Khalifatulah & the basic message of "La ilaha illalah"
Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu
In my last programme, I mentioned in one of the final sentences that Allah Almighty had ejected Nabi Adam (a.s.) and his wife Sayyidatuna.Hawa (r.a.) from Paradise because of their transgression. Prior to that, of course, He had ejected Shaytan because Shaytan had refused to carry out His Decree of prostrating to Nabi Adam (a.s.). Allah Almighty had first sent Shaytan out of Paradise. He represented from that time and continues to represent the forces of evil in creation. On the other hand, Allah Almighty had sent Nabi Adam (a.s.) and his wife to the dunya with another mission. When Allah Almighty created Nabi Adam (a.s.), He informed the malai'kah (the angels) that He was going to create a Khalifatullah, somebody who was going to implement His Teachings on the dunya. This is very important for us to understand because human beings were created for a very specific purpose. That purpose can be seen in the creation of Nabi Adam (a.s.). Nabi Adam (a.s.) was going to be a Khalifatullah, the one that was going to represent Allah Almighty on the dunya and implement the Divine Decree, whatever its nature might be, amongst those people who were going to come later on as part of the creation. When Nabi Adam (a.s.) and his wife came down to the dunya, they came for a specific purpose, on the one hand, and Shaytan came for another purpose, on the other hand. We had these two major forces: the one representing good and the other one representing evil, the one representing obedience to the Divine Decree and the other one representing disobedience to the Divine Decree, the one representing submission to Allah Almighty and His Message, the other one representing rejection of Allah Almighty and His Message. That's why Allah Almighty refers to Shaytan in the Qur'an as of the kafirin, of those who reject, not only belief in Him but also His Decrees. And so we have in the creation or on the dunya two forces; one the force of good and the other, the force of evil. Many people have asked: "Why is it necessary that there should be evil on the dunya?" And my reply has always been: "For any kind of spiritual attainment, for any kind of spiritual or religious achievement, one must struggle and strive". One must have something to struggle against or to strive against. And so Allah Almighty placed evil on the dunya to allow those of us who are prepared to carry out the Divine Decree, those of us who are prepared to submit to Him, to strive against evil, against what is bad, against what is haram, against what He does not allow, and in this striving there's development. Development can only take place in struggle and in striving. And so, one of the reasons, and it is one of the most amazing things, that there is wisdom in the fact that Shaytan is on the dunya. One of the reasons for the fact that Allah Almighty had placed evil on the dunya is to allow for spiritual development and spiritual and religious quest. If there was no evil there would be no struggle, there would be no striving, there would be no development. And so for any one of us to attain any level of spiritual development, to attain any spiritual station, for example, it is necessary for us to struggle for whatever we have at our disposal, whatever things Allah Almighty had given to us, to struggle against the bad things or the haram things, or makruh things, or the evil things for our religious development and for our religious quest.
What was the message that Nabi Adam (a.s.) brought to us? The basic message that he brought was La ilaha illalah: There is no god other than Allah. This was the message. Let me just relax a little bit with you on this particular matter because this is very important for us to understand. One of the questions that was asked when I was in Port Elizabeth recently was: What is so important about La ilaha illalah? Why is it so important for us to say that? And why is it so important for us to say, for example, the word "Allah". Now let me go back to the creation because part of the answer lies there. Allah Almighty said "Kun" Be! With that word "Be", with those two letters, Allah Almighty brought into existence all of creation, which means that within those two letters as part of the Divine Words, the Sacred Words, there must be an enormous amount of Divine Power. It can't be otherwise. Allah Almighty sent revelation to Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). This revelation Allah Almighty first sent to the Lawhul Ma'futh, the Preserved Tablet. Whatever that is, we do not know. From there it went to a place called the Domain of Power, the Baytul Izzah. Whatever that is, we do not know. Then the revelation went to Jibril (a.s.) and he memorized it. We do know that that message carried by Jibril (a.s.) was placed on the heart of Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). Now these are Sacred Words. And Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) was prepared in a particular way to accept those words, to receive those words. That's why I think there were times when he was given certain spiritual operations. The Angels operated on him and cleansed his heart as part of a later process for him to accept the Divine Word. His heart had to be absolutely pure to receive the Divine Words. And so when Jibril (a.s.) speaks to him in the cave and says to him: "Read": 'Iqra' bismi Rabbikalazi khalaq, Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) said: "Ma ana bi qari'in": I'm unable to read". And thrice Jibril (a.s.) embraced him and thrice Jibril (a.s.) said "Read" and with the final embrace, those Divine Words, those Sacred Words, poured into the heart of Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). Now those were powerful words, filled with spiritual energy. As Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) received the revelation, it had a major impact on his bodily frame. He would sweat, for example, and become heavy because of the revelation that was pouring into his heart. It shows the particular power of these words. So when Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) tells us "Afdalud dhikr La ilaha illalah", that the dhikr from which you can derive the most spiritual gain is La ilaha illalah,. he is telling us that these words are so filled with spiritual energy that it would impact on our hearts, it would have a spiritual impact on us. We must understand that these Sacred Words are not just flat words, they are words filled with spiritual energy. And La ilaha illalah is the basis of all religion from the beginning of time. It must be of the most powerful phrases in creation. We mean by that, it must be of those phrases that has maximum spiritual energy, spiritual power. So when we say "La ilaha illalah", we are drawing from that power. And it is that energy and that power that impact on our hearts and it is that energy and that power that bring about a transformation in us. Otherwise that transformation will not take place if these were just flat words. The same applies to the word "Allah". Allah Almighty says in the Qur'an: "A'udhu billahi minashayta nirrajim. Fath kuruz ma Rabbik" "Say the Name of your Lord". Why this special instruction? Why does Allah Almighty give us a special instruction to say the word "Allah". The reason is because of the tremendous amount of spiritual energy and spiritual power in that word. That is perhaps the greatest word that we have in the Qur'an. And so when we say the word "Allah", we are drawing from that energy, from that power and that power is absorbed by us and helps in our transformation and helps to take us to special spiritual stations. Let me leave it at that now, I will talk again about this later in my next programme.
Subhana rabbika rabbil izzati amma yassifun wassalamun alal mursalin wal hamdu lillahi rabil 'alamin. Wallahu a'lam.