MI'RAJ: HUMAN PERFECTION AND THE FORMULA TO ACHIEVE IT

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Peter Dean
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1 MI'RAJ: HUMAN PERFECTION AND THE FORMULA TO ACHIEVE IT Mi'raj lecture by Brother Bashier Rahim on 13 April 2018 (27 Rajab 1439) at the Ahlul Bait (a.s) Masjid, Ottery, Cape Town Tonight we are indeed once again privileged to marvel in celebration of the Isra and Mi'raj on the one hand and the great day of Mab'ath on the other. Isra and Mi'raj refers to the historical miraculous incident when Prophet Muhammad (sawa) was taken for a journey at night which was first a horizontal journey from Makka to Jerusalem reaching Masjidul Aqsa and ascending from there into the seven heavens and beyond to a point that no creation of Allah ever experienced before. And the Mab'ath or Bi'that refers to the day coinciding with tomorrow being the 27 th Rajab when Prophet Muhammad (sawa) was appointed as a Messenger and the first revelation of the Quran commenced in the form of the first few verses of Surah Alaq which marked the commencement or birth of Islam. This afternoon, we dedicated the jumuah khutbah to a discussion on the Mab'ath and if you missed it, you can obtain the transcript on our website or Facebook page. In that lecture we 1 / 23

2 discussed what was Islam's first message to humanity? And we did this by examining the first few verses of Surah Alaq which were revealed on this day. We discussed the importance of reading and learning, how Allah answers the very first fundamental question that a human being encounters and that is "where do I come from", we discussed the implications of knowing your origin, we discussed the implication of Tauheed of Lordship of Allah, we discussed how Allah honoured the human being and we discussed the methodology that Almighty Allah uses to guide and educate us which is through the Pen and the fact that the Pen is Allah's first creation (by which Allah takes an oath) which is the same reality of the Haqiqqati Muhammadiyya, in other words our development comes through Prophet Muhammad (sawa). That is Allah's chosen methodology. So tonight our main focus will be on remembering the Mi'raj. From the very occasion when this incident occurred, due to its miraculous nature and the fact that it challenged the ability of human beings to believe in the unseen to a new degree, the Mi'raj has been the subject of much discussion and debate and this continues to this very day. There was always difference of opinion regarding the date that it occurred, and based on the narrations of our Holy Imams it appears that the Mi'raj occurred more than once and this 2 / 23

3 possibly is the reason for differing views on the date of its occurrence. Then you had the non-believers who considered the belief in this incident to be impossible. Then you had those who reduced this incident of the Mi'raj to a dream and to this day believe that its nothing more than metaphorical. And then you get those who not only believe in this incident but receive amazing inspiration and motivation from the Mi'raj in sharpening their view of their potential as human beings and the journey that must be traveled to reach it. MI'RAJ DEMONSTRATES THE UNMATCHED STATUS OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD (SAWA) The well known verses of Surah Israa and Surah Najm have in it hidden meanings that Muslim scholars continue to discover to this very day. 3 / 23

4 Verse 1 of Surah Israa states: Glory be to the One Who took His servant by night from Masjid-ul-Haraam to Masjid-ul- Aqsa the precincts of which We have blessed so that We may show him (some) of Our signs. Verily, He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. And then the crux of the verses of Surah Najm which relate to the actual Ascension into the Heavens has, among others, one critical reference in it which states in verse 11: "Therefore, He revealed unto His servant whatever He revealed." 4 / 23

5 Mowlana Syed Aftab Haider (may Allah protect him) previously explained some fascinating points about these verses. The language used in these 2 verses is very secretive and intimate and exclusive in relation to Prophet Muhammad (sawa). It informs us: 1. Allah refers to Himself as the One...when the verse says Glory be to the One This reference to Allah as "the One" is referring to that aspect of Allah's Existence that cannot be known... that is "the One" who took Prophet Muhammad (sawa) on this journey 1. The verse further emphasizes this by saying who took His servant... again the He refers to that aspect of Allah's Existence that cannot be known. We only know Almighty Allah through His Divine Names. When Allah speaks about Him or the One it is in reference to Allah's Divine Essence which we can never know. 5 / 23

