter possesed an angelic power he fell from heaven because of pride and that power was taken away from him. The saint must only use angelic power in a constructive way, for the happiness and benefit of human beings. He must do so without asking for anything in return from those he helps. Angels never ask anything for themselves, rather, they always ask for the sake of human beings.

Children have not been involved in the low desires that strip the heart of its angelic power. In fact, they are at the rank of saints although they themselves are unaware of it, much less their parents and relatives. The child that declares that he has visions and sights is telling the truth;

whereas the parent who hears the child's accounts sifts them through the grid of the mind and does not consider them factual. "I heard music," "an angel came to me," "people came and disappeared," "they brought me gifts," are frequent utterances of children who blurt out these statements as the event occurs. The child cannot control himself, however, the saint keeps all these events hidden from others.

An intermediary state of knowledge exists between that of children and knower-saints which may be called a "premature sainthood." In that state many people experience visitations and sights and sounds which may be few and far in-between, or on the contrary frequent. These happenings seem discontinuous and even perhaps incoherent, like someone being addressed in a foreign language and struggling to understand.

The reason is that those experiencing them have not achieved the state of purity that permits them to converse fluently with their angelic power. Like children, they cannot help revealing these experiences as soon as they occur or shortly thereafter in ways that may or may not make sense to them or to others.

The happiness that these retellers of angelic visitations feel in telling others of their experiences is like the happiness of a child who receive candy. A child will become happy with its candy and forget about a diamond. Nevertheless the goal remains the diamond. It is important for persons to always re-direct themselves towards that goal: the continuous connection of their heart with angelic power at every moment of their life.

Each human spirit evolves from the point when it was present and testified before God on the Day of promises, to the reality of earthly life then to the life of the grave then to eternal life. This evolution consists in changes from one image to another.

The garment the spirit takes in the fourth month of its life in the womb is kept until death{ 4 Hijab Rahma Subhan Rafi al Ala}. Another dress is put on in the grave, which also deteriorates. Finally, the spirit puts on the body of the hereafter. This body changes to an angelic body at the time it enters among the angels, as we have already mentioned in relation to the Koranic verse "Enter thou My servants."

That angelic body will keep on changing, continuously and forever, from one excellent dress to one even more excellent, according to God's infinite creation of the levels of Paradise. Each dress of paradise, when worn, opens a new level. When one sees this new level, he desires to attain it. He puts on this new garment by divine permission. And a resurrection from one level of Paradise to the next continues ad infinitum. This astonishing phenomenon shows the great extent of God's power of creation.

In every period of evolution from one dress to another prior to Paradise the individual can understand his surroundings and in what state he is. He will be living in that very state and experiencing it but he cannot understand the other states. A person is virtually imprisoned in the state he is in and cannot see any other state.

On the other hand, the individual who reaches the full state of sainthood can understand everything from beginning to end.
That is what differentiates the ordinary individual from the saint.
A saint has already acquired the subtle body of light which enables him to see the past, present and future in one brief moment.

Indeed, he can attain the knowledge of the souls from the moment they stood in the divine presence to the day they came to this world, entered the grave, were resurrected and stood before God again, and entered Paradise.

This reality is expressed in the following prophetic tradition in which one of the Companions of the Prophet was asked by the latter to give those present a glimpse of his angelic vision:
Harith ibn La`man said: "Once I went to the Prophet and he asked me in what state I spent the day. I replied : "As a true believer." Then the Prophet asked me the state of my faith. I replied: "I see the throne of God and the people of Paradise helping each other, and the people of hell lamenting in hell. I see in front of me eight heavens and seven hells as clear as idol-worshipers see their idols. I can recognize each individual just like a miller can recognize wheat from barley. That is, who is to go to paradise, and who is to be found in hell. In front of me people are like fish and ants. Shall I stay silent or continue?" The Prophet told me to stop and say no more." [Abu Hanifah, "al-Fiqh al-Akbar"].

"When God wants to manifest Himself, He looks at His creation. His first attention goes to human beings because they resemble him. Those who resemble Him the most among them, are the saints; hence the Prophet said of them: 'They remind you of God.' We angels may speak to prophets alone, except for saints."

"We also pity you because human beings are unwilling to open themselves to attract the angelic power by which they reach the state of heavenly knowledge that is their inheritance. That makes us appear in your human form in varying shapes and degrees of light, in different places and to different ages of human life, to remind you that you have been honored with an angelic power and a divine likeness.

Keep the likeness! Use the angelic power! It shall elevate you to that luminous station without which God said: 'Verily, those for whom God did not appoint light, they will never inherit light!' (24:40) and He said: 'Light upon light!' (24:35)

declaring that the light of the heart's vision must be connected with the light of angelic power, ensuring success and guidance to all human beings. That light shall then appear over the entire human realm like a rising sun and a rising moon over all of creation, without ever setting. The light of this power, at that time, will make every individual like a moon, that is, a heavenly body that will reflect the original light for the rest of creation.

By this light, this world will be preserved, the love of nature will rule the earth, and everyone will live in peace and love, swimming in the ocean of angelic beauty and harmony."
The angel spoke this, then he gave me the angelic greeting of peace and left.

Belief in the Angels

34:40: "And on the day when He will gather them all together, He will say unto the angels: Did these worship you?"
43:53: "Why, then, have armlets of gold not been set upon him, or angels sent along with him?"
It is said that the word "angel"
comes from the Latin "angelus," which is borrowed from the Greek "angelos."
In Arabic the word is "malak" or "malaak," plural "malaa'ikat."
The Arabic root verb "alaka," which means "to give a message," confirms the angel's etymological connection to the function of Messenger of God in the semitic languages.

The existence of angels is one of the pillars of belief in most religious traditions and that is the case in Islam also. God mentions the angels in the Holy Koran in more than ninety different places.

They also occupy prominent places in the narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, and the many accounts of saints and the pious men and women of the recent past and present. The following pages are an all-too-brief selection of some of the accounts and explanations that have reached us from those three sources.

The Koran says (2:285): "The Messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and so do the believers. Each one believeth in God and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. Grant us Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying." God thus orders every person to believe in His angels as an obligation parallel to that of believing in Himself, His Books, and His Messengers.

The Angels of Koran

4:166: "But God Himself testifieth concerning that which He hath revealed unto thee; in His knowledge hath He revealed it; and the Angels also testify. And God is sufficient witness."
God has created a tree in the seventh heaven, on each leaf of which is found one letter of the Holy Koran. Every leaf is a throne carved from a precious stone, and every letter is represented by an angel sitting on that throne. Every angel is the key to a different endless ocean of knowledge, which has no beginning and no end. In every ocean there is a complete universe with its own unique creation. The diver into these oceans is the Archangel Gabriel. It was he who brought to the Prophet the pearls of those oceans when he appeared to him and said three times: "Read!" To this command the Prophet, Peace be upon him, each time answered: "What am I to read?" and Gabriel said:
Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth,Createth man from a clot.Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,Who teacheth by the pen,Teacheth man that which he knew not. (96:1-5)
At that time the Archangel brought to the Prophet two green pieces of cloth from heaven, one of which was decorated with all kinds of precious stones from the earth, and the other with precious elements from heaven.
He opened the first cloth and told the Prophet to sit on it, and he handed him the second one and told him to open it.
When he opened it, he received the Holy Koran with words of light, and the secret of that tree in the seventh Heaven was revealed to him.
Whoever reads the Holy Koran with sincerity and piety is enabled to enter these oceans of knowledge and light.
The Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, saw a tablet made of rare pearls under the Throne of God and another tablet of emerald.
Upon the first was the first chapter, Surat al-Fatihat, which consists of seven verses, and upon the second the entire Koran. He asked the Archangel Gabriel, "What is the reward of one who reads the Fatiha?"
Gabriel said, "The seven doors of hell will be closed for him, and the seven doors of paradise will be opened for him."
The Prophet said: "What is the reward of the one who recites the whole Koran?" Gabriel replied: "For every letter that he reads God will create an angel that will plant a tree for him in paradise."
Then the Prophet saw a triple light radiating in three directions, and he asked what it was. Gabriel said: "One of them is the light of the Verse of the Throne (2:255), the second is the Chapter Ya Seen" (Chapter 36), and the third is the Chapter of Oneness (Chapter 112).
The Prophet asked: "What is the reward of one who reads the Verse of the Throne?" Gabriel replied: "God said: It is My attribute, and whoever recites it shall look at Me on Judgment Day without veil."
The Prophet then asked: "What is the reward for one who reads the Chapter Ya Seen The answer came from God: "It consists of eighty verses, and whoever reads it will receive eighty mercies: twenty angels will bring him twenty mercies in his life, twenty more angels will bring him twenty mercies at his death, twenty more, twenty mercies in his grave, and twenty others, twenty mercies on Judgment Day."
The Prophet said: "What is the reward for reading the Chapter of Oneness?" The answer came: "The angels will give him to drink from the four heavenly rivers that are mentioned in the Holy Koran: the river of pure crystal water, the river of milk, the river of wine, and the river of honey."

The Angel That Carries the Whale That Carries Creation
3: 190-191: "Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the difference of night and day are signs of His sovereignty for those possessed of understanding, such as remember God, standing, sitting, and reclining, and consider the creation of the heavens and the earth, and say: Our Lord! Thou createdst not this in vain."

In the beginning God Almighty in His majesty created a huge jewel of green peridot.
No one but He knows its size.
Then the Lord trained His gaze onto that jewel and looked on it with a glance of awe.
Under the influence of God's gaze, this jewel became liquid and began to undulate.
It turned into a sea and began to boil and churn and was moved from its depths.
As it boiled, it began to evaporate, and steam rose up from it.
This vapor continued to rise, and below it remained a thickening, coagulated, precious mass.
From the layers of vapor the Lord of the worlds created the seven heavens, and from the remaining primordial mass he created seven layers which He then made into the seven earths.
The thickness of each of the layers of heaven and earth was five hundred thousand light-years, and as for the space separating each of them from the next only God knows it as He said:
"Have not the unbelievers then beheld that the heavens and the earth were a mass all sown up, and then we unstitched them and of water fashioned every living thing? Will they not believe?" (21:30)
After creating the heavens and the earth, God created a great angel.
Between his eyebrows there is a distance of five hundred light-years.
He has two wings decorated with great constellations. They spread their lights like flickering fires over his majestic shoulders.
One wing represents the East, the other the West. The angel was ordered to bend down his neck.
With both his arms he lifted up the whole of creation spanning the East and the West.
He carried this burden until he came to rest right beneath the divine Throne. There he will remain until Judgment Day.
When he lifted his burden, the angel saw that his feet remained suspended in mid-air. God then ordered the angels to bring from the highest Paradise a stone of red ruby.
This heavenly rock was placed beneath the angel's feet so that he found a place for his feet.
Now this red ruby remained suspended in mid-air.
So the Lord brought an enormous ox which had seventy-thousand legs from Paradise.
This ox { Taurus}was so huge that its horns reached from the highest heaven to the foot of the divine Throne.

It was immeasurably greater in size than the angel carrying the heavens and the earth.
The angels placed the red ruby stone between the horns of the ox where it was firmly grounded; except there was nothing to support the feet of the ox.
God, therefore, fashioned a dome-shaped vessel; its breadth was a distance of seven hundred thousand light-years.

The angels placed this vessel beneath the feet of the ox.
The ox now stood firm. But the vessel was left hanging in the air. From the perfection of
His divine power, God created a whale by the name of Lutia.
He then ordered the angels to place the vessel on its back, and the angels obeyed.
By the will of God, the vessel stood fast. Now only the whale remained in the air.
So God created an angel more beautiful than the new crescent moon. Half of it is fire and half snow. Its constant prayer is: "By the Lord who has made this fire cohabit in peace with this snow, may God bless and forgive His human beings."

Thus God made the angel that carries the universes stand on top of the red ruby, placed on top of the ox that rested on the dome-shaped vessel that sat on the whale Lutia who swam in the palm of the angel of opposites like a ring lost in the midst of a great desert.
Angels and the Creation of Adam

2:31-33: "And He taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying: Inform Me of the names of these, if ye are truthful. They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge save what Thou hast taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise. He said: O Adam! Inform them of their names..."

