An interesting question, to which many an answer has been directed.
One in particular, however, deserves a post of its own. Take it away, M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen:
God has no form. He has no shadow. There is nothing in comparison to Him. He has neither wife nor child. He is neither darkness nor light. He is not like the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars. God is one power, a power which is able to control and subdue all other powers. From the single atom to all of the universes, this is a power which is intimately mixed within all things. It has nothing, no shadow, no aid. It is the One who is alone, the Original One. It is a point, a power, which has neither beginning nor end. There is no language for it, nor does it have a religion. It does not possess a race; there are no colors in it, no black or white. It is a power, a point which is within every creation.
It has no mouth, no tongue to speak, yet through our mouths that power is speaking. It has no eyes, yet it is observing through our eyes. It has no ears, yet it replies to the sounds that we hear with our own ears. It has no nose, but it senses fragrance through our sense of smell. It has no hands, but that power makes our hands the agency for giving and receiving. It has no feet or legs, but it walks throughout all the universes. Such is that power.
The mind cannot see this power. The mind has the form of a demon. Earth, fire, water, air, and ether are the form of this demon. It is the essence of the elements, the form of spirits or vapors, the form of desire and illusion. Therefore, mind and desire cannot see or pray to God. God is that treasure which transcends mind and desire. If we want to see that treasure and realize it, then we have to understand ourselves. Only wisdom can understand that treasure, and if we want to realize God, then we must acquire His qualities within ourselves. Those qualities create a different form within us, the form of His beauty. God can never he seen. It is God’s qualities which are His beauty, and the light which radiates through those qualities is His power. Those qualities are His form and that light is His power. That is God.
Look are this Sufi master’s website — a site created for him several years after his passing from this world — to see just how direct an experience he had of the words he conveys.
Such experience is worthy of our respect.
AntiSniveler 
I don’t mean to be pedantic But…
“God is one power, a power which is able to control and subdue all other powers.”
What other powers would need subduing if God is One power?
Good point, Tony.
Reminds me of the time I was allowed, as a junior high schooler, to attend an “adult education” Sunday School class (this was in the mid 70’s). The teacher was going on and on about Satan, how we should fear him and so forth. I raised my hand and asked, “If God is omnipotent, and I’ve given myself to God, what do I have to fear from Satan?” I was immediately asked to leave the class and not come back.
That said, I think that Bawa was simply asserting a hierarchy within the totality that we refer to as God. So, from the viewpoint of a seemingly limited, dualistic entity such as ourselves, God would have to be at the top of that hierarchy.
Personally, I think it’s impossible to use human language to describe God… but I enjoy it when someone like this gives it a try. Sometimes it’s impressive, even….
Nice to have you here, Tony.
Dear Tony,
As far as the tiny knowledge donated me by Allah. I will give it a try to explain you what Bawa said by “subdueing”. Allah in Islam is the name of God. This name combines all the other names within it. If you look in to islamic literature. You see 99 divine names called “Esma ul Husna” described in Qur’an and hadiths of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH). These names are in the form of name, name-adjective and adjective.
For instance, Er-Raheem:Merciful is an adjective of Allah. These names and adjectives are combined within the one name called “Allah”. All his divine names make manifestation within the universe. Total universe perceived by us is nothing but the manifestation of the meanings of his divine names. They all come from One and all belong to One. Meaning of each name turns in to vibrations then atoms then lights and appears as a physical object to us.
So material surrounding us is firstly our perception, secondly a guide for us to understand the meaning of the divine names. The person learns the names by observing the names in nature. However, the names are totaly appears in only human being. So learning the names within your innerself is the key rather than wathing them from environment. Because you are the place of manifestation. “God created the man in his own image” means God gave his names to human being. So the person will turn inwards and know himself.
Duality within the universe happens due to “Self”. Allah is Er-Rahim:merciful and Allah also gives chance to his creation to use this name. So a person who is showing mercy to his creation uses the name “Er-Raheem”. This is done so that we understand what mercy of Allah is by showing mercy to someone.
As this Er-Raheem is given to you by Allah , Both you and Allah look merciful. However in fact, they are the same name and same mercy and they all belong to Allah. However,He allowed you to use this name and show mercy.
