Unity of Existence

Only God is Existent, and all of Creation is but a grandiose mirror reflecting His Divine Essence and Attributes.

Shaykh al-Akbar Imam ibn Arabi al-Hatimi at-Tai termed this concept "the Unity of Existence" — al-Wahdat al-Wujud.

In Sufi terminology, Wahdatul-Wujud means to believe that all the Mawjudat, that is, everything that exists and is present around us and beyond us, is an indication of God’s Presence, and everything besides God is Subjective, that is, a thing that exists, merely exists because God has subjected it to exist and therefore it has no existentiality of its own. Therefore, everything that exists is a representation of Takwin, the Creative Act of God.

A common argument against the concept of al-Wahdat al-Wajud, often brought up by the Wahhabi Muslims such as the likes of Dr. Zakir Naik and Dr. Bilal Philips, is that it is Shirk in the form of Pantheism: untrue.

Pantheism is the belief that God is present in creation in the physical sense which is, thus, worshiped. This leads to paganism and idolatry as the objects in creation are directly worshiped as God, reducing Them to being bound in three-dimensional entities existing within spacetime.

In sharp contrast, Wahdatul-Wujud enhances God beyond any space, time or dimensional boundaries by stating that if everything in being was extended to infinity, nothing would remain but God. That is, a two-dimensional picture of
a house can be rendered into three-dimensional form, converting the image into an actual house with height, weight, width and length. However, if everything in existence was, similarly, rendered into infinite dimensions, then it would all cease to exist except for God. Therefore, in the greater scheme of things, we conclude, nothing exists but God.

Think of it this way: You paint a picture. The picture is not real. It is a two-dimensional rendering of whatever was going through your head as you illustrated it on a canvas. It doesn't really exist – you gave it form. Now, think this: you and everything around you is a picture, a three-dimensional rendering of the Will and Creative Attribute of God.

This is the Ultimate Truth. This is the Unity of Creation and All of Existence. This is Wahdat al-Wujud.

— Fahim Ferdous Kibria

The Spirit, the Heart and the Soul

The human being consists of three metaphysical components: the ruh, the qalb and the nafs. The nafs (soul) is passion or the sense of one's self (ego), which is composed of pure instinct programmed for survival with
the desire to eat, sleep, procreate, etc. God installed this within us to ensure that we don't die out.

The ruh is the spirit which is the loci of life. It is composed of the will to reconcile with God. It inclines towards righteousness, piety, etc. The qalb is the component, often translated to heart, that balances between the two, keeping in check feelings of selfishness and selflessness so one maintains a calibrated scale of both in character.

Angels are composed simply of ruh because they don't need to eat, sleep, procreate, etc. and thus they have
no requirement for a control center of such desire in place. They are immortal spirits and thus they have no nafs and since they have no nafs they cannot sin because sinning is caused by the unchained passions of the nafs, that is, when the nafs desires for food and the person in possession of the nafs satisfies this desire by eating that which is not lawful, it is a sin, or when the nafs desires to procreate and the person in possession of the nafs satisfies
this desire via immoral sexual intercourse, it is a sin. Angels do not and they cannot sin under any circumstances.

Since angels have no requirement to eat or procreate, etc. they have no nafs, hence their inability to sin. They are only composed of ruh and thus they are purely righteousness and piety incarnate. The jinn, on the other hand, are capable of sinning because, like humans, they too are mortal and require instincts for survival thus they come off
the factory settings with both the nafs and ruh in place. Iblis, before his fall, was a pious jinn, Azazel, but due to
his disobedience against God was stripped of his grace and morphed into the Accursed Satan.

— Fahim Ferdous Kibria

Love, Faith and Sacrifice

"If you focus too narrowly on a single path to God, all you will ever find is the path."
~ Meister Eckhart

Religions – specially the Abrahamic religions; more specifically Islam, in recent times, have been denigrated to a series of laws and regulations that line up to form a checklist for its devotees to complete as they move on up the aisle towards buying themselves a coupon ticket to Paradise. This is the modern day crisis of faith.

It is indeed a serious issue in the community of Muhammad left behind today. We set out everyday to fulfill a plethora of chores in our to-do list: pray five times a day, check; fast next Monday, check; grow a beard, check; convince my little sister to wear a headscarf, check – we treat all these deeds not as acts of the spirit but merely actions of flesh and bone. The inherent wisdom behind the Islamic lifestyle is lost.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern-day Islam is the way we treat the Holy Scriptures as not the unadulterated Divine Discourse between God and Man but rather a measly book of do’s and don’ts written down by some strange man in the desert as a bundle of stories.

If I were to write a book today, a novel with a character that eats a certain way, speaks a certain way, sleeps facing a certain direction, and then centuries down the line some archaeologist stumbles upon the thing and tells all his children to follow the actions of the character in the story simply because he likes it, how absolutely insane would it be? However, that is exactly how we have begun to treat Islam. Eat this, don’t eat that. Why? Because the Qur’an says so. Wear this, don’t wear that. Why? Because the Hadith says so. People are just being fed to live a certain life only because a myriad of scribbles inked onto a stack of paper tells them to do so.

Now, instead, consider this. So we have the aforementioned book with the character. I write it down. Someone finds it. They know about me, let’s say that by the time the novel is discovered I am some sort of legendary author and the character I have penned is an inspiring hero of lore. The children read it, they love me and they love the character I have designed so much so that they want to grow up and be just like him. That is what Islam is supposed to be. You read the Qur’an, you fall in love with the Author, understand Him, wish to know Him better, cherish the virtues that are desirable to Him and try to imbue yourself with them to attain His affection.

