Who al Khidr is, was how Allah characterised him in the Quran “one of Our slaves, unto whom We had given mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our presence.”(18:65)
Our body is made up of various systems (circulatory, nervous, muscular, etc) that are made up of organs (the heart, lungs, brain) which are made up of cells. “If our body was an organization, our systems would be the various departments in the organization, our organs would be the teams of people working together within each department, and the cells would be each individual person within the teams”, all communicating with each other.
It was once said about reality: “Electrical impulses, every cell knows and talks to every other cells, they exchange a thousand bits of information between them per second, cells are grouped together forming a giant web of communication which in turn forms matter, cells get together take on one form two forms three forms, it makes no difference its all the same (DNA can be resequenced). Humans (can be self centered) so they rooted their whole theory of existence on their uniqueness, one is their unit of measure, but its not, all social systems we’ve put into place are a mere sketch (our conceptualization), one plus one equals two thats all we’ve learned (to outwardly quantify for the sake of perception), but one plus one has never equaled two (the objects have always been separate), their are in fact no numbers, no letters, we’ve codified our existence to bring it down to human size to make it comprehensible, we’ve created a scale so that we can forget it’s unfathomable scale.
It was asked: If humans are not the unit of measure and the world isn’t governed by mathematical laws what governs all that? …
If Film a car speeding down the road, speed up the image infinitely and the car disappears (from our sight), so what proof do we have of its existence, time gives legitimacy to its existence, time’s the only true unit of measure it gives proof to the existence of matter, without time we don’t exist…time is unity.
Time and space are interwoven together in what we know call space-time, with out the flow of time the universe and the laws we have identified as governing it can’t exist, they exist because of the expansion (motion) of the universe and through its expansion time and space as we know it exist.
“And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are
In a Hadith Qudsi Allah said, the “Sons of Adam inveigh against [the vicissitudes of] Time, and I am Time, in My hand is the night and the day” (Bukhari).
The word for Time used in this Hadith is Dhuhr, in classicArabic according to the Ullumah, Dhuhr is the Span of Time, or Time stretched out, so Allah (swt) is saying “I am the Span of Time”.
“Lo! Allah graspeth the heavens and the earth that they deviate not, and if they were to deviate there is not one that could grasp them after Him. Lo! He is ever Clement, Forgiving” (35:41). Allah said he is holding the universe, He has likened himself to time and said he is the one expanding the universe, this expansion is responsible for the fundamental forces that create matter and if it wasn’t for this matter as we know it could not exist.
“And one of His signs is that the heaven and the earth subsist by His command” (30:25). Matter exists because of his command and who He is, the Span of time and the expander of the Universe.
“Hast thou not seen how Allah hath made all that is in the earth subservient unto you? And the ship runneth upon the sea (buoyancy) by His command, and He holdeth back the heaven from falling on the earth unless by His leave. Lo! Allah is, for mankind, Full of Pity, Merciful”(22:65).
The Analogy is that Earth is like a ship in space, here Allah likens Buoyancy to his holding the universe from affecting earth. Allah in the Quran speaks in descriptive imagery, literally the verse says “wayumsiku alssamaa an taqaa’aa Aala al-ardi” he is holding the heavens so it does not fall on earth and likened this to buoyancy of a ship in water. Buoyancy arises from the fact that fluid pressure increases with depth and from the fact that the increased pressure is exerted in all directions (Pascal’s principle) so that there is an unbalanced upward force on the bottom of a submerged object affecting the water around it. If pressure is gravity and gravity is born out of space-time we know that mass (the earth) curves space-time, matter tells space-time how to curve and curved space-time, then tells matter how to move. General relativity explains gravitation without using the force of gravity because mass curves space-time.
These forces are what make “all that is in the earth subservient” (survive on our planet), the resultant point from the imagery Allah is employing is that Allah is saying, haven’t we seen how the earth is unique among the worlds and it sustains life, all of which was placed on it and made subservient for us to use and take benefit from.
The fact that space and time are woven together in one fabric gives a physical dimension to the words of Allah. When a servant of Allah is brought near and Allah (swt) wants that servant to know Him, He shows Him his attributes and their signs in all of creation, this is what it means to see Allah’s Greater signs like our Prophet (saws) in the night of Isra wal Miraj (Night of Ascension).