Person beating his Ego and cutting his attachments anything than Allah, will loose him SELF in Allah and realise that all the powers that he thought he had and all the mercy which he was using is not his power or his mercy but they all belong to Allah. Duality ends here, “Self” disappears and only truth remains. The person at that moment becomes the place for the manifestation of divine name of One, “Allah”. But be careful, do not mix this with “being Allah”. A servant, human being, CAN NEVER BE ALLAH. Manifesation of name Allah on someone does not make some one Allah. You can gain the qualities of Allah but this does not make you ALLAH. This is the point where christianity is suffering today. Today, Christians perceiving the manifesation of the name “Allah” in Jesus as Jesus being “Allah”. That is why they refer to him as “Lord”.
If the duality exists person sees two powers , 1- power of Allah and 2-power of himself. When the duality ends for that moment of manifestation, only power of Allah is seen. Person living by knowing that all powers belong to Allah lives the “Tawheed:degree of unity”.
Allah knows best.I seek refuge to Allah from my mistakes.
I translated(to English) a section of a book called Maarif of Sultan Veled, who is son of Sufi Mystic Rumi(K.S). He explains some of these issues in there by using the meanings beyond the “Staff of Moses”. Please send me an e-mail if you want a copy to read.
My e-mail is “knight28_2@hotmail.com”
With Salaam and my Prayers
Gariban
Basildon-UK
God is not an entity outside of us looking down, requiring us to worship him. The reason there are so many different religions, is because people are looking for god outside of themselves.
We are all god, christ consciousness, we are are all the same. We trap ourselves into duality thinking and identifying ourselves with the container (flesh) we reside in. We are infinite, never ending, gods.
Thanks
Well Charles,
There is a difference between saying “God is us” and “We are all God”.
The first one can be commented and softened by saying that God’s adjectives and attributes become apparent on Man more than in any other creatures created by God. The first one may be said by illuminated beings who kill their ego and loose themselve in God. But the second one is a pure blasphemy.
My teacher used to say that paint is not the painter.Creation is not the creator. We are needy He does not need. We sleep he does not sleep. We are born, He is not born. While we can not even solve the cross words on our local newspaper, how can we claim to be God ?
We are afraid of saying such statements due to the verse below:
Qur’an 45-23″Then seest thou such a one as takes as his god his own vain desire? Allah has, knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart (and understanding), and put a cover on his sight. Who, then, will guide him after Allah (has withdrawn Guidance)? Will ye not then receive admonition? “. Pharoh was saying to Moses that He was God. Lets remember What happened. Some cliche word games and ideologies are traps of Satan.
Lets think about it before we say something!!!
I understand your point of view is from a organized religion standpoint, and that is the reason that you even use the word blasphemy.. But it proves a point as to why there are wars going on over religion. It’s the my view of god is the right way and everyone else’s is wrong syndrome. It would be blasphemy if I was a member or a believer in the organized religions. And in some countries I would probably be be-headed for what I said, but none the less, it is still my belief that we are all gods we can do the same miracles and better that Jesus did, just as he said, But not until we get out of this separation mindset of God is apart from us looking down demanding to be worshiped, and if we do not do that we will be condemned to Hell. I just don’t buy it for a second, and nothing will change my mind. And when I say the word God, it is not associated with any of the organized religions views.
Great Blog still 🙂
Dear Charles, Gariban and Tony,
Thank you all for contributing to this post.
The concept of God is obviously a controversial one. There are probably as many definitions as there are human beings.
Having been brought up a Protestant Christian (my father is a Presbyterian minister), I rebelled at 19 and spent many, many years in revolt against religion of all sorts. I sang the New Age mantra that say: “Spirituality good; religion bad.”
Now, at 45 and having enjoyed many personal revelations during the past 15 years or so, I’m learning that the above equation is beside the point. For me, if religion brings a person closer to God — however that may be experienced — then it’s good. If religion takes a person away from God, then it’s not so good. And, if a person finds God without religion, how can we argue with that? (I know, someone will find a way….)
While I currently do not subscribe to any “ism” in the sense of believing in one “ism” at the expense of all others, I can say that I’m open to what the different “isms” have to say — open in a way that I haven’t been for most of my adult life. Right now, it’s important for me to find the “yes” in all our differences, rather than accentuating the “no.”
