Supplications For Higher Spiritual Enlightenment

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

Ya Ali Madad! The Jamati Mushkil Aasan satado is instituted twice a year. One of the key congregational satado prayer is ‘Ya Ali tu Rahem Kar, Ya Mowla tu Fazal Kar‘ which means ‘O Ali have mercy Upon Us, O Mowla make make us prosperous in terms of material and spiritual wealth and higher spiritual enlightenment‘. In the material world, the word ‘prosperous’ can be applied to health, job security, family and human relationships, knowledge, property and service to humanity. In the Spirit world, the word ‘prosperous’ is also applicable for the acquisition of spiritual wealth which comes in the form of knowledge and recognition.

In this prayer week, may Noor Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam, the 49th direct lineal descendant of the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.), grant peace, prosperity, happiness, barakat, higher spiritual enlightenment, spiritual & luminous tayid (help) and empowerment to the global Jamat as we go through this difficult period. Ameen.

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

Introduction

This post has five parts:

1. Ayats from Surah Al-Ahzab and Commentaries on these Verses;
2. Ibn ‘Arabi and His Prayers
3. Excerpts from Prayers of Ibn ‘Arabi
4. Applications of the Above Knowledge
5. Global prayers and Three Grand Aspirations.

1. Ayats from Surah Al-Ahzab and Commentaries on these Verses

Ayat 33:42

This ayat reads as follows:

“And¹⁸⁶⁶ glorify Him morning and evening.”

Holy Quran Ayat 33:42

Explanation of Ayat 33:42

Here is the footnote from S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali’s translation of the Holy Quran:

Footnote 1866

Remember God with purity, i.e., being clean and pure in thought and action and remembering God’s purity. This ordinance indicates a muslim is wanted by the Lord to be always clean and pure in spirit, body, thought, word and action and to go on purifying his soul, being aloof from every kind of physical as well as spiritual pollution.

Footnote 1866 S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali, p. 1272

Ayat 33:43

This ayat reads as follows:

“He¹⁸⁶⁷ it is Who confereth upon you His blessings, and (likewise do) the angels, that He may bring you forth from the darkness (of infidelity) into the light (of faith); and He is unto believers, All Merciful”

Holy Quran Ayat 33:43

Explanation of Ayat 33:43

Here is the footnote from S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali’s translation of the Holy Quran:

Footnote 1867

The greatest mercy and blessings from God is His guidance which could be had through the Holy Prophet and the Holy Ahlul-Bait whom God himself has purified (33:33) and the mental inclination on our behalf called ‘Tawfeeq‘ to avail of the divine guidance against wrong inclinations of our self from within and the devilish attractions from without.

Those who believe in God and remember Him in abundance are led out of darkness of ignorance and sinful straying to the light of knowledge and righteousness, Rnv. 24:35, 36, 2:257

Footnote 1867 S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali, p. 1272

2. Ibn ‘Arabi and His Prayers

In their book titled ‘The Seven Days of the Heart [Awrad al-usbu (Wird)]
(Prayers for the nights and days of the week), Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein have translated prayers of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. They describe Ibn ‘Arabi and his prayers as follows:

Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240) has been long known as a great spiritual master. Author of over 350 works, he has exerted an unparalleled influence, not only on his immediate circle of friends and disciples, but on succeeding generations who have taken his teaching as superlative exposition of Unity (tawhid). He views the world according to a fundamental harmony, in which all things are intricately interconnected and the human being is given a place of immeasurable dignity.

…Ibn ‘Arabi’s “Prayers of the Week” are neither devotional in any ordinary sense, nor do they appear to be intended as prayers for communal recitation. On the contrary, they seem to be more private and intimate affairs, where the requests imply high degree of understanding and self knowledge. … They are founded upon the detailed exposition of Spiritual Union, expressing the most intimate converse with the Divine Beloved, and situating the one who prays as a adorer. Here the reciter and the one recited to are understood to be two sides of the same reality.

Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein, 2000. The Seven Days of the Heart, pp.1-2

3. Excerpts From The Prayers of Ibn ‘Arabi:

The following prayers are from Tuesday Eve Prayer:

Lines 24-34 “O my Lord, make me rich through You, beyond need of other than You, so that this pure sufficiency leaves me free of all conditions that might make me dependent on any creaturial need or spiritual requirement. Make me reach the utmost ease in my prosperity [in You] and elevate me to the lote-tree¹ of my extreme limit. Let me witness existence as a cycle and the journey as an orbit, so that I may behold the mystery of Divine Descent to the ultimate ends and the Return to the very beginnings, where speech comes to an end, and the vowel of lâm² is silent, where the dot of the ghayn³ is removed from me and the One returns to the two⁴.”

