Bismillahi rahmani raheem assalamu alaikum
I was reminded of this subject this morning and was told when I last spoke about it, it benefited a lot of people and helped them understand, so Insha Allah I am going to write about it again from my own experiences.
The first thing you have to understand is that the human body sees with its eyes and heart, today because of science we understand how the heart sees and what is meant by vision of the heart. Both organs relay all of their information to the brain which creates the images you see in your mind. The eyes show you the world around you while the heart shows you the spiritual world that is influencing you.
In this regard the prophet (saws) said there are three types of dreams, one from the self which is created from your memories and experiences that you lived, the second is from Jinn and shaytan, a spiritual creature able to influence your heart and place images in your mind, they can influence the nervous system of the body because it runs on electrical impulses and their creation is closely related to electricity.
The last kind is from Allah and that is done through the Mala’ikah/Angels another creature that can place images in your mind and influence your heart.
The point of understanding this is to understand what the spiritual world is and where it is, ghayb, the unseen world is the sub atomic world around us, we are made from atoms and things larger than atoms but Allah created creatures that are made from sub atomic particles, the Angels from light or the photon particle and the Jinn from a smokeless fire, the electron particle which is what electricity is made of.
The journey of man from childhood into old age is one where he matures and opens his heart to greater spiritual depths, and as He reaches deeper into the spiritual world he is in fact reaching deeper into what Allah called Jannah, the sub atomic world.
Allah assigned 7 depths to Jannah and at the end of these depths you will find His Arsh, His throne, which is something that encompasses the entire universe like a hard shell protects the egg inside, the term Arsh is an honorific for its place and role with Allah.
This spiritual journey of the heart is opened through two things, Ihsan and wisdom, which is knowledge used in a beneficial way by seeking the best path at all times.
The prophet (saws) describing our Journey in life and our Tariqah once said to us, “acting with wisdom increases your wisdom, and that is the shortest path” (to Allah).
As you act with wisdom your own wisdom increases and so does the depth of your heart, some people are shallow and don’t go past the first Jannah, others the second, some people mature and reach the third, while practising the tenants of Islam faithfully in life ensures you reach the fourth Jannah before the end of your Journey.
Some people excel others and reach the fifth Jannah and here the thing that is truly behind wisdom, inspiration, begins to manifest in a person’s heart. Wisdom is only useful when you know how and when to use it and that comes from the Mala’ikah inspiring you with the right answers.
The sixth Jannah is where inspiration is settled upon the heart and the seventh is where you are a Master/Sayyid.
This should now tell you the path to Allah, but how do you see him?
When you first begin to mature you have to contend with the world of Jinn who inhabit the shallowest part of the spiritual world. Their “world” is “superimposed” unto this world and so they influence it spiritually and shape the lives of people in it how they like, they are shallow creatures and because of that Allah never sent a prophet from their kind to them because they are incapable of reaching the seventh Jannah which is required for prophet hood.
Hence when you look inside yourself to advance on this spiritual Journey you have to purify yourself of their influence, wants and needs.
In this endeavour the scholars said, “Whosoever knows himself knows his Lord”, “man ‘arafa nafsahu faqad ‘arafa Rabbahu”, because the Journey to Him is through the self and that is where you will see everything mentioned by the prophets and saints.
You overcome the Jinn not through strength but with wisdom, by practising it and increasing in it, that is the only way. As you gain wisdom you gain something they can’t acquire, touch or contend with and that is where you find freedom from them.
Most people lose to them today because they are forced to deal with them before they mature properly, that is why people need a REAL spiritual guide to help them, their presence alone stops Jinn from doing their worst to you, therefore in the past Muslims created Tariqah’s around Imams who traversed this journey successfully so they can mimic what they did and achieve the same results.
After looking in yourself and seeing the world of Jinn you will come across the Mala’ikah and their world in a deeper place than them, where the Jinn only exist on this earth with us the Mala’ikah exist in the sub atomic depths of ghayb right up to the Arsh.
By now you may be thinking we see the Jinn and Angels in our selves through our heart and they exist around us also, your body is the tool you use to see the world, so don’t confuse the word imaginary with delusion and something being not real, these are things your body does when you nafs/self is out of control and lost in desire.
Just like the Jinn are able to create dreams you are able to create false, imaginary, images, but when you calm the self and rid it of impure things your mind becomes a tool by which you see the spiritual world, that is the struggle of the spiritual path, the more you achieve the less delusions you have and the deeper you are able to see and reach.
The prophet (saws) said modern psychology is a Fitnah Allah sent against the Kufar for adopting the occult to destroy/addle their minds because they created false ideologies using the mechanisms of religion.
So Ignore its incomplete view of the world that is based on outdated medicine, literally for most of the last century psychology and medicine thought emotions and feelings are all delusions of the brain (created by it) and the body and heart have no role, so they developed their science around this error that they are correcting to day. It is obvious that a psychology (science) about the self that ignores the heart entirely will certainly addle/imbalance the minds of those who adopt it
The heart is the only organ in the body that tells the brain what to do by sending it what it thinks and experiences, in fact it is the first organ to form in the body so this should tell you its spiritual primacy, modern medicine is at odds with what came before because computers and technology changed everything.
When you begin to see the world of Mala’ikah you begin to understand and see where all of your thoughts come from. As you travel the path at first you see all the things that come from your own logic, because you are now paying attention to yourself, while other thoughts you don’t know why you thought them. Then you come to understand Jinn and their world hence you now understand why certain impulses come to you, while before you didn’t know why, seeing the Mala’ikah shows you were the rest of your thoughts and feelings come from.
In this way you gain greater control over yourself and life because you understand what moves you better.
Once you have become accustomed to the world of Angels, eventually Allah will call you into His presence and show you where His hand is in the universe.
In the Journey of the self, your “Journey To The Lord Of Power”, you will see that Allah is behind the Mala’ikah, whatever thoughts are not inspired by the Mala’ikah, Jinn or you come from a deeper place and are His hand in your life, His hand is the most subtle/Latif in yourself.
Allah said about this in the Quran, He created the Arsh established Himself upon it and is controlling the universe from here, so when your heart reaches the Arsh in its spiritual depths, Allah will teach you how to see Him in life because you are now able to see past the nafs, Jinn and Mala’ikah to see Him.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.