Bless you all, my friends.
Warmly,
Michael
Dear Michael,
Many thanks for your warm words and writing.Charles thanks for your comments too. When I speak from the Qur’an , some people( in general) who do not follow a religion, perceive this in a bit of strange way.
They automaticaly assign the person a category which they allocate to the religious people from their mind. They say “Ohh, this man is brainwashed by a particular doctrine and crushed under certain laws governed by a particular religion. However, I am free and can think freely while he is being constricted by his religious laws.”
Well then this point is argueable. If God is telling you that you need to use your mind, seek, question, observe and learn to get close to Him, then it is nonsense to think like that. Entire Qur’an is full of verses pointing this to people and asking them to be wise and use their mind, observe and reflect your learning in to your life in seeking the truth.
However there is a limit and a manner in this. Everything has a limit and manner, if you pass the boundaries, some things snap. If we question the things in the favour of finding God , that is OK but if we question in the way of disbelief and trying to eliminate his messages, falsifying the 124000 prophets sent, and rejecting the truth of God, rejecting the concepts like Hell,oneness of God, Heaven etc. and searching for a common understing in accordance with our own limited intellect to satisfy our own ego to attach our selves to materialism and our own ego, some things snap there.
If the limited intellect that we have was enough, there would be no need for prophets to come! If limited intellect does not become ear to the messages sent by God and if we interpret the things in the world in accordance with our own way, while being blended with our own ego(working at the background) , We may not realise this but all of a sudden we start creating an image of God and worshipping to the one who is endorsing all our actions. While we are searching , we fall in to a bottomless pit.
Limited intellect and reasoning mechanism we have, need the messages coming from divine as a guidance to find him. If we act without this , limited intellect can make us wonder around and stick us in to mud. Because direct reasoning and comparison from life can also lead you further from the truth as well as helping you.
The knowledge gained from direct comparison can mislead you. For instance, if a person comes with a direct comparison saying “Truth is bitter. Pepper is bitter then the truth must be pepper.” then this takes us no where.
There is a reality(Haqq) called “God” who is governing this universe, the things which we perceive with our senses and the unseen which we do not perceive. God is communicating with the people and warning them to seek for Him. God is not mute. He sent messengers and books to all humanity along the aeons. It is not his attitude to judge without warning. There are secrets in this judgement. It is not like many people think. God does not fuel the religious hate. Any prophet He sent has confirmed the other prophet before him. In Qur’an, God tells this repeatingly in many verses :
Nisa 4/163:Surely We have revealed to you(Muhammad) as We revealed to Noah, and the prophets after him, and We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms.
Ali Imran 3/84: Say (O Muhammad): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.
Nisa 4/162:But those among them who are well-grounded in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what hath been revealed to thee and what was revealed before thee: And (especially) those who establish regular prayer and practise regular charity and believe in Allah and in the Last Day: To them shall We soon give a great reward.
Fussilet 41/43:Nothing is said to thee(Muhammad) that was not said to the messengers before thee: that thy lord has at his Command (all) forgiveness as well as a most Grievous Penalty.
Bakara 2/136:Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.
Anbiya 21/25:Not a messenger did We send before thee(Muhammad) without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I; therefore worship and serve Me.
I am sure someone will not go and say that religions are causing wars or seperations to a muslim person after reading the above verses.I saw similar verses in old testament as well .
What cause wars are “I”, “Me”,”Mine”,”Ours” which are the words of Ego and selfishness within Mankind not religions. Entire war history which is documented by historians prove this.
God gives us a knife. We can peel an orange with it and eat it, or We stab someone with it. We can not blame the knife if we stab someone or our selves and if we do not know how to use this knife.
The messages within the holy books and the religions e.g.Islam,Christianity, Judaism are the skin of the orange, we need to peel the skin to eat the orange. To be able to peel the skin, we need to practice purification process.
Where intellect is a knife and hand being the ego, if the ego is not cleansed , we are not peeling the orange and instead We are peeling a wood piece to carve an idol for our selves to worship. An idol who is mute and quiet to every unfair action we make, and an idol who is endorsing whatever we think.
