BISMILLAH
HIR RAHMAN NIR RAHEEM
(In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful)
NAHMADU WA NUSALLI ALA RASOOLI HIL KAREEM
ALLAHUMMA SALLI ALA MUHAMMADIN WA ALA ALI MUHAMMADIN KAMA SALLAITA ALA IBRAHEEMA WA ALA ALI IBRAHEEMA INNAKA HAMEEDUM MAJEED
ALLAHUMMA BARIK ALA MUHAMMADIN WA ALA ALI MUHAMMADIN KAMA BARAKTA ALA IBRAHEEMA WA ALA ALI IBRAHEEMA INNAKA HAMEEDUM MAJEED
The Arabic letter Meem
is equivalent to the letter
'M' in the English alphabet. It is
the first letter in the name of our Prophet Muhammad
.
Meem in Arabic numerology which is known as Abjad,
has the value of 40.
What is the significance of the number 40? "Life begins at forty".
Where does this saying come from? From the Quran of course:
46 And We have commended unto man kindness toward parents. His mother bears him with reluctance, and brings him forth with reluctance, and the bearing of him and the weaning of him is thirty months, till, when he attains full strength and reaches forty years, he says: My Lord! Arouse me that I may give thanks for the favour You have given me and my parents, and that I may do good deeds acceptable to You. And be gracious unto me In the matter of my seed. I have turned to You repentant, and I am of those who surrender (unto You).
[Quran: Al Ahqaf Chapter 46]
From the physical point of view: At the age of forty, a person should reflect on his/her life. On average, two thirds of the persons life is already passed and only one third remains, if Allah Wills. It is a time for a new beginning. It is a time to turn to Allah and seek his forgiveness if we have not already started. It is a time to start thinking of our own death often and be prepared for it. It is not for morbid reasons, but to abstain from evil and turn towards good. It is a time to turn a new leaf and start learning Islam properly because at that time our children are growing up and we have to set an example to them. We cannot put all the responsibility on another persons shoulder, for example the Imam who teaches the children Islam. If we are not aware of Islam, ourselves how can we distinguish whether the children are being taught Islam according to Ahl-as-Sunnah or Islam according to the Ahl-al-Hadees depending on our preference. If we cannot read the Quran, now is a good time to learn.
There is no shame in asking what we do not know about Islam.
It is never too late to turn towards Allah.
Form the spiritual point of view: the number 40 is also explained by Allah in the Quran:
142 And when We did appoint for Moses thirty nights (of solitude), and added to them ten, and he completed the whole time appointed by his Lord of forty nights; and ....
[Quran: Al Aaraf Chapter 7]
Musa (Moses (
))
spent 30 nights in seclusion hoping for guidance from his Lord
on the Mount Tur. It was not enough. He had to wait for another
ten nights in order to complete his spirituality. And then Musa
() conversed with Allah. And Allah
blessed Musa () with a divine
Message for his people.
Muhammad
received the divine Message at the age of forty. Again to receive
this message Muhammad
also used to go
into seclusion in a cave on Mount Hira.
Both these Messengers of Allah have the first letter Meem in their names.
Musa () had to complete forty nights
of seclusion in order to understand the Meem of Ahmad (another
name of our Prophet Muhammad
).
The
Spirituality of Muhammad. Once
he understood the Spirituality of Muhammad
the Beloved of Allah, then Allah spoke to him.
If anyone thinks
Musa () could not have known about Muhammad
, then read What the Bible says
about Muhammad
(by Ahmad Deedat).
The Old Testament is based on the Torah.
Why did Musa ()
have to know about the spirituality of Muhammad?
Because Allah says:
In The Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
1 To you We have given the Fount (of Abundance)
2 Therefore turn to your Lord in prayer and sacrifice.
3 He who insults you, will be cut off.
[Quran: Kawsar Chapter 108]
The Fountain Kawsar is heavenly grace and knowledge.
This knowledge has been granted
to Muhammad
.
He is the fountain of knowledge of Allah.
No one can attain spirituality without
acknowledging Muhammad's
superiority
over all the creations.
To believe in Allah and not acknowledge
Muhammad
, a person cannot be considered
a Muslim. Think about it.