6 1. Prophet Muhammad (sawa) is described as His servant without any attribute attached to the word servant. When other Prophets are referred to as servants in the Quran, then their servitude is qualified by saying that they are Servants of Rahman or my Grateful Servant. By attributing a quality to the servitude of other Prophets (a.s), it sort of creates the idea of a limitation to their servitude. But the servitude of Prophet Muhammad (sawa) is so comprehensive that he is simply referred to as His Servant to show the one who reached the highest level of servitude possible - complete servitude. 1. Because of this, the verse of Israa says that Prophet Muhammad (sawa) was taken on this journey. In other words he was fetched and not ordered to come to a meeting like Prophet Musa (a.s) was told to come to a meeting by himself to meet Allah for 40 nights. Why was Prophet Muhammad (sawa) fetched instead of coming by himself? It is because when you reach the pinnacle of spiritual development, you become in it's truest sense Fana-fillah or annihilated in Allah and your existence becomes Baqa-fillah where you exist or subsist in Allah. 6 / 23

7 For all normal human beings, we have our own will. But someone who has annihilated himself in Allah, does not have will of his own anymore... that is why the verse says that Prophet Muhammad (sawa) was "taken" (in other words fetched) for this journey. 1. And then what happened in the Mi'raj? He revealed unto His servant, what He revealed. Again reference to the Divine Essence of Allah that cannot be known, revealing to His servant whose level of servitude cannot be known, a communication and revelation that cannot be known. So the Mi'raj was a journey wherein the One whose Essence cannot be known, took His Servant whose Servitude cannot be known for a journey to have an intimate meeting wherein what was exchanged between the One whose Essence cannot be known and the One whose Servitude cannot be known a communication that cannot be known. And that is the height of human perfection. 7 / 23

8 RETURN FROM MI'RAJ WAS TO SHOW US THE WAY TO MI'RAJ When the Prophet (sawa) returned from Mi'raj, he narrated the story to the people of his time. The recorded ahadith that narrate the incident of the Mi'raj are numerous and some are very lengthy and detailed like the one of Imam Saadiq (a.s) that Allamah Tabatabai quotes in Tafsir al-mizan when interpreting verse 1 of Surah Israa. For tonight I want us to take home 3 messages from this minefield of information. The first is the realization of why we were created. And by that I do not mean a theoretical realization (we all know the theory) - by realization I mean practical realization for us to start seeing a meaningful difference in our life. We have been created to achieve the highest level of human perfection possible, and the Mi'raj demonstrated for us what the most perfect human being achieved. 8 / 23

9 Our standards that we set for ourselves in life must be the highest standards that we can imagine and must be based on the defining criteria of being human instead of setting for ourselves standards for perfecting that which we share with animals. Animals eat and drink and live under shelter and procreate. And our focus as human beings is often stuck with perfecting our cooking to enjoy eating and drinking better food and drink and living in a more palatial residence and taking pills and Botox injections and having plastic surgery to have a designer body to keep us feeling young so we can perform like an 18 year old while we already in old age. Our standard must be based on how to become a perfect human being. Otherwise even animals have qualities like sophisticated systems of communication and functioning that we don't even practise as human beings. The ants are able to communicate with each other in such a manner that a whole colony of them will get the message and avoid destruction so that they can achieve their perfect potential as ants. Muslims are being destroyed in Yemen and Palestine (as we have seen in the escalation in violence in the past few weeks) and all over the world, but our humanity is so dead that we don't get the message or do anything about it. 9 / 23

10 The bees have a sophisticated system of living as a community and obeying their leader which is the queen bee, around which their whole system functions so that they achieve their potential as bees. But do we even believe in Divinely Appointed Leadership, let alone give absolute allegiance to our Imam, the Imam of Our Time, Mahdi (a.s)? Do we even know that he exists and shows us the path to perfection? Tonight, in celebrating the Mi'raj we need to firstly set our goals to becoming perfect human beings. Make a start...set your goals high. KEEP FOCUSED ON THE PATH OF HUMAN PERFECTION The second message in relation to the Mi'raj is the importance of remaining focused on our goal of becoming perfect human beings. In relation to the Ascension and what the Prophet (sawa) saw in this journey, the issue of focus is mentioned in the Surah Najm and in the hadith of Mi'raj. 10 / 23

11 In verse 17 of Surah Najm it says (in relation to Prophet (sawa): "The sight turned not aside nor did it transgress beyond the limit" The Prophet (sawa) remained focused in his journey. In the Hadith on Mi'raj as reported by Imam Saadiq (a.s) it says very close to the beginning of the narration: He [the Prophet] said: While I was looking to the left, someone called out from my right: O Muhammad! I did not answer him or turn toward him. Someone then called me from my left?: O Muhammad! but I did not answer him or turn toward him. A woman then faced me, her forearms exposed, upon which was all the world s?nery. She said: O Muhammad, look at me so that I can speak to you, but I did not turn toward her. I traveled on and then I heard a voice that frightened me, but I kept going. 11 / 23