When it comes to the question of going freely without being tied to the path of a prophet; I do not advise this to anybody:
1-it is individualistic not social,
2-it is very dangerous, time consuming, more difficult and full of pits to fall in to. So many are wondering around by thinking they found God.
3-there is a secret denial, disrespect and rejection of the messages coming from God.While he sent messages to the person, the person is wondering around to find something else which will match his taste and thoughts.
4- Approx. 124,000 truthfull prophets do not make mistakes nor they tell lie .
5- There are no rules or laws to align your selves to. However, you need tools defined in trutfull religions to purify your selves.For instance, regular charity,fasting, praying etc are introduced by prophets.
When there are no God given rules,your own rules or the society’s rules and understanding take the place of the rules defined by God. Surely you will see that society’s way is towards the direction of ego and it is getting worse everyday.
If a few million religious people had not made effort to hold on to God and protect them selves from the materialism, alcohol, drugs, racism, murdering, killing, lust for world, money,career, hunger of eating more and consuming more, desires for illegal sex and many other million things which human ego attach it’s self to , then all societies would be in trouble now. These hand full of people are getting less and less today and they are swallowed by the materialism.
So corruption is getting bigger and bigger. As it was foretold by the prophets.
If We were living in the period of Jesus , I would be a christian ,
If we were living in the period of Moses, I would be a jew,
But the period we are living in now is the period of Muhammad.
So I am a muslim. But by being a muslim , I am all of them already.
When it comes to the point of Charles saying that organised religions sell a description of God who is putting the people in to Hell if they don’t worship him :
Firstly, lets look at some hadiths to shed light in to some misunderstanding:
Prophet Muhammad said” By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if you were not to commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence and He would replace (you by) those people who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and He would have pardoned them.”
So it is not expected from people not to commit evil actions. So people may commit evil actions but they need to repent and try not to do it.Sinning is a kind of learning mechanism as well. A child touches the fire and burns his hand and understands that this burns the hand and does not attempt to touch it again.
However, there are things which our ego likes in this world that we can not leave it and we desire putting our hands in to that fire thousands of times. If We give in to these things, they consume our life and causes us suffering constantly. We must not give in to them and must not stop repenting and cutting our hopes from God.
Prophet Muhammad reported from God :”My mercy is greater than My wrath”.
Prophet Muhammed reported from God:
“O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another……..
O My servants, you will not attain harming Me so as to harm Me, and you will not attain benefiting Me so as to benefit Me. O my servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to become as pious as the most pious heart of any one man of you, that would not increase My kingdom in anything. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of any one man of you, that would not decrease My kingdom in anything. O My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what I have, any more than a needle decreases the sea if put into it.
O My servants, it is but your deeds that I reckon up for you and then recompense you for, so let him who finds good praise Allah, and let him who finds other than that blame no one but himself.”
So now lets clear this point that, if one worships to God, the benefit of this is to him self not to God.
Lets come to putting people in Hell to burn issue:
Prophet Muhammad said “there is no fire in Hell, every one takes his own fuel(wood etc. causing him to burn) with himself”.
So We can not accuse God to put us in Hell, because we, ourselves put ourselves in Hell.
Charles, your another point sayin that we can make the miracles that prophets do:
This depends on what you understand from a miracle. Miracles of the prophets have deep meanings hidden within the verses revealed to humanity.The verses are packages which need to be opened to understand the miracle within the miracle. You need wisdom to do that.
For a person, Jesus resurrecting a human being with the permission of God might be a package of the miracle. However, when you open it, you see something else pointing to “divine knowledge coming from prophet Jesus resurrected the dead heart of the person”.
For a person, Jesus’s miracle healing the cripled men can be miracle but there is another miracle in there saying”divine words and wisdom will keep your feet firm and your cripled legs will start walking on the path of God”.
Jesus’s walk on the water without sinking is a package also. Water is this world of illusion. Many sinks in it. Water makes the person sinks until he dies and takes it to the surface after killing it. The one who is walking on the surface is dead already.If your heart it not full with the desires of ego and if the desire for world, money, “I”,”Me” and “mine” died within you, then you can walk on the water like Jesus. Other wise, wait for the inventors to build a special shoe to walk on it like Jesus did. But know that this would not be a real miracle. Miracle is within the miracle. There are million miracles like that within the miracles of the prophets. And surely nothing happens without the will of God. No prophet can show a miracle without his permission.
