فَتَعَـٰلَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡمَلِكُ ٱلۡحَقُّۖ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ رَبُّ ٱلۡعَرۡشِ ٱلۡڪَرِيمِ
“Do not rush O Muhammad to speak, but hold your tongue and listen to what the Angel relates. We are responsible for imprinting it in your heart and impressing it on your mind, and We are responsible for its compilation and for its perusal. When We read it to you, you follow its intonation. We are responsible for its interpretation.” (75:16-19)
The Prophet (saws) on the night of Isra wal Miraj was taken up to a point in the universe where he heard the screeching of the Pens (writing the Divine Decree). He saw a man who had disappeared into the light of the Throne. He said: “Who is this? Is this an angel? It was said to him, no. He said: “Is it a Prophet?” Again the answer was no. He said: “Who is it then?” The answer was: “This is a man whose tongue was moist with Allah’s remembrance in the world, and his heart was attached to the mosques, and he never incurred the curse of his father and mother”, he was a person who perfected and achieved these things in his self.
Allah teaches us that man gains both knowledge and wisdom with his heart; “Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth, letting their hearts gain wisdom, and causing their ears to hear? (gain experience, insight) Yet, verily, it is not their eyes that have become blind – but blind have become the hearts that are in their breasts!” (22:46)
In the famous hadith of al-Harith ibn Malik al-Ansari (some chains have: al-Haritha ibn al-Na`man al-Ansari): the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, asked him, “Harithah, how are you this morning?” He said, “This morning I have become a true mu’min” (gained certainty, al Yaqeen). He said, “Think about what you are saying! Because every statement has a reality”(that shapes your world and you experience its consequences). He said, “Messenger of Allah, my self dislikes the world, so that it is sleepless at night and thirsty in the day, and it is as if I am gazing upon the Throne of my Lord appearing, and it is as if I am gazing upon the people of the Garden in the Garden and how they visit each other in it, and as if I am gazing upon the people of the Fire and how they howl in it.” (His inner sight was clear enough to see them, although imperfectly) He said, “You have seen (inwardly), so remain firm.
How does everything we have spoken about relate to Allah’s reality (Haq) which we experience as our life? man knows Allah through his heart, it is the thing that is responsible for the balance of his character in life, and Allah places His light here to help him, which man’s spiritual heart then benefits from and it shapes his life.
“Thus We have appointed you a middle (Balanced) nation, that ye may (have the ability to) be (a balanced) witnesses against mankind , and that the messenger may be a witness against you. And We appointed the qiblah which ye formerly observed (towards Jerusalem) only that We might know him who followeth the messenger, from him who turneth on his heels (Ignores everything His heart has witnessed, is unbalanced). In truth it was a hard (test) save for those whom Allah guided. But it was not Allah’s purpose that your faith should be in vain, for Allah is Full of Pity, Merciful toward mankind.”(2:143)
The spiritual heart is the subatomic aspect of our physical heart created by its complex nervous system and the electromagnetic field (light) it generates, which we know through the scientific study of our physiology, this field or light surrounds the entire body and through it man senses the world around Him to gather knowledge about it in order to know Allah. The prophet (saws) explained this in a lengthy hadith that talks about how the universe was created from subatomic particles;
The prophet (saws) said “…Then He (Allah) divided the fourth (particle) into four other parts (particles) and created from the first the heavens (sub atomic space), and from the second the earth (planets/physical part of the universe), and from the third Paradise (Jannah) and the Fire (Hell/Black holes), and then he divided the fourth (particle) into four parts (particles) and created from the first (particle) the Light in the believers visions (the electromagnetic field and light of the brain which is our imagination, or the light we see in our mind), and from the second (particle) the light (electromagnetic field) of their hearts which is knowledge of Allah (How man knows Allah through the knowledge he perceives in life), and from the third (particle) the light of their inner harmony (Uns, inside the heart there is a another deeper light made of different particles that allows him to connect with the light/guidance of Allah 24:35) which is (responsible for) Tawhid (how they know that) ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah…”. (Abd al-Razzaq (d. 211) narrates it in his Musannaf according to Qastallani in al-Mawahib al-laduniyya (1:55) and Zarqani in his Sharh al-mawahib (1:56 of the Matba`a al-`amira edition in Cairo).
