Word 8: The one who did not reach universe knowledge by self-knowledge in the spiritual journey, what did he/she perceive?
Word 8: The one who did not reach universe knowledge by self-knowledge in the spiritual journey, what did he/she perceive?
“We will show them Our signs in all the horizons and in themselves, until it is clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness over everything?” (Fussilat 53)
Universe refers to physical world. Creatures are constantly changing. In other words, universe means movement, not that the universe moves, but the world itself is motion. When you look at a mosquito and its mechanism, you are amazed at the complexity of the mosquito’s body structure. Someone said that a mosquito has all the limbs of an elephant, in addition to having wings that fly with it. It takes many years of research to identify a small creature such as a mosquito. This little creature itself forms a very small part of the world around us, all of which are signs of God.
A sign is an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the presence or occurrence of something. When we say that an object is a sign of God, it means it shows the knowledge of God, the power of God, and God itself (all creations of this world are the manifestations of God). Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali (A) said: “I am the biggest sign of Allah, and God does not have any sign bigger than me”. He meant a perfect human is the biggest sign of God. People are often preoccupied with the outside of themselves, not paying attention to the inward of themselves to see the great sign of God. Amir Al-Mu’minin said: “ The self-knowledge is the most benefited knowledge between two knowledges (1- Self-Knowledge & 2- Knowledge of the Universe)”. After the spiritual journey within ourselves and attains the self-knowledge, we know the truth of all things, and becomes aware of their inner selves. After self-knowledge, a mystic reaches the stage that the properties of stones, plants, animals, numbers, and letters will be revealed.
Gabriel (A) revealed to Prophet Muhammad (S) that “there is no surah in the Qur’an that does not contain the letter f (Fa in Arabic), except for one surah which is the surah of praise (Al-Hamd), and for this reason the recitation of Surah Al-Hamd has healing properties”. Imam Sadiq (A) said, “Do not be surprised if you recite Surah Hamad on a dead person and he/she comes back to life”. Ibn Al-Arabi (a great mystic) has a book called “Secrets of Solitude” in which he describes the worlds that appear to man after solitude and the spiritual journey of self-knowledge. Below are excerpts from his book:
“Go to solitude if your intellect dominates your fantasies. If your fantasies are dominant to your intellect, do not go to solitude, except with the help of a mystic master who will protect you from the dangers of false fantasies and imaginations. The difference between inspirations from angels and demons is that if the inspirations are from angels, it will be accompanied by coldness and liking, but if the inspirations are evil, the human body will start shaking and some kind of pain will appear. The important point is that you should not always have a thing other than God in your heart, and whatever the authorities give you, you should not stop there, because all these officials are all divine tests. That is, if you go to solitude and they show you something, you should not stop in that position, and if you do not stop, they will give you more than that, and they will not take away what they showed you.
The first thing that will be discovered for you will be the world of senses, so that the walls and darkness do not cause cover, and you will see everything that people do in the houses. At this stage, you must keep it and do not reveal it to anyone, because God made you aware of it, for example, do not say that this person was stealing publicly. You should tell him privately that he has committed a sin and he should not do it. The difference between Methali intuition and sensory intuition is that, for example, you see face or action of a person, then you close your eyes and open it again. If you see what you saw first, it is an Methali intuition, and if you do not see it again, that will be sensory intuition.
If you continue to worship in solitude, you will be transferred from sensory intuition to Methali intuition, and there you will see rational meanings in sensory forms. If they give you water, milk, or honey in solitude, drink it. If they give you wine, do not drink it unless it is accompanied by rain water. So, continue the worship and remembrance of God until you are transferred from the Methal world to the world of meaning (Rational World), and still keep worshiping and remembrance of God until your remembrance manifested for you. In this world, you will know the benefit and harm of every stone. If you love this knowledge and stay in this position, you will be destroyed, but if you continue your worship the properties of plants will be revealed to you. Do not stop in this position and continue your dhikr and worship until you reach the next position where in this position the properties of animals are revealed to you, and you see that every creature glorifies God. If you see that every creature says its dhikr and you say your dhikr, this is real intuition, otherwise it will be Methali intuition. If you continue worshiping, you will see a light that some fires are separated from it and you want to hide from that light, so do not be afraid and continue your worship. In the next world, you will see another light where they will teach you the politeness in sight of God. If you do not stop in this world, you will reach the world of the heart, and after that, you will reach the world of friendship and enmity, and after that, you will reach the divine world again. Whenever you reach these worlds, they inform you of their position. If you pass through these worlds, you will reach the world of stability, and then you will reach the world of imagination, and then you will reach the world where we see ourselves full of light. If you do not stop here and continue remembrance and worship, you will reach a world where you will see all the children of Adam (A), all of whom glorify God, and you will find yourself among them. Again, if you do not stop and continue remembrance and worship, you will reach the world of mercy, and after that, if you continue, you will disappear and then you will be found again and at the end you will back to the Earth or sensory world. Know that all these spiritual journeys that you go is movement in yourselves.
These are that mystics see in the spiritual journey within oneself in solitude, which is why Allameh Hasanzadeh said “The one who did not reach universe knowledge by self-knowledge in the spiritual journey, what did he/she perceive?”. If man knows what is going on in himself, the worldly life (Earth) will become worthless to him. The one who knows himself knows God. You think you are a small body, rather there is a big universe in you!
Man is the one who is a follower of the Prophet Muhammad (S) and follows him to Ascension and see the truths and united to those truths. The ones who see the truth are speechless because if they tell others, they will make fun of them. Man, after knowing himself, can also know other beings. Those who reached high spiritual positions are physically like us, but the main difference is that they worked hard and did good deeds and were chaste until the doors of the divine worlds were opened for them.
All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.