Entry Into The Heavenly Gardens and Springs

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

Ya Ali Madad and Navroz Mubarak! Navroz is a time for rejuvenation. In the Northern hemisphere, spring activates life in nature and fills one with hope, courage and inspiration. On this special day and year, may Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam shower his immense baraqa by opening the Door of Enlightenment for all seekers of his Noor, and may this Noor ease the path of the returning the soul to its origin! Ameen.

On this day, 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 headings :

1. The Return to God;
2. The Path to Return to God;
3. Ayats and Commentary on Surah Az-Zariyat (51:15-18);
4. Actualizing the Return to God Through Ism-i Azam; and
5. Global prayers and Three Grand Aspirations.

1. The Return to God

Here are some important concepts from W. C. Chittick’s book, The Sufi Path of Knowledge:

All things return to God but most of them go back in roughly the same form in which they came. … On one hand, human beings return to God by the same invisible route followed by other creatures. They are born, they live, they die, and they are gone, no one knows where. The same happens to a bee or an oak tree. This is what Ibn al-‘Arabi and other call the “compulsory return” (ruju idtirari) to God. Whether we like it or not, we will travel that route.

“O man, you are laboring towards your Lord laboriously, and you shall encounter Him! (Koran 84:6). On the other hand, human being possess certain gifts which allow them to choose their own route of return (this is the “voluntary return,” (ruju ikhtiyari). Man can follow the path laid down by this prophet or that, or he can follow his own “caprice” (hawa) and whims. Each way takes him back to God, but God has many faces, not all of them pleasant to meet. “Withersoever you turn, there is the Face of God” (2:115), whether in this world or the next.

Paradise, says Ibn al-‘Arabi, is the locus of manifestation of God’s mercy [equivalent to Light], while hell is the manifestation of His wrath [equivalent to Darkness] .

W. C. Chittick’s insight into Ibn al-Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, pp.19-20.

2. The Path to Return to God

Here are some important concepts from W. C. Chittick’s book, The Sufi Path of Knowledge:

When human beings return to God, whether by compulsion or their own free choice, they go by the way of intermediate worlds. The general characteristics of these worlds have to be sought out in the divine names they manifest. The Koran tells us to pray, “Guide us on the Straight Path” (1:5). Just as this straight path can be imagined as an ascent through an ever increasing intensity of light that opens up into the Infinite Light of God, so it can be envisaged in terms of many other divine attributes. To increase in light is to increase in life, knowledge, desire, power, speech generosity, justice, and so on. This is the process of actualizing all the divine names that are latent with the primordial human nature by the virtue of divine form.

W. C. Chittick’s insight into Ibn al-Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.21.

3. Ayats and Commentary on Surah Az-Zariyat (51:15-18)

These ayats read as follows:

“Verily the pious ones shall be in gardens and (among) the springs, receiving²³⁷⁹
(the enjoyment) what giveth them their Lord; Verily, they were the doers of good.
Little of the night was it that they used to sleep. And in the hours of the dawn they prayed for forgiveness.”

Holy Qur’an 51:15-18

Let us study the footnote for these ayats from S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali’s translation.

Vr. 15-18. (2379) Note the excellent qualities of the really righteous and the pious ones. These and many other qualities of superb excellence in the maximum degree possible, could be found in the Holy Ahlul-Bait, in view of which we are asked to follow them, holding them as our guides and not the others with no such qualities or with defective character and conduct. It was for our own benefit that it was commanded by the Holy Prophet:

1. ” I leave behind me Two very important things, the Word of God (the Holy Quran) and My Ahlul-Bait. Should ye be attached to these Two, never, never, shall ye get astray—Never shall these Two be separated from each other, until they meet me at ‘Kauthar’ (the Cistern in Paradise).”
   
2. “The likeness of my Ahlul-Bait is that of the Ark of Noah, he who got into it, was saved and he who turned away from it, was drowned and lost.”

S. V. Mir Ahmed Ali. 1995. The Holy Qur’an. Second Edition. pp.1363-4.

4. Actualizing the Return to God Through Ism-i Azam

For more insights into the process of actualizing divine names through ism-i Azam in our Tariqah, please read the following article:

The heart of a murid who witnesses the light of divine names prostrates itself.
Please read the following article:

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.

May Noor Mowlana Hazar Imam expand every murid’s spiritual heart, fill it with his NOOR and enable it to perform the spiritual prostration of the heart in this New Year!

Idd-e-Navroz Mubarak

Ardent Prayers for Idd-e Navroz

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