The Dua Of Light; the Prophet (saws) often prayed in Sujood, “O Allah, place light in my heart, and on my tongue light, and in my ears light and in my sight light, and above me light, and below me light, and to my right light, and to my left light, and before me light and behind me light. Place in my soul light. Magnify for me light, and amplify for me light. Make for me light, and make me light. O Allaah, grant me light, and place light in my nerves, and in my body light and in my blood light and in my hair light and in my skin light.” (Bukhari)
“O Allaah, make for me a light in my grave… and a light in my bones.” (Tirmidhi)
“Increase me in light, increase me in light, increase me in light.” (Bukhari, adab al mufrad)
“Grant me light upon light.” (Bukhari)
From the First days of Islam the religion through the companions of the prophet (saws) spread to China, muslim communities were established that were actively involved in Chinese society helping develop it’s knowledge, muslims often reached positions of authority among Chinese rulers, during the ming Dynasty the capital Nanjing became a centre of islamic learning and many muslims chose to migrate to China, the surname Ha for example was short for Hasan, Hu was short for Hussain, Sa’l for Said, Mo (or Ma) was short for Muhammad, Mai for Mustafa and Mu for Masoud.
Throughout Chinese History many Emperors called for the establishment and repair of Islamic Mosques such as the great Mosque of Xi’an, the Emperor Zhengde was fascinated by muslims and many served as his advisors and envoys at court, which was full of muslim scholars and artwork from Arabia and Persia, He wore Muslim clothing and was alleged as other Emperors were to have converted to Islam, because China had many religions the Emperor could not be seen to be tacking sides so no religion could be publicly announced for him.
When Gengis Kahn came to power in China through force he influenced much of that society, under his influence life for muslims was difficult but it was through contact with Muslim scholars that eventually his decadents would convert to Islam. By 1330 his empire divided into four separate Khanates and three of the four Khanates would adopt Islam, these are the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate and the Chagatai’s, the fourth Khanate was the Yuan Dynasty, established by Kublai Kahn, it spanned most of present day China and adopted Chinese customs and religion.
During the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty (12th century) in China, this saw a dramatic increase in Muslims establishing themselves in the country, and although the impact of muslims on the development of Chinese sciences and architecture, specifically the design of the Yuan capital Dadu was vast, it is still largely unknown. It is estimated that by the 14th century the total population of Muslims in China was 4 million, a substantial number at the time considering the total population was considerably less than 90 million, the exact figure is hard to ascertain.
Muslim scientists, artisans and scholars were brought to work in the capital making observatories and advancing astronomical, geographical, and medical studies, particularly in antonym, pharmacology and ophthalmology, and many Islamic texts circulated in China during this period that coincided with Islam’s Golden Age of social and scientific discoveries. During this period the traditional Chinese studies of herbs, drugs and potions also saw renewed interest.
About a decade or so after the great traveler Ibn Battuta left China, a peasant uprising was led by Zhu Yuang zhang (1328-98 CE). He was an orphan raised by a Shaolin Monastery where he attained an education and mastery of martial arts, he demonstrated his skill early in his career as a bodyguard. His rise to power was fast despite having humble beginnings, in 11 years he went from being a monk to the most powerful warlord in China, five years later he became it’s emperor when he deposed the Mongols and founded the Ming dynasty (1368- 1644 CE).
According to Jing Chee Tang, author of A History Of Islam In China, Emperor Zhu Yuang zhang and his cousin, Koh Shiao-Tze, were both Muslims hence it is more than certain that the Ming dynasty was founded by muslims in China. Zhu’s Empress, Ma, was from the Ma family of Chee Men, in Anhui province, where the Ma family has been a well known Muslim surname throughout the Ming and Ching Dynasties, Ma is short for Muhammad in Chinese. Jing Chee Tang added; “when one reaches the second of the highest rank in office, one is prone to discard one’s religion” openly a way of showing acceptance for the religion of all subjects. However it may have been openly discarded, the Ming period in China was without doubt considered the “golden age” of Islam in China seen most famously today through that periods exquisite vases, a hall mark of Islamic culture that Europe at the time coveted greatly.
