Prophet is Alive

Who is the Holy Prophet e? What is his status? What is his personality? What is the nature of his personality and all their allied questions? There are numerous confusion’s, especially in this age of doubt and the impact of materialism that are arising in the mind of Muslims. Everybody’s level of knowledge is not the same whether he maybe called an Alime - Deen or whatever. The comprehension of facts through knowledge varies from person to person. These problems arise because those who come forward to understand the problem view it with their subjective limitations. This should not be made into the grounds for fighting and theological bickering when you hear views expressed about the Holy Prophet e that many of us would consider as derogatory. E.g. People read the same book but some recognize the Alphabets and some the words. Others will read sentences and paragraphs. Those with higher education will know the language in which it is written, the Subject, Theme, Sub Theme and Inter related Subjects. Therefore knowledge is either of a higher order or lower order. Those who can see as far as their nose, they can see that far and no further. How can we call them dishonest and make their limited knowledge the grounds for fighting.

When Islam came to non-Arab countries, they did not become Muslims through the Holy Qur’aan, because they could not understand the Holy Qur’aan. We speak about the ‘Miracle of the Holy Qur’aan’ [Mu’jizatul Qur’aan]; most Arabs don’t know the ‘Miracle of the Holy Qur’aan’. The modern Arabs don’t know because the have not studied Qur’ānic Eloquence (balaagha).

One such example of Qur’ānic eloquence (balaagha) is Surah Maryam, verse 4. In it, the Prophet Zakariyyah u is praying to Allah Y to bless him with a child, and describes his old age: (19^th Sura, Maryam: verse 4)

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَهَنَ الْعَظْمُ مِنِّي وَاشْتَعَلَ الرَّأْسُ شَيْبًا

'‘He said, ‘O My Lord! Indeed my bones have grown feeble, and grey hair has spread on my head...’’

The Arabic of the last portion of the verse isاشْتَعَلَ الرَّأْسُ شَيْبًا: ‘ishtha'ala ar-ra’su shayba’. This phrase, despite its conciseness (only three words), is indicative of the eloquence of the Qur’ān, and az-Zamakhsharee is able to extract no less than five examples of the usage of various types of Arabic eloquence (some of which cannot even be explained in English!).

For example, the primary meaning of the verb ‘ishtha'ala’ which is used in the verse is to express the sparks that are emitted by a fire. Therefore, Zakariyyah u is comparing the whiteness of his hair to the sparks that emit from a fire, an example of one type of metaphor.

Also, the verse translates as, '... (my) head sparks...', thus attributing the sparking effect, not to the hair where it occurs, but to the place and origin of that hair (the head), thus accentuating the severity of his old age. This phrase also gives the impression that the sparks are occurring from many places, thus indicating that, not only are his hairs white, but these white streaks are to be found all over his head.

In essence, this phrase of only three words conveys the image of Zakariyyah u's old age in such graphic detail that the English equivalent would require a few paragraphs of text! Of course, all such eloquence is completely lost in translation.

They have not studied rhetoric. To really understand the ‘Miracle of the Holy Qur’aan’ takes many years of serious study. People forget that the Arabs at the time of the Holy Qur’aan had reached the pinnacle of language. Every people have a period, where the language is the highest. In Greek it was at the time of Homer[1]. Nobody has been able to replicate the eloquence of Greek in this period. The English language reached its peak in the Elizabethan Period[2]. Nobody has been able to reach the level of the language of the great playwrights and poets of the late 16^th and early 17^th century. This is a fact of the English language admitted by any English Professor. The same is true for the Arabic. At the time of the 7^th century, the Arabs had reached their pinnacle of language, therefore the great poets of the Arabian Peninsula, either they had just died, at the time the Holy Prophet Muhammad e arrived or a few of them were still alive. When the Holy Prophet e brought the Holy Qur’aan they were unable to imitate the Holy Qur’aan. The other Arabs, who were eloquent by their nature, saying poetry off hand and give an impromptu talk with great eloquence were confounded by the Holy Qur’aan for it was neither poetry nor prose and did not fit into any of the categories of language they were aware of. Yet they recognized in it a phenomenon that they had not seen. If you take any language and write something in it, a master of rhetoric can come and improve on it. However it reaches a point beyond which you cannot improve on the language. If you look at the statement in English:

One cannot improve on the language eloquent of making that statement. The soliloquies[3] of Shakespeare you can’t improve on them if you try your best. There are lines in Shakespeare, considered weak lines that can be improved on. Every poet in Jahilliyya had weak lines that could be improved upon. The critics of poetry point out weak lines and explain why is weak. But, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani[4] went through the entire Holy Qur’aan and showed how nothing in the Holy Qur’aan can be improved upon in its language. When talking about the Attributes and Qualities of Allah Y, you cannot improve upon ‘The Verse of the Throne (Ayatul Qursi). If you take a ‘Verse of Blame or Censure’ like in Sura Lahab;

The point is that, when the Holy Qur’aan came, the Arabs, they knew it was a ‘miraculous’ (mu’jiz) but when they went to the A’jam what did they have to bring them. Tell a westerner the Holy Qur’aan is a miracle and he will ask what’s miraculous about it. There are people who have read the translation of the Holy Qur’aan and were confused. They need to be told that it cannot be translated and still remain the Holy Qur’aan. Yet let them listen to a beautiful recitation and their hearts will be moved. One can hear the rhythm and sounds and realize that these cannot be translated. Some word in Arabic carry such depth of meaning that they cannot be translated and only a master in the language can even approximate the meaning. You can’t convince any English speaker that the Holy Qur’aan is a miracle from Allah Y based on English translation. They may get something out of the translation but not a moving response.

The thing that the non-Arabs responded to was the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. Therefore wherever you go in the non-Arab world, there is an immense love of the Messenger of Allah e. Go to Pakistan, India, Turkey, Indonesia or Malaysia and you will see that there is an immense love for the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. According to our tradition, you have to have some degree of knowledge before you can speak of Allah Y and the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. The reason is obvious. The people of the Indo-Pak Subcontinent have a proverb:

In other words if you go to a physician, who doesn’t know medicine; he read some books about how to perform surgery and you go to him and put your life into his hands, then you are a fool. That person will do more harm than good. So! The soul is infinitely more important and infinitely means exactly what it means because the body dies but the soul does not. The soul is infinitely more important than the body. So putting your soul in the hands of ignorant people or half educated people is extremely dangerous and will lead to untold harm to your heart and possibly to your future life. You have a responsibility. The Shamail of Imam Tirmidhi[5], which is a book about the Holy Prophet Muhammad e’s noble qualities and characteristics; he ends that book with a statement by ibn Sireen[6] t, in which he says:

Unfortunately the ‘popular current trend’ is that, the only prerequisite for speaking about religion is that you speak English or the local language. We won’t allow this in any other subject. You won’t have a professor of mathematics giving a lecture on the human heart, anatomy and physiology. You won’t have somebody whose degree is on cardiology giving a lecture on economics. It’s simply not how things work because human knowledge by its nature is very vast. It takes time to acquire expertise in any subject under the sun. Therefore people study specific things, inspired by Allah Y to do so, so that knowledge proceeds.

