It was narrated that Ibn Mas`ud said, “There is no night or day with your Lord; the Light of the Throne comes from the Light of His Face.” There is nothing between the Arsh and Allah, which is what His face, a simile and the highest part of the human body, means.
It has been related on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabba that “Allah created the Throne from His light, and the Footstool was affixed to the Throne. The Primordial Water was within the Footstool upon the back of strong wind (a simile for sub atomic layer’s the prophet (saws) mentions often in ahadith). The Throne has tongues (another simile) equal to the number of all created things, with which It glorifies Allah and remembers Him.”
The analogy in this hadith tells us the Arsh shapes the reality of every created thing so it can know its lord, because it ‘remembers Allah for them’ and is always connecting them with Allah, which is the meaning of the Arsh having a tongue for every created thing (alive or dead), and it glorifies and rememberers Him with it.
When you pray to Allah you are shaping your own perception so it can sense Him in life, here the hadith says the Arsh is remembering Allah for you.
Because the Arsh and Kursi are similar in nature, in ayat al Kursi (2:255) the verse then also indirectly tells us that the Arsh encompasses the heavens and the earth, both don’t just exist in the outer regions of space, Allah’s Kursi and Arsh exist on earth as well but sub atomically.
The Arsh is called the Arsh of Allah because it stands between the universe and what is outside it like the hard shell of an egg protecting the soft centre, Allah controls the entire universe from Here the deepest sub atomic depth that exists. It as His seat of power except Allah is talking about controlling the forces and laws of the universe, not an actual Throne or seat. Every system that exists in every object or creature is being controlled from here to make the universe do what Allah wants, every miracle granted to a Prophet or Wali is because the universe was being controlled from here to create it, once this is understood you can explain every miracle every prophet was given through science. The scholars famously stated that what ever Allah does beneath the Arsh He does through the systems of the Universe and what ever He does above it He does with His command Kun (Be) and it is done instantaneously, it is created from nothing.
So then what is the role of the Arsh in the universe? several verses in the Quran explain this in the language of the Arabs living 1400 years ago.
The Arsh exists at the deepest most sub atomic depth of the universe called sidrat al muntaha (the furthest limit) in the Quran (53:14) and the Kursi (footstool) is closer to us, its name is derived from its subatomic location by simile to the Arsh, just like a footstool (Kursi) is to a throne (Arsh), hence their names not only tell us their location in relation to each other but their role over each other, just like knowledge leads to wisdom.
“His Kursi is His knowledge” and all knowledge is used to understand deeper higher things, in this case, Allah Himself. Moreover, the verse which explains that Allah encompasses everything in His knowledge (65:12) is entirely about sub atomic space and the laws of the universe, one of the roles of this knowledge is to shape how everything will be created but after that occurs, the point of that knowledge is to show creation the path to Allah in themselves and their nature. If the Kursi is responsible for creating all things, the Arsh is responsible for life itself and what you experience in it, like love, compassion and morality, and at the heart of this system is the soul which facilitates all of this for the Arsh, the more unique/elevated the type of soul a creature has the greater its affinity to the work of the Arsh and Allah Himself, and the human soul is the most unique;
“It is Allah Who created the seven heavens (the seven regions of space in this context, the solar system, galaxy etc) and of the earth, it’s like (the other planets). The command (laws of the universe) comes forth between them (sub atomic space) so that perhaps you would know that Allah is Powerful over everything (His laws of the universe control everything) and that Allah, truly, enclosed everything in Knowledge. (The laws of the universe that created everything, are directly related to how Allah enclosed everything in His knowledge because quantum entanglement facilitates this, which is why they are being mentioned together)” (65:12)
Most ahadith that talk about the throne usually also explain how the universe was created so we know its role is related and it serves a purpose, the Prophet (saws) said “There was Allah and nothing existed before Him, (after He created the universe) His Throne was on the water (ocean of particles). Then He created the heavens (sub atomic space and its 7 depths) and the earth (the physical part of space), and He wrote all things in al-Lawh al-Mahfooz (the Preserved Tablet, or the tablet that preserves if you understand what entanglement does in the universe).” (unlike the Kursi and Arsh the water exists only sub-atomically within the seven heavens that are inside the Kursi, when the prophet (saws) gave a description of space He (saws) said space is inside the Kursi like seven stones set in a shield, think the shape of the milky way, He (saws) made no mention of the water while describing the outer most parts of the universe.)
“Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens (sub atomic) and the earth (physical) were a joined entity (all their particles have the same origin, came from one kind of particle), and We separated them (created the physical from the sub atomic) and made from water (the ocean of particles) every living thing? Then will they not believe?” (21:30)
This verse doesn’t mean all living things are some percentage of water like many took to thinking, the context of the verse is the first moments of the universe when no life or water (H2O) existed, Atoms (Hydrogen and Oxygen) didn’t exist until much later.
This verse serves a higher purpose than to talk about water in the human body, Allah ends the verse by asking “Then will they not believe?”, Allah is teaching us about belief itself by associating things together so we should look at the context of the verse more deeply.
Between the Kursi that is responsible for all knowledge and the Arsh responsible for the universe knowing Allah through our experiences in life, is the region of space all living creatures originated from, this question “will they not believe” is the test all creatures given intellect are put through.
The association of topics in verse 21:30, (subatomic space, the origin of sub atomic and physical matter, and the origin of where we originate from), is telling us there is relationship between the origin of our bodies and our ability to know Allah because they came from the same place, near Allah’s Arsh, the particles were entangled with each other at that time so “fate” (entanglement/“karma”) would ensure you have the ability to know Allah from your experiences in life. The day of oaths mentioned in the Quran, the day Allah made every soul take an oath to remember Him in life (an oath is literally a spiritual entanglement you take upon yourself) further cemented this in the human soul except the first time was for the very particles that created us and the later was for the developed systems (the soul) that came into existence.
The Messenger of Allah said, as recorded by Imam Muslim, “Allah, August and Majestic is He, wrote the destinies of creation fifty thousand years before He created the Heavens and the earth (this is the beginning of that fate, the moment it came into existence). His throne was on the water. Among what He wrote in the Remembrance, which is the Mother of the Book, was: Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets.”
He (saws) said in another hadith that is talking about a point in time when no living thing existed “Indeed Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, created His creation in darkness (bi Zulmatin), then He cast His Light (particles) upon them (it), so whoever is touched by that light he is guided (in life), and whoever is not, he goes astray (this is quantum entanglement at its heart, you can look at it as the agent of fate and here Allah is entangling the very particles that would come to create us with His guidance). It is for this reason that I say that the pens have dried (and everything is in) Allah’s knowledge (His knowledge fated every particle creating its path through time)”.(Tirmidhi)
Verse 21:30 is asking in an accusatory tone, because Allah fated all of us to know and even told us how in the verse, therefore we bear responsibility for what we are given freely;
‘Will you not use your knowledge to elevate yourself spiritually, and reach in your perception the depths that the particles of your body came from, the depth of the Arsh, to perceive Allah, He fated you to have this ability’.
It’s because of this origin that living things bear His qualities more closely, Allah “coloured” them with it at the beginning of the universe.
“(We take our) colour from Allah, and who is better than Allah at colouring. We are His worshippers.”(2:138) the word in arabic is Sabaghta which literally means to dye something and refers to your consciousness being shaped by Allah.
The very foundations of Tawheed and belief in Allah are outlined in the verse and Allah teaches they are “hard wired” into how Allah created the universe because of the location He originated all living creatures from; Tawheed exists because the water, that was near the Arsh responsible for the universe knowing Allah, and is now inside the Kursi responsible for all His knowledge, was entangled with them both.
If we think back to the hadith of Jabir in which the Prophet (saws) spoke about the inner harmony (Uns) of the heart and its light responsible for Tawheed, in physics this entanglement at the benign of the universe allowed for the coherence of particle waves between Allah’s light (particles), the light (particles) of the Angels and the inner most light (particles) of the heart, to occur.
“…then He cast His Light (particles) upon them, so whoever is touched by that light he is guided (in life, the coherence of these particle waves occurs), and whoever is not, he goes astray (just like a mobile phone with no reception, the heart loses the signal and can’t sense Allah anymore).”