Allah is holding the heavens, Allah says about himself in a hadith Qudsi, “He is time”, “I am Dhuhr”, literally Dhuhr is the span of time, and this is one of times role in the Universe, espetiay in relation to the forces that govern it. He said, We created the universe and we are holding it, and, We created the heavens and we are expanding it. The expansion of the universe creates time and the fundamental forces of the universe that hold all mater together, He also said, We created the heavens in harmony do you see any imperfections in it.
“[Hallowed be] He who has created seven heavens in full harmony with one another: no fault will thou see in the creation of the Most Gracious. And turn thy vision [upon it] once more: canst thou see any flaw?” (67:3)
“and inspired in each heaven its mandate” (41:12), the laws governing the universe.
“Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth and (in) the difference of night and day are tokens (of His Sovereignty) for men of understanding, Such as remember Allah, standing, sitting, and reclining, and consider the creation of the heavens and the earth, (and say): Our Lord! Thou createst not this in vain. Glory be to Thee! Preserve us from the doom of Fire”. (3:190-191)
Imam Ibn Arabi “states that Time is the Limit that defines the kind of correlation that holds between the Real (Allah) and the Universe. Under the ruling property of this correlating Limit, the Real as Lord and his vassal become entirely “dependent” on each other, (Allah in his own words says He is Dhuhr, so dependent in the translators words mean, in a manner of understanding Allah through our faculties). He says that because of this correlation, Allah named himself “Aeon” (dhuhr). Dhuhr means “time” (in contemporary Arabic it means noon, in classic Arabic it means the span of time, time stretched out), Allah applied the word dhuhr and not zaman (time-proper) in order to distinguish His ruling property from the ruling property of the time that is imagined as a straight line with a beginning and an end.
Imam Ibn Arabi explains, In respect to newly arrived things, this is “time,” but in respect to the Eternal (Allah), it is “eternity without beginning.” What the rational faculty understands from time is something imagined, extended, and lacking the two sides (what is beyond having no beginning and an end). We judge that what has passed away within it (time) as “the past,” we judge what will come in it as “the future,” and we judge that what is within it as “the [present] state” [hal]. This last is called “the instant” [al-an]. Although the instant (the present) is a time, it is a limit for what is past in time and what is future. It is like a point that we suppose on the circumference of a circle. Wherever we suppose the point to be origin and (it’s) end are designated for the circumference (Allah holds all of time in his sight). “Eternity without beginning” and “eternity without end” are the nonexistence of time’s two sides, for it has no first and no last. Rather, it has perpetuity [dawam], and perpetuity is the time of the [present] state, while the state possesses perpetuity (the state or quality of lasting forever). Hence the cosmos never ceases to be under the ruling property of the time of the [present] state, and Allah’s ruling property in the cosmos never ceases to be in the ruling property of time. (Imam Ibn Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiya)
We can ask if these verses relate to our current knowledge of the universe or are we just applying our knowledge to descriptive imagery, but Allah himself asters the answer in the Quran:
“In time We shall make them fully understand Our messages [through what they perceive] in the utmost horizons [of the universe] and within themselves, so that it will become clear unto them that this [revelation] is indeed the truth. [Still,] is it not enough [for them to know] that thy Sustainer is witness unto everything?”[Qur’an 41:53] it was His (swt) promise to the Kufar (those who didn’t believe) more than 1400 years ago to unravel what they perceive in the universe so they can understand them, and He (swt) said they will know them by knowing what is within them self, the matter we are created from. Literally with out studying the quantum world we could not understand anything about the universe.
It should not be a surprise that they are the ones studying and unraveling the mysteries of the universe when Allah promised this to them (41:53) and then said “Man shall have nothing but what he strives for” (53:39).
“[Hallowed be] He who has created (the) seven heavens in full harmony with one another: no fault will thou see in the creation of the Most Gracious. And turn thy vision [upon it] once more: canst thou see any flaw? Yea, turn thy vision [upon it] again and yet again: [and every time] thy vision will fall back upon thee, dazzled and truly defeated.”(67:3-4)
Allah has woven his attributes and knowledge into his creation and made man the inheritor of that knowledge, “Our Lord! Thou hadst encompassed everything in mercy and in knowledge”(40:7).