Knowledge of the deen is the most important of all knowledge’s. We have stopped reflecting on how serious a crisis we are in. We have thousands of Khutbahs given by incompetent people, who read books purchased or acquired otherwise. Even if the book is in Arabic, read by one born in an Arab country, speaking Arabic doesn’t mean they really know Arabic. In the same way, you have English speaking people who if asked to explain a poem by Shakespeare or Robert Frost, which is not that difficult; most will not be able to do so since they are not trained in literature and the intricacies of the English language. There is a difference between principle and principal.

In the Arab world, because somebody speaks Arabic they think they can go into books written a thousand years ago and derive the meanings without seriously studying. They think that they can read the Holy Qur’aan and because it sounds like words we use they can translate its meaning. Let me present an example.

Nearly everybody who reads that thinks وَجَدَ ‘wajada’ here means ‘He found’. Allah Y doesn’t find. He is not looking for anything. ‘Finding’ implies that you don’t know where something is and then you go after it and look at it. [Some Arab speakers like Egyptians, due to their local usage will assume it means ‘find’]. It doesn’t mean that! All of the commentators are in agreement that it means ‘ta’alima’. A’lima hu daala! Even the word ضَال ‘daal’ doesn’t mean ‘astray’ according to the ‘mufassiroon’ If you haven’t studied Arabic with teachers [who have proper (aqaaid and ishq)] seriously (then you wont be blessed to know) that ضَال ‘daal’ in the Arabic language means to most Arabs, ‘astray’. [So they translate]:

ضَال ‘daal’ means also that somebody is completely ‘enamored’ [captivated and fascinated to the level of loss of consciousness of anything else]. ‘in love’; ‘wandering around in a state of love’. That’s one of the meanings! There are many interpretations of that verse.

So people think that they can pick these books up, read them and come to conclusions and then go and preach them to others without, studying with people. Nobody in the history of Islam has accepted this. The word for hadith that are taken without teachers are called ‘wijaada’ and most of the Ulama are in rejection of using hadith that you did not take from a teacher. But people buy their own Sahih Bukhari and Muslim and they go and start telling people what al-Bukhari and Muslim said. And; there are things in there that will lead you astray. I guarantee you that there are things (in there) that will completely lead you astray. That’s not my statement, that’s ibn Uyaina[7] one of the greatest Muhadditheen in the history of Islam; who said:

Even Allah Y says in the Holy Qur’aan in the 2^nd Sura, al-Baqara in verse 26:

So what ensures you that you stay on the right path? By staying with the rightly guided scholars! And who are those rightly guided scholars? We know who they are. But even they make mistakes. So how do you know when they are making a mistake or not? From scholars that preceded them. With any profession or artisan skill you want a competent person to accomplish the task. If people don’t do what they do well, you and I suffer the consequences of their poor labor. Similarly you don’t want a scholar who doesn’t spend all of his time making sure that he gets right what he’s teaching the people. This relates to your relationship with God. It doesn’t relate to whether your bread is under baked or whether the cabinet is well made or not. Its not even as dangerous as whether the surgeon is as good as he claims. Because this is about your soul and ultimately your Imaan! We are living in the Age of Pamphleteering. An age of weekend Muftis! People who should not be giving Khutba, are giving sermons. People listen to deviant scholars, astray and don’t know what they’re talking about in Jumas, confusing some and angering those who know its not true. Yet those who know have the adab to sit through something completely incorrect and wrong. The majority of people are called ahle sunnah wa jama’ah and we hold certain beliefs that where in agreement upon. This is called Normative Islam. Every religion that is considered universal has that aspect to it. We have a creed (aqa’id) what the majority follow. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e said:

We have something called ijma, jamoor, muttafaq alai. This refers to the majority agreement in the scholarship of our great scholars who protected this religion. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e said that:

Truth is handed over from person to person; it’s not taken from books. Every book studied with a true scholar, is a book passed down a ‘chain of transmission’ or one was given permission to study and teach it, since the Spiritual Masters (shuyukh) recognized ones ability to read independently. But, initially one has to study and be linked to accomplished, spiritually linked scholars. People think that they can pick up books, read them and come to conclusions and then go and preach them to others without, studying under Spiritual Masters (shuyukh). Nobody in the history of Islam has accepted this. The word for hadith that are taken without teachers, authorised to transmit, are called ‘wijaada’ and most of the Ulama are in rejection of using hadith that you did not take from a teacher. People buy their own Sahih Bukhari and Muslim and they go and start telling people what al-Bukhari and Muslim said. There are things mentioned there that will lead you astray. I guarantee you that there are things mentioned in there, and if misunderstood, it will completely lead you astray. That’s not my statement, that’s ibn Uyaina one of the greatest Muhadditheen in the history of Islam; who said:

If somebody reads the following in his Muhsin Khan version of Sahih al-Bukhari (صحيح البخاري):

On reading this one concludes that ‘if you steal an egg you get your hand cut off’ then one is mistaken for none of the fuqaha took that hadith. Therefore Ibn 'Abdul-Barr, Yusuf bin 'Abdullah , in the 6th century, a man who memorized 100 000 hadith by heart (Hafidh al-Magrib), who wrote a 30 volume book on Maliki fiqh, and a 20 volume book on the Muwatta of Imam Maalik, complained of his age saying:

The problem with literacy is that it empowers ignorant people. There are proverbs like, ‘A Little Education Is a Dangerous Thing’ and another ‘Beware Of the One Book Man’. This is about fundamentalist Christians that only learn the Bible. That’s all the Kharijites (Khawārij) خوارج knew, they only knew the Holy Qur’aan; not knowing the sunnah and books of the fuqaha.

