From the first statement of Imam Ibn Arabi about al Haba (the particle), to the last question he asks, the Imam is describing the universe. This entire subject is about the origin of every thing and every kind of knowledge in the universe, how that reached us and to who we are indebted to and should be grateful.
If we say you have your fathers qualities, then we know they originated from him so you are not entirely unique your qualities originated from those who came before you.
Every human, in this respect, is a copy of Adam and that uniqueness of shape belongs to him because he was the first human to exist. The Prophet Muhammad (saws) was given a higher form of uniqueness than Adam, it was uniqueness of spirituality and qualities, similar to how we take how physical form from Adam we inherit our spirituality and qualities from the first reality Allah brought into existence, Al Haqiah Muhamadiya.
Because everything created is made from particles, and that first particle to come into existence was the Prophets (saws) light, everything in the universe was shaped (took its qualities) by the Prophets passive influence (Reality/Haqiqah) at the beginning of time when they were first acquired their form, which is why Allah wrote His (saws) name on the Arsh at the beginning of time to show He played a similar, but passive, role as the Arsh in shaping the universe and allowed Adam (as) to see it so He understood the spiritual origins of his nature.
Consider that each tribe, each nation and each empire in history lived under the reality of what its society achieved and Allah said in the Quran He created us as nations so we may know each other, know the many realities that can exist, through History we have seen barbaric tribes and sophisticated empires.
In life, mankind first received their qualities and spirituality from what the prophets opened for them and so each people received new realities they could experience and adopt as they followed their Sunnah. Nothing would have advanced or opened the mind of man through history if the prophets did not do this work.
Allah showed us this was mans indebtedness when the entire earth chose to turn away from Allah and rely on themselves and all they could achieve was a barbaric way of life, the strong feeding of the weak. Had Allah not cared about advancing man spiritually and as a consequence intellectually, from the level of animals (Jinn) to the level of Angels, when humanity stagnated like this, He would not have sent them Nuh (as) to try and guide them back one last time.
After they made their choice to remain as animals there was no longer a purpose for their existence, had this been the aim of being alive Allah would have allowed the universe to persist forever, so Allah gave mankind another chance by replacing them with people better than them who adopted the Sunnah of Nuh (as), the prophet they descended from.
All prophets received from the first prophet Allah appointed to the universe, Muhammad (saws), and no other prophet was made
a prophet of Allah to all creation except Him (saws);
The Prophet (saws) said, “Truly I was in the sight of Allah, the Seal of Prophets, when Adam was still kneaded in his clay. I shall inform you of the meaning (ta’wil) of this. It is the supplication of my father Ibrahim (Q 2:129) and the glad tidings of my brother `Isa to his people (Q 61:6); and the vision my mother saw the night I was delivered: she saw a light that lit the palaces of Sham (greater Syria) so that she could see them.” (Ahmad, and others)
“And We have not sent you (O Muhammad) but as a mercy to the worlds (Alameen, all planets in the universe)” (21:107)
Allah determined He (saws) was the seal of prophets after establishing the prophet hood of every other prophet (as) first, we know this from ahadith. Hence, the prophet Muhammad (saws) was sent as the last prophet in life after being appointed first to prophet hood because He was the origin, genesis, of prophet hood even before Angels existed who were created from His (saws) light, and like Allah’s reality in the universe He (saws) was given the qualities of being the first and last, as well as the opener, so His (saws) reality would encompass every reality and guide it from nonexistence into existence.
His (saws) appearing last was to complete that process on the back of what the first prophets achieved in their time, but, this also tells us that within this framework each prophet (as) played a similar role at the beginning of the universe.
Becoming a prophet means taking responsibility and the prophets took responsibility for representing Allah and His will at the beginning of everything, the souls of mankind were alive in the universe from then, for all that time before coming into life, and you can’t represent Allah for 13 or so billion years if it means little over that time, therefor from the prophets example and what He (saws) told us about Himself, the existence of the other prophets realities were also a force in the universe shaping it, we see this in the subtext of many ahadith.
Allah created us for Him and He created everything else for us, that is the significance of that oath we were made to carry through time and why Allah said “Lo! We offered the trust unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And man assumed it. Lo! he hath proved a tyrant and a fool.” (33:72)
Every person Allah gave a Maqam, official station, with Him like the Awliyah were a similar force, but lessor, in the universe and we have seen many statements from them about their place in the Universe with Allah, the least of which for ordinary man is the statement of the Prophet (saws) that Allah will not establish the hour as long a single Muslims is still alive, the entire universe’s existence relies on the life of the last ordinary Muslim from mankind.
This is the Haqiqah (reality) of all mankind, who like the prophets all took an oath to know Allah and His qualities that created the universe and that means Allah took the responsibility to facilitate the creation of everything that will help them achieve that.
Consider that in light of the fact man is created in Allah’s image and He is a copy of the two forms, the universe and Allah.
“Then He (Allah) fashioned him (man) and breathed into him of His (own) Spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and hearts. Small thanks give ye!” (32:9)
When we read the following hadith we look at it from the beginning of time until now, but look at it backwards from our time to the beginning, because certainly everything is in Allah’s knowledge. The Prophet (saws) said “Allah created His creation in darkness then He sprayed them with His light. Those whom this light reached became rightly guided (in life), while those it did not went astray (in life).” (Tirmidhi)
Everything that occurred before your time, which is part of your life now, is to a percentage because of you, this is what the hadith is saying, Allah arranged it at the beginning of the universe so that what you need reaches you in life.
The Haqiqah Muhamadiya (the Prophets reality) is that on the scale of the universe and the finality of that process, the last openings (revelations) the universe would receive, materialized in life when the last prophet of Allah was sent to mankind because in His life were the keys to the universe, He (saws) would often say “I was given the keys to everything except the five” (things relating to knowledge of the future, which were given to the Pen so it could write).
Each level of Jannah, each depth of ghayb, is a source for the knowledge given to mankind, seven prophets would master each depth, each category of knowledge and how to perceive and see them in life.
In each level of Jannah, sub atomic depth, Allah placed a prophet in charge of the knowledge that came from it to our world, but our prophet (saws) would perfect how to see/perceive all of them on earth, what He (saws) did in life was necessary so mankind could grow.
A person whose character goes too much into spirituality will learn about that at the cost of what is gained from the material world, and a person too much into the material aspects of the world will learn about that at the cost of what is gained from spirituality, man’s life revolves around both, being blind to either one means you are blind to half of what you are, so man needs to learn about everything that influences his life to grow and advance, otherwise He will stagnate.
This is part of the deliberate process Allah placed us under because He said “I am Time”, He is known over the passage of time.
The full spectrum of knowledge is contained between these two extremes, which is why the universe has two parts to it the physical and the spiritual, or the Macro world and the sub atomic world, but to master all of them you need the right combination of both spirituality and materialism in your self so your perception isn’t warped in either direction and you can go deeper than either extremes safely.
Only then can you get past the dangers found with the spiritual creatures of the Universe that influence man, the materialistic Jinn obsessed with this world, whose spirituality forces you to focus on it becoming blind to everything else, and the Angels who have no experience with the material life whose reality you won’t be equipped to handle and “travel with” unless you understand them and balance their world with your material life.
Mankind was the key to this balance among Allah’s creatures so He placed him on earth between these two extremes of the Jinn and Angels that represented the two extremes of materialism and spirituality.
Man was the only creature that combined both extremes in his physiology and the last prophet Allah sent before Muhammad (saws), Isa (as), was the key to almost half of what the Prophet (saws) and mankind would achieve.
Every other prophet before Isa (as) their mastery lay in the spiritual realm, one half of the universe, but Isa (as) who the prophet (saws) saw in the second level of Jannah would perfect what it took inside our self to master the material part of the universe. His exceeding purity in a place and time lost in materialism (Jerusalem under the Roman empire) allowed Him to go deeper than any other prophet into the material aspects of our world and not lose sight of Allah or walk with the Angels and not lose sight of this world, this was the balance He (saws) achieved between the material and the spiritual world.
Because of His inner strength and mastery the Angel Gabriel (as) was appointed as his constant companion;
“and We gave unto Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs, and We supported him with the Holy spirit (Jibril).” (2:87)
It was for this reason Allah showed Him how to raise the dead and cure all illness, which is mastery over matter in the most complete way, it is mastery over life itself.
Because of all this, Allah will also send Him in the future to kill the Dajjal (Allah’s curse be upon him) and cure the world of the materialism (science and wealth) it is lost in by showing mankind how to live with it and not lose themselves. When you focus entirely on science, your world view is enveloped by it and eventually you think that is all there is to life, like wise when you focus entirely on spirituality you develop a myopic view that says that is all that is important in life.
This is why Imam Milk (as) said “who ever studies Jurisprudence (science) and doesn’t study Sufism (spirituality) will be corrupted (they can only see the material world), and who ever studies Sufism (spirituality) and doesn’t study Fiqh (the laws of the material world) will become a heretic (lost in the ocean of the unseen not seeing any boundaries); and who ever combined both will reach the truth (his view will be balanced and he will know how to understand the world).
Anas ibn Malik reported: A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, should I tie my camel and trust in Allah, or should I leave her untied and trust in Allah?” The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “Tie her and trust in Allah.” (Tirmidhi)
To gain the right balance in a palace entirely lost in materialism Isa (as) had to go in the opposite direction, spirituality, until He found the middle path in this environment and understand how to see the material world as Allah wanted, the prophets eventually are appointed leaders over the Angels so they need experience from this world in order to guide them and through that ascend from one group of Angels to another, from one Jannah to the next.
In order that Isa (as) could grow He (as) spent 40 days in the desert by himself away from life under the Roman empire. When iblis challenged Him saying “Turn these stones to bread”, Isa (As) responded to the intension behind the question by saying “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
We don’t just rely on miracles (the spiritual world) ‘we tie our camel and rely on Allah’, we work in life, rely on the physical world and what Allah placed in it than rely on the spiritual world to supplement and enrich our efforts, this is the meaning of Baraka.
Consider what Allah gave the prophet Isa (as), such as knowing how to raise the dead, in light of this verse, “Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it (is only) that which it hath earned, and against it (only) that which it hath deserved” (2:286) and ask what you would need to earn to be given such things, what you need to know to reach that, we have shown in our works how Allah taught the Prophet Muhammad (saws) about the universe by showing Him (saws) the universe, and certainly the prophet Isa (as) would have received similar regarding the nature of His (as) miracles, even if their accounts did not reach us in the same depths as the narrations of Islam;
“and We gave unto Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (knowledge and experience).” (2:87)
Each prophet that became the master of the reality of one of the levels of Jannah, it meant Allah opened its full potential on earth for mankind through them, which is why the Prophet (saws) saw Isa (as), one of Allah’s major prophets, in second Jannah and His place there had nothing to do with His (as) rank.
This second level is the one closest to earth just after the first in which Adam (as) was, after placing Tawheed in your heart (Adam was the first man, our fitrah) so your heart begins to see the straight path (1:6) and isn’t deluded, the correct Journey to Allah begins by next understanding the material world around you because that is the first major influence on your life after you are born, that part of the world only opened for mankind Just before the prophet Muhammad (saws) was born and not at the beginning of man’s time on earth when he wasn’t psychologically prepared or equipped to investigate it scientifically.
Image man’s first steps on earth and the spiritual and psychological journey in this environment he had to undertake through time before he was prepared to see that science existed. So Allah began by teaching him about spirituality and purity before science because believing what comes from within yourself is much easier than testing every external proof to establish what is or isn’t fact, it took 1400 years after Islam for science to establish itself properly on earth and be capable of studying the sub atomic, spiritual, world.
We saw what happened with people on earth up to the time of Nuh(as) they wanted nothing to do with spirituality and consequently intelligence itself which only comes after purity, such was the door Isa (as) walked through for mankind. Think about our society today and how many times we shower in comparison to people back then, cleanliness creates sophistication, we are so far down this path can you imagine going for any length of time without a shower you would say it is part of who you are, well there are reasons why that exists in your psychology today and it didn’t back then, religion had a major role to play in that because as the prophet (saws) declared “cleanliness is half of Iman” (Man’s ability to have faith).
This history of man tells us Allah’s plan for mankind through the ages from the order that each prophet was sent to us and what level of Jannah they mastered in life.
The second step to Allah, in order to grow, is seeing there is a spiritual side to the world above the material one, and this begins by seeing the beauty in nature and understanding that beauty has meaning behind it born out of each things qualities, it isn’t superficial eye candy like every materialistic person thinks because they can’t perceive the meaning behind that beauty and why it is there.
The meaning of its existence defines its worth, but to them only monetary worth has meaning, which is a delusion upon their perception. While man’s heart only opens up, grows, when he learns the worth of beauty from his need of it in life, because the beauty in the world helps keep man balanced, like a rose or a song soothing a beast, and so Allah said in surah Al Rahman (55) that destroying the balance of nature on earth will destroy the balance that is within yourself, (55:9).
Such is the reality of women with man, he first loves her beauty but as it fades with time the life she spent with him means more to him than anything else, so in his heart she is always beautiful because now he knows her qualities and that is what he sees above her physical form. The spiritual path is the same you can’t take it until you learn how to read and value the spiritual qualities of things from their reality.
This is why the Prophet (saws) said the best reward in Jannah is a righteous woman, not the beauty and marvels contained in it, and because of this Imam Ali (ra) said “Allah the almighty selected us from His creation and selected for us our followers (family) who assist us. They are pleased when we are pleased and are sorrowful in our sorrows. They give up their lives and property for our cause. Therefor they are ours and will be with us in paradise.”
The prophet (saws) then found Joseph (as), the prophet who received half of all beauty, in the third Jannah above the Prophet Isa (as), He (as) opened for mankind how to perceive and understand the beauty of nature and this world properly that leads to the spiritual path which reveals Allah to the heart who is primarily seen from His qualities and the qualities of His actions.
Building on what Isa (as) and all the other prophets achieved, it was the prophet Muhammad (saws) who went beyond the seven heavens and into the Arsh whilst alive as He (saws) mastered the reality of each Jannah and its knowledge, His teachers, His example, were the other prophets (saws) and so like any student who surpasses his master, He (saws) eventually surpassed them.
This opened the way for mankind after Him (saws) to see and discover and combine every kind of knowledge in the universe to greater depths than before, His (saws) life was a tariqah Allah gave us to follow, thus one of the Ummah’s greatest achievements was spreading knowledge from one end of the earth to the other.
Allah then said to the Ummah; “Thus, have We made you an Ummat justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves.” (2:143)
Allah explains that our balance between the spiritual and material is what allows us to be a witness over the other nations on earth, because only a balanced person can understand what he is witnessing in a community not his own without prejudice. Allah said this to the entire Ummah because in following the Sunnah of their Prophet (saws) they would be close to achieving the perfect balance.
The inheritors of the prophets are the scholars and Awliyah who after the prophet Muhammad (saws) would specialize in specific subjects and master their details to new depths;
Abu Malikal-Ash`arifrom theMusnadof Imam Ahmad: When the Prophet finished his prayer he turned to face the people and said: “O people! Listen to this, understand it, and know it. Allah has servants who are neither Prophets nor martyrs and whom the Prophets and martyrs yearn to emulate, due to their place of nearness to Allah.”
One of the beduin Arabs who came from among the most isolated of people twisted his hand at the Prophet and said: “O Messenger of Allah! People from humankind who are neither Prophets nor martyrs and yet the Prophets and the martyrs yearn to emulate them due to their place of nearness to Allah? Describe them for us!”
The Prophet’s face showed delight at the Beduin’s question and he said:
“They are of the strangers from this and that place. They frequent this or that tribe without belonging to them. They do not have family connections among themselves. They love one another for Allah’s sake. They are of pure intent towards one another. On the Day of Resurrection Allah will place for them pedestals of light upon which He will make them sit, and He will turn their faces and clothes into light. On the Day of Resurrection, the people will be terrified but not those. They are Allah’s Friends upon whom fear comes not, nor do they grieve.”
(Haythami in Majma`al-zawa’id says: “Ahmad relates it, and Tabarani relates something similar, and the men in its chain of transmission have been declared trustworthy.” Also related through several chains by Abu Dawud, Ahmad, Baghawi in Sharhal-Sunna, al-Hakim in the Mustadrak, Ibn `Asakir, Ibn Abi al-Dunya in Kitabal-ikhwan, Ibn Jariral-Tabari, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn Mardawayh, and others.)