Ya Ali Madad! The launch of Diamond Jubilee year of Noor Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam (a.s.) is only 89 days away. To keep up with the momentum, here is another enlightenment post to increase our knowledge and enhance our yearning through Dhikr and Angelic Salwat. This enlightenment post has a dhikr track titled, 'Noore Karim, Daaras-Salaam' as it is related to ayats 6:125-127 covered in part 7 of the knowledge section.

Knowledge Section:
In Enlightenment Post No. 10, we read about the properties of "Heart" (Qalb). We have learned that heart of a true believer is in a state of constant fluctuation because it continuously receives Light through unveiling. In this Enlightenment Post, I would like to go into a greater detail about the mechanism of the fluctuation of the Heart and its relationship to the All-Merciful. I have used resources from Ibn al-'Arabi, Rumi and the Holy Qur'an for this post.

1. The All-Merciful: the Turner of Hearts
   (Source: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path of Knowledge by William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1989)

Chittick writes: ...the Prophet said, "The hearts of all children of Adam are like a single heart between the fingers of the All-merciful. O God, O Turner of Hearts, turn our hearts towards obeying Thee!" In many hadiths God is called the "Turner of hearts" (musarrif al-qulub) or "He who makes hearts fluctuate" (muqallib al-qulub). (p.106) Ibn al-'Arabi writes: ...And in the hadith of the fingers there are divine glad tidings, since he [i.e. Prophet Muhammad] attributed the fingers to the All-merciful. Hence He does not cause the heart to fluctuate except from one mercy to another mercy, even though there is affliction (balâ) in various kinds of fluctuation. But there lies in affliction's midst a mercy hidden from man and known to the Real, for the two fingers belong to the All-merciful. (III 198.33) (p.107)

2. Mercy is the heart's fundamental reality
   (Source: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path of Knowledge by William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1989)

Chittick writes: Since the heart is connected to the two fingers of the All-merciful, mercy is the heart's fundamental reality. It cannot but return to the divine mercy in the end (bi'l-ma'âl). This has important eschatological [i.e., doctrines about death and its aftermath] consequences, as Ibn al-'Arabi often reminds us. (p.108) Do you not see that the heart lies between the two fingers of the All-Merciful? That which causes it to fluctuate is only the All-merciful; no other divine name enters in upon it along with the All-merciful. This name gives to it only what it possesses in its own reality, and His Mercy "embraces all things" (7:156). Hence you will not see anything in the heart's fluctuation which leads to distress ('anaâ), chastisement ('adhâb), and wretchedness (shaqâ), unless there is a hidden mercy along with it, since the heart lies between the fingers of the All-merciful, who causes it to fluctuate. If He wills, He keeps it straight (iqâma), and if He wills, He causes it to swerve (izâgha), so this a relative inclination [from straightness]. Hence the heart ends up (ma'âl) at mercy by the property of the authority of this name. He whose heart swerves is like him whose heart goes straight. This are glad tidings from God to His servants, "O My servants who have been immoderate towards yourselves!"—here He does not mention one kind of immoderation (saraf) rather than another, so in this immoderation He includes all the states of those who are immoderate—"Despair not of God's mercy," since that which has made you swerve is the fingers of the All-merciful; "Surely God forgives all sins" (Koran 39:53) (p.108)

3. The Heart is the place of love for God
   (Source: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path of Knowledge by William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1989)

Chittick writes: The heart is the place of love for God, since only the heart can know God in order to love Him. The perfect lover of God accepts Him and loves him in every form He assumes through His self-transmutation. Ibn al-'Arabi explains these points in answering one the al-Tirmidhi's questions: "What is the goblet of love (ka's al-hubb)?" (pp.108-109) The goblet of the love is the lover's heart, not his reason or his sense perception. For the heart fluctuates from state to state, just as God—who is the Beloved— is "Each day upon some task" (55:29). So the lover undergoes constant variation in the object of his love in keeping with the constant variation of the Beloved in His acts. The lover is like a clear and pure glass goblet which undergoes constant variation according to the variation of the liquid within it. The color of the lover is the color of the Beloved. This belongs only to the heart, since reason comes from the world of delimitation [i.e., restriction]; that is why it is called "reason", a word derived from "fetter" [i.e., restraint]. As the sense perception, it obviously and necessarily belongs to the world of delimitation, in contrast to the heart. This can be explained by the fact that love has many diverse and mutually opposed properties. Hence nothing receives these properties except that which has the capacity (quwwa) to fluctuate along with love in those properties. This belongs only to the heart. In order to ascribe something like this to God, look at the words, "I respond to the call of the caller when he calls to Me" (2:186); "God does not become bored that you should be bored"; "When someone remembers (dhikr) Me in himself, I remember him in Myself." All the revealed Law (al-shar'), or most of it, is this type. The wine is precisely what becomes actualized in the cup. And we have explained that the cup is identical with the locus of the manifestation, the wine is identified with the Manifest within it, and the drinking (shurb) is that which is actualized from the Self-discloser in His locus of self-disclosure. (II 113.33) (pp.108-109)