To ensure that one stays on the right path one has to be linked to the rightly guided scholars and shuyukh! There are books that can be studied at home. Riyadh as-Saaliheen (The Gardens of the Righteous) was written for common people, thus one won’t find difficult hadith in them. The majority of hadith is to rectify character. Even the Holy Qur’aan is read for to acquire ‘The Theology of Servitude’ or ‘ta’abbud’ which literally means ‘to make oneself a slave’. It is not to derive rulings (ahkaam). That’s not our business. Allah Y says in the Holy Qur’aan in the 16th Sura, an-Nahl (The Bee) in verse 43:

It’s an obligation to consult people of whose hearts are constantly engaged in the remembrance of Allah Yأَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ. These are people authorized through a chain of transmission called silsilah. There are some (like Deobandis) who claim to follow Sufi chains but they have lost the true aqaid whilst there are some who have proper aqaaid but don’t know the true Sufi path. The latter are the lesser of the two evils since belief (aqaid) is most important. You cannot take knowledge that has any import or weight in this world; whether medicine or engineering from books, you have to study under qualified teachers. At the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e, out of the tens of thousands of Sahaba, only seven people in the whole of Madinah gave fatwa. Asking questions about the Holy Prophet Muhammad e, like where his parents are in the next world and what is his quality of life after physical demise and drawing negative conclusions is a fatwa. This relates to the belief (aqidah) of the Muslims. There are three acceptable creeds in the tradition of Islam. The Ashariyya: the creed of Imam at-Tahawi t, of the ahe sunnah wa jamaah; then the creed of Abul Hassan al-Ashari of the ahe sunnah wa jamaah and also Abu Manthur al-Mathuridi t. The overwhelming majority of the scholars of our Ummah after the fourth century are in agreement on this that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e has a functioning life after his physical passing.

So those that suddenly, come as scholars and change what was known and practiced for the last 1000 years, in this enlightened period claiming they have discovered the true Islam are actually stating that for a 1000 years the Ummah was in darkness, enveloped in the stupidity of misguided scholars are actually giving a bad opinion about Allah Y!

There are misguided people in this strange modern world who continuously attack and seek to demolish the spiritual heart of the religious way of life. They have already demolished the spiritual heart of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism and are now targeting Islam. They vilify authentic Sufi Scholars like Maulana Dr. Fazlur Rahman Ansari t, his teacher Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqui t and his teacher Maulana Ahmad Rida Khan t falsely accusing them of being profoundly misguided to the end of engaging in acts of shirk.

They are people who have effectively joined the ranks of those enemies of Islam who have effectively joined the ranks of those enemies of Islam who are waging a war on Islam and Muslims around the world. They themselves are unaware that they have become instruments in the hans of those who dismantled the political system of Islam by closing down the Caliphate on the 3 March 1924. By handing over the Spiritual Heartland of Islam to the Saudi Family and hence closed down the effective usage of our international parliament, the Hajj. Allah Y speaks of them in the Holy Qur’aan, which has been mistranslated by most modern translators even Yusuf Ali and Maulana Thanvi. Allah Y speaks in the 5^th Sura al-Maida in verse 51(some versions verse 54) of the Holy Qur’aan and He Y says:

لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى أَوْلِيَاء

Do not (this is a command from Him who created us from a drop of sperm) take Jews and Christians as your friends and allies

Is Allah Y speaking about all Jews and all Christians or is He speaking about some Jews and some Christians? The Holy Qur’aan answers that question. There are many verses of the Holy Qur’aan which commit us to establish fraternal relations with Jews and Christians. A Muslim man can even marry a Christian woman for the Holy Qur’aan permits that (5:5). So very clearly this verse of the Holy Qur’aan is speaking of some Jews and some Christians and not all Jews and all Christians. So which Jews and which Christians with whom it is prohibited for us to maintain friendly ties with; to establish alliance with? The verse goes on to answer that question:

لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاء بَعْضٍ

Do not take such Jews and such Christians as your friends and allies who themselves are friends and allies of each other

Whether you be a carpenter, taxi-driver or whatever; it doesn’t matter. Whosoever amongst you establishes friendly relations or alliance with such Jews and Christians will no longer be part of the Muslim World. ‘You have now joined them, you’re part of them; not us. When you die and the angel comes to take your soul at that time you will have it confirmed, ‘You’re not a Muslim’.

وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ

إِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

Surely Allah Y does not provide guidance for a people who commit such an atrocious act of evil and wrongdoing

But, Jews and Christians were never friends of each other. Never in history! In fact the Christians accused the Jews of having committed the ultimate crime of killing ‘god’, himself. To kill ‘god’ himself is the ultimate crime. They crucified ‘the lord’. As a consequence there was always animosity; hatred and hostility between Christians and Jews. So this verse of the Holy Qur’aan revealed 1400 years ago in the desert of Arabia anticipates a day that would come in history when there would be a strange; baffling; puzzling; mysterious and mystifying friendship between Christians and Jews through which a Christian Jewish alliance would emerge. 1400 years ago, Allah Y is saying that this would happen and when it happens you’d better be careful; because if you allow yourself to maintain friendly ties with them your Islam is gone.

Has that alliance come into being as yet? Yes! (Whilst we where indulging in frivolities) a mysterious Christian Jewish alliance emerged in Europe. Whilst we were studying our economics and politics in university a mysterious Christian Jewish alliance emerged. It is that Christian Jewish alliance that delivered to the world Modern Western Civilization. It is that Christian Jewish alliance which today rules and dominates the world; gave to the world the United Nations Organization; Bretton Woods[8]; the International Monetary Fund and today’s ‘so-called’ International Monetary System. If you join them; if you become a part of them; if you allow yourself to become subservient to them; if you establish friendly ties with them and become part of that alliance and part of that system; then you’ve lost your Islam. He e said on the day, when we shall be raised to life again from the grave, to face judgment, it will be very hot, people will be very thirsty, they would want water and the followers of the Prophet e, would go to him and he would be standing by this spring of al-Kauthar, [The 108^th Sura, al-Kauthar, Verse 1]

A spring of water! And he would be giving us water to drink to quench our thirst, but there would be some, when they go to him for water, he would refuse to give them water; and they would say, ‘O Messenger of Allah e! We are Muslims why are you not giving us water; we are Muslims’ and he e would say, ‘You changed the religion after I left, so no water for you’. Indeed he gave an even greater warning than that; he e prophesized[9], ‘He says, ‘you going to do it!’ What? ‘Instead of following me, Muhammad e you will abandon me and you will follow those that came before you; you will follow them step by step, those who came before you, to such an extent that if they were to go down into a lizards hole, you will also go down into the lizards hole’. So we asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah Y! Who are you referring to, those who came before us; are you referring to Jews and Christians?’ He said, ‘Who else?’

So, one day the Jewish Christian world is going to exert such a powerful influence over the Muslims that we will effectively abandon Muhammad e and instead of following him we will be following them. And we follow them so slavishly that even if they were to go down into a lizard’s hole we will go down into the lizard’s hole with them. ……Are we also in the lizard’s hole?

يُوْشِكُ اَنْ يّاْتِىَ عَلَى النَّاسِ زَمَانٌ لاَّ يَبْقَى مِنَ الْ اِسْلامِ اِ لاَّ اِسْمُهُ

The religion is gone! All that remains is this shell. The rice grain gone. All that remains is the husk. He e said that time will come.

وَلاَ يَبْقَى مِنَ الْقُرْانِ اِ لاَّ رَسْمُهُ

And that time will certainly come when nothing will remain of the Qur’aan except the pages that are mechanically read

Yes! No one goes to the Qur’aan for the guidance that it has. Therefore no one follows that guidance that is in the Qur’aan.

مَسَاجِدُهُمْ عَامِرَةٌوَّهِىَ خَرَابٌ مِّنَ الْهُدَى

[When that time comes when nothing remains of Islam but the name and nothing remains of the Qur’aan but the traces of the writing mechanically read] At that time he e said:

Long time it was a roof when rainfall used to leak, and used to be mud walls; but When that time comes when nothing remains of Islam but the name

عُلَمَآؤُهُمْ شَرُّ مَنْ تَحْتَ اَدِيْمِ السَّمَآءِ

Those Ulama would be the worst people [creatures] beneath the sky From them will emerge that which will constitute fitna[11] for the people

Tests and trials! Corrupt people. They will become the centers of fitna for the people. The house burning down and the scholars of Islam don’t even know that and they lecturing long, long, pretty, pretty lectures. Wah wah! But their house burning down and they cant even see their house burning down. Or they know their house burning down but they afraid to say it. ….. they will be the worst people beneath the skies

مِنْ عِنْدِهِمْ تَخْرُجُ اَلْفِتْنَةُ وَفِيْهِمْ تَعُوْدُ

If you think that situation is bad; listen to this one. It is the Day of Judgment; the hadith is in Sahih Bukhari- it is repeated four times in Sahih Bukhari by four different companions of the Prophet e. So it is known as mutawatir hadith. When a hadith comes from only one source it is known as a’had but when it is repeated by several companions it is called mutawatir. This is mutawatir:

Meaning, someone who truly follows the Prophet e! Someone who holds on regardless of the price he may have to pay. That one is for heaven. But he e went on to say that the 999 would all be the people of Gog and Magog. We live in times now when most people including molvis and muftis studying in ulooms sponsored by petro- dollars don’t know what the truth is anymore. Our books, including classical Islamic texts are being manipulated. Books reprinted i.e. later editions; have things removed from it because the publishing house was purchased by a certain sect that didn’t want those ideas disseminated in the Ummah, so people don’t even realize, that their books are being manipulated. The tradition of Islam is being changed in computers, by being deleted and retype-set. Refer to the following website:

According to the Holy Qur’aan, humanity emerged in Creation primarily in the transcendental dimension of existence. Allah Y says in the 2^nd Sura, al- Baqara in verse 35:

At that stage of existence itself, they possessed not only the spiritual but also the rational and the aesthetical dimensions of personality. The spiritual dimension was there because of the very fact of the transcendental nature of their existence. When man fell victim to the Devil’s Deception only after that they appeared in the physical world, which is spatio-temporal, as physical and moral beings.

1. The real human personality is spiritual in nature. Besides 2:35, this fact is also corroborated by the following verse, which speaks, not only of the existence of all human beings—from the first to the last—at the dawn of Creation, but also of the

possession of Consciousness—self-consciousness as well as consciousness of the Personality of God—and hence of personality, which is based and built up on conscious, appreciative and non mechanical response to other personality or personalities. Allah Y says in the 7^th Sura, al- A’araf in verse 172:

Thus, because this event relates to the transcendental world and conditions of transcendental existence, the transcendental or spiritual nature of the original, i.e., the real, human personality is thereby established. This fact is further affirmed by the following verses: Allah Y says in the 17th Sura, al-Israa in verse 85:

2. The earthly existence of every human being commences when the human Soul, whose original abode is the transcendental world, projects itself into spatio-temporal dimensions and takes on the physical form, even as the personalities of Adam and Eve were projected into the material world. Allah Y says in the 2^nd Sura, al-Baqarah in verse 36:

3. Then, the human Soul, while retaining its transcendental dimension, viz., function and activity, and centered in devotion to its Source of Existence and Capabilities, namely, God, of Whom it is the vicegerent (2:30), functions in four other dimensions also : namely, physical, rational, moral and aesthetical.

4. Thus: the spiritual, the physical, the rational, the moral and the aesthetical constitute the five dimensions of human personality, and activity relating to all these five should be pursued in a balanced and integrated manner, in order that the human personality may evolve and function in a healthy form on the basis of healthy activity .

Duties to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (the Divinely-Blessed) originate, like the duties to God, in the Islamic Article of Faith itself; and they have been laid down by the Qur’aan in the interest of the Muslims themselves, because :

Firstly, he alone is the Leader who is to be followed unconditionally. Thus the bond of loyalty to him is the bond of integrity of the Islamic world-community.

[In that connection, it is necessary to emphasize that the ‘bond of loyalty’ to the Holy Prophet Muhammad e resides in absolute allegiance to him, which means that the association of anyone else in that allegiance as a condition of faith in Islam—in terms of conferring upon anyone, or accepting anyone’s claim to, divinely-bestowed Authority, on the basis of prophetic status or any status akin to it, in any sense whatsoever, is disbelief in the Prophet’s status, and is regarded as disbelief in Islam itself, and that in spite of otherwise absolute allegiance to the Holy Prophet Muhammad e —expels a person from the fold of Islam in the same way as when he associates anyone in any manner in the Godhood of Allah.]

Secondly, he is the Model of Perfection whom every Muslim is under obligation to imitate for advancement in his spiritual and moral life. But to imitate him consequentially is not possible without practicing love and respect for him, which has been prescribed as duty.

Thirdly, he is the Medium through whom Divine Grace flows[14] to his followers in respect of their spiritual and moral purification. Allah Y says in the62nd Sura, al-Jumuah, in verses 3-4:

Benefit can only be conferred by a living Prophet thus these facts necessitate the maintenance of a constant dutiful attitude in terms of love and respect for him.

Let's explain the status of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e from the Holy Qur'aan.

According to the Holy Qur’aan, the Holy Prophet Muhammad e has a multi-dimensional status. The one aspect of his personality is universal and the other is mundane (earthly). Allah Y says in the Holy Qur'aan, in the 21^st Sura, al – Ambiya, Verse 107:

The universe! All the worlds! This is beyond this earth and humanity. This is called the cosmic or universal level. He is the mercy for the entire creation of Allah Y i.e. the universe.