He ordered the building of many mosques and had inscriptions praising the prophet muhammad placed in them. He ordered that mosques be built in Xijing and Nanjing (the capital cities), and in southern Yunnan, Fujian and Guangdong, he rebuilt the Jinjue Mosque in Nanjing, and large numbers of Hui (muslim) Chinese moved to the capital city during his rule. He wrote a 100 word praise of Islam, Allah and the prophet Muhammad (saws), had over 10 muslim generals in his military and many other muslim advisors in his court.
The prophet (saws) said “Seek knowledge even unto China”, China historically has always been one of the most advanced civilisations on earth matching even that of Rome, but they had just gone through a period of rule under the Mongols who were largely barbarians, when their empire was split three of it’s four kingdoms converted to Islam for the very reasons that now helped China, they were more advanced than them. The Ming emperors by importing Islamic knowledge and science advanced the recovery from that period changing China for ever. The Islamic empire had just gone through a golden age of scientific discovery and advancement and were the most advanced civilisation on earth. What occured wasn’t unprecedented or unique to China the Islamic civilization was almost entirely responsible for the renaissance in Europe as well as it’s enlightenment and many parts of the world benefited from muslim advancement.
Historians considered Emperor Zhu Yuang Zhang as one of the most significant emperors of China, as they put it “seldom has the course of Chinese history been influenced by a single personality as much as it was by the founder of the Ming Dynasty”, during his reign China saw rapid population growth due to increased food supply from the emperors agricultural reforms, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture over trade and the creation of self sustained agricultural communities, by the end of the Ming Dynasty the population had risen by as much as 50% from less than 90 million when the Dynasty was established to what we see it today, during his reign living standards also greatly improved.
It was also during the Ming Dynasty that it’s Emperors decreed that Manichaeism (an Iranian religion) and Christianity were illegal and to be wiped out from China, while Islam and Judaism were legal and fit for Confucian ideology, Islamic religious schools were established in the capital Nanjing which taught Hadith, Quran and Islamic Law, one school had a fourteen course system with classes in both Arabic and Persian, other provinces (states) had different systems and different specialization.
Science and Knowledge between the civilizations was exchanged and Arabic story tellers began narrating stories from China, many were incorporated into the famous One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), the most famous being the story of Aladin, other stories which mentioned China were the tale of Qamar al Zaman and Budur, the story of Prince al Muluk and the Hunchbacks Tale.
Chinese religion has many similarities to Islam which many scholars noticed, the principle of Yin and Yang is a fundamental concept of Chinese philosophy and culture dating back to third century BCE, their understanding and philosophy developed as their civilization increased in knowledge over time. This principle states that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example female-male, dark-light and old-young, these opposites attract and complement each other in life.
Independent of Chinese philosophy the question of whether Allah created things in opposites was largely debated among early muslim scholars, it was a question that among them related to the Arabic language and how certain verses of the Quran should be interpreted, this had an impact on Islamic sciences like Fiqh (Islamic Law) as some schools of law (madhhabs) believed things did exist in opposites while other schools of law did not, in essence the fundamentals of Yin and Yang are accepted by some of Islams four madhhabs, it then shouldn’t be surprising that the famous Yin and Yang Symbol we have today was in fact developed by a Chinese muslim scholar.
Syed ‘Umar Shams-uddin (known as Sayyid al-Ajall), a noble figure and descendant of the Prophet (saws), contributed a great deal to the achievements of the Yuan Dynasty, and with his son Nasir al-Din actively proselytized (made dawa) and converted thousands of people to Islam. As a young boy, he was surrendered by his father (king of Bukhara) as a hostage to Ghengis Khan, who took him to Peking, where he was educated in both Chinese and Arabic. Being very intelligent, he was able to assimilate both Mongolian and Chinese cultures. In 1271 CE he was appointed by Kublai Khan as Governor of Yunnan and posthumously awarded with title of “Prince Hsien Yang”. He shed new light on education, Chinese law, improved agriculture and was the first to establish the Confucian temples in Yunnan, despite being a devout Muslim.