Bless you all
Gariban
UK
Hello Gariban,
Thanks for the detailed and information-filled response. You know your stuff, my friend! It’s always a pleasure to witness a knowledgeable person putting full attention onto a passionate subject, and I do appreciate what you’ve presented here.
In my years of meditation and study, I have encountered expressions of Truth from several profound sources. I suppose one could say that God (Allah) is that source, as when Buddhists speak of Mind, or when Vedantans speak of Self — which is to say, Wisdom is available to that person who avails himself (or herself) to It. The key, I’ve come to understand, is total and complete commitment — not just book learning, but throwing oneself into the practice without reservation.
As I am currently studying the Qu’ran (or at least several English translations/interpretations of it), it is gratifying to find Wisdom flowing through a passionate Muslim such as yourself, Gariban. Your service here helps me very much — I can’t emphasize this enough. Please feel free to comment here whenever you wish, or to contact me at the email address in my “Talk To Me” section.
Warmly,
Michael
Hello Michael,
Many thanks for kind words. It is your own beauty. All knowledge is from Allah. If We said anything good it is from Him not ours, if we said anything bad it is from our own nafs(ego-self-evil commanding soul). I looked at your site and it is quite nice. I appreciate the knowledge in it.
I think , M.R.Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (k.s), whose explanations about God is shown on this site, was a wali(saint) and servant of Allah, and he left many books full of wisdom behind him. I have read many of his books and translated some chapters in to Turkish for Turkish people to read. I discovered him a few years a go through internet and was happy as it is another beatiful source to benefit. His age was probably over hundred as he himself did not remember it.He was from Sri Lanka. Having studied many religions, books and .izm’s, he had magnificient knowledge in all of them but he stated that he is a muslim because saints follow the prophet of the period. 25 of his books are avaialable to read freely in google books section.
Reading, as you said is not enough to understand. Surely, practice of what we read and realising what the words really mean by experiencing them in life is better than reading raw data coming from the book but not practicing and experiencing the meaning of that knowledge. We have a saying in islam called mukallid:Imitator. Mukallids do blind imitation. So I respect your opinion, and I agree with you. That is why religion of islam has many systems within it to prevent blind imitation.
English translations of Qur’ans are not equivalent to Qur’an. That is why they are called “Meal”. As an english person would not know the meaning of “meal”, they call them translations in english language. Qur’an can be translated to another language but when it is done the meanings can be lost. So arabic frame is always original and will be the main book to refer to. There are commentaries called “Tafseer” available in english language also, they give alot more to you when you read the commentaries. However, if you can find someone like Bawa Muhaiyaddeen , an “Insan-i Kamil: Perfect Englightened Human” , they can teach you the inner meaning of the verses. But it is very difficult to find a person like him. Each letter , dot etc is important in terms of getting knowledge out of it. A muslim saint,”Hz,Geylani(k.s)” says Qur’an has 10 dimensions. So the meaning of the verse in each dimension is better than the other one, it becomes better and better when it gets closer to the Truth:Haqq. When you have questions from Qur’an or about islam , please send me e-mail, I will be happy to help with your questions.
I am adding the explanations below to your “Who is God” series. You can cut and copy this to make page 3 if you like.
With Peace, love and prayers
Gariban
ON ALLAH (MAY HE BE GLORIFIED AND EXALTED)
…there is no God but Allah worthy and deserving to be worshiped, obeyed, and loved.
He has no partner, nor is anything like Him. He eats not, drinks not, sleeps not, begest not, nor is He begotten. He does not have a wife, son, or daughter. He exists neither in a place nor at a time. He is neither on earth nor in heaven, on your right or your left, under or above. He has no shape or form or color, nor face, hands or feet. He fears not, hurts not, is saddened not, changes not, and is free of all defects. He is other than all we know or can imagine.
He has no age. He was before always, and will be after the after, forever. He is self-existent, and does not depend on anything. His essence is only His. It is unknown to anyone but He, and is constant. He has priority over everything. He created all from nothing and can turn all in to nothing. Nothing has the power to resist Him, and there is no difficulty for Him. For Him to create seven heavens and seven earths is the same as creating a fly.