2:34: "And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever."
7:11: "And We created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration."
15:28-31: "And remember when thy Lord said unto the angels:

Lo! I am creating a mortal out of potter's clay of black mud altered. So, when I have made him and breathed into him of My spirit, do ye fall down, prostrating yourselves unto him. So the angels fell prostrate, all of them together save Iblis. He refused to be among the prostrate."

17:61: "And when We said unto the angels: Fall down prostrate before Adam and they fell prostrate all save Iblis, he said: Shall I fall prostrate before that which Thou hast created of clay?"

18:50: "And remember when We said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam and they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He was of the Jinn, so he rebelled against his Lord's command."
20:116: "And when We said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam, they fell prostrate all save Iblis; he refused."

38:71-73: "When thy Lord said unto the angels: lo! I am about to create a mortal out of mire, and when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down before him prostrate, the angels fell down prostrate, every one."

God taught Adam the names of everything in creation: the inner nature and the outer, qualities and quantities, and the secret of all existence. It is by virtue of this knowledge that He elevated him to a state of purity and perfected him to reach the divine knowledge from which angels derive the nectar of their own knowledge. God thus enabled Adam to teach and inform the angels, although he was created after them.

These verses point to the essence of the human condition, whereby human beings can reach a station where they command angelic power.
They teach us that angels can take the form of human beings, and that human beings can purify themselves to the point of carrying angelic attributes.

God has placed the angels at the service of His beloved creation, and caused them to appear to mankind and help them. This is symbolized by their prostration to Adam. It was Adam whom God chose as His viceroy on earth and not the angels. "And had We willed We could have set among you angels to be viceroys in the earth" (43:60). Many stories illustrate this angelic service to humankind in the following pages.

It is related that when Adam approached death he assembled his children and he told them that he desired to taste of the fruit of Paradise again. All his children went in search of such fruit. The angels knew that Adam was going to die. They received his children with heavenly shrouds in their hands and water from the rivers of Paradise for Adam's final ablution. Adam's children were surprised. "How did you know that our father was ill?"

The angels replied: "What are you looking for?" The children answered that their father was sick and that he desired a fruit of Paradise. "Perhaps that will heal him," they said. The angels told them: "O children of Adam! Paradise was created for you. We are but the caretakers of that place for you. How can the owners ask permission from the caretakers? But if you wish to enter it again, you have to come back to the divine presence and reclaim your angelic reality as before." "How can we do that?" asked the children of Adam.

The angels replied: "You have to long earnestly to meet your Lord, and he will teach you the way back to Him." "And then?" asked the children of Adam. The angels said, "Then, you have to enter through the door of death."

Adam died, the angels came down and buried him themselves, showing his children the manner of this ritual and teaching it to them for the first time. After that, the sun and the moon were eclipsed for seven days and seven nights.

Noah's Angelic Light

23:24: "But the chieftains of his (Noah's) folk, who disbelieved, said: This is only a mortal like you who would make himself superior to you. Had God willed, He surely could have sent down angels. We heard not of this in the case of our fathers of old."

Noah was born with the light of prophets on his forehead. God created that light before Adam and He caused it to pass from one generation of prophets to the next until the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad.

After he received the prophecy Noah preached for nine hundred years. The angelic light in him shone forth and even the animals and stones were praising God when they saw him.
Yet Noah's people were so stubborn that he succeeded in calling only eighty persons to the true faith, among them three of his sons.

In the end Noah was fed up and he asked God to be relieved from the task of constantly calling in vain. God accepted Noah's request and decided to send the Great Flood as a trial for human beings. When the command came for Noah to build the ark, he asked for instructions and God sent him Gabriel to teach him how to build it.

Gabriel ordered the angels of safety to collect the best timber for a ship to resist the Waters of Wrath.
The angels brought Noah a pile of wood and timber from the cedar-trees of Lebanon which were later used to build the Temple of Solomon.

They placed the wood in front him. The pile was so great that from whatever point of Noah's country one looked at it, that pile always seemed to cover the sky above one's head. Noah took one splinter of that pile and from it began to build a huge ark.

Never before had a ship been built in that country.
Noah's country did not meet the sea or any other great body of water.
His people scoffed at him, saying: "A ship in the middle of a plain!" and: "How should there be a flood in this country which hasn't even seen rain in so many years?"

Gabriel instructed Noah how to piece together the hull of the ship with one hundred and twenty-four thousand planks.
On each of these planks was inscribed the name of one of the one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets who were to appear from the beginning of creation to the end of times, starting with Adam.

God created an angel to safeguard and insure the soundness of each plank even after it had been incorporated into the ship. This was done to show that God protects his creation with his beloved ones among the angels and the prophets.
God places within creation itself the causes and effects of salvation and the road to Paradise. God saves His beloved servants time and again with the arks of salvation brought by the angels. In times of disasters, plights, wars, famines, and great depressions, angels never fail until today to bring help and relief for those who ask. The following story illustrates this.

Abraham's Honored Guests

51:24: "Hath the story of Abraham's honored guests reached thee (O Muhammad)?"
Abraham's nickname was: "Father of guests" because he was so hospitable. Because of his great hospitality, God always sent him an angel to keep company with him, so that Abraham would not have to sit and eat alone.

One time God sent Abraham three angels to bring him news of a son, although he and his wife were quite old. It is said that the three angels who visited Abraham are called "honored" because Abraham, the Intimate Friend of God, served them himself.

It is also said that they are called this because the guest of an honorable person is himself honorable.
God blessed the lands of the entire Middle East with great angelic presence and light.
He caused all the prophets and saints who are mentioned in His revealed Scriptures and traditions to be born there.

God made them visit and bless the various locations that He caused to bathe in perpetual angelic light, such as Mecca, Madina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Sinai, Yemen, and the mountains of the Lebanon.
God brought Abraham to Syria and called it: "The land which we have blessed for the benefit of the worlds" (21:72).

Then God ordered the angel of the shade to descend and make Abraham's stay a comfortable one. The angel of the shade came down and caused a huge garden to sprout instantly in the midst of the fire. A green meadow appeared in the midst of which there was a pleasant pond filled with fish and swans from Paradise.

Their scales and feathers shone like silk and reflected all the colors of creation. Servants were attending Abraham, who was found under the cool shade of a willow-tree surrounded with delicious fruits and dainty dishes, and the angels engaged him in a divine conversation, during which they revealed to him the secrets of their stations and the powers God had endowed them with, giving him everything. At that time those who were outside looking in, began to wish that they, too, would be thrown into that fire with Abraham.

Even his father, who previously disbelieved in him, said: "O Abraham, what a wonderful Lord your Lord is!" And his mother actually went into the fire escorted by the angels, hugged Abraham and came back out without being harmed. No-one else could approach it without feeling an intense scorching heat.

The fire burnt uncontrollably for forty days. But Abraham's garden only increased in verdure and kept expanding with the constant visitations and blessings of the angels. At that time, Abraham's fire was the most blessed spot on the entire surface of the earth, as God looked upon it with the highest favor. He ordered all the angels of creation to pay at least one visit to His Friend Abraham.

Jonah's Angelic Whale

37:139-144: "And lo! Jonah verily was of those sent to warn when he fled unto the laden ship, and then drew lots and was of those rejected; and the whale swallowed him while he was blameworthy; and had he not been one of those who glorify God he would have tarried in its belly till the day when they are raised."

God sent Jonah to the people of Nineveh in Iraq.
He called them to God's message but they refused to listen to him.
He was calling them night and day to no avail. Instead they harmed him and cursed him at every turn. This lasted for a long time.

Jonah was unable to bear this situation any longer. He began to threaten them: "I am going to ask my Lord to send you a severe punishment which has never been seen before; to destroy your cities and burn your gardens; to make you barren and end your line." He then left them.
Slowly, his people began to feel the approach of punishment in their daily life. They began to realize that they had made a big mistake.

God is the Most Merciful; for at every moment in this world he will show His greatness and cause people to observe Him through many signs. He will do this by sending angels in order to direct the sincere, and, indeed, anyone who asks for guidance, to the light of happiness in life.
God sent the people of Jonah the angels of Mercy and the angels of Safety in order to inspire their hearts to do good, and guide them to safety through the destruction that was descending on their heads.

Abraham was protected from Nimrod's fire by the intervention of the angel of snow and the angel of peace. In the immense heat of this great fire where he had been thrown, surrounded by great destruction from above, from below, and from every side, Abraham was saved and protected. This was a message from God to tell His people: "I can save whomever I wish from any harm, whenever I like, no matter how bad their situation is."

Jonah was angrily moving away from his people. They regretted what they had done to their prophet. Men, women, children, old people, and even the animals, both tame and wild, were heard and seen crying out, each in his own particular language. It was a tremendous event, and everyone asked for mercy and for the angels' intercession.

God Most Merciful, Most Powerful, and Most Beneficent took away the destruction and saved them through his angels from this great havoc. Meantime, Jonah boarded a ship and took to sea. A big storm broke, and the ship was being torn apart and about to sink. The crew decided to draw lots and throw out one passenger as an expiation for the sin which was bringing death upon their heads. When they drew Jonah's lot, they loathed to throw him because he was the prophet, so they drew lots again. Every time, however, his lot kept coming out.

In the end Jonah threw himself over board, and a great green whale came from the bottom of the ocean and swallowed him.

An angel appeared before the whale and instructed her not to crush Jonah but to keep him safe in her stomach.
At that moment Jonah spoke to the angel and asked for his advice, saying: "Give me the glad tidings from your Lord.
How did God teach you the knowledge of the Unseen?"
"Because I don't commit sin," said the angel.
Jonah said: "Advise me." The angel replied: "Be patient and not full of anger, for you are full of anger against your nation right now.
Be a person who gives benefit, not harm -- for you were praying your Lord to destroy your people for harming you.
Don't be happy with your pride and arrogance.
Don't humiliate your nation with their sins, because you also have mistakes."

Inside the stomach of the green whale, Jonah went into prostration and said: "O God, I prostrated for you in a place where no-one before has prostrated.
O God, you have drowned me in the oceans of hope, and
caused me to forget the day of my death.

O Lord, you are the possessor of my heart and of my secret.
I am the drowned one, so catch me by the hand and save me.
Relieve me with Your perfection and inspire me with Your love!
Let the angels of mercy reach down to me and pull me,

O You who accept the prayers of the needy in the darkness of punishment.
O the unveiler and remover of difficulties and harm,
here I am coming to You and adoring You. Do not keep me from Your presence. Forgive me."
God ordered the angel to move the whale through the farthest oceans of the world and take her to the saltiest, or most concentrated and deepest depths of the seas.

There Jonah began to hear the praising of all whales, all fish, all corals and all creatures of the depths. Nothing remained except they praised God and lauded Him, and Jonah was praising Him also.

The angel inspired Jonah to say: "O God, Most Exalted, no-one can thank You nor worship You as You deserve to be thanked and worshipped. You know the secrets and the deepest knowledge, You unveil everything hidden from Your servants, You know every slight matter in this world and the next, and accept the prayer from every creation, forgive me and accept me in Your presence as Your humble servant."

God revealed to Jonah the following: "And mention the Lord of the Whale Dhul-Nun, when he went off in anger and deemed that We had no power over him, but he cried out in the darkness, saying: There is no God save Thee. Be Thou glorified! Lo! I have been a wrongdoer. Then We heard his prayer and saved him from the anguish. Thus We save believers" (21:87-88).
Then God ordered the whale to throw Jonah out onto the sea-shore, and ordered the angel to tell Jonah: "This is God's mercy. He can send it on anyone He likes, even in the midst of the greatest destruction and the surest death, far from any help." Thus did God save Jonah, and the following story illustrates how God saves His people from the grip of destruction even against the greatest odds.