Lines 35-42 “O my God, grant me the facility of that secret which You have accorded to many of Your saints, a facility that will dispel from me the fog of my [apparent] self-sufficiency. Support me in all this by a radiant light, dazzling⁵ the eyes of every envier among jinn and mankind⁶. Grant me the gift of an aptitude which brings success at every (spiritual) station. Make me rich beyond need of other than You, with a richness that establishes my complete poverty towards You.”

Lines 43-4 “Indeed You are the Rich, the Praiseworthy, the Friend, the Illustrious, the Generous, the Discerning Director!”

Lines 45-6 “And may the blessing of God be upon our master Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions!”

Footnotes

¹Lines 28-9 The Quranic expression “the lote-tree of the extreme limit” (sidrat al-muntahâ) indicates for Ibn ‘Arabi the furthest point, in the ascent to God (mi’râj), where the soul as such can reach. It is situated at the limit of the seventh heaven. “He saw him in another descent, at the Lote-Tree of the Extreme Limit, close to which lies the Garden of Abode, where the Lote-tree was enveloped by that which envelops (yaghshâ)” (Q. 53:14).

²Lines 32-3 The letter lâm symbolizes the servant, who is “separated” or subordinate to God, and when his vowel is silenced (literally, “when his movement ceases”), then he is reunited with Him, and all that remains is God (Allah).

³Line 33 In Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings, ghayn is taken as the symbol of separation or distance from reality.

⁴Line 34 The relation between the One and the two is beautifully described in the following passage: “The utmost purpose of the servant is that he praises his own (higher) Self which he beholds in the [Divine] Mirror, since there is not aptitude (ability) for the originated (i.e., the created being) to bear the Pre-Existent” [i.e., Allah].

⁵Line 38 Referring to the verse “God encompasses the unbelievers; the lightening dazzles their eyes; when it gives them light, they walk in it, and when the darkness is over them, they halt” (Q. 2:19).

⁶Lines 38-9 Allusions to the two “Refuge” suras at the end of the Quran: “I take refuge in the Lord of the Daybreak … from the evil of an envier when he envies” (Q.113:5); and “I take refuge in the Lord of mankind … from the evil of the whisperer who whispers in the breasts of men, among Jinn and men” (Q. 114:5).

(Source: Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. The Seven Days of the Heart. Translated by Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein. 2000. Anqa Publishing, Oxford. Pages 39-40, 82-83 (for footnotes)

4. Applications of the Above Knowledge

1. Let us add the idea of being protected by a radiant light in our Jamati satado supplications;
    
2. Let us also increase our yearning for a richness which originates from He who is above all else and actualize it through prayers, good deeds, and meditation (bandagi); and
    
   
3. Let us reflect on the attributes of Allah which Ibn ‘Arabi used in his supplication in the context of ‘Ya Ali tu Rahem Kar, Ya Mowla tu Fazal Kar‘ tasbi.

May Noor Mowlana’s Light be with all of us, always, in everything that we do!

Let us offer thanks for the above pearls of knowledge.

Shukhran Lillah Wal Hamdu Lillah
(All thanks are due to Allah, and all praises are due to Allah)

May Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam fill your spiritual heart (Qalb) with his Noor and nothing else! May this enable you to present Spiritual and Luminous Nazranas described below.

5. Global Prayers and Three Grand Aspirations

Through the barakat of recitation of Holy Quran, Qasidas, Holy Ginans and voluminous prayers and Angelic Salwat by many, many individuals of the global Jamat, O Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam, bless the global Jamat with:

1. Spiritual and luminous tayid (help) to advance materially, spiritually and intellectually;
2. Sunshine in our spiritual hearts and actualization of the inner vision of the Truth;
3. Empowerment to present a Material Nazrana of time, knowledge and financial resources;
4. Empowerment to present a Spiritual Nazrana in the form of a pure heart which is in a state of constant dhikr; and
5. Empowerment to present a Luminous Nazrana in the form of a sound heart (qalb-i salim) which is in a state of constant dhikr and enlightenment.

Al-Hamdu lil-lahi Rab-bil Aalamin (All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds).

Angelic Salwat Supplication

Let us now start supplicating with angelic salwat, Allâhumâ salli alâ Muhammadin wa âle Muhammad (O Allah! Bestow Peace on and through Muhammad and his Descendants) to our beloved NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam for mushkil aasan for material and spiritual upliftment.

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

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