What is obligation?

What are the different types of obligations?

Who is obliged?

Let’s talk a little about these…

What is an obligation? It is something by which a person is bound, or a situation in which a person is required to do certain things. In other words, a proposal is made and you are compelled to do it. This state is an obligatory state; you are obliged. 

But if our existence is comprised of a composition of divine Names and we can observe this as our Rabb, how can our Rabb be obliged? How can Rabb be bound by something or compelled to fulfill something?

When you realize that your essential being is the One, you become exempt from the state of obligation. Can the One be obliged? If you can consciously say “no” to this, you become exempt. 

But is this really so?

This is the pivotal point!

If understanding and realizing meant full exemption, then religion should only be valid until this point and inoperative after this point. But that’s not the case!

It is still valid. Why? Let’s see…

In respect to your Name composition you have a set of qualities and characteristics as a human being. 

As long as you exist as the manifestation of this Name you are actively engaged in the dhikr of your Rabb regardless, you are fulfilling the purpose of your existence. But there is a fine point.

Externally, as long as you exist as this particular composition, the external actions put forth by this composition do not allow the spirit to form a specific energy. You can eat, drink, see and know but you can’t produce this energy to strengthen your spirit. Due to this you can’t escape hell after death and you can’t pass the Bridge of Sirat to go to paradise. This is the external reason…

As for the internal reason, because you are the servant of your Rabb, even though essentially you are no other than the One, if you can’t escape the limitations of your Rabb and reach the unlimited One denoted by the name Allah you are deprived of experiencing the reality of Allah.

The name Allah is the sum total of all of the 99 Names and in fact all of the infinite Names and qualities. But as long as you are confined to the limits of your particular composition, even though these names may manifest through you, they will be filtered by your compositional make up and hence become subject to the same limitations. In other words, they will only act to strengthen you, “your identity”, and they will dominate over this identity. You will be under their dominion!

In the same way, after you leave your biological body with death, they will continue to impose their limits and thus form your hell. This is the suffering of hell.

Besides this, the biggest suffering is being deprived from knowing and experiencing Allah! 

Why? Because you are bound to live within the limits of certain conditions and measures. Hence you are deprived from the limitless nature of your essential self. You can’t escape the limits of your Rabb!

The inability to escape the limits of your Rabb means not knowing Allah!

To reach Allah there are three conditions:

The first is based on the dictum “He who knows himself knows his Rabb”. First you must know yourself so that you may know your Rabb. The way to know your Rabb goes directly through knowing your “self”. This is the first step.

The second is the mystery of expanding and overcoming the boundaries of your Name composition.

Knowing Allah is only probably by strengthening the weaker Names in your composition so that they are equal with the rest. The Names should not be operative over you in default mode, whereby you are automatically subject to their effects. On the contrary, you should discern their meanings, and gain the autonomy to manifest their meanings whenever, wherever and in whichever way you like.   

To overcome the boundaries of your Rabb and reach divine vastness you must express the Divine Names equally.

To express meanings outside your composition is achievable through action and application. Remember Name equals action. An act is a name and a name is an act! So, when you don’t perform an action you won’t be expressing the meaning of that Name. Performing the act is to manifest the meaning of the Name. 

To observe the meaning of the Name is to see it at the level of acts. They are the same thing. If you engage in actions outside the scope of your composition the meanings of these actions will transform from potential to observable action. 

The people of bliss in the hereafter are of two groups:

1. The people of paradise 

2. The people of Allah 

In principal anyone who doesn’t belong to the people of hell belongs to either one of these groups. The people of paradise are those who practice the religion of Islam; they observe the laws called “sharia” and are hence saved from hell. But how?

Everyone has a unique compositional make -up right? The laws of sharia that are practiced at the physical level impose a challenge to their composition. Salat, fasting, ablution, alms and charity, pilgrimage etc. These are all challenging practices, but out of the “fear of Allah” they do it anyway.

So, by observing these practices they inadvertently begin to cause certain minor changes in their compositions which enables the expression of new meanings. In other words, by forcing themselves to engage in these practices they begin to manifest qualities that are outside their compositional make-up! Hence, they free themselves from hell. This is how the general masses will go to paradise.

Then there are the people of Allah…

The person actively puts into application the meanings of the Names that are dormant in his composition, and hence activates these Names and their meanings to know Allah with His names. When you know your Rabb by “knowing yourself” (man arafah) when you recognize and observe this reality, you reach the level of ilm al-yakeen (the knowledge of certainty).

When you can make the transition from the limitation of your Rabb to the vastness of Allah, this expansion allows you to reach the level of ayn al-yakeen (the eye of certainty).

As for the third condition: As a result of this expansion, the boundaries of your composition are lifted from your consciousness, and you become free to take any meaning, express and manifest any name you like. This is the state referred to as “dying before death”.

To die before death is to remove your identity and become free to take any form, any name, any meaning you like… 

This brings us to our next topic…