His earthly status is, as Allah Y says in the Holy Qur'aan, in the 18^th Sura, al-Kahf in Verse 110:

Many people have stumbled on this verse because this word Mislukum can be translated in two ways. One translation leads to disbelief (kufr) whilst the other translation is the translation of Faith (imaan). It has been translated by some as being “like you “ This is the translation on the basis of kufr. This statement is the greatest falsehood against the Holy Qur'aan and Hadith and is blasphemous against the personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. Blasphemy leads a person to kufr. No human being is like the Holy Prophet Muhammad e , What do they mean when they translate it in this ugly fashion? Like whom? Who has that standard of piety and status that he can be likened to the Holy Prophet Muhammad e ? The implication of the verse is to emphasize the humanity of the Holy Prophet e so that Muslims do not fall prey, like others have, in view of his great qualities and miraculous powers that Allah Y has given him. They may not fall into the misconception that he is God or Son of God like others have fallen before them. It is his divinity that is being denied here, not that he is like us. He is a human being - We are human beings. Students of science and physics know that charcoal is pure carbon and diamond is also pure carbon. It is only the frequency of molecules of the electronic particles of the diamond that makes one a diamond and the other charcoal. Charcoal is black whilst diamond is luminous. Medicinally charcoal when eaten expels stomach gasses whilst diamond when eaten, will kill one. In Monetary value a truckload of charcoal cannot compare to a little diamond. Although both are carbon there is a world of difference between them. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e is human being and we are human beings, but he is diamond and we are charcoal. Although, basically, both are the same their laws of existence, value and worth are worlds apart. Although I and you and the Holy Prophet Muhammad e are human beings, there is a world of difference in point of status, constitution of personality and powers. This is the status with regard to the temporal or mortal world in which we live. Remember Allah has said in the Holy Qur’aan in the 49th Sura, al-Hujeraat, Verse 2:

What is this status? You will forgive any insult done to you but you will never forgive any insult done to your beloved. This is the law of love. If for a single error, of disrespect to Allah Y’s beloved, every act of virtue is annulled, how much must Allah Y love him? He does not even give the blasphemer, the divine help (Taufiq) to realise he has sinned, thus the door of repentance remains closed. Beware of this.

What are Muslims being taught? They have lost the source of grace and they feel that they can get grace from Allah Y. The source of grace as established by Allah Y is only the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. There is no other source.

I refer you to what Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He) says in the Holy Qur'aan, in the 21^st Sura, al-Ambiya Verse 107:

And in another verse Allah Y says in the Holy Qur'aan, in the 5^th Sura, al- Maida, Verse 15:

The و here is the و of conjunction, the ‘light’ نُور refers to something different and the book is something different. There is a difference of opinion amongst the commentators, some say ' light ' herein refers to the Holy Prophet e others say that it does not, but only to the guidance he has brought. Here again the same problem comes in, one thinks according to ones understanding or level of comprehension'. However the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is commissioned by God to explain every intricate verse of the Holy Qur'aan, and Allah Y ) says in the Holy Qur'aan, in the 16^th Sura, an-Nahl, Verse 44:

Here comes in hadith as the authority. Let us ask the Holy Prophet e what is the reference to the word نُور here. In the Hadith quoted on the authority of Muhaddith ' abd ar Razzaq, the eminent fore runner of Imam Bukhari and quoted by Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi one of the very eminent ulama of Deoband in his book Nashrut teeb fi zikre Habeeb. Hazrath Jabir bin Abdullah al-Ansari t reports that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e informed him that:

This Hadith compels us to side with those commentators who say that nur here refers to the Holy Prophet Muhammad e It has been the consensus of Muslim belief which was challenged only in this period of Muslim decay and degeneration, under the impact of modern materialism, that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is the center of creation, that Allah Y created the light of the Holy Prophet e and from that light He created the whole universe.

Allah Y is indivisible, so the meaning in the Hadith is ‘due to’ (sababbiya), NOT FROM the light of Allah Y, but BECAUSE OF the light of Allah Y.

The Qur'aan also bears testimony to this that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is the first of creation, when it explicitly affirms this fact, when it says in the 6^th Sura al- Anaam, Verse 163:

Muslim here refers to the first thing or being to submit to the will of Allah Y and not the misuse it has been put to in these days of bickering. Muslim means he or she that submits his/her will entirely to the will of God. In another verse Allah says in the 3^rd Sura, al-i- Imraan Verse 83:

In the light of the Holy Qur’aan what would ' I am the first among the Muslims mean”? It means that the first being or creation to be created by Allah Y is the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. Science bears testimony to this fact today. Modern science says that this entire universe started as a point of light[15] in intense motion. This point of light projected itself on the tape of extension and became space and projected itself on the tape of duration and became time. The experiment of physical analysis pursued on the principle of heat, by raising temperature and disintegrating a particular thing into its constituent particles prove that the essence of all matter is light. [Refer to Hubert Reeves, the Canadian Astro-physicist. Read his light radiation theory]. The essential human being therefore is a space less and timeless being. (ar Ruh - the essence al Asl). All matter is therefore ultimately anti-matter and all the properties of matter ultimately cease to exist, since the essential being was created in the transcendental world called al Jannah. When Allah willed the universe to exist He said, ‘Be Muhammad’ (kun Muhammadah). Allah Y spoke the word only once, but from this kun everything took place and takes place in its time, every moment. This kun is not repeated, but it was in the whole universe from the beginning, and it is forever. Therefore the real Muhammad e is the foundation of the universe and all creation came through him. When our pious ancestors taught that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is the medium or wasila between this world and Allah Y - How can it be said that they were teaching wrongly? What else is there that links this universe with Allah Y except Allah's first creation: the nure Muhammadi? Allah Y is all Mighty and all Powerful, He does not need any wasilah, but He has made a universe that is in need. The angels are intermediaries, mediating between Creator and creation, performing functions for Allah Y, and when it is said that the highest in Allah Y’s creation is the intermediary why do we not accept. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e is the intermediary for forgiveness also according to the Qur’aan in the 4^th Sura al-Nisaa: Verse 64:

This verse of the Holy Qur’aan is for all times. The Question arises, how do I approach the Holy Prophet Muhammad e today? Some people say go to Madinah the Illuminated! This would imply that forgiveness is only for the rich. If we say the verse was only for the companions then we are denying the Qur'aan is for all times. People who say the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is only hayaat or living in Madinah the Illuminated seem to be very ignorant about the constitution of human life and the meaning of death. If one means by the Holy Prophet Muhammad e his bodily constitution that lies buried in Madinah, then this is a childish view. Madinah the Illuminated has an added affinity because the blessed body lies buried there but the essential Holy Prophet Muhammad e transcends the limitations of space and time and thus, he is a living Prophet that is approachable every where. When one approaches anyone, with a plea of help, one approaches with full respect and humility. Thus our elders have taught, and rejected lately on the basis of defective knowledge, that we should stand with full respect and humility and greet him (salaam), and present our plea (dua). The word salaat in Arabic has over twenty five or more meanings, amongst these are prayer (salaah), nearness (qurbiyat) and greeting. Thus salatu salaam means approach and greet. The Arabic word of yusalloona is derived from the root word of ‘salaat’. Taken in its original form it means worship or du‘a, prayer. In this context it also signifies a sense of nearness and proximity, a consequence of people gathering in mosques for prayers. This is a physical and spiritual congregation. This theme of connection and nearness can also be seen in other derivatives of the word salaat:

