How can one forego and be cleansed of his illusory identity when it doesn't exist in the first place?

Let’s have a look at what we mean by an illusory identity.

A person named Ahmed is actually a unique composition of names and meanings. Let’s say Ahmed is composed 23% of one name, 2% of another name, 7% of another name, 18% of another name and so on… All of these names have come together in the form of a body and we gave this body a name, Ahmed. 

This composition can also be described in terms of particular characteristics and temperaments, which are basically the manifestations of the names that comprise him at the level of acts.

Now in order for one to know his essential self he must become conscious of and act from the point of his unity. If one is aware of his unity - his oneness- but fails to identify the meanings in his being, he is still in the illusion of conceiving an imaginary external god. If one does not enhance and develop his character and temperament with the morals and virtues of Allah, that is if one does not moralize himself with the morals of Allah, he can never get to know the reality of Allah. He will only assume he knows, but this will not go any further than an extremely limited conception of a god, perhaps only one aspect of Allah.

The Rasul of Allah (saw) says:

“Moralize yourselves with the morals of Allah!”

But if we look from the level of “oneness” and the “unity of existence” can we not argue that the morals of a given person are the very morals of Allah? Indeed, they are! However, the morals reflected on a person are a particular set of morals based on a particular composition of names. That is, when the morals and qualities of Allah which are unlimited, unrestricted, and infinite in essence, are observed at the compressed level of a person they become extremely limited, constricted, and conditioned to a very defined finite composition, and hence can no longer be solely attributed to Allah.

So how can you fulfill your duty to model the morals of Allah?

How can one actually moralize himself with the morals of Allah? What does this mean?

It is constantly “said” that Allah is free from time and space - that Allah is not a local being, that he is not a ‘something’ in some ‘place’ at some ‘time’.

Yet in our daily lives this is never the case! We spend our days with the conception of a god who’s sitting on a throne in outer space, managing Earth from afar, putting some of our affairs into order while leaving some up to us… A god who is sometimes kind and benevolent and sometimes a cruel dictator… A god who is the product of imagination to whom we unjustly and wrongly ascribe the name ‘Allah’. 

No matter what is written on one’s ID as his religion, one who has this kind of mindset does not believe in Allah, he believes in a totem, a deity that he created in his head!

What and who is Allah then?

Let us look at the way Allah defines himself, for it is impossible for us to define him with our limited knowledge:

“HU is the Awwal (the first and initial state of existence) and the Akhir (the infinitely subsequent One, to all manifestation), the Zahir (the explicit, unequivocal and perceivable manifestation; the Absolute Reality beyond the illusion) and the Batin (the unperceivable reality within the perceivable manifestation, the source of the unknown; the Absolute Self beyond the illusory selves)! He is Aleem over all things (the Knower of all things as their creator with His Names)!..”[1]

“There is nothing that resembles Him!..”[2]

“Say: Allah is Ahad (One). (Allah is the infinite, limitless and indivisible, non-dual ONENESS.)

Allah is Samad. (Absolute Self-Sufficient One beyond any need or defect, free from the concept of multiplicity, and far from conceptualization and limitation. The one into whom nothing can enter, and the One from whom no other form of existence can come out!)

He begets not. (No other form of existence has ever originated from Him, thus, there is no other) Nor was He begotten (There is no other god or form of existence from which He could have originated).

There is none like unto Him! (Nothing – no conception – in the micro or macro planes of existence is equivalent to or in resemblance of Him)”[3]

If we duly examine the above few verses and contemplate on their meaning we can see clearly that it is not talking about an external deity-god.

All of the qualities listed above, Awwal, Akhir, Zahir and Batin are all referring to the same reality and there is nothing that resembles it or can be likened to it in any way.

Allah cannot be divided or fragmented into parts nor is he a conjunction of different components. Allah is ONE. This is such a sole single oneness that it includes everything so that there is NOTHING in existence others than or besides this ONE. 

Anyway, let us not delve any deeper or digress any further my friends… 

In short, there is a single sovereign ONE who is reigning over existence and everything is a reflection of His perfection.

Now in this light if we ask again, what does it mean to moralize one’s self with the morals of Allah if there is nothing besides Him and hence no other morals other than His?

Your morals are the morals of your ‘Rabb’. But you are being asked to adopt the morals of ‘Allah’.

Now we have come to a very important distinction. 

What is the difference between ones Rabb and Allah?

What is Rabb and Rububiyyah?

How can one get to know his Rabb?

Let us now explore these concepts…