The opening verses of Surah Al Baqara guides us towards believing in the HIDDEN reality (having ‘Emaan‘ In this). It’s right in the beginning of the Holy Quraan, so, it’s important.
With the name of Allah most Beneficient ever Merciful
“This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allah; Who believe in the Unseen.…“ Al Quran 2:3
Beliving in the unseen or the hidden reality is about accepting that there are things which exist that are hidden from our normal perception of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
On the highest level, this hidden reality comprises of us believing in Allah SWT, the angels, life after death, heaven, hell and so forth. All of this is hidden from our senses.
Here is an example of the hidden reality that we all experience individually;
Imagine you are an eagle soaring high above a mountain and you spot this little mouse far away with your telescopic vision. You dive down with your claws outstretched to catch it but it just manages to escape… Stop! This imagination of ours does not have shape, size or physical make up. No one else can see our thoughts, yet somehow… it still exist.
Now let’s see how important these thoughts are:
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) has said that the worth of our prayer lies in the actual time that we spend thinking about Allah SWT. If we prayed the whole night while thinking about how we’re going to improve on our house then we have not prayed at all.
This is how important thoughts are. This is how important the hidden reality is.
On the day of Judgement Allah SWT will judge us by our intentions which are actually our thoughts. As an example, if we prayed to be recognised as a pious person then we would probably end up in hell because our intentions stemmed from our pride.
What we are seeing is that Islam teaches that this hidden reality is more important than our physical actions. Now our thoughts and intentions cover different departments such as; do we have the ability to analyze our thoughts and actions and conclude that we are wrong.
If we cannot be just in such this then we are seriously lacking in faith (Emaan).
“O ye who believe! stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts, lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” Al Quran 4:135
We all have an inner conscience which we are supposed to take care off by listening to it and obeying it no matter how difficult it is. When we are doing something, we must think of our Creator and ask Him if it’s OK.
Our conscience will give us feelings. We must never condone wrong. If we do not obey our conscience or instinct then we would lose the ability to differentiate between right and wrong. We would lose our humanity.
The wars, the increase in divorce rates are all indications to us that we’re losing this inner conscience.
Feelings – this too is an important part of the hidden reality. Islam teaches us not to harbor jealousy, hatred, envy, greed and pride but to instead cultivate respect and love. Just as the sight and smell of dung is offensive to us, so too, we must think of our feelings of jealousy, hatred, envy, greed and pride as being dung. It’s disgusting.
Love is all important. Love is a prerequisite to having faith (Emaan) and it is the way to attaining the highest rank of human potential. Here too, love is also a part of the hidden reality. It’s something that is beyond our normal senses. No one can see our love.
Love starts from loving Allah’s Chosen Ones for the sake of Allah first. Because this love is associated with our Creator it must have priority. All our other relationships must be secondary.
When we put Allah first, when it comes to love, then all our worldly relationships will end up better. We would not be infatuated with beauty or loving to gratify our selfish desires but we would gradually grow to love others based on true, inner virtues.
Apart from this, attaining belief is about loving for others what we love for ourselves. No matter who, no matter race or gender, no matter belief or social standing… we must love for them what we love for ourselves.
Emotional abuse is far worse than a physical beating. Ah, the thought of someone dying with a broken heart is unbearable to those who are sensetive to other peoples feelings. The Aulia Allah will teach you never to hurt anyone’s hearts. These too are all aspects of the hidden reality.
Here too, the wars, the divorce rates, our failing family relationships are all indications that we are losing our humanity and our faith.
There are plenty of Hadith that record that the Holy Prophet Muhammad Salallahu Alayhe Wasallam was aware of people’s thoughts. He had the ability to see events of the future and he made predictions that came true. This also applies to the Aulia Allah.
Decades after his passing away, as we sifted through his audio recordings, we found predictions of our Pir-o-Murshid, Dr Hakim Hazrath Khwaja Sayed Shareef Ahmed Ali Shah RA (lovingly known as Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saab RA). One such recording of his discusses this very newspaper (The Rabbiul Awwal Special). Fifteen years before its first publication, he spoke about how people will react when reading our newspaper and how it would make the readers ponder.
What comes through is that there are two parts to us human beings and these two parts are in conflict. One is the physical world of form, shape, thinking, living and the other is our spirituality.
“If a human being were a man because of form, Ahmad (Mohammed) and Bú Jahl would be just the same. The painting on the wall is like Adam: see from the form what thing in it is wanting. The spirit is wanting in that resplendent form: go, seek that jewel rarely found!” Mathnawi
This is what the deeper teachings of Islam are all about, to grow our third dimension, our spirituality so that we see the hidden realities. The soul will live forever and this life is all about growing it and strengthining it in the right direction.
This entails controlling our carnal desires on the one hand by not chasing worldly things, freeing ourselves from hatred and envy. We must focus on attaining “Emaan”, which is all about knowing our Creator by thinking about Him, by cleaning up our thoughts, by thinking well of everyone and by building up relationships of love especially with Allah’s Chosen ones, Insha-Allah.
Our souls and our conscience is not about words, but feelings. When we have good thoughts and when we love then we purify and strengthen our souls and this is all important.
“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it;
And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-
Truly he succeeds that purifies it,
And he fails that corrupts it!” Al Quraan 91:7 END