56 Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. You who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation.
[Quran: Al-Ahzab Chapter 33]
What an incredibly high
status that is for a Messenger of Allah which no other Prophet
holds apart from Muhammad
. If
a person ignores Muhammad, then
not only is he/she insulting him but he/she is also insulting
Allah by insulting His Beloved. In ignoring Muhammad,
the person is insulting the Prophet. If a person insults the Prophet
Muhammad
then he/she will be cut off from
any goodness in this life or the next life.
Some readers may say
that the Quran and Muhammad
came
after Musa ().
So how can the
Chapter Kawsar apply to Musa ().
This is true in respect of time as we know it.
But Muhammad
is the First and the Last Messenger.
Allah created his Light First before any other Messengers and Allah sent him Last as the Seal of all the Messengers.
The Quran is part of a Book from which all the previous Books have been revealed (the original Zaboor (Psalms), Torah and Bible).
Therefore we are told by Allah in the Quran to Believe in all the Books that He has sent (the original ones that were revealed and not the modified versions of the Zaboor, Torah and Bible that are in circulation).
Hence the Fount was
already given to Muhammad
according
to the Book from which the Quran has been revealed.
Muhammad
had to attain the
age of forty to receive his Message. He was born in
Makkah
and emigrated to Yathrib which changed its name to
Madinah.
He is also called Muzzammil and
Muddassir,
in the Quran.
What is the mystery of the Meem in Ahmad?
The Meem in Ahmad
is the door that leads to Ahad which is the Oneness of Allah.
He has no partners. That is Muhammad's position in the creation must be acknowledged before Allah will allow anyone to get close to Him. Looking at it in Arabic:
Ahad is spelled
Ahmad is spelled
The difference between
Ahad and Ahmad is the Arabic letter
Meem also written as
.
It is not a coincidence that Allah revealed the Quran in Arabic without the Arabic language having some mystical superiority over the other languages.
Who invented Arabic or any other language? Is it the people? No.
31 And He (Allah) taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying: Inform me of the names of these, if you are truthful.
32 They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge except that which You have taught us. You, only You, are the Knower, the Wise.
33 He said: O Adam! Inform them of their names, and when he had informed them of their names, He said: Did I not tell you that I know the secret of the heavens and the earth? And I know that which you disclose and that which you hide.
[Quran: Al-Baqara Chapter 2]
We can interpret Adam as the first human creation of Allah or as every human created by Allah. Both the interpretations stand up to the test. Allah has stored the knowledge of every thing, that is going to come into existence, in all the human beings regardless of the persons religious orientation. So when the Arabic language had fully developed the Quran was revealed.
Coming back to
Ahad and Ahmad, the difference between the two
words is the Meem of
Muhammad.
To realise Allah's Oneness a person must
send blessings to Allah's Beloved
because he is the door and no one can pass that door without realizing
Muhammad's
position in closeness
to Allah.
Only by acknowledging
the superiority of Muhammad
can
a person have his/her prayers answered.
This is achieved by loving
Muhammad
more than any other person in
this world.
Loving Muhammad
more
than his/her parents and/or children.
In order to have his/her
prayer accepted by Allah, a person must send blessings (Darood)
on the Prophet.
He is the key to Allah's door.
Knowledge comes from Allah through Muhammad
.
Not without Muhammad.
Muhammad's
position in this life is the Seal of the Prophets or The Completion
of the Prophets. His position in the next life is
Makamam Mahmood (the Highest Station).
How is the Prophet Muhammad
the Seal of the Prophets? What
does it mean? What is the Makamam Mahmood? See the next article.
Only Allah Knows Best!
Mawlana Abul Noor Mohammad
Bashir of Kotli Loharan, Sialkot Pakistan has written a few books
on Islam which are highly recommended reading for most people.
The Urdu is kept simple so that someone like me who is hardly
proficient at reading Urdu can easily read the book and understand
about 97 percent of the content without too much difficulty. May
Allah bless him for his effort and contribution to Islamic literature.
He writes in his excellent book Jibreel Ki Hikayat (Stories about
Jibreel ()) :
.....