Angel of the Torah

2:248: "And their Prophet said unto them: Lo! the token of his kingdom is that there shall come unto you the ark wherein is peace of reassurance from your Lord, and a remnant of that which the house of Moses and the house of Aaron left behind, the angels bearing it. Lo! herein shall be a token for you if in truth ye are believers."

This verse shows the miraculous power of angels and their superlative ability to act upon the physical realm.
They carried the Ark of the Covenant in front of Saul's army and the relics which the family of Moses and Aaron left behind.

Angels were carrying the Ark of the Covenant because it was very important for humanity.
It contained one of the heavenly Books, the Torah, in its original form. When God ordered Moses to write the Torah, He said: "O Moses! you have to write it on tablets of gold."
When Moses asked where he would find such a metal, God sent him the Archangel Gabriel and ninety-nine other angels.

Each one represented an attribute of God and they taught Moses one hundred and twenty-four thousand words.
With every word Moses was elevated to a higher level.
At every level Moses saw light coming to him from the Divine Presence and dressing him, until he reached a state of purity similar to the transparency of crystal water.

This caused every on-looker at Moses to see nothing but light.
At that moment, Gabriel ordered the ninety-nine angels to adorn him with the attributes and powers that each was carrying.
Moses wore a veil to cover the intense light which emanated from him and caused others to faint if they looked at him.

Then Gabriel poured into Moses' heart the heavenly knowledge meant to be consigned in the tablets.
He taught him the chemistry of gold.
Moses in turn taught his sister one-third of this chemistry,
Joshua another third, and Saul the last third.

Then he wrote the Torah on the gold he manufactured. All the while the angels stood by him and taught him how to write and adorn that heavenly book.
Then God created a four-winged angel and ordered him to keep company with Moses and be the guardian of the Ark.

Mary's Virgin Angels

3:42: "And when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! God hath chosen thee and made thee pure, and hath preferred thee above all the women of creation."

The "Virgin Angels" were created from the Word of God, carrying His Light and appearing to the Virgin of virgins, Mary.

They informed her that she had been chosen to carry a great message for humanity.

They were her guardian angels.

They were wearing crowns of pearls and rubies on their head.

The Virgin Mary's eyes were drawn to these pearls and emeralds without her will.

This enabled her to see that this world, with all its magnitude, disappeared into one of these jewels as a ring disappears in an ocean.
This vision elevated her to a state where she reached a knowledge which dwarfed all the knowledges of this world, enabling her to carry in her womb the secret of Jesus, which is a Word from God.

God has prepared and guarded Mary through these two messengers for her to carry the light which the Archangel Gabriel would bestow upon her at a later time.
She was chosen among all the women of the world for her sincerity and piety and to carry a baby without the agency of a man.
She was asking God from her first day in existence to be a virgin in body and a virgin in soul.
The Four Archangels in Charge of Earth

42:5: "Almost might the heavens above be rent asunder while the angels hymn the praise of their Lord and ask forgiveness for those on the earth. Lo! God is the Forgiver, the Merciful."
53:26: "And how many angels are in the heavens whose intercession availeth not save after God giveth leave to whom He chooseth and accepteth!"
83:20-21: "A written record, attested by those who are brought near unto their Lord."
There are four angels and their innumerable retinues in charge of this world.
The first is Gabriel and his armies. He is in charge of soldier-angels and revelation. Gabriel insures victory and is responsible for the extinction of nations: human, animal, vegetal, or others, when God wills it.

The second is Michael and his armies, in charge of rain and vegetation. He conveys sustenance to nurture mankind.
The third is `Azra'il the angel of death and his assistants. They are in charge of seizing the souls of those who die.

The fourth is Israfil and his assistants, in charge of the Hour of the Day of Judgment. When the earth has passed away God will order these angels to bring forth their scrolls and they will bring them. Then God will order them to open the Book of Life. They will then find that their scrolls are the same as it.

Gabriel, the Servant

66:4: "And if ye aid one another against him (Muhammad), then lo! God, even He, is his protecting Friend, and Gabriel and the righteous among the believers; and furthermore the angels are his helpers."
2:98: "Who is an enemy to God, and His angels, and His Messengers, and Gabriel, and Michael! Then, lo! God Himself is an enemy to the disbelievers."

The Soldier-Angels

3:124-125: "And when thou (Muhammad) didst say unto the believers: Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should support you with three thousand angels sent down to your help? Nay, but if ye persevere, and keep from evil, and the enemy attack you suddenly, your Lord will help you with five thousand angels sweeping on."

9:40: "Then God caused His piece of reassurance to descend upon him (the Prophet) and supported him with hosts ye cannot see."

37:173: "And that Our host, they verily would be the victors."
48: 4,7: "To God belong the soldiers of heaven and earth, and God is Knower, Wise."
67:20: "Who is he that will be an army unto you to help you instead of the Beneficent?"

74:31: "And none but your Lord knows the number of His soldiers."
These verses have two explanations, external and internal. In support of the righteous people who followed the Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, God has ordered three thousand of the angels created from the light of the attribute "al-Jalil," "The Majestic," to descend and protect the believers against terror and devils.

These angels were "sent down," in other words, came down from the Seventh Heaven which is the highest heaven. The second verse shows that God has sent the angels carrying signs of special significance which were visible to the believers.

These signs were crowns of gold on their head, which represent the richest and most precious state, as these angels came from the most precious state of perfection in the first heaven.
Through the light of their crowns these angels were able to strike dead whomever came in front of them. At the occurrence of that event in the battle of Badr, believers were given the power to see those angels and to believe in their support by direct sight.

The internal meaning of these verses, which very few believers experience, is based on the fact that in the Holy Koran God has ninety-nine names and attributes, whereas in the Bible He has nine hundred and one, and in the Torah, two thousand.

In the first of these two verses God mentions that these angels have been sent down from the highest heaven which is in the highest state of perfection near the divine presence.
Each angel was carrying one attribute of the three thousand attributes that exist in the three Holy Books.

This means that holy support came from all three heavenly books and was given to the believers and their Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him.
The symbol here is that of the unity of religion and the oneness of faith. It enabled those believers to understand that Islam accepted Jesus and Moses and the Books that they brought.
The second verse defines a firm reality that egoistic devils cannot reach you as long as you are aware of God's presence in your heart.

This presence elevates you to a state of perfection comprising five different levels. Each level consists of one thousand different layers or states, and each layer is represented by one of the five thousand angels mentioned.
When you ascend from one level to another, you will be dressed with the power of the angel of that level.

Each level increases your heart's power twofold so as to embrace all the power and knowledge of that level.
This increased light provides the key to the next level, and so forth from the first to the last of the five thousand levels.

At that time, you will be a light from God's Light and a deputy among His angels on earth, shining like a sun on a bright day.

The Angels of the Throne

39:75: "And thou (O Muhammad) seest the angels thronging round the Throne, hymning the praises of their Lord. And they are judged aright. And it is said: Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds!"
69:17: "And the angels will be on the sides thereof, and eight will uphold the throne of their Lord that day, above them."

God has created the divine Throne with light from His light.
The greatness of the Throne is such that, besides it, all the seven heavens and the seven earths are like a tiny mustard-seed in the midst of a great desert.

When God wanted to show the greatness of the Throne, He created an angel by the name of Harquaeel.
This angel has eighteen thousand wings. Delighting in his many wings, this angel was taken by the desire to appraise the size of the divine Throne.

God said to that angel: "O Harquaeel, I know that you have an ambition to see the greatness of My divine Throne, so I am granting you another eighteen thousand wings, and allowing you to fly with all your might roundabout My divine Throne.

Harquaeel deployed his wings and flew for three thousand light-years until he grew tired, even though angels do not get tired, and had to rest. Again, the divine command came, saying to him: "Harquaeel, fly on!" A second time, the angel deployed his wings and flew on for another three thousand light-years. Again, he grew tired and had to stop.

A third time the command came to him to fly more. And a third time he deployed his wings. He flew on another three thousand light-years until he stopped again, dazed by the great distance which not even his wings allowed him to encompass.
Harquaeel spoke to His Lord:

- "O my Lord and Creator, tell me how many times now I have circled Your Throne?" The Lord of heavens and earth and all creation answered: "O Harquaeel! you have been flying for nine thousand light-years, but you have not reached even one pillar of the base of the Throne!" Harquaeel felt shame and repented of his desire to measure the greatness of his Lord's creation and to know the extent of His secrets. God then spoke to him and said: "O Harquaeel! if I had ordered you to fly incessantly up until the Day of resurrection, you would still not be able to reach the knowledge of the first pillar of the divine Throne. No-one can know the unknowable except by My favor and My grant."

God has created eight angels to carry the divine Throne. These angels are immensely powerful and awesome.
Each has a sevenfold aspect: one face in front, one face in back, one face on the right, one face on the left, one face facing up, one face facing down, and one face at the centerpoint or heart connecting all six faces.

This face is the most radiant and powerful. It is the receptacle and source of angelic energy.
These seven faces correspond to the seven heavens and the seven earths.
In the court of the Almighty, these angels have been granted immense honor.
They are from among the very first angels to be created.

The first of the eight angels has a human form
and is constantly praying on behalf of the human race, saying:
"O Lord! give ample provision to mankind, and look upon them with kindness and favor."
The second angel is shaped like a lion, and his prayer is: "O Lord! give their provision to each animal from among the beasts of prey."

The third angel is shaped like an ox and he intercedes on behalf of domestic animals and the pasturing beasts. He prays that their provision never be lacking and that they might be at ease.
The fourth angel has the form of an eagle and he prays for the benefit of the birds and all winged creatures.

The fifth angel is shaped like the sun and his light shines upon the planet earth.
He prays for the benefit of the human race, animals, and nature, so that they may enjoy the energy that he is sending.

The sixth angel is shaped like a tree whose leaves represent everything which God has created. He prays for all these leaves that they flourish by receiving the nectar of God's praise.
The seventh angel has the shape of a constellation. He is the source and the center of all the others. He turns to God and receives His light.

God placed the greatness of the divine Throne on the shoulders of these angels.
Their heads are underneath the Throne and their feet reach below the seven earths.
Although angels never tire, the burden of the Throne of the Almighty became too heavy for them.
They were too weak to bear it. God then inspired them to praise Him in a certain way: "Glory to You, our Lord, and utmost praise! May Your Name be blessed, and Your Might, and Your Power! There is no god other than You." Then the Throne grew light on their shoulders.
God has commanded the entire host of angels in the heavens to come forward daily and give their praise to the Throne-bearers.

They perform their task of praise in two shifts: one group salutes them in the morning, the other in the evening.
God has ordered them to ask forgiveness on behalf of mankind. Their tears are like rivers. From every drop God creates still more angels to praise Him and to ask forgiveness for human beings until the Day of Judgment.

The angels of the Throne always bow their heads. They cannot raise up their eyes lest the light that comes from the Throne annihilate them. When the angel Harqaeel saw the greatness of the Throne and of its carriers, he recited:

Can any sustain the Almighty? A servant may carry body and soul. But to carry God's Throne -- Who can grasp its Reality, Its vastness? What eye sees the whole? On no other way does eye see and word comprehend Except when God says: "Above His Throne exists Mercy without end." Eight are its pillars, Known by non but their Lord. Muhammad stands first in order by right, Then Ridwan, Malik, Adam columned and bright Stand arrayed in rank by his side. Over Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil Does Abraham preside: Eight veiled in darkness Envision the sight: How the pillars stand hid In the might of their height.

Angels and Material Energy

25:7: "Why bringest thou not angels unto us, if thou art of the truthful?"
15:7-8: "Why bringest thou not angels unto us, if thou art of the truthful? We send not down the angels save with the Fact, and in that case the disbelievers would not be tolerated."
17:92: "(We will not put faith in thee till) Thou cause the heaven to fall upon us piecemeal, as thou hast pretended, or bring God and the angels as a warrant."

25:21-22: "And those who look not for a meeting with Us say: Why are angels not sent down unto us and why do we not see our Lord? Assuredly they think too highly of themselves and are scornful with great pride. On the day when they behold the angels, on that day there will be no good tidings for the guilty; and they will cry: A forbidding ban!"
/em>

The unbelievers refuse to believe in God, His angels, and His revelations. They only believe in material things.
To them, belief in what one sees and the material is more practical.
Such practical-minded people are blind to the reality for which God has given children, prophets, saints, and believers eyes and power to see.