Prophethood came to characterized by that mercy, as man comes to unravel the knowledge of Allah and embody his qualities perfectly Allah will give man according to what he strives for, it is in this way that Allah characterized Al Khidr with the words “One of Our slaves, unto whom We had given mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our presence.”(18:65) Al Khidr was not the only person this something given to all his servants, He similarly characterized Asaf ibn Barkhiya with the words “One with whom was knowledge of the Scripture”(27:40).
Imam Ibn Arabi explains the significant of that Mercy and knowledge that al Khidr came to be characterized by. In chapter fifteen of the Futuhat al Makiya, entitled “On The Poles and the Realizers in the Knowledge of Breaths and their Secrets,” Imam Ibn Arabi identifies al Khidr as one of the Realizers (muhaqqiqun) in the Knowledge of Breaths (anfas) mentioned in the Quran in relation to the soul, Allah breathed into man his soul, and this manner of creation is unique to us, it is the knowledge of the Devine Creative Imagination, “and had taught him knowledge from Our presence.”(18:65)
Imam Ibn Arabi in a manner of descriptively expounding the act of creation (with the limitation of the translators words) compared Allah’s act of creation to his breathing mans soul into his body, which Allah said about himself in the Quran. Before Allah brought things into existence, the entities of the possible things existed as fixed entities or essences (ayan thabita) in Allah’s Essence, or rather the attributes he bestowed us with existed with Allah, our uniqueness who we are and will be where known to him. (Allah is the originator of Good and Evil but Evil’s manifestation (efficacy) in creation is from us) The essences of the possible things, our individuality longed for manifestation and this longing and pressure created a certain will to be, Allah knew what we would want because of our qualities so he granted it to us even before we could exist to want it but he said in the Qur’an man was created in haste. Allah relieved this constraint (will) by an act of breathing, and man was created in Allah’s image, through which he gives manifestation (existential formulation) to the essences of the possible things he has so far created. To know the manner in which this occurs, a special knowledge is needed and this is the Knowledge of Breaths (as Allah worded it in the Quran) or the Knowledge of the Devine Creative Imagination.
Man is created in Allah’s image and our imagination is in the form of His way of creating, He has Will over matter, by similitude if we can imagine creating the entire universe and everything in it in our imagination, and then form that image in our mind, this then is the essence of why the term Devine Creative Imagination is used in reference to Allah, this is the similitude of us being created in His image.
This all refers to the mind and intellect, just as Allah has the power to act on his “imagination” and the universe shapes to his will and matter forms, we have an imagination that forms images from our knowledge and bodies to act on our imagination in this Universe.
Imam Ibn Arabi says that al Khidr was known for his capacity for renewing life, so much so that, “whenever he settled in a barren place Allah would make that place fertile and prosperous.” He explains that those who are Realizers in the knowledge of al Khidr are the masters in the art of “setting souls in bodies and dissolving bodies and bringing them together by removing forms from them, or, clothing them with forms” this is the ability to control matter by will from the quantum level, just like the Angels who similarly have this knowledge and govern the universe by it including the process of our creation in the womb. The Realizers possess knowledge through Imagination (al-khayal ), quantum entanglement is explaining how our knowledge has efficacy in creation through our will, and our intellect creates and forms our imagination through the matter that shows us the images in our minds.
This knowledge is rooted in the World of Imagination (alam al-khayal), which is the root of the spiritual and corporeal (physical) worlds, and the Barzakh within which the two worlds are brought together, they are the same universe, although, at the same time, we are kept from seeing it with the inner eye of our mind by veils, these veils can be described as fields in quantum mechanics.
Imam Ibn Arabi says only the possessors of the same knowledge of al Khidr, namely the knowledge that synthesizes the corporeal (physical) and the spiritual (quantum unseen) aspects of reality, are capable of knowing the real nature of Allah’s work, which is the same as the knowledge of the world (the laws that Govern the universe). Acquiring this knowledge is a special favor bestowed by Allah on any person like al Khidr, “since for every knowledge there are people suitable for it, and since time, circumstances and the various configurations of minds do not allow that knowledge be singled out equally for all.”