12 From this part of the hadith, there were 4 things that tried to distract the Prophet (sawa) and later on in the hadith we learn what they were. After narrating certain other aspects of the Mi'raj, Prophet (sawa) reports: He (Jibraeel) then asked me: What did you see in your journey? I replied: Someone called to me from my right. He then asked me, Did you answer him? I said, No, nor did I turn toward him. He said, it was the Jewish proselytizer. If you had answered him, your nation would have turned Jewish after you. He then said, What did you see [then]? I replied, Someone called to me from my left. He asked me, Did you answer him? I replied, No, nor did I turn toward him. So he replied, it was the Christian proselytizer. If you had answered him, your nation would have become Christian after you. 12 / 23

13 He then asked, What faced you? I replied, I met a woman, exposing her forearms which bore all of the world s?nery. She said, O Muhammad! Look at me so that I can talk to you. He asked, Did you speak to her? I replied, I neither spoke to her nor turned toward her. He said, it was the world (duny?). If you had spoken to her, your nation would have chosen this world over the hereafter. I then heard a voice, which frightened me and so Jibreel, asked me, Do you hear, Muhammad? I replied, Yes. He said, it is a rock that I cast from the edge of hell seventy years ago and now it reached the bottom. We learn very important issues in relation to our focus being diverted by those who want to attract us to their Aqeedah or system of belief. Never loose focus on Belief in Islam as understood from the Teachings of Ahlul Bait (a.s) - this is the Belief system that was taught by the Prophet (sawa) himself and through which we travel our spiritual path to perfection. One cannot reach spiritual perfection without the Ahlul Bait (a.s) and need to remain focused on this fact. We also learn that our focus is distracted by this Dunya its a distraction that must be managed to just get the spiritual journey going. Too much time is spent on that which is mundane and of little value but looks glamorous from the outside. The bling and glamour of this world blinds us and diverts our attention from our real goal. 13 / 23

14 TV, music, entertainment, extreme sport, the dream of being a billionaire, fiction, the perfect body, unnecessary argumentation, social media and so much more diverts our focus from our real purpose and goal. We need to identify within our individual lives what those things are that divert our attention and work on avoiding them. We also learn that the lives of others around us can also be a distraction. The stone that rolled for 70 years and settled in Hell is the average life of a human being who did not reach perfection and actually went in the opposite direction towards destruction we cannot be distracted by the lifestyles of others. Often out of fear we follow the lives of others who are actually misguided as we do not have confidence in what we believe. The Prophet (sawa) never allowed himself to be distracted by the one whose life was spent traveling in the direction of Jahannam. So if we were never meant to be distracted and end up in destruction, then what were we meant to achieve? HUMAN BEINGS WERE MEANT TO ACHIEVE PERFECTION The Hadith of Mi'raj speaks about how the Prophet (sawa) ascended through the heavens and how he communicated with different Prophets (a.s) until he reached the 7 th heaven. 14 / 23

15 Prophet Muhammad (sawa) says: I asked: Gabriel, who is this that is in the seventh heaven at the door of al-bayt al-ma?m?r (the Frequented House) near to God? He replied: This, Muhammad, is your forefather Ibrahim, and this is your place and the place of the God wary in your nation. Al-Bayt al-ma'mur is a place directly above the Kaba in the seventh heaven where thousands of Angels are narrated to make tawaaf each day and Al-Bayt al-ma'mur is your destination and nothing less! HOW TO REACH OUR SPIRITUAL POTENTIAL So, after realizing our spiritual potential and the need to remain focused, our third message (among others) that we extract from the Hadith as reported by the 6th Imam Saadiq (a.s) is to look at how it is achieved. Before I do that I would like you to read together with me the last verses of Surah Baqarah. In 15 / 23

16 keeping with our tradition in Cape Town, part of our local thikr is to recite these verses. What have these verses to do with Mi'raj? It's narrated that they capture part of the communication that occurred between Almighty Allah and Prophet Muhammad (sawa) on the night of the Mi'raj. Prophet (sawa) says after going beyond the seventh heaven and?nally reaching the farthest lote-tree (sidrat al-muntah?) that Allah then called out to him: the Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord [2:285]. So I said, responding on behalf of myself and my nation: and (so do) the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers; We make no difference between any of His messengers; 16 / 23