No one can influence, dominate, or judge Him, and He governs all and everything. He needs no one, and all are in need of Him. No good or harm can come to Him from anywhere or anyone, even if all the faithless kept faith with Him or if all the sinners became obedient. All the worship directed to him, from the beginning of time until the end, confers no benefit upon Him. If no one ever believed in Him, it would not harm Him at all.
He is One, Only, and Unique. He is Ever-Living, All-Knowing, Aware of all that is in heaven and earth, whether it is observed by or hidden from humanity. He has the accounting of all the leaves on the trees, the number of wheat kernels, and the grains of sand. Nothing is unknown to Him. He knows the parts of every whole, and the past, present, and future of every existence. He knows what you do, what you say, think, and feel, what you show and what you hide. He knows all that is visible and invisible, what there is and what is yet to come. He cannot be mistaken, nor miss or forget anything that He knows. His knowledge existed before there was anything to know: it is uncreated, like Him.
God is All-Seeing and All-Hearing. He sees the tiny black ant walking on a black stone in the darkest of nights, and hears its footsteps. If you whisper in someone’s ear and neither he or you hear your voice, know that God hears your voice loud and clear. He has no eyes, no ears, yet He hears and sees without any senses.
All will is His. He does what He wills. Nothing happens or exists without His will. He has no needs or wishes. No one’s wishes, no matter how strong, can influence His will and make Him do things. Every atom in the universe exists because He willed it to be. Both good and evil are His will. If He willed not, the faithful could not have believed and obeyed Him by their will. He is the one who wills the faithlessness of the faithless, and the sin of the sinner. If He did not , there would be neither sin nor evil. Not a fly can move its wing without His will. What man does God makes him do. If He willed all people would have been pious. If He willed all people would have been evil. Then Why did He not will everyone to be devout, but made some sinners? The answer is that no one has the right to question Him. He is absolute, one, unique in His will and in His actions.
Yet there is a divine reason and wisdom in what He does that human beings can not understand. There is always an advantage for all. Even if you cannot know, believe that there is a multitude of good hidden in the existence of poisonous snakes, scorpions, vermin and bugs, and all other things we associate with suffering and misfortune. It is an obligation for all faithful ones to believe this, and to believe that it has always been so, and always will be.
God’s will is eternal as He is, not created. God is All-Powerful: All power belongs to Him. His power is only conditional upon one thing:His will. Only what He makes, comes to exist; only what He does, happens. There is nothing He cannot do. He has brought the dead back to life, made stones and trees talk and walk, made stars disappear and reappear, turned earth to gold and gold to earth, made rivers flow uphill, raised those He loved above the seven heavens and brought them back, transported them from the eastern end of the world to its western end in an instant. He is the one who does everything with His power, which is eternal like Himself, though created afterwards, and which is inexhaustible.
Every word, every sound, all that is said and heard are His. His commands, His ordinances and judgements that apply to His creation, are in His words. These are contained in the last divine book, the Holy Qur’an, which includes all the other preceding holy books. The Qur’an is His final world, whose meaning is infinite and eternal.
God’s word is soundless. It does not need a tounge or lips to pronounce it, nor does it need ears to be heard, nor does it need letters to be written or eyes to be read.
God is the creator of all and everything. There is no other who created but He. He is the one who created the eye and what it sees, the hand and what it does, the tounge and what it says. He is the one who created us and our deeds-the whole, the parts, the essence and the attributes of men and Jinn. The worlds and the heavens, devils, beasts, plants, rocks and jewels, all that can be seen, felt and imagined, and the invisible and unimaginable, are created by Him from nothing. Only He existed before anything existed. He created the creation, not because He needed it, but to manifest His Love, His Will, His Wisdom, His Power, and His Compassion.
So:He is before the before. He did not become; He always was. He is after the after, eternal:He always will be. He is one, only and unique, without partner. He is the cause of all and everything. All are in need of Him, while He needs no one and nothing. He sasid “Be” and all became. Everything will be gone when He says “Be gone.” He is the creator, bearing no resemblance to what He created. HE is the self-existent, independent, without any needs.
These are the essential things that human beings can understand about the perfection of their Sustainer, whom they should believe, love, and obey.