The Qur’an is the Sacred Speech of God where He tells us the stories of men and women who He raised above all creation and those who He has damned below all creation. Through reading it we are to understand the traits that He loves, try to comprehend why is it that He chose to elevate Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Noah, Mary and Dhulquarnain while condemn Abu Lahab, Nimrod, the Pharaoh and Satan. Their stories are not to be meaningless bedtime narratives to us but morals with glad-tidings and warnings.

Let us take for an instance the example of a child hearing the epic saga of Harry Potter and Voldemort. They identify with the former as the hero who is to be admired and respected, and the latter as the villain who is to be despised and loathed. Now, human nature is driven with the urge to earn respect and admiration, and once the child understands Harry is the one to be respected and admired, the child imitates him to accomplish exactly that while avoiding the traits expressed by Voldemort to avert being seen as the hated adversary, the outcast.

Switching our focus back to Islam and the Qur’an, we too have stories akin to that of Harry Potter and Voldemort but the stage is even grander. The characters here are not only vying to garner attention, admiration and respect from their peers but One far exalted – God. And this is where the Love of God is so important. Why must the reader be driven to earn the admiration of God? See, if a person does not like someone, if that person could not care less about what this someone thought of them, then why would that person sacrifice all the pleasures of their life to earn that someone’s respect and admiration? And let us be extremely blunt here, God asks us to make very many sacrifices quite very many times throughout the Qur’an and sacrifice is an extremely prevalent theme throughout the theological and historical lore of Islam.

What we must ask ourselves are the following questions:
Was Abraham going to slaughter his child mercilessly because some vengeful voice in the sky asked him to do so? Was he going to do it so that he could simply go to Heaven?
Did John stand against the tyranny of Herod and lose his head for an indifferent holy being of nothingness?
Did Mary wander the deserts outside Palestine all by herself bearing the excruciating pangs of childbirth for the fulfillment of some divine will she did not understand?
Did Muhammad spend months eating leaves outside the walls of Mecca out of some senseless, misguided desire for self-torture?
Did Husayn stand against the brutality of Yazid's oppressive, unjust regime knowing full well that he was going to die because of some misplaced passion for achieving martyrdom?
The answer to all of the above questions is a resounding 'no.'

Abraham loved God and he trusted God. He knew that if God was guiding him then God was leading his path towards good and righteousness. We know Abraham longed for a child all his life, he was not simply about to give it up because of the pleasures of Heaven. All the pleasures in existence he could long for came through the fulfillment of his wish to father a child: he could desire for nothing more. But then, why sacrifice that which was his greatest source of joy and happiness? Because his love for God was greater and his trust on Him was profound. He knew God would not misguide him and plunge him astray hurling towards misery.

Nowadays, our love for God is lacking. We do not trust God; even more so, we do not know God and how can we ever trust that which we do not know? Thus we are not ready to sacrifice for Him. We are unsure if what we are to give up will ever be reimbursed. We are unsure if what we are to forsake will ever be returned. We are unsure if our faith is ever to be rewarded.

The zeal to follow the footsteps of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Mutalib, 'Ali ibn Abu Talib and Husayn ibn 'Ali, of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Abu Bakr as-Sadiq, of David, Jacob and Solomon will never be there unless we instill into ourselves what was instilled into them; until we inspire ourselves with what inspired them; they did not see Islam as a manifesto of laws but rather the Way towards a Divine Union between themselves and the Eternal Beloved.



— Fahim Ferdous Kibria

Let Them Have Paradise

My eyes exist to see You.
My hands exist to reach You.
Today I set my life on Your Path
Tomorrow I will find You.

Today I set my life on Your Path,
so tomorrow You may know my worth
Don't give me Paradise as reward for my faith
I have no desire to go.

The place you call Paradise
for which every good believer strives
is but a house of beautiful women to the wise
I have no desire to embrace them.

You gave me a son and a daughter
who've brought me every pleasure;
Even for them I have no more desire
All my desire is for You.

Give all that to the orthodox believers
They are the ones who want Your favors.
I have no desire for home or possessions either
I have no desire but for You.

Yunus misses You terribly.
Show him that You miss him too.
If Your Way is not to torture,
show some mercy so he can reach You.



― Yunus Emre

Salam ar-Ruh w'al-Qulub

Never have I felt true peace and serenity except that which descends unto me upon the reciting of these Words,

In the Name of God, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

Praise be unto You, Lord and Sustainer of All Existence

Most Gracious, Most Compassionate

Master of the Day of Judgement

You Alone we Worship, You Alone we ask for Help

Guide us to the Path of the Righteous

Not that of those who have incurred Your Wrath nor that of those who have been lead astray

Ameen.

The Verses of the Opening

Sweetens the tongue like nectar,

Washes the body like water,
Comforts the ears like honey,
Cleanses the heart like milk,

And cures the spirit like balm.

It is the Wine of the Believer.

I close my eyes,

I set my mind to rest,

I open the window to my inner self,

And let the syllables sink in.

Every fiber of my being trembles.

I witness the waves of the ocean,

Turbulent as they are lead to sleep,

Like a cerulean giant melting into glass.

Calm.

I hear the choirs of angels singing,

Their voices tame the wind.

A soft breeze heals the soul.

Soothing.

I see the canvas of the twilight sky

A nocturnal blend of lavender and sepia,

Fuchsia and violet,

Hovering beneath a blanket of black and blue velvet,

Embedded with gemstones of the heavens.

Tranquilizing.



— Fahim Ferdous Kibria