17 and they say: We hear and obey, our Lord! Thy forgiveness (do we beseech), and to Thee is the eventual course [2:285]. Prophet Muhammad (sawa) was at the highest point in the heavens...a point of union with Almighty Allah. At this greatest point, Almighty Allah declares that "the Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him"... And immediately without hesitation, Prophet Muhammad (sawa) declares that the believers have also done so. At his point of the Peak of the Mi'raj, he includes us in his secretive communication with Allah. And he declares that we don't only believe in what was revealed to us... We do something more...what is that something more? 17 / 23

18 ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE - A PREREQUISITE FOR READ SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT What was revealed to us is a comprehensive system of life...where every aspect of our life has guidance and rules and regulations for our own benefit. So what is that something more that we do in addition to believing in revelation? "They hear AND obey"... That's the first step...before any elaborate special thikr or anything like that... its about knowing the details of the revelation as it pertains to EVERY aspect of our life and not being selective in what we follow and what we ignore. 18 / 23

19 Do we know what those details are? What is halaal and haraam, wajib and makruh...in every aspect of our daily life? If many of us as adults did not have sufficient opportunity to go to madressa when we were young, are we willing to invest our time to get to know these details. The biggest obstacle in making ANY traction in spiritual development is when we compromise on this principle "We hear and obey". And the Quran makes reference to these people who compromise this principle by saying that they say: "We heard and disobeyed" And the mark of these people is that they effectively change the revelation of Almighty Allah. In our very time we see while Quran makes gambling haraam that there are those who make it halaal and many other such vices. 19 / 23

20 A very important point relating to obeying every aspect of revelation is that it is not impossible to do so. Please understand this. Tonight we talking about setting our standards very high. Obeying every aspect of religion is not impossible. Therefore Almighty Allah responds to Prophet (sawa) in the Mi'raj by mentioning the next verse: Allah does not impose upon any soul a duty but to the extent of its ability" Allah does not ask us to do the impossible. Like Allamah Tabatabai says we are not asked to listen with our eyes and to see with our ears or impossibilities like that. Allah asks us to live a very specific lifestyle which is humanly possible. What we tend to confuse this with is that at times this lifestyle might come across to be difficult... but it's not impossible! So the next time we disobey our Lord, let us reflect through introspection what is the obstacle that we need to overcome to actually achieve compliance with our Lord's instruction...because it is possible. 20 / 23

21 GIVE IMPORTANCE TO SALAAH Up to this point we referring to the minimum standards for spiritual development. But then if you truly want to achieve much more than what was minimum prescribed, now we learn something more in the Mi'raj about what's important. And that's the issue of salaah. So the hadith continues and speaks about how the Prophet (sawa) was taught the Athaan and then during the Mi'raj salaah became compulsory. Initially it was 50 salaah per day and that was reduced to a bare minimum of 5 salaahs per day per person. In other ahadith we learn that the salaah is the Mi'raj of the believer. 21 / 23

22 Prophet Musa (a.s) was concerned that we would not even manage 5 salaahs per day... But we learn from other ahadith that true believers actually pray 51 rakaats salaah per day...that includes all daily nawafil, especially Tahajjud. Great ulama constantly say that you can't reach any great spiritual position without being consistent in upholding Tahajjud prayers which is a salaah made in the heart of the night - just as the Mi'raj happened during the night. Last night we also reflected on the life of the great revolutionary scholar Ayatullah Sayed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr who had a thirst for spirituality that was only quenched in prayer. His family says that when he used to pray at home, he would spend few minutes sitting on the prayer mat in silence, before he would stand up to start praying. Sometimes it would be longer than a few minutes, up to half an hour before he would stand up to pray. He was asked why he would pause before prayer, he answered, "Since I was young, I made a pledge that I would only pray in full concentration, and due to my commitments, sometimes I need to clear my mind of all the Ideas that might distract me in my prayers." 22 / 23

23 His daughters memories of him include those late nights when they would wake up, only to find their father on a prayer mat, praying the night prayer, Salat-ul-layl. And after Mi'raj..., Prophet Muhammad (sawa) returned to this regular life and so do we after our salaah...it's a return to our daily reality wherein we now must focus our effort on positively changing the world around us. The ummah and humanity at large face serious challenges, from Palestine to Yemen and around the globe. It sometimes feels that we are like stones who have been rolling for 70 years and are about to settle in hell. 23 / 23

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