* mussalee: the runner up in a horse race since he is the companion of the winner, the closest to him than any other

* salaa: the middle part of the human body which joins the upper and lower limbs together

* salayah: a flat stone on which condiments are added together and ground with a muller

In short all of the derivatives of salat convey the meaning of relation, nearness, togetherness and connection. Yusalloona creates a beautiful imagery of Allah blessing the Holy Prophet Muhammad e with His proximity and close relation abolishing the distances between them. Traditional concepts of separation vanish away and the Holy Prophet Muhammad e gradually rises up to the stages of Divine proximity. This process continues and will continue forever. Moreover, it is not only Allah Y who is pleased with His servants sending salutations upon the Holy Prophet e but that Allah Y is pleased with the pleasure of His beloved Holy Prophet Muhammad e . When Muslims send blessings upon the Holy Prophet Muhammad e they do so with humility, modesty and reverent respect. Salat is also taken to mean the heat of fire (the fire of extreme love and reverence) which straightens the crookedness of wooden sticks. In the same manner yusalloona signifies a worshipper wanting correction of his inner and outer self by prayers and other worships. Believers are also being asked to salute, ‘sallimoo’ the Holy Prophet Muhammad e . The Arabic word of sallimoo is derived from the word salam, meaning peace. It is not sufficient just to send durood (ask Allah Y to bless him) upon the Prophet Holy Prophet Muhammad e but to salute him too, acknowledging his high rank and status. A salute is normally given to a person of seniority, a leader or a statesman. The living Holy Prophet Muhammad e is deemed by Allah Y to be the worthiest of all those who deserve to be saluted. One of the Companions, Ibn ‘Abbas t comments that the command of salat and salam is the magnification of Divine remembrance. Allah Y continues to arrange such conditions as to pave the way for the exaltation and dissemination of the Holy Prophet e’s dignity, excellent qualities and matchless lifestyle.

We do this in attahiyat? Form a direct contact with him and present ones petition to him. If he feels we are fit then he will plea for us to Allah Y. Is Allah Y an impersonal force? We greet A LIVING Prophet in salaah. In attahiyaat one greets the Holy Prophet e with salaam. Imam Ghazali has stated[16] that at this point, one should BELIEVE the Holy Prophet Muhammad e IS present and near (wayzur fi qalbika fi shakhsi qareeb). Therefore those who have aqidah that the Holy Prophet e is Haazir and Naazir (present and seeing) will be certain of a reply to this greeting. This actually is the point of acceptance of Salaah. That which is acceptable to the Holy Prophet e is acceptable to Allah Y . This method of asking Allah Y, by praising and greeting His beloved, ensures the flow of Allah's mercy on the worshipper.

I draw your attention to a Hadith in the collection of Ahmad bin Hamnbal as reported by Abu Hurraira t:

A companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e , Hazrath Ubayy ibn K’ab t was performing the compulsory (farz) salaah, not the optional (nafil) salaah, mind you. The Holy Prophet e called him. He did not respond to the call immediately since he was busy reading his compulsory Prayer (Farz Salaah). He quickly concluded his prayer and came to the door. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e asked him why he did not immediately respond to his call. He explained that at the time he was busy reading his Compulsory Prayer (Farz Salaah). The Holy Prophet e asked him did he not hear the Qur’aanic injunction in the 8th Sura, al-Anfaal, Verse 24:

He had told the Holy Prophet e that he was pre-occupied in salaah, but the Holy Prophet Muhammad e still read this verse. This implies that the Holy Prophet e meant, that whatever state you were in it was incumbent on you to respond. Or else the Holy Prophet e could have said, ‘that since you were busy in salaah, and failed to respond then you acted correctly.’ From this incident the four Imams of the schools of jurisprudence have stated that, ‘if any person is reading salaah, and the Holy Prophet Muhammad e calls him, then it is compulsory (farz) on him to leave his salaah and respond immediately. If he is in the standing posture (qiyaam) or prostration (sajda), immediately on hearing the call of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e he must get up from whatever posture he is in and immediately respond. Not that he must complete his salaah, but he should immediately respond. There is agreement of all jurists on this point. A question arises that after responding to the Holy Prophet e should he restart his salaah or read from where he had left it? E.g. one had read two cycles (rakaat), and then the Holy Prophet Muhammad e called. One responded, leaving the two remaining cycles that has to be read and carried out whatever order the Holy Prophet Muhammad e had issued. Now on returning should one restart salaah from the beginning or just continue from where one had left? Imam Shafei t says that ones salaah does not break and he should continue from where he left it, since attention to the Holy Prophet Muhammad e is attention to Allah.

Firstly, note that after Allah Y and His Messenger are mentioned, the verse quoted pronoun and verb in the next clause are singular: For the Holy Prophet Muhammad e represents nothing but the will and intention of Allah.

Secondly, if any person is in salaah and the Holy Prophet Muhammad e calls him he must leave his salaah and respond immediately.

Another status is that which is unknowable to us. The Qur’aan proclaims in the 33rd Sura, al-Ahzab: Verse 45:

Who else can be a witness except him who sees the things upon which he stands witness? He is witness that Allah Y exists; unless he has seen Allah Y he cannot be witness. He is a witness that the universe is infinite, heaven exists, angels etc. This status is beyond our understanding. The Hadith is in the Authentic Collection (Sihah), were he says,

The report which stands behind the saying of the Holy Prophet e is from his beloved wife Hazrath Aisha Sidduiqa y who says:

“One day I went into the room of the Holy Prophet e where he was sitting. I went inside and I said, ‘Salutations to you My Beloved (‘as salaam mu alaikum - Ya Habibi’.) The Holy Prophet e raised his eyes towards her and asked, ‘who are you’? (“Man anti”). He is asking his own beloved wife as to whom she was! She says she replied, ‘I am Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr’ (Aisha binti Abu Bakr). The Holy Prophet e said, ‘who is Abu Bakr? (Man Abu Bakr). His closest, beloved friend is Hazrath Abu Bakrt but he is asking, “Who is Abu Bakr?” ‘The Mother of the Believers’ says that she replied’ Abu Bakr, the son of Kahafa (Abu Bakr ibn Kahafa). The Holy Prophet e asked, ‘Who is Kahafa’? (Man Kahafa). Hazrath Aisha Sidduiqa y says,”I shivered and trembled and immediately left.” She says that when she met the Holy Prophet e again she said, “Sir, do you remember I met you at such and such a place at such and such an hour? Then you asked me “who am I?” Startled! I replied that I am the daughter of Abu Bakr and then you asked me “man Abu Bakr” why did you ask me that?” The Holy Prophet e replied,

“Ya Aisha! Li ma alahe waqtun la yasowni fi him malakum, mukarrabum wala nabiyun mursal”

There is an aspect of my life when my personality is projected in that direction then I am with AllahY and my time is with God. It is at a level where no angel brought near and no Prophet sent as a Divine Messenger could even witness it as to what it is. It transcends everybody.”