Allah started the circle of Messengers
from Adam () and completed it with Isa
(Jesus ()) and our Prophet
the Master of the Messengers
is
blessed with the completeness and fulfillment of the circle. It
is a requirement for Prophethood that the person is not a woman.
It must be man. A woman cannot be a prophet. Allah says:
109 And We did send before you (Messengers) all men...
[Quran: Yusuf Chapter 12]
That is why the circle
of Messengers was started with a pure man and from that pure man
a pure woman was created. Which is Adam () is the pure
man and Hawwa (Eve ())
was created from him.
And on completion of the circle of Messengers, from a pure woman, a pure man was created.
Which is from the pure Maryam (), pure Isa () was created without a father
so that the circle of Messengers beginning and end is joined together.
59 Before Allah the similarity of Isa is like that of Adam
[Quran: Al Imran Chapter 3]
Because Adam ()
was created from dust, he was sent down from heaven to earth.
Since Isa () was created
from the Word, the Spirit, he was lifted from the earth and taken
to heaven.
This is how, before Allah, creation of Isa () is similar to that of Adam
(). [Jibreel Ki Hikayat]
Now I want to take this
point a little further. It is related in a Tradition that Allah
created the Light of Muhammad
before
any other creation including the angels. The Messenger of Allah
said: I was a Messenger
while Adam was between clay and water.
This
makes Muhammad the First Messenger.
Then Allah created Adam (). Allah
completed his circle of Messengers starting with Adam and ending
with Isa () of pure birth
from Maryam ().
Each of these Messengers were sent to their own communities.
Their mission was limited to their own people.
After completing the circle, Allah
then sent our Nabee Muhammad
as
the Seal of all the Messengers of Allah.
Muhammad
set the seal on the circle of Messengers of Allah. And he also
surrounds that circle of Messengers. A circle is a limitation.
What surrounds the circle is not limited.
Muhammad's Message is
not limited like those of the earlier Prophets to just one community.
Muhammad
was not sent just for the Arabs,
not only for mankind, not only for jinns, but for all the creations,
however many creations there may be and wherever they may be only Allah and His Messenger know best.
As Allah is the Lord of all
the worlds, He has sent Muhammad
as
a Mercy to all the worlds.
All the Messengers from
Adam () to Isa ()
borrowed their Prophetship from the Prophetship of Muhammad
.
Muhammad
is the
Imam of all the Prophets.
Every Muslim should know that on the
night of Ascension (Miraaj) Jibraeel ()
took Muhammad to the Furthest
Mosque (Al Aqsa) in Jerusalem.
There he entered and found all
the leaders of angels of heavens and all the Messengers of Allah
from Adam () to Isa () assembled, waiting for his arrival, so that
they may greet him and follow him in the prayers.
Those who say that the Prophets are dead, how can they explain this assembly? If they say Allah sent them, then why did He have to send them after they were supposed to be dead? Why did they need to assemble for the prayer at the mosque? Once a person is dead, he/she cannot perform any further prayer because then the person is already aware of the Reality. It is too late after death to do any good deed. So, why did Allah send back all the Prophets back in human form?
Jibraeel after making
the call to prayers, answers this question:
"Ya Muhammad
,
Most Honourable of beings in the sight of Allah, proceed to prayer".
That is lead the prayer so that they, the Prophets and the angels,
may all follow him. So that each one could meet and see the Beloved
of Allah of whom each Messenger knew about (see the previous article).
Muhammad
advanced to the front and led
the prayer. All the Messengers of Allah knew Muhammad
and his followers will be the first to enter heaven.
Then their
communities. By following Muhammad
in prayer, all the Messengers of Allah, they themselves have become
his followers, but their communities have not. He was then taken
to the heavens and he met all the Prophets again. It is clear
from this that the Prophets of Allah are free to travel as they
wish like the martyrs. They are Allah's guests not His prisoners.
There are no constrains on them because they have pleased Allah,
and they are pleased with Allah.
27 (To the righteous soul will be said:) "O (you) soul in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
28 "You come back to your Lord well pleased (yourself) and well pleasing unto Him!
29 "You enter among my Devotees!
30 "Yes you enter my Heaven"!