To those the power is given to feel and to see the angelic beings that reside among us and to visualize these spiritual things.
When we see such matters with believing eyes, we become receivers clearly catching the images sent by the spiritual emissaries.
We visualize them as real, not false, pictures in our daily lives.
Energy is a form of angelic power.

Human beings have been granted the permission to use it. As we can develop the intruments to use these energies with greater sophistication, we can achieve more and more visible powers in the material world.
The energy that is used to light a lamp, convey sound to a loudspeaker, see images on a television, run a car, launch a satellite, keep us warm in winter and cool in summer, is all the same.

Only the instruments change.
Similarly, angelic energy changes from one person to another.
The source is one and the same.
When human beings elevate themselves to higher states of purity, they can use this energy to be more powerful and visible to others as servants of God, and they themselves become messengers of this angelic power.

Angels and their power are not sent down to satisfy the whim or curiosity of unbelievers.
They are sent to bring inspiration to God's servants, to execute His decrees, to help people in their daily lives and resolve their problems.
They raise and protect children through their childhood in order to bring all human beings to the highest level they can reach in the divine presence.

Angels and their angelic powers do not help tyrants and oppressors dominate this world.
Instead, they look for soft-hearted people to direct them and instruct them on how to keep this world orderly and pure from spiritual and material pollutions.
They disconnect their energies from anyone who tries to harm nature, animals, or human beings, or exploit them for selfish purposes.

The angelic source of power rests on three hundred and sixty pillars.
Each pillar can contain the entire visible universe.
The distance between one pillar and the next is five hundred thousand of God's years, and "One day in the sight of God is like one thousand of your years" (32:5).
God has created for this angelic power one million six hundred thousand heads.
Each head has one million six hundred thousand faces.
Each face is bigger than this universe by one million six hundred thousand times, and
each face has one million six hundred thousand mouths.
Each mouth contains one million six hundred thousand tongues.
Each tongue praises God with one million six hundred thousand different languages.
For each praise, God creates one million six hundred thousand angels.

All these angels shall say on the Judgment Day:
"O God! give the reward of our praises to Your believing servants among human beings."
The Angels of Dhikr (Remembrance)

16:49: "And unto God maketh prostration whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth of living creatures, and the angels also, and they are not proud."
41:30: "Lo! Those who say: our Lord is God, and afterwards are upright, the angels descend upon them, saying: fear not nor grieve, but hear good tidings of the paradise which ye are promised."

The Prophet Muhammad showed his companions the unlimited worship of creation by allowing them to hear the praise to God of stones, animals, and trees. All of creation constantly praises God and makes prostration to Him. Human beings are raised to a most honorable level by being listed the angels. That is why the angels shower special blessings on human beings who remember their Creator, and God boasts to his angels about them with the words: "Look at My servants who leave their pleasures despite themselves in order to worship Me."

The Prophet said that God created special angels who roam the earth to find people engaged in His dhikr (Remembrance).
When the angels find such a group reciting His praises and chanting His names, they call each other and encompass that group in layer upon layer of angels until they reach the nearest heaven, the distance of which is in God's knowledge.

Then God asks His angels: "What are my servants doing?" He asks not because He does not know, but because He wants the answer to be spoken outloud for us to know it.
The angels answer: "They are praising You and magnifying Your name, and glorifying You, and reciting Your beautiful Attributes!"

God then asks: "Have My servants seen Me?" When the angels answer: "No," God asks: "What kind of praise would they make if they actually see Me?"
The angels answer: "O our Lord! If they see you, they are not going to be able to stop worshipping You, praising You, and declaring their love for You."
God then asks: "What are My servants asking?" The angels reply: "They are asking for Your Paradise."
/em>Here are the angels of sleep and dream, and the angels of provision, and the angels of vegetations, and the spirit-angels, and the cherubim, and the seraphim, and those brought near,
and the angels of the mountains, and Raphael, and these are the angels of tree-leaves, and the angels of the planet earth, and those of the stars, and the moon, and the sun, and the galaxies..."

Then the saint began to speak in a language that no-one could understand, until he finally asked the angel of death to take his soul in order to reach his Creator and be placed there as an angelic power. He died with open eyes suffused with light.

The Angels of Dreams and Premonitions

"The good dream is one forthysixth part of prophecy" (Tradition of the Prophet).

God has created specific angels that display visions and sounds to the sleeper. These pictures take a physical shape that can be sensed within the dream of individuals. Every dream fits the dreamer. This is proven by the fact that a sleeper in a place where there are many non-sleepers, sees what no-one else sees at the same time. That is because each person has his or her own individual angel in charge of sending the information contained in their dreams.

Thus dreams may be real, confirming what might happen in the future of that individual, except that he is seeing it happen beforehand. On the other hand, the dream may refer to a specific item of knowledge, phenomenal or spiritual, concerning the dreamer in his daily life. In either case it may be good tidings or a warning.

Abu Bakr Bin Furq was writing on the subject of dreams that warn us about a future event and their relation to the angelic realm. He fell asleep one Tuesday night in the year 1165. He saw an angel approach him clad in a beautiful, subtle body of light. The angel said to him: "God has created us and He has created you.

It is He Who causes you to live and to die; He Who resurrects you and brings you to Paradise; He Who connects you with your soul after death. Everything that we receive in heaven is from him, and everything that you receive on earth is from Him." The angel disappeared and the sleeper woke up. He wrote: "I knew at once that the angel had provided me with all the knowledge I needed to complete my work. When I finished writing, my book on angels and dreams numbered six hundred pages."

The Angels of Tree-Leaves

6:59: "Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but it is noted in a clear record."

God created from among the angels a group other than the recording angels. They are in charge of every seed in the earth and every leaf that falls to the ground, and everything in nature, both wet and dry, green and dead.
They also oversee the events of human and other beings that enter into the realm of uninhabited nature.
If a human being is somewhere without help, he should say: "O invisible servants of God, support me with your help! And may God's mercy be with you."{3x madad yaa rijaal-Allah a`eenoona bi-`awnillaah wa kun `awnan lanaa billaah `asa nahda bi-fadlillaah.} Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: "I went on pilgrimage five times, and on three of these five times I was on foot. Once I lost my way in the desert, so I kept repeating: 'O servants of God, guide me to the right way!' and I found my way not long after that." If one utters this prayer sincerely, the angels will guide him and protect him from the harms of travel and the hostility of rebel spirits.

The angels of nature fall under the authority of the Archangel Michael, and they have under them angelic legions and hosts constantly asking for forgiveness on behalf of human beings.
Their intercession is according to the infinite numbers of the species and genera of nature they oversee.

They ask intercession from the Lord and Creator of everything great and small.
Even tree-leaves cause forgiveness of human beings, and the Lord of creation blesses human beings through them.
A famous saint had purified himself to the extent that he could hear the intercession of the angels of tree-leaves and of all nature, and he began to recite with them:

Praise be to the God of creation, The Lord of everything, Who created before the sky was hoisted and the earth flattened, Before the mountains were erected and the springs made to burst forth, Before the oceans were contained and the rivers tamed, Before the sun was set alight and the moon and the stars, Who wrote in the Book of His knowledge the name Of every single rain-drop, of every leaf and seed, Who owns whatever descends from the sky And ascends from the earth, And whatever grows under it, And has entrusted it to His servants, The loyal, unwavering, tireless angels.

Israfil, Archangel of the Trumpet-blast
21:103: "The Supreme Horror will not grieve them, and the angels will welcome them, saying: This is your Day which ye were promised."
25:25: "A day when the heavens with the clouds will be rent asunder and the angels will be sent down, a great descent."
47:27: "Then how will it be with them when the angels gather them, smiting their faces and their backs!"

After God created the Throne He created the Trumpet (sur) and hung it on the Throne.
Then He said: "Be!" and the angel Israfil was.
He ordered him to take up the Trumpet which is like a white pearl and transparent like glass.
He made holes in the Trumpet according to the number of every spirit and angel created in creation without duplication.
In the middle of the Trumpet there is an opening bigger than the sky and the earth put together.
Israfil is able to stop that opening from top to bottom by placing his mouth over it.
The length of this Trumpet is seventy thousand light-years and
its body is divided into seven trunks.

God said to Israfil: "I order you to blow this Trumpet when I shall tell you."
Israfil stands at the base of the Throne and awaits God's order.
He is so near to God that, another in the West, one encompasses the seven earths, and the fourth wing is on his head to protect his eyes from the light of God.

One day the Prophet was sitting with Gabriel, and the sky opened. Gabriel humbled himself and appeared to fall to the ground as if prostrating, and an immense angel dressed in white appeared before the Prophet and said: "" "O Muhammad! God sends you greetings and salutations and gives you the choice between being an angel-prophet or a servant-prophet. The Happiest time of my life is when my Lord calls me: 'O My servant!' O servant of God! I choose to be a servant-prophet." And Gabriel revealed: "God chooseth from the angels messengers, and also from mankind. Lo! God is Hearer, Seer" (22:75).

Then the angel disappeared. The Prophet asked Gabriel: "Who was that angel?"
Gabriel said: "That was Israfil. Since the day God created him, he has not raised his eyes from the ground for fear of his Lord.
Between him and God there are seven veils of light and if he were to pass only one of them he would be annihilated.

The Preserved Tablet whereupon the destinies of mankind are written lies before him.
Whenever God allows for something to exist in heaven or on earth that Tablet is raised up and he reads it.

If a task falls within the sphere of the angel of death, He orders him to perform it.
If in my sphere He orders me to do it, and
If in Michael's sphere He orders him in the same manner.
I did not think that Israfil would come down to earth before the Day of Judgment and that is why I was afraid!"

On the Day of Judgment God will order Israfil to blow that Trumpet.
Upon the first sounding of the Trumpet all bad things are lifted and taken away from the earth.
Wrongdoings and all that is related to it will disappear.
The heavenly books will shine in every place.

Angels will appear and reveal the places where they have been kept in their pristine state.
The memory of heavenly teachings will become fresh again in people's minds. All manner of good character, dignity, honor, mercy, and blessings will be brought over all the earth and become the norm.

Angels will feel welcome to walk upon the earth for the first time.
No-one will have power to do any harm in the world.
Belief in God and knowledge of spiritual things will become the daily conversation of everyone young and old.

Angelic light will increase upon the earth to such a degree that everything sad will become happy, everything bad will become good, everything poor will become rich, and everything ugly will become beautiful.

Upon the second sounding of the trumpet,

all beings in the heavens and on earth will enter a state of perplexity and become afraid.
They will fall down on their faces and faint believing the Day of Judgment has dawned upon them. This is described in the Koran, 39:68: "And the trumpet is blown , and all who are in the heavens and on the earth swoon away, save him whom God willeth.
Then it is blown a second time, and behold them standing waiting!" The sound of that trumpet will be so awesome and terrifying that all beings will lose consciousness. The earth will begin to roll and heave, the stars will fall from the heavens, the light will disappear, the sun and the moon will lose their light, and all will be plunged into abysmal darkness.

The mountains will jump from their places and turn to dust, and rise as clouds over the earth.
The water of the oceans will dry up.
Just as wind carries away chaff, so creation will be blown away by those cataclysmal storms.
The good people will be covered with garments of light and mercy which the angels will bring down in waves.

The angels will smite all wrongdoings and shameful actions and they will disappear like dust that must be removed from furnishings in a huge palace.
They will bring light and smile on those who believed in them like parents smile on their children, as reassurance on that day. For on Judgment Day there is no-one who will not need the support of reassurance.

Upon the third sounding of the Trumpet

God will dress and adorn all human beings with angelic power and send them into the throng of His servants. There they will inhabit that divine indescribable light that enables them to reach the everlasting life of Paradise.