Shams-uddin studied three types of ancient Chinese books, called the “Books of Changes” dating back to 909 BCE, which are understood by only a few scholars today. Shams-uddin was responsible for the origin of the “Tai T’si”, or Yin and Yang symbol, an ancient concept centered on the Daoist philosophy and principle of unity of the two cosmic forces. When he died in 1279 CE, aged 67, many attended his funeral, and the non-Muslim Chinese people built a shrine in his honour, and a cenotaph in Guangzhou.
“In general, the Yin Yang symbol is a Chinese representation of the entire celestial phenomenon. It contains the cycle of the Sun, four seasons, the 24 Segments Chinese calendar divides the year into, the foundation of the I-Ching (“The Book of Changes”) and the Chinese calendar. The Ecliptic is the Sun’s path around the Earth.”
“By rotating the Sun chart and positioning the Winter Solstice at the bottom, it will look like the Yin Yang symbol. The light color area which indicates more sunlight is called Yang (Sun). The dark color area has less sunlight (more moonlight) and is called Yin (Moon). Yang is like man, Yin is like woman. Yang wouldn’t grow without Yin. Yin couldn’t give birth without Yang. Yin is born (begins) at the Summer Solstice and Yang is born (begins) at the Winter Solstice. Therefore one half of the circle is marked on the Summer Solstice position. The other half of the circle is marked on the Winter Solstice position.”
In Islamic Law the question of opposites came down to whether these things were actually in reality opposites or they just seemed opposite and were separate and unrelated creations of Allah, for example women are not the opposite of men they were created from man and hence while man gave birth to women, women give birth to humanity, “and We created you in pairs”(78:7), but at a glance some may consider them opposite.
The similarity between Islamic and Chinese principles is only skin deep because according to the Yin and Yang principle neither opposite is superior to the other, believing that a balance between the two must be reached in order to achieve harmony, while in Islam the perfected self (Ihsan), which the prophets achieved, can only exist in light without darkness and that is the most harmonious state with Allah and life.
There are other similarities between what the prophet (saws) taught and Yin and Yang, such as the prophets (saws) saying that as a person draws nearer to Allah He places an increased burden and responsibility (darkness) on the person and the prophets carried the greatest burdens, which relates to the Quranic verse that each soul only receives what it earns and that Allah does not place a burden on any soul greater than it can bear, but these don’t relate to a required harmony in the universe or inseparable opposites, rather individual actions in life and responsibility, “Truly, We did offer al-amaanah (the trust or moral responsibility for everything) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they declined to bear it and were afraid of it (they were incapable of it). But man bore it. Verily, he was unjust (to himself) and ignorant (of what it was) Man acts to remove darkness which preserves the balance in creation but He needs to be in the light to be capable of it, this is because man as Allah said in surah al Asr is always in a state of loss, hence spreading light is what places him in gain. Outwardly Yin and Yang may seem like a correct characterization of life, of why things occur but it doesn’t hold true in the “finer detail”. For example Women may seem to be the opposite of Men and a picture of the yin and yang can be literally drawn from what Allah has said about them in the Quran but once the details regarding their nature is brought into the picture we can see that this is just an outward appearance. Allah said in the Quran regarding men and women “They are your garments and you are their garments.” (2:187) perfectly expounding the symbol of Yin and Yang where the two halves of the circles overlap. But Allah also says “Women impure are for men impure, and men impure for women impure and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity”(24:26), meaning those of light should be with those of light and those of darkness should be with those of darkness and this is the harmony between men and women in marriage, good characters shouldn’t mix with dark characters and the two haves of the Yin and Yang circe should never meet. Life itself isn’t as simple as opposites but a mixture of many complex components that each could easily fit into what Yin and Yang would consider separate things that exist in opposites. While Asia used the Yin and Yang system which applied acupuncture to cure man, in the muslim world Islamic scholars developed the Lataif system, besides the obvious evidence for both (mans nervous system) found in medical science today, Islamic scholars developed the Lataif from what Allah mentioned in the Quran and sunnah, which scholars based their science and understanding of the human body on, China benefited from this as it integrated islamic knowledge into