A FINAL REMINDER
Obviously the meanings of the Names of Allah cannot be confined to such a narrow scope. This is why I refrained from going into this topic for many years. For I know it is impossible to duly cover the comprehensiveness of this topic. However, my own experience of the reflections of this knowledge has compelled me to cover this topic to some extent. I ask Allah’s forgiveness. Many books have been written in this field. I only touched upon it based on my understanding today and in a way that is easy to remember. Perhaps I have unveiled only the tip of the iceberg!
SubhanAllahu amma yasifun! (Quran 23:91)
I feel I need to reiterate the importance of the following point before concluding this topic:
Everything that I have shared with you here must be observed and experienced within one’s consciousness, after becoming cleansed from the restraints of the illusory identity (‘I’ness) and the density of the bodily state of existence. If this cleansing involves the automated repetitions of certain words and phrases without experiential confirmation, the results will be no different from a computer running a program, and hence, ineffective. Sufism is a way of life! Those who narrate and repeat the words of others (hence gossip!) squander their lives, finding solace in Satan’s adorned and embellished games!
The evidence of having attained the reality of this knowledge is the end of suffering! That is, if you are no longer bothered or troubled by anything or anyone, if no situation or person can upset you anymore, it means this knowledge has become your reality! As long as one is bound by value judgments attached to conditionings and lives his life centered around emotions and behaviors resulting from these, his life will continue and mature as an ‘earthling’ (not a human) and be subject to ‘causality’, both here and in the afterlife.
Knowledge is for application. So, let us begin with the application of: ‘knowledge that is not applied is a weight on one’s shoulders!’
Let us ask ourselves at the end of each day:
“Am I ready to embark on a ‘one-way’ journey tonight in my sleep?” “Are worldly matters still bothering me and causing me to suffer? Or am I living my servitude in peace and happiness?”
If your answer is ‘Yes’, glad tidings to you my friend! If it is ‘No’, then many tasks await you tomorrow! In this case, when you wake up in the morning, ask yourself “What must I do today in order to go to bed in total peace and happiness tonight?”
Glory be to the One who allows us to live our days with the awareness that everything we own will perish...
Wassalam...
A special thank you to the honorable imam of Istanbul Carrahpasa Mosque, Hasan Guler Hodja, a venerable scholar and an exemplary man of knowledge, for sharing his valuable insight with me and for assisting me with ‘Decoding The Quran’.
Ahmed Hulusi
03 February 2009
North Carolina, USA