The Angels Who Bring Peace in the Last Days

2:210: "Will they wait until God comes to them in canopies of clouds, with angels in His train and the question is thus settled?"
In the last days, evil will be eradicated from the surface of the earth. Peace will be shining everywhere. It is related that at the end of times Jesus will reappear and descend upon the White Minaret at Damascus, both his hands resting upon the shoulders of two angels.
He will be wearing two garments lightly dyes with saffron.

be welcomes by a descendant of the prophet Muhammad who will be waiting for him with forty thousand angels, together with the believers who will be waiting for a divine rescue.
They will pray together and ask God to open for them a support to destroy tyranny and oppression, and to spread peace and love and happiness.

God sent the angel Gabriel who related the message to Jesus, son of Mary, and to Mehdi, the grandson of the Prophet (s).
The message will be: "God gave you the permission to use divine light for uplifting all humanity towards heaven and overcoming evil and oppression.
They will then meet the Anti-Christ and his armies at the Last gate near Jerusalem.
A series of great battles will ensue at the end of which Jesus will kill the Anti-Christ, who is the enemy of good.

God will then make Jesus the son of Mary, and Mehdi the descendant of the Prophet, the rulers of the world in the peace that follows the Great War at the end of times.
Jesus will marry at that time, raise children, die, and be buried in Madina near the Prophet Muhammad, in the space left vacant for him there. Peace be upon them and upon the angels!

"Do not think that I have forgotten you, O angels! Verily, even though the gulf is great between us, I still love you, and my letters to you will never stop. My love for you will never change. My emotions are like a spring falling into your oceans. I have left the distractions of my self to turn to you. Your world has taken over mine, and shines over it. I shall praise our Lord with your words, not mine, With your sincerity, not mine, With your fragrance and light, not mine. O God, keep the radiance of Your angels Ever shining on me!"

Michael, Elder Archangel

13:13: "The thunder hymneth His praise and so do the angels for awe of Him. He launcheth the thunder-bolts and smiteth with them whom He will while they dispute in doubt concerning God, and He is mighty in wrath."
God has created the Archangel Michael and put him in charge of nature, rain, snow, thunder, lightning, wind, and clouds.
God has appointed a complete creation of angels to assist him and placed them under his command. These angels are countless and no-one other than God knows their number.
God has given Michael power to see the entire span of the created universes at once, with no interference of other universes.

He knows at all times where he has to send rain, wind, snow, and clouds without effort on his part.
The angels who assist him range in size from the hugest size imaginable to man to that of the smallest species living on this earth.
They fill the entire atmosphere of every star and planet in every universe. Their praise to God can be heard by the other angels, by prophets, by saints, and by young children.

Michael is the angel of mercy which is another name for rain in Arabic.
He is created from the light of God's attribute al-Rahman, "the Merciful."
He was never seen smiling after hell was created. He was created before Gabriel.
Once upon a time, Gabriel and Michael visited the Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him. The latter had a toothstick in hand which he immediately handed to Gabriel, the angel who constantly brought him Revelation. Gabriel said: "O Muhammad! give it to the elder angel."
The Prophet gave it to Michael.

The Prophet said: "God gave me two celestial assistants to help me deliver my Message: Gabriel and Michael." He used always to send for Gabriel and Michael concerning matters important to human beings.
The caller to prayer (muezzin) in the heavens is Gabriel and the prayer-leader (imam) is Michael.
God created a house for Himself in Paradise (al-Bayt al-Ma`mur) to which the angels make pilgrimage every day five times.

There, five prayer-services are held and every service is heralded by Gabriel and led by Michael.
The angels all come with their lights and ornaments, their jewels and fragrances, chanting and praising God with their heavenly music.
Some people on earth, especially children, are able to hear their voices. This sound gives them indescribable pleasure.

Every angel chants and praises in a different language without clash or disharmony. All are pleading to God for mercy for human beings and asking Him to elevate the state of people so that they can hear and see these daily ceremonies.

To reward the angels for their praise, for the sincerity of their intercession, and to show them the great extent of His mercy, God at every moment showers His mercy on human beings.
Until the time of the Prophet Noah the House of God existed on the face of the earth. People came from all over the world to walk ceremoniously around it the way pilgrims walk around the Ka`ba in Mecca today.

When God set His face on sending the flood to drown the entire world, He ordered His angels to transport the Heavenly House up into the fourth heaven.
It stands there until now with the angels walking continually around in solemn state
. It was transformed into a Palace of Paradise.

Its only remnant on earth is the Black Stone in the Holy Kaaba: it used to be white like the Palace it came from but has been clouded over blackened by the sins of mankind.
It has been left on earth for the sake of remembrance. All who kiss it, it is as if they are kissing the right hand of God on earth

The Medical Benefits of Circumcision

2006-10-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

Lack of circumcision:

Medical Aspects

Is the biggest risk factor for heterosexually-acquired AIDS virus infection in men (8-times higher risk by itself, and even higher when lesions from STDs are added in).

Is responsible for a 12-fold higher risk of urinary tract infections.

Carries a higher risk of death in the first year of life (from complications of urinary tract infections: kidney failure, meningitis and infection of bone marrow).

One in ~600-900 uncircumcised men will die from cancer of the penis or require at least partial penile amputation as a result. (In contrast, penile cancer never occurs in men circumcised at birth). (Data from studies in the USA, Denmark and Australia, which are not to be confused with the often quoted, but misleading, annual incidence figures of 1 in 100,000).

Often leads to balanitis (inflammation of the glans), phimosis (inability to retract the foreskin) and paraphimosis (constriction of the penis by a tight foreskin). Up to 18% of uncircumcised boys will develop one of these by 8 years of age, whereas all are unknown in the circumcised.

Means problems that may result in a need for circumcision late in life: complication risk = 1 in 100 (compared with 1 in 1000 in the newborn).

Is associated with higher incidence of cervical cancer in the female partners of uncircumcised men.

There is no evidence of any long-term psychological harm arising from circumcision.

The risk of damage to the penis is extremely rare and avoidable by using a competent, experienced doctor. Surgical methods use a procedure that protects the penis during excision of the foreskin. As an alternative, for those who might prefer it, a device (PlastiBell) is in use that clamps the foreskin, which then falls off after a few days, and so eliminates the need to actually cut the foreskin off. For some, cultural or religious beliefs dictate the method.

Sociological aspects

Finally, a brief mention of other findings relating to circumcision in the setting of Australia. In a survey of circumcised vs uncircumcised men and their partners that was conducted by Sydney scientist James Badger (who regards himself as neutral on the issue of circumcision) it was found that:

18% of uncircumcised males underwent circumcision later in life anyway.

21% of uncircumcised men who didn't, nevertheless wished they were circumcised. (There were also almost as many men who wished they hadn?t been circumcised and it could be that at least some men of either category may have been seeking a scapegoat for their sexual or other problems.

In addition, this would no doubt be yet another thing parents could be blamed for by their children, whatever their decision was when the child was born.)

No difference in sexual performance (consistent with Masters & Johnson).

Slightly higher sexual activity in circumcised men.

No difference in frequency of sexual intercourse for older uncircumcised vs. circumcised men.

Men circumcised as adults were very pleased with the result. The local pain when they awoke from the anaesthetic was quickly relieved by pain killers (needed only for one day), and all had returned to normal sexual relations within 2 weeks, with no decrease in sensitivity of the penis and claims of 'better sex'. (Badger?s findings are, moreover, consistent with every discussion I have ever had with men circumcised as adults. The only case to the contrary was a testimonial in a letter I received in the mail from a member of UNCIRC.)

Women with circumcised lovers were more likely to reach a simultaneous climax.

Women with uncircumcised lovers were 3 times as likely to fail to reach orgasm. (These data could, however, possibly reflect behaviours of uncircumcised males that might belong to lower socio-economic classes and/or ethnic groups whose attitudes may differ from groups in which circumcision is more common.)

Circumcision was favoured by women for appearance and hygiene. (Furthermore, some women were nauseated by the smell of the uncircumcised penis, where, as mentioned above bacteria and other micro-organisms proliferate under the foreskin.)

The uncircumcised penis was found by women to be easier to elicit orgasm by hand.

The circumcised penis was favoured by women for oral sex.

Why are human males born with a foreskin?

The foreskin probably protected the head of the penis from long grass, shrubbery, etc when humans wore no clothes, where evolutionarily our basic physiology and psychology are little different than our cave-dwelling ancestors.

However, Dr Guy Cox from The University of Sydney has recently supplemented this suggestion with a novel idea, namely that the foreskin could be the male equivalent of the hymen, and served as an impediment to sexual intercourse during adolescence

. The ritual removal of the foreskin in diverse human traditional cultures, ranging from Muslims to Aboriginal Australians, is a sign of civilization in that human society acquired the ability to control through education and religion the age at which sexual intercourse could begin.

Food for thought and discussion!

Conclusion The information available today will assist medical practitioners, health workers and parents by making advice and choices concerning circumcision much more informed. Although there are benefits to be had at any age, they are greater the younger the child.

Issues of ? informed consent? may be analogous to those parents have to consider for other medical procedures, such as whether or not to immunize their child. The question to be answered is ?do the benefits outweigh the risks?.

When considering each factor in isolation there could be some difficulty in choosing. However, when viewed as a whole, in my opinion the answer to whether to circumcise a male baby is ?yes?. Nevertheless, everybody needs to weigh up all of the pros and cons for themselves and make their own best decision.

I trust that the information I have provided in this article will help in the decision-making process.

Brian J. Morris, PhD DSc
Fax: +61 2 9351 2058
University Academic (in medical sciences)
Email: brianm@physiol.usyd.edu.au

Islam The kindom of God on Earth

2006-10-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

Islam Is The Kingdom Of God On Earth

In examination of that marvelous vision of the Prophet Daniel (Chap. vii.) we saw how Prophet Muhammad was escorted by the myriads of celestial beings and conducted to the glorious presence of the Eternal; how he heard the words of honor and affection which no creature had ever been favor- ed with (2 Cor. xii.);

how he was crowned to the dignity of the Sultan of the Prophets and invested with power to destroy the "Fourth Beast" and the "Blasphemous Horn." Further, we saw how he was authorized to establish and proclaim the Kingdom of God on earth; how all that human genius can possibly imagine of the highest honors accorded by the Almighty to a beloved worshiper and to His most worthy Messenger could be ascribed to Prophet Muhammad alone.

It should be re- membered that among all the Prophets and Messengers of Allah, Prophet Muhammad alone figures like a tower above all; and the grand and noble work he accomplished stands a permanent monument of his honor and greatness.

One cannot appreciate the value and importance of Islam as the unique bulwark against idolatry and polytheism unless the absolute Oneness of God is earnestly admitted. When we fully realize that Allah is the same God whom Adam and Abraham knew, and whom Moses and Jesus worshipped, then we have no difficulty in accepting Islam as the only true religion and Prophet Muhammad as the Prince of all the Prophets and Worshipers of God.

We cannot magnify the greatness of Allah by con- ceiving Him now as a "Father," now as a "Son," and now as a "Holy Ghost," or to imagine Him as having three persons that can address each other with the three singular personal pronouns: I, thou, he. By so doing we lose all the true con- ception of the Absolute Being, and cease to believe in the true God.

In the same way, we cannot add a single iota to the sanctity of the religion by the institution of some meaningless sacraments or mysteries; nor can we derive any spiritual food for our spirits from feeding upon the corpse of a prophet or an incarnate deity; for by so doing we lose all idea of a true and real religion and cease to believe in the religion altogether.

Nor can we in the least promote the dignity of Prophet Muhammad if we were to imagine him a son of God or an incarnate deity; for by so doing we would entirely lose the real and the historical Prophet of Mecca and fall uncon- sciously into the abyss of polytheism.

The greatness of Prophet Muhammad consists in his establishing such a sound, plain, but true religion, and in the practical application of its precepts and principles with such precision and resolution that it has never been possible for a true Muslim to accept any other creed or faith than that which is professed in the for- mula: "I believe there is no god except Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." And this short creed will continue to be the faith of every true believer in Allah to the Day of the Resurrection.

