Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, Assalamu Alaikum.
Imam Lamati who would later become the scholar of fez and was known for his strength in investigation, was the student of Imam Dabbagh (as), when he first met him he questioned the wali about his knowledge to establish his authority.
Imam Dabbagh was a wali who did not receive formal training and deliberately shunned it so as not to pollute his mind (spiritual vision) with preconceived ideas and conclusions about the nature of things, but had immense knowledge, which was not unheard of in Islam’s history, before Hakim al Tirmadhi became known he was a simple farmer who was trained by al Khidr, Imam Dabbagh (a) who would become a Ghawth was trained by the prophet Muhammad (saws) Himself.
Imam Tustari and Imam Dabbagh (rah) are two Imam’s we have taken from spiritually, you will find Imam Dabbagh’s answers/tafsir are amazing (very much in the same light as our work), moreover you will find answers to things long believed mysteries by scholars and Imams who had not yet understood the science behind the universe, all answered in a scientific way, that is answered in regards to how things in the universe work.
Imam Lamati said;
I questioned him about numerous hadiths beyond what I can count, and his remarks-God be pleased with him-agreed with what the religious scholars say. What’s wondrous is his case and strange about his affair-God be pleased with him-is that when I delved more deeply into this subject with him, he knew which hadiths are mentioned in al-Bukhari but lacking in Muslim, and which are mentioned in Muslim but lacking in al Bukhari.
When I’d known him longer and I realized his knowledge of hadiths was more firm than anyone else’s, I asked him what caused him to have this knowledge. One time he said: ‘The words of the Prophet-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-aren’t hidden.’
I asked him another time and he replied (by analogy): ‘When a person speaks in the winter, steam comes out of his mouth, and when he speaks in the summer, steam doesn’t come out of his mouth. Similarly, whoever repeats the words of the Prophet-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-light comes forth with the words, and whoever utters words other than the Prophet’s, the words come forth without light.’ (When a person speaks the prophets words the wali would see light coming from the mouth of the person who spoke, when they did not their would be no light).
Another time I asked him this (same) question and he replied: ‘If a lamp is fed, its light grows brighter. If it’s neglected, it remains the way it was (the lamp is the human body). This is how the knowers of God are when they hear the Prophet’s words-God’s blessings and peace be upon him! Their lights grow bright and their divine insights increase. If they hear anyone else’s words, they remain as they were.’ (end quote)
This is how the human body works, how many scholars through history never understood this yet Imam Dabbagh understood what Allah meant in this verse because he witnessed it;
“O Prophet! Truly, We sent thee as one who bears witness and as one who gives good tidings and as a warner and as one who calls to God with His permission and as a light-giving illuminating lamp.” (33:45-46)
Imam al-Qadiri (d. 1187/1773) records Imam Lamati’s life; ‘And among those who died during the year (i.e. 1156/1743) was the most learned scholar of the time, matchless in this day and age, the cavalier of teaching and study, bearer of the banner of composition and investigation, our shaykh Abu’l-Abbas Sayyidi Ahmad b. Mubarak al-Lamati al-Sijilmasi. He possessed a wide mastery and erudition in logic, eloquence, usul al hadith, Quranic recitation and commentary.
He studied Quranic recitation in all seven traditions of recitation under the son of his maternal aunt, the great imam, the Friend of God and godly ascetic, Sayyidi Ahmad al-Habib. He set out and entered the city of Fez in the year 1110/1699-1700. He then studied with Sayyidi Muhammad al-Qusantini…And he studied grammar with Sayyidi Abd al-Salam al-Hulwi Moreover, the distinguished Sayyidi Ali al-Hurayshi conferred on him an Ijaza for transmitting al-Bukhari.
