When you become aware that your being and the qualities that comprise you are not anything other than the compositions of the divine names and meanings you will inadvertently want to know the reality of these meanings and manifest them in a way that is befitting the One. 

You will find the meaning described by the Rasul of Allah (saw) 1400 years ago within your own essence and with this conquest you will bear witness that there is nothing other than Allah in the worlds – albeit free from any form of limitation pertaining to the worlds! 

When you recite the Ayat al-Qursi for instance you will find the correlative meanings of the qualities that describe Allah, al-Hayy (the source of universal energy, the essence of life) and al-Qayyum (the One who renders Himself existent with His own attributes without the need of anything) etc. within your essence.

You will know that just as sitting or standing doesn’t alter your existence, living or dying doesn’t make any changes to your true Selfhood. All actions are driven either consciously based on the meanings you manifest, or subconsciously based on your natural programming. 

Eventually these observations will deepen and you will begin to openly see the principle “Allah gives guidance to whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills” and experience the living meaning of the precept “Allah increases the sustenance of whom He wills and decreases it for whom He wills.”

Thereafter, if the veil of the Names is lifted, you will observe your singularity (witriyyah), individuality (fardiyyah) and unity (wahidiyyah).

Whilst manifesting the meanings of the various names you carry you will no longer be veiled from your essential reality as the veil of your illusory identity will be lifted and therefore your name, which is a reference to this identity will also drop.

As a result of this observation the trust will be given back to its original owner.

That trust was the divine meanings given to your “name” as a loan! When the illusory identity referenced by your name is lifted the trust will be given back to its owner and the One who manifests all His names as the worlds will begin to observe the meanings of His names through you.

Although in essence all acts stem from the names of the divine it is due to our inability to observe this and hence our own veil that we fall into the state of ignorance. There is no veil in the outside world. The only veil is our illusory identity. Once this is lifted nothing remains other than the compositional manifestations of the divine names and meanings.

You will have died from your illusions, which was a construct anyway!

“All shall pass, only Allah is al-Baqi!”

The only way your existence can be annihilated is when you “die before death”!

This can only be achieved by removing your illusory constructed identity and observing that there is nothing in existence other than the meanings of the names of the One. One who sees himself as a ‘person’ at the level of acts is in a state of duality. One who sees himself only at the level of names is also in a state of duality. One who sees himself only at the level of attributes is also in a state of duality, albeit hidden. And so it is the same for the one who sees himself only at the level of the absolute essence.

Let us remember what the Rasul (saw) says about hidden duality narrated by Ibn-i Jarir (ra):

“O Abu Bakir, duality is as discrete as the sound of an ants footsteps. When someone says ‘Allah willed and therefore I willed’ it is duality! And when someone says, ‘If it wasn’t for such and such person that man was going to kill me’ he is discretely associating a partner to Allah and hence he is in a state of duality… Here is a prayer by which Allah will remove both hidden and explicit duality from you:     

Allahumma inni audhuBika an usrika bike shay’an ve ana agh’lamu wa astaghfiruka lima la aalem!..”

That is, when you don’t see Allah in your being and instead of Allah you give power to your ‘self’, which is an illusion, this is discrete duality. For, whether at the level acts or meanings all existence pertains only to Allah.

Since it is impossible to find Allah in the external world which itself is lost amidst the billions of stars and galaxies how and where can you find Allah?

Ibn Omar (ra) narrates, the Rasul of Allah (saw) was asked, “Where is Allah? Is He on earth or in the heavens?” to which the Rasul (saw) said, “Allah is in the hearts of the believers” (Ghazali – Ihya)

So, find Allah in your essence, your heart, your consciousness, your knowledge and refrain from confining and limiting him to any meaning!

Essentially the Absolute Essence, the domain of Attributes, Names, and Acts are all the same dimension. One who finds himself in the Absolute Essence will find himself in all four of these dimensions. 

One who finds himself only at one of these levels and disregards the others has not yet been cleansed from the veil of duality.

Let’s say I found myself at the level of attributes and I’m experiencing my oneness but I have “surpassed the meanings of the names” … this is not possible! You see the acts and say I don’t care about the acts. You are still in a state of duality; you still haven’t found your true self! For an act is the same as a name which is no different than the meaning it references – the meaning of your essence.

Therefore, to exclude yourself in this manner makes evident that you still have not gone past the illusory conception of an external god.

We talked about how acts are the manifestations of the meanings of the names in the form of compositions. In other words, acts equal names.

Let us now look at their differences and why we call it the acts.

An act is a composition of names and their meanings. When we say ‘Names’ we mean pure meanings. Whatever name is used, we are always referring to a meaning. But when we talk of acts we are referring to compositions. So, when a few different meanings come together they form an act hence every act comprises various meanings composed together in different proportions. The domain of acts refers to the endless collection of such compositions.

The domain of names on the other hand does not consist of compositions. Each name refers to a specific meaning. For instance, a person is composed of a collection of divine names. The different compositions of the meanings of these names come together to form what we call a person. This is the level of acts.

The domain of attributes is the state of knowing the pure Self – not the illusory constructed self! 

Hence, meanings form the names, and compositions of names form the acts. Therefore, the compositions that form the level of acts are existent with your being. If it wasn’t for your essential being these meanings would never exist. 

In short, the Absolute Essence is totally present at the level of acts.

Based on this what is observed at the level of acts, is the Absolute One, yet free from any form of limitation and restriction.