The great destroyer of the "Eleventh Horn," that personified Constantine the Great and the Trinitarian Church, was not a Bar Allaha ("Son of God"), but a Bar Nasha ("Son of Man") and none other than Prophet Muhammad al-Mustapha who actually established the Kingdom of God upon earth. It is this Kingdom of God that we are now to examine and expound. It would be remembered that it was during the Divine audience of the Sultan of the Prophets, as given in Daniel, that it was promised that:

"The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under all heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High; its (the people's) kingdom (shall be) a kingdom for ever, and all dominions shall serve and obey it" (Dan. vii. 22 and 27).

The expressions in this prophetical passage that the Kingdom of God shall consist of "the People of the Saints of the Most High," and that all other dominions or powers shall serve and obey that people, clearly indicate that in Islam the Religion and State are one and the same body, and consequently inseparable.

Islam is not only the Religion of God, but also His earthly empire or kingdom. In order to be able to form a clear and true idea concerning the nature and the constitution of the "Kingdom of God on earth" it is necessary to cast a glance upon the history of the religion of Islam before it was perfected, completed, and formally established by God Himself under His Messenger Muhammad.

1. ISLAM BEFORE PROPHET MUHAMMAD WAS NOT THE KINGDOM OF GOD UPON EARTH, BUT ONLY GOD'S TRUE RELIGION

Those who believe that the true religion of Allah was revealed only to Abraham and preserved by the people of Israel alone, must be very ignorant students of the Old Testament literature, and must have a very erroneous notion of the nature of that religion. Abraham himself offered tithes to the King and Imam

(l.) of Jerusalem and was blessed by him (Gen. xiv. 18). The father-in-law of Moses was also an Imam and a Prophet of Allah; Job, Balaam, Ad, Hud, Loqman, and many other prophets were not Jews.

The various tribes and nations like the Ishmaelites, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and others which descended from the sons of Abraham and Lot, knew God the Almighty though they too, like the Israelites, fell into idolatry and ignorance. But the light of Islam was never entirely extinguished or substituted by idolatry. Idols or images, which were considered as "sacred" and as household gods by the Jews, as well as their kindred nationalities, and usually called "Traphim" (Gen. xxxi.) in the Hebrew, were, in my humble opinion of the same nature and character as the images and idols which the Orthodox and Catholic Christians keep and worship in their houses and temples.

In those olden times of ignorance the idols were of the kind of "identity card" or of the nature of a passport. Is it not remarkable to find that Rachel (Rahil), the wife of Jacob and the daughter of Laban, should steal the "traphim" of her father? (Gen. xxxi). Yet Laban as well as her husband were Muslims, and on the same day raised the stone "Mispha" and dedicated it to God!

------------- Footnote (1) In Hebrew these old Imams are called Cohen,' and rendered by Christians as "Priest." A Jewish priest can never be identified with a Christian Sacramentarian priest. ------------- end of footnote

The Jews in the wilderness, inebriate with the wonders and miracles worked day and night - their camp shadowed by a miraculous cloud at daytime and illuminated by a pillar of fire at night, themselves fed with the "manna" and "Salwai" - as soon as the Prophet Moses disappeared for a few days on the misty top of Mount Sinai, made a golden calf and worshipped it

The history of that stubborn people from the death of Joshua to the anointment of King Saul, covering a period of more than four centuries, is full of a series of scan- dalous relapses into idolatry. It was only after the close of the revelation and the Canon of their holy Scriptures in the third century before Christ that the Jews ceased to worship idols, and have since remained monotheists.

But their belief in the Oneness of God, though it makes them Unitarians, does not entitle them to the qualification of being called "Muslims," because they have stubbornly rejected both the persons and the revelations of Prophets Jesus and Muhammad. It is only through submission to the Will of God that a man can attain peace and become Muslim, otherwise the faith without obedience and submission is similar to that of the devils who believe in the existence of Allah and tremble.

As we possess no records concerning the other peoples who were favored with Divine Revelations and with the Prophets and Imam sent to them by God, we shall only content ourselves with the declaration that the religion of Islam existed among Israel and other Arab peoples of old, sometimes more luminous, but mostly like a flickering wick or like a dim spark glimmering in a dark room. It was a religion professed by a people who soon forgot it, or neglected it, or transformed it into pagan practices. But all the same there were always individuals and families who loved and worshipped God.

It seems that the Jews, especially the masses, had no true conception of God and of religion as the Muslims have had of Allah and Islam. Whenever the people of Israel prospered and was successful in its wars, then Jahwah was acknowledged and worshipped; but in adverse circumstances He was abandoned and the deity of a stronger and more prosperous nation was adopted and its idol or image worshipped. A careful study of the Hebrew Scripture will show that the ordinary Jew considered his God sometimes stronger or higher, and sometimes weaker, than those professed by other nations.

Their very easy and reiterated relapse into idolatry is a proof that the Israelites had almost the same notion about their El or Yahwah, as the Assyrians had of their own Ashur, the Babylonians of Mardukh, and the Phoenicians of their Ba'al.

With the exception of the Prophets and the Sophis, the Muslims of Torah, the Israel of the Mosaic Law, never rose equal to the height of the sanctity of their religion nor of the true conception of their Deity. The faith in Allah and a firm conviction and belief in a future life was not ingrained and implanted in the spirit and in the heart of that people.

What a contrast, then, between the Muslims of the Qur'an, the believers of the Islamic Law, and the Muslims of Torah or the Mosaic Law! Has it ever been seen and proved that a Muslim people abandoned its Mosque, Imam, and the Qur'an, and embraced any other religion and acknowledged that Allah was not its God? Never! It is extremely unlikely that a Islamic Muslim community, so long as it is provided with the Book of Allah, the Mosque and the Mullah, could relapse into idolatry or even into Christianity.

I am aware of the certain so-called Tartar families who embraced the Orthodox Christian Faith in Russia. But I can assure my readers, on authentic authority, that these "Tartars" were those Mongols who, long after the subjugation of Russia and the establishment of the "Altin Ordu" by Batu Khan, were either still pagans or newly converted to Islam and seem to have been forced or induced to join the Russian Church.

And in this connection it should not be ignored that this happened after the Muslim power of the "Golden Horde" ("Altin Ordu") tumbled down at the tremendous invasion of Timur Lang (Tamerlane). On the contrary, Muslim traders and merchants, in China as well as in the dark continent of Africa, have always propagated their Holy Religion; and the millions of Chinese and negro Muslims are the fruit of these unpaid and unofficial Mussulman missionaries.

It is evident from the above that the true religion of God before Prophet Muhammad was only in its infancy, that it remained immature and undeveloped amongst the Hebrews, although it shone brilliantly in the life of the true worshipers of Yahwah.

Under the direction of the God-fearing Judges and the pious Kings of Israel, the government was always theocratic, and as long as the oracles of the Prophets were favorably received and their injunctions duly executed, both the religion and the nation prospered.
But the True Religion of God never took the form of the Kingdom of God as it did under the Qur'anic regime.

Allah in His Infinite Wisdom had decreed that four great Powers of Darkness should succeed each other before His own Kingdom was to be established. The great ancient civilizations and empires of the Assyro-Chaldeans, of the Medo-Persians, of the Greeks and of the Romans, had to appear and flourish, to persecute and oppress the people of God, and to perpetrate all the evil and wickedness that the Devil could devise. All the glory of these great powers consisted in their worshipping the Devil; and it was this "glory" that the "Prince of the Darkness" promised to grant to Jesus Christ from the top of a high mountain if he were only to follow him and worship him.

2. CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES PREACHED THE KINGDOM OF GOD

They were, it is true, the harbingers of the Kingdom of God upon earth. The soul and the kernel of the Gospel of Jesus is contained in that famous clause in his prayer: "Thy Kingdom come." For twenty centuries the Christians of all denominations and shades of belief have been praying and repeating this invocation, "Thy Kingdom come," and God alone knows how long they will continue to pray for and vainly anticipate its coming.

This Christian anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God is of the same nature as the anticipation of Judaism for the coming of Messiah. Both these anticipation exhibit an inconsiderate and thoughtless imagination, and the wonder is that they persistently cling to this futile hope. If you ask a Christian priest or parson what he thinks of the Kingdom of God, he will tell you all sorts of illusory and meaningless things.

This Kingdom is, he will affirm, the Church to which he belongs when it will overcome and absorb all the other heretical Churches. Another parson or priest will harangue on the "millennium." A Salvationist or a Quaker may tell you that according to his belief the Kingdom of God will consist of the new-born and sinless Christians, washed and cleansed with the blood of the Lamb; and so forth.

The Kingdom of God does not mean a triumphant Catholic Church, or a regenerated and sinless Puritan State. It is not a visionary "Royalty of the Millennium." It is not a Kingdom composed of celestial beings, including the departed spirits of the Prophets and the blessed believers, under the reign of a divine Lamb; with angels for its police and gendarmes; the Cherubs for its governors and judges; the Seraphs for its officers and commanders; or the Archangels for its Popes, Patriarchs, Bishops, and evangelical preachers.

The Kingdom of God on earth is a Religion, a powerful society of believers in One God equipped with faith and sword to fight for and maintain its existence and absolute independence against the Kingdom of Darkness, against all those who do not believe that God is One, or against those who believe that He has a son, a father or mother, associates and coevals.

The Greek word euangelion, rendered "Gospel" in English, practically means "the enunciation of good news." And this enunciation was the tidings of the approaching Kingdom of God, the least among whose citizens was greater than John the Baptist. He himself and the Apostles after him preached and announced this Kingdom to the Jews, inviting them to believe and repent in order to be admitted into it. Jesus did not actually abrogate or change the Law of Moses, but interpreted it in such a spiritual sense that he left it a dead letter.

When he declared that hatred was the root of murder, lust the source of fornication; that avarice and hypocrisy were as abominable sins as idolatry; and that mercy and charity were more acceptable than the burntofferings and the strict observance of the Sabbath, he practically abolished the letter of the Law of Moses in favor of its spiritual sense.

These spurious and much interpolated Gospels report frequent parables and references of Christ to the Kingdom of God, and to Bar-Nasha or the Son of Man, but they are so corrupted and distorted that they have succeeded, and still succeed, in misleading the poor Christians to believe that by "Kingdom of God" Jesus only meant his Church, and that he himself was the "Son of Man."

These important points will be fully discussed, if Allah wills, later on; but for the present I have to content myself with remarking that what Prophet Jesus announced was, it was Islam that was the Kingdom of God and that it was Prophet Muhammad who was the Son of Man, who was appointed to destroy the Beast and to establish the powerful Kingdom of the People of the Saints of the Most High.

The religion of God, until Jesus Christ, was consigned chiefly to the people of Israel; it was more material and of a national character. Its lawyers, priests, and scribes had dis- figured that religion with a gross and superstitious literature of the traditions of their forefathers. Christ condemned those traditions, denounced the Jews and their leaders as "hypocrites" and "the children of the Devil." Although the demon of idolatry had left Israel, yet later on seven demons had taken possession of that people (Matt. xii. 43-45; Luke xi. 24-26).

Christ reformed the old religion; gave a new life and spirit to it; he explained more explicitly the immortality of the human soul, the resurrection and the life in the next world; and publicly announced that the next Messiah whom the Jews were expecting was not a Jew or a son of David, but a son of Ishmael whose name was Ahmad, and that he would establish the Kingdom of God upon earth with the power of the Word of God and with sword.

Consequently, the religion of Islam received a new life, light and spirit, and its adherents were exhorted to be humble, to show forbearance and patience. They were beforehand informed of persecutions, tribulations, martyrdoms, and prisons. The early "Nassara," as the Qur'an calls the believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, suffered ten fearful persecutions under the Roman Emperors.

Then comes the Emperor Constantine and proclaims liberty for the Church; but after the decisions and the Trinitarian Creed of the Nicene Council in 325 A.C., the Unitarian Muslims (l) were submitted to a series of new and even more cruel persecutions by the Trinitarians, until the advent of Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace and blessings).

----------- Footnote 1. Jesus Christ has never authorized his followers to call themselves "Christians". There is no better title for the early Unitarians than "Muslims." AD. ----------- end of footnote 3.

