Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu
Perhaps the most important lesson that came out of my last talk was the fact that the Qur'an, the Divine Words, are filled with massive amounts of spiritual energy and power. When we recite those words, when we repeat them, we try our very best to draw on that energy for our own spiritual development. This is important for us to understand and I gave the examples of La illaha illallah and also of the word "Allah", and I mentioned in the programme that perhaps "Allah" is the greatest word in the Qur'an. Allah Almighty tells us to say His Name. He says in the Qur'an, A'udhu billahi minashayta nirrajim.: "Ana Allah ": "I am Allah" When He says: "Say My Name" it is because Allah Almighty wants us to draw on that massive spiritual energy that is encased in the word "Allah". That applies of course to the whole of the Qur'an. Over the centuries many of us have lost or are unable to draw on the particular spiritual power or spiritual energy from the Qur'an, and therefore very little transformation takes place in us when we recite the Qur'an. There's something that is happening so that we are unable to draw from the Qur'an that kind of spiritual energy that we need for our own personal spiritual development.
But let me get back to what I was talking about. I said that the message, the basic message of all religion from the time of Nabi Adam (a.s.), were the words La illaha illallah and every single Messenger that came, came to reaffirm that. And so over the centuries, from the time of Nabi Adam (a.s.), Allah Almighty always sent that message, the most basic message of religion: "There is no God other than Allah". That message came right down and it was a message that was received by Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and also implemented during this historical period that we are in. Allah Almighty had in fact created man and had placed man on a journey. Man was to come to the earth. Of course, the creation takes place in the mothers and the mothers receive the souls. All people are on a journey from the heavens to the dunya and from the dunya back to the heavens. But the journey from the dunya back to the heavens must be on the basis of La illaha illallah for them to enjoy whatever benefits Allah Almighty was going to provide for them. For them to enjoy that, they had to accept La illaha illallah and later all the other matters were going to come. I think it is interesting for me to tell you at this particular juncture, at the beginning of Islam, Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) in a number of traditions had mentioned that at the beginning of time when people became Muslim, La illaha illallah" was enough to take them eventually into Paradise. That was before all the other injunctions came. People just recognized that there is no god other than Allah Almighty, and this was enough for them. Everything had gone wrong on the dunya. The forces of evil had taken over most of the dunya. In a certain sense, Shaytan was very successful in what he was trying to do. And Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) had to take all of humanity virtually by the shoulders and turn humanity in another direction. And he could only do that with the power of La illaha illallah. And so at the beginning, especially during the early period in Makkah, when people could just say, could just admit to La illaha illallah it was enough to later take them into Paradise. Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) in a certain hadith describes this, he says: "If all that is in existence should surround the words La illaha illallah, those words, that phrase is so powerful - coming back to the spiritual energy - that it will break out of its encasement and it will go to where it belongs in the presence of Allah Almighty. So powerful La illaha illallah is. And that is why we repeat it. That is why we say it over and over and over again, in order to draw from it its energy, in order to declare through it our faith and in order to use it as a means of protection on the dunya, in the qabr and in the Akhirah. So when Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) came with: La illaha illallah and of course Muhammadur rasulullah, that became the Shahadah of this historical period.
We have to understand that Nabi Muhammad s.a.w.s. was in his own self a major, perhaps the greatest spiritual giant of all time. He had been transformed when he went on the Mi'raj. When he came back from the Mi'raj, he came with a massive amount of knowledge that we only believe in. That is why I always say when Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) came back from the Mi'raj, we have to understand this as part of our understanding of our spirituality, when he came back from the Mi'raj, it was no more Amantu bilahi. To him it was Araftu bilahi. "I know that there is a God", I know there is Paradise. I know there is a Jahannam, there is hell. I know that there are angels. I know the Sirat. I know all those things that Allah Almighty speaks about in the Qur'an. I have experienced all of them." So he comes back from the Mi'raj, a person filled with the experience of the Ghayb, the experience of the Unseen. So to him it was no more "I believe". To him it was "I know". And so possibly part of our striving in our spirituality, part of our striving is to come near to that level where we can start to know certain things and not only to believe them. But that, through the intensity of our belief; through the intensity of our religious practice; and through our whole understanding of our religion; we can reach a stage where Allah Almighty grants certain knowledge to us from His Presence. Just a very small amount of knowledge He grants to us from His Presence and so we come through our experience of that, to come to know certain things.
One of the many things I always mention for example is that Allah Almighty for example gives us a deeper and deeper understanding of His Names, like Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim and the many others that we know about. And so that kind of knowledge can also come to us but that kind of knowledge can only come to us by the extent to which we strive. And so you see, Islam is not a religion in books, my word! Islam is not that. Islam is a living religion in the hearts of people. And it is there where it has to function. And so we must work with our religious practices. And work with what Allah Almighty sent us, so Islam lives within us, we personalize it, it becomes part of our existence. And only by doing that, by striving very hard with our religion, that Islam is personalized, it lives in our hearts, and can we attain the kind of things that we are striving for. I might just add at this stage, I will mention this again in greater detail later because I use certain words here. We must also understand, and I am going to say a strange thing to you, that it is not what we attain it is what God grants. I must repeat that, this is so important. In our striving, in our quest, in our wanting to obtain certain things, Allah Almighty grants. We never say that we have been granted. We say we have attained. It is a false way of saying that. Allah Almighty grants, and so Allah gives us the energy, gives us the understanding, gives us the teaching, gives us the faith to move in a certain direction. In this field that I am in, we believe that we are under the control of Allah Almighty. And when we attain certain things we say: Alhamdu lillah, the praise, the thanks to Allah Almighty because He has given it to us. Although we say we have attained, in fact He has given it to us. So one of the important lessons that we must understand so far, other than that what I have mentioned before, is obedience to the Divine Decree, to be careful of the word "Ana", the word "I". The other important thing that we must learn in spirituality is that we place ourselves under God's Decree. And by placing ourselves under God's Decree, we are also saying that Allah Almighty plots our direction and He grants. It is not what we attained, but what He gives. Let me leave it at that.
Subhana rabika rabbil izzati amma yassifun wassalamun alal mursalin wal hamdu lillahi rabil 'alamin. Wallahu a'lam.