Imam Lamati continues;
When the firmness of his authority in this matter was clear to me, as well as the fact that he was an unshakeable mountain regarding knowledge of what had passed the Prophet’s lips-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-I thought it right to examine him on the difference between the Quran and the hadith, though he didn’t even know by heart the Hizb Sabbih’ (A Hizb is one of sixty divisions of the Quran), let alone anything beyond that. One time I mentioned a Quranic verse to him and I asked him: ‘Is this a Hadith or from the Quran?’ He replied: ‘It’s from the Quran.’
Then I mentioned to him a Hadith and I asked him: ‘Is this from the Quran or a Hadith?’ He replied: ‘It’s a Hadith.’ I went on examining him on this subject for a long time until on one occasion I mentioned to him God the Sublime’s words: ‘Be mindful to perform the prayers and the prayer of the middle of the day’ (2/238), and this is the mid-afternoon prayer. ‘And stand praying to God with piety’ (2/238).
Then I asked: ‘Is this from the Quran or a Hadith?’ He replied God be pleased with him: ‘It contains words from the Quran and from Hadith. The words: “…and this is the mid-afternoon prayer” are from the mouth of the Prophet-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-and not in the Quruan. (115) The rest is from the Quran.’ And with me when I questioned him was a group of scholars of fiqh and, by God, we were all amazed by him. When I learned that the difference between the Quran and the Hadith wasn’t hidden from him, I thought it right to examine him on the difference between the Quran and the divine sayings (Hadith qudsiyya). Thus I mentioned to him a saying of God and asked whether it was from the Quran.
He replied: ‘It’s not from the Quran. Nor is it a Hadith such as those you were asking me about earlier. This is a different kind of Hadith. It’s called a divine Hadith.
I kissed his noble hand and said to him: ‘Oh Sayyidi, we wish that God and you would explain the difference between these three things. The divine saying resembles the Quran as well as a Hadith which isn’t from God. It resembles the Quran because it’s revelation, and it resembles a saying which isn’t divine because it isn’t recited in worship.’
He replied-God be pleased with him: ‘The difference between these three, though each has emerged from the Prophet’s mouth and each is accompanied by lights from his lights-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-is that the light in the Quran is eternal (Comes from before the Universe) and comes from the essence (dhat) of the True-He is sublime-because His word is eternal-He is exalted! And the light in the divine saying is from the Prophet’s spirit (ruh)-God’s blessings and peace be upon him (Comes from something created, meaning it is new words from Allah spoken after the universe is created)-and this isn’t like the light of the Quran, since the Quran’s light is eternal, whereas this other light isn’t. The light in the Hadith that isn’t divine (Qudsi) is from the Prophet’s body (dhat)-God’s blessings and peace be upon him! (33:45-46) These are three lights from different sources.
The light of the Quran is from the essence of the True-He is sublime-and the light of divine sayings is from the Prophet’s spirit-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-and the light of a Hadith that isn’t a divine saying is from the Prophet’s body-God’s blessings and peace be upon him!’
Then I asked: ‘What’s the difference between light of the spirit (Soul) and light of the body?’ (Its amazing He understood the body has its own light separate from the soul which today we call biophotons, photons produced by the human body)
He replied-God be pleased with him: ‘The body has been created from earth and all God’s bondsmen have been created from earth. The spirit is from the Heavenly Assembly (subatomic, from the Angelic), and they are the creatures who are most knowledgeable about God the Sublime. And each feels longing for its origin (the soul towards the heavily and the body towards the physical/earthly). The light of the spirit is concerned with the True (Allah)-He is sublime! (Aza wa Jal) The light of the body, on the other hand, is concerned with creation (The universe and what is in it). Consequently, you see that the divine sayings concern the True-(He is sublime) and exalted-demonstrating His majesty or manifesting His mercy or calling attention to the extent of His dominion and the abundance of His gifts. The first of these is dealt with in the Hadith:
(116) “Oh My bondsmen, even if the first of you and the last of you, those among you who are human and those who are Jinn…”
…up to the end. And this is a Hadith transmitted by Abu Dharr in Muslim. And the second of these is in the Hadith:”I’ve prepared for My pious bondsmen, etc.”