With each prophet (as) Allah gave Him a light called the light of prophet hood to prove He was a prophet, this light wasn’t made of photons like normal light it was made from some of the first particles that existed in the universe from which Allah created everything else. The prophet (saws) referring to this spiritual light of all prophets would often say “the first thing Allah created was my light”, in modern terms He (saws) is saying the first thing Allah created where the particles this light is made of.
So, if the Kursi relates to Allah’s knowledge in the universe and how it shapes what He created what does His Arsh relate to, Allah says in the Quran;
“Indeed, your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in Six Days (periods of time), and then He established himself (Istawa) on the Throne” (7:54).
“The Most Gracious (Allah) established himself (Istawa) on the (Mighty) Throne” (20:5)
“And He it is Who has created the heavens and the earth in six days (periods of time) and His Throne was on the water (the ocean of particles), that He might try you, which of you is the best in deed” (11:7)
Why would His throne be on the water so that He could test our actions? We have already explained fate and entanglement because the stuff we are created from comes from there, but in this verse, Allah says it is the reason for creating the universe this way, the reason for the Arsh being on the water which is inside the Kursi in the sub atomic depths of the seven heavens.
It becomes clear when we realise that Allah is talking about the impact/repercussion/ramification/reverberation/karma of our actions in the universe, which is related to the Question of belief Allah put to the unbelievers in verse 21:30.
When we do something, its impact reaches to these subatomic depths from our world, which the prophet (saws) explained in his tafsir to surah luqman. Basically, our actions are all recorded and witnessed by the universe itself along with those who record every action and reaction in the universe, the Angels that inhabit the sub atomic part of the universe and see all of this occurring.
“This day We seal up their mouths, and their hands, (what they are made off will) speak out to Us and their feet (will) bear witness as to what they used to earn” (what they earned means how they “scared their bodies”, imprinted the way they lived, on it) (36:65). When we die and go to Jannah we become ahl al Barzakh, the people of ghayb, our souls are there and our bodies are in the grave until Yawm al Qiyamah (the day of judgment). The scholars explained, and this is one of Islams oldest lessons that shaped Islamic society over the past 1400 years, between Maghrib and Isha prayers all the souls that have gone to the afterlife, those who are deceased, your family, friends, forefathers all the way back to Adam, are called every night to sidrat al muntaha, the lote tree at the base of the throne which is the Maqam of sayidinah Jibril (as), the place where he stopped on the night of Isra wal Miraj and told the Prophet (saws) He could not go further (into the Arsh itself) or He would be burnt up. There all the actions and deeds of the people still living on earth are displayed in front of their deceased relatives, from the previous day until the present day, everything that occurs on earth is exhibited for them in a similar way to how we watch television, the impact of our actions reach to this depth and it is viewed by them.
In barzakh the news of this world appears daily to your family, friends and forefathers both in detail and in general. The deeds of each individual, community and nation are all displayed, and every soul in Barzakh knows about its relatives and what happened between them and how they are acting on a daily basis. It is for this reason between Maghrib and Isha that you make dua and give value to that time, during this time whoever asks for Allah to cover their bad actions Allah will cover them and not display them at the lote tree under the Arsh. So, your deeds are all displayed except for the people who are busy asking Allah for forgiveness or asking Allah to cover their deeds. Your good deeds will also be displayed to them and the Angels at that time will be making the Tasbih (prayer) “Subhana man Adh-hara al Jameel wa Satarah al Qadih”, “Glorified Is the one which has shown the beautiful and has hidden the ugly”. It is because of this event that so many people in the world will die, because their forefathers in barzakh are praying against them, when they see something that makes them shy (embarrassed of you), sad, ashamed, repeatedly causing them to shy away from you they start to ask “oh lord either make them good or take them away”. When they see something good, they instead pray for you because you have enlightened their face, increased them in light. So when we make dua or pray between Maghrib and Isha and Allah covers our deeds in front of them. Every human being has to know that this time, daily, is a source of reward or misfortune for the people on earth, therefore regular prayer at this time is a protection so we don’t receive any negative dua from them.
The prophet (saws) explains this in scientific detail in His tafsir to Surah Luqman (which we quote elsewhere) as well as through this event, of our actions reaching the Arsh with so much clarity you can watch it like a person watches television.
The prophet (saws) said “Do you know the greatness of Allah? Truly, His Throne (arsh) is on His Heavens (universe) like this – and he formed with his fingers something like a dome over him (over his head)” (Abu Dawwud) meaning it surrounds the universe entirely.
When Allah says He is established (Istiwa) on the throne it means who He is, His qualities, responsibilities, are established on the throne, it is responsible for their existence in the universe. So if the Kursi is responsible for the knowledge in each system (in each living thing) the Arsh is responsible for the wisdom behind it existing, it is the thing that creates higher functions in everything because “to Allah belong the most perfect names/qualities” (7:180).
Which is why Allah associated the Arsh literally with Himself to teach us, the Arsh is responsible for the complexity of design we see in life and the Kursi facilitates all of this just as knowledge is the foundation of wisdom.
The process of creation of living things that would come to bear His qualities, began in the water near the Arsh His qualities as established upon, but non living things their design came from a lessor (or later) place so they represent Him and His qualities less perfectly.
The Arsh is responsible for creating the higher aspects of life in everything, from which we get morality, religion, perfection, beauty, wisdom and the depths of intelligence and sagacity man can achieve.
In fact, this is the story of creation, Allah filled the universe with creatures of varying intellects, capacity and perspectives on life until He finally decided to create man, the reason for the existence of the universe, His last major creation to appear in it and the one most capable of knowing everything He created beforehand.
Each creature was given a soul unique to it and its capacity, but man was given a soul from the depths of the universe. Man was given a soul from Allah directly as the Quran says, from particles that existed before Allah created the Arsh (Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Jilani), and like everything Allah associates with Himself in the Quran it means it represents something of His qualities perfectly, therefore man is the only creatures that can know Allah perfectly.
When Allah says He Istawa/established Himself on the Arsh and the Human soul is from Him, it means its particles are from the utmost depths of subatomic space like the Arsh.
Allah’s Apostle (peace be upon him) said: “Souls are (like) troops collected together and those who familiarised with each other (in the heavens before coming to this life) would have affinity with one another (in the world) and those amongst them who opposed each other (in the Heavens) would also be divergent (in the world)” (Muslim).
Not every soul was created equal and Human souls are unique; The great wali of Allah Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Jilani said “the Prophet (saws) said: I am from Allah and the believers are from me, and Allah created all souls from me (from my light) in the spiritual world and He did so in the best form.” It is the name of the totality of mankind in that primordial world, and after its creation by four thousand years, Allah created the Throne from the light of Muhammad himself, and from it the rest of creation. (Shaykh Abd al-Qadir Jilani, Sirr al-asrar fi ma yahtaju ilayh al-abrar)
While Adam (saws) was the physical archetype of mankind the Prophet (saws) was the archetype for the souls of all believers, the prophets, saints, muhsineen, mu’min and Muslim, they are those closest to Allah. The soul of each Ummah was then created from their respective prophets soul and the souls of the Kufar in each Ummah were created last in that process. This is the distinction of a Muslim in the Umma of Muhammad they came from the same place as each prophet (as) Allah sent, while the Muslims in other Ummah’s came from their prophets.
If you have understood thus far that the origin of a thing decides its fate in life and its capacity, Muslims are given this distinction because it is during their time on earth that the universe will be studied and known the most, each prophet (saws) had this role individually but the Umma of Muhammad would be responsible for fulfilling the light Allah gave to the prophet and its purpose on earth.
Muslims facilitate this for mankind as they carry Allah’s light in the world which the kufar want to extinguish, “They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light (in the world, through the ages), although the disbelievers dislike it.”(61:8), so as soon as the last Muslim dies Allah will begin the process of ending the universe.
The Prophet said: “The Hour will not come upon anyone who says, ‘Allah, Allah’; it will only come upon the most evil of men.”(Bukhari)
The Prophet said, ‘Islam will become worn out like clothes are, until there will be no-one who knows what fasting, prayer, charity and rituals are. The Qur’an will disappear in one night, and no ayah will be left on earth. Some groups of old people will be left who will say, ‘We heard our fathers saying la ilaha illa Allah, so we repeated it.’ ‘ Silah asked Hudhayfah, “What will saying la ilaha illa Allah do for them when they do not know what prayer, fasting, ritual and charity are?” Hudhayfah ignored him; then Silah repeated his question three times, and each time Hudayfah ignored him. Finally he answered, “O Silah, it will save them from Hell”, and said it three times.” [Ibn Majah]
This aspect of our soul allows man to know Allah the most of all creatures because the particles of our soul are able to know all things that came into existence after them like the Arsh and its responsibilities, and just as the Arsh encompasses the universe our souls receive that kind of perspective on life.
Subatomic particles can only exist at the depth they are created at they can’t go any deeper, so if the soul is created from a specific type of particle it can only exist at that depth, because man’s soul is from a place above the water a region now inside the Arsh the Prophet (saws) on His night Journey was able to reach the distance of two bows length near Allah, mentioned in the Quran, right at the edge of the universe, on that night He (saws) achieved complete perfection and reached the place His soul originated from, the place His (saws) soul receives inspiration from and guides Him (saws) in life.
Therefore it was because of His (saws) soul (saws) the prophet (saws) could reach the end of the universe but the Angel Jibril (as) who was accompanying Him (saws) on the Journey had to eventually say when He reached the Arsh “I cannot go further or I will be destroyed”. The particles He (as) was created from would not survive the Journey because Angels were created after the Arsh was to carry it, while man was created to know and master it.
By comparison, other creatures like Jinn were given lesser souls from particles created later in time, the particles their soul was made from were not from the same depths or the earliest point in time, so they can’t enter the Arsh like us. It would be like an Atom trying to exist at the subatomic depth of electrons and protons which it is made of, the Atom would burn up and fall apart, the human soul comes from “Qaba Qawsain”(53:9), that depth, and it made it possible for the prophet (saws) to reach the end of all spiritual Journeys, the place closest to Allah in all existence.
This is the only kind of “unity” (Tawheed) with Allah that exists, the heart reaching the Arsh as all veils between it and its origin are removed, this is the only “unity with Allah” that our scholars are referring to in their works and the word only exists in this context because Allah used this language of nearness to describe things that embodied His qualities properly.
In understanding how the soul comes from the place Allah made His centre of control is the explanation for how the Awliyah can come to control the universe like the Angels, something Allah will give ahl al Jannah in the next life but the Awliya and the prophets are singled out for it in this life.
Imam Ibn Arabi explained that the power of Al Khidr lies in the fact Allah gave him knowledge of how to create like the Angels, how it works and its process which we see in the Angels that create life in the womb.
Because all Allah’s creatures are created with boundaries and direction in time, while He isn’t, Allah created the Arsh and made it His exalted place in the universe so His creatures know where to face and where to go to see Him, it is because of this that some verses talk about Allah in literal terms as if He has a direction to be faced or a place to be near when you want to be close to Him, or a place that is exalted above others.
Because the Arsh exists in all sub atomic space at the end of every particle, Allah said in the Quran “And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein”(50:16) despite the fact He has no actual direction or physical nearness, all of this refers to the systems that represent Him, the systems through which we can know Him.
Allah placed His Arsh on the water and created every kind of life from its particles, primarily a reference to the origin of their bodies, He then asked “you originated from a place “near” Me but still you won’t believe”. Many don’t see Allah in themselves because they have destroyed their spirituality with actions that deaden the heart and stop it from sensing the origin of their own souls.
“and His Throne, (He), was on the water (He was that close to you), (so) that He might try you, which of you is the best in deed” (11:7)
This is the role of the Arsh to us, it exists so the soul can know Allah, for the rest of the universe it is the Place Allah is known from and they travel to, to see Him, while He is always with us.
The subjects we have discussed are things you will find in the subtext of many scholars works, you just need to bridge the gap between their time and ours with our understanding of the universe, the existence of the Arsh facilitates the existence of man’s capacity and perfection and ultimately the reality (haq) He experiences.