Fussilat (41):30 “Those who say: Our Lord is God then continue in the right way, the angels keep coming upon them, [saying] “Fear not, nor be grieved, and receive good news of the Paradise which you were promised.”
- 1st: “Those who say: Our Lord is God: First investigate your needs and CONCLUDE that The Lord/Sustainer/Care-provider of your needs must be The Owner of the whole universe, “Our Lord is God”
- Qalu/Qul/Quloo (Say in English): Doesn’t mean that the tongue simply says something. It means, it is your CONCLUSION. It means, after concluding, CONVEY this message to the people. Qur’an speaks to your intellect, to your consciousness, to all of the faculties given to your humanity. Not simply to your tongue.
- Religion must have something to do with my feelings, my thoughts, my understanding, my practical life. It must be within me and have real meaning and implications. It starts with the REALIZATION of WHO IS MY LORD?
- Ex/ I go to NYU, use the bathroom, rooms and spaces but the owner of the building has nothing to do with my practical use. However, if I need a projector, and ask for it, and someone sets it up for me, I say, “Thank you so much! You are taking care of me and responding to my needs.” Lordship is this; realizing this relationship.
- Establish your connection with God by realizing Lordship on YOU. Otherwise, you will be completely alienated from your Owner, and will not feel any effects on your life.
- How can you realize your Lord in your life?
- Ex/ do you have a father? When do you realize that your father is really YOUR FATHER? “Um, dad, I need $500 for school…” He provides.
- I have to feel the CONNECTION between MY NEED, and HIS PROVISION that SATISFIES MY NEED.
- LORDSHIP COMES THERE.
- FUNDAMENTAL STEP IS TO REALIZE OUR OWN NEEDS!
- Ex/I want to speak right now. Do you need to speak? Yes. Speaking is occurring. Who enabled you to speak? Who enables you to see? Feel? Think? Enjoy pleasure? Experience fear? Where are they coming from? In order to see the effect of lordship on me, I first have to realize MY OWN position, no one else. (not “but he can’t see, but she can’t hear”)
- Question: What if I want to hear but can’t? Ex/hearing loss with age. Then the question is, Who can make me hear? Who is responsible for hearing? We still need the Lordship/Favor from the one who established the universe as it is.
- Ex/we say “we breathe”. I don’t feel like I need breathing, unless there’s a restriction and I feel like I need it. It is THEN that I realize my need for air and breathing. So I have to think, I am in need of air, breathing & the existence of these things, so I have to search for the Source of Answering of my needs. That is my Lord.
- No one else can answer your need but the One who established this universe. That is Your Lord. But we are not conscious of it, in our practical lives.
- We cannot separate “claimed belief” from practical life. That is why we are not FEELING our belief in God.
- When I feel aware of MY LORD, i.e. who is taking care of all of my needs right now, is GOD, (Rabbuna Allah, My Lord is God) now God is not ALIENATED from me. Alien means, IDK, someone created the universe and I have nothing to do with Him now that I am here. When we say “God” we don’t mean much. Realization of your LORD is key FIRST.
- You realize your LORD when you realize your NEEDINESS.
- Who can guarantee for me? My needs are in need of guarantees. Who can be the PROVIDER of compassion for me? The food we eat? The air we breathe? It is the act of the One who established this universe, and He is my LORD. It means, I AM TAKING CARE OF YOU. That’s why we must ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION TO THIS: WHO IS TAKING CARE OF MY, MY NEEDS?
- If someone does not acknowledge their needs, cannot realize their Lord.
- 2nd: “Thumma Istaqamu (then continue in the right way)”: it means, be consistent in what you say. Keep this awareness of Lordship right, consistent in your life!
- Ex/if you are a student, istaqamu. It means, BEHAVE AS A STUDENT. Study, go to class, and acknowledge your position as a student.
- We have to acknowledge our positions as NEEDY BEINGS, ALWAYS, AND BEHAVE AS SUCH.