And the third of these is in the Hadith: “The hand of God is full. Using its abundance doesn’t make it
decrease. It offers provision night and day, etc.”
These are from the spirit’s sciences (Quantum mechanics) concerning God the Sublime. And you see that the Hadiths that aren’t divine sayings speak about what’s good for countries and for bondsmen by mentioning what’s licit and forbidden, and by urging obedience through recalling God’s promises and threats.’
This is some of what I (Imam Lamati) understood of his words-God be pleased with him! The truth is I haven’t set forth all of it and haven’t presented in full the meaning he indicated. And I asked: ‘Is the divine saying the word of God-He is mighty and glorious-or not?’
He replied: ‘It’s not the word of God. It’s the word of the Prophet God’s blessings and peace be upon him!’ (What Allah said phrased by Rasul Allah (saws), which is why it is not eternal) And I asked: ‘Why is it attributed to God the Sublime and called a divine saying and presented as what he reported from his Lord? And if it’s the word of the Prophet-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-what does it contain in the way of a report and what do you make of the pronouns in His words:
“Oh My bondsmen, even if the first of you and the last of you, etc.” and His words: “I have arranged on behalf of My pious bondsmen…”, and His words: “Some of My bondsmen have come to believe in Me, others are infidels.”-?
Now these pronouns are only appropriate for God, and the divine sayings do belong to the word of God the Sublime, even if their words aren’t inimitable (ijaz) and we don’t recite them when worshipping.’
(117) And one time he replied-God be pleased with him: ‘The lights from the True-(He is sublime)-waft over the Prophet’s body-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-until he obtains special vision (mushahada), even though he’s always in a state of vision (The barzakh has been removed from him and he sees Ghayb constantly. This is the natural state of Man, Allah placed the Barzakh on our vision when Adam came to earth so we could strengthen our hearts and ability to sense ghayb, like a master putting a blindfold on a students eyes to help his ability to sense the world around him. Because Iblis a creature of ghayb was able to trick Adam we needed to take control of the world of Jinn and not let them control us).
If with the lights he hears words from the True-(He is sublime)-or an angel comes down to him, this is the Quruan. But if he doesn’t hear words and an angel doesn’t come down to him, this is the occasion of a divine saying (Hadith qudsi). He then speaks-blessings and peace be upon him-and at that time he only speaks about Lordliness, glorifying it and mentioning its rightful claims. The reason for attributing these words to the Lord-(He is sublime) is because they were accompanied by this vision in which matters were mixed in such a way that the hidden became visible and the inner became apparent. They were attributed to the Lord and referred to as “Lordly speech” and they were presented as “what he reported from his Lord-He is mighty and glorious!” And the reason for the pronouns is that the Prophet’s words-blesssings and peace be upon him-emerged as an account of the language of states (lisan al Hal), which he saw from his Lord-He is mighty and glorious! (Allah placed His light over the prophet directly and the prophet spoke what Allah inspired Him to speak in that moment through this state, the Quran is the word of Allah from before creation and Jibril would make certain the exact phrasing was preserved, while a Hadith Qudsi is more like speaking from the special feeling/light Allah is giving you at that time and its phrasing is closer to your nature and state).
As for the hadith that isn’t divine, it emerges with the light residing in the Prophet’s body-blessings and peace be upon him which is never absent from him. That’s because God-He is mighty and glorious-provides the Prophet’s body-blessings and peace be upon him-with the lights of the True, just as He provides the body of the sun with perceptible lights. The light is inherent in the noble body, the way the sun’s light is inherent in the sun.’
And another time he said: ‘Let’s suppose someone suffers from a fever and his fever remains at a normal degree. Then let’s suppose it’s more intense so that it takes away a person’s consciousness and he speaks without knowing what he’s saying. And let’s suppose on another occasion it becomes intense but the person doesn’t lose consciousness. He retains his reason and when he speaks, he knows what he’s saying. Thus the fever occurs in three states: a normal degree, an intensity that takes away consciousness, and an intensity which doesn’t take away consciousness. It’s the same with the lights in the Prophet’s body-blessings and peace be upon him! If they’re of a normal degree, the words he speaks at that time aren’t divine sayings.