4. The relationship between fluctuation and self-disclosures
   (Source: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path of Knowledge by William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1989)

My Perspective: The path of spiritual progress and development involves: (1) the creation of human beings; (2) the evolution of human beings through faith, knowledge, ibadat, and good deeds; and (3) re-creation of human beings into perfect beings. These three functions of Allah are represented by the following Divine Names: Al-Khaaliq (The Creator), Al-Baari (The Evolver) and Al-Musawwir (The Flawless Shaper). In order to be re-created, transmutation occurs in the heart (qalb) which leads to the opening and full development of the faculty of the heart. This gift is not given to every human being because it requires complete submission to He who is above all else. Ibn al-'Arabi describes the process of new creation as follows: ...They may have heard His words, "When someone comes to Me running, I come to him rushing," or that the heart of the person of faith embraces God's majesty and tremendousness. So the servant turned his face totally towards Him and cut himself off from every faculty that takes him away from Him. When the servant turned his face, God effused from His light a divine knowledge, teaching him by the way of witnessing and self-disclosure that God is not received or rejected by any engendered thing. This is why He said, "Surely in that is a reminder for him who has a heart" (50:37). He mentions only the heart because the heart is known through constant fluctuation of states, since it does not remain in a single state. So also are the divine self-disclosures. Hence he who does not witness the self-disclosures denies them. For the rational mind limits, like other faculties except the heart. The heart does not delimit, but quickly fluctuates in every state. This is why the Lawgiver [i.e. Prophet Muhammad (s.a.s.] said, "The heart is between two of the fingers of All-Merciful; he makes it fluctuate as He desires." The heart fluctuates with the fluctuation of self-disclosures, but the rational faculty is not like that. (p.111)

5. Rumi's description of love for God
   (Source: The Sufi Path of Love by William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, 1983)

Chittick writes: Wine is "that which intoxicates," so there are several kinds: [1] Besides the kind made from grapes; [2] there is also sensuality, which brings about blindness and removes him who drinks it from God's favor; and [3] Love, which tears away the veils separating man from God and brings about union. Rumi devotes much of Dîwân and a significant portion of the Mathnawî to praising the third kind and encouraging its consumption. Here are some samples of Rumi's writing on this topic (pp.312-315): O Saki of the Sufis! Give us a wine that does not come from a vat or grapes! Give that wine whose ferment's fragrance pulls the dead out their graves! (D 1160) Two thousand vats of wine are not equal to a drop of Thy wine! What is the wine of dust compared to the wine of the spirit? This world's wine and sweetmeats, like this world, have no faithfulness; but God's wine and cup, like God, are eternal. (D 30096-97) That grape is for Jesus' community— but the Hallajian wine belongs to the community of the Koran. There are vats of that wine and vats of this. Until you break the first, you will never taste the second! That wine removes heartache from heart for but an instant— it can never extinguish heartache, it can never uproot malice. (D 929-933) If my cup breaks, I will not drink sorrow, for the Saki has another cup up His sleeve. The earthly body is the cup, the spirit is the pure wine. He will give me another cup, for one that I have is defective. (D 6320-21) Oh spiritual Saki, bring spiritual wine! Thou art the Water of Life and we all have insatiable thirst! (D 35649) God's wine is lawful many times over, the wine from God's vat is not forbidden. (D 15804) The wine of the spirit is rare, so go, taste some of that as well! One drop will take away all your cleverness and awareness. When you escape this awareness through constant drinking and intoxication, the Wine-sellers generosity will give you a hundred other awarenesses. When you enter into the mysteries, the spirit will give you a drink. Your shouting and uproar will throw the spheres into tumult. Take this wine, not that red or amber one. This one will make you the master of meaning and deliver you from the outward forms! (D 4273-77)