- 3rd: “Angels keep coming upon them, [saying] Fear not, nor be grieved…”
- When will you see angels? When you say “rubbuna Allah” “Our Lord is God”? Well, I said it and I did not see angels…
- We are speaking of having this awareness, of your neediness, and awareness that the one who owns this universe is taking care of you, whose knowledge must be Absolute, whose qualities are Absolute, and you belong to the One with absolute qualities, you are His production, everything happening as a result of His will and His choice, everything in this world ACTS IN HIS NAME, REPRESENTS HIM, IF* you are AWARE of it.
- Whatever REPRESENTS HIM from my perspective, IS AN ANGEL*!
- Ex/ when he speaks to his father for money, and realizes that his father can easily afford $500, and loves him, and is ready/willing to give him $500, as SOON AS HE REALIZES THIS, all his worries DISAPPEAR! Did he get the money yet in this example? NO! But this realization removes all fear/grief!
- With the realization of this secure connection, serenity comes down, happiness comes down, no more worries, and no fear.
- Angels: news-bearers: that which carries the message of His Presence/Qualities and delivers to our consciousness.
- Since the Quran speaks to our humanness, teaching us what we can’t know of unseen “ghaib” world, it speaks to our feelings and tells us how we can confirm the presence of existence beyond the conditions of this universe.
- In the language of the Qur’an, MULK: property (the things in my hand, i.e. land-based, physical world). Every MULK/property/that which I can physically interact with, has within it an aspect which is described as MALAKOOT. Maleek: the one who holds the Authority over it, the king, for instance.
- Malakoot is taking place on Mulk.
- This is a simple way of understanding angels. Ex/ if someone hurt another being, handcuffed and taken to court. We are witnessing the effects of authority of the Maleek on him – i.e, court system. The effects we observe in the event is its “malakoot” aspect.
- When we read the book (mulk), meaning is coming to us (malakoot). Is meaning coming to us through paper itself? Ink? Information? Through the organization of pages, shapes of ink, there is a transferal of the message of the Author to me. The MEANING is delivered to me. The transformer is the angel.
- That is how we communicate with the Owner of this universe. Through the malakootiyah – Angelic aspect of the universe
- When you discover meaning, this is the angelic aspect of this world descending on you. We cannot use faith to IMAGINE the existence of angels. We have to feel the penetration of meaning, emotions descending on us in order to confirm their existence.
- Can’t read Quran like a storybook, or Arabic literature. It is a book to human beings, which include endless layers of human consciousness/intellect/ feelings/etc, to teach how we can practically confirm Belief (Iman in Arabic). That’s why Qur’an is constantly saying it is a book of guidance, for those who think and reflect.
- It must be read as the WORD OF GOD, not a piece of literature.
- In Qur’an, when we read such verses stating, “God and angels COME DOWN to you,” or “I am coming,” or “I am nearer to you,” etc
- “Coming” of God or angels does not take time, space or effort like in our realm of existence, because this Speech is coming from an Absolute Source, who is beyond space and time. Can’t understand it and relate the text from your perspective, as if YOU are coming, within your own context. We have to remember, it is the Speech of God, and it must be understood within the context of the Absolute Being.
- Another ex/ when Qur’an speaks of Gabriel: “Spirit.” Do we think of an archangel in our imagination? “Gabriel” is the act of creation of INSPIRATION. When we experience inspiration, we are experiencing the manifestation of Gabriel.
- You cannot make a separation between your eyes (mulk) and your power of sight (malakoot). They are created together. As the book is written (mulk), meaning is engrained into it (malakoot), can’t separate them. Can’t separate the MULK and MALAKOOT aspects of this universe. Both are created beings.
- So when you read the Qur’an, can’t separate LITERAL meaning and MESSAGE within it. Must read them together. There are LAYERS of understanding – this is different.