The above text is excerpted from the introductory biography in the book
The Path of Muhammad written by Imam Birgivi
Imam Birgivi was an Ottoman Muslim scholar and moralist who lived during the height of the Ottoman Empire, in the 16th century of the common era.
Thanks once again, Gariban, for putting so much of yourself into your communication here. It’s interesting that you quote from The Path of Muhammad by Imam Birgivi, as I have recently purchased that book and intend to read it. Also, I have been collecting Bawa Muhaiyaddeen’s books ever since I first came across him at the website in his name, some three months ago. I am working my way through his magnum opus, The Resonance of Allah.
Would I be able to find your email address at the website to which your name links at the head of your most recent comment? Or, perhaps, if you wouldn’t mind contacting me at , I would truly love to use you as a resource as I continue my self-education. I would also love to include you as a good friend in my life.
My mother is gravely ill with little time left, so my wife and I will hit the road in the next couple of days. She lives two days’ drive from us, so we may be gone for a while. I hope to get online during the trip, however, so I will keep an eye out for you.
Blessings,
Michael
My dear friend Michael,
I feel sympathy for your mother’s condition, We will pray for her inshaallah. May Allah (El-Shafi:The one who cures illnesses) make her better. Amin.
My e-mail on the link is correct, you can use that to reach me. When you reach me , I will give you another e-mail. You say it is interesting that I quote the book, path of Muhammad. Yes it is interesting, it is a part of destiny,there are no coincidences in life, lets hope that we will find a meaning here.
The book, path of Muhammad was translated by Shaikh Tosun Bayrak El-Cerrahi. I know him in person, he is one of my teachers. That book shows the moral attitude of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) and it’s content is very valuable, it is a good summary of proper islamic morals and ethics. Important thing is to put them in practice. Putting it in practice means “living” it as you said. This needs discipline and sincerity.
I have translated some chapters in Resonance of Allah to Turkish, it is full of symbolls and one who reads it needs to understand a bit of Tasawwuf and read it with Qur’an. Reading without the guidance of Qur’an can mislead the person. Especially, the one who does not understand Tasawwuf will read it like a story book, will think that he understands it but the things mentioned will not be what he understands. This path is so slippery and the bridge is so sharp to walk on. May Allah be with you.
With Peace, love and my prayers
Gariban
Hello again friend Gariban,
I wrote a quick note on the “contact” page at your website. As the site is written in a non-English language (Turkish?), I could not find an actual email address, so I hope my message gets to you.
By the way, even without being able to read the site, I am very impressed with it. If only there was an English version…!
Yes, I am reading an English “meaning” of the Qu’ran — actually, I’m reading Muhammad Asad’s translation primarily, while regularly referring to several other versions for alternative interpretations of key passages — and I’m doing so without benefit of a knowedgable guide such as yourself. I do feel that this auto-didactic approach has value, as the alternative is to not read it at all, but I keep hearing that one should be guided by a worthy shaykh in order to get the full meaning. Specifically, I am missing out on the guidance of a Sufi (Tasawwuf) shaykh, as it is precisely the INNER meaning that I most crave. Locally, there exists a very small Islamic community; my understanding is that it is almost exclusively represented by Wahabis, who are very negative toward Sufism. So, at the moment at least, I am fishing online for good people like you, who are at least available to answer questions and offer constructive suggestions.
Thank you very much, by the way, for your offering of Peace, love and prayers. We leave first thing tomorrow morning (Thursday), to arrive at my mother’s bedside Friday night. She is a fundamentalist Christian and would not be open to direct conversation about Islam, but the spirit of your goodwill is present in my journey and will reach my mother intact.
Warm blessings,
Michael
Hi Michael,
I hope your mother is well and your visit has been OK. As your e-mail was sent in english to our website,it was ignored and deleted by our administrator who is my teacher. however they know that you will send e-mail to me. Please write to same website again with your e-mail address with the following message. Please copy and paste this message to the site contact message section:
“Selamlar, ben amerikadan Gariban ile konusan Michael’im lutfen mesajdaki e-mail adresimi garibana iletirmisiniz.”
My dear friend,
I will speak to you when you find me with my e-mail. When we post a comment to your site, we have to write our e-mail but it stays hidden. I don’t understand how you can not read it as an administrator from your own site?
wassalam (With Peace)
Gariban
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