THE NATURE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

There is a call to prayer repeated aloud five times a day from the minarets and the mosques in every part of the globe where the Muslims live.

This anthem is followed by a most solemn worship of Allah by His faithful worshipers. This call to prayer is called Adhan (Azan). This is not all; every action, enterprise and business, however important or trifling it may be, is begun with the words Bismi 'l-Lah, which means "in the Name of Allah," and ends with an Al-Hamdu li'l-Lah, meaning "praise be to Allah!"

The bond of faith which binds a Muslim to his Eternal King is so strong, and the nearness between the Sovereign and His worshiper is so close, that nothing, however powerful or seductive, can separate him from Allah. The Qur'an declares that Allah is nearer to one than the life-vain.

Never was there a favorite courtier who, in his sentiments of affection, devotion, obedience, and respect for his beneficent monarch, could ever equal those which a Muslim entertains towards his Lord. Allah is the Owner of the Heavens, Earth and Universe, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

He is the King and the Lord of every Muslim in particular, for it is a Muslim alone who thanks and praises the Almighty King for all that happens and befalls him, be it prosperity or adversity.
Nearly three hundred million Muslims or more are endowed with the same feelings of faith and trust in Allah.

It is evident, therefore, that the nature of Islam consists in its being the only real and truly Theocratic Kingdom on earth. Allah need no longer send Messengers or Prophets to convey His Messages to the Muslims as He used to do to Israel and other Hebrew peoples; for His will is fully revealed in the Holy Qur'an and imprinted on the minds of His faithful worshipers.

As to the formation and the constitution of the Kingdom of God, inter alia, the following points should be noted: -

(a) All Muslims form one nation, one family, and one brotherhood. I need not detain my readers to study the various quotations from the Qur'an and the Hadith (Quotations of the Prophet) on these points. We must judge the Muslim society, not as it presents itself now, but as it was in the time of Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors. Every member of this community is an honest worker, a brave sol- dier, and a fervent believer and devotee. All honest fruit of the toil belongs by right to him who earns it; nevertheless the law makes it impossible for a true Muslim to become excessively wealthy.

One of the five foundations of Islam is the duty of almsgiving, which consists of sadaqa and zakat, or the voluntary and the obligatory alms. In the days of the Prophet and the first four Caliphs, no Muslim was known to be enormously rich. The national wealth went into the common treasury called "Baitu 'I-Mal," and no Muslim was left in need or want.

------------- Footnote (1) The Jihad or "Holy War" is also an obligatory practice of piety. ------------- end of footnote

The very name "Muslim" signifies literally "a maker of peace." You can never find another human being more docile, hospitable, inoffensive and peaceful a citizen than a good Muslim. But the moment his religion, honor, and property are attacked, the Muslim becomes a formidable foe. The Qur'an is very precise on this point: "Wa la ta'tadu" - "And you must not transgress" (or take the offensive).

The Holy Jihad is not a war of offence, but of self-defense. Though the robbers, the predatory tribes, the semi-barbarous nomad Muslims, may have some religious notions and believe in the existence of Allah, it is the lack of knowledge and of religious training which is the root-cause of their vice and depravity. They are an exception. One can never become a good Muslim without the religious training and education.

(b) According to the description of the Prophet Daniel, the citizens of the Kingdom of God are "the People of the Saints." In the original Chaldish or Aramaic text, they are described as "A'mma d' qaddishid' I'lionin," an epithet worthy only of the Prince of the Prophets and of his noble army of the Muhajirm (Emigrants) and the Ansar (Helpers), who uprooted idolatry from a great part of Asia and Africa and destroyed the Roman Beast.

All the Muslims, who believe in Allah, in His angels, Books, and Prophets; in the Day of the Resurrection and Judgment; that the good and evil are from Allah; and perform their pious practices according to their ability and with good will, are holy saints and blessed citizens of the King- dom.

There is no grosser religious ignorance than the belief that there is a person called the Holy Ghost who fills the hearts of those who are baptized in the names of three gods, each the third of the three, or the three of the third, and thus sanctifies the believers in their absurdities. A Muslim believes that there is not one Holy Spirit, but innumerable holy spirits all created and ministers of the One Allah.

The Muslims are sanctified, not by baptisms or ablution, but their spirits are purified and sanctified by the light of faith and by the fire of zeal and courage to defend and fight for that faith. John the Baptist, or rather Christ himself (according to the Gospel of Barnabas), said: "I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who comes after me, he is stronger than I; he will baptize you with fire and with the holy spirit."

It was this fire and this spirit with which Prophet Muhammad baptized the semi-barbarian nomads, the heathen Gentiles, and con- verted them into an army of heroic saints, who transformed the old waning synagogue and the decaying church into a permanent and strong Kingdom of Allah in the promised lands and elsewhere.

4. THE PERMANENCE AND THE DIGNITY OF THE KINGDOM OF ALLAH

This is doubly assured by an Angel to Daniel. It is stated that "all the nations under the heaven shall serve the People of the Saints of the Most High." It requires no proof to say that all the Christian Powers show a particular respect, and even deference when necessary, not only to Muslim Powers, to Muslim sacred places and mosques, but also to the local institutions of their Muslim subjects. The mystery of this "service" lies in this: in the first place, the Muslims always inspire respect and fear through their dignified behavior, attachment to their religion and obedience to just laws, and their peacefulness; and secondly, because the Christian Governments, as a rule, treat the Muslims with justice and do not interfere with their laws and religion.

Space does not permit us to extend our observations over other points of this Divine Religion and Kingdom, such as the Muslim Caliphas, Sultans, etc. Suffice it to say that the Muslim Sovereigns are subject to the same Qur'anic laws as their compatriots; that justice and modesty are the best safeguards for the prosperity and stability of every State, Muslim or non-Muslim; and that the spirit and the principles of the Book of Allah are the best guidance for all legislation and civilization.

Spiritual Healing : The Path of the Mystic

2006-10-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

About Energy And How Sufi Spiritual Healing Works

Sufi Spiritual Healing is not at all a mysterious process but is in fact very straight forward, albeit oftentimes quite complex. The Sufi Spiritual Healing technique involves the energy field that exists around each of us.

Everyone has an energy field or an aura that surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body. This field is intimately associated with the health of the human being.In different cultures, energy is known by different names.

The word "energy" is referred to as:

Ki in Japanese
Chi in Chinese
Prana in Hindi
Qudra in Arabic

Energy is the life breath transmitted to us from the Existing, Everlasting Superpower that overlooks human beings and all creation.

Energy regulates our thought patterns and emotions, is the source of our life force and is the animating factor in all living beings. It circulates through our bodies and can be harnessed for healing.It is the source of all movement in the universe. When the human body loses its life breath the original energy (or life force) leaves it, allowing the body to decompose.

The body goes back to its earthen origins and the spirit returns to its angelic origin of spiritual energy. This energy is never lost and exists without the secret of its nature being understood by science and modern medicine.

This unknown spiritual energy is behind the life of every drop of blood in animate beings, the motion behind every living cell, and the driving force of constellations and galaxies.

It carries unlimited perfect and complete powers which are real, active and continuous. The action of this force is genuine because nothing can grow or live in the entire universe without its influence.

This is especially applicable on earth where no trees, grass, vegetation and indeed no life can exist without the intervention of this unknown, unseen energy. {photons transmitted by sun but not visible to naked eyes.}It is with this energy that a tiny plant pushes through the middle of a huge desert boulder.

This energetic spiritual life force holds the organs, blood vessels, and all body parts in place. When the body’s life force diminishes, the anatomic relations of the body’s organs are altered and disrupted, which leads to pain, organ dysfunction and an overall deterioration of health.

The spiritual energetic life force creates an energy field around itself like a highly charged magnet or electrode. This force reflects its energy throughout the human body and becomes the driving life force behind all of its activities and processes. The life force not only energizes the body but also gives it its identity.

As an atom is defined by its constituent electrons, protons, and neutrons--which are also its energy components--so too does the spiritual life force give energy and identity to the physical body. The healing spiritual energy is analogous to a waterfall. If a waterfall is channeled in the right way, it can be harnessed to produce energy and give light.

Water Importance of External Ablution Internal Water Purification

Ritual Cleansing , 12 openings of the human form

Diet and cleansing of body liquids

Similarly, if our blood flow is properly channeled through a balanced, equilibrated system, the driving force of that energy will augment the energy of the weak organs.In those organs where the life force has been weakened and dissipated, Sufi Spiritual Healing will increase and activate these vital forces.

The spiritual healing technique allows the life energies to be exponentially expanded to activate the ill member and heal it. A similar phenomenon is seen in an atomic reaction, where tremendous power is released from the internal energy of the atom. The energy produced increases geometrically as the activated, energized atom spreads its energy to its neighbors, propagating a chain reaction of energy release.

The same principle of the atomic reaction is used by spiritual healers to harness and activate the life force within the patient. Much in the same way that contemporary physicians direct lasers to heal affected areas of the body, spiritual healers access a similar chain reaction of the body’s existing energy, channeling it to the affected areas to heal pain and suffering.

When one organ begins to heal, the other organs use the released energy to activate and release their own inherent energy, which in turn promotes physiological equilibrium and relief from pain. Focus on The Heart

The Three Phases Of Spiritual Healing

1 Universal force--or cosmic energy--includes the energies of the planets, stars and galaxies, and whatever is around us of propagating energy fields.This vast, all-pervading force nourishes the soul, the spirit and the energy within each individual and in every living creature.

Through the meditative process of spiritual healing, one can access this driving energy which exists in every living cell in the body. The energy is channeled to the cerebral cortex, which is the processing center of our thoughts.From there it will be intensely focused andchanneled in the nuclei of the brain stem, which are activated and stimulated by this focused life force.

In turn impulses are sent to the autonomic nervous system, regulating the body’s functions, keeping it in equilibrium and free of pain. The concentration of energy in the brain comprises the first phase of spiritual healing.

This process in turn stimulates the vagus nerveto send electrical impulses down the heart’s conduction system to the sinoatrial node, through the internodal tracts,through the atrioventricular node, down the Bundles of His, out the Purkinje fibers and into the myocardial wall to begin systole.

2 This migration of energy which fills the heart is the second phase of spiritual healing.Conditions such as angina,congestive heart failure,cardiomyopathy and hypertension, in addition to many other related cardiac diseases, are healed and the patient can then find health and relief from pain.

The energy is then pumped with the blood out of the heart into the vascular system and delivered to the entire body in the third phase of spiritual healing.

3 Energizing The Blood

A major focus of phase three is the aorta, which is the conduit for the healing waves of energy that are carried by the blood. As the blood flows from the heart,it is first channeled back to the heart via the coronary arteries in a chain reaction that sustains and increases the energy in the heart itself, much in the same way that the sun increases its light through its own nuclear reactions. { Healing Heart Process}

This cycle produces more and more energy, which pours out into the vascular system with foci in the major arteries, supplying the brain via the carotid arteries.

It also travels through the subclavian arteries to the upper extremities, the splanchnic circulation to the abdomen, through the renal arteries to the kidneys, and through the iliac vessels to the lower extremities. \Lungs Are The Tree of Life Within Us.

Takes The Waste from the Blood And Gives Us Oxygen to Feed The Heart.Oxygen-poor blood (shown in blue) flows from the body into the right atrium. Blood flows through the right atrium into the right ventricle.The right ventricle pumps the blood to the lungs, { This Where Remembrance on the Blood} where the blood releases waste gases and picks up oxygen.

The newly oxygen-rich blood (shown in red) returns to the heart and enters the left atrium.Blood flows through the left atrium into the left ventricle.The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body.The huge volume of drops of blood are like a waterfall made by a huge river descending over the side of a tall mountain cliff.

All vegetation and animals in the water’s path are nourished and given life, and every cell in the body is healed when the vital spiritual energy wave reaches it. A healthy heart will sustain a weak body, but when the heart is weak and diseased--even in a young person--the body will not be healthy or live long.

Therefore, maintaining the heart is the first priority for spiritual healers. Furthermore, maintaining the brain is also another important priority to keep the flow of messages functioning properly.