it’s society and considered whether it should adopt Islam, hence knowledge from both societies inevitably came together as the prophet (saws) instructed, “seek knowledge even unto china”. Islamic society at the time lead the world in scientific discoveries which it spread to other parts of the world through the trade routes. Both systems looked at energy in the human body and how it flowed which is evident today by mans nervous system and the fact every cell in the human body produces photons (energy), they identified the centres (areas in the body) for various sophisticated functions of the self (nafs) but while acupuncture focused on physical illness and the body first then psychology the Lataif focused on psychology first then the body and it’s illnesses. The nervous system is the information highway to all the organs of the body, the brain sends signals to the heart, liver, kidney, stomach etc telling them what to do and they send feedback to the brain for it to process, all of which runs on “energy”. The body through the heart, brain and organs produces a strong electromagnetic field which it relies on, on top of this every single cell in the human body produces photon particles (light which is energy) and cumulatively together with mans organs this creates an electromagnetic field that surrounds the entire body by 3 to 4 ft, as physics teaches light is an electromagnetic field and a form of energy. Solar panels prove this everyday, solar modules use light energy (photons) from the sun to generate electricity through the photovoltaic effect. Our self comes about from the cumulative (or compounding) result of mans different senses and organs giving input to our mind, the science of Lataif deals with the body and self before our senses cumulatively impact on each other to form our consciousness, or how we experience the world. This manner of dissecting mans character to locate the various centres of our self that influence specific behaviour, Allah mentions in the Quran often, especially regarding the role of the heart, the prophet (saws) himself likewise did this as well as the companions and early generations of Muslims. “For he (Gabriel) it is who hath revealed (the Quran) to thy heart by Allah’s leave.” (2:97) “And whosoever believeth in Allah, He guideth his heart (this is the first organ in man’s body that is guided, then He is through it). And Allah is knower of all things.” (64:11) “Such are they whose hearts and ears and eyes Allah hath sealed (the heart has an inner perceptive faculty relating to our consciousness which can be sealed along with the eyes and ears, when it is), And such are the heedless.” (16:108) Iyad ibn Khalifa (r.a) said he heard Imam Ali (r.a) say at Siffin, “The (seat of the) intellect is located in the heart. Mercy is located in the liver, Compassion is located in the spleen. The self (soul) is located in the lungs (referring to regions in the body relating to these faculties).”(Adab al Mufrad, Hasan). The heart and the intellect are discussed in detail in a later issue, but essentially man thinks according to what he feels hence the heart directs the efforts of the mind, this manner of speaking is very similar to how Allah described women for men “They are your garments”, referring to mans self wearing a garment that colors his world in the verse, women colour mans outlook on life and men do the same for them. Also the term nafs in arabic is interchangeable with ego, or soul or spirit or self depending on the context hence it is at times difficult for the translator to understand which of these is meant in ahadith, so this translation may be inaccurate in using the term self because as is often the case scholars state the human soul is centred in the lungs and not the ego. Kamil ibn Zaid said, “Ali held my hand once, and he walked with me in the direction of the cemetery. When we reached the open desert, he soughed a deep breath before he said to me,“O Kamil ibn Ziyad, hearts are like vessels, the best are exceptionally conscious and vast” Modern science simply looks at the immediate physical role of each organ, almost entirely leaving alone the role of that organ trough the nervous system in the higher functions of man’s behaviour. This is more than likely because in the ancient world it was easier to deal with man’s body through his nervous system seen through acupuncture, than to attempt to cure him through surgery seen in modern medicine and the fact that until modern times western medicine fatally assumed the brain was solely responsible for all emotions we feel to the exclusion of other organs like the heart, this sent western medicine down a rabbit it never recovered from until advances in neuroscience over the last decade proved otherwise. The Prophet Muhammad said: “Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be sound, all the body is (spiritually and physically) sound and which, if it be diseased, all of it (spiritually and physically) is diseased. Truly it is the heart.” Imam Ali said: “The (spiritual and psychological) disease of the heart is worse than the disease of the body.” Imam