How can I explain this status of the Holy Prophet e? How could Hazrath Abu Bakr t? So great, greatest among the Sahaba! How could Hazrath Ali t? Yet you see little, little Molvi's, walking on their two legs, opening their mouths that the Holy Prophet e is just like our elder brother. What are you talking about? He is just our elder brother. It is an insult to human reason, it is an insult to the Holy Qur’aan, it is an insult to your Iman, and it is to lay eggs at your feet. You cannot damage the Holy Prophet e and his status but you are going to damage yourself. Beware of it!

Everything in this world is constantly in need of the "Light" of Alla>h Y’.Nothing in this world can survive without that radiation of Divine Light flowing into it. Unless the proper connection between this universe and Alla>h Y remains, this universe will vanish. Just as we use transformers to step the voltage down, Almighty Alla>h Y created the "First transformer", the "heart" of the Holy Prophet e to link this world to Alla>h Y. This status of Wasila was given to our the Holy Prophet Muhammad e because he is the nucleus of the existence of the universe. Thus Alla>h Y says in the Holy Qur'a>n regarding this universe in the 3^rd Sura al-i-Imraan [The Family of Imraan]: Verse 185:

Maulana Fazlur Rahman Ansari t translates the word mata’al guroor as fleeting images. Ibn Kathir t in his explication[17] (tafseer) of these words explains it as ‘mean and vanishing’. Of course this world and all it contains is a projection of Alla>h Y saying (kun Muhammada) ‘Be Muhammad e’. My love tells me that on the night of Me‘ra>j the projection of kun was withdrawn hence no images remained. The total personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e was ushered into the Divine Presence and hence the entire world ceased to exist. The universe resumed functioning as soon as he was ushered back into it. The fact that we live in a functioning world is proof of the presence (haazir) of the ‘soul of the universe’ or (ar-Ru>h al-qayina>t). Therefore, unless we understand the personality of the Holy Prophet e the events of the Me‘ra>j would remain inconceivable and dogmatic or we will doubt that the event occurred.

We know about different types of time: mechanical time, psychological time, biological time, metaphysical time, serial time, plus time, minus time, zero time, etc. The nature of minus time is such that if one travels in minus time that person actually reduces in age. These are the teachings of the scientists. The Holy Prophet Muhammad e journeying upwards through plus time and beyond brought him back to his original state of creation i.e., nur. Similarly with light (nur) of which there are different types: alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, x-rays, infra-red, ultra-violet rays, etc. The laws that govern these different types of rays are not the same. Now imagine that the vehicle that was sent by Almighty Alla>h Y was made in such a fashion as to exceed the speed of light. In how much time could it have traveled five hundred kilometers? Probably in zero time! In no time would he have arrived at zero time. Then we have minus time. We should try to understand the event of Me‘ra>j by observing the natural phenomena and the laws Alla>h Y placed in them.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad e did not have his body and spirit as two things, nor do I have it, nor do you. The body is only the manifestation of the projection in the spatial-temporal dimension of the soul. The real human personality is a point of light in intense motion. This point of light in intense motion is the transcendental factor which was created by Allah Y in the Garden of Eden and which was there and which projects itself in the spatial-temporal dimension and assumes the form of the body. When it projects itself only in the temporal dimension it assumes the form of mind. Mind is only temporal, whilst body is spatial-temporal. The moment this human personality withdraws itself, there is nothing left. This is the meaning of death. The consciousness is a part and parcel of the soul. We call it ar-Ruh. The word ruh in Arabic means the essence not the soul. Essence is the exact meaning of the word ruh. In modern and ancient philosophy there has been given a vital importance to this distinction between the concept of essence and the concept of existence, as to whether essence or existence is the basic factor in connection with a certain thing. We say in Islam that existence precedes essence and that human beings existed in the knowledge of God. They were not then even essences but only ideas. When those ideas crystallized, the first form that they took was essence, which is the exact meaning of the word ruh. The Arabic ar-Ruh means ‘The Essence.’ This essence has evolved under the Divine Law for billions of years and emerged here in the spatial-temporal dimension as this person. It will travel away from here at the time of death. It will be the essence with all the accumulated properties which it accumulated in the process. So to say that, ‘I have got a body, mind and soul’ is the talk of ignorant people. A scientist, philosopher or Muslim i.e. a believer in the Holy Qur'aan, should not talk in this fashion. The most important contribution that the Holy Qur'aan has made in the history of mankind is the principle of Unity or Tauhid. We are ahle Tauhid. Due to ignorance people understand Tauhid as being God is one. Again they are wrong for God is not one. If you say that God is one, i.e. numerically one then you are committing kufr because the numerical one is a finite concept whilst God is infinite. He is not an arithmetical one. He is unity. There is a big difference between the concept of the numerical one and the concept of unity.

When we say oneness of Allah Y’ These are our words because of paucity of our knowledge and paucity in our power of expression.. In connection with this again, there are distinct schools. Three, for instance, basically, i.e. Hamaoost, Hama-az-oost and Hama-ba-oost. All is He [Hamaoost]; All is from Him [Hama-az-oost] and All is with Him [Hama-ba-oost]. What is the connotation of this distinction? Then this Islamic principal of unity does not break itself up into plurality. It remains all the time ‘one’. But then this distinction is made that God alone is really existent, as He says about Himself in the Holy Qur'aan [Sura al-Baqarah [The Heifer], Verse 255]:

للّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ

He is al-Qayyum, which means He Who Is Self Existent. Then the Sufis say Allah Y is wajuud or He is Existence Personified. Allah Y is al-Haqq or He is Truth Personified. Allah Y is Nur , He is light personified and so on. Here (relating to our discussion), Allah Y is Existence Personified. We are not. We are mawjuud whilst He is Wajuud. We exist by the fate of His will. He exists by Himself. To be mawjuud is just to be a mere speck on the tape of The Will of His Supreme Power, which may be there or may not be there. This distinction stops that unity from becoming divided into plurality.

THE LATEST ADVANCES in the domain of Physical Science reveal that the basis of ‘Matter’ is ‘Energy’[18]" and we may reasonably regard the world to have begun in the form of "waves of probability." Again, the analysis of the atom demonstrates that the basic constituents of matter are the electric particles whose fundamental attributes are ‘light’ and ‘heat’.

The Islamic thought on these problems is similar. According to Islam, the universe, which is of an expanding and evolutionary character, began within the ‘waves of probability’, as a nucleus of Light - known in Islamic terminology as the ‘Light of Muhammad’[19] that has been continuously ‘unfolding’ itself. The fact that we live in an expanding universe is proof enough that the ‘essential’ Holy Prophet Muhammad e is alive and functioning. The highest in the scale of creation are the human beings. Now, according to Islam, the highest among the human beings themselves are the Prophets and Messengers of God. It is they who are the embodiments of true human perfection, which is spiritual. Among the Prophets and Messengers of God, again, the highest in the scale is the personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad e. For, his perfection is comprehensive, while others were blessed only with basic perfection.

