Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem Assalamu Alaikum.
Recently Allah gave us Maarifah about the Kingdom Allah granted Sulaiman (as), He made a dua to Allah asking Him to grant Him a kingdom the like of which had never been seen before and will never be seen again, “He said, “My Lord! Forgive me, and bestow upon me a kingdom such as shall not belong to any other after me. Verily, You are the Bestower.”(Quran 38:35), and so His kingdom was marked by miracles upon miracles upon miraculous things, the most famous of which was the story with the Queen of Sheeba when the Jinn displayed their strength to Sulaiman (as) and His knowledgeable people displayed theirs in competition with the Jinn.
“He said: O chiefs! Which of you will bring me her throne before they come unto me, surrendering? A stalwart of the jinn said: I will bring it thee before thou canst rise from thy place. Lo! I verily am strong and trusty for such work. One with whom was knowledge of the Scripture (His human scribe) said: I will bring it thee before thy gaze returneth unto thee. And when he saw it set in his presence, (Solomon) said: This is of the bounty of my Lord, that He may try me whether I give thanks or am ungrateful.” (27:38-40)
“And unto Solomon [We made subservient] the stormy wind, so that it sped at his behest towards the land which We had blessed: for it is We who have knowledge of everything. And among the rebellious forces [which We made subservient to him] there were some that dived for him [into the sea] and performed other works, besides: but it was We who kept watch over them.” (21:81-82)
“And Solomon was David’s heir. And he said: O mankind! Lo! we have been taught the language of birds, and have been given of all things. This surely is evident favour. And there were gathered together unto Solomon his armies of the jinn and humankind, and of the birds, and they were set in battle order.” (27:16-17)
Allah taught us the source of power behind His empire which we learned after reading descriptions of it in the Old Testament:
1 Kings 6 “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.”
…11 “The word of the Lord came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfil through you the promise I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”
The description says in a number of places that the temple was meant to be a dwelling place for Allah and that He would be found therein, realising this is an overly literal translation or possibly the subtle Ilm (knowledge) regarding it was lost as the words where passed down through the ages we understood what Allah was saying.
Allah is not something created, He is not made of particles or atoms or anything else this universe created when He began it, Allah existed before it and the creation of atoms and particles, nor is He bound by time which is also something this universe created (Physics proved this with experiments when it proved time and space are reliant on each other to exist).
So what did Allah mean, What He was saying was exactly what He meant by the word Istawa in the Quran, Allah says He Istawa the Arsh, established Himself upon the Arsh (throne), but if He is not made of Anything how can He attach nothing to something created?
That is because the verse is explaining something to you not teaching you a fallacy, Allah is saying He established His reality upon the Arsh (His throne), and that is vastly different from saying you should now think Allah is made of something. The universe created us and combined its matter to create our reality and so the universe can likewise combine itself to represent Allah’s reality, which is different from Him, you should not take the words in the absolute sense but rather look at what is being said.
Revelation was not sent to test the logic of the Greeks as people often like to do and use it as Tafsir, understand what is said in the framework of the words.
In the Quran Allah teaches us He controls the universe from the Arsh and it is sidrat al Muntaha, the furthest limit of created things, the edge of the universe and its boundary like a shell protects an egg, it is the deepest subatomic depth responsible for all the laws of physics.
When Allah granted Sulaiman (as) His unique Kingdom He did so by bringing His reality down to earth, by making part of the Arsh exist in the temple the same way Allah removed the veils between Him and Moses (as) when he spoke to Him, except Allah did not stop at the Arsh He removed all the veils (subatomic fields) of the universe. The Arsh controls the laws of Physics and the Laws that created everything because physics teaches this about the deepest depths of subatomic space (QFT), and so we see miracles occurring in the time of Sulaiman (as) as easily as water flows down a river.