6. Expansion of the Qalb (heart) of the pious ones

Transliteration	English Translation
'Alam nashrah laka sadrak? (94:1)	(O' Our Apostle Muhammad!)3079,3080 What! Have We not expanded for thee thy breast? (94:1)
Wa waza'-naa 'anka wizrak (94:2)	And3081 We took off from thee thy burden? (94:2)

Here is the footnote (pp.1873-1875) for the above ayat from S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali's translation of the Holy Qu'ran:

Vr. 1,2 (3079,3080) 'Sharhe-sadr' means expansion of the breast, i.e., heart. It is an acknowledged term, to mean the broadening or the extending of the faculty of conscience, reasoning and understanding for the accommodation of wider, greater or higher knowledge. The verse means an assertion from God that He had given the heart of the Holy Prophet, the greatest expanse for knowledge. When Moses was commanded by God to proceed to Pharaoh, to preach to him the truth and admonish him against his wicked and evil ways of thought and action, and warm him against his rebellious attitude towards the true Lord of the Universe, he prayed for the extension or the expansion of his breast or heart, meaning to increase him in knowledge (see 20:25). The same words occur in 6:125, wherein is mentioned that whomsoever God pleases, He extends or expands the individual's breast, i.e., heart, for Islam. ... The expansion meant here is the illumination of the heart or the soul with the vastness of the great extent of the knowledge effected, not in this world but in the very creation of the soul and the body of the Holy Prophet and of those of his family who had to play his role in his place after him, as guides to mankind, viz. his Ahlul-Bait. Note that the same expansion of the breast or heart was prayed for by Moses (see 20:25) whereas, in the case of the Holy Prophet, it is granted without asking for it. The verse clearly refers to the Holy Prophet being given the helper in his cousin Ali-ibne-Abi-Taleb. The appointment of Ali as the Vazier , i.e., the Bearer of the Burden, was announced at the very outset of the Holy Prophet's ministry, in the historic assembly of the leaders of the Qoreish, which meeting is known in history as the 'Da'wate-Asheera', i.e.. the Feast of the Kith and Kin—(Gibbon by W. Smith, Tabari—ibne Athir, Abul Fida and EHI).

7. The Qalb of believers versus disbelievers

Transliteration	English Translation
Fa-many-yuridil-laahu 'any-yahdi-yahuu yash-rah sadrahuu lil-'Islaam; wa many-yurid 'any-yuzil-lahuu yaj-'al sadrahuu zay-yiqan harajan-ka'annanaa yassa'-'adu fis-samaaa'. Kazaa-lika yaj-'alullaahur-rijsa 'alal-laziina laa yazzak-karuun. (6:125)	Whomsoever807 willeth God that He should guide them aright, He expandeth his breast for Islam, and whomsoever He intendeth to leave straying, He maketh his breast straight and narrow as though he is climbing into the very skies; Thus doth God layeth reprehensible chastisement on those who believe not. (6:125)
Wa haazaa Siraatu Rabbika Musta-qiimaa: qas fassalnal- 'Aayaati li-qaw-miny-yazzak-karuun. (6:126)	And this is the path of thy Lord, a Straight path; indeed have We made clear our signs for the people who take heed. (6:126)
Lahum Daarus-Salaami 'inda Rabbihim wa huwa waliyyu-hum-bimaa kaanuu ya'-maluun. (6:127)	For them shall be the abode of peace with their Lord, and He is our Guardian because of what they used to do. (6:127)

Here is the footnote (p.549) for the above ayat from S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali's translation of the Holy Qu'ran:

Vr. 126 (807) The Holy Prophet was asked as to the sign of one's being guided aright—He said: "The inclination towards the life hereafter, dislike against the present world which in the abode of infatuation, and preparedness for death, i.e., to depart from this world. Those are the signs of an enlightened heart. The uncleanliness mentioned [in the ayat] is the resultant state of the soul owing to the disbelief." The words meaning 'And whomsoever He intendeth to leave straying'—never meant that God renders the disbelievers incapable of believing aright—it means that those who disbelieve are allow to go astray as they themselves desire. 'As though he is climbing into the very skies' means false pride of the disbelievers that they imagine that by rejecting the belief in God, they feel as if ascending into skies—i.e., by their rejecting the truth they themselves feel the strain as one feels the strain in his breast when one ascends any height, he feels his breast heaving and his heart panting. His breast is narrowed and straitened owing to his disbelief.

