November 2015
Adam was instructed to perform his duties as Patron-in-Chief after he was taught Ilm-ul-Asma (the divine knowledge).
Allah said:
“وَقُلْنَا يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنتَ وَزَوْجُكَ الْجَنَّةَ وَكُلَا مِنْهَا رَغَدًا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَـٰذِهِ الشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ”
(Surah Al-Baqarah 2:35)
According to divinely learned scholars, this verse describes the highest and most privileged state granted to a divinely favored individual. Every spiritual rank has a code of conduct. Allah’s instruction to Adam had two protocols: to live in Paradise happily and to stay away from a particular tree.
A tree grows from a seed, upward and downward, moving through stages of development, maturity, decline, and finally death. Like all beings, it completes its journey.
It may not be improbable to consider Adam and Eve as analogous to a tree. Animals, plants, and cosmic bodies enter the phenomenal world and then return to Ghaib. Each being appears and departs within its own matrix. The unseen becomes seen and returns to the unseen.
Readers, imagine a conveyor belt at an airport baggage claim. The baggage appears because the belt is moving. Similarly, the universe is continually in motion. What appears, disappears. The friends of Allah describe Paradise as a realm hidden from material eyes. Allah’s reality behind the phenomenal world is unchanging.
Allah says:
“فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ اللّٰهِ تَبْدِيلًا وَلَنْ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ اللّٰهِ تَحْوِيلًا”
(Surah Fatir 35:43)
Our father Adam lived in Paradise after learning Ilm-ul-Asma. Later, he was removed from that heavenly existence and sent to Earth. Allah, in His mercy, accepted Adam’s repentance and said:
“قُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ”
(Surah Al-Baqarah 2:38)
The chain of divine guidance continued. More than one hundred thousand prophets were sent, ending with the final Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Every matter of life was clarified through the Qur’an and Sunnah. Both humans and jinn were addressed.
Individuals who followed this guidance attained nobility and were honored with a role similar to Patron-in-Chief.
Yet the children of Adam became forgetful of their nobility. They mistook the phenomenal world for reality and repeated the corrupt behaviors attributed to ancient jinn.
The historical record of the jinn appears before the inner eye. It seems the same film is being replayed now on Earth.
Alas, the majority of Adam’s offspring repeat these patterns.
What was once prohibited has become fashionable. There is no distinction between what is pure and impure. What the jinn once corrupted is now repeated by human beings.
The children of Adam kill innocents mercilessly. They kill children in schools, passengers on buses, and people over race, religion, language, or politics.
The material-obsessed forget that those who ruled for forty years, or gathered hundreds of tons of gold, were eventually removed, humiliated, and turned to dust.
You too possess a head.
You too will die, so be cautious.
Your body is shaped from the dust of ancient kings.
Without surrender, you burn in the fire of your own ego.
Aadmi and Insan are often considered synonyms, but they represent two distinct states of Adam’s reality. Insan refers to the spiritually illuminated and divinely favored servant.
The other aspect of Adam is like yeast, a substance with inherent decay. Opposite to decay is Noor, pure illumination and Tajalli.
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.
When the universe was created and Allah said “Be”, no being understood willingness or unwillingness. Allah lifted this veil and addressed creation:
“أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ”
(Surah Al-A‘raf 7:172)
“Am I not your Lord?”
All beings, including humans, heard. Hearing awakened sight, and they beheld Allah. Speech was enabled, and all said, “Yes, You are our Lord.” This established the capacities of hearing, seeing, and willing.
One may ask: if humanity heard Allah, saw Him, and expressed willingness in that realm, why is it unable to see Allah now, even though He said He is nearer to our life-force?
In my view, these capacities were activated in our spiritual existence before our material existence. Human life has two dimensions. One is bound by matter, the other is beyond time and space. Even when the body sleeps, we eat, drink, feel pleasure or discomfort, and even perform intimate actions in dreams.
We have already affirmed Allah’s lordship while beholding Him. Why can we not now awaken those same attributes that recognized His voice? This is the question that stands after the question mark.
How can such vision return? The divine books state clearly that He is closer than life itself, He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden.
Allah says:
“وَفِي أَنفُسِكُمْ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ”
(Surah Adh-Dhariyat 51:21)
“I am within you, so do you not see?”
Allah Hafiz