Al-Nawawi said: “This hadith was used as proof that the seat of the mind is the heart (al-ʿaql fi al-qalb) and not the head.” Imam Ali said: “I am amazed at the heart of man: It possesses the substance of wisdom as well as the opposites contrary to it…for if hope arises in it, it is brought low by covetousness: and if covetousness is aroused in it, greed destroys it. If despair possesses it, self piety kills it: and if it is seized by anger, this is intensified by rage. If it is blessed with contentment, then it forgets to be careful; and if it is filled with fear, then it becomes preoccupied with being cautious. If it feels secure , then it is overcome by vain hopes; and if it is given wealth, then its independence makes it extravagant. If want strikes it, then it is smitten by anxiety. If it is weakened by hunger, then it gives way to exhaustion; and if it goes too far in satisfying its appetites, then its inner becomes clogged up. So all its shortcomings are harmful to it, and all its excesses corrupt it.” Because Mans behaviour reflects his life, and his behaviour is a result of what he does with his body this understanding can be reversed, and the scholars understood that man can be cured of physical illnesses through his character, this top down understanding is at the essence of the Lataif system that looks at mans psychology to cure his body. The Messenger of Allah (saws) understood about the nervous system and the role of energy in the body, He would often ask Allah in prayer (dua) to grant him light (energy) in very specific organs He (saws) would list in the prayer as a result of his (saws) understanding, increased light (energy) make man’s senses honed and the body healthy. The prophet (saws) was in the company of one of his wives when a man passed by them. The Prophet called to him and when he came, the Prophet said, “She is my wife.” The man said, “O Messenger of Allah, I do not doubt you in the least.” The Prophet said, “Verily, Satan flows through the human being like blood (flows in the veins).” (Muslim) It is similarly narrated that the Prophet (saws) said: “The Shaytan flows through the son of Adam as blood flows through his veins.” Shaytan flows through the body like blood, but the prophet wasn’t referring to shaytan flowing in mans veins as some thought, this is because of the nature of the Jinn who are made from a mixture of subatomic particles (essentially energy) which have nothing to do with blood or mans veins, along with the fact the Jinn can influence and control man’s behaviour and movements which also has nothing to do with blood, the prophet (saws) spoke about the Jinn’s influence at length advising man to do certain things to seek protection from his type of influence, what He (saws) advised indicates what He (saws) understood about the nature of the Jinn and how they influenced man’s body. Hence the prophet (saws) was referring to the nervous system by allusion which flows through the body like the blood in our veins and uses “energy” that the Jinn can influence us through, the nervous system is essentially the bodies telecommunications wiring and the Jinn who are made from similar particles to the signals it sends target it to control mans behaviour through his organs. Jinn can more naturally interact with electrical impulses in our body since they have bodies of energy made from particles, it would be very difficult for them to attempt to control man through his blood, and this is in line with the understanding of the prophet (saws) since the hadith was referring to a man looking at the prophet’s wife inappropriately, after which the prophet (saws) referred the matter to Jinn controlling him. Once mans nervous system is studied more completely it becomes very clear from what it influences in the body, how Jinn can shape man’s moral choices, in a similar manner recent experiments have shown that a persons moral choices can be instantly altered by focusing specific magnetic waves on parts of the brain while the decision making is occurring. Allah says “Those who eat riba (interest from money) will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaytan, leading him to insanity (through his touch). That is because they say: ‘trading is only like riba’…” [2:275]
Imam Al-Qurtubi said in his Tafseer (exegesis): “This ayah (verse) is proof that those people are wrong, who deny that epilepsy (a neurological disorder) is caused by the Jinn and claim that its causes are only physical, and that the Shaytan does not enter people or cause madness.” Mans organs and nervous system affect man at a subatomic level because mans electromagnetic field which surrounds his body is made from subatomic particles, so those only looking at physical causes for illness fall short of the bigger picture and simply point to one thing they see wrong. ‘Abd-Allah ibn al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “I said to my father, ‘There are some people who say that the jinn do not enter the body of the epileptic.’ He said: ‘O my son, they are lying; the jinn could speak through this person.’” Commenting on this, Ibn Qudamah said: “What he said is well known, because a person may suffer an epileptic seizure and speak in a language that no one understands, and his body may be beaten with blows that would fell a camel, but the epileptic does not feel them at all, and he is also unaware of the words he is saying. The epileptic and others may be dragged about, or the carpet on which he is sitting may be pulled, and utensils may be moved about from place to place, and other things may happen. Anyone who witnesses such a thing will know for sure that the one who is speaking through the person and moving these things is not human.” And he said, may Allah have mercy on him: “There is no one among the imams (religious leaders/scholars) of the Muslims who denies that jinn may enter the body of the epileptic and others. Anyone who denies this and claims that Islam denies it is lying about Islam. There is nothing in the proofs of sharee’ah (Islamic law) to show that it does not happen.” Had any of this meant the Jinn controls people through their blood or veins then they could not take control of a persons mind since blood has nothing to do with how it works, it is rather the electrical impulses in the body and the electromagnetic field that surrounds it which the Jinn use to manipulate mans senses and perception, it is exactly because of the fact everything is connected at a subatomic level through the electromagnetic field in the body they can show man illusions that delude him, everything a jinn does revolves around the subatomic particles in mans body. During the Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic days of ignorance) the Arabs were well aware of these things and mentioned it in their poetry. For example, the poet al-A’asha likened his she-camel’s energy to that of one who was touched by the jinn, and said that it was the jinn who was giving her energy. Lataif and acupuncture look at how this part of mans body works and attempt to treat him through the various centres that energy is concentrated at the most, Allah often mentions areas of mans body that control his behaviour in order for us to study them and see the relationship between the subjects He is raising, the aim of this is to direct mans effort in research. Allah said in the Quran about Abu Jahl one of the Leaders of the pagans who used to forcefully stop the Prophet (saws) from praying at the Kaaba: “No! If he does not stop, We will take him by the naseyah (front of the head), a lying, sinful naseyah!” (96:15-16) Why did the Quran describe the front of the head as being lying and sinful? Why didn’t Allah simply say that the person himself was lying and sinful? What is the relationship between the front of the head and lying and sinfulness? These are the questions scholars asked when thinking about these verses. If we look into the frontal lobe of the brain, we will find that is where the prefrontal area of the cerebrum is. “The motivation and foresight to plan and initiate movements occur in the frontal lobes, the prefrontal area. This is a region of association cortex…In relation to its involvement in motivation, the prefrontal area is also thought to be the functional centre for aggression.” “The act of lying is initiated by the mental activities in the frontal lobes, and their instructions are then carried out by the speech organs during the act of lying. Similarly, sins are planned in the frontal lobes before they are carried out by the eyes, hands, sexual organs, etc”. A hadith of the Prophet (saws) mentions that the forehead represents the centre of direction and control. He (saws) said, “No distress and grief occurs to anyone who says, ‘Oh Lord, I am your slave and the son of your slaves, my forehead is in your hands, firm in your ruling, and my destiny from You is just'”. The hadith indicates that the fate of a man is in his Lord’s hands, it mentions the destiny and the ruling. It indicates that the forehead plays a great role in the control and direction of human behaviour (mans fate) and we should surrender it to Allah, which is the intention behind the Dua (prayer) and significance of mentioning the forehead with the other things being said. After Allah mentions the “naseyah” has the role of control and direction in mans life, as He singled it out in relation to Abu Jahls violent actions, Allah orders us to perform sujood, (place our foreheads on the ground in prayer) “Then let him call his associates. We will call on the angels of punishment. Then (O people) follow him not, but prostrate yourself (on the ground in prayer) and draw nearer to Us.” (Quran 96: 17-19) This verse tell us why we make prostration in prayer and it’s relationship to man’s physiology, through prostration we can see how our actions in life impact on our psychology that function through the various organs in our body, in other words a top down approach to correcting man’s behaviour and curing him through his physiology because Allah makes a direct connection between putting the forehead on the ground and drawing closer to him. The order to perform sujood (prostration) means we should place this centre of will and