8. For Your Reflection:

Please reflect on the following teachings of Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam:

1. "...that you should have honesty and humility in your hearts" (Karachi Dec., 25, 1964)
2. "...in all times you should carry in your hearts light, faith, humility and happiness" (Karachi Dec., 13, 1964)
3. "...that their material comfort is such that spiritual humility is no longer warranted, I can tell you that the true and real happiness which I pray it should be your blessing to experience, will never touch your hearts" (Karachi Dec., 13, 1964)
4. "...The only source of real happiness, the only source of peace and light in oneself is from your Faith" (Karachi Nov., 21, 1964)
5. "...the most important aspect of your worldly life is your religion, your faith, your soul" (Mumbai Nov, 8, 1967)
6. "...the key to your success must be the regularity and the open-heartedness with which you go to pray everyday" (Nairobi, Dec., 10, 1961)
7. "...that any spiritual child in this Jamat has a black heart" (Sidhpur, Nov., 14, 1969)
8. "...That you should have pure souls and clean hearts is fundamental to you, but it is also as fundamental to the Jamat" (Mumbai Nov, 27, 1973)
    
   
9. Conclusion:

In this enlightenment post, we have learned that God empowers the true servant through continuous self-disclosures and witnessing till the servant's heart (soul) becomes a vast ocean of higher spiritual knowledge. The heart not only fluctuates with self-disclosures and witnessing but also keeps on expanding laterally. The Holy Prophet's heart expanded to such an extent that the image of the Universal Soul was imprinted into his heart. Therefore, Allah, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a.s), Noor Mowlana Murtaza Ali (a.s.), our Holy Imams, and our present and living Imam, Noor Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini (a.s.) have given a great emphasis to stay on the Straight and the Right path so that we may find a place in the Abode of Peace (Daraas-Salaam). May Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam fill our spiritual hearts with his NOOR and nothing else! Ameen.

Dhikr Section: New Luminous Dhikr: Noore Karim, Daaras-Salaam
In the firman made on December 13, 1964 in Karachi, Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam said that 'his Noor has indicated to you where and in which direction you must turn, so as to obtain spiritual and material satisfaction'. I have taken this firman to my heart and am now doing dhikrs which call on the Noor directly because in my heart, Noor Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini (a.s.) is the pillar of Light and is represented by the words 'Noore Karim' in the dhikrs. I firmly hold on to this luminous pillar in my dhikr of Noore Karim, Daaras-Salaam. Let us perform the luminous dhikr of Noore Karim, Daaras-Salaam with utmost humility and tenderness of the heart (length 2 min 59 sec; 4.1 MB). The lyrics for the 40 beads are given below:

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Noore Karim, Daaras-Salaam
With the wasila of Noore Karim, I yearn for the Abode of Peace

Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds!

Reaffirmation of Baiyat:
Let us also reaffirm our baiyat to our Holy Imam, NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam by reciting the Shahada from the second part of our Holy Dua:

"La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur-Rasoolullah, 'Aliyyun Amirul-Mu'mineen 'Aliyullah Mowlana Shah Karim ul Hussaini, Al-Imamul Hazarul Maujood." "There is no deity except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, 'Ali - the master of believers - is from Allah. Our Lord Shah Karim Al-Hussaini is our present and living Imam"

Angelic Salwat Nazrana:
Let us now start presenting a nazrana of at least 101 salwats or continuous salwat for 3 to 5 minutes to our beloved NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam for the fulfillment of our noble wishes. May our beloved Mowla continually keep us on the Right Path. Ameen.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Allâhumâ salli alâ Muhammadin wa âle Muhammad:
O Allah! Bestow Peace on and through Muhammad and his Descendants

Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds!

May NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam (a.s.) grant peace, prosperity, happiness, barakat, higher spiritual enlightenment, spiritual & luminous tayid (help) and empowerment to you, your family, your Jamat and the worldwide Jamat! Ameen.

Rakh Mowla je Noor te Yaqeen (Certainly, we trust in Mowla's Light only)

Haizinda — Qayampaya
(Our Present Imam is Living and His NOOR is Eternal)

Your spiritual brother,
Noorallah Juma
Thursday, April 13, 2017

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Article by Dr. Noorallah Juma