Bismillahi rahmani raheem, assalamu alaikum.
Sometimes when I share things there is a deeper purpose to it than just writing to teach others, this is such a case. I don’t expect many to understand the following but simply understand that just as we have governments and leaders in this world, the spiritual world has its leaders, hierarchies and systems which its creatures use and live by.
Growing up in a western country eventually you get to see its spiritual realities and how those systems are utilised by its spiritual creatures. The first time I encountered this was in early school when we went on a trip to our nation’s capital and visited its parliament house, the second was in high school when I was asked to become the schools vice-captain, then in university when with the student body council, and finally later in life when leaders from amongst the Jinn were forced to acknowledge my spiritual authority in the community which Allah had granted us at the age of 20. Each time a spiritual experience was attached to the event but their meaning wouldn’t become clear until I saw a pattern emerge of constantly being asked to take positions of authority despite never showing interest in them, constantly turning them down, and after Allah granted us spiritual sight to understand the reality behind them.
This is one insight I gained into the world of Jinn and their governments; each country has spiritual archetypes that people in that land are raised upon, their Jinn do this for them ensuring people are raised on one of the archetypes of their land to what ever degree each person is able to achieve in life. This is like the prophet Muhammad (saws) to us, we follow His Sunnah and character and try to achieve the same as Him, so when you visit a country you see how many of its people look the same act the same and feel the same.
In my land, there are seven the Jinn have chosen to be the archetypes for its people, each country is different, all of them are former leaders of the country, from among the first generations, I was shown all seven and their character, only one had a good moral character and the others fulfilled other roles. When ever a person fulfils that mould, Sunnah properly, the Jinn choose them for positions of authority, one example I was shown was that of Julia Gillard a former prime minister, when she completed the “Sunnah” of one of the archetypes they allowed her to lead, these are not easy things to achieve and saw what she had to go through spiritually before becoming leader.
I was shown all of this because in fulfilling my role as a Muslim of this land, I completed the sunnah of one of them, so the Jinn of this land who had been deliberately ignoring all the signs of Allah up to this point finally had to reveal themselves and explain the actions of their people up to this point in my life, despite this achievement…at the time we had just overcome a difficult struggle in life.
Each country has its similar archetypes, the muslim Ummah has the prophet Muhammad (saws) primarily, then other prophets, then the companions, and then the tabiin, and finally the awliyah.
When you join a spiritual tariqah that is like dedicating your life to achieving this and the Jinn of that tariqah, if there are only a few the Angels take up this responsibility, help you fulfil the Sunnah of the one that best matches your personality so you have a path (plan) set out for you in life to get into Jannah.
When Allah granted us our silsila of Tasawwuf I was allowed to see the heart of every person in that chain all the way back to Abu Bakr (as), this was like seeing their Sunnah and it was for the same reason the archetypes i am mentioning exist. On that same night I also saw one shaykh of this life who often helps people and saw that Allah had moulded him on the sunnah of the Prophet Dawud (as), He was given a youthful wisdom that wasn’t burdened.
The prophet (saws) said “My Companions are like the stars; whoever among them you use for guidance, you will be rightly guided.”
So after seeing that this country I live in had only seven spiritual archetypes, I asked why not more, they said some among them raised this issue but those in charge were not interested, it would take much effort to add another.
After gaining this experience you can then see the origin of traditions in a country, and in this discussion with them, i was allowed to see one of Britains archetypes, when I asked they wouldn’t reveal more than this, but this one that i was being shown, it was like an honor I was being presented with.
One of their archetypes was Imam Qurtubi who they learnt about from the Muslim Umma and their Jinn a few hundred years ago. When you look at Oxford University that is what you should see as one of their archetypes, and this shouldn’t be a surprise because the Bible itself mentions this in the book of revelations, that the British Empire would adopt from previous empires as it came to power.
They explained when the country was first looking to ground scientific principles in its institutions they looked at a few Islamic scholars, they mentioned them but i have since forgotten which, they looked at the Tafsir of Imam Qurtubi how he arrived at his judgments and saw that was a good starting point for them, the image of the old judge sitting on his seat in court that archetype is from Imam Qurtubi and his Ijtihad as a Mujtahid Imam, and they knew about usul al Fiqh and Ijtihad and explained how he arrived at his tafsir, all of which they learnt from the time of the Khalifah and their Jinn.