- Question: can I believe angels as things flying around as one layer of meaning? Answer: NO. No such things as ONE LAYER (this is SEPARATING!). Meaning is embedded in endless layers. We have to start receiving MEANING. And the layers of meaning can be found only within the context of the Speech of the Absolute Being. We cannot imagine something and then claim that this imagination is one of the layers of meaning.
- Question: “we have to reconcile this understanding of the literal versus the meaning” Answer: There is no such thing as “reconciling” the 2 from one another.
- Unlearning is very difficult! Child’s imaginative thinking is hard to unlearn.
- You need to learn the METHODOLOGY of how to read the text. Bear in mind the fundamental principles.
- Question: I thought you said we did not need teachers. I would have never knew to read the verse in this way. Answer: We need teachers because we are made with a capacity for learning. But we cannot IMITATE teachers, and repeat. We have to learn the right methodology, go back, practice, study, and confirm. We discover more and more layers every day if we are learning. By imitation, we do not learn. We do not learn when we COPY what teacher says!
- That’s why, before reading the Qur’an, we should take a course on how to read the Qur’an, the METHODOLOGY.
- 1st interact with the mulk: like a mountain/a tree, then contemplate reflect on the malakootiyah (the meaning imbedded in the beings) aspect of it that connects me to The Creator (Maleek).
- It is BEAUTIFUL! Everything is a vehicle to take you to the presence of your lord! Your eye/ your power of sight. Your mulk is an act of creation. Your malakoot is an act of creation. Book is creation. Meaning of the book is another act of creation as well! My brain is an act of creation, and my thinking is ANOTHER act of creation. We have to start communicating with The Creator through these acts of creation. Only then you will feel in the presence of YOUR Lord through this acknowledgment.
- 4th “and receive good news of the Paradise which you were promised.”
- What is paradise for you? Eternal happiness, limitless happiness – forever.
- How can I obtain it? Most scholars and people say, “After you die” – But that doesn’t satisfy me right now. That is beyond my human capacity to imagine.
- I must be able to obtain it right now. My humanity needs it. I CAN! Through the realization of my being! I am OWNED by The One who provides everything for me. NOTHING else can provide ANYTHING FOR YOU. Whoever is providing for me now, will provide for me eternally because I realize from the way the things are coming into existence, their cause of existence must be Eternal, Absolute! So by connecting to Him in my consciousness NOW, my guarantee of eternity is THERE, in my realization of His Lordship with me here and now.
- You want to be Eternally happy. Who can provide it? Whoever is making you happy here and now, whoever created this desire within you. IMMEDIATELY, WITHIN my acknowledgment/realization of this Lordship, is my Paradise. It lies in the certainty of my confirmation of Lordship now, allowing me to attach my feelings, my thoughts, my hopes, in this secure relationship that is continuously manifesting itself to me now. Whoever is the cause of existence of now, is the ETERNAL Source. There is no separation of the Source in the way of time or space.
- I shouldn’t have to “wait” to access Eternity, because The Eternal One, i.e. The Source of Eternity, is guiding me to connect with Him right now. In fact, Eternity includes the time right now. It is within my capacity, here and now, to connect to The Eternal One. I do not have to wait until Eternity to feel this connection. The Creator is ever present in this understanding.
- Too often, scholars are separating time, and consequently, separating The Source of “time” (i.e existence), from us while we are in this transient world. Again, there is no separation of the Source in the way of time or space. We have to see the logical inconsistencies.
”To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing.”
Baqara (2): 115
Otherwise, it is a FALSE CLAIM to say you believe in paradise, and you will feel worried, insecure, with ongoing moments in this world.
Who do your FEELINGS/EXPECTATIONS belong to? Who do YOU belong to? You are constantly sending out order forms of your needs that are constantly being fulfilled.
Fussilat 41: 37 “Among His signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Adore not the sun or the moon, but prostrate yourselves in adoration before God, who has created them – if it is Him whom you worship.”
Ramadan: Renew our minds and belief in Ramadan! Tejdeed, i.e. renewal, is necessary.