Allah (as) will do something similar to this in Jannah for its people, He will Istawa the Kursi (establish His reality in a closer subatomic depth to mankind) to bring Himself closer to us:
At-Tabarani narrated in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (6717) that Anas ibn Malik said: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Jibril came to me with something like a white mirror in his hand, on which there was a black spot. I said: ‘What is this, O Jibril?’ He said: ‘This is Jumu‘ah (Friday); it is the master of days and we call it Yawm al-Mazeed (the day of more – cf. “There they will have all that they desire, and We have more (for them in store, the sight of their Lord)” [Qaf 50:35]).’ I said: ‘O Jibril, what does “more” mean?’ He said: ‘That is because your Lord has allocated a valley in Paradise that is more fragrant than white musk. When Friday comes, among the days in the hereafter, the Lord, may He be blessed and exalted, will descend from His Throne (‘Arsh) to His Kursiy (Allah will Istawa the Kursi), and the Kursiy will be surrounded with seats of light on which the Prophets will sit. These seats will be surrounded with footstools of gold on which the martyrs will sit. The people of the chambers will come down from the chambers and sit on sand hills of musk, and those who sit on the sand hills will not think that those who sit on the footstools and seats are any better off than them (Allah will protect from Envy by making them all feel equal). Then the Owner of Majesty and Honour will appear and say: ‘Ask of Me.’ They will say: ‘We ask for Your good pleasure, O Lord.’ He will say: ‘It is because I am pleased with you that you are in My Paradise, and you are honoured.’ Then He will say (again): ‘Ask of Me.’ They will say all together: ‘We ask for Your good pleasure.’ He will ask them to testify that He is pleased with them. Then He will say (once more): ‘Ask of Me,’ and they will ask of Him until each one of them is finished. Then He will grant them that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and it has not crossed the mind of any human.”
After understanding this we made dua to Allah thanking Him, Allah through a warm light we felt made us aware He was pleased with us, we then heard Rasul Allah (saws) congratulating us for understanding the secret behind the Kingdom of Sulaiman (as).
A day or two passed and we began to think about this again, this is how Allah prepares things by placing something in a person’s heart, we began to think about the blessed nature of the Temple of Sulaiman (as) and how Unique it was that Allah would say He would be found therein.
It then occurred to us to ask Allah “Ya Allah build for us a temple in the Akhira like the temple of Sulaiman” (where you can be found therein), this was our intention behind the Question to be close to Allah, nothing else.
We then felt a silence come over us and became uneasy because of it, we did not know if we asked to much or how to perceive this, so we said to Allah “Ya Allah we are not asking for something exclusive to us” (only a house in our Akhira where you can be found), then another thought came over us regarding the Kaaba, maybe we should have asked for a house like the Kaaba instead, is that not more superior, it was built by Abraham (as) upon the foundation of the Temple Adam (as) first built.
So we said to Allah “Ya Allah we don’t know which is superior the Temple of Sulaiman (You asked to be built) or the Kaaba (built by Abraham), we only Know you said the Kaaba was your house but that you also said you would be found in the Temple” (and you taught us about its reality and meaning).
At this point Rasul Allah (saws) informed us our prayer was accepted by Allah and in the Akhirah Allah would give us such a house in Jannah, we then felt Ahl al Ghayb happy with us over this, but soon we felt another silence and began to think.
After some time we said to Allah, and this is what Allah was leading us to the entire time; “Ya Allah build a house like this for all of ahl al Firdaus”, all the people of the highest part of Jannah, the prophets and the saints from all the nations, we then felt acceptance from Allah and a great love from Ahl al Ghayb and saw Sayyidinah Ibrahim (as) and Sayyidinah Musa (as) and Rasul Allah (saws) in a light smiling at us because of the enormity of our request, the Prophet (saws) then said to us “they (all the prophets and the awliyah) are going to have love for you because of this”.
He (saws) then said as if talking to a gathering, Allah has prepared the Akhira for Rami, He (saws) then intimated to us a deed Uthman Ibn Affan (as) did and the immense reward Allah granted Him (as) because of it, and that was the compiling of the Quran which the entire world now reads, He (as) receives reward from every person because of it such is His (as) immense place with Allah. Rasul Allah (saws) explained to us that similarly the Prophets (as) and Awliyah (as) will love praying in this Temple in the Akhira and Allah will bless us from all of their prayers which will help us in our Maqam in the next life.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.
“O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.” (4:59)