I asked why not another, they said for their people and their personality he arrived at his judgments in good time while considering a wide amount of information even if he doesn’t go into the minute details, other Mujtahids, the sunnah of other Ijtihads, would be to difficult to adopt because of spiritual perfection, the more Ihsan required the more details involved and for humans that isn’t an easy path.
In the bible each empire in the dream of John is represented by an animal whose qualities it resembled, the Ottoman Empire was a bear because of its expansionist and waring nature, while the British empire was a mixture of animals, it had the feet of a bear, it walked in the shoes of the Ottomans they ended and took over from as world leaders, and it stoop up like the beast of the Roman empire, which it emulated, so seeing Imam Qurtubi was a spiritual archetype for them wasn’t a surprise, if you have read his beautiful tafsir and seen how he thinks and puts his arguments together understanding what i am saying is much easier.
I thought i would end this with a passage from Muhammad Asads auto biography “A Road to Mecca” to help put this experience with Jinn into perspective;
THE sun is about to set when a big, black snake suddenly slithers across our path: it is almost as thick as a child’s arm and perhaps a yard long. It stops and rears its head in our direction. With almost a reflex movement, I slide down from the saddle, unsling my carbine, kneel and take aim – and at the same moment I hear Mansur’s voice behind me:
‘Don’t shoot – don’t…!’- but I have already pressed the trigger; the snake jerks, writhes and is dead.
Mansur’s disapproving face appears over me. ‘Thou shouldst not have killed it… anyhow, not at the time of sunset: for this is the time when the jinns come out from under ground and often assume the shape of a snake …’
As I remount my dromedary, playing with these questions with the half-smiling disbelief of a man whose upbringing has made him more thick-skinned than are people who have always lived closer to nature, Zayd turns with aserious countenance toward me:
Mansur is right, uncle. Thou shouldst not killed the snake. Many years back whem I Ieft Hail after Ibn Saud had taken the town – I shot a snake Iike that one on my way Iraq, lt was also at the time when the sun was setting. short while afterward, when we stopped to say our sunset prayer, I suddenly felt a leaden weight in my legs and a burning in my head, and my head began to roar like the roar of falling waters, and my limbs became like fire, and i could not stand upright and fell to the ground like and empty sack, and everything dark around me.
I do not know how long I remained in that darkness, but I remember that in the end I stood up again. An unknown man stood to my right and another to my left, and they led me into a great, dusky hall that was full of men who walked up and down in excitement and talked to each other. After a while, I became aware that these were two distinct parties, as before a court of justice. An old man of very small size was sitting on a raised dais in the background; he seemed to be a judge or chieftain, or something like that. And all at once I knew that I was the accused.
‘Someone said: “He has killed him just before sunset by a shot from his rifle. He is guilty.” One of the opposing party retorted: “But he did not know whom he was killing; and he pronounced the name of God when he pulled the trigger.” But those of the accusing party shouted: “He did not pronounce it!” – whereupon the other party repeated, all together, in chorus: “He did, he did praise the name of God!” – and so it continued for a while, back and forth, accusation and defence, until in the end the defending party seemed to gain their point and the judge in the background decided: “He did not know whom he was killing, and he did praise the name of God. Lead him back!”
‘And the two men who had brought me to the hall of judgment took me under the arms again, led me back the same way into that great darkness out of which I had come, and laid me on the ground. I opened my eyes – and saw myself lying between a few sacks of grain which had been piled on both sides of me; and over them was stretched a piece of tent cloth to protect me from the rays of the sun. It seemed to be early forenoon, and my companions had evidently made camp. In the distance I could see our camels grazing on the slope of a hill. I wanted to raise my hand, but my limbs were extremely weary. When one of my companions bent his face over me, I said, “Coffee …”-for from nearby I heard the sound of the coffee mortar. My friend jumped up: “He speaks, he speaks! He has come to!” – and they brought me fresh, hot coffee. I asked them, “Was I unconscious the whole night?” And they answered, “The whole night? Full four days thou didst not budge! We always loaded thee like a sack onto one of the camels, and unloaded thee again at night; and we thought that we would have to bury thee here. But praise be to Him who gives and takes life, the Living who never dies …”
‘So thou seest, O my uncle, one should not kill a snake at sunset.’
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.