Three grades of perfection have been mentioned in the Holy Qur’aan below the category of Prophets and Messengers. They have been graded in their order of merit as "the Truthful" (or, Embodiment of Truth), "the Martyrs" (or, Embodiments of Sacrifice in the Way of God) and "the Righteous" (or, Embodiments of Righteousness). The Prophets and the Messengers are perfectly sinless in spite of their humanity. This forms the foundation of their perfection. The Truthful, the Martyrs and the Righteous stand below them serially in their order of merit, and their immunity from sinfulness is in accordance with their grades.

I pray Muslims stop bickering on these topics and become beacons of light that radiate on others and draw them to the truth.

[1] Homer is the name given to the author of the early Greek poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer's works begin the Western Canon and are universally praised for their poetic genius.

[2] The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance, and saw the flowering of English literature and poetry. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished and William Shakespeare, among others, composed plays that broke away from England's past style of plays and theatre.

[3] the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a theatrical device that allows a character's thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience

[4] al-Baqillani (i.e. the greengrocer), the qadi Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-tayyib b. Muhammad b. Dha'far b. al-qasim, in most of the sources Ibn al-Baqillani, but in popular usage simply al-Baqillani, Ash'ari theologian and Maliki jurisprudent. died on 3 Dhu'l-qa'da 403/5 June 1013. The I'dhazal-qur'an, printed several times, is regarded as a classic work on the subject.

[5] Abū Īsā Muhammad ibn Īsā ibn Surat ibn Mūsā ibn ad-Dahhāk as-Sulamī at-Tirmidhī (824-892, ie 209 AH - 13 Rajab 279 AH) was a collector of hadith. He wrote the Sunan al-Tirmidhi, one of the six canonical hadith compilations used in Sunni Islam. Starting at the age of twenty, he travelled widely, to Kufa, Basra and the Hijaz, seeking out knowledge from, among others, Qutaiba ibn Said, Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Abu Dawud.

[6] abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Sirin Al-Ansari (33-110H; a.d. 653-728), wasborn in Basra, as mentioned, in a.d. 653, i.e. the 33rd year after Muhammad  's migration from Makkah to Madinah. He was a Muslim interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He is a contemporary of Anas ibn Malik.

[7] Imam Sufyan Ibn 'Uyaynah [Died 198 AH] linked the generation of the Tabi'ieen with that of the followers of Atba' al-Atba (the second generation after the Sahabah). He was the rare and unique scholar of his age, and he was a torch for the Sunnah and a proof upon the Ummah

[8] a ‘paper currency’ international monetary system at Bretton Woods. They used the link between the US dollar and gold in the Bretton Woods Agreement as a fig leaf to hide the fact that paper could now be printed and used as money without any requirement that it be redeemable in the market in real money,

i.e., money with intrinsic value. The Bretton Woods Agreement paved the way for the International Monetary Fund to be established in 1944 with the explicit function of maintaining an international monetary system of precisely such non-redeemable paper currencies.

[9] Bukhari: Vol 009, Book 092, Hadith 422

[10] from the Kitaab (Book) ‘Jawahirul Hekam’, written by Maulana Mohammed Badre Aalam Sahib, one of the leading spiritual luminaries of Deoband, India, a HADITH which speaks volumes on the FITNA or mischief-making ULAMA of the latter days and their FITNA-making worshippers who congregate in the Mosques. The HADITH is quoted from MISHQAT as recorded on page 38 by BAIHAQI.

[11] Strife, trials, tribulations-that which fascinates, confuses, deceives, intimidates, corrupts and oppresses

[12] The word ‘backs’ should be understood in terms of transcendental existence.

[13] The emergence of individual human beings on the earth seems to have been designed to take place through a process of evolution covering countless stages of transformation and in the form of a series spread over a vast span of time, as different Qur’aanic verses and the verdict of Muslim thinkers like Rumi affirms. (See: Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p 115).

[14] In fact, as “Mercy unto the worlds” (21:107), he has been exalted by God to be the Medium of His Blessings in an immeasurably wider perspective. The unique position which he holds among all creatures, has been unambiguously affirmed also in a Hadith reported by the Holy Prophet’s Companion Jabir and upheld as authentic in Islamic history byminent authorities, among whom may be mentioned, by way of example, one of the classical Qur’aanic commentators, Allama Alusi (vide his classical Tafseer, the Ruh al-Ma’ani, vol. 1, p. 51). It is to the effect: “JÉbir (Allah be pleased with him!) reports: I said ‘O Messenger of Allah! Inform me about the thing which Allah created before all (other) things’. He replied: ‘Verily, Allah, the Almighty, created before all (other) things the Light of your Prophet through His Light…” (Quoted on the authority of muÍaddith’ Abd al-RazzÉq (the eminent forerunner and teacherof Imam Bukhari and author of Al-Musannaf) by Allama Yusuf b. Ismail al-Nabhani, in Al-Anwaar al-Muhammadiyyah min

Mawahib al-Ludunniyah, p. 12, Beirut, 1310 A.H.]. The Hadith then proceeds to inform that the entire universe was created by God from that original created Light, which the luminaries of Islam have named as the ‘Light of Muhammad’.

[15] The scientific representation of creation begins - as in Genesis - with light. Light is the primordial form of energy, the starting point of the Universe. We know this for two reasons: 1) light is the most symmetric energy form known, and therefore the most "primitive", as it cannot be derived from any more symmetric form; 2) light is the only energy form capable of creating and sustaining its own dimensional conservation domain, space - light creates space by virtue of its intrinsic motion, velocity A General Systems Analysis of the Creative Process in Nature

(revised March 2005)

John A. Gowan

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/index.html

[16] Ghazzali-Ihya ' ul - uluum Vol. 1 Section 3

[17] Al-Hafiz Imad al-Din abu fidaa Ismail bin Kathir Ibn al Dimishki t. Explication of the Holy Qur'a>n Volume 1, Page 352

[18] That Energy and Matter are inter-convertible has been stated by Einstein in his famous Theory of Relativity. His formula is: E = mc2. Here, E = energy, m = mass, and c = velocity of light. As regards the source of Energy itself, Dr Alan Isaacs say: "The ultimate source of the energy of the universe is a subject for speculation; it is possible indeed, that it is being continuously created by a power beyond the scope of our understanding". (Introducing Science, p. 130).

[19] 1 Cf. the famous Hadith: "I (i.e. the Holy Prophet Muhammad) am from the Light of God and the entire creation is from my Light".

International Sufi Order