decision making upon the ground putting them in acceptance of Allah, the ability to draw closer is governed by different organs in the human body other then the nasiyah and they work to achieving this closeness. Allah says the result of prostrating is protecting our self from the bad qualities Abu Jahl was displaying and it results in drawing closer to Allah. Allah similarly referring to the instincts and sense of direction of all creatures says that “There is no living creature that moves on the earth, but he (Allah) holds its forehead completely.” (Quran 11:56) when Allah says He is holding something it refers to a force in the universe, because they are His hold on the universe which the Quran explains in other verses, what is directing animals and giving them their sense of direction is the electromagnetic force they sense, follow and see the world through. Imam Al-Qurtubi said, “That means He directs it as He wishes and prevents it from what He wills.” Allah mentions that He leads and directs the creatures that move on earth, by His will, and that this is done through their foreheads. Any person whose heart Allah has cut of, like Abu Jahl, He is primarily lead in life by his evil self through this centre (the nasiyah) where scholars locate the ego. This means he is cut of from feeling and there is imbalance in his character because the heart is blocked from perceiving any good or feeling anything for others, the centre where his decision making is now occurring from primarily (the nasiyah) is a centre of aggression, lying and over rationalisation, his heart no longer keeps this in balance so his ego begins to take over completely. The Lataif of Islam have been traced to the 5 or 6th Islamic century to shaykh Najm al din Kubra (540-612 AH) from Khwarezmia in western Central Asia, he was the founder of the Kubrawiya Sufi order which was influential in the Ilkhanid and Timurid Mongol Islamic Empires helping the spread of Islam in the region. He studied in Egypt were he became the murid (student) of Shaykh Ruzbihan Baghli Shirazi, who followed the Uwaisi (or Oveisy) sufi order named after the prophets (saws) contemporary Uwais al Qarni (ra) about whom the prophet (saws) said ‘he was the best of the Tabiin’ (successors). After receiving his Khirka (similar to accreditation, the word means “rough cloak” but refers to the lineage of the sufi tariqa he studied with, back to the prophet (saws)) he gained a large following of scholars and gnostics. The Imam’s main body of work concerns the analysis of the visionary experience, his works discuss the analysis of dreams and visions and their significance, the degrees of luminous epiphany (visions from Allah) that are manifested to people in everyday life, the different classes of concept and image that engage a persons attention, and the nature and interrelations of man’s subtle centres (Lataif). His method was related to the work of Imam Shahab al din Suhrawardi (d.1193) who is possibly the first person in the world to outline in detail the structure of the subatomic universe in a way that is very similar to modern quantum physics (we have written about this in detail in our book “Who Was al Khidr”), were the Imam explains how Allah created the universe from particles or light (the similitude of particles in the Quran) and from these everything else was then created in a hierarchy until we reach the physical world. Central to these Imams teachings is the fact that it is through the subatomic universe that Allah guides to his light (24:35) of which mans heart is physiologically perceptive and it is through the subatomic universe that Allah inspires the soul with conscience of what is wrong for it and what is right for it (91:1-8), light after all is made from a subatomic particle, the photon. The Prophet (saws) said “Beware of a Mu’min’s Firasah (vision) because he sees with the Nur (light) of Allah”, then he recited the verse “therein lie portents for those who read the signs (al-mutawassimin)” (Tirmidhi). Imam Tirmidhi said that the commentators explained “Those who read the signs” means those who posses vision (al-mutafarrisin). The prophet (saws) similarly said “Allah has servants who know (the truth about people) through reading the sings” (tawassum), (Bukhari in his Tarikh, Bazzar, Tabarani, Abu Nu’aym, Asakir and others with a sound chain). The imam died during the Mongol conquest and genocide of his city after refusing to leave, where he fought against them, the Ilkhanid Islamic empire was based on the campaigns of Ghengis Kahn in the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219-1224 Ad, it would not be long after his death that they would convert to Islam and hold his tariqah and teachings in high regard. The history of al Soheili contains the following regarding the Imam’s death, “The Master was half blind but he refused the grant of the Mongols for his own life, (they allowed him to leave the city alone), and asked the invaders to leave, when the Mongols entered the city he was standing in the main square and had stones in his lap throwing them at the mongols”. The Imam was given