(Only few have this knowledge such as the Angels, they are there at the moment man is created and witnesses to All Allah has done in creation, it is because we are given that knowledge through the Angels that Allah said “So enter among My servants (Angels), And enter into My garden.” (89:27-30), in other words enter into the same spiritual state as the Angels then enter heaven, or else al Khidr could not do what he could, Angels are the veils of form between us and Allah and a rahma (mercy) from him, or we would have burnt up had we looked upon his splendour directly, “Allah hath Seventy Thousand Veils of Light and Darkness: were He to withdraw their curtain, then would the splendours of His Aspect surely consume everyone who apprehended Him with his sight.” (Imam al Ghazali, Mishkat Al Anwar) they cary the knowledge and power associated with how the universe was created, as Allah grants it to them. This does not mean infinite power or ability, man is made from matter and would burn up if that where possible, this knowledge is given within the boundary of Allah’s Deen and the wisdom he has brought down in the Quran, otherwise man could not have Allah’s sanction for it. “O company of jinn and men, if ye have power to penetrate (all) regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate (them)! Ye will never penetrate them save with (Our) sanction.”(55:33))
The Prophet (saws) has said “There is a knowledge like the form of a hidden thing, known to none save those who know Allah.” (Imam al Ghazali, Mishqat al Anwar), if man learns and gains knowledge from his experience in life, and Allah gives some of his close servants experiences that no one else has experienced except them, then it it is obvious and clear they would have understanding and knowledge from what they witnessed which others did not.
Imam al Ghazali said about this “If then these (people close to Allah) speak of that secret, only the Children of Ignorance will contradict them. And howsoever many these Ignorants be, the Mysteries must from the gaze of sinners be kept inviolate.”(Imam al Ghazali, Mishqat al Anwar), Allah says in the Qur’an “[conveyed unto man] in a well-guarded divine writ which none but the pure [of heart] can touch (understand)” (56:78-79). It is because of this reality that Allah signified and characterized al Khidr and Asaf Ibn Barkhiyya as people who had knowledge rather than mention them by name.
If the knowledge we have understood and gained decided how the quantum particles around us behave (quantum entanglement), then the scribe of Sulayman, who had the ability to bring the throne of Bilqis in the twinkling of an eye, his knowledge was his qualification for having the ability, explains how al Khidr could be who he is, and the things he is reported to be capable of, since he is characterised as having not only knowledge of the creative power of Allah (Allah’s quality of the creator) but his Mercy (Rahma and Prophethood) as well.
This is all by the means of Allah because Allah said, penetrate the heavens and the earth if you can, you won’t be able to with out our sanction. Allah didn’t just say the heavens, so what he meant by the earth can’t simply mean what humans have been doing on earth, rather as in other verses that mention the heavens and the earth together what is meant is the universe, penetrate the universe with Allah’s sanction.
Allah in the Quran speaks in descriptive imagery to guide the mind to the right perception of reality. Allah often in the Qur’an uses words that are metaphors in our world but literal in the unseen spiritual world, this is why Imam al Ghazali (r.a) said when Allah opens the unseen spiritual world to a person he moves beyond the metaphors to see there reality in the unseen world.
If a person wishes to know what the path to Allah looks like he should turn to Imam Ibn Arabi (r.a), If he wants to know what the science of the path to Allah looks like he should turn to Imam al Ghazali (r.a), If he wants to know what the heart of the path to Allah looks like he should turn to Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Jilani (r.a).
Imam Ibn Arabi outlined the stages of human development as one draws closer to Allah, Imam al Ghazali outlined its science, Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Jilani outlined the experiences of the heart and what the struggle looks like.
Al Khidr (r.a) passed through all the stages of human development on his journey to Allah, the knowledge he gained from his experience on this journey he passed on to Musa (r.a), this is known not only from their encounter but by understanding how al Khidr arrived at his knowledge as others similarly arrived at what He taught Musa (saws) through their own experience and by being guided by the narrative Allah gave them, the first person to learn from this was the Prophet of Allah (saws), which was the intent of Allah by revealing the story to us in the Quran.
Imam Ibn al Rushd desired to meet Imam Ibn Arabi (r.a.h), the Imam said: He desired to see me because of what he heard and what had reached him concerning what Allah had opened to me in my Retreat (khalwa). He was showing wonder at what he heard. Then, my father sent me to him on purpose, so that he might meet me, since he was one of his friends. When I entered . . . he embraced me and said to me: “Yes.” I said to him: “Yes.” His joy in me increased, since I understood his meaning.