[Quran: Al Fajr Chapter 89]
What is interesting here is that prayer (or Salah) has not yet been given by Allah to our Prophet.
Yet Muhammad
performed the prayer
before going to heaven.
How did he know that was the gift which was going to be bestowed on him for his followers by Allah? How could he LEAD the prayer if he did not know how to pray?
26 "He (alone) knows the Unseen nor does He make any one acquainted with His Mysteries
27 "Except a Messenger whom He has chosen: and then He makes a band of watchers march before him and behind him
28 "That he may know that they
have (truly) brought and delivered the Messages of their Lord:
and He surrounds (all the mysteries) that are with them and takes
account of every
single thing."
[Quran: Al-Jinn Chapter 72]
After the prayer at the
Furthest Mosque, Muhammad
was
taken to the heavens which is the Ascension or Miraaj in Arabic.
(For the purposes of this article only the names of the destinations
will be mentioned here.) He travelled to:
1. The first heaven,
The Place of Peace - Dar as Salaam.
2. The second heaven, The Place of Constancy - Dar al Qarar.
3. The third heaven, The Place of Eternity - Dar al Khuld.
4. The fourth heaven, The Sheltering Garden - Jannat al Mawa.
5. The fifth heaven, The Garden of Beauty and Joy Jannat al Naeem.
6. The sixth heaven - The Garden of Eden - Jannat Aden.
7. The seventh heaven - The Garden of Firdaws - Jannat al Firdaws.
8. The Furthest Boundary - Sidrat ul Muntaha.
From there, Muhammad
travelled onwards until the angels
Jibraeel (), Mikaeel () and Israfeel ()
stopped in succession at their stations beyond which they dare
not pass. Then he passed the station of the Spirit. Still going
further. He reached the place where Allah placed in Muhammad's
heart the knowledge of the First and the Last, heaven and earth,
then a voice was heard
"Ya
Muhammad! I have made you the intercessor for everyone."
He
was placed in the Fields of Allah's
Eternity and Endlessness. In the first he found no beginning and
in the second he found no end. Then Allah revealed to him: "My
end is my beginning and My beginning is my end." The Prophet
knew that all doors were closed except those that led to Allah.
Allah cannot be described within the confine of a place, He encompasses
everything everywhere. This is the Secret of Secrets, that cannot
be described. This is the place of
Magam Mahmood. The Highest
Station.
There are a few interesting points to be noted here.
First there was Allah,
then He created
the Light of Muhammad
.
Allah's name starts
with the letter Alif (
) or
'A'.
The first letter
in almost all the major languages (I do not now about Chinese
or Japanese to comment). He finishes the first creation with
Muhammad
whose name starts with the letter
Meem () or
'M'.
Then Allah creates the first human Messenger
Adam
().
Again Adam's name starts with
the letter Alif or
'A'
(
) .
Allah then completes
the first circle of Messengers with Isa ()
whose mother's name is Maryam.
The Messengers start from
Alif () and complete from
Meem ().
I know what you are thinking....
It is Isa () who is the Messenger
of Allah and not Maryam (). That
is true! Read the last sentence of the last paragraph again. The
circle is completed FROM
Meem not by Maryam ().
It
is Muhammad
with a
Meem, who came after Isa ()
and set the Seal on the Messengers of Allah.
How does Maryam () fit into this?
Look at the name Maryam in Arabic and compare it with the letter Meem which is written as pronounced.
Maryam
Meem
The difference is the
letter Ra (in Arabic
)
which stands for Rabb or Lord. Showing what's in her belly is from her Lord
Remove the letter Ra and you are left with the letter Meem.
19 He said: "No I am only a messenger from your Rabb (Lord) (to announce) to you the gift of a holy son."
[Quran: Maryam Chapter 19] 19:19
Here Rabb (Lord) created
Isa () from
Meem.
What is the significance of all this? Think about what has just been covered in the last few paragraphs.
Is it a coincidence that everything starts from Alif and finishes with Meem.
Starts with Allah and finishes with
Muhammad
.
Darood (Blessings)
and Salaam (Peace) on Muhammad, his Family, and his Companions.
Khalid M. Malik Ghouri