the title “The Manufacturer of Saints” due to the amount of saintly men that came from his students. Among his students were Najmeddin Razi, Sayfeddin Bakherzi, Majd al Din Baghdadi, Ali ibn Lala ghznavi and Bahauddin Walad the father of Jalaludin Rumi. One of his well known students was Sa’ad al Din Hamuwayi who wrote over thirty important manuscripts and other works concerning the work of Imam Kubra. His work spread through out the Middle East and Central Asia were it flourished for many years, but because much of man’s inner experiences relate to man’s physiology, and this is tied to whatever scientific knowledge was present at the time hence the Imam’s work spread until eventually it was taken over in the 15/16th century by other similar but more current teachings of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, that spread under the Ottoman Khalifah. The Imam’s teachings were later developed by the Naqshbandiya to their fullest and were similarly adopted by other sufi schools who utilize the same ideas in analysing spiritual visions and experiences. His teachings impacted on Tibetan Sufi Yoga rituals which focus on prayer, fasting and seclusion which can be attributed to the influence of the Kubraviyah sufi order as it spread in the region. Under the Ilkhanid empire many islamic teachings flooded into Asia and China as large populations converted to Islam with the mongols, who regarded his tariqah highly, many students of the tariqa like Imam Hamadani and Imam Ala ud din Simnani worked on spreading Islam and the science Imam Kubra developed. Imam Kubra said “The light that is derived from Allah’s lights and witnessed by the heart serves to make Allah known to the heart: He makes Himself known by means of himself.” Meaning through the many systems Allah created in the universe and within man, this occurs when we focus on Him in contemplation and worship. This is most significant today because the heart produces the bodies strongest electromagnetic field, which is a another name for light and the heart through what it senses shapes the mind with the input it gives it. Just as Imam Kubra would later explain, Imam Ali (ra) was once asked what is creation ? he (ra) said “It is like the dust in the air, it only becomes visible when the light of Allah strikes it”, in other words the universe is created from subatomic particles (dust) and the subatomic world is only seen when Allah places an electromagnetic field (light) in a persons heart so His inner sight can see with his electromagnetic field, this may sound new or alien to some but this is how animals sense and see the world and man is just a perfected animal with a unique soul. We may think the teachings of the Lataif are entirely new but they are based on the explanations of the companions and the prophet (saws), they are derivative works based on the knowledge Allah gave us, if we know the subject matter we can recognise where it comes from without needing direct quotes. Mans heart needs to receive light in order to see, the prophet (saws) explained that man sees spiritually when Allah illuminates his iman (faith) with light. He (saws) explained this to his companion Haritha after he related a vision to Him (saws), He said that “[you are] a slave whom Allah has illuminated the iman (light) in your heart” (Ibn Rajab al Handball). In the prophets (saws) words is the scientific definition of what Iman (faith) is, it is the light that forms (or settles as scholars stated) in the heart due to mans belief, and belief comes from the knowledge we learn, this is similar to the kind of light that forms the images of our imagination, when Allah’s light shines upon it exactly as Imam Ali (ra) explained, our iman no longer shows us our own delusions created by our short sighted perception of the world, it instead shows us the unseen (subatomic) world and what Allah created in it. Allah the Almighty says in Qur’an: “Thus have We inspired you with a soul from Our command; you had known neither the Book nor faith, but We made it (the soul) a light by which We guide those of Our servants whom We Will.” (42:52), and “It is Allah that opens and seals the hearts of men” (2:6), and “Is he whose bosom Allah hath expanded for the surrender (unto Him), so that he followeth a light from His Lord (as he who disbelieveth) ? Then woe unto those whose hearts are hardened against remembrance of God. Such are in plain error.” (39:22) This knowledge is key to understanding the Lataif because the heart generates the bodies strongest electromagnetic field and light is an electromagnetic wave, in other words the human body generates a very strong light which can be measured with scientific equipment, and this light is the subject of many Ahadith and Quranic verses whose meaning only becomes clear once we understand the science behind how the body works and the physics of subatomic particles. The scientific relationship between mans nervous system, the light (electromagnetic field) generated by the heart, brain, body and soul (which is a type of light) is the area of knowledge that the science of Lataif focuses on.