If the lights shine and ignite in his body such that he leaves his normal state-blessings and peace be upon him-the words he speaks at that time are the words of God the Sublime. This was his situation-blessings and peace be upon him-when the Quran came down to him. If the lights shine but don’t remove him from his [normal] state-blessings and peace be upon him-(118) what he says at that time is called a divine saying.’
And one time he said: ‘If the Prophet speaks-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-and what he says isn’t of his own choosing, this is the Quran. If the words are of his choosing and if at that time extraneous lights shine, this is a divine saying. If the lights are his permanent lights (the natural light of the body), this is a Hadith that isn’t divine. Because his words were necessarily accompanied by the lights of the True-(He is sublime/Aza wa Jal)-everything he said-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-is revelation which has been revealed. The difference in the circumstances of the lights accounts for the three kinds of speech. But God knows best!’
Then I said: ‘This explanation contains great beauty but what’s the proof that the divine saying doesn’t belong to God’s word-He is mighty and glorious?’ He replied-God be pleased with him: ‘The word of God the Sublime isn’t hidden (from the world its origin is clear when you hear it).’ I asked: ‘Due to clairvoyance (kashf of people)?’ He replied-God be pleased with him: ‘Due to clairvoyance and without clairvoyance.
Everyone endowed with reason who listens to the Quran and then listens to something else, perceives the difference without any doubt. The Companions-God be pleased with them-were the people most endowed with reason and they didn’t abandon the religion of their fathers without words from God the Sublime that were perfectly clear. If the Prophet God’s blessings and peace be upon him-had spoken words similar to the divine sayings (Hadith Qudsi instead of the Quran), none of the people would have believed. What caused necks to bow in submission was the noble Quran which is the word of God-He is sublime and exalted!’ (It is the Quran’s eternal nature, its age that set it apart, this is what people are sensing when they hear it, what they sense is also similar to what the companions felt with the prophet’s light, the light of prophethood, it is the first subatomic particle Allah created, He then used it to create everything in the universe, its sublime feeling comes from its age and the fact it is the origin to everything in creation.
And I asked him: ‘How did they know this was the word of the Lord? After all, they were worshipping idols and they had no previous knowledge of God-He is mighty and glorious-so as to realize this was His word. The most they could have perceived was that these were words beyond a human being’s capacity. But they might have been the words of angels, for instance.’
He replied-God be pleased with him: ‘Whoever hears the Quran and applies its meanings to his heart, knows with a compelling knowledge that this is the Lord’s word-(He is sublime!) The majesty it contains and the authority it bears can only be the majesty of lordliness and the authority of divinity. An intelligent, clever person who hears the words of a sultan in this world and then hears the words of one of his subjects perceives that the sultan’s words possess a certain breath by which they’re recognizable. This is so to the extent that if we supposed him to be blind and he came to a group of people who were talking and the sultan was lost in their midst and they were talking in turns, he’d distinguish the words of the sultan from those of everyone else and be in no doubt about it. Now such is the case with contingent words in this world.
(119) How much more so in the case of eternal words! Thus the Companions-God be pleased with them-knew their Lord-He is mighty and glorious by means of the Quran and they knew His attributes and what He’s entitled to because of His lordliness. Their hearing the Quran with its benefit of certain knowledge about Him-He is mighty and glorious-was the equivalent of direct seeing and vision (mushahada), so that the True-(He is sublime)-became like a companion. And no one’s companion is concealed from him. ‘
And he said-God be pleased with him: ‘The words of the Lord-(He is sublime)-are recognizable because of certain signs. Among these is that they surpass a human being’s capacity (to grasp their nature). Indeed, they surpass all contingent things because His word corresponds to His comprehensive knowledge and corresponds to His decree and His authority. God the Sublime possesses comprehensive knowledge and the effective decree, whereas the contingent (human being) possesses neither comprehensive knowledge nor the effective decree. He, i.e. the contingent (human), speaks in accordance with his contingent knowledge and his weak authority, both of which are dependent on someone else’s power.