Contemporary Physicians and Spiritual Healers

Out Side In- Physicians and scientists are all acquainted with this unquantifiable life force, but are unable to interact with it directly except through its vehicle, the physical body.

For that reason, scientists look intently to the outward existing body and invent procedures and techniques to keep the body in homeostasis, striving to keep the vital life force in the body as much as possible and to keep the body free of pain.

The contemporary physician is concerned primarily with the physical body as well as the psychological aspects of human existence. Therapeutics for illness are largely physical, whether in the forms of medication, surgical intervention, or otherwise.

Inside Out- Spiritual healers, on the other hand, use an inward approach to healing by applying spiritual techniques and methods to utilize the body’s own energy.

The difference between the spiritual healers and the physician healers is that the former is healing from inside-to-outside while the latter is healing from outside-to-in. Each are doing good for their patients and both meet on the common ground of curing disease and relieving pain and suffering.High Sense Perception As A Diagnostic Tool

Physicians utilize Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques which use the energy and alignment of the body’s atoms to provide images and information about the condition of the body and any potential disease process.

The spiritual healer also has advanced diagnostic modalities one of the most important of which is HSP, High Sense Perception.HSP is a way of perceiving things beyond the normal range of the five senses. With it one can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch things that cannot normally be perceived.

HSP, sometimes referred to as clairvoyance, is not imagination but is a type of seeing in which you perceive a picture in your mind without the use of your normal vision. HSP reveals the dynamic world of the fluid, interacting spiritual energy fields which surround and permeate all living things.

This energy supports us, nourishes us, and gives us life. We sense each other with this energy as we are a part of it and it is a part of us.With HSP, the pathophysiology of pain and disease processes lies right before one’s eyes.

HSP reveals how most diseases are initiated in the energy field. Distortions in the energy field caused by time and unhealthy living habits are transmitted to the body, becoming a serious illness.Many times the source or initiating cause of this process is associated with psychological and/or physical trauma.

Since HSP reveals how a disease is initiated, it also reveals how to reverse the disease process. Spiritual energies and auras aid healers in formulating their diagnosis.To develop HSP it is necessary to enter into an expanded state of consciousness. There are many means to achieve this but spiritual meditation is fast becoming the most well known.

The Nasma {Aura} and MeditationIn the spiritual terminology, the non-physical body is called nasma. Nasma exists within each physical body as a subtle vapor or energy breeze created by the chemical output of the physical body.

The nasma is present in human beings just as rose water is present in the rose or as the fire in glowing coals.

Being superior with its connection to the divine energy source, it can taste without using the tongue, can see without using the eyes, and can hear without using the ears. By using the nasma, HSP is made available to the spiritual healer. The nasma derives its nourishment from the esoteric energy which is released whenever we act, think, or form a belief or intention.

The nasma in human beings is capable of leaving the physical body at any time through the universal driving force.

When the flow of spiritual energy is disturbed or insufficient, the health of the patient is adversely affected,leading to pain, disease, distress, and so forth.These are signals that we need to rebalance our energy.

A positive energy flow nourishes the nasma and maintains its structure and foundation, balancing the human system. This balance leads to increased awareness of the body’s sensations which in turn leads to good living, following of proper diet, and enjoyment of exercise.

The nasma then supports and maintains a healthy physical body, in which the chemical and physical systems remain balanced and functioning normally, thus perpetuating physical health.

In the healthy system, the energies in each body not only remain balanced but also support and influence the energy balance in other peoples’ bodies.

The nasma can influence others like a magnet bringing the charges of adjacent metal into its alignment. The energy of a healthy system is thus both self-healing and self-propagating in that it maintains the individual health while strengthening the health of those in one’s aura. That is, good health attracts and develops more good health.

The nasma can not only influence the physical body, but it can also be affected by a sick body and become weak because of the weakness of the organs.For example, in a weak body a weak nasma shows its symptoms in themental and physical aspects of a person.

In the mental sphere, any one of the following will occur:

neurosis,depression,hysteria,psychosis,seizures,sleep terror,and insomnia.If this state of affairs is allowed to continue without treatment, the nasma becomes so weak that it is rendered incapable of defending itself in the weak body.The patient at this stage suffers either fromseizures,psychotic fits, oraggressive behavior.

The spiritual healer can strengthen the patient’s organs and thereby the nasma through the universal driving force, creating a high-energy state in which symptoms of sickness disappear. Meditation And The Focal Point Of TreatmentIn spirituality, good health requires intensive striving by the patient and personal change.

Personal change to develop patience, contentment, gratitude, cheerfulness, joy, love, sharing, courage, benefaction, recognition of good deeds, forbearance, and courtesy will improve spirituality and energy flow.

Over activity even in this field and lack of proper supervision and devotion of a concerned and learned parent, or the dedication of qualified teacher also may lay a heavy burden on the person’s intellect.

Alternatively, an impasse in spiritual progress may hinder one’s spiritual growth, and only a qualified guidance can break through such obstacles. Such training must keep advancing until it develops genuine character, positive traits, and healthy energy flow.

Without personal change in the body’s energy flow, one will eventually create other problems which leads back to the source that caused the disease in the first place. Thus, dealing with the source of disease is the focal point of treatment.

This search stimulates the deeper part of ourselves that is sometimes called the "higher self" or the "spark of divinity" within us.This divinity within us, the deeper part of ourselves, sends us information about what type of sickness needs to be treated and what type of contact points need to be touched through our meditation.

Meditation is a tool which givesdeep relaxation and to quiet the mind.This helps to alleviate stress, andtherefore enable the internal chemical andhormonal system to regain their equilibrium. Medical tests have shown that there are definite measurable physiological changes in meditating subjects. The brain itself undergoes changes in the type of electrical waves generated.

By using an electroencephalogram (EEG) there is an increase in the generation of alpha waves and sometimes also in the number of theta waves. These indicate a shift of consciousness into a tranquil state of awareness quite different from that of sleep.

This state is therapeutic and very restful although the patient is both fully conscious and functional.

The body demonstrates the effects of meditation in various ways.

The breathing pattern slows,as does the heart rate, and there is amarked decrease in the level of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide elimination.However, the physical effects of meditation last longer than the meditation period itself.

This is demonstrated by the fact that sufferers of hypertension and many other diseases have, through meditation alone, made such clinically-measurable improvements that they have been able to discontinue their medications.This is very well noted and recorded in spiritual healing books and manuscripts.

How Energy Relates To Disease

Spiritual healers symbolize the flowing of the driving life force in the body and in the universe as vortices of energy made up of a number of smaller spiral cones of energy. These are known in Islamic terminology as "lata‘if", meaning subtle manifestations or layers.

The lata‘if (sing. lateefa) are the points of maximum energy intake and are very important focal points of balance within the energy system.

Disease and illness occur if a lateefa is unbalanced.Lata‘if in adults have a protective screen over them.In a healthy system, these lata‘if spin in synchronized rhythm with the others, drawing energy from the universal energy field into their center for use by the body.

Each one of them is tuned to a specific frequency that helps the body to remain healthy.However, in a diseased system these vortices are not synchronized.The energy of the lata‘if that make up these vortices may be fast or slow, jerky or lopsided.

Sometimes breaks in the entire energy pattern can be observed in which a lateefa may be fully or partially collapsed or inverted.

These disturbances are related to dysfunction or pathology of the physical body in that area.

Towards the Understanding of the 9 POINTS Healing Through Meditation And Focal Points Of The Lata’ifThe feeling of pain can be completely cured by meditation wherein the dormant energy of a sick body is activated by a spiritual ignition produced by the meditative process.

This spiritual process uses seven different focal points in the seven layers, the lata’if.There are seven focal points {plus 2 more} of the lata’if.This is different from 5 Levels of the HeartThese are located above and below the heart,above and below the left breast,above and below the right breast, andone on the forehead.

Every Lataif has a different energy color,and every energy has a different effect on a specific disease.The two focal points above and below the heart are green.

The points above and below the left breast are yellow,the ones above and below the right breast are black,and the one on the forehead is white.{ By Permission the Shaykh will give out The Ismu Allah or Dhikr for each Point and the number of repetitions} This will activate the Points.

Through meditation these seven focal points of the lata’if generate energy.

Then, like a magnet, these activated focal points attract more energy from the universal cosmic energy source in the shape of tiny floating spheres of light. The size of these spheres depends on which lateefa is activated, as there is a different sized sphere for every different color lateefa.

Depending on the illness, the healer activates the appropriate lateefa needed to cure that sickness.In turn, the lateefa produces more of its energy color which itself attracts from the universal energy source more of the same light.

The result of this positive feedback loop is a tremendous outpouring of shimmering globes of light which descend from the cosmic energy source onto the person of the healer.

Through this flood of colored energy spheres, the healer is energized to the point where he/She radiates heat from his body through his hands and projects light from his forehead.As a scientist shoots a laser, the spiritual healer emits the light and energy that he receives from the universal force.

The healer massages the affected areas and this combination of heat from the hand and light from the forehead immediately begins the healing process.

The healer also prescribes that the patient sit alone for a few hours each day fully relaxed, repeating several thousand times different holy names of God in a special format for the duration of treatment.These holy names are like energy sparks which ignite more flow from the universal energy source.

This ignition also activates the focal points of the lata’if causing heat to be generated in the body of the patient. This heat is considerably less than the immense power transmitted by the healer, but it is sufficient to cause the patient to break out into a sweat.

At this time, the patient goes to the healer who transmits more energy as before, advancing the patient’s treatment.

As the moon reflects the light of the sun onto the earth, so too does the healer reflect the universal energy through his body to the patient.This produces a state of immense heat and spiritual interaction between the healer and the patient.

This process is repeated for several days or even weeks until the patient recovers.As he recovers, the patient begins to experience a psychological effect from the dynamic, synergistic interaction between himself and the healer.

This psychological effect of recovery and relief from pain induces the endocrine glands to secrete hormones which balance the whole system and begin to cure the ill organs, raising the patient to higher levels of health and spirituality than would be possible in the former painful, diseased condition.

As the surgical patient is anesthetized, so too is the spiritual patient put in a pain-free state in which the spiritual healer can work on him in the way he finds suitable.ConclusionDisease at any station of the energy field will express itself in that particular level of consciousness.

Each expression of disease is manifested as some form of pain, be it physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. It is essential that we probe the deeper meaning of our illnesses.We need to ask, "What does this illness and pain mean to us? What can we learn from this?"

Pain is the driving belt in the body’s own self-defense mechanism that alerts us to correct a situation.

Pain is like a warning bell in our system which brings our attention to the fact that something is wrong and forces us do something about it.

Pain says, "You are not listening to your whole self."Pain teaches us to ask for help and healing and is, therefore, a key to the education of the soul and to the function of the spirit and the body’s energy.

A comprehensive approach to pain relief and health in general which includes spiritual healing will greatly help the progress of modern medicine.

While volumes can and have been written on Islamic spiritual healing, it is hoped that this brief introduction will help bring this subject to the attention of the medical community and foster greater appreciation and understanding of this rich tradition and science.

Inner Islamic tradition

references & Sources: by As-Sayed Nurjan Mirahmadi

Pure Heart Vibes

Quantum Islam

Spiritual Freedom *Manifestation*

Spiritual Liberty

Mira's Burden

The Ocean of Power

The Hidden Powers of Allah

Wingmakers Wall Painting

Astral Wars & Etheric Intervention

Cheb Mami ~ Desert Rose

Universal Law of Psychic Energy

The Ocean of Power

Inner Circle of Humanity ~ Conscious Souls & Critical Mass

Rememberance ~ Awareness upon Remembering

Parallels

Sacred Places ~ Al Aqsa Masjid Jeruselem

Islam and the Question of Violence

Allahu ~ Sami Yusef

Dervish of Northern Iraq & Turkey

Note on the Jinn

The Importance of Angelic Presence

The Medical Benefits of Circumcision

Islam The kindom of God on Earth

Spiritual Healing : The Path of the Mystic

Spiritual Freedom Manifestation