But then I realized the [real] motive of his pleasure therein and said to him, “No!” With this, [Ibn Rushd] was taken aback, his color began to change, and he seemed to have misgivings about what he was thinking.
Then he asked me, “How have you found the matter through Illumination and Divine Inspiration (al-kashf wa-l-fayd al-‘ilahi)— is it the same as what we [Philosophers] acquire through Speculation (al-nazar)? “Yes [and] no,” I replied, “and between the ‘Yea’ and the ‘Nay’ (this referring to Imam al Ghazali statement that man moves from Allah’s metaphors to the reality in the unseen world) the spirits shall take flight from their matter, and heads go flying from their shoulders!” (they cold go insane trying to comprehend without guidance) At this, [Ibn Rushd] turned pale, trembling seized him, and he fell to repeating the phrase, “There is no Power and no Strength save in God!” for he had understood what I was alluding to (The vision of the unseen world by mans inner eye).
Imam Ibn Arabi later said about Imam Ibn Rushd: We have met very few truly intelligent men. . . . They know the veneration due to Allah’s majesty, and they are aware of the knowledge about Himself that Allah gives only to His servants—the prophets and those who follow them—through a special divine effusion that is outside ordinary learning (from books) and cannot be acquired through study and effort or reached by reason through its own reflective powers. I met one of the great ones among them.
He had seen what Allah had opened up to me without rational consideration or reading, but through a retreat in which I was alone with Allah, even though I had not been seeking such knowledge. He said, “Praise belongs to Allah, that I should have lived in a time in which I saw one whom Allah has given mercy from Him, and taught him knowledge from Himself.(18:65)”
After that [meeting, Ibn Rushd] requested of my father [another] interview with me. . . . And he thanked Allah (Exalted be He!) That he had lived in such a time that he could behold one who had entered upon Retreat in ignorance (jahilan) and emerged in this Condition—without lesson or examination, with no study or reading.
“We had affirmed the possibility of this Condition (halah),” Ibn Rushd averred, “but we had never actually seen anyone who had mastered it (before).” Thereafter, on another occasion I formed the desire to meet with [Ibn Rushd], so, by Allah’s Mercy, he was made to appear before me in an ecstasy (fi l-waqi’a) in such a form (surah) that between him and me there was a fine veil (hijab raqiq), so that I could see him but he could not perceive me nor know that I was present—so preoccupied was he with himself! I said to myself, “Truly, he is not intended for that which we are!” (As al Khidr initially thought of Musa (as)) Imam Ibn Arabi then said, I never met him again until he passed away. . . . When the coffin containing his body was loaded on the back of a beast of burden, his books were placed on the other side to balance it. . . . I uttered [the following verse]:
“On the one side the Master, on the other side his Works, How I wonder if his hopes have found their fulfillment!”[accordions style=’1′ active=’1′ ][accordion title=’Allah’s Qualities In The Quran’]
Allah’s Qualities In The Quran
و الله المشرق والمغرب فأينما تولوا فثم وجه الله إن الله وسع عليم 2:115
وما تنفقون إلا ابتغاء وجه الله وما تنفقوا من خير يوف إليكم وأنتم لا تظلمون 2:272
إنما نطعمكم لوجه الله لا نريد منكم جزاء ولا شكورا 76.9
There are Eleven Ayat (verses) in the Qur’an Referring to the “Face of Allah” (2:115, 2:272, 13:22, 30:38, 30:39, 55:27, 76:9, 92:20, 6:52, 18:28, 28:88)
إن الفضل بيد الله يوتيه من يشاء والله وسع عليم 3:73
إن الذين يبايعونك إنما يبايعون الله يد الله فوق أيديهم 48:10
There are Ten Ayat in the Qur’an Referring to the “Hands of Allah’ (3:73, 5:64 (2), 48:10, 57:29, 3:26, 23:88, 36:83, 67:1, 49:1, 38:75, 36:71)
“The day the Shin shall be laid bare, and they shall be summoned to prostrate, but they shall not be able to do so.” (68.42)
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