Indeed, he speaks knowing that he has no power at all. Another of these signs is that God the Sublime’s word has a particular breath that isn’t found in any other speech, for speech conforms to states of the body. The eternal word emerges and it’s accompanied by the power of divinity and the majesty of lordliness (It eternal nature from persistence, its age, is sensed). That’s why mixed in it are His promises and threats, as well as His glad tidings and a cause for fear. But even if it didn’t contain majesty, the mere fact that when He speaks, dominion is His dominion, the countries are His countries, the bondsmen are His bondsmen, the earth His earth, the sky His sky, and the creatures His creatures-and no one disputes this-would be sufficient by itself. The words of anyone besides Him-He is mighty and glorious necessarily contain the characteristic of fear. (You speak through your state and condition, Allah speaks through His and we feel it).
Even if we suppose the speaker to be among the highest of the intimates, that person’s interior is filled with fear of God the Sublime. But God-He is exalted-fears no one. He’s majestic and His words are majestic.
Another sign is this. With regard to eternal words, if their contingent letters were removed and their eternal meanings remained, you’d find that they speak to all creation without any distinction of past, present and future. That’s because the meaning is eternal and contains no ordered sequence and no division. Whoever’s inner sight has been opened by God looks at eternal meaning and finds it has no end. Then he looks at the letters and sees they’re like a form which conceals the eternal meaning. If he then removes the form, he sees what has no end, and this is the interior of the Quran.
If he looks at the form, he finds it’s confined between the two covers of a book, and this is the Quran’s exterior. If he listens to recitation (120) of the Quran, he sees the eternal meanings motionless in the shadow of the words. This isn’t hidden from him, just as things that are perceptible to the sense of sight aren’t hidden from him.
Another sign is the distinction established by the Prophet-God’s blessings and peace be upon him-between his own words and the words of the Lord-He is mighty and glorious! Indeed, he ordered the Companions to write down the Lord’s words-(He is sublime!) And he forbade them to write down anything else from him.
Whatever they’d already written down of that he ordered them to erase. It hasn’t been established that they wrote down the divine sayings from him. The latter therefore belong to his words and aren’t the word of the Lord-He is sublime! Nor do the divine sayings possess any of the three qualities, i.e. surpassing the capacity of a human being and the other things that were mentioned.’
This is some of what we learned from his (Imam Dabbagh’s) instruction-God be pleased with him-concerning the difference between these three things.
As for his final response, i.e. his statement: ‘Everyone endowed with reason who listens to the Quran and then listens to something else, perceives the difference without any doubt. ‘ up to the end of what he affirmed, the judge and Imam of the world, Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d.403/1013)-God the Sublime have mercy on him indicates almost the same thing in his book the Intisar and he expatiates on this at great length and in this way refutes many claims of the Rafidites (A shia sect) regarding what they added to the Quran that doesn’t belong in it. Consult this book! (Intisar) If not for fear of being tedious, we’d cite his words so you might see them with your own eyes.
When our Shaykh began his response, he caused me to be overcome with amazement-God be pleased with him-for through his own intuition he presented what the above-mentioned Imam says.
Then he concluded his response-God be pleased with him-by means of a fifth distinction based on pure clairvoyance, which we haven’t written down because it lies beyond what’s accessible to reason (his ability to understand spiritual tafsir, that is tafsir mixed with science, knowledge regarding the nature of things which is the definition of Ijtihad). But let this be the end of what we wished to record in the present introduction. Now let’s commence with our purpose which is to present all that we heard from the sciences of the Shaykh-God be pleased with him! And this is contained in the chapters that follow. (end quote)
Here ends Imam Lamati’s introduction to his book on the teachings of Imam Dabbagh.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.