Most mujtahid scholars who studied the spiritual world wrote that there is more there than particles floating around, which is what science thinks today because it lacks the technology to look at the sub atomic properly, from this foundation of particles complex creations came into existence, and this part of the universe is usually called the Angelic realm or the Allegorical realm, the Prophet (saws) witnessed this realm on His night journey as He was traveling from Makkah to Jerusalem and saw the peoples actions in life manifest as allegories (take on a life of their own) in ghayb, that part of the universe is the world of spirits (the word here means actions clothed with spiritual bodies, not ghosts, and refers to the impact your actions have on the spiritual world) and our actions are clothed by particles and take shape (these are the spiritual bodies) just as our thoughts (actions in our mind) create images (or dreams) we see in our head, that are almost like the real world.
On their way to Jerusalem, “They travelled until they reached a people who sowed in a day and reaped in a day. Every time they reaped, their harvest would be replenished as before. The Prophet said: “O Jibril, what is this?” He replied: “These are al-mujahidun — those who strive — in the path of Allah the Exalted. Every good deed of theirs is multiplied for them seven hundred times, and whatever they spend returns multiplied.”
“Then the Prophet saw people whose heads were being shattered, then every time they would return to their original state and be shattered again without delay. He said: “O Jibril, who are these people?” He replied: “These are the people whose heads were too heavy (on their pillows) to get up and fulfil the prescribed prayers.”
“Then he saw a people who wore loincloths on the fronts and on their backs. They were roaming the way camels and sheep roam about. They were eating thistles and zaqqum — the fruit of a tree that grows in hell and whose fruit resembles the head of devils (37:62-63) — and white-hot coals and stones of Gehenna. He said: “Who are these, O Jibril?” He replied: “These are the ones who did not meet the obligation of paying sadaqa from what they possessed, whereas Allah never kept anything from them.”
“Then he saw a people who had in front of them excellent meats disposed in pots and also putrid, foul meat, and they would eat from the foul meat and not touch the good meat. He said: “What is this, O Jibril?” He replied: “These are the men from your Community who had an excellent, lawful wife at home and who would go and see a foul woman and spend the night with her; and the women who would leave her excellent, lawful husband to go and see a foul man and spend the night with him.”
Science today is only studying the building blocks of sub atomic space they haven’t reached the capacity to study the creations that exist there like Jannah or the Angels, the point of understanding this is that the heart of man isn’t simply an organ it is the window that sees the spiritual world, and its sight is via the subatomic particles of the universe.
Allah tells us these particles in the heart that are the foundation of his religion, through man’s actions become the light of tawheed or kufr in his heart, which are complex structures formed from simple particles, the Prophet (saws) explained that man’s actions can displace the light of tawheed in a person’s heart and at that point “it is not their eyes that have become blind – but blind have become the hearts that are in their breasts!” they have destroyed their inner light.
What the heart sees shapes man’s perception of the world, the reality (Haq) he experiences is because of the choices he made in a universe that reacts to him at every moment, it is all a series of interconnected systems at different levels, in space and the human body, based on the actions we take in life.
It then becomes clear that the spiritual depth of the heart is the depth of the subatomic universe when the heart sees deeper into the unseen it is seeing deeper into sub atomic space where it will find (see) the qualities of the things it encounters in life, and takes insight from their state (from how they feel).
Its senses continue to extend deeper until it reaches the Arsh of Allah which is something every prophet (as) and saintly person (ra) achieves. What a person does in his life decides the depth of his spiritual perception (wisdom), our choices then dictate the reality we experience.
The prophet (saws) said “Tribulations are presented to the hearts of people like a reed mat woven stick by stick (layer by layer) and any heart afflicted by them (susceptible to them, isn’t protected) will have a black mark put into it, but any heart that rejects them will have a white mark put into it. Thus there will be two kinds of hearts: one is pure like a white gemstone and it will not be harmed by any tribulation (that touch it sub atomically) as long as the heavens and earth endure (Allah’s systems are in place), and the other is black and dusty like a worn-out vessel, neither recognizing good nor rejecting evil, but rather immersed (lost) in its desires.” (Muslim)
The great scholar of Islam Imam Tustari said about this in his famous tafsir “Allah does not open the heart of a servant if it still contains three things, loving to remain (in this world), love of wealth, and concern about tomorrow.” (The prophet (saws) said “What I fear most for my community, is that they follow their desires and have long hopes”)
Opening the heart is the meaning of surah al Sharh (91) in the Quran, Allah says “Have We not expanded thee thy breast? (Heart)― (1) And removed from thee thy burden (2)”, Musa (as) understood all of this about the heart and so when Allah was commissioning Him as a Prophet He (saws) asked Allah directly for this expansion of the heart, “[Moses] said, “My Lord, expand for me my breast (heart, in other words, increase me in wisdom), And ease for me my task”(20:25-26), eventually Allah would send Him to al Khidr (as) for this very thing because al Khidr had mastered gaining knowledge (inspiration) from Allah directly with His heart.
The universe was created to facilitate knowing Allah, every aspect and perspective of Him, hence different creatures have different perspectives on life. They and the Angels were created to know the spiritual world completely, that is their only reality, but mankind has the capacity to know everything they know, because everything about that world is within man while they don’t have physical bodies. Mans capacity to know everything in the spiritual is as infinite as the kinds of things he can imagine, all he has to do is think and his mind creates any kind of image, so His reality encompasses all other realities Allah created just as He was given access to every one of the 99 attributes of Allah.
Jinn for example only know the spiritual world from earth’s atmosphere, unlike the Angels, and while they can rise to be similar to man by imitating his spiritual side, he is on earth as an example for them, but since they are spiritual creatures who rely entirely on earth’s environment for everything they are limited in their perspective on life, other creatures on others planets are similarly limited to their existence on that planets atmosphere and environment.
Jinn, instead of rising to the level of Angels as their ancestors (“And (remember) when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves unto Adam.” So they prostrated themselves except Iblis (Satan). He was one of the jinn” (18:50)) they often devolve their character to the level of insects (a devouring machine with no remorse), which we see today with the level of degeneracy present in the world as they dominate man, all because they are getting everything they want before they develop into mature spiritual creatures. This is because they have no sense of responsibility/magnitude regarding things in life, which is unlike man who has to mature to survive and feels the full gravity of situations, Jinn on the other hand often run from situations of “gravity”;
“Indeed, we offered the Trust (in terms of physics, this is responsibility, accountability and knowing the reaction (consequence) of every action) to the heavens and the earth and the mountains (everything physical), and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant” (of its magnitude and gravity. Man is in the lowest of the lowest state of existence, the physical state, where the result of every spiritual (sub atomic) act manifests last, the end of the line for all reactions in the universe) (33:72).
Allah said, “I created the Jinn and humankind only that they may worship Me!” (51:56) meaning “that they may know Me” and Allah placed them side by side in this verse, as the Prophet’s (saws) cousin Ibn Abbas (ra) explained, you cannot excel at worshipping something unless you know what it is.
The scholars said, “Whoever knows himself, he knows his Lord” and Allah said, “and do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves”, they also said “you can see the Divine Attributes in yourself: His power, His creation, knowledge, wisdom, because the fingerprints of His Attributes are in His creation”, Allah said “We shall show them Our portents on the horizons and within themselves” (41:53).
So, when Allah says, “So exalted is Allah (Above everything, in His nature), the Sovereign (of everything, He is Superior, He is), the Reality (of everything); there is no deity (doing all of this) except Him, Lord (Controller) of the Noble Throne (responsible for this)” (23:116);
The Arsh is connected with the exaltedness of Allah and it allows man to understand as his qualities become exalted (are raised). The Arsh is related to Allah’s sovereignty and reality because He is superior in His reality and it represents the most superior reality in the universe, the Arsh raises everyone up in spirituality, knowledge and wisdom until their hearts reach it then that perfect reality, called nafsu radiyah mardiyah in the Quran (89:27-30), is opened to them. There is no other Lord but Him and there is no other created thing in the universe doing this, and because Allah associated a created thing with Himself He gave us the conclusion to this and said He is reality (Haq) itself;
يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ
ارْجِعِي إِلَىٰ رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَّرْضِيَّةً