The Mercy of Qur'an and the Advent of Zaman - Commentary On Four Suras

Supplement 3

For the Prophet, salla-llahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, and those who believe in his message, it is enough that Allah is a witness between them. They believe with certainty in their hearts in the all-encompass­ing mercy of Allah and have abandoned themselves into its ever-flowing river of light. That certainty brings about, enough joy and contentment to suffice them.

They do not care for the doubts nor for the afflictions of others. Those who are at a loss, who have not found the subtle way of tuning themselves into the right path, are following a way that can only lead to a dead end. The believer looks forward to the ultimate freedom from the chains of this dunya. He is looking forward to the final call that is signified by the experience of death. The person who does not have enough certainty in his heart, clings onto what he has invested in and what he knows of this world.

53 And they ask you to hasten on the chastise­ment; and had not a term been appointed, the chastisement would certainly have come to them; and most certainly it will come to them all of a sudden while they perceive not.

54 They ask you to hasten on the chastisement, and most surely hell encompasses the unbelievers;

55 On the day when the chastisement shall cover them from above them, and from beneath their feet; and He will say: Taste what you did.

The ignorant ones whose hearts are set and almost dead, ask: Where are the miracles? If bad deeds have destructive effects, where is the chastisement? Why does it not happen now? Reward or punishment is not necessarily immediately noticed. There could be a subtle time­ delay factor. A man who is given to a great deal of anger and agitation may not feel the reaction of his behavior for a few days, but eventually it will manifest in the form of an ulcer or some other illness. It takes time for it to set.

An example in the political arena is the faded economic glory of the British Empire which was built upon the colonial subjugation of millions upon millions of people. Now the effects of what they did are rebounding on them. The reaction to the unjust and selfish treatment of their subjects has taken decades if not centuries to show its direct effect upon them, economically and morally.

Jahannam, the big fire, the eternal state of affliction; is already surrounding those who are not tuning themselves to the state of imin. One does not readily notice the fire one kindles by incorrect actions because of one's limited perception and understanding. How­ever, on the day of resurrection, on the day of reckoning where there is no possibility of personal interpretations or excuses, the fire that man has invested in during this life is so all-encompassing, that the man of denial sees nothing other than it surrounding him on every side. In this life man thinks he can escape it through one channel or another. On the next level of consciousness there is absolutely no escape.

56 O My servants who believe! surely My earth is vast, therefore Me alone should you serve.

57 Every soul must taste of death, then to Us you will be returned.

Existentially, the believer in Allah is afflicted, tested and often opposed by his own people, as were the early adherents to the Muhammadi message. If effectively overcoming this opposition in his homeland is not possible, the way out of the affliction is to leave. A point is reached in his life where he cannot bear the extent and depth of opposition surrounding him; he reaches his limit. Then a new energy sets in as he moves in a direction toward more conducive grounds. The whole creation belongs to Allah.

If there is tyranny in a situation where one is not given the oppor­tunity to live according to the path of truth and iman, then one should search for another place of dwelling. This applies to one's family, community and nation. It has been the practice of all the prophets and those who follow them: seeking until one can strengthen one's under­standing and knowledge of Reality and discovering where one can benefit others who are striving towards the same goal.

The meaning of death is in every heart. If man were to truly, absolutely and fearlessly submit, then it would be very easy to experi­ence. In this creation man experiences the good and the bad, the sour and the sweet, health and illness, and in the same way he will experi­ence the opposite to the life-line upon which he is hanging. He will experience death which at this moment in life is only a concept.

A similarity may be recognized in the mini-death of sleep. Final and absolute separation of ruh (spirit) from the body will take place, and there will be no possibility of return to the body. At the point of death man will know that he has returned to the ultimate foundation. In other words, he will know the meaning of thumma ilayna turjaun, "then to us you return." He is already in Allah by Allah, but he may not recognize it fully; he may not always spontaneously be aware of it. Everyone will come to know that he has returned to Allah, that he is not separate from Allah. This is an all-encompassing law, governing all mankind. At the point of death, he will suddenly realize that he has fallen into Allah's web, which encompasses all other webs of experiences and creations.

For the mu'min, his return, his death, is a continuation of his life. He has already recognized in this life that he is acting by Allah. But the raja (return) that Allah refers to is an absolute and final one. The man of iman takes this aya as his ultimate security when afflicted by the wind of opposition and doubt. The mu'min's death is the beginning of the next awakening. His capital and strength at the point of death is what he will have invested in life, according to the purity of his actions based on his intentions. Allah says: "Everyone will rr*et the face of Allah." The mu'min wants to see it now. His desire for this goal is measured by the extent of his abandonment of actions emanating from his selfish and lower motives.

If a man's actions in this life are not motivated by fear, anxiety, disappointment, love or hate, then his actions are purely and simply inspired. The reactions to those actions are not going to afflict him.

He is closer to the knowledge of Allah here and now. Ultimately, a point comes when he experiences life and death simultaneously. From then on, the physical death is for him, only a natural phenomenon which is hardly of any consequence. This is what the sufis call fana' fi-llah (obliteration of the self in Allah). It is a state of awareness that keeps one constantly in remembrance that at any moment he may die.

Thus death and life become familiar to the one who has experi­enced fana' fi llah. He recognizes that both emanate from one source and that source is Allah. He goes beyond the opposites. The ordinary man who has not tasted his death has to wait. He will also come to know that behind the opposites is Allah and his return is to Allah - inna li-llahi wa inna ilayhi raji`un: "We are by Allah and to Allah we return". Man is supported by Allah, sustained by the one and only Reality which manifests mercy in the form of outward sustenance.

Fana is a phenomenon that is within duality. Man talks in a discriminating capacity about something that is connected with oneness. In oneness there is no discrimination. In the garden, Sayyidna Adam, `alayhi-s-salam, did not know the meaning of a lie so he did not discern who shaytan (satan) was. He had not experienced lies because he was the first of human creation. When shaytan spoke to him he believed that what he heard was the truth. He did not know the opposite of truth just as we do not know death.

The taste of fana' is ingrained in man's genes. It is not some­thing that he will attain but something he will gain by ridding himself of everything that is other than Allah, by dislodging himself from what he considers to be real or solid. He will attain it by extracting himself from the spider's web he has woven of habits and patterns: the way he reacts, the way he sits, the way he eats. To taste annihilation the seeker must be willing to let go of what he has.

Correcting oneself is by knowing the bounds and knowing how one has arrived at where one is. Observing oneself objectively will immediately liberate one's next actions. They will be neutral actions which will move from bitterness to sweetness. The process is natural. The change does not occur immediately. The human being first has to stop his wrong actions and then enter into a condition of neutrality. Only then can the next stage develop naturally.

58 And (as for) those who believe and do good, We will certainly give them abode in the high places in gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein; how good the reward of the workers.

The more man acts fi sabili-llah, the more he ceases to act for himself; thus, he is freer of the fire of disappointments and is more apt to be in the garden. Man is in either one of two states: happiness or sadness, contentment or discontentment, relaxation or tension, security or insecurity, love or hate. As an active being he has to be in one or more of these states according to various degrees. The less there is of hate in his heart the more there is of love. The more he is fulfilled, the less empty he is.

Ramadan,( month of fasting) is clothed by physical emptiness, leading to inward cleansing. One starts by physically limit­ing oneself in order to achieve inner freedom. Outer purification will lead to inner purification. For the common Muslim, Ramadan is lim­iting the intake of food and drink. For the discriminating Muslim, it is prohibiting the senses from anything that is undesirable. For the true mu'min, it is focusing the heart upon Allah and nothing else but Him. Acting in goodness for the purpose of purification will give the believer a taste of the garden. The breadth of that taste will be according to the purity of his intention. The rivers that nourish the trees of the garden are not visible.

They are underground and hidden. The state of the garden receives nourishment invisibly from the rivers of haqiaa. The rivers of sharia are clear. Knowing how to make a garden blossom in this life in all its aspects, in all its dynamic interconnectedness, can be applied to the inward. There is a gardener in everyone. If man knows how the ecology of the garden works, it is more likely that he will see the overall ecology that sustains him. This is the original motive for scientific research.

59 Those who are patient, and on their Lord do they rely.

60 And how many a living creature that does not carry its sustenance: Allah sustains it and yourselves; and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.

61 And if you ask them, Who created the hea­vens and the earth and made the sun and the moon subservient, they will certainly say, Allah. Whence are they then turned away?

When one does not immediately see the benefit of one's work, one must trust that the time needed for inner growth is not the same as that for outer growth. One may not recognize any inner openings for a long time and then suddenly perceive a quantum movement forward. Patience, as far as spiritual progress is concerned, is a necessary condition. It is the foundation upon which everything is built.

Outwardly, there is a limit to patience. Having planted a plant in the ground, one may find that it does not grow, and after six months the growing season has come and gone. The gardener who knows would pull it to examine the roots, and might find them rotten. He was impatient for the plant to grow, but because he acted from knowledge his judgement was correct.

One cannot accurately judge inner progress in relation to physical time. The effects of previous actions might take twenty years to neu­tralize. It is like a well that is being dug, and there is no sign of water and no encouragement that there might be a real spring beneath the ground until perhaps the last two centimeters when the water suddenly appears.

That is the meaning of patience; perseverance is necessary until water is struck. Through the intensity of one's devotion and abandon­ment, under the guidance of a true teacher, one may be able to over­come one's past more quickly. Successfully doing this will be according to the degree of one's true submission.

"And how many a living creature that does not carry its sustenance." Man, the highest of creation, need not have anxiety about his provision. Animals do not, nor do they carry their provisions on their backs. They move from one pasture to another, roam and are nourished and sus­tained as they grow. They move, act and do their best, and the generous Reality provides.

But creation is of a dual nature and an effort must be made, the palm tree must be shaken. For man, however, the more he accumulates, the more he uses a backup in the form of wealth and possessions, the greater is the possibility of his forgetting his true security and dependence upon Allah. He arrogantly depends on some­thing else.

Everything has come from Allah. There is nothing wrong with gold and money, but accumulating them requires an investment of time and heart. Investing in them makes man dependent on them. The fault is not in the gold itself, for by it the quality of human life may be enhanced, but in the attachment to it.

The promise of the Creator regarding spiritual evolution is that everyone will evolve into a state of absolute dependence on Reality and complete efficiency in his functionings in this life. That depend­ence, that tawakkul, expressed by hasbun Allahu wa ni ma-l-wakil (Allah is sufficient and the best of Guardians), and la hawla wa la'quwata illa billah (no power and no strength except in Allah), will bring about a situation in which an individual spontaneously knows how to obtain whatever he wants. He will then be free to perceive meanings.

The strong mu'min is better than the weak mu'min. The mu'min who has access to wealth is more useful to his neighbors and society than the mu'min who does not, and who only sits with a tasbih (prayer beads) in the corner of a mosque. That man has saved himself but he has done nothing for others.

Man can conceptually understand that there is one source from which everything emanates, one cause from which all effects arise. The fear of provision, the fear of not living well, the fear of not having a positive outer environment, are very critical in man's progress toward submission, and his spiritual evolution. Man generally has fear of provision.

What matters is the degree to which that fear enslaves him. If he allows it to justify his actions then it is in control. But the fact that it can be talked about means that the fear is understood.

Seeking provision may be positive in that it tests man, spurring him on to positive actions. He obtains the true means of sustenance when he has turned away from the world, genuinely, in his heart and not simply by his actions. Man is accountable for whatever comes into his hands. He should not throw things away. 'Ali, alayhi-s-salam, said: What is halal (lawful) you are accountable for and what is haram (forbidden) you are punished for.

62Allah makes abundant the means of subsis­tence for whom He pleases of His ser­vants, and straitens them for whom (He pleases) surely Allah is Cognizant of all things.

63 And if you ask them Who is it that sends down water from the clouds, then gives life to the earth with it after its death, they will certainly say, Allah. Say: All praise is due to Allah. Nay, most of them do not understand.

Fear of provision is very deep and everyone is tested by it. Those who are involved in business will often find that eighty percent of their income comes from twenty percent of their activity. Often pro­vision comes from where one is not looking. This is true for material wealth as well as spiritual wealth. It is proof of how clumsy man is and how subtle Reality is. Opening up one's heart to the wonderment of this existence, wandering in the garden of this creation in complete trust, utter submission and humility brings joy as a by product.

There are many traditions describing how Allah's love for His creation manifests by withholding as well as by giving. Allah gives and then withholds in order to see whether the slave will continue to be in praise. Allah says: "You plot and I plot and I am the best of plot­ters." Allah's plot is to enable man to break through the plot that he has woven around himself, thinking that he has made a safe abode. Allah's plot is to purify the degree of man's iman and trust. The more man moves on the path, the subtler are the tests so that the individual may see the real extent of his trust.

When man thinks he is safe, that safety will be shattered if Allah loves him. Trust in Allah can develop after only a few days, or because he thinks His love is remote it could develop only after years. It is nothing other than the love of Allah that withholds his provision from him in order that he can see himself frightened, jolted and disturbed. It is then that he has to be steadfast, doing his utmost at all times. If in discussions you were always right then you would learn nothing. It is at the moment when one realizes that one is wrong that one learns. It is the love of Allah if there is provision, and it is the love of Allah if there is no provision. Allah's perfect love manifests in His laws that govern this existence. His consistent love manifests in these unchanging laws.

64 And this life of the world is nothing but a sport and a play; and as for the next abode, that most surely is the life - did they but know!

65 So when they ride in the ships they call upon Allah, being sincerely obedient to Him, but when He brings them safe to the land, then they associate others (with Him);

66 Thus they become ungrateful for what We have given them, so that they may enjoy; but they shall soon know.

67 Do they not see that We have made a sacred territory secure, while men are carried off by force from around them? Will they still believe in the falsehood and disbelieve in the favor of Allah?

68 And who is more unjust than one who forges a lie against Allah, or gives the lie to the truth when it has come to him? Will not in hell be the abode of the unbelievers?

Life on earth is like a mirage or a play that does not last. It is not dependable nor is it built upon a firm foundation. Life is flimsy like the house of the spider, perishing and then being recreated. Man's abode of worth is that state or situation which allows him to sit-quietly - aqil (in full possession of one's mental capabilities) - his thoughts being tied, reflecting on the fact that what is beyond time is within him. Once a momentary glimpse of this is captured through the experience of momentary death, his boat begins to sail on the ocean of knowledge.

"So when they ride in the ships they call upon Allah." Whenever man is disturbed, he has to physically abandon into the disturbance. When he is on a ship or in a hurricane, when everything is shattered, when all his relationships have been broken, when he has no home or country, when nobody wants him, he will quite naturally call upon the power of the invisible. But once some sort of tangible help appears, once an anchor has been dropped, then the self arises and man forgets.

When man has nothing or is in trouble it is much easier for him to depend upon Allah. Even if he only has a small possession it is much more difficult to remember. It is for that reason that the sufi says the path is much easier for those who have everything and do not care for it, who have access to everything and do not find it interesting or satisfactory.

The path of truth is very difficult for those who have little and desire more. These people invest most of their lives to pay for their little houses, their monuments. When their houses get scratched, their hearts are scratched. But a person who could have owned the whole world finds no use for it. He is not interested because he knows that he can only digest one or two meals a day and that he can only sleep on one bed at a time.

Those in the middle are at a loss and they are the majority - aktharahum la ya qilun (most of them do not understand). This is why the majority of the people of heart resent the bourgeois existence. It is not a political doctrine, it is a spiritual one.

Muhammad, salla-llahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, had been promised all kinds of material gifts by his tribe if, in return, he would abandon the message. The social structure of Mecca was threatened because it was based on superstition, tyranny and accumulating wealth, like the banking-financial system of today (it is the real government). If one turns away from it, not wanting a loan or a bank account, then one becomes the biggest threat to the system.

The rebel protesting in the street is no threat. On the contrary, he is caught in the system itself. So long as the system is there and so long as he cannot have it, he will want to destroy it. The way to be free of it is to get it out of the heart. In recognizing its evil man can turn away, in a positive manner, to build a system that will enable him, his off­spring and his friends, to taste joy.

If one first collapses the tent of materialism in one's heart then one will find that the kufr (de­nial) system is also on its way towards collapse. Energy will be saved and one's actions will bring about positiveness. One also will find more people who are awake.

69 And (as for) those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways; and Allah is most surely with the doers of good.

The way to polish the nafs, the way to drop off the layers of arrogance and self-importance, is through jihad, striving at all times. When the nafs is first revealed to the seeker, the struggle is very tiring because the nafs is rebellious. Later on he finds that he thrives on exposing the nafs because it polishes the mirror.

At first, the mirror has many layers of dust on it. Scraping it is hard work. Later on, polishing it is as easy as lightly passing a cloth over it. The seeker desires the light because he sees the benefit of it. Suddenly he is the reflector of Reality. His heart reflects the truth.

Striving at all times is unavoidable. No one is spared struggle because life is based entirely upon movement and dynamism -that is how time is experienced. At all times one strives more and more, harder and harder, and as a result, one finds that the afflictions become subtler and subtler. Everyone is completely caught in a web which manifests in time because man is a creature suspended in time whose essence is beyond time. He has come from a Reality which encompasses here and beyond, beginning and end, manifestation and non-mani­festation, life and death.

In order to resonate and vibrate that knowledge, in order to reflect that knowledge in his own small reflector, man must abandon into the complete solid web in which he is caught and from which there is no escape. If he has completely and utterly abandoned into it then that web itself will resonate him; then he is the hand of Allah, the eye of Allah, the tongue of Allah, and then he moves by the mercy and grace of Allah. He